Leper-Cleansing Lord - Brother Tim Banna

You can open up with me in your bibles to the gospel of Luke chapter five verses 12 through 16. While he was one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, I will be clean. And immediately, the leprosy left him.

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. But now even more the report about him went abroad and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray. This is the God breathed living word of God. You may be seated.

We live in a sick world. Just in The US alone, the top three causes of death are cancer, heart disease, and respiratory diseases, which claim nearly one and a half million lives each year. Not including those claimed by strokes, Alzheimer's, pneumonia, and diabetes. Many of us here likely have lost loved ones to cancer, heart attacks, and countless other diseases or accidents. Many of us here likely battle depression, anxiety, eating disorders, chronic back pain, neck and shoulder issues, the list goes on.

And whether it's a common cold or schizophrenia, acne or leprosy, every disease traces back to the fall of man into sin. And whether you are healthy or sick physically, each of us have contracted sin's debilitating virus. The consequences of sin's curse in Genesis three have infected every facet of life. Now, theologians have a title for the all encompassing plague of sin upon the mind, body, soul, and will. Total depravity.

There is only one man who has never sinned. A teacher, a healer, a Jew, a man who was also God, a carpenter who was also a king, A man whose name is above all names and whose renown sounds out to the farthest corners of the cosmos. And his name is Jesus, Yeshua. This morning, I want you to see Jesus for who he really is. I want you to behold his beauty, to perceive his purity, to witness his wisdom, and observe his omnipotence.

But first, I want you to see us, humanity, for who we really are. I want us to behold our brokenness, to perceive our perversity, and to witness our wickedness. Why? Well, we like looking at pretty things. Whether it's shiny studded jewelry or shiny cars, beautiful people or breathtaking scenery.

Our eyes cling to things that are beautiful. On the other hand, we are little entertained by neutral things, even repelled by ugly things. So naturally, if we see ourselves and Christ rightly, where should our eyes go? There's only one sane place. Upon seeing the vast impasse between Christ's perfection and our deep fallenness, locking our eyes on him.

The sermon is gonna be called lepers who see. Would you pray with me? Father, we need you. Lord, I need you. And so we ask that you would illuminate our minds, that you would captivate our eyes with your perfection, with your beauty and with the truth of your word.

Lord, I pray that you would lead me and grant me wisdom to proclaim your word of truth rightly, clearly, and boldly for the glory of Jesus' name. Amen. Let's paint a bit of background. Luke was a physician and a travel companion of Paul. Of course, we're reading from the fifth chapter of his gospel.

Now, Luke is generally considered the only new testament author who was a gentile. He begins his gospel with the dedication to Theophilus, an otherwise unknown gentile Christian, explaining his reasoning for composing this biography of Jesus, using some of the finest Greek, as scholars say. Luke was a skilled writer, as well as a meticulous historian. In fact, he names 11 historically confirmed leaders, just in the first three chapters of his gospel, including Caesar Augustus and Quirinius, who have been confirmed by non Christian and other archaeological sources. In addition, in his acts, the latter half of his two book series has at least 84 facts that have been confirmed by archaeological and historical research.

For example, that using the term polytarch as one of the man using the word for the magistrates in acts 17. So, if there is any doubt in this building, rest assured, we are dealing with fact, not fiction. Luke launches into a lively account of Jesus life and ministry as a traveling teacher, preacher and healer miracle worker whose controversial words, unparalleled authority and supernatural power were causing quite a stir in the surrounding region of Judea. While many men preach, not all men practice what they preach. Jesus was not one of them.

Chapter five begins with Jesus' command to experienced fishermen to cast their nets into the barren sea, upon which the womb of the sea explodes with fish in miraculous fruitfulness. The consequence? Peter, James and John drop their careers as fishermen to follow Jesus as fishers of men. It is then that we approach the miraculous healing of the leper in verse 12. Let's turn our eyes back to the text.

I'm going to mainly focus on verses twelve and thirteen for this morning. While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. As Jesus was in one of the cities, somewhere in Galilee, a man full of leprosy approaches him. Now the word for leprosy meant a whole variety of different skin diseases, including lesions, scaly skin, psoriasis, eczema, favous, and sabbriatic dermatitis. Not just what we know of today as leprosy, namely Hansen's disease, which is a chronic, yet now curable infectious disease that infects the nerves and, and and causes skin lesions and so on.

Today, villages throughout the world that have entire populations called leper colonies still exist in certain remote areas in Africa, India, and China where medical resources are not as readily available. All in all, in many cases, these skin diseases were often contagious. They were infectious. At their worst, they spread and devoured one's flesh like a wildfire devours a forest. When in jealousy, Miriam and Aaron opposed Moses, incurring the anger of the Lord, Miriam broke out with leprosy and was banished outside the camp for seven days.

Number twelve ten tells us this story. When the cloud removed from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous. In panic, Aaron cries out to Moses, let her not be as one dead whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother's womb. Flesh half eaten away. Furthermore, lepers were ostracized from society and generally were kept outside the cities along with other fellow skin diseased folk.

Why such isolation? Well, in addition to the risk of them being contagious, their disease made them ritually unclean. And for religious Jews, this was a big deal. God is associated with life and holiness, whereas uncleanness is associated with death and opposition to God. Therefore, for the people of God, this was a big deal.

Leviticus 13 gives us more information about the leprous disease in graphic detail. You can turn with me to Leviticus thirteen one, if you'd like. The Lord speaks to Moses and Aaron saying, when a person has on the skin of his body a swelling or eruption or a spot, and it turns into a case of leprous disease on the skin of his body, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons, the priests. This explains Jesus command to the leper in verse 14. Go and show yourself to the priest.

For cleansing, lepers were commanded to go to the priest in order to be prescribed either a quarantine for a period of days or another solution that the priest saw was necessary. The rest of Leviticus 13 continues on with instructions on how to deal with the different manifestations of this wretched disease. Using graphic language like eruptions and white swellings and raw flesh, boils and reddish white spots, burns and scars, yellow and thin hair in diseased areas of itching diseases of spreading throughout the body to eyes, the head, the beard, a falling hair, and so on. Needless to say, this was not a pleasant experience. All of this, to an extent, was the experience of the man who approached Jesus in Luke five.

He didn't just have a subtle rash, a small sore. This man was full of leprosy. He probably was covered with erupting abscesses, irritable itches, tender lesions on his torso, swollen boils on his face, making him unrecognizable. All the while having his raw flesh exposed to the searing Middle Eastern sun. This man probably looked like a zombie, a walking corpse.

The hideous site that the street kids told scary stories about and of whom God forbid would have nightmares. I wanna direct your attention now to verses forty five and forty six, which add another element. Now this nearly brought me to tears the first time I read this. The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes, and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, unclean, unclean. He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease.

He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp. Does that not break your heart? Along with being banished to the outside of the camp, they were assigned a self deprecating chant.

Unclean, unclean. Even worse, their unclean their uncleanness made them perpetually unworthy to enter the place of worship. For as we spoke earlier, one who is unclean cannot enter the presence of God who represents life and holiness, contradictory to uncleanness. The man full of leprosy was closely acquainted with his brokenness and impurity. He was a leper.

He had no confusion over his condition. He was unworthy, unclean. I want you all now to close your eyes and just imagine with me for a moment. You are living in ancient Israel. The coolness of night fades as morning approaches.

Your eyes crack open at the break of dawn. Aches shoot down your spine and sores scream to be scratched all over your chest and legs. Your worst nightmare is reality. Having contracted leprosy, you have been banished by your own family. Not only from your home, but from your whole village.

You now spend each eternity, as each day seems that long, on the outskirts of town by the gate in the cemetery. Besides an occasional interaction with a fellow outcast, you are completely isolated. Your wardrobe, a single pair of torn clothes, not much more than rags, whose stench you're beginning to tolerate. Your hair is knotted and overgrown. You're totally unshaven.

And as commanded, whenever somebody comes near the gate of town to enter or leave, approaching your general vicinity, you lift up your hoarse voice in urgent warning. Unclean. Unclean. You begin to think, why me? I deserve a better life than this.

Surely, the man Judas next door was much worse of a Jew than I. And I'm cursed with this disease. This was the life of a leper. You can open your eyes. Now before you gladly feel relief that this isn't the condition in which you live, stop and look around you in the world we live in.

Like the lepers of old, everyone in this world is terminally ill, desperately sick, horrifically unclean. We are all full of a deadlier disease than leprosy whose symptoms have many manifestations and it is called sin. We will touch on just four of these symptoms. The first is isolation. God said that it was not good that man should be alone.

God himself within his very being is three persons, father, son, and holy spirit who share infinite love within their divine community. And we, friends, were created out of this Trinitarian love, this perfect relationship of three in one. And this very wiring of ours demands community for our thriving. Sin, on the other hand, prizes individualism and personal success, using people merely as tools to reach our goals. This is not sustainable.

There's a reason why the church is likened to a body with Christ as the head. There are many inseparable parts. Biblically, there is no such thing as a Christian apart from the church, for a severed arm is useless apart from the body. But the deceitfulness of sin is this, you can be in community. You can be living with certain people.

And because you show up perhaps once a week or see people once in a while, it makes you feel as though you're in community with them. It may convince you that you're doing okay without Christ centered community, and so on. Moreover, some of you may have this experience. You may know this from your life. You can be physically in community, in family, even in a marriage, and feel more isolated than a quarantined leper.

Isolated in your own mind, longing for love that's not being given, craving a connection, a real connection that makes you feel known, and yet it's not there. The second symptom is compensation. Sin causes insecurity. And you may try to cover up the insecurity with what you think is a convincing facade of happiness and contentment, when in reality you're oozing with blisters of unhappiness inside. To compensate for the hidden pain, maybe you put on good deeds or long hours to make yourself feel good and accomplished as though you've contributed to family and to society.

Yet even those good deeds are as filthy rags before God. And they will not save you, nor will they keep you from the reality of hell. Listen, this is the fatal flaw of every world religion and some deluded Christians. They prescribe a daily regimen of Advil for stage four cancer. Compensation is often paired with denial, a third symptom of sin.

Many people deny they need God or a savior, go around and ask people what they think of faith, and some may claim, oh, I'm just not interested in God. I'm I'm happy the way I am. You know, I'm good right now. Maybe maybe later in life I wanna live, sort of enjoy myself and maybe I'll consider it later. Or there's just no evidence for God.

Perhaps they might say, I'm essentially a good person. I'm pretty sure God would let me into his heaven. I mean, why why wouldn't he? Yet, however, sincere unbelief may seem, all unbelief, deep down, its root cause is the disease of the heart called sin. In the words of Oz Guinness, the unbelieving heart is active, willful, deliberate, egotistic, devious, scheming, and unrelenting in its open refusal, its deliberate rebellion, and its total resistance to God, and the full truth of his reality.

And it can never be countered by purely intellectual arguments that ignore the power of the dark secret of his heart. The fourth symptom is justification with its close friend, comparison. We do a really good job of justifying our sins. Ask any couple who has ever had an argument over the dumbest little thing. I was right after all.

She just doesn't understand where I'm coming from or he just doesn't see it the way I do, the right way. The opposite of justifying your mistakes is confessing them. But sin and the devil will do everything in their power to keep you from seeing the need to do so. Maybe you haven't cleaned up a certain area of your life or shaved off this habitual sin because you tell yourself it's really not that harmful. One glance won't hurt or your body needs this.

Those voices I still hear. You tell yourself, this is the last time God will forgive me after all. And yet when you give in, voices inside never fail to shout a range of slurs from unclean, filthy, worthless, shame, shame, shame. But in the moment of temptation, they have a different message. You deserve it.

Look how good you've been. Look how successful. You've earned it. Treat yourself. Look at how filthy she is.

You're not that bad. Paul writes in Romans one eighteen, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness, suppress the truth. May we not suppress the truth of what we know about sin and God. Apart from a cure, the prognosis of sin with its many symptoms of which we covered for isolation, compensation, denial and justification is eternal death. Some of you may be thinking, well, I've believed and so therefore, I've accepted the cure and I'm healed.

To which I will say, amen. Praise God. Even with the cure, we are not immune entirely yet. John reminds us in first John one eight, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. We are all, if in Christ, recovering lepers.

People still with an itching for sin. And like a leper picking a scab out of instinct, we can still feel the tug to indulge the flesh. Brothers and sisters, we need to heed the command in Hebrews three thirteen. Let us exhort one another every day and so far as it is called today that none of us might be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. We can be hardened.

We can be calloused. Life and years that go by can cause us to forget that these certain areas in our life have have not been treated, have not been yet cured. May we constantly be examining ourselves so that any hardness might be softened by the spirit. And may we be people who exhort one another, who encourage one another, who rebuke one another in truth and in grace, so that none of us would become hard. Again, Hebrews ten twenty four twenty five reminds us, let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.

And all the more as you see the day drawing near, if we do not obey these commands, which are given for our joy, we will risk dampening our witness to this world and looking more like the dying lepers of the world, rather than the healthy and beaming lights of Christ. So to recap, when we look at ourselves, what do we see? The world is shattered by sin. It's a sick world we live in. Mankind is totally depraved.

Consequences of sin range from isolation to compensation to denial to justification and comparison. And Christians are not immune. We must see ourselves for who we are, desperately sick and in need of healing. And apart from a cure, we are full of sin as the man who came before Jesus was full of leprosy. And so far as we're left to ourselves with a mirror in hand, we are hopeless.

That is why we must look at Jesus for who he is. Let's look back at Luke five twelve. While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, his eyes had to be up in order to see Jesus. His gaze had to be raised in order to see him who is worthy of praise.

John writes in the prologue of his gospel, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory. Glory as of the only son from the father, full of grace and truth. So while we are full of sin, he is full of grace, and he extends it to you again and again and again nonstop. And not only that, but he is full of glory. Have you seen his glory?

Have you beheld his glory in the sanctuary? Have you beheld his glory in creation? It is everywhere. And are our eyes locked on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross for us? Or, as often is the case, are we too busy looking inwardly at our own weaknesses, our own insufficiency, our own incapacity to love God, or ourselves, or others?

Why waste our time when the most beautiful person, most trustworthy, more trustworthy than your counselor, more captivating than the greatest film production, more precious than your diamond studded wedding ring and all the treasures of the world, more impressive than the CSO, more lovely than a fresh bouquet of roses, more intelligent than Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates, Einstein, and Socrates combined. It's almost a joke to compare the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of his nature to worldly things. And yet by our actions, how often do we act as though we prefer these things over him? Let's look up. For him, the all satisfying one who rose again is welcoming our gaze.

One thing I've asked of the Lord and that I will seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. Psalm twenty seven four. Next, Luke five twelve. When he saw Jesus, he ran in the other direction afraid that Jesus might reject him because he was so filthy. No.

When he saw Jesus, he smiled shyly and waved at Jesus from afar because he was afraid of what Jesus might command him to do after healing him, like work hard or be holy. No. When he saw Jesus, he fell on his face like a dog welcoming her owner home. He eagerly fell at the feet of Jesus, desperate for a touch, desperate for attention. He didn't cower or hide in shame for being an outcast as good as dead.

He fell before Jesus as he was, broken and scarred, eager to be healed. In scripture, a lot of people fall on their faces. Sometimes they fell as an act of humility, an act of getting low before someone of authority, an expression of submission. In this sense, Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan in second Samuel nine six, came to David and fell on his face as he paid homage. Yet in another more profound sense, scripture describes falling on the face as the instinctive reaction of a mortal in the presence of almighty God.

In Leviticus nine twenty four, towards the end of the commencement of tabernacle service, the glory of the Lord appeared to the people as fire came out consuming the offerings. It is written, when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and shouted. When Jesus was taken up had taken up Peter, James, and John up on a high mountain and was transfigured before them, shining in his divine brilliance, the father's voice boomed from heaven declaring, this is my beloved son. Listen to him. When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.

What did Jesus do? He reached out and touched them and said, rise. Fear not. Upon seeing Jesus, we can apply the man full of leprosy fell on his face for two reasons. He is submitting humbly to the rabbi who preached in power and exercised legions of demons.

And two, he instinctually collapsed in the presence of the almighty son of God who not only healed the worst of diseases, but he raised the dead to life. Regardless, he collapsed before the presence of Christ. If you have entered the presence of a holy being, it is hard to remain standing. Many people have a sanitized Jesus. A Jesus they've made in their own image.

Perhaps, he's their boyfriend or their bro. Their prayers may sound more like they're calling their best friend from high school rather than the judge from revelation one whose eyes are like a flaming fire, whose voice is the roar of many fire, many waters and his mouth expelling a two edged sword. If your relationship with Jesus doesn't ever entail falling on your face in awe of his majesty, something is wrong. It is true, Jesus did say, for whoever does the will of God, he is my brother, my sister, and my mother. Which means if you do God's will, you can be in a sense, Jesus' brother, his sister, even his mother.

Paul also describes believers as brothers of the firstborn son, who is Christ. Very intimate terms. And yet let us not mix intimacy with flippancy when we are talking to the ever living eternal God. As John Piper says, true worship of Jesus is always a mingling of trembling reverence at the unique divine greatness of the one who is, and the unspeakable loneliness that unites him to us in a shared human nature and amazingly intimate friendship. After all, the friendship of the Lord is for who?

For those who fear him. That's right. Psalm twenty five fourteen. Verse 12 again, when he saw Jesus, he fell on his feet and begged him. I once met a beggar.

I was in Atlanta, Georgia for a Christian conference. And as we were about to leave, we were heading back to our hotel to pick ours pick up our stuff before to catch our flight. And I came across a man named Barry. And Barry was a homeless man. And he was begging us for a penny.

Just a penny. So I was talking to him. I had some food that I wanted to give him, really to no avail. It is very hard to understand what he was saying. All this speech was very mumbled.

Eventually, my friend Phil came. And after a while, he gave him $5. At this, everything changed. Tears began to stream down Barry's face as he began to open up to us. And most peculiar, he began to say this as he pointed upward.

Holy. Holy. Holy. Holy. Holy.

And point inward saying, darkness, evil, devil, evil. Darkness, evil, devil. And he began to alternate back and forth saying, holy, holy, and darkness, evil, devil. We, of course, were shocked at this and we were trying to assure him that in Christ, we can we can be clean, that Christ is the one who came to save wretched sinners. And each of us took a turn trying to understand him, trying to get more out of him.

Eventually, we got out that he was a man who had contracted AIDS, that he was dying within weeks. He was desperate for healing, but more so, he was desperate to be right before God. And he was begging for some heart relief. Thanks be to God. We were able to finally get through to him.

And laying our arms on his unclean body, we were able to pray for him to accept Christ. And to our knowledge, he did with eyes that no longer had despair but delight, no longer had fear but faith. Barry, He understood the wretchedness of his condition. Do we? He knew he couldn't heal himself.

He knew no matter what he did, nothing would change his aids. He was going to die. He knew that nothing he could do would make up for all the sins he had lived, but he did know that there was someone who could. Whether we are in Christ or not, the epidemic of sin affects us. Do we weep over the sins in our lives, falling on our face and begging God to save us from our helpless condition?

If If not, let us ask. Ask for tenderness of heart. Ask us. Ask God to bring us to that place where it is not contrived, but it is authentic. The leper who came to Jesus did precisely that.

We don't know whether his cry was more of a loud earnest one or a soft humble request, but either way, it was a desperate plea for intervention. It was not mere nagging. He begged Jesus according to his authority as Lord, according to his will, and according to his omnipotence. What did the leper pray? Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.

Let's split this cry into those three parts. Firstly, he says, lord. Now this title was used in various settings, one meaning simply our modern day sir. It is also used of, used by slaves to address their masters. It was a title of honor for someone of a higher status.

So this is one usage. However, we know Jesus was much more than a man worthy of respect. His radical life was paired with radical claims including before Abraham was, I am. What is that? The divine I am that I am from Exodus three fourteen, where Yahweh reveals his holy name to Moses.

And this usage of this holy name is probably in your old testament, as lord in all caps. One of Jesus' common titles was lord, Thomas, for example. Seeing Jesus' scars in John twenty twenty eight says, my lord and my god. And Paul in Philippians two eleven tells us that on Christ has been bestowed the name that is above every name. So that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus is lord.

Jesus is the Lord. The self existent I am God, the eternal uncreated one. And he is worthy of divine honor and praise. His lordship makes him the authority of everything in this universe. Jesus is the lord of time.

He controls it. He created it. He himself is outside of it. Though in his incarnation, he chose to temporarily enter it. He himself never had a beginning.

Can you comprehend this imponderable thought? He never had a beginning. He was in the beginning. He is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. His consciousness never ceases nor will it ever cease.

Jesus is the lord of wisdom. His infinite wisdom wrought the world in its mind numbing grandeur and detailed design, confounding physicists and biologists and any who have undertaken to study the endless complexity of this universe. In wisdom, he wired the human brain to fit enough information to fill 20,000 books, Enough to fill some of the world's largest libraries. Imagine the five wisest people you know. Do you have them?

Now combine their minds and multiply that by a million and by a million. And again and again and again and again, our lord is the lord of such wisdom. Jesus is lord of creation. The Swiss Alps whose snowy peaks pierce the heavens, the great barrier reef whose vibrant corals house a jungle of marine life. Every sunset you've ever seen whose fusion of colors make Van Gogh look like an amateur, these are the works of his hands.

He created all things. He sustains all things. He upholds all things by the word of his power. Jesus is the lord of light. He is the radiance of the glory of god, the bright morning star, the light of the world who exposes the works of darkness.

He is very light in his essence in whom there is no darkness at all, and the degree of his brightness makes the sun cower for shade. Jesus is the lord of life. He is immortal and indestructible. He gives life and he takes it away. To Lazarus in the tomb four days, he says three words, Lazarus, come out, and he comes out.

To the girl who passed away, he says two words, arise, child. And the girl stands up at once. He himself was killed, and yet he rose again in victory. He is the living lord. And Jesus is the lord of wrath.

He hates sin. And as a just and holy god, he must punish it. Though he satisfied the wrath of the father once, he is storing up wrath again to pour out on all who have rejected him. And on that day, it will explode on this world so that people who have rejected him will cry out to boulders to crush their heads so that they don't have to face the wrath of the lamb. Jesus is the lord of grace.

He justifies the ungodly. He saves wretched sinners. He gives love to the unlovely, mercy to the undeserving. Grace upon grace upon grace to all who would call out to him in faith. His grace is sufficient.

So Jesus is Lord. Secondly, the leper says, if you will, in the NIV, if you are willing, you can make me clean. Jesus had a choice. Jesus has a will. And in his sovereign will, he did the will of the father.

John six forty tells us, for this is the will of my father, that everyone who looks on the son and believes in him should have eternal life. And I will raise him up on the last day. What Jesus wills, the father wills. What the father wills, no man, no demon can thwart. His will is that if you see himself, if you look on the son and believe, you will have eternal life.

Firstly, the leper says, Lord. Then he says, if you will. Thirdly, he says, you can make me clean. The leper couldn't heal himself. Barry couldn't heal himself.

But he knew who could. And as we come to a close, I wanna share the story of father Damien. This man, by his own request, decided to go to Molokoy Island in Hawaii in 1873. His motivation was simple. There is a leper colony there with people dying without anyone to care for them in total isolation.

And so he went, left his comfortable life, entered this place of disease, and he helped these people. He bandaged their open wounds. He dug their graves, and he led their church services, loving these people day in and day out. And after eleven years of service, he he wakes up one morning on a Sunday morning like this, looks at his arms feeling some paralysis, seeing the first marks of his own leprosy. As he stands before their them as I am today before you, he began his sermon with the words, we lepers.

Friends, this is the gospel. The God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, he did not remain distant far in his heavenly abode, but he came down. And in Jesus, he took upon human flesh, vulnerable to disease, to sickness. And not only that, but he became obedient to the point of death, laying himself down on the cross for our sins so that if we trust and believe in him, no longer would we have to cry unclean, unclean. No longer would we have to say darkness and evil and devil.

No longer would we have to have rags of filth upon us. But we could say worthy, worthy, worthy is the lamb who was slain by whose blood I am clean. So that we could say, holy is he by whom I am no longer in darkness, but a child of light in whom we could say, I am no longer dirty, but I'm clothed with the righteousness that is not my own, and it is righteousness of the risen, the living, the lord of wisdom, the lord of light, the lord of life, the lord of grace, a lord who is worthy to be seen, and a lord who is welcoming our gaze this morning. And so may we look up. May we see him in his majesty, in his splendor.

May we not waste a day with our eyes looking inward, but let us look up. Would you pray with me? Holy, holy, holy are you, Lord God Almighty. Worthy, worthy, worthy are you, the lamb who was slain. Lord, we can't believe on our own.

We can't see on our own. Our eyes have been infected by this plague. Our hearts are resistant. And I'm sure somebody here today is still resisting the tug of their spirit that is holding on to the sin, that is holding on to living outside the community of God, clinging to the isolation for some reason. Lord, we can't heal ourselves and so we come before you as beggars.

And we beg of you, God. I beg on behalf of every single person in this building, whether they've trusted you or not, I pray that they would see you. I pray that you would make yourself known as the God who has come in the flesh, as the God who has become the curse for us so that we could be the righteousness of God. And Lord, we magnify your name. We trust in you, in the sufficiency of the cross, the sufficiency of your sacrifice to heal us of all our disease, to make us as white as snow.

And it is in Jesus name we pray all these things. Amen.