Somebody Touched Me by Ed Pruitt

Luke 8:43-48

Who Touched Me?

Sunday March 16, 2003
Pastor Ed Pruitt
Luke 8:43-48

Tonight I would like you to ask yourself this question.

Why do I seem to feel so low and have such a miserable outlook on life?

Why is it that other people always seem to be the happy go lucky type?

It seems as though in church there are always people that just seem to know how to worship God while I just seem to stand there with a lost look on my face.

Oh how I long to just one time have a real conversation with God, to talk with Him as I can talk to others!

Why is it that some get blessed and I don’t?

Why is it that I see people receiving from God and poor little me get’s nothing?

I want to be excited too!

I am getting sick and tired of being the one who is always left out.

I want God to use me too!

I see my friends working for God and they always seem to have a good time doing it, they always seem to have plenty of money to go around and don’t seem to have any problems.

I long to have a better and more fullfilling life with Jesus Christ but yet what seems to be the problem?

I want what they have.

What do I need to be doing that is different?

Please, somebody help me!

But you know, we all have to be crushed down and wore out totally before we are able to see God in all of His Glory.

Sometimes we just seem to be too full of our selves to be able to see God!

But thank God when we finally get to the place that we quit worrying abour what everyone else is doing and start thinking about God more than anything else we start on our way to total happiness!

Thank God for all of His Mercy and His Forgiveness!

Thank God that He doesn’t treat us like most of us treat each other!

Now let’s go to our text tonight,

Luke 8:43-48
43 And there was a woman in the crowd who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years. She had spent everything she had on doctors and still could find no cure.

44 She came up behind Jesus and touched the fringe of his robe. Immediately, the bleeding stopped.

45 “Who touched me?” Jesus asked.
Everyone denied it, and Peter said, “Master, this whole crowd is pressing up against you.”

46 But Jesus told him, “No, someone deliberately touched me, for I felt healing power go out from me.”

47 When the woman realized that Jesus knew, she began to tremble and fell to her knees before him.
The whole crowd heard her explain why she had touched him and that she had been immediately healed.

48 “Daughter,” he said to her, “your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”

The visual image invoked by the thought of this woman pressing through to Christ makes for a challenging pattern for the believer in Christ Jesus.

I have often looked at the fact that she had suffered for 12 years and that she had spent all of the money that she had to find a remedy.

She wasn’t even supposed to be where she was but she was going to break all the rules to get to Jesus!

She needed Jesus and she was going to get Him!

Glory to God!

This time as I read the text, two verses, 45 & 46 jumped out at me.

45 “Who touched me?” Jesus asked.

Everyone denied it, and Peter said, “Master, this whole crowd is pressing up against you.”

46 But Jesus told him, “No, someone deliberately touched me, for I felt healing power go out from me.”

In looking upon the miraculous faith that it took to get her to seek out Christ for her healing.

In looking upon the divine healing that took place along that road.

We seem to have overlooked the most important fact of this whole matter:

It wasn’t that Jesus healed- He had done so many times.

It wasn’t even that He had healed someone who had been afflicted for a long period of time:

No, he had healed another woman who had been sick for 18 years and another who had been blind since birth!

It wasn’t even the fact that she should not have been there.

It wasn’t even that she had to persevere to even get through to Him

We need to be looking at only one thing and that is the question that Jesus asked,

"Who touched Me?"

Look at the answer that everyone gave Him in response to His question.

The big chickens, they all denied that they had touched Him!

What do you think of that.

They were afraid to let anyone know that they hav touched Jesus!

What do you mean who touched you, everyone here is touching you?

There were many in the crowded multitude that "felt Him."

There are a lot of people who come to church and "feel" something.

People feel the presence of the Lord but most are afraid to admit it!

They are aware that He is doing something.

You are excited about what you see.

You may even have a desire to take just a little of that FEELING, not too much though, that might just make me want a little more!

Most people just seem to walk away from the experience just as lonely, just as broken, just as jealous, just as wicked, just as miserable and just as sick as you came.

Because you never really TOUCHED Him!

You just didn’t seem to lock onto Him!

You need to grab onto Him with the intention of never letting go!

"They all denied it."

Sure they could all say "we were there"

We were a part of the crowd.

We were all witnesses as to what took place.

We can all say we felt something and it was a really good service it really got me thinking

But the question of Jesus remains the same,
Who touched me! Who touched me?

When Jesus began to inquire as to who had TOUCHED Him He discovered a woman with a look of fear on her face.

This woman had received her healing and also realized she had touched Jesus which, she thought, had made Him unclean because of her disease.

Reach Out and Touch Jesus.

When you do things are going to happen!

You are going to become a person that is alive in Christ!

You will have just touched the man who can lift you up when you’ve fallen.

Somebody who you can call that can give you that miracle when the doctor says that you doomed.

And that Mans name is Jesus.

But I want you to know that Jesus is also in the touching business.

The woman in our Scripture had tried many PHYSICIANS and wasn’t getting any better, but was getting worse.

What have you been trying to get you out of the PROBLEM that you are in?

She was at the END of her ROPE.

Jesus was the last straw!

She had tried everyone as well as everything else.

And like many of us, wait a last ditch effort she decided to try Jesus.

If I can but touch His clothes I shall be whole.

The crowd of people around Jesus made it very difficult to get to Him!

How often do we let crowds keep us away from Jesus?

Thank God Jesus is always ready for our touch!

To be able to TOUCH Jesus or be TOUCHED by Jesus means you MUST get “CLOSE” to Him.

The woman’s desire to be over this sickness got her on her way to where Jesus was.

She confessed and her faith became the driving force to get her to the place she couldtouch Jesus!

She had been sick long enough and when she saw Jesus nothing was going to stop her!

She was going for her healing!

It’s all in the attitude!

Who touched Me?

They all denied doing so.

Who touched Me?

Jesus knew the DIFFERENCE between RUBBING SHOULDERS and someone TOUCHING Him with “Faith.”

There are lot’s of people who like just being in the there.

This woman came for a reason.

Isn’t it mind boggling how someone could be in the PRESENCE of Jesus and be so UNAWARE of His “Mighty Power”?

Many people sit in church Sunday after Sunday right in the presence of Jesus and even BRUSH up against Him and go home UNCHANGED!

Everyone in the CROWD that day walked away the SAME WAY they CAME in except for one little woman.

Many Christians are satisfied with just a “BRUSH” with Jesus.

These people are not INTERESTED in TOUCHING Him They don’t want to CHANGE!

You may feel “ALONE” this evening, but you are not, Jesus is as near as the “Door of your Heart.”

Out of all those who are here this evening how many really want to TOUCH Jesus?

How many are SATISFIED just being a PART of the CROWD?

Have you got a PURPOSE for being here tonight?

He is never too busy to help you.

Are you tired of sin., and sickness?

Are you willing to believe and touch the hem of his garment and remind Him of His word?

When you touch God’s promises with your faith, you touch Jesus, and you can have the miracle you desire.

The word of God works. I challenge you to touch the HEM OF HIS GARMENT.

JUST REMEMBER

His cleanness will make you clean.

His stripes will bring you healing.

His presence will bring you fullness of joy and comfort and companionship.

His peace and wisdom will bring you prosperity for every face of your life.

Dare to touch Him!

Do you have a problem, a physical or spiritual condition that has bothered you for years?

Have you tried everything you knew to do, and yet the problem grew worse?

Then, this message from the word of God is for you!

She had nothing to lose.

She had lost her self-esteem, her dignity - all she had left was her life and she was prepared to sacrifice it.

She was prepared to put her life on the line.

BUT SHE DARED TO TOUCH this man called JESUS.

We must remember anyone she touched became unclean; but she knew that if there was one man she could touch, it was Jesus!

Her uncleanness will not make Him unclean.

In fact, His purity will purify her; His cleanness will make her clean; His holiness will make her holy.

When she heard about Jesus passing by, faith arose in her.

No doubt she had heard of His healings, and she was not going to let this opportunity pass her by!

We need to stop and think about what this woman actually did that day -

LORD, I AM REMINDING YOU OF THE PROMISES YOU HAVE MADE US and I believe I can be made whole.

Jesus’ compassion was stirred within Him as He felt the virtue leave Him, and He knew He could not deny her unspoken plea.

In His deity as the God- man, He knew who she was that had touched Him; but he turned and requested her to make herself known.

There was something more to be done!

Although this woman was seeking Jesus, He was also seeking her!

He wanted her to confess it, not hide what Christ had done for her.

He wanted the crowd around her, (those who had cast her out as unclean, unfit, polluted, not good enough) to know that once again she was clean, made whole, made holy.

Healed physically as well as spiritually.

He wasn’t putting blame on her, but commending and encouraging her and confirming her cure.

Secret sins are known to Jesus; but so are acts of faith.

Jesus heals and saves in order that we might go forth to serve Him in serving others!

Today you may have a bloody issue, the disease of sin, and you need a complete change and healing from sin.

John 6:34 - him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

Suffering will make you examine your life and make sure everything is okay with the Lord.

In response Jesus issues a simple commendation: "Daughter, your faith has healed you.

Go in peace."

He makes her faith an example, timid as it was.

The one with faith does not need to fear approaching Jesus and his authority.

He is accessible and available.

Both the woman’s faith and her testimony are commended in Jesus’ response.

Faith trusts in God’s ability to meet our needs by his power.

God honors such faith.

That is a reminder that believers ought always to be ready to assist people who are going through trials.

Many people around us are busy, not really open to consider the claims of Christ.

But let difficulty come into their lives, and they flock to Him in droves.

We should take advantage of this tremendous opportunity to introduce them to the One who is adequate to meet every situation.

The power is in Him.

He felt the power go out from Himself.

This woman was healed because she had faith in Him,
not because she touched the tassel on His garment.

Many people had touched the tassels on His garment who were not healed, but the power of Christ went out to the one who reached out to Him in faith.

So He clarifies this in order to remove any questions.
The basis for salvation is the same for people today.

All you need to know is that you are a sinner, unclean before God because of your sin, but if you will believe in Him, He will cleanse and forgive you.

If you are saved, you were saved by faith, not by faith plus doing something else.

Salvation is available only by believing in Jesus Christ’s death for you.
 

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