People today are searching for many different things.
o Some are looking for love
o Some are looking for money
o Some are looking for opportunity
o Some are looking for answers
o Some are looking for fulfillment
o Some are looking for physical and spiritual healing
o Some are looking for a touch of humanity
0 Some are looking for acceptance and belonging
To state the obvious, some are just looking for a miracle – ANY miracle!!
Whatever the reason, they are facing certain situations seemingly beyond their control, beyond their human resources to cope, their only answer is a miracle.
Webster’s defines a “miracle” as: an event that appears to be contrary to the laws of nature and is regarded as an act of God
You may find yourself at a place where you cannot solve your problem on your own, you have tried everything, you have looked everywhere with no success.
Through your struggle you have failed to look to the One who can do what no other can do.
We serve a miracle working God and nothing is beyond His power.
Just think for a moment about some of the miracles that Jesus has performed in the Gospel …
He:
o Turned water into wine
o Healed the Nobleman’s son
o Cast out demons
o Healed Peter’s mother-in-law
o Healed many of the sick in the city
o Cleansed a leper
o Healed the Centurion’s servant
o Healed a paralyzed man
o Healed the man with the withered hand
o Raised the widow’s son
o Spoke unto nature itself and calmed the raging storm.
As we come to our selected text we find one miracle being interrupted by another miracle.
First look to Mark 5:24 “And Jesus went with him; and much people followed him, and thronged him”
We arrive in the midst of the story of Jairus and his sick daughter.
She was 12 years old and at the point of death, in fact she did die.
Jairus went to Jesus for a miracle and that is exactly what happened, Jesus raised the little girl from the dead.
As they are headed to Jairus’ daughter, Jesus is interrupted by the lady that we read about in verses 24-34.
She is described as a “woman with an issue of blood”
She is a lady who is searching for answers …she is searching for a miracle.
Today, I want to devote our time and attention to the subject “Searching for a Miracle”
In this coming encounter between Jesus and this lady we see certain elements of our lives today which may come in the life of one who is searching for a miracle.
Mark 5:25-34Amplified Bible
25 A woman [in the crowd] had [suffered from] a hemorrhage for twelve years, 26 and had endured much [suffering] at the hands of many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but instead had become worse. 27 She had heard [reports] about Jesus, and she came up behind Him in the crowd and touched His outer robe. 28 For she thought, “If I just touch His clothing, I will get well.” 29 Immediately her flow of blood was dried up; and she felt in her body [and knew without any doubt] that she was healed of her suffering. 30 Immediately Jesus, recognizing in Himself that power had gone out from Him, turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched My clothes?” 31 His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing in around You [from all sides], and You ask, ‘Who touched Me?’” 32 Still He kept looking around to see the woman who had done it. 33 And the woman, though she was afraid and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. 34 Then He said to her, “Daughter, your faith [your personal trust and confidence in Me] has restored you to health; go in peace and be [permanently] healed from your suffering.”
The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.
Mark 5:24-34 tells a story of a woman who had suffered a tremendous amount.
It had been twelve long years of suffering.
This disease was only getting worse, every dime she had had been spent in an effort to find a cure, there was none.
No physician or amount of medicine of the day was helping or would help.
All hope of any help was beginning to fade, and the future looked bleak.
The Bible does not tell us her name or her back story.
However, from the little information that we are given, we know that she had come to a point in her life where she was beyond desperate and out of options.
This is a story of not only suffering, but faith and courage.
This woman seeks out her last possible miracle of hope from the one whom she has not only heard has healed many but believes them all to be genuine, true.
Her beyond desperate pursuit of the power of Jesus Christ gives us a picture of what it means to be driven forth by our faith, to hang on to God’s faithfulness.
There are three main lessons I wish to highlight from this miraculous story.
- To be desperate for God’s help
- Our faith is to be rooted in Christ’s power to work out any trial we face
- God lovingly welcomes us when we come to Him.
Come to God in Desperate need of Him
Scripture tells us that she had gone through all the options that one had to find a cure to her disease. The account in Mark 5:25-26 says she had
“suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse.”
Miracles… we get really skeptical in a really big hurry when we hear that word.
Even Christians roll their eyes when you speak about God working a miracle.
We fail to realize miracles still happen today just as they did in the time of Jesus.
It is one thing for an unbeliever to be skeptical about a miracle, but if you are saved you’ve already experienced the greatest miracle of all time SALVATION!!!
Some people have to reach a devastating situation first before they are willing to open their eyes and see the power of God is their only hope and to see that the power of God unto Salvation can, will work a miracle in their life, even today.
Look at this woman’s situation for a moment:
A. The Sickness – v25a And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood
“An issue of blood” – speaks of hemorrhaging, or bleeding, from some part of the body.
This woman endured a continual flow of blood.
Due to her constant blood loss, she would have been incredibly weak, anemic.
She would have been pale in appearance and would have had no energy at all.
Do you know what it is like to have no energy at all?
It is frustrating and discouraging.
We can assume as a result of her physical ailments, she may have experienced much more than physical weakness but too, depression and discouragement.
B. The Span – v25b “twelve years”
– Not only did she face serious health problems, but she also found no relief.
She had endured this disease for 12 years …over a decade of sickness.
This woman would have been considered severely unclean, even untouchable according to the Law.
This would have resulted in social isolation:
Leviticus 15:25 And if a woman have an issue of her blood many days out of the time of her separation, or if it run beyond the time of her separation; all the days of the issue of her uncleanness shall be as the days of her separation: she shall be unclean. 26 Every bed whereon she lieth all the days of her issue shall be unto her as the bed of her separation: and whatsoever she sitteth upon shall be unclean, as the uncleanness of her separation. 27 And whosoever toucheth those things shall be unclean, and shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.
Could you imagine 12 years of continuous unyielding isolation and separation?
What a sad existence.
C. The Suffering – v26a And had suffered many things of many physicians,
She not only suffered the effects of her disease, but she suffered as a result of those whom she has hoped could heal her.
For a long time, this woman had been looking for answer but to no avail.
The Doctors were no help at all; you can read into this verse that they did more harm than good for this woman.
D. The Spending – v26b and had spent all that she had, – The doctors and their useless remedies had not helped her.
But they apparently took her money anyways.
After all of her searching and trying and suffering now she had spent everything she had. Here she is, sick, separated and desperately broke – but still spending!
Yes! I would absolutely say she is in a place of severe desperation!
Oh, but it still gets worse!
Notice:
E. The Ceaseless Spiral – v26c and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,
– After 12 years and many doctors, after hoping and repeatedly praying that the next remedy would finally, ultimately be the one to cure, to heal her, things just get worse (as if she needed worse) …literally her life was draining out of her.
During this time period, it was common practice for those who were diagnosed with difficult medical cases, to consult with numerous different doctors.
They would undergo many forms of treatments and the supposed cures were often very abusive and would lead to the patient feeling worse than before.
This woman was so desperate that she not only went to so many different doctors but spent all of her money to find a cure.
The account in Luke 8:43 suggested that the woman could not be helped because her condition was incurable.
She was left feeling hopeless, untouchable and desperate to find an answer.
There was literally nothing that could humanly be done to help her and from a human standpoint, she was out of options.
It was only until she had heard about Jesus coming that she became aware that this would be her last try at a miracle, and final attempt at being made well.
“She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment.”
The passage tells us that there was a large crowd of people.
This woman, on the point of physical and spiritual death, who was most likely physically and emotionally exhausted, pushing her unyielding hopelessness and weaknesses aside,
“came” through the crowd of people to “draw near to Him.”
https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g4334/kjv/tr/0-1/
There was a “quiet” “unnoticeable” sense of desperation to get to Jesus because of her quiet faith that only He could bring her the hope that she was looking for.
Her eager attempt to “quietly” push her way through the crowd was a true picture of someone who is in desperate need of Christ.
The true lesson is not in our own ability to bring a solution to the trials we face, it is in our coming to the power of God with a heart which longs and yearns for the power of Salvation in Christ ALONE to come and to enter in and fill the void, of our untouchable measures, seasons of sadness, hardships we all go through.
It is crying out as the Psalmist did in chapter 63:1.
“O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”
This is a cry of desperation and longing for the miraculous power of God.
Furthermore, a desperate heart, beyond desperate for the miraculous power of God, hangs on with every imaginable amount of energy to the truth found in
Psalm 62:8 “Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.” We know that when we come to God, desperate and open, we can also trust Him fully with our lives and find rest in the one who is our true refuge.
As I mentioned, sometimes folks come to a place of “severe desperation” before they are willing enough to look to the power of Jesus for a miracle.
You may be here reading this devotion and spiritually you are in much the same situation as this woman.
You are suffering desperately with a desperately unclean disease …SIN!
You are looking for help, hope and happiness
You have searched everywhere with no success
You have looked to other people, and they couldn’t help you
You have spent entirely much money trying to buy things that will provide you with happiness …it didn’t work
You have dedicated yourself to your career goals and now you are desperately miserable; without the needed resources, you have a void that cannot be filled.
You thought a new “brand” of relationship might solve your problem
You thought that maybe more material goods, money would make life better
You may be turned to drugs and alcohol, crime, to numb the pain you face.
You have tried it all AND NOTHING IS WORKING!!
YOU ARE MISERABLE AND YOU NEED HELP NOW!
You my friend are at a place of “Severe Desperation” and that may be the best place for you to find the answer that you need!
This woman was at that point in her life too and she sought, found the answer… but how?
That is the next thing I would like for us to see.
Consider:
Our Faith is to be desperately rooted in Christ’s power to work out any trial we face
Verse 28 tells us that her faith was so deeply rooted in Christ’s power to save her from her trial,
“For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well”
II. The Specific Information Involved
– v27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. 28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.
Notice the phrase -“When she had heard of Jesus”
How did she hear of Jesus?
o She didn’t have a Facebook account
o She did not have a Twitter or Tik Tok account
o She didn’t have any Internet or Wi-Fi services
o She did not have ZOOM or Tele-Medicine
o She did not have any Cable television to watch the Health News.
o There was certainly no Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
o There were definitely no Libraries at any National Institutes of Health.
She heard of Jesus because there were some excited people in the area talking about the man who had done so many miracles.
We have already reviewed the miracles of Jesus thus far in the Gospels.
It is possible that she has had a first-hand encounter with one of the people who were healed.
Maybe she had heard from or spoke with someone who witnessed one of the previous miracles.
Maybe she heard from someone who heard from someone who witnessed the miracles by actually and genuinely receiving the miracle.
I can’t prove this, but I would think that instead of any 3rd or 4th hand info, she may have heard an actual 1st hand account …a personal testimony, of someone who was radically changed by the powerful touch of Jesus Christ.
Here is why I believe this – Notice her statement “If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.” That statement alone shows extreme faith…
Somebody, face to face, soul to soul, shared powerful testimony with this lady!
“It is no secret what God can do”
“What He’s done for others, He’ll do for you”
“With arms wide open, He’ll pardon you”
“It is no secret, what God can do!”
Regardless, we know somebody told her of the healing power of Jesus Christ!
The one and only true source of where our faith can truly be placed, is in Christ.
As a human, the common thing to do when you’re sick, is turn to medicine and make a doctor’s appointment.
We go there expecting a clear answer to why we are feeling sick and a cure to our ailment. There is almost a sense of hope that is placed in the doctor.
I am not the least against modern day medicine at all, I come from a family that is filled with Professional Nurses – Myself, my late Mother, a RN for 40 years.
I have repeatedly witnessed the miracle of modern medicine through the skilled hands of many surgeons as both of my wife’s have been replaced giving her the ability to walk pain free and her arthritic back has been surgically reenforced.
I have the utmost respect for the men and women of our health care services.
The point here is that ultimately despite her diagnosis, this woman’s faith was set on the ONLY one who knows her biological make up better than any doctor.
God is the creator of our human bodies and knows exactly what we need.
This woman recognized despite her best efforts to get help from many doctors, Jesus Christ was the true source that could help her through this difficult trial.
Whenever we are faced with that beyond desperate situation that seems almost impossible to face, we are sometimes driven by our desperation to look to other “material” “worldly” things to bring us a solution, a peace to our circumstance.
This woman’s faith was so strong that notice how in verse 28, she mentions touching his garments, not even Christ himself.
She believed that in Christ’s unlimited power that her words held no doubt that if she “touched” the hem of Christ’s garments, she WOULD be made well.
If she was able to even slightly “… to fasten one’s self to, adhere to, cling to …” the hem of his garments, she WOULD IMMEDIATELY be MADE WELL.
https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g3916/kjv/tr/0-1/
MADE WELL … Open this link to see the deeper meaning of this phrase!
https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g2476/kjv/tr/0-1/
The main lesson here does not lie in the outcome of her faith.
This woman could not foresee the future.
The Bible does not tell us that her faith predicted the future.
What scripture does tell us is that her faith was so strong that she knew her answers lied with the power of Salvation through Jesus Christ ALONE.
The end goal was to turn to Jesus Christ and look to Him for strength regardless of the outcome.
Unfortunately, too many people today are keeping secret what they should be shouting from the housetops!
People need to hear the specific information concerning what Jesus can do in their lives!
When people experience “Severe Desperation”, and they are given the “Specific Information” then there may be a “Supernatural Transformation”
III. The Supernatural Transformation Involved
– v28 … For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. 29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.
What do we see in verse 29? …A MIRACLE!!!
This woman exhibited great faith in her determination to get to Jesus.
In past miracles the people were healed by the words of Jesus Some were healed when Jesus reached out and touched them.
This woman says, “All I need is to touch a piece of His clothes and I know I will be healed”
Her determination is also seen in the fact that she fought her way through the crowd to get to Jesus.
v30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? 31 And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? 32 And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing.
There was a great crowd gathered around Jesus.
This weak, frail, sickly and desperate woman fought through the crowd with what little strength she had.
She finally gets to where Jesus is, and risking quite literally everything she had left within her, she reached out and quietly touches “the hem of His garment”
We are told that “immediately the fountain of her blood dried up.”
The miracle that she had been looking for and longing for had happened.
The thing that she had spent so much time, money and effort on was wiped away in an instant.
This woman who was deemed unclean by the law is now clean because of Jesus!
WE CAN RELATE TO THAT!!!!
Listen to what Paul said in
– Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
When it came to the Law, we were helpless and hopeless.
We were deemed unclean!
Just like this woman we did not possess even the minimal ability to solve our problem, but praise God through the touch of Jesus Christ we’ve been healed!!
This woman with her physical disease sought Jesus, when it came to my own spiritual disease Jesus sought me
Who He was and what He did
How He loved and Who He is
Jesus is the miracle to me
What could be more miraculous?
That God Himself would come to us
Jesus is the miracle to me!
God lovingly welcomes His Children
When confronted by, with the fact Jesus had asked who had touched Him, He wasn’t asking because He didn’t know, He was beckoning her to come to Him.
Jesus is all knowing and sovereign, yet He still wants us to come to Him with an open heart and a burdened soul. He wants to hear us pour out our hearts, it is a clear indication that we’ll trust Him when we come with our burdens and joys.
Her approach to Him is described as being fearful and notice how the text says that she “fell down before him and told him the whole truth” (vs 33).
Her admission to touching His garments is so much deeper than the physical.
It also shows us a picture of what a true, repentant sinner looks like when being convicted of their sin.
She makes no excuses, she does not try to run, she comes and surrenders it all to Him.
Surrendering our sin, anxieties and worries about life is not a natural human reaction.
We tend to come kicking and screaming before God, as a last resort because our own attempts have failed.
Regardless of our attitude, when we finally plead for God’s help, His response is always filled with Grace towards His children.
Here he looks at this woman and lovingly says,
“Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed for your disease”
She is not only cleansed physically but, in that moment, has experienced the miraculous healing power of salvation through Christ ALONE in her life.
You and I too have that same opportunity to come before God and surrender it all to Him.
Like this woman, you and I will desperately try and live life in our own ways, rejecting that there is a God who has been there along.
The God who loves you and paid the penalty for our sin by dying a painful death so that we would not have to.
If we miraculously choose to place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, the one who has the miraculous answer to life’s struggles and our reason to experience joy. He also miraculously looks at us and in the same way miraculously says;
“Daughter or Son, your faith has made you well”.
What HE did for this woman He can and will do for you!
A woman one day Tried many physicians
But daily grew worse in the bible were told
But when she had heard of this man called Jesus
She found what she needed for her body and soul
She said: If I can just touch the hem of his garment
If I could just touch one part of his robe
I know I’d be healed my sins all forgiven
If I could just touch him I know I’d be whole
One day I sat by the wayside begging
But nobody could help me down life’s weary way
Then my Jesus passed by, and He heard my sad crying
And He Reached down His hands and he saved me that day!
Do you need a special touch from the Lord today?
Are you “searching for a miracle”?
You have a choice; you can “bump into Jesus” like so many in the crowd that day or you can reach out and literally risk everything, touch Him with purpose.
AND MIRACULOUSLY BE MADE WELL AND LIVE!
You can find a miracle today!
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Perform miracles in my life Lord to display your power and glory. Increase my faith to trust in you. May my whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless to the end. Through the miracle of salvation in Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 