Make Me Clean
Notes
Transcript
Opening Illustration
Opening Illustration
In November of 1999 in Lubbock, Texas, Pastor Jimmy Allen, the former President of the Southern Baptist Convention, spoke about one of the greatest hurts of his life.
Lydia, his daughter-in-law and his two grandsons, had all become infected with HIV from a tainted blood transfusion received during her first pregnancy.
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However, that wasn’t the biggest hurt, though.
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They were rejected by church after church, including a their home church in Colorado...
Scott, who is Allen’s son, was fired from his job as an educational minister and his children were forced out of church daycares due to the result of his family's diagnoses.
This forced the family to move back into Jimmy Allen's home.
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In Allen’s words:
“The first man in history to reach out and voluntarily touch lepers didn’t die of leprosy.
He died at the hands of religious leaders who wouldn’t have touched a leper on a bet.”
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The hurtful treatment of Jimmy Allen’s family due to their illness was so reminiscent of the treatment of lepers in biblical times...
Lepers were outcasts who were ceremonially unclean...
In a lot of ways...
Lepers severed as an illustration of how destructive sin can be in our lives...
The way sin destroys every area of our life...
Sin ruins us and truly makes us spiritually unclean...
And there is only one person who can make us clean...
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
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So, please turn your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke.
We will conduct our study in Chapter 5 and focus on verses 12 and 16.
Our message this morning is titled, “Make Me Clean”
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This message today...
Will focus on the incredible miracle Jesus performed...
And what is symbolizes.
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So, this morning we will cover four main points:
The Desire To Be Clean...
God’s Mercy and Grace...
God’s Instruction...
And...
The Importance of Prayer.
Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Before we consider our text, please join me in prayer...
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Heavenly Father...
Holy is Your name...
We praise You and worship You for You are worthy of all glory.
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Thank You for your compassion and mercy...
When sin entered the world we recieved a death sentence...
We were without hope...
But You did not abandon us...
You did not give us what we deserve.
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Teach us your ways...
Guide us in your statues...
Keep us on the narrow path...
And protect us while we travel through the harshest of storms.
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Forgive us all our sin...
For our only contribution to salvation is the sin that Jesus paid for...
He did not have to take our place...
But in love He became a curse for us...
So we could experience eternal life.
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And it is in Jesus’s name we pray all these things...
Amen.
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Let’s turn to our text for today:
Reading of the Text
Reading of the Text
12 While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”
13 And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him.
14 And he charged him to tell no one, but “go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”
15 But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities.
16 But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.
So, let’s look at our first point...
1) The Desire To Be Clean
1) The Desire To Be Clean
Verse 12: While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”
Just like it was used in the Old Testament...
Leprosy (which is “lepras” in the Koine Greek) is a general term for a number of skin conditions...
This includes:
Boils, burns, itches, psoriasis, lupus, ringworm, and favus, and scalp conditions.
However, the most severe of those skin conditions was Hansen’s disease, which is leprosy as it is known today...
Luke’s emphasis in saying that the man was “full of leprosy” suggests this was an extremely serious case of Hansen’s disease.
Leprosy damages an individual’s skin, nerves, limbs, and eyes...
It was thought to be highly contagious and was greatly feared in the ancient world...
Leprosy not only made a person ceremonially unclean but it could be disfiguring and fatal...
Quarantine was the only defense against spread of this disease...
And lepers were required to make their appearance as repugnant as possible so that they were immediately identified.
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The MacArthur New Testament Commentary on Luke has this to say about this terrible disease:
“Leprosy attacks the skin, peripheral nerves (especially near the wrists, elbows, and knees), and mucus membrane.
It forms lesions on the skin, and can disfigure the face by collapsing the nose and causing folding of the skin (leading some to call it “lion’s disease” due to the resulting lionlike appearance of the face).
Contrary to popular belief, leprosy does not eat away the flesh.
Due to the loss of feeling (especially in the hands and feet), people with the disease wear away their extremities and faces unknowingly.
The horrible disfigurement caused by leprosy made it greatly feared, and caused lepers to be outcasts, cut off from all healthy society, for protection.”
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On top of all of these horrid effects...
Leprosy was generally regarded as a divine punishment...
And the cure of which could be effected only by God.
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Leviticus 13:45–46 has this to say about what the person with leprosy had to do:
45 “The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’
46 He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp.
Furthermore, theologian James R. Edwards has this insight for us to meditate on regarding the social effects of this illness:
“The social consequences of leprosy were perhaps worse than the illness itself, however.
Leprosy was a sentence of social ostracism.
The disease deprived victims not only of health, but of their names, occupations, social habits, families, fellowship, and worshiping communities.
Leprosy contaminated Israel’s status as a holy people (although it did not contaminate Gentiles, who were already considered unclean).
Other illnesses had to be healed, but leprosy had to be cleansed, as thrice attested in Luke 5:12–14.
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Josephus speaks of the banishment of lepers as those ‘in no way differing from a corpse.’
The reference to Miriam’s leprosy in Numbers 12:12 [which says]...
12 Let her not be as one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother’s womb.”
Prompted rabbis to speak of lepers as ‘the living dead,’ the cure of which was as difficult as raising the dead.
The reclaiming of an individual from such a fate was a supreme expression of Jesus’ messianic mission.
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Lepers were required to ‘stand at a distance’ of fifty paces from healthy society.
The law decreed that a leper’s entrance into a house contaminated it, and a leper’s standing under a tree polluted anyone who passed under it.
The approach of this man, whom Luke describes as ‘covered with leprosy,’ would therefore compromise Jesus’ ritual cleanliness.
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The leper breaks both law and social custom on the chance of being healed by Jesus.
No obstacle, not even the decrees of Torah, prevent him from coming to Jesus.
His plea, ‘Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean,’ betrays the long humiliation of his affliction.
The plea contains a germ of faith, however, for the leper does not question Jesus’ ability to save him, only his willingness to do so.
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The reference to Jesus as ‘Lord’ initially strikes the reader as ‘a respectful form of address,’ but it is probably more than that.
The title is a Lukan addition to Mark’s account, it occurs in the context of a miracle, it is accompanied by language and posture appropriate to worship, and it echoes Peter’s address to Jesus immediately before in Luke 5:8 [which we covered last Sunday].
These factors argue for a fuller christological understanding of ‘Lord’ in verse 12.”
In addition to all this that we just covered...
Lepers were forbidden to come within one hundred and fifty feet of a healthy person if the wind was blowing from the direction of the leper...
Moreover, it is documented that one rabbi refused to eat an egg bought on the same street where there was a leper...
And in another account, a rabbi advocated throwing stones at lepers to force them to keep their distance...
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This is what it was like to be a leper in the 1st century.
So Beloved, I want you to have this very vivid picture in your mind as we witness how desperate this man with leprosy really was...
In what would be considered a very reckless manner this man breaks all kinds of ceremonial law and societal law to get to Jesus...
This is a desperate man who took drastic measures to make it to the only person he saw hope in...
No one else could save him...
In fact, nobody wanted anything to do with him.
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Sin is the very same kind of illness except it is spiritual and it leads to eternal death...
Sin will wreck a person...
It will infect one’s relationships...
It will effect one’s mental health...
It will even effect one’s physical health.
Greed, lust, pride, hatred, covetousness, dishonesty, adultery, sexual immortality, homosexuality, murder, thievery, and the list goes one...
All sin will leave a trail of destruction...
And all those lost and not in right relationship with Christ are a slave to sin...
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The problem of sin can’t be solved by a single individual...
Except Jesus Christ...
And like the leper here in this account who is desperately seeking cleansing by Christ...
All those who are still slaves to this world need to desperately seeking cleansing by Christ too...
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As Pastor MacArthur puts it:
“That the leper approached Jesus in violation of rabbinic law reveals his desperation.
He was past fear, past shame, and heedless of the danger to himself or others; he literally had nothing left to lose.
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The leper’s approach to Jesus graphically illustrates penitent sinners’ approach to Him.
They come in desperation, casting aside their self-righteous efforts to save themselves as the filthy garments that they are.
They come in reverence, affirming Jesus as Lord, God, and the only Savior.
They come with a sense of urgency, knowing that ‘now is the acceptable time … now is the day of salvation.’
They come in humility, poor in spirit, deserving nothing from the sovereign and knowing they have nothing to commend themselves.
Finally, they come in faith, because ‘to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.’”
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Now, I would like to point out something else we can take away from this verse...
Please look with me at the precious words of the leper...
He said, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”
This request...
Serves as a proper model for how we make requests to God...
Notice how the leper does not doubt Christ’s ability at all...
He says “you can make me clean”...
That means the leper knows Jesus has the power and authority to cleans him of his leprosy...
Yet it is not for the leper to demand Jesus to perform any action he wants...
The leper humbly and rightly says “Lord, if you will”...
And this is in line with what Scripture teaches us of prayer...
We must understand that God is all powerful and can if He so chooses to answer our prayers with a yes...
But it is not our human will but His perfect will we should desire.
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Regarding sickness we are instructed to pray for others...
Yet the results of those prayers are entirely up to God.
Look at what it says in James 5:14:
14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
When we have those who experience illness we are to minister to them and pray for them...
Yet physical healing is not a guarantee...
Likewise, our requests to God are not guarantee to be answered in the affirmative...
Paul himself is evidence as recorded in 2 Corinthians 12:7–9:
7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.
8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Three times Paul pleaded with the Lord to take this thorn in his flesh...
Many dispute what exactly what that thorn in the flesh was but the point here is that we will not always get a yes answer from God...
Paul was an apostle and wrote the most books of the New Testament...
But God still said no...
And this was for the best...
God knows what He is doing...
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Jesus, the son of God did not receive His will...
Instead He recieved the Father’s will.
And Jesus perfectly modeled what faithful prayer should look like.
Luke 22:41–42 says this about Jesus:
41 And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed,
42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
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Not my will...
But Your will Father!
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That should be the template all our prayer requests follow.
And the leper...
As desperate as he was...
Asked Jesus for healing if it was His will.
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So, we will need to move on to the next point to see Jesus’ response.
2) God’s Mercy and Grace
2) God’s Mercy and Grace
Verse 13: And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him.
Now normally, an ordinary Jew would be expected to recoil at the intrusion of the leper as we have covered...
However, the compassion of Jesus supersedes social indignation in a completely profound way.
In Mark’s account of this same event in Mark 1:41 I want you to pay attention to the words used:
41 Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.”
Jesus was moved with pity and moved with compassion for this helpless man and his desperate plight.
Verses like Matthew 14:14 confirm that this feeling of compassion by Jesus was a pattern in His ministry that He felt for others:
14 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
And with a single word the leper is healed...
You see Church, when Jesus says “be clean” as it says in our English translation...
It is only one word in the Greek...
So, literally with just a single word the leprosy left the man...
And in Christ like fashion the healing was instantaneous and and was complete!
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Likewise, when we a sinners...
When we as enemies of God...
Humbly approach God and seek to be cleaned of the stain of sin...
If we repent, believe, and surrender to Him we will be washed new by the blood of Christ!
For Jesus is the Great Physician...
And He can bring healing to the most impossible of situations...
Both physical healing and spiritual healing.
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Now, notice this amazing fact...
Jesus touches the leper...
This act was shocking and unprecedented!
Yet Jesus is not made unclean by touching the leper...
But instead the leper is made clean by Jesus’ touch.
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No matter our past..
No matter the laundry list of sins we have committed throughout our life...
We are no able to pollute Christ...
Our sins are never going to be more than His grace...
To be touched by Jesus is to be healed.
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While on this earth...
All who physically touched Jesus or whom Jesus touched were healed of physical illness...
All those who were oppressed by demons and came to Jesus or whom Jesus came to were set free of the powers of the evil one...
And in an infinity greater manner...
All who humbly come to Jesus will be healed spiritually...
As it says in Matthew 11:28–29:
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
So, the leper’s healing truly pictures cleansing from sin...
And the leper exemplifies one who humbly approaches Jesus...
Someone in need of rest from the burdens of a rough life...
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Who here is still heavy laden?
Who here is at the end of their ropes?
Who here is barely holding on?
If you feel crushed by the pressures of this world...
Come to Jesus...
Come to the only one who can give you rest...
And if you already know Him...
Then it is just a matter of time until we all who follow Him get to enter His rest...
It is just a matter of time until we get to finally experience rest for our souls in the presence of our Savior in eternal life!
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Once we are saved...
Once we are born again...
It is not yet time to leave this earth...
We still have God’s instructions to follow...
We still have God’s commands we need to obey...
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In like manner Jesus gave some instructions to the leper...
Yet, as we will see in our next point...
Disobedience to God’s commands leads to trouble...
And this takes us to our third point.
3) God’s Instruction
3) God’s Instruction
Verses 14-15: And he charged him to tell no one, but “go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities.
Jesus gave the leper two commands...
The first was to keep miracle quiet...
We will circle pack to this...
Right now we will focus on the other command...
And the that second command was to go to the priests and follow the instructions for cleansing and to make the appropriate offerings...
As Leviticus 14:2 says:
2 “This shall be the law of the leprous person for the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought to the priest,
Within Leviticus the full details of what the leper must do is recorded...
The Reformation Study Bible presents us with a nice summary of the priests role in this manner:
“The priest is a kind of health inspector who can certify that the leper is cured, since a leper’s cleansing led to his readmission into Israel’s worshiping community.
The priest would offer the appropriate sacrifices to end the ritual defilement .”
Pastor John MacArthur adds this regarding a summary of the actual practices performed by the priest and leper:
“The process by which a cleansed leper was readmitted to society involved going to the temple for an examination by a priest, shaving, bathing, washing his clothes, offering multiple animal sacrifices, along with an offering of grain and oil.
The entire procedure lasted for eight days.
If he obeyed and went to recount to the priests how Jesus had healed him, it would be a powerful testimony to them that Jesus was indeed the Messiah and Son of God.
This testimony would be either convincing to the priests so that they would acknowledge the claims of Christ, or if they rejected Him self-indicting, since they had personally examined the miraculously healed leper.”
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So, this was one of the two commands Jesus gave the leper...
The other command was that Jesus gave was very clear and it was an important command...
He said to “tell no one” and the reason for this is that Jesus was strategic about revealing His identity as the Messiah...
Jesus also wanted to avoid the crowds of people coming to Him simply to seek healing or to witness signs and wonders without regard to the Gospel message that this healing symbolized.
In fact, In Mark’s parallel account we see how serous Jesus gave His instructions to the leper...
Mark 1:43-44 says:
43 And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once,
44 and said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”
It says Jesus sternly charged Him...
Yet, the leper did not obey...
For the very next verse in Mark’s account says in Mark 1:45:
45 But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter.
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The former leper had loose lips...
He spilled the beans...
Obviously, being healed from something like leprosy was a big deal...
And he felt like he could not help himself...
But his disobedience has consequences.
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Mark records that Jesus could no longer enter a town openly...
That means that Jesus had to stick to more desolate places to teach...
So, because of this man’s disobedience many missed out on hearing Jesus preach and teach.
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This incident serves as a further reminder why we should be obedient to God’s commands...
Even if we personally don’t see a problem...
For example. the leper may not have foreseen this result from his actions...
But disobedience to God is a recipe for disaster.
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Another detail we can pull from our passage is the priority of preaching over the miracle of healing...
Notice that Luke records when he says “great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities.”...
The reason Luke very intentionally made this statement in this particular order was to placed Jesus’ preaching ministry before His healing ministry...
As amazing as the miracles Jesus performed...
They had the purpose of pointing to truth in Jesus’ preaching and teaching...
And they served to provide evidence of Jesus’ claims as the Messiah...
But the priority has always been the Gospel message...
The priority has always been the Good News of Jesus Christ!
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Now, at this point...
Jesus is no ministering none stop...
People from everywhere are seeking Him out...
So, how does Jesus respond to the overwhelming demand by the people coming to Him to be served?
How does Jesus respond to long days from early morning to late evenings of preaching and teaching?
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The answer...
He prays!
So, let’s take a look at our fourth and final point of today’s message.
4) The Importance of Prayer
4) The Importance of Prayer
Verse 16: But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.
This was a common practice of Jesus all throughout the Gospel accounts...
In fact, in the Koine Greek of this verse that is exactly what Luke communicates..
The ESV Study Bible sheds this additional light on this verse that the original audience would have understood based on the original language of this text:
“The Greek construction indicates a continual practice and could also be translated ‘was regularly withdrawing and praying’...
(Greek imperfect verb plus two present participles);
The increasing crowds, the unceasing demands on Jesus’ time, and the fact that no one else could duplicate his ministry did not deter Jesus from spending extensive times in prayer.”
So, to put it bluntly, Beloved...
One’s hectic schedule and chaotic life is no excuse at all not to be in regular prayer with our Heavenly Father...
We need God!
We need Him every day!
We need Him every hour!
We need Him every minute!
We need Him every second!
And we need Him every millisecond!
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So, we as followers of Christ need to saturate our lives with prayer...
We need to pray in the morning...
We need to pray in the evening...
We need to pray throughout the day...
We should be praying about all our major life decisions...
Even the things we consider minor we should be praying about!
You can’t pray enough!
And to not be praying is an arrogant act!
You are communicating to God that you don’t need His input!
You are communicating that you can handle this life on your own!
But that is not true!
God is contingently with us helping us and providing for us...
As believers, we can’t be blind to this undeniable truth!
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Look what the Word of God says that Jesus did after a long day of serving the crowds...
When evening came did He just rest His head...
No one would have blamed Him...
But He didn’t do that...
Before He rested His body...
He spoke to the Father as it says in Matthew 14:23:
23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone,
Well, because Jesus would have went to sleep pretty late every day...
Did that mean that He would just sleep in?
Did that mean that He would just skip praying in the morning?
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No!
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Jesus rose up early in the morning...
While it was still dark...
So, it was real early...
And He found a quiet place to speak to the Father as it says in Mark 1:35:
35 And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.
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The apostles learned to pray from Jesus...
Just look with me at what it says in Acts 10:9:
9 The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray.
Peter would even retreat to the housetop to find a quiet place to pray...
This means that he was very intentional about having a good quality time of prayer with God the Father...
This came from observing Jesus who modeled what biblical and proper prayer practice should look like...
He instructed the disciples what to do in prayer as He said in Matthew 6:5–6:
5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
So, prayer is not meant to be this big show...
Prayer is not meant to show off one’s supposed ‘holiness’ or ‘righteousness’...
Corporate prayer and praying with one another is fine...
But most of our time in prayer needs to be done in our quiet place..
We need to be in our prayer closets and crying out to God what is on our heart...
As Hebrews 5:7 says:
7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.
With loud cries and tears Jesus prayed...
We should be praying from our hearts too!
Making sure our prayers line up with Scripture.
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And even if you feel like you don’t have the words to pray...
Even if all you can do is offer your tears up to God...
Lift up your hurts to Him...
Lift up your petitions to Him...
Seek His direction...
Seek His decrement...
And treasure the words of Romans 8:26 which says:
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
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The Holy Spirit...
knows what to pray...
So, just be faithful and meet your Heavenly Father in that quiet place and lean on Him.
Closing Illustration
Closing Illustration
So, as this message comes to a close...
I would like to share this that I came across in my study this week:
Two Christian men lived near each other.
The first was a farmer.
Since there had not been any rain for several weeks, the farmer got up one morning and prayed for rain, but there was no rain that day.
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His next-door neighbor was also up early, but he was praying that it would not rain, because he was taking an unsaved friend fishing that morning.
There was no rain that day.
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God hears both requests, but He can’t answer both with a yes.
He will do that which glorifies Him the most.
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This tale brings to mind this poem:
I asked for strength that I might achieve;
He made me weak that I might obey.
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I asked for health that I might do great things;
He gave me grace that I might do better things.
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I asked for riches that I might be happy;
He gave me poverty that I might be wise.
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I asked for power that I might have the praise of men;
He gave me weakness that I might feel a need of God.
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I asked for all things that I might enjoy life;
He gave me life that I might enjoy all things.
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I received nothing I had asked for;
He gave me all that I had hoped for.
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To God be all the glory.
Amen.
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Please join us for one more song from the Praise Band.
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