Faith That Takes Action
First B Jackson
2023-01-10

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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All over my life. How about you?

Alright.

I think we're set. Hey, everybody. Welcome to another Monday night, and a big thank you to Pamela for dinner tonight. Thank you for for dinner, Pamela, and also to Scottie. Scottie made a little run with me too to the grocery store, and we're making our way through Mark right now, the gospel market.

It's conversation style, so just keep that in mind. If you got a little verse, word of encouragement at the end so we can have a little back and forth. But before we get there, can we worship in song together? I'd love to do that. I'll sing of the Lord's unfailing love forever.

Young and old will hear of his faithfulness. There's a song in my soul.

And there's a song in my soul, and I feel it stirring in me. This I know for sure. And that your love is like a flood and mercy never ending. I give my song to you. There's a joy.

There's a joy in my soul. And it rises like the morning. This I know for sure. That your grace is enough Oh, my soul that sings for you, for all of your goodness. I will love you forever.

All my songs I sing for you. Yes. All my songs I sing for you. And all of your goodness. I will love you forever.

All my songs I'll sing for you. Yes. All my songs I'll sing for you. And let my life in my life be to you a symphony singing out holy,

God, thanks that we get to sing these praises to you. God, you're worthy. You're worthy of our worship, of our adoration, of our praise. God, I pray that the scripture would come to life in us tonight, that these words of yours would come to life in us. That you say, come to me, all of you who are weary and you carry heavy burdens, and I'll give you rest.

Lord, for that very real invitation to us. God, that we would accept.

Come to Jesus and find your way. You want freedom, need forgiveness. Just come The comforter, counselor, prince of peace, author and baker of everything, defender, deliverer, king of kings is. He is helper and healer forevermore, savior and shelter through every storm. Our refuge, redeemer, and lord of lords is.

He is a child of vivid son of man, provider protector the great I am, health on big of beginning and end years. Is hope for the whole place, rest for the weary help for the hurting broken bring the burden

Amen. You can have a a seat here for a moment. I don't have a little remote control, but maybe I could give a clue. How are doing everybody? How's your Monday?

On a scale of one to five, one was awful and five was great. How are how are we doing?

Alright. Okay. Good. That's that's that's alright.

Here we go. The gospel according to Mark. Tonight, we are in chapter five verses 21 to 43. So this is where Jesus heals a bleeding woman, and he restores a girl to life in response to faith. And faith, I believe, is is a a keyword here.

Right out of the gate, I wanna I wanna share this with you. Let me see if this is working. There it is. I wanna share this with you, a couple of takeaways that I had. And I know that you're gonna have some of your own as well, and I wanna hear them during the conversation time.

But here are a couple of mine that jumped out to me. I was just studying this. One being that Jesus answers the call of faith. Seems extremely obvious, but this is very, very important. Jesus does answer the call of faith.

K? And then the other is that faith is demonstrated in belief, but also action. There's belief there, but it turns to action. So those were a couple of my takeaways. During the conversation, Tom, wanna hear yours.

But first, let's go ahead and read it. I wanna see what God has for us this evening. This is what it says. Starts off, Jesus got into the boat again. So for context, last week, we studied that after Jesus healed that demoniac in that region, he sends these demons into a herd of pigs, and then the pigs jump off a cliff and drown.

You Do remember this story? And he... The crowd pleads with Jesus to go away and to leave them alone. Please. We we we...

You're scaring us. Jesus, go away. And so Jesus does go away, but before he goes, he does send that healed man back to his family to tell them what Jesus had done and how merciful he'd been. And that's my favorite part of last week's story. He says go back and tell everyone how merciful they've been.

And he goes back to his family, and he goes to these different towns in the region, and the gospel spreads because of these miracles. So Jesus goes into, gets back into the boat. He goes to the other side of the lake again where a large crowd gathered around him on shore. Large crowds are always gathering around Jesus. Then check out this.

Verse 22. A leader of the local synagogue, whose name was Jairus, arrived. And 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. This is intense. So Jesus went with him, and all the people followed, crowding around him. A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve 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 gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. She had heard about Jesus, and 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. And immediately, the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition.

And Jesus realized at once the healing power had gone out from him, And so he turned around in the crowd and he 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 looking around to see who had done it. 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. And 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 he said to Jairus, don't be afraid. Just have faith or only believe. And then Jesus stopped the crowd and wouldn't let anyone go with him except Peter, James, and John, the brothers of James. Verse 38. 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 and weeping? 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 a room where the girl was lying.

Holding her hand, he said, Talitha kum, which means little girl, get up. And the girl, who was 12 years old, immediately stood up and she 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 I'm gonna stop there for now.

But can we pray first before we go any further? And and I just... I wanna chat about these miracles some more. So, Lord, every story, every miracle, it reveals more of more of who you are. And what we're seeing in Mark is that you are God's beloved son.

You are king. You are messiah. You are lord. God, that we would see your loving kindness on every page through Mark, and that we would take these words to heart this evening to not be afraid, to only believe. God, that we would be divinely persuaded by you and have a faith that is humble and trusting, but also bold and persistent, and it takes action like we see Jairus and and the woman in this story.

In Jesus' name. Amen. So, again, couple of take... Just a couple of takeaways that stood out to me in these miracles there. That first, that Jesus answers the call of faith.

Blake, could you advance that next slide for me, please? And that faith is demonstrated in belief and in action. So starting with Jesus answers the call of of faith. So, again, I I know this is very, very obvious, but I wanna point it out anyway because I believe it's so important. When the woman and Jairus reach out in faith, Jesus responds.

He does not turn anyone away who comes to him in faith. Like, verse 34, there it is. Daughter, your faith has made you well. So your belief, your trust, your confidence directed toward Jesus rightly has made you well. Go in peace.

Your suffering is over. Isn't that good news? Or in verse 36, don't be afraid. Just have faith. Again, belief, trust, confidence directed rightly toward Jesus, and Jesus answers to that.

Just like he did in chapter one. Do you do you remember this? Blake, real quick. Is the... Like a Spotify or something like that?

Or am I just... I might be just hearing things. I'm sorry if I am. Just like he did in chapter one with a leper, he said, Jesus, if you're willing, you can heal me, and you can make me clean. And Jesus answers that call of faith by saying, I'm willing.

Be healed. So I just... I say that to encourage us, church, not to hesitate to reach out in faith because Jesus turns his face toward those who reach out in faith. Psalm 34 is one of my favorite psalms for that reason. It says, I sought the Lord and he answered me.

We sing this in church sometimes. Psalm 34, I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears

and those who look on him.

So good. How about I just say it rather than sing it? I sought the Lord. He answered me. He delivered me from my fears.

Those who look on him are radiant. Their faces are never covered with shame. This poor man called, and the Lord heard him, and he saved him out of all his troubles. All to say, Jesus answers the call of faith, church. Jesus answers the call of faith.

But also note also note, faith is demonstrated in belief and action. So Jairus, for example, in verse twenty two and twenty three says, Jesus, would you please come lay your hands on her so that she can live? So there's the belief right there. I believe Jesus, if you lay your hands on her, that she will be healed, that she will live. There's his belief.

But his belief also takes action. He went to Jesus. He physically went to Jesus. He fell at his feet, and he pleaded fervently with him. He put that belief into action.

Same with the woman in verses twenty seven and and twenty eight, thinking to herself, if I can just touch his robe, I'm gonna be healed. If I can just just touch his robe, just just a little bit of his garment, I'm gonna be healed. That's belief. But then she also acts on it. She doesn't just say there and go, maybe that...

I I believe that could happen, maybe. She's going, no. I'm gonna I'm gonna put this into action. I'm going to actually... To do this.

She she came up behind him through the crowd, and that was risky, a very risky move, by the way, on her part because she was considered unclean and she was excluded from social settings like this. But she did it anyway, and I'm glad she did. She touched his robe. And it's a beautiful picture, I think, of putting belief into action. And I say this to encourage us as well.

More than believing, more than believing, putting that belief into action. In our case, how can we do that? How about how about going to Jesus in prayer? Asking, pleading, gathering in his name. I think of this verse in James because this is one we've, we put into practice here as a...

As an elder board here at First Be. And in James, it says, are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven.

Now that is a big, bold statement. But after reading Mark five, like, I'm in. I'm in. I will gladly do this. If any of you were to say, listen, elder...

Elders, would would you guys come and and pray for us? I will gladly do this. Because what I see here is that Jesus wants for us wants for us to put our faith into action. He... And he gladly answers that call of faith.

I wanna... I just wanna end with this here before we get into our conversation time. It's a quote from a from a commentary I read this week, but it really inspired me. It really stuck with me. And so can I invite you to just to listen?

If you wanna close your eyes, great. Look at the floor. Look at the ceiling. Look at me. I don't I don't...

It doesn't matter. I just... I want you to hear it. It says this. It says, faith is embodied in action.

Faith is something that can be seen, Like the men digging through a roof to bring their friend to Jesus. You remember that story? How inspiring is that? Faith can be seen. It kneels.

It begs. It reaches out. That's what faith does. Belief about Jesus does not bring healing, but faith in Jesus that takes action does. May I just repeat that one more time?

Belief about Jesus does not bring healing. Oh, we saw that. We've been seeing that through scripture. The Pharisees, the religious teachers of the law, they're... They...

They've seen it. They know that Jesus exists. They know about him. But it's faith in him that takes action. That's where the healing occurs.

Neither the man nor the woman identify Jesus as the Messiah or even as a prophet. They are unclear precisely who he is, but they believe that he has the power to heal. And they're willing to put their faith to the test. Catch this. A rabbinic tradition interprets Exodus 14 to mean that only after the Israelites had gone into the sea up to their nostrils did the waters divide and expose dry ground.

That's a very interesting interpretation. Again, it's a tradition. I don't know if it's true or not, but I am inspired by it. I've been thinking about it all week. This interpretation accurately captures what faith is all about.

It does not wait to see if the waters will divide and then step out. It steps out trusting God to do what's needing. I like that. And may that be us, stepping out, taking action while believing and trusting God to do what is needed even before the waters divide. Even before the waters divide going, I'm stepping out here, God, even if it's up to my nostrils in the water, knowing, believing, trusting that you will do what's needed here.

And so I'll I'll end there. But I'd like to know what what spoke to you in these in these miracles of of the woman and with Jairus and his daughter. But may... Before we we we talk, may I pray just one more time? Lord, that that would be us stepping out, taking action while believing while believing and trusting that you will do what is needed even before even before the waters divide.

God, thank you for the gift of faith that you give to us. Your divine persuasion in us, Lord, that we would have a faith that is just like demonstrated in this story that it's bold, it's persuasive, it's it's humble. It comes to you trusting. In Jesus' name, amen. Alright.

Well, would anybody have any comments? I... To me, these two miracles, I thought, are just... They're two of my favorites. They're two of my favorites in scripture, and they're happening simultaneously at the same time.

I thought that was just, whoops, absolutely amazing is that these things are happening. They're both together, and Jesus can do it because Jesus is Jesus. But would anybody have a comment from Mark? And we'll skip the microphone because it seems like it's gonna blow up any second. It might.

Regardless of the circumstance at times too. Because I think by the way, I love what you're saying here. And I think James ties beautifully into it because that is the big theme in James. It is faith without works is a dead faith. So faith and action working together.

I love it. Have you got a comment there, Kyle? It is. Two amazing miracles here. Any others?

Any other comments? Monique, have you got one?

Can I do this just so some people online can hear it? I

think what stands out to me in these patch well, a couple of things, but it's just the timing of stuff. So the woman she dealt with the issue of blood for twelve years and then she's in that moment and then we don't know internally how Jairus reacted, Like hey, my daughter's really sick and then getting the news like she just died Jesus is in the middle of this miracle just like the humanness of that, you know, being like, okay, well, if you didn't interrupt, you know, maybe, I don't know, just the humanness, I think, of timing and how Jesus is outside of time even though he works in the constraints of time and then even made me think of the other miracle about the commander, the officer commander who also had a sick child he said, hey, just give the word. You know, and how Jesus doesn't compare us, I guess, you know, like he gives each of us a measure of faith and like that's what we're accountable for, not like our brother or sister like, hey, I didn't I didn't have faith like the commander. I wanted you to come to my house and lay hands on my daughter, you know, with Jairus but he doesn't compare.

He's able to, I think, meet each of us where we're at and we're accountable for like our own faith and just to know that like he's outside of time. So, like you said, like, he can do two miracles at once. He can do a lot more than that but yeah, it's a good reminder for me just that Jesus works outside of all kinds of boundaries, time, and comparison and just all kinds of things like that.

Yeah. Good point. Good point. I

I just like about these verses too that we're allowed to come to Jesus when we are ugly and not perfect and and raw. I I think that's really helpful for me because sometimes, you know, you're struggling with something over and over again, but he wants you to keep giving it up. Just this thing this thing again? Yeah. Here, take this this and just keep keep working on those things.

I... That's why I I like the reaffirming of of these verses tonight comes well for me just to remind me that like Jesus expects us to come to him whether we look clean or not, whether we are clean or not, like just just come. Just believe. So... Yep.

Amen.

Any others? Any other comments from this? Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this. I always appreciate hearing from you. The desperation of faith too really stood out to me that there were...

Where else were they gonna go? You know? But they believe that Jesus could truly do what Jesus does, and so they they came to him. And, Lord, I would make that our prayer as well. Lord, we would have a desperate faith as well that we would be heavily leaning depending not on our our own wisdom and ourselves, but on you and and come to you just as we are, as as Nick just mentioned as well, that we would come just as we are.

And, Lord, what I see in scripture is you don't turn anyone away. You're you're you're not... When someone comes to you in faith, you don't turn them away. And so we thank you for that, Lord, that you accept us, and you meet us where we where we are at as well. Thank you.

In Jesus' name, amen. Should we sing one more song? Evidence. Here's Jesus again in Luke 12. He says, don't be afraid, little flock, for it gives your father great happiness to give you the kingdom.

All throughout my history, Your faithfulness is warm beside me. The windstorms made way for spring. And every season from where I'm standing in, I see the abundance of your goodness all over my life, all over my life. I see your promises and fulfillments all over my life, all over my life. It'll me remember when I'm weak.

You fear me come or feel you leave. You lead my heart to victory. You are my strength and you will be. I see the evidence of your goodness all over my life, all over my life. I see your promises in fulfillment all over my life, all over my life.

See the cross, the empty grave.

See the cross, the empty grave. Yeah. That ends his endness. All my sin rolled away because of you, oh, Jesus. See the cross, the empty grave.

Yeah. But in this is endless, all my sin rolled away because of you, oh, Jesus. I see the evidence of your goodness all over my life, all over my life. And I see your promises in the fulfillment all over my life, all over my life. So why should I fear?

So why should I fear? Oh, the incense here. So why should I fear of all the incense here?

Can I leave this with us to you before we part? A little benediction from Psalm 37. It says to commit everything that we do to the Lord, to trust him, and he will help us. Thank you, God, for your divine help, for your divine persuasion in us, God, that gives birth to faith and more faith and more faith as we put it into practice. Lord, that that would be us, that we would be like the the Israelites in the in the story, in

the

tradition that they waited up to their nostrils, before the the the waters even parted because of their belief, knowing that you would do what only you can do. In Jesus' name. Amen.