[0:00] Please follow along in Luke chapter 8 today to hear God's word as it is given here between verses 40 and 55.
[0:13] ! Now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. And there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue. And falling at Jesus' feet, he implored him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter, about 12 years of age, and she was dying.
[0:36] As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. And there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years. And though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone.
[0:52] She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment. And immediately her discharge of blood ceased. And Jesus said, Who is it? Who was it that touched me?
[1:07] When all denied it, Peter said, Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you. But Jesus said, Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.
[1:21] And when the woman saw that she was not hidden. And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling and falling down before him, declared in his presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed.
[1:37] And he said to her daughter, Your faith has made you well. Go in peace. While he was still speaking, someone from the ruler's house came and said, Your daughter is dead.
[1:51] Do not trouble the teacher anymore. But Jesus, on hearing this, answered him, Do not fear. Only believe, and she will be well.
[2:05] And when he came to the house, he allowed no one to enter with him except Peter and John and James, and the father and mother of the child.
[2:16] And all were weeping and mourning for her. But he said, Do not weep, for she is not dead, but sleeping. And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. But taking her by the hand, he called, saying, Child, arise.
[2:34] And her spirit returned. And she got up at once. And he directed that something should be given her to eat. Well, and her parents were amazed, but he charged them to tell no one what had happened.
[2:56] This is God's Word. Thanks be to God. Thanks be to God. It's great to be gathered here and to be finishing quite a significant portion in the Gospel of Luke.
[3:09] We've been going from verse 1 all the way to verse chapter 8 and verse 56 of the passage today. And it has been challenging.
[3:20] It's been exhilarating to be on the ground level with Jesus Christ through his beginning ministry, coming from the deep parts of the promised coming of Jesus Christ, from arriving to Mary and then Elizabeth, and confirming all the way back in chapter 1.
[3:44] It's been a journey. And so today, before we get too far ahead of ourselves and go on summer break in our minds, let's finish this well in chapter 8 before we get into some psalms.
[3:58] And I want you to think about a word that is ingrained within the passage but not explicitly mentioned.
[4:10] And that word is providence. Providence. It's a rich, it's a beautiful word. And it comes from a Latin word, a compound Latin word, which can literally be translated before to see or to see before.
[4:29] And so when we say that God is providential, that's not supposed to be Christianese. We should be able to articulate that God is providential.
[4:44] And this is saying that basically Jesus or God sees beforehand. Jesus sees beforehand.
[4:56] Holy Spirit sees beforehand. And that is providence. He knows. He guides. He guides. And He arranges all things in life according to His perfect wisdom and His sovereign will.
[5:13] But if we want to be honest, most often His providence looks like nothing we would have ever expected.
[5:24] Maybe we can go back to Genesis chapter 50 and we can ask Joseph how providence panned out in his life.
[5:35] Betrayed by his brothers. Sold into slavery. Joseph's story. Imprisoned for a crime that he didn't commit. And forgotten.
[5:47] And for years, Joseph's story looked like nothing but pain and setback. But when he finally stood in a position of power in Egypt and had the chance to confront the very men who wronged Joseph, he didn't seek revenge.
[6:10] But he saw the providence of God as he stared his brothers in the face. He said in chapter 50, verse 20, You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.
[6:32] Joseph couldn't see it at the time. But every betrayal, every delay, every prison door that was shut, that locked him in, was a divine plan.
[6:47] Not just to save him, but to save a nation. This is what providence does. It weaves pain and delay into something absolutely glorious.
[7:06] And that's exactly what we see here in Luke chapter 8. Providence. That God sees beforehand. And he guides.
[7:19] It's a narrative. Within a narrative. We've got two narratives today. It's a story that's interrupted with another story. But it's divinely orchestrated.
[7:34] You've got a bleeding woman. And you have a dying girl. Two lives in this providential story.
[7:44] And two twelves, if we want to say that, of this story. And one sovereign Savior. Maybe you're here today struggling with the things that God has allowed to occur in your life.
[8:05] Maybe that is you today. Maybe that is. If that is. Let's unfold these two narratives that weave together suffering, delay, and desperation.
[8:23] And allow all of our faith to be benefited, to be deepened, even when we don't see it. Let's. The sermon title today is Divine Delay.
[8:37] And I'm going to break this up into three sections. Not because I'm Baptist. While I am, I think that three sections will actually help us be guided through the passage.
[8:52] Maybe influenced by Charles Spurgeon. And by the end of our time, by the end of these three sections, I believe that we'll see this blossom into a sentence.
[9:08] That providence doesn't always prevent pain. But it always has a purpose. And so let's unpack these three sections today.
[9:22] But before we do, let's pray. Ask God to help us through the power of the Holy Spirit. Lord, we come to you today.
[9:35] Weak. Frail. With the vapor of life that we've been given. We come to you.
[9:47] Searching for truth. Desiring to hear from you today. And we pray that the Holy Spirit humbles our prideful hearts.
[10:04] That the Holy Spirit opens our ears. Opens our hearts. To receive the food that nourishes our lives.
[10:22] Coming from your word. Help us to hear. But not just hear. But not just hear. But to listen. Show us who you are.
[10:35] Show us your glory. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So the first section.
[10:45] I just want to set up this narrative. In 12 years of helplessness. And we see this narrative being set up from verse 40 to verse 43.
[11:04] Verse 40 says, And when Jesus returned, The crowd welcomed him. And they were all waiting for him. To understand what's really happening in this scene.
[11:20] Of two lives. Two twelves. And one sovereign saver. We need to zoom out a little bit. As this scene is being established.
[11:32] Because Luke has been building a case. Not just about Christ's power. But also about his identity. This has been unpacking since the beginning of chapter 8.
[11:46] In the scenes just prior, Jesus calms a storm. And casts out a legion of demons. He speaks.
[11:58] And the wind obeys. He commands. And hell itself trembles. And when Luke says, Now when Jesus returns.
[12:10] I don't think that this is simply just marking time. I believe he's showing us that the Lord of the storm, the Savior of the demonic, is about to meet a desperate father.
[12:27] And a suffering woman. And their lives, like ours, are going to be changed forever. And so let's meet Jairus in verse 41.
[12:40] There came a man named Jairus. He was ruler of the synagogue. Falling at Jesus' feet, he implored him to come to his house. For he had an only daughter.
[12:52] About 12 years old. She was dying. As Jesus went, the people pressed around him.
[13:02] We meet Jairus here. Jairus is respected. Ruler of the synagogue. A man of reputation and religious authority.
[13:17] Jairus could very well be one of those within the synagogue that drove Jesus across the lake. What a change in Jairus.
[13:32] What has changed here? Well, he's a father in agony. Profound agony. His only daughter, just 12 years old, is dying.
[13:53] Isn't it interesting how time seems to stand still when our kids are in trouble? The stock market could be soaring or plummeting.
[14:11] and we could care less about anything in the world at the very fact that our kids are struggling.
[14:29] Jairus doesn't hesitate. He falls at Jesus' feet. The man of prestige. Ruler in the synagogue.
[14:39] He's humbled in a lowly estate. He's literally a beggar in the sight of all the public. You'd walk past this guy at Jesus' feet and you'd say, hmm, that beggar's got a nice robe.
[14:56] Right? It's a very odd scene. God's providence has led Jairus, his life down a path that has stripped away all his control.
[15:11] Being a ruler in the synagogue, he had that control. They had their systems that protected the law and all their hedges around that. God's providence stripped away at all and that, friends, is exactly where grace begins.
[15:30] As Jesus Christ went with him immediately without a doubt. And then we get the story interrupted.
[15:41] You might think it's a typo. You might be like, are we sure we got all the manuscripts here? Is that supposed to be here? Sure. Yeah. Look, we meet a bleeding woman in verse 43.
[15:56] So just as that narrative closed, the setup of that narrative, and Jesus went, the people were pressing around him, a key detail here, in verse 43, and there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years.
[16:13] And though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. Now, this bleeding woman is the complete antonym of Jairus.
[16:30] She doesn't have a name. She's poor. She spent all her money trying to get well. According to Leviticus 15, she's completely unclean.
[16:43] She's ostracized, and she has been suffering for 12 long years, physically, socially, emotionally, and you better believe it, spiritually.
[17:00] I've got to ask you, did she choose this? Did she choose the path of the past 12 years that she's been on? It's unlikely.
[17:14] And so we see this contrast of control being completely stripped from these two women. We see a contrast.
[17:27] Unlike Jairus, she's not welcomed into the synagogue. She couldn't go in there. And she's been excluded from everything that's holy, everything that's clean.
[17:37] And so with that, we have a set scene. The narrative is set. Got every character, every plot.
[17:50] So we stand back for a moment, and what we see is two different people. One prominent, one forgotten. And at the center of the one world is Jairus.
[18:04] He's the center of it. And on the other one is this woman who's kind of shoved to the margins of society. But yet, both have 12-year stories.
[18:19] 12 years is a long time. My oldest son is almost 12. Just about another couple weeks. 12 years stories of helplessness that are converging together in this providential plan of God.
[18:42] In a single moment, they intersect within God's plan. On the same road, and on the same crowd. You ever been to the Canfield Fair?
[18:53] It's that dense of a crowd trying to get on the ring of fire. The ring of fire isn't even in commission anymore. I'm old. Right?
[19:04] This is a dense crowd. And despite all of the people around, you have two stories that are providentially coming together and being knit together.
[19:17] This is providence. It is not coincidence. And further, sometimes, God allows long-term suffering, long-term suffering, to bring us to the end of ourselves.
[19:40] To bring an end to ourselves. To lose control, but as stated further before, this is the beginning of grace.
[19:53] It's only in that state where we actually are able to uphold faith. And so suffering doesn't mean that God is absent, right?
[20:04] No. It may mean he's just about to arrive, even if it takes him 12 years. We see the second section, so the storyline is set.
[20:20] We have one moment of faith in verse 44 to 48. Verse 44 says, she came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garments and immediately her discharge of blood ceased.
[20:41] This is weird. odd. She didn't speak. She didn't ask.
[20:55] She doesn't even want to be seen. She just touches. In her mind, this is a final desperate act.
[21:06] if she could just get close enough to Jesus, maybe, maybe, she'll be healed.
[21:19] We might say, well, that's not right. Right? That's kind of superstitious.
[21:31] Maybe a little stitious. we might say, is her faith flawed? Absolutely.
[21:42] Right? It was mixed with superstition and kind of like, more like touching a rabbit's foot, you know? Magical relic.
[21:57] Rather than seeking a relationship, trusting in these physical things, things. And you see, this is important because her faith, though imperfect, it was real.
[22:13] She believed, despite the density of that crowd and all the people around, there was one person in that crowd that could make a difference.
[22:30] Jesus honors it not for its precision, doctrinal accuracy, but for its direction towards him.
[22:42] She reached for him. Jesus does the unthinkable. She touches the fringe of his robe.
[22:54] He stops. He says, who touched me? and Peter thinks he's nuts. Peter says, well, we're at the Canfield Fair.
[23:08] We're packed here in sardines. Of course, we're all getting touched and we're done about this. Let's get out of here. He stops, draws her out and he speaks to her.
[23:29] You all have a friend that when you're trying to get something done, they just keep talking. You might be trying to go to Home Depot.
[23:43] This is me and Carmen. We go to Home Depot and I'm walking through. I'm on a mission and I'm looking for Carmen and he's talking to the cashier talking about her day.
[23:59] Carmen, we got stuff to do. What are you doing? We all have that friend because Carmen's our friend. Let's go to Home Depot and experience some Carmen time.
[24:14] We need to remember a little bit of context. this is all occurring, stopping, talking about somebody touching a robe, Peter saying, are you nuts?
[24:29] This is all while Jairus' daughter is dying. They're on the road to Jairus' daughter. Meaning that there's time limited moment.
[24:46] And Jesus pauses. He asks, who touched him? Not because he didn't know. He knows all things.
[24:57] But because he's calling her forward. Coming to faith is not just a secret initiative. It's not just you and God.
[25:07] It's coming out of the crowd and saying, Jesus Christ is Lord. words. Right? He's calling her forward.
[25:18] He's drawing her out, not to shame her, but to dignify her. How so? Look at the verse. He says, daughter, your faith has made you well.
[25:33] Not the robe, not the touch. Your faith has made you well. Go in peace. And while this woman was nameless, even to Luke, Luke didn't even try to figure her name out.
[25:53] Jesus calls her daughter. This outcasted woman is the only woman in the entire Bible who Jesus refers to as daughter.
[26:05] came for healing. Jesus came for a relationship. She wanted to disappear in the crowd and hide behind the scenes, but Jesus wanted the whole crowd to see who she was in his eyes.
[26:26] her faith was imperfect.
[26:38] It was immature, but it was real. I was often told that if I waited to get married for everything in life to be perfectly ordered, I would never get married.
[26:53] wait. I was told the same about kids. I was told the same about a home.
[27:06] If we wait, we will never follow through. Don't wait for perfect faith to be valued in the eyes of Jesus Christ, to be honored and dignified in his eyes.
[27:25] Bring honesty, trembling faith to him, because Jesus honors even the smallest touch that reaches towards him. The requirement for grace is not theological precision.
[27:41] It's not being able to identify and explain the hypostatic union or the mystery of the Trinity, doctrine of Acity, impassibility, or Sibelianism.
[27:54] Nothing. Right? Faith. Faith is all that is required, whether small or large, whether doctrinally a little bit off or doctrinally robust.
[28:10] Can you imagine here if this woman waited until she knew all the Torah like Jairus did to feel value in his eyes.
[28:27] Let's wait to know all the verses to maybe get her church attendance up a little bit, maybe to get to know the church folks a little bit more so that she might be better received, and then she'll tell them that she's got some problems.
[28:41] Yep. And maybe you're not in Christ today.
[28:57] You may be here keeping your distance from Jesus, sort of like you're curious about Jesus, you're curious about the gospel, but you're really cautious about things.
[29:09] Maybe you're telling yourself that, you know, maybe you'll get a little more serious about your faith when you know a little bit more. Maybe when you're a little bit more confident in your faith, or feel a little more ready.
[29:27] There's a lesson that we could take away from this woman in the crowd. Jesus didn't wait for her to get it all right. It's part of the process. He didn't require a doctrinal exam or moral perfection.
[29:47] He responded to a trembling, silent, flawed act of faith, and he stopped the entire world to meet her in it.
[30:01] So, what's your excuse today to not believe in Jesus Christ? It's not enough to simply know Jesus, right?
[30:16] To say that, yeah, I believe Jesus existed. Well, Satan believes it too. It doesn't make him a Christian. It's not enough to know him, maybe respect him, like even the legion of demons that know who he is.
[30:33] But are you reaching for him, actively pursuing him? Have you stepped out of the crowd to confess him?
[30:45] Well, hear the call of Jesus Christ today. For maybe the first time, to call you a son or a daughter of Jesus Christ.
[30:58] first. And as you reach out, I promise you, you will realize that he is already reaching for you. That is a promise.
[31:13] We see the narrative continue. We may think that at this point we forgot about Jairus.
[31:25] Jairus hasn't forgotten about Jairus. I'll tell you that much. As he's sitting there at Home Depot, like, alright, yep, she touched you, you found her, let's get on with it.
[31:38] Right? We see this last section, one word of power. Jairus' worst fear arrives here. Well, Jesus was still speaking, just like Carmen to the cashier.
[31:55] someone from the ruler's house came and said, your daughter is dead. Do not trouble the teacher anymore.
[32:09] Can you hear the dismay? Can you hear the sort of dismissal, that they're not important enough for Jesus to go to something more severe?
[32:26] You've got a bleeding woman, you've got a dying child. Okay, we need to triage this. The dying child is probably a little more serious.
[32:38] Well, apparently this doctor doesn't have time for us. Don't bother him anymore. more. Apparently Jesus has better things to do.
[32:53] And in just a moment, can you feel the weight of this scene through Jairus' eyes? The desperation that led him to Jesus, the frustration that caused him to question if he was a priority in Christ's eyes in the midst of this dense crowd, can you imagine the heartbreak from hope that you got Jesus coming towards your suffering child, and then to horror in just one sentence, your daughter is dead.
[33:35] Maybe it begs the question, does God's timing ever discourage us? I can't be the only one.
[33:46] does God's timing ever discourage us? Sometimes it does. That our situation must not be maybe a priority in God's eyes.
[34:04] You think, what else can I give you, Lord? Like, this is it. This is, I need you to help. I'm at the end of my rope. Have you ever been there? Maybe you're there right now.
[34:17] Well, I want you to hear today. Verse 50, but Jesus, on hearing that, answered him.
[34:29] Do not fear, only believe, God's and she will be made well. She will be well. Jesus is calling Jairus to a level of faith, not just of healing, but a level of faith that resurrects.
[34:56] Believe, Jairus, that I can raise the dead, that there truly is no hope apart from me.
[35:14] This had to have gotten Jairus thinking on the way home. It's like, all right, just believe, just believe. This is crazy, but just believe. Verse 51, they arrived at the house.
[35:29] In this culture, they would have professional mourners to lead the families through grieving. Mourners are already there. Child is clearly dead.
[35:42] And the people laugh at Jesus. When he downplays the severity of the situation, he said, well, you're too late, Jesus.
[35:56] Mr., I need to talk to other people on the road to something serious. He says, well, she's only sleeping. They laugh at him.
[36:09] And Jesus isn't joking. I'm sure he did joke. I'm sure he's a very funny person, but he's not joking here. He's not confused. He's not dehydrated from that trip.
[36:22] He's certainly not late. He's right on time. taking this child by the hand, he called saying, child, arise.
[36:39] This child's spirit returned and she got up at once and he directed that something should be given to her to eat.
[36:52] with a word of Christ. The storm ceases, the demons flee, and the dead are raised.
[37:13] With a word, life returns. With a touch, death is reversed. What Jairus thought was a delay was actually set up to something far greater than could have ever exceeded reality.
[37:29] He came to Jesus Christ for a healing and Jesus gave him a resurrection. See, what we call dead ends, Jesus calls opportunities to show his power.
[37:50] to us. His timing often requires us to move from faith for healing to faith for resurrection, to a greater miracle than we could even fathom.
[38:05] In verse 56, and her parents were amazed, but he charged them to tell no one what had happened. Jairus started with hopeful belief in healing, but Jesus reinforced resurrection level faith.
[38:22] Jesus enters the room, touches the girl, speaks, child, arise, and death flees. Life returns, and the parents are marveling, and guess who is glorified?
[38:35] God. God is glorified, he's exalted. only God can calm the stormy seas.
[38:46] Only God can work a miracle through the man with a legion of demons. Only God can raise the dead.
[39:00] That leaves only one conclusion for Luke to reinforce with us here. Jesus is God. Jesus is God.
[39:11] What a reason that we have to trust in Jesus Christ. What a reason. When we think it's over, God says, arise.
[39:28] What we call dead ends, Jesus calls opportunities to reveal, to show us, to prove us who have little faith at times, his power.
[39:42] His timing often requires us to move from faith to healing and faith in resurrection. Providence.
[39:55] This is a divine delay. It's not just a story about a man, about a woman, and about a child. This is ultimately a story about God.
[40:11] Providence is about God. The God who delays, yes, though without abandoning and forgetting.
[40:23] The God who tests us without forsaking us. And who calls forth life from death. death. This is a story about God.
[40:39] As we piece Luke 8 together, we see this portrait. And what we'll observe as we stand and look at the canvas of Luke chapter 8, we see that Jesus has authority over nature, as we saw in the storm, over the spiritual realm with the demonic, over disease with the bleeding woman, and even over death with this little girl.
[41:01] there's no chaos then. There's no confusion that Christ cannot calm. There's no enemy that cannot be cast out.
[41:14] There's no shame that he cannot cover. There's no death that he cannot reverse. He can do all things. And you might say, well, thanks for some theology, but my life sucks.
[41:36] Right? At times we sit here in pain. we sit here with marriages that are just holding on by a thread that husband and wife have separated into different rooms.
[42:02] The kids are picking up on the disorder. We sit here in pain. We sit here in agony, getting test results from the doctor, sitting there with IVs all throughout your body and the doctor saying, well, all your test results came back fine.
[42:21] And you're like, great, let me know when I can believe it and I can feel it. Right? Right? at times we struggle to believe.
[42:40] I know a lot of us at Steel Valley Church have gone through these times that have experienced divine delays, divine testing, divine silence, and even a lot of hardships.
[42:55] the passage is calling us. Will we trust Him with the timing in our lives? Will we press through the crowd to touch Him in our brokenness, to reach for Him in our brokenness?
[43:15] And will we still believe even when the worst news is yet to come? Now, that's faith testing. that's precisely what providence does, tests us.
[43:32] You see, providence doesn't always prevent pain. It doesn't. But it always has a purpose. And if that's theologically true, we have to believe it and live in light of it, even amidst the pain.
[43:52] So whether your faith is imperfect, maybe it's ignorant, or maybe your faith is desperate, it is never unanswered, ever. Because when you reach for Jesus, you will find that He's actually already reaching for you.
[44:09] Right? Not just as a doctor and spiritual vending machine, but as Lord of all creation with resurrection power that can make a difference in your life.
[44:29] May we realize that every delay is a setup for divine display of His power, majesty, and dominion over all things in this life, whether good, whether bad, pleasant, or extremely painful.
[44:52] He is Lord of all. Will you believe? Let's pray. Do you happen to happen to happen to happen to happen to happen to happen to happen to happen to happen to happen to happen to happen to happen to!