:: By Andrew Moore
Where is your faith?
1. Introduction
Story 1.
(Mark 4:35-41)
- I was about 13 years old. – my father owned a 25 foot trailer sailer… – my sister and I were in the cabin playing cards… we were on the way back to the boat ramp… – all of a sudden the boat was hit by a southerly buster… the boat was horizontal within seconds, and we could see water coming inside the cabin. – I looked out and my father was in the water about 20 meters back.
I survived to tell the tale….- we were okay- … We were in Sydney Harbour with hundreds of boats around in the middle of the day…
-> But at the time it was frightening.
In the story we’ve just read…. the disciples were in the grip of fear!!!
(pause)
Jesus had determined to cross over to the eastern side of the lake.
The disciples in the boat include some fishermen who were experienced sailors.
And they are hit by a windstorm.
The Sea of Galilee is like a basin- it’s surrounded by high mountains, and sudden violent storms on the sea are well known in this region.
- It’s night time – and the storm hits…. And the boat starts filling with water.
(and take it from me… when the boat starts filling with water… it’s frightening!!!!!)
We’ve seen the pictures of devastation that wind and rain can produce… – imagine the sound of gushing water, howling wind…
-> These guys think they’re going to die.
(pause)
Have you ever been this close to death? (this close….fingers)
Been mugged?
Been in a car accident … a bad one!?
Been told by the doctor that you’ve got cancer?.. and the doctor says “this one’s going to be close”.
Or hit 40, the mid-life crisis, and woken up thinking… “Where did the last 40 years go,… I’m over halfway there!”.
-> Death is frightening.
There is usually pain when you die… unless you die in your sleep.
It is the end of life… this life… and unless you are mentally depressed, or deluded, we don’t want this life to end!!!!. There is our families, our friends….that we’ll never see again… We worry for them,… who we will leave behind.
And then there is the big unknown… what’s on the other side??? Is it nothing? Is it being alone? Is it judgement? … and that brings fear.
-> … I reckon those suicide bombers, who strap themselves with explosives, when it comes to it, they’re packing it. I reckon their heart is beating a million miles an hour.
Francis Bacon said, “Men fear death, like children fear to go into the dark”
(pause)
Jesus is asleep.
How on earth could he sleep through this storm, I don’t know…..I just think he was tired…
It’s night time.
He’s been preaching all day…
And Jesus is human just like the disciples… he would need to sleep!
He’s in the back of the boat on a cushion. And the disciples come to wake him up, and say… read v 39.
Imagine it!!!
Awesome.
And he said to them (something out there… even more incredible)->
… he says…
“Why are you so afraid?
Have you still no faith?”
->
“Don’t you trust?”
“Don’t you believe????”
IS JESUS SOMEONE WE CAN TRUST?
WITH DEATH….?
With our death???
That’s the question!.
Can I in the face of death, stare it in the face, and NOT FEAR, because I trust in Jesus?
What do you reckon?
Let’s go to the next story…
(pause)
Story 2
(Mark 5:1-21)
Here we are introduced to a man who lived among the tombs.
It’s the Gerasenes – there are gentiles here, which is a bit unusual….
(but it’s a give away by there being pigs!)
His name is Legion.
Cos he is possessed by a ‘legion’ of evil spirits. “lots of them!” in other words.
He’s not Schizophrenic.
This is a man in the grip of a spiritual power- evil spiritual beings.
He is possessed by… demons.
… Mark says in chapter 9, of a boy possessed with an unclean Spirit -“This one cannot be driven out by anything BUT PRAYER”.
Notice though…
This man is irrepressible.
He cannot be bound.
He cannot be constrained…
V 3.
The demons have incredible power. The spiritual realm of darkness is like that.
Satan has the power to destroy life.
Satan is a murderer and a liar.
He wants as many people as possible to go to hell…
(pause)
Notice that unlike the disciples, he knows who Jesus is,… ….
The disciples should know the true identity of Jesus – they’ve heard his teaching, they’ve seen the miracles… they are on the inside….
And Legion is afraid too, but for different reasons than the disciples… The disciples were ignorant and confused in the boat, and that’s why they were afraid… Legion is afraid because he knows Jesus…he knows that Jesus has power greater than him!!!
(pause)
See -.. – Legion begs earnestly to Jesus. – He has to ask Jesus for permission. – He cries out with a loud voice- v 7 (read).
And so the story ends up…
Jesus castes out the unclean spirits.
And this man is transformed.
He WANTS to go with Jesus… he can now see the that Jesus is not some crazy lunatic.
Jesus is not scary…
He is powerful, and he his GOOD.
Jesus says he’s not to come with him…but to tell his friends about what has happened…
-> and so v 20 (read).
So we’ve seen that Jesus has power over nature.
Now we see here, that Jesus has power over the spiritual realm.
Well, lets’ read the last story.
Story 3
(Mark 5:21-43)
The main story here is Jairus’ daughter, the synagogue ruler.
She is extremely sick.
And he believes Jesus can help…he believes!.. he has faith!.
Sandwiched in the middle of this story, is a woman who has been bleeding for 12 years.
Jesus is on the way to Jairus’ home, and he is stopped by woman, (in great need).
I’m not a woman (that’s obvious I hope), and I wouldn’t like to be a woman. But I know of the hassles, and some of the pain that goes along with being a woman.
To have bleeding though for 12 years…
She would be anaemic…
She wouldn’t be able to get pregnant.
In fact no man would want to come near her,…
Have you read this book?- (hold up “Hospital by the River”) – it is very moving. – Catherine Hamlin is a Christian. She is an obstetrician… and with her husband, set up a hospital in Ethiopia…
The hospital is for women who have fistulas, which is a hole in their birth canal.
Women who get pregnant, As young as 15.
The baby get’s stuck and can’t come out… and the baby dies.
This creates all sorts of problems… they end up getting a hole in the birth canal.
And it leaks .. urine and faeces, 24 hours a day.
She is usually deserted by her husband…
She is ostracized by the village.
And condemned to a life of shame and poverty.
It’s just horrible.
-> I’m not sure, but I’ve always wondered if this story is what motivated Dr Hamlin.
For this is a woman just like the many women that reach the door of her hospital, in dire straights- they have nowhere to go, and have nothing left, but to come to Jesus….. v 27 (read).
She hears Jesus is in town.
And she comes to see him.
She comes from behind… probably because she is ashamed.
She has heard that others are healed, by Jesus touching them, so she decides to touch Jesus.
Her knowledge is almost superstitious. She is not honours student from Moore Theological College.
But there is one thing she does have… she has faith.
(pause)
She touches Jesus.
And she is immediately healed.
The disciples are too worried about getting to Jairus’ daughter.
They are impatient with Jesus.
But that doesn’t deter Jesus,…. He takes his time….and the woman comes to Jesus in fear and trembling, and falls down at his feet…
There’s that 5 letter word again…— read v 34.
->
Unlike the disciples, and unlike the demons,… this woman had faith.
She trusted Jesus.
It wasn’t the touch that made her well. It wasn’t his theology…I remember Phillip Jensen saying at a Moore College graduation, that his theological degree never saved anyone…
It was her faith.
(pause)
Well Jesus is interrupted!>>>>
Read v 35-36.
There it is again.
In the face of death…. This time she has died…. And there are 2 options.
To fear or to trust…
Here is a man who has lost his daughter.
She is 12 years old.
Luke tells us that it was his only daughter.
Gone…
There’s nothing more outrageous. Nothing more soul destroying… to face the world, without your child.
Someone was telling me the story yesterday of a family who lost their daughter through SIDS…and Philip found his daughter dead, and the first thing he thought, was how am I going to tell Prue.
Think for a second what it would be like.
In fact we have at least one family here today who have lost a child… you know there is not a day that goes by where they don’t think of her!.
And they will take their grief with them to the day they die.
Why does Jesus say “do not fear”?
Is he crazy—> ->
This is his daughter,…
Jesus has been delayed, and it is catastrophic for the young girl…. for now she is dead!!!!.
(pause)
Notice the reponses of the people – v 35- “don’t bother the teacher anymore”
- v 38- there are those weep and wail. Probably minstrels and professional mourners.
- 40- there those who laugh at Jesus.
What would you think?.
What would you do…?
(pause)
Jesus rebukes the mourners.
He puts them all outside… there is no place for them here.
And goes to where the girl is.
Read to v 41-42.
This is the climax.
For here Jesus proves that he – he has power over death. – And he will one day,… destroy the power that death has over every one of us..
In this mini-resurrection/ resuscitation (whatever you like to call it),… JESUS forecasts to all of us, that he is the resurrection and the life.
John 11.. “Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die”
The Bible says that Jesus has the keys to death and hades…and this is what is happening here.
And so – the disciples… when they were with Jesus in the boat, they shouldn’t fear, cos if they did die, Jesus would bring them back.
- And the demoniac, possessed with the legion of evil spirits,… It is clear now why he feared,…. For Jesus is their enemy- they come to destroy life, but Jesus comes to give life.
- The woman who was bleeding .
And Jairus … both who had faith (although not with all their theology sorted out)…. their faith was rightly put… in The Lord Jesus, who has power over death.
(Where is your faith?)
Where is your faith?
Everyone has faith.
The thing that differs between us is “Where is it?”…
It may be in yourself.
It may be in religious performance.
It may be in Buddha or Krishna, or Mohammed….
It may be fate or chance… and so you’ll just see what happens.
-> Wherever it is, can I say, it is right to fear, if it is not in Jesus.
And if it is in Jesus, there is no need to fear.
(pause)
It’s interesting to think about the punctuation marks for death.
For our own death.
For some it’s an exclamation mark- the terrorist who blows himself up.
For many it’s a full-stop. Some people die and they think that’s it…no more.
For those who trust in Jesus… it is a comma. Death is not the end.
Those who have faith in Jesus… don’t die… I think that’s what Jesus is getting at in this last story when he says, “she is not dear, she’s asleep”.
Jesus died and rose again so that we can have life.
Eternal life.
Which is why it was so wrong for the disciples to say…
4:38
Have you ever said that about God…
“Don’t you care that I’m perishing?”
->
So when we’re at the end of our life, what should we do.
So how does this change it for us…? If I was in the boat again…
If I’ve got cancer?
Or the aeroplane is falling from the sky.
1. don’t panic.
2. I want to remind myself, of what Jesus HAS DONE… that Jesus died for me and rose again.
3. I want to remind myself of what’d just about to happen… that I’m about to go to heaven….if I trust him.
And so I will try to trust him.
4. And….here’s the promise…
Jesus has given us his Spirit…. One of the greatest things about being Christian, is that we don’t die alone.