Desperate Faith

vcfss Oct. 6-7, 2007

Luke 8:40-48

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I. Introduction:

Two 80 year old men, Moe and Joe, have been friends all of their lives. When it's clear that Joe is dying, Moe visits him every day. One day Moe says, "Joe, we both loved baseball all our lives, and we played minor league ball together for so many years. Please do me one favor, when you get to Heaven, somehow you must let me know if there's baseball there."

Joe looks up at Moe from his deathbed, " Moe, you've been my best friend for many years. If it's at all possible, I'll do this favor for you. Shortly after that, Joe passes on.

At midnight a couple of nights later, Moe is awakened from a sound sleep by a blinding flash of white light and a voice calling out to him, "Moe--Moe."

"Who is it?" asks Moe sitting up suddenly. "Who is it?"

Moe--it's me, Joe. You're not Joe. Joe just died.

I'm telling you, it's me, Joe, insists the voice.

Joe! ! Where are you?

In heaven, replies Joe. "I have some really good news and a little bad news"....

"Tell me the good news first," says Moe.

"The good news," Joe says," is that there's baseball in heaven. Better yet, all of our old buddies who died before us are here, too. Better than that, we're all young again. Better still, it's always springtime and it never rains or snows. And best of all, we can play baseball all we want, and we never get tired."

"That's fantastic," says Moe. "It's beyond my wildest dreams! So what's the bad news?"

"You're pitching Tuesday"

a. Today’s story is about desperate faith of two people

b. Keep this in mind; Faith must be tested before it can be trusted.

c. Learning a new spiritual truth is great but it doesn’t become real until we live it.

d. Satan doesn’t care how much Bible truth you learn as long as you don’t live it.

e. Head truth is academic. God is looking for practitioners

II. The set up (text)

Slide 2

Lk 8:40-42a

Now when Jesus returned, a crowd welcomed him, for they were all expecting him. 41 Then a man named Jairus, a synagogue leader, came and fell at Jesus' feet, pleading with him to come to his house 42 because his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, was dying.

TNIV

a. Jesus returns to the Jewish side of Sea of Galilee

b. Synagogue ruler

i. Appointed by the Religious Elders

ii. Responsible for the worship, selected those who led the prayers and read the Scripture and taught

iii. The fact that her would come to Jesus indicated that he acknowledged who Jesus was

c. Three things that make this story so poignant

i. This was Jairus’ only daughter

ii. She was entering into womanhood, her life before her

iii. Jairus was the synagogue ruler

1. He had reached a high position, a position of prestige

2. He had the respect of the people

3. Perhaps through ambition and hard work he had risen through the ranks of his fellow-worshippers to the synagogue president.

4. Here he was at the high point of his life having achieved success and yet he was about to lose that which he cherished most.

5. It’s very possible that the wailing women had already gathered because death was imminent

d. Jairus is desperate.

i. His 12 yr. old daughter is dying

ii. He struggles to push through the crowd

iii. He prostrates himself before Jesus

iv. Not the usual position of a synagogue ruler

III. The interruption

Slide 3

Lk 8:42b-48

As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. 43 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. 44 She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.

45 "Who touched me?" Jesus asked.

When they all denied it, Peter said, "Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you."

46 But Jesus said, "Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me."

47 Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. 48 Then he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace."

a. Jesus doesn’t hesitate but immediately goes with Jairus

b. He is interrupted on his way to Jairus’ house

c. The woman has many strikes against her

i. Women in Palestine had very little value

ii. Chronic bleeding for 12 years, the same period of time that Jairus’ daughter had been alive.

iii. Because of the bleeding she was unclean according to the Jewish law

iv. She was cut off from religious life and a social outcast

v. She had done everything she knew to get healed

1. Doctor’s had given up on her

2. She had spent all her money

3. She was in a hopeless place

vi. Have you ever been in that place?

d. She approaches Jesus

i. A woman would never touch a man in public

ii. By touching Jesus he would become ceremonially unclean

iii. Think how difficult it is to move through a crowd

She was touching other people in the crowd

iv. She was in a weakened state

v. She carried years of shame

vi. She didn’t confront him like the blind beggar Bartimaes

vii. She snuck up behind him

viii. What was going through her mind, what thoughts were filling her head, what were the voices she had to silence?

ix. Luke doesn’t tell us what she knew about Jesus, she believed by touching him she would be healed.

1. Didn’t say Pray for me

2. Didn’t say Touch me.

Slide 4

e. The touch

i. Mark tells us that she believed all she had to do was touch Jesus’ robe

ii. Isn’t that amazing?

1. She didn’t want to confront Jesus

2. She didn’t want to make a scene

3. She wanted to slip in and slip out unnoticed

iii. What happened?

1. She is immediately healed, Luke tells us the bleeding stopped

2. She can feel it in her body

3. Something wonderful has happened

iv. “Who touched me?”

1. This is one time when Jesus didn’t have a word of knowledge and had to ask a question

2. Peter is incredulous, he can’t believe Jesus is even asking such a question

v. Jesus stops

1. Time stood still

a. The crowd hushed

b. Jairus the distraught father stopped

c. The disciples stopped their ridicule

2. Jesus said, this was no ordinary touch no bump in a crowd no pat on the shoulder

3. It is so easy to stay live in our five senses that we totally miss the God moments

4. What was so special about this touch?

a. She only touched the bottom of his robe

b. She didn’t even touch his flesh

5. Power left me!

6. Oh no! The very thing she did not want to happen, she is exposed in this crowd

7. Trembling she identifies herself and falls at his feet

vi. A moment to remember

1. The beauty of the moment is that Jesus gives her his full attention

2. He was now face to face with the woman

3. It was as though no one else was around

a. The crowd forgotten

b. The urgency of Jairus’ daughter forgotten

4. Jesus spoke to her as though she was the only person in the world, this poor, unimportant sufferer with a condition that made her unclean.

5. Jesus gave all of himself to this unimportant person

a. How often do we dismiss someone because we deem them unimportant

b. They can’t help us get ahead

c. They are not like me.

Slide 5

6. “Daughter”

a. A term of endearment

b. This social outcast is welcomed into God’s family.

7. Your faith has healed you

a. Jesus clearly identifies that the healing came by faith

b. There are lots of desperate people but they have no faith.

c. She was aggressive but not confrontative

d. Passivity and pride keep people from receiving what God wants to give them

Slide 6

8. Go in peace

a. Jesus give her the blessing of peace

IV. So what?

a. Luke records the moment in Nazareth when Jesus reads from the prophet Isaiah his mission statement

click

i. Good news to the poor

ii. Freedom for prisoners

iii. Sight to the blind

iv. Free those that suffer

b. Throughout his gospel he records these stories of the way Jesus related to women, the poor, the sick

c. This is a wonderful story of faith

d. This woman was desperate

e. She had done everything that could be done

f. Her desperation was one of faith because it was connected to Jesus

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