(To get the most out of this post, I suggest that you read the entire passage before reading it, then follow in your Bible.)
Jairus, a ruler of the local synagogue, asked Jesus to come to his home because his daughter was near death. The word came to Jesus that the girl was already dead; therefore there was no need for Him to go to Jairus’ home. But He went and raised the girl from death. There are some good lessons for us in this incident. Verses 22-24 First, it took courage for Jairus to ask Jesus to his home for any reason. His love for his daughter overcame any prejudice that he might have against Jesus. He also overlooked the prevailing opinions of Jesus by his fellow Jewish leaders. There will be times, and they are becoming increasingly so, when we will have to ignore the critics of Jesus, and of the Christian faith in order to take a stand for Jesus and for our faith. Verses 35-36 Second, when the report came to Jesus that the girl was dead, Jesus told Jairus: “Be not afraid, only believe.” Jesus message to Jairus was short and to the point. It is a message that we need to take to heart whenever we are going through rough times in our lives. I have certainly found that believing in Jesus in my own rough times has helped me to overcome my fears. I have found that Jesus will help me over, around, or through any crisis that I face. Just as Jairus had to believe in spite of the fact that his daughter was dead, we will have to believe though the way looks rough. Whatever you are facing today put your trust in Jesus and He will get you through it, over, or around it. Verses 37-43 Third, it is interesting that Jesus said, after He had raised the girl from the dead, that she be given something to eat. We can go in several different directions in interpreting this command. I think that the girl had been sick for quite some time and had nothing to eat for a long time. We have to remember that Jesus fed five-thousand people, or more, with five “loaves” of bread and two fish. On another occasion, He fed four-thousand people in the same way. I think this tells us that Jesus is concerned about our physical well-being as well as about our spiritual well-being. I pray that this brief look at this miracle of Jesus has struck some chord in your life, and has strengthened your faith in Him. Bro. Joe
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“When (Jesus) was come down from the mountain (after the Sermon on the Mount) great multitudes followed Him. 2. And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped Him, saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. 3. And Jesus put forth His hand, touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy was healed.” (I added the parentheses.)
There is a lot to write about in this text, but I want to focus on the one thing that really caught my attention, i.e., the man asked Jesus if He was willing, and Jesus answered “I will.” At that point Jesus touched the leper and he was healed of leprosy. This text told us something about Jesus that we need to know – He is willing. This is a fact about Jesus that reaches out across to the centuries from this incident to our lives. We need to get in touch with Jesus’s willingness in our lives. Here are my thoughts on the subject: He Will! Jesus is not reluctant to help in our lives. When we pray, we need to remember that we are not trying to overcome Jesus’ reluctance, but that we are joining Him in His willingness. He is always ready to do what is best for us. Sometime what we see as the reluctance of Jesus, is that He is really teaching us what we really need. I believe in “name it and claim it” with this caveat: We need to claim the answer that Jesus gives whether what He gives is not specifically what we asked of Him. We just need to trust Jesus that in His willingness, He is doing always what is best for our lives. Obviously, the leper needed to be healed at that instance. We can believe that is what was best for Him. I have seen both sides of His willingness in my own life. Many, many times, Jesus has given me specifically what I have asked for. At other times, I just had to accept that Jesus knew what was best for me. Here is a quote from Alan Redpath that has served as an anchor for me in my own bouts with illness: “There is nothing, no circumstances, no trouble, no testing that can ever touch me until it has come past God and past Christ, right through to me. If it has come that far, it has come with a great purpose.” The willingness of Jesus always comes with a purpose. He Can! We should never doubt that Jesus can do what is asked of Him. The power of Jesus that we saw in the stilling of the storm, turning water into wine, feeding over 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish, plus healings like the one in our text, is still there for us. We just need faith in Jesus that He can do the impossible if the situation calls for it. There is no circumstance in this fallen world that Jesus is not aware of and is not working His purpose in people’s lives. Man, this is hard for us to accept today. Because of everything going on, we think that Jesus is standing hopelessly by, not able to do anything. We need to always remember that we live in a fallen world since the Garden of Eden. Please do not allow Satan to convince you that Jesus is powerless. Jesus’ promise that He will always be with us in the good and the bad that happens in our lives still stands. He still walks with us “through the valley of the shadow of death.” He Has! I want to close with a reminder of what Jesus has already willingly done on our behalf. He gave Himself as a willing sacrifice for our sins. We need to accept what Jesus has done for us and that He will and can make our lives better by doing what is best for us.. Join Jesus in His willingness. Bro. Joe “And behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue: and he fell down at Jesus’ feet, and besought Him that He would come to his house.”
I revisited a text that I recently wrote about which is recorded in all three of the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke. It is the visit that Jesus made to the home of Jairus because his daughter was gravely ill and was about to die. Jesus went with Jairus and raised his daughter from death. I want to share with you what I saw in the text printed above. Jairus sought Jesus. Evidently, Jairus had heard about Jesus, and saw Him as The One who could heal his daughter. This is why it is so important for us to share our testimonies about what Jesus has done in our lives. If we have experienced the saving power of Jesus, or His healing power, we need to share it, because there are many who need to hear it. We also need to remember to seek Jesus in every aspect of our lives. He is available to us at all times. Learn this lesson from Jairus and reach out to Jesus today and invite Him into your need. He will help you in whatever need you have. He will rescue you from the need, or lead you through or around it. Jairus worshiped Jesus. When Jairus encountered Jesus, “he fell down at His feet.” This is a real act of worship. It impresses me that when Jairus encountered Jesus, he did not say “you must come to my house today because I am a ruler of the synagogue.” He recognized in Jesus what many rulers of synagogues did not recognize. Everything that Jesus does in our lives is out of grace - the unmerited favor of God. Just as Jesus did not owe Jairus anything, He does not owe us anything. This important man approached Jesus as one with an abject need. Jesus is worthy of worship. In the Bible when people tried to worship angels, or apostles, they were told not to do worship them. But Jesus accepted the worship of Jairus, just as He will accept our worship. “Fall at Jesus’ feet” today and seek His help in your life. Jairus invited Jesus to “come into his house.” Jairus’ need overcame his self-importance. He discovered that Jesus was open to his invitation. We will find that Jesus is always open to our invitation. In Revelation 3:20 Jesus gave an invitation to church at Laodicea: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man (person), hear my voice and open the door; I will come in to him, and will sup with him and he with me.” The invitation still stands. Whatever your need today, seek Jesus, worship Him and invite Him into your life and into your need. Bro. Joe "Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master we would see a sign from thee. 39. But He (Jesus) answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah: 40. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."
"If we could just see more miracles, we would believe." This was basically said by the scribes and Pharisees and by many people today. I find myself sometimes asking God to do some miracle so people will believe. I have found, however, that miracles do not necessarily result in faith. I am certainly not against miracles. I've had some in my life and have seen them in the lives of others. Miracles are wonderful and real, but they do not necessarily make a person turn to Jesus. Besides that, what other sign, or miracle, did they need? They had already said that Jesus' power was from Satan. Which proves my point that miracles do not make a person focus on Jesus. The problem is that, as wonderful as they are, miracles tend to call attention to themselves, not to Jesus. Jesus said that the number one sign, or miracle, would be His resurrection. The fact that Jesus defeated death, hell and the grave is what should draw us to Him. Our faith is to be in a person named Jesus, not in what we have seen Him do. Jesus did not have to prove Himself to the scribes and Pharisees, and He does not have to prove Himself to us. The fact that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, was raised three days later, and ascended to the Father forty days later, is really all that we need to believe. It is possible to rejoice in a miracle and miss Jesus. Our focus should be on Jesus, first, second and always. He is the source of our salvation. This is what Jesus wanted the scribes and Pharisees, as well as ourselves, to see. He is enough! We need to put our faith in Jesus, for He is the only way to the Father. Don't stop praying for and believing in miracles, but don't depend on them to win people to Jesus. I think the gospels are pretty clear on this. Bro. Joe “And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years came behind (Jesus), and touched the hem of His garment. 21. For she said within herself, If I may but touch His garment, I shall be whole. 22. But Jesus turned about, and when He saw her, He said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith has made you whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.”
Jesus was on the way to the house of a :synagogue ruler, named Jairus in Mark and Luke’s account, to raise his daughter from death, when He was interrupted by a woman who had suffered from an issue of blood (losing blood) for twelve years.(Wow what a long sentence. lol) In Luke’s account we are told that she “had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed by any.” (Luke 8:43) Her situation was desperate, and she came to the right person at the right time. I want to share with you what I saw in this miracle that can bless us. First, Jesus was her best and last hope. She had been losing blood for twelve years, and there was no cure for her. She just knew that if she could just touch Jesus’ garment, she could be healed. In the press of the crowd I think that she actually fell and touched the “hem of His garment.” This touch saved her life. Perhaps you have some things in your life that need healing. Reach out in prayer and touch Jesus. Second, Jesus reacted to her faith, for He said to her: “Your faith has made you well.” Notice that she possibly did not know that it was a touch of faith. She just knew that Jesus could help her. Here is what we need to see: Jesus always reacts to faith. I don’t know how we would measure faith, but I know that it does not take a whole lot of faith to encounter the power of Jesus. We are saved by faith. We are sustained by Faith. We are enabled to serve Jesus by faith. And we can find help for our lives through faith. Like the woman, we just need to reach out and touch Him in prayer. Third, Jesus gave her His time. She actually interrupted Jesus as he was going to the house of one of the “rulers of the synagogue.” Jairus was an important man, but Jesus took the time to stop and deal with the stricken woman. Jesus did not say to her, “I’m on my way to the ruler of the synagogue’s house. I don’t need an interruption.” Jesus welcomes interruptions. He always has time for us. He is always concerned about our lives. There is so much more that could be written about this incident. I did not even touch “the hem of the garment” of this incident. (Pun intended!) What I have shared should be an encouragement to you to reach out and touch Jesus by faith today. Bro. Joe (By the way, Jesus raised the daughter of Jairus from death.) Jesus said: “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”
My good friend, John Townsend, sent me an Email that really caught my attention. The Email was about a man who had a heart attack. The hospital staff tried to revive him but could not get a heartbeat. Finally, they pronounced him dead and had begun to prepare him for the morgue. The doctor who pronounced him dead is a Christian. He said that the Lord spoke to his heart and said to turn around, go back to where the man was and pray for him. At first, he was a bit hesitant, but the “still small voice” was so persistent that he did what the voice told him to do. He went in and prayed for the man, then told the technician to shock him one more time. To make a long story short, the technician applied the paddle to the man, shocked him and he revived. He is still alive today and is indeed a believer because of the experience. (What I failed to add above is that the man was not a Christian, and is glad he was called back, because while he was dead, he was in a dark place and was all alone.) Do you believe that this sort of thing can happen today? Well, do you believe in the Bible? There were all kinds of miracles in the Bible in the Old and New Testaments. Miracles occur by the hand of God, who is sovereign over human affairs. In other words, not everybody is healed when healing is prayed for, and not everyone is raised from the dead when people would wish it to happen. But if God wants a miracle to occur, it will occur. Our part is to have faith in Him, believe in what He can do, and trust Him to do what is best for us. Jesus did all kinds of miracles in His ministry on earth. He did things that were way above the level of possibility. For example, Jesus turned water into wine. Now, you can’t make wine out of water. When water sits for awhile it only becomes brackish, has little green things in it, and is harmful to drink. Water cannot be made into grape juice or wine – period. Another example of Jesus doing miracles is His power over demons. They were absolutely subservient to Him. When Jesus told them to come out, they came out. Now, demons are cast out today, but the casting out is not from the power of people, but from the power of Christ. It is our faith in Jesus than can cause Jesus to do things far above what we would humanly expect. To me, that is the exciting thing about being a Christian. We can’t do anything that we want to do, but we serve a God who can. You might be thinking right now: “Bro. Joe have you ever seen a miracle?” Let me put it this way: I have prayed for people to be healed and they were healed. I didn’t slap them on the forehead in front of television cameras, but I prayed for them in the quiet of my place of prayer, God heard and answered. Needless to say, I have prayed for people to be healed and they were not healed because God had other plans for them. Did I pray for myself to be healed in my bout with two cancers in 2011-2012? Of course I did, and I was healed through medicine. God did not see fit to heal me immediately, but He grew my faith in Him while I was recovering. I am not trying to explain to you why God does what He does in various lives. I’m just telling you that our sovereign God always works on behalf of believers, and sometimes that does not jibe with our ideas of what He should do for us. Like Paul, I don’t think that God has to explain to us why He does what He does. We just have to confess that when God inspired Isaiah to write that His ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts, He wasn’t playing games with us. He is beyond our understanding. I just rejoice that by faith in Jesus Christ, I can serve God and see what He can do in the lives of individuals. It is beyond our power, to determine when God will perform miracles. It is in our power to trust Him when He inspires Paul to write in Romans 8:28: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.” That is a miracle within itself. Believe it! Bro. Joe |
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