TPC Connections

Sermon Notes

People Jesus Encountered
Part 3
“The Woman With an Issue”

Mark 5:25-34 “And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 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.27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.”29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. 30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” 31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’” 32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
Mark 5 is a powerful chapter where Jesus confronts the THREE GREAT ENEMIES of man–the devil, disease and death when delivering a man, a woman, and a child.
Last time we talked about the man who Jesus delivered from one of the worst cases of demon possession on record.
Now this time we’re going to look at the woman who Jesus heals from a desperate physical affliction.
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Like the woman at the well we don’t know this ladies name, only her grievous condition.
The Bible says she had a “flow of blood.”
The word used in the original Greek means “an issue.”
She was vexed with chronic hemorrhaging.
Whatever had caused it, our nameless woman is at her wits end.

One commentator writes, “The woman is a poor shrinking creature, broken down by long illness…and many disappointed hopes of cure.”
It says she had “suffered” for twelve long years.
The word “suffered” suggests not just physically, but emotionally she had suffered heavily.
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The list of ways this condition had wrought havoc on her life is painful to read:
–We’re told she was completely broke, her bank account was empty.

–She had been forced into heartbreaking isolation from the community and the Temple because OT law associated her condition with ritual impurity. (Leviticus 15:25-30).

–And on top of all this her condition only grew worse, shattering her hopes over and over again over 12 long years.

So this poor woman had suffered on just about all levels!

Having lost virtually everything with no relief in sight, she was the ultimate picture of DESPERATE.
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And you know, Our world is full of desperate people like her!

The old fashioned preachers used to call our world “a veil of tears” and so it is.

In every row here today sits a broken heart.

Behind all the smiles, facades and pretense the world presents lies conflicts, troubles, suffering, and a quiet desperation.

Even the Psalmist David often wrote about feeling desperate:

“Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need; rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me.”–Ps 142:6
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Some of you here today may also feel desperate like this woman!

There’s a bleeding issue in your life–not like hers but its having the same effect.

–There can be emotional bleeding from a past hurt,
–a bleeding from some destructive habit,
–a bleeding from a heartbreak that just won’t fade away,
–a bleeding from a loss you can’t get past,
–a bleeding from some chronic condition that has pushed you to the edge.

ILLUS: I saw this week what someone wrote on a social media platform, “I feel like I am at my wits end with my life or how to survive.”

This describes our woman with an issue!
Maybe it describes the way you feel today!

You’ve tried many things in search of meaning, purpose, healing, and peace.

You want an answer for your conflicts and problems that just won’t heal up or resolve…

You’ve spent money on promised cures like persuasive life coaches promising a changed life…

Or teachings from various philosophers or guru types saying, “this is the way of peace and meaning…”

Yet their solutions have proven to be clouds with no rain, wells with no water, and the bleeding persists!
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I’m here today to tell you there is an ANSWER and our woman with an issue found it!

Right when this poor lady was on her last leg, a turning point came into her life!

It says, “When she heard about Jesus…”
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So the first thing to note here is:

I. Someone had shared the good news!

Someone didn’t keep the news about Jesus to themselves but shared it with this lady.

Their words fell on her desperate ears and hope was birthed in her heart!

Maybe they told her about the demon-possessed man that Jesus had set free that very morning.

Or about how Jesus had commanded the winds and waves to be calm and they obeyed Him.

Or it could be that she got wind of how the man with the withered hand in the synagogue had been healed.

Or about how the paralyzed man that was lowered down through the roof and was healed to walk and run again.

Whatever it was that she heard, it ignited in her heart the faith to believe that Jesus was her answer.

This is why the Bible says “Faith comes by hearing the Good News about Christ.”–Ro 10:17

The faith exploded in her heart that if she could even get close enough to touch the very outer hem of his garment she would be healed!
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The next thing we see is:

II. She made up her mind to get to Jesus!

She heard that He was in her vicinity and, though weak and frail, headed out to find Him.

The King James says that seeing the crowd she, “came in the press behind;”
She pushed through the compressed, shouting, shoving, uncaring, scowling crowd.

And by sheer willpower made her way through till she was right behind him…

In her mind she was likely thinking, “This is my last shot.”

–When someone decides to get to Jesus, God will make a way through a dry desert,
a dense forest,
or impossible obstacles!

She finally got close enough that the bare edges of his robe were just within reach.

She stretched out her bony, frail hand and touched it.

The Bible says that instantly a power surge of holy anointing from Christ the healer flowed into her sick body and:
“Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction.” (Vs.29)

Not only did SHE feel the power surge, so did Jesus!

“At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”–5:30

His incredulous disciples said, “All this crowd pressing around you, and you ask who touched you?”–vs 31

But the touch of faith was different from every other touch.

–From that crowd had come the touch of curiosity,
–the touch of warm-hearted affection,
–the touch of wanting to touch a famous man,
–and the touch of simply being pushed into Him.

But only the touch of faith brought about a healed life!

Look what Jesus said:
“And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, healed of your disease.”–vs.34

Now, she wasn’t just healed by faith alone, but by WHO the faith was placed in!

Faith in a false solution won’t bring results.

Faith in an empty promise won’t stop the bleeding.

But faith in the Savior that bled and died on a cross of shame and pain for you and me will bring you into contact with the power of God to change and heal your life!
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Most here today have already placed faith in the Savior.

But that doesn’t mean you don’t and can’t have issues.

The same truth applies to all–take your issues to Him.

Pray over them, casting all your cares onto Him!