Mark 7:31-37
Jesus was 120 miles from home, deep in Gentile territory, taking a route that made no geographic sense — and someone brought him a man who couldn't hear and could barely speak.
That someone matters. Most people who are deaf to the message of God and can't yet sing his praise are brought near by a friend who cared enough to bring them.
In this sermon from Mark 7:31–37, we slow down and sit with one of the most tender moments in all of Mark's Gospel. Jesus pulls this man away from the crowd — not to make him a spectacle, but to be with him. He takes time. He signs to him what is about to happen. He touches his ears, his tongue. He looks to heaven and sighs — the same word Paul uses in Romans 8 for the Spirit interceding with groanings too deep for words. And then, with a breath, everything changes.
The man's ears open. His tongue is loosed. And he doesn't just speak — he speaks correctly. Not set free to struggle, but restored. Made new.
What happens next is one of the most quietly stunning moments in Scripture. The Gentile crowd, astonished beyond words, unknowingly quotes Isaiah 35 — a Jewish prophecy about the coming Messiah. People who were outside the promises of God, bearing witness to their fulfillment without even knowing it.
No one is too deaf. No one is too mute. No one is too far outside.
We'll also look at Jonah and Rahab — two people whose hearts God prepared long before anyone arrived to tell them the good news — and what that means for the neighbor, the friend, or the loved one in your life who seems completely closed off to Jesus right now.
And we'll close where the passage ultimately points: to a cross, where the Son of God heard every insult thrown at him, unstuck his parched tongue, and used his last breath to say, Father, forgive them.
Main Idea: No one is too deaf, too mute, or too far outside for the kingdom of Jesus.
East Brainerd Baptist Church
1047 Graysville Road, Chattanooga, TN
Join us Sundays at 11:00 AM — we would love to have you.
We are a church working through the Gospel of Mark together, learning week by week what it means to follow the one who goes out of his way for the people everyone else overlooks.