As we've said so often as we've
gone through these miracle stories in Mark, we have example after
example of the way the Lord Jesus comes to save his bride. He's the one who came from heaven
to earth. And then when he was on this
earth, he was always about his father's business, going out,
seeking and saving the lost. And they come to him, empty of
anything in themselves, casting themselves upon his mercy and
grace. And as Alex reminded us, there
is just one thing that matters. We have a situation here where
death has come, stalking this family. And this little girl
is at the point of death or is dying, or as Matthew says, has
died. Such is the seriousness of the
situation. Death exposes things in our lives,
doesn't it? All of a sudden, when death raises
his ugly head, there is a reality. Things have a clarity and there
is a focus. All of us here All of us here,
unless the Lord returns, will die. I look out on people that
I love deeply. We will all die. We must go through
death. What will we be holding on to
at that moment in our lives? That's the question that came
before Jairus, didn't it? What will you be holding on to
when you die? I trust that it will be the Lord
Jesus and nothing else. the Lord Jesus in His absolute
sovereignty, the Lord Jesus in His love for His bride from eternity,
the Lord Jesus in His perfect substitution for all of His people,
that He perfectly took all of our sins upon Himself and said
they were His, and perfectly suffered the wrath of God. And
in return, He wove by His perfect holiness a robe of righteousness. A robe of righteousness which
is His work, a hundred percent His work. And as Spurgeon said,
if in your robe of righteousness on that day there is one stitch
that belongs to you or has anything to do with your activities, then
the whole garment will come undone on that day. And I think in these
stories before us too, we trust the providence of God. To Him
belong the issues from death. Our lives are in His hands. He
has the right to do with His children as He sees fit. We have no right to complain
of His providence. So we cling to a savior. And in this story before us,
as in these other stories, isn't it, the Lord Jesus takes his
people to a place of desperation. The apostles in this last possibly
24 hours or not much longer, We've had the crossing of the
sea and the apostles fearing for their own lives being taken
to a place where no one can help them except the mercy and grace
of God. The Gadarene was possessed by
a legion of demons and had no hope unless the Lord came to
him. Last week we saw the story of
the woman who for 12 years had been suffering and all that the
law has said to her was unclean, unclean, unclean. There is no
hope for you unless someone from outside of you miraculously heals
you. And today we come to the story
of Jairus. Jairus was one of the synagogue
officials And the synagogue officials were incredibly important people
in those societies. They were the custodians of the
law. They were the ones who taught
the people the Torah or the law, instructed them in those things.
They were like the magistrates. They were the leading citizens
of the community. Often they were wealthy people
and often their leadership of the synagogue was a hereditary
leadership. And so they had a lot of credentials
behind them. But this synagogue official had
a problem. He had a huge problem. And the
problem was that he just had one child. A daughter who was
12. Just 12 years old. Not much different
from Sarah. Not much older than Elizabeth.
Just a child. Please feel what Jairus feels
in this situation. Gyrus was a man who obviously
loved his daughter because he just had one child. His wife
had had no more children, none prior and none since this girl,
and so this girl was precious. But as I said earlier, death
brings reality into a clear focus. Gyrus, as the notes say, he was
stripped of everything. His position meant nothing in
this situation. His wealth meant nothing in this
situation. His pride meant nothing. His religious works meant nothing. All earthly hope is gone. Everything is gone. Everything
at death is stripped away. And He has one place. And in
the mercy and providence of the Lord, the Lord Jesus comes on
this particular day to this particular village, to this particular synagogue
ruler in Israel. And Jairus did the right and
proper thing. He fell on his knees before the
Lord Jesus. It's the right and proper place
for all human beings. It's a place that only the Lord
can take us because everything in our nature wants us to stand
proud and to look good to other people because of the things
we did. And so here was Jairus in this
situation where he is the custodian of the law and Jairus is made
to wait as the Lord Jesus deals so graciously and mercifully
with this lady. All the law could do, all Jairus
could do for the 12 years that this woman suffered and the 12
years that this child of his was in his family. All the law
could do to this woman was say, unclean, unclean. Anything you
touch, anyone you touch is unclean. As the custodian of the law,
he shows us that the law offers no help and there's no way back
for the woman until she is cleansed, until she is made whole. But in this situation, after
these 12 years, Jairus is now made to be in the same situation
as the woman. It's the same as hers, isn't
it? He must cast himself upon the mercy of the Lord. All of
what he has done in all of his life, according to Isaiah 64,
6, is filthy rags. He has nothing to bring to God. He has nothing to offer God. He who has pronounced unclean,
unclean, now in his own house has unclean, and he has nothing
in his hands, nothing in his hands he brings, simply to the
Lord Jesus he must clean. And that's what he does in verse
22. He implored him earnestly. It means that he begged him and
he kept on begging him. My little daughter is at the
point of death. Please come and lay your hands
on her so she will get well and live. This is a prayer, isn't
it? A real prayer. And it comes out
of a knowledge of the Lord Jesus. Jairus had saw Him. He came to
Him. He'd heard of what the Lord Jesus
had done, how He'd shown mercy to others. And He does what human
beings must do. He bows down and He worships
the Lord Jesus. He falls at His feet. So true prayer is always pleading. and it's always persevering.
Keep on begging God because it comes out of a desperate need.
God's children desperately need a Saviour and in God's mercy
He makes us be aware again and again of our desperate need. My little daughter lies at the
point of death. The true prayer also arises from
a heart of faith in the Son of God. It looks to the Lord Jesus
and it trusts that He can do what no human being can do. And
He says, please come and lay your hands on her that she may
be healed. The word is saved, saved that
she might live. So Jairus, in the mercy of the
Lord, is brought to his knees and he's brought to prayer. And
then Jairus has to wait. And we have no record in the
scriptures of how Jairus waited. I can just put myself in his
shoes. I would have been flaming angry. Here is my daughter just
down the road and she's dying and you stop. You stop for this
unclean woman. And that's part of what God is
teaching us in this story, isn't it? That God's people wait for
God in his providence to do the things that God has promised
to do in the time that God knows is best. Not just best for Jairus,
but best for the woman and best for the crowd and best for the
apostles and best for us. God's timing is always perfect. all the time for all of His people. And we rest, we have to rest
in the fact that He is God and He'll do all things well. He'll do all things well. And
so we have this, in the midst of this immediate and gripping
situation, God says to His people, wait. wait on the Lord. Those who wait on the Lord will
renew their strength. Galatians 5.5 is a wonderful
verse, isn't it? We, by the Spirit, through faith,
the hope of righteousness, wait. God's children wait because they
trust God. And during this waiting, Jairus
hears these wonderful words, isn't it? As the Lord Jesus speaks
of relationship with this woman, daughter, a daughter of God,
she's been made whole, she's been saved. And Jesus says to
her, go into peace. You have been freed from the
curse. And the wonderful thing is that
as the Lord Jesus is touched by this unclean woman, immediately. She must be made whole or He
must be defiled. We never defile the Son of God
by bringing to Him our sins. He's washed them all away in
eternity. He's the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. His children, His people, His
bride is holy and spotless and blameless. We can't defile Him
by bringing Him our sins. That's how it's the story of
two daughters at this stage, isn't it? Jesus talks about the
daughter of God. She's been saved, made whole,
and she's to go into peace. And there's Jairus, whose daughter
is now dead, as these messages tell him. Humanly speaking, there
is no hope. She's not been saved from her
affliction and there is no peace for Jairus or his family. There's even commotion at the
house. It's a stark contrast between
the two. But Jesus comes to this man that
he loves, because of this daughter that he loves, overhearing what
was spoken in verse 36, said to the synagogue official, do
not be afraid any longer, only believe. So often we've seen in Mark's
gospel that people are brought to a state where they actually
witness not only the fears, the natural fears, but actually the
fear of who God is. The apostles feared the storm
and death and then were caused to fear God and who He is. The
woman feared exposure. There is fear in these situations. But Jesus says to this man, do
not be afraid. He challenges us, doesn't he?
He challenges Jairus. Do we look at the reality around
us through the eyes that we can see carnally with or do we look
through reality? Do we find reality in the promises
of God? Do we find our reality in a God
who speaks and reality comes into existence? He says, do not
be afraid, only believe. And we know that belief, true
Christian belief is a gift from God. When the Pharisees asked
him, the teachers of the law asked him in John chapter 6,
what works must be do to do the works of God? Jesus answered
and said to them, this is the work of God. Please know that
this is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has
sent. So to be saved, Jesus is saying,
only believe. To honor God, only believe. To see the Lord God at work,
only believe. To see the glory of God, Only
believe. Believe and trust. God has spoken. His word stands firm forever. He speaks and he speaks the reality
into existence. So we cannot out-believe God. Nothing is impossible for those
who believe. And so we are taught in this
passage that we cannot go beyond bounds in believing because our
faith, however large, will never embrace the magnitude of divine
goodness. will never plumb the depths of
the love of God for his children. So we know that this faith comes
with all spiritual blessings from the heavenly realms and
it comes before the world was made. It's sustained according
to 1 Peter 1. It's sustained by God's power. We are kept by God's power through
faith. And this is a faith that God
grows. Abraham was strengthened in his
faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God
had the power to do all that He had promised. He takes his
people through difficult situations to grow their faith. And it grows
in trials, and it grows in difficulties. As we saw a few weeks ago in
Philippians 1.29, it is being granted on behalf of Christ,
not only to believe in Him, but to suffer for His sake. And so
the goal of our faith, according to 1 Peter, is the salvation
of our souls. The end result is salvation. And so the Lord Jesus takes this
man in verse 37, and then He just takes Peter, James, and
John, the brother of James. I think it's just a great evidence
of Jesus' compassion for this family. that there is a crowd
at the house. In the next verse we see there's
a commotion and people loudly weeping and wailing. And so often
in those days these were professional mourners. And so obviously this
girl had been at the point of death for some time so they'd
gathered, they'd gathered like vultures to earn their money
from the death of this girl. It was a terrible commotion.
The Lord Jesus just takes two or three witnesses enough to
establish the matter and enough to care for this family. And
they entered in, as they entered in to the house of Jairus, he
says to this crowd, Why make a commotion and weep? The child
has not died, but is asleep. It's a wonderful description,
isn't it, of God's children all through the Scriptures. God's
children are never said to die. They're said to sleep. Because
God's children cannot die. They have passed over from death
to life. that these people laugh at the
words of the Lord Jesus. In fact, the sense of the word
is that they laughed and then kept on laughing. They jeered
at him and they kept it up. So shocking when you think of
the situation of Jairus and his wife at this time, that these
people would laugh. And then Jesus uses an incredibly
strong expression and strong words. He casts them out. It's the phrase that the Lord
Jesus uses in reference to the demons. he cast them out. Literally, it means that he picked
them up and as a noisy mob who denied his word and mocked him,
he physically threw them out of the building is the sense
of it. It's a strong, strong expression. In fact, for God's
children it's a wonderfully strong expression because in the scriptures it says that
He will never cast out His bride. None of the Lord's people in
John 6 will ever be cast out. And so the world laughs at the
Lord Jesus and laughs at His truth, His truth about death
and His truth about resurrection. and He cast them out. And those
who doubt and dishonor the Lord Jesus are shut out from witnessing
His glory and being a participant in the rejoicing of His people. So often through these stories
in mass gospel, we've seen the one characteristic of the Pharisees
and the teachers of the law and the legalists. They cannot rejoice. The Lord Jesus does wonderful
acts of love and grace and mercy and care for people. And rather
than rejoicing, never once do we hear of these people rejoicing.
The Lord Jesus casts this mob out. and then he has great compassion
on this family. He takes control of this situation
and it's like all creation. These people like the demons
and Satan and everything else in this world is under his control
and when he speaks they act even against their wills. They are
cast out and they obey without a word of complaint. And so then the Lord Jesus goes
in and He touches this little girl. If she was dead and He
touches her, two things must happen. Either she rises from
the dead and is alive, or Jesus is defiled. She rises from the
dead. And He just speaks a word to
her, doesn't He? And it's a lovely word, tlitha
kuum. Little girl, I say to you, get
up. The Lord Jesus raises the dead
just by speaking. Speaking words, He raises the
dead. For this reason it says, Awake,
sleeper, arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Luke says that her spirit returned,
in other words, that immediately on being called, it obeyed the
command of Christ. The Lord Jesus is absolutely
sovereign in everything in this world right now and He's absolutely
sovereign in the world to come. After death, His sovereignty
continues. And so God's people are people
who live on the basis of supernatural realities. Supernatural reality
is created by a word of promise. His words are spirit and they
are life. This world is sustained by His
word of promise and this world will be consummated at His word. And so in this glorious miracle,
we are once more shown what Christ can do for dead sinners and how
he does it. He raises to life, and if you've
been like me and Alex, we need resurrection day by day by day. Christian life is a continuous
miracle, a miracle of grace. And the Lord Jesus just shows
how sovereign He is. He just secretly, sovereignly
touches the dead soul by the hand of omnipotent power, by
the hand of irresistible grace. And He speaks a word and He calls
this chosen sinner by the power of His Spirit through His word. And the dead being called come
to life and they come to the Lord Jesus. What a sight for
this young girl. The first sight she saw after
all of this illness and death was the Lord Jesus. It's the
first sight of God's children, isn't it, when we rise from the
dead, is that we have a picture of the Lord Jesus, we see Jesus. And when death comes to us, the
first thing we see as God's children is that we will see Jesus. And
when the final word is said and the consummation of all things,
then we have those wonderful verses, that wonderful promise
from God in 1 John 3, that when He comes back, we will see Him
as He is because we will be like Him. What promises we have to
live on. Jairus had to spend this time
praying in desperate need, waiting in desperate need, going to a
house where things were cataclysmic and there was great sorrow and
all he had was a promise from the Lord Jesus. And immediately
the girl got up and began to walk for she was 12 years old.
And immediately they were completely astounded. When Jesus speaks
and Jesus heals, there is just instant life. And she was able
to walk around. And then he gave them strict
orders that no one should know about this. And he said that
something should be given her to eat. And part of the reason
for him saying to this family that they didn't have to speak,
they were ordered not to speak, was that they had been through
an incredibly emotional time. And they didn't need to feel
like they had to go out and deal with the noisy crowds. They could
take their time. Obviously the story was going
to be told. There were plenty of witnesses. But the other thing
is that in the next chapter, we'll see that the apostles are
sent out, and God has His appointed people to tell the story about
who the Lord Jesus is. So there would be a time for
telling, but they needed to feel that this was a time for caring,
for feeding their daughter, to regroup as a family, and to rest
and rejoice in what the Lord Jesus has done for them. And
so the picture is, isn't it, that we come to the Lord Jesus,
we come helpless. to receive help. We come dirty
and unclean to be cleansed. We come weak to be made strong
in Him. We come as outcasts to be made
members of an eternal family. Foul I to the fountain fly. Wash me, Saviour, or I die. My lips shall greatly rejoice
when I sing unto you and my soul which you have redeemed. That's how God's people sing,
isn't it? They shall call on my name and I will hear them.
I have said it is my people and they shall say, Jehovah is my
God. And so in this story, there is
the promise of resurrection. resurrection to life for those
who believe and they'll enter into eternal glory they will
see the Lord in his glory and the others will be cast out. Those who mock the Word of God,
those who treat with contempt the grace of our Saviour, they'll
be cast out. They will be picked up by the
Lord and they will be cast out and cast out forever. And so the Lord Jesus came to
Jairus' house. He raised this daughter from
death to life. And soon the Lord Jesus will
come to this earth and he'll raise us to glory. And at this
time he calls on his people to wait, to wait and to hang on
to his promises, to hang on to the promises that he's given
us in his word, to hang on to the character that he's revealed
of himself in his word. We have a great and glorious
Saviour. In this land of Israel for the
next three years the people of the synagogue and the temple
were going to be the enemies of the Lord Jesus. And He left
in this tiny corner of Israel this one synagogue ruler and
this one family that said that if you come in your self-righteousness
you'll be cast out. But you come humbly before the
Lord and He's compassionate and gracious. And so Jairus and his
family would stand as an emblem that showed the Pharisees again
and again and again the wickedness and the evil of their hatred
of the Lord Jesus. And the raising of this daughter
showed that these things have eternal consequences. God will
separate the wheat from the chaff. God will separate the sheep from
the goats. God will care for His people
no matter what their circumstances are. He'll never leave them nor
forsake them, no matter what they do in this world, no matter
how the world sees them. It might see them as unclean,
it might see them as helpless, but not in God's sight. They
are precious. God's children are precious and
they are holy and they are dearly, dearly loved by our Lord. Let's leave here rejoicing in
the wonders of our Saviour. Let's pray.