“ONE LEPER” Luke 5:12-16
CWBC – 1/6/19
Jon Daniels
INTRO – Dictionary.com’s “Word of the Year for 2018” – “misinformation” – “false information that is spread, regardless of whether there is intent to mislead.”
- “Misinformation is what is guiding people’s choices, behaviors, & actions.”
- “If you hear a piece of misinformation enough times, you start to believe it’s information…We are stalled in the age of misinformation.”
- “The best way to change someone’s mind is to be empathetic & to do it one-on-one.”
In this age of misinformation, I want to issue a challenge to you, my brothers & sisters in Christ – the Church – the Body of Christ – the FAMILY of God. Let’s make a commitment right here at the beginning of 2019 that we are going to be bearers & sharers of TRUE information. And the TRUEST information we can share is the Gospel – that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.
Today, I am beginning a series of sermons for the month of January entitled, “Who’s Your 1?” But this is more than just 4 sermons – this is going to be the challenge for our church for this entire year. I want you to consider the impact if EACH one of us led just 1 person to Jesus this year.
- Imagine the rejoicing if 200, 300, or even 400 people came to know the Lord in 2019 b/c you & I each led just 1 person to faith in Christ this year!
- Imagine the excitement that would build throughout the next 51 weeks as more & more people were saved & were being baptized each Sunday!
- Imagine the impact this would have in families, in workplaces, in schools, in our community, state, nation, & world!
“Who’s Your 1?” – Witnessing is simply 1 saved person telling 1 lost person about the Lord.
- It’s God’s simple plan for growing His Church.
- It’s Jesus’ commission to us as His followers.
- It’s what you & I are called to do, & I want to challenge you right now to take this seriously & make the commitment right now to win 1 person to the Lord in 2019.
In this age of misinformation, it’s time for the CHURCH to speak up & speak out the TRUE information that Jesus Christ the Way, the Truth, & the Life. And as was said earlier, the best way to do that is to do it one-on-one.
EXPLANATION – Open your Bibles or your Bible app to Luke 5:12-16 (page 861 in pew Bible).
Jesus dealt w/ people one-on-one. Yes, there were times He interacted w/ large groups & large crowds of people. Our passage today tells us that this encounter w/ the leper went public & caused “great crowds” to gather to hear Him & be healed. Large crowds followed Him around as He went about His ministry. He fed the crowds of 5,000 in Matthew 14 & a crowd of 4,000 in Mark 8. He taught the crowds. He had compassion when He saw the crowds of people.
But we also see Him regularly interacting & ministering to individuals who came to Him in their times of desperation & brokenness. And that’s certainly what we see today in this passage of Scripture – this man who was “full of leprosy” (v. 12).
Leprosy was the most terrible disease in Jesus’ day. It included a variety of different serious skin diseases & was not limited to what is today called “leprosy” or Hansen’s disease. It was greatly feared as it would causes grotesque disfigurement & sometimes death.
Here are 4 things that made leprosy, not just physically painful, but emotionally & spiritually painful:
- The person w/ leprosy was considered utterly & completely unclean – both physically & spiritually. The leper could not get w/in 6 feet of any person, including their own family members. Lev. 13:45 – “The leprous person…shall wear torn clothes & let the hair of his head hang loose, & he shall cover his upper lip & cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’”
- The leper was considered dead. He was the living dead. Had to wear a black garment to be distinguished as from among the dead.
- The leper was banished as an outcast, totally ostracized from society. Was given no hope of going to heaven. Had to live alone outside the city walls.
- The leper was considered to be polluted & incurable by any human means. Leprosy could be cured by God & His power alone. (I guess it’s a good thing that Jesus showed up!)
This leper came to Jesus in his desperation & humiliation, knowing that Jesus was his only hope. When he saw Jesus, he forgot about his physical condition & his social position, & fell at Jesus’ feet. Nothing else mattered to him at this point b/c there was the possibility that he was about to receive the help that he so desperately needed. He begged Jesus to cleanse him, not heal him. He was asking for both physical & spiritual cleansing – external healing & internal healing. He knew he was dirty & defiled both inside & out. And Jesus responded to this one leper w/ a compassionate, healing, cleansing touch of His hand. Jesus did for this one leper what no one else would do or could do. No one else would touch the leper – Jesus did. No one else could heal & cleanse the leper – Jesus did. One man in desperate need encountered the One Savior who could save Him, & his life was forever changed. This leper was Jesus’ “1” at this moment.
APPLICATION – There are 3 points of application I want us to look at from this passage:
THE WIDESPREAD IMPACT OF SPIRITUAL LEPROSY – You & I have probably never encountered someone w/ physical leprosy. But we encounter people every day who are stricken w/ the spiritual leprosy of sin. One writer said, “…biblical leprosy is a powerful symbol reminding us of sin’s spread and its horrible consequences. Like leprosy, sin starts out small but can then spread, leading to other sins and causing great damage to our relationship with God and others.” (https://answersingenesis.org/biology/disease/biblical-leprosy-shedding-light-on-the-disease-that-shuns/)
Before we come to know Christ, everyone is like this leper:
- Outcast, alienated from God
- Unclean, our lives permeated by the filth of sin
- Spiritually dead w/ no hope of heaven
- Hopeless & helpless
- Empty & desperate
- No human can help us or save us
- We are polluted & incurable by any human means
- Our lives full of the sores & effects of sin
Leprosy is a stark reminder of the devastating power of sin in a person’s life. We’ve all seen it & experienced it. We see it all over our society & in our world.
- Children abused & trafficked
- Marriages wrecked due to unfaithfulness
- Drug addiction treatments facilities filled to capacity
- Wars raging everywhere across the globe
- Famine decimating multitudes of people
- Families ripped apart due to crime, addictions, deceitfulness, & rebellious children
- Pornography destroying lives of men & women, boys & girls
- Abortionists murdering unborn babies by the thousands each year
- Immorality in every shape & form runs rampant throughout our communities
Physical leprosy may not be widespread in our world, but the spiritual leprosy of sin is massive. Almost overwhelming to us sometimes. But it does not overwhelm us b/c we know this:
THE WONDERFUL LOVE OF JESUS – Jesus compassionate love for this leper was radical & countercultural. He went against all the rules of engagement for an encounter w/ a person w/ leprosy. I’m sure that if anyone saw Him getting w/in the 6-foot boundary of the leper, they had to be stunned. But then He took it even further by touching this man, which had to absolutely blow them out of the water.
And why did He do it? Simple: Jesus loved this one man. He came to save him. He came to radically transform this one man’s life, & it didn’t matter what anyone else thought about it or said about it. He was on a mission of divine love that drove Him to touch this one man, heal this one man, & cleanse this one man. And He didn’t stop w/ this one man b/c there were so many others who needed His touch of compassionate love.
THE WORK OF GOD THROUGH US – When Jesus completed His work on earth, He made it abundantly clear to His disciples that He was turning the work of spreading the Gospel over to them. The work of God that He had been doing would continue through His disciples. And now that work continues through us.
Boot camp – When my nephews went through Marine Corps boot camp at Paris Island, they walked out of there ready to go & defend our nation’s freedom, no matter what the cost. That was their mission, plain & simple.
When you walk out of here today, you have a mission, too. You are going to encounter lepers everywhere you go, & your mission is to share the Gospel w/ them, plain & simple.
- Some are going to be rich; some poor.
- Some are going to have obvious signs of spiritual leprosy; others are going to do a pretty good job of hiding their leprosy.
- Some are going to look like you; others are going to be completely different from you.
- Some will be living lives that are similar to yours; others will be in lifestyles that are wildly divergent from yours.
CONCLUSION – “Who’s Your 1?” – Will you start right now looking for your 1 – that 1 leper who needs to see & hear the love of Jesus through YOU?
- Will you make a commitment here on this first Sunday of 2019 to reach 1 person for Jesus this year?
- Or maybe you’re the leper here today & you need for Jesus to touch your life & heal you.
