Well, amen. Today is a very significant day because we're going to actually finish Mark chapter 5. So we're making progress in our series in Mark. And today I want, as our text, to take the verses 21 to 43 with the sermon title of Lessons on How to come to Christ. Lessons on how to come to Christ. Throughout Mark's Gospel we've already seen people encountering the person of Christ and whenever a person encounters Christ, whether it be through a meeting like this or through being given a tract in the street or whatever it might be, you are called upon to make a decision whether to accept the Lord Jesus Christ or to reject him. Last time I spoke we covered the story of the a man possessed by many devils, and the townspeople in Decapolis decided to reject him, didn't they? They said, leave, get out. They were called upon to make a decision whether to repent and believe the gospel of the kingdom of God or to reject Jesus. And this decision remains necessary today. whenever the true message of Christianity is proclaimed. It's a decision that is a live one for you this morning. If you don't know the Lord Jesus, either here in the meeting or anyone that will hear this message online, will you come to Christ or will you reject him? You see, I put it that way because if you hear the Gospel and you reject the Gospel, you're not just rejecting a philosophy or a point of view or an opinion, you're rejecting a person. You're rejecting Jesus as a person. Because you can't separate Christ from his Gospel. The Gospel is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the good news about Jesus Christ. Therefore, whenever the gospel call to repent and believe is rejected, it is a rejection of the person of Jesus Christ. And that's a very serious decision, my friend. To reject such a one as this, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Jesus calls today, as always, needy sinners to take him at his word, to turn from their sins and to believe in him. And although the Lord Jesus, of course, is no longer physically here upon the earth as he was in the time of the Gospels, of course he's ascended now to heaven and he reigns in heaven. He continues to offer himself to sinners in the Gospel, spiritually, through the word of the Bible, by the power of the Holy Spirit. And while Christ no longer is here physically to touch us, as he touched this woman here for example, and the dead girl, Although he's no longer here physically to touch the dead and the diseased and the demon-possessed and the desperate, he still reaches out and touches people through the power of the Word of the Gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit. And this is why preaching the Gospel I find so exciting and such a privilege because what happens when you preach the Gospel is that you're putting people who need Christ in contact with Jesus who is able to meet their need. And that person who you've introduced, or that group, have to make a decision. Will I reject Christ or will I accept Christ? And I want to talk today about lessons, as I say, about how to come to Christ. Because I believe there are many lessons in our text, but we'll just concentrate on that one lesson mainly today. because the way to come to Christ for help and salvation in fact has not changed. Today we must approach Christ in exactly the same way as this woman and Jairus did. We must approach Christ with faith, saving faith, faith to become a Christian surrenders to the gospel and in a way just simply falls into the outstretched arms of Jesus Christ. To become a Christian, you must look to Christ, you must turn to Christ, you must come to Christ and that faith unites you as a sinner with Christ. from that union with Christ flow all the benefits of salvation that we read of in the Bible. The way to come to Christ has not changed and neither has the way Jesus responds to people who come to him by faith. That hasn't changed either. There is no example in the Gospels of Jesus turning away anyone who approached him sincerely in faith. Unless I've missed something, I don't think there is. All these examples of people being touched by Jesus in Mark's Gospel reinforce the message that no one is beyond the power and the mercy of Jesus Christ. Regardless of how bad you are, how demon possessed you may be, how unclean you may be, how diseased you may be, how dead you may be, Jesus Christ has power to save. He has power to save you today in the power of the gospel. In Mark chapter 1, he even touched a hideous-looking leopard, didn't he? And frightening to look at, you would think, I'm going to stay away. What does Jesus do? He reaches out and touches him and says, I am willing. Be thou clean. And so our message today serves as a testament to the power and mercy of Jesus. In this account, in this text, Jesus transforms three individuals. Jairus, a synagogue leader, his 12-year-old daughter, and a woman who has endured illness for 12 long years. Hopeless, helpless people. which in many ways represents the spiritual condition of every single person born into this world. And yet Jesus utterly transformed them, utterly changed them, as he can with anyone today if they come to him in faith. Verse 21 sets the scene, the background of the story. The Lord Jesus, as we heard last time, had been The other side of the lake, dealing with legion. And now he returns by boat to the western shore of the lake, back to Capernaum and that area. He's now back in Jewish territory from Gentile, mainly Gentile territory. And once he leaves the boat, once he disembarks, a large crowd gathers around him, all eager to touch him. similar to what we read in Mark chapter 3, where it says in verse 10 that he had healed many, so much so that they had pressed upon him to touch him as many as had plagues. You see, it had become well known that if you touched Jesus or he touched you, something normally amazing happened. And we can imagine the scene, can't we? The Lord Jesus, he gets off the boat, and a bit like a famous pop star, maybe. I'm not comparing Jesus to a pop star. I'm talking about the crowd. But the crowd, the pop star leaves the car, and everybody's surrounding, pressing, wanting attention. Or maybe a more accurate idea would be an aid worker in an era of famine who unlocks the back of the lorry with food and the people press, all discipline is gone and people are pressing towards the food. And this is the kind of scene that we have here. Everyone is desperate to get to Jesus. He's being pressed and touched and thronged. And yet in verse 22, we read of one who managed to make his way through this crowd. His name was Jairus, Jairus. He was one of the rulers of the synagogue, and therefore he was a man of distinction, a man of renown, a man of reputation. He was the administrator of the synagogue. He maintained the facilities and organized worship services, and he approached Jesus in desperation. because his 12-year-old daughter was dying. Verse 22, the end of verse 22. When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet and earnestly begged him, saying, my little daughter lies at the point of death. I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed. and she shall live. Jairus approached Jesus during the greatest crisis of his life. Those of us who are parents, can you imagine anything worse than this? That your little girl, your little 12-year-old girl is dying. And the girl's mother is left at home caring for her undoubtedly beside herself with worry, and the father, Jairus, goes out to seek help, any kind of help, to save his daughter. All that really mattered for Jairus at this point was the life of his daughter, that his daughter's life could be saved. And it was desperation that drove him to Christ. His profound need and sense of need of Christ propelled him through the crowd, through the pressing crowd, to get to the Lord Jesus. And you know, I think Jairus teaches us a lot about how to come to Christ. Because how we come to Christ makes a big difference, you know. Remember this man had a high position in society. He was a synagogue ruler and he was likely among those who disapproved of Jesus healing the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath in the synagogue at Capernaum in chapter 3. And yet now we see him casting himself upon the mercy of Christ. And we learn something from his posture, first of all, don't we? His posture revealed that he had set aside his pride. He fell at Jesus' feet and earnestly begged him. In that moment, he didn't care about his dignity anymore, did he? Before others, the life of his little daughter was slipping away with each passing minute, and he knew that if only Jesus would touch her, she would be saved and healed. You know, he didn't come to Jesus with a kind of detached sense of curiosity or an academic interest or, I'll consider this alongside other philosophies and see if it makes sense to me. I'll sort of look into Christianity. He came as a desperate man with a great sense of need. And you know, if you don't come to Christ in that way, you'll never really come to Christ at all. He was a desperate man. And he knew he couldn't handle the situation himself. He couldn't deal with it himself. And because of that, this suppressed his pride. And he was not ashamed to fall at the feet of Jesus Christ. and concern for what others will think of you are often obstacles to people becoming a Christian. What will my friends think? What will my family think? But in practice, those who genuinely seek Christ do so because they are propelled to Christ by a sense of urgency. I must be saved. How can I be saved? Who can save me? Who can take this burden off my back? This burden of guilt for my sin. They understand the gravity of their sins and whom they have offended. They realize that Jesus is the only one who can relieve them from the burden of their sin and they fall at his feet and seek his mercy. And I really want to ask you directly, has there ever been a time in your life or a period in your life, if you can't remember a specific date, where You felt that way, where that's been real for you, where you've come to Christ and sought him to be your saviour. You see, often the Lord uses desperate, tragic and hopeless situations in our lives to draw us to him. I don't know whether you've ever been in a hopeless situation. Maybe you're in it now. You're facing the crisis of your life today. That can alter your attitude to Christ quite dramatically, can't it? It's often said there are very few atheist soldiers when it comes to a war. The atheism seems to disappear. You may be facing a crisis of your life, like Jairus, but you know, that there is no point just coming to Christ for comfort, for a sop, unless you come, unless you approach Him as He is revealed in the scriptures. The scriptures reveal Christ as He truly is, and there is a true way, a right way, of coming to Him for salvation. The comfort comes as a by-product of becoming His. If you come to Christ for comfort, to fix your troubles, to fix your circumstances, that's not coming to Christ. You have to come to Christ as a saviour from your sin. And once a person is saved and made right with God through salvation, then yes, the Lord encourages us then to call upon him for help and assures us that we can trust him in all our troubles. Doesn't always take our troubles away, of course, but we can trust him either to remove them or change them or bring us through them. Psalm 50, 15, David said, and call upon me In the day of trouble, I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. In our darkest times, even as Christians, the Lord promises in Isaiah 41, 13, for I, the Lord, will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, fear not, I will help thee. Well, do you know Jairus? had a lot to lose by coming to Christ. He risked losing his position as a ruler in the synagogue because the Pharisees had decreed that anyone who asserted Jesus was the Messiah would be expelled from the synagogue and there was no exemption for the synagogue ruler in that. Pride and the fear of losing friends and influence I could have restrained him. It does for many, even today. Jesus said it would be costly to follow him. He that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me. And I agree, when we preach the gospel we should say it's going to cost you, there's a high cost. But should you know, I would also want to say the cost of not following Jesus is far higher It will have an eternal cost for your soul and for your body in hell. Or to put it in positive terms, the benefits of following Christ are far greater than the cost of it, of following him. And for Jairus, no price was too high. He had come to Jesus to beseech him to come home with him and heal his daughter. We notice something else about the way Jairus comes to Christ. These verses inform us of his position and his posture, but also of his persuasion. He was fully persuaded by the fact that Jesus could save his daughter. He didn't come up to Jesus, did he, and said... He didn't ask the Lord if he could heal his daughter. That wasn't the question for Jairus. The question was, would he come and do it? He had no doubt Jesus could, but would he? Would he come home with him? You know, there are many barriers, many impediments that stop people from coming to Christ. But probably the biggest reason is unbelief. Unbelief. That's the ultimate reason. Perhaps that's the reason behind all the other reasons. Unbelief in Jesus. Bishop J.C. Ryle said, no sin makes less noise, but none so surely damns the soul as unbelief. It's true, isn't it? Charles Spurgeon said, unbelief will destroy the best of us. Faith will save the worst of us. And I believe Jairus models to us how to come to Christ. He came to Christ not in unbelief, he came in faith. He was fully persuaded that Jesus could save him, his little girl. And what does this word faith mean? What does having faith mean when we come to Christ in Christian salvation? I've looked at some books and even heard some sermons where some teachers seem to speak of faith as if having faith saves us. In other words, it's almost having faith in faith that saves us. But that's not what Christian faith is. books which tell us that we must increase our faith, exercise our faith, grow in our faith. Those things are true, of course, in one sense. There's truth to it. But saving faith isn't just about having faith. It's about having faith in Christ. It's about the object of our faith. Faith is simply coming to Christ, laying hold of Him and believing from the heart all that Jesus tells us in the Scriptures about our sinfulness, about God's holiness and His saving work for us upon the cross. That's what faith is. And if you come to Jesus in that way, fully persuaded, And throwing yourself upon him, you will be saved from your sins. You'll become a Christian. You'll be his. We can describe true faith as resting upon Christ alone for our salvation. Part of it is repudiating all attempts to earn favour with God through our own merits. And that's easier said than done because there's something locked into our brains which tells us that we have to somehow earn our salvation. It's very hard to get rid of. The Apostle Paul, a very proud religious Jew, had to be brought to a place in his life where he acknowledged that he had no righteousness of his own. He had spent a whole life building up a righteousness of his own, a bank of merit, a bank of righteousness through the keeping of the law. And he excelled at that. The bank account of his merit was very high, but it still wasn't high enough to be saved. And he had to come to a point where he said, I have no righteousness of my own. And that's true for everyone. We have to repudiate our works and instead rely on the person and work of Christ. We have to have faith in Christ's blood, that is to say, his death upon the cross. for forgiveness of our sins and peace with God. We must rest in Christ, we must repudiate our works and we must receive Christ as our own saviour by faith. John 1.12 says, but as many as received him To them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. So again, I ask the question, have you, like Jairus, put your faith in Jesus? Have you received Jesus? Is he your saviour and your lord? If the Lord is not your saviour, how do you come to him? Come to him like Jairus. Repudiate all this idea that you have a righteousness of your own and put your faith in him, in his mercy, in the mercy of Christ. And believe everything the scripture says about the Lord Jesus. Well, I said earlier that not only is the way that we come to Christ the same, as these characters in Mark's gospel, neither has the response that Jesus makes to those who come to him changed either. What sort of response did Jairus receive from Jesus? Well, it's recorded in verse 24. And Jesus went with him, and a great multitude followed him and thronged him. Jesus went with him. as they made their way towards Jairus' home. We wouldn't have been at all surprised, would we? This is what we would probably have done. We would have probably scolded Jairus, wouldn't we? For his past behavior. We could have said, oh no, now you come to me. Now you come to me. Now you're in trouble. You didn't come to me before, did you, Jairus? You weren't interested in me then. But now your daughter's dying. Oh, now suddenly I'm of interest. Did Jesus say anything like that? Didn't say anything like that. Jesus didn't bring up this man's past. He didn't need to. Jairus was already humbled to the dust. He was in desperate need of the Saviour. And you know, the Lord Jesus will never reject you if you come to Him, not in pride, but if you come to Him as a sinner, He will always accept you. He'll never turn you away. If you come all haughty and superior and sort of examine Christ as some kind of option, then you're not coming to him in the way that you should. You have to come as a sinner, a contrite, broken, lost, and hopeless sinner. And he never turns anyone away who comes in that manner. We must never allow our past And we've all got a past, I guess. I expect all of our cupboards have skeletons, don't they, if we're honest? We wouldn't want people to rummage through. Or am I the only one? We must never allow our past to prevent us from coming to the only one who can save us. There's only one. And if you come to Christ in sincerity, all you will ever find is a warm welcome. You see, perhaps less commonly than pride, but for some at least, a barrier to coming to Christ is the belief that they are too great a sinner. that their sins are too great to be forgiven. But the message of the Gospel is that the Lord is ready to pardon all sins, no matter how numerous or grievous. That's good news, isn't it? And He is ready to receive any sinner who repents. And there are no exceptions to this. There is no limit to Christ's power to forgive sin. There's no limit to the power of the cross to justify the unrighteous. There is no limit to the power of the blood of Christ to cleanse human sin and impurity. And if you're feeling despair about your condition today, this is good news for you. Because you may be disheartened regarding your state Maybe your state is a backslider. And you believe somehow that you've disqualified yourself from ever returning to Christ. But Jesus makes this promise. He says, him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. And if you come to him in faith, You can repeat, you can even use the words of King David, a man who, as it happens, sinned probably more greatly than you will ever sin. Probably. He said these words. He said, for thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity. It is great. He had great sin, and yet the Lord pardoned him, as he will pardon you. Well, we must quickly return to our story. As soon as Jesus began the journey to Jairus' home, can you imagine how Jairus felt? when Jesus stopped to speak to a woman. Here he is, his daughter's dying. Every second is vital. He's got so far as getting hold of Jesus and he's got Jesus to agree to come home with him. Everything's working out, brilliant. And now Jesus stops to talk to a woman. Jesus, you know, time is ticking. You know, sometimes in life we've approached the Lord Jesus with the greatest crisis of our life. We are unwell. Our wife is unwell. Our child is unwell. Our loved ones remain unsaved. Our hearts are broken for various reasons. And yet there seems to be this delay. You know, that might be true for you today. You're in the trial of your life. A trial of your faith that seems to drag on and on and on. And you may even begin to question whether the Lord really loves you, whether he really cares. Like Jairus, you might wonder, why are you delaying, Lord, in my urgent need? Because my need is now, my need's immediate. But this story reminds us, again, of the sovereignty of God. that we should never doubt his wisdom or his love for us. It reminds us that the timing of the Lord's providence in our lives is always perfect and always on time. Why? Why does this story teach us this? Because Jesus knew that Jairus' daughter was already dead. He knew that messengers were at that very second on their way to inform Jairus of this. Verse 35, while he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue's house certain which said, thy daughter is dead. Why troublest thou the master any further? I'm sure Jesus paused to speak to this woman, obviously to meet the woman's need, but also to test and to strengthen the faith of Jairus. Because despite the frustration and maybe the panic he felt at this delay, at least he would have seen right before his eyes a demonstration of the power of Jesus to heal this woman. who for 12 long years had been sick. This woman had been as sick for as long as his daughter had been alive. 12 years. And Jesus understood that Jairus' faith would be tested when he received the message about his daughter's death. It was already a pretty big issue for his faith to believe that Jesus could heal his dying daughter. That was hard. For Jesus to heal a dead daughter is impossible. Absolutely impossible. She was dead. And I found this in my Christian life sometimes, that we've poured out our hearts to the Lord for an issue, and all that happens is things seem to get worse before they get better. Not only does the Lord seem slow in answering, but things deteriorate. But true faith grows through testing. And that might be you today. You know, here you are, Jairus, his daughter, is now dead. These messengers come. Why trouble the master any longer? Give up. Let it go. It's gone. There's no hope anymore. Just give up, Jesus. It's not worked. And maybe there's a voice in your head. Or it may be other people urging you to give up. Why trouble the master any longer? And Jairus had the choice to listen to the unbelief of the messengers or to listen to the words of Jesus, who said in verse 36, be not afraid, only believe. Do you know, this is an amazing thing. what Jairus is being called upon here to do by Jesus. Jesus is saying to this man, whose daughter is dead, he's saying, do not fear, only believe. Be not afraid, only believe. That's just as significant and bigger thing as Abraham was called upon to do. Paul reminds us in Romans 4, 18 to 19, that Abraham was one who, against hope, believed in hope. He believed that God could perform the impossible. What was the impossibility? That being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about 100 years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. It was absolutely impossible that they could produce a baby together, that they would from a fertility point of view, they were dead. And God called him to believe in something impossible. This is what the Lord Jesus is calling Jairus to do. He was calling Jairus not to stagger, to stagger not at the promise of God through unbelief. Do not be afraid, only believe. And maybe there's someone here today who needs to hear and heed these words. Because as Christians, all of us at times have a kind of spiritual tug of war going on inside of us. We imagine the rope, there's fear on one side of the rope tugging away. and there's faith on the other side tugging away and they're trying to get over the line and one's pulling one way and one's pulling the other and at times one seems to be winning and one losing. There's this tug of war. Do you know if you're full of fear today, the only antidote is belief in Christ. Faith in Christ. Putting your whole hope in Christ. That's a better option than all the therapy, all the counselling in all of the world. It'll be better for your health, for the health of your mind and even your body than anything else. Put your faith in Christ. And as they approached Jairus' house, Well, the testing of his faith didn't stop, did it? They could hear the crowd gathered, the professional mourners weeping and wailing and making a racket. And as they entered the house, in verse 39, Jesus said, why make you this ado and weep? The damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. Their wailing turned to scornful laughter, mockery. I expect we've all had experiences, haven't we, where non-Christian friends have been all over us, sympathizing with us and trying to help us. But as soon as we say we've become a Christian, the sympathy turns to mockery, doesn't it? Scorn. Friends turn against us when we come to Christ. But Jesus put them all out from the room apart from the parents and the three disciples. And they went into the room where the dead girl lay. And Jesus held her hand and said to her, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise, little girl, arise. Arise, precious daughter. Arise from the sleep of death and come back home and laugh and dance and bring joy to your parents again. And what happens, she stood up and she walked to the astonishment of everyone. Praise God. The touch of Jesus is a touch of life, you see. If Jesus touches your life, he will touch you with life. His life. And this raising of this little girl speaks of a miracle that takes place when you become a Christian. We call it the new birth. Through the gospel, the spiritually dead are raised to new life. In a sense, we wake up from sleep and we begin to walk. And like the little girl, Christ commands that we are given something to eat. But we eat and drink of him through the word of God and by the Holy Spirit and we grow and mature as new babes in Christ. Now between Jairus and his daughter, as we come to a close, between the story of Jairus and his daughter, much like the middle of a sandwich, stands another desperate individual caught in a hopeless situation. Verse 25 describes her as a woman who had suffered from a hemorrhage for 12 years. She endured internal bleeding. She'd exhausted all her savings on treatments. She'd adhered to the advice of numerous physicians. And this woman was tired. She was worn out. Her internal and her external resources were exhausted. Her money and her energy had all gone. According to the Jewish law that we read of in Leviticus 15, her condition rendered her unclean and ostracized from society. Ironically, she had interrupted the ruler of the synagogue and she was barred and banned from it. He was a man of renown and reputation, while she was a despised and unclean woman on the brink of death. And you know, her life was a bitter life. She woke up every morning dreading the day. Her life was a life of pain. There are many people like that. And pain and suffering have a way of making time hang, of elongating time. For her, Jesus was the last hope. But like Jairus, she was also convinced of the power of Christ. Her faith was not very sophisticated. It wasn't really very evangelical. It was not really sound. She seemed to believe that Christ's garments could heal her. Yet even a weak faith, Even faith as small as a mustard seed is enough if it's placed in Christ. Perhaps that's why Jesus singled her out. He wanted to be sure that not only her body was healed, but that her soul was saved. Because it wasn't his garments that healed her. It was himself. It was he, the Lord Jesus, who saved her. And her trust in Christ was very simple. And that's all you need to begin with. You don't have to go to a seminary or a theological college. You don't need to do that to become a Christian. You can learn all about that afterwards. You're not saved on the basis of your theological competence, but you must come to Christ in faith. And do whatever it takes to get to Christ. And she had obstacles just like Jairus, her uncleanness, the crowd pushing and shoving. But again, her desperation drove her to touch his garment. And instantly, the source of her bleeding dried up. And she sensed in her body that she had been healed. This is amazing love by Jesus here again. Because by touching the dead girl, Jairus' dead girl, and by touching this unclean woman, the Lord Jesus himself made himself ceremonially unclean. And this foreshadows the fact that when Jesus dies upon the cross, that he would bear all the uncleanness of our lives, of our sins. to Corinthians 5.21, for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And when this woman touched Jesus, Jesus instantly knew that something had happened. Healing power had gone out from him and healing power had gone into her. Jesus says, who touched me? And the disciples almost say, well, that's a daft question. Everyone's touching you and pressing upon you. But the Lord felt the virtue coming out of him. And he says, who touched my clothes? And he scans the crowd, and he sees this trembling woman who had hoped just to touch him and slip away unnoticed. And what does Jesus do? He doesn't scold her either, does he? Here again we see Jesus' welcome to sinners who put their faith in him. He could have given this woman a lecture on the purity laws of Leviticus. I've known some preachers, that's probably what they would have done. There's no scolding. There's only words of love. daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace and be whole of thy plague.' She could live again. She was clean, she was whole, and it was her faith that made her whole. In other words, it wasn't her touching of Christ's garments. Christianity isn't magic. We're not saved by touching relics or the Turin Shroud or whatever it may be. She was saved because she trusted in Christ. And Jesus, in so many words, is saying to her, when you touch me, something happened between me and you. There was a transaction that took place. You are now part of me, and I'm now part of you. You are now my daughter. I believe that's the only time Jesus said daughter to anyone. Daughter, your sickness no longer defines you. I define you. I have taken your pain and given you my peace. I've taken your poverty and given you my riches. I've taken your pollution and I've given you my purity. That's the transaction that takes place here. And that's a transaction that can take place in your life this morning if you come to Jesus Christ. So, three hopeless, desperate people, one in fact dead, saved and transformed by the mighty power and mercy of Jesus. He still does this, you know. through the Gospel, by the power of the Spirit, through the Word. And what he does for others, he can do for you. But you have to come to him. Come to him today. In Jesus' name. Amen. Feel free to contact us at Sovereign Grace Church in Tiverton. Email us at grace2seekers at gmail.com. That's grace2seekers at gmail.com. Alternatively, you can visit our website at www.sovereigngracereformedchurch.co.uk.