Luke's Gospel, chapter 8, and
we'll read from verse 40. And we'll read to the end of
the chapter. And it came to pass that when
Jesus was returned, that is, returned from the land of the
Gadarenes, returned across the Sea of Galilee, back to at least
the coast of Capernaum somewhere, And it came to pass that when
Jesus was returned, the people gladly received him, for they
were all waiting for him. And behold, there came a man
named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue. And he fell
down at Jesus' feet and besought him that he would come into his
house. For he had one only daughter,
about twelve years of age, and she lay a-dying. But as he went,
the people thronged him. And a woman having an issue of
blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians,
neither could be healed of any, came behind him and touched the
border of his garment, and immediately her issue of blood staunched.
And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they
that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and
press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And Jesus said,
Somebody hath touched me, for I perceive that virtue is gone
out of me. And when the woman saw that she
was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him,
she declared unto him before all the people for what cause
she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately. And
he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort, thy faith hath
made thee whole, go in peace. While he yet spake, there cometh
one from the ruler of the synagogue's house, saying to him, Thy daughter
is dead, trouble not the master. But when Jesus heard it, he answered
him, saying, Fear not, believe only, and she shall be made whole. And when he came into the house,
he suffered no man to go in, save Peter and James and John
and the father and the mother of the maiden. And all wept and
bewailed her. But he said, Weep not, she is
not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn,
knowing that she was dead. And he put them all out, and
took her by the hand, and called, saying, Made arise. And her spirit
came again, and she arose straightway, and he commanded to give her
meat. And her parents were astonished, but he charged them that they
should tell no man what was done. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. I've said it before, and as is
often the way with me, I tend to repeat things from time to
time, but I do admire the way that the Lord graciously and
positively responds to the requests of parents for help for their
children. And I think it's just worthy
of note, the frequency with which that happens in the Gospels. Throughout the Gospel accounts,
we find the Lord being appealed to by parents regularly on behalf
of children. Well, we all know the story of
the mothers of Salem who their children brought to Jesus. But there was also the man with
the son who had a dumb spirit. That little account is recognised
for the time when he said to the Lord, Lord, I believe, help
thou mine unbelief. Well, the Syrophoenician woman's
daughter, she was the one who spoke about the crumbs that fell
from the children's table. and she exhibited great faith
in the power of the Lord. Or the widow of Nain's son, who
was being carried in a byre out of his village when the Lord
encountered them and brought him to life. And always the Lord
willingly complies with the request of the parents or their need,
even sometimes when there was no request made. And these are
surely encouragements for the Lord's people to take the needs
of our children and our grandchildren to the Lord. What a privilege
we have as a praying grandparent. Job, believing parents or grandparents,
rise up early in the morning. Diligently and persistently,
they offer prayers according to the number of them all. For
Job said, it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in
their hearts. Thus did Job continually. And as we grow older, our relevance
to our children diminishes. But even if they don't need us
anymore, we retain the ability to pray to God on their behalf
for their souls and for their troubles. Jairus was a ruler
of the synagogue and he sought the Lord urgently. There's a
little behold there because kind of surprising this man came to
the Lord. Ordinarily, we might expect him
to be cool towards the Lord, if not opposed to him, as many
religious people were. But Jairus sought the Lord urgently
because his daughter was close to death. And Jairus' need was
great because his daughter's need was great, and necessity
drove him to the Lord. And it's often the case that
needs must, and we should learn to both recognise and value those
times when the Lord lays on us such necessity as drives us closer
to Him in prayer and fellowship. Those times when we are compelled
to acknowledge our inability and our weakness. And this is
also true about the woman who approached Jesus in the crowd
and touched the hem of his garment. She knew she had nowhere else
to go. No one else to whom to turn. And I have no doubt that Jairus
and his wife spent many anxious hours worrying about their daughter. And this woman had spent many
fruitless years trying all manner of doctors and cures. But both of them learned this
day. within a few minutes of each
other, that Christ alone has power to heal the body and even
power over death. And what we see now, so many
years later, looking back, looking on, what we see in these physical
healings, we can rightly apply to spiritual healing and spiritual
life. And I've just got a couple of
applications that I want to leave with you from this little narrative. The first one is this, and these
are really very obvious. It's not a very difficult or
profound passage before us in many ways, but let us just remember
Christ's power. Many and varied were the miracles
that Jesus performed. Recently he had calmed a life-threatening
storm at sea and delivered his disciples from drowning. And
then he expelled demons from a possessed man. And here he
cures a woman's long-term illness and raises a little girl to life
who was dead. All these acts, all these miracles
by the Saviour are designed to open our minds to the divine
power of our heavenly friend and his all-gracious purpose
for the good and the well-being and ultimately for the salvation
of his people. These two most recent miracles
that are before us today, they remind us of the blessed access
that we have to go to the Saviour, to come to Him with our felt
needs, seeking His help. Jairus, well he came publicly,
his need was known, it was out in the open. The woman, she came
Secretly, we might even say furtively, but both came to the one whom
they believed could help them. And let us receive this simple
lesson of the Saviour's power to help us in our times of trouble. We have in this world, as believers
in the Lord Jesus Christ, access to such a one as Jesus. There is no one more able to
help us in our need, comfort us in our trouble, and deliver
us from our fears than the Lord Jesus Christ. And our relationship
with the Lord, it ought not to be constrained to a long-ago
event in our personal history, like those conversion testimonies
that some people give. It ought not to be restricted
to information-based knowledge of facts and figures and even
orthodoxy of religion, orthodoxy of doctrine. Let our coming to
the Lord be personal and intimate and familiar, trusting him, leaning
on him, depending on him, to be aware of our case, to be able
to help, to be sympathetic to our need, that both the good and wise character
of our saviour will provide for us those gifts from the store
of his love that we need. We go to God when we go to Christ. We go to one who is omnipotent
and omniscient when we bring our requests to the throne of
grace and mercy. And we go to one who understands
what it is that we are feeling, who is touched with the feeling
of our infirmity. We come to him who dwells in
holiness and knows the end from the beginning because he purposed
and ordained all that comes to pass. And yet we come to a loving
friend, a loving brother and a loving father who cares for
us in our weakness, in our need, in our confusion. more than we
can rightly understand. These miracles of Jesus, if they
teach us anything, let them teach us to have confidence in the
power of our Lord and Saviour, to supply all we need at the
asking of faith. There were many people who crowded
around the Lord Jesus this day. Many who pressed in on him and
touched him and sought his attention. But these two individuals were
singularly helped by the Saviour and they obtained lasting benefit. I've got a picture in my mind
of Jairus leading the Saviour through the crowded streets,
directing him to his home where his daughter lay, and Jairus
being anxious as the time was passing and he could see how
slowly the progress was being made along the road. And at the
same moment, here's this woman and she's pressing through the
crowd from behind, trying to come within reach enough just
to touch the Lord's clothes. And Jairus is pulling the Lord
through the crowd as quickly as he can. And the woman is wishing
that the Lord would move just a little slower so that she can
catch up. Two believers, one wishing that
he would hurry up, the other hoping that he would slow down.
And yet how comforting to know that the Lord Jesus was simultaneously
managing the timing perfectly to bring the greatest glory to
himself and the greatest good to his people. So let this be
a lesson too. Our timing is not the Lord's
timing. We're time bound and we're preoccupied
with the circumstances of our life and the material world around
us. Christ is eternal and he is working
in eternity, all things for our good in time. And having brought
our needs to the Lord, it's good for us to trust his wisdom and
his care and his timing. Faith characterised the approach
of both Jairus and this dear lady, she's nameless but we love
her just the same. Faith characterised the approach
of both, particularly so in the case of the woman with the issue
of blood. To her, Jesus said, daughter,
be of good comfort, thy faith hath made thee whole, go in peace. To Jairus, the Lord said, fear
not, believe only, and she shall be made whole, weep not, she
is not dead, but sleepeth. Both these individuals had faith. The woman had faith to approach
the Lord from behind and push her way through the crowd and
touch the hem of Jesus' garment, believing that there would be
benefit and healing in doing so. And her faith didn't come
from nature. It was planted in her heart by
God the Holy Spirit. And she acted upon that faith
in coming to Christ. And to her, the Lord said, be
of good comfort. Be at peace in your heart and
in your mind, for you have found God's peace in your soul. Your sins are forgiven. I have
your case in hand. I have your needs in view. Your
sin is dealt with. Your life is assured in my hand. I will die for your sins. I'm in control and ordering all
things for your eternal good. To Jairus he said, fear not,
believe only. The woman, she instantly felt
the cure in her body. But Jairus' faith must be tried,
and his resolve tested yet further. His friends came to him with
news that his daughter had died. He was too late. But the Lord
would not allow him to accept what nature now told him was
a hopeless case. Fear not, he said, she shall
be made whole. Brothers and sisters, let us
be a people who draw comfort from Christ's promises and let
us not be afraid, even when the circumstances of the world appear
to render Christ's promises impossible. Faith is resting in Christ when
all seems hopeless. It's trusting him when the cold,
hard reality of the world seems to be saying, you've lost, you're
done, it's over. And let me just mention this
in closing. The disciples of the Lord were incredulous when
the Lord asked who touched me. Everybody is touching you. The
world is full of religion and multitudes declare every day
that they have a hand on the Lord. But it isn't so. The Lord knows them that are
his. And someone here silently reaches
out in faith and the Lord knows the difference between the noisy
clamour of religion and the silent prayer that is uttered in faith. Between those that press him
for selfish reasons and those who come trusting him for help.
Jerisey's household went even further. They mocked the Lord. They taunted him when he said
the child was not dead. And these the Saviour excluded
from his presence. He gathered Peter, James and
John. He gathered the parents. He took them to the scene of
his life-giving miracle. Let the world mock. Let religion
continue with its rules and its regulations and its rational
explanations. The Lord's people are comforted
by healing. They are exalted by being taken
into the confidence of their Saviour, and they are blessed
to be endowed with evidences of life-renewing power. May the
Lord graciously deal with us all likewise. Amen.