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Turn with me to Mark chapter 5 and go to verse 21. Now the intention tonight is to study Mark chapter 5 verse 21 all the way to verse 43 and as is my at least historic precedence that is probably not going to happen but we're at least going to read it as we begin because we're looking at the second half of a section of Mark that I outlined several weeks ago where we talked about Jesus had given four kingdom parables and then that is followed by four kingdom miracles and we see a connection between these two things.
The four parables was the parable of the soils, the parable of the light hidden under the bushel, the parable of the seed which grows where no man is causing it to grow but it's growing by the power of God and then the mustard seed which grows so large that it brings in birds to nest in its branches.
So we talked about all of those are pictures of the kingdom, the kingdom's growth, the kingdom's power, the kingdom's citizens all those things are pictured in those four parables and then that is followed by four events in the life of Christ wherein we see the demonstration of his sovereignty his kingdom is described in the parables and the king of that kingdom is shown in the events that follow.
We said there was four things Jesus shows his power over. The first thing is I'm sorry, oh yeah, yes you're right, the first one is that is he shows his power over nature and that was the scene where Jesus is in the boat with the disciples the wind and the waves is crashing all around him and he simply causes the waves to stop and demonstrate sovereignty over nature.
The next thing that we see him demonstrate sovereignty would be the demons and that was what we studied last week we studied the situation at Gadara where Jesus had crossed the Sea of Galilee he came to the area of the Gadarenes where there was a demoniac, Matthew actually tells us there was two demoniacs who were there who were out of their minds out of sorts and Jesus delivered them from their demon possession and sent the demons into the pigs so demonstrating again his sovereignty.
There's so many so many applications we could draw out of these texts so many things we could talk about but the thing that I'm trying to show you is that is what I think Mark wants us to know and that is look at Jesus and every one of these things look at Christ and tonight specifically we're gonna see because tonight we're going to see three and four which is disease and death and death so we're gonna read beginning at verse 21 and when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side a great crowd gathered about him and he was beside the sea.
Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue Jairus by name and seeing him he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly saying my little daughter is at the point of death come and lay your hands on her so that she may be made well and live now just for a moment before we read on beginning at verse 24 and down to verse 34 the scene shifts to a different person in the situation but I always like to remind everybody at this point Jairus is still here.
This scene with the daughter has not gone away. Verse 24. And when he went with him a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for 12 years and who had suffered much under many physicians and had spent all that she had and was no better but rather grew worse.
She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment for she said 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 the 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. Now we come back to Jairus while he was still speaking there came from the rulers house some who said your daughter is dead.
Why trouble the teacher any further. But overhearing what they said Jesus said to the ruler the synagogue do not fear only believe. And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James.
They came to the house of the ruler the synagogue and Jesus saw a commotion people weeping and wailing loudly. And when he had entered he said to them why are you making a commotion and weeping. The child is not dead but sleeping.
And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside and took the child's father mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was taking her by the hand. He said to her Talitha Kumi which means little girl I say to you arise.
And immediately the girl got up and began walking for she was 12 years of age and they were immediately overcome with amazement and he strictly charged them that no one should know this and told them to give her something to eat.
So ends the reading of God's holy and inspired word. It's a lot of text. It is however one of the most familiar stories from the life of Christ and one that I am imagined or that I do imagine rather many of you probably have thought of before and have read before and have considered the meanings of it or the meaning of it rather.
And so tonight it's I I find myself at the unenviable task of talking about something that many of you probably already have opinions about. Sometimes you go to a text that not too many people thought about but a text like this is every time they film a Jesus movie every time there's a Jesus play every time I've ever been to a anything that was intended to give a dramatic retelling of the life of Christ.
This story is included. I remember when I was a boy Pat will remember this. We went to see the life giver or the giver of life. I forget was it the giver of life life giver. The life giver was a play that was put on by a church in Jacksonville and it was done at the I think at the Civic Auditorium or somewhere it was always.
It wasn't at the church. It was like done on a big stage and it was really really well done. I mean it you know for for what it was a church it wasn't professionals but the church had gone to a lot of trouble and and and put together a tale or not a tale but a a narrative of the life of Christ.
And I remember being a young boy and watching it and there were certain parts that you sit tend to remember the Roman soldiers walking in from the back and smashing their their their swords up against the the sides of the seats and telling you to move and all those things.
You know if you've ever been to a passion play you you remember those things. But one of the parts I remember most as a probably myself a twelve-year-old boy or somewhere around that age was this narrative where Jesus is in a crowd of people and a man comes and says save my daughter she's dying.
Jesus goes to go with him and the woman stops him touches his robe is healed. There's that interlude moment. Finally Jesus gets to the house of the little girl and tells her to arise she arises. And it even as a twelve-year-old or however old I was was very emotional and having not experienced a lot of death at that time in my life as I have now experience much more in the way of being with people when they've died and being with families as they've grieved.
Even as a young boy who had not been touched by that much loss at that time I still felt the weight of joy seeing the girl rise. And so the reason why I'm mentioning this is this this this narrative is there's a reason why certain stories stick with us and there's a certain beauty in it and there's a certain power in it.
And there's a certain moment in it where all of us can just imagine it a dead child opening their eyes by the power of God. It's a it's a it's it's something that is beyond reason. And it's such a moment that if it's if we're not careful we'll miss everything else leading up to it because that becomes the focal point and that is the focal point this is this is one of those times where Christ demonstrates the massive sovereignty of his own power.
But I want us to see everything in the story because it starts back up at the beginning where we started in verse 21 it starts with this man coming to Jesus falling at his feet and and begging Jesus to come and save his daughter.
Come and lay your hands on her. This is what it says in verse 23. It says he implored him earnestly and said my little my little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her so that she may be made well and live.
This is a desperate man. This is a man who is probably extinguished all other options in regard to medical and any other types of physical solutions that he may have had access to. And being a ruler in the synagogue probably a wealthy man has exhausted all that he has and he comes to Jesus.
And if we consider just this moment I there's something I have to show you that is really interesting in the parallel account to this and anytime I do this I'm not trying to I'm not trying to confuse you but I do want to show you something in the parallel account that is somewhat bothersome to some people but I think it's important to see.
So if you wanna make your way over to Matthew's gospel and find your place at chapter 9 go to verse 18. Now Matthew as I've said Matthew Mark and Luke are all telling the same stories. But sometimes their stories are slightly different in their ordering because none of them are concerned with a strict chronology they are more concerned with a strict theology.
And that's important that their theology is more important than their chronology. They they are not historians. They are gospel writers. They are telling us these things that we might know Christ. Well if you read verse 18 it says while he 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.
And Jesus rose and followed him and his disciples. And behold a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment for she said to herself if I only touch his garment I will be made.
Well alright very quickly is this the same story. It's absolutely the same story it first of all we have ruler the synagogue. Second of all we have a daughter. Third of all we have the woman with the issue blood.
This is the same narrative. It's not two different accounts. And the reason why I'm pointing that out is if you are if you were reading along you may have noticed something quite different about this narrative.
What is different about this narrative. In this narrative Matthew's gospel says that gyrus came and said my daughter has died. Now atheists and people who try to pick apart the Bible at every turn look to instances like this and they say herein lies a contradiction.
And in my class Jackie knows this because she's been a part of the class in my class on hermeneutics I think you guys even took hermeneutics didn't you. We talked about harmonization specifically harmonizing the New Testament accounts of Jesus's life.
And we look at this particular passage because it does seem to be a place where it could be alleged that there is a contradiction. And in Mark's gospel it is clear that when gyrus comes his daughter has not yet died.
We know this because of what he says he says my daughter is at the point of death. In fact the word there is the word where we get our word eschatology or eschaton. Eschaton means the end or the last things.
And he says my daughter is at the eschaton. She is at the end. Right. He's saying she's on death's doorstep. And if you go to Luke's gospel it's the same same thing she's on death's doorstep. And later a group comes and says don't bother the teacher anymore.
She has died. But what we have and this is an important concept. What we have in Matthew's gospel is something called telescoping. Telescoping is a very common thing that all of us do and is something that we see a lot in the gospel of Matthew and that is where a story which has many different moving parts is pushed together.
Like you would take a telescope that has three or four different extensions and you take those three or four different extensions and you force them together into one and we call that telescoping narrative.
And I don't have a great example. I'll give you an example. You might not think it's that good but earlier Mike made the joke that he worked for a really hard man today and that hard man was me because he came and did some work at my house today.
I'm very grateful by the way he came and helped put some power to a shed that I got and we were turning it into a little office. So Mike came and ran power for me. Now in the midst of all of that a trench was dug because we had to put the wire in the ground.
Right. And so the trench was dug the wire went down and the power went on. Light bulb in the fixture. Flip the switch lights on. That means Mike did it right. Now the part that I didn't mention is I actually dug the trench yesterday so that would already be done when we started the work.
So in that sense and I grant that's a very basic way of doing it. But what I did was I telescope multiple parts of the story into one so as to simply make the story and get it through now some might say well that's it.
That's not good enough because this says she was dead. Well let me ask you a question. What. Okay. Yeah. So you know I'm saying right. You just kind of push it all together. Yeah Matthew does this a lot.
In fact I could take you through several places in Matthew's gospel where even though it's much longer than Mark's gospel Matthew's 28 chapters Mark's only 16 chapters even though Matthew's gospel is much longer he has a tendency to push things together.
More. There's much more in Matthew's gospel than there's in Mark's gospel. Mark's gospel tells less stories but tells us more about the stories that it tells you notice how much we read in Mark's gospel a half a chapter on this story alone you go back to to uh Matthew's gospel.
It's only a paragraph or two. It's much different. It's just two different styles of narrative. And what we have to remember is she did in fact die. So Matthew's not getting it wrong. He's simply getting it a little in a little bit different order than what we learn in Mark and Luke who tell us the whole order.
And this is much the same way that I've told you guys about like the resurrection narrative with the different angels and the different things. We're getting it in a different order but doesn't mean it's false.
It's just a different way of telling the story. So with that being said I I always like to point that out when I teach this story according to Mark and Luke she's not yet passed away. So when Jairus comes he says to to Jesus my little girl is at her eschaton she's at the end she's at the point of death.
Come and lay your hands on her so that she may be made well and he went with him. Verse 24 so Jesus has heard the the request of Jairus and they are on the way to see the daughter of Jairus. Now as this was happening it says a great crowd followed him and thronged about him.
Thronging about means pushing in on or pressing around it. It Jesus is somewhat of in this sense is very popular with many people and they want to be around him they want to hear him they want to touch him.
And verse 25 says. And there was a woman a woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years and who had suffered much under many physicians and it's been all that she had and was no better but rather grew worse.
Now we know that a discharge of blood is something that is part of a normal female anatomy that happens on a monthly basis. And the bible actually addresses this in the book of Leviticus chapter 15 it talks about that event and it actually says about that event that during that time under mosaic law under the law of God in the in the among the people of Israel when a woman went through that time she was unclean.
In fact just for a moment you don't have to turn there. I have my bible marked but just just to hear this for just a moment this is in Leviticus 15. Verse 19 says when a woman has a discharge and the discharge in her body is blood she shall be in her menstrual impurity for seven days and whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening.
So a normal woman who has the normal cycle of menstruation which is what the text uses that term would once a month have this time of uncleanness. It doesn't mean sin and that is something that must be understood.
A period of uncleanness did not mean she was in sin but it did keep her separated from certain things among the commonwealth of Israel that she had to separate herself because of. And the same thing for men.
If you read chapter 15 of Leviticus there were certain emissions of men that would cause them to be unclean as well. I realize this is the most uncomfortable. Y 'all have been in one of my sermons in a while so sorry.
But but we all know these are physical things that happen. And God has provided in his law for the people of Israel a rule regarding these emissions and discharges. It's amazing if you read through Leviticus how much deals with this kind of stuff.
But it does. So this woman has been ceremonially unclean for 12 years now. Mark's gospel uh does it say 12 in marks. Because i know it says it in in Matthew verse 25. Thank you. Thank you. Yes it was 12 years.
Okay so this is important. I'm just going to write up here for a minute 12 years. I'll come back to this. I just don't want to forget it because i just want us to consider. Remember last week when we were considering the demoniac and we considered the misery of the demoniac.
Remember i said here's a man who's been possessed by a legion of demons. He's been possessed by these demons for a long time and he had no peace he had within him. Uh demons that caused him to break chains caused him to be hated by his contemporaries caused him to have to live out in the tombs.
We said there was four ways. He was unclean. He was living in a gentile area which by nature was unclean. He was living among the tombs that was by nature unclean. He had an unclean spirit in him. And there was a fourth one and he and it was near the pigs.
The pigs were unclean. So he this guy had it rough and jesus comes and heals him and delivers him from that wretched estate. Well this woman is in a similar situation. This woman is in a state of misery and and mark's gospel points to something interesting.
He says she had suffered much under many physicians. And you say well what's the relevance of that. She was trying to get it fixed. She wanted her ailment to go away. She wanted this discharge to stop.
Now we live in a miraculous time of modern medicine. Or even 50 years ago we couldn't imagine the things that they're able to do today. But imagine two thousand years ago the absolute rudimentary nature of medicine and whatever the doctors did didn't make her better.
In fact the text says made her worse. I always like to point this out too. If you read luke's narrative of this same story he leaves that part out. And i've jokingly said jackie knows because he is a doctor and he's giving professional courtesy by not mentioning that the other doctors weren't able to help her and made her worse.
So luke as the physician didn't mention this part but mark does again. Mark is giving us a lot of detail here. So this is a woman who has been ceremonially unclean in all respects. She shouldn't even be in this crowd because she's not supposed to be around people.
She's not supposed to have people touch her because when they touch her they become unclean. Going again go back to leviticus and read it. It's she's not supposed to be there verse 27. She had heard the reports about jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment.
For she said if i touch even his garments i will be made. Well many many thoughts have been made about what she was thinking at this moment. Some some think that maybe she was appealing to a well understood superstition that great men carried with them a presence.
And if you could just be in their presence that you could you could get some of their anointing or some of their power from them just being in their in their presence. And perhaps that was what caused her to think this way.
If i can just touch the hem of his garment maybe maybe it will work like supposedly had happened with other great men. But what's the mirror. Did you. I'm sorry. Did you have your hand up. Okay i thought sorry.
But then what we see does happen in verse 29 it says. And immediately the flow of blood dried up and she felt in her body that she had been healed of her disease. So she did touch his garment and she did receive healing in that moment again going down the list.
Christ is sovereign over nature. Christ is sovereign over demons and he's sovereign over disease which we're going to see in a moment he wasn't even intentionally seeking to heal. He just has this power that is able to heal even a diseased woman that he will at least indicate not knowing who she is.
Now we'll talk about that in a minute. But he said if even if i touch his garments i'll be made well. And immediately the flow of blood dried up and she felt in her body that she'd been healed. She knew it she knew that the disease was over.
Can you imagine that just just first of all understatements in scripture right here this is one of the times it doesn't it doesn't it doesn't seem to indicate the absolute astounded nature that she must have been.
That that this i touched him and i'm healed. This i've i've gone to every doctor. I've gone to every wise man. I've gone every healer. No one. This has been going on for 12 years and i'm healed. And jesus perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him immediately turned about in the crowd and said who touched my garments.
Now there is debate in theological circles about why jesus asks this question. Dr rc sproul regards this as a moment in jesus's life where it demonstrated his human nature wherein his human nature he was not omniscient.
And we know that there are times where he actually makes statements like i don't know the day or the hour things like that. And and so he really was in the state of not knowing who who touched it. Others see it as jesus knowing but asking for her to present herself and and and where that would come in would be similar to god in the garden with adam and eve.
When god came into the garden with adam and eve and what did he say. He said where are you. And adam says we're hiding. You know we we we. And god says what did you eat of the tree. Like he didn't know.
Like god doesn't know all things. Well like i said i you know i'll leave that to you to decide where you want to land on that i i'm i i know this. Jesus perceived that power had gone out of him. And so he asks who touched me.
And his disciples with their incredulous response. I mean i love the i love the apostles. Obviously. But they sometimes are the hardest headed guys in jesus's life. Because notice their response. You see the crowds pressing around you.
And yet you say who touched me. You understand the sarcasm in that. What do you mean jesus who touched you. Everybody's touching you. There's sass in that response. I'm not a fan of sass. And he looked around verse 32 to see who had done it.
But the woman knowing what had happened to her came in fear. Remember what happened when the men were on the boat and the water stopped. They were afraid. Remember what happened when jesus healed the demoniac and cast out the legion of demons into the pigs.
It said the people were afraid here. This woman is afraid. She came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. She didn't try to hide anything. She told him what had happened.
And jesus in that way that only he is in that gracious and merciful savior loving lord disposition. He says daughter your faith has made you well go in peace and be healed of your disease. Many faith healers make a big to-do about jesus saying your faith has made you well.
And we are going to discuss this in a later passage. Because there's a passage in an upcoming text where jesus goes to a place and it he did not do very many miracles because they didn't believe. And the faith healers will say see jesus is limited.
He's limited by our faith. And if that's what you take away from this that jesus is limited by your faith then you didn't hear the story about the water and the waves because those men thought they were going to die.
And they said to jesus master don't you care that we're perishing. And jesus got up and rebuked the wind and the waves. And then what he says oh ye of little faith. Their faith isn't what empowers christ but but god does respond to our faith.
And he calls us to believe. So we have to have a balance there. We cannot say that our faith empowers god or or causes god to lack power because his omnipotence is not dependent upon me. His sovereignty is not based on my faith.
But god does respond to faith. In fact he is the author of it. Is he not. Is faith not a gift from god. And when we exercise that faith he responds. And that's what we see here. Your faith has made you.
Now all of this from verse 24 down to verse 34 is happening and gyrus is losing his mind. Now you say the text doesn't say that i'm using some sanctified imagination. If you don't want to go with me just hold up for a minute we'll be back.
But i'm going to use a little bit of sanctified imagination because here's how the story started. Jesus my daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her and she will be well jesus strikes out on the heels of gyrus headed towards his home.
And here's this woman who i imagine didn't mean much to gyrus. And i don't mean that in the sense of calling him a bad person or that he was wrong. But what i'm saying is i can imagine the heart of gyrus is screaming come on my daughter is now again the text doesn't say that you can delete that from your memory if you want.
That's my sanctified imagination. Just thinking about a man whose only concern is his sick child. And then comes the news the worst news ever. While he was still speaking that's jesus. While jesus is still speaking to the woman.
That's what that means. While he was still speaking there came from the ruler's house some who said your daughter's dead. Why trouble the teacher anymore. Game over. It's can't do anything else. No use in getting a healer.
Now you heal the sick. You don't heal the dead. That's the attitude. But overhearing them jesus said do not fear only believe. I don't even know what gyrus heard at that moment. I don't know what his response was in the sense of he had just heard the worst news of his life.
And now jesus says don't fear only believe. That is two wildly divergent ideas coming into one brain. The emotion of loss and the promise of hope at the same moment. Guys i i don't know if i've ever told you this before.
When you read the bible try to read it existentially. Not as an existentialist but existentially means to remember one. These are real people that existed at a real time and a real place and real emotions.
And when you read read as if these are real because they are so in this moment gyrus is experiencing this this this bifurcation. And he that is jesus. Verse 37 allowed no one to follow him except peter and james and john the brother of james.
If you remember a few few weeks ago we talked about jesus's 12 apostles and three of them having a very special place. These three are mentioned. Peter james and john are mentioned here. They're mentioned on the mount of transfiguration.
They're mentioned in the garden of gethsemane being with jesus as he prayed. These three men among the 12 were jesus's closest companions and he only lets them in to see what he knows he's about to do.
They came to the house of ruler of the synagogue and jesus saw a commotion people weeping and wailing loudly. Now there is the possibility that these may be professional wailers because at that time in jewish history there was a requirement that if you had a funeral you had to actually hire wailers and people to make a scene at your funeral because that was the tradition.
But it could also be these are people that are just weeping over a child. It may not be a act it may be genuine. And when he had entered he said to them why are you making a commotion and weeping. The child is not dead but sleeping now.
Verse 40 says they laughed at him but he put them outside and he took the child's father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child wasn't taking her by the hand. He said talitha kumi that is aramaic by the way that is a trans that is not a translation.
That's a direct quote of the language jesus used in this moment. Talitha kumi which is aramaic for a little girl i say to you arise. And immediately the girl got up and began to walk for she was 12 years of age.
I said i was going to come back to that and that's where i'm going to draw to a close in just a moment but just let me finish reading and then we'll talk about that says immediately she got up began walking for she was 12 years of age.
And they immediately and they were immediately overcome with amazement and he strictly charged them no one should know this and told them to give her something to eat. We've talked in past lessons about why jesus told people not to say things about him particularly this thing.
Jesus does not want this to be known abroad. This would create a commotion and mobs beyond what jesus was hoping to garner. But it's interesting that mark tells us the little girl was 12. And having thought about this passage many times and having thought about mark's particular retelling of this story i can't help.
But he focuses his attention on the woman with the issue of blood having had the issue of blood for 12 years as well as the little girl who had died being 12 years old. Is this just some grand coincidence.
I don't think so. And i don't think so because well one is a calvinist i don't believe in coincidences but also because mark mark tells us things for a reason. Mark writes these things for a reason. And i think the reason he's telling us this is because what he is showing us is that god in his inestimable greatness knows and declares the end from the beginning.
And god does things in time that he has a purpose for later in time that we may not understand until that is fulfilled. And both this woman and this child both experienced something in the ministry of christ that 12 years earlier started with a birth and a hemorrhage.
The girl was born and the woman began to have an issue of blood in the same year. And neither one of those was an accident for god had declared that on this day christ would be going through this place for the purpose of demonstrating his power over disease and death.
And these two women would be the objects of that sovereign power. Something that started 12 years earlier met its completion. On the same day when jesus met a blind man his disciples said to him who sinned his parents that he should be born blind.
What was jesus's response. Remember this man was born blind that this day the glory of god might be shown in him. This girl was born 12 years earlier so that on this day the same day that this woman with the issue of blood on this day the glory of christ would be shown through them beloved.
As much beauty is in this story and as much emotion is in this story because it is emotional. Let us not miss the picture of god's power in this the sovereign hand of god working all of this together for his glory.
That's one of the ways that we were able through the struggles of life to continue moving forward to continue as andy says all the time pressing on knowing that god has and is working out his glory in us.
Our present sufferings are what not to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us. So let's pray father i thank you for your word thank you for your truth. I pray lord that this time in the word has been a time of growth for all of us that we would see the hand of god the sovereign hand of god working through disease and death.
And lord as we look at the larger scope of the kingdom and the king lord let us bow down to our king. Let us consider our king worthy. Let us love our king in jesus name amen.