Healing in His Wings

Greeneville Seventh-day Adventist Church: It is February 14. but I hardly notice because the theme of the church service should always be love. thank you for that music. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I love to go snorkeling around coral reefs. One of my favorite activities in the world. In fact, last time, two, three years ago, the school went to Kenya for a mission trip, and my family stayed over an extra time. And we went to the coast. and we did snorkeling, snorkeling, snorkeling, nighttime, daytime. I don't know, do you remember how many hours we spent out that one day? I think it was close to eight hours without touching the ground. just, looking down and seeing what God has created. And, you know, I like scuba diving, but snorkeling I like better. You don't have to carry so much stuff. You can carry all your equipment in a little bag and it's a lot easier. And it's also easier to get a sunburn while you're snorkeling. I love sunburns. They're the best. I'm not kidding. Southern Adventist University wasn't called that back then. ⁓ went on their first mission trip they ever did. And it was a spring break mission trip down to Honduras on the Bay Islands. And I was snorkeling out there and we'd done some scuba diving too. And I got the biggest sunburn of my I mean, after all, it was winter back in Tennessee, and you get down there right into the sun, and my back blistered, blistered, blistered. And I loved it. Do you know why? Speaking of Valentine's Day, there was this cute little nursing student that put a pity on me and rubbed cream on my back. And I married her. So much for Valentine's. Okay. But I like scuba diving. And one time when we were working in Kenya, we took the whole school to the coast. It was a spiritual retreat, but one day was dedicated to scuba diving with the whole school. And so we got out there on the boat and all the oxygen tanks all lined up for all the students and it was a national park so guides were required. The whole national park is underwater. And it's the Kisti Pungati National Park. I know I said that right. ⁓ And so my family, we're kind of there waiting for the students to go. Waiting, okay, let's let them go first and then we'll have some time. And finally, you know, students were coming back in and more guides were available. So we put on our scuba gear. We put on the tanks and the masks and snorkels and fins and the weights and all that goes with it. And into the water we went. And Joshua and I, we had the same guide. And we took off through scuba diving way down. We're way down at the bottom of the ocean. And it wasn't real deep, but it was on the bottom. And it was so fascinating looking at God's magnificent artistry underwater. And as we're going along, Josh was up ahead a little ways and I'm behind the guide a little ways and the guide's there in the middle. And I took a breath of oxygen. And it didn't quite feel right. In fact, I had to inhale kind of hard to get that breath. It just happened all of sudden. I was doing fine. I was like, well, that came hard. And I exhaled. and I inhaled again, but I didn't. Hmm. I found out that the tank I was using had gotten mixed up and I was using one that had already been used that day. And I was just sitting there amazed at trying to inhale and your chest will not, cannot expand. It's blocked, there's nothing. And that's a strange feeling. And as hard as I tried, I could not expand my lungs. The tank was empty. And at this point, it causes one to reflect on one's priorities. Should I keep on doing what I'm doing just hoping it'll turn out okay? Or should I figure out how to find my next breath? Sorry, but you'll have to wait until the end of the sermon to find out if I survived. Okay, I have mentioned how organized the writings of Matthew are. And if this is your first time here, Pastor Dawson and I, we're going through the book of Matthew. We might not hit every verse, but we're hitting almost all of them. so the organization is pretty interesting. After all, look at Matthew himself. He had been a tax collector. That means you need to be an accountant. That means you need to be organized and keep things in ledgers and things like that and know how to hide things from the government and other things. ⁓ And so he's writing very precisely in an organized manner. ⁓ So in the book of Matthew here we have the Sermon on the Mount which we went through, which Matthew recorded in greater detail than anyone else. And then the miracles begin. This is his organization. We have a set of stories about miracles, followed by a set of stories about discipleship, followed by a set of stories about miracles, followed by a set of stories about discipleship, followed by a set of stories about miracles, followed by Jesus sending out his disciples with the power to work miracles. very precisely organized. In the first set of miracles we have, as we went through, a man healed of leprosy, the healing of the centurion servant, and the healing of Peter's mother-in-law. These miracles have something in common that Jesus wants to teach the people and his disciples. All of these deal with people who are excluded from Israel's religion. The leper can't go to church. He's unclean. The centurion can't fully go to church. He's a Gentile. He's only allowed in one room of the church, the court of the Gentiles. Peter's mother-in-law can't fully go to church because she's a woman. She's only allowed in another room, the court of the women. So Jesus is showing that the love and acceptance of God extends further than the chosen people. as well as those who are usually excluded from full participation. Then we have the two men who want to follow Jesus, but one has not count the cost and the other has more important business to attend to. The next set of miracles are Jesus calming the storm, Jesus healing the demon possessed man, Jesus healing the paralytic who came through the roof. Again, these miracles have something in common. They show the power of Jesus over the natural and the supernatural. He can control the weather, he can cast out the devil, and he can forgive sins. These all show the authority Jesus has to say and do what he does. Then we have the story of Matthew leaving everything to be a disciple and instructions about true fasting. Now we're entering into the third set of miracles in this sequence. The woman who was healed by touching the hem of Jesus' garment. The daughter of Jairus raised from the dead. And the healing of two blind men and a demon-possessed mute. We'll focus on the first two of those today. In all of these stories, Jesus shows that he values the underprivileged. The woman has been unclean. Does anybody know? 12 years and is all but worthless to her society. Yes, I said unclean. That's what she was considered. The little 12-year-old girl is dead. Death is considered so unclean that priests were not allowed to go to a funeral unless it was a close relative. They weren't allowed even to go into a cemetery unless it was after the funeral of a close relative. The blind and mute are considered sinful, thus the reason for their physical problems. Another thing that this set of miracle has in common is the way that Jesus emphasizes the faith of those who had come to him. You remember that I said that I appreciate the organization of Matthew, but I also appreciate the way Mark and Luke tell stories. You don't always have an accountant that tells the best stories. They're a little too organized. But Mark and Luke, they add more details. So forgive me if we leave Matthew here a bit. We're going to slip over to the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 5, to look at these stories. He has some very important things we need to look at. Mark, Chapter 5. And we're going to start with verse 21. Now when Jesus had crossed over again by boat to the other side, a great multitude gathered to him, and he was by the sea. And behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue came. What's his job? Ruler of the synagogue. Okay, high up position. Jairus by name, and when he saw him, he fell at his feet. The Greek word for fall down is often a word used for worship. Fell down at Jesus' feet and begged him earnestly saying, my little daughter lies at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her that she may be healed and she will live. Jairus as a ruler of a synagogue in Capernaum was in a powerful and wealthy position. But while the other religious leaders were finding fault with Jairus, he humbles himself before Jesus in faith. You know, there's hope for us pastors too. Maybe, just maybe. Matthew's version says that his daughter was dead. But we know from the other two accounts and the desire of ages that she was not dead yet. The Greek of Matthew can mean that if you don't come, she is dead, or that she may be dead already, I don't know, or she is at death's door. In other words, she's mostly dead. That was the idea. Verse 24 in Mark, so Jesus went with him and a great multitude followed him and thronged him. Can you imagine? As Jesus is trying to get to the home of Jairus, whose daughter is quickly dying, he's pressed in on all sides. People wanting to touch him, people wanting help, people wanting to see more miracles out of curiosity. Excuse me. Now. You know me well enough, most of you. I'm not a crowds person. That's why I became a pastor so I didn't have to sit with y'all. But I get claustrophobic just reading this verse. They're pressing in all around him. Last weekend, we were gone and we were in Florida visiting some relatives and we stopped at a gas station and I almost bought a sticker at a gas station that said, I was social distancing before it was cool. Can you imagine how Jairus feels? He must be desperate for the crowd to let Jesus through. It'd be like rushing your loved one to the hospital. Don't tell anybody, but when Rachel was being born, I was on the downtown Atlanta connector, 100 miles an hour. And I was being passed by other people. I was desperate to get through the hospital. didn't want the baby born in the car. And came close. But can you imagine what if we had been downtown Atlanta in the typical traffic jam? I would have been frantic. What if somebody was dying in a car? How would you feel? And to make things worse, if they could get any worse... There's a detour. Well, on his way to help one person, another situation demands the attention of Jesus. Now, you see ambulances going by all the time. Pray when they go by. They go by my house a lot and a lot of you live past my house. So I pray for you like Lord not one of them, please But you know, they have protocols and they have decisions to make what if they pass an accident on their way to pick somebody up? Can they stop or not? Some of the laws vary by place and districts and so forth, but a lot of times that they have to contact the dispatch Okay, is what I'm going to more of an emergency than this right here. Evidently Jesus was talking to dispatch. Because he steers away from a critical thing. to help somebody else that's been sick for 12 years. Doesn't make sense, you know a lot of times when we talk to dispatch The answers don't make sense But they do Jairus must have had a heart attack when you saw Jesus stopped to help someone else She can wait My daughter can't wait and during this detour as we shall see his daughter dies I can think of no greater sorrow than the loss of one's child. Too many of you have faced that in your lives. The rest of us can only try to imagine and not come close to the reality that you face. Many have cried out to God, where were you? Don't you care? It's hard to deal with such questions in the midst of grief. But I do take hope from this story. Even though Jairus' daughter died, all things worked together for good in the end, somehow. She was resurrected, fortunately for Jairus, it was soon. But for all of us, that day will come. God's timing is beyond our comprehension. The spiritual warfare going on around us is real. I'm reminded of Daniel waiting on the answer to his prayers, but the answer came 21 days late with the explanation that a supernatural battle had taken place that delayed Gabriel. During the millennium, we will have all our questions answered to our satisfaction that God did what was best in every situation. That takes a bunch of something, something called faith, as we shall see. Back to the detour, verse 25. Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for 12 years. What did she look like after 12 years of anemia? She must have been skeletal, pale, no more than bones, no strength left. Anemic people also struggle with dizziness, headaches, numbness, or coldness in hands and feet. Low body temperature, shortness of breath, and all of these things lead to further physical problems. And she was considered unclean pretty much permanently. and wouldn't have much of a support group. We know nothing about her family, but nobody seems to be helping her through the crowd. Nobody's lowering her through the roof like we heard about the other man. She seems to be alone, no friends. Verse 26, and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better but grew worse. She's probably there thinking, can anything worse go on? From this we know that she was poor. She spent all she had to be cured. There were many options for this lady to find healing. The Talmud list 11. Here's some of them. Okay, these are options for ladies in her condition. Take of gum Alexandria of Alam and of Crocus Hortensis. The weight of Azusi each. I don't know what Azusi is. Let them be bruised together and given in wine to the woman that hath an issue of blood. But if this fail, take of Persian onions nine logs, I don't know what a log of onions is, boil them in wine and give it to her to drink and say arise from thy flux. Which means flow. But should this fail, set her in a place where two ways meet and let her hold a cup of wine in her hand and let someone come up behind and affright her and say, arise from thy flux. Now that's a cure for hiccups. I don't think it does anything here. But should this do no good, Take a handful of cumin and a handful of crocus and a handful of fenugreek. Let these be boiled and given to her and drink and say. from thy flux. But should this also fail, dig seven trenches and burn in them some cuttings of vines not yet four years old, and let her take in her hand a cup of wine, and let her be led from this trench, and sat down over that, and let her be removed from that, and sat down over another, and in each removal say to her, arise from thy flux. Apparently, she never arose from her flux. Here's a few more examples. One was that you had to carry the ashes of an ostrich egg in a linen bag in the summer and transfer them to a cotton bag in the winter. Another may, this one's my favorite, was that you had to carry around on your person a barley corn, a little piece of barley corn. that had been found in the dung of a white she ass. Now I've heard of people drinking coffee from a civet cat and paying a lot of money for it, ugh. Can you just picture her feeding her donkey some barley and then following it around hoping a corn would pass through? Sifting donkey dung. I would imagine that within that 12 year period of time this woman drank plenty of potions, sifted out a good amount of corn found in the donkey dung and heard more than her fair share of arise from my flux, but nothing worked. Don't seem so surprised. This issue of blood would have left her ceremonially unclean. So this is more than just a physical malady. This is something that is hindering her worship and being part of the community is making it impossible. This woman is in much pain, physical, emotional, and spiritual. Verse 27. When she heard about Jesus, she came behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, if I may only touch his clothes, I shall be made well. It was not just that she could not get in front of Jesus. She preferred not to be noticed at all. Her life was full of humiliation. Verse 29, immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up. She arose from her flux. And she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Just look at her now. totally healed No more anemia if she could only look in the mirror and check for anemia. No, it's gone Her strength is 100 % There's a new beautiful flesh on her bones She feels better than she can ever remember but she does not get away with it. She does not get away unnoticed. Verse 30, and Jesus immediately knowing in himself that power had gone out of him turned around in the crowd and said, who touched my clothes? I don't know what attitude he set again. Maybe it's more like, who touched my clothes? But his disciples said to him, verse 31, you see the multitude thronging around you, and you say who touched me? Remember how pressed people were around Jesus? Just think of all the people touching him that were not touching him with faith. Only one. And this reminds me of the way she must have lived in the past, relying on silly remedies. Are we that way? Would we rather feed a donkey some barley and follow him around with a pooper-scooper and sift through his dung than to actually follow Jesus? Because if I get my hands stained with donkey excrement, at least I can say that I am dedicated and that I discovered my own cure. actually were worse than that woman and what she went through. She didn't have one of these sitting on her shelf. She hadn't heard of Jesus until just recently. She only knew of a few silly remedies, but not us. We know Jesus. We know his power, and yet for some reason we are sometimes content to sift through donkey dung looking for barley corn while we neglect life itself. Verse 32. and he looked around to see her who had done this thing. Why was Jesus so interested in this woman? After all, he's on his way to raise up the dead. Why is he so interested in this woman? It's because she was expressing more in her touch than the desire to be healed. In that day, every Jewish man, including Jesus, wore one of these. Anybody know what this is called? Yes, it was a prayer shawl. This is what Jewish men wore over their shoulders and was used to cover their heads while in prayer. There's so much biblical symbolism in this garment. We'll have a sermon about it one day. Is it okay if I go off on a little tangent here? You guys have been teaching your children about prayer shawls and you didn't even know. The Bible says when you pray, go into what room? That don't make no sense because they didn't have no closets. Did you know that over here in Cataluchi there's a log cabin that was a tourist attraction when people lived there? It's because the man closed in the little bit of room under his steps. People didn't have closets back then. They heard he had one. We have to come see it. They travel over the mountains to see this thing. Closets are a new invention. People used trunks to keep their stuff in before that or other pieces of furniture. But the Bible says go into your closet when you pray. Well, how do you do that when there's no closet? This was called a prayer closet. This is where you prayed private. in humility. Nobody could see you. There was no show. And to pray properly, you wrapped your fingers in these tassels, which have immense meanings. The Bible even says wrap yourself in tassels, by the way. And they would pray like this. And you taught your children when you pray, close your eyes and fold your hands. This is where that comes from. close their eyes and fold their hands wrapped in tassels. And this is what all Jewish men wore. You look at some of the paintings and stuff from back then, you'll even see Jesus wearing something similar to this, usually of a rougher material. And. Here's something else that happened. If a rabbi was wearing one of these, which he would be, or a priest, and they came to the close of a service, and he raised his arms in blessing, these were called his wings. You see where that comes from? These are his wings. I believe that Jesus saw this woman as not only, she not only believed that he had the power to heal her, he believed that she was the Messiah and expressed it with faith to touch the hem of this garment. For as we saw in our scripture reading, he will have healing in his what? Did ever wonder about that? He'll have healing in his wings? She had faith, that's the Messiah. If I could only touch the hem of His wings. No wonder Jesus was so excited. Someone actually had enough faith to believe that He was the Messiah. That's why power went out from Him. He was like, wow, somebody knows. Verse 33. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. Remember falling down? Worship? Telling God everything? He knows everything. He wonders what you know. Verse 34, and he said to her, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your affliction. I like that better than a rise from your flux. Beautiful words that she was hearing. Daughter. She's a daughter of Abraham. She has value in the eyes of her Lord and Savior. Your faith has healed you, not touching a piece of cloth. Your faith is what did it. Speaking of Savior, there are generally three Greek words for heal. Laomai, which is often used when Jesus heals someone immediately and usually involves the casting out of a demon. Theropuo, maybe you've heard that word before, something that takes therapy for healing. Sodzo, which is the Greek word for save. And this is the word. were used for the healing of this lady. Your faith, daughter, has saved you. Verse 35, while he was still speaking, some came from the ruler of the synagogue's house who said, your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further? As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he said to the ruler of the synagogue, do not be afraid, only believe. By the way, when Luke tells this story, he uses the word sozo for this little girl too. Jesus saved her. Just believe and she will be saved. Verse 37, and he permitted no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. And then he came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue and saw a tumult and those who wept and wailed loudly. Matthew adds to this and musical instruments, most likely flutes from that day. Verse 39, when he came in he said to them, why make this commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping. And they ridiculed him. But when he had put them all outside, he took the father and the mother of the child and those who were with him and entered where the child was lying. Then he took the child by the hand and said to her, Talitha, come. which is translated little girl. Immediately, the girl arose and walked. She was 12 years of age, and they were overcome with great amazement. But he commanded them strictly that no one should know it, and said that something should be given her to eat. You know, Jesus cares about everything, doesn't he? But why did he say feed her? Well, she's probably hungry. She's been sick a long time, hasn't eaten well. But... Isn't that also what Jesus did after his resurrection? Got anything to eat? He was proving to her this is not just some vision of a spirit or something. This flesh and blood needs some food. There many comparisons and contrasts that have been made between Jairus and the woman. They were opposite ends of society. But Jesus goes to all who have believed, who have faith in him. What kind of faith? After my attempt at inhaling, I swam over to our guide and got his attention. I made this motion, pointing to the regulator and going, He understood sign language because his eyes got real big. And instantly he pulls out a spare regulator that was hooked with a short hose to his oxygen tank and gave it to me. Once I got it into my mouth, I inhaled the most wonderful oxygen I have ever known since my first birth. I was so amazed. I realized that without oxygen in the tank, it's impossible for my chest to expand. I had never thought about that before. I thought, well, maybe I could pull in nothing. That doesn't work. If there's no oxygen, it does not expand. I could have looked at the guide and said, and we say this too often, I believe he has life-giving oxygen. think I will stay close to him. Sounds nice, doesn't it? Or I could have said, I believe that he has life-giving oxygen. I need to be connected to him. That's the one I chose. Yo, all too often, we're close. find ourselves sifting for barley corn because we're not gaining the life he has to offer. We're not talking about the kind of faith that just says, believe that Jesus is the Son of God. That's good, but you know who else believes that? Satan believes that, and it doesn't do him a bit of good at all. This is the kind of faith that desires the Son of God to be so connected to your heart that you are breathing His breath, His breath of life, and are being transformed into His whiteness. It doesn't have to be a dump truck load of faith. A mustard seed will do. I had to laugh a little bit after I got connected because I looked ahead to where Joshua was and he looked back. And he says, why is dad so close to our guide? I'll tell you why. He was the only one who could save me. It was the only safe place to abide. Glory be to him who can keep you from falling and bring you safe to his glorious presence, innocence and happy to God, the only God who saves us through Jesus Christ our Lord. In the glory, majesty, authority and power which he had before time began, now and forever. Amen.

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