40 through 56. As we consider this morning, come to faith in Jesus. Luke eight, beginning with verse 40. Remember, Jesus has just been on the far side of the Sea of Galilee away from Capernaum and. And he's been over here, he healed the man who was living among the tombs, restored him to his right mind. And now we read that he crosses back over the Sea of Galilee and is amongst the Jewish population there. In verse 40, and as Jesus returned, the people welcomed him, for they had all been waiting for him. And there came a man named Jairus. And he was an official of the synagogue, and he fell at Jesus' feet and began to implore him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter, about 12 years old, and she was dying. But as he went, the crowds were choking against him. And a woman who had a hemorrhage for 12 years, could not be healed by anyone, came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, and immediately her hemorrhage stopped. And Jesus said, who is the one who touched me? And while they were all denying, Peter said, master, the people are crowding and pressing in on you. But Jesus said, someone did touch me. For I was aware that power had gone out of me. When the woman saw that she had not escaped noses, she came trembling and fell down before him and declared in the presence of all the people, the reason why she had touched him and how she had been immediately healed. And he said to her daughter, Your faith has made you well go in peace. Well, he was still speaking. Someone came from the house of the synagogue official saying, your daughter has died. Do not trouble the teacher anymore. And when Jesus heard this, he answered him. Do not be afraid any longer. Only believe and she will be made well. When he came to the house, he did not allow anyone to enter with him except Peter and John and James and the girl's father and mother. Now they were all weeping and lamenting for her, but he said, stop weeping for she has not died, but is asleep. And they began laughing at him knowing that she had died. He, however, took her by the hand and called saying, child arise and her spirit returned and she got up immediately and he gave orders for something to be given her to eat and her parents were amazed but he instructed them to tell no one what had happened thus far god's word the grass withers the flowers fade but this the word of our god stands forever let's pray seek the lord's blessing O Lord, send out your light and your truth and lead us by your word and by your spirit to the feet of Jesus, that there we might trust and worship. In Jesus' name we pray this, amen. Young people, children, What really stirs up the sympathy of your mom and dad and your grandparents? It's when they see you suffering and in pain. We sympathize with the grief of the parents in Eastern Kentucky who lost Madison and Riley and Nevaeh and Chance in the flood last week. How great we know their grief. And we understand then the desperation of this father, don't we? Whose little 12-year-old, his only daughter, is very sick and dying. And he brings his burden to Jesus. Name was Jairus. He's named after a judge in the Old Testament, Jair. He held an important position in the synagogue. Jairus was responsible for making sure the worship went orderly, for lining up the rabbis who would read the scripture and who would preach. He was that official. He had likely had Jesus visit his own synagogue because it was Jesus' custom to visit the synagogue to worship with God's people every Sabbath. But now Jairus abandons decorum and he runs out of his house and he flops down on his face in front of Jesus and he begs him, he begs him to come to my house because my daughter is dying. This father is not like many of the people in the Roman culture around him. who, when their little daughter would be sickly, would just put them out and expose them and let them die. This father was more like the attorney general. The legislature, the governor of Alabama, who this past week said, it is law in our state that you may not kill little boys and girls in their mother's womb. We agree with the Supreme Court decision that it is a constitutional privilege that life be protected. That was the heart of this father. As long as Jesus, whom he knew as God walking on earth, as long as Jesus was around, he had some hope. And he was going to take his burden, his desperation, to the feet of Jesus. Do you feel desperately how much your children need Jesus? Do you feel desperately how much Your grandchildren need Jesus. How they need their bodies to be sustained by Him. How they need their souls to be enlivened, saved, sanctified by Him. Do you feel the same desperate need that this man felt for his daughter? Do you feel that for yours? What are you going to do about it? Ask Jesus. Ask Jesus to come to your children. Ask Him in prayer, ask Him in pleading, ask Him that as you bring them to worship that the Spirit of God will work in their lives, that their ears will be open to hear the Word of God. Ask them as they come to receive the Lord's Supper, ask them as they come to be baptized that the Lord would work in their life that cleansing that would give them a lively faith in the Lord Jesus, that God would bless the outward means of grace and growth to your children. You pray, oh Lord, come to my children. come to my children and bring yourself to Jesus. Jesus is not just for the children, he's not just for Jairus's daughter, but Jesus is this morning urging all, no matter your location, your position, your age, to come in faith to him. Notice the variety, notice the spectrum of people that Jesus is ministering to in the Gospel of Luke. We saw his ministry to the garrisoned demoniac, the Gentile. We've seen here in this passage his ministry to this leader, this synagogue official, this high-ranking Jewish man. And then we see him here in the face of a woman. The man, a leader in the synagogue. The woman, an outcast from the synagogue. Look at verse 43. This woman had a hemorrhage. She had internal bleeding or some kind of a bleeding for 12 years and could not be healed by anyone. And the Old Testament Jewish law in Leviticus 15 said that if you had a flow of blood, you were ceremonially unclean. And if you were ceremonial unclean, people could not touch you or they would be unclean. When you were unclean, you couldn't go to the synagogue for worship. When you were unclean, their family members couldn't be around you, and here she'd been unclean for 12 years. So the contrast, synagogue official who's a leader in the worship, and this woman who's outcast from worship, outcast from her family, and yet Jesus ministers to both. Here's the father. the father who publicly asks Jesus to come to his house. In front of the crowd, he says, Jesus, please come to my house. My daughter is dying. But then you have this woman who privately sneaks up who secretly sneaks up, the public man, the private woman coming to sneak up to just get a touch of Jesus. And then she touches him. She touches the hem of his garment and she's immediately healed. What she was touching, the word here in the original language, refers to what Numbers 15 said the people were to put on their robes. It was called the talit. of string, of thread, with a blue thread in it. And in Numbers 15, if you read there, the people were supposed to put those on the four corners of their garment as a reminder that they should trust in a faithful God and in no one else, that they should obey a faithful God and no one else. And so it's this little tassel, this talith, that the woman reaches out and touches the talith on Jesus' garment. And immediately, immediately, she's healed. Here's the synagogue official waiting and waiting, and here's a woman who's immediately healed. Now what follows is Jesus' interaction after the healing of this woman. Verse 45, Jesus said, Who is the one Who touched me? Now, children, does that mean that Jesus didn't know the answer? You know, if your teacher asks you, what's 12 times 12 or 6 times 6, does that mean the teacher doesn't know the answer? No, they know the answer, but they want to see if you know the answer. Well, Jesus says, who touched me? Because he wants that person to come forward. Who touched me? Even Peter wonders why Jesus is asking that. He says, Master, the whole people and crowd are pressing on you. Everybody's touching you, Jesus. What do you mean, who touched you? But Jesus is aware of a different touch. Amidst all the people touching him, verse 46, Jesus says, someone did touch me, for I was aware that power had gone out of me." So Jesus is aware that though many people are touching him, there is a different touch. There is this touch. There is this woman's touch. Isn't that an encouragement to you? Jesus is aware of your prayers. He's aware of your sighs, your cries, your tears, when you come by faith to reach out to him. Now since Jesus is already a, he knows all things and he already knows who touched him, why does he call her out and say, who touched me? Who touched me? Come on, fess up. Come on, tell me. I know who you are, but you tell me, who is it that touched me? Why does he call her out? Well, I think for two reasons. One, for her protection. for her future protection, for her benefit. She's been unclean. She's been ostracized. She hasn't been allowed to be around her family or worship with God's people. And now publicly she's going to testify that she is clean. So now she's protected. She can go back. She can mingle. She can be with others. But I think there's another reason. He calls her out to testify. He wants her to profess what has happened to her by Jesus' power and grace. And so here's the woman. She saw that she couldn't escape notice of Jesus, and she came fearfully trembling and fell down before him. And then in the presence of everybody, She tells the reason why she touched him. So she says, you know, I've had this flow of blood for 12 years. I've been ostracized from people for 12 years. And I went to doctor after doctor after doctor. I spent all that I had and nobody could help me. And then I thought to myself, I've heard about Jesus. And I'm going to go to him. And as soon as I touched the little tassel on his robe, immediately I could feel that the bleeding has stopped. I'm healed. Jesus responds to her testimony and he clarifies here exactly what happened. Verse 48. And he said to her, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. It wasn't just your touch as if your touch was magic, but it was the faith behind the touch, it was your trusting in me. It was the faith behind the touch by which you laid hold of me in faith. And that, that young woman is what saved you. And almost all those touches, almost all those people pressing in on Jesus, Jesus notices the touch of faith. He notices that woman who comes to him and touches him because of her faith. He saw the true faith behind the woman's touch. And so he says, daughter, your faith has made you well. And the word there is actually, your faith has saved you. Your faith has saved you, body and soul. Go in peace. What an encouragement. Jesus, the infinite and personal God, hears your prayer when you are one person in a crowd, when you come in faith, trusting in Jesus. This woman, one in a crowd, you, one in a crowd, Jesus hears you. And Jesus is worried, and is Jesus worried that He's going to be contaminated by this unclean woman touching Him? Is He concerned that, oh, oh no, oh, this unclean woman has touched me, ooh, no. No, that's why Jesus came. Jesus came to take our uncleanness upon Himself. He came to take our sin upon Himself that He might be the unclean one, that our uncleanness, our sin might be transferred to Him and that He might go to the cross and suffer the consequences of that uncleanness. John, who was there on this occasion, later wrote, If we say we have no sin, if we say we're not unclean, we're deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, If we reach out our hand in faith and lay our sins in Jesus and tell him about our sin, which he already knows, but he wants us to confess what we have done against him. If we confess our sins, if we agree with him about our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father. We have one who stands in the presence of the Father and pleads on our behalf. Jesus, the righteous one, Jesus who had no sin, Jesus who did not have to die for his own sin, but he himself is the propitiation for our sins. He's the one who had those sins transferred to him, and he bears the judgment for them and turns God's holy anger away from us by taking it upon himself. He appeases the holy anger of God by taking our uncleanness upon himself and going outside the city and being considered the unclean one in the place of sinners like you and me. So Jesus says, daughter your faith has made you well. By faith your sins are laid upon me and I will die for them. and you can go in peace. You are reconciled to God. There is nothing separating you from the Holy God because I've taken your sin away. I've taken it upon myself and you are at peace with God. Come, every soul by sin oppressed, there's mercy with the Lord and he will truly give you rest by trusting in his word. For Jesus shed his precious blood, rich blessings to bestow. Plunge now beneath that crimson flood that washes white as snow. Only trust him. Only trust him. Only trust him now. He will save you. He will save you now. But Jesus wants you and me not just to trust once, but he wants us to grow in a persevering faith in the midst of all our whys. Have you asked why this week? Why this? Why that? Why him? Why her? Why not? Jairus and the girl's mother are there waiting. They're waiting at their house. He's gone to Jesus. He's fallen down to Jesus' feet. And now Jesus stops and helps this woman and their daughter's dying back at the house. And so they're waiting. They're waiting. Why is Jesus delaying? They might ask. It's urgent. You can ask. Why do I have to wait? Why do I have to wait for this situation to resolve itself? Why do I have to wait at work? Why do I have to wait at practice? Why do I have to wait for my mom? Why do I have to wait for my son? Why do I have to wait for this problem that I've been facing for so long to be resolved? Why? Why do you still have physical hurt after you've been to doctor, after doctor, after doctor? Why does Jairus have to wait? Why does Jesus make Jairus wait while his daughter is dying? And why does Jairus have to wait while his daughter does die? Especially after Jairus went to the right place for help, right? He went to Jesus for help, but now he has to wait. Why? Jesus is leading Jairus and his wife into even greater pain, even greater difficulty, the death of their daughter, so he can teach them to trust him even in the face of loss and death. Verse 50. When Jesus heard that the daughter was dead, He said, do not be afraid any longer. Only believe. He's calling them to have a faith that perseveres. Only believe and she will be made well. She will be saved. Why should you and I persevere in believing and trusting in the Lord? Why keep on trusting? Jesus is able to wake the dead as easily as one can be awakened from sleep. Verse fifty five. He took the little girl by the hand and he called to her saying. Child. Arise. Child. Get up. He is able, and then we go on and read what? That her spirit returned. Her spirit returned and he called saying, give her something to eat. She got up right away. He said, give her something to eat. So Jesus here is able to reunite the body and the spirit when, and this is a picture of what he will do when he comes again. You know, what is death? What is death? Death is the separation of the body and the spirit. The body and the soul, right? Right now you're a physio-spiritual unity, you're a body and a soul together, right? But when you die, your body and your soul, your body and your spirit are separated. And what Jesus did here is he, He called the spirit back to her body. And that's a glimpse of what Jesus will do when he comes again. And those who belong to Jesus, their spirit will return to a new resurrected body, and they will have life with Jesus forever. Paul puts it this way. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, when he comes again. And the dead in Christ, those who died belonging to Jesus, will rise first. And so their spirit, which does not die, will be reunited with the new resurrection body. And then we who are still on earth and alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus, we shall always be with the Lord. So here we have a family reunited, right? The little girl, her spirit returns and she's given back to her mommy and her daddy. And oh, what a happy scene that must have been, right? And that's just a little glimpse of the reunion that there will be in heaven. with all those who belong to Jesus, all those who trust in Jesus, then there will be a great family reunion in that day. What are some concluding applications we can make from this passage? Well, in this passage, Jesus is definitely pro-life, isn't he? He has a message for the culture of death, which is all around us. What is Jesus saying to us here? He's saying, I've come to bring life, to bring life to young and to bring life to old, to bring life to a 12-year-old girl, to little Charlie, to an older woman. I've come to bring life and I've come to give eternal life to those who trust in me. But Jesus isn't only concerned about the eternal reunion then in the future, but he's concerned to build the fellowship of the redeemed now, here. The Moon family this morning was received as the newest members of our church family. Who is the newest member of Jesus' church in this passage? Look at verse 48. He says to her, daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Daughter. Now to remember what he said earlier in the chapter, in chapter eight, verse 21, he said, my mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it. My family, are those who hear the word of God and trust me and respond to me and follow me. And he's saying to this woman, you're in my family now. You're my daughter now. You're in the family of God now. You're a member of my forever family. So this woman, who trusted in Jesus is a member of Christ's church, a member of his family. As Paul later wrote in Ephesians chapter two, he said, by grace you have been saved through faith. That's not of yourselves, it's a gift of God. This woman had faith in Christ. And so then he says of her, now in Christ Jesus, you who are formerly far off have been brought near, been brought near to God by the blood of Christ. So then you're no longer a stranger and an alien. This woman was no longer a stranger and an outsider, but you are fellow citizens with the saints. You are of God's household. You're of God's family. Well, that was true of this woman, wasn't it? And it's true of all those who come by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, by grace, you're saved. And by grace, you're brought near through the blood of Christ. And now you're a member of the household, the family of God. Now, what is the Christ Church? What is the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ? It's the family of God, right? It's the household of God. It's made up of Christ's sons and daughters, believers, and their children. Just think about the book of Ephesians, how it begins. He says, I'm writing to the saints, the holy ones, those who are set apart for me in Ephesus. And then in Ephesians 6.1, what does he say, children? Children, obey your parents. He's considering those children of believers who are there in the assembly as part of those who are set apart for him. And so this morning we received Michael and Tonya and we received Charlie. Michael and Tonya as communicant members taking the Lord's Supper and we received Charlie as a covenant member set apart for the Lord. Have you been one of those who has reached out to Jesus in faith? You've trusted him, you've been forgiven, you have peace with God, but you have not yet publicly professed faith in him. Is that you? Well, Jesus says to you this morning, who touched me? Who touched me? Who is it that my power went out by grace to forgive and to heal? You believed in him? He says, now, who touched me? And he, as he wanted this woman to come forward and testify, he wants you to come forward and testify of him. In Romans 10, he says, if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, that He lives, that He's been raised from the dead, you'll be saved. For with a heart you believe and you're forgiven and you're washed. With a mouth you confess and your sins are washed away and you're given the righteousness of Jesus. So the Lord says He wants you to come forward like He wanted this woman to come forward. If you believe, come forward and testify. And if you're wondering how to go about that, speak to Elder Ben and myself. We'd be glad to encourage you to take that step to testify of what Christ has done for you. Suppose you go away to trade school or to college. And you go to a Bible-believing church out there and you meet girl and you get acquainted with that girl and and then oh man you get smitten and you're thinking okay I'd like to take her home to meet the folks but you know You know your folks and you know her and you're concerned that they might not appreciate her like you do. Maybe it's her accent. Maybe it's her ethnic background. Maybe it's some of her mannerisms. And you think, oh, I don't know. Is that going to bother my mom and dad? And so you're back home and what do you do? You want them to like her when you bring her home, right? And so you start talking about her. You say, you know, I met this girl. And there was a time when I was really down and discouraged and she really encouraged me with God's promises. And then the next day you said, you know, I was, I met this girl and, um, you know, I went to see her at her place of work. And man, there was this handicapped person who worked for them too. And she was so kind and helpful to that, to them. What do you do? You want your mom and dad to accept her. So you start singing her praises, right? Wow. That's what the Lord wants you to do. You want others to know Jesus, to love Jesus? He says, I want you to testify of me and you sing the praises of Jesus. The way Jesus put it in Matthew chapter 10, he said, Whoever denies me before men, whoever's ashamed of me before men, I will deny him before my father who's in heaven. But everyone who confesses me before men, I will confess him before my father is in heaven. If you sing my praises, if you speak of who I am and what I have done before men, then I'm gonna say to my father, that's my son, that's my daughter, that's my family. I hope that you will all read, especially you young people, read the account of the 15-year-old girl. It's inserted in the bulletin, her testimony. She was brought up in a Muslim land. Her name cannot be given to protect her safety. Brought up in a Muslim family. Her dad was a history teacher, a sociology teacher, and more open-minded than many Muslims. He occasionally went to the mosque. He told his family that Jesus was his favorite man of religion. that Jesus was a true prophet of love and peace. And so this 15-year-old girl began asking her dad, well, how did you learn about Jesus? What you have learned? And he said, well, I listened to various radio programs and these Muslim imams, these Muslim teachers, they say stuff about Jesus, but I find that there's other people that tell me more truth about Jesus. So this 15-year-old girl goes online And she begins to listen to these radio broadcasts. And she hears falsehood about Jesus, and she hears truth about Jesus. And then one day it dawned on her, Jesus is God. Jesus is divine savior, and there's nobody like him. So you got to keep mum about that in a Muslim family, right? She talks to her cousin. And one day she built up her courage and she said to her cousin, you know, I pray to Jesus now. Well, her cousin told her uncle, the uncle told some Muslim teachers. And so one day a Muslim imam shows up at their house and begins interrogating her. She doesn't back down. She doesn't back down. She says, I believe what God's Word says, the truth about Jesus. And now the uncle, her cousin's dad says, you know, if my daughter ever comes to believe the same thing as you, I'd be happy with it. believed, she confessed, she's part of the family of God. Lord, oh Lord, by your grace grant that we might not slink away to the end of the crowd, that we might testify. who Jesus is, what he has done, and what he is able to do as the giver of life. Let's pray. O Lord in heaven, grant that we might sing your praises, speak your praises, that others might be attracted to you. May our speech be with grace, seasoned with salt. that we might make the gospel as attractive as it really is, as it has been for us. O Lord, grant that we might step out in the crowd to speak of you, the life-giving Savior. Pray, Lord, that you would work in our hearts a persevering faith a steady keeping on, keeping on trust in you and grant Lord that you might use our weak words, our feeble words, our words of truth to bring life to those in our families and beyond whom we love desperately. We pray this in Jesus name.