Jesus the Great Physician (Mark 1:40-45)

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Speaker 1 00:00:34 All right. It says, A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean. He said, moved with compassion. Jesus reached out and touched him. I am willing. He said, be healed. Instantly. The leprosy disappeared and the man was healed. Then Jesus sent him on his way with a stern warning offering. Don't, don't tell anyone about this. Instead go to the priests and let him examine you. Take along the offering required in the law of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy. This will be a public testimony that you have been cleansed. But the man went and spread the word proclaiming to everyone what had happened. As a result, large crowd soon surrounded Jesus. And he couldn't publicly enter a town anywhere. He had to stay out in secluded places, but people from everywhere kept coming to him.

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Speaker 1 00:02:22 Well, to be a leper in Jesus day. Fir first, let me explain, you know, what I understand about the disease or the infection of leprosy. Now I'm, I'm not a doctor because I don't have any patients , but that's good. I, but I do know, I do know

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Speaker 1 00:02:40 Exactly. So I can inform us on, on this, this disease, um, you know, a lot of people think it's like a skin disease and, and it does affect the skin, but really it mainly affects, uh, nerve endings. And, and the skin has a ton of nerve endings in it. And so what happens is, when you, when a person has leprosy, they don't feel that any pain at those, those nerve endings. And so when you get a cut or a scrape or a bruise, um, on your skin, um, you know, normally it'd be able to heal itself or you'd be able to take care of it. But, but with these people, they can't, they don't notice it. Um, their skin gets easily infected. Um, burns, scrapes, bruises, left untreated, uh, cause cause people to lose their digits to, to lose their extremities even. And some deformity starts happening and their skin starts. Um, you know, having some huge, uh, sores and infections that, uh, really are, are are hideous and gross sometimes. And even with b broken bones and stuff, you know, like you, you know, when your bone is broken that you need to go see a doctor. But when they get injured, they don't know. They don't know. They're not feeling anything. And so oftentimes they, they're left mangled and, and in, in pretty bad shape. And so,

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Speaker 1 00:04:18 Hmm.

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Speaker 0 00:05:16 All of a sudden you have the ability to sense what's wrong, to sense your problem and recognize that the, where the solution is. But if you don't, if you can't ever, the biblical word for this is conviction. Mm-hmm. conviction is basically your ability to sense the right spiritual things is when you feel conviction, that's what leads you to say, I need a doctor. But if you don't like a leper, if you're a spiritual leper and you don't recognize your, your state, your, your wounds. Right. Your your need for a physician, then you're never gonna seek a physician. And this is what happens to a leper.

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Speaker 1 00:06:51 Mm-hmm. , this would've been a terrible place to be. Um, this, this was, uh, something that in the Old Testament, they would say that this person is unclean. And so they'd have to live outside of the city in some kind of tent or camp. Um, where other people wouldn't be able to see them or be able to come in contact with them. Actually, in, in Leviticus chapter 13, um, is a part of the, this Old Testament, uh, law, civil law about how a person ought to interact with someone who was an unclean leper. And it says in verse 45 and 46, the lepers person who has the D disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose. And she, 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. Could you imagine? I

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Speaker 1 00:08:59 Leper. Yeah. And because back then this was an incurable disease. Now I know that there's, there's, um, methods nowadays to, to help lepers, but back then they didn't have the same, you know, technology and the same, you know, understanding of, you know, medical issues as we do now. But this would've been an incurable disease. Um, if it went away on its own, then there were laws that you could come and, you know, do a cleansing and, and stuff like that. But, but this guy would've been alone, self-loathing, wondering if anybody cared about him, wondering if anybody loved him. Probably even angry at God in, in some sense. So we see again how this is so, uh, such a great analogy for, you know, the atheist, the agnostic, the believer, the seeker, um, they don't recognize their, their need for Jesus. Um, and sometimes they wonder why their life is the way that it is, but they can't find any hope.

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Speaker 1 00:11:04 It affected me physically, mentally, emotionally, um, it, it, you know, caused a lot of my relationships to be broken. Um, my spiritual life, I didn't really have one at the time. And so, uh, stuck in my sin. Um, there were all kinds of circumstances that you could say in a sense that I was like, this leper, you know, I, I was, wasn't a productive member of society and part of my community. And, and maybe when people looked at me, they felt sorry for me. And maybe I tried everything and, and nothing worked. And so that's the, the beauty of this story, because then we get to this point where he actually, um, sees Jesus. He must have been walking around or walking past or whatever. And

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Speaker 0 00:12:47 It's really easy to be an agnostic. It's really easy to think that you're in control. It's really easy to ha to sort of have the illusion that you do not have an infection. Cuz you've got everything under control. But when you get hit by leprosy, Hmm. You can't, you can't help but understand your desperate place. So it's not surprising that it was the leopards, the leopards and the drunkards and the, and the, the, the lame and the blind and the sick. It's not surprising that all throughout the gospels, those are the ones that we see seeking out Jesus. And not just them, but sometimes they're friends for them like we're gonna see next week. Yeah. It's not surprising because there's a, there's a gift. There really is a gift to understanding your condition. Like that's a gift. It's a gift to be able to be sens sensitized to your need.

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Speaker 0 00:14:37 This is where Jesus can show up. This is where the cure starts to take place. Mark 1 41 and 42, it says, moved with compassion. I love that. Moved with compassion. Jesus reached out and touched him and he said, said, I am willing be healed. And instantly the leprosy disappeared and the man was healed. Again, this, these are two simple verses. Mark is so good at just being really to the point, but there's so much to unfold in this passage right here. Right. The first thing, Eric, is that he's moved with compassion. I love that. He says, I am willing, remember the leper said, if you're willing mm-hmm. , you can heal me. So we see two things there. We see the leper recognized that Jesus had the power to heal. He'd heard the stories. Maybe he had seen some of the healings of Jesus. So he knew that Jesus had the power to heal. But what he wasn't sure about is whether Jesus was willing to do it. He knew that Jesus was great enough to do it. He wasn't sure if he was good enough to do it. , do you care about me? And it says that he was moved with compassion.

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Speaker 1 00:16:44 And same way as we're we're comparing this infection to sin, only Jesus can take away our sin. And it's, he's not just powerful enough to heal, he's also willing, because that's who Jesus is. Jesus is powerful and yet loving at the same time. And he comes and he, and he heals this man. And, and it's amazing actually. He touches him. Mm-hmm. , because that kind of goes against the, the, the laws of the Pharisees and, and the community of that time was to not touch a leopard. You would be unclean actually at that time, but Jesus.

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Speaker 0 00:18:14 He touched him. Mark made sure to say that Mark is short, you know, he is really concise with his words, but he included that. Mm-hmm. , he wa he's trying to send us a message that this is the God who in this case decided to heal. Not just with a word, he wanted to heal with a touch. Cuz he was sending a message. He was sending a message that that, that the holiness and the healthiness of Jesus is stronger than the infection. Mm-hmm. of the leper. And so Jesus touched him. I mean, think about that leper probably hadn't experienced physical touch, who knows for how long.

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Speaker 1 00:19:49 He can give you, he can give you mental health and physical health and emotional health. He can heal you from the past, hurts and pains of your life. Um, where maybe you're lacking relationship. Well sometimes the only relationship you, you need is Jesus. And when you finally understand that you have a relationship with God, then maybe you can start to become healthy enough to start having other relationships. But it's beautiful to me. Um, and one of the other things that you said, I really have to just, uh, share it because this cure, the cure for our sin then as, as metaphorical lepers for all human beings, the cure for our sin is, is Jesus's not, not just willingness, but his fulfillment of the act to, to come down to us, to be like us, to be in our world, to touch us and to ultimately die for us. And, and that there's a visual I got while you were talking about him reaching out and touching, touching the leper at the risk of actually harming himself. Right. And he did that mm-hmm. to the fullest extent at the end of the gospel of, of Mark when he dies on the cross. He s he did risk his life and actually gave it so that we could be forgiven. So that we could be cleansed. So that we could be healed.

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Speaker 1 00:22:41 So I love how we put it in, in topics four, five, and six in the pursuit. It, it makes it easy. It makes it clear. Um, it starts out with talking about what sin is. Sin is all of humanity's problem. We've gone against God, um, we've been born in, in this nature that is opposed to God and, and fallen. Um, and so the only solution to that sin problem that humans have then gets into topic or topic five is Jesus. And so we gotta understand who is Jesus. Well, we've been talking about He is, he's the son of God, he's the Messiah. He was God in the flesh who came down to earth to start his ministry. That's what Mark's recording, right? So we talk about sin is our problem, uh, Jesus is the solution. Um, and then we get to topic six, six, which is having our faith moment.

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Speaker 0 00:24:26 Yeah. So if you're listening to this and you, you know, you'd say, I don't know if I've ever done that before. Even if you grew up in the church, you know, there are a lot of people who go to church every Sunday who have never personally responded in faith to Jesus. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian anymore. That's then sitting in your garage makes you a car. So you can go to church all you want. But a personal relationship with Jesus starts with recognizing your sin. See, knowing who Jesus is and coming to him, um, like it says in Romans 10, nine and 10, that if we believe in our heart, we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, then we'll be saved. Mm-hmm. . And so, you know, that's something your mama can't do for you. Your dad can't do for you.

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Speaker 0 00:25:57 But there's actually, you know, we've talked about the infection. We've talked about the cure, and now to kind of keep along with, uh, that line of reasoning. Let's talk about the prescription. It's like Jesus writes out a prescription for the leper now, and it's, it's in verses 43 and 44, it says that Jesus then sent him on his way. So he is, he's healed now. Mm-hmm. , but nobody else knows it really. He sends him on his way and he gives him a warning, don't tell anyone about this. Instead go to the priest and let him examine you. Take along the offering required in the law of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy. And then he says this, this will be a public testimony that you have been cleansed. Eric, what's going on? Why would Jesus have him go to the priest?

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Speaker 1 00:27:50 You know, this is the testimony. I want you to do it the proper way, the right way to, to, to have a good testimony of me so that these guys, because Jesus has a heart for even the religious people too. I mean, remember this is the nation of Israel whom, uh, God had favored and whom he came from, uh, you know, and that he was sent to actually save in the first place. And so Jesus was trying to reach them in a way that, that they would understand and he wanted to use this guy specifically to do it.

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Speaker 0 00:29:16 But all these other ways as well. Like sin breaks every single part of us. And leprosy did the same thing for this leper leprosy was, you know, again, we don't even see on the surface the sin problem here on the surface it's the physical problem, and then it's the relational problem. So it's a societal problem. So the other part that's really cool here is that Jesus cares so much about this leper. He doesn't want want to just heal him physically, but he wants to restore him even to society. And the leper couldn't have been restored to society unless he sort of followed these steps and went to the priest. It's kind of like going to your doctor to get a, to get a Yeah, this is, look, I got it. Mm-hmm. , right? I like, I'm clean now. I'm good. I've got a clean bill of health.

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Speaker 1 00:30:53 Yeah. I've had many relationships that were broken. They weren't all fixed and, and probably be in God's will. I didn't need a lot of these other relationships that maybe I had lost. And a lot of those were, you know, lepers as well. , you know. Yeah. Um, but I, I realized the, the important people that were in my life, and, and God has certainly done amazing, amazing miracles in my life to give me greater relationships than I've ever had because, um, the ability to be sensitized and to be woken up to, to, to, to my own sin, to be given that humility, to, to know that I needed Jesus, and then to have him cleanse me to, to change me, to give me a new heart, uh, so that I would have the ability to love him and then love other people better. I mean, and that's really, hopefully, you know, what we can see in this story is that, that Jesus, he does not, he doesn't just wanna to heal his instant physical needs, but he wants to change his life, um, so that he can learn to love God and love other people.

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Speaker 1 00:33:05 And he's still doing that work here today. And the, the other beautiful thing about this is that he's, he's prescribing a way to, you know, to, to start being able to share this testimony. Now, a lot of you guys are probably thinking about the weird part about it. It's like, why, why can't he tell anyone? Um, and, and the last verse we'll read kind of helps us understand it says in verse 45, but the man went and he was a little bit disobedient, and he says he went and spread the word proclaiming to everyone what had happened. As a result, large crowds soon surrounded Jesus. He couldn't public publicly enter a town anywhere. He had to stay out in the secluded places, but people from everywhere kept coming to him. So it's,

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Speaker 0 00:34:37 Right? Yeah. He wasn't ready for this much fame and, and in, you know, in information out there about him yet, but it's funny that the guy couldn't help it. Mm-hmm. , he couldn't help himself. I mean, I, you don't, he can't blame the guy that he couldn't help himself, that he went out, that he still like ha it was like overflowing with excitement and ambition and, but it was actually disobeyed, technically it was disobedience. He disobeyed Jesus, which I think is probably good for us to recognize at that. Yeah. That can happen to us right. When we come to faith. And maybe you, maybe, you know, people like that, Eric, I, I think you might have been a little bit like that when you first came to faith that you were so exuberant that sometimes in those early days of being a follower of Jesus, you, you can overstep a little bit and mm-hmm. and then over time you kind of mature and recognize how to share your faith with people.

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Speaker 1 00:36:31 You know? And we call that honoring God. Mm-hmm. , which is also in the later modules of, uh, of the pursuit. But we, we, we start a relationship by trusting in Jesus. And that's, that's the good news, that's the beauty. And the analogy of this story with the leper is that we start a relationship by trusting in Jesus, and then we ought to go learn how to live a life that honors him. That certainly does mean sharing him in, in, in the way that he wants us to share him. And we should go bear our testimony that, that God has done so much in our lives. Um, but the beauty of this story is that Jesus is, is willing to heal and cleanse, uh, people from their sin. For, for anyone who would come to him in faith and recognize that, that he is g he is Lord, he is the son of God. He has the power to do it. He's also willing, he's loving and compassionate. He desires to restore fallen, uh, humanity and the fallen world, uh, because this is, this is his place. This is his kingdom. He's spreading his kingdom on this earth and he wants us to be a part of it.

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