And one today is very popular. Sometimes I've wondered if Jesus ever ran out of people to work miracles on. That is, if He goes into a town and He heals everybody, I guess there's nobody left in that town to heal. Of course, people keep getting sick and the numbers keep changing, but this morning we're going to talk about I think the number one thing that attracted people to Jesus, he always got a following wherever he went. He came to be known as a miracle worker. I've often wondered if today I had the power to heal like Jesus, I doubt you'd be allowed to sleep at night. You'd have people around your house. You'd have them around the block lined up. You'd take them in Harris County or in the Houston area. You probably have 30, 40, 50, 60,000 people all wanting to be healed. You never get to rest. I don't know if this may have happened in the day of Jesus in his life. Maybe there are 3 or 4 million people in the whole nation of Israel. But you never run out of people who need a miracle. And he was wanting to be, I think, known as the Redeemer, known as man's Savior. rather than being best known as the miracle worker. But the masses of people today, just like they did then, they didn't really see any need for salvation. They didn't see any need for a Savior. They didn't see any need for a Redeemer. All they wanted was somebody who would make them well. And things have not changed a whole lot. But always, Jesus would have people who would seek Him out for a miracle. There would be others who would just, I guess, you know, get up each morning and say, where is he going to be today? And let's go over there, because even though we're not sick, that's where the action is. They didn't have television, but this was better than that. And I don't know if there was a day past that Jesus did not do something that would astonish the people. So you were never disappointed. to see Jesus in action. He was always going to do something that day that would be a reason for you to talk about it and to be interested in watching it. And so wherever Jesus went to a town, people would quickly gather because something unusual was bound to happen. Whatever took place would be worth seeing because Christ was doing what no other human being had ever done in all of history nor has it ever been done since he did it. He was doing the impossible. Now, I know the Lord still heals. But I mean, it seems like maybe today out of all those that we pray for, one or two or three could heal, and 30 or 40 or 50 or 100 or 300 or 500 do not get healed. And I don't understand that, but I still believe we pray anoint with oil and believe, and God does heal today. But then it was just almost wholesale. Everybody just about was healed that ever came to Him. Now, as we look back and review the last several weeks, real quickly, You remember that Christ was on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee with a large crowd. He was performing his miracles and he was speaking. And as evening drew near, he told his disciples to get on board a ship and they set sail about seven or eight miles, or maybe twelve, to go across the Sea of Galilee to the other side. While on the sea a storm came up, as you recall, and the boat was about to sink, and Jesus speaks and makes the wind stop blowing, and the water is calm, and then He goes to the other side of the lake, gets out of the boat, and meets there a man that He wanted to go there to meet in the first place, a man who was possessed of a demon. That was His mission. That's why He left the western shore. went across the Sea of Galilee. Now he gets back in the boat because the people in that town run him off because he killed their swine, their pigs, they say, but that was not the reason. The devil's in that. Anyway, he gets back on board and comes right back where he started, to the people who were on the western shore. Surprisingly, a day and probably maybe a morning has passed and they're still there. Maybe they thought he'd be back. Maybe he said, boys, I'll be back, so just hang around and a couple of days I'll be back. But now they had not seen these latest two miracles, that is, the calming of the water of the sea and the casting out of the demons of the man on the other shore. Now, while Jesus had been gone all across the sea, and performing these two miracles, something had been taking place back on land on the western shore from where he got the boat in the first place. Now, to give you a little history of what happened while he was gone, in this town there was a man named Jarius. He was a very important man, a very influential citizen of the town. He was a ruler of the local synagogue. And it was the duty of these people, normally, to oppose Jesus. The Jewish religious leadership, the Pharisees, Sadducees and Scribes, normally opposed everything Christ had to say. And you expect this of Jairus. was say of Jarius, life had been very good to him. He had been raised to a position of honor and power. He lived in a nice house. He made a nice salary. And about twelve years earlier in his lifetime, God had blessed him by giving him a healthy child. It was a daughter. She turned out to be the joy of his heart. And she was now 12 years old, soon to be a teenager, and they were probably now considering plans of a wedding, and this would be the things that would be on the mind of Jarius and his wife. And about the time that this girl was born, Jarius was told about a woman living in the town. Now being the rabbi or the priest, the head of the synagogue, It was his duty to get involved in something that happened with this woman. He was given the job of telling her, you can no longer come to the synagogue meetings. Like a preacher telling somebody, you can't come to church here anymore. That was the job that was given him. Not because he did not like her, not because they had an argument, Not because she had committed some sin, but Jairus was forced to apply upon her a law laid down by Moses, given to him by God. He had declared her to be unclean because of an ailment that she was afflicted with. That is, she would have to be treated like a person who had leprosy. People would have to stay away from her and so he would be the one that in a sense would go out and identify, here is an unclean woman, she cannot come to synagogue and you must stay clear of her or you will be contaminated. She is a walking epidemic. So she could have no friends unless they too were unclean. She would have no visitors, no family members. Maybe Jairus felt sorry for her. But again he couldn't touch her, he couldn't get near her because then that would make him unclean. Now we're not told exactly what her ailment was or her problem. All we are told is that she had a continual flow of blood during various times I guess of the day, probably daily. And probably it was some female disease or some female disorder or some female problem. One that women would not normally talk about. But anyway, somehow Jarius found out about it and he had forbidden her and condemned her to be unclean. Now she's got this ailment, this problem, at the same time Jarius, little girl, was born into his family. And she continued now to have this problem all these years that this little girl now had grown up to be 12 years old. She had gone to the doctor. She had spent all the money that she had, but they were unable to do anything to improve her condition. So she was still declared unclean. Now, Jairus was aware of her problem. How he found out, I do not know. But she was still with this problem, so she was still forbidden to come to the synagogue, and she was still declared unclean. This 12-year-old child gets sick, very sick, and Jairus felt that she would probably die. He was desperate. So when he heard that Jesus had come back from the other side of the lake again, it was back in the neighborhood, Jairus goes out to find Jesus. As he gets out of the boat and begs Him to come to his house and to, of course, heal his daughter of whatever kind of sickness she has. And probably as he gets out of the boat and Jairus is talking to him, unnoticed by the crowd, this woman shows up. This afflicted woman, the woman who had been declared unclean. She was not supposed to get near people, but for some reason she decided that she was going to break with that law and that tradition. But she did keep a safe distance. She stayed away from the people, but she was there, all right? After 12 years of this either daily or weekly hemorrhaging, you can imagine that she was frail, she was anemic, and she was probably weak. She had no money, so therefore I would assume she was poorly dressed and barely had enough food to keep her alive. Now Jesus pays no attention to her or anybody else, I guess. They are all interested in what Jesus is going to do in reply to the question that Jairus says, will you come to my house? They were all getting ready, I guess, to take a trip to the house of Jairus. Everybody would know where he lived. So Jesus says, I will go. And so they're on their journey with a big crowd following around and with Jesus going to the synagogue man's house. Now it's hard to say if the woman was standing by and they passed by her or she was in some way following them at a distance. But the woman wanted the same thing from Jesus that Jairus wanted for his daughter. She wanted a miracle. And she felt, I guess, if he has gone to work a miracle for Jairus, would it be too much for him to work a miracle for me? I know I'm not connected with the synagogue, and I know I can't go to the synagogue because I'm unclean, but I mean, if he's willing to go to help this little girl, why would he not help me? That's pretty good logic. But she was too ashamed, I think, to stop him and call out to him and confront him because of the kind of problem that she had. She did not, I guess, want to talk about it. I can understand that. And so she said, I want to be healed, but I need a secret healing. Have you ever been like that? I want a secret healing. I don't plan to steal a miracle. You're not going to steal a miracle. That wasn't her thinking at all. It was something that God didn't want her to have, but she just didn't want to get attention because of the problems she had. And I think she felt if I stopped Jesus and I speak to Him, He'll heal me. I think she had as much faith and maybe even more than Jairus did regarding this healing. But again, her problem caused her to hold back. and not want to talk about it in front of the crowd, especially if most of the people there were men. Not only that, but how would she ever get near Jesus? She was unclean. And those around would finally say, hey, that's that woman. What is she doing here? She's unclean. Everybody get away from here. I mean, she would have some real problems trying to get near Christ. And she felt she needed to be touched. More than just have a word spoken, she really felt, I think, that healing came through a touch. And most of the times, Christ did heal by touching people, I assume. And she knows that He would obey the law, and therefore, He wouldn't touch her. Then that would make Him unclean. And no, God's not going to give you a healing that He does not want you to have. You're not going to take something from God that He doesn't want to give you. So she's not going to be able to overpower Him in any way. But she felt if I could just figure out a way to touch Him, not have Him touch me, but just touch Him, maybe nobody will notice me. I can touch Him and I can just slip back and get out of the crowd. But I'll take my healing and I'll go home and I'll be well. Now, you cannot help but be puzzled, I'm not, because I am, by how a frail, anemic woman could elbow her way through the back of a crowd to the front. Now, how could she do this? Now, how could she escape being identified by somebody and they would quickly say, here is an unclean woman, drive her out of here? I don't see how she made her way through it. How did she manage to get so close to Jesus being surrounded by His disciples and so many people? How did she get so close that she could touch His garment? Touch His robe? With other people pushing and shoving and touching Christ. To me, she'd been down to touch the hem of His garment. She'd get trampled being so low to the ground. They'd walk all over. I'm going to give you a theory that I have about this, and I have no way of proving this, but it's a theory. For some strange, unusual reason, I think a miracle took place even before she got there, and that was Jesus cleared the path for her. Somehow, someway, through some means, the way to Him was opened up, and there was a gap, a pretty good-sized gap. I don't understand this now. Jesus did something to help this woman reach him. Now that's my opinion. Luke chapter 8 verse 43 and 44, And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which hath spent all her living on physicians, and could not be healed, came behind him, I think he opened the way, and she touched the border of his garment, and immediately The issue of her blood stopped. She was healed. Now, I want you to notice the response. Well, here comes the question now in verse 45, which is our 13th question that Jesus asked in the book of Luke. Most of you know what the question is. Jesus said, as soon as he had been touched, Who touched me? A three-word question. Who touched me? Now you notice the response that the disciples give to his question. They seek to answer it with another question. Peter and those that were nearing him said, Master, the multitude of people throng you and press against you and touch you and in a sense I guess kind of bump up against you and you ask the question? Who touched me? We ask you, Jesus, who hasn't touched you? I mean, all those around you are all touching you. Lots of people are touching you, and you want us to identify who touched you? And as other people had touched him, folks, there was no miracle for their touch of his arms, shoulder, robe, and so forth. Now I don't think Christ asked the question to gain information that he did not know. I think he knew who touched him. But he also knew nobody else in that group knew. So he didn't ask the question to gain information. I think he asked the question to gain a glorification, gain a testimony, to gain a praise, to let the people know he had done something that no one knew but him and that woman. And he wanted the people to know. There was a healing that nobody would have known about had Jesus not taken the point and asked the question. Verse 46, And Jesus said, Somebody touch me. For I perceive that virtue has gone out of me. That is, I perceive that the power, the healing power in my body given me by the Holy Spirit has been used. And somebody has been touched. And of course, at that point, everybody says, oh, well, now we must look for somebody that's been healed. Now, Christ had this healing power under His control. Like I say, there's no way you can steal it. There's no way it could be used without His will being involved. She didn't heal herself. He healed her. He knew all about this woman. He knew she was following him. He knew her plan. He was aware of her faith. And he knew he was going to let her do it. But he also knew what he was going to do about her healing. Because he wanted to do more for her than she wanted done. Luke 8, verse 47, And when the woman saw that she was not healed, In other words, I think for some reason, again, we have a pathway cleared out and here's this woman standing all by herself. She came trembling and falling down before Him. She declared to Him before all the people for what cause she had touched Him. A rather embarrassing, I think, situation for her. And she said, I have been healed immediately. As soon as I touched the ground. At that point, I would think everybody around there was starting grabbing that garment. If there's anybody sick around there, slow throats around there, they'd all grab the hem of that garment at that point. Man, they're hitting in this garment. I'm surprised he didn't lose it. But now Jesus identified her, I think, with his eyes. Looked at her. as he asked the question. And he in a sense says, I'm not asking the disciples who have touched me, I'm asking you lady who touched me. I think he directed the question towards her. And said in a sense, you tell the people that you touched me. Tell them. And you tell the people why you touched me. Tell them. And you tell the people what happened to you when you touched me. You tell them. I know, but you tell them so they'll know. And so she tells what she did. And when the woman saw verse 47, she was no longer hidden. She came trembling and falling down before him. She declared unto him before all the people. She told. I have a question that I don't have answers, and that is, how did she know she was healed? Was there pain that was associated with this bleeding? Did she feel some kind of power flow through her body like a burning sensation as soon as she touched the robe? Now Christ did not want the robe to get any glory for this kind of miracle. That's the way superstitions get started. You have a piece of rag here, and you know you can die down 50 pieces, and everybody gets a piece of rag, well then that piece of rag will heal you. No, Jesus, I don't want people to identify my robe with my healing. I'm the one that healed her, not this robe. I think there are two other reasons he won this miracle, no? Besides the one, don't start trusting in my robe to be a healer. Now, he did not want to embarrass the woman. But he had a reason to do this because he wanted to remove any further shame that she would have. For you see, Jairus did not know she had been healed. And by making this public, he is in a sense saying this woman should be taken back into the synagogue. This woman should be taken back into society. This woman is no longer unclean. No longer should you isolate from her. She is healed and the healing is permanent. Jesus gave her her citizenship back. He gave her her freedom back among the people. He wanted that publicly known. This woman is now free of this illness and so therefore treat her as a clean person. If he had not done this, she would have still been treated as an unclean person. Secondly, I think Jesus had another miracle in mind for this woman that she had not anticipated. Verse 48, Jesus replies to her after she tells what she did and why she did it. Verse 48, and he said to her daughter, that's a strange way to, he could have called her name, he could have called her woman, could have called her lady, but he calls her daughter. Strange term. By the way, it's the only time that Jesus ever called anybody daughter. This was it. Because the word daughter is a term for family relationships. She wasn't family. She wasn't kin to him. She sure wasn't his daughter. Jesus said he made her whole. What's whole mean? Well, he worked a miracle in her soul as well as in her body. He made her a daughter of God the Father. He saved her not only from her disease, he also saved her from her sin. And that is how she got to be called. We are called sons and daughters of God. That takes a repentant and rebirth process. It is through Christ that we get to be God's children, daughters and sons. Jesus did more to this woman than just heal her of her sickness. He also healed her soul and spirit of their sickness. Now a healing miracle of the body cannot make anybody a child of God. That takes a redeeming miracle. Just because God heals you of your sickness does not automatically guarantee you are a child of God. There are a lot of folks I thank God healed Jesus healed it that did not follow Him, did not believe in Him, and did not become children of God. But this woman needed a double touch, and we all do. A physical touch and a spiritual touch. And a person's greatest need is for Jesus to touch their heart and make them a daughter or son and not just heal their body. Some folks come and get a heart touch Don't get a healing touch of the body, but you've got the best touch. You can come with your heart for Christ and get a touch, and you'll never go away empty. If you reach out and touch good, Jesus for something good, something good will always come of it, if it's touches of the heart. Some kind of power, some kind of blessing will always be given you when you reach out with your heart to touch Christ for a spiritual blessing. There are times when we reach out and touch Him in the sense for healing, and we don't get that for our body. We come away disappointed. There is no miracle. If you touch Him with your heart, you will always come away with a miracle. You will always come away with some kind of something good, some kind of blessing. It will depend on what God wants to give you, not necessarily what you want Him to give you. But you cannot come away empty handed if your heart reaches out for a touch as a daughter or a son. Something good always results from a touch of the Lord. If not for the body, then for the soul and spirit. Until next Sunday, may God bless.