Healing of the Deaf and Dumb Man

In this part of the sermon: This section details the man's condition: deaf and with a severe speech impediment, likely having lost hearing and then speech. Martin meticulously describes Jesus' actions…

Martin shares a personal story of a friend in the UK who lost his hearing and whose speech became impaired, illustrating the man's condition and the joy of being understood.

The indications are that it was one time he had the faculty of hearing and the faculty of speech. But as some of you know, if you've had relatives or loved ones or a friend who has lost hearing, in time the faculty of speech begins to go because we only articulate clearly as we are able to hear how we are to pronounce words, and then are able to hear our own words coming back on our own ears. And I think of a dear friend of mine who's in the United States, in the United Kingdom, who at one time did have the faculty of speech and of hearing, but lost his hearing and over the years his faculty o...

11:34 - 12:36 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin describes the immediate and complete restoration of the man's hearing and speech. He then details Jesus' solemn charge to tell no one, the multitude's enthusiastic…

He compares the man's joy at restored hearing and speech to a child on Christmas morning with a new bike, emphasizing the overwhelming excitement and immediate use of the new faculty.

With no fanciful incantations, no delay, no manipulation, no psychological pressure brought to bear upon him suddenly, and one can only imagine how this man must have babbled. When he could hear sounds again for the first time, and then could hear his own voice articulating words clearly, he was worse than a kid on Christmas morning who gets the bike he's been longing for, and though there's six inches of snow outside, he'll ride it on the porch, ride it in the living room, and I love to think as I relive the scene what this man must have been like when suddenly all of the sounds began to be r...

25:18 - 26:24 Read in full sermon

Driving home: If I should have personal face-to-face dealings with Jesus, what can I expect him to be like?

Martin describes Jesus' actions (fingers in ears, touching tongue, looking to heaven) as an 'ad hoc construction of sign language' to communicate with the deaf man, demonstrating Jesus' compassionate sensitivity.

with words, so what does He do? Putting Himself in the place of His friends. Putting Himself in the place of His friends. As it were, under the skin and behind the eyeballs and within the felt sensitivity of the man, the Lord does a little ad hoc construction of sign language. These things would convey something to this man in his condition. What's his problem? His death. So Jesus is saying by symbols, why have I drawn you away from the multitude? Placed you just an arm's length from my person. Eyeball, why have I done this? Saying by symbols, why have I drawn you away from the multitude? Plac...

43:10 - 43:52 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And our Lord, as he takes upon himself and as it were, drinks into his soul, the horrible reality that those deaf ears. That stammering tongue were ultimately the fruit of sin, that great enemy of man, and that he had co…

He draws a parallel between Jesus' sigh in this miracle and His groaning by Lazarus' tomb, suggesting deep sympathetic engagement with the consequences of sin.

Oh, man, with impediment of speech, the help of heaven is to come down upon you. And then Jesus sighed. And here again, I would not be dogmatic, but I believe there's a parallel in the sigh and the groan by the tomb of Lazarus. Here it was evident that the Lord Jesus was not going through a mechanical process like the so-called modern healers with their formulae and their ritual and their arts.

45:54 - 46:30 Read in full sermon

The point: Expect Jesus to be precisely what He was then – a sensitive, compassionate heart combined with sovereign and awesome power – in your personal, face-to-face dealings with Him.

Martin uses the analogy of admiring snow-capped mountains from a distance but not wanting to dwell there, to illustrate how sinners might admire Jesus' power but fear drawing near without knowing His compassion.

We're simply of sovereign and awesome power. We might admire Him from a distance as one admires the rugged majesty of snow-capped mountains, but would never want to make such mountains the dwelling place. We might admire Him as sinners with all accumulated liability to divine wrath. Punishment would never feel free to draw near unless we knew something of the winsomeness of His sensitive, caring heart.

50:33 - 51:12 Read in full sermon