Only Believe

Mark 5:21–43 KJV

And when Jesus was passed over again by ship unto the other side, much people gathered unto him: and he was nigh unto the sea. And, behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name; and when he saw him, he fell at his feet, And besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live. And Jesus went with him; and much people followed him, and thronged him. And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague. While he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house certain which said, Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further? As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe. And he suffered no man to follow him, save Peter, and James, and John the brother of James. And he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth the tumult, and them that wept and wailed greatly. And when he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying. And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise. And straightway the damsel arose, and walked; for she was of the age of twelve years. And they were astonished with a great astonishment. And he charged them straitly that no man should know it; and commanded that something should be given her to eat.

(Pray)

Father, I thank you for your word. I pray your word would speak to the hearts and minds of your people. I pray you would inspire faith in us and hope my God. fill us with the wisdom of your Spirit. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen.

The message today is simple, yet it is straight forward. Desperate situations in life call for radical faith in Jesus.

Suffering, disease, sickness, and death are apart of each one of our lives. As I stand here before you this morning my mom is in an assisted living facility in Southeast Michigan, suffering from dementia. In 2003 my dad passed away from heart disease, he suffered with it for ten years before he died.

There will be over 650 thousand Americans die of heart disease this year alone. There will also be somewhere between 18-21 million people in the world diagnosed with cancer this year.

There was a record 495 outbreaks of the Norovirus between August and December resulting in 900 deaths. I could go on.

   If I were to pass a microphone around this room and we spent the day sharing the crisis we have experienced in our lives. I have no doubt we would be here until late tonight talking about all we have gone through.

We have all lost people we love, and we have all experienced sickness and disease.

The world of Mark chapter 5 should sound familiar to us, because it is the world, we live in. It is a world of heartache and difficult circumstances. It is a world where tragedy is a common occurrence.

   We see a father who is facing the death of his little girl. It is not supposed to happen that way. Children are supposed to out live their parents.

You can hear the helplessness in his voice as he comes to Jesus, because he is watching his little girl die and there is nothing, he can do about it. He is desperate.

            We see a world where people are suffering from chronic physical disease, that destroys their life. Like this woman with an issue of blood. There wasn’t anything anyone could do to help her. Her life had become hopeless.

            We see a world where faith is at war with doubt. And the people in our story have a choice to make. Are they going to believe the radical claims of Christ? Are they willing to stake their life on those claims? To do so, is to let go of all logic and reason, to trust in the impossible. But you see that is what radical faith does, it believes in the God of the impossible.

            In this story we see two people who have no hope but run head first into the compassion of Christ. We see God being God and working through faith in Jesus Christ to bring healing to the hopeless. This story teaches us; Desperate times in life call for radical faith in the power of God.

        First, I want to look at the radical faith of a desperate father. Vs. 21-24. Jairus is a man who was desperate, and he comes to Jesus and begs for the life of his daughter.

There was nothing else who could do, there was no one else he could turn to. He needed Jesus, so, he puts his faith into action, and he comes and falls at His feet. He shows us the kind of faith we need when we are going through desperate situations in life.

            You see Jairus was a prominent man. Were told he was a “ruler of the synagogue.” The synagogue was the center of all Jewish life. It wasn’t just the place of worship, but it was the courthouse. It was the school for the children. It was the center of everything they did.

So, Jairus was a respected man in the community. He had to be appointed to this position. He was an elected official. A keeper of the scrolls and a planner of the events of the synagogue for the priests and the Pharisees.

            Mark tells us this because he wants us to know Jairus faith was costly. It came with a price. You see there was already a plot by the chief priest and the Pharisees to kill Jesus.

They hated Jesus and certainly Jairus knew this. But, he was willing to risk it all if he could save his daughter. So he not only has faith, but he has courage. After this he probably is not going to have a job anymore. He probably is not going to be respected anymore and they may even want to kill him as well. But, he didn’t care. He put his faith into action.

            Let me ask you this, what is God asking you to do today? What is God asking you to step out in faith and risk? at work, or home, or school, who is He asking you to let your faith be made known too?

Radical faith is costly, and it takes courage, because It comes at a price, but it comes with a reward.

David had a radical faith that took courage when he took on Goliath in the Valley of Elah. Daniel had radical faith that took courage when he spent the night in King Nebuchadnezzar’s Lion’s den, and he came out unharmed.

Moses had radical faith that took courage when he stood up to Pharoah, the most powerful man in the world, and told him to let God’s people go. And Jairus shows us a faith that took courage in this story. What is God calling you to have faith that takes courage to do?

This is one of only a few times in scripture where we see a person’s name mentioned in the healing ministry of Jesus. Mark wants us to know who Jairus is. He wants us to know he was an important person. His name is recorded in the Bible and will be remembered forever.

And what a contrast that is with the nameless, faceless woman with the issue of blood. She is obscure. We do not know anything about her and we never will, accept she is sick.

This tells us that Jesus cares about His people on every level of the social order. It doesn’t matter if you are young or old, rich or poor. It does not matter if you are important or unknown. You are known by God. God loves you and cares about you and what you are going through.

In verse 23 Jairus asks Jesus to “come and lay hands on his daughter that she might be healed and live.” That is interesting to me because we have not seen Jesus do this.

We have not seen Him lay hands on anyone and heal them up to this point. We have seen Him heal a lot of people. We saw Him heal the man with the withered hand. We saw Him heal Peter’s mother-in-law. We saw Him heal the paralyzed man, who’s friends lowered him through the roof.

But, we haven’t seen Him lay hands on anyone and heal them. Obviously though Jairus had. Otherwise, he would have never asked Him to do this. Obviously, Jesus had used this method before.

That tells me we don’t have a record of all of the ways that Jesus healed people. There is no secret formula to healing. The only common denominator is faith in the power of God at work in Jesus Christ.

That is the purpose of this story. Just look at the contrast here. Jairus is a prominent man who comes right up to Jesus and asks Him to come and touch his daughter.

The unknown woman with the issue of blood tries to sneak up behind him and touch the hem of His garment. The point is; that power and authority is in the hands of God. All we can do is have faith, and trust Him for the outcome.

Desperate times call for radical faith in the power of God. Next, I want you to see the radical faith of an afflicted daughter. Vs. 25-34 This is a woman with an issue of blood, and she believes she can be healed.

 First, we are given a description of what she has been through. She has been suffering for 12 years. The doctors couldn’t help her in fact, she had only gotten worse.

Now, she is not only sick, but she is poor, and she is dying. You cannot blame the medical people of the day. They had no idea of what they were dealing with or how to help this woman. All of their cures would have been based on superstition and not scientific evidence. She was helpless.

Then we are told in Vs 27, she “heard of Jesus.” All of a sudden, there is hope again. She heard about this man that many claimed to be the Messiah. Because He was healing the sick, cleansing the Lepers and opening the eyes of the blind, but could He help her? Would He help her?

She didn’t have anything she could do or give to Him. She is an example of all of us. We come to Jesus spiritually bankrupt, and we do not have anything to offer Him but our faith and that is all He asks for. And that is what this woman brings to Jesus. She brings her faith.

Again, we see her faith is costly. When she comes to Him, He is surrounded by crowds of people. She is unclean and everyone knows it. She is a social outcast and if she goes near the people, they will stone her to death.

But she is desperate. She doesn’t have anything to lose she is already dying and if she doesn’t get to Jesus it doesn’t matter.

So, she covers head and face, and she begins to work her way through the crowd believing if she can just get close enough. If she can just touch the hem of His garment she could be healed and she is right. She has faith and courage, and she is rewarded.

That is what James is talking about when he tells us, Faith without works is dead. If you believe in Jesus it will be evident by the way you approach life. Your faith will tell you there is more to life than what you see with your eyes. Your faith will tell you there is a God who has a purpose and plan for your life.

In Vs. 34 we see the response of Jesus to the woman’s faith. He says, “Daughter, your faith has made you well.” He calls her daughter as a term of endearment. He wants her to know it is alright that she touched Him. She is a child of God and He loves her, and her healing was why He came into the world.

He also does this because He wants her to know it was her faith that made her well. It wasn’t the touch it was the belief.

And that is a truth that is as important for us today as it was for this woman. It is our faith in Christ that heals us. We may suffer in many ways from many things in this world. But it is faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God that heals us for all eternity. It is through faith in Christ we are saved, restored, regenerated and made new.

Tony Campolo tells the story of when he prayed for a man that had cancer, and the man’s wife called him in the middle of the week to tell him that her husband had died. Tony felt so bad but before he could say anything the woman said, “Don’t feel bad.” When we came to church on Sunday, he was so angry because he knew he only had short time to live, and he hated God.

He had been so miserable for so long because he blamed God for allowing him to go through this. But after you prayed, he had such a peace about him. He became so full of joy and the last three days we had together were the best days of our life. We have sung together and laughed together and prayed together. And I just wanted to thank you for laying hands on him and praying for him.

Tony said, “then she said something so profound, “he wasn’t cured but he was healed.” Sometimes the greatest miracle that takes place in our life is when we leave this world and we go to be with the Lord because we are eternally healed forever.

Desperate times call for radical faith in the power of God. The third thing I want you to see in this passage is a call to radical faith by a loving Savior. Vs. 35-43

I believe Mark wants us to see how the world gives up on us in this passage. While Jesus is still speaking to the woman the people from Jairus household come to him and tell him to forget it, the girl is dead. Don’t bother the teacher anymore. The tension in this story has been building because Jesus has been delayed so long, and now it is to late.

What they don’t know is this is no ordinary teacher. I’m reminded of when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, in the gospel of John and how He waited four days until Lazarus was long gone before He did anything, because nothing is over until Jesus says it’s over.

Jesus tells Jairus, “Do not be afraid, only believe.” But you see now Jairus went from having to believe God for a healing to having to believe God for a resurrection.

Now Jairus stands in our shoes where we all stand. And Jesus tells him to believe in spite of what he has been told. To believe in spite of what the world tells him to be true. Jesus calls Jairus and us to a radical faith that defies logic. He says, “Do not trust what you see Jairus, but trust Me!!”

When Jesus arrives at the house, He finds people who are weeping and wailing over the girl. And He tells them to stop it, the girls not dead.

And I want you to notice how fast these people go from crying over the little girl to laughing at Jesus. Vs. 40 says, “They laughed at Him.” It is almost sinister as if Satan himself were laughing that Jesus was to late.

These people did not care about the girl when she was alive and they don’t care about her now that she is dead. It is amazing how quick this world will turn on you. They will go from mourning over you to laughing at you. People will go from acting like they care about you to talking about you behind your back.

Jesus already knew what He was going to do, and I want you to notice He only takes people with Him who believe.

Again, the only common denominator of healing, is faith in the power of God. But, He doesn’t go in and lay hands on the little girl like He was asked to. Instead, He takes her by the hand and with a Word He says, “Little girl get up.”

Then Mark uses his favorite word we see again and again, in his gospel. “Immediately” She got up. She was raised from the dead, the ultimate healing of sickness and disease, and an example of what every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ will experience. We will pass from death into life, and from here into eternity.

Mark gives us one more piece of information that cannot go unnoticed. The little girl was twelve years old. Nothing is in the Bible by accident, and it is no coincidence the little girl was twelve years old and the woman had the issue of blood for twelve years. The stories are forever intertwined. They are woven together like fabric for our faith.

For the woman with the issue of blood the twelve years seemed like a lifetime and her life was over. For the little girl, in twelve years she was dead, and her life had just begun. Both of them had their lives changed in an instant through faith in the power of God in Jesus Christ.

That is the message of this story. Every one of us are important to God. It does not matter if you are old or young, or rich or poor. God cares about you and what you are going through.

In this story we see two people who approached Jesus in faith and He responds to them. One was a respected man, the other was a rejected woman.

One was a prominent ruler of the church, the other was excommunicated from society. One had an issue of blood for twelve years the other had only been alive for twelve years. One wanted Jesus to touch his daughter the other was a daughter who just wanted to touch Jesus.

It teaches us, Desperate times call for radical faith in the power of God. Jesus works in response to our faith. His heart is moved with compassion if we will only believe.