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Reading Mark 5:21-43 where Jesus heals a woman who has been bleeding for 12 years and raises a little girl from the dead, all because of His mercy on those who have faith. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
Jesus healed a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years. Then he turns around and raises a little girl from the dead. And these two miracles are because someone believed and had faith. When we understand the text.
This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible study in the word of Christ. For he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .wutt .com.
Hey, once again, it's Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. In our study of the gospel of Mark, we're still in chapter five. Today, we read of a couple of miracles of Jesus. One in which he heals a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years. And the other, he raises a little girl back from the dead.
Let's begin reading here in verse 21. I'll go through verse 43 out of the Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. And when Jesus had crossed over again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him.
And so he stayed by the seashore. And one of the synagogue officials named Jairus came up and on seeing him fell at his feet and pleaded with him earnestly saying, my little daughter is at the point of death.
Please come.
That by coming, you may lay your hands on her so that she will be saved and live. And he went off with him and a large crowd was following him and pressing in on him. And a woman who had a hemorrhage for 12 years and had endured much at the hands of many physicians and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse.
After hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind him and touched his garment. For she was saying, if I just touch his garments, I will be saved from this. And immediately the flow of her blood was dried up.
And she knew within her body that she had been healed of her affliction. And immediately Jesus perceiving in himself that the power proceeding from him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and was saying, who touched my garments?
And his disciples were saying to him, you see the crowd pressing in on you and you say who touched me? And he was looking around to see the woman who had done this. But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.
And he said to her, daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be healed of your affliction. While he was still speaking, they came from the house of the synagogue official saying, your daughter has died.
Why trouble the teacher anymore? But Jesus overhearing what had been spoken, said to the synagogue official, do not be afraid, only believe. And he allowed no one to accompany him except Peter and James and John, the brother of James.
And they came to the house of the synagogue official and he saw a commotion and people loudly crying and wailing. And entering in, he said to them, why are you making a commotion and crying? The child is not died, but is asleep.
And they began laughing at him, but putting them all out, he took along the child's father and mother and his own companions and entered the room where the child was. And taking the child by the hand, he said to her, Talitha Kum, which translated means, little girl, I say to you, arise.
And immediately the little girl stood up and began to walk for she was 12 years old. And immediately they were completely astounded. And he gave them strict orders that no one should know about this. And he said that some food should be given to her to eat.
Now you surely know of this miracle. It's in fact spoken about in the gospel of Matthew, but we get more details here in Matthew's gospel than we, or sorry, in Mark's gospel than we got in Matthew's gospel.
Jesus healing the woman with a hemorrhage and healing the little girl, raising her back from the dead, in fact. In both of these miracles, you may have noticed the importance or the emphasis that was placed on having faith.
He said to the woman, your faith has healed you. And he said to the girl's mother and father, do not be afraid, only believe. And so it is by faith that we are saved. Both of these miracles point to salvation.
For both of these miracles deal with death. The woman who was bleeding for 12 years was dying slowly, but she was certainly dying. We're all dying, but this woman was going to die of the ailment that she had.
The little girl was already dead. And yet in both instances, Jesus brings them back to life. And it is our understanding through these two miracles that we receive life by faith. So let's come back to verse 21.
When Jesus had crossed over again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him, and so he stayed by the seashore. And we've been seeing this theme regularly throughout Mark, where Jesus comes to a place, there's a bunch of people.
And so Jesus has to change his plans or his position or something like that, because so many people are around him. And one of the synagogue officials named Jairus came up and on seeing him, fell at his feet.
Now, what is meant here by synagogue official? It doesn't say that he was exactly a Pharisee or a Sadducee, but there were men who were of the college of elders. They administered over the affairs of the synagogue, and they even had the power of excommunication.
They could kick somebody out of the synagogue if they crossed a certain line. Now, rarely do we get the names of some of the people that Jesus showed mercy to. We don't have the woman's name in the middle of this narrative.
We don't have the daughter's name, but it does say here Jair, which meant he will illuminate. So it could be that the name is given for the specific reason of seeing how Christ would show himself, show his power to these people because of their faith.
First of all, because he was merciful to them. And then of course, because they believed so they saw. So one of the synagogue officials named Jairus came up and on seeing him fell at his feet and pleaded with him earnestly saying, my little daughter is at the point of death.
Please come that by coming, you may lay your hands on her so that she will be saved and live. Now we know of course, by the end of the account that the little girl has died. And if perhaps Jesus had not stopped to heal the woman with the hemorrhage, maybe Jesus would have made it to the girl in time and saved her before she died.
But maybe this is like what happened with Lazarus. If you'll remember, a report came to Jesus about Lazarus, his friend, talked about in John 11. And it is said that Lazarus was very sick and he was near the point of death, but Jesus delayed.
And then it said to him that Lazarus has died. And Jesus says to his disciples, it is good that you were here to see this. For your sake, I'm glad I was not there so that you may believe. So now let us go to him.
So Jesus delays, perhaps so that Lazarus would die and Jesus would demonstrate his power over death by bringing him back from the dead. Now, Lazarus was not the only person that Jesus raised from the dead.
For as we see here, he will raise Jairus's daughter from the dead. Lazarus was in a tomb for four days. So that's incredibly miraculous, the way that Jesus raises him from the dead, because it could have been verified by all the people there.
We had embalmed his body, we had wrapped him, we had placed him in a tomb. There's no way this man's coming up out of this thing alive. And here Jesus speaks to him and says, Lazarus, come out, and he rises from the dead.
So the length of time that Lazarus would have been in the tomb is what makes what Jesus does even more incredible. Here it is said to us, the girl has indeed died. And it is known by the people that she died because they laugh when Jesus says that she is just asleep.
Who are you?
How do you know about this little girl? You haven't even been here. But Jesus shows his power even to raise the dead through this account, healing a woman of her long illness that no physician was able to heal and healing this little girl by raising her from the dead and all by the providence of God that these miracles are done in the way that they're done and in the succession that they are done.
So Jesus goes off with Jairus, a large crowd followed him and was pressing in on him. So we see that these miracles that are performed have many witnesses. It's not just the disciples that see these things, but many people saw them.
And a woman who had a hemorrhage for 12 years, meaning that she had been bleeding for a dozen years and had endured much at the hands of many physicians and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse.
So whatever it was that was wrong with her, a wound that would not heal, something that just would not close up so that she's continuously bleeding. It would not have been a gushing of blood, of course, but there was no way to heal this ailment that she had.
It was like stitching wouldn't even close it off. And whatever it was that these physicians were doing to her was just making her situation worse. No one was able to heal her. And this was known, Mark writes of it, that this is the account of this woman who had this particular hemorrhage.
She's dying more slowly than Jairus' daughter, but she is dying because of this bleeding that could not be stopped. So after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind him and touched his garment.
For she was saying, if I just touch his garments, I will be saved from this. And what faith she has in that. I don't have to go and speak to him. I don't have to hear the words from him. I know that if I just touch his garment, I will be saved.
If I can just get near him a little bit and immediately the flow of her blood was dried up and she knew within her body that she had been healed of her affliction. Now, let me stop here before continuing on.
We see Jesus performing these great miracles in this narrative, in this account that we're reading today, but this has spiritual application to it. That Jesus does not just heal us of our infirmities and diseases.
What is even greater than that? What is even greater than Jesus healing us of our physical ailments is that he heals us of our spiritual death. The fact that we are all slowly dying, as I said a moment ago, all of us are getting one day closer to death.
You are closer to death today than you were yesterday. And yet the greatest thing that God can do for you is not healing you of whatever physical things are bothering you. See, even this woman who has this hemorrhage, she was gonna get sick of other things later on, right?
Eventually she was gonna die. And the little girl, Jairus' daughter, she was gonna be raised back to life. She was gonna be healed of her ailment, but she would probably get sick again later on. And one day, though it would be many more years into the future, she too would die.
The greatest thing that Jesus does for us is forgive us of our sin, which has already killed us and is even slowly killing us. The effects of sin on this world, the very fact that we die is a result of sin.
Sin came into the world because of Adam and Eve's sin. Sorry, death came into the world because Adam and Eve had sinned against God. That's in Romans 5 and Romans 6 .23. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
So we're all dying in that sense. Death has come to us all because we all have sinned against God. But it's also the case that our sin is slowly killing us and every single person is gonna have to stand before God and give an account of himself.
So as this woman is bleeding out, she is eventually going to die from this. But knowing that if she touches Jesus, she will be saved from it. It won't be this disease that she has or this wound that won't heal.
It won't be that that kills her. She knows that she will be healed of this if she just touches Jesus. But even greater than this that Jesus does for us is he heals us of the spiritual disease of sin and its consequences that is upon each and every one of us for which we are dead in our sins and our sins even slowly killing us until the day we die.
But Jesus heals us of our sin and even raises us back to life. And we see that in these two miracles here, healing the woman of her bleeding and raising Jairus's daughter back to life. We see Jesus stop the slow death and even raising the dead.
And so let's continue on here, verse 30. Immediately Jesus perceiving in himself that the power proceeding from him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and was saying, who touched my garments. So Jesus had a sense of something that's beyond any sort of sense that we have.
You might have a sense that somebody is standing too close to you. Like I can be here at my computer and if one of my kids has snuck into the room, I can sense when they're standing behind me. You know what I mean?
Jesus has a sense of something else. And only Jesus would have this sense. You and I can't feel some power drain from us. But just like somebody would know they're standing in the presence of somebody else, Jesus has a sense that there is power that has gone forth from him.
Someone has been healed without him directly having to heal the person. He just knows this. He knows that's happened. And so he says, who touched me? But in saying this, the disciples are going, what do you mean who touched you?
We've got people everywhere. They're all pressing in on us. How could you ask this question? And he was looking around to see who had done this, but the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.
She knows who he is. And so as he knows the minds and hearts of every person, this woman didn't want to let it go without it being known that she was the one who had gone and touched him, lest it might be something dishonest.
I just, I did something for my own sake and then ran away. She gives him the glory that is due him by coming to him and falling down before him. And she tells him the whole truth. And my friend says, this applies to us spiritually.
We need to understand coming before God and falling down before him and telling him the whole truth, the sins that you have done, and those things that you know that you have done against God, confess them to him and ask for his forgiveness.
1 John 1, 9, if we ask forgiveness for our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so Jesus says to her, daughter, your faith has saved you.
Go in peace and be healed of your affliction. And so it is the case with every one of us that we are saved by our faith. Romans 5, 1, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, by grace you are saved through faith. And this is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast. Even we are healed by our faith in Jesus.
And so going on now to Jesus raising this little girl from the dead, while he was still speaking, they came from the house of the synagogue official saying, your daughter has died. Why trouble the teacher anymore?
But Jesus, overhearing what they had spoken, said to the synagogue official, do not be afraid. Only believe. Don't be in despair for what these people have said to you. It's too late. There's nothing that you can do.
And I see it all the time in public, on social media, a person who has been in sin or has had a certain way of life their entire life. And somebody saying to them, there's nothing you can do about it.
This is who you are. This is the way that you will always be. And one of the things that we hear about commonly, these stories are pretty common in the world today, is if a person is sexually immoral, if they've slept around a lot, if they're homosexual, they'll hear from people in the world say, this is who you're always gonna be.
There's nothing that you can do to change it. And even if they do try to change it, the world continues to come back at them saying, no, this is who you really are. The world is so ungracious. They don't want you to think that you can actually do anything to change your circumstances.
You'll hear it all the time in the narratives, in the movies, in the songs and whatnot. Believe in yourself, follow your heart until a person actually wants to make a real legitimate change. And then the world comes back with going, nah, we were just kidding.
You can't really change who you are. You can't really follow your way out of the circumstance that you were in. This is who you are and it's who you will always be. But Jesus comes in and he changes us.
And by his grace, raises us from the dead and gives us new life. Don't listen to what the world says about you. Just like these house guests came out and were trying to say, nah, nothing you can do for the girl now she's dead.
Don't listen to what the world says. The power of the gospel of Christ to transform the person from death to life is an amazing grace of God. And so Jesus overhearing what had been spoken, said to the synagogue official, do not be afraid, only believe.
And he allowed no one to accompany him except Peter and James and John, the brother of James. So these four, Jesus, Peter, James, John, they go up together with Jairus and Jairus' wife. They came to the house of the synagogue official and he saw a commotion and people loudly crying and wailing and entering in, he said to them, why are you making a commotion and crying?
The child is not died, but is asleep. And of course this is where the people began laughing at him, but he put them all out and took along the child's father and mother and his own companions and entered the room where the child was.
So there are people in this world who are gonna laugh and mock at the idea that you can be saved and transformed and you can have everlasting life. But only believe, believe in Jesus as he repeats here.
Verse 41, and taking the child by the hand, he said to her, Talitha Kum, which translated means little girl, I say to you arise. And immediately the little girl stood up and began to walk for she was 12 years old.
The number 12 seems to have a connection here, right? You had the woman who was dying a slow death of 12 years. She had been bleeding for 12 years. This little girl was 12 years old. And in both cases, Jesus heals them.
You know, the number 12 in scripture is actually, it points to the people of God. You have 12 tribes of Israel, you have 12 apostles. So we have 12 in the Old Testament, 12 in the New Testament. 12 represents the people of God.
So if we are gonna read that into this story and understand even what is being said to us spiritually about these physical miracles that Jesus performs, it is that he raises his people from the dead. He heals them of their diseases, forgiving their sin.
He raises the dead to life. And it's all those who are in Christ Jesus who will be saved. So immediately the little girl gets up and walks. Verse 43, as we've seen other places in Mark, even up to this point, Jesus gave them strict orders that no one should know about this.
And he said that some food should be given to her to eat. She's been raised to life. She's been given new life. Give her some food to eat. And that's the case with every single one of us that has been raised from death to life.
Let us feed upon the word of God and continue to grow according to this word that has been given to us by the spirit, by our savior, by the father. It is the word of God that brings us to faith that saves.
Romans 10, 17, faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. Don't underestimate the power of the gospel and his word to forgive us of our sins and raise us to new life with him. So walk in that new life today.
Heavenly father, we are thankful for what we've read here with regard to these amazing miracles. And may we understand it's spiritual application that we would see we've been raised from death to life in Christ.
It is by grace we are saved through faith. It is through faith that we have been justified and not by our works. The one who works, scripture says, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as is due, but to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly.
His faith is counted as righteousness. So if we have been given that righteousness of Jesus Christ, may we walk in that today as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing unto you. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Thank you for listening to When We Understand The Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website, www .wutt .com and click on the give tab in the top right corner of the page.
Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study When We Understand The Text.