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[0:00] We are in Mark and we're in chapter 5 as we continue our verse by verse exposition of the book. We're going to begin reading today in verse 21 and read through verse 43.

[0:12] So please join me there as I read. And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly, saying, My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her so that she may be made well and live.

[0:36] And he went with him. And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. And there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for twelve years and who had suffered much under many physicians and had spent all that she had and was no better, rather grew worse.

[0:49] She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, If I touch even his garment, I will be made well. And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.

[1:03] And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, Who touched my garments? And his disciples said to him, You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, Who touched me?

[1:16] And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your disease.

[1:31] While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler's house some who said, Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further? But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, Do not fear, only believe.

[1:43] And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John, the brother of James. And they came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly.

[1:54] And when he had entered, he said to them, Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead, but sleeping. And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was.

[2:08] Taking her by the hand, he said to her, Talitha Kumai, which means, Little girl, I say to you, arise. And immediately the girl got up and began walking, for she was twelve years of age.

[2:20] And they were immediately overcome with amazement. And he strictly charged them that no one should know this and told them to give her something to eat. Join me in prayer. Father, we thank you this morning for the ability to come together and meet.

[2:36] And we thank you that we are your redeemed ones, your church. We praise you this day that you have given us your word, that we might study it to know you better, and to better know how we ought to live to exalt your name.

[2:49] We thank you that you have given to us the Spirit as a helper, that he might soften our hearts and sharpen our minds, that we will receive the truth that you have for us this day and apply it to our very being.

[3:02] And Father, it is our great prayer that as we study together, that you will change us from one stage of glory to another, that we will leave here looking more like Christ, so that we can make him great amongst this world.

[3:18] We pray this in his name. Amen. So, before we get into the details of this story, let me just remind you a bit of the setting. Jesus' primary ministry up to this point has been in Galilee, would be on the north side of the nation that they're functioning in, and he's functioned primarily out of Capernaum.

[3:39] Capernaum has kind of been his home base of operations, and that's where he's been sending out and going back and sending out and going back. And we found him back at the beginning of chapter 4 on the side of the sea, which is just outside of Capernaum, the Sea of Galilee, on the western coast, and he gets out into a boat because the crowd is so big that they're pressing in on him, and he's able to speak to them from the water.

[4:04] Following this, this discourse that Mark records for us, he sets out across the Sea of Galilee, about six miles wide, and a great storm arises. And we get the wonderful story at the end of chapter 4 of Jesus speaking to the storm and calming it.

[4:18] And then he arrives on the eastern coast, and it's called in verse 1 of chapter 5, of the country of the Gerasenes, which was kind of a Gentile stronghold, so to speak, within the primarily Israeli nation now that they're functioning in.

[4:36] And so we see him then here in the Gerasenes, and this is where he casts out the legion of demons that we saw last week. And these people, because they were afraid of him, and because he cast this legion of demons into a herd of pigs, which would have brought somebody some livelihood, and they all were driven into the sea and drowned, asked him to leave.

[4:57] So he's gotten back in the boat, and he's crossed back over the Sea of Galilee, crossed this six miles, and he's landed once again on the western bank, back outside of Capernaum, where he did the primary amount of his ministry.

[5:13] In the Gospel of Luke, when we see this story, we actually see that a crowd had gathered and was waiting for him to return. So as he left to go to the other side, a crowd gathered and was waiting for him to come back onto the western shore.

[5:26] And so here we see him landing and immediately encountering these two separate characters. Before we talk about them, though, it's also important for us to back up a little bit and just be reminded of the meta-narrative which we all live under.

[5:43] The great story would be another way of saying that word. That is that the world is under the curse of sin. Because of original sin, because what Adam did in the garden, sin has passed to all of us, and the effects of sin have passed to all of us.

[6:04] Sin runs rampant where we are, and its effect beyond that runs rampant. It's a wonder that we don't hate sin more as those who are delivered from it, because it causes all of the things in this world that we consider bad.

[6:21] It's why any of us are tired this morning. It's why I've been a bit sick for the past few weeks. It's why my little Judah burned his hand.

[6:31] If you see the big scab on his hand, that's why that happened, and why it hurt so badly when it happened. It's why Cade has a cough. It's why when I woke up at 4 a.m. when he was coughing, it was painful to wake up at 4 a.m.

[6:46] It's why work is labor. It's why we will battle weeds in our garden this year. Every time you pull a weed, sin. It's why families are torn apart.

[6:59] It's why the word family has been redefined, the institution itself torn down. It's why there is so much corruption in the business and political realms.

[7:09] It's why the world experiences war and famine and rampant disease. Sin ushered into this world a great deal of decay.

[7:20] It's why people die, and it's why we will one day die. Romans 5.12 says, Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.

[7:35] So the state in which we function, even as those who have been delivered from the bondage of sin, who have redeemed souls and can now live to God, we still feel the effect. There's still a judgment on this world for the sin that has been committed.

[7:48] And we have seen now, time and time again, in the Gospel of Mark, people who were suffering because of sin. And that is what makes the good news of Jesus Christ good news.

[8:03] Sin is bad news. Jesus Christ is good news. As He comes to usher in a new kingdom, as He comes to heal and comes to deliver, that's why He goes about doing all of these miracles, to give validation to His message and to show that He is the great healer, the one that comes to take away sin and to fix all of the things that sin has torn apart.

[8:31] So remember, that's who we're talking about here. That's the Jesus that we're talking about here as we look at these two miracles that are sandwiched together. And you see this used as a literary form in a number of places in the Scriptures where things seem to be disjointed but sandwiched together.

[8:48] But that's not the case here. This is the way the actual event happened. That God orchestrated and brought about in His providence. There's two miracles happening at the same time because you see that the miracle of the healing of the woman is actually an interruption on the task that Jesus was set about.

[9:04] And they are, in this way, juxtaposed against one another. You've got Jairus, who's a ruler of the synagogue, which would have been at the very top of society.

[9:15] He would have had some administrative responsibility. He wasn't a priest, but he would have had some administrative responsibility in the temple. For a modern-day example, if you think of one of the large churches in our area, this may have been the pastor of administration who took care of all the back-end things that were going on.

[9:33] But imagine that that church was the only church in our region. And everybody knew that he was the guy that ran the show. He would have looked after the storehouses or provisions for the sacrifice. would have been highly esteemed for his position.

[9:47] Whereas we see the woman, she had an illness, a discharge of blood, which was some type of menstrual disorder. And she would have been at the very bottom of society.

[9:59] While Jairus is a ruler of the synagogue, she would have been forbidden from worshiping in the synagogue because of her condition. If you care to read on that, Leviticus 15, 19-33 can bring some understanding to you about why that was the case.

[10:14] She was the bottom. She was considered unclean. People didn't want to be around her or touch her because if they did, they were considered unclean and forbidden from worship. She was at the very bottom.

[10:27] Jairus has a daughter who is sick. She's close to death's doorstep. She's about to die. She's 12 years old. And we have a woman who has had a disease for 12 years.

[10:38] I don't know the connection there, but I thought it was fascinating that the ages were the same in that way. So we see then these very interesting, different characters brought together in this one story.

[10:50] And so I want us to look together. I want us to note three things about our Lord from this text. Firstly, notice the power of Christ.

[11:02] Notice number one, the power of Christ. And we have seen this time and time again. If you've been with us in our study in Mark, Mark is working to, he's trying to convince us that we should be followers of Christ, that Jesus is in fact the Son of God.

[11:19] And he displays that over and over again in his very comic book fashion, very punchy style. He gives us story after story after story of the power of Christ.

[11:30] And we see it again here. At the end of chapter 4, we saw some of the most amazing display of this where he calms a storm with the words, Peace, be still, just speaks.

[11:41] And the waves and the wind obey him. At the beginning of chapter 5, we see this man possessed by a legion of demons. And I don't remember the exact number, but a legion in this day was approximately 6,800 men.

[11:54] Was it that many demons? We don't know. But it was such a force, the text tells us in verse 4, that no one had the strength to subdue him. Right? No one had the strength.

[12:05] Mark inspired, writes this down, because right after that, who subdues him? Jesus. Right? And at the end of chapter 5, we see him heal a woman that no physician could heal.

[12:20] Again, look at that scathing commentary on physicians of the day in verse 26. Interestingly, Luke says nothing about the physicians, as he was a physician himself.

[12:31] Right? But in verse 26, he says, And she had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better, but grew worse.

[12:42] And I don't know if Mark was cynical of medicine of the time. I almost said Western medicine, but this would have actually been Eastern medicine. or not, but clearly, she hadn't been healed.

[12:55] She had an illness that could not be healed by these people. And what do we see happen after that? Jesus heals her. Not with a word this time, but simply with a touch.

[13:09] As she sneaks up behind him, touches the hem of his garment, and the power that he possesses is enough to heal him. Now, this is not the first time that we've seen Jesus heal by touching.

[13:22] Explicitly, we see it, summarized in Mark chapter 6, verse 56. You can flip there if you want. And whenever he came in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and implored him that he might touch even the fringe of his garment.

[13:37] And as many as touched it were made well. And it's more implicitly taught, previously in Mark chapter 3, verse 10, for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him.

[13:49] It was said in Jesus' day that he rid the land of sickness. So, as I've been studying this, I've almost, I've gotten to this kind of mode where I'm like, oh, another healing.

[14:00] Alright. What are we going to talk about this week? We've got another healing in front of us. But it's important to note the degree of his power that he healed, and he healed, and he healed, and he healed.

[14:16] He also resurrects a young girl. This is the first time we see this as a record in the Gospel accounts. He resurrects a young ruler. This daughter of the ruler of the synagogue.

[14:28] And here, he simply speaks. The English record is, little girl, I say to you, arise. She was dead, and she came back to life.

[14:42] Now, this was likely a ruler of the synagogue, of the very same synagogue that he entered into in chapter 1. If you'd like, you can flip back a couple of pages in your copy of God's Word.

[14:54] Beginning in verse 21. We won't read that together, but this story is when he enters into the synagogue, and a man with an unclean spirit is afraid of him, and he says to him, again with his words, verse 25, be silent and come out of him.

[15:09] And he obeys. He has no choice but to obey because of the power of Christ. Jesus is and was powerful.

[15:23] The world was created through him and for him by the power of his Word. He now holds everything that exists in its proper order by the power of his Word.

[15:36] Let that truth just sink into you. I can accomplish very little with my words. I think I'm gifted to teach. My gifting is smaller than other people's gifting to do so.

[15:50] At times have been said that I am convincing. I can convince people to do some things, but that is meager. That is little. It is very difficult to convince much with my words, but Jesus, by the power of his Word, does everything.

[16:08] Nothing holds together that is apart from him. You've heard me say before if you've been here long that I am held in the shape of me by the power of Jesus' Word.

[16:18] That if Jesus were to stop, if he were to say no more, all of us would just burst into a billion atoms. What holds me in this shape?

[16:29] Right? It's the power of Jesus' Word. It's phenomenal. But, as we've seen all these wonderful examples of the way in which Jesus has expressed his power in the world, there was no greater display than in the display of his power on the cross when he humbled himself and was beaten beyond recognition but hung there for our sake and bore the wrath of God that we might have the redemption of our souls in him.

[17:05] That act was all-powerful. It was perfect in its power to forgive the sins of those who would and will believe in him.

[17:16] Incredible. The fact that Jesus said on the cross, it is finished, needs to mean something for our lives. He accomplished the work.

[17:28] It is done. It has the power for the salvation of my soul and now the sanctification of it. And you're not a believer today, it has the power for the salvation of your soul as well. Just believe that it has that power.

[17:41] Now for us, we are not granted the same power, the same degree, although we have been given power and particularly, we've been given power, a tool in our hands to use and that is the gospel.

[17:56] We get to be part of God's work in bringing about change in this world by the power of the gospel. Remember in Mark 1.1, Mark says, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

[18:09] All that Jesus was and is and will be is part of this good news of who Christ is. His person and His work. You hear me say that consistently and constantly.

[18:21] His person and His work. Paul understood this in Romans 1.16, the first part of it. For I am not ashamed of the gospel. Why? I'm not ashamed of the gospel as I present myself to this dark world, to this fallen place, this place infected by sin.

[18:38] I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. We have been given power in the sense that we are tools in the hands of the Almighty, that we might propagate the truth of Him everywhere.

[18:57] As we behold the power of Christ, we should remember that He came primarily to seek and to save the lost.

[19:08] The way in which He presents miracles are simply so that people would stop and listen that His message might be validated. And this is the message, the same message that we now have, that we've been entrusted with, that we might spread the good news of Him everywhere.

[19:24] Secondly, I would like for you to notice the compassion of Christ. Notice the compassion of Christ.

[19:36] This is also not the first time that we have seen this to be true. Previously, in the Gospel of Mark, one of my favorite examples of this, chapter 1, verse 40-45, we see a man with leprosy who has to live in desolate places because of his condition.

[19:53] He was ordered. People would have nothing to do with him. He had to stay outside of town because none of them wanted to contract this horrible disease. He was forced to be outside of community, forced to be alone.

[20:06] And Jesus has compassion on him. He heals him. And because He heals him, Jesus is forced to go out to desolate places. He trades places with Him in the same way that He traded places with us on the cross.

[20:21] He takes the shame. He takes the burden. And He goes and dwells in desolate places. Great display of compassion. And then my next favorite is chapter 5.

[20:33] This man who's stricken with demons who's, in other gospel accounts, we see that he's naked, that he's crying out in the wilderness, that he's cutting himself with stones. And Jesus lands on the shore and the very first thing He does is sees a man who desperately needs to be delivered.

[20:50] And He does so. The account we get is that the man wants to go with Him. Of course, he would want to go with Jesus who had delivered Him in this way. And Jesus leaves Him behind and tells Him to go and tell all the Lord has done for Him and how He has had mercy on Him.

[21:06] Jesus is God. We've seen this over and over again. We see that displayed in the power of God. But we also see that displayed in the compassion. Psalm 103.13 records, as a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord, Yahweh in the Hebrew, God Almighty, shows compassion to those who fear Him.

[21:28] And here we see that so clearly expressed in the person of Jesus Christ. Note how he even intercedes in the potential trouble that Jairus may have encountered at the delivery of the news that his daughter has gone ahead and passed.

[21:48] There's this interruption on the way. This interruption that slows Jesus down. He stops to talk to this woman that has pressed in and has touched his garment.

[22:01] And he takes the time to overhear the news and to say to Jairus, do not fear, only believe. Do not fear, only believe. Remember the faith that caused you to come and find me.

[22:14] To fall at my feet and ask that I would come and heal your daughter. Remember that faith. Do not fear, only believe. And he goes on with him to the house.

[22:26] Phenomenal expression of that kind of compassion. Now for us, we are called in the same way to have compassion.

[22:38] Look again at another example of Jesus and His compassion. Matthew 9. Please turn there. Matthew 9, verse 35. And here we see Jesus and His compassionate character turning that outward to those who would be His disciples.

[23:03] So as He's compassionate, He's now asking them to be compassionate. Verse 35, And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.

[23:14] Boy, I love that. Every. So good. Verse 36, When He saw the crowds, He had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.

[23:27] Then He said to His disciples and He says to us this morning, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest to send out those that would have compassion the way in which Jesus had compassion.

[23:46] Do you look at the world in that way? Do you look out at people who are harassed and helpless by sin? That are held in bondage to it? And having the keys to unlock the shackles that hold them in that place, do you have compassion on them?

[24:05] Do you go to seek to deliver them from the place that they're in? I think far too often the answer to that is no. If we're honest with ourselves, the answer to that is no.

[24:19] And as disciples of Christ, we ought to be compassionate the way He was. The writer of Hebrews, in his drive to keep the Hebrew believers devoted to Christ and to His ways, reminded them of a time that they were compassionate, reminded them of a time that that was a better choice.

[24:42] Hebrews chapter 10, verse 32. And I would ask you to join me there, although I may start off ahead of you. So Hebrews 10, verse 32. The writer of Hebrews says, But recall the former days.

[24:56] Back when, after you were enlightened, when you had become a believer, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings. Sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.

[25:08] So sometimes you were afflicted and persecuted, and sometimes you partnered with those. And here's the example, verse 34. For you had compassion on those in prison. And this day, if you didn't have somebody to come and care for you in prison, they didn't care for you.

[25:21] There was not cable TV and three meals a day. This didn't happen. They threw you in a cell, and they permitted family members or friends to come and bring food. That was it. That's what you got.

[25:33] For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property. So as they're going to help the Christians who are in prison for their faith, they're automatically identifying themselves.

[25:46] They're going to take food, they're going to take provision, and they're saying, we love these people. These are our people. And therefore, they're identifying themselves as Christians, and they joyfully, it's a phenomenal thing, it's a strange thing, it's a set apart from the world thing to see that they joyfully accepted the plundering of their property.

[26:05] They had compassion that drove them to not even care. To not care that their property was plundered, that their things were stolen, that graffiti was written on their walls.

[26:16] Why? Since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one, one that couldn't be taken away.

[26:26] What is he talking about? He's talking about Christ. They had a better possession. Jesus Christ. Beloved, why do we hold on to things that are lesser when we can have greater?

[26:41] It's a simple trade. Such an easy decision to make. If we can gain more of Christ, why would we not give all that we have and all that we are to have compassion for those who are in the shackles of sin that we might gain more of Him?

[27:02] Yesterday morning, I spent some time with Gary Bailey. We went and got some breakfast and visited a friend of his who gave me some books from his library. And on our way back, I saw a big 15-passenger van with D-Now written on the back of it.

[27:17] If you guys don't know, that's Disciple Now. And there's a church in the area having a Disciple Now this weekend. So I just kind of mused at it. I remember some Disciple Now days. They're probably headed to recreation on a Saturday morning to go be crazy and have a lot of fun together, which is good.

[27:33] Out in front of that, I could see a bright green Dodge Viper, which is a six-figure vehicle if you don't know that. It's a $100,000 vehicle. And as Gary passed the Viper, which now that I think about it, it's kind of ironic in the Toyota, D-Now was also written on the Viper as well.

[27:54] And it broke my heart for the man driving it because he's been misled. His own heart has deceived him to think that there's greater joy found in that car than what he could do with it, what he could do with the money that it took to purchase a two-seater, six-figure vehicle to gain more of Christ.

[28:17] Wasn't mad at him for what he could have done with the money. Wasn't jealous that he had the money to buy a vehicle like that, but sad for him because it means something about what he believes about who Jesus is.

[28:29] He doesn't believe that Jesus is more precious, that he's more valuable. And how is it that we serve him? We serve the least of these, right? What could he do that would gain more for him, that would put up treasure in heaven for him, that would help have him experience in greater degree what it is God is doing and accomplishing in this world?

[28:50] Because I can tell you the little snot-nosed kid riding with him was not the kind of joy that he wants to bring into the world. Like, he was having fun, I'm sure. But ultimately, why does God give us gifts that we might know him better and enjoy him more?

[29:07] Let's talk about a couple examples of compassion. Tomorrow, St. Patrick's Day. Most of you may be aware of that. It's a very bizarre holiday that we celebrate in the U.S.

[29:20] In very bizarre ways. I actually heard somebody on TV this week say that it's the only holiday that what it's celebrating is drinking beer. Wow! It got perverted that far away from the life of the man called Patrick that we know as St. Patrick.

[29:40] You know, Patrick's not from Ireland. He's actually from Britain. Wales, Scotland area more than likely was some sort of British aristocracy.

[29:51] At the age of 16 he was kidnapped by a band of Irish marauders and they came and they kidnapped him and they took him back to Ireland where he served as a slave for six years. Six years in servitude as a slave and had a dream that God told him that it was time to get out of the country and he took off towards the east coast and a ship just happened to be sailing by right when he hit the coast.

[30:15] He got on it and it took him back home. As he returned home though as a believer in Christ he had picked up the religion of his parents while he was in slavery.

[30:27] He found a great deal of comfort in the promises of God while he was there and as he returned to his homeland as a believer in Christ he had this compassionate heart worked in him for the Irish.

[30:38] The very ones the brutes that had enslaved him for those six years and he spent twelve years he studied to become a priest he returned to Ireland at the age of 34 as a missionary where he remained the majority of his life.

[30:54] he spent 40 years evangelizing the Irish. This is not a normal thing to do. This is not the actions of a normal man.

[31:06] Praise God that Jesus makes us extraordinary. That he works in us his heart and doesn't leave us with our old dead vindictive hearts.

[31:17] On the world's terms he had no reason to return. Didn't owe them anything. In fact if he owed him anything at all it was vengeance of some sort. He was some sort of aristocracy.

[31:27] He could have raised up an army and gone back to Ireland. But instead he goes back and he raises up a different kind of army. He raises up a band of believers and he would take them with them to the next village and he would leave behind the mature to continue to evangelize and to start a church and he would take with him two new believers and they would go to the next place and go to the next place and go to the next place and brought about a great deal of devotion to God in his time there.

[31:54] The opposite of Patrick we've got a good biblical example of that. I remember the story of Jonah I alluded to it last week. God says to Jonah the very beginning of the book of Jonah he comes to him and he tells him that he's to go to Nineveh and to preach repentance and Jonah says no I'm not I'm going the opposite direction I'm heading out across the Mediterranean I'm going to a place called Tarshish I'm getting as far away from Nineveh as I possibly can and we all know what happened to him thrown overboard swallowed by a large fish spit back out on shore the reason he didn't want to go to Nineveh is because it was the Syrian capital the Syrians were horrible horrible people they had a great deal of damage to the Israelites they were their enemies right one of Israel's most cruel enemies nothing compared to the Babylonians they were horrific in the way in which they conquered skinned people alive just as an example horrible people this is the capital city of that and Jonah had no compassion for them no compassion whatsoever yet God did and used

[33:00] Jonah to accomplish this look what Jonah says in chapter 4 verse 1 and 2 but it displeased Jonah exceedingly except for the city in a massive way turns to God and he was angry and he prayed to the Lord and said oh Lord is not this what I said when I was yet in my country that is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster Jonah knew that God's character was compassionate Jonah knew that if he went and preached God would have compassion on these people and that's why he ran away a bad example praise God that he was obedient in the end and God accomplished his work apart from him we can learn from Jonah while God snatched Jonah up by the back of the neck and sent him where he was supposed to go I would like to serve the Lord with gladness and joy and appreciate the things that he leads me into and I get to participate in not to do it begrudgingly or to have God use someone else to accomplish his work

[34:13] God intended to save the souls of people in Nineveh and he was going to get it done one way or another this would be paramount for us on 9-12 oh gosh I forget the year was it 2001 9-11 happened okay thank you on 9-12 of you saying I have a compassionate heart for Muslims and the Taliban and I want to go to the place where they are headquartered and share the good news of Jesus Christ with them this would be similar this is what St. Patrick did it took him some time to go back this is what Jonah did begrudgingly but it is in fact what he did this would be the same do we have compassionate hearts do we recognize that Jesus came into this world to seek and to save the lost people who are shackled by sin people who we ought not expect them to act any other way than sinfully this is a great example for our church of the whetstones who are currently serving in Central

[35:25] Asia and they're serving a people that as Americans we ought not be compassionate towards in the world's terms but because they have the hearts of Christ and they see that they need to be delivered from their sin they're going they're pursuing they're learning the language so that they might bring the gospel the good news of the kingdom to these people so notice the compassion of Christ thirdly notice the reach of Christ notice the reach of Christ as we look through the gospel of Mark we are going to continue to see that he was always available to everyone Jesus in all respects could have removed himself he could have set up camp in one of the synagogues he could have taught from a lofty place he could have removed himself from the people but he was always with the people in fact they're pressing in on him constantly in occasions where he can't eat in an occasion where he had to actually get into a boat because

[36:35] I would imagine he would have ended up standing in the water because people would have just continued to press in around him just as a man and as he was a man I imagine that had to be taxing was trying to him that constantly massive crowds gathered around him and not all these people as we've discussed gather around him for genuine!

[36:55] they wanted to see the show they wanted to see what new amazing thing was going to happen that was going to be performed by this person Jesus hungry and tired constantly available to everyone and not only were these people trying to him physically but remember that these people were enemies of God these people were sinners these people with their lives had rejected the ways of God and these people had been given the ways of God in a very special way they had been given the law they had the prophets and so they were enemies of God and therefore enemies of Christ and here we see him compassionately making himself always available to everyone that is the importance of this shocking interruption as one of the rulers of the synagogue comes to him and asks him to come and visit his home to heal his daughter and there is an interruption by a woman who is considered unclean who is at the very bottom of society but he stops and he visits with her and he speaks to her and he says to her your faith has made you well people their jaws would have dropped in this culture us we read right past it no big deal but this would have been a shock to them that you would take the time me and

[38:14] Barack Obama are visiting together we're hanging out and a homeless guy on the street stops me and asks for something and I go yeah you hang on and I go over and I visit with the homeless man for a while this is what would have happened everybody around would go what are you doing right he's the president maybe not all of us in this room or social status the only distinction that was made was that of faith notice verse 34 and he said to her daughter your faith has made you well go in peace and be healed of your disease and then in verse 36 and we mentioned before he says reminds Jairus of the faith that he had remember that he came and he fell at his feet he knew!

[39:02] he had the! to heal his daughter do not fear only believe there is the distinction there is the distinction for us today that we might have faith and believe there's instruction Paul gives to Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 2 verses 1 through 4 and this is a very commonly misused text in all kinds of directions let me tell you what it means and how it applies here as we notice the reach of Christ beginning in verse 1 first of all then I urge that supplications prayers intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people for kings and all who are in high positions that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life godly and dignified in every way this is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth now this text is used to justify all sorts of belief systems about God's purposes in salvation I want to say to you that if we read it very plainly verse 4 desires all people to be saved if God desires something to pass it will in fact pass and so with some consistent logic you have men like

[40:17] Rob Bell writing books like Love Wind saying that he has a universalist belief that all people will in fact one day be saved because here it says it in 1 Timothy 2 verse 4 but back up a little bit context has to inform us here back in verse 1 he says that I urge supplications prayers intercessions and thanks to be made for all people and specifically for kings and those in high positions because as Paul is writing to Timothy and he knows that the church of God is typically made up of ragamuffins of people who are a mess people who are poor people who are distraught those are the people that typically are more ready to turn to God we see Jesus teach that it's harder for a rich man to enter into heaven than it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle because they trust in their riches they don't need God in their own thinking so these people would have been downcast and kings didn't serve their good in any way whatsoever kings would have been the enemy kings would have been those people those who were ruling over them that they hated because they were the ones that were bringing the oppression on them as they're learning to have compassionate hearts they need to be encouraged and Paul is instructing

[41:32] Timothy to instruct them that God has purposes for all kinds of people that God intends to save both those who are poor and those who are rich that he's going to heal the woman who is at the bottom of the social status and he's going to go and visit the home of the man who's at the top of social status and bring his daughter back to life that we ought to not define for God who it is that he should and shouldn't save this is what Jonah did with the Ninevites I knew you'd save him if I went and preached the gospel to him the good news of God to them it's not our place to do that but rather we're to seek God's purposes we're to seek who it is that God intends to work in the hearts of and to save and to bring to faith beloved Jesus' work on the cross was all powerful it accomplished exactly what it intended to accomplish and that was the redemption of the church we just don't know who that is right a vast countless number a multitude is the wonderful word used in our

[42:34]  English translation of the Greek test a multitude of people will be in eternity praising God forever and ever and so it's our task to get out there and to preach the truth to anyone and everyone who will hear it or really doesn't want to right to preach the truth to them because it is the power of God to salvation in Acts chapter 1 verse 8 Jesus has appeared to his disciples after his resurrection this is kind of a restating of the great commission but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth if you are to be my disciples what he's saying you will make disciples and you're going to make disciples in your city and in your region and in the neighboring regions and all the way to the end of the earth so as we are called as believers to look like Christ we must remember his power his compassion and his reach let's pray together