Now then, we're looking at events near Capernaum. The Lord has crossed the lake over from the Decapolis, meaning the Ten Cities, a Gentile land, where he captured Legion, a wild man. You know that the Romans put Legion outposts at the edges of their territory. And here Jesus had gone into the Gentile land and he'd taken Legion. and he planted Legion, as it were, there as a great Legion outpost for the rest of the world, if you want. It's a wonderful picture. He was a wild man. Remember the poor disciples had crossed the lake in the storm and all of that, and they'd arrived on the other side, kissing the ground, and out from the rocks came this wild, crazy man. And I pointed out to you before that it's difficult being a disciple. These sort of things happen continuously. and they'd healed him, Jesus had healed him and a great crowd now was waiting as he was well known over the other side when he came back now this morning we saw in the crowd was a woman who had suffered from bleeding for 12 years and tried all those weird and wonderful remedies that I listed for you maybe she tried all of them, maybe just a few of them but all of the money had gone she was weak and wanting just to touch the clothes of the Lord maybe there was that degree of superstition we don't know but it was mixed with faith and remember the Lord takes us on the bottom run of the ladder so often and she reached out saying if only I could touch, if only I could touch she thought she could do it in secret she saw the tassels hanging from the shimla she touched it and she was immediately healed now let's see what happened then before that and then after that event what we see next is how amazing the Lord is as if we didn't know that but it's good to see it and how perfectly commanding he is and that's the story we need to know for this day and age we live in now in this story we see the incredible deep emotions and there's emotions and chaos in this story And there at the very center is our Lord, who is calm, who is winsome and who is in complete and absolute control. And we see how important it is for us today to focus on Him in a world of complete disorder and chaos. This morning we saw emotions of desperation, relief and fear. Now tonight we see hope, discouragement, utter chaos before resurrection. The Lord had ministered in the synagogue at Capernaum in Luke chapter 4. He was asked to preach one Sabbath and everyone said, where did he get such power from? Where did he get such authority from? Who is this man? Now they said that to him about that in Nazareth, but they threw him out of Nazareth because this is what he's just a carpenter's son. Away, away you go. But Capernaum was different. They received him kind of gladly in Capernaum. And incredibly, when he was in the synagogue, there was a man there that was possessed with a demon. And there was a man with a withered hand that he healed. And many were challenged by him. He made a very, very strong impression of people in the synagogue. Now one of these people he obviously had impressed was a man called Jairus. He was a ruler in the synagogue. He was actually, so we're told, the administrator or the head of the board of elders in that synagogue. He was responsible for the conduct of teaching and the conduct of services. So he would probably have been one of the people that asked Jesus to speak. and would have been his responsibility if something had gone wrong. If it had asked somebody who'd spoken about anti-God things or whatever it was, then it would be his responsibility because he was in charge of the teaching of the synagogue. Think about that. Here is a man that invites Jesus to come and speak and he's obviously somebody who listens. He watched and he'd made his mind up about Christ. And he was willing to stand up against the criticism of his peers. Maybe he was a Pharisee even himself. He doesn't say that, but maybe he was. But he was willing to stand up. He'd listened, watched and made his mind up about Jesus. I used to tell sailors when visited them with a gospel on the mess deck, do you know if Jesus were here now physically, you'd love him? You would? He's so precious and so winsome. But one of these people had been impressed by Jesus was this man Jairus. And this man approached the Lord. He didn't regard him as a heretic or a madman. In fact, he came and literally, according to the text, bit the dust before the feet of Jesus. He fell before a village preacher. He didn't just come up to him and shake his hand. He didn't come up to him and say, well, I've got a problem. Will you come round to the study and see my daughter? I'll have a tea going for you and some scones. He didn't say that. He wasn't like that. He didn't treat Jesus as someone almost equal to him. He fell at his feet, literally fell in the dust before a village preacher. And also, which is very important, He didn't come like Nicodemus did, in the dead of the night. This man came in public view and fell at the feet of Jesus, no skulking around for him. He didn't come in the dead of the night so not to be seen. This was a shocking thing, really, for him to do, you know. I was trying to think of something that might be the equivalent today I really couldn't think of anything save the fact if we heard on the news that the Pope has resigned and become an evangelical you know it would be as shocking as that to see this man fall down before the feet of Jesus it would be as shocking as that of course he was desperate His 12-year-old daughter was at the point of death. And as I said this morning, the Jews, when a girl was 12 years and a day, she became a woman. So this woman, this girl had not reached womanhood yet. But it couldn't wait. His pride didn't come into it. You see, the first thing the Lord does when we come to Him is take away our pride. He knocks our pride completely out the way we cannot be proud and come to the Lord. We cannot have pride in our hearts and come before the Lord because He requires us to humble ourselves before Him. And this man desperately wanted the Lord to help him. He humbled himself. His precious daughter was dying and there was something in this man Jesus that drew him and caused him to fall at his feet and plead with him for help. Matthew's account is a little different actually from the others in chapter 9 he seems to jump in at the part where Jairus is told his daughter has died it says that Jairus came to him and says my daughter is dead and falls down at his feet it could well be that as soon as Jairus heard the news that his daughter is dead he fell down at Jesus feet again and Matthew picked up the story there that's probably would balance the two the you know people that know these things say this is probably the balance of exactly what happened if that's the case which may well be this man Jairus fell twice before the feet of the Lord Gyrus earnestly pleaded with the Lord to come as his little 12-year-old daughter literally was at the point of death. But if you come, he says, and just lay your hand on her, she will live. What amazing faith! There must have been something in the beauty of our Lord Jesus Christ that caused this man, that drew out from this man, to say these words. Like the centurion in the same area, where the centurion says, my servant is ill. He says, Lord, all you have to do is say a word and he'll be better. You know, the centurion is so used to giving orders and they're being obeyed. And he said to Jesus, I believe that you can do that. Faith? What faith? I don't know if we've got that kind of faith. It's amazing. This was happening round in the Capernaum area. What faith? So they set off. Urgent, emotional, all mixed with hope. Jairus probably leading the way, rushing people as quickly as he could. Then we have the interruption. with the woman, with the issue of blood, for 12 years. So as I said this morning, Jairus' daughter came 12 years ago, he watched her, he took her in his arms, he watched her grow up, coming into womanhood, and from that moment she was born, this woman had an issue of blood for 12 years. Now I don't know what these two 12s mean, maybe Maybe it is just the 12, maybe I am being fanciful, the 12 tribes of Israel that there is healing for the 12 and new life for the 12. We don't know these things. As the Old Testament says, he is risen with healing in his wings. But what a test of Jairus' faith, patience and humility. But something I believe in the presence of Jesus just made him trust Him. Just made him trust Him. But just then as the Lord was still speaking, some men whom Jairus recognized pushed through the crowd and Jairus' heart would have gone to his boots at that point. He would have sank. He knew what this meant. He would see their grim faces. He just knew it was bad news. You just know, don't you? I remember when my father, who was 79, nearly 80, and he had a small operation in Lincoln County Hospital. The operation was a success. He burst the stitches a couple of times. Couldn't keep my father still. And finally they fixed him up. And May and I drove back down to Brighton, I was a pastor in Brighton at the time, and drove down there, and we got down, we went to bed, and the phone rang at two o'clock in the morning. And the voice said, this is Lincoln County Hospital. Now you know that they're not phoning you up to tell you you've won the lottery. They're going to phone up with bad news at that time. Dad had taken a relapse and had an embolism and we got in the car and rushed straight down. We were a bit too late to say goodbye to him. But you know, you know when that phone call comes. You know when that person's face comes towards you. And Jairus knew what it meant. They said literally in the original, your daughter did die. That's the starkness of the text. Your daughter did die. Don't bother Jesus anymore. Don't bother the teacher anymore. There's nothing he can do. This was the end. It was all over. And grief pierced his heart and sorrow welled up. And this is where Matthew's account probably comes in, where he falls at the feet of Jesus again and said, I know she's dead, but you know, she can live if you come. Here was the Lord then, with the sorrow welling up in Jairus. But the Lord was there, and the Lord brushed it all aside and said to Jairus, don't be afraid, just believe. Just have faith. As I said this morning, we are not saved by great faith, just faith. Faith. Even with a grain of mustard seed, faith is able to grow. How we'd love to hear those words spoken to us, wouldn't we? One look of the Lord convinced Jairus to believe. If only we could take that one look, when often things are over our heads, and real things trouble us, and we turn our eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and all the things of the earth go strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. And Jairus saw this crushing news, and his mind was racing, but he saw Jesus. And there was something in Jesus that made him believe. That made him believe. Then the Lord stopped the crowd. That's the second time this poor crowd had been stopped. First time by the woman for a healing. Now He stopped for a resurrection. A healing and resurrection. The Son is risen with healing in His wings. Then the Lord stopped the crowd and He said, you stop here. And he said, Peter, James and John, I want you to come with me with Jairus. You see how thoughtful Jesus is. The last thing that Jairus wanted was a crowd following him at his moment of grief and sorrow and hope and mixed up emotions. So the five slumber figures made their way to Jairus' house. How tender is the Lord, how he knows our feelings. But what they encountered was only to add more pain to Jairus. As they approached his house, the professional whalers were already in action. And the five walked into an atmosphere of death and finality. Let me describe for you the scene that we'd encounter. This morning we described to you some of the remedies that this woman would have to go. I'd like to go and get the background to these things so that we can be there. Jewish mourning customs were vivid and detailed. They were there with one specific purpose, to show the finality of death and the desolation of final separation. All hope is gone. Immediately death took place, immediately. At the very last breath, the loud wailing was started. So that everyone could be sure that death had taken place. Everyone could be certain that the angel of death had struck. The wailing repeated at the grey side with mortars hanging over the dead body, begging for a response. Garments were rent according to certain rules. They were to be rent to the heart, that is to the flesh, but no further than the navel. For the father and mother they had to rent on the left side, near the heart. For others on the right side. A woman were to rent their garments in private, then to reverse the inner garment so that it was back to front, and then she would rent her outer garment so that at the time her body was not exposed, the rent was at the back. And the rent at the front just didn't show through. These clothes were worn for 30 days, however after 7 days the rent could be sewn up, but the men must be visible, then properly repaired after 30 days. Flute players and wailers were part of the culture. The flute had a wailing sound and was always associated with death and tragedy. The custom dictated that a poor man must have at least two flute players at his wife's funeral. A rich man like Joris would have many. And also the wailers were brought in to add the atmosphere. They were professional wailers. You could get them in yellow pages in those days. Or on the internet as it were. Wailers. incorporated and they were brought in in this situation professional wailers to add to the atmosphere they also danced and the report states of the time that the women formed a circle around the leader of the dance of death they danced rhythmically from left to right with hair hanging down gradually increasing in sound and while dancing they became flushed and appeared crazy That's what you had to have at a funeral. This site would have greeted these five men. There would be no doubt that death had taken place. She was dead. No question about it. Away with these liberals who say, well, she just had a sleep. She was overcome. She swooned and had a weakness. She didn't. She was dead. These professional maulers would know if she was dead or not. The other things that surrounded the deaf, the mourner was forbidden to anoint themselves, to wear shoes and not to work for three days. Not to travel, they must sit with their head bound, not to shave or do anything for their comfort. They were not allowed to read the law or the prophets, as they were seen as joy. But they could read Job, the Lamentations and Jeremiah, which had pleased the Reverend I Am Jolly. They could read these things. They had to abstain from flesh and wine and not to leave the town or village for 30 days. They were to eat off the floor, mostly eggs dipped in bitter ashes with salt. All water from the house and three houses each side was to be emptied out. The reason being that the angel of death procured death by dipping his sword into nearby water. And therefore water had to be cleared out from all the houses nearby. And if the one that died was young, as here, often a mock wedding ceremony was acted out. All these things transpired. It was a big thing. And for Jairus, what would have confronted him was just the beginning of sorrows. Just the beginning of sadness that broke his heart. Now here the five men are making their way to the house, confronted by this wailing flute, screams of professional wailers, the crying and the appeals for the dead to wake up. There could be no more prophetic sad appearance of chaos and hopelessness. And into this walks the Lord of Glory, full of truth, full of grace, and holiness shining from His eyes. What a contrast! Christ, the hope of glory, into this situation. Do you know, recently one of May's uncles died, Uncle Robert, and he was a confirmed atheist, and everybody knew that, and the whole family was, and we went along to the funeral in Glasgow, and it was a secular funeral. Have you ever been to one? or the girl that stood up and spoke and she spoke and she described Robert and his family and his occupations with his budgets and various things like that and she had him down to a tee everything she said about him was absolutely spot on she was very good but you know she said well Robert has gone into the great cycle of all things the worms will now eat his body or whatever or the ashes and they will in turn disappear into the earth and the earth will keep going and he's just part of this great overall thing and I was so sad at the end of it there was no hope no hope whatsoever kind of like this the wailing and the hopelessness I wish that the Lord of Glory had walked into that funeral service there would have seen hope in his eyes Get the picture. How up to date it is. What do we see today? We're surrounded by chaos and organized hopelessness. That's all it is. Look at society. It's abandoned solid rules that built our nation. Morality and principles. And now it follows its own rules. And its own desires. Which change every year and will go on changing. throughout the running centuries because it's based upon man's desires and what he wants in particular the new laws on same-sex marriage leaving the basis and foundation of our society will all end in tears mark my words it will all end in tears we are heading for chaos in this area but for us in this like gyrus we turn from it all and look to the Lord He is a sure, solid foundation in the middle of this chaos and this wailing of the world. Not to worry, He is in charge. He is in charge. It may not seem that way, but we've said time and time again, don't look that way, look that way. Don't look what's going on around us, look what's going on. And there is a Lamb seated upon the throne. so he turns to the mourners and he says why all this chaos and commotion and wailing the girl is not dead he says she's only sleeping well of course they laughed at him because they said look we know our job she's dead and she was dead they were right she was dead but the Lord was speaking of something else then the Lord did something so wonderful so tender he told the crowd and the mourners as well as the crowd to go away And he took mum and dad, and he took his three disciples, remember his chief disciple, the first disciple to die and go to heaven, and the last disciple to die to go to heaven, Peter, James and John. He took them with him into the house to be alone in this tender moment, to shut the door from all the world and the wailing outside. Then he took the young girl by the hand. An act, by the way, that would have made him unclean in Jewish eyes. But remember what we saw this morning. The unclean or the clean made the unclean clean. The unclean didn't make the clean unclean. And Jesus touched her and he was not made unclean. And he said, Little Girl Arise. Now I want you to notice this because I think this is one of the most beautiful parts of this whole story. Because it's the same with Lazarus. He said to this girl, he called her personally, Little Girl Arise. Just exactly the same as he said, Lazarus Arise. Now why did Jesus say Lazarus Arise? Why did Jesus say Little Girl Arise? Because, you know, I believe if he'd have said, arise the whole of dead from Adam, until that moment would have come out. But he said, Lazarus, you, come out. Little girl, come out. The rest of you stay there, please. But he's the Lord of glory, and his word is truth. Immediately she heard his voice reaching into death itself and quickening her little body and she came alive. And there in that quiet room the Lord gave mum and dad their wee little girl back again. What tenderness! What a beautiful scene! Of course the next thing that happened is so human, almost humorous. She was hungry. Give her some food. Young folks are always eating. Give her some food, she's hungry, she's just come back from the dead, she's starving. You see how the Lord knows young folk. But Mark tells us then, all in the room, including the disciples, were amazed. With great amazement, says the original text. He also told them, in fact, he gave them strict orders, not to tell anyone what had happened. But of course it was very difficult because the girl was there for everyone to see and everyone will tell you all know fairly soon what has happened. But I cannot, I dare not escape this picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. How he is in complete control and he is in complete contrast to all the chaos that is around him. And notice this, how different he is to many of the modern day manipulators of the truth. and so-called people that heal. I'm not saying that God doesn't heal today, of course he does. But these people that make money out of things. The manipulators of the truth. They would have wanted the crowds to stay. They would have wanted the crowds to gather around them while they did this great thing. Watch me do this great thing. Watch me pull a rabbit out of a hat. Watch me. Let's have 44 verses of the next chorus and get in the mood for this. Watch me, let the crowds gather round. And if the parents were there, they would be dead embarrassed. But the Lord is so different. He takes mum and dad away from it all. And in the quietness of their own place, He gives them back their daughter. He gives them back their daughter. the quietness, away from this chaos, away from the crowds. Do you know the older I get, the more fed up I get with the world, do you know that? I mean, I enjoy things, I enjoy doing things, I enjoy going on holiday, I enjoy the pleasures that life offers, but you get more and more fed up with it. Do you know what I would really like to do? I would really love to walk by the Sea of Galilee with Jesus. to take my shoes off and feel the sand under my feet and just listen to him talking away from the world away from the chaos away from everything else that is distracting me and just be with him just be with him simple as that I think we complicate matters too much so often and all this chaos that is around us it is wonderful to see Jesus in the middle of it You see, if you really look at him, you'll see how wonderful he is, how different he is compared to the chaos in the world and in our personal lives. It reminds me of Psalm 46, doesn't it? The psalmist speaks there, possibly of the siege of Sennacherib, the siege of Jerusalem at the time. He speaks of chaos, you know. He speaks of a complete reversal of God's order. Have you thought about that in Psalm 46? Where he says, and the mountains turn into the sea. Remember when God created the world, he says, mountains stay there, sea stays there. This was a reversal of God's order. And sea, of course, is the place where all the enemies of God come from in Revelation. And in heaven we find there is no more sea. Because it's a place where the enemies of God come from. And the enemy, as it were, has risen up over the mountains that God had put in place and covered them. And the whole of creation's order was reversed. It was utter chaos in Psalm 46. And there were enemies surrounding them. And then we are told, to come along, children, to the battlements of Jerusalem, God's city, and look over. And what we're told, be still and know that I am God. You know, that text, you know, I was thinking about it, how wonderful that text really is. Because that text addresses the whole of our nature. We are mind, where Jesus is the prophet. We are priest, where Jesus is the priest, and we have emotions, that is, our hearts, and we have our wills, where Jesus is the king. He is prophet, priest and king. And in this text, we have God addressing us, his people. Be still, an act of the will. Stop. Behave yourself, Christian. Stay where you are. Be still and know, an act of thinking. Think! Think! God is on his throne. That I am your God, which is covenant language, heart language. That I love you and you love me. That text addresses the whole of man. Stop for the will. Think for the mind. That I am your God in the heart. That's a wonderful, wonderful text. And this is what Jesus does in this situation. He's doing it to us today, despite all this chaos that is around about us. Just stop and think, I am your God. Do you love Him? Or are you in chaos, in a world of chaos? Doesn't this make you want to love Him? Understand in this world of chaos, noise and confusion, there is a Christ who is calm and in control. remember we must never look around us for the truth or we will ebb and flow but look to him who is altogether lovely and upon the throne you know I think often we we get rather self-centered as Christians and we sing hymns all about our feelings and all about our comfort and I feel jolly and I do this and do that and our enjoyment we interpret events in our lives by ourselves that is We feel that what's happening to us is due to whether God loves us or not. So if we're rich, God obviously loves us. If we're poor, God doesn't love us. If we're healthy, God loves us. If we're not healthy, God doesn't love us. And everything we often interpret by ourselves. But what we should do is by turning away from all these things, look and follow Him. We are after all Christians, followers of Christ. And chaos is simply a sign that we aren't in heaven yet. Do you know that? Chaos is simply a sign we're not in heaven yet. It is the normal state of the world in which we live. Let's do what Jairus did. And despite the noise and the chaos, look at him. I hope he's in Christ after all. He's all that we have. Just as he lived, died and rose again, everyone who is in him will do the same. We live, we will die, and we will rise again. Because when He hung upon the cross, He hung like that, and by faith we believed in Him. We were united by faith to Christ, so that His death became my death. His burial became my burial. And His ascension and resurrection became mine. That's why we sing, mine, mine, mine. I know Thou art mine. We are united to him by faith and he will never let us go. The grip of God is strong. It cannot be taken away. Those who are his are kept by him by grace. So let's think about what we've learned today in Capernaum. Of how loving and how gentle and how kind the Lord is. And how he is the center of all things. in this world of utter chaos and pain. The Lord Jesus is there. I am he that liveth and was dead. Behold, I am alive forevermore. Let's pray.