Mark 7:24-37
“Stubborn Faith!”
Scripture: Mark 7:24-37
Memory Verse: “But without faith it is impossible to please Him…” Hebrews 11:6a
Lesson Focus: Jesus is delighted in our faith.
Activities and Craft: Coloring page, Work Sheet
Craft for 1st and 2nd grades:
Introduction:
Choose two leaders and one child to come to the front of the room. Ask the child if they trust their “teachers.” Then ask the teachers to cross their arms and hold each other’s hand and ask the child if he/she trusts the teachers enough to come and sit on their “arm” seat. Let the child sit down and have the teachers lift him/her up. (You can do a few things that are safe, i.e., swing the child, go hi or low.) Tell the kids that we are going to talk about “faith” today. To have faith we have to “trust” in the person or thing that we are putting our faith in.
Bible Study:
Last week, Jesus got into it with the Jewish religious leaders. It upset Jesus that they cared more about the rules than what was inside of a person. Today Jesus is going to “delight” in a great faith.
Mark 7:24
√ Where did Jesus go? (A house in Sidon.)
√ Do you know where this is? (In gentile country, people who did not follow
God)
√ Why didn’t Jesus want anyone to know where He was?
(The Bible tells us that Jesus “could not be hidden.” Jesus was trying to
rest from the crowd. But Mark makes sure that we know that Jesus was followed everywhere.)
Mark 7:25
√ Who heard that Jesus was in town? (A women)
√ What was wrong in this women’s life? (Her young daughter had an unclean
spirit.)
√ What did the women do when she saw Jesus? (She came and fell at His feet.)
This woman had a great need. Her little girl was suffering from an unclean
spirit. But the first thing that she did was worship Jesus. She humbled herself at His feet. Before she “asked” she worshiped.
Mark 7:26-29; “Stubborn, Humble, and Believing Faith.”
√ What nationality was this women? (A Greek.)
The parallel account in Matthew 15:22 tells us that she was an “Canaanite
woman. The Canaanite’s where the people that God told Israel to wipe out when they entered the Promised Land. She is the direct descendant of the Canaanites and had become a Greek. She was the exact type of person that the Jewish leaders despised.
Stubborn Faith:
√ What did she keep asking Jesus? (to cast out the demon from her daughter.)
√ How many times did she ask Jesus? (we do not know – but the Bible says that
she “kept on asking.” She did not give up until she had Jesus’ attention.
√ How did Jesus answer her?
Read: Matthew 15:23
Jesus does not say a word. Jesus kept quiet. It was so unnerving that His disciples came and asked Jesus to send her away because she was so noisy. This was a determined woman. We know that Jesus is not being quiet to upset her. He is testing her faith just as He did when He was in the boat with the disciples and He was sleeping during the storm. The disciples thought that Jesus did not care because He was sleeping.
Jesus’ answer sounds weird. “Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” Jesus is saying the God’s children are the people of Israel. Jesus came to them to tell them that the Savior of the world was here. Matthew 15:24 says, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Jesus’ main mission was to Israel – but we know that the heart of God was to the whole world. “For God so loved the WORLD that HE gave His one and only Son. That whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 Jesus was the Messiah promised to the people of Israel but because they would not believe Him, the whole world would hear the message of Salvation through His disciples.
Humble Faith:
Jesus set’s up the women to pronounce her great faith. His “word picture” is of a family meal. He uses the word for “house-hold” dogs. He is saying that the children need to eat first – not the dogs.
Children = people of Israel
Dogs = people outside of Israel.
She knows that she is not from Israel. She knows that God’s people are the children of Israel. She has no problem accepting her position – but she comes to Jesus asking for mercy and the grace of God. She did not deserve it and she knew it. But she was not asking because she deserved it – she was asking because she knew He was from God.
Believing Fatih:
But the woman responds to Jesus with great faith. She tells Jesus that even the dogs get the crumbs under the table.
√ How many of you have dogs at home?
√ Do your dogs like to eat the crumbs that you drop on the floor?
She does not care that she is not from Israel. She just believes that Jesus can heal her daughter. She knows that she is not worthy – but she just asked for “crumbs.” (A little of Jesus is better than none of Jesus.)
√ How does Jesus respond to her in Mark 7:29?
Matthew 15:28 says; “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be as you desired.”
1. Jesus marvels at her faith
2. Jesus heals her daughter at that very hour.
Jesus responds to “stubborn faith.” A faith that will not give up!
1. The faith of the friends bringing their paralyzed friend to Jesus. They could not get to Jesus – but they did not give up. They just cut a hole in the roof and lowered him down.
2. The faith of the women before a judge who would not give her justice and she kept coming and coming until he did. (Luke 18:2-5)
3. The faith of Hannah who kept praying for a child and God gave her Samuel.
Jesus responds to her “humble” faith. A faith that will take whatever God would
give her.
Jesus responds to her “believing faith” She believed that Jesus was able to heal
her daughter.
√ What did the woman find when she gets home? (Mark 7:30)
Mark 7:31-27: “He has done all things well.”
√ Who did they bring to Jesus? What was his problem? (He could not hear and
had a speech impediment.) He could not ask Jesus – but his friends brought him to Jesus.
√ What did Jesus do?
1. Got alone with the man
2. Put His fingers in his ears
3. Spit and touched his tongue
4. Prayed to God
√ Why did Jesus do all of the “gross” stuff?
Jesus was not afraid to touch people where they hurt. (remember He touched the man with leprosy.)
√ Was the man healed?
√ How did the crowd respond?
The crowd was once again astonished and said, “He has done all things
well.” Mark 7:37 Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit healed many while He was here on earth. He was showing the power of God to those that believed. Jesus did things “well” because He did them in love and did not care what the religious leaders thought was right or wrong. He cared about what God cared about and that was the life of every person He came in contact with. Jesus loves the whole world. He gives us a model to follow to reach out to those that are lost and do not know Him as Savior. We should follow Jesus’ example. We should find time to be alone or have one on one time with people. We should not be afraid to touch them in kind ways. We should acknowledge their needs and hurts and have compassion on them. We live in a world that does not show kindness to those that are hurting. We often look the other way. Jesus never did! As we follow Jesus we need to look for the opportunities that He will give us to serve others.
Conclusion: Things to talk about in your rooms:
1. Ask God for more faith daily. How do we do that?
2. Never give up on praying for people. Be stubborn in your prayers. Who do you need to be stubborn for?
3. Ask God to show you who you need to show compassion to. Look for those that you could show God’s kindness to this week.
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