Behold the King: The Gospel on the Move.
Notes
Transcript
When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him.
And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.
Everyone at some point has felt the pain of being excluded. Sometimes people face exhaustion or mental depletion that will leave them thinking they are abandoned. Others due to the consequences of sinful choices have burnt bridges that are hard to mend. In our world we were left in quarantine for fear of another Spanish influensa situation. Many with HIV/AIDS today can identify with the dreaded feeling of an incurable disease.
When we hear the words “stage four cancer” we have a glimpse of the hopelessness of the lepers.
For a Jew the worst part of leprosy was the necessary separateness that came with it.
Jesus was not impervious to having compassion on these, in fact He came to bare our griefs, care for our sorrow. This is the Gospel in motion.
Surely he hath borne our griefs, And carried our sorrows: Yet we did esteem him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.
For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Dreaded Confrontation
Dreaded Confrontation
“unclean, unclean!”
Luke says that this man was “covered” with leprosy!
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 the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean.
All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be.
They could not come and worship at the temple
Command the children of Israel, that they put out of the camp every leper, and every one that hath an issue, and whosoever is defiled by the dead:
This disease like that of Hansen’s disease comes because the warning system of pain is gone. Numbness to the extremities, ears, eyes, and nose causes devastation when the person washes with water hot enough to cause second and third degree burns. The individual would cause irreparable damage to their hands when doing simple tasks of using a shovel or sweeping a floor. Dr. Brand calls the disease a “painless hell.”
This man’s body was mutilated from head to toe, his skin was foul and rotting.
But we are all as an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; And we all do fade as a leaf; And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
Dominant Compassion
Dominant Compassion
According to the law, by touching this man Jesus would have become unclean. But because Jesus is the God man He annihilates the mutation and purifies His creation.
The Lord is righteous in all his ways, And holy in all his works.
Many have recognized that Jesus is Lord but have not recieved the free gift of Salvation that He compassionately offers.
We are filled with a disease that is detestable to God and yet in love He provided a way for cleansing.
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
Desired Commission
Desired Commission
Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
Jesus commanded the cleansed to fulfill the Word that had already been revealed to him. Jesus had yet to fulfill the law and therefore the cleansing offering was still in effect.
For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
The offering found in Lev. 14 was a picture of Christ.
The priest would kill one bird (Christ death). Then release another (Christ resurrection). The priest would place some of the blood on the ear and the toe of the cleansed.
2 cor 5:21
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Conclusion:
Christ had concluded the great Sermon on the Mount by starting His Gospel in Motion campaign. Biblically this is not the first miracle He had performed, but it does show the continued proof of His deity.