The Power of the King

Let’s pray, father we thank you that we can gather as your people. We can hear your voice. We thank you that you speak to us. We thank you that we come with lots of noise, and trouble, and fear. And you say, “Do not fear. Only believe.” So, help us to trust in you. Help us to trust that you have a word for us this evening. Help us to trust that we will leave here encouraged ready to live for you. Thank you for those who are here. Thank you for those who have given to your work here. I pray that they may abound with all good works in Christ and for his sake we ask this, amen.

Right, we’re in book of Mark. This is the fourth lesson in the book of Mark. We’re looking at the book of Mark under the title, ‘The King of the Kingdom.’ Right, I think that’s is my bulletin. Right, so the king of the kingdom, the message on the book of Mark started with Mark:1, Mark 4 and of course we’re in Mark 5 today. Now if you look at Mark 1:1, turn to Mark 1:1, very clearly mark tells us from the start, he doesn’t hide, he tells us from the beginning what he’s writing about. He’s telling us from the beginning what he’s going to flesh out throughout his book. Some of you have done your state exam, your examens d’état, some of you you’ve not. But when they’re teaching you how to write dissertation, they always tell you that you write your introduction last. Why do you write your introduction last? Why is the introduction the very last thing you write? Now I know you don’t do that but, I don’t do that. But anyway, why is it that the introduction is the very last thing you write? Because the introduction is supposed to be almost like a summary of everything you’re going to say. It’s supposed to present your subject. And therefore, you first of all write everything else then you say, “Okay, I spoke about this, and this, and this and then you write your introduction. And whoever reads your introduction, they already know what you will be talking about. They don’t know the details, but they already know exactly what you’ve been talking about.

And here you have verse 1, Mark 1:1. He says, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the son of God.” Mark is very clear. He says this is what I’m going to tell you. 16 chapters this is all I’m going to tell you. I’m going to tell you good news. It is good news, right. It’s not bad news. It’s not supposed to scare you, it’s not supposed to make you feel fool. It is supposed to be something that brings you joy, something that makes you so happy. Because it is a gospel. It is a proclamation of good news that will change your life. What is the subject of this good news? Well, the subject he says there “of Jesus.  I’m going to tell you about Jesus. Oh, by the way, I’m going to tell you about Jesus Christ.” Did you know that Christ was not Jesus’ surname? Some of you are called Mugisho. That’s your family name- and everybody father is called Mugisho. And all the children, Mugisho Allet. Mughisho this, Mugisho that. That is a surname. So, if you go to class you say, “Mugisho”, they come. If you go to the village and you say, “I want to see the Mugisho’s quarter.” “Hey, that’s the quarter. That’s where they stay.” If you went to Nazareth and you say, “I want to see the Christ’s quarter.” They will say, “we don’t know what the Christ is.” Why? Because it’s not a name, it is a title. In Greek, it’s Christ. In Hebrew, it’s Messiah. It means king. It’s the king that God was sending to save his people.

So, Mark is saying, “I’m going to tell you this wonderful news about a king. And that king’s name is Jesus. Make no confusion, this Jesus, I’m telling you about is a man. But he’s a man who has a title. He has a position and that position is, he’s a king.”

But he doesn’t stop there. Did you see there’s another description about Jesus? He says, the Son of God. Son of God for any Jewish reader he knew. He didn’t just say he was the Son of God; he was saying he was divine; he was God. That’s what he meant. So, he’s saying, “This Jesus, I’m telling you about he’s the king and he’s God. This is what I’m going to tell you about. This is what I’m going to show you. I’m going to tell you all the stories. I’m going to show you his life so that you may come to realize that this Jesus is a king. And because he’s a king, you must submit to him. And because he’s God, you must submit to him. I’m going to tell you this good news about Jesus- the king, the God. And I want to know, what do you think of him?” And that’s why when king Jesus comes, this message Mark:1:15, “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is here; repent and believe in the good news.” That’s what the king does. The king when he comes, he calls people and he says, “Hey, it’s time for change. It’s time to do things differently.”

Let’s imagine, for the sake of the illustration. Let’s not go too far away. I’m not going to pretend that President Tshisekedi is downstairs. No, no that’s too far away. Let’s say the governor of the province is here, he’s just down there. You hear those cars, and then they stop down there. And the governor says, “Will you please go and call…” I don’t know who am I gonna pick on? Songa. “Will you go and call Songa?” And then you see the bodyguard comes through. And they say, “Who’s Songa here?” And like, “It’s me.” “Good. Come here the governor calls you.” Will you Songa say, “Wait, wait Nicholas is still preaching. Wait a minute, let’s finish the sermon first.” Do you say that? Do you say, “Oh wait a second, I need to go to the loo? You know, I have to go to the loo first and then I’ll come.” Do you say that? Why not? Why not? Because there’s somebody in authority who’s calling you. And when they call you, you drop everything and you follow them.

Well Jesus the king, Jesus God comes and calls people. He says to Matthew, he says to all these people, “Come and follow me.” It’s a same call to all of us. It’s the same call to me and you. He says come and follow me. And we talked about that- the call of the king. But because he’s a king, you don’t play around with his word right. That’s why Songa can’t say to the governor, “Wait a minute, wait a minute I’ll come but just wait.” You take his word seriously. What he tells you is not suggestions, it’s instruction and injunctions. And so last week we talked about that. I think Dieudonné mentioned that. He talks about the word of God, the word of the King. What do you and I do with the word of the king? If it’s true that Jesus is king and he’s God, what do we do with what he says? What do we do with his Bible? Do we take it as suggestions, options, advice?

Tonight, we will be talking about the power of a king. Of course, Mark has told us already who Jesus is. He’s told us that he’s the king who calls people to himself. He’s told us that he’s a king who uses his word to speak to us. And in Mark 5 he gives us a different aspect of Jesus to help us come to know him. Let’s say on a scale of one to ten. One, well zero to ten, let’s just say zero to ten. On a scale of zero to ten, Jesus, how powerful do you think Jesus is on a scale of zero to ten? You know when you’re studying, and you write your exam or your homework and the teacher says, “Five out of ten, six out of ten, excellent nine out of ten.” Right, so if you talk of power, in your mind, how powerful do you think Jesus is, scale of zero to ten? Two? Five? Three? Seven? Nine? Mark in Chapter 5 seems to present to us two people. Two people who would have answered that question. And they would have said maybe seven, eight, probably nine.

Well Mark says, you can’t even put Jesus on the scale. He just breaks the scale. That’s what Mark says. He’s just beyond anything we think of as powerful. There are two things that Mark presents us here in this passage Mark 5. We have two people; Jairus, the synagogue ruler, and this woman-we don’t even know her name. And there’s two things these two people do well. They do two things well and they do one thing not so well. And Mark intends through that to question us and ask ourselves, how powerful do we think Jesus is? Because that’s probably the last thing they get wrong. They do recognize he’s powerful though. But they don’t realize how powerful he is. They do recognize that he is a great man, he is Jesus-he’s a great miracle worker. But they don’t get the Son of God part which messes everything around. I’m hoping when we leave here this evening, that you realize that Jesus can’t be put on a scale. That Jesus power is just beyond anything you can think of, or imagine, or dream. And I’m hoping that that will not push you away from him. I’m hoping that that will put you in a position where you ask yourself, “Do I really believe that? Do I run to him?” And I’m really hoping that if you haven’t done that, that’s what you’ll do. That you run to this man who’s just beyond powerful and you’ll hold on to him.

What are the two things these people get right? The first thing they get right is, they understand what is their problem. What is their true problem? Look there, verse 21, Mark 5:21, “And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” And he went with him.” Mark 5:25, “And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.”  Two things we see here. We see the one thing they get right, the two things they get right, and the one, of course. We see three things here. Two things they get right, and one they get wrong. The first thing they get right is, they understand what their problem is. They don’t hide, they don’t have a wrong understanding of their problem. They have a very clear understanding of what is wrong with them. Jairus knows that his daughter is dying. He’s very clear. And he knows that unless Jesus comes, she’s gone. That’s why he says, “My little daughter is at the point of death, come and lay your hands on her so that she may be well and live.” And we’ll of course see later on that she’ll end up dying actually. Because he knew she was at the brink of death. She was going to die. It was very clear. There was no doubt about it. He understood it very well and everybody else.

The woman, she has suffered, Mark 5:25, she’s described… It’s interesting that they actually never really tell us what her name is. And I don’t know why they never tell us what her name is. I would have loved to know what her name is. But they tell us, that all we need to know is that she was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for 12 years. She kept bleeding when she was not supposed to bleed. Not only it was uncomfortable, but religiously it was wrong. If you read the book of Leviticus, a bleeding woman is supposed to be impure. She can’t gather with everybody; she can’t touch what everybody does. So, she is bound to live an isolated life-a life on her own. She knew that, she knew what was wrong with her. Jairus knew what was wrong with the daughter. This woman knew what was wrong with her. The question is, do we know what’s wrong with us? Do we? Because I don’t think Mark is telling us the story just for nothing. He’s telling us the story kind of for us to ask ourselves the same question, do we know what’s wrong with us? You see these people run to Jesus and we’ll talk about that just now because they knew that Jesus was the only one who could solve their problem. But before they could know the solution to their problem, they had to know what their problem was. Now, I don’t know if you’ve seen this, I saw this on WhatsApp. And I don’t know how credible WhatsApp is. But anyway, you judge for yourself. But don’t quote me on this, there’s a man apparently in Kinshasa. I don’t know if it’s in Kinshasa, I doubt. You know they change things. But he’s in Kinshasa, and he’s got pain in his chest, and he’s coughing. So, he goes to the doctor and they take an X-ray. Now you know what an X-ray is? Radio, right, they take an x-ray. And in the X-ray, when they look at the X-ray there’s a cockroach sitting next to his heart- a big cockroach right. You know what a cockroach is? A cancrelat, a big cockroach. And they tell him, “My friend, you have a cockroach in your heart. We want to operate on you.” He says, “No, no you don’t operate on me. I don’t trust you.” So, he goes to India. Of course, he’s thinking that he’s been bewitched like all Congolese people will say, “How can a cockroach end up in someone’s heart? Surely he’s been bewitched.” And then he gets to India and they do another X-ray and they don’t see a cockroach. Now where is the cockroach? In the X-ray machine. Wrong diagnosis. The poor man was going to be operated on and that was not his problem. Never had a cockroach, nobody ever bewitched him. Do you understand your problem?

You look around the city of Bukavu, you see a million people. You see drunk people, you see good people, you see all sorts of people. Do you understand what their problem is? If they ask you to do a diagnosis of those people, what would you say is their problem? One friend once asked me that, many years ago. 15 years ago, a friend says, “Nicholas, what do you think is the problem with your country?” Do you know what I told them? I went on for 30 minutes about how we had bad political leaders, we are very selfish, colonialism was bad. And I gave a whole speech, 30 minutes. I was wrong. This week I had a conversation with somebody. And they said, “How do we change this country?” I said, “Well, you pray for God to change people’s hearts.” 15 years later I think I got it right. The problem with this country, your problem, my problem is not a physical problem. It’s not because you don’t have a wife, or husband. It’s not because you don’t have anybody paying for your school. It’s not because you don’t have any friends, maybe that’s wrong. But that’s not your problem. Our first problem is spiritual. It’s in the heart. Our first problem is we rejected God. The problem with everybody in Bukavu, that’s the problem. The problem with Congo, that’s the problem. The problem with Africa, that’s the problem. The problem of the world, that’s the problem. The problem is we rejected God. And unless we come to the right understanding of the problem, we will never arrive to the right solution, never. Now Jairus did understand his need. Now he didn’t understand the full thing, and that’s what I said there’s something they missed. But he knew that he had a problem. This woman knew she had a problem.

Do you know that you have a problem? Do you know that? You see, the reason we don’t talk to our friends about Jesus is because we don’t think they have a problem. The reason we don’t pray for our parents, and those people around us is because we don’t think they have a problem. My dear friend, the Bible says there’s a big, big problem with man. And the only answer to that problem is Jesus which is our second point. These people understood that the answer to their problem was Jesus. Now, they didn’t fully understand their problem, but they did understand that they had a problem and they were desperate enough to seek the only person who could solve their problem and that was Jesus. And that’s why you see Mark 5:23, you see, “…and he implored him.”  Now this is a big man. Jairus is a big man. He’s not like me and you. This is a man with a big church, with lots of people under him. People respect him-he’s a big man. And yet, what does he do? He comes, falls at the feet of Jesus. Who’s Jesus? He’s nothing, he’s the son of a carpenter. He falls at his feet, and implores him, begs him, “Come and heal my little daughter. Because if you don’t heal her, she’s going to die.” Jairus is desperate enough to turn to Jesus. He understands that unless Jesus heals his daughter, she’s damned.

Now the text doesn’t tell us how many doctors he went to see. He probably went to all the doctors he probably went to Hospital General and Panzi. And he probably went to I don’t know Bujumbura. And everywhere he went, everywhere and then he realized there’s nothing you can do. You have the money, you have the power, you have everything. But there’s nothing you can do. There’s one thing you can do though, you cry to Jesus and say, “Please.” This woman, we see that. Mark5:25, ” And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had….” She had some money, and she spent it all. And did she get healed? No, she grew worse on the contrary. And so, when she heard about Jesus she ran. She ran; she was so desperate that she didn’t even want Jesus to know that she was there. She didn’t want anybody to know that it she was there. She just walked in and superstitiously, “I just need to touch him.” I mean, that’s a high point of desperation right. I don’t know if you realize this, compare, there’s this woman and there’s this Jairus right. Jairus comes and says “Hey Jesus, I have a problem. Can you help me?” This woman doesn’t even have time to say to Jesus I have a problem. She said, “I just need to touch him.” She’s so desperate.

But the two of them share something in common. Something that we can learn from them is that they go to a point of desperation. And they realized, unless Jesus came in, there’s nobody nobody else could help them. I think sometimes as pastors we don’t explain to people very clearly and maybe I don’t also, that you cannot be saved unless you’ve reached the point of desperation, when your only option is Jesus, there’s nothing else. You see, if you are like this woman, or you’re like Jairus, okay we don’t know much about Jairus. But if you are like this woman, you have a lot of money in your pocket, what do you do when you’re sick? You start spending money, you see the doctors, you try your best. And so, just like me and you, you know, when we face our spiritual problem, what’s our first reaction? “I’m gonna go to church. I’m gonna be a good person. I’m going to learn how to sing in the choir. And I’m going to pray.” You are trusting in your own money, right? In your own pocket, in the things you can do, in your own work. And then you start realizing that going to church doesn’t change you. You become worse actually. Then you start realizing that singing in the choir hasn’t made you a better person. Then you start realizing that even being in church doesn’t give you the joy and the peace you need on the contrary. Unless you reach a point of desperation, a point where you realize I cannot do anything, well my dear friend, you have not reached the point of salvation. You have to get to the point of desperation like these two people. They got to a point where they were like, it was like either Jesus helps me or that’s it, it’s finished. Have you reached that point? If you reach the point where you are like Jesus you either save me or that’s it. Or are you still trying? “I’m going to do a bible study this week, and maybe I’ll be better. I’ll read one other book, and maybe I’ll be better. I’ll listen to this pastor, maybe I’ll be better. I’ll join this church, maybe I’ll be better.” Or, have you come to realize that unless Jesus heals you, you’ll not have life? Unless Jesus touches you, you’ll not be made pure. There’s no salvation unless you’ve come to realize that Jesus is the only, only option you’ve got. And there’s nothing, nothing you can do but life? like Jairus, fall at his feet and cry, “Help me.”

Now, the one thing that they didn’t really get right, and that’s where we’re getting. They didn’t get the identity of Jesus right. You see, Jairus, what did Jairus think of Jesus? Jairus says to Jesus Mark 5:23, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” He knows Jesus can heal. He’s heard of Jesus healing people, many people. So, he knows, if somebody’s sick and nobody else can help you, you go to Jesus and he can heal you. What he doesn’t know is that Jesus can do more than that. How do we know that? Well, come with me Mark 5:35, “While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler’s house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” Now, that person didn’t come and say, “Your daughter is dead. Please ask the teacher to raise her from the dead.” He says, “Hey, stop troubling the teacher your daughter is dead. Now there’s nothing the teacher can do for your daughter anymore.” Look Mark 5:39, “And when he had entered….” When Jesus had entered the house of Jairus, “…. he said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.” What do people say? Mark 5:40. Do they say, ‘Amen!’? Is that what they say? What do they say? If it was in Bukavu they are like, “Ona tena byenye bana tu leteya.” What is this now? Who’s this one? Is he right in his mind? His daughter is dead. She’s dead. We must take her to the morgue, that’s what we do. You see, they didn’t think for a single moment that Jesus could raise somebody from the dead. Because they didn’t know that they had God in front of them. They didn’t realize that God was there. They missed it. They missed his identity.

This woman, Mark 5:30, “And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?” And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” You see, this woman came to Jesus. Now, we don’t have time because we run out of time. But it’s interesting to see that Jairus comes in the open, this woman comes hiding. And the reason he comes it’s because they have two different type of issues which are all the same. Sometimes we have problems that everybody knows socially and they’re acceptable problems. It’s a father crying for a daughter who’s dead- this is something that happens to everybody. This is acceptable. And there’s this woman who’s impure, she can’t touch anybody, she’s got this thing that contaminates everybody. And so, people run away from it. There are things that are not socially acceptable. But at the same time in this passage Mark is saying to us, whether your problem or your sin is acceptable socially or not, either one of them finds its answer in Jesus. But anyway, this woman she comes, superstitious she touches Jesus. She doesn’t want anybody to know. She’s thinking this is private, this is between me and this healer. She doesn’t realize that it’s between her and God. And she’s just like, “I’m just going to touch him, and I’m going to be healed, and I’m going to go quietly to my life.” It doesn’t work like that. You see, she’s got God in front of her. She’s got a king. And you don’t deal with God just privately. You don’t deal with a king just privately. This is a public business; she doesn’t realize that. And therefore, Jesus calls her up and says, “Hey, come, come.” You think Jesus didn’t really know? Why? I mean, he says the power went out of him. Why did he go looking out for who’s this? Because at some point my dear friend, you’re dealing with God is not a private business. It has to be public. She didn’t realize that she was dealing with God. She thought she was just dealing with another human being and therefore you can do your business and move away. No, no it doesn’t work like that with God. You come in the open and you say publicly what he’s done privately. You see, Jairus didn’t realize he had God in front of him. If you had asked Jairus when he went to Jesus the first time, “On a scale of one to ten how powerful is Jesus?” Jairus will say, “Seven, maybe eight? I mean, we don’t know. He’s healed many people but I don’t know if he’s gonna heal my daughter. Maybe he can heal her.” You go now once Jesus said, “Talitha cumi,” and woke his daughter just like you wake somebody from who’s sleeping. And you go ask Jairus, “On a scale to one to ten, how powerful is Jesus?” Jairus says, “You can’t put him on a scale. This is God. This is God.”

My dear friend, when you meet Jesus, you’re not dealing with a man. You’re dealing with God. And when you deal with God, you have to remember, he’s God. He’s powerful beyond anything you can think of. And Mark says that’s good news. Why is it good news? Well, it is good news because he raises the dead. You see, the Bible says we are all spiritually dead. Now if you ask me, “Why do you think children cry when they’re….” All children cry when they’re born. If a child doesn’t cry, then it’s dead, right. You know that? When a child is born, the first thing they do, they cry. Ask me why they cry? Well, I tell you they cry because they realize that they’re dead spiritually. But that’s the thing right, we’re all dead spiritually. When we are born, we are dead spiritually. We are not in a relationship with God. We’re like Jairus’s daughter. What we need is not a quick fix. What we need is somebody who’s going to say, “Rise up. Talitha cumi. Wake up.” And that’s what Jesus does. Jesus gives us a new life because he’s God. You see, when we’re born, we’re spiritually separated from God. We’re impure, we are full of sin. And what we need to be right with God is someone that we can touch. That woman when she touched Jesus, what she did according to the law, she transferred her sin onto this Jesus. And that’s why on that cross, on that cross what did Jesus cry? He says, “My father, my father, why have you forsaken me?” Well, he- God had forsaken Jesus. Because you and me had touched Jesus and we transferred our sin unto the son of God. The perfect holy son of God was carrying your sin and my sin on that cross. And therefore, we were separated from God. And in return, he gave me and you, his righteousness. You see, she was made well. Why was she made well? Because at that time, Jesus carried upon himself her sickness and infirmities. That’s what Isaiah says, he carried on his body our sickness, our sins. That’s why it’s good news.

But it can only be good news if you know what your problem is. If you come to Jesus and you think he’s going to give you cars, and houses, you don’t know what your problem is. And therefore, Jesus cannot solve your problem. Therefore, Jesus cannot help you. And therefore, it will never be good news. If you come to Jesus and of course you know you have a sin issue, you have a problem to be right with God, and yet you think it’s what you do that makes you right with God, you are not desperate enough to fall at his feet and say, “Unless you touch me, unless you wake me up, I will not be right with God.” Well, my dear friend, nothing is going to happen. It will not be good news. If you come to Jesus, and you think he’s just another good preacher who can help you live right, he’s just somebody who can help you fix your life, then you’ll miss it. But if tonight you come to Jesus and you say, “Jesus unless you touch me, I will not have new life. Jesus, unless you cleanse me, I will not be made clean.” Then Mark says you will experience the power of the king and it will be good news.