Transcript
If you have your Bibles, would you take them and turn with me? The Gospel of Luke, chapter 8. We'll start in verse 40.
If you look up the word desperate in Noah Webster's original dictionary in 1828. He defines desperate as the giving up of hope. A state of hopelessness and despair. That definition is still true today.
Chuck Swindoll said you can live for 40 days without food, 8 days without water, 4 minutes without air, but not very long at all without hope.
Hopelessness and desperation describe two people we're about to meet in Luke's record of Scripture. Here in chapter 8, verses 40 to 56, one of them becomes hopeless suddenly. The other has been losing hope for several years, little by little. We meet her when she's just about out of hope entirely. When we experience desperate times, we reach for desperate measures.
The question is not whether you're going to ever have a desperate time. But when you do so. What desperate measure would you reach for?
Jesus proved He is Lord over the seen of creation, when he said to the wind and the waves be still. He is Lord over the unseen of the demonic when he cast it out thousands of demons from the demoniac.
These desperate people you'll find today will feel the issues of disease and death. Diseases and death are the direct results of sin.
Jesus cares for desperate people. There is a fact that some of you walked in today, you look good, but you're desperate and others of you aren't. And for those of you who are desperate. You'll find some hope today. And for those of you who aren't? My hope actually is that you become desperate.
You find 2 healings for the price of one. It's like a Groupon healing. Y'all remember Groupons? Groupon Healing. I almost titled the sermon Groupon Healing. But then I was afraid that was the only thing I would remember.
So let's walk through the passage. Luke chapter 8, starting verse 40. Notice the scene now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, but they were all waiting for him.
So Jesus is returning from the Gentile side of the lake where he had cast out demons from a man who was demonically controlled. It was not hard for Jesus to return from the Gentile side of the lake because they told him to leave. When you're thrown out of a place, it's not hard to leave it.
And then they get to the other side of the lake. And whenever he gets to the other side of the lake, when he gets to the dock, the passage says in verse 40 people are waiting for him. Let's walk through the major players of the story. The 1st is mentioned in verse 41. There came a man named Jairus, ruler of the synagogue. So the first character is a synagogue leader. His name is Jairus.
Second person who is mentioned, you'll see in verse 41 falling at Jesus’ feet. He implored him to come to his house for he had an only daughter about 12 years of age and she's dying. So you have a 12-year-old child. There are three descriptions of her. One, she was the only kid.
There any only kids in the room?
Eight or nine of yah are spoiled rotten–every one of you spoiled rotten. Everlast one of you.
I was like 10 years after my youngest sister. I was raised as an only child. I have three sisters. But when you're 10 years late, you're an only child. I was spoiled rotten, and I'm proud of it.
OK. This is an only child. She's 12 years old. We have the age. We'll talk about that a little bit. And the third thing.
I talked about the spoiled rotten thing because you need to catch it. She's dying.
Imagine what that is doing to the heart of Jairus.
3rd character you'll find is going to intrude into the story and we won't read about her right now, but I'll just tell you it is a woman with a disease causing constant menstruation.
She has had this disease for 12 years. For 12 years she has bled.
There is an intertwining of the lives of the 12-year-old and the unclean woman that you'll see in the story. The girl is sick to the point of death. The 12-year-old and the woman have been sick for 12 years which is the same length as the girl's life.
Jesus treats both of them tenderly. He will call one Daughter and the other one. He's going to say–I love this–he's going to say, “Child, Get Up!” It's time to get up. I don't know how many of you have ever woken a 12-year-old, but it doesn't work that way.
But when Jesus spoke, It worked.
Notice the tenderness in it. The other thing that I would just say that this is not on the screen, but there is physical contact between Jesus and both. And that was going to become a big deal. That there is physical contact with both.
So let's look a little deeper now that we've gotten a little bit of the scene that's about to happen. First, let's notice the desperate father.
The death of children is hard.
John Owen, the Puritan writer, if you've never read a Puritan, the first person I'd encourage you to check out is John Owen, and you won't like him once you read him because he's so convicting in his writings. John Owen and his wife had eleven children; ten died before the age of 2. Did you catch that? Ten out of eleven children died before the age of 2.
Charles Wesley and his wife had eight children. Three survive to become teenagers.
The death of children is hard. The hardest funeral I've ever done in my life was the death that there were two caskets, both of children. The only double funeral I've ever done had 2 caskets.
Jairus–verse 41. He's important. The ruler of the synagogue falls at Jesus feet, and he begs him he and pours him would you come to my house?
Because he has an only, rotten spoiled daughter. I added rotten and spoiled. 12 years old and she is dying.
Jairus noticed some facts about him. First of all, he's a person of wealth and influence. The ruler of the synagogue is how he's described. He would select those who would preach on Sabbath. He would read the scripture. He select the person who would read the scripture. He would select the person who would pray. He was also a layperson. He was not a rabbi. He would not have been considered a Pharisee. He would not have been considered a scribe.
Also, you will notice he loved his daughter. His only daughter, his joy. And there is nothing in this text that says he had any reason to believe in Jesus.
As a matter of fact, for those who are rulers of the synagogue, the truth of the matter is the people in the synagogue hated Jesus. But somewhere along the line, he had come to the understanding in this man, there might be hope.
And because he came to that place of in this man there might be hope, He goes to Jesus, He falls at his feet, and he begs him, “My kid is sick and they're dying. Help!”
She's 12. This is a cultural moment that I need to explain that will not make sense to us in Evansville, IN. But I need you to give grace because it's two different cultures.
Culturally, at age 11, a child was considered a child. At the age of 12, they're considered a young lady would be considered a virgin. At the age of 13, they were ready for marriage.
So when they say at the age of 12, here's what they're saying. From a cultural perspective, she has her whole life in front of her. Their age 12 would have been equal to our age 21. Culturally. She had her whole life in front of her.
So what does Jesus do? Verse 42 Jesus went.
The passage says nothing more than that. He begs. Jesus goes.
That's what he does. He goes. You want him? You've asked. He doesn't even ask. Do you believe He just goes. And then it says at the end of verse 42, the people pressed around him. Remember he got off the boat and there's all these people and now he he's heading.
Y'all hate crowds? I mean, crowds can get on your everlasting nerve. I mean, you're trying to get from point A to point B and everybody's just bumping into you. And you like want to yell out, “I'm going this way. May the Red Sea part.” Jesus is walking and the people are pressing.
Second character now enters a desperate woman. Verse 43, “And there was a woman. Who had a discharge of blood for 12 years.”
So this woman is going to bring an interruption.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer; there's going to be a movie coming out about Dietrich Bonhoeffer this fall that I hope is very good because his story is not known enough. Dietrich Bonhoeffer made this statement. He said we must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. God will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans, sending us people with claims and petitions. It's a strange fact that Christians and even ministers frequently consider their work so important and urgent that they'll allow nothing to disturb them. They think they're doing God a service in this, but actually they're disdaining God's quote crooked, yet straight path. If you'll look, God will interrupt your life.
Luke reveals a desperate woman who had a horrendous life for 12 years.
12 years ago. Where were you? Picture that amount of time.
This woman has been sick. She's described in three ways. First, a discharge of blood for 12 years. She's lost her health due to illness from constant menstruation. We'll talk more about that in a second.
I talked to our ladies here for a lady's Bible study on Wednesday night and it's the same passage that I'm preaching this morning and I have never thought about menstruation more in my life than in this week.
God Bless America.
The second is this notice in verse 43 or verse 44. In verse 43, “though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone.” She lost her wealth.
Have you ever noticed that going to the hospital costs a lot of money? Have you ever noticed doctors ain't cheap?
So this picture hasn't changed. This is how the Gospel of Mark puts it. We'll put it on the screen.
In Mark chapter 5, it says, “There was a woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years and who had suffered much under many physicians. She spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse.” She not only spent everything she had, but she was worse.
You can spend, by the way, please don't. Somebody's gonna walk away from this service and they're gonna say, Bobby said. Stop going to the doctor. That is not what I'm saying. I'm just saying. I'm just saying you can. Doctors are expensive. She lost her health. She's lost her wealth. She also lost her family.
Why? Because when a woman was menstruating, according to the book of Leviticus, chapter 15, verses 19 through 30, she was considered unclean. So she couldn't sit where you sit. She couldn't go to synagogue. If she were married previously, she's now, I'm sure, no longer married. Her life has been completely disrupted. She's outside. No one has touched her for 12 years. She's not experienced the love of a hug from her mother. Love from siblings, all of that is gone. 12 years.
Jesus is on his way to Jairus home and in a crowd she hears Jesus passing by and she joins the crowd. And it's risky. She takes a risk. Her risk is, I'm going to believe that Jesus can make a change in my life. And she tried to do it anonymously, like those who may have known her condition. She tried to avoid everyone and just put herself in a position that she was somehow close to Jesus.
Her touch was also by faith.
In a vivid moment in her memory, notice what happens. Verse 44, “She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment and immediately her discharge of blood ceased.” Don't you know that moment when she touches the hem of Jesus’ garment and she feels healed? That moment is seared into her mind. For 12 years she's been sick and she knows immediately, “I'm good.”
Jesus says in verse 45, “who touched me? Everybody said I didn't touch you. Peter said Master crowds around you, they're pressing in on you. Why are you saying who touched me? Jesus said someone touched me for I perceive power has gone out from me and the woman saw she's not hidden.” See, I want you to catch this. She tried to be anonymous. You will never be anonymous with God. He not only knows who you are, he knows your circumstance, he knows your situation, he knows your condition, and he cares. There is no anonymity here. You may feel like nobody around you cares. I'll be honest, that could be true.
But Jesus cares. When no one else does. You can run to him.
Jesus calls her out. “She came trembling and falling down before him, and she declares him the presence of all the people.” There's two things, she declares. Why she touched him. What'd she say? What'd she say? I believed he could. He could make a difference in my life. I've been sick and I believed he would. He would have an impact on me. I trusted him and noticed the second thing she says and how she had been immediately healed.
We asked three questions before baptism.
What was your life like before Jesus? What happened when you met Jesus? What's happened since you met Jesus?
That's really what she's doing right here. Jesus changed my life and the people are hearing their story and the crowds are listening. There's this massive crowd.
What happened? Jesus's authority healed her as she touched Him by faith.
Now this does not mean, and I want to be careful as I say this, that everyone who is sick can be healed by faith. You can't. You can't just get healed just because you believe. God made a choice to heal. Physical healing is not contingent on do you have enough faith. But I will say this, physical healing happens when two things happen. When we have faith and God chooses. You can have all kinds of faith, and if God chooses not to heal, it ain't going to happen. And This is why we have faith that the God that we're trusting in is going to do the right thing. We trust him because he's right.
Look at this verse 48, “He said to her, Daughter, your faith has made you well.” Watch the word “well”. I'm reading out of the English standard, “Daughter, your faith has made you well.” That is a poor translation. You should circle the word well.
Now I'm going to show you some words that are for well. In First Corinthians chapter one verse 21. We'll put it on the screen. First Corinthians chapter one verse 21 says, “for sense in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom. It pleased God through the folly of what we preached to [“Well” know, it's the exact same word in the original language to] save those who believe.”
First Corinthians Chapter 9 says,”to the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might [same word] save some.”
In Matthew chapter 14 it says this, “When he Peter, he saw the wind. He was afraid and beginning to sink. He cried out, Lord, make me [well, no.] Lord, save me.”
He says, “daughter, your faith has made you well.” He actually said, daughter, your faith has saved you.
God's interest in my life is not to make me happy, healthy, or well; but he does want to save you. Faith is the way we are saved. God always notices those who reach out to Him by faith. You miss out on the most important thing in all of life, which is being rescued from your sin and being saved. You miss it all.
This is the only time in Scripture, in all the Scripture that Jesus does this one thing. Watch it in verse 48. He says to her, here's the word, “daughter.”
Daughter.
When I was growing up, my dad used to call me boy. Something's changed. He calls me son. Now, maybe it's because he recognizes I'm not a little boy. Calls me son. On this earth, he's the only one who calls me son.
Jesus looks at this lady who no one has touched for 12 years. He says, “You're my kid.” You can be too. You may feel estranged. You want in the family faith. Put your faith in what Jesus has done for us on the cross. We're going to take communion in just a little while. And for those of you who have put your faith and trust in Jesus, you are invited to participate. And if you have not made I say to you, instead of not participating, may I say to you right now in your own heart, ask Jesus to come into your life to forgive you of your sins and to save you. And you'll be in the family as you surrender your life to Jesus.
The last piece of this: Is remember that Jairus is there and he wants to go see his daughter healed. Now we find a desperate father who faces death. Verse 49, “While he Jesus is still speaking, someone from the rulers house came and said, ‘your daughter [Jesus has called the woman, daughter, now Jairus, he said] your daughter's dead, don't trouble the teacher anymore.’ Jesus hears this and he looks at Jairus and he says, ‘do not fear, only believe.’”
Catch this: Death is 100% real for us all. You will all go through desperate situations and one of those will be the end of your life.
Faith in the Lord is always the right thing, and trusting Him even when you're faced with death is the right thing.
Jesus says just trust me, Jairus. Jairus just saw the healing of this woman who had been sick for 12 years.
Jairus had seen this healing, and now Jesus calls him to believe his daughter, who is dead will live.
Do you know one of the reasons why I can? I'm not saying this is the best reason. I don't think it is the best reason, but you know one of the reasons why I believe I can trust in the Lord tomorrow. It's because of what he did yesterday. I'm able to look backwards and I'm able to say, do you know God's really been faithful to me for 54 years? I haven't always understood why God's done what God's done, but I see his hand of faithfulness. And so I don't know what's coming tomorrow, but whatever's coming tomorrow, I'm going to trust Him. Because his character doesn't change. Some of you are in this room right now and your life is awful, but it looks good when you come to church.
God is faithful, trust Him when you don't understand anything else.
What did he do? You want to increase your faith, which is really what Jairus is being told. Just believe. I know she just heard she's dead.
DL Moody said this.He said, “I prayed for faith and thought someday faith would come down and strike me like lightning. Faith never came. One day I read in the 10th chapter of Romans, Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. I closed my Bible and I prayed for faith. Now I open my Bible and I begin to study it and faith is growing in me.”
You want faith in our world? Get in the Word.
Jesus, what does he do? Notice it. Notice it. Verse 51, “came to the house. He let no one enter with him except Peter, John and James.” Don't you know the other nine didn't like that.
The father and the mother of the child came in and they're all weeping and they're mourning Fern, he said. Hey, I don't weep. She's not dead. She's sleeping. And they laughed at him, knowing she is dead, They've seen dead, and she's dead. Jesus says she's sleeping. Did you know?
For a believer, that's the state of our physical body. Our physical body is. Look at when I die, To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. I will go, and I will be in the presence of Christ, and I will be more alive than I will have ever been. But my body y'all might see in an open casket somewhere. And it will be dead. It will be physically sleeping. Until one day God rises that body and makes it a glorified body. And I join it again.
Jesus says she's sleeping.
What does Jesus do? Watch it, watch it, watch it. This gets good.
“They laughed at him, knowing she was dead,” verse 54, “But he took her by the hand.”
Do you remember, Do you remember, Do you remember? Do you remember? Do you remember that woman who touched Jesus? Hem of her, his garment. See by her doing that, it made Jesus quote UN quote unclean. Anyone she touched makes that unclean.
Do you know what Jesus now does? Jesus touches a dead body.
Do you know what he's now doing? He's made himself unclean.
But what does he say? There is something more important. This life matters. And he touches her hand. Child arise.
I know I said this earlier but if y'all have ever woke up a 12 year old. That generally don't work. I mean, I've helped set alarms for 12-year-olds in this church. I pull out their phone. I make it the most crazy annoying alarm possible because I know that they're not going to wake up on Ding Ding Ding. Ding, Ding, Ding. All that's going to do is make them sleep hours more. They need, “ARRR, ARRRR, ARRRR.” They need that kind of fire alarm going off.
But here's what I would tell you. From a spiritual perspective, when Jesus spoke. Obedience. A heart that had stopped beating, started beating. Lungs that had stopped breathing, are now breathing. Brain waves that had stopped, are now moving again.
What happened to the little girl? What did she do when Jesus speaks?
Verse 55, “Her spirit returned.”
Death and life are both physical and spiritual, and when you die, something happens to your inner self, your spirit. For the believer to be absent with the body, to be present with the Lord, but for the unbeliever, the unbeliever goes to hell. They're eternally separated from God in a place of torment.
She then got up physically.
Now I will tell you a third thing, but it's an opinion. Her spirit returned, she got up at once and then he directed that something should be given her to eat. I really believe the third thing is her first words were I'm hungry. Why 'cause she was 12?
Her parents were amazed and he charged them to tell no one what had happened. Who's dead in needing Jesus? That's us. That's us.
Ephesians chapter 2 says this verse 1-2 and three, “You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived. And the passions of our flesh carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. And we're by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”
Peace from God can permeate your life and you were separated from Him.
What is your life characterized by? Fear and trusting the Lord. Trusting the Lord because of your faith or afraid of Him?
The Book of Revelation chapter one, verse 17 and 18 says this, “John said When I saw him, I fell at his feet. It's Jesus's feet as though he were dead. That he laid his right hand on me and he said fear not, I'm the 1st, I'm the last and the living one. I died and behold I'm alive forevermore and I have the keys of death and Hades.”
Death will not have the last word on any believer's life. If you follow Jesus Christ, because in Christ he has the key to death. He has hope.
But notice it also says he is the key of death and Hades. If you don't know Jesus, he also holds the key to hell. And hell is real.
When elderly Adele Gallery turned up missing in 1993, concerned neighbors in Worcester, MA informed the police. A brother told police she had gone into a nursing home. Satisfied with that information, Gabri's neighbors began watching her property. Michael Crowley noticed her mail delivered through a slot in the door, was piling high. He opened the door and hundreds of pieces of mail fell out. He notified the police and deliveries were stopped. Gabbaris’s next door neighbor Eileen Dugan started paying her grandson $10 twice a month to mow Gabbaree's lawn. Later, her son noticed Gabriel's pipes had frozen, spilling water out the door. The utility company was called to shut off the water. No one guessed that while they've been trying to help. Adele Gabriel was inside her home. Police finally investigated the house as a health hazard. Her body had been in the house dead for four years. Gabbarie's houses, respectable external appearance, had hidden the reality of what was on the inside.
Something similar can happen to people. We appear outwardly proper, while spiritually dead, all sorts of religious activity can happen outside while we miss the real problem, spiritual death.
We need life. Not a change in our facade.
Would you bow your heads with me?
For those of you who have put your faith and your trust in Jesus, you've called on him to forgive you of your sins and to save you.
In a few moments, you'll have an opportunity to remember what Jesus has done through the cross. And you're invited to participate in remembering what Jesus has done.
But I'm asking that those of you who've never put your faith and trust in Jesus, please don't take communion today.
For those of you who are believers in this room who you're holding unconfessed, unrepentant sin. Please confess, repent. And know that he is faithful to forgive.
I'm going to have a moment where I lead us in a time of prayer, and if you need to call on the Lord to save you, I want to encourage you to do it now. Give your life to Jesus. And if you do that today, tell someone.
For believers in this room, I encourage you to draw near to Christ as I pray.
Lord, I love you, but I thank you for loving us. I thank you for the hope that we have in you. I thank you that you are good and gracious.
And I pray that, those who are in this room who have never met you, that right now they call on you, and that they meet you, and they draw near because of the cross.
I pray, Father, for those believers in this room. Do they like intimacy with you? I pray that Lord you would draw them dear to you. May sin be confessed. May sin be repented of. And may we remember that you died on the cross for us.
Thank you for the gift of Jesus, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
