[0:00] Now let's turn to the passage we read, and especially some words in verse 36. Ignoring what they said, Jesus told the synagogue ruler, Don't be afraid, just believe.
[0:19] I'd like to look with you this morning at what we can learn from this experience of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. Jairus, before we come to this verse, Jairus had already taken a great step of faith in Jesus Christ.
[0:41] Because after all, we must bear in mind his social standing and his religious position. He was the ruler of the local synagogue.
[0:52] That was an extremely responsible position in church at that time and also in society at large.
[1:02] And here he was, coming to the Lord Jesus, who was not recognized as the Lord or as the Christ, by many of the rulers and leaders among the Jews.
[1:20] And yet Jairus was coming to him for his help, acknowledging that Jesus was the only one who really could help him with his trouble.
[1:33] Now, perhaps people may try desperate remedies when they're in extremity, when they're in great trouble.
[1:45] But it would seem that Jairus was not just grasping at straws here, but that rather, on the basis of what he knew and had heard about the Lord Jesus, he was coming to him, trusting that he was able to help him with his trouble.
[2:03] As we know, his trouble was not his own, not his own personal trouble, but it was, of course, his little daughter. He came to Jesus, we're told in verse 23, pleaded earnestly with him, My little daughter is dying.
[2:20] Please come and put your hands on her, so that she will be healed and live. He had that persuasion that the Lord Jesus was able to do that.
[2:32] So already, before we come to the later part of the chapter, we see that Jairus had taken a great step of faith in Christ.
[2:43] We might say that the thing that precipitated that step of faith was the trouble in which he was.
[2:55] That the sickness, the extreme sickness of his little girl, drove him to the Lord Jesus. He was not just driven to the Lord Jesus as what we might call just a last resort, something just to be tried in trouble, but before that, he perhaps had all kinds of reasons why he wouldn't have gone to see Jesus.
[3:23] All kinds of reasons. What other people might think of him, what his peers might think of him, what the other rulers might think of him, the other counsellors and elders and leaders in the society of that time.
[3:37] But in his great need, all these other reasons became very empty and hollow. He knew that the Lord Jesus was able to do great things.
[3:51] He believed it. And now there came this time where he acted upon it and he came to the Lord Jesus seeking his help in his trouble.
[4:04] Now, so often we can be driven to the Lord Jesus by our own problems, by our trouble. It has often happened that people have come to Christ and come to a knowledge of salvation and come to eternal life through some kind of trouble in their own experience.
[4:28] Perhaps many of you here can testify to that kind of thing. When life was going well with you, you perhaps didn't have very much thought about eternal things or about Jesus.
[4:43] Perhaps you maybe believed in a kind of just intellectual, head knowledge kind of way that Jesus was a person who was able to help those who were in need or in trouble, but it wasn't really a lie for you.
[4:59] It wasn't something personal to yourself. Then perhaps there came a time of trouble. Perhaps a time of trouble in your own life. Perhaps you discovered that there was something in your life that you couldn't control.
[5:15] Something that was in control of you. Some kind of sin or some temptation or perhaps some fear that you had. Some trouble of some kind.
[5:27] And that drove you to seek help outside yourself. And that's something that we all need to do. We all need to realize that we are not self-sufficient in ourselves.
[5:41] And if we can go through life believing that we can cope with every kind of situation, then we're really the most mistaken and most misguided people around.
[5:53] We need to come to the realization that we are unable to cope with all the complexities and troubles of life. And it's often at these times of troubles that we may turn to the Lord for help.
[6:09] Sometimes it may be done just on the spur of the moment. Something that is maybe regretted later. You know, the kind of thing of someone turning to religion or turning to God just in a time of trouble.
[6:26] So like in the trenches in the war turning to God then praying to God then but afterwards once you're safe and sound forgetting all about it.
[6:40] But still it's true that in trouble a genuine faith in God may very well begin. And that's something like what was happening here with Jairus.
[6:52] But in Jairus' case it was slightly different because as I mentioned already it wasn't his own personal trouble. It wasn't he himself that was sick. It was someone else.
[7:05] Someone very near and dear to him. His daughter. And so God can also use not only our own times of trouble or difficulty to cause us to seek him but he can also use our concern for other people and for their needs.
[7:26] to drive us to him. You see there are natural bonds of affection and of love in human society. We wouldn't we would really cease to be human if we didn't have those kinds of drives and those kind of affections.
[7:47] There's the parent-child bond. father to his children and mother to her children and that's the kind of thing that we're being shown here.
[8:01] Jairus had a love for his daughter and it was that love for his daughter that drove him to Jesus. It wasn't just his own personal trouble but it was the trouble of his daughter.
[8:14] It was her sickness and because he loved her and because he wanted the very best for her that drove him to Jesus and drove away all the other ideas that would have kept him back from Jesus.
[8:31] And you know that can still be true today. It's still true that God has placed within human beings and within human society things that are good.
[8:45] Drives that are good. affections that are good. The love of parents for children, children for parents, husband for wife, brother for sister, friend for friend.
[8:59] All these things, good things that God has placed within us. And these good things, these good drives, these good affections can also drive us to the Lord Jesus when we see someone else in terrible trouble.
[9:18] When we see someone we love being lonely or troubled or sick or whatever and we feel so unable to do anything about it, Jairus here must have felt so helpless.
[9:32] His daughter whom he loved and if it were possible he would have done anything to save her. Yet there was nothing he could do.
[9:46] He felt so helpless. Perhaps some of you have had that kind of experience where you just felt so helpless or useless you couldn't do anything in a situation.
[9:57] It was a terrible feeling. When you love someone and you want to help them there's nothing you can do. But the great message, part of the message anyway of this passage is that there is something that we can do and that is to take our trouble or take the trouble of someone else to someone who can deal with them, to someone who is not helpless and we can do exactly the same still today as Jairus did there so long ago when Jesus was here on earth.
[10:30] He walked along the road to meet Jesus coming off the boat when he crossed over the Sea of Galilee. But it's even easier for us to walk anywhere.
[10:41] We don't need to go down to the harbor, down to the shore. We just have to ask Jesus. We just have to pray. We just have to call out to him, cry out to him, just as Jairus did here.
[10:57] Please come and put your hands on him. We come to him trusting that he is able to deal with the situation and we commit it to him. that again is something that can draw us to the Lord Jesus Christ.
[11:14] So not only if you've got particular trouble in your life, but maybe if there's someone else whom you love who's in trouble of any kind, that too should drive you to the Lord Jesus, to seek his help with it.
[11:29] If you really love them and you want the very best for them, then go to him and go to him wholeheartedly and completely, not just with this one prayer as a kind of one-off thing, because before he wants our prayers, he wants ourselves, and so we must come to him, trusting in him, committing ourselves to him, then we see the great things that happen as Jairus did.
[12:02] Well, as soon as Jairus came to ask this of Jesus and Jesus set off with him, things started to go wrong. First of all, there were crowds of people that must have been slowing Jesus down.
[12:18] We're told that they were all pressing around him and Jesus' progress would not have been as fast as Jairus would have liked. Jairus would have loved if Jesus could have run along the road and to lay his hands on his little girl.
[12:31] But they were being impeded, they were being slowed down. And then even worse than that, along comes this woman that we thought about last Sunday evening. This woman who also had a problem, and I'm sure Jairus would not have been unfeeling or uncaring about this woman's problem, but yet her problem was getting in the way of the solution of his.
[12:54] The fact that they were stopped and Jesus deliberately stopped. He knew that someone had touched him and he took time and he went to great pains to highlight what this woman had done and to encourage this woman.
[13:12] All of that, no doubt, Jairus would have felt it was great in itself, but still the time was running out. His daughter was dying and he was wanting Jesus to hurry along and it was as if everything was going wrong.
[13:24] but we don't read any complaint from the mouth of Jairus at all. Throughout all of this, it must have been indeed very trying for him, yet it would seem that he still was trusting that Christ would be able to help somehow.
[13:46] Now, we ourselves may have sought God's help with a particular problem or with the problem of someone else and we may feel that there's no progress being made.
[14:01] We may have been going on for a much longer time than Jairus was here, and yet still there doesn't seem to be any progression, there doesn't seem to be any solution as if Jesus is not acting at all.
[14:19] well, we need to draw encouragement from Jairus' experience here. Yes, there was delay, but it was all in the good purpose of God.
[14:33] It was all in the mind of Christ to do the very best for Jairus and for his daughter. Sometimes it may be very difficult for us to understand how things just work out in our lives.
[14:46] We like things to speed up, things to happen quickly. We want things right away. I know that when we're children, we always like it that way, but that little bit of the child I don't think ever leaves us.
[15:00] We like to have things that we want right away. It's difficult to wait for them. Sometimes God tells us that it's good to wait. It's better to wait. We find out an even greater good than we would have found out if we had suddenly rushed into something or suddenly been given something.
[15:21] Well, in the midst of all this, there came to Jairus the most despairing news of all. The words that he never wanted to ever hear.
[15:34] The words that the people brought from his house. Your daughter is dead. Why bother with the teacher anymore?
[15:45] Your daughter is dead. Surely these words must have come like a bombshell on Jairus. His whole world was collapsing around him.
[15:59] His daughter whom he loved. And he had taken what must have been viewed as a great risk to his own reputation, to his own status, and going to see Jesus.
[16:12] Yet after all, it was all in vain. And all kinds of fears and doubts were coming in upon him. But I want to just look at the feeling of those words that were spoken to him.
[16:30] The kind of attitude that was portrayed by these men as they spoke these words. It's not that they had any evil intent in it at all. It was just reflecting the normal attitude of anyone in that kind of situation, the attitude we ourselves would have.
[16:47] The first thing about it was that they were really saying, well, that's it. Jesus could have helped up until now, but now there's nothing that Jesus can do.
[17:02] Your daughter is dead. There's nothing more that can now be done. In other words, they were setting limits upon what is possible with Jesus.
[17:17] And we do that kind of thing all the time. We may have again in our heads the belief that with God all things are possible.
[17:28] We may believe, yes, that God is able to answer prayers and do the most surprising things, but when it comes down to it in practical things, we set limits upon what God can and cannot do.
[17:40] And perhaps something in your life, some burden or trouble, some pain in your life or in the life of somebody near and dear to you, it seems perhaps so great that there's nothing that can be done about it.
[17:59] It's as if you're saying, not even God can deal with this problem. It's become too big for me. It's become too big for everybody involved. It's too big for God. We set limits upon what Jesus can do.
[18:16] But then also they said something else. Why bother the teacher anymore? Why bother Jesus? Maybe that thought comes to ourselves too.
[18:30] They were thinking, well, it's all over now. There's no need for Jesus to carry on. Now coming to the house, he's busy, he's got lots of other things to do. Why bother him?
[18:43] Maybe the same kind of thought sometimes comes to us. We've been seeking God's help in something, but the going gets rough. It's difficult. We don't see any answers coming to it.
[18:56] And the thought comes in, why bother the teacher anymore? Why bother Jesus anymore? Why bother God with this anymore? Why bother ourselves with it? Why bother anybody with it?
[19:07] Why bother? Why bother? We're not making any progress. We're not getting anywhere. There's no solution coming up to this. Why bother? Let's just give up.
[19:20] That's what these men were saying to Jairus. And no doubt again they were saying it with the best of intentions. But you see, very often, things that may seem with the best intentions on the outside, they can come as the very voice of the devil to us.
[19:38] Say, why bother? Be practical. Be realistic. Just give up. Yet all the time, it's the voice of the evil ones seeking to keep us from seeing the very best, the very best that God has in mind for us.
[19:59] And so, Jesus speaks these incredible words to Jairus. Verse 36. Don't be afraid. Just believe.
[20:11] Now notice, I've read here in the New International Version, ignoring what they said. Jesus told Jairus, don't be afraid, just believe.
[20:23] And I think, in fact, that's the best reading of that. Ignoring what they said. In other words, Jesus didn't really pay any attention to what they said.
[20:34] He heard it. But it's as if that voice, that attitude just didn't exist. He said, don't be afraid, just believe.
[20:52] We can place ourselves in the position of Jairus here. He had come at great risk and cost to himself, to Jesus, and now everything had gone wrong.
[21:03] the thing he dreaded had taken place. And sorrow and despair would have been flooding into his heart and into his life.
[21:15] What future did he now see? His daughter was dead. His own life, perhaps, was in ruins, too, because of his seeking out of Jesus.
[21:28] And perhaps we can be like that sometimes, too, in the Christian life. You may have come to the Lord Jesus Christ, or you may be somewhere on that journey of coming to faith in Christ.
[21:43] And there are voices saying to you, it's useless. Why bother? And a sorrow or sadness, even a despair, can fill your soul.
[21:57] and in that situation, these words of Jesus come to us, come to you today. Jesus says, you believed that I could heal your daughter a few moments ago.
[22:17] You believed that I could do the most surprising thing. You believed that I could do things that were impossible with other people. why stop there?
[22:29] Why say that now something is impossible? Why now set limits upon what I can and cannot do? Jesus says, don't be afraid, just believe.
[22:45] Continue in that faith, maybe a growing, maybe a developing faith, maybe a very firm faith that you already have. Just believe. that with me all things are possible.
[23:03] In other words, the words of Jesus come to us in any similar situation and they can dispel all our fears.
[23:16] We may have fears about others, fears about ourselves, but Jesus says to us, don't fear, don't be afraid, believe. Believe that I am able to deal with this situation and that I am willing to deal with it.
[23:31] No matter how hard it may seem to you, it may have become impossible to you, but it's not impossible to me. Jesus was not prepared at that point to turn away and say, oh well, I'm sorry, that's it, it's all over, it's finished.
[23:45] No. Jesus says, just believe. Continue on, no matter how hard it is in the face of whatever opposition or whatever difficulty, continue to believe.
[23:59] That is one of the great emphasis of the Christian faith that we need to hear and to hold and to practice today. In spite of all the difficulties, all the opposition, all the things that might lead us to despair and hopelessness with regard to the Christian church, with regard to our own personal Christianity, with regard to the world, in spite of it all, we know the one to whom we have come.
[24:27] We have committed our lives to him. We have come to him because we know that he is the one who came into this world to deliver us from sin. We believe that he was able to do it.
[24:40] We believe that he received us through our faith in him. Why are we going to stop now in the face of something that may seem impossible to us?
[24:53] Jesus says, don't be afraid, just believe. And then we see the unbelieving reaction of the people whom Jesus met when he went to the house.
[25:11] death. When he came there, Jesus saw a commotion with people crying and wailing loudly. Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead, but asleep.
[25:25] Here were more words of encouragement for Jairus. And yet the reaction of the people was, but they laughed at him. you see, to the Lord Jesus Christ, death is not a final obstacle.
[25:45] Death is perhaps the greatest power that we know in this world, because death is the power that puts an end to every other power. No matter how powerful a man may be in this world, no matter how much influence he may hold, supposing he's the most famous, most wealthy man in the world, yet death puts an end to all that.
[26:09] Death is more powerful than he is. Death is more powerful than any power that he may hold. Yet to Jesus, death is not absolute. Death is not the supreme power.
[26:22] He almost despises it. He says, the child is not dead, but asleep. It was just to be asleep for that child.
[26:34] Although, we believe, I think rightly, that this child had indeed died, but Jesus says, it's asleep. It's not a permanent thing.
[26:47] It's not something that cannot be undone. And that's something that again we need to grasp hold of today. we know when we think about it, that death is of course the greatest power that we know in our own experience.
[27:06] Something as far as we can see in our experience is not reverse. Someone dies, they're separated from us, taken away. But the words of Jesus, and not only the words, but his whole saving action in coming into this world is that death is destroyed.
[27:27] The Lord Jesus Christ died and rose again. The Lord Jesus Christ despoiled death and evil and rose again victorious over them all.
[27:43] That is why today we can have even a firmer trust in the Lord Jesus than Jairus could possibly have had here. Jairus was clinging on to the words of Jesus.
[27:54] Don't be afraid, just believe. We can cling on to them today too, but with the sure foundation of knowing that Jesus Christ has conquered death. So even death itself, the most extreme of every form of evil in this world, it must yield to the power and authority of Jesus Christ.
[28:17] Even death itself will be reversed for everyone who believes in him. Even death itself is not powerful enough to separate us from the love of God and Christ Jesus.
[28:31] Don't be afraid, just believe, Jesus says. And yet their reaction of the people round about was they laughed at him.
[28:44] They laughed at the idea that death was just temporary like a sleep. Jairus was surrounded by all these people with that common, that worldly, we may say that normal reaction to such a statement by Jesus.
[29:05] We're surrounded by it today. We'll have that voice speaking within ourselves saying, these things it says in the Bible are impossible. And other people around us are saying, it's impossible the dead don't rise.
[29:19] You can't see God. All these voices, and sometimes their voices just like these voices were that surrounded Jairus. Remember he was shattered, his daughter had died, yet he was clinging like a desperate drowning man to the words of Jesus.
[29:37] And around him were people who moments before, because they were being paid for it, were wailing and weeping for the death of his daughter. And now a few seconds later they were laughing, laughing with scorn at the statement of Jesus that there could be any hope beyond death.
[29:58] And we too today have to put up not only with statements and arguments, but perhaps much more subtle we have to put up simply with scorn. Scorn that the dead can rise.
[30:13] Scorn that the Lord Jesus Christ lives and reigns. But Jesus was unperturbed by all of these things.
[30:27] Jesus very quickly takes control of the situation. He doesn't argue with these people, he doesn't dispute with them even. He is concerned for one group of people, and that is this little girl and her father and mother.
[30:45] the disciples she has brought with him. And he puts everyone else out. And there we see the Lord Jesus concern for the people who are in need and the people who have sought his help.
[31:00] We see here a great divide between the people all present there that day, do we not? There were those people who, half fearing, were clinging to the words of Jesus, not knowing what to expect.
[31:16] And there were those who were laughing in discord. Now, those who were laughing in discord never saw the great and wonderful work of Jesus Christ.
[31:29] And those who were laughing in discord were ultimately put to shame because they were proved wrong. Those who were clinging, half fearing, half hoping to the words of Jesus, they saw something far more wonderful than they could ever have imagined possible.
[31:53] Jesus speaks calmly and quietly to the little girl, little girl, get up. Takes her by the hand and up she gets. And in his concern for her, he's not making a big show of it, he simply says, give her something to eat.
[32:11] She's had a trying time, she's been sick, she's been ill, now she's restored to life to perfect health and she needs something to eat. How down to earth and how practical the Lord Jesus Christ is.
[32:26] Yet, those who were there, who clung to that promise of the Lord Jesus, clung to his words, they were rewarded for their faith.
[32:36] Jairus, who clung to those words of Jesus, he saw his own daughter raised to life again. Not even death is too powerful for the Lord Jesus Christ.
[32:52] He has conquered death and sin. Whatever problem you may have in your life, it is not as big as death. death. And if the Lord Jesus Christ has conquered death and returned from the jaws of death, and returned not as an escaped refugee, but returned as the Lord of life, then he is powerful to solve whatever your problem is.
[33:20] And he is able and willing to do it because he loves those who are in need and who are calling out to him for help, like Jesus. And those who laugh and to scorn, who reject his words, they too, he warns, are rejected by him.
[33:44] May none of us be found in that kind of position or in that category, but rather let us hold to the words of Jesus Christ upon the firm foundation of what he has achieved in history, and to know it for our own experience and for our own benefit, so that we too may know life from the dead for ourselves and for those whom we love.
[34:06] Let us pray. Oh, our gracious Lord, we can identify with the needs and feelings of Jairus in his compassion and love for his own daughter.
[34:27] As we see others in other parts of the world, children dying and parents unable to do anything about it, we pray, gracious Lord, that you would turn our thoughts to these matters of eternity and eternal life, away from the things that would choke out the thoughts of life and heaven, freedom and love.
[35:00] We pray, gracious Lord, that you would turn us to yourself. We bless you and thank you for the great works and words of the Lord Jesus Christ that shine through to us today and are a living and a vital help to us today if we receive them by faith.
[35:20] We thank you that he is ever ready to hear us and to help us and that he is able to save to the uttermost all those who put their faith in him. We pray, Lord, that today many may prove him to be true as Jairus did.
[35:37] We ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[35:56] Amen. Amen. NPC