Jesus Raises a Dead Girl | Week 33

That song was written in 1779, and I love that we sing songs like that because of the words that they say. At the beginning, it says, Let angels prostrate. It’s like let angels fall down and worship him. And we bring his royal diadem his crown, and we crown him Lord of all. And the idea is, if angels are crowning him, if the seas are crowning him, if the space is crowning him, if the animals are crowning him, then we too should join the everlasting song and crown him Lord of all. It’s a pretty powerful song. Amen. Those of you don’t know me, my name is Tony. And before we dive into the sermon, I want to share some really good news that I think will encourage all of you. In Acts, chapter 18, there is this really interesting story where these men come from a place called Ephesus, and the Bible describes these men very specifically. They say this: they were learned men with thorough knowledge of the Scripture who had been instructed in the way of the Lord. But it also indicates in that same passage that they didn’t have a full knowledge of what it meant to be followers of Jesus.

So they come to Ephesus and they engage with the disciples. And then the Bible says something truly peculiar. It says this: the disciples needed to explain to them the way of God more adequately. The idea was that they had an understanding of the truth, but they were missing some things. And this explaining prompted a mass explosion of brand new disciples in Ephesus. I want you to keep that story in mind as I tell you about a small church in a place called Masabe, Philippines. I have no idea if I pronounced that correctly. This is a new congregation connected to our family, but it’s connected in a very unusual way. There’s a couple in our congregation named Lena and Early Lee. You may know them. Before moving to the United States, they actually started a small church in this remote island in the Philippines. And they had grown that church to well over 50 members. But when they moved back, when they decided to move to the United States, what they did was they implemented some new leadership, and then they came to Broward. They started visiting churches in Broward County. Eventually, at the prompting of their son, who found us online, the Lees began attending the Broward Church.

They grew in their love and in their knowledge of God’s word and his teachings and decided that, hey, we need to give our whole lives to Jesus. We did not know exactly what we were getting into or something like that. And basically, they decided to teach everything that they were learning to the people in their congregation that they started in the Philippines. They, in their humility, thought, you know what? We didn’t, we missed some things as we started our church. To use kind of Acts Chapter 18, they felt like they needed to teach their people more adequately. So they went back, and then they helped convert 28 people in their church who gave their life to Jesus. And so today I’m excited to tell you that they are kind of relaunching this church. There’s kind of an inaugural service, apparently on the 9th and amen. We have a new church in our family that we didn’t plant, but they’re our family all because of the work of the Holy Spirit. Isn’t that amazing? I just wanted to encourage you with that. All right, and I wanted to encourage the church, that church, by giving them a message.

So what I’d like for all of you to do is learn a little bit of tagalo that I just learned this morning. This is the line I’m going to make sure Google Translate says it right first. Familia tayo is what I think it says. Familia tayo. That means we are family. Is that right, Liz?

Yes.

Okay. Familia tayo. Okay, so what I want you to do is I want us to stand up and we’re going to look at the camera over there where the map is, and we’re going to say familia tayo on the kind of three. And then we’re going to go like we’re going to do one of these hug things like familia tayo. And then we’re going to say Woo. Okay, you ready? You ready? One, two, three.

Familia tayo.

Yeah.

All right, you may be seated. That’s awesome. Let’s pray. God, we are so grateful for Your love for us. We thank you that you have in Your beautiful design, you have orchestrated family that can expand the globe. Lord, thank you for Your gospel, how it teaches us adequately what we need to know to come before you. God, thank you for the humility of men and women like the Lees who decided to just kind of embrace the teachings of Jesus in a more profound way. And I pray, Lord, that as they continue to be missionaries of the Gospel, Lord, that you will encourage them and us and everyone else, Lord, to be the people that we need to be so that many more people will know what it takes and many more people will learn what it truly means to be followers of Jesus Christ. Lord, I pray for today. I pray for this lesson. I pray that it encourages the hearts of the saints and also those who are far off. God, I just pray that anybody visiting here today will be impacted by Your word and the teaching that you gave to Jerius at this time, Lord, as we unpack that story, God, I just pray that people are really moved by it.

We love you, Lord. We thank you in Christ’s name, amen. Amen. Look at that in magic. My TV is here.

Whoa.

Okay, Mark, chapter five is where we’re going to be. If you have a Bible, you can go ahead and turn there. For the last few months, we have been actually, or I guess the month or so, we have been in this section of the Book of Mark looking at really 48 hours in the life of Jesus. Where Jesus, in the span of just a couple of days calms a storm, heals a man who’s under demon possession, heals a man who heals a woman who had been suffering for bleeding for twelve years and then raises a little girl from the grave. He is facing a bunch of what I would consider hopeless situations. Because of this, some people have actually called this section of the Book of Mark the Gospel According to St. Jude. If you’re familiar with the Catholic tradition, you know that St. Jude is kind of like the patron saint of lost causes. And so here we are, you may have heard of, by the way, St. Jude Hospital, right? It’s a research hospital devoted to curing uncurable diseases. It’s the idea that they are there to solve hopeless situations.

And so really that’s what Jesus ministry is all about during this time. It’s about Jesus showing us again and again and again and again that he can handle the problems of the hopeless. That when something seems too big or too grand or too difficult, that Jesus is able to swoop in and to solve the problems that we all believe are totally unsolvable. Jesus, the Bible teach us, has the power over the storm. You watch Hurricane Ian roll in. Who could possibly stop something like that? Well, Jesus did with a word: be still. And the seas were still and the wind was still. And instead of the disciples being afraid of the wind and the waves, they became afraid of the one who can silence the wind and the waves. Jesus has the power over the demon possessed. How could someone with demon possession ever find peace? And Jesus, again, with the word get out of him, takes and exercises the demons out of this man. And eventually those demons run into pigs and then drown themselves by that Sea of Galilee. Or incurable diseases. Who could ever solve incurable diseases? A woman who had been hemorrhaging for twelve years. That’s not really a problem for the Son of God.

Cancer is not really a problem for the Son of God. Blindness and deafness and physical paralysis, all of these hopeless situations freely to Jesus are absolutely nothing. And what we’re going to see is the scriptures are so clear that again and again and again, when facing things that seem impossible, Jesus comes in with a word, with just an unflappable attitude and says, hey, I can deal with any of these problems. And today we see him deal with the greatest challenge that any man has and any woman has. That is the problem of death itself. In this little fury of miracles we see that Jesus, Jesus has the power to resolve the things that usually rob our hope. That’s what we’re going to see. And I hope that encourages you. Let me just tell you why I think this is so important. The details of the scriptures have meticulously been placed there. There is no haphazardness with the stories of the Bible. The Bible stories are there for a reason. They’re there so that when we read them, especially the Gospels, we’re supposed to be kind of encouraged. And it’s supposed to prove to us that Jesus is the Messiah, that he is the promised victor over all of the evils of the world, of the devil and of our flesh.

And so it would be right for us to ask, well, why does the Bible spend so much time on these particular miracles of people who have no hope? And I would answer it this way: it’s because there are times in our lives when we have no hope. Wouldn’t you agree with that? There are seasons in our life where it’s going to be important for you to know that you worship a God who can take difficult situations and make them beautiful. It’s going to be important for you to know that you worship a God who can take the most challenging moments of your life and actually has a purpose for them. I love the idea of the sovereignty of God. This concept means that God takes everything that we would see as negative, and he’s using it to purpose something good. We don’t have a God who is caught by surprise when difficulty happens. He actually knows how to handle them. Right? See, these times, these kind of hopeless situations are everywhere. Have you ever been or felt depressed? Have you ever felt like your marriage was beyond repair? Have you ever felt like your children have gone wayward and there was no way for you to bring them back into the fold?

Have you ever felt like there was no way to get back to your normal life? You felt like everything was a lost cause. I would define kind of that hopeless situation, that lost cause, as something that no matter what you do, you cannot make it any better. You don’t have the answers. You may not even have the questions to ask to find the answers. How do you bring peace back when it’s robbed, right? When you’ve been robbed of it? How do you bring joy back when you have none? How do you get free from anxiety? How do you overcome a sin that you’re in a perpetual cycle of? How does it ever happen? How do you get back from hopeless situations? You know that feeling. All of us know that feeling. If you’re a Dolphins fan, you know this feeling. A couple of weeks ago, you were so excited. You beat the Bills in a game that you really shouldn’t have won. And then your quarterback this is terrible. I pray for that dude, had two concussions in four days, and now hopelessness, right? You know this feeling. All of us know this feeling. I can’t do anything to make it right.

And whether it’s silly like a game or something more serious like the things we mentioned before, look, there is a feeling that there are times when you are hopeless. And I believe that because of this feeling and because, brother, I believe that because this feeling is so common in our lives, the Gospels spend so much time trying to convince you and to convince me that Jesus Christ, our Lord is able to overcome the things that would rob our hope. Today we’re going to look at Mark, chapter five, verse 21 to the end of the chapter, and we’re going to see Jesus. He’s going to break up a funeral. Funerals, by the way, are the most hopeless situations. When death has been confirmed hope is lost, right? And Jesus says, Nah, she’s not dead. I’m going to turn this thing that was a funeral into a celebration. By the way, wouldn’t you just love to do that? To step into a situation that was just impossibly hopeless and go, yeah, I’m here to solve it? Jesus takes on the moment that is the greatest fear of humanity. Matthew, Hebrews two, verse 15 says that all men have been held in bondage with their fear of death.

Every single person in the human race finds death to be hopeless, a terrible situation. And Jesus is just going to flip the switch in just an incredible way. OK, first let’s set the scene and then we’ll get to this passage. So Jarius, or Jairus, however you want to call him, we learned about him a couple of weeks ago. He’s a desperate parent. He was waiting for Jesus on the Sea of Galilee as he returned from healing the demoniac, he engages with Jesus. Jesus says, hey, I’ll go to your house. He says, Please, please, you can heal my daughter. And Jesus goes, all right. And on the way to Jairus’s house, there’s a crowd that’s pressing in on them. And then a woman touches his cloak. And the woman who touches his cloak knows, hey, if I just touch his cloak, I will be healed in my bleeding. She’d been hemorrhaging for twelve straight years, unclean, unable to worship. And Jesus, when he felt the touch, he was so personal to him her healing was so personal to him that he stopped in the middle of the crowd and he said, hey, who touched me? And the disciples go, there’s a large crowd around you, dude.

Everyone’s touched you. And he goes, no, no, no, someone touched me. And he looks around and he sees the woman. He calls her out of the crowd and he goes, look daughter, your faith has saved you. Your faith has saved you. And remember, Jesus is, or rather Jarius is with Jesus. And there he is following Jesus. And I would imagine that that situation doesn’t just take a moment, but it takes some minutes, maybe some hours to resolve it. And Jarius is standing there very, very, very anxious because he has just convinced Jesus to come to his house. But now Jesus has become quite distracted with taking care of this woman. So anyway, Jesus again, persuaded by this guy, is on his way. But I can only imagine how anxious Jarius is. Could you just imagine that? Could you just imagine? So we’re actually going to pick up the story in verse 35. I apologize for saying 21. I was lying. Jerius is extremely anxious. Jesus is just finishing the discussion with this woman. Maybe he’s talking to the crowd, we don’t exactly know. But this is what it says in verse 35. While Jesus was still speaking, maybe to the woman, maybe to the crowd, some people came from the house of Jarius, the synagogue leader.

We found out last week or a couple of weeks ago that he was kind of like an elder, an elder in the synagogue world. And he says, Your daughter is dead. Jesus’s delay has proven deadly. These people thought and believed that Jesus was able to heal a woman who was or a little girl who was on her deathbed. That is believable. But they had no way to compute the idea that Jesus would raise a woman who had died. She is, in the crudest terms, a lost cause. And the messengers express to Jairus, hey, look, your daughter is dead. And then they add this line that I think is so profound. They said, Why bother the teacher anymore? Let me just make a quick comment about the messengers. What’s their message? Their message is, this situation has gone beyond the place where Jesus can help. Jesus is no longer helpful for this situation. It would just be a bother to him. So stop bothering Jesus. I wonder how many of us have ever taken that advice.

Yes, this is an impossible situation. Your friends might say, Just accept it. God is never going to solve that problem. Just stop bothering him. Why are you bothering Jesus anymore? Why are you bothering him? Your kids are way gone. Why are you bothering him? Your health is way too far past the declining place. Why even bother him? You’re tired, you’re broken. Just accept this idea and just quit. And look, I believe in contentment, like the need for us to accept things. Like it’s important. You need to learn to be content. You need to learn that wherever God has placed you is a good place. But to me, contentment isn’t the end. Contentment, in fact, should be a prerequisite to asking God for things. First, get content, then pray for whatever it is that you feel like is a lost cause. Don’t listen to the advice of those messengers. They’re just a bunch of haters. Don’t listen to the advice of people who say, don’t ask God anymore. Why would you do that? What you should do is this. You should totally surrender and then boldly ask. It goes something like this father, I know it looks like I’m going to die, and I do think it’s better for me to be with you by far. However, Lord, I’m asking that you would heal my body, give me strength and make me strong again.

See that? You totally surrender. Look, hey, being with you is good, but hey, heal my body, Lord. Right. It’s like, Lord, I don’t think I can solve this relationship problem, and I’m content if it doesn’t get any better. I’m going to change me. I’m not even going to worry about changing him or changing her. But I’m asking You, Lord, if you would do a miracle and change my spouse’s heart, my husband’s heart, my wife’s heart. Or how about this one? Maybe this one is more close to home for some of you. Lord, I’m content with you. You are my husband. I don’t need to get married. You are my partner, you are my best friend. I don’t need anyone else because you are more than enough for me. But Lord, I want to get married, I want to have children. I want maybe a best friend. Lord, please. See, what I’m saying is, I know it may seem simple, but I think it’s important that we learn to pray this way. You totally surrender and then you boldly ask. Totally surrender. God, whatever it is, if I’m dying, it’s good because you’re good. But Lord, would you please do something. Totally surrender and then boldly ask.

I love this concept because I do think that God does want to do something. My theology from the book that we study tells me that God loves to do things for his children. So why would I ever stop praying? Why would I ever stop asking? Why would I ever stop knocking? God doesn’t have to save the woman who was bleeding for twelve years, but he loves to do it because he loves people. God didn’t have to save or relinquish the or rather assuage, I guess, the fear of the disciples in the boat. But he did because he loves those people. He doesn’t have to do any of those things, but he does because he loves us. God is a good father. I think about Matthew, chapter seven. Which of you, if your son asked for bread, would give him a stone? None of you people, if your son was like God, or your son was like give me a stone or give me a bread, would you be like I don’t have a bread, but I have this clicker here you go. Like no one would do that. Or if we asked for a fish, we’d give him a snake.

I love this line. Verse eleven. This is Jesus. If you then though you are evil, if you though you are the worst people ever know how to know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask? What is Jesus point? Even as an earthly carnal terrible Father, I try to give good gifts to my children. How much more would God, a gracious God, give good gifts to those who ask? I want to encourage you get content and then ask. And if you find yourself then shifting to resentment because God has said no, then get content again. And then ask again. Let me show you a little graph I made last night. This is my graph. Get content is step one. Then ask. After some time of asking, you might grow resentful. You might go god never gives me what I ask him. He’s not good. He doesn’t you know, whatever that’s called growing resentful. This is pretty much a cycle this is what I do in my life to God, would you help me with this? Lord, I am satisfied with where I am.

Lord, would you help me with this? Lord, would you please help me with this? Lord, you are not helping me with this. And why would you not help me with this? And I’m very angry that you’re not helping me with this. Oh, where I am right now is a good place. Lord, would you help me with this? That’s the way it goes, right? But most people this is what I’ve learned. Most people go get content, ask. They grow resentful. They realize that it was sinful for them to go resentful. Then they get content, and then they never ask again. They think contentfulness means I never ask again. I think that’s wrong. I think it means you get content, and then you ask again. And then if you go resentful, you get content, and then you ask again. And then you grow resentful, you get content, and you ask again because God wants to give good things to his children. So the messengers, they come in, they take Jarius, and they go, hey, dude, you got to stop bothering the teacher. You got to stop bothering him.

I love the next line, verse 36, overhearing what they said. Maybe they pulled Jarius away, right, and he’s with Jesus, and they’re kind of pulling him away. They’re like, hey, dude, you just got to leave him alone. Overhearing, Jesus told them. He turns to them and he says this: don’t be afraid. Just believe. Here is the literal. This is the literal. Stop fearing. Keep on believing. Stop fearing. Keep on believing. Just I want you to take a moment to think about the emotional roller coaster that Jairus has been on. His daughter is near death. That’s the bottom of the roller coaster. He waits for Jesus by the Sea of Galilee, and then he persuades Jesus to come and heal his daughter. I mean, elation, joy, excitement. A random woman interrupts the trip. Down. All of a sudden, Jesus starts moving again to go back to his house, up again. He gets a messenger that says, hey, dude, she’s dead. Down. And now Jesus says to him, hey, stop fearing. Keep on believing. This guy has gone through so much, and I can imagine I just imagine Jesus pulling him aside, looking directly into his eyes and just saying, hey, dude, stop fearing. Just keep on believing.

How often would I just need that, right, like, God, Jesus to pull me away from the voices that are causing me to doubt and looking me in the eyes and giving me just a moment and reminding me that I need to keep on believing, that I’m with Him, that he’s with me. I found it interesting, though, that Jesus would use the term fearing. It’s curious for me. And the reason it’s so curious is because fear isn’t something that I feel when someone dies, right? Think about that. That’s not what you typically feel. Fear isn’t what you would say. You wouldn’t come to somebody and go, hey, dude, stop fearing. You would say if Jesus was trying to resurrect the dead, you would say, don’t be sad. Hey, there’s no reason to mourn. Why fear? What could he possibly be afraid of, man? And I spent so much time meditating on this line and here’s kind of a hypothesis. He’s afraid of what his life will be like without his little girl. And Jesus is seeing the racing in his mind. This is what I think is happening. You know that spiral that happens?

He sees kind of him building the architecture of a terrible future without his twelve year old little girl. So in other words, he’s afraid that his little girl being out of his life is going to be his new reality. That’s a lot, right? But isn’t that what you do? And isn’t that what I do when difficult situations happen, don’t you start constructing the story? It begins to spiral out of control? You know, you’re like, you’re like, oh, if I don’t get this job, then I won’t be able to feed my children and then my children are going to die and then I’m going to be arrested. And then it’s like, how did you get there, dude? You start that dialogue in your own mind, right? Imagine that single sister who’s struggling to find someone to date, but who really wants to date. And you think of that cycle. Someone asks them, hey, would you go on a date with me? And then the narrative starts, oh goodness, this guy is going to take me out. I’m going to like him a lot. And then he’s not going to like me at all. And he’s going to start dating another girl.

And then I’m going to open up my heart to him and then he’s going to like that other girl, and then she’s going to come to church and she’s going to sit in front of me and they’re going to be holding hands, and then I’m going to cry. I’m going to be out there crying. And one day they’re going to get married and then I’m not even going to be able to be a part of my church. I’m going to lose my whole family. It’s like people are going to think I’m emotionally immature. It’s like all that happened was he asked you to go on a date. That’s all that happened. We do this, right? We construct destructive narratives and maybe all the facts haven’t even come out, but we just and I just love Jesus encouragement. Hey, whatever you’re thinking is about to happen, you just need to quit that and you need to keep on believing. Just keep on believing. Don’t get sucked into the cycle of fear. This isn’t going to be your life. I like to say it this way. Don’t write the story before God has his say. Don’t write the story before God has his say.

There is much more going on. Don’t write the ending because God has something to say about what’s going to happen in your life. Anyway, I felt that because I do this, I begin to fear and I think God’s not going to take care of me anymore. And I deconstruct all the stuff that he has done with me before in the past. And so anyway, before I give into fear, I want to keep on believing. And I think that’s what Jesus is saying, hey, I want to encourage you guys. God is a beautiful designer. He’s a wonderful counselor. And we don’t have to fear the things that are out of our control because I believe that God has his hand in everything. Everything will be made perfect in the timing of God. God has good purposes. And I want to ask you, do you believe that? Do you believe that in your heart? And if you do, then hey, don’t be afraid. Just keep on believing. For Jesus, no situation was too big. Nothing was a lost cause. So you better stop fearing and keep on believing.

Anyway, Jesus gets to Jairus’s house. He finally gets there. He already told us guys, hey dude, stop fearing. Keep the faith. Keep the faith as he’s walking, OK? Keep the faith, keep the faith. The amazing messengers are shouting out, there’s no hope. There’s no hope. And we don’t know how long it’s been, but we’re going to get some indications in just a moment that it’s been not a short amount of time. He did not until they get to the house, he did not let anyone follow him except for Peter, James and John. These three are going to be pulled aside from the rest of the disciples over and over and over again. We just need to get used to that. And then it says this, verse 38. When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion with people crying and wailing loudly. This has taken a while. We have to assume that the occasion with the woman maybe took several hours for them to finish because there is already a commotion in the front of Jairus’s home and people are weeping and wailing loudly. What does this tell us? Well, it tells us that the funeral was in full force.

And so it’s been some time, right? The girl has been announced as death and the weepers and the wailers and the flute players have come in. This is a chaotic cacophony and it’s in full force. It’s a different kind of funeral than you and I have ever been to. Normally when you get to a funeral home, on the outside of the door it says, Quiet, please. And people are whispering. But in the first century, and even in the Far East today, that’s not really the way that funerals happened. In the Eastern world, Jewish funerals in particular had three elements that were a little bit unique to us. One is that people express their grief very loudly. They shrieked and they howled and they tore their clothes. You tore your clothes as a sign of respect. You said, Look, I am with you in the suffering. And so you walked into the house and you yelled and you wept, and maybe you even tore your clothes there. By the way, there are several of you here. Brittany Filipeli, Vanessa, I think, who are in a perpetual state of mourning with your ripped jeans and your I’ve been joking that I was going to joke about them.

So all they need is the shrieking and the howling and then we would be here. So you tear your clothes. And the second element is that you actually hired professional wailers. The Talmud said that you had to have at least one one wailing woman that you would have to hire. And they were kind of primed the pump of the howling and of the wailing. And then you have to hire at least one flute player. And the flute player wasn’t playing something beautiful. They weren’t playing like a violin. Like, that sounded awesome. They were playing dissonant notes on purpose. The point was, this was destructive to the family. This was destructive to the culture. So Jesus or to our family’s culture, right? So Jesus arrives and everyone is in full force. Jarius is probably quite rich, so he’s hired maybe 50, 60 wailers, flute players. It’s so loud, you can barely even like, listen to yourself think. Verse 39. I love Jesus, man, he is so amazing. When he went in I’m sorry, he went in and said to them, why all this commotion and wailing? Why are you guys wailing? The child is not dead, but asleep.

Why are you crying? Matthew adds, then he kicks everybody out of the house. Can you imagine this? The sound is deafening. And Jesus, like he can speaks and everyone hears, hey, why is there so much commotion? This child’s not dead. She’s just asleep. You might think, well, why is there a miracle then? This is not a miracle. Well, that’s not the point of what Jesus is saying. Jesus is redefining death as a temporary condition here. He’s saying that death is sleep to Jesus. That’s the point. To Jesus, death is nothing but a slumber because he can resurrect the dead. Death is not permanent. In fact, the New Testament writers would continue this theme. First Thessalonians chapter four. All those who have fallen asleep in Jesus will be called up in the Rapture. Jesus is just saying, hey, death is nothing that I can’t solve. It’s just a permanent condition in the life of men and women. So Jesus says this, and then what happens? What do you think happens? It’s what would happen today. It says, but they laughed at him. They laughed at him. The laughter is scorned. What are they saying? This guy is a fool. This guy’s a fool. This guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Obviously, I checked the pulse. She’s blue in the face. She’s been dead for hours. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about, so they laugh at him. By the way, how quickly can you go from morning and wailing to laughing? This is not genuine mourning. This is the mourning of some religious tradition, right?

It’s like, I’m not really sad, I’m just pretending to be sad. These guys are full of scorn for Jesus. And so they begin to laugh at him. I love it says after he put them all out, get out. Get out. It says that he took the child father and mother. That word is the word for grasp. He grasps them. He says, hey, get away from these people. Come with me. Get away from them. Come with me. Stop doubting. Keep believing. Stop fearing. Keep believing. He says in his mother and the disciples who were with him and he went to where the children, the child was. Let’s take another second and just make sure we have the scene. Jairus’s house has been full of wailers and mourners. Jesus has just kicked them all out of the house. And so it goes from this loud sound to just quietness. He grabs mom, he grabs dad, and he goes, look, come with me. He grabs the three disciples. Come with me. He opens the door of the child’s room. And today it would be painted with pink. It’d be like pictures of unicorns and whatever. It’s a little girl’s room.

It’s a little girl’s room. Maybe she has a doll that’s been made. And Jarius and his wife are probably just a total wreck. They want to believe, but how could you believe, right? And Jesus brings them into the room and there he sits them down. The Bible says that he takes her by the hand, this little girl, and he says to her, Talatha K’um, something like that, which means little girl. I say, get up. That first word there, it means lamb. It’s like a euphemism for like a little precious girl. It’s like him saying, hey, little one. Hey, honey. Hey. Whatever the nickname is you give to your twelve year old’s daughter. Little lamb, you might use that term, little lamb. You might use other animals later on as I get older, but a twelve little lamb, little lamb works. Hey. Hey, little little lamb. My baby. My sweetie. Honey. He grabs her hand. Hey, it’s time for you to wake up. Can you just imagine? Just imagine what that would be like for the mom and dad? Oh my goodness gracious. I can only imagine the feeling of losing your little girl.

I’m the dad of a five year old girl. I would die die if I lost my little girl. Die. I don’t even have a place in my brain to understand what it would feel like. I know some of you may have experienced something like that, either directly or indirectly, and I’m mourning for you, man. I just totally mourn for you. But can you imagine the feeling of that parent as Jesus is holding the little girl’s hand and he says, hey, honey, wake up. Jesus is speaking to a dead girl, and she will only be dead for a little bit longer. Baby girl, it’s time for you to wake up. Immediately, the girl stood up and began to walk around. She was alive. Lord, you did that? That’s amazing. The spirit came back in here. It says immediately she began to get up and walk around. There’s no therapy needed. There’s no rehabilitation. It’s like, oh, you’re going to have to take some pharmaceuticals to get back to full health. Nothing. Jesus just immediately gives the strength back to this little girl. And nothing. Nothing. This proves that nothing was impossible for Jesus. He gives strict orders not to let anyone know about this.

Don’t tell anybody what you just saw. And then he told them to give her something to eat, which is probably what you need after you’ve been dead for a couple of hours. You want some food? Here’s some food. Why don’t tell anyone? I mean, there’s a million reasons. We see this again and again in the scriptures. Don’t tell anybody. And I think the reason he says it is because there’s just this sense that if people would have heard the miracles, they still wouldn’t have repented. This is what the rich man in Lazarus the story says, that the rich man says, hey, could you just send another prophet to my people? And then they’ll repent. And they go, even if the Son of God goes down there, they’re not going to repent. And so Jesus wasn’t willing to give his pearls to pigs, essentially, so don’t tell anybody. The people whose hearts are right will come. But I’m not going to just have a bunch of people following me just because they think that I can raise the dead. That’s not why I want them to follow me. And I just want to leave you with some things, and I encourage the band to come on up.

I want to leave you with some things because I feel like this story and this little section that we just read is so critical to the way we engage in reality right now. There are things that seem impossible to you. There are things that seem in situations that conflict with your interpretation of how reality works. People don’t get better from this. People don’t change when this happens. Marriages who are this far gone don’t get repaired. Lives who are this burdened don’t get restored. People with anxiety don’t get healed. People with depression don’t get healed. And I just want to encourage you because I see it in this passage. I want to encourage you of one thing that Jesus said to Jairus that day, stop fearing. Keep on believing. Stop fearing and keep on believing. Don’t write the negative stories. Don’t write them. Don’t quit believing that God will make things good in his time. And even if things seem like they’re way too far gone or things are dead in your eyes, maybe they’re just asleep in the life of a living God, right? You’re praying for your spouse? Well, keep on believing. You’re praying for your lost children? Keep on believing. You’re praying to have an impact? Stop fearing and keep on believing. You have constant kind of anxiety and frustration and depression and you feel like it’s never going to go away. Well, keep on believing. You want to help your parents become Christians? Keep on believing. Don’t quit. Stop fearing. Keep on believing. Because as the song we’re about to sing says, he turns our mourning to dancing. He has the power to give beauty to ashes. He turns shame into glory. He’s the only one who can. The Bible says this and it’s true here. He turns bones into armies, seas into highways. He turns things that look like they’re a grave into beautiful gardens. And he’s the only one who can. I want to encourage you to stand up. I want encourage you to stand up and sing the song with all your heart. And then I’m going to come back and we’ll pray for communion.