Jesus' Authority Over Our Suffering & Discouragement

Pastor Jason is away. He was speaking at a preaching conference this week, and so you all are in for a treat. Paul Freit is going to come and minister to us this morning.

Paul and Amber and the boys have been here for many years. Paul is one of our elders at Redeemer. He also holds a ministerial license with the Missionary Church.

His full-time job is a third-grade teacher. He teaches my daughter, and my kids say he's a really good beatboxer. Maybe we'll have to hear that another time, but Paul, would you come and minister to us this morning?

Good morning. Can you hear me? Okay. That's hilarious that they would say that.

Well, yes, I do enjoy having fun with the kids, being a little silly and trying to beatbox. I really don't know how great it sounds. They are third-graders, but I have fun with that.

But this morning, I just want to say thank you to the Lord. Thank you to Pastor Jason. I know he's not with us physically. Thank you to Pastor Matt.

I sincerely mean there are two men who I have very high respect for and appreciate them. Thank you, church, our home, for even though you didn't know it probably, but allowing me this opportunity to come and to share this.

It is an honor. Thank you. Thank you. So this morning, I want to talk about Jesus' authority over our suffering and our discouragement. We're going to look at Mark 5, 21 through 43.

But as you turn there, as you prepare, I'd like to just say one more prayer. Lord, thank you. God, you are so good to us. Lord, thank you for all of the mercy and all of the grace, Lord, that you give.

And I know I have personally experienced, Lord. I thank you for this church. I thank you, Pastor Matt and Jason, Lord, for their kindness for giving me this opportunity.

And Lord, I know that it is only by the power of your spirit, Lord, that anything is accomplished. Holy Spirit, may all of our hearts be fertile ground.

May the words that I speak be anointed by you. And may Christ be glorified in all things. In Jesus' name, amen. So I'm going to start with verse 21 in Mark chapter 5, if you'd read with me.

Mark 5 · chapter mention

I am reading from the CSB version. When Jesus had crossed over again by boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the sea.

One of the synagogue leaders named Jairus came. And when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet and begged him earnestly, My little daughter is dying.

Come and lay your hands on her so that she can get well and live. So Jesus went with him and a large crowd was following and pressing against him.

Now a woman suffering from bleeding for 12 years had endured much under many doctors. She had spent everything she had and was not helped at all.

On the contrary, she became worse. Having heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his clothing. For she said, if I just touch his clothes, I'll be made well.

Instantly, her flow of blood ceased. And she sensed in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Immediately, Jesus realized that power had gone out from him.

He turned around in the crowd and said, Who touched my clothes? His disciples said to him, You see the crowd pressing against you, and yet you say, Who touched me?

But he was looking around to see who had done this. The woman, with fear and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.

Daughter, he said to her, Your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be healed from your affliction. While he was still speaking, people came from the synagogue leader's house and said, Your daughter is dead.

Why bother the teacher anymore? When Jesus overheard what was said, he told the synagogue leader, Don't be afraid. Only believe. He did not let anyone accompany him except Peter, James, and John, James' brother.

They came to the leader's house, and he saw a commotion. People weeping and wailing loudly. He went in and said to them, Why are you making a commotion and weeping?

This child is not dead, but asleep. They laughed at him, but he put them all outside. He took the child's father, mother, and those who were with him and entered the place where the child was.

Then he took the child by the hand and said to her, Talitha kum, which is translated, Little girl, I say to you, Get up. Immediately the girl got up and began to walk.

She was 12 years old. At this they were utterly astounded. Then he gave them strict orders that no one should know about this. And told them to give her something to eat.

At the end of Mark chapter 4 and the beginning of chapter 5, we find that Jesus and his disciples had left Capernaum and crossed over the Sea of Galilee.

Mark 4 · chapter mention

During the crossing, a storm arose unexpectedly. And Jesus rebuked the storm and brought calm to the situation. Following this event, they landed in the region of the Gerasenes.

Some translations refer to this region as Gadarenes or Gergesenes. This was all Gentile territory. And when Jesus climbed out of the boat there, he was met by a man coming out from the tombs who was possessed by many demons.

Jesus sent the demons out of the man and into a herd of pigs, which plunged over the steep bank into the sea.

And this man whom Jesus had set free from demonic torment begged to go with Jesus, but was instead commissioned by Christ to go and tell his family everything the Lord had done for him about the great mercy God had shown him.

And this leads us into Mark chapter 5, verse 21. And the picture you see is the ruins of Capernaum today that you can go and visit. But in Mark 5, verse 21, we are told that Jesus got into the boat again and went back to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.

Mark 5:21 Mark 5:21

Mark does not tell us where this next series of events takes place, but Matthew gives us a key detail as to where. Matthew 9, verse 1 says, So he got into a boat, crossed over, and came to his own town.

Matthew 9:1

We know that his own town is a reference to Capernaum, Jesus' base of operations during his ministry in Galilee. Verse 21 tells us that when Jesus arrived, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the sea or the lake, which was typical for Jesus.

And Luke informs us in chapter 8 of his gospel that the crowds welcomed Jesus because they had been waiting for him. And also in typical fashion, whenever a crowd gathered around him, he saw it as an opportunity to teach them.

Although Mark does not say anything about Jesus teaching the crowd, Matthew seems to affirm that Jesus was in fact teaching the people. Matthew writes in chapter 9 that Jesus was in the midst of answering a question posed by some of John the Baptist's disciples.

Jesus was likely teaching when he was interrupted by the plea of one of the synagogue leaders, based on what Matthew writes in chapter 9, verses 14 and 18, which read, Then John's disciples came to him, him, Jesus, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?

And as he was telling them these things, suddenly one of the leaders came and knelt down before him. Mark specifically shares that this man is one of the synagogue leaders named Jairus.

So a little side note, and he's here today, I'm glad to see him, but my son, Braxton, he has a beautiful head of hair just like me, so you can't miss him.

And he has two middle names, yes. His mother and I tortured him with two middle names. So his middle names are Chancellor Jairus. So he has his, on his test, he'd have to fill out these huge, long Braxton Chancellor Jairus freep.

But I gave him Jairus, although his mom wanted it pronounced Jairus. So I wanted him to have a biblical name. So whenever I read this, I always can't help but think of Braxton with his biblical name.

But synagogue leaders were laymen whose responsibilities were administrative and included such things as looking after the building and supervising the worship.

Their duties were not priestly. A similar example from today would be our deacon and our elder boards. And Jairus would have been one of the leaders at the synagogue in Capernaum.

On this next slide, as you look, the picture where you can see the aerial view, that is the ruins of a synagogue there in Capernaum from the 4th century A.D.

And then the next slide will show you actually that darker layer. This goes to the foundation area of where that synagogue is. That dark area close to the ground is actually the foundation that was there during the time that the synagogue that existed during Jesus' time.

So they just built, 400 years later, a synagogue on top of that. Back in 2008, I had the wonderful privilege of actually getting to go to Israel and got to walk around and be in the synagogue, which was pretty cool.

So Jairus, his need was so urgent that he abandoned all dignity and pride, and he fell at Jesus' feet, and he begged for help. Jairus' daughter, and according to Luke, Jairus' only daughter, was dying.

As a parent, this would be suffering. This would be agony. This would be torment. Your child is dying, and there is nothing, humanly speaking, that you can do to stop it.

But Jairus had apparently heard about Jesus and believed that he could heal his daughter.

Okay, good. I didn't see it back there, so I was just so curious if it was there. So Jesus acts even when he is silent. None of the three synoptic gospels record Jesus giving a verbal response to Jairus, to his desperate plea for help.

It could be implied that Jesus does not say anything to Jairus. It could be that he does not give him an oral reply at all. Jesus' reply to Jairus' desperate plea appears to be silence.

Have you ever been there? You've poured out your heart to the Lord, pleading with him out of desperation. You've cried so intensely. Maybe you've been there that there are no tears left to cry.

Your eyes are so red and burning, and you are in so much pain and agony over the grief that you are feeling. Maybe you even prayed, Lord, please speak specifically to me about this.

Have you ever been there? Lord, I need an answer. I am desperate and need to hear from you. And yet, no specific verse comes to your mind. You do not sense a leading or a peace as which direction you should go to or which decision you should make.

There's no light shining on you, and you're like, okay, this is the answer. Right? You leave your time of prayer with what appears to be silence from the Lord.

But the silence of Jesus is not an indicator of his response to our desperate pleas. It does not mean that Jesus is callous, has too many other things to think about, or is flat out ignoring us.

Again, the text gives no indication that Jesus said anything to Jairus. Jesus does not speak, but he does act. Verse 24 says, So Jesus went with him.

Although Jesus may not have said anything to Jairus, he did still respond to Jairus' plea. Jesus didn't say, Jairus, I have heard your plea, and this is what's going to happen.

I'm going to go with you. Along the way, we will be delayed because some woman's going to come up and touch me and be healed. And while all of this is taking place, your daughter's going to die.

But don't worry about it because we will continue on to your home, and I will miraculously bring her back to life. Now that I've given you every step-by-step detail, you can have peace and trust in me.

Right? Jesus doesn't do that. Am I the only one who wishes that sometimes he would? Right? Where you're like, where's that map, that detail, right?

But that's not what he does. That's not how the Lord typically responds to us. Jesus does not give Jairus any details either. Not any overview of upcoming events, detours along the way, or what Jesus' actual answering of Jairus' plea or prayer is going to look like.

Because Jesus' answer will not be healing from sickness, but a raising from the dead. The Lord's answer will look different than what Jairus was expecting it to be.

And this can also be true of us. Jesus could have healed Jairus' daughter without ever going there. But that's not what he chose to do. Instead, Jesus went with Jairus, just as Jairus had requested.

Perhaps this could be described as a journey of suffering for Jairus. He walked this journey of suffering and desperation to go and to find Jesus and to plead with him to come and to heal his daughter.

And now Jesus would be with him on this journey back to his home. And just as Jesus chose to go with Jairus, Jesus goes with us on our journeys of suffering.

He never leaves us to suffer alone. Beginning with verse 24, our text reads, So Jesus went with him, and a large crowd was following and pressing against him.

Now a woman suffering from bleeding for 12 years had endured much under many doctors. She had spent everything she had and was not helped at all.

On the contrary, she became worse. We do not know exactly what the woman's ailment was. It may have been some type of blood disorder or perhaps some sort of menstrual disorder.

Whatever it was, the disorder caused her to suffer from this bleeding for 12 years. And there were two main consequences she had to live with because of her condition.

One, the bleeding condition damaged her health. And two, it made her ceremonially unclean according to the law. Now this might sound strange to us today.

Like, why would somebody's health, physical condition have any effect on them ceremonially, religiously, their ability to participate in the worship of the Lord?

Well, here is why. Leviticus 15.25 says, When a woman has a discharge of her blood for many days, though it is not the time of her menstruation, or if she has a discharge beyond her period, she will be unclean all the days of her unclean discharge, as she is during the days of her menstruation.

So because of this, because of what the law said, any bed she lied on would become unclean. Any furniture she sat on would become unclean. And anyone who touched them or came in contact with her would also become unclean.

Whoever did must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and would remain unclean until the evening. Because of this, the woman was limited in her ability to participate in social and religious norms.

She was an outcast socially and religiously. Since her bleeding did not stop but continued for 12 long years, she was perpetually, continually unclean, untouchable.

This woman would have been labeled as one of the untouchables and therefore unable to participate in normal life. Unable to go to the local synagogue or to the temple or where other people gathered.

Not only was her health damaged and she was being forced to live as an outcast from society, but the doctors could not help her. And she went broke paying for them.

And I read that. I couldn't help but think of some of my own medical bills. Maybe you've been there also. You feel like you've gone broke. Right?

Everything. Everything she tried. Her health is destroyed. She's paid and paid and paid. And all she finds herself is in the same condition.

Worse even. And no money. Have you ever been there? Have you ever experienced something similar? Or perhaps you are experiencing something similar now?

You know what it is like to have health issues. You understand what it is like to have your life altered in some way due to damage or struggles to your physical health.

Or even your mental and emotional health. Many times the underlying problem in one of these areas affects the others. Verse 24 begins with, Having heard about Jesus.

This woman was in a hopeless place in her life and in her circumstances. She had done everything she or anyone else could do to help her. And yet nothing changed.

But when she heard about Jesus, she had hope. It may have been a desperate hope. But she had hope. And there will be times in this life where you and I find ourselves or those we love.

And circumstances where our own capabilities and the capabilities of others is not sufficient. The capabilities are not enough to match the need we are facing.

Things will happen in our lives where we have no hope but Jesus. And these are the moments God wants to use as a reality check for us. So that we will realize and be reminded again of this truth.

That Jesus really is the only independable hope we actually have. The text states that she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his clothing.

For she said, If I just touch his clothes, I'll be made well. That was her hope. In this time period, it was a common belief that the power of a person was transmitted to his clothes.

And we see this in the book of Acts with Paul's clothing and even Peter's shadow. Luke tells us that she touched the fringe of Jesus' garment.

And this is referring to the tassels that were sewn to the four corners of the cloak worn by every Jewish male as reminders to obey God's commands.

In the picture, you can kind of see the blue and white. It looks like a rope almost coming off of the clothes there, the cloak. Although she was moved in part by superstition, she put her faith into action and she went into the crowd.

Scholars speculate that she approached Jesus from behind because she was trying to avoid being noticed by anyone because she was ceremonially unclean.

Remember, anybody she touches, now they're unclean. Anything she touches. Mark tells us, though, that instantly her flow of blood ceased. And she sensed in her body that she was healed of her affliction.

This woman's desperation and discouragement brought her to the point of needing to place her faith and her hope in Jesus and only in his capabilities.

This is actually more important than just her physical healing. This woman's physical need served as the mechanism that would point her to Christ.

Many times in our lives, the Lord will use that as well. Jesus always knows when we touch him. Verse 30 states, Immediately, Jesus realized that power had gone out from him.

He turned around in the crowd and said, Who touched my clothes? Jesus knew that power had gone out of him. So Jesus wanted to know who it was that touched him.

Who turned around in the crowd and asked? So he turned around in the crowd and asked, Who touched my clothes? Who touched me? Luke describes the scene in this way.

While he was going, the crowds were nearly crushing him. So it's not like, you know, there's just five people around him, right? I mean, they're crushing him, right?

So many people around him, barely able to move. Yet Jesus had the audacity to ask, Who touched my clothes? Right? Now to the disciples, this must have seemed like a stupid question.

They're on their way to Jairus' house. There's this huge group of people, everybody pressing in, right? And Jesus stops and says, Who's touching me?

Who touched my clothes? Right? You can hear this tone almost in their response to Jesus. His disciples said to him, You see the crowd pressing against you, and yet you say, Who touched me?

It's almost like they're saying, Are you serious? Are you kidding me, Lord? Like, why are you asking this? One scholar writes, Jesus' question and the disciples' response emphasized his supernatural perception.

Only the Son of God could detect a desperate touch in a jostling crowd. So he kept looking around to find who it was. Even in the crowds of life today, right?

We might feel insignificant. But Jesus knows our need. And Jesus knows when we reach out to him in faith and when we touch him. However desperate our hope may be, he knows when we touch him.

And verse 32 tells us that Jesus was looking around to see who had done this. Jesus kept looking for the woman, not out of anger, not to humiliate her in front of everyone, but so that he could make personal contact with her, to let her know that he cared about her needs.

And Jesus is personal with us, and this includes the care for all of our needs. When we touch Jesus with our faith, he is relentless in pursuing us.

I know in my own life I have seen him be relentless through poor decisions on my own. Through circumstances, through things that have happened.

Yet he has proven relentless. Relentless in being there. Relentless in coming to my rescue. Relentless in being my shepherd. Could you imagine being the woman at this point?

Jesus is relentlessly pursuing the person who by faith touched him. And even though you try to remain unknown to him, right? You can't. I'll just slip away in the crowd.

There's a bunch of people. He's never going to know, right? Perhaps she was afraid that Jesus was upset with her for what she had done, touching him without permission, especially because she was ceremonially unclean, which would have caused him to also become ceremonially unclean.

She might have been expecting his response to be like that of the other rabbis who had consistently rejected her, right? Unclean, untouchable, get away, right?

Maybe she feared the crowd's reaction to her that if they found out, she snuck into the midst of them, rustling all around them. Now they're going to be ceremonially unclean.

They're going to have to go through the ritual cleansing and all of these things. Luke tells us that when Jesus asked who touched him, all the people there denied it, which must have also included this woman, right?

Not me, Lord, right? Just like your kids, right? Who did this? Not me. Not me. In a classroom of 20 students. Who broke the pencil sharpener?

Not me. I don't know. One of you did, right? I know it was one of you. I didn't touch it. Okay? So it must have included this woman. She was terrified.

Even though she had faith in Jesus' ability to heal her, up to this point, she had only heard about him. She did not know him yet, that he is gentle and humble in heart.

However, there came the moment when she realized that denying and trying to hide will not work with Jesus. Luke tells us that the woman saw that she was discovered.

When this fact became clear to her, Mark says that, with fear and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, she came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.

But what did she find?

Love, compassion, acceptance from Jesus. Verse 34 reads that Jesus said, Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be healed from your affliction.

Jesus called her daughter. And this is the only time in the Gospels where he addresses a woman by that word. Why? Because he wanted to ease her fear and assure her that she had done nothing wrong.

Jesus assured her that it was her faith in him which healed her, not the superstition about his clothes or about anything else. It was her faith in him.

It was he, it was Jesus that did this. And the Greek word translated here as healed can also be translated as to save, to rescue, to deliver, and to make whole.

Jesus not only made her whole physically by healing her bleeding, he also made her whole and clean ceremonially before God and before people.

No longer the untouchable. She was restored. She would no longer be an outcast religiously or socially. And this makes me think of what Jesus said in John 10, 10.

The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. Jesus was not made ceremonially unclean by the touch of this woman.

He was not contaminated by her uncleanness uncleanness before God and people. Instead, this interaction between the woman and Jesus served as a witness to the truth that Jesus was not a sinful man in need of cleansing.

But instead, he was a lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus will do the same for us. He restores us to right standing with God.

And he teaches us to love our neighbor as ourself, bringing repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation, restoration in our relationship with God and our relationship with others.

This morning, I ask, are you trying to hide yourself from Jesus, denying the truth of who he is, that he is Lord and that God had indeed raised him from the dead?

If so, I encourage you to come to Jesus to be cleansed of your sins and restored to right standing with God. For those of us who are believers, may God grant us the humility to continue to come to Jesus, to cleanse us when we sin, that we would not try to hide from him

nor deny the convicting, working power of the Holy Spirit in us. And in all aspects, in all circumstances of our lives, whether sin, brokenness, struggles, pain, whatever it is, may we not try to hide but come to Jesus and tell him the truth.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4, 15 and 16.

Go in peace. Jesus tells her, go in peace and be freed from suffering. Though this did refer to the woman's physical condition, it also contained a greater meaning.

Jesus was saying, go in peace, was him saying, go in shalom. The word peace, shalom, means the wholeness or completeness of life that comes from being brought into a right relationship with God.

Jesus was not saying to the woman, you can now live in peace because your body has been made clean and restored. He wasn't just saying that, but he was also saying, you can now live in peace because you have been made clean from your sin and restored to right standing with God because of your faith in me.

Now go and live your life according to this, to what I have just done for you.

So question, has anybody forgotten about Jairus by this point? Yeah? Jairus would have been just standing there watching all of this unfold, right?

He's on his walk with Jesus. Jesus is going with him. Some woman stops and causes an issue, right? He doesn't even know that at first. Jesus just starts asking, who's touching me?

And everybody in the world's touching him, right? Totally against COVID standards, right? And so Jairus is standing there and then this whole drama unfolds of Jesus still saying, no, I know somebody did.

Nope, not us. No, I know somebody touched me. And then the woman comes and trembles and falls. Says, yes, it was me. And confesses everything.

And he calls her daughter and all of this and she's healed. And Jairus, could you imagine that you're like, uh, over here, Lord, right? Remember?

My daughter? Little one dying. Remember the whole thing way back there, right? You put yourself in his shoes. You came to Jesus desperately pleading for him to come and heal your dying daughter.

And Jesus, along the way, seems to get distracted, right? Do you know anybody like that who's so easily distracted? Maybe some of you, maybe one of you, maybe you're like, yeah, that's me all the time.

What were we talking about? Right? I tease my wife because she, my wife is so amazing and beautiful, but she can get easily distracted. Her task is to do this one thing and then, oh, there's this.

Oh, I can do this. Oh, now there's this. Oh, now there's this. And then eventually we get back to the whole thing and I'm like, we have five minutes until we have to leave.

I can get all 10 of these things done. Right? Or a teacher, anybody try to teach kids, right? Teachers out there, you spend all day herding cats, right?

And getting their attention back. So, so what, okay, so everybody, we're going to write this paragraph, okay? Mm-hmm, yep. All right. One minute later, hey, yeah, did you watch the latest show or did you watch football or whatever?

And it's like, guys, what's your focus? Oh, yes, we got to focus on this. 10 seconds later, guess what we're doing? Guys, where's your focus?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So maybe, maybe something like this is going on, right? In the middle of doing something, their attention instantly shifts to something else.

Maybe Jesus is wondering, or Jairus is wondering, does Jesus have ADHD? You know, like, is this, is this kind of how he normally operates? Right?

Maybe times in our life, have you ever felt, Lord, are you distracted? I've been praying, I'm trying, I'm walking by faith, but it feels like, I see you're working in this person's life, but what's going on here, Lord?

Right? What's going on here?

So Jairus, at this point, his daughter is dying, and every second counts. And what does Jesus do? He stops walking towards where your daughter is lying, struggling for life, and wants to know who touched him in the midst of a crowd where countless people are pressing in on him and touching him.

As the scene continues to play out, maybe his perspective began to shift. Jairus' faith in Jesus, maybe it became strengthened by what he had just witnessed.

He saw a woman be healed by Jesus instantly. His hope for his daughter must have increased, maybe, by that point. Perhaps he began to feel an excitement and a joy because if Jesus could heal this woman, then he could surely heal my little daughter.

very soon, maybe Jairus is thinking, his daughter is going to be the next miracle. Thank you, God. This is so exciting. And yet, it was at this very moment that the faith he had placed in Jesus, what he had just seen Jesus do for somebody else,

appeared to have been pointless. Verse 35 reads, while he, Jesus, was still speaking, people came from the synagogue leader's house and said, your daughter's dead.

Why bother the teacher anymore? Whoa. Really?

Really, Jesus?

Jesus, had you not stopped and helped this woman, my daughter might be alive. That's not what I asked for, Lord. I asked you to come and heal her.

You came, but you got distracted. She's dead.

So your daughter is dead? Or is your prayer dead? Question mark.

Have you ever felt like Jairus must have felt at this moment? You've come to him in faith, to Jesus, bringing your need, your circumstances, bowing yourself before him, crying out to him in the midst of your fears and your pain.

And you saw the glimpses of possible evidence with this other woman, right? And what Jesus was doing. And it gave you hope. Maybe my answer is going to be answered the way I'm hoping for, Lord.

It looks like it's going to and ultimately it does not.

There will be times when our faith in Jesus may appear to be pointless because of how the circumstances are unfolding in front of us. But listen to what Jesus tells Jairus in verse 36.

When Jesus overheard what was said, that your daughter's dead, right? He told the synagogue leader, don't be afraid. Only believe. Only believe what?

Right? At this point, I guess that would be my response if I was Jairus. Believe what now, Lord? She's dead. Now, she's dead. Jairus' plea in his prayer was, Lord, come and lay your hands on her that she can get well and live.

And now you're asking me to just believe?

She's dead. So what is he supposed to believe now?

Jesus was calling Jairus to believe in his sovereignty over what Jairus had asked for. He was calling him, believe in my sovereignty over your pleas and over your prayers and how events are playing out and in the wisdom that I have.

That was the call to believe. So don't be afraid. Just believe believe in Jesus' sovereignty. Jesus, the good shepherd, lovingly and compassionately tells Jairus to not be afraid.

Jairus, don't be afraid of what you see, of what you hear. Don't be afraid of the circumstances around you. Just believe and trust in me. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5-7, for we live by faith, not by sight.

This is so easy to memorize, right? It's short, right? It's so easy to memorize, so easy to quote, but it is so much more difficult to live out.

Just a short example. I know we probably, all of us have examples, but one of mine is back at the end of, so I was born with aortic stenosis and I used to have to go to Riley Hospital a lot as a kid and knew someday I was going to have to have open heart surgery.

So in the end of 2017, so I was always being constantly checked. Actually, prior to that, probably five, seven years or so before that, I developed an aneurysm in the thoracic area and so by the end of 2017, one of my tests showed, and I was starting to have some issues,

and my tests showed, hey, we're going to have to do surgery. Your valve is shot and your aneurysm is like at the point where it could go. And I was pastoring, being bivocational, and I had just, in that fall, became a bus driver at Penn,

PHM, but I was a temp until I could, or not a temp, but I was a substitute until I could get my own permanent route, and part of the reason I was doing that is because we needed insurance.

We had no insurance. What am I supposed to do? Right? It had reached the point where I couldn't even do my pastoral duties. I couldn't even sit and read Scripture without being so winded and so exhausted.

I couldn't function. I couldn't raise my hands above my head. Right? And so we finally got surgery scheduled. No insurance, but we got surgery scheduled, and then we get the call from the hospital a few days later.

We're canceling your surgery. You don't have insurance. What am I going to do, Lord? I mean, if this continues on, I'm not going to be around.

Right? A few weeks later, they were able to reschedule. Two, three weeks later, him did have an open-heart surgery, and Phil Divert actually didn't know him at the time until he became one of my nurses and just fell in love with Phil.

He was such a huge, huge blessing to us. My first walk, actually, was with Phil after heart surgery. So I'll always, always cherish that man for that.

But at that moment, even though it's like, well, it's just two or three weeks, we didn't know. Right? In those two or three weeks, things are getting worse.

Right? And it's like, Lord, I don't see what's going on. What are you doing? Right? We live by faith and not by sight. Do not misunderstand what Jesus is saying here to Jairus of just believe.

He is not stating that all we have to do is believe something hard enough and we'll get whatever it is we want. There are sadly many, many preachers and many people who will tell you that, but that is not true.

Jesus is stating the need to believe in him, to believe in God's sovereignty, no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in, to trust that he will do what is best according to his sovereign wisdom, even if it does not go as we hope and even though we may never be able to comprehend it in this life.

The Lord spoke to Isaiah, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

In this instance, it was God's will to heal or to bring back from the dead Jairus' daughter. But when what you and I have been praying for and hoping for doesn't turn out because it always doesn't turn out the way we hope or want, we are left with a choice to make.

Will we become angry at God and allow the hurt, the confusion, the disappointment to poison our souls with bitterness, leading to the dismantling of our faith?

Or will we choose to still trust and believe in God's sovereignty and his goodness, even in the midst of all the hurt, the confusion, and the disappointment?

I believe that the Lord understands the pains and the emotions that we experience, yet he calls us to believe. It is like a fork in the road and we must choose which direction we're going to go.

One way leads away from Jesus and the other leads us closer to him. Jesus' words of assurance must have been just what Jairus needed because he does not try to prevent Jesus from still going to his home.

Jesus continues on this journey with Jairus, only allowing Peter, James, and John to go with him. And when they arrived at Jairus' home, Jesus saw a commotion of people weeping and wailing loudly.

The Lord had dismissed one crowd only to find the house occupied by another crowd of people, carrying on, causing noisy disturbance, causing confusion.

And as was the custom of the day and the culture, professional mourners had been hired and they were already at work. Wow, must have them on speed dial or something.

I don't know, that was pretty quick. Scholars tell us that these professional mourners would cry and weep and wail, as well as sing choral songs accompanied by hand clapping.

The size of the professional mourners was determined by the prominence or status of the person who died or their family. If you had a high status, then you would have a large number of professional mourners.

But if you were low on the status bar, eh, you'd have a small number. Since Jairus occupied a prominent place in the Jewish community, the number of professional mourners would have been large.

Besides the large number of professional mourners, there also would have been all the family members. So, there was this huge crowd, large crowd, gathered at Jairus' home, making all kinds of noise and causing an uproar.

In verse 39 and 40, read that he, Jesus, went in and said to them, why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep.

They laughed at him, but he put them all outside. He took the child's father, mother, and those who were with him and entered the place where the child was.

Jesus entered the commotion and the chaos of Jairus' home. This did not distract Jesus. It didn't intimidate him and it did not deter him from what he was going to do.

But this is what our God does. An example of this is when the Israelites were being pursued by the Egyptian army and they had nowhere to flee.

They were pinned between the Egyptians and the Red Sea. What was chaos to the Israelites was an opportunity for God to demonstrate his sovereignty.

And Jesus took on human flesh and he entered our world filled with chaos, right? Commotion caused by humanity's rebellion and sin and the destructive chaos of all the demonic forces.

Jesus is not afraid. Jesus isn't afraid of the chaos in our lives and when we invite him into our chaos, he enters into it, bringing his truth and bringing his order.

Jesus sees differently but correctly. Jesus asked why they were all making such a commotion since the child was not dead but asleep. And Jesus said this because he knew what was about to happen.

He was going to bring this girl back from the dead. The reality of the people gathered at Jairus' home was that this little girl was dead but Jesus declared to them the true reality of the situation.

When he declared the child is not dead but asleep. Since her death was not final, Jesus spoke of it as sleep just as he would do with regards to Lazarus.

people don't see the circumstances the way Jesus sees them. We tend to only see what is in front of us but Jesus sees differently and he sees correctly because he sees through his sovereign authority.

We determine reality on what is tangible around us but true reality is determined by who Jesus is. The mourners didn't comprehend what Jesus meant by this statement to them.

To them, Jesus was a fool and his words were ridiculous. They laughed down. Their tears quickly changed to laughter which clearly showed how fake their act of grief was and many people today still choose to laugh at Jesus instead of believing what he says is true.

When you and I put our faith in Jesus' sovereign authority and trust him with our circumstances and with our life, when we choose to believe the word of God, even if it might make us look foolish to others, we may experience people who laugh at us as well.

If you ever find yourself experiencing this, remember, people laughed at Jesus too. If you ever find yourself in this position, maybe you're there now.

I encourage you to trust in the sovereignty of God with all tenacity because God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.

1 Corinthians 1.25 Jesus did not want any noisy crowd present when he performed this amazing miracle so he kicked the mourners out. Their mockery and contempt toward Jesus disqualified them from being present.

Only Peter, James, John, and the mother and the father were allowed into the room. One day, Peter would follow Jesus' example when a believer named Tabitha was miraculously brought back to life in Acts chapter 9.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

So Jesus took the little girl by the hand and said to her, Talitha kum, which means little girl, I say to you, get up. Talitha kum is Aramaic which was probably the language that Jesus would have spoken in his disciples since they were from that region.

Jairus' daughter was not the first person Jesus miraculously brought back to life according to what is recorded in the Gospels. On three different occasions, Jesus performed this miracle.

The first was a young man, the son of a widow from the town of Nain. The other two were Jairus' daughter and Lazarus of Bethany. In Jesus' words, little girl, I say to you, get up.

Or that of an authoritative command which is what he did with the young man from Nain and with Lazarus. And Mark tells us that immediately the girl stood up.

Not only stood up, she began to walk around. Strength returned to the girl as well as life because she not only stood up, she walked around.

And Jesus told them, give her something to eat. Jesus used this event as a demonstration of his divine authority over suffering and even death, leaving those who witnessed it utterly astounded.

Jesus gives life where there is death. He does this for us spiritually and even when our prayers seem to have died.

Jesus understands suffering and discouragement. Jesus understands suffering because he suffered. And he understands discouragement because he has also experienced it.

Isaiah prophesied that this would be the experience of the Messiah in Isaiah 53, 3-5. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds we are healed.

And lastly, God uses all of this for our benefit. When our faith is in Jesus Christ and our confidence is in his authority over our suffering and over our discouragement, we are assured that it is not in vain.

We are not a people who go through this life hopeless, wondering why we exist. Why is this happening? What can we get out of it? We are a people with hope because God uses it.

Even in the times in life when our prayers are not answered how we want them, even when they may appear to be dead according to what we hoped for or the timing that we want, it does not mean that God has failed us or abandoned us or even that we lacked faith.

Our hope is not in what we see or think best. our strength is not found in our own understanding. Our hope and our strength is in the sustaining sovereignty of God.

Last scripture to leave with you, last verse. Romans 8, 28. We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

wherever you find yourself this morning, wherever you have found your prayers, believe in the sovereignty of Jesus Christ knowing that he will work all things for our good.

I'm going to ask you to pray with me as the worship team comes. Lord, thank you.

You are the God of hope.

You are the giver of life.

You are the God who, just like you brought life into existence from nothing, you are the God who speaks new life into us when we become born again.

You are the God who speaks hope, Lord, into hopeless situations. You are the God who brings comfort, Lord, to the broken. You are the God who gives perseverance and endurance, Lord, when we have no strength of our own.

You are faithful in all that you do and you faithfully lead your people. And as Pastor Matt taught this morning, one day you will lead us into your fullness of rest and all will be made new.

Thank you for your goodness in Jesus' name. Amen.