Alright, let us again bow in prayer before we look into the Word of God. Let us pray.

“Our dear Father in heaven, we again look to You for help as we open Your Word, knowing that we are unable to understand by ourselves. We pray that not only that we might understand Your truth, that it would indeed affect us and change our life and cause us to be drawn even closer to You, to trust in You. And so we commit the rest of this time unto Your hands, we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Alright, I hope you keep your Bible open to our text this morning, and that is Luke chapter 8, now beginning in verse 22 right through the end of the chapter. As you can see, this morning we are looking at a large section of the Bible, relative to the other sermons in this series. Now I suppose that you have also noticed as the passage was read just now that there are four miracles recorded in this passage. So we are not going to look at all the miracles in detail, but I’m going to consider them together alright, and we see that the miracles recorded are the stilling of the storm and the waves alright.

And the second one is where Jesus casts out demons (legion of them) from a man. And the third is the healing of a woman who was sick for twelve years and found no cure until she came to Jesus. And the last one is the raising of a dead twelve-year-old girl alright. So these are the four miracles recorded in this passage. As I mentioned that we’re going to consider all these miracles together and to draw out some important lessons. Now that’s what we are going to do alright. I think there are some common lessons in these miracles here. And so what are the lessons? What can we learn from these miracles recorded in this passage?

Number one alright, now these then are the lessons: that these miracles teach us that we are humans after all. We are humans after all. In other words, we are limited beings. We are vulnerable beings. Yes, we may boast in our greatness, now that is what men are doing very often. But despite our greatness and our intelligence, despite of all our achievements in this world, now this passage here and these miracles here reminds us that we are still limited beings and we are vulnerable to dangers.

I think the present pandemic (the Covid-19 pandemic) made this painfully clear. We can boast of our greatness however much, but when we come to a time like this, we have to admit that there’s something that we cannot do alright. We are limited beings. So we see how contagious is this virus. Every day in fact in the past week we have seen in record numbers every day, hundreds of thousands of people are being infected by the virus and we see every day thousands of people are being killed by the virus. So what do we learn? Now we have been in this situation for months, maybe the last nine or ten months. So what have we learned? 

Well, when you listen to some people, it is as if that we have learned nothing. There are people who still come up and we have leaders, politicians, they come up and say: We can win this battle together. We will all overcome. Of course, in a time like this, we need some encouragement. But the point as we come to this passage of Scripture is to see that just positive thinking alone is not enough. Now we know that we have been through this before. In fact, from time to time the world goes through a crisis like this.

Now perhaps many years ago, maybe about fifteen years ago, many of us may still remember we went through a kind of similar situation- the SARS crisis. And there I kind of received a letter written by a doctor who’s going through that pandemic alright, and he wrote this letter to his church friends. And so let me just read this letter out to you alright by this young doctor.

Now he wrote: “Dear youths (he was in the youth fellowship), Just wanted to write to let you know what’s been happening in my neck of the woods. When the SARS outbreak first started, and the mode of transmission was not clear (example whether it can be passed through the aircon units), I looked around at the fear and confusion even in my own hospital. So I went on self-quarantine from extended family and church. I also took my children out of school before the schools closed, so that no one should have to worry. Later, when I treated my first SARS patient, I decided it was even more important that I stayed away for a while.

I remember feeling quite worried that day. When I was inside the SARS ICU tending to the patient for an operation, I was wearing the PAPR hood and all the protection. Yet I was quite shaky and prayed all the time. Then I saw how the ICU nurse was hugging the patient and telling her not to be scared, and my fears calmed down. At that time, we watched our close colleagues up there and prayed for God’s protection. Three days ago, I lost a good friend and colleague, Dr Alex Chao, to SARS. He was a staunch Christian and had been organizing missionary trips to share Christ. He was always cheerful and kind. For two days I asked God why. Please pray for his wife and very young children.

Yesterday my classmate, a doctor, was admitted for suspect SARS. He also has young children. Please pray for God’s mercy and healing. Now the doctor heading my department in the SARS ICU hadn’t gone home for more than a month. He shared with me how devastated he was when he saw the lonely deaths of the pastor and all the others died. Pastor Loh’s wife could not touch his body. Alex’s mother had to see him through the glass wall. We were not allowed to go to his wake. Each time someone dies, the ICU staff cry. How long can this go on? Perhaps, this is the time of tribulation.

Perhaps, we Christians are on trial, together with the rest of the world, for the way we live, oblivious to God. For the way we hold on to our form of religion and say all the right things, but deep down we have rejected Christ and do not believe in Him. Perhaps, we need to be less comfortable and realign our own priorities. I have started to redraft my will, and I am learning to appreciate every day. Every morning when I wake up I feel my forehead and thank God that I do not have a fever. But I know that God will call me home when my work is done. Signed, A medical doctor.”. A letter written many years ago during the SARS pandemic. I think someone could have easily written a similar letter today. 

What does the letter tell us? We are vulnerable beings. We are limited beings. It tells us that man is helpless. Helplessness of man is revealed at a time like this. As I said, there might be advances made in medical sciences, in the I.T., in engineering. In fact, when you look at the many bridges alright, those engineering fit, all these are mind-boggling alright. We see the greatness of man, yet we must see that we are limited. That is what this passage is telling us. Even the greatest among us will find themselves helpless. How often, I mean how many times I’ve been watching and following news about some experts trying to come up with some solution for our present pandemic? And I can say this (I can say the same thing here): Even the greatest among us will find themselves helpless when the crisis like this strikes. 

You see when it comes to sickness; when it comes to natural disasters; when it comes to death, it makes no difference whether you are a doctor or whether you are a taxi driver. It just takes one little invisible virus to strike fear in anyone alright. Now, this is the predominant point in this chapter alright. This is what we see here again and again. Look at verse 24: “And they came to Jesus and awoke Him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!””. Is there anyone out there crying “Jesus, Jesus, we are perishing in this pandemic! People are dying, help us!”? And that is what the disciples are saying to Jesus: Master, help us, for we are drowning in this storm. 

Or you look at verse 27: “And when Jesus stepped out on the land, there met Him a certain man from the city who had demons for a long time.”. Here is a man possessed by demons, had no clothes on him, “nor did he live in a house but in the tombs.” Verse 29: “For Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For it had often seized him, and he was kept under guard, and bound with chains and shackles.”. Now that is the condition of that man, and he came to Jesus as it were in that state of helplessness.

And then in verse 41: “And behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue. And he fell down at Jesus’ feet and begged Him to come to his house”. Why? “For he had an only daughter about twelve years of age, and she was dying.” You see the sense of helplessness here. And then in verse 43: “And a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all” her money, all “her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any”.

Probably she has been to the oncologist, the cardiologist, or whatever -logist, but no one could help her for twelve years. And she came to Jesus. You see the sense of helplessness, and that is the point of this passage here. All these people, never mind who they were, but they were helpless. Now, do we get a picture of human invincibility in this passage? Now, do we get a sense of human invisibility in this pandemic or when faced with death? No. It doesn’t matter if you’re a fisherman. Now, these fishermen (the disciples), they were supposed to be expert on the boat alright and facing the storm, but they were crying out for help. 

It doesn’t matter if Jairus was a prominent man, a rich man, a man of some standing. But there comes a time when his daughter is dying, he had to come to Jesus, we are told he kneel down and begged Jesus. He sensed his helplessness. It doesn’t matter if you’re a young girl, healthy, thinking that you will never die. But here is a young girl dying. See, it doesn’t matter whether people know you or not. And we are not told about this woman who had this illness for twelve years. Not told her name, her background. It doesn’t matter who you are alright, and that’s what Luke is telling us here.

All these people found themselves helpless in this life, and they all came to Jesus. So that is the first lesson we should learn as we look at this account here, the helplessness of men. We are humans, after all, however clever, however great we might be. Now the second lesson is this: that this account teach us or teaches us that we need more than human power or more than human ability. We are helpless. We need something more.

In other words, we need God. We need more than human cleverness, more than human ability. We need God. It is the fool, the Bible says, who says that there is no God. It is the fool that thinks that he does not need God. It is the fool that thinks that God is irrelevant in our life. Our whole trouble (this is the position of the Scripture)- our whole trouble is that we are all trying to live life apart from God. I want to ask you this morning: Are you doing that? Are you trying to live your life apart from God, to think that you are self-sufficient, to think that you have all the answers to life’s problems? We can do it. Come together, we can overcome all problems.

But that is not what the Bible teaches. We need more than human abilities, more than human cleverness. We need divine help. And again we see how that is clearly illustrated or shown in this passage here, in all these four miracle accounts. Clearly in these stories, Luke tells us that the answer to man’s problems lies in Jesus Christ. In every of this instant, the answer lies in Jesus. It was Jesus who came to the aid of the disciples when they were drowning because of the wind and the storm. Jesus came and commanded the wind and the waves to be still, and they were still. It was Jesus who came to the aid of this man who was possessed by demons, who broke the chains and the shackles.

It was Jesus who came to his help. It was Jesus who healed the woman when no one else could heal her. It was Jesus who raised that little girl from the dead. So the lesson is clear. In all these instances, the answers lie in Jesus Christ. Do you see that? Do you see what the Bible is saying to you ultimately? Ultimately speaking or finally speaking, Jesus is the answer. Now you might ask: In what sense is Jesus is our final answer? Is it in the sense that He is the final answer to your sickness or to your financial problem or to your relationship problem?

Now again remember that as we go through this series on the miracles of Jesus that the miracles of Jesus, they are never intended alright to convey that kind of idea that Jesus is the answer to our relationship problem, to our financial problem. No, it’s never alright meant to promise or guarantee that all those types of problems will be gone. Then what do they promise? What is the promise here? We look at Luke 18:28. Luke chapter 18, now let me read beginning in verse 28: and “so Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times more in this present time, and in the age to come eternal life.”” (Mistakenly mentioned “verse 28”, supposedly “verse 29”). 

Now that is ultimately what the promise is, that the miracles are pointing us to the final solution, and that is eternal life. In other words, the miracles of Jesus are pictures and illustrations or they are pointing to a bigger reality. The storm and the demons and the sickness and the death, they all point to the bigger problems in our lives, and that is sin. And that is what the Scripture is again and again trying to help us see that our fundamental problem is not Covid-19. Our fundamental problem is not cancer. It’s not the storm, not even death but sin. It is sin that has brought upon the human race, that has brought upon this world unspeakable sufferings. Ultimately we can trace to the root for it’s through sin that death comes. Sin has brought upon us sufferings and greed and pain and fear. 

And so the stilling of the storm, the delivering of the man from the demons, the healing of the woman of her illness, the raising of the young girl from the dead point to a greater promise. I want to ask you again: Do you know what that great promise that Jesus is holding out to you? Do you know what that promise is? Look with me again through the Scriptures and see what that promises in the book of Revelation chapter 21. Revelation 21:3-4, now listen to the words of God here. Now, this is the promise that Christ is holding out to you.

Verse 3: “And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God, Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.””. That is the promise of eternal bliss in heaven with God, where there is no more Covid-19, no more suffering, no more death. Therefore no more fears and no more tears. Now that is ultimately what the Bible is holding out to us- that wonderful promise of eternal life.

And so we have learned two lessons from this passage. First, that we are humans after all. We are limited beings, however clever or brilliant we might be. There are things that we just cannot do. When the tornado strikes, when the tsunami comes, when the virus comes, when death comes, we are totally helpless. Second, we, therefore, learn that we need more than human power, human cleverness. We need God, we need Jesus Christ. He comes to our aid, and the ultimate blessing that He is holding out to us is eternal life. It’s heaven. It’s a life without all these sufferings and pain and death. 

Finally, the third lesson we learned from this passage is that they also teach us, these miracles also teach us that there are conditions in getting divine help. We need God’s help. We need divine help, but there are conditions in getting divine help. What are the conditions? Now when you look at this account here in Luke chapter 8, we learn three things here. Number one, that the conditions are firstly we must acknowledge our need. We must come to the point whereby we are on our knees before God. Have you come to the point in your life where you feel your helplessness and you’re now on your knee? You must be like the disciples here in verse 24, saying to Jesus: “Master, Master, we are perishing!”. Have you ever said to Jesus: “Jesus, Jesus, I’m dying! I’m done! I’m finished! I need your help!”?

You see, that is the first thing we must acknowledge our need. Or like Jairus here in verses 41 and 42 that the realisation that his daughter, his only daughter is dying. The realisation that his position, his money, his power in society is totally useless at this time to help his daughter. And he came to Jesus on his knees and he begged Jesus. Help my daughter. My money cannot help, my status cannot help, my cleverness cannot help. I acknowledge your need. Or like that woman. It is the awareness that no one in this world could help her. She has tried, she had been to this person, that doctor, every doctor in town. She has tried, and she came to the point there is no human that can help me now. I need God.

Do you realize that you need God? Acknowledge your need, that is the first thing. There are conditions in seeking divine help. Acknowledge that you are in need. You are helpless. Number two, you must then humble yourself. You must humble yourself. You see, it was not easy for the fishermen to come to Jesus, and that He’s a carpenter. It’s like an engineer coming to a taxi driver to ask for help to build a bridge. Now, these are the experts, they know the sea very well, but they must humble themselves when they came to see their need. And they came to Jesus. Jesus, we need help.

It was not easy for Jairus to come to Jesus to seek help. He was a rich man. He was probably a clever man. He was a man of some standing in society. He was the leader of the synagogue. It’s not easy for him, but then he came to see his need. He came to see his helplessness. He came to see that there’s nothing about him that could help his daughter. And so he must humble himself and come to Jesus the carpenter. He said: Jesus, Master, I need help. You must humble yourself and come to Jesus and beg for help. 

And so you must acknowledge that you’re helpless and you must humble yourself. And then thirdly, you must believe. You must have faith that Jesus alone can help. Now see when Luke started this passage as we recall the four miracle accounts, he start off by noting Jesus’ question in verse 25: “And Jesus said to the disciples, “Where is your faith?””. Where is your faith? And then Luke went on to illustrate what faith is in the woman and in Jairus that faith is believing that Jesus alone can help you. There was no one else that could help his daughter. Jairus understood that. It’s Jesus alone that is his only hope.

And that woman who had this illness for twelve years, she has tried every physician (we are told), and she knows that there’s no one else in this world who could help her. It’s Jesus alone, and that is what faith is. They all come to Jesus because they believe that Jesus alone can help them. And Jairus also shows to us what faith is in that faith is believing the unbelievable. Faith is believing the unbelievable. You look at verses 49 and 50. Luke 8:49- “And while Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house, saying to him, “Your daughter is dead. Do not trouble the Teacher.””. Don’t bother with Jesus because your daughter is already dead. There’s no more hope. No one else can do anything about this situation, as far as we can tell, because she’s dead.

And then we are told in verse 50: “But when Jesus heard it, He answered him, saying, “Do not be afraid; only believe, and she will be well.””. He said: I can do the impossible. Jesus alone, and that’s what faith is. And so we must acknowledge our need, we must humble ourselves, and we must trust in Jesus alone for help. Now like the people in this text, I want to ask you: Do you see your true need? Do you see that you are humans, after all? You need God. It’s the fool that thinks that we can live life apart from God. And I want to ask you: Do you see that it is Jesus alone, ultimately speaking, who can help you in your troubles? Let us pray.

“Our dear Father in heaven, we want to thank You for these stories for they remind us of our human limitation that in the face of natural disasters, of demonic attacks, of sickness, of death, these people were helpless. And we know that in the face of so many problems we face in this world, help us to see that we are helpless without God. And therefore, help us to acknowledge our need of You and to humble ourselves before You, and open our eyes to see that only Jesus alone can help us in all our troubles, for this, we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.