[0:00] With the Lord's help, turn back to the portion of Scripture that we read in the Gospel according to Mark. In chapter 5, page 1008.
[0:12] Mark chapter 5. And if you read our text this evening, Mark 5, verse 36. Ignoring what they said, Jesus told the synagogue ruler, Don't be afraid, just believe.
[0:33] Fear not, only believe. As my time in Bonacord is coming to an end, I wanted to enjoy the privilege of being a tourist in the Granite City.
[0:49] And this week, I visited one of the oldest buildings in Aberdeen, which was built in the 16th century. It is the house of the Lord Provost George Skeen. But out of all the fascinating things to see in this house, there was one room which was of particular interest.
[1:06] It was a room called the Painted Gallery. And as the name suggests, there was obviously going to be paintings on the inside of this room. But entering into this dark and dingy room, there was no paintings actually hanging on the walls.
[1:21] But the paintings were in fact painted onto the walls. And if you've ever been to the house, you will know that the Painted Gallery in the Lord Provost George Skeen's house comprises of these panels of flat sawn pine boards which show different episodes in the life of Christ.
[1:40] And with each episode, it's separated by decorative schemes and these sacred emblems. And altogether in this room, there are ten paintings. And each painting is framed, it has a frame rounded that's painted onto the wall.
[1:55] And four of them were on one wall. One with the painting of the Annunciation of the Angel to Mary that she would have a son. And then there was another with the shepherds coming to Jesus when he was born.
[2:08] But on the other wall, there was a painting of Jesus' death and another of his burial. And then on the ceiling, there were two pictures. One of his resurrection and then the other of his ascension.
[2:20] But what was really interesting is that four out of the ten pictures were blank. They had their frame around them that was painted. But you couldn't make out what had originally been painted on them.
[2:32] They hadn't lasted the test of time and they hadn't remained intact like the others. But the historical information on the wall said that these four blank paintings on the walls of this room depicted the different scenes from the life and ministry of Christ.
[2:50] And we had the scenes from the birth and the death and the resurrection and the ascension of Christ. They're important scenes, the fundamental scenes. But the paintings of the life and ministry of Jesus were blank.
[3:03] There was nothing there. And as I stood looking at these blank episodes of the life of Jesus, I thought to myself, if I had an opportunity to paint four episodes of the life of Jesus, what would I paint?
[3:20] What scenes would I have painted if I had had the opportunity that the painter had? What scenes would you have painted if you had had the opportunity that the painter had?
[3:31] But then I thought to myself that I would probably paint the portraits of the people that Jesus met and the way in which their life had changed because they had met with Jesus.
[3:42] Because that's what's important, isn't it? We know all about the birth and we know about the death and the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus. But meeting with him is what changes lives.
[3:53] And in the episode of the life of Jesus, which we're looking at this evening, we see that Jesus transformed the lives of the family of Jairus and the woman with the issue of blood.
[4:05] And I suppose if we had the opportunity to paint the lives of the people that we've been looking at over the past few weeks, we would have painted a portrait of the lonely leper cleansed from his leprosy.
[4:16] And we would have painted a portrait of the paralyzed man who could now walk. And this evening, I hope we will be able to paint the portrait of the people who met Jesus in this great drama story of redemption.
[4:31] And as we look into this episode of the life of Jesus, we see that he had come back to Capernaum. Each time we have met Jesus in these past few weeks, we see that he was performing miracles in Capernaum.
[4:45] And at the beginning of chapter 5, if we had read it, we would have seen that Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee over into the region of the Gadarenes and met with Legion, the man who was possessed by many devils.
[4:58] But because of his miracles, Jesus was urged by the crowds in the Gadarenes to return to Capernaum on the other side of Galilee. So as one crowd threw a sigh of relief, seeing Jesus leave them, another crowd had already gathered together, waiting to welcome him back.
[5:16] But as Jesus returns to Capernaum again, he's not only met by the usual crowd of people who follow him, he's also met by two contrasting people who came to Jesus for help.
[5:28] Both of them knew that Jesus could perform miracles. And in this case, Jesus would once again show his authority over sickness and his authority over death.
[5:40] But the interesting thing here in this passage is how one miracle takes place in the middle of another. One involves Jairus and his family, and the other involves this particular woman.
[5:53] And the two incidents are quite different. And yet for all their differences, there is one thing that they both have in common. And that is encapsulated in the words of our text, where Jesus says to Jairus, only believe.
[6:10] And so the first thing I want you to notice in this scene are the differences that Jesus meets in the lives of these people as he sees a broken home and a broken hope.
[6:22] A broken home and a broken hope. The providences of these two families were so remarkably different. Jairus had his own responsibilities as the ruler of the local synagogue, which he was part of.
[6:38] But he had a daughter that he loved very, very dearly. But on the other hand, for the past 12 years, this woman had been battling a particularly difficult health issue.
[6:49] And not only had her health been deteriorating, but she had spent everything that she had and had become impoverished in an attempt to deal with her illness. And it's at this point that these providences converge.
[7:03] And at this particular time, that these providences bring these people to Jesus. But 12 years earlier, it was a different story.
[7:16] In the house of Jairus, there was rejoicing as his wife had given birth to a baby girl. And 12 years before this, this woman had discovered that she was far from well.
[7:27] In the case of the one household, one household had been filled with laughter and with joy and with all the happiness as Jairus and his wife held their little baby girl in their arms and looked at the bundle of joy that the Lord had provided for them.
[7:41] But this woman, on the other hand, had found herself far from well. Not only ill and all alone, but she was religiously unclean. And she knew enough to know that the issue of blood, the discharge, the hemorrhage which she suffered, was enough, according to the book of Leviticus, to leave her as an outcast.
[8:01] She was unclean. And in the process of these 12 years, the lives of these two families, they changed dramatically. Jairus, as a ruler of the synagogue, was a religious man.
[8:15] He'd spent much of his life in the synagogue, attending to all his religious duties, praying for his family and his little girl. And maybe that's where he was when he had come out to meet Jesus.
[8:28] We may question, why wasn't he at home with his young daughter, who was at death's door? But maybe Jairus was doing the thing that he thought best for his daughter and the only thing that he could do for her now.
[8:41] But maybe in the back of his mind, Jairus somehow knew that there were questions that his religion could not answer. And he knew that his daughter needed an alternative and fast.
[8:53] And on the other hand, this woman, she had spent the past 12 years of her life trying to be cured of her disease. Religion wouldn't accept her because she was unclean.
[9:04] And she had wasted all her money on every physician and maybe even every witch doctor she could find who had advised her on every potion and every ointment and every drug just to make her life better, but it only made it worse.
[9:16] She had spent all that she had, but she wasn't getting any better. This woman had seen that all the ailments in life that money could not buy for them and she needed an alternative and fast.
[9:31] And you see, my friend, there was a problem for Jairus that religion could not solve, but there was a problem for this woman that money could not solve. And yet the world today still thinks that its problems can be solved by either having enough religion or having enough money.
[9:50] But there are some problems in life that money can't even touch. And there are some problems in life that religion will never go near. But the answers to the lives of these two providences were not in religion or money, but in faith, in the authority of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
[10:11] You see, it was these providences that were used to bring Jairus and this woman to Jesus. Because had it not been for these providences, we have to question whether or not they would have come to Jesus at all.
[10:25] Had Jairus' daughter not lay dying in his family home, would Jairus have ever come out to meet Jesus? Had this woman been healed of her discharge of blood and made religiously clean, would she have ever come out to meet Jesus?
[10:41] But emptied of their own resources and emptied of their own efforts and emptied of their own authority over their own lives, they were brought and they came to Jesus. And Jairus came to Jesus falling at his feet, crying as a father who's bound up in all the interests of his own beloved daughter.
[10:58] And he comes to Jesus just begging him. Begging him just to come to his house and to touch his daughter. Begging him.
[11:10] We don't know what Jairus thought of Jesus before this because synagogues weren't always receptive to the message of Jesus. Even from the time they heard his first sermon, they wanted to stone him.
[11:21] But when the moment of extremity came, to whom else could Jairus go? And at the time of, at the point of his greatest need, he leaves his synagogue to fall at the feet of Christ to ask for help.
[11:35] And this woman, this woman, she came to Jesus knowing that she had tried every other physician and every other doctor and she spent every penny that she had. But none could help her until she came to the great physician who would not only heal her wounds but put his tender balm upon her soul for free.
[11:57] It would cost her nothing for free. And looking at this episode in the life and ministry of Jesus, who would have written the story the way he wrote the story?
[12:10] Who would have written the providences of these two families the way Jesus did? And looking at the events of 12 years prior to this day, who could have known the outcome of the events 12 years later?
[12:24] Who could have planned for the death of their own child? Or who could have known that a debilitating disease was on its way? And yet, in the midst of all their trials, these meetings with Jesus did not take place by some random chance of events, but they were all the direct result of God's over-ruling sovereignty over everything that takes place in this world.
[12:47] And when we look at the lives of these people and the way in which this golden thread was sewn into the dark tapestry of their lives, we see that the decrees of God, the paths which God has set, they are according to the counsel of his own eternal purpose, whereby for his own glory, he hath foreordained all things that shall come to pass.
[13:14] everything is in his hand and he does all things well. Where it was once said that our disappointments are God's appointments.
[13:27] And sometimes we look at the providences that the Lord has given to us and we wonder why. Why me? Why us? Why this way? Why has it happened?
[13:38] But we need to remember that amid all the varying and changing circumstances of our life, the great hope and consolation for the child of God is that every providence is under the sovereign control of our heavenly Father.
[13:52] He is the one who writes the story of our lives. He is the one who turns the pages in the events of our providence and sometimes he weaves in sorrow and difficulty and hardship and pain.
[14:05] And as that anonymous poet once wrote those beautiful words, thinking about a divine weaver, he said, or he said, and sometimes he weaves sorrow and I in foolish pride forget that he sees the upper and I the underside and not till the loom is silent and the shuttle cease to fly shall God unroll the canvas and explain the reason why the dark threads are as needful in the weaver's skillful hand as the threads of gold and silver in the pattern he has planned.
[14:43] My friend, there are things in our life that we may never find the answer for and threads of providence that have been woven into our experience that we'll never know why until we leave this world.
[14:55] But we don't live in fear or uncertainty because we know our God is working all things together for good to them who are the called according to his purpose. And as a child of God you can say he does all things well.
[15:12] He does all things well. And had it not been for the circumstances which closed in on these people maybe they would have never come to Jesus. But providence for Jairus was to become the servant and the handmaid of grace that brought him to fall at the feet of Jesus.
[15:31] And providence for this woman with the issue of blood would be the free gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. We've seen the broken home of Jairus and the broken hope of the woman with the issue of blood.
[15:46] But as one miracle takes place in the middle of another we see that this woman's broken hope very quickly becomes a realized hope. So if we look secondly at a realized hope and when we look at this woman we see that she had nothing to lean on.
[16:07] No crutch for her. Money couldn't help her. Religion wouldn't have her. And in comparison to Jairus who came to Jesus in a very public way and in a very public manner and simply fell at the feet of Jesus this woman comes to Jesus privately in the most unpublic in the most unobtrusive way that she can possibly find.
[16:28] And although she has had this problem for twelve years and spent her living in all these physicians she comes to exactly the same person to whom Jairus comes but she comes in a very different way.
[16:41] It's still a bold way because she knows what the law says about a woman of her condition. It says unclean, unclean, unclean and whoever or whatever she touches she makes it unclean but she knows that there is one here that if she will just but touch him.
[17:00] Jairus had come and exhorted to Jesus that his daughter was at the point of death but this woman she didn't tell anyone of her problem. She didn't want to open her mouth but tried to come to Jesus unnoticed and undercover from the mass of all the crowds that were looking towards him and looking and coming towards the house of Jairus.
[17:21] This woman didn't want to tell anyone of her plight not only because she was regarded as unclean but like the men who would soon say to Jairus why trouble the master any further?
[17:34] She didn't want to trouble the master in any way or hinder Jesus from doing what he was on his way to do. She didn't want to make a fuss. She didn't want to have anyone know that she was coming to Jesus but as long as she touches him everything will be okay.
[17:48] And as this crowd was on their way to the house of Jairus following Jesus this woman moves in and she starts weaving through the crowd probably pushing and pressing just to get to him.
[17:59] And the way verse 28 is worded in the original it tells us that it's like she kept repeating to herself if I but touch him if I but touch him I will be made whole. And she keeps urging herself on as it were just to get through the crowd just to touch him.
[18:16] And she's saying if I can just touch his garment one touch and no one will see me just one touch one touch and I'll be made well just one touch that's all I need if I just get to him I'll be made well.
[18:27] And she keeps moving just one touch I know he will heal me I know he'll change me I know he'll help me. She touched him and as she moves her way through the crowd you can almost imagine this woman coming this hand and this woman coming from absolutely nowhere stretching through the crowd and touching the hem of Jesus garment and immediately says Mark with this trademark word.
[18:53] verse 29 says immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. The change which took place in her life was instantaneous.
[19:07] She was cured and she knew it and in the manner that she came to Jesus was the manner in which she wanted to walk away and disappear into the crowd and not be seen or known by anyone.
[19:19] But that was not to happen and immediately as this woman was healed. Jesus immediately it says in the next verse turned around and here Mark he emphasizes that Jesus knew exactly what had happened because as soon as this woman touched Jesus she was healed immediately.
[19:38] But as soon as she was healed Jesus immediately turned around and said who touched me? Who touched me? And the disciples in the throng of the crowd that was going on they said you've seen all these people around you and pushing and pressing into you and you're asking who touched me?
[19:55] What a strange question. But it wasn't because of ignorance that Jesus asked the question. He asked in order to elicit this confession and draw out from the woman before the whole world what Jesus had done for her.
[20:09] And Jesus saw who it was that had touched him and he stopped to speak to her and as these crowds come to halt all the time you can imagine what Jairus is thinking. Why are they stopping?
[20:21] What about my daughter? We're so close when you leave there. Sort her out later on. What about me? What about my need? What about my dying daughter? Jairus was so desperate to have his own daughter healed but here this Jesus he addresses his own daughter first and heals her.
[20:40] It says in verse 33 then the woman knowing what had happened to her came and fell at his feet trembling with fear and told him the whole truth. he said to her daughter your faith has healed you.
[20:54] Go in peace and be freed from your suffering. And Jesus knew that power had gone out from him. But why did he not simply permit her to remain anonymous and go on her own way?
[21:05] Just go away. It was because Jesus wanted to be known to this woman as more than a healer and more than a physician. He wanted to be known as her saviour.
[21:16] It wasn't enough for Jesus just to change her life and then for her to walk away. He wanted a confession from her. Jesus doesn't change lives so that they will go unnoticed.
[21:30] He does so that he will be given the praise, the honour and the glory for his saving work. And this word power or virtue is an interesting one as you wouldn't expect power to leave Jesus and go into someone else.
[21:43] because we're told of no one else in Scripture where power left Jesus and then goes into someone in need. But in light of the power of Jesus, the apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans when referring to the way in which God will have mercy upon whosoever he chooses and he will show compassion to whosoever he wills.
[22:07] For with God there is no favouritism and he shows his mercy. It's nothing to do with man. It's all according to his sovereign will. But then Paul reminds us that God shows mercy, he says, for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.
[22:31] And it is that power that Jesus gives to this woman and that Peter himself, who was present at the time, who wrote many years later on, he wrote the words that we are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.
[22:51] And it is that power that this woman received, which should cause her to proclaim the name of Jesus in all the earth. This woman, she may have come unobtrusively, but she's not allowed to leave the same way that she came.
[23:06] And you may have been seeking the Lord for many years, and no one knew about it, but Christ does not allow you to leave the same way that you came to him. He will elicit the confession and he will draw out from you before the world what he did for your soul.
[23:24] This woman didn't want to, but she came and told the whole truth about what Jesus had done in her life. But there are some people in life who know that they have been changed by Jesus.
[23:35] They have had an experience with the Lord that maybe they cannot explain it, neither can they understand it fully. They know it was life-changing, maybe they were somewhere and they knew that they had experienced the presence of the Lord and they knew he was there and they knew he was real, but they're all too ready to slip back into the crowd and go unnoticed and disappear from sight.
[23:58] But as a church we're called to urge those who have had their life changed by the Lord, or those who know that he has been part of their experience were to encourage them as Jesus did and encourage them to acknowledge that the Lord has saved them.
[24:12] Because all too often there are Christians around us and we know them and all too often we allow them to slip back into the crowd and back into the snare of the world as they go unnoticed.
[24:28] And all too often because of our lack of discipleship and care towards them they're left to fall away. and left to turn away from the one who has changed them and the power that has transformed them.
[24:41] But here Jesus demands a confession from this woman and she tells him the whole truth. And that's why I think that telling her testimony is a great thing. It's great to have the opportunity to share with others how the Lord has worked in your life and drawn out from you the truth of your condition and the reality of your need of Jesus and the way in which he met with you in your experience.
[25:04] It's a great thing to be able to tell those around you in your life of how you met with the Lord. And maybe there are some of you here tonight that came to Jesus like Jairus did very suddenly, very unexpectedly, perhaps in a very public way, acknowledging that this was the only place that you could now come.
[25:26] But maybe there are others of you who are still seeking the Lord and nobody else knows it and coming as it were to Jesus in the shadow of the crowd just to touch him.
[25:38] Some like Jairus who throw themselves at Jesus right before his face and others like the woman coming just from behind.
[25:52] But you know, I don't care how you come. But I do care that you come. And whether you throw yourself down before him in the public view of all the crowds or you crawl on your knees to the hem of his garment, it's of little consequence to me.
[26:14] But what I want to know above everything else, it's that it's to him that you come. And it is Jesus that you seek because he is telling you something so, so important.
[26:25] only believe. But whilst Jesus was still speaking the news that Jairus didn't want to hear, it finally came.
[26:36] Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the master any further? This woman had just told the whole truth that she didn't want to tell. And Jairus heard a truth that he didn't want to hear.
[26:49] Jairus, your daughter is dead. But the providence of this whole meeting with Jesus was one which was to change the lives of these people forever.
[27:01] And what started as a broken home and a broken hope had very quickly and changed into a realized hope. And then we see this restored home. A restored home.
[27:14] And as these people came to Jairus from his own house telling him of the outcome of his daughter's health shaking their heads saying she didn't make it. Your daughter is dead.
[27:26] It's too late. It's too late. And you can see Jairus with all the thoughts running through his head of his little daughter. All of these thoughts of his precious wee girl. The memories that he had of her over these twelve years of her young life.
[27:40] All cut short in a moment. And the thoughts of why Jesus didn't come sooner. Why didn't he come sooner? Why did this woman have to get in the way when we were so close?
[27:52] Or even blaming himself. Why didn't I come to Jesus sooner? Your daughter is dead. You're too late. And as John tells us that when Jesus came to the tomb of Lazarus, Martha said, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
[28:10] You're too late. You're too late. And yet if we look through the eyes of our sovereign God, we will see that in the event of the lives of this family, it was twelve years in the making.
[28:25] And it was planned to absolute perfection. Who would have ever said that the Lord's timing was ever wrong? When is he ever late? When is he ever not on time?
[28:36] And you know tonight that this Jesus has the authority given to him in heaven and on earth. And he says to us on the pages of scripture that to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.
[28:51] A time to be born and a time to die. And from our first breath to our last in this world, all is under his sovereign hand and our times are in his hand and our days are numbered on this earth and our life is like a tale that is told, a weaver's shuttle that runs and yet his time keeping is so perfect and so precise and so accurate that it is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment.
[29:27] It is appointed. But here Jesus says to Jairus, Jairus the sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God that the Son of God might be glorified by it.
[29:44] Fear not, believe only. And how often does the Lord speak into our situation and into our problems and address our hurt and our pain and our sorrow and say, fear not, only believe.
[29:59] And it's said that there are 365 vocations in scripture where the words to the effect of fear not are used. that's one for each day of the year.
[30:11] And it's a reminder to us that the Lord is the one who does not only speak to us sometimes but every single day of life. If we would only open his word and seek his face we would know his gentle voice of fear not, only believe.
[30:29] And you know when Jesus spoke these words he never addressed a head problem. It was always a heart problem that he addressed. And a heart problem that he wants to deal with.
[30:41] Never a head problem. So when Jesus speaks to Jairus he is saying to the effect, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me.
[30:53] And Jesus deals with Jairus and this is his situation very differently to the way he dealt with this woman. He takes Peter and James and John into the house and he says, I can heal this, I can deal with this situation, I can heal her.
[31:06] But the laughing goes up and the mocking goes out and he puts them out of the house and takes the girl by the hand and speaks directly into death just as he does with every resurrection that he performed and he says to this girl, little girl, it's time to get up.
[31:23] And immediately she got up. There were words that she had heard every day of her life. little girl, it's time to get up. But she never heard them like she heard them when Jesus said them.
[31:37] It's time to get up. And his timing was perfect. It was a remarkable miracle but it didn't happen often. There were many other homes that lost sons and daughters and mothers and fathers and Jesus never raised those who had passed away.
[31:54] But the hope of the gospel comes to us today and says they are not dead. Those who have died in Christ are not dead but only asleep.
[32:06] And their bodies do rest in the grave until the resurrection. Because there is a day coming when Jesus will come and stand over all the graves of his people and say to them, it's time to get up.
[32:21] It's time to get up. And on that bright and glorious morning when the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time shall be no more when morning breaks eternal, bright and fair, when the saved of the earth shall gather over on the other shore and on that day when the roll is called up yonder, will I hear him saying to me, morning has come.
[32:49] It's time to get up. And in the experience of these two families, the Lord's timing was perfect. With one touch of his garment and with one word from the Lord, these lives are transformed by the power of the gospel.
[33:08] And a broken home and a broken hope are changed to a realized hope and a restored home. And if it were possible, we could now paint a third portrait in the painted gallery of the Lord Provost's house.
[33:28] And in the portraits, there would be this leper who was now cleansed. There would be another where a portrait of the paralytic who was leaping and praising God.
[33:39] And then in the third portrait, we would now see Jairus, Jairus' family, the mother, the father, and the daughter, together with the woman who had the issue of blood.
[33:53] And these episodes in the life of Jesus, they tell us a lot about who Jesus met and the lives that Jesus touched. But there were four blank pictures in the Lord Provost's house.
[34:08] And if we were only to paint the pictures of the people whom Jesus met and the lives that Jesus touched, we have only painted three of them. There is still one which would remain unpainted and untouched.
[34:22] It's still blank. But can I ask you, my friend, if it were possible could we paint your portrait? Could we add your picture to the gallery of lives that Jesus has transformed?
[34:40] Because the ministry of Jesus and the work of changing lives did not stop with his death and his resurrection. It was only then that it really began. And he is still in the business of changing hearts and lives and he is still in the business of showing his authority over sin and sickness and death.
[34:57] But has he transformed you? Have you met with this Jesus? Will you not come and meet with him and ask him to change you? If it were possible, could we paint your portrait in the gallery of lives that Jesus has transformed?
[35:16] or will that single picture have to remain blank and unpainted and untouched as Jesus passes by in the gospel and you still will not come and you still will not follow him and you still will not do as he has commanded and you still will not fall at his feet and you still will not touch him?
[35:45] and listen to his words. Only believe. Only believe. Only believe.
[36:01] Amen. Let us pray. Amen. Amen.
[36:14] Amen. God Ji przych quinho