Sharon Reformed Presbyterian Church · Sermon study sheet

Don't Be Afraid, Just Believe!

Bryan Schneider · December 10, 2022

Mark 5:21-43

sharonrpc.org/sermons/don-t-be-afraid-just-believe

Summary

Jairus and the woman with chronic bleeding come desperately to Jesus because sickness and death have left them no other hope.
Jesus attends both a respected synagogue ruler and an isolated, impoverished woman, showing sovereign love without partiality.
The woman courageously tells the truth, and Jesus calls her daughter, confirms her faith in him, and restores her physically, spiritually, and relationally.
News of healing and death meet in the same crowd, reflecting how rejoicing and sorrow coexist in a fallen world and even in one congregation.
When Jairus hears that his daughter has died, Jesus immediately tells him not to fear but to believe and walks with him into grief.
Jesus alone raises the girl; the event does not promise that ministers can reproduce resurrections or blame grieving families for insufficient faith.
Suffering and death remain real, but they are under God's sovereign providence and cannot finally defeat Christ's love or resurrection promise.
Believers prepare for sorrow by knowing God, storing his promises, praying, sharing grief with the church, and fixing hope on Jesus, who will call his people from their graves.

What do Jairus and the woman share despite their very different social positions?
Why does Jesus stop and call the woman forward when he already knows who touched him?
How does calling her daughter deepen the meaning of her healing and peace?
What does Jesus' immediate response to Jairus reveal about his care in the first shock of grief?
Why is it spiritually abusive to turn this historical miracle into a promise that every sick or dead person will be restored now if faith is strong enough?
Which truths about God's character need to be rooted in me before suffering arrives?
Am I isolating in grief, or allowing trustworthy believers to help carry the burden?
How does Christ's resurrection change the meaning, though not the pain, of a believer's death?

Object of faith: The one trusted by faith; both sufferers place their hope in Jesus rather than in the strength of their believing.
Ritual uncleanness: The ceremonial exclusion attached to the woman's bleeding and to contact with death, neither of which prevents Jesus from drawing near and restoring.
Shalom: The full peace and wholeness Jesus gives the woman in body, relationship, and standing.
Providence: God's wise and holy government of every creature, event, trial, and outcome.
Christian hope: Confidence grounded in Christ that suffering is not purposeless and death is not the final word.
Resurrection: God's raising of the dead, previewed in Jairus's daughter and finally secured by Jesus' own victorious resurrection.