Luke 5:12-26 Jesus is the Son of Man: Jesus Cleanses

Luke 5:12-26
Jesus is the Son of Man
Jesus Cleanses

Good Morning! Please grab your Bibles with me and turn to Luke chapter 5.
We are continuing through our series looking the Gospel of Dr Luke. He wrote this Gospel, as he says in the first few verses, so that, in regards to Jesus Christ, that we may have certainty in what we have been taught.
Over the last couple of weeks, we have seen Jesus start his earthly ministry. HE started preaching the Word in Nazareth. He started performing signs and wonders. He started healing.
And this morning, we are going to look at two specific and different healings that Jesus performs and the deeper meanings behind them and how people reacted to them.
And one of the first things to look at is that we often have inaccurate expectations of God. Even when he promises to fulfill certain things, he always does them differently than we expect, and if we look on a long enough timeline, he always fulfills and exceeds or expectations.
So lets go ahead and read our text for this week. We will be look, as I said, at two different healings, spanning from Luke chapter 5, verse 12 thorough verse 26. Ill be reading out of the English Standard Version. As always, most important is that you follow along in your rpeferred translation, reading the Word of God for yourself.
Luke 5:12-26, Dr Luke, inspired by the Holy Spirit, interviewing eyewitnesses, writes:
While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy.[b] And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” 13 And Jesus[c] stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him. 14 And he charged him to tell no one, but “go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” 15 But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. 16 But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.

17 On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal.[d] 18 And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, 19 but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. 20 And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” 21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 22 When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, “Why do you question in your hearts? 23 Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? 24 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralyzed—“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.” 25 And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God. 26 And amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen extraordinary things today.”

Thus says the Word of the LORD.

So we look first at this first healing that Jesus does, and in that, we see that this is more than just a healing. We see a man that is leprous. Leprosy was a big deal and it was a catch all for a number of different skin diseases. The most common one, what is today known as Hansen’s Disease, cause the extremities to lose all feeling and sensation, meaning that they would accumulate injuries, and not heal, causing fingers, toes, noses and so on to die and rot off the body. I don’t mean to gross anybody out but this is what most people with leprosy would look like at this time.
The Old Testament had some very clear and specific methods on how to deal with leprosy, how to move from unclean to clean and what was needed for this to occur. Because of the Torahs clear directions on leprosy being unclean, people of that day equated leprosy with sin. If someone had leprosy, that meant that they had done something to offend God, they had sinned grievously.
Now, we see at this point, that people were already responding to Jesus. This man with Leprosy came to Jesus. He saw him and broke every rule by going up tp him. Because he had heard about this Jesus guy and he had heard what he could do. And he sees him, And he is so desperate from his disease that he falls on his face and he begs Jesus to cleanse him.
Remember that Luke is a doctor. So we can take his descriptions as accurate. And when he says that this man was “full of leprosy,” he did not just have a rash or a skin irritation. He was very likely near death and would have been living with this for many, many years, maybe as long as he could remember. His desperation was very, very real.
And look what he does. He appeals to Jesus’ will. In this, he acknowledges Jesus authority. He acknowledges his ability. Jesus is able to heal. And he is able to make us clean. But this man does not appeal to his ability. He appeals to Jesus will. HE says, “If you will…”
Jesus reaction also goes against everything that should be. First he touches the unclean, leprous man. This would make anyone else unclean. The Old Testament forbade the touching of unclean people. But Jesus is different. He touches the man, the first human contact he would have had in years. Not from a distance, but touches him.
And Jesus says, “I will, be clean.”
What Jesus touches becomes clean. All things. You and me included. We were unclean, until Jesus touches, makes us new, cleanses us. This man, he doesn’t just heal him. That would have been a miracle enough. But Jesus does more than that. Jesus does more than heal him. Jesus makes him clean.
Jesus says, “Be Clean.” We see here again that Jesus Words carry the very power of God. This starts from the very beginning of the Bible. The Word of God is all powerful. Genesis 1, all of Creation, starting with ‘Let there be light.” Shows us how powerful the Word of God. Jesus words carry this power. He speaks. It happens. Period. It is finished.
So we see Jesus say, Be Clean and it happens immediately. Immediately the leprosy leaves this man. This is very much like our salvation. We are saved by the grace of God, by faith in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit calls us and only whom he calls respond to him by faith. When we respond by faith in Christ and only by faith in Christ, we are saved, we are forgiven, we are made clean, our sins are wiped away. It is not a process, though our awareness of it may well be gradual. But one moment we are not forgiven and the next moment we are forgiven.
Now, as I said, Jesus did so much more than heal this man. But in that, we should not ignore the healing as well. Being healed necessarily comes before being cleansed. And there is a whole lot to being cleansed. Leviticus 14 details all that goes on in being declared clean. This would include blood sacrifices. These blood offerings were a foreshadowing of Christ offering his own blood to cleanse each of us from our sins. But the people weren’t ready to hear that yet.
Jesus tells the man to go to his priest and have him follow the law as laid out in scripture in order to declare you clean. See, some of the things Jesus was being accused of, breaking and ignoring the law, he was in fact, being very purposeful in not doing. IN fact, he was doing the exact opposite. He even says famously in Matthew 5:17 & 18:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

Jesus did not break the law. One famous so called preacher a few years ago gained a lot of attention by equating God sending Jesus to die on the cross the same way we would speed and run red lights to get our kid to the hospital. He break the rules for love. He broke the law for love. And it was all very inspirational and nice sounding on the surface, except its complete and blatant heresy. God kept the law for love.
Blood needed to be shed for the forgiveness of sins. Death is the necessary result of sin. We are contaminated, “full of sin.” We don’t have ability to atone for our sins. Our blood is not worthy of being shed for the forgiveness of sins. And So, God the Father, in his eternal wisdom and love, sent his Son, eternally God, born a human, to live the perfect life, unstained and uncontaminated of sin. He shed his perfect blood for the forgiveness of all of our sins. That forgiveness, and act of perfect love, was all the grace of God. The vehicle that this grace is poured out on us by faith in Jesus Christ. His blood wipes us clean, clothes us in his righteousness and we get to stand before God the Father, healed, cleaned and forgiven.
Now, Jesus told this guy whom he had just cleansed of leprosy that he was to go to the priest, to go through all the law requirements and he was not to tell anyone what happened. But, somehow, they heard. And they gathered around Jesus, as the crowds were wont to do. Some were there for the right reasons, some where there for the wrong reasons. Some wanted to hear the teaching, some wanted to be healed. Jesus made sure that he would pull back when things could be getting to crowded and make sure to spend time with the Father and in prayer.

We see in verses 17-26, the second healing that Jesus does. Jesus was teaching and many were gathered. Luke tells us specifically that Pharisees and teachers had come from all over to hear what he had to say.
Scribes and Phairsees, Pharisees and teachers are terms that we see throughout the Gospels and we throw them around but we don’t always know what they mean. We just mean them as they are bad guys who hated Jesus. But real life is rarely that simple. RC Sproul gives an over simplified description of who they were. He writes: Pharisees saw them selves as God’s “separated ones” and sought to serve him well. Many were godly, but their emphasis on outward acts and ritual taboos made others hard and formal. Such men opposed Jesus vigorously.
And about the scribes, or teachers of the law, he says they were: Scribes whose work centered on interpreting the law of God. Many were Pharisees.

So these men had come to hear what Jesus was teaching in regards to the scripture, whether he was a false teacher, if he was interpreting things wrongly. There were probably no one in Israel who knew the Scriptures better than these groups. And they gathered from all over.
As Jesus was teaching, a group of friends brought a friend of theirs to get close to Jesus. He was unable to walk by himself, so he sat or laid on a mat. His friends carried him around and they were hoping that Jesus could heal him.
But because of the crowds, they were unable to get near him. The Pharisees and teachers and the rest of the crowds had formed an impenetrable barrier. Jesus was in a house as he was teaching, and so the friends climbed onto the roof, and lowered their friend down in front of Jesus.
The faith and dedication that these friends showed, going through all they did to bring their friend to Jesus, it impressed him. Verse 20 says that when Jesus saw their faith, he told the man on the mat that his sins were forgiven.
This was blasphemy! How dare he say that? He cant forgive sins. Only God can forgive sins!
Aha! The Pharisees and the teachers were mad because Jesus was calling himself God. He was putting himself on the same standing as God himself. This is the very definition of blasphemy. Putting yourself on the same level as God, or lowering him to your level. This is one of the worst sins you could commit at that point. It was and still is the quickest way to lose any credibility. Unless its true, as it is with Jesus.
Jesus would try to prove this to those who were there. He says, which is easier? TO say your sins are forgiven, or to heal this man of his infirmities? Jesus is saying, anyone can say that a persons sins are forgiven, but there is no physical outward signs to prove that their has been any thing actually happening.
But to show you that he had the very power of God, that it wsnt just blasphemy what he was saying, here is some physical proof. He tells the man, “Get up and walk. And guess what the man does… He gets right up and walks. No taking time to heal, no muscle atrophy, nothing. He gets up and he walks away glorifying God for what just happened to him.
All the crowds around them were amazed. They knew they had seen something incredible and were filled with Awe. Do we stand in awe of God often enough. In talking to you all, I know we give God credit and we thank him for his grace and his doings, both natural and miraculous, but do we take enough time to just sit in awe of him?
And do we really believe, like not just with our words, but with out actions, with our life and with our thanksgivings that the forgiveness of sins is greater and more awe inspiring than a miraculous healing?
We often pray that way. We pray for healing and we should, but sometimes we forget to pray for the forgiveness of sins, repentance and faith.

You know, the visual we are presented with of the man with leprosy in the first healing this morning, is a strong visual parable for our standing before God without Christ. We are born spiritually dead. Even our best deeds, our best works are nothing but filthy rags when we place them before God. Without Christ, we are unclean, rotting flesh, dead.
Jesus showed that no matter what has made you unclean. No matter how long, no matter what you need to be healed of, no matter what you need to be forgiven of, He is God and he offers cleansing of our souls. He offers the forgiveness of our sins. He alone offers salvation.
No matter who you are or were…
No matter what you have done…
No matter where you were…
Hope in him…
Repent…
Rest in him…
Cover yourselves in his blood, for it alone can cleanse us from our sins.
This is what we celebrate each month, Jesus sacrifice, his shed blood and his death on the cross. HE paid the penalty, paid the wages for our sins so that we could be reconciled to God. He paid that penalty with his life. In an act of pure, perfect love, Romans 5:8 says: but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Before he did this, Jesus told us to remember this and to celebrate it as often as we get together. We do this in a monthly basis, we celebrate communion as a church family.
We remember and we follow the commands of Jesus that he gave his disciples during the Last Supper.
Luke’s Gospel records the Last Supper and he writes of Jesus telling his disciples in chapter 22, verses 19& 20: He took bread, gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to them, saying: “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, after super, he took the cup, saying, “This is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”
We do this in remembrance of Him. Paul speaks about communion in 1 Corinthians 11 and before we get into it, I have one thing to share that Paul tells us, first, communion is for believers. It is in remembrance for what he has done for us. It is us obey his commands by our faith in him. Communion itself does not save. It does not forgive sins; it does not impart righteousness or cleanse your soul. If you are not a follower of Christ, we just ask that you pass the elements along and then, if you have any questions or want to take that step, you can talk to myself or one of the deacons after the service.

Now, we are going to do things a little bit different this morning, due to taking some precautions. We have individual cups that contains both the wafers, which symbolize Jesus’ broken body on the cross. His Death that pays the penalty for our sins. It also contains the juice, symbolizing the shed blood of Christ, which purchases our eternal life in Christ, through faith.
First, we will take the wafer together. Afterwards, we will take the juice together and we will be united together under the cross and blood of Jesus Christ. I will pray and we will come to the LORDs table.

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