Well,
good morning (again) church, I’m glad that you are here with us.
It’s
good to be back with you today; I was away last week on vacation, and had a
decent, but a challenging week, dealing with post-funeral details, but I did
manage to eat a pie or 5, enjoy a couple pieces of cake, some PBC Cookies, and
everything else that was brought to the house.
So,
allow me to say a word of thanks to those of you who prayed for, provided meals
and just loved on my family as we dealt with my father’s passing.
I’m deeply
blessed to serve Jesus with each of you, and I pray that God will bless you for
the love you’ve shown to me and my family.
With
that said, let’s launch into the conclusion of our current sermon series
called: “The
Walking Dead.”
It’s in this
series that we have been examining stories of people in the Bible who died, but
because of a touch from the Master came back to life again.
This is what
Jesus does bestà He makes dead
people come alive.
Before we dive
into another resurrection account; I want to remind us of our Key text for this
entire series. It’s found in Colossians 3:3:
Paul was speaking
to Christians and he reminded them of this truth: “For you died, and your life is now hidden with
Christ in God.” (Col. 3:3, NIV)
Those who profess to follow
Jesus are members of the Walking Dead club; we’ve died to sin and are alive in
Christ.
But the opposite
of this is also true: those
who don’t follow Jesus are members of the Walking Dead club; you are dead to
Christ and alive in sin.
You need to hear
this church; you’re either for Jesus or you’re against Jesus. There is no
middle of the road.
John reminded us
in 1 John 5: “He
who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have
life.” (1 John 5:12, NIV)
Because the Resurrection of
Jesus changes everything, we don’t have to remain in sin.
Because Jesus
paid our sin debt with His death and resurrection, we can experience new life
in Jesus; because Jesus makes dead people come alive!
The account we
are going to examine this morning illustrates this truth even more.
This account is
a 2 for 1 deal. Two lives are changed because of a touch from Jesus, so if you
have your Bibles I invite you to turn with me to Mark 5. (If you don’t have a
bible, it will be on the screen)
We’ll begin our
reading at verse 21:
“Jesus got into the
boat again and went back to the other side of the lake, where a large crowd
gathered around him on the shore.
22 Then a leader of
the local synagogue, whose name was Jairus, arrived.
When he saw Jesus,
he fell at his feet, 23 pleading fervently with him. “My little daughter is
dying,” he said. “Please come and lay your hands on her; heal her so she can
live.”
24 Jesus went with him, and all the people
followed, crowding around him.
25 A woman in the
crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding.
26 She had suffered
a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she
had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse.
27 She had heard
about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe.
28 For she thought
to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.”
29 Immediately the
bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of
her terrible condition.
30 Jesus realized at once that healing power
had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched
my robe?”
31 His disciples said to him, “Look at this
crowd pressing around you. How can you ask, ‘Who touched me?’”
32 But he kept on looking around to see who
had done it.
33 Then the
frightened woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her,
came and fell to her knees in front of him and told him what she had done.
34 And he said to
her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is
over.”
35 While he was still speaking to her,
messengers arrived from the home of Jairus, the leader of the synagogue. They
told him, “Your daughter is dead. There’s no use troubling the Teacher now.”
36 But Jesus overheard them and said to
Jairus, “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith.”
37 Then Jesus
stopped the crowd and wouldn’t let anyone go with him except Peter, James, and
John (the brother of James).
38 When they came
to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw much commotion and weeping and
wailing.
39 He went inside
and asked, “Why all this commotion and weeping? The child isn’t dead; she’s
only asleep.”
40 The crowd laughed at him. But he made them
all leave, and he took the girl’s father and mother and his three disciples
into the room where the girl was lying.
41 Holding her
hand, he said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means “Little girl, get up!”
42 And the girl,
who was twelve years old, immediately stood up and walked around! They were
overwhelmed and totally amazed.
43 Jesus gave them
strict orders not to tell anyone what had happened, and then he told them to
give her something to eat.” (Mark 5:21-43, NLT2)
In this account
we come face to face with two different people, both of whom are at completely
different stages of life, but both are in need of the same thing: a touch from
Jesus.
The first person
we encounter in this story is Jairus, the local synagogue leader.
He would have
been responsible to oversee the upkeep of the synagogue as well as the times of
worship. So he’s a pretty important dude.
As
Jesus was teaching the crowd of people that had followed Him, Jairus comes over
to Jesus and falls at His feet and tells Him that his little girl—all of 12
years old—is very sick.
He
informs Jesus that if He would only come to his house and lay His hands on her,
she would get better.
Sounds
simple enough, right?
As
Jesus was making His way to Jairus’ house, Mark introduces us to the second person
needing a touch from Jesus; and while we don’t know her name, we do know that
she was in need.
She
had a physical illness; probably chronic bleeding from the womb and this
prevented her from having a normal life.
To
make matters worse, she had spent all the money she had on medical care, and
instead of getting better, she got worse.
This
woman had heard of Jesus and thought that He could heal her, so she made her
way through the crowd--coming from behind, because she was considered
unclean—and she reached out and: “touched the edge of his cloak” (Matthew 9:20b,
NIV)
There
was a train of thought in Jesus day that if someone just touched the cloak of
The Teacher they would be healed, so this woman reached out and touched the
fringe of Jesus’ cloak; actually, scholars believe she touched one of the tassels
that were on hanging down from Jesus’ cloak, and in an instant she was healed!
Even
though Jesus was surrounded by the crowds, He felt power go out from His body,
so He stopped and asked a simple question, loud enough for everyone to hear: “Who touched my robe?”
(Mark 5:30b, NLT2)
The
disciples scratched their heads and say something to the effect of: “What do you mean who touched your robe? People are coming at
you from every direction, and you’re wondering who touched you? Who didn’t
touch you Jesus?”
But
Jesus was insistent that someone touched Him and He kept scanning the crowd
looking for the person who touched Him.
Finally,
“…the frightened
woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell
to her knees in front of him and told him what she had done.” (Mark
5:33, NLT2)
Notice,
church, that it was not
this woman’s superstitious belief that if she touched the fringe of Jesus’ robe
that healed her; it was actually her faith in Jesus Himself that healed her!
Look
at what Jesus said to her in verse 34: “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your
suffering is over.” (Mark 5:34, NLT2)
As
Jesus was explaining to this woman that her faith in His person is what healed
her, word gets to Jairus’ iPhone that his daughter had died, and there was no
reason to trouble the teacher anymore.
But
Jesus overheard this exchange and said to all of them: “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith.”
(Mark 5:36b, NLT2)
I
wonder how many of us need to memorize this verse? If we were in to getting
tattoos, we should get this tattooed on our arms for it would serve us well!
It
would remind us that Jesus is not distracted with someone else’s issue and He
has not forgotten about us.
If
God has told us that something would happen, it will happen in His time, but
remember: His timing is not our timing, and His ways are not our ways.
Even
if God is 4 days late, He’s still right on time… all you have to do is ask
Lazarus about that!
God
wants us to place our faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. That’s what Jesus was
telling Jairus when He said: “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith.”(Mark
5:36, NLT2)
When
your world seems all too dark, we must remember to place our trust in Jesus.
After saying this, Jesus cut the
crowd off and only allowed Peter, James and John to accompany Him to Jairus’
house, and when He entered this house, it was filled with professional
mourners, and they were making quite a ruckus.
He then asked the crowd: “Why all this
commotion and weeping? The child isn’t dead; she’s only asleep.”
(Mark 5:39, NLT2)
Notice the reaction of these
professional mourners: “The crowd laughed at him.” (Mark 5:40, NLT2)
Can I make a suggestion church? Don’t
ever laugh at Jesus. If you do, He’ll kick you out, which is exactly what He
did with the crowd that had gathered to mourn for this child.
Jesus then took Jairus and his wife,
along with His 3 disciples and entered into the little girls room, touched her
hand and spoke to her: “Little girl, I say to you, get up” (Mark 5:41,
NIV)
The Bible is crystal clear as to
what happened next: “And the girl, who was twelve years old, immediately stood up
and walked around! They were overwhelmed and totally amazed.” (Mark
5:42, NLT2)
Who wouldn’t be after seeing Jesus
at work?
Jesus brought life to two people
that day, a woman with an issue of blood and a 12 year old girl.
I believe that Jesus wants the same
thing to happen today, here, in our church.
Believe it or not, the 2 people in
this story are attending our church.
There are those among us who have
tried all they could to receive healing—but as of yet, you’ve not received it.
There are those among us who are
self-medicating due to pain, hurt, anger, regret—or any other issue--- and you
have spent—or will spend—your entire life savings on something that will never
heal you.
There are some among us today who
are dead; maybe not physically, but definitely spiritually.
You have never asked Jesus to take
up residence in your heart and life, and due to this, you are still dead in
your sins.
No matter who you are, or at what
stage of life you are in, your remedy is Jesus. Not Jesus and… Just Jesus.
Jesus is what you need if you’ve been suffering some sort
of affliction and Jesus is what you need if you are spiritually dead.
So, here’s what I’m praying will
happen this morning:
In a few moments, we are going to
sing a new-to-us song that will remind us of God’s love for us, and if you have
a health issue that you would like for us to pray with you about, I’m going to
ask you to slip out from where you are, and come to the front and Pastor Mike,
Jon McKay or myself will lay our hands on you, ask you to confess your sin,
anoint you with oil, and pray for you, as we are instructed to do in James
chapter 5.
Please hear me church: we believe in
a God who heals. God and God alone choses who He will heal, so if He doesn’t
heal you today: “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith.” (Mark 5:36, NLT2)
God is in control and He will deal
with you as He sees fit, we must simply place our lives in His care.
If you’ve got a health concern that
you would like for one of us to pray with you about, then I invite you to make
your way to the front of the church in a few moments.
The second thing I’m praying will
happen is for someone to receive Jesus, for that’s what this Bible story is all
about: Life change.
If you have never confessed Jesus as
your Lord and Savior; or if you have done this a while ago, but have walked out
on Him, and would like to renew your commitment to Him today, I’m going to ask
you to slip out and come to the front where one of us will pray with you as
well.
The Bible reminds us that our lives
do not belong to us.
Paul wrote about this a lot, and Romans
6 verse 16 is one of those instances: “Don’t you realize that you become the slave of
whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death,
or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.”
(Romans 6:16, NLT2)
Each one of us is a member of the walking dead club: some
of us are dead to Christ and alive in sin, and others are dead to sin and alive
in Christ.
If you would like to be alive in
Christ or receive special prayer for a health concern--or any other issue that
you might be facing—I’m going to say a quick prayer and then invite you to come
to front as the band leads us in our
last song.
Remember church: Jesus makes dead people come
alive!
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