Sermon for Sunday, Aug 31st, 2025 at First Presbyterian Church at Unionville, NY (BPC)
Old Testament Reading:
[1Ki 17:17-24 ESV] 17 After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill. And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. 18 And she said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” 19 And he said to her, “Give me your son.” And he took him from her arms and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged, and laid him on his own bed. 20 And he cried to the LORD, “O LORD my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?” 21 Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the LORD, “O LORD my God, let this child’s life come into him again.” 22 And the LORD listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. 23 And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives.” 24 And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth.”
New Testament Reading:
[Act 14:8-18 ESV] 8 Now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. 9 He listened to Paul speaking. And Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, 10 said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he sprang up and began walking. 11 And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” 12 Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. 13 And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. 14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out, 15 “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. 16 In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. 17 Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” 18 Even with these words they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them.
Gospel Reading:
[Luk 8:40-56 ESV] 40 Now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. 41 And there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue. And falling at Jesus’ feet, he implored him to come to his house, 42 for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying. As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. 43 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. 44 She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. 45 And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!” 46 But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.” 47 And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. 48 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.” 49 While he was still speaking, someone from the ruler’s house came and said, “Your daughter is dead; do not trouble the Teacher any more.” 50 But Jesus on hearing this answered him, “Do not fear; only believe, and she will be well.” 51 And when he came to the house, he allowed no one to enter with him, except Peter and John and James, and the father and mother of the child. 52 And all were weeping and mourning for her, but he said, “Do not weep, for she is not dead but sleeping.” 53 And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. 54 But taking her by the hand he called, saying, “Child, arise.” 55 And her spirit returned, and she got up at once. And he directed that something should be given her to eat. 56 And her parents were amazed, but he charged them to tell no one what had happened.
Sermon Text:
[Mat 9:18-26 ESV] 18 While he was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” 19 And Jesus rose and followed him, with his disciples. 20 And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, 21 for she said to herself, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.” 22 Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well. 23 And when Jesus came to the ruler’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, 24 he said, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. 25 But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose. 26 And the report of this went through all that district.
Introduction
There are two separate but interrelated accounts of DESPERATE PEOPLE in this text.
There is, first, the account of the official’s daughter dying and Jesus Christ raising her back to life.
And, secondly, there is the account of the desperate woman who has been bleeding for twelve years, and how Jesus heals her from her affliction.
In this we see the power of Christ, and we see the identity of Christ, leading us to know that we too — even though WE are DESPERATE people in need of a savior — we indeed have that savior in Jesus Christ.
I’ve been preaching through Matthew’s Gospel and so I’ll focus the most on its text of this account, but we see the same account also in Luke’s Gospel (8:40-56) and in Mark’s Gospel (5:22-43) with some additional details.
So we have the title “Salvation for Desperate People.”
Salvation is not for the haughty, not for the healthy, but for the sick; that is whom Christ came to save; those who acknowledge their sinfulness and helplessness and are in desperate need of the Lord.
We have the Desperate Official and the Desperate woman.
First, the Desperate Official.
I. Jesus raises the daughter of the desperate official
This is a man who is the “archon,” the top ruler in the local synagogue. We learn from the other Gospel’s that his name is Jairus. And his daughter is near death; in fact while Jairus is away seeking Jesus, his daughter dies.
He is a desperate man. Who wouldn’t be in that situation? The care we have for our own children often trumps the care we have for our own selves. My son got stung by a yellow jacket the other day, and I thought “I would, in a second, take that pain for him if I could.”
Jairus must have been desperate, for he was risking quite a great deal in coming to Jesus. He might have been a Pharisees with peers who were not favorable to Jesus and his mission and teaching. And if you remember Nicodemus (a Pharisee) who comes to Jesus in chapter 3 of John’s Gospel, you’ll remember that Nicodemus came at night so no one would see him do so. Well, Jairus is so desperate he cannot wait until dark. He’s coming to Jesus even in the daylight when all the other religious authorities could see him.
Jairus shows up while Jesus “was saying these things to them.” That is, Jairus shows up while Jesus was answering the questions about “why does he sit with sinners” and “why don’t his disciples fast.”
And what does Jairus do? “He knelt before him.”
Possibly this could just be a cultural sign of respect, but for a leader of the Synagogue to do this is quite remarkable. I don’t know if Jairus recognized that Jesus was the messiah, but he certainly was desperate enough to try that possibility.
And what is notable is that Jesus doesn’t turn away this man’s worship of him, in his kneeling.
Consider what happens in other cases in the Bible when kneeling and worship of someone is done and DECLINED.
In Acts 10:25-26, when the centurion Cornelius “fell down at the feet of Peter and worshipped him,” Peter said “Stand up, I too am a man.”
And in Acts 14:14, Paul and Barnabas heal a crippled man in Lystra and the crowds called them gods. How did Paul and Barnabas respond? “Men, why are doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.”
Then, finally in Revelation 22:8-9 when John fell down to worship at the feet of an angel, the angel said “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.”
BUT JESUS never turned away worship. Jairus kneeled and Jesus didn’t say “stop it.” He didn’t correct him and say “Worship God.” What are we to conclude, but that Jesus IS God.
That fact is then evidenced also by Jesus’ miracles in this passage. The raising of Jairus’ daughter from the dead and the healing of the desperate woman. Jesus is Lord.
So the desperate Jairus said to Jesus, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” There is faith. And it shows that even those who you most expect to oppose Christ can be called unto him. The early Christians were not just poor “ignorant” people, but there were believers that came out of the priestly ranks and from among the Pharisees. Paul was trained by Pharisees. And in Acts 6:7 we read “And the word of God continued to increase and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many OF THE PRIESTS became obedient to the faith.”
APPLICATION: The Lord can convert even the hardest of opposition.
This is hard to believe at times. But we see it here. Jairus has faith in Christ. Paul is perhaps the best example of an opponent of Christ then coming to faith. And no doubt, all Christians are enemies of God before being saved by Christ and being called friends.
Well, we haven’t even gotten to the miracle yet, and we’ve seen so much of interest already. The text then jumps to the “desperate woman” but I want to first conclude the account of Jairus and his daughter. Jairus believes, rightly, that Jesus can heal here, even bring her back from the dead. How does he know that? When Jesus does raise the girl, it is his first resurrection miracle recorded in Matthew’s Gospel. It is possible that there is one earlier resurrection in the other Gospels, but it is questionable whether or not Jairus would know of this. Perhaps it is something more like that Jairus knows that Jesus is a prophet of God and that prophets in the Old Testament did raise people from the dead. Both ELIJAH and ELISHA (by the power of God) raised people from the dead; children no less. So that could give Jairus confidence that Jesus could do the same. But this confidence, I must think, is something more than just thinking Jesus is a prophet, for the emphasis is not that this prophet can ask God for the resurrection, but that Jesus can HIMSELF raise the daughter from the dead. So Jairus knows at least that Jesus is a prophet; and he might believe more.
The account continues in verse 23 through 26:
23 And when Jesus came to the ruler’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, 24 he said, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. 25 But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose. 26 And the report of this went through all that district.
There can be no doubt. The girl is dead. That’s why there are flute players, part of the mourning practices of the people that time.
So the desperation of Jairus would have now gone into despair. He daughter is dead.
But Jesus, even though they laughed at him, proved himself raising her from the dead. “And the girl arose.”
Proving that there is NO SITUATION so desperate that it is beyond the power of the Lord.
How did Jesus raise the girl? We find this comforting language, “he took her by the hand.” He, Jesus Christ, reached out to her, the girl. Others are hoping to touch the tassles on his robe, but the girl is unable to; she is dead. But HE reaches out to her. And, Mark’s Gospel says “he said unto her, Talitha Cumi” – the Aramaic words meaning “Little girl, I say to you, arise.”
As for the term “sleeping,” I don’t think Jesus was saying that she was literally only sleeping, but rather he meant by it “she is not dead-dead.” She can be raised, and we all shall be raised one day.
II. Jesus heals a desperate woman
Then there is another story of desperation sandwiched in between parts of the account of Jairus and his daughter.
Here we find a desperate woman. Desperate because she has been bleeding for twelve years.
It is interesting that both he age of the little girl and the duration of this woman’s bleeding is 12 years. I wondered if this might mean that the woman is the mother of the girl. But no commentator takes that view, and there are some verses perhaps that go against that idea. In Mark 5:40, for example, there is mention of the little girl’s Mother as if she was in the house, and not outside on the pathway as was the bleeding woman. And the woman also probably isn’t the mother in the fact that there is no mention of her being concerned about a daughter; only concerned with her immediate problem. And Jairus was wealthy while this woman had spent everything she had on being healed. So my theory is proven wrong.
So what is the connection with the 12s? 12 years old for Jairus’s daughter, and 12 years of bleeding for the woman.
The best I’ve been able to figure is that they were “untouchable” or “unclean.” The twelve year old was just before the cutoff age for adulthood, and the bleeding woman “unclean” because of her blood, according to the Law.
This is why it is remarkable that this woman would be so desperate to touch the hem or the fringe or tassels of Christ’s garment for healing, knowing that she was unclean.
There is another connection between the girl and the woman. The girl is dead, and the woman is “as good as dead” in that she is an unclean outcast and, if she doesn’t find a cure, will eventually die of her illness.
And one more connection. It is tale of TWO DAUGHTERS. The first is a daughter (of Jairus), but the second is one whom Jesus calls “daughter.” Jesus said to her, “Take heart, DAUGHTER; your faith has made you well.”
You see the personal, FEELING, way of Jesus. He held the hand of the girl, and called the woman “daughter.” With great care Jesus came to save his people.
FAITH and Healing
Some make a point of the fact that faith in this double-account each time precedes the healing. The faith of Jairus leads to his daughter being raised from the dead. And the faith of the woman leads to Jesus healing her, and Jesus even praising her faith, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.”
We have that regularly in the scriptures like Acts 14:9 – “Your faith has made you well.”
And certainly faith is a good thing.
But it is not universal that faith precedes the healings or miracles of Jesus.
There is no indication of whether Jairus’s daughter herself had faith. (only her father)
And Jesus calmed the story while noting the disciple’s lack of faith.
And Jesus, in Matthew 8, healed “all who were sick,” indiscriminately, and presumably regardless of whether they had faith.
So the ultimate reason for healing and for salvation is that it is the will of God. Jesus heals who he wants to heal, and saves who He wants to save. And those Christ wants to save are brought to faith by the Holy Spirit, and are chosen of the Father. So the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are on the same page in salvation – desiring the same people and bringing that desire to reality.
III. Jesus still saves desperate people.
Ultimately, to get back on our topic, salvation is only for Desperate People. These are just two accounts. Your life and my life are others.
Are you desperate? If not, are you pridefully thinking that you are in a good spot? You’ve got it all under control? That is a great sin that needs to be repented of. You ought to recognize your utter inability to save yourself, and so in great desperation come to the Lord.
We are a desperate people. We have not much money or power. Not a large church. We have not the ability to affect many things in the world. But what we do have is Christ. And in Christ is salvation.
This is particularly on my mind – our desperate situation – having done two funerals recently. Life and death is out of our hands. We must desperate cling to Christ who is the way, the truth, and the life.
Conclusion
And, doing so, that desperation turns to joy.
We may, we can, we should, live in great joy, knowing that there is salvation and life in Jesus Christ. Praise be to God. Let us pray.