{"id":4706,"date":"2021-11-06T19:44:55","date_gmt":"2021-11-06T19:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/?p=4706"},"modified":"2024-08-12T13:39:04","modified_gmt":"2024-08-12T13:39:04","slug":"he-has-done-all-things-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2021\/11\/06\/he-has-done-all-things-well\/","title":{"rendered":"HE HAS DONE ALL THINGS WELL"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Trinity Twelve Sermon 2011<\/strong>|\u00a0<strong>Rolf D. Preus<\/strong>|\u00a0<strong>September 11, 2011<\/strong>|\u00a0<strong>St. Mark 7:31-37<\/strong><audio src=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/TrinityTwelve2011.mp3\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-spotify wp-block-embed-spotify wp-embed-aspect-21-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: He Has Done All Things Well: Trinity 12 Sermon by Rev. Rolf Preus 2011\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"100%\" height=\"152\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/episode\/7bhTSVEfwOS9aff7Dn8mPF?si=dfb3e41d6ec849a8&#038;utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee.&nbsp; Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on Him.&nbsp; And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue.&nbsp; Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, \u201cEphphatha,\u201d that is, \u201cBe opened.\u201d Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly.&nbsp; Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it.&nbsp; And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, \u201cHe has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.\u201d&nbsp; St. Mark 7:31-37<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They used to be called deaf and dumb.&nbsp; Now they are called deaf mutes.&nbsp; The word \u201cdumb\u201d has negative connotations.&nbsp; Its original meaning was mute.&nbsp; Someone who could not speak was dumb.&nbsp; The expression, \u201cstruck dumb\u201d meant to be rendered speechless.&nbsp; But people who were unable to speak were regarded as less intelligent than people who were able to speak.&nbsp; Gradually, the word \u201cdumb\u201d assumed a new meaning.&nbsp; It meant not only \u201cmute\u201d but also \u201cstupid.\u201d&nbsp; The assumption was that people who cannot talk aren\u2019t very bright.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s not true, but people generally believe what they want to believe and don\u2019t give much thought to why they think the way they do.&nbsp; But the biggest problem that deaf mutes face is not prejudice.&nbsp; It\u2019s the much more down to earth problem of not knowing what is going on around them.&nbsp; So much of what we know we know because of what we hear.&nbsp; We who hear take for granted the benefits of hearing.&nbsp; Not being able to hear shuts you out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Evangelist introduces us to a deaf man who also had an impediment in his speech.&nbsp; It\u2019s likely that his speech impediment was a result of his inability to hear.&nbsp; It is very difficult to learn to talk clearly without being able to hear.&nbsp; This is why deafness and muteness go together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We aren\u2019t told much about the deaf mute that Jesus healed.&nbsp; We are told that Jesus had just left Tyre and Sidon and had gone through the region of Decapolis or the ten cities by the Sea of Galilee.&nbsp; He was just a few miles east of his hometown of Nazareth.&nbsp; The people who brought the deaf mute to Jesus and begged Jesus to help him knew something about Jesus.&nbsp; They knew that Jesus was willing to help this man and they knew that Jesus was able to help him.&nbsp; We don\u2019t know how much they knew \u2013 or how much the deaf man knew \u2013 about Jesus but we know that they knew enough to bring their friend to the one who could help him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is no greater love than to bring your friend to Jesus.&nbsp; And it is not hard to do.&nbsp; It requires only that you have a friend, that you know where Jesus is, and that you bring your friend to where Jesus is.&nbsp; Your friend can be your husband or wife, your son or daughter, your neighbor, your teacher, your classmate, or coworker.&nbsp; Your friend needs Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You know where Jesus is.&nbsp; He promised to be with his Church until the end of time.&nbsp; There is no greater act of love than to invite your friend to church.&nbsp; The man who was deaf and suffered from an impediment of speech had some good friends.&nbsp; They were powerless to help him.&nbsp; They couldn\u2019t do a thing for him.&nbsp; But they knew who could.&nbsp; So they brought him to Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You have friends who suffer from all sorts of problems.&nbsp; You can\u2019t fix them.&nbsp; You wouldn\u2019t even know where to begin.&nbsp; But Jesus can.&nbsp; And he will.&nbsp; He is both willing and able to help people in need.&nbsp; Jesus said, \u201cGreater love has no one than this, than to lay down one\u2019s life for his friends.\u201d (John 15:13)&nbsp; And it is love, pure Christian love, to bring your friend to him who laid down his life for us all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here is Jesus.&nbsp; \u201cIn the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.\u201d&nbsp; So we pray.&nbsp; This is called the invocation.&nbsp; We call upon God in the words of our baptism.&nbsp; We lay claim to the promises God made to us when he named us and joined his name to ours.&nbsp; Here we gather and here Jesus promises to be.&nbsp; As he said, \u201cFor where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.\u201d (Matthew 18:15) And again he said, \u201c[A]nd lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.\u201d (Matthew 28:20)&nbsp; Jesus is wherever his gospel is purely proclaimed and his sacraments rightly administered.&nbsp; So he says and so we believe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And his ministry is glorious.&nbsp; It is, as St. Paul says in today\u2019s Epistle Lesson, the ministry of righteousness.&nbsp; It gives life.&nbsp; That\u2019s what that deaf man\u2019s friends gave him.&nbsp; By loving him enough to bring him to Jesus they gave him life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Note how Jesus responded to the man\u2019s need.&nbsp; He took him aside from the crowd, Mark tells us.&nbsp; There you sit in church just a member of a crowd.&nbsp; But that\u2019s not true.&nbsp; That\u2019s never true.&nbsp; God is not like us.&nbsp; We must divide our attention between this one and that one.&nbsp; They say that mothers are better at it than fathers.&nbsp; I think they call it multitasking.&nbsp; I know I can\u2019t do it.&nbsp; But God can.&nbsp; He takes you where you are as you are and deals with you as an individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The man could neither hear nor speak.&nbsp; So Jesus talked to him in sign language.&nbsp; First he put his fingers in the man\u2019s ears.&nbsp; He did this to tell him he would be giving him the ability to hear.&nbsp; Then he spat and touched the man\u2019s tongue.&nbsp; He did this to tell him he would be giving him the ability to speak.&nbsp; Then he looked up to heaven and sighed.&nbsp; He did this to tell him that the power by which he was doing what he was doing was God\u2019s power.&nbsp; Then Jesus spoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOh, I don\u2019t have to go to church to be a Christian.&nbsp; I can spend time with Jesus wherever I am.&nbsp; As he song says, \u2018He walks with me and he talks with me.\u2019\u201d&nbsp; Is that so?&nbsp; You can spend time with Jesus wherever you are?&nbsp; Just you and Jesus?&nbsp; You don\u2019t need to go to church?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then Jesus spoke.&nbsp; He said to him, \u201cEphphatha.\u201d&nbsp; That means, \u201cBe opened.\u201d&nbsp; Then what does St. Mark record?&nbsp; He writes, \u201cImmediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly.\u201d&nbsp; When was that?&nbsp; When Jesus spoke, that\u2019s when.&nbsp; It wasn\u2019t when Jesus put his fingers in the man\u2019s ears.&nbsp; It wasn\u2019t when Jesus spat and then touched the man\u2019s tongue.&nbsp; It wasn\u2019t when Jesus sighed and looked up into heaven.&nbsp; This is not how Jesus opened the man\u2019s ears and loosened the man\u2019s tongue.&nbsp; Jesus did this by speaking.&nbsp; He said, \u201cBe opened!\u201d&nbsp; By his word he showed mercy.&nbsp; By his word he gave the man what the man needed.&nbsp; By his word his fulfilled the love the man\u2019s friends had shown for him by bringing him to Jesus in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus speaks and that solves our problems for us.&nbsp; Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is so simple.&nbsp; Why can\u2019t we learn this lesson?&nbsp; Why do we insist on seeking God\u2019s help somewhere other than in his holy word?&nbsp; Where else and how else has he ever helped us?&nbsp; Who else but God can give us the advice we need?&nbsp; Where else but in God\u2019s word lies the answer to whatever problem we\u2019re facing?&nbsp; How else but by hearing God\u2019s word, listening to it, taking it in, will we be able to hear with the ears of faith and through that faith overcome whatever ails us?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus told the crowd to remain silent.&nbsp; Tell no one.&nbsp; He had not yet fulfilled the law and redeemed the human race.&nbsp; By preaching about Jesus and leaving out the message of his suffering and death for the sin of the world they would be distorting his true work.&nbsp; He did not come into this world to provide healing as a prelude to death.&nbsp; What good are the faculties of hearing and fluent speech for people who will, sooner or later, lose all of their faculties in death?&nbsp; Jesus love and mercy are greater than that!&nbsp; He came into this world to save sinners from their sins by bearing all their sins on the cross.&nbsp; He came to do our duty as the righteous representative of humanity so that we, through faith in him, would receive his righteousness as our own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes, he has done all things well.&nbsp; He made the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.&nbsp; The crowd got it right.&nbsp; But they preached when they were supposed to be listening.&nbsp; That\u2019s a common failure.&nbsp; We want to talk when we should be listening instead.&nbsp; First we learn to hear.&nbsp; Then we learn to speak.&nbsp; The order is very important, because if we start talking about God before we\u2019ve listened to God talk about himself we\u2019ll invariably get it wrong.&nbsp; We\u2019ll leave out the most important thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBe opened.\u201d&nbsp; It\u2019s a command.&nbsp; And it\u2019s a cause.&nbsp; It does what it says.&nbsp; That\u2019s why we gather together in Jesus\u2019 name.&nbsp; God\u2019s word does in us and for us what we cannot do for ourselves.&nbsp; God\u2019s word is inherently powerful.&nbsp; It does what God wants it to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I don\u2019t know that jokes belong in sermons, but this morning I\u2019ll make an exception because it may illustrate this point.&nbsp; A man wanted to sleep in on a Sunday morning and his wife was trying to get him out of bed.&nbsp; \u201cYou have to get up to go to church,\u201d she said.&nbsp; \u201cI don\u2019t want to,\u201d he replied.&nbsp; \u201cCome on,\u201d she insisted.&nbsp; \u201cYou\u2019ll be late.&nbsp; Church starts in half an hour.\u201d&nbsp; \u201cI don\u2019t want to go,\u201d he said.&nbsp; \u201cWhy not?\u201d she asked.&nbsp; \u201cIt\u2019s boring.&nbsp; I don\u2019t like the people at that church and they don\u2019t like me.&nbsp; I don\u2019t want to go.\u201d&nbsp; \u201cListen,\u201d his wife said.&nbsp; \u201cYou have to go.&nbsp; You\u2019re the pastor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sometimes we Christians don\u2019t want to go to church because we don\u2019t think it will do any good.&nbsp; But where God\u2019s word is there is Jesus and when Jesus speaks his words accomplish what he says.&nbsp; We come burdened by our sins.&nbsp; The ministry of death engraved on stones speaks against us and our conscience must agree with it.&nbsp; We have sinned against God.&nbsp; We have not set him apart as our greatest good.&nbsp; We have misused his name and ignored his word.&nbsp; We have not loved him with our whole heart, soul, strength, and mind.&nbsp; And we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.&nbsp; This we must confess because it\u2019s true.&nbsp; But confession never removed a single sin from a single soul.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus Christ alone can do that.&nbsp; And he does it.&nbsp; What he did so long ago when he went to Calvary to suffer and die is what he gives us right here and now every time we gather in his name.&nbsp; The sin that blocks our ears from hearing God and that keeps our mouths from singing his praises is forgiven whenever and wherever we hear his gospel, his words of absolution, and the words of the Sacrament, given and shed for you for the remission of sins.&nbsp; Jesus speaks.&nbsp; Be opened!&nbsp; Now we can hear our God speak and sing his praises.&nbsp; Amen<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/TrinityTwelve2011.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trinity Twelve Sermon 2011|\u00a0Rolf D. Preus|\u00a0September 11, 2011|\u00a0St. Mark 7:31-37 Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee.&nbsp; Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2021\/11\/06\/he-has-done-all-things-well\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,17,4,72],"tags":[558,238,215],"class_list":["post-4706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-sermons","category-sermons-by-historical-lectionary","category-sermons-by-rolf-preus","category-trinity-12","tag-mark-7","tag-rolf-preus","tag-trinity-12"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4706"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6018,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4706\/revisions\/6018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}