Rome, around AD 60. The apostle Peter looks at a handful of weary believers and begins to tell a story he has carried in his heart for years, about a desperate father and a woman who, through twelve years of illness, lost everything in her search for healing (Mark 5). This sermon shows that the miracles of Jesus are like windows through which we glimpse the world as it would be under God’s rule, and that true hope is not a change of circumstances but a Person. Listen, especially if you have ever felt your hope dying, because God seeks out precisely those who have lost it.
Discussion questions
For your small group or for personal reflection after the sermon.
- In Mark 5:21-43 Jesus is on His way to Jairus's dying daughter, yet He stops in the crowd and asks who touched Him. What does this interruption reveal about how Jesus sees an individual person?
- The woman had been ill for twelve years, spent all her money on doctors and lived as an outcast. Why do you think Jesus will not let her slip away unnoticed and calls her "daughter"?
- The speaker distinguishes between worry that still holds some hope and the emptiness after the words "your daughter is dead." How do you understand Jesus saying "Do not be afraid" at exactly that moment?
- The sermon describes Jesus' healings as signposts or windows pointing to Himself, not a promise that everyone will be healed. How does that change the way you pray for a miracle?
- The speaker says hope is a person, and that peace or healing separated from God become empty words. Where do you tend to look for hope apart from Him, and what does that look like in practice?
- Who can you give your full attention to this week, the way Jesus did, as they are losing hope, and what will you actually do?
