Jesus is Our Hope

Good Morning

First Baptist Dallas burned this week, lets take a moment and pray them.

Excited about the chicken dinner after service!

Don’t throw your false teeth at your car.

You might denture car!

Last week we saw Jesus demonstrate His power again buy casting out a large number of demons that were in a man. The people of the region asked Jesus to leave the region, even though He had just healed this man that had been a problem to the area for a long time. He had done something that no one else could do. Yet, they still wanted Him to leave. The man He had healed, wanted to go with Jesus, but He would let him come. He told him to go to his home and tell them all that the Lord had done for him and how He had mercy on him. This was the first missionary that Jesus sent out. We will see later on that Jesus returned to the region and they brought their sick to Him to be healed. When we are obedient to go and tell people about Jesus, He is faithful to provide a harvest. We saw one crowd was anxious for Him to leave and today we are going to see another crowd waiting to welcome Him.

Today we are going to be in Mark 5:21-34. Jesus went back to the other side of the sea and He does more miracles. We are going to look at 2 people who are on opposite sides of the society. Both of them are hopeless and don’t know what to do. But then Jesus shows up!! We are going to see how hopelessness makes everyone equal. The rich and the poor, the famous and the outcast, they are all brought to the same place. Jesus. We will see that Jesus has compassion on all of them. Jesus has shown us that He has all power and authority, but He still has compassion. We serve a Lord who loves us. He wants what is best for us. We just need to get out of our own way! We are going to see Jesus heal and raise a child from the death! What an amazing King we serve.

Please stand as we read God Word.

Mark 5:21–43 NASB 2020

21 When Jesus had crossed over again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around Him; and He stayed by the seashore. 22 And one of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came, and upon seeing Him, fell at His feet 23 and pleaded with Him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death; please come and lay Your hands on her, so that she will get well and live.” 24 And He went off with him; and a large crowd was following Him and pressing in on Him. 25 A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, 26 and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but instead had become worse—27 after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak. 28 For she had been saying to herself, “If I just touch His garments, I will get well.” 29 And immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30 And immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that power from Him had gone out, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My garments?” 31 And His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’ ” 32 And He looked around to see the woman who had done this. 33 But the woman, fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. 34 And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be cured of your disease.” 35 While He was still speaking, people came from the house of the synagogue official, saying, “Your daughter has died; why bother the Teacher further?” 36 But Jesus, overhearing what was being spoken, said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid, only believe.” 37 And He allowed no one to accompany Him except Peter, James, and John the brother of James. 38 They came to the house of the synagogue official, and He saw a commotion, and people loudly weeping and wailing. 39 And after entering, He said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child has not died, but is asleep.” 40 And they began laughing at Him. But putting them all outside, He took along the child’s father and mother and His own companions, and entered the room where the child was in bed. 41 And taking the child by the hand, He said to her, “Talitha, kum!” (which translated means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!” ). 42 And immediately the girl got up and began to walk, for she was twelve years old. And immediately they were completely astonished. 43 And He gave them strict orders that no one was to know about this, and He told them to have something given her to eat.

This passage is called a Mark sandwich. Mark started telling one story and in the middle he stopped and told another story, then finishes his first story. There are up to 20 of these sandwiches in Mark. Not all of them are agreed upon as sandwiches, but there are 6 that are. If you want a list of them, get with me later and I will give them to you, better yet, I will post them on the Liberty Facebook page. Beth remind me to do that.

This passage starts out with them returning to Capernaum. When they get there, there is already a large crowd waiting on them. A synagogue official comes up to Him. His name is Jairus. He was not a scribe or Pharisee, he would have been a lay person who was in charge of taking care of the day to day operations of the synagogue. He would have been in charge of the scrolls. He would have been an important person in the town. He would have worked closely with the scribes and Pharisees. We can see by his actions that he was hopeless and desperate. He would have been risking his job at the synagogue by coming to Jesus and asking to come to his house. In chapter 3:6 we saw that the Pharisees were looking to kill Jesus. They would not have been happy about one of their employees talking to Jesus and bringing Him to his house. He was risking all that he had, but he didn’t care. His 12 year old daughter is sick and about to die. This is any fathers worst nightmare. Your child is sick and there is nothing anyone can do to help them. We are not told, but I am sure he had already had the town doctor look at his daughter, and they probably even tried to help her, but they couldn’t. He was out of time and out of options, then Jesus come back to town. He had probably seen some of the miracles that Jesus had done. He was probably there when Jesus cast out the demon in Chapter 1, and in Chapter 3 Jesus healed the man in the synagogue. Jairus knew that Jesus could heal and he begged Jesus to come and heal his daughter. He knew that Jesus was his last hope, his only hope. We can see that Jesus had compassion on him and started with him toward his house.

While they were on the way, the large crowd was pressing in on them and a new character enter the story. We see this anonymous woman come to Jesus. She had an incurable hemorrhage where she was bleeding constantly. She had this hemorrhage for 12 years! Is it a coincidence that Jairus’ daughter was 12 years old and this woman had the issue for 12 years? I don’t know but it makes you wonder. She had tried everything to have this hemorrhage stopped, but no one could. Mark tells us that she had endured much at the hands of the doctors and that she had spent all that had and nothing helped, but instead it was worse! Jewish law would have condemned this woman to be a outcast. She would have had to live outside the town and she was considered unclean. She would have been just like the lepers. If she had a husband and kids, she would not have been able to touch them or be around them. She would have been isolated from everyone. Anyone that she may have touched would have been unclean also. They would have had to go through the cleansing process laid out in Leviticus 15. She would not have had any interaction with people outside of the doctors for the last 12 years!! This woman was beyond hopeless. She was out of money and her problem was worse. Then Jesus came! She had heard of all that Jesus had done and thought that if she could just touch his clothes, she would be healed. She didn’t dare try and talk to Him, after all she was unclean and she was a woman. Yet she just wanted to touch Him. In touching Jesus, she made Him ceremonially unclean according to Jewish law. When she touched Him, He felt power leave His body. It says that immediately she was healed and immediately Jesus felt that power left His body. Yet Jesus did not know who touched Him and recieved His power. He asked His disciples who had touched Him. His disciples were like really, who hasn’t touched you! Everyone is pressing in on us and touching you. How can we possibly know who is touching you!! As He was looking around to see who touched Him, the woman was afraid and trembling, came and fell down at His feet and told Him what had happened. His response to her shows His compassion. He didn’t say anything about Him now being unclean or complain about how she is keeping Him from going to Jairus home. He told her that her faith has made her well. He didn’t tell her that her great faith had made her well. We don’t have to have great faith, we are told that if we had faith like a mustard seed, we could move mountains. That is how you can know that the healers are false healers. They say that if you have enough faith you will be healed. That is not biblical. Our faith has no power in itself. All the power is in Jesus, the object of our faith. Then He told her to go in peace and her disease was cured.

Notice how both of them fell at Jesus’ feet. We will talk about this later. This whole time, I wonder what was going through Jairus’ head. He got Jesus to come to his house and on the way they are stopped. He was probably thinking about how long this is taking and we need to hurry. When Jesus had finished with the woman, some people came from Jairus’ house and told him that his daughter had died. That there was no reason to bother the teacher. Jesus heard them and told Jairus to not be afraid and to believe. That would be a hard command to follow. Someone tells you that you daughter is dead and Jesus says to just believe.

From there Jesus didn’t let anyone but the inner 3 go with Him. Peter, John and James. These 3 got to see a lot of things that the others didn’t. For whatever reason Jesus let them into His inner circle.

When they got to Jairus’ house, they saw a commotion and people loudly weeping and wailing. This was common for a Jewish funeral. They were nothing like our funerals today. The Jewish laws even had a law for how you were to conduct a funeral. If you were poor, you had to have at least 2 flute players and 1 wailer. They had laws for everything, literally. Jesus walks in and asks why are you making a commotion and weeping, the child has not died, but is only sleeping. It says that they began to laugh at Him. Now we can tell that they are not really sad, they are just doing a job. They went from weeping and wailing to laughing. The word used for laughing here is a condemning laughter. They were making fun of Jesus by laughing at Him.

Jesus put them all outside and takes the 3 and Jairus and his wife in to see the child. He takes the child by the hand. This is the second time in a matter of minutes that Jesus was made unclean, by Jewish law. The touching of a dead person was a big no no. But Jesus knew that she was not dead. He told her, “Talitha, kum!” which means little girl, I say to you, get up. And immediately she got up and walked around. She didn’t need therapy 2 a week for 4 months to be able to walk again. When Jesus heals, He heals instantly and completely. People who had been lame since birth, got up and walked. Hands were restored and worked perfectly. Jesus is the creator, He has absolute power. His healing is perfect.

The people how were in the room were immediately astonished. They were amazed at what they saw. We see later in Acts 9:40 that Peter raises Dorcas and says almost the exact same words as Jesus. Jesus gives them strict orders not to tell anyone! Again, this would be hard to not tell! Your daughter was just raised from the dead, and you can’t tell anyone!! Then He told them to give her something to eat. Again we see Jesus’ compassion. He is always concerned about others.

What an amazing day they had just had. A woman was healed of an incurable disease and a child was raised from the dead! Just another day with Jesus.

I want to look at how both of these to completely different people came to Jesus. They both came and fell on their knees at His feet. It makes a huge difference in how you come to Jesus! If you come to Him upright wanting to have a conversation, that is what you will get. If you come to Him humbly and fall at His feet, that is were salvation begins. Only when we are hopeless and desperate, will we run to Him and fall at His feet. Only through hopelessness and despair, do we come to realize that we need Jesus. Only when we are broken do we need the Creator who can put us back together. Only in our despair do we realize that we need a Savior. It is through our brokenness can the healing process begin. If we do not realize that we are broken, we don’t know that we need fixing. If we don’t realize that we are hopeless without Jesus, we don’t know that we need the hope that only He can give. If you haven’t come to Jesus and fell at His feet and begged for Him to give you His hope, His forgiveness, His light, are you really saved? I would say no. If we think everything is ok, we don’t need a savior. We have to get to the point in our lives that we realize that we can’t change anything. We need the one who changes everything. We need Jesus.

If you haven’t fallen at Jesus’ feet, when we sing, you come and fall at the feet of the only one who can give you hope, King Jesus.

Let’s pray