As we're being seated, please turn with me in your Bibles to Mark chapter 5, and we'll be considering verses 24 through 34, but before we read that portion of God's Word, keep your finger there and turn with me to Leviticus chapter 15, and we'll read verses 25 through 27. Hear now the word of God, and may God add his blessing to the reading and preaching of his word. Leviticus chapter 15, 25 through 27, I'm reading from the New International Version. When a woman has a discharge of blood for many days at a time other than her monthly period or has a discharge that continues beyond her period, she will be unclean as long as she has the discharge, just as in the days of her period. Any bed she lies on while her discharge continues will be unclean, as in her bed during her monthly period. And anything she sits on will be unclean, as during her period. Whoever touches them will be unclean. He must wash his clothes and bathe with water and he will be unclean until evening. Now back to Mark's Gospel, chapter 5. And though we'll be considering particularly verses 24 through 34 in order to get this portion of Scripture in its context, we'll read verses 21 through 34. Hear now again God's Word. When Jesus had crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. Then one of the synagogue rulers named Jairus came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will live and be healed. So Jesus went with him. a large crowd gathered and followed around him, and a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet instead of getting better, she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, if I just touch his clothes, I will be healed. Immediately, her bleeding stopped, and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once, Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, Who touched my clothes? You see the people crowding against you, his disciples answered, and yet you can ask, Who touched me? But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done this. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet, and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be healed from your suffering. The four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are inspired testimonials about the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth. They're not just any type of testimonials, however, but they're testimonials that arrive in the form of narrative accounts. A narrative is a plot, meaning a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. And though each gospel writer, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, has his own particular way of narrating the story about Jesus, they all tell the exact same story with the same conclusion, that Jesus is the Messiah sent from God. Therefore, before we consider this particular account that we've read about Christ and his exchange with this woman, a few general principles need to be firmly established in our minds. First of all, before we consider this episode with this woman in Christ, we need to understand that the Gospels are the proclamation of good news. In other words, the Gospel writers are not offering philosophical speculations about a world religion. And nor are they pretending, for example, to offer neutral journalistic reports about Jesus as a historical person or the claims of Christianity. So that you and I can sit back some evening in our evening chair and see these so-called neutral reports and then decide what we want to do with them. No, this is nothing like what is done on an ABC special report on Jesus or the claims of Christianity. These men, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are inside believers offering testimony. What they're doing is more like swearing public oath before the entire world of what they have seen and heard. The setting here is much more like a courtroom setting. But not merely are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John like men and women who are called to be witnesses, to tell their accounts of the facts. Rather, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are more like the prosecuting attorney or the defense attorney who, after they've heard all of the facts, weave a story together and tell us what the facts mean. In other words, there's no pretended neutrality here. These men are as narrow-minded as possible. They are telling us all what they have seen and heard and believe is the truth of God for us all. for the purpose that you and I also will believe the message that they are telling us about the Christ. In other words, they're after our souls. John, for instance, to establish this point, makes this very clear in his gospel in chapter 20 when he says, Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His name. And in his first epistle, John puts it like this, that which was from the beginning, speaking of Christ, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life, the life was manifested, and we have seen it and testified, and proclaimed to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us. That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us. And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And then, to establish this point before we move on, Paul, speaking about the mindset of all true gospel preachers that bring the gospel in truth, summarized really the method of all those who have been truly sent by Christ to the Corinthians when he says, we don't peddle the Word of God. Rather, we have renounced the shameful secret and shameful ways. We do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly, we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And then one more point before we get into this exchange with Christ and this woman needs to be in our mind. Since the Gospels are narrative accounts that are moving us towards agreeing with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, John, we need to ask one more question, and that is, where are we in the narrative? Well, we're in two places. First of all, we are the narrator. It is always necessarily the case that, whether you're reading a book or a movie or reading a gospel narrative like this, it is the case that the narrator wants you to see the story or the events through his or her eyes. So we're the narrator. And secondly, in this narration, and in all the Gospels for that matter, we are in the crowd. And because we're in the crowd, we need to ask ourselves how the Gospels portray the religious character of the crowds. That is that regarding the religious character of these crowds, Mark implies, along with Luke and Matthew, But John makes particularly clear in his gospels that the crowds who were following Jesus were following him primarily because of what they could get from him. John, again, makes this perfectly clear in John 6 when he talks about the fact that after Christ had, for example, fed 5,000 people and he goes across the lake. We pick up John's narrative in chapter 6 when he said, So the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, that is, in the place that he had just done a miracle. In other words, disciples, they themselves got into boats and went to Capernaum seeking Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here? Jesus answered them. Truly, truly, I tell you, you seek me not because you saw the signs and believe, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Labor not for the bread that fills us here, but for the bread that leads to everlasting life. But in the final analysis, it's understandable, isn't it, that they'd be following Christ. Because he's meeting their immediate needs. He's healing people, raising folks from the dead, healing sicknesses and so forth. But what we want to get, again, before we go and consider this account between Christ and this woman, we need to have it firmly established in my mind that the crowds were thinking generally in terms of their own life. In other words, if we thought of the crowds in terms of a narrated story played out in a novel or a movie, each member of the crowd would view himself or herself as the main character, the star of their own show. Therefore, what Mark is getting at in his narrative account of this woman is that this woman is a symbolic representative representation of the whole crowd. In other words, what she looks like physically, the crowd look like spiritually. But the crowd is ignorant of the fact that this woman's physical condition really is a picture that represents their spiritual condition, even though these are the children of promise that had, for instance, Isaiah, who in chapter 64 says, But we all are like an unclean thing. And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags. We all fade as a leaf and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. There is no one who calls on your name, listen, who stirs himself to take hold of you. This woman is going to take hold of Christ. But Isaiah says none of us does that in a spiritual way. For you have hidden, Isaiah goes on to say, your face from us and have consumed us because of our iniquities. As the crowd hid from this unclean woman, Isaiah says, God hides his face from every one of us who are sinners. David says the same thing in Psalm 14 when he says, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt. They have done abondable works. There is no one who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there are any who understand, listen, who seek God. They have all turned aside. They have together become corrupt. There is no one who does good. No, not one. So with this in mind, that this woman represents all of us spiritually, let us consider then the dire condition of this woman in this narrative account that Mark gives us. First of all, her physical condition. Look at verse 25. And there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years. She must have thought, if I could just overcome this one thing in my life, I could finally really live. Perhaps there's a young woman in the crowd who's the picture of perfect health. Maybe she's never had a malady, anything like this, like this woman, other than a cold or maybe the flu or something like this. But maybe every morning she wakes up and the first thing she does every morning, she goes to her closet and sees what she might wear that day because she thinks that she can't live until she finds her knight in shining armor. Or maybe there's a young person in the crowd that thinks, you know, if my parents would just pay more attention to me, then I could finally live. Or if my parents would just get off my case and let me live. Or if I could get along with my brother or sister, whatever it is. Maybe a young person that didn't have this woman's malady, but they thought like this woman that there's one thing missing that I need in order to be whole. Perhaps there's a married man or woman in the crowd that is thinking along the lines of, you know, when I got married, I just didn't think that this man that I married was the man. I had a different picture. And if I could just change this man or get out of this marriage, then I could finally really live. Or a man thinking the same way. This is not the woman. She tricked me or whatever. The picture that I had of my life is just not what I thought it should be. You see, the point is that her physical condition represents the crowd's desperate search for the one thing missing. Whether it's a job, relationship, church or family or whatever it is. But not only is her dire condition seen in her physical condition, but secondly, it's seen in her exhausted resources. Look at verse 26. Mark tells us that this woman had suffered much under many physicians and had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. The harder she tried to remedy her malady, the worse she became. And many times, this is how it is, isn't it? When we try to put a facelift on our lives, so to speak. When we try to make ourselves whole. but not only her physical condition, not only her exhausted resources, but again, in verse 28, look and consider the perception that she had of her own life. And perhaps this is the worst malady of all because we are not merely individuals, are we? She says in verse 28, for she said, if I touch even his garments, I will be made well. And the idea here is I will be made complete or whole. You see, society had cast her in the role of the worthless person, the outsider. And she accepted their verdict. And this must have caused severe mental anguish. Not only because of society's perception of her, but because of the perception that she had of her own life. This explains her boldness to force her way through a crowd that most likely despised her. She was desperate. And I would remind you, brothers and sisters, that this woman did not know much about Jesus. She didn't understand, like we do now, that Jesus was the divine Lagos, the second person of the Holy Trinity. Mark merely tells us that she had only heard the reports about Jesus, that she found him and simply had to touch him. In light of her physical condition, her exhausted resources, and the perception that she had of her own life, notice with me then what happens when she finally squeezes her way through the thronging crowd to lay hold of Christ. Notice the complete healing of this woman. She's healed by the Savior immediately, though involuntarily. In verse 30, And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, Who touched my garments? Touched here is in the middle of voice. And what happens here is this intensifies the action. It's much like italics. Who touched me? And this begins to reveal the gospel. That Jesus is the promised Messiah as promised in Genesis 3. The focus now is on Christ. Who touched me? And I would remind you that just in the previous chapter, in Mark chapter 4, Mark had just told the story about when the disciples got into the boat to cross a lake and our Savior is down in the hold of the ship and He's asleep and a storm arises and they go and wake up Jesus and what does He do? You remember, don't you? So he goes out and he commands the winds and the seas to be still. And what happens? Mark tells us, and there was a great calm. And then the disciples' reaction was, fear and trembling. For they said to themselves, who is this that commands even the wind and the sea? And they obey him. And much more, however, Mark would say by telling us this episode with this woman being healed involuntarily by Christ, Much more, who is this that heals people without even knowing it? Yes, Jesus is 100% human. Also 100% divine, but he's 100% human. Who is this? The answer is, this is the Messiah that was promised in the garden. But notice, in light of this fact, how Christ heals her or talks about her healing or describes it. Number one, she's renamed. Verse 34, and Christ says to her, daughter. The first words that come out of our Savior's mouth are daughter. He doesn't call her that woman or woman. He calls her daughter. And this is a specific Abrahamic promise being fulfilled in this woman. Daughter, your faith has made you well. This is fulfilling the prophecy, for example, that Isaiah prophesied about. Talking about the healing that would come because of the grace of the gospel, Isaiah tells us, The nations shall see your righteousness and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give. You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. you shall no more be termed forsaken and your land shall no more be termed desolate but you shall be called my delight is in her. John summarizes the same thing in the book of Revelation for instance in chapter 3 when he says the one who conquers or overcomes I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God and never shall he go out of it and I will write on him the name of my God. You see, brothers and sisters, when we name our children, we impart to them a new identity so that they can participate in the new family in which they've been born. When someone is renamed, they are given a new identity with an entirely new story. I like the Scottish Catechism, the Children's Scottish Catechism. It starts out with a question, what is your name? And the answer is, my name is Christian. But notice that she's not only renamed as implied by Christ calling her daughter, meaning a daughter of Abraham, but she's also rewritten. Verse 34, Go in peace. This means shalom. In other words, live the rest of your days in the grace of God's covenant peace. By being rewritten, it means that she's not just adding a new chapter to her story in her life. Rather, God's writing a whole new story about her. She's rewritten into a whole new narrative. In other words, here, her life takes an eternal turn. She was once that, now she's this. Not just, again, another chapter in her book, but a whole new story. She is written into an entirely new narrative. When Christ says, go in peace, he means now live characteristically a life that is lived under the title, peace with God. She's not only renamed, she's not only rewritten. But she's restored. And be healed of your disease. And both body and soul is implied. Paul tells us to the Corinthians, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. And summarizing the fact that this woman had been renamed, rewritten, and restored, Paul, for instance, to the Romans, reminds all Christians that therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is now our story, peace with God, as it was with this woman. And Paul, reminding Christians of this eternal turn that is characteristic of this woman here, that she was something and now she's something new, he wants to remind us all as he says to the Ephesians that remember that at that time you were separate from Christ that means before God gave the ability to lay hold of Christ you were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenant of promise having no hope and without God in the world but now in Christ he tells us you who were once afar off have been brought near by the blood of Christ for he himself is our peace. But this is not the end of the story. You see, brothers and sisters, this event is not ultimately about this woman or even her faith. She'll certainly get sick again, at least of old age. In fact, it's theoretically possible that the flow would even come back to her in years. This event is a sign It's a sign of the kingdom of God. In other words, it's a redemptive historical military maneuver. The kingdom of heaven is crashing in on the kingdom of Satan, exactly as God promised in the garden. You see, here we're in the middle of the story. The crowds are generally still thinking in terms of their own lives. But now, after Christ comes and performs this miracle, everything's turned upside down. They're the outsiders and she's the insiders Exactly as prophesied, for instance, by Isaiah again As Luke records in the third chapter of his gospel Prepare the way of the Lord Make his path straight Every valley shall be filled And every mountain and hill shall be made low And the crooked places shall become straight And the rough places shall be level ways Everything's turned upside down Outsiders are made insiders And insiders are made outsiders Because of the work of the kingdom of God And the point here is this. Is that now as we turn to the application of the crowd, God doesn't deal with our lives the way that we would normally suppose. In other words, Christ isn't like Moses where he says, okay, crowds gather together, everybody sit down, and I'm going to have you come up and talk to me about the problems you're facing in your life. Okay, you're worried about your marriage, you're worried about your job, you're worried about your young one in the hospital, and on and on. God is not unconcerned about these things. He's very concerned about us to the point of our very hairs of our head being numbered. But the way that He deals with us is very different than we would normally think. He doesn't give to us, notice, a book with 15 principles so I can get my life together. Instead, He gives one miracle that is to rewrite all of our stories into a whole new story that's told by God. It's a little bit like this. No illustration is perfect, but it's something like this. If we viewed life as a playing field, and God's standing on the sidelines watching us with white knuckles trying to get our lives together, it's as though God says, okay, time out. And he walks onto the field, puts his arm around us, and walks us off the field and sets us down. And he says, now take a deep breath. You have concern about your life, don't you? Yes. Well, let those white knuckles rest a little bit. Take a couple deep breaths. I have an answer for you. You want to know about your job or your marriage or what's going to happen with this person in the hospital, whatever. Yes. And you want specific answers to specific questions, right? Yes. Here's my answer to your specific question. Ready? Yes. In the beginning, God. Yes, the story doesn't start with us. The story starts with God. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That's the beginning of the story. And that's the beginning of your story as a person, as a creature in Adam. You see, all these miracles that Christ is doing, they're leading up to a climax in chapter 8, where Mark says, and he calls to him the crowd with his disciple after doing all these miracles. If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it. And whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel will save it. The point is, is as long as we are living for ourselves and not really listening to the significance of what these miracles mean, we really aren't getting the picture. The point is that we die to our own purposes and goals in life. We're going to consider, Lord willing, this text this evening. But the point is, is as members of the crowd, we need to ask ourselves a question. And the question is this, what will we do with this woman? Now that we, like the crowds who saw her physically there, we also, by the power of the Holy Spirit, by the living canon, and by the preached word, this woman, in a sense, is standing before us this morning. And the question is, what will we do with her? Will we continue to live with white knuckles? Or will God begin to work a work in us by the power of His Spirit and give us faith to be able to follow the Messiah? In other words, what perception will we have of our lives now? Now that this woman is healed, standing before us as it were in this narrative account of Mark. As a believing son or daughter of the promise, brothers and sisters, I would remind you that you, like this woman, have been renamed. You have been given a new identity in God's family. Your name is Christian. You have been rewritten. In other words, God is now writing your story out. You've been rewritten into a story of peace with God, with Christ as the main character. Not only renamed, not only rewritten, but you've also been restored. We've already been reconciled and restored in our fellowship with God, haven't we? But though we're still waiting for the redemption of our bodies, as Paul reminds us. For those of us here this morning who are still generally thinking in the terms of their own personal life, first of all and foremost, Jesus invites you this morning to view your lives in terms of the broader story of the kingdom of God with Jesus as the central character. You must die to yourself, pick up your cross and follow Christ. You see, the kingdom started way before you were born and it will go on way after you die or the Lord comes. Life starts with God and with His Son. And finally, this business of God renaming and rewriting people into a whole new story. By way of conclusion, I would remind you that this is always God's way of calling His people. For instance, in Genesis chapter 11, we read a narrative about a man named Terah who had a son named Abraham. At that point, rather, his name was Abram. And we pick up the narrative and it says after Terah died in Genesis chapter 12, Now the Lord had said to Abram, Get out of your country, from your family, and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. First of all, he cows him out of his land. Already that's implied in there, a new story, isn't it? Listen to what God says. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. And you shall be a blessing and I will bless those who bless you and I will curse him who curses you. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. In other words, this is going to be the title of your new book that I'm going to write for you. And this is a great promise, isn't it? But we learn after five long chapters, finally we get to Genesis 17, after all sorts of trials that you remember that Abraham goes through. Abram, rather, goes through. And in chapter 17, the narrative picks up and says, When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said, I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you and will multiply you exceedingly. Then Abram fell on his face and God talked with him saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with you and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham. For I have made you the father of many nations. A whole new narrative. He's rewritten into a new story. He's now the father of many nations. Just like all of us who have named the name of Christ, God is writing us into a whole new story. Another example we find in Luke's gospel, the very first chapter. We read about the divine narrative coming to a young woman. Where Luke tells us, now in the six months, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city named Gaut. to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. Surely Mary, who being betrothed, is now very busy with sending out wedding invitations and preparing for the wedding, right? And having come in, we're told, the angel said to her, Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women. Surprise! Here's a brand new story to your life. You're going to be the most blessed woman of all to be the mother of our Lord. The angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son and call his name Jesus. And after Mary is troubled at this and she asks, how can this possibly be? We remember that the angel Gabriel reminds her that with God, nothing is possible, is impossible. And in closing, perhaps the greatest example of a life being rewritten into a brand new story is seen in a young man named Saul, who Luke talks about in Acts chapter 9, for instance, where Luke tells us that while Saul was still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, as he was going to the high priest, as he journeyed and came near Damascus, suddenly a great light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you, Lord? And the Lord said to him, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goats. So trembling and astonished, he said, Lord, what would you have me to do? Later on, Paul, giving an account of his life, he says, I, who formerly was an insolent man and a blasphemer, he was employed to kill Christians. He said, but I did it ignorantly in unbelief. But God, who had mercy on him, decided, who separated him, he tells us from his mother's womb, decided to write him into a whole new story. And later on, when we hear about the account of Paul being written into a new narrative, Luke tells us, immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales and received his sight at once and he arose and was baptized. Immediately he preached Christ in the synagogues that he is the Son of God. Then all who heard were amazed and said, Is this not he who destroyed those who called on this name in Jerusalem? And he has come here for the same purpose that he might bring them bound to the chief priests? No, he hadn't come for that purpose at all. Why? Because he was renamed. He's rewritten into an entirely new story just like this woman. Miraculously, God chose Paul to be a vessel of His grace and to bring the very gospel that we hear this morning. And it is this Paul that tells us, as he told the Philippians, Yet indeed, I also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish. But one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, I reach forward to those things which are ahead. I press toward the goal for the upward prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Considering the fact, brothers and sisters, that this woman was in time and history, renamed, rewritten, and restored by Christ, and she is now in the presence of our Lord. Paul would tell us to set our minds now on things above, not on the things of the earth, For we died and our life is hid with Christ in God. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the power of your gospel that you did not leave us alone. We thank you, Father, for all of the accounts that the apostles that you have chosen to give us have been faithfully recorded from us and that you've allowed us to hear them. Now, Father, we ask that you would give us ears to hear the things that you speak to the churches, that those of us, Father, that have your Holy Spirit, that we would grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. And that perhaps if there are some here this morning that have been living their own story, Father, that you would give them the grace to be able to be incorporated into your family, that you would rename them. to the end that Jesus Christ and his kingdom would be magnified and glorified. For it's in his name we pray. Amen.