So once again, with the help
of God, could you turn with me to the chapters that we read,
Mark chapter 5 and the text you'll find in verse 41. And he took the damsel by the
hand and said unto her, Talitha, call me. Which is being interpreted,
damsel I say unto thee, arise. This is the next miracle of the
Lord Jesus Christ, sandwiched in between the miracle that we
looked at last week with the lady with the issue of blood.
As Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, came to the Lord Jesus Christ
because of that great need that he had that his little daughter
was near unto death. As the Lord Jesus makes his way
to Jairus' house, lady with the issue of blood presses through
the crowd and touches the garment of the Lord Jesus Christ and
is healed immediately. and then
as she is healed and the Lord Jesus Christ speaks to her and
causes her to testify of the reason why she had touched him,
then the Lord Jesus continues on his journey. The Baba tells
us that after he said, There came from the ruler of the synagogue's
house a certain which said, thy daughter is dead,
why troublest thou the master any further? And these accounts
give us something of the intensity of the life of the Lord Jesus
Christ. In Mark chapter 5 we have the
Lord Jesus, or the end of Mark chapter 4, we have the Lord Jesus
crossing over into in the land of the Gadarenes. We have him
there meeting with that Gadarene man there who was possessed with
the devils. We have the Lord Jesus rebuking
those devils, casting them out, and we have that man sitting
at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ clothed and in his right
mind. And then as soon as that is finished, the Lord Jesus is
on his way back. And multitudes are following
him. Another situation is confronted. He's now confronted with Jairus.
This is my problem. This is what I'm bringing to
lay at your feet. And while that is being dealt
with, somebody else is pressing through the crowd and seeking
to get to the Lord Jesus Christ that they may be healed. And while he is then speaking
to the lady who has been healed, something else comes. The situation
has got worse and worse for this man Jairus. And often that is
how our lives are. Everything seems to be so fast-paced. Everything seems to happen so
quickly. One thing, then another thing,
then another thing, and another thing. And everything seems to
be overwhelming. And this is seemingly what the
apostle is, or what Mark is telling us. The life of the Lord Jesus
Christ, it was intense. There was always one thing going
on, one person bringing this problem, one person bringing
that problem and the Lord Jesus filled with compassion dealing
with these various cases. You think of Jairus. He finds
the Lord Jesus Christ. He has this great pressing need
that his daughter is unwell. Luke tells us that it's his only
daughter and she's sick. at the point
of death. You can imagine the desperation
that is in his voice. You can imagine the emotion that
he is feeling as he leaves his daughter and he runs to find
the Lord Jesus Christ. And you can imagine as he sees
that great crowd around the Lord Jesus. And then as the Lord Jesus
is then taken up with somebody else. You can imagine how he
is feeling. that my need is greater than
this lady's need. Why is the Lord Jesus stopping
and talking with this lady when my little daughter, my only daughter
is at the point of death? And then the situation gets even
worse. He gets the news. that his daughter has died. And the man who comes with the
message has lost all hope. He's abandoned all hope. He's
seen the death of this daughter as the end. Your daughter's died. Why are you troubling the Master
anymore? You see all the while The little
girl was alive. There was some hope. Even in
our own lives if you watch those A&E programmes and the desperation
there's still a pulse, there's still breathing, there's still
life. And they know that all the while there is life, there
is hope. But as soon as that person begins
to flatline and there's no way by which they can bring them
back to life they say they're gone. There's nothing more we
can do. We have to give up. And so the
man comes, Jairus comes with that hope, my little daughter,
she's at the point of death, she hasn't died yet and there
is hope that if the Lord Jesus Christ could just come and lay
his hand upon her, she would be healed. But the messenger
comes. Don't continue to trouble the
master anymore. There's nothing more anybody
can do because she's gone. It's the news, isn't it, that
nobody wants to hear? I was thinking of maybe two years
ago, nearly, with Samantha and James, and then the news of Joshua
being involved in the car crash. It's the phone call that every
parent dreads. And with our sister here having
experienced that, the phone call, so-and-so has been involved in
a car accident. The situation goes from bad to
worse. It's the news that nobody wants
to hear that their loved one has gone. But Jesus heard the message. Jairus heard the message and
the Lord Jesus heard the message. And Jesus turns to Jairus and
says, be not afraid, only believe. You see to us, Death is the end. Death is the way by which each
of us are going to exit this world unless the Lord Jesus Christ
comes again. When? We don't know. How? We don't know. We don't know when the Lord has
set our time to leave and we don't know the means by which
God has set our exit from this world. We all would like to think
that we're going to get to the age of our friend Pauline and
Ted, 90-something years old. We like to think that we've got
a whole long life ahead of us and we think that we're just
going to put that thought of death to the back of our mind. not going to trouble us. We don't
want that news troubling us. So we tend to push it away. There are many means by which
the Lord has chosen that we may leave the earth. Some people
get unwell Like this little girl, she's unwell. She's at the point
of death. And to all who are there, this
was going to be the means by which she was going to leave
the earth. She was going to die because she was unwell. Some
people are taken in accidents, whether at work, whether on the
roads, the aeroplanes. and people drown in the sea. Some people are allowed to live
to their very old. The scripture tells us it is
appointed unto men once to die. Although a few people in the
scripture have died twice, like this little girl, like Lazarus,
like the widow's son and others, Yet for the majority, we will
die once and then come face to face with God. Death, the Bible tells us, as
you all are well aware, no doubt, that death entered in because
of sin. If you think of it, no one is
safe from death. From the moment we were conceived
in the womb we were not safe. People have miscarriages. Babies
die in infancy. Young people die. People in their
20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s. Right from the very moment we
were conceived in the womb death overshadows our existence. disappointed
unto man once to die. The moment we were conceived
we did not have any comprehension of how long our life would be. Job says, oh that I was snuffed
out in the womb. I didn't see the light of day. Because of sin, sin has contaminated,
cursed the human race. as we look at this girl at the
point of death. It was obvious to everybody that
she was very, very unwell and near her end. And as we look
at those who are laid in the hospital beds, it was very obvious
maybe that they're nearing the end of their life. and those
who are on life support machines their existence hangs at naturally
the switch of a switch. But just because we are healthy
doesn't mean that we're any different really from those on the hospital
bed. Doesn't mean that we're any different
than this little girl who is at the point of death. only that
their position or condition is more obvious. You see all of
us are really just a few breaths away from death. If the Lord was to stop our breath
we would be gone within a minute or so. And so we all just hang
in the balances. Our lives hang as threads, very
fragile threads. We're all at the point of death.
It's just that when we're unwell or when we see others that are
unwell that point of death becomes more obvious. Our bodies are extremely fragile. Although fearfully and wonderfully
made and yet it doesn't take much a knock to the head or to
have an accident or to have a sickness. Think of those that we would
see in Kenya and in other places in the world bitten by mosquitoes. A tiny little parasite that you
can't even see with the eye. We've seen them underneath the
microscope. Just a tiny little worm that wiggles around. And yet that tiny little parasite
has the ability to multiply and to multiply and to bring down
the human body. We're fragile. We're all at the
point of death. We all hang fragilely over eternity. just a few breaths away from
meeting God. But these things don't stir us
because we always want to kick the can down the road. We don't
really want to think about it. We say well I'll think about
death when death comes near to me. When I've got to think about
it, when I come face to face with it, when I'm an old person. Maybe that's what you young people
you've been thinking. I'm going to worry about that
when I'm old. I'm going to enjoy my life. I'm not going to worry
about dying. I'm not going to worry about
meeting God now. I'm just going to live my life
how I want to live it and then when I'm an old man or when I'm
an old lady then I'm going to worry about those things. There's
somebody that I know who remembered looking at all the people in
chapel and looking at Christianity and said, well, it's all so boring.
It's all so miserable. I don't want my life to be ruined
by this Christianity. I believe in heaven. I believe in hell. I believe
in God. I want to enjoy my life now. Then when I'm an old lady, I'll
become a Christian. Oh, get saved before I meet God. And I don't have to worry about
the rules and regulations that are chaining these Christians. I will wait. But in God's mercy, that girl was saved before she was old.
to realise that Christianity was not just about rules and
regulations but it was about life. I have given them life
more abundantly. It's about freedom and love to
God and to the Lord Jesus Christ. By the influence and aiding power
of his Holy Spirit those rules and regulations they get severed. That legalism gets thrown away
and we come and we serve the Lord Jesus Christ with love,
with fear and with trembling. I wonder when was the last time
you thought about dying? Have you ever thought about dying? as we were coming back on the
train yesterday. There were some lads there and
they were talking about football. And some other people came on
the train and there was only a few seats. And they said to this couple,
come and sit with us. So they sat down. And immediately,
what team do you support? and they began this great discussion
about football and about players. You know they were connected
with the thing that they worshipped, the thing that they enjoyed. Are they kicking the can down
the road of the inevitable? How many people have we ever
sat down with How many times have we ever thought,
well, what about eternity? What about death? You see, death
is something that we all have in common. One person may support that football
team, one person may support that football team. They don't
have all things in common and they can have debates and discussions. the one thing that we do have
in common is that we're all going to we're all headlonging to the
end of our life that we all have death hanging over us and we're
all just like this little 12 year old girl my daughter is
at the point of death but it's something we don't want
to talk about We make preparations for our
holidays. We may even make preparations
for our holidays a year in advance. We may book the tickets. We may
search the internet for the nicest place that we want to go, the
place that we can afford, and we say we'd like to go there.
And we begin to make preparations. We buy some new clothes, we buy
the sun cream and we do research about what can be done at that
particular place. We make a preparation, a plan
for something which we know may never happen. But yet what about
death which we know is going to happen and the scripture has
told us it must happen because it's appointed unto people once
to die. And then it tells us after that
there is the judgment. After that we will come face
to face with God. What preparations have we made
for that? When did you last think about
it? When did you last think about your holiday? What was the next
thing you have been preparing for? Why is it that you've left
the main thing? out of the picture. Why is it
you've put that to the back of your head? When it's the most
important thing. It is the thing that will happen
and must take place. It is a certain thing. We looked at it, didn't we, the
other day. Certainly I will be with thee. And I said, there's only a few
things that are certain. God's word, God's promises and
death. This little girl was at the point
of death, just like you and just like me, hanging very cautiously over
eternity. and at any moment God can take
us at any way and any means that he sees fit. Adam was told if you eat of the
tree that you will die. Genesis 2 and 16, and the Lord
God commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden thou
mayest freely eat. but of the tree of knowledge
and of good of evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the day
that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die there was the
boundary there was the line drawn in the sand that God said to
him you cross over this you will die if you stay this side if
you walk in obedience to me then you will live you'll live with
me in perfect union you cross over the line you disobey me
then you will die And what did Satan say? Satan came and he
told Eve, you will not die. It's the next chapter. As he comes to tempt Eve, the
serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die. This is the lie that continues
to be whispered in our ear. It's the lie that as soon as
you begin to think about dying, Satan will throw, as it were,
some cold water upon that flame, upon that little light, and say,
no, don't worry about it, you're not going to die. It's gonna
be a long, long, long time. You shall not surely die. It's not your time yet. I wonder if you've thought that
this week. We saw the other week Charlie
Kirk in America having his life snuffed out in a moment. No doubt he woke up that morning
no consideration whatsoever that that would be his last days,
last hours upon earth. The Lord knew. The Lord has set
the boundaries of our life, our life and our death. But we don't know the end. But
as we make preparations for the normal things of life, why is
it that we listen to the lies of Satan and say there's no death. Why is it do we listen to the
lies of Satan and say it's going to be a long, long, long time? Christians don't need to fear
death. The Apostle Paul says that for
me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Someone said the other
week For a Christian, dying is just a change of address. We
go from time to eternity. We go from separation from God into the presence of
God. We go from walking by faith to
walking by sight. Those things which we have been
struggling with here below, We'll all be gone on the other side
of the grave. My daughter is at the point of
death. Satan likes to tell us there's no hell. There's no God. Don't worry about
those things. The Bible tells us that Satan
is a liar and that the Word of God is truth. And it's been proved
to be a faithful truth for generations written down in the Word of God.
Thy Word is truth. We see the prophecies in the
Old Testament, how they were fulfilled in the New. And the Bible tells us that God
himself can't lie. Satan whispers these things in
your ear as the world seeks to deny the existence of a God.
Maybe you are young people, you are influenced by the things
that you hear. Don't kick the can down the road.
Don't put off something which the Bible says deal with it today
and say you're going to deal with it tomorrow. Today is God's
day. Today God has given you life. Tomorrow you don't know if you
will be living. Satan always says tomorrow, tomorrow,
tomorrow. One day for you and me there
will not be a tomorrow. there will be an eternal tomorrow. Either in eternal darkness or
in eternal light. And Jesus says today, if you
hear his voice, don't harden your heart. Hear what the Spirit
says to the churches. That you, just because you're
living and healthy here now today, are no different from this little
girl 12 years of age, who was at the point of death. But death must be faced with faith. You see, Jesus heard the word
of the messenger. And Jesus knew the effect that
this message would have on Jairus. As soon as Jairus would have
heard the message, your daughter is dead, in him also would have abandoned
all hope. And so Jesus encourages him that
although the message and although the situation has gone from bad
to worse, Yet don't be afraid. Don't be troubled. Do you know
whose presence you are in? Do you know the power and authority
that I have? I have the voice that can wake
the dead. He says do not be afraid. Only
believe. I wondered today if you've been
afraid. Have you been afraid of dying? What is it that makes you afraid
of dying? Is it that it's just unknown?
Is it that you're not prepared? Is it that you don't want to
leave your family and your loved ones? What is it that has caused you
to be afraid? Is it that you realise that you
are outside of the Lord Jesus Christ and you have every reason
to be afraid? When Hezekiah got a message that
he was going to die that he began to pray in 2 Kings 20. In those days
was Hezekiah sick unto death, and the prophet Isaiah the son
of Amoz came unto him and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord,
set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live. The little girl was at the point
of death. You and I are at the point of death. Hezekiah gets the message,
your life is coming to an end very, very soon. You will die. But what does he do? Instead
of being paralysed by fear, he takes that fear and he turns
his face towards the wall and he prays unto the Lord. That's where we should go. If
that fear has been consuming you, you're afraid of death and
that you've realized that you're outside of the Lord Jesus Christ
and that if death should come to you then you would be without
hope, what are you to do? Are you just to continue remaining
in a fearful unprepared state? No. to go to the one who can help
you, go to the one who can raise the dead, go to the one who took
away the sting of death. It's like Hezekiah, he turned
his face towards the wall and he prayed unto the Lord saying,
I beseech thee, I beg you O Lord, Remember now how I have walked
before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done
that which is good in thy sight.' And Hezekiah wept sore." Now
Hezekiah was not presenting to the Lord his good works but he
is presenting to the Lord that he had tried to remain faithful
in his service to God. Asking the Lord for mercy. How can you come? Well, you can
turn your face towards the wall and you can pray unto the Lord
and ask him to take away your fear. If it's the fear that is
based upon your being outside of Christ, then ask him to put you inside
of Christ. asking to enable you to trust
in the Lord Jesus Christ. As Jairus, Jesus says, just believe. Only believe. Don't be afraid. Only believe. And as a believer, Your bad news should not shake our faith. Just because our external environment
or situation or pathway changes it doesn't have to alter the
experience of our heart. It doesn't have to shake our
faith and trust in God. Think of Daniel. Daniel got the
news, anybody who prays unto any other god other than the
king will be put to death, thrown into the lions. Did that shake
Daniel? Did that alter his pattern of
devotion to God? Or did he just continue doing
what he had always done and went and prayed three times a day
where he had always prayed? wasn't shook his faith didn't
waver but he continued communing with the great God of heaven
Hezekiah turned his face towards the wall and prayed that fear
that he had moved him to prayer Daniel wasn't shook by the news
of being thrown to the lions because he understood that his
God was greater. He understood that his God was
worthy of his worship. He understood that his God was
more powerful. And Jairus must have believed
the same. Because he didn't say, don't
worry about it, just you continue on, my daughter's dead, there's
nothing else that can happen. Jesus says to him, don't be afraid,
only believe. And Jesus makes his way to the
house and he raises the little girl
from the dead. The first person that Jesus raised
from the dead was the widow's son. Looking at the situation,
the widow seeing what plight she would be in raises the young
man. Similar words, young man I say
unto thee, arise. The word arise is just awake
or get up. Here Mark changes or interprets
the words of the Lord Jesus. Jesus speaks in Aramaic. We have little Tali here who
derives her name from Talitha here meaning little maid or little
girl. Talitha kumi, damsel, arise. and immediately her spirit enters
her. Jesus takes her by the hand and
she's alive. The impossibility has been dealt with. Death has
been reversed to life. And straightway Jesus commands
that she is to have something to eat. to prove that she is
truly living. This is the second raising of
the dead which shows us that the first was not a staged show
but it was the truth. The second, a little girl, shows
us that there's no distinction that Christ deals with little
girls and with little boys, young men and young girls, that he's
able to raise them from spiritual deadness into spiritual life. commands that she eats food. If you remember in the New Testament
after Jesus rose from the grave and he goes and he introduces
himself again to his apostles he says to them, do you have
any food? Give me something to eat. Handle
me and see, I'm not a ghost. He proves to them that his body
is real. by eating food. I'm thinking about this you know
how can we faithfully serve God in our generation? How can we
evidence spiritual life? We think of Henry and Millie
they've gone to Kenya and others also but the majority of believers
it's just the day-to-day living eating and drinking all for the
glory of God. This little girl was raised up
to bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus says to her,
little girl, damsel, I say unto thee, arise. And maybe you think that you
are too young for God to deal with you. Maybe you think that you don't
know enough. If the Lord Jesus Christ has
raised you from spiritual deadness to spiritual life and you realise
that you have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and you realise
that he has taken away your fear of death And just as he's done to this
little girl, this little girl here, I say unto thee, arise.
She didn't know much, but Jesus says, give her to eat. And that
eating proved that she was spiritually, that she was alive. And with young ones, spiritual
food is found in the word of God. And if you have been given spiritual
life, if Christ has taken away that fear of death, he has revived
you, do you eat? Are you eating of that spiritual
food? Are you growing in the things
of God? Maybe it's the time for you now,
like this little girl, to arise. and to show that you're alive.
As Lord at his blessing. Amen. Let us sing our final hymn from
Gatsby's 698 to the tune 671. Pause my soul and ask the question,
are thou ready to meet God? Am I made a real Christian, washed
in the Redeemer's blood? Have I union, have I union to
the church's living head? 698. and ask the question, are thou
ready to be called? Am I made a real Christian, washed
in the redeeming fire? Am I you? His Spirit, live a life of faith
and prayer. Trusting wholly to His merit,
casting on Him all my care. Daily panting, daily panting, let him come when he feels blessed. O my soul, be not dismayed, lean
upon his loving breast. He will cheer thee, he will cheer
thee with a smile. Thou art on the brink of danger,
Canst thou face a holy God? Almighty God, we pray that we
will... think about these things and bring to our memory, Lord,
that certainty of our end. Lord, that death is indeed on
the road. We ask, Lord, that we may be shaken to call upon
thee in the day of trouble. Lord, that thou trouble our souls,
that we may call upon thee, that we may ask for that forgiveness
and for that cleansing and Lord that Thou would raise us from
that spiritual deadness to testify of all that Thou has done for
us We pray Lord that we may be dismissed with thy blessing and
to return us here this evening according to thy will in peace
and in safety. And may the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father with the fellowship
and communion of the Holy Spirit to be with you each now and forevermore. Amen. Amen.