Sunday, January 31, 2021 - Luke 5:12-32 - Freedom Community Church - Pastor Rob Lloyd

Sunday, January 31, 2021 - Luke 5:12-32 - Freedom Community Church - Pastor Rob Lloyd - Battle Ground, Washington, USShow more

Sunday Service Time: 10 AM
Sunday Service Location: 1919 SW 25th Ave, Battle Ground, WA 98604
Phone: (360) 975-9356
Email: info@freedomcommunity.church
Prayer Request: wepray@freedomcommunity.church
Mailing Address: 1400 NE 136th Ave, Ste 201, Vancouver, WA 98684

Sermon Notes:
Luke 5:12-5:32

We left off last week with Peter, James and John getting a real idea of who Jesus was. They haven’t fully grasped it, but they’re moving soundly in that direction. What’s shocking about that is some 2,000 year later we have many who still have no idea. And we’re not talking only about those who don’t claim to know Jesus.
• As we’ve been working through the bible it keeps giving us a diagnosis of the state of what calls itself the church in our nation, and much of it is an absolute mess.
• We know not one of us is perfect. In fact, we know from the bible we are all deeply flawed (Jer. 17:9). So, this isn’t a call to simply try harder.
• It’s the need to understand the true gospel and what God has instructed us in, according to our Bibles.

And today as we look at the religious leaders of God’s chosen people, who were to introduce Him to the world, what we’ll see is their spiritual sickness then, looks a lot like many churches today.
• And we’ll discover what they were practicing and teaching as being from God, wouldn’t get them into heaven. As a matter of fact, they would condemn themselves to forever be separated from God.
• Which, unfortunately is also true among many today.
• So with that, let’s witness Jesus interaction with all manner of people then, to get insight for us now.
12 And it happened when He (Jesus) was in a certain city, that behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus; and he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”
13a Then He (Jesus) put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.”

Lev. 13 tells us there was more than one kind of leprosy and this man had the worst kind. It was a disease with 1) no hope for recovery, 2) was highly contagious (causing people to run in fear and conclude the infected person was cursed by God), and 3) was a sentence to being alone and despised, being considered physically and spiritually unclean (Lev. 13:45-46).
• And being it says this man was full of leprosy, this means he was in the advanced stages. So, we are coming back to Jesus ability to heal, as we also looked into last week.
• But what we hear of this man is he 1) believed in faith Jesus could heal him (although if healing had ever happened before it was so rare it was considered pretty much impossible [Num. 12]), while at the same time 2) he understood the sovereignty of God in saying Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean. That’s real faith (see also Dan. 3:17-18).
•
We started today talking about the condition of the church in our nation. And folks, we need to go deeper here now as we’re talking about the healing power of Jesus compared to what we are seeing by the Word of Faith and Prosperity church leaders. They could have learned a lot from this leper who knew Jesus could heal but also understood His sovereignty to choose what was best for this man.

And that Jesus touched him is almost too great for us to fully comprehend. Although recently I think more are at least catching little bits of this understanding. For example, the leper was never allowed to be any closer than six feet to another person (sound familiar) and lived in isolation even from family?
• Folks, God made us for human interaction, including touch. When we touch, our brain releases Oxytocin (the bonding hormone), which releases serotonin and dopamine (the feel-good neurochemicals), while inhibiting cortisol and norepinephrine (the stress response chemicals). God designed us this way.
• How long had it been since this man had been touched and shown compassion? Jesus was willing!
• But we also need to see leprosy in the bible is a picture of our sin left untouched by Jesus; it’s isolating, disfiguring, too much for us to bare. It separates us from others and can leave us feeling untouchable.
•
Do you feel too defiled to let Jesus touch your life today? He’s willing. And He’s able to cleanse you right now. This is the beauty of the gospel. It’s being offered to everyone and its never on back order.

13bImmediately the leprosy left him. 14 And He (Jesus) charged him to tell no one, “But go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as a testimony to them, just as Moses commanded.” 15 However, the report went around concerning Him all the more; and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities.

So, after this instantaneous healing of what was considered the incurable disease, there were protocols under the law of God. The first was that anyone claiming healing for Leprosy had to go to the priests to get verification the healing had actually occurred (Lev. 14).
• So, this wasn’t something you could fake like the miraculous growing leg deal faith healer’s push.
• It’s a shame there are so many cons played on desperate people by so-called Christian leaders, who turn the word of God into a circus. They couldn’t easily get away with it in Israel at that time.
• And by-the-way, this verification process also made Jesus healings unquestionable. So, God had not only put this in the law to help protect people, He had long past put it in the law so that when Jesus came into the world, even the religious leaders who would oppose Him would have to declare true the very things that revealed Him to be Messiah.

But there’s another important detail in these verses. Jesus told this man to tell no one but the priests, and yet Mark’s account tells us he went out told everyone (Mark 1:45). Who could really blame him? It’s like he’d just been born again.
• He was walking around like a dead man and now he’d been given a new life. Its another perfect picture of what Jesus does for each of us when we come to Him for the healing of our sin.
• But it does strike an interesting contrast in that 1) he was told to tell no one about Jesus and yet in his overflowing joy he told everyone. And 2) as followers of Jesus we’ve been told to tell everyone of the gospel and yet so many have never told anyone.
• Which action do you think Jesus would be more disappointed with? Where is the passion for the truth of the One who saved us from the seemingly uncurable sickness of our sin?

16 So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.

Marks gospel tells us this man’s testimony caused so many people to seek Jesus, He couldn’t enter the city because of the masses. So, Jesus went to the deserted places and they came from everywhere to see Him.
• And as these demands for Jesus help increased, so did His need for prayer and rest. And that holds true for us also.
• You might be thinking “because demands have increased, I have no extra time for prayer”. The mistake is placing prayer in the wrong slot. Prayer is not to be floating around on the schedule as something to do when we have some extra time.
• Prayer is to occupy the main spots and then we fill in the schedule around it. Now I know some are saying “but what about work or…” Well, we are to constantly be engaged in conversation with God, but for sure there must be a transition in the type of prayer we have with the Lord. Jesus was showing us this very thing as He was engaged in ministering directly to people.
o But Jesus is also demonstrating there is a different kind of prayer we also need, and it’s requires getting alone with the Father. If we have this kind of prayer in its rightful spot, we do well.

17 Now it happened on a certain day (we have a scene change here), as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was present to heal them.

Isn’t that interesting. The religious leaders are also coming from everywhere now to hear and watch Jesus. On one hand I appreciate their desire to make sure He wasn’t some charlatan leading the people away from God. After all, the pharisees came into existence to zealously protect Gods law when the nation was taken into captivity. This was their entire aim; to make sure Gods word was purely taught. Is that wrong?
• If you believe it’s good, they would have such a heart for Gods truth that they were prepared to call out heretics (Matt. 23, 7:21-23), how do you feel about those who call out teachers with false doctrines today who are leading people to another gospel (1 Tim. 1:19-20, 2 Tim. 1:15, 2 Tim. 2:17, 2 Tim. 4:10, 1 Tim. 5:19-20)?
• But on the other hand, once they saw the work that He had done that verified He was Messiah, and heard the clear teaching of the Word with authority and no deviation, then their jealousy took over, making them the ones who would lead the people astray. Not all of them, but most.
• But what’s really curious to me is when it says, “And the power of the Lord was present to heal them”. I want to know what kind of healing this is referring to. I’d have to say Jesus seems to show us this answer as we move forward here.

18 Then behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring in and lay before Him. 19 And when they could not find how they might bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus.

We’ve seen Jesus teach in the synagogues, houses, in deserted areas and on the sea, so I find it surprising that when there were so many who wanted to hear Him, He didn’t simply move the meeting to the great outdoors.
• Well if He had, then we wouldn’t have this account. It wouldn’t be the same if they walked straight up to Jesus and just set him down.
• But I’m sure at the time some had to think, “why didn’t He get a bigger venue?” You can almost hear us (oops, I meant them) airing their grievance.
• Sometimes we operate with what we think makes the most sense for God to accomplish His purposes until after we see His plan completely unfold. Then we stand back in awe.

Well, that’s what happens here because they do climb up on the roof and lower their friend down to Jesus.
• This would have been quite the scene.
• Folks, in real life these men would’ve assumed a lot of labor, risk and possible letdown to bring him to Jesus. I sure hope you have and are a friend like this, when you or they need to be carried to Jesus.

20 When He saw their faith, He said to him, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” 21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 22 But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answered and said to them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts? 23 Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise up and walk’? 24 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the man who was paralyzed, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” 25 Immediately he rose up before them, took up what he had been lying on, and departed to his own house, glorifying God.

And they’re not wrong in that only God can forgive sins. They just don’t understand who they’re with isn’t blaspheming, but rather letting them know He had come into the world just as the scripture had foretold.
• But He also knew how hard it would be for them to believe, so He sets the stage for them in order to give them the best chance to overcome any doubt.

And He still sets the stage for us today to overcome our doubts which might keep us from believing.
• Maybe before this study you thought your sin was too dirty for Him to ever want to heal you, until He touched your heart with the good news of Jesus.
• Has He been setting the stage for your salvation or return today? If you’re asking that question you can bet He has.

But we also need to see whose faith it was that caused Jesus to forgive the paralytic’s sin. It wasn’t his own, but the faith of the men who brought him. Now of course they brought him for healing of his physical body (and were likely taken back by Jesus first response), but none the less it was their faith, not his.
• So, we started out today with a man with leprosy who, in faith, knew the Lord could heal him but also recognized Gods sovereignty. And now we come to a man who’s healed by the faith of his friends.
• The point being both of these are the opposite of what the word of faith teachers say and do. For if they pray for someone and that person isn’t healed, they say the person didn’t have enough faith.
o And they say it’s not Gods will that any should ever be sick or poor, and that they have the same power as God to heal.
• Folks, don’t fall for their deception and false doctrine. Its shipwrecked so many people’s faith. And I dare say this doctrine of theirs is one of the main sicknesses in what calls itself the church today. It’s a doctrine that can’t save because it presents a wish granting gene like Jesus, who is there to do our will, not His own (2 Pet. 2:18-22).
Our God can heal instantly and completely. And the demons flee at His presence and know of their coming destruction. But our God knows how to set the stage for our salvation and the salvation of others.
• He knows the perfect time for us to come home and how, or if healing would be the best for us and how. And even when we think we should be His event planner to help Him out, we later come to find His ways are always perfect.
• We live in a fallen world, yet instead of vaporizing it, and all of us in it, He offers to saves us out of it.
• We don’t need a feel good, best life now, prosperity on earth gospel that makes the proud say “just try harder but you’ll never be enough”, and makes the deeply broken just give up. We need the gospel of the grace of God that came when He sent His Son into the world to reconcile us to Himself. And we have it in Jesus Christ our King!

Now we don’t know what all the religious leaders did on that day when they had seen and heard all of this because the text says;
26 And they were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen strange things today!”

Folks, truly we have heard of strange things today. Think about it, when’s the last time you’ve seen the things spoken about here? This is why events like this are called supernatural, because Jesus is supernatural!
• He’s not like us. He’s the incarnate, eternally existent God. And something in the people in that house that day knew that to be 100% true.
• So, they do what anyone should do when they realize they’re in His presence; they 1) glorify Him and 2) are filled with reverent fear, 3) knowing He even perceives our thoughts (verse 22)!
• But the real question regarding them was, did anyone choose to hear His message of their need to repent so that they could be reconciled to God?

And the real question today for those who haven’t done so is, will you receive that message today? And then join those of us who want to give Him all the glory and reverence He deserves for the rest of our lives.

And for those of us who do know Him, maybe we can learn to stop trying to tell Him the way things should work and just enjoy the surrendering of our will to His perfect plan.