Mark 4:35-5:43, What Are You Afraid Of?

Mark chapter 4 verse 35 and to all of chapter 5 hear the word of the

Lord On that day when evening had come he said to them let us go across to the other side and Leaving the crowd they took him with them in the boat

Just as he was and other boats were with him and a great Windstorm arose and the waves were breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling

But he was in the stern asleep on the cushion and they woke him and said to him teacher Do you not care that we are perishing and he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea

Peace be still and the wind ceased and there was a great calm and he said to them

Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith and they were filled with great fear and said to one another

Who then is this? That even wind and sea obey him They came to the other side of the sea and to the country of the garrisons and when

Jesus had stepped out of the boat immediately There met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit

He lived among the tombs and no one could bind him anymore. Not even with a chain For he had often been bound with shackles and chains

But he ridged the chains apart and he broke the shackles in pieces No one had the strength to subdue him night and day among the tombs and on the mountains

He was always crying out in bruising himself with stones And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him and crying out with a loud voice

He said what have you to do with me Jesus son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God.

Do not torment me For he was saying to him come out of the man you unclean spirit and Jesus asked him

What is your name? And he replied? my name is Legion for we are many and He begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country

Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside and they begged him saying send us to the pigs

Let us enter them So he gave them permission and the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs and the herd numbering about 2 ,000 rushed down the steep bank into the sea and were drowned in the sea the herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country and people came to see what it was that had happened and They came to Jesus and saw the demon -possessed man the one who had the

Legion sitting there clothed and in his right mind and they were afraid and those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon -possessed man into the pigs and they began to beg

Jesus to Depart from their region as he was getting into the boat The man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him and he did not permit to him but said to him go home to your friends and tell them how much the

Lord has done for you and How he has had mercy on you and he went away and began to proclaim in the

Decapolis how much? Jesus had done for him and everyone marveled 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 out 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 and he went with him and A great crowd followed him and thronged about him and there was a woman who had been who had a discharge of blood for 12

Years and who had suffered much under many physicians and had spent all that she had and she 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 garment

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

While he was still speaking there came from the rulers house someone who said your daughter is dead why trouble the teacher any further

But overhearing what they said Jesus said to the ruler of 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 of the synagogue and Jesus saw a commotion

People weeping and wailing loudly and when he had entered the house, 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 and mother and Those who were with him went in where the child was taking her by the hand.

He said to her Talithi comey, 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

May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word Well, what are you afraid of?

And you want to share the deepest darkest fears, maybe we have a little sharing time and come up anybody

Want to share? No. Oh one of the leading Kinds of fear called social phobias that they call them

That is the fear of being rejected by others of being humiliated being shunned singled out for scorn

You know coming up and saying I fear this and everyone looking that's weird when you do that for So for many people they fear public speaking a couple of months ago

Raymond came up to me right after a sermon and asked me How I could speak in front of people that that's scary

Well, we fear public speaking not really because we think people will get violent with us You know if I say something that you don't like I don't

I don't really think you're gonna start throwing things at me But we fear that will be rejected that will bore people and fear that maybe you'll be thinking

Why would he please stop talking? I want to get to lunch People fear all kinds of things

They fear enemies maybe literal ones who will reject you speak in public or impersonal ones like viruses or Poverty people who fear poverty will work and work and work

Even years after they've earned lots of money and they have a paid -for house and are debt -free

But they'll keep working incessantly no vacations No time with family or church Because they still have this haunting feeling that poverty is going to overtake them at any moment

We think money is the solution to the fear of poverty But fear is it reasonable?

Some people feel the dark let the enemy lurking in the dark and so they'll sleep with the light on others fear

Heights So they'll stay out of tall buildings some fear flying So the lonely drive

Some single young people fear loneliness and that they'll be single and alone all their lives and so they will compromise and they will settle for Some relationship maybe in a moral relationship in order to avoid loneliness

We had a lady who attended here with us for a while Who was so afraid of being lonely that she was living with a man that she wasn't married to and she told us she knew

It was wrong But that she was just too afraid of being alone Fear like that for that lady can be used to manipulate you to make you do things.

You know, you shouldn't Of course a lot of people fear death Death is their enemy.

I really should say probably all of us Fear death at least some aspect of it. Maybe at least fear how you're gonna die

There are there aren't a lot of pleasant ways to die. I don't think of Maybe if you go while you're under anesthesia

When you don't even know it maybe that but there's not a lot of pleasant ways to die We got well fear of some unpleasant way of dying.

A lot of people are controlled though by that fears I don't think there's nothing wrong with having a fear of death It helps you maybe avoid some things you should be avoiding

But the the issue is whether you're controlled by that fear Hebrews chapter 2 verse 15

Says that many people in this culture this world are lifelong slaves of their fear of death

They'll do anything to avoid death So they're a slave to it We've seen a lot of that in this pandemic over the last year and a half it at first, you know

It last March of these 2020 and we had to remember the 15 days to slow the spread 15 days.

It'll all be over I assume that the fear would only last a little while That I thought

I remember in March of 2020 You could get people to wear masks and socially distance and hand sanitize and stay out of school and out of stadiums and church other assemblies you can get them to do that stay afraid maybe for a few weeks maybe a couple months at the most and Then that fear will

I thought? Would evaporate that it would be like a fire It'll kind of burn itself out and then we'll go back to normal that reason would prevail soon and sure

We'll take special precautions, especially for the vulnerable Particularly for the seniors like protecting nursing homes and so forth, but I thought after a little while the rest of us would relax

Especially as the statistics began to show that the dangers from kovat to healthy not elderly people

With small and I'm sure there's exceptions but for most healthy not elderly people. There's there's not a lot of danger from it

So I thought the fear it's gonna it's gonna go away after a little while Boy, was

I wrong? The fear of death keeps people as Hebrews says in lifelong

Slavery so some people now Some people now are ready for a a permanent pandemic.

I think they can live perpetually Mask and separated and alone in their house to keep the fires of fear burning

We've even invented a new thing. They call it fear porn Like some people are addicted to pornography to the fear addict

To keep themselves, you know in the state of hysteria to keep that fear just burning

They will regularly fuel those fires of fear with fear inducing news always the most fearful interpretation of things

You know if the pandemic is going down well there's gonna be a a variant or something like that fear mongers cater to that addiction and So the fearful they lack the fear mongers.

So there's hysteria even for a disease that for people under 65 There's about a 99 % survivability rate and now even higher for the vaccinated and for children the danger to children from covert is minimal and when

I when I see masked children in public, I think Hysteria There are at least the parents of the children are in lifelong slavery to the fear of death

They're more afraid of death Than they are of loneliness or poverty it turns out

But what are you afraid of? What's your enemy? That makes you fear

Is it a virus? Is it poverty? It's a loneliness and Christian theology

We have three main enemies that we're told that we're warring against the world the flesh and the devil usually said in that order

I don't know why but that's usually the order it said here we see in this this story in this account. We read That Jesus is victorious easily

Over our enemies so we don't have to fear them here in this story. He rules

In the order we find in this passage over first the world Second the devil and then the flesh or the body but there is still a fear that we need

Well first Jesus rules over the world now. He's had a very busy day He's just taught on the kingdom of God That's the rule of God what it is like what we looked at last week in those parables

He taught that from from the boat. Remember he's on this boat and using the lakeshore like an amphitheater

Now instead at once he's done instead of done teaching instead of dismissing the crowd and then coming ashore

He tells his disciples in verse 35. Let's go to the other side of the lake

So they left by boat notice at the end of verse 36 says there were other boats there, too

There were some people listening to Jesus from their own boats, which is just one of those facts That you find again

When it's history, you know, not a legend It can take about six hours to cross the lake the

Lake of Galilee and so Jesus He's tired from a long day of teaching. He sleeps at the rear the stern of the boat on the cushion there

I think he must have been a very sound sleeper because the boat is being rocked by the waves and Some of the waves were splashing into the boat and beginning to fill it says it's a wind storm

So there apparently wasn't any rain the Wayne rain would almost certainly woke him up But it's a wind storm and there's a lot of waves and the the disciples are panicking and but he's he's still sound asleep and the storm got dangerous and storms are storms are a cause of fear at Least four disciples you've asked how bad was this storm?

Well, at least four disciples are fishermen and so they're sailors. They're professional sailors. They're used to this lake

They know what it's like and they were panicking now when the professionals are terrified that things are dire

Things are dire So in verse 38, they wake up Jesus and exclaim in their fear teacher

Which is a term of respect, but then they immediately Practically insult him.

Do you not care that we are perishing? You know, basically Jesus. Where's your empathy?

How could you sleep when we're about to die fear of death has made them disrespectful and unbelieving

They sounded awful lot like reading that the disciples here They sound an awful lot like people in our culture over the past year and a half

You know if you try to reason with some of these fear addicts It's a way to be reasonable to take precautions.

But if you try to reason with them often, they'll shoot back. Don't you care? We're going to die now in the case of people around here in our culture, well, they're

They're the world and that's what you can expect this life is all they have and So they they shudder in the fear of death, they don't have any way to master the fear of death

Instead they are mastered by it. They're slaves of it They will do what the fear of death tells them to do if it tells them don't stay locked in their home with mask on The rest of their lives they'll do it

But for these disciples, they should know these disciples here. They've just heard about the kingdom of God.

They should know about Jesus They should know that the master of death And of the world is

With them in the boat Now it's it would be okay for them to have waken up Jesus and politely ask him

Lord, we have a problem here. Would you please take care of it? That would be fine and just let him do it.

Watch him do it instead They panic so after Rebuking the wind wait who rebukes wind

Thought about that rebuke the wind you talk to wind for who can order a disorderly storm to stop

Like a parent can order a disorderly child to stop notice verse 39

It's not some kind of magic he's doing he doesn't say any kind of incantation So we have to say the power words to make the storm still know he speaks to it and he orders it to stop peace

He rebukes storms They settle down He commands it be still and There's a great call suddenly a tranquil smooth lake

He could order the coronavirus to go and it would have to go now who can do that as the psalm says

He's got the whole world in his hands He is Lord of the whole world of Earth and of nature now people today fear what nature can unleash maybe a virus

Maybe a global warming climate change They fear that there's nothing wrong with being reasonable and taking precautions

But they fear it because they don't believe in him who can rebuke nature who can command the world what to do

Not that we ignore nature, you know, don't go sailing on a stormy lake Thank Jesus to bail you out don't do that don't get close to infected people and expect

Jesus to Be like be like your mask and prevent you from getting infected Don't cut down all the trees and expect

Jesus to save you from your foolishness, but don't live in fear Or he will rebuke you

After he rebukes the wind He rebukes not all the unruly world, but then he rebukes the unbelieving disciples.

Why are you so afraid? Professional sailors, they knew this was a dire situation, but Jesus why

Are you so afraid because they were slaves to the fear of death? Have you no faith or she said have you still after all you've heard after all you've seen from me?

All right. Are you still? so empty of faith Faith here.

He means it's not just gonna be an optimistic attitude. Things will turn out Okay, sure. This is a bad -looking storm, but I believe we'll make it or Believing in the statistics like about kovat, you know, there's a 99 % survivability rate

Maybe there was a 99 % survivability rate in crossing the Lake of Galilee in a storm I don't know but statistics are cold comfort when you're faced with something

Terrifying and if you get covered you probably telling you your 99 % survivability rate That might not allay your fears.

So no, it's not just faith in percentages or likelihoods But here faith in Jesus who is the king of the kingdom of God who has said that the kingdom that is the rule of God is here

So, how can a mere storm something from the world

How can a mere storm? overrule him So he rebukes the disciples for fearing

Because they were not believing Now I should say he rebukes them for fearing the wrong thing

They feared the storm so fear death Because of their fear they disrespected the one who rules the storm so I Assume he's now he's standing in this boat having said peace be still now a stable boat on a tranquil Lake and They look at him with fear

In verse 41 it says they were filled they were filled with great fear

Not at the storm. It's gone Great fear and Greek. It's Megaphobia, but you know those words already don't you great fear?

They should be filled with fear. That's the right fear Because Jesus is Lord of the world

Well, what are you afraid of You afraid of the world the viruses or storms of nature if so You fear the wrong one

Or do you fear the spirits if you're the demonic maybe the devil

Are you afraid of the devil? Well in chapter 5 Jesus and the disciples arrive on the other side of the lake in Gentile territory

Right the way he started from where Jesus started on the western side of the lake Jews live mostly and on the other side

Gentiles, so he's crossed into Gentile territory a region called the Gerasenes and immediately a man comes out in verse 2

Notice it says out of the tombs. He liked to live in the tombs in verse 3.

He lived among the tombs where people are buried Now this disturbed man was living with the dead the demonic likes death now in about a month we'll have

Halloween which is in part a celebration of death of the macabre of the fearful a

Popular Halloween decoration you can go probably go in Walmart and buy it right now Let's put down the Walmart and buy decorations that would make this demonic man feel right at home

That is they have they might they sell these fake graves You seen them fake tombstones you put up in your yard and it makes your yard look like a cemetery a place for the dead

Well, that's for the demonic Christian should have nothing to do with that Aspect of it with the macabre the deathly and the demonic now if you can separate out from Halloween the kids in the superhero costumes getting candy

If you could separate that out from the celebration of death and terror and the demonic that's fine

I think let the kids play let the kids have their candy, but don't live among tombs like this man

Christians don't celebrate death He had an unclean spirit in verse 2

But as it gave him supernatural strength so that he can break the chains that people had tried to bind him with So he was terrifying all the people in that area night and day it says in verse 5.

He was crying out He's he's howling. He's moaning. He's groaning. He's cutting himself with stones as Jesus approached by boat

He sees him from afar And so he is right there goes rushing up to him and he's right there just at that moment

Jesus steps out of the boat onto the shore Literally, he's a welcoming party from hell and he shouts out in verse 7

What have you to do with me? Jesus son of the Most High God Now the demons in this man recognized who

Jesus was he's son of the Most High God and he screams out why are you here?

Well, they can only think of one reason to judge them to send them to hell that They assume that's what he's come for.

I they say I endure you that is I urge you I request All I can

I beg you He says by God. I think it's interesting that even the demons appeal to God.

It's like the only leverage they have That's the only thing they could think of so to appeal to Do not torment me

They knew that Jesus was the judge and that he was the one who will one day

Sentence them to eternal punishment and so they see him and they assume that that day had come the demons fear and tremble

So in verse 8 the demons were he was screaming They were a begging not to be tortured because Jesus had told them to leave the man and they thought you know

They thought this is the end. This is the final judgment. It's come now and then in verse 9

Jesus asked them What is your name and the demons replied? My name is Legion For we are many a

Legion is an army. It's like a division in the army today There's an army of demons in him and in verse 10 the army of demons begs

Jesus notice that in verse 10 The demonic army a whole army of them of demons you think that's powerful right an army of demons

They're begging No, we beg When we have no power, we have no leverage when we have nothing that we can offer

To get what we want We have no money. We have nothing we can provide. All we can do is beg here

That's the position there and there's nothing that they could do. They have no way to resist them. So they desperately

Beg, that's the only thing they can do even an army of demons Has no ability to Resist Jesus's command.

That's how powerful he is, but it's not yet time for the final judgment for them being sentenced to hell

So they were wrong about that. And so Jesus grants their request to be sent into the herd of pigs Those are unclean animals.

And so about 2 ,000 of them of those pigs React to the demons by stampeding down a steep embankment right into the lake and there they drown

Now modern people read all this and think that's just too incredible That sounds like one of those legends remember a couple weeks ago.

We said that some people say it's a legend That's just too incredible. I've never seen anything like it and if I've never seen it, it can't be true

That's the way people think right? But you know, I've never seen myself. I've never seen in person Nazis I Never seen

Nazis. They're not Nazi armies. I've never seen the Imperial Japanese Army either You know why

I don't see them Because someone defeated them already now we don't see much maybe not any at all of this kind of thing because remember

Jesus has bound the strongman He defeated them already So the pig herders they fled the runaway in verse 14 now apparently they're afraid

Probably at least partly afraid of getting in trouble with their herd owner They're probably employed by a man who owns the pigs and they're gonna have to explain we lost all your pigs and they want to tell the nearby people what happened and so all those people come out to the scene and they come where Jesus is and there's these

Dead pigs apparently floating in the lake and Jesus and the disciples with this man who had terrorized them for the longest time in the past They weren't able to to subdue him

Even with chains in the past, but now he's clothed. He's calm. He's safe he's talking normally

I Witnesses told the whole story and the people there they realized

That Jesus was powerful more powerful than a army of demons So they feared him

They didn't think he was good Right. They knew he was powerful and they didn't believe he was good

So they begged him just like the demons had begged him before to leave

People the world are afraid of the Lord of Spirits Well, the man who was delivered that is saved from the demons

He may have feared Jesus to to a degree respected him revered him But unlike the people in the rest of the region he knew

Did Jesus was good? So he wanted to go with Jesus to join the disciples, but Jesus refused him

It's interesting if he does that instead he sent him away home go back to your home

So all your friends tell your family what the Lord has done for you notice verses 19 and 20

These are important verses 19 and 20 in chapter 5 now some people say that the Gospels Don't say that Jesus is

God. It's one thing you hear critics skeptics say they don't really say Jesus is God Well, actually the Gospel of John does pretty clearly say that in several points, but even here in Mark Look what

Mark is doing right as he's writing this Look what he's trying to communicate to this story in verse 19.

Jesus tells the man He says Jesus says tell them how much the Lord Has done for you and how he the

Lord has had mercy on you and the mark goes on next verse immediately and he went away as the man and Began to proclaim in the

Decapolis. He's ten towns. He cities how much Jesus Had done for him

Jesus said tell them how it's the Lord did and Mark is saying the man fulfilled that by telling them what

Jesus did because Jesus is Lord and Everyone marveled they go.

Wow They wondered they admired they revered that is with a holy fear

Jesus What are you afraid of? You Don't need to be afraid of the world of nature or the devil because Jesus Rules over them all what about your body?

Are you afraid of it? What can go wrong with it? That is weak It's vulnerable to viruses infections and cancers heart attacks an old age

Bicycle accidents Do you fear that lump you find? Or do you fear that call you get from the doctor's office about your test results

Or do you fear what we now just call the virus The flesh in the

Bible is actually much more than the body But if you live for the flesh your greatest fear is what happens to your body

Because you have nothing without the body If you live for the flesh

Well, Jesus crossed the lake again Remember, this is one long continuous incident all of this from the teaching about the gospel of the kingdom

We looked at last week and taught from the boat He crossed the lake caught in a storm arriving to a demoniac being asked to leave and now crossing to the lake again, and he's back to where they started where he taught a

Huge crowd then gathers around him again and in it is a man named Jairus He's a he's a significant man a prominent man, he's a synagogue ruler means he's a pillar of society he took us he'd be like a city councilman a

Rotary Club president a business owner and a church deacon kind of all rolled into One and he sees

Jesus in verse 22 actually came for Jesus and he falls at Jesus's feet

He's begging for him to come to his house to pray for his daughter who is sick with a fever near death

Now he's a prominent man, but he wasn't too proud to bow right before Jesus He's a humble man and notice the way

Jairus puts his request in verse 23 come and lay your hands on her so that she may be made well and live as If he has total faith that if Jesus prays for her

She'll recover So Jesus goes with him as they're moving along just at this enormous crowd

Kind of thronged around Jesus now in that crowd was a woman with a discharge of blood a hemorrhage that would make her

We call ceremonially or you could say religiously unclean She's technically unclean

She's not supposed to be with around people now since this is a constant some kind of constant blood flow

She's in a constant state of uncleanness Which means that anyone she touches is unclean which if you got touched by her that would annoy you

Because then you would have to go through the ceremony to cleanse yourself So you don't want to be touched by someone who's unclean like her so that would make her a permanently socially distance from everyone

If she touched other people they would become unclean they were supposed to do the ritual of cleansing To be able to go back into society.

So if she gets found out Out in this crowd, she will be at least she'll be scolded.

You'll be excluded rejected maybe worse So if anyone has a good reason for a social phobia

It's her She shouldn't be in this crowd in the first place. Certainly not trying to intentionally touch someone like Jesus, but she's desperate

She's had this condition for 12 years. She's bankrupted herself She spent all her money on on doctors who weren't able to do anything for her

They only took her money and made her condition worse So with great trepidation she ventures out into this crowd

Hoping that she's not caught for being unclean out out in there in the mix She had heard the reports about Jesus and she believed them enough

Her faith in Jesus was enough to cause her to overcome her fear of society of the people her social phobia so she

She goes out to him to touch him and she said it to herself If even

I I just touched it the hem of his garment the edge of it I will be made well

It's all I have to do her faith in Jesus was greater than her fear of social disapproval and so she managed to squeeze through the crowd and come up behind him and reach out and Touch his clothes just the edge of his clothes probably some flowing robe and in verse 29 immediately at that moment

The blood flow stopped she was healed and Jesus knew it, too

He knew that in verse 39. It's a power had gone out from him. Although Jesus the man wasn't aware of her

God the Father healed the woman through the Son. So Jesus Jesus stops and asked

Who touched me? Now the disciples they're thinking

You know still not realizing who they're dealing with What are you talking about What a question is that all these people around you they're jostling you all kinds of people are touching you and bumping into you

It's a crowded Place situation you see the crowd they say so you see the crowd

Pressing around you they're pressing close and yet you say who touched me Now he doesn't just mean casually touch accidentally bump into rubbing elbows with in a crowd.

He means that someone intentionally Touched him in faith to get power

So he stops stop He looks around Who touched me?

Now Jairus standing there. He has to be panicking at this moment He's desperate because he knows that his daughter is on the verge of death and they have they've got to get to his house as Fast as possible and now there's this delay as Jesus tries to figure out

Why someone touched him in this special way and Jesus has stopped He's asking who touched me

So the woman comes up in verse 33 in Fear and trembling

Notice more fear Now she would have been afraid to go out in the crowd

But she overcame that fear because of her faith in Jesus now here. She's afraid of what

Jesus might do Right. Jesus is a religious teacher He teaches the

Word of God. She came near to breaking it by going out in a crowd while she's unclean.

What's he gonna say? She's exposed she's healed But afraid and she also falls down before him like Jairus earlier and she tells

Jesus her story fearing a rebuke fearing rejection social phobia stirring in her

And she hears instead daughter You know,

Jesus is not an old man. Well, how exactly old he is at this time probably in his young It's lower 30s And why is he going around calling people daughter or son in Mark chapter 2 in the paralytic?

You remember is lowered right in front of him. He calls that man son here

Daughter the word and the tone Probably put her immediately at ease her trembling stops

Your faith has made you well Because you believed enough

To overcome your fears to press through the crowd and touch me the father healed you

So no fear He says go in peace free of fear

Perfect love cast out fear 1st John chapter 4 verse 18 says Jesus has be healthy be sound be whole

Fear and diseases relieved What are you afraid of?

You're afraid of death Maybe not your own death But the death of someone close to you maybe a loved one especially a child

Now during this delay a messenger from home comes and tells Jairus that his daughter was dead No use troubling the teacher that Jesus anymore

When she was hanging on to life, there's hope but they just assumed No one can overcome death.

The last enemy we think is the unconquerable one death

But Jesus overheard it and he said to Jairus that this prominent man Do not fear

Don't even fear death Only he says do not fear only

The only thing you have to do not fear Not offer sacrifices not do religious rituals not say the magic words not make a donation to my ministry only

Believe So Jesus takes Peter and James and John dismisses everyone else even his other disciples and he comes to the synagogue rulers house

Interesting three times in verses 35 to 38 Jairus is called the ruler of the synagogue instead of being called by his name as Though to say well, yeah, he might rule the synagogue

But look what Jesus rules And they get to the house and there's a commotion there people

Weeping and wailing loudly for the dead girl and he asked him. What are you doing?

Why are you doing this? Why such a fuss? Why weeping? This is like when he was in the boat during the storm.

Why are you afraid? Why are you professional fishermen sailors? Why were you afraid of the storm that otherwise would have killed you?

And he says the girl is not dead but sleeping now. He doesn't mean that she's in a coma. You've misdiagnosed her

They probably knew death when they saw it and the other Gospels make it clear that she is indeed dead

So they they laugh at him. They scorn him. They don't know who they're dealing with They fear death

But they don't fear mocking him They fear the wrong one So Jesus puts the mourners outside and he takes the girl's parents to the girl's body

Notice he takes her by the hand A cold hand And he says in Aramaic, this is

Aramaic interesting these words are preserved just as Jesus said them to leafy coming

Peter probably Remembers these words as he's telling them to mark many years later and those words the literal words

Echoing in his ears all these all these years to leafy come a

Now telling us little girl. I say to you arise

Notice here He doesn't pray Peter and Paul and acts they they when they pray for dead people to be risen.

They have to pray Jesus here doesn't Pray, he doesn't ask God for a miracle.

He doesn't have to He is God. He says the word and it creates what he says

He his commands create what he commands so immediately in verse 42

She gets up able to walk She's eat. She's hungry and Jesus is practical take care of her need for food

Give her lunch and the parents the others and she walked out of the room They were overcome.

They're astounded. They're literally could be translated. They're just out of their minds with amazement bewilderment a joyous stunned

Fear of the wonderful Jesus rules over death

What are you afraid of? You're afraid of your enemies the world the flesh and the devil

Well, Jesus rules over them all of course The world is not just the realm of of nature of viruses and storms, but is also society

It's how culture tries to shape us What we sometimes fear, you know in our social phobias that will be will be rejected will be disapproved of if we're not conformed

To what people around us expect we fear being called a bigot so we don't object to the world's immorality

That's that's the world that we fear it The flesh is not only the body and his desires, but it's also our sinful nature our pride our ego

But you don't need to fear those either Because Jesus overcome the world and has crucified our flesh with his passions and desires

What are you afraid of You're afraid of death Now almost everyone is afraid of death to some degree, but we don't have to be slaves of it after all the last enemy to be defeated is death and Jesus here proves in this resuscitation and in his own resurrection that death will be defeated too and that Every good thing that we fear losing because of death

Will be restored. So what are you afraid of?

What you should be ultimately afraid of Not poverty or loneliness or storms or demons or diseases or even death

It's not those enemies What you should be afraid of is The one who can say to them all peace

Be still Come out Be well