Sermon Transcript – Do Not Fear, Only Believe

Series B – Fifth Sunday After Pentecost – Sunday, June 28, 2015 | Pr. Chris Rosebrough

Welcome to the Teaching Ministry of Kongsvinger Lutheran Church. Kongsvinger is a beacon for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of Northwestern Minnesota.
We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone, and now, here’s a message from Pastor Chris Rosebrough:
Intro bumper
Time StampTranscript
0:22the holy Gospel
0:29According to Saint Mark chapter 5 verses 21 through 43.
0:34when Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake a
0:39large crowd rather gathered around him while he was by the lake then one of the synagogue rulers named Jarius came there
0:46seeing Jesus he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him my little daughter is dying please come and put
0:53your hands on her so that she will be healed and live so Jesus went with him a large crowd
0:58followed and pressed around him and a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years she had suffered a
1:05great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all that she had yet instead of getting better she grew
1:11worse when she heard about Jesus she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak because she thought if
1:18I just touch his clothes I will be healed immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was
1:25freed from her suffering at once Jesus realized that power had gone out from
1:30him and he turned around in the crowd and asked who touched my clothes you see the people crowding against you
1:37his disciples answered and yet you can ask who touched me but Jesus kept looking around to see who
1:43had done it then the woman knowing what had happened to her came and fell at his feet trembling of fear told him the
1:50whole truth and she said he said to her daughter your faith has healed you go in
1:56peace and be freed from your suffering while Jesus was still still speaking some men came from the house of Jairus
2:03synagogue ruler your daughter is dead they said why bother the teacher anymore
2:08ignoring what they said Jesus told the synagogue ruler Don’t Be Afraid just believe
2:14he did not let anyone follow him except for Peter James and John the brothers of James when they came to the home of the
2:20synagogue ruler Jesus saw a commotion with people crying and wailing loudly he went in and said to them why all this
2:27commotion and wailing the child is not dead but asleep but they laughed at him and he after he put them all out he took
2:35the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him and went in where the child was and he took her by
2:42the hand and said to her talitha Kum which means little girl I say to you get up and immediately the girl stood up and
2:49walked around and she was 12 years old and at this they were completely astonished and he gave strict orders not
2:55to let anyone know about this and he told them to give her something to eat
3:02in the name of Jesus all right every good story has a back story this one has a back story and I’d
3:08like to kind of fill in some of the missing data so you get what’s going on I want you to think of this story kind
3:14of as you would one of the scenes from The Wizard of Oz Remember The Wizard of Oz well Dorothy was captured by the
3:22witch and of course the witch had this ginormous hourglass right with a red
3:29sand in it and she flipped it over of course I’d always thought why don’t you just turn The Hourglass over and you’d
3:35save yourself Dorothy but you know apparently that idea never came to Dorothy’s mind but in this story I want
3:42you to think that there is an hourglass and it’s actually a very serious one because as soon as the sand runs out a
3:5012 year old girl is going to die that’s just how this goes and so the back story if you remember last week we
3:56talked about the fact that Jesus had spent so much time ministering to people
4:02and healing people that he was literally exhausted and they got into a boat to go
4:08across the Sea of Galilee and that’s where Jesus fell asleep on the cushion and the storm came up and they said woke
4:14him up don’t you care that we’re perishing right well when they got to the other side that’s the story
4:20recounted in the earlier part of chapter five about Jesus healing that poor demoniac the man possessed by demons to
4:29the point where the the name of the demon was Legion and I mean literally
4:35this guy was cutting himself living in tombs he was Stark naked just completely
4:41demonized and Jesus frees him well while all of that is going on there’s another
4:47story going on and The Story begins in the home of Jarius the synagogue Capernaum and the story kind of goes
4:55like this the 12 year old daughter comes into the house and says Mom I don’t feel good
5:01she doesn’t feel good at all and she begins throwing up and running a fever
5:07and she’s getting sicker and sicker she can’t keep anything down this is the
5:13days before they have urgent care or emergency rooms or penicillin and so the
5:19only thing you can do with this kind of illness is kind of write it out and they’re taking rags
5:25putting them in water putting them on her head doing anything to cool her down we don’t know what she suffered from but
5:31based upon what Jesus says at the end clearly she was so sick she couldn’t even keep water down
5:37and while all of this is going on you can imagine as parents how you have to
5:42feel we’ve all had sick kids you know we’ve had to stand guard at night and be
5:48at their bedside and forego sleep so that we can keep guard over them to make sure they’re okay
5:53this is what’s going on in the home of Jarius and despite the diligence of Jairus and his wife their daughter is
6:00getting worse foreign
6:07I apologize I will not be able to tell this story without getting choked up because it just kills me
6:15so while Jesus is gone Jarius is going around town have you
6:21seen Jesus is he here and he’s not he’s not there
6:27saw him get in a boat he went across the lake and so you can tell he’s looking for
6:34Jesus and that comes up very clearly in the text and I’ll show it to you and if it’s okay with you I’d like to preach
6:39this text from my translation because there’s certain things going on in the Greek that just get lost in translation
6:47and I want to paint in some of the missing color so we pick up at Mark chapter 5 verse
6:5421. after they had healed the demoniac Jesus left the decapolis area and kind
7:02of commissioned that now freed demoniac to go tell everyone what he had done for
7:07him so they get back into the boat and passing through the sea in the boat to the other side they come back and a
7:13large crowd gathered around him and he was by the Sea so Jesus literally as soon as the as soon as the people of
7:19Capernaum recognize that it’s Jesus I mean they literally form a crowd right
7:25there at the dock if you would I mean no sinner does the Boat Land the people want to come and you know say their
7:32things to Jesus and so and it says this and the ruler of the synagogue whose name was Jarius comes and seeing him
7:38Falls at his feet so Jarius got word Jesus is back he’s back
7:45he can he can help your daughter and so he immediately gets out of the house and
7:50hightails it to the shore finds Jesus in the crowd and what’s
7:55fascinating is that Jesus isn’t cruel he’s in mean and he cares
8:02about this specific individual favor if you would ask of this man and here’s
8:07what it says Jairus urged Jesus greatly you can just hear the pleading
8:14my little daughter my little girl she’s dying she’s dying come so that you can
8:20lay your hands on her in order to save her that she might live and the Greek
8:26word there is save it is safe come so that you might save
8:32her so that she might live and he departs with him in a great crowd
8:39followed him and they crowded him I mean Jesus immediately says all right I’m with you let’s go lead the way
8:47think of Jarius as pleading with Jesus and he’s on his face as a prayer because that’s what it is
8:54who is he beseeching for help the Lord God from where does our help
9:01come from from the Lord so Jesus departs great crowd followed everyone’s going wow we
9:08got to go see this there’s going to be a miracle right there’s a little girl who’s dying that Jesus is going to save I Remember The Hourglass
9:14the Sands are getting desperately low and then it says this and a woman having
9:20a flow of blood for 12 years and suffered greatly by many doctors and had
9:26spent all that she had to no avail but rather had gotten worse now let me fill
9:32in some of the missing data here this is important information because this woman
9:39according to the Mosaic Covenant has been unclean for 12 years
9:46and unclean is a big deal she’s not able to go to synagogue she’s not able to go to church
9:52in fact what we know about the Pharisees teaching in in Judea at this time she
9:57would have been considered somebody who was cursed of God Leviticus chapter 15 25-27 says this
10:05when a woman has a discharge of blood for many days at a time other than her
10:10monthly period or has a discharge that continues Beyond her period She Will Be
10:15unclean as long as she has the discharge that means she has to be separated from
10:22the community the law has literally picked her out and said not you
10:29you are sinful you are unclean you are to be separated from the community
10:36listen to this any bed she lies on while her discharge continues will be unclean
10:43as is her bed during her monthly period anything she sits on will be unclean as
10:48during her period whoever touches them will be unclean he must wash his clothes and bathe with water and he will be
10:55unclean until evening she can’t even touch anybody without making them unclean
11:02what a desperate situation she has found herself in 12 years she has been uncleaned
11:12and there isn’t a single good gynecologist in Judea at this time and that’s what
11:18she needs she’s probably got a tear in her uterus or something like that
11:24and so it says she suffered greatly by many doctors which means she spent every
11:30penny she could save to desperately find a cure so that she
11:37would no longer be considered unclean so that she could finally be restored to
11:43Fellowship to go to church to be able to touch people without making them unclean
11:51she may as well have been a leper but to no avail
11:57the text says she had not gotten better instead she had only gotten worse
12:0512 years she pleads with God 12 years she does
12:10everything she can to no avail and it only gets worse when you experience that kind of suffering a
12:19suffering that has with a religious component and by the way God’s law is good
12:24God’s law is designed to show us all that we are all sinners and here it’s
12:30found somebody and so poignantly and so strongly and so unrelentingly has said
12:38you are unclean you are a sinner that’s what the law does
12:45and by the way Jarius would have known who this woman is as the synagogue ruler
12:52he would have been part of the people responsible for making sure she was kept out of the
12:59synagogue what a mess so there’s Jarius he is running out of
13:08time running out of time his daughter is about to die
13:14and this woman sneaks into the crowd
13:22here’s what it says she had heard of Jesus and coming behind him in the crowd she
13:30touched His Garment other passages say that if only I touch
13:35the tassels of His Garment right if you look in your bulletin there’s an
13:41illustration there’s a first century Jewish man’s shirt you notice that they didn’t go to
13:49Walmart and buy T-shirts and things like that you know this is you know basically put on a loom and made this way but
13:57every Jewish man was required on their garments to have these things
14:03these tassels coming off their shirts and they are called sitsith the plurals sitsy oath and we find this command for
14:11all Jewish men to wear these things found in Numbers chapter 15 where it says verse 38 speak to the children of
14:18Israel say to them they shall make themselves fringes on the corners of their garments throughout their generation and they shall put on the
14:25corner Fringe a blue tecalet that is a thread and wearing the sitsith is also
14:31commanded in Deuteronomy 22 verse 12. now we seem to oftentimes forget that Jesus was Jewish so this all plays into
14:38this when we do the cross-reference work what we know is is that she had
14:44concocted a plan she had heard about Jesus heard about his miracles and thought I don’t want to make him unclean
14:52so I’m going to sneak in and I’m just going to touch the end of one of those
14:57sit Thief that’s all I gotta do that’s what she did
15:02she said if only I might touch his teeth I will be saved that’s what the Greek
15:09says I will be saved it says
15:15I will be saved so see come up the perfect plan no need to
15:21get Jesus unclean just touch the seats the oath just sneak in get the healing and I’m good right
15:28so immediately the woman’s flow of blood dried up and she knew she was now here’s
15:33the important words listen to this she knew that she was
15:40taste mastigas she was saved from the scourge
15:48I know that doesn’t come through in your translation but I want you to hear this again she knew that she was saved from the
15:55scourge your translation says maybe saved from her suffering or things like that right but the idiom is saved from
16:03the scourge and the Greek word mastigas that is the same word used for when
16:09Jesus was scourged by the Roman soldiers he was mastigas he was he experienced a
16:15mastigas and so what this woman suffered for 12 years in her own heart she
16:22describes it as a scourging it tells you about the suffering that
16:27she went through so there she is she has stolen
16:33a healing can it be done right and here’s what happens
16:40just when she thinks she can get away and immediately Jesus knew in himself power had gone out of him
16:47and turning around in the crowd he said who touched my garment
16:55now at this point we know from her reaction that her blood runs cold
17:02she goes from knowing she’s healed to absolutely terrified
17:08because you can almost hear it oh no here it comes
17:13Jesus is going to let her have it and he’s going to let her have it hard how dare you an unclean woman who’s been put
17:22out of the synagogue because you’re a sinner you are under a curse and you are under a Scourge how dare you come and
17:29steal a healing from me that’s what she’s expecting because that’s what the law gives
17:36each and every one of us when we look at God’s law we all know that is what we
17:42deserve we do not deserve kind words from God all of the times we’ve committed adultery all of the times that
17:48we’ve idolized we’ve committed idolatry and had other gods all of the times we’ve lied all of the times we’ve stolen
17:55every time we’ve torn down our neighbor’s reputation with our gossip each and every one of us is even in our
18:01own heart because the law is written on our hearts knows that what we deserve from God is Not kindness but his Wrath
18:09not a warm embrace but the back of his hand we all know this
18:16and this is what she’s expecting so Jesus turns around who touched my
18:23garment and the disciples said to him Jesus you see the crowd crowding you
18:32how can you say who touched me and he says it says this and he looked
18:37around to see who done it he’s hunting now where’s the person who touched me
18:46I guess she didn’t get away with it and here’s what it says
18:57the woman having great fear and trembling
19:02she’s totally come unglued you ever been so scared that you begin
19:09to shake uncontrollably and you think why am I shaking
19:16that’s what’s happening to this woman she has great fear and she’s utterly trembling down to her core she knew what
19:24had happened to her and she came and fell before Jesus
19:29and it says
19:34she told him the whole truth this is a confession
19:40she told him everything so there she is and you can tell she’s a mess you cannot have this kind of fear and
19:47trembling and not have huge gushing big tears and sobs and mucus coming out of
19:54your nose she’s an utter wreck
20:00and what is she expecting Wrath she’s expecting a beating
20:08to be publicly ridiculed rebuked this is what she’s expecting
20:26but he said to her first word daughter
20:37first word not a word of Wrath
20:45not a word of rebuke first word to
20:52talk with that word Jesus says I love you with that word he says your mind
21:01this is God in human flesh and his word to her his daughter his word to you his
21:09daughter his word to you is son
21:15knowing that we deserve God’s Wrath knowing that we are sinners
21:21Jesus is going to the Cross to bleed and to die for her sins and it’s not Wrath
21:29it’s not how dare you its daughter
21:36your faith has saved you Jesus said
21:42that’s what it says he pissed us Sue say so can say your faith has saved you
21:50listen to these words go in peace
21:57go in peace and be healthy from your scourge
22:03that’s what the Greek says go in peace and be healthy from your Scourge he read
22:09her mind because she said inside of herself if only I touched the Hem of His Garment I
22:15will be healed from the scourge and he says to her go in peace and be
22:21healthy be healed from the scourge from the mastigas he read her mind
22:30what a kind and loving savior we have not giving us what we deserve even
22:36though the law condemns us and rightly so Jesus tells us he loves us and because
22:42he has died for us what he says to her your faith has saved you is true of us
22:47as well do you trust Jesus for the Forgiveness of your sins that he’s bled and died for
22:53you have you been washed in the waters of your baptism and given faith
22:58Jesus says to you son daughter your faith has saved you and all of that is
23:05given as a gift from God what a beautiful story but remember all
23:11of this is taking place while The Hourglass is running out
23:20for Jarius man he’s racing the clock
23:26his daughter’s about to die and now Jesus has been delayed
23:32and here’s what it says while he was still speaking those from the synagogue ruler came saying
23:40your daughter has died why is she still trouble the teacher
23:51pray I never have to hear those words your daughter has died
24:00just imagine what he felt in that moment has anybody ever conveyed news to you
24:05that when you heard the words of what they were telling you it changed everything and in that moment
24:13even your own blood ran cold it’s like getting punched in the face these are not words that any parent
24:20could bear and you can just imagine what poor Jarius went through the race was for nothing
24:27he lost the sand ran out he knew Jesus could heal but raised
24:34somebody from the dead only God can do that
24:39so there he is and in that moment
24:44you hear nothing just
24:51I failed
24:57but Jesus refused to listen to the word they were speaking
25:03that’s what the text says Jesus refused to listen to the word
25:09these words hit him in the face then Jesus
25:15Springs into action says I’m not listening to any of those words I I don’t want to hear this
25:21and he said to the synagogue really he literally turns to charity and he says
25:29do not fear only believe no fear
25:35just believe and Jesus would not permit anyone to
25:42accompany him except for Peter James and John the brother of James
25:47now keep this in mind we all have something in common with Jarius
25:56we’re all dying and because of our sinful condition we
26:02lose people we love they die they get sick they don’t get better they
26:08get worse and they die and ultimately that’s what’s going to happen to all of us the wages of sin is death and so
26:14Jesus’s word to Jarius do not fear only believe these are words also spoken to
26:21us because you’re going to find out that Jesus can not only heal but Jesus can
26:26raise the Dead and he has promised you that he’s going to raise you on the
26:33last day because you are in him and you trust and believe in him so do
26:39not fear when death comes your way do not fear when those you love who are in
26:45the faith approach their death do not fear only believe trust these promises
26:54so Jesus wouldn’t permit anyone to accompany him the crowd this is not going to be a show
27:00we got some work to do Peter James and John one more person necessary to create a rock-solid eyewitness account two were
27:09necessary to establish a matter Jesus brought three they came to the home of the synagogue ruler and Jesus observes
27:16the tumult and the Weeping and the great wailing which is kind of a weird thing in the culture of the day there’s still
27:22cultures that do this today but back in those days they had professional mourners
27:27why I don’t know just a weird thing and so these are the professional mourners
27:34who are hired to mourn and you know they’re carry on like this they still do
27:40this in Haiti in other countries if you know if you’ve ever seen a you know an account of a funeral in Haiti this is
27:45how it’s done so this great weeping in tumult and entering
27:50Jesus says why are you in tumalton Weeping the child is not dead but is
27:56sleeping by the way only Jesus gets to talk this way about death but this tells us something about our
28:02own deaths our own death is really not death because we’re in Christ
28:08it’s just a matter of falling asleep and then being awoken on the last day
28:14and then it says this they laughed at Jesus and a great verb here
28:21he threw them out you see Jesus get out of here
28:27threw them out and he takes the father of the child and the mother with him and enters where the child was
28:35and he grasped the hand of the child and he says to her
28:41in it’s almost that same kind of endearing way of saying it the way he
28:46said it to the woman with the flow of blood where he said to her third daughter it’s a term of endearment he now says to
28:53this little girl which is translated translated little girl
28:59I tell you to arise now how many of you seen the movie Hook
29:04y’all seen the movie Hook okay you remember that uh Maggie and her brother
29:10are taken captive in Neverland by Captain Hook and Peter Pan ultimately
29:15saves them and they come back and there’s kind of a subplot in all of this and that is is that
29:21um Maggie and Jack’s mother is just beside herself because her
29:27children are gone and at the very end of the movie when they return she’s in their Nursery
29:34asleep on a chair and then they wake her up and when they wake her up she’s so
29:41overcome with joy and shock to see them again that she just loses it right
29:50I think this is what’s gonna what’s going on in this text and it’s so Jesus says to her talitha
29:56Kum which is translated the little girl I tell you would arise and immediately the little girl got up and walked for she was 12 years old and they were
30:03amazed immediately with great amazement
30:09this father and mother and were they just
30:15lost their daughter and the mom was there when she died Jarius wasn’t
30:20she just had all of those emotions of now what have I done I’ve lost my
30:27daughter she’s dead being there by her side while she’s
30:32going through vomiting and the fever and it not breaking and and being in and out of
30:40Consciousness and praying and nothing happening and then finally losing her and there’s Jesus and he comes in and
30:48literally raises her from the dead and she gets up and it’s like
30:55Joy confusion amazement it’s all there right
31:03they were amazed with a great amazement and then he says this
31:10Jesus commanded them strongly don’t tell anyone about this
31:16this is for you I care about you this is not about some
31:21show some miracle healing you know circus that I’m putting on this is me
31:27telling you I love you and I care about your family and I care about you as an individual and I care and I’m here to
31:34save you no need to go and make a spectacle of all of this you have your daughter back
31:41and then it says and he said and give her something to eat
31:49this poor little girl who couldn’t keep anything down who died Jesus cares even about her knowing that now that she’s
31:56been raised from the dead she has an empty stomach and it’s time for her to get give her something to eat
32:03and what does this text tell us this text tells us that Jesus cares for us individually
32:14that he’s not too busy or too preoccupied with the crowd
32:21the world to care for your needs and He does care for you and he’s kind and he’s loving
32:30and he’s merciful and when he calls you he calls you by
32:36name and he calls you with words that says that he loves you
32:41he knows your sin and he’s bled and died for all of it and he calls us to repent
32:47each and every one of us of our sins and to be forgiven
32:52so that we can pray to him as our brother as our family member as one who
32:58cares for us who bled and died for us and who would do anything for us for our
33:05good he’s gone to the cross for you
33:11suffered the scourge for you he bled for you he died for you he rose
33:19for you so that you would not have to face the wrath of God or hear from the law to hell with you
33:28but instead hear come into my father’s Kingdom
33:33you who are blessed for his blood and died for you and his
33:40wrath is only for a moment and his Blessing and his grace and his
33:45Mercy is for a lifetime a lifetime in eternity
33:51don’t ever tell me that Jesus isn’t loving and kind he is all of that
33:56he’s all of that and more he’s that for you he’s that for me he’s that for the
34:02world so let us then put away our wickedness put away our sin
34:09and walk in Freedom not in slavery to the devil
34:14because Jesus is so kind remember it says that we love him because he first loved
34:22us and it’s God’s kindness that leads us to repentance
34:28if he’s gonna do this for us then we ought to respond in penitent
34:36faith and no longer do the works of the devil but walk as children of the light
34:42in Jesus name amen
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