"A Touch of Faith" - Pastor Doug Batchelor

we're going to be talking today about a story in the bible it's found in all three gospels and it's a story that tells us well it tells us a lot of things but the importance of faith talks about the importance of touch the importance of our reaching out after jesus and his reaching out after us so if you have your bibles i invite you to turn to i'm going to read from mark the story is also found in luke and in matthew mark chapter 5. mark chapter 5 and we'll begin with verse 22. and this takes place after jesus crossed he healed the demoniac he crosses the sea of galilee he lands up in capernaum and the great crowds are following him and word reached one of the rulers of the synagogue i'm in mark 5 22 his name was jerrius that means the enlightenment of god and he came to jesus he saw him he fell at his feet now the rulers of the synagogues they weren't necessarily priests the synagogue typically had some elders that would lead and they would elect a president of the elders and he pretty much oversaw anything that happened in that local synagogue they were people that were widely respected in the community if there were minor matters of judgment they would bring it to the ruler of the synagogue it didn't always have to go to the court and to the lawyers so these were just some of the most respected people in the community uh you read in the bible it talks about one ruler of the synagogue that was opposed to the teaching of jesus jesus healed somebody in his church and he chastised the lord and said are there not six days in the week when you can be healed but don't do it on the sabbath day and jesus had to straighten him out on that but most of the rulers of the synagogues were faithful men that believed in christ matter of fact paul had a friend who was a ruler that of the synagogue that was beaten you read about crispus and others in the new testament so generally they were some of the most honest people in the community and he comes to christ and even though he's a person with some degree and respect he gets down on his face before the lord because his heart is breaking and he begged him earnestly and that means he compelled him he pled with him and he said my little daughter lies at the point of death come come to my home lay your hand on her touch her he's saying that she may be healed and she will live now he has faith he says lord i believe that if you touch her she will live you know one father brought his son to jesus and said lord if you can do anything and jesus said if you believe all things are possible it's so important to have faith well this ruler does have faith and he's pleading with jesus there's great crowds as you'll see that are thronging jesus pulling them in every direction and i used to wonder if i could talk to the lord and say how did you manage your time with so many different needs but jesus could not say no to this father whose heart is breaking for his little girl so jesus went with him i'm in verse 24. now he's saying come and touch her and i've titled the message today a touch of faith touch is very important people need touch they've done experiments before where you may have heard about dr harry harlow that did an experiment with these um i think they're reese's monkeys little monkeys and and they took the baby monkey away from its mother righted birth and they put it in a cage with a wire a monkey that was made out of wire with a couple of big ugly eyes and and it got fed there was a bottle there and then there was a claw another monkey they had it just it was a cloth monkey and they would cling to the cloth monkey but then they'd crawl over and they'd eat from the wire mesh monkey and he also they didn't say this seems a cool experiment i know they would never allow that today but they did this back in the 50s and uh they discovered that those monkeys that did not have the touch of the mother were terribly distressed later in life they walked back and forth they hugged themselves they were anxious and aggressive with the other monkeys and they just very male developed it's so important to have love and touch it's hard to believe there was once a time in our society in the 50s when psychologists were saying the worst thing a mother could do was fondle and touch her child and they said you're just you're weakening them you're making them dependent on you but we know better jesus as pastor ross was just saying he believed in in taking the children up in his arms but you took one of my scriptures actually they brought the little children to him that he might touch them i know when i went to india i've been there a few times we were there we were there together about a month ago and and uh people would come up to you and if they didn't speak any english they might just do this and then go like that and the first time i went i thought what are they what are they saying and one of the people that was with us said they want you to pray for them just place your hand on their head touch them and say a prayer and at first when i did this i was praying these long prayers and they said no you don't need just they want a blessing just see something short and they went away happy they just wanted to be touched you know they saw pastors and preachers some kind of holy person they felt like it would somehow transfer some blessing to them just to be touched why do we shake hands when we meet people or we do fist bumps now and elbow pumps and people don't want to spread germs but the idea you touch a person in peace and when we are in africa you may have seen this before that often in africa when they shake hands they go like this they take one hand they put it here they reach out the other hand they go like this and they they shake hands and i understand part of that is because to show both hands that there was no sword like joab hit a sword in the other hand when he shook hands and he killed somebody now there is no weapon or anything that as a sign of peace you got both my hands here and you ever seen that they shake hands yeah and but there's something about touching a person even among the early american natives they would touch when they greet somebody and if you're an inuit they would rub noses or something but uh if you're in russia they give you a kiss on the cheek and a bear hug but there's just something about humans showing you care uh you know we it's been proven already that people omit an aura that there's some kind of electric force that is generated in our bodies and people need touch jesus would touch them luke 13 12 a woman who had been bent over he called her to him and he said woman you are loose from your infirmity and he laid his hands on her and immediately she was made straight a leper came to jesus said lord if you will you can make me clean he said i will he reached out and touched him a leper and he was cleansed i remember going to the hospital to pray for a man that was dying of aids this is back in the early days where no one was exactly sure what caused aids or how it was spread and i just felt impressed that i should touch him when i prayed with him because i think he felt so isolated and uh it it means something i know when i first was dating karen you know you're kind of friends at first and you just you're spending time you're talking a little and we were driving somewhere together and and she just put her hand on my shoulder and kind of touched the back of my neck with her fingers i nearly ran off the road just it was like the first time we had touched and so yeah it means something so jerry is saying just come touch my daughter and she will live now if you read in luke 8 42 and don't miss this it says she was 12 years of age park that don't forget it and then you read on the story and while he's on his way to jairus house some people say jarius other people say jerius while he's on his way there he's pushing this way through this massive crowd up the narrow streets a great multitude followed him and thronged him and now a certain woman had a flow of blood for 12 years he's on his way to heal a 12 year old girl and then there's a woman who had had a flow of blood for 12 years and this is something that is a chronic problem it is above and beyond the regular cycle and if you read in leviticus chapter 25 i believe it is you know 15 25 this would render a woman unclean which meant you are separated from god and you would you could not go to the temple and and this had gone on not for a few extra weeks as with childbirth it went on for years and it says in mark 26 mark i'm sorry 5 26 and she had suffered many things from many physicians now you know you can only imagine how humiliating that must have done it just doesn't say she suffered from the medical bills but it says that too later but she suffered many things experimental treatments and antidotes and cures and that didn't work and to get her hopes up and then they would be dashed again and she had spent all and she was no better in fact she grew worse now if you're constantly hemorrhaging you will eventually die and so here is a poor woman that is not only separated from her family because of her condition she's separated from god because of her condition from society she's losing her health she spent all of her means and she is in a desperate strait but she had heard about jesus and that can change everything says that she just grew worse and it's interesting when luke mentions it luke was a physician he doesn't say that she suffered from the physicians he does say the doctors couldn't help her but he words it very differently and when she heard about jesus she came you know when you hear jesus is near you want to come and because of her situation you know jarius could say i've got this particular problem can you come help and jesus went to help she it's you know kind of humiliating and she did not want to publicly explain what the problem was i don't know how much to say but uh i was raised my brother and i by a single mom from the time i was three my mom and dad divorced and and my mom was feeling very bad one day and she tried to explain to me why she was feeling bad every month and when you're eight years old that was the most disturbing thing i'd ever heard and i just was thinking even way back then that is too much information she wanted to have her sons be empathetic that she just didn't feel well she thought at some point we should understand those things but i i think i was too young at that time to know that so she's got an embarrassing problem and she doesn't know what to do she says i don't want to talk about it but i need to be healed you read in our memory verse that there were people who thought if i could just reach out and touch his garment that something will happen when she heard about jesus she came behind him in the crowd and she touched his garment now i did a little study once and i thought it was interesting how frequently people wanted to get to jesus but they could not get to jesus and the problem was there's a crowd the crowd got in the way now who was in the crowd that day you think ostensibly these are people who like jesus they're fans they're disciples they're followers nothing else they're curiosity seekers and some may be hoping he'd be the messiah but they're coming they're wanting to hear jesus wanting to see jesus the disciples were there the apostles were there maybe there were a few enemies and spies following them around but it was a religious crowd and notice it's a religious crowd around jesus that sometimes becomes an obstacle that prevents others from coming to christ i don't know if i can overstate that do you know how often i talk to people and i ask them what keeps them away from church so i used to go to church but those people i've tried that a bunch of hypocrites somebody there hurt my feelings which is exactly what the devil wants to do is to offend you through somebody in the church so you stop going to church i've realized that if you go to church with more than two people there's gonna be problems might only be one other person there'll be problems and you'll be fifty percent of the problem uh you're just not gonna get by the fact that if there are people involved there's gonna be problems you cannot let people come between you and jesus bartimaeus wanted to be healed by jesus he was blind and he called out son of david have mercy on me son of david have mercy on me and the crowd around jesus tells the poor blind guy be quiet and he would not listen to the crowd he called out louder you had some friends that brought their buddy to jesus he was paralyzed four friends brought him to jesus mark chapter 2 they couldn't get to jesus because of the crowd around jesus zacchaeus wanted to see jesus but there was a problem what was the problem you think he was too short if there was no crowd there would have been no problem the crowd was too tall isn't that right and this these are not the only examples you'll find in the bible where the crowd around jesus became the problem and a person had to get past the crowd it's not enough that you bring people to church where jesus crowd is they got to get past jesus crowd to jesus and this woman she wanted to touch jesus it's the touch of christ but the crowd was in the way she probably saw him slipping away and he paused and he'd stop and heal someone on his way in poor jarius he's thinking hurry she's at the point of death and matter of fact if you read the gospel of matthew it tells us that just about the time jarius first asked jesus to come a messenger came and said your daughter's dead and mark it says they'd already begun the journey and then the messenger came so she is in critical condition and he's probably thinking please help them later go help my daughter now we don't have no time and so this woman sees that jesus trying to make his way through the crowd and he's going to get away and they're trying to usher him along and she thinks this is my last chance i've done everything i've tried everything i've spent everything i don't want to live like this when your life depends on it you will lunge for hope and she got down and she threw the sea of legs she saw the blue border that was sometimes on the garments of religious jews you know the bible tells them that you were to put tassels of blue or ribbon of blue on the borders of your garment and you can read about that in leviticus it tells us numbers i'm sorry numbers 15 verse 38 speak unto the children of israel and bid them that they put a fringe on the border a ribbon of blue and it shall be unto you a fringe that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the lord and do them now who knows why blue was supposed to help them remember the commandments of the lord you know i've looked all through the bible and have not found any command that says blue is a symbol of but the jewish tradition is because the commandments of god came down from heaven the sky was to be reminder that god came down from heaven and spoke his law to them and wrote his law for them and we talk about true blue well we say that you don't find that word in the bible anywhere but it did mean a sense of loyalty to god or dedication to god and it was often a combination of white for purity and blue for loyalty to the law or the word of god and so she wants to reach out and she sees between the sea of legs that are moving and the dust on the ground and she pushes forward as far as she can and she just gets a hold the bible says of the edge or the hem of his garment you know it doesn't take a whole lot of jesus to have a whole lot of power a little bit goes a long way and jesus said if you've got faith like a grain of mustard seed you can say to this mountain be plucked up and cast into the sea and it'll be done she has faith she says within herself if i can just touch the hem of his garment i believe i'll be healed so she has faith so she reaches out and she gets a hold of the hymn and it says uh she believed if i might only touch his clothes i will be made well now why would there be power in a person's clothes i can promise you there is no power in my clothes what does clothing represent why would that make a difference let me give you something else to just stir you up acts 19 verse 11 so now god worked unusual miracles by the hands of paul so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them so i'm going to go to walmart and i'm going to get a big old stack of hankies and the pastors and i'll get together and bless them and if any of you ever having any medical problems do not call us in the middle of the night we will just tell you where to get the hankies or we'll give you one in advance and when you're we want to do that but you know there are pastors that do that their matter of fact i got a uh a letter i don't mind telling his name there was i don't even know if he's around anymore his name was bishop ike and he was notorious for being a huckster a religious huckster and he was always asking people to send their money and sow their seed of faith and if you just send money to my ministry god's going to bless you whatever your financial needs are if you need healing whatever it is you send to my ministry because i'm working for god you're you're putting god first but and then this convoluted psychology they used you probably heard it before and he said that he was sending them in this envelope a prayer carpet and if you kneeled on the prayer carpet and then wrapped up your biggest bill whatever you had in your wallet send it back to him your prayer would be answered and you open up the envelope and you pulled out a xerox piece of paper of a carpet it's a piece of paper with a photocopy of a carpet on it you're supposed to wrap your money up in that first you kneel on it and you pray but you know it says that in the bible that even handkerchiefs were taken from the apostles now did jesus need a handkerchief did he need a robe didn't cornelius or i'm sorry a centurion said you don't even need to come to my house you speak the word and my servant will be healed so all the handkerchief or the apron that they brought from paul all that was doing was it was giving them something in which to hang their faith but when jesus healed a person what healed them says the faith and he never said my faith has made you whole you show me one place where jesus said my faith made you whole never he always said your faith has made you whole and you might think well i don't have any faith yes you do because the bible says you do romans tells us god has dealt to all men a measure of faith you've all got some faith we prove it all the time we drive down the road we're relaxed and we don't know how many people around us are on drugs especially when you're coming to church and you get passed by people going to the bingo hall right we don't know what's going on but still we're have a sense of security for me i've often said my greatest proof that god's people have faith is what happens at a potluck what's that i don't know who made it i don't know what's in it i don't know is their kitchen clean i don't know i don't want to know the bible says ask no questions just by faith eat whatever's set before you you've got faith sure you do we we all have a measure of faith but why the garment why was that important you can read in matthew 14 35 and when the men of that place recognized him they sent out into the surrounding region and brought unto him all who were sick and begged that they might only touch the hem of his garment and as many as touched it were made perfectly well so you see this has happened several times she had reason to believe if i could just touch the hymn of his garment maybe some of it had grown out of a tradition from the religious leaders or the priests i'm not sure but they believe that now i think there's a biblical reason what does clothing represent but someone said righteousness and that would be true if it's christ's clothing but generally clothing represents character all of our clothing is like filthy rags but jesus clothing would represent what you can read in revelation 19 8 speaking of the bride of christ and to her it was granted to be a raid and fine linen clean and bright for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints and if that's true of the bride of christ how much more true is it of christ himself who in revelation is pictured wearing a white garment it's a symbol for the righteousness of christ and so don't miss that do you think what i'm saying is theologically sound so she's reaching out what does a woman represent you've got a continual flow of blood and she's reaching out and she gets a hold of the robe and something happens go back to go back with me to mark chapter 5. it says if i might just touch his clothes i'll be made well immediately healing just rockets like lightning into her body immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up and she felt in her body just like name and knew when he came out of the water the seventh time his leprosy was healed she felt and you know there's probably other ailments and depression and anemia or whatever went along with her sickness she was physically sick and immediately she felt strength and healing come into her body and she was healed of her affliction and jesus immediately noticed the word immediately twice immediately she was healed and jesus at the same moment knowing in himself that power virtue had gone out of him it's like you know he just knew he's going through the crowd now does anything ever take jesus by surprise do you think that he knew there was someone there that wanted help i kind of think he was slowing down on his way to dreyus's house you notice i'm going back and forth between jerrius and darius on his way there he's slowing down knowing there's a woman who is desperate to be healed and he lets her catch up but he lets her be involved in reaching out and that's kind of how the lord is with all of us the lord said you'll search for me and you'll find me if you search for me with all of your heart now when a man falls in love with a woman there's a period of time where a pursuit takes place generally the man is the one who is more aggressively pursuing and the lady likes to be pursued i suppose it works both ways but how many of you want to be wanted i do don't you don't you want to be wanted don't you want to be pursued by someone who cares jesus knew that she was pursuing him god knows that we want him but you know there's something in the pursuit that makes the um encounter more special and when you search for god with all your heart you find god then you are really excited it's like digging for treasure and you finally shout eureka so he wanted to let her reach out and he went just slow enough where she could catch up and you ever play tag with your kids when they're little you can easily outrun them but you don't run too fast they'll get discouraged so you just stay you know just kind of and every now and then you slow down and say oh i caught you and they're so excited right well god wants to be found are you searching he wants to be found and jesus immediately knowing in himself the power had gone out of him he turned around in the crowd and he said something that mystified the disciples who touched my clothes you got to see the picture you know he's in this crowd and he's being pushed and jostled he's nearly popping out of the crowd they're squeezing them so tight and he's being pushed on every side and and tugged at and and jesus stops jerry's here he's got the apostles around him like secret service agents and he goes who touched me now when he said that did the woman know that he was thinking of her you know a lot of people kind of jostle and bump into jesus but they're not reaching out with a reach of faith it's not a touch of faith there are people by the billions around the world there are about 2.2 billion christians in the world and they bump into jesus every week they come to church and they hang out with the crowd they bump into the crowd and they jostle with the crowd and they know jesus is somewhere in the crowd but they don't really reach out in faith and have a personal encounter jesus knew there was someone that had just made contact with him that was unique and he said who touched me hi how are you doing we got an escapee didn't he cute and so he wanted to know who it was why did he say that did he want to embarrass her no does the lord want you to give glory to him when you've received a miracle uh he wants to give you an opportunity to testify he didn't want to humiliate her he didn't want to embarrass her but you know there were a lot of other people that were struggling maybe with similar problems and they were afraid to reach out and so when she shared her testimony it encouraged and inspired others so when the lord heals you he may pause and say hey did god just do something for you yeah then don't just take your blessing and run off thank him glorify him testify for him the reason the story is in the bible today is because he asked who touched me you and i would know nothing about this if he hadn't asked that question but he deliberately did it because there's much more to it he said who touched me and the disciples are thinking lord you've been out in the sun too long you see the multitude thronging you and you say who touched me and he looked around to see her who had done this thing now the woman fearing and trembling she's thinking oh no maybe i wasn't supposed to do that i didn't get permission it's against the environmental protection agency i've broken some rule and my my healing is going to be taken away who knows what she's thinking but she's terrified that all of a sudden she has all this unwanted attention that's the last thing he wanted he looked around to see who had done this thing finally she figures i better fess up because as soon as she touched him she knew she was healed and within two seconds he said who touched me so she hadn't gotten away yet and he looked around you cannot escape the look of jesus but the woman fearing and trembling knowing what had happened to her came and fell down before him now you notice when jerius first comes he falls down before him now she comes and she falls down before him and told the whole truth what truth well what we heard earlier in mark that she had this terrible physical problem so she relates the whole thing and after she says that he wants her to be at peace and he says in verse 34 daughter your faith has made you well go in peace and be healed of your affliction i like that word be healed because when christ says be you know when jesus said let there be light and let there be a firmament and let there be vegetation there's creative power in the word when jesus said let there be and he said be healed let it be permanent go in peace i didn't i didn't single you out to embarrass you i wanted you to testify for the glory of god and for others how often we take blessings from god and just go home you remember the ten lepers that jesus healed and they're on their way to the priests they're all healed from their leprosy but one the samaritan of all things he thinks i can't just go i've got to go back and thank him and he came back and he glorified god and he thanked god and and jesus praised him for doing that how many times do we get blessings from god every day and we never think to stop and pause and thank him we take it for granted and he wants us to praise him and give him glory so he said be healed go in peace now don't miss this part daughter your faith has made you well and he calls her daughter go in peace be healed of your affliction so how many of you want peace getting a hold of the righteousness of christ is the source of true peace and he says be healed while he's still speaking notice how things are happening back to back and i'm going to tie this all together before we're done while he's still speaking someone comes from the ruler of the synagogue's house who said your daughter is dead and he's thinking oh we waited too long if that lady hadn't her testimony was so long if she hadn't gone on and on who knows maybe jesus would have made it why do you trouble the master no since bothering him now it's too late she's dead and as soon as jesus heard that word he spoke and he said to the ruler of the synagogue he tells darius don't listen to that you came to me in faith you said if i touch your daughter shall live it's still true do not be afraid only do what believe but jesus said it doesn't say well i've got faith you don't need to worry my faith's enough he says you need to have faith he said to the woman your faith has made you whole has the science of salvation changed or is still true that without faith it's impossible to please god is it still true that all things are possible to him that believes and is it still true that if you have faith you can move mountains you'll notice that in the story with this woman and with the ruler of the synagogue they're both having to stretch their faith she's having to stretch out her hand press through the crowd he igerus is having to endure the delay of his request i'm reading a great book with karen now with karen and nathan for our worship it's a book by ian bounds and he's written several great books on prayer it's a compilation some other pastors were saying which book isn't i looked again it's all of them together in a compilation it's he called em bounds on prayer and i have never heard such wonderful eloquence on prayer and talking about or reading right now about the importunity of prayer that's an old word for persistence not giving up jesus talks about when you pray just hang in there it tells the parable of the widow who could not find justice from an unjust judge but she kept coming to his door and kept coming to his door and jesus said finally he said i'm going to give her what she wants or she's going to wear me out even though i don't care about her i don't care about her case but she's wearing me down and jesus said if an unjust that's luke 18 if an unjust judge would do that how much more will god hear his saints that cry out to him day and night you know what that means your faith might need stretching you might need to reach out you may not get your answer right away but you don't let go of god you keep praying and god will jesus will get through the crowd but you've got to hang on to him jesus tells a parable about a friend comes at midnight and says can you get me some loaves i've got a visitor i've got nothing to feed him he said no go away it's late i'm kids are in bed we're tired but he keeps knocking finally he says all right he opens the door and he gives him what he wants jesus is stressing if your children are hungry and you'd feed them how much more will your father in heaven give the holy spirit to them that ask and when he says it it's asking seeking knocking it's a process and if anything i've learned from reading this book we give up too quick the imbalance says in this book right about the time we quit praying is when our prayers would start getting answered if we'd keep praying but we stopped too soon the kind of praying they did in the bible where jacob got a hold of the angel and wrestled all night when did you have a whole night of prayer i can only count a couple times in my hands where i've spent a night praying and even then i fell asleep like the disciples but god's people we need to know what it means to reach out and to press on in prayer while he's speaking he says don't trouble him anymore jesus said do not stop believing don't be afraid just believe and at this point he permits no one to follow him he tells the crowd stop y'all right there tells the crowd you stay here and he takes with him peter james john doesn't even let the rest of the apostles go he doesn't want any more interruptions his girl has died and he came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue and it must have taken long enough because her death had been announced and the local mourners had already showed up and he saw a tumult and those who wept and wailed loudly in bible times they you would you know you'd go to the mortician and not only did you select the embalming services but they had hired mourners there were musicians that would play these doleful notes on their flutes and and their liars and and they would they had women that would come and they would wail and fall out and carry on and weep and they're very good and just created a nice atmosphere of anguish and they would bring that you know they figured the louder they wailed the more anguish the more they were loved remember when jesus went to lazarus to say behold how he loved him so the better the crying the louder the crying better the funeral and so they already had the hired mourners that were there and the instruments are playing and their women are wailing and rocking back and forth and crying and the mother and father well the father's with jesus and the mother's there and she's crying and they're carrying on and uh he comes into the house and he saw the tumult and those who wept and wailed loudly and he came in and he said to them why do you make this commotion and weep see that's not just me this jesus said it was a commotion and he said the child is not dead but sleeping now that child was sleeping like lazarus slept but jesus was saying this was a temporary death was the child dead yes people knew the child was dead christ calls it asleep another important point there and they ridiculed him and they said you're crazy she's dead we know she's dead by every evidence she's dead and when he had put them all outside why did he put him out because they didn't believe sometimes when elisha raised the boy that died in the upper room he just locked the door behind him and the boy elijah and elisha did the same thing when peter prayed and dorcas was resurrected he put everybody out and he knelt down jesus did not want anyone in there that did not believe because while faith is powerful unbelief is also contagious and so um it's important that we believe and if we're going to be praying for something if those that don't believe go somewhere else you'll spread your unbelief he put them all outside he took the father and the mother of the child and those were with him peter james and john and he entered the room where the child was lying and he took the child by the hand and he said to her talitha kumai and just in a gentle voice like a parent would say it's time for school and it says little girl i say to you arise and immediately the girl arose and walked for she was she not only was healed she was completely healed where she got up and she walked around for she was what 12 years of age and they were overcome with great amazement but he commanded them strictly no one should know it well that didn't last very long you ever try and keep a resurrection a secret when was the last time you saw resurrection so you never know might be someone's keeping it a secret she walked for she was 12 years of age and they were overcome with amazement but he commanded them strictly no one should know it and he said something should be given her to eat now this to me i think is one of the most amazing part parts of the story is i want you to look at the symbolism of what's happening here in the middle of the gospel in the middle of jesus ministry in the middle of the land of israel there's a story that's found in all three gospels that jesus comes from the sea there's a man he's on his way he says my daughter's died he's a jew and they're on their way to raise a 12 year old girl and in the process of going to that place a woman who has been bleeding for 12 years but doesn't get any better she only gets worse she comes to jesus in this one day they both touched christ one reaches out for jesus and the other one jesus reaches out and touches the girl now what does the 12 the number 12 sometimes represent in the bible typically you know i did a little study and i thought this was interesting you find the number 11 in the bible 24 times the number 11 in the whole bible 24 times you find the number 13 in the bible 13 times you find the number 12 in the bible 187 times mathematically that doesn't square unless god deliberately uses the number 12 more you see what i'm saying you've got 12 all through the bible because it's typically a sign of god's people the church leadership of the church 12 tribes sons of jacob in the old testament they would set up 12 stones for the worship of god there were 12 judges in the old testament you've got 12 apostles in the new testament judas hangs himself acts chapter 1 they need to replace judas they could say we're going to vote in three just to cover the bases and they say let's pick two pick one of those two so we get the number 12 again you get to revelation chapter 12 you got a woman 12 stars above her head above the head means authority leadership the saved of god live in a city that is on 12 foundations with 12 gates and a tree that has 12 kinds of fruit 12 times a year and you get the 144 000 which is 12 times 12 000. so 12 is a number representing the church so here's a woman who's bleeding for 12 years what does a woman represent bride she's an older woman obviously and then you've got a young girl she's at the tender age of 12 just before that point of puberty or right in there somewhere and they both touch jesus i'd like to suggest to you that one of them represents the old testament church she appears first in the story the old testament if you wanted forgiveness what did you do you offered a sacrifice and there was a continual flow of blood coming from the sanctuary but is it the blood of goats and calves that washes away our sin or is that only just a symbol it's only the blood of jesus that washes away our sin and she tried everything but it didn't work and you see this is the history in the old testament they were continually drifting from the lord and the lord would bring them back and they'd drift from the lord and the lord would bring them back and that story goes over and over through the exodus and through the judges and through the kings and even the times of ezra nehemiah they just weren't getting it something was missing spent everything on physicians no better experience many said she went through many hard things but she touches jesus she gets a hold of the robe of christ and immediately she is perfectly whole he has her bare testimony so we'd know what happened then he goes to do a resurrection and by the way this is the first resurrection of jesus in the bible you got this girl you get the widow of nain you've got lazarus and the last resurrection jesus does is he resurrects himself each resurrection of christ is more dramatic than the one before but this is the first one the girl has just died the other one is a boy on his way to be buried he's already in route to the cemetery then you've got lazarus he's already buried then you've got jesus who's buried for three days and he raises himself so this is the first resurrection it's a symbol of the new testament here's a girl 12 years old and he says give her something to eat you know what jesus said to the early church when he rose from the dead every time he met the disciples the first thing he said is do you have anything to eat and then he opened the word i always thought that was funny in the road to emmaus they sit down he breaks bread he teaches them the scriptures on the way to the house and they said he was known to us in the breaking of bread he's in the upper room he walks through the door he says do you have anything to eat he sees it and he opens the word to them he sees the disciples by the sea and peter says isn't that is that jesus on the shore the swim ashore and jesus said you guys got any breakfast you catch anything i got a fire here and then he opens the word to them and so here this girl has come to life and you know it's also practically true that if a person's had a fever and they're weak and finally they're getting better having a good appetite he says give her something to eat but i see in this story that you have revealed the axle on which the bible rotates you've got the old testament with all its sacrifices and and everything you've got the church here but it never meets it meets its fulfillment until it touches jesus and then with the resurrection of christ then you've got the new testament where the old testament is being explained and the word is being given you got to it is it just me or does it seem odd to you you've got a woman bleeding for 12 years and then a girl that's raised who's 12 years old which means that that woman started her problem right around the time that girl was born you still with me and they both met that day in jesus one reaches out and touches jesus jesus reaches out and touches the other and i think the bible is telling us that everything is pointing to christ jesus told jarius don't lose your faith and the girl was raised by the faith of another you notice it's not the girl's faith that raises her it's the faith of another for her because she can't do it and then you've got the other lady he said your faith has made you whole it's it's got the whole picture of the plan of salvation and it all points to jesus well i don't know about you but maybe you're looking for a resurrection in your life maybe you have been feeling isolated you've been needing physical healing or spiritual healing i think the story is telling us maybe you're grieving over someone you love that's dying they might be dying spiritually but the one thing i love about this story is that jesus stopped so that woman could be healed and jesus went with darius to raise the girl jesus always answered any prayer that came to him that's such a simple truth but it's amazing when you think of it can you name a time in the bible when somebody was told no that came to jesus for help as one lady he said no not now not now but he ended up answering her prayer everybody got a yes from jesus why do we pray so little i think we need more importunity in our prayers more persistence in our prayers amen does jesus want to answer our prayers does he want to be wanted by you then show them you want them and seek the lord with all your heart we're going to sing our closing song 181 does jesus care and i think you know the answer to that let's stand together as we sing [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] is [Music] is [Music] my save your kisses [Music] is [Music] is [Music] any of you believe that there are cares that you can cast on jesus and he's going to care for you father in heaven lord we are just so thankful for the promises in your word that you are a god that answers prayer you're not a god far off you're a god nearby and while it may require that we seek and pursue you we know that our faith is strengthened in the process lord i pray that we'll know what it means to search for you with all of our hearts and then even more important i pray we'll know what it means when we find you when we experience that that resurrecting power that new life that healing that all emanates from your righteousness i pray that everyone here can be covered by that robe that you provided by your own blood bless us lord bless this church every member we pray that you will help us to be a light in this community and and beyond and thank you for your word and the promises it contains i pray that we will cash in on the promises that come by faith we thank you and pray it all in jesus name amen please be seated for a moment we have a brief announcement god bless

Channel: Daily Hymns

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Id: oQh9-Y2MbQ8

Length: 54min 10sec (3250 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 02 2021