Relentless Faith

Good morning. My name is Matthew Capone, and I'm the pastor here at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church,

and it's my joy to bring God's Word to you today.

A special welcome if you're new or visiting with us. We're glad that you're here,

and we're glad that you're here not because we're trying to fill seats,

but because we're following Jesus together as one community,

and as we follow Jesus together, we become convinced there's no one so good.

They don't need God's grace, and no one's so bad that they can't have it.

And so that's why we turn week after week to hear what God has to say to us in His Word.

We're continuing our series in the Gospel of Mark,

and you'll remember that the Gospels tell us the story of Jesus in His life and His death and His resurrection.

If you've looked at this morning's passage, you may have noticed something strange,

which is that we ended chapter 6 last week, and suddenly we've jumped to verse 24 of chapter 7.

And so you might be thinking, what happened to 7, 1 through 23?

And the answer is we did cover it. We just covered it a little bit early.

When I was gone on vacation and Wes Cowton came here as a guest preacher,

he preached 7, 1 through 23.

And so I figured I would spare you hearing the same passage preached twice in a six-week period.

And so that's the reason we're moving to verse 24.

Now, in the last couple portions that we've looked at in the Gospel of Mark,

we've had these negative examples.

We talked last week about the negative example of the disciples

and the fact that they were hard-hearted.

They did not understand that Jesus was the good shepherd who had come to care for them.

And when you looked at 7, 1 through 23,

there was also the negative example of the Pharisees who were consumed,

not with hardness of heart, but self-righteousness.

They believed all that mattered was what was on the outside.

Jesus rebukes them and tells them that it's what's on the inside that's actually important.

And so now, after those two negative examples,

we're finally going to have a positive example of what it looks like to have great faith in Jesus.

The disciples had too low a view of Jesus.

The Pharisees had too high a view of themselves.

Here we have a woman who, in the parallel passage in Matthew chapter 15,

Matthew 15 · chapter mention

Jesus says,

O woman, great is your faith.

So we have just a simple question as we come to this passage this morning,

which is this,

how do we have great faith?

We're not going to be like the Pharisees or the disciples.

Instead, we want to be people who see Jesus for who he truly is.

And so it's for that reason we're going to turn now to Mark chapter 7.

Mark 7 · chapter mention

As we turn, remember that this is God's word.

And God tells us that his word is more precious than gold,

even the finest gold,

and it's sweeter than honey,

even honey that comes straight from the honeycomb,

which is why we read now starting at verse 24.

And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon.

And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know,

yet he could not be hidden.

But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him

and came and fell down at his feet.

Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth,

and she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

Verse 27.

And he said to her,

Let the children be fed first,

for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.

But she answered him,

Yes, Lord.

Yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.

And he said to her,

For this statement you may go your way.

The demon has left your daughter.

And she went home and found the child lying in bed,

and the demon gone.

I invite you to pray with me as we come to this portion of God's Word.

Our Father in Heaven,

we praise you and thank you again for the miracle that you speak to us.

You're not a God who's far away and distant,

but you're a God who's close and near.

And one of the ways that we know that is that you've given us your Word,

that we could hear and learn.

And so we ask for that this morning,

that you would use these words from hundreds of years ago

to make an impact on us and our lives,

that you would encourage us,

you challenge us,

but even more than that,

you would help us to see Jesus for who he truly is

and respond to him with joy and love and gratitude.

Now, we ask these things thankful again

that we don't have to earn them or deserve them,

but instead we simply ask them in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

I'm wondering what you would say if someone asked you,

what are the major challenges that Jesus faced in his ministry here on earth?

Some of you might immediately think,

well, he had this opposition from the Pharisees.

We might also think of the ways in which the disciples failed to understand him.

They abandoned him in his darkest hour.

And those things would be true.

I don't want you to miss another challenge that Jesus had,

though at least here in the Gospel of Mark,

we see Jesus had trouble finding time to eat.

And we've seen that a couple times.

Back in chapter 6, remember things were so bad,

they were so hectic,

after his disciples returned from the mission that he had sent them out on,

that they didn't have time to eat.

And that was when he pulled them away

and meant to go on a retreat,

and the 5,000 came and he had to feed them.

And so there's a certain irony here that we didn't talk about,

the fact that Jesus' disciples can't eat,

and what they end up doing is having to feed other people in the midst of that.

That's not the only time we saw that, though.

Remember in chapter 3, the same thing happened.

The crowd had gathered around Jesus.

They were pressing in so much that he was not able to eat.

And that's when his family came,

and they tried to stage a little bit of an intervention

to rescue Jesus from himself and his reckless schedule.

That helps us understand what's happening at the beginning of this passage.

Verse 24, we find out Jesus did not want anyone to know

that he'd gone away to this region far away from Galilee.

Potentially, Jesus here is still trying to get the break

that he's been working at for multiple sections now.

And yet, it seems like every time it's impossible for Jesus to escape

and have some time to himself

because he's constantly followed by these folks

who need his healing and his power.

And of course, that's exactly what we see here.

Verse 24, yet he could not be hidden.

Jesus wants some time away,

and more and more that is impossible for him.

Verse 25, immediately, a woman comes to him.

She has this problem, which is that her daughter has an unclean spirit,

and it sounds like she knows a little bit of Jesus and his power,

and so she thinks this will be her answer.

Now that Jesus has entered the region in which she lives,

she will have a chance at a miracle.

But we find out something unexpected and different about this woman,

that she's a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth.

Now this reference, Gentile, when we see this in the New Testament,

it's talking about someone's ethnicity,

and it's a way of saying this person is not Jewish.

We heard this in the Old Testament.

The phrase would be used, the nations,

which is a way of talking about those who are not part of God's chosen people.

And it's not just that she's not ethnically Jewish.

We also find out she's not Jewish by geography.

She's a Syrophoenician by birth.

That's a reference to the region in which she grew up,

the region in which Tyre and Sidon are located.

These are cities that are in the area of Phoenicia.

So she's in this city that's in a larger area

that's separated from the land of the people of God.

Mark here is driving home the point for us

that she is an outsider in multiple ways.

She is not just non-Jewish by nature.

She's also not a Jew by nurture.

By ethnicity and geography, this woman is a Gentile.

And so she is the wrong person,

in the wrong place,

with the wrong gender.

And on top of that, she doesn't have an unclean son.

She has an unclean daughter.

Mark is portraying for us

this overlapping complex of cleanliness issues.

There's a constellation of reasons

why Jesus would be expected

not to interact with this woman.

It's not just that she's in the wrong place, though.

Jesus is also in the wrong place.

It should be a surprise to us

that Jesus has decided to travel to this region,

which is northwest of where he was in Galilee.

Jesus almost never plays away games.

This is one of only a few times

where we see Jesus in Gentile territory.

We have only seen it once before in the Gospel of Mark.

Think back all the way to Mark chapter 5,

Mark 5 · chapter mention

when Jesus healed a man with a demon

who was in the country of the Gerasenes.

We find out later in the story of the Bible,

in Acts chapter 10, verse 28,

Acts 10:28

that Jews were not supposed to visit Gentiles.

And so Jesus is going outside of the expectations

and rules of his people,

both in the region that he's visiting

and the woman that he's interacting with.

Why?

It's not a coincidence that this story comes at this place

because in the section right before it,

the section that Wes preached on,

chapter 7, verses 1 through 23,

Jesus has this encounter with the Pharisees

where he talks to them about this issue of cleanliness.

And if you think back all the way

to when Wes preached on that,

he tells them,

it's not what's on the outside that makes you unclean,

it's what's on the inside.

In other words,

Jesus here is giving us a text case

of what he's just taught.

Jesus, let's see if you actually believe

what you just said in the previous passage.

Let's see if you're actually going to act on it.

And he does.

He finds maybe one of the stickiest issues

that he can to prove that he believes what he's taught.

To prove that he's not afraid

of being made unclean on the outside,

he's more concerned with what is on the inside.

And so it's with all of that background

that we understand we have a test case here

that Mark is presenting us with

to show us that Jesus is going to put his money

where his mouth is.

We pick up then again in the story,

here this woman comes, verse 25 and 26,

she immediately enters into this confrontation with Jesus.

It tells us that she fell down at his feet,

verse 25, verse 26,

she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

And the verb tense of this word beg

indicates that this is not something that she did once,

it was something that she did over and over again.

This woman is showing us how desperate she is

as she creates a scene right in front of Jesus

so that she has the best chance possible

of healing for her daughter.

And it's at that moment

that Jesus does something unexpected and surprising.

Think back to what we've seen before.

Chapter six, he sees the 5,000 on this hill

and we're told that he believed

they were like sheep without a shepherd

and he was filled with compassion.

The end of chapter six,

our passage from last week,

what does he do?

He's going out and healing people

right after he's had this interaction with the disciples.

So our expectation would be

that Jesus, of course,

would be happy and willing to intervene

in this woman's life.

That he would be filled with compassion

and sympathy for her.

That he would want her daughter

to be healed immediately.

We would think after what Jesus just taught us

that he would be eager to show

that he's not afraid of someone who's unclean.

And Jesus does the exact opposite.

He insults this woman for her race.

He flips the tables on us

as we're expecting this momentum,

as we're seeing the direction he's headed,

as we think that Jesus is going to make good on his word,

he does something that should catch us off guard.

Verse 27,

And he said to her,

Let the children be fed first,

for it is not right to take the children's bread

and throw it to the dogs.

The woman asks for healing.

He calls her a dog.

Now, some folks have pointed out

that the term he uses for dog here

would not be a stray dog,

but a pet dog.

That makes it less of an insult.

That does not stop it from being an insult.

Okay, if someone calls you a pet dog,

you're not going to think,

Man, that's such a great thing they said to me.

I'm glad I'm not a stray dog.

I mean, yeah, it's better to be a pet dog

than a stray dog.

Jesus just said,

She's a dog among humans.

You cannot avoid the way

in which he's just insulted her.

On top of that,

dog was a term that Jews would use

to refer to Gentiles.

This is a type of slur

that Jesus is using against her.

And he's actually making a point

that we see throughout the Gospels.

He's making this point

that he's come first to the Jews

and then to the Gentiles.

So when he says,

Why would I do this

when the children should be fed first?

What he's saying is,

Why would I help you,

an unclean Gentile woman

in a Gentile territory

with a daughter who's demon-possessed,

when I have Jews who need me?

Why would I not follow

the priority of my ministry?

In the parallel passage in Matthew 15,

he tells her,

I was sent only to the lost sheep

of the house of Israel.

That's why, by the way,

we don't see Jesus leaving Israel very often.

That's why in Romans 1, verse 16,

Romans 1:16

Paul tells us that the Gospel

was first to the Jews

and then to the Gentiles.

And yet that doesn't answer the question

of why Jesus responds in this way.

Because he's just taught us

that uncleanness doesn't bother him.

He's just demonstrated

that unclean areas don't threaten him

because he's the one

who chose to travel there.

So why is it that Jesus

insults this woman?

I want you to think about it this way.

When I was in my final year of seminary,

I was trying to find a job,

any job,

and so I was beating the bushes

to figure out what openings

there might be.

And one of the opportunities

that I explored

is something you all are familiar with

if you've been with us for a while,

which is to work for our college ministry,

RUF.

Jonathan Clark preached here

maybe a month ago.

He's starting a new college ministry

at UCCS.

And so I was trying to figure out

what would be an opening for me

to be able to serve in ministry.

And as someone coming out of seminary,

if you're a new grad,

it's much harder to find jobs

than if you're someone with experience.

And so I was talking at that time

to this college ministry

about a potential opening

at a school in New England.

And I called the man

who was in charge of hiring for this job,

and we had an hour-long conversation.

During that hour-long conversation,

that man kept challenging me

and pushing me at every turn.

He was borderline a jerk

for an hour on the phone.

Okay?

At the end of the phone call,

he says this,

I'm sorry if I was hard on you,

but if you can't handle me,

you can't handle this school.

What was he saying?

I was testing you

to see what you were made of.

The fact that I was a jerk to you

was part of the interview

because I wanted to see

if you were going to be able

to push back on me.

I wanted to see

if you had the spine

to handle the types of students

that I know are at this school

because if you can't stand up

for an hour on the phone,

there's no time that I have

to talk to you anymore.

He was testing me.

He wanted to see what was there.

Now, long story short,

that school didn't just not open up for me.

It didn't open up for anyone.

There still is not an RUF there.

But I learned something important

about life and about that man

in that moment.

People will do things to you

to see how you respond.

Jesus here, like a good teacher,

is testing this woman.

He wants to see what she's made of.

He wants to understand

the level of her faith.

That's the way tests work.

If you're a student or in life,

tests reveal and show

what's already there.

Tests allow a chance for you

on the outside

to demonstrate

what was already on the inside.

That's, by the way,

part of what happens

in the book of Job.

God uses Job

to demonstrate Job's faith

in the midst of suffering

and to show him off

as an example to the devil.

Here, Jesus is testing

this woman's faith

to show her off to us.

A good teacher, right,

if they're testing you,

they hope that you pass.

No teacher who's worth anything

sits alone in a room

putting their hands together

and giggling

about how no student's

going to be able

to mount this test.

No, a great teacher

wants you to pass.

A great teacher's

preparing you

throughout the school year

to do as well as you can.

A good teacher

is cheering you on

because they want you

to succeed.

The test is there

so that they can show off

what you know.

Jesus here is testing

this woman

so that he can show

what she knows

and believes.

And so we see

in verse 28

that she passes the test.

She enters into

his illustration

and demonstrates

her faith

by showing

that she understands

the nature

of God's grace.

Yes, I'm a dog.

But don't you give

good things

even to pets?

Yes, I don't have

anything

that should impress you.

I have no reason

to ask something

from you.

But isn't that

the type of person

that you are?

Aren't you

the type of person

who gives

money and bread

without price?

Aren't you the person

who cares for people

who can't give

anything back?

Aren't you the type

of person

who shows mercy

even to dogs?

And Jesus here,

verse 29,

is delighted.

He is the teacher

who is thrilled

to see his student

get an A.

He says to her,

For this statement

you may go your way.

The demon

has left

your daughter.

In the same passage

in Matthew 15,

he says,

O woman,

great is

your faith.

Jesus is asking

whether she would

see and believe

and act

on his goodness

and she

does.

Jesus is testing

her

and she

passes.

Now I told you

at the beginning

we were looking

to answer the question

of what does it mean

to have great faith

and how can

we be people

of that type

of faith?

And we see

at least a couple

things that I want

to focus on

in this woman.

First,

her persistence

and second,

her humility.

Now first,

her persistence

and second,

her humility.

One of the

characteristics

of faith

is that it

is relentless.

And it's relentless

not because the person

who has faith

believes they deserve

something,

but because that person

with relentless faith

understands God

and his grace

and his character.

A person

with great faith

does not give up

easily.

That person

comes back to God

again

and again

and again.

In fact,

this is a theme

that we see

throughout the Bible.

In Genesis chapter 32,

Genesis 32 · chapter mention

Jacob wrestles

with God

throughout the entire

night

and refuses

to let him go

until God

blesses him.

Jacob is relentless

in his encounter

with God.

Luke 18,

Jesus tells this story

about a persistent

widow who needs

justice from a

terrible judge

and so she harasses

him over and over

again until he

gives her what she

wants.

And then Jesus

says,

that's the way

you should be

in prayer.

You should be

coming back

again and again

telling God

what you need

and want.

Same thing

happens here.

This woman

is not put off

by Jesus' answer.

She doesn't say,

oh, okay,

I guess you're not

here to help

people like me

and then walks

away.

She has

Genesis 32,

Luke 18

type of faith

that refuses

refuses to let

go and refuses

to give up.

And Jesus

loves her

persistence.

Jesus loves

the fact that

she is

relentless.

Remember the

disciples in

chapter 6,

all the disciples

had was a lot

of fear.

Here instead,

she continues

to ask for help.

brothers and

sisters,

having great

faith means

that we

keep asking

God again

and again.

Having great

faith means

that we

don't give

up.

Having great

faith means

that we're like

the widow in

Luke 18

who keeps

crying out

for justice.

Keep asking.

God invites

you to

test him.

God loves

great

faith.

And so

keep asking.

Keep asking

that God

would change

you and

your heart.

Keep asking

God that he

would change

the hearts

and lives

of those

you love.

Keep asking

God that he

would redeem

past failures

and sins

and mistakes

yours

and the

ones of

those you

love.

Keep asking

God to

protect you

from sin

and compromise.

Keep asking

God for the

wisdom that

you know you

need and you

don't have.

Keep asking

God to give

you purpose

in your work

that you

could sustain

and bless

others.

If you

want to have

great faith,

keep asking.

in the

words of

Winston

Churchill,

never,

never,

never give

up.

And for the

Christian,

never give

up in

prayer.

Keep

coming back

to God.

God.

That raises

another question

for us

though,

which is

how do

we

sustain

that

kind

of

persistence?

How are

we able

to stay

relentless

before God

week in

and week

out,

day after

day?

Well,

she shows

us the

answer for

that as

well.

We stay

persistent

in our

faith because

we rely on

God and

his character,

not ourselves.

We're able

to remain

persistent in

our faith because

we rely on

God's character,

not ourselves.

And so we

see this

tremendous

humility that

the woman

models for

us.

She is not

coming to

Jesus based

on her

status.

She's not

coming because

she's a Jew

because she

isn't.

She's not

coming because

she's from

the right

place because

she isn't.

She's not

coming because

she's the

right gender

because she

isn't.

She is

coming because

she knows

that Jesus

is a man

of mercy.

And so we

see that

humility in

verse 28

when she

says,

even the

dogs under

the table

eat the

children's

crumbs.

In other

words,

I know

I'm a

dog.

I know

I haven't

earned anything

from you.

I know

I don't

deserve

something

from you.

And I

know that's

not what

matters.

I know

what matters

in this

situation is

your mercy

and your

grace.

I know

the kind

of character

that you

have.

I'm aware

of the

fact that

you're at

least as

kind as a

regular human

is to her

pets.

And so I'm

crying out,

I'm calling

on you to

be that

kind as

well.

And so

that's why I

pray every

Sunday when I

end our

prayers together,

I say we

ask these

things not

because we've

earned them

or deserved

them.

Because we

want to be

people like

the Syrophoenician

woman.

We want to

recognize before

God that we

can keep coming

back with

courage and

confidence because

we're not

relying on our

merit.

If you are

or were relying

on your merit,

you might as

well give up

now.

In fact, I

would recommend

that you never

pray again

because you

have nothing

to offer

God.

God.

This woman

knows that.

That's the

basis of

her claim.

What we're

saying when we

pray in Jesus'

name is that

we know we

can't claim

things for

ourselves,

but God is

good and

Jesus is

good.

We know we

haven't earned

anything and

God tells us

he's going to

listen and

hear.

And so what

she's doing

here is she's

appealing to

God's character.

She's asking

God to act on

what he has

done and who

he is, not

what she's

done or who

she is.

And that's the

same thing we

do when we

stay relentless

in prayer.

We're appealing

to God's

character.

That's how we're

able to keep

coming back

month after

month and

week after

week and

day after

day.

We're like

this woman

reminding God

of what he

has promised

in his

word.

We are

coming back

reminding God

of his

great mercy

and love.

I told you

a few weeks

ago about the

importance of

God being

with us.

And I also

shared with you

that as I

prepare every

week to stand

before you and

present God's

word, I ask

him over and

over that he

would be with

me and he'd

also be with

you.

you.

And when I

pray that I

don't say

because we

are such a

great church.

And I don't

say we need

you to be with

us because we

deserve it.

No, I say we

need you to be

with us and you

should do it

because Jesus

made a promise

in John chapter

John 14 · chapter mention

14 that he was

going to send

his Holy Spirit

to be with his

church.

And so you

need to honor

your promise.

you need to

do what you've

said you were

going to do.

It's not because

we have earned

it or deserved

it because you

have told us

what you're going

to do.

If you're crying

out to God and

you're asking him

for wisdom in

your life for the

situations that you

face that are

beyond what you

know how to

respond to.

We don't ask

for wisdom because

we deserve it or

have earned it.

We ask it because

God made us a

promise in James

James 1:5

chapter 1 verse

5 that he would

give wisdom to

those who ask

for it.

And so like this

woman appealing to

God's character and

his mercy we do

the same.

God we need you to

give us mercy because

you have said you're

going to do it.

Honor your promise.

If you're a parent

and you're crying out

to God to help you

as you raise your

children you can't

cry out to him

because you are

such a great person.

No you cry out to

him because God has

told us in Malachi

Malachi 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2 that the

heart and desire of

him is that there

would be godly

children who would

be raised to

worship him generation

after generation.

And so you come to

God and you say this

is what you say you

want and it's not

going to happen unless

you help.

And so I am

throwing myself on

your mercy and your

grace.

If you're someone who

needs help in work and

school you can come to

God and appeal to his

character and say you're

the one in Genesis

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1 and 2 who

said be fruitful and

multiply.

And we're not going to

be able to do it unless

you're with us.

And so we need you to

honor your promise and

your character.

We need you to show up

not because we are

great but because you

are.

God delights in a

persistent faith that

throws itself on his

mercy.

God delights in the

persistent faith that

cries out and claims his

promise and his

character.

there's a beautiful

humble confidence that

this woman has.

There's a beautiful

humble confidence that

comes when we see

ourselves rightly and

we see God rightly.

The humility comes from

seeing ourselves rightly.

The confidence comes

from seeing God rightly.

We understand our

misery and our sin as we

confessed earlier this

morning and we

understand God's grace.

There's a principle in

James chapter 4, 1

James 4 · chapter mention

Peter 5 that tells us

God opposes the proud

but gives grace to the

humble.

Great faith is

persistent.

Great faith is

humble.

And that's where God

has promised to show

up and do his work.

That's what we're about

to sing together on page

10.

You'll see our closing

hymn before the throne

of God above.

And we're singing about

the fact that our plea is

not on anything we

deserve or earn but on

God's grace.

Verse 1, I have a

strong, a perfect plea

because I have a great

high priest whose name

is love, whoever lives

and pleads for me.

And then in the second

verse we praise God that

we're basing this not on

our merit but on his

grace.

When Satan tempts me to

despair and tells me of

the guilt within, upward I

look and see him there

who made an end to all

my sin.

It's not me, it's God's

grace that gives me

confidence and hope.

How do we have great

faith?

We keep asking.

And we keep asking not

because we deserve it but

because God is good.

He delights to show

mercy to those who know

that they need it.

He delights to show

mercy to you and me.

Let's pray.

Our Father in heaven, we

praise you and we thank

you that we can come and

speak to you like this

woman.

We ask that you would

give us great faith that

we would never, never,

never give up.

and that we're to come

from our confidence not

in ourselves but in you

and in your grace.

It's with that heart that

we ask all of these

things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

I invite you to stand.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.