Luke's Gospel

Luke chapter 8 verse 40 to 56. Now, when Jesus returned, a crowd welcomed him, For they were all expecting him, then a man named Jairus, a synagogue leader came and fell at Jesus feet. Pleading with him to come to his house because his only daughter, a girl of about 12, was dying. As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years, but no 1 could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak.

And immediately her bleeding stopped. Who touched me, Jesus asked when they all denied it, Peter said, master the people are crowding and pressing against you. But Jesus said someone touched me. I know that power has gone out from me. Then the woman seeing that she could not go unnoticed came trembling and fell at his feet.

In the presence of all the people, She told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then he said to her, daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace. While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the House of Jairus, the synagogue leader. Your daughter is dead.

He said, Don't bother the teacher anymore. Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, don't be afraid. Just believe, and she will be healed. When he arrived at the house of gyres, he did not let anyone go in with him, except Peter, John, and James, and the child's father and mother. Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her.

Stop wailing, Jesus said. She is not dead, but asleep. They laughed at him. Knowing that she was dead, but he took her by the hand and said, my child, get up. Her spirit returned and at once she stood up, then Jesus told them to give her something to eat.

Her parents were astonished, but he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened. Thank you, Ben. And, do keep this, this amazing set of stories open in front of you. This is a series. If you're regular here, you'll know this is a series that we've been doing in, Luke's gospel.

You can find most. If not all, I hope of the talks we've done in previous weeks online. And, we're coming now to this, as I say, incredible pair of stories. And, if you were here last week, you might have been thinking as Ben was reading to us how how similar this is in many ways to the passage that we looked at last week. There are 2 very, very desperate cases here.

2 situations that seem hopeless And yet, once again, Jesus walks right into the middle of the hopelessness and the chaos, and he changes things. There are some big similarities, but with the similarities, there are also some pretty important differences. And you might have noticed that in this section, we're moving from the, the grand, and big picture chaotic scenes of a raging storm and a man possessed by many demons. We're moving from the big scale Jesus to these ordinary household struggles. Both desperate and yet the scale is a little bit reduced.

And in other words, I think Luke is wanting to show us that Jesus is not just, the god of the storm and the lord over Satan is the compassionate God who comes to people's homes and cares about individuals and their suffering and that comes to change things for them. So let's bow our heads and pray as we approach these 2 stories. Father, we thank you that these words that Ben has just read to us are your words, and that is something that we acknowledge all the time. That this is your word, and yet it is so profound that these words in front of us are your breath. They are the voice of the living god, the god who made this universe.

We thank you Holy Spirit for inspiring these words and preserving them for us and for our brothers and sisters all the way throughout history. And we pray father that you would speak to each 1 of us this evening that we would be conscious that you are speaking and that you would change us through your word and we ask it in Jesus' name. Oh, man. Oh, man. So the first thing that I wanted to see is this, a double dose of desperation.

That's my first point. A double dose of desperation. Now last week, the first point you might remember was a double dose of evil. Jesus came to the storm. Jesus came to the man at the tomb, double dose of evil.

Here we have a double dose of desperation. A few years ago, in February, you might remember we were looking some characters from church history. It's 1 of the things we do in February after the media fast. We have big, big home groups. And, 1 of the characters that were looking at was an eighteenth century hymn writer and preacher, called Philip Doddridge, and he was, also a man who had local connections here in Kingston.

And as well as being great at all those things, he was also a, a family man. He was a, a father and, and a husband. And, from everything that I read, he he clearly loved being a family man. He he loved his life as a husband, and he loved being a dad. He spoke of Elizabeth, who was his his first child, as a particularly bright and precious child.

And, from what I could tell, he had a lot of fun with her. He tells this funny story of, of a moment when his daughter Elizabeth trying to teach their dog the basics of Christianity. So he had something called a catechism, which is a set of questions and answers. Order to teach people the Christian faith, and she would practice on their dog and, trying to teach them about god. And, he writes in his diary about how this was going down, with the family dog.

And he says that the poor creature placed its tail between its legs and shied away from her. And for that, it was rebuked. You are doctor Dodgers's dog and you don't even know who made you. And he just loved to he loved to tell that story and he would he would use it when lecturing his students because he ran a college as well. And, he would tell that story, I think, in order to encourage their own learning, and he would tell it, and then he would say, And students, what do you think?

If so much is expected from my dog at home, what might be expected from you in the next few terms? So as I say, he clearly enjoyed, this life. He enjoyed being a dad. But tragedy was never far from the Dodgers the Doddridge home. And, at age 4, Elizabeth's daughter caught tuberculosis, and, she never made it to her fifth birthday.

And so just like his parents, Dodge's parents who lost 18 children in infancy, his parents lost 18 children he too tasted the agony, of a lost child. He wrote in his diary about that moment. I have now laid the delight of my eyes in the dust, and she is forever hidden from them. Yet I bless god. I have my hopes.

That she is lodged safely in the arms of Christ. And to lose anybody that you love, is is a tragedy as many people will know here. But it seems that there is something about a child that feels so, alien and so unnatural and so so wrong. To have to lay the delights of your eyes, your child, into the dust. And the reason I share that with you is because I think there is a danger, that as we come to people like Jairus, we forget that they are real people.

Gyrus, like Doddridge, and many others, was a real man. And Luke tells us that his 12 year old daughter was dying. Verse 42 tells us that it was his only daughter. Now why was it his only daughter? Well, we don't we don't know.

I mean, it is probably unusual. It was common in these times to have much larger families, particularly if you were someone of status like Jairus was, And so we we can assume that they probably wanted more children. And therefore, maybe they suffered with, miscarriage or struggled with infertility. We don't know. But for whatever reason, this was their only child.

It was his only child. And I guess, Jairus, like all parents, to some extent, had dreams about what she would become. He may not have dreamt quite along the same lines that we do. You know, where will she go and what job will she do? And who will she marry?

You know, she might not have had those sort of more western dreams and aspirations for her, but he certainly would have had some kind of dreams for her. And whatever they were, they are now fading to nothing. This was his only daughter. And she was dying. Have a look at verse 40 with me.

Now when Jesus returned, a crowd welcomed him for they were all expecting him. Then a man named Jairus, a synagogue leader came and fell at Jesus' feet pleading with him to come to his house because his only daughter, a girl of about 12, was dying. And even from that, you can sense something of his desperation, can't you? This man, although we know little about him, this man was not used to begging on his face. We know his name.

His name was Jairus. We know his job. Why? Because he was a significant man. He was an important man.

He was a respected man. He was a leader of the synagogue. People would have known him to be a proud religious example to other people. But he doesn't give a rip about his status anymore. When you're this desperate When someone you love this much is about to slip away, you'll do anything including falling on your face in a crowd.

It's like those scenes in medical dramas, isn't it? Where a patient bursts in with an emergency shouting. We we need a doctor in here now. You know, the the opinions of the other patients are weighing very lightly upon them at that moment. They don't really care if others in the hospital disapproving of their tone or their volume.

There is a situation that is so desperate that they don't even consider What other people might be thinking about them? They need help. They want help. Who cares? What the crowds think, his daughter, his dying.

But as you can see, he's not the only 1 with a problem in this past This is a double dose. Not a single dose. It's a double dose of desperation. And have a look at verse 42. As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him.

And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years but no 1 could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak and immediately her bleeding stopped. Who touched me? Jesus asked. So it might be a little odd, but I want you to imagine the lord Jesus as an ambulance at the moment.

He's got a call from Jairus. The call has come in. There's an emergency which he needs to attend. He's put his blue lights on. He's agreed to go.

He's driving towards the destination to bring care, but now he's just been caught in very, very heavy traffic. He's being crushed. The crowds are pressing in on him, pressing around him. Struggling to make it through, and then this woman turns up. Now socially, she is a world away from gyros.

No name. We don't know her name. No job. We can assume she was fairly low down the ladder in terms of public respect. Family?

No idea. All we know is that she has been bleeding for 12 years. Now Luke, who was a doctor, and probably could have given us more insight into her particular condition, doesn't. Doesn't say anything more about it, but we can assume from this gospel and others that this was a female bleeding of some kind. And what is clear is that it would have excluded her from everything.

According to the law, she was unclean permanently. And therefore unable to go to places like the synagogue or the temple to worship the lord. She would be un welcome in polite company. Mark tells us in his gospel that she had visited people doctors, clinics, expert, after expert. She had experimented with new treatments, new options.

She'd done everything. She really wanted to get better. She really wanted to be an ordinary member of society. She wanted to be well. She wanted to be able to worship and to be with people.

But nothing. 12 years later, She is penniless, she is hopeless, and she is still unable to worship freely. Imagine it. Just imagine what it must have been like for a moment. No 1 no 1 has touched you for 12 years.

No one's touched you for 12 years. No one's hugged you. No one's laid a hand on you to pray for you. No one's ever kissed you. No one's held your hand.

She doesn't have a gyrus Do you notice that? She doesn't have anybody to go for her. The daughter has somebody to go for her, She has nobody. She must go alone. She must brave the crowds alone.

She must taste the shame alone. Knowing that nobody wants to be anywhere near her. She is alone. And the only thing worse than this kind of suffering is when you have to suffer like this on your own. So you can see for as long as gyrus, had been enjoying his daughter 12 years.

She had been bleeding. The last decade had been very different for these 2 people. So you can see with this double dose of desperation. You can see I hope how it compares to last week. These these aren't wild men in the tombs and you know, with 6000 demons occupying them.

These aren't disciples in the middle of a raging storm. These these are These are ordinary people who are at the point of desperation, and they're just trying to get to Jesus. We don't know how much they knew about him or how much they loved him at this stage, but but they are desperate. And they have a genuine belief. That he can do something for them, that he can change them in some way and help them.

So firstly, there's a double dose of desperation. Secondly, There's a double dose of compassion. A double dose of compassion. Have a look at verse 44. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.

12 years searching, 12 years paying, 12 years looking for a cure, 12 years bleeding, 12 years without freedom to worship, 12 years being excluded from community 1 second with Jesus and instantly immediately, she is healed. But if she was hoping to just slip away unnoticed, and just to go back to her life with this new experience of warmth and cleansing. If she was hoping just to drift out the back of the crowd just like she drifted in, she had another thing coming. Verse 45, who touched me Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.

And in other gospels, we're told he elaborate on that and says, what are you talking about, master? You're being crushed from every side master. There are hundreds of people touching you master, from head to toe master. What sort of question is that, master? But Jesus said, no, somebody touched me.

I know that power has gone out from me. So you can picture it now. This throng of people that is embracing and crushing Jesus from every single side like he's stuck in the middle of a scrum of desperate people who are pincering him from all angles. Suddenly, there's a break. Suddenly, Jesus speaks up, and the crowds begin to go quiet.

Now what is Jesus hoping for here? Somebody touched me. I know that power has gone out for me. What is he what is he hoping for? Well, think of it this way.

Let's say you walk into your kitchen and the lid is off the biscuit tin. 1 child is clean. And the other child has crumbs and chocolates smeared all over their cheeks and around their nose. And you, as the parents, say, who's been in the cookie tin? Who's been in the biscuit tin?

Not because you don't know, but you're giving them an opportunity to come forward. You're giving them an opportunity to repent and to confess The evidence is stacked rather heavily against 1 child, and you can see it. But you give them the opportunity to come forward and to tell their story. And I think the same kind of thing is going on here. When Jesus says someone touched me, he is inviting this woman to come forward.

He's inviting her to step out from the crowds into the public arena if you like to tell her story and to confess what she has done. And in verse 47, it literally says, when the woman saw that she was not hidden. When the woman saw that she was not hidden, so it seems there was a moment when it became obvious that she couldn't slip away. When she saw that she was not hidden, Maybe Jesus said that whilst making eye contact with her, somebody touched me. Maybe the Others in the crowd knew that there could only be 1 person he was talking about.

Maybe they took a little sidestep from her, gave her the eyes and were willing her to go forward. Whatever happened, there was this moment when it became obvious to her that she could not remain hidden any longer. And so in the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then he said to her daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.

Isn't that a glorious picture of what Christ can do for people? Who who else can take somebody from the very edge of society and bring them into the household of god. Who else can do that with a word? Jesus Jesus can do that. This is the only time that he calls someone daughter in all of the gospels.

And that is what makes it so special. He's on the way to heal a man's daughter, but before he gets there, he's going to adopt 1 for himself. He's going to adopt a daughter on the way to heal a man's daughter. And interestingly, if you look back to chapter 7 verse 50, which we looked at a few weeks ago. It's the exact same phrase that Jesus says to this sinful woman who comes to him.

Jesus said to the woman, your faith has saved you, go in peace. And the words saved and healed are the same root word. Exactly the same root word. In other words, this is a healing of body and soul. She is physically restored, and she is spiritually made new.

She's clean on the outside. She is clean on the inside. Daughter, your faith has healed, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. For her, it's just a wonder wonderful ending, isn't it?

We can only imagine what she went on to after this. But what about gyrus? I mean, what must he be thinking right now? I mean, there's several possibilities. He could be irritated, couldn't he?

Jesus. I'm not saying that you can't help her. I'm not saying that you shouldn't. But she has waited 12 years. She can wait another hour.

When I left my daughter this morning, we didn't think she was going to make it through the day. Maybe he was irritated, or maybe he was encouraged Maybe now he was thinking for, I'm with the right man. Isn't this brilliant? This is what he can do for her Then just think what he might be able to do for my daughter. Come on, Jesus.

Let's go now. I know now that you're the right man. I know that I didn't make a mistake coming to you. Let's go. Jesus.

Whatever it was, Jesus has no intention of being detoured permanently, And so off they'd go until another swing comes. The story swings again. It's full of cliff hangers and Lows, verse 49. While Jesus was still speaking, somebody came from the house of Jairus to synagogue leader, Your daughter is dead, he said. Don't bother the teacher anymore.

Other translations have it. Don't harass him anymore. Don't harass him. Leave him alone. Don't bother him anymore.

Don't trouble him any further. Let him get on with what he's gotta do and leave him alone. Imagine that. You're sitting you're sitting in the waiting room. Your loved 1 is going through a serious operate You're desperate for news.

A nurse comes in and says, I'm sorry. They didn't make it. Now if you wouldn't mind, we do need that chair back. So if you would like to get up and leave at your earliest convenience and Please don't trouble the doctors on the nurses or the way out for more information. They're very busy this afternoon.

Please, can you just make your way out quietly? Know, that's not the sort of compassionate nurse that you would want to meet in this kind of case, is it? Imagine this bloke. Don't harass your daughter's dead. Don't harass the teacher anymore.

Leave him alone. Can you imagine how gyrus must have been feeling? CS Lewis, who's a Christian Christian author, he he wrote a book called a grief observed. And, in this book, he writes about the death of his wife, Helen. And, he got he got married quite late in life, c s Lewis, and he was only able to enjoy a few years of marriage, with her before she was diagnosed with cancer, and then, and then she died.

Now, c s Lewis was was a great mind, and he had thought about suffering and being a Christian before. But this book is his own journey through that, trying to reconcile these beliefs that he had about god with the bitter suffering that he was facing. And the very, very first line of the book, is this. No 1 ever told me that grief felt so like fear. No 1 ever told me that grief felt so like fear.

And that's interesting because although we don't know everything that gyrus was feeling, Jesus says to him in verse 50, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Just believe. Now what could he been if afraid of? He might have been afraid that Jesus could no longer help him.

Healing was well within his capabilities, but resurrection well, I'm afraid nobody can nobody can help with that. Was he afraid that his last chance had gone? Was he afraid to find his daughter lying there. Was he afraid to see his wife? Grieving Maybe she had hoped he might come home with a cure.

And now he's gotta go and pass to his his wife. Maybe he's afraid of finding her. Maybe he's afraid of his future. This was their only child. What was he gonna do now?

Maybe he was afraid of the service. How could he possibly preach his daughter's funeral? And to start with, Jesus doesn't seem to to get what's going on. You can imagine some people feeling a little bit confused. Verse 50 just believe and she will be healed.

Well, that's that's fine, but healing is for the sick, not for the dead. As Jesus understood what's going on, that's why the crowds mock him in verse 53. They laugh at him knowing that she is dead. They're laughing because Jesus can't seem to tell the difference between sleep and death. Now you don't need a degree in medicine to tell the difference between a sleeping person and a dead person.

Does Jesus know how serious this is? Does he not know that death is the end? Does he not know what death looks like? So you see, this is a huge moment for Jairus. His daughter has died.

He believed at the start. He came to Jesus at the start And then, and then he saw the woman healed, and we guess that encouraged his faith. But now things have got very nasty, very dark, very quickly. Will he believe now? Will he believe now?

Well, have a look at verse 50. Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus Don't be afraid. Just believe and she will be healed. When he arrived at the house of Jairus, he did not let anyone go in with him except Peter, John, and James, and the child's father and mother. Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her.

Stop wailing. Jesus said. She is not dead, but asleep. They laughed at him knowing that she was dead. So back to the question, did Jesus know how serious this was?

When he said she was sleeping, Was he just denying reality? No. But he knew that he could help her and he knew that this was only temporary. That is the point of the illustration, isn't it? Sleep isn't forever.

Morning is always coming. This death will not be forever. Resurrection is coming. Jesus knows it. And verse 54 but he took her by the hand and said my child get up.

Her spirit returned and at once she stood up. It's such a such a lovely detail, isn't it? You see the bleeding woman At least she was able to reach out her hand and touch Jesus, but this little girl couldn't lift the finger. And yet that's okay because Jesus took her hand. He didn't have to do that, did he?

Didn't have to take her hand. He didn't even have to go to her house. He could have healed her with a word. But he goes and he takes her by the hand because he loves her, and he loves gyrus. And he wants to bring her personally out of the grave.

And there's an amazing contrast here, even with the story last week, the man who was possessed. In that story, the possessed man comes running out of the tomb to meet Jesus In this story, Jesus goes into the tomb to meet this girl and to bring her out. And actually, when you put these 2 stories together, this really is our Jesus, isn't it? This is our Jesus. And this is his mission to cleanse the unclean, to rise from the dead, to defeat death and to lead his people out of the grave.

That's so important. Because the thing is this bleeding woman has now died. This daughter has died for a second time. But in their lives, they tasted the power of Christ, and they are here to teach us that a day is coming when every single 1 of us will be cleansed forever, where every single disease will be wiped out They teach us that a day is coming when the savior will take each 1 of his people by their hand and say arise my child. Give him, give her something to eat at my father's table.

Arise my child, be fed in your master's house. And that is true of all of us, isn't it? When this girl came back from the dead, who did she see first? Who's voice did she hear first? Who was there to greet her first?

Jesus. And friends, because of our sin, we are all going to go this way. We are going to die But actually, it will only be for a moment. It will only be sleeping, really. And when that last trumpet sounds, The first voice we hear will be Christ's.

The first face we see will be Christ's. We will be raised with Christ forever. Some people mock it in verse 53. Don't they? Of course, they do.

Something the whole idea of being resurrected to a life with Christ is a joke. They literally say, don't bother with that teacher anymore. Don't bother with him. Leave him in history Don't you bother with him? We know better than him now.

We know like the crowds knew that death means death. Don't harass him anymore. But Jesus says your faith has made you well. Jesus says, don't be afraid. Just believe.

Jesus says I have died for you. I have died to take your uncleanness away. I have died to make you righteous and acceptable to my father. I have died so that you might live. I have died so I might raise you to glory with me 1 day.

I've died to secure these things for you. Don't be afraid. Just believe. That's why Doddridge could say at the end of that quote, I have now laid the delight of my eyes in the dust and she is forever hidden from them. Yet I bless god I have my hopes that she is lodged safely in the arms of Christ.

And so you see in the face of disease and death, this is our hope too. This passage right here is is Christianity. If you're here for the first time perhaps or you're here and you don't know what Christian faith is, this is this is Christian faith. In a nutshell. It is this kind of desperation in ourselves, this hopelessness in ourselves This recognizing that we are unclean, we are dead.

We are unable to change our own situation, but that if we will come to Christ, and bring our hopelessness to him and fall at his feet, then we can hear those same words your faith has made you well. That that is Christianity. So if you're not a Christian here, Can I ask, have you, will you realize how hopeless things are for you spiritually speaking? And what is it that's preventing you coming? Are you afraid of the crowds?

You don't want to come forward in case the crowds say something. Are you too embarrassed? To admit that you need this kind of help publicly. Or have you spent all your money looking for cures elsewhere? Looking searching for some Jesus alternative who can give you what he offers yet without him.

If you realize that you are hopeless and penniless spiritually, well, then you're in the put you're in the put you're in the perfect position. Perfect. Perfect. Come to him and let him say these words to you. And lastly, if you already are a believer, See see how sovereign your god is.

I mean, these miracles are awesome. The miracles are awesome, but see the sovereignty of god. The amazing way that these events are ordered. Desperate father. Number 1, Dying Girl.

On the way, diseased woman, therefore delayed Jesus, then believing woman, then a dead girl, then a living girl, Then a grateful family, then a glorified savior, as 1 writer says the choreography of heaven is awesome. The choreography of heaven is awesome. Who would have ordered events in this way? And that is such good news for every believer in Christ. The miracles in this story are not promised in this life.

1 day, they will be, but not in this life. They do sometimes come in this life. Jesus is alive. He is powerful. He is drawn to the sufferings of his people, and he can, and he does heal people wonderfully in this life, but it is not promised.

And yet every single 1 of god's people has this promise. That god is sovereignly at work in all the details of your life. Whatever you go through, whatever we go through, diseases for 12 years or longer, death. Jesus is not surprised. There are no hiccups in the road for him.

No bumps that he can't drive over. For 1 second, Was he out of control in this scene? For 1 second, was he taken by surprise? For 1 moment, did he not know the outcome? So it is with us.

He loves us. If we've trusted in him, he has cleansed us of our sin, taken our uncleanness away. And he has raised us to life in Christ. So Jesus says to us wherever we are, don't be afraid. Just believe your faith has made you well.

Let's pray to him together. Lord Jesus, we want to thank you for these 2 stories and thank you that they're true. We thank you that you really raised Jairus' daughter from the dead. That you really healed this woman and you took her uncleanness away. We thank you that these 2 tasted the power and the compassion and the grace that only you could bring.

And we thank you lord Jesus that so many of us in this room can say that Although not identical, their story is our story. That you have cleansed us of our sin, that you have been willing to come to us and to raise us from spiritual death to life. We thank you lord that you have been so good to us. You would have been perfectly fair and right just to just to walk on by to leave us unclean, to leave us dead, and then to confront us with your holy anger 1 day. That would have been fair enough for the way that we have treated you.

And yet we thank you that you graciously came to us, took our hand Lifted us from the grave. You took us from the outskirts of society and you've called us your son or your daughter. And we thank you that we have this prospect of seeing your face on resurrection day. How amazing it will be to actually hear the voice of Jesus, to see him, to look at his face, to gaze upon him. Thank you that it is the first face that we will see on resurrection morning.

And we pray that you would help us to keep looking to this gracious savior. And we ask it in his name. Oh, man.