Jesus' Authority Over Disease

Well, good morning, Cross Church Phoenix. How are you? >> Good morning. >> Good morning. I always feel like I'm about ready to go on like an adventure after watching that. Like, like we're about ready to Well, we are through God's word. That's where we're going to go on an adventure, too. Uh I am Pastor DJ. I'm the pastor here at Cross Church. So, if I haven't met you, welcome. Uh come find me afterwards. I'd love to meet you and talk about Jesus with you and all the good stuff. Um, but at this time, would you open your Bibles to Matthew 9 beginning at verse 20? And if you don't have a Bible, there's uh one in the seat back in front of you. Feel free to use that. Make it your Bible. You can mark it up, highlight it, underline stuff, and make it your Bible. It's our gift to you. You can have it, and we will uh gladly replace it. And once you get to Matthew 9 verse 20, put your finger there and turn over also to Mark 5. We're going to be in both passages this morning. Uh Matthew is straight and to the point uh in this particular miracle and uh he gives us three verses and Mark and Luke expand on our text this morning a little bit more. So, we're going to focus in on Mark's account. So, Matthew 9:20 and then also Mark 5 beginning at verse 25. Happy Mother's Day. Thank you to all you mothers. Whether you're physically a mother or a spiritual mother, I am grateful for you because whether or not you have children of your own or maybe you volunteer in the kids ministry or the nursery or you disciple children in any way, maybe through adoption or foster care, you are valued, loved, and appreciated. And from the bottom of my heart, I thank you for your service and for your role that you play in discipling our children. May you all be uh Titus 2 women. Um is my prayer for all of the women here at Cross Church. Everyone a Titus 2 woman. Well, if you're new with us, uh we're in a series going through the miracles of Jesus. The main purpose of Jesus miracles has never been the miracle in and of itself. Though they're awesome and incredible, the main purpose of Jesus miracles was always to reveal his authority over both the natural and the spiritual realm. Jesus Christ has authority over everything. And this morning we come to the second miracle in a in a two miracle passage. If you remember last week we focused on the raising of Girus's dead 12year-old daughter. Gyrus had come to Jesus. He said my daughter is dead but if you come you can raise her. And if you remember from last week, as him and the disciples and the rest are going to Gyrus house, there's an interruption. There's a pause in the story, and that's what we're going to focus on this morning. The wonderful, beautiful faith of an outcast woman. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for your word. And now God, I just pray for everyone in here. I don't know what everyone's going through. I don't know how painful this day might be. But God, I pray that you would touch the lives of your people this morning. that you would show them love, your grace, your mercy, your kindness towards them. I pray God that you would give us eyes to see, ears to hear what the Holy Spirit has to say to the church here at Cross Church in Jesus name. Amen. Well, if you are able to, let's stand as we read God's word together. If you're not, that is totally fine. You can stand with us in spirit. It's about the heart postured towards God's word. But the standing is just a resemblance of our reverence for his word. And we're going to read Matthew 9 20-22 and also a passage from Mark 5 beginning at verse 30 is where I'll be reading. So the word of God says this. Just then, or behold, a woman who had suffered from bleeding for 12 years approached from behind and touched the end of his robe. For she said to herself, "If I could just touch his robe, I'll be made well." Jesus turned and saw her, "Have courage, daughter." He said, "Your faith has saved you." And the woman was made well from that moment. And picking up in Mark 5 beginning at verse 30, it says this. Immediately Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and said, "Who touched my clothes?" His disciples said to him, "You see the crowd pressing against you, and yet you say, "Who touched me?" But he was looking around to see who had done this. The woman with fear and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. Daughter, he said to her, "Your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be healed from your affliction." Amen. Thanks. You can be seated. In Romans 4 verse 18, Paul uses a curious, interesting phrase to describe Abraham's faith. Paul says, "Abraham hoped against hope. hoped against hope. And if you have a handout, you'll see that's our main heading this morning. If you don't, they're on the tables in the back. Hoping against hope. What does it mean to hope against hope? How did Abraham hope against hope? Well, if you remember, God back in Genesis promised Abraham and Sarah would have a son. This son would come from Abraham and Sarah, not anyone else. Abraham and Sarah. The promise came, God's promise to Abraham came when Abraham was 75 years old. Sarah is 10 years. his junior. So she is 65. They waited and waited for the promised child. And as they waited and waited, they got older and older. Every year that passed seemed to be a year the promised child never came. As much as they tried, Sarah remained childless until Abraham was 100 years old, meaning Sarah was 90, well past normal childbearing years. And having been barren for 90 years, it would be easy to lose hope. 25 years of waiting, 25 years to lose hope, 25 years to lose faith. But Abraham didn't lose either one. Which leads Paul in the New Testament to describe Abraham's faith in Romans 4:18, saying in hope against hope, he believed. It means hope against hope. It means that against all odds, against all human reason and logic, against the hopelessness of the situation, Abraham's faith remained strong and he believed God. And that child Isaac eventually came. That's hope against hope. The woman in our text this morning is another example of hoping against hope. So the first thing I want you to see is this. Number one, the reality of our hopelessness. The reality of our hopelessness. Because this story simply begins with the reality of her hopelessness. She bled for 12 years. Imagine that for a moment. Her issue of blood would render her ceremonially unclean constantly. Every day she woke up would be another day she's automatically unclean. And not only that, everything she touches, everyone she touches would be unclean also according to the Old Testament law. And she sought help. The other gospels tell us she sought help from many doctors. Every doctor she could find. She spent every penny she had to get help. You want to know what she got in return? Worse. That's what she got. The scriptures specifically say she spent everything, every cent she had and got worse. The last thing that would make sense is to go to a Jewish rabbi whose background is in carpentry. One of the reasons that this scene is so beautiful and so wonderful is because there is a great contrast between Jirus and this woman. And that's why every gospel writer that documents this keeps it the same way. You have Jarus comes to Jesus begging for him to raise his daughter back to life. Then an incident in between on the way the woman comes and then back to J Iris because all of the gospel writers want you and me to see something. J Iris as a synagogue ruler would be wealthy. She, as we know, spent every penny on doctors and got worse. She's poor. He Gus would be highly esteemed and respected as a synagogue ruler. She would be rejected. He would be honored. She would be ashamed. He led the synagogue. She would be exccommunicated from it because of her hemorrhage making her constantly, persistently unclean. He experienced the joy of raising a daughter for 12 years, the gift of a daughter. She experienced misery for 12 years as a social outcast due to her condition. What do they have in common? Coming to Jesus Christ in their brokenness. That's what they have in common. That's what unites them. And though it's Mother's Day, this ain't just two mothers or women. Have you experienced a time in your life where you felt utterly hopeless? Complete hopelessness. Maybe that's right now. Maybe you dread these days or other holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving and or Father's Day because all they are are reminders of those who've passed. Maybe you feel alone. This woman would be well acquainted with loneliness as a rejected social outcast. Maybe you feel abandoned. Those who were supposed to love you left you. Maybe you had big plans in life. No doubt I could venture to say in those days especially the uh importance and desire uh uh for children. She would likely have wanted children being desperate for children but no one will marry her in this condition. Maybe she had big plans. Maybe you had big plans and then the accident happened or the diagnosis came or you got the phone call and everything came crashing down. Hoping against hope doesn't ignore the reality of our pain and suffering or hopelessness. What hoping against hope does do is it faces it head on with our second truth, the reality of our hope in Christ. That's what it does in Mark 5:27. So, if you're not in Mark, if you would turn over to Mark 5, beginning at verse 27. Now, we'll camp there the rest of our time. In Mark 5:27, we read, I love the sound of of papers turning. Just kind of stop and listen to it for a sec. But the next gospel over chapter 5, Matthew, Mark, and in Mark 5:27, we read this woman heard the reports about Jesus probably because he's started his ministry now. He's been doing some things here and there. He's already causing a ruckus. The Pharisees already hate him and think he's a blasphemer and all this, but word is spreading about Jesus. She probably heard the reports of his miracles and healings. Now remember, she is constantly unclean. And she would know, she knows she's not supposed to be out touching everybody because Old Testament law said anyone or anything she touches is made unclean. That was Old Testament law. Now, that was supposed to be for a period of time, 5 or 7 days or whatever, and then they were brought back in. This is persistent 12 years. She has been dealing with this, meaning she's an outcast. She knows she's not supposed to be out. She's lived for years in loneliness, pain, and sorrow. And yet yet she hears about Jesus and says, "I'm going to him. I'm going to him and I I don't need much. I just need to touch a touch of his garment and I'll be made well." And that is hoping against hope. That is faith. Because what this shows us is that against all odds, all human logic and reason, no doctor can fix her. She went broke trying to find a doctor who could do something. And though no one could do anything, she believed Jesus could. Hoping against hope says, "No matter what's going on right now in my life, how much it hurts, how sorrowful I am, how alone I feel, if I can just be in the presence of Jesus Christ, I'll be made well. I'll be okay. If I can just be with God, my life will be made whole. That's the reality of our hope in Christ. How does that look in your situation? Do you just give up? Throw the towel in? Tired of dealing with this? Throw your hands up in the air and say, "I'm done. Peace out. See you later." done with this whole Christian thing, this whole church thing. Uh, I'm done. Jesus hasn't taken away. God's not helping me out. Um, I'm throwing in the towel. Or do you run to Christ and you look at your situation and say, "I need Christ more. I need church more. I need the gospel more. I need Bible reading more. I need my prayer life more. I need my devotional life more because of this situation that I'm in. I can't imagine. Can you just imag how many times this woman probably wanted to give up on life? We give up on for much less, right? a hangail or something. No, I'm just kidding. And yet she doesn't. She heard about Christ and just ran to him. The reality of her hope in Christ is just as real as the reality of her hopelessness without him. And that same hope in Christ is available to you and to me, to us. And this leads me to my last point. This is incredibly important. The reality of our peace with God. The reality of our peace with God. If you look down at from Mark 5, if you looked at verse 30, verse 30, Jesus perceives power has gone out of him, out from him. You see what's happening here? She touches him. Jesus senses in himself, "Power has gone out for me." Here's the thing. She in touching him didn't make him unclean. He made her clean. The opposite happened because of the power that's exuding from Jesus Christ. She is made clean by his power. And so Jesus asks, you know, who touched me, right? Who touched me? And of course, we know that Jesus knows who touched her. This is not a mystery to Jesus. He is doing this on purpose. Everything Christ does is intentional of course, but this serves a specific purpose. And so the woman comes in fear and trembling, falls down before Jesus. Our word for worship in Greek, prouneo, falling down on your face, is used over and over. She falls down, prostrates herself in fear and trembling. in fear and trembling before Jesus had told him the whole truth. Then Jesus looks at her and says, "Daughter, glorious, right, daughter, your faith has saved you." Listen, don't forget that your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Don't forget that. And be healed from your affliction. Why is Jesus doing this? Pointing her out, calling her out. Is he being mean? Is he trying to embarrass her? No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. This is grace and mercy beyond anything we can imagine. Jesus just changed her life and made it public. She is declared healed publicly. That is mercy. That's a gift. You know why? Because she would have a reputation. People would know who she is. And she hadn't been able to hug someone for years. No one wants to touch her because of this. And Jesus publicly declares that she is made well, that she is healed. She can go worship now. She could touch people and things and not make them unclean anymore. She's free. She could hug someone and not make them unclean. People would not be afraid to embrace her anymore. People would keep her at an arm's length. Now she is clean. Now you need to see something extremely important. There are different words in Greek for being healed or made healthy. or cured. There's therapo, which sounds like what it is, right? It sounds like our word therapy. That's where we get it from. Therapuo. This word means simply to be healed or cured. In Matthew uh 4:23, uh Matthew uses that word to describe Jesus's general healing ministry. Matthew 4:23 says, "And he went throughout all Galilee, uh, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people." He just went around healing everybody, most everybody. His general healing ministry. He went about healing and curing things, people is what he's telling you. Then there's this word yomi. Yomi, which is basically a synonym to therapo. It also means to be healed or cured. I am specifically repeating healed and cured in English to show the point that these words are basically synonyms are interchangeable just like therapuo and yomi are. If I said somebody was healed from their cancer or if I said they were cured from their cancer, you might be like, "Oh, that's that's like saying the same thing or I was healed from a broken leg or cured." It's, yes, there's little nuances, but it's generally saying the same thing. That's these two words. And here's what I want you to see in Mark 5:29. It's the word yomi where it says she sensed in her body is key in her body that she was healed. Yomi of her affliction. What this simply means is she's been cured. Healed. the flow of blood stopped physically in her body. That's what that means. Then there's the word soozo. Soozo. And you say, "So what, DJ? I'll tell you." So what? I'll tell you. So what? So this word means to be saved or slash in right relationship with God. This is very key. This is the word Jesus uses in Mark 5:34 when he says, "Your faith has saved you." So, you may have a translation that says like healed her or made her well. The CSB got it right when they said saved you because that's what it means literally to be saved. It's used all over the New Testament. What this is saying is simply this. Yes, she's been healed physically. Oh my. Cured of a physical blood flow. But what Jesus is saying is that more has happened than physical healing. That's what he's saying. Her faith in Christ saved her. Look at Mark 5:34. Look at verse 34. Mark 5. Jesus is treating the two events separately. Two things have happened. So really this is a two for one miracle. A physical and a spiritual miracle. He says Jesus does your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be healed of your affliction. You've been saved also. You've been healed. Go. Jesus is saying she's saved and healed. You have both yo my and so you have physical and spiritual healing. That's why listen. That's why he says go in peace. Did you know that Jesus only says go in peace to those who have saving faith in him? He doesn't say that to everyone that gets healed. For example, in Luke 7, Jesus is invited over to a Pharisees house for dinner. His name is Simon the Pharisee. A woman, different woman, a woman hears Jesus is at this Pharisees house, Simon's house, and she goes in. You might recognize the story when I start to describe it. She goes in with an alabaster flask of oil and she begins weeping at Jesus' feet. And so in Luke 7, her tears are wetting Jesus' feet. And so if you remember, she begins to wipe Jesus' feet with her hair. Oh, when the Pharisee, Simon the Pharisee, saw it. He says, um, if Jesus were a prophet, he'd know what kind of woman this is. So, she had a reputation, too. We don't know what she was. Maybe a prostitute, maybe some kind of sinner of some sort. But the Simon says if Jesus were a real prophet, he would know. He wouldn't let this girl touch him. And right now, she's wiping his feet with her hair. Jesus ain't legit. That is the Pharisees um assessment of the situation. And Jesus looks at Simon and says,"Simon, I got something to say to you." That ought to get your attention, right? If Jesus looks you in the eyes, says, "I got something to say to you. Listen up." Right? And then Jesus shares a parable. You can read that on your own with Simon. And turns to the woman and says, "Your faith has saved you." So, go in peace. The reality is this. You can be, I can be, we can be physically healed and still spiritually dead and have no peace with God. Peace with God is only found in Jesus Christ. It is repeated over and over in the New Testament. When Jesus was risen from the dead and he was appearing to people, he would say over and over like on repeat, right? Peace be with you. Peace be with you. Paul in his letters would often put grace and peace together. He would say, "Grace and peace be with you to the churches in Jesus Christ." First Peter uh 5, Peter says, "Peace to all of you who are in Christ." John in his letter 2 John 3 just as a sample he says grace mercy and peace will be with us from God the father and from Jesus Christ the father's son I say that to say this here in our passage Jesus is pointing out that not only did this woman receive physical healing but that her faith in Jesus saved her eternal eternally and she now has peace with God. The more important miracle. Do you have peace with God this morning? Do you do you have peace with God this morning? I could ask that question another way. Are you in Christ this morning? Because if you're not, you don't have peace with God. Just plain and simple. The most important thing this Mother's Day is having peace with God. You say, "What's the message from Cross Church on this Mother's Day?" Um, be in Christ. Get saved. That's the message. That's the most important thing. When Jesus uh healed 10 lepers in Luke 17, uh he he sent them to go show themselves to the priests. He heals 10 lepers. It says, "Go show yourselves to the priest." And only one only one came back, it says, and gave glory to God. Let me describe this. The one who came back fell at Jesus' feet. Sound familiar? Like the woman did. And thanked him. And Jesus is like, this is my paraphrase, right? Um, were there not 10 cleansed? Where's everyone else? No one's returning to give glory to God except this one guy. And then Jesus looks at the one leper who was healed and came back and says, "Get up and go your way. Your faith has so saved you. Don't miss it. He was already cleansed of his leprosy like the other nine. He was already cleansed of leprosy, but he wasn't saved till he came back to the feet of Jesus, believed, and had faith in Christ, and gave glory to God. He's the only one who is saved. 10 were healed. one was saved from his sin. Don't miss it. Don't miss it. The leper was changed both outside and inside just like this woman. She's not just cured. She is changed. She is saved. Her encounter with Christ both physically and spiritually changed her. Because the truth is this. You cannot cannot did I mention you cannot have a genuine encounter with Jesus and leave the same. You can't. You may not have a 12-year hemorrhage, but all of us, every last person listening to my voice in this room or online either is or w is or was lost in the hopelessness of sin. And you can try every which way you want to free yourself from the burden of your sin. You won't be able to do it. Spend all the money you want finding release from your sin. You can't buy it. You can't earn it. You can't do it on your own. No more than she could get rid of her disease on her own. She couldn't rid herself of this. She couldn't pay to get it done. She had to come to Christ. We need Christ to save us from sin. And if you don't know him this morning, come to him. Pour your heart out to him. Cry out to him for forgiveness of your sin. Cuz that's our primary need. I said this last week. I'm going to say it again. That is primary. Yes, we come to him and we pray for healing. We pray for comfort in loss, all of those things. Yes and amen. But our primary need is salvation from sin. The biggest miracle of this whole incident is her forgiveness and her salvation from her sin. Her her physical healing is secondary just like the paralytic, right? Your sins are forgiven. What? Yeah, I forgave you of your sin. Well, I'm still paralyzed. Yeah. And then Jesus gets to that one later. But the first primary miracle was that Jesus saved the paralytic from sin and then healed him of his paralysis. That was secondary. Just like this woman, her healing physically is secondary to her spiritual. And like this woman left changed. You can leave here changed. And you say, "Well, I'm too far gone. I'm too sinful. My life's too much of a mess." DJ, you don't know the depths of the sin I'm in. I'm in the deepest trenches of sin. God can't save me. Oh, yes, he can. Oh, yes, he can. Hope against hope. against all human logic, against all reason, human reason, against all odds, against the reality of death for J. Iris and his daughter, or against the reality of an incurable hemorrhage for the woman. They both came to Christ and left changed inside and out. And could I plead with you to not leave this Mother's Day unchanged? We have fun. We celebrate our moms. We got treats in the back. We've got child dedications. It's great. But if you leave here unchanged, what's the point? And if you would like to meet with me in the back after service, you can come find me. I'd love to talk with you about your greatest need and your hopelessness, Jesus Christ. And we have a wonderful opportunity this morning to dedicate our children to Christ. And so I want to invite now um the Wiznooki and the Ramos family um Madison and Virgil to come on down and join me here on the stage real quick. Yeah. You guys want to come right up here? We have Madison Whiz Newski and Justin and Lily. And then we have Mr. Virgil Ramos and Sarah and Gabe. Um, one of the things I love about the scriptures is, I mean, I love everything about the Bible, don't get me wrong, but I love in Genesis 18:19, God tells us why he chose Abraham. And he says this in Genesis 18:19, he says, "I have chosen him." The Lord says, "For I have chosen him that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice so that the Lord may bring to him may bring to Abraham what he has promised him." He chose Abraham for the specific purpose of training his children in the ways of the Lord. And this carries over into Deuteronomy 6:es 5-7 where it says this, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart." And then it says this. This is the expectation. You shall teach them diligently to your children. You shall teach them diligently to your children. And shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise. That is a Hebrew way of saying all the time. All the time. When they're as happy as that or not. Just kidding. Yeah. This they're doing great. You guys are awesome. And uh to round us out in the New Testament, Paul says in Ephesians 6:4, he says, "Fathers, fathers, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." So, as we dedicate these children to the Lord, uh not only are the parents making a commitment, but we as a church are making a commitment to these families. And so first I'm going to read a series of uh commitments the parents are making. Ready? All right. These are the commitments. As the parents of these children the Lord has given us in the presence of our church family. We promise to commit the gift of our child to God acknowledging they belong to the father and it is our privilege and responsibility to care for them. Every good thing we have comes from God. And our child belong to God before they ever belong to us. We promise to pray for our child's conversion to Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior and call upon the power of the Holy Spirit to enable us to provide nurture, care, and guidance to our child in the ways of the Lord. We promise to be an example for our child as we seek to obey God and his word with our lives. We promise to make being part of the body of Christ a priority as we raise our children in God's church. We promise to discipline or disciple and discipline our children and train them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. So parents, are you making this commitment to dedicate your children to the Lord in this way? They said yes. I know they don't have a mic, but it's not just a one-way street, right? That's they are dedicating their children and making a commitment to them publicly. But the flip side of that is that we as the church are also making a commitment to them, to these families. So, I'm going to read a series of commitments that we as a church are making as well. And as a church, in the presence of these parents, we acknowledge that these children are gifts from God. And it's our privilege and responsibility to help these parents care for them. We commit to praying for our children uh for for these children's salvation and that they would come to know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior at the earliest possible time. And we commit to be the loving church that these dedicated children need and to be examples for them as they grow up. And we promise to help these dedicated children follow the Lord's will with their lives. So church family, if you are joining me in this commitment, will you stand together with me and extend your arm out in our direction, in their direction as we pray over these families. Let's pray. Father, we thank you uh we thank you for these children. We thank you for the blessing of Virgil and Madison. They are a gift from you. Children are a gift, a heritage from the Lord. And so we dedicate them to you, Lord. We pray even now that you by the power of the Holy Spirit would draw these children to you to bring them to faith and trust in Jesus Christ that they would too would see their need to turn away from their own sin and come to Jesus Christ. We pray for these parents right now, God, that they would lead their families well. We pray that you would be the number one priority in their home. And God, we pray that as a church, we would come alongside them in this wonderful privilege and honor to raise up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We thank you and we praise you in Jesus name. And all God's people said, >> "Amen." Amen. Amen. Well, we have we have Baby's New Testament with the Psalms. So, we've got Virgil here. And you want the blue one right here. Right there. And Madison. And here's that. Amen. Right. Amen. I want to uh invite the worship team up. You guys can step on down. Thank you. And um let's stand as we uh I know you guys just sat uh but let's stand up as we sing our last song.