** Unlocked은 Keys for kids Ministries에서 지원받은 프로그램입니다. 원본으로 듣고 싶으신 분들은 홈페이지 Unlocked.org로 들어가시면 < August 06, 2022>에서 다시 들으실 수 있습니다.**
Impatient Waiting
• Susan Sundwall • John 6:40, Psalm 27:14, Mark 5:21–43, Luke 8:40–56
I’ve been to many funerals. I’ve yet to see the deceased rise up from the coffin and thank me for coming. I suppose there are scenes like this in horror movies, but movie-makers have ways of making you believe things like that can actually happen.
Jesus was never in a movie, but He used His real power and mercy to raise people from the dead. There’s a riveting scene, recorded by both Mark and Luke, when Jesus brings a twelve-year-old girl back to life. Her father, Jairus, came to Jesus, fell at His feet, and pleaded with Him to come heal his daughter because she was dying. Jairus was a very prominent man in the synagogue, and he must have been desperate to even consider this wandering healer named Jesus as a solution to his daughter’s peril. Needless to say, Jairus was probably beyond anxious.
To make matters worse, as Jesus was on His way to Jairus’s house, a woman in the crowd with a bleeding disorder of many years touched the edge of Jesus’s robe. The whole procession stopped as Jesus perceived healing power going out of Him. Jesus wouldn’t move on until He had spoken to this woman face to face.
I imagine Jairus was close to pulling his hair out at this point. A lowly peasant woman had stopped the progress to where his daughter lay dying. What was Jesus thinking! But our Lord calmly assessed the situation, knowing the hearts of all involved. He comforted the woman, and not long after, He arrived at Jairus’s house, held the hand of the deceased girl, and uttered these words: “Talitha koum!” which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!” (Mark 5:41).
You may find yourself pacing the floor or getting depressed waiting for God to act. We are impatient creatures. But God does see, and He does act. Even though the twelve-year-old girl died before Jesus arrived, it wasn’t too late. Jesus raised her from the dead. In a similar way, all seemed lost after Jesus died on the cross. But the story wasn’t over. Jesus rose from the dead—beating sin and death once and for all!
We may not see the healing we ask for in this life, but when Jesus returns, He will raise all His forgiven followers from the dead, and we will live with Him forever—free from all suffering and sorrow. And as we wait on Him, He holds our hearts. So stay calm, and trust the One who loves us. The day of your healing will come. • Susan Sundwall
• What do you think it will be like when Jesus raises us from the dead? (John 6:40)
Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Psalm 27:14 (NIV
** Unlocked은 Keys for kids Ministries에서 지원받은 프로그램입니다. 원본으로 듣고 싶으신 분들은 홈페이지 Unlocked.org로 들어가시면 < August 08, 2022>에서 다시 들으실 수 있습니다.**
The Ones Who Need Jesus
• Laura N. Sweet • Luke 5:27–32, Mark 2:13–17
Levi was not a popular guy; in fact, most people didn’t like Levi at all. In Jewish society during Jesus’s time, tax collectors were despised as the lowest of the low. They worked for the enemy—Rome. They cheated their own people, and they got rich doing it. That was the kind of man Levi was—but he wasn’t that different from us. Like us, he was a sinner who needed Jesus.
But God was working in his heart. When Jesus extended a simple invitation to Levi, “Follow me,” Levi did just that, leaving his tax collecting booth, his job, and his sinful past behind him. This complete obedience was evidence of his faith in Jesus. Levi became a follower of Jesus and, eventually, one of the twelve disciples. We know him as Matthew (Matthew 9:9)!
Levi knew others who needed Jesus, and he invited them to his house to have dinner with the Savior. These people were just like Levi—tax collectors and sinners. Levi wanted them to meet Jesus; maybe they would be saved from their sins too. But the Pharisees (Jewish religious teachers) who witnessed Jesus eating with this crowd were shocked. "Why would Jesus hang out with such sinners?" Jesus answered them by saying, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have
come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners” (verse 17).
Of course Jesus wanted to be with people like Levi and his friends. He loved them, even though their lives were empty and wasted because they followed sin, and not God. They needed their hearts healed from sin—they needed “Dr. Jesus” to save them and make them right in God’s eyes. These were the ones who needed Jesus.
And so do sinners like you and me. • Laura N. Sweet
• Levi’s abandonment of his job and his past showed his complete change of heart and his faith in Jesus. How did inviting his friends to meet Jesus also show that change?
• Did the Pharisees see themselves as “healthy” or “sick”? What didn’t they understand about their own sin?
• According to Romans 3:22-28, why do we all need Jesus?
Jesus...told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” Mark 2:17 (NLT)
