Scripture Reading Mark 5

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Of the day that's gonna read us the scenario. So heads up, here we go.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Good morning, North Gate. My name is Emma Badu. I'm in eighth grade and I go to Venetia Middle School. Today I'm gonna be reading to you Mark 5, 21 through 43. When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. Then one of the synagogue leaders named Jairus came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. He pleaded earnestly with him My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live. So Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had. Yet instead of getting better, she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, if I just touch his clothes, I will be healed. Immediately her bleeding stopped, and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once, Jesus realized that his power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, Who touched my clothes? You see the people crowding against you, his disciple answers, and yet you can ask who touched me? But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering. While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. Your daughter is dead, they said. Why bother the teacher anymore? Overhearing what they said, Jesus told them, Don't be afraid, just believe. He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. And then when they came home to when they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw commotion with people crying and wailing loudly. He went in and said to them, Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead, but asleep. But they laughed at him. After he put them all out, he took the child's father and mother and the disciples who were with him and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, Taletha Kum, which means, little girl, I say to you, get up. Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around. She was twelve years old. At this, they were completely astonished. He gave her strict orders not to let anyone know about this and told them to give her something to eat. This is the word of the Lord.

Welcome And Opening Humor

Kidney Donation Prompt And Cancer Found

Suffering Without Blaming God

Mark’s Miracles And Who Jesus Is

The Woman Unclean And Isolated

Jairus Hears The Worst News

More Than Conquerors In Hopelessness

Prayer And Closing Song Transition

SPEAKER_01 2:47

Praise be to God. Thank you so much, Emma. Did he say old professor? Is that what I heard there? He meant a professor from a few years ago, right? That's what he meant by old, old time. Yeah. He's got more gray hair on his face than I do. I mean, look, yeah, you don't see any gray hair. He's got a beard full of it. Oh. It's so good to be with you today, Northgate, brothers and sisters. Glad to be able to come and share and worship with you and to be able to share God's word. Last August, my nephew contacted me to see if I would be a donor for him. He's in need of a kidney transplant. And uh I thought, well, I don't know whether whether I should do this or not. My family wasn't crazy about it. And so um I thought I've got to go through the process. And going through the process, I found out that I had cancer. I had no symptoms, I had no pain, this kind of cancer is not in my family. So it was kind of a threw a curve at me, you know, it was kind of a a surprise. And so uh it's been a process that has caused me to go on a little campaign, and and that's this. I encourage you to go to the doctor, get a physical, get a checkup. Because you you don't know what you don't know. And if I if it wasn't for that prompting, which I think came from the Lord through my nephew, that if I'd waited another year to get the test, my prognosis would be very different than it is now. Uh bottom line, it's control of the kind of cancer I have. Uh my medicine can't be cured, but it can be controlled. And so that's good. But I would encourage you to get checked because uh maybe it'll prolong your life or save your life. And in fact, uh many times we don't want to do that because we're afraid of what we might hear. And I understand that, but you're gonna find out sooner or later. And it's better if you find out sooner than later, so you can do something about it. Now, this experience has also caused me to think a little bit more deeply, and I'm gonna make this very simple. And then there's a complex situation, and it's not simple, but I'm gonna make it simple because I'm simple. And that is the problem of suffering and evil in the world. For some people, that whole issue is a deal breaker about believing in God. How can there be such rampant suffering and evil in the world and have a God who is in control? Either he's not good or he's not powerful. Because if he was good and powerful, he would do something about it. That's the perspective that people have. So I I don't have a great answer to that. There are several different arguments and explanations, but they all fall short. They all they always do. And I had this one person ask me this several times, and I finally came to this. They said, I don't have an answer for that overall because I I can't deal with all the problems of the whole world. I just it's just too big. It's above my pre pay grade, and the understanding of it is beyond my pay grade. What I have to do is be existential, that is, to deal with my own suffering and pain. And so my wife has Parkinson's. I have cancer, but we don't blame God. I don't believe God had anything to do with her Parkinson's, He didn't have anything to do with my cancer. We live in a broken world, and because we live in a broken world, we become recipients of that brokenness as well. And so rather than blaming God, we have chosen to trust God. So we're gonna do everything that we can, have the doctors do everything they can, and then trust God to do whatever he chooses. And so I hope that that could be of some help to, on the one hand, a challenge, another, for you to think through your own understanding of suffering and evil in the world. And what's most important is how you're gonna deal with your own suffering and the evil that comes into your life. So that fits into our stories, as a matter of fact. I hope you'll see by the time I get done that it's more than just me blobbling this out. I'm kind of a private person when it comes to those things, but the Lord has kind of uh nudged me because my nephew nudged me by his request. Maybe God is nudging you today to take some steps that you should take. So the week before Easter, Pastor Lawrence spoke about uh the calming of the sea. The sea is raging, the apostles are scared to death, they wake up Jesus who's sleeping in all this, and he just gets up and he says to the wind and the waves, muzzle it. Put a muzzle on it, and as soon as he does, it becomes calm. He uses that word immediately. Immediately it happened. The word immediately is found 51 times in the New Testament, 41 are found in Mark. And they ask this penetrating question Who is this man that even the wind and the waves obey him? Well, then the next story, it crosses over to the sea, gets in the Gentile territory. There's this wild demoniac who has a legion of demons in him, and Jesus is able to cast those demons out. And as they're as Jesus is leaving, the man wants to go with Jesus, and Jesus said, No, you can't go with me. You go back and tell your family what the Lord has done for you. And he went out and told what Jesus had done for him. Who is this man who even the wind and the waves obey him? This man, Jesus, is the Lord. He's God. And our stories today will continue that same concept of dealing with some miracles to show how powerful Jesus is. Now, he crosses the sea again. And when he does, people once again find out that he's there. Soon as he gets out of the boat, just like Pastor Lawrence spoke about last week, as soon as he got out of the boat, that people came, and one of the people is Jairus. Jairus is a synagogue ruler. He's one of the teaching pastors of the synagogue. He's one of the board members, maybe even the chairman of the board. And he is one of the rulers of the synagogue, has a daughter who's 12 years old who's dying. And she comes to Jesus, begs him, and said, Will you come to my house and heal my daughter? And Jesus says, Sure. So they're on their way. But then what Mark does, he gets started with the gyrus story and he brings in another story. It's about a woman who is hopelessly ill. And he has this woman who's hopelessly ill is told, and then he goes back to gyrus again. What that is, if you were here when I spoke, uh with the overview of Mark, is that uh Mark would make sandwiches in his presentations. So that's what he does in this particular section. He starts with gyrus, he brings in the woman, he comes back with gyrus, and he finishes the sandwich. In the eighth chapter, you're going to find something very similar where there's a story about a man who's blind who Jesus goes through a two-step process with. But to understand that story, you need to look at the one before and the one the other after. So here's a woman who is hopelessly ill, and she's got an issue of blood. For 12 years, her period has not stopped. Can you imagine that happening? She has gone through all kinds of frustration with that, pain with that, distress with that, and then physically, but also financially. It says she's been going to doctors and she has spent everything that she's had. But there's more to the situation than just the financial or the physical. Because she's bleeding, she is unclean. Anything she touches, any person she touches becomes unclean. Anybody that sits on whatever she sat upon becomes unclean. So as a result of that, she has a problem in many areas of her life. She can't be intimate with her husband. She can't touch him without making him unclean. Now he can get clean ceremonially, but he's got to go through the whole process. And it's going to be difficult to do that day after day after day. And so there's going to be some pulling back from her husband. She can't hug her kids and kiss her kids without making them unclean. She goes, she can't go out into social settings to go shopping with her friends or go draw the water because she is unclean and she touches them, or they touch something she touches. And so her social life is done. And then she can't go to her community of faith. She can't gather together with people that she believes in. So this woman is at her end financially. She's at her end physically. She's at her end sexually. She's at her end family-wise. She's at her end uh social-wise, and she's at her end spiritual-wise. She is a desperate person who is wasting away because she continues to believe. But she hears that Jesus is there. And she has a hope. And the hope is if I can just touch his clothes, I don't have to touch his body, I don't have to make him unclean. I don't have him to say anything. If I can just touch his clothes, I'll be healed. But she's got a problem. There's a crowd of people there. People would know her. So my guess is she's dressed all up. She's got her face covered. She's got her hair covered. She's gone incognito, so no one knows that it's her. But then you know that she's weak after all this. And because she's weak, she got to go get through this crowd. She got to push them out of the way. On the one hand, she's gonna make them unclean, but she's so desperate, I don't think she cares about that. She wants to get to Jesus. But then how's she gonna do that? Because people are pushing and shoveling. You ever been in a crowd that things are you know very tight? It's hard to get through that, and people don't like you pushing through. And so she got a difficulty there. And then she has an added one is that the apostles are with Jesus, and they are like the secret service with the president. They're right around, they're helping him get through the crowd. And so, and I want you to think about this for a moment. The apostles, we use that word because they're the closest ones to Jesus, and they were sent by him. When I use that word, you probably think of an old guy like me, right? The apostle Paul was older when he wrote his letters, but these apostles in this story, they're young men. Jesus is about 30 years old. The apostles are 20-something. Scholars believe that John is 18 and 19 when the gospel stories start, when Jesus is crucified, he's 21, 22. So these are young men. And so they become a force to overcome to get to Jesus. And here's what I how kind of my imagination goes. I think that Peter's buff. You know, I think, I think he's built. I think he's strong. Maybe not in the big bodybuilder type, but I mean he he's he's used to hard physical labor. He's pulling nets, he's pulling boats in, he's doing things physical all the time. You have James and John. I I love what Jesus does. He likes to give little ribs to people, likes to like to twist them a little bit and poke them a little bit. James and John were out preaching one time and people weren't listening to them. Preachers understand that, okay? And so they're really upset because of that. And they come back to Jesus and said, these folks aren't paying any attention and they're not obeying. Let's just call lightning down from heaven. Let's just zap these suckers right here. Just bring, you know, just get them right there. And Jesus said, No, we don't do that. There's an anxious letter by Publius Lentipus to the Emperor Tiberius that tries to describe what Jesus looked like. We're not sure if it's a real letter or not. I mean, it's a real letter, but we don't know if it's a real description. But in this description of what Jesus looked like, it says that he had a flat forehead. And I believe that's true. He's dealing with the apostles, and he's going like this all the time. They say, James, John, no, no, that's not how we do things. We're not going to bring lightning down upon people because they're not paying attention. It breaks up my heart. I want them to do it, but we're not going to kill them just because they're not paying attention. And so he calls them sons of thunder. So he's got these sons of thunder who are willing to bring lightning down on people. They're not going to let anybody get too close to Jesus that shouldn't get there. And then you've got Judas. I think Judas has got a switchblade. Now they didn't really actually have switchblades then, but I'm sure he had a little dagger. And anybody gets too close to Jesus, he's got his dagger. He's going to take care of matters. So here is this woman who is weak. She's bleeding. She has hope. She has desperation. She has anticipation. And yet she's got to get through this crowd and she's got to get by the Secret Service. And so in my mind's eye, as Jesus and Jairus are walking along, along with the apostles and the crowds following them, she's looking for an opportunity to touch the hem of his garment. And she thinks, all right, here's a chance. And just then Peter walks in front of her. And it unnerves her and she backs off. But yet she's still determined. She waits for the opportunity, and she thinks it's now or never. And she reaches down and touches the hem of his garment, and immediately the flow of blood stops. She can feel it. She can feel the healing and the strength coming back in her body. But Jesus stops too, and he looks around and he asks, Who touched me? Now let me get on a tangent for a moment. I'd like for you to think about this, but not during my message. When Jesus asked a question, did he already know the answer or not? Did he know so that she would reveal it, or was he human and didn't know? There's the question I just throw off for you. How human was Jesus? Well, let's go back to our story. It's got nothing to do with it per se, other than it raises the question about him asking questions. And I love what the apostle said. Who's touching you? Jesus, that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever we've ever heard. All kinds of people are pressing in upon you. They want to touch you, they want to talk to you. We're trying to keep people away. What do you mean, who touched you? But he felt that power came out in the gospel of Luke. He says that. No, but power went out from me. And so the woman becomes fearful. She comes to Jesus and she explains everything. And here's Jesus' response in 534. Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering. This woman stole a healing from Jesus. She stole a healing from Jesus by touching the hem of his garment. But rather than reprimand her, rather than put her in her place, rather than criticize her or make her an example in front of others, he's gracious. Your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering. Jesus gave her her life back. Physically, she's healed. She could go back to her husband and be close to him. She could hug her kids and love them and kiss them. She could go to Starbucks with her friends and go shopping. I imagine Jesus said, You need a new outfit after all these years. You just go out on a shopping spree. It's okay. It's been 12 years since you shot for anything. He gave her her spiritual life back. She could meet once again with her community of faith. He gave her her life back again. But then there's gyrus. Gyrus, his stomach is churning. The freeway has stopped. He can't get to his house. Jesus has been sidetracked with someone else, and so you know, he wants to get there. Three little girls die. But he's going to be hopelessly in grief pretty soon. Because no sooner has he spoken the words to this woman than he sees some people coming from his house, and he can tell by the look on their face that it's not good news. And they say to him, Your daughter's dead. Why bother the teacher anymore? Can you imagine how Jairus felt? I mean, his stomach had to be churning, he had to be all choked up, and the worst news he could possibly hear had become a reality. His daughter was dead. But Jesus said, Don't be afraid. Just believe. And as I'm reading that, I'm thinking, if I'm Jairus, what do you mean, don't be afraid? I just heard the worst news I could hear. My greatest nightmare just occurred. I'm fearful. How do I go on from this point with my daughter dying? And what do you mean, just believe? Believe what? I believe that you're going to heal her, but you didn't heal her because you didn't get there. She's good, she's dead. But I'm so impressed with Jairus. He doesn't at least say any of that. He goes with Jesus, apparently believing it. And when he gets there, people are crying. They're all upset. This little girl has died. And Jesus says, What are you crying for? She's not dead, she's just asleep. And the people start laughing at him. The apostles were laughing at him because of him responding about the crowd of people. These people People are laughing at him in ridicule because they said, This this little girl's dead. Her heart has stopped. Her her lungs are not being filled anymore. Her body is starting to turn cold and even getting a little stiff. She is as dead as they are. And he throws them all out. He throws them out and he said, Mother, Father, Peter, James, and John come in. And this little girl is lying on the table, and he leans over and he says, Talitha Kum. Now, Talithakum is Aramaic. Now that this is in this gospel tells me he's not writing to a Jewish audience because he translates what that word is. Jewish people would know what that meant. So he's writing to an audience that is other than Jewish, not that Jewish people couldn't read it too, but he's writing to a Gentile, particularly a Roman audience. And I think that's significant for something I'm going to say a little bit later. And so you say, well, why even throw those words in there? And I think it's because it's such a dramatic event. He wanted to give the exact words that Jesus said at this point in time. And he says, Tulithakum, which being translated means, little girl, get up. And her eyes open up. In my mind, I kind of think it's like you know, when they take the the uh adrenaline and they stick it in somebody who's kind of out of it, and all of a sudden they just kind of wake up, and that's what she does. She wakes up, her eyes open up, her her eyelids start to blink. Her diaphragm fills up, her lungs get filled with air, and her heart begins to beat again. And this little girl who is dead is now alive. Peter and James and John haven't seen anything like this before. They've been with Jesus. This is pretty incredible. The parents are just the emotional roller coaster they've been on. Their little girl has died, their worst nightmare occurred, and now something beyond their greatest expectation happened as well, where this little girl comes back to life. They were hopelessly in grief, but Jesus brought her back. And then in 543, he says this, and these words blow me away. He gave them strict orders not to let anyone know about this. Don't tell anyone. Now that's a theme in Mark. Mark is telling the demons, he's telling other people, don't tell anyone, don't tell anyone, don't tell anyone. But can you imagine what position he's putting these parents in? They're gonna walk out of there with Hannah. I just made up Hannah. Hannah and say, Yeah, Jesus is right, she wasn't dead, she was asleep. They're gonna lie to these people. What is she going to say? What are they gonna say? I think for a while they respect what Jesus said because they were so happy, but they started telling their family and friends, you know, Hannah's laying there, she's dead. He says, to live a kum, and she comes right back to life. And then he says this give her something to eat. I mean, after all, after you've been dead and you come back to life, you're gonna be hungry. You need to have lunch. Give her her favorite dessert. She's had a tough day today. It just blows my mind. He does this incredible miracle and he comes back to everyday life having lunch. Now, what I'd like to do, and this is what I'd like to suggest, is that the four miracles combine together to say something powerful about Jesus. So we find that the men that were in the boat were hopelessly sunk. But Jesus is a conqueror, he's a conqueror over the disaster of nature, and he can speak the words of muzzle it, and the wind and the waves go calm. Secondly, we find a man who is hopelessly wild, but Jesus is able to overcome the demonic, the evil in this world, and be able to do it because he is a conqueror over demons. In our stories today, a woman is hopelessly ill, but Jesus is a conqueror over disease, and then a family who's hopelessly in grief. Jesus is a conqueror over death. That I thought would appeal to the Romans. They were the conquerors, and he is saying, You guys think you're so strong? Here's a guy who can just speak a word in the wind and the wave stop. You think you're controlling the world? Well, here's a guy who can take a legion of demons and throw them out. You think you're so good? Here's somebody who's been chronically ill and he can heal her just by them touching her garment. You think you guys are so good and so strong? You kill people, because that's what you do, you Roman people. But here's somebody who brings them back to life again. I believe that God can perform miracles, just like he performed these miracles. And I'm all over a miracle, and I'm all over a miracle, particularly for my wife. If she could be healed of Parkinson's, that would be awesome. And I believe he can do that. However, I cannot stand before you and say he's going to perform a miracle in my life, her life, or your life. But from experience, I can say this that God is able to give us the strength, encourage the wherewithal to deal with any helpless, hopeless situation that we find ourselves in. The apostle Paul wrote these same Romans, and in Romans 8-37 it says this In all of these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Friends, we can conquer any helpless, hopeless situation in our life if we will trust him in that process. He might relieve it from us totally, or he may just help us endure it victoriously. Dear Jesus, thank you for your love. Thank you for the examples of what you've done and how you've taught us through your teaching and through your actions. I pray for anyone who is struggling here today, anyone that's struggling physically, Lord, that you would you'd bring them comfort. And I would pray that you would heal them. I pray that they'll take steps that they need to take to be healed as well. I pray for anyone who's struggling emotionally, mentally, that you bring peace to their mind and to their heart. And I pray, Father, that you be with anyone who is struggling with grief of a loss of a loved one, that they might find hope eternal through you. Thank you for this church, this church that is reaching out in the community that is trying to bring people to know the saving grace of Christ and to be able to help their daily lives to be more fulfilling. I pray that you continue to bless this ministry. Bless Pastor Lawrence and the rest of the staff, the leaders of this church, that you might be honored and people's lives might be changed. In your name I pray. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 30:52

Amen. Would you guys stand on your feet with us this morning as we close out with this?