Author: Jinson Thomas

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Good morning church! If you’ve been tracking with us over the last few months, as a church we’ve been preaching through the gospel of Mark. Right now we are in Chapter 9.

As you are turning to the passage, let me remind us a little bit of where we were. Last weekend we read how Jesus takes Peter, James and John with him to the top of the mountain where he gets transfigured in front of them!

Also while this is happening, Jesus is talking to Moses and Elijah who are standing with him. This great event left a strong impact on the hearts and minds of the disciples!

In the letters that these disciples wrote many years later to the churches, they often mentioned this event because Jesus revealed His glory as the Son of God, He showed that He was the fulfillment of the Law and the prophecies and that He was the True King – defined by the words of the Father when He says “This is my beloved Son. Listen to Him”. And this great event sets up the next story which we will read today:

Read Mark 9:14-29

I am an unbeliever!!! Woah! Did the elder of the church just say that? There have been many times in my Christian where I’ve either thought that or said that to myself.

I believe that what Christ has done is full and sufficient to save me. But there are times when I evaluate my fight with sin, the times when I think about the future and don’t trust in God’s promises and then think “would a believer really be like that, would a believer really respond like this?”

And so even after trusting in Jesus I know there are various pockets in my life where I am an unbeliever. I’m an unbeliever needing Jesus to rescue me from that.So today’s message is for all unbelievers.

Maybe you’re an unbeliever who’s never known Jesus or like me you’ve known the Lord but struggle to believe in other areas of your life. Let me invite you to look at this passage for encouragement. Because we are prone to unbelief, because our hearts naturally turns to unbelief:

1. We need God’s patience when we don’t believe (v16-19)

“What are you arguing about with them?” 17 And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. 18 And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.” 19 And he answered them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.”

Right after Jesus comes down the mountain, he sees the scribes and the crowd arguing with the remaining disciples. And Jesus asks them why they were arguing and a man from the crowd told him about the terrible affliction that came upon his son due to an evil spirit.

He brought his son to the disciples for healing but because they couldn’t heal him and that resulted in an argument. Jesus responds by telling them that they are a faithless generation!

How long was he to bear with them? Was Jesus losing his patience? Was Jesus getting frustrated with the people? Why did Jesus say something seemingly harsh?

In order to answer this, I think we need to consider two things:

• Language: Where else did Jesus use similar language? Towards the end of chapter 8, Jesus refers to the current generation as an adulterous and sinful generation. In the OT the prophets would often term the rebellious nation of Israel as “Crooked and twisted generation, unfaithful people”. And it’s not because the prophets developed a disliking or hatred towards people. It was their own people. Their own nation. But they were merely describing the hearts of people that repeatedly and relentlessly turned away from God.
• Insult of unbelief: Sometimes we downplay the expressions of unbelief in our lives because we don’t even think of it as sin. We think “Rape, murder, Stealing”….these are all the big sins…what is unbelief in comparison to that? It seems like a thought or a feeling. But we should understand that unbelief is an insult to the goodness of God. Unbelief tells us that God isn’t good enough or isn’t loving enough or isn’t caring enough towards us. Unbelief tells us that God can’t be trusted. Unbelief tells us that God isn’t faithful so we need to find some other way apart from God. Are you seeing a theme run through all of this? Unbelief lies at the root of every sin. Unbelief is a perversion to God’s design of man and woman. Unbelief is everything that God doesn’t want in His children!

Let’s evaluate our hearts for a moment: When you don’t get what you want, does it cause you to become bitter toward God and His people? When God doesn’t answer your prayer according to your timings, does it cause you to abandon your trust in Him?

I know as we are hearing these truths, we are feeling the weight of the reality of our own unbelief. If unbelief is the root of every sin, then we end up displaying unbelief in so many areas.

God in His Holiness and Justice has every right to wipe us out due to our unbelief but instead He displays great patience through His Son Jesus.

I think as Jesus was mentioning v19 – he wasn’t losing his patience but rather like a loving parent was expressing the great deal of patience and tolerance He has towards rebellious people like you and me.

Not only do we need God’s patience, but

2) We also need God’s provision when we struggle to believe (v21-24)

You know it’s not the first time Jesus started a conversation with people before performing a miracle. Also, here Jesus starts talking to the man asking him about the condition of his son.

As the son is convulsing on the ground, the father explains how this evil spirit has caused his son to fall into fire, into water and severely wound him. Then for the for the first time you see the man ask Jesus to help him. He says “If you can do anything, please have compassion on us and help us”.

He still doesn’t fully believe. Jesus says “If you can?” “All things are possible for one who believes”. In tears this man says “I believe; help my unbelief”. In the Greek it reads it as “Lord I believe; help my unbelief”.

Do you notice the difference between the manner in which the man addressed Jesus in the starting? He called him “Teacher” but now he calls Him “Lord”. It’s wonderful to see how Jesus drew out the faith in this man.

He was part of the crowd initially that displayed unbelief and bitterness, but now he’s acknowledging his need for Jesus. Initially he just wanted a miracle, but now he’s displaying trust in Jesus. But yet he struggles to believe! In other words he’s saying “Lord, I want to believe. Help me overcome my unbelief”.

If you’re a believer in Christ, pretty soon you will come to this place where you’ll look at the struggle with sin in your life, or a difficult situation that you’re facing in your family or work or in friendships where you’ll cry out “Help me overcome my unbelief”.

You’ll feel the tension like this man where you want to believe but struggling to do the same. What is one of the means of grace that God has provided for us?

Ephesians 2:8 says “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.”Faith is in itself a gift from God!Therefore, let’s realize that it cannot be automatically generated, it needs to be provided by God.

Hearing the words of Christ: So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.(Rom 10:17) If your heart is unbelieving, it doesn’t mean you need to read less of God’s Word or wait until a later time when you grow in maturity to read the Word.

No…you need the Word right now. You need to listen to Christ’s voice right now. It’s infact through your time with Scripture that God will convict your heart of sin and unbelief and give you the faith and the promises to trust Christ.

If you’re confused on which passage to read or if you’re struggling to understand make sure you call a brother or sister who can help you and speak those words of truth into your hearts.

Not only do we need God’s patience and God’s provision but

3. We also need God’s power to sustain our belief (v28-29)

After this whole episode is done, in private Jesus’ disciples ask him why they couldn’t cast out the demon out of this man. Jesus says that this kind can only be driven out by prayer!

These disciples just a few chapters back were given the authority to cast out all demons and heal all kinds of diseases. They experienced first hand what it meant to be used by God! I’m sure by this point they saw several lives being transformed through their ministry.

But I think they reached this point where they trusted more on themselves than God. They forgot that they needed their power source which came about by communing with God. They forgot that they needed to depend on God in prayer. It’s interesting how in John 15, Jesus reminds us that “apart from Him we can do nothing”.

Think about that for a minute everyone. Apart from Jesus we can do NOTHING. Sometimes we tend to rely on all the sermons that we’ve heard, all the Christian theology that we know, all the past experiences we’ve had, all the Christian conversations we’ve had more than dependence on God through prayer.

Again all these things are good but all our bible studies and theology should fuel our hearts to cry out to Jesus.Prayer is how we depend on God’s strength and power to make things happen in and through our lives.

My intention is not to bring this up to say “If you are praying for 15 minutes now, pray for 20 minutes from tomorrow”. Or to beat us all down on how we aren’t praying enough. But I do want us to question ourselves on how central prayer is to our lives.

Do we pray about everything in our lives? Are we honest before God – transparent as we talk to Him? We know that the only reason why we can have our prayers and petitions delivered to God is because of the Saving work of our Savior. Therefore we aren’t praying to earn brownie points but we pray to grow in our trust and love for Christ![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Good morning church! If you’ve been tracking with us over the past few months, as a church we’ve been studying the Gospel of Mark. We work through each passage expositionally. We are right in the middle of our Mark study right now in chapter 8.

The first half of the gospel focused on “who this Jesus Is” and the next half of the gospel will focus on “what Jesus Is going to do” by dying and laying down his life for us. As you’re turning to Mark 8 verse 11-26, let me set it up for you by recapping what we read last week. Jesus performs another astonishing miracle…this time in a Gentile territory displaying His power and compassion by feeding 4000 people in the midst of a desolate area.

What a wonderful thing to see God’s heart for not only the Jews but for the Gentiles! Jesus moves on from that place and has an encounter with Pharisees in v11.

[11] The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. [12] And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” [13] And he left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other side.

[14] Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. [15] And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”[b] [16] And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. [17] And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? [18] Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? [19] When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” [20] “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” [21] And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

[22] And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. [23] And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?” [24] And he looked up and said, “I see people, but they look like trees, walking.” [25] Then Jesus[c] laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. [26] And he sent him to his home, saying, “Do not even enter the village.”

Unbelief is a topic that I never heard a lot of preachers preach about in my earlier years as a believer. The assumption was that if you are a believer in Christ, then there shouldn’t be any unbelief. But we all know through that we don’t perfectly believe all the time.

At least not until Christ comes back again. In fact there may be times in a Christian’s life when he or she experiences moments of deep despair and hopelessness where God’s promises may seem blurry and unclear to us. The encouragement for believers is that Jesus understands and He has the might to power through and work in your moments of unbelief. We see two examples of unbelief mentioned in today’s passage:

1. Unbelief of the Pharisees

[11] The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. [12] And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” (v11-12)

I find it interesting that this event comes right after the encounter with the Gentiles. We saw the Gentiles have a great desire to be with Jesus. So much so that they didn’t think about carrying extra food while they went to spend time with Jesus. Unlike the Gentiles, these Pharisees who were the most religious people of the time came to Jesus and argued with him. A very different approach. A different heart.

Were they unbelieving? Yes. I want us to consider two words that we’ll be using to analyze this text : FRUIT AND ROOT. Fruit is the outward action being displayed and Root is the inward attitude that causes it. So let’s look at the Fruit and Root of this type of unbelief:

FRUIT: Demand Barrier.

They argued with Jesus because they wanted him to show a sign from heaven that proved Him to be the Messiah who was sent by God! The first time I read this I was like “really”? They need more signs to authenticate Jesus? Healing lepers, paralytics, deaf, blind, raising the dead, casting out demons, feeding thousands….are these not enough? What more are they looking for? Sometimes it’s easier for us to judge the Pharisees but it gets a little touchy when we have to ask ourselves the same question.

When it comes to obeying Christ and surrendering ourselves to Him, do we put up demands like “Jesus, if you do this for me then I’ll fully commit myself to you”? Or like “Jesus, if you perform this one miracle in my workplace or marriage or heal me from this disease, then I’ll give up my sinful life”. One of the main problems of this approach is that it seems to make us think that God exists for us. And that’s not the teaching of the Bible. We exist for God!

Isaiah 43:7 says “everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made”. He places the demands, not us. And that brings us to the root

ROOT: Sin barrier.

For the Pharisees it says they did this to “test him”. They were trying to find a way to maliciously trap him by making this demand. If we have to ask ourselves this question today, what’s our motive behind placing demands before God? Do we really think that we’ll be fully committed to God once God performs a miracle? Or is it just an excuse so that we don’t have to surrender? So that we don’t have to give up our way of life? And more often than not, it’s not the lack of evidence that keeps us from believing but it’s the unwillingness to change.

So we’ll keep arguing and debating on issues that are not central to the message of salvation. We’ll talk about spiritually intellectual topics and linger there but not allow it to penetrate through your heart.

Some years back I remember connecting with this one friend who knew a lot about the Bible. He used to listen to the best preachers and I’ve enjoyed some good moments of fellowship with him. One day when we met he openly shared and told me that he didn’t think he was a believer.

He shared about his repeated pattern of sin that he was struggling with. He spent months without reading the Word or prayer and then he commented saying that he was at that point of unbelief that only if he saw Jesus perform a big miracle for him, would he believe. I was quite shocked because we led youth groups together. We had theological discussions but still he was still in place where he was looking for a big miracle to believe.

I know some of us are in this position right so I don’t want you to feel that I’m downplaying this. Jesus Christ has performed the greatest ever miracle by coming down to the earth in the form of man. The Word says that He took the nature of a servant and then humbled Himself by dying on a cross – the worst punishment of that day to rescue you and I from the eternal wrath of God due to our sins.

He rose again and gave us new life – living His life through us unto God. We have the most amazing privilege to know the Almighty Creator God and live for Him every single day. Could there be a bigger miracle than this? Absolutely not.

Please don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong in praying for a miracle in your life. But what we want to resist and repent of the need for a miracle to give us a reason to believe. Christ has given us ample number of reasons right from Creation – heavens declare the glory of God, the Bible that speaks plainly of who God Is and Jesus Christ who suffered and died for you and me to give us Himself. Not only is there unbelief among Pharisees but there is a kind of unbelief of the disciples.

2. Unbelief of the disciples

[14] Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. [15] And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”[b] [16] And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. [17] And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? [18] Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? [19] When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” [20] “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” [21] And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

Just after the encounter with the Pharisees, Jesus cautions his disciples to be careful of the leaven of the Pharisees and Herodians. Leaven is the yeast that was used in the bread. In this context, yeast or the leaven would mean the legalistic teachings & corrupt attitudes of the Pharisees could easily influence the disciples.

Remember the Pharisees were the legalistic, super religious and knowledgeable people of the time. It could be that the disciples looked up to them or were fascinated by them. Jesus warned them to be alert and not allow their teachings and attitudes to affect them.

The disciples on the other hand thought that Jesus was referring to the fact that they didn’t have bread. Now on the exterior it might seem like a simple misunderstanding out of ignorance but Jesus points to their hardened hearts.

FRUIT: Discernment Barrier.

Jesus says that they couldn’t perceive or understand because their hearts were hardened. Then he said they have eyes but can’t see. Ears but can’t hear. What is Jesus talking about? Jesus was referring to the spiritual eyes and spiritual ears which were blocked due to their hardened hearts

You and I could listen to best preacher of all time who’s speaking in the clearest possible manner with the right illustrations and applications but still have difficulty understanding. Not because of the language or vocabulary but because our spiritual capacities aren’t receptive to receive what we need to receive.

Guess what? The disciples were listening to the best preacher ever – Jesus Christ and yet didn’t understand. We need to recognize that our hearts get hardened with sin and that makes it difficult for us to hear and see the glory of Scripture. What could be the root here?

ROOT: Worry Barrier.

The disciples were so concerned about the lack of bread & that was their main discussion among themselves. Their concern for their lack of bread prevented them from understanding and applying spiritual truths. Again, let’s compare them with the 4000 gentiles who were fed and satisfied. They were more concerned about being in the presence of God and didn’t even carry extra bread.

I think this falls in line with what’s described in Matthew 6.

[31] Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ [32] For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. [33] But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

For some of us, it’s anxiety regarding our physical & emotional needs that often prevent us from being concerned about understanding and applying spiritual truths. Ask yourself this question – how many times do I allow my anxieties to reign over my time in the Word and prayer? Like we are sitting in front of the Bible or listening to a sermon but our mind is just all over the place getting worked up about work or home or relationship or finances.

It’s interesting how Jesus responds to this. He makes the disciples introspect and think about the condition of their hearts? He talks about the need to have their spiritual ears and eyes opened. And then he reminds them about what He’s done and what they’ve witnessed in person. There were 12 baskets of left overs left after he fed 5000! There were 7 baskets full of left overs after he fed 4000! Jesus showed who He was through those miracles. He is the Creator God who feeds and satisfies His people. He compassionately cares and looks after their needs. Therefore, he can command his disciples “to not be anxious”.

Strange right? Why didn’t Jesus just make a suggestion? Something like “I think it’ll be good idea if you could not worry for a while”. No, Jesus can command because He knows He will provide. It’s for our hearts to find rest in those promises so that we can focus on understanding and applying Scriptural truths.

Let’s take that as an encouragement personally and even corporately…when we are perplexed, we know we can lean on his promises because He is faithful and we can pursue in prayer because He cares for us!

Finally I believe the healing miracle is a real event but Mark uses it to illustrate the heart condition of the disciples. The same manner in which the blind man was brought to Jesus for healing can be paralleled with the disciples great need for Jesus.

The blind man’s partial sight was similar to the unbelief of the disciples. Inspite of witnessing Jesus’ character, words and works they still weren’t able to acknowledge Him as Lord. But the amazing part is just as Jesus didn’t allow the blind man’s unbelief to prevent him from seeing, Jesus is able to power through the unbelief of the disciples to help them understand, believe and come to know Him as their Savior and Sovereign Lord!

[1] Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, [2] they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. [3] (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly,[a] holding to the tradition of the elders, [4] and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash.[b] And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.[c]) [5] And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” [6] And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

“‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; [7] in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ [8] You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

[9] And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! [10] For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ [11] But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)[d]— [12] then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, [13] thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
[14] And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: [15] There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”[e] [16], [17] And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable.

[18] And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, [19] since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?”[f] (Thus he declared all foods clean.) [20] And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. [21] For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, [22] coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. [23] All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Growing up I used to dread the second last day of VBS. On the penultimate day, we would have an altar call where the speaker would invite all the students to come up in front of everyone and say “I rededicate my life to Jesus and accept Him as my personal Savior.” Now there are a lot of things that are theologically wrong about that statement but I didn’t know all that when I was young. Because I was a very shy kid, coming and standing in front of a thousand children was scary for me! There were others who were confident and eloquent and they would speak for 5-10 minutes.

There were some others who were super confident, who would brag about the number of gang wars they’ve been part of and it wasn’t a testimony at all but just an opportunity to talk about how “cool” their life was. But not me! I totally found myself at a very uncomfortable place but I didn’t want to be the only person who didn’t go up and say the magic words so I did it year after year.

Once I remember asking my oldest sister, “Why do we need to go up and say that statement every year when we know that our life is going to remain the same? We are going to return back to our same life and do the same things once we are back home”.

Even though I was a kid and an unbeliever, somehow I still knew that this didn’t make sense. If we know that we are faking it, wouldn’t an all-knowing God see through this? Would God find superficial religion acceptable? Surely not. We keep hearing about sincere, real faith. What does authentic faith look like? I think there are 3 things we can learn from this passage.

1. We must Renounce superficial religion (v1-5)

[1] Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, [2] they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. [3 ](For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly,[a] holding to the tradition of the elders, [4] and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash.[b] And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.[c]) [5] And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”

Jesus at this point has been performing ground breaking and stunning miracles! He miraculously fed over 10,000 people. He walks on water and all the people who even touch the fringe of his garment are healed. This by itself should be something that people should take note of. He’s not an ordinary man. He’s sent by God. Instead you find the Pharisees and scribes who come from Jerusalem trying to find out some fault in Jesus and his disciples. They accuse them of eating with hands that are defiled.

Now let me clear it out at the start. Their issue wasn’t regarding hygiene or cleanliness. Their issue was regarding the ceremonial washing traditions that the Pharisees added over the years. It wasn’t in the OT law. These were man made traditions. They took offense at the fact that Jesus’ disciples weren’t observing the tradition of their elders. And the word “defiled” means unholy and unclean.

In other words, they alleged that Jesus’ disciples were sinning and making themselves unholy by not following these traditions. Suddenly their understanding of judging someone as holy or unholy was on the basis of their own traditions. That was the main problem.

Now I know most of us as we are hearing this would think that the Pharisees and scribes were probably fools to go and tell Jesus this. No man in their right mind would have the guts to go and do that. Let me remind you that the Pharisees and scribes were the most zealous, pious and learned men of their time. They knew the Scriptures inside out. They weren’t crazy. If the most religious people of that time could stumble in this way, I think we have good reason to be wary of the attitude of superficial religion in our lives. How can we identify this in our lives? I think this passage gives us two hints:

1) You’ll find yourself imposing thoughts and rules over people that aren’t prescribed in Scripture.

You’ll find people say things like you need to pray at 3AM in the night. That’s when you can have the most powerful prayers. Truly mature Christians will pray during those hours. Does the bible command us to pray? Yes, but it doesn’t tell us that we need to pray during a specific time to see God answer prayer.

Once I had a brother who was telling me that we need to have 3 different types of bible study times during the day. One is our daily devotion, the other is a deep, in depth study of a passage and the third is where we just read a bunch of chapters or books of the Bible together to understand the overall context of the Bible.

Now all these things are great. We are commanded to read and study Scripture but if you’re using these 3 specific times as a mandate to judge another person’s faith, then you might be imposing your own thoughts and rules over what’s prescribed in Scripture.

2) You’ll find yourself constantly being critical of other people’s spiritual lives and judging them on the basis of your man-made rules

If you are constantly thinking about what this person is doing right or wrong, if you are constantly being critical of what’s right or wrong in a church, it’s quite possible that you may be struggling with this sin. As a believer we need to be discerning and there is a place for correcting our brothers and sisters in Christ but it’s all done in a context where we are spiritually involved and invested in the person’s life.

I want us to really think about this seriously. Do we see these two symptoms in our life? We might think that we are more spiritual than the others because we are better at observing these man-made traditions. It might make us feel more righteous but let’s recognize that this is plainly superficial religion. And this is something that needs to be renounced if you want to see authentic faith.

2. We must allow God’s word to Reveal our hypocrisy (v6-13)

[6] And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; [7] in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ [8] You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” [9] And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! [10] For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ [11] But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)[d]— [12] then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, [13] thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

We see Jesus using Scripture twice in this passage in order to reveal their hypocrisy.

Jesus quotes the Scripture from Isaiah to tell them that they think they are worshiping God but it’s all fruitless. Why is it fruitless? Because they reject the commandment of God and hold on to the tradition of men. And then Jesus gives another example from Scripture. In the OT in many places God commanded the people of Israel to “Honor their father and mother”. You see that in the 10 commandments and also later where God says if anyone reviles or curses their father or mother they are to be put to death. Honoring parents is very serious in the eyes of God!

But the Pharisees created a tradition where people could avoid and neglect giving financial support to their parents. All they had to do is say that this money is “Corban” – it is going to the temple treasury and they were exempted from taking care of their parents. They blatantly defied the actual commandment of God in order to establish their tradition. That’s the issue of superficial religion, it places our rules and our traditions above God. In essence we are more concerned about obeying our traditions rather than obeying God.

So how do we come out of it? We allow God’s Word to reveal our hypocrisy. The word hypocrisy actually means “pretender” like a stage actor. Superficial religion means that we are constantly pretending to be better than what we truly are. When we spend time with God’s Word, what it does is it cuts through our pretending and our acting and reveals what’s really in our hearts.

Hebrews 4:12 says For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Let’s ask ourselves this question, are we allowing God’s Word to reveal the hypocrisy in our hearts each day? Are we being open to the areas in which God shows us that we are pretending?

For example that prophecy from Isaiah: Jesus first quotes Isaiah when he says “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;” Doesn’t this convict our hearts of the times on a Sunday morning where we are singing these wonderful songs of love and praise to God but our hearts are far from him? We are singing “It’s all about You, Jesus” and yet our hearts say “It’s all about everything else”.

Once we allow God’s Word to reveal our hypocrisy, it should lead us to the next point.

3. We must repent of the real heart issue (v18-23)

[18] And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, [19] since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?”[f] (Thus he declared all foods clean.) [20] And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. [21] For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, [22] coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. [23] All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Why do people cover themselves with superficial religion? So that they can conceal what’s truly there in their hearts. What’s really in our hearts? Evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness!!

Man isn’t inherently good but bad according to these verses. You and I by nature are capable of the worst of atrocities in the world and the most horrific expressions of sin. What do we do to cover it up? We create our own rules and traditions so that by observing them we don’t have to feel bad about our true state.

We criticize and pull people down so that we can look at them and think we are better off. Let’s remind ourselves that before a Holy God these efforts are merely filthy rags (Isa 64:6).

Isn’t that the same thing that happened in the Garden of Eden? Once Adam and Eve sinned, they realized they were naked and tried to cover themselves with fig leaves. They knew they were condemned the moment they ate of the fruit. Guilt entered their hearts for the first time and they tried to cover up their sin.

When God confronted them, His intention was to bring them to confess so that he could give them a better clothing. An animal was sacrificed/killed in order to provide Adam and Eve with a better clothing to cover their shame.

And when we think about our own sin, deep rooted sin from our hearts….God doesn’t want us to cover ourselves with superficial religion. Those are filthy rags & fig leaves. Instead God is drawing us to confession so that He can give us a better clothing – the pure robe of His Son. This was purchased by Jesus Christ dying on the cross for our sins and rising again on the third Day.

I really hope that’s what you find encouraging today. My intention wasn’t to just talk about this sin and leave it there. I hope it’s driving us all to repentance. Authentic faith is one where all of the outer layers are peeled off and where we come to God not concealing ourselves with superficial religion but rather repenting of the real issues of our hearts.

Good morning church. For our church it’s been marvelous to study the gospel of Mark. It’s been a joy seeing so many different attributes of Jesus. Every week we discover something new and today’s passage is quite a familiar one: it’s Jesus feeding the 5 thousand. Most of us have probably heard this from childhood.

This was probably one of my favorite stories growing up because it involved my two favorites: Jesus and food! And there was plenty of food. As I was studying this passage, God opened my eyes to see some deep rich truths that I want to share with you today.

[30] The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. [31] And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. [32] And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves. [33] Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. [34] When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. [35] And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. [36] Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” [37] But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii[f] worth of bread and give it to them to eat?” [38] And he said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” [39] Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass.

[40] So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties. [41] And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all. [42] And they all ate and were satisfied. [43] And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. [44] And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.

If I were to ask you “What motivates you to follow someone?”, what would your answer be? Some may say it’s the person’s charisma: how he looks, how he talks and what he wears but we all know that can only take us so far. That charisma will end someday or another person who is even more charismatic will get our attention. It keeps changing. Someone else might say “it’s the person’s skills and achievements that makes you follow him/her”. But we still know that if the person no matter how skilled he/she maybe if they live a selfish and wicked life, that wouldn’t be someone we would want to follow or emulate.

I believe more than the charisma of the person or the skills of the person, it’s “trust” that truly motivates us to follow someone. Is the person really looking out for us? How much do we know the person? All that plays into deciding to follow someone. In today’s passage Mark is giving us 3 rock-solid reasons why we can confidently follow Jesus. Not 10% or 50% but 100% wholeheartedly follow Jesus Christ.

1. We can confidently follow Christ because He is our Rest

[30] The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. [31] And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. [32] And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.

Jesus’ disciples just got back from their 1st missionary journey. They went out 2 by 2 fully dependent on God – they didn’t carry any bags, no extra food, no money and not even an extra coat. They went around preaching repentance, casting out many demons and anointing the sick with oil to heal them. They saw how God used them to perform great miracles as they boldly shared the gospel! They came back excited to share what all happened, but they were also weary after being on the field for several days or weeks.

There was no respite once they got back. People still flocked around them to have some need met. They didn’t even have the time or space to eat food. That’s how tiring ministry got for them. What does Jesus do? He knows that they’re physically and mentally and spiritually exhausted, so he asks his disciples to go away from the crowd to a desolate place to rest.

Jesus is deeply concerned about His people’s rest. If we look back at the OT we see God resting on the seventh day after creating the universe and everything in it. One of the 10 commandments is to observe the Sabbath unto the Lord. That day is to be kept holy unto the Lord. So, we understand that rest is something that God is concerned about. Physically when we rest from work, it allows us to recuperate and rejuvenate us to get back and work with the right capacities.

Spiritually when we rest from work we affirm that we worship God alone and not make a god out of work. John Calvin once said that “man’s nature is a perpetual factory of idols”. We can make new idols every single day. We can make idols out of good things that God has made like “work”. Rest is commanded not just so that we can switch off and switch on again. It’s so that our worship for God is preserved, our affections for God is ignited and our purposes for work is renewed for the glory of God. It for our good!

We live in a culture and a time where “work” and “over-working” are gods. After it begins affecting their relationships and health is when the world realizes how this idol promised so much but delivers very little. How should believers respond? We learn how to rest. At night when we sleep for 8 hours, we humbly accept that we are weak and weary and need rest to recover.

We wake up each morning “resting in God” through the Word. What if we all realized that spending time with God in prayer and Word wasn’t a burden but in fact rest as God intended it. How amazing would that be? Once a week, we determine a day that is our Sabbath – holy unto the Lord. But what do we do during a Sabbath? The inference from these verses is that it involves doing something that you’re not accustomed to doing during other days of the week. It can be taking a nap, going out with your family, going for a stroll in the park, finding ways to serve your community. Also, it should be centered around the gospel – that’s how it’ll be made holy- have an extended time of prayer and the Word, meet & encourage other believers – great opportunity to do that if you are not able to do it on other days during the week.

We as the church of God have been given a new meaning to rest and relaxation that’s different from the world. The world sees partying, splurging and indulgence as relaxation. We as believers can see and appreciate rest in its God given place! We as believers understand that rest cannot be found apart from God. If our hope and energies are fixed on anything else, we will be totally rest-less. Only in Jesus can we truly find rest. Matt 11:28: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

2. We can confidently follow Christ because He is our Shepherd

[33] Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. [34] When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.

It’s interesting that Jesus and disciples headed toward this desolate place to find some rest and then they are met with a great crowd. Jesus doesn’t send them off by telling “Actually me and my boys are having a short vacation, so if you could allow us to be by ourselves that’ll be great”. V34 says when Jesus saw the crowd he had “compassion on them”. The word in the original language means “moved with pity and sympathy”. Jesus had pity on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

It’s the idea of how sheep without their shepherd are clueless, helpless and lost. Where else do we Jesus use the phrase of shepherd and sheep? Yes, the parable of the lost sheep: God leaves the ninety-nine sheep to go after the one who is lost.

Then in John 10, Jesus says He is the good shepherd. The shepherd is not like the robber who comes to steal, kill and destroy. Neither is he like the hired hand who abandons the sheep when a wolf comes to attack. Jesus is the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep! That’s the love and compassion of Jesus. He didn’t just come to the earth to teach us good things about life. The Bible is Isaiah say “We like sheep have all gone astray. We’ve each gone our way”. We have all denied God by our actions, our words and our thoughts.

We have intentionally left God and rebelled against him. We deserve the eternal wrath and separation from God because of our sins and yet Jesus didn’t leave us to die but instead died in our place to protect us from the deadly sting of sin, Satan and death.

Therefore, when Jesus refers to people as sheep he’s implying their helplessness, their lostness and the grave danger that they face. And he steps in as the Great Chief Shepherd to lead, rescue and protect his sheep.

Where in your life today do you need your Shepherd? Are you feeling lost, helpless and insecure? Jesus looks beyond the facade and sees the deep need that you have. He sees beyond your smiles, beyond your tough exterior and sees your deeply hurt and broken soul that needs repair. Maybe today you’re thinking “I’m the worst one, I don’t deserve to be with the sheep, I’m lost and way beyond rescue.” Let me assure you by the Word of God that Jesus is looking for you. He leaves the ninety-nine to look for you specifically. Not only does Jesus look for you and rescue you, he leads you like a good Shepherd so that you can follow Him confidently.

Check out these words from Jesus: [27] My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. [28] I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

3. We can confidently follow Christ because He is our Provider

[41] And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all. [42] And they all ate and were satisfied.

This was certainly an astonishing miracle! Just think about this: there were probably over 10,000 people there including women and children. They were all stuck in a desolate place and it was quite late. The disciples understood the challenge – they knew it would probably take them 6 months of wages to be able to buy food for such a large crowd. And Jesus takes the 5 loaves and 2 fish and multiplies them to feed probably 10,000 people and guess what….they have 12 baskets of leftovers that are collected in the end.

What was the point of this miracle? We know that Jesus wasn’t trying to gain popularity. We know that he wasn’t trying to entertain. Jesus performed this miracle to reveal His glory as the Son of God.

In the Old Testament, the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 long years. How did they survive for so long? Because God provided them with manna miraculously for 40 years. They didn’t have to work for it, but God graciously provided for His people. Similarly, Jesus Christ performs this amazing miracle to show how He is the true Son of God who provides for His people in a desolate place. He meets them at their physical need to point them to His divine nature as their Provider.

One of the ways by which I can show my love and concern for my wife is by providing for her. It’s what I promised on our wedding day. When I said to my wife “With this ring I wed thee” I implied that I take the responsibility for providing for her physical needs, leading her spiritually and being with her emotionally. As husbands we are just trying to imitate the attitude of Christ who provides for his people.

I think one of the encouragements I got from this passage is to realize that this is the same Jesus who fed the Israelites in the desert. He is the same one who fed the 10,000. He is the same who provided for my every need from the time I was born. He’s faithful every time. What does that mean for us as believers?

a) Acknowledge His care and provision by thanksgiving

When we say grace before our meals, we do that because we remember and realize His love and care towards us to provide us with food every day.

b) Whole-heartedly submit to Jesus

There’s no other response than to fully submit and love the One who faithfully provides for our every need. You can trust in His instructions and commands for you because of His loving care.

Returning back to the first question I asked. Why should you follow Jesus? What motivates you to follow Jesus? Can you confidently follow Him? Yes, you absolutely can. Because He cares enough to give rest to our weary souls, He cares enough to be our Shepherd even though we once deserted Him, and He cares enough to provide for our every need – physical, spiritual, emotional and mental needs. What more reason do we need to follow Him?

Good morning church! We’ve been reading through the gospel of Mark as a church for a few months now and it’s been an amazing journey trying to know and understand Jesus through this gospel. Last week we learnt about the demon possessed man who had an army of demons in him. Jesus sets him free and gives him a new life and a new identity. The man is sent back to his family and friends to tell them of how much the Lord has done for him. That’s our story too. Jesus freed us from sin and gave us a new life and a new identity and we’ll spend the rest of our lives telling people how much the Lord has done for us. And that’s how we arrive at today’s passage:

[21] When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. [22] Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. [23] He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” [24] So Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him. [25] And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. [26] She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. [27] When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, [28] because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” [29] Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. [30] At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” [31] “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ” [32] But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. [33] Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. [34] He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

[35] While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?” [36] Overhearing[c] what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” [37] He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. [38] When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. [39] He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” [40] But they laughed at him. After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. [41] He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). [42] Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. [43] He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.

In our lives when we are faced with impossible situations and we ask ourselves “Is God big enough to deliver me from my circumstance”, how must we respond? And I believe today’s passage offers a lot of hope and encouragement. There are two amazing stories of faith mentioned in this passage and let’s look at what can we learn from them.

1. We must approach God with earnestness

22 Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. 23 He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.”

Not a lot is said about Jairus except that he was a ruler of the synagogue. The synagogue setting is a little similar to our Sunday Gathering or GC setting. The OT Scriptures would be read and then explained to the people gathered there. So Jairus’ role was to select the readers and teachers each Sabbath. He had to examine the messages and make sure everything was done orderly and according to the traditions. Clearly he was a religious leader who had a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures and Jewish traditions. He probably followed Jesus’ ministry closely. But even though he was so established in his religion, he needed to let go of his pride in order to approach Jesus. He needed to admit that he required help from God. He needed to believe that Jesus was the only person who could heal his daughter. The other aspect to earnestness was that he desperately pleaded with Jesus to come with him. He fell at Jesus’ feet and begged him to come and lay hands on his daughter because that was his only hope.

In Luke 18, Jesus told a parable to show them how they should approach God with earnestness. In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared man nor God. A widow kept coming to him with the plea “Please give me justice against my adversary”. He refused for sometime but then he thought “even though I don’t fear God or man, I’ll still make sure she gets justice so that she’ll eventually stop coming to me”. And the Lord said that “If the unrighteous judge responds in that manner, wouldn’t God give justice to his people who approach him earnestly? Will he delay in responding to them? He’ll give them justice quickly.

We should really consider what our approach to God is when it comes to difficult situations in our lives. It might be that you are praying for a godly partner to be married to. You’ve waited and prayed but haven’t received an answer yet. Well this passage should encourage us to not stop praying about it but trusting in the authority of God and the only one who can help, we should continue to approach God earnestly. Or it could be a struggle with sin where you’ve thought “I’ve tried a million times and a million different ways to stop sinning but I can’t”. If that’s where you are then it might mean letting go of your pride which also involves our self-righteous acts and falling at the feet of Jesus crying “Lord, please help me. I need you and I can’t conquer this on my own. On my own I’ll end up failing everytime. Only you can rescue me!” What it mean for you to approach God with earnestness today?

2. We must view our situation through the eyes of faith

And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.”

As we are reading through the story of Jairus and his daughter, we see another story sandwiched between the two. It tells us of a woman who had a blood discharge disease for 12 years. She suffered quite a bit: there was the physical pain that she had to endure with multiple doctors and treatments. She was probably bedridden the whole time. Financially she was in a bad place because she spent all her money in treatments but nothing got her better. She was a social outcast because her disease made her unclean. Anyone who touched her would’ve also become unclean. It was a traumatic 12 years for her. And then she heard reports about Jesus. She thinks “I’ve spent so many years going behind all these doctors and treatments but they have been useless but Jesus can heal me. All I need to do is touch his cloak and I will be made well”!

This was something new because before Jesus came on the earth no one had ever heard of something like this – touching the cloak to get healed. And neither was Jesus wearing a magic cloak with magical abilities. So what was the secret? Faith. V34 Jesus says “Daughter your faith has made you well”. Later on when Jairus is told that his daughter is dead, Jesus tells him “Do not fear, only believe”.

What is faith? It means fully trusting and relying on who God is, what He says He will do and being assured that He knows what’s best for us. That’s why salvation is also received by faith. It involves us trusting in the holy judgment of God over sin but also the mercy of God through His Son. It involves us trusting in what Jesus said that if we believe in Him we will have eternal life. It also involves us in trusting that God’s way is the best for us.

Faith is the means by which God unlocks his glorious purposes and grants answers to our deepest longings and needs. It’s like God is stretching out his hand, and faith is the means by which we receive what God wants to give us.

Matt 21:22: If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask in prayer.

James 1:6: But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt.

But does it mean that God will give us answers as we would like every time? God’s answers are all in accordance to His will and His purposes. Sometimes God’s answer to prayers is “Yes”, sometimes “No” and sometimes “Not yet”. Faith isn’t a way to arm twist God into doing what you want but resting in the assurance that God will answer as He knows best.

Maybe we have an illness for which the doctors haven’t found an answer to. But we know that even in those cases we can turn to God in faith because He is our Creator. He speaks things into existence that never existed. He commands and all of creation obey – be it the sun, moon, stars, wind, humans and even demons. He brings back dead to life. He gives sight to the blind. He heals the broken hearted. We can persist in praying for healing because we know that God is pleased and delighted in genuine faith.

Hebrews 11:6: And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

At the same time, we rest knowing that God will answer as He knows best. God’s answers might be contrary to our expectations. Nabeel Qureshi – a man of God who passed away last year due to cancer till the last moment was praying for healing. Not just him but his family and so many other supporters upheld him in prayer during that 1 year of treatment. Do you think he died because there was a lack of faith? No, sometimes God’s answer is different from what we expect but even in those moments of us waiting on God, God is working and making us more like His Son. In fact our faith grows stronger during moments of waiting.

3. We must desire intimacy with God more than immunity from problems

30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” 31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ” 32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

One of the interesting things I noticed in this passage is that Jesus looked around asking and trying to find out who touched his cloak. The Son of God who is all knowing already knew the woman before she was born and knew what she was going to do even before she did it. Why did Jesus have to meet with her? Didn’t she already get healed? Why have the personal conversation?

I believe the answer is in v34. The word that Jesus used for “healed you” has two meanings in the original language.

The obvious meaning is healing but it also means “saved”. Even though the physical need was already met, Jesus wanted to make sure that her deeper spiritual need was met. And we’ve already seen a similar thing earlier: when Jesus heals the paralyzed man, he forgives his sins before he performs the miracle. The real disease that all of us suffer with is the disease of sin. It’s more lethal than cancer and its effects will last for all of eternity. I wish God would give us eyes to see this as a disease in ourselves and others. In order to rescue us from this deadly disease, Christ came and died for us. He took on the punishment which killed him but He rose again on third day to give healing and life and vigour to all those that understood their need of help and looked to him for rescue. That’s the real need.

The main issue with the prosperity gospel is that it makes you desire and exalt immunity from problems more than intimacy with Jesus. And you don’t need to be a believer to make immunity from problems your main goal in life. Every human on this planet by nature is trying to do that. What makes a believer different from the rest of the world is that he desires Jesus more than immunity from problems. In fact a believer wants to give up all his treasures to get the real lasting treasure – Jesus. Also, if you are inviting people to follow Jesus by telling them that if they believe then they’ll receive health and wealth, then you are making Jesus a means to an end. You are dishonoring the Holy Son of God and making him out to be like a discount coupon which can be used to redeem a luxury item. People need to see Jesus as He displayed Himself to the world – Creator, Savior and Lord.

As I was pondering on this point, I asked myself “I’m not into the prosperity gospel but do I desire intimacy with God more than immunity from problems?” If all our problems were solved in a single second, would we still want Jesus? And that can easily answered by looking at our prayers. What’s the content of our prayers? When was the last time we spent time with God just to say “Jesus, I love you so much. I’m so thankful for what you have done for me on the cross. I’m thankful for being united with you. I want to know you more. I want to become like you”. I know it seems very basic but we have to always remind ourselves that that’s what we have been invited into – fellowship with Jesus. Let’s take out time each day to remind us that intimacy with God is most important. More important than the problems at work, more important than the illnesses and relational conflicts we may experience. There is a time and place for all these issues but let’s make intimacy with God the main thing.

Is God bigger than the greatest fear that I am facing right now? Yes, so how do we respond to it? By approaching God with earnestness, seeing our situations through the eyes of faith and desiring intimacy with God more than immunity from problems. He’s so precious to us that even in our worst of times facing our worst of fears we still desire to be with Him. This makes God look big and valuable to a lost and dying world around us.