Jesus’ Authority Over Doctors, Demons, and Diseases

It's great to be with all of you this morning.

Um, if you have a Bible, let's open up actually to Genesis chapter 2.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

Genesis chapter 2.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

And let me pray for us one more time while you turn there.

Father, we are weak, sinful, frail, fragile.

We have an enemy who would like to steal the word from our minds before it can even be implanted.

Um, we need your help.

So we ask you for these next few minutes to help us to be all here, to be focused, to be undistracted, that you would fill all of us full of the Holy Spirit to hear well, to listen well, to remember, and then to leave this place and apply, Lord.

Open the eyes of our heart to behold wonderful things from your word.

We pray all this in Christ's name.

Amen.

All right, Genesis chapter two, and I want you to think about this for just a second.

What's the hardest thing going on in your life right now personally?

Maybe that's a job loss, maybe that's just a big financial loss, maybe it's a physical sickness, maybe it's not you personally, but it's a loved one that you're so close with, and they've got something going on in their life, maybe they're suffering, maybe they're far from the Lord, maybe it's a sin struggle and addiction.

What's the hardest thing that you're dealing with personally right now?

And do you ever feel like overwhelmed to the point of like, it's like I'm being oppressed?

A lot of my life is going great.

I mean, I live in America in the 21st century.

There's a lot of worse times and places to live, and yet this one thing seems so overwhelming, so painful at times, it feels like I'm a slave to the hardship, to the pain, and I can't get loose.

Well, we want to think about number one, where did all that come from?

But also, how can we be free?

Now, where did it all come from?

Genesis chapter two tells us.

We're just going to read a few verses here.

Genesis chapter two, this is the beginning of all things.

God is making the world.

And we'll start in Genesis chapter 2, verse 15.

Genesis 2:15

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to keep it.

And that word there, keep could literally be translated to guard, to protect it.

The Garden of Eden was originally like the sanctuary where God would come and meet with human beings.

And Adam, you need to guard it.

Verse 16.

And the Lord commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.

And then skip down to chapter three.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

And he said to the woman, Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?

And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die.

But the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

So God makes Adam and he gives him this warning.

You can eat of any tree out there.

It's like a it's all you can eat buffet in the whole universe, Adam.

Just one tree.

Don't eat from this one tree.

He didn't take it seriously enough.

He didn't think deeply enough about it.

Probably later that same day, we don't know for sure, but it was probably very soon.

Satan comes disguised as a serpent into the garden of God, tempts them, and really the temptation that got them was this God's not really good.

He's not really trustworthy, he's not really out for your best.

He's trying to hold you back, he's trying to keep you down.

The best pleasures, the best wisdom are in that tree.

And God's trying to keep you from it.

You want to do what's really best for yourself.

Break a few rules.

Adam didn't listen.

He sinned, he threw the whole world into chaos.

Thanks for that.

Um, and several places in the New Testament make it very clear that in that sense, Satan took over planet earth that day.

1 John 5.19 says, the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

Adam, in a sense, Adam and Eve were supposed to be like God's king and queen on planet earth, ruling it for him, and they blew it.

They weren't prepared.

God knew what was coming.

He was trying to warn Adam.

Adam didn't pay attention.

Satan takes over.

Now, flip to Mark chapter one.

We know that God is still in control.

He's sovereign, he rules all things.

And yet Satan has a lot of power to rule this world.

And what's really happening in Mark chapter one is God's like, it's time to retake planet Earth.

And he sends a one-man, a one-man invasion force, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Remember Mark 1.15, Jesus said, The kingdom is here.

And that was him saying, I'm declaring war on Satan.

I'm coming back to take back this planet from my father.

And we're going to pick up today where we left off last week, verse 21.

Mark 1.21.

And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching.

And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.

And immediately there was in the synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?

Have you come to destroy us?

I know who you are, the Holy One of God.

But Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be silent and come out of him.

And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him.

And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, What is this?

A new teaching with authority?

He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.

And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.

And immediately he left the synagogue and he entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.

Now Simon's mother-in-law lay ill with a fever.

And immediately they told him about her, and he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick and oppressed by demons.

And the whole city was gathered together at the door, and he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons, and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.

And rising very early in the morning while it was still lark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.

And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said, Everyone is looking for you.

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.

And he went throughout all of Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.

And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling, said to him, If you will, you can make me clean.

And 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 priest and offer your cleansing, what Moses commanded for a proof to them.

And 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 a desolate place, and people were coming to him from every quarter.

Now, lots going on here.

Want us to try to understand it.

The synagogue, we don't know for sure, but it probably started during the Babylonian captivity when the Jews were away from the temple, the temple had been torn down, but they were still devout.

They wanted to get together to worship, to pray, to sing, to hear the word read.

And so synagogues, in some sense, by the time Jesus came on the scene, would be a little bit like our local church.

They didn't offer temple sacrifices there.

That only happened at the temple.

But you would go there on a regular basis, on a weekly basis, and somebody would read.

There would be an explanation, there'd be prayers, there'd be songs, maybe a benediction.

But they didn't tend to have one regular local preacher.

And so they depended on equipped men and even these traveling rabbis.

And Jesus made use of this.

He goes into the synagogue and he's teaching.

When Jesus taught, instantly people realized he's not like most of the doctors of the law that teach today.

Okay.

William Hendrickson said this the scribes were corrupt and evasive.

They talked about trivialities.

They rambled.

They were dry as dust.

They didn't love people, and they quoted fallible sources.

All this oral tradition had developed over the last few hundred years before Jesus got there, of all these people trying to interpret the Old Testament law.

But what so many of the scribes in Jesus did is they didn't teach the Old Testament anymore.

They just taught the traditions, the oral traditions.

And they tried to impress one another with how many they could quote, how many obscure traditions.

And Jesus came in and he preached totally opposite.

He taught the Word of God.

He didn't talk about trivialities, he talked about the most important things like people's souls and eternity.

He was clear, he was authoritative, he was direct, he was understandable.

I won't ask for a show of hands on this one, but do any of you remember maybe times in high school, college, grad school, unfortunately, maybe even in church, where somebody's teaching and it's almost like they are trying to impress somebody with how complicated they are.

I I remember this one time in high school, overhearing a conversation between two adults, and somebody had taught a Sunday school class, and they said, Well, how was it?

And they said, Man, that guy is so smart.

And somebody said, Well, tell me why.

Uh that the guy's so smart.

He said, Well, I couldn't understand a word he said.

And he meant it as a compliment, but it's not.

Okay.

Now, somebody with a demon would typically not be allowed into the synagogue, but somehow this guy got in.

And he realizes who Jesus is.

It's the demon is speaking through the person.

I know who you are.

Why are you here?

Are you about to destroy me now?

And Jesus tells him to shut up.

Now you may think, well, look, I mean, Jesus is the Holy One of God.

The demon's giving good testimony.

Why does Jesus tell him to be quiet?

There's a couple reasons, and I'll come back to this in a minute.

But one reason is no matter what your warning proclaimed about yourself, do you want a demon to do it?

That's not very good press.

So he's saying, You be quiet.

I don't need your testimony.

He cast out the demon.

But did you notice?

Look back in verse 27 for just a second.

After the demon's been cast out, and they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, What is this a new teaching with authority?

I mean, they saw I'm tempted to do a show of hands on this, but I'm not going to.

You know, has anybody ever seen an exorcism?

But I will do this.

Imagine if you had seen an exorcism, what would you have gone home later that day talking about?

The great sermon?

Or, hey man, I just saw like this demon come out of a person.

They saw both, but what they went back to was his teaching was so powerful.

As powerful as the exorcism was, the teaching was even more powerful.

Then he leaves, right?

He's got his four men, Peter, James, John, Andrew.

He goes to Peter and Andrew's house.

Mother-in-law sick with a fever.

We don't know for sure what it was.

One commentator speculated that it may have been something as bad as malaria, the area they lived in.

She's down and out.

Jesus touches her.

He takes her by the hand.

He lifts her up.

And instantly, it's not just like the fever's gone.

She's back to normal, full strength.

She gets up, she starts serving.

And this is kind of a side note.

This is important for us, guys.

Anytime you feel like the Lord is blessing you, healing you, saving you, doing something good, lifting a problem or a burden out of your life, the most proper response is, thank you, Lord, and how can I serve you?

Right?

Blessed to be a blessing.

How can I turn around and be useful to you?

Now, this was on a Sabbath day, right?

He's been at the synagogue, and Jews had very strict laws about how far you could walk on a Sabbath.

And so once the sun goes down, Sabbath was over for them.

And it's like people are coming from everywhere, bringing their sick, bringing their demon-possessed, and Jesus is out there healing them all.

But then early the next morning, had to be a long day, had to be a long night, probably physically drained.

Early the next day, he's up early, sneaks away, finds a quiet place, a desolate place, a lonely place, so that he can pray.

Okay?

He's prioritizing that.

Peter and the apostles, they come seek him and basically are like, listen, what are you what are you doing out here by yourself, man?

You're famous.

This is amazing.

Everybody heard about the miracles you're doing, and they want more.

They're beating down the door.

This whole Messiah thing's gonna be great.

And he's like, it's not what I came for.

I came mainly to preach.

I'm too famous over here, let me go to another town where I've never been heard of to preach the word, to preach the good news there.

So they go.

And on the way, a leper comes up to him.

Now, again, if you've been in church a little while, you've probably heard about leprosy.

And probably, again, the word leprosy doesn't mean exactly what it means to us today.

It could have covered all different types of skin diseases and rashes.

But you can go, if you want to go read more about this in Leviticus chapter 13, there were laws.

Leviticus 13 · chapter mention

Part of it was about being contagious, but part of it also was about in the Old Testament, if you were going to go to temple to worship, you had to be ceremonially clean.

And part of what that meant was the temple was where God lived with his people.

And it was supposed to be a place of life and flourishing and health and thriving.

And so there weren't supposed to be any signs of the fall or death or destruction or disease there.

So if you had a visible rash, some kind of skin disease, and listen, it didn't necessarily mean that you did anything sinfully wrong.

It could just be getting sick like a lot of us do.

But you weren't allowed to go to temple.

And in fact, you weren't even allowed to live with other believers.

You had to live as an outcast.

You could live with other lepers, but not with other healthy people.

And if you saw healthy people coming along the road, you were supposed to cry, unclean, unclean.

And literally, I'm not making this up.

You had to stay six feet separate.

You didn't have to wear a mask, but you had to do a lot of other stuff, okay?

It was not a great way to have to live.

I mean, think about how ostracized you would feel.

Not just I can't go to worship and draw near to God in the most intimate fashion they had back then, but I can't even draw close to other friends and believers who are healthy.

Live alone, maybe with other sick people.

And even when I say a help, what if you see one of your loved ones, unclean, unclean?

Don't come too close.

But this leper is desperate.

He didn't keep the six-foot rule.

He runs up to Jesus and he basically says, Hey, I know that you're mighty, but I'm wondering if you're merciful.

I know you've got the power.

I've been hearing about you.

You're even famous among the lepers.

I know you have the power to heal me.

But here's where I have a little bit of doubt.

Do you have the goodwill?

Do you have the desire?

Do you have the pity?

And what it literally says is like Jesus was moved in his guts with compassion.

And he reached out and he touched the man.

This is part of what's so beautiful about the Lord Jesus Christ.

And any other human being living in that day, to reach out and touch the unclean man would have instantly made you unclean.

Now you can't go to temple.

Nobody has power over him.

He's like, When I touch you, I make you clean.

But then he tells the leper, don't tell anybody, do obey the Mosaic law, go to the priest, present yourself, let them examine you so you can be restored.

But please don't tell anybody exactly how this happened.

And it really says he sternly warned him.

Now again, that's a little strange to us.

But why?

But did you notice what happened?

The man couldn't contain himself.

So he's out there telling everybody.

Jesus' fame became so much, he's being mobbed, he can't even go into the towns anymore.

Because he's been overwhelmed.

So he's having to stay out in the desolate places now.

But in some sense, it really didn't matter because everybody was still coming to him.

Now, lots of things that we can pull from this for application.

Okay.

The first is this anytime you have an opportunity to proclaim truth to people about God, the more you use the word of God, the better.

And you may say, well, I don't teach Sunday school.

I'm not leading a small group.

Right.

This can be walking in the neighborhood with a friend, talking to them about Christ.

Having lunch with a coworker, talking to them about their spiritual life.

The more you can use the word of God, that is where there is power to transform people's lives, not in your own opinions.

Okay?

Stick to the word.

Stay tethered closely to the word.

The second thing is when you have loved ones in your life who are sick, who have problems, maybe who have sicknesses you don't understand, and you wonder, is there some sort of spiritual thing going on here?

The best thing you can do, not the only thing, listen, I'm pro-doctors, right?

I talked about going to see a doctor last week.

I'm pro-medicine.

But the best thing you can do is to pray, is to pray that God will work in my go see the doctor and pray that God would give the doctor wisdom and bless the medicine that you take.

Okay.

Third thing, I've already said this, but when you experience God's power in your life, the best thing you can do is turn around and start serving his people.

Martin Luther famously said, listen, God doesn't need your good works, but your neighbor does.

So when the Lord blesses you, bless your neighbor.

The last college student that I saw come to Christ before I quit working with Campus Outreach last year.

And I'd gotten to know him pretty well.

And then he was very far from God.

Somewhere between don't believe in God and if there is a God, I hate him.

You know those kind of people?

And just mad at the world.

And he got radically saved last year.

And then it was like, hey, spring break?

Mission trip.

After I graduate, you want to do mission trip.

What am I gonna do during the summer?

Work for a Christian organization.

Listen, does that mean everybody has to go on three mission trips this year?

No, that's not the African.

But the point is this when you really experience the goodness and the power of God in your life, you want to turn around and serve.

That's just natural.

That's just normal.

It's just fruit.

The fourth thing is this.

Every Christian should spend time alone with the Lord every single day.

If the Lord Jesus Christ, in his sinless humanity, found it necessary to wake up early and pull away and prioritize time alone with the Father in prayer, how much more necessary is that for me and you?

No, please hear me here for a second.

There's nothing in the Bible that says you have to do it first thing in the morning while it's dark.

And aren't you and I glad, right?

Although I do think that's probably the ideal time.

But please don't turn that into a legalistic rule.

Let me just be very that's that's I typically get up first thing in the morning, right?

It's like throw cold water on my face, make a cup of coffee, sit down with my Bible while it's still dark outside.

That's how I like to start my day.

It does not happen that way every day.

This morning, daylight savings time, and we had an early deacons meeting.

I didn't spend time with God this morning before I got here.

I will do it later today.

So please don't turn this into some kind of legalistic mantra.

But what's the point here?

It's got to be a priority in your life, it's got to be a sense of desperate neediness.

Why do you think Jesus was doing this?

We're not told exactly, but you look at the course of his whole life and you listen to some of his other prayers.

Here's about three things that I think Jesus was probably praying about that this morning.

The first was this thank you, Father.

Thank you for all the powerful miracles you did through me yesterday.

Thank you for filling me with the Spirit to do that.

Great way for us to pray.

Secondly, Father, provide me with all the wisdom that I'm gonna need today to do what you've called me to do.

Prepare me today.

And then thirdly, prepare me.

Protect me from the evil one.

Protect me from temptation.

Now, this is where it can get weird talking about Jesus, but the Bible's very clear.

Hebrews chapter 4, he was tempted in every single way that we are, yet without sin.

Hebrews 4 · chapter mention

The biggest temptation that I think you see when you study the life of Christ was this: skip the cross, still get the crown.

And this is what this temptation was already going on.

Because all these people are like, you're a miracle worker.

I mean, we thought you were gonna be David Part II, the Messiah, overthrow the Romans, but this you can do much more than that.

Cast out demons, heal people.

This is amazing.

We'll make you king today.

No suffering.

But he knew that's not what he came for.

And he's praying almost certainly to some degree help me stay submissive to your will and do what you've called me to today.

Now you may say, I don't believe Jesus is praying that.

Fine, here's what I can guarantee.

You need to be praying that every day.

I need to be praying that every day.

Guys, here has been the most helpful way for me to view my time alone with the Lord every morning is preparation for the battle.

Life is war.

And if you're a Christian, you're on team King Jesus.

And listen, we win in the end.

But it's gonna be a really bloody battle between now and then.

And we need to be like Adam wasn't, listening to the word of God personally, and then thinking, God, help me obey this for the next 24 hours.

Prepare for the battle every day.

Now, I think that oftentimes we are like the leper.

And here's what I mean: we know God has all power.

We know God has all wisdom.

We know God can do whatever he wants.

But we have these places of pain and suffering and hardship in our life and in those that we love.

And if we're really honest, we doubt: does God really want to help little old me?

Is God really gonna come through in a crisis for me?

That's where Satan gets us with doubt the most.

And guys, if you're struggling with those kind of doubts, the best thing you can do is spend more time in the word, in the prayer, desperately praying like this leper.

God, I need you, I need you every hour.

I need you to strengthen my faith.

I need you to encourage me, I need you to help me trust in you and not myself, and thereby obey.

Okay.

Now, I want us to think about this for a second.

If Jesus is saying, I don't mainly want to be known as a miracle worker and become so famous for that that people just come to me for the miracles, I want to primarily right now be known as a teacher.

It's like, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out this problem.

Quit doing miracles, just teach all the time.

So, why did Jesus keep doing miracles?

It's almost almost like he couldn't help himself.

He's so compassionate, he so much cares for people, even when he knows this is gonna ramp my fame up to level 10, and that's not where I want it right now, that's not where I need it.

He's like, I can't say no, basically.

I mean, parents in the room.

And if you don't, if you're not a parent, you have parents, right?

You can remember maybe the way your parents were.

Have you ever had a time I know I have with my own children where they have done something wrong, they have done something sinful, right?

There's going to be a spanking, there's gonna be consequence, there's gonna be grounding.

I'm very stern, I'm serious about it, and this is not sinful anger.

This is like the once in my lifetime I was having a spirit-filled day, right?

And I'm just being a good, just father.

And so the consequences are laid down.

And then about two days later, it's like their best friend invites them over and they want to go and they're crying.

And what?

I'm a softie.

Why?

Because I like my kids.

I love them.

I like to say yes.

It's hard to say no.

And there's some little dim, tiny reflection in there of the heart of Father God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.

They love us, they care for us, they want to bless us, even when they know sometimes we're gonna abuse it.

William Henderson again said, Jesus is constantly taking the condition of the afflicted ones to heart.

The sorrows of the people are his own sorrows.

The healing power came straight from his almighty will and his infinitely sympathetic heart.

Early in my marriage, I was a terrible husband, and there were times where maybe I'd come home from work and I had a great day.

Everything was well with the world, the sun was shining, I had some successes on the campus, I felt like a hero.

And my wife was an elementary school teacher, and I'd come home and I'd find her crying.

She did not have such a great day with the third graders.

And I'll be honest, here was my internal uh mental monologue.

Stinks for you.

I'm not letting you drag me down with that stuff, right?

Now, I don't know that I ever said that out loud because I wasn't quite that stupid, but she could probably read it in my face.

I don't want to get off into a marriage seminar, but that's the example of what not to do.

Amen.

Okay.

Figured I might get one there.

And by God's grace, I've grown.

I do a lot of marriage counseling.

The whole point is hey, to the men, if she's suffering, you better be suffering.

Suffering with her, suffering for her.

Sympathy.

And why would I say that?

Because that's the way the Lord Jesus Christ suffers with us.

Suffers for us.

Now, here's my last point of application.

Jesus was telling these people that he was ministering to.

And you know what they did?

They went out and talked about it anyway.

They couldn't contain themselves.

And you get to the end of the gospels, and Jesus tells all of us, his people, go talk about this everywhere.

And what do we tend to do?

Well, I don't want to talk about it too much.

That'd be weird.

Again, I worked for a ministry that had outreach in the name for 27 years.

If you don't share the gospel with people, you get fired.

All right?

So I was faithful, not like I was super spiritual.

And there were a lot of times that I would talk to somebody about Christ out of pure duty.

And let me just say, that's not a bad way to do it.

You understand?

If you get to heaven and there's somebody there and they're there because you led them to Christ, and you're like, hey, we're in heaven now, I gotta be honest.

When I shared the gospel with you, I was in a terrible mood and it was pure duty.

How do you think that person's gonna respond?

How dare you! They're gonna be like, I don't care.

I'm just glad I'm here, man.

I'll tell you about something that happened to me about two years ago.

Got some neighbors, very different religion.

One of the family members died.

And I went to talk to the son, and as he's explaining to me some of the ins and outs of his religion that I understand, basically said, in my religion, we're told you're not allowed to grieve for your dead loved one, or it'll make their life and the next life bad.

Now I'm realizing I gotta be real careful here with how I talk about Jesus when he just had a loved one that died in a different religion.

You understand, right?

You don't want to be like, well, let me tell you about the gospel in heaven and hell.

But guys, I couldn't contain myself.

Because at one point he just shook his head and said, I just don't think that's true.

My religion tells me it's sin to grieve for my loved one.

And literally, I was like, it's not true.

I gotta tell you about my God.

I gotta tell you about John 11 when a man died who was a friend of Jesus, and Jesus was gonna raise him from the dead, but he wept because he cares.

I wish for myself that there were more times where I was just overflowing with a sense of, I gotta speak up.

It's too good to keep to myself.

Now, I said there were multiple reasons why Jesus didn't want people telling everyone who he was at this point.

I've already mentioned a coup.

But here's really the main one, because it's gonna come up again in the Gospels, is that at this point, basically everybody, including his closest disciples, they still had a gigantic misconception of who he was.

And if they had gone out at this point and started trying to declare the gospel, it would have been some heavily militaristic, political, Jesus is king and he's gonna overthrow these evil Roman oppressors, and it's gonna be awesome.

Listen, there's an element of truth in that.

It's just not the full truth because what Jesus really came to do is throw off our sin.

Throw off the satanic oppression, which is much worse than the Romans.

See, he came in humility to accomplish the redemption of his people through his life, through his death, through his resurrection.

It hadn't happened yet.

How can they preach it yet?

Hadn't happened.

They had to follow him, they had to watch him, they had to learn, they had to understand what kind of Messiah he was, what kind of king he is, that he's a compassionate king.

He's a king that's willing to die for his enemies.

Think about this, guys.

We're almost done.

The leper is unclean.

The leper is separated from intimate worship with God.

The leper is separated even from fellowship with other believers.

And Jesus knows I touch this guy, I heal this guy, he's not gonna be able to hold it back, even if I warn him.

I'm gonna become so famous.

This guy's healed, he'll be able to go to temple again.

He'll be able to go back and have fellowship with his people, not me.

I'll have to withdraw even more.

More into desolation.

He basically reversed roles with the lepers.

And that's a little dim foreshadowing of what he was going to do on the cross when he swapped roles with us as sinners.

We deserve to be on that cross.

We deserve to have the Father stiff arm us, so to speak, punish us for our sins, to be separated, not just from intimate worship with the Father, but from everyone else as well.

And Christ went to the cross ultimately, spiritually, all alone to suffer for our sins so that we can be restored to full fellowship and intimacy with God the Father and with one another.

Let's go spread this good news.

Lord Jesus, we love you.

We're so unworthy.

Fill us full of your Holy Spirit to worship, to obey, to proclaim this truth.

Amen.