Are you ready for a miracle? As we press in to God, the supernatural anointing of the Spirit begins to flow in our lives and miracles happen. I want to share with you tonight from the Gospel of Luke 8:40-56 (READ)
Jesus had just returned from the other side of the Sea of Galilee where he had delivered and healed the demon possessed man. A crowd had gathered to welcome His return, it says they were expecting Him. Are you expecting God to come to your need tonight? There was a man by the name of Jarius who was. An important man, well known in the community for he was the ruler of the local synagogue, the pastor of the church who invited Jesus to his home to heal his dying daughter. Just twelve, on the verge of death. “Come to my house, my daughter is dying.”
Remember the story of Lydia, the seller of purple? She invited Paul, Silas and Timothy to her house and her entire household was saved. Do we invite Jesus to come with us as we walk through this life? If we are, get ready, a miracle is about to be birthed, salvation is coming to the places you walk and live. It happened for Paul and his disciples, it will happen for you.
Just a side thought, lets gets back to the passage. Jarius has no hope, except that Jesus would come and perform a life changing miracle. So he pleads his case at the shoreline, he asks Jesus to have compassion. You might think this is an easy thing to do, here is Jesus who already has a reputation for miracles of healing. But it was not because the members of the synagogue had so little to do with Jesus except to try and mock or trip Him up. How easy is it for you to hope when things look hopeless? To believe when it appears there is nothing on the horizon? To press on and press in when things are falling around and people are telling you there is nothing more that can be done? It really is not that easy to believe for a miracle. In fact, could I say, it is easier to believe in a miracle for someone else than it is to believe in a miracle for ourselves.
Crowds are attracted when something is happening, especially in the supernatural. People like to come and see. Some because they believe, others because they like to gawk, others to explain away what is happening. Jesus attracted such crowds, and as He accepts the invitation to Jarius home, the crowds pack around Him. Have you ever been in a mass of moving people…perhaps leaving a ball game, or at say, the Puyallup Fair, hopefully not a riot. People bumping into you, you checking to make sure your wallet or purse are still with you, completely not knowing who is touching against you, but you continue, almost carried by the crowd.
This is what is happening here and as Jesus is moving through this mass of humanity, someone reaches out and touches the hem of his garment and receives their healing. This lady was desperate, it seems almost crawling through the crowd, working her way through the legs of the people, desperate. How desperate are we? And Jesus asks, who touched me. Hands should have been going up all around the place, it said the crowd almost crushed Him in His journey. But the people were in denial, I did not get close to you, it was not me, I kept my distance, I would not want to be associated with having been close to you, me, a Christian, you must have me confused with someone else.
Jesus persisted, who touched me and this woman who thought she could steal a miracle from Jesus came forward, trembling, falling before the King of Kings, the only One from whom she would have been able to extract a healing. Oh, she was reluctant for sure to come forward and speak to Jesus about her problem, a problem to which only a woman could fully understand the scope and embarrassment in speaking of it. It was a woman’s kind of problem, a problem that was physical but had emotional strings attached to it. This was a problem we learn she had lived with for 12 long years. Modesty had prevented her from coming out and requesting a healing outright. It was not something to talk about, not something like Jarius daughter who was dying, it was a problem which caused people to look with shame and scorn. Who would want to publicly say out loud what everyone talked about in whispers.
She had made the rounds with the physicians. I am sure in the early stages of her visits she was filled with hope for a cure, but then the days turned to weeks, weeks to months, and months into years. And as they passed her by, as she went from one specialist to another, the only thing that changed was her bank account, her outlook on life, her self-image, her social standing in the community. Because of her medical condition she has now been labeled unclean. This designation has prevented her from worship in the synagogues, she has been shut out from the woman’s court in the Temple, and ostracized by her neighbors, friends and family. But being ceremonial unclean did not cut her off from approaching Christ the healer. She said in Matthew 9:21, If only I may touch His garment, I too shall be made well.
She had been cut off for all these years, but in one powerful moment she began to accept in faith what many today need to learn how to do. Jesus said in Luke 8:48, Be of good cheer, your faith has made you well. Go in peace.
God gives peace to His people, a peace that says I will never let you go, a peace this woman discovered, and encouraging word so she could go on her way cheerful and at peace. A condition others could not help to notice, a change which would not only have happened in her physical, but a change that would transform her life so others could see. Have you had that life changing transformation yourself?
How do we seek cures for our problems? Are we like this woman…we seek for twelve years everywhere else, then in final desperation we come to Christ. Let’s be honest. Now I am not against doctors, God has given them the training, skills and abilities, so use them…but not before you pray and ask God for healing…don’t make Him your last resort when the medical community discards you, when your HMO says it won’t pay.
When we live in our pain, it becomes like a living hell, searing our soul, deadening our conscious, marring our dreams, leaving us empty, guilt ridden, bound, purposeless, suicidal and spiritually dead. Have you been there, are you there tonight?
I want to tell you about a young teenager named Kelly who had come to a youth rally. She was emaciated, disheveled, looking like she might well be wavering at the point of death. She had been living on the streets for three months, but on that night, in the midst of a gathering of people, she found faith in Jesus Christ. She reached out and touched the hem of His garment as He walked by. Kelly had never heard that Jesus loved her, and during her three months on the streets she had gotten involved in all kinds of sins in order to survive and did not feel so lovable. In fact, she felt shamed by her deeds. She was embarrassed to face her friends and family because of those three hard months as you might imagine. But she purposed in her heart that she was no longer going to allow embarrassment to hold her back because she discovered God really did love her. That he really has forgiven her, that God is no longer holding her past against her and so neither was she.
Three years last the speaker of that meeting returned the town for another meeting. The Christian college had several students come to sing before he was to speak and he noticed at the end of the ensemble was this girl who looked vaguely familiar singing with a glow on her face. The girl, as you probably have guessed, Kelly, the street kid who reached out to Jesus and was transformed.
Here is what I believe the problem in the church today is. We have become prone to our excuses…and as much as we might say we believe Jesus can…we believe it for someone else rather than ourselves. Paul said in Romans 1:20: For since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. What are we without? Excuses.
Think for a moment about the woman in the crowd. She must have been watching from the fringe the ministry of Jesus. She surely had seen or heard as He went about doing good, healing people, performing miracle after miracle, showing kindness and mercy. Can you imagine, being in her condition and seeing all this take place.
Now consider that day when Jesus arrived by boat and headed to Jarius house. She would have been sneaking around the crowd, unclean, knowing she was not to mingle and press in with the crowd. Pulling her clothes up around herself, attempting to withdrawn once again into herself. As the crowd of people moved, this mass of humanity, she was there, hiding between trees or looking from between the buildings, just to get a glimpse of Jesus. Inside she is responding within her spirit she is yearning, then it happens. Hope begins to rise up within her, no one else could, but here, here is Jesus, then hope turned to faith. She has heard the stories, perhaps even seen some of the miracles, and today, against all odds, this was going to be her day for a miracle. So she ventures out and does the unthinkable…she mingles in the crowd, she is not shouting unclean, but working her way through the throng, thinking if only I could touch His garment she would be made clean, healed, restored, welcomed back into society once again.
What is it tonight that has been holding you hostage? What is it that you think Jesus cannot forgive? What trees or building have you been hiding between just wanting to catch a glimpse? Freedom is just a touch away…salvation is a prayer waiting to be spoken…your healing is awaiting your reaching out…and the altars are open to seal the work of God tonight in your life…
