Jesus Raises the Dead

Here we are, it is New Year's, where another year has passed. And this is a good time, as people make resolutions, it's a good time of year, it's a good season to take inventory. A lot of folks make resolutions. I need to lose weight, I need to gain money or save money. I need to have less screen time, more and more time in the Word. I need to be a better spouse, parents. These are all helpful resolutions, but we need to realize that the patterns that we put in place last year are going to continue unless there's a real earnest heart change and desire. As you, I hope you do, kind of take this change of the year to take inventory, to think about what you want to do next year. I wanna point you to Jonathan Edwards. He wrote a number of resolutions. He actually wrote them while he was a youth and then added to them over time. Let me just read the first eight of these resolutions. And these weren't New Year's resolutions. These are resolutions he would read daily. Resolved, I will do whatever I think will be most to God's glory. and my own good, profit and pleasure. For as long as I live, I will do all things without any consideration of the time they take. Resolved to do whatever I understand to be my duty and will provide the most good and benefit to mankind in general. Resolved to do this, whatever difficulties I encounter, no matter how many I experience or how severe they may be. Resolved, I will continually endeavor to find new ways to practice and promote the things in resolution one. Resolved, if ever, really whenever I fail and fall and or grow weary and dull, whenever I begin to neglect the keeping of any part of these resolutions, I will repent. of everything I can remember that I have violated or neglected as soon as I come to my senses again. Resolved, never to do anything, whether physically or spiritually, except what glorifies God. In fact, I resolve not only to this commitment, but I resolve not to even grieve and gripe about these things if I can avoid it. Resolved, never lose one moment of time. but seize the time to use it in the most profitable way I possibly can. Resolved to live with all my might while I do live. Resolved never to do anything which I would be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life. Resolved to act in all respects, both in speaking and doing, as if nobody had ever been as sinful as I am. And whenever I encounter sin in others, I feel, I will feel, at least in my own mind and heart, as if I had committed the same sins or the same weaknesses or failings as others. I will use this knowledge of their failings to promote nothing but humility, even shame in myself. I will use awareness of their sinfulness and weakness only as an occasion to confess my own sins and misery to God. Those are the first eight of 70. I commend them to you as ways to reflect upon resolutions or even just ways to think about what the Christian life should look like. What a blessed life those resolutions would lead someone to. Actually, I want to draw you back to the preamble, to the introduction of those resolutions. This is how he prefaced them all. Being sensible that I am unable to do anything without God's help, I do humbly entreat him by his grace to enable me to keep these resolutions as far as they are agreeable to his will for Christ's sake. I'm unable to do anything without God's help. This is the humility that is fitting for a Christian. God, give me grace. Give me grace. We sing of this, and come thou fount. Give me, give me the grace so that I can even sing of your grace. The more we come to God, the more we realize how, the more humble we become because we realize how great He is and how much we need Him. And the more we come to God, the more courageous and bold we become, because we see how welcoming He is. How His power is sufficient. How His love is overwhelming. I draw you to that preamble, that introduction, because I believe that really captures our characters in this story. They're humble. They come saying, Jesus, I need help. And they come boldly and courageously because they see he's the only one who can help them. And look at our passage, it has three parts. A request, a request, a reaction, and a resurrection. A request, a reaction, and a resurrection. First, a request. Jesus has just come back from the other side of the sea. If you were with us a couple of weeks ago when we were in chapter 5, verses 1 to 20, Jesus crossed the sea. He went to a Gentile land. And it's pretty phenomenal if you think about what happened. It didn't hit me until after I preached the sermon, so I apologize. This is where I get to make up for things I wish I had preached last time. He crossed the sea in that dangerous storm to heal one person. That's pretty phenomenal. He cared that much about that one demon-possessed man to cross the sea in the storm that had the fishermen scared to heal that one person. And then he comes back across. As reflected upon that, we had the paralytic that was lowered down through the roof. Jesus' attention was singularly focused on him. The tax collector that no one else wanted to spend time with, Jesus' attention is singularly focused on him. No, I came to save sinners. The demon-possessed man who lives in the Decapolis. Now we have the Jairus, an unnamed woman. His attention is focused. When he crossed again to the boat, back to the other side, we believe he must be back in Capernaum at this point. Verse 22, we have our character who's going to be central to the whole story here. Jairus by name, he is the ruler of the synagogue. Now, the synagogue would be very similar to what we have right here. The church, we believe, was actually based upon many synagogue practices. They continue many of the same practices, only they're preaching the Messiah has come, and he's died on the cross for our sins, and he's risen. But there will be teaching. There will be a scribe. There will be the opening of God's Word, reading and singing and listening and proclaiming. It would look kind of like this. And the synagogue ruler, he wasn't a scribe. He would be what we call a layperson. He's not a professional pastor. He's not paid by the synagogue. He's most likely a lawyer, businessman, doctor, farmer, someone in the community, and he was elected. He was well-respected in society. He was a successful person, most likely. He was well-respected. He is in charge of the basic duties of the synagogue, making sure the building is maintained, making sure it's open when it's supposed to be open, closed when it's supposed to be closed, and that these scrolls are there. Those are the most basic elements of his job. But the main thing we need to see here is he's a well-to-do, well-respected figure. And Jesus, when he comes back from the other side, Jairus, seeing him, verse 22, this well-respected ruler in society, he falls at his feet. He postures himself before Jesus in the most humble way and implores him earnestly. He's begging. My little daughter is at the point of death. We see here that this very important, powerful, well-to-do man needs help. And we can feel the burden. A father who's seeing his daughter coming to the point of death. She's on her deathbed. There's no help. There's been no help from the doctors. There's been no help from any kind of cure. He is desperate. My little daughter, we know she's 12. from the later on. She's dying. So this father who is gripped, come, Jesus, touch her. Lay your hands on her so that she may be made well and live. To be made well, the Greek word there is sozo, and I mention that one because that's a general word. To be made well? To heal physically? To heal spiritually? It means to save? I believe that there's a bigger picture here of what is being said here about being made well, but this man Jairus, he's just coming to the one he has at least heard of, maybe he's seen in his own synagogue teaching. No one can help my daughter. Please, make her well. Bring a wholeness. This really tugs at the heart. A father who's desperate, a father who's heartbroken at seeing his daughter lying there about to die, and he runs away from the bedside, knowing there's only one out for her, it's Jesus. Notice how Jesus responds, verse 24. There's no words recorded. It simply says, he went with him. Jesus sees this man, he sees his desperation, he sees, I believe, his faith. Jairus has come to the one person, Jesus Christ, who can actually heal his daughter, and Jesus listens goes with him. And the crowd is pushing in and thronging about. Now, as we transition to the next section, I want us to take a pause here, because we have to always ask, who is Jesus and how to respond? Here we see something about Jesus that is just very important. He cares. He does not leave this man alone in despair. He hears the request, and He stops what He's doing, and He has a singular focused attention on this man and his need, and He goes with him. This is a phenomenal truth, that God Almighty, the Creator, the One who has now come down to save us, He hears this simple request from a Father, and He stops everything to go be with Him. You really should challenge us. Are we coming to Jesus trusting He listens and He cares? Or are we asking Jesus and seeking Him in a way like this ruler does, Jairus? We see a great humility in Jairus. Of course circumstances have brought him to a moment of despair. But when we see the humility that leads him to really pray, he's praying to Jesus, he's asking Jesus, he's making a request of Jesus. Help me, and I want us to hear something. Jesus always hears those requests. Jesus always hears those requests, and he cares. Our next section is a reaction. So Jesus has stopped what he's doing as he's come back. The crowd's come. Jairus has asked him to go to his daughter. He goes with him. The crowd is thronging. There's pushing and shoving. It's like Black Friday at Walmart, right? It's everyone's jamming in as close as possible. Maybe they wanna see what's gonna happen. with Jairus and Jesus because there has been some conflict with Jesus in the synagogue. Verse 25 introduces a new character. A woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years. Now, I want us to focus in. Listen to the qualifiers. Listen to the way Mark explains who she is, because there's a good bit of character development for this woman who just shows up very quickly on the scene. So for 12 years, she's had an ongoing menstrual cycle. For 12 years, she's had a discharge of blood. And notice verse 26. She suffered much under many physicians. She spent all she had, and she was no better, but worse. There's a real sad irony there. She's sought every possible kind of doctor. She wants healing. She longs for healing. But she's only worse. She has suffered much. Now, what is the suffering? There's physical suffering. There's pain, there's difficulty. There's also an aspect here that she's financially suffering. There's the matter of social suffering. According to Jewish law, and you can go through it, Leviticus 15 has a number of laws about the woman and the unclean state of the menstrual cycle. They were not to be touched. As anyone who's unclean. And unclean doesn't mean they're in a state of sin any more than anyone else. To be clean means you're fit and you're whole to go into the temple for worship. You're fit and you're whole to come before God. To be unclean means you've touched a dead carcass. Or you're in the cycle. There's other things that make you unclean. But here I want you to see something. Physically she's suffering. Spiritually, she's been held at a distance from God. She hasn't been able to come into physical contact with other human beings because they would have been afraid of becoming unclean as she is unclean. She is not accepted in the tabernacle. She's been kept back from all the religious ceremonies, so it has an effect on her worship. And who can she spend time with? This is 12 years of great suffering. And it's only gotten worse. Verse 27. She heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. And we see here an insight. For she said to herself, assume, if I touch even his garment, I will be made well. I'll be saved. I'll be healed. I'll be, I'll be made whole again. Here we see a faith that says, I'm going to, to reach out and I'm going to just simply touch His garment. That's all I need. And I will be cured. After 12 years, after spending whatever money she has, all she needs to do is touch His garment because she's heard of Jesus. This is, this is faith. I want to call this courageous humility. She's at the end of her rope. There's no more help for her in society. There's no more help for her in the medical profession. She is desperate like Jairus before her, but here she's humbled, but courageous enough to say, this one can do something. If only I touch his garment, I'll be saved. Well, what happens? Verse 29. Remember when Mark immediately brings our attention? Immediately, the flow of blood dried up. She's cured, she's healed. And she felt it in her body that she was healed of her disease. Immediately as she reaches out and just grabs the garment, Jesus isn't aware of her at this moment. So the text at least leads us to see. but she experiences immediately, I am well. Can you imagine the rejoicing that takes place in her own heart as she, after suffering for so long, simply touches Jesus' cloak, his garment, and feels the healing power of God? Verse 30, and Jesus, he himself perceives power has gone out, and immediately turns and says, who touched my garment? And the disciples said to him, there's a big crowd here, what are you talking about, Jesus, who touched your garment? Not always most helpful, these disciples. They seem to be rebuking him for asking this question. What do you mean? Who touched you? There's people all around you. And Jesus ignores them and keeps with the focus. Look at verse 32. And he looked around to see who had done it. He has a singular focus. Someone has been healed. He wants to see them. He wants them to see him. Verse 33. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down, just like Jairus, fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he speaks to her in this big crowd. The disciples try to figure out what's going on. Speaks to her daughter. This is the only instance we know of Jesus calling anyone daughter. a very focused, loving declaration to make sure she knows she's welcomed. Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Shalom. All is right again. You have peace with yourself. You have peace with the world. You have peace with God, most of all. You're healed. You've believed in the one who can heal you and it has made you well. Something that's interesting is many commentators say Jesus should have rebuked her. She didn't do it right. She was supposed to come and ask for healing, not just touch the garment. It's interesting to me that Jesus is not at all concerned about procedure. He's interested in the faith that this woman has in coming to him. And what's also interesting here is the woman, she doesn't need any kind of special attention. She just knows she needs to be close to Jesus and he's the one who can heal her. And she walks away with Shalom. Now let's ask the same questions. Who is Jesus? How to respond. As an unclean woman, she should have made Jesus unclean by touching him. And this is the glory of the gospel here. Instead of Jesus being made unclean by her touching Him, she has received shalom. She has received salvation. She has received peace. Jesus is God Himself who came down to be like us in every way, yet without sin. He came to die for us as sinners and rise again. He came to take our curse so that we no longer have to live under that curse. He came to take our sin so we don't suffer the wrath of God for our sin. He came to take our death so we can live forever. We do not cause Jesus to be unclean. He takes our sin upon Himself on the cross so that when we come to Him, He heals us. He takes our curse. We give Him blessing. Here this woman does not make him unclean in her state. Rather, because of who he is, she walks away clean. She's restored after 12 years to worship with a clean conscience. She's restored after 12 years to interact with family and friends and to pursue a husband and children. Doctors and rulers, they would come and they would promise power over darkness. But here, Jesus, he's the one who actually does so. You know, as we're past Christmas, everyone past Christmas? It's December 30th. The thing I really do not like about Christmas ending is that we're not supposed to sing Christmas carols and songs anymore. They're some of the richest songs. One of my favorites is Hark the Herald Angels Sing. I believe it's the second stanza as we normally sing it. Reads, hail the heaven-born prince of peace. Hail the son, S-U-N, of righteousness. Light and life to all he brings, risen with healing in his wings. Now that's going back to Malachi 4. And really what Malachi 4 is promising goes back to ancient Near Eastern kings. When a king would come into power, he would always come with great promise, kind of like our presidential candidates always try to convince us to vote for them by making promises. Well, kings in that day, they weren't voted on, but they would come and make great promises. I will bring the blessings. I will cure disease. I will be, and they would use this very language, I will be a son of righteousness with healing in my wings. I will bring peace to all of you, because I'm the representative of God, as a king would usually function in societies. Malachi says there will be a son of righteousness, S-U-N. There will be a dawning of a new day where healing comes, and as we read earlier from Isaiah 61, it's going to come in one person, Jesus Christ. Well, what's amazing with this woman is she experiences all of those promises by coming to Jesus and just simply taking hold of His cloak by faith. She's experienced the taste of that new life, that new birth that was promised in Malachi and now enjoyed by us as Jesus has risen from the grave to give us new life. Jesus heals. He gives us peace. He gives us wholeness and wellness. How do you respond? Faith. A humility to say, I need help. And the courage to say, Jesus Christ is the only one who can help me. This lowly woman comes by faith. and is saved. Let's continue with Jairus. Verse 35, a resurrection, our last section. A resurrection. While Jesus was still speaking, there came from the ruler's house, that is Jairus' house, some who said, your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any farther? As you can imagine, what's going on with Jairus emotionally, I try to put myself in this position. One, just the sinking feeling, my nightmares come true. My daughter who was dying, my daughter who I was desperate for, she's dead. So there's that sinking feeling. And then I would immediately be frustrated. Jesus, why did you stop? Why did you stop and talk to this woman? My daughter's now dead because you delayed. I don't know if that's what Jairus is thinking, but that's what I'm thinking. His advisors, his friends, his family members, your daughter's dead, don't bother the teacher any further. He's come with you, let him go. She's dead. But Jesus, overhearing what they said, turn to Jairus. Do not fear, only believe. Do not fear, only believe. If you've been with us for a while, we've talked about the Markan sandwich. Mark, has a story that's interrupted by another story. This story of Jairus has been interrupted by this woman. The march towards healing his daughter has been interrupted by this woman. You have this very important ruler who has a very important task for Jesus to do, and this woman has put a delay on it. She looks like an obstacle. She looks like an interruption. But according to the way Mark writes his story, she's the key. You see, this ruler of the synagogue needed to look to this lowly woman. He most likely would have kept her from the synagogue. The ruler of the synagogue needs to look to this woman who was just saved, and she's the key, because his advice from Jesus is only belief. What he just saw from the woman is faith. She, the story of Jesus stopping to save her because of her faith, is the key to how his daughter is going to be saved. Jairus. Belief. The woman who's had this disease for 12 years, she's the model. She's the instruction. She's the key to how he will receive what he's asked for. And in case he hasn't gotten it, Jesus speaks to him very clearly. Do not fear, only believe. Verse 37. Jesus allowed only Peter and James and John, the brother of James, to follow him. He always has a smaller group of disciples who go closer in with him. This may also just be because of the size of the home. Verse 38, they came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. This is just a sign that she has passed. A funeral has begun. They would have professional mourners at events like this because mourning and grieving are an important part of life. One that I'm not sure we really get well. Grieving and mourning death is important. That is being modeled here And we grieve with hope because of what's about to happen. Verse 39, when he had entered, he said to them, now this is Jesus speaking, why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead. The child is not dead, but sleeping. You've got it all wrong. Notice how the crowd responds. They laugh at him. Now, if you're reading through Mark, and I encourage you to do so, there's a few things we always have to ask. Who is Jesus? How do we respond? Mark always puts the response of the people in because it's important. When he's healing lepers, when he's rising paralytics, they're always amazed and astonished. When he's opening the law and teaching, they're amazed and astonished. When he tells the rulers, I came to save sinners, they wanna kill him. And when he tells these people that she's not dead, they laugh at him. They do not believe. It seems to even be a mockery of sorts. They don't take Jesus seriously. Verse 40. They laughed at him. Notice Jesus is singular focused. He does not get distracted by the detractors. He stays focused on the task. He put them all outside. He took the child's father and mother and the disciples who he'd brought with him, and went in where the child was, 41, taking her by the hand. There's that The one who spoke all creation to existence. The one who formed man from the sand. The one who's come to save us from our sins. We see this tender, loving care. He takes the daughter by the hand, Talitha Kumar. Which means, little girl, arise. Look at that important word. Immediately. Immediately the girl got up and began walking. And they were all overcome with amazement. We look back and we ponder a few things here. Jesus was delayed and it looked like that delay was deadly. But it appears that that delay brought the clearest glory to God. Because in that delay, while the father will be frustrated and Jesus telling him, no, only believe, there's an opportunity for Jesus to show how powerful he is. He did not just heal a girl who was sick. He rose her from the dead. He has power even over the grave. This is a progression in His power. We've seen Him heal lepers. We've seen Him heal paralytics. We've seen Him forgive sins. We've seen Him cast out demons. And now He rises. He raises even the dead. And He strictly charged them not to tell anyone. And told them to give her something to eat. First thing we need to recognize is Jesus has divine authority. He has authority over disease. He has authority over death. He is the one to come who brings new life and health and truth. Now this doesn't mean that Christians are not supposed to get sick. I do find it ironic that I've been sick all weekend preaching this passage. This doesn't mean there's never any sickness or disease or death for Christians. We know that can't be true. But here we see Jesus is the one who overcomes all of our problems. He is the one who has the power to heal and to make well and to bring wholeness and to bring peace, to even raise up the dead. He is the one who has healing in his wings. We also see here just a sweet, caring Jesus. He's focused singularly on the woman in the middle of the crowd. He's focused singularly on the young lady, even though he's being mocked by the crowds. He takes her by the hand. We also see Jesus is never late. That's challenging, isn't it? When I have my time frame, it's always about my comfort and my convenience, and God's time frame rarely works with my comfort and my convenience. Here we see Jesus has his way of going about this miracle, and it's just like Lazarus. He delays, there's a death, and he declares and makes known and demonstrates his power over death. How do we respond? We must see that our faith must be in the right person. It's not clear how strong the faith is, and I'm not sure that that's the real focus. It's the fact that they brought their needs to the right person. They have come in faith to just touch his garment, or to know that he will touch the daughter. Faith must be focused on the one who can truly heal. I also wanna see here, faith is active seeking. Faith is not saying, I'm just going to trust God and sit back and watch what happens. There's an active seeking. The woman has to fight the crowd to get to Jesus. Jairus has to go and ask Jesus earnestly. Faith is not passive. It is a courageous humility that actively seeks Jesus. Faith is impatient. to wait for him. As I think about the challenge of this passage, we are to look to this woman. We are to look to this miracle of the raising of the dead. And I want to ask, how actively, how courageously and boldly are we regularly seeking the one who can bring wellness? So at the end of the year, maybe you're frustrated at work. You're frustrated in your family. You're frustrated with your finances. You're frustrated with your health. You're frustrated with your friends. You're just discontent. There's a prideful temptation that says, I'm going to fix my own problems. And there's a prideful temptation that says, I'm just going to sulk and embrace my problems. And then there is the Christian faith that has a courageous humility that says, God, I'm going to come to you. I'm going to bring my troubles to you. And I'm going to trust you actively. I'm going to pursue you. And whatever your will is, it is good and better than mine. I'm going to come to you. And we're friends. God welcomes. He welcomes us. Brothers and sisters, those who are adopting the family of Christ, the Father welcomes us to come and make a request known to Him, and yet we decide to pridefully fix our own problems, or sulk in them. Resolve today. Humbly. Courageously. Come to Jesus. Ask Him what, what, what, what. Maybe not even say, this is what I want you to fix. Maybe do this. God, what needs fixed? I'm unhappy. I'm discontent. Show me, as Edwards pointed out in the third resolution. Show me the failings that I have. Show me what I need to repent of. Bring me to my right mind and my senses so that I can see my life as it is according to your eyes so that I can come and ask you, Jesus, Help me. I need nothing but you, Jesus. Resolve to humbly go before God. Trust Him, speak to Him, and wait upon Him. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you that you do invite us in. You welcome us to speak to you as we do now. Lord, we thank you for your son, that he dies for us. He's died for us. He's risen. He's ascended. Lord, may your Holy Spirit stir within us a desire to know you and to see more of your glory, to live according to your word. Father, teach us how to pray. Lord, teach us how to come before you and ask of you what you would have for our lives. Give us the grace to be humble, to trust you. Give us the grace to be courageous, to go before you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.