in God's word to Mark's gospel to the end of chapter five. Our Texas evening is from verses 21 through 43. And join me as we ask for God's blessing upon his word. Father, you have been gracious and kind to us, your people. No more so, Lord, than through the salvation we have received through faith in Christ. Father, as we come to hear your word now, we pray that we would hear it clearly with spiritual ears that you give us to hear. And that you would strengthen our faith, Lord, as we as we see the way that you work to bring people to yourself and to bring them into that wonderful state of salvation, Lord, so that we will not perish in our sins. Bless us, we ask, O Lord, in Christ's name. Amen. So Mark's Gospel, chapter 5, verses 21 to the end of the chapter. And when Jesus 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 so 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 even touch 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. 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. But 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. I trust that as we've made our way through Mark's gospel, these, uh, these months together, and that is if we have, uh, encountered a number of healing miracles by Jesus, that is becoming fairly well settled in your mind, that in the gospel accounts, that when we encounter these healing miracles, that what we are seeing is our pictures of Christ's saving redemptive work. And that the ill who are healed as they're represented in their various forms, these represent the, the various aspects of the fallen condition of man, all of man's, uh, suffering under the bondage and the affliction of sin. And we see Jesus working on these things to represent in some way to us, to picture for us the way that he redeems and saves those who are under. the brokenness of sin. And so in doing that, these healing miracles therefore invite us to see ourselves in the image of these ill, these afflicted, these broken, these demon-possessed who need to be healed. And so that's really what we want to see as we come to this passage of Mark's gospel tonight, is this lesson here. This is a lesson that this text has for us is that we must come to Jesus in faith for deliverance from our hopeless condition. It's pretty obvious that we have a hopeless condition and that's what this text sets before us tonight. And we'll see, first of all, that we are hopeless cases who must come to Jesus. Secondly, that as we come, we must have faith in Jesus. And third, that as we come in faith, we will experience deliverance by Jesus. So as we enter into this text, verse 21, we see that Jesus has returned from the other side of the lake where we left him last. That was the case of his encountering this, this demon possessed man who lived among the graves on the other side of the sea. And now he's returned back to more familiar territory. And so verse 21, when he had crossed again in the boat to the other side there, as usual, a great crowd had assembled to greet him. And there comes to him, uh, a ruler of the synagogue, one of the rulers of the synagogue. Now, this man was a leader of the synagogue. He was not of the priestly class. He was a layman, but he was, uh, what we might say, uh, the chief or the president of the synagogue. And so remarkably this would have been an observant Jew. Now very often observant Jews were not those who would be favorably disposed to respond to Jesus in this way. They were quite committed to their religion which was not necessarily a very pure version of the biblical religion that had been revealed to Moses. And so that's who this man Jairus is. a man of standing in the community, a prominent, respectable person. But you see, as this man comes to Jesus, all of that goes out the window because Jairus has a problem, doesn't he? His little daughter is very sick. We read in verse 22, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly. My little daughter is at the point of death. You see, he comes now to Jesus as a desperate, Father, coming in a posture of humility, falling at Jesus' feet, pleading earnestly for the life of his little girl. She's so ill. He doesn't want to lose her. And so he comes to Jesus pleading and look at the way that Jesus responds to him. This is wonderful, isn't it? Graciously, kindly, he does exactly what Jairus asks. Jairus asks him to come to his house. And immediately Jesus goes, goes with him, we read in the text. And so off they go, heading off into the crowd on the way to Jairus' house. And we see that this great crowd, they were not willing to let Jesus go just yet. He'd just gotten there. And they hadn't quite seen enough or gotten what they wanted from Him. And so they follow with Him, thronging around Him. You can just picture just the same sort of scene you see around the red carpet. Anytime there's a celebrity, just crowds pressing in and they get so close that really they're, they're just about to crush Jesus if they, if they could. And then hiding in this great crowd lost in the anonymity of these, uh, of these hundreds and thousands of people, there's yet another hopeless case. And that's this bleeding woman who's suffering from an incurable affliction. The text tells us in verse 25 that she was suffering from a discharge or a flow of blood and that she'd been suffering with this for 12 years. Now the text doesn't tell us the nature of this discharge of blood exactly, but truthfully it doesn't really matter. In God's law in Leviticus 15, 25, it makes it clear that regardless of the source of the discharge of blood, that that had the effect on that person of making that person ritually unclean. And so therefore this woman, she was affected not only physically, bleeding saps the strength and the energy, but she was also afflicted and suffering spiritually. because of this ceremonial uncleanness in which she was a constant state. And so therefore she would have been unable to worship publicly and therefore out of fellowship with God and out of fellowship of the community of God's people. That's the condition that this affliction put her in. And so we see that she's just like that leper that we encountered not too long ago. The leper who really by all rights should not have been out in public, should not have been, she shouldn't have been in this crowd. And she certainly shouldn't have been attempting to approach Jesus and to touch him. And maybe that's one of the reasons why she only wanted to touch his clothing. Matthew tells us that in fact, that what she was reaching for was one of the tassels or the fringe of his outer garment, the fringe or tassels that would have been worn Uh, by a faithful observant Jew, which of course our Lord was in his time of ministry upon the earth. And so maybe she thought, well, it's okay if I don't touch him, don't touch his hand or something like that, but just touch his clothing. But regardless, this woman has been suffering for a long time. It's separating her from God and from the community of God's people. And worse, it's a terrible condition because it's incurable. She had tried everything, one physician after another, and she was wiped out financially. The text tells us that she was not only not cured, but in fact, she was made worse. This isn't meant to suggest that the doctors were bad or incompetent, but it tells us this. This is the point that this is driving home. is that this was not a problem that was within the power of man to cure. That's the state that this woman is in, suffering from an affliction that is not within the power of man to cure. Now you noticed that the text gives us this curious fact that she'd been suffering from this discharge of blood for 12 years. And then later on in verse 42, We see that the, that the young girl after she'd been revived, uh, Mark tells us that she was 12 years of age and that explains, uh, partly why she was able to just get up and walk around. She wasn't a little baby, but 12 years, there's something in this for us. 12 years. What is 12 years? Well, if you're the little girl and her parents to everything, isn't it? That's the whole life of that little child. And as they're looking at their daughter lying on her sickbed at the edge of death, they're not only seeing the precious memories that they have of their little girl, but you know, they look at her and they mourn at the unrealized potential of her life. They grieve for what they see could have been, what might've been. And they look at this little girl and they say, 12 years, it's not enough. For the woman, on the other hand, 12 years, it's everything that she'd like to forget. Think about it. This woman's bleeding problem had begun just about the time that this little girl had been born. And so while Jairus and his wife are watching their daughter grow, watching her as she first smiles and gets her first set of teeth and learns to say mama and Abba. takes her first step, writes her name, later on is helping mom around the house, baking bread, perhaps with mom. That whole time where this little life is growing, this woman is watching herself, watching her own life, watching her life drain away with this bleeding problem. And so after 12 years of affliction, this woman has reached the end of her rope. And that same 12 years is more than enough. It's too much. So why is this important? Why does Mark give us this, this fact? Well, it's to give us a perspective on life and death. It brings into focus sharply the tragedy of the unrealized potential of life on both ends. It's to cause us to reflect on the years that are lost to suffering. The horror of life that's cut short. And so both of these, whether we're looking at 12 years as 12 years too long or 12 years too short, this 12 years emphasizes the sadness of our sinful condition, the loss that we suffer in this broken world. You see these both. Whichever perspective you're looking at it, they're emphasizing the common hopeless condition that we share. The condition that's hopeless that is in human terms. Because you see, at the same time, it shows us our need of one to redeem us, to save us, to deliver us from this hopeless condition. So then we look to Jesus, you see, because he's the only hope for The hopeless case, whether it's the beginning at the beginning of life, a life that's cut short or later on in life where you suffer the loss over the period of years. And so we see then the way in which we share the predicament of these, these two cases that we too are like them as hopeless cases who must come to Jesus. And as we come, we must have faith in Jesus. See, that's the point that they've come to in their lives, isn't it? They've come to the point of realizing their need for Jesus. And so they seek him out. And as they seek him out, they have faith that he can do what no one else can do for them. We want to take a moment here though, and talk a little bit about biblical faith. What is a faith that is able to save? Well, we'd spoken before about how biblical faith must have knowledge. Uh, it's based on knowledge. In other words, there's a content to it. That biblical faith includes a scent. In other words, there must be agreement. You must say yes to the content of the faith. And then finally, the biblical faith must have conviction or trust that the previous two are not enough, but you must rest in the. object of biblical faith, which is Jesus Christ. But there's something else we want to consider, and that is that faith itself is a gift of God. You see, faith is not something that comes from within any of us. None of us are capable of a biblical saving faith in and of ourselves. In our natural state, apart from the working of God's Spirit, we are dead men and women. We are dry bones lying on the floor of the valley. And until God's Spirit breathes upon us and gives us new hearts and minds, we don't believe. And in fact, we continue in our unbelief all of our days until the Holy Spirit revives us in that way. And there's yet one more thing we need to consider about biblical faith, and that is that it's not, strictly speaking, your faith that saves you. It's Jesus who saves you by faith or through your faith. You see, you know already that it's not your doing. But faith, but you see, it's not even the act of believing in Jesus that saves, but it's Jesus himself, who he is and what he has done as the eternal son of God, who has humbled himself to come in the likeness of sinful flesh, to live life as one of us and to fulfill the broken covenant of works, to become for us, to second Adam, his person and his work. That is done all that is necessary for salvation and it's a faith believing in Jesus. That's the instrument by which we gain, uh, what the Puritans would say an interest in Christ. In other words, to become invested in Christ and all of his benefits. And so you see that faith is just an instrument. It's just like if you, if you say that you. are going fishing and you catch a fish. Well, unless you got down in the water and grab that fish with your own two hands, then you actually use something else to catch that fish, didn't you? And so your, your fishing tackle is the instrument by which you caught the fish, but it's legitimate for you to say that you caught the fish as long as it didn't get away. Well, it's the same way with faith. Faith is the instrument by which we take hold of Christ. But it's not our faith that saves us. So all of that is to say then, and it's to give us the proper perspective as we see these cases coming to Jesus and believing. It's this that we may come to Jesus with imperfect faith. Because it doesn't all depend on your faith, your faith. You may come to Jesus with errors in your faith and with an incomplete faith. Because it's the work of God's Spirit in your heart that is perfect. Your understanding does not need to be perfect. There can be room to grow as you come to Jesus. And that's what we see in this text, as a matter of fact. In these two cases, in the case of the woman, we see that her faith must be corrected as well as encouraged. She comes up to Jesus in the crowd, hiding, first of all, and she just wants to come and do this, this sneaky little surreptitious move in the crowd and just reach out and touch Jesus and then be on her way. Where did she get this, get the idea that this is the way to come to Jesus? Well, we don't know of course, but the fact that she was coming to Jesus, that the fact that she sensed her own need and saw Jesus as the remedy for her need. reveals to us that she had faith at some level. She believed. After all, she had heard about Jesus, hadn't she? The word had gotten out and she had heard it. Verse 27 tells us that she had heard the reports about Jesus, and it's for that reason that she sought him out. We don't know what she had heard, what she believed, and yet she came in response to what she'd heard. But her response or her understanding of Jesus was, uh, was flawed. It was defective in some ways. And so what we really see is that she's approaching Jesus really more as if he's some kind of a magician rather than is coming to him as Lord of heaven and earth as Lord of life and death. If I can just touch him or touch his clothes, I'll be cured. Well, that's bad theology. But that's the reason why we see in verses 30 and following that Jesus wants to know who did it. That's the reason that he calls her out of the crowd. It's because he wants to have this direct face-to-face contact with her to bring her to examine her own faith. What is it that she believes? And so that she can learn. about Jesus and who he is and what is it that she learns? Well, we see just a little bit here, but we see that, that, that yes, Jesus is telling her, yes, you can come to me. I'm accepting you coming to me. You can touch me. Contrary to your belief. And yes, you can speak to me and I will speak to you. Yes, I can heal you and I will. all aspects of Christ's redemptive work, that we can come to Jesus and he will receive us when we come in faith. And then look at the way that Jesus responds further, that he encourages her new faith. He says to her, I can't find my place. Daughter, in verse 34, daughter, your faith has made you well." What a great encouragement. That he's not sending her away. That he doesn't say, I don't know why you came to me, but whatever you were thinking, it's not enough. And so you need to go and you need to learn more before you come back to me. He says to her, your faith is enough. You do have faith. Your faith is what's necessary. And it's through your faith that you've gained these wonderful results or benefits. She felt in herself that she had been cured. And you see, and that came through her faith. But it's very significant that that little phrase that's translated there, your faith has made you well, that the word that we translated here as made you well is the word for saved. That's exactly what it says. It's the word that, means, depending on the context, to rescue or to deliver or even, in some cases, to recover. But you see how all of those are really just aspects of being saved. You could say saved and it would make perfect sense. And here, in this context, it's been translated as made you well because, given the context, that makes perfect sense. She has been healed. She has been cured or delivered from her physical ailment, but we don't want to miss the spiritual sense. Jesus is saying to her, daughter, your faith has saved you. Because that is the heart of this passage. Is that salvation is by faith. And that salvation is by faith in Jesus. And so we see similarly that Jairus the father of this little girl, that he too comes with a, with a faith that is imperfect. And so his faith must be tested and developed. See Jesus, or Jairus came to Jesus believing already. He had confidence in Jesus. The whole reason he came to him is because he had hope that Jesus could do something for him. And he had asked already, come and lay your hands on my little girl so that she may be made well and live. And there again, there's that word. Come and lay your hands on my little girl so that you might save her and that she will live. But see, Jairus needed to have his faith tested. His faith was yet immature, much as ours is. And testing is what strengthens and matures our faith. And so look at what happens in verses 24 through 34. This whole time that Jesus is dealing with the woman, Jairus has to endure this painful waiting game. Here's Jairus anxiously at Jesus' side. They were interrupted in the middle of their journey to his house to go save his little girl. And now the clock is ticking. Time is running out for his daughter. And then what happens? As they're waiting, as they're delayed along the way, that waiting, that holdup produces the worst case scenario for Jairus. The worst thing that he thought could happen has happened. Someone comes from Jairus' house and says, it's over. She's dead. Don't bother any longer. Might as well just come on home. Now her situation is really out of any human ability to help. If doctors couldn't cure a bleeding problem, there's no way they can do anything once this little girl has died. But you see, that has created an opportunity for Jairus' faith to be tested, but not only that, for his faith to be developed. How do we see that? Just as this happens, as he gets this terrible news, we can only imagine how Jairus responded. Did he fall into a heap? Did he play the man and try to keep a stiff upper lip? We don't know. But Jesus turns to him and what does he say? Do not fear. Don't be afraid, Jairus. Only believe. Keep believing. Keep having faith. And think of the context. What had Jairus just seen happen? He'd just heard the woman tell her entire story. Verse 33. She tells him the whole truth. She spills the beans on the entire thing. All that had gone on in her life. Why she had come to Jesus. What she thought she could get. intended to do? Jairus, were you paying attention? A hopeless case had just been delivered. And he'd seen the entire interchange between Jesus and the woman as he corrected and encouraged her faith and saw that she had been delivered because she believed in Jesus. Isn't this what you wanted for your daughter, Jairus? Isn't this why you came to me? Do you still believe? You see, what could give him better hope now, even greater confidence and encouragement than knowing that he was with the man who could deliver the hopeless case. So even through this trial of waiting and watching and getting the news that the worst has happened, even this, would actually serve to strengthen Jairus' faith. And so even as we come to Jesus, you see, even with imperfect faith, Jesus works the same way with us. He takes our faith, however small and defective it might be, and he multiplies it. It's like what he did with the two little fish or the loaves and the fish. He takes it and He makes it what it needs to be, correcting it as the need requires, testing it, developing it, and encouraging it. And this is why, brothers and sisters and children, that you may come to Jesus with a simple faith, with the faith of a child, and be welcomed and accepted by Him. Now, that's not to say That there is not room for growth and that you want to stay with the faith of a child. The scripture is very emphatic and clear that the Christian life is one of growing in your knowledge, in your wisdom, godly wisdom, your understanding, and in your faith, that your faith actually grows as you grow in Christian discipleship. So we don't want to stay there. But the faith of a child is enough for deliverance from your hopeless condition. But finally, we see that as we come in faith, that we will experience deliverance by Jesus. Isn't that what we've seen in this text so far? That here are these two hopeless cases, each with their own stories, each with their own circumstance, each seeking out Jesus with their own imperfect faith. And what do we see? That the, whatever the condition was that made these, these two hopeless cases as they were is remedied by Jesus. We see that the woman with the incurable condition is cured. What was impossible for doctors to cure out of the reach of man's capability has now been cured by Jesus. And more than that. that we see in verse 34 that once again that she had received the Lord's blessing. Listen once again to the kindness in the Lord's words to her. Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your disease. Isn't it clear from the way that this kind benediction that he gives to her, this assurance of God's favor that he speaks to her, isn't it clear that she's entered into a new condition with God, a new standing with God through Jesus? She's now a daughter that Christ himself calls her a daughter. that Christ himself says to her, go in peace. And he can say this because she can go in peace. God has taken her brokenness and her affliction of her hopeless condition. And it in its place has supplied to her wholeness and restoration. That's the biblical idea of peace. And so we too come with our hopeless condition and he sends us with his peace. He gives us his peace, not an absolute freedom from, uh, from or absence of any further kind of affliction or hardship in this life, but a wholeness of person, a wholeness of life as we are made whole in Christ. So the woman is cured. through her faith in Jesus. And then look what happens in the closing verses of this section. Verses 41 through 43, Jesus goes to the little girl. And if a life draining condition, if that incurable bleeding problem was bad, well, how much worse is this? The little girl has, has died. And after all, isn't this exactly what the woman feared? That was why she had gone to Jesus in the first place. That's why she had gone through all the trouble and the expense with the physicians and even ended up worse was because she didn't want to end up in the condition that the little girl was in now. She didn't want death to have the victory and steal her life. That outcome that she feared, the same outcome that the little girl's family feared has now struck. It's one thing to cure a medical condition, but there's no physician who would have imagined or even pretended to be able to revive the dead. And we see in this, through the description, that the girl was truly dead. There's no question about that. Everybody knew it. There were people there making all the commotion, mourning over the girl, crying and wailing over this little girl who had just passed away. And when Jesus comes in and suggests to them, don't worry, she's only sleeping. Well, you can understand why they laugh. Sleeping? Don't be ridiculous. She's dead. She's dead and we know it. She's not just asleep. But you see, Jesus speaks this way. Jesus says that he will wake her up and bring her back just as if she were taking a nap. Why? Because Jesus has the power over the hopeless condition of death, just as if over sleep. Jesus alone can take someone under the power of death and bring them out of it, just as if you're waking up a child. And so he speaks these words to her, Talitha Kumi, little girl, wake up. It's time to get up. And just as we had seen before, that important word, your faith has made you well. It was the word for salvation. Your faith has saved you. Well, here too, there's a little word. It's a very important word where we see little girl. I say to you arise. That's the word for resurrection. Jesus is calling her out of the grip of death. Arise. And just as he's raising this little girl from the dead, and so too he rose himself again from the dead. He will raise up all those who believe in him. You see, in Jesus, death has lost its sting. The death is swallowed up in victory. The grave no longer has power over those who believe in Jesus. And it's that little word there, arise, that speaks of the future hope and glory of the resurrection for those who have faith in Jesus. And so it is with you and me. As we consider these two hopeless cases that are presented to us in this part of Mark's Gospel, this is what we want to see. We want to see ourselves in them. Because in the same way that through their faith Jesus delivered them from their hopeless condition, a hopeless condition of incurable illness, a hopeless condition even of death, that in the same way we may expect and surely receive deliverance from our hopeless condition. Our condition is lost sinners. And even from the hopeless condition of death itself, when we come to Jesus believing. And so then we must believe. Let us pray. Father, how often do we hear this call to believe in Jesus? And yet, Lord, we feel so weak to respond to it. We echo those words of the one who said, I believe, Lord, but help my unbelief. Oh, Lord, strengthen our faith. And we pray indeed, Lord, that If we lack faith that you would give it to us, oh Lord, work by your Holy Spirit to give us the very ability to believe and to rest upon Christ alone for salvation and grant it unto us, Lord. And then help us to grow in our faith and in our discipleship to be more like the one who saved us. We ask in his name, amen.