Questions Jesus Asked - “Who Touched My Clothes”

“Who Touched My Clothes?” (Mark 5:30)

I am excited that you guys are here and I am thankful to be able to dive into God’s Word with you all tonight…

Last Night we heard a message from Peter LaRuffa, where we examined the question, what are you looking for? and Why does this generation seek a sign?

Points that Peter Purposed from the Sermon were:

1.

2.

3.

Tonight however we are going to turn our attention to Mark Chapter 5:25-34…

Before we dive into the passage, would you pray with me…

PRAYER…

Lord… Thank you for all that you have done for us in and through your Son Jesus Christ… Lord your name deserves all the glory, praise, and honor because you made a way for sinners like me and everyone else in this room tonight to be able to know, experience, and confidently trust in your son Jesus for salvation… Thank you for sending your precious and only Son to the cross so that we can be called sons and daughter of the King… May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven… Lord would you grant us the ability to learn from your Word tonight… would you in your kindness allow us to see what you have in store for us through the studying of your Word… I thank you for bringing every student, leader, pastor, and camp harvest staff member here tonight… It is in your Son Jesus Name that we pray… AMEN…

My goal tonight is to paint a picture of who Jesus Christ… to attempt to provide you two characteristics about Christ that if you get ahold of will change your perspective on how Jesus sees you and how Jesus can help you…

If you would please open up your Bibles to Mark Chapter 5, beginning in verse 25… and follow along with me as I read through verse 34…

It says this…

Mark 5:25–34 (ESV)

And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’ ” And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

After reading this historical account… we are introduced to the some key individuals…

1. The first being the WOMAN

This woman had been plagued with a discharge of blood for twelve years… this was some form of chronic internal bleeding…

She had suffered much… for she had sought help from physicians and doctors… spent all of the money that she had to be seen by the physicians… just to receive more pain… suffering… and discouragement… and a disease that continued to grow worse…

EXAMPLE: I can remember the evening when my wife and I went over to my parents house for a typical catch-up/debrief dinner… I also enjoy going because… one I get to see my parents… but two… they typically always order LaRosas or Chipotle… on this particular night… but on this particular night… I can remember the tone, feel, and atmosphere of the begin to shift when my dad looked at me and said… Son I have something to tell you… My Dad had just learned that he had been diagnosed with Lymphoma cancer… and my heart stood still… and my thoughts began to race as to what does this mean? What are the next steps? What does life look like for you, for us, for mom? Who do you need to go see? What doctor do you need set an appointment with to get back good news?

Because the last thing I wanted for my father was for this disease to grow worse… and I can recall the desire for a physician to tell me and my family that everything is going to be okay… here are the next steps… you will be fine… This woman went to doctor… after doctor… after doctor… hoping to hear the words… take these steps… everything is going to be fine… Here is my point… if you are someone who has experienced pain or suffering… whether that be physical, spiritual, or emotion… you are desperate for a solution… she was desperate for a solution…

To make matters worse… Due to this disease… and according to Levitical Law in Leviticus 15:25-27… she would have been viewed as an outcast… unclean… and treated as an outsider… she would not have been aloud to access the synagogue or temple - she would have been excluded… and she would have been shunned by all… even her own family…

In other words this woman had been living a life of social, spiritual, and physical torment … her life quite literally… on every level … was shipped wrecked … and not just for a day… month … week … or year… rather, for 12 years… she lived in a world where she did not belong or fit… or feel compassion… she lived in a world of cruelty…

Imagine the weight of the judgmental and disapproving eyes that starred at her… looked down upon her… and made her feel of little to know value…

2.) The second individual that we are introduced to is Jesus…

in verse 27… we are told that the woman “heard reports” about Jesus… came up behind him and touched his garment…

I love how this woman “heard Reports about Jesus” and then went to him… despite the crowd… despite her disease… despite the obstacles she would have faced to even see Jesus… she makes every effort to go to him… I often think about how we have access to Jesus… we have access and reports of what Jesus has done… who he is… his character… and his teachings… and his life… yet we often allow it to collect dust… treating this report about Christ as if it is irrelevant… while this woman… simply “heard” and went…

Jesus is with his disciples and jammed-pack in a crowd shoulder-to-shoulder… the crowd was literally pressed in around Jesus on every side…

Jesus is experiencing a crowd because He has been performing miracles and providing teachings through parables:

Mark 3 Jesus heals a man with a withered hand

Mark 4 Jesus provided the parable of the sower, the parable of the mustard seed, and calms a storm…

Mark 5 … the 23 verses prior to Jesus healing the woman… Jesus heals a man with a Demon…

My point is this… the crowd wanted to see the next spectacle or teaching that Jesus had next…while the woman Desired a life changing encounter… a divine intervention… She was not just another bystander or number in the crowd… she was determined to experience the divinity and life changing power of Christ… could Jesus actually provide a solution to her problem…

Could this Jesus actually help her… the outcast… the unclean… the despised…

Question for you: Why are you here? Are you for the spectacle of summer camp… or are you here to encounter the life changing power of Jesus… are you because you are desperate for a solution? Or are you just a spectator… along for the ride… and enjoying the good time?

And this Jesus gives her exactly what she was looking for and more… leading me to point #1…

POINT #1.) Jesus is the SON OF GOD and DIVNE

Matthew 3:17 (ESV)

and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

That word “well pleased” can be understood as God saying, this is my perfect son… there is nothing that I would change about him… I am satisfied with who he is… He is perfection… I am happy beyond measure with my son… he meets my expectations to perfection…

In other words the Father is validating and placing his seal of approval on Jesus…and he is proud and happy to do so…

This is important because we see Jesus exercising his divine authority and showing that he is the Son of God in…

In verses 27-29 the woman works her way through the crowd… reaches out and touches the edge of Jesus’ clothes… and immediately… this woman experiences healing without hesitation and receives the personal encounter with Christ and the healing that she had longed and searched for… a disease that had wrecked and haunted her life for 12 years… immediately was gone…

We can see that Jesus is of a divine nature… that the clothe that he was cut from… that the inherent fabric of his Who he is - his DNA is of a Godly Status… when he heals this woman of her disease… Jesus showing that He is on another level… and that he is different than anyone who has gone before or any who would come after… Jesus was displaying his power, authority, and status of Son of God… when he heals this woman of her disease…

You may be thinking to yourself… Hey Tanner… thanks for the message, but I already know and have been told that Jesus is the Son of God… that he is divine… and different than anyone who has gone before him or anyone who comes after him…

Great… I am happy you do… but I am not telling you this to simply tell you something you already know… I am telling you this because when you truly realize and understand that just is divine and the son of God… you will depend upon him… desperately cling to what he says…

A.You can DEPEND on Jesus

If you truly know that Jesus is divine… different… and the Son of God… then your life would a reflect a life that is dependent upon him…

When you are dependent upon someone… you treasure their words, their advice, and their comfort… you find value… safety… and refuge in them and you hang on their every word…

You will begin to value his words… his actions… and his teaching… you will go to him… and actually listen not just hear… you will obey his commands and just be oblivious to what he has to say…

EXAMPLE #2: When I was in college my Sophomore year… my girlfriend at the time broke up with me… we had dated for 7 years straight… we planned our lives out together… mapped out where we were going to live… what we were going to do… and my world was wrapped around this person because I believed she was different than the rest… I valued… treasured… and was dependent on what she thought of me, how she spoke to me, and desired to be validated by her… I can remember thinking… hey, does not matter what happens in life as long as I have you… and I created a dependency upon this person and placed my safety, refuge, and hope in that relationship…

But when we broke up… I realized that she was not designed to be what I place my dependency in… she was not uniquely different to sustain or satisfy my dependency… and I was left with no one else to turn to or run to other than God…

Dependency reveals what and who you trust the most…

Jesus is the Son of God… Different… and Divine… and the only one you can depend upon - and Jesus was the only one that the woman could depend on…

Question: What and Who do you trust in most? What are you dependent upon? Especially when you have no other options or when there seems to be little to no hope…

POINT #2.) Jesus displays COMPASSION in front of the CROWD

In verse 30… Jesus asks the Question, “Who touched my Garments”? and his disciples respond to him by saying, “the crowd is pressed in around you”… in other words they have no idea who touched Jesus because multiple people were around, near, and close to him… But Jesus was not asking the question to test the disciples…

He was not asking the question because he was unaware of what happened… remember he is the Son of God… Divine in nature…

He did not ask the question for his own sake or enlightenment…

Rather Jesus asked the question to draw the woman out of the crowd…

The woman… comes forward fearing and trembling… falling down before him… because she knows that she reached out to touch him… an unclean woman with a disease… touched another who was clean… so she feared there may be consequences for what she has done… concerned that Jesus might rebuke her or correct her for what she has done… concerned that Jesus might tell her to leave… that she is unwelcome…

The woman feared the consequences of what she had done… and expected cruelty… but she experienced nothing but compassion…

You may be thinking to yourself… Tanner… How is calling someone out in a crowd in front of other people compassionate…

Remember this woman was an outcast… unclean… and treated as an outsider… she would not have been aloud to access the synagogue or temple - she would have been excluded… and she would have been shunned by all… even her own family…

She was not considered a “popular” person of that population by any stretch of the imagination

But when Jesus called her out in the crowd… the woman had an opportunity to declare what Jesus had done for her… telling all who could how she had been healed and made clean by simply touching his garment… after 12 years of cruelty … she had the opportunity to show others that she had experienced compassion and been healed by Jesus…

In this moment Jesus not only restored this woman physically from her disease… but she was also restored socially, and spiritually… She was now able to go into the temple and synagoge to freely worship, learn, and pray… she would no longer be viewed as an outcast… she would no longer seen as an outsider… she would be accepted by other socially and her life was completely and utterly changed by the compassion that Jesus Christ showed her…

Because she was dependent upon the divine Son of Jesus Christ to solve her problem that no one else could…

Have you experienced the compassion of Christ? Have you felt the refuge, safety, and compassionate eyes of Jesus?

This went to Jesus in desperation and with a disease walked away fully knowing that Jesus was different… divine… and the truly the Son of God…

As we come to a close I want to draw your attention to…

A.) Jesus offers PEACE

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But what about you?

Do you relate to this woman at all?

Do you see Jesus as compassionate?

Have you experienced the compassion of Christ on you in your own life?

Do you see Jesus as the Son of God and capable of changing your life?

Do you know that Jesus wants you to have a peace that can only be found in him?

How did Jesus show that he is divine and the son of god? how does jesus being divine and the son of god encourage or impact your faith? why does it matter that jesus is the son of god? how did jesus display compassion towards the woman?

can you relate to the woman in the story? do you feel like you can approach jesus or go to him? When have you experienced the compassion of christ in your own life? Is there anything keeping you back from allowing yourself to see jesus as compassionate? How does Tonight's teaching challenge, change, or CONFIRM your view of jesus?