[0:00] Our scripture reading today is from Mark chapter 5, verses 21 through 43. Mark chapter 5, 21 through 43, please stand for the reading of God's Word.
[0:22] And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly, saying, My little daughter is at the point of death.
[0:41] Come and lay your hands on her so that she may be made well and live. And he went with him. And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. And there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better, but rather grew worse.
[1:02] She had heard the reports about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, If I touch even his garments, I will be made well. And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.
[1:17] And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, Who touched my garments? And his disciples said to him, You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, Who touched me?
[1:32] And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, and fell down before him, and told the whole truth. And he said to her, Daughter, your faith has made you well.
[1:47] Go in peace, and be healed of your disease. While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler's house some who said, Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?
[1:59] But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, Do not fear, only believe. And he allowed no one to follow him, except Peter and James and John, the brother of James.
[2:11] They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. And when he had entered, he said to them, Why are you making a commotion and weeping?
[2:23] The child is not dead, but sleeping. And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside, and took the child's father and mother, and those who were with him, and went in where the child was.
[2:35] Taking her by the hand, he said to her, Talitha Kumi, which means, Little girl, I say to you, Arise. And immediately the girl got up and began walking, for she was twelve years of age.
[2:48] And they were immediately overcome with amazement. And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
[3:00] You may be seated. Good morning. It feels good to be able to say, good morning, to our congregation.
[3:15] Normally, it is the afternoon that we gather, and we're glad that you're here. And we're glad to be able to continue in our series from the book of Mark.
[3:26] The passage, really, that we're looking at is an extended one, and time has not allowed to read the full passage.
[3:36] But what we find, even as we look from Mark, chapter 4, verse 35, we have about four very gripping stories that really reinforce the message that Mark is trying to communicate to his readers, and that the Holy Spirit, through the centuries, has communicated to you and me.
[4:01] The Son of Man is the Son of God, sent to minister in the world, and to give His life a ransom for many. And in these accounts that we look at on this morning, those particular truths are really reinforced.
[4:21] I put together an outline that will hopefully help us to grasp the content of what we see in the passage before us. The first thing that I want you to see is that we have three people in crisis.
[4:39] Three people in crisis. You have a man in crisis. In Mark, chapter 5, verses 1 through 2. You have a daughter. A little girl in crisis.
[4:51] In chapter 5, verses 21 through 24. And then it skips over to verses 35 through 43. And then in between this account where Jesus, you might say, is interrupted in His journey, you have a woman in crisis.
[5:10] In verses 25 through 34. Three people. Three different calamities. Three different crises. But interestingly, the story begins actually in chapter 4, verse 35.
[5:25] As far as this account, this broader account that we see here. The Lord had just filled the storm that was raging on the Sea of Galilee.
[5:38] I don't know if you got here a little bit early, but the waters were a little choppy. And, you know, I don't even like to get out in the Hensel's boat on, you know, a little choppy waters like this.
[5:48] I would have been, I don't know if I would have been like Jesus or saying, Andy, take me back, you know, with the choppy waters. But given the topography of the area, such storms, as we see in chapter 4, verses 35 to 41, they were very, very common.
[6:06] Woodrider notes that they came literally out of the blue with shattering and terrifying suddenness on the sea. And so Jesus, physically exhausted, was back in the back of the boat, asleep on a cushion.
[6:24] And if you would look with me, look at chapter 4 in verse 38. We note the words of the disciples there. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion, and they woke him and said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?
[6:45] Huh? After being awakened from his sleep, the Lord simply spoke to the raging sea, saying, Peace. Be still.
[6:56] And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. But notice Jesus' words in verse 40. Huh? To those who had been gripped by fear.
[7:08] Those who had heard him teach about God's kingdom. Those who had seen him demonstrate the nearness of the kingdom. He speaks to them, and this is what he says.
[7:21] Why are you so afraid? Huh? Have you still no faith? Huh? I mean, after reading through the Bible from year to year.
[7:34] After being a part of a faith community for all of these years, having experienced the very peace of God in your own soul, you still have.
[7:46] No faith. Does fear still reign in your life? Huh? The accounts of Jesus, compassionate actions recorded in these particular accounts, have been used to reinforce the faith of the people of God down through the centuries.
[8:03] And I would pray, even in this abbreviated time, that God would use these accounts to help strengthen your faith and my faith on this morning. What about the three people in crisis that we see?
[8:16] Huh? A man in crisis, and this was the crisis of internal turmoil. The seas that had raged in the life of the man in the text were as fierce as the storms that had raged on the Sea of Galilee.
[8:33] Psychologically and socially and spiritually, this man's life was in shambles. And the hopelessness of the situation comes through in the text. Look with me at chapter 5.
[8:46] And let's just look at verses, a few verses, beginning at verse 1. They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes.
[8:56] And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately, there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. He lived among the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with chains.
[9:12] For he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him.
[9:25] Look at this man. No restraint. He lived among the tombs of the dead. No one was strong enough to restrain him, not even with shackles.
[9:38] Not only was there no restraint, there was no relief. Night and day, this man's soul, his very soul, was tormented.
[9:50] He was in constant turmoil, night and day. According to verse 1, spiritual forces of darkness had invaded his life. The root of his issues was spiritual.
[10:03] He had an unclean spirit, that's just another term for the fact that there were demons that possessed him. A man in crisis, the crisis of internal turmoil.
[10:15] A little daughter in crisis, the crisis of physical sickness that led to death. Jesus had returned to Capernaum on the northwestern sea, that shore of the Sea of Galilee.
[10:29] And there he is met with a father with an emergency, a father who was on a personal 911 call to Jesus. A father who is interceding for his daughter.
[10:42] There's something bittersweet about this scene. The bitter is that you've got a 12-year-old daughter that is near the point of death. The sweet is that you've got a father with faith that has come to Jesus on behalf of his little girl.
[10:59] Oh, isn't that what fathers are to do? Regardless if you have sons or daughters, to be able to bring them before the Lord in prayer during the routine times and also during the rough times.
[11:15] this man invites Jesus to come to lay his hands on his little girl just to touch her. The Lord consents but in the process he runs into a traffic jam.
[11:29] We see that in verse 24. And this account continues in verse 35. And there in verse 35 you see what I would call a death report. There we find a messenger who came from Jairus' home with a report.
[11:44] And it was not the kind of report that you would normally hear from a 12-year-old. 12-year-olds get progress reports. And for children even younger, this was not a progress report.
[11:56] It was a death report. And you know how painful those kind of reports can be. Over the last few weeks, I just went to a funeral on this past Thursday of a 76-year-old lady.
[12:10] And I heard that there's a lady who's still living, but I got a call from another pastor. She was a member of Judson at one time, and she has requested that when she passes away, she wants me to do her eulogy.
[12:25] It's one thing to hear the death report of somebody whose years have been full. It's another thing to hear the death report about a child.
[12:37] This one who was on the threshold of womanhood. In her day, marriage was not far away from this 12-year-old. In our day, she would have been a sixth or seventh grader.
[12:50] The text doesn't record Jairus' reaction when he heard this report, but you can imagine the thought of his little girl being gone was not a pleasant one.
[13:02] A man in crisis, the crisis of internal turmoil. Because of demons. A daughter in crisis, the crisis of sickness and eventual death.
[13:13] But then we see this woman in crisis, the crisis of chronic disease that we see in verses 25 through 34. Look at verse 25 in the text. In the text, verse 25, simply describes her as a woman.
[13:29] There was a woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years. A woman. She too is someone's daughter.
[13:44] She had, whether they were gone by then, but she had a father and mother. But also note that she was a woman with a woman's concern.
[13:56] The matter concerns her female bleeding. For 12 years, she had suffered from a chronic menstrual disorder.
[14:07] The gravity of the situation, and here the gravity of the situation beginning in verse 26. Who had suffered much under many physicians patients.
[14:24] And it spent all that she had. And was no better, but rather grew worse. Listen to that.
[14:37] Imagine what was going on there. The physicians of the day could not heal her. Her condition was beyond their expertise. Rather than getting better, she had gotten worse.
[14:51] not only had medical science been frustrated, her monies had been exhausted, she had spent all. It's likely that this condition had actually controlled her life.
[15:06] Because her condition had rendered her ceremonially unclean, she couldn't go to worship, according to Leviticus chapter 15 verses 19 through 33.
[15:18] Just think in other ways how this dear lady's life would have been impacted by this chronic disorder. She couldn't marry. Perhaps she was married and she was divorced.
[15:30] She had been deprived of motherhood. Her social life was restricted. What would it have been like for her in our day if she would have been employed, perhaps unemployed or even unemployable?
[15:44] Too many absences from the job. And don't forget the emotional drain that happens when our physical bodies are sick. Three people in crisis who were humanly speaking, they were beyond hope.
[16:03] They were in the fourth stage of their life situations. In their helplessness, these were the kind of people who were ready for hospice, make them as comfortable as possible without hope.
[16:18] three people in crisis, but each encounters one person with power. Three crises, each of them encounters one person with power.
[16:34] Oh, and here we have the same one who instilled the storm, silenced the storm in the soul. the same one who instilled the storm, stopped the irregular flow of blood, the same one who had instilled the storm, reversed death in the death sentence of this young lady.
[16:56] he exercised triumph over demonic forces. As related to this troubled man, Jesus triumphed over the unseen powers that had gripped this man in his very soul and mind.
[17:12] An unclean spirit as we've already noted. The Lord Jesus expelled them from this helpless man and he is free. But in his freedom he begs.
[17:24] That's an interesting word that appears five times in Mark chapter five here. To the one who had said he implored he said Lord I want to be with you.
[17:36] Jesus gives him a measure of instruction to do this man who had made whose life was a mess. Guess what happens to him? He becomes a missionary to Decapolis.
[17:51] Look at that chapter five verse twenty. Let me read it for you. And he went away and began to proclaim in Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him and every one marvel.
[18:04] He went from a life of messiness to being a missionary. This week I received a letter from a dear sister in Kenya who knows something about a life that's gone from being a mess to being a missionary in Kenya.
[18:27] This dear lady was born in 1960. By the time she was 15 years old she had already been in inappropriate and failed relationships.
[18:40] Her family, the very family of her birth was abusive and dysfunctional to the point that at 16 she gave birth to a child. In 1983 she was involved in a major car accident and had to have 23 subsequent surgeries.
[19:01] Imagine this. The family that's supposed to nurture one inflicts one with pain. That kind of pain.
[19:11] And then she has this major accident requiring 23 surgeries. 1988 when she was 28 found herself living in San Diego in a pretty good situation.
[19:24] But a little few years after that after she was 30 she says this. I was doing drugs drinking living a promiscuous lifestyle. And that year I was convicted of a felony drug charge possession of a controlled substance.
[19:40] And a few months later this dear lady was homeless. she moves into a person who God rescues from the drug culture.
[19:53] She sees the turnaround in this man's life and sees God witnesses to her. His life is changed and she sees it.
[20:04] And then after people witnessing to her, this lady, she comes to Christ. Trust him as Lord and Savior. in 2000, the year 2000.
[20:16] In 2002 she joined our church where I used to pastor. 2004 she enters in a class of perspectives course on world mission.
[20:27] In 2004 she takes her first missions trip and decides, boy, this is what I want to do. She comes back, finishes up her elementary education degree, and off to Kenya.
[20:41] A life that was a mess comes to life that was given to Christ in missions. Interesting that in the text we have two men whose lives are actually in contrast.
[20:59] The obscure man in verses 1 through 20 unnamed dwelling in a tomb stands against a prominent likely respected leader in the synagogue Jairus.
[21:10] One man upstanding and noteworthy. Another outcast and likely notorious. The same person, the Lord Jesus Christ, with compassion and the power of God meets them both at the point of their need.
[21:27] And then there are the two ladies, aren't there? One on the threshold of womanhood, the other well into the years of her womanhood. One with power, the same one person, one person with power, meets them both at the point of their need.
[21:43] With the older woman, it was a triumph over chronic disease. The dear woman had nothing to lose, was propelled by her faith in Jesus. She had heard of his works and words.
[21:55] She grabbed hold of one of those tassels that devout Jews had wore on their outer garment. And she believed, trusted that if she would just touch the hem of his garment, as King James would say, the actual of the tassel, she would be made whole.
[22:11] Go in peace. Be made whole. Be healthy. Be made sound from your torment and suffering was where Jesus' words to her in verse 34. Daughter.
[22:24] I wonder when the last time she heard that word, daughter, your faith has made you welcome. Daughter, that spoke of family ownership, love and care and respect.
[22:35] To be called daughter implies, that there was someone there to care. Triumph over chronic disease and then triumph over the sickness and death. The victory of Jesus didn't stop with demonic powers and chronic disease.
[22:49] It extended to humanity's greatest enemy, death itself. Upon appearing one, tell Jairus' daughter that your daughter is dead.
[23:01] Why trouble the master any further? Jesus, and I want you really to see these birds in the last part of verse 36. He spoke the reassuring words that we find in verse 36.
[23:14] Let me just read the whole thing for you. But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, listen to this, do not fear, only believe.
[23:27] the Lord entered into this home, dismissed all but the parents, Peter, James, and John, took the little girl by the hand, spoke tenderly to her in Aramaic, Talitha, who me?
[23:42] Little girl, I say to you, arise. Oh, the words of the Lord. Death may have seized you, but the Lord speaks. And when he speaks, whatever it is, has to abandon release its hold on you.
[23:58] Three people in crisis, one person with power, and finally, let me give you two points of application. What are the points of application for disciples today and disciples of the ages?
[24:13] Hey, let the text speak for itself. Let's allow ourselves to be challenged or even rebuked or spurred by the words of Jesus. Matter of fact, let me just back up a bit and look at his words in chapter 4 and verse 40.
[24:28] He said to them, why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? It was a word to fearful disciples who had heard in Jesus' words and seen as works.
[24:41] They had tasted and seen that the Lord was good, but still they were honored by, let's call them circumstantial fears. Let us allow ourselves to be challenged by Jesus' words in Mark 4, 40, but let us allow ourselves to be challenged by Jesus' words also in 5, 36 as we've already read.
[25:01] Do not fear, only believe. What we're not to do, fear. What we are to do, to have faith. May we not despise the words of Jesus or simply be amused by the words of Jesus.
[25:17] I think that sometimes we often are amused by Jesus' words, but the question is do we really believe the words of Jesus. May we believe Jesus' words as never before in this particular season of our life together.
[25:35] Jesus' words to Jairus are the words of Jesus to his followers of every era. They are a call to faith, a call to much like the Lord had issued through Isaiah in the Old Testament Scriptures in chapter 35 verse 4.
[25:52] Say to those who are of anxious heart, be strong, fear not, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of our God.
[26:05] He will come and save you. That is exactly what happened in the person in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Has not the Lord come to save in and through his son?
[26:18] The Lord that we serve is mighty to save. May the words of verse 36 speak to us clearly as we find ourselves as a church invading new territory, facing new challenges as we join Jesus in the pursuit of lost sheep that need to be brought in full.
[26:38] May we do so because there will be many things that will spark and even inspire fear as you begin to get out into the neighborhoods, get out into the city.
[26:51] Do not fear, only believe. In the face of all kinds of oppositions from demons and people and dilemmas of all kind, are we to seek the welfare of the city?
[27:07] And may we hear the words resounding from verse 36 with fresh clarity as we engage in fresh initiatives, like the Encore Thrift Store.
[27:17] May we hear our Lord say as we move forward, do not fear, only believe. And may we find ourselves in the process rising and running to Jesus and resting in the Lord Jesus and leading other people to do exactly the same thing.
[27:41] Let's pray. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Lord, we bless you. Lord, we praise you and thank you that the same one who met three people in our text in the midst of their crises meets us today.
[28:03] I pray that you would help us and strengthen us. May these words, Lord, resonate anew and a fresh in our hearts. And may you be glorified even as we rise and run to Jesus.
[28:19] Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you.