FBCWest 652 | Time Is Relative
Recorded On: 03/30/2025
Bulletin
Hymn # 30 “O Worship the fKing”
SCRIPTURE READING – Psalm 22:27 & 28
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate
Praise and Worship
“Battle Belongs”
“Your Love Awakens Me”
“Raise a Hallelujah”
Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
Time Is Relative”
“Let It Begin”
Sermon Notes
Mark 5:21 Jesus crossed back over the sea and a large crowd gathers around Him
Mark 5:22 – 24 A synagogue official implores Jesus to heal his daughter who is dying. The crowd follows
Mark 5:25 & 26 A woman who has been hemorrhaging for 12 years and no doctor has helped her
Mark 5:27 & 28 She had heard about Jesus and thought if she could just touch Jesus’ clothing she would be healed
Mark 5:29 Immediately after touching His garment the hemorrhaging stops
Mark 5:30 Jesus asks who touched My garment
Mark 5:31 Disciples state the crowd is “pressing in” and yet You ask who touched Me
Mark 5:32 & 33 Jesus looks at the woman and she confesses
Mark 5:34 Jesus tells her her faith has made her well – go in peace and be healed of your affliction
Mark 5:35 People come from Jarius’ house and tell him to leave Jesus alone his daughter has died
Mark 5:36 Jesus tells him not to be afraid but believe
Mark 5:37 – 40 The people in the house are in grief but Jesus tells them to stop weeping the girl is not dead, but they then laugh at Him
Mark 5:41 – 43 With only the mother, father and disciples Jesus tells the little girl to get up, she does and Jesus tells them to feed her She is 12
Scritpures
Transcript of Service
In the human experience, it seems that time passes in different ways depending upon the circumstance and the perspective. Jesus is going to minister to two different people with the same passage of time, but each has a different view of that passage of time. I would encourage you to see what that difference is and how
about the relativity of time, the theory of relativity.
He basically said that based on velocity and distance and observation, time is different. So for instance, on the International Space Station, time is slightly, almost infinitesimally different than here on Earth, which doesn't matter much, unless you have a bunch of satellites and GPS and whatever, then you need to modify those times.
However, in human experience,
the physics doesn't necessarily, it's much more circumstance
and observation.
So for instance, I remember at one time being at an amusement park and there was this ride that basically took you to the top and then dropped you.
If you were waiting to go on the ride, the ride took one second long.
But when you were on the ride, it seemed like a lot longer than one second because the perspective was different. And to give you one other example, when I was much younger,
I worked for a fast food
business and I was an assistant manager and part of being assistant manager, you would wrap the hamburgers and when you wrap the hamburgers, you could see back in the clock
that had its pluses and minuses. And I remember there'd be times when I was this young person doing, and I'd work and work and work, and it seemed like an eternity. I looked up five minutes at pass.
Now that I'm much older, five hours seemed like five minutes. So there are times I've thought about going back to work for that company so that my life might seem a lot longer than it is. So you see, life is a matter of circumstance and observation.
And so we're gonna see that in the lives of two individuals that Jesus is gonna minister to. So if you have your Bibles, and you should, turn to Mark chapter five, and we're gonna start with verse 21.
And it says this, "And when Jesus had crossed over again in the boat "to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him. "And so he stayed by the seashore." And so instead of going to town because there's such a large crowd, he just is gonna stay close to shore.
And one of the synagogue officials named Jairus came up and on seeing him fell at his feet
and implored him earnestly saying, "My little daughter is at the point of death. "Please come and lay your hands on her "so that she will get well and live." And so the sense of the scriptures here in the original is that Jairus is repeatedly pleading for Jesus to come to heal his little girl who's at the point of death. And notice from his perspective, Jesus needs to lay his hands on her to make her well. Now he has faith because he's asking Jesus to do something, but the faith, if you will, is limited because he needs Jesus to go there.
And he's desiring his little girl to live.
And he being Jesus went off with him and a large crowd was following him and pressing on him. And so this crowd is moving with Jesus and it's so large that it's kind of like if you almost, for those of you who are young people, like a mosh pit, you're so jammed together that everybody kind of moves in unison because you're all mangled together.
And a woman who had a hemorrhage for 12 years, I want you to notice that this hemorrhaging, this bleeding lasted for 12 years. Now put your place in this woman's situation. First, by bleeding for that long means that she's probably anemic, tired.
Any activity is difficult. She probably has a low red blood cell count and a low white blood cell count. And on top of that physical limitation of being
not just tired, but fatigued,
she also has the social thing that she is unclean, that she's not supposed to touch anybody and no one's supposed to touch her because then they become unclean and they have to bathe and wait till the next day to become cleansed again. And so there's this social distancing that she has to have because of her situation.
And she had endured much at the hand of many physicians and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather it had grown worse. And so you can imagine like anybody else who has this chronic problem that you go find out wherever you can and she, whatever doctor, whatever assistant she might obtain, she goes and seeks that help, but no one helps her. And all that happens is that her condition gets worse and she's broke.
And so there's this sense of it just not getting any better after 12 years.
And after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind him and touched his cloak. So it tells us what she's doing and then just in the next verse, it'll tell us why. So she's going to go and again, like Jairus's situation, she's thinking Jesus has to touch her to get well.
Now, I don't think she's operating on assumption. I think she's operating on faith. The faith is this, that she's heard that Jesus has healed many people from various diseases and afflictions and disabilities. And generally speaking, when you hear Jesus touched people. And so I think she's thinking, okay, Jesus, if I just touch him, then I'll get well because that's how he heals. He touches people. And so she operates on that minimal part of faith rather than the full understanding. Think if I can just get to him, if I can just touch him, this hemorrhaging will stop. And I am so desperate that I almost don't care what the results are in the sense of, he may be rendered unclean, but I need to get well.
For she thought if I just touch his garments, I'll get well. I'll get well.
It healed me for her. So if she could just get to him and touch him and not even touch him, touch his garments. And the other gospel seemed to indicate she's not even seeking to touch the garment itself or the hymn. There are tassels that are placed on the cloak of Jewish men, especially rabbis. And these little tassels would be there. And we would call them fringe. And she's thinking if I can just touch the fringe of his garment, I'll get well.
And after having touched him, immediately the flow of her blood dried up, was dried up. And she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.
So there is an immediate response. She is able to touch some part of his garment and immediately the blood flow dries up.
I believe that this happens because Jesus is holy and clean and nothing is permitted to make him unclean.
So the fact that she touches him immediately remedies her hemorrhaging so that Jesus is not rendered unclean.
And I'm gonna further that in just a moment.
And immediately Jesus perceiving in himself that the power proceeding from him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, "Who touched my garment?" Not even who touched me, who touched my garment?
Because Jesus felt that power proceed out of him, that healing power.
And again, the disciples response would be like ours. And his disciples said to him, "You see the crowd pressing in on you and you say, who touched me?" It's like, who didn't touch you? All these people are around and you're asking who that one particular person touched, not you, your garment.
And he looked around to see the woman who had done this. So he looked around and I think he looks right at her. But the woman fearing and trembling aware of what had happened to her came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. She confessed, "I've been hemorrhaging for 12 years. I've gone to doctors and no one has helped me. As a matter of fact, it's just simply gotten worse.
I've had this affliction for 12 years. And I thought if I could just touch your garment, you would heal me."
And now the hemorrhaging has stopped.
And he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well.
Go in peace and be healed of your affliction." Now I want you to see something and this is my concept.
When she touched Jesus's garment,
she stopped bleeding, but she wasn't made fully well.
Her symptom stopped, but not what caused the symptom.
But then Jesus says, "Because of your faith, you can go in peace and be healed." It is not you were healed and be healed. Jesus speaks the healing to her after her expression of faith to him and why she did it. So at first her affliction had stopped.
But then when Jesus said, "Because of her faith," he then healed her, not by touching her, but by simply speaking.
12 years.
That's a long time.
Especially if you have a chronic condition like that. The church and people in general are really good if you have an immediate crisis.
You have a heart attack. Everybody runs to the hospital and prays and are concerned that you might recover from the heart attack.
We're not nearly as good about chronic situations. Somebody has diagnosed with cancer and their treatment is going to take months and months and years and whatever. And we kind of go on with our lives.
But not for the person who has been diagnosed with cancer likewise with this woman. For 12 years, she has suffered with this affliction while I'm sure her friends just went on with their lives because it was an immediate situation. It was a chronic problem.
And while they were still speaking, they came from the house of the synagogue.
And they were saying, "Your daughter has died. Why trouble the teacher anymore?"
So I don't know if the delay of the woman touching him and him stopping and having a conversation with her caused this little girl to die or she was just dead and then by the time they traveled, whatever. But the situation is that the people who are coming to report this have limited Jesus's
authority and power because they think his power and authority is limited to making her well.
But she's died.
So now making her well seems to be out of Jesus's authority.
Here's a great but. But Jesus, overhearing what was being spoken, said to the synagogue official, "Do not be afraid any longer. Only believe."
I would think one of the worst things that you could ever hear,
is your child passed away. And I know some of you have experienced that. It's a terrible day.
As you expect your children to bury you, not you bury your children.
So I'm sure when this synagogue official, Jairus, heard it, it must have been crushing.
But Jesus offers hope.
Don't be afraid.
Only believe.
Only believe. The only thing Jesus is asking of Jairus, to believe.
Which is very much what he asked of us.
And he allowed no one to accompany him except Peter and James and John, the brother of James. These are the three that Jesus seems to have as his inner circle. That they come and they particularly, and important times come and see Jesus do particular things. And one person suggests, maybe the reason James, especially is included in this, because he's gonna see what Jesus's power is, because James is the first disciple, apostle to be put to death.
And so the three of them are, and with Jesus, go to Jairus's house.
And they came to the house of the synagogue official, and he saw a commotion, and people loudly weeping and waving. This is one done because a terrible event has happened, and the other is because of their custom and socialization. Oftentimes they hire people to weep and mourn, who makes you sound like you're more important. So people will wail and overcome with grief, you know, in America, we try to pull back our tears and apologize for our tears. In this culture, it's very much accepted that you wail, and you cry, and you make a very public matter of it.
And entering in, he said to them, "Why make a commotion and weep? "The child is not dead, but is asleep."
So Jesus says, "The circumstances "are not what you think they are."
That there's power and authority here that you don't know about.
Now what happens, I think is unbelievable.
They began laughing at him.
Now, I can't imagine having lost a child,
and the people change from weeping to laughing.
I could see them saying, "Hey Jesus, you don't know the situation. "You're making it difficult for the parent." I could see them trying to make some kind of excuse, but to turn weeping to laughing just doesn't seem to be sensitive. It seems to be insensitive. It seems to be insensitive to the parents, and not knowing the power and authority of the Lord.
And so Jesus does this, but putting them out, all of them. Jesus, I don't need you guys, leave.
He took along the child's father and mother, his own companions. So he took Peter, James, and John with the mom and the father.
Into the little girl's room.
And entered the room where the child was.
Taking the child by the hand. And again, a person who is deceased is unclean. You become unclean if you touch a person. Someone who was bleeding tried to touch Jesus.
Jesus then touches whom? A child who is dead.
And said to her, "Telitha kum," which translates means, little girl, I say to you, get up.
So Jesus touches her and talks to her.
Immediately, the girl got up and began to walk.
It wasn't some type of time period or whatever that she had to regain her strength. She immediately was restored to life.
And she got up. And notice this, for she was 12 years old.
Now from our perspective, we would say, what a short life.
I'm sure those who are mourning at the time would say this little girl, she had her whole life ahead of her.
And she died at the age of 12.
What a short time. We even do it today, we'll say somebody has a heart attack at 40 or whatever, we'll say, oh, they had such a long,
I have a different perspective. If I lived to be 120 years, that's still a short time when compared with eternity. So this, you only live so many,
but there, so again, she only lived 12 years.
The little girl's entire life
was no longer than the woman who had hemorrhaging for 12 years.
Everybody would say that the hemorrhaging woman, that seemed to be an eternity.
But for the little girl, it was such a short time.
You see, when you have terrible circumstances, life seems to be very long.
And when you seem to be in the beginning of your life, it just seems to be so, so short. You see, time is relative.
And immediately, they were completely astonished.
I would think, not only astonished,
I'd be over the moon roof,
excited that my little girl was back to life,
that she now had her whole life ahead of her, or at least more time than the 12 years that she had, and that I had. And notice, in that culture, 12 was still getting close to being a woman, but as far as the father was concerned, it was his little girl.
And I'm sure you're like me, my children are still my little children.
Just the way it is.
I heard someone say, in a football field, the young man and the gentleman called the young man, baby boy.
Well, the kid was probably 13 or 14.
But everybody's a baby when you're as old as I am. And so, this baby girl is back to life.
And she got up. She's not sick. She's not in the old condition that she was that caused her death. She got up immediately.
And he, being Jesus, gave them strict orders that no one should know about this.
Maybe the reason Jesus said she's asleep is two reasons. One, that's what we kind of call temporary death
in the sense of the body is at rest, but the spirit continues to live. And I think also Jesus wanted to say, you see, all you guys were wrong,
but he gives them strict orders that no one tells them that he raised the dead. Why? Because people have been so crowding him that it's been difficult for him to minister.
Whether he travels from one town to another, across the sea and back again, there are crowds and he can't even get to the various towns because people want something from him. They wanna either get well themselves or see miracles.
So he tells them, don't say anything.
Now I suspect we're never told.
But every time Jesus has told people not to say what Jesus did, they go out and do what Jesus tells them to do. Except for you and me, because you and me, he told us to be his witnesses and we tend to wait on when we do that.
But every time Jesus heals somebody, he said, don't say anything. And then he go out and let the whole world know.
And he said that something should be given her to eat,
which means that her entire body has been restored to health and their whole entire body functions are there.
When Jesus heals, he heals completely.
When Jesus raises the dead, he doesn't reanimate you, he raises you from the dead.
When Jesus heals you, you are completely healed. Just as the woman who was hemorrhaging, not only was her symptoms healed, her actual affliction was healed. And when Jesus has come and said that he had come, that we might be saved.
And that our sins might be forgiven and that our shame might be taken away. He does so completely thoroughly.
We're not just a little sinners anymore, we have been forgiven.
Completely, fully.
We go from being enemies of God to his children.
Fully, completely.
I don't know for say what your circumstances are. Your circumstances may be similar to the hemorrhaging woman that you've been experiencing this difficulty in life, this circumstances that seem to just go on and on and on and on.
Or you may be faced with what seems to be a life and death situation.
Jesus has the power and authority in both circumstances.
He told Jairus, "Only believe.
"The hemorrhaging woman believed because of what she had heard."
We too need to take what we've heard and what Jesus has said
and say, "No matter what my circumstances are,
"he's the answer."
And sometimes he may not take you out of those circumstances.
But he will do this, walk with you every step of the way so that you're not alone.
Your situation may be chronic and all your friends and family have gone on with their lives.
Jesus doesn't. He walked with you every single step.
But whether he heals you on earth,
he will heal you fully and completely and restore not only the way this body works, but at a better body,
one that will be like his post resurrection body.
It may just seem to take a long time. It may be like me working at that fast food restaurant. It just seems like an eternity.
But in God's perspective, it's not even a day.
Trust him because he has the power and authority for whatever circumstance you're facing