Living by the Book/Living by the Book Workbook Set (28 page)

You see, in the Galilee region, prevailing winds come from the west, down valleys that act as funnels. This lake is 690 feet below sea level, so there are tremendous downdrafts. The phenomenon exists to this day. In fact, one time when I was visiting the Sea of Galilee, I watched a violent storm come up in less than ten minutes.

So these men had experienced storms all of their lives—but never anything like this.

Notice who else was there: Jesus, fast asleep.

Let’s look at the demoniac. Some interesting people are here, to be sure. Certainly Jesus is involved. But the obvious one is the man himself. His is an interesting story: a man whose problem other people constantly tried to solve but with no success.

Mark 4:35–5:42

There’s another group—the townspeople. They fascinate me. Here’s a poor, demon-possessed man, and everybody knows him. “Watch out for him,” they cry. “Put him in chains. Keep him away from respectable society.” Then one day the guy gets cured, and you’d think everybody would say, “Wow! What a story. Let’s put it on CNN.”

But the townspeople are anything but excited—particularly when they find out that the demons have gone into their pigs, causing them to stampede off a cliff and drown. As a result they lose all of their economic investment. And are they mad! They are more concerned about the local economy than they are about the cure of a fellow human being.

How about the woman with the hemorrhage? We looked at her in chapter 22. Here the disciples become very important. They set up the atmosphere in verse 31: “You see the multitude pressing in on You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’” In other words, “How in the world do we know who touched You?” Of course, there’s also the woman herself. The text says she had been ill for twelve years. That’s a long time and indicates a serious problem. And there is also Jesus.

Let’s move to Jairus’s daughter. There’s Jairus and his daughter, and also her mother. There’s Christ, who takes Peter, James, and John. That’s instructive.
There is also a collection of professional mourners. Isn’t that fascinating? Jesus comes on the scene and declares, “She’s not dead. She’s just asleep.” And they roar. Probably the first time they’d ever laughed at a funeral.

Now let’s look at the means Jesus uses in each of the miracles. There are some phenomenal things taking place here. In the storm, all He does is speak. “Be quiet,” He says. Or, it can be translated, “Be muzzled.” And the tempest shuts down. The sea becomes completely calm.

With the demoniac, again all He needs to do is speak.

As for the woman, He doesn’t even need words. He uses touch; actually, she touches Him.

And then in the Jairus experience, He uses both touch and words. He takes the little girl by the hand, and He also calls her by name.

Now let’s link the means with the results. The result in the stilling of the storm was “a great calm,” the text says. I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a storm at sea. But every fisherman and sailor knows that just because a storm stops, the sea does not stop. It churns, sometimes for days to come. But this was a miracle, and there was an immediate calm.

With the demoniac, the spirits come out, and the man returns to normalcy. In fact, the text says he was sitting, “clothed and in his right mind.” He wasn’t doing that prior to the miracle.

For the bleeding woman, the result of touching Jesus is immediate healing. That’s significant because her problem has been twelve years in duration. But it doesn’t take twelve days or even twelve minutes for her to recover.

Finally, Jairus’s daughter. She immediately stands up, which indicates instant restoration. She also starts to walk, and she takes some food.

The component of faith is critical in each of these four miracles. In the storm, the disciples lose all faith. They are scared to death. Even after Jesus calms things down, they are still afraid. No faith, but lots of fear.

Mark 4:35–5:42

And yet the disciples have just heard Jesus’ lectures on faith in the first part of chapter 4. They’ve sat under the greatest Teacher in the world. But when they take an exam on the lake, their blue books come back with a great, big, fat “F” on them. And that isn’t for “Faith.” They’ve flunked. In fact, Jesus asks them, “How is it that you [you, of all people] have no faith?” (v. 40).

As for the demoniac, his faith begins with a recognition of who Jesus is. He has come to the right Person. And he wants to follow Him—a clear expression of commitment. But Jesus says, “No, you need to go home and give your testimony.”

The woman is perhaps the star of this section when it comes to faith. She takes initiative on the basis of what she has heard about Jesus. And Jesus says that her faith has healed her. That’s impressive.

Jairus demonstrates faith in Christ through a two-stage process. First he comes and says, “My daughter is at the point of death.” That’s a start. But then his friends rush in and tell him that his little girl has died. Can you imagine his feelings? As long as there’s life, there’s hope. But once she was dead, I’m sure he just wanted to give up. He must have been crushed.

But Jesus says, “No, keep on believing.” And he does. Not only does he begin in faith, he follows through with it. And guess who sees that? The disciples.
Remember, the ones who had no faith? They are right there watching this man who has no reason to hope anymore. He hasn’t been to the lectures. Yet he has great faith because the Lord has said, “Just hang in there. Trust Me. Follow Me.” And he does.

Now, look over the grid chart. We’ve got an incredible volume of material, but it is summarized in a way that we can grasp. We can study the chart in two ways. First, we can study it compositely by moving across from left to right. That is, we can take each of the miracles and evaluate it in terms of the realm, the people, the means, the result, and the element of faith.

On the other hand, we can study it comparatively by moving from top to bottom. For instance: What kind of faith did the disciples have? What kind of faith did the demoniac have? What kind of faith did the woman have? And what kind of faith did Jairus have?

A chart such as this is invaluable, because it gives you a maximum return on your investment in the Bible study process. Every time you come back to this passage, you can pull out your chart and quickly review what this section is all about. You don’t have to start from scratch every time. Neither do you have to rely on your memory. In fact, charting is so valuable to the step of Observation that we’re going to look at it in more detail in the next chapter.

But first, let me offer a few suggestions on how you can glean the most out of a section of Scripture.

Mark 4:35–5:42