(This sermon opens with four in-character monologues. I did NOT use full costume. Just some simple prop to draw the listener’s eye to the character (i.e. a sword for the centurian). This sermon was extremely well received, and had a higher than usual attention level!)
SCENE 1:
Have you ever noticed something on your skin that just didn’t seem quite right? Something that seemed a bit out of place? I wasn’t quite sure at first, what with all the freckles and stuff. Thought it might just be some strange acne, or a rash of some sort. Wouldn’t have been all that unusual. Hygiene in my day wasn’t quite the deal that it is for you today.
Problem was, it started spreading pretty quickly. And in our society, there was no tolerance once word got out that a white spot had been discovered on your skin. So it began. My life as a leper. I was isolated from my family and friends. Cast out of the city to live in this village with other lepers. Like how am I ever going to get well in that environment? Surrounded by the very thing I’m trying to get free from.
If I went to town, I had to call out, “Leper! Leper! Leper!” Always thought that was pretty lame too. Everyone knew who the lepers were. Word got around. It was really just one more act of humiliation to go with the rest of the package.
Sounds pretty dismal, wouldn’t you say? Most of my leper friends thought so. In fact, most of them had pretty much thrown in the towel. Given up. It was just a matter of time until fingers, toes, ears started falling off, and their complete demise was eminent. No reason to even believe that life will ever get any better. A rapid, downhill slide to death.
But not me. I’ve always been the eternal optimist. So when I heard that there was a man moving through the countryside. A man with supernatural powers. A man who some were even saying might be the very son of God. I kept my hope alive. It would take a great strategy, but if I played my cards right, I just might be able to get close enough to Him. And He might just make this whole skin problem disappear.
So one day I hear that he is giving a sermon. Sitting up on the side of some mountain, preaching away. You know how that works. People tend to look at the preacher during the sermons. I mean, someone could walk right into the back of this place right now, and none of you would even notice. And that was my plan.
As he preached, I moved in. And when he finished, I knew my opportunity was upon me. He started heading down the mountain, and this great mass of people turned as he went by, fell in line with him, and began moving with him. Right towards me. I knew it was now or never.
I broke through the crowd, ran right toward him, and began worshipping him. Some of the people around him must have thought I was crazy. But what else could I do. This was the son of God standing right in front of me. Can you think of anything more logical to do than worship him? Can you? I couldn’t. So I worshiped him. And as I worshiped him, my faith welled up within me, and I looked at him, and just like Matthew tells you in his little record of what happened that day, I said, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”
I knew it was that simple. I knew that if he wanted me to be clean, it was a done deal. And check out what he did. He reached out his hand, and touched me. Probably no big deal to you. You get touched all the time. I used to watch boys and girls touch each other, and scream, “Cuddies”, and I would think. . .”Cuddies? Man, what I wouldn’t give for someone to be willing to shake my hand, give me a high five. Gently of course, I was still a leper. Or put their arm around me.”
And Jesus did. He touched me. And then he said, “I am willing, be cleansed.” And it was gone. Not some slow retraction. Not some three week diminishing of the junk. I mean, it was gone.
I learned an important lesson that day. Want to see a miracle in your life? Want to see God do something that will blow your mind? Take your focus off yourself, and put it on him. For me, the mindset for a miracle is a mindset that worships with anticipation.
SCENE 2:
So hears the deal. I live in a town called Capernaum. I am a Centurion. Pretty cool job. I’ve got plenty of authority. Plenty of soldiers that have to do what I say, and mind my words. Could be worse gigs. I’m paid pretty well. We definitely aren’t in the poor house. Nice chariot. It’s a sweet ride. Alloy rims, those wheel covers that spin even when you stop.
My kids are always coming up with something laying around the house, and playing soldier like Daddy. It’s a good life. We have always done pretty well. I even have my own servants.
And I know, servants are a dime a dozen, but I’ve got a soft side too, and there are a couple of these servants that serve in my house who I’ve kind of grown close to. They work well. They take care of my family. I’ve got no reason to wish ill upon them.
So I got a little disturbed when one of them started looking not so good. I gave him a few days off. Some time to rest up and get better. But he didn’t. In fact, he got worse. He got so bad, that the illness progressed to paralysis. He couldn’t move. And it wasn’t that I was being put out by not having him working around the house. Big deal, I can get another servant. But I felt for this guy. He was being so tormented by this illness, and no human should have to go through that. Something had to be done.
Well, wouldn’t you know it. Into our humble town walks Jesus. The way I got it figured, problem solved. I knew he would have the answer. So I went and told him about my servant’s condition. Well, he didn’t even hesitate. Jesus was ready to come to my house and heal him. But I figured, why? This is Jesus. He’s the man. He doesn’t need to come to my house.
So I told Him, “Jesus, you just say the word, and I know my servant will be healed.” So he did, and he was. But this is what really perplexes me. I had only heard a few rumors about Jesus, but I had heard enough to believe. You all have years and decades, and centuries of his miraculous moving, recorded for you, right in front of you. But you still don’t get it. You still don’t see the simplistic nature of how Jesus works.
I knew back then, and I’ll bet you it is still true for you all today. Centurion or not. You just develop a mindset for miracles which believes that Jesus has the answer. The rest is up to him. If you don’t believe me. Wait here, I’ll get my servant. He’ll convince you.
SCENE 3:
Okay, okay, okay. I know all the mother-in-law jokes. In fact, have you heard the one about the man who was walking on the beach one afternoon kicking up the sand, disgusted with certain things. There on the beach was a bottle and as he walked he kicked the bottle into the surf. POP. Out of the bottle came a mysterious being...a Jeannie. “Because you have freed me you are granted three wishes...but be advised that with each one your mother-in-law will receive double what you ask for.”
Thinking seriously the man responded, “I would like $10,000,000.” “Granted, and your mother-in-law will receive twenty million.”
“Next wish.” “I would like 10 new cars, Corvettes, Ferrari, Vipers.” “Granted but you know your mother-in-law will receive 20 new cars.” “Great.”
“This is your last wish now so think about it seriously.”
The man thought and thought and finally he responded, “I wish you would beat me half to death.”
I know, I know. Mother-in-laws. I even hear that some Christian musician named Carmen wrote a song, and cracked a joke in it about me not asking to have my mother-in-law healed. Truth be told. . .it’s true. I never asked Jesus to do it. But that isn’t because she was my mother-in-law. Jesus was just on a roll. I never had to ask.
He had just preached this awesome sermon on the mountain. He had just been mobbed by this crazy, worshiping leper man that he healed just like that. Then, along came this centurion who had a sick servant, a slave of all things. Jesus just said the word and the servant was made well. Jesus never even saw him. I mean, he is healing people that aren’t even right in front of him.
So I should have known when he walked in my house and saw my wife’s mom, that something was about to happen. You see, she had been down for some time with a fever. It was really a strange turn of events. Usually when she and I were in the same room together, I was the one that started feeling not so good. But there she is, sweating bullets, shaking, got the chills, but burning up at the same time. Some bad stuff going on.
No biggie for Jesus though. Check this out. He catches a look at her. Walks over to her. Reached down to take her hand. And the minute he touches her hand. . .poof, the fever is gone. Just like that. Bet you wish your pastor could do that, don’t you? You’d be calling him every time you felt a little queasy.
But it was what happened next that really turned the light bulb on for me. She jumped right off the bed, and went straight to work serving all of us. Cooking, cleaning, making us all comfortable, just really treating us like royalty. Which, the more I thought about it, was really no surprise. That’s just who she was. From the time I started dating her daughter, she would treat me like her own son. In fact, she treated everyone that way. I guess she had, what you all refer to now as, a servant’s heart.
And it got me to thinking. The humble little leper man. The centurion guard with all this authority and power, but approaching Jesus in such a submissive manner on behalf of his servant. My mother-in-law, always so ready to serve and minister being healed at just a touch. It got me to thinking. Maybe that is part of how this whole thing works. Maybe part of having a mindset for the miraculous is to live with a servant’s heart.
In fact, I decided to watch it as we left the house and went out into the surrounding region. And sure enough, time and time again, Jesus had the opportunity, and capitalized on the opportunity to heal people who had this humble, servant’s heart. Seems like the pompous, stuffy, rulers of the church just kept getting in fights with him. Never saw much happen in their lives. But for those with that mindset, that bent towards living with a servant’s heart. They really seemed to be ready for the miraculous, and have plenty of hope for healing.
SCENE 4:
You probably can’t tell it by looking at me now, but I’ve got a pretty checkered past. In fact, to look at me today, you would probably never guess it, but I used to be. . . oh, never mind.
What kind of church is this? Wesleyan? I’m not sure I’m allowed to say the words in here. I’ve run into some Wesleyans, and even some of your spiritual cousins; Nazarenes, Methodists. . .I’ve found that you all aren’t real comfortable with my testimony because I used to be. . .man, I don’t even know if I can say it. You’ll probably have me escorted out of the building. Sent far, far away.
But you need to hear this. You need to know. Not just because it happened to me, but because it is still happening today. I was walking around your city this past week, and I saw it with my own two eyes. You see, it is more recognizable when you used to be one. . .when you used to be. . .okay, here I go. I used to be demon possessed.
Now, I know what some of you are thinking. “Sure you were. You mean you were depressed, discouraged, had the flu. That’s what you mean, right?” No, I’m talking full out, 100% demon possessed. I don’t call walking by a fire, and having some spirit overtake me, and throw me into the middle of it feeling a little under the weather. I don’t call having a conversation with friends and family, and all of a sudden some evil voice begins cursing and shouting at them from inside my body being a little out of balance. I’m talking demon possessed.
You all have a lot of fancy drugs today, and they might have helped me to chill out or enter some numb la-la land. . .but it wasn’t going to fix my problem. These dudes had a hold on me.
But I did have a hope. You see, I had grown up in the synagogue, and I remembered once upon a time when they were reading to us, and they read about this man that they said was going to be a true hero. In fact, according to this prophet Isaiah, he was talking all futuristic and stuff and said, “He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sickness.”
So there was my hope. If Isaiah was right. If the prophets were right. If the Holy Scriptures that we were told to believe in were true, then there was coming a man who would take my demons upon him. He would fight them, and I wouldn’t have to anymore.
Then it happened. Someone came running over to me in the streets, grabbed my arm, and began dragging me down the street. Now, my initial instinct was to fight this guy. It was like I was being mugged or something. I always hated being bound up. Every time they tried to chain me, or tie me up with a rope, I broke through it.
But before I had a chance to put up my defenses, the demons inside of me started getting really wound up. These dudes were not happy. They did not want to be going in the direction that I was being taken.
Well, I was no idiot. I had learned that if the demons didn’t like what was going on, it was probably something that could give me hope. So I began fighting them, and trying to help this stranger that had me by the arm, pulling me down the street. If you can imagine this, we must have been one, odd scene.
But then I saw him, and I knew the time had come. And before I even knew it, he looked at me, said one word. . . .one word. . .and like that, the battle was over. The demons were gone. I hadn’t felt like this in years. But there I was. Free. Really free.
Now, I don’t know how that jives with your tradition and thinking, but I know it happened in my life. . .and I personally am enjoying life without the demonic possession a lot more than I was life with those evil companions.
I do have one thing that is still nagging me though. You all look like smart people. You’ve got the whole Bible available to you with my story, and the story of hundreds of others. But also with all the prophecies, and promises of what Jesus can do. Many of you have probably heard preachers like this Chip Monck guy, which I have to tell you is one strange name for a preacher, preach tons of sermons, been to dozens of Bible studies, maybe even read some of this stuff in the same language we used to use. You like know this stuff cover to cover. But what I can’t figure out is why you don’t believe it will happen.
You see, I knew, it was written. It was as good as done. The prophet Isaiah said it would happen, the man was in my town, it was as good as finished. Because I just had this mindset for the miraculous in my life that wanted to declare the fulfillment of God’s Word. If God’s Word said it was going to happen, I was ready to declare it, and ready to see it happen in my life.
Check this out. Isaiah, he was like around hundreds of years before me. So some of the people that I hung out with didn’t think his words applied to me. It says he took “our” infirmities, bore “our” sickness. Well, we weren’t around back then so we must not be part of the “our”. Didn’t make sense to me. Why would he do it for them, and not for me? So I was ready to declare the fulfillment of God’s Word.
And if I could be a part of the “our” hundreds of years later, don’t you think you could be? Why are you living with all of that burden? He took it. Declare it today. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to live any other way.
TODAY:
Four people. A leper, a centurion, a mother-in-law, and demoniac. All made whole by the healing power of Jesus Christ. But each one demonstrated a mindset for the miraculous.
The leper went to Jesus and worshipped with the anticipation that he could be made well. The centurion knew the minute Jesus entered Capernaum. He believed that Jesus had the answer. Peter’s mother-in-law knew how to live with a servant’s heart, and like the Centurion’s servant, she was made well. The demoniac, the gospel recorders, the rulers of the church knew that what Jesus was doing was the fulfillment of God’s Word.
What about you today? What’s your mindset?
Think back with me four weeks. Four weeks ago we wrote down on little pieces of paper. We said that, “I don’t know if God can heal this. I don’t know if He still works that way. But if He does, this is what I would want Him to heal.” If you weren’t able to be here on that Sunday, just answer it right now. If in fact God was still a God of miracles, and able to give you a hope for healing, what miracle would you want Him to work? How would you want to see spiritual deliverance, physical healing, or relational restoration in your life?
People listed all kinds of things. Spiritual needs like freedom from worry, an increase of faith and trust, unsaved friends and family members. Deliverance from past hurts. Physical needs such as brain tumors, allergies, eyesight, backs, sleeping conditions, diabetes, and migraines. Areas where relational restoration is needed like marriages, relationships with children, sibling relationships, and others. Get in your mind what those things you wrote down were, or those things you would write down would be.
Then let’s look at your mindset. Which of these four individuals’ mindsets do you need to apply to those needs? Do you worship with anticipation? Honestly? Did you walk in those doors this morning, begin signing praises, believing in your heart, excitement brewing in your spirit that God was about to do something great in your life? Or did you get caught just going through the motions once again?
Do you believe that Jesus has the answer? Beyond all medical wisdom, beyond all professional counseling and therapy, beyond everything you have studied in magazines and on the internet. When you think about that need, those needs, those places where you need a miracle, do you believe that Jesus has the answer?
Do you live with a servant’s heart? Sometimes in our needs our focus gets so on ourselves that we stop seeing the world around us. But time and time again throughout the word of God, the blessing of the miraculous falls on those with a servant’s heart. An outward focus. A care for others.
And are you declaring the fulfillment of God’s Word? The passages we have been looking at in our celebration services. The verses listed out on your 40 days daily prayer calendar. Are you speaking into those situations of your life where you long for a hope for healing, are you speaking into those places the fulfillment of God’s Word?
The stronghold of the mind is where the battle begins. That is why Paul writes about the need to renew the mind. He says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Do you have a mindset for the miraculous? If not, let God renew your mind today, and give you a hope for healing.
Let’s pray.
