Lessons Learned from Desperate People

This is the First Mustang Pulpit Podcast, a podcast of the weekly preaching and teaching at First Mustang.! Thank you for joining us. It is a great joy to be a part of a church that the Lord has seen fit to bless in very tangible ways.

And one of the tangible ways He has blessed us is by bringing us families that have young children and teenagers. We love to minister to our children and our teenagers.

And today is a way to kind of see how we minister to them and how they minister back to us. We are blessed to be a part of a church that has a music ministry that is able, through great leadership of John and so many wonderful servant volunteers that make it possible.

To lead us in the songs that teach us the Word of God. It is such a blessing. And it's a privilege that the Lord has allowed our church to have even this facility physically to be able to have space to accommodate all the people the Lord has brought to our church to be able to have a facility where we can, on the platform every week, have singers and musicians that are able to lead us in praise.

We are thankful for the many blessings the Lord has given to us. And there is something very sweet about people of all ages being together to worship. As John mentioned, that's a high priority to us.

We want children in worship service with us. We value people of all ages being able to be in here to worship. It is a great joy for us. Also, let me just make mention before we jump into Mark's gospel here.

One of the other things that we do, many things we do, but one of them coming up that's a little bit of a special event for us ladies is our next Ladies Night of Theology. You can make note of that. It is going to be Tuesday, November the 1st.

As always, from 630 to 830 here in the sanctuary, that is for ladies of all ages. We always have children. We always have teenagers. We always have adults and senior adults in here for Ladies Night of Theology.

The Lord continues to bless that. The one we did a few weeks ago, we had over 350 ladies that were here. It's just amazing how hungry the women of our church and surrounding areas are to come and to learn the theology of God's word.

So Tuesday, November 1st, you can make note to be here and invite anyone that you think would enjoy an evening of deeper study.

We always have a joy to do that together. Let me encourage you to open your Bible to Mark chapter 5. And one of the things I want to do today is I want to kind of push pause a little bit on where we are.

If you've been with us for a while, you know that we're walking through the Gospel of Mark verse by verse. And last week, we finished chapter 5. But before we go on to chapter 6, I just want to kind of push pause for a minute and help us to see the big picture of what is going on in these chapters.

One of the joys of my life is just every single week to be able to study and to walk with you through verse by verse through books of the Bible. And by God's grace, these last couple of decades, we've walked through hundreds and hundreds of Bible verses together and a number of Bible books that we have walked through in their entirety.

But one of the things that can happen when you look carefully and slowly through books of the Bible is sometimes you can miss the big picture because we are looking at everything hopefully so carefully and closely.

And so I think there is some value from time to time to get away from the very, very upfront close look and to zoom out a little bit and to make sure we're seeing the fullness of what's happening, particularly in the Gospel of Mark, where Mark's desire through the work of the Holy Spirit is to present these truths of who Jesus is in a very quick fashion.

As you know by now, the way that Mark records his Gospel is generally bullet point style. It's fast, it's hard hitting, and then he quickly goes from one event immediately to the next event.

And because of that, I just want to make sure that we don't miss the big picture of what Mark is painting for us here. And so rather than going forward to chapter 6, I want us to stop and look at the last couple of chapters, look at the last several weeks that we've spent together, and make sure that we're grasping the implications of what is being said.

And so we have looked in these last several weeks here in verse, at the end of chapter 4 and all of chapter 5 together, and what Mark has done is he is showing us the sovereign power of Jesus.

He's done that through recording for us a number of miracles, one after the other. But I need you to make sure that we understand that what he is emphasizing to us is the sovereign power of Jesus over all things.

And just to remind you, there are five specific areas that in these last couple of chapters, Mark has trumpeted the sovereign power of Christ. First is at the end of chapter 4, where he mentions that he has the sovereign power over the direction of the wind.

You remember that the disciples were in the boat, and they were afraid for their lives, and they wake Jesus up, and Jesus speaks, and he silences the storm. The word he uses there to silence the storm, same word he would use to tell the demon in the synagogue to be quiet.

The closest we can get to it is just the word hush. He says to the demon, hush and come out of the man. He says to the wind, hush and be still. And Jesus shows his sovereign power over the direction of the wind in chapter 4.

In chapter 5, he immediately goes on to show us a second thing, and that is that he's got sovereign power over the demons. We looked at this with the man who was swarmed with a legion of demons.

He's tormented and running around, unclothed, cutting himself in the tombs. And Jesus speaks and displays his sovereign power over the demons.

And then third, in chapter 5, Mark shows us that Jesus has sovereign power over disease. We've got the lady who has had the issue of blood for more than a decade, and she has spent all the money she has, and she has gone to every doctor in town.

And no matter what she does, she's getting worse, not better. And she's without any hope at all except for Jesus. And she runs to him and clings to him.

And in that moment finds grace and compassion and healing as Jesus speaks to her and shows her love and mercy and displays that he's got sovereign power over disease.

He has power over the direction of the wind. He has power over the demons. He has power over disease. And at the end of chapter 5, he shows he has power even over death. We looked in great detail last week at this account with Jairus' daughter.

I won't go back and reteach all of that, but just remember that Jairus has a daughter who's about to die. He risks everything he has. He risks his career, his standing in the community.

Everything about him has put on the line because of the desperation he has of his daughter who is about to die. He runs to Jesus and says, Would you please come? My daughter is in her last days.

Jesus. And they begin to make the way. That's where the woman interrupts him that is sick. Jesus stops, heals the lady, and then the messenger comes and tells Jairus, Don't bother Jesus any longer.

It's too late. Your daughter has died. Jesus, however, takes three of his disciples, goes on to the house, gets to the house. He takes the disciples.

He takes mom and dad, keeps everybody else outside, goes into the room, and there he does what is absolutely impossible for anyone unless they are God.

And he says to Letha kum, which in Aramaic is little lamb, I say to you, arise. And he shows he has sovereign power even over death.

And through these chapters, he's shown us a fifth area arena that he's got sovereign power over, and that's over his disciples. Jesus has the sovereign authority to tell the man who was healed of the demon, You can't go with me.

You have to stay. He has the sovereign power to command him to go and to tell people in your own region what I have done for you. He's got the sovereign power to tell the parents that witnessed the raising of their daughter.

In verse 43, he strictly charged them that no one should know this and told them to give her something to eat. Jesus has the power to command for people to stay or to go, to speak or to conceal.

And if you know Christ, then you understand that he has the sovereign authority over your life. And it would be a mistake for us as we walk through this gospel to miss this, that while we go from setting to setting and miracle to miracle, let's draw back and be reminded of what the overall thrust is in this section, that Jesus is showing his absolute sovereign power over the wind and over demons and over disease and over death and even in his disciples' life.

It is Christ who has the sovereign power over all things. And this is so important because there are many people who can read the Scripture as literature or even people who love the study of theology and love to wrestle with the things in the Bible but do not truly know and love Christ.

And if all we do is read and learn and study history and culture and context and we do not love Christ, we are not converted people.

It is not mere education that brings us from death to life. It is a knowledge and a love of the Son of God. And so in the midst of studying this gospel, don't miss Christ.

Don't miss the power of Jesus and the purpose of Jesus. Don't miss his message and his mission. Make sure that you know him, that you love him, that you're clinging to him, that you believe in him, and that you recognize him as the absolute sovereign authority.

Not only over all things, but including the authority over your life. And so that's what Mark wants you to see in this passage.

At the end of chapter 4, he wants you to notice that Jesus has power over the winds and the waves. In chapter 5, he wants you to notice he's got power over the demonic realm.

He wants you to notice that he's got power over the disease and sickness of people's life. He wants you to know he's got power even over death. He wants you to notice he's got power over his own people's life.

So that we would daily submit ourselves to his sovereign rule and authority in our life. That is what it is to be believers.

So with these recent accounts and miracles that we have walked carefully and slowly with, I want to make sure that you're understanding the implications of these texts and from these stories in our lives so that we don't miss the takeaways for us in the midst of studying what he did for others.

Let me share a few of these with you this morning. Number one, I want you to see that his message is more important than his miracles.

His message is more important than his miracles. Now listen carefully and let me help you understand why I say that.

If Jesus were able to be a miracle worker, but was not the redeemer for our sin, if he was someone who was able to do miracles, but did not have a message of salvation, then we would be in a real bind.

Because the miracles without the message would bring temporary relief, but no salvation.

The message of the gospel without the miracles still saves. And so what that reminds us is that the miracles are not an end to themselves.

There is a reason and a purpose behind the miracles that Jesus performed. It wasn't to wow people. It wasn't to impress people. The miracles were not done just to try to bring in a bunch of people and draw a huge crowd.

The miracles were not done to be able to make himself famous and popular in a worldly sense. His miracles were done to give validity to his message that he is the Savior of all who believe.

And many people, when Jesus was on this earth, missed that entirely because all they cared about was just the miracles. They had little or no interest in his message.

They did not want to repent. They did not want to be saved. They did not want to be delivered away from their sin. All they wanted was some kind of worldly perk for following Christ.

And surely you can see with me that the exact same thing happens in our world today. And this is why you get people that get off into so much craziness.

You may wonder when you turn on television stations and they're begging you for money. Pastors and ministries begging you for money and promising you miracles and begging you for money and promising you certain things if you just buy their stuff.

And you think, how do people fall for that? Here's how. Because people often desire the worldly perks without repentance.

It happened in Jesus' day and it happened in our day. And there are people who will latch on to the miraculous power of Jesus and even in our day today want to pretend that they have such miraculous powers.

And there's no gospel and there's no sin and there's no heaven and no hell. It's just all about how can you get today what you want out of this life.

And that's not the message of the gospel. Mark wants you to understand that His sovereign power over the wind and demons and disease and death and His disciples is all to give proof and evidence that His message was true.

And should you be one of those who you come to church simply because you want God to give you certain things in this world but you don't really know Christ or love Christ, I want to in grace today awaken you to the danger of that kind of attitude.

Jesus does not offer Himself on the cross so that you can ignore His salvation and just simply accumulate more worldly stuff.

That's not the heart of the gospel. All of His blessings and all of His healings show love and mercy and compassion to those who are suffering but His message, His message of redemption, His message of salvation is more important than the miracles.

Number two, Mark has shown us that His power over sin is the greatest hope that we have.

Because even in these last couple of chapters we've been walking through, as amazing as it is for the man who was healed of the legion of demons, as great as that would be for him, if that man does not trust in Christ, he's going to face an eternity separated from God.

Then with the lady who was healed and he says, your faith has made you well, if she doesn't have faith in Him, even if the Lord were to have cleansed her from her sickness, if she doesn't believe in Him and have faith in Him, then she may have the next few years of her life relatively pain-free, but if she dies without faith in Christ, she faces an eternity of judgment.

And for Jairus and his wife, for him to heal their little girl and bring her back to life, as unspeakable of a blessing as that is, if they do not trust in Christ as their Savior and Redeemer, then they're going to die and not have eternity with the Lord.

His greatest power is that he has power over sin, and that gives us our greatest hope. I mean, of course, it's a tremendous blessing when he tells the blind that they're going to be able to see, and he follows that through with it.

It's an amazing blessing when he speaks, and ears who have never heard are open, and they can hear. And it's an amazing blessing when he tells a man who's never walked, rise and walk, and he can walk away.

It's an amazing, amazing thing. But all of those bodies that were healed are going to one day give out, and they will die.

And for those who believed in him and had faith in him, they will understand when they die and face him face to face, eye to eye, they will see greater than ever before that the greatest miracle he ever gave them was not eyes that could see and ears that could hear and legs that can walk.

The greatest miracle he gave them is the miracle of the forgiveness of their sins. I promise you this. In heaven one day, when you meet some of these men and women from the New Testament who received miraculous healing that we know about, if you ask them, what's the greatest thing Christ did for you, they will not say, he gave me sight, he gave me hearing, he gave me strength.

They will say, the greatest thing he ever did for me is he gave me salvation. That is our greatest hope. In the midst of walking from miracle to miracle, through the gospel of Mark, do not lose sight that his power over sin is the greatest hope we have.

And that's spoken for us even at the end of the New Testament, the book of Hebrews in chapter 11. In Hebrews 11, the writer here talks about all the amazing things that happened for some of the faithful.

It says that through faith, some of them stopped the mouths of lions and quenched the power of fire and escaped the edge of the sword. They put foreign armies to flight.

And in verse 35, it says there are even some women who received back their dead by resurrection. We've just covered one of those in Mark 5. Jairus and his wife received back from the dead the resurrection of their precious little girl.

But notice what Hebrews 11 goes on to say in verse 35, that there were some that were tortured and refused their release that they may obtain a better resurrection.

What's a better resurrection? Well, in context, it's saying that when you die and you go to eternity, that ultimate resurrection is better than even if you got your physical life restored back to you for a temporary time.

Now, why is that better? Here's why. Because Jairus' daughter, who was brought back to life by Jesus, is one day going to die? And when she does, the most important thing about her will be what does she believe about the gospel?

Lazarus is dead and brought back to life. He will one day die and not be brought back to life, not in the earthly, physical sense. And in that moment, the most important thing about him is what did he believe about Jesus and the gospel?

The greatest power Jesus has is his power over sin. And just like in Jesus' day, there were some who followed him just simply seeking the miracles.

So in our day, there are some who will pretend to be believers just so they can make more money or have more sales or make better grades or get the promotion or whatever it may be.

I need you to understand, there is nothing Jesus offers you greater than his gift of his death on the cross and salvation to those who believe.

Third, we learn from this section that sometimes it takes great heartache and great need to drive us to the Lord.

would Jairus have risked everything he had if his daughter had not been at the point of death?

Would the lady have searched for Christ and worshipped him and clung to him had she not have had her great need? I don't know.

What I do know is it took this great need to drive them to Christ. when you think about your life, could it be that even right now today, the hurts and the disappointments and the storms of your life even right now are not merely nuances and not just frustrations and disappointments.

Could it be that these are the actual things put into your life to drive you closer to Christ?

See, if we're not careful, what we'll end up doing in our life is we will want and expect that everything should be our way. And every time something is not our way, we'll get upset and we'll blame God or we'll blame people or we'll blame those in our world as if our life is best served by everyone catering to us.

But if everyone caters to you and everything goes your way, then what we will do as human beings is put ourselves in the middle of all things and wrongly begin to believe that everything should circle around us.

and people who believe and think and live that way miss the joy of seeing Christ as the center of all things.

So when things invade your life that hurt and wound and break your heart and keep you awake at night, learn to see those things not as evidence that God has forsaken you, but as veiled mercies to compel you to run to Christ.

when Jairus was at his most desperate hour because his daughter was about to die, he did not at that moment make his decisions based on money or career or earthly goods.

He made his decisions of what to do next on one thing. I must get to Jesus. let even the pain in your life serve you in such a way that you run to Christ.

Fourth, as Mark has shown us in these passages, suffering impacts all of us. Suffering impacts all of us.

When Mark in chapter 5 that we looked at last week in verses 21 to 43, let me just take you back there just again. Notice here as we're in verse 21, they come across the sea, verse 22, he meets Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, and we have this man who is well known, he is wealthy, he is powerful, and then that account is interrupted in verse 25 with the woman who's had a discharge of blood for 12 years.

a man and a woman, wealthy and broke, well-respected, one who is unclean.

And I think one of the things that Mark wants us to understand is that suffering is going to impact all of us. Somehow, someway, all of us are going to have to deal with the sufferings of this world.

Now, it's true, some of our suffering is self-imposed, that's true. Sometimes, the way that we live or by our own disobedience or rebellion, sometimes we bring hardship on ourselves, that's true.

But my friends, you can be completely faithful, steadfast in your faith, love God and serve people with all of your heart.

And trials still come. But, you've got to be prepared before the storm hits to understand that you're going to run to Christ no matter what.

and that you're going to cling to Him. Because if you don't, you're going to come to church and you're going to serve and you're going to give and you're going to have this mistaken philosophy that as long as I do those things, I can kind of keep pain away.

And now, the attendance and the service and the offerings become kind of a payment to get that which we really want in life.

But that's not worship. Worship is, I have Christ and I need nothing else.

And so, out of a love for Him, I offer up my life, my family, we offer up our ministry, everything that we have, not so that we get something better than Christ, as if that existed, but out of a response of ongoing, never-ending praise and worship for who He is and for what He has done for us.

James 1 tells us that we are to count it as joy when we face trials of various kinds. Why? Because it produces steadfastness and perseverance.

It's the trials of life that continue to drive us closer and closer and closer to Christ so that we finish this race well.

Number five, we didn't spend a lot of time on this last week. I want to take you back to it. Go back with me to Mark five here at the house of Jairus.

When Jesus arrives and He says in verse 39, why are you making commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.

Notice verse 40 again. And they laughed at Him. Make note of a fifth takeaway from this that you ought to expect the world to laugh at the claims of Christ.

Just expect it. Jesus came and He spoke these words of hope but the crowd laughed at Him. And the Bible tells us that we should not expect to be treated any better than He was.

If the world hated Him, expect to be hated. And so for our children here and our teenagers in this service, let's just be very honest and direct with you.

A call to follow Jesus is not likely to result in you being the most popular student in your school. It may, but it would be the exception.

Students, a call to abandon your worldly dreams, to love Christ above all else, is not likely to leave you with the most friends and in fact, it will most likely cost you some of your standing among your own peers in your school.

And if you believe the gospel, and if you believe the Bible, and if you let people know that you do, you must expect for them to mock you.

Why? Because that's exactly what they did to Jesus. Jesus spoke, and the crowd laughed at him. If they laughed when he told the truth, you ought to expect they may laugh at you when you do.

So, teenagers, you just need to know that. You just need to know that following Jesus means that you're going to live a life that is counter culture.

You just need to know that. You just need to understand that what salvation does is brings you a greater joy than you've ever known, a greater hope than you've ever had, and secures and assures for you a salvation that no one can ever take away from you.

Yes, you have the greatest gift imaginable when you give your life to Jesus Christ. Just understand, don't expect the world to celebrate that, and don't be intimidated when they laugh at you.

They laughed at Christ? expect the same treatment. Number six, be obedient no matter what the Lord calls you to do.

Be obedient whatever the Lord calls you to do. I have in my mind back here to chapter five that we were in a few weeks ago, when the man who had lived his life out of his mind, possessed by demons, has been set free.

In verse 18, Jesus getting into the boat, and the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. If you weren't with us a few weeks ago and we looked at this in great detail, let me just remind you, this man has gone through his life, it's been a horrible existence, he's been possessed by multiple demons, he lives among the cemeteries, he runs around unclothed in shackles and chains, no one wants to be near him, and Jesus heals him and delivers him, and the man has changed forever, and the man says to Jesus, I want to get in the boat, and I want to go with you, because wherever you go, that's where I want to be, and in Mark 5 verse 19, look at it with me in your Bible right here, he did not permit him.

Jesus said no. you can't go with me, why? Verse 19, he said go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.

Be obedient, whatever the Lord says. The Lord said no, you can't go, but I've got a different mission for you, go be faithful to that. He said go home to your friends and tell them everything I've done.

Now go to the end of chapter 5. We looked at this last Sunday, verse 43, he strictly charged them that they should, that no one should know this.

He told Jairus and Jairus' wife, don't go tell them everything that happened in here. Don't go share all this, this isn't for the world to know yet.

You've got one guy who just wants to leave, and Jesus says you have to stay, but you've got to go tell everything. You've got Jairus and Mrs. Jairus, and the Lord says, some of this that's amazed you, I don't want you to go spread this, because I don't want people to think of me as just a healer of bodies, I want them to think of me as a savior of souls.

And both are tested in their faith. Will the man delivered from the demons be faithful to go and tell, and will Jairus and his wife be faithful to conceal part of the most amazing day of their life, so that the focus would stay on Christ and not the miracle.

You've got to be obedient in whatever the Lord calls you to do. Church, that means we've got to be in the word. We've got to be obedient whatever he calls us to do.

Teenagers, that means to follow Christ is that you're faithful to what the word says, not just that you come to church, not just that you're faithful in the ministries of the church, but it means that you go home today and you honor and obey your parents.

And it means that you love your siblings. Teenagers, it means that you go to your schools and you live like Christians right there.

No matter where you are, no matter who's around you, it means that we are faithful to do what Christ has called us to do and we don't instead say I'll do it my own way.

The man who was healed of the demons, he had his own plan. His plan was I'm getting in the boat, I'm going with Jesus, I'm never coming back to where I came from. Jesus said that's not my plan for you.

You're going to stay right where you are and your worst days are going to become an example of the depth of my grace.

Be obedient in whatever he calls you to do. Lastly, we'll wrap up with this. Number seven, I want you to make note of this, the ministry must continue even after great victories.

Ministry must continue even after great victories. Go to the very end here of Mark 5 where we left off last Sunday. He has healed Jairus' daughter.

He has spoken. She has come back to life. Verse 43 ends, give her something to eat because she's fully alive and living beings need to eat. She's fully alive.

Now, what we've just seen in chapter 4 and chapter 5 are these amazing miracles over the wind, over demons, over disease, over death, over the disciples, this amazing display of power.

And at the end of Mark 5 at verse 43, we're kind of at this high point. He has demonstrated he's got power over everything. This is an amazing moment. moment. And you might think the disciples just kind of want to stay there.

Let's just stay in this city. Let's just stay here where Christ has done the amazing things because surely everybody here is going to believe and they're going to worship him and it's just going to be ministry that gets better and better and better for the disciples.

But just look at where we're headed. Chapter 6. He went away from there. Just stop for just a minute. He went away.

Why? Because ministry has to continue. We celebrate the victories. We enjoy the blessings of the Lord but we've got to keep going. We've got to keep moving.

Sunday school teachers in our church, we've got hundreds of people in our church who study the Bible every single week and they pray and they work and they labor and they teach and they give of themselves and then you go home on Monday and what's true every single week?

Sunday's coming. You've got to keep working. Some of you today are going to teach a great lesson and you've worked and you're teaching your children in Sunday school or your teenagers or your adults, whatever it may be, and you've labored and you've worked and worked and the Lord's going to bless your teaching today and then you're going to go home and the countdown is on because you've got six days to be ready for next Sunday morning.

You've got to keep going on from there. Well, that's true spiritually. That was true physically. He went away from there and just look down at verse 6, chapter 6.

When he goes away from there, what's going to happen? He marveled marveled because of their unbelief. Even after the high point of his display of power over the wind and the disease and demons and death, there are others waiting who will not believe.

Brothers and sisters, do not stop doing the work of the ministry. And by God's grace, you will have some victories, but just know there will be those waiting for you who do not believe.

You will have seasons where you see great evidence of the fruit of your labor and right after that you go into a season where it's going to feel like your gospel work is out of season.

stay faithful. And in the midst of moving and walking through these miracles, I just want to make sure that you're seeing Christ and that you're understanding what it means to live your life putting Christ in first place and that we don't get lost in the work of 2,000 years ago, but instead we understand what happened 2,000 years ago changes us, transforms us, and impacts the way we live today because it shapes the way we see Christ today.

And should you be here this morning and you don't know Christ as your Savior, you know some stories, you've read some parts of the Bible, you don't know who He is. The Bible tells us that we are all sinners and we must repent.

And that those who would repent of their sin and call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That our salvation comes to us not because of our works, but because of His grace.

And even this day, if you would in your heart confess to the Lord the truth that you are a sinner and acknowledge that He is the Son of God and the only Savior for those who believe, believing in your heart that He died and was raised back to life from the dead and trust in Him alone as the forgiveness for the forgiveness of your sins, the Bible says this promise is yours, you shall be saved.

And that miracle, the miracle of your salvation, will be the greatest miracle you've ever witnessed.

and the greatest hope you'll ever have. Lord, we thank You for Your Word today. We thank You for the privilege we've had to sing the gospel, to hear the gospel sung.

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