Jesus Our Healer

While we're still sinning He's a true God He should distance himself from us and we can throughout the Old Testament Distance is a key part of worship because we cannot come into his presence His holiness with our sin. He should judge us and condemn us Because we have rebelled We hear the great words of Scripture but God rich in his mercy, lavishing with us with his love, great in grace. This morning we're looking at Jesus. This is the simple message this morning. Jesus cleans the unclean. Jesus cleans the unclean. He comes and approaches us in our filth to make us pure again. We see three different interactions. You just heard it read. There's a leper who Jesus touches. There's a man, a paralytic, who's being lowered down on a roof, and he hears, you're forgiven. And then Jesus eats with the kind of company no one expects him to eat with. Notice the leprous man, he needs physical healing, and Jesus touches him and says, be clean. That's surprising. The paralytic, he needs healing, and then Jesus proves his authority that he can forgive as well as heal. And then Jesus declares his mission. He himself is the great physician. He says, I've come not to the well, but to call sinners to repent. If Jesus would have just stayed the course and healed the sick and taught with the kind of authority he had, we'd all love him. Everyone wants the miracle worker teacher Jesus. We love the wise sage. We love the Jesus who goes to the woman in the bed and heals her. But the main purpose of Jesus, his mission, is to actually help us see that we need more than physical healing, more than just wisdom. We need grace. We need the very touch of God to heal us, to save us. We need forgiveness. So our main point, Jesus cleans the unclean. And we're just gonna look at the three stories, and I wanna, the three points follow along with the main declarations. First, we're gonna look at Jesus' will. Notice there, verse 13. I will therefore be clean. Jesus' authority is our second point. So that you know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. It is his will to clean the unclean. He has the authority to clean the unclean. And then verse 32, we see it's his very mission. We see it's his very mission. So first, Jesus' will. His desire, his want to. While he was one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. Now this is not common in our day. This isn't helpful for me at all, but we have a lot of medical folks. This is what they believe is now Hansen's disease. If you want to know more about that, there's medical folks around you, and they can explain that better than me. I don't know what that means. But all the commentary said it. So there you go. Leprosy was a skin condition. It would be painful. It would actually damage your nerve endings. And so you wouldn't know when you were bumping your arm or your foot. And so it would cause all kinds of sores. And then there would be scabs. It was gross to look at. It was very painful. It would cause great harm. And even here, we see that if you touch somebody who has leprosy, they are unclean, and then you become unclean. You can go back and read Leviticus 13 and 14. A large portion of scripture is about leprosy in the Old Testament. It was a skin disease, it damaged the nerves, it was unattractive, and it made you, most importantly here, unclean. You lost your family, your friends. No one touches you. Touch is so important. No one's touching you because they're afraid of you. You're now considered a danger to society, an outcast. And you can't go into worship. Unclean means you're far from God. You're far from others. You're in great need. This man who's used to people ignoring him, scoffing at him, notice, picking back up on verse 12, when he saw Jesus, fell on his face, begged him, Lord. We see he recognizes something about Jesus is important. You fall on your face to God. He calls him Lord, as Houn explained earlier, that Lord is recognizing he's Yahweh. He seems to recognize Jesus has the authority of God. While everybody else has ignored him, despised him, he comes, lays down before him, And notice this conditional statement. If you will, then you can make me clean. He doesn't question the ability of Jesus, he questions the want to, the will of Jesus. If you will do this, if you would so desire, if this is what you purposed, then I would be made clean. No one else can make him clean. He's hopeless. But that condition is interesting. He doesn't doubt Jesus' power. But he puts there the condition, is this what you want to do? Now, let's pause here. Jesus doesn't give him a pep talk. Oh no, you're beautiful just the way you are. Oh no, if you would just scrub harder, and here's a balm, here's an oil. Or he doesn't say, if your faith was just stronger, you'd be healed. He doesn't put it on the man to make his healing happen, either by faith or effort. He doesn't try to pretend that it's not a real problem because of the law itself that Jesus gave as God makes it a clear problem. Now look at verse 13. Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him. This man has not been touched for years. This man has not been given any kind of physical affection. Because if you were to touch him, if you or I were to go and touch this man, we would then be unclean and possibly also get this infection. Now what's amazing here is the perfect Savior, the Holy One of God, He doesn't become unclean by touching the unclean. He cleanses the unclean by touching the unclean. He touches him. He shows this wonderful tender care of reaching out, physically touching him. He is the creator, the healer. And then he says, I will. He answers the question. He fills the problem. Because the whole thing was the condition, do you want to do this? He says, would you do this? And Jesus affirms him, I will. Then notice the very powerful words of Jesus. Be clean. He's the creator God. The same authority that spoke the earth into existence, and God said, and God said, and it was, notice, and Jesus said, be clean, and it was. Immediately the leprosy left him. immediately his skin's clean. The power of Jesus is revealed here. But the main crux was, is this what Jesus would do? Is this what Jesus wants to do? I wanna go back here, I'm willing, I desire, I want to do this. Now should we conclude that Jesus wants every possible physical problem healed? No. Is Jesus going to heal everything we bring to him in the way the leper did? No. Is Jesus desiring to make us clean so that we can worship him again? Yes. We can take this too far to say Jesus is willing to heal every possible physical problem. No, we're gonna continue to see Jesus here is here to forgive, to restore, to redeem, to call sinners to repentance. It's a way in which we see the heart of Jesus. He is willing. He is good. As we even think about the leprosy, and we could go a little further, Spurgeon talks about this story. And he applies it to the leprosy of our heart. We have hard hearts. We have calloused hearts. We have hearts that do not sense the things of God, that are dull to the things of God. They're sick. But Jesus, he comes to heal them. He comes to heal us so that we no longer have a crooked heart. We would have a straightened heart that would love him because he's loved us. Notice here, Jesus says he charged him to tell no one. Now this is what we call secret Messiah, and we can see why, because the crowds get so bad in verse 16 that Jesus has to start going to desolate places. Jesus' time has not yet come. He is going to make himself known, but it's in his time and his way, and whenever someone is healed and they do not obey Jesus, don't tell everybody, it causes the crowds to come in because they want healing. They might not actually want to hear the gospel. But notice he says, go, show yourself to the priest. It's provable. Make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded for proof to them. I believe what Jesus is doing here is saying, go tell the priest, go show the priest. Because this should be evidence to the priest, the Messiah is here. The one who has come, the anointed one, to preach good news, to help those who are in need. The story, Jesus is not defiled by our sin. Jesus comes to actually touch us. Jesus comes to restore us. Jesus is not afraid of our sin. He came to die in our place for our sin. He came to heal us for our sin. But most of all here, I want to see it's the willingness of God. He doesn't reject anyone who seeks him. Actually, scripture says all day long, he holds out his hand to a stiff neck and obstinate people. What we see here, the will of Jesus is to restore everyone who would come to Him for actual, real healing. And the purpose is that we would once again be made clean. That is, we would be able to worship Him. We'd have a clean conscience. We would have a surety that we can go before the throne of God in the name of Christ for worship. So first we see His will. That's the highlight of verses 12 to 16. Next, we're going to look at his authority. So he's healed a leprosy who said, if you will, you can make me clean. He says, I will be clean. Next, we're going to look at his authority. And this story in Mark as well, and partially Matthew, but this is kind of the transition of Jesus' ministry. Because he goes from just a wonder worker to a savior of sins. He's teaching in those days, verse 17, And notice this is the first time Luke mentions the Pharisees and the teachers. He wants to go ahead and create the setting. They've come from all around to hear him because he teaches with more authority. He teaches with better authority. This is the author of the book telling you what the book means. Very important teaching. Everyone wants to come here. And notice verse 18. Luke shows tension rising as he says, behold. He's drawing our attention. Okay, so it's a normal day, Jesus is teaching, people are coming, they wanna be healed, they wanna hear, and then we have a disruption introduced. Some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed. And they were seeking to bring him and lay him before Jesus, but finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd. All right, so there's a problem. You can imagine here, Jesus up here teaching. This whole room is so full, they can't get in. These friends have a belief, and this paralyzed man apparently has a belief that Jesus can help them. Well, they can't get in the front door, they can't get in the side door, they can't get in the window, so what do you do? You go to the roof, of course. Okay, so a house would have a mud straw roof, so this is something that wouldn't be as difficult as our roofs today. But you can imagine the disruption. Probably annoyance. So let's just say you came here, and you got these front row seats, because that's where everybody wants to sit. And all of a sudden, because you got those front row seats, if Jesus were here, you'd want front row seats, right? You have the front row seats, and all of a sudden, mud starts dropping on your head. That's kind of frustrating. What in the world? Imagine the homeowner. What are you doing? But let's just say that these four guys, they're paralyzed, man. They don't care. There's one hope. There's only one who they believe can truly help them. So they drop them before Jesus, it's a whole big disruption. Lectures canceled, house destroyed. Then Jesus, look at verse 20, saw their faith. Okay, kind of rude to destroy a roof, but here Jesus is looking at them and saying, they believe. They've seen enough, they've heard enough, they know enough that they know who I am. He sees their faith, and then he says, man, your sins are forgiven. Is that what they wanted to hear? Do you think that satisfied the paralyzed man? It may be refreshing for him to hear, but that's not what they came to receive. Jesus is creating a tension with this interruption. We go back to the scribes and the Pharisees, verse 21. They're in the back, they're listening, they're wanting to hear about who this Jesus is, they're wanting to check him out as a new teacher who has authority better than theirs is the rumor. Notice what they say in response to Jesus' declaration, your sins are forgiven. Who is this who speaks blasphemies? A blasphemy is a lie about God. It's a misrepresentation of God. It's declaring something unworthy of God. And then they give an explanation. Who can forgive sins but God alone? That is theologically accurate. That premise, that declaration is right. Only God can truly forgive sins. They are working with a right theological foundation. And if Jesus declares, as if God, your sins are forgiven, and he's not God, he's guilty of blasphemy. But we need to recognize that the truth statement Only God can forgive sins. Okay, so if someone says I'm sorry, you say I forgive you, okay, and there's reconciliation. There's something very important. Every sin we commit is first and foremost against God. This is why in Psalm 51, after David committed a murder and adultery, he says to you and you alone I've sinned. Obviously he sinned against others. But a sin, first and foremost, is against God. Every sin we commit against anybody else, against ourselves in this world, it's always, first and foremost, a rebellion against God. Only God can truly, truly forgive us. This is the point here, Jesus declaring, as if God, as God would, your sins are forgiven, washed, removed from you as far as the east is the west. And the Pharisees are right. Only God can forgive sins. Who is this guy? And notice it says they were saying to themselves. Now I'm not sure if this is like them over here huddled, you know, talking to one another, or if this is kind of like in the comments, it's like a bubble, you know, it's a thought. But Jesus perceived their thoughts. You already see there's something very unique about Jesus. He knows what they're thinking. And then he answers them, this should put them on their heels. Why do you question in your hearts? Which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven, or to say, rise and walk? Now, Jesus is always being a little provocative here. Which is easier? I'm wrestling with this. Which one is easier, to say get up and walk or your sins are forgiven? Which one is actually easier? Because one of them has to be demonstrated. If you say get up and walk, he has to get up and walk. If you say your sins are forgiven, there's nothing demonstratable. What really is going on is both these statements are things only God can really say. Which is easier? When he says get up and walk, he's demonstrating he has the very power of God to recreate muscles that don't exist. Tendons that don't exist. Blood vessels that don't work properly. Bone structure that was weakened. Legs that did not work, just weren't broken. They didn't exist because he's been paralyzed. They become malnutrition. But all of a sudden, Jesus declares, get up and walk, and his legs are recreated. Only God can speak like that. But notice how Jesus turns this. But that you may know. God has not come to save a people who need to guess and figure things out on their own how to be saved. He's a making known God. It's not a guessing game. It's not a riddle. It's not a puzzle. Look how clear it is. So that you may know, this is how clear it is. So that you may know the Son of Man, that's how Jesus refers to himself, has authority. on earth to forgive sins. He said to the man who was paralyzed, camera angle changes, I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, go home. And immediately he rose up. Jesus proving he has the power. He's already proven his will, his goodness. Now he's proving he has the authority, the power. He can say, I forgive you, and you are absolutely forgiven. And here he's proving it in this setting, because a man gets up and walks home, who was once not walking. He who created ex nihilo, now has recreated legs. He who is the creator who made us like himself in his image, who called us to be his own people, who saw us rebel, he now comes and says, I have the authority to forgive you. Notice what the man does. He picks up his bed, he goes out, verse 25, immediately he rose up and before them he picked up in what he had been lying on and went home glorifying God. He knew what had just happened. And amazement seized them all, and they all glorified God, and were filled with awe. We have seen extraordinary things. It does make you scratch your head here. Did they believe? The only faith affirmed is the friends in the paralytic who are involved in the first part of the story. They are all recognizing this is something amazing, awesome. They glorify God, but did this lead them to believe? Did the Pharisees get the point? He read my mind, and then he proved he has the right to forgive sins, and based upon my own theology, I should conclude he's God. Did they believe? I want to focus in here because what is it that you believe God needs to prove? help you know that Jesus alone has authority to forgive your sin. What is it that you believe God needs to do? What is it that God needs to say? We look at scripture and we can see what he's done. He sent his son to become like us in every way. To die on the cross. To rise again. to take some fishermen and a tax collector and some folks who had no influence in the world and flip the whole world upside down. If you're not a believer, your biggest testimony right now that Jesus is risen is that the church somehow still exists. The persecuted people. The people who believe that because the first apostles, they saw him risen. And we continue to read he's risen. We continue to proclaim he's risen. I challenge you this morning, read the gospel of Mark. Or read the book of Acts, the second book of Luke, and be mesmerized. God, his son rose again. And today the testimony of that is still the church exists after persecution. Believer, we need to recognize the importance of this in that he has the authority to forgive All our sin. Again, the same power, the ex nihilo power of God in His Word. When He declares us forgiven, when He declares us not guilty, guess what? You're not guilty. You'll never stand before God and hear the punishment and hear the words of condemnation. You are forever forgiven. Believe in Him and trust Him. It's His will. It's what he's come to do. He has the authority to do it. We should not continue to wrestle with wondering, is he really gonna forgive this sin? Is he really powerful enough to overcome my sin? I don't have a Bible verse for this, but I see it practically. Those who continue to run back to sin like a dog to its vomit, those who continue to run into addiction, I see the problem typically is they don't actually believe they're forgiven yet. I've never seen someone overcome an entangling sin until they actually believe Jesus forgave them. Believe today. He has the authority, the power to truly declare you forgiven. This means we continue to confess sin, knowing that as we confess, he cleanses our conscience, he restores us, he renews us. Do not continue to carry the burden of sin that Jesus has forgiven. Our third point, Jesus' mission. He's declared, I will. He's made it clear I have the authority, but now look his stated mission. We come to the third character. He's the one who is not outwardly, physically sick. After this, he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth. He said to him follow me Now notice the first two stories are sick people who are either brought to Jesus or come to Jesus Here it's someone who's a tax collector wanting to explain what that means Jesus sees him goes to him simply says follow me And leaving everything he rose and followed him It is amazing. We saw two weeks ago, the first part of chapter five, Jesus goes into Peter's boat. He says, now you'll be a fisher of men. Jesus called Peter. Peter left everything, same description, and followed him. Well, a tax collector, a different kind of person. This is Matthew, as we know, one of the disciples. Tax collectors were despised in their culture. Not ceremonial unclean, just despised. You see, the leper, he did not make a decision to become a leper. That is part of the consequence of the fall. That's a sickness that caused him then to be unclean. A tax collector, that's someone who chooses to take on that job. A tax collector was a Jewish person who worked for the Roman government, therefore seen by the Jews as a traitor. And because they were traitors and they were disliked by their own people, they would then feel the freedom to take more money than the Roman government allotted them. We saw this back in 313. When John the Baptist calls tax collectors to repentance, what does he say? Do not take more than you've been authorized. So there were traitors that were working for a Roman government to oppress the Jewish citizens, and then there were also thieves. They're not outcasts like lepers. They don't have a gross skin disease. No, they're they're despised for their own personal actions Notice Jesus walks up to this man who was despised in his own culture by his own people and he simply says Follow me Levi leaves everything most likely a very profitable business This is a major thoroughfare. He would have been a very successful Roman tax collector, tax collector for Rome. I didn't read this anywhere, but I assume this is probably a dangerous thing to do. You don't mess with Rome, especially when it comes to their money. It's not a job he can return to for sure. So then Levi, who follows him, notice what he does next. Verse 29. He made him a great feast in his house. And there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at the table with him. Okay, so we've got a setting, we've got a scene. Jesus is now surrounded by people like the tax collector. His friends were tax collectors and other kind of sinners. These are the kind of people you're not supposed to be around. And notice again we have the Pharisees and the scribes. You already get a clue as to what's going on here because of the word grumble. The word grumble is never qualified with the word godly. There's a way in which God invites you to complain to him. The Psalms are full of them. But grumbling is always ungodly. Grumbling is always something that's done with an ungodly, ungrateful, greedy heart. And notice he grumbles at their disciples. Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? There is, again, there's something, they're seeing this right. You can be guilty of being associated with the wrong kind of people. If you're going to hang out and spend all this kind of time with sinners, then what are they gonna influence you to do? Be a sinner. There's a way in which we can see what kind of person you are by the kind of people you spend time with. But notice here, Jesus is different. He's not going to partake in their sin. He's coming to heal their sin. She has answered them. Those who are well have no need of a physician. That's a truth statement. If you're not sick, you don't need to go to the doctor. If you're not sick, you don't need healing. A doctor is there for those who are sick. In the same way, I have not come to call the righteous, but I have come to call sinners to repentance. I have come to call sinners to repentance. We have a very important question. Who is righteous? Who's well? There's two ways we can interpret Jesus here. He could be saying, Pharisees, scribes, I get what you're saying. Look, you don't need me. You're all good. You read the Bible. You obey it. These guys don't. You're fine. You don't need a physician. But these people are sick. That's one way we can read it. The other way is Pharisee scribes, you don't see how sick you are. You're so self-involved and self-wrapped into your self-righteousness. You don't see your need of a savior, which puts you in such a more dangerous place than these sinners and tax collectors who are wanting to eat with Jesus. Every human is born in sin. We're all born in what we call original sin, that is, we're born with the tendency towards sin, a disposition towards sin, a twistedness, a crookedness. The good news, if you see your real need for him, Jesus is the real healer. If you recognize there's sin you can't control, If you recognize that lust is always tempting and the anger is always about to boil and sometimes it boils over. If you realize there's always a greed, an envy, a jealousy. If you can see inside your own heart and recognize and diagnose, maybe properly, there's something wrong I can't fix. That's what the Bible calls sin. Because we can't be our own physician. We can't heal ourselves when we're so broken and confused and self-deceived. If you see there's a twistedness, that there's something wrong that's constantly hindering you and harming you, good news. Jesus can save you. Jesus will save you. Jesus has the authority to save you. Believe in him. He has come to help those who actually see they need help. You know, it's amazing if a patient continues to go to a doctor and they keep saying, every time I eat jelly beans, I get sick. What's the doctor going to say? Stop eating jelly beans. Man, I like jelly beans. Then he goes back to the doctor. What does he say? What were you eating? I ate jelly beans. What happened? I got sick again. We keep returning to the same things that destroy us. That's why that word repentance is so important. He calls us to repent. There's one part of the gospel that says He forgives us. By faith, He simply declares, you're forgiven, you're declared righteous. It's legal, it's permanent, it's eternal. But He's not the kind of position who would say, just keep on going at it and it'll be fine. No, He says, I'll forgive you, and then I'm gonna help you get away from it. I wanna help you turn away from it. I wanna keep you from going to the thing that keeps making you sick. Christian, what we have to see here is if we're gonna believe he has the authority to forgive us, he also has the authority to say stop it, repent, turn away. And it's not turn away, it's not just turn away, it's turn away and turn to me. Turn to what's truly satisfying, turn to what is truly good. Christian, we have to recognize when he says we're forgiven, we can believe we're forgiven. When he says repent, we can truly turn away from those sins as we turn to what's good and right. We turn to Jesus. As we conclude, I want to hurry turn to our question. How can I love my crooked neighbor with my crooked heart? You could say try harder. Could say, ignore how crooked they are. Could say, just numb it with some kind of medicine or self-healing. The real answer is, hear the invitation. There's actually someone who can heal your heart. There's someone who can straighten your heart. There's someone who can keep you from being so bent in on yourself that you truly know God and His love and love Him. He removes the calluses. He removes the guilt. He removes the temptations. He gives us Himself. There's three declarations in the story. I will that you be clean. I have the authority to forgive you. I've come to call you to repent. Three great truths for us to see who Jesus is and what he's come to do. There's two ways to approach God. We could be like the tax collector who looks at the, we could be the Pharisee who looks at the tax collector and says, God, thank you for not making me like him. We can be like the tax collector who says, have mercy on me, oh God. It's humbly receiving. And only then are we able to share that same good news. Hear the declaration of Jesus. I will, I want to, for you to be clean. I have the authority to forgive you. I've come to call you into righteousness. Which means we repent. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you that you have not left us alone in our own confusion, in guilt, in shame, in our twistedness. Thank you, you've given us your son. And that you are powerful to make him known. May your spirit now convict us. May your spirit help us to see Christ, who he is, and how he overcomes our sin, how he heals us of our sin. Lord, do not let us leave without talking to somebody about what it means to believe in Jesus, or to overcome the sin that continues to entangle and plague us. Thank you, Jesus, that you are able, you desire, and you've come to clean us. restore us so we may know you and worship you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.