Faith in the Impossible Matthew 9:18-26

The Fear of Death and Christ’s Victory Over the Grave

One of the fearful realities of life is that everyone dies. Unless, of course, Christ returns before them. When you go to a funeral, you are reminded that one day this will be you. Most people are terrified of death.

When people are surveyed about what they fear most, death is always at the top of the list. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 2 .15 that people are subject to lifelong slavery as death hangs over people, and the devil is the one who holds this over someone.

Satan wants every human to fear death, to never find the solution, to find the hope in death, and from this to face eternal death forever. But the Bible's very clear that the solution to this problem, it's very clear on who the solution is.

Hebrews 2 .14 says that he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death. That is the devil. Jesus died for the sins of the world and then was raised from the dead, conquering the grave for everyone who trusts in him.

It's very sobering going to a funeral. And you've been to funerals. It's sobering to see a dead body before you, lifeless, when the person that once resided that body was so full of life. But believers have the sure hope that this lifeless body will once again have life again.

Jesus said in Mark 12 .27 that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. One day in the future, every dead believer will be raised to life along with the living believers at the final resurrection.

During Jesus' ministry, he showed everyone his extraordinary ability to raise the dead. In John 11, he did this with Lazarus. Lazarus was dead for four days. And then Jesus arrives on the scene. He calls him out of the tomb.

And this man who was covered with these clouds walks out and he's alive. Today, we are going to see the other occurrence in the Gospels where Jesus miraculously brings someone back from the dead. At this time, I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me to Matthew chapter nine.

We'll be looking at verses 18 through 26. And if you're using a red Bible in the pews, it's on pages 967 and 968. This sermon is titled Faith in the Impossible. And here's what the sermon's calling us to do today,.

As we will see.

Exercise extraordinary faith in Jesus. Exercise extraordinary faith in Jesus. And we'll see two reasons why in this text. But before we jump in, let me give you a little recap of where we were one week ago.

We looked at the conversation Jesus had with the disciples of John. The disciples of John the Baptist. John's disciples asked Jesus why he and his disciples did not fast. Jesus responded to them by saying, while he was with the disciples, they would not fast but feast.

Because he was in their presence. But once he was gone, once he left the world, then they would fast. What that sermon called us to do is to make fasting a regular pattern in our lives. We saw four reasons why.

The first reason is to pursue true religion rather than false. False religions say that you have to fast to earn God's favor, to receive entrance into heaven. Well, the true religion, the one true religion in the world, biblical Christianity says that you fast because it's a spiritual discipline.

It benefits you in some way. And we saw the benefits a week ago. The second reason we're to fast is we are to long for God's presence. As we are away from God's presence because it's a long distance relationship, as he is in heaven and we are on earth, we are to long to be in his presence one day.

And the third reason why we are to fast is to accompany times of urgent prayer. There are times when we need to cry out to the Lord and fasting gives an urgency and an intensity and a focus to our prayer life.

And the fourth reason we are to fast is to accompany times of confession. Sometimes it's appropriate to confess sins and to fast as we confess those sins. Fasting will help you in your walk with the Lord, just like all the disciplines, Bible reading, prayer, Christian fellowship like you're doing today.

So this is something we must do in our lives. Now, this leads us to our text this morning. We're gonna begin by reading verse 18. We're gonna take this apart verse by verse and see what the Lord wants us to see here.

Jairus’ Desperate Faith in Jesus

Verse 18, while he was saying these things to them, while Jesus was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him saying, my daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her and she will live.

This section begins by referencing the conversation Jesus just had with John's disciples. As I mentioned, as he was wrapping up this conversation, a ruler came to him. Like so many of these narratives in Matthew, there's a parallel narrative in the Gospels of Mark and Luke.

These two passages in Mark and Luke tell us a little more about this man, about this ruler. We learn what kind of ruler he was. Mark 5 .22 tells us that this ruler's name was Jairus and he was a ruler of the synagogue.

But what is a synagogue? The synagogue served as a supplemental place of worship for the Jews. The primary place was the temple, but at this time in Jewish history, synagogues were being built all over the region of Palestine.

At these synagogues, they had rulers that presided over the activities that took place there. They organized services and even taught. So Jairus was a man in authority and similar to the Centurion soldier, who was also a man in authority, he realized he needed urgent help and there was only one person who could help him.

We've already seen extraordinary acts of faith and we see one right here also. We see this faith when the ruler of the synagogue says to Jesus, my daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her and she will live.

As I already mentioned, this is very similar to the Centurion soldier that we've already seen in the Gospel of Matthew in chapter eight. These two men had one they deeply cared for in their household that needed healing.

They believed Jesus could heal and they knew that he had higher authority than them. These were men in authority who knew when someone had more authority than them and Jesus of course had way more authority than them.

He has way more authority than anyone. The Centurion believed that Jesus was God. By calling him Lord and the ruler of the synagogue may also believe this from the fact that he knelt before him. You only kneel in front of one that has much higher authority than you do.

Just as Jesus was pleased with the Centurion where he told everyone around, truly I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith, he too is pleased with the ruler of the synagogue by what verse 19 tells us.

Let's read that. And Jesus rose and followed him with his disciples. So Jesus did not reject the offer to heal as he never did during his ministry. He gladly wants to heal and there are many occurrences in the Gospels as we have seen in Matthew where Jesus heals the person because of one's faith.

We see that here with Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue. Now one can argue that Jesus bringing one back to life is his greatest miracle. We have seen Jesus do many miracles but we are going to see him do this extraordinary miracle of bringing Jairus' daughter back to life and maybe this is the most amazing miracle of all.

As I mentioned in the introduction, Lazarus was dead for four days when Jesus brought him back to life. Now we don't know how long this ruler's daughter has been dead but there's no question that she is dead.

What every physician will tell you in the world is that once you are dead, there's no coming back. They pronounce the person dead and they put the specific time the person died on the sheet. If you're dead, you can't be resuscitated.

Now you hear stories where people say that they were dead but someone revived them. But if one is resuscitated, what it means is that one has not crossed the line of death. A number of years ago when I was in seminary, we had an assignment to visit a local funeral home.

When pastors do funerals, they work alongside funeral directors so you can see the reason for the assignments. I had a conversation with the owner of the funeral home. He is one who has been around thousands of dead bodies during his career.

He explained to me that the points where death occurs is very mysterious. We were talking about this. Where is that line? Does the soul leave the body right when the heart stops and right when oxygen leaves or does it stay for a little while, allowing an opportunity for one to be resuscitated?

It's mysterious where the line of death is but humanly speaking, it is impossible for one to come back to life once that line is crossed. The ruler of the synagogue's daughter has crossed that point and she's dead.

This once vibrant, full of life, young girl is lifeless. And humanly speaking, this is tragic because there's no coming back. But the supernatural is not bound by the laws of nature. The ruler of the synagogue does not go to a physician.

You notice that he doesn't find a doctor who can heal. He knows this will do nothing so he pursues Jesus. What this ruler understands is this man before him is no ordinary man. He would have known about his reputation.

He would have known that he did things that no one else has ever done. He knew that he healed, that he cast out demons, that he calmed a raging storm. The healing that Jesus performed was not normal, natural healing where different measures are taken to bring one back to health.

You know, take this medication for a week and you'll be better seven days from now. That's not the kind of healing that Jesus did. The healing we are talking about is a miracle from the God-man, Jesus.

Once he gets this request, he travels to perform this miracle that we know from his track record will have the same result as the others. There will be healing here. But Matthew wants us to see the extraordinary faith that people had in Jesus by showing us another example of one's great confidence in Jesus as he travels en route to bring the ruler's daughter back from the dead.

The Woman With the Discharge of Blood

Okay, so we're gonna see another story inserted into this. This is very interesting. Verses 20 and 21. So Jesus is traveling and this is what happens. And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for 12 years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment for she said to herself, if only I touch his garment, I will be made well.

It's no coincidence that this event happened right after the extraordinary faith displayed by the ruler of the synagogue. And the author, Matthew, wants us to see this. We see the same remarkable faith from this woman who suffered from discharged blood and believed Jesus could heal her.

Think about the memory of this woman. 12 years with blood, this discharging from her body, and nobody can help her. There's nothing anybody can do. She has suffered enormously. And that's just the physical side of it.

As a Jew, her chronic hemorrhaging would have made her unclean according to Leviticus chapter 15, verses 25 through 28. If one is unclean, they were not permitted to enter the temple. And if they went out in public, they were to notify everyone that they were unclean.

So this condition led to physical suffering as this constant discharge of blood made her weak and anemic. And the social component would have been even more devastating. One that was unclean was cut off from normal society.

And to be an outcast in society is a very difficult existence. One thing that people have said during COVID -19 is that the isolation is maybe even more difficult than the virus itself. After 2020, with the lockdowns and the quarantining, our society can relate better to the misery of isolation.

However, the isolation of COVID -19 is short and temporary, while the isolation of this woman was for 12 years. This woman desperately wants to be healed and she believes that Jesus can do it. There's no question about that.

Like the ruler of the synagogue, she knows his reputation. In fact, Mark 5 .27 says that she heard the reports about Jesus. And as she heard these reports, she believed that he could heal her. Her faith is shown to be so extraordinary from the fact that she believes all she needs to do is just touch the fringe of his garment and that will do.

She'll be healed.

And the blood will no longer discharge from her body. We also see her extraordinary faith from the fact that the Greek literally says she kept saying to herself, this is a continuous practice. She was saying, if I only touch his garment, if I only touch his garment, I'll be healed.

She doesn't even believe she needs to ask him like everyone else has done. She just needs to touch a thread and this will take care of this enormous problem. She did this because she believed his reputation.

People were not making up fables about Jesus. He was really healing people. And she believed this. It was his reputation. Let's talk a little bit about reputation. Our reputation is something that is very important, but it's not as important as our character.

John won, the former college basketball coach, he won 10 national championships with UCLA. He once said that your character is far more important than your reputation. Your character is who you really are.

Your reputation is who people think that you are. Your character is who you are in private. A good test of integrity is who are you when no one is looking. What a tragedy it is when people find out one is completely different in private than he or she is in public.

This happened recently with a Christian apologist. I mentioned him a while back. He died eight months ago and everyone is learning that he was not the man he made himself out to be. He was a fraud. I mean, to say it plainly, what 1 Timothy 5 .24 says is the sins of some are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them.

The sins of others trail behind them. But eventually it'll all come out. We are to aim to have a sterling reputation that flows out of our strong character in private. It's good to have a good reputation as long as it matches who you really are.

And if we do this, we're reflecting Christ. What we know about Jesus is that He was perfect in private and in public. Jesus would frequently go away to a quiet place with no one looking to pray, just Him and His Father talking.

And as they talked, He would have prayed for people. He would have prayed for people like the ruler of the synagogue and this woman who had been bleeding for 12 years. People who were hurting, people who needed God.

He had compassion on them in private and He had compassion on them in public as we are about to see, as He's about to heal them. Jesus' reputation was one of loving people deeply, wanting to deliver them from their physical suffering,.

But more importantly,.

To deliver them from their spiritual suffering. We cannot lose sight of this. These people are not only going to be healed by Jesus, but they are also forgiven of their sins. Just like the paralytic and the men carrying Him believed that Jesus could heal.

Their faith in believing who He really is, the God-man sent from God, made it so that their sins would be forgiven. This is His reputation. He helps people in their trouble and gladly welcomes people to be His followers.

And most importantly, He delivers people from their worst problem, their bondage to sin. We must understand this as we go through the difficulty of the life of faith. Jesus has helped His people always.

If you look down through history, He's always there to help His people. Hebrews 4 .16 says, that let us then with confidence draw near unto the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

You may be going through something very difficult in your life right now. Understand that He will help you if you go to Him with strong conviction, with extraordinary faith. Even the faith of a mustard seed, He will help you.

But we don't want to settle there. We want to have extraordinary faith. Just like the ruler of the synagogue and the woman with discharged blood showed faith. God is so gracious that He even blesses our feeble faith.

But it brings so much glory to His name, more glory to His name when we demonstrate strong faith in Him. He's greatly pleased when you do this. God loves to see the extraordinary faith of His people when they know He is going to help because of His spotless reputation.

He always gives us precisely what we need when we ask. What I want to stress here is that I'm not talking about name it and claim it. There's much false teaching out there that says God will give you whatever your sinful heart desires.

No, that's not what the Bible teaches. It teaches that as you exercise faith in Him from a holy desire, this is when He comes through in great ways in your own personal life and corporately as a church.

As we pray to Him.

So we are to exercise extraordinary faith in Jesus. And the first reason why is that He has a sterling reputation of helping those in need. Here's the second reason why we need to exercise this strong faith in Him.

He comes through when you put yourself out there. We'll see this in verses 23 through 26. As we go through this text, there's no suspense as to whether He is going to be successful in delivering these two people, Jairus and this woman, who have these great needs.

He's going to deliver them. But let's see this play out starting with the healing of the woman as Jesus is on the way to raise Jairus' daughter from the dead. Verse 22, Jesus turned and seeing her, He said, Take heart, my daughter.

Your faith has made you well. And instantly, the woman was made well. So what this verse tells us is that once again, Jesus can read someone's thoughts. We saw Him read the negative thoughts of the scribes a few weeks back, and now He reads the mind of this woman seeing her great faith.

The Gospel of Mark gives us a little more of a background as to what happened here. Let me read this. For she said, the woman, 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. Reading this narrative helps explain why Jesus said to the woman, take heart. When the paralytic came to Jesus, Jesus used the same words to him. He told him, take heart, my son.

Your sins are forgiven. In verse 22, Jesus similarly says, take heart, daughter, your faith has made you well. This woman was embarrassed to approach Jesus because of her discharged blood. Remember, by Jewish law, she was unclean.

But what Jesus shows is these Jewish laws were only temporary, intended to convey to the nation of Israel through physical, unclean things, the greater reality of spiritual uncleanliness. But the rabbinic tradition stressed the smaller matters of the law over the bigger ones.

Jesus did not turn her away. The One who made the laws did not turn her away. A religious leader of this time would have done that. These sick leaders, these hypocrites, they would have turned her away, but not Jesus.

He embraces her. His words are tender and warm. Matthew 11 -28 is such a wonderful verse. Jesus says, come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

And that's what he's telling this woman here.

Come to me.

He wants to be approachable. He's got a big heart. What is interesting as we read in the Mark passage is that the woman touched Him, and then she immediately was healed. And Jesus knew someone touched Him because power went out from Him.

As we read in Mark, the woman felt bad about it. She felt bad that she didn't ask Him and she felt bad that she, being unclean, touched Jesus. This is why she came trembling to Him, but Jesus receives her with open arms and recognizes her faith, telling her here that it is her faith that has made her well.

And what I stress to you, as I mentioned in the previous point, is that this is no small faith exercised by this woman. She believed He could do it. Kept repeating this. If I only touch His garment, I will be made well.

She approached Him with courage, and she was healed. Now, once this episode with this woman was done, Jesus moves on to the other order of business. Him fulfilling His commitment to do something maybe even more remarkable than the miracle He just performed.

The Girl Raised from the Dead

Okay, so let's read this in the rest of this passage in verses 23 through 26. And when Jesus came to the ruler's house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, He said, Go away, for the girl is not dead, but sleeping.

And they laughed at Him. But when the crowd had been put aside, He went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose. And the report of this went through all that district. What we read here is that Jesus arrives at the ruler's house, at Jairus' house, and the flute players and the crowd are making lots of noise.

And you might wonder,.

What is this all about?

Usually when someone dies, people go to the place and it's quiet and it's somber. But here, there's lots of noise. At this time in history, there were professional mourners. They had flute players and wailing women to display the appropriate emotions of a great loss.

Very interesting. And what we see here, of course, is a very incredible loss. We don't know how old the ruler Jairus is, nor do we know how old his daughter is, but she's probably pretty young. A young girl.

It's sad when anyone dies, but when one is taken early in life, it's very hard to swallow.

It leaves a hole.

It's like a gut punch. We all know young people that have died. And the ache is great. In fact, our community lost two last spring from a car crash. We should imagine the pain that Jairus is feeling right now.

This is very deep pain, and he wants Jesus to heal his precious daughter. What Jesus does is tell everyone to leave.

Get out.

And what he's telling them is you won't be needed once I finish what I'm going to do. He commands the people, go away, since the girl is not dead but sleeping. The statement sleeping sounds very similar to what Jesus said about Lazarus in John 11.

Jesus said that Lazarus was asleep, meaning he was dead temporarily, but would awaken back to life. Jesus does the same thing here. He says that Jairus' daughter is asleep. And what he means, once again, is that she is going to come back to life.

And this is what's so incredible about this. This is so relevant to us. Everyone here who knows Christ, this is your future. You don't really die. You just go to sleep for a while. And then you come back to life in the future.

It's just goodbye for now. And then you get reunited with a new body that will never decay. And what we see here in our text is the response from the people. They laugh at Jesus. They know she is dead, not sleeping.

But of course, they didn't understand what Jesus was saying. Jesus silences their laughs at the end of verse 25. And she arose, as that verse says. As the crowd is outside, the girl immediately rises from the dead.

Can you imagine the joy of her father? His sweet daughter was dead, but is now alive again. And praise be to God that He has the power to do this. And as we read passages like this, we must constantly remind ourselves and trust that this will happen to us someday.

Maybe you'll remember this sermon someday. And remember this text.

And you'll say,.

We talked about this. And look, I'm alive now with my new body. And the beauty is that some of us will never die, maybe. Who knows? With the way the world is getting, Christ is going to come back and those who are alive at the time will never die because you're going to be given a new body right there.

So you'll never face death. Now that's the best case scenario. Never have to go through death. And it could happen to us. And as we talk about this, you can just imagine a secular person saying, you guys really believe that?

You guys really believe in Noah's flood? Do you really believe in the resurrection of the dead? There was one political commentator who said that. He was making fun of people. And he said, yeah, these are those people who believe that Noah's Ark really happened.

And I'm thinking, okay, well that's me. That's my friends. That's my family. That's our church. I mean, we believe that. And it's true. They won't be laughing someday. And they call Christianity a fool's hope.

It's like fool's gold to them. Historically, gold has been one of the most sought after elements on planet Earth. It was worth much in trading, making one wealthy. But there's another element in the world known as fool's gold.

Fool's gold scientifically is known as pyrite or iron sulfide.

It's called fool's gold.

Because it looks like real gold.

But unlike gold,.

Fool's gold is prone to corrosion and therefore not worth nearly as much. Before the modern age, people searched for treasure. People risked everything to pursue gold. And sometimes people were successful.

And found gold.

But many times, it was a false hope. They came across an element that had little value. And they left greatly disappointed when they found this fool's gold that they thought was real gold. There are people in the world that think this describes Christianity.

There was a first century Roman writer by the name of Lucian who made fun of Christians' belief that they would live forever because they trusted in Christ. He called Christians misguided creatures. But anyone in the world that thinks we have a false hope is greatly mistaken.

Jesus comes through for those who trust Him. If you put yourself out there in faith, like Jairus and the woman with discharged blood, He delivers every time.

Christianity.

Is not a fool's hope. The Apostle Paul answered this question about false hope in 1 Corinthians 15 verses 19 and 20. He wrote, If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

But.

In fact, Christ has been raised from the dead the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. What Paul is saying here is we don't follow Christ just because it's a good way to live.

Just because.

It makes my life better. Just because we like the morality of it. It just makes our life better. If that's why you follow Christ, you miss on the whole point. That's not why we follow Christ. We follow Christ because it's everything.

It's the meaning of life.

Without it,.

There's no hope. That's why we follow Jesus. It's a risk to follow Him. But it's the best risk you could ever take. We've already seen in Matthew that Jesus has told us to count the cost. To follow Jesus means giving up your life in this world.

The world wants to hold on to this life forever. But what you see when you follow Christ is that this world is not your home. And a much better place awaits.

I hope that we have.

A homesickness for heaven that has grown in this past year. Following Christ means leaving your sin, leaving your old life, and even leaving friendships you once had because your friendship isn't the same anymore.

Because what once bonded you together is gone and you no longer take part in sin the way your unbelieving friend does. It's inevitable that this is going to happen as you follow Christ.

Not only.

Is taking the first step with Christ a risk of conversion, but the whole Christian life is full of risks. The Christian life is one big adventure where God wants us to step out and trust that He will watch over.

And bless us.

This church took a risk four years ago. We are less than two weeks away from the four year anniversary since me and my family moved here. And I've enjoyed talking to people at this church as they talk about what the year was like before we arrived.

You didn't have many people. You didn't have much money.

The facilities needed.

Updated. And you wondered whether you were going to just try to survive going forward or try to build something exciting. You took a risk. And I know Larry Forsberg was very influential.

In that.

You wanted to bring in just more than a part-time pastor who would fill the pulpit. This was a risk when you looked at the resources you had and God has blessed that risk. And by the way, it's not because of me.

It's not because I have some special talent that needed to happen. God is the one who's done it. Because you put yourself out there. God noticed your faithfulness and He's blessed that. You took a risk and God is taking care of our church family.

He has blessed us abundantly during these last four years. And I believe the brightest days are still ahead as we continue to trust Him. And even as I think about my role in this, God just wants people who want to put themselves out there.

Who say, Lord, send me. I want to do this. You don't need to be the most talented. You don't need to be the most skilled. Oftentimes, those are the ones who fall. Those are the ones who don't work out.

But you need to be the one who says, Lord, I want to do this. And I think that describes us well. And the Lord's going to bless that. And He has already. And we're just getting started. And in your own personal life, God wants you to take risks.

He wants you to turn from sin. Trusting that His way is better. It's so much easier to sin than to pursue holiness. But when we pursue holiness, what we're saying is, Lord, I trust You. I'm going to do the hard thing.

Trusting that Your way is better than my way. He wants you to dream big. Believing that He can take you further with Him than you ever thought you could go. And He can do more through you than you ever thought.

He wants you to have more faith in Him. And He will take care of you. And He will bless you as you take those risks.

As you pray from a.

Place of holy desire, the Lord will do far more than you thought possible. As you pray and as you act on that prayer. As you act on that trust. He will bless you. So we are to exercise extraordinary faith in Jesus.

We've seen two reasons why in this text. The first reason is that He has a sterling reputation of delivering, of helping His people. The second reason why is that He comes through when you put yourself out there.

So let's do that. God loves it when His people put themselves out there. We don't fall flat on our face. He's there to help us. The Lord has taught me something really neat this week.

With my son.

Any of you who know Isaiah and you all get to know him more as he gets older. He turns two in March. He's full of energy. And he's a little gymnast. He climbs things. He does somersaults. He likes to show off to people.

He does all these fun things. And we have this climbing wall that he climbs up.

To on.

And he loves.

To jump off of it. And he loves for me, his dad, to catch him. And he climbs up it. And he jumps without even looking. Trusting that I am going to catch him every time. And the Lord's been teaching me.

He's like, Seth, you're Isaiah.

And I'm you.

In this illustration. Throw yourself out there.

I will catch you.

I will take care of you. I will bless you. Because we want to trust ourselves, don't we? We come into this world thinking that we can do everything. We have this belief that we can do it. We want to trust.