“Faith is the Victory”

In 1 John 5:3b-5 we find the Beloved Disciple writing; For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.” (NLT)

In our text today from Luke 5 we will see such faith in action. The question we must ask ourselves is “Do I have such faith?”

Examination: (Why?)

1. Cleansing, Forgiving and Healing

Lk 5:12-26 “While he was in one of the towns, a man was there who had leprosy all over him. He saw Jesus, fell facedown, and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Reaching out his hand, Jesus touched him, saying, “I am willing; be made clean,” and immediately the leprosy left him. Then he ordered him to tell no one: “But go and show yourself to the priest, and offer what Moses commanded for your cleansing as a testimony to them.”

This was an advanced case of leprosy. If left untreated, the signs of advanced leprosy can include: Paralysis and crippling of hands and feet. Shortening of toes and fingers due to re-absorption. Chronic non-healing ulcers on the bottoms of the feet.

He didn’t have just a zit that needed popping. Also in that day people believed that leprosy was transmitted by touch, which makes Jesus’s method of healing all the more alarming to the on-lookers.

First though let’s look at the faith of the leper. He said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” He had no doubt that Jesus COULD heal him, his only doubt was that Jesus WOULD do it. In another situation a man came to Jesus on behalf of his epileptic son and said, Mk 9:22-23 ““ But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can’? Everything is possible for the one who believes.”” To which the man replied, “ I do believe! Help my unbelief!” Many of us live in the space between faith and unbelief. The good thing is that we don’t have to stay there. Jesus is willing to help WHEN WE ACKNOWLEDGE our unbelief. You can’t fake faith. Be honest with God as to where you stand in your faith and trust Him to give you the faith you need to release His power in your life.

In response to the faith of the leper Jesus touched him ( a no-no) and assured him “I’m willing.” and IMMEDIATELY he was both cleansed of leprosy and saved from sin. Jesus then told him to fulfill the Jewish law regarding lepers (Lev 13) so that he could return to normal life without people being afraid to be around him. Jesus cares about the “little things”. Also, Jesus did not want the news of this healing to impede His ministry.

“But the news about him spread even more, and large crowds would come together to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. Yet he often withdrew to deserted places and prayed.

On one of those days while he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea, and also from Jerusalem. And the Lord’s power to heal was in him.

Get the picture here. Jewish leaders from miles around had gathered at the house in Capernaum where Jesus was TEACHING. They are among those who so crowded the place that no one else could enter. They were not there to become followers of Jesus, but rather to find some fault with Him that would justify their hatred for Him. While He was teaching, He had the power of healing present in Him. I believe that power was and is ALWAYS present in Jesus, and those to whom He delegates that power. However, something must trigger the RELEASE of that power. Luke tells us what the something was.

“Just then some men came, carrying on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed. They tried to bring him in and set him down before him. Since they could not find a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on the stretcher through the roof tiles into the middle of the crowd before Jesus. Seeing their faith he said, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven.’ Jesus looked beyond the obvious need of the man (healing) to the primary need (salvation and forgiveness of sin.) It also could be that the man’s sin had contributed to his paralysis. James, the half brother of Jesus would write later, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.” (James 5:16) Also note that it was the faith of the FRIENDS that prompted the release of the healing power of Jesus…not the faith of the paralytic. This raises the question for you and me; Do we have enough faith for our lost friend or our sick friend or our lame friend that it would prompt us to lug them to Jesus because our faith knows that He will do the impossible?

Then the scribes and the Pharisees began to think to themselves, ‘Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?’

But perceiving their thoughts, Jesus replied to them, ‘Why are you thinking this in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’…he told the paralyzed man, ‘I tell you: get up, take your stretcher and go home.’ Immediately he got up before them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God. Then everyone was astounded, and they were giving glory to God. And they were filled with awe and they said, ‘We have seen incredible things today.’” Do you see that little phrase “everyone was astounded”? Who was there that day? Scribes and Pharisees from as far away as Jerusalem. Even the detractors of Jesus were astounded by His healing power and could not deny that they had seen “incredible things”. Being astounded does not lead to salvation. Total surrender does. Some of you will go out of here today saying “We heard a good sermon”, but your lives will not be changed because you have not surrendered to Christ.

2. Who is on your RSVP list?

Lk 5:27-31 “After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, “Follow me.” So, leaving everything behind, he got up and began to follow him. Then Levi hosted a grand banquet for him at his house. Now there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others who were reclining at the table with them. But the Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus replied to them, “It is not those who are healthy who need a doctor, but those who are sick.”

Levi was the name of the tax collector whose name was changed to Matthew after conversion, much like the Apostle Paul. Just as Peter, Andrew, James and John abandoned their boats and followed Jesus, Levi abandoned his lucrative position as tax collector for the same reason…to follow Jesus. What happened next is a phenomenon that should teach us something as believers. Quite often when a person surrenders to Christ the first bit of advice they get from church people is “You need to break all ties with your non-believing friends”. The problem with that is that their non-believing friends are then denied seeing the changes in the life of the new disciple and the possibility of their following suit becomes more remote. Levi (Matthew) didn’t have any friends among the Jews, except for other Jews who were in the same profession he was in. Rather than separate from them when he chose to follow Jesus, he leveraged his friendship with them to introduce them to the One who changed his life. Rather than reprimanding him for hanging out with sinners, Jesus gladly came to the party. He was roundly criticized by the Jewish leaders, and His response is one that we hear repeated often. “It is not those who are healthy who need a doctor, but those who are sick.”

You will never know as many lost people in your life as you do right after you are saved. Like Matthew, you should leverage those friendships for a chance to introduce them to Jesus.

3. New life calls for new clothes

Lk 5:32-37 “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Then they said to him, “John’s disciples fast often and say prayers, and those of the Pharisees do the same, but yours eat and drink.” Jesus said to them, “You can’t make the wedding guests fast while the groom is with them, can you? But the time will come when the groom will be taken away from them—then they will fast in those days.” He also told them a parable: “No one tears a patch from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. Otherwise, not only will he tear the new, but also the piece from the new garment will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, it will spill, and the skins will be ruined.”

In that day there were fasts that were prescribed by the Levitical law and there were fasts that were specifically related to repentance and deep prayer. In addition the Jewish leaders added fasts to display their “spirituality”; to make them look pious. Jesus burst their bubble with his answer to yet another question designed to trap Him.

Then He used their question to make a point. In a parable He said that a new life called for new clothing. He wasn’t talking about hitting the mall and buying a new wardrobe. Instead His point was “you can’t mix your new life with your old life-style.” (illustrate: Rick Caldwell’s story)

If you try to live your old life-style after surrendering to Christ, you will be miserable and your testimony will go out the window. Someone has rightly said, “No change, No Jesus.”

Application: (How should my life change?)

If you have surrendered to Jesus, does your life demonstrate the change?

Have you abandoned your old relationships and cut yourself off from those who need Jesus?

Have you realized today that you are more like the scribes and Pharisees than the healed paralytic or the called Levi? Then your need to to repent and surrender.

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