We want to thank you for listening to this week's sermon from Harvest Bible Chapel, Kansas City. We pray that you will be encouraged and challenged by God's Word today. If you would like more information about Harvest, please visit our website at www.harvestkansascity.org. Our ushers are going to come down the aisle, they're going to pass out Bibles, and if you don't have one, you can put your hand up in the air, they'll give you a Bible. We're going to be in Mark chapter 5 here today, so if you can go ahead and turn your Bibles over to there. In these Bibles, it's page 840, so you take a look at that. Yes. Okay. So let me set up the story first. Mark starts this section of scripture by talking about a man named Jairus. Jairus is a leader, a ruler of sort, and his little daughter is sick. She's sick to the point of death. And so he goes to Jesus for the purpose of finding healing for his little daughter. Jesus agrees to go and see her. So basically, Jesus is walking with Jairus and they're walking towards his house in some form or fashion. It's in the midst of this that we see kind of a sandwich thing happen. We have Jairus, that whole story gets started, and then in the midst of that we have this encounter with this woman that happens. And then the story finishes with Jairus just after that. We're going to take a look at the encounter that's right in the middle of all that. Verse 24 sets up what is about to happen when it says, Jesus's popularity at this point was already fully made aware, it was fully on display. There was people everywhere that wanted to kind of catch a glimpse of what Jesus could or would do within the people that were there. It's kind of the same idea, this whole thronged about of being, did anybody go to the royals parade? Anybody brave that fine day? That was a lot of people in a very small amount of space. We were there, and as the parade came closer, we were there a few hours early, it was like we had some room, we were good, you know, we could hang out, we could hacky sack, we had plenty of room to do that. We weren't doing that because I was probably pulling muscle, but we were there, right? And so as time happened, as time kind of went on more and more and more and more and more, a lot of mores, of people came forward. And all of a sudden it was like, I mean, we were, it was like this. It was like, go like that and you're bumping into somebody. There were so many people. It's kind of that idea that Jesus is surrounded. There's people just all around him. And it's here that we meet a woman who has an overwhelming amount of difficulty. She has incredible difficulty. And the question that I have for you is, do you have it? Difficulty, do you have it in your life? Let's take a look here at the passage. But before we can begin with our kind of even thinking about our own difficulty, we have to look at what her difficulty was in context. Let's do that. Verse 25 says, and there was a woman. who had had a discharge of blood for 12 years and who had suffered much under many physicians and had spent all that she had and was no better but rather grew worse. Several participles are used here to describe the difficulty of this poor woman, and they really represent a number of different types or types of pain that she was going through on an ongoing and regular basis. Number one is physical pain. It says that she had a discharge of blood. Now, we don't know what her exact disease was, but it was a serious illness, and we know that it was medically incurable, and we know that it caused continual bleeding. hemorrhaging of sorts. It was possibly a menstrual-related type of issue, but it caused a constant flow of blood loss. See, Mark gives us a little more detail than Luke does about her condition, probably because Luke was a physician, and within this passage, physicians are not looked at too highly by Mark. But either way, the duration of her constant bleeding is really the troublesome thing. It's not a one-day thing. It's not a one-week thing. It's not a one-month thing. It's not a one-year thing. It's a 12-year constant flowing of blood. That is a long time. The physical discomfort and pain from something like this is difficult to imagine. Constant loss of blood or blood flow loss would cause a number of symptoms. That's the word, number of symptoms. Number one, they would be lightheaded, weak, stomach pain, be cold constantly, have trouble breathing, have trouble sleeping. I know that when I don't sleep well, that's sometimes enough for me to be down for the count, right? Some of you maybe agree with that. But having all of those together is just, it's an overwhelming thing. The passage says that she suffered under many physicians, hence Luke's discretion again. And that means, suffered means she experienced harm or emotional pain. So what type of harm could these doctors have caused her? Well, It's kind of the idea of hope, but then hope is lost, right? So, you go to a doctor and they're like, yeah, God, I can do something for you. I can help you. Like, maybe there's a cure I can help you with, some new technique, this or that. But then what? Hope lost. Like, it didn't work. Didn't work. There's that. Then there's also the idea of the medicine of this time period being rather unstable, rather mystical in approach. I was learning about this a little bit and I learned that the prescription for a woman who had this problem, according to the Talmud, is to carry the ashes of an ostrich egg in a linen bag in the summer and to carry the ashes of an ostrich egg in a cotton bag in the winter. Or, this is the best one, to carry a barley corn found in donkey dung. Sounds good, right? or drink wine with onions. A little onion wine, pretty good. That sounds like a New Year's Eve disgusting beverage. But this naturally would cause some financial pain, right? Because these things like ostrich eggs and this type of stuff, they would be costly. So there'd be a financial pain associated with that. But still, no matter what, the doctors tried. No matter what they tried, no matter what she spent, still day by day by day, she grew worse. She was rejected. She was hopeless. And then there's the spiritual pain. You're like, spiritual pain? Yeah, spiritual pain, because this woman could not function within the temple because of her uncleanness. Leviticus 12 talks about that. She would have been shunned at the temple. She would be ceremonially unclean. Anybody who even brushed up against her would be unclean as well, and they would have to be purified. She was like a leper whom the people would reject and wanted nothing to do with. She was an outcast suffering from an incurable disease with no, here's the key phrase, worldly hope for a cure. You can imagine the toll this would take on a person over the course of 12 years. This was her life. Constant rejection. Loss of hope. Can't even engage in worship in many ways. Can you relate to any of those? What is your difficulty? What is the area of your life that is a constant area of struggle? Maybe it's physical for you, maybe you have some kind of an illness, or you can't do the things that you used to do. Maybe you have some form of cancer or disease yourself. Maybe it's emotional. Maybe it's some form of depression or despair. Maybe it's the way that people treat you or have treated you. Maybe you've been abused in some form of way. Maybe it's just a general sense of rejection. You know, you reject yourself and you assume that everybody else does too. Maybe it's an ongoing pattern of sin that you simply, with all of your efforts, cannot seem to break. So what is your difficulty? We all need cleansing, we all need help, but the question that you must ask yourself is, do you have a desire to change? Do you have it? Do you have a desire to change? Do you want to change? This woman had a passionate desire to be changed. A show that Tracy and I have watched over the years that illustrates passion and desire is The Biggest Loser. Any Biggest Loser fans out there? It's not on TV anymore, but I thought it was pretty entertaining. These people would literally give their lives over to these crazy trainers, and they would work out 10 hours a day. And they would lose a lot of weight, right? They were really, really, they had to be dedicated to the process. A lot of these people that would come on the show were people that were sitting at home watching people on the show. And they're like, I want to do that. So they kind of, they saw what happened and they wanted to experience it for themselves. Jesus's miracles were not part of some reality TV show, though that would have been one heck of a reality TV show, right? Like that's one that you should watch versus the rest of them that you probably shouldn't. No, but word travels quickly in this kind of small town environment, right? So you have, like, Peter, he texts Lazarus, and Lazarus emails Nicodemus, and then bada-boom, you know, they're getting together in a Google Hangout, and this is what they hear about, right? I didn't date myself too bad in that one, that's good. Or maybe I did, I don't know. She had heard the reports about Jesus. That's what it says in verse 27. That's how she heard about him. She had heard what he had done. And what are those things? What reports had she heard? Well, just before this, Jesus had come from a place called Gerasenes, where a demon-possessed man, possessed by a legion of demons, which means many, many demons inside this man. He had been living amongst the tombs in the graveyard. And verses four and five of Mark 5 says, no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. No one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs, he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones. Men had tried to help him. Men had tried to hold him. And with one word, of permission, Jesus healed him. Isn't that awesome? He sends those demons into some pigs. She hears reports like that, and I'll tell you what, if I was a person suffering from an incurable type of physical disease, I definitely would be encouraged by that report. And she was too. She hears these reports and it leads to action. The second part of verse 27 says, she hears the reports and she came up behind him in the crowd and she touched his garments. This isn't just like a, you know, like that, like just kind of like touch the garment kind of thing. That's not what this is talking about. No, she grasped his garments. She took hold of it. I found it interesting that some of the definitions of this word touched were fasten, kindle, or start a fire. Like she grasped it with the power of God. This touching of the garment started a fire of healing in this woman and her action truly showed her strong desire for change. Wears me in his commentary, he says that she let nothing stand in her way as she pushed through the crowd and came to Jesus. She had incredible boldness. She refused to accept the fact that she was incurable. She was passionate and she was desperate. And she could have had any number of excuses about why Jesus wouldn't help her or that it wouldn't work. Let me give you some of those. I encourage you to write these down because we have a lot of the same excuses at times. We say, number one, I'm too unimportant. I'm too unimportant. I'm just a depressed guy struggling through life. I'm not important enough for Jesus to silence my despair. Or we say, God's too busy, he's too busy. He's got the whole keeping the universe, holding it together and things of that nature. I'm just a young woman struggling in my marriage. How does he have time to restore my relationship? How could he help? Or how about I'm too skeptical? How could this be real? I just don't think this could be real. We're kind of doubting Thomas with the whole thing, right? We have to see it. We almost have the faith to come to Jesus, to take a step towards him and to reach out to him. James 4.8 says that when we draw near to God, he draws near to us. What a promise that is, right? That he promises to draw near to us. This woman did that. Verse 28 says, for she said, even if I even touch his garments, I will be made well. You see the faith aspect of this? Like she said, man, if I just do this, if I have faith enough to do this, He can make me well. What this woman was saying to herself regarding the garments of Jesus was kind of a mystical approach to religious teachers, right? So there was this belief that if you touch their clothing, you could be healed. It was kind of mystical in approach. It wasn't as though Jesus' Birkenstock sandals and his American Eagle shorts or anything were magical, right? It wasn't that. It was the person of Christ that would allow for this to take place. Her faith was misguided, but it was faith. It was still faith, though it was misguided, which we have the same thing going on a lot of the time. Tim Keller says that it's not the strength of your faith, but the object of your faith that actually saves you. It's not the strength of your faith, it's the object of it. We have faith in Christ, he's the one that saves. Burge in his commentary, he talks about how our faith works. He gives us two ways. He says that faith opens the door to the power of God. Faith opens the door to the power of God. Our faith, many times, though misguided, it has the power through the Holy Spirit to cause change. Some of you may think that you don't have enough faith to come to Jesus. You may think, well, I've got to clean myself up, right? I've heard this from family members, that I've got to make myself right. That's how it's going to happen. That's nonsense. We can't possibly clean ourselves up enough. We never can. It's fruitless. We are to come to him as we are. So faith opens the door to the power of God. Number two, faith overcomes obstacles. For this woman, there was a lot of obstacles to be overcome. She had to take several steps, faithful, scary, fear-filled steps forward to see Jesus. Her faith caused her to step forward in the midst of an intimidating crowd, despite fear and trembling, and acknowledge Jesus' power to heal. So what is the result of this encounter? What is the result? It's one word, it's deliverance. Deliverance. Verse 29, and immediately the flow of blood dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Immediate and obvious healing takes place for this woman. She knows it, she perceives that the blood flow dries up, those symptoms that she had been living with, the constant coldness, the lightheadedness, all those things that she was more than likely dealing with, gone in an instant. She knows there's been something that has taken place. It's one of those moments, like those Hollywood type moments where like the voices fade, the music fades, and you just, it's like everyone's moving in slow motion, like, you know, you hear the heartbeat, like, da-da, da-da. Just as instantly as the flow of blood dries up, she knows beyond a shadow of doubt that she's been healed, but there's someone else who knows too. It's Jesus. He knows that she has been healed. He notices, he says in verse 30, it says in verse 30, and Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, who touched my garments? Who touched my garments? There's people everywhere around him, right? They're pressed in around him. It's such an interesting question See, again, the word for grasp here, like that she grasped onto his garments, there was such faith in that grasping. This is another instance of the divinity of Christ on full display, his omniscience, that he knows, he literally knows and feels that something has happened, that power has gone out of him. She had attempted a sneak attack on him, truly. Her idea was like, I'm gonna creep up. I've been living in the shadows for 12 years. I'm gonna creep up behind Jesus. I'm just gonna reach out, I'm gonna touch his robe. That was her plan. Jesus would have no part of that. He didn't want her to shrink back into the shadows unnoticed and forgotten the way that she'd been living for the last 12 years. He wanted her to be an example. He turns to the crowd thronged around him to find out who done it. And all the people are like, it wasn't me. His disciples said to him, you see the crowd pressing around you, yet you say, who touched me? And he looked around to see who had done it. Now, I honestly don't blame the disciples for kind of struggling with this, because how are they supposed to know that something happened like this, that this miraculous encounter took place? They're just trying to get Jesus through to go to Jairus' house to take care of his sick daughter. They would have no recollection or understanding of that, but Jesus knew. As Jesus continues looking for the woman, she truly realizes that she's been found out. It's the whole proverbial, your hand is caught in the cookie jar. You're like, oh no, he knows. I can't believe it. He knows what happened. So she comes forward fearfully. Verse 33, about the woman knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. This word for fear is, it is literally being afraid, but it's also reverence, it's worship, it's awe. She is literally awed at what Christ has done. She comes forward excited and awed and fearful all at one time. It's very similar to Isaiah chapter six when Isaiah is, he's in the throne room, and he's awed at who God is. It's the same idea as when the disciples are on the boat and there's a storm, and Jesus calms the storm with a word. Can you imagine that? Just that sense of awe? That's what's happening here as well. If she wasn't much of a God-fearer to this point, she certainly was now. And I love stories like this because it's like you could picture it happening. Because it did. Such an amazing moment. So she comes forward trembling before Jesus. She's literally quivering, like uncontrollably, uncontrollably means shaking uncontrollably in that fear and that excitement and that awe over what Christ has done. Have you ever had a moment like that? A moment where you were literally, you're awed by who God is. Maybe you're awed by the fact that he would save you. You've been awed by the Holy Spirit convicting you. The first moment that I remember having that experience was in Washington, D.C. in 1997. I was with 20,000 other high school students, and we were worshiping. We were singing Amazing Grace, and I remember for the first time, I surrendered. I gave him my all. I said, take my life. I believe. I hold nothing back. Make me new. That was my moment of salvation. That was a transformational moment for me. And I can tell you that this moment for this woman is a transformational moment. When she stood up in church that day going forward at Harvest Bible Chapel, Jerusalem, wasn't around then, she had a story to tell. She had a story to tell of healing and forgiveness and newness and life. Verse 33, but the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling. And what does she do? It says, and told him the whole truth. Told him the whole truth. She confessed her sin. She confessed her plan. She confessed her disease. And Luke takes it a step further. He says that she confessed it in the presence of all people. So she comes forward and she just, she just, she gives her testimony and everybody hears. Everybody hears. Everybody heard about the 12 years of difficulty. We must not be afraid to share who we really are. Some of you maybe are. There's something that you're holding on to, or some part of you that you're like, I just can't share this. We build those things up in our mind. We must become real people. This is kind of an epidemic within the church, I would say. A lack of realness, a lack of authenticity, a lack of genuineness, whatever you want to call it. Do people really know you? Friends, let's be honest about who we are, where we struggle, And let's stop putting up fronts, like this is who I want to be in the face of people. So this whole situation, it begs the question, why did Jesus even want this woman to come forward? What was the purpose of that? Why would he do that? Truly, she got what she wanted, right? She received the healing that she wanted from Jesus. She wanted to shrink back and get away, but no. He wanted her to not only be healed, but he wanted her to be delivered. He wanted her to be delivered. Luke 17, 11 through 19 tells us of 10 lepers who sought healing from Jesus. As they were going on their way, they were all healed. Like, hallelujah, they're all healed, right? One of them comes back to Jesus, says, thank you. Jesus tells the one returned healed leper that his faith has made him well. There's a salvation aspect to this being made well. While these other guys, these other lepers, they were healed in a physical way, we don't know about their souls. This man, There's a salvation aspect, as I said. Jesus, in the same way, he did not want him to just be a healer to her. He wanted to show her that he was her deliverer. He wanted to put his hand on her shoulder, look in her eyes with love and say, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your disease. I love the personal nature of Christ. That he reaches down and he knows where we are. He knows what we need. He knew what this woman needed. She experienced so much more than physical healing on that day. She experienced spiritual rebirth. He calls her daughter in verse 34. He says, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your disease. It's the only time that a woman is called daughter in the Gospels. She has joined his family. She's a daughter of Christ now. She lived as broken for so long, and Jesus makes her whole and makes her his daughter. And he wants to do the same thing for you. He offers wholeness. He offers peace. He offers forgiveness. And most importantly, he offers himself. Surrender is what Christ is after. Surrender holds nothing back. And that's a key word there, nothing back. So what are you holding back? Maybe you've really never surrendered your life. It took me a few times in my faith, I thought that I was okay. I thought that I was. But I got to the point where I wasn't. There were still parts of me that I was holding onto that I said, no, this is for me, this is for me. I will not surrender this. It's holy and it's full and it's complete. Otherwise, there is no surrender. I believe the majority of the people here in this room, you have surrendered. And that's an awesome thing, right? But I think what happens is that we get comfortable with socially acceptable forms of sin. Things like lustful thoughts, or addiction to food, or idolatry of family. We say, those things, can't quite let those go. Those are for me. Something is probably holding you back, and what is that? What is it for you? The reality is we all have a disease. Romans 3 says that we all have sinned and fallen short of His glory. We all have difficulty, but do you have the desire to be delivered, to be saved, to be cleansed, to be transformed? Do you believe that it can happen? There is incredible hope for you in whatever your difficulty is. Jesus is there. He's there. Romans 5 says that God shows his love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He died for your disease. He died for your sin. Go ahead and bow your heads. I'm gonna give you a little bit of an extended time of reflection if you could just listen. I want you to ponder what is ruining you? What is destroying you? What is holding you back? Will you reach out to Him? Will you seek Him? Let's be a real church. If you want to get on your knees and pray and confess, you can do that. We don't have some kind of magical garment up here, but we do worship a Savior that meets us in our humility. He meets us when we come to Him in faith. A.W. Tozer says that we have as much of God as we actually want. Ponder that for a moment. Are you satisfied with how much of the Lord that you have? Or are you ashamed of how little you have? Follow at his feet, reach out to the one who can save. Tell him the whole truth, confess your sin fully and freely. If you need to grab someone to talk to, do that. Let's be a place of brokenness, a place of realness. Fall at his feet in humility and freedom and openness and surrender. This is a new year. 2018 is just around the corner and you have an opportunity for a fresh start. Lay aside your pride. Take this moment to deal with the Lord. Jesus, you are one and only. our one and only savior, our one and only healer, our one and only source. God, you are our satisfaction, you are our joy. Lord, I pray that anything that competes with that would be crushed. God, may we cast off those little idols that seek our attention, that seek our affection. Lord, may we come to you no matter what our difficulty is, knowing that you alone are the one that can save. We ask this in your name, amen.