Luke 8:40-56
Please turn in your copy of God’s
word to Luke’s gospel chapter eight. Our reading from God’s
word today is chapter eight, verses 40 through 56. In many
of our recent week studies in Luke’s gospel, we have seen Jesus
encounter problems of darkness, problems of curse, problems of
the effects of sin and the fall of man into sin on not only the
earth, but primarily on humanity. We’ve seen Jesus calm the seas.
We’ve seen him heal a man possessed by many demons. And today we’ll
see two more miracles, one miracle on the way to the next. And so
with faith, we ask that God would give us eyes to see as we look
at his holy word. Let’s read it together. This
is Luke’s gospel chapter eight, beginning at verse 40. Now when
Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for there were all waiting
for him. And there came a man named Jairus,
who was a ruler of the synagogue. And falling at Jesus’ feet, he
implored him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter who
was about 12 years of age, and she was dying. As Jesus went,
the people pressed around him. There was a woman who had a discharge
of blood for 12 years, and though she had spent all her living
on physicians, She could not be healed by anyone. She came
up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment. Immediately,
her discharge of blood ceased. Jesus said, who was it that touched
me? When all denied it, Peter said, Master, the crowds surround
you and are pressing in on you. But Jesus said, someone touched
me, for I perceived that power has gone out from me. And when
the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling. She
fell down before him and declared in the presence of all the people
why she had touched him and how she had been immediately healed.
And he said to her, daughter, your faith has made you well
go in peace. While he was still speaking,
someone from the ruler’s house came and said, your daughter
is dead. Do not trouble the teacher anymore. But Jesus, on hearing
this, answered him. Do not fear. Only believe and
she will be well. And when he came to the house,
he allowed no one to enter with him except Peter and John and
James and the father and mother of the child. All were weeping
and mourning for her. But she said, he said, Do not
weep. She is not dead, but sleeping. And they laughed at him, knowing
that she was dead, but taking her by the hand, he called saying,
Child, arise. Her spirit returned and she got
up at once and he directed that something should be given to
her to eat. Her parents were amazed. But
he charged them to tell no one what had happened. This is God’s
word. Let’s pray together. Our God,
we ask that you would bless not only the hearing of your word,
but the preaching of your word. And most of all, our receiving
of your word. Let us not see it as the words
of men. Let us not look at it as tales
from of old, but let us see it as what it really is, the word
of God, which is living and active. sharper than a two edged sword
that pierces to the depths of our lives. It separates the joints
and the marrows. It proves who we are and shows
us what we ought to be. Let that be the result this day,
that your word would do its work and that it would be a blessing
to us. We ask and pray all this in Jesus
name. Amen. Jesus came into the world. to save sinners. That’s his mission. Jesus came into the world to
save sinners. Jesus came into the world to
destroy the works of the devil. That’s also part of his mission.
Jesus came into the world to seek and to save the lost. Jesus came into the world to
build a church made up of redeemed sinners. In order to build his
church, Jesus does mighty works of redemption. He battles his
opponent, the devil. He sets free those who are afflicted
by sin and its curses. And that’s the church in a nutshell.
That’s the ministry of Jesus in a nutshell. But isn’t it amazing
how over these last 2,000 years, we’ve made the church so much
more. But Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. Jesus came into the world to
destroy the works of the devil. He came into the world to seek
and save the lost. And he came into the world to
build a church made up of redeemed sinners. And in order to build
up his church, he does mighty works of redemption. He does battle with his opponent,
the devil. He sets free those who are afflicted
by sin and its curses. Isn’t that so simple? We have
complicated the church, haven’t we? We’ve made it so much more,
yet it is this simple. And this simplicity of the work
and mission of the church, this simple mission of the work of
Jesus and his kingdom comes to us today in two very desperate
scenarios, two scenarios over which Jesus has complete dominion. He has complete authority. He
has complete power. And he has his complete will
done in the midst of these desperate scenarios. I want to encourage
us today in our in our faith. I want to encourage us today
in our faith that lays hold of Jesus for salvation, but also
our ongoing faith, our living faith that lays hold of all that
he has promised to be and do in our everyday lives. I want to encourage you. If you
don’t know the Lord Jesus today, to come to him by faith, believing
that in him alone you can find salvation, as did this woman
who suffered for many years and who was at the end of her rope.
She had tried everything and at last she came to Jesus and
found salvation. I also want to encourage you,
as we see in the life of Jairus, this churchgoing ruler, this
man who was faithful to be there when the doors were open. In
fact, he was probably the door opener. He was the one in the
synagogue who arranged for the day to be a blessing for the
people who would gather. He had faith in the midst of
hardship, in the midst of trial, in the midst of probably what
would have been his greatest loss in his life to date. He had faith to come and to put
his face before Jesus’ feet and implore him, to pray to him,
to beg him for his help and grace. I want to encourage you in your
faith because we live Really, in the same circumstances as
this synagogue ruler, this woman who suffered, we live in this
world that is cursed. We live in this world that is
bent by sin. We live in this world where molecules and genes
and where forces that are at work, they bring sickness, they
bring sorrow, they bring hardship, they bring ideologies, and they
are counter to the kingdom of God. Well, they’re curses. They’re the same curses that
came into play in the garden when Adam and Eve fell into sin
and brought hardship on us all. We also suffer from our own flesh,
our own weakness, our own remaining sin, which tempts us to not listen
to God Almighty, but to listen to ourselves, our wildest dreams,
the ways of the world, our own desires that are sinful. But
we also have the devil, the evil one, who God promised in days
of old would continue to the very end to nip at, to bite at,
to snap at everyone who is a child of almighty God. And we’re grateful
that the devil is God’s devil. He’s on a chain that he can only
do so much as we see expressed in the early chapters of Job.
He can only do so much yet he can wreak havoc in our lives.
He can deceive us, he can tempt us, he can discourage us. And yet in the midst of all of
these hardships, which each and every one of us face from our
own sinful desires, the world, and even the devil himself, Jesus
is almighty over all. And that is expressed so clearly
to us in these two desperate scenarios of our passage today. Well, there’s a scene in our
gospel story. Jesus has come back from the
other side of the lake. He’s come back from the dark
side, the side of the lake, the cliff side, the hillside where
there are tombs. He has healed Legion. He has cast the demons out. They
ran into the pigs. They went into the lake. is left a disciple of Jesus.
Jesus is going through the Gentile countryside proclaiming to all
who will hear. Yes, I’m the crazy one. No longer
crazy. Yes, I’m the one whose hair was
out to here and now I’ve been made whole. Yes, I’m the one
who was naked. I’m the one who was cutting himself. I’m the one who was living a
life of destruction. And Jesus, the Savior, has saved
me. Jesus comes back with his disciples
from that side of the lake to Capernaum, the civilized side.
Right. The suburban neighborhood where
the lawns are pristine, where nothing really that bad happens.
Well, no, the crowds were there to meet Jesus. And in that crowd
was Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, a man of faith. He was the one
who showed up early and stayed late. He was the one who made
sure the the church service could happen. And trouble has fallen
on this house, his only daughter. Twelve years of age is sick and
it looks as if death is soon to come. And he comes desperately
to meet Jesus. He’s been in the synagogue when
Jesus has opened the scroll and proclaimed the good news. He
has heard and probably witnessed the stories from the countryside
where this Jesus, this Messiah is the one who is mighty to save.
He is the one who is mighty to heal. And he comes and he comes
in faith, you see, to Jesus, he puts himself at his feet and
tells him of his daughter, her impending death, and he comes
to the one who can who can do something about it. And he comes
in faith to Jesus. Jesus is on his way to this man’s
house to heal. And the crowds are pressing in
around Jesus. And I don’t know what image to
give you, but the crowds were surrounding Jesus. shoulder room
only. They were bumping into each other.
They were a mob moving this way and that way on the way to Jairus
house. The mourners had already come
to know of the death of this little girl. They were weeping
and wailing. The mother, no doubt, was with
this child. And while her husband on this
errand to receive, to retrieve Jesus. had already seen the death. And this little known woman,
we all know of her. We’ve heard the story. We think
it a strange one. She’s been bleeding for 12 years. It’s not explainable. It’s not curable. She’s spent
all her money. She’s been to this clinic and
that clinic. You can imagine. She’s imbibe this potion. She’s done this. She’s done what
everyone has told her. But you see, there’s something
worse about her than just her sickness. Anyone in her condition
is considered unclean, not fit to be in the presence of others,
put outside the camp, put outside the city because of, simply put,
what her body is doing. She can’t be in company with
others. And she touches the garment of
Jesus. Now, probably in your Sunday
school imagination, you remember the little felt board and the
little figures that were put up there. I can remember those.
We think she just patted Jesus’ garment. But we really need to
have this idea that she grabbed it. She would not let go of Jesus. It was such a significant step
of faith, an action that she was going to be like, was it
Jacob in the Old Testament? who said to God, I will not let
go of you until you bless me. And we know Jacob wrestled all
night with God. This woman had that same faith.
She reaches out and lays hold of Jesus garment. The power goes
out from him. She’s immediately healed. What
could not be bought with money, what could not be done by this
step and this action was simply taken care of by faith in Jesus.
And so while Jesus is on the way to one miracle, he performs
this one and he knows it. He realizes that his strength
has gone from him. Power has gone out. He realizes
that something redemptive has taken place and he he stops.
And maybe we think in our minds that Jesus wants to hold her
accountable. How dare you? draw on my powers. How dare you reach in and pick
my pocket of my healing powers without asking? That might be
what we think. But what is Jesus really doing? He’s acknowledging
a woman who for 12 desperate years has been unclean. He’s publicly acknowledging her
to be healed of her disease, to be clean from her uncleanness. And to bless her as he says to
her, daughter, your faith has made you well. And on the way
to this miracle, this woman, this woman is healed. And maybe
some of you have been at this point in your life. You’ve come
to the end of your rope. You’re desperate inside you and
outside you. You can’t imagine being able
to take any more, no more sickness, no more hardship, no more long
suffering. You’ve tried it all. You’ve tried
to buy it. You’ve tried to do it. You’ve
tried to perform it. You’ve tried to think it. You’ve
tried to dream it. You’ve tried to will it. You’ve tried to do
what this expert and that expert says. And this gospel account
simply shows us this. We need to receive and rest in
Jesus alone for our salvation. Yes, we go to the doctors. Yes,
we do what wise people in this world who are trained and successful
in their labors. We follow their orders. God and
his sovereignty has ordained them. He’s made them in his image
and he has given them the brains and the smarts and the hands
and the tools and the technology to do things. That’s how he makes
this world go round. Ordinarily, we can go through
these channels and these things work, but sometimes we come to
the end of our rope and Jesus is saying, I’m not going to let
anything work except me. Can’t you imagine the joy of
this woman when finally she sees Jesus and in this crowd of all
crowds, he stands out to her as the one, the only one who
can save her. That’s her faith. That’s the
object of her faith, Jesus. That’s how she becomes healed.
When Jesus says to her, your faith has healed you, he uses
the salvation word. It’s not just she’s better. It’s
daughter, your faith has saved you, made you whole. Well, Jesus is making his way
to Jairus’ house. The child is dead, as we know
from the story. And the crowd says, it’s too
late. Jesus, go on back to what you
were doing, whatever it was. And Jesus is, in a sense, in
his mind is saying, I’m on the way to do what I came to do,
which is to show you faithless people. Right. There’s some that
laugh. There’s Peter who’s still teetering
on whether he believes in Jesus or not. He says, I’m going to
this house. I’m going to heal this girl.
And by the way, she’s she’s just sleeping. What does he mean? Well, death has no power over
God’s people. Yes, we may die. We may fall
asleep. in Jesus, but we will be awakened into his glorious
heaven. And so he makes his way to the
house of the ruler. He takes in his inner circle.
He takes in his three top disciples. He lets the parents in. He puts
the crowd out. He silences the mourners. And he simply says, child, arise. She’s raised from the dead. She’s
given something to eat. These Gospel accounts give us
a glimpse into the faith of others, but it also ought to give us
a glimpse into our faith. You wake up on Monday morning.
You’ve got a problem like these. What’s the first thing you do?
Do you reach for your checkbook? Do you reach for your telephone?
Do you reach for your this or that or the other and say, in
my own strength? It’s not what you’re saying in
your head, but it’s what you’re doing. It’s the reality. Or do you stop
and say, oh Lord, I don’t know what to do except to come to
you. You’re the one who can calm the
storm. You’re the one who can cast out demons. You’re the one
that can heal the sick. You can make the lame to walk,
the blind to see. You can make a withered hand
strong again. And yes, what this world has
offered me this day, what hardship has come upon me is a difficulty,
but nothing is too difficult for you. Is that how we respond
when these moments come? Do we have faith to come to the
end of our rope and lay hold of Christ? Do we have faith that
says in the peaks and in the valleys of life, I always keep
my eyes on Jesus? Dear friends, there is suffering
in every aspect of life. It will come to us in our health.
It will come to us in our relationships. It will come to us in our family.
It will come to us in our church, in our neighborhoods. It will
come to us in our work. We remember that The ground was
cursed. Life is cursed. Our relationships
are cursed. But Jesus comes to make all things
new. He comes into the world to save
sinners. He comes into the world to destroy the works of the devil.
He comes into the world to seek and save the lost and to gather
to himself a church of redeemed people, redeemed sinners. In this passage, we see one miracle
lead to the next. And we could stop here in chapter
eight of Luke and say, isn’t it neat? And we’d be right. Isn’t it wonderful? And we’d
be right. How Jesus healed this woman,
how Jesus raised Jairus’ only daughter from the dead. But we
need to remember the whole book of Luke. We need to remember
the whole span of redemptive history that, yes, while Jesus
was on the way to perform one miracle, raise the little girl
from the dead, he did another miracle, passively maybe, as
the woman reached out and touched his garment. But we need to remember
this, Jesus is on the way to the cross. And we need to remember
this, that on Monday morning, our first world problems, are
not our greatest problems. You may wake up tomorrow and
your battery in your car is dead from the excessive heat of the
coming summer. You may wake up tomorrow and
your internet connection is down. You may have a flight that is
late. You may have a technician scheduled
to come to the house who doesn’t show. You may have a doctor’s
appointment and you sit, heaven forbid, for 45 minutes in the
waiting room. You may miss lunch. You may, you fill in the blank.
Step up your problems. Some of you may visit the doctor
this week and not like what you hear. Your child may call you
and give you news, which you never expected to come from the
lips of your child on and on and on. The problems may go,
but your greatest problem is salvation. Your greatest problem
is you’re born in sin. You’re born with the guilt of
Adam’s first sin. You’re born with a sin nature
that continues to sin until Jesus enters your life and puts a stop
to it. And so you need to see that there
is another miracle to come, and that’s salvation through Jesus
at the cross. These are little down payments,
we might say. Jesus is showing us. He’s showing
the world. He’s showing the Galilean countryside.
He’s showing the people of Capernaum what is yet to come. I come to make all things new.
I come to heal the sin sick soul. I come to take away your mourning,
to take away your suffering, to take away your pain and your
sorrow. And dear friends, it may not come to you in this life.
You may go into heaven sick. You may enter into heaven through
much suffering. You may not get the cure that
your neighbor gets. You may not on this side of heaven
see relationships that have been broken by sin healed in this
life. But Jesus promises to make all
things new. And so as we keep our eyes fixed
on Jesus and this grand scheme of redemption, there is more
miracle to come than just what’s here in Luke chapter eight. We
keep our eyes fixed. We keep our eyes on Jesus, never
taking them off and we can make it. We can make it safely to
heaven if we don’t lose sight of what is true. As long as we don’t sink into
a life of faithlessness, say like Peter, when he took his
eyes off Jesus on the sea, he sunk. But we keep our eyes on
Jesus and we walk steadily forward in faith. Let us pause and pray
together. Our Lord and our God, we come
before you today thanking you for these little pictures of
the gospel. We thank you that Jesus has come
into the world to save sinners and to build his church. And
we thank you that he’s come to make all things new. And we pray
that we would not lose sight of this when. Life gets difficult
when things seem dark, when frustrations come our way. We pray that we
would not lose sight and say, oh me, what has happened? God must not be in control. But let us keep our eyes firmly
fixed on Jesus, who’s been through these things before us, who’s
with us in the midst of them, and who has shown us, given us
these deposits, these down payments on what is yet to come. so that
we might have faith in the midst of hardship to live for him and
to make it safely to heaven. Help us, we pray in Jesus name.