Mark 1:40-45

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.

John 21:25

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.

Luke 17 · chapter mention

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.

Job 18 · chapter mention

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

2 Samuel 3:29

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

Leviticus 13 · chapter mention

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,

Leviticus 13:45

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,

Luke 5:12

it says,

A man full of leprosy.

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,

Psalms 78:38

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,

Isaiah 49:13

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.

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

Leviticus 14 · chapter mention

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 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

Mark 3:11

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

Titus 3 · chapter mention

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