Easter Baptism 2016
Transcript
Well, good morning. Happy Easter. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We're going to be in Matthew chapter 27 this morning. We're going to spend a little bit of time there.
That's on page 540 if your Bible looks like this. Grab one of the blue and white Bibles on the row. If you don't own a Bible, this is our gift to you. Take it home with you. So I found, it seems to me that when it comes to people's viewpoints of Christianity, what Christianity is, what it's about, specifically people who maybe haven't, aren't Christians.
Like if you just went down the street and just kind of took a poll, I think you kind of get two major viewpoints about what the Bible is, what it's about, what Christianity is about. And usually it seems like people fall into two camps. So on one side you have, the Bible is a book of rules, mostly. Like mostly is a book of morals. It's, you read this, it's going to teach you how to live. It's God's roadmap to life.
It's how to make good decisions. It's God's plan for us, what he wants us to do, how we ought to behave. That Jesus was a great moral teacher. And that he came to show us how to follow the rules. How to behave. How to be very moral.
And that's kind of one side. And so people would say maybe that if you just follow the rules, all of life would be better. Which is pretty much true for all sets of rules, all belief systems. If you just kind of followed what they said, most of the time it's like that people would get along better. That's what people say. That's what Christianity is.
It's a set of rules that if we follow, we'll get along better. And if you follow them really well, maybe God will love you or maybe God will be pleased with you. Maybe God will bless you. Or maybe when you die you can stand before him and you get to go to heaven because you've been a good person. That's one of the major popular beliefs about Christianity. The other side is kind of a no.
The Bible is primarily about love. It's about how we treat one another. How we love one another. It's not about God's rules. It's about love. That God loves us.
He loves us so much that God forgives us. And Jesus came to show us how to love. And if you just follow the rules, then you'll end up being really hypocritical or you'll be really proud. Or you'll be one of those religious old ladies that's just mean to everybody. But you just need to learn how to love.
And that's what Jesus was all about. The problem with both of those, though, is that the one thing that most people know about Christianity is that Jesus... You say, okay, he was a great moral teacher or, you know, he taught us how to love. So he loved and he followed the rules. And because of that, because he was so loving and so rule-following, they brutally murdered him. Right?
Because that's how it works at school. Like the girl that always follows the rules and is nice to everyone, everybody hates her and she gets expelled. Like that's... Right? No. That's not how that works.
So what we know, the primary thing about Christianity is that Jesus went to a cross. And the problem with both of these viewpoints, if the Bible is primarily about us following rules or if the Bible is primarily about us being loving, neither one of those accurately, intelligently explains the cross. If you're just supposed to follow rules, why did Jesus die? If it's about your behavior, why did Jesus die? And if you're just supposed to be loving and if God is just loving, like he's just out there floating in a field of warm fuzzies. And when he thinks about you, he giggles in his heart.
If that's the case, if that's God, if he's just some love force out there in the universe, then what is the cross? How does that make any sense whatsoever? The problem with both of these viewpoints is that they're really incomplete. They don't make sense of what the Bible actually holds up as primary. What the Bible says, no, no, this is the main thing you need to focus on is a cross, is that Jesus died. And so let's go to Matthew chapter 27 and try to figure out why that would be primary and how that helps us understand what the Bible really is about and what the point actually is.
So we're going to read through Matthew chapter 27, we're just going to talk a little bit about what we see here, what we're told here, what these eyewitnesses relate to us here. And then we're going to jump to 1 Corinthians to try to help explain it. So what we're doing right now is we're just going to look at it and then we're going to jump over and say, okay, if that's the main thing, then what does it mean? Why is it the main thing? Why does it matter? 27, we're going to start in verse 57.
When it was evening, there came a rich man. This is the evening that Jesus was crucified. Jesus is still on the cross. There came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. That meant he followed him. He went to Pilate, that's the Roman governor, and asked for the body of Jesus.
Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. So it, Jesus is dead. He's a thing at this point. He's a corpse. Pilate ordered it to be given to him, Jesus' body. And Joseph took the body, the dead body of Jesus, wrapped it in a clean linen shroud, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock.
And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, that's Jesus' mother, were there sitting opposite the tomb. So they saw where the dead Jesus was placed. The next day, that is the day of preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate. So those are the people who killed him.
And they say, Sir, we remember how this imposter said while he was still alive that after three days I will rise. Therefore, order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people he has risen from the dead, and the last fraud will be worse than the first. So Pilate said to them, You have a guard of soldiers. Go make it as secure as you can. So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.
Okay, so they kill Jesus, and then they go to Pilate and they say, Hey, thanks for killing Jesus. But Jesus, when he walked around, used to tell people that he wasn't going to stay dead. And so we need to put some guards around his body. So they won't steal him, hide him, bury him somewhere else and go, He's alive! That's actually really smart. That was a good plan.
Like, let's seal the tomb. So they put a seal on the tomb, and they put guards to guard the tomb so nobody could come steal the body. They're not afraid Jesus is going to try to get out. They just are afraid somebody's going to try to come take him. Chapter 28. Now, after the Sabbath, so the Sabbath is the Saturday, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, that's Sunday.
That's why we celebrate Easter on Sunday. That's today. Good morning. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. So these are the two people who saw where Jesus was buried.
And behold, there was a great earthquake. For an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow. This guy was hard to look at. Aggressively shiny, maybe is a way to put that. His clothing was as white as snow.
And for fear of him, the guards trembled and became like dead men. Okay, I don't think it means they died. I think it means they probably just like passed out. Because there was an earthquake and then a lightning guy pushes the stone away and then just sits on it and like looks at you. And your job is to not let that happen. At this point though, I think they look at him and they're like, there's this moment of, should we fight this guy?
And then immediately there's this moment of, no, that ain't happening. And then I think they look at each other and they're like, tin like you sleep. Just, just late. We just, we just going to lay down. Fight over. I probably just passed out.
Like, boom, earthquake, stone, guy, eye contact, lightning, close, and boom, out. So, they at least deserve a demotion. They have done their job poorly. But the angel said to the women. So, women didn't get terrified. I mean, they're scared in some, some form or fashion, but not, they didn't pass out.
Do not be afraid. Thank you. That's the first thing. If you see an angel, that's the first thing you want them to say. You meet an angel and he doesn't start with, do not be afraid. You should be afraid.
Do not be afraid for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here for he has risen. As he said, yeah. Woo. Look, if we're going to, like, you either got to woo or just don't do it. Like, we missed our chance.
We can't go back. We can't go back. I know most of us are white, but you got to, we got to up it up a little bit. I know we don't usually, woo. I know we don't usually, we'll, we'll work later. We'll get to baptize people.
We'll get to holler some more. Do not be afraid for I know that you seek Jesus who has crucified. He is not here for he has risen. As he said, come, see the place where he lay. So, he says, you can come in the tomb. You can see that it's empty.
Jesus told you he was going to rise and he did. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead. And behold, behold, he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him. See, I have told you. So, they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples.
And behold, Jesus met them and said greetings. And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee and there they will see me. So, if you, Jesus told people he was God and he told people that he was going to be murdered. And then he told people that he was going to rise again.
And then he was murdered and then he rose again. And that's why they grab his feet and worshipped him. Because he said he was God and that this was going to happen. And once he actually, it happened and he came back to life, then it was like, oh, you must actually be God. Like, what you said must actually be true. So, they fall down and worshipped him.
And Christianity says it's not just about God's love and Jesus being loving. It's not just about rules and Jesus being a good moral teacher. The point of Christianity is that Jesus went to a cross, that he died and that he rose again. That's the point. That the tomb is empty. That's what we celebrate.
This is the major holiday for Christians. Easter. The tomb is empty. Now, the question is, why is that the point? I mean, it sounds nice. It proves he was God, I guess, that Jesus died.
He rose again. He's not in the tomb anymore. But why do we celebrate that? Why is that the point? So, let's jump to 1 Corinthians. It's going to be to the right.
And it should be on the screen. It'll be page 624. If your Bible looks like this. If your Bible doesn't look like this, it's to the right. It's going to say 1 Corinthians at the top. 624, chapter 15.
This is Paul helping us understand why the cross, why the empty tomb is primary. Why we would actually want to celebrate that. 17, verse 17. And if Christ, that's Jesus. If Christ has not been raised, did not come back from the dead, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then all those who have fallen asleep, he means those who have died in Christ, believing in Christ, is what he's saying there, have perished.
They're just dead. And if in Christ we have hope only in this life or in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. So what Paul says is if Christ didn't rise from the dead, if what we celebrate on Easter isn't true, then people should feel sorry for us. And we're everything we believe is a lie, is a waste, is dumb and useless. That's what Paul's saying. He's saying that the cross, the empty tomb, are so vital to Christianity that if you take them out, just what, he taught us to love, just he taught us to follow rules, it's a waste of time.
We should be pitied. People should feel sorry for us because without the empty tomb we have nothing. So here's what he says. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. So he's the first one who would die and rise from the grave and be brought back to God.
For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. So this will take just a second to explain what he's saying there. What he's saying is that through Adam, so way back in history, Adam and Eve, famous duo, worse than Bonnie and Clyde, caused more problems for everybody. Adam and Eve. So he says back in the day, Adam and Eve were created in a relationship with God.
They were designed to exist in a loving, harmonious relationship. And Adam sins. And when Adam sins, when Adam rebels, he brings death into the world. That death didn't exist, but death now reigns from Adam to us. Like death has taken over because we're all sinful. And we're born sinful.
We all innately rebel against God. This becomes like obvious to us in different ways. Like some of you, maybe you work law enforcement. Maybe you work social services. Like some of us get to see sinfulness and depravity and brokenness in the world on a daily basis. Others of us are a little bit more separated from it.
But there's sometimes in life it just becomes clear. So when we started planning this church, we started this church up and we were starting to do some kid city stuff. We were going to work with children. One of the things we had to put in our children's handbook for your sweet little baby angels was what to do when one child bites another child. Did y'all know that? We come from a race of biters.
Look around the room. Some of these people sitting next to you all dressed up looking nice today had to be taught forcefully and repeatedly not to bite other humans. Had to be taught. Had to be trained. Like this isn't an appropriate way. Like if you're in a business meeting and it goes poorly, you can't jump up from your desk and be like, ah!
Like you can't do it. And people have seen too much zombie shows at this point. It would freak everybody out. You can't bite people. Like you have to teach children to share. And even as we grow older and we know I should share, I should be kind, I should be gracious.
We still don't want to. It's still really hard. Like I mostly just want other people to share. The time I see this most is when my sweet little wife reaches her grubby hand across the table and takes something off of my plate. And in that moment, something deep and flaming wells up inside of me. And I really have to think, dude, that's your wife.
She can have everything on your plate she wants. But there's part of me that's like... Especially when I'm like, do you want some of this? And she's like, no, I'm not hungry. And then I make it. And then she's like, can I have half of that?
And I'm like, I don't want to fight you. But there's in me like I have to actually go back to like preschool and go, share? You should share. Sharing is good. And be like, mm-hmm. Smile at her.
You want some more? Say no. Say no. Please say no. Say no. No, I'm good.
Okay, but you can have as much as you want. That's good though if you ain't going to eat it. Like... I know sharing is good. It has never actually felt good to me. I just know that it's good because I've been taught that.
Like there's... We know we're supposed to be generous. We know we're supposed to be kind. We know we're supposed to be gracious. And then we know we're supposed to forgive. And then we actually have something to forgive somebody of?
Mm-mm. Mm-mm. I could forgive a lot of things but not this thing. We know we're supposed to be generous. But then somebody says, hey, can I borrow some money?
Mm-mm. I'm pretty strapped right now. Like we just... We... Since Adam, all of us are busted. And here's the point.
Here's the reason why. God made the world good. We live in a world created by a gracious, loving God. So we understand that we ought to be gracious and loving and generous and kind. But we walk around in bodies that have been busted up by Adam.
And our sin overwhelms us. And the truth is, the more we try to be not sinful, the harder it gets. So that's what Paul's going to say as we keep moving through here. We're going to jump down to... Jump over a page if you're in this Bible. We're going to look at 57 as kind of Paul wraps this up.
Verse 54, sorry. As Paul wraps this up. When the perishable puts on the imperishable and mortal puts on immortality, then we shall come to pass the saying that is written. So he's quoting this old saying, saying this is what happens through the resurrection. This is what happens through what Jesus accomplished for us. Death is swallowed up in victory.
Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin. And the power of sin is the law. So here's what he's saying.
Sin, death is a problem for us because sin leads us to death. And then when we're sinful and we die and we stand before God, we have nothing to offer him. Except for our rebellion and our guilt and our shame, we have nothing to bring to him. That our sin goes before God and he looks at our life and he doesn't say, you're welcome. He says, you've rebelled against me. You've broken the law.
We're in trouble. That's why death is so terrible because sin goes with us. And the law only makes sin stronger. It only shows how much more we fail. My dad and my mom, when I was growing up, they both worked. And I've got two brothers and we were all kind of, you know, little at the same time and just a couple of years apart each.
And when my dad would go to work and my mom would be at home watching us, and sometimes we had people watch us while they both worked. But when my dad would go to work and my mom would be home watching us, my dad would always come home and he'd say, you know, just some of the laundry wasn't done. Maybe dinner wasn't cooked. Maybe one of us looked like a hot mess, was just wearing underwear and had ketchup spattered all over us for some reason. Like he just, every time he would come home and the house wasn't clean and he just got the feeling like, you know, he would look at my mom and be like, you can do this.
Like you can get everything done. It's possible. Like he just assumed she was just not really trying that hard. And so he said a couple of times that when she would go to work and he was watching us by ourselves, he just decided, I'm going to get it done. I'm going to do everything. I'm going to cook.
I'm going to do all the laundry. Kids are going to look right when she gets home. House is going to be nice. And he said every time it was like a race against the clock and she would walk in the door. One of us wouldn't have pants on. Something would be on fire.
Laundry wouldn't be done. Like he just, he was like, y'all wouldn't stop like puking and bleeding and getting stuff messed up. There was just no way. There was no way to get it done. Like he just couldn't. And the truth was he was a really good mom until he tried.
And then he was pretty terrible at it. And for most of us, we think, the reason the power of sin is in the law is that most of us think, no, I'm a pretty nice person. I'm pretty kind. I'm pretty good. God's got to kind of love me. Like I've got good intentions.
And the truth is once we actually start seeing what the law is, what it takes to be perfect before God, and we actually try to do it, it becomes massively difficult. Us trying to behave and be good only shows how far away from it we are. Every single person in this room has nothing to offer God that makes you redeemable. We have all sinned. We have all fallen short. We all deserve death and hell and punishment.
That's the place we stand before a holy God. Each of us is headed towards death, hell, and destruction, except Jesus went to the cross. Except for Jesus went to the cross and died for our sin. He took our sin. You see, Jesus hadn't sinned. He didn't deserve death.
He hadn't rebelled. He didn't deserve to be punished or crushed. But he was. And that's why when Christians say he died for our sins, what they mean is he didn't die for his own. He died for ours. And because he didn't deserve to die, he actually broke death and rose again from the grave.
Because he hadn't earned death. He just took ours for us. So God dies to pay for our sin and then rises again so that all of us who place faith in him can have life. And that's the point of this. Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your victory?
Oh, death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Do you know why we sing to Jesus? Why we holler? Why in a minute when people are getting baptized, we're going to clap and yell and be excited?
It's because Jesus has won the victory for us. When I went to college and I played college football, my freshman year I was redshirted, so I just went to practice. I didn't do anything. And we almost won a championship my freshman year. We really should have. It was a game that kind of went south, but we were there.
We were one game away. We would have won the championship. If we had, I would have been given a ring. And I would have worn it on Sundays and tapped it on the... No, I'm just kidding. But I would have been given a championship ring.
And I would have been a champion. And what would I have done? Not a dang thing. Except for go to practice. Like I wouldn't have done anything, but I would have been victorious. I would have been a champion through other people on my behalf.
You know how when you go to watch a game that you just are a fan of, and they win? You know what you say when it's over? We won. And sometimes when they lose, you go, yeah, they lost. Because you're smart. But when they win, you say, we won.
Why? Because they won on behalf of their city. They won on behalf of their fans. That's why when it's... The chips are down, and they're losing at halftime, and they come back out, and they rally, and they finally score. You jump up, lose your mind, kick something over, like break your television, because you're so excited that they won.
The reason Christians sing, the reason we gather together in the morning and celebrate, the reason we're going to lose our mind in a minute when people get baptized is because Jesus has won the victory for us. The empty tomb stands as the forever scoreboard that sin does not claim us, sin does not hold us, death has no hold over us any longer. We can have life through Jesus. That's the empty tomb. That's the cross. People say, why would you pick something so bloody and terrible to celebrate?
Why would Christians wear crosses? That's when we were down 40 to nothing at halftime. It's fun to see that now. It's fun to see the moment in history when it looked so bleak, so wrong, so broken, that humanity had gathered together to murder God. And we can celebrate now because it was in that moment that Jesus died for our sin and there's, it's not, he wasn't always on the cross. He was buried in the tomb and he didn't stay in the tomb and he's risen to a throne and we get to celebrate forever that the cross and the empty tomb prove to us that death has no claim over us once we've placed our faith in Jesus.
That our sin and our brokenness no longer holds us. That we have life forever in the one who's given us victory. Who's conquered death on our behalf. So in a minute, five people are gonna be on a screen and they're gonna tell you why they believe in Jesus and then they're gonna get baptized and we're gonna scream and yell and clap because we're celebrating that victory has been given to us through Jesus. That he was good, that he paid our penalty and that we have life forever in him. Through the victory that's been won on our behalf.
Let's pray. God, we thank you that we have victory. We thank you that the tomb is empty and that seals forever our hope in you. That when we place our faith in you, that when we repent of our sin, that we come to you and say, I have nothing to offer but you died for me. I have nothing to bring to the table but you loved me so much that you died for me. That you lived righteously on my behalf.
That you paid for our sin and that you set us free and we praise you for the tomb and we praise you for the people that are getting baptized today to proclaim that. In Jesus' name, amen. Here's what's about to happen. Christians celebrate baptism because it's a symbol that when Jesus was buried, our sin, our shame, our guilt, our brokenness was buried with him. That when he died, death died with him. That all the things that had a hold and a claim over us are gone.
And so we baptize somebody and we say basically they're buried with Jesus. And that when Jesus rose from the grave, he gave life to them because they placed their faith in him. That's what baptism is. It's a celebration that Jesus has won the victory on our behalf.
Mar 27
Jesus and the Desperate
Transcript
You are listening to a message from the Gathering of Mill City Church in West Columbia, South Carolina. I'm very excited we're getting to start a new series today. So what we try to do as a church family is kind of stay on the same topic for a couple weeks at a time so that we can all kind of gather around that, think through the same stuff together. And so what we're doing for the next several weeks is we're going to be doing a series called Jesus and People. And then after that we're going to be walking verse by verse through the book of 1 Peter throughout the summer. And so we're excited about both of these.
This series, what we're shooting for, what we're trying to do is understand how God would respond to us as individuals in our normal everyday life. So what happens is I think sometimes we have this vague understanding of God. Or depending on kind of how you grew up and your background and what you've learned about God or been taught by God, sometimes taught about God. Sometimes we feel like maybe God's angry. Like if we sat down with Him, He'd be mad at us or frustrated with us or that He's got a lot of anger towards us that we don't measure up. Sometimes I think we have this vague sense that God's loving and He's just good and He probably loves everybody.
And even if we think about that, though, I've met some people who feel like God is just loving and He's good. And then as you keep asking questions, it's like, well, yeah, but if I talked with Him, He loves everybody. But if He sat down with me, I just feel like He'd be a little bit disappointed, a little bit frustrated, a little bit wished that I would do better. We have this understanding that – and so what we're shooting for is to just look at Jesus and how He interacts with people in the Gospels. And the reason is the Bible tells us that Jesus is God. Colossians 1.15 is going to say that He is the image of the invisible God.
So the Creator God that exists that you don't just see when you're on your way to work, but you kind of see His work. What we see is that Jesus is Him as a human, that Jesus is God when He became a person, that God relates to humans so much that He actually became one, that He actually took on flesh. And then He interacts with real people, broken people, confused people, hurting people, self-righteous people, that Jesus interacts with them. And so what we're trying to do is just take a look at who are the people He interacts with and how can we learn from that how God would respond to us. And so we're kind of looking twofold at this.
One is if you fit in the category of what we're studying that week, if we're looking at a specific person and that's kind of you, what we want to understand is this is how God would respond to us because this is how Jesus responds. This is how Jesus interacts. This is what He calls that individual to. And the other one is if it's not you, if you don't fit in that category, for us to as a church family learn how we ought to respond. For us as a church family to see how Jesus responds because Jesus is our hero and our Savior and He is God, but He is also an example. He's not just an example, but He is an example, and we get to learn how we ought to respond to people.
And so I think sometimes the church – I don't think sometimes. This is correct. The church ought to respond to people, treat people the way that Jesus does. But I think sometimes the church doesn't get that correct. So if you're just hanging out and you're checking out this whole Jesus thing and you're like, yeah, I've seen how the church treats this group of people or I've seen how the church treats me or I just have looked at the church and they're hypocrites and they're off.
I want to say two things to that. One is a lot of times I think we look at the church and we say, man, look at how messed up those people are. Look at how their lives are off. Look at how hypocritical they are. And honestly, yeah, that's kind of how it works. The church is the group of people who were the first to raise their hands and say, I need a Savior.
I'm not awesome. I'm not great. I'm not figuring this out well on my own. I am messed up. I do have problems. And I need Jesus to save me.
That's what Jesus does. He steps in and He saves everyone who's broken, everyone who's needy. So at times when people levy complaints against the church and they're like, look at how hypocritical they are. Look at how messed up they are. I'm just kind of like, yeah, it's a little bit like looking at like a summer camp for overweight children and being like, that camp's terrible. All the kids there are fat.
It's like, that's why they went. Like you're confused. That's what the church is. So the church is filled with broken, messed up, sinful people. Yeah, because they're the people who realize they need Jesus. Does that make sense?
So it's like people will be like, man, I just don't know about that guy. He's kind of like a four on a scale of like following and obedience. And I'm like, really? That's beautiful because six months ago, he was probably like a two. Like, that's great. Like, that's wonderful.
Yeah, she's kind of a jerk. Kind of a jerk. Man, you'd have to reach in your bag of profanity to describe her a year ago. Kind of a jerk is amazing. Like, we need to go high five her. That's amazing growth.
Like, that's what the church is. It's a group of people who realize they need Jesus. That's what brought us together. And on the other end of that, so there's two things. There's that. And then there is people who are confused about what the church is, who are part of the church, claim the name of Christian, but believe it's about their morality and something that they've earned.
And that's how you get Dana Carvey being the church lady on SNL. Or you get Angela from The Office. And that general attitude of, I'm a Christian, so I'm better than you. And that's where, yeah, Christianity at times is off there, where people have thought they've earned it. When that's the opposite of what the Bible says. And so us as a church family, we want to grow and learn how we ought to respond to people in specific situations.
And just very practically answer some of those questions. And then for the weeks that it actually really applies to you, get to see how God would interact with you, how he would respond to you. So I'm going to pray and then we're going to hop in this morning. God, we thank you that you are relational, that you do care about humans enough to become one, to identify with us in our hurt and our pain and our confusion. To take on sin in a very real way. So that you could redeem and so that you could save.
God, we trust you. We pray that you would speak to us this morning as we study your word. In Jesus' name, amen. We'll be in Mark chapter 5. So this whole series is going to be in the Gospels.
Just looking at stories of Jesus interacting with people. So we won't deal much with things that he taught. Way more with how he spoke to people, how he interacted with people. And we're going to be in Mark chapter 5 starting in verse 21. And the Gospels are just accounts of what Jesus did while he was walking around on earth. Mostly focused on the two years, three years right before he was crucified.
And then most of their time is spent on the crucifixion. But we're going to spend some time just looking at some different stories in the Gospels. And so what we're going to look at today is we're going to look at two individuals that are just out of options. At the end of their rope. Have no good plan for where to go next. They're just desperate.
And so we're going to look and see how God, how Jesus as God interacts with people who have no more options and who come to him. Have no good idea of how the future is going to work out. No plan for it. And come to him. So we're going to start in Mark verse 21, chapter 5, verse 21.
And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side. So he's coming across the Sea of Galilee. A great crowd gathered about him. And he was beside the sea. So tons of people show up.
He's just getting out of a boat. He's famous at this point. Kind of reluctantly famous. But he's famous at this point for healing, for teaching. This great crowd shows up. Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue.
The synagogue was a place where Jewish people would gather every Sabbath and study scripture. So he oversees a synagogue. Jairus by name. And seeing him, he fell at his feet. And he 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.
So Jairus shows up. And he says, My little daughter is at the point of death. Come lay your hands on her so that she may be made well and live. What we find out later, What we find out in Luke's gospel is that she's an only child. What we find out later in this, Mark's account, is that she's 12 years old. So they didn't have birth control.
And you wanted to have a lot of children. The desire in their culture, in Jewish culture, was to have a lot of children. Children were a blessing. They would take care of you in your old age. And so just to know that they have a 12-year-old girl, and that's their only child, that story already has a lot of pain in it, already has a lot of frustration in it, already has a lot of doubt and questions and fears in it. We do know that the mother is alive, so we don't know if there's been miscarriages.
We don't know if there have been other children that have died from illnesses while they were young. All we know is that they've at least been together as a couple for 12 years, and they have one child, and that's already got a lot of pain in it. And now this 12-year-old girl is at the point of death. We don't know how long this sickness lasts. We don't know if it's been a long sickness, if she's just recently gotten sick. But what we do know is that Jairus knows she's not going to make it.
And he had to have made a decision. He had to have been home and heard, Jesus is here. With his daughter who's gasping for air, maybe drifting in and out of consciousness, and he decided the only thing I can do is try to make it to Jesus. I've heard that he heals. I've heard that he's capable of doing things. By the grace of God, he just showed up in our town.
And the only thing I can do, and as a father, as a husband, designed to lead and protect the sense of helplessness that this man must have felt in a situation where he has no control over the outcome, and then he hears Jesus is here. And he's got to be thinking, what if all this stuff about Jesus is true? What if the things I've heard about Jesus, what if it's real? What if he actually can save? What if he actually can heal? What if he actually can just show up and this work out?
And so he leaves. He makes a decision to, I'm not going to be with her while she takes her last breath, possibly. I'm going to go do the one thing I know I can do. And he earnestly implores Jesus, come with me. Please, just come with me. I know there's a huge crowd.
I know you've got a lot going on. I know there's, just come with me. And so what we see very early on is that this guy runs into the middle of what Jesus is doing, falls on his face and says, I need your help. And the next line is beautiful. Verse 24, And he went with him. I love that.
Jesus' immediate response is, let's go. Like, don't you feel sometimes that like if you came to Jesus, his response would be like, well, let's talk. Have you been a good little girl? Have you been a good little boy? Have you been behaving? Have you been following?
Like, let's, I've got some questions for you. Do you deserve this? No, Jesus' response, he just went with him. He comes to him and says, I have no other options. It's just you. And Jesus just, let's go.
And that's beautiful to me. So Jesus is going with this man to his daughter who's on her deathbed. You feel his pain? Have a 12-year-old who's going to die? Do you feel that? Where he would be at this point?
Mentally? Emotionally? A great crowd followed him and thronged about him. Thronged just means they were all over him, touching him. Probably had his disciples running some crowd control. And I mean, he's in a hurry.
So they're on their way to go try to save a child who's about to die. And there's a huge crowd of people just mobbing him, which has to be slowing down the progress. Jairus has to probably be trying to push people out of the way. You know, this is important. You can talk to him later. We got something to do.
Doing everything he can to get Jesus there. And there was a woman who had 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. Okay, so in the crowd, in this crowd that throngs about him, there's a woman who's had a discharge of blood for 12 years. Now, that can mean that she had an external sore or external sores that were bleeding off and on or continuously for 12 years. Most likely, she was having uterine bleeding, which would have been basically a constant menstruation for 12 years. This is a real medical condition.
I was talking to David Hewiler, who works with an insurance company. He says they get claims for it a lot. A lot of times it has to do with a tumor. And it causes fatigue, pain, and eventually can lead to death. And so for 12 years, she's had this condition. And added on top of that, in Jewish culture, when you had this kind of issue, either external or if it was an internal issue, she would have been unclean.
Because they had ceremonial clean and unclean laws. Where God in the Old Testament through Moses was teaching his people that they're not like him. That he's holy. He's separate from them. And so he gave them laws to show them this. And even in those laws, if you did everything to be clean, you did everything to be as clean as possible, when you showed up at the temple, you still needed a sacrifice on your behalf.
So he's also just teaching them that not only are you not like me, but even if you're the best version of you, you still need a sacrifice. You still need your sin covered. And he was pointing to the cross and all of that. But because of the clean and unclean laws, while she was unclean, would not be allowed to touch people. Or else they would become unclean. If it was, she would not be able to have normal relations with her husband, physical relations with her husband, if she was unclean.
So if she had a husband, we don't know. But if she had a husband, that would affect their relationship significantly. She would not be able to gather for worship with the temple. She would not be able to take part in feasts and festivals that would happen multiple times a year. She basically would have to remove herself from normal society because of this issue. Not only is it painful, not only does it cause fatigue, not only does it just drain her of energy and life, but it affects her ability to have a normal life.
And it says that she's suffered much and hasn't gotten any better, but to grown worse. And it's been 12 years. The same time that Jairus was welcoming, his family was welcoming a newborn daughter into the world, she began to have this issue and it hasn't ceased for 12 years. And she's in the crowd. And she has no other options. Quite possibly because it's been a 12-year-long process and she's growing worse, she may be close to death.
She has no energy. She's in pain constantly. Spent all that she had. Spent all that she had. Has completely gone out of money to only suffer and grow worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus.
That's verse 27. 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. Okay, so she's heard about Jesus. And she has to have this, Really?
Can he really heal? Can he really save? Can he really, Is he able to do what I've heard that he's able to do? And she has no other options. And she comes up with a plan. I'll sneak through a crowd, Making everyone around me unclean.
I'll sneak up to Jesus and touch him. Something I'm not allowed to do because I'm unclean. And because he's a teacher. Because he's a man. So all the regulations of how this will work.
But I'll just sneak up and touch him. And if I can just do that, I'll be healed. If I can just get close enough to touch him, I'll be healed. Can you imagine that? Like he shows up with all the amount of energy that she has. She fights through this crowd.
She has to have, Her heart is pounding. And she just gets close enough, Just reaches out his hands, Able to touch his garments. Able to just swipe his clothes. With just the hope, The belief and the faith, That if I can do this, I'll be healed. I'll be made right. So we've got Jairus, Who's leading Jesus through a big crowd, Trying to get as fast as he can, To his house.
Not knowing at what moment, His daughter's going to die. And we've got this lady, Who's fighting through this crowd, Just to touch Jesus, In the faith that that'll heal her, From 12 years of suffering. We've got two people that are a lot like us. Broken, In need, With a lot of pain, And not a lot of hope. Who, Honestly, Don't have good options at this point. Jesus hadn't showed up, Hadn't gotten off this boat, Jairus' option was, Hold his daughter's hand while she, Dies.
Jesus hadn't shown up in this area, Then this lady's hope was to, She had no more money, Suffer more, Die eventually. And both of them have a sliver of hope, Because Jesus is here. And for us, We can be money, I just don't have, When it comes to finances, I just have no more good options, I have no plan, I have no clear idea, Of where this is going to go, I'm honestly, I'm in a place where, Just desperate. Relationships, I don't see how this is going to work out, I don't see how I'm ever, Going to get here, I don't see how this, I'm ever going to be married, I don't see how this marriage, Is ever going to last, I don't see how we're ever going to have children, I don't see how, Our children are ever going to turn out, The way, I just have no more good options, I don't have options, When it comes to work, I don't have, Like, You feel that, You feel where they are, And they're further along than us, The part where it says, 26, It was a woman who had suffered much, And it ends with, Was no better, But rather grew worse, Is that some of us, That's the story of your life, You've suffered much, And it's not getting any better, There's no light at the end of this tunnel, When you look at your options, When you look at the foreseeable future, The best thing you can come up with is, Pain, Hurt, Suffering, If the past is an indicator, Of where this is headed, I'm going to continue to suffer, It's going to continue to get worse, And thankfully, At some point I'll die, And at least that'll stop it, So these are the two people, Who are saying to themselves, Can it be true?
Can what I've heard about Jesus be real? Can he actually heal? Can he actually save? Can life actually be different, Because of him, Because I've heard that it can, Is that real? And they're both trusting, That it is, So she sneaks through, She catches this plan, If I can just touch his garments, I'll be made well, And she really just wants to, To kind of steal, Some healing from Jesus, Most people when Jesus heals them, They have to show up, They have to say, Here's my problem, She had no desire to do that, You see, If she had an internal issue, She really had two options, For life, Follow the regulations, And have, Be ostracized, Have no normal life, Or, Hide this, Lie, And have a normal life, And I feel like, In a room this size, We've got some people, Who feel like, That's your options, I can be real about this, And have zero friends, I can be real about this, And have no actual relationships, Or I can hide this, I can keep this a secret, And have a normal life, And she decides, At least on this day, I'm going to keep this a secret, I'm just going to sneak up to Jesus, And I'm just going to, Get some healing from him, I'm not going to walk up to him, In front of everybody, And say, Here's my problem, Will you heal me, I'm just going to, Work my way through this crowd, Make a bunch of people unclean, Not tell them about it, Make him unclean, And leave, That's her plan, 28, 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, She touches Jesus, And immediately, She's healed, She feels it in her body, I don't know what that would have felt like, I'm assuming, Amazing, 12 years of pain, 12 years of hurt, 12 years of struggle, 12 years of suffering, She touches him, And immediately feels, I don't know, Warm, Tingly, Super excited, Like if you saw her, Walking into the crowd, She was, She was in pain, She was hurting, She was fighting through, If you saw her walking out, She was like, Like, Just smile on her face, Like that lady's glowing, That was weird, She feels healing, Just by getting her hands on Jesus, And she was ecstatic, In awe, Blown away, For about, Five seconds, Maybe three, Feels that she's healed, Her mind is blown, She feels warmth, And life, Energy running through her, Verse 37, And Jesus, Perceiving in himself, That power had gone out from him, Immediately turned about in the crowd, And said, Who touched my garments?
Okay, That's super weird, A couple of things, One is Jesus feels power leave from him, Which means that in some way, When Jesus heals, There's this exchange, Of his life, For ours, That he has to give up, Some of his power, That he has to become weaker, So that she can become stronger, That he has to give up some life, So that she can have health, That Jesus has to exchange with us, And so he's walking along, There's a huge crowd, A bunch of people touching him, They're fighting him, The disciples are around him, Pushing on him, Hand on his back, Trying to get him through the crowd, Like he's Justin Bieber, And there's a bunch of 13 year old girls around, Like they're fighting through, And suddenly he stops, And this giant crowd, Stops, Spins around and says, Who touched my clothes? And everybody goes, Like there was a guy at the back, Like just, I ain't even got hands, Like they were in my pockets, Like immediately he stops, And spins around and says, Who touched my clothes? And you had to imagine, Everybody was like, Like a lot of people, I think, And this lady, Who was super excited, Jesus stops, Says who touched my garments, And she goes, Like I mean just, Still excited? That she's healed, But she's entered into a new arena, Not as excited as before, I love his disciples response, This is the best, Jesus had real people around him, Just so you know, Jesus perceiving himself, The power had gone out from himself, Verse 30, 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?
So his disciples are like, I got this, What? That guy, That guy, I was touching you, Pretty sure Philip had a hand in there, Like, Like, This is the weirdest question, You've probably ever asked, Is this one of your parabolas? Like you, You're going to teach us something? Like what are you doing here? So Jesus being Jesus, Doesn't respond to them, Verse 32, And he looked around, To see who had done it, So he's scanning the crowd, To look for the one, Absolutely terrified person, Who knows exactly what just happened, That's what he's doing, So he's like, Okay, Wasn't that disciple, Because he doesn't understand, What just happened, So he's just looking around, Where are you at?
Verse 31, His disciples said to him, You see the crowd, Pressing around you, And yet you say, Who touched me? 32, 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, You don't get Jesus, Without the personal relationship, You don't just get benefits of Jesus, Without Jesus, So immediately he says, No, There's a human here, I need to talk to, Where are you at? She knows what happened, She lays down, Trembling before him, Knowing that what she had done, In all of understanding, Of everything that would happen, Would be wrong, What she had done was wrong, And she's about to have to, Articulate this in front of everybody, She's about to have to explain, Explain her whole story, And she gives the whole truth, Which is our option, When we come to Jesus, Whole truth, Not half truth, Not a little bit of a spin on truth, Whole truth, Lay it all out there, We also come to Jesus, On his terms, Not ours, Jesus is in control, Of the whole situation, You come to him on his terms, Not yours, You don't get to come up with, This is how my interaction, My relationship, This is how Jesus and I, Are going to work together, No, Jesus is in control, Of all of that, And he controls how, Your relationship is going to work, So she lays it all out there, Tells him, Why he should be mad at her, Why he as a teacher, As a good devout Jew, Should be disgusted, By what she just did, And he said to her, Verse 34, Daughter, Your faith has made you well, Go in peace, And be healed of your disease, Do you know how beautiful that is? How many other ways he could respond, And he starts with daughter, I just assumed there was a smile, Came across his face, As he was impressed by her faith, I don't think Jews use this word, Jewish people at this time, But her moxie, Just appreciates her, And just, Daughter, Go in peace, Your faith has made you well, That's the response, We get from Jesus, When we run to him, When we're desperate, I have no other options, I have no other plan, And I have no other idea, Of how this is going to work out, I'm done trusting in myself, I'm done trusting in other things, I just need you, I just trust you, To let this work out, The way you want it to work out, I have a preference, She had a preference, As to how this would work out, It did not work out that way, Jesus had some of, No this is how a relationship, Is going to work, But just with love, And just with acceptance, And just with this open arm, Yes you can come to me, You're welcome to come to me, When you have no other options, Okay, A couple of things to see here, She tells the whole truth, This is a 12 year long story, And a lady, If I ask my mom, A yes or no question, She responds like this, Well last Tuesday, Nope, This is a yes or no question, Like, The response is yes or no, She wants to tell a story, That's my mom, She's super sweet, Some ladies aren't like that, A lot of ladies are, One of the things we talk about, In premarital counseling, Is we're coaching people up, Is we say, Men, Come up with things, That happen during the day, That you can tell your wife about, Because when you get home, And she says, How was work, How was your day, And you respond, Good, Or fine, Which is a very acceptable answer, She's not going to think, It's acceptable, You need to have some form of, Carl was there, And he hurt his shin, And I was all, Dang Carl, She'll love it, Oh wow, I didn't know that about Carl, You know like, There's just something about that, And then we tell, We tell the ladies, Please just give highlights, Just give highlights, Just, Just bullet points, Of your day, Because my wife will say stuff like, I was at work, And Christy was there, And she was wearing a blue shirt, And we were in the break room, And I think she had a pimento cheese sandwich, And she'll go through this whole story, And at the end, I'll go, What, What about the blue shirt?
She'll go, What about the blue shirt? What? You said she was wearing a blue shirt, She was wearing a blue shirt, She didn't spill pimento cheese, On her blue shirt or something, Like those details, Had nothing to do with the story, They were part of the story, Okay, Like you just have to, She gives too much information, I'm trying to hold it all together, Get to the end, And it was just that she was mad about something, It's like, Okay, I didn't need any of that, She tells this whole story, Maybe she summed it up, I'm assuming that it was pretty long, She tells this whole story, She tells the whole truth, She lays it all out there, Jesus doesn't cut her off, He doesn't tell her to wrap it up, He doesn't say, Hey, We're kind of busy, Like you're derailing something, I'm in the middle of, Like you feel the weight of, On the way to save a child's life, That's why ambulances, Don't stop at red lights, They got a kid in the back, They got a dad back there, They're doing everything they can, To keep him alive, And then they're like, You know what, I didn't know Taco Bell had a dollar menu, That's not how it works, Like you, He's in the middle, It's the same as an ambulance, Taking a child to go be saved, It's the same process, And he just stops everything, And he just listens, And he welcomes her, Some of us feel like, If we came to God, He'd be bothered by us, That he's got too much going on, He has no desire to hear everything, He just needs the bullet points, He's a little bit frustrated, With our neediness, And he is not, God is eternal, And outside of time, And even when he became, Finite, And was limited by time, Still had time, For everybody, Do you see that? He's not like your dad, Who was easily frustrated, Not like your husband, Or your wife, Or your boss, Or him, He stops, He listens, He cares, And wants to know all of it, Isn't that beautiful?
Now if you're Jairus, That was terrible, Wrap it up, Wrap it up, Wrap it up, Okay, Okay, She just said seven years ago, No, We need three minutes ago, Come, Can you feel, The anxiousness, The weight of, That's over with, Like it's happened, Y'all can talk about this later, We got, Jesus has all the time in the world, God responds to us, With great patience, And, He doesn't follow our schedule, See that perfectly in this story, Being crossroads here, He's not on your timeline, He's in control, He's good, Not on your timeline, Even though our timelines, Are.
So brilliant, That's what I have to talk to him, About all the time, God I've come up with a great plan, I really feel like, You're going off script here, And, You are confused about, Why, What we're doing here, So that's what Jairus is feeling, Jesus you're blowing this, Jesus you're messing this up, Jesus this isn't going to work, If you keep talking, Jesus you got to, She's got to stop, 34, 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, Jairus is waiting, Hoping that this will wrap up, They're close to his house, Jesus is talking, He's being very gracious, And very loving, Jairus looks up, And he sees some people, From his house, They don't have to talk, He sees it on their face, Blood's gone, You can already tell, They've been crying, He knows they're not coming, To give good news, Your daughter's dead, Don't bother the teacher, Any further, He can go do other stuff.
Now, No sense in him coming with you, And his, His heart, That was holding on, To that last little bit of hope, That last little bit, Of a Hail Mary shot, Maybe we can pull this off, I left her, And went as fast as I could, Did everything I possibly could, For our one, Final shot, His heart drops into his stomach, Because everything he feared, Was going to happen, Happened, And it's over, You don't come back from that, It's not, She's getting worse, Hurry up, Your daughter is dead, Don't bother the teacher anymore, His last little bit of an option, Is gone, It's done, There's no returning from this, 36.
But overhearing, What they said, Jesus said, To the ruler of the synagogue, Do not fear, Only, Believe, So Jesus hears it, Jairus hears it, Right as he's responding, Jesus turns to him, And says, Don't fear, Only believe, Do not fear, Only believe, I don't know how that was received, We're not told, We know they go the rest of the walk, To the house, When it was absolutely final, When everything was done, When there's no way to come back from this, Jesus' response to Jairus is, Don't fear, Believe, Trust, Lean in, Don't believe them, Believe in me, Don't trust the finality of this situation, Believe me, Do you know how hard that would be?
It's done, They foreclosed, It's done, The court case, The ruling has been sentenced, The sentence has been laid down, It's done, The prognosis is what it is, It's done, It's final, We've packed everything, Repo's final, Foreclosure's final, Finances are final, Health is final, It's done, And Jesus looks at him and says, Don't fear, Just believe, Only belief, Just trust, Just lean in, Just look at me, Look at me, Let's go, And he allowed no one to follow him, Except Peter and James and John, The brother of James, Could have done that from the beginning, Turns around and tells everybody.
Okay, Crowd, We're done, Peter, James, John, Let's go, 38, They came to the house, Of the ruler of the synagogue, And Jesus saw a commotion, People weeping, And wailing loudly, Do you know how Jairus saw that, When he came around the corner, Everyone that he knows, And cares about is broken, And when he had entered, He said to them, Why are you making a commotion, Why are you making a commotion, And weeping, The child is not dead, But sleeping, Okay, Jesus, Gets to say ridiculous things, He walks into, Where a child has just died, And says, What's all this about, She's fine, That's crazy.
But Jesus gets to be crazy, He gets to say ridiculous things, He gets to step in, When everything looks like it's done, And say, Oh, Don't worry about that, Oh, This is going to work out okay, You're going to be alright, He's the only one, Who gets to do that, And it actually means something, 40, And they laughed at him, Okay, That's how ridiculous, His statement was, They went from weeping, And wailing, There was a commotion, And they all stop and laugh.
Because that's how ridiculous, His statement was, We, In our culture, Are pretty distant from death, Some people, Have certain jobs, Where they see death, Right then, Most of us, When we see, A dead person, They've been placed in a casket, They've been cleaned up, You can always tell, There's just something different about them, The life is gone, But we're not as familiar with death, As they were, They knew death, They knew she had had life, They knew it had left, She's dead.
So much so that they laughed, They derided 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, Okay, I don't know the process, Of putting all of them outside, I'm assuming, Because Jesus is God, He was able to suck the air out of a room, With his face, That his facial expression changed, And he said, Y'all need to leave, And everyone assumed, That's my best option, I don't know, I don't know how long it took, I'm just assuming, That's me imposing something, On the text there, I just know it says, He put them all outside, They went from.
Weeping, Wailing, To laughing at him, And then everyone decided to leave, 41, 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, Mark adds that in now, So that her walking isn't weird, If you were assuming it was an infant, She was 12, And they were immediately, Overcome, With amazement, And he strictly charged them, That no one should know this, And he told them, Give her something to eat, Little no fact about dying, It makes you really hungry.
Jesus walks in, Sends everybody out, Grabs a dead girl by the hands, And says, Little girl, It's time to wake up, The way a mother, Or a father, Would wake up a child, In the morning, He grabs her by the hand, And he says, It's time to get up, Gosh, She's just sleeping, Little girl, I say to you, Arise, It's time to wake up, She sits up, Begins walking, Life fills her again, I'm assuming, That there had to be an exchange, Power left him to heal, The lady, I'm assuming, More of his power, More of his energy, More of his strength, More of his life, Had to leave, We don't know.
Jesus is able to step into a situation, When it's completely final, And change it, Reverse it, Bring life back where there's death, Bring hope back where there's despair, We have two people in this story, Who are absolutely wrecked, And desperate, And have no hope, And no options, Except for Jesus, And their only hope is, Maybe what's been said about him is true, Maybe it's real, That he can bring life, That he can bring hope, That he can bring joy, Maybe it's real, That he can heal, Some of us may be in that same spot, I don't have good plans, I don't have good options.
But maybe all this stuff, That I hear about Jesus is true, Maybe what my friends have been saying is true, Maybe what we've been talking about, In community group is true, Maybe what we, People celebrate on Easter is true, That Jesus was dead, Now he's alive, And in him we can have life, And hope, That my brokenness can be taken away, Maybe it's true, Christians, We're going to set aside, The story for just a second, We're going to set aside, Those of us who are in, In the position that Jairus and the woman were, We're going to come back in just a.
Second, But for Christians in the room, For the church, Maybe you're not in this position, We're going to take just a quick second, And we're going to go through five things, If you take notes, We're going to run through these pretty quickly, Five things, Five ways that we as, As the church, Get to respond to people in this position, Get to respond to people who are desperate, One, Be there, Just be there, Jesus' response to Jairus, Was let's go, Didn't talk, Didn't say anything, He just went with him, He was just there, Sometimes that's all we can do, That's the best option we have, Is just be there, Just be around, Just love them, Just.
Be there, Number two, Be willing to be inconvenienced, Your timeline's going to get messed with, Your plans are going to get derailed, As you have real friends, And real family, And real loved ones, That are in this position, Jesus shows up, Immediately has to go with Jairus, In the middle of that, Has to stop and deal with this woman, Be willing to be inconvenienced, Go ahead and plan on it, Know that's how that works, Three, Don't be shocked by confession, She lays it all on the line, And his response is absolutely welcoming, His absolute love, Secret shame and guilt, And things in our closets, That's humans, Christians should be the least shocked, By sinfulness, The.
Bible's very clear, We're all busted, We're all broken, We all need Jesus, And so when someone says, This is how messed up I am, We should just be like, Yeah and Jesus is great, Yeah, Sin tricks us all, Yeah, Shame and guilt, Yes, We need Jesus, So she lays it on the line, And he had the opportunity, To respond, With condemnation, With don't you know, What you've done wrong, And he just says, Daughter you're healed, Four, You will have to sacrifice.
Jesus in order for these people, To receive healing, Had to give up power, Had to pour some of it, And he'll have to give himself out, And that's how it works, When we're around somebody, Who's drained of love, And energy, And hope, You've got to pour some of yours out, For them to feel loved, For them to regain a sense of hope, You've got to pour out, Some of your energy, For them to have some, We actually line up with Jesus, And we do this really.
Well, And we do that, And number five, Point towards faith in Jesus, Don't just give pithy statements, Don't just have some, Oh it's going to be okay, Help them see why it'll be okay, Because of the cross, Jesus ultimately was just, It was about faith in him, The whole time, And that's what he turns to Jairus, And says, Don't fear, Just believe, And we get to just say, Jesus is good, He's trustworthy, I don't know how this situation, Is going to turn out.
But I know that, And that's what we hold on to, Band's going to come back up, We're going to sing, To Jesus, If you're in the room, And you're Jairus, If you're in the room, And you're this woman, You're in a position, Where you have no clue, What the next step is, The only thing you can see, On the horizon, Is pain, Is brokenness, You honestly don't know, How life is going to continue, You don't know how you'll get back to normal, You don't know how you'll get back to happy, You honestly feel like, That's not going to happen, Your hope.
For joy, Your hope for fulfillment, Is gone, Let me say this very clearly, You can come to Jesus, And you can trust, Jesus, Not to work on your timeline, Not to fulfill all your dreams, Doesn't always work out, The way we want it to, But what we know, Is that Jesus is trustworthy, And his response to you is the same, Tell me all about it, Tell me what you need, Lay it all out, Don't fear, Just believe, Just trust, You see we can get a glimpse of it in this story.
Jesus has to give up power, He has to give up strength, For her to be made strong, For her to be made well, Eventually, Jesus isn't going to just be weakened a little bit, He's going to come completely weak, He's not going to give up just a little bit of life, He's going to give up his entire life, That Jesus is ultimately going to go to the cross, And lay it all out for us, All of his strength will be gone, All of his life will be gone, All of his power will be gone, That he joins us in our suffering, That he joins us in our pain.
Because of the cross, We know, Without a shadow of a doubt, That he loves us, And that he's trustworthy, He can be trusted, He went to the cross for us, We can bring him anything, We don't know how it will work out, But we know that he's good, And that he can be trusted, That we can bring anything to him, When we have no more options, No more hope, When everything seems final, And he can bring life, And he can bring healing, And he can bring hope, That's the.
Jesus that we rest in, That's the God that loved us so much, That he became a human, To take on our guilt, And our shame, And our pain, To take on our death, So that we can have his life, And his joy, And his hope, And ultimately we rest in him, So if you're in this position today, You don't have good options, You don't have a good plan, You've ceased trusting in yourself, And you've ceased trusting, And getting the situation to work out, Jesus' response to you is the same, Don't fear, Just believe, I'm the.
God that can step into these situations, And make them work out for good, When you see no way that's going to happen, And sometimes it's long, And sometimes it's painful, But he's absolutely trustworthy, God, We ask that your Holy Spirit would help us to lean into you, When we see no hope, When we see no light at the end of the tunnel, God, That you would, Through your Holy Spirit, Look at us, Look into our souls, And say, Don't fear, Just believe, Just lean into me, And that you would give us the ability to do that.
God, That you would grant us faith, That we can trust you, That we can place our hope, And our life in you, And we praise you, Lord, That you became completely weak, Completely powerless, That you didn't just give us life, But you gave yours up for us, And that we know we can trust you in all things, God, You're good, And help us to see that, And help us to trust you, And to have real faith, In you and you alone, In Jesus' name, Amen.