Luke 5:12-15
If You Will
Woodlawn Missionary Baptist Church
May 7, 2006
Introduction (see note at bottom)
Last Saturday I had the opportunity to meet a lady who needed a ride to the hospital. She came by the church to borrow the phone and call for a ride, but wasn’t able to get anyone, so I offered to drive her out to the ER. In the few minutes it took to drive across town, I learned that this woman had once been married, had been divorced for the last eight years, had three kids, had a good job for five years, got sick, hasn’t worked in two years, is behind on her rent, was supposed to be moved out three days earlier but the brakes on her car were out so she couldn’t move. Her teenage son is a senior this year and doesn’t have a job. Her boyfriend has a good job, but is abusive, but she keeps him around because he helps her out.
There was more, and my heart went out to this woman. She felt like she was in a hopeless, helpless situation where there were no good alternatives and the only way was down. Here was a woman who had no one to talk to and no where to turn, and in that few short minutes gave me, a stranger, more of her story than others have in the five years I’ve been here. Hers was truly a story of desperation.
Can you identify with her? Today I know that although your stories would be different, some of you also feel hopeless and helpless in your current situations. Life has taken a turn that you didn’t expect. You were dealt a hand you didn’t want; are enduring problems and trying circumstances you never saw coming and wonder whether things will ever get better. Life becomes little more than a going through of the motions as we are drained of feeling and emotion, and it seems that no matter how hard you try, there’s more pushing back at you than you can push against.
In the biblical account we’re going to read this morning, we’re going to meet a man who was also in a hopeless situation, but found hope and healing in Christ. You too can find hope and healing in Christ, and more than that you can be instrumental in bringing that same hope and healing to others.
“And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy: who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him. And he charged him to tell no man: but go, and shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing, according as Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them. But so much more went there a fame abroad of him: and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities.”
In the time we have left I want us to consider three events:
The Turning of the Leper
“The disease which we today call leprosy generally begins with pain in certain areas of the body. Numbness follows. Soon the skin in such spots loses its original color. It gets to be thick, glossy, and scaly. In fact, the affliction is called leprosy because it makes the skin scaly. The Greek word lepos means scale. As the sickness progresses, the thickened spots become dirty sores and ulcers due to poor blood supply. The skin, especially around the eyes and ears, begins to bunch, with deep furrows between the swellings, so that the face of the afflicted individual begins to resemble that of a lion. Fingers drop off or are absorbed. Toes are affected similarly. Eyebrows and eyelashes fall off. By this time one can see that the person in this pitiable condition is a leper.”
Think about the way leprosy is presented in the Scriptures. According to the Law, to be identified as leprous was to be declared unclean. When one was unclean they were to be put outside the camp, isolated and separated from the others. The disease produced decay and, for the most part, a slow and painful death. It was and is a picture of sin and the consequences of sin. It is an outward sign of the death that sin produces in people’s lives.
According to the Law, once a person had a swelling, a rash or a bright spot on his skin, one that might become an infectious skin disease, he had to be brought to the priest to be examined. If the priest declared the person to have contracted leprosy, his clothes were to be torn and burned, his head was to be uncovered; he was to be declared unclean, and was made to move outside the camp of Israel. When anyone approached a leper or their dwelling, the leper was required to cry out, “Unclean! Unclean!” so that all who heard or saw them could avoid them. In Israel, the leper was the symbol of both the spiritually and the morally dead.
Now Luke states that this man wasn’t just a leper, but he was “full of leprosy.” He was eaten up with it and there was no cure! He was in a hopeless and helpless situation, but the Bible states that he saw Jesus, fell at His feet and pleaded with Him, “Lord, if you will you can make me clean!” According to Matthew’s gospel, the man had just heard Jesus preach the Sermon on the Mount and has most likely been hearing about the wonderful things He had been doing throughout the countryside.
When we think of the turning of the leper, I want you to understand what an act of faith this was. First of all, the man wasn’t supposed to be in town. Verse 12 says that Jesus was in a certain city. The leper was not allowed in the city, but here he was. What did he have to lose? So he walked into town, risking the shame and pain of facing others to meet Jesus.
He didn’t try to barter with Him. He didn’t play any games. He came by faith to Jesus believing that He could make him clean and whole and cast himself at the Lord’s feet with pleading on his lips. “Lord, if you will, you can make me whole!”
Listen, that’s the answer to every problem we have in life – only the Lord can help us! Turning to the Lord in our times of trouble is the answer every time. In John 6, when many of Jesus’ disciples walked away and chose not to follow Him any longer, Jesus turned and asked the others if they were going to leave too. Peter gave the answer that we all ought to say, “Where else is there to go?” Remember the words of the psalmist in Psalm 121?
“I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon they right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.”
If you’re going to turn to the Lord then you’ve got to admit you’ve got a problem you can’t handle, that you’re not big enough to solve. You have to admit you can’t fix this thing, whatever it is. You can try all you want, but you can’t solve your anger problem. You can’t keep from wagging that tongue. You can’t stop being mean-spirited. You can’t love people like God does. You can’t fix your marriage. You can’t make enough money to get out of that hole. You can’t heal your own body, can’t make that pain stop, can’t do enough to repair that relationship, and beyond all that – there’s nothing you can do to gain immortality. You can try and try and try, but until you come to the place in your life where you admit that this thing is bigger than you are you cannot turn to Christ.
Turning to Christ begins there – admitting that you’re headed in the wrong direction and turning around. You recognize you have a problem you can’t fix and then acknowledge God’s ability to make you whole. Do you see what the leper said? Think about what he did not say. He did not say, “Lord, if you are able…” “Lord, if I will…” “Lord, if you try…” You see, the Lord’s ability to help him never came into question – the man already knew Jesus was able. The key was that he turned to Christ admitting he had a need and recognizing Jesus’ ability to meet that need.
I hope you understand that that’s going to be the key to turning your situation, your circumstances, your life around in wholeness and healing. It absolutely must begin with turning to the Lord.
The Touch of the Lord
Reaching out and touching the man, the Lord replied, “I am willing; be cleansed.” There is nothing so wonderful as the touch of the Lord in our lives. In Mark’s gospel, it says that Jesus was moved with compassion as He touched the man and spoke words of healing in his life.
Can we always come to the Lord by faith and ask Him to make us whole by healing us spiritually, emotionally, and physically? Yes! Can the Lord bring us healing in all these areas? Yes! But does He? Is He always willing? We know He’s always able, but is He always willing? The answer to that question is yes and no. Yes, He is always willing to make us spiritually whole. “God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
But to say that the Lord is always willing for us to be physically whole is a whole other thing. God wounded Jacob on purpose. God refused to heal Paul of his infirmity, and it may be that He refuses to help you or me in our physical infirmities. The leper recognized that his healing was a matter of God’s sovereign will, and whether we like it or not, we too must recognize that our present situations are in God’s hands. If He chooses to heal us or deliver us then to God be the glory. But if He chooses to allow us to suffer through our condition, then we must also be faithful to say, “to God be the glory.”
It is worth pointing out that Jesus did touch this man who was unclean. Jesus was not afraid of being defiled by this man’s uncleanness, nor was He afraid to get dirty by helping the man. At a time in his life when the leper felt extreme isolation and loneliness and shame here is Jesus reaching out and offering not only a touch of healing, but a touch of acceptance and love and mercy, and what does Luke say happened? “Immediately the leprosy departed from him.”
Listen, when the Lord Jesus Christ touches you things are going to happen! Jesus doesn’t come along and offer to help you manage your problems – He offers hope and healing and wholeness! You come to Jesus in repentance and faith seeking salvation and He immediately saves you! There’s no process. It doesn’t take a lifetime. It happens instantaneously! I am of the growing opinion that when we bring our other problems to Jesus that He brings immediate relief: the problem is too often us not really letting go of our problems. We turn to the Lord, but then we want to help Him do His work – but listen – it doesn’t work that way! You have absolutely got to let go and let Him do what only He can do!
Once this leper turned to Christ and was touched by the Lord, we then read about…
The Testimony of the Liberated
Jesus charged the man to tell no one, but to go to the temple and offer himself for cleansing by the priest for a testimony to them. The Bible doesn’t say whether he followed through with those instructions or not, but we do know that he didn’t keep his mouth shut. Mark said that “he went out, and began to publish it much, and to blaze abroad the matter, insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into the city, but was without in desert places: and they came to him from every quarter.”
People want to know all the time why Jesus told this man and others not to tell people. He did not tell him not to tell anyone. He told him not to tell certain people. You see, Jesus wanted the man to go to the temple where he would have to testify of what happened in his life. Jesus had a very clear motive for healing this leper and instructing him as He did. His testimony was to be offered to the priest, to those at the temple, to the religious leaders of the day.
But we can imagine what the leper must have experienced. The scales dropped off his skin and it became smooth and clean again. His sores disappeared and the foul odor was no longer present on his body or breath. His eyebrows and eyelashes grew back. His hair was restored to the right color. His fingers and toes were restored and the numbness and pain were felt no more. His face regained its natural features. His deep sorrow was replaced with joy! His isolation and loneliness was replaced by a return to fellowship! “I’m healed! I’m clean! I’m whole!” he must have shouted in the streets.
It’s no wonder that he went out and began to publish it much and to blaze abroad the matter. But let us not forget that his actions were actions of disobedience that resulted in driving Jesus out of the city into deserted places.
Now, it is worth pointing out that this is not our problem today. The Lord’s ministry is far from being hindered by our telling too many people. Quite the contrary. If anything is hindering God’s work it is our lack of excitement about what Christ has done in our lives and our lack of willingness to tell other people what good things He’s doing. I fear that far too many of you haven’t seen Christ work in a long long time and you now have nothing to proclaim.
I am confident of this though – when we do turn to Christ and He does touch our lives then we are going to have a testimony and we won’t be able to resist telling people what is happening to us. Some of you are taking the Financial Peace classes. In fact, some are taking the class out of desperation. There was no place left to turn and without the Lord’s interceding you felt helpless and hopeless. Now Christ is turning your financial situation around and others are taking notice. Every week mom tells me about people that she has had the opportunity to talk to because of this one thing.
Conclusion
On a day long ago a leprous man came to Jesus empty handed. He had nothing to offer, no ability to change his situation, lonely and isolated, full of shame, sickness and death, but he did have a faith that Jesus and Jesus alone could rid him of his uncleanness and change his life.
Multitudes of people today are suffering the shame of sin. Like the leper, they feel isolated and unclean due to their sin or the effects of sin in their lives. It may not even be their own sin, but the sin of someone close to them. Divorce has a way of making us feel isolated and unclean. A man may struggle with some private sin, and though he looks good on the outside, inside he is full of leprosy, quietly and secretly rotting away and being eaten by guilt and shame.
It happens to the best of people. I met a man in his 70’s who struggled with pornography. On the outside he looks fine, but on the inside it is eating away at him. A young mother filled with bitterness and anger, the church member who is slowly dying because he feels that Christianity has nothing worthwhile to offer. What about the teenager that is sick and ashamed from impurity? Or perhaps feels all alone with no one to understand them?
It may be you today. Would you too come to Jesus empty handed, offering nothing because you have nothing to offer Christ, but acknowledging that He and He alone can change your situation if He so wills? Would you come recognizing that even if He doesn’t change your physical condition His love and acceptance of you are beyond your comprehension? Today He extends His touch to you if you will just come.
For those of you who have not yet invited Christ to be your Savior, you need to know that He is waiting on you and He is willing to save you. For those of us who are believers, suffering from emotional and physical ailments, we too should come to the Lord over and over in simple faith knowing that however He chooses to work out our circumstances, He will do so for His honor and glory.
I am reminded of the song Bill Gaither wrote that we sing titled, He Touched Me.
Shackled by a heavy burden,
’Neath a load of guilt and shame,
Then the hand of Jesus touched me,
And now I am no longer the same.
Since I met this blessed Savior,
Since he cleaned and made me whole,
I will never cease to praise Him,
I’ll shout it while eternity rolls.
He touched me, oh He touched me,
and oh the joy that floods my soul.
Something happened and now I know,
He touched me and made me whole.
(I found two sermons particularly enjoyable to study as I prepared for this message: one by Ron Ritchie titled Have you ever hungered for wholeness? and the other by Bob Deffinbaugh titled Stretcher Carriers and Sermon Critics)
