THROUGH THE CROWD TO JESUS
There are many miracles of healings recorded in the New Testament that were performed by Jesus. And each is a demonstration of the Master’s power over diseases. Jesus’s miracles imply an exercise of creative power. They are a part of God’s way of authenticating the mission of Jesus. For I belive that if Jesus had not done works that no other man had ever done, folk would not have believed that he was sent from God.
One of the miracles that Jesus performed was the healing of the woman who had suffered 12 years with an infirmity who is described in the passage from which our text is taken.
Remedies that had been employed to bring this woman relief were without any results. She had gone to doctors here and there. She had tried every home remedy that she could think of and everything that every one else had told her to try and now after all of that she had spent everything that she had. And still on top of that she didn’t get any better, she didn’t stay the same, but the bible says that she grew worse.
It seems that this woman was like some of us. We try everything else before we try Jesus and when everything else has fialed, then we decide to try Jesus. But my experience as a Child of God is that there are conditions and situtations that only Christ can remeday and if we try to handle them ourselves we only make things worse.
My bible tells me that this woman had heard that Jesus was passing through the city. But when this woman got to Jesus there was a crowd around him. She did not worry about the crowd, she just kept pressing her way through.
I admire this woman because she didn’t let the crowd stop her from getting to Jesus. But I’m might afraid that the crowd in the church will stop some of us so called saved folk from getting to Jesus. Let’s look at the church.
The church is an assembly of baptized believers in Christ doing God’s work in this world. The church is one body with many members. And as the hand is part of the body, so you and I are part of the church. If the hand is not functioning, the body is crippled. If you are not serving God in your fullest capacity, the church is crippled that much.
The primary mission of the church is to make disciples. It is not the mission of the church to make a better world, but to win the men of the world to Christ. Our bisuiness is not to clean up the ghettos but to clean up the hearts of men and women in the ghettos. Our mission is not to bring peace to the nations, but the peace of God that passeth all understanding to every man, woman, girl or boy. The mission of the church is not reformation but regeneration, not for men to reform, but to be reborn.
For over 1900 years, the chruch has boasted that we are not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation. But now, as we move into the 21st century, "The Gosepel is getting ashamed of us."
Somewhere in time, we have failed to produce strong Christians. We know how to produce harmonious choirs, attentive ushers, organized decons, trusted trustees and reliable Pstor`s aids. We know how to produce New buildings, but the question is do we know how to warn men, women, girls, and boys that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.
We as children of God have been called out in order to do the work of the Lord. And a lot of us are going along with the crowd. If we deeply desire to do God’s work, it is going to cost us something. If you have been Saved, Santified, and baptized with the holy ghost that means you are called of God. Each of us have a call upon our lives to fullfill the specific plan and purpose which God has ordained for us. Even before we became children of God, that call was there, for God chose us before the foundation of the world. While we were yet in our mother’s womb, God had alrady chosen us for a specific job. We all have a job to do and nobody else can do our job for us. If God would have wanted me to do your job, he wouldn’t have needed you.
People are hypocritical. You think that they are with you, but you find out that they are tearing you down. Folk will hug and kiss you on Sunday morning and Sunday night they are on the phone talking behind your back. Jealosies, petty gossip, lying, backbitting, cheating, not only in the world but it is happeing in the church. The church needs to do more feeding and less eating. The church needs to do more studying and less gossipping. The church needs to do more praying and less playing.
The church is called to minister to a lost and dying world, to the oppressed and the needy. We might as well realize that without God’s power, even big, beautiful churches and the greates speakers are inadequate to meet the spiritual needs of man. Men, Women, Girls, and Boys are hungry for answers to life’s perplexing situations. More and more people are realizing that man’s traditions are not the answer to their problems. We need to let them know that only what you do for Christ will last.
The reason the church has little influence upon the world compared to what it might have, is that too often the church itself is too worldly. Too many folk in the church are following the crowd. The bible says that broad is the way the leadeth to destruction. Too many folk in the church are following their own agenda. But we need to get out the way and let God have his way in his own house. Satan is busy. Santan wants us to accept that which glitters and is glamorous over that which is glorious. He wants us to accept that which is religious and repitious over that which is righteous. He wants us to accept that which is earthly and empty over that which is eternal and everlasting.
To get to the main point in this message, we call attention to the effort of the woman pictured in the text:
"When she had head of Jesus, came in the press behind, or she came through the crowd that followed and touched his garment.
I. The press:
The press referred to here was the crowd. To get close enough to Jesus to touch his garment, she had to come through that crowd. And that is the message that concerns us today. In order to get close enough to Jesus, we must make it through the crowd.
To this woman Jesus was a goal, to reach him there would be a reward. But between her and him was a crowd. From this story let us learn then, that if you have decided to get some where in life, or to be somebody, or to stand up and stand out for Christ and riehteousness; there is always going to be your way a crowd.
The crowd is composed of all kinds of people. But their main pourpose is to stop your progress.
In the crowd you will find the Curious:
These are folk who just want to see and be seen. They want to know and be known. You can’t tell them nothing because they already know everything. They want to be able to say "I know it and I have it."
In the crowd you will find the Critics:
These are folk who will criticize everything you do and find fault in everything that you say. If you try to do good, they say you are just putting on, if you try to lift up the name of Jesus, they say you are working for a point. If you try to live a Christian life, you are too holy. If you stand up for your right, then they say you are too mean. If you try to train your children in the right way, they say thay you think you are better than others.
The Scoffers and Scorners:
These folk will speak evil of you for what you are, for what you have, and for what you can do. Anthing is worth more if it belongs to them. Everything is done better if they do it. Nothing is hardly worth listening to unless they are saying it. They could have done better with everything that has been done, but they seldom do anthing but point out things that they do not like. They can’t be a part of anthing unless they are leading it or in front of it. They race to the front so that everybody else must come by them.
The indifferent:
They are the ones who don’t care bout anything. They don’t care whether you succeed or fail. They won’t help you either way. You can’t get them to say Amen, you can’t get them to pray, you can’t get them to come to Sunday School, bible study is out of the question. If it’s not 11:00 on Sunday morning, don’t look for them.
The oppressers:
They are those who don’t want to see you make it. Everything you try to do they go against it. Everything you build up, they try to tear it down. They do everhting possible to stop your progress.
False Friends:
I have a lot of those. These are pretenders, what we call two faced. They talk good to you, and practice evil against you. They will smile in your face and stab you in the back. They say that they are your friend but if you need the, they are no where to be found.
But we need to look beyound the crowd and see Jesus, who is the authour and finisher of my faith. Jesus wilkl bring you from guilty to not guilty. From death to life. From darkness to light. From hatred to love. From weakness to power. From bondage to freedom. From tribulations to triumph. From grief to joy. From gloom to glory. From defeat to victory. From failure to success. From fear to faith, from I can’t to I can.
Rom 8:35-39: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword: As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep fro the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that love us. For I am pursuaded, that neither death, nor life nor angels, nor principalites, nor powers, nor things prsent, nor things to come, no height nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
