Each transcript is a rough approximation of the message preached and may occasionally misstate certain portions of the sermon and even misspell certain words. It should in no way be considered an edited document ready for print. Moreover, as in any transcription of the spoken word, the full intention and passion of the speaker cannot be fully captured and will in no way reflect the same style of a written document.

i would invite you if you would to turn your bibles to the gospel of luke chapter 8.

i don't know about you but this journey through luke's gospel has been a great joy for me just this time each and every week to to look at our lord jesus christ and to contemplate his life and his ministry has been just such a blessing to my own heart i hope that the journey has been the same for you

luke has been has been introducing us to people that jesus encountered in his life in ministry luke like every gospel writer is is choosing which things that he saw and heard to record in his gospel the the apostle john wrote in in his gospel uh you know a statement that says so much he says basically that there's no way for us to write down everything jesus said and did if we did that it would be volume after volume after volume so each of the gospel writers understands that and is including certain things that are are sort of germane to the point they're trying to make about christ in particular to the audience to whom they're writing and james excuse me not james but luke is writing to a largely gentile audience and he has carefully selected which events to include in his gospel and so as we're working our way through luke's gospel you and i should always be asking the question why does luke include this thing rather than something else why does luke want us to know about this person and their encounter with christ rather than someone else and i found myself asking that this week as we come to the end of luke chapter 8 and sort of wrap up this chapter and sort of shift gears into a sort of a new section of luke beginning in verse 9. there are two more people that luke wants us to meet before we move on to other things two more people that he wants to introduce to us two more people who encounter jesus and he wants us to pause and and know something about these encounters and these two people could not have been more different from one another as we work our way through the text you're going to find that there's one individual who is a man the other is a woman maybe those distinctions aren't as significant in our culture as they were in the first century maybe isn't the right word those distinctions were certainly not as distinct now as they were in the first century at least as it pertains to social identity and social interaction one is going to be a man one is going to be a woman one is rich the other is broke one is is respected and admired by peers and by society in general the other is an individual who's rejected and shunned and on the margins of society one is a very public figure one the other sort of lives in the shadows one is a beloved leader the other is a an invisible nobody one if you were to look at his life you would say that this is a person who's outwardly righteous the other one if you lived in that culture you would only know one word associated with her it'd be the word unclean these two people could not have been any more different from one another in just about every aspect of their existence but on this particular day they both meet jesus christ and both of their lives are changed forever because of the encounter

and we're going to be asking the question and i hope you'll be thinking about this as we work our way through these people who are so different what is it that they have in common what is the thread that ties them together that luke would want us to know about them both

we begin in verse 40 of luke chapter 8 and jesus excuse me luke sort of gives us the context and introduces us to the first person he says this now when jesus returned the crowd welcomed him for they were all waiting for him and there came a man named jairus who was a ruler of the synagogue falling at jesus feet he implored him to come to his house for he had an only daughter about 12 years of age and she was dying as jesus went the people pressed around him

now when we left off last week we we left off with jesus and his disciples on the other shore the other side of the sea of galilee they had quite a journey to get to that side of the shore they had left somewhere near capernaum on the sort of the the jewish side of the sea of galilee and they had gotten an abode because specifically because there was a crowd that had been following and a crowd that had been building in a crowd that had been gathering and pressing in with constant unending demands and jesus says to his disciples we need to get in the boat we need to cross over to the other side and we find out pretty quickly from luke's account that at least one of the purposes for that movement of the team was that jesus was physically exhausted he was absolutely wiped out from serving people non-stop and meeting their needs they get in the boat and he immediately falls dead asleep his body needed rest and and you recall the story they they head out onto the sea to cross to the other side and a storm uh blows in and and the disciples think they're gonna die and and chaos breaks loose and jesus awakens and and he calms the storm and does this incredible miracle where he speaks and just simply tells the storm to settle down and the storm stops in its tracks and the disciples are amazed and they're wondering who in the world he is they they know him but they don't know him immediately when they land on the other side of the shore likely still dripping wet they're met by what we saw last week this screaming naked uh maniac who is completely demonized by a legion of demons racing toward them from the cemetery screaming at them all the way and jesus has this remarkable encounter where he he cast this legion of demons out of them this man and into the swine who then hurl themselves into the lake and drown and that event sort of concluded with a really startling ending where all the people of the town come out and they come to see this thing that's happened this maniac who's now sane and in his right mind and clothed and sitting at jesus feet and their conclusion is that they're terrified and they say to jesus will you please just go away just leave to which he does not object he and his disciples get back in their boat and they sail back across the sea of galilee and go back somewhere near capernaum likely is where they come back ashore and we find immediately here that the crowd that they tried to escape from earlier hasn't gone anywhere the crowd is still right there by the shore waiting for them to come back likely has been building all of this time more people coming and more people gathering and so when jesus and his disciples get back to that side the crowd is still there and they're waiting for his return they're anxiously awaiting his turn and there's there's this remarkable contrast between the two crowds one crowd on one side sees the remarkable things that jesus does and says will you please leave and go away and the other crowd literally cannot get enough of them

in this crowd that jesus returns to this mixture this odd mixture of people in the mix there's some some followers who who truly are interested in jesus and they're truly wondering who he is and are truly amazed by what he's doing and what he's saying and they're they're seeking to know him and seeking to know more but they're not the majority of the crowd the majority of the crowd are people who have sort of come and gathered because they're attracted by the novelty of what he's doing they're hearing about his miracles and they're hearing about the things that he's done and they're they're attracted because they want to see more of it they want to see the show if you will mixed in with that are a whole slew of of sick and desperate individuals who people who have heard that jesus has healed other people and so they've come wanting the same thing for themselves and they are they're they're desperately clamoring to get in front of jesus with some hope that they might get to him and that they might be the next in line to be healed by him and then also in the mix are religious leaders antagonists people who are not impressed at all by jesus people who hate him and are even now beginning to plot his death because he's a threat to their power and a threat to their income stream and they want him out of the way

and so all of this is a mismatch sort of mishmash of people that are just clamoring for his attention and when he hits the shore everybody wants a piece of them everybody is trying to get to jesus and and and they're they're pressing in they're trying to get to him and yet it's remarkable to me that jesus continues to remain accessible to the crowd i mean this is the book of his ministry and it's a it's a very distinct contrast to the jewish religious leaders of the day the religious leaders within judaism were renowned for cloistering themselves away from the crowds in the synagogues they hated the crowds they didn't want anything to do with the clamoring crowds of people they avoided them at all cost they viewed the crowds particularly the sick among the crowds as defiled and beneath them and they didn't want anything to do with such people but jesus wasn't like that he didn't closer himself away he didn't hide from people he didn't hide from the crowds he didn't hide inside the walls of a synagogue he conducted his ministry out in public right where the people were who needed him the most and he was right there among them he wasn't perturbed by them he wasn't embarrassed by them he wasn't ashamed of them they were not beneath him they were in fact his target audience and so here he is and it's hard for us to underestimate the size of this crowd it's it really is because i think our imagination sort of thinks of this small crowd but this was a massive group of people that was that was likely rather chaotic with people pressing and pushing and doing whatever they can to get toward him they're sick and desperate people everywhere pushing and shoving and shouting and they're literally making it very difficult for jesus to even move about

and luke tells us in the midst of that that crowd is a very unexpected individual a man by the name of jairus

very unexpected man in that crowd he was a very well-known public figure from a nearby town he is described here in the esv translation as a ruler of the synagogue he was a lay elder who was a layman who was responsible for the administration of everything that took place in the synagogue he was responsible for for planning and conducting worship he was functioned sort of as a building administrator for the synagogue he he was responsible for selecting who would teach in the synagogue week to week he was sort of a community affairs coordinator as well for the synagogue he was the leader of the local synagogue and if you knew anything about jewish life all of jewish life in the first century revolved around what location and what place well the synagogue that was everything to them and this man was the key figure in the local synagogue everybody would have known this man he was a very important individual in society

very well respected well known for his godliness

and men in his sort of position in life were wealthy individuals as well but this particular man this particular jewish ruler has a problem and all of his wealth can't do a thing to help him

and we're introduced to that problem immediately we're told that he is a 12 year old daughter his only daughter and she is gravely ill at the point of death we're not told what's killing her we're not told what the problem is but there's something that has afflicted this little girl and it is serious and it's severe

and like any father this this man has likely exhausted every means at his disposal in the culture to try to help his precious little girl like what father would not do that right what father would not go to the ends of the earth and spend his last penny to help his dying child

no doubt that's the position that jairus is in he's absolutely desperate he's run out of options there's nowhere else to turn there's nothing else available to do he's tried everything and she continues to decline

is there any i just as an aside is there any worse pain that you can imagine as a parent than watching your child suffer and die and knowing that there's absolutely nothing that you're just completely powerless to do anything about it that is the condition of this man all of his respect all of his position all of his power all of his wealth none of it could do anything he couldn't leverage any of those things to do one thing to help his little girl who's desperate and dying

and so he comes and he gets into this mob of people

with whom he would normally not associate and he waits by the seashore for jesus to show up and when he finds him we're told that he assumes his position of humility he falls at jesus feet he doesn't demand anything from jesus he doesn't leverage his position he doesn't exalt his own importance he knows the opposition that's growing toward jesus among the jewish religious leaders and immediately he assumes a position in front of jesus that communicates that he is not one who's a part of that

he recognizes that jesus has power and that power is from god and he knows he has no other option and so he throws all of his pride to the wind he throws all of his position to the wind he doesn't care what anybody else thinks he just wants his daughter to live

so he falls before jesus

seeing jairus desperation seeing his humility observing his grief jesus has his response we're told by luke that he immediately heads off in the direction he goes he goes he's requested to come with jairus to his home to help his daughter and jesus is motivated to to grant a request and so he starts sort of pushing his way through the crowd this enormous crowd he's trying to make his way through in order to get in the direction of jairus house to help this little girl and as we're moving to the text it's like luke sort of moves the camera from gyrus to another individual and then back to jairus this whole thing flows sort of in three acts and what happens here is as jesus is making his way toward jairus house there is an unexpected interruption that takes place the plan gets sidetracked

because there's another desperate individual in this same crowd

and luke introduces us to her in verse 43. he says now there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years and though she had spent all her living on physicians she could not be healed by anyone she came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment and immediately her discharge of blood ceased

and jesus said who is it that touched me when all denied it peter said master the crowd surround you and are pressing in on you but jesus said someone touched me for i perceive the power has gone out for me

and when the woman saw that she was not hidden she came trembling falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him and how she had been immediately healed

jesus was getting ready to perform a miracle at jairus house but there was another miracle that needed to take place first and it is an unexpected surprising and incredible miracle and jesus response to this woman and her condition is remarkable and it tells us an awful lot about the character and the nature of christ

we don't know hardly anything about this lady we're told no details about her life we're told nothing about where she came from all we know is that she has an awful condition and she's had it for a very long time

12 years to be exact the exact length of time jairus daughter has been alive this woman has been bleeding

some sort of a gynecological problem some sort of likely hemorrhaging from

uterine we don't know exactly what it was but it had to have been awful it had to have been awful bleeding consistently for 12 years not 12 hours not 12 days not 12 months 12 years no relief not one day of relief in 12 years can you imagine the pain can you imagine the exhaustion from loss of blood can you imagine the humiliation and the embarrassment this woman had lived with for all these years how difficult it must have been for her to do anything even the the basic things necessary for life how does she conduct those things in this kind of a culture with this kind of a problem

mark shed some light on this incident with a little additional detail in mark 5 26 he says the woman had suffered much under many physicians and had spent all that she had and was no better but rather grew worse now luke tells us that she had exhausted her income on doctors but mark tells us an additional bit of information he indicates not only did she spend all of her money on doctors but the indication is that the doctors had put her through all kinds of hell and taken advantage of her incidentally luke being a doctor doesn't mention such things

but this woman has tried everything every option available she's gone to every doctor that she can reach she's tried every treatment that's available and nothing has helped her not one thing and in case you're wondering what kind of a treatment one might find in the first century for such an affliction you could look to the jewish talmud and here's what it says to do for someone with this kind of a problem it says take the gum of the alexandria the weight of a small silver coin of allium the same of crocus the same let them be bruised together and given in wine to the woman that has an issue of blood if this does not benefit take take of persian onions three pints boil them in wine and give her to drink and say arise from thy flux like abracadabra hocus pocus if this does not cure her set her in a place where two waves meet and let her hold a cup of wine in her right hand and let someone come up behind her and frighten her and say arise from thy flux

now we laugh at this right because we live in the year 2022 and it sounds incredibly ridiculous but this was the cutting edge of modern medicine in the first century and you can imagine this poor woman doing these things because she thinks that's her only choice to get help can't you just see this woman standing in the middle of a road or two ways apart holding a glass of wine in her hand trying to hide her humiliation while somebody sneaks up behind her so the way that i flux you know what in the world holding out hope beyond hope that maybe that would help

she's done all these things

she's tried everything conventional and non-conventional

and she's found no help she still bleeds

can you imagine sort of that cycle of of hope and disappointment hope and disappointment hope and disappointment that she's been running for 12 years and all of this has gotten her as an empty bank account she's broke and that's not the only problem it's not just the physical affliction see this particular kind of physical affliction came with a social and religious problem as well there was a social and religious effect of this whole thing because this kind of a particular affliction rendered a woman unclean you could go to leviticus chapter 15 and verse 19 and here's what levitical law says when a woman has a discharge and the discharge in her body is blood she shall be in her menstrual impurity for seven days whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening and then if you jump down to verse 25 in leviticus 15 it says this if a woman has a discharge of blood for many days not at the time of her menstrual impurity or if she has a discharge beyond the time of her impurity all the days of the discharge she call she shall continue in one uncleanness as in the days of her purity she shall be unclean this woman has been unclean for how long for 12 years for 12 years and you and i hear the word unclean you don't know what it means because we don't run around calling people unclean we don't stick that label on people and then have social implications of that but in the first century that had tremendous social implications if you were unclean you couldn't enter the synagogue if you were unclean you couldn't participate in public worship if you were unclean you could not physically touch anybody ever because anybody that touched you or that you touched they then became unclean

so for 12 years this woman had received zero human touch zero nobody would have wanted anything to do with her she would have been completely shunned stop for a minute and think about what an important role touch plays in your life socially and in your relationships how often you touch somebody

and imagine a life where you could touch nobody and where nobody would dare touch you

this had been her reality for 12 years

she had no hope for marriage or a family

because no man could touch her

she had lived for 12 years a miserable lonely life

and when she looked down the tunnel of time in the future she saw absolutely no hope for a good life in the future our life was hopeless at some point she hears about jesus though and she hears about them healing people and she thinks what have i got to lose i've i've stood in the way and let somebody scare me i've drank onion juice and wine and everything else why not go see him here's a man who's healing people and at no charge which is good when you have no money

so she throws caution to the wind and she travels to capernaum and she has a plan we're told that her plan is to come up behind him which is exactly what she does and she touches the fringe of his garment now this crowd is going to provide her with the kind of cover that she needs so i sort of imagine this woman with something over her head sort of veiling her appearance so that nobody can identify her but this mob is perfect because everybody is sort of mobbing jesus and looking toward jesus and so she sort of can fight her way through the crowd from behind sort of unnoticed she's taking a remarkable risk because if anybody identifies her moving her way through the crowd what do you think is going to happen there's going to be outrage why because there's no way for her to get from the outside to jesus other than doing what touching a lot of people

but to her the risk is worth it because he's our only hope so her goal seems to be this to sneak in from behind to touch the edge of his outer garment to be healed and to sort of sneak out through the crowd and go back home healed that seems to be her plan

so she fights her way through the crowd and she gets nearby and she finally sees the opportunity a tassel from the fringe of his garment is within reach and she lunges and grabs hold of it hoping not to be noticed

and luke tells us miraculously after 12 years of desperate attempts this woman is healed she's healed she's healed immediately and she knows it she's healed completely we're told she knew what this disease felt like in her body and she knew the moment it was gone the bleeding stopped after 12 years

her heart must have left out of her chest it must have right her nightmare was over her life restored and so no doubt she immediately turns and tries to inconspicuously sneak her way out of the crowd but on this day that was absolutely not going to be possible why was it not possible because jesus doesn't allow it

did you catch that he doesn't allow it

she wasn't the only one who felt this healing take place jesus did too so he literally stops in his tracks on his movement toward jairus house and he looks around and he asks a question out loud who was it that touched me who touched me

can you imagine the crowd around him everybody looking at each other luke says they're all denying it it wasn't me jesus he touched it was i didn't touch you he's not shooting i didn't touch you she touched you

and peter you just got to love peter don't you he's never at a loss for something ridiculous to say and i appreciate that about him right because i've said some ridiculous things in my time peter's never at a loss for something impulsive and ridiculous to say he hears jesus say who touched me and he's like what are you talking about jesus who touched you like everyone's touching you what do you mean who touched you like the crowd it's pressing in on you you're surrounded by a mob everybody's touching you that's a ridiculous question a better question might be who isn't touching you everybody's touching you

in the south we might say to peter bless his heart right bless his heart bless his little heart he just said something stupid to jesus it won't be the last time he does that either

jesus replies to him and says somebody touched me for i perceive power has gone out for me peter everybody might be touching me but only one person touched me like this and her touch was different it was a touch of a of a humble and desperate faith that was believing upon me for healing

and in response she was healed by my power i felt it

now at this point we need to stop and ask what in the world is jesus doing why doesn't he let this woman just go off about her merry way healed that's all she was looking for why does he let her just sort of drift off into the into the background back into anonymity why does he stop and press the point why does he make a public issue of this why does he choose to expose her publicly

certain it was the last thing she wanted

the reason is because the thing that she wanted most was not the thing that she needed the most

and out of tremendous love and grace and kindness the savior of the world is going to not only give her what she wanted the most but he's going to grant her what she needed the most

she has a worse problem than a 12-year bleed she has a soul that's sick from sin and is condemned to hell and the savior intends to address that as well

and so jesus presses this point who is it that touched me he's not going to let it go and this woman knows that she's the one and she knows that she's caught and now all of a sudden her sheer joy is turned into abject terror because she has to come forward and identify herself and as we see in what luke tells us is that that that she falls before him trembling and declares in the presence of all the people why she touched him and how she'd been healed this woman now has to expose to the entire crowd who she is and what she's done

and she's terrified enough that she's literally shaking you ever been scared enough that you shake she is she doesn't know how this is going to turn out she's just told the crowd and everybody that she's touched who she is and they're all thinking oh dear lord now i'm unclean until the evening

and probably not of one of them would think for a moment i'm unclean until the evening she's been unclean for 12 years or even have compassion for that but jesus isn't like the crowd there's a risk that this crowd could rise up in anger and harm her and so she's terrified and at first it seems like a really unkind thing for jesus to do however it turns out to be a remarkable act of grace jesus looks at her and says to her daughter your faith has made you well go in peace

there's at least two things that jesus is doing here in this act the first is that he's restoring her socially he's restoring her socially he says very clearly your faith has made you well the word translated the esp made you well it comes from the greek word sojo which means to save your your faith has saved you it's rescued you

this woman had this woman had come to jesus in humble faith she abandoned every other source of help she had recognized him as her only hope and she had grabbed hold of his clothing trusting in his power to heal her and in response to that kind of faith jesus heals her he heals her physically socially eternally

so he could legitimately say to her go in peace not only was her body made whole but her sin had been dealt with her war of rebellion against god where she was god's enemy has now been set to rest and she can go literally in peace

she can go away knowing she's got peace with god and it's not just about her knowing that it's about everybody else knowing that too

it was jesus making a public declaration to this crowd this woman is no longer what she's no longer unclean she's to be received back into society touch her hug her love her

and if there's any question about how deep her saving the saving act went jesus addresses her as daughter he doesn't call her by the general term for woman he calls her daughter now you can read through the gospels and i suspect you're not going to find any other person that he refers to personally this way but he's recognizing that there's a new reality in this woman's life she has been literally adopted into his family she's no longer a stranger she's no longer an enemy she's no longer an outsider he looks at her and he says to her affectionately daughter daughter you belong to me now this woman who has been rejected by everybody for 12 years including her own family hears the savior of the world call her daughter daughter you're mine you belong to me you're no longer in the shadows you belong at my table in my home in my family you're mine

you're my daughter

through the salvation that jesus brought to this woman's soul she's now part of his family one minute she's a an object of scorn rejected by everybody a nobody in her culture and the next minute she's a child of the king a daughter of god incarnate she came to jesus in shame just hoping to be healed from a sickness but she found in him so much more she found more love she found more kindness she found more grace she found a remarkable savior who restored her life in every single way

isn't that remarkable he didn't have to do any of that but he does because he loves people well in case you've forgotten while this is all playing out right in front of the crowd you have gyrus there in the crowd and the clock is ticking like it's ticking for you right now the clock was ticking for jairus every minute that jesus spends dealing with this woman is a minute delay of him getting to his house to his daughter

and that delay becomes tragic immediately because we're told in verse 49 while he was still speaking that is to the woman someone from the ruler's house com came and said your daughter is dead do not trouble the teacher anymore

but jesus on hearing this answered him don't fear only believe and she'll be well

while jesus is still speaking jairus worst nightmare comes to bear somebody comes racing from his home and says it's too late it's too late she's dead don't bother jesus anymore she's gone

you tried your best jairus but you're too late

luke doesn't give us the details but i can imagine this man crumbles to the ground right

what would any father do

what would any father do but she's dead

but jesus again in tremendous love and compassion says to this man jairus don't fear only belief jairus don't fear she'll be well jairus i'm in control of everything hang on buddy hang on just believe exercise some faith in me i didn't i didn't move in this direction just to be late to the party i i didn't i didn't give you hope just to yank the rug out from underneath you you hold on brother it's going to be all right i'll finish what i started you just have to believe

jairus does believe and they continue on to jairus house

and luke tells us what happens when they came to the house he allowed no one to enter with him except peter and john and james and the father and the mother of the child jairus and his wife and all were weeping and mourning for her but he said do not weep for she's not dead but sleeping and they laughed at him knowing that she was dead but taking her by the hand he called saying child arise and her spirit returned and she got up at once and he directed that some something should be given to her to eat the parents were amazed but he charged them not i charge them to tell no one what had happened

jesus continues on his way with gyrus and they get to the house of this dead little girl they get to the doorway and jesus tells everybody to stay behind except for whom peter james and john why do you think he tells everybody to stay behind except for peter james and john well probably because the house doesn't hold the whole crowd i'm sure but jesus is doing some leadership training write down in your notes if you are taking notes acts 9 36 through 40. acts 9 36 through 40 or just log it in your memory bank and go read it later you're going to find that later after jesus death and resurrection peter's going to be going about doing ministry and there's going to be a time in peter's life when he comes upon a scene where there's a dead little girl how is peter going to know what to do

he's going to know what to do because on this day in luke chapter 8 jesus invites him in and he shows him precisely what to do and so peter in acts chapter 9 does exactly what jesus did in luke chapter 8 and guess what happens the same thing

jesus is training peter while he's doing other things

but inside this house is devastation you've got a morning family and you've got professional mourners now we don't do that in our culture we don't hire people to come scream and wail and cry at funerals who are not part of the family that seems odd and weird to us right like you would you would think it was bizarre if you went to a funeral and there were a bunch of strangers there just screaming and yelling and crying and wailing and ripping their clothes and playing music right that was normal in the first century the more important you were the more of that went on and into the midst of that jesus walks and says to everybody settle down cut it out she's not dead she's what she's sleeping she's taking a nap and the mourners who are professional mourners they shut off the morning like that and they do what they laugh at him they laugh at him you got to be kidding man who are you we've seen dead people before this is our job right she's dead

well jesus redefines what death means doesn't he

you see jesus came to save people from death he came to save people from sin and from death he came to die to be buried and to rise from the dead he came to take the sting out of death and to render it powerless over people so he has no fear whatsoever of death to him this little girl was not dead death is permanent so jesus says she's taking a nap her body physically had stopped working but spiritually death was not complete and like a father like a loving father he walks up to this dead girl and he takes her hand which incidentally is another act that would have made him unclean and he could have healed her without it but he touches her and he says to her little girl awake just like any parent would go into their child's room in the morning and say sweetheart wake up it's time to get up

and immediately her spirit returns to her body her eyes snap open and like the woman she's healed completely and she's healed immediately there's no rehab needed there's no further treatment needed she's healthy enough to enjoy a meal jesus orders up some food

a dead girl comes to life and jesus says to this family do me a favor don't share this with people well everybody's going to know what took place in this home but jesus isn't interested in drawing a bigger crowd because of his miracles

but this sweet family is reunited a woman 12 years bleeding a 12 year old little girl dead both completely fully restored by a loving gracious savior who meets people in the midst of their desperation and heals them heals them what do we take away from all this let me just give you three quick things i think they're obvious the first is this the good news of the gospel is for everybody it doesn't matter who you are it doesn't matter if you're a woman or a man it doesn't matter if you're rich or you're poor it doesn't matter if you're respected or you're rejected it doesn't matter if you're important or if you're unimportant it doesn't matter if you're popular or you're shunned it doesn't matter if you're religious or you're unclean none of those human distinctions matter when it comes to saving faith in the lord jesus christ the gospel is for everybody it doesn't matter where you've come from it doesn't matter what you've done it doesn't matter what position you find yourself in this particular place in your life none of that matters no distinction cuts you off from the grace of the lord jesus christ anybody can come to him and find salvation by grace through faith in the lord jesus christ

at the end of the day it doesn't matter who you are it matters who he is and what he can do and if you come to him with humble faith recognizing that he is your only hope and abandoning all other help but trusting in him the bible says you'll be saved you will be saved he will not turn you away if you're here this morning and for whatever reason you haven't trusted christ you've never come to him like jairus or like this woman recognizing that your situation although it isn't physical and it isn't your child dying that you have a problem with sin that has condemned your soul to eternal hell and there is no there's nothing your money there is nothing your power there is nothing your prestige there is nothing about you that can you can leverage that can do anything to save you from that that jesus christ is your only hope

if you haven't come to realize that and come to him on those terms like these two did you need to today and if you will you'll find in him a loving and merciful and gracious savior who will meet you in that place and will save you it doesn't matter who you are it matters who he is secondly i won't belabor this but for believers death is it should be no more frightening than a nap it really shouldn't if you're a christian and you're here this morning death should not terrify you it should frighten you no more than an afternoon nap because the bible says for believers to be absent from this body is to be instantly aware to be present with the lord by his death and resurrection jesus has has destroyed death and by faith in him you have the promise that you will rise like he has risen and death is nothing to be feared it's simply the doorway into his presence we go to sleep here and you wake up there

one of our dear saints from our church had that very experience this week miss madeleine johnson who had been suffering in some ways from a body that had been declining for a very long time earlier this week she went to sleep she didn't wake up here but she woke up there

and she's all the better for it finally and this has been the point of luke all throughout the gospel so far jesus is god in human flesh and salvation is found in no one else nobody can do what christ can do there's only one there's only one jesus there's only one way there's only one way to be saved faith in the lord jesus christ coming to him in humble faith renouncing every other means for salvation throwing the whole weight of your hope on him and him alone that's what jairus did that's what this woman did abandoning every other hope for healing they clung to christ and looked to him and him alone trusting him to do what nobody else could do

and they were saved and you can be too why won't you be why won't you be let's pray lord jesus you're everything to us

we try to the best of our imagination to picture the realities of these experiences but

our imagination only takes us so far

we can't catch the full breadth of your glory and your majesty that must have been on vivid display on this particular day

but what we can know is your love and your mercy and your grace that you showed to people who like us were completely undeserving who had done nothing to earn it

but whose only movement toward you was a movement of humble faith that bowed before you recognizing their own weakness abandoning every other hope and trusting you to do for them what nobody and nothing else could ever do

and in that moment you met them and you healed them and you restored them in every way and you can do the same for any man for any woman who'll come to you on those terms

if you confess with your mouth jesus is lord believe in your heart that god raised him from the dead you will be saved we pray lord jesus that you would work that miracle in the heart of some man some woman some young person that's in this room today who needs that more than anything

it may not be what they've come here wanting this morning but it's what they've come here needing and you have a track record of giving people what they need beyond what they want so would you lord jesus work that miracle here today for somebody

and for the rest of us lord may you draw our hearts toward you and wonder in amazement at your love and your mercy and your compassion and your grace

we prayed in jesus name amen