Transcript
Those of you who were not here last night will not get the full impact of this, but I feel duty-bound to tell those of you who were here that after I went back to the Brunat residence after the meeting, I went to my room. And shortly after, there was a light tap on the door, and it was Chip outside informing me that if I was hungry a late-night snack was available for me.
And he further informed me that the late-night snack would be scrambled eggs and bread. Can you imagine anybody offering scrambled eggs and bread to a visitor in their very own home? Naturally I turned it down, but I just simply could not escape my fate. And this morning when I went to breakfast, Liette served me scrambled eggs and bread.
I have one small consolation, however. Little Brad Brunat, who honors me by being a real copycat, insisted on being served exactly the same thing. So we enjoyed our scrambled eggs and bread together. Thus I have been physically fortified for the ministry of the morning.
And therefore I’d like to invite your attention once again to the Word of God, and this time to the Gospel of Luke chapter 8. Luke chapter 8, beginning to read at verse 40.
So it was, when Jesus returned, that the multitude welcomed Him, for they were all waiting for Him. And behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue. And he fell down at Jesus’ feet and begged Him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying.
But as He went, the multitudes thronged Him. Now a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any, came from behind and touched the border of His garment. And immediately her flow of blood stopped.
And Jesus said, ‘Who touched Me?’ When all denied it, Peter and those with him said, ‘Master, the multitudes throng You and press You, and You say, “Who touched Me?”’
But Jesus said, ‘Somebody touched Me, for I perceived power going out from Me.’ Now when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before Him she declared to Him in the presence of all the people the reason she had touched Him and how she was healed immediately.
And He said to her, ‘Daughter, be of good cheer. Your faith has made you well. Go in peace.’ While He was still speaking, someone came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house, saying to him, ‘Your daughter is dead. Do not trouble the Teacher.’
But when Jesus heard it, He answered him, saying, ‘Do not be afraid. Only believe, and she will be made well.’ When He came into the house, He permitted no one to go in except Peter, James, and John, and the father and mother of the girl. Now all wept and mourned for her, but He said, ‘Do not weep. She is not dead, but sleeping.’
And they laughed Him to scorn, knowing that she was dead. But He put them all out, took her by the hand, and called, saying, ‘Little girl, arise.’ Then her spirit returned, and she arose immediately. And He commanded that she be given something to eat. And her parents were astonished, but He charged them to tell no one what had happened.
Last October, twenty-two people crowded on board a small elevator in Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium. It was the day of the opening game of the championship series between the Baltimore Orioles and the Chicago White Sox. The game was over. White Sox pitching ace LaMarr Hoyt had defeated the Orioles with a brilliant pitching performance.
As he stepped into the elevator, Edward Bennett Williams, the owner of the Orioles, who is also a famous lawyer, was probably thinking about what had happened to his team. But he soon had other things to worry about. With him on the elevator were his wife Agnes, talk-show host Larry King, a friend of his, and nineteen other people.
As the elevator began to go down, it suddenly stopped. At first there were the usual jokes about the ball game, but it’s easy to forget about a ball game in a situation like that. They shouted. They banged on the elevator doors, but nobody seemed to be listening. The telephone on the elevator didn’t work, and even Williams’ own portable phone failed to function.
After a little while they were all breathing harder, and Agnes Williams made a rule that only one person should speak at a time in order to conserve air inside. She was worried that she might suffer brain damage from lack of oxygen and become a burden to her children. Williams himself was wondering what in the world they would do if somebody fainted.
After they had been about thirty minutes in the elevator, Edward Bennett Williams announced that he was going to say a prayer. His prayer went something like this:
“Lord, we have just attended a very frivolous event, a baseball game, and now we are in a highly dangerous situation. And with each moment it gets more grave. We ask You, please get us out of here, because we do not know how much longer we can last.”
Afterwards talk-show host Larry King said that within moments after that prayer had been prayed, the elevator doors opened. And he added, “Seeing those doors open was one of the most thrilling sights in my entire life.” King rode back to Washington in the Williams limousine. They didn’t talk about the ball game. They didn’t even turn on the radio to find out what was happening in the game between the Phillies and the Dodgers. All they could talk about was the incident in the elevator.
Afterwards when he was asked about his prayer, Edward Bennett Williams said this: “I just wanted to show some people who doubted that God was in Baltimore that night that we could show He was really there. He was really there.”
Some years ago Francis Schaeffer wrote a book with a very arresting title. The title was this: The God Who Is There. The God Who Is There. And this morning the question that I would like to ask you is this: Is God there for you? Is God there for you when you are trapped in your own personal elevator? When you are caught by the problems and perplexities of life? When you are pressed by physical concerns, by material concerns, by spiritual concerns? Is God there for you? Is He?
You know, they didn’t have elevators in the days of the Bible. And if you had asked Jairus what an elevator was, he wouldn’t have had the foggiest notion. And yet there’s a sense in which Jairus was trapped on his own personal elevator. And his elevator was going down, down, down. And it was going down real fast.
You see, Jairus and his wife had only one child, a precious little girl of about twelve years of age. And now that little girl was desperately, desperately ill. And Jairus realized that she was dying. And driven by the anguished love of a father, he made his way to Jesus.
And as usual Jesus was surrounded by a large crowd. So probably Jairus had to push and fight and shove his way into the presence of Jesus Christ. But when he got there, he threw himself on the ground. He cast himself at the feet of the Son of God.
Now please don’t take that casually. Remember that Jairus was a synagogue ruler. He was a man of prominence and importance in his own community. And he had probably never in his entire life been on his face on the ground at the feet of another person. But there is something about the agony of personal distress that humbles even the greatest of men.
On that elevator in Baltimore it didn’t matter that Edward Bennett Williams was a famous lawyer. It didn’t matter that he owned the team. What mattered was that he knew how to bow his heart in the presence of the living God. And you show me a man or a woman who is too big and too important to bow before Almighty God. You show me a person who is too proud to pray. And I will show you a person who is asking to be crushed by the difficulties of life.
I was reading not too long ago about May Warren. Sixty-two years old, and she lives in Kirbyville, Texas. Thirty years ago, three decades ago, she was suffering from throat cancer. And she underwent a surgical procedure to remove her larynx. Her voice box was removed. And from that time on she couldn’t talk.
For thirty-one years she couldn’t talk to her husband Harris. She couldn’t talk to her four children. She couldn’t talk to their ten grandchildren. But shortly before last Christmas she got just about the best Christmas present that she could possibly have thought of. She underwent new surgery, and she was fitted with an artificial voice prosthesis. She got an artificial voice.
And now for the first time in three decades she could talk to her family. She could look forward to singing Christmas carols with her children and her grandchildren. And her husband Harris said the first words that she spoke after the operation were these: “I can speak. Do I sound like Donald Duck?”
You know, I like that. “I can speak. Do I sound like Donald Duck?” But I can assure you that even if she did sound like Donald Duck, she would go right on talking. May Warren had learned the value of a voice.
You know, one of the tragedies of our day and time is that there are many Christian people who have lost their spiritual voice. They have lost the capacity to communicate in a meaningful way with God. They hardly ever pray. Or if they do pray, their prayers are brief and perfunctory and superficial.
But there is something about the distresses of life that restores our voice, restores our voice, and gives us the capacity to talk to God again from our hearts the way we really need to talk to Him. And that’s what Jairus was doing right now, down on the ground at the feet of Jesus Christ, pouring out his heart to the Son of God and beseeching Him to come down to his house and to heal his daughter.
Well, of course Jesus agreed to go. He agreed to go with this distressed father. And to really appreciate what happens next, you have to try to put yourself in Jairus’s shoes. Remember he had a little girl lying on a bed at home. Her life was rapidly slipping away.
And I am sure that for Jairus the most important thing right now was to hurry. But there was a crowd around Jesus. Remember? And it’s awfully hard to move rapidly in a crowd. And I suspect that as they progressed it seemed to Jairus that they were moving at a snail’s pace.
And I wouldn’t be surprised that inside he was saying, “Oh hurry, hurry, hurry. We’ve got to get there in time.” And then it happened. Then it happened. Jesus stopped. He looked around at the crowd, and He said, “Who touched Me? Who touched Me?”
Can you imagine how frustrating that must have been for Jairus? And he probably felt like saying to Jesus exactly what the disciples did say to Jesus: “Master, the crowd is thronging You, and are You asking who touched You? Everybody’s touching You. The whole crowd is touching You. What are You talking about?”
And Jesus stood His ground, and He said, “No. Someone touched Me, because I can tell that power has gone out from Me.” And just about that time a woman comes out of the crowd, and she’s trembling, and she’s shaking like a leaf. She never expected to get into the limelight like this.
And she falls down at the feet of Jesus, and she tries to tell her story. Now ladies, forgive me for what I am about to say, but did you know that women are almost as bad as men, not quite but almost, almost as bad as men at telling stories? I mean, sometimes they can drag a story out a long way.
And have you ever tried to get a story out of a woman who is half frightened out of her wits? And there’s this poor woman down at the feet of Jesus, stumbling her way through this story, trying to explain how she had had this flow of blood for twelve long years and how she had gone to doctor after doctor after doctor, and nobody was able to help her.
And she’d spent everything she had. And finally she made up her mind that if she could just get to Jesus, if she could just touch the hem of His garment, she’d be made well. And somehow on this particular day she had managed to do it. She had managed to get through the crowd. She had managed to touch the border of His garment.
And she knew in her own body the minute she did that she was healed. And mind you, all the time that she’s down there on the ground stammering and stuttering her way through this story, Jairus is standing there. And don’t you suppose he felt like screaming at her, “Get it out, lady. Get it out. Tell it and be done with it. My little girl is at home dying, and we’re in a hurry. We’re in a hurry. We’re in a hurry.”
And that’s our problem, isn’t it? That’s exactly our problem. We’re in a hurry. We’re always in a hurry. And when we bring our problems to God, we want Him to do something about them yesterday, or if not yesterday at least today, or if not today certainly tomorrow. “Lord, do something and do it quick. Do it quick.”
And I tell you something. There are lots of times, I mean there are lots of times, that God is not in nearly as big a hurry as we are. Let me tell you a story. And if you have never heard this story, it may send a chill down your spine.
On March 1, 1950, in Beatrice, Nebraska, the pastor of the Westside Baptist Church went over on Saturday afternoon to the church building to get things ready for choir practice. Most of the choir would get to the church between 7:15 and 7:30. When he got everything ready, he went back home to grab a quick bite of supper.
When he was ready to bring his wife and little daughter to choir practice, they noticed that the little girl had a soiled dress on. So they had to get out a new dress, but that needed to be pressed. And therefore they were delayed.
Ladonna was a high-school sophomore who sang in the choir, and she was almost always the first person to get to choir practice. But on this particular night she was having trouble with her geometry problems, and she stayed behind to solve her geometry problems.
Two sisters went out and got into the car to go to the church, and the car wouldn’t start. And they had to call the geometry girl. Mrs. Schuster and her little daughter were planning to be at the church at 7:20, but on this particular night Mrs. Schuster’s elderly mother needed her, and they had to stop by her mother’s house on the way to the church.
A machinist who sang in the choir suddenly decided, he didn’t know quite why he decided it, but he suddenly decided he needed to get down and write an important letter that he had been putting off before he went to choir practice.
A stenographer named Joyce Black just felt real lazy that night, and she waited to the last minute. A machinist was going to take his two young sons to choir practice because his wife was out of town. And he got to talking to somebody, and when he looked at his watch it was too late.
Marilyn Paul was the choir pianist, and she was planning to be at the church thirty minutes early. But after supper she lay down and fell asleep. Her mother, Mrs. Paul, was the choir director, and she was late because she had tried to awaken her daughter unsuccessfully.
Two teenage girls always went together, but one of them was listening to a radio program that ran from 7:00 to 7:30, and she decided to hear the program through to the end. And they broke their habit of always being on time.
And listen to this. At 7:25 the Westside Baptist Church blew up. The roof caved in. The walls collapsed because of a gas leakage. And the entire choir was late. And it had never happened before.
And listen to me. When God causes delays, when God seems to be slowing things down, it is always for our good. And He is always working according to His own wisdom and grace. But sometimes it’s hard to look at it that way, isn’t it? Hard to look at it that way.
And sometimes when things are moving too slowly for us, it seems that things get worse before they get better. And that’s the way it was with Jairus. Finally, finally that woman was finished with her story. And Jesus is sending her away with words of encouragement.
And He is saying, “Daughter, be of good cheer. Your faith has made you well. Go in peace.” And while He is still talking to her, a messenger comes from Jairus’s house. And the messenger says, “Your daughter is dead. Don’t bother the Teacher. Don’t trouble Jesus anymore.”
You talk about the pits. That’s the pit. Jairus’s hopes had been raised. Jesus was actually on His way to Jairus’s house to heal his little girl. And now, thanks to this delay, a messenger has come and said, “Your girl is dead. Give up. Give up. Give up.”
Did you ever get a message like that? Sure you did. Sure you did. You were praying about something that was very important. You were praying for someone that you loved very, very much. And then something happened that was so very discouraging. And a little voice inside your head said, “Give up. Don’t bother God about that anymore. Stop praying for that. Give up. Give up. Give up.”
And it was then that Jesus turned to Jairus. And I think He spoke very calmly and very softly. And He said to Jairus, “Do not be afraid. Only believe, only believe, and your daughter will be made well.”
And then Jairus had a choice, didn’t he? He could listen to the messenger that said, “Give up,” or he could trust the promise of Jesus Christ.
Adoniram Judson is one of the great missionaries of the modern era. His mission field was the far-off land of Burma. But did you know that Judson labored for six years in Burma before he baptized his first convert? And after he had been there for three years, someone came to him and asked him this question. They said, “What evidence do you have of ultimate success?”
And Judson replied, “As much as there is a God who fulfills all His promises. As much as there is a God who fulfills all His promises.” And by the time that Judson’s work was done, a hundred churches had been founded and thousands of people had come to personal faith in Jesus Christ.
And sometimes, my friends, God delays the answer to our prayers until everything around us looks hopeless. He doesn’t work until we have nothing left to cling to but the bare Word of God. But if all we have is a clear promise from God, we have all we need. And that’s what Jairus had right now.
Let me tell you what I think happened. I think that as they started out again in the direction of Jairus’s house, that a thought crossed Jairus’s mind. And I think that it went something like this: That woman, that woman who nearly drove me out of my mind, why, she had had her affliction as long as my little girl had been alive.
My little girl was twelve years old, and this woman had her sickness for twelve long years. And she had spent everything, and it was hopeless. But she believed in the power of Jesus. And that’s what Jesus wants me to do right now. He wants me to believe in His power.
When they got to the house, there was that big crowd of Oriental mourners shrieking and wailing and making so much racket you couldn’t even hear yourself think. And Jesus kicked them all out. And He said, “She’s not dead, but she’s sleeping.” And He meant something like this: This is not permanent. This is temporary.
And then He walked up to the bedside of the little girl. And very simply He touched her, and He said, “Little girl, arise.” Immediately she sat up. Then He turned to the parents, and He said, “Get her something to eat. Get her something to eat.”
And those amazed and awestruck parents, I am sure, rushed to do the thing that Jesus had asked them to do. And here’s what I think. I think that after that incident was over, there were two words that Jairus never, never, never forgot. And I think the words were these: Only believe.
The songwriter has said, “Only believe, only believe. All things are possible. Only believe, only believe. Only believe. All things are possible. Only believe.”
W. L. Douglas eventually became a nationally known shoe manufacturer. But from his early struggling years comes this story. He had been out of work so long that he was down to his last dollar. And on Sunday morning he put half of it, fifty cents, into the collection plate at church.
The next morning he heard about a job that was open in a distant city. He went down to the railroad station to buy a ticket, and he found out that the ticket to that distant city was one dollar. And now it appeared that he had been foolish to put fifty cents in the collection plate on Sunday morning.
But he bought a ticket that would take him halfway. And when he got to the end of the line, he got off in the city that was there, and he started walking in the direction of the distant town where he had heard about the job. But he had not gone even one block before he heard about a factory in this very city where he was that was hiring men.
And within thirty minutes he had a job in that factory that paid him five dollars more a week than he would have earned in the distant city. Now there are a number of lessons to be learned from a story like that. But one of them is this: that when we have reached the end of the line, when we have run out of our own resources, God is there. God is there.
And the story of Jairus and the story of the woman with a flow of blood is the story of two people who had reached the end of the line. They had exhausted their resources. And then they discovered that for God nothing is impossible. Nothing is impossible when you put your trust in God. Nothing is impossible when you’re trusting in His Word.
Hearken to the voice of God to thee: Is there anything too hard for Me? So put your trust in God alone and rest upon His Word. For everything, oh everything, yes everything is possible with God.
Shall we pray? Father, how we thank Thee that Thou art the God of the impossible. Begotten Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who raised Him from the dead and set Him at Your own right hand far above all principality and power. And there is no problem represented in this audience. There is no need represented in any heart this morning that is beyond the reach of Your power and Your grace.
Teach us to trust Thee and to trust the promises of Your Word, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.