"Don’t Be Afraid; Just Believe" | Mark 5:21–43

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Were good morning, We're good morning. We talked the whole night through good morning, good morning to you and you. And you all right, you're gonna have to cut it short on that one. Hey, guess what. I have never, For a fact, I have never done a Monday and a Tuesday in. A row, back to back. Baby. Never. Now, last time yesterday I said I think I may have done a Monday once, and that was twice yesterday. But I wanted to make a Monday and Guy's history. Yeah, same week, the same. Week and a Monday, and I've done you before, but never a Monday. And so people download both of these and save them because if you can sell them together history, this is collector's items. Yeah, it's it's like the episode of Spider Man when Gwen Stacy died. Wow. Yeah, that's amazing. The Green Goblin knocked your off of the George Washington Bridge. Yes remember that? Yeah, no you do not. That is really funny. My brother connected comic books when I was young, and so there was always comic books everywhere, and so we had five brothers, and so we would just read them because we didn't think about saving them right, and they would be tore up and beat up, they'd lose their cover. Eventually they'd be on the bottom of the closet, you know, messy kids. And so we remember and now I think the episode in mint condition of that episode, I just you know, mentioned I think it's worth like ten thousand dollars. Oh wow, And we had three we had three, right, And it had had we had Jimmy had just enough forethought to say, hey, let's save these, right, it would have been some serious money. And by the way, that's just that issue. Oh, I guarantee you had he saved everything that he bought back, then yes, the house will be paid off. Well, isn't that crazy. Yes, that's amazing, it's amazing. Well, today, we're gonna do a draft list, Chris, These are fun sometimes, so sometimes said, we're in the full swing of all things summer, so let's do a draft draft lift list. Man, I can't speak today. Let's do a draft list of your favorite summer barbecue side dishes. Side dishes? Is pretty side dishes? Yeah? Yeah? Ready one? Shoot, I beat him again. He always beats me. So he did, rock. Yep, so here he goes. So my very first favorite side dish with barbecue is always baked beans. Baked beans, yes, really baked beans. Yeah. Now do you like the savory baked beans you like? Yeah? Like molasses time. I like this savory molasses kind. Save molasses is going to be sweeter? Yes, well yeah, I mean like brown sugar honestly, and so like I. Suppose the salty peppery bake any. Kind, yes, and I actually like it with something in it. So my mother in law makes the best I've ever had ever and it's with ground beef and uh. And it's with brown sugar and ground beef and it is tremendous. Wow. And and so yeah, that's my favorite side. Wow. Have you ever had my baked beans? I think I have, yes, And I think I recall loving them. Yeah, I don't remember. I don't remember the last time I made those. Those are good, okay. So I was just comparing mine to your mother in laws as well. As I. Didn't. Yours have chunks of bacon in them. Yeah, chunks of bacon ye see I remember, Yeah, yeah, okay, big chunks like it was. It was it was pork belly. It wasn't actually bacon, it was smart big chunks. Okay, I would say mine is also beans, but it's green beans. Oh. I love green beans with barbecue. I don't know why, I just do. Yeah, I don't like love love green beans really. Yeah, well, I like fresh green beans, but not cann. From from from about the middle of July till the first frost. We lived on the vegetables in our gardens, so sometimes we go a week and hardly have any meat at our dinners. It was just what we were harvesting in the garden, and so you know, we'd have five fifty foot rows of green bean plants. So we had a lot of green beans. I's been half my life snapping green beans or shucking corn, or shelling peas or you know. Okay, second, we're only doing three. Ok here's my second one. My second one, so many to be I know, I know, my second one has to be with barbecue. I'm gonna have to say mac and cheese. Mac and cheese is good. Yeah, mac and cheese. Now, do you like like the creamy mac and cheese or do you like the mac and cheese that has like that crust on. The top of it. I would rather have creamy. Oh okay, okay, yeah yeah. Now for me, I think my this is almost equal with the green beans. Would be a good potato salad. Oh yeah, sure, sure potatoes. I did you, I did you. I'm getting hungry just talking. Yeah yeah, okay, I bet I bet I bet A bunch of our listeners are going to a barbecue for lunch. That's right, that's right. We were fighting the seed right now. And that happened yesterday. I took Zach out to lunch and uh and he said, he suggested an Italian restaurant. We went down. It was closed and and he said, let's go somewhere else, and I said, well it has to be Italian. Now gets in your head, gets in your head. So we did. Anyway, So the third one, So the third one I'm going to uh say, it is not a I'm gonna I'm gonna blow your mind here, okay, But in Atlanta it existed and it still does and it's one of the best things ever. And up north it does not exist, but there is there is. Rarely can you beat a side dish of Brunswick. Stew really Brunswick stew is truly amazing, and you like to have it with your barbecue. Absolutely when I was when I was down there, uh and live there, every barbecue place that you went to, most every barbecue place that you went to had a Brunswick stew is a side. Yeah, And I'm telling you you can't beat it, man. It is unbelievably good. Okay, uh for me, believe it or not. As far as barbecue goes, I think I'm gonna slip too. And oh I love Coleslaw. Yeah, good coastal, good coast. And I like my Coleslaw on the thicker, sweeter side, not the runnier vineyard green side. Yes. And then I like potato chips, both of those, and the reason is I like to put them on my barbecue sandwiches, like like if you have like a pulled pork, I love to just stack a bunch of potato chips on and you get all that crunch with it. Or I like to put you know, it's Memphis style when you put the put your Coleslaw on your but it the crunch. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. That's great. I've actually had both of those before, and I have a tendency to agree I don't do it often enough. And now you're reminding me that at number one, I should go to Mission Barbecue today and number two I should put crunch on my So. Have you ever done that when you're grilling hamburgers to do a crunch stack? So, so if you do like a smash burger, get a good smash burgers and then get really good melty cheese on it, so then it's like a gooey sandwich. Then you put a couple of dill pickles or what are the butter sweet the sweet ones you don't, yeah, pickles on and then you put a stack of chips on top of it, then the bun, and then just before you go to smash them all the way down like that and you yell, that's crunchy with the guy, And I'm sure it's a heart attack on a bun, but buddy, it's good. Wow. Yeah yeah, yeah. Well, I'll tell you what, if we haven't done our job and getting our listeners hungry, then I don't know what is gonna Yeah. Yeah, So talking about not knowing what's gonna work. Oh yeah, we're gonna we're gonna talk about two people. Nobody knew whether that girl is gonna get raised from the dead. Well, we got two people who don't don't know what's gonna work. We got this girl is dead, and we got this lady who can't seem to get healed by anything. Yeah, and they really didn't quite know. Although I gotta say the woman did know. The woman knew well, she was hoping. Well, I think she was more than hoping, because he made her whole. Yeah, but he had the teller. Yeah, he had the teller. Don't be afraid, just believe. Oh, oh, that's not the woman to touch his garment. Yeah, I need to read ahead before I start recording. Yeah, is this the woman who touch the garment? Yes, Well he didn't have to say, just believe. Oh, this is jaris the girl's dad. Don't be afraid, just believe. Oh yeah, so he said that too. Ah. Yeah, that's so. The whole premise behind the podcast or behind this series that we're doing is what if Jesus had a podcast and we're doing famous phrases or statements that Jesus made. Yes, right, And in this one today it's don't be afraid, just believe, And Jesus is talking to a little girl's dad who feels like there's no hope. Yeah, Jyrius. Yes, So we're gonna pick up in Luke chapter I'm sorry, and Mark chapter five, and we're gonna read twenty one through forty three. So we're gonna read some verses today. We better get with it, you ready, yep. Jesus got into the boat again. Remember he went in the boat and went across the lake. This is literally a couple pages later. So they went all the way to Gatherery Godero, which is to the southeast of where Jesus was at. So he was in the northwest. He goes all the way across the lake to the southeast. Now, bless you. And then now they're turning around. They're going back to the other side of the lake. Okay, right, he was just trying to get away from the crowds, remember, yep. So Jesus got into the boat again and went back to the other side of the lake, where a large crowd gathered around him on the shore. Then a leader of the local synagogue, whose name was Gyrus, arrived. When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet, pleading fervently with him. My little daughter is dying, he said, please come and lay your hands on her, heal her so she can live. And Jesus went with him, and all the people followed, crowding around him. A woman in the crowd who had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she'd spent everything she had to pay them, but she had got no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. For she thought to herself, if I can just touch his robe, I will be healed. Immediately, the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition. Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked who touched my robe? His disciples said to him, look at this crowd present around you, how can you ask who touched me? But he kept on looking around to see who had done it. And then the frightened woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell to her knees in front of him. And told him what she had done, and he said to her daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, Your suffering is over. While he was still speaking to her, messengers arrived from the home of Gyros, the leader of the synagogue, and they told him, your daughter is dead. There's no use troubling the teacher now. But Jesus overheard them and said said to Gyrus, don't be afraid, just have faith. Then Jesus stopped the crowd and wouldn't let anyone go with him except Peter James and John, the brother of James. When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw much commotion and weeping and wailing. He went inside and asked why all this commotion of weeping child isn't dead. She's only asleep. The crowd laughed at him, but he made them all leave, and he took the girl's father and mother and his three disciples into the room where the girl was lying. Holding her hand. He said to her talitha cooum, which means little girl, get up. And when the girl, who was twelve years old, immediately stood up and walked around, they were overwhelmed and totally amazed. Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell anyone what had happened, and then he told them to give her something to eat. So little dead girl, he said, hey, don't tell anybody what we just did. I she's raised that life. I get teary just reading that. I try to imagine a father with a twelve year old daughter. And I tried to you know, it's one of the reasons why I love movies so much. Right, And I'm dramatic and I'm emotional. Right? What what? What? So that explained? Let me write that down real quick. Like I asked you. I said to you, I said, did you did you get emotional at all during the you know, Wicked the movie? And You're like, no, no, Like how could you not at least get emotional? Anyway? The point is is that I I immediately picture all the real emotions that are coming with this scenario. The desperation at the beginning, and then and then he says disappointment. He says, don't don't, don't be afraid, just have faith. So dare to give Gyrus hope? Right? And then and then they go back and then and then Jesus calls your little girl, right, little girl get up and then she just wakes up. I mean, I just I get terary thinking about it. I think to myself, is there any more beautiful? You know? I get terry thinking about Lazarus. But Lazarus, you know, it's an indication that Lazarus was a grown man, right, but a twelve year old girl who totally different. Right. So anyway, Yeah, it's amazing. I think about the desperation of the dad at the beginning. So he's a synagogue leader. Jesus would have taught in that synagogue. We know that he's spoken in this synagogue a number of times, and then eventually they run Jesus out of the synagogues. They don't want him around anymore. Right, there's a lot of aggression there. So there's a certain amount of humility and desperation when the synagogue leader comes to Jesus and says, hey, would you would you come? My daughter's sick, and if you just lay hands on a your healer? Yeah, and he believed what he saw in Jesus. It's interesting to me. I don't know that Gyrus was positioned as an enemy, but it's interesting to me that his enemies never claim that the works he did. Were fake, right? They what they saw, they believed it would be interesting to me. Well, I would think if these guys felt like Jesus was a trickster or if he was some kind of just you know, witchcraft guy, that they would have claimed that it was all fake, right, And they never did, even to the point where the leader of a synagogue comes and says, I know if you touch my daughter, she sh'll be healed. And I'm so desperate. Would you do that at risk of what are the Pharisees going to say? What are the other religious leaders in the area are going to say? Yeah, well it's my job. Will will I get excommunicated? Will I? Yeah? But it doesn't matter, because nothing matters. When when your daughter's done, you willing to do anything? Yeah? Right, your little girl? Right. And then so the desperation of coming to Jesus and then the crowd is so crazy. And then finally in the middle of this moment where this lady touches him and Jesus stops and he's looking around. You can imagine Jared's going, come on, Jesus, we got hurry, We gotta hurry, you gotta hurry. And it's in that moment, those moments when Jesus has stopped heading towards Jerus's house is when his servants come, we go. It's too late, right, And just the absolute broken heartedness that he must have experienced in that moment, the devastation of this woman stopped at Jesus from getting to my house. Because I've been in that town. It's not a very big town. I mean, it's not like he had to walk miles and miles and miles. It's blocks, not miles, right, And he didn't have to go very far. And this woman stops. The crowds are big. You can just imagine the tension he's got. You ever feel that where you just you start getting attention headache just because you're you're all tense about we gotta hurry, we gotta hurry, we gotta hurry, right, and then hey, never mind, she's dead, and just the emotional let down and collapse. And then the grief. And that's when Jesus says, don't be afraid, just have faith, or a lot of translations are don't don't, don't be afraid, just believe. Do you ever see a movie called John Q No, Denzel Washington has a son, eight year old son who needs a heart transplant, but they don't have the money and and uh and so because of the health insurance. So it was sort of like a movie against health insurance actually, But anyway, but the wife looks at him and says, do something, and he says, my son's not going to die today. So with a gun, he takes over the whole hospital and at gunpoint forces the surgeon to do a heart transplant the son. Which we are not advocating right. Message of the podcast, but but it speaks into the desperation of like it doesn't matter, right. So Gyros says, it doesn't matter what the consequences are. I'm going to this healing man, and you're right. Nobody has ever said to Jesus, hey, I'm going to prove that that man that you healed blind was never blind or or the man by the pools what they call the pools of. Yeah, yeah, yeah, mesta. Uh you know, you know, they never claimed that he wasn't they never blame that he was. Uh that wasn't lame. Right, everybody blind deaf? Yes, they they knew these men didn't feel feed the whole crowd with a saclone right, they saw that. Now at one point they do say you do it because devils help you do it. Demon they try to get they try to, yeah, give him power. That's not right, God, but they are acknowledging the miracles. They're just denying where the miracles came from. Right, right. But yeah, so yeah, you could imagine why somebody who's completely disconnected from Jesus would say, uh. You know, I don't care what it takes. I know this man can do it. Yeah right, so uh and so I love how he takes Peter, James and John with him because I did a whole study one time, and I've never I've never read this, by the way, I've never I've never read this anywhere. I've never found this in a book. I actually, I actually think it would make a really good book. And if I were to write a book, this is actually what I would write that there seems to be Jesus' favorite. People would say, oh, he had the twelve, but he had the three Peter, James and John and then and then you could argue he had the one Peter right and uh and and and people always say like why did he favor them? Like, for instance, like. Right, here here he is favoring Peter, James and John over the other disciples. And then when he went to go pray in the garden, he says, oh, everybody stay here, but Peter, James and John. When he goes up on the Transfiguration on the mountain, he's like, hey, everybody stay here. But he brought with him who Peter, James and John. And so people might say, well, why. Did Jesus favor three of them? But actually, in my personal study in Bible College, I discovered that it was actually Peter, James and John who went to Jesus and wanted to know more than the crowd. And so it was it was like, you know, whenever Jesus taught, he would tell a parable or something, and it was Peter, James and John. And in the case of the Good Soil the Four Soils that we read just last week, it was Peter James, John, and Andrew. But it was still Peter James and John who went to him and said, please explain to us, we want to know more. Peter went to him. Recently we talked about if Peter gorowed him, Hey, how much? How many times should I forgive? Right? James went to him and asked him a question. Right, John goes to him and asks him a question. If Peter, James and John pull him aside constantly, over and over. I have a list of like eight or nine different times where it's always those people who want to know more, And so I believe in this case Jesus is responding to their willing hearts. Like Jesus, Jesus brings. Them in and shows him, shows them another part of himself. You know that whole idea of like there's the next level, you know, remember, you know that whole idea of like the kung fu master has one more level it is, you know, so those who seek Jesus get to experience Jesus in a way that is one level higher than those who don't seek Jesus. Right, So, the more you seek Jesus, the more you're in tune with him, the more your relationship is strong with him. You know, the closer you listen to him, he'll ask you to do things. He'll he'll nudge you, he'll guide you, he'll speak to you in ways that that he'll honor that that heart. You know, your your heart's posture, your inquisitive desire to get to know him more. And that's what I believe that Jesus is doing here with Peter, James and John. He's not favoring them, He's responding to their desire to know him more. Right, Well, that one, there's a note here in the Life Application Study Bible that kind of goes along those lines about the woman who reaches out and touches Jesus. So we haven't really, we haven't talked about her since this woman had a seemingly incurable, incurable condition causing her to bleed constantly. This may have been a menstrual or uterine disorder that would have made her ritually unclean at the time and excluded her from most social contacts. She wouldn't have been allowed in a synagogue, she wouldn't be allowed in the temple. Most people would not be allowed to touch her. She would be unclean. Especially Rabbis and leaders like Jesus couldn't touch her. She had exhausted all of her resources, and the doctors couldn't help her. She desperately wanted Jesus to heal her, but she knew that her bleeding would cause Jesus to be unclean under Jewish law. If she touched him. Sometimes we feel that our problems will keep us from God, but His love reaches through to us, no matter how impossible or terrible we think the situation is. We should never allow our fear to keep us from approaching him. Getting close to Jesus must have seemed hopeless to this sick woman, but she didn't give up and fought her way desperately through the crowd in order to touch his rope. As soon as she did, she was healed. Jesus not only healed her, but he also affirmed her faith. She had suffered for twelve years, but Jesus was now giving her a lifetime of peace. What a difference between the murder's pharisees, the crowds who were curious about Jesus, and the few who actually reached out and touched him. Today, many people are vaguely familiar with Jesus, but nothing in their lives is changed or bettered by this passing acquaintance. Genuine faith involves action. Only an active faith can release God's healing power. Move beyond curiosity. Reach out to Jesus in faith, and his touch will change your life forever. That's great and great. Note yeah and uh I don't think I could have spoken about her life any better than that. No, it's really well written, right, Yeah, smart people wrote that there's a good one. But the uh I love. And that's why I said, right before we read it, I said, uh, she was convinced. Yes she was, because it says it says it actually gave you insight to her actual thoughts, and it actually said if I touch him, I will be healed. And you know what's interesting is that note you said if she touched Jesus, there might be a fear that the Rabbi would be unclean. But maybe that's the reason why she thought, I'll just touch his garment, that's right, right, So I don't want to touch him, and I don't want to offend him and make him unclean where he has to just touches, you know, he has to go, you know, hibernate for seven days to be ritually clean again. But if I touch just his cloak or his robe or whatever it is, And that is amazing how she thought. And do you remember the centurion That reminds me of the centurion where Jesus says, hey, I'll come to your house and heal your son, and he says, hey, listen, he goes, I already know that you have the power to do it. Just speak here, and I know it'll be done. Right. And so what Jesus is offering is I'll come to your house. And the centurion says, hey, I know you have power beyond that, and I'm convinced of it to the point to where I know that you have this authority. And then what does Jesus say, I've not seen such great faith in all of Israel, and that's this woman. So this woman was not given the formula like, hey, if you just touch his cloak, I mean, listen, it's not just him, it's just touching his garments, right, Like nobody told her that. But she was absolutely convinced that. He was such a holy man that if she just touched him, she'd be absolutely healed. And and it was her faith in Jesus, her belief that that that made her whole. Yeah, daughter, your faith has made you well go in peace. Your suffering is over. Yes, what words, Yes, it's tremendous, and uh, you know, and uh, I also love it's time. It's time for us to wrap up. But I also love how it says that Jesus felt healing power come out of him. Right, he knew it happened. Yeah, it's like it's like, oh, there's like there's Did you ever see Santa Claus Part two? Yes, where he had a certain amount. Of magic and then and then when he do magic, his his magic ometer would go down, it would drain. Right, that's that's the Everything's a movie. Everything is a movie for yes, Sorry, I don't think it was that way for Gesus. No, no, no, no, he did not have a magic ometer on his wrist. He wasn't doing magic. Hey, I only have so much Jesus power left. Okay. Anyway, all right, hey, that is our time, so hopefully we will see you next time on the Bible. Guys stand