Alright guys, thanks for weathering the tornado warning or watch. That's about as useful as black on yellow or red on black, you know, just if you see a snake run. Anyways, turn with me to Mark 5. We're continuing our way through Mark. Last week we heard about the Gadarene demoniac. And now, Christ has made his way back with his disciples in verse 21. Back to Capernaum. Or actually, I'm not sure it specifies, just back across the sea. He was in Capernaum first. All right. And when Jesus, this is verse 21, had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him. and he was beside the sea. Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly, saying, my little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her that she may be made well and live. And he went with him. And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. And there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years. and who had suffered much under many physicians and had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For, she said, if I touch even his garments, I will be made well. And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, who touched my garments? And his disciples said to him, you see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, who touched me? And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your disease. While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler's house some who said, your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further? But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, do not fear, only believe. And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John, the brother of James. And they came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. And when he had entered, he said to them, why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead, but sleeping. And they laughed at him, and he put them all outside and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. Taking her by the hand, he said to her, Talitha Kumi, which means little girl, I say to you, arise. And immediately the girl got up and began walking, for she was 12 years of age, and they were immediately overcome with amazement. And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat. This passage, and the beginning parts of Mark 5 in Catholic tradition, is known as the passages having to do with, now I'm forgetting the word exactly, but Saint Jude was the patron saint of the hopeless, or the destitute, or those who had no hope at all, helpless. And that's why St. Jude's was named that way. It's a medical facility, and they were originally started around trying to help those who really, there was no medical way that they could be made better, at least in its beginnings. We see at the beginning of Mark 5 a man who has many demons. and Christ frees him. And then we move on, Christ goes back across, back to the west side of Capernaum. And the first thing I wanna point out is, geographically, I'm a guy that likes maps, all right? It helps to understand the context of what's going on. And the west side of the Sea of Galilee is what we would know as Galilee, the part of Israel. But the east side of the Sea of Galilee was not part of Israel. It was outside of the land, east of Jordan, east of Galilee, was the lands that were pagan for the heathens. And Gadara is where we get the Gadarene demoniac, the name Gadarene. Gadara was southeast Galilee, Sea of Galilee. Capernaum, where he started out, was northwest. And so that helps with some context to at least understand the area. But the other thing I wanna point out, interestingly enough, is Capernaum and Gadara were actually probably the furthest points A to B that you could have plotted to go across the Sea of Galilee. It wasn't just like a small little boat ride around the corner or around a point. It was from one side all the way to the other. And what we know about Gadara is therefore, if it was not part of Israel, it was a Gentile nation. And we're gonna see a theme here of uncleanliness. Uncleanliness and then also being utterly hopeless. Christ begins his ministry preaching in a synagogue. In fact, I wanna point out one more thing for context, going back to Luke 4, go with me. Because the first thing that we see as we encounter Mark 5 21 is that he meets Jairus who is a ruler of the synagogue. And if you're like me, you probably thought Jairus was just a black belt Pharisee, just a guy who really deserved his rank, his position. But actually, the ruler of the synagogue was not a Pharisee at all. It was a layman who had been tasked with keeping the grounds, the building, and helping with the arrangements of what would have gone on as part of the day-to-day life inside the synagogue, which was the center of worship for Jewish culture. Go with me to Luke 4.16 really quickly. And we see a time when Christ is preaching in the synagogue. In fact, he begins his earthly ministry, and he begins by reading a scroll. Obviously, we know that to be the Old Testament. That was the word of God. They did not have the New Testament yet. It had not unfolded. They were not at that time in redemptive history yet. And Jesus quotes, and this quote comes from the book of Isaiah. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And it says, he rolled up the scroll and said to them, today the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. So Christ said, I am the fulfillment of the scriptures. That's another thing we're gonna see in this is multiple fulfillments of Old Testament. And then obviously there's some commotion about that, and Christ continues to basically speak to that. We don't know all the statements that were said back and forth, but we see what Christ is saying. And he goes, doubtless you will quote to me the proverb, physician, heal yourself, because the murmurings, they were questioning his statement of being divine, or being the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy. And he said, truly I say to you, no prophet is acceptable but in his hometown. But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land. And Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. If you know anything about the land of Sidon, it was a Gentile land. It was not part of the people of Israel. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elijah, and none of them were cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian. Obviously Syria, not part of Israel. And yet we see two instances where two of the greatest prophets in the Old Testament, they do a miracle that Christ quotes and says, Take heed, none of these happened in Israel. We understand because of their lack of faith during that time. In the fullness of time, Christ came. And it helps, that's a really interesting study. But we don't have time for that. But what happened next is when they heard these things all in the synagogue, they were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town. And they wanted to throw him off a cliff. but he passed through their midst. So he's teaching in the synagogues. This was something how Christ began his earthly ministry. Again, getting back to the life of the synagogue. Jairus was a ruler of the synagogue. There was about 50 synagogues in Galilee, at least history tells us, or tradition. And so they likely would have spoken to one another. There was likely correspondence between them. But we know that the rulers, although not Pharisees, they still took their position of prominence. It was a badge. It was more than a badge. It was a meaningful status. But we also see another instance where rulers of the synagogue were angry when Christ healed a leper inside a synagogue on the Sabbath. And they were filled with wrath again. So we see the situation where Christ is Now, better unfolding, he's coming to the people of Israel, and yet we know that the two greatest prophets came to Israel, and yet there was a time of unbelief, and so Christ went to, or so some of the most important miracles happened to the Gentiles, and then right leading up to this, Christ goes across the Sea of Galilee to go find a Gentile who is ridden with multiple demons, and heals him, and look quickly, at what the response is before I get into the rest of this text. Here at the end of, beginning of that section, Christ says, or he's going back in the boat, and the Gadarene, who had been cleansed of the demons, begs to be with Christ. And he says, I do not permit it. Rather, go to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you. We see the mercy ministry of Christ unfolding in chapter five even further. We also see the first commissioned, and this is the point John MacArthur made, the first commissioned preacher to the Gentiles is actually a former demoniac who had multiple demons. We see his faith, his conversion rather, as far as we can tell, as he's begging to be with the Lord. And the Lord telling him, don't come with me, but go tell everyone. And we know that to be in the Gentile region. Now we get back to Galilee and the cleaned up religious nation that was once great, but had been humbled over hundreds of years. whether the Assyrians or the Babylonians, and now they had no political status whatsoever, but they still had their culture, they still had their religion. And Jairus, in Mark 21, we see him approaching Jesus as he gets off the boat. And in falling at his feet, implored him earnestly saying, My little daughter's at the point of death. Come lay your hands on me so that she may be made well and alive. Now Christ consents and says, yes, we will go and I will see her. He went with him, in other words, is what the verse says. And there was a crowd following him. Another theme throughout Mark and the Gospels, there was many crowds that followed Christ. We see at different times they dispersed for different reasons, probably showing their heart. Some got what they wanted, whether it was food, or outward cleansing, but did not follow Christ as the Messiah. And others did. But this ruler of the synagogues, again, knowing how many rulers already were wrathful and hated Christ for what he had done as far as healing on the Sabbath or breaking their rules, because we know Christ rebuked them as teaching as commandments the doctrines of men, instead of being faithful to what he had taught through Moses, they added hundreds of other laws. And this synagogue ruler, no doubt, only came at the last moment of despair, when it was clear to him, without Christ, there was no hope for his daughter. Listen to what he says. My little daughter is at the point of death. Just a little point, the Greek word there, eschaton, where we get eschatology, the last time, the end. He's saying my daughter is at her end. Come lay your hands on her. So we see that there is faith in Christ's ability to save her so that she may be made well and live. Then all of a sudden, we see a complete changing of the story. A great crowd followed him and thronged about him and there was a woman. Now we see another miracle. Mark 5, 21, as it progresses, there's a miracle within a miracle. All of a sudden, the narrative shifts and talks about there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years and had suffered much under many physicians. and spent all that she had. We see a sad situation that further gets unfolded as we understand that ceremonially, this woman was a complete and utter outcast. Because of her discharge of blood that had gone on for 12 years, she was constantly ceremonially unclean and therefore was an outcast from society. This woman, was unable to have children, no doubt, unable to even marry, unable to be with her family, because if she touched them, they became unclean. That was the law based on Leviticus 15 and also Numbers 5. And therefore, all that being true, she was also not allowed to be in the center of worship. She was not allowed in a synagogue. If you go with me quickly to Numbers 5, And if any of y'all were able to be here for the last Reformation conference when we had Ligon Duncan preach exactly on this text, he called it the gospel according to numbers. Numbers five, it says, and the Lord spoke to Moses saying, command the people of Israel that they put out of the camp everyone who is leprous and has a discharge and everyone who is unclean through contact with the dead. Again, a foreshadowing of what Christ is going to fulfill in his ministry, but specifically in this text. So without getting any more into that, obviously we can understand the immense implications of what that would have meant for a woman who is in a society back then where it was more patriarchal, who had no one to take care of her, and we're told that all her money that she did have, she had spent on physicians and they were no good. Now we don't know if the physicians were up to no good or if they literally just were, as we know, unable to heal her disease. It was an incurable disease back then. Thankfully, within common grace, so many things that were incurable are now curable through understandings of antibiotics and viruses and germs and et cetera. But we look at that and we know that the importance of what God's law through Moses It was not meant to be cruel. It was meant to be a help to the people of Israel back then, who were in the wilderness at the time, who did not have any availability of antibiotics. And so that was the practical significance of these rules. The theological significance is that physical defilement pointed to a moral defilement, not directly as misunderstood over time when we saw the man who was blind, and what did the disciples ask? Who sinned, him or his parents, right? And Jesus pointed out their misunderstanding. It was not that if you had a disease, you were immoral and that's how you got the disease, but the picture of the Old Testament and the holiness of God and the putting out of those who had not just blemishes, but defilements, particularly those that could be contracted by others, and particularly when it came to blood, which might not have been something to contract, but there's an obvious theme there with blood. It was to point to that there was a defilement that was spiritual, that cuts people off from God. Spiritual defilement is what cuts people off from God. And so, going back now to Mark 5, understanding the context of the ceremonial laws that prohibited this woman from being part of their society. It says, a great crowd thronged about him. Going down to verse 27, she had heard reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd. Let me stop right there. If you are utterly destitute and hopeless back then, you're gonna talk to other people who are helpless and utterly destitute when you find a solution, right? Is that not a small picture of what the gospel is? It's sinners telling other sinners where they can be made right with God. It's the sick telling, or the formerly sick telling other sick people where they can find healing. She had heard about Jesus. In fact, we know in another text, and I don't have the reference, that this is not the first time that we see someone trying to touch Christ to get healed. but, and thank the Lord for, you know, common grace through the internet. We can quickly Google it if I had time. And there was a time, there's another point in scripture where many people charged to Christ, surround Christ, trying to just touch him. And so she probably heard that. She probably heard that if you go and touch him, maybe you can be healed. And so there's hope for her, there's faith. 28 says, She says, for even if I touch his garments, I will be made well. And immediately, a word we've come to look out for, the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned around in the crowd and said, who touched my garments? John MacArthur pointed out that this might be a little bit of an unhelpful translation, who touched my garments, it might be a little bit better stated, who are you who touch my garments? Christ is throughout this section going, he's surrounded by a crowd. And he's looking at them with compassion and pity. And yet we saw him leave the crowd, get in a boat, go all the way to the Gadarene and save him. and come back, now he's around the crowd again. He's going to help a ruler of the synagogue. He's in a crowd and a woman touches him and he stops the progression of the crowd and says, who are you who touched me? Again, Christ here is surrounded by individuals. And yet, instead of looking at the crowd as a human might, as one who might look at that as affirmation, as those who might use a healing ministry or something like that to reap personal reward, Christ stops and looks at the individual in compassion and pity. And he says, who are you? And the disciples, of course, understandably, said, we're in a crowd. What do you mean, who touched me? And he looked around to see who had done it. And the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell before him. and told him the whole truth. It's interesting, it says, told him the whole truth. It says, though, when he said, who are you who touch my garments? She was compelled. to give a testimony before the entire crowd. And we know that Christ asked questions all throughout what we know now to be the Gospels to pull out or draw out a point in front of other people. In fact, Christ, who is God, did that all throughout the Old Testament, numerous times asking questions, whole chapters of books, God asking questions that he knew the answers to, to draw out a spiritual point. And in this case, we know that This was a intentional episode in the life and ministry of Christ to show that, yet again, he was the fulfillment of the Old Testament, of all that this people group had been looking for. And she tells him the whole truth. What do you think she said? She could have just said, it was me, but she likely said, and telling the whole truth, I'm unclean. I've had a discharge of blood for 12 years. People in the crowd at that point, what do you think they were doing, knowing that by touching her, they would have been ceremonially unclean. Interestingly enough, in the parable of the Good Samaritan, why is it that the Pharisees and the scribes walking by the side of the road and seeing the bloodied man, and possibly thinking he might have been dead, did not go and help him, in part because They so viewed the law through their specific lens that they would not have gone out of their way to help someone who was bleeding or who might have been dead by touching a dead body being ceremonially unclean. And no doubt in that crowd, she touched many people and they were beginning to likely panic, right? Wouldn't you if that was specifically what you knew not to do? And she says, I'm unclean. I thought by touching you, I could be made well. I made you unclean. I broke the law. Can you forgive me? Any of those could have been things that she likely said in the whole truth. And yet Christ says, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your disease. Let me just make a point here. We know Christ's ministry, a large part of it was very much healing the diseases of people and their infirmities. We don't have an episode of every single individual he encountered, and yet we know it was too many people. His works on this earth were so numerous that not enough books could even fill it up, right? Or contain it all. But when we get these unique episodes, of course God is drawing out a point for our instruction, but oftentimes they end with something pertaining to that individual not just being cleansed outwardly, but because of their faith being cleansed inwardly. And that's what we see here. He says, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, be healed of your disease. And then while he was still speaking, there came from the ruler's house someone who said, your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further? And Jesus said to the ruler again, do not fear, only believe. Again, this ruler now, if he was, when he originally came to Christ, scared, desperate, willing to do anything to help his daughter, what do you think he felt now when someone came and told him it was over? Christ says, don't fear, believe. And then we see that they go into the house and there are mourners there. And according to Jewish tradition, When someone died, that was typical to have mourners at the house. Flute players, people who were actually wailing dramatically, that was part of their tradition. And so Christ says, she's not dead, she's merely sleeping, and these people who are paid to be dramatic begin no longer wailing, but laughing and mocking him. And he basically puts them away and goes up with the family. and takes her by the hand and says, little girl, I say to you, arise, and immediately the girl got up, began walking, and they were immediately overcome with amazement. And he charged them that no one should know this, the exact opposite of what he told the Gadarene demoniac, who he said, go spread my fame to the pagan, or to the Gentile lands. He told them, keep it secret. We know that because Christ, what we can grasp from that is inside of Galilee, the Jews to whom Christ was sent, he was still unfolding his ministry. And it was in his time. We know at the right time Christ died for us. We know he came in the fullness of time. We know Christ for whom the end of the age had come. That is the end of the time of waiting was at hand and now Christ was here. We know that in fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy, Hebrews 11, I'm sorry, Hebrews 1 says, long ago at many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days he has spoken to us by his son. And he's the fulfillment of that. Look for a moment at these two situations which really draw a really great parallel at how opposite they are at the beginning and how they are so similar at the end. Jairus to the woman, he was not named. Jairus was rich, the woman was poor. Jairus was respected, she was rejected. He was honored, and she was ashamed. He was leading the synagogue, and she was cast out of the synagogue. But his 12-year-old child is dying. and this woman is suffering for 12 years from her disease. But Christ raised his daughter to life, and Christ looks at her, and what does he say to her? Daughter, your faith has made you well. This is the only time Christ ever looks to someone and calls them daughter, by the way. That's something worth noting. It's one of only three times in all of the life of the ministry of Christ that someone was raised from the dead. Only one of three instances. Most notably Lazarus also, and then another instance where a woman's son is raised from the dead. The only other two times in all of Scripture where someone is raised from the dead is when Christ looks at them and says, I'm the fulfillment. He's in the synagogue preaching and says, I am the fulfillment. of what was preached in Isaiah, and then begins to tell them his, how, basically denouncing their lack of faith and their hardness of heart, that is the religious, those who thought they didn't need a healer, and begins to say, Elijah went to this Gentile, and Elijah went to that Gentile. Of course, he had just gone to another Gentile himself. Elijah and Elijah were the only other two prophets who raised someone from the dead. So again, we're seeing a theme here at the fullness of time when Israel was utterly destitute and yet some of them clung to the garments of their own religion to justify themselves. This woman clings to the garment of Christ. Both these people, although very different, at the end were wholly desperate And we see a picture of faith, saving faith in both of them. C.S. Lewis said, God whispers to us in our pleasure, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world. Again, let it. Ring in your ears that Christ came not to those who were well, but to those who were sick. Why? Because those who were well did not want to hear his message. These people are examples of Old Testament believers in many ways. We don't fully, completely necessarily grasp at firsthand how they were saved, not having known the full ministry of Christ and fulfillment of the Old Testament, and yet it was happening in their midst. So it's easier seen there than maybe in some of the Old Testament books. And yet what we know, the same as in the Old Testament, as it was in the gospels that are in Christ's ministry in the New Testament, all were saved by what? by grace through faith. Paul makes that clear in case there's any confusion. It was still by grace through faith. And so we know these people had their faith, and often when Christ heals them and speaks to the malady of their souls, this makes the statement of saying, your faith has made you well. It wasn't the size of their faith. It wasn't the fact like we might think in a health, wealth, and prosperity situation where the more faith you have, the more you get. That wasn't Christ's point at all. Faith is the instrument. We know Romans 5,2 says, we have entered into this grace through faith. It is not our faith that saves us and yet it is through faith, right? Now lastly, we see in conclusion, we see Christ in his ministry in Mark 1, he had already healed a leper. And we know that in one of his healings of the lepers inside the synagogue on a Sabbath, We know that the leaders of the synagogues were wrathful at him. We see in this passage that he had also healed a woman of a disease that was a discharge for 12 years. And then lastly, we see him touch a dead body and say, be raised. And in actual chronological order of what we see in Numbers 5. that you were to be cast outside the camp. Why? Because your physical defilement could not be inside the camp because that is where the temple of God was, where he was worshiped, and he is a holy God. And so Christ, in the fulfillment of that, took on, did what no one else would by touching them, though he did not become unclean as anyone else would have had they touched them. He took on their uncleanliness on the cross. and made them well. And he's done the same for us. The Bible says these things were written for our instruction as an example. And now we see in Hebrews, I'm sorry, in Ephesians one, it states, in him we have redemption through his blood. The forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us. The writer of Hebrews says, kind of echoing what we see unfolding as Christ, is the fulfillment of the ceremonial uncleanly law by taking it on. It says, Hebrews 13, 11, if you wanna turn there real fast, for the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as a sacrifice for sins are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Again, echoing Numbers 5, saying, if you are unclean, you must be outside the camp. I like to think that when Christ ascended at the end, yes, his ministry started out with 11 frightened men, but When he ascended, prior to Pentecost, he spoke to 500 faithful people. And who do you think those 500 faithful people were? It was people whom Christ had touched that saw themselves not as anything able to fulfill the law, not as clean, not as well. They saw themselves as helpless without a Savior. And that is how we come to know Christ as our Savior. When I think of my own salvation testimony, it was many years ago, some things are still unclear to me, but some things God has made more clear as I've grown in my faith. And one of those things was, at first when I was saved, I knew I was saved, I wasn't quite sure what had changed. But I knew I was saved, and What became more clear to me was, yes, I was obedient to a degree. I looked it on the outside, right? I wanted to please my parents, but I didn't see myself as in deep need of a savior. I didn't see that without Christ, I was utterly helpless. Yes, I might've been able to regurgitate those statements, But we see in both examples, people coming to Christ hopeless. Without Christ, I die. And he raises the dead. That's what salvation is, right? He raises the dead. Amen.