The Holy Spirit

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We’re going to jump into Mark 5. You’re just now joining us in this series together, we are six weeks into this. We know how summer goes. For us as a church family, it’s a time where there are lots of things to be done, people to visit, vacations to have. It’s difficult to carry just a theme throughout the summer on what we want to focus on. So what we’re doing this summer, we’re very simplistic in our desire. We’re looking at the gospel of Mark and we’re desiring to know Jesus as Jesus desires to make him known. Lots of people have opinions on who Christ is. We’re just saying phooey with all of that. Jesus revealed to us who you are. That’s who we want to worship. That’s who the Bible calls us to worship. And in doing that, we would just want to make sure and to invite you to the gospels to look at this in its context.

We want to make sure that you know, we’re never teaching anything crazy. We want to follow scripture as it reveals itself to us. And so I want to encourage you, if you’ve got a Bible with you, just feel free to take some notes. We want these stories that we read through the gospels to impact our lives. And as it does, we want to be able to go back and just remember those as God speaks to us through this time together in discovering Christ in the book of Mark. And if I had to tell us just an idea of what we’ve seen together, I hope we have seen at this point, if not a failed you, but it’s Jesus as King and he’s come to demonstrate his kingdom to us. And we’ve actually talked about it in a few contexts. We looked at the declaration of the kingdom, the demonstration of his kingdom, and in the invitation to his kingdom.

And today we’re going to talk about inspiration of the kingdom. I had to stay with the i-o-n. I filled cheesy every time I say that, so forgive me. But we’ve seen that in Christ, the declaration, the demonstration, the invitation to all of us to be a part of that. And then he just gives us this invitation into walking life with the Lord as he reveals himself to us living that life in him. And if I could just tell us one thing today, if we could walk out just with just one goal as we spend this remainder of our time together: make sure your soul worships this morning. You have this hour to connect to God and for some of us, this may be the only hour we gave him this week. And our soul desperately needs these moments.

And whatever that you’ve had as a priority this week, whatever business, whatever’s on your shoulders, whatever you carried in here in stress, whatever. And God made you for him. And this morning is that time for your soul to connect to that. And I don’t want us to miss that. That’s what makes this text so valuable. Because we’re going gonna look at a story. We’re actually going to look at a story within a story. And in these two narrative stories, we’re reading about a specific individual. And when you encounter stories in life, if you can just kind of see the story as a headline, sort of flash in the pan, you don’t really attach fully to the story or a name, you don’t know it personally. It’s easy to sort of put that down and walk away from it. But when you hear about the individual that’s impacted and you start to let your heart connect to that, that story starts to speak to your story and what God wants to do.

And I think that’s exactly why it’s the story we’re gonna read today is found in the book of Mark. And I’m going to give it a little bit more emphasis this morning by referring all the way back to Mark 3 as a prelude to Mark 5. One of the reasons I want to start Mark 3 isn’t because I gave you a promise last week about telling you what blaspheming the Holy Spirit is. It wasn’t real fair, I told you last week. Don’t do it. If there’s one thing you don’t want to do is blasphemy the Holy Spirit, and I didn’t tell you what that was. So if you’re the one that took that to heart, you just walk around nervous all week.

But in Mark 3, this is what Jesus said, he said, truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, which is nice. I like that, thank you. But then verse 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. They are guilty of an eternal sin. Now that is pretty heavy, right? You do not want to do that. So how do you avoid doing this? I want to tell you, as a church family, one of the things we focus on is we don’t really focus on what you don’t do. One of the worst Christian questions you can ask is how far I can go without going too far. It’s sort of like asking God, God, where’s the boundary? Because what I don’t want to do is sin. And I understand if you come to Christ, sometimes you might ask that question. But I want you to know as a believer in Christ, that question is not healthy. So as soon as you can get away from that, the better you are.

Because the Christian life isn’t about what God calls you from. It’s about what God calls you too. If you live your whole life trying to avoid crap, that is just an unhappy, unhealthy life. What Jesus has called you to do is so much better. When we talk about repentance and know people don’t like that word and it’s got bad connotations culturally, but when you use a word like that and you think about what God calls us to, he’s talking about darkness from light. From sorrow to joy. There’s beauty in that and so the Christian life isn’t about what you’re avoiding and I don’t even want to be a part of that. That’s just not helpful, unhealthy, depressing. I’m looking at where God has called me. I want to live in light of that. Because what the Bible talks about is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. Jesus sets me free in those things. I’m way off on tangent.

So what’s blasphemy the Holy Spirit mean? Because we do not want to do that. This is something we definitely don’t want to do. What’s important though, just how the ministry of the Holy Spirit unfolds in the New Testament. When you read the New Testament, you see that there’s something more intimate and more personal that the Holy Spirit does that’s different than the Old Testament. Now the the Holy Spirit was active in the Old Testament, but I would say he became more personal in the New Testament. The Holy Spirit indwelt people in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament through the promises of the Old Testament, you see that the Holy Spirit is going to permanently indwell believers.

Which is why the Bible tells us that we can approach God at any time. We are the temple of God. It’s not in buildings, it dwells in God’s people. We become the light of the world because of that. And so this Holy Spirit takes on this role that becomes more intimate, more personal. And some of the things that the Holy Spirit does is not only important for the Christian’s life, it’s important for the unbelievers life. Jesus in John 14- 16, gives doctrine of the Holy Spirit. So if you want to read those three chapters, feel free. Not while we’re talking this morning, do it later. But John 14-16 talks about what the Holy Spirit’s going to do.

In John 16 he actually tells us the Holy Spirit will come to convict us. John 16:8 and then it will glorify Jesus in our lives, John 16:15-16, I believe. The purpose of the Holy Spirit is to make much of Jesus in our lives and to convict us. And what the Holy Spirit convicts us of is our need to turn from all other kingdoms in this world that we might find valuable and turn to the one true King in his kingdom.

Because God’s kingdom is gracious. God’s kingdom has given you an invitation to be a part of the reason God has created you. God has created you to know him and to enjoy him for all of eternity. And here’s the truth: His kingdom reigns now and it will reign over everything for all of eternity. But here’s another truth. It may not reign in everything. It will reign over everything, but may not reign in everything. And the thing that it’s pursuing right now is you. Your heart. God wants to rule and reign in you. And that’s what his kingdom represents. And that’s where the Spirit comes in our lives to convict us, to embrace Jesus. To see the goodness of this King and walk with him.

That’s why the Bible tells us, John 16:8, the Spirit convicts. Ephesians 4:30, don’t grieve the Holy Spirit. 1 Thessalonians 5:19, don’t quench the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has a purpose and that is to make much of Jesus in your life. And guess what the fruit of that, the fruit of the spirit? Galatians 5, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness against such things, the Bible tells us there is no law. And so what Jesus talks about blaspheming the Holy Spirit, he’s telling these individuals who are denying Jesus in this moment that the Spirit of God is convicting them and they’re denying it. And to deny the spirit puts you in judgment because that King will reign in his kingdom and that kingdom will reign over everything. But not necessarily in everything. And his grace has given you that opportunity to reign within you.

Acts 7:51 when Stephen is stoned. He’s preaching to the crowd and they’re about to kill him, but he tells them, you’re a stiff neck people ignoring the Holy Spirit’s convicting in your lives.

So this blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, if you wonder what it is, it works like this in our lives. If you don’t belong to Jesus and you’re wondering what Jesus about and you’re going through this journey with us together to know Christ as Christ desires to make himself known, my encouragement to you is to see the goodness of Jesus and don’t let other people hold you back from that. Don’t let this world weigh you down in that. Don’t give a rip about what other people think. Jesus created you for him and that’s the most important decision that you can make, especially in those moments. Grab ahold of Jesus. Don’t let people weigh you down.

And we looked at that last week talking about how that increases our our ability to love and to live life the way God has designed this for, but don’t let the weight of this world keep you from the goodness of Christ. That’s his encouragement in this passage and he dives into Mark 5 to give us more inspiration in this story to see the goodness of God and grab hold of that.

In the context of this story, as we look at the inspiration that’s found here, I want us to know that this story, I’ve said this already to you, this story is wrapped up in another story. There is a reason that we have a narrative. They stopped telling that story. They start telling another story and then they conclude what the story they first started with. That sounds a little confusing, right? So you got stories. Stop telling another story. Okay, go back to the first story. We’re going to talk about why, but I’m going to read all of it here and I’m going to focus on the story within the story first and then we’re gonna take a step back and ask the question, why in the world did you do this so confusingly and tell the whole story.

Mark 5:22, follow along with me here. It says, one of the synagogue officials named Jarius came up and on seeing him, talking about Jesus, they fell at his feet and implored him earnestly saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Please come and lay your hands on her so that she will get well and live.” And he went off with him and a large crowd was following him and pressing in on him. A woman who had a hemorrhage for 12 years and had endured much at the hands of many physicians and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse. After hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind him and touched his cloak and she thought, if I just touch his garments, I will get well. Immediately the flow of of her blood was dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of her afflictions.

Immediately Jesus perceiving in himself that the power proceeded from him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, who touched my garments? And his disciples said to him, you see the crowd pressing in on you and you say, who touched me? And he looked around to see the woman who had done this. But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your affliction.” While he was still speaking, they came from the house of the synagogue official saying, “Your daughter has died. Why trouble the teacher anymore?”

But Jesus overhearing what was being spoken said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid any longer, only believe.” And he allowed no one to accompany him except for Peter, James and John, the brother of James. They came to the house of the synagogue official and he saw a commotion and people loudly weeping and wailing. And he entered in and He said to them, “Why make a commotion and weep? The child has not died but is asleep.” They began laughing at him, but putting them out he took along the child’s father and mother and his own companions and he entered the room where the child was. Taking the child by the hand he said, he said to the child, “Talitha kum!” (which translates means little girl. I say to you, get up.) Immediately the girl got up and began to walk away. She was 12 years old and immediately they were completely astounded.

You see one of those distinctives of the gospel of Mark there, that word immediately that Mark wants to show Jesus as a man of action. But here you find this story of this young girl, 12 years old. At the same time, another story, 12 years in the making, a lady who had been hemorrhaging. And Jesus interrupts the story of going to heal this young woman or this little girl in order to meet the needs of this lady. Which for me, I don’t know about you, is an important lesson just from the beginning.

When I think about doing things in this world, I tend to be, I don’t know if this is like male disease or not, but I’m one-track minded. You give me a goal and I’m great at accomplishing that goal. You give me another goal and I’m great at forgetting that goal to accomplish the one goal I’ve gotten in front of me. I will disparage everything else just to get going in this one thing. But when it comes to Jesus, what it’s communicating about Jesus is that you’re incapable of going unnoticed by God. That God plans for the interruptions. To God it’s not even an interruption. God already anticipates it.

But God plans to meet us where we are in the crossroads of our lives. No matter if we feel like it’s an interruption to someone else’s life or not. You’re not capable of going unnoticed by God. And this story becomes so important for all of us to see how this lady who’s been hemorrhaging connects to our lives. Because the question that we all ask is, yeah, but what about me? And you look at the first five chapters as we looked at these stories together that Jesus has told and we’ve seen some fantastic things. The healing of the blind, the casting out of demons, the paralytic that can now walk. And that’s wonderful for them. What about me?

God, how do you intersect in my life and where does your kingdom touch into my world? And so Jesus begins this story. And he interrupts the story with another story just to demonstrate that we’re not capable of being unnoticed by God, that God cares about us. He loves us where we are. Some of us need to hear that. We talk about worship, the thing that inspires the heart to recognize that about God. The Bible tells us that we love him because he first loved us. God loves you where you are.

When you look at the story of this individual, something else that I think just jumps off the page of you. It is that it’s an uncomfortable story. You’ve got the death of this young girl interrupted by this woman that’s been hemorrhaging for 12 years. This is not one where you gather around the dinner table and you’re like, Hey everybody, tell me your favorite story. And you’re like, Oh, for me it’s the hemorrhaging woman. As a guy, I connect to this so well. It’s an uncomfortable story. It’s not even one that I even think this lady is like, let me just share this publicly with the world please. I think there’s something to be said about God wanting to meet us in the uncomfortableness of life.

I told you as a church family, one of the things that I think that we should desire together, I think it’s a biblical desire together, is we don’t want to be a perfect people. Now the Bible does at one point say be perfect as your Father in heavens is perfect, but it’s not saying in your entire life perfect, if you go read the context of that scripture. It’s talking about perfect in the love. And your love for each other. And God definitely calls us to be holy, set apart for him. But we’re not going to be perfect. That will rest in eternity when we see him face to face. And the reason we’re not going to be perfect is because of what God calls his church to do. You think about the calling of the church, it’s to go into the darkness. That God gives us the boldness in him to be a light in the darkness of this world. And so when the church does what the church is called to do, it gets messy. Because God’s grace is messy.

When I opened up in my life the way that God calls me to open up in him, it is messy. Lord, all that I am, which isn’t good, apart from his grace, all that I am, I give it to you because you died on the cross for it. God wants that and God wants this church to go after that. If we’re doing what God calls us to do, we’re not going to be a perfect people. But that’s the beauty of this story. The uncomfortableness of this woman who has been suffering for 12 years. What it says about her in this text is just worth considering in order to see how her story connects to our story. But look at this. It says a woman who had a hemorrhage for 12 years. And look, and had endured much at the hands of many physicians and had spent all that she had was not helped at all, but rather it had grown worse. More than anything, this woman wanted healed, to the point that she sacrificed greatly. She gave everything and it still didn’t meet her need.

You know, in life, I think we can do that. Looking for satisfaction. You put it on relationships or possessions or in the end you sing the same tune as this woman. This woman just wants to be whole. Giving everything that she has. And it tells us she visits physicians, and if you go back to the first century and you read the Jewish Talmud, that’s written during this time, they have specific prescriptions for women like this and what they can do if they experienced this type of suffering that she’s experiencing. What you can do to heal yourself or to pursue healing at least. And when you read the Jewish Talmud related to this woman, some of the things they say to do are painful. None of them are helpful. It’s like witchcraft more than more than medicine.

One of them I wrote down just because it’s just odd. I just want you to get a flavor for what it says. W. Vincent who wrote a book called Word Studies in the New Testament talks about this portion of the Jewish Talmud and he says this, if a woman’s going through this, he says, set her in a place where two ways meet and let her hold a cup of wine in her right hand and let someone come behind and frightened her and say, “Arise from thy flux.” Later today you guys can try this. I think the magic’s in the word flux. Arise from my flux. I have no clue what’s wrong with you. women. Guys, don’t do that, you’re going to smacked.

You see this, this lady, I mean she’s like Jewish Talmud, cool, it’ll heal me? Okay, I’ll do it. And she’s goes to this and some of the things she would have endured and all of the money she would have paid and it tells us she is just spent every dime to find healing and couldn’t. And you get the idea of this ladies at the end of her rope. And the story, it’s just, it’s uncomfortable. You ever seen someone go through pain and you just wish that you just had that magic wand to end it? I don’t want to do. I love you, but I can’t undo what’s been done. That’s her.

You know what’s interesting about the struggles of our lives? It’s the things that often need healing in our life are also the parts of her life that are intensely private. We tend to hide the things that need the greatest healing. I think that’s this lady. She doesn’t want to be public with her suffering. She’d just like for it to all go away. But she’s just desperate for a cure. And in the midst of this story, Jesus pursuing another little girl, what you hear is Jesus stopping and pursuing this little girl who’s sick to then help this woman to say to us, Jesus knows. The thing in your life that you don’t want anyone else to know about. The thing in your life you might be struggling with, the thing in your life that just breaks your heart, the thing in your life that causes you to become a recluse and to hide and to hold on to the thing in your life that you think if someone else found out, they’re not going to love me. Jesus knows.

And look, he still loves you. He loves you. That’s the gospel. Jesus loves you in that struggle. That’s why God calls us to be an imperfect people as his community. Because the communication that we make to the world as light is his love and darkness. The part of us that just wants to hide and say, you know what, Jesus, there’s no way you’re going to accept me. I want to take care of this on my own. Jesus is saying, no, that’s what I came for. That’s what I died for. That’s what the interruption of the story is for, so that we can see this in our lives. And then this woman does something that’s just profound. Maybe we might even call it foolish. It tells us in the story that she reaches out and she touches Jesus. Now, why would I said that is foolish? Or even profound?

Because of the context of the culture she lives in. This woman had a hemorrhage and culturally she would have been considered defiled. And anything she touched would have become defiled. And so this lady would have lived a life completely isolated, emotionally separated from people, relationally separated, and even spiritually left wanting because she’s by herself. Anywhere she would have gone in life, she would have had to continually say, “Unclean. I am unclean.”

In this story you’re seeing a woman that would’ve been one of the most lonely individuals on earth. And she, in this story is conducting a cultural, no-no. She’s so desperate for hope spending all that she had, she’s just clinging to one thing that she thinks might bring the healing that she wants in her life and she risks everything just to go into this crowd, bumping into people she’s not supposed to touch, to reach out and to touch this holy man that she thinks might make her healed.

Could you imagine? And then how this story turns out. We just read it. But could you imagine if things didn’t work out this way, the type of persecution she could have faced. The public shaming. The retribution that would’ve come with this. And yet she risks it all for Jesus. Just for a moment, if we just think at the beginning of this, when we started talking about Mark 3 and we just positioned this story against what Jesus is saying with blasphemy the Holy Spirit. I mean that’s where some of us might be this morning. We’re looking at the goodness of Jesus and we’re saying, I want that. But on the back end, but my family. What are people going to say if I just embraced this Jesus? If I just abandon everything regardless of the crowd and this one time I don’t cry unclean, and that just bumped into all of that mess and I grab a hold of Jesus.

When this woman reaches out to touch Christ—what drove her to take that risk? You even see as the story unfolds in verse 32 it says this, in talking about Jesus, and he looked around after the woman touched him, he looked around to see the woman who had done this. And look, she has a response that she should’ve had, it said, but the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what happened to her came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. What else did she have to cling too other than just please be gracious to me? I know I shouldn’t have touched you because of who I am. But I had no other choice because I’m desperate for hope and when you read the story you see your heart can just sense the desperation of this lady and it connects to us because at some point in our lives we’ve been there.

In Jesus, you look at the story and you think, why would Jesus want to draw attention to this? All the other people know this woman and that they see her. I could just see her. She probably drew something over her head so the crowd wouldn’t identify her just so she could get near Jesus. But when Jesus identifies her, it’s now public. Why would he do this? It’s because he wants to use her story. He wants to use her story to impact the lives of the people around her. He wants to use her story to impact your story today.

And so Jesus identifies her and he wants her to share the faith that she had in reaching for him above all else. Because when you look in verse 28 what this lady said, she gives the reason why. She said in verse 28 she thought, if I just touch his garments, I will get well. That’s kind of a bizarre thought. I’m going to tell you this morning, nobody be touching my clothes. And no one else. There’s no one here with the capability of you touch their clothes and you healed. That’s just not going to happen. Why in the world is this lady thinking, I’m going to touch some clothes here and it’s going to make me better?

I think it’s because this lady knew her Bible. I think one of the reasons she knew her Bible is she was desperate for the healing that she found that was promised in the Messiah. Recently as a church family we went through the book of Malakai and when you get to the latter half of Malakai, chapter three, chapter four. That’s the last book of the Old Testament. And chapter three, chapter four starts to tell us about John the Baptist who is going to come to declare the way of Jesus and the Messiah who’s to come. Chapter four verse one talks about John the Baptist and then chapter four verse two it starts to tell us about Jesus.

Here’s the interesting thing. It starts to tell us about Jesus uses this concept called wings. During Jesus’s day men that were devout and following after God wore this garment that had tassels that hung off the corner. Those tassels represented the law of God and that garment that they wore, demonstrated that they were people of God set apart for the purpose of God in this world. They were literally walking around with a reminder that they belonged to God and those tassels were considered sacred to Israel. What it demonstrated as they move throughout the city and the valley, and wherever they were from, they were declaring without saying a word, that they were separated for the Lord.

This garment that they would wear, if you want to see a picture of it, you can look it up later. It’s easy to remember. It’s literally called a tzitzit. It’s with a word T in front of it. So if you spell t-zit-zit, you can see it. Don’t do it now. That’s what the garment Jesus would’ve worn.

And when you look at Malakai 4 it says this about Jesus, but for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. I know wings aren’t tzitzit. That’s not what that says. It obviously says wings. But here’s the interesting thing about wings. In Hebrew the word wings can mean several things. In Isaiah 6, this word for wings is translated for the wings that stand over God’s throne. It’s the seraphim that flew above God. They have these wings that cover his eyes and his feet, those kind of wings.

But wings can also refer to the corner of a garment. And so what it’s saying for us in this passage of scripture is it’s using this word for the corner of the garment. It’s not talking about a thing, it’s talking about a person. And that person is Jesus. And what it’s saying in this passage of scripture is literally there is healing in the corner of the garment in which Jesus wore. And what you see in the name of this woman as she’s sharing this story is without even saying a single word, she’s demonstrating her belief that Jesus is the Messiah.

That’s why it says in chapter five in verse 28, if I could just touch his garment, there’s healing in his wings. Can I tell you the reason Jesus came to this earth? It’s so he can be personal in your lives the way he became personal in this lady’s life. He wants you to be able to touch his garments. To know him, and to enjoy him for all of eternity. To draw to him and be loved the way he desires, to love you. To find purpose in your identity in who he is. And to forsake everything for Him.

Here’s how the beauty of this story unfolds for us. This woman walks around her whole life, or for 12 years and she says, I am unclean. I’m unclean. And people distance from her. She probably doesn’t go out in public because she doesn’t want to risk defiling people. And she’s isolated and she’s alone and she’s reminded every day of how much she needs healing. But when you look throughout the rest of scripture, what you find in passages in Isaiah 6:5. This is the story of Isaiah being called by God to minister in this world. And if we can say anybody in this world is holy, good, holy man, doesn’t need God, if that were even possible, which it isn’t, it’s going to be Isaiah. For Pete’s sake, he’s got a book of the Bible named after him. He’s a prophet.

And then he says this, Isaiah says this in Isaiah 6:5, Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Do you see the way this holy man labels himself? He’s not one separated from the need of God’s grace in his life. He declares that he is unclean. The beauty of the story in verse six and seven after he says it, it tells us that one of the angels comes down and takes the coal from off the fire and he places it on Isaiah’s lips as if to say that this sacrifice has been made for you in order to cleanse you.

The point is this, we’re all this lady. We all have some part of our lives that needs the healing touch of God. We all need the intimacy of his presence in our lives. We all need to come to a place where we realize that the desperation there is in that. And regardless of what anything around this may say, to lung for that in the goodness of the healing and the hope that comes in Christ and just to cling to it with all that we are. So that like this woman and like Isaiah, we can become clean.

I think it in our tendency, in the dark parts of our hearts where we mess up. I don’t think our first inclination is to run the God. I think when we know we blown it in life, our first inclination is often to run. That started from the garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. They ran in they hid. And God’s the one that pursues them.

We run and we hide as if to say to God, I’m too filthy, God. You can’t handle this, God. I just want to stay away from God, I want to prove to you that I can be acceptable. But what Jesus does with the story and the reason that he tells the narrative within the narrative is so that thought just becomes divorced from our minds.

Because the whole reason Jesus tells this narrative within this narrative in this gospel, is because of the defilement of this woman. When you read the story of Jesus being touched by this woman, a woman that’s defiled touching something else that’s defiled, becomes defiled, and that defiled thing can no longer be used for the glory of God until it becomes clean. And so when this woman comes up to Jesus and she touches Jesus, Jesus, that moment should have become defiled. And Jesus as a minister should no longer been able to continue his ministry. But what you read as soon as Jesus has done with healing this woman is that Jesus continues onto the house of this little girl and he raises the dead.

It’s if to say to all of us, when you see how this story unfolds in our lives, that the point is don’t run from God in your sin, but rather run to him. There is nothing that we’ve done that can make Jesus unclean. You cannot be so unclean that you mess Jesus up. You cannot be so messed up that you mess up Christ. That not only does God have the power to raise the dead, God has the power to heal this hemorrhaging woman. And God continues to have the power to intervene in your life as well.

We think about this in practical terms. I’ve heard it said in the lives of believers, we’ll say this from time to time, I don’t want to bother God with my problems. He’s got other things to handle in this world that are much bigger than me. So let God take care of that and I’ll handle this. It’s as if to look at this story, Jesus is saying, us, are you kidding? Are you kidding me? Do you see what I was pursuing in life in raising this girl? How I took the time to pause that mission to intervene in the life of this lady that no one else cared about. To love on her, to demonstrate that my power is big enough to meet the needs of everyone.

Why? So that you could see in her story by faith that God can also intervene in your story in life. If just one moment you abandoned everything else. Whatever excuse, whatever hardness of heart, whatever secret you want to keep, and you just say, Jesus, I know that you did this for me. You came for me, that I could find healing in you.

Can I tell you Christians, our tendency is sometimes in life, we know the gospel. If you’re familiar with the gospel, we look at the gospel and we think, you know, that’s great. God came in and saved me and now I’m going to live the rest of my life. Well, I think it’s important to recognize that the gospel is something that is always saving you. God makes things new every morning in him. And no matter how many times you feel like you blow it, his love is there to embrace it. If by faith you just ignore the crowd and reach for Jesus. And God didn’t just save you from something, he saved you for something.

And he wants you to belong in that family and walk in the goodness of what that is. And so this story of this woman unfolds for us in such a way that we don’t blaspheme the Spirit. But if God provokes us this morning and we engage our hearts in that worship, and we see the goodness of Christ in our lives, we just say, God, with everything that I am, however small it might be, I just abandoned it all today and Jesus in my brokenness, I want to just reach out and hold your garments. He did that for you.

The point of all of it is for you. That you may know and enjoy him for eternity. My encouragement for you this morning, believer or not, and if you don’t know Jesus embraced that garment. Christ died for you. Christ paid for your sins. It doesn’t matter how messed up it is, just so that you could see him. To be intimate in relationship with him. If you are a Christian, it’s important to see how you can be made new in that every day, every day you walk out of the blood of Jesus. Every day he wants you close to him. Every day he wants to interrupt your life to live for the glory and goodness of who he is in this world. That we could treasure the goodness of Christ in our lives and in our worship.