Transcription

Connor
Hey, you’re listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun and practical ways.

Chris
Hey, my name is Chris. This is Jeff, and we’re the Bible guys. And we want to thank you for joining us today. We have a great passage of Scripture, actually, scriptures to dive into. But before we do, we’re going to take take a little twist on the Friday segment. Usually we explore what made Chris mad this week. Yes, but however wonderful, every once in a while we like to switch it around. And for some odd reason, Jeff never gets asked why he’s mad. So we’re going to ask the question what made Jeff happy this week? Happy? Yes.

Jeff
What made Jeff happy this week? Okay, so, um, my family and I, my wife, my daughter and I, we went to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons this past week. Yeah. And so I’m kind of running. I’ve never been, you know, I’m running on fumes. I flew back from. We were in Cairo doing some work. I was doing some work in Cairo. And then. Oh, this made me happy, too. This is the first time this has ever happened to me. I had to fly from Cairo to Paris, Paris to Detroit, Detroit to Salt Lake City, Salt Lake City to Idaho Falls. And then we had friends who had a cabin just outside West Yellowstone. So my flight from Cairo to Paris and my flight from Paris to Detroit, I got upgraded automatically because of my status. I got upgraded to business class.

Chris
Nice.

Jeff
Oh yeah. Eating lamb chops and sleeping and laying in bed. It was fantastic. So it was the first time that’s ever happened for me. And now I can’t go back. I can’t I can’t go back to the old way.

Chris
Right. You can’t go.

Jeff
Back. No.

Chris
It’s impossible. And then Bonnie’s like, why are you paying so much for tickets around the world? And you’re like, I can’t go back. Yeah. No, I can’t be back with the cattle.

Jeff
Actually, as soon as I start looking at the price, I realize, oh, I can’t go back, right. I will be back, right? Right. So thank you Delta, for the upgrades. But yeah. So we spent a six, five days I guess something like that in Yellowstone and in Grand Tetons. And man, just that’s my happy place being in deep wilderness. Yeah. Being around the wild animals and nature, the trees, the mountains, the lakes. We hustled pretty hard. We went a lot of places, but we had a day. If you’ve ever been in the Grand Tetons area, there’s an area called Jenny Lake, and it’s right at the foot of the things, and the lake is just beautiful. And we sat, we had dinner or lunch, and then we sat kind of on this porch and rocking chairs and just looked at the mountains out across the lake. And it was just, well, you.

Chris
Showed me some pictures. And it’s hard to believe that places like that exist. Yeah, yeah. Like you showed me pictures and I was like, dude, that’s like on Dances with Wolves. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. I mean, like, that’s incredible. Yeah. It was.

Jeff
It was, it was beautiful. So what made me happy is being out in nature, I think was just really, really good for me and being with my family.

Chris
And first class.

Jeff
Yeah. Yeah. Those flights were nice. Yeah. Just just that by itself.

Chris
But yeah.

Jeff
That’s awesome. I thought, I thought I was the luckiest guy in the world. And then when I landed in Detroit, the plane that we were supposed to fly on when it landed in Detroit, it broke. Oh, no, it broke on the on the landing strip. They had to, like, send buses out to go get the people. So then we got stuck in Detroit and it made us miss our connection in Salt Lake City. So when we got to Salt Lake City, the Delta wound up putting us up in a hotel that night. So we missed a whole day of our vacation. But yeah, so that’s terrible. So. So I got the upgrades and then I missed my flight and missed a day of vacation. So, you know, Delta Delta made me high and low at the same time. So you can’t trust other people.

Chris
Shall we take the good and not the bad? Yeah.

Jeff
Yeah, exactly. So, you know, you can’t let companies make you happy or make you sad. You just have to roll with it. But once we got down to the nature, just what God made, what people make, they mess up what God made. He did a pretty good job.

Chris
Yeah, he did a good job. Yeah, yeah.

Chris
Good job. God.

Jeff
Yep. Good job. Big fan, big fan, big fan. Two thumbs up.

Chris
Big fan, big fan.

Jeff
God, the whole Yellowstone and Grand Tetons thing. Yep. Good job.

Chris
That’s funny.

Jeff
So man, that was good. I like that segment. That was fun. So it’s way better than what made you mad.

Chris
Oh is it.

Jeff
Although although see, when you’re mad, you’re mad on behalf of the people. Yeah. And when I’m happy, I’m just happy for myself. That might speak volumes about the two of us.

Chris
Yeah. That’s funny.

Jeff
Hey, guys, would you do us a favor? And either while you’re listening to this podcast or. Or afterwards, would you go to Facebook and follow us on Facebook and then share that with all of your friends and family? We think it’s a great way. If you love the Bible guys, we think that your friends and family might too, and they’re following you, and then that’ll give us an opportunity to share all of the love and the joy and the fun and the Bible learning that we have here at Bible Guys. So thank you so much. So we are reading Matthew chapter nine and this a lot of reading today, Matthew nine, Mark five and Luke eight. And it’s the same two stories. Jesus heals a woman who has an issue of blood and he restores a girl to life.

Chris
Yeah, that’s a big deal. Yeah, big, big deal. Raises a dead girl back to life.

Jeff
So here we go. Matthew chapter nine, verse 18 says, As Jesus was saying this. Remember the guy wanted to travel with Jesus and go back. As Jesus was saying this, the leader of a synagogue came, knelt before him. My daughter has just came and knelt before my daughter has just died, he said, but you can bring her back to life again if you just come and lay your hand on her. So Jesus and his disciples got up and went with him. Then, just then, a woman who had suffered for 12 years with a constant bleeding came up behind him. She touched the fringe of his robe, for she thought, if I can just touch his robe, I’ll be healed. Jesus turned around, and when he saw her, he said, daughter, be encouraged. Your faith has made you well. And the woman was healed. At that moment, when Jesus arrived at the official’s home, he saw the noisy crowd and heard the funeral music get out. He told them, the girl isn’t dead. She’s only asleep. But the crowd laughed at him. After the crowd was put outside, however, Jesus went in and took the girl by the hand and she stood up. The report of this miracle swept through the entire countryside. Matthew Mark, chapter five says, 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, and then a leader of the local synagogue, whose name was Jairus, arrived. When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet, pleading fervently with him. My little girl is dying. He said, please come and lay your hands on her. Heal her so she can live. Jesus went with him and all the people followed, crowding around him. Jeff
A woman in the crowd had suffered for 12 years with constant bleeding. She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them. But she had not gotten 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’ll be healed. Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition. And Jesus realized that once the healing power had gone out from him. So he turned around to the crowd and asked, who touched my robe? His disciples said to him, look at this crowd pressing 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 Jairus, 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, Jairus, 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, and he went inside and asked, why all this commotion and weeping? Jeff
The 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 kum, which means little girl, get up. And the girl who was 12 years old, immediately stood up and walked around, and 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. Then in Luke eight he says in verse 40, on the other side of the lake, the crowds welcomed Jesus because they’d been waiting for him. Then a man named Jairus, a leader from the local synagogue, came and fell at Jesus feet, pleading with him to come home with him. His only daughter, who was about 12 years old, was dying. As Jesus went with him, he was surrounded by the crowds. A woman in the crowd had suffered for 12 years with constant bleeding, and she could find no cure. Coming up behind Jesus, she touched the fringe of fringe of his robe. Immediately the bleeding stopped. Who touched me? Jesus asked, and everyone denied it. And Peter said, master, this whole crowd is pressing up against you. But Jesus said, someone deliberately touched me, for I felt healing power go out from me. When the woman realized that she could not stay hidden, she began to tremble and fell to her knees in front of him. The whole crowd heard her explain why she had touched him and that she had been immediately healed. Daughter, he said to her, your faith has made you whole. Go in peace. While he was still speaking to her, a messenger arrived from the home of Jarius, the leader of the synagogue. Jeff
He told him, your daughter is dead. There’s no use troubling the teacher now. But when Jesus heard what had happened, he said to Jarius, don’t be afraid. Just have faith and she’ll be healed. When they arrived at the house, Jesus wouldn’t let anyone go in with him except Peter, John and James and the little girl’s father and mother. The house was filled with people weeping and wailing, but he said, stop the weeping. She isn’t dead. She’s only asleep. But the crowd laughed at him because they all knew she had died. Then Jesus took her by the hand and said in a loud voice, my child, get up! And at that moment her life returned, and she immediately stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat. Her parents were overwhelmed, but Jesus insisted that they not tell anyone what had happened.

Jeff
That’s it.

Chris
Hey, let me read a note from the Life Application Study Bible that I think is very interesting. I haven’t really thought about this before quite like this. It says certainly Jesus knew who had touched him. He knew that someone had intentionally touched him in order to receive some sort of healing. Jesus wanted the woman to step forward and identify herself, to let her slip away. Would have meant to a lost opportunity for Jesus to teach that his cloak did not have magical properties. Rather, her faith in him had healed her. He had also may have wanted to teach the crowds a lesson according to Jewish law. A man who touched a menstruating woman became ceremonial unclean according to Leviticus chapter 15. This was true whether a woman was bleeding or whether it was normal, or whether this woman’s case a result of an abnormal condition. So to protect themselves from such defilement, Jewish men carefully avoided touching, speaking to, or even looking at women. By contrast, Jesus proclaimed to hundreds of people that this UN woman clean had touched him. Unclean, unclean woman had touched him, and then he had healed her. And in Jesus mind, this suffering was not to be overlooked, because as God’s creation, she deserved attention and respect.

Chris
Isn’t that beautiful.

Chris
That’s just awesome. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that this all three of these accounts are actually quite similar, aren’t they?

Jeff
Yeah. Yeah.

Jeff
There’s an advantage to, you know, when we teach people in the Discovery Bible study concepts around the world, one of the things we encourage is to read the passage three times in your group. So if there’s 3 or 4 of you have three of the people read it, at least two people read it and one person try to remember it and retell it. And there’s some power to going through the same story a few times. It really drives it deep. And the first time you’re hearing it for the first time, the second time you start noticing patterns, third time you start seeing maybe applications. And so there’s something to that. So I think that’s one of the reasons why God retells these stories so many times. So many of the important ones is to really drive it home.

Chris
Yeah. And let’s talk about the the little girl being dead. So Jairus, who you know, in the first passage it said that Jairus had faith and he said, my daughter is dead, but I know if you come lay hands on her, you’ll heal her. Just touch her. And then in the second and third passage, Jairus was trying to grab Jesus, to take him to her home. And then a servant came back and said, hey, no use of coming the rest of the way, for she died. So somewhere along the way, both are true, because they must have been on their way. And of course on all three accounts. That’s when they met the woman with the bleeding. And then. But but somewhere along the way, what is. What is crystal clear is that Jairus completely believed. Yeah, like he believed so. And the other two accounts Jesus says, have faith in this account, Jairus says in the first account Jairus says, I have faith. Yeah, I believe that. Yeah, I believe that you can.

Jeff
Now he had faith before she died.

Chris
Right, right, right.

Chris
Because he came to recruit Jesus.

Jeff
Yeah.

Jeff
And and so he goes to Jesus. And a lot of us do that, you know, when grandma is sick or when, when our marriage is about ready to fall apart or or the life is collapsing before it happens, we go to God. Oh, God, please don’t let it happen. Yeah, I think it’s after the tragedies happen. Our response to that really, really matters, right? And the faith that this guy had. And so Jairus had at least enough faith to continue the journey. Yeah. How much faith does it take just to keep going? He didn’t give up on Jesus after he got the worst news of his life. Yeah, right. And when we’re faced with the worst news of our life, I think we have a choice in that moment. Are we going to run to Jesus or from Jesus?

Chris
You know, think about that statement for our listeners. Yeah. And think about what that means for everybody individually. Something completely different.

Jeff
Oh, absolutely.

Chris
After getting the worst news of your life, to be faithful and trust God afterwards, that that means.

Jeff
So much harder.

Chris
That means a lot. I know what it means for me and my family. Yeah. So? So yeah, it is. It is something, man. It is something.

Jeff
So. So the worst news of his life. He had the courage to go to Jesus. Here’s a leader of a synagogue. So the cost of this going to Jesus could have been because the Pharisees and the priests didn’t like Jesus. By this point, Jesus was enemy number one, right? And here’s a religious leader whose job depended on the approval of the other religious leaders. Yeah. And instead, in this moment, nothing else in his life could solve this problem. His little girl, 12 year old girl, sick and dying. So he goes to Jesus. He’s risking everything now, a lot of us, we we wonder how vocal should we be at work, right? How how how open should we be about our faith at school or on the team or whatever? And at this moment, this guy came to the conclusion nothing else matters. I’ve got it. The only person I know that even has a hope of of healing my daughter is Jesus. And so he he risks his career and everything. To go to Jesus. And then then after he’s blown it with his career, then he gets the worst news. Jesus didn’t hustle. Jesus pauses with this woman. He finds out his daughter’s dead after Jesus stops to talk to some woman in a crowd. Right? An unclean woman that this religious leader considered unclean. Yeah. And Jesus turns around and spends time with this woman. And if only Jesus had hustled. I mean, you’ve been in Capernaum. It’s not a big town. No, I mean, dude, you can you can cross the whole town in, like, six minutes. Yeah, right. If Jesus had just hustled. Okay. Sorry, lady, I got to hurry.

Chris
Right?

Jeff
But no. He pauses for this woman and.

Chris
It says that he asked several times who touched me. Yeah, yeah. So which means, you know, there’s there’s there’s like. And it says when the woman realized she could no longer hide. Right. That takes.

Chris
Minutes.

Jeff
We read through this story much quicker than this interaction would have been.

Chris
Probably. Right?

Jeff
Yeah, right. He’s pushing. It’s just a crowd. These little narrow streets, all the stuff that goes with the difficulty of being a superstar in these small towns. That’s what’s happening to Jesus. Everybody touching him, paparazzi taking pictures, all this stuff happening. And then this woman touches him and he pauses. He goes, oh, wait, wait a minute. A miracle just happened. We can’t let that go by. He has to address it. And the whole time the guy’s like, I asked for him first, right? I just ruined my career.

Chris
But he doesn’t say any of that.

Jeff
And he just waits. And then Jesus heals this woman and then has this interaction with her. And it’s such a sweet thing. I want to come back and keep talking about that. And then Jairus finds out his daughter is dead. And in that moment, in that moment, he could have went, never mind. Right, right. But he didn’t. He went on, he didn’t give up on Jesus. He went ahead and and went with him. And I think that that really is indicative of when you really have an encounter with Jesus, you don’t just give up on Jesus.

Jeff
Right.

Chris
So so tomorrow I have a funeral, and I know it’s a family who’s who’s believers. And it’s sort of a mixed crowd. And that’s normally why they ask somebody like me to officiate this type of funeral. And so what I will say to them is what I almost always say to a crowd like this, I always say, so I said, some of you in times like this, some of you I understand, may be angry with God, or some of you may doubt his goodness or doubt his existence. And I understand those things I said, but I know for a fact that there are others who are going to get through this difficult loss, through the promises of God and through the presence of God. And it’s just like what you said after you get bad news, it’s like you hear the worst thing in your life. How are you going to respond to Jesus for the rest of the way? Right. And so and that sort of captures their attention. And I say that for one reason, to identify and acknowledge the hurt so that they can be like, oh, this guy actually knows what I’m feeling. So if there is somebody in the crowd who is angry with God, then I’m going to set them up to talk about it and give, you know, and give the good news. Yeah. But hey, let me let me also say this because talk about the little girl situation. Did you notice that everybody laughed at Jesus. Yeah.

Jeff
Yeah.

Chris
And they didn’t believe. Right. And then on the opposite side you have Peter, James and John where Jesus allowed them to stay behind because of their belief. So Peter, James and John are the ones that are famous for seeking Jesus out and saying, teach us more. We want to know more. And so because of their, you know, desire and belief, Jesus invites them to be a part of the little girl being raised from the dead. And yet the opposite is true for the people who don’t believe so. They all laugh and say, don’t you? Don’t you think we know death when we see it? And Jesus says, everybody out. So think about this. There’s a crowd of people because of their unbelief. They miss out on experiencing Jesus in a very special way. And so I believe that there are times in our lives that are indicative to, you know, when we just demonstrate faith, when we don’t understand, then we get to experience Jesus in ways that we normally wouldn’t have. Right? And so if we just have faith and watch, we get to experience Jesus and whole, whole different ways because God shows up because of our faith, he responds to our faith, that much is clear.

Jeff
Yeah. So there is a dynamic in this, these three passages, because Jesus says she’s not really dead. She’s asleep. Yeah. And so some people would read that on the surface and go, oh, she was just sleeping. People were confused. But Luke says after Jesus told her to rise up, her life came back into her. Yeah. So the way Jesus views the death of one of his saints is not so real death. Spiritual death is eternal death in hell. Yeah, right. But what he recognize here is that she was not eternally damned to hell. She was. Her body was dead and he restored the life back to her.

Jeff
In that moment.

Chris
Well, doesn’t it say the.

Jeff
Bible describes the death of his saints as sleep?

Chris
Yeah. And all the way through the Old Testament and everything else. It talks about how the saints, when they died, it says they.

Chris
Sleep, right? Right.

Jeff
They they sleep. Right. So then finally, let’s come back to this woman, because these two dynamic miracles happen. This woman for 12 years had not been touched by a man.

Chris
Yeah, yeah. Most likely.

Jeff
Well, she was unclean. Yeah. So. And for, for 12 years probably wasn’t touched by any other women because they’d be unclean.

Chris
Right.

Jeff
She had gone basically unengaged with humanity because anybody she touched would have been unclean according to their culture and their belief system. And so she just knows at this point, she doesn’t even have the guts to come and ask for help. How how privileged is Jerry’s? Hey, if you just come and lay your hand on my daughter.

Chris
Right, right.

Jeff
And this woman kind of pushes through the crowd, hopes nobody notices, reaches out and touches Jesus, and immediately he feels the power leave him.

Chris
Yeah. Which is.

Jeff
Really amazing.

Chris
Yeah.

Jeff
That’s amazing. It doesn’t even explain any more about that. But he just knew. He knew it happened.

Chris
And Jesus pauses and goes. Battery reserves went down. Yeah.

Jeff
And Jesus Jesus goes, okay. You know that that explanation that you read, I think was just so powerful. Hey, in this moment, I need to let everybody know what just happened. It’s not good luck. There’s no good luck charm, right? It’s not keeping a little statue on your on your dashboard or wearing a little necklace that gives you luck. Good luck. It’s it’s faith in Jesus Christ that changed everything. But I love it when when she came so timidly, who did it? And the disciples are like, what do you mean who did it? Everybody’s touching you, Jesus. So lots of people had access to Jesus, but one woman was healed. Yeah, right. And I think there’s something to that, that there’s more. If we would if we would reach for more, there is more for us. Lots of people had access to Jesus. But one woman, her life was changed in that moment. And then he goes, she realizes, oh, the game’s up, I’m busted. And so she goes to her knees and is embarrassed to even look at him. And he’s. So I got teared up when I was reading it. And he says, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, right? And it’s so loving and so kind in that moment. And I just think it’s a beautiful expression of how Jesus, he’s going to heal a little girl and everybody. Oh, poor little girl. Nobody cares about this old lady that has all this trouble. Yeah. And he pauses and causes, calls this this woman his daughter. Yeah. And then he says, I want you to go in peace. Your faith, it’s precious. It’s unbelievable. It brings tears to my eyes every time I read it.

Chris
So we’re at that time. So I give one last thought. I made a joke earlier about Jesus’s power reserve going down. You know what I actually think of every time I read this passage is you ever see the movie Santa Clause two with Tim Allen? Yeah. Yeah. Where he has to get married. Yeah, yeah he has. He goes out to find a wife, and they give him a clause meter on his wristwatch every time he uses magic asparagus, and he’s almost out of power, you know? So. So I just wanted to make a comment and say there’s another sermon in there as well, that Jesus doesn’t work like that with Jesus. Like he never runs out of grace. He doesn’t run out of healing power. He doesn’t run out of forgiveness. It is never ending. And that’s a sermon altogether that God has enough. You know, of himself always, for anybody and forever. So it doesn’t matter what you’ve done, it doesn’t matter how many times you’ve gone back to God. It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve wrestled and made the same mistake. Just know that God has enough forgiveness, love, and healing power for you. Yeah, so that’s a good thing.

Jeff
Fantastic.

Chris
Well, that’s a great place to end and hopefully we will see you again on The Bible Guys.