1. "Never before has self-focus been as prevalent as it is socially accepted. You do you, we're told. Treat yourself and live your truth are slogans that are shouted at us from every direction."

2. "So far from providing liberation and freedom, study after study shows a correlation between social media use and depression, between the opportunity of defining yourself and the obligation and bondage of doing so."

3. "What is surprising about our own day is not only the prevalence of pride, but the extent to which pride has been normalized, even to the point of being seen as a virtue, such that an entire rights movement of self-identity and self-expression has defined itself by embracing that very term, pride."

4. "Pride has the insidious quality of blinding those who are proud to its presence in their life. In that sense, a proud person is more likely to think of themself as humble than they are of being proud, even as a humble person might think of them as being more proud than they are humble."

5. "Friends, pride is like having ketchup on your face. Everyone can see it, but you."

6. "God's Word holds up the mirror of God's holiness that exposes our pride for what it is."

7. "Tyre wanted to act like God. Tyre wanted to live in a world without restraint. Okay, God says, have it your way. God shows his judgment both by stretching out his hand and by withdrawing it."

8. "Tyre thought they were the king of the sea, but the sea has a king, and that king commanded the sea to rise up and dethrone that usurper Tyre."

9. "Do you see the futility of human pride? The merchant of the nations, the honored of the earth, the bestower of crowns, reduced to a prostitute, begging for business."

10. "There is mercy after judgment because that judgment fell on Christ."

Observation Questions

1. According to Isaiah 23:1-3, what is the reaction of the ships of Tarshish when they hear the news about Tyre, and what was Tyre's economic relationship with Egypt?

2. In Isaiah 23:8-9, what titles and descriptions are given to Tyre that indicate its power and status among the nations?

3. What does Isaiah 23:9 say is the Lord's purpose in bringing judgment against Tyre?

4. According to Isaiah 23:11, what specific actions does God take that demonstrate His sovereignty over the sea and the kingdoms?

5. In Isaiah 23:15-17, how long will Tyre be "forgotten," and what does the Lord do at the end of that period?

6. What transformation occurs in Isaiah 23:18 regarding Tyre's merchandise and wages, and how will these resources be used?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why is it significant that Tyre—a city known for its naval power and control of the sea—is judged by God stretching out His hand "over the sea" (v. 11)? What does this reveal about the relationship between human pride and divine sovereignty?

2. The sermon identifies Tyre as trusting in two main things: power over the sea and the ability to "bestow crowns" through economic influence. How does God's method of judgment directly address and dismantle each of these sources of pride?

3. What is the significance of Tyre being given the title "holy to the Lord" in verse 18, especially considering that this phrase was originally reserved for the high priest's turban (Exodus 28)? What does this suggest about God's ultimate purpose in judgment?

4. How does the comparison of Tyre to an "aged prostitute" (vv. 15-17) illustrate the futility of human pride and self-sufficiency? What is the difference between Tyre's condition before and after God's "visit"?

5. How does the account of the Syrophoenician woman in Matthew 15:21-28 serve as a fulfillment of the hope presented in Isaiah 23:18? What qualities in this woman contrast with the pride of ancient Tyre?

Application Questions

1. The sermon notes that pride "has the insidious quality of blinding those who are proud to its presence in their life." Who in your life knows you well enough to identify pride in you, and when was the last time you asked them for honest feedback about areas where pride may be present?

2. Tyre trusted in economic power and status for security. What specific things—career success, financial stability, reputation, relationships, or abilities—are you most tempted to trust in for your sense of security and identity? How might God be working to loosen your grip on these things?

3. The Syrophoenician woman acknowledged she had no claim on Jesus yet still came to Him in humble faith. In what area of your life do you need to stop demanding from God and instead approach Him with the humble posture of one who trusts that even "crumbs from His table" are sufficient?

4. The sermon challenges us to consider: "What has God done to teach you the truth that you are not in control?" How has a recent difficulty, disappointment, or disruption in your plans served to humble you and increase your dependence on God?

5. Knowing that God's purpose in judgment is ultimately to bring mercy and restoration (as seen in Tyre becoming "holy to the Lord"), how should this shape the way you respond when you experience God's discipline or correction in your own life this week?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Ezekiel 27:1-36 — This passage provides an extended description of Tyre's wealth, trade networks, and eventual downfall, reinforcing Isaiah's message about the futility of economic pride.

2. Ezekiel 28:1-19 — Here God addresses the king of Tyre directly, exposing the heart of pride that claimed divine status, and pronouncing judgment that humbles human arrogance.

3. Daniel 4:28-37 — Nebuchadnezzar's humbling demonstrates God's power to bring down the proud and His purpose to restore those who acknowledge His sovereignty.

4. James 4:6-10 — This passage explains God's opposition to the proud and His grace toward the humble, offering practical instruction on how to humble oneself before the Lord.

5. Philippians 2:5-11 — Christ's voluntary humiliation and subsequent exaltation provides the ultimate contrast to human pride and models the path to true honor before God.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Age of Self and the Rise of Pride

II. Man's Pride Demands the Judgment of God (Isaiah 23:1-7)

III. God's Power Humbles Human Glory (Isaiah 23:8-14)

IV. God's Purpose Is to Show Mercy After Judgment (Isaiah 23:15-18)

V. Christ Brings Mercy to the Humbled (Matthew 15:21-28)

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Detailed Sermon Outline

The year 2013 marked a turning point for humanity. Every year, the Oxford English Dictionary chooses a new word to introduce into its world-famous dictionary. In 2013, the word selected was selfie. Selfie. As the editors explained, the word selfie had evolved from a niche social media hashtag to a mainstream term.

In just one year, the word increased in usage by 17,000%. Now everybody knows what a selfie is, even my 11-month-old son. You simply take out your phone, you hold it up and take a picture of yourself to share with the world. There is no question that the invention of the selfie combined with the proliferation of smartphones and social media has led to an unprecedented obsession with the self. Never before has self-focus been as prevalent as it is socially accepted.

You do you, we're told. Treat yourself and live your truth are slogans that are shouted at us from every direction. Identity, a category virtually unknown decades ago, is now an inviolable principle. As one theologian has put it, we live in the age of the modern self. Yet so far from providing liberation and freedom, study after study shows a correlation between social media use and depression, between the opportunity of defining yourself and the obligation and bondage of doing so.

As the philosopher Charles Taylor has put it, in our age of expressive individualism, each one of us has his or her own way of realizing our humanity, but that comes with the responsibility for each one to find and live out one's own.

Would you be surprised that the Bible has a term to describe all of this obsession with self? The word is pride. Pride. If you were to ask a Christian in the past for a definition of pride, you'd get something like this. Pride is an inflated view of self that insists on such treatment by others.

Yet what is surprising about our own day is not only the prevalence of pride, but the extent to which pride has been normalized, even to the point of being seen as a virtue, such that an entire rights movement of self-identity and self-expression has defined itself by embracing that very term, pride.

In all this confusion, the question that we need desperately to ask and to have answered is this: what is God's response to human pride? And for that, we need to turn to God's Word, specifically to Isaiah chapter 23. If you have a pew Bible in front of you, you can turn to page 584. Here we see the end of pride. Pride in all its true colors exposed, judged, and humbled.

In fact, if you were to search for any for the best example of pride in all of Scripture, no more fitting chapter could be found than Isaiah 23, where we find the example of the kingdom of Tyre. And what Isaiah tells us in this chapter is that Tyre, with all its grounds for boasting, with all its greatness, Tyre would be judged by God.

Listen now as I read from Isaiah 23. This is the word of the Lord.

The oracle concerning Tyre. Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for Tyre is laid waste, without house or harbor. From the land of Cyprus it is revealed to them. Be still, O inhabitants of the coast. The merchants of Sidon who crossed the seas have filled you, and on the waters your revenue was the grain of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, you were the merchant of the nations.

Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea saying, I have neither labored nor given birth. I have neither reared young men nor brought up young women. When the report comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish over the report about Tyre. Cross over to Tarshish, wail, O inhabitants of the coast. Is this your exalted city, whose origin is from days of old, whose feet carried her to settle far away?

Who has purposed this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honor of the earth? The Lord of hosts has purposed it, to defile the pompous pride of all glory. To dishonor all the honored of the earth. Cross over your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish. There is no restraint anymore.

He has stretched out his hand over the sea. He has shaken the kingdoms. The Lord has given command concerning Canaan to destroy its strongholds. And He said, you, will no more exalt, O oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon. Arise, cross over to Cyprus.

Even there you will have no rest. Behold the land of the Chaldeans. This is the people that was not Assyria destined for wild beasts. They erected their siege towers. They stripped her palaces bare.

They made her a ruin. Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is laid waste.

In that day Tyre will be forgotten for 70 years. Like the days of one king. At the end of 70 years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute. Take a harp, go about the city, O forgotten prostitute. Make sweet melody, sing many songs that you may be remembered.

At the end of 70 years, the Lord will visit Tyre, and she will return to her wages, and will prostitute herself with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth.

But her merchandise and her wages will be holy to the Lord. It will not be stored up or hoarded, but her merchandise will supply abundant food and fine clothing for those who dwell before the Lord.

What is God's response to human pride? Isaiah 23 teaches us that God will judge the proud and save the humble. We'll unpack this in three points: man's pride, God's power, God's purpose. I pray that through this message you will come to better understand not only the sin of pride but the mercy of God. First we'll see that man's pride demands the judgment of God.

The fact that Tyre is virtually unknown in our day only confirms the truth of the prophecy we're reading about this morning. Because if ever there was a city or civilization that had grounds for boasting, it was Tyre. Look at verse 3. They're called the merchants of the nations. Or verse 9, Tyre is called the bestower of crowns, whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honor of the earth.

Tyre was the leading port city of the Phoenician Empire, a vast nation that dominated maritime trade in the ancient world. The United States has not even existed 250 years. Tyre was 2,000 years old by the time Isaiah wrote these words. Located just 100 miles north of Jerusalem, Tyre consisted of two city centers, one on the mainland, the other a set of islands on the sea with an impregnable fortress. The combination of these two city centers made Tyre virtually impossible to overthrow.

If they were attacked by land, they could always flee to the islands. If they were attacked by sea, they could always retreat inland. Most importantly, Tyre boasted an unparalleled reputation as an economic powerhouse. If Assyria to the north was the main military power of the day, then Tyre to the south was the main economic power. Assyria subdued its enemies with the sword and spear.

Tyre conquered with smooth talk and a sleek handshake. According to Ezekiel 27, Tyre traded with the whole world. They traded silver, iron, and tin with Tarshish, They had an effective monopoly on trade of ivory tusks and ebony. They traded for purple emeralds, fine linen, coral and ruby from Syria. Even Judah and Israel traded wheat, honey, oil and balm with Tyre.

In other words, Tyre had it all. And as a result of this economic power, they were described as possessing great wealth of every kind.

But friends, there was a darker side of their business as well. They were slave traders. As Ezekiel 27:13 states, Javan, Tubal, and Meshech traded with you. They exchanged human beings for your merchandise. And this is confirmed in Amos 3:2, which condemns Tyre for trading a boy for a prostitute and having sold a girl for wine.

They were equal opportunity businessmen, even when it involved the human trafficking of those made in God's image. Through all this trading, they became rich. Psalm 45 describes Tyre as the richest of the people. And in their wealth and the power that wealth can bring, Tyre grew proud.

And this pride demanded the judgment of God. We've all seen news reports after a great tragedy as nation after nation responds by sending messages of grief and condolence. That's what we see here in chapter 23. We see a play-by-play of reactions from the nations to the destruction of Tyre. The chapter, as you see, uses the rhetorical device of lamenting a disaster as if it has already happened.

In order to clarify the certainty of its coming. If you look in verse one, we see the first to hear the news are the ships of Tarshish. These were the famous ships that carried goods all over the ancient world. They're coming from the distant port city in Spain. But as they come, they hear news from Cyprus, their last port city before reaching home, that the city of Tyre is no more.

You see that word laid waste. It's gone. This would be like waking up one morning to hear the news that the entire island of Manhattan has been swept away by the ocean. Wall Street? Gone.

We see their response is to wail. This is the strongest possible term of lament. This is the sound a mother would make after losing a child. So shocking, so horrifying, so unexpected is the news of Tyre's demise. If you look down at verse 14, you see the message from verse 1 is repeated, word for word, in verse 14.

Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is laid waste. These bookends give the effect of an antiphonal song of lament. Filling the whole world. In verse 2, Tyre is used synonymously with its sister city Sidon to the north. There, the inhabitants of the coast hear the news, but unlike Tarshish, their response is silence.

Be still, O inhabitants of the coast. As I'm sure anyone who has suffered profound grief knows, silence is an equally appropriate response to tragedy. Thus the silence of the coastlands reverberate with the echoes of the ships of Tarshish creating a deafening cacophony of sorrow. In verse 5 we read of Egypt's reaction. Egypt, the mighty southern kingdom, is described as being in anguish over the fall of Tyre.

Why? Verse 3 explains. Your revenue was the grain of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile. Tyre's maritime trade was the means by which Egypt shipped its wealth to the coastal nations. In other words, the overflow of lament that we're reading about in these chapters has less to do with compassion and more with self-interest.

This is what the Bible calls worldly sorrow. The world's economic prosperity is threatened by Tyre's fall. So the world weeps. That's why as we've been slowly walking through these chapters from 13 to 23, Isaiah is going nation by nation, but in the next chapter, chapter 24, Isaiah will turn to describe the judgment of the whole earth. Well, Tyre is the bridge between the nations and the whole earth.

Because judging tire is as close as you get to cosmic judgment.

Friends, this chapter forces us to examine our lives for evidence of the sin of pride. It's not a question of if but where pride is located in every human heart. You see, pride has the insidious quality of blinding those who are proud to its presence in their life. In that sense, a proud person is more likely to think of themself as humble than they are of being proud, even as a humble person might think of them as being more proud than they are humble. A few weeks ago, a brother asked me if I struggled with pride.

I thought about it for a couple minutes, and I answered something to the effect of, well, I'm sure I struggle with pride, Everyone struggles with pride to some degree. I'm sure I'm no exception. But a little while later, I thought about it, I prayed about it. I went to another good friend who had been discipling me for nearly a decade. I asked him, Am I a prideful person?

Without skipping a beat, he laughed and said, Yes, of course you are. I said, well, what I'm trying to say is, Am I more prideful than most?

Again, he looked at me, this time with a little more compassion, and said, Yes.

Friends, pride is like having ketchup on your face. Everyone can see it, but you. Friends, that's why we need each other. It's in and through relationships with one another. That's why we need to gather face to face.

That's where pride is exposed. That's where pride is expelled. And that's why we need God's Word. God's word holds up the mirror of God's holiness that exposes our pride for what it is. That's what the book of Isaiah is about.

It's a vision of the holy God who has created the universe. And it's the command for every nation to turn from their sins and repent in light of who he is and his holiness. In that sense, the judgment on Tyre in Isaiah 23 points us to the judgment that all of us will face at the throne of God one day. Hebrews 9 says that it is appointed for man to die once, and after that, judgment. My question for you this morning is, are you ready for that day?

Will that day catch you unawares like Tyre? Proud, unexpecting, successful, unconcerned, and sweep you away in the flood of God's wrath.

Kids, you know it's never too early to begin cultivating humility. Part of the way you can do that is by not bragging. Jeremiah 9 says, Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me. The example of Tyre teaches us that to whatever extent a person or a nation abandons God and embraces pride, this is the fate that awaits them. Man's pride demands God's judgment.

And that's because God's judgment highlights God's power over and above man's pride. That's our second point. God's power humbles human glory.

Listen now as I read to us, verses 8 to 14. Who has purposed this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honor of the earth? The Lord of hosts has purposed it, to defile the pompous pride of all glory, to dishonor all the honored of the earth. Cross over your land like the Nile, O daughter of Tarshish. There is no restraint anymore.

He has stretched out his hand over the sea, he has shaken the kingdoms, the Lord has given command concerning Canaan to destroy its strongholds. And he said, you will no more exalt, oh oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon. Arise, cross over the Cyprus, even there you will have no rest. Behold the land of the Chaldeans. This is the people that was not, Assyria destined for wild beasts.

They erected their siege towers, they stripped her palaces bare, they made her a ruin.

Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is laid waste.

Here we see how God's power humbles human glory. Look at verse 8, the question that all the nations are asking, the question on everyone's mind is who has purposed this against Tyre? This is always the question asked after a national disaster or tragedy. How did this happen? Who is responsible?

The answer is given in verse 9: the Lord of hosts has purposed it. The point of this chapter is not Tyre. The point of this chapter is God and His sovereign power. And what we see here in this section is that God will take the very things Tyre was tempted to trust in and use these to humble them. Just consider the grounds for Tyre's boasting and how these things they were proud of compared to God's power.

Tyre's first claim to greatness was their power over the sea. They were the great shipbuilders. They were the sailors. They were the ones who crossed the sea in verse 2. They refer to themselves as the stronghold of the sea in verse 4.

They used their ships, as verse 7 says, to settle far away. So what is God going to do? God is going to take the very things they trusted in, their ships and the very thing they thought they controlled, water, and use these to humble them. Look at verse 11. He has stretched out his hand over the sea.

This is language drawn from the Exodus where God is said to part the sea. By telling Moses to stretch out his hand over the sea. The point is God, not Tyre, is sovereign over the sea. Have you ever had a pipe burst in your house?

Do you know the damage that can be done by even a little water when it is not restrained? Look at the end of verse 10: There is no restraint anymore. The picture here is of God removing all restraints. When God created the world, he divided the waters by placing land in their midst. In that sense, land restrains water.

And what God is saying he will do here is he will take away those restraints and allow the floods of the sea to cover the earth. Tire wanted to act like God. Tire wanted to live in a world without restraint. Okay, God says, have it your way. God shows his judgment both by stretching out his hand and by withdrawing it.

Just a few chapters earlier in Isaiah 14, God had announced, this is the purpose that is purpose concerning the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over the for the Lord of hosts has purposed it, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back? This is the creator of the earth. His power is infinite. His purposes are sovereign.

When he says he will stretch out his hand, there is no question that it will accomplish its purpose. The question is, then who can turn it back? No one.

Not Tyre. Tyre thought they were the king of the sea, but the sea has a king, and that king commanded the sea to rise up and dethrone that usurper Tyre. God's power humbles human greatness. But let's consider Tyre's second claim to greatness. Tyre's second claim was that by virtue of their wealth, they had the status of kingmaker.

You see that in verse 8, where Tyre is called the bestower of crowns. Now, other than Solomon being crowned by his mother, only God is said in Scripture to crown. That is a sovereign power that God alone possesses. But here, Tyre's power was such that they could effectively use their monopolistic empire to appoint leaders wherever they wanted. But again, this is where God's judgment targets the very thing that Tyre trusted in.

Look at verse 13. Behold the land of the Chaldeans. This is the people that was not. Chaldea is a reference to Babylon, located to the east by the Persian Gulf. God is telling Tyre, Look at Babylon.

Fix your eyes on that place. This would have seemed like a strange instruction because at that time, Babylon was nothing. As verse 13 says, this is the people that was not. In fact, Babylon had recently been conquered by Assyria to the north. So the big threat in that day was not Babylon.

The big threat was Assyria, or so they thought. In fact, Ezekiel 26 explains how God would bring Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, to destroy Tyre. But unlike other nations, Babylon couldn't be bought off. God promised Babylon that he would pay her to destroy Tyre by giving her Egypt. Ezekiel 29:19.

So the very thing Tyre trusted in to secure their continued dominance is powerless in the face of God's judgment.

Friends, money can influence elections, but do not mistake this point. As Nebuchadnezzar himself confessed in Daniel 2, the Lord changes times and seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings. So you see what God is doing here. He's taking the very things that Tyre trusted in, and he's using them to humble tire to show his glory and his greatness.

What about you? What are you trusting in? Hoping in? What do you think you're in control of? Is it your job?

Is it your future?

What has God done to teach you the truth that you are not in control? That would be a good question to talk about with each other at lunch today. What has God used in your life to teach you the truth that you are not in control? God's power humbles human glory. That's what the whole book of Isaiah is about.

If you want the book of Isaiah in three movements, Here it is. God will judge man's pride and exalt himself as holy. And then he will save a humbled people. That's what God is doing. He's humbling man.

He's exalting himself so that he can save.

And that's what we see next. God wants to humble his people so that he can show them mercy. And that is the purpose of God. God's purpose is to show mercy after judgment. God's purpose is to show mercy after judgment.

In verse 15, Isaiah introduces the phrase, in that day. Here we catch the first glimpse of hope in the whole chapter. Judgment is not the end for Tyre. There is a future after judgment. This is further confirmed by the language of 70 years.

You see that in verses 15 and 17. We don't know when exactly this time period is referring to, but there is a definite time period in which Tyre would be humbled. Verses 15 to 17 compare Tyre's trade empire to an aged prostitute. The image is as disturbing as it is profound. The image is of an old and haggard prostitute who instead of receiving knocks at her door is instead forced to go about the streets searching for compassion, searching for customers who formerly would have come to her.

So Isaiah forces us to ask the question, what does a prostitute do when she gets old? All she could do here was sing. Sing a song of lament and try to evoke compassion, as verse 16 says, so that she may be remembered.

Friends, do you see the futility of human pride? The merchant of the nations, the honored of the earth, the bestower of princes, of crowns, reduced to a prostitute, begging for business.

But then something changes. Verse 17 says that at the end of 70 years, the Lord will visit Tyre. This word visit can mean judgment, but here it refers to restoration. Restoration. After a period of time, the Lord would restore Tyre.

She would again be restored to her global trading business, still described in terms of prostitution, but something is different. In verse 18, we read that her merchandise and her wages will be Holy to the Lord. Holy. How could this be? This is shocking for at least two reasons.

The first reason is that the Old Testament law is clear that the wages of prostitution cannot be contributed to the temple. That's Deuteronomy 23:18. So something has changed both about Tyre and the way she is doing business. The second indication that something has changed is the title now given to Tyre. Do you notice that?

Holy to the Lord. This is one of the most honored descriptions in all of Scripture. It is none other than the very pronouncement that God instructed Aaron to describe on the golden medallion that hung from the high priest's turban. Holy to the Lord. That's where this language comes from, from Exodus 28.

And this title wasn't given to all Israelites. It wasn't even given to all the priests. This title was given only to the high priest who stood and ministered in the presence of God himself. And here, this title is given to Tyre, What has changed?

Isaiah is envisioning the day when Tyre has been converted. This is the day that Psalm 45 speaks of when the people of Tyre will seek the king's favor with gifts. This is the day that Psalm 87:4 speaks of when among those who know me the Lord mentions Rahab in Babylon, Philistia, and Tire. This is the day that Isaiah 60 speaks of, when Tyre and Tarshish, Sidon and Sheba, along with all nations, will assemble themselves in Jerusalem to worship the Lord, bringing the wealth of the nations with them, bringing good news and praises to the Lord. For the coastlands shall hope for me, the ships of Tarshish first, to bring your children from afar.

Their silver and gold with them, for the name of the Lord your God, and for the Holy One of Israel, because he has made you beautiful. In that day the scarlet letter A will be replaced with the golden letter H, holy to the Lord. And this title will be given to Tyre. Friends, all these images, all these visions from the Old Testament are straining forward, predicting, foretelling a day when Tyre will know the Lord.

When will this be?

Turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew 15.

Matthew 15.

Verse 21, and Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, have mercy on me, O Lord. Son of David, my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon. But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, 'Send her away, for she is crying out after us.

He answered, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But she came and knelt before him, saying, 'Lord, help me. And he answered, 'It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. She said, Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table. And Jesus answered her, O woman, great is your faith.

Be it done for you as you desire. And her daughter was healed instantly. Do you see what is going on here? Jesus goes to Tyre. And there he meets a woman.

And so we don't mistake what is going on here. Mark refers to this woman as a Syrophoenician woman, using that ancient title of the people we've just been reading about in Isaiah 23, just so that we don't miss the point. This woman is the embodiment of everything we've been reading about Tyre. She's desperate, she is humbled, but there is hope for her because she meets Jesus. She's not proud.

She knew that she had no grounds to expect help. She doesn't dispute any of Jesus' statements. She acknowledges what Mark preached to us last week from Ephesians 2. She's a Gentile in the flesh. She's of the uncircumcision.

She is not of the Commonwealth of Israel. This woman knows she's a stranger to the covenants of promise. She doesn't dispute any of that, but she came to Jesus because she knew that his feast of mercy was so great that even the crumbs that fell from his table could satisfy her longing soul.

And friends, we've come to celebrate the Lord's Supper. We've come to that very table where the Lord invites us to feast. Here bread is broken into crumbs to feed the hungry. Christ's blood is remembered to cleanse the sinner for all those who know their need and come to Christ in faith. If you are in Christ, it is because you have received mercy after judgment.

And it's because that judgment fell on another. All of us have sinned. All of us have broken God's law. All of us have been proud. All of us are guilty like Tyre of making ourselves something when we're nothing.

But Jesus, the true King of kings, the true Lord of lords, who had everything humbled himself. He took on flesh, He came as a servant, He humbled Himself to the point of dying on a cross so that you and I could receive mercy. God raised Him from the dead showing that the penalty for sin was paid in full for anyone who would turn from their sins and trust in Him. And now the pronouncement over everyone who is in Christ is the same as that pronounced over tire, holy, to the Lord. That is the pronouncement of God over everyone who is in Christ.

Friend, there is mercy after judgment because that judgment fell on Christ. Do you know this mercy?

Will you come to Christ today?

Let's pray.

Father God, we praise you for your mercy in Christ. We thank you for the death that the Lord Jesus Christ died so that we may know your mercy. We thank you for the table that you have set before us. We ask that you would use the word we have heard. And these elements now to strengthen our hearts by faith, that we may love youe and know more deeply still the love that yout have for us in Christ.

It is in his name that we pray. Amen.