If you would turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter 9, our text for this morning is verses 14 through 26. Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast? And Jesus said to them, Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them. and then they will fast. No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break. The wine is filled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved. While he spoke these things to them, behold, a ruler came and worshiped him. saying, My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her and she will live. So Jesus arose and followed him, and so did his disciples. And suddenly a woman who had a flow of blood for 12 years came from behind and touched the hem of his garment. For she said to herself, If only I may touch his garment, I shall be made well. But Jesus turned around and when he saw her, he said, Be of good cheer, daughter. Your faith has made you well. And the woman was made well from that hour. When Jesus came into the ruler's house, he saw the flute players and the noisy crowd wailing. He said to them, make room for the girl is not dead, but sleeping. And they ridiculed him. But when the crowd was put outside, he went in and took her by the hand and the girl arose and report of this went out into all that land. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for your word, Lord, and I do pray for Scott, Lord, as he comes now to expound upon it, that you, O Lord, would speak through him and that you would pierce the hearts of those, Lord, who are unregenerate. Lord, that you would raise them just as you have raised your elect ones. May your sheep hear your voice, Father, when you call them. In Christ's name, Amen. It's such a pleasure to walk through the treasuries of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, when Paul said, for I'm not ashamed of the Gospel, for it's the power of God unto salvation. He's really identifying the same thing that Matthew is speaking of, this tax collector, now follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, has come to understand. So, Matthew is is constantly presenting Jesus as the promised Messiah, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And so as you think back on where we've been in Matthew so far, you can go all the way back to the Sermon on the Mount in chapters five through seven, where Jesus is speaking to his disciples and those who are with him also on the mountain. And when he comes down, the people are astonished at his words because his words carried so much power. And then after that, he begins to express his power in the world through actually performing acts of power that really address every possible category of the exertion of divine power. Well, he demonstrates that he has ultimate power over disease and that he heals at a distance, that he has power over nature and even the wind and the waves obeying him, that he has power over sin. And he says to a man, be of good cheer. Your sins are forgiven. And now in Matthew chapter nine, he declares himself. to have the power over the last enemy that will be destroyed. And that's the power of death. So you can see this sequence, this logical progression that Jesus is moving through. We could speak also very distinctly about how Jesus is disassembling the whole man-made religion of the Pharisees. He goes out and he heals an unclean leper. Then he goes and he heals a Gentile servant. Then he goes and he heals a woman. And he's continually breaking the law of the Pharisees on the one hand. On the other hand, he's also showing that he's wiping away the ceremonial law. At the same time, and many of these healings, like we'll see in this passage here, demonstrate that how he is also disassembling the laws, the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament. So now when we get when we get to chapter nine, verse 14, there's a question. That is presented. That's the first thing that happens. Jesus is asked a question. And then secondly, to two people are healed to two people whose hopes are totally shattered. And there's a there's a 12 year old daughter who dies and then there is a woman who has have been sick for twelve years and she's made well. It's interesting how Jesus is using these twelve and twelve. I don't really know what it means, but it's just interesting there. I'm sure there's something we could say about the number twelve. But our text opens with this question from the disciples of John. Why do we and the Pharisees fast often? But your disciples do not fast." Now, throughout Jesus' ministry, different people are asking Him questions. We already saw in chapter 8, verse 29, how the demons actually asked Jesus a question when they said, What have we to do with you, Jesus? Son of God, have you come to torment us before the time? So even the demons are asking him questions. The Pharisees ask many, many questions and they have just finished asking him a question. Why do you eat with tax collectors and sinners? Why do you do that? And then now the disciples of John come and they say, why do you guys not fast when we, the disciples of John, fast? So there are all these questions coming to Jesus. And it's very interesting to catalog the questions that are asked Jesus. And maybe sometime we'll have the time enough to go through some of these amazing questions that are asked Him. But here we find this question. And Jesus answers the question with a number of things. But I just want to give you a little tip on what the answer to the question is. Hey, I am the bridegroom. I am. I am God with us. I am. I am the bread of life. I am. I am the true vine. I am the bridegroom. He's just demonstrating who he is in answering this question here. And he shows his disciples and the disciples of John that he holds the key to all things. And he's continuing just to prove that he is the Messiah, as in chapter one, that Jesus is the son of David, the son of Abraham, the son of God. He's declaring himself to have exclusive power over all things. And so in verses 14 through 17, we have this whole matter of the disciples of John asking the question. Now, I want to give you what I'm just going to call five realities about the coming of the Messiah, of the coming of the bridegroom that are in this answer that he gives. The question is, why do you not fast when we fast? And then what Jesus does is he just explains himself. He declares the glory of his name. This is such a beautiful exposition of the gospel here. And so I'm going to give you five realities of the coming Messiah that Jesus unfolds here as he proceeds to answer this question. So the first reality is this, is that the coming of the Messiah has to do with the way that you live. It includes your lifestyle. The disciples were asking a comparative question. How come they live that way and how come we live this way? It was a lifestyle question. It was a question of duties, a question of outward life and actions. And, you know, you just cause you think, why do people live so differently? Why is it that some people feel free to do some things that other people don't? Why? Why is it? Why is it that way? Should should everyone live the same? What's the standard? So in discussing the differences between these two groups, Jesus speaks of himself and he really does answer the question. And one of the things he's saying here that we can't miss is that his disciples, the disciples of Jesus, they live differently. They have a different kind of lifestyle. And so he's discussing these differences. And so what's what's the difference? Well, John, John, of course, brought a gospel of repentance and he was sent to prepare the way he wasn't the way that he was sent to prepare the way and And and while while, you know, while John understood so clearly that Jesus Christ was the son of God, what he said, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So he he really didn't understand. We know we'll get to this a little bit later when John is in prison. He has questions about it in the time of this calamity. But this is the question was centered around the issue of fasting. And the Pharisees fasted twice a week. But we also know that they were often hypocrites in their fasting, as we saw in the Sermon on the Mount. They blow trumpets. They put on a sad countenance. They do it in order. They try to make everyone know how their fast is affecting them. And so the Pharisees are fasting and the disciples of John are fasting as well. And so these illustrations come out to explain this practice. And so he gives these illustrations. One is the unshrunk cloth on the old cloth and then the wine and the wineskin. So that's how he's going to explain the differences or at least the root of them. So the first thing we learn about the Messiah is that it's about lifestyle. It's about how you live. Secondly, it's about how Jesus is greater than John the Baptist. Now, Jesus is constantly proclaiming himself to be greater. He says at one point, there's something greater than the temple here. And he's constantly presenting himself as greater. We know that he brings better promises, a better covenant. Everything that Jesus brings is better. It's an upgrade with Jesus Christ. There is a continuation of it. And yet the shadows are finally seen in their true form in the greatness of Jesus Christ. And while even though even though it is said that, you know, Jesus says that assuredly, you know, there has not been one born among women that was greater than John the Baptist. At the same time, Jesus is proclaiming himself to be greater. And Jesus said this. He said, I have a greater witness than John's in John 536. I have a greater witness than John's. For the work which the father has given me to finish the very works that I do bear witness of me that the father has sent me. And then he says in John 13, 16, most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. So Jesus is proclaiming himself as as greater than John the Baptist. How great. Well, there's one word that explains just exactly how great he is. He is the bridegroom. He is. He is. He is the one sent to save the bride. He is. He is the great husband. He is the husband of the church. John wasn't the husband of the church. He was a forerunner. He was to prepare the way that Jesus here is proclaiming himself as to to the disciples of John as being far greater than John. So the second thing we learn is that it is about Jesus being greater than John the Baptist. His answer includes that. And then thirdly, this this third reality of becoming Messiah. Is that is that it is about Jesus as the bridegroom. And it's about the joy in betrothal to the bridegroom. And so Jesus here is really speaking of something that is so monumental in the mind of a Jew, because the Jews were waiting for the bridegroom to come. And Jesus is saying, I am he that was prophesied to come to save sinners from their sins. And so this is when he when Jesus announces himself as a bridegroom, he's really making the most absolutely monumental announcement that he could he could he could make. It's it's just as if he had, as he had said earlier, that he came to forgive sins. Jesus is constantly proclaiming himself to be certain things. And here the bridegroom announcing himself to the bridegroom is really an announcement. that the time has come. The Messiah is here. I am that one. And so he's proclaiming that. So it's really all about the bridegroom. Now, there are a number of prophecies in the Old Testament of the coming bridegroom. Now, remember, we in last week, We read where Hosea chapter six is is being quoted. And, you know, that whole thing is about a husband. It's about a bridegroom. It's about a bridegroom who saves a sinful wife. It's about it's about a wife in adultery, but a faithful husband who comes and rescues her and continues to love her in the midst of her harlotry. So we've just we've just come off images of bridegrooms and harlotry. And now Jesus here speaks further of it to the disciples of John. And you could go back to Hosea 2, chapter 2, 16 through 23 and a number of other places. There's another theme that we see in the Old Testament and Jewish life that may be connected to this. And that is that the anniversary of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 586 is August 9th. It was the exact same day that the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD on the same day. Now, when that happened. In Jerusalem, in 586 B.C., it was prophesied that there would be no voice of a bridegroom during that time, that that cataclysm would mean that there had been such apostasy that the voice of the bridegroom would be no longer heard, but the bridegroom would come back. So the Jews were waiting for a bridegroom to return. And, you know, the morning in Israel was expressed in many, many ways. One of the ways it was expressed was in Jewish weddings. You know, if you ever saw a fiddle on the roof, you know how they broke the wine glass? They broke the wine glass to declare that there's no voice of the bridegroom. that the joy had been taken away because of the judgments that were there upon Israel. And so when they break the glass, even in the wedding ceremony, there's mourning. There's mourning for sin, mourning for the destruction that took place. And it would take place again in 70 A.D. So the Jews were very well aware of this whole idea of connecting mourning with the bridegroom being gone. Because when the bridegroom returns, they'll be rejoicing. So that's the whole picture that's being painted here. Bridegrooms and mourning and rejoicing are all tied up in sin, apostasy, the destruction of the temple in 586 B.C. and then the coming rejoicing in Jeremiah chapter 7, 34. We read, and I will bring an end to the sound of mirth and gladness, the voice of the bride and the bridegroom in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem for the land shall become waste. So that's why the Jews were fasting. It's one reason why the Jews were fasting so much. That's why Anna, remember, Anna was in the temple and she was perpetually in the temple fasting. That's why she was fasting, because she was waiting for a bridegroom. to come. And and so because the days that the days were coming for that bride, you remember the parable of the wives and the foolish virgins who are waiting for the bridegroom. There's there's so much that we could talk about regarding regarding bridegrooms. But but Jesus here is like A bridegroom. And you are coming to the wedding. That's how he's casting himself to the disciples of John. And he will be your husband. And then you won't be fasting because you have a husband. You'll be feasting because you have a husband. And you'll be happy because you have a husband. And your shame will be covered over by his faithfulness because you have a husband who does that. Because you have a bridegroom. You have a bridegroom like Hosea was a bridegroom, because Jesus Christ is now coming to fulfill everything that has been said about a bridegroom. And he's declaring himself that way. And so bride grooms bring joy and they are a picture of salvation. And that is one of the realities of the coming Messiah here that Jesus is explaining to answer this question. Why do your disciples fast? Why do they not fast, but we fast? He's answering that question. He's saying they don't fast because there's a bridegroom here. This is a time of rejoicing. You don't fast while the bridegroom is with you. And Jesus' disciples were walking with him. And it was such a happy time. I don't know how you picture the disciples and their walking with the Lord Jesus. I mean, what do you think it was like? What were the looks on their faces? What was it really like? Well, it was like a bridegroom showing up. There wasn't a lot of time for mourning. I mean, imagine this everywhere you're going, the people are being healed everywhere. Jesus Christ has already said to the to the man who who is paralyzed, he said, be of good cheer. And then he heals and he's going to say that to this woman here with the shield of the issue of blood, be of good cheer. And then later on in John 16, he says, he says, He says, in the world you'll have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. We know from Hebrews 1.9 that Jesus was the happiest of all the disciples. So Jesus is just proclaiming himself as the bridegroom who's coming to usher in this season of happiness for his people. I think the apostolic band was a pretty happy group. I think they were free. I think they were having a great time. I really do. How can you not have a great time when you're going around and people are being healed? Demons are being cast out. It was a tiring time. The Son of Man had nowhere to lay his head. Often they didn't have time to eat, but they were having a great time. Because the bridegroom was there. It was a time of rejoicing. And Jesus is now just telling what it's like to have a bridegroom around. Now, when we get to the application, I'm going to speak to you husbands and me as a husband about this whole matter of being a bridegroom. How much like this bridegroom are you? How much happiness are you ushering in? We'll get to that later. So part of the reality of the coming Messiah is that he is a bridegroom. And that is pregnant with so many, many issues that need to be considered in our souls. And remember, he's answering that question. Why don't you fast? And he's saying some bridegroom. And then the fourth reality is that it's about not just the bridegroom, but the joy of the bridegroom. And these are days of joy. And you see it, and the illustrations are your garments and your wine and your wineskin. It's seen there. And it's like being born again. It's like something completely new. It's a shout of joy that comes by the embracing of the gospel. And then, fifthly, the fifth reality, that this declares is it's about newness of life. It's about newness of life. And we're 16. He says no one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment for the patch pulls away from the garment and the tear is made worse. Don't you? Don't you love the illustrations that Jesus gives? They're so helpful. So he's speaking about clothing. You have an old piece of clothing and you have a tear in it. What do you do? Well, Jesus is saying, forget that. You get new clothing. I'm giving you all new clothing. You just don't make patches. Christians are not people who are just patching themselves up. They have something completely new. So he uses this illustration of clothing and then nor do they put new wine into old wineskins or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins and both are preserved. Now, if you were with us on Tuesday's Bible study, you understood that there was there a significant questioning about this. And I know Dan and I and Jason have spent the week on the phone talking, talking back and forth about about this. And I think we finally come to some semblance of what we think Jesus is talking about when he's speaking of the cloth and the wine and the wineskins. Now, let me just back up in there. They're probably there at least four views that are given there. They're actually more than this, but I'll give sort of the core ones. The first the first view of this is that it's a view of salvation, that the old is the old man and the new is the new man. And it's about being born again. This is this is exactly how John Gill explains it. And though he says he says more than this, it's it's really the heart of the view. And then secondly, the second view is that it means that the disciplines of the mature should not be imposed on new disciples. In other words, the disciples of John don't have to be forced into the mold or vice versa. If you have weak disciples, then you just let them be weak, like the disciples of Jesus. You know, they were just they hadn't been walking with him for very long. And so they didn't have to undergo the disciplines of fasting. That's one view. That's actually the view of of John Calvin and J.C. Ryle and Matthew Henry. And then and then there's a third view, this is a view that that I had become familiar with many, many years ago. And really, it's a view that has, I think, governed modern church life at least for the second half of the 20th century. And this is this view is expressed by an author by the name of Ron Sider, who wrote a book called The Problem of Wine Skins. My pastor gave me this book in 1975 when it was first published, and I read it. And he says that it speaks of the relativity of church practices and how the church always needs to find new wine skins to relate to the world and how it has to keep itself, you know, upbeat enough for the culture to relate to it. And the book goes on to praise the movements of that day, the small group movement, the personal evangelism movement, the modern missions movement with Don McGowan and Peter Wagner. The charismatic movement as well. He goes through the book and praises these movements, which are the new wine, the new wine. The church, the old needs to go out because nobody can relate to it anymore. So now new things have to break and you've got to go create them in order to create a new world. So that's that's another view, the view of really it's really the view of so many. And they may not exactly interpret this passage that way, but that's the way they pretty much the modern church lives. And then there's there's there's another view, and I think this is this is a view that that we would probably embrace at this time. And that is that that the view really is it. The understanding of it is centered on the appearance of the bridegroom. And with the coming of the bridegroom, there is a signal, the fundamental change of everything in the practices and the lives of God's people. The shadows are passing away. The substance has now come and. And my view is that that can mean a number of things. It can mean the old wine and the old wineskins of the unregenerate are replaced by the new wine and wineskins of the gospel. It can mean like John MacArthur's understanding of this is that the old wine and the old wineskins was the bankrupt laws of the Pharisees, the Mishnah, the Talmud, the fence around the law, all these accumulated You know, laws and practices that were gathered that those that those are not now out and then and then the new and then also the removal of the necessity of the ceremonial law. Think of how much has changed with Jesus Christ. He wipes out the entire sacrificial system and many of the ceremony and all the ceremonial laws. So. So. Jesus is declaring himself to be the bridegroom who is so far superior than everything else that has come, that he gives his children new wine and new wineskins. He gives that to the unconverted. He is bringing such newness of life, which is why he said to Nicodemus, you must be born again. Everything has to change. You have to become like a new person. So, so he's in many ways, you know, he's informing the Pharisees that he has no intention to reform their system, but rather to completely undermine it as far as it departs from revealed Scripture. And he's He's saying that you can't just bolt on your life to the life of Jesus, but that everything must change. It's like new wine. You can't just get a new patch and stick it on you like a badge. So see, see this one little thing I've just done? Or how about this one over here? I do this. Here's another patch. You know, you're walking around with all these new patches on your life. In reality, it's completely different than just adding. You're not just sewing on little patches. You're becoming completely new. And that's what the spirit of God allows that as he sanctifies us from year to year. He takes us from one place to the next. And, you know, these illustrations, you know, the one about the cloth, you know, the unshrunk cloth pulls away and tears. The two just they can't they can't coexist. They're incompatible. And and so the appearance of the bridegroom ushers in a very disruptive and radical and wonderful change. And it has to do with joy. It has to do with something new and more wonderful than you ever, ever could have had on your own. And this really is the essence of the Gospel, where to have Jesus is to have a new heart. You have a heart of stone, and then He gives you a heart of flesh. He puts a new song in your heart. He gives you a new name. He gives you a new covenant. He gives you new ordinances. Baptism and the Lord's Supper. And He gives you a new nation. He says in Isaiah, Behold, I do a new thing. He gives a new covenant in His blood as we will celebrate today when we get to our time of the Lord's Supper. And then after all this happens among the family of men in all of history, then finally the Lord Jesus comes and He says, Behold, I give you a new heavens and a new earth. Because that's the essence of the power of the Gospel, is that He remakes men after His own image. And so, Jesus is announcing the new garments and the new wine and the new wineskins. If any man is in Christ, he's a new creation. Behold, old things have passed away and all things have become new. And that is such a blessed, blessed reminder to these disciples of John. As Jesus answers that question, why don't you fast? And the answer is because I'm a bridegroom and I make everything new. So then after Jesus communicates this, a ruler of the synagogue comes to Jesus and that takes us to verses 18 and 19. And this ruler of the synagogue has a daughter who died. So if you can just imagine this broken hearted man coming to Jesus and his daughter, his daughter here is has died. And here we we enter into the whole discussion about Jesus power over death. We've talked about his his power over disease, his power over the winds and the waves, his power over sin. Now his power over death. itself. And so Jesus is going to heal this daughter. And he says, my daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her and she will live. And Jesus arose and followed him. And so did his disciples. Death is such a is such a gripping and powerful thing in our lives. And if we if we do not understand death, Then it means it means many things to us. I think, you know, most of us thought carefully about the death of Steve Jobs this week. The man who had the largest company in the world died right just right about my age. And he when he died, he was he was just continuing to preach the gospel of secularism. And when he when he had heard that he was going to die, he gave a commencement message where he said he said this at Stanford University. Death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is the change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. That's what he said. But what? But he didn't understand that death was not an invention. or a change agent, but it was an enemy that will be destroyed. And Jesus came to destroy it. And he did not understand that. And so his answer was so empty and so shallow and he had such a wrong eschatology. He did not understand death. that people go either to heaven or to hell. So here, what we find, there's this death and it's probably more difficult for us to think about a death of a child than the death of an adult. For some reason, that's harder for us to even process. And I know I know I know a number of you have had children who have died. And so you can understand this in a more personal way. But here you have this man. He is he is the ruler of the synagogue. Now, just think about that for a minute. What is the ruler of the synagogue do? The ruler of the synagogue. is is attempting to apply the things of Judaism. The ruler of the synagogue has heard Jesus preach. It says we learned earlier that Jesus was preaching in the synagogues. I'm sure Jesus preached in this man's synagogue, probably invited him to come in amazingly. We know that that the centurion had financed a part of the synagogue in Capernaum. And so. These people seem to know each other and because Jesus was in their city and in their synagogue, but he comes and he worships Jesus, you just have to you have to grasp what a great gulf this ruler of the synagogue had crossed. He had Jesus preaching in his synagogue and now he comes and he was worshiping Jesus in public and he's asking Jesus to touch the dead body of his daughter, which would mean he would be breaking the ceremonial law. This man had advanced in his knowledge of the gospel by his contact, so much so That in his grief, he was he was driven to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he announces that his daughter has died. Imagine, you know, you who have 12 year old daughters, what that would be like. Well, you just have to think of how this man is is processing this this problem. Now, you know, it's interesting that that Matthew is very brief. in explaining what happened. We've seen this a number of times where Matthew just goes right to the heart and soul of the matter, while the other gospel writers say a lot more about the people involved and the things that were said and the whole situation. Like if you go to Luke 8, And you read this, you learn so many things that Matthew doesn't even say. It's just like the paralytic who is healed. Matthew doesn't say anything that these four friends tore off the roof and lowered him down. Just totally leaves that out. You know, one of the most interesting parts of the story. But here, Luke says so much. He says, for one thing, that this man begs him, that this synagogue is begging him. We also learned that it was his only daughter from Luke. He had no other daughter. And we learned from Luke that she was 12 years old. And we also learned from Luke that the multitudes were just thronging at him at this time. And then we also learn from Luke that somebody came from the ruler of the synagogue's house to say, your daughter's dead. And then we also learn that Jesus says to him, don't be afraid. Matthew doesn't say that. He was afraid. He was like he was like any father of a 12 year old daughter who died. He was afraid. And we also learn learned from Luke that when he went into the house, he only let Peter, James and John and the father and the mother stay in the house. Now, we do learn from Matthew that Jesus was not happy about what was going on, so he sent everybody out of the house. We also learn from Luke that he says, little girl, arise. Matthew doesn't say that. And Luke also tells us that Jesus commanded that she be brought some food. There are lots of details that Matthew leaves out to the story that are really wonderful to contemplate. But one thing that's so important for us to see, and maybe this is the most important thing to see, is that he proclaims his complete trust in Jesus. And he says, if you lay your hand on her. He totally trusted in Jesus Christ. He had rested his whole hope on Christ and what Christ could do. Do you do that? Is all of your hope resting on Christ? If you lay your hand on her, you have just absolute unqualified, unadulterated trust in Jesus for your life, wherever you are in your life. Maybe you are sick. Maybe you're single and you don't have any idea if you're ever will be married. If anyone could possibly love you. And do you have do you do you really believe that Jesus Christ has exclusive power over everything, every mind, every wind, every sickness, absolutely everything. He has the exclusive power over everything. I mean, do you really honestly believe that? Well, this man, this man believed that. And he says, if you lay your hand on her, she'll be well. You know, There are times when people call for the elders of the church to come and pray for the sick. That's happened with a number of you here. But every time we go to pray for somebody, we have no doubt that Jesus Christ has the exclusive power to heal that person. And we desire to have faith for that person and that that person has faith. But we know that Jesus is powerful to heal in the midst of our great faith or in the midst of our little faith. Because He heals both ways. He heals people that don't have any faith, as far as we can tell. And He heals people that have great faith. He does seem to bless great faith, though. I hope we understand that. In other words, it matters whether we have great or little faith. Even though Jesus Christ is exclusively power to heal, the Bible makes it very, very plain that he favors great faith. So we should be very careful not to be lackadaisical in the building of our faith because Jesus favors it. He favors it for our friends, like like he did the faith of those four men who took off the roof and lowered their paralytic. Friends to Jesus. So and again, this man is asking Jesus to break the ceremonial law by touching a dead body. And so in verse 19, it says, So Jesus arose and followed him. And so did his disciples. Jesus is going out to break the ceremonial law with vigor. And. And we see these two things going on in this man, by the way, the other writers tell us he has a name, his name is Jairus. And he had two things going, he had he had a need, it was his pain, it was his pain that drove him to Jesus Christ. And he had complete faith in Christ. Those two things are such a wonderful and powerful combination to have in your soul. You have a need, you have something that's broken and you have a savior. And that's really all you need in this life. And then. Something strange happens. This woman with a flow of blood comes and interrupts the moment. Jesus and his disciples are on the way. They're charging down the road and there are lots of people around them. It's hard to move through the crowd. And suddenly, says Matthew in verse 20, suddenly a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years came from behind, for she said to herself, if only I may touch his garment, I shall be well. If only, if only I may touch his garment, I will be well. There's that faith. And again, you have to consider, you know, her heartbreaking situation and what it is like. Again, Mark and Luke tell us things that Matthew doesn't tell us. And we know we know from Luke chapter eight that she had spent all of her livelihood on physicians, spent all her whole livelihood on physicians and none of them could heal her. From Mark, we learn that she actually suffered many things by physicians. So it wasn't just that they tried to heal her and she wasn't healed. The things they tried made the suffering worse. That's a problem that we all have in all eras of medical history. The physicians do things that make us suffer more. That always has been the case. What we see today is not new. The physicians always do things that make the suffering worse. And they always seem to do things that can make the suffering better. So we have this great dependency in whatever era we live in. You have to figure that out as best you can. And it's difficult to figure that out, isn't it? Whether what you're doing is actually going to hurt you more. by listening to those doctors. So this was a struggle, you know, this woman, she spent her livelihood, none of them healed her and some of them who tried to heal her actually hurt her more. And then. We also learned that Jesus in Luke, that Jesus said, who touched me? And then he said, somebody touched me for I've received the power to go out of me. Matthew doesn't say that. And we also learned that she came trembling. She was just shaking. Her vulnerability, her sorrow, her lack of personal ability to take care of herself had fled her seemingly. And she had no hope in physicians at all. She had completely been evacuated of all confidence and hope in physicians. But she did have one hope, and that was she hoped in Jesus. And then Luke also says that she told him the whole story. She was trembling before everybody that was there. He told her everything he said. It says he told her the whole story. And then Jesus says, your faith has made you well. So I get Jesus, you know, Jesus now has had contact with somebody who's ceremonially unclean. Leviticus 15, 1933. put her in that category being ceremonially unclean. And Jesus is now having contact with her. He's he's overthrowing the ceremonial law. We learn in Chapter five that he was not overthrowing the moral law at all, but he was overthrowing the ceremonial law. It's very clear what he does. Watch what Jesus does and you'll learn. how he handles the law, how he handles the Old Testament. And she touched him on the hem of his garment. Now, her disposition was, if only I may touch his garment, I shall be made well. And she believed the same things Jairus believed. She believed in Jesus, that he had the exclusive power to heal her. And that he would if it was his will. You know, it's interesting, you know, that the Jews, the Jews put tassels on the hems of their garments to prove, you know, and they made them very large, you know, to so they could be seen so clearly. But I don't there's no record of anybody touching a Pharisee's tassel and getting healed. But the woman just touches the hem of his garment and she's healed. It's just such a such a wonderful story. He says to her, be of good cheer. This is the second time he said, be of good cheer. He said it to the to the paralytic whose affliction was from his sins. And now he says it to this woman, be of good cheer. There's an interesting twist to the language here in this narrative. Mark Mark uses a word healed of her affliction. That's different than Luke. Luke uses therapeu which we get our word therapeutic. But when the woman speaks of being made well, she uses the word. So for saved. She declares that she's been saved. I don't know. I don't know if that means that she was converted at that point or not. I don't know. But there was this ceremonially unclean woman who had been hurt so badly and had lost all of her hope in mankind and now had hope in Jesus Christ. And I love this, too. about this story, he calls her daughter. There's there's so much tenderness in this narrative here. But he he calls her his daughter. It's interesting, you know, he is he is not not only her father, but he's also her husband at the same time. He's a bridegroom and he's a father. And then and then Jesus proceeds after this takes place and he he raises. The little girl from the dead in verses twenty three to twenty six. So when Jesus came into the ruler's house and there was all this commotion going on, you know, the flute players, the noisy crowd was there. And it was it was really it was a confusing scene. You know, Jairus was an official. He probably had significant resources. And it looks like he brought in the mourners. There were hired mourners that would be brought in and they would mourn. They would use the names of the deceased family members. And, you know, there's all kinds of ceremony about it. Wailing. There are actually 39 regulations for how you rend your garment in a time like this. You rend the garment and you push your hand through it right about your heart. And then you and then you would sew it up just loosely so everybody could see it. And you'd walk around like that for 30 days. That's how you would mourn. And, you know, people would hire professional women and they would and professional musicians to, you know, to to mourn. And Jesus, Jesus, to me, I think he's irritated with it. He says, make room for the girl. Yeah, she's not dead. She's sleeping. They start ridiculing him and he says, leave. They leave. And and we know that, you know, Peter, James and John and the parents were the only ones that were there. And Mark says that he took the little child by the hand and said to her, Talitha Kum, which is translated, little girl, arise. And immediately the girl arose. Now, there's a you know, remember, Peter's there. Peter's sitting here as he's watching this. And later on in the book of Acts, in Acts chapter nine. Remember, there was the disciple named Tabitha. Dorcas, who was full of good works and charitable deeds. And she died. And the widows were there just weeping, showing the things that she had made them, because she was such a servant. And Peter goes into the upper room and all the widows are there. And Peter kneels down and he prays. And he says to her, Tabitha Kuhn. Tabitha Kuhn. Sounds just like different words. Jesus said Tabitha Kuhn. Little girl arise. And now Peter says Tabitha Kuhn. Same word. I just I just can't help but think that Peter felt himself to be walking in the footsteps of his master. And then what happened, a report went out into all that land. And so this this was the first resurrection miracle that was recorded. Just confirming that Jesus Christ holds the keys to life and death. And he is the master of the last enemy who will be destroyed, nobody should ever fear death. If they place their faith. In the bridegroom, OK, here's some applications. Number one. Let's just talk about the way that we live. Are we as a church living like we have a bridegroom like that? Like what we read about? Rejoicing in Him? A people full of delight? Our garments, our wine, our wineskins, all new? and full of delight. This is the effect of having a bridegroom. One of my favorite verses in all of Scripture is Psalm 1611, which says, In your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 94 says this, Your comforts delight my soul. Psalm 36, 7 says, How precious is your loving kindness, O God. Therefore, the children of men put their trust under the shadow of your wings. They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of your house and you give them drink. from the river of your pleasures or the river of delight. Or some 46 for there is a river whose stream shall make glad the city of God. The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God shall help her just at the break of dawn. Yet we have we have so much reason to rejoice. You know, it's so it's so easy to just let the remembrances of all the all the questions and troubles and contingencies and threats of your life just overcome you and totally forget Jesus and who he really is. He's a bridegroom who has come to save you with a great salvation. Hey, maybe you forgot that this morning. I just want to bring it up. Have you forgot it? Have you forgot what a good bridegroom he is? And the joy and to be joyful in his presence in the time of your pilgrimage in this world, because he is with you. If you've repented and become a believer, he is with you, but don't live like he's not with you. Number two, Husbands, are you a bridegroom like that? I mean, we need to understand that when you look at the theology of bridegrooms and husbands, is that Jesus Christ is the pattern for husbands. Husbands, love your wives as also Christ loved the church and gave himself up for us. So whenever you read about a bridegroom, you're also reading about yourself as a husband somehow. Maybe not in every single detail. Well, certainly not in every single detail. But at least principally, in every single detail. And. You know, so your husband, right, you you're walking with this woman that you married, you know, some time ago. And are you are you are you a happy bridegroom? You know, are you are you a source of joy and feasting for your for your wife? Are you like Jesus, where It's just that it's a time of happiness because you are a happy bridegroom like the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, God gave us a bridegroom partly to make us happy. I think this text makes that really clear. Not mournful, not a lament, Not a man, not a, not a dirge. He came, he came to put a noose on. And I, you know, husbands need to learn from the bridegroom. I do. I've had to consider my own ways as a bridegroom this week, just reading this. You can't, you cannot get around it. You're, you're, you're, you're in a box canyon here. You have to confront this question about what kind of bridegroom you are. And then the third application is really about transformation. You cannot put the new wine of the gospel into your old life. We do know that there are parts of our own life that are being sanctified and cleansed. So, I think you have to harmonize this idea of new wine with the process of sanctification. You just can't patch on new practices to your life. There's something deeper. There's something greater here that in your heart you so desire to be made new. You so desire His sanctification and His work in your life. It goes far beyond putting a couple of patches of change on your life. It requires a new heart that longs for Jesus Christ to change you. That's the only way you can change. I mean, you can say to yourself, stop doing that. But you're really hopeless unless in your soul, your heart desires to be faithful to God. That's really the fundamental principle. Number four, are you confident in the power of the Lord Jesus Christ over your sickness, your finances, your family, your singleness, your marriedness? Are you confident? Are you confident? So all of this comes, you know, as Jesus is asked the question, why don't your disciples fast? And the answer is I'm the bride groom. That's why. That's why we're not doing that right now. Now. Christ here is as he as he has been is just continually to present himself. As our only hope. And I was I was reading the words of John Bunyan. This week, and I want to read them to you to conclude this message, because I. I think he captures the heart and soul of what's here. Of of this trust in Christ. For all things, as our bridegroom. Oh, I thought Christ, Christ. There was nothing but Christ that was before my eyes. I was not now only looking upon this and the other benefits of Christ as of his blood and burial or resurrection, but I considered him alone. as he in whom all these and all his other virtues, relations and offices and operations met together, and that as he sat on the right hand of God in heaven. It was glorious for me to see his exaltation and the worth and prevalency of all his benefits, and that because of this, now I could look from myself to him and should reckon that all those graces of God that were green in me were yet but like these cracked groats and four-pence half-pennies that rich men carry in their purses when their gold is in their trunks at home. Oh, I saw my gold was in my trunk at home in Christ my Lord and my Savior. Now Christ was all all my wisdom, all my righteousness, all my sanctification, all my redemption, just like that woman with the blood, just like that man with the dead child. Further, the Lord also did lead me into the mystery of union with the Son of God, that I was joined to Him, that I was flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones. And now that was very sweet to me. By this also was my faith in Him as my righteousness. The more confirmed to me, for if He and I were one, then His righteousness was mine, His merits mine, His victory also mine. Now could I see myself in heaven and earth at once, in heaven by my Christ, by my head, by my righteousness and life. though on earth by my body or my person. And that's what it means to have a bridegroom who is with you, who heals all of your diseases, who holds the power of life and death, who is such a good bridegroom. And that's what we're commended to today. Let's pray. O Lord, we thank you for Such beautiful testimonies lay before our eyes. Powerful questions that unlock mysteries and show us where we ought to go and how we ought to live. Such people who were suffering, and yet they trusted in You. Let it be so with us here in this church. Amen.