The Encounter | Carl Cady

Jesus Christ remains the one message, the life changing message that has changed everything. God has opened a bright light in Indonesia through a church that loves Jesus, through refugee care, medical work, orphan care, and a school standing against generational poverty. The school that will change the nation puts first class education into the hands of children once living in garbage dumps, because God makes a way where poverty says there is no way. Johannes, once named “thrown away soul,” now bears the name “gift of God,” carrying a picture of what the Lord loves to do with people the world has discarded.

Mark’s woman with the issue of blood comes to Jesus after twelve years of suffering, empty pockets, shattered hopes, and treatments that only made everything worse. Her uncleanness leaves her pushed to the bottom of the social scale, yet her remaining faith gets her into the crowd. Her hand reaches for a garment, hoping for relief, but her encounter finds far more than relief. Jesus meets her at the intersection of Jesus’ Way and Last Chance Avenue.

Jesus changes her world in a moment. Her search for one little flake of gold finds the mother lode. Christianity is not merely nice people, rules, or a performance to approve on Sunday. Worship brings people before the holy and almighty God with gratitude, reverence, awe, gladness, and delight. Salvation encounters Jesus himself, and that encounter rocks a world.

The pursuit of man made answers bankrupts people, but love changes what law cannot. The Holy Spirit cleans up helpless people, convicts without condemning, and writes God’s ways upon the heart. Michelangelo’s David gives a picture of God’s work: the Lord removes everything that does not resemble Jesus. God takes imperfect human material and makes a masterpiece, while keeping all the glory for himself.

Jesus also pays the full cost of this encounter. Power goes out from him as healing comes to her. The cross declares tetelestai, paid in full: the unclean are washed, the criminals receive freedom, and Christ takes their place. Jesus is not “the man upstairs,” but the limitless God, King of kings, Lord of lords, and the only hope.

Jesus stops for her whole story. Fearful and trembling, she tells him the dead ends, ridicule, and broken hopes, and he calls her “daughter.” His unfailing love and unlimited power do not require people to clean themselves up before reaching for him. His grace receives the broken, hears the truth, and sends them away in peace.

##

---

Key Takeaways

• 1. Jesus meets people at last chance [01:05:25] Jesus’ Way and Last Chance Avenue meet wherever human strength, money, and false hopes have run out. The woman does not arrive with a polished life or a strong résumé. Her remaining faith simply reaches toward Christ. His mercy proves that desperation is not a barrier when it drives a person toward him. [65:25]
• 2. Rules bankrupt, but love transforms [54:13] The woman had spent everything chasing cures that could not heal her. Man made religion can carry the same exhausting weight when it turns life with God into endless self-repair. Jesus changes lives not by piling on law, but by drawing broken people into love. The Holy Spirit then does the deep work that human striving never could. [54:13]
• 3. Christ paid the full price [59:54] Healing and salvation do not come cheaply, even when they are freely given. Jesus felt power go from him, and the cross reveals the fullness of that cost. Tetelestai means paid in full, not partly earned by better behavior. Christ willingly bears the price so the unclean can be washed and the guilty can go free. [59:54]
• 4. Jesus listens to the whole story [01:03:19] The woman expects exposure and shame, but Jesus gives her room to tell the whole truth. Her dead ends, ridicule, and broken hopes become part of a testimony that no one can take away. Christ does not turn away from the details people wish to hide. His word “daughter” gives belonging before it gives a future. [63:19]
• 5. God makes masterpieces from discarded lives [57:49] Michelangelo removed everything that was not David, and God removes everything that does not resemble Jesus. The Lord begins with imperfect material and refuses to call it worthless. Johannes, once known as a thrown away soul, bears witness that God gives a new name and a new future. God’s workmanship carries his glory, not human self-congratulation.
  
  ## [57:49]

Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [32:13] - One Message: Jesus Christ
• [33:42] - Indonesia and the Church’s Calling
• [35:27] - Refugees, Clinics, and Compassion
• [37:52] - A School Against Generational Poverty
• [40:33] - Thrown Away Soul, Gift of God
• [41:58] - Mark 5 and the Encounter
• [44:10] - Twelve Years of Suffering
• [46:22] - Unclean and Pushed Aside
• [48:13] - Jesus’ Way and Last Chance Avenue
• [50:37] - Worship as Encountering God
• [53:40] - Changed by Love, Not Rules
• [56:13] - God Removes What Is Not Jesus
• [58:40] - The Encounter Cost Jesus
• [62:37] - Jesus Hears Her Whole Story
• [66:23] - Unfailing Love and Unlimited Power

Bible Reading

Mark 5:24-34
And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” [42:22] [42:41]

John 19:30
When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. [59:58]

Hebrews 12:28
Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe. [51:41]

Psalm 100:2
Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! [52:31]

Observation questions

1. What details in Mark 5 show how completely the woman had run out of human answers before she came to Jesus? [44:16]
2. What does the woman expect will happen when she touches Jesus’ garment, and what actually happens after she touches him?
3. What does Jesus notice immediately after the woman is healed, and how does this show that her healing was not without cost? [58:40]
4. What words and actions of Jesus show his response to the woman’s fear and trembling after she tells him the whole truth? [01:03:19]

Interpretation questions

1. The woman came seeking relief from suffering, but she encountered Jesus himself. Why is an encounter with Jesus more than finding one solution to one painful problem? [49:09]
2. Why might Jesus have stopped and called the woman forward instead of allowing her to remain anonymous after she had been healed?
3. Jesus calls her “daughter” before sending her away in peace. What does that word communicate to someone who had lived as an outcast and unclean person? [01:04:13]
4. John 19:30 says, “It is finished.” How does Christ’s completed work protect people from thinking they must earn God’s acceptance through religious effort? [01:00:23]

Application questions

1. Where have you been tempted to look for relief, meaning, or control apart from Jesus—perhaps through money, approval, distraction, achievement, or trying harder? What has that pursuit cost you? [01:04:48]
2. The woman came to Jesus while she was still broken, unclean, and afraid. Is there any part of your life you feel you need to clean up before bringing it honestly to Jesus? What would it look like to reach toward him now? [01:06:37]
3. Jesus listens to the whole truth, including dead ends, ridicule, and shattered hopes. What part of your story have you found hardest to tell God or trusted believers? What might it mean to bring that part into the light? [01:03:44]
4. Worship is not rating a performance; it is coming before the holy God with gratitude, reverence, awe, gladness, and delight. What usually shapes your attitude when you gather for worship, and what could help you come with deeper gratitude? [50:37]
5. God is removing what does not resemble Jesus and making his people into masterpieces. What is one attitude, habit, or pattern that you sense the Holy Spirit may be working to remove in your life? [57:49]
6. Jesus paid in full for the unclean to be washed and the guilty to go free. When do you most tend to forget that grace is a gift rather than something you earn, and how can the truth “It is finished” speak into that place? [01:00:57]
7. Johannes was once called a “thrown away soul,” yet he was given the name “gift of God.” Who around you may feel overlooked, discarded, or trapped by their past? How could you treat that person in a way that reflects God’s love and hope? [40:49]