Rev. David Holwick ZE Running Into Jesus series
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
September 18, 2016
Luke 8:42b-48
SHE TOUCHED HIM
I. Secret sufferers.
A. God gave him more than he could bear.
1) Imagine plunging your hand into a pot of boiling water ...
and leaving it there.
Imagine a hot knife being thrust into your eye without
being withdrawn.
Imagine intense light or loud noise causing such pain as
to be intolerable.
That's a short list of the daily challenges Keith Orsini
faces every day.
Orsini has what is called "complex regional pain syndrome."
It began after he was severely injured in a high school
baseball game.
Orsini was pitching and he was struck in the face by a
line drive.
It was a very hard-hit line drive.
It broke his nose and shattered his cheek bone.
He lost his sight in his left eye.
That was in the spring of 1974.
The boy complained of constant pain and hyper-sensitivity
to touch.
His doctors told his father that Orsini was just after
drugs or was a chronic complainer.
"Some people will tell you that God never gives you more
than you can handle," Orsini says.
"I don't believe that."
Orsini didn't have his condition diagnosed until 1993 -
19 years after his accident.
It is typical for people with the condition to go through
ten doctors before they find one who can identify it.
He is now 58 and has lived with his pain for 39 years.
Some with the condition have had their limbs amputated.
But they still have pain - minus the arm or leg.
Asked how he has coped all this time, Orsini is philosophic.
"You lose most of your friends when you have a chronic
illness.
People are uncomfortable around you and don't know what
to say."
Asked what he would like to happen in his life, he replied,
"To be normal." #65311
B. For those in pain with no hope, is there any hope?
1) One woman in Jesus' day found out.
2) I believe you can, too.
II. Jesus is multi-tasking.
A. Large enthusiastic crowds are following him.
1) A multitude of needs are brought to him.
a) An important synagogue official pleads with him to help
his dying daughter.
b) It is his only child and he is very distraught.
2) As Jesus travels to see her, another woman seeks his help.
a) She does it in a half-hearted way, sneaking up behind
him and trying to touch the fringe of his robe.
b) This may have been a superstitious move on her part.
1> Back then many Jews believed that if you could
come into any contact with a holy man, you would
be healed.
2> So many people are crushing against Jesus that no
one would have noticed her.
B. She is a sufferer.
1) She bleeds.
a) Probably a female condition, a constant period.
b) Anemia and weakness would result.
2) She has been bleeding a long time.
a) Twelve years is a significant amount of time.
3) No one has been able to help her, not even professionals.
a) Luke simply says, "no one could heal her."
b) Mark adds a lot more detail: Mark 5:26
"She had suffered a great deal under the care of
many doctors and had spent all she had,
yet instead of getting better she grew worse."
1> Many - expensive! - doctors, and she only gets worse.
2> She could be a poster child for the critics of
Obamacare!
c) Luke, a doctor himself, avoids the details.
1> He has to protect his profession.
C. She is undoubtedly lonely and cut off.
1) Bleeding is spiritual defiling under the Jewish system,
for her and anyone she comes in contact with - including
Jesus.
2) Even without the spiritual angle, no one likes to hang
around a constant sufferer.
III. A healing happens.
A. The miracle is instantaneous.
1) She has waited 12 years and the healing comes in a snap.
2) It is not due to her superstition, but God's power.
a) Plenty of other people had brushed against Jesus and
nothing happened to them.
b) Jesus realized that power had gone out from him.
1> He could do nothing apart from the power of his
Father.
2> It is interesting that Jesus notices the flow of
healing power before he notices her.
3) God's power works today.
a) We don't know how it works, but it works.
b) Many have testified how God has healed and changed them.
c) He can do the same for you.
B. Her faith played a part.
1) The woman falls before him, trembling.
a) Some believe she is upset because she knows she has
made Jesus unclean.
b) I think it is more likely that she is awestruck by
his power that has already healed her.
2) Jesus points to her faith as the key.
a) The Bible always emphasizes two sides - God's power
and the human response of faith.
b) Without faith, nothing happens.
c) Faith is more than just believing something is true.
1> It takes faith to believe Jesus is the Son of God.
2> But if you really believe this, you should also
believe he can perform miracles today.
3> They do not happen on our command, but they are
always possible and we should seek them.
4> And when they happen, we should give the glory to God.
IV. Her healing is total.
A. She is healed physically.
1) The bleeding stops instantly.
2) But if this was the totality of the miracle, the episode
would end at verse 44.
B. She is healed socially.
1) By calling her "daughter," an affectionate term, Jesus
welcomes her back into the human family.
2) She no longer has to hide in the shadows.
C. She is healed spiritually.
1) Translating literally, Jesus says her faith has "saved" her.
2) She has experienced more than physical healing - she has
a new and eternal relationship with God!
a) Salvation always requires faith, which she showed
by approaching Jesus.
b) Her explanation of what had happened to her is very
much like a Christian testimony.
1> "He touched me and I was healed."
2> Every true Christian has a testimony of how they
have been touched by Jesus.
V. Many people are suffering silently and persistently all around us.
A. Our own church has examples.
1) Shut-ins who rarely leave their house.
2) Those who have medical procedures several times a week,
week after week, year after year.
3) Those who have pain that doctors cannot alleviate.
a) Much of the current painkiller and heroin epidemic
is fueled by those who have legitimate pain and
get hooked on drugs in trying to fix it.
B. We should notice them.
1) The disciples didn't.
a) We often do not as well.
b) It is natural for us to prefer to be around healthy
people, those who are positive and successful.
2) When a crisis hits, most people get a lot of attention.
a) You are put in the prayer concerns in the bulletin.
b) People send you cards, visit you.
c) Doctors are attentive.
3) When you don't get better, things change.
a) Chronic pain gets you labeled as a chronic complainer.
b) People avoid you.
1> Persistently sick or hurting people make us
uncomfortable.
2> We probably can't do anything for them.
3> Their negative spirit may rub off on us.
c) No wonder despair sets in...
C. We can help them.
1) Acknowledge their pain.
a) Talk to them, listen to them, pray for them.
b) Try to do little things to bring some light into their
life.
2) Bring them to Jesus.
a) I believe he can still heal today, even long-term
disease.
b) Even if they don't experience immediate healing, Jesus
can give them hope.
Remember Keith Osini, the guy with chronic pain from
the baseball injury?
I quoted him as saying,
"Some people will tell you that God never gives you
more than you can handle. I don't believe that."
But that is not all he said. He went on...
"I always felt that God helps you turn things around."
We should do everything we can to bring others to this
hope.
Maybe we need to come to this hope ourselves.
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SOURCE FOR ILLUSTRATION USED IN THIS SERMON:
#65311 “Living In Constant Pain,” by Skip Marsden, November 13, 2013,
<link>.
This and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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