Transcript

Well, take your Bibles and let’s go to the gospel of Mark. Mark chapter 5, we’re beginning this four part series called “The Dead Live Again.” We’ll conclude on Easter Sunday. And once again, view that as an outreach Sunday. A lot of people come with you on Easter Sunday. But our first installment is on the miracle of the raising from the dead of the synagogue official, Jairus’ daughter. So we begin in Mark chapter 5, we’ll go through verses 21 through 24. Then there’s the interlude of the woman who had the hemorrhage of blood and her healing and what a tender, compassionate, loving thing that was of our Lord. Then we’ll pick up with the miracle we’re focusing on back in verses 35 through 43. All right, verse 21 of Mark chapter 5.

21 When Jesus had crossed over again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around Him; and so He stayed by the seashore. 22 One of the synagogue officials named Jairus came up, and on seeing Him, fell at His feet 23 and implored Him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death; please come and lay Your hands on her, so that she will get well and live.” 24 And He went off with him; and a large crowd was following Him and pressing in on Him.

Now down to verse 35.

35 While He was still speaking, they came from the house of the synagogue official, saying, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the Teacher anymore?” 36 But Jesus, overhearing what was being spoken, said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid any longer, only believe.” 37 And He allowed no one to accompany Him, except Peter and James and John the brother of James. 38 They came to the house of the synagogue official; and He saw a commotion, and people loudly weeping and wailing. 39 And entering in, He said to them, “Why make a commotion and weep? The child has not died, but is asleep.” 40 They began laughing at Him. But putting them all out, He took along the child’s father and mother and His own companions, and entered the room where the child was. 41 Taking the child by the hand, He said to her, “Talitha kum!” (which translated means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). 42 Immediately the girl got up and began to walk, for she was twelve years old. And immediately they were completely astounded. 43 And He gave them strict orders that no one should know about this, and He said that something should be given her to eat.

What a picture of our Lord’s power, a picture of our Lord’s compassion, and a picture of our Lord’s great, great love. Remember as Jesus ministered on the earth during his earthly ministry, he was splashing around components of what his kingdom would be like one day when he returns and establishes it in the full on the earth. He’s not establishing it in in the earth now, but he is giving us glimpses. And our God is so full of love and our God is so full of compassion and concern that it just keeps sloshing out of him. John’s gospel says if if everything Jesus did miraculously to serve and help people were recorded, it’d take all the books you could put in a library to fill it up. Now we know that everyone the Lord touched and everyone the Lord healed was not necessarily a believer, a Christian. But once again, that’s just the goodness of our God. He lets the sun shine on the just and the unjust. He sends the rain to nourish the crops of the just and the unjust. Our God is so full of love and kindness, concern and compassion that he can’t help but just slosh it over on everyone and here we see this, if you will, sloshing over of love, compassion and care for the family of Jairus and this precious little girl of his who when he comes to Jesus is on the bed, close to death. I., as we unpack this, seeking the Lord, the Lord’s compassion. So we’ll say a word about Jairus, seeking the Lord, and then we say a word about our Lord, his great compassion.

First of all, notice that Jairus comes humbly as he is seeking the Lord. The verse simply says there in verses 21 and then 22, “When Jesus had crossed over again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd had gathered around him so that he stayed on the seashore.” Now he’s coming from Gerizines and you remember the story of the Gerizines’ raging, wild, maniac, demon-possessed graveyard dweller. What a scene that must have been. They would chain the guy up with chains and they couldn’t restrain him. He would howl and scream and live in the tombs. He came and fell before Jesus and Jesus released the demons from his body and they went into the pigs and the pigs went over the bluff and were all killed and the people then told Jesus, “We care more about the pigs than You. So why don’t you leave us?” It’s what they said, “Please leave us.” He gets in the boat, he comes over here to Capernaum, that’s where he is now, getting out on the shore.

Then verse 22 of our text, and ” One of the synagogue officials named Jairus came up, and on seeing Him, fell at His feet.” Now this is a man of of distinction. Uh if you’re a synagogue official, you’re a high muckety-muck in ancient Israel. And uh wealth, power, distinction, but in great humility, he falls down at Jesus’ feet to remind us that rank places no man beyond the reach of sorrow. You may have great wealth and you may have great position, you may have great power and influence, but sin touches us all and heartache and despair and sorrow touches us all. You know, there’s only one place where he wipes all the tears from our eyes and that’s in heaven.

Now, falling at his feet, we think about this, this Jairus, you you understand, he he brought belongs to a group of elite leaders in Israel that hated Jesus, generally speaking.

They didn’t want to have anything to do with him. They were quite jealous of the the following he was receiving, and one thing they did not tolerate is someone taking away their power and control. And they sensed that out of Jesus. But Jairus didn’t have any of that spirit in him now. Perhaps he had secretly believed because Jesus’ headquarters was Capernaum and he had probably watched and heard many things Jesus had said and done in the past. Or maybe this dire sickness of his daughter had changed Jairus’ heart toward Jesus. But one thing he does, he comes the way you can only come to Jesus, humbly, broken, surrendered. You do not bring anything to him but your bankruptcy and that’s the way Jairus seems to come.

You know, so many today boast of their great learning. They seek truth by calculating and criticizing and scrutinizing and scheming and researching and rationalizing on the Scriptures of this Jesus of Nazareth but you know, the interesting thing is they never find him because you don’t come to Jesus and find him with your head. You come to Jesus and find him from your heart. Jairus could not intellectually describe and explain all the things Jesus taught and said and did. No man could possibly do that. He just knew in his heart, “This One has power and He’s good and He’s of God and He can help me.”

He came to Jesus heart first. What a contrast this is to the worldly wise, and every generation has their quote, worldly wise. They they have much learning. They don’t humble themselves. They believe they have the answers. They espouse their many theories and philosophies about life, but they never consult God’s word with a heart- wrought dependence, devotion, and humility. The world will applaud them. The world holds them in high esteem. But Psalm 2:4 tells you how God feels about the worldly wise who neglect his word and his Son. Psalm 24 says, “He sits in the heavens and laughs.” Sits in the heavens and laughs. Now there’s nothing wrong with great learning but so many with great learning let it go to their head.

Well, that’s not Jairus. He’s cast pride to the wind, position to the wind, reputation to the wind, and falls on his fate face rather at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. He comes humbly. Secondly, notice he comes earnestly, very clearly just spelled out in our text. Look at verse 23, “and implored Him,” that’s Jairus imploring Jesus, of course, “earnestly, saying, ‘My little daughter is at the point of death; please come and lay Your hands on her, so that she will get well and live.'” Implored him earnestly. Is it not true that God in his sovereign purposes can use the difficult seasons of our life to drive us into earnestly seeking the Lord? Earnestly seeking the Lord? The Holy Spirit may use the passing of a loved one, crisis, difficulty, heartache, and all of a sudden you have time for Bible study. All of a sudden you have time for prayer. All of a sudden you don’t miss Wednesday night church. Does God not use these things in our life as he clearly used this in Jairus’ life? He uses these things to draw us to himself.

I remember so distinctly that season of time when I was a freshman in college and didn’t know what I was seeking other than being full of myself and thinking that I could find the reasons for life and the purposes of life, but came to dead end after dead end after dead end and finally came to the end of myself like the prodigal son. He he tried everything else. He he ran out of everything. He just came to himself. Himself was all he had left.

The world had forsaken him. His friends had forsaken him. Material goods were gone. And he said, “I think I’ll go to my father’s house.” God uses these things to get us to that place where we fall before him humbly and we seek him earnestly. That’s why the Bible says when the Apostle Paul talking about his own pilgrimage says, “When I’m weak, I’m strong.” The the weakness causes me to cast myself on the strength of God.

Thirdly, not just seeking the Lord humbly and earnestly, but he sought him trustingly. We see a real faith in this man, Jairus as we look at verse 23, the last part where he says, “My little daughter is at the point of death; please come and lay Your hands on her, so that she will get well and live.” Please come. Now that’s very interesting, isn’t it? He just left the shores of Gerezines where the people said, “We don’t like the fact that all these pigs are dead so You, the Prince, need need to leave us. We don’t want You here.” Then he comes to Capernaum on the opposite shore and Jairus comes and says, “Please come.” The people over in Gerizene said, “Please please go away.” And Jairus says, “Please come.” He had a trust in the Lord.

Maybe maybe you’ve committed your life to Christ or maybe you’re considering committing to Jesus Christ and you wonder how many pigs it’s gonna cost you. “Am I gonna lose some of the things of the world? Am I gonna lose some of my pleasures?” Oh, isn’t it wonderful when God breaks through and he says, “No, I’m gonna give you pleasures. I’m gonna take away the artificial, hollow, fake pleasures you’ve been looking to, and I’m gonna give you the true pleasures. You’ll find your treasure in Me. And by the way, nobody can take Me away.”

I don’t know where Jairus was in his understanding of the great doctrines of grace and the faithfulness of Christ, but he does come trusting. Here he throws his trust totally in Jesus’ abilities. He throws his trust completely on the mercy of the Lord. He he he knew Jesus could do it if Jesus was willing to do it and I think that’s a powerful statement here because Jairus doesn’t just say, “You must come and do this.” He said, “If You’re willing, I know You can make this change.” Wasn’t that a great way to go to God is bow before him humbly and earnestly and saying, “God, this is what I would like for You to do. If You’re willing, if it’s Your will and it honors You and pleases You, would yYu do this, Lord? If not, I pledge to be satisfied in You.” You may be shocked how many times God will do that thing once he knows you don’t have to have that thing because he is your thing. He’s the one you’re really resting in.

Jairus Jairus says, “If You’re willing, You can come and do this.” His faith was not that Jesus had to heal, his faith was, “If You’re willing, I know You can heal her.” I remember my dear, dear friend, one of our elders, Shanky Sharp, mayor here for many years in Muscle Shoals, and he had a latter stage diagnosis of cancer, and Shanky was consistent through that, that, “I’m asking the Lord to remove it, but if it’s not His will, I have joy in Him. He is my treasure. He is my stay.” So regardless of what the the Lord’s will is, we all need to remember he is able to keep us in sickness and health and adversity and prosperity in life and in death.

So we see Jairus falling at the feet of Jesus. We see Jesus immediately saying, “Let’s go.” Verse uh 24 of our text, “And He went off with him; and a large crowd was pressing or following Him and pressing in on Him.” So the compassion of the Lord immediately responds to this humble, earnest, trusting request of Jairus. Now, II., I call this striving through the setbacks and the Lord’s encouragement. And there were three setbacks here that were very clear, at least from any human viewpoint, and the first setback was the press of the people. Look again at verse 24, it says, “a large crowd was following him and pressing in on him.” The Greek word can be translated thronging. It it’s literally that they were physically all over Jesus, so that walking was difficult. So probably at times he would have to stumble and just shuffle along and here Jairus is saying, “My daughter is at the point of death. I need You to get to my house.” But we have the setback of this thronging mob of people. So that had to discourage Jairus.

Secondly, we have this interlude in our text from verses 25 through verse 34 with this this dear, dear lady who has had this hemorrhage of blood all of these many years and the Bible text tells us she had suffered greatly at the crude medical attention of the day that tried to help her and heal her, and she’s just weak and she’s considered spiritually unclean and she’s considered physically unclean before the people. So there’s great emotional and psychological pain and strain in her life in this deep and difficult physical element, and she crawls up and fights through the throng of people and somehow touches the hem of his garment. And Jesus was aware that power went out from him and she was beautifully and gloriously healed. He affirms her and shows her grace and compassion. Now, I’m not saying that Jairus had a problem with Jesus showing someone else compassion, but but Jairus being a dad with a daughter on her deathbed had to think, “This is another setback. We didn’t have time to stop and deal with someone else. We need to go to my house where my daughter’s suffering and at the point of death.”

And then if you’d look down in verse 35 after the woman is healed, “While He was still speaking,” to her that is, “they came from the house of the synagogue official, saying, ‘Your daughter has died; why trouble the Teacher any longer?'” Well, a subpoint here would be the power of past victories. I believe one of the things Jairus could draw from this is what God just did through Jesus Christ to heal that woman. “Jairus, don’t don’t fret in the circumstance. Look back on your pilgrimage. Has God, not God come through in ways you could have never fathomed until all the dominoes fell and you saw how He puts pieces together that you never saw coming together at all?” So child of God, when there’s setbacks and things aren’t coming in place and there’s heartaches, reach back to the past victories. John Newton understood this, that’s why he wrote the song, “Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come. ‘Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.” So it’s not incidental that this lesson of his care, his love and compassion for this woman happens on the journey to his house. Jesus and Jairus are on their way to seek the daughter and this is a lesson for all of us because the bumps are what you climb on. Is there a bump in the road? There’s a bump on the way? Then you climb on that and stand on that.

Well, not only the power of past victories, but listen for his present voice. Listen for his present voice. Look at verse 36, “But Jesus, overhearing what was being spoken,” he’s overhearing that the report from Jairus’ house is that the girl is dead but Jesus speaks to Jairus Jairus in the moment and says, “Do not be afraid any longer, only believe.” Actually, it’s a present active, it means “Keep on believing. You’ve believed, that’s why you humbly and earnestly and trustingly fell before Me. You believe, now Jairus, don’t stop now. Keep on believing.” Oh, my stars, child of God, member of Grace Life Church of the Shoals, you you know how many times as your pastor, many people with authority and influence and position and my own weak flesh screamed at me and said, “This will not work. You’ll not make it if you do this, if you stand on these convictions, strive to be thoroughly biblical. It will not be blessed.” I’ve even had guys tell me that, “Man, you’ve got it made if you’d stay off these doctrines like the doctrines of grace and a healthy church membership and etc. etc.” But somehow the Lord, I’d open the word of God, I’d read some of our Baptist forefathers and it was if God was speaking through them saying, “Now you’ve believed, don’t stop now. Keep on believing.” “Well, pastor, I’ve lost a dear loved one.” Well, don’t stop believing. “I’ve come into a difficult and hard season.” Don’t stop believing now. God’s got a purpose for you and he has care for you and he has compassion for you.

So he looks at Jairus, Jesus does and says, “Oh, we’ve received a report and that’s quite a setback but don’t stop believing at this point.” The prophets of doom and the heralds of despair have no effect on Jesus. Woo! The prophets of doom and the heralds of despair have no effect on Jesus. Anything and everything that contradicts his word to us must be put out of our hearts and minds. In your concern, in your disappointment, get in this book and you’ll find his present voice to you, just like Jairus did. “Don’t stop believing, Jairus.” Listen to your pastor’s preaching. Pay attention to your small group lesson. Have your quiet time and you’ll find God’s present voice. I can’t tell you the times in in difficult seasons when I opened the book and my spirit was regenerated with hope and joy, and I had to keep going back to the well and going back to the well, going back to the well of the word of God and so do you.

III., glorying in the Lord and the Lord’s power. Tenderness, compassion, love now meets up with his power. Matter of fact, after he raises Jairus’ daughter from the dead, verse 42 says they were completely astonished. It means Peter, James, and John, Jairus and his wife, the only ones in the room that were allowed in the room, we’ll talk about that in a moment, they were, literally the text means they were out of their minds with amazement. They were they were deliriously happy and joyous and blessed beyond words, if you will. You see, for now, the great physician was headed to Jairus, the synagogue official’s house. And he as the great physician is greater than all others because he is the Creator of life. Colossians 1:15 says, “For by Him all things were created.” He is the sustainer of life. Colossians 1:17 says, “In Him all things hold together.” Do you realize that everything holds together in the universe by the persistent, powerful, personal, word of Jesus Christ? If he removed his power, right now, everything we know would fall into absolute obliviousness. The very atoms that make up your being would shatter apart, which is what’s gonna happen when he destroys heaven and earth one day. He’s gonna let it all unravel into an unbelievable cataclysmic explosion because right now, it’s all held together by the personal persistent power of Jesus Christ. He’s the Creator of life, he’s the sustainer of life, and he is the great physician because he’s the restorer of life.

In John 11:25, he says, “He who believes in Me will live even if he dies.” So the great Creator, the great sustainer, the great restorer of life will soon arrive on the scene where Jairus’ daughter lays dead for now. Verse 37 tells us that, “He allowed no one to accompany Him, except Peter and James and John the brother of James.” You know, the Lord had revealed much of his power and authority, but there were times when he knew he needed to shield from the populace at large, the great miraculous power that he had and I think that’s why only Peter, James, and John are invited into that miracle room. If if Jesus had allowed all of his miracles to be broadcast, the likelihood was that the people would crash on him and demand he become king immediately and it’s not time for him to be king. It’s time for him to be Savior. He’ll reign on the throne later, but in this first coming, he’s gonna hang on a cross. Jesus was not primarily here to gain fame and popularity but to die and redeem his church who will reign with him later when he comes on his throne.

Now we think about Peter, James, and John. Why Peter, James, and John? The Garden of Gethsemane, only Peter, James, and John were invited. The Mount of Transfiguration, only Peter, James, and John were invited. I like to view Peter, James, and John as the elect out of the elect out of the elect. God has his his elect church. Then he has his elect apostles and then leaders among that elect group of apostles, Peter, James, and John. We do know Peter is something of the spokesman, or leader for the 12. We do know John, the Bible says, is the disciple whom Jesus loved. We do know James was the first martyr. He sealed his testimony in blood and was the first to do so. But honestly, we don’t know exactly why but those are some good considerations, I’m convinced.

Now look at verse 38. What what a scene. “They came to the house of the synagogue official; and He saw a commotion, and people loudly weeping and wailing.” Commotion, loud wailing and weeping. Now this was common in this day. These these are the professional mourners and the more important you were in society, the more professional mourners would show up to put on a show, literally, if someone in your family had passed away. And so they’re groaning, and they’re moaning, and they’re wailing, and even bring musicians to join in. I don’t know if it had a rhythm to it or not. Kind of reminds me maybe of some of our charismatic churches. You know, they’ll get the organ going, whatever. I don’t know how they did it, but that would be odd to us.

So Jesus walks into this mob of commotion in the house where his daughter has just died and then verse 39, “And entering in, He said to them, ‘Why make a commotion and weep? The child has not died, but is asleep.'” Now Jesus does not mean here she’s only in a coma. That’s not what he’s saying. What he’s saying is that Jesus gives us a new word, if you will, for his children when they pass on. They’re just asleep. He uses the same language when he deals with the death of Lazarus. He says, “Lazarus is asleep,” and then later in the same text, he says, “Lazarus has died.” The point is in Christianity, and because of the power of Jesus Christ, we as Christians, don’t go to the grave to stay there. It’s as logical in its reality for us to rise from the dead as it is for you to go to sleep tonight expecting to get up in the morning. That’s why he says, “She’s asleep.” Why make a commotion and why weep because Christians do not die to remain dead.

Well, they hear Jesus say this and they’ve been watching this girl for a long time. They know she’s graveyard dead. Boy, how quickly they change. Look at verse 40, “They began laughing at Him.” How quickly they go from groaning and wailing and mourning to derisive, sarcastic cackling, ridiculing Jesus with their laughter. How quickly they changed. Many laugh today when you tell them you’re a follower of Jesus. Many would scoff and you tell them, “I believe the Bible.” Well, believe it anyway. Follow him anyway because Jesus always has the last laugh. Psalm 37:13 says, “The Lord laughs at him for he sees his day coming.”

So only if you get to witness this power, Jesus, Peter, James, and John, Jairus and his wife, they’re the only ones in there. You know, I think that speaks to us again of something we need to think about. There are relatively few that witness the power of God, but it’s because of unbelief. You know, we deal with a lot of pastors in our Anchored in Truth Ministries and a lot of wonderful and faithful and good men of God. But we also run across a lot of men that I think are good men and I love them but in unbelief, they keep failing to build the church biblically because of the press and the pressure and the the push of the people. And so they’ve not they don’t, they fall into unbelief. That’s unbelief. That’s the fear of man, not trusting God. And they never see the power of God in their churches. And so it is in our lives. We have to walk in faith and belief if we’re gonna see the power of God.

Now look at verse 40 again. Let’s look at the last half, “They began laughing at Him. But putting them all out,” that’s a strong phrase there. Literally it means to cast out, even to drive out. In my mind, I see Jesus doing basically the same thing here that Jesus did when he drove the money-changers out of the temple. I see a man’s man grab one guy by the nap of the neck, the other guy by the back of the arm and take them right out the door. “You guys get out of here.” Don’t you ever make Jesus out to be some weak physical Caspar Milquetoast. Jesus was a carpenter, rough, rugged, tough, took a cat-of- nine tails and ran the money-changers out of the temple and in this text, likely put his hands on guys and said, “Get out of the room.” Well, I like that. Literally, physically, making sure that only Peter, James, and John, himself and Jairus and his wife were in the room.

Notice the tenderness, the compassion. Oh, what a Savior he is, to be so mighty. You know, they they said that Abraham Lincoln was steel velvet. He had a velvet kindness and tenderness, but he had a backbone like a saw log on things that mattered. He was a man’s man. Jesus is the real man’s man. Jesus is the original man’s man. But here he comes after that firm manliness of moving those cackling hyenas out of the room to coming over to this little corpse, taking her by the hand. He said to her, “Talitha kum!” That’s Aramaic, which is a point of tenderness. That’s the language that Jairus and his family would have spoken most likely in. Jesus most likely spoke Koine Greek, but he uses their tongue, again, to communicate and identify with them, which translated to means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up.” Jesus tenderly takes her hand and speaks the words to this little girl that she’d probably heard a thousand times when her mama would come in in the morning, “Sweetheart, get up.” Now holding her hand was not essential, but it shows his care. It shows his concern. I I thought about this because think of the power just in Jesus’ word. The Bible says all things were created by him. So in Genesis 1 verse 3, it says then God said, “Let there be light,” and light came. Verse 6, then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters,” and there was an expanse in the midst of the waters. Verse 9 of Genesis 1, then God said, “Let dry land appear,” and dry land appeared. Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation,” and vegetation springs up everywhere. Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens.” Lights came on everywhere. Verse 20 of Genesis 1, then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living things,” and the oceans became alive with living creatures. Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our own image,” and man was made in the image of God. Here Jesus says, “Little girl, I say to you, get up.” And she got up. She got up, because the dead live again.

Verse 42, “Immediately the girl got up and began to walk, for she was twelve years of old rather I should say, And immediately they were out of their minds in astonishment,” just out of their minds in astonishment. She was raised and healed and now in perfect health. His power is unlike any other power. When he extends his power, it accomplishes his purposes perfectly. That’s why at the end of creation, as he spoke, spoke, spoke, spoke all into existence, the Bible says in Genesis 1:31, “And God saw that all He had made and behold, it was very good.” Have you seen some of these faith healers on TV and they heal this old boy of his crippling or whatever and he’s still going… Not this little girl. She gets right up and I think there’s a reason why it says she’s 12. You ever been around a 12 year old girl? They’re usually pretty active and that’s the point here. She’s back to full health in one fraction of a second at the spoken word of the all-powerful Jesus Christ. What he does, he does perfectly.

Now that’s a prophetic word for us, is it not? This little girl was not raised to a glorified body, just a healthy physical body. This body she got back will die again but the prophecy for us is that there is a day coming when God the Father will put his hand on the Son, Jesus Christ and he’ll say, “Son, go get Our children.” And Jesus will depart the glory of glories and enter into the celestial heavens and as he comes in our atmospheric heavens, perhaps he’ll just say, “Arise, My love.” And the dead in Christ, the Bible says, will rise first and those who are alive and remain will be caught up together in glorified bodies to be with the Lord. Why? Because the dead live again. Now their bodies, our bodies in that day will be glorified bodies fit for eternity. This is a prelude, if you will. This is a splash, a foreshadowing of what that future kingdom is gonna be all about as he raises Jairus’ daughter.

So Jesus’ word to the little girl was a word of power. “I say to you, get up.” It’s a word that’s personal. It was for her specifically, “Little girl.” It’s a word that’s precious, tender, compassionate, preciousness as he just walks up beside her bed and looks at her little cold pale countenance and takes her little hand. It’s precious. It’s a word of purpose. She got up and went back to doing what 12 year old little girls do. And they’re so out of their minds with astonishment. Jesus is so practical sometimes. “Give her something to eat. She’s been on a sick bed for many days, she’s starving. There’s a purpose for her life. Now let’s feed her and let’s let her go on with her life.” And for you, dear friend, I don’t care what roads you have gone down. I don’t care what heartaches you have endured. Something may have embittered you. Something may have caused you to be angry at God or resentful. You may feel too far down in sin that Christ wouldn’t save you and love you. Let me tell you something, the only people God, Christ saves and loves are people far down in sin because that’s all of us. None of us are good and none of us are righteous. And just like this little girl, he has a word for you. He has a word of pardon, a word of power that has pardon. “Get up out of the guilt of sin. Get up out of the condemnation. Get up out of the drudgery and the the burden of your sin and lostness. I will cleanse it all and remove it all.” He has a word that’s precious. Listen, Jesus Jesus didn’t just die for the world. There’s a sense in which that’s true, but he died for you. He wants to take your hand and look in your eyes and say, “I died for you.” It’s a word that’s precious. It’s a word that’s particular and personal to you. And it’s a word of purpose. The Lord Jesus wants you to rise, enjoy your forgiveness and follow him the rest of your life.

Now, this this word is for many of you in here this morning. “Pastor, what do I need to do?” In your heart, you need to fall humbly, earnestly, and trustingly at the feet of Jesus. And he will take you. No, no, no, no. He will take you. He will love you. He will show you his tender compassion all the way through to the great resurrection morning when he raises you. You see, Jesus isn’t just the Savior of your soul, he’s Savior of your body too. Your soul goes to be with the Lord when you die, your body sleeps in the grave, but he’s gonna bring it back too and complete his purpose for you.