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A message given at a Tuesday Night Prayer.
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Sure. It's good to see you. It's interesting because you guys are on my heart every day. I think of you every day. Your pastor on my heart every day.
[00:00:10] So let's just wait a minute in silence for a minute.
[00:00:17] Holy Spirit, please know that our silence is an invitation, that we don't just invite you with our words, but we invite you also by making room for you, by centering down, by being quiet in your presence.
[00:00:36] Lord, come and have your way.
[00:00:38] Touch every heart. Mine too, in Jesus name, Amen.
[00:00:44] Tonight we're going to steep ourselves in a passage that I think is familiar to many people, probably not everybody.
[00:00:52] But if I say that we're going to talk about the story of Jairus, you sort of know what it's going to be about. So tonight I'm going to invite you to soak in that passage with me, maybe in a different sort of way.
[00:01:06] We're in Luke, chapter 8, starting in verse 40. And as Jesus returned, the people welcomed him, for they had all been waiting for him. And there came a man named Jairus, and he was an official of the synagogue. And he fell at Jesus feet and began to implore him to come to his house.
[00:01:22] For he had an only daughter, about 12 years old, and she was dying. But as he went, the crowds were pressing against him. And a woman who had had a hemorrhage for 12 years and could not be healed by anyone came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak. And immediately her hemorrhage stopped. Jesus said, who's the one who touched me? And while they were all denying it, Peter said, master, the people are crowding and pressing in on you. But Jesus said, someone did touch me, for I was aware that power had gone out of me.
[00:01:56] When the woman saw that she had not escaped notice, she came trembling and fell down before him and declared in the presence of all the people the reason why she had touched him and how she had been immediately healed. And he said to her, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace.
[00:02:12] While he was still speaking, someone came from the house of the synagogue official, saying, you, daughter has died. Do not trouble the teacher anymore. But when Jesus heard this, he answered him, do not be afraid any longer. Only believe, and she will be made well. When he came to the house, he did not allow anyone to enter with him except Peter and John and James and the girl's father and mother. And they were all weeping and lamenting for her. But he said, stop weeping. She has not died, but is asleep. And they began laughing at him knowing that she had died. He, however, took her by the hand and called, saying, child, arise.
[00:02:51] And her spirit returned. And she got up immediately, and he gave orders for something to be given her to eat. Her parents were amazed, but he instructed them to tell no one what had happened. And this is the word of the Lord.
[00:03:06] So I just wanna do a quick review of the passage.
[00:03:09] We see Jairus deep need here. It's his darkest day, his daughter dying. We don't know if she's been sick for a long time or if it's a sudden illness, but he knows that it's grave. He knows that she's dying.
[00:03:21] This is a day when the lights go out. Have you had a day like that? When the light around you turns to night and you think you can't see anymore, and you think it's over, and you think you're lost.
[00:03:32] You wonder whose fault it is if you're like me. You know, some of y' all are lucky because you know it's always somebody else's.
[00:03:41] Jairus deep need on his darkest day. And when the lights go out, we have decisions to make. And his first decision is to run to Jesus. He's got a deep need. He makes a good decision.
[00:03:53] And then so we see Jairus deep need. We see his first decision is Jairus request. And here it is. He's looking at Jesus. He says, please come to my house and heal my daughter. But the next thing that happens is Jairus delay. Jairus need his decision. Decision number one, his request. And then Jairus delay as Jesus heals and dialogues with somebody else in need of healing, whom we always refer to as the woman with the issue of blood. Then Jairus has to make another decision.
[00:04:23] So Jairus deep need.
[00:04:25] Jairus first decision run to Jesus. Jairus request, please come and heal my daughter because she's at the point of death. Then Jairus delay, because Jesus says, I will come and heal her. But then you know what happens? He doesn't sure seems like he's distracted, right? Like he's going to go touch somebody else. He's going to go minister to somebody else.
[00:04:47] And in that moment, Jairus has to make another decision. Am I gonna wait here for this guy, or am I gonna run back to my daughter? And I just wanna say, as a dad, that's not an easy decision.
[00:05:00] What did it take for him to tear himself from his daughter's side? What do you suppose the voices in his head were saying?
[00:05:08] Screaming, maybe, you fool. Leaving your daughter, she's at death's door by the time you get back, she'll be gone.
[00:05:15] But he disobeys those voices. He makes these two decisions. The second decision that he makes is to stay when Jesus is delayed, when Jesus delays on purpose, when Jesus begins to talk to the woman, Jairus stays right there, close by. I'm going to prove that. Determined not to lose Jesus in the crowd, not to rush home to be with his daughter and his wife, to try to comfort them, not maybe to even be present at his daughter's passing. Here's another thing that he doesn't do that some of us might have done. Like this is the leader of the synagogue. Lots of people know where he lives, right?
[00:05:54] So I don't know if you're like me. When Jesus delays, don't you think it might have occurred to you to grab your friend and say, hey, I'm gotta go, but as soon as he's ready, get him to my house as fast as possible. So that's Jairus second decision. I'm gonna stay. But then the next thing we see is Jairus disaster.
[00:06:13] Because somebody comes from his house, and these are the words they speak into his ear. Your daughter has died. Do not trouble the teacher anymore. And we all know these disasters, the moments when all the lights go out, like I said before, or at least they seem to, when all our expectations are spoiled and all our hopes are dashed and broken, when, like Job, what we've always feared has come upon us and what we never, ever believed could or would happen has happened.
[00:06:42] But we know what Jairus didn't know and couldn't have known in his moment of disaster and despair, which is that his story doesn't end in disaster.
[00:06:53] We know it. He didn't.
[00:06:55] Jairus story doesn't end in the ruin of his hopes, but in his great reward.
[00:07:02] If you're looking for. If you're a note taker, you're looking for a title. That's the title of the message. Jairus Reward.
[00:07:09] Or the reward of Jairus, if you don't like to play with apostrophes. And what was Jairus reward?
[00:07:15] Jesus raises his little girl from the dead. Jairus decision to leave his daughter's bedside and then to wait for Jesus in the midst of his deep and terrible trouble must have been really hard. And I bet his decision to run to and wait for Jesus was probably the most important thing he had ever done, and I think the most important thing he would ever do in all his life ahead of him. And isn't it wonderful that Jesus rewarded Jairus decision by raising his little daughter from the dead. Well, yeah, but the resurrection of Jairus daughter was far from the only reward. And I would argue that it was far from the most important reward that Jairus received that day. There were many others.
[00:08:00] We might miss him if we read this familiar passage too quickly. In fact, if we don't slow down and think it through, I believe we end up with a somewhat distorted understanding of Jairus reward. If we don't slow down, we might miss some of the most important lessons this story can teach us. So let's slow down a little bit. Let's hit the slow motion thing. What do they call it at the World Cup? V A R.
[00:08:23] Let's look at some instant replay and see what else happened that we can only see if we slow down. What happened to and for Jairus that day as a result of his decision to run to Jesus, to wait for Jesus and not to let go of him. Okay, so here comes instant replay. One thing we have to remember is who Jesus is. He's Yahweh in the flesh, the same flesh Yahweh made us of.
[00:08:49] Now that Creator is wearing that human flesh right there, standing right there. This is the Creator of the universe in human form. The fullness of the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit walking among human beings as a human being. Listen to what Colossians 1:15 says about him. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things have been created through him. And for him, he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning. He is the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him. And listen to what the writer of Hebrews says about Him. This is Hebrews one verse, one God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets, in many portions and in many ways in these last days, has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the world.
[00:10:10] And he is the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature, and upholds all things by the word of his power. And that is the one Jairus ran to and fell before that day in the flesh. We need to see who Jesus is in this story in Jairus Life, in our stories and in our lives.
[00:10:41] Because who Jesus was on the day he stood with Jairus, he is every time you open your eyes in the morning, except that he's already been there the whole time. When you're driving down the road and you look up and you utter something to God, this is who you're communicating with. The risen King. Son of God, Son of Man, Yahweh's son and Mary's son. The Maker and redeemer of all of us and of everything.
[00:11:10] Okay, that's who Jesus is. This is the slow motion instant replay. The first thing is, who is Jesus? Anyway, here's the second one. Where was Jairus waiting? Jairus waited at the most terrible moment of his life, at the very feet of Almighty God. The one who said, let there be light.
[00:11:33] You know, when the lights go out in your life, he's a really good person to go to. Even the night is not dark to him. This is where Jairus is, At the very feet of Almighty God. This is who Jesus is.
[00:11:48] Son of God, King of Kings, Lord of all.
[00:11:52] And that's where Jairus is in this story.
[00:11:55] At the very feet of Almighty God. The place of ultimate intimacy and surrender. Close enough to touch him, near enough to speak directly to. To see his face and to hear his voice. I don't know if you've noticed this in your life, but I have noticed that it is often in my most terrible trouble, my most searing trial. It's the pain that drives me to Jesus, to time of deepest communion, intimacy with God, and greatest growth. However you measure that.
[00:12:28] I don't know why our lives work that way, but I do know this.
[00:12:33] It might be true that it's time of trouble, in times of trouble, that we grow the most, or that we draw nearest to the Lord. But I will say this. It's not automatic. Trouble doesn't do that automatically. You have to make Jairus choice.
[00:12:48] I'm going to run to Jesus, I'm going to fall at his feet, and I'm not going to leave, no matter what. When, like Jairus, we are troubled and terrified, we have to choose to run to him, to stay close to him and to cling to him. One of the things we can learn from Jairus is that when we're in terrible circumstances, if we do choose to run to him, he'll see to it that we find him. Pastor Tom said it at the beginning, we draw near to him, he will draw near to us. That's his promise. James 4, 8. He also says that if we do run to him. He will not turn us away. That's John 6:37. So you know that little voice in your head that says, why should I even pray? Why should I even run to God? Seems like when other people do that, they find Jesus. But when I go, it seems like Jesus is distracted and he's doing something else and maybe he's helping somebody else. Well, guess what? That's what he was doing that day with Jairus. How did it seem to Jairus? Thing of it is, however he does it, he can attend to all of us all at the same time.
[00:13:51] See these promises? That he'll draw near to us and that he won't turn us away. Don't say anything about how we'll feel. It's true that God is near to the brokenhearted and that he saves those who are crushed in spirit. That's Psalm 34:18. But when our spirits are crushed, we're not so good at feeling the presence of God. Chances are that Jairus, close as he was to the Lord, Jesus, in that moment, in his very presence, was so troubled and so fearful that he could hardly stand it, could hardly stay still. The voices in his mind and heart screaming at him to run back home. What about my child?
[00:14:23] He might not have felt. I don't know. It doesn't say how he felt. I'm just going to say I'm guessing he didn't feel super safe in the moment, super attended to when Jesus turned away.
[00:14:33] Still, in spite of his trouble and terror, Jairus was, in that moment, as close to the one true and almighty God as he could possibly be. Surely this too is part of Jairus reward for running to and remaining with Jesus. He was as close to Yahweh as he could possibly be.
[00:14:51] Closer even than he had ever been before.
[00:14:55] Even in the synagogue. This guy's the ruler of the synagogue. I'm guessing it means he hung out in the synagogue a lot, had done all the religious stuff. But somehow in this moment, when all the lights were out and he felt like everything inside of him was dying and he was worried about losing his precious child in that moment. That's the moment when he was closest to to God. And I just want to say he probably didn't know it.
[00:15:23] Where was Jairus?
[00:15:25] He was in the very presence of Jesus, the Son of God. And Jesus was also in Jairus's very presence. They had drawn near to each other. Okay, we've seen who Jesus is. We've looked at who Jairus, where Jairus was. Let's pay Attention to what Jairus saw. Here's what Jairus saw. He saw. Let's just be, like, flippant about it. He saw the healing of the woman with the issue of blood. And we just kind of rolls off our tongues that way, right? Talk about it all the time.
[00:15:54] I've read the story of that desperately sick woman hundreds of times in my life. I've told and taught others about it, but I wasn't there. Not even close. I didn't get to see it. I've never gotten to see it except in my mind's eye and my imagination. But because Jairus had decided to run to Jesus and to stay as near to Jesus as possible, Jairus was there to see that astonishing miracle. And I believe this, too, was part of his reward for running to Jesus and remaining with him. In spite of what must have felt like a delay, Jairus was in a desperate hurry. But he forced himself to slow down and to wait for Jesus, even as Jesus touched and spoke to somebody else.
[00:16:42] So let's just be honest for a minute. Like, not outwardly honest. I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand or come forward or sign a card or anything, but have. Hasn't it ever occurred to you sometimes after you've been praying for months or years for something, and then somebody so and so stands up with a microphone at the prayer meeting on Tuesday night and tells you what God did for them in 30 seconds, and they only asked one time.
[00:17:03] Doesn't that get you? Sometimes Jairus saw Jesus turn away.
[00:17:09] He's not making it up. Right. Like, sometimes we say, God has turned away from me, and lots of people say, no, he hasn't. He would never do that. Right. Okay, Jairus. Jairus is going to say yes. Yep. Mm. Yes, he did. Because he said that he was gonna come with me. And we were walking, and then he stops, turns around.
[00:17:30] But think about what Jairus saw next.
[00:17:33] This unbelievably ill and unbelievably courageous woman fighting her way through the crowd. She touches him. People don't see that, but what they do see is her saying to Jesus, it was me.
[00:17:48] He saw it. Like, he didn't see it on the silver screen. You see what I mean? He was there.
[00:17:53] I would have loved to see that.
[00:17:55] I think it's part of his reward.
[00:17:58] Jairus was in a desperate hurry, but he stopped, waited, and saw Jesus do this thing that the rest of us can only read about Jesus in front of Jairus. I don't know what word to use does. I guess I'll use does a work of compassionate power that the whole world would eventually hear about, study, memorialize. Here we are on the other side of the world, thousands of years later. I talk about it. Pretty much everybody knows. Yep. Woman with the issue of blood. Jairus was there, so near to Jesus that he became a witness of Jesus divine loving power and authority. I just have a feeling that helped him to hang in there.
[00:18:43] Luke tells us that Jairus daughter was 12 years old. That's Luke 8. 42. And guess what? The woman with the issue of blood had been ill for all 12 of those years. Talk about a long wait. That woman knew something about waiting. She made the same decision Jairus made in the dark night of her own soul. I'm gonna go where Jesus is. I'm gonna get as close to him as possible. I'm gonna grab onto him if I can, and I'm not leaving.
[00:19:08] So here's something that really impresses me about Jairus and about this woman. When you're in the midst of a terrible season of waiting, however you measure the length of that season, there are always off ramps. The temptation to end the waiting can be very strong. I bet when Jesus delayed to minister to the woman with the issue of blood, Jairus thought about taking the off ramp and heading back to his daughter. And how many times in all those long 12 years had the woman herself thought, why should I keep serving God? Why should I keep asking? Why should I keep waiting?
[00:19:40] But both of them stayed. Both of them kept waiting. Both of them refused to take the off ramp. Both Jairus and the woman chose, in the midst of their pain and desperate need to go where Jesus was, place themselves as near to him as possible, and then to refuse to be distracted or dissuaded. Here's the thing is that both of them were beautifully rewarded. But this message is primarily about Jairus. So let's be clear about Jairus reward. Because Jairus refused to take any of the offer available to him, he saw a generous God heal a courageous, patient, desperately ill woman. And the healing that Jairus witnessed has resounded through the ages and across the oceans into this very place in this very hour. Jairus was there.
[00:20:30] He saw it. And that was part of his reward.
[00:20:35] How did witnessing the miracle affect Jairus in the midst of his waiting? I mean, what could it have meant to him? I think the delay is part of what saved his daughter's life. Life. Because instead of turning back, instead of going back, Jairus was riveted to Jesus by what he saw Jesus doing. And by what he heard Jesus saying, and he didn't even notice that somebody had already come to tell him that his daughter had already died.
[00:21:02] So who Jesus was, where Jairus was, what Jairus saw. Let's talk about what Jairus heard.
[00:21:07] What Jairus heard as he observed that healing from a front row seat. First, he heard Jesus call the woman.
[00:21:15] Now what effect did that have on him? Especially given the fact that Jairus was in agony in that moment about the fate of his own little daughter.
[00:21:23] What did it mean in that moment? What might it have meant? I don't know. To hear that this man cares about daughters and thinks of women that he's never met before as his own daughter, Jairus is like, I got. Hey, I got.
[00:21:40] I got one.
[00:21:42] And what if that thing was rising in Jairus heart? Maybe like, if he can do this, he can do anything. Not just for his daughter, but maybe for my daughter.
[00:21:53] What compassion, what powerful love did Jairus notice in the Lord Jesus, in that moment, in that conversation with the woman?
[00:22:01] Second, Jairus heard the news that he feared more than anything in his life.
[00:22:07] While Jesus was conversing with the woman, a trusted messenger comes to Jairus to tell him that his daughter was dead. And if ever there was an off ramp for Jairus, I think this was it. Even his friends told him to quit waiting for Jesus, that all hope was gone.
[00:22:21] Now, suppose Jairus had taken the off ramp and left Jesus while Jesus was dilly dallying, delaying, seemingly distracted by the woman with the issue of blood.
[00:22:33] If that had happened.
[00:22:35] Just playing out the imagination with me. Jairus says to Jesus, please come heal my daughter. Jesus says, I will. They set off. Jesus turns around. Who touched me? All of a sudden, Jairus is focused this way. What happens if Jairus takes this off ramp right here? I guess he's not listening to me. Then what happens when Jairus meets the messenger on the road? Your daughter's dead. What's he gonna do?
[00:22:59] He's just going to go home and weep over his child?
[00:23:02] See, the delay saved Jairus daughter, if you see what I mean.
[00:23:08] Only death would have been the result. Only despair, only regret. If he had taken the off ramp, he might even have reproached himself for ever leaving his daughter's side and running to Jesus in the first place. I should never have left. Can you see him saying that to his wife? I'm so sorry I left you alone with her. I thought, I know I shouldn't have gone, but.
[00:23:28] So what does Jairus hear?
[00:23:30] He hears Jesus called the woman Daughter. He hears about the healing. He hears that discussion, and he hears his friend, or a messenger, anyway, say that his daughter has died. And Jairus was so close to Jesus that the scripture says Jesus also heard it. This is how close they were. Now, I don't know about you, but if you're the messenger, you've been sent, I want you to go tell Jairus that his little girl is dead. How are you going to do it? Are you going to stand 10ft away and say, hey, Jairus, guess what?
[00:24:05] No, right? You're going to get as close to him as possible.
[00:24:09] You're going to take his head in your hand, and you're going to put your lips right next to his ear.
[00:24:14] And what we know is Jesus heard that.
[00:24:18] See how close Jairus was?
[00:24:21] So Jesus turns around to minister to the woman, and Jairus is like, I got this guy.
[00:24:25] I don't know what's going on, but I am not leaving him. He seems not to be paying any attention to me at this point. I'm happy for you, young. Well, not young. Well, woman. What? You know, like, I'm happy. Good, right? But then when the man here tells the bad news, Jesus hears it. This is another one of those, don't you know, that happens to us? And we just wonder, God, did you hear that? God, do you even see this?
[00:24:52] Jairus stayed so close to Jesus that something probably whispered or at least just spoken under the chaos, Jesus heard it right away. And because Jairus refuses to turn away because he stays so close to Jesus, even in the midst of his most terrible pain, Jairus hears something else. Because when Jesus hears that this little girl has died and the suggestion is that Jairus shouldn't trouble him anymore, Jesus turns right to him and says, don't be afraid any longer. Only believe, and your daughter will be made. Well, now, let's just take the content of that statement out for a minute and think about the fact that the Son of God, who made everything Yahweh in the flesh, the Creator and the redeemer of all things, the one who reigns through the power of an indestructible life, the one who is a high priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek, looks at Jairus face to face and talks directly to him eye to eye.
[00:26:06] I think this is part of Jairus reward.
[00:26:09] What would you give?
[00:26:10] He's like this with the Son of God. And, you know, think about how many billions of us there are and have been. Think about what a tiny fraction of us can say in the flesh.
[00:26:23] The Son of God looked at me and spoke directly to me to tell me not to be afraid.
[00:26:32] No doubt the healing of his little daughter was part of Jairus great reward that day. But what Jairus saw and heard before he ever returned home to see his daughter, daughter raised from the dead, was also great beyond measure. How many times in his life would those words of Jesus spoken directly to Jairus resound in Jairus heart and mind and memory? How often did he replay that as he grew old and his beard grew white? Maybe when he's giving his daughter away in marriage and she's standing under a canopy and he's remembering the day she couldn't move. And the Son of God looked right at him and spoke to him.
[00:27:17] So who Jesus was, where Jairus was, what Jairus saw, what Jairus heard. Now, where Jairus walked with Jesus, he walked then all the way to his house.
[00:27:31] I don't know how far it was. Lodi. I don't know.
[00:27:35] Probably not very far. Right, but a ways.
[00:27:39] Synagogue's not right there. There's this huge crowd of people there. We're out in an open space here.
[00:27:46] Imagine what that walk was like. This is Jesus walking with Jairus. What are the odds that Jesus was catching up on his email or checking his calendar on the way?
[00:27:56] Many of us in this room know the Lord Jesus. We know what he's like from long experience with him.
[00:28:01] What do you suppose Jesus was doing during the walk?
[00:28:05] Maybe his arm around Jairus. Maybe asking him, what's your little girl's name? What does she like to do? How old is she again? How long you been a synagogue official? I just want to say thank you for the way you serve your community.
[00:28:18] Hey, get your head up. Don't be afraid. I'm here.
[00:28:22] What a walk. And I just want to say that I think this is part of Jairus reward.
[00:28:27] Jesus looks at him and speaks to him. Jesus walks with him all the way to his house. And then Jairus opens the door to his house. And Jesus comes in to his house.
[00:28:41] Remember who he is.
[00:28:43] Yahweh in the flesh, walks into his house.
[00:28:46] And then he walks into the inner room to the place of his greatest pain, his greatest loss, the source of all his darkness and fear. He all opens the door to that room and Jesus says, this is exactly where I want to be. Will you come in here with me? He kicked out a bunch of people that day. Jairus walked with him.
[00:29:10] I just can't imagine this being a silent walk.
[00:29:13] Talking with him, listening to him, then opening the Door to his house, to his village, right where he lives.
[00:29:22] Opening the door, welcoming Jesus in, and then welcoming in, welcoming him into the place of death.
[00:29:32] Now, probably for most of us right now here tonight, that place of death is probably not a little daughter, but might be, might be. But if you've walked on the planet for very long, you have a place.
[00:29:47] You got something that's hidden away way down deep in the dark where you don't want anybody to come in that you think is futile. You know, like there's nothing that can be done. You've already been told there's nothing that can be done.
[00:30:03] Jairus is just like us.
[00:30:06] Which I think is part of the point of the story.
[00:30:09] Jesus walks all the way to that place and goes with Jairus. I mean, this is part of what it means that goodness and mercy follow us all the days of our lives.
[00:30:23] He's the good one, he's the merciful one.
[00:30:28] He's willing to go with us into the place of our death, places of our deepest darkness.
[00:30:36] That is surely part of the reward that Jairus received for deciding to go to Jesus, for deciding to stay with Jesus, to cling to Jesus, not to leave Jesus, no matter what. You know, this story could have been really different. I already said one way in which this story could be different. When I said, you know, Jairus could have taken an off ramp. There were several off ramps before this all, you know, on the way.
[00:31:02] Nobody would have blamed him. But here's another way that the story might have been different. In addition to, you know, what if Jairus hadn't run to Jesus? You with me? Right?
[00:31:11] Suppose when Jesus chose to delay, to take care of someone else, Jairus had decided to run back.
[00:31:20] Suppose he had given up and gone away in bitterness when Jesus called somebody else daughter and healed her. Or suppose Jesus hadn't made Jairus wait at all. What if when Jairus falls at Jesus feet and says, my little daughter is sick at home, she's dying. What if Jesus had looked at him and said, go your way, your daughter lives.
[00:31:43] Think about what he would have missed, what he heard, what he saw, who he walked with.
[00:31:52] The Son of God looked him in the face and spoke to him.
[00:31:57] Think of what he would have missed.
[00:32:00] He would have missed witnessing Jesus miraculous compassion. He would have missed hearing Jesus speak directly to him. He would have missed walking all that way with Jesus. He would have missed welcoming Jesus into his home and into his inner rooms. He would have missed seeing Jesus take his daughter by the hand and speak to her face to face.
[00:32:20] If you're a parent, you know what that would mean, to see Jesus take your child by the hand and speak to her and then to see her open her eyes and get up.
[00:32:33] I'm not saying it wouldn't have been good if he'd have run home like the centurion, right? Like run home and there she is. That would have been amazing. I'm saying look at what he would have done, missed.
[00:32:43] He got to see Jesus reach out and touch his child.
[00:32:48] Think about what we can learn from the story of Jairus. It all comes down to who Jairus was with, or maybe better, who was with Jairus. Part of what we learned from Jairus is that the best way to wait for God is to wait with him to run to Jesus, to get as close as you can and to stay there no matter what. Instead of waiting for God, let's wait with him.
[00:33:12] Don't take your eyes off him. Watch what he does. Listen to what he says. Refuse to leave him even when the news gets worse, even when he seems to be delaying. Walk with him even when the road is long. Invite him into your deepest inner recesses. Open the door of your heart, even the place of your pain and loss and fear, the place where your love has died.
[00:33:38] Part of what we learn from the story of Jairus is that Jesus is himself, the reward of every believer, including the waiting believer. Part of Jairus great reward at the end of all his waiting was the resurrection of his daughter from the dead. And without downplaying or dismissing that part of the reward in any way, I want us to see clearly that Jairus received an even greater reward that day.
[00:34:07] And that same reward can be ours.
[00:34:12] Every morning, Jesus comes and sits on the hillside. Every day in our lives, we get to decide, am I gonna climb up there and sit at his feet? Am I gonna choose the better part like Mary did? Am I gonna run to him like Jairus did and hang onto him and not let go of him and wait?
[00:34:31] We get to do it every day.
[00:34:34] I always feel funny pulling out my phone to show you the Bible, but we get to hear the voice of God speaking right to us every day if we choose to run and cling and listen.
[00:34:52] Let me just talk briefly about what I think the point of Jairus story isn't. We learn from Jairus to wait with Jesus in part because Jesus is our present and our ultimate reward.
[00:35:04] It's true that at the end of all his waiting, Jairus sees Jesus raise his little daughter from the dead. But the point of Jairus story is not that if you wait with Jesus with all your heart and cling to him, no matter what, in spite of delay, in spite of death, of what is precious to you, he'll give you whatever it is that you're desperately hoping for. It's not the point of the story as I see it. The point is that he is what you and I are most desperately hoping for, what we most desperately need. He's the One who is our reward.
[00:35:34] And however long the road is before us, however long our wait might be, however devastating the delays of our lifetimes feel, he will walk with us.
[00:35:48] He will speak to us. He will accompany us, and he will enter our innermost dwelling, and that door opens inward.
[00:36:01] The point is also that he will lead you and me to the place and the time of the resurrection from the dead and the restoration of all things.
[00:36:11] If we run to him, cling to him, wait for him, and refuse to leave him, we will walk with him for the rest of our lives, to the moment of the resurrection from the dead.
[00:36:23] He will not forget you.
[00:36:25] He will walk with us to the time when all our grieving will be over, all our sorrow will be gone, all our tears will be wiped away. He hasn't promised to wipe away all our tears here in this life, but one day he will.
[00:36:38] But until then, as we walk with him, abiding in his presence, in his sweetness, in his goodness, in his peace, his unutterable faithfulness and kindness and sovereignty and wisdom, we will come to hope that the road is long and that the wait will last a while.
[00:37:02] Because he is what we want, he is who we need, and because our deepest desire is to be with him, to be near him, to know Him. And that takes waiting.
[00:37:17] The word of God, including the testimony and promise of Jesus himself, is clear that when we depart this life, we live on either in the presence of Jesus, that is Heaven, or in some kind of existence where we're separated from him, and that is hell. In 2nd Corinthians 5:10, the apostle Paul assures us that we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
[00:37:42] For most of my experience as a Christian, the emphasis in that verse for me has been the judgment seat to stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
[00:37:53] But as I've been soaking in Jairus story, my reading of the phrase has changed slightly.
[00:38:00] Now I see that it's the judgment seat of Christ.
[00:38:04] Here's what that means.
[00:38:07] It means that when we finally stand before him, we will be in the same place that Jairus was close enough to touch him. Face to face, he's going to be speaking just to us.
[00:38:20] And in that moment, however long moments like that are measured in eternity, we will sense and know his love is power, his goodness, his perfection and blamelessness, his uprightness, his holiness, his kindness, his humor.
[00:38:44] Let's just call it goodness.
[00:38:47] And in that moment, to be told that you have to depart, that will be hell.
[00:38:55] The closest the human race, including the Lord, comes in order to say, what's that going to be like? I mean, it's like unquenchable fire.
[00:39:04] But I fear sometimes when we talk about those ultimate realities, we focus on where you're gonna go.
[00:39:13] Where you're gonna go. You know where you're gonna go. Well, you know. Do you know where you're gonna go?
[00:39:17] Do you know where you're gonna go when you die?
[00:39:19] It's not about where you go.
[00:39:22] It's about who you're leaving.
[00:39:25] Please listen to me. When you stand before him, when you finally meet him, you will not want to leave him.
[00:39:34] He is so good.
[00:39:37] Now, I don't know what kept Jairus from leaving him that day. He had all kinds of reasons to walk away, to run back home. My guess is that there was something about Jesus, about being close to him, about what he said, about how he said it, about how he acted about who he was, that made Jairus suddenly able to ignore all the voices and all the evidence telling him that he should stop waiting.
[00:40:01] And tonight, I want to give you an opportunity to start waiting.
[00:40:05] Not so that Jesus will give you what you want or what you think you need, or that'll give me what I most desperately wish for.
[00:40:13] I want us to have this opportunity because Jesus is who we need.
[00:40:20] All we need.
[00:40:22] Who we all need. Like Jairus daughter, all the earthly things we yearn for will one day die, even if Jesus keeps them alive for us today.
[00:40:33] But Jesus will never die. And he said that if you believe in him, you won't either.
[00:40:40] Eternal life. And that life is and always will be in Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God himself.
