Healing of the Woman with the Issue of Blood

Introduction and Prayer for Illumination

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, May 19th, 1985, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now let us turn together to the fifth chapter of Mark's Gospel as we continue our consecutive expositions of this account of the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. Mark's Gospel, chapter 5, and I shall read verses 25 through 34. Mark 5, beginning with verse 25.

0:41 And a woman who had an issue of blood twelve years, and had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, having heard the things concerning Jesus, came in the crowd behind, and touched his garment. For she said, If I touch but his garments, I shall be made whole. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt or knew in her body that she was healed of her plague. And straightway Jesus, perceiving in himself that the power from him had gone forth, turned him about in the crowd, and said, Who touched my garments? And his disciples said unto him, You see the multitude thronging you, and do you say, Who touched me? And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had been done to her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.

2:03 And he said, And he said unto her, Daughter, your faith has made you whole. Go in peace, and be whole of your plague. Now let us again seek the face of God, asking for his special help in the ministry of his own holy word. Let us pray.

2:29 Our Father, we have celebrated in song the wonderful gift of your holy word. And we would now again draw near in prayer, to confess that though your word is full of wonderful, uplifting, saving, and sanctifying truth, apart from the Holy Spirit, it will be said of us, as was said of the religious people of the day of Jesus, you search the scriptures, but you do not come to me. And, O Lord, we would not join those who search the scriptures, but miss the one who is the great theme and central, the subject of your word, even the Lord Jesus. And as we come to study this morning his mighty work of power in the life of this pitiful woman, may our occupation of mind and heart not be fixed upon the woman, not upon some of the strange things that we will read and study, but may every consideration of every line of this passage lead us upward to behold with fresh appreciation the glory, the power, and the saving virtue of your beloved Son. O God, we would say with those Greeks who came to the feast, Sirs, we would see Jesus.

3:57 Show him to us through the word, we pray. Amen. Now, in our study of the word of God last Lord's Day morning, we examined together verses 21, through 24 of Mark 5, a paragraph which I stated was nothing less than a masterful introduction to the two miracles that fill up the remainder of the fifth chapter of Mark's gospel. In summary, what we discovered last Lord's Day in our careful examination of verses 21 to 24 was this.

The Setting: A Thronging Crowd

4:41 The Lord Jesus returned from... ...the area of Gerasa having cast out the many demons from the Gerasene demoniac and getting back into the boat with his disciples went across the lake up into the region of Capernaum on the northern or little bit of the west, northwest shore of the lake or sea of Galilee. As he came ashore, there was a welcoming committee waiting for him. Very soon after his arrival, a certain individual, comes out of the crowd and prostrates himself at the feet of Jesus. The man was named Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue.

5:23 And while bent over at the feet of Christ, he earnestly entreats the Lord Jesus to come to his house and to intervene on behalf of his precious little 12-year-old daughter who was at the very point of death. And this introductory paragraph closed with the statement of verse 24, that Jesus indicated his willingness to comply with the request of Jairus and he sets out to go in the direction of the home of Jairus. But as he does, the multitude does not simply fall in behind him like a great strung out crowd of people, but according to Mark's witness, they thronged him, they pressed in upon him from every side and in the language of the 8th chapter, they were pressing with such tremendous concentration that they were like to suffocate our Lord himself. Now it is precisely the situation described in verse 24 that forms the tailor-made setting for the miracle recorded in verses 25 to 34, the account of which has already been read in your hearing. Amen. We must never think of the healing of this woman

6:47 with the issue of blood detached from that very distinct setting in which the miracle is placed, namely the setting of a crowd so dense and so concentrated and so pressing in upon Christ that some of the strongest words in the Greek language are used to describe it. The crowd was suffocating him or choking, the crowd was together oppressing or afflicting him. Those are the vigorous words used in the witness of both Mark and of Luke to describe the tremendous density of this crowd that followed the Lord Jesus and pressed in upon him from all points of the compass as he made his way to the house of Jairus. Now as we come to examine this passage, and in it to see an amazing manifestation of the grace, the power, the tenderness of the Lord Jesus, let's do so constantly reminding ourselves of this precise setting. Now as we come to open up the passage, let us consider first of all what is given to us of what I am calling the vivid description of this woman's pitiful condition. The woman's pitiful condition.

The Woman's Pitiful Condition

8:14 The vivid description of her pitiful condition verses 25 and 26a.

8:24 The passage begins with the words and a woman. Unlike the previous person, Jairus, she is given no name. Unlike the previous person who is described in terms of his rank and position in society, a ruler of the synagogue, nothing is said. Nothing is said to us about her place in society.

8:49 Nothing is said about where she comes from. All she is called in the text is a woman. And we could skip right over to pick up the simple subject and predicate of this sentence right down to verse 27. The word came.

9:08 And a woman came in the crowd behind. And everything in between is marked vivid description by the use of a number of participles one upon another to give us not just a cursory description of this woman but a vivid description of this woman in her pitiful condition. There is nothing said about her name, her station, her dwelling place, or her age but much is said to give us an accurate picture of her condition. And now as we turn to the text then what are we told about her condition.

9:50 First of all we're told what her ailment was. The text says that she had an issue of blood 12 years. Literally rendered the text says she was being in and issue of blood. Her condition was some kind of a uterine hemorrhage.

10:14 She was being in an issue of blood. In other words, she was in a constant state of one degree or another of hemorrhaging. Now whether this was a day after day, week after week, month after month with no intermission hemorrhage, or whether it was a hemorrhaging that intensified and carried on for two or three weeks out of the month in her normal feminine cycle, upon that matter, Mark does not give us a clinical medical description. But he does tell us that she was being in an issue of blood.

10:59 She was in a state which, if she were a Jewess, and she probably was, rendered her, if not all the time, almost all of the time, ceremonially unclean. For according to Leviticus 15, in the middle of the chapter, where the various Levitical regulations are given for ceremonial cleanness and uncleanness, any woman who had been in a state of bleeding from her normal physiological functions was unclean for a certain number of years. She was unclean for a certain number of days, until she ceased, and then she went through another period of days of ceremonial cleansing, and it was only at the end of that time that she could be welcomed into open-faced contact with the people of God and with the house of God. So here was a woman who, because of what she had, was in a perpetual state of uncleanness. This made her, in many ways, not only a religious outcast, This made her, in many ways, not only a religious outcast, This made her, in many ways, not only a religious outcast, for she could not defile holy things while being unclean, but in many ways it made her a social outcast. For you'll remember, anyone who was ceremonially unclean could not touch another Jew, or that person was rendered unclean as well.

12:22 And no doubt with that continuous loss of blood, she was anemic, she was weak. This is her condition as set before us in the text. What was her malady? She was being in an issue of blood.

12:38 The second thing that is told us about her pitiful condition is, How long had she been in this state? And the text says she had been in an issue of blood twelve years. For twelve long years this woman had endured the embarrassment, the humiliation, the physical debilitation, the social ostracization, everything attached to this malady had been the monkey on her back for twelve years. For twelve long years she either lived in dread of that time of the month knowing it would render her unclean for perhaps the entirety or nearly the entirety of the coming month or as we've suggested she may have had a perpetual problem of hemorrhaging but all we know for certain is that this condition had been with her for twelve years. Then in the third place we are told what happened to her while she was in this condition and by four more participles, five, I'm ranging two of them under one heading we are told four things about the results of this condition. Not only what it was, how long she had had it, but what happened to her in this condition. Notice the first of these four.

The Results of Her Condition: Suffering and Despair

14:06 She had suffered much from the physicians from whom she had sought healing, verse 26 and had suffered many things of many physicians.

14:19 The woman would hear of a physician who perhaps had some success with her type of ailment. Perhaps she had not heard that but simply on the recommendation of someone she said well maybe hope will come from this particular physician. But the text tells us that when she went to them instead of receiving healing or simply going away disappointed she actually received an intensification of her suffering at the hands of the physicians. Now it's interesting that Dr. Luke omits that derogatory statement about physicians in his account.

14:57 He says they could not cure her. He puts the blame on the nature of her disease and said she had an incurable disease. She should have had more sense than to go to the physicians. Now Luke is not coloring the thing to make physicians look good.

15:13 He's just approaching it and describing a facet that he would be more likely to describe. But Mark tells us outright she suffered many things of many physicians. She was the person who ran from doctor to doctor to doctor and I do not fault her for that. For when God places any means at our disposal we are responsibly and prayerfully to use those means as long as it is possible to do so.

15:43 But then the next thing that is told us as the fruit of her condition she had not only suffered from the many physicians whom she visited she had exhausted all of her available capital and had spent all that she had. Now we don't know if she was a poor woman, middle class or wealthy but all of her expenses. Expendable capital was gone. You see, medical service is not only expensive in 1985.

16:14 It was apparently expensive then. And apparently there was no Medicaid or Medicare or a social welfare system that would pick up the tab. This woman felt the crushing, debilitating effects of the disease not only upon her body but upon her purse. And so we are told by Mark that the second response the result of her malady is she had exhausted all of her capital.

16:41 Thirdly, we are told that she had gone from bad to worse over the years. Look at the text. And was nothing bettered but rather grew worse. Sometimes people who run from doctor to doctor get no help but they remain constant in whatever their malady is.

17:01 Not so with her. She was nothing bettered. In fact, her condition...

17:05 grew worse. The implication is that the medical assistance from which she suffered actually increased the symptoms of her malady. And then the next thing we are told about her is that in the midst of all of this she had heard the things concerning Jesus. Having heard the things concerning Jesus.

17:32 Now here's the little ray of light that begins to dawn in this terribly dark place. In this dark and pitiful picture. While in the midst of this wretched condition a report had come to her ears which seemed too good to be true. Now how did that report come to her ears?

17:51 Well, don't forget what Mark has been careful to emphasize again and again. Go back to chapter 1 and verse 28.

18:02 The miracle performed in the synagogue up in Capernaum, up in that northern area of the Galilee. After the demon had been cast out verse 28 of chapter 1 the report of him went out straightway everywhere into all the region of Galilee round about. It could have been after the news that this man in the synagogue who cried out had the demon cast out. Perhaps it was then that the report filtered back to her that Jesus of Nazareth was in the area who was doing miracles.

18:38 Mighty works and showed power even over the demons. Or perhaps it could have been the report described in chapter 3 verses 7 and 8. And Jesus with his disciples withdrew to the sea and a great multitude from Galilee followed and from Judea and from Jerusalem and from Edomia and beyond the Jordan and about Tyre and Sidon a great multitude hearing what great power things he did came unto him. And you'll remember when we told you what these places were it indicates that the report had filtered all the way down into the borders of Gentile lands on the east and the northwest into Gentile territory all over that whole region. The report had gone forth. Perhaps she heard the report on that occasion. But however one thing is clear in the account of Mark that in the midst of this pitiful miserable condition a report had come to her ears.

19:44 And Mark seems to be careful to underscore that she had not seen him perform any miracles. She was prepared to stake everything upon a report that had come to her ears she had not seen with her eyes. But the report had come. There is one who forgives sin.

The Amazing Account of Her Instant Healing

20:05 One who casts out demons. One who has power to heal all kinds of diseases and most importantly one who comes into close contact even with those who are unclean for the report had come that he had healed a leper. And that in healing the leper he had actually not merely spoken to him but you'll remember he had actually touched him. And it's in that condition feeling the debilitating effects of her disease the intensification of that disease as she suffered at the hands of physicians looking at her check account and saving account and seeing they were utterly wiped out her condition worsening with each passing day the report comes to her ears concerning Jesus. Alright? Having looked at the description of her pitiful condition now in the second place look with me at the amazing account of the amazing account of her instant healing. The amazing account of her instant healing 27b to 29.

21:17 And the way we have to pick up the thread of the thought in terms of the grammar of the passage is to go back to verse 25 and a woman there's the subject now here's the predicate came in the crowd behind and touched his garment. Everything in between is descriptive. And a woman and now we have a picture of who the woman was we have a picture of the setting of the milling pressuring massive crowd around Jesus who is now shoulder to shoulder with Jairus in that situation the woman came in the crowd. Now as we seek to work through the account of her instant healing notice these three categories of thought that Mark gives us. First of all the inward disposition with which she came to Jesus. Mark above all the other gospel writers delights to give us as it were a peak into the inward perspective of men. And here we are given an insight to the inner disposition with which she came to Christ.

22:33 It was first of all a disposition of faith and then a disposition of determined secrecy. Now how do we know that it was a disposition of faith? Verse 28 says for she said more literally rendered for she had been saying it's in the tense of the verb that points to the past but to past continuous action. She was saying if I but touch his garments I shall be saved.

23:07 I shall be made whole. Now Matthew adds this additional little stroke Matthew 9.21 she said within herself. Now try to picture the woman.

23:22 Somehow when the welcoming committee is there on the shore of the Sea of Galilee she's either in the midst or off on the fringes and when she sees Jesus and I have my own opinion and this is all it is that the thing that triggered her and emboldened her and this is why the two miracles are woven together perhaps for many other reasons but at least for this. When she actually sees him for the first time when you see someone or something you've heard a lot about for the first time what question is uppermost in your mind? Is he or she or it all that I've heard he or she or it is? Isn't that what's in your mind?

24:03 You have someone goes to the Grand Canyon and they come back and they're oozing and they're awing and showing their pictures and saying you've got to go to the Grand and they keep talking about the Grand Canyon in grandiose language and grand superlatives so the first time you make your way in and you can walk over to the rim of that canyon what's in your mind? Is it all I've heard it is? And then you find out it's all that and more and you stand there breathless and you come back and you try to tell people and so it goes on. Well, I'm convinced this is what was in her mind just by the sheer psychology of how we all work and when she sees Jesus and the crowd gathering around her and out of the crowd she sees a desperate man slinging himself at his feet and just in a passing of a few moments Jesus is rising or lifting the man up and walking off with him. She's convinced he does respond to the cry of the needy. He does respond to those who come with their concerns to him. And so she came continually saying within herself if I can but touch the hem of his garment I'll be made whole.

25:12 If I can but touch the garments that he wears something that will bring me into living contact with his person I'm convinced that I will be completely healed of this twelve year old malady. This was a disposition of faith and of course we can fault some of the strands of superstition that are in her faith. Is there an element of superstition that she must actually touch something connected with Jesus? Is there an element of ignorance in which she's confident of his power to heal but she's afraid to tell him she has been healed because she knows his power but she does not yet know his loving heart?

25:56 Well that may all be true but this much is clear. She came with a disposition of faith because that's precisely what Jesus says later on and he settles it for all of us. But it was also a disposition of determined secrecy.

26:15 She is determined to keep this whole transaction secret. Now you can understand why. The very nature of her disease is such that she doesn't want to disclose it openly. Perhaps she heard Jairus crying out my daughter is at the very point of death.

26:34 There was nothing indelicate about declaring that need openly before all. But for a woman with...

26:42 with any sense of modesty it would have been so difficult to declare before hundreds if not thousands of people so personal an issue. Even here in our own congregation when someone goes into the hospital for surgery that has to do with anything that is of a personal nature we deliberately don't mention what the concern is. There is an element not of prudishness but of proper modesty and delicacy. And this woman possessed of that certainly would not want publicly to declare her need and yet the only place Jesus can be found is in the midst of the masses that press in around him from all sides.

27:27 So she is determined that she will secretly sneak up on him that she will touch him and then she'll slip away and be lost in the crowd a healed woman and only she and God and ultimately her friends will know. The secret miracle that has occurred. So her inward disposition was a disposition of faith and a disposition of determined secrecy. But now Mark tells us what her outward actions were.

27:59 The outward action by which she came. Look at verse 27. Having heard the things concerning Jesus came in the crowd behind and touched. His garment.

28:15 Now sometimes you've heard the statement that teachers have eyes in the back of their heads and what they mean by that it seems at times the teacher can be writing at the blackboard and you go to pass a note to someone or whisper and she turns around and says now John, now Sally, stop that. And that's where the statement came that teachers have eyes in the back of their head. They just seem to know everything. Well, whatever she was convinced Jesus could do and whatever she was convinced he was she was not convinced he had eyes in the back of his head so she figured he's going that way with Jairus and though the crowds are pressing from all directions so he's feeling pressure from behind pressure from the right pressure from the left pressure from in front surely if I sneak up behind where he can't see me and I just touch not even his body the word used in the other two gospel records may well refer just to one of the four tassels that hung down from a Palestinian robe according to God's directive in Deuteronomy chapter 22 and verse 13. She had it all figured out. I can sneak up in the midst of the crowd that are bumping and jostling him and if I just reach out and with a finger touch his tassel I'll be healed and I'll go my way and no one will ever know. So the outward action by which she came was an approach from the rear.

29:29 Notice she came in the crowd from behind and she reached out and she touched either the border of his garment or one of the fringes hanging down from one of the four corners. Then Mark tells us the results of her coming and there were two. Look at the text. Verse 29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up and she felt or knew in her body that she was healed of her plague.

30:04 What were the two results of her coming? Number one she was instantaneously and completely healed of her disease and she was healed of her disease. And given immediate health and vigor totally reversing all of the debilitating effects of that disease. You see there was not only a negation of the disease there was a negation of all of its influence.

30:29 She didn't need a period of recuperation. She was instantaneously and completely healed and secondly she was physically and mentally conscious of this fact. You'll find the translator saying she felt in her body. That word for felt means she knew in her body.

30:46 Well how do you know in your body? Well we use an idiom similar to that all the time. Someone says you don't look too good. You don't look too well.

30:54 You alright? You say well I know my body and I know something's out of sync. I don't have a fever. I'm not nauseous.

31:02 I don't have any bug. But I know my body. Something's not right. We use that terminology all the time.

31:09 Well where do you know your body? Well you know your body and your mind but your mind receiving the signals from all of your body. You have your bodily functions and organs. Right?

31:18 Some of you women long before the doctor says you're in the way of having another child you know it perhaps two or three days after you've conceived. You know your bodily and you say ah I got all those signs. You know your body. Alright?

31:31 She knew her body. She knew what it was for twelve long years to live with the consciousness of the total complex of this constant hemorrhaging. And again in the interest of delicacy I need not say more than simply use your imagination. But immediately having touched the fringe of his garment she's completely healed and she feels a surge of life flowing through her body and she knows that the wearing effects of twelve years have been totally reversed.

32:10 We talk about divine healing. Now say by way of an aside this ain't nothing what the so called healers are doing. Jesus didn't charge for it and he did a good job and he did an irreversible job. What they do doesn't match up on any point.

The Gracious Dealings of Our Lord with Her: Discovery

32:27 But anyway the results of her coming instantaneously healed and she knew that she'd been healed. Alright then in the third place we come to what is perhaps the strange part of the passage having looked at the vivid description of her pitiful condition the striking account of her instant healing. Now we come in verses 30 to 34 to examine the gracious dealings of our Lord with her. After the healing the Lord could have disclosed to others what he had done for he knew what he had done.

33:02 But you see the woman would have forfeited certain inestimable blessings and our Lord would have been robbed of his glory for remember the miracles were his credentials. And though at times he told people not to tell for good and wise reasons the general motif is the miracles are reported as the credentials of God's anointed Messiah. And so in this situation likewise we see three units of thought in our Lord's gracious dealings with this woman after she is healed. First of all we have her discovery by the Lord verses 30 to 32 then her disclosure to the Lord verse 33 and then finally her blessing received from the Lord verse 34 first of all then her discovery by the Lord verse 30 and straightway that is immediately immediately after she touches him in his heel Jesus perceiving in himself that the power from him had gone forth. The moment this woman touched him with the touch of faith the Lord Jesus who was in control of this miracle

34:27 this did not happen by some magical automatic emanation of power from him that is where her faith may have been somewhat interlaced with superstition. But there is no record in scripture that Jesus ever healed another but by the exercise of his own conscious volition. And though I will not go into the whole debate that the commentator has not walked around like a ping pong ball of how much his divine nature and his human nature were active in this thing one thing is clear as we shall see he knew who the woman was he knew who it was that had received the blessing of healing. And so immediately upon the consciousness that virtue had gone from him he turns and asks who touched me? And again there is a stroke in the original which indicates that he asked the question more than once turning him about in the crowd he was saying who touched my garments? And according to Luke 8.45 at first everyone denied that they had touched him so the very way Jesus asked the question at least to some indicated that he was not talking about touching in the sense of mere physical contact.

35:47 Because remember people were pressing in on him by the dozens and for everyone to say I didn't touch you I didn't touch you I didn't touch you would be ridiculous. But Luke says they all denied it. But Jesus kept asking who touched me? Verse 31 And when no one responded his disciples said unto him You see the multitude thronging you pressing in upon you the word afflicting you Luke 8.45 pressing and crushing you the very word used to describe the crushing of grapes to make wine. They said Why Lord? Boy they got cheeky here. You see the crowds pressing in to the point of crushing you and you say who touched me?

36:37 Come on Lord be reasonable. How patient the Lord was with cheeky disciples. And he is the same way today. Don't you ever say anything cheeky to the Lord?

36:48 Lord why the minute you use the word why with the Lord you are cheeky. They got cheeky with him. And they said You see the multitudes pressing in upon you afflicting you crushing you and you say who touched me? The Lord didn't stop to rebuke them.

37:05 He just went right on. Verse 32 And he looked round about notice now not to see who had done this but what does it say? He looked round about to see her. He knew all the while who it was.

37:20 Can't you picture what this situation was like? From the very first time she heard the question who touched me? She knew she was found out. And though she had begun to slink away and shrink back into the crowd and there is an indication she did because it says she came.

37:39 She wasn't right next to him. She had to come. She is slinking away in the crowd and Jesus turns around and says who touched me? Deathly silence.

37:49 Her conscience and all this was found out. He knows. I am not going to get away with this in secrecy. Who touched me?

37:57 Conscience thunders. You are found out woman. He knows you. He who has power to heal you by the mere touch and the outgoing of his gracious omnipotent healing grace.

38:08 He knows you. Who touched me? And then as he turns and the question is asked and repeated one can only imagine she must have felt the day of judgment had dawned upon her. Because suddenly his eyes then fix upon her and notice what the text says and he looked round about to see her.

38:28 And the moment his eyes fastened on hers there was no more rotation of the neck no more movement of the bodies he looked straight into her eyes. And she said I have had it. He has found me. I thought I could steal him and I have been found out in my theft.

38:44 He has found me with the goods. I know in my body I am healed. I stole him I stole him and he found me with the goods. I have had it.

38:54 He found her. You see the disciples were like someone coming out of a goal line stand in which you have got the front lines of two teams pounding up on each other trying to push each other back. Can you imagine ten of those guys or twelve of those guys after a goal line stand somebody coming up out of the pile of all those bodies and crying out Who touched me in there? Well that is something of what we have here.

39:26 Or who gave me a brush block in the midst of all of that when they are really pounding on one another good. You fellows who play football will understand that. That is a bit more vividly. Well you see as Jesus scanned the crowd he knew that she couldn't be hid and now she knows I am discovered.

39:43 He knew all along who I was what my illness was how I approached him I thought I really pulled off I came in behind him I touched him I got my healing I am on my way out. I am on my way out. But now he has found me. That is her discovery by Jesus.

The Gracious Dealings of Our Lord with Her: Disclosure and Blessing

39:58 Now on that point at that point she then makes a disclosure to Jesus verse 33 Her disclosure is recorded in verse 33 but the woman fearing and trembling knowing what had been done to her came and fell down before him and told him all the truth. Her disclosure has two elements its attitude and its substance. What was the attitude with which she made that disclosure? It was one of mingled awe and fear and dread.

40:30 The text says the woman fearing having come into a condition of fear and continually trembling knowing what had been done to her came and fell down before him. Her attitude was one of fear one of awe one of trembling and can you imagine what went through her mind? Again it doesn't take much to see. Will he reprove me for stealing my healing from him?

41:01 Will he expose me so that my shame and embarrassment of the nature of my disease will be publicly known? Will he to punish me for coming stealthily and stealing my healing? Will he take it back and will that horrible plague come back upon me? Oh dear people if she was a human being which she obviously was surely these were some of the thoughts that swelled up and swarmed through her mind.

41:29 That's the attitude in which she makes her disclosure but in spite of all that fear and trembling in its substance this is what her disclosure involved telling him all the truth from a posture of worship and prostration before him for the text says she fell down before him the position of an inferior to a superior the position here I believe of something that at least had in it the elements of the beginnings of an acknowledgement of who Jesus was she fell down before him and she told him all the truth and according to Luke 8.47 telling him all the truth meant she got over her secrecy she spread out before him the full nature of her problem and the manner in which her healing came that was her disclosure and that was quickly followed then in the third place by her blessing and commendation from the Lord as she lies trembling at his feet exposed now fully known not only to Jesus in her own consciousness she knows now that all has been disclosed but those who are nearest in the crowd have now heard have now heard what is the Lord Jesus going to do and here is one of the most wonderful displays of the tenderness and the grace of Jesus

42:58 to be found anywhere in the gospels he said unto her daughter your faith has saved you or made you whole the standard word for saved healed is used here go in peace and behold of your plague or your scourge what did the Lord Jesus do well I've called this his blessing and his commendation conferred upon her first of all he gave her a tender assurance that she was now a part of his spiritual family notice how he addresses her and he said unto her daughter this is the only place where Jesus in all of the gospels the records we have ever addresses someone in this way who is not a physical daughter or who is not part of a general group called the daughters of Jerusalem as he says on the way to the cross weep not for me daughters of Jerusalem he uses this term now put it in the context do you see the significance Jairus had come and in all probability she had heard his words my precious little daughter the darling of my heart is at the point of death Jesus picking up on that turns to her and says my daughter the object of my love

44:26 the object of my consideration whatever is going to follow from my lips poor trembling scared timid soul I'm going to address you with all the filial love and affection and compassion of a tender father with his daughter so the first thing Jesus does is to give her this tender assurance that she was now a part of his spiritual family and then secondly he gives her an unequivocal assurance that her faith has brought her healing your faith has made you whole now why does he put such emphasis upon faith because he wants to purify her faith had he not said this she might have gone home and enshrined her hand in a special glove and said this is the hand that touched him oh wonderful hand or she may have hired someone to try to cut off a tassel from Jesus' garment and made a relic and sold it to the Pope to be used in subsequent generations this is the healing tassel come to such and such a place and say so many prayers and burn so many candles and you may be healed and that's supposed to be Christ's church on earth nonsense so the Lord is going to purify her faith

45:53 and he says it is your faith not your hand not the tassel it is faith that brought you into living contact with the virtue and power of my own person and my own function as the Messiah you see faith is the bond that unites us to the Lord Jesus in the virtue of his saving power and he says to the woman I will clear away all your suspicions it is your faith that has been the instrumental means of your healing for it was your faith that brought you to me and I am the one who healed you and I knew the moment I healed you for my back was turned to you and you thought it was all done in secrecy now you know better for when I said who touched me it was not a random glance it wasn't anything in your external bearing that my eyes stopped when they met yours my daughter I healed you because I willed you to heal you I healed you out of the plenitude of my own power and grace and it was your faith that brought you into that posture of receptivity of that healing virtue and that healing grace and so he gives her that unequivocal assurance that faith had brought her healing thirdly he gave her a gracious command to go forth under the canopy of God's peace if he were speaking in Aramaic

47:20 he may have used the shallow that word that had such significance for anyone of Jewish background it means to go forth with the blessing of God in the totality of one's being the blessing of the God of the covenant who gives us his peace and well-being in soul and body it could well be that he pronounced the priestly blessing of Shalom upon her and then he gave her a comforting promise he said behold of your plague in the form of the verb reveals that Jesus is here promising her that this plague will never come back on her she is healed and is to remain in the healed state as long as she lives with reference to that particular scourge that had afflicted her now one can only imagine what must have flooded through the mind and heart of that woman she came trembling outwardly trembling because of the magnitude of her fear within and Jesus smothers her with words like this the word of assurance that she is now part of his spiritual family the unequivocal assurance that faith has wrought her healing because it brought her into touch

Application: A Marvelous Display of Christ's Grace

48:44 living contact with the virtue of Christ the gracious command to go forth unto the canopy of the peace of the God of the covenant and then a comforting promise that she need never dread that the disease would come back upon her and again I say unlike modern healers who say as long as you maintain your posture and attitude of faith your healing will remain but the minute your faith lets go your disease will come back that's sheer nonsense when Jesus healed someone he did a good job and a permanent job the only exception is if the illness was a direct result of sin he said go sin no more lest the worst thing come upon you don't be deceived by the claims of modern healers well that's the story I've labored to lay it out as simply as plainly as I know how sticking to the language of the text and in the moments that remain we ask the question and I attempt to answer it what of the gospel is in this account for remember Mark is writing and he never forgets the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God well let me take just two points of application this morning in closing first of all this incident constitutes a marvelous display of the distinguishing sovereign manifold grace of Christ and I said well Lord can I cut that down a bit

50:13 and then I said which word will I take out it constitutes just a display no it's a marvelous display of the grace of Christ yes but what kind of grace grace that is distinguishing in the midst of a vast thronging multitude of people who are close enough to crush him not a one of them receives a thing from him but a poor woman a social and religious outcast she goes away healed and with the canopy of blessing on her head distinguishing grace but it was sovereign grace our Lord was constrained by nothing outside of his own heart to heal her when she came with a faith that had an element that was not right had some superstition she had set her own terms she could get healed in secrecy there was a lot of defect in that faith but nonetheless the Lord sovereignly conferred the blessing and it was the manifold the many sided the many faceted grace of Christ you see it was grace that caused our Lord to go up to Galilee in the first place it was grace that had brought the report to her ears that such a person who could do mighty works existed it was grace that gendered hope in her despairing heart and it was grace that created the only situation in which she would have been bold enough to go to Jesus

51:41 a thronging milling pressing crowd was the only context in which this woman could have any hope and it was grace that created the crowd and then it was grace that caused Jesus not to turn around and look at her at the point she was about to touch him because it would have blown the whole thing can you imagine if he turned around when her finger was just two inches away from his tassel she'd have froze and her hand would have stopped and drawn back and she'd have gone away as she came it was grace the Lord Jesus knew he was healing her he knew all the while he was healing her that's why he could turn around and look at her who had been healed but it was grace that caused him to go along with her terms and it was grace that conferred the healing it was grace that lovingly drew her out when she lay at his feet trembling fearful wondering whether she would be reproved for stealing this gracious act of healing it is grace that took her where she was assured her that she was loved the daughter that assured her that she had come in living contact with the Son of God grace that now put in her ears that wonderful blessing of the peace of God and sent her away confident that never again would she be found in this condition

53:09 here is a picture of the grace that comes from Jesus the scripture tells us he is the same yesterday today and forever and my friend you and I need precisely the same kind of grace that she received Paul asked the question what have you that you did not receive why do you glory as though you had not received it the hymn writer wrote oh to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be grace taught my heart to fear grace my fears relieved grace brought me safe thus far grace will lead me home and this is our Savior the Savior of this poor woman with her pitiful disease the Lord Jesus in the plenitude of his distinguishing manifold grace is just the kind of Savior we sinners need and we see in this passage a display of that distinguishing sovereign manifold grace of Christ that seeing it in the passage we might come with a plague that goes deeper than twelve years standing that has been with us from Adam's fall in Eden with us from our conception in our mother's womb and that we might find in the Lord Jesus

Application: A Graphic Picture of Saving Faith

54:36 in the touch of faith in the contact established when by faith we lay hold of him that there is saving virtue in the Son of God even in this hour and then secondly and finally the incident contains not only this display of the grace of Christ but it contains a graphic picture of the nature of saving faith a graphic picture of the nature of saving faith now there are some very responsible Bible students who believe that every physical healing recorded in the Gospels is a parable is a picture of a certain dimension of spiritual healing I am not prepared to state that I would be hard pressed to prove that from scripture on the other hand there are certain healings that one must be willfully blind not to see in them a parable a framework a pattern of how spiritual healing comes particularly those in which the very words used are the words used for full blown salvation from sin and it's consequences and that is a parable and it's consequences and here in this incident of the woman with the issue of blood is a graphic picture of the nature of saving faith think with me quickly what were the roots of her faith well you see the roots of her faith were a felt need

56:05 desperation as to how the need could be met and in that context a glimmer of hope that came from a report about Jesus always the root of saving faith no one ever believes on Christ unto salvation who has no felt need for Jesus said I did not come to call the righteous but sinners and sitting here this morning if you have no felt need Christ will do nothing for you saving faith has as its inevitable and changeless root felt need but it must be more than a need occasionally considered as a need that brings us to the point of desperation as this woman tried all the physicians and was not better but worse perhaps you have tried the physicians doctor reformation and doctor ritual and sacraments and doctor decisionism and doctor religious activity you have tried every single quack on the face of the earth and you are not one whit better you still go to bed at night with annoying conviction and you have no hope and if you died you would go to hell well in the midst of that friend I hope there is a glimmer

57:34 of light the news that Christ saves sinners desperate helpless needy sinners and there will never be any saving faith without that for faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God the saving mercy of Jesus that no one sitting in this building would go out and say well they tell you you are a sinner and they point out your sins but they don't tell you what to do with them my friend that accusation has no basis in fact in this place we point out your sin yes we do for without a knowledge of sin you will never have the knowledge of Christ but we only have the knowledge of Jesus who can do helpless sinners good and that's the Lord Jesus that's the root of saving faith and what was the essential activity of her faith it was a determined approach to Christ that she must get in contact with Christ so she presses through the crowd she presses through all of the difficulties she says I must get to him and if I can see her who has made up her mind and her mind and when she does she must be and if

59:02 she does she must know Christ and see her and be in contact with him as a sinner and she needs to be sure that she understands all that she needs saving faith the healing of the soul the word of peace followed by the open confession of Christ you see Christ wanted to make her who possessed healing a confessor of him and he lovingly drew her out until before the crowd she told all the truth and that's the result of all saving faith the healing of the soul and the confession of Christ if thou shalt believe in thine heart and confess with thy mouth let me ask you sitting here this morning do you know anything spiritually of what this woman went through physically and I believe also spiritually I'm convinced that this is one who got physical healing and spiritual healing at one in the same time I'm not saying she fully understood the dimensions of the spiritual enclosure

60:20 until later but thank god our understanding of god's grace is not the measure of our experience of it i was as saved at age 18 as i am now but i sure enjoy what i've got a lot more now because i know a lot more what i got back then so we're not talking about having the knowledge of a theologian but i'm asking you this morning man woman boy or girl have you ever been where this woman was felt need desperate you may be tried a thousand different things and you're no better a guilty conscience a bowed down spirit no sense of the joy of sins forgiven oh my friend hear this word concerning jesus many of us were where you now are and our sins have been pardoned and washed and cleansed what happened we came into vital union with the lord jesus by faith we have touched him by faith yes a faith which is his own gift yes gendered in our hearts by his own grace yes but a faith in which we've laid hold of him the result is we stand and sit this morning with sins forgiven the assurance that we're under the

61:43 canopy of god's peace and we are confident that our sins will never come back upon us again for they are are are buried in the depths of the sea.

Exhortation and Benediction

61:56 In my preparation, I came across the account of a preacher who having preached on this passage, a few days later, received the following poem from one of his members. I thought I had the poem with me. You'll have to wait till next week. No, there it is.

62:16 I thought I had it. It's here. He received the following poem from a lady who composed it after hearing him preach on this passage. And this is what she composed.

62:27 Who touched me? It was the voice of the Master. And the woman's heart beat faster and faster. Trembling, she came and bowed her head.

62:39 I touched you, Lord, is what she said. But the Master answered, Go your way. Your faith has made you whole this day. Have you touched me?

62:53 I heard it. It was the voice of the Master. And, oh, my heart beat faster and faster. You came with the throng to God's house today.

63:04 But I felt not your touch as you went your way. I was ashamed and bowed my head. Reach out a bit farther next time, he said. You see the point?

63:20 This woman said, I came to the place where Jesus in a special way is found amongst his people. And I did not. I couldn't touch him. What a tragedy.

63:33 What a tragedy. To be where Christ is in the institution of His worship and His Word. He's here. And invites you to touch him.

63:49 By faith. Don't leave. Don't leave. Don't leave.

63:56 With your issue of blood still running. Don't leave. Yet in your pollution and defilement and outcast from God and His people. Flee to Christ.

64:08 Hates to die. find him to be exactly what that woman found him to be but you say I have fears, so did she you say I have uncertainty so did she, you say I don't know a lot neither did she, but she went to Jesus and she came away blessed you go, and you too will come away blessed let us pray our father we rejoice before you in the wonderful wonderful record of the mighty works of your beloved son oh how we praise you that you have left us this record that we are able as it were to leap back over the centuries and stand in that crowd and see that trembling woman and learn as it were at her feet what it means to come to Jesus and oh we pray Lord may we not have labored in vain to set forth your beloved son this morning but may boys and girls and men and women lay hold of him and find that promised mercy thank you for your grace in the gospel, may that grace be effectual in some heart this morning and for those of us who have been drawn by the magnetism of your son dealt with tenderly and graciously as was

65:36 this woman, what can we do but fall at your feet and say blessed, blessed blessed be the name of the Lord blessed be the name of the Lord in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ hear then our prayer and answer us for your glory Amen