Once again, we have a privilege that we never want to want to take for granted to open up the Word of the living God. So will you take your bibles turn to Mark's gospel chapter five. And if you've not been with us in the past, we go verse by verse, through specific passages, primarily books of the Bible. And we come now to Mark chapter five, beginning in verse 21. And we're going to look at verses 21 - 43.

"When Jesus had crossed over again, in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him; and so he stayed by the seashore. One of the synagogue officials named Jairus came up and on seeing him fell at his feet and implored Him earnestly saying, "My little daughter is at the point of death; please come and lay Your hands on her, so that she will get well and live. And He went off with him; and a large crowd was following him and pressing in on him. A woman who had a hemorrhage for 12 years, and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse- after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind him, and touched his cloak. For she thought, "if I just touch His garments, I will get well." Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Immediately Jesus, perceiving in himself that the power preceding from him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, "Who touched my garments?" And his disciples said to Him, "You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, 'Who touched Me?'" And he looked around to see the woman who had done this. But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. And He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your affliction." While He was still speaking, they came from the house of the synagogue official, saying, "Your daughter has died; why trouble the Teacher anymore?" But Jesus, overhearing what was being spoken, said to the synagogue official, "Do not be afraid any longer, only believe." And he allowed no one to accompany Him, except Peter and James and John and the brother of James. They came to the house of the synagogue official; and He saw a commotion, people loudly weeping and wailing. And entering in, He said to them, "Why make a commotion and weep? The child has not died, but is asleep." They began laughing at Him. But putting them all out, He took along the child's father and mother and His own companions, and entered the room where the child was. Taking the child by the hand, He said to her "Talitha kum!" (which translated means, "Little girl, I say to you, get up!") Immediately, the girl got up and began to walk, for she was 12 years old. And immediately they were completely astounded. And He gave them strict orders that no one should know about this, and He said that something should be given her to eat.”

We all know what it feels like to be afraid, right? Sometimes to be terrified, we know what it feels like even to be helpless. In fact, Job called death, the king of terrors in Job 18:14. We all have our stories to tell. And I know some of you are in the midst of these types of difficulties right now feelings of, of helplessness. You feel overwhelmed. And then when I think about it, all I can say is, oh, the sorrows of a sin cursed world, right? But oh dear friends, the help that is ours in Christ, and the hope that is ours in Christ, and this is what we see here. I'm reminded of Isaiah 12 in verse 2 where the prophet said, "Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid; For the Lord God is my strength and song, and he has become my salvation." There's a great text to meditate upon the next time you find yourself drowning in fear. Also, Isaiah 41:10, "Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not anxiously look about for I am your God, I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." And then the psalmist tells us in Psalm 121, beginning in verse 1, "I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep." Dear friends, only an omnipotent sovereign, can be such a helper. Psalm 18, verse two we read, "The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold." And in Psalm 62, verse two, "He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I shall not be greatly shaken." Dear friends, what we must remember is that the Lord Jesus Christ, has conquered Satan, sin and death. And one day we will experience the full implications of that in glory. Indeed, Jesus said in John 11, verse 25, " I am the resurrection and the life, He who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?" And certainly I would ask you that, do you believe this.

And in Mark's historical narrative before us, we have two miracles. And here we see in a very vivid way, Jesus displaying his miraculous power over both disease as well as death, which is absolutely astounding. And you must understand that here the Holy Spirit puts on display the deity of Christ. Furthermore, he puts on display the great compassion of Christ, for both our physical as well as our spiritual welfare. And then, of course, we see His infinite ability to help. And so in this passage, we can find comfort and strength and peace and hope. But you must understand that we not we must not marvel at what Christ has done solely for the purpose of marveling at his infinite power, as infinite as it is, because that is not the purpose of the text. Rather, His miracles point to His deity, and therefore, if He is God, very God, He must be obeyed. And He commands every man and every woman to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, to be saved. His authoritative commands in His Word, have a divine origin, and that's what's emphasized here, and therefore, His word should never be questioned. It should never be ignored. It should never be distorted. It should never be adapted to somehow fit our understanding of who we think God is or how He needs to function, or how He needs to operate in our culture.

No, the authority of Scripture is based upon the authority of God. And this is the power of God that we see here in this passage. Therefore, for example, when God says He made everything in a literal six days, that's the end of discussion. That is the truth. That's what we must believe, end of discussion. When He says all scripture is inspired by God end of discussion, when He says that women are not to be pastors end of discussion, when He says homosexuality is an abomination before God end of discussion. When He says marriage has to be between one man and one woman end of discussion, because an infinitely powerful, omnipotent, omniscient, God has declared this to be the truth, and we are to obey it. When He says that abortion is murder, end of discussion , when He says hell is a real place, that's the end of the discussion. When He speaks of the doctrine of salvation, with all that is a part of that, including the severity and the scope of man's depravity, the imputation of sin when He speaks of grace and election and predestination, when He speaks of the significance of, and the efficacy of the Atonement when He speaks of faith and repentance, and union with Christ and justification and sanctification, regeneration, perseverance, glorification, when He speaks of those things in his word, that's the end of the discussion. Because the one that wrote it is the one that has power over disease, and over death. And so when we come to these passages, that's what we must look to, not just the fact of oh, look what Jesus did, look what He can do, no friends, that's just a means to a greater end. These passages should point us to the divine origin of His word that we might be obedient to it. Therefore, when you hear things like a social justice gospel, or a prosperity gospel, that's not the real gospel, that's a false gospel. So we reject it. When we hear about, I don't know the Roman Catholic gospel, that is not the true gospel. Hebrews 10:28 says there is a much severe judgment for those who distort and deny the gospel. To make it real practically, this would apply to the Pope. This would apply to Mother Teresa, who believed and taught a false gospel, a pantheistic gospel that saves even those who have never heard of the gospel, a humanitarian gospel that somehow saves people that do great works of charity, in the name of Jesus. According to Jesus words, in Matthew 10:15, it will be more tolerable for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for her and countless others like her that teach and promote a false gospel.

Now, why can I be so dogmatic? Because this is what God has said in His Word, and the one who said it has the power over disease and death. Hebrews 10:29, "how much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the Spirit of grace?" So dear friends, when we behold the power and the perfections of the Lord Jesus Christ and these historical narratives, and we find ourselves completely overwhelmed at what he did and what he can do, Yes, let's rejoice in that. Let's worship him for that. But let that drive us to the ultimate reality that Jesus is God, and He is to be obeyed. All right. I'm reminded of Isaiah 66:2 when God says, "but to this one will I look, to Him who is humble and contrite of heart and who trembles at my word." So, yes, let's at marvel at his power. But let's remember that we are to worship and obey him, because his word has a divine origin. And his commands and promises are true.

Now that said, we're going to behold the wonder of Christ's unchanging character under three categories, each of which have two characteristics, we're going to see that Christ was number one, available and approachable. Secondly, he was and still is omnipotent and omniscient. And then thirdly, He was compassionate, and calm. Now, it's important that we see the inspired contrasts that are at play. And these two miracles that are linked together in the gospel record. Jesus is attending here to two very different people. You have a wealthy and a prominent man and you also have the opposite, an impoverished and scorned woman. You have a highly esteemed synagogue official, versus a woman who was a social outcast, because she was ceremonially unclean. Considered to be exceedingly sinful, because of her sickness, and therefore excommunicated. From the synagogue, you have a husband and a father that had contact with his family. But yet here you also have a woman that is required to live at a distance from her family. She was socially and religiously isolated, a woman that would have been treated like a leper. You have a man who experienced 12 years of joy and happiness with his daughter versus a woman who had experienced 12 years of sorrow and misery, while living in isolation. Not to mention dealing with the physical weakness that would be the inevitable consequence of perpetual hemorrhaging. But dear friends, what they both had in common was a desperate need for a Savior. They needed a remedy for the debilitating fear and utter helplessness that they were experiencing. They were out of resources, they had nowhere to turn, they were powerless. They were beyond human help. Their only hope and help was in Christ. And this did not catch him by surprise. This was part of his sovereign plan, to bring glory to himself. And in the inscrutable miracle of divine providence, whereby he orchestrates all of the events of history and their lives in particular. We see him doing this to manifest His power in order to prove his deity, that he might be worshipped and obeyed, so that we can all see his mercy, his grace, his love, and his power on display, the perfections of his glorious person, that all of us will, as I said earlier, one day experience in all of their fullness in glory. Yes, weeping may last for the night, right? Psalm 30, verse five, "weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning" and regardless of the trial, God is in it, for our good and his glory, never forget that. And his purposes are always just, His love is everlasting. For this reason, Jesus said in John 16:33, "in the world, you will have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world." Let me give you the context of what is going on here.

In this narrative, Jesus has been on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee, some of you have been there with me. And there, he cast out, remember, a legion of demons out of these guys and, and sent them into the swine, and the people of the area were terrified at what they saw with Jesus and his presence, his power. They begged him to leave. All right, so that's what has happened. And that brings us to verse 21, of Mark 5, "when Jesus had crossed over again in the boat to the other side." In other words, he's going back to the Capernaum, which was about six miles across the water, back to Capernaum, his headquarters. When Jesus had crossed over again in the boat to the other side, "a large crowd gathered around him, and so he stayed by the seashore." So in other words, they see him coming. They know his headquarters is Capernaum. And people are coming from everywhere with all of their diseases. And they're basically camped out waiting for him to arrive. So they're looking for him and ah, here he comes in the boat, and he has to basically stay on the seashore. Luke 8, verse 40, says, " And as Jesus returned, the people welcomed Him, for they had all been waiting for Him." And then in verse 22, we read of the synagogue official named Jairus, he comes up and on seeing him fell at his feet. Now, you can imagine all of the crowd all around Jesus, but they would have made a way for the prominent man to come and speak to Jesus. So that's what would have happened here. Now, I might add that synagogues typically had three to seven officials. And they were responsible for all of the activities of worship and education and so forth. In Matthew chapter 9, in verse 18, we read that he comes and it says, "he bowed down before him" "Prosekyneo", in the original language, which is a term that means to worship. So perhaps it would appear that he was a believer, probably a Pharisee. We're not sure, but probably, but certainly, he would have co labored with that large contingency of Pharisees that were there in Capernaum. And he would have been fully aware of their hatred for Jesus. And therefore, he would have realized that it would have been a great risk for him to approach Jesus as he did. But he was certainly aware of Jesus miracles, everybody knew about that. Verse 23. So he comes in, "he implored Him earnestly saying, My little daughter is at the point of death, please come and lay your hands on her so that she will get well and live. And he went off with him. And a large crowd was following him and pressing in on him." The original language indicates that that pressing in on him means that they were basically touching him on all sides. Perhaps you've been in large cities, the first time I really experienced that was in Moscow. And you go to the train station, and there are people touching every part of you as you walk along. And you see the whole crowd kind of going like this as you gradually make your way to the train. And once you get on, and my job was to make sure that our group, I was the last one, you My job was to push everybody in before the door slammed. And as you're hanging on to things you see a head here and somebody's there, and you got to make sure you don't have things in your pockets that somebody can steal. That's the idea. There's people everywhere. That's what was going on with Jesus. By the way, Tokyo is the same way. We don't like that type of thing here. And where we live, you know, you just kind of keep your distance, we kind of know how we operate right? But first, I want you to notice that Jesus was available and approachable. I want you to think about this. What we have here is the creator of the universe. This is the Lord of Glory. This is the Lord of hosts. This is the great I AM. This is the Son of God, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, and he is mingling with the crowd. People are reaching out, they're touching him. What a picture. They're begging him for help because of their diseases, or their daughter's disease or their son's disease or their mother's disease or whatever. By the way, each of us should be equally approachable. Especially pastors, church leaders, pastors and elders or shepherds. As we say, a shepherd needs to smell like sheep. All right. We must always be available and approachable. We're not celebrities, we are lowly shepherds called to love and to lead and to protect the sheep. That means you have to be with them. And yes, there are some VDPs in the world. I understand. VDP stands for very draining people. There are some of those people and sometimes you have to put up boundaries. And sometimes you can see some people coming you think, oh boy. You've heard the beep, beep beep when a dump truck is backing up. You know, that's what's about to happen. They're about to dump their load on on you. And you get kind of used to that, but you love them enough to do what you can. And certainly Jesus is dealing with this in ways that that are unimaginable. So Jesus begins to make his way to Jarius his house. And then suddenly the narrative shifts, something happens. And this is very important. We, we begin to see now this contrast between two helpless sinners as well as is Jesus deity, over all of this. Verse 25, "a woman who had had a hemorrhage for 12 years," it says, By the way, this was, this would have been some kind of menstrual disorder. We don't really know what it was, but according to Leviticus 15:19-33, menstrual discharge would render a woman ceremonially unclean for a period of time. And according to the ancient historian Josephus, "the temple was closed to women during their menstruation." This means that this particular Torah ruling would have been fully observed in Jesus day. Accordingly, whoever touched a menstruating woman was banished from the community until purification occurred. So for this woman, this woman, to have a need that was just physical is not accurate, because it was way beyond that. She basically had no friends and family that she could be around. Not to mention verse 26, "she endured much at the hands of many physicians and had spent all that she had, and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse."

Let me give you a little flavor of what the doctors would have told her back in those days, because we get a good sense of that, from the Talmud, which means "study" in the Babylonian Talmud. Which is, again the sacred teachings by Jews and here we can read of 11 treatments for excessive menstrual bleeding, so you want to know what the doctors would have told her? I can tell you, and I'm quoting here, some other scholars. "Most of these treatments involve boiling various things in wine, such as Persian onions, cumin, saffron, fenugreek, or a fern. Having the woman hold it and declaring to her, 'cease you discharge.' She may be told to sit at a crossroads holding a cup of wine, while a man comes from behind and frightens her shouting 'cease you discharge.' One cure calls her to rub flour on the lower half of her body. She may be told to burn thistles or an ostrich egg and wrap it in cloth." The strangest is the last that is "to fetch barley grain found in the dung of a white mule and hold it in her hand. If she holds it for one day, her bleeding will cease for one day. If she holds him for three days the bleeding will cease forever." And on it goes. That's why they call it the practice of medicine. Right?

Verse 27, "after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched his cloak." Now obviously she wanted to avoid detection. So she's trying to kind of slither through the crowd. "For she thought, 'if I just touch his garments I will get well.'" Luke says in chapter 8:44, " she came up behind him and touched the fringe of His cloak." Fringe is "kraspedon", in Greek it means it can be translated "the edge or the hem of His garment, the border." It's even used to describe the ceremonial tassels that many of the Jewish people wore. In fact, Israelites were instructed to sew tassels on the bottom of their cloaks. And when you see Orthodox Jews today, you will see those tassels hanging down. And they were to do that as a visible symbol that they belonged to God you can read about that in Numbers 15 And that they according to numbers, 15, verses 37 to 41, "they should remember all the commandments of the Lord to do them." So that's why they would put the tassels on there. But you may recall in Matthew 23 and verse five, Jesus said that the Pharisees would lengthen their tassels in order to be noticed by men, so that became a sign of superior spirituality with how long my tassels are. So the tassels would be up higher on their garment. And whereas Jesus would have worn just a simple robe, maybe with the traditional tassels attached to the bottom hem, we're not sure. By the way, I find it interesting. The ostentatious tassels of the Pharisees had zero power, right. But the hem of Jesus garment had infinite power. The former display the hypocrite full of selfish pride, and deception. The latter displayed the one true God, full of grace and truth. I might add that in that day, people believe that rulers possessed power, and if you touch them somehow, you could, you could be blessed in a special way. When an ancient historian said that Alexander the Great was often mobbed by crowds who ran to him from all sides, some touching his hand, some his knees, some his garment, in hopes of being baptized with his aura and power. So this was not at all something out of the ordinary. But according to verse 27, it appears that this woman manifested all of the elements of saving faith. I mean, think about it, it says that she heard, she came and she touched the Messiah and faith believing. Verse 29, we see that "immediately the flow of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction." My, what a contrast to the worthless, superstitious treatments of the physicians that actually made her worse, which by the way, I think we can all identify with with some of the medicines and treatments that we have experienced.

Mark will later on say in chapter six, verse 56, "Jesus entered villages or cities or countryside, they were laying the sick in the marketplaces and imploring Him, that they might just touch the fringe of His cloak, and as many as touched it were being cured." So amazing what happened in those days. In fact, people were even healed by Peter's shadow, you remember in Acts 5:15, and Paul's clothing, in Acts 19, "miraculous power given them to God," for what purpose, "to validate both the message and the messenger of God." This is amazing then to see what happens here in verse 30. "Immediately Jesus, perceiving in himself that the power preceding from him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd, and said, 'Who touched my garments?'" As if he didn't know who touched my garments? Beloved, not only was he available and approachable, but here we see number two, he was omnipotent and omniscient. Verse 31, "and his disciples said to him, 'You see the crowd pressing in on you?'" "Synthlibo", pressing in interesting term, it means to squash in and around on all sides. I mean, people are everywhere touching you. And you say, Who touched me? But here we have supernatural insight, do we not? We have an omniscient God. He knew exactly who touched him. Because in his providence, he orchestrated that touch.

Now evidently, she tried to disappear. She wanted to avoid embarrassment, and she probably feared that her uninvited touch would have rendered Jesus ceremonially unclean. So she was probably moving away. What is what's remarkable here is again, many people are pressing in on Jesus, but somehow, many people were touching him but somehow, this touch was different. It was a humble believing faith touch from a person that was longing for not only physical, but spiritual, spiritual healing, the work of regenerating grace and this dear woman, that we will someday meet in glory. You know Jesus knew this. That's why later on in verse 34, he said, "daughter your faith has made you well." But you must understand that something beyond physical contact occurred here. There was a, an inscrutable, mysterious transaction that happened at far deeper level than we could even begin to comprehend. I like what John MacArthur said, quote, "divine power is not an impersonal cosmic force somehow detached from its sovereign source. Rather, God is personally engaged in every act of power, from creation to redemption, to the providential sustaining of the universe." He feels it all. How true. And what's interesting here is that she came to Jesus incognito, and she planned to just kind of secretly slip away. She was thinking of a one way contact. But that was not Jesus' plan. Nor is it ever when we come to Jesus and saving faith. It's not like he's impersonal, and we get saved, and we go on our way. No, no, no, no, we are forever united to the living God through faith in Christ. And in his great love and compassion, Jesus confronts her temerity. He exposes her fear, and unnecessary fear, and he publicly draws her out. He publicly acknowledges something that's very important, and that is her obedient faith. Her total forgiveness. Not to mention, folks, she is healed now. She's pure, she's not defiled. So to be sure, Jesus knew her physical needs. But he also wanted to heal her spiritual needs. Verse 32, "he looked around to see the woman who had done this, but the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth." Whenever you're confronted with the living God, there's nothing you can hide, right? So she just lays it all out. Wouldn't you have loved to have heard that confession and all that was a part of that. Not necessary for us to know, the Spirit of God doesn't tell us that. What he does say, as Jesus said to her in verse 34, "Daughter, your faith has made you well go in peace and be healed of your affliction." You must understand that Jesus use of the term daughter here, extends far beyond the fact that she was somehow a physical daughter of Abraham, an Israelite. No, no, no, it was far more than that. Now she is the spiritual daughter of God Himself. Moreover, notice the phrase "made you well" in verse 33, "your faith has made you well." What's really interesting here is rather than using the common Greek word for physical healing, like "iaomai"..."therapeuo", what we see is that Matthew, Mark and Luke use the Greek term "sozo" and that's used elsewhere in the New Testament to describe being saved from sin. Your faith has made you well. You've been saved from your sin. Now Jesus healed diseases of lots of people. And most of them didn't possess genuine saving faith, but not this woman. And for this reason, Jesus could say to her, "Go in peace." Go in peace. You see, friends, when you're saved from your sins, you are reconciled to a holy God through faith in Christ, and the long war is over. You have been justified, you have been declared righteous. the imputed righteousness of Christ is now yours, you're forever hidden in him. So you can go in peace.

I ask you, Are you at peace with God today? If not, his wrath abides upon you. And unless you do business with God, you'll experience that wrath for eternity. And therein is the good news of the gospel. Romans 5:1, "having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." To be justified, it means to be declared righteous. What a magnificent testimony. Jesus was available. He's approachable. He's omnipotent, omniscient, and he's the savior of sin right? Now, there's a sudden shift here. Jesus delay in dealing with this poor woman appeared to have a devastating result. Notice verse 35, "while he was still speaking, they came from the house of the synagogue official saying, 'Your daughter has died. Why trouble the teacher anymore?'" Don't you know the father must have been devastated. He's probably thinking to himself, if, if this woman hadn't have interrupted, maybe she could have been saved? Isn't it easy for helplessness to turn into utter despair. By the way, the implication of the statement, "Why trouble the teacher anymore?" Is that somehow people were thinking, Well, Jesus is powerless over death. I mean, he might could have saved her while she's still alive, but now she's dead. So you know, that's it. But that's not at all true. Jesus was available, approachable, omnipotent, omniscient. And then thirdly, He was compassionate and calm. I want you to notice this.

Verse 36, "But Jesus, overhearing what was being spoken, said to the synagogue official." By the way, it doesn't say this, but I can just imagine, he puts his arm around him, draws him into him, gets down into his ear, with all of the commotion and he says, "Do not be afraid any longer only believe." "Do not be afraid any longer only believe." Here Jesus demonstrates his great love for those in need. Here, Jesus calmly administers the soothing balm of hope on the bleeding wounds of despair and doubt. "Do not be afraid any longer only believe," literally can be translated, "stop being afraid and keep believing," in fact, and Luke 8:50. We read, "do not be afraid any longer Only believe and she will be made well." Verse 37, "and he allowed no one to accompany him, except Peter and James and John, the brother of James. They came to the house of the synagogue official and he saw commotion, and people loudly weeping and wailing." You see Jesus delay was long enough, we don't know how long it was, but it was long enough for mourners to assemble and to start doing what mourners would do in that day. And frankly, today, they do a lot of the same thing. And that's that they start weeping and wailing. I mean, they had professional mourners. They would howl and scream and moan sounds like some of the histrionics that you would hear in some of the charismatic services I've been in with women back in the back room screaming and carrying on. I remember the first time I heard that I asked a guy "what is going on in there?" "Oh, they're in intercession.' So that's what was happening here. By the way, in those days, they would hire professional mourners skilled in these histrionics. They will, you might say "professional drama queens", primarily women. I'll say no more on that. And they would also hire musicians, primarily flute players. And the flutist would play very loudly in very dissonant tones, to somehow reflect the great dissonance within the heart of the family that had lost a loved one. And I might add that even the poor were required to have at least two flute players and one wailing woman at a funeral or when someone died, not so much the funeral, but when they died. Moreover, first century Jews would tear their clothes when a loved one died, but you'd have to tear it in a very specific way. For relatives, they had to tear their clothes around the heart. And that's what they would do. They would rip it and they would also mend it very loosely for everybody to see and they would wear it that way for 30 days to show their grief. But Jesus is unflappable. Okay, you got all this chaos going on. Jesus is unflappable, as I say, he's compassionate and he's calm. We read in verse 39, "and entering he said to them, 'Why make a commotion and weep?'' By the way, he knew that this was all show. I mean, this is all sizzle and no steak. That's what's going on here. In Luke 8:52. He says, "Stop weeping." Matthew 9:24, we read that, he says, Leave, leave, get out. He knew the mourning was superficial. Then he says "the child has not died, but is asleep." And of course, this is a metaphor for death that he could easily overpower. You might recall the same type of dynamic when Lazarus died. Remember that Jesus told the disciples in John 11:11, "our friend Lazarus has fallen," what? asleep, "fallen asleep, but I go that I may awaken him out of sleep."You see the concept of the body, being asleep at death is used throughout the New Testament. In fact, it was a metaphor that reminds us that death is just temporary. Yes, the body is asleep. But the soul is with the Lord, to be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord, right? 2 Corinthians 5:8, and for this reason, Jesus told the thief on the cross next to him, "Truly, truly I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise." But the body awaits a Day of Resurrection. There's a resurrection of the just and a resurrection of the unjust.

Jesus spoke of this in John 5 beginning in verse 28, he warned "an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth, those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment." So he comes in now and he says, "Why make a commotion and weep? The child has not died, but is asleep." And then verse 40, " they began laughing at him." The idea is they began to mock him. Beloved, you never want to mock the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet people do it all the time, don't they using His name in vain? And then we read something interesting, it says, "But putting them all out." Now that sounds like folks, would you mind? No, that's not what he did. The Greek term is "ekballo". And it means "to throw out or to cast out, to drive out forcibly." Yes, he was compassionate and calm, but he was forthright and he was very much in charge. He's basically putting an end to all of this emotional chicanery and chaos and mockery. Then we read, "He took along the child's father and mother and his own companions and enter the room where the child was." And then we have this precious statement "taking the child by the hand." Can't you just see that? This is the creator of the universe. "Taking the child by the hand, he said to her 'Talitha Kum'" which translated means a little girl, "I say to you get up." My what tender compassion. I mean think about it. When Jesus was down the road with all of the crowd and that father came up, he could have just said, "hey no problem, she's healed, go back and see her." No, no. He wants the intimate contact. And this is what he demonstrates here. Later on he's even going to tell the parents to give her some nourishment. She was probably sick for a long time. Oh, dear Christian, this is our Savior. This is my Jesus, I hope it's yours. This is the only Jesus the true JESUS.

I'm reminded of Isaiah's words in Isaiah 42:3 where Isaiah pictured the Messiah as tender compassion when he would come. He says "A bruised reed he will not break in a dimly burning wick he will not extinguish." Indeed Jesus is the one that comes and he brings comfort and healing and encouragement to the weak and to the oppressed. Isaiah 40:11, "like a shepherd, he will tend his flock" and that's what we see here." Like a shepherd, he will tend his flock. In his arm, he will gather the lambs and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead the nursing ewes." And we see the Messiah's testimony, the testimony of the anointed one and its transforming work in Isaiah 61, 700 years before this happened, beginning in verse one. The Lord says, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all who mourn, to grant those who mourn in Zion, giving them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified." And certainly, that's why he does these things. So he takes her by the hand, "Little girl, I say to you get up!" Verse 42, "Immediately the girl got up and began to walk, for she was 12 years old. And immediately, they were completely astounded." That's an understatement. Unlike the phony faith healers of our day, dear friends, the effects of Jesus healing were always instant, thorough, and irrefutable. Now, he says in verse 43, something very curious, "and he gave them strict orders that no one should know about this and he said that something should be given her to eat." By the way, that last phrase, just quickly, not only did she need food for her nourishment, but perhaps he wanted to underscore the reality to the family that she is really alive because dead people don't eat right, ghosts don't eat.

Now, why did he give them strict orders not to tell anyone? Well, I'm sure that partially it was to prevent further chaos. Because remember, the people of that day were longing for the Messiah. And many of them are thinking, "well, this is him annd guess what the Messiah is going to do? He's going to free us from Rome. This is the miracle worker, and he's going to bring in the kingdom, we're all going to be healthy, wealthy, and wise." But dear friends, had that happened, they would have forced him to be king and that's not what Jesus was ultimately all about. His primary reason for being there with them in His incarnation was not for people to see him as the great miracle worker, or as the great social justice warrior who had come to defeat Rome. He wanted to be seen as the Son of God who came to save sinners. And he knew that that would not be possible until he fulfilled His work of atonement on the cross and was raised again from the dead. Mark underscores this later in Mark 8:30, "And he warned them to tell no one about Him." And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed. And after three days rise again." You see dear friends, his messianic mission could not be understood apart from His death and His resurrection. He did not come to temporarily heal the sick or temporarily raised the dead. He did not come to promote social justice. He did not come to make us healthy and wealthy. He came to save us from our sins. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Jesus came to save sinners, Luke 19:10, "for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." Dear Christian this is the heart of the gospel.

As we wrap this up this morning, this should be the theme of our song. This is the message of the church. And for this reason, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:1, "Now I make known to you brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand by which also ye are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance, what I also received that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried and that he was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures." Dear friends, I challenge you to examine your own heart, and make sure that you know who Jesus is, and that you have submitted your life to Him and saving faith. And if so, one day you will experience the fullness of all that he has done, can do and will do in glory. That is my prayer for you. "Oh, what a glorious Savior divine what marvelous grace and peace are now mine. Oh, what wonders await the redeemed when the light of the lamb will endlessly beam?" Let's pray together. Father, we give you praise for the glory of our Savior, our coming King. And I pray as your servant, that your Word will bear much fruit in every heart that has heard it because we know that your Word will either harden or soften hearts. And we plead with you for the latter. We thank you. We give you praise. In Jesus name.

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