Wednesday, April 21, 2021 PM

Luke 8: Jesus Calms the Storm, Casts Out Legion, and Heals the Unclean

To be in Luke chapter 8, verses 40 through 56 tonight. Luke chapter 8, verses 40 through 56. Before I read the word for us, let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we come before you this evening and we thank you for gathering us together in this place at this time.

We thank you for the power and truth and surety of your word. We pray that you would help us to understand it. We pray that you would nourish our lives with your word. And that as we look at Jesus Christ, that we will be led by you, that we would be sanctified by you, changed by you, help all of our affections to be centered where they ought to be, upon Christ supremely.

We pray these things for his sake, amen. Luke chapter 8, beginning in verse 40. I may remember that Jesus has just crossed over the Sea of Galilee and come back. On the way over, he calmed a storm with but a word, and he met a man possessed by a legion of demons, and he healed him.

And these things, having taken place, we come to Jesus as he returns from that region. Verse 40, so it was when Jesus returned that the multitude welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. And behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue.

And he fell down at Jesus' feet and begged him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter, about 12 years of age, and she was dying. But as he went, the multitudes thronged him. Now, a woman having a flow of blood for 12 years, who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any, came from behind and touched the border of his garment, and immediately her flow of blood stopped.

And Jesus said, who touched me? When all denied it, Peter and those with him said, Master, the multitudes throng and press you, and you say, who touched me? But Jesus said, somebody touched me, for I perceived power going out from me.

Now, when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared to him in the presence of all the people the reason she had touched him and how she was healed immediately.

And he said to her, Daughter, be of good cheer. Your faith has made you well. Go in peace. While he was still speaking, someone came from the ruler of the synagogue's house, saying to him, your daughter is dead.

Do not trouble the teacher. But when Jesus heard it, he answered him saying, do not be afraid, only believe, and she will be made well. When he came into the house, he permitted no one to go in except Peter, James, and John, and the father and mother of the girl.

Now all wept and mourned for her, but he said, do not weep, she is not dead, but sleeping. And they ridiculed him knowing that she was dead. But he put them all outside, took her by the hand, and called, saying, little girl, arise.

Then her spirit returned, and she rose immediately, and he commanded that she be given something to eat. And her parents were astonished, but he charged them to tell no one what had happened. As with last time, we have an intertwined story.

Prior, Jesus and his disciples crossing over the Sea of Galilee to the region of Decapolis, to the Gatherings. They encounter the storm, Jesus calms the storm, and then encounters legion, and he calms legion.

With the word, he calms the storm. With the word, he sets a legion of demons on retreat. And here again, we have an intertwined story. We have two miracles. We have the lady who had spent all that she had on doctors could not be healed, and she was healed by Christ.

And then we have a little girl who was raised from the dead. So what are the relationships here between these two strands of the story? And in some fashion, we have more contrast than we do comparison.

We have Jairus, who is a ruler of the synagogue. And what does that mean? Well, it means that he was in charge of things. He actually organized the worship services at the synagogue. He would select the readings.

He would select what psalms would be sung. And he did that because he had a lot of respect from the community. Everybody knew Jairus. They thought well of Jairus. He had a great deal of influence. He had a great deal of resources.

And in contrast to Jairus, we have this woman. Jairus has a name. This woman is given no name. One is famous. The other one is unknown. Jairus is caring for his daughter. And it seems that no one is caring for this woman.

Where is her husband? Where are her children? Is there anyone who is caring for her? There is definitely a comparison in the fact that it's an impossible situation for the woman and for the little girl.

There's no hope for either one to be made clean other than, or made well other than Jesus. But think about this. The woman actually touched Jesus, but Jesus took the girl by the hand. The woman comes to Jesus in the midst of the crowd, and Jesus sent the crowd away before he raised the little girl.

There was no concern in the community for this woman whatsoever, but there was a great hullabaloo about the little girl because she was the daughter of Jairus. So we see there's a great deal of contrast between both strands of the story.

The common denominator being that both were impossibly sick, impossible to heal or to help other than Jesus. And the fact that Jesus, by being touched by this unclean woman and touching the dead girl would have been considered unclean twice over.

It's very interesting, isn't it? You know, when I read this passage, I wonder, it's like, why did the multitude not believe Jesus when he said what he said about the little girl? Only believe and she will be made well.

Oh, no, she is sleeping. And they laughed him to scorn. They did not believe him. Why wouldn't they believe him? Especially after just what just happened with the woman in the midst of the crowd. Well, it's interesting when we begin to read this section of Luke 8 with what just happened.

I mean, all of it hangs together. We see that the word of God has authority over all creation. Jesus has authority over all creation. He speaks a word and he calms the wind. He sends the wind away on the Sea of Galilee.

And here is a man full of demons, the most full of unclean spirits. He's the most unclean person I think Jesus ever met. A legion of uncleanness and Jesus speaks a word in a way the uncleanness goes. And then Jesus encounters this woman who is also unclean and not full of demons, but full of disease.

And there was nothing she could do. Remember then in the region of the Gadarenes, they did everything they could to chain legion up, to keep him restrained, but they couldn't do anything for him. And there was nothing that the physicians could do for this woman.

She spent all she had trying to get well, but nobody could help her any more than they could have helped legion, but Jesus heals her. And then where he sent the wind away with a word on the Sea of Galilee, he brought the wind back, the spirit back into the lungs of this little girl where she would be breathing again.

This is an intentional pattern in the stories, comparison of the power of the word of God. And so we see him doing the impossible, but we also see Jesus revealing the inscrutable. The word of God exposes what is hidden.

Not only is the word of God have authority over all creation, but the word of God exposes what is hidden. Remember the parable that Jesus told earlier on in this section of Luke about the parable of the soils, how the word of God's own exposes what kind of soil is there.

Is it hard soil? Is it rocky soil? Is it thorny soil? Or is it fertile soil? The word of God will show what quality soil there is. And so also when Jesus said, who touched me? The word of God did what?

The woman said, I'm found out, I have to say what happened. And she revealed what had occurred and the struggle she had been through, but how now she was completely healed. In fact, Jesus, when he was trying to, and you look how compassionate Jesus is.

He knows what is in man, but still he has compassion. He's trying to help the crowd understand all is not lost, right? I'm here, all is not lost. And he uses a common euphemism for death. He even said it about Lazarus, right?

Oh, she's sleeping. You know, to put the image into the minds of his congregation that for Jesus, when it comes to somebody who's dead, it's for him as easy as waking somebody up who's asleep. He's trying to instill faith in their hearts and yet they're mocking him.

But the word of God reveals what was in their hearts as well. So the word of God, we see him doing the impossible. We see him revealing the inscrutable and we see him healing the irreconcilable. We see something about relationships here, don't we?

Isn't it interesting that Jairus has a daughter and he can implore for her and he can go beg Jesus to come and heal her. But nobody is interceding and advocating for this woman. But how, she's cut off from all relationships.

She has no more money. Nobody can be around her because she's perennially unclean. But not only does Jesus heal her, do you see what he does? He says to her daughter, verse 48, what does Jesus call her?

He says to her daughter, you have good cheer. Your faith has made you well. You see the emphasis upon the relationship. He raises the dead. He renews, he restores, he cleanses, he delivers. The word of God makes all things new.

So we see in this chapter, the word of God has authority over all creation. The word of God exposes what is hidden and the word of God makes all things new, relationships and creation. So what do we learn from verses 40 through 56 here in Luke chapter eight?

Jairus had no hope. This woman had no hope left.

What did they do?

Find Jesus.

Jesus.

We've got nothing left. There's no more answers. There's no more solutions. They run to Jesus. When folks had no reason to hope, they turned to Jesus in faith and were healed. And in fact, they were helped and they were loved more than they ever expected.

It was more than what they were hoping for. The lady went to go get healed, but not only did she get healed, but all of a sudden everybody knew she was healed and restored to the community. She was no longer unclean.

They all needed to know that. She was supposed to go to the high priest and the high priest would, he would like approve of her being cleansed. And then he would let the community know, but she didn't have to do that.

She went to the great high priest. He took care of all of that. And then he calls her daughter. What a compassionate, loving, gracious thing. And then we see also with this family, Jairus and his wife, Jesus sends the people outside and nobody's in except Peter, James, and John, you know, his inner circle and the father and the mother of the girl so that only they're going to see what happens.

And in fact tells them, don't tell anyone what happened. Now, why would he do that? Well, there's probably several reasons why, but secrets are good for a relationship. They deepen a relationship. That's what Jesus said to, that's what he said to his followers in Matthew 6 about true piety.

You know, your piety is not real if it's just public. Your giving and your praying and your fasting should be done in secret for your heavenly father. And you have the joy of you and your heavenly father knowing what's going on and you don't give that away to anybody else.

And so here he emphasizes relationship with this family as well. But when folks had no reason to hope, they turned to Jesus and they found him to be better than they thought. And we also see that Jesus can heal any ailment.

He can fix any problem. He can save any situation or any person, right? This woman had been written off by all the medical experts. And don't you just love that word experts. There is, I think currently and perhaps in history, no word more qualified to be the court jester of the vocabulary than that word experts.

What a joke. The experts of every age are completely wrong by the next one. They are a flash in the pan and very quickly they are all fools because the next crop of experts have all said so.

Yes, sir.

An expert is a drip under pressure. There we go. But the experts had said she can't be healed. She's done, she's toast and Jesus healed her. When they heard that Jairus' daughter was dead, they said, give up, stop, go away.

Don't bother the teacher anymore, she's dead. But Jesus can heal any ailment and raise even the dead. We also see that Jesus had to deal often with symptoms of unbelief. It wasn't that this woman was a great woman of faith, but because she had a super abundance of faith that she healed herself.

Or even that Jairus and his wife that they had an abundance of faith. Or that the dead girl believed in Jesus so that she could be raised from the dead. The emphasis in the text is not about how great people's faith, even the disciples questioned Jesus.

You'd think Peter would get it through his thick head that when Jesus said something, he really meant it. I mean, Jesus had just calmed the storm, just cast out legion. And then Jesus says, who touched me?

And Peter has the audacity to, Jesus, don't you think you're being kind of silly? No, no, he should trust that Jesus had like, Jesus knew what was going on. He knew he was being thronged. Peter is like mansplaining to Jesus.

Jesus, people are crowding around you and thronging you. He's not believing, is he? So we have the unbelief of the disciples on display. We have the unbelief of the crowd, give up, go home, she's dead, there's no hope.

And then Jesus says, she's just sleeping. Then they laugh him to scorn. The unbelief of the woman herself, who she knew she was going to, she knew that Jesus could heal her. And she believed, yes, she touched his robe, but then she, it says, all denied it.

It's like at my house, I ask my kids, who left the milk out? All five of them in five part harmony.

Not me.

Everybody in the crowd said it wasn't them. That means the woman said it too. What kind of woman of faith is that, to be healed by Jesus and then denying it? But she finally explains, yeah, it was me.

So she's not some great person of faith. The only great person in the text is Christ. And he's dealing with all these symptoms of unbelief, but he's still kind and compassionate and true and faithful, merciful and good.

It's grace. It's grace.

Jesus' grace is greater. Jesus' grace is greater than our need and greater than our faith in his ability and willingness. He's bigger than what we believe, greater than our need. Jesus does above and beyond all that we ask or think.

He sure did for this woman in the crowd, sure did for Jairus and his family. So when we look at this passage, what are we compelled to do? Certainly seek the help of the Savior. Certainly seek the help of the Savior.

Jairus didn't come asking Jesus to raise his daughter from the dead. He was just asking for a run of the mill healing. The woman was just hoping to get healed. She wasn't asking for restoration to the community and love from the Son of God.

Seek the help of the Savior, even if you don't have all your ducks in a row and all of your particular motivations just right. Seek the help of the Savior. Even if you could sort yourself completely out, his grace is still gonna be far greater than your need and far greater than your faith.

And we should discount the skepticism of unbelief. Nobody believed that this woman could get healed. Nobody could believe that Jairus' daughter could be raised from the dead. But we should seek the help of the Savior, discounting the skepticism of unbelief.

A lot of people read the Bible and think about God with a hermeneutic of suspicion. They are just suspicious about everything. That's skepticism of unbelief. And finally, rejoice in the relationship of Christ.

Jesus exposed the woman for the same reason that he hid this little girl. Both of the same reasoning was for relationship. So that he would speak with this woman and that she would know that she is loved.

And so that what happened in Jairus' home would be special. Only for those select few. And these are the lessons of this latter part of Luke chapter eight. So how do we talk about these things? Well, certainly I think it should affect the way we pray.

I think we should affect the way that we pray. I mean, just how powerful is Christ and how merciful is Christ? How good is he? How compassionate is he? So when we pray, we seek his help. Let's keep that in mind.

And then, I don't know about you, but I know people whose lives are just completely hopeless. I mean, maybe you know someone like that. They're so far gone that, it's like who could ever help? Well, don't lean on the word of the experts.

Despise unbelief and exhort them to seek the same thing. And pray for the Savior to intervene. Plead with Christ for what you believe that they need. Be like Jairus pleading for his daughter. And it turned out that her need was far greater than what Jairus thought it was, but Jesus knew that.

So there are some people that we think, oh, there's no hope for them. But let's remember what kind of a Savior we have in Jesus Christ. Any thoughts or questions before we close our time here in Luke 8?

Yes.

Well, Jesus is still up north in Galilee. And though he did have some opposition there, the main opposition that he faced was from Judea, down south, focused around Jerusalem. So he had the most support from up in the north in the Galilee region.

And then he did not have as much support down in Judea. The Pharisees, of course, were very jealous, and the Sadducees were, and so on and so forth. But this would be the equivalent of more of a locally-oriented kind of group, not as concerned with the national religious politics.

So it probably would have helped them, that Jesus of Nazareth did something amazing for him.

So, yes, sir.

There was a southern gospel song several years ago about this.

Okay.

About a little girl, and what

Yeah, leave me in death alone.

Deal with something.

All right, well, what are the prayer requests that we lift up before our Lord and Savior Christ tonight? We pray for.