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DEALING WITH DEATH, DELAYS, & DISEASE (9)

by Donald Cantrell

Scripture: Mark 5:21-43
This content is part of a series.


Title: Dealing With Death, Delays, & Disease (9)
Series: Gospel of Mark
Author: Donald Cantrell
Text: Mark 5: 21-43

Gospel of Mark Commentary Series - Sermon 9

I - The Desperate Plea (21 - 23)

II - The Dismal Pause (24 - 25)

III - The Diseased Person (25 - 34)

IV - Debilitating Proclamation (35)

V - The Daring Petition (36)

VI - The Doubters Purged (37 - 40a)

VII - The Dramatic Phenomenon (40b - 43)

This sermon contains a fully alliterated outline, with subpoints.

WASH YOUR HANDS

In 1818, Ignaz Phillip Semmelweis was born into a world of dying women. The finest hospitals lost one out of six young mothers to the scourge of "childbed fever." A doctor's daily routine began in the dissecting room where he performed autopsies. From there he made his way to the hospital to examine expectant mothers without ever pausing to wash his hands.

Dr. Semmelweis was the first man in history to associate such examinations with the resultant infection and death. His own practice was to wash with a chlorine solution, and after eleven years and the delivery of 8,537 babies, he lost only 184 mothers--about one in fifty.

He spent the vigor of his life lecturing and debating with his colleagues.

Once he argued, "Puerperal fever is caused by decomposed material conveyed to a wound. I have shown how it can be prevented. I have proved all that I have said. But while we talk, talk, talk, gentlemen, women are dying. I am not asking anything world-shaking. I am asking you only to wash. For God's sake, wash your hands." But virtually no one believed him. Doctors and midwives had been delivering babies for thousands of years without washing, and no outspoken Hungarian was going to change them now! Semmelweis died insane at the age of 47, his wash basins discarded, his colleagues laughing in his face, and the death rattle of a thousand women ringing in his ears.
In our previous study we witnessed the Gadarenes ushering the Lord away from their sho ...

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