Your Faith Has Saved You

Mark 4:21-43

Introduction

· At bottom, the point of every sermon is basically the same: repent and believe.

· The purpose of sermons is not to cram heads with information, but to display Jesus such that the scales over the eyes of our hearts fall off and we are drawn to throw ourselves on his mercy.

· In other words, the point of preaching is to create faith. While I cannot create faith in you, the Spirit through the Word faithfully preached can and does.

· Thus when the glory of Christ is displayed and the Spirit moves powerfully on our hearts, we are drawn to trust him and turn away from our trust in ourselves. That is, we are drawn to faith and repentance.

· So, every day, every week, our one aim in life, our one goal is to see him, and by seeing him, by persevering in faith, to obtain the resurrection from the dead at any price.

o Phil 3:8-16. Explain.

· Throughout the book of mark, then, Jesus has been revealing himself to us as the one in whom we should trust.

· This is the message of Jesus—it was all that he preached (1:15).

o “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand: repent and believe in the gospel.”

o This was Mark’s concise summary of all that Jesus taught. All that God had promised in times past is now coming into fruition, and the kingdom of God is at the door, and all who wish to enter that kingdom must turn away from dependence upon themselves and throw themselves wholly upon Christ.

· But what does it mean to trust in Jesus? What is true, saving faith? Mark has skillfully been teaching us through these accounts of Jesus’ life.

· The first major thing we learned about faith was from Mark 2:5.

o The five friends—one being a paralytic—come to Jesus for healing. V5: “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

o If we want our sins forgiven—the guilt of those stumbling blocks keeping us from the kingdom of heaven—then we must turn to Jesus in faith as the one who has authority to forgive us.

· The second major thing we learned about faith was from 4:40.

o When he stills the storm, he asks them why they were afraid and why they had so little faith.

o In other words, faith sees who Jesus is and therefore walks in the confidence that he protects us and keeps us.

o Said differently, faith is required to know him.

· And now we add a third dimension to our understanding of what faith is—it is dependence. To believe in Jesus is to have our eyes opened to see who he is, and in seeing who he is to trust that he will forgive us. But that only happens in a heart which has wholly been thrown off of its own self-trust—a heart which wholly and only trusts in Jesus.

· This is the point of these accounts: venture on him, venture wholly, let no other trust intrude.

· In other words, we are saved by faith alone apart from works.

o 5:23, “He implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come lay your hands on her, so that she may be saved and live.”

o 5:28, “For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be saved.”

o 5:34, “And he aid to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

o 5:38, “Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.”

· And so the application is the same as ever! Trust him! Trust him!

· There are two interwoven stories here, mutually interpreting, both reinforcing the same point: Jairus’s daughter, and the woman with the flow of blood. Both are intractable, humanly-unsolvable problems. Both come to Jesus trusting in him. And in both cases, Jesus saves them because they trusted him, even when everyone around them did not. In both cases, they feared Jesus more than the crowds and the burdens they carried.

· And yet both cases could not be more different. Jairus is a highly respected religious figure. She is a religious pariah. Jairus is religiously pure. She is defiled under the Mosaic law. Jairus is a man of means. She is destitute. Jairus approaches Jesus openly. She secretly.

o Yet both approach Jesus in faith to find salvation in him.

· Yet even still, there is the crowd—the ever-present crowd—which is physically as near to Jesus as Jairus and the woman, but never seem to understand his saving power—never believe.

o Many people touched Jesus, but only the woman was healed.

o Many people saw the little girl who was dead alive, but only those who believed his word saw the miracle occur.

· And so the challenge is for us! Come to him! Trust in him! He is sufficient to meet all your needs!

So, let us unfold this story in its three natural portions: The Ruler’s Request, The Woman’s Faith, The Savior’s Power

I. The Ruler’s Request (5:21-24)

· Jesus has crossed from Gerasa. Mark gives the impression this happens the same day.

· As usual there is a great crowd. Likely they never left. And the crowd, as always, gathered around him.

· Part of that crowd is a ruler of the synagogue.

· What was a synagogue?

o Normally, the Jews would worship in the land. They would go up to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices. They would be close enough so that every male could go up three times a year to the feasts.

o However, once the Jews were exiled from their land and their temple was (at least, for a while) destroyed, they gradually had to come to terms with the fact that they must worship in some other way.

o The spread of the Jews is known as the diaspora—the scattering of the Jews among the nations.

o Yet, there were still among them faithful Jews who desired to worship God, who would gather in local communities called “synagogues”—a word which by itself means “gather together.”

o The earliest reference we have to a synagogue is from Egypt between 246-221 B.C., during the time between the two testaments.

o As such, the synagogue, even more than the temple, became the religious center of Jewish life outside of Israel. It regulated all areas of life, from education, to politics, to economics, to justice, to social areas. They ate communal meals.

o It was critical to maintaining Jewish identity without the unifying reality of a distinctly Jewish land.

o Every synagogue had a group of elders who ruled it as a deliberative body.

o Among those elders (usually) one was chosen as the archesunagogon the “head/chief of the synagogue.” The presider of the synagogue. He was the primary leader of the religious worship of the community. They would be responsible for maintaining order in the assembly, deciding who would run the service, and would share in the spiritual leadership and teaching of the community.

o As such, among the deliberative body of elders, they had the right to reprimand, discipline, and excommunicate members of the synagogue who were “guilty” under the law.

o Think about Jairus as analogous to a lead pastor.

· Side note: If you are thinking that this sounds a lot like a church, that is because this is likely the model that the Apostles adopted when they planted churches throughout the community. In fact, many of the elders of churches were likely already elders of the synagogues. Which is why they could write in so much detail about the OT in their letters.

· This was Jairus. Which means he was a respected, mature, devout, acknowledged leader of the religious life of the community (likely Capernaum).

· Jairus faced an intractable problem. So he sought out Jesus.

· Like the demoniac, he saw him and fell at his feet. Yet this is an act of reverence, of worship, of faith.

· V23 – his daughter is “at the point of death.” She is nearing the end. She is battling a sickness that cannot be cured.

o Little daughter—a term of endearment, and before marriageable age. We learn that she is 12.

o Everyone who has a daughter knows how precious they are, especially when they are small.

o Apparently he had a close and affectionate relationship with her, judging by how concerned he is and how he speaks about her.

· He has been confronted with something that he cannot solve, and it has driven him in faith to the one person he believes can solve it.

· “Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” “Made well” is “saved.” He is asking Jesus to save his daughter from death.

· Jesus agrees

II. The Woman’s Faith (5:24-34)

· Along the way, Jesus is amid the press of the crowd. “Thronged about”—pressed around.

o Battle—Concerts—Black Friday

· Amid the throng there was an anonymous woman.

· She was chronically ill, and mysteriously so

o Those who have chronic illness know how draining and degrading it can be to the body, and even to one’s own dignity.

· Twelve years a discharge of blood.

o Mark is not specific—likely related to her womb, which includes the fact that she would have been ritually impure, and therefore something of an outcast. She, strictly speaking, should not have been in the crowd at all.

· This illness had caused her great suffering under many physicians, and she had spent all she had trying to find a cure.

o Again, chronic illness sufferers can relate

o Likely taken advantage of by quacks, she was willing to try anything to end the suffering.

o Some remedies include:

§ Drinking a goblet of wine containing a powder made of rubber, alum, and garden crocuses.

§ Persian onions cooked in wine and administered with the words, “Arise out of your flow of blood!”

§ Sudden shock

§ Carrying the ash of an ostrich egg in a specific kind of cloth.

o Cures like these only made her suffering worse

· In her desperation, she hears of Jesus

o Echoing back to “hearing” of the soils in chapter 4

· She came up behind him, in order to touch his garment.

o Where did this belief come from? We don’t know specifically. Many people will say that she picked up this idea from Greco-Roman pagan magical beliefs. This is perhaps possible, and maybe she came into contact with them on her quest for healing among her doctors.

o It’s also possible that she understands this from the Old Testament

§ The man who touched the bones of Elijah came to life again.

§ Impurity was transferred through the touch of a garment—perhaps purity could be transmitted too?

§ This belief also is evidenced in Acts as handkerchiefs are brought from Peter and the Apostles to cure the sick.

o Whatever the case, she began to believe, however imperfectly and however partially and mixed with error, that if she could just get hold of Jesus, she would be healed.

· And she is. V29. The blood dried up. She immediately felt better, that she was healed.

· Then the most curious thing happens: Jesus in the middle of this urgent mission to reach a dying little girl stops and demands to know who touched him because he “perceived in himself that power had gone out from him.”

· His disciples are confused. “Um…Everyone is touching you? What do you mean?”

· Why does he demand to know who touched him?

o Clearly, simply touching Jesus is not sufficient to be healed. The disciples testify that many were touching him, but not all experienced a miracle.

o But notice the difference between what Jesus asks and what his disciples say he asked: “Who touched my garments?” vs. “Who touched me?” There is specificity in Jesus’ question.

o It seems that Jesus knows exactly what has happened. Someone has touched him. Specifically, they have touched his garments. And there has been healing power that has left him.

o He is drawing her out.

· While Jesus is looking about inquiring as to who touched him, a dawning realization comes over this woman.

o She came seeking healing, but she came into contact with a far greater power, a far greater healing than she expected.

o She came searching for healing. But she found God himself.

o “knowing what had happened to her.” Her fear is not that she had violated some social norm. It wasn’t that she felt that she had ritually defiled Jesus. It was not that she was embarrassed at being called out.

o Her fear and trembling was and evidence that she knew she had come into contact with the divine.

o In many other places, phrase “fear and trembling” is used in relationship to true obedience.

§ 2 Cor 7:15 – of how Corinth received Titus

§ Eph 6:5 – Of the attitude of slaves to masters

§ Phil 2:12 – work out your own salvation with “fear and trembling”

o Genuine contact with Jesus—true faith—actually seeing him will always come with the kind of joyful fear of knowing that the most powerful being in the universe is for us.

o This is very different than the kind of fear struck into the hearts of the Gerasene villagers. They saw him and they were afraid. This is the fear of power. It is not saving.

o But there is a kind of fear which is the fear of faith—the fear of love—the fear of devoted reverence. It trembles not because it is afraid of what God might do against us, but because it grasps the fact that God who would rightly be against us is now for us.

· Jesus’ love not only causes her to fear and tremble, but her faith also causes her to fall down at Jesus’ feet—like Jairus—and worship him.

· And it also calls us to tell him all the truth. The precise way this is meant is hard to tell. Was she saying to for the praise of God? Was this some sort of confession of sin? It’s hard to tell.

· Whatever the case, the fact that she publicly told the truth to Jesus acted as a kind of seal of her faith. The outward expression of a new inward reality of faith.

· So, Jesus then pronounces, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your disease.”

o Daughter parallels Jairus’ daughter.

§ This shows that there is a parallel to what has happened to the woman and what will happen to the girl. The girl was sick, and the woman was sick. The girl will be raised from the dead, and the woman has been raised from the dead.

o Your faith has saved you. Yes, from the disease, but even more from the spiritual sickness of sin. She had come to believe in Jesus—and her eyes were now opened.

o God in peace—wholeness of body and soul.

III. The Savior’s Power (5:35-43)

· You can imagine what Jairus is thinking during this time. “My daughter is near death! Why are we stopping!?”

· His worse fears are then confirmed: “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?

o Hear the claim about Jesus in that statement: Jesus’ power ends at death. There’s nothing he can do to help!

· But Jesus has something else to show. Mark never records any words from Jairus, never tells us that he fought Jesus. Never tells us that he doubted him.

· Jesus’ own words confirm this: “Do not fear, only believe.”

o The woman feared and trembled—now he is commanded not to fear. How does that make sense?

o Because they are two different kinds of fear. Jesus is saying “Do not fear faithlessly in the presence of death. Trust me.”

· And apparently, Jairus did believe! Why? Because he continued to walk with Jesus to the house, and came into the room with his dead daughter.

· He arrives and there are funeral mourners there. Some of these would be family, but some would be professional mourners—sometimes with instruments playing a dirge. This evidences that they all knew that the child had died.

· So Jesus’ answer is surprising: “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead, but sleeping.”

o Jesus is not saying that she is actually sleeping. She is dead.

o Rather, he is making a claim about what he is about to do. She is only dead for a moment—her death will be transformed into a short nap.

· But they laugh at him. And because they have no faith, he “casts them out” and takes the parents and the three disciples (Peter, James, and John) with him to witness the miracle.

· Then, he takes her by the hand—something which, according to Moses, makes a man unclean—and gives a simple command, which she then obeys.

o There is no magic here. No tricks. It is simple, straightforward power over death with a simple word.

o This also does not make Jesus unclean but rather gives life to the girl—much the same as the woman.

· And she got up and began walking.

· The language of 5:42 is emphatic. They were completely amazed. To see death reversed when they though all was beyond hope.

o The amazement was not only directed at their restored daughter, but also at the power of Jesus.

o “Who then is this, that even death obeys him?”

· Then, characteristically, Jesus commands them not to make known what had happened.

o That the girl was alive again would be obvious. She could walk and talk and would have met everyone outside.

o What Jesus means is not to speak of what happened inside.

o Why? Faith. The crowds had no faith—so they were cut off from their understanding that Jesus has power over death.

Conclusion

Let us summarize and apply by looking at what we learn about faith:

1. Faith is the only way we can truly come to Christ.

2. Faith persists in the face of insurmountable obstacles.

3. Faith expresses itself through action.

4. Faith sees Jesus as sufficient for our need, and drives us to seek him alone.