Title: “Jesus Cleanses a Leper” Scripture: Lk. 5:12-16
Type: Series life of Christ Where: 2-4-23
Intro: Have you ever been around someone who was filthy, but who did not seem to be aware of his condition? How would you like it if that person were your doctor? Just as he is about to examine you, you notice that his hands are grimy and caked with blood. Do you know that as recently as 150 years ago, medical doctors did not know that infection is spread by dirty hands and filthy environments? The finest hospitals in Europe were losing 1 in 5 women after childbirth to what they called “childbed fever.” A doctor’s daily routine would begin in the dissecting room where he performed autopsies. From there he made his way to the hospital to examine expectant mothers without ever washing his hands! In fact, surgeons prided themselves on NEVER washing their surgery coats because it demonstrated their experience! Has anyone ever used Listerine? Powerful stuff! Parents used to make us gargle when had sore throat. Named after Joseph Lister, a British physician who in the middle of the 19th century, to the consternation and disapproval of peers, introduced the principle of antiseptic surgical care and wound management while working as a surgeon at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Lister introduced phenol to sterilize surgical instruments, the patient's skin, sutures, the surgeon's hands and the ward. Immediately Lister’s patient’s death rates dropped to 1/10th of the average! Today we are all grateful. People outside of Christ are spiritually defiled, caked with years of filthy sins, but they are oblivious to their need for cleansing. Every day their minds are filled with pride, lust, greed, jealousy, anger, hatred, vengeance, ingratitude, and a host of other sins. Their lips spread damaging gossip, they distort the truth when it is to their own advantage, they tell off-color jokes, their common speech is punctuated with filthy words, and they even take the holy name of the Lord in vain. Their behavior is motivated by whatever is to their own advantage, even if it hurts others. And yet, if you ask such a person, “Why should God let you into heaven?” invariably he will answer, “Because I’m a basically good person.” Unbelieving doctors of Lister’s era needed a microscope to see the connection bt bacteria and infection. The person outside of Christ needs the Holy Spirit and the WOG to open his/her eyes to their filthy condition before a Holy God. (Illust idea from Steven Cole sermon)
Prop: Exam. Lk 5:12-16 we’ll realize 3 important elements about Jesus in the Cleansing of the Leper.
BG 1. Our text shows us a leper who came to Jesus for cleansing. In the Bible, leprosy is a dreaded disease that is a picture of sin
2.
Prop: Exam. Lk 5:12-16 we’ll see 3 Important elements about Jesus in the Cleansing of the Leper.
I. Jesus is Willing to Engage People Whom Others Consider Outcasts.
A. A Leper Comes to Christ for Cleansing.
1. A filthy and ceremonial defiled Leper came to Christ for Cleansing.
a. This is alluded to in our text by the fact that the leper does not ask for healing, but for cleansing, which Jesus granted. The words “clean,” “cleansed,” and “cleansing” occur three times (5:12-14) to underscore the analogy. Leprosy rendered a man ceremonially defiled, so that if he was healed, he still had to go to the priest and carry out an extensive ritual of cleansing before he could be accepted back into the religious community and worship.
b. What was leprosy? If you are not medical or have not read the Bible very much may not know. In the Bible, “leprosy” could be anything from a minor skin discoloration that would clear up on its on in time to what we now call Hansen’s disease. In its most cruel form nodules would grow on the body and then break open emitting a foul odor, hair would fall out, eyes would begin to be somewhat fixed, vocal chords ulcerated and hoarse, wheezing breath, loss of feeling in extremities, body parts fall off, insanity begin to set in…over the space of years! Years in this condition in which a man or woman died by inches.
2. How would this man’s Leprosy have affected his life?
a. In the Jewish community at the time of Christ, a person with leprosy was completely cut off from society. Cast out of homes, out of synagogue, markets, had to live alone or with other lepers. If seen in public without announcing presence with shouts or bells, fearful citizens would hurl stones at them. He had to wear torn clothing, have his head uncovered, cover his lips and shout “Unclean! Unclean!” wherever he went to warn others to keep their distance (Lev. 13:45).
b. Because of Luke’s distinction (v.12), where he says “full of leprosy”. Obviously the disease was in advanced stages. He was desperate enough to break the taboo and approach Christ, falling on his knees before Him, begging, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” I imagine the disciples recoiling with a gasp of fear at being so near to this diseased man.
B. Jesus was Willing to Cleanse this Leprous Man.
1. Jesus accepted a man everyone else ran from.
a. Think about how sad and lonely this man’s life must have been. Cut off from family. When was the last time he had touched another person or felt the touch of another person. His case, however, was advanced as Dr. Luke tells us, and he comes though with incredible faith to Jesus and says: “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Think of the faith that man is displaying. He is in the advanced stages of a terminal condition and he is testifying to his faith in the power of Christ for cleansing!
b. Notice the awesome response of our Lord: “I am willing, be cleansed.” Let that sink in! Wow! The first good news this man has heard in years! The Lord is willing! God hears my pleading and extends his mercy.
2. Jesus Is Still Willing to Cleanse the Unclean Today.
a. Illust: There are many in our culture today that people would consider “unclean”, a societal “leper” or pariah. To conservative Christians the Transgender or Homo/Lesbian, the abortion clinic worker, maybe the sex trafficker. Back in the 1980’s individuals with AIDS. To liberals it might be the White Nationalist or the local Police or the hedge fund manager or God forbid a MAGA person. To others it may be the homeless man or the gang member, or the individual with mental health issues, child pornographer. We are quick to notice the “one” who isn’t like “us”, and by doing such it becomes easy to dehumanize them and criticize them and consider selves better than them.
b. Who is the unclean today? Who is the leper? I am. You are. When we look out at others so as to point out just how unclean and leprous they are, we prove just how filthy and vile we are! But friend, there is hope! “Come let us reason together, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow, though they be crimson, they shall be as wool.” Christ offers you cleansing today as well! From the inside out! Turn to Him.
c. Applic: Ask God to show you one person who is what society would label an “outcast”. Then, ask God to give you the love of Christ for that individual.
II. Jesus is Willing to Love Those Others Reject.
A. Jesus Touches an Unclean Leper v. 13
1. An Unclean Leper comes to the Savior for Cleansing.
a. The man’s statement to Jesus is telling; ‘Lord, if you will, you can make me clean’. He had no doubt that Jesus possessed the power to do it, and so he brought the request to him. According to the Old Testament law, this was not the way things worked. If something unclean came into contact with something clean or holy, then the clean/holy thing that was defiled rather than the unclean thing being sanctified. Corruption was contagious. Holiness was not. And yet this man knows that Christ has the power and ability to cleanse him. And Christ, the only truly HOLY Person to every walk this earth reaches down and TOUCHES him! Everyone watch this must have been astounded. It turned all of their notions upside down.
b. In response to the leper’s plea, Jesus does two things: 1. He stretched out his hand and touched the man. Given the social stigma of his condition, it is unlikely the man had experienced physical touch for a long time. Jesus is showing that he does not intent to keep the man at a distance because of his condition, but he will embrace him as he is. 2. He says ‘I will; be clean’, and he heals the man. Both the physical and the social aspects of the man’s problem are cured. His life is changed.
c. Illust: Cyril was a man I knew years ago. Years before I met him he was an Irishman serving in the Royal Navy. Began to drink…very hard. Came out was an inconsolable drunk. Lost everything and became homeless. One day, while loitering on the Newtonards Rd. of East Belfast literally stumbled into the Day Centre when smelled the “bangers and beans”. His stomach got filled that day, but in time so did his empty soul as led to saving faith in Jesus Christ!
B. No One is Beyond Christ’s Love and Care.
1. Jesus is Willing to Love those the World Rejects.
a. “Sinners” often irritate and trouble us so that we often try to simply stay away from them. sin isolates us from each other and from God, it results in loneliness. Sinners are often like two porcupines who need to huddle together because of the cold, but when they get close, they prick each other. Not necessarily even trying to, but just part of their makeup. Its what comes naturally in their condition.
b. Just as leprosy grew progressively worse until the leper died, so with sin. If it is not cleansed by Jesus Christ, the sinner faces physical death and then what the Bible calls “the second death,” eternal separation from God in the Lake of Fire (Rev. 20:14-15). But here is the great news! NO ONE is beyond Christ’s love and care. No one!
2. Christ alone can Cleanse us from the sin and guilt in our lives.
a. Illust – Charles Finney – (Robert Morgan, 100 Bible Verses). Read I Jn. 1:7 – 19th cent Evangelist was preaching on this verse in Detroit. After service stranger asked if could come to his house to talk about his spiritual condition. Many knew this man’s reputation and advised Finney against it. Went ahead. Dark alley. Rough area of town. House was back of an establishment. Man pulled out pistol. “See this pistol?” “It has killed 4 times.” Is there any hope for a man like me? (Read I Jn. 1:7). Man declared, I own a saloon and have led many a man into a life of alcoholism. “Is there any hope for man like me? (Again, read I Jn. 1:7). Again, man said: At the back of my bar is a gambling joint. Many a man has lost all his money and a few have taken their lives. “Is there any hope for a man like me? (I Jn. 1:7) Man admitted had cheated on wife and abused children. “Is there any hope for a man like me?” “O son, what a terrible and dark story you have to tell, but…the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin! Next night that man and family were in the service and gave their lives to Christ!
b. What’s a point of application for us from this passage? Love the outcast! Just as Jesus was willing to reach out and touch the leper, as His followers we too should be willing to reach out to and love those whom society would reject and treat as unclean.
C. Applic: Is there anyone you simply want to reject out of hand? They are offensive to you? Irritating? Will you pray and ask Christ to give you a divine love for that person?
III. Jesus Has Power to Heal.
A. Jesus Has Power to Heal the Body.
1. Jesus heals and cleanses this leper’s malady.
a. Illust: My grandfather had a brother, Orville, who developed a brain tumor at 13 years of age. Early 1920’s. Saw doctor and a specialist. No hope. Tried in vain quacks and cures and faith healers. Nothing worked. Died at 15 yrs. This leper had no human hope for a cure. No doubt there were some quack doctors with their “snake oil cures” who would take every shekel a poor leper had, but they couldn’t cure him. Probably well-intentioned family and friends would tell the leper of some folk remedy that supposedly had cured another leper. Maybe changed diet. Nothing worked. All the will power in the world would not cure him. No amount of good intentions or positive thinking would help. He had no hope apart from a miraculous cure through Jesus.
b. Alfred Edersheim tells us that a leper who violated the necessary separation was threatened with 39 lashes (The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah [Eerdmans], 1:493). But this man, full of leprosy, figured that he had nothing to lose. If they beat him he would probably die, and that couldn’t be any worse than his living death. So he boldly came near to Jesus and cried out in faith, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”
2. Christ has the power to heal the body today.
a. We don’t know if the man meant for title “Lord” to carry its full sense of deity, since it could mean only “sir.” But in light of his faith that Jesus had the power to heal him, at the very least the man was acknowledging Jesus to be a great prophet. By the phrase, “if You are willing,” the man was not questioning the Lord’s compassion. Rather, he was submitting to His sovereignty, since clearly it is not God’s will to heal every person physically. He was not demanding healing, but was coming submissively in faith.
b. Illust- Can and does God still heal today? Absolutely. I have seen it first hand. Does God always choose to heal today? No. Why? I do not know but I know I can trust Him. Here's the thing to remember. Every single person Christ healed in his life and ministry ended up dying. This physical life is not the end goal. The miracles always validated the message. What was the message: “Repent, the Kingdom of God is at hand!”
B. Jesus Has Power to Heal the Soul.
1. Christ Cleanses a Filthy Leper, and he also heals his body!
a. Just as lepers were ceremonially defiled and cut off from public worship, so sinners are defiled in the sight of the Holy God. Uncleansed sinners can never be in heaven with God who dwells in unapproachable light. Just as leprosy not only affects the outward appearance, but also the internal organs, so sin takes a toll both on the body and on the soul. Even the sinner’s good works are contaminated like filthy rags in God’s sight (Isa. 64:6). Even so, there is no human cure for sin. You can make resolutions and promise to change. You can go for psychotherapy and try to gain insights into your past. Some of the wisdom of the world may help you learn to get along better with others, but none of it can reconcile you to the Holy God Whose law you have broken. You can deny your guilt and tell yourself that it isn’t there. But it is there, and there is no human way to remove it. This leper shows us the only hope for us as spiritual lepers: Jesus Christ! (Steven Cole sermon.)
b. Illust- This leper in some days serves as an illustration of the effects of sin. 1st Sin defiles and incapacitates the sinner. – That’s what his leprosy had done. Incapacitating. Oh friend, I have seen man become mastered by what he first assumed to be his servant. 2nd Sin Causes the Breakdown of relationships. – The leper had lost all of his family. All of friends. All of social circle. Sin leads you down same isolating/self seeking path of loneliness and destruction. 3rd – Sin results in isolation and loneliness for the sinner. I hear many a man speaking with great bravado about his sinning and that he’ll be in hell partying with all of his friends. Foolish man! Repent. For every time you are with friends you are sitting isolated and lonely. Fearful and depressed. 4th – Sin has no human cure. Cannot find a cure for the human condition in another human. Need someone from outside. Someone who has entered in. Sinner, listen to the good news of Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.” Illust – Have someone who can identify with but also has overcome.
2. Sin’s Effects can only be overcome by Christ’s cleansing.
a. This leper serves as an example of how sinners can appeal to Jesus for cleansing from their sins. We should come in faith that He is able to cleanse us. We know that He is willing to cleanse every sinner who comes to Him, because He Himself declared, “the one who comes to Me, I will certainly not cast out” (John 6:37). We don’t come demanding cleansing, as if we somehow had a right to it, but with the submissive spirit that says, “Lord, you could justly condemn me for my many sins, but if You are willing, you can wash me and make me whole.” Jesus will never cast this person out.
b. Illust: One of the biggest hoaxed ever thrust upon man. George Foreman was one of my boxing heroes as a kid. I always rooted for George over Ali. Along with 6 siblings, raised by a single mother who worked 3 jobs to support family. As a teen found out could fight. Became gold medalist in 1968, and shocked the world knocking out then undefeated champ Joe Frazier in 1973 to gain heavy weight title. Foreman was living life big and fast. Not a thought about God. Womanizer. Married 4 and ultimately 5 times. Life was about come to abrupt change. Unexpected loss to Jimmy Young in 1977. After the fight, the exhausted Foreman was in dressing room when collapsed. Heart stopped. In his words he saw a vision of hell, saddest, loneliest place ever seen. Resuscitated, began screaming: “I believe in God!” But he was afraid of dying. Thought to self, if I believe in God, why am I afraid? Then, decided to make a deal with God, give his boxing fortune to God if allow him to live. Foreman says: “I heard God say: “I don’t want your money. I want your life.” In that moment, lying on the table in dressing room, accepted Christ! Never the same. 1980 started a church and youth center. Still there today. By late 1980’s youth center ran out of money. Foreman prayed. Started boxing again in his 40’s. IN 1994 the 45 yrs. old GF took on 26 yr old champion Michael Moore and after being behind in the fight won
C. Applic:
