Mark Chapter 5 Verses 21 – 23

• This is a HUGE deal! Why, we’ve seen this before? Folks falling at Jesus’ feet, following Him around and stuff…Yes but did you notice what Mark said? He said that Jairus (I like to call him Jerry) he is one of the rulers of one of the synagogue! Oooook, still not impressed. Well maybe it’s because we’re missing a few details… 

• Matthew Chapter 9. Verse 18. Check it out. Matthew tells us that Jerry worshipped Him…oh my guuuudness, that’s crazy! Huh? Hang on, it’s a cliffhanger, more coming! Jerry says not that his daughter is sick but that she’d dead! So Jairus is well beyond concerned, powerfully more than worried…he is to the point of shameless desperation. His beautiful, precious princess…gone… 

• Matt, what’s the point? The point is that here comes a ruler of the Synagogue to fall before Jesus AFTER Jesus made it quite known that He is JA! "Only God can forgive sins!" They proclaimed in Mark 2:7 which subsequently Matthew covers in Chapter 9 verse 3! So THIS. IS. HUGE! 

• Imagine the people. A great multitude is gathered to Him, Mark says. And here comes Jerry. A ruler of the synagogue. An enemy of Jesus. And one leans over to the other in the crowd and says, "get a good seat, it’s about to go down!" Maybe another from a spot near the center of the scene in the crowd begins to call out, "Leeeeeeet’s get ready to ruuuuuummmmmbbbblllleeee!" (Is that illegal? Can I say that?)

• But it’s not the fight that goes down…it’s the law. It’s not the fists that are thrown, its Jerry’s cares. It’s not the accusatory words that are hurled through the air at Jesus…its spiritual bankruptcy. Where is the hope of Judaism now? Where is the power of religion in this moment? They’re both exposed. They can’t help. Jesus is finally this man’s only hope and therefore hope will finally be found! Imagine what the crowd must think! 

• Is this where you have to come to? Clinging to the world for hope…clinging to your boyfriend for sufficiency, your girlfriend? Maybe your job…maybe your religion? When it all falls apart and fails you, which it will whatever it is…like an addict we text the dealer…Hey Devil, give me some more…lose his number! 

• Just fall. What’s the big deal? Just fall at the feet of the only hope there really is…the only One that will never fall apart, will never use you, will never abuse you or abandon you. No doubt Jerry had opportunities before now but progressively he has been drawn further and further in and now is the ruler of a temple of hopelessness…do you have to come to that? I hope not. But if that’s what it takes, I pray for horrific trials man…terrible I know, but if that’s what it takes for you to enter into eternal life…for God’s will to be done…for you to be with Him alive forever, how could I not pray for that…

• Which by the way is entirely against my nature. My friends, my family, all I want is to protect them and stiff arm risks and pain…but what if I’m protecting them from salvation and freedom and hope? Can’t do it man…and so I fight my nature…just like bagels… 

• You ever notice you just do things a certain way always? This week I was toasting a bagel and noticed that I placed it in with the inside facing the inside…and I thought to myself, why do I do that? There are burners on all four sides in my toaster…it’s awesome…but to turn the bagel around…unthinkable! HA, so I didn’t but then I thought, what other parts of my life, what other habits do I have, what other nature…in me, is just like this? Much. The answer is much. God help me to fall before others have to…

• Imagine the crowd. This word for fall in the Greek actually means, "He descended from a higher place to a lower place." From the ruler to the wretched…and the crowd gasped. Could this be? Judaism bowing to Jesus? Oh yes. Religion bowing to reality? Yea. So this is it? He is it, wow. This word also means the "dismemberment of a corpse by decay." You see Mark is trying to tell us that Jairus just came apart man…and coming apart at the feet of Jesus…well we’re about to see the result…

Mark Chapter 5 Verse 24

• Jesus. Went. With. Him. The result is legendary man…epic…fantastic. Jesus went with Him. Jesus, the Savior of the world. The Savior of the situation. The Hope that is worthy and the Cure that is actually real…but notice the pattern. Verse 22 comes before verse 23. I know what you’re thinking, well duh. But the impact of it all…

• Verse 22, Jerry falls at His feet…then verse 23, Jerry makes his prayer known. Oh how I get that backwards and become the commander of God. We all do this. Make our requests known, we pray to God, call upon Him yet we have not fallen at His feet in personal brokenness…and we wonder why the pain proliferates…we’ve got the order all wrong…the correct order…Jerry shows us…and Jesus…goes with him.

Mark Chapter 5 Verses 25 – 29

• Notice, her doctrine is all wrong isn’t it! Where in the scriptures is it written, "Whosoever Toucheth my Jordans shall be made whole!" Nowhere, right? But what we do find…"the pure in heart, they shall see God." "When you seek Him with all your heart, you’ll find Him." We read that "God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." So this lady right here…terrible doctrine! But healed? Yes! Why? Because God see’s right into the heart of a person. I love this. 

• Why? Because there are churches and groups and pastors all over the world that claim that only they have it right. News flash for them and for us. Only Jesus has it right. Let’s get to Him. It is His heart that we seek, not our own. We press forward. We don’t have it all right. By the very practical fact that we learn means that we ain’t got it right yet. And that’s ok. Well pleased is the Lord! Try the bagel turned out next time! Press in for Jesus man…out of your comfort zone, through the crowds of your cares man…and be healed. 

• This lady, 12 years with a flow of blood. Poor and lost now. She’s spent all her money. And the world has spent all of her. To have an issue of blood meant that you were unclean…she hadn’t been touched for 12 years…the physicians wouldn’t have even touched her. She hadn’t been held, hugged or honored in 12 years. She hadn’t been able to work, to farm, to buy, to sell, to care for her children or her husband or her mother or father…she probably hadn’t even been home. Oh how broken her heart must have been…and here comes Jesus. 

• Doctrine schmoctrine…pure and undefiled religion is this…brokenness…humility…purity of heart and desperate love for Jesus. You pray an hour a day, great. Fast one week out of the month, very nice. You read your Bible every day and memorize scripture purposefully and diligently. I don’t really care. Do you love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength? And do you love others? If not…what’s it all worth? Basura in the Spanish…it’s all trash. 

• Show me your love man. Show me your service. Let me watch you press through the crowds of your real deal problems and issues man to get to Jesus…to simply touch His garment…that is what impresses me. That is what reminds me of the cross man…that is what honors God…that is good doctrine man…see that? 

• And immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed…that she could go home…that she could be held…comfort was now her crowd…not her despair…fasting didn’t get her there, prayer didn’t get her there, repetitious religion didn’t get her there, spending didn’t get her there, seeking the counsel of men didn’t get her there…perfect doctrine got her there…I’m lost, I’m broken but if I could just get to Jesus…I shall be made well… 

• This is why I reject religion and I personally reject the expressed piety of others…so what. Show me the love of Christ lest it be all discovered that you are just carnal man…lest your life be wasted on living for pride and for self. I. Hate. Waste. And therefore, unashamedly, I hate religion. But my heart is filled with the power and presence of the Holy Spirit when service to God and service to others is revealed through the love flowing through us straight from the veins of the crucified Christ man…

Mark Chapter 5 Verses 30 – 33

• Verse 33 is one of the clearest depictions of worship in the entire Bible. Study it. Are you there? This is the heart into which the virtue of Christ will freely flow! This is why I get crazy when my body screams, "I’m too tired to serve. I’m too exhausted to study my Bible, to go to church…" Man, I’m too tired NOT TO!  

• You ever see folks yawning at the gym? Just want to slap ‘em don’t you? HA! Stop that! This is the gym man…get hype! And they wonder why they have no gains while you’re over here vein popping as you pump out the iron looking forward to the huge gains and the mirror sessions in the bathroom when no one else is around! HA!

• Well are you vein popping here? Man if you only knew the gain that is to be found here in the Word of God, in a heart that bows down to the King of Kings, the Ancient of Days, the Creator and the Cure of it all…trembling in awe at it all…oh man the gain! But folks yawn…drives me nuts…worst of all they continue to suffer, addicted to the things of this world and ripped off of the life that there is to be given freely through Jesus man, the peace…drives me crazy! 

• Watch the peace arrive for this lady…who’s got it right…

Mark Chapter 5 Verses 34 – 36

• No problem Lord! You just gave me a basis for which to believe You! They’re all around us too, just look around this room!

Mark Chapter 5 Verses 37 – 39 

• I’ll take the perspective of Jesus no doubt Jerry thought right here…you know what? Me too! Any situation!

Mark Chapter 5 Verses 40 – 43 

• Did you hear that? How old is she? 12! How long did the woman have the flow of blood? 12 years! Oh man there is a lot here…I’ll summarize so that we can close.

• First, the comparison is demanded! The comparison of Jerry and his daughter with the woman that had the flow of blood. Jerry, the most visible member of the community. One of the rulers of the synagogue. He was famous. The woman? Anonymous. 

• Jerry was wealthy, the woman had nothing. Jerry was a public leader, the woman was forbidden from even interacting with the public…never allowed in the synagogue! For 12 years Jerry’s daughter grew and filled their house with laughter, joy and sweet memories. For 12 years, this woman’s house was overcome with misery, loneliness and despair… 

• By all heavenly account, these two are utterly equal. Jesus’ love and compassion and attention to them…equal. Their worth to Him…equal. Their healing received from Him…equal. Wherever you are at…your access to life is unhindered and free…we stand on equal ground you and I. Me and the Pope. Me and Paul the apostle…me and the murderer on death row. Jesus’ love for us…equal. His compassion…immeasurable. And His grace…unstoppable! 

• Second…12…12 plus 12…24. Where have we seen this before, just recently even? Revelation 4:10…the 24 elders. Who represent whom? Yes, the full history of mans’ salvation. The complete church of Jesus Christ. The Old Covenant and the New Covenant united in the presence of the throne of God. The 12 tribes of Israel, Old Testament…plus the 12 Apostles, New Testament…equal the 24 who are seated around the seat of glory in heaven…

• What does that have to do with this? Something I see. The dead girl presented first…a type of the human situation…what are the wages of sin…death. And so a picture of all men trapped in death. Then the woman that has the flow of blood for 12 years. To me, a type of the Old Covenant as the blood of lambs and goats and turtle doves and all the sacrifices continued in the temple of the Jews…until Jesus came and put an end to the sacrifice, providing Himself as the perfect and final sacrifice to bring all men, check it out, back to life…just like He did with Jerry’s daughter…so extremely cool, so powerfully significant… 

• And the punch line…the point…He didn’t have to…yet for God so loved you and so loved me and so loved us all…that He did it…He is our Hero…fall at His feet today, allow Him to go with you…in Jesus’ name.