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Book of Mark Lesson 7 · Bible Study with Pastor Brian an NLCC Teacher

0:01
SPEAKER_00: Well, welcome to Life in the Word, our verse-by-verse study of God's Word.
0:05
SPEAKER_00: This is Pastor Brian, and we're glad you joined us tonight as we uh continue our study in the book of Mark, and we're in Mark chapter 5.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: You know, as we study Mark chapter 5, verses 1 through 20 tonight, the story of Geroscenes, the Gerosines demoniac, we're going to affirm the biblical reality of Satan and his minions.
0:30
SPEAKER_00: The devil's real.
0:32
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people don't want to believe that, but he is very real.
0:35
SPEAKER_00: But in doing so, we will refrain from promoting an unhealthy fascination.
0:39
SPEAKER_00: Our goal is to reveal Satan's purpose and then to demonstrate Jesus' power over evil forces and his ability to heal the harm that they've done to people.
0:49
SPEAKER_00: Verses 1 and 2 reveal that Christ's encounter with the demon took place the morning following his calming of the great storm on the Sea of Galilee that we looked at last week.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: So look at verse 1 of chapter 5, Book of Mark.
1:05
SPEAKER_00: So they arrived at the other side of the lake in the region of Gerosenes.
1:10
SPEAKER_00: The precise location is uncertain.
1:14
SPEAKER_00: However, some scholars cite evidence that refers to a small town called Gursa in modern day Cursa.
1:20
SPEAKER_00: Gursa was a member of the Decopolis, or ten cities of that region.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: It was a pagan region, a Gentile region.
1:28
SPEAKER_00: And these ten cities were in uh with independent governments, were largely inhabited by Gentiles, which would explain the herd of pigs that we're going to look at.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: Jews didn't raise pigs because, according to Jewish law, pigs were unclean and thus unfit to eat.
1:42
SPEAKER_00: So Gursa was an unsavory place according to Jewish thinking.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: And even though this was Gentile territory, this was where Jesus wanted to go.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: That's why he left and crossed the lake, revealing a new direction in his ministry to the Gentiles.
2:00
SPEAKER_00: Verse 2, when Jesus climbed out of the boat, a man possessed by an evil spirit came out from the tombs to meet him.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: Now Matthew's account of this story refers to two demon-possessed men, while Mark and Luke refer to only one.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: So apparently Mark and Luke mentioned only the man who did the talking, I suppose, or the man who was the most severe case, the one with legions of demons.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: So Mark's account is more graphic than the others, emphasizing what the demon had done to this man.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus came straight forward from his confrontation with the storm in nature to confront an equally violent storm in human nature.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: And our text speaks of this man as being possessed by an evil spirit, but the literal translation is demonized, that is, under the influence of one or more evil spirits.
2:47
SPEAKER_00: Demonization can vary in degree of influence, and in this case, it was very, very extreme.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: Verse 3.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: This man lived in the burial caves and could no longer be restrained even with the chain.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: This demon-possessed man's condition was clearly hopeless without Christ.
3:05
SPEAKER_00: He lived among the tombs, an area that surrounded the Sea of Galilee with caves hewn into the rocks.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: These graveyards were often very remote areas.
3:15
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: And whenever he was put into chains and shackles, as he often was, he snapped the chains from his wrist and smashed the shackles.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: No one was strong enough to subdue him.
3:26
SPEAKER_00: Verse 5.
3:27
SPEAKER_00: Day and night he wandered among the burial caves in the hills, howling and cutting himself with sharp stones.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: So this man lived in the tombs, these caverns that were furnished with dead men's bones and carpeted with filth and rats.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: The local townspeople had attempted to restrain him, but with terrifying Herculean strength, he had broken the chains that bound him.
3:49
SPEAKER_00: And again, that's not a power that is owned.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: This is demonic.
3:53
SPEAKER_00: He was uncontrollable and dangerous.
3:55
SPEAKER_00: And inside he was totally wretched.
3:58
SPEAKER_00: At intervals during the night and day he would let out an unnatural howl, then gashing himself with jagged rocks in an obvious attempt to drive out these evil spirits within him.
4:09
SPEAKER_00: This poor naked man was a mass of bleeding lacerations, scabs, infections, and scar tissue, living in a delirium of pain.
4:19
SPEAKER_00: The man was running wild, naked, uncapped, and ill, and as a result, all were against him.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm sure people fled at his approach.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: He was repulsive, unloved, and unwelcome.
4:31
SPEAKER_00: He was in complete misery.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: I mean, demons drive men and women to the depths of that degradation.
4:37
SPEAKER_00: Why?
4:38
SPEAKER_00: Because Satan and his minions hate God.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: They'll do anything to attack him.
4:43
SPEAKER_00: And mankind, remember, was created in the image of God and brings glory to him.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: So the more we manifest God's image, the angrier Satan gets.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: Thus the demonic function is to distort and destroy the image of man and of God in man.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: So this poor man probably seemed like more of an animal than a man, and the fact that no one was strong enough to restrain him sets the scene for Jesus, the one who had God's power and authority.
5:10
SPEAKER_00: So we see confrontation is inevitable.
5:14
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6.
5:15
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus was still some distance away, the man saw him, ran to meet him, and bowed low before him.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus and his disciples beached the boat and made it secure, and the next thing they knew they were being charged by a naked, screaming maniac.
5:30
SPEAKER_00: Then he cast himself on his knees in front of Jesus, not in worship, but in grudging submission to Jesus' superior power.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: With a shriek he screamed, Why are you interfering with me, Jesus, son of the Most High God?
5:46
SPEAKER_00: In the name of God I beg you don't torture me.
5:49
SPEAKER_00: Verse eight, for Jesus had already said to the spirit, Come out of the man, you evil spirit.
5:55
SPEAKER_00: These words of the demon were in response to Jesus' demand that the demon depart.
6:00
SPEAKER_00: The demon's now on the defensive.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: Though aware of who Jesus was and of his power over the demon, the demon will still attempt to defend itself by using a shrieking voice screaming and by calling Jesus by his divine name, trying to say he has control, but he doesn't have any at all.
6:18
SPEAKER_00: The loud voice showed the demon's fierce and violent nature.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: Then the demon asked Jesus to leave them alone, for they had nothing to do with each other.
6:27
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' purpose, understand, was to heal and give life.
6:31
SPEAKER_00: The demons was to kill and destroy.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus would not leave this man in that condition.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus said, Come out, the demon talked back rather than obey and then begged for mercy.
6:43
SPEAKER_00: So why did Jesus allow the demon to talk at all?
6:46
SPEAKER_00: Well, some scholars believe that this was done to set the scene for Jesus' revelation of overwhelming power over the demons.
6:54
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that at the end of the world the demon and the devil and his demons will all be thrown into the lake of fire, Revelation 2010.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: And Matthew recorded the demon's question Why are you interfering with me?
7:07
SPEAKER_00: As have you come to torture us before the appointed time?
7:11
SPEAKER_00: This reveals that the demons knew their ultimate fate, but they hoped that Jesus would not send them to their fate early.
7:18
SPEAKER_00: Verse 9.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus demanded, What is your name?
7:22
SPEAKER_00: And he replied, My name is Legion, because there are many of us inside this man.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: Verse 10.
7:28
SPEAKER_00: Then the man then the evil spirits begged him again and again not to send them to some distant place.
7:35
SPEAKER_00: So this is a chilling admission.
7:38
SPEAKER_00: A Roman legion consisted anywhere from three to six thousand soldiers.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: So to the Jewish mind, legion brought an image of great numbers and great strength.
7:49
SPEAKER_00: So what does some distant place refer to?
7:52
SPEAKER_00: Well, Luke records the demons kept begging Jesus not to send them to the abyss, the bottomless pit, the place we call hell.
7:59
SPEAKER_00: So a host of evil spirits leered upon Christ from behind this poor man's wild eyes, and it was now time for Jesus' power to be seen in a most unforgettable way.
8:10
SPEAKER_00: Verse 11.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: There happened to be a large herd of pigs feeding on the hillside nearby.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: Not real near, I'm sure, but they were off in the distance.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: They could see them on the hillside.
8:22
SPEAKER_00: Verse 12.
8:23
SPEAKER_00: Send us into those pigs, the spirits begged, let us enter them.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus gave them permission.
8:29
SPEAKER_00: The evil spirits came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the entire herd of pigs, about 2,000 pigs, plunged down this steep hillside into the lake and drowned.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: They just ran into the water.
8:42
SPEAKER_00: So why did Jesus allow the demons to enter these swine?
8:46
SPEAKER_00: Well, for one, there's several reasons.
8:49
SPEAKER_00: One, Jesus was creating deviled ham.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
8:56
SPEAKER_00: Two, the presence of 2,000 swine indicates big business.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: It may be very well that the swine herders were compromising Jews, it's been thought, who saw a great prophet in selling pork that was unclean to the Jews to this Gentile market on the eastern side of the lake.
9:12
SPEAKER_00: Possibly.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: If that was so, then Jesus was making a swipe at their secularization and their materialism.
9:19
SPEAKER_00: The third possibility is that Jesus let the demons destroy the pigs to reveal the absolute goal of Satan and his demons.
9:27
SPEAKER_00: Their desire is total and complete destruction of their host.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: So in the process, the pigs became vehicles of judgment to the unsuspecting demons who begged to be cast into the swine.
9:39
SPEAKER_00: The swine stampeded unexpectedly due to the shock of demonization, these creatures inside of them blindly charging into the lake to rid themselves of their new guest.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: They committed suicide, right?
9:53
SPEAKER_00: They were off to hog heaven, right?
9:55
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm done with that, okay?
9:59
SPEAKER_00: That's the demons were disembodied and some scholars think then confined to the abyss to await their final judgment, or possibly they moved on to possess others.
10:10
SPEAKER_00: We don't know.
10:10
SPEAKER_00: I mean there were there were t hundreds of thousands of people in the Decopolis, which was a started out as a Greek city and was eventually, after many others, turned into a Roman city.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: It was full of all kinds of gods and goddesses and tabernacles and places of religion there for all these false gods.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: So it was a very pagan city committed to following many, many, many deities.
10:39
SPEAKER_00: So why they they possibly could have gone there to all those people.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: I have no idea.
10:45
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't tell us.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: I would like to think they went to the abyss, but we do know that eventually that will happen to them all.
10:53
SPEAKER_00: The abyss awaits Satan and all his demons, where they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
10:59
SPEAKER_00: So the dramatic end of the swine was also a powerful visual testimony to this ex-demon-possessed man that he'd been delivered.
11:08
SPEAKER_00: And when Jesus performed this miracle, he again gained immediate publicity.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: Verse 14.
11:16
SPEAKER_00: The herdsmen fled to the nearby town and the surrounding countryside, spreading the news as they ran, and people rushed to see what had happened.
11:26
SPEAKER_00: Verse 15.
11:27
SPEAKER_00: A crowd soon gathered around Jesus, and they saw the man who had been possessed by the Legion of Demons.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: He was sitting there fully clothed and perfectly sane, and they were all afraid.
11:38
SPEAKER_00: Well, afraid of what?
11:40
SPEAKER_00: Well, perhaps such supernatural power as Jesus had displayed frightened them.
11:46
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps they thought Jesus would be bad for the economy.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: Losing 2,000 pigs in one day certainly cost someone.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps they didn't want Jesus to change their status quo.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: In any case, their fear caused them to make a terrible mistake, right?
12:03
SPEAKER_00: So, verse 16.
12:06
SPEAKER_00: Then those who had seen what happened told the others about the demon-possessed man and the pigs.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: And the crowd began pleading with Jesus to go away and leave them alone.
12:16
SPEAKER_00: These pigs were more concerned about losing a herd of swine than they were about the deliverance of this demon-possessed man who had terrorized them.
12:25
SPEAKER_00: They would rather give up Jesus than lose their source of income and security, apparently.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: So they pleaded with them to go away.
12:33
SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
12:34
SPEAKER_00: Jesus did as they asked.
12:36
SPEAKER_00: And though Jesus did return to the Decopolis, the region of Ten Cities later on, the region, as we'll see in chapter 7, there's no biblical record that he ever returned to the area of Gursa.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: Now, sometimes the worst possible thing that could happen is for Jesus to answer one of our requests, right?
12:55
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 18.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: As Jesus was getting to the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with them.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: Why?
13:03
SPEAKER_00: Well, we don't know how, we don't have a clue how long Jesus ministered to this man.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: It could have been hours, it could have been days.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: We really don't know.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: It could have been two or three days he stayed there and ministered to this man and possibly the other man we know, but we don't have any idea.
13:19
SPEAKER_00: So I suspect he did spend time with them talking about sin, faith, kingdom of the heaven, the kingdom of heaven, and all this stuff.
13:26
SPEAKER_00: We just don't know what, and we don't know what this man's motives were in asking to stay with Jesus.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: He may have wanted to be with Jesus out of adoration.
13:34
SPEAKER_00: He may have been afraid of being shunned by his people for indirectly causing the death of the pigs.
13:40
SPEAKER_00: Or he may have been afraid the demons might return if Jesus went away.
13:43
SPEAKER_00: Scripture doesn't tell us.
13:45
SPEAKER_00: In any case, he asked to go with Jesus, but Jesus had other plans for him.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: Verse 19.
13:52
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus said, now, no, no, you're not going with me.
13:55
SPEAKER_00: Go home to your family and tell them everything the Lord has done for you and how merciful he has been.
14:01
SPEAKER_00: I mean, often Jesus asked, as we've been going through this book, those he healed, especially those who had had demons, to be quiet about the healing.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: Don't tell anybody.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: But he urged this man to go and tell.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: Go and tell what the Lord has done for him.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: So why the difference?
14:19
SPEAKER_00: Well, again, this is Gentile, this is Gentile territory, and Jesus knew this man would be an effective witness to those who remembered his previous condition.
14:28
SPEAKER_00: Through this man, Jesus could expand his ministry into a Gentile area filled with thousands and thousands of men and women whose lives needed to be changed, who were worshiping many other gods in their temples.
14:42
SPEAKER_00: Jesus would not remain in the region, but he did not leave without a witness.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: This man would be an incredible witness.
14:49
SPEAKER_00: He was truly a missionary before the word was even invented.
14:53
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 20.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: So the man started off to the ten towns of that region and began to proclaim, began to witness, began to testify the great things Jesus had done for him.
15:06
SPEAKER_00: And everybody was amazed at what he told them.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: Some years ago, an ophthalmologist, just fresh out of college, opened up his first office.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: Without friends, without money, and without customers, he became very discouraged until one day he saw a blind man.
15:22
SPEAKER_00: And looking into his eyes, he said to the blind man, Why don't you have your eyesight restored?
15:28
SPEAKER_00: I could do that in my office today.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: Come to my office in the morning and let's do that.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: Well, the blind man went, and when an operation was performed and proved successful, the patient said, Sir, Doctor, I haven't got a penny in the world.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: I can't pay you for this.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: The doctor said, Oh yes, you can.
15:44
SPEAKER_00: You can pay me, and I expect you to do so.
15:47
SPEAKER_00: There's just one thing I want you to do, and it's very easy.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: Go and tell everyone you see that you were blind and tell them who it was that healed you.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what this ex-demon-possessed Gentile man did.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: He went and proclaimed the news in the Decopolis, the ten cities, and everyone marveled.
16:09
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 21.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: Jesus got into the boat again and went back to the other side of the lake, where a large crowd gathered around him on the shore.
16:19
SPEAKER_00: And from what we can tell, Jesus was back at the shores of Capernaum, which he had left a few days before to escape the crowd.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: And now a vast crowd again swarms to the shore to greet him and see what else he might do for them.
16:32
SPEAKER_00: So before we go on, there's four or five lessons I want us to learn from this story here.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: This is a very important story, and it's had a great impact on my life over the years that helped me.
16:43
SPEAKER_00: Number one, the first lesson I want you to learn is the value of one life to Jesus.
16:50
SPEAKER_00: I always thought of this man as some random demon-possessed man, but as I keep reading it over the years, my heart was filled with comfort because there are no random acts for Jesus, no random cases.
17:05
SPEAKER_00: Jesus crossed to the opposite side of this sea, which took all night, just for this man.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: This man was that was alone with no purpose, had nothing going for him.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: He was miserable, was healed, and given a new life and new purpose because of Christ.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: He mattered.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: It reminds me of the woman at the well who Jesus intentionally went through Samaria, which Jews did not.
17:32
SPEAKER_00: They were half Jews, half Jewish.
17:34
SPEAKER_00: They didn't go through Samaria.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: They wouldn't walk on the dirt of Samaria even, but Jesus did.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: He went to Samaria to reach out to this woman.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: Over and over, Scripture demonstrates how valuable souls are to Jesus.
17:48
SPEAKER_00: No soul is left behind when it comes to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
17:52
SPEAKER_00: We are all valuable to him.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: Second lesson, fear blinds.
17:59
SPEAKER_00: When the people came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man sitting there full of clothed in his right mind, what was their response?
18:06
SPEAKER_00: They were afraid.
18:06
SPEAKER_00: They were terrified.
18:08
SPEAKER_00: Their fear had blinded them to the freeing power of Jesus Christ.
18:13
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Satan uses fear to shrink our faith and at times push Jesus away.
18:19
SPEAKER_00: And when we're more afraid of what Jesus will do in our lives, and I've heard that many times from people, Jesus is going to make me give up this.
18:26
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is going to make me go do this.
18:28
SPEAKER_00: That's when people push him away.
18:31
SPEAKER_00: We become afraid.
18:33
SPEAKER_00: Fear causes us to push Jesus away.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: So we need to all fight against this.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: Third lesson.
18:41
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes God doesn't make sense.
18:44
SPEAKER_00: After the man was healed, he wanted to be with Jesus as Jesus was leaving.
18:49
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus didn't allow him to go.
18:51
SPEAKER_00: Instead, he says, go home to your family and tell them everything the Lord has done for you and how merciful he's been.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: When I first read this many years ago, I can still remember how frustrated I was.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: Why wouldn't Jesus let him go?
19:02
SPEAKER_00: I mean, with my physical eyes, this seems unfair.
19:06
SPEAKER_00: But when we approach the situation with an eternal perspective, with the eternal eyes, it all makes sense.
19:14
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knew the impact this Gentile man could have on his friends and in the cities of the Decopolis.
19:21
SPEAKER_00: And later on in Mark 7, and we'll see that thousands in the Gentile region of Decopolis will welcome him back one day, all because this man went and told them about Jesus, which gives us to another lesson: the power of one.
19:36
SPEAKER_00: I mean, as one, sometimes we think we can't do anything, but God can use one person of faith, one person who's committed, one person who loves Jesus and other people as Jesus does.
19:48
SPEAKER_00: He can use that one person to have a tremendous impact in his or her community.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: The last and maybe the most important lesson is that with Jesus, hope can be found in even the most hopeless situations.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: At first glance, the demon-possessed man's condition seemed hopeless.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: No one was strong enough to help him and overcome what he was bound by.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus came to him, stepped into his mess, unbound him, and redeemed him.
20:20
SPEAKER_00: He gave him a new life and purpose.
20:23
SPEAKER_00: And the lesson is for us is that no matter what you were bound by, no matter how difficult or hopeless your situation may be that you're in, as you struggle in this broken evil world, and you will have difficult times in your lives, very difficult times, I can promise you that.
20:43
SPEAKER_00: I've had them, and I'm probably gonna have more.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: Jesus can and will turn your mess into something that can be used for his glory.
20:52
SPEAKER_00: Jesus will always help you through it.
20:55
SPEAKER_00: Bring healing, bring strength, bring comfort.
20:59
SPEAKER_00: And just like this wretched man in our story, he will create purpose from your pain.
21:06
SPEAKER_00: So when you're suffering or going through trials in your life, difficult times, remember this man in Mark chapter 5 and the grace given him by Jesus Christ.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: Let's move on.
21:20
SPEAKER_00: Verse 22.
21:22
SPEAKER_00: Another part of the story.
21:24
SPEAKER_00: Then a leader of the local synagogue, whose name was Jairus, arrived.
21:29
SPEAKER_00: When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet, pleading fervently with them.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: My little daughter is dying, he said.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: Please come and lay your hands on her.
21:37
SPEAKER_00: Heal her so she can live.
21:39
SPEAKER_00: Now the synagogue was the local center of worship, and Jairus was a layperson elected as one of the synagogue rulers.
21:45
SPEAKER_00: The synagogue rulers were responsible for supervising worship services, caring for the scrolls, running weekly schools, keeping the congregation faithful to the law, and administering the care of the building.
21:57
SPEAKER_00: There was no permanent rabbi or teacher to So the synagogue rulers were often asked visiting teachers to teach.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus, and we also saw Peter, Paul, and others, often spoke at the synagogues on the Sabbath.
22:09
SPEAKER_00: And as a synagogue ruler, Jairus held a position of high esteem in the town.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: I mean, many synagogue rulers had close ties to the Pharisees, therefore, it's likely that the synagogue rulers had been pressured not to support Jesus.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: So when Jairus stood before Jesus, the crowd was probably riveted in silence.
22:27
SPEAKER_00: What's going to happen here?
22:32
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was an outsider and had been accused of heresy by the Pharisees, and his previous use of the synagogue had proved controversial when he healed the man with a deformed hand on the Sabbath.
22:44
SPEAKER_00: A miracle that Jairus probably would have witnessed.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: And now neither position or pressure could stop Jairus from coming to the man who could help his very sick daughter.
22:55
SPEAKER_00: Luke adds that it was his only daughter, and Mark later adds that she was twelve years old.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: Now we don't know what her illness was, but apparently nothing has helped her and she was going to die soon.
23:05
SPEAKER_00: So interestingly, Jairus, interestingly, Jairus bowed in humility and pathetically pleaded with all he had for his daughter.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is amazing, but we must not mistakenly think Jairus has become a devotee of Jesus or a man of great faith.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: The simple fact was he was desperate.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: He knew what Jesus had done for others.
23:27
SPEAKER_00: He'd seen it, and he thought maybe he could do it for my daughter.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: At this point, Jesus was his only option.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: And when Gyrus heard that Jesus had returned to Cumperum, he ran down to that seashore, I'm sure, and waited for Christ to land.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: Jairus was like so many of us in our coming to Christ.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: It was not his love for Christ that brought him.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: It was not what he could do for Christ.
23:51
SPEAKER_00: It was his need for Christ.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: It was his desperation and a possible glimmer of hope.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: And as we all well know, despair is commonly the prelude to grace.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: Verse 24.
24:04
SPEAKER_00: Jesus went with him, and all the people followed, crowding around him.
24:08
SPEAKER_00: A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding.
24:12
SPEAKER_00: She had suffered a great deal from many from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she'd gotten no better.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: In fact, she had gotten worse.
24:22
SPEAKER_00: This woman had a seemingly incurable condition which caused her to bleed constantly.
24:27
SPEAKER_00: This may have been a menstrual or uterine disorder that would have made her ritually unclean all the time and excluded her from worship in the synagogue and most other normal social contact.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: Thus, this woman was treated almost as severely as a leper because she was unclean according to Jewish law.
24:44
SPEAKER_00: And she had exhausted everything, all her resources on doctors who couldn't heal her.
24:49
SPEAKER_00: She was a desperate woman, and she desperately wanted Jesus to heal her.
24:53
SPEAKER_00: But she also knew that her bleeding would cause Jesus to be unclean under Jewish law if she touched him.
24:58
SPEAKER_00: But she was desperate.
25:00
SPEAKER_00: Verse 27.
25:01
SPEAKER_00: She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe.
25:07
SPEAKER_00: For she thought to herself, if I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: I mean the poor woman had heard about Jesus' miracle work in power and had come to Campernan to find him.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: Tradition says she was from Caesarea Philippi, and also she did her best to escape the attention of the crowd.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: She, like so many in her day, believed that sometimes the garments or even the shadow of the godly could bring healing.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: So as Jesus passed by, she momentarily closed her frail hand about the edge of his cloak or perhaps one of his four tassels.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: She was hoping to just touch his garment, be healed, and then slip away quiet and unnoticed.
25:46
SPEAKER_00: Verse 29.
25:48
SPEAKER_00: Immediately the bleeding stopped.
25:49
SPEAKER_00: Immediately, and she could feel it in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: In a vivid technicolor moment that lives in her eternal memory, she felt healing course through her body.
26:02
SPEAKER_00: She was whole.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: Without a word, Jesus' power completely healed her in the anonymity of this massive crowd.
26:11
SPEAKER_00: The same power that he'd used to make the sea instantly lie flat and to restore the raving demonic healed her long-standing illness.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: Then the world stopped.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: Verse 30.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone from him.
26:28
SPEAKER_00: So he turned around in the crowd and asked, Who touched my robe?
26:31
SPEAKER_00: His disciples said to him, Look at the crowd pressing around you.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: How can you ask who touched me?
26:36
SPEAKER_00: But he kept on looking around to see who had done it.
26:39
SPEAKER_00: So what do you think Jairus is thinking while this is all taking place?
26:43
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's worried that precious time is being wasted while the seconds of his little daughter's life are ticking away.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: He's like, Come on, Jesus, my daughter's dying.
26:52
SPEAKER_00: And you're worried about somebody who touched you in the crowd.
26:54
SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
26:55
SPEAKER_00: And imagine this old woman, her heart throbbing with joy and fear, her eyes tearing with emotion.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: Christ was calling her to stand before the crowd, but not for his sake.
27:08
SPEAKER_00: He knew who it was.
27:09
SPEAKER_00: It was for her sake.
27:11
SPEAKER_00: Why?
27:12
SPEAKER_00: One, because he wanted to establish a relationship with this woman.
27:17
SPEAKER_00: Her faith was at its core an ignorant faith.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: She thought a cure that was essentially magic she cured touching the edge of her robe was all she needed.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: Her faith, though imperfect, was uninformed and presumptuous.
27:30
SPEAKER_00: Her faith was not only ignorant but selfish.
27:33
SPEAKER_00: She wanted health, but she didn't especially care about the healer.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: This woman wanted to go away undetected, but Jesus wanted to heal her spiritually as well.
27:44
SPEAKER_00: He wanted her to know her healer.
27:46
SPEAKER_00: Verse 33.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: Then the frightened woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell to her knees in front of him and told him what she had done.
27:57
SPEAKER_00: Verse 34.
27:58
SPEAKER_00: And he said to her, Daughter, your faith has made you well.
28:02
SPEAKER_00: Go in peace, your suffering is over.
28:04
SPEAKER_00: This is the only recorded instance of Jesus addressing a woman as daughter.
28:09
SPEAKER_00: Daughter, your faith has made you well.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: Not your touch, not your superstition, not magic, but your faith, which was a tiny little faith.
28:18
SPEAKER_00: Her faith may have been as tiny as a mustard seed, but Jesus saw it, honored it, and developed it.
28:24
SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus called her before the multitude.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: I believe Jesus also did this to teach the crowd a lesson.
28:30
SPEAKER_00: I mean, according to Jewish law, a man who touched a menstruating woman became ceremonial unclean.
28:36
SPEAKER_00: That's Leviticus 15.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: This was true whether her bleeding was normal or, as in this woman's case, the result of illness.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: To protect themselves back then from such defilement, Jewish men carefully avoided touching, speaking to, or even looking at women.
28:52
SPEAKER_00: By contrast, Jesus proclaimed to hundreds of people that this unclean woman had touched him and he helped her.
28:59
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' mind, this suffering woman was not to be overlooked.
29:02
SPEAKER_00: As God's creation, she deserved attention and respect.
29:08
SPEAKER_00: Now Jairus had not forgotten his daughter, but he had been elevated by Christ.
29:14
SPEAKER_00: His fledgling faith and his hope for his daughter had risen through the witnessing of this incredible miracle.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: This woman had been healed, but now he wants to get going.
29:26
SPEAKER_00: Then came the shock.
29:28
SPEAKER_00: While he was still speaking to her, messengers arrived from the home of Jairus, the leader of the synagogue.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: They told him, Your daughter is dead.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: There's no use troubling the teacher now.
29:39
SPEAKER_00: In a terrible instant, the growing flame of faith, Jairus' hope was extinguished.
29:47
SPEAKER_00: But in equal swiftness, it was rekindled and elevated.
29:51
SPEAKER_00: Verse 36.
29:52
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus overheard them and said to Jairus, Don't be afraid, just have faith.
29:57
SPEAKER_00: So don't miss what's happening here.
30:00
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came, or excuse me, Jairus came to Jesus with an uninformed, wishful belief that Jesus could heal his daughter.
30:08
SPEAKER_00: It was his only option.
30:10
SPEAKER_00: That belief was elevated through Jesus' exchange with this sick woman.
30:15
SPEAKER_00: But now Christ challenged Jairus not to believe him for a healing, but for a resurrection.
30:22
SPEAKER_00: This is a radical call and a radical development of Jairus' faith.
30:28
SPEAKER_00: Jesus had set the stage for the elevation of Jairus' faith to a new level.
30:33
SPEAKER_00: Verse 37.
30:34
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus stopped the crowd and wouldn't let anyone go in with him except Peter, James, and John.
30:40
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wasn't interested in what might become a public event, and sensitive to Jairus' pain, Jesus permitted no one to follow.
30:48
SPEAKER_00: He planned to raise the little girl from the dead, assigned to his disciples of his true mission, his own resurrection one day to come soon.
30:57
SPEAKER_00: The three disciples who became Jesus' inner circle, his closest followers, were the only ones to see this miracle, observe the transfiguration they had will observe, and know of Jesus' agony in the Garden of Gethsemane one day also.
31:12
SPEAKER_00: They would observe his miracle and thus fulfill Deuteronomy 1915, which required two or three witnesses.
31:19
SPEAKER_00: Verse 38.
31:21
SPEAKER_00: When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw much commotion and weeping and wailing.
31:28
SPEAKER_00: Such cries were customary at a person's death.
31:31
SPEAKER_00: Lack of weeping and wailing was the ultimate disgrace and disrespect.
31:35
SPEAKER_00: And some people, usually women, made mourning a profession and were paid by the dead person's family to weep over the body.
31:43
SPEAKER_00: So Jairus, the leader of the synagogue, was an important person of this town.
31:48
SPEAKER_00: Thus at the death of his only daughter, the town demonstrated their great love and respect for Gyrus and his family by lots of weeping and wailing.
31:55
SPEAKER_00: Verse 39.
31:56
SPEAKER_00: He went inside and said, Why all this commotion and weeping?
32:00
SPEAKER_00: The child isn't dead, she's only asleep.
32:02
SPEAKER_00: This probably made Jesus look foolish.
32:05
SPEAKER_00: Certainly anyone can tell death from sleeping.
32:08
SPEAKER_00: Verse 40.
32:09
SPEAKER_00: The crowd laughed at him, but he made them all leave, and he took the girl's father and mother and his three disciples into the room where the girl was lying.
32:17
SPEAKER_00: 41, holding her hand, holding her hand, he said, Talita kum, which means little girl get up.
32:24
SPEAKER_00: Jesus spoke no magic words.
32:27
SPEAKER_00: He simply took her hand, which would have amazed the proper synagogue leader and the disciples, but caused to touch a dead body meant to become unclean.
32:35
SPEAKER_00: But as he had done before, his touching the dead girl confirmed once again that to Jesus compassion, compassion was more important than the letter of the law.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: Jesus spoke a simple command in Aramaic, which was only recorded by Mark.
32:50
SPEAKER_00: And remember, this was Peter's eyewitness account.
32:53
SPEAKER_00: So this miracle reveals to us what?
32:56
SPEAKER_00: Well, this miracle reveals Jesus' complete control over the situation and his power over death.
33:04
SPEAKER_00: 42.
33:05
SPEAKER_00: And the girl who was twelve years old immediately stood up and walked around.
33:08
SPEAKER_00: They were overwhelmed and totally amazed.
33:11
SPEAKER_00: So this was not the first time the disciples had witnessed the raising of a dead body.
33:14
SPEAKER_00: In Luke chapter 7, it records Jesus raising a boy near the village of Nain.
33:19
SPEAKER_00: Yet even in this instance, the disciples are amazed.
33:22
SPEAKER_00: And perhaps the disciples may have wondered, as they did after Jesus called the storm, who is this?
33:27
SPEAKER_00: That a dead, the dead can be brought back to life.
33:31
SPEAKER_00: Jesus would raise yet another, his friend Lazarus, who was dead and buried four days, as recorded in John 11.
33:38
SPEAKER_00: Then finally, the most dramatic of all, Jesus himself would arise from the grave one day and spend time with his disciples before returning to his Father.
33:48
SPEAKER_00: Jesus had authority and power over humanity's greatest enemy, death.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: Verse 43, last verse.
33:56
SPEAKER_00: Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell anyone what had happened, and then he told them to give her something to eat.
34:02
SPEAKER_00: So why did he tell him not to spread this?
34:04
SPEAKER_00: I mean, everybody's got to know what there were people in there who saw her dead.
34:07
SPEAKER_00: But he told them not to spread the news of the miracle, but as he wanted the facts to speak for themselves.
34:12
SPEAKER_00: And the time was not yet right for another major confrontation with these religious leaders who would jump all over this.
34:19
SPEAKER_00: Still, Jesus had much to accomplish in his life and his mission.
34:23
SPEAKER_00: And he didn't want people following him just to see his miracles.
34:26
SPEAKER_00: That's the end of chapter 5.
34:28
SPEAKER_00: And before I go, I want to show a little application about this that I took out of Jairus' situation and this story.
34:35
SPEAKER_00: Jesus tolerated the crowd's abuse when he said the girl's not dead.
34:39
SPEAKER_00: She's asleep in order to teach an important lesson about maintaining hope and trust in him.
34:43
SPEAKER_00: He tolerated that.
34:44
SPEAKER_00: He didn't get angry with them.
34:46
SPEAKER_00: And today most of the world laughs at Christ's claims, which seem ridiculous to them.
34:50
SPEAKER_00: And if you're true to your faith, you will clash with other believers.
34:55
SPEAKER_00: It's going to happen.
34:57
SPEAKER_00: When you are belittled for expressing faith in Jesus Christ and hope for eternal life, remember that unbelievers don't see from God's perspective like we do.
35:05
SPEAKER_00: So the application here is to take heart and remember that what God thinks about you is much, much, much more important than what the crowd thinks.
35:14
SPEAKER_00: Hey, thank you for joining us today.
35:16
SPEAKER_00: I hope you can take something from this, and I hope you'll return next week and join us as we get into Mark chapter 6.
35:23
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us.
35:24
SPEAKER_00: Have a blessed week and keep your eyes focused on the Lord.