THE TOUCH OF GOD
Matthew 8:1-4
S: God’s compassion
Th: Grace-Full Living (the grace of God’s touch)
Pr: REJOICE IN GOD’S TOUCH.
?: What? What do we find out about God when He
touches us?
KW: Characteristics
TS: Since we are to rejoice in God’s touch, we will find in our study of Matthew 8:1-4, four characteristics that are revealed when He touches us.
The _____ characteristic of God that is revealed when He touches us is His…
I. PLEASURE
II. PURITY
III. POWER
IV. PRESCRIPT
RMBC 11/19/00 AM
INTRODUCTION:
ILL Notebook: Health (cholesterol)
Esther Hubbard was the substitute teacher for a second-grade math class that was learn-ing about groups. In one exercise, pupils were asked to label a group of items according to their common characteristic. Pictured were onion rings, dough-nuts, a bundt cake and ring cookies. The correct answer would have been that all the items have holes in the center. But one boy’s response was, “All of these things contain too much cholesterol.”
- Contributed by Esther M. Hubbard
This little story proves this first statement.
That is…
1. We live in a health-conscious culture.
In fact, so much so, we believe that good health is our right.
Take a look at the advertising.
There are exercise machines that will make you look right.
There are foods that will keep your heart healthy.
And if something should go wrong, there are medications that will correct it, with very few side effects.
The truth is, in today’s age,we are very uncomfortable with the physically impaired.
We try to hide them from view.
We try not to think about the diseased and homeless.
Hopefully, they will just go away.
2. In ancient times, good health and long life became a luxury.
The expected life span was considerably shorter.
It was the exception, not the rule to have the elderly among them.
This was because disease was rampant.
If a person survived, it was because the malady had run its course instead of being fatal.
And there was little remedy for pain and suffering.
So when someone suffered, they were left scarred, deformed, crippled, and debilitated.
Not only that, plagues wiped out entire towns and regions.
TRANSITION:
1. Today, we are dependent on science to find answers to our every medical need.
As I alluded to before, when we go to a doctor, we expect him to fix us.
We think that he will evaluate us correctly, prescribe the right medicine, and we will be made well.
Right?
Science has the answer.
ILL Notebook: Healing (don’t do that again)
There is a story about a young pastor who goes to pray with an older woman. She’s near death; she’s in the hospital lying on the pillow, gasping for breath. He visits with her, and then he says, "I need to go, but would you like to have prayer before I go?" The old woman says, "Yes." He says, "Well, what would you like us to pray for today?" And she says, "I’d like to pray I’d be healed, of course." The young pastor gasps but goes on, "Lord, we pray for your sustaining presence with this sick sister. And if it be thy will, we pray that she will be restored to health and to service. But if it’s not thy will, we certainly hope that she will adjust to her circumstances." Suddenly the old woman opens her eyes and sits up in bed. She throws her feet over the side of the bed. She stands up. She says, "I think I’m healed!" And she strides out the door. The last the pastor sees, she’s striding down the hall toward the nurses’ station, saying "Look! Look at me!" The pastor goes down the steps, goes out to the parking lot. Before he opens the door of his car, he looks up and says, "Don’t you ever do that to me again!"
Well…
2. Because of this dependency, we are shocked when something out of the ordinary happens.
You mean…that science doesn’t have all the answers?
You mean…there might be some other options?
3. During biblical times, there was an extraordinary and debilitating disease that put fear into the community: leprosy.
As soon as the word was said, it was like saying, “They are full of cancer” or “They have AIDS.”
The word leper means “scaly.”
It was the most feared disease in the ancient world, and even today, it cannot be totally cured.
It was, though, much more communicable in ancient times.
When a person had leprosy, spongy tumor-like swellings would grow on both the face and the body.
The bones and the interior organs would begin to deteriorate.
Increasingly, a leper would become weaker and weaker, to the point of being vulnerable to other diseases like tuberculosis.
The disease was disfiguring, debilitating and repulsive to the extreme.
When it was determined that a person had leprosy, they were to tear their clothes, keep their head covered, and cry, “Unclean! Unclean!”
No one was allowed to touch them.
Literally, they were ostracized from their home and community and were forced to live in the wilderness.
This was an ostracism that was enforced by the religious community.
As one ancient rabbi said, “When I see lepers I throw stones at them lest they come near me.”
And another even said, “I would not so much as eat an egg that was purchased on a street where a leper had walked.”
A leper was untouchable.
But in our text today, we find someone willing to touch a leper.
And…
4. In our text today, we find reason to REJOICE IN GOD’S TOUCH (Matthew 8:1-4).
(1) When he came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. (2) A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” (3) Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cured of his leprosy. (4) Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
The question I ask after reading this text is…
What is God revealing about Himself?
Well…
5. Since we are to rejoice in God’s touch, we will find in our study of Matthew 8:1-4, four characteristics that are revealed when He touches us.
OUR STUDY:
I. The first characteristic of God that is revealed when He touches us is His PLEASURE.
The text preceding our text today is known as the Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus has given a long message on a mountainside.
So now imagine Jesus coming down off the mountainside.
The crowds are following because they have never heard teaching like this before.
Then, there is a commotion.
People are scattering to the left and to the right.
The crowd is dropping back as this one man approaches.
They drop back away from the man because they are full of fear.
He is a leper.
The text does not tells whether he was yelling “unclean” as he was supposed to, but you can be sure that people in the crowd were warning each other about him.
So here he comes, breaking the law.
He is showing the worthlessness and despair that this condition creates, for he was forbidden to come close to non-lepers.
He dares to come to Jesus.
He dares to kneel before Jesus.
He dares to ask Jesus to make the unclean, clean!
For he does not doubt His power.
His only hesitation is the willingness of Jesus.
And do you see what we find out by the example of this desperate man?
We find out that…
1. Jesus finds it a joy to work in our lives.
This man gives Jesus the opportunity to reveal His heart.
And as a result, we find out this very simple, but profound truth.
Jesus is filled with compassion for us.
2. He is filled with compassion for us.
He cares for us.
He loves us.
He wants to make the difference in our lives.
ILL Notebook: Compassion (just need a hug)
Helga, the wife of Hagar the Horrible, that intrepid Viking from the comics, is standing at the pot and cooking. She hears a noise and asks, "Is that you Hagar?" Hagar replies, "Yes." Helga, still watching the pot as she stirs, says, "You’re late! Where were you?" Hagar says, "I had a business meeting with Atilla the Hun." Helga then says, "Well, hurry up and wash your hands, dinner is almost ready!” Hagar says, "Uh, could you come in here for a minute?" Helga says, "Okay, but I’m busy. What do you want?" Helga, who hasn’t turned from the pot during the whole conversation, turns and sees Hagar bruised and battered and on his knees after his "business meeting" with Atilla the Hun. Hagar pleads, "I need a hug?"
Have you ever said, “I just need a hug”?
Hold on to that thought as we discuss…
II. The second characteristic of God that is revealed when He touches us is His PURITY.
I have confidence that this man felt he was in the presence of God.
Probably, from a distance, he had heard Jesus speak and was convinced.
And though the leper was loathsome and repulsive on the outside, on the inside, he was reverent and believing.
But that’s not all, the man needs a hug.
So we find…
1. Jesus is willing to touch the untouchable.
A good Jew would abstain from any contact with a leper.
But Jesus was more than a good Jew.
He was pure.
He touched the man.
He reached out, with His hand, and lays it on a man who had not been touched in years.
And notice this…
2. He is undefiled by impurity.
Jesus is not able to be defiled by the uncleanness of this man.
The man was probably a mass of ulcers and decay.
His fingers were curled and gnarled.
He had blotches of skin that were discolored and stinking.
And the numbness had probably led to the loss of portions of his fingers and toes.
But it does not matter to Jesus.
He is not defiled by impurity.
Note this contrast…
As God in the fullness of His glory, Jesus is unapproachable by even the purest.
But as man in the depths of His humiliation, He deigns to touch even the most unclean.
And He purifies the impure.
III. The third characteristic of God that is revealed when He touches us is His POWER.
1. Jesus is able to demonstrate His authority over creation.
He is able to give wholeness.
And it is not just physically.
It is emotionally.
And more importantly, spiritually.
Note how Jesus does it.
He touches the leper.
And then He states His willingness and the command, “Be clean!”
“Unclean one—be clean!”
“Impure one—be pure!”
“Broken one—be restored!”
We can imagine what the leper felt like as the leprosy disappeared.
The scales dropped off his skin and it became like the skin of a child.
The sores disappeared.
The foul odor was no longer present in his nostrils.
His eyebrows and eyelashes returned.
His white hair returned to its original dark color.
The hoarse voice was replaced by the strong vocal chords of his youth.
Numbness and pain was replaced by the rush of blood throughout his body.
The fingers and toes that had dropped off in days gone by were restored.
And deep sorrow was replaced by joy.
Isolation was replaced with fellowship.
Jesus made the difference.
Because He was different.
For…
2. He was establishing Himself as the Messiah (Isaiah 35:5-6a).
He was fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah:
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy.
This leads us to…
IV. The fourth characteristic of God that is revealed when He touches us is His PRESCRIPT.
1. Jesus had not come to eliminate the law, but fulfill it.
This is why he gives this former leper very specific instruction.
He is to go to the temple of Jerusalem and present himself to the priest.
The priest was then to examine him to see if the healing was genuine.
He was to do this because…
2. We are to be a testimony of God’s good work in us.
The man was given the instruction to be a messenger to the Jewish leaders to prove that Jesus was the Messiah.
But he did not quite carry out Jesus’ instructions, and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the news about it.
Regardless of the right and wrong of that situation, we have a responsibility to testify of God’s work in our lives.
For we are to have a standard of gratitude.
This is why Marie Moy comes now.
She has experienced God’s touch and she comes now to share her testimony of the difference God has made in her life.
TESTIMONY: Marie Moy
Thank you, Marie.
APPLICATION:
1. Every one of us is a spiritual leper needing God’s touch.
In the Old Testament, leprosy was a symbol of the judgment of sin.
For it is sin that produces in us uncleanness and decay.
Sin leads to our untimely death.
It cuts us off from the presence of God who is life himself and eats away our soul and spirit.
It is this we must face about ourselves, that we are afflicted with the worse of maladies.
And just like the leper, we must come to Jesus alone, kneel before Him, and find Him willing to make us whole.
So, I encourage you…
2. Rejoice that God reaches out to you daily to touch your life.
This same Jesus reaches out with compassion to clean you and direct you.
Especially if you feel isolated today by divorce, a handicap or a lack of employment.
Perhaps you are single, depressed or terminally ill…
Perhaps you live alone or you are addicted.
Whatever the case, you feel as if you are in exile.
Jesus reaches out to you today and says, “Be clean.”
Now to you who recognize that wherever you go, you take Jesus with you, I say this…
3. Rejoice that God gives you the opportunity to be His touch in this world.
Take the purifying influence of Jesus with you and rejoice that you can be the touch of Jesus and make a difference.
BENEDICTION: [Counselors are ]
Let Jesus touch you today…He wants you to experience wholeness today, a wholeness that only He can give; He is more than willing; He wants to rejoice in you; He wants to sing about you as His child;
Let Jesus touch you today…He desires to make you clean and be right with Him; He will do for you what He needs to do and set you on the path you need to be on;
Be the touch of Jesus today…reach out and touch others; give them the hug they need today no matter what their condition; be the purifying influence that is needed in every impure situation.
Now may the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.
