Luke 5:12-15; I Will

I'm sorry Luke chapter five. I am still in Luke four.

We're making our way through the Gospel of Luke. So

maybe once I get to chapter six, I'll forget about

chapter four, or maybe not. I hope it don't. So

we're continuing the ministry of Jesus in Galilee. We last

week saw the calling and salvation of Peter on the lake,

and he's still following the directive of the Word of God.

He read in the synagogue in Nazareth from Isaiah chapter

sixty one, Verses one and two, and that there Isaiah

prophesied about the messiahs ministry, and Jesus said, I'm the guy.

I said, this is about me today. This has been

fulfilled in your hearing. He said. So. The people of Nazareth,

of course, rejected the directive of the Messiah and wanted

to kill him. The people of Capernaum challenged his adherents

to it because they wanted to keep him to themselves.

But Jesus rebuttal to the people of Capernaum was he said,

I must preach the Kingdom of God to other cities also,

for therefore I am sent. He knew exactly Heaven's will

because he knew God's word, and hence he knew God's word.

He knew that his job was to preach broadly the kingdom.

So we found him preaching and teaching in the other

cities of Galilee along the coast of the lake. And

today we come to a certain city. How wonderful it

is to trust in the Word of God for direction

and for clarity. Freedom there is in allowing it to

be our guide. Are manual for faith and practice of

the Christian life. We never really have to guess. You know. However,

this trust brings us into conflict with the world that

doesn't understand or appreciate our way or the Lord's way,

just as it did the Capernaum bunch that wanted to

keep him there with them. So the world today wants

to stifle the preaching of the Gospel and the obedience

to God's word. The Church always finds itself in conflict

with the world in every generation. And so we, you know,

hear the world's demand that women should fill pulpits and

lead churches. They say that two women or two men

in marriage relationship is perfectly normal and constitutes a family.

They confuse the definitions of gender. They say that multiple

partners in a marriage is progress, and so on and

so forth, and you know, you know the story. All

the while they dare the church to maintain its trust

in our only source for faith and practice here. Recently,

I just came across my attention this past week in Canada,

there's a bill called C nine that's making its way

through the legislature up there, which would prohibit religious speech,

clarifying it as hate speech. And didn't there's no exception

for that now. There used to be an exception in

Canada for that for preaching and Bible teaching and so forth.

Now there's not. There won't be if this passes. So

if it clarifies it at hate as hate, you can

imagine what will happen to the churches there. No matter

how the world threatens us, there are men and women

who need the ministry of Jesus. What if Jesus had

stayed in Campernaum, the people of that city would have

robbed the rest of Galilee of the ministry of Christ.

So for us we abandon the Word of God for

the trifling and shifting sands of the world. We old

rob men and women of the preaching of the Gospel.

Of course, there are men and women who may not

know yet, but who desperately need the ministry of the church.

They need the ministry of a church that follows the

order of the Word, as the command of the Savior

and as the example of Jesus teaches us. So today

we come here to chapter five, and we're going to

begin our reading here in verse twelve today, and we're

just going to read a little section here, verses twelve

through fifteen. This is about the leper there. And I'm

going to entitle my sermon today. I will let's begin

with a word of prayer, and then we'll read. Father,

we're grateful that you've given us a moment too think

of these things to meditate on your word. Lord, help

us to increase our meditation on your word during this

coming week, that we might grow stronger and stronger, and

ever stronger and taller in your word and in your faith. Lord,

bless that. And now today, Father, give me unction, and

every one of us ears to hear and eyes to see,

for we pray in Jesus' name, Amen, Verse twelve. And

it came to pass when he was in a certain city,

Behold a man full of leprosy, who's seeing Jesus, fell

on his face and besaw him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt,

thou canst make me clean. And he put forth his

hand and touched him and said, saying, I will be

thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him. And

he charged him to tell no man, but go and

show thyself to the priest and offer for thy cleansing,

according as Moses commanded for a testimony under them. But

so much the more went there a fame abroad of him,

and great multitudes came to get the other to hear

and to be healed by him of their infirmities. So

here we have the effect of preaching hearts made tender,

because you'll notice it says it came to pass when

he was in a certain city. Now we don't know

what city, because it doesn't really matter. We know that

Jesus is conducting his ministry as the Word of God

has told him to to go into the cities and

all the towns and villages and to preach. Jesus was

following this instruction of Isaiah sixty one. Still he's doing

that the cities, towns, villages, townships, Hamlets, burghs, Boroughs and Shires,

all receiving a full dose of his work in Galilee.

We don't know the time either. It says it came

to pass, so sometime after perhaps of what happened there

on the lake. We don't know how long afterwards, though,

it doesn't really matter, because every moment for Jesus Christ

was filled with following after the fill will in preaching

the good News. We do know that Jesus was doing

it in a certain city. He was preaching in that city,

just as he told the people of Capernaum, I must

go and preach the Gospel in the other cities of Galilee.

So we know that he's there doing what the Father

told him to do. So he's there in a certain city.

And you read in your Bible commentaries and so forth.

A lot of Bible commentaries say, well, this was Capernaum,

but we really don't know what city it was that

he was in. And then you see the next thing.

There behold a man full of leprosy. Okay, notice the behold,

because this is out of the ordinary. Lepers were not

allowed in the cities, especially if it was a walled city.

They weren't allowed to be in there, and so Jesus

is there in a certain city, and behold there is

a leper. And it's not just any leper, it says,

a man full of leprosy. So the word behold lets

us know that it's something to notice here. Jesus in

Capernaum was healing divers diseases, but leprosy was just not

any diver's disease. It was death, a death sentence. Luke,

as he paints this picture for us, wants to draw

our attention to this one man. And only Luke gives

us this description that he was full of leprosy. The

other gospels just say he was a leper. Either way,

it's bad, but we hear we see doctor Luke's perspective

on the matter. He diagnoses the man for us a

little bit full of leprosy. Doctor Gill and his commentary

on this passage quoted from Chambers encyclopeare on leprosy, and

Chambers access several ancient authorities on the nature of the

disease as it would have been manifested in Christ's day.

And the picture is awful and it's sickening. The body

literally tears itself apart trying to expel the disease. And

I didn't put Gil's quotations in here because they are

so disturbing. I didn't want to do that to this

moment for us, because it's a nightmare what happens to

the body under the disease of leprosy. One person in

the description of the disease said that you could put

an apple into the hand of a leoper and within

an hour it would dry up as if it had

been setting in the sun for a week. Because the

heat of the leoper's body was so great, they glowed

almost And of course the body's trying to do its job.

You know when you get a fever, that's what the

body's doing, is trying to destroy the infection. But in

this case, the disease causes the body to destroy itself.

So it's just awful, it's sickening, it's gross. The body

just literally tearing itself apart. In this man must have

been close to the last full of leprosy. The leper,

of course, was without hope of a cure. There was

no cure. In that day. He or she could do

nothing for themselves. They had to separate themselves from others

so that the disease would not spread. This was, of

course decreed by the law of Moses. They had to

cover the upper lip, they had to tear their clothes,

they had to cry out unclean when they were coming

upon a group of other people. The only relief from

the horror of this disease was certain death. And the leper,

of course, just like we've had before, is an illustration

of man's sinful state by nature justice. Peter's mother in

law couldn't rise up and ask Jesus for help because

of her fever, just as the demoniac couldn't speak for himself,

so the leper, covered with swords and rotting flesh, could

not heal himself, but was doomed to a horrible death.

These pictures of men in their pitiful state continued to

tell us of our lost condition and of his wonderful

free salvation. And you notice it says, behold, there's a

man full of leprosy. And then the next phrase, there

is who seeing Jesus, fell on his face and besought him, saying, Lord,

if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean? Don't you

just love this? What a gorgeous picture here? This is?

What is it that he saw, it says, when who's

seeing Jesus, Well, what did he see? He saw the

same thing that Peter saw. Peter had seen Jesus before.

But there went a moment up to that point on

the boat where Peter fell at Jesus' knees. Peter saw

something that they saw. This man see something. Peter saw

himself as a sinful man. The leper saw himself as

a leprous man. But not just that the leprosy that

had infected his soul. There's a difference. They both had

their eyes open, not physical eyes, but eyes of faith. Again,

the spirit of God was silently working in a heart,

drawing a man to Jesus, giving him faith to believe.

Is beautiful posture. Like Peter spoke volumes of what was

in his heart. At his feet. The tears are sown

at his feet, the roses grown at his feet, the

crowns are thrown all at his feet and at the

feet of Jesus. What a better place for prayer and

his prayer? Is, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make

me clean? Peter's prayer was depart from me, for I

am a sinful man. Oh Lord, Remember that if Peter

wanted Jesus to remove himself from the presence of such

a worthless thing as Peter was. This man, whose presence

was an obvious problem for everyone, asked Jesus to make

clean what was corrupt. Isn't it interesting that the lever

doesn't ask him to be made whole. He doesn't ask

for healing, he doesn't ask for deliverance from the disease.

He knew that Jesus could cleanse him, and that was

a thing that the law talked about, the cleansing of

the leper. Maybe he's thinking of more than just the leprosy,

of course he is. Maybe this man is considering the

leprosy of his soul. He has faith because he believes

that Jesus is the answer to the problem. He saw Jesus.

He probably never seen him before, but now he sees

him and knows exactly who he is. He humbles himself

under the will of Christ, and he's ready to accept

the answer as his will for his life. Notice how

he begins his prayer Lord. He places himself at Jesus'

feet and says, Lord, the one in control, the one

in charge, the one who made heaven and earth, the

one who made the sea and all that is in it,

the one who made the dry and land, and all

the beasts, the mountains, and the sky, the firmament in

the heaven, the stars in the sky, the moon, the sun,

and all that shows the glory of God. He comes

and bows before him and says Lord. He put and

of course the man's prayer is, if you will you

can make me clean. Notice the tender mercy of Christ.

What did Jesus say? Did Jesus step back in disgust

and say get out of here? We probably would have

done that right. Somebody runs up and they're, you know,

full of leprosy, and pieces are falling off of them

as they run up to you. You probably want to

back up and say, you know, I don't go, go

go away, we'll talk later. Not Jesus. He put forth

his hand and touched him. Here's the wonderful, eternal, gracious

mercy of Christ. Jesus put forth his hand, and can't

you just hear the crowd go when he does it.

He touches him a leper. Nobody would do that. What

a shocking scene. An untouchable man touched by the man Christ,

Jesus the leper hadn't been touched by another except for

maybe another leper. Jesus wasn't afraid. His heart overflowed in

love for the fellow. The touch was a way to

express that love. Did he have to touch him? Oh no,

he didn't have to touch him. He could have just

spoken the word and we'd have the same result. But

this man hadn't been touched in a long time. And

you know how powerful the touch can be. Just a

hand on the shoulder, A hand on a hand sometimes

can say more and do more than anything else. And

so Jesus reaches down and touches him. Jesus doesn't shy

away from us. You know, he's not afraid. He's not

afraid of our diseases. He's not afraid of our sins.

He's headed to the cross to have that same hand

nailed to the tree for our justification. What a condescension.

This is, the God of heaven and human form touching

a man of the earth, diseased and ready to die.

What divine love that is? And what did he say?

He said, I will be thou clean. Now the language

here mirrors the language of the man's prayer. The leper said,

if you will Jesus said, I will. The first pair

here there's two peyers. There's the I will and the

be thu claim. The first prayer, if you will, I will,

shows us that the man understands the authority of Christ

and places his faith in the providence of God. Jesus

acknowledged the faith of the man, and by his authority

acts providentially. You see, the man wasn't saying if as

in doubt. He was saying, whatever you want to happen

to me, Lord, Jesus, let it happen. He was asking

God to act providentially in his life, and he was

ready in that moment to accept whatever it was. If

Jesus said it, it's okay. If Jesus said no, it

would have been okay for him. He would have still said,

praise the Lord. He was willing to accept exactly what

Jesus said. That's the first peer. The second prayer, prayer

or pair of words is here. The leper said, you

can make me clean. Jesus said, be thou clean. And

if you look at these words, the language, the Greek

language is exactly the same except for the the pronoun usage.

You can make me clean, Jesus said, be thou clean.

The second pair shows us that the man understands the

power of Christ to do a thing. The words make

clean or can make is that word dunamus, which means

ability or power. He knew that Jesus had the ability

or the power to do whatever it was that needed

to be done. And here he says, if you will,

you can make me clean. Jesus said, be thou clean,

because Jesus had the power a thing that only Messiah

could do. Jesus acknowledges the faith of a man and

acts in accordance with his commission as Messiah, as the

son of God, and recreates the body of a sick

man on the spot, and notice the result. Immediately the

leprosy departed from him. What interesting language that is, Luke

chapter four, verse thirty five. When we're there in the

synagogue at Capernaum and the demon leaves, it says there

heat came out of him and hurt him not And

Luke four thirty nine. Peter's mother in law when she

had the fever, it says he stood over her and

rebuked the fever, and it left her. So the demon leaves,

the fever leaves, and then the devils when Jesus is

healing at peter door, all the devils are crying out,

You're the Christ, You're the Christ. And it says the

devils came out of many. So it's almost like we

understand it with the demons, because you know they're intelligences.

But the fever it leaves, and here the leprosy departs.

It's like it packed its bags and walked off. I

can't stay here any longer, so it packs up and

it goes. It departs. The very real separation of the

demon or the ailment from the person afflicted is observed

in these passages, and Jesus speaks, and the exodus of

the cruel thing is not in doubt, but it's certain.

And each one of these instances lets us know that

he has that power, the ability to say to the thing,

you go and it goes. He didn't have to go

to the pharmacy and wait on the prescription and go

home and wait seven days and not need better call

me back. No, Jesus said, I will be clean. And

when Jesus said be all the universe stopped and waited

for the next thing b And the leprosy's thinking, what's

gonna happen clean gone departed his power over even over

the simple use of verbs, the actions of things. Jesus

has that kind of power. And then it says he

charged him to tell no man, and of course, what

do you think is gonna happen? The irresistible urge is

to tell. You know, sometimes stories become just that, stories

that Jesus had silenced the demons, because that, you know,

Heaven's work doesn't require Hell's approval or recognition. But here

Christ teaches us number one that we must be humble.

He said, tell no man. This, what Christ has done

for us must exclude boasting on our part, because you know,

sometimes when we tell the story about how we were

born again, we kind of sneak in a little stuff

about us. It's more about us than it is about Jesus.

And I think Jesus, because this man's got a story

to tell, maybe he doesn't want him to sneak in

the stuff. He says, just don't tell anybody. He wants

him to walk in humility, because it's Christ who did

this work, not he himself. There was nothing about what

happened here that was this man's doing. He saw, but

it wasn't because he was looking to see. He saw

because the spirit of God opened his eyes. He bowed

down before Jesus because the spirit of God had placed

faith in his heart. He believed that Jesus was able,

and it didn't matter what he did or didn't do.

He still believed that Jesus was Lord. I think he

tells him not to tell because he's instructing us something

about humility here. He also, I think he's in teaching

us that we must be thankful. Our words must be

words of thanksgiving and praise to the God that heals

the leper. Also, he was being instructed to follow the

commandments laid out for the leper's recovery. So that's, you know,

there's thankfulness there as well, because he's going to have

to go back to the temple and make it offering.

And thirdly, we must keep our duty to God. Jesus

told him to go. He said, don't tell anybody, but

here's what you're gonna do. You're going to go and

you're gonna show yourself to the priest and offer for

thy cleansing, according as Moses commanded for a testimony under them. Now,

this would have involved a trip to Jerusalem, they're in Galilee.

So he's got ways to go. He's got to go

down to Jerusalem, he's got to go to the temple

so that the priest could examine him. And here's what

the law said, and we're going to look. Just if

you have your Bible there, just turn over to Leviticus

chapter fourteen, just to put your eyeballs on it real quick.

Leviticus chapter fourteen. I was reading this and I thought,

I wonder how many times? How many times do you

think the priests had to open to Leviticus fourteen and

do this? Not very many. Now, they probably knew Leviticus

thirteen by heart because there were so many lepers that

they were dealing with, putting them up and judging whether

it was leprosy and whether the garment was leprous or

the house had leprosy or whatever it was. They were

probably doing that a lot. But how many lepers came

in and said, hey, I'm I'm better, I'm healed. Probably

not very many, because it was just such a horrible

sentence of death. Probably weren't that many that happened. So

you can imagine the priest opened up to Leviticus fourteen

and said Okay, let's see what we have to do here.

So he Jesus tells him to go to the priest,

offer the cleansing that Moses commanded for a testimony under them.

So the law of the leper has found here in

Leviticus fourteen, verse two begins there in verse two. And

this shall be the law of the leper in the

day of his cleansing. Okay, what did he ask Jesus

to do to cleanse him? In the day of his cleansing,

he shall be brought unto the priest. Okay, Jesus tells him.

Number one, here's what God's word says. This is what

you're gonna do. You go to the priest. Number two.

The priest shall go forth out of the camp, and

the priest shall look and behold if the plague of

leprosy be healed in the lepers, So he has to

be examined. That's exactly what Jesus told him to do.

Show yourself to the priest. Number three. Then shall the

priest command to take him for that is to be

cleansed two birds alive and clean of the cedar wood

and scarlet and hissop. And the priest shall command that

one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel

over running water. As for the living bird, he shall

take it and the cedar, wood, the scarlet, and the hissop,

and shall dip them and the living bird in the

blood of the bird that was killed over the running water.

And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be

cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean,

and shall let the living bird loose into the open field.

So these birds represent the suffering and the resurrection of Christ.

The bird in the earth and that's killed over running water.

Remember what happened to Jesus when they put the spear

in his side? What came out blood and water for

our cleansing from our leprosy. That represents the crucifixion of Christ.

This bird, the other bird, is to be dipped in

that with wood and scarlet. The scarlet represents the blood

of Christ, and the cedar represents the cross of Christ.

The bird is be dipped in that. The man is

to be sprinkled. That is the purification of us. We

are justified by the blood of Jesus. And then the

bird is released. So there's the resurrection of Christ. In

the second bird. So all of this, this picture that's

painted here for us is all about the work of

Christ Jesus, and shows us that leprosy it's a death sentence,

but it can be healed, but only by one, by

the one who suffered and died and rose again. That's

the way it is. And so the mango and he

he you know, does all of that. It says the

priest still take the bird. The priest shall command the

birds be killed, and so forth. And then we come

down here to verse seven in Leavigus fourteen. Sprinkle the

man to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, pronounce

him clean, and let the living bird loose into the

open field. And what did Jesus say that this was

going to be. He said it was going to be

a testimony unto them. Who's the them? The priests, the

priest having probably not opened Leviticus fourteen since they learned

it as a child. Now all of a sudden they're

having to open to Leviticus fourteen and find out the

prescription for healing. And don't you know, they're asking the man,

how did how did you get healed? What happened? And

of course Jesus. I mean, the man's going to tell

him Jesus is the one who did this. So he's

testifying because Jesus had told him this. Do what the

word of God says. And as you do what the

word of God says, you're testifying to me. It will

be a testimony for them. Now what happens. Jesus gives

you this prescription to go and so forth, it says,

but so much more there went a fame abroad of him.

Now Mark tells us that the man this is in

Mark chapter one. The man went out and began to

publish it much and ablaze abroad the matter. So he's

going around telling everybody he can tell Jesus has healed me.

He goes and does that. And ladies and gentlemen, as

much as we want to say, oh, you should have

done exactly what Jesus told him to do, how could

he help it? I mean, honestly, how could he help it?

A transformed life demands some publishing, doesn't it. Yeah, And

Luke says, great multitudes came together to hear. Well, I

would guess. So if you've got a front man like

a leper who's been healed, going around telling everybody what

Jesus has done. Can't you just imagine the crowds that

showed up. And notice the order here? Notice the order.

This is the last verse. This is I've lost my place,

this is I think it's the fifteenth verse. There's Luke

chapter four. Yeah, in verse fifteen the last part, and

great multitudes came together to hear and to be healed

by him. Notice this order. Hearing is first? Why because

hearing is first in Isaiah's prophecy. The Messiah is going

to come and preach, and hearing is always first. Faith

comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

No healings without hearings, no saving without hearing. Again, this

is the order that the Word of sit down. For

Jesus ministry and for ours as well. Men and women

need to hear the preaching of the Word. As Paul

says in Romans chapter ten, that it's and faith comes

by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And

how shall they hear unless they have a preacher. So

let's let's conclude here, and I'll try to apply a

few things. First of all, just as our Savior was

obedient to the word of God, how much more should

we be. It is our only guide for faith and practice.

We must stay to it, keep to it. We must

allow it to be precious in our sight. Secondly, the

leper is an illustration of the gross corruption of sin

that infects the human race. The leper could do nothing

for himself, and no one else could either. The law

was against him, to shut him up and to exclude

him from the people of God. He had no hope

until he saw the Savior. The leper is also an

illustration of the silent work of the Spirit of God

blowing through the human heart. Just like in Peter, so

also here in this leper he placed himself with the

feet of Jesus. And then we hear the joyful sound

of faith issuing from his heart. Lord, if you will,

you can make me clean, a faith that wasn't there before,

but gifted with faith by the Spirit of God. He

cries out, and so we hear the motion of the

Spirit coming from the man. We're commanded to be humble

in our testimony. We're commanded to be thankful of all

the good things that He's given to us. And I

dare say we are not thankful enough. And we're commanded

to be dutiful to the commands of God's word. Jesus

told the man, go and do according to the law

of Moses. We too are to be dutiful to the

commands of God's word. And it is our great privilege,

ladies and gentlemen, to give a testimony to all of

Jesus' great work in us. Would you bow with me, Father,

help us, all of us lepers, Father, in need of

a savior, in need of cleansing. And if we thank you,

Father for having cleansed us by your blood, purged us

with hissop so that we could be cleaned, we thank

you for the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus. And

we ask Lord that you would, now in this moment,

as we consider these things, Father, speak to us in

our hearts. Lord, if there's one here now today who

may have seen Jesus for the first time, and pray

that they might receive him as savior. We pray in

Jesus name, Amen. M