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The 60 | Faith Unexpected | Mark 5:21-43

Debrief

Debrief offers an abridged outline of the Sunday sermon for individuals or Community Groups alike, to re-engage the content of the Sunday sermon.  This outline is far from complete, but serves to give a track or road map to walk through the content of Sunday in another context during the week

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.  And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. – James 1:1-3

All of us have different trials, but we all share certain things in common.

The thing both the woman and Jairus, the little girls father, have in common the most, is that they’re both (1) in desperate circumstances, (2) have no hope at all apart from Jesus, and (3) must live in faith instead of fear if they want to live through it.

Now FATIH is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. – Hebrews 11:1

“Now FEAR is the doubt of things hoped for, the distrust of things not seen.”

Fear That Things Will Always Be The Same  (24-34)

The woman’s need is less urgent than the little girls, but she is no less needy

She Is Unclean  (v:25-26)

No touch in 12 years…….No marital intimacy in 12 years…….No children…….No holding children or helping with them…….No coffee with the girls…….No play dates…….No participation in public worship

This woman had not only been suffering from her disease, but from her cures as well.  The suffering plus the supposed cures have all made things worse, not better.  Everything she has tried on her own has made things worse. 

She’s isolated…….she’s alone…….she’s broke…….she unprotected…….she has few people who can relate…….she has no where else she can go…….she sees no end in sight  (how about you?)

Faith Means Trusting The Power of Jesus Instead of the Power of Our Circumstances  (v:27-30)

This is the first time the GK word dunamis (power) is used in the book of Mark.  This should key us in on the main point of this story: the power of faith in Jesus and through Jesus instead of fear without Jesus and outside of Jesus.

At the end of the day, fear is trusting the power of demons, and faith is trusting the power of Jesus.  Fear is trusting the authority of demons, and faith is trusting the authority of Jesus.

Faith Means Trusting The Person of Jesus, Instead of The Power of Our Circumstance  (v:32-34)

The Power of Jesus has it’s origin in the Person of Jesus:  the Son of God

Superstitious Faith:  some rules in the ancient world were thought to have power to bless the people that touched them.

The woman may not have want a relationship with Jesus, but wanted something from Jesus.  The only thing on her mind was the healing.  It had been a long time.  She wasn’t even thinking about relationship.

She comes to Jesus for something.  He goes to her for someone.

BUT Jesus wouldn’t have that. He brought her into relationship.  He drew her close and took the time to hear her whole story (“the whole truth”).

Jesus has the power to give the woman His personal time and attention, even while someone else who needs Him might be feeling slighted.  He is powerful enough hold that tension.  It’s no problem for him.

Fear That Things Will Never Be The Same  (v:21-24; 35-43)

Jairus’ Life For 12 Years

  • Jairus was a respected member of His Church and community who enjoyed al the benefits of a respected life.
  • Jairus raised his daughter for 12 good years, enjoying all the blessing of having a daughter that you or I would enjoy.

Jarius was pushed into a crisis of belief he’d never had before when his daughter was literally “deathly ill,” and later died.  (v:36)

Faith Means Trusting The Patience of Jesus Instead of the Pressure of Your Circumstance   (v:35-36)

The little girl is “as good as dead” if Jesus doesn’t come.  She is “at death’s door” so to speak.  (v:23)

Jairus must have been dying inside while his daughter was literally dying. 

Do you ever feel like things are getting worse for you while they’re getting better for other people, and wonder where Jesus is and what He’s thinking?

How do you feel when you’re still sick or hurting and someone else is healed and helped?

It’s not “I will not be hurried even though I love you”; it’s “I will not be hurried because I love you.  I know what I’m doing.  And if you try to impose your understanding of schedule and timing on me, you will struggle to feel loved by me.” – Tim Keller; Kings Cross, pg.63

Jesus asked Jairus to keep on believing despite the fact that his circumstances are worse than they’ve ever been…….despite the facts that other people point out about his circumstances.

“Believe”: is in the Present Tense, meaning “keep on believing” rather than give up or give in to despair.

Jesus literally ignored what seemed to be irreversible circumstances

Parakouein: ignoring

  • to overhear something you’re not supposed to
  • to ignore or pay no attention to something
  • to discount the truth of it
  • “to go in one ear and out the other”

The disciples and Jairus may have thought that Jesus had no good reason for not coming sooner.  But they didn’t have all the facts. 

Faith Means Trusting The Power of Jesus Instead of the Pressure of Your Circumstances  (v:39-42)

“Sleeping” – dead; the death of someone who has saving faith in God.

Talitha Koum: “Honey, wake up.”;  “Little lady, time to get up.”

Jesus’ power makes even death seem everyday, ordinary.  Raising a little girl from death is just as easy for Jesus as me waking up one of my kids from a nap.

Spiritually Sick & Suffering?

All of us at one time or another were also spiritually sick and suffering with sin.

The Woman

  • Like the woman with the flow of blood, we are unclean
  • Like the woman with the flow of blood, we have tried everything to make ourselves clean.
  • Like the woman with the flow of blood, we keep getting worse, not better on our own, without Jesus.
  • Like the woman with the flow of blood, we must believe that only Jesus can make us clean.
  • Like the woman with the flow of blood, Jesus can make us clean and give us peace.

The Little Girl

  • Like the little girl, we are all sick because of sin.
  • Like the little girls’ family, we try to deal with the sickness of sin on our own.
  • Like the little girl, we will all one day die because of sin.
  • Like Jairus, the little girls’ father, we must believe that only Jesus can raise us up again
  • Like the little girl, we who have our faith, hope and trust in Jesus will rise.

If you are spiritually sick and suffering with sin, you are dirty and dying……..BUT

Jesus Cleanses

he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, – Titus 3:5

Jesus Raisess

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—Eph. 2:4-5

We may not make sure that the Lord will at once remove all disease from those we love, but we may know that believing prayer for the sick is far more likely to be followed by restoration than anything else in the world; and where this avails not, we must meekly bow to His will by whom life and death are determined. The tender heart of Jesus waits to hear our griefs, let us pour them into His patient ear. – C.H. Spurgeon

Diving In
Diving In offers a few questions to help you re-engage the concepts from Sunday. Feel the freedom to use
all of the questions, or to simply camp out on just one. These questions aren’t intended to answer all the
issues that surface through the thrust of this weeks’ message, but to simply raise them and allow you time
and space to process them, ideally in the context of your Community Group.

  • Are in walking through some circumstances today, fearing to one degree or the other that things will never change?  What are you fearful will not change?  Are you fearful to one degree or the other that things will never be the same?  What are you fearful will never be the same?
  • Where have you seen the power of Jesus at work before in the things of your life?  In the lives of others?  How does this inform the things you’re walking through today?
  • Do you ever feel like things are getting worse for you while they’re getting better for other people?  Do you wonder where Jesus is and what He’s thinking?  How do you reconcile that?

  • Has your lack of patience in the power of Jesus affected to some degree the way you’re able to receive and give love to Jesus?
  • Do you sense you are coming to Jesus more for something than Someone?  How do you sense Jesus may be using the circumstances of your life to draw you into Him?
Deep End
The Deep End is a short and simple formation exercise you can use to dive deep into your heart before God. Feel the freedom to divert from the directions if that makes it easier for you to connect with Jesus in this exercise.
  • First, quiet your heart before the Lord. If you find yourself distracted by various thoughts (things on your “To Do” list, etc.), don’t “fight” the distractions, but rather spend some time praying over those things. Hopefully soon your heart will quieted down and you will be able to hear the Lord speaking to you.
  • After this, take 5-10 minutes to read through and meditate on James 1:1-3.  Ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate for you the one place in your life where you’re wrestling with fear the most, and not “counting it all joy” in the midst of it.
  • Next, ask the Holy Spirit to show you what it would look like for you to “count it all joy” in the midst of it and be “perfect and complete” at the end of it.  Does what this picture looks like have more to do with trusting in the Power of Jesus…….The Person of Jesus…….the Patience of Jesus in the hear and now?  Take some time to mediate on that key point of clarification.
  • Last, take some time to pray, asking the Lord to give you faith to trust more in His Power, His Person and His Patience.  Thank Him for the ways you’ve trusted Him, by His grace, in the days past, and the work He has done.  Then thank Him in advance for giving you faith in the hear and now, and the work He will continue to do.

Digest
Our digest section is all about helping you to memorize and meditate on God’s Word so you’ll be able to better digest it.  Take some time to commit these short verses to memory this week:

And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” – Mark 5:34