#33. Luke 5:12-13 DESPERATELY IN NEED OF CLEANSING

 

Introduction:

 

    The people at Capernaum begged Jesus not to leave their city.  He told

then that He must go and preach to other cities.  He then left and went

throughout the cities of Galilee.  It was in one of those cities that He met

the leper.  The leper desperately needed to be cleansed from his leprosy.

As he needed to be cleansed from leprosy, even so all men need to be

cleansed from sin.

 

I.  A man full of leprosy

 

    V.12, "Ant it came to pass, when he was in a certain city..."  Luke does

not tell us what city Jesus was in at the time.  In fact neither of the

gospel writers tell us which city this is.  What Luke does say, however,

leads us to believe is that it was one of the cities of Galilee that He

traveled to after He left Capernaum.

    (V. 12), "...behold a man full of leprosy..."  Leprosy is a disease that

we are not very familiar with today.  There are relatively few lepers in the

United States.  If I have ever seen a leper in all of my life I did not know

anything about it.  Just out of curiosity, I wonder if any of you--to your

knowledge--has ever seen a leper.  If so, would you raise your hand, please.

    Leprosy is a dread disease.  It is a slow working deadly disease.  It

starts out as an infection deep down within the body of the individual.

The first symptoms are small spots on the face that may be either red, white

or black.  Then after a prolonged time, joints of the fingers or the joints

of the toes may come loose or a joint of the finger or toe will just fall

off.  As the rotting process works its way toward the trunk of the body, an

ear may fall off or the nose may fall off.  As it affects the joints of the

lower legs, the legs may become extremely swollen and look like elephants

legs.  This is not a painless process.  It is an extremely painful disease.

It is a long slow process of pain.  It may take anywhere from five to fifty

years to kill its victim.  About twenty years is average.

    I do not know how many years this man had had leprosy.  Neither do I

know for sure just how far advanced his leprosy was.  Luke does tell us that

he was full of leprosy and that leads us to believe that his was in an

advanced stage.  He was in a pitiful condition.  It was very obvious that it

was just a matter of time until it would mean death for him.  But the worst

part of it was that in the intervening time, there would be worse and worse

pain that he must endure.  If any man in the world ever needed to be

cleansed of his affliction, this man needed to be cleansed.

 

II.  Little hope of ever being cleansed

 

    The problem was that there was no known cure for leprosy.  Medically at

that time, there was no known cure.  It is true that for some unknown reason

some people who were afflicted by leprosy would get well.  It is also true

that in Old Testament times there had been at least one man healed by one of

the prophets of God.  But as far as medical treatment was concerned, there

was no known treatment.

    Medically, for this man there was no hope whatsoever.  The chances that

he would be one of the very few who would get well for unknown reason was

very very slim.  As to the possibilities that one of God's prophets would

heal him, the chances must have seemed just as slim.

    He had surely heard of Jesus and the miracles that Jesus had performed

in other cities.  But he had no hope of ever being to make the trip over to

the area where Jesus was reported to be.  And the chances that Jesus would

ever come his way must have seemed so small to him that he totally dismissed

it from his mind.

     So far as I know there were no instances up to this time that Jesus had

ever healed any leper.  He had healed all manner of other diseases, but not

any leper.  So far as reports were concerned, Jesus just might not be able

to heal leprosy.  But he had given serious consideration to the question in

his own mind and he had reached the conclusion in his own mind that Jesus

most certainly would be able to heal a leper.  This was something that

nobody else in the whole world could do, but he just believed that if he

were to be able to come into the presence of Jesus that Jesus would be able

to heal him.  The problem was that he would probably never be able to come

into the presence of Jesus.

 

III.  The unexpected presence of Jesus

 

    (V. 12), "...who seeing Jesus fell on his face..."  But, behold, the day

did come in which he did see the Lord face to face.  Totally unexpected to

himself, there was Jesus standing right before him.  I am not certain just

what the circumstances were in which he came to be in the presence of Jesus.

It could have been in a Jewish synagogue.  Ironically, a leper was not

forbidden to be in a Jewish synagogue.  He was forbidden to be in the

temple, but not in a synagogue.  He would still be required to warn all

others that he is a leper and that they should not touch him.  But whatever

the circumstances were, there Jesus was right before him.

   Luke says that he fell on his face before Jesus.  This means that he did

more than just to bow before Jesus.  He fell prostrate face down on the

ground.  I can hear him crying, "Leper! Leper!" as he falls to the ground

before Jesus.  He was warning Jesus as well as others not to touch him.

 

IV.  His belief in the Lord's power to help

 

     Once he was sure that he had the attention of Jesus he expressed to

Jesus his belief in the Lord's power to help him.  (V. 12), "...and besought

him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean."

He was saying, "I believe, Lord, that you can heal even a leper.  Lord, I am

sure in my own mind that you have the power to heal me.  I believe that if

you are just willing to do it, you can.  If you want to heal me you can."

 

V.  The willingness of Jesus to help

 

    It was right then that an amazing thing happened.  V. 13, "And he put

forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean...."  What is

amazing about this to me is not that Jesus was willing to heal the man.

What is amazing to me is that Jesus touched him.  There was nobody else in

all the world who would have reached out his hand to touch a leper.  Nobody!

But Jesus did.

    Note what Jesus had said as He reached down to touch the man.  He said,

"I will: be thou clean."  Can you imagine the Lord saying anything else?

Can you imagine Him saying, "No.  I am not interested in healing you"?  Can

you imagine Him saying that?  Not by a long shot.  Never in this world.

There has never been the heart of any man to love the way that Jesus loves.

He did care about this man.  He cared about his physical well being.  He

cared about his spiritual well being.  Jesus was perfectly willing to make

this man whole.

 

VI.  The instant healing of the man

 

    So Jesus reached down and touched the man.  Now note:  (V. 13), "...And

immediately the leprosy departed from him." Now get this.  As Jesus was

reaching down and reaching out His hand toward this man, the man was still a

leper.  When His hand was but a fraction of an inch away from the man the

man was a leper.  But at the very instant that the hand of the Lord touched

this man, that man was completely free of leprosy.  He was completely whole.

He was completely well.

 

VII.  A desperate need of cleansing today

 

    Now I want each one of you to take a look at yourself.  I am not asking

you to stand before a mirror and to examine yourself to see if you have any

red or white or black spots on your face.  What I am asking you to do is to

take the Bible, the holy word of God and see in the light of God's word if

you have not sinned in the sight of God.  Listen to Romans 3:23, "For all

have sinned and come short of the glory of God."  Listen to James 4:17:

"Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is

sin."  Listen to your own conscience.  You may not be infected with leprosy,

but you are infected with something that is far worse.  You are infected

with something that is far more damaging.  You are infected with sin.

The pain is far greater than the pain of leprosy.  The pain lasts a lot

longer than the pain of leprosy.  The end result of your sin will be to

suffer in the fires of hell forever and ever.

    Furthermore, from the human point of view, there is no cure.  There is

no way for you to cleanse yourself from the sin that you have already

committed.  There is no way humanly possible for you to be cleansed from the

dreadful disease of sin.

    There is but one way that you can be cleansed from your sin and that way

is the Lord.  The Bible says that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son

cleanses from all sin.

    The first question is:  Is He able to cleanse you from your sin?  The

answer to that question is:  He is able.  John 1:7 says that the blood of

Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin.  He shed His blood on Calvary that

He might be able to cleans you.  But because His blood was shed He is able

to cleanse you from your sin.

    The next question is:  Is He willing to cleanse you of your sin?  The

answer to that question is:  He will not cleanse you from your sins if you

will not repent and trust Him as your Savior.  Jesus said, "Except ye

repent, ye shall all likewise perish." The Bible says, "Believe on the Lord

Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." But He is willing to cleanse you if

you are willing to repent of your sin and to trust in Him as your Savior.

    If you will but trust in the Lord as your Savior, Jesus will save your

soul.  He will save you at the moment that you trust in Him.  John 3:18

says, "He that believeth on him is not condemned;  he that believeth not is

condemned already because he hath not believed on the name of the only

begotten Son of God."  One moment before you believe you are a lost sinner

on the road to hell.  But the moment that you believe you are uncondemned.

You are saved.  You are on the road to heaven.  "Believe on the Lord Jesus

Christ and thou shalt be saved."