Dave Hentschel: And now it's my great privilege to introduce our guest speaker for this morning.
Dave Hentschel: Dr.
Dave Hentschel: Todd J.
Dave Hentschel: Williams has served as the president of Cairn University since 2008.
Dave Hentschel: He's also a graduate of Cairn University, where he earned his Bachelor's in Science and Bible.
Dave Hentschel: Dr.
Dave Hentschel: Williams is also a graduate of Temple University, where he earned both his master's in education as well as his PhD.
Dave Hentschel: Dr.
Dave Hentschel: Williams is an experienced educator, a leader, an essayist who regularly speaks on biblical, cultural, and professional issues.
Dave Hentschel: He has a deep passion for Christ-centered education and for equipping the next generation of Christian leaders.
Dave Hentschel: He also serves as the chairman of the Board of Governors of the John Jay Institute and serves on the board of the Association of the Biblical Higher Education and Gospel Volunteers Inc., two different boards there.
Dave Hentschel: He and his wife Dawn are rural life enthusiasts and have two adult children.
Dave Hentschel: It's a special joy for me to welcome Dr.
Dave Hentschel: Williams to be here with us today.
Dave Hentschel: As a fellow Cairn alumni, I'm especially grateful for my education.
Dave Hentschel: Back when I was there, it was called Philadelphia College of Bible.
Dave Hentschel: They have changed the names two different times since I graduated.
Dave Hentschel: But apparently now I'm a graduate of Cairn University.
Dave Hentschel: Todd said it's okay for me to say I'm a graduate of Cairn, and that's what I'm sticking with because they have changed the name on me.
Dave Hentschel: I received such an incredible blessing by attending that school.
Dave Hentschel: The Lord really turned my life all the way around.
Dave Hentschel: In fact, in a full circle moment, uh the pastor who married my wife and I, Pastor Jack, actually is the one who first introduced me to Philadelphia College of Bible.
Dave Hentschel: He took me on a little trip, and that's where he had gone to school, and we checked it, checked it out.
Dave Hentschel: Pastor Jack is actually Johnny Graves and Noah Graves' uncle.
Dave Hentschel: And so it's a crazy story for me to be here like 25 years later serving at a church with his nephews who who did such a wonderful job discipling me and making a difference in my life.
Dave Hentschel: So I'm so thankful for him pointing me towards uh Cairn University and all that they do.
Dave Hentschel: And I'm especially thankful for the opportunity to welcome its president to share God's word with us today.
Dave Hentschel: Would you please join me in a warm Millington Baptist Church welcome for Dr.
Dave Hentschel: Todd Williams?
Dr. Todd Williams: Well, good morning.
Dr. Todd Williams: It's uh good to be here with you uh here at Millington.
Dr. Todd Williams: I've heard so much about this church over the years.
Dr. Todd Williams: We have some alum here and friends and others, and uh church has a great reputation for loving and proclaiming God's word for evangelizing and discipling.
Dr. Todd Williams: Uh and it's great to be here uh with you all this morning in the in the second service.
Dr. Todd Williams: I was here in the first service, you know, as they say, early bird gets the worm, second mouse gets the cheese.
Dr. Todd Williams: Uh and so uh really good to be here uh this morning to open the Lord's word uh with you and uh and to share a little bit.
Dr. Todd Williams: I also want to uh not just bring greetings from Cairn University, but to also invite you uh to get to know uh more about us, just about an hour south of here in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
Dr. Todd Williams: And so uh we uh are a full-blown Christian university where every student studies Bible and theology at the core of their curriculum, every student educated to serve Christ in the church, society, and the world.
Dr. Todd Williams: You can find us online at Cairn.edu.
Dr. Todd Williams: We also have a Faith in Truth media site where all of our chapel messages and written publications are available as a resource for the Christian community at large as well.
Dr. Todd Williams: This morning, I would like to open a passage of scripture with you from Mark's Gospel, chapter five.
Dr. Todd Williams: If you want, you can turn there.
Dr. Todd Williams: I'm gonna read the entire passage, and then I will uh set some context before we begin to unpack this familiar record of two miracles that are stacked on top of one another, actually intersect with one another.
Dr. Todd Williams: Actually, it's a bit of a miracle mashup uh here in Mark's Gospel, chapter five.
Dr. Todd Williams: Beginning at verse 21.
Dr. Todd Williams: And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea.
Dr. Todd Williams: Then one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jarus, by name, and seeing him, uh uh, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly, saying, My little daughter is at the point of death.
Dr. Todd Williams: Come and lay your hands on her so that she may be made well and live.
Dr. Todd Williams: And he went with him.
Dr. Todd Williams: And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him.
Dr. Todd Williams: And there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better, but rather grew worse.
Dr. Todd Williams: She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment, for she said, If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.
Dr. Todd Williams: And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.
Dr. Todd Williams: And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, Who touched my garments?
Dr. Todd Williams: And his disciples said to him, You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, Who touched me?
Dr. Todd Williams: And he looked around to see who had done it.
Dr. Todd Williams: But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.
Dr. Todd Williams: And he said to her, Daughter, your faith has made you well.
Dr. Todd Williams: Go in peace and be healed of your disease.
Dr. Todd Williams: While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler's house someone who said, Your daughter is dead.
Dr. Todd Williams: Why trouble the teacher any further?
Dr. Todd Williams: But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, Do not fear, only believe.
Dr. Todd Williams: And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John, the brother of James.
Dr. Todd Williams: They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly.
Dr. Todd Williams: And when he had entered, he said to them, Why are you making a commotion and weeping?
Dr. Todd Williams: The child isn't dead, but sleeping.
Dr. Todd Williams: And they laughed at him.
Dr. Todd Williams: But he put them all outside and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him, and went in to where the child was.
Dr. Todd Williams: And taking her by the hand, he said to her, Talitha kumi, which means, little girl, I say to you, Arise.
Dr. Todd Williams: And immediately the girl got up and began walking, for she was twelve years of age.
Dr. Todd Williams: And they were immediately overcome with amazement, and he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and he told them to give her something to eat.
Dr. Todd Williams: Father in heaven, we do thank you for this morning when we gather together in this place to sing your praise, to hear the teaching and preaching of your word.
Dr. Todd Williams: We pray that you might give us grace now as we look into this passage of Scripture, that we might be challenged to think about what we know to be true regarding our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, that our faith may be strengthened, that we may live in light of the teaching of this passage.
Dr. Todd Williams: We pray, Father, that you might give us insight now to uh understand what is taking place here, that it might have an impact upon us.
Dr. Todd Williams: And we ask this in Christ's name.
Dr. Todd Williams: Amen.
Dr. Todd Williams: So this is a pretty familiar passage, uh, a couple of miracles that are relatively familiar to us.
Dr. Todd Williams: If we grew up in the church and been around the Bible, I remember my first introduction to the miracles of Jesus, uh, using what I'm sure I'm not the only one in the room remembers, those things called flannel graphs, cutting-edge technology, pieces of fabric on a board covered with fabric, Jesus in the boat, Jesus heals the blind man, all of those sorts of things.
Dr. Todd Williams: Uh the gospels are a very interesting uh uh thing for us as Christians.
Dr. Todd Williams: If I may, I'd like to, before we dig into this passage, set a little context for the message by talking about the Gospels themselves first, then a little bit about Jesus and how we need to think about him, particularly when we read uh the Gospels and passages like this, and then a little bit in the immediate context of this uh set of miracles, uh, so we can unpack it, I think, in a way that that makes it uh meaningful.
Dr. Todd Williams: First is the Gospels, uh, if you're like me and you have sort of uh been around the Bible and and Christian work and Christian church and Christian schools and Christian education for a long time, uh we tend to think of the New Testament in terms of the epistles, all the instruction for how we're to think as Christians, all the great cataloging of Christian theology and doctrine.
Dr. Todd Williams: We look to the Old Testament for what God did in ages past, the story of creation and all of the things leading up to the advent of Jesus Christ.
Dr. Todd Williams: And then the Gospels can very easily become, they were in my own education, became a compilation of Jesus stories, maybe proof that he actually was born and lived, uh, and the story of his death, burial, and resurrection.
Dr. Todd Williams: But little did I think about it in terms of the instruction that it provide that the gospels provide.
Dr. Todd Williams: And I think it's important for us when we when we think about the gospels of Jesus Christ, that we not sort of relegate them to a place in our mental bookshelf of stories about Jesus.
Dr. Todd Williams: They are actually the revelation of Jesus Himself.
Dr. Todd Williams: And there's no way that the revelation of Jesus Himself is not instructive, that it doesn't challenge the way we think and the way we live.
Dr. Todd Williams: They're not just inspiring stories, they actually, there's something for us to glean, something for us to learn, something for us to put into practice, something there to strengthen our faith.
Dr. Todd Williams: In fact, John actually testifies to this in his own writing of his own gospel.
Dr. Todd Williams: John says there were many things that Jesus did.
Dr. Todd Williams: I could not write them all down.
Dr. Todd Williams: These I wrote down, these are written down that you may believe.
Dr. Todd Williams: Now, while John's gospel was circulated to unbelievers as a fantastic evangelistic tool, John's audience were Christians.
Dr. Todd Williams: He was writing to Christians these this record of Jesus' life that they might believe, that their faith would be strengthened.
Dr. Todd Williams: Because the early apostles knew it wasn't just that we needed saving faith in Jesus.
Dr. Todd Williams: Our faith in him must grow and get stronger every day, that we might walk with him in faith, in a knowledge of his goodness and grace, that we might learn more about him and come to trust him more and love him more and serve him more.
Dr. Todd Williams: And John says, these things are written down that you may believe.
Dr. Todd Williams: They are written down for the strengthening of our faith.
Dr. Todd Williams: And the more we know Jesus, not just about Jesus, the more we know Jesus, the stronger our faith in time of need.
Dr. Todd Williams: And this particular record of these two miracles served that purpose very well.
Dr. Todd Williams: The Gospels are instructive.
Dr. Todd Williams: Every time that Jesus speaks and teaches, every time that Jesus interacts with human beings, there is something powerful to glean, to learn, to strengthen our faith.
Dr. Todd Williams: The other thing that I'd like to say isn't just about the Gospels, but about Jesus himself.
Dr. Todd Williams: Again, turning to John's Gospel, John says this about Jesus.
Dr. Todd Williams: He says that Jesus needed no one to instruct him, for he knows what is in the heart of man.
Dr. Todd Williams: In other words, Jesus is never surprised, never taken off guard, never wrong.
Dr. Todd Williams: He's never out of character.
Dr. Todd Williams: He's never missing pieces of information.
Dr. Todd Williams: He's never needing anything from those around him to help him in his ministry.
Dr. Todd Williams: He is the Son of God.
Dr. Todd Williams: He was there at the beginning of all things.
Dr. Todd Williams: He created all things.
Dr. Todd Williams: Humankind is made in his image and likeness.
Dr. Todd Williams: The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit spoke those things into existence.
Dr. Todd Williams: Humankind created in the image and likeness of God.
Dr. Todd Williams: Jesus, while he came and took on flesh, doesn't cease to be Jesus, the Son of God.
Dr. Todd Williams: And he is never caught off guard when he interacts with people.
Dr. Todd Williams: When we see these records, these stories in the records of the gospel, we should never be tempted to think, well, they pulled one over on Jesus there.
Dr. Todd Williams: Well, they caught Jesus.
Dr. Todd Williams: Boy, it's a good thing Jesus can think on his feet or they would have gotten him.
Dr. Todd Williams: It's not like that.
Dr. Todd Williams: When Nicodemus comes to Jesus under the cover of darkness, Jesus knows exactly what is up with Nicodemus.
Dr. Todd Williams: He knows exactly what his insecurities and fears are.
Dr. Todd Williams: He knows exactly what he's after.
Dr. Todd Williams: Every time that Jesus interacts with someone, he knows what's in them.
Dr. Todd Williams: The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked.
Dr. Todd Williams: Who can know it?
Dr. Todd Williams: Jesus.
Dr. Todd Williams: John tells us that.
Dr. Todd Williams: What a great comfort, what a great encouragement, what a great strengthening of our faith.
Dr. Todd Williams: That in our hour of need, in our moments of darkness, in our moments of silence, of aloneness or desperation, when we're about to be trampled by a crowd or we're laying dead in a room in a quiet corner somewhere, Jesus knows what is in us.
Dr. Todd Williams: He's never taken off guard.
Dr. Todd Williams: He is never surprised.
Dr. Todd Williams: Likewise, he is never acting in a way contrary to his nature.
Dr. Todd Williams: He never violates his own attributes.
Dr. Todd Williams: Jesus is always right, always wise, always loving, always gracious, always merciful, always just, always holy.
Dr. Todd Williams: Why?
Dr. Todd Williams: Because those are his attributes, and he cannot behave counter to them.
Dr. Todd Williams: I was telling a group the other week speaking on the issue of the faithfulness of God.
Dr. Todd Williams: The faithfulness of God is not like the faithfulness of a human being.
Dr. Todd Williams: A faithfulness of a human being is an attitude and an action.
Dr. Todd Williams: For God it's an attribute.
Dr. Todd Williams: He can't not be faithful.
Dr. Todd Williams: He can't not be it's not fickle, it's not based upon circumstance and condition.
Dr. Todd Williams: He cannot be anything but faithful because it's a divine attribute.
Dr. Todd Williams: Same thing with Jesus.
Dr. Todd Williams: Now, when we look at Jesus through the lens of our 21st century minds, we make mistakes.
Dr. Todd Williams: The point I use to illustrate this all the time is Jesus with Peter.
Dr. Todd Williams: Remember that time Jesus is talking about his arrest, his betrayal and arrest, and eventually his crucifixion, and it unnerves his disciples so much so that Peter intervenes and basically says, Jesus, you've got to stop talking like this.
Dr. Todd Williams: It's not good for people to hear this.
Dr. Todd Williams: Not good for you to talk this way about the end of things and your death, especially such a violent and embarrassing and humiliating death.
Dr. Todd Williams: That's not we should stop that talk right now, Jesus.
Dr. Todd Williams: And Jesus turns to Peter and says, What?
Dr. Todd Williams: Get thee behind me.
Dr. Todd Williams: Not a very nice or affirming thing to say by contemporary standards.
Dr. Todd Williams: But in it is perfect love.
Dr. Todd Williams: Because Jesus loves Peter too much to let him be wrong.
Dr. Todd Williams: And he loves the people in earshot too much to have them be confused about why he came to earth.
Dr. Todd Williams: Jesus is never wrong.
Dr. Todd Williams: Even when Jesus on the on the temple steps is driving off the money changers with a cord that he's swinging, swinging, it is out of love and mercy, the fulfillment of God's purposes, his justice and his righteousness, married to his grace and his compassion.
Dr. Todd Williams: He can never be anything but the perfect, holy Son of God.
Dr. Todd Williams: So when you encounter him in the Gospels, teaching and speaking and interacting with others, you must remember that.
Dr. Todd Williams: In here are in the Gospels is instruction for the strengthening of our faith and the changing of the way we think and live.
Dr. Todd Williams: Also, in here is a revelation of Jesus as we see him, not the way we'd like him to be, not the way we think he fits into our world, but rather the way he is revealed to us as the Son of God.
Dr. Todd Williams: And that's really important when you come to passages like this because it actually makes for a much more robust scene for us to learn from.
Dr. Todd Williams: And in this passage that I read, we have these two individuals that are that interact with Jesus.
Dr. Todd Williams: They're these one-on-one, essentially, interactions in the midst of masses and crowds.
Dr. Todd Williams: And it's really important not just to understand the nature of the gospels and the nature of Jesus, but the nature of this particular moment that Mark is recording for us.
Dr. Todd Williams: Now it's important, I think, to catch this.
Dr. Todd Williams: Mark's gospel, written by John Mark, is probably recorded at the telling of Peter.
Dr. Todd Williams: In other words, this young man, John Mark, he's the individual that Paul and Barnabas had the great divide over.
Dr. Todd Williams: Paul said, No, he can't come.
Dr. Todd Williams: Barnabas says, I'll take him.
Dr. Todd Williams: And in the providence of God, it was not right for Barnabas or for John Mark to go with Paul and what he had to do.
Dr. Todd Williams: Barnabas takes him under his wing, and John Mark is discipled, and lo and behold, here we are years and years later, where John Mark is actually useful to the apostles, even to Paul later, but to Peter.
Dr. Todd Williams: He's with Peter in prison, recording Peter's telling of these stories.
Dr. Todd Williams: That's what this is.
Dr. Todd Williams: This John Mark is the young man, probably the young man whose cloak was stripped from him in the garden when Jesus was arrested.
Dr. Todd Williams: It is his family's house where the early church likely first met.
Dr. Todd Williams: He's very much tied to all of this.
Dr. Todd Williams: And here he is with Peter, near the end of Peter's life before his martyrdom.
Dr. Todd Williams: And Peter is telling John Mark the things that happened during his time with Jesus on the earth.
Dr. Todd Williams: And you can almost sense the emotion and energy in that prison where Peter's saying, and then you should have seen it next, John.
Dr. Todd Williams: Then what happened was we got in that boat and a storm came up, and you wouldn't believe how terrified we all were.
Dr. Todd Williams: And you couldn't believe what Jesus did now.
Dr. Todd Williams: We were standing there and the crowd was there.
Dr. Todd Williams: We had nothing to give them.
Dr. Todd Williams: And Jesus looked out and said, We should feed them, and all of us thought he's nuts.
Dr. Todd Williams: And then he did this.
Dr. Todd Williams: This is what's happening here.
Dr. Todd Williams: John Mark isn't relaying something that he heard third hand.
Dr. Todd Williams: It's not something passed down via oral tradition.
Dr. Todd Williams: The one who was there is telling him, Don't miss this one, don't miss this one, don't miss this one.
Dr. Todd Williams: Peter, John, Peter tells John Mark things that Mark records that are not in other Gospels.
Dr. Todd Williams: The Gospels are not different because they're inconsistent, they're different because they're told by different people with different perspectives.
Dr. Todd Williams: They're all right there.
Dr. Todd Williams: And so Peter comes shining through in this moment, as you'll see as we unpack the passage.
Dr. Todd Williams: And so John Mark is recording for us this particular instance, and it's at a time when Jesus is now on the scene.
Dr. Todd Williams: He's out there.
Dr. Todd Williams: He's begun to actually perform miracles.
Dr. Todd Williams: We have first the water into wine and then multiple healings and the casting out of demons.
Dr. Todd Williams: And word is out that something is up with this Jesus.
Dr. Todd Williams: Everywhere he goes, things change.
Dr. Todd Williams: Everywhere Jesus goes, every time he opens his mouth, every time he touches someone, every time he heals someone, every time he casts out, the world is turned inside out and upside down for those individuals and everybody watching.
Dr. Todd Williams: And the word is out you got to get to Jesus.
Dr. Todd Williams: You got to get to Jesus.
Dr. Todd Williams: In fact, after the early miracles, Jesus finds himself in Simon's house and heals his mother-in-law.
Dr. Todd Williams: That's a great act of ministry, right?
Dr. Todd Williams: Peter actually wants to help his mother-in-law.
Dr. Todd Williams: And so Simon brings Jesus, and Jesus heals Simon's mother-in-law, and the whole town hears about it, and the Bible records for us that the whole town was at their door.
Dr. Todd Williams: Everybody wanted to bring their folks who were infirmed or oppressed or discouraged or they bring them all to Jesus.
Dr. Todd Williams: Fix all of this, Jesus.
Dr. Todd Williams: Jesus is healing, doing all of this.
Dr. Todd Williams: And everybody is overwhelmed.
Dr. Todd Williams: And everywhere that Jesus goes, there's a crowd following.
Dr. Todd Williams: But even in the midst of the crowds following after Jesus, there's something interesting that begins to happen.
Dr. Todd Williams: Jesus, I think, I think that Jesus is a very, he has a very confounding nature.
Dr. Todd Williams: And what I mean by that is some of I think a large portion of the disciples' learning experience with Jesus is to constantly be humbled that you think you know what he's doing.
Dr. Todd Williams: You have no idea.
Dr. Todd Williams: In fact, in that instance, when the whole town is at Simon's house and they all want to be healed, they're actually looking for Jesus later.
Dr. Todd Williams: And it turns out he slipped out under the cover of darkness and went someplace quiet.
Dr. Todd Williams: And the disciples are actually wondering where he is, and they they they said, someone said, Well, I saw him go out the back door and he's out there in the darkness somewhere, and they go out and they find Jesus in a quiet place and they go to him and they ask him, What are you doing here?
Dr. Todd Williams: Everyone is looking for you.
Dr. Todd Williams: Now they're not saying, Jesus, don't you know everyone is looking for you?
Dr. Todd Williams: Jesus knows everything.
Dr. Todd Williams: He knows everyone's looking for him.
Dr. Todd Williams: They say, Jesus, what are you doing here?
Dr. Todd Williams: Everyone's looking for you.
Dr. Todd Williams: In other words, they're saying, Jesus, this is stupid.
Dr. Todd Williams: We should be where everyone's looking for you.
Dr. Todd Williams: Why would you be hiding?
Dr. Todd Williams: Don't you know how marketing works?
Dr. Todd Williams: When they're talking about you, you keep your foot on the gas.
Dr. Todd Williams: You don't disappear into the darkness.
Dr. Todd Williams: And Jesus said to them, let's go to another village that I may teach there also, for that is what I came to do.
Dr. Todd Williams: You can almost hear the disciples' wheels turning.
Dr. Todd Williams: I know he wants to teach.
Dr. Todd Williams: Does he understand how well these miracles are working?
Dr. Todd Williams: I mean, every time we cast out a demon, every time there's a healing, the crowd grows exponentially.
Dr. Todd Williams: The teaching thing usually just gets the Jews mad and people confused.
Dr. Todd Williams: And yet that's what Jesus constantly wants to do because that's he says, that's what I came to do.
Dr. Todd Williams: He's always confounding them.
Dr. Todd Williams: He's confounding his disciples and drawing crowds.
Dr. Todd Williams: And now that's the context here.
Dr. Todd Williams: In fact, in the immediate context of this, is that dramatic, that dramatic exorcism where Jesus casts the demons out of that young man whom chains could not bound.
Dr. Todd Williams: Bind.
Dr. Todd Williams: He he he this this this young man is breaking chains.
Dr. Todd Williams: Chains couldn't hold him.
Dr. Todd Williams: And Jesus casts out the demons, and he doesn't cast them out, he casts them out into a herd of pigs that go off a cliff.
Dr. Todd Williams: That's that's a crowd stopper.
Dr. Todd Williams: That's a big one.
Dr. Todd Williams: And then after that, the crowd pushes Jesus toward towards the shore, and he gets in a boat.
Dr. Todd Williams: They're going back and forth in a boat, getting away from this crowd.
Dr. Todd Williams: Now I need you to understand something about the crowds that are being discussed in this passage of scripture and in the early parts of the gospel.
Dr. Todd Williams: These are not, this is not this is not Black Friday.
Dr. Todd Williams: This is not three days before Christmas when husbands are panicked about getting the Christmas gifts.
Dr. Todd Williams: This is not that kind of crowd.
Dr. Todd Williams: This is thronging chaos.
Dr. Todd Williams: This is someone screaming five days.
Dr. Todd Williams: In a music, in a, in a, in a concert or in a movie theater.
Dr. Todd Williams: This is a stampede.
Dr. Todd Williams: This is the kind of crowd where people get hurt, people get pushed in directions, they do not want to go.
Dr. Todd Williams: These are thronging crowds.
Dr. Todd Williams: And they all want a piece of Jesus.
Dr. Todd Williams: More of Jesus! More of Jesus! More of Jesus.
Dr. Todd Williams: Which is very different than the crowds that we will hear from after the triumphal entry when the crowds are screaming, crucify him, crucify him, crucify him.
Dr. Todd Williams: Crowds are fickle.
Dr. Todd Williams: But the crowds now have pushed Jesus into a boat after the casting out of that demon.
Dr. Todd Williams: And he crosses over to the other side.
Dr. Todd Williams: And a great crowd gathers there.
Dr. Todd Williams: And he's beside the sea.
Dr. Todd Williams: Now I want to just paint a little picture of the crowds.
Dr. Todd Williams: Imagine, if you will, the disciples, they're Jesus' students, they're his followers, but they also feel some sense of responsibility for him.
Dr. Todd Williams: Everybody wants a piece of Jesus, right?
Dr. Todd Williams: The crowds want a piece of Jesus for their own benefit.
Dr. Todd Williams: The Jews want to catch him in something.
Dr. Todd Williams: The leaders of the religious establishment are trying to trip him up and get rid of him.
Dr. Todd Williams: And so the disciples' angst around these crowds has to be significant.
Dr. Todd Williams: At once they're excited, you can imagine, because this is big Mo.
Dr. Todd Williams: This is momentum.
Dr. Todd Williams: Man, the crowds are with us.
Dr. Todd Williams: We could do a lot with this.
Dr. Todd Williams: At the same time, where are the assassins?
Dr. Todd Williams: Where are the critics?
Dr. Todd Williams: Where are the people trying to trip us up?
Dr. Todd Williams: How are we going to keep from losing Jesus?
Dr. Todd Williams: If we lose him in this crowd, we'll never find him again.
Dr. Todd Williams: And then Lord knows what's going to happen to us when he actually reunites with us and says, Where were you?
Dr. Todd Williams: How'd you let me get pushed in that direction?
Dr. Todd Williams: They're human beings, and the crowd dynamic and dimension is a real burden for them.
Dr. Todd Williams: So here they are in this crowd, and this man, this Jarus, finds his way to Jesus.
Dr. Todd Williams: Mark records for us, his Jarrus by name, they know his name.
Dr. Todd Williams: He's a ruler of the synagogue, one of the rulers of the synagogue.
Dr. Todd Williams: He is a member, he's part of a group that's part of a group, that's part of a group that isn't real happy with Jesus.
Dr. Todd Williams: In fact, they're not just trying to marginalize Jesus.
Dr. Todd Williams: They're not just trying to get him to soften his message or to cancel him.
Dr. Todd Williams: They actually want him eliminated.
Dr. Todd Williams: We have to get rid of this guy.
Dr. Todd Williams: He's a threat.
Dr. Todd Williams: When they go to great lengths to accuse Jesus of being a blasphemer, it is not because they think then that the Washington Post will hit Jesus really hard with an article.
Dr. Todd Williams: The issue is if they can label him as a blasphemer, they can justify killing him.
Dr. Todd Williams: They're out for blood.
Dr. Todd Williams: Jesus has to be stopped.
Dr. Todd Williams: And this man, Jarus, a ruler of the synagogue, finds his way through the crowd and comes to Jesus.
Dr. Todd Williams: And you can almost see Peter saying, We saw him coming.
Dr. Todd Williams: We saw him coming.
Dr. Todd Williams: This ruler of the synagogue.
Dr. Todd Williams: And I thought, here he comes.
Dr. Todd Williams: He's coming to trap us, he's coming to trick us, he's coming to deliver some accusation.
Dr. Todd Williams: And lo and behold, he fell at Jesus' feet.
Dr. Todd Williams: And he cried out, My daughter is very near death, but if you will come and lay your hands on her, she will be made well and live.
Dr. Todd Williams: This ruler of the synagogue, who's part of the group that's part of the group that's part of the group that's out to get Jesus, is at such a place of desperation, knowing that his little girl, his daughter, the apple of his eye, she's about to die.
Dr. Todd Williams: And there's only one hope, and that is Jesus.
Dr. Todd Williams: He shuns all privilege, all power, all prestige.
Dr. Todd Williams: He doesn't come to Jesus and say, Do you know who I am?
Dr. Todd Williams: I'm Jarus.
Dr. Todd Williams: I'm one of the rulers of the synagogue.
Dr. Todd Williams: I can make it a lot easier for you for you with the Jews if you come help me.
Dr. Todd Williams: He doesn't go to him and say, Do you know who I am?
Dr. Todd Williams: I'm Jairus, one of the rulers of the synagogue.
Dr. Todd Williams: You should want to help me because I can help you.
Dr. Todd Williams: He doesn't come and say, You owe me.
Dr. Todd Williams: He doesn't come and say, on the basis of my position and privilege, you actually should come help me.
Dr. Todd Williams: He falls at the feet of Jesus in the midst of this crowd and says, Only you can save my daughter.
Dr. Todd Williams: Please do so.
Dr. Todd Williams: It's an expression of faith and desperation.
Dr. Todd Williams: Brothers and sisters, there's something for us to glean from this.
Dr. Todd Williams: In your moments of need, do you feel so strongly that Jesus is the only one you need that you would push through every crowd and drop your entire identity just to fall at his feet and say, please, please, please, give me what I need.
Dr. Todd Williams: The only thing that I need you.
Dr. Todd Williams: That's what Jarrus does.
Dr. Todd Williams: He pushes through the crowd and falls at Jesus' feet.
Dr. Todd Williams: I have to imagine the disciples are saying, Now what?
Dr. Todd Williams: And Jesus says, We're going.
Dr. Todd Williams: Jesus just said, Okay, let's go.
Dr. Todd Williams: Now, this isn't recorded for us, but the disciples are human beings, and I got to figure that again.
Dr. Todd Williams: They're saying, Here we go again.
Dr. Todd Williams: Here we go again.
Dr. Todd Williams: Some of them are probably saying, This is gonna look really bad for us.
Dr. Todd Williams: We got a crowd of everyday people who are coming to Jesus for miracles, and Jesus is going with this guy, one of the establishment people.
Dr. Todd Williams: That's not gonna look good.
Dr. Todd Williams: And then other disciples are saying, actually, this is great, because you know, those Pharisees, they're gonna see that Jesus helped one of them, who's one of them, who's one of them.
Dr. Todd Williams: Maybe that'll go in our favor.
Dr. Todd Williams: The disciples are human beings, they're trying to figure out what's going on.
Dr. Todd Williams: Here we go again.
Dr. Todd Williams: Jesus is leaving a place where we've got something going on to do something that we don't fully understand and help somebody that we're not sure he should be helping.
Dr. Todd Williams: Is it a trap?
Dr. Todd Williams: Is it a trick?
Dr. Todd Williams: Are they laying in wait for us?
Dr. Todd Williams: Is this a ploy?
Dr. Todd Williams: Here's the beautiful thing about Jesus.
Dr. Todd Williams: He doesn't do traps, he doesn't do tricks, he doesn't do ploys, he doesn't do gimmicks.
Dr. Todd Williams: He's going because this man believes.
Dr. Todd Williams: He's acting in this man's life because this man has put his faith in Jesus.
Dr. Todd Williams: While they're doing this and getting ready to go, and the crowd is actually beginning to follow with him.
Dr. Todd Williams: Says here, and a great crowd followed with him.
Dr. Todd Williams: So here we go again.
Dr. Todd Williams: The crowd is going and thronging about him.
Dr. Todd Williams: There was a woman who had a discharge of blood for twelve years.
Dr. Todd Williams: Now I read the passage, and you know the story.
Dr. Todd Williams: This woman finds her way to Jesus as he's moving from this point to Jarris' house, and the crowd is thronging about.
Dr. Todd Williams: Now, again, very specific terminology here.
Dr. Todd Williams: This crowd is thronging about.
Dr. Todd Williams: This is not a single file line.
Dr. Todd Williams: This is not a battalion of soldiers in step.
Dr. Todd Williams: It's a thronging, chaotic crowd.
Dr. Todd Williams: Jesus' disciples have not established a perimeter around him.
Dr. Todd Williams: This isn't that way.
Dr. Todd Williams: This is a crowd that is pushing people in a direction they don't want to go.
Dr. Todd Williams: People are banging into one another.
Dr. Todd Williams: It's the America 250 year.
Dr. Todd Williams: You've got an event coming up.
Dr. Todd Williams: It's uh what they're calling the semi-quincentennial, which is a mouthful.
Dr. Todd Williams: When I was a kid, we went to the bicentennial.
Dr. Todd Williams: A lot easier to say.
Dr. Todd Williams: I remember being taken to Philadelphia with my parents and my aunts and uncles and cousins, and we went to Philadelphia for the bicentennial.
Dr. Todd Williams: My crazy uncle thought that was the place to be.
Dr. Todd Williams: My dad hated crowds.
Dr. Todd Williams: I thought this is gonna be great.
Dr. Todd Williams: We got there, I think we ended up 10 blocks from where we started against our will.
Dr. Todd Williams: My dad was freaking out.
Dr. Todd Williams: If if those if those kitty leashes from the 90s had been present in the 70s, we would have all been like a team of horses that he was hanging on to.
Dr. Todd Williams: I mean, it was we were all going in different directions, and the music's blaring, and people are bumping into us, and fireworks are going off, official and unofficial, it is Philadelphia.
Dr. Todd Williams: Uh and my dad's panicked about, you know, how are we gonna get back to the car?
Dr. Todd Williams: And I'm thinking, you don't have to worry about the car, it's upside down.
Dr. Todd Williams: This is Philadelphia.
Dr. Todd Williams: I mean, you won't have to worry about getting to the car.
Dr. Todd Williams: It was absolutely insane mayhem.
Dr. Todd Williams: That's the picture here.
Dr. Todd Williams: They're moving along, and in the middle of that kind of madness, this woman finds her way to Jesus.
Dr. Todd Williams: Now, a little bit about her.
Dr. Todd Williams: She's very ill.
Dr. Todd Williams: She's been bleeding for 12 years.
Dr. Todd Williams: That's a long time.
Dr. Todd Williams: That's over a decade.
Dr. Todd Williams: No help.
Dr. Todd Williams: You know, bleeding is not a good thing for a human being to do.
Dr. Todd Williams: What's the first thing you do in first aid?
Dr. Todd Williams: You stop the bleeding.
Dr. Todd Williams: If you don't stop the bleeding, you at least become anemic or expire.
Dr. Todd Williams: She isn't just a sick woman.
Dr. Todd Williams: She is a weak and frail woman.
Dr. Todd Williams: She is weak and frail from bleeding for twelve years.
Dr. Todd Williams: Not only is she weak and frail and has this illness, it says that she's actually poor because she had given everything she could, had, to physicians.
Dr. Todd Williams: And she, the Bible says very clearly, they they get this detail later, I'm sure.
Dr. Todd Williams: Not only did she spend all she had on medical treatment, she didn't get any better.
Dr. Todd Williams: Rather, the Bible says she got worse.
Dr. Todd Williams: Sickness upon sickness.
Dr. Todd Williams: In ancient medicine, one of the treatments for this kind of illness was to feed to patients grain that had passed through animals.
Dr. Todd Williams: That's not a good thing to do.
Dr. Todd Williams: She's not just poor, she's getting sicker by the moment.
Dr. Todd Williams: She's anemic, she's weak.
Dr. Todd Williams: She's a woman.
Dr. Todd Williams: And because of her issue, she is untouchable.
Dr. Todd Williams: She is ceremonially unclean.
Dr. Todd Williams: No one can lay hands on her.
Dr. Todd Williams: Her husband can't touch her, no one can touch her.
Dr. Todd Williams: She's she it's a perpetual bleeding.
Dr. Todd Williams: For twelve years, for twelve years, she has not been the recipient of a kind touch, a hug, a pat on the back.
Dr. Todd Williams: If you do so, you violate the law.
Dr. Todd Williams: This is a woman at the bottom of the bottom.
Dr. Todd Williams: How different from Jarrus.
Dr. Todd Williams: Both compelled by two things their desperate state and their faith that Jesus is the only one that can help them.
Dr. Todd Williams: They are so far apart from one another, it's dramatic.
Dr. Todd Williams: And only the gospels were recorded in this kind of honesty for us.
Dr. Todd Williams: Peter says, Then this woman, this woman with an issue of blood, she finds her way to Jesus.
Dr. Todd Williams: And we learned later that she said, if I only touch the hem of his garment, other versions, the hem of his garment, if I only touch the hem of his garment, that's all I need.
Dr. Todd Williams: Just to reach out, touch the hem of his garment, I'll be made well.
Dr. Todd Williams: That's her faith.
Dr. Todd Williams: I don't need an audience.
Dr. Todd Williams: I don't need him to look me in the eye.
Dr. Todd Williams: I don't need him to touch me.
Dr. Todd Williams: I don't need him to hold my hand.
Dr. Todd Williams: I don't need him to know my name.
Dr. Todd Williams: If I could just get close enough to touch his garment, I know there's power in him and I would be made whole.
Dr. Todd Williams: And so that's what she does.
Dr. Todd Williams: This weak, frail, anemic, ill, untouchable, destitute, outcast of a woman makes her way through the chaos to get to Jesus' garment, the hem of his garment, which has been dragging through the streets.
Dr. Todd Williams: The primary means of conveyance at this time is either your own feet or an animal's feet.
Dr. Todd Williams: The streets are covered with dust and filth and manure, dried and otherwise.
Dr. Todd Williams: She is on her hands and knees, crawling through that kind of filth and that kind of crowd with the threat of being stomped to death.
Dr. Todd Williams: And there she is, trying to find her way, and she makes it.
Dr. Todd Williams: And she touches his garment, and lo and behold, boom, she feels that she's been healed and made whole.
Dr. Todd Williams: It would be a great story if it stops there, but it doesn't.
Dr. Todd Williams: Jesus always adds a little wrinkle.
Dr. Todd Williams: Jesus feels power leave him.
Dr. Todd Williams: Now, folks, that's a remarkable thing.
Dr. Todd Williams: That the Lord of the universe would feel power leave him to heal a woman who only touched the hem of his garment.
Dr. Todd Williams: That's incredible.
Dr. Todd Williams: But it's even more incredible that Jesus was already being touched by dozens of people.
Dr. Todd Williams: This is not Jesus in the pocket, right?
Dr. Todd Williams: A past protection pocket where no one's around him.
Dr. Todd Williams: This is more like the tush-push, right?
Dr. Todd Williams: This is total chaos.
Dr. Todd Williams: Jesus is being slammed on all sides, right?
Dr. Todd Williams: People banging into him from every direction.
Dr. Todd Williams: He feels power leave him.
Dr. Todd Williams: That's the attention to detail of the Lord of the universe to the needs of an individual.
Dr. Todd Williams: You may feel at times like Jesus doesn't know.
Dr. Todd Williams: Jesus knows when the hair, a hair falls from your head.
Dr. Todd Williams: He knows when the hem of his garment has been touched by a destitute, frail, anemic, weak woman, an outcast.
Dr. Todd Williams: Says, I felt power leave me, and then he adds another wrinkle.
Dr. Todd Williams: He says, Who touched my garments?
Dr. Todd Williams: Now, again, going back to the earlier context, and you actually see it later in the passage, because there's no record that anybody told Jesus who it was.
Dr. Todd Williams: He saw.
Dr. Todd Williams: Jesus knows who touched his garments.
Dr. Todd Williams: He said, Who touched my garments?
Dr. Todd Williams: For the sake of the disciples.
Dr. Todd Williams: He said, Who touched my garment for the sake of the woman?
Dr. Todd Williams: He said, Who touched my garments for the sake of the crowd?
Dr. Todd Williams: Jesus doesn't need anyone to tell him who touched him.
Dr. Todd Williams: He made everything.
Dr. Todd Williams: He knows us.
Dr. Todd Williams: He knows us before we were formed in our mother's womb.
Dr. Todd Williams: He knows us.
Dr. Todd Williams: He doesn't need anyone to tell him who touched me.
Dr. Todd Williams: He says, Who touched me?
Dr. Todd Williams: Now, here's where it gets really interesting.
Dr. Todd Williams: I think this is Peter.
Dr. Todd Williams: This is Peter and his sort of his sort of constant sense of humor.
Dr. Todd Williams: Remember, when they go after the resurrection of Jesus, uh they're they're they're crying out.
Dr. Todd Williams: Everybody can hear him.
Dr. Todd Williams: Everybody heard the banging on the door, but it's recorded for us that Peter kept on knocking.
Dr. Todd Williams: That's a little like that's a little, that's personality coming through, right?
Dr. Todd Williams: You can just yell, you can just, and we banged on the door, they're on their way.
Dr. Todd Williams: Peter keeps on knocking while everybody's sort of scrambling, right?
Dr. Todd Williams: That's Peter.
Dr. Todd Williams: He says, then Jesus turned and said, Who touched me?
Dr. Todd Williams: And Peter, in all honesty, tells John Mark, we looked at him and said, Are you nuts?
Dr. Todd Williams: Who touched you?
Dr. Todd Williams: How are we supposed to know who touched you?
Dr. Todd Williams: Do you see the crowd, Jesus?
Dr. Todd Williams: You're asking us who touched you.
Dr. Todd Williams: How could you ask us that?
Dr. Todd Williams: There are so many people here, we have no idea who touched you.
Dr. Todd Williams: Jesus, you're insane.
Dr. Todd Williams: Who touched me?
Dr. Todd Williams: Why do you need to know who touched me?
Dr. Todd Williams: Can we just keep moving here?
Dr. Todd Williams: What's the problem, Jesus?
Dr. Todd Williams: Why do you need to know who touched you?
Dr. Todd Williams: These are the kinds of things that human beings would think.
Dr. Todd Williams: But then, because they are human beings, they're thinking, yeah, they're so comfortable with Jesus that they often find themselves confronting him and wanting to correct him.
Dr. Todd Williams: I have some students who do that to the teacher.
Dr. Todd Williams: You know, they're that comfortable.
Dr. Todd Williams: They have that kind of intimate relationship, they've been together a lot, they have no problem speaking their minds to Jesus.
Dr. Todd Williams: But he is Jesus.
Dr. Todd Williams: He is Rabboi, Rabbonai.
Dr. Todd Williams: He is their teacher.
Dr. Todd Williams: So at once they're incense that he's asking who touched me?
Dr. Todd Williams: And then I got to figure, then they're thinking, but the teacher gave an assignment.
Dr. Todd Williams: So let's figure it out.
Dr. Todd Williams: And you can almost picture them grabbing people.
Dr. Todd Williams: Did you touch him?
Dr. Todd Williams: I didn't touch him.
Dr. Todd Williams: Did you touch him?
Dr. Todd Williams: Did he touch him?
Dr. Todd Williams: Did she over there?
Dr. Todd Williams: Did he touch him?
Dr. Todd Williams: Grab that guy.
Dr. Todd Williams: He's walking away.
Dr. Todd Williams: Find out if he touched him.
Dr. Todd Williams: And all of a sudden now it isn't just Jesus and the disciples wondering who touched him.
Dr. Todd Williams: The whole crowd's freaking out.
Dr. Todd Williams: What do you mean who touched him?
Dr. Todd Williams: I bumped into him a half an hour ago.
Dr. Todd Williams: Are you looking for me?
Dr. Todd Williams: Who touched me?
Dr. Todd Williams: And they go looking.
Dr. Todd Williams: Who touched him?
Dr. Todd Williams: Did you touch him?
Dr. Todd Williams: It's easy to get up caught up in the disciples saying, I have no idea why he wants us to know, but we're going to figure it out because we're not going to disappoint Jesus.
Dr. Todd Williams: We're going to find out who touched him.
Dr. Todd Williams: Imagine that woman on the ground.
Dr. Todd Williams: All I wanted to do was sneak up and touch his hem.
Dr. Todd Williams: Now they're looking for me.
Dr. Todd Williams: I don't want to get in trouble and I don't want to give it back.
Dr. Todd Williams: Who touched me?
Dr. Todd Williams: Did you touch him?
Dr. Todd Williams: And she's laying on the ground, and I have to figure she's thinking, please, please, please, please, please, no, no, no.
Dr. Todd Williams: And Jesus says to her, daughter.
Dr. Todd Williams: In the chaos, in the mayhem, in the electricity of the moment, in all the confusion and human emotion of wanting to please Jesus and at the same time thinking he's crazy for wanting to know who touched, Jesus is actually heightening the energy level all around.
Dr. Todd Williams: And in the midst of that chaos, piercing, gentle kindness to use an intimate term, daughter.
Dr. Todd Williams: Untouchable one.
Dr. Todd Williams: Ceremonially unclean woman.
Dr. Todd Williams: In the dirt and dust and dried manure.
Dr. Todd Williams: Sick, frail, anemic one.
Dr. Todd Williams: Daughter.
Dr. Todd Williams: Your faith has made you well.
Dr. Todd Williams: Be healed of your disease.
Dr. Todd Williams: Go in peace.
Dr. Todd Williams: Which means you have believed.
Dr. Todd Williams: Go with no fear.
Dr. Todd Williams: No one here is going to hurt you.
Dr. Todd Williams: It's over.
Dr. Todd Williams: Daughter, your faith has made you well.
Dr. Todd Williams: Go in peace.
Dr. Todd Williams: That's one thing to get caught up in the moment of that and think, okay, you've got Jesus and the disciples, you've got Jesus and the woman.
Dr. Todd Williams: You have all of this chaos.
Dr. Todd Williams: You have Jesus piercing through the noise and chaos and madness of the moment to show compassion and kindness to this woman who's been more than a decade suffering with this illness that has not just rendered her physically and financially ruined, but socially ruined.
Dr. Todd Williams: And Jesus changes her life because of her faith.
Dr. Todd Williams: It's one thing to think about all of that, but imagine back up a little further.
Dr. Todd Williams: Here's Jarrus.
Dr. Todd Williams: What's going on?
Dr. Todd Williams: Every minute matters.
Dr. Todd Williams: And now we're stopping because a woman touched his garment, and then he wants to know who it was.
Dr. Todd Williams: Who does it matter who it was?
Dr. Todd Williams: Move on.
Dr. Todd Williams: And then he's got to talk to her.
Dr. Todd Williams: Move on.
Dr. Todd Williams: Jesus, my daughter, is near death.
Dr. Todd Williams: I came to you in faith.
Dr. Todd Williams: You said you were going with me.
Dr. Todd Williams: Let's go.
Dr. Todd Williams: We're wasting precious moments.
Dr. Todd Williams: We should be moving.
Dr. Todd Williams: In the midst of everything that's going on in all of the human dimension of this particular scene, there's Jarrus who came in humility and faith to Jesus to say, I need you now.
Dr. Todd Williams: Yes, I'm coming.
Dr. Todd Williams: But something happens.
Dr. Todd Williams: There's an interruption, there's a distraction.
Dr. Todd Williams: Has he forgotten about me?
Dr. Todd Williams: Doesn't he care?
Dr. Todd Williams: Won't he deliver?
Dr. Todd Williams: And the worst thing imaginable happens.
Dr. Todd Williams: He looks up through the crowd and sees a familiar face coming towards him.
Dr. Todd Williams: And then those words.
Dr. Todd Williams: Let it go.
Dr. Todd Williams: She's gone.
Dr. Todd Williams: Don't bother him anymore.
Dr. Todd Williams: It's over.
Dr. Todd Williams: And then Jesus, in the kind of piercing way that only he could do, turns to Jarrus and says, Don't be afraid.
Dr. Todd Williams: Only believe.
Dr. Todd Williams: Don't be afraid.
Dr. Todd Williams: Only believe.
Dr. Todd Williams: Don't be afraid.
Dr. Todd Williams: Only believe the faith that compelled you to fight the crowd and lay aside your honor, to fall at my feet and beg for my mercy.
Dr. Todd Williams: Just hold that.
Dr. Todd Williams: Don't be afraid.
Dr. Todd Williams: Hold on to your faith.
Dr. Todd Williams: Brothers and sisters, in our moments, whether they're dramatic or they seem benign and trivial.
Dr. Todd Williams: Faith in this Jesus, believing that He knows.
Dr. Todd Williams: He says to Jairus, only believe.
Dr. Todd Williams: That's the message that Christians have clung to from the very beginning.
Dr. Todd Williams: The disciples, upon martyrdom, how could they go to their death?
Dr. Todd Williams: Because they know He will never leave me nor forsake me.
Dr. Todd Williams: Lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age.
Dr. Todd Williams: Yes, but I'm about to die, and you will be with me in paradise.
Dr. Todd Williams: Forever.
Dr. Todd Williams: Only believe.
Dr. Todd Williams: Death is not the end.
Dr. Todd Williams: Only believe.
Dr. Todd Williams: For centuries, as Christians were facing persecution and martyrdom, as they're piling up wood around the pyres to set us on fire.
Dr. Todd Williams: Only believe, do not be afraid.
Dr. Todd Williams: Yes, but I might die.
Dr. Todd Williams: Only believe, do not be afraid.
Dr. Todd Williams: But they're gonna feed my children to wild animals.
Dr. Todd Williams: Only believe, do not be afraid.
Dr. Todd Williams: But they're gonna make fun of me.
Dr. Todd Williams: Only believe, do not be afraid.
Dr. Todd Williams: But we're gonna lose political power.
Dr. Todd Williams: Only believe, do not be afraid.
Dr. Todd Williams: But people won't like me.
Dr. Todd Williams: Only believe, do not be afraid.
Dr. Todd Williams: Jesus then goes on, and this is interesting.
Dr. Todd Williams: He says no to the crowd.
Dr. Todd Williams: Stay back.
Dr. Todd Williams: No one goes but Peter, James, and John.
Dr. Todd Williams: The crowd's out.
Dr. Todd Williams: How did he do it?
Dr. Todd Williams: I don't know.
Dr. Todd Williams: He's Jesus.
Dr. Todd Williams: Now, the one thing I'd say is it means he could have done it all along and didn't.
Dr. Todd Williams: But now he says no.
Dr. Todd Williams: So just Peter, James, and John go on to Jairus' house.
Dr. Todd Williams: And when they get close, they hear the mourners and the weepers and the musicians.
Dr. Todd Williams: And these people acted fast.
Dr. Todd Williams: In Jewish tradition, most of these people were paid for this service.
Dr. Todd Williams: Word had gotten out so fast that Jarus' daughter had died.
Dr. Todd Williams: Probably they're hanging around like a bunch of vultures, waiting for her to pass because they knew she was near death.
Dr. Todd Williams: And as soon as she dies, they're employed.
Dr. Todd Williams: And there they are, weeping and wailing and moaning.
Dr. Todd Williams: And Jesus hears them from a distance as they get closer.
Dr. Todd Williams: Jarrus must have been agonizing over all of this.
Dr. Todd Williams: And they get, he says, It's true.
Dr. Todd Williams: There was no mistake.
Dr. Todd Williams: It's true.
Dr. Todd Williams: She's dead.
Dr. Todd Williams: The mourners are here.
Dr. Todd Williams: And Jesus confronts the mourners and says, Why are you weeping?
Dr. Todd Williams: The little girl is not.
Dr. Todd Williams: Dead as you suspect.
Dr. Todd Williams: She's only asleep.
Dr. Todd Williams: They mock him and they laugh.
Dr. Todd Williams: But they don't know what Jesus knows.
Dr. Todd Williams: He's not diagnosing her current state.
Dr. Todd Williams: He's not saying she has swooned.
Dr. Todd Williams: He's not saying you mistakingly called the code and labeled her as dead.
Dr. Todd Williams: He's actually proclaiming his authority over death as the resurrection and the life.
Dr. Todd Williams: He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.
Dr. Todd Williams: Jesus is not trying to change the diagnosis that you made a mistake, she's not actually dead.
Dr. Todd Williams: He's declaring his authority as the Lamb of God over death itself.
Dr. Todd Williams: And he goes into that room, that dark room, that room where the sense of grief must have been palpable.
Dr. Todd Williams: The little girl laying there still, the apple of her father's eye, who had been struggling with illness and is near, was near death for days.
Dr. Todd Williams: Now she lays there still and breathless.
Dr. Todd Williams: And Jesus walks in the room and says to her as though she were alive, little girl, get up.
Dr. Todd Williams: And she gets up.
Dr. Todd Williams: She's 12 years old, she starts walking around.
Dr. Todd Williams: Everybody's astonished.
Dr. Todd Williams: Everybody's amazed.
Dr. Todd Williams: Why?
Dr. Todd Williams: Because she was dead, dead as dead.
Dr. Todd Williams: I reminded that passage in Ephesians, but we who were dead in our sins, but God being rich in mercy, while we were dead in our sins, made us alive in Christ.
Dr. Todd Williams: Here's the thing: we were dead.
Dr. Todd Williams: We weren't flailing in the pool.
Dr. Todd Williams: Jesus throws a life preserver in and says, swim for it.
Dr. Todd Williams: We're dead, lifeless, on the bottom of the pool, and God reaches down and breathes new life into us.
Dr. Todd Williams: That's the gospel.
Dr. Todd Williams: Jesus turns to this little girl and says, Little girl, arise, and she's alright.
Dr. Todd Williams: She rises.
Dr. Todd Williams: She's alive.
Dr. Todd Williams: The parents are ecstatic.
Dr. Todd Williams: Everybody's happy.
Dr. Todd Williams: The weepers and mourners outside have been absolutely wrong.
Dr. Todd Williams: He does have authority over death.
Dr. Todd Williams: He's made this little girl alive.
Dr. Todd Williams: But then the beautiful compassion of Jesus, he makes sure that she has something to eat.
Dr. Todd Williams: It's astonishing.
Dr. Todd Williams: The master and creator of the universe raises a little girl from the dead and then says, you know, she's famished.
Dr. Todd Williams: She's been sick for a long time and she's been dead, which is exhausting.
Dr. Todd Williams: Let's get her some food.
Dr. Todd Williams: I think that Peter includes this because he talks about the feeding of the multitudes, and it's very interesting.
Dr. Todd Williams: It's not a marketing gimmick.
Dr. Todd Williams: The disciples must have been really floored by it.
Dr. Todd Williams: The crowd's going with them, and he looks out and he says, you know, they've been following us for a long time.
Dr. Todd Williams: They've been on their feet.
Dr. Todd Williams: We should really feed them.
Dr. Todd Williams: The Bible says he looked out and had compassion on him.
Dr. Todd Williams: He didn't do the loaves and fishes thing as a trick or a miracle to gain attention.
Dr. Todd Williams: It was actually an act of compassion.
Dr. Todd Williams: There's too many people here.
Dr. Todd Williams: They're all hungry.
Dr. Todd Williams: Let's feed them.
Dr. Todd Williams: What do we got?
Dr. Todd Williams: We got two fish and a couple loaves of bread.
Dr. Todd Williams: I got it.
Dr. Todd Williams: We'll take care of it.
Dr. Todd Williams: Like everybody's got to eat, right?
Dr. Todd Williams: And Jesus, in compassion, feeds the crowd.
Dr. Todd Williams: Here he raises this little girl from the dead and he's concerned about her well-being.
Dr. Todd Williams: Give her some food.
Dr. Todd Williams: But what's really striking to me is that Jesus says, tell no one what happened here.
Dr. Todd Williams: That's confounding.
Dr. Todd Williams: I don't know which ones of Peter, James, and John would have thought this, but it wouldn't be hard to imagine.
Dr. Todd Williams: One of them thought, what do you mean, don't tell anybody?
Dr. Todd Williams: This is a story, man.
Dr. Todd Williams: This is one.
Dr. Todd Williams: This we could sell seats if we tell this one.
Dr. Todd Williams: Jesus says, don't tell anyone.
Dr. Todd Williams: Now, earlier when Jesus heals people, he says, Go and tell everyone you know what I've done for you.
Dr. Todd Williams: In fact, one man gets healed.
Dr. Todd Williams: He's supposed to tell everybody he goes about telling, so much so that he becomes a spectacle, remember?
Dr. Todd Williams: They actually take him from court to court.
Dr. Todd Williams: Who did this?
Dr. Todd Williams: You're not the one.
Dr. Todd Williams: He doesn't look like the same guy that was there every day.
Dr. Todd Williams: I don't think it's the same guy.
Dr. Todd Williams: I think it's an imposter.
Dr. Todd Williams: That guy's life was turned upside down and inside out because everybody was trying to prove or disprove the miracle of his healing.
Dr. Todd Williams: And his life became a bit of a spectacle in a circus.
Dr. Todd Williams: He's trotted around and interrogated and used as a pawn by all sides, but Jesus says, not this little girl, not her.
Dr. Todd Williams: That won't be her life.
Dr. Todd Williams: His love and grace and compassion to this little girl is he, her father came to me saying, You're the only one.
Dr. Todd Williams: And now she lives.
Dr. Todd Williams: Whether we are experiencing the kind of dramatic life conditions that we could, in some way, parallel to the woman on her hands and knees trying to touch the hem of garment, or we find ourselves in some sort of desperate need, feeling, well, I've done all the right things and my life should be better than this, like Jarrus, or that little girl laying all alone in a quiet room, dead, literally dead to the world.
Dr. Todd Williams: Jesus reaches in to all of those lives, regardless of who they are, regardless of where they're from, regardless of what they have, he does not care about their immutable characteristics, he doesn't care about their socioeconomic status, he doesn't care about their ethnicity, doesn't care about their race, doesn't care about their background, doesn't care about their past.
Dr. Todd Williams: All he knows is humanity is all judged equally on the basis of their sin and all saved equally on the basis of their faith.
Dr. Todd Williams: These two individuals come to Jesus believing he was the only answer for what was wrong.
Dr. Todd Williams: And that faith casts out their fears.
Dr. Todd Williams: Brothers and sisters, that's the kind of faith that this passage calls us to.
Dr. Todd Williams: That's what there is to learn from this record.
Dr. Todd Williams: It's not just a great miracle that we can tell that talks about how great Jesus is.
Dr. Todd Williams: There's something to be learned here.
Dr. Todd Williams: In our moments of need, our faith should be called to mind.
Dr. Todd Williams: We should exercise that kind of faith to feel so compelled to get to Jesus that whatever he decides we need is all we need.
Dr. Todd Williams: And a very good friend, one of my right hands at the university, who died of cancer.
Dr. Todd Williams: She was diagnosed with cancer, and two and a half weeks later she was in the presence of the Lord on Easter Sunday morning.
Dr. Todd Williams: Two weeks in the hospital, that was it.
Dr. Todd Williams: They gave her experimental chemo treatment, and it was a very brutal her last two weeks were absolutely painful.
Dr. Todd Williams: Couldn't breathe, couldn't swallow.
Dr. Todd Williams: Every word she spoke was utterly painful.
Dr. Todd Williams: I was in the hospital on Good Friday to see her with a friend who of hers who was there.
Dr. Todd Williams: She took a sip of ice water and it burned her throat going down.
Dr. Todd Williams: And she stopped herself and said, Jesus, I need a bless.
Dr. Todd Williams: No.
Dr. Todd Williams: Jesus, you are my blessing.
Dr. Todd Williams: See the difference?
Dr. Todd Williams: Jesus, I need to make this go away.
Dr. Todd Williams: She reminded herself that Jesus is her portion.
Dr. Todd Williams: That's the kind of faith that compels us to throw ourselves at his feet, keeping our eyes fixed on the author and perfecter of our faith, Jesus Christ, no matter what circumstances we are experiencing.
Dr. Todd Williams: Let's pray.
Dr. Todd Williams: Father in heaven, we do give you thanks for your word and for what it records for us to strengthen our faith and to teach us.
Dr. Todd Williams: We pray that your spirit would use your word to do your work in us.
Dr. Todd Williams: We pray that this passage from Mark's gospel would speak clearly to us, that our faith would be strengthened, but that that faith might compel us in our hours of need to fight whatever is going on around us, to fall at the feet of our Lord in faith.
Dr. Todd Williams: The faith that drives out fear.
Dr. Todd Williams: Give us grace to follow hard after Him.
Dr. Todd Williams: In this way we pray.
Dr. Todd Williams: Amen.