Date: SUN 11:30am 16th August 2026
Preacher: Rev. Fred Greenfield
Bible Reference: Mark 5:24
Podcast
Sermon Summary
Introduction and Scripture Reading
The sermon is based on Mark’s Gospel, Chapter 5, verses 21 to 43, a well-known passage describing two miracles performed by the Lord Jesus Christ. The preacher opens by explaining that Mark presents Jesus as the perfect servant of God, and notes that one of the key words in Mark’s Gospel is “immediately” (or “straightway” or “anon”), which conveys the sense that Jesus is continually moving from place to place — performing miracles, doing good, and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom.
The passage introduces Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, whose twelve-year-old daughter lies at the point of death. Jairus falls at Jesus’ feet and begs Him earnestly: “My little daughter lieth at the point of death. I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed and she shall live.”
Interwoven with this account is the story of a woman who had suffered from an issue of blood for twelve years. She touches the hem of Jesus’ garment and is immediately healed. Then word comes that Jairus’ daughter has died. Jesus tells Jairus, “Be not afraid, only believe.” He goes to the house, puts out the mockers, takes the parents and three disciples into the room, and raises the girl, saying, “Talitha cumi” — damsel, arise. The girl, aged twelve, immediately rises and walks, and Jesus commands that she be given something to eat.
The Opening Illustration: Curse or Pray?
The preacher recalls that soon after his conversion in the 1960s, he and others distributed thousands of gospel tracts around the city of Belfast. One tract carried an intriguing question: “When you are in trouble, do you curse or do you pray?”
This question frames the whole sermon. Jairus, in his trouble, did not curse or go off the deep end; he came to the Lord Jesus Christ and sought the Saviour’s help. The preacher observes that this is the wise thing to do.
He then shares a personal story about a family — a husband, wife, and only son. The mother and son were converted at a gospel mission, but the husband, though raised in a Christian home and familiar with the Word of God, had never received Christ as Saviour. He fell ill, and whenever the wife or son approached the subject of salvation, he did not want to hear it.
So the mother and son adopted a simple phrase, repeated whenever they were with him: “Remember the precious blood of Christ.” Those five simple words, repeated often, eventually struck a chord in the man’s heart. He remembered what he had heard as a child in Sunday school and again in gospel meetings, and he came to know Christ as Saviour. The preacher calls these “wonderful words upon which to stake our eternity and words to die with.”
But he then says he wants to leave his congregation with five little words to live with, found in verse 24: “And Jesus went with him.”
The Central Theme: “And Jesus Went With Him”
The preacher takes those five words as the heart of his message. For Jairus, to have the bodily presence of the Lord Jesus Christ with him in his time of trouble was a wonderful thing.
He draws several supporting examples from Scripture:
- In Luke’s Gospel, two disciples were troubled after the crucifixion. The Bible says Jesus “drew near and went with them.” Then their eyes were opened and they beheld the risen Christ.
- In the Old Testament, the Scripture declares, “There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.”
- Jesus Himself promises, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.”
- The apostle Paul concludes, “So that we might boldly say, the Lord is our helper.”
The preacher then develops this theme through six movements, each tracing how the Lord Jesus went with Jairus through the various stages of his ordeal.
1. Jesus Went With Him in His Wondering
Jairus came to Jesus believing in his heart that Christ had the power, authority, and ability to heal his daughter. Yet he wondered:
- Will the Lord Jesus come with me?
- Will the Saviour be willing to come to my home?
- Will He take time to stop what He is doing and lay His hands on my little girl?
The preacher applies this to the believer’s life. We read the Scriptures and know the stories of Jesus, but we still wonder whether the Lord will intervene in our own situations, whether He will have mercy and grace upon us, and whether He will answer our prayers in the way we hope.
He then highlights the manner in which Jairus approached Christ, noting four characteristics:
- Reverently — Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue and a respected man, fell at Jesus’ feet, putting aside his pride, position, and place in society.
- Passionately — The text says he “besought him greatly.”
- Prayerfully — He said, “I pray thee.”
- Believingly — He declared, “She shall live.”
Here the preacher offers an illustration from his own acquaintance: a businessman friend who owned several shops and a large speedboat, who travelled back and forth to the Isle of Man. This man had everything the world could offer, but when his little daughter took leukaemia, he said, “I don’t care about the shops or the boat or anything else. Everything that I have is lying up in the Royal Victoria Hospital. I’m praying that the Lord will touch her.”
God answered the prayers of this man and his wife. The preacher recalls meeting that young woman years later, now grown, who told him again how God had answered prayer and raised her up to health and strength.
The preacher closes this point by urging his hearers that in their troubles and trials, they should “take it to the Lord in prayer,” rather than relying on their own strength, friends, or family.
2. Jesus Went With Him in His Waiting
The preacher draws attention to verse 25, which introduces the woman with the issue of blood for twelve years. He observes a striking parallel: Jairus had a twelve-year-old daughter, the light of his life, while this woman had suffered a sickness for twelve years.
As Jesus made His way to Jairus’ house, this woman came from behind, touched the hem of His garment, and was immediately healed. But this incident caused a delay. The preacher compares it to sitting in a traffic jam while an ambulance’s siren blares and lights flash — the ambulance is trying to reach a sick person but is held up.
For Jairus, this was a hold-up in his urgent mission. Yet the Lord was with him in the waiting.
The preacher then shares a personal testimony about his own calling to the ministry. Not long after his conversion, he felt God calling him into the work. Dr. Paisley was his minister, and the young man went to speak to him during a gospel mission in the Christian Workers Union Hall on Donegal Pass. Dr. Paisley was delighted but told him, “You’re too young. We’ve never had anybody as young as you apply for the ministry.” He was told to wait a year or so, continuing faithfully in the church — attending prayer meetings, helping with open-air work, children’s work, and Sunday School.
The preacher went home feeling deflated, having imagined himself a great preacher. That night he read Psalm 27, and verse 14 spoke directly to his situation: “Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord.”
He learned patience. Before the year was up, Dr. Paisley approached him and asked if he still believed God had called him, then told him to apply to the ministry.
The preacher reflects that patience is a virtue and impatience a vice, and that we all want our answers “yesterday.” But the Christian can know that the Lord is with us in the waiting.
3. Jesus Went With Him in His Worrying
Immediately after the woman is healed, verse 35 records that messengers came from Jairus’ house with devastating news: “Thy daughter is dead. Why troublest thou the Master any further?”
For Jairus, this must have been an awful moment. He had finally secured Jesus’ company, yet now he was delayed — and now this news arrived.
But verse 36 records Jesus’ response: “Be not afraid, only believe.”
The preacher points out that Jairus now had two competing words:
- The word from his servants: “Your daughter is dead; don’t trouble Jesus anymore.”
- The word of the Lord Jesus Christ: “Be not afraid, only believe.”
Jairus had to choose which word he would rely upon — and he chose the word of Christ. The preacher applies this to believers today, who have the Word of God as the revelation of God to men.
He notes that people today are fearful:
- Fearful for the future and what it holds
- Fearful about financial situations
- Fearful for unsaved family members living unwise lives
- Fearful about failing health and strength
He observes that the words “fear not” are recorded 366 times in the Bible — one for every day of the year, and one for leap year.
4. Jesus Went With Him in His Weeping
The preacher notes that Jesus spoke a word of peace (“Be not afraid, only believe”), a word of perception (verse 39: “Why make ye this ado and weep? The damsel is not dead but sleepeth”), and a word of power (“Talitha cumi”).
At verse 38, Jesus came to the house and saw the multitude weeping and wailing greatly. The preacher identifies these as professional mourners — people hired in that society to make a great display of grief, weeping, wailing, crying, and roaring around the home and family.
He then makes an important observation about the fickleness of public opinion:
- One minute these mourners were weeping and wailing.
- The next minute, when Jesus said the girl was only sleeping, “they laughed him to scorn.”
He illustrates this with the account of the Apostle Paul on the island of Malta (Acts 28). When a viper fastened onto Paul’s hand, the islanders concluded he must be a murderer whom vengeance had pursued. But when Paul shook off the snake and did not die, they changed their minds completely and declared he was a god. Public opinion swung from “murderer” to “god” in an instant.
So too the mourners swung from weeping to mocking Christ. But verse 40 records that Jesus “put them all out.” He took Jairus, his wife, and the three inner disciples — Peter, James, and John — into the room where the girl lay.
The preacher draws two applications:
- Weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning.
- When Jesus put out the mockers and took in the believers, there was a separation. This foreshadows Christ’s second coming, when He will return in power and glory — not to be criticised or crucified, but to separate the sheep from the goats, taking His own people to Himself and saying to the scoffers, “Depart from me, ye cursed, I never knew you.”
5. Jesus Went With Him in His Welcoming
In verse 41, Jesus took the damsel by the hand and said, “Talitha cumi” — which is interpreted, “Damsel, I say unto thee, arise.” Verse 42 records that “straightway” the damsel arose and walked, for she was twelve years old.
The preacher draws out a threefold picture:
- She was living — raised by the word of Christ.
- She was walking — the picture of the Christian walk, like Enoch who walked with God.
- She was eating — verse 43 records Jesus’ command that something be given her to eat.
This, the preacher says, is the picture of the man or woman who comes to Christ. They were dead in trespasses and sins, but Christ speaks a word of life and empowerment. They begin to live, then to walk with God, and then they develop an appetite for the things of God — the Word of God, the house of God, the fellowship of God’s people.
6. Jesus Went With Him in His Worshipping
The preacher concludes by returning to the posture in which Jairus first approached Jesus — falling at His feet and beseeching Him greatly. He believes that Jairus, together with his wife and family, would have continued in that same spirit of worship.
He then poses searching questions to his congregation:
- Who do we live for?
- Do we live for the Lord Jesus Christ?
- Are we seeking to serve Him?
- Are we living in the light of God’s eternity?
Conclusion and Application
The sermon closes by returning to the opening illustration — the five words repeated to the dying husband: “Remember the precious blood of Christ.” The preacher reminds his hearers that we need the blood of Jesus Christ to wash away our sins.
And if our sins are washed away, we want the presence of Christ with us every day, every moment of every day — that we might know His blessing, and that the Lord Jesus Christ might go with us all the days of our lives, just as He went with Jairus.
The preacher closes with a benediction: “May the Lord bless these simple thoughts from His Word this morning.”
Key Themes and Structure at a Glance
Throughout the sermon, the preacher traces the believer’s experience of Christ’s presence through six alliterative stages:
- Wondering — coming to Christ with doubts and questions, but approaching Him reverently, passionately, prayerfully, and believingly.
- Waiting — enduring delays and learning patience, trusting that the Lord is present even in the hold-ups.
- Worrying — facing fearful news, but choosing to rely on the word of Christ rather than the word of circumstance.
- Weeping — experiencing sorrow and the fickleness of the world’s opinion, while Christ separates the mockers from the believers.
- Welcoming — receiving new life, walking with God, and developing a spiritual appetite.
- Worshipping — living for Christ in the light of eternity, sustained by the precious blood of Christ.
