Releasing The Power - Woman with the issue of blood (Faith)*

Luke 8:43–48 “And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, Came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched. And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately. And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.”

Introduction- Cultural and Textual Context

Luke 8:40, 41

(a)And it came to pass, that, when Jesus was returned, the people gladly received him: for they were all waiting for him. And, behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue…

A ruler in the religious system, Jairus was a prominent man. Yet he was willing to abandon his pride in order to come to this itinerant, radical Rabbi from Galilee who had no credentials, no authority from the Sanhedrin.

Luke 8:41

(b)—42…and he fell down at Jesus’ feet, and besought him that he would come into his house: For he had one only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she lay a dying. But as he went the people thronged him.

For twelve years, Jairus’ home had been filled with the joy and laughter that only a child can bring. Then tragedy struck. A painful problem was now before him.

Luke 8:43 And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any.

During the same twelve years the home of Jairus had been filled with joy and laughter, while the home of this woman was filled with despair and suffering.

Luke 8:40–50 (DGCB Lk): ent Greek word here translated thronged means, “almost suffocated him-so great was the throng about him.” (Clarke) The same Greek root word is used to describe the choking of the seed of the word (Luke 8:7).

a. A woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years: This woman was in a desperate condition. Her bleeding made her ceremonially and socially unclean, and this would be quite a burden to live under for 12 years.

i. According to the Jewish ideas of the time, if this woman touched anyone, she imparted her uncleanness to them, an uncleanness that would not allow them to take part in any aspect of Israel’s worship (Leviticus 15:19–31).

The rabbis having taught that her hemorrhaging was the result of immorality, this woman would have been excommunicated from the synagogue, divorced from her husband, and ostracized by the community. For twelve years, her life was a miserable tragedy.

this contrast is very interesting because some of you have spent the last twelve years in joy and delight. But difficulty and tragedy has a way of striking every one of us at some point because

it rains on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45),

because no temptation comes to us but that which is common to all men (1 Corinthians 10:13),

because in this world we are promised to have tribulation (John 16:33).

If you’re in a good season, rejoice—but prepare. Now is the time more than ever to be in the Word, to be worshiping the Lord, to be growing in faith because tomorrow when tragedy strikes, it will be too late. You will not have the resources necessary to see you through the time of difficulty and adversity if you don’t prepare in the day of prosperity.

On the other hand, for those of you who have been miserable in the last twelve years or months or weeks, good news—you don’t know what tomorrow holds. You don’t know what miracle is about to happen. I promise you, the Lord will enter your situation in a way that will blow your mind if, like this woman, you seize the opportunity to draw near to Him. We need to be in the place where we know the Lord is traveling. Where is that?

He promises to be in the midst of His people (Hebrews 2:12).

He promises to be heard in the Word (Hebrews 10:7).

He promises to be responsive to prayer (Jeremiah 33:3).

This woman heard where He was and said, “I’ve got to get to the place where Jesus is moving and see what will happen.”

PROPOSITION STATEMENT

As a result, she will be healed miraculously and studied throughout history because she had released the power of God through faith. If we will apply this kind of faith you will get God’s attention and pull out a Miracle. Look at what she did She spoke to herself, she broke through the crowd and she touched Him even in her weakened state.

1. You’ve got to Practice Self Talk

Matthew 9:19–21“And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples. And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment: For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.

She spoke to herself

This is so important because “Self talk is the birth place of disruptive faith.”

Where did that come from - no precedence

You shall have what you say

speak to yourselves in psalms and spiritual hymns.

Where did she get this idea from?

The Hem

The helm

c. Came from behind and touched the border of His garment: Because this woman’s condition was embarrassing, and because she was ceremonially unclean and would be condemned for touching Jesus or even being in a pressing crowd, she wanted to do this secretly. She did not openly ask Jesus to be healed.

i. “The word ‘fringe’ [border] is the Greek word kraspedon, the Septuagint term for the tassel which male Jews were to wear on the corners of their outer garments.” (Pate)

ii. The woman approached Jesus with a degree of superstition, thinking there was power in the border of His garment. Yet there was also an element of faith, because there is no evidence that Jesus had ever healed that way before. What a risk- what faith)

iii. Because even though her faith had elements of err and superstition, she believed in the healing power of Jesus, and the border of His garment served as a point of contact for that faith. There are many things that we could find wrong with this woman’s faith. Yet more than anything, her faith was in Jesus, and the object of faith was much more important than the quality of faith.

Tension in the text:

Fear threatens to be an impediment to faith for Jairus and the hemorrhaging woman. Both have good reasons to be afraid in the midst of hopeless and dire circumstances. Faith is challenging because the desired outcome is entirely dependent on God’s power and mercy. The question that ties all four miracles in this section together is that of Jesus’ identity. He is more than a teacher, more than an exorcist, more than a healer, and more than a prophet. Who, then, is he? In the next chapter, Jesus’ disciples will finally become privy to things about Jesus that the readers have known all along.

Fear (Jairus) - God has not given us a spirit of fear.

In Matthew’s day, it was believed that there was certain power in the hem of a garment belonging to a rabbi or spiritual leader. “If I could just touch the hem of his garment.” This woman probably didn’t have the strength to wrestle Him in faith, or to grab hold of Him in belief. Yet she knew if she could even just lightly touch Jesus, she would be healed. John courts on application commentary

Matthew 9:20–22 (DGCB Mt): iii. To the best of our knowledge, there was no promise or pattern that touching the garment of Jesus would bring healing. It seems that the woman believed this in a somewhat superstitious way. Yet even though her faith had elements of error and superstition, she believed in the healing power of Jesus and His garment served as a point of contact for that faith. There are many things that we could find wrong with this woman’s faith. Yet her faith was in Jesus; and the object of faith is much more important than the quality or even quantity of faith.

iv. “She was ignorant enough to think that healing went from him unconsciously; yet her faith lived despite her ignorance, and triumphed despite her bashfulness.” (Spurgeon)

David encouraged himself in the Lord.

Self talk - psychology

What are you telling yourself? because it matters what you say to yourself.

Psychology quote

2. You’ve got to Press through The Crowd

Mark 5:27 “When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.”

She broke through the crowd

Romans 10:17 “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

It’s not enough to hear the word you have to use the word and debunk and challenge every negative people and restrictions

Tension in the text:

Luke 8:40–56 (The Bible Guide): The law of Moses declares that anything she lies or sits on, and anyone who touches her, becomes unclean (Leviticus 15:25–27).

Tension : She was Marginalized.

It is important to think about her condition since it so obviously illustrates our own desperate condition due to sin.

First, she was unclean. The words the Gospel writers use are carefully chosen, as we might expect from men who are describing the health problems of a woman. But what we surmise from their accounts is that the woman was suffering from excessive menstrual bleeding. Whatever the source, the bleeding would have weakened her—she would have been anemic as well as subject to further diseases—and she would have been considered ceremonially unclean by the Jews, as was the leper whom Jesus healed in chapter 8. The condition of a woman subject to such bleeding and how she was to be treated is described in Leviticus 15:25–33.

Second, she was isolated. People could not come into contact with a menstruating woman without being made unclean by that contact. In fact, they could not even lie on a bed where she had lain or sit on a chair where she had sat. No one could touch her, and she was not allowed to touch other people. Sadly, her bleeding would have destroyed her chances for marriage, or, if she were married, it would have precluded all sexual relations with her husband. She must have been very, very lonely.

Third, she was incurable. Luke makes this clearer than the other two writers when he explains that “no one could heal her” (Luke 8:43), but it is obvious from the other Gospels as well. All three Synoptic Gospels say that she had been ill for “twelve years” (v. 20), and Mark adds that, in spite of her having seen many doctors, “instead of getting better she grew worse” (Mark 5:26).

She was marginal to Jewish society. But she was not marginal to Jesus. Her condition did not have the capability to contaminate Jesus. She if she couldn’t change Jesus, Jesus could change her. Because something has to happen.

Now she breaks the taboo and dares to touch Jesus under cover of the crowd.

The word gave her the energy to get up one more time. break beyond her restriction.

DON’T WAIT

Just as it was most unusual for a synagogue official to seek out a wandering rabbi, it was most inappropriate according to Jewish custom for a woman subject to bleeding to touch a man (see Leviticus 15:19–28). But if you had been seriously ill for twelve years with a disease that doctors could not cure, you might set aside such protocol as well. That’s what this woman did. She put aside her pride, fear, and hopelessness and pushed her way through the crowd until she could touch Jesus.

Would you have done that? Or would you have let doubt or vanity or worry over what others might think keep you back? Don’t wait until you’re desperate to take your problems to Jesus. Overcome your fear of what others might say and take your stand for him.

Application

You can’t give up now! Get up and press your way through to Jesus.

4. You’ve Got to Release the Power through Faith

Luke 8:44, 45

Came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched.

The text simply says: She touched Jesus

And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?

The disciples were impressed by the masses surrounding them. Jesus was intrigued by the one who touched Him. All too often, we evaluate ministry by the masses around Jesus. Jesus, however, is interested in the one who touches Him.

The Touch

Luke 8:46 (JFB): 46. Somebody hath touched—yes, the multitude “thronged” and pressed Him—“they jostled against Him,” but all involuntarily; they were merely carried along; but one, one only—“Somebody Touched” Him, with the conscious, voluntary, dependent touch of faith, reaching forth its hands expressly to have contact with Him. This and this only Jesus acknowledges and seeks out. Even so, as the Church Father Augustine long ago said, multitudes still come similarly close to Christ in the means of grace, but all to no purpose, being only sucked into the crowd. The voluntary, living contact of faith is that electric conductor which alone draws virtue out of Him.

b. Who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed: She went to the doctors to get better, but only suffered worse and became poorer. Luke the physician knew how doctor bills could take all that you had.

ii. When a soul is sick today, they often go to different “doctors” and spend a great deal of time and money, and are not … healed by them. A sick soul may go to:

“Doctor Entertainment,” but finds no cure.

They may pay a visit to “Doctor Success” but he is no help in the long run.

“Doctor Pleasure,” “Doctor Self-Help,” or “Doctor Religion” can’t bring a real cure. Only “Doctor Jesus” can.

And immediately her flow of blood stopped: According to the thinking of the day, when this unclean woman touched Jesus, it would make Him unclean. But because of the nature of Jesus and the power of God, that isn’t how it worked. When she touched His garment Jesus wasn’t made unclean, the woman was made whole. When we come to Jesus with our sin and lay it upon Him it doesn’t make Him a sinner, but it makes us clean. (Preach that)

Matthew 9:20–21 (Life Application New Testament Commentary): She worked her way through the crowd and came up behind Jesus. She believed that she only had to touch his robe (the fringe) and she would be healed. She may have feared that Jesus would not touch her if he knew her condition, that Jesus would not risk becoming unclean in order to heal her. Or she may have feared that if her condition became known to the crowd, the people who had touched her would be angry at having become unclean unknowingly. The woman knew she could receive healing, but she tried to do it as unobtrusively as possible.

He may not touch me (due to the facts of my condition), so let me try to reach out and touch him.

Response: Somebody Touched Me

Luke 8:46, 47 And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him and how she was healed immediately.

Jesus speaks to the healed woman (45–48)

a. Who touched Me? This question made no sense to the disciples. Luke told us that the multitudes thronged Him (Luke 8:42), and Jesus seemed annoyed that someone touched Him. There were people all about who pressed in on Jesus and who made some kind of contact with Him.

b. Master, the multitudes throng and press You: Peter and the disciples didn’t understand the difference between casual contact with Jesus, and reaching out to touch Him in faith.

A. Bumping into is not as a touch of Faith

i. We can imagine someone who because of the press of the crowd bumped up against Jesus. When the woman’s miracle was revealed, they might say, “I bumped into Jesus, I touched Him—yet I was not healed.” But there is a huge difference between bumping into Jesus here and there and reaching out to touch Him in faith. You can come to church week after week and “bump into” Jesus. That isn’t the same as reaching out to touch Him in faith.

RELEASE THE POWER!!!

Many people were surrounding Jesus as he made his way toward Jairus’s house. It was virtually impossible to get through the multitude, but one woman fought her way desperately through the crowd in order to touch Jesus. As soon as she did so, she was healed. What a difference there is between the crowds that are curious about Jesus and the few who reach out and touch him! Today, many people are vaguely familiar with Jesus, but nothing in their lives is changed or bettered by this passing acquaintance. It is only faith that releases God’s healing power. Jesus must be more than a curiosity. Reach out to him in faith, knowing that his mercy will bring healing to your body, soul, and spirit

Why did he Call her out?

What Jesus did privately, He now tells this woman to declare publicly.

Was this to embarrass her?

“If the woman has already been healed, why not let her slip out quietly, rather than embarrass her in public?”

She is not merely made whole in the body; she needs to be restored to the religious and social life of the community as well. To call the woman to accountability is an act of validation, not shaming.

Why did he call her out? (Private moment of Prayers result in Public displays of Power

d. The woman saw that she was not hidden: This probably means that Jesus was looking right at her when He said, “Somebody touched Me” (Mark 5:32 says, He looked around her to see her who had done this thing). The woman had to come forward, because Jesus knew who she was. He called her forward and it embarrassed her; but Jesus’ purpose was not to just embarrass her, but to bless her.

i. Jesus did it so that she would know she was healed. It is true that she felt she was healed immediately, but this woman was like any other person. Soon she would begin to doubt and fear that she really was healed. She would wonder when the ailment would return. But Jesus told her “Your faith has made you whole.” Jesus called her forward so she would absolutely know that she was healed.

ii. Jesus did it so others would know she was healed. This woman had an ailment that no one could see and that made her a public outcast. It would sound suspicious to many if she just announced that she was healed. They would think that she made it up just to be considered clean again. Jesus called her forward so others would absolutely know that she was healed, and so she declared to Him in the presence of all the people she had touched Him.

iii. Jesus did it so that she would know why she was healed. When Jesus said, “Your faith has made you well” it showed the woman that it really wasn’t touching the clothing of Jesus that healed her. Instead, it was her faith in Jesus and what He could do for her.

iv. Jesus did it because He didn’t want her to think that she stole a blessing, that she could never look Jesus in the eye again. She didn’t steal anything, she received it by faith and Jesus wanted her to know that.

v. Jesus did it so Jarius could see this woman’s faith and be encouraged regarding his daughter. Jesus called her forward to encourage someone else in faith.

vi. Jesus did it because He wanted to bless her in a special way. He called her “Daughter.” Jesus never called any other person by this name. Jesus wanted her to come forth and hear this special name of tenderness. When Jesus calls us forward, it is because He has something special to give us.

vii. Jesus may ask us to do things that seem embarrassing today. He doesn’t ask us to do them just because He wants to embarrass us. There is also a higher purpose even if we can’t see it. But if avoiding embarrassment is the most important thing in our life, then pride is our god. We are more in love with ourselves and with our self-image than we are in love with Jesus.

Do it for somebody else

I believe Jesus wanted her to testify publicly in order that Jairus might be able to handle what he was about to hear. Likewise, there are people around you who are hurting and need to hear what the Lord has done for you in order that their own faith might be strengthened.

Daughter

Luke 8:48 (a)And he said unto her, Daughter…

Terrified that He might come down on her, how the single word “daughter” must have calmed this woman.

Luke 8:48 (b)…be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.

Some go to church determined to hear from the Lord—and they will leave having heard from the Lord. Others go out of obligation or habit, not expecting to hear from the Lord—and they will leave without hearing from the Lord. Jesus smiles on this lady who was one among the multitude and says, “Daughter, be of good cheer. In faith, you broke through the crowd, and received from Me the help you needed.”

Altar Call- Hope for the Hopeless

The point of these stories is that this is exactly what Jesus does in the case of everyone who is saved from sin. It is what he has done for you if you are a Christian.

What does sin do to us after all?

Obviously, it makes us unclean. It contaminates us, and none of us can come before the purity of God’s presence until our sin is dealt with. When Isaiah saw the Lord seated upon his throne in heaven he cried out, “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips” (Isa. 6:5). He trembled before God until an angel touched his lips with a coal from the altar, saying, “You're guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for” (v. 7).

Sin also isolates. It keeps us from God, which is the worst thing about sin, but it also isolates us from other people, creating hurts, hard feelings, and misunderstandings between races, individuals, and even members of one’s own family. Isaiah also wrote of our isolation from God: “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear” (Isa. 59:2).

Then, too, our condition is hopeless apart from grace. Nothing could be more hopeless than death, and we are described as being “dead” in our sins (Eph. 2:1). But the same chapter of the Bible that says we were dead in our sins also says, “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:4–7). There is no finer picture of that love, grace, resurrection power, and salvation than Matthew’s account of the healings of the ruler’s dead daughter and the bleeding woman.

Kairos

Luke 8:49–56 While he yet spake, there cometh one from the ruler of the synagogue’s house, saying to him, Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master. But when Jesus heard it, he answered him, saying, Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole. And when he came into the house, he suffered no man to go in, save Peter, and James, and John, and the father and the mother of the maiden. And all wept, and bewailed her: but he said, Weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead. And he put them all out, and took her by the hand, and called, saying, Maid, arise. And her spirit came again, and she arose straightway: and he commanded to give her meat. And her parents were astonished: but he charged them that they should tell no man what was done.

“Only speak the word and my servant will be healed,” the centurion said to Jesus in the previous chapter. Jairus did not have this kind of faith. This helps me understand that although faith is the currency of eternity, all it takes is faith the size of a grain of mustard seed—half the size of a grain of sand—to make things happen. Expect the Lord to work as you take even a baby step of faith, and, as He did with Jairus, He will meet you there.