WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.600 Mark chapter 5, we're in the midst of a series of narratives that Mark has selected, as does 00:00:07.600 --> 00:00:15.900 Matthew and Luke, in order to display the power, divine power, of Jesus of Nazareth. And so what we 00:00:15.900 --> 00:00:22.140 come to today is the third installment of these four narratives that are supporting Mark's 00:00:22.140 --> 00:00:28.620 proclamation that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God. Now all four of these events, as we 00:00:28.620 --> 00:00:38.859 study them, include or deal with elements of life that are entirely beyond human control. 00:00:39.359 --> 00:00:46.140 So think about that for just a moment. We started with the calming of the storm. The disciples are 00:00:46.140 --> 00:00:51.560 caught in the storm. It's completely out of their control. They have no control over the existence 00:00:51.560 --> 00:00:57.140 of the storm. They have no control over the severity of the storm. They really have no control over what 00:00:57.140 --> 00:01:04.579 the result of the storm would be. They're hopeless in that moment. And yet we see Jesus having much 00:01:04.579 --> 00:01:10.379 greater power than them and actually having the ability to harness that storm and to control it, 00:01:10.540 --> 00:01:15.299 something that's beyond our control. And then we move on to what we studied last week, and we see 00:01:15.299 --> 00:01:22.939 something similar. We see this man who is possessed by a legion of demons, something that he could not 00:01:22.939 --> 00:01:29.340 control, something the people of the town could not control, something that the disciples could not 00:01:29.340 --> 00:01:37.500 control. And yet there was one who could control it, who had the power to command the demons, and they had no 00:01:37.500 --> 00:01:45.000 choice but to obey. Though rebellious against the Lord, of course, they had no option in that moment. Why? 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:52.780 Because Jesus not only has power over nature, he has power over demons, over Satan, and we take great 00:01:52.780 --> 00:02:01.079 comfort in that. Well, then we get to this one, and we find that Jesus not only has power over nature and 00:02:01.079 --> 00:02:09.039 over the spiritual world, but he also has power over disease. That's the focus of this particular 00:02:09.039 --> 00:02:16.859 narrative as we come to it. And so though you may not find it exactly easy all the time to personally 00:02:16.859 --> 00:02:22.979 relate to the extremes of natural disaster, as we saw in the storm on the lake, perhaps you have 00:02:22.979 --> 00:02:28.539 difficulty finding a way to personally relate to the extremes of the demonic influence and the demonic 00:02:28.539 --> 00:02:37.019 possession of the man from the region of the Gerasenes. Every single one of us, though, can relate to the 00:02:37.020 --> 00:02:43.920 reality of sickness and disease. Not one person of us today can come to this passage and not say, 00:02:44.280 --> 00:02:50.560 I don't understand that, or I can't relate to that in some way. All of us can do that. Why? Because we all 00:02:50.560 --> 00:02:58.900 get sick. And the more we understand the pervasiveness of disease in the world, the more we come to fear 00:02:58.900 --> 00:03:05.760 suffering from it. And if you haven't considered it much up to this point in your life, you certainly have 00:03:05.759 --> 00:03:10.979 considered it in the last year because everybody in the world has been forced to, even if you didn't 00:03:10.979 --> 00:03:18.219 want to. You had to at least consider it, that sickness and disease and ultimately death is a 00:03:18.219 --> 00:03:25.799 reality for all of us. And the fact is there's thousands of diseases that exist that the human 00:03:25.799 --> 00:03:31.019 body is susceptible to. I read an article from the Washington Post this week and just researching a 00:03:31.020 --> 00:03:35.719 little bit about this. I got distracted, to be honest with you. And I read an article from the Washington 00:03:35.719 --> 00:03:40.260 Post. It's from a number of years ago. I think something was going on in the political spectrum. 00:03:40.439 --> 00:03:47.080 This was even before the election of Donald Trump. It was still during the Obama era. And there was a 00:03:47.080 --> 00:03:51.640 bill with Obamacare that was trying to be passed. And the thing that was being influenced in or 00:03:51.640 --> 00:03:57.620 emphasized, at least in our government, was the fact that there are 10,000 potential diseases, 00:03:57.620 --> 00:04:04.560 but only 500 potential cures. And I don't know how specific or how accurate that is. Some say there's 00:04:04.560 --> 00:04:09.800 more, some say there's less. But the reality is there are thousands and thousands of potential illnesses 00:04:09.800 --> 00:04:17.959 and sicknesses and diseases and plagues that the human body is susceptible to that we all have the 00:04:17.959 --> 00:04:25.300 potential of contracting. And many of them are completely beyond our control to prevent or even to 00:04:25.300 --> 00:04:35.220 treat. The prevalence of disease doesn't mean that it's natural. Right? We would say things like this, 00:04:35.319 --> 00:04:40.500 and I would even say things from the pulpit from times to time. I think we did it a couple of weeks 00:04:40.500 --> 00:04:45.160 ago, that you're guaranteed taxes and you're guaranteed death, right? Death is a reality of life. 00:04:45.240 --> 00:04:51.920 But death is not a natural thing. All of us are guaranteed, really, if we're honest, we're all 00:04:51.920 --> 00:04:56.939 guaranteed sickness in some form, disease in some form. But that doesn't mean that disease is natural 00:04:56.939 --> 00:05:03.360 because God didn't create us to have this susceptibility to disease. When you study the 00:05:03.360 --> 00:05:09.759 Bible and you see the perfection in which God created everything that is and the perfection and 00:05:09.759 --> 00:05:16.100 the perfect world in which he placed Adam and Eve in the garden prior to their fall, we see that it was 00:05:16.100 --> 00:05:21.400 not the natural order from God's perspective that we would be susceptible to these things. And though we 00:05:21.399 --> 00:05:26.959 grow accustomed to it in a fallen world, we should never think of it as natural. It's not a natural 00:05:26.959 --> 00:05:34.899 thing for us. And it's important because illness and disease are emblematic of a much greater problem 00:05:34.899 --> 00:05:41.560 than the actual disease. They're emblematic of our sin because that's why it exists, right? 00:05:42.699 --> 00:05:47.959 If God created everything and at the end of it, he said in his own words, that have to be truthful, 00:05:47.959 --> 00:05:55.500 he said it is very good. There is no sin. There is no disease. There's no sickness. 00:05:56.419 --> 00:06:00.939 Then what is it that brought about the sickness and the disease? Well, there's only one thing that 00:06:00.939 --> 00:06:07.439 changed in the process of that narrative, and that was man sinned. Now, that's not to say that every 00:06:07.439 --> 00:06:12.279 time you get a cold that it's God judging you for a specific sin that you've committed. That's, 00:06:12.279 --> 00:06:18.359 of course, not what we mean by that. What we mean, though, is that the very existence of disease and 00:06:18.359 --> 00:06:26.339 illness and sickness is a result of the fall. We are fallen people. We live in a fallen world. 00:06:26.339 --> 00:06:34.359 And so long as we are in this world, bones will still break. Hearts will still break. We will still 00:06:34.360 --> 00:06:42.620 be susceptible to the various diseases that plague us and plague our loved ones. So the critical question 00:06:42.620 --> 00:06:51.220 then is this. Has anyone conquered death and in so doing made it possible for anyone else to triumph 00:06:51.220 --> 00:07:00.759 over sickness and death? And the Bible has a resounding answer to that. And that answer is yes, 00:07:00.759 --> 00:07:07.500 in the person of Jesus Christ. And we can go all the way through the scriptures and find this over and 00:07:07.500 --> 00:07:13.439 over. It's perhaps summed appropriately for us at this time in the book of Romans. You know this verse, 00:07:13.439 --> 00:07:25.259 Romans 6 23, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. Eternal life in what way? 00:07:25.259 --> 00:07:31.920 Well, eternal life through Christ Jesus. And so we need to realize then as we come to passages like 00:07:31.920 --> 00:07:38.180 this and we're thinking on the reality of sickness and the reality of disease and the inevitability even 00:07:38.180 --> 00:07:45.240 of each of us suffering from it at some point, we need to realize that Jesus's miracles and his miraculous 00:07:45.240 --> 00:07:52.199 works are not merely about healing. And it would be easy enough for us to come to this passage and be 00:07:52.199 --> 00:07:58.860 overwhelmed by the compassion of our Lord. And without a doubt, these miracles and these narratives reveal 00:07:58.860 --> 00:08:06.599 his compassion for those who are suffering. In fact, Jesus even healed many, many people who did not 00:08:06.599 --> 00:08:15.000 follow him in faith. When we get to the end of Jesus's life and his time on earth, there's just a handful of 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:21.120 people that have stuck around. In fact, of all the crowds that gathered around to see some miracle or to 00:08:21.120 --> 00:08:27.920 experience some wonderful thing in the compassionate heart of Christ, when he began to teach, most of 00:08:27.920 --> 00:08:34.460 them began to leave. They wanted the miracles that he had and they benefited from the miracles that he 00:08:34.460 --> 00:08:39.379 had, but that didn't mean that every person that was healed of their physical illness actually came 00:08:39.379 --> 00:08:46.580 with the faith that would bring salvation. So why were they then healed? Because Jesus is a 00:08:46.580 --> 00:08:55.580 compassionate Savior. And his heart is for sinners and for sufferers. But his healings and his miracles 00:08:55.580 --> 00:09:04.379 are not just about healing. His physical healing wasn't the primary objective of his works of mercy. 00:09:05.420 --> 00:09:11.400 And to be honest, due to the advancements of medicine these days, especially in the last 150 years, 00:09:11.440 --> 00:09:16.020 from what I understand, there are those of you that work in this field and you could correct me on this, 00:09:16.019 --> 00:09:22.059 but from what I understand, it's only been within the last 150 to 200 years that any kind of real cure 00:09:22.059 --> 00:09:29.539 has been developed medicinally for disease. Meaning that the vast majority of people in history 00:09:29.539 --> 00:09:35.159 really had no hope when they got sick. But things are different now, aren't they? 00:09:36.519 --> 00:09:41.919 In fact, due to those advancements, many people aren't very concerned about the miracles of Jesus. 00:09:41.919 --> 00:09:49.240 They're not necessarily impressed by the healing that Jesus brought to some people. 00:09:50.240 --> 00:09:55.099 Some might even say that many of the people that Jesus healed, if it was really just a product of 00:09:55.099 --> 00:10:00.479 their time, had they been born in this time, they would have never even been in need of this kind of 00:10:00.479 --> 00:10:05.319 attention. Maybe we think about this woman with her issue of blood. We would think, well, this doesn't 00:10:05.320 --> 00:10:12.500 seem like that big of a deal to us because for us, it would be as simple enough as calling your family 00:10:12.500 --> 00:10:17.440 physician and getting an appointment, finding some type of treatment that might, could benefit you in 00:10:17.440 --> 00:10:21.340 that moment. Well, the woman didn't have that. She tried that, but she didn't have it. And so the 00:10:21.340 --> 00:10:26.080 advancement of technology, the advancement of medicine, many times causes us to not really think 00:10:26.080 --> 00:10:33.080 about Jesus's power, at least not care very much about what he did. But Jesus's healing serve a deeper 00:10:33.080 --> 00:10:40.620 purpose. If it's true that all of Jesus's miracles are really just about the miracle itself, then there's 00:10:40.620 --> 00:10:48.820 no reason for us to be concerned with him now. But his healings are not just about healing. They serve a 00:10:48.820 --> 00:10:56.100 deeper purpose. They're pointing us to the reality of who he is. They serve the purpose of showing us that 00:10:56.100 --> 00:11:02.740 in his healing power, he has proven that he has a power that is far greater than the needs that meet us 00:11:02.740 --> 00:11:08.659 physically. He actually has a power and actually has the compassion to deliver us from the thing that 00:11:08.659 --> 00:11:14.100 no doctor could ever deliver you from, that no drug could ever deliver you from, that no other thing can 00:11:14.100 --> 00:11:22.240 benefit you with. And that is the reality of your sin. Sickness is a result of sin. Therefore, the treatments 00:11:22.240 --> 00:11:27.799 that you would be prescribed by your doctor are not enough to benefit or correct the problem of your sin. 00:11:27.799 --> 00:11:35.259 In fact, if disease was your greatest problem, there would be a reason for you to settle for your neighborhood 00:11:35.259 --> 00:11:44.079 doctor. But our problem is much worse than COVID-19. It's much worse than heart disease. It's much worse than 00:11:44.079 --> 00:11:53.699 diabetes. It's much worse than cancer. Our problem is sin. And only Jesus can help us with that. 00:11:53.700 --> 00:12:01.840 And so why did Jesus do all of these healings? Well, he had compassion on the people. He hates sin. Therefore, he hates 00:12:01.840 --> 00:12:08.120 the results of sin. And he was correcting those things everywhere that he went. But it's more than that. He's showing 00:12:08.120 --> 00:12:15.780 that he actually can help us with our greater problem. And only he can help us with that greater problem. And so by now, 00:12:15.840 --> 00:12:21.860 we're getting used to these literary sandwiches that we've called it, that many people call them actually, that Mark employs 00:12:21.860 --> 00:12:29.700 in his writing. The remainder of chapter five, as we just read a portion of it, is really two stories in one. 00:12:30.519 --> 00:12:37.620 Mark introduces us in the beginning to a man whose daughter was very sick. But then he quickly interrupts 00:12:37.620 --> 00:12:44.659 that story to tell us about this woman who had suffered from a particular illness for many years. 00:12:44.659 --> 00:12:52.439 And at first, these two stories really focus in on Jesus's power over disease. But as you read a little 00:12:52.439 --> 00:12:56.899 further, if you were to read further than what we read just a moment ago, you will see that the man's 00:12:56.899 --> 00:13:02.899 daughter actually died. Jesus didn't make it to their house in time, at least as we would calculate 00:13:02.899 --> 00:13:08.839 that time. He didn't get there prior to her death. And so she died. And that story actually becomes about 00:13:08.840 --> 00:13:13.899 Jesus's power over death. And so we're going to save that for next week. This particular narrative 00:13:13.899 --> 00:13:20.860 is really focused on Jesus's power over disease. And we'll focus on the sickness of this woman. So 00:13:20.860 --> 00:13:25.800 let's take just these first four verses first and just use them to set the scene. And then we'll deal 00:13:25.800 --> 00:13:31.860 with them maybe a little more thoroughly next Sunday. Look with me at verse 21. And when Jesus had 00:13:31.860 --> 00:13:37.280 crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him and he was beside 00:13:37.279 --> 00:13:43.579 the sea. One of the interesting facts about this, as we study this section of Mark's gospel, 00:13:44.019 --> 00:13:49.899 is that all four of these incredible events really took place in just the matter of a couple of days. 00:13:50.579 --> 00:13:55.819 This narrative really traces all the way back to the beginning of chapter four. As you remember, 00:13:55.939 --> 00:14:01.019 Jesus moving out to the side of the lake and he was teaching from the boat. Well, he hasn't really 00:14:01.019 --> 00:14:06.059 left the boat very often since then. He finished his teaching that day and they go to the other side of 00:14:06.059 --> 00:14:11.079 the sea. And it's on that journey that they encounter the storm. And it is that destination 00:14:11.079 --> 00:14:15.799 in which they encountered the demoniac. And they couldn't have been there more than a few hours, 00:14:15.959 --> 00:14:20.599 maybe a day or two days. Couldn't have been much more than that because the people came from the town 00:14:20.599 --> 00:14:26.139 and they demanded that he leave. And so where the narrative picks up is right in the same part, 00:14:26.319 --> 00:14:31.859 Jesus has gotten back into the boat with his disciples and they've headed back across the lake. 00:14:31.860 --> 00:14:40.480 Probably, though it's not stated explicitly here, probably back to Capernaum. And so they make 00:14:40.480 --> 00:14:47.019 their way back and were immediately met by another large crowd. In fact, Luke's account of this says 00:14:47.019 --> 00:14:52.600 that the crowd actually waited. If you do some research, and I would encourage you to do this, 00:14:52.639 --> 00:14:58.600 if you would Google the Lake of Galilee or the Sea of Galilee, you'll see exactly how this area 00:14:58.600 --> 00:15:04.720 is designed, is the way it's been created. It's different than Lake Norman. So we could go over 00:15:04.720 --> 00:15:09.519 to Lake Norman here on the side, one of these inlets perhaps, and we could have a meal at Hello 00:15:09.519 --> 00:15:15.379 Sailor today. And we would see a very small portion of Lake Norman. We wouldn't be able to see over where 00:15:15.379 --> 00:15:19.960 Terry's house is in Denver. We wouldn't be able to see up to the northern part of Mooresville near 00:15:19.960 --> 00:15:23.279 where Andy and Amy are. We wouldn't be able to see any of that. We just see this part. Well, 00:15:23.279 --> 00:15:28.720 the Sea of Galilee is very different than that. It settles down very low, a few hundred feet below 00:15:28.720 --> 00:15:33.459 sea level, if I understand correctly. And it's surrounded really by hills and mountains. So you 00:15:33.459 --> 00:15:38.139 can be on one side of the Sea of Galilee, the lake, and you can actually see the other side. 00:15:38.980 --> 00:15:44.439 At most, depending on which direction you're looking, at most it'd be 10 or 12 miles. But then when you're 00:15:44.439 --> 00:15:49.139 looking at the path that Jesus and his disciples actually sailed across the lake, you're looking at 00:15:49.139 --> 00:15:53.179 about a six-mile journey, which would have clearly have been easy enough for the people to 00:15:53.179 --> 00:15:59.199 see the other side. So perhaps these people have been waiting on the seashore. They've seen Jesus 00:15:59.199 --> 00:16:03.399 and the disciples leave, and they've just waited around long enough to see if he'll be back very 00:16:03.399 --> 00:16:09.399 soon. And so those who were watchful and vigilant noticed that it was only a matter of hours later, 00:16:09.500 --> 00:16:15.099 perhaps, that they noticed that the boats were coming back. And so by the time Jesus and his disciples 00:16:15.099 --> 00:16:21.379 actually make it back to the lakeside near Capernaum, there's already a bunch of people because you 00:16:21.379 --> 00:16:25.700 got to have assumed the way that this worked, the people that were watching out for the boat, 00:16:25.899 --> 00:16:31.279 as soon as they saw it coming, sent their messengers to say, all right, go let everybody know he's coming 00:16:31.279 --> 00:16:38.639 back. And so by the time Jesus gets there, he's immediately met by this large crowd. And as always, 00:16:38.820 --> 00:16:46.500 Jesus willingly and lovingly greeted the people and suffered really the inconvenience of being mobbed by 00:16:46.500 --> 00:16:53.840 the crowds. Look at verse 22. Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing 00:16:53.840 --> 00:17:00.899 him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly, saying, my little daughter is at the point of death. 00:17:01.519 --> 00:17:11.079 Come and lay your hands on her so that she may be made well and live. And so Jesus was engaging with 00:17:11.079 --> 00:17:18.679 the crowd. And suddenly a man named Jairus urgently pressed his way to Jesus with a message, an urgent 00:17:18.679 --> 00:17:27.000 one, that his daughter, 12 years old, as we see in verse 42, 12 years old, was very sick, was at the 00:17:27.000 --> 00:17:34.199 point of death. And according to Matthew's account, perhaps his statement was even, she's very sick. 00:17:34.559 --> 00:17:38.659 She's about to die. In fact, by the time I've made it to you, she may even already be dead. 00:17:38.660 --> 00:17:45.100 So it's an urgent message. But then we're told that Jairus wasn't just an ordinary citizen. 00:17:45.800 --> 00:17:52.540 He's a ruler of the synagogue. That may not mean much to us at first, but as we begin to think about 00:17:52.540 --> 00:17:59.100 who this man was and what his connections would be, then we understand that there's an interesting 00:17:59.100 --> 00:18:05.519 dynamic to this conversation. These rulers of the synagogue, they were well-respected laymen in the 00:18:05.519 --> 00:18:10.900 community. They weren't necessarily always the teachers in the synagogue, but they were tasked 00:18:10.900 --> 00:18:17.359 with overseeing the events that surrounded and took place in the synagogue. And that's important 00:18:17.359 --> 00:18:23.059 because as we understand Jewish culture, especially in that time, the synagogue was really the center of 00:18:23.059 --> 00:18:29.619 civil and religious life. So this Jairus, he wasn't just an ordinary man. He would have been elected by the 00:18:29.619 --> 00:18:38.439 community because of their respect for him to serve in this way, which meant that he was tied in with 00:18:38.439 --> 00:18:44.459 the religious establishment. And that's really the point here. Jairus is tied in with the religious 00:18:44.459 --> 00:18:49.639 establishment, which up to this point, and really even beyond this point, had never really been friendly 00:18:49.639 --> 00:18:56.699 to or accommodating of Jesus. Now the text doesn't say this explicitly, but it wouldn't be hard to figure 00:18:56.700 --> 00:19:02.660 out that there's probably been some time in Jairus's life where he maybe was antagonistic against Jesus. 00:19:03.920 --> 00:19:09.200 He's seen the miracles that Jesus has done. Perhaps it was in his synagogue when Jesus cast out the demon 00:19:09.200 --> 00:19:14.299 in chapter one. We don't know, but what we do know is that he was a ruler of the synagogue, which means he 00:19:14.299 --> 00:19:20.640 was probably tied in with the Pharisees, which means he had certainly been influenced by them to be at least 00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:27.920 nervous about Jesus of Nazareth. But having witnessed these miracles that Jesus had done, 00:19:29.040 --> 00:19:36.720 Jairus runs to Jesus in his most desperate moment. And there's a fantastic amount of faith here. 00:19:36.720 --> 00:19:45.540 Did you notice that? For a man that likely was at one point an enemy of Jesus, what is it that he says? 00:19:45.539 --> 00:19:54.299 He falls on his face before Jesus. Jews didn't bow to anybody. They didn't bow to anybody but God. 00:19:55.420 --> 00:20:01.599 And this respected religious man falls on his face before Jesus, and then he makes this claim. 00:20:01.980 --> 00:20:07.420 He says, my daughter's dying, and I know if you will just come and lay your hands on her, she will live. 00:20:07.420 --> 00:20:16.700 She'll live. There's an extravagant faith here on Jairus's part. And it's really quite amazing. 00:20:17.600 --> 00:20:24.259 It's proof that even the hardest of hearts can be transformed to follow Christ in faith. 00:20:25.720 --> 00:20:30.279 You say, we just don't understand. I've got this family member. Maybe it's my spouse or my parents or my 00:20:30.279 --> 00:20:36.340 children, and they've been in Roman Catholicism their whole life, and they just won't leave it. 00:20:36.339 --> 00:20:41.679 Their hearts are hardened toward the truth of grace and the gospel of grace. And well, Jairus is actually 00:20:41.679 --> 00:20:49.579 proof that even the hardest of hearts can be transformed. Jairus didn't seem to care at this 00:20:49.579 --> 00:20:56.079 point about whatever loss he might have endured from the religious community. He only cared that 00:20:56.079 --> 00:21:02.659 Jesus could save his little girl. And that's really the point of desperation that we all eventually get 00:21:02.660 --> 00:21:08.080 to, isn't it? It's not that we have everything figured out, and it's eventually we come to a point 00:21:08.080 --> 00:21:12.640 when we really get impressed with our sin that we don't really care what anybody thinks anymore. 00:21:13.580 --> 00:21:19.000 We just know that we are desperate, and he can help. And that's where Jairus is. 00:21:19.500 --> 00:21:22.180 But then even more fascinating than that is verse 24. 00:21:22.180 --> 00:21:29.860 Jairus is a great crowd. And he went with him. And then we get this note for the narrative's sake 00:21:29.860 --> 00:21:34.060 that a great crowd followed and thronged him. But I want you to just think about that for just a 00:21:34.060 --> 00:21:42.900 moment. And he went with him. And Jesus went with him. Even more remarkable than Jairus' willingness 00:21:42.900 --> 00:21:53.759 to trust in Jesus is Jesus' willingness to accept Jairus. Can you let that sink in for just a moment? 00:21:55.680 --> 00:22:02.600 We think how amazing. Someone who perhaps at one point, maybe even weeks or months before this, 00:22:02.620 --> 00:22:07.259 was just an enemy of Jesus, and now all of a sudden their heart is transformed. And some of us maybe 00:22:07.259 --> 00:22:10.900 would even be critical of that, but how can we be critical about someone coming to Jesus, 00:22:10.900 --> 00:22:15.840 whatever that condition is? And they come to Jesus. But then even more than that is the fact that this 00:22:15.840 --> 00:22:20.880 man, this God that has been rebelled against and has been hated and has been pushed against, 00:22:21.060 --> 00:22:28.960 so willingly accepts him. There's a crowd of people around, and Jesus stops with the people in order 00:22:28.960 --> 00:22:34.880 to address this man and help this man who may not have even cared for him up to this point. 00:22:34.880 --> 00:22:45.040 And we again see Jesus' compassion. It doesn't matter how many times we have rejected or denied Jesus 00:22:45.040 --> 00:22:55.120 in our lives. He stands joyfully willing to accept, forgive, and help you when you come to him in faith. 00:22:55.119 --> 00:23:02.339 That's the wonder of his grace. You say, you just don't know how many times I've messed up. 00:23:03.019 --> 00:23:05.399 I don't care to know how many times you've messed up. 00:23:07.919 --> 00:23:14.019 When you come to Jesus on his terms, it doesn't matter how many times you've denied him up to that 00:23:14.019 --> 00:23:23.000 point. When you come to him, he says, I won't cast anyone away. It's amazing. There's really two 00:23:23.000 --> 00:23:27.859 things that we take from this, just as a quick note, since we're 20 minutes into this already. 00:23:28.000 --> 00:23:34.000 We'll make it quick. The first thing is this. Jesus will never deny you if you come to him in humble 00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:44.079 faith. Never. Because his compassion knows no limits. And it doesn't matter how many times you 00:23:44.079 --> 00:23:49.640 have denied Christ at this point in your life. You say, I've just been, I've been playing games with 00:23:49.640 --> 00:23:56.580 this my whole life to appease my spouse or my kids or whatever. And I'm just kind of going through the 00:23:56.580 --> 00:24:04.340 motions. Let me tell you, it doesn't matter if you come to him today. He will forgive you. He'll accept 00:24:04.340 --> 00:24:09.400 you. He'll love you. That's the first takeaway from this. The second takeaway is for believers. 00:24:10.580 --> 00:24:14.480 Believers, we need to mimic our savior in this way. 00:24:14.480 --> 00:24:23.680 Do you see the compassion and forgiveness that Jesus shows to Jairus? It's the same compassion and 00:24:23.680 --> 00:24:30.339 forgiveness that he has shown to us because after all, by nature, we are all enemies of Christ. 00:24:31.799 --> 00:24:35.579 And it's because of that forgiveness and compassion that we have been shown, 00:24:36.420 --> 00:24:42.220 that it is not only our responsibility, but it is our joy to show that same compassion 00:24:42.220 --> 00:24:52.279 and that same forgiveness to others. We are expert grudge holders. If there's anything that we're 00:24:52.279 --> 00:25:00.400 really good at as humans, it's that. When you cross me, we're done, right? We live our lives that way. 00:25:00.440 --> 00:25:07.980 It's our nature. It's hard not to. But our savior was so different than us. He was perfect, 00:25:07.980 --> 00:25:13.680 holy. You say, I could never attain to that kind of perfection. You're exactly right. 00:25:14.339 --> 00:25:19.339 You're exactly right. That's why he died for you. Because in taking on your sin, he then gives you 00:25:19.339 --> 00:25:24.779 the power to exhibit his righteousness, which means that because of Christ and the work of the Holy 00:25:24.779 --> 00:25:32.220 Spirit, you can indeed forgive the way that Jesus forgave. You can indeed show compassion in the same 00:25:32.220 --> 00:25:41.299 ways that Jesus showed compassion. And we need to mimic our savior in this. So Jesus immediately left 00:25:41.299 --> 00:25:48.299 for Jairus's house. The crowds, eager to see what would happen, followed along. This wasn't an orderly 00:25:48.299 --> 00:25:54.200 line going down the streets of Capernaum. In fact, the word that is used here for thronged means that it 00:25:54.200 --> 00:25:58.980 was actually quite violent, probably for a number of reasons. There's probably a few people in the crowd 00:25:58.980 --> 00:26:03.019 that they are trying to get to Jesus for their own benefit. There's others who are in the crowd that 00:26:03.019 --> 00:26:06.720 really are just trying to get the best seat in the house, really, because they know Jesus is going to 00:26:06.720 --> 00:26:11.339 do something. They want to see it. And so everybody's jostling is what this means. They're jostling, 00:26:11.519 --> 00:26:17.220 violently clamoring to get to Jesus and to be close to Jesus so that they can witness whatever it is 00:26:17.220 --> 00:26:21.720 that he's about to do. So you can imagine working through this crowd. People are all over you. 00:26:21.799 --> 00:26:26.000 You're getting pushed around. You're getting beat up. It was unruly. It was dangerous. 00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:32.200 And this is the scene in which this story unfolds. It's not a complex story. It's very simple, 00:26:32.299 --> 00:26:38.599 actually. A woman comes to Jesus with a desperate need. She displays a very strong but a very simple 00:26:38.599 --> 00:26:45.460 faith. And then she discovers that Jesus was not just a powerful healer. He was actually a personal 00:26:45.460 --> 00:26:51.579 savior. And so let's just work through her story here quickly. Number one, we see her desperate need. 00:26:51.579 --> 00:26:58.839 Her desperate need. Look with me at verse 25. There was a woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years 00:26:58.839 --> 00:27:06.339 and who had suffered much under many physicians and had spent all that she had and was no better 00:27:06.339 --> 00:27:14.679 but had rather grown worse. So before we discover what this woman did, we learn about the nature of her 00:27:14.680 --> 00:27:21.759 condition. And just as Jairus was desperate to get to Jesus to help his daughter, so was this woman 00:27:21.759 --> 00:27:29.299 desperate in her position as well. She had suffered from a hemorrhage for 12 years, according to the 00:27:29.299 --> 00:27:37.340 passage. Some form of internal bleeding that had caused her many issues for the entire duration of 00:27:37.340 --> 00:27:44.039 Jairus' daughter's life. Think about that. For all we know, Jairus' daughter had lived a fine life 00:27:44.039 --> 00:27:50.859 up to this point, and she has only recently grown ill and was in danger of death. But for the entire 00:27:50.859 --> 00:28:00.700 duration of her existence, this woman has suffered from this ailment. I can only imagine how many times 00:28:00.700 --> 00:28:09.659 she pleaded for God to heal her of this ailment. Have you ever been there? 12 years. It makes me think 00:28:09.660 --> 00:28:15.560 of people like Wanda Pinder, who for years and years and years has just suffered physically. And how many 00:28:15.560 --> 00:28:23.100 times perhaps had this lady gone to the Lord and prayed to the Lord, would you please help me? And yet 00:28:23.100 --> 00:28:30.460 help never came. Would you please heal me? And yet healing never came. And you say, that's awful cruel of 00:28:30.460 --> 00:28:35.279 God, isn't it? Well, I don't know. Because when we get to this passage here, had she been healed in a different 00:28:35.279 --> 00:28:42.839 way? We wouldn't have known. There was a purpose in Jesus healing her in this way. We can learn from it. 00:28:44.180 --> 00:28:49.220 Jairus was able to learn from it in that moment. The disciples were able to learn from it. 00:28:50.359 --> 00:28:52.960 It wasn't convenient for her, but it was the will of God. 00:28:54.720 --> 00:29:02.339 Well, in relation to her condition, she's physically weak and anemic, but it had also caused her to live as 00:29:02.339 --> 00:29:08.799 a social and religious outcast. According to Leviticus chapter 15, the law had required that 00:29:08.799 --> 00:29:16.619 this type of issue made a woman unclean. And there was a series of cleansings that she would have to go 00:29:16.619 --> 00:29:23.179 through after this time. And this woman was just never able to be clean, which meant that she couldn't 00:29:23.179 --> 00:29:29.159 be near anybody in the town because anything that she touched became unclean. Any place that she sat 00:29:29.160 --> 00:29:35.400 was considered unclean. Any person that she touched then themselves had to go through a series of 00:29:35.400 --> 00:29:41.040 cleansings and rituals in order to be ceremonial clean. She had become a social outcast, not because 00:29:41.040 --> 00:29:46.519 she was a terrible person, but because she had a terrible disease. She was a religious outcast. 00:29:46.740 --> 00:29:52.840 She was expelled from the synagogue. Can't go to the synagogue. Can't go to the temple. So it's not just that 00:29:52.840 --> 00:29:56.900 she has a physical condition. It's that there are other issues that come along with it. 00:29:56.900 --> 00:30:03.140 Not only did she have a problem, but really, as far as society was concerned, she herself was a problem. 00:30:04.360 --> 00:30:10.660 And then to add to her physical and social and religious suffering, she also had a financial 00:30:10.660 --> 00:30:18.700 problem. She was broke. She had gone to all the doctors she could. She had spent all the money that 00:30:18.700 --> 00:30:23.440 she had in search of some kind of remedy for her sickness. It didn't matter what kind of doctor it 00:30:23.440 --> 00:30:30.019 was. I'm sure she saw anyone who said that they could help. The problem was that there was no remedy 00:30:30.019 --> 00:30:38.059 for her condition, but that didn't stop anyone from taking her money. And so she was out. So when it says 00:30:38.059 --> 00:30:44.360 that she had suffered under many physicians, when we understand the history of this, we find out that 00:30:44.360 --> 00:30:50.320 these doctors would have caused her to do all kinds of ridiculous things in hopes of getting healing. 00:30:50.319 --> 00:30:54.579 In fact, let me read you this. This is from the Talmud. This would have been a Jewish religious 00:30:54.579 --> 00:30:59.819 guide for how to deal with this. And this is what they said to do with a woman with this type of 00:30:59.819 --> 00:31:07.500 hemorrhage. It said, take of the gum of Alexandria, the weight of a small silver coin, of alum the same, 00:31:07.919 --> 00:31:13.799 of crocus the same. Let them be bruised together, given in wine to the woman that has an issue of blood. 00:31:13.799 --> 00:31:21.079 And if this does not benefit, take of Persian onions, three pints, boil them in wine, and give 00:31:21.079 --> 00:31:29.159 her to drink and say, arise from my flux. Can you imagine this? You're not feeling good. So you go see 00:31:29.159 --> 00:31:32.779 your doctor and your doctor says, here's what I'm going to do. I got some onions here and I'm going 00:31:32.779 --> 00:31:37.059 to nice them up real fine. I'm going to put them in this glass of wine and then we're going to boil it 00:31:37.059 --> 00:31:41.000 here in the office. And then you're going to drink it. And I know it's going to smell bad and it's probably 00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:44.599 going to taste even worse, but you're going to drink it. And then while you're drinking it, I'm going to 00:31:44.599 --> 00:31:52.460 say, arise from your flux. And this is somehow going to help your bleeding problem. But it's what they 00:31:52.460 --> 00:32:01.019 did. And then it goes on. It says this, if this does not cure her, set her in a place where two ways 00:32:01.019 --> 00:32:08.680 meet, crossroads. Let her hold a cup of wine in her, this is funny, it's sad, but it's funny. Let her hold 00:32:08.680 --> 00:32:16.019 a cup of wine in her right hand and let someone come behind and frighten her and say, arise from 00:32:16.019 --> 00:32:21.420 my flux. It's kind of like getting rid of the hiccups, right? That's what people say. They say, 00:32:21.440 --> 00:32:26.600 if you have the hiccups, somebody needs to come behind you and scare you. And if you get scared, 00:32:26.680 --> 00:32:30.460 you'll be healed of your hiccups. It's basically the same principle. You're going to go to a crossroads. 00:32:30.539 --> 00:32:34.000 You're going to hold wine in your right hand. Someone's going to scare you. And then they're going to say, 00:32:34.080 --> 00:32:37.360 arise from your flux. And then you're going to be healed. But none of those things work. 00:32:38.680 --> 00:32:42.900 In another place, the towelman recommended that the afflicted woman carry barley corn 00:32:42.900 --> 00:32:49.460 that had been taken from the droppings of a white she donkey. And somehow this was to benefit her. 00:32:51.600 --> 00:32:57.560 And we laugh about it. It's humorous, but this was real. This lady had a real problem. And she was 00:32:57.560 --> 00:33:00.720 going to the doctors of her day. And this is what they were telling her to do. And then they were 00:33:00.720 --> 00:33:07.860 taking her money. And she had nothing left. So in the end, all of this left her emotionally 00:33:07.859 --> 00:33:16.599 devastated. Why? Because after all of this, 12 years, no help. She's broke. No one can help her. 00:33:16.839 --> 00:33:21.439 And what does it say? She doesn't get any better. She actually gets worse. 00:33:21.440 --> 00:33:31.120 And it's a fair picture of our sinful condition, isn't it? We do all that we can to find a cure for our guilt. 00:33:32.120 --> 00:33:38.320 But nothing works. We're told to do all kinds of things. Some of them seem reasonable. Some of them 00:33:38.320 --> 00:33:44.680 seem absolutely ridiculous. But we're foolish to think that anything other than God's mercy and grace 00:33:44.680 --> 00:33:53.019 could ever cure our sin problem. In all four of these stories, the people involved had come to the 00:33:53.019 --> 00:33:57.980 end of their rope. They tried everything. The disciples had bailed as much water as they could, 00:33:58.120 --> 00:34:04.539 and it didn't work. They had no more options. The demon-possessed man had been shackled time and time 00:34:04.539 --> 00:34:11.099 and time again. Nothing would work. He couldn't be helped. This woman had gone to every doctor that she 00:34:11.099 --> 00:34:16.420 could. She spent all of her money on whatever remedies were available, and nothing worked. 00:34:18.579 --> 00:34:24.699 But despair is often a prelude to grace in the scriptures. In fact, according to the Bible, 00:34:24.980 --> 00:34:32.139 it's only when you realize how truly desperate you are that you come to Jesus in true repentance and 00:34:32.139 --> 00:34:41.079 faith. Isn't that the picture of a genuine heart? It's not about playing games. 00:34:41.099 --> 00:34:47.619 It's not trying to hide my sin from anyone anymore. It's not trying to figure out if I can just be good 00:34:47.619 --> 00:34:55.960 enough to get by. It's not about any of that anymore. It's I realize now how sinfully depraved I am, 00:34:56.319 --> 00:35:02.759 and I can't be good enough to remedy it. Knowing my family can help me with this. 00:35:02.760 --> 00:35:10.760 Only Jesus can help. And that's the heart of faith that receives the grace. 00:35:10.760 --> 00:35:20.340 It's what Jesus meant when he told the Pharisees a little earlier in the book that he noticed that 00:35:20.340 --> 00:35:25.520 only sick people come to the doctors, right? Because whole people don't need a physician. 00:35:26.700 --> 00:35:31.460 Of course, Jesus wasn't saying that some people don't need him. He was saying that it's only those 00:35:31.460 --> 00:35:37.400 who recognize their need that come to him. And this lady came to him. Why? She recognized a desperate 00:35:37.400 --> 00:35:44.579 need that she had. Let's move on. Number two, we see her simple faith. Her simple faith. Verse 27, 00:35:45.780 --> 00:35:50.780 she had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. 00:35:51.780 --> 00:35:59.059 For she said, if I touch even his garment, I will be made well. And immediately the flow of blood dried 00:35:59.059 --> 00:36:06.180 up and she felt her body that she was healed of her disease. So this woman had heard of how Jesus had 00:36:06.179 --> 00:36:12.739 healed others. And perhaps these specific reports related to the fact that he was back in town and 00:36:12.739 --> 00:36:18.919 she was trying to get to him. We don't know if she was a part of the crowd that waited or if perhaps 00:36:18.919 --> 00:36:25.279 Jesus had just come by her area on the way to Jairus's house. We don't know. What we know is that she 00:36:25.279 --> 00:36:32.659 sees the opportunity she had to get to him. Somehow in the way that the events unfolded, even in her 00:36:32.659 --> 00:36:37.859 frail condition, she was able to get close to Jesus. She was able to push through this crowd 00:36:37.859 --> 00:36:45.859 and full of faith, I believe, she pressed through the crowd, believing that if she could just touch his 00:36:45.859 --> 00:36:53.299 clothes, she would be made whole. The emphasis here is not so much on what she did. It's on the faith that 00:36:53.300 --> 00:37:01.740 led her to do it. And it was a simple faith. By simple, I don't mean that it was weak because her 00:37:01.740 --> 00:37:08.500 faith certainly wasn't weak. What I mean by simple is that it was uninformed. She didn't know everything 00:37:08.500 --> 00:37:13.280 there was to know about Jesus. And there's even a hint of religious superstition here. 00:37:15.160 --> 00:37:21.720 Perhaps it's possible that she did not deny the power of Jesus, but she was thinking superstitiously 00:37:21.719 --> 00:37:26.759 that if I could just kind of like a relic, if I could just touch his clothes, that the power would 00:37:26.759 --> 00:37:33.379 transfer from his clothes to me and I could receive this healing and perhaps be undetected in the process. 00:37:35.119 --> 00:37:42.879 So it's not that her faith was weak, but it was simple. It was uninformed. She wasn't theologically 00:37:42.879 --> 00:37:51.259 advanced. As far as we can tell, she wasn't even theologically concerned. All she knew, like Jairus, 00:37:51.719 --> 00:37:57.099 is that she was desperate for help. And based on the reports that she had heard, 00:37:57.980 --> 00:38:03.679 Jesus was the one that could help her. Now what's so wonderfully helpful and encouraging 00:38:03.679 --> 00:38:07.119 is that Jesus met her where she was. 00:38:07.119 --> 00:38:17.799 He didn't refuse her healing because she had a lack of understanding. Aren't you thankful for that? 00:38:19.639 --> 00:38:25.219 Sometimes we get this idea and perhaps, perhaps sometimes I'm, I can be guilty of even maybe 00:38:25.219 --> 00:38:32.099 causing people to think this, but we get this idea that I have to have everything figured out before I 00:38:32.099 --> 00:38:35.519 can come to Christ. That I have to, I have to understand everything there is to know about him. 00:38:35.519 --> 00:38:39.980 And I have to understand all of these theological equations and I have to have it just all figured 00:38:39.980 --> 00:38:45.800 out. And then once I have figured out, then Jesus will be willing to bestow grace upon me. 00:38:45.840 --> 00:38:49.440 But then what you're doing is just taking this faith and you're making it a work. 00:38:50.800 --> 00:38:54.960 And you're just saying, if I just have enough of this, then Jesus will respond to me. But that's 00:38:54.960 --> 00:39:01.099 not exactly how this works. Jesus met her where she was. She didn't understand everything there was 00:39:01.099 --> 00:39:05.619 to know about him. She even had a mixture of error in what she was thinking at this point. 00:39:07.460 --> 00:39:15.360 But he gladly met her at the point of her faith. And he opened her eyes to grow in that faith. 00:39:16.259 --> 00:39:23.639 And this is what Jesus does for all of us. This is why Jesus referred to saving faith as a childlike 00:39:23.639 --> 00:39:30.239 faith. You don't have to know everything there is to know. You just have to come to Jesus trusting that 00:39:30.239 --> 00:39:39.479 he is the only savior you have. And he takes over. He meets you where you are. He responds. 00:39:40.699 --> 00:39:46.719 You said beginning faith is often uninformed. However, such foggy understandings are often the beginning 00:39:46.719 --> 00:39:53.479 of a deep, informed, trusting God. One does not need to have it all figured out to possess a faith 00:39:53.480 --> 00:40:00.639 that pleases God. This is why a child can come to Christ. This is why God often saves those who know 00:40:00.639 --> 00:40:06.980 virtually no theology. It doesn't minimize deep understanding, which is meant to foster a profound 00:40:06.980 --> 00:40:14.619 faith, he says. But the point is that faith that pleases God does not belong only to the informed elite. 00:40:14.619 --> 00:40:25.279 She actually had a strong faith. Though it was simple, Jesus responded, how wonderful of a savior. 00:40:27.659 --> 00:40:28.539 Here's the thing. 00:40:31.099 --> 00:40:37.099 Her faith was always strong. But it only at this moment found the right source. 00:40:37.099 --> 00:40:41.199 In fact, faith is only as good as its object. 00:40:43.539 --> 00:40:48.199 She had trusted all of those crazy methods that the physicians had convinced her to try. 00:40:49.500 --> 00:40:55.259 The problem wasn't that she didn't believe in them, but what she believed in was powerless. 00:40:56.559 --> 00:41:01.099 And so it is with our spiritual lives. There are so many people in our culture today that will tell us 00:41:01.099 --> 00:41:06.980 that it's just about faith, that it's faith almost for the sake of faith, that it's not really about 00:41:06.980 --> 00:41:12.539 what you believe in. It's just that you believe in that God won. Well, no, that's not true. 00:41:13.119 --> 00:41:20.480 That's not true. Saving faith is not faith in faith. It's only as good as its object. 00:41:22.539 --> 00:41:28.099 It's faith in the one true God and the forgiveness that can only be found in the death and resurrection 00:41:28.099 --> 00:41:34.139 of Christ. So plenty of people in the world have faith, but without Jesus as its object, 00:41:34.360 --> 00:41:41.440 faith is utterly worthless. And the only thing that can be gained from it is eternal hell. 00:41:43.339 --> 00:41:50.480 There are a lot of sincere people that go to hell because it's not about faith. It's about the 00:41:50.480 --> 00:41:55.619 object of that faith. And without Christ, faith is meaningless. 00:41:55.619 --> 00:42:01.059 Let's look at the last point here, her personal savior. Look at verse 30. 00:42:02.759 --> 00:42:08.119 Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd 00:42:08.119 --> 00:42:14.460 and said, who touched my garments? And his disciples said to him, you see the crowd pressing around you, 00:42:14.480 --> 00:42:20.259 and yet you say, who touched me? He looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what 00:42:20.260 --> 00:42:26.380 had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. 00:42:28.060 --> 00:42:34.980 Jesus' initial reaction here is a little confusing, isn't it? How could he be God and not know who 00:42:34.980 --> 00:42:44.060 touched him? Of course, Jesus knew. He had willed it to unfold in the way that it did. 00:42:44.059 --> 00:42:51.820 But everything that Jesus did and said had a purpose. In this case, he wasn't looking for 00:42:51.820 --> 00:42:59.019 information. He was drawing the woman out of the crowd. And I think there's a specific intention for 00:42:59.019 --> 00:43:07.699 this. Her uninformed faith thought that Jesus' power could somehow be separated from his person. 00:43:07.699 --> 00:43:12.839 That if she just touched his garment, that the healing would come from the garment. Now, she didn't 00:43:12.839 --> 00:43:17.679 say that it was absent of Christ, but she had a misunderstanding of exactly what was happening 00:43:17.679 --> 00:43:25.059 here. Jesus is clarifying that misunderstanding, I believe. And he stops so that she doesn't think 00:43:25.059 --> 00:43:32.239 that God is this distant being, that Jesus in his power is some kind of distant power from her 00:43:32.239 --> 00:43:39.459 personally, that he is nothing more than a powerful healer. He stops and he says, who touched me? 00:43:40.919 --> 00:43:48.639 And what we find is that Jesus isn't just a powerful healer, but he's a very personal savior. 00:43:49.699 --> 00:43:59.119 He was personally involved and in tune to this specific woman in this specific moment. And she needed to know 00:43:59.119 --> 00:44:11.039 that. He knew her. He loved her. And she needed to know that he had knowingly shown compassion on her. 00:44:12.219 --> 00:44:19.179 And I think that the indication of this text is that her faith is almost immediately matured from its 00:44:19.179 --> 00:44:24.420 beginnings. Because at first she touches him and she almost kind of gets out of the way. 00:44:24.420 --> 00:44:30.400 And Jesus stops and he says, who touched me? And I think there's some emphasis here because 00:44:30.400 --> 00:44:36.559 Luke says it's Peter that says, what do you mean who touched you? Everybody's touching you. 00:44:38.019 --> 00:44:43.960 And indeed, everybody that was close probably was. But Jesus had noticed this woman out of all the 00:44:43.960 --> 00:44:49.400 touches. He noticed this one and he stops and he says, who touched me? Not because he was trying to 00:44:49.400 --> 00:44:54.220 figure out who it was, but because he needed to make a point to her. And perhaps the crowd parts, 00:44:54.219 --> 00:45:00.119 I don't know how exactly this unfolds, but the woman in that moment realizes, he knows me. 00:45:00.759 --> 00:45:06.039 He knows it was me. And the reason she knows that he knows is because she'd been healed. 00:45:07.099 --> 00:45:11.939 She had realized in that moment, she was healed. She felt very different, different than she had felt 00:45:11.939 --> 00:45:19.679 in 12 years. And she recognized something has happened to me in her eyes, more fully focused on 00:45:19.679 --> 00:45:24.480 Jesus in this moment. And she begins to understand, okay, he's not just a healer. There is more to him 00:45:24.480 --> 00:45:34.299 than what I thought. And what does she do? She runs to him. And when she runs to him, just like Jairus, 00:45:34.480 --> 00:45:42.940 she falls on her face in fear and trembling. The same fear and trembling of the disciples after the storm, 00:45:42.940 --> 00:45:49.000 the same fear of trembling with a different result as the people that came out to see the demoniac 00:45:49.000 --> 00:45:54.960 healed of the demons. And she comes with fear and trembling. And what does she do? She tells him 00:45:54.960 --> 00:45:59.519 everything. She unloads in that moment. Isn't that the comfort that we feel from our savior? 00:46:00.179 --> 00:46:05.400 At the moment that we realize that he is our personal savior, he's not just this distant deity, 00:46:05.579 --> 00:46:11.260 but he is our personal savior. We feel this compassion and this comfort now to come with fear and reverence, 00:46:11.260 --> 00:46:19.400 but then we confess because we realize there's nothing to hide. And that's exactly what she does in this 00:46:19.400 --> 00:46:34.500 moment. And she realizes that he is my savior. He's mine. And I am his. It's personal. And then we conclude 00:46:34.500 --> 00:46:41.460 with Jesus' statement. He confirms it. How does he confirm it? He says, daughter. 00:46:43.340 --> 00:46:48.300 This is the only place in the entire gospels that Jesus ever refers to a woman as daughter. 00:46:49.559 --> 00:46:54.599 And there could be a few explanations for this. I think it's because Jesus is making a note that this 00:46:54.599 --> 00:46:59.400 is not about your issue of blood. This is about your spiritual condition. He is welcoming in her 00:46:59.400 --> 00:47:05.079 into the family of God in this moment, I think. Secondarily, there's another man who at the same 00:47:05.079 --> 00:47:09.820 time that this is happening with this woman, somebody from his house runs up and says, don't 00:47:09.820 --> 00:47:17.840 bother him anymore. She's dead. And what does he hear from Jesus' mouth? Daughter, your faith has made 00:47:17.840 --> 00:47:24.240 you well. Your faith has made you whole. The word that's used here for whole is not the typical Greek 00:47:24.239 --> 00:47:29.479 word for healing. The typical Greek word for healing is theropuo. It's the same word we would get 00:47:29.479 --> 00:47:35.419 therapeutic. And that, in just generally speaking about healing, that's the word that's typically used. 00:47:35.599 --> 00:47:44.159 This one though is sozo. It's the word that we use for save. It literally reads, the faith of yours 00:47:44.159 --> 00:47:52.059 has saved you. And of course, she had this physical healing, but it was more than that. Why? Because her 00:47:52.059 --> 00:47:58.279 issue was more than a physical issue. Her issue was a sin problem. And she realizes in this moment 00:47:58.279 --> 00:48:02.320 that Jesus is more than a healer. And she comes to him and what does he say? Daughter, 00:48:03.239 --> 00:48:10.739 your faith has saved you. And then he says, go in peace and be healed of your affliction. 00:48:12.400 --> 00:48:19.199 Disease there, it means scourge. It's more than just the issue of blood. It's everything that comes along 00:48:19.199 --> 00:48:30.819 with the issue. What was he saying? You're recovered back to society. Be recovered back to health. Be 00:48:30.819 --> 00:48:39.659 recovered back to synagogue. Be recovered back to God. Why? Not because she wasn't sick anymore, 00:48:39.659 --> 00:48:50.179 but because he had forgiven her. What a wonderful Savior. Jesus certainly had compassion about these 00:48:50.179 --> 00:48:59.480 issues. I don't mean to minimize that. But if you think this is about healing, you're missing it. 00:49:01.379 --> 00:49:06.739 Because she got more than she came for. It's not the first time in Mark that that's happened. 00:49:06.739 --> 00:49:13.699 The leper from chapter one, same thing. He thinks he's going to get healed from his leprosy and he 00:49:13.699 --> 00:49:18.859 actually ended up getting more than healing. The paralytic comes to Jesus. He's lowered through 00:49:18.859 --> 00:49:24.059 the house. He thinks I'm going to get my legs back. But what's the first thing Jesus says? Your sins are 00:49:24.059 --> 00:49:31.619 forgiven. Jesus is far more concerned than our physical need. It's not that he doesn't care. 00:49:31.619 --> 00:49:39.420 What he's concerned with most is our spiritual need. That's why he came. 00:49:42.819 --> 00:49:47.880 The narrative, we see this divine power. That's really its point. We learn that we don't have to 00:49:47.880 --> 00:49:52.719 have a perfect faith to know Christ. It just has to be an authentic faith that's founded on him alone. 00:49:53.579 --> 00:50:00.599 He meets us where we are. And he's a personal Savior. All of those things are worthy of our summary 00:50:00.599 --> 00:50:03.179 here at the end. But there's a different way that I want to conclude. 00:50:05.219 --> 00:50:09.639 As believers, we recognize this. Sometimes maybe we get distracted and we forget about 00:50:09.639 --> 00:50:15.380 how all of this works and our faith and the reality of disease. And that healing is not always the will 00:50:15.380 --> 00:50:20.799 of God for our lives. And that's true. Just because Jesus healed this woman doesn't mean he's going to 00:50:20.799 --> 00:50:22.599 heal you of your physical ailment. 00:50:22.599 --> 00:50:31.079 But then as believers, no matter whether he heals us now or later, we look forward to the day when we 00:50:31.079 --> 00:50:38.599 will receive an eternal healing. In Revelation 21, we read about this. John writes, 00:50:38.599 --> 00:51:08.420 Death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning. 00:51:08.420 --> 00:51:15.559 Nor crying. Nor pain anymore. Why? 00:51:17.559 --> 00:51:22.019 The voice from the throne says, For the former things have passed away. 00:51:22.519 --> 00:51:26.320 What former things? The sinfulness of this world. 00:51:27.320 --> 00:51:32.039 The fallenness of this world. The sin that plagues us day by day. 00:51:32.380 --> 00:51:36.680 That results in our sickness and our disease and our death and a hundred other things that are 00:51:36.679 --> 00:51:39.059 not what God intended for us in the beginning. 00:51:40.519 --> 00:51:49.039 And he who was seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. 00:51:49.039 --> 00:51:52.579 And he told John, Write these down. 00:51:53.380 --> 00:51:56.759 For they are trustworthy and true. 00:51:58.019 --> 00:52:00.940 And so what I want to leave you with today is hope. 00:52:02.739 --> 00:52:07.139 Not the hope that the ailment that you suffer from today, whatever it may be, will be healed. 00:52:07.139 --> 00:52:10.039 At least not in this life. 00:52:11.319 --> 00:52:18.579 But because of our Savior, what we do know is that it will eventually be healed in eternity.