What It’s Like To Have Faith In Jesus | Mark 5:21-43

What’s y’all’s favorite restaurant?

Taco bell for 3 months straight story (reference traveling for job)

I valued Taco Bell so much that I ate there for 3 months straight. And I do this with other things as well. When I’m binging a TV show that I love I get crazy addicted to it (it’s actually why I often rewatch shows), I love Adidas shoes, comfort colors shirts, there are many things in my life that I have faith in that I know is reliable.

And if you ask me, “What’s your favorite brand of shoes?” or, “What’s your favorite fast food restaurant?” I’m gonna likely gonna praise Adidas shoes and Taco Bell and talk about them for a while.

That’s because we as humans naturally give glory to and trust things that have proven reliable to us.

And who’s the most reliable person that has ever lived? Jesus

I’ve been to Taco Bell MANY times and the problem with Taco Bell is they get your order right about 80% of the time. And when they do get your order right, everything is only cooked well and tastes really good like 50% of the time (honestly maybe even less than that). So you’re really taking a chance when you go to Taco Bell for your order to be wrong and for the food you get to just be okay. But I still go because I love it when it’s just right.

Jesus never messes up your order. Jesus is never subpar. He’s always reliable and He’s always the most righteous and loving person on the planet. And that’s what our passage tonight is about. Having faith in Jesus.

[Scripture Reading]

Mark 5:21–43 NLT

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.

The really cool thing about this story is we really have two stories mashed into one here. Jesus heals two people.

And in verses 21 through 28 we see the state of both people Jesus would eventually heal before Jesus enters the scene.

Which brings us to our first point tonight…

1. Who we are without Jesus (Mark 5:21-28).

So we saw a couple weeks ago Jesus arrived at one side of the lake from the boat He was on and healed a demon-possessed man. In verse 21 we see that Jesus and the disciples hopped back in the boat after Jesus healed the demon-possessed man to go back to where He was. We don’t know how much time has passed, just that Jesus decided to go back to the other side of the lake.

And as soon as Jesus arrives there’s a huge crowd waiting for Him at the other side of the lake. And among this crowd is a Pharisee. Remember we’ve seen in previous chapters that the Pharisees have not had faith in Jesus. In fact, when Matt Sorrow came and preached from chapter 3 for us, we saw that the Pharisees accused Jesus of being from Satan. So Pharisees have not exactly been on team Jesus up to this point.

But this particular Pharisee was desperate. His daughter was dying. And he was helpless to do anything about it. I’m sure he tried other ways to nurse her back to health, but nothing worked. She was dying. He was helpless to help his daughter.

How many of y’all have had an experience where you’ve felt helpless?

One time I had a friend who I was pretty close to making all these terrible choices. He thought he was following God but he was actually making all these selfish choices that were only making himself look good. And I tried so hard to show him that, but he didn’t listen. I had many conversations with him and even confessed sins to him that I was struggling with so he’d realize that I’m not just accusing him of sin, I’m a sinner too, and that we could work through our struggles together. But he didn’t listen. And I felt helpless in that moment to help him.

Now dial this feeling I had up to 11. Jairus has a daughter who is dying and he is helpless to save her. He’s probably heard about Jesus from many people at this point. He’s probably heard of the many healings Jesus has preformed. So in a desperate attempts, even though all his other Pharisees were avidly against Jesus, he goes and asks Jesus for help. And Jesus agrees to help him.

So Jesus goes with him in verse 24. And the crowds are still all around Jesus following him as Jesus is going to Jairus’ house. And among the crowd there’s someone else who desires the healing power of Jesus.

There was a woman who had suffered with constant bleeding for 12 years. 12 years she has dealt with this. And we see in verse 26 that she had gone to many doctors to get help and no one could help her. She had spent all her money to get help and no one could help her. In fact, she had actually gotten worse.

How many of y’all have had situations where you tried everything and nothing seems to work?

I certainly felt that way with my friend in Dublin that I was trying to help. But nothing I did worked.

So this woman is desperate for someone to help her. And she hears about Jesus. And so she tries to track Him down and finally finds Him as He is following Jairus. So she pushes through the crowd because she thought to herself that if she could only just barely touch his robe then she would be healed.

Both Jairus and this woman are desperate for help. Both in very different situations, but both are in dire need of Jesus. Jairus is trying to save his daughter while this woman is just trying to be saved from her condition.

And if y’all didn’t know this, a woman who was bleeding back then was considered unclean. I know, different times, and this isn’t the case now, but back then they were considered unclean so they would have to isolate themselves for a certain amount of time, then they would have to preform this purification ritual. But this woman never got better so she was constantly considered unclean.

So this woman represented through her condition someone who was unclean. Enter Jesus. Let’s move on to point 2…

2. Who we are with Jesus (Mark 5:29-43).

The woman pushes through the crowd to Jesus and manages to touch His robe. And immediately she was healed. And I love the way verse 29 describes what happened. It says…

Mark 5:29 NLT

29 Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition.

Her condition before Jesus was one that caused her to be constantly unclean. And it is only because of Jesus that she went from being constantly unclean to clean.

Does that sound familiar? We all as humans have a terrible condition. The condition of sin. We are all infected with sin. And this isn’t just some people, this isn’t just most people, this is all people (except for Jesus). We are all sinners.

And when Jesus stepped off His throne in heaven to become a man, He didn’t just heal people of physical sickness like He did with this woman. He healed the entire world of sin. The Son of God became a man so He could take on the full wrath of God that we deserved for our sins. And now whoever believes in Him has eternal life in heaven. When they go to heaven there won’t be any sickness. No sin. Just Him.

Jesus realized in that moment what had happened. It says in verse 30 that Jesus realized that healing power had gone out from Him. So He turned around and addressed the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?”

The disciples are looking at Jesus like He’s crazy, like, “Don’t you see all these people? How can you ask, ‘Who touched me?’” But Jesus kept looking and finally the woman walked up, scared, and told Jesus that she was the one who touched Him and was healed. Jesus looks at her and says, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.”

Thanks be to Jesus that when we come to Him as a sinner in faith that He can save us from our sin so that we may go in peace.

Now we could spend the rest of the sermon on this part of the story just because of how cool it is, but there’s more for us to tackle so we’ll move on.

While Jesus is talking to the woman, messengers come from Jairus’ house and it’s not good news. They tell Jairus that his daughter is dead.

Imagine being in Jairus’ shoes for a moment. Imagine you have a close family member who was dying and you’ve seen them get worse and worse and your last glimmer of hope is this guy who has been healing people throughout the region. You plead for His help and He says He will help you. Just for y’all to get there too late. And it seems like all hope is now gone. He’s hopeless.

How many of y’all have had times where you have no hope? That was Jairus

But Jesus doesn’t stop at healing this woman. He tells Jairus not to lose hope, not to be afraid, but to have faith in Him. Even when everything seems hopeless. Jesus is there to give Jairus hope.

In the same way, when you experience hard times. When things happen in your life that make everything seem hopeless, Jesus is who we should run to. Because He is there to give hope to the hopeless.

They continue on to Jairus’ house and Jesus brings Peter, James, and John with Him and when they walk in, everyone is weeping because they thought the little girl had died. Jesus asks everyone, “Why are you weeping? She isn’t dead, she’s just asleep.”

This seems so outlandish that the crowd laughed at Jesus. Jesus wasn’t having any of that though and told everyone to leave. He went to the room of the little girl with Peter, James, John, and the parents, Jesus holds her hand and says, “Little girl, get up.” And the little girl got up and walked around.

The condition of this little girl before Jesus showed up was she was asleep. It wasn’t until Jesus got there that she was able to wake up.

In the same way before we are saved, we are asleep. Not truly aware of the damage our sin is causing. And it is only through Jesus that we wake up. We go from being useless to disciples. We go from death to life.

And the response to this is seen in the second half of verse 42. The parents are overwhelmed and totally amazed. In the same way, when we realize the weight of whatJesus did for us on the cross; when we think about how much He loves us by doing this for us, it amazes us. And we live out eternity praising Him for what He has done.

So this passage has shown us what it’s like without Jesus, and what it’s like with Jesus. So now our third point is the question that this passage poses for us. And that is…

3. Where have you placed your faith?

I’m actually not gonna be preaching through point 3. We’re actually gonna answer this question in small groups. Let’s take some time to do some introspection. What have you placed your faith in? Have you placed your faith in yourself? Always desiring to look good and for others to praise you. Have you placed your faith in another person? Maybe you use up most of your energy just trying to please a specific person. Have you placed your faith in something material like a video game or a TV show? What do you spend most of your free time on? That’ll usually give you an idea of where you have placed your faith.

Be thinking about these things, because this is what we’ll be diving into it in small groups.