The Tale of Two “Daughters”

“The Tale of Two ‘Daughters'”
Luke 8:40-56
November 30, 2025

Pain is universal.  Suffering is common.  Illness, though frequent and normal, often surprises us.  Death is one out of one.  We recoil against all of these.  And God uses pain, illness, and death to sanctify us.  Samuel Rutherford wrote that believers should “praise God for the hammer, the file, and the furnace.…the hammer molds us, the file shapes us, and the fire tempers us.”  And while they all come from the hand of God, we tend towards idolizing freedom from these normal tools of God in our lives. 

Commenting on Rutherford’s statement, A.W. Tozer wrote, “The devil, things, and people being what they are, it is necessary to use the hammer, the file, and the furnace in the holy work of preparing the saint for the sainthood.  It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply.” [The Root of the Righteous, 165.]

God uses pain, illness, and death in our lives in good ways.  These harsh circumstances become friends and blessings to us, when we respond to them in faith.   In Luke 8:40-56, the gospel writer weaves together two similar and contrasting stories of suffering and death to remind us of the nature of Christ (the Son of Man), and to stimulate faith in the sufferers, and in the observers of these events. 

On Thanksgiving week, many (most? all?) of us are suffering.  The Lord is not against us.  He is for us — using our pain to drive us to Him in love and trust —

The Son of Man designs your troubles to compel you to trust Him.  And He is trustworthy.

In chapter eight, Luke uses a series of four miracles to demonstrate the power and authority of the Son of Man.  He is authoritative over natural forces (the storm, vv. 22-25), demons (vv. 26-39), and in this passage, physical ailments (vv. 40-56).   He is the Son of Man.  He is powerful and He is trustworthy.  In this story, Luke compels His readers to trust Christ in troubles by revealing six attributes of the Son of Man.  While we might give attention to the responses of the people in the story (and that is part of Luke’s purpose), the main purpose of Luke is to reveal more about the Son of Man.  The stories are all about Him.  What should we learn about the Savior, Jesus, the Son of Man?

1. The Son of Man is Available (vv. 40-42)
2. The Son of Man is Powerful (vv. 43-46)
3. The Son of Man is Savior (vv. 47-48)
4. The Son of Man is Trustworthy (vv. 49-50)
5. The Son of Man is Discerning (vv. 51-53)
6. The Son of Man is Compassionate (vv. 54-56)

Download the rest of this sermon on Luke 8:40-56.

The audio will be posted on the GBC website by Tuesday.