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Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist, a daily devotion and Bible reading to accompany your morning coffee. My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist. Today we're going to be in Luke chapter 8. If you want to open your Bibles up to Luke chapter 8.
Now one of the things that I haven't noted so far but I'm going to mention today is that the chapters in Luke, just like all the Gospels, are longer than what we have in say one of the epistles. The epistles usually have shorter chapters and so because I'm limiting myself to one passage or one section of the of the chapter, we really are jumping over a lot.
The beginning of the the eighth chapter of Luke talks about the women that ministered alongside of Jesus while working with him, providing for him, which is an interesting little side note that Luke tells us is that the women were providing for the for the needs of the ministry.
And then we have the the great and wonderful parable of the sower and part of me wanted to talk about that today because that's one of my favorite parables. I encourage you to read it then read the explanation of it.
The parable itself is four through eight and then the speaks about the purpose of the parables in verse 9 through 15. It kind of gives an explanation of it and I think understanding the parable of the sower is a is a helpful tool in understanding other parables as well because it's one of the it's one of those parables where Jesus gives a full explanation and he kind of shows us how the parables work in as analogies to realities in our faith.
Then we move down and we see the the situation with Jesus his mother and his brothers. We see Jesus calming the storm. We see Jesus healing a man with a demon in the country of the Gerasenes. And then we get to the part that I want to focus on and this is verses 40 to 56.
So this is this brings us to the end of the chapter. It says now when Jesus returned the crowd welcomed him and they were all waiting for him. There was a man named Jairus who was a ruler of the synagogue and falling at Jesus's feet he implored him to come to his house for he had an only daughter about 12 years of age and she was dying.
Now right away I remember when I was younger and I would hear this story talked about and I remember at that time as a young person sort of putting myself in the narrative sort of empathizing or sympathizing in the narrative with the young girl who was sick.
But now as an adult as a father I put myself in the in the shoes of Jairus. Here's a man who is who is desperate. His daughter is sick. She is dying and he is looking for someone to help. He's heard about Jesus this healer.
He knows probably a lot about Jesus. It says that he was a ruler of the synagogue which means that he would have been well educated in religious things and probably well educated in religious people and therefore he would have known about Christ and he comes to Jesus.
He implores him to come to his house. He knows Jesus has the ability to heal. He's he's probably seen it happen or heard that it has happened. So so Jairus calls for Jesus to come and in the midst of this there is a woman and it goes on to say in verse 42 as Jesus went the people pressed around him and there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years and though she had spent all her living on physicians she could not be healed by anyone.
She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment and immediately her discharge of blood ceased and Jesus said who was it that touched me? When all denied it Peter said master the crowd surround you and are pressing in on you but Jesus said someone touched me for I perceive that power has gone out from me.
When the woman saw that she was not hidden she came trembling falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him and now she had been immediately and how she had been immediately healed and he said to her daughter your faith has made you well go in peace.
While he was still speaking someone from the rulers house came and said your daughter is dead do not trouble the teacher anymore. Now you have to imagine the heartbreak of Jairus at this moment he got Jesus to listen he got Jesus to to come and while they were on their way probably the first bit of hope he's had in the midst of this horrible ordeal while they're on their way this woman stops Jesus and the whole crowd stops him and Jesus stops to deal with this woman and Jairus is probably in his mind just come on you know he's he's not worried about this woman and her issue of blood he's worried about his daughter and now now she's died now now it's in the minds of most people would be it was too late.
Verse 50 but Jesus on hearing this answer answered him do not fear only believe and she will be well. When he came to the house he allowed no one to enter with him except Peter and John and James and the father and the mother of the child and all were weeping and mourning for her but he said do not weep for she is not dead but sleeping and they laughed at him knowing that she was dead.
The callousness of men's hearts is hard to describe sometimes but just the callousness of being able to laugh and and I know maybe it doesn't mean they laughed out loud but their attitude towards him was so smug and so so hurtful.
Verse 54. But taking her by the hand he called saying child arise and her spirit returned she got up at once and he directed that something should be given her to eat and her parents were amazed but he charged them to tell no one what had happened.
I can't imagine the elation, the joy, the thankfulness that these parents have in this moment. This story just as I said even as a young man I would hear this story and it would it would touch my heart.
I remember going to a I think it was a Giver of Life was the name of the play that we went to and they they showed this scene where the actor of course portraying Jesus and an actor portraying a little girl and I remember I as a little young man I wept at seeing this little girl who had died and Jesus bringing her back to life this this this narrative and what's amazing it's true it's it's it's this is not just some fanciful story from some ancient book this is this is the this is the inspired and errant Word of God telling us a true thing that actually happened in the life of Christ and this is a miraculous event.
But the thing I want you to notice if you go back up to verse 43 it says the woman who had the discharge of blood had that discharge for 12 years. You say well why is that significant. Well it might make you wonder why would Luke even include that.
Why does that matter other than to say that she was sick for a long time. He could have just said she'd had it for a long time but Luke is very specific to tell us it was 12 years. Go back up to verse 42 and it talks about Jairus's daughter.
Notice how old she was. She was 12 years old now I'm not looking to try to find something that is some kind of numerology or something. That's not what I'm doing but these two mentions within just a few verses of other one another.
I can't see these as a coincidence. What I think we see here is Luke pointing out the fact that 12 years before this event God had already started these things in motion. God brought Jairus a daughter 12 years before this happened.
God allowed this woman to experience this issue of blood beginning around the same time as Jairus's daughter was born. And he was gonna bring these two people together at a point in time to demonstrate the power of his son.
You remember when Jesus came upon a blind man and the disciples said who was it him or his parents that sin that he is blind. And Jesus said it's neither him nor his parents but he's blind so that the power of God might be demonstrated in him.
Well is this not what we see here. This little girl was born to demonstrate the power of Christ. This woman experienced this issue of blood to demonstrate the power of Christ. Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if we could take a step back from our troubles and our problems right now and be able to see how God is working in our lives to glorify himself and to bring about his ultimate good in our lives.
The Bible says God works all things together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. 12 years. These both started 12 years before and they both got brought together at the same time.
I just I look at that and I say wow behold the love of God. Behold the power of God. Behold the sovereignty of God in working out history for his glory. I hope today has been an encouragement to you. I hope these daily Bible videos are an encouragement to you.
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Thank you for watching today again. My name is Keith Foskey and I'm a Calvinist and I wish you a good day.