Resurrection (Mark 5:21-43)

Brian Johnson is a 47 year old tech billionaire.

He is the subject of a recent Netflix documentary called Don't

Die, The Man Who Wants to Live Forever.

Speaking recently about the documentary on a podcast,

Johnson was asked the question, Do you think that you're going

to die? He answered no.

Johnson is engaged in what he calls Project Blueprint, an

effort to reduce his so-called biological age.

He thinks that if he can reduce his rate of aging enough, he can

stay alive long enough for technological breakthroughs to

eventually breakthrough the barrier of death itself and

bring him along with it into immortality.

Johnson's daily anti ageing regimen, which costs him

$2,000,000 a year and enlists a team of doctors, includes taking

111 pills every day, wearing a baseball cap that shoots red

light into his scalp, collecting and testing his own stool

samples, and receiving blood plasma transfusions from his

teenage son. Johnson recently posted on a

social media website Conquering Death would be humanity's

greatest achievements. What odds of success do you give

him more personally? What's your answer to death?

What are you going to do about death?

What can you do about death? This morning we continue our

series in Mark's gospel of chapter 5, verses 21 to 43.

The section of Mark's gospel that we are in, stretching from

the end of chapter 4 to the beginning of chapter 6,

showcases Jesus's authority. We saw Jesus's authority over

nature itself at the end of chapter 4, and then his

authority over demonic spirits in the earlier part of chapter

5. In one sense, our passage is

very simple. In it, Jesus demonstrates his

power and authority over disease and even death.

But our passage is also incredibly personal, probing and

tender. It shows us 2 intimate, soul

searching encounters with Jesus. Please follow along as I read

the whole passage. Mark 5, verses 21 to 43.

Mark 5:21–43

We have a couple of volunteers with Bibles.

If only he needs a Bible put up a hand.

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Austin OK, if you need a Bible, put up a hand.

Mark 5, verses 21 to 43. And when Jesus had crossed again

Mark 5:21–43

in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him,

and he was beside the sea. Then came one of the rulers of

the synagogue, Gyrus by name. And seeing him, he fell at his

feet and implored him earnestly, saying, My little daughter is at

the point of death, come and lay your hands on her, so that she

may be made well and live. And he went with him, and a

great crowd followed him and thronged about him.

And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for 12

years, and who had suffered much under many physicians and had

spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew

worse. She had heard the reports about

Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his

garment. For she said, if I touch even

his garments, I'll be made well. And immediately the flow of

blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of

her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself

that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in

the crowd and said, Who touched my garments?

And his disciples send to him. You see the crowd pressing

around you, and yet you say, Who touched me?

And he looked around to see who had done it.

But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear

and trembling, and fell down before him, and told him the

whole truth. And he said to her, daughter,

Your faith has made you well, go in peace and be healed of your

disease. While he was still speaking,

there came from the ruler's house some who said, Your

daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any

further? But overhearing what they said,

Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, Do not fear, only

believe. And he allowed no one to follow

him, except Peter and James and John the brother of James.

They came to the House of the ruler of the synagogue, and

Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly.

And when he had entered, he said to them, Why are you making a

commotion and weeping? The child is not dead, but

sleeping. And they laughed at him, but he

put them all outside and took the child's father and mother

and those who were with him, and went in where the child was.

Taking her by the hand, he said to her, Talitha Kumi, which

means little girl, I say to you, arise.

And immediately the girl got up and began walking, for she was

12 years of age. And they were immediately

overcome with amazement. And he strictly charged them

that no one should know this and told them to give her something

to eat. Here's the main point of the

passage. Only Jesus has power over death.

So trust Him no matter the cost and no matter how hard it is to

believe. Only Jesus has power over death.

So trust him no matter the cost and no matter how hard it is to

believe. In other words, faith is hard,

but Jesus defeats death. The sermon will have three

points. The first will be the longest .1

Jesus power over disease. We'll see this in verses 21 to

34.2 Jesus power over death. We'll see this in verses 35 to

43.3. The power and difficulty of

faith. The power and difficulty of

faith. We'll see this in various verses

throughout the passage that treat faith and unbelief.

Before we jump into .1, just a word on our passages overall

structure. Our passage is a classic example

of Mark's famous sandwich technique where he starts a

narrative, something else interrupts it, and then he

finishes out that first narrative.

So the story begins with Gyrus asking Jesus to come and heal

his deathly ill daughter. It's then then Jesus is

interrupted by the woman's act of touching his garments.

Then the story with Gyrus and his daughter breaks off until

the end of Jesus interaction with the woman.

Then it picks back up again with the news that his daughter has

died. Now Mark is reporting what

happened in the order that it happened.

The interruption really happened.

But he also deliberately draws attention in the way he tells

the story to the parallels and the contrasts between the two

situations. Why?

Why does he tell the story that way?

Keep that question in mind as we walk through the passage and I

think we'll find the answer point #1 Jesus's power over

disease. Verses 21 to 34.

Healing from grave illness is what Gyrus asks for on behalf of

his daughter, and it's what the woman seeks and finds by

touching Jesus garment. Look with me first again at

verses 21 to 24. And when Jesus had crossed again

in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him,

and he was beside the sea. Then came one of the rulers of

the synagogue, Gyrus by name. And seeing him, he fell at his

feet, and implored him earnestly, saying, My little

daughter is at the point of death, Come and lay your hands

on her, so that she may be made well and live.

And he went with him, and a great crowd followed him and

thronged about him. As usual, a huge crowd gathers

around Jesus as soon as he steps off the boat and onto the

seashore. Gyrus is introduced as a ruler

of the synagogue, which sounds impressive, but the position is

more like a lay worship leader. Every local Jewish community

would have had one. It's still he was a man of

standing in the community. We also learn from verse 40 in

the fact that there were multiple rooms in his house.

That means he had some type of wealth because most homes in

that day were single room dwellings.

But here Gyrus doesn't appeal to Jesus based on his status or his

wealth. Instead, he falls down before

him in a posture of humility and humiliation.

He's desperate. He's pleading with Jesus.

Why? Because he says his little

daughter is at the point of death, this is urgent, there's

no time to lose. And he expresses faith in Jesus

ability to heal her. He asks Jesus to come and lay

hands on her, that she may be made well and live now.

Most of the Jewish leaders had rejected Jesus, but here's one

whose desperate circumstances drove him to Jesus and drove him

to his knees before Jesus. And so Jesus agrees to go with

him, and the crowd comes to pressing tightly around him.

But then someone interrupts their progress, verses 25 and

26. And there was a woman who had

had a discharge of blood for 12 years and who had suffered much

under many physicians and had spent all that she had and was

no better, but rather grew worse.

This woman also is in a desperate condition.

The phrase discharge of blood closely echoes Leviticus 12,

seven and 1525, which makes it clear that her condition is a

chronic vaginal hemorrhage. In an effort to remedy this

condition, she sought out many doctors, but none of them

helped. In fact, they made her condition

worse. This is not surprising if you

know anything about the history of pre modern medicine.

She suffered not only from the disease, but from the cures.

Now, even with all the advantages of modern medicine

today, doctors, in an effort to heal sometimes make things

worse. An effort to heal can

unintentionally inflict harm, and no doctor can heal every

disease. In this woman's quest for

healing, she spent all the money she had.

Medical bankruptcy is not unique to modern America.

Imagine how discouraged she was, how disheartened she tried

everything. She'd spent everything.

After 12 years, no improvement, she'd only got worse.

Her condition was chronic and in some sense degenerating.

Also. Her condition left her in a

chronic state of ritual impurity that had a few implications. 1

was that she would have been unable to marry or to conceive

children. Her condition not only drained

away her life, it prevented her from bringing new life into the

world. Like the demon possessed man we

encountered last week, this woman's life also is a kind of

living death. She carries around within her

own body a continual source of death and impurity.

Her ritual impurity also had religious and social

implications. She was prohibited from

attending the temple and participating in the annual

feasts and pilgrimages. It's unclear to what extent she

would have been isolated from regular society.

There's some debate over that, but being indefinitely excluded

from temple worship on top of everything else would have been

bad enough. This woman's condition was dark

and desperate. If you have a chronic illness,

or you've cared for someone who has a chronic illness, you know

something of how heavy this woman's burden was.

In fact, you could even say this woman's condition was beyond

human hope. What else is she supposed to do?

What else is she supposed to try?

There's no hope left except for what she heard about Jesus.

Look at verses 27 and 28. She had heard the reports about

Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his

garment. For she said, if I touch even

his garments, I will be made. Well, she heard about Jesus and

she believed what she heard. If you are not a believer in

Jesus, that same opportunity is open to you today.

Here I am reporting to you about Jesus.

All you have to do to be made right with God is believe the

report. Trust Jesus based on this report

that I'm giving you right now. Many people pressed around

Jesus, but only this woman reached out and touched him.

As Agustin put it, flesh presses, faith touches.

Coming to church every week and hanging out with Christians

doesn't make you clean and whole.

Only faith in Christ will heal you, will save you.

Now there might have been an element of superstition mingled

with the woman's faith, evident in her kind of private thought

that if only she could touch Jesus garment, she would be

healed. But she clearly still had faith

in Jesus, and it turned out that her belief about touching His

garment was right. So she approaches him kind of

stealthily from behind, attempting to avoid detection

either by the crowd and seemingly even trying to avoid

Jesus's detection. She is not drawing any kind of

attention to herself whatsoever. So she touches his cloak.

What happened? Verses 29 and 30?

And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in

her body that she was healed of her disease.

And Jesus, perceiving in Himself that power had gone out from

him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, Who touched

my garments? She was healed immediately, and

she knew it. She could feel the difference in

her own body, and Jesus also felt something in his own body.

Note very carefully the exact wording of verse 30.

Jesus perceiving in Himself that power had gone out from him.

Does this mean that the healing power went out from Jesus

without him knowing why or deciding in advance that it

would happen? I think that's exactly what the

text is saying. We'll unpack that.

We recently had an electrical issue in our house.

I went to the little dungeon room where the Breakers are, and

I saw on the ground some wires that were kind of tangled and

looked like they'd been chewed through, as if an animal had

gotten to them. There's also a puddle of water

on the ground. The last thing I was going to do

was touch those wires. If I did, it was possible that

electrical current would flow from them into me, to my

immediate harm. Now, thankfully, we brought in

an electrician. He said those wires weren't

really attached to anything. That wasn't really the problem.

Phew. OK, but still, what would have

happened to me if they were as bizarre as it sounds?

I think something like that is what this text is saying

happened. Jesus power flowed from him into

the woman automatically, involuntarily, but of course the

power that flowed from him into her didn't harm her.

It healed her instantly, completely, and she knew it.

Now, sometimes when you read something like this in

Scripture, you're tempted to think it can't possibly mean

that. But if you're pretty confident

you're getting the sense of the words right, it's far better to

admit ignorance, pray and ask God, what on earth does this

mean? Now, I'm going to take a little

time to unpack this. We'll pause here a while to

understand what's going on here. We have to understand Old

Testament dynamics of purity and holiness.

The primary cause of impurity, Ritual impurity was involuntary

states in which something comes out of the human body.

According to Old Testament purity laws, there were three

primary sources of ritual impurity, skin disease,

discharge, a bodily fluid, and contact with a dead body.

It's striking that already in Mark's gospel, Jesus has healed

someone who had skin disease. Here he heals the woman's

discharge of blood, and he's about to turn a corpse back into

a living person. Jesus is on a mission to remove

impurity by eradicating its sources.

Consider how blood causes impurity according to the Old

Testament ritual laws. Because it is the force of life,

blood needs to be contained. It needs to stay where it

belongs, circulating around the body.

When blood comes out of the body, it causes impurity.

It's like a kind of contamination.

And when someone is impure, they can communicate that impurity to

whatever they come into contact with, whether it's a physical

object like a cup or a vessel, or whether it's a person you

could communicate impurity to. In the Old Testament, there's

not only ritual impurity, but moral impurity.

Many Old Testament passages talk about sins making people impure

like a stain on clothing. Now here's a key point.

For Old Testament Israel to continue to dwell in God's

presence, they had to be both ritually and morally pure.

If they weren't God's, holiness would break out against them and

destroy them. All the Old Testament laws about

both moral and ritual purity were protections.

They were guardrails. They were fences protecting

people from an utterly pure God. Both impurity and holiness are

dynamic forces. Impurity spreads and holiness

can ZAP out like an electric current.

But not only that. God's own holiness was also, in

a sense, contagious. Under the Old Covenant, God's

holiness was manifested most intensely in the Tabernacle and

later the Temple, and especially in its inner room, the Holy of

Holies. For instance, Exodus 29, verse

Exodus 29:37

37 teaches whatever touches the altar shall become holy.

The altar where sacrifices were offered expressed God's own

holiness. Whatever touched that altar as

it were, contracted something of God's own holiness.

Within certain bounds, God's holiness is contagious.

It makes holy what comes into contact with it.

It's like the glory that's shown on Moses's face.

When Moses would meet face to face with God, he would step

away and his face would shine. Why?

Because God's glory had been shining on him.

So all that background on purity and holiness in mind, what's

going on here? In verses 29 and 30, the passage

is showing us that Jesus possesses God's own holiness.

Jesus has the kind of holiness that makes what it touches holy.

Jesus is holy like the temple is holy, not like the priests are

holy. That's why in Mark 124 he's

called the Holy One of God. This woman experienced an

uncontrolled discharge from her body, and so did Jesus.

But whereas the woman's discharge of blood rendered her

impure, Jesus's discharge of holiness healed her and removed

the source of her impurity. Instead of her touch defiling

Him, His power healed and cleansed her.

Instead of her impurity flowing from her to Him, holiness and

healing and purity flowed from him to her.

This exchange proves that Jesus's power is inherent and

inexhaustible. Jesus power to heal did not come

from outside, it didn't come from another.

He didn't have to ask for it. His divine power to heal dwelt

within his own human body. Why?

Because, as Paul says in Colossians 29, in him the whole

fullness of deity dwelt bodily. The power that went out from

Jesus body and healed the woman did not diminish His power in

any way. We're about to see proof of

that. In giving to her, He didn't lose

anything. He always has more to give.

There's plenty more where that came from.

This passage shows us something brand new in the history of

God's dealings with His people and with the world.

The whole system of the temple and the sacrifices was ordained

to purify the people and protect them from the fatal consequences

of their impurities coming into contact with God's purity.

But what happens here? It's as if the woman is going to

reach out and touch the ark of the covenant.

She could die from that, but instead she was healed and

purified. An impure woman approached the

holy God in faith and was purified and healed.

This holy 1 still destroys the impurity, but by faith the

impure 1 is kept from being destroyed.

Concepts of ritual purity might seem foreign to many of us.

I think we all can recognize in our own experience a feeling of

moral impurity, of our own sins leaving a mark on us, staining

us, defiling us. And just about every other world

religion in one way or another presents some type of program

for you to cleanse yourself, for you to render yourself pure, to

atone for your own sins and somehow work on your own

transformation so that you can be more acceptable, whether it's

to kind of the forces of the universe or whatever gods there

are. The good news of Jesus is

something entirely different. It is not atone for your own

sins. It is not cleanse yourself so

that you can approach God. It is Jesus atone for your sins

through his death on the cross. It is Jesus provides all the

cleansing from moral impurity that you need.

You have no purity in yourself. You are impure in yourself.

But through faith in Christ, you can approach God's own holiness

and be safe, be accepted, be reconciled to him.

That's what Jesus came to accomplish through his death.

And just like this woman here, the only way to receive it is

faith in him. The only way to receive it is to

trust his power and not to come to him thinking, oh, I could

have some little mini religious assistance in my sort of ongoing

quest for self improvement. No, it's to despair.

Just like this woman despaired of any help from doctors, just

like this woman despaired of being able to fix herself.

To become a Christian is to despair of fixing yourself and

know that only Jesus can fix you.

And he proved it, as we'll see later.

He proved it by rising from the dead.

He, in his own body, overcame the impurity of death to offer a

pure, eternal resurrection life to all who trust in Him.

If you've never turned from sin and trusted in Jesus, come to

him today. He's the only way to be cleansed

from sin. So Jesus healed this woman, but

he wasn't done with her just yet.

He was going to heal her even more deeply.

Look at verses 31 and 32. And his disciples said to him,

You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, who

touched me? And he looked around to see who

had done it. Now when Jesus looks around to

see who had done it, it's possible he's acting like God

with Adam in the Garden of Eden, saying Adam, where are you?

God knew full well where Adam was.

He didn't need to ask. He asked for Adam's sake.

That's possible. But given that verse 30 presents

Jesus's healing as involuntary, I think it's far more likely

that he's speaking from genuine human ignorance.

We learn in Luke 252 that as a child Jesus grew in wisdom that

is with reference to his human nature.

As God, Jesus is omniscient. As man, His knowledge is

limited. How can those two realities

coexist in a single person? That's a mystery.

I cannot psychologically reconcile it for you.

But Scripture teaches both truths, so we shouldn't be

afraid to recognize at different times in the Gospels, Jesus

speaking from genuine human ignorance.

But Jesus in verse 32 is not merely looking to remedy

ignorance. He also has other purposes in

mind for requiring this woman to publicly identify herself.

Verses 33 and 34. But the woman, knowing what had

happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down

before him and told him the whole truth.

And he said to her, daughter, your faith has made you well.

Go in peace and be healed of your disease.

We'll talk a little more about this exchange in the Third

Point. For now, just a couple of brief

comments. For one thing, here's an

insightful principle that Tim Keller articulated from this

passage. When you go to Jesus for help,

you will both give to and get from him far more than you

bargained for. When you go to Jesus for help,

you will both give to and get from Him far more than you

bargained for. She came seeking healing, and

what she got in addition was a face to face meeting with Jesus.

What she got was assurance, she got his tender address, she got

his public declaration to all around that she was now healed,

therefore pure, therefore to be fully welcomed back into society

and into all her relationships. What she got was far more than

she was looking for and that only happened through making her

private initiative public. In order to have a face to face

relationship with Jesus, she had to tell Him what she did.

She had to risk full transparency before him, full

visibility. She had to lay everything bare

and submit to whatever he was going to make of her.

And this is what he made of her daughter.

A term of affection, endearment, reassurance.

She came seeking healing and he declared her to be a member of

his family. Now all that required her giving

Jesus more than she bargained for.

It happened in full view of everyone, and it had to happen

in full view of everyone for her to be restored to full

fellowship with everyone. Public confession, Public

restoration. When Jesus says your faith has

made you well, he isn't saying that her faith is the power that

healed her, but that her faith is how she received His power.

When he says go in peace and be healed of your disease, He's

promising that it won't come back.

He's assuring her that the remedy is permanent.

All the while, while Jesus was interacting with this woman,

imagine how Gyrus felt. He would have had a front row

seat. After all, he's there with

Jesus, showing him the way to his house.

But now this woman with a chronic condition comes in and

interrupts and stops Jesus in his tracks.

Gyrus has no time to lose. Jesus has plenty of time.

Why? What's going on?

Shouldn't Jesus be in more of a hurry .2 Jesus's power over

death. Jesus's power over death.

We see this power in verses 35 to 43.

Start with verse 35. While he was still speaking,

there came from the ruler's house some who said, your

daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any

further? When someone has a potentially

fatal illness or other serious medical condition or

complication, there are times when every minute matters.

Some of you can attest to this experience.

My family can attest to this by experience.

This was one of those times. The delay has been excruciating.

Jesus, what about the little girl?

Get there before it's too late. The whole time that Jesus is

looking for this woman and talking with this woman, the

sands of the little girl's hourglass had been running out.

And now they have run out. She's gone.

The girl's death challenges Jesus's credibility.

Why has he been wasting his time on a woman whose condition was

chronic, allowing the little girl to slip away?

Is Jesus's sense of triage so upside down?

This is malpractice. If Jesus were a doctor today, he

could be sued for this. What is going on?

And then Jesus raises the stakes even more.

Verse 36. But overhearing what they said,

Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue.

Do not fear, only believe. The situation has gone from bad

to awful. Gyrus has just heard the worst

news of his life. This has just become the worst

day of his life. Jesus has just let this man's

daughter die and now he has the gall to say do not fear, only

believe. What Jesus, asks Gyrus.

He also asks you, will you trust him when all hope is lost?

Will you trust in Jesus on the worst day of your life?

Now here comes one of the keys to the whole story.

I think. Here comes the key to the answer

of why Mark sandwiches these narratives and makes them so

parallel when Jesus says do not fear, only believe.

Let's say Gyrus asked how? What does that look like?

How am I supposed to do that? The answer would be the woman

who just caused the delay. Do what she did.

Have faith like she had trust in me.

Jesus is saying when you have no hope, do you think she had any

hope, humanly speaking? And yet she came to me in faith.

This woman has become an example to Gyrus.

The kind of faith the woman has is trusting Jesus no matter the

cost, trusting Jesus no matter the circumstances, trusting

Jesus no matter how hard it is to believe.

It's trusting Jesus when there is no hope.

It's trusting Jesus without limit.

It's trusting Jesus in and through and beyond death.

It's trusting that Jesus has power over death.

Humanly speaking, Gyrus and this woman have nothing in common.

He's a man, she's a woman, he's wealthy, she's broke, He has

standing in the community. She's an outcast.

All they have in common is that their desperation drove them to

Jesus. All they have in common is that

they have no hope apart from Him.

And now she has led the way for him.

If he proves to have faith like hers, he will spiritually

survive the worst day of his life.

Look at verses 37 and 38. And he allowed no one to follow

him except Peter and James and John, the brother of James.

They came to the House of the ruler of the synagogue, and

Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly.

The commotion here with these mourners weeping and wailing,

reflects the ancient practice of hiring mourners.

When someone died, they would sing out loud wailing songs.

Now, you might think that's a kind of artificial or

superficial practice. But the point was to give people

permission to freely voice their grief.

Hired mourners led the way and opened up space.

They set the tone so that it was more natural for family members

and friends to grieve aloud and grieve freely.

But Jesus tells them that their services are not necessary.

Verse 39 in the first part of verse 40.

And when he had entered, he said to them, why are you making a

commotion and weeping? The child is not dead, but

sleeping and they laughed at him.

Hear Jesus speaks in a Riddle. I don't think he's seeking to be

deliberately misunderstood, but he's speaking in a way that is

almost inevitably inviting misunderstanding.

They know the girl is dead, so to them, Jesus just looks like

he's making a dumb, obvious mistake.

Jesus is denial, not dead. But sleeping doesn't mean the

girl's not actually dead. It doesn't mean they were just

mistaken and she's in a coma and he's going to wake her up.

It means she isn't going to stay dead.

By the time Jesus gets through with her, her death will prove

to have been only a short nap. Jesus calls death sleep, not to

pretend it isn't real, but to deny that it's ultimate in the

presence of death. Jesus announces his power over

death, but the crowd don't get it.

They laugh at him. They think he's either stupid or

crazy. As we sang in Ah Holy Jesus, he

was by foes, derided. This is one of the saddest

sentences in the Bible. Jesus is proclaiming his power

over death, but they think he's lost it.

They think he has no idea what he's talking about.

The mourners mock Jesus, but Jesus is about to mock death.

Look at verses 40 to 42. But he put them all outside and

took the child's father and mother and those who were with

him and went in where the child was, taking her by the hand.

He said to her, Talitha Kumi, which means little girl, I say

to you, arise. And immediately the girl got up

and began walking, for she was 12 years of age.

And they were immediately overcome with amazement.

Here Jesus treats this girl exactly as if he's waking her up

from sleep. He takes her by the hands.

He addresses her in tender, simple, everyday terms.

His command is basically equivalent to wake up

sweetheart. Now why is it recorded in

Aramaic? That's what Talithakumi, it's in

the language Jesus spoke. Why in Aramaic here I think it's

probably because it's just such a vivid memory in the minds of

the eyewitnesses. Such ordinary words producing

such an extraordinary result. The only other time in Aramaic

saying of Jesus is recorded in Mark is Chapter 7 verse 34 where

he told a blind man's eyes to be opened.

It's if he's speaking directly to the man's eyes and the man's

eyes obey the command. Jesus says be opened and the

eyes open. Jesus says to a dead girl arise

and she gets up. Parents among us can attest that

some children wake up more easily than others, and children

wake up more easily at certain times than at other times.

Snow day? Out in the door, fully dressed

at 6:00 AM School day. Sometimes that can take

strategic tactics and careful diplomacy to gently lure a child

out of bed to get dressed and go to school.

Jesus raised a child from death more easily than I can get one

of my kids out of bed on a school day.

Jesus's direct address deprived death of its power.

He spoke the girl out of the grave.

He shut down death by a simple voice command.

Human words called the girl back from death.

How? Because the one speaking them is

divine. A human hand lifted a girl from

the grave. How?

The hand belongs to Jesus's truly human nature, which truly

belongs to the one who is truly God.

This girl's resurrection is a picture and preview of ours.

One day Jesus voice will call everyone out of the grave.

That's what John chapter 5 says. And on that day, we who have

John 5 · chapter mention

trusted in Jesus will receive perfect, glorified bodies like

we heard earlier in First Corinthians 15.

Our transformation will be as complete and instant as this

little girl's resurrection was, and even more so because we will

be clear of death's reach forever.

For someone who is safe in the hands of the Incarnate Lord of

Life, death is no more a threat to life than sleep is.

Jesus has resurrection power in himself, as he declares in John

11. I am the resurrection and the

life. And he proved it by rising from

the grave. If you're suffering from a

chronic illness, if your health is going from bad to worse,

trust in Jesus's promise to rise you up out of the grave with a

glorified, perfected body. You may experience healing and

answers to prayer now, but even if you don't now, you will then.

The story concludes in verse 43. And he strictly charged them

that no one should know this and told them to give her something

to eat. The girl's illness left her

hungry, so Jesus sees to it that she's provided for.

And he commands silence in his continual campaign of an effort

not to be swamped by crowds. Kids in the congregation.

Imagine what it would have been like to be that girl.

One minute you are sicker than you've ever been in your life.

Then you're dead. Then you wake up and you see

your parents and a man you've never seen before standing kind

of close to you and three other men you don't know.

And you start walking around. You get a snack.

Imagine how you would have felt when your parents explained to

you what had happened. How should that 12 year old girl

have lived after that? What difference should it make

to the whole rest of her life that Jesus raised her from the

dead? This girl is a picture of every

Christian. Spiritually speaking.

Every Christian is someone whom Jesus has raised from the dead.

What difference should that make to the whole rest of your life?

What had turned into the worst day of Gyrus's life ended up

being the best day of his life by Jesus delay.

He both demanded and gave Gyrus more than he bargained for.

Jesus demanded faith in the face of death, and he gave him his

girl back from the grave. Only Jesus has power over death,

so trust him no matter the cost and no matter how hard it is to

believe .3 The power and difficulty of faith The power

and difficulty of faith. This poem will be briefer mainly

application. We're just going to look again

at how faith and unbelief show up throughout the passage. 3

brief sub points within this passage.

First, unbelief exposed. We see this in verses 35 and 40.

Verse 35 the messengers come to gyrus and say your daughter is

dead. Why trouble the teacher any

further? They thought that because the

girl's life had ended, Jesus power to help it ended.

They thought that life was the limit of his power.

They could not conceive how deep and far and wide and high his

power reached. Similarly, in verse 40, when

Jesus says in verse 39 the child is not dead but sleeping, they

laugh at him. They think Jesus mistakes death

for sleep. Someone who mistakes death for

sleep is more worthy of scorn than trust.

But the mistake is not his, it's theirs.

What's the problem that underlies both expressions of

unbelief here? It's that they measured Jesus by

human standards. They applied to Jesus human

limits. They used pre measured

categories to cut Jesus down to size rather than allowing Jesus

to explode all their categories. The only way to understand Jesus

rightly is to let him explode your categories.

The only way to begin to understand Jesus is to realize

that Jesus is beyond your understanding.

The only way to see Jesus truly is to realize that the truth

about him is more wonderful than you can imagine.

If you don't believe in Jesus, I hope you're starting to see that

this is astoundingly good news. Brian Johnson doesn't have power

over death. Jesus does.

No doctor has power over death, but Jesus does.

No technology or drug or bio hack can overcome death, but

Jesus can simply by speaking a word.

Jesus alone can overcome death. Jesus alone deserves your

absolute confidence. Sub .2 Faith's power.

Faith's power. We see faith's power in a whole

bunch of places. Look at Jairus's posture at the

very beginning, verses 22 and 23.

Seeing him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly.

Jairus's desperation drove him to Jesus and drove him to his

knees, and it led him to beg of Jesus to plead with him, to ask

him intensely and earnestly, When's the last time you prayed

like that? When's the last time you begged

God in prayer? Would an audit of your prayer

life reveal that you are desperate for Jesus?

Faith humbles you in order to lift up Jesus.

Faith empties you in order to fill you with Jesus.

And faith grasps hold of Jesus in order to receive his power.

Think again of the woman's faith in verses 27 and 28.

For she said, if I touch even his garments, I'll be made well.

The desperateness of her condition highlights the depth

of her faith. Her disease was incurable.

She'd suffered from it for years.

She'd been disappointed more times than she could count.

She knew there was nothing in herself to make her worthy of

Jesus. She had no money, nothing to

offer. And yet she grabbed hold of

Jesus in faith. Faith is where your need and

Jesus's power meet. Faith is how your desperation

becomes a platform for Jesus's compassion.

That's why Jesus says in in verse 34, your faith has made

you. Well, you could equally

translate that your faith has saved you.

It's the same Greek word. Literally speaking, this woman

received healing by faith. But that statement echoes with

overtones for every Christian. Your faith has saved you, How?

Not by any power in itself, but because by faith we receive the

power of Christ. Faith is not a vibe.

Faith is not a general feeling of goodwill toward whatever

powers are out there in the universe.

Faith is not a kind of optimistic sense that everything

is going to be all right in the end.

Faith is only as good as its object.

Faith is confidence in something, or more specifically

someone, because faith is how we receive Christ's power.

Faith is world conquering and death conquering, but faith's

only power is what it gets from Jesus.

Sub .3 faith's difficulty. Twice in our passage we see

faith tested. Twice in our passage, Jesus

tests someone who has already come to him demonstrating faith.

First, the woman. Verses 30 to 33.

As we saw, Jesus requires the woman to out herself.

She grabs hold of him as she thinks in private, and he

requires her to go public. He demands that she out herself

before him and before the watching crowd.

Sometimes Jesus requires us to risk embarrassing ourselves as

part of declaring our loyalty to Him.

Why? Because ultimately, that

strengthens our commitment to Him.

Proving your faith publicly deepens your faith.

It offers evidence of faith that was more than she bargained for

and it was for her good. And of course, Gyrus got more

than he bargained for and had his faith swordly tested.

When Jesus let his daughter die, Gyrus had faith.

Jesus tested that faith far beyond what Gyrus would have

thought was his breaking point. Jesus, hurry.

Jesus, don't you care? So often in trials we can accuse

God of either delay or indifference.

When's the last time you wanted God to hurry up to answer your

prayers pronto? Right now, thank you very much,

in just the terms that you're desiring and maybe even

demanding. When it seems like God is

delaying, trust Him. Resist the temptation of

arrogance. Resist the temptation to inform

God that you know how to run your life better than He does,

it seems. Instead, wait for Him, trust in

Him. If He is demanding of you more

than you bargained for, remember He's doing that in order to give

you more than you bargained for. When's the last time you accused

God of indifference? Does God care?

He cares more than you can imagine.

Look at the healed woman. Look at the girl gently lifted

out of death. Look at the cross of Christ.

Look at his resurrection. How can you look at each of

those displays of divine compassion and accuse God of not

caring about you? If God cares this much, if God

loves you so much that he gave his only Son over to death for

you, then you can trust Him. Every day you can trust Him.

On the worst day, you can trust Jesus.

On the worst day of your life. The aspiring immortalist Brian

Johnson said conquering death would be humanity's greatest

achievement. Who's going to tell him?

I'm sorry, Brian, you're 2000 years late.

There is a human who has conquered death, and it didn't

take him 111 pills a day to do it.

He just spoke a word. Then he proved his regiment by

doing it on himself. And here's the best news of all.

If you trust in Christ, if you trust in him, he'll do it for

you too. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we praise you for your compassion.

We praise you for your wisdom over death.

We pray that we would trust that when you are demanding of us

more than we meant to give you, that it's because you're giving

us more than we could ask for. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.