The sermon titled 'Comforting Power Despite Imperfect Faith' by Peter Allison explores narratives from the Gospels involving Jairus' daughter and the woman with a hemorrhage to highlight lessons about faith, verbalizing needs, and the comforting power of Jesus. It addresses supposed contradictions in Gospel accounts by explaining the nature of eyewitness testimony and the concept of 'schema,' which suggests that differences in narrative details do not imply contradictions but reflect different narrative focuses. The sermon emphasizes that faith, even if imperfect, can be effectual when placed in Jesus. It underscores the importance of verbalizing needs as seen through the actions of Jairus and the woman, and how Jesus encouraged public acknowledgment of faith and healing. Furthermore, the sermon discusses why Jesus sometimes instructed people to keep miracles private, suggesting it was to avoid drawing crowds merely for entertainment. Through these biblical events, the sermon underscores Jesus' sovereign control over creation, illness, and even death, offering comfort and assurance of His power to those who come to Him in faith.

I'd like to begin reading this morning at verse 40. So it was when Jesus returned that the multitude welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. And behold there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue, and he fell down at Jesus feet and begged him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter about twelve years of age, and she was dying. But As he went, the multitudes thronged him. Now a woman having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any, came from behind and touched the border of his garment.

And immediately her flow of blood stopped. And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied it, Peter and those with him said, Master, the multitudes throng and press you and you say, Who touched me? But Jesus said, Somebody touched me. For I perceived power going out from me.

And now the woman saw that she was hidden, not hidden, she came trembling and falling down before him. And she declared to Him in the presence of all the people, the reason she had touched Him, and how she was healed immediately. And He said to her daughter, Be of good cheer. Your faith has made you well, go in peace. And while He was still speaking, someone came from the ruler of the synagogue's house saying to him, Your daughter is dead, do not trouble the teacher.

But when Jesus heard it, he answered him saying, Do not be afraid, only believe, and she will be made well. And when he came into the house, he permitted no one to go in except Peter, James, and John, and the father and mother of the girl. Now all wept and mourned for her, but he said, Do not weep, she is not dead, but sleeping. And they ridiculed him, knowing that she was dead. But he put them all outside, took her by the hand, and called, saying, Little girl, arise.

Then her spirit returned, and she arose immediately. And he commanded that she be given something to eat, and her parents were astonished, but He charged them to tell no one what had happened. May the Lord turn our feet to His testimonies as we contemplate our ways. Almighty Father in heaven, your word endures forever. It is true, though every man be a liar.

We ask now that you would sanctify these sinful lips, this vessel of clay, that you would mix this Word with faith in our hearts, that you would open our eyes where we are blind, and our ears where we are deaf, and where our understanding has been dull, Lord, may your word quicken it and make it alive. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, one of the favorite attacks of Bible critics, such as the apostate seminary professor Dr. Bart Ehrman is pointing out supposed contradictions in the Bible. And one of the contradictions that Dr.

Airman points out in his book, Jesus Interrupted, is the one in this text here, where Matthew records that Jairus tells Jesus that his daughter has just died. Matthew and Mark both give parallel accounts of this text. And in the account that Matthew gives, he comes to Jesus and says, My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her and she will live. Luke here clearly says that she is dying, but not yet dead. He asked Jesus to come and heal her.

He had an only daughter, 12 years of age, maybe the age of some of you, and she was dying. Now, these might appear to be contradictions between the Matthew account and the Luke account at first glance. But in this case the difference is rather easily resolved and rather easily explained. Because this is a good example of the nature of eyewitness testimony and how it can vary, how it can differ without being contradictory. In this case, we look at each of these accounts, Matthew 9, Mark 5, and Luke 8, we see that Luke and Mark record much more detail than Matthew does.

They're much longer accounts in Luke and Mark than in Matthew. And so Mark and Luke both record Jairus' initial request when he first came to Jesus and He says that his daughter is near death and then they also record a second interaction after Jesus heals this woman with a hemorrhage, where an after a servant has come to Jairus and said, Well, your daughter is now dead, so don't bother troubling the master to come. Luke and Mark both record much more detail, and they record these two interactions as separate. One occurring before the woman with the hemorrhage was there, or before Jesus healed her, and one occurring after Jesus healed her. Matthew on the other hand omits these details about the servant arriving and the details of these two separate interactions with Jairus and Jesus.

Matthew simply conflates Jairus' request before the woman is healed when his daughter is still living and his second request after the woman is healed when his daughter has died into one request. Matthew just gives one summary statement. He doesn't have these two interactions. And that one request he summarizes is to come and raise his daughter. Come because his daughter has died.

And so he uses that one sentence to open this account. In his view, this is a very brief account. Then after this woman is healed, which is again a very brief account, just two verses, Matthew records simply that when Jesus had arrived Jairus' house. There is no further interaction there. You see, humanly speaking, it's impossible for us to recount any experience, no matter how simple that experience is, in exhaustive detail.

It is impossible for us as humans to recount any experience in completely exhaustive detail. Our one account, our account can have more detail and it can have less detail. It can be a high level summary or a lengthy hour long, multi-day long account. But every account at some level is just a summary. We have to decide what facts are important to the message and the story that we are trying to tell and what details we don't know or aren't important and should be omitted.

But it's impossible. It's impossible for us to provide every detail. For example, which of us could even begin to describe what changes every molecule are undergoing as we sat down in our chairs this morning? Those are details. God knows.

They're happening. But it would be impossible for us to describe anything at that level of detail. And you could just simply go on up from that, Or you could go on down from that because is that our current understanding is that molecules aren't the smallest particles There's things happening inside of the molecules So you see we we cannot humanly speaking recount every detail That ever happens just try it sometime. You'll see how how impossible it is To recount every single little detail everything we say is a summary at some level only God has exhaustive knowledge And so what we can provide and what as eyewitnesses to events what we can provide is what we might call the schema. The schema.

And there's been a lot of, as a side note, There's been a lot of work, a lot of play given to these studies that seek to demonstrate that eyewitnesses are very unreliable sources of information. And yet what they, I think those studies forget, I mean there is in a sense of what they're saying is true, but what they forget is that yes, We may not be reliable when it comes to understanding attributes and details that are not relevant to the schema, to the basic fact that somebody came in a room or somebody sat down. And so what eyewitnesses can provide very reliably is what's called the schema. Jairus asked Jesus to save his daughter. That's the testimony of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

Jairus asked Jesus to save his daughter who was alive when he first asked, but dead when he asked a second time. And Matthew simply conflates those two occurrences into one. He doesn't record two separate interactions. Is that wrong? No.

It's just a summary. And he omitted some details that Luke and Mark did not omit. The words of the Lord are pure words. Like silver tried in the furnace of earth, purified seven times. You shall keep them, O Lord, you shall preserve them from this generation forever.

The psalmist tells us. The words of the Lord are pure words. They are refined like silver in a furnace seven times. And so we come to these texts and we understand then that these accounts, They are correct, although they may differ in the details that they include or omit. And sometimes, as you can see in this case, omitting these two separate conversations and conflating them into one conversation, it appears that they appear to contradict.

But if we look at what the schema is, what is the basic point? That Matthew wants to convey is that Jairus comes and asks Jesus to heal his daughter. And he doesn't consider the first request. The first request when Jairus asked to come and save her because she is dying. Alright, so Jesus has, in this chapter, he's stilled the storm.

He made an appointment with a storm on the sea, the wind and the waves. He made an appointment with a demoniac in the region of Decapolis. And when he had healed him, he sent him out to tell everyone what the Lord had done. And now we have this account of two other people who come to Jesus for help. That's the first lesson that we should see in this this morning that Jesus calls us to come to him When when we are in need when we have trials when we have tribulations Jesus calls us to come to him both Jairus and the woman in faith seek Jesus in their hour of need.

Because faith teaches us to look first to Christ for our deliverance. Trials then become opportunities for us to seek Christ. Our first impulse in time of need should be to turn to Christ. I realize this sounds trivial. Of course, This is Christianity, not even 101, just OOO.

Turn to Christ. And yet, in my experience, it's how frequently we forget. How frequently we only remember second, when the first efforts fail. How easy it is to forget if we aren't trained. We haven't trained our heart and mind to turn to God and to our Heavenly Father first of all.

Jesus calls us to come to Him And that's what this woman does. She comes in faith. She comes knowing, and Jairus comes in faith, knowing that Jesus, believing that Jesus is able to help them. This woman comes and is thinking if I just can touch the hem of Jesus garment, then I'll be well. She's been trying for 12 years.

She's spent her whole life savings on doctors to try and get well. She has spent all her livelihood. Nobody, no man has been able to heal her. And now she's heard about Jesus. This would be a rather debilitating illness for her to have.

It meant that she was unclean and wouldn't have been able to participate in any of the ceremonies that required people to be clean. But the lesson, I think the second lesson that we should see here is that Jesus calls us to verbalize our needs. Jairus came to Jesus Christ, fell at his feet, and asked Jesus to come. Everybody that was around heard him. This woman came with a hemorrhage and tried to receive healing without verbalizing her request.

And you notice Jesus did not allow her to do that. She came, there's a throng, she says, if I can just touch His garment, if I can just get through this throng of people and touch even a hem of His garment, I will be healed. And she does, and she's healed. But Jesus then asked this to the disciples, absurd Question, who touched me? Now why did Jesus ask that?

Did Jesus not know who touched him? I think he would have known. He was God. He knew those things. He knew what people were thinking in other cases.

He had this appointment with the demoniac, shows up on the beach, meets him, and then when he's done healing him, he leaves. That's the only reason he was there. So Jesus surely knew who was touching him. I don't think that was why he asked. He asked, who touched me?

Because Jesus did not want to allow the woman to be healed without a public acknowledgement of her need and her desire to be healed. Jesus wants us to ask Him to ask to verbalize our needs. Jesus says your Heavenly Father already knows what you need before you even ask Him. He doesn't need us to ask Him to verbalize the request so that he can find out what we need. He already knows.

But we're taught to ask. Ask, Jesus said, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be open.

If you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good gifts to those who ask for it. See, Jesus calls us, Jesus wants us to verbalize our needs, to ask Him, to ask Him out loud, even in the assembly of saints. And James tells us that we don't have because we don't ask. We don't verbalize our needs. We don't see them and express them, either to the Lord or to the Lord in the presence of His people.

So Jesus, I think, asked this question that to the disciples seemed like, what in the world are you asking? Because he wanted to teach this woman to verbalize her needs. And that's what happens. Who touched me? Everybody says, everybody denied touching me.

Well, I didn't touch you. I have to believe that If there was that much jostling and it was that tight that maybe many of those people had touched him. Not in a saving way. Not believing, not trying to do that, but just because the crowd was thronging him. Master, the multitudes throng and press you, and yet you say, who touched me?

Peter's implication there is, everybody's touching you. Lots of people are touching you. Why are you asking who touched me? But Jesus says, somebody touched me. Somebody touched me because power went out from me.

And then the woman, whom Jesus knows all along has touched him and has been healed, then the woman, When she sees that she cannot hide anymore, when she sees that there's no way for her to get healed and go away, never having verbalized her prayer request, she comes trembling and falling down before him. See, that's what Jairus did in the very beginning. He came to Jesus and he fell down. This woman now, when Jesus calls her out, who touched me? She comes trembling and falling down before him, she declared to him, in the presence of all the people, to Jesus in the presence of all these people, she declares this very humiliating reason that she had come to be healed, because she had a hemorrhage for 12 years.

That's what Jesus was seeking to bring her to do, to declare to Him, to verbalize her need. You see, the next lesson we can learn here is that faith doesn't need to be perfect faith, to be effectual faith. Faith, that even weak faith can be saving faith. Jesus said even faith as small as a little mustard seed can accomplish great things because it's not the faith itself that does anything. It is the power of the one in whom the faith is placed.

That does everything. The power here is not in the faith, but it's in the one in whom our faith rests. See, even Jairus had, although he had faith in Jesus, it was not a perfect faith. It was not without misunderstanding. Jairus is a Jew, so he should know the Word of God.

And he begs Jesus to come to his house and heal initially his dying daughter, and then second a little later his dead daughter. But Jesus didn't have to come to his house. All Jesus would have had to do is to say the word. Jesus praised the faith of the centurion because the centurion, who was a Roman, a Gentile, Understood that. And he said, Jesus, you don't have to come to my house.

You just have to say the word and she will be healed. Just give the command. And Jesus praised the faith of that centurion. He said, great is your faith. I haven't seen faith like that in all of Israel.

But Jairus, Jairus here doesn't have great faith like that, but you don't need great faith, you simply need faith. The woman also has a faith in Jesus, but it's misguided. She thinks she's somewhat, I think, superstitious. She thinks she needs to touch the hem of Jesus' robe. Well, there's no power in a piece of cloth.

There's no power in the cloth. It's just a garment. When Jesus was crucified, the soldiers took it, divided it up, cast lots for his one-piece tunic. They're just ordinary clothes. No, you can't go find a scrap of Jesus' clothes anywhere.

And even if you did, it wouldn't be anything that you need, that we need. There was nothing special in these clothes. And so her thinking that she had to touch his clothes, that there was something in that, was misguided. And yet Jesus still healed her despite her misguided faith. She knew that Jesus could heal her.

She came to Jesus to be healed. And Jesus did heal her, even if her faith was not entirely correct. Jesus asked a rather hard thing of her to have her come and declare publicly her need of Jesus and why she had come to Him. Because the Lord does ask us hard things to stretch us, to grow us, to sanctify us. And so Jesus here in His very gracious and fatherly way, He enabled this woman to grow by acknowledging her need and verbalizing her request to the Lord.

But I think there's a second reason as well that Jesus stopped and asked who touched me. And that was Jesus wanted to give her an opportunity to publicly praise him. He wanted to give her an opportunity to testify publicly to what the Lord had done. You notice it says that she declared the reason she had touched him, And secondly, she declared how she was healed immediately. She testified to God's power in her life.

You see, that's God's grand plan in both creation and in redemption is to raise up a people who will praise Him, who will worship Him, who will glorify Him. This is the reason that we have been created as many of you are learning in your shorter catechism. What is the chief end of man? What is the main reason for our existence? It's to glorify God, isn't it?

We've been created to praise God, to glorify Him, to worship Him. And we've also been redeemed so that we are able to praise and worship Him. Paul told the Ephesians that he predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved. Psalm 148. The whole Psalm speaks about creation, all of creation, even what we would call the inanimate aspects, objects of creation as praising God.

Praise Him angels, yes, those are ministering spirits, but praise Him sun and moon. Praise Him stars. Praise Him waters. Let all these things speak about praising the Lord. For He commanded and they were created.

He established them. Praise the Lord from the earth, sea creatures and land creatures, fire, hail, all these inanimate things are called the praise God. Beasts and cattle, creeping things. But then the people, the kings of the earth, the princes and the judges, but then it's young people, children, you're called to praise the Lord. Old men, whenever too old, to praise the Lord.

Maidens, young women. God is, that all of these, Psalm 148 says, that all of these things, praise the name of the Lord, for His name alone is exalted, His glory is above heaven and earth. He has exalted the horn of His people, the praise of His saints. Praise the Lord, His children are to praise the Lord. So Jesus asked this question, I think, to give this woman an opportunity to publicly praise the Lord and testify to what the Lord had done in her life in healing her immediately.

God has ordained for us to praise Him. We're called to, Psalm 96 exhorts us, to say among the nations, the Lord reigns. The world is firmly established. Declare Psalm 96 says, declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all people. Psalm 126 says, then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongues with singing.

Then they said, Among all the nations, the Lord has done great things for them, for Israel, and bringing them back from captivity." See, this was Jesus' charge to the gathering demoniac that we looked at last week. He had healed this man. He delivered him from thousands of demons based on two thousand pigs. And then he said to him, return to your house and your friends and tell what great things God has done for you and how he has had compassion on you. See this was a Gentile region.

Jesus is sending that gathering man back to his family, back into this Gentile region and said, you tell everybody, tell all of your friends what he's done. And the Bible says that He went throughout all of the capitalists. He didn't stop with his house and his friends, but he went throughout all the region, telling what the Lord had done for him. The Psalms speak of God being praised among all the nations, not just in His church. Be still, Psalm 46 says, and know that I am God.

I will be exalted among the nations. Psalm 86, all nations whom you made, all nations shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name." Psalm 98, the Lord has made known his salvation, his righteousness, he has revealed in the sight of all nations. Psalm 117, that we sing every Lord's Day, praise the Lord all you Gentiles, all you nations, praise him all you peoples. This is what we are called to do, this is what the Lord says he will accomplish beginning with this woman, whom he called out of the crowd, out of her anonymity to come and publicly testify what God had done in immediately healing her. Well then that might make us ask, well why then, in the very next verse, does He tell Jairus, well first of all, why does He only take Peter, James, and John, and Jairus' parents into the room to raise them?

Raise her. I mean, He puts everybody else out and doesn't let them see him actually raise her from the dead. These are the same three that Jesus took onto the Mount of Transfiguration. These are the same three that he took separately in the Garden of Gethsemane in his passion. He took these close disciples and only allowed them to see this.

And then after he's done, when he's finished raising her, then he strictly charges Jairus to tell no one what he's done. What's going on here? Well, I think one reason for this command is that, and he gave it to other people as well that he had healed and One of the people that one of the lepers didn't follow it very well in fact most most most of the people They gave that to didn't follow it very well But one of the lepers began freely to proclaim his healing and to spread the matter and because of that Mark tells us that Jesus could no longer enter the city but he was outside in deserted places. So one practical reason is Jesus wanted to preserve his ability to come and go in the city. But I think there's another reason as well, in that while his miracles attested to his message and showed that he was from God.

Remember when John the Baptist sent to him asking, are you the Messiah or should we look for another? Jesus' answer was to point to what was prophesied about the Messiah and what Jesus was doing. That he was raising the dead and healing the sick and setting free those who were prisoners and bound. He pointed to these things as happening under his ministry and that was the evidence he gave to John the Baptist that he was the Messiah. And so while these signs and wonders authenticated his message and showed that he was from God, Jesus did not want people to follow him simply for the sake of the signs that he was doing.

And he talked about it was an evil generation, an adulterous generation that was always looking for a sign. Jesus didn't do these signs to entertain people. He didn't do them to draw a crowd at all. And that's why he's telling, I think, Jairus here not to talk about this. Because he wants, he's Recognizing that this could go out and it will draw a lot of people that are just interested in the entertainment factor.

So that they could have a good story to tell their friends. They could one-up whatever else anybody else was saying, something to post on their Facebook wall. These signs had a very specific purpose, and Jesus wanted to preserve that purpose, that of authenticating His message. And He was not trying to build crowds and just have people come because He could do amazing, wonderful, magical types of things. The next lesson that we learn here is that Jesus does indeed comfort those who come to Him.

We see both of these people have weaknesses, some weaknesses in their faith, and yet Jesus doesn't chide them, but rather encourages them. He tells this woman, be of good cheer. She's coming trembling. She's coming doubting. She's afraid.

And Jesus says, be of good cheer. There's No need to tremble a woman. In that sense we can be like little children. Little children can get afraid of things and as their parents or adults, you know, we can see, well, there's no reason to be afraid of whatever it is they're afraid of. And so we want, we reassure our children when they are afraid.

But we are, we are the little children in this case. We, even as adults, we can be afraid. We can be anxious. We can be fearful. And Jesus tells this trembling child of His, don't be afraid.

Don't cry. Be of good cheer. You are accepted in the Beloved. Even with your imperfect faith, you are accepted in the Beloved. Your faith has made you well.

It wasn't her faith in itself, it was Christ's power that was apprehended, received by faith. Your faith has made you well. Go in peace. You don't need to go in fear. You don't need to go worrying that you're somehow displeasing to the Lord.

Despite all your imperfections, go in peace. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Jesus also publicly declared her well. Your faith has made you well. What a balm to a woman who for 12 years was not well.

Who was ceremonially unclean. Who would not have been able to participate in any of the feasts, the Passover, the other feasts that required ceremonial cleanness. She was an outcast. She desperately wanted to be healed. Jesus declares for all to hear, you are well.

You're well. Jesus publicly affirmed her healing. He calls Jairus and this woman to have faith in His power. He tells Jairus, don't be afraid. The servant came to Jairus and said, don't bother troubling the master anymore, your daughter is dead.

It's too late. And Jesus heard that. He probably heard Jairus shaking his head, nodding in some kind of an agreement. He says, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid, Jairus, only believe and she will be made well.

Jesus can sympathize with us. He understands our weaknesses. He understands our fears. He's faced those kinds of things as well. And his soul was troubled in him.

And so he can understand. And he continually and he kindly reminds us to not be afraid. Only believe. Only believe. Faith lays hold of Christ in the severest trial.

Faith enables us to see and to know the love of God. Faith enables us to know the joy of the Holy Spirit even in the midst of our trials. Faith enables us to see the light that is in Christ when everything else is darkness. It's faith that can sing songs at midnight in the middle of a jail when you've been beaten and you're tied in stocks, that's faith, that can see Christ and lay hold of Him. Jesus even told the people that were at the house, including Jairus and his family, the mother and father of this little girl, Jairus' wife, that don't weep.

Don't weep, because there was apparently many people gathered around mourning this girl that had died. Don't weep. She's Not dead, he said, but sleeping. Jesus said the same thing of Lazarus. He's not dead, he's sleeping.

The disciples said, well, if he's just sleeping, why do we have to go, he'll wake up. But Jesus is simply pointing to the fact that the death of the body is not final. The death of the body is not final. That Jesus is the resurrection and the life and He would raise this girl from the dead and she would be living. So He says He's not dead but sleeping.

It's often, the scriptures often use this to point, use this metaphor to point to the temporary nature of the separation of our body and soul. It's temporary. It's a result of sin, this death of the body where the body biologically ceases to function and the body and the spirit are separate. That's a temporary thing. And so it's compared to sleeping.

To illustrate to us the temporary nature of this separation of the body and the soul and the cessation of the biological function of the body. But there is a resurrection. Jesus gave a highlight here, gave a precursor to here, a type if you will, by raising her from the dead. That in our death when we lay a loved one in the grave, that it is temporary. That the body and the spirit will be reunited and the function, biological function will be restored to the body, complete healing, any physical limitations that we suffer through now will be removed, and we will have a body that is perfect, without sickness, without pain, without any of the effects of sin.

And so simply to illustrate that, Jesus says that she is not dead but sleeping. Jesus here demonstrates in this chapter His sovereign control over all the forces of the inanimate world, the creative world, over, when He calmed the sea, He demonstrates His power over the invisible spirit world when He casts out the demons, He demonstrates his power over chronic sickness, over the, and now even over death itself. Do you get the picture? Do you get the picture? There is nothing.

There is nothing in this creation. Not in the ocean, not in the heavens, not in the spirit world, not in our bodies and all that they suffer, and not even death itself, over which Christ is not victorious, over which he does not sovereignly control all things. That's a comfort. That's a comfort. And when we come to Him, we're coming to somebody who is able to do all things, all of His will.

There is nothing that we ask of Him that He's not able to do. And what's the evidence of life? Well the people talk. The people that Jesus brings to life talk. The people that Jesus saves, they testify of his work.

They eat. They eat. Remember Jesus ate something in the presence of the disciples. He raises her here and he commands that something be given to her to eat. And these people that Jesus raised walk.

They live. So I hope this message here, these accounts are likewise an encouragement to you and to me to come to come to Jesus to verbalize our need to him and to praise him as he works in our life. Our heavenly father we Thank you for your glory that we have seen, that we have beheld. We thank you for your word that is all that we need to know to be thoroughly furnished and equipped for every good work. We thank you for faith that you have given to us, for it's not of ourselves.

It's nothing that we have self-generated within us. It is your gift. We praise you for it. We praise you that you are the Lord of creation, the sovereign master of all that happens. Whether that is in the far-flung heavens, the stars, the sun, whether that is this earth and all of the incredible forces that are in it, whether that is nations, the heart of kings, whether that is our own body, or even death.

Lord, you are master, you are sovereign over all. We praise you, we thank you, we love you, and we bless your name through Jesus Christ. Amen.