A Ribbon of Blue
Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.
Tie a yellow ribbon 'round the old oak tree...
Colors from time immemorial have conveyed messages. Red is danger, yellow is caution, green is go. For the Jews, purple is royalty and blue symbolizes keeping the commandments.
In this message I am going to talk about a woman who touched Jesus where the ribbon of blue hung from His garment, the symbolism behind it and the powerful message of grace it conveys.
Mt 9:20 And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind [him], and touched the hem of his garment:
Mt 9:21 For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.
The bible is a book with many layers, you peel one back, and you will find something still wonderful in the next one down.
There are a lot of parts of this story that many of you have heard sermons about, and I will not duplicate those messages today, I want to peel back the story and show you a hidden gem.
If you don't know the story, this is about a woman who was very ill for twelve years, saw every doctor she could, and took every quacks cure there was available, and nothing helped. She hears about Jesus and makes a herculean attempt to get near Him, thinking that if she could but touch His clothes she would get better. She did touch His clothes, and she did get better.
Our text is an interesting one, it points out where she touched him on His clothing, KJV says the hem, let me read it in another version
Mt 9:20 And behold, a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years, came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak;
Mt 9:21 for she was saying to herself, "If I only touch His garment, I shall get well." (NAS)
NAS declares it to be the fringe of His cloak, there is something very interesting about the fringes of the clothing Jews wore, so this morning I want to talk about:
Touching the hem of HIS garment.
I am going to get there circuituitisly. I want to start in John 15:7
John 15:7 "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you"
Here is how some people translate that verse, ask and it shall be done.
More devout believers will translate it this way, if you are a saved believer ask and it will be done.
What the text actually says is that we must be a Christian in whom the word of God is making a difference in the way we live and then if we ask we will receive.
First I want you to note, that we must hear Jesus speak if we expect Him to hear us speak. (Spurgeon) If you want the ask what you will part, you have to first be hearing God's words to you, before He will hear your words to Him.
Secondly, what is heard must remain, must live in us, and must abide in our character as a force and a power. We must receive the truths which Jesus taught, the precepts which He issued, and the movements of His Spirit within us; or we shall have limited power at the mercy-seat. It is not simply that we have heard Him, but that we put in practice what He has taught us.
What in the world does that have to do with touching the hem of His garment?
I'm glad you asked.
Let us Consider Numbers 15:38,39
Have a ribbon of blue.
Nu 15:38 Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue:
Nu 15:39 And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them...
Point out the fringes from ppt slide.
Remember and do. Remember and do. If you abide in Me and My words abide in You, that is the New testament way of saying the Remember and do of the Old Testament.
Apparently the Jews would have tassels and from my reading it was either blue wings that were sewn into the corners (4 cornered garments and on the shoulders) and a tassel hanging down from it. Others say there was a blue cord from which hung a white tassel. Now the Jews wear blue and white cords. The blue cord symbolized remembering and the tassel being white symbolized purity, or doing.
Now lets read another interesting verse:
Jesus is talking about the hypocrysy of the Pharisees how they pay lip service to God's commands but never really keep them. And in that conversation He tells us something about these cords and tassels:
Mt 23:5 "But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries, and lengthen the tassels [of their garments.]
In other words their garments were used as a means of boasting about how good they kept the laws of God, and how pure they were.
Now let me start tying everything together.
John says there is a truth about doing what God wants and the quality of the answers to your prayers. If My words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it will be done for you.
We also have the story of a woman touching Jesus probably on the tassels on HIS garment. In this story God is sending a coded message, when you cannot get your prayers answered on the basis of how well you have abided in Him, and how well His words have abided in you, you can always ask God to meet your need based on how well Jesus has abided in Him.
PPT picture
(Picture of woman touching what appears to be Jesus on the tassels of His garment)
I want you to look again at the picture I used in the title slide. She may not have known what she was doing, but hindsight allows us to unravel more of what happened. She tapped into the blessings of Christ's obedience.
There is an amazing prophecy in Malachi 4:2 that is related to our present discussion:
Mal 4:2 "But for you who fear My name the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.
There are many who believe the wings can also be translated fringes of his garment. Strongs says the word translated wings (Hebrew kanaph) can also be translated skirt, corners, borders, ends.
So then touching the hem of Jesus garment for healing was literally fulfilled!
Isaiah 53 says by His stripes we were healed, and Philippians 2:8 says:
Php 2:8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
His death was an act of obedience, and because of His perfect obedience He procured for us, salvation, eternal life and healing. So in some ways when the unnamed woman grabs hold to the hem of His garment she is in effect grabbing hold to all His perfect obedience procured.
When your ribbon of blue has gotten soiled by the earth we live and walk on, and your white tassel is black with the soot of this world, there is one whose tassel shines whiter than any launderer on earth can clean.
In the book of 1 Corinthians we read:
1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.
In other words based on the behavior of one person all were punished.
But now we live in the age of the Gospel. Gospel means good news. What is the good news? The good news is that in the same way all were punished because of the actions of one man, now all can receive mercy because of the actions of one man.
You are either under Adam or Christ. Adam is the defualt position of humanity.
Whose tassel are you depending on?
Close: Are you in a place of desperate need like the woman with the issue of blood? Are you painfully aware that you need God to bless you on some other basis than your own good works? ...Lord by faith I want to touch the hem of HIS garment.
