"Snapshot Series": Grace and Power

Snapshot17 Mark 7:24-8:10 “Grace and Power”

Questions for Community Groups
1. Have you ever felt that God was rejecting you?
2. Are you dealing with a "spiritual stronghold"? (A sin or issue that does not seem to go away)
3. How is your communication with Jesus? Explain.
4. How does it make you feel that Jesus has compassion on you in your times of trouble?
5. Have you witnessed a time of God's grace in your life?
6. Have you witnessed a time of God's power in your life?

Grace is getting something good that we don't deserve.
Power is the ability to do something.

In this next grouping of passages we see that Jesus displays His power and sheds His grace among the Gentiles. This is an important section to those of that day because Israel was know as His children but those outside were not. To the Jews Gentiles were not accepted by God. They did not know God and God did not want to know them. For the Gentiles to have Jesus meet their needs communicated that He cared for them and wanted to deliver them.

It is important to us in this day because it communicates that Jesus cares and has enough Grace and Power to help us. Now we all realize that we are created by God and through faith in Jesus we become His children. He cares for His creation and His Children and wants to come in with grace and power to help our spiritual problems. What could we consider a Spiritual problems?

Vrs 24-30 Syrophoenician women's daughter. -Jesus has grace and power to accept us. Jesus statement in verse 27 is not to be taken as derogatory. The term Dogs was sometimes used as a derogatory term by the Jews for Gentiles.

Alexander McClaren states it this way. 'Let the children first be filled.' And that 'first' distinctly says that their prerogative is priority, not monopoly. If there is a 'first,' there will follow a second. The very image of the great house in which the children sit at the table, and the 'little dogs' are in the room, implies that children and dogs are part of one household; and Jesus meant by it just what the woman found in it,--the assurance that the meal-time for the dogs would come when the children had done.

This is a Biblical concept that the Gospel goes out first to the Jew then to Gentile. Does this mean that God cares more about the Jews and considers certain people to be more important then others? No in God's time He will accept those who seek after Him.

Jesus was impressed by this women's statement because she was seeking after Him.

App. Point: Maybe you feel like you have done things and because of those things God will not accept you. The nature of the Gospel is that God accepts based upon Himself and what He did for us. GOSPEL

The next thing we learn from this passage is...
Jesus has grace and power to break spiritual strongholds.

She also had a deep spiritual stronghold in her house. Her daughter had a demon.

Spiritual Stronghold can be something in your life that you have been dealing with such as a sinful behavior or sometimes like this little girl an "inner demon" you have heard people say they are battling "inner demons" referring to abusive and destructive behavior issues.
Drug, alcohol, lust, anger, bitterness, anxiety, self image issues

Do you have a spiritual stronghold and you feel that Jesus has forgotten you? Maybe you have been praying about something for some time and it seems that God is not answering it. Maybe you see other people being delivered from strongholds and you feel that Jesus thinks they are more important then you?

App Point: Trust that Jesus can break that stronghold. Give it to Him.

The next passage in many senses sometime describes where we are at spiritually when we have acceptance issues and stronghold issues.

Vrs 31-37 Deaf, mute man -Jesus has grace and power over spiritual communication. (Eph-pha-tha)

In this account we have a deaf-mute who was a Gentile brought to Jesus by his friends (I presume). We see Jesus heals the mans hearing and apparently speech.

We may have acceptance issues we may have spiritual stronghold issues but maybe they are coming from our spiritual communication issues.

At face value Jesus shows that He has power to heal the physical but it is interesting that earlier in the chapter when Jesus was teaching the people that what comes out of the heart is what defiles in verse 16 He says "He who has ears let Him hear" Those who are spiritually ready to communicate with Him.

Imagine for a moment that your world was quiet and because of that quiet world you never learned to speak properly.

As Christians we can fall into that trap we don't hear God because we are not listening. We check out of church, reading His word, listening to spiritually uplifting music and solid Bible teaching on the radio or podcasts.

Because we are not listening we really don't talk back...we have nothing to say. We don't pray we don't tell the Lord our fears and hopes and issues. We are a spiritual deaf mute.

What happens it almost feels like we do not know God because we don't listen to Him or talk to Him.

App Point: Regularly communicate with Him.
Here is what happens when we do that. We become better at it. Morris Code illustration "if you understand this come in"
You understand God deeper in a deeper way.

Maybe you are suffering with one of these three problems acceptance, strongholds and communication with Him.

The next passage shows us the character of Jesus and that fact that He is more then willing to help us.
He is motivated by compassion. Vrs 1-10 4,000 fed.

This is a different account then the 5000 this is a group of Gentiles, the first group was primarily Jews.

Vrs 2 is what I want to focus in on the fact that Jesus had compassion and was willing to meet a huge need. It is evident that through this miracle Jesus displays power, it is also evident that it is a display of Grace but the driving force behind what He does is His compassion.

Compassion is : the concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others misfortunes.
Guess what? We all have misfortunes we all suffer and Jesus cares.

So how does this help us?
Now as we look back we understand that Jesus will accept us because He has compassion, He will break spiritual strongholds because He has compassion and He will be open to communication with us because He has compassion.