How Long Is Twelve Years?

How Long Is Twelve Years?

That depends on what has happened during those 12 years. If in 2008 you welcomed a new baby girl into your hearts and home,

then those days you held her to your breast,

those days you listened to her first garbled words, those days you watched her take her first faltering steps, are but a fleeting moment in your treasure house of memories. You remember all those happy,

precious times:

The first day of school,

The months of missing teeth,

The days spend learning how to ride a two-wheeler.

The first night she spent away from home.

The day she told you she was going to marry you when she grew up, and you told her she meant she was going to marry somebody just like you, and she said, "NO", she meant you!

and you felt so proud and happy.

If that is how the past twelve years have gone, and your wee girl now stands on the threshold of womanhood,

then those 12 years have been like an evening past.

If, however...

in 2008 you discovered you had some dreaded disease. If those 12 years have meant tests and more tests, countless visits to countless doctors, eleven major operations. If those 12 years have meant the end of normal family life,

the end of work,

the end of shopping,

the end of travel.

If those 12 years have meant pain and suffering and fear and the threat of death at every turn. Then those 12 years have been like an eternity. How long Is 12 Years?

That depends a lot on what's been happening these past 12 years. In our Bible study this morning we encounter such a contrast. Twelve years of joy and happiness that galloped by like an Indian Summer, and twelve years of misery and pain that ground on forever

and ever.

You'll find the story in Mark 5 (Luke 8:40ff). I'm beginning to read at verse 21a.

I. THE CRY

1. Luke's Gospel says that the crowd welcomed Him. If you'll look back just a few verses, you'll discover that Jesus had just been kicked out of the country of the Gadereans

what we know today as the Golan Heights.

Jesus had just healed a demonic man and sent a huge herd of pigs headlong into the Sea of Galilee. And so it says in verse 17:

Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.

I tell you friends,

if we push Jesus out of our lives there are a lot of people at the other side of the lake who are anxious to welcome him. Jesus has never been without a people. Even in the darkest days of Church history.

Jesus always had a people

and if we crowd Christ out of our church

or out of our country

He will find a people on the other side of the sea. I suggest that that is what has happened in this century. Did you know that right now the Church is mainly,

for the first time in many centuries

Non English speaking

and non white.

Somehow in Britain, the United States, Canada in our hustle to make another buck we have pushed Christ out of our countries and so now He walks in great power in Africa

and South America

and Korea.

2. Jesus comes where He is made welcome. Our text doesn't say but the town was likely Capernaum on the north shore of the Sea.

Jesus barely got his feet out of the boat when the crowds pressed in upon Him

And in that crowd was a desperate man

a man by the of Jairus. The Bible says he was a ruler of the Synagogue.

He was the man who led the services. He was responsible for the building

the Synagogue's maintenance and repair and since Judaism was the state religion at that time this was a very prestigious job. The social and religious life of the people centered around the Synagogue.

The Synagogue ruler was one of the top men in town

In most cases he was a wealthy man.

But friends, he does not come to Jesus because he's a big shot in town. He does not come to Jesus because he has a fat bank account; he does not come to Jesus because he has an interest in religious things.

Isn't it amazing

these things do not normally bring men to Jesus. Jairus did not come running to Jesus because he was wealthy.

He did not come because he was powerful.

He did not come because he was into religion. He came because he precious, wee girly was dying.

And I tell you friends, trouble has brought far more of us to the Master than success. It has always been that way.