He Will

(Introduce the 2022 Granger MC Leadership Candidate Information)

Introduction

Intro to the series:

I’ve come to realize many Christians who are going through a difficult situation tend to hear two general lies from the Enemy: God can’t, or he won’t.

The cancer is too far along, God can’t do much about it now.

We’ve been this way for too long, God can’t fix the relationship now.

Nothing has changed, God must not care.

Nothing could be further from the truth. This was made abundantly clear to me as I was going through our Bible reading plan and came across Luke 5.

Run up:

Jesus had just called his first disciples (Luke 5:1-11)

Luke 5:12–16 (ESV)

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.

ILLUST - How many parents have needed to interrogate your kids in order to investigate some major event in your house? I try to go all “Columbo” on them as I listen to them tell their version of events. It is significant when there are similarities to their stories; it is critical when their stories line up exactly because basically, it is a miracle to have them agree on anything.

There are actually four areas in this story where all three Gospels agree almost exactly:

The Approach

This man was a leper or “full of leprosy”

Leprosy was an unattractive skin disease for which the Bible had prescribed quarantine from the rest of society (Lev 13:45–46), although the Bible did not go as far as many Jewish teachers who blamed the disease on the leper’s sin (often the sin of slander). Lepers were thus outcasts from the rest of society, the kind of people most healthy people preferred to ignore.

Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Mk 1:40–45.

Required actions of one pronounced unclean. The diseased person must live alone outside the camp, wear torn clothes, keep his or her hair disheveled, cover his or her upper lip, and cry out “unclean, unclean” (Lev 13:45–46).

- The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Guidelines regarding Skin Diseases according to the Bible)

Leprosy could be viewed as a death sentence. You were socially outcast. Your relationships were broken. You were deemed unhealthy, and many Jews believed it was a punishment for your sin. Josephus mentions lepers were regarded as dead.

Imagine the day you notice the spot. You can hide it at first, but eventually it will show. And when it does, you will be alone.

Matthew 8:2 (ESV)

2 And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”

Mark 1:40 (ESV)

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

Luke 5:12 (ESV)

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.”

The Touch

And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him,

All three Gospels with this story mention the fact that Jesus touched the man.

He touched him.

Touching a leper was forbidden, and most people would have been revolted by the thought of it.

Not Jesus. Instead, Jesus takes the time to meet this man in very place of his pain - his isolation.

How long had the leper gone without a touch?

The significance and power of the touch.

Jesus touched the untouchable.

Touching the unclean (according to the Law) made that person unclean.

But with Jesus, he touches the unclean and he makes them clean!

Jesus didn’t have to touch the man to heal him.

Jesus could have shouted from several yards away.

Jesus could have thought it and it would have happened.

The touch wasn’t necessary for physical healing, but it had a lot to do with emotional healing.

In the touch Jesus broke social barriers to say, “You are worth the risk.”

Sometimes, don’t we simply try to do the ‘one anothers’ from afar?

it’s risky to get close enough to people to touch them.

Who are the untouchables around you?

gay

opposite politics

Jesus never thought someone was beyond compassion

The Word

Go back to verse 13:

13 And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.”

There they are. Those four words stopped me dead in my tracks.

Four words. Two statements.

These are the four most important words in this story because with these four words we learn volumes about Jesus.

I’m not the only one who noticed those words:

Matthew 8:1–3 (ESV)

1 When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. 2 And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” 3 And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

Mark 1:40–41 (ESV)

40 And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” 41 Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.”

There is never a time when Jesus might say, “I will but I can’t.”

Nor is there ever a time when Jesus says, “I can but I don’t care to.”

According to the Law in Leviticus 13, he only one who could pronounce a leper clean was the priest. The priest was the anointed mediator between God and man.

But here Jesus makes the statement, “Be clean.” Jesus takes the role of the priest because he is our high priest. Jesus the Christ (Anointed One) is our mediator between God and us.

Where every other priest could only declare one clean, Jesus, the greater high priest can actually make one clean.

This is what he does in the gospel.

I love how Jesus still tells the leper to go and show himself to the priest “for a proof to them” — who’s the “them?”

not the leper — I’m sure he was able to tell he was clean.

not Jesus — Jesus didn’t need to wonder if his power was effective.

Could be priests or it could be for the general public — so he had the proper procedure to be allowed back into the town.

In order to be considered clean, the person must go to a priest. The official cleanliness ceremony includes cleaning of clothes, shaving of hair, and a ritual cleansing. Additionally, at least one lamb—if the person was too poor for multiple lambs, birds could be used as a substitution—and flour and oil must be given as an offering (Lev 14).

— The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Guidelines regarding Skin Diseases according to the Bible)

Either way, it shows Jesus did not operate around his Father’s Law but THROUGH it — with greater power. He, the rightful priest, made the man clean and sent him to the earthly priest to verify.

The Result

Matthew 8:3 (ESV)

3 And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

Mark 1:42 (ESV)

42 And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.

Luke 5:13 (ESV)

13 And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him.

This must have stunned Luke as he heard this story from those who had actually been there. As a doctor I’m sure he was wondering how leprosy just disappears.

This shows it was a miracle and not a coincidence. It didn’t just get better a few months after meeting with Jesus. immediately.

Jesus keeps his word.

When we are told we are forgiven — made clean from sin, it was immediately that we were made righteous before God. There is no waiting for out good deeds to outweigh our bad, there was no hope that somehow God MIGHT forgive in the future.

Worship Jesus even before He works on your problem.

The leper comes to Jesus, falls on his face, and begs him.

What is your response when you become “full” of your problem?

Perhaps it is to find Jesus, fall down, worship and pray

Perhaps it is to attempt your own solution first.

Perhaps there are times we expect Jesus to fix the problem BEFORE we commit fully to worship in complete submission as this leper.

“If you fix this, heal me, then I’ll dedicate my life to you.” and we make our worship contingent on the quality of Jesus’ work.

Bring it to Jesus with bold humility.

Whatever the ‘it’ is

With boldness trusting / knowing the character and compassion of Jesus

Don’t believe the lies that Jesus doesn’t care.

You can come to Jesus because of Jesus!

James says we do not have because we do not ask.

With humility leaving it in his sovereign will.

Trust the care and the power of the Savior.

Care

Jesus didn’t just compassionately touch the leper, he touches your life as well.

Jesus came in contact with the leper’s greatest problem.

Jesus came to this world and touched earth, became human in order to meet you in the middle of your greatest problem

Power

If he can rise from the dead — really, what can he NOT do?

“But this issue is REALLY bad” — Dude, I was DEAD.

Savior

Because it is really about Jesus.

Note:

We never learn the name of the leper. (Not like Paul’s conversion, etc)

We never know him more than by his problem

But he is really not the leper — at the end of the story he is ‘the man formerly known as the leper’

The focus of the story is not the leper — it’s Jesus.

That may be the focus and perhaps the purpose of your problem — to show the care and power of Jesus.

We know this is true in other cases:

John 9:1–3 (ESV)

1 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

Could it be that the whole purpose of this man’s leprosy was to show God’s glory?

Do you really think this event is the first time this man begged God to remove his leprosy?

What if God had answered him years before?

What if God had answered him before it got so bad that he was ‘full of leprosy?’

What it we viewed our circumstances as an opportunity for God to show his glory?

How would that changed your prayer?

The care and the power of Jesus evidenced in your life, your problems, your marriage, your health, your job, your anxiety, your pain may very well be the best opportunity you have to witness to someone struggling in the same area.

What if you came to Jesus today and in worship said, “Jesus, I know you care and I know you have the power, and if you will, you can:

heal me

fix the relationship

give me joy

stop the pain

Conclusion