Please turn to the Gospel according to Mark.
The Gospel according to Mark will be in chapter 1 as we continue to proceed together in a look at this picture as we continue to proceed together in a look at this picture.
And a leper came to him, imploring him and kneeling, said to him,
If you will, you can make me clean.
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him,
I will be clean.
And immediately the leprosy left him and he was made clean.
And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once and said to him,
See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priests and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded for a proof to them.
But he went out and began to talk freely about it and to spread the news so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town,
but was out in desolate places.
And people were coming to him from every quarter.
Behold the glory of our God in the life of Christ.
Let's pray.
Father, we praise you for your holy word to us.
We recognize that it is inspired, that it is infallible and it is sufficient.
It's a guide and a rule for holy living.
And so I pray by the power of your spirit today that you will break through the obtuse nature of our minds
and through the callous nature of our hearts.
Change us this day into the image of your son.
Find us progressively more like him as a result of the time we spend together this morning.
Let this morning not be wasted on anyone in our hearing.
And we pray this in Christ's name.
Amen.
So I'm taking a little break from preaching and coming back.
And I come to a text that I essentially assigned to myself as I kind of helped the guys and broke it up
and given them some assignments to preach over the last three weeks.
And I come to another healing.
We see another healing.
We've seen quite a few so far.
We see a man with an unclean spirit.
We see Simon's mother healed.
And then many others.
You see a whole city gathers together at the door.
Verse 33.
And he healed many who were sick with various diseases and cast out many demons.
We know that Jesus did this as a major part of his ministry.
All of his days ministering, he was moving around and healing people.
Luke puts it this way.
Chapter 6, verse 19.
The Gospel of Luke.
And all the crowd sought to touch him for power came out from him and he healed them all.
John chapter 21, verse 25.
The last verse of the Gospel of John.
John records,
Now there are also many other things that Jesus did.
Were every one of them to be written,
I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
So Jesus did a lot of miraculous things.
Lots of signs.
And these signs were intended to validate the message that he was bringing.
Jesus' primary ministry was not a ministry of healing.
He did these things, to be sure.
But his primary ministry was a ministry of preaching.
Chapter 1, verse 38 and 39.
And he said to them,
Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also.
For that is why I came out.
To preach.
And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
What was he preaching?
Verse 15 of chapter 1.
He says,
The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent and believe in the Gospel.
This is the message that he was preaching.
The good news that the kingdom of God had come to bear in his life.
That he was leading the procession of the kingdom of God,
coming and bringing redemption to the world.
So the miracles validated the message.
Here we have one of two accounts of lepers being healed.
We can presume that many other lepers were healed,
as this was a fairly common ailment of the time.
Right?
The other, there were ten lepers, if you recall that story,
recorded in Luke chapter 17.
So, I've been wrestling with,
What do I do with this?
Right?
Once again, we see King Jesus,
the sovereign over all things,
exerting his authority over sickness.
What a thing to praise him for.
But we've seen that already, haven't we?
We've talked about that.
What do we say?
What is the fresh thing to bring to you?
And I've just been blessed beyond belief at the richness of this text.
So let's look at it together.
Right?
We see in verse 40 that a leper comes to him.
Right?
Comes to Jesus.
And we know that he is now in a city.
You look in verse 39.
And he went throughout all Galilee,
preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
So he's going into these cities that are in a province that's north of Jerusalem.
Right?
Galilee of the Gentiles.
He is occupying, going into the synagogues,
and he's preaching the gospel.
And wherever Jesus goes, there are great crowds.
Right?
They follow him everywhere he goes.
Verse 33 again.
And the whole city was gathered together at the door.
People are flocking to him.
Right?
To be healed.
And we hope to hear the message,
the good news of the coming of the kingdom of God.
We find here, though, a leper.
And this term in the Greek has a very broad meaning.
Right?
It simply means to scale or to peel off.
And in fact, it was used broadly to speak of all kinds of skin ailments.
So, if you have psoriasis, right, which many people suffer from that type of thing,
the Greeks would have called you a leper in that way.
Right?
But that's not believed what we're talking about in this case.
This would have been a person who was outcast because of the nature of their disease.
Not dry scalp.
Right?
That's not what's going on with this individual.
It's likely, most people agree, that this is what's today called Hansen's disease.
I was going to pronounce for you the...
Nope.
I'm going to do it.
I can do it.
Mycobacterium leprae is the official name of this thing.
It's a bacteria.
It's a bacillus that multiplies very, very, very slowly.
And I want to read to you a little bit about this particular disease.
Right?
It typically begins with a lighter patch of skin.
Nobody panic if you have a lighter patch of skin.
Right?
Usually on the brow, on the nose, on the ear, the cheek, or the chin.
If you miss some sunscreen spots on your face in the summertime, you don't have leprosy.
The patch begins to spread in all directions.
And one of the early signs is the eyebrows and eyelashes disappear.
Then spongy, tumorous swelling grows on the face and then on the body.
The disease becomes systemic.
It involves the internal organs as well as the skin.
Fingers and toes can be reabsorbed into the body because the bacillus invading the bone marrow
impairs the blood supply, causes the bones to shrivel.
It causes the extremities to shrivel.
So fingers and toes literally can pull back into the body.
And because of the loss of feeling, which is the major thing that's happening,
it's attacking the nerve system.
Right?
Because of this major loss of feeling, the primary thing that ends up happening to lepers
is that they hurt themselves not knowing that they're hurting themselves.
They lose sensation in their hands and in their feet.
And so they do things that cause great damage.
I read some modern day accounts of a woman who wore her fingertips completely off,
who had Hansen's disease, washing dishes.
And a man who destroyed his palms raking.
Right?
Like we all know when to stop raking when we're getting the blisters.
Right?
It's time to go inside and look at blowers online.
Right?
But these people can't feel this happening to them.
And so what often happens to them is they get these horrible wounds and then there is
no antiseptic.
There's no knowledge of how it is that they ought to take care of these things.
So they literally begin to rot.
They become infected and they begin to rot.
And this is the picture of what's happening to this man, this leper.
Right?
Now the disease is very communicable because it's transmitted through perspiration droplets
in breath.
Right?
So lepers in this day were very ostracized.
Right?
Just for the physical aspect of the disease.
People didn't want to be around them.
Interestingly, I don't know if this is true of this day.
I don't think anybody could possibly figure it out.
But interestingly, modern day, 95% of the human population has a natural immunity to this.
Think about Mother Teresa and all the years she spent with the lepers.
Right?
More than likely, she was immune to the even possibility of catching this disease.
But it was not understood in this day.
So people wanted nothing to do with lepers.
They wanted to be far, far from them because they did not want to contract this disease.
And they were forced to go out and live out in desolate places.
Right?
They often formed communities and lived together.
But beyond just the physical fear of being around lepers, there were some greater cultural
reasons that people in this day ostracized lepers.
For example, in chapter 12 of the book of Numbers, God gives leprosy as a judgment.
Right?
Bildad, in Job chapter 18, speaks of leprosy as a punishment.
He says it consumes the parts of his skin.
The firstborn of death consumes his limbs.
In 2 Samuel chapter 3, verse 29, this is right after Joab murders Abner, David utters a curse
against Joab and says,
May it fall upon the head of Joab and upon all his father's house.
And may the house of Joab never be one without one who has a discharge or who is a leprous
or who holds a spindle or who falls by the sword or who lacks bread.
He utters a curse on him that his family forever may have one of these things, one of those things
being leprosy.
The beginning of Leviticus chapter 13 gives direction as to how the priest was to declare
a leper unclean.
Priests were given as the judges over what was and wasn't clean.
And if somebody had leprosy, people believed they had leprosy, they were brought for a test.
And if they were found to have leprosy, they were cast out.
So, Leviticus chapter 13, verses 45 and 46 says,
The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose,
and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out,
Unclean! Unclean!
He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease.
He is unclean.
He shall live alone.
His dwelling shall be outside the camp.
Right?
So these are the instructions given to the Jewish people to preserve the health of the rest of the
Jewish community.
These people who were given this, they were forced.
They had to tatter their clothes.
They had to have scraggly, long hair.
You wanted to see them from far away.
That person has leprosy.
Avoid them at all costs.
One rabbi wrote that it was only safe to be within 150 feet downwind of a leper and 6 feet upwind of a leper.
Very strict rules.
Another rabbi prided himself in throwing rocks at lepers because he saw them as the judgment of God.
They were sinners.
They were to be cast out.
Another leper prided himself in...
Not a leper.
A rabbi prided himself in never eating food bought from a street that a leper had ever been on.
Right?
So he would understand, get the history.
Is that a leper ever been on this street?
I'm not buying food from this market.
He would buy clean food in this way.
These people were incredibly ostracized.
They had to walk around yelling,
Unclean! Unclean!
So no one would come near them.
People would be very aware of the disease that they carried.
So it was more than just the physical.
Right?
People saw it as a judgment of God on these individuals.
Right?
This man, in Luke 5, verse 12,
it says,
A man full of leprosy.
So this was not an early stage leper.
This man was in this state.
Hideous.
Infected.
Tattered clothes.
Hair around his face.
Should have been coming and yelling out,
Unclean! Unclean!
So that people would scatter from him.
But instead,
he comes to Christ.
Enters into a crowd.
Does the very thing that he should not do.
Oh, the shocking nature of his boldness.
We can learn something from that
as he comes to the feet of Jesus.
The account of the same story in Matthew 8.
The leper calls Jesus Lord.
Luke 5, 12-14 says that he fell on his face.
And we see here in Mark
that he comes and kneels before him.
Recognizing in some fashion,
we don't know of course,
that he knew that Jesus was the Messiah.
We don't know.
But he certainly recognized
that he was a reigning king.
He addresses him this way
as he calls him Lord.
And he comes to him
and implores with him,
If you will,
you can make me clean.
Now, I love this.
We're not going to make much of the leper
in this story.
But here is a place
that we should observe his life
and see the way he interacts with Jesus.
As he says,
If you will,
you can make me clean.
And in this little statement,
he recognizes Jesus' sovereign will
and his sovereign power.
He doesn't expect that Jesus will heal him.
He doesn't say in any way
that Jesus owes him healing.
But he says,
You have the ability.
You are Lord.
You can heal what's going on with me.
And if you see so fit,
will you please heal me,
a leper?
God owes us nothing.
We don't call on him
as if by our merit,
he owes us something.
God's will is sovereign
and he's also sovereign in his power.
We should pray this way.
Lord, if you will,
you can accomplish this thing.
If you will,
please work this out.
Do this thing for your glory.
I appreciate this leper's
pleading with Jesus in this way.
Now, this is not a magic equation
to see a response come from Christ.
Verse 41 does not record
because of the man's imploring,
because of the way in which
the man addressed Jesus.
Jesus moved.
Jesus is moved by one thing.
His pity.
He's moved by his pity.
Notice at the beginning of verse 41.
So while we ought to look
at the leper's life,
model ourselves after him,
we ought not see this
as an equation, right?
If you will,
you can heal me.
You can make me clean.
This is the way in which
we should look and observe
and pray to our God.
But Jesus moved with pity.
Some of your translations
may say compassion.
Another wonderful word
in this case.
And verse 41 says,
He stretched out his hand,
he touches him,
and he says,
I will be clean.
Right?
Not because of what the man had done,
but because of Christ's very nature.
Who he was.
He showed compassion to this man.
Psalm chapter 78,
verses 38 and 39,
speaking of God's work with Israel
prior to the psalm being written,
says,
Yet he,
being compassionate,
atoned for their iniquity
and did not destroy them.
He restrained his anger often
and did not stir up all his wrath.
He remembered that they were but flesh,
a wind that passes
and comes not again.
The compassion that God had
on his people
as he leads them out
of Egyptian captivity
and as they sin against him
continually and continually
and continually and continually.
Here we see recorded in Psalm 78
that he is compassionate,
that he holds back his anger,
and he remembers that they're but men.
Fallen in nature
and doesn't destroy them.
Isaiah chapter 49,
verse 13,
prophesying of our coming Messiah,
the one Jesus Christ,
says,
Sing for joy, O heavens,
and exult, O earth.
Break forth, O mountains,
into singing,
for the Lord has comforted his people
and will have compassion
on his afflicted.
Look at the fulfillment
of that very thing
as Jesus turns to this leper
and touches him.
Matthew chapter 35,
verse 36,
says,
And Jesus went throughout
all the cities and villages
teaching in their synagogues
and proclaiming the gospel
of the kingdom
and healing every disease
and every affliction.
When he saw the crowds,
he had compassion for them
because they were harassed
and helpless
like sheep without a shepherd.
God loves people
and he pities our state,
both our physical
and our spiritual state.
And so here we see Jesus
turn to the leper
and show such pity to him
that he reaches out
and he touches him.
This would have been shocking.
We don't understand
the way this disease
affected the culture.
We don't understand
how shocking it would have been
for this man
to walk in amongst us
and then for Jesus
in pity
and in compassion for him
to reach out
and touch him.
Leviticus 5.3,
the Israelites were commanded
not to touch a leper.
And here we see Jesus
stepping down in such a way
and reaching out
and touching him
and making him clean.
Verse 42,
we see once again,
I think Mark's favorite word,
immediately.
And immediately,
the leprosy left him.
Didn't take on
some healing power.
Jesus gave him some medicine
and over some time,
he got better.
Immediately,
the leprosy left him
and he was made clean.
Or does this say
he was restored?
Restored.
And we see Jesus' authority
once again
over this sickness.
Right?
He was made well
and whole.
Hansen's disease,
there's a cure for it.
Good news,
if you're not in that 95%
and you happen to go someplace
and contract Hansen's disease,
in 1982,
drugs were invented
that can eradicate,
they can stop the effects
of Hansen's disease.
They can get rid of that bacillum
in your system.
But guess what they don't do?
They don't restore
what's been damaged already.
Right?
If your fingers
and your toes
begin to pull back up
into your body,
it doesn't reverse that effect,
but Jesus,
in his power,
does that.
Makes him whole.
And you may be asking,
how do you know that
to be the case?
Right?
How do you know
that's even possible?
Jesus gives him a command
and he tells him
to go and present himself
to the priest.
And what he was telling him
to do was to travel
to Jerusalem,
which would have been
60 to 70 miles
from where he was.
And they would have walked.
Right?
He doesn't say,
spend some time here
in this town
and go through rehab.
Make sure you get
your legs back under you
before you make the journey.
Right?
He gives him a command
to go and do what is proper
to make the sacrifice,
the cleansing
that Moses commanded.
And so he goes
and he does this.
So he made him whole
in this act.
Right?
Now it's interesting,
we see all
as Jesus is performing
these miracles,
he's healing
and he's healing
and he's healing.
We see lots of this
terminology,
healing.
But as it regards
leprosy,
we never see
leprosy
and healing
put together.
It's always
made clean.
Isn't that fascinating?
I know that you're just going,
okay, tell us what it means.
Right?
Just tell me what it means.
Right?
I don't know for sure.
Is that fair?
I don't know for sure
why it's always
coupled in this way.
Here's my presumption.
The Jewish culture saw
the person that was
defiled in this way
as unclean.
They saw it as a judgment
from God
and they cast them out.
These people were cast out
from culture.
They were cast out
from the worship of God
in the Jewish synagogue.
They weren't allowed
to go to the temple
to make sacrifice.
In every way,
they were estranged.
Removed
from the society
because they were
dirty
in this way.
And I think the reason
that it's recorded
in this way,
that they're made clean,
is that they're being
restored.
Right?
Externally,
they're being made clean.
They're being restored
to the ability
to enter back
into Jewish culture
and to attend
temple worship.
We see the command
to go to the priest
and to the temple.
And I think that's why.
That's this picture
of uncleanliness
and cleanliness.
Right?
I don't think
what we see here
is that this man's soul
is restored.
I think that simply
he is healed,
made clean
from his leprosy.
Right?
And that's important
lest we think
too much of this leper
because he's
a rather
disobedient character.
Is he not?
Verse 43
says,
And Jesus
sternly charged him
and sent him away
at once.
And the Greek word here
for sternly charged
means in its most literal
form,
snorted.
Not the way you would
snort something.
Right?
But like the way
a bull would snort.
Like a command.
Like,
I'm telling you
what you better do.
That's what the
kind of strength
of this language is.
They're very strong.
Sternly charged him.
Right?
And what did Jesus say?
That we will know
people are his disciples
if they keep his word.
Right?
So here we see
this leper.
He gives him
a direct command
and the leper does
what?
The opposite.
Right?
He does the very
opposite
of the thing
that he commanded
him to do.
And so I don't
think it's right
for us to think
when we say
that the leper
was made clean
that his soul
was made clean.
I think that he
was healed
of his leprosy.
Right?
But then we see
him being immediately
disobedient to the
command of Christ.
And so we get
these two commands.
We get both
a positive command
do this
and a negative
command
do not do
this.
Right?
So verse 44
he said to him
see that you say
nothing to anyone
but go
show yourself
to the priest
and offer
for your cleansing
what Moses
commanded
for a proof
to them.
So the positive
command
go
show yourself
to the priest
and offer
for your cleansing
what Moses
commanded
for a proof
to them.
Why would he
have wanted
this to take
place?
Right?
This was
Levitical law
remember still
just as they
would have
paid attention
then
they were still
paying attention
to this commandment
the priest
would have
wanted to
proclaim
somebody
clean
this man
now no
longer
has
leprosy
there was
a process
by which
they
identified
them
as a leper
there was
also a process
if they thought
they were healed
of leprosy
that they would
do the same
that they would
proclaim them
clean
Jesus
is on his
way
to Jerusalem
is he not?
and I believe
what he's doing
is he's sending
before him
not to
everyone
he's telling
them
don't run
around
don't run
around
run in your
mouth
but go to
the priests
and I think
what he's doing
is he's sending
a witness
of himself
to the priests
certainly this
man is going
to say
I was a leper
and now I
was made
clean by
this man
Jesus Christ
and they
would go
through the
process
of inspecting
him
and certainly
then know
he was
pre-delivering
the indictment
for their
unbelief
in Leviticus
chapter 14
we get this
prescription
for the way
this happens
and this
stuff
it's so hard
you read
these old
Levitical laws
you're like
they're supposed
to do what?
so let me see
if I can get
this right
something like
this
the leper
is examined
by a priest
two birds
are taken
and one
is killed
over running
water
in addition
they're taking
cedar
scarlet
and hyssop
these things
are taken
together
with the living
bird
dipped in
the blood
of the dead
bird
then the living
bird is allowed
to go free
now this is all
symbolic
the man
washes himself
and clothes
shaves
seven days
are allowed
to pass
and then he's
re-examined
he must then
shave his hair
again
his head
his eyebrows
certain sacrifices
are then made
consisting of
two male lambs
without blemish
one ewe lamb
three tenths of
amount of fine
flour
mingled with oil
and the restored
leper is then
touched on the tip
of the right ear
the right thumb
and the right great
toe with a mixture
of blood
and oil
finally examine
for the last time
and if the cure
is indeed real
he's allowed to go
with a certificate
that he is cleansed
right
this is an incredible
process
and I am sure
that there's a lot
of great depth
for us to understand
all of the symbols
that are contained
within
but I want you to see
that this is what
Jesus was asking
him to go do
as Moses commanded
for a proof
to them
to those priests
that he was going
to come
and preach the gospel
to and they would
end up having him
crucified
so that's the
positive command
go and do
this thing
we don't know
if he ever actually
does
we don't know
if he makes it
there or not
there's a negative
command as well
say nothing
to anyone
we can see
how he did
with this
right
it's interesting
to me
and this is another
I'm not really sure
moment
I tell you
I want to have
all the answers
to every question
you may ever have
in life
but I won't
we constantly
see Jesus
warning people
not to talk
about what he's
doing
constantly
all throughout
the bible
and you go
okay well let's
just think about
why that may be
was it that he
was trying to
delay his death
right
because he was
causing quite a
stir
those great
crowds are already
amassing around
him and following
him around
the Galilee of
the Gentiles
was not like a
highly populated
place
the desert areas
where he often
was moving through
where these people
were gathering
to meet with him
were not pleasant
places to be
you recall when he
feeds the 5,000
later the 4,000
people it's because
they came out to a
place that there
was no food
right they were
following into these
bizarro places
he was causing
quite a hubbub
so was he doing
that because he
knew it's not
quite time I
must delay I
must delay
and I can take a
little bit of
answer and comfort
in that but
God is sovereign
over all these
things right
like he knew
exactly the day
that he would die
he knew exactly
the way in
which he would
die so it
doesn't really
complete the
answer for me
but let's just
look at a couple
of other places
here in Mark
chapter 3
verse 11 and 12
and whenever the
unclean spirits
saw him they
fell down before
him and cried
out you are the
son of God
so the unclean
spirits the demons
cry out you are
the son of God
and he strictly
ordered them not
to make him known
interestingly that
we see throughout
Mark demons
being more obedient
than people to the
power of God
chapter 5 verse
43 the first
part of it
Jairus a leader
of the synagogue
his daughter was
brought back to
life if you remember
this story and
then Jesus says in
verse 43 and he
strictly charged
them that no one
should know this
chapter 7 verse 36
we see the healing
of a deaf man and
Jesus charged them
to tell no one but
the more he charged
them the more
zealously they
proclaimed it
chapter 8 verse
26 he ups the
charge after healing
a blind man and
he sent him home
saying do not
enter the village
he goes so far as
to say you're
going to tell
people so just
don't even go to
where people are
right just go home
so here again is
my very best at
this and if it
helps you I try to
confirm my guesses
amongst other
biblical scholars I
think that what
Jesus is doing here
as he's working as
he's performing
these miraculous
things to belittle
the miracles in
order to exalt the
message Jesus
heals here all
throughout the
gospels not just
people of faith
right he heals
all kinds of
people I think
that the leper
here is a great
case for that a
man who is
immediately
disobedient to
the command of
Christ I don't
believe was
regenerate hopefully
in hearing of the
gospel he did
become so later
on right so
so he he heals
and just does so
and just spreads it
and goes and goes
and goes and
these huge crowds
are gathering to
him because of the
healing not because
of the message
right as you see
him speak in
parables all
throughout the
gospels he does
so and he tells us
because he wants
people who have
ears to hear to
understand and those
who don't to have
no idea what's
going on these huge
crowds of people
that were
amassing around
because of the
miracles that he
was performing
again Jesus
ministry was not
primarily a healing
ministry right
it's a wonderful
aspect of his
ministry the
miracles he
performed but it
was rather a
preaching ministry
the miracles
validated the
message right
now in
Christendom
particularly the
blogosphere if you
pay attention to
all these things
there's a lot of
hubbub going
around about
miraculous gifts
of the spirit
and do these
things still operate
and practice in
the world
John MacArthur
had a conference
that just caused
everybody to get
into a tizzy about
it right and it's a
question worth asking
to be sure right and
I'll tell you where I
stand on this I think
that these things do
still take place but
not as the normal
practice that's what I
believe I think God
still heals people
using medicine and
doctors primarily right
but he still does
miraculous things
certainly he does I
think particularly in
places where the
gospel is being
advanced for a new
time he brings
miracles along to
validate the message
to grab people's
attention they go
whoa what is going
on this man he's
coming and he's
laying hands on
people and they're
becoming well after
they've been sick
immediately and it
validates the message
but here's the thing
that we have to be
careful about we have
to recognize that
that's what the
healing is for it's
for the message
right and a lot of
the men that run
around in the
charismatic movement
that are big leaders
of this movement
it's not about the
message it's about
the healing right
about the amazing
ways in which God
wants to bless your
life right God
wants to bless our
life with himself
right not primarily
health and he does
it sometimes but not
primarily Paul had a
thorn in his flesh we
don't know what this
thing was but he
prays three times that
God would take it away
and God says no my
grace is sufficient for
you my powers made
perfect in your
weakness right God
wants us to be weak
he wants us to be
dependent on him
last Sunday most of you
know many of you know
I wasn't here and the
reason for that is I
went on a hunting trip
but not because I went
hunting I didn't skip
out on church I love
being with you guys I
would way rather be
here than go hunting
I missed out because I
went hunting with a
mountain man who is
15 years older than me
and can hike me into
the ground and I told
him I have really
horrible knees and don't
need to be super active
and he said that's fine
because we'll either go
out on the forest service
property or we'll just
hunt out of my
property now I've gone
over to Wes's house a
few times and hunting
and when we go hunting
on Wes's property you get
to walk a hundred yards
out of his backyard and
climb up into a fixed
stand there's no wind
it's real nice got
little windows that
fold down right easy
the same weekend last
weekend Wes drank coffee
while he hunted well not
with the guy I went with
we got to his place and
it was a cabin on top
of a mountain and I
said yeah let's just
hunt out of here and he
goes okay we're gonna
go to that mountain then
and I said or we could
go to the other place
you had picked out which
which also put me on
top of a mountain I
also ended up in 20
degrees on top of a
mountain watching
squirrels that's what I
did on Saturday but I
know I know some of you
know this and some of you
don't but for about the
last 12 years I've had
really chronic
tendinitis muscle
tightness and tendinitis
that's it's agonizing
and please don't come up
to me after the service
and tell me all the ways
I should fix it because
I've tried a lot of
things we're we're
working right now with a
new kind of radical
diet to make it I
think this actually may
be the thing I need but
but it's debilitating for
me at times and certainly
when you hike me straight
up a mountain for an
hour that'll happen so I
was at home in a lot of
pain at that time and I've
prayed that God would
heal me in my mind I'd be
more effective I'd be a
better husband and a
better father I could cut
the grass more
efficiently and play
harder with the boys I
could be at church every
Sunday because I'm not I'm
at home feeling crippled on
the couch in my mind that
would be better but I'm
always drawn to this this
concept that Paul presents
to us as Jesus speaks back
to him and says my power is
made perfect in your
weakness right God keeps me
so frail because I think he
knows that I'm going to rush
off without him if I had
power and strength to
accomplish things that would
take great pride in my
physical prowess and forget
that I need him every day
and every hour right I think
I would often forget that I
am not made for this place
that I am made for an
eternal place and I'm
passing through this place
that this body is on loan and
I get to get a new one
someday praise God right I
keep hoping that I'll learn
those lessons and then God's
going to heal me we'll see
we'll see so so that's what's
going on here so we have to
recognize as we look at these
types of things these
miraculous things and
especially in the life of
Jesus that it was primarily
about the message the good
news of the coming of the
kingdom of God right that he
brought along the redemption
of our souls that's found in
him right God's light bearing
in our dark hearts that is
what Jesus came to accomplish
that was his task to seek and
to save the lost praise God we
are beneficiaries of that
great mission but the leopard
ignores this negative command
he goes out verse 45 he went
out and began to talk freely
about it and to spread the
news so that Jesus could no
longer openly enter a town but
was out in desolate places and
people were coming to him from
every quarter now again I don't
believe in any way that this this
man thwarted Jesus plans that he
gave him a command and he ignored
the command and Jesus said man
now I can't go into the towns
because people are going to
throng to me about healing and
it's not about healing it's about
the message I'm just going to
stay in desolate places certainly
our Lord knew this is what was
going to happen even as a
command of the man he knew he's
going to fail at this command but
notice the great metaphor of this
story the great metaphor of this
story the picture that Jesus trades
places with the leper the leper comes
to him from desolate places the man
was an outcast the man could have
been only around other lepers he was
cut off from the kingdom of God just
like we once were when we weren't in
Christ he was a cast off just like we
were the sickness of our sinful nature
makes us numb to the effects of it
does it not the same way leprosy makes
people numb to the pain the infection
that's going on in them makes us so so
numb to what's happening in our lives
as we sin we rot rather from the
outside in as a leopard does from the
inside out right but but because
Jesus trades places with us on the
cross he brings us in back into the
community of faith he places himself
in a desolate place where he bears the
wrath of God for our sin to make us
clean then this a precious picture this
is the thing and I went whoa I love this
text I don't just have to teach about
Christ's authority over healing or over
sickness which is an awesome thing to
preach about but I get to preach that
Jesus takes our place it's exactly what
he does with this man he lets him come
in and he goes out puts himself out in
desolate places so that we would be
welcome I want you to turn one place in
closing to Titus chapter 3 this is one of
my favorite gospel presentations it's
short and so rich
Titus right before Philemon right before
the book of Hebrews
beginning in verse 3 of chapter 3 Paul's
here instruction to to Titus for we
ourselves were once foolish all of us
every one of us we're foolish disobedient
led astray slaves to various passions and
pleasures passing our days in malice and
envy and then catch this just with in mind
the idea of this leper hated by others and
hating one another hated cast out verse 4
but when the goodness and loving kindness of
God our Savior appeared the man Jesus
Christ is what's being referred to there
the goodness and loving kindness of God
our Savior appeared he saved us not because
of works done by us in righteousness but
according to his own mercy by the washing
of regeneration and renewal of the Holy
Spirit you see the metaphor in that you see
that what he did is he made this man clean
physically but for us he makes us clean in
our hearts according to his mercy his
compassion would be a way of saying that
right not because we give proper response to
him but because he loves us he washes us
regenerates us renews us by the power of
the Spirit he makes us clean verse 6 whom he
poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ
our Savior so that being justified by his
grace we might become heirs according to
the hope of eternal life isn't that good
this picture the glory of Jesus Christ as
he shows compassion to this man and trades
places with him puts himself out in the
desolate places so that this man could be
part of the community once again I hope
this causes you to praise God for your
salvation Jesus took your place Martin
Luther called it the great exchange took
on the wrath for your unrighteousness and
gave to us his righteousness that we might
stand right the the word justified there in
verse 7 we can stand before God and when
God looks at us he sees Christ right granted
us access perfect access even though we fail
still right even as the leper is
disobedient immediately my life looks like
that sometimes I open the pages of this
wonderful book and I'm told to do
something and I walk away and I do the
opposite of that thing even though
because I've placed my faith in Christ I
stand right before God and we must this
morning ask ourselves we behold Christ
his great compassion his sovereign will his
sovereign power we appreciate that we
have to ask has that been extended to us as
individuals right has that been extended has
Christ taken my place and I can tell you
if you don't know that to be sure just
believe that it's sure right your belief is
the very evidence that it has believe that
Christ died on your behalf he is the son
of God he is exalted now and in him is the
righteousness of God let's pray together
God bless you