Sufficient Faith
Mark 5:21-34
21 Jesus got into the boat again and went back to the other side of the lake, where a large crowd gathered around him on the shore. 22 Then a leader of the local synagogue, whose name was Jairus, arrived. When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet, 23 pleading fervently with him. “My little daughter is dying,” he said. “Please come and lay your hands on her; heal her so she can live.”
24 Jesus went with him, and all the people followed, crowding around him. 25 A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. 26 She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. 27 She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. 28 For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition.
30 Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?”
31 His disciples said to him, “Look at this crowd pressing around you. How can you ask, ‘Who touched me?’”
32 But he kept on looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the frightened woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell to her knees in front of him and told him what she had done. 34 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.”
Let me begin my message today by asking you a question: Does your faith remove mountains or do your mountains remove your faith? F.B. Meyer once said that “unbelief puts our circumstances between us and God, but faith puts God between us and our circumstances.”
Today we’re going to see what faith can do for a person when it is a biblically applied faith, brought to Jesus Christ.
God is our Source and His supplies do not run out! He is not bankrupt.
He’s not in a depression. He doesn’t even know what inflation is. And He’s ready to meet some of the needs that are represented within the body of Christ. But the channel or vessel for us to receive from God is our faith!
James wrote, “We have not because we ask not” (James 4:2,KJV). Often we ask not because we believe not. But when we have faith enough to ask of Him, then miracles begin to take place.
True biblical faith, when it is real, begins to change us, which in turn, stirs us to action, which brings us to God.
Let’s look at the determination of the lady’s faith as found in our scripture passage. Verse 25 and 26 says, “A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse.”
Now Jesus is on His way to restore the health of a 12-year-old girl. And there’s a great crowd that’s following Him. They’re going to watch Him. And within that crowd I know there were those who just believed He could do it. There were also skeptics and those who were probably saying, “You’ve got to be kidding me!”
But there was one person in that crowd who was following Jesus, not to see what He was going to do for someone else, but to see what He was going to do for her!
Let me stop right here and ask you another question: As you came into the service today, what did you expect might happen? Did you think that perhaps God would be here in a general sense and touch our lives in a general way, and answer our prayers in a general way, and bless us in a general way, and listen to a sermon that applies to all of us in a general sense and walk out of here believing that God has met our needs in a general sense?In other words, did you come today to see a general Savior or a personal Savior?
This lady in the crowd was not the only person who had a need. In any collection of people, there will always be at least as many needs as there are people. Yet, there was only one person that day who had enough faith to do anything about her need.
So, when I look at this account and see what it tells us about her, I’m surprised that she had any faith at all!
I. Her Condition (vs.25,26)
A. Bleeding cancer for 12 years. Luke, in his account says that it was incurable!
B. Look at verse 26---Discouragement with a capital D! If you ever have a day when you’re all zipped up and you need to be discouraged, look up this verse. Some of the treatments of that day included the following:
- grasshopper eggs
- carry the tooth of a fox
- carry the fingernail of a man who had been hung
C. If I had been her, I’m sure I would have given up. But she didn’t. She was determined not to quit. She kept on seeking. She kept on asking. She kept on knocking. She was not one to quit easily.
D. Several years ago 256 students failed the entrance exam at the University of Kansas. Instead of rejecting them, the university allowed them to enroll. Later their academic record showed that of the 256 so-called “failures”:
- 46 made the deans list
- 6 made the high honor list
- 5 became summa cum laude
E. This woman with the so-called hopeless case didn’t lose hope simply because nothing had worked so far. The past is not to be used as a hitching post, but as a guide post.
So in spite of her history of heartaches and disappointments, this woman struggled on until she met the answer to her problem. Her money had run out, but her faith hadn’t!
II. The Direction of Her Faith (vs.27)
“When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind Him in the crowd and touched His coat.”
A. Here’s an important statement that you ought to get down on paper somewhere: FAITH ALONE IS NOT SUFFICIENT!
B. You see, this lady had all kinds of faith, but it was directed to the wrong source. Verse 27 tells us that after she heard about Jesus she decided to seek Him out.
Now I’m not sure how she heard about Jesus, but I do know this---after she heard about Him she decided to go see Him. I’ve asked myself, “What directed her to Jesus?” I wondered what it was that moved her to try again. I think there are 3 or 4 possible answers:
(1) Her faith in OTHERS had been shattered
(2) The faith in HER RESOURCES had subsided, because, “she spent all that she had.”
(3) Her faith in TIME was beginning to vanish (this malady was with her for 12 long years and it had grown worse.
But here’s the exciting news: her most bitter hour is about to become her most blessed hour.
O, what a tremendous biblical truth is here. Listen, God wants to tell us something and here it is: WHEN WE COME TO THE END OF OURSELVES, THEN WE COME TO THE BEGINNING OF CHRIST, AND THAT MEANS NEW LIFE!
It seems to me that we are faced with two choices when we run out of faith in others or in our own resources and we don’t know which way to turn:
(1) I can DISCARD my faith and give up, or
(2) I can DIRECT my faith and grow up.
This lady had to come to Jesus. She had no other recourse. She was desperate. Now, I ask you, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we found ourselves in such a state---to the point that if we didn’t come to Jesus we wouldn’t make it? Remember this: Mountaintop experiences are great, but it’s down in the valley where things grow!
We already stated that “Faith alone is not sufficient.” Now let me add another statement to that: FAITH THAT BRINGS US TO JESUS IS NOT SUFFICIENT. This brings us to the third point in the message…
III. The Decision of Her Faith (vs.27-29)
Verse 27 tells us that upon reaching Jesus, she thought to herself, “If I can just reach out and touch His garment, I’ll be made whole.” Now we begin to see the formation of faith. In these two verses (27-29) we see how true faith is reached;
A. It begins with KNOWLEDGE (she heard; see Romans 10:17).
B. It GROWS with our inward reflection and decisions (vs28). What we say to ourselves will determine if we’re going to come to the Master or stay in our mess. She could have thought:
(1) “I’ve been disappointed long enough; there’s no need for me to try again.”
(2) “Why should I try Jesus? If the best doctors can’t help me, surely this rabbi won’t be able to either.”
(3) “Why didn’t He come around sooner, while I still had my savings and my friends? Why did He wait so long?”
But she didn’t. She said, “O, if I could just touch Him, He’ll heal me. She did and He did!
It’s right here at this point that so many people stumble. They hear, they think about their need of Jesus. They even decide that He’s the One they need. But they stop short of commitment. How sad. How tragic.
Here’s the third statement I want you to get into your heart and mind. Write it down: FAITH THAT BRINGS US TO JESUS AND CAUSES A POSITIVE RESPONSE IS NOT SUFFICIENT.
This is beautiful faith to be sure, but it’s still incomplete because verses 30-34 complete the process necessary for true, biblical, believing faith.
IV. The Declaration of Her Faith
This dear lady tried to STEAL a miracle from Jesus. She didn’t want to bother Him. She knew He was a busy man. And so she worked her way through the crowd until she got close enough to just touch the edge of His garment. He wouldn’t notice. But He did! And He asked, “Who touched me?” I believe there are two reasons why Jesus asked this question.
A. He wanted her to declare her faith because her faith was ignorant. It was ignorant in this sense: she thought she could have her needs met without His loving will. And that’s impossible. When our needs are met it is always because Jesus is aware. He knew who she was, what her need was long before she touched Him. But He wasn’t going to let her steal a miracle! Here’s an important truth to catch: JESUS IS AS CONCERNED WITH DEVELOPING A RELATIONSHIP WITH YOU AS HE IS ABOUT MEETING YOUR NEED.
B. He also wanted her to declare her faith because it was secret. He wanted a public demonstration of her faith because He knew what it would do for her and the crowd. He knew that there were others who had needs and He wanted them to see that He was just a step away.
Now for the closing statement regarding faith: FAITH THAT BRINGS US TO JESUS AND CAUSES A POSITIVE RESPONSE THAT IS PUBLICLY DECLARED IS SUFFICIENT.
That’s why we have invitations and testimonies in the evangelical church. The faith that you have in your pew is good faith, but it is not sufficient. When you ask God to do something and He does it, it is to be publicly declared.
This woman began as a nobody, but by touching Jesus she became somebody. And when her faith was publicly declared, it resulted in blessing everybody!
What about you today? Have you tried to steal a miracle from Jesus? Have you failed to publicly declare your faith? If not, ask God to help you to openly profess your faith in the only One who can meet all your needs.
