|
|
|
Don't Be Afraid; Just Believe Luke 8:40-56 Key Verse: 8:50 "Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, 'Don't be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed." In today's message, there are two miracles of Jesus, the restoration of life to a dead 12-years old girl and the healing of a woman with a chronic bleeding problem. Jesus revealed that he is the source of life and healing. How can they experience Jesus, the source of life and healing. It's only by faith. Through today's message, may God bless us to learn who is Jesus and what is the faith pleasing Jesus. Part 1. Jesus knows the touch of faith. Look at verse 40. "Now when Jesus returned, a crowd welcomed him, for they were all expecting him." Jesus had gone by boat with his disciples across the Sea of Galilee. On the way, he calmed the stormy sea and then healed a demon-possessed man at the cost of a large herd of pigs. Now Jesus and his disciples returned to the other side of the Sea, in Galilee. A crowd was there, waiting for him. At that time, there was one man with an urgent problem. Verses 41 and 42 "Then a man named Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, came and fell at Jesus' feet, pleading with him to come to his house because his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, was dying." Who was this man? His name was Jairus. He was a ruler of the synagogue. Obviously, he was a man of respect in the Jewish community because to become a ruler of synagogues does not happen lightly or randomly. Jairus must have been a man of prestige and influence. But he did not come to Jesus with a formal, polite request. He came with a desperate plea. He fell at Jesus' feet, in public. He also pleaded with Jesus to come to his house and heal his dying daughter. Certainly, Jairus' daughter was his joy and comfort of life. I am also a father of three daughters. After work in company, I usually came home at night. As soon as I pushed the door key button and opened the door, the second daughter, Se-un shout, "Daddy!" and then the eldest daughter, Joy greet me. The youngest daughter, Bo-bae also greet me in her mother's arms. Sometimes, I said to my daughters that until you are married, your boyfriend should be me, your father. Okay? Then they all together say, "Yes daddy" and kissed me. My mother-in-law used to say, your daughters are like Baccus-D, the pick-me-up drink in my laborous daily life. But one day, my wife called me and said that the second daughter, Se-un caught chickenpox which is highly contagious disease. Although Se-un had already been vaccinated against the chickenpox, the youngest daughter was not because she was only 6 months old. The vaccination can be made from 12 months old. As I heard that the chickenpox is particularly serious in newborn children, and can lead to death, I had to fell at Jesus feet like Jairus saying 'please protect my baby from the chickenpox.' Now, the second daughter has been made clean in face and the youngest daughter is safe with God's grace and protection. Jairus must have been in more desperate situation because his daughter was really dying. She is one and only daughter. Jairus knew he had to be strong, as a father and as a husband. But he began to wonder what he could do. Then he heard the news, "Jesus, the preacher-healer from Nazareth is in town." In desperation, Jairus went to Jesus, believing that Jesus could make her well. When Jairus came to Jesus, he was humble, putting aside all his prestige and all the negative opinion about Jesus he heard from the religious leaders. Finally Jesus accepted Jairus' plea and followed him to the house. As Jesus was on his way to Jairus' house, the crowds almost crushed him. Jesus' disciples must have tried to be bodyguards for Jesus. Many people were crowding and pressing against Jesus. Suddenly Jesus stopped and asked, "Who touched me?" All the people denied it. At that time, Peter said, "Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you." It meant, "What do you mean, Jesus. 'Who touched me?' A lot of people have nearly crushed you!" Jesus knew already that a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. In a way, her coming to Jesus was a bit superstitious, because she thought that by touching Jesus she could be healed. However, there was one important similarity with Jairus and the woman. They both came to Jesus with their serious problem accompanying faith that Jesus could help them. Then, Jesus did not allow the woman to make a secret getaway. He repeated, "Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me."(46) The power was not in the woman's touch. The power came from Jesus and was transmitted to her. It's like she got plugged in to the power source. The cleanness flowed from Jesus to her. Under the law, the woman was unclean. Whatever the woman touched was made unclean. However, when she touched Jesus, Jesus was not made unclean, rather Jesus made the woman clean. It is because Jesus is the source of cleanness containing the precious blood of lamb for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus took her uncleanness gladly upon himself. The woman could not escape Jesus' calling. Instead of being silent before Jesus' calling, she came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. In this way, Jesus helped her to share her testimony before others. Sharing her life testimony was not for Judging her making her shameful. Jesus wanted to make her faith complete confirming Jesus' healing in her life. At the same time, she came to knew personally who Jesus is and gave glory to Jesus for what he had done. Jesus wants us to share our testimony of his power and love in our lives. When we share what the Lord has done for us, we bring him thanks and praise and glory. Not only this, our faith in him is also strengthened. What happened after the woman shared her testimony? The Bible says, "Then Jesus said to her, 'Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.'" Jesus called her "daughter." Jesus loved her like his own child. He loved her as much as Jairus loved his own daughter. Jesus recognized her faith and pronounced her healing: "your faith has healed you." In this passage, we need to note the distinction between this woman and the crowd of people. Many people bumped into Jesus. They were hanging out with Jesus. Jesus does not mention any of them being healed except for this woman. We should not be those who just hang around Jesus as curious spectators, but to come to Jesus with faith and a pure desire to be cleansed of our sins. Jesus know the touch of faith in our life and sensitively responded to our faith. Nevertheless, we can study without faith, take an exam without faith, do God's ministry without faith and even pray without faith. It seems hard to tell inner faith from the faith-looking appearance. However, Jesus know our faith. Only by that faith we can please Jesus. Hebrews 11:6 says, "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." May each one of us reach out and touch Jesus in sincere and earnest prayer and be healed from our sin-sickness. Part 2. Don't be afraid; just believe. While the woman was sharing her testimony with the crowd, Jairus was getting more and more nervous, anxious and impatient to get to his house. ("Hurry up and please finish your testimony, woman!" Come on, please share your life testimony sometime later, at the summer bible conference) To Jesus, this woman was a precious daughter who needed to share her testimony for others to hear. But to Jairus, he could only think about his daughter's urgent situation. At that time, some very unfortunate news came. Look at verse 49. "While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. 'Your daughter is dead,' he said. 'Don't bother the teacher any more.'" Surely the news was true, but it hit Jairus hard: "Your daughter is dead." Then the messenger gave his own recommendation: "Don't bother the teacher any more" It meant, "It's too late. I'm so sorry. It's over." In any case, the messenger told Jairus to leave Jesus alone and just come and make funeral arrangements. The messenger was destroying hope and faith in Jairus' heart. He was not speaking for God, but planting fear in Jairus. This is how the devil usually speaks to people, planting doubt and causing to lose heart. Jesus heard the same news. But his words to Jairus were quite different. Let's read verse 50. "Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, 'Don't be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed." First, Jesus said, "Don't be afraid." Jesus knew that fear was invading Jairus' heart. Fear of what? Perhaps it was fear of his own loss, or fear that he couldn't cope with this tragedy. Maybe he was afraid of his daughter's eternal death. Especially, he was afraid of death itself. One of the devil's most effective strategies is to plant this kind of fear in people. Hebrews 2:15 says that the devil holds people in slavery by their fear of death. Fear is the enemy of faith in God. Jesus said to Jairus, "Don't be afraid." It meant, "Don't lose hope. Don't give up. Don't listen to that message. Listen to me." Jesus also said, "Just believe." To "just believe" means to keep on trusting Jesus. Jesus wants us to keep our hope and faith in him. Hebrews 11:1 includes hope in the definition of faith. It reads, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see." Jesus also said to Jairus, "and she will be healed." This is Jesus' specific promise to Jairus. Jesus promised Jairus, "she will be healed." Actually, Jairus had a choice whom he would listen to. Jairus chose to listen to Jesus and accept Jesus' words, rather than the factual words of reality which came through the messenger of bad news. It seems like he was denying reality and holding an unrealistic hope or expectation. But we should consider faith in God. Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Who hopes for what he already has? We each make choices every day. For example, we choose whom we listen to or what we look at. While we are surfing on the Internet, we choose the news articles we want to read and we look at the photos we want to look at. Well, most of the time the everyday question is; whom am I going to listen to? pop culture? the latest movie or novel? a professor? a friend? or Jesus? Jairus decided to listen to Jesus and to keep trusting him. The one who trusts in Jesus will never be put to shame and will never be disappointed.(Rome 10:11) There are many very great and precious promises in the Bible, which are not that kinds of our wishful thinking or dream or idea. It mean a promise from Jesus in the Bible for us. Faith is not merely wishful thinking. Faith is believing God's promises that he has given us in the Bible. There are so many examples in the Bible of those who kept their hope and faith in a hopeless situation : almost 100 years old Abraham without a son, Joseph in prison, Daniel in a lion's den, Daniel's friends in a fiery furnace, Paul in prison. These people all overcame fear with faith in God's promise. We all face fears of all kinds. Fear of failure in exam, fear of rejection in visa interviews, fear of not getting a job or losing a job, fear of our health or our children's, fear of not being married, fear of unfruitful disciple making ministry, fear of unchanging hearts and so on and on. Then what are we going to do? We can either give in to fear or believe God's promise. I will put it in my case. Genesis 12:2 is a great God's promise in the Bible that deals with the vision of our life. I put my life in that God's promise, God will make me a source of blessing. Based on that promise, I decided to continue school putting off the military service. Since then, however, my life went on beyond my expectation. Still no uplift from bottom of my school grade. After graduation I failed an exam to enter the graduate school. After discharging military service I had to join the jobless club for one and half years due to IMF in Korea. When faced with fear of my life, I lost God's promise and left center. However, God still hold my hand tightly based on that promise. When I restored my faith, I realized that God led my life according to that promise. Even now, I faced various kind of fear as a father of three daughters and a shepherd in campus ministry. Whenever I lost faith to God's promise, I could not keep up with even my daily obligation and used to escape from reality watching movies in my own world. However, when I decided to choose to listen to Jesus, I could walk with Jesus like Jairus to see the glory of God in company and God's ministry. God promised me clearly, 'I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing' May God help us to listen to God's promise whenever we faced fear of our life problem. So what happened next after Jesus' words to Jairus? Jairus led Jesus to his house. Obviously, he listened to Jesus' word rather than the messenger's advice. In Jairus house, there were also many people wailing and mourning for the dead girl. "Stop wailing," Jesus said. "She is not dead but asleep." In Jesus, death is called a sleep. Death is not the end just as morning comes after a night's sleep. The mourners and wailers in Jairus' house laughed when they heard Jesus' words. One moment they were crying and the next they were laughing. Jesus put them all out and he took only the childern's parents, Peter, John and James. It is because Jesus do not work with those who do not believe and laugh at God's work. Likewise, if we want to stay with Jesus in Jairus room to see the glorious work, we must have faith in Jesus. Look at verse 54. "But he took her by the hand and said, "My child, get up!" Jesus commanded her, "Get up!" When Jesus said, "Get up!" her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. With one command of Jesus, the girl's spirit returned to her body and she was alive again! Her parents were astonished, but he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened. In today's passage, we learned how to come to Jesus with a desperate need. Jesus is a source of life and healing. Like the woman, let's come to Jesus with a touch of faith and share with others what he has done for us personally. Like Jairus, let's overcome the fear holding on to Jesus' promise. Whenever we face fear in our life, Jesus says to us, "Don't be afraid; just believe." |
| 
|
