I want to bring a message out
of Mark chapter 5, the gospel of Mark chapter 5. I want to
look at the situation with a miracle that the Lord performed on Jairus'
daughter. Let me read a few verses here
in this chapter, starting with verse 22. And behold, there cometh
one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name. When he saw him,
when Jairus saw the Lord, he fell at his feet. And besought
him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of
death. I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she
may be healed, and she shall live. And Jesus went with him,
and a bunch of people followed him and thronged him. Here on his way to heal the daughter
of Jairus, there was a woman who had an issue of blood for
12 years. She spent all of her living on
physicians and was none better, but rather grew worse. Then she
had heard of the Lord Jesus Christ, which we know faith comes by
hearing, hearing by the Word of God. And she heard of Him,
so she said, she was saying within her heart, if I can just touch
His clothes, or if I can just touch the hem of His garment,
I'll be made whole. And she did so. She made her
way to where He was and touched the hem of His garment, and she
was made whole. And the Lord, of course, called
her out, because He said, someone has touched Me, for virtue has
gone out of Me. And so he calls her out, because the Lord has
no secret disciples, and she tells him for what reason she
touched him. In verse 34, he said unto her,
Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole, go in peace, and
behold thy plague. Now, verse 35, while he yet spake,
there came from the ruler of the synagogue's house certain
which said, Thy daughter is dead. Why troublest thou the master
any further? As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken,
he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, be not afraid, only
believe. And he suffered no man to follow
him, save Peter and James and John, the brother of James. And
he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth
a tumult in them that wept and wailed greatly. And when he was
come in, he saith unto them, why make ye this ado, and weep?
The damsel's not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.
But when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and
the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and
entered in where the damsel was lying. And he took the damsel
by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha Kumai, which is being
interpreted, damsel, I say unto thee, arise. And straightway
the damsel arose and walked, for she was of the age of twelve
years. They were astonished with a great astonishment, and he
charged them straightly that no man should know it, and commanded
that something should be given her to eat. Now the title of
this message is Be Not Afraid, Only Believe. Only believe sounds
easy, but without the Spirit of God, it's impossible to do.
Faith and repentance are the gifts of God, the natural man
won't believe and the natural man can't believe because the
natural mind is enmity against God. The natural man will do
anything under heaven except believe God. He will not believe
God. God must do a mighty work in
the heart of a sinner for that sinner to believe God. Faith
is the gift of God. Now let's look at some things
here. Jairus His position did not shield him from sorrow. No
one is above sorrow in this life. Rich, poor, young, old, all have
sorrow. It is written in Job, man that's
born of a woman is a few days and full of trouble. And then
we see that death comes to us all. It's no respect of persons. We see this 12 year old girl,
she dies. Parents don't expect to bury
their children, but some do. I had a friend die at a young
age, and his father said to me, you don't expect to bury your
children, you expect them to bury you. But some have to. Now what brought Jairus to Christ? It was his need. He had a great
need. His daughter, he said, is nigh
unto death. When our children are sick, or
as here, nigh unto death. It's probably the greatest pain
that we can experience as parents, the greatest pain we can experience. We'd rather ourselves be sick
than our children. But the news just got worse for
Jairus. It says in verse 35, he said,
the servant said, why trouble thou the master? Your daughter's
dead. Now Jairus knew exactly what
that meant. When that servant said, she's
dead, he knew what that meant. Now the Bible teaches us that
man is spiritually dead, but man does not know what that means.
It takes a man who's been given spiritual life to understand
what spiritual death is. Man has no spiritual life. He's
spiritually dead. He has not the Spirit of God.
That which is born of the Spirit is a spirit. He does not have
that. Now when the servant told Jairus
this, all hope was shattered for him, so he thought. As long
as she was sick, There was hope, but dead is the end of all hope.
It's the total end of all hope. He had no more hope that she
would be healed. He had no more hope of seeing
her again other than when he buried her. His heart was shattered
by that word dead, the finality of it. I have seen parents lose
children, and I've seen the pain of it. It's a shattering pain. But the thing that's really devastating
about it is the finality of it. They're not coming back to this
earth. And all the expectations and
all the hopes are gone. And notice what the servant says
here. Why troublest thou the master any further? Let me be
clear on this. Our need never troubles Christ. Cast all your care on Him, for
He careth for you. What kind of physician does not
want to be bothered by his patients? That would be a sad physician.
I would look for another one. But remember this, whatever my
need is, whatever your need is, it is not troublesome to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Bring all your needs, all your
sorrows, all your troubles, and lay them at His feet. He truly
is the only one who can do anything about them. But our Lord gives
a word of encouragement here to Jairus and to us in whatever
situation we are in. And he says here, be not afraid,
only believe. Believe me. Jairus started out
believing that Christ could heal his daughter. That's why he came
to the Lord Jesus Christ. No doubt, being a ruler of the
synagogue, he had heard the Lord speak, he had seen miracles,
and he had heard of miracles, and he, like the woman with the
issue of blood, believed in his heart that the Lord Jesus could
heal his daughter. He believed that. And he came
to Him. That's the reason why he came
to Him. He believed he could do it. I believe he came with
much hope that the Lord would do so. But when he heard this,
thy daughter is dead, all hope was gone for him. He thought
this was impossible now. While she's sick, he can heal
her, but now she's dead. Nobody can deal with that. Well,
the Lord says here, be not afraid, only believe. Continue believing
just as you had been believing. You came believing I was able.
Now continue believing I'm able. Death is no harder for the Lord
to overcome than any sickness. Everything is under the power
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord said, All power and
all authority is given unto me in heaven and in earth. He has
the power over death. He has the authority to command
life. And he's saying here, don't be
afraid of the bad news. We don't need to be afraid of
bad news. Listen, Christ has the key of
death. He is life. He is the giver of
life. He said in one place to, I think
it was two blind men, they wanted to recite and he said, believe
you that I'm able to do this. Do you believe I'm able to do
what you're asking? And what he's saying to Jairus
here, you believed that I was able to heal her of her sickness,
now believe that I'm able to raise her from the dead. Here's
what he's saying, be not afraid, only believe. First of all, believe
the best of me. Our Lord said in one place, you
believe in God, believe also in me. With the same faith you
exercise in God, exercise that same faith in me right now. Believe that I'm God. You believe
that I'm God, don't you? Or is there anything too hard
for the Lord? With God, all things are possible. Listen, Jesus Christ
is God manifest in the flesh, and He's able to do all things.
He has power over all things. And then believe this, that the
Lord Jesus Christ has your best interest at heart. Be not afraid. Our Lord always has our best
interest at heart. Then we see here Christ's power
over death. He's going to demonstrate in
verse 41 His power over death. He says, Damsel, I say unto thee,
Arise. No ceremonies, no hoopla, Just
the raw power of His Word, I say. I say unto you, arise. And she did. You know, when he
entered that house, he said, the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth
there in verse 39. And it says they left him to
scorn. They laughed at him. They looked at her and they said,
she's dead. There's no life in her. He said,
no, she's asleep. You know, when the Lord speaks
of his children, when they die, he speaks of them as sleeping.
He said, Lazarus is asleep. And here this damsel, which evidently
is one of his, he says, she's not dead. She's just asleep. That's all. And He's come to
wake her up. That's really what it is when
the believer dies. The believer lays down, closes
their eyes, takes that last breath, and the Lord wakes them up out
of that sleep of death. And they wake up in glory. But
our Lord does this, now listen, He does this, as I said, with
the raw power of His Word, I say, Listen to John in John chapter
5. Let me turn there in John chapter
5 in verse 25. John chapter 5 verse 25, listen
to this. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. For
as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to
have life in himself, and hath given him authority to execute
judgment also, because he is the Son of man. Marvel not at
this, for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in
the grave shall hear his voice, and shall come forth, they that
have done good, to the resurrection of life, and they that have done
evil, to the resurrection of damnation. Christ has the power
to raise the dead. To raise them spiritually and
to raise them physically. It's written in 1 Corinthians
15, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
Christ took the sting out of death. He took victory away from
the grave. Listen to Hosea chapter 13. Let me turn to Hosea chapter
13. In verse 14. I will ransom them from the power
of the grave. I will redeem them from death.
O death, I will be thy plague. O grave, I will be thy destruction.
Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. But the Lord here
says, death, death, O death, I'll be your plague. O grave,
I'll be your destruction. How does he do this? By his death. by His death on Calvary Street. Christ and Him crucified. He
has taken away my death by taking my death, by dying my death.
The scripture says, He hath tasted death for every man. That's every
man whom He represented, He tasted death for. Jesus Christ is the
cure for death. Just like that woman with the
issue of blood. She has spent all her living, tried all the
physicians, tried all the gimmicks. She tried everything, but she
found the cure in Christ. Christ is the cure for sin. He's
the cure for death. He's the cure for everything
that I need, for every sickness I have, every spiritual sickness
I have, everything I need, whether it's really spiritual or physical.
Christ is my healing. Our Lord has conquered death,
hell, and the grave. Listen to 1 Thessalonians. Let me get over to 1 Thessalonians
here. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Listen to the Scriptures. But I would not have you to be
ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you
sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe
that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep
in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you
by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain
unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the
deity in Christ shall rise first. And we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore
comfort one another with these words. Our Lord has conquered
death, hell, and the grave. Christ is able to take a bad
situation and make it serve His glory and our good. There is
nothing impossible with the Lord. With men, there are many things
impossible. With the Lord, there's nothing
impossible. Here's the lesson. Be not afraid, whatever it may
be. Be not afraid, only believe. Keep on trusting the Lord Jesus
Christ as you have been. Don't let any situation cause
your faith or my faith to weaken, to doubt. Only believe, because
the whole situation is under the control of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He knew that young girl was going
to die. or as he says, fall asleep. He knew that. Jairus didn't know
that, but the Lord knew that. And he taught Jairus a real lesson
here, along with his disciples that were with him, that he has
the power over death, hell, and the grave. You'll notice If you'll
go back and read this chapter, the Lord demonstrates His power
over Satan. He cast Satan out of this demonic
man. This man was possessed with demons. He called his name Legion because
there were many. They controlled him, took over
him. He was under them, under their
power. And the Lord came to him and
cast the devils out, put him in his right mind. He was sitting
at the feet of Christ in his right mind. And then this one
with the issue of blood that no one could cure, which represents
sin, he was able to cure. He made her completely whole.
And then we see him here with his power over death. He raised
this young girl from the dead. And then notice, and last of
all, let me say this. After he had raised her from
the dead, it says in verse 43, he commanded that something should
be given her to eat. When the Lord gives life to his
sheep, when he gives life to a dead sinner, we are to feed
that sinner. We are to feed that sinner with
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. As the Lord said to Peter,
feed my sheep, feed my lambs. And that's what I pray that I
have done this morning. I pray that you have gotten something
out of this. I pray the Lord bless you.