and last week we want to read Luke chapter 8 we want to back up to verse 40 and then we'll read first couple of verses there and then we'll pick up in verse 49 verse 40 of Luke chapter 8 now when Jesus returned the crowd welcomed him for they were all waiting for him and there came a man named Jairus who was a ruler of the synagogue And falling at Jesus' feet, he implored him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter, about 12 years of age, and she was dying. Picking up in verse 49, after he has healed the woman with the issue of blood, while he was still speaking, someone from the ruler's house came and said, your daughter is dead. Do not trouble the teacher anymore. But Jesus, on hearing this, answered him, do not fear. only believe, and she will be well. And when he came to the house, he allowed no one to enter with him except Peter, John, and James, and the father and mother of the child. And all were weeping and mourning for her. But he said, do not weep, for she is not dead, but sleeping. And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead, But taking her by the hand, he called, saying, child, arise. And her spirit returned, and she got up at once. And he directed that something should be given her to eat. And her parents were amazed, but he charged them to tell no one what had happened. Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, man of, no doubt, some reputation in the community, and an important man in some measure, comes to Jesus and falls at his feet. We've read that his only daughter, who's just 12 years old, is lying at home near death. And then, as Jairus has come to Jesus, he is then told the worst news that he feared to ever hear. Your daughter is dead, don't trouble the teacher anymore. A moment of great fear for Jairus, And this is how many people meet Christ at the moment of their most intense fear. We spoke last week of this woman with the issue of blood who similarly, interestingly to me, suffered for the length of the life of this child now whose life seems to be at risk and certainly was for 12 years. And she was desperate for healing. And Jairus has come, and for 12 years he's watched his daughter grow, and he's now at the point of great fear. And that is when men often, and women often, truly finally come to Christ. In the moments of their most intense fear. When they're afraid. In fact, in those moments though, faith can seem naive, and fear can feel like wisdom. Faith in the moments of our fear is a choice that is made, but it is often not the choice that comes naturally to us. In these moments of great fear that we experience in our lives, the right thing to do can seem to be to do something, anything, except surrender. in great calmness to the will and the purpose of God and to trust Him with whatever it is that we're afraid of. As Jairus hears and as we come to that point when he is told that his daughter has passed, we feel that moment in some respect with him, sharing our humanity with him. We can feel that moment when Jarrah's fear would have turned to such agony. The moment when his sense of urgency likely moved to a sense of hopelessness. The moment when that fear or that concern and that urgency itself was also replaced by a sense of, it's too late now. Jesus' words to Jairus in this moment are full of wisdom, of course, and compassion, instruction, and power when he says in verse 50, do not fear, only believe. There is power in those words. The title for our message today is Fear or Faith? Fear or Faith? I believe that we all have choice between the two. We make it. every day. And we make it, as I was thinking about this even after feeling as though I was mostly complete with my preparation, the thought occurred to me that we feel this and we have this choice about fear or faith with our past, our present, and our future. We can choose to look at our past and the things that we're afraid of about our past. We can face those things either with fear or we can face them with faith. and trust of Christ and a trust of God, all our lives comes down to the reality of whether or not we trust God. Whether our faith in Him will surpass our fear of whatever it is that we're afraid of. And often we're afraid of many things, but maybe as we think about this and we look at our passage today, I would ask you and encourage you to think about what it is that you are right now most afraid of. What are you most afraid of? You see, Jairus, in this moment, fear had him in a vice grip, and that's what fear often does to us. It holds us. It keeps us from trusting God. And so today as we look at this, I want you to think with me and pray with me and consider with me this opposing path that is ahead of all of us or that is set before all of us, the path of fear, the path of faith. And you'll choose one of those two paths to walk. you'll take a step in a direction of one or the other. Jairus, in the grips of fear for his daughter's life, comes to Christ and falls at His feet and begs Him to come. And in these moments of fear, if you're in a moment in your life where there is fear that you do not know how to overcome, it is a circumstance that you do not know how you can get through, If your fear is something from the past, the present, or the future, you have a choice today, the same choice that Jesus gives to Jairus. Do not fear, only believe. And on the surface, if we don't dig very deeply at all, that can sound very naive or pithy or simplistic. And I will say this, it is simple because it's not complicated. but that does not mean that it is at all easy. Simple things can be very difficult. And this is one of those things, I believe, but this is a choice that we all must make in our moments of fear like Jairus has set before him. In verses 40 through 42, Jairus again has fallen at the feet of Jesus on behalf of his only daughter who's just 12 years old. He's a ruler, we're told, of the synagogue. It's uncertain. The Scriptures don't tell us exactly what Jairus might have thought of Jesus prior to this time. We're not told what was wrong with his daughter, whether it was a long illness or whether it was an acute injury that threatened her life. We're not told any of those details. We're not told how long Jairus has been concerned for her. But I did wonder, and I do, I wonder what Jairus thought of Jesus prior to this moment of terrible fear for his daughter's life. What might Jesus have been to him prior to that moment of fear? And we're told, and I don't think without reason, that he was a ruler of the synagogue. And a ruler of a synagogue, his job was to see to the weekly services and to the things that were done within the synagogue. He would choose the readings. He would choose those who would read. He was responsible for the operation of the synagogue. He had someone who was his right-hand man that often did the day-to-day operations, but he was a ruler of the synagogue. It was his job to make sure that the Jewish Sabbath proceeded at the synagogue in the way that it should. And so we can assume, I think, safely that he was a Jew. He was a man familiar with the Old Testament. He was a man familiar with the political realities of his day, with the Pharisees being in control and in charge of most of the thought process, and politically holding the greatest power in the city of Jerusalem and the nation of Israel in the day. So we can imagine, I think safely, that Jairus would likely have had a unique relationship and a unique thought about Jesus. There had been run-ins already with the Jews over fasting and feasting. We've seen that already in the Gospel of Luke as we've made our way to this point. The Pharisees asking Jesus, why don't your disciples fast like we do? The Pharisees accusing Jesus of doing wrong by working on the Sabbath day. There had been run-ins already. Hatred of Jesus by the Pharisees was already beginning to grow hot. So likely, Jairus would have at least, if he did not share this fear of Jesus and this concern about him, and maybe even disagreements over the things that he said, Jairus would have at least likely had understood and felt the political pressure not to embrace Jesus. Again, I think regardless of his personal feelings, I think he would have felt the pressure that publicly he must not acknowledge this Jesus of Nazareth, not endorsed by the Pharisees and by the leadership among the religious people. And as a ruler of the synagogue, no doubt he was aware of these things that was going on. But in the face of his circumstances, where his daughter lays dying, there's nowhere else to turn. He hears that Jesus of Nazareth has come to town. And regardless of what he might have thought about him, he is a Jesus in Jairus' mind. At least he would have known that many people had said some pretty amazing things about this man Jesus. We're told again and again already in the Gospel of Luke, and there were some nine or ten times, I believe, if I counted correctly, where we're told that the crowds left and went and talked and said they spread the news about Jesus. Jairus would have no doubt had heard about some of these things that Jesus had already done. Jairus in the midst of this terrible fear for his daughter, and yet, I think at the same time, political realities, but he's willing to, of course, throw all that away like any parent would to save his daughter's life. He'd heard about this man, Jesus. He'd heard this man cast out not a demon, but a legion of demons out of a man that no one could control. This man, we've read in the Gospel of Luke already, Jairus would have heard He came across a funeral procession of a widow whose only son had died, and he raised him to life. Jairus had probably heard that. He'd heard miracle after miracle that Jesus had done, and he had in his mind, this Jesus can save my daughter. This man who is a miracle worker, Jairus, though he is in this moment in the grips of fear, perhaps like he never had been before in his life. And in that moment of great fear and sharing the desperation of the woman with the issue of blood, he comes and in front of everyone, falls at Jesus' feet and begs him for help. Come to my house, my daughter, my only daughter, she's 12 years old, she's dying and he's afraid and he's fearful of losing her. And we spoke last week about the woman with the issue of blood. And I want us to think about that for just a minute. It surely wasn't a long delay, but can you imagine you have come to Jesus and you have told him about your fear that my daughter is dying, and then you have this interlude with the woman with the issue of blood. Were any delay would have just increased his fear. Any distraction of Jesus from coming to his house, I think Jairus would have been like, yeah, okay, that's too bad that she's got this. My daughter's dying and we need to go right now, Jesus. If you're going to save her, you need to come right now. But then we have this interlude with this woman with the issue of blood. And I can imagine, Jairus. And we looked at it last week. And we can read those passages in 43, verse 43 through 49 or 48. And we can imagine that wonderful scene where this woman who'd struggled with an issue of blood for 12 years, she's healed. But today, I look in my mind's eye And I look over at Jairus standing there as this whole thing was going on with the woman and the crowd stops and Jesus stopped. I can imagine Jairus thinking, I'm not indifferent to this woman's suffering, but my daughter is dying at home and I need Jesus now. And the fear that must have been gripping him, he can't wait. We can't wait any longer that delay with this woman with the issue of blood, as wonderful as it is for you and me to have read and to understand and to see Christ once again perform such a compassionate miracle with that woman, would have likely only heightened the fear that Jairus was feeling, as he no doubt was thinking, Jesus, you must come now, there is no time for delay, but then All of that happens. While Jesus was speaking to the woman, someone comes and says, Jairus, your daughter, she's gone. She's gone from bad to worse. Urgency has become what might feel like finality. Now, before I move on, I want to point something out and I want to note for us that what Jairus did was the right thing. He did what we all ought to do with our fear. He brought it to Jesus, fell at his feet, and cried out to him for help. I asked you a moment ago, what are you afraid of? What is the greatest fear? And I ask you now, have you done with it what Jairus has done here? Have you taken it to Jesus, fallen at his feet, and asked him for help? It's what Jairus did. I think sometimes we hold on to our fear because it either hasn't occurred to us or we are simply unwilling to do what he did. We choose fear instead of faith, and therefore we live our lives in fear rather than the calmness and the steadiness and the certainty of faith. We choose our actions. Do something. whatever I can do to busy myself, to make myself believe that I can affect the change that I'm looking for. And in Jairus's case, of course, he's come to the point where he's realized he's completely powerless to affect any change. And I would ask you today, maybe you're afraid of something, and deep down you know you can't change it. Nothing you can do, nothing anyone else can do. There's no expert to be found. There's no book to be read. There's no action to be taken that can remove your fear because you know that you and all the other seven plus billion people that are on the face of the earth, you know none of them and you yourself can't do anything about what it is that you fear. That's when you can go to Jesus. That's when you will go to Jesus. And I would tell you to those of us who know him and have found him to be our Savior and he has forgiven us and given us a home in heaven and a down payment and an interest payment when he saved us, when that burden of sin was lifted and that peace came in and we knew we were his. In that moment, we knew we were his and he was ours. I would ask you today that we ought not get to that place where it takes such drastic circumstances, but it takes merely the hint of fear for us to say, I need to find myself prostrate at the feet of Jesus, asking Him for help. Because I will tell you this, if you don't, that fear is going to run you. That fear is going to be what decides what you do. It's gonna control your thoughts, it's gonna control your feelings, and it will therefore control your actions. And you have a choice, faith or fear. I'm thankful that the Lord is merciful and meets us in our moments of fear. We ought to bring, we ought to do with our fear what Jairus did with his fall at the feet of Christ. And choose faith rather than fear, but I'm afraid that I and many others like me Sometimes we can, instead of falling at the feet of Jesus with our fear, instead we stand and accuse Him. If fear is our choice instead of faith, I want us, I believe it's true, our lives will be led by fear and fear is a terrible place to make decisions. Not this kind of fear anyway. We will be blind to God's work in the midst of those fearful moments of our lives. I like what Charles Spurgeon said when he said this, Faith is the eye that sees beyond the storm. Fear is the mist that blinds it. Fear blinds the eye of faith. And so Jairus is standing before Jesus and he's just now heard this most horrific news. You can imagine their eyes locking as Jairus looks to Jesus and Jesus looks back at him and he says, Don't fear. Only believe. an awe-inspiring moment that is. Don't be afraid. What storm in your life is creating the mist that you sense all around you that creates that mist of fear through which you cannot see without the eye of faith? What is it that's creating The mist of fear in your life. Well, we know what it is for Jairus, and now we come to this most important point. This moment when Jesus gives this, not suggestion. He doesn't say to Jairus, you know what might help? You might think about not being afraid. He simply says, do not fear. It's in the imperative voice, in the active sense, and it is basically telling us, stop fearing. And I know that that sounds very simple and dismissive, and I don't think that's at all what Jesus is saying, but Jesus' first response here is a command with a promise. Before any action has taken place, do not fear, only believe, and she will be well. Before Jesus takes a step, toward the house because remember he is still actively engaged with the woman having just said daughter your faith has made you well go in peace and that is the very moment that somebody comes alongside a gyrus and he says gyrus there's no it doesn't we we don't need to be here anymore don't bother jesus Your daughter's gone. In that very moment, Jesus looks at him. He's not taken a step toward Jairus' house. He's not indicated in any real way, according to the text, what we can gather, that he's headed there. Before gathering with the mourners at the girl's bedside, before the laughter of the scoffers that are there, before Jesus says, little girl, arise, before any of this, Jesus says to Jairus, do not fear. only believe. He gives a command with a promise of what will follow if the command is obeyed. And he gives this command with great calmness. He's not in a hurry. He speaks with authority and he speaks with confidence and certainty and I think a great calmness. His calmness though, this can be misinterpreted. It might have been misinterpreted by Jairus, and it might have been misinterpreted by others. You know, I tried to search through the Scriptures, and I tried to find a place where even once we find Jesus in a sense of agitated urgency, like we so often are. And I don't think you find one. I think you find Jesus, the Lamb of God, the Prince of Peace, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Son of God, as our example and as the one that we ought to strive to be like knowing we never will be fully like him. I believe that this was a man of great soberness and he demonstrated here a great calmness, I think. I think the crowd was in a tussle. I think Jairus was beside himself with grief and fear and Jesus, I believe, he looks at him and he says, do not fear, only believe. And I think it might be easy for Jairus at that moment to have interpreted Jesus' calmness as indifference. And I think that would have been a mistake. Maybe in your life there's something you're afraid of and Jesus doesn't seem to be hopping to your solution. He doesn't seem to be, you don't get the sense from him that he feels your urgency. Jesus, Did you hear what I said? God, are you hearing me? And maybe you've been alone in a dark room at night in your bed, and you've been praying to God, and you've said, God, do you not hear me? Do you not sense the fear that has gripped my heart? Can you not see that? Lord, I would like it if you would show a little bit of response like you're concerned too. And I don't know that we can expect God to act like that. I don't see that Jesus does. He just simply calmly says, do not fear. His calmness does not indicate indifference. It indicates divine power and authority and control, knowing the outcome before it unfolded. And you might say, well, if I had that kind of foresight, I might not fear as well. And I ask you, don't you? Don't you have that foresight? Haven't you read the book of Revelation? Don't you know how this is all going to end? Don't you have that confidence like that Jesus does? This is the passing land. This is the land of fog and mist that will pass away and is presently passing away before our very eyes. You know, the people who are really concerned about the world ending through heat and climate change, they're not wrong in this. It is going to come to an end. It's not going to come to an end the way they say it is. But it is coming to an end, and that's what they're afraid of. But don't we have the foresight if we had the faith, and our faith was in what God has said? Do we not have the foresight that Christ did? He is not in an agitated state. He is in a calm. state and in the present imperative voice of the Greek, he says, do not fear, only believe. And both of those things, again, are in the present imperative. And it means this, halt the fear now and keep on halting the fear later. Believe now and keep on believing later. Not just now in this moment, but continue. So Jairus has this choice. Will he replace his fear with faith? And faith, of course, specifically in Christ. And this is our choice as well. I wondered as I thought through this message and prepared to come, I thought, boy, I wonder what somebody might say about that. And say, maybe object in this way. Why require faith? Why does God require faith? Why not just fix everything right now? In fact, better than that, why not just avoid any pain or anything that we have to be afraid of? Why doesn't he just do that? Because I want you to note with me, Jesus does not say, Jairus, your fear is not real. He doesn't say to deny the fear. He says, don't fear. He does not teach us to face fear like perhaps the Stoic would with human will and resilience in the face of it. He says instead to only believe. He does not say that there is nothing to fear. Else, He wouldn't have to say not to do it. Look, I don't know if this will resonate with you the way it did with me when I believe the Lord brought this to my mind and heart. I want to say it in case it does. If there were nothing to fear, then there would be nothing to faith. If there was nothing to fear, then there would be nothing to faith. And if there was nothing to faith, there would be nothing with which we have to please God. Jesus is not saying, Jairus, you're wrong to be afraid. Jairus has not sinned, I believe, at this point. He is experiencing what a human heart and parent, any of them would. Fear. I'm afraid. But when met with the Son of God, and he says, do not fear, only believe, this is the moment that that choice is given to us. I'm either going to trust Christ that He has my best interest in heart and the best interest of everyone on the planet, and I trust Him in that, or I do not. I have a choice to choose my faith in Christ or a choice to choose my fear instead. Choosing faith before Jesus acts and works confirms for us our faith in Him. instead of our faith merely in the outcomes that we hope to see. He commands first and then He acts. He commands and makes a promise that requires faith right now. He says, don't fear, only believe. And then what does He say? And she will be well. Do you notice the future tense? She will be. Stop fear now. Only believe now. And it will be well. It isn't all well right now the moment that Jesus says those words. It's not all well. And there's no point in dismissing that reality. It isn't all well right now, Jairus might have thought or said. And you might be thinking of whatever it is that you've been thinking in your heart, what am I afraid of? It might not all be well right now in the sense for Jairus that his daughter is dying at home and now he hears has died. It's not all well right now. And in our lives, there will be days when it most certainly will not all be well right now. And yet Jesus confronting, coming to him and doing what Jairus did, as we fall at his feet and we hear him say, don't fear, only believe. It may not all be well right now, but we believe it will be. If we choose faith in Christ over our fear, one day it will be well. Revelation 21 for that verse that tells us God is going to wipe away all tears from our eyes This delay of Christ on the way to Jairus's house and his hearing of the passing of his daughter it forms and establishes the the opportunity for Jairus to choose faith But again, I want to make this point very clear We ought not mistake Jesus calmness for indifference because I think sometimes in our life we can feel that way in prayer true, sincere, honest prayer where we come to Christ and we fall at His feet and we tell Him what we're afraid of. Our fear, our urgency, our agitation, they are met with God's omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. In His presence, that fear and urgency and agitation can and I believe will be replaced by hope, trust, and peace. Unhurried, God who is unhurried is not uncaring. Divine power brings a sense of calmness and certainty. And Jairus must choose. Interestingly, by the way, we're really not told much about what happens with him. Jesus does go and he raises his daughter. But we must note before we move towards our close that God calls us to trust His Word and His character. before he shows us his work often. Because he shows his work in his time and in an eternal view. A.W. Tozer wrote, God's delays are not God's denials. They tutor the soul to trust. C.S. Lewis said it this way, we are bid to trust, not to calculate. I thought, that's so Lewis. We are bid to trust, not calculate. Jesus now goes, and we won't spend much time on these remaining verses. Of course, we see the mourners as they laugh at Jesus when He says she's only sleeping. Again, I've encouraged you in the past to try to set yourself in the room when you read these accounts, particularly in the Gospels. And I tried to set myself there in that scene. And I can imagine when Jesus said, He's in the room. Jairus is there. He's in the house. He's with the people. And you can imagine Jairus still, no doubt, has at least some measure of hope. Jesus has come, he's heard, well, he raised the widow's daughter. Hope is not lost entirely. And then Jesus says, it's okay, she's just sleeping. Can you imagine in that moment, his heart, maybe it dared to hope that it was true. She's not dead, Jesus just said it. But then to hear everybody in the room just laugh. I just wish I could see Jairus in the room. Jairus in the room. If he became a believer one day, I want to ask him about this day. That moment when Jesus said she's just sleeping and everybody laughed. What was going through your mind and heart? Hope with, yeah, it's probably too much to hope for. Jesus, she's gone. And then to think, Jesus doesn't even know what the situation is. You ever thought about that? You ever thought that to be the case? Jesus tells you or communicates something to your heart, and you say, Jesus, you clearly don't understand the gravity of the situation. No, no, it's the other way around. We don't understand the gravity of the situation. Jesus does. But I do wonder what Jairus felt in that moment. I wonder what his expression on his face was like. No doubt it was a mixture of so many things. Jesus takes her by the hand, child arise. And she does. But I will say this to you, she, one day later, and likely, if the natural course of life proceeded, Jairus likely preceded her in death, but one day again, this young girl, raised by Christ in her twelfth year, at some point, she died, and her body never again lived. But her soul does, yet, still today. John Gill, I'll leave you with a couple of quotes and we'll close. At Christ's word, death yields. At Christ's words, death yields. Unbelief yields to nothing. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, faith obeys the voice that calls. And the girl did. Which are you choosing today? Fear or faith? Which one motivates your thoughts and your feelings and your actions and your decisions? What fear has you in its grip? which you have not yet surrendered to Christ. Hear him say to us all, do not fear, only believe. Halt the fear today, keep halting it tomorrow. Believe today and keep believing tomorrow. His timing may feel unhurried, he may seem unconcerned, but it is purposeful and it is good because it is him that does it. Do not mistake delay for indifference. Once again, I say to you, if there were nothing to fear, then there would be nothing to faith. Fear is real. There are things that are rightly causes of fear, but faith is real as well, and it is the only antidote to the things that we fear in life, for which we know we have no remedy. This is the great handicap of those without faith in God. is they have nowhere to take their fear. No settled heart and mind, trusting a divine, powerful, loving, benevolent, all-knowing, understanding, compassionate, came to earth and lived like, became a human and understands what we feel. They don't have anywhere to go. we have Him to go to, that believe and trust. So what it is that you might be fearing today, I ask you and encourage you and all of us together to do what Jairus did. Take it to the feet of Christ. Make it known. Name it. Speak it to Him. Ask Him and say, I'm afraid of this. Maybe again, it's something you were afraid of about your past. Jesus, I'm afraid of that. Maybe it's something in the present, in the future. I have learned in my life that there is There is something to the fact that the future that I hope for, I do not hold. I don't. It's not mine. I don't know if the future, the way I would like it to turn out, will turn out. I'm old enough to know that I don't. I don't. I've experienced enough to know that I don't have that. But I will also say this. The future that I fear, I do not have either. Whatever that is that you fear, take it to Christ. Fall at His feet. Tell Him what it is. And wait to hear what He says. And it will be something, I think, similar to what he said to Jairus, do not fear, only believe, and all will be well. Pray that God would be with his word today.