There are so many things we know about Jesus Christ, and there are so many more things we don't know.
And they're to our benefit. They await us. Whatever you're dealing with right now, or whatever you might deal with 50 years from now or more, what is it going to matter 200 years from now? What will matter most to you 200 years from now is what you thought about Jesus Christ at this moment before you leave this world.
That's perspective. We find Pastor Rick in the Gospel of Mark chapter 5 with a new study called The Solution. This message is entitled The Solution, and it will be Mark's Gospel chapter 5 verses 21 through 43, verse 21. Now when Jesus had crossed over again by boat to the other side, a great multitude gathered to him, and he was by the sea.
And behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue came, Jairus, by name. And when he saw him, he fell down at his feet and begged him earnestly, saying, My little daughter lies at the point of death. Come lay your hands on her, that she may be healed, and she will live. So Jesus went with him, and a great multitude followed him and thronged him. Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for 12 years and had suffered many things from the physicians.
She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came behind him in the crowd and touched his garment, for she said, If only I may touch his clothes, I shall be made well. Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. And Jesus immediately, knowing in himself that power had gone out of him, turned around in the crowd and said, Who touched my clothes?
But his disciples said to him, You see the multitude thronging you, and you say, Who touched me? And he looked around to see her who had done this thing, but the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her daughter, Your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your affliction. While he was still speaking, some came from the ruler of the synagogue's house who said, Your daughter is dead. Why trouble teach her any further? As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he said to the ruler of the synagogue, Do not be afraid.
Only believe. And he permitted no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. And he came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue and saw a tumult, those who wept and wailed loudly. When he came in, he said to them, Why make this commotion and weep?
The child is not dead but sleeping. And they ridiculed him. But when he had put them all outside, he took the father and the mother of the child and those who were with him and entered, for the child was lying. And then he took the child by the hand and said to her, Taliah takumi, which is translated little girl, I say to you, arise. Immediately the girl arose and walked, for she was twelve years of age, and they were overcome with great amazement. And he commanded them strictly that no one should know it and said that something should be given her to eat. Well, let's just go on to chapter 6.
I mean, this is just getting into this. So we see Jesus in the midst, again, of human dread. It started with the storm in chapter 4, then the maniac of Gadara in the beginning of chapter 5. And now we have this diseased woman who interferes with Christ en route to dealing with a child near death. None of these, the demons, the storm, the death, the disease, none of them could defeat Christ.
He defeated them all. And that really is the teaching of the New Testament about Jesus Christ. It's not, well, he's going to do this to you too.
Anytime you get sick, anytime you face dread, anything you come up against, he's just going to come in and he's going to lay his hands on it and it's going to be all better for you. Ultimately he will, and we believe that. We know that by faith. He has a different perspective on everything until we find out what his perspective is.
Ours is different too. And our role, one of them, is to line up with the will and the belief, well, not the belief, but the will and the mind of God to be like Christ. And so we pray, nevertheless, not my will be done, but your will be done. We pray he must increase, I must decrease. All of these are teachings from the scripture to us on how to live as believers of God by faith. We have two contrasts here in this chapter.
The remaining verses of this chapter, verses 21 through 43. We have this humble outcast by reason of her disease. This particular disease would have made her an outcast. It would have blocked her from coming to the sanctuary, temple worship at Jerusalem. She would have been treated like a leper in many ways.
Then we have the honored overseer of the synagogue by reason of his position he is honored. So one of shame and one of honor. We also have a woman with 12 years of misery. And then we have the father with 12 years of joy in this child.
These contrasts, they're intentional. There are lessons here for us to receive. There's no way I'm going to extract all of them. I don't even know all of them. I'm not going to tell you that. But I know some of them.
I know hopefully enough of them. Not because of anything in me, but because the Spirit of God does this for us, for his people. Looking at verse 21 again. Now when Jesus had crossed over again by boat to the other side, a great multitude gathered to him and he was by the sea. Well he didn't stay where he was unwanted. He was not welcomed in Gadara where he had cast the demons out of the maniac and the other one with him. He's practicing what he preached.
There on the Sermon of the Mount he said, Do not give what is holy to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you in pieces. And so rather than cast pearl over the sweet word of God, the valuable word of God, before these who were behaving like pigs, Christ said, I'm going back to Capernaum. And that apparently is where he is now landed, by his lakeside base there in Capernaum. They would have seen the flotilla approaching. Because as we recall from his departure from Capernaum to go to Gadara, there were these little boats following him, well they're following him back. And so they see them coming from the lake and that means the word starts to stir up the village and everybody's coming to the shore to meet Jesus on his return.
In verse 22, And behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue came, Jairus, by name. And when he saw him, he fell at his feet and begged him earnestly, saying, My little daughter lies at the point of death. Come lay your hands on her, that she may be healed, and she will live. Here is the father in extreme or deep distress.
Luke mentions that this was his only daughter. There was nowhere else to turn. There was nowhere else to go.
No one could possibly do any more for this child. Jesus was his last hope, and he believed that the father did. And it took quite a bit for this ruler of the synagogue to approach this non-conformist rabbi. That's how he was viewed by those who had the power over the people through their religion. He knew Jesus could heal her. What he did not know is that Jesus could raise her from the dead. And that's what he's going to find out. So are others, too. There are so many things we know about Jesus Christ, and there are so many more things we don't know. And they're to our benefit. They await us. Whatever you're dealing with right now, or whatever you might deal with, 50 years from now or more, what is it going to matter 200 years from now?
What will matter most to you 200 years from now is what you thought about Jesus Christ at this moment, before you leave this world. That's perspective. It's not enough to stop the hurt, but it is enough to get the victory. You know, we can be set back. We're never defeated as Christians. Paul said, you know, we are hard-pressed but not crushed, perplexed but not in despair.
Yeah, I'm confused. I don't know what God is doing. It's part of the Christian life to not like some of the things that God is doing. Peter at Caesarea Philippi, far be it from you, Lord. Talk about the cross. And what did Jesus say?
Get behind me, Satan. You're not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men. Oh, and Peter hacked off the ear of Malchus. It's because Peter did not like what God was doing at the moment. He took matters into his own hands.
And what did he do? He butchered the moment. And he caused the Lord to have to patch up his dirty work. We have to learn these lessons in life. We don't always like what God is doing.
He knows that. But we do have to adhere to what God is doing. We abide with Christ, and Christ abides with us. We're supposed to be made out of tougher stuff. And the flesh, of course, doesn't like that. The flesh wants us to have its way, even if it's just complaining, which I have mastered, incidentally.
I hold a black belt in complaining. Well, anyway, Jairus would find this out, but before he got there, he was going to suffer. His heart was going to break. Verse 24, so Jesus went with him, and a great multitude followed him and thronged him. Where are these multitudes today? Well, to some degree, they're still around. There are those that throng Jesus, interested only in the thrills and what they could get from him. There are those that like to throw out his name and to pretend to be so devout and really aren't.
I mean, how many Christian concerts have attendees that really aren't interested in obedience and holiness, they just want to, you know, sing songs and feel good about themselves, although there are in those numbers those who are sincere also. And we think about something like that, and we have to say to ourselves, Where am I? What team am I on? Am I on the team that has on their jersey sincere, or am I on the team that is just carnal? I liked years ago playing basketball in the church that I come out of in New York, and we were playing a basketball, and one of the guys on my team said, Okay, our team name is the spirit, your team is the flesh.
And I thought that was very appropriate for my team. We do appreciate that. Well, in bringing Jesus to his home for help, there was interference, and it's big. And there's a big part of this lesson for us. And the interference doesn't come from Satan, not directly. Indirectly, of course, Satan is the one that caused humanity to stumble and fall flat on its face into sin. But here, it's not Satan who is interfering with Christ coming to the rescue of this man's beloved daughter. It is another soul in distress, and it would place intense pressure on the father, Jairus, by name. His patience, his very soul, he's got to be sitting there saying, Come on, as Jesus is going to be interacting with this woman. Yet, she, the one interfering, she's desperate too. Verse 25, Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years.
Now we'll have to pause there. Under the law of Moses, the Mosaic law, her affliction rendered her untouchable. If you were to have contact with her, if she were to brush up against you, if her garment touched your garment, you were ceremonially unclean, and you could not go down to the temple or up to the temple in Jerusalem and offer sacrifice, you probably would not allow it into the synagogue.
At the dining, there were just many things you just were blocked from because of this. Now, you would be ceremonially unclean for only a short period of time, but still, that would be a time you would not want that on you. A great stigma was attached to her condition. She had to live with this junk for twelve years, going on her second decade. Leviticus 15, speaking of this condition, says, Whoever touches her shall be unclean until evening.
And the idea, part of that is, I don't want to be unclean at all. And so, she would have people dodge her. Her disease not only defiled her, but made a disaster of her life. When everybody else was having fun, she was suffering.
The cloud just stayed over her, atop of her. It cut her off from the society she lived in, from the sanctuary that she worshiped for twelve years. Twelve years of ungranted prayer. Twelve years of, Lord, can you heal me?
Nope. No answer. Twelve years of questions not answered by God. Why, Lord?
Why? Silence. Twelve years of gloom. Almost, as I said, a leper's life. How cheated she must have felt as she watched other women her age not have this burden in their lives. Other women with their husbands, with their children, with their health, not her.
We get the point. She was twenty-six, and had suffered many things from the physician she had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. Poor thing, she's exhausted, she's now broke.
It's a pitiful condition. Yet, she does not seem to have come to the place where she's given up. She's still looking for the solution, but this time it's in Christ whom she's heard so much about. She knew people that he had healed, but there were others that were worse off than her.
There always is. John's Gospel, chapter five, know a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. Some of you aren't even thirty-eight years old yet. Thirty-eight years, that man had to deal with his situation until Christ came along and changed things. Then there are other people living in surrounding lands that just went to their graves this way. Keeps it in perspective for us that God has a different view, and his view is right, and it is important that we line up with that and stay there.
That we abide, adhere, and faith does that. Luke speaks of another one in Luke chapter thirteen. Behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up. She could not even look up to the sky.
Christ sees them all. Here she is for twelve years, not alone. That brings some comfort, but not relief enough.
She suffered embarrassment, disappointment, financial ruin, playing all that she had. How many times did the doctors say, go try this? Okay, that didn't work. Okay, no, try this. Okay, don't eat that.
Okay, eat this. She went through that until finally they would have nothing to do with her because they had no solution. They could probably give a name to her condition, but they could not cure her.
They collected her fees and gave up. Not that they were shysters, some of them may have been, some may have been very genuine, but in spite of this, she was worse off. Verse twenty-seven, and when she heard about Jesus, she came behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. Now, just entering this midway, there are those who over the centuries have come to know Christ and have had worse conditions than this, and they read this story and still they get stronger in their faith. Understanding that, okay, Jesus healed her, but that's not his way with me.
I have to find out what he's going to do with me. And that has been very successful in the causes and interests of the king. And let's not think for one moment that whatever you endure is in vain if you belong to Jesus Christ. It will seem in vain many times, pointless.
It will make you angry and upset, hurt, feel cheated, not want to pray, not want to read, not want to attend church, not want to love. That's the war. You hear people talk about prayer warriors.
Warriors die on the battlefield, incidentally. So we look at this and we say, well, you know, I'm in a position here where I am forced to make a choice. I'm going to full out trust Christ or not.
I choose to follow him, and so many others have also, and I know many of you, if not all of you here, do too. So we picture her, frail, alone, desperate, maneuvering through the throng, through the multitude, through the crowd, all the healthy people around her, and she's pushing through. She's not supposed to touch any of these people. She can't help it. She's willing to sacrifice whatever penalty that may bring to get cured.
Secretly, she's on a mission of hope, and nobody knows it but her. Of course, the Lord says, and touched his garment. The word for touch really is to grasp, not just to touch it like that.
Mark will explain what went into this action in a moment. But being unclean, as I mentioned, she wasn't supposed to even touch his garment. The rabbis would say that that defiled her and him, and they would have been right, ceremonially speaking. Haggai chapter 2, verses 12 through 14, Haggai uses this doctrine of corruption to make a great point against the people who were at that time living pretty nicely while the temple lied in ruins. God's house was in shambles, but they were doing pretty good, and that's the prophet Haggai staring up the nation to do something about the place that they were to worship. But the laws of contamination are this, Paul writes to the Corinthians, do not be deceived.
Evil company corrupts good habits. This is big. This is big because as Christians, many of us get older, we are corrupted by the junk we read.
Be careful. Don't think because some, you know, just a book has a nice cover and everybody's loving it that it's right. What is in that book? Does it line up with scripture? Who's the author?
Does that author believe in the infallibility of God's word, or are they one of those liberal authors that, well, some of it we believe, some of it we don't? And for you younger ones, evil company corrupts morals, good habits. It ruins you.
It contaminates you. You have a friend that is not interested in Christ, but you feel like you've got to be their friend? Listen, you invite them to church.
If they don't want to come, find another friend. Don't be the dumb guy on the block. It's your choice.
It's up to you. You may get persecuted for it. Well, I don't want to be persecuted any more than you do, but it's just the way it is. So when Paul says, don't be suckered. Oh, did I say it that way?
That's exactly what he's saying. Satan is seducing you. You might think this is harmless, but Satan knows it is harmful.
Do not be deceived. Evil company corrupts good habits. God can get you better friends.
You might go for a while without some, but he'll get you better ones. You don't need to be around those who represent the evil company. And evil corrupts at a faster rate than righteousness purifies. So if you say, well, I'm going to hang around this person until they get saved, you may find out they have corrupted you to now you need to get saved.
This is not a game. There's a very real devil, and he does not take prisoners to just take them. He takes them to destroy them. Catching cleanliness, catching holiness only comes from God. You catch that from him.
You get that from him. Isaiah chapter 6 verse 7. And he touched my mouth with it and said, Behold, this has touched your lips, your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.
Of course, that was the servant of the Lord in Isaiah's vision, touching the lips of the prophet at the command of God. And Mark chapter 1 verse 41. Then Jesus moved with compassion, stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, I am willing, be cleansed. It is the touch of God that cleanses us. We don't rub up against sinners and get clean.
It is God that does it every time. And verse 28 now, for she said, now Mark's giving us the background, her reasoning. For she said, if only I may touch his clothes, I shall be made well. Matthew says that she said, if I can just touch the hem of his garment. Now, of course, when we think of a hem, we think of the bottom of the trousers or the bottom of the dress.
But that is not at all the idea. With their garb, the wardrobe of that day, this would have been the garment that he would have wrapped and folded. And a part of the hem would have been pushed over the back of his shoulder, in between his shoulder blades. And there with the tassel hang right there.
And that is what she is going to grab, come behind him and grab hold of this. Let's pick up Matthew chapter 9. And suddenly a woman who had a flow of blood for 12 years came from behind and touched the hem of his garment.
And there's the explanation. The hem was a big deal with the Jews in those days. It is to this day too, when they wear their prayer aprons that you may have seen with the tassels and the blue stripes. Numbers chapter 15 verse 38, speak to the children of Israel, tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations and to put a blue thread in the tassels of the corners. That is significant to what is going on.
We could take a lot of time going through this, but I think you get the picture. She believed that this was going to be a point of contact with him that would create or heal her. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the book of Mark. Cross Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. To learn more information about this ministry, visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. Once you're there, you'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. You can search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. That's all we have time for today, but we hope you'll join us next time as Pastor Rick continues to teach through the book of Mark, right here on Cross Reference Radio.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-11-24 03:27:26 / 2023-11-24 03:37:14 / 10