Hem of His Garment

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Ironton, Ohio

Campbell Chapel FWBC of Ironton Ohio - Pastor Bob Bradley

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The Hem of His Garment

April 2, 2008

Bob Bradley

_________________________

Mark 5:21-43

21 And when Jesus was passed over again by ship unto the other side, much people gathered unto him: and he was nigh unto the sea.

22 And, behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name; and when he saw him, he fell at his feet,

23 And besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee , come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live.

24 And Jesus went with him; and much people followed him, and thronged him.

25 And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years,

26 And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,

27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.

28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.

29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.

30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?

31 And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?

32 And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing.

33 But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.

34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.

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?

36 As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe.

37 And he suffered no man to follow him, save Peter, and James, and John the brother of James.

38 And he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth the tumult, and them that wept and wailed greatly.

39 And when he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth.

40 And they laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying.

41 And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise.

42 And straightway the damsel arose, and walked; for she was of the age of twelve years. And they were astonished with a great astonishment.

43 And he charged them straitly that no man should know it; and commanded that something should be given her to eat.

Jesus has just return back over from the country of the Gadarenes. He had gone over there and healed a fellow over there. Actually, when you read the accounts, there were two of them in Gadara. No doubt, one was more vocal than the other.

As you read the story, He leaves the country where He has just done a miraculous miracle and some great things. He is coming back across the Sea of Galilee. He is going from the east side to the west side of the Sea of Galilee. He comes back to the city of Capernaum. Capernaum, as we have already learned, was a city of probably 300,000 people. Jesus had the headquarters for His ministry here. We know that Peter had a house there and no doubt, Jesus Christ had his headquarters there in Capernaum.

He comes back over. The people of Gadara have asked Him to leave. They did not want Him over there. When they saw what He did and what happened over there; the guy that was crazy, He healed him. They wanted Him to leave the country. He did that.

As He comes back, everywhere that Jesus Christ went, He was met and encountered people that had needs and had problems and had issues that needed to be dealt with.

As I started reading here tonight, the Bible says:

21 And when Jesus was passed over again by ship unto the other side, much people gathered unto him: and he was nigh unto the sea.

There is no doubt, that as He gets off the boat in Capernaum or around Capernaum, there are probably thousands and thousands of people waiting there for Him to get back. At this time in His ministry, He had done a lot of great things; especially around Capernaum, Bethsaida, and Chorazin. He had done a lot of great things around this area and His popularity had grown greatly. People here knew who He was. They recognized when they mentioned Jesus or the Nazarene, or the healer; everyone knew who was being talked about. Word spread that He is coming back. He is coming back to this place and they may have been watching for Him.

When He gets here, the Bible says that much people are there and He is down by the sea.

22 And, behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name; and when he saw him, he fell at his feet,

23 And besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee , come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live.

He gets out of the ship and the people are everywhere. The people here are all around Him. There are probably thousands and thousands of people here. Here comes a guy who is a ruler of the synagogue. As you study this time in Jesus’ ministry, the opposition is already great. No doubt, many folks that were rulers, leaders, and princes of the synagogues; their opposition was great against Jesus now. Jairus was willing to lay the fact aside that his other countrymen and the other rulers of they synagogue that was there; he was willing to put that aside and accept the punishment, ridicule, scorning or the retaliation that may come from his other countrymen or from those that were in the synagogue or those that were in authority. He was willing to accept all that because he had a family need here. He had a daughter that was at the point of death. That tells me a lot about this guy.

Today, as you talk to people sometimes, about their family, about themselves, or wives or whatever it may be, their children; it seems that people are more concerned about who they are affiliated with than they are to actually get people to where they can hear the truth and hear the Word of God being preached and taught. They are more interested in being associated with a church or with a religion than actually getting to place where they can hear something that is actually going to help them.

Jairus go to the place that he was not worried about that any longer. Because his little daughter at twelve years old is about to die. He was a leader here. He was the fellow that was over the synagogue. He was a very influential man; probably in this city of two or three hundred thousand people, and with the synagogue that was here, and Jairus having the position that he had, most people in this town would have knew who Jairus was. Yet he looked at the need of his daughter as greater than all the other things, the retaliation, the retribution that may come to him because he is going to come and ask this teacher for help. The One that all his other countrymen and all those rulers of the other synagogues may have hated and were trying to get rid of. He knows that his daughter is at the point of death. He is willing to try anything to save the life of his daughter. That tells you something about this guy, doesn’t it? That tells you something about him.

I could just see, here Jairus knows and has probably been watching the ships come in. He may have known the boat that Jesus was on; I don’t know. When the boat gets here, Jesus gets off and the crowds are around. Here He comes through the crowds. I can just see Him in this crowd of people, pushing His way through trying to get through these people. I know that we see pictures and we think that there were just a few people around Him, but there is no doubt, as you read the scriptures here, there were all kinds of people around Him. They were about to crush or suffocate Him because of the pushing and shoving trying to get to where Jesus is at. The word thronged means many people that are where that comes from. The crowd was about to crush Him. There was one man in this crowd who had purposed, who had determined that he was going to get where Jesus was at because He knew that this healer could do something for his daughter.

Tonight, many times we wait until the last resort before we come to Jesus. I don’t know why we do that. I don’t know whether it is because of pride. I don’t know whether it is because of what people may say or think about us. I don’t know why we do that. I don’t know why we are not more concerned about our kids and grandkids and our families that are lost and dying than we are what people are going to think about us. Why would we worry about that?

We are going to die and leave here one of these days and go to a land, to a place either in heaven or in hell and we are going to be there forever, ever and ever. So why would we worry for a few years what people are going to think about us. Why would we do that?

I could see him pushing his way through. There may have been people in front of him. Since, he was an influential man, maybe he had people that was helping him get through the crowd. I don’t know. I know one thing that he was going to get to where Jesus was at. He had seen and had heard enough about this healer that he knew that He could do something to save his daughter. That is good to know today; that Jesus Christ can still yet save the lives of our sons and daughters.

Our sons and daughters today have not gone too far. Our wives, husbands, family members, neighbors, and co-workers; they haven’t gone too far that Jesus cannot save them. He can still yet save today.

23 And besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth 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 comes. He says my little daughter is at the point of death. She is about to die. Please come. Lay your hands upon her that she be healed and she shall live.

When you look at that in the original it is saying a great deal, but for the lack of time, Jairus knew that if he could get Jesus Christ to come, to his house and lay His hands on his daughter; he knew that his daughter would live. There was no doubt in his mind about that.

24 And Jesus went with him; and much people followed him, and thronged him.

Jairus makes a request. Come home with me. My daughter is at the point of death. She is about to die. Please come with me. I need your help. The Bible says that Jesus went home with him.

You will never find in the scripture anywhere that you read where Jesus ever turned down anyone that was ever asking for help. You will never find where Jesus Christ will ever turn anyone away that actually seeking help. He will never turn anyone away.

He goes with Him. We are going to leave Jairus here just for a moment and I want you to keep him in the back of your mind. For him to leave his daughter’s dying bed; from leaving his daughter’s bedside where she was dying, to come to where Jesus was at—I don’t know how long it took him to get there. I don’t know how long the trip was. I don’t know how long he had to wait. I don’t know those things. However, the situation was very urgent. His desire for his daughter to live was very urgent. If you were having a heart attack, we would try to get you some medical help as soon as we could. We would not put you in the car and then go down and run through McDonald’s drive-thru before we took you to the hospital. We wouldn’t do that. I want you keep the urgency here in your mind.

Picture in your minds the urgency here of Jairus. His daughter is dying. The crowds are everywhere. Jesus says, “I’m going to go with you.” I would say that Jairus here is trying to push people out of the way. He is probably trying to speed Jesus up and something happens.

25 And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years,

26 And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,

27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.

Jairus wants to get Jesus to the house so that Jesus can do something for his daughter. Jairus did not understand everything about Jesus because we know the centurion and many others that Jesus just healed by speaking words. Jesus did not have to be there for them to be healed. He did not have to be there physically for this little girl to be healed. He could have just spoken the word and this little girl would have been whole. However, here He is. They are traveling and Jairus is probably trying to spread the crowd. He was probably was trying to say, “Hurry, let’s go. Let’s go.” Then here comes this woman.

A woman, the Bible says that had an issue of blood for twelve years. You can read all kinds of things if you read about this woman and some of things that she may have had, some of the issues, and some of the problems that she may have had. To diagnose the problem that she had that was causing her all kinds of problems that are not the important thing. The problem is that she had a disease and Jesus even called it a plague. She had something that was causing her distress, despair, heartache and hardship. She had something that was separating her from being able to come to the synagogue and worship. She had a problem, a disease, a plague that was keeping her from being able to—for her to work on her relationship with God. This thing was causing her all kinds of problems. For her to even touch another person, that person that she touched was going to be deemed to be unclean. When you look at the law, a woman when she had her issue of blood then she was declared unclean. She could not go to temple. She could not go to synagogue. She could not come and bring her offerings as everyone else did. Not only that but if she touched someone that was then she would make them unclean as well.

Get this!

This lady, this woman, this person, doesn’t know her name, and we don’t know where she is from; I don’t know a whole lot about her, but she has had this problem for twelve years. It is quite remarkable when you look at this little girl’s age that she is also twelve years old. There are some things that we can look at. I think that there are some things there that we could learn if we some time to look at them.

However, the thing is this. She has had this problem, this illness, this plague for twelve years, causing her all kinds of problems. She has spent all the money that she had, every nickel, every dime and all the savings that she had, but the Bible tells us that she spent everything that she had—all of her living, all of her money she has spent but she has not got any better, but she grew worse.

That sounds a lot like our medical profession today in many places. We have doctors--and I thank God for them--but sometimes I think that they are interested more in our money than they are helping us sometimes. Not in every case and I understand that. We have some great doctors and we have some very honest doctors, but I do think that we have some that are crooks. Just like we have some preachers that are crooks and we have some good preachers.

She spent all of her money and she was not getting better but rather she was getting worse. She may have sold everything that she had. She was completely broke. She did not have anything. She had heard about Jesus. I don’t know how she heard about Jesus. I don’t know if she had been in some of His meetings. I don’t know whether she had seen Him do some things, heal some people or not. I don’t know. She had spent all that she had going to doctors and trying to get things and she had not got any better at all. I can just imagine her and how that she had lived with this for twelve years.

Just think of not being able to come to church for twelve years, or not being able to fellowship for twelve years and all the problems that this plague would bring and the society that she was living in; it was a big issue. It was a big deal for this lady.

She had heard somewhere along the line about this healer, Jesus; this man that has gone all over country healing people. She has heard about Him from somewhere. She has got something on her mind. She is in the crowd also. She is not worried about defiling somebody. She is not worried about touching anybody. I’d say that there were people on every side rubbing on her as they were crushed together. I’d say that she was touching people everywhere as she was trying to get through the crowd. She was probably having a whole lot more difficulty getting through the crowd than Jairus did. He was man of influence and this was just one little old woman. This is just one person over here that no one knew. She probably didn’t have anybody helping here to get through the crowd. Her travel to get to Jesus was probably more difficult than what it was for Jairus. [Keep Jairus in your mind.]

He is trying to hurry up and get Jesus to his house. He is trying to get Him through the crowd. Now here comes this woman. The Bible says, when you read the other accounts in Matthew and Luke, you will find out something that she is saying. When you read this in the original, she is saying this in heart—she may have been saying it out loud, but I don’t think that she was—she was saying this, if I may but touch the hem of His garment, I shall be whole. That is what she is saying as she is trying to get through the crowd. Whether she is saying it within herself, or whether she is thinking it but she is knowing within her own spirit that, “If I can just get to where Jesus is at and touch His clothes, I’m going to be made whole.” That is a tremendous statement. She had heard enough about Jesus Christ to know that she believed that He could heal her. Her situation was hopeless. Doctors could not help her. Society could not help her. The only thing that society could do was excommunicate her. The only thing that society could do and her plague could do was to separate her. That’s all society could do.

Here she comes saying these words in her heart. “If I can just get to where He is at, I know the plague that I have is going to be gone.” A year or two ago we asked you a question one day. We looked and studied on it a little bit about why it was so important for her and why she was saying…“If I could just touch the ribbon, borders, hem of His garment, I could be made whole.” Does anybody remember why that was so important to this lady?

Numbers 15:38-40

38 Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue:

39 And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring:

40 That ye may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your God.

Do you know what she is thinking? Do you know what the hem of His garment represented unto her? Truth, Promises, Blessing of God being upon her, the Commandment of God that is what she was trying to get a hold of. When she was saying, walking and coming along, “If I can just touch the hem of His garment, then I know that there is healing there.”

That meant something to these folks. The Word of God today, should mean something to you and me.

Healing today comes through the Bible. Physical healing today comes through the Word of God. The Word of God is what brings healing in people’s lives. There is not a person on planet earth today that has the power to reach out his hand and lay his hand on you and heal you. I don’t care what people may tell you. I don’t care how much money some of you all send to these idiots. It does not matter. There is no body on planet earth today that God has ever gave—living today—that can lay his hand on you and heal you. They are not out there.

Healing comes today, is through the Word of God. The Word of God tells us if we want to be healed today the avenue that we come down today to be healed. That is in the book. Healing is in the church today. We have the pattern for healing today in the Bible.

When she is saying this in her heart, she is saying, “I want to get to where this man is at. If I can just touch the hem of His garment, I know that there is promise, I know that there is hope, I know that there is healing there because it represents the Word of God. It represents truth. Not only physically, but do you know what is going to heal us today spiritually? What is going to save our souls today? It takes the Word of God. That is why we must preach the Word of God. That is why it is so important that we teach the Word of God. That is why it is so important that we expose ourselves to the Word of God because it takes the Word of God to save you and me today. The Word of God brings faith.

Singing is great. I love singing. I love to hear people sing. I love to hear people sing to the glory of God. I love when people are singing and the Spirit of God comes down and bears witness with their singing that they are singing truth and they are singing because they love the Lord. That is great to know, isn’t it? It is great to have singing and that sets the stage for all the service.

However, it takes the preaching of the Word of God to bring faith in our lives.

Everybody loves to eat ice cream. However, if you all kinds of ice cream now and an hour from now, you are hungry. We need meat. We need something that is going to stick with us. The Word of God will stick with you and me. It will stick with us. It will give us what we need to sustain us in this life. Not only that but it will save us. It is the Word of God that saves us.

The reason that our enemy, the reason that our government, the reason that so many people today are attacking the Word of God and don’t want us to preach and teach the Word of God is…people are not stupid, the enemy is not stupid. He knows that it takes the Word of God to save people and if he can destroy the Word of God and if he can keep people from preaching the Word of God then he knows no body is going to get saved. That is why we have to have it. Not preach about the Word of God. Not take a sermon and take all kinds of points and build it around this or that. It takes the preaching of the Word of God, the Bible, and the Truth.

What this lady was trying to get hold of was truth. She knew this was where power was at. Even though she did not understand some things, she knew enough about things to know that this ribbon or this fringe or this hem of His garment represented.

We need truth today. We need truth today more than we need anything else today. We need the Bible. We need it preached and taught. We need to hear it. We need to obey it. It does not do us any good, we can have the greatest preacher in the world and if we do not listen to what the man of God says, and do what the Bible and be obedient to what the Bible says then it does not do us any good.

The greatest example of that is Moses. Moses was a great leader and he taught people the truth. Yet people did not obey the truth. It did not do them any good. It got them into trouble because they did not obey the truth.

Here this lady is coming behind Him and she touched His garment. She said, “If I may but touch His clothes, I may be whole.” The other account says, “If I may but touch the hem of His garment, I shall be made whole.”

29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.

As soon as she touched the hem of His garment, the Bible says the fountain; the source of her plague was dried up. It did not deal with the symptoms. He did not deal with those things or the problems that the plague was bringing. He went right to the root of the problem and He healed the plague. The very thing that was causing this woman’s plague the very disease that she had; He went right to the source of it and He healed her.

There is something very interesting here that I want you to get. The Bible says here, “29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.”

There are a few people that would like to tear that page out. Do you know why? Because some of these people that says, “We really don’t know if we are saved or not until we get to heaven. We really not going to know whether we are saved until we get there.” Some people say, “We just have to live by faith.” That is true. We must do that. I’m glad when God indwells us, I’m glad that when God does things for us that we can know that God is doing things for us.

This woman felt in her body that she was healed of the plague. She felt something going on inside her. She knew that something had happened on the inside of her. God is so big and as big as God is—could not dwell within us and we not know it.

The disease that this woman had, as soon as she touched the hem of His garment, the plague was gone. She felt that. Get this! If we have ever been healed of anything we know it. Do you remember the day that you were healed of your sin, and you were saved from your sin; when you were saved? We may not know the date. We may not know whether it was 2:00 or 10:00. We may not know whether it was Tuesday or Friday. We may not know those times, but we can remember a time that Jesus Christ forgave our sins and our sins were gone. If our minds are functioning as they should, we can remember the time that the burden of sin was gone. We felt the load of sin leave. We felt the load of sin being lifted off of us and being gone.

This lady felt that.

When God does something for us, we can know those things. I know that we live by faith, but I’m glad that when I live by faith and when we live by faith and live as we should live; I’m glad He comes down every now and then and lets us know who He is, and who that we are. Also, how much that He loves and cares about us.

Keep Jairus in your mind now.

Jesus is being detained here to tend to this woman. Jairus is trying to get Jesus to come on, let’s go. However, He is dealing with the woman. Keep Jairus in your mind. It does not say here where he is grabbing Jesus and pulling Him. It does not say that he is trying to push the lady away. It does not say that. However, there is no doubt in my mind that he is very anxious.

30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?

31 And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?

32 And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing.

He feels power go out of Him. When this lady touches the hem of His garment and the power to heal her; Jesus knows that. He feels that. He knew who it was but He is going to do some things here with this woman. He makes the statement, “Who is touching me?” When you read the other accounts, the disciples are over here saying, “Master, the people are about to crush you to death here. Why are you asking questions, “Who is touching you?” He makes the statement here, “Who is touching me?” Because He knew that power and virtue had went out of Him. He turns about to see the woman in verse 32 that had done this.

33 But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.

Jesus was not going to let this incident here, this great miracle that had taken place, just pass by. He was not going to allow this to happen. This woman had been healed and He wanted everyone here to know that even though that she had touched Him, He wants them to know that He has healed her and she is made whole. Not only that, but He wants her to know that He/Jesus knows that she has been healed. Isn’t that great to know?

Isn’t it great to know that when we are saved, not only do we know that we are saved; Jesus knows that we are saved. Here is this lady and He turns around and He asks the question, “Who touched me?” She is scared to death. I don’t know what she is thinking. I don’t know what is on her mind. She might have been embarrassed. She might not want to come forward. I don’t know. Probably, if you get outside from 10 to 15 people from where Jesus is at, most of the crowd would not have known what was going on anyway.

This little lady comes right down at His feet and tells Him everything that has happened. No doubt, she has told Him that she has had this plague for twelve years. She has had this disease and she knew if she could just touch the hem of His garment that she could be made whole. She touches the garment and she is made whole. There is no doubt in my mind she recites or rehearses this whole thing unto Jesus.

Look what Jesus says.

34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.

How would you like to have been this woman on this day?

Have you ever had a physical ailment that you have been healed of? A lot of you have. If it has been something that has plagued you for years and years, you are glad it is gone. You can thank God and praise God for things that God does for us. He does heal. He is still yet doing that today in a way that we sometimes don’t understand. Jesus Christ is still yet healing today. He looks at her and says, “Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole…”

It takes faith to touch the heart of God. When we will believe that we can just touch Him, get to where He is at and touch Him; then we can be whole and we can be free from our sin and if we will just believe that, then we can be free from our sin tonight. We can be made whole tonight.

He said, “Go in peace.” Isn’t it great that when Jesus Christ touches us that we can leave where we are at in peace?

Do you remember the war that used to be in your soul? Do you remember the turmoil and all the things that used to be going on inside of you, but yet when you came to Jesus and touched Him and He touched you, how that the warring stopped and a great peace came over.

That is great to know that when He touches us and forgives us of our sin, we know that we can leave in peace. “Go in peace.” He says, “…and be whole of thy plague…”

Keep this in mind. As all of this conversation is going on, Jairus is still yet here. He knows that his daughter is dying. He knows that she is very sick. He wants to get Jesus to come and to get there. However, He knew exactly what He was going to do even though Jairus did not know what was going on. Jesus Christ is never late. He will always take time to stop and help those along life’s journey that needs His help.

He will always take time just for you and just for me if we will just simply have faith and trust and believe Him.

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