Luke Sermon

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Pastor Mike preaches at BBC.

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If you think about the power of touch, it's very, very important, handshakes, firm handshakes, fist bumps, high five, gentle touch on the shoulder, hugging people,
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I mean, speaking to Phil Howard, he would grab me by the arm sometimes and encourage and say, Michael. In Western cultures though, we don't hug a lot.
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There was a study back in the day with ethnologists and they looked at people who would sit in cafes around the world and they would record how many times they touched each other.
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I thought it was interesting. In England, the two friends over the same amount of time in the cafe touched each other zero times.
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In the United States, in bursts of enthusiasm, the report says they touched each other two times.
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In France, the number shot up in one hour, touching people to 110 times.
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And for my friends here from Puerto Rico, the friends in Puerto Rico touched each other 180 times.
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Can I get an amen? Of course, you know the studies that when babies are touched, their development increases.
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Michelangelo said, to touch can be to give life. Today we're going to look at the amazing, comforting, and wonderful touch of the
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Lord Jesus, literally and spiritually. Take your Bibles and turn to the
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Gospel of Jesus according to Luke. We're in Chapter 5, but before you go to Chapter 5, I just want you to go to Chapter 1.
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And what I'm going to do here is model for you an easy way to help you understand the
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Bible, hermeneutics, interpretation. That's our main goal, right, is to understand the
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Bible so that we can worship the Lord Jesus and think rightly about Him and to praise Him, to trust in Him.
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And one of the things you can do when you kind of parachute into a chapter, let's say here Chapter 5 of Luke, is if you take a
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Bible, any good study Bible, any good English Bible, and you just read the headers, the things in bold above the verses, and it'll kind of give you an idea of what's going on.
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And since we've had Pastor Phil here, I did a couple one -offs on Philippians, and we had other preachers come,
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Steve Meister and Sammy, I'm just going to read to you the bold headers of every paragraph in Chapters 1 through 4, and it's an easy way to catch you up.
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So let's say you want to study Matthew Chapter 8, one of the easiest ways you can do that is to go look at all the headers and lead up to Matthew Chapter 8, and then you'll know where you're parachuting into.
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So we want to just do that today as a nice review. Where are we in the Gospel of Jesus according to Luke? As you know, there's a dedication to a man named
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God -lover, Theophilus, and he wants us to be certain that we're believing in the right
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Jesus. The next heading is the birth of John the Baptist foretold, and the birth of Jesus foretold.
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Remember there was this parallel between John the Baptist and Jesus' announcement of birth, and actual birth.
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Mary visits Elizabeth, of course Mary then praises God, the Lord, in what we call the
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Magnificat. John is born. Jesus is born after Zechariah's prophecy.
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Of course the shepherds and the angels attend to the birth of Jesus. He is presented at the temple.
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You can see everything leading up to his public ministry. Is he the right one? He goes to Nazareth with his parents.
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He goes to the temple without his parents. Chapter 3, John the Baptist prepares the way because every good king has a forerunner.
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Is he having the right credentials? Chapter 3, verse 23, the genealogy of Jesus, switching the genealogy around in terms of ending with Adam and the
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Son of God in verse 38. The last Adam, Jesus, in a garden tempted?
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No, in the wilderness tempted. Will he make it where Israel failed, where we failed, where Adam failed?
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And the answer is yes. He starts off his ministry in chapter 4, verse 14. He's rejected at Nazareth.
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He heals a man that had an unclean demon and more, verse 38 and following.
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And then he starts preaching in the synagogues. And last week we saw him call his disciples and Peter responded with in chapter 5, verse 8, depart from me for I am a sinful man,
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O Lord. So that's a good way to kind of catch us up with what's going on in this account of the
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Lord Jesus. And today we'll focus on the compassion of Jesus, the willingness of Jesus to help, the power of Jesus, and the wisdom of Jesus.
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And as is our forte here, we want to talk about the Lord Jesus and that's really what Luke tries to do.
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The spotlight is on Jesus. I also will say before we look at the text in particular this morning, remember as we're learning about Jesus, it's not just a historical account because Jesus isn't dead.
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Jesus is alive. And Jesus is also what we call in theology immutable.
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He doesn't mutate. He doesn't change. He's always the same. And so that means if Jesus is ever compassionate and has shown compassion to someone like a leper, he's always compassionate.
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If he's ready to help back when he had human nature, assumed human nature will, he still is compassionate because Jesus is in heaven now, sitting at the right hand of the
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Father divine and human. If he's ever powerful, he's always powerful.
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And if he's ever wise, he's always wise. And so as I look at this man with leprosy, is it about Jesus the
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Messiah, the God -man who's able to cure leprosy? Yes. But he's also able to do all kinds of other things when people are in a trial.
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And we'll get to that a little bit later. This section here in chapter 5, we're starting to see that God is sovereign.
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He says, I'm sovereign over the Sabbath. I'm sovereign over calling Levi. I'm sovereign over calling Peter. I'm sovereign over diseases.
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I am sovereign. And once again, when you're reading the Bible, it's not just about, oh, God is sovereign.
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You're supposed to step back and think to yourself, hmm, God's sovereign over me. If he's sovereign over these people, he's sovereign over me.
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He's sovereign over my circumstances. Here in this section of Scripture, Jesus is exercising his sovereign authority.
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He makes people, and therefore he owns them, and he claims them, and he wants them to trust in him and be his disciples.
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Therefore, when you're reading this, you should be thinking along with me, oh, that's right. He's not just calling
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Levi. He's not just calling Peter. He's not just Lord of the Sabbath. He's Lord over my life. And as Christians, we realize
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Jesus is Lord. And we would like our life by the Spirit's power more and more to reflect the
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Lordship of Jesus. So when you read, Jesus is Lord over someone, don't forget to step back and think.
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The Spirit of God has this for us. So of course we see Jesus as Lord, but we see him as Lord of all, and then we remember he's
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Lord in my life as well, and we want him to be that very thing. Today we're going to look at Luke chapter 5, verses 12 through 16.
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If you'd like an outline, it's pretty simple. Let me just show you four certainties of the immutable, unchangeable
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Jesus. Four certainties. And where I'm going here, and I just said it earlier, but I say it again,
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I want you to realize that if Jesus is compassionate, willing to help, powerful and wise, in this man's trial, leprosy, well,
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I don't know about you, probably most of you don't go through trials in life, but for those that do, would it just be important for you to realize in the worst trial of your life, or any trial in your life,
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I know a few things about Jesus. Oh, we could list all kinds of attributes, but I know from this passage, he's compassionate.
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Do you need compassion when you're in a trial? I know that he's willing to help. I'm in a trial, can anybody help me?
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The doctors can't seem to help me, my friends can't seem to help me, I can't even help myself. It would be nice to know that God of the universe is willing to help, versus you do something first.
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And would it be nice to know that the God of the universe in any trial is powerful? That he can do something about it?
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It might be nice if you're compassionate, but if you don't have the power to do something, it's not going to help. And would it be nice to know that God is wise?
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And of course you realize the answer, in a trial, to understand Jesus is compassionate, willing to help, powerful and wise, that just helps me in every area.
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So I want to make sure we do two things today. See Jesus in all his glory with the leper, and see about his person and his work.
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That's what Luke wants you to do. Oh, I'm so glad I trust in that Jesus. I'm so glad he's my savior.
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I want to keep believing in him, and I'd like to be a better disciple. And if you're an unbeliever, I want you to see who's like this.
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And by the way, if you are an unbeliever, probably the Lord will so put your circumstances that you're going to see no way out in life, in a certain trial, until you think, you know, my only way out is up, looking upwardly.
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Jesus, the sovereign king, who's compassionate, willing to help, powerful and wise.
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Any idea what the four points of the outline might be today? Four certainties about Jesus, compassionate, willing to help, powerful and wise.
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You ready? All right. This is exciting. Anytime we look at the Lord Jesus. So the first certainty
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I want you to realize is, of course, that he is compassionate. I'm not using past tense because Jesus is alive.
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Jesus is compassionate. What can we learn about the Lord Jesus in this great book called
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Luke? Number one, he's compassionate, found in Luke 5, 12 through 13.
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While he, Jesus, was in one of the cities, excuse me, Luke 5, 12, there came a man full of leprosy.
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And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.
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And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, the leper, saying,
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I will be clean. And immediately, the leprosy left him.
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We're reading along the gospel of Jesus according to Luke, and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, sadly, the
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ESV doesn't include it, but it's in the Greek, it's in the New American Standard, for instance, the word behold. Stop, look and listen.
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You're kind of just walking through this passage and the next passage, and here it's one of those grab you by the shirt collar and say, okay, now don't go too fast.
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Don't just skip over this. Don't speed read this for your Bible reading, Robert Murray McShane's program, so you can check off the list.
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You would never do that, would you? Would I ever do that? I just have to read this chapter to read this chapter. It says literally in the
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Greek in Matthew 2, behold, a leper came to him. They're just strolling along the
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Sea of Galilee, and behold, we're just strolling along reading our Bible, and behold, with your own eyes, stop, settle in, say to yourself, why is this written and why is it important?
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Why doesn't he say behold all the time? Spurgeon said, behold is a word of wonder.
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It is intended to excite admiration. Wherever you see it hung out in scripture, it's like an ancient signboard signifying that there are rich wares within.
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You're at the beach, you're having fun, it's Memorial Day, it's raining in New England, and the
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Red Bull plane goes by with that big advertisement, drink Red Bull. That's kind of what we're doing.
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We're at the beach and just kind of having a nice day, and Jesus calls Peter, Jesus heals people, He casts out demons, and behold, okay, okay,
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I want to be attentive so I can understand, and I don't want to miss, I know you don't want to miss the riches of scripture found here.
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One of the things that we notice when we slow down a little bit, the Dr. Luke, Physician Luke talks like a doctor.
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Nowhere else, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, does it say he's full of leprosy.
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If you were a doctor and you saw someone covered from head to toe with leprosy at advanced stages, you would probably say things differently than Matthew would, who was a tax collector.
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Here, here, he's full of leprosy, and he's up close and personal.
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We're going to read in Luke 17 when we get there in three decades, I actually think we're going pretty fast, what number sermon do you think this is in the
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Gospel of Jesus according to Luke? Fifteen? Thirty -one? Forty -one? Or fifty -one?
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Thirty -one. So we're going at a pretty good clip. A hundred and fifty sermons is my anticipation for Luke.
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In Luke 17, remember the ten lepers that Jesus healed? They were standing at a distance.
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So one of the great things about Bible reading, and even with that word behold here, let's just slow down a little bit, he's talking like a doctor.
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He's noticing that they're not at a, that he's not at a distance like other lepers would do. There's kind of a surprise element.
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Why is this leper here? Why is he so close? Why did he just show up? Why is Luke putting this here?
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And we don't know how or why exactly, but I imagine as the Gospel of good news goes to the nooks and crannies of the world, even to the leper colonies, this leper is understanding there is one who could heal me.
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Maybe he even heard it said that Jesus earlier said, found in Matthew 7, ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be open to you, for everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be open.
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Mark says he's on his knees, he's beseeching, he's asking over and over and over. I'm asking
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Jesus, I'm asking you Jesus, with humility, dependence, and help, what's the text say again?
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He saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him. I thought the lepers are supposed to be far away.
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He breaks protocol with faith, with being pretty gutsy, with determination.
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He goes to Jesus, falls on his face, and begs him. Now when you study leprosy in general, there's all kinds of questions about it, old kind of leprosy, new kind of leprosy, but the word just means scaly.
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The skin feels scaly, it looks scaly. Even today people can not be cured totally of leprosy.
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One author said out of all the things in the Old Testament that defile the most, it was a dead body that you would touch, or you'd touch a leper, because both are essentially the same.
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Walking dead, I mean by the way kids, do you know what a zombie is? See, the kids are listening.
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Here's a zombie basically, the walking dead, and he's full of defilement, and there he is begging
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Jesus, he's on his face. When you have leprosy, it depends on what stage and what it is, but painful, numbness, your skin kind of all starts to bunch and to roll, and they say you kind of almost look like a lion.
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You smell really, really bad, and it starts to affect your vocal cords, so you just kind of gurgle.
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You can't really talk well, it's just kind of mumbling, gurgling. Ulcers on the outside of your body, ulcers on the inside of your body.
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Did I mention the odor? Very, very displeasing.
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One writer said the leper's throat becomes hoarse, and you can now not only see, feel, and smell the leper, but you can hear his rasping voice, and if you stay with him for some time, you can even imagine a peculiar taste in your mouth, probably due to the odor.
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Some of your faces. See, good job paying attention, even if it's hot in here. Eventually, it erodes your mind, mentally you're not where you are, decays physically, decays mentally, wheezing, coma, death.
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Maybe the best description of leprosy, let me read to you Numbers chapter 12, three verses.
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But when the cloud had withdrawn from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous as white as snow. And as Aaron turned toward Miriam, behold, she was leprous.
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Then Aaron said to Moses, oh my Lord, I beg you, do not account this sin to us, in which we have acted foolishly, and in which we have sinned.
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Here's my point, Numbers 12, 12, oh do not let her be like one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away.
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You want to know what a leper's like? Their flesh is half eaten away when he comes from his mother's womb.
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Now it's bad enough to have leprosy, because physically it's awful, but also there's the social stigma, you're ostracized, you're sent out, you're quarantined, you have to be by yourself.
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In addition, when you got around other people, here's what Leviticus says you're supposed to do.
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As for the leper who has the infection, his clothes shall be torn, hey, heads up, he's a leper.
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The hair of his head shall be uncovered, and he shall cover his mustache and cry, unclean, unclean.
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So when you the leper are around people, you give them a heads up, because you don't want them to get leprosy, unclean, unclean.
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You can't be a priest, cut off from the temple, cover your lip, and say, unclean, unclean.
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He's not just a leper, he's full of leprosy, all over, toward the end of his life. And then, lastly, for the disgrace, here's how people thought back in those days, here's how some people think today.
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They're like Job's friends. You have leprosy because you deserve it.
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You have leprosy because there's some sin in your life, and God is judging you with leprosy. So it's not just the physical ache, it's the social ostracization, and people now think you deserve it.
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You want to know where social distancing came from? Back in the day, they said you need to stay six feet away from people, social distancing.
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Peter sees Jesus in all his glory in the earlier section of Luke chapter 5, and on his face it says in verse 8, remember,
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Simon Peter saw it, and all the catch of the fish, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, depart from me for I'm a sinful man,
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O Lord. Peter, down on his knees, he goes, he goes, and now the leper comes up to Jesus, just like Peter, on his knees.
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I think you'd agree with me, he's desperate. I think you'd agree with me, he's probably tried all kinds of potions and concoctions.
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How can I get healed? He's imploring Jesus. Jesus is the only one that can help him.
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Other people don't even want to be around him. And again, mine is a smaller thing, but I remember being in the hospital for 16 days with COVID thinking, this is it,
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I'm dead. And the doctors would call me on the phone, they were standing outside the room,
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COVID isolation, and they call me and they say, could you tell me your symptoms, how you doing, this, that, and the other. Then they would gown up, come in, quickly put the stethoscope on my chest, say a couple things and leave because they just did not want to be around me.
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He just isolated. Charles Wesley's hymn said,
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Other refuge have I none, hangs my helpless soul on thee. That's right, for him, who else could make him clean?
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How many people here are named Kathy, Catherine? I see one. Your name means clean.
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Your name, oh, here's another. Your name means holy, pure. I just need to be cleansed.
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I just need to be cauterized, Kathy -ized. He didn't crawl up.
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He didn't sneak around. He didn't sneak up on Jesus. And with probably a wheezing, difficult, guttural thing, he cries out,
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Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.
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He did not say, I deserve it. He did not say, I'm a word faith teacher, name it and claim it.
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You owe me. None of that. With humility, with dependence on his face, worshiping,
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I need help. Now when you study the Bible, you think, how many people get healed of leprosy?
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I mentioned one earlier. Can you name one other person in all the Bible that's been healed of leprosy? Miriam, when she was sinful, she got leprosy.
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And one other person had leprosy, kind of a prominent person. We talked about him in Luke chapter 4. Naaman. Great job.
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I love pastoring you guys. Naaman the Syrian. He was healed.
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It's been probably 1 ,500 years between the Syrian Naaman and now this man getting healed.
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Nobody really gets healed of leprosy. And what did Jesus do? You want to talk about compassion?
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And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him. I will be clean.
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And immediately the leprosy left him. Just the power of touch.
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Could Jesus have said, be cleansed without touching him? Of course. Why did he touch him?
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Well, when you think about the incarnation, because he's the perfect man. He's perfectly God too. That's true. But seeing his humanity here, even using the word
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Jesus, human. You see the perfect man. The real doctor. Luke might be a good physician, but here's the great physician touching.
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Again, back to my COVID experience, just cancer is easy compared to that in my mind. The lady would come in every day at five o 'clock to take my blood.
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And no one's touched me in any kind of way, shape or form to encourage or can I pray for you or anything.
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It's just isolation. I just remember the only person that touched me was this lady. And what did she do after she touched me?
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Jammed that huge needle into my arm for the blood test. I'm just laying there and I always say, I would say the same thing every morning.
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Thank you. Could you please be kind? Moved with compassion.
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I love Jeremiah 1 .9, the Lord stretched out his hand and touched Jeremiah's mouth.
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Mark chapter one gives us insight. You know, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are similar. Mark's account says, and moved with compassion.
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Of course, if you touch, we know you're compassionate. But here the text says in Mark, and moved with compassion.
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And that's the word where we get guts. It so moves you from the inside. It's plankton is the
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Greek word and you're just moved with compassion. And every time it's used in the Bible, except one time, it's talking about God's compassion.
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Like this man's in a trial and he needs God's compassion. He needs his kindness. He's like a sheep without a shepherd.
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Jesus sees the need and his heart is stirred. He cares. Sometimes people say, well, you know,
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Jesus cares because he was on the cross. True. Amen. The pinnacle of it all. But here we see
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Jesus. What's Jesus like? He shows compassion. Here's the love of God.
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Calvin said, by his word alone, he might have healed the leper, but he applied at the same time the touch of his hand to express the feeling of compassion.
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You don't need John Calvin to know that. You just read. It's like Joseph's heart's hymn, come ye sinners poor and wretched, weak and wounded, sick and sore.
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Jesus ready stands to save you full of pity joined with power.
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And come to think of it, most people, when they touch lepers, they become defiled physically.
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They could get to leprosy and ceremonially because the Bible says if you're going to touch a leper, you have to jump through all these hoops.
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But Jesus, the holy one, the sovereign one, the compassionate one. When he touches, he doesn't get defiled.
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When he touches the undefiled become clean. I read in a commentary that there was an old man who was single.
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His wife had died and he went and got his hair cut every week just so somebody would touch him.
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And then I read the compassion of Jesus even found back in the Old Testament. The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious.
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Psalm 116. Yes, our God is compassionate. James 511. The Lord is full of compassion and merciful.
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He shows compassion by dealing with it. He shows compassion by touching. And he shows compassion, too, in my mind, to complete healing.
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This is not, well, you're going to be better in a week or something like that. Move with compassion, stretches out his hand and completely heals the leper.
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I wonder when the last time this leper was touched. When was this leper last touched?
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Here we see the incarnate Jesus, compassionate, absorbing all uncleanness.
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And so as we're working through, remember, in the text, we're specifically dealing with Jesus and the leper.
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You want to know if he's the Messiah or not? You want to know if he's certain Luke 1, 4 and 4? Of course he's got to be the
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Messiah. No one cleanses the leper by touch. But also we see here is compassion.
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And even this last week, I thought to myself, in a trial, you need compassion.
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You want somebody to come alongside and sympathy and empathy. I probably haven't been so tired with my treatment that I have in the last week.
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I hate to admit this, but I'll do it in front of you. Not that it's being recorded or anything or on live TV or live YouTube.
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Two times this week, I had to take two naps. Just exhausted. On the same day, two naps.
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And I literally, before I took the naps, I said to myself, the Lord, Jesus was so compassionate for a leper.
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Maybe no one else really knows, but Jesus is compassionate. Isn't that good to know? You're in a trial and you think, this is showing me the person.
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And you go, well, this is not an epistle saying Jesus is compassionate to you. I know. That's why
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I'm the pastor and you're not. We're learning about who
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Jesus is. His person. Because we don't want to take his person and his benefits and slice them apart.
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The one who gave you salvation is the one who's compassionate. And even if I were to ask you, think back about your salvation.
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Did you need the compassion of Jesus when you had spiritual leprosy? Defiled, contaminated, polluted, unclean, unclean.
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Maybe not in front of other people, but before a thrice holy God, knowing your sin, knowing my sin. We needed a compassionate
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Savior. Holiness is great. Sovereignty is wonderful. Dominion and authority are musts.
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Because you see he's a real man. More than a man, but a real man. And you think, you know what?
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I'm getting it. I see his character. I see his nature. How does Jesus deal with a leper?
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Not only that, he's compassionate. He's number two, willing to help the needy.
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He's not just compassionate. He's willing to help. It'd be one thing if you had one without the other.
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But here we see, back in the text, chapter 5, verse 13, he stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, I will be clean.
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And immediately the leprosy left him. And you notice the posture of the leper, the leper.
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I had an old pastor back in California, and his first language was in English. And so he would say things about, can a leper change his spots?
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The answer is no, but neither can leopards. I was all laughing about it. Here's this person that can't make the difference between leper and leopard.
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And then when I sent in a manuscript for the book, Jesus Christ, the Prince of Preachers, it said in my manuscript,
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Jesus healed 10 lepers. And in the book, when it came out, published by the publisher, it said
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Jesus healed 10 lepers. Wait, wait, 10 leopards, sorry. See how easy that is to do? If you're willing.
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You have the power, but I don't know if you want to. See the difference? F .F.
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Bruce, men more easily believe in miraculous power than in miraculous love.
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He's powerful. He's the Messiah. All the fish, all the demons, all the healing that just happened earlier in chapters 1 through 3, 4, but I don't know if he wants to.
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And by the way, remember, he called him Lord. The leper called Jesus Lord. You're sovereign.
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You do what you want. You owe me nothing is the posture of the leper. I'm asking you,
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Jesus, to do something you haven't done for 1 ,000 years, 1 ,500 years. I know you can if you want to.
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I just don't know if you want to. And Jesus responds with, I will. Because he's compassionate.
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He's the Messiah. He's come to do what Isaiah prophesied of. In Isaiah chapter 29,
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Isaiah chapter 35, also found in Luke chapter 4, he's come to bring good tidings. He's come to heal.
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He's come to make everything right. J .C. Ryle said, these two little words,
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I will, deserve special notice. They're a deep mind, rich in comfort and encouragement to all laboring and heavy -laden souls.
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I will. And even, and I'm sitting here thinking to myself, yes, I'm learning about Jesus, but I'm learning about the immutable
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Jesus, and he's compassionate to people in need, and he's willing to help, especially
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Christians, right? Because if Jesus gives you the best gift, salvation, through his crucifixion, via the resurrection, won't he give you other little gifts that are much smaller than that?
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Of course, that's Romans 8, 32, as you know. I know you can, will you?
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The ability without the will isn't going to work. I want to make you,
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I want to have you make me clean. Listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 11.
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If you want to know if Jesus is willing to help sinners, come to me, all who are weary and heavy -laden, and I'll give you rest.
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Take my yoke upon you, learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
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You work through and you think Jesus is not only compassionate, he's willing to help. And when you think about your own salvation, the willingness of God, there's one will that's going to get you to heaven.
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Because our will is bound, our will is full of sin, we're dead, and trespasses and sins, and our will is tied to our nature, and our nature's sinful, and so we're going to need the
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God of the universe to say, I will to be saved. And by the way, when you look at your own salvation, you'll say certainly with me, my
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God is compassionate, and he saved me, and my God was willing to save me, the unlovable.
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Well not only that, he's powerful. Know for certain congregation he's compassionate, willing to help, and third, he's powerful.
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To say it again in verse 13, he stretched out his hand, touched him, I will be clean, and immediately the leprosy left him.
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Let there be light, there was light. Says stars go to heaven, they're in heaven.
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And now he says, it's gone, it's divine fiat, not one speck of the disease was left.
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He heals the demoniac, now the demoniac has a right mind, he heals the leprosy, it's gone, complete cure.
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Now remember, smells, face, gurgling, corruption, putrefaction, he's healed.
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When you get a cold, you slowly get better. Here, instantly, organically, awesomely, spectacularly, undeniably.
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The rabbis used to say, the only thing that comes close to raising people from the dead is healing a leper, and now
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Jesus does that very thing. The most loathsome disease, having the most socially awkward stigma,
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Jesus powerfully heals. Just like when that lady touched
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Jesus, who had the issue with blood, and it says immediately the flow of blood was dried up.
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Like the centurion, who had a servant, it says he was healed that very hour.
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Jesus heals spectacularly, organically, instantaneously, undeniably.
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You bring in the CNN cameras, they would all say, yes he healed. We might not know how he healed, but in fact, he did.
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We see here the power of Jesus. You could see, thinking about the incarnation, the compassion of Jesus, you think about the deity here, the great
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I am, the Lord Jesus, truly God, truly man. This is the Jesus that said in John chapter 8,
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I said therefore to you that you shall die in your sins, unless you believe that I am, you shall die in your sins.
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Jesus is showing, yes, his humanity, but his deity in Luke chapter 5. And that's why
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I rest in the fact that when I'm in a trial, I say to myself, or I'm thinking about a loved one that's not saved,
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I know a lot about Jesus, but I particularly know from Luke 5, he's powerful, he's able to help, and he's compassionate.
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And then lastly, number four, he's wise. You say, what in the world, how'd you get wise out of this?
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Yes, we know Jesus is wise, but does the text teach that? There's a great book by Greg Beal called,
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Write Doctrines from Wrong Texts, where what you say is true, but you got it from someplace else in the
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Bible. Does it show it here? So the background of the next few verses is, if somebody did get healed from leprosy, they had to go to the priest and make sacrifices and do what
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Levitical law said before he was welcomed back again, because then the priest could sacrifice, they could authenticate the miracle, et cetera.
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I wonder if Jesus is going to say, go keep the law, go break the law. Well, he's wise and he knows, so verse 14, and he charged him to tell no one.
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Can you imagine? Would you be excited telling everybody, I'm not a leper. Going to find your wife.
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I'm no longer a leper. Go and show yourself instead to the priest.
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Make an offering for your cleansing as Moses commanded. So for two reasons, offering for cleansing, thank you
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Lord for cleaning me and to substantiate my powers and for a proof to them.
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Don't say anything to anyone until you go to the priest. Then after that, you can talk. There's some clerical work to be done.
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There's some paperwork that needs to be done and it's called Leviticus. Jesus is in his wisdom, of course, upholds the law.
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He's a fulfiller of the law. He's never against God's law. Don't tell anyone until you go show them.
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Did he keep quiet by the way? Mark 1, 43,
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Jesus warns him again. He sternly warned him and immediately sent him away. I wonder if he's going to keep quiet.
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I don't think so, but the focus isn't on him. The focus is on the Lord Jesus.
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Go show yourself to the priest. Offer the gift that Moses commanded as a proof to them. It's one of my favorite theologians,
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S. Lewis Johnson, who's in glory now. He says, basically, probably what happened is the leper comes to the priest and the priest say, yeah,
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I know somewhere in the Bible that there are some instructions about cleaning lepers, but I have no idea where it is.
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They're just flipping through the scrolls as it were to try to find this because they never ever use it. He's truly
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God. He's truly man. Verse 15, but now even more the report about him went abroad and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their affirmanies.
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And Jesus, as was his custom, here's more wisdom and he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.
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Psalm 107, then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble. He saved them out of their distresses. He sent his word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions.
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Let them give thanks to the Lord for his loving kindness and for his wonders to the sons of men.
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There are many ways we can look at the wisdom of the Lord Jesus. Here he's wise to say, listen, before you go spreading all this word, go talk to the priest and it's very wise to go seek the face of the
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Father. Did I mention that Jesus is compassionate, willing to help, powerful and wise?
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I think I did because that's what the text is trying to show you among other things. And all of a sudden, so you say, okay, the main thing he's trying to teach me is this has to be the
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Messiah, Luke 1, 4, because only Jesus can heal lepers. He'll go on to say that in Luke chapter 7.
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John the Baptist says, I don't know if you're the right one or not. And Jesus said to John's disciples, you go tell
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John, I'm going to heal lepers and have. He is the one. But secondly,
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I just want you to realize you see Jesus in the Gospels and then you see your troubles through the lens of who
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Jesus is. Do you think I'm married and have problems? I want to be married. I have finance problems.
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I have health issues. I have all these things. I want you to look at your problems through the lens of this
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Jesus because it's going to help you. And I also want to say if you're not a
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Christian, you've got something worse than leprosy. You have spiritual leprosy.
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And the good news about leprosy is it doesn't last forever on earth. If you have it and when you die, it's over. But spiritual leprosy without cleansing, without the blood of the
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Lamb, without the Lord Jesus, can you imagine being in hell wishing you would be alive and have leprosy because it would be so much better.
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And therefore I offer you by simply believing in the Lord Jesus, a Jesus who is compassionate to sinners like you, even though you've put your fist in His face for years, and a
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Jesus who is so powerful He can still save sinners no matter what kind of sin. Even as Pastor Steve said, is there any sin that God can't forgive?
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Well, you don't know how sinful I am. I don't think I could ever be forgiven. And then I say, well, the question isn't you. It's a question of the compassionate, willing, powerful, wise
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Savior who said, just come to me. So if you're an outcast in God's eyes today as an unbeliever, join with us as redeemed people.
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We know exactly what it was like. And we're not even better than you. We're recipients of divine grace.
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We've experienced the touch of Jesus. There's that old hymn, He touched me and He made me whole.
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Literally the leper and now figuratively every Christian has been touched by God. From sinful, ugly, loathsome, to a child who can say to God, Abba, Father.
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Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us. And so we not only command you to believe in Jesus, we invite you and we tell you, who could be a
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God like this? Who could be compassionate like this? You've never met anyone more compassionate. I was thinking yesterday with Kim, my mom's been dead for 15 years.
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I'm thinking she seemed to be one of the most compassionate people I've ever been around. Who could be more compassionate than her?
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I watched my wife and my children. I think, okay, a close tie. Don't you need compassion?
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In a world of angry angst, I'm going to kill you. To who's compassionate?
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And don't you want that compassion to have power as well, to bestow it on all those who would believe? Of course.
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We here testify to God. And now we want to go back to the priest as it were, to confirm and to say, thank you.
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It's a thank offering because of what you've done for me. Jesus said, all that the
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Father gives me shall come to me, and the one who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out. So unbeliever, go.
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He's compassionate, he's willing to help, he's powerful, he's wise. What a great passage because it's talking about the great
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Savior, the Lord Jesus. Jesus, I leave you with two hymns.
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Charles Wesley, He breaks the power of canceled sin, He sets the prisoner free.
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His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood avail for me.
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And a man named Jerry Bowie said, My sins were scarlet, they were a burden to me. My eyes were so blinded that I could not see.
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Then I heard of Christ dying on Calvary, and my soul stirred to life deep inside me. I wondered if Jesus would have compassion on me.
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I asked Him if He was willing, and He said, Be thou clean. O sinner, come unto me,
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I am willing, be thou clean. I asked Jesus if He was willing, and He said, Be thou clean.
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My sins, O how many, pierced my soul like a dart. Foul leprosy within seemed to stain every part.
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I wondered if it were possible to make a new start, and then God's gracious love came and filled my heart.
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I was like a black sheep that had wandered astray. I had rebelled against God, I'd gone my own way.
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Then in repentance fell on my knees to pray, and Christ's precious blood washed all my sins away.
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If you are weighed down by the sin's constant blame, overwhelmed and grieved by the burden of shame, take a look at the
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Savior. There's a reason He came. He died for your sins. Hear Him calling your name.
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Let's pray. Father, I thank You for sending the Lord Jesus, our compassionate, willing, powerful, wise
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Savior. For the Christians here today, Father, would You give them, would You give me, thankful hearts, who's a
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Savior like Jesus, being thankful for our salvation, free to us, costly to Jesus.
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And for those that aren't believers here today, would You convict them of their sin by the Spirit's power, and then convict them that Jesus is the risen