Are you tired? Feeling drained? Feeling a bit lost? Then this message is for you!
I was reading in Luke 8 about a dead girl and a sick woman. It is a well-known piece where the ruler of the synagogue, Jairus, asks Jesus to come to his house and heal his ill daughter. On the way, a sick woman touches the edge of Jesus’ cloak, and He asks, “who touched me.” But before Jesus could reach Jairus’ house, the news came that his daughter had died. Jesus resurrects her and tells her parents to feed her.
This got me thinking about Christians who appear to be worn out and the need for revival.
Scripture Luke 8:51-56 (NIV)
51 When he arrived at the house of Jairus, he did not let anyone go in with him except Peter, John and James, and the child’s father and mother.
52 Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. “Stop wailing,” Jesus said. “She is not dead but asleep.”
53 They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead.
54 But he took her by the hand and said, “My child, get up!”
55 Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat.
56 Her parents were astonished, but he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened.
Introduction
Let’s speak about what can cause a born-again Christian to appear unresponsive.
- Have you noticed – perhaps experienced – how easy it is to arrive at exhaustion? People are burning out and burnout and compassion fatigue in ministry is in my opinion, on the increase.
- There is a kind of tiredness that leaves you feeling lifeless. Employment, home life, health, children, caring, emotional loads, finances, general tasks etc., will drain you.
- What about laziness among believers? None of us should be here, but some of us are.
- Or the sad case of Christian indifference? This is sad and the evidence in the world is abundant.
- Backsliding?
From our Scripture reading, we gather that although onlookers were mourning a death, and others were laughing at Jesus, Jesus took the girl by her hand, spoke life into her situation, and gave instructions to feed her.
I can understand that while some will cry out for revival, it may be awkward, uncomfortable, or difficult for others to admit that they need reviving. So, let’s phrase things differently, “Is all well? Is all as it should be?”
Body
Revival is the reappearing of a love for God, an appreciation of God’s holiness, a passion for His Word and His church, an awareness of sin, a spirit of humility, and a desire for repentance and growth in righteousness.
Revival then is not a “negative thing” indeed it is desirable.
John Piper writes the following, “In the history of the church, the term revival in its most biblical sense has meant a sovereign work of God in which the whole region of many churches, many Christians has been lifted out of spiritual indifference and worldliness into conviction of sin, earnest desires for more of Christ and his word, boldness in witness, purity of life, lots of conversions, joyful worship, renewed commitment to missions. You feel God has moved here. And basically revival, then, is God doing among many Christians at the same time or in the same region, usually, what he is doing all the time in individual Christian’s lives as people get saved and individually renewed around the world.”
Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, was a seen and respected man. In context and culture, it would not have been okay to turn to Jesus, yet we read that he fell at Jesus’ feet and pleaded with Jesus.
The news that Jairus’ daughter was dead was accompanied by, “don’t bother the teacher anymore.” We could interpret this in three ways:
- That with the death of the child, hope also died. This seems to be the opinion of the people because the mourning of the death had started.
- That the reality and finality of the situation were the dominant storyline or theme, which is probably why some laughed at Jesus.
- That it was a “bother” for Jesus to still go to Jairus’ house. If we go into the Greek a bit, we find the words “trouble and harass” undergirding the translation “bother.” This speaks to Jairus falling at Jesus’ feet and pleading with Him.
When Jesus arrived at Jairus’ house, hope lost was replaced with hope found. Let me explain, the girl was ill, for a synagogue leader to place his hope in Jesus also meant that conventional channels of cure were not working. Jesus was Jairus’ last hope and is our first hope.
Hope is an optimistic state of mind; it is to confidently expect something; it is to anticipate. In other words, when he pled with Jesus, it was because he had an expectation of Jesus. In his moment of need, Jairus could have pled with many other people – we don’t know for certain – but we do know that he anticipated Jesus being able to do something for him.
Let’s create context. It was a synagogue leader who became indigent when Jesus healed a cripple woman on the Sabbath. It was the synagogue leaders who allowed Paul and Barnabas to speak in the synagogue. It was a synagogue leader – Gallio – who was seized and beaten when he refused to hear the charges brought against Paul. Synagogue leaders were responsible for maintaining the building, organizing prayer services, sometimes taught at the synagogue school, cared for the scrolls and sacred writings, and made arrangements for worship and other important duties.
And Jairus turns to Jesus. At this point, we need to ask each other what was fuelling Jairus’ hope? His love for his daughter.
Out of love for you and me, Jesus acts. As He reached down and took the child by her hand, God reached down into our hopeless sinful position, and sent His only Son to die on a cross, so that we will not perish. Jesus came that we may have life, in abundance.
Life in abundance and exhaustion, indifference and laziness are at opposite ends. They should not and cannot coexist.
When we want to establish the cause of death, a post-mortem is conducted. Here is the “thing” … post-mortems are not conducted on the living. Contrary to a post-mortem that is rooted in death, revival is rooted in life. If you are born again, you are alive. The cause of death is sin, but yours is forgiven. You cannot be dead; you cannot be at that place where all hope is lost. And even though God might feel far away, He is not.
We find ourselves at that point where the question of how I might respond to the love of God, the calling of God and His desire to revive. Is our desire the same as God’s desire?
Standing out for me is that when exhaustion, indifference or laziness has set in, and God revives, it is God stepping into that place or scenario and bringing it back to life in such a way that we know that could only have been Him.
We sometimes forget that when we have reached our end, Jesus isn’t the God that only calms storms. He is the God that goes in search of the lost sheep. He is the God who stepped into our hopeless situation and saved us by bridging a gap that you and I could never bridge. He is the God who created everything from nothing; He is the God who can see past your pain. He is the God who turned the sun back as a sign to Hezekiah. He is the God who met the woman in the street that reached out and touched Him. He is the God to who you belong. He is the God who will never leave you. He is the God to who “death” is but a word.
Conclusion
He is the God who reached out to a 12-year-old girl and told her to get up. He is the God who knew Jairus’s daughter since before the beginning of time, who had loved her and formed her in her mother’s womb.
He is the God who knew you since before the beginning of time, who loves you and formed you in your mother’s womb.
It’s never too late for God to step in, He is always right on time. He has power over life and death, and He cares for you and about the things that weigh on your heart. He can restore what has been lost, what has been broken, what has died in us.
He is God and meets every one of us where we are, be that in the street, at a place where you are desperate for healing, where you are too weary to get up and among the tombs where everyone else has given up on you.
When the young girl got up, she must have been hungry – Jesus told her parents to give her something to eat.
Brothers and sisters, in the name of Jesus, get up. And then prayerfully and worshipfully feed on His Word and grow. Then let it show.
Amen.