Go All In

Mark 5 will change your life. In Mark 5, we see Jesus change 3 lives directly, and we see people respond to how those lives were changed. How would you respond to what Jesus did?

Let’s jump into the story at verse 22: “One of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet and begged him earnestly, “My little daughter is dying. Come and lay your hands on her so that she can get well and live.”

Jairus was a leader in the synagogue, that means that he had a good job, he had power, and he had wealth. Jairus had a really, really good life. But what’s happened to his life? Something super sad. His little girl, his little daughter who is only 12 years old, was really sick and he thought she might die.

As great as Jairus’ life was, he must have realized that nothing at all that he could get his hands on could help him. But he hopes that Jesus can. So he’s been waiting by the sea on Jesus to return. When he sees him, he comes up and fell at his feet, worships Jesus. Jairus believed in Jesus. He believed that Jesus could heal his little girl.

Jesus decides to go with him to help the girl! But something happens as they’re going to the house. Look at what happens in verse 24: “So Jesus went with him, and a large crowd was following and pressing against him. Now a woman suffering from bleeding for twelve years had endured much under many doctors. She had spent everything she had and was not helped at all. On the contrary, she became worse. Having heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his clothing. For she said, “If I just touch his clothes, I’ll be made well.”

People were walking along with Jesus, crowding him, pressing against him. They were probably grabbing him and bumping into him. And one of those people was this sick women. She has a terrible bleeding problem. It started 12 years ago. And she’d been trying to get it healed ever since.

This would be just terrible, especially in this culture. First of all, she’s suffered physically for 12 years! But she’s also suffered because she couldn’t be married, and she couldn’t even be touched. She hadn’t been touched by another person in 12 years. She’d spent all of her money trying to get healed, but it only got worse. She would’ve suffered because she wouldn’t be allowed to go to the temple and worship God with other people. I’m sure she suffered daily, just wondering what she did to deserve this. Why this was happening. Was she just a broken, worthless person? Should she even exist? EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. for 12 years, this suffering was unescapable. I can’t believe she even still had hope that she COULD be healed. If I have a cold for more than 3-4 days, I just assume that it’s the end for me!

But she’s apparently heard of a new possibility to be healed. Now she’s putting all of her faith in Jesus. Because she reaches in from the crowd, and she touches his clothes. She thinks that just maybe if she can get to Jesus, maybe if she can touch just the bottom of his robe, that she might be healed. And it’s a BIG RISK for her to do this. If an unclean person touches a clean person, the unclean person was supposed to be put to death. So she was betting her entire life on Jesus. If Jesus didn’t heal her, and she was caught touching him, she’d be killed.

What do you think happened? Look at verse 29: “Instantly her flow of blood ceased, and she sensed in her body that she was healed of her affliction. At once Jesus realized in himself that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes? ” His disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing against you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me? ’ ”

Immediately, just instantly the woman is healed from the most terrible thing happening in her life! The disease that’s wrecked her entire life for 12 years, gone in an moment. Jesus can change your entire life in a second.

And then he asks “Who touched me?” Now, when Matthew writes about this story, he says that Jesus turned and saw her. Looked right at her. Jesus knew who’d touched him. But he was asking the question to draw everyone’s attention to what just happened. He wants his disciples to stop, and look, and learn something amazing.

Of course those guys think Jesus is crazy. What do you mean who touched you? Everyone’s touching you! The word used about this crowd following Jesus is like they were a bunch of weeds choking out a plant. How could they know which person Jesus was talking about?

But Jesus just singles out one person. This woman. That means that there’s something about her that’s unique. That’s different than everyone else that’s swarming and touching him. Let’s see if we can see what’s different about her in verse 32: “But he was looking around to see who had done this. The woman, with fear and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. “Daughter,” he said to her, “your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be healed from your affliction.”

She’s scared because it was against the law to touch him. Maybe he’d put her to death for breaking the law?? Not at all. Jesus looks at this woman, who doesn’t have a name in this story, just the diseased woman, and he gives her a new name: Daughter. Daughter! This is his daughter now. He calls her his little girl.

Why? Why does her name change? Why’s her identity different now? He said that her faith has saved her and healed her. Her faith brought peace to her life.

You see, it wasn’t Jesus’ clothes that healed her. It was her faith in Jesus himself that healed her. Her faith that he is God and could make her life whole again. And that’s what was different about her from everyone else touching him.

Everyone else must have been gathering around Jesus to see the miracle. Would he heal Jairus’ little daughter? Let’s go see something amazing! Or maybe they wanted to hear some of his great teaching. Or just be a part of a new community of people. Everybody else was pressing around Jesus, touching him and looking for something, but only 1 person in that crowd received anything from Jesus. Only 1 person’s life was changed and healed. The person who had faith in Jesus.

Someone could hang out out around Jesus, go to church, hang out with other followers of Jesus, but deep down they know they’ve never received anything from Jesus. Never been healed of the thing that eats away at their thoughts and heart. Crowds of people can swarm around Jesus, without actually believing that he is God and that he loves them?

Jesus wants his disciples to see what ’s different about this woman. She didn’t come to Jesus having her life figured out. She didn’t come to Jesus already cleaned up. She was the filthiest person in that crowd. But she believed in him. And he changed her entire life.

Now as incredible as this scene was, it made Jesus stop. And remember, Jairus wanted him to come quickly to heal his daughter. Can you imagine what this dad is thinking, watching Jesus be delayed while his daughter is super sick? Let’s see what happens with him in verse 35: “While he was still speaking, people came from the synagogue leader’s house and said, “Your daughter is dead. Why bother the teacher anymore?”

His little girl, his baby girl, died. This is the worst. Why even bother Jesus anymore? The ugliness of this world has won. There’s nothing that can happen now. They’ve reached the most hopeless situation in our story. Death. Sure Jesus can heal disease…but, this is death.

But look at Verse 36: “When Jesus overheard what was said, he told the synagogue leader, “Don’t be afraid. Only believe.” He did not let anyone accompany him except Peter, James, and John, James’s brother. They came to the leader’s house, and he saw a commotion  —  people weeping and wailing loudly.”

It seems like death doesn’t scare Jesus here. He doesn’t even pause for a second when he overhead that the little girl died. He just asks Jairus to have faith. Jairus, put your faith in the same person that this woman just did.

Maybe he was asking Jairus to believe what God promised to Isaiah. Look at what God said to Isaiah 25: “[The Lord] will destroy death forever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face and remove his people’s disgrace from the whole earth, for the Lord has spoken. On that day it will be said, “Look, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he has saved us.” God promised that he’d destroy death forever. That one day death wouldn’t be a part of our story. Maybe today we’d get a glimpse of that. Maybe Jesus is more than an amazingly powerful man. Maybe he’s God himself, come to destroy death!

They came to the house and there was a commotion. Just imagine. The devastation. The anguish, tears, yelling in pain that this little girl had died. Could Jesus do something that could bring joy into this room?

Look at verse 39: “He went in and said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep.” They laughed at him, but he put them all outside. He took the child’s father, mother, and those who were with him, and entered the place where the child was. Then he took the child by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum” (which is translated, “Little girl, I say to you, get up”). Immediately the girl got up and began to walk. (She was twelve years old.) At this they were utterly astounded. Then he gave them strict orders that no one should know about this and told them to give her something to eat.”

Oh man, he did it! Jesus did it! He miraculously gave life to this dead girl. He IS God. He HAS come to put an end to death. He’s come to make everything right again! Jesus’ disciples, his followers must have looked around and just thought, “What in the world is going on here??” Their master is healing people left and right, casting out demons, raising people from the dead now!

In a world full of pain and trouble, disease and death, Jesus comes on the scene and is constantly delivering people from these things that we fear so much.

So now, if you’re a disciple of Jesus, as we follow Jesus, I want us to see 3 things from Mark 5 that tell us how to follow him well.

Jesus Does What Nothing And No One Else Can Do
Jairus couldn’t find a cure for his daughter. Even though he was a man of power, definitely had money to be able to afford the best care for her, he couldn’t find a way for this problem to be fixed. The woman who was bleeding literally spent all her money, everything she had, went to many doctors, tried many things, nothing. It only got worse. Earlier in Mark 5, the town had given up on that crazy guy. They just left him alone, living in the graveyard.

In our world filled with pain, trouble, disease, and death, we can search everywhere to be delivered from those things, but Jesus is teaching his disciples that they’ll always strike out unless they bring those things to Jesus. Jesus does what nothing and no one else can do. He delivers us from our brokenness.

Maybe you’re like this woman, you feel empty in life, nothing is working, nothing is satisfying, you’re not even sure what this is all about anymore, and you’ve gone from remedy to remedy, drug to drug, new endeavor to new endeavor, church to church looking for healing. You’re still searching, hoping that something else other than Jesus might heal you.

Your hoping that medication can just do the job. Or you’re pegging your hopes on the fact that if you can just forget about your problems for a few hours each day, or at least on the weekends, that life can be ok. Maybe you abuse alcohol to forget. Or you abuse your body spending all your free time in the gym and thinking that it’ll all be better and you’ll be content…if only you could have a certain kind of body or look. Maybe you’re putting your hopes in a new relationship. Or maybe you’re hoping in religion; that if you can do enough good, God will be good to you.

In Mark 5 Jesus does what nothing and no one else can do. He actually heals us, makes us whole, gives he the deepest desires of our hearts, meets our most desperate needs, brings us complete healing that we didn’t even think was possible.

Are you hoping that something else will save your life, other than Jesus?

Bet Everything On Jesus
Go all in. Push it all in the middle, and bet everything, your entire life on the fact that Jesus is your deliverer. The man possessed by thousands of demons ran up to Jesus. The woman risked her life to touch his clothes. Jairus missed the last moments of his daughter’s life to wait for Jesus’ boat by the shore. Bet everything on Jesus guys. Everything.

The crowds didn’t do that. They followed Jesus out of giddy excitement about what miracle he’d do, or his unique teaching, but only a few gave Jesus their entire life. They were all talking about Jesus. Talking about his miracles. Talking about his goodness. Even talking about his grace and his message. But they didn’t receive anything from him like the woman did. Most people in the crowd were never delivered from anything.

At Harbor West, we don’t just come on Sunday to learn together or sing together or hang out together. We come here to receive something together. We receive God’s Word together. We believe it together. When we come to communion we receive Jesus together. In our Journey Groups, we take time after we study the Bible to believe what it says together. Repent together, Receive grace together. We actually give our entire lives to Jesus, not just part of who we are.

And that’s what Jesus wants. When those other people from the synagogue came to Jairus after his daughter died, they said not to bother Jesus because the worst had already happened. They thought it would be a bother to Jesus for Jairus to bring this situation to Jesus at this point. But it was at the darkness point that Jesus looked at Jairus and said: this is no bother. Have faith in me. Bet it all. Go all in. Believe that I can deliver your daughter from death. Believe that I can deliver you from your greatest fear and worst nightmare. Believe in me.

And as you believe in Jesus and have your life changed…

Bring Everyone In Your Life To Jesus
Bring everyone to Jesus. Especially those who are hurting. That stinking crowd was pressing against Jesus, keeping away this woman who needed to be healed. They weren’t paying any attention to her. They hadn’t even noticed that she’d touched Jesus. There are broken people all around us.

Jesus was teaching his disciples to bring all of those people to him. Who are the people around you that you need to notice? Who do you need to pay attention to? Who do you need to carry to Jesus so that they can be delivered from their deepest fears, pains, and brokenness?

Because guys, Mark 5 is a picture, a taste, of what Jesus will do completely one day. We’re tasting a bit of it right now, because Jesus has come and He is healing this world, but one day, he’s promised that there will be no more demons, there will be no more disease, no more death. He’s promised that for everyone who has faith in him, Mark 5 is our future. And we can have a taste of it right now.

Who in your life needs to hear this good news about Jesus? Who needs to put their faith in him?

Maybe you’ve given up looking to be delivered. You’ve given up hope that your marriage can be healed. Maybe you’ve given up trying to stop that sin that you’ve struggled with for years, and you just don’t even fight it anymore. You’ve accepted that it’s just a part of you. Maybe you’ve given up thinking that you can have a relationship with God.

12 years before Mark 5, a healthy women dreamed about what her life would be, and it all got messed up and ruined. 12 years before this, a father had a daughter and felt more love than he knew was possible, and then saw it all crumble away. But then both of them saw Jesus, and they believed in him, and they were healed.

Don’t be like the crowds as you read this. Don’t gather around Jesus and walk away unchanged. Run to him, touch him, have faith that he is God, and that he can save your life.