MAY 6 2018 | Luke 8:40-56

Sea Change Church · "Luke 8:40-56" · Dr. David Levy · May 6, 2018
Luke 8:40-56
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Good morning, I'm Spencer, I'm one of the leaders of Surf Church, and this morning we'll be reading from Luke chapter 8 verses 40 through 56. It's the story of Jesus raising a dead girl and healing a sick woman. So starting with verse 40. Now when Jesus returned, a crowd welcomed him, for they were all expecting him. Then a man named Jairus, a synagogue leader, came and fell at Jesus' feet, pleading with him to come to his house, because his only daughter, a girl of about 12, was dying.

As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him, and a woman was there, who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. Who touched me? Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.

But Jesus said, Someone touched me. I know that power has gone out from me. Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then Jesus said to her, Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.

While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. Your daughter is dead, he said. Don't bother the teacher anymore. Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, Don't be afraid. Just believe, and she will be healed. And when he had arrived at the house of Jairus, he did not let anyone go in with him except Peter, John, and James, and the child's mother and father.

Meanwhile, all the people were waiting and mourning for her. It's tough wailing, Jesus said. She is not dead, but asleep. They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. But he took her by the hand and said, My child, get up. Her spirit returned at once, and she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat. Her parents were astonished, but he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened.

The word of the Lord. So, we get an incredible privilege, not just today, to hear Dr. David Levy speak this morning, but just to have him in our congregation. I've known David for years. We've prayed together, walked on the beach together, talked about all different things. And there's one consistent attribute or passion that he has, and that is his love for Jesus and going deep.

In the back, we have his book. And when you start reading about neurosurgery and going in, I got exhausted as I was reading it. I mean, it was like, I just felt like, Oh, I've got to get my scrubs off here. And, you know, I've got to do everything right. And it's just, it's absolutely amazing. He takes you into what it is like to go in through surgery.

And then, he's taken that brain power and applied it to Jesus and looking at all different aspects of our Christian walk. And he also added his wife, Naomi, into his life a little while ago. And he's got just about as much passion for her as he does for Jesus. So, we're really privileged. Thank you very much for being here today. Thank you, God.

Thank you. It is good to be here. Most Sunday mornings, my wife Naomi and I are over teaching the fourth and the fifth graders. So, it's good to be with you this morning. Well, this passage drops us right in Luke chapter 8. And what we need to do, it's like starting a movie in the middle. You have to go back and get some of the back story. So, what we want to do is figure out what, I mean, did some of these players in this scene know each other?

Did Jesus and Jairus know each other? And why are people laughing at Jesus? What is happening? What is happening? What is the tension here? Well, first of all, it's good to know that they're in a city called Capernaum. Capernaum is Jesus' home base. He was born in Bethlehem. He was raised in Nazareth. But since he started his ministry now, he lives in Capernaum.

And that is going to be an important part of this story. This is Jesus' hometown. It's also Jairus' hometown. Jairus is the ruler of the synagogue. He's one of the few people that, in this passage, has a name. The woman with the issue of blood doesn't have a name. Jairus' daughter doesn't have a name. But Jairus, everyone knows Jairus. He is the big man in town.

What we really want to do is get some idea of who this character of Jesus is. Because if we don't understand Jesus, the scriptures tell us that Jesus comes to represent the Godhead bodily. This is what God is like. And so when we see him in a scene, we want to ask, what is God like? Well, the first thing we need to do is get some idea of what it was like to be around Jesus in this time frame.

First of all, we have to remember that Jesus was about 30 years old. Not as most of the pictures depict him or stained glass as 45 or so. And he's 30, 31, 32. Very youthful. Probably jet black hair, jet black beard. And he's up talking with a lot of people who are not so youthful. How does that go over? How does it go over in your workplace? Most doctors, they come out about 30 years old into their practice.

And they are full of vim and vigor. How does that go over to the older, seasoned crowd? Hmm, not so well. There's a reason that he maybe is not so popular with the administration here. You don't want to miss that. You also don't want to miss the fact that, according to the administration, Jesus is uneducated. He didn't go to theology school, seminary, medical school.

But he's healing people without a license. He's preaching without a license. Nobody has given him a certificate for anything. He's just popped up, essentially from a backward town of Nazareth, who we learn, I mean, nothing good comes out of Nazareth. It would be like a, I mean, he's a, we say a carpenter. The Greek word is tekton. He's a builder.

He's a construction worker. He works with wood, yes, but he also works with stone. He's a builder. This is like a construction worker from Tijuana calling himself a preacher, calling his own disciples, and starting to go around healing people. What kind of reaction does that get from established pastors and churches and doctors and all of the people whose livelihood he's infringing on?

Oh, we've got certifications. Even if you're going to teach, you've got to have a credential today. You can't just be willy-nilly teaching and certainly not healing people, and certainly not people that other people have spent a lot of money going to the physicians. If you heal those people, that's embarrassing for us physicians. Well, there's this other issue that we have, or that they had with Jesus, and that he doesn't fear anybody.

He has no fear of authority. He has no fear of the elders. And in that culture, you don't contradict your elders. You don't question their authority. My father grew up in the area of the Mediterranean in a Jewish family. Very important not to question his father about anything. You had to have what they called respeto, respect. And this is a big part of life in Israel at this time.

And Jesus, because he has no fear, and because he speaks the truth, it appears his lack of fear appears like a lack of respect to the people who don't have jet black hair and jet black beards and who have paid the price of going through all of this education. One of the other character qualities of Jesus is that he has incredible joy. He is a very youthful, very joyful individual.

And we know this because in John chapter 15, we read that Jesus is saying, I want my joy to be in you that your joy may be full. Well, you would not say that if you had a sour man who didn't have much joy. He wouldn't be giving you anything. This is a very joyful man. Very youthful, very joyful. We also learn he's very peaceful. He's not anxious.

He's not intimidated by all of the authorities in his life. And we get a picture of that, not in this scene, but the religious people, the educated people absolutely hate him. And finally, at the end of his life, when he's betrayed, he's arrested, and he's brought before the high priest. And we enter that story, I want to just give you some idea of the character of Jesus.

We want to understand how he handles authority. We're in John chapter 18. The high priest then questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. Remember, he's been arrested now. He's standing in chains before the high priest. Jesus answered him, I have spoken openly to the world. I've always taught in synagogues and the temple, where all Jews come together.

I have said nothing in secret. Why do you ask me? Ask those who've heard me what I said to them. They know what I said. When he had said these things, one of the officers standing by struck Jesus with his hand, saying, Is that how you answer the high priest? Jesus answered him, If what I said is wrong, bear witness about the wrong. But if what I said is right, why do you strike me?

Wow. He knows that they are going to kill him. He is not obsequious. He's not fawning. He's not obliging. He's not servile. He's not saying, Whatever I can do for you. He's not manageable. We have to know this about him. Is this the Messiah? Is the question that we're asking. And do I want this kind of a man to be the Messiah? Because it's very obvious from the text that there are large groups of people who don't want him to be the Messiah.

I guess the question would be, Is he? A little bit of backstory now. In Luke chapter 4, which comes before our passage here in Luke chapter 8, Jesus is actually speaking. He's asked to speak in the synagogue at Capernaum. The synagogue of which Jairus is the ruler, is in charge. Good chance that they know each other? Pretty good chance. Because the synagogue ruler usually would be the one to invite the speaker.

In Luke chapter 7, just before our passage here in Luke chapter 8, we read a story about a centurion who also happens to live in town. And this centurion lives in Capernaum, and his servant is sick. Sick to the point of death. What does the centurion do? Notice the centurion doesn't have a name here, but Jairus gets a name. Very important man in town, Jairus.

The centurion would have called over to the synagogue. Probably Jairus would have been involved, because it says the elders of the Jews went to ask Jesus if he would come and heal the centurion's servant. Well, Jesus says, okay. But then the centurion says, You don't actually need to come to my house. You can just say the word, and my servant will be healed.

Well, Jesus says the word. His servant is healed. Would Jairus have known about that story? Pretty good chance. Pretty good chance. Probably Jairus was involved. He might have even been one of the people that went to Jesus to ask if he would heal the centurion's servant. Another story that we need to know about that also occurs in Luke chapter 7, and that is the trip Jesus makes to a little town called Nain.

N-A-I-N. It's a little town about 10, 20 miles from Capernaum. But while he is in Nain, he enters the town, and there happens to be a funeral procession. There's a widow, and her only son has died. Jesus walks in, halts the procession, raises the boy from the dead. And it says in that passage, and word of him spread throughout all Judea and the surrounding area.

What are the chances these people in Capernaum, 10, 20 miles away, have heard that Jesus has actually raised someone from the dead? Pretty good. Well, now we enter the story that Jesus comes to the shore. He's been away. He's been over across the Sea of Galilee on this particular day. He comes back to the shore. Jairus is waiting for him on the shore.

Jairus drops to his knees and says, would you come and heal my only daughter? She's sick and dying. Well, if they know each other, that actually, this scene is going to make a little bit of difference. I want to ask you a question. Was Jairus' daughter sick yesterday? Jesus was in town. What are the chances that this girl woke up at 8 a.m. and by 5 she died?

Well, most of you are not physicians, but that's a pretty small chance. It takes a while for a 12-year-old to die. They don't generally die that quickly. Nobody really dies that. The body is amazing. It just sort of lingers. What are the chances she was sick the day before yesterday or the day before that? Maybe for the last week she's been sick. Maybe even people have been coming to Jesus to say, hey, you know, Jairus' daughter's sick.

I mean, had they asked you to heal her yet? Maybe Jesus has been waiting for someone to come and ask him. How does that feel? So when Jesus sees Jairus, why doesn't he say, oh, now you're here? Was she sick yesterday? I was in town yesterday. Now you're on your knees. What? We don't get that from Jesus, do we? When you're vulnerable, when you're embarrassed, Jesus is giving grace.

How do you do when you suddenly have the upper hand in a relationship that's been adversarial? How do you respond? Huh, I told you so. That comes out of a lot of our mouths. We can't wait to be able to say, I told you so. And the people that say that, say that because you need a little boost to your ego, your self-esteem. It's sagging. Jesus didn't need a boost to his ego.

Secondly, why didn't Jesus say to Jairus, you know, Jairus, I healed the centurion's servant just by my word from a distance. You know that. Why are you asking me to come to your house? Where's your faith? Jesus meets Jairus where he is. And he's willing to go with him, even though it's not probably necessary. But he's willing to go with him because Jairus actually has not one problem.

He actually has two. He has a problem in his, with his daughter, who's dying. We actually learn on the way there, she actually, we're informed that she has died. So, what it sounds like within 30 minutes of Jesus arriving, the girl's dead. I mean, he waited till the last minute. But he doesn't, he doesn't press Jairus. Jairus has two problems. He's got his daughter, but he also has a problem with his social circle.

He's got a social issue. He's got people surrounding him as the synagogue ruler. You'd be wealthy if you were the synagogue ruler. And wealthy people have some problems. And one of the problems they have is the people surrounding them. They don't often allow you to seek the truth in places where you want to seek it because they only seek it in certain places.

Jairus has a problem with his social circle. And Jesus is going to go with him because he recognizes that Jairus can't actually free himself from this social circle. And the social circle is going to prevent Jairus and his daughter from life. That social circle doesn't have life. Does yours? How does your social circle respond to your faith? To Jesus? Because Jesus, I'd say the attitudes toward him haven't changed necessarily.

You could say in the hospital or whatever your place of work is, I would find attitudes very similar to what we're finding in this story. Well, he's not my Messiah. I actually don't want him to be the Messiah. That's not good news for me. I want to be my own Messiah. So Jesus agrees to go. And as he's going, someone comes from the synagogue ruler's house, from Jairus' house, and says, your daughter has died.

Don't bother the teacher anymore. Well, that's very sensitive of him at first glance, you would think. What's this person really trying to do? He's trying to say, Jairus, we want you to come home. We don't want him. He's healed somebody. He's raised the dead if you want to believe it. There's a good chance that there's people at the house that didn't even want to believe it.

That wasn't good news to them that he had previously raised the dead, that he'd previously healed the centurion's servant. So Jesus arrives, and he walks in, and he says, do not weep. The girl is not dead. She is sleeping. Well, let's go ahead and leave the video off for now. Why does Jesus say she's not dead but sleeping? Kind of curious. If he's truly humble, why does he say anything at all?

He just says that, and they laugh at him. Why doesn't he just walk in, say nothing, raise the girl, and slip out? He says this very strange sentence. The girl's not dead. She's sleeping. Well, I love to think about questions like that. Jesus, what he says, is that he only says what the Father's telling him to say. He's only doing what the Father's telling him to do.

So, none of his words are extra. Well, let's think about, if I was the Messiah, what I would do if I walked into that house. I would say, we have here a dead girl, do we not? Can we verify we have a dead girl? She's cold. She's blue. She's not breathing. Oh, we have some doctors in the audience. Come up. Can we verify? Anyone need to verify the girl's dead? How many here, let me see a show of hands, how many here do not believe that I can raise her from the dead?

Let's see a show. Oh, most of the audience, I see. You, in the front row, you can come forward, stand around the bed for me, and watch as I perform a messianic act. That's the way I would do it. That's the way our self-promoters do it today, isn't it? Ask who doesn't believe. Confront their unbelief. Boom, you have your case made. Now you've got some fans. Why does Jesus say she's not dead, she's sleeping?

It sounds crazy. Well, I believe a couple reasons. There are a couple reasons. These are the ones that I, that I believe, I think for starters, probably the people who had sent the messenger to Jesus to say, don't bother the teacher anymore. Somebody would have said, well, wait a minute, he raised the woman's son who was dead. And they would have said something like, well, that was in Nain.

That was a small town. There are no doctors in that town. Plus, she was a poor woman. The boy probably wasn't dead. He was sleeping. How else would you not want Jesus to come into a house with a dead person if this actually was in the news that this had happened? So Jesus walks in and says, oh, she's not dead. she's sleeping. There's another reason I think that Jesus might have said that.

He wanted to show Jairus who the people in his home really were. It says that they were all mourning. And when he says this, they laughed at him. How easy is it for someone who's truly mourning to laugh? It's not very easy. If you're really mourning and somebody says something like that, you'll say, huh? Or, really? Or, but you're not going to break into laughter.

Jesus is showing Jairus that these people in his home, his social circle, are really not his friends. They would rather your daughter remain dead than for Jesus to come and heal her. Jairus, they don't care about you. They care about their establishment, their, their kingdom. These are not your friends, Jairus. Jesus does it all with one sentence. Make a note, Jairus.

This laughter, yeah, they're not actually concerned that she's dead. Sorry about that. I think there's another reason that Jesus says she's not dead, but she's sleeping. It's a reach, but I want you to think with me about this. It's so that when she's raised from the dead, they don't have to believe if they don't want to. They don't have to believe. This is crazy to me.

I always think, oh, Jesus is so concerned that everyone believes. In fact, he's going to try to compel you to believe. No, he's actually giving them a reason not to. Oh, yeah, she was sleeping. She was sleeping. Yeah. were there doctors there at Jairus' house, the wealthiest guy in town? Of course, there were doctors there attending. If the woman with the hemorrhage paid all that money to impoverish her so that now she's a poor woman, I promise you, Jairus had plenty of money to pay the doctors to try to heal his daughter.

In fact, that's probably the reason they delayed so long to get another doctor from Jerusalem or someone else to come and try a potion or something to heal her. The doctors now are going to have to say, I was wrong. She wasn't dead. I mean, this is fascinating to me that Jesus actually gives them an excuse not to believe if they want it. You know, he still does that today.

Would you like to believe that you came from nothing with no design, with no designer? You just evolved and here we all are. Chance, luck, materials came together. Go ahead. You're welcome to believe. In fact, you're going to find a lot of scientists to help you believe that but you're going to have to say, yeah, it doesn't make sense to me. Everything else I know about life is it doesn't get more complicated if you just leave it alone.

that doesn't make sense. Oh, you're welcome to believe it. Go ahead. I mean, these people who say there's no God, nobody's getting struck by lightning. You get to believe whatever you want. And then Jesus puts no pressure on Jairus. He heals the girl, raises her, and says to him, astonishingly, don't tell anyone. I'm not sure how that's going to work out because the crowd's right outside his door but he says to Jairus, don't tell anyone.

Well, what would I have said? I'd say, Jairus, at the next council meeting, how about standing up for me? You know, I'm going to be on trial in Jerusalem coming up in a bit. Would you, would you get my back, Jairus? Maybe you and your daughter and your wife, could you have my back because I'm going to need some supporters. No. No. He is not going to use guilt, manipulation, pressure to get people to do something to make his life easier.

Do you use guilt or manipulation or pressure when someone does you, or you do a favor for someone? Do you, do you try to figure out how I can twist this so that I can get a little something for me? I can get my part of that? Oh, manipulation is such a huge part of our lives. In church, out of church, we are all about trying to get people to do what we want them to do.

and Jesus is about giving people freedom to do what they want to do. Now, Jairus probably had a difficult time after that. He had some decisions to make. We don't know what happened with Jairus. We don't know what, if, when Jesus was on trial, good chance Jairus and his family, as observant, Jews would have been at that Passover celebration the year Jesus was crucified.

We do not know if he said anything, if he did anything, if after Jesus rose from the dead, if Jairus and his daughter decided to go through some persecution with the other disciples, or if he decided to keep his social circle. We don't know. But I don't want you to misunderstand me, the fact that Jesus doesn't put any pressure on Jairus, and the fact that Jesus gives people a reason not to believe in him.

Don't misunderstand that it's because he doesn't care, or because it doesn't matter. There is nothing in your life, or in Jairus' life, that matters more. We are on this earth for a time, but eternity is a very long time. And Jesus is always concerned about your spiritual health. So much so, that at the end of his ministry, Jesus will pronounce a special judgment upon the city of Capernaum.

because of we've just read about three miracles, the centurion's servant, the woman with the issue of blood, and Jairus' daughter were healed. Three notable miracles, and there were more. But Jesus pronounces a very harsh judgment on Capernaum. Because whether or not you agree that he's the Messiah, one of the jobs, or offices of the Messiah, is judge. He gets to judge everyone.

And you'll watch him here with a little bit of a judge-judging tone. Matthew chapter 11, 23. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? In other words, you're very prideful, you think God is going to bless you. You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.

You don't have to like it, you don't have to believe it, but Jesus is ultimately the judge. Jesus is ultimately the belief system. How do we get our belief system? We think our belief system is really based on logic. But I'll tell you how most of us get our belief system. The way I think about it, the way the brain works is this. Who do you love? Who loves you? And what do you love?

Who do you love? Who is the character that you admire growing up, the sports figure? What about your parents? What did they admire? What did they teach you? Who do you want to be like? For me, growing up, it was James Bond. That's who I wanted to be like. Who has the good stuff? Who gets the good stuff? James Bond. Doesn't have to be a real character. In your mind, who do you love?

He's got the good stuff and he doesn't have Jesus. Why do I need Jesus? And who loves you? Who do you want to love you? In Jaira's circle, it was the religious crowd, the medical crowd, the wealthy crowd, your social crowd, the in crowd. Who do you want to love you? Your family. Oh, that's going to be important. Who do you want to love you? That's going to play a huge part in what you want to believe.

So you believe what you want to believe and your brain actually makes it true for you? That's phenomenal if you think about it. It doesn't mean it is true. It just means your brain will help you out with that and make it true. It will exclude all the information that goes against it and it will promote everything that goes for it. And lastly, what do you love? What gives you your dopamine, your motivating chemical in your brain?

for most of us, money, sex, power, and chocolate and videos. What do you love? What motivates you? And if what motivates you, money, sex, power, doesn't really fit in with what Jesus is saying, that's a good reason for you not to really think he's a good messiah. Instead of money, sex, and power, Jesus will help you. What does he think about money? Well, don't, you can't have two masters, God or money.

He likes honesty. He likes integrity in the finance. He likes generosity versus hoarding. He has something to say about your money. He has something to say about sexuality, purity, responsibility. Your sexual activity makes a big difference to God. And how do you use your power? Because Jesus has this power, but he uses humility. Well, if that is, as I can say, as a young neurosurgeon, didn't really think that that was a good plan for me, that humility wasn't the way I wanted to go, I would rather have said, no, I don't want him to be my Messiah.

And he will say, go ahead. You can try it your way. So there's some beauty of Jesus in this passage, that Jesus has the presence and the poise to go with Jairus, even though he knows that Jairus has waited until the last minute and has very little faith. and he will go with you also. Wherever you are, he's going to go with you if you ask him. But he actually wants to be asked. He wants you to invite him into your adventure, into your sorrow, into your problem.

Oh, Jairus, I can tell you, was hoping, as with all of the other religious leaders, that nobody in their families ever got sick. Aren't we all? aren't we always hoping that we don't need Jesus? We have enough money, we have everything insured, we don't want to need. But when we have financial pain, physical pain, emotional pain, oh, Jesus is there. And he's not chiding you, belittling you, looking down on you.

He's saying, I'm so glad you've come to me. Let me first, let me just comfort you. Let me give you a hug. Have you been rejected? I know what that feels like. They rejected me too. Psychological term is attunement. He attunes to you, and then he helps you. Is there someone speaking truth to you in your life who is a little too young, a little too exuberant, who is really hard to hear that truth from?

I remember some time ago I was counseling someone, and this young man who was very early in his walk with the Lord said something like, you know, you're not very joyful. Ouch. I was so incensed. I was so angry. How dare you? Talk about a man who's been walking with God for years as not being joyful. is it okay with you if Jesus brings a message through a messenger who's hard to hear it from?

Maybe I could have said to him, you know, you don't have your life figured out either. You're in a lot worse shape than me, and let me point that out to you. That's what we do, isn't it? Because it hurts to hear the truth, and we only want to hear it from certain types of people with certain degrees, and what if he wants to bring it through, like in the Hebrew scriptures, a donkey, Balaam's donkey, what if he wants to bring it through someone who's really hard to hear it from?

Are you humble enough to listen? Are you humble enough to listen? Jesus was laughed at, belittled, reviled, treated with contempt, derision, and he endured it with remarkable humility. It didn't make him angry. How are you when you're laughed at? How are you when people treat you with derision? Because if we are followers of Jesus, they will. Oh, you silly believer in Jesus, those fairy tales.

Yeah, yeah, it hurts. It still hurts. And Jesus suffered for it. Are you able to follow him? Because he calls us to follow him, and basically he says, they are going to persecute you, they are going to laugh at you, but you are rewarded if that happens. That's actually a sign of courage. Do you have the courage to be laughed at in your social circle? I can tell you in medicine, it doesn't feel good.

But there is power in humility. There is power in humility. I just want to give you about 30 seconds. We've said a lot today. I want to give you 30 seconds just to sit with some of those questions. are you bad of your hand? Are you words and are you humble enough to ask for help? can you talk to you? will you know? don't you are you ... are you strong to you? are you ... are you things in this way?

are you all you are you are you are you are you are you healing of you this you are you are you healing healing healing healing healing Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Lord, we bow before you this morning. We thank you once again for this picture, Jesus, of you in action and you reflecting the character of the eternal God.

Thank you, Lord, that as that last verse in Matthew's gospel says, look, lo, hey, I am with you always, even to the very end. So you are with us today. Thank you that you did not do all this by remote control or some kind of transaction. But a relationship is what you bring and you offer by your love. And so, Lord, as this word points us to this table, we're so grateful to you for the truth and the beauty and the goodness that is ours.

So, Lord, we bow. We continue to worship. And we thank you here for your kingdom's sake we come. Amen. Amen.