When Your Need Meets His Love
Mark 1:40 – 45 Sunday February 24, 2002
We are looking today at a small part of a real man’s life who lived in
the time Jesus Christ walked the face of the earth as flesh and blood.
Verse 40 - Our Need
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This man had a need. He was dying.
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We have needs today. Some major – Some minor
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There is a disease that is
slowly killing many today - SIN
Verse 41 – Our desire
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This man desperately wanted
healed.
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He knew he had a problem and was
seeking a cure.
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He had probably tried everything
possible in his world
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All he had left, his last and
only hope, was God
Verse 42 – The Love of God. His
compassion and healing
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Jesus cared deeply about this
man
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He WANTED to heal him. This man’s faith made that possible. His Need met His Love and he was restored
Verse 43 – 44 – His commission and Command
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Jesus sent him to be obedient;
to the Law and to his Savior
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We are to obey His Holy Word
Verse 45 – a. Man’s Pride and
sin.
b.
The separation caused by sin.
c.
God provides a way to Him by
faith through Grace
Jesus is waiting to meet your need and to deliver you from your
trouble. Are you ready to meet Him by
faith and receive what HE WANTS to give you?
40 {Jesus Heals a Man with Leprosy--} A man with leprosy (slowly progressing and incurable skin disease, scaly, flaky, disease that destroys the flesh) came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. "If you want to, you can make me well again (made clean)," he said.
This man was in need. He had a disease that was slowly killing him
– and he knew it. This man knew there
was only one hope for his life – Jesus Christ.
We do not know how he heard about Jesus, that is not recorded, someone
had to tell him so he would know to come to Jesus.
God had prepared the heart of this
man already. He had faith that Jesus
could heal him, his only question was whether Jesus WOULD heal him or not.
Look at his faith. He told Jesus that he knew He could heal
him, if He wanted to.
I have little doubt that this man
had tried many different remedies for his disease, perhaps he had tried
everything humanly available, but they had failed. All he had left, his only hope, was in Jesus Christ.
Man today has the same problem. We are infected with a disease that is slowly but surely killing us – it is called SIN.
We may try everything we can do on
this earth to “live right” or “earn enough points” or maybe even be “religious
enough” to make it into heaven, but they will all fail.
I am here today to tell you about
the only Man who can help you with your eternal hope and your life today. He is the same Man the man in our text came
to. He is the same Man John the Baptist
told us about. He is Jesus Christ – Son
of God.
He is the only one who can truly
cleanse us from our sins and our failures.
He is the only One who can forgive and restore us. He is the Way to God, the Truth of eternity
and the Life you have been seeking.
All He is waiting for is you to
have the faith to come to Him, yield our life to Him and proclaim that we KNOW
that He is the only one who can save us.
41 Moved with pity (compassion, “bowels yearning”), Jesus touched (to attach ones self to) him. "I want to," he said. "Be healed (cleansed)!"
The Good News is that He WANTS TO
heal you! He loves you and has great
compassion you. He desperately wants
you to come to saving faith in Him. So
much that He paid the debt for you, He gave Himself as the sacrifice for your
sins! No only that – He sends people to
you that He has gifted with the Word to tell you and the boldness to not be
ashamed to tell you of His love for you!
Jesus wants you to be attached to Him, as a child of God. When you are born again you gain the right to be called a child of God; He becomes your Heavenly Father! And you also gain several million new brothers and sisters! Are you attached to Jesus?
42 Instantly (immediately, at once) the leprosy disappeared (to go off, depart) -- the man was healed.
This man was healed immediately. There could be no doubt that God did
this! Not time – not medicine – not a
priest – God did this RIGHT THEN!
When our broken life is healed by salvation by faith in Christ we are restored to Spiritual Health IMMEDIATELY! This initial Salvation – called justification (made just as if you had never sinned) is an immediate and eternal work of God. Man cannot do this – Medicine cannot do this – only God can do this.
43 Then Jesus sent him on his way and told him sternly (charged him, command with emphasis),
When the man had been cleansed, Jesus sent him on his way. He was about to be given a mission, Jesus was telling him what he was to do next.
This was a stern command given by the Great God of All Creation, who had just wondrously and miraculously delivered this man from sin and sickness.
God gives us instructions and guidelines on what we are to do and how we are to live. He gives them to us through His Word, through prayer, through our church and through the way He works in our lives on a daily basis. We are simply to obey Him by faith; trusting Him and knowing that His way is the best way for our life.
44 "Go right over to the priest and let him examine you. Don't talk to anyone along the way. Take along the offering required in the law of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy, so everyone will have proof (evidence) of your healing."
Jesus told him to obey the
requirements of the scriptures for giving God Glory for what he had
received. Jesus never violated any
precept of the Law of God; neither did He encourage or instruct anyone else
to. There is a purpose and a Grace to
the Law’s of God. We will see the
reason for this shortly.
Today, when we lead someone to
Jesus, we should lead them to a church that believes in the Word of God and to
a pastor who will instruct and love them in Jesus’ Name.
Part of the salvation experience is
a public testimony of what God has done in our lives. We are instructed to tell others what He has done for us.
Matthew 10:32-33 “If anyone acknowledges
me publicly here on earth, I will openly acknowledge that person before my
Father in heaven. But if anyone denies
me here on earth, I will deny that person before my Father in heaven.” (NLT)
Acts 20:24 “But my life is worth nothing unless I
use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus-- the work of telling
others the Good News about God's wonderful kindness and love.” (NLT)
Every Christian should have a deeply imbedded desire to share the love of God with everyone we come across! We are to be willing to give away what we received, knowing that by giving it away it grows in us.
45 But as the man went on his way, he spread the news (kerusso – to publish, to herald, preach with much enthusiasm – FIRE), telling everyone what had happened to him. As a result, such crowds (from everywhere – out of the woodwork) soon surrounded (from all sides) Jesus that he couldn't enter a town anywhere publicly. He had to stay out in the secluded places (lonesome, wasted places – out in the boony’s), and people from everywhere (all sides) came to him there. (NLT)
This man disobeyed God. Jesus told Him to do one thing, instead he
did something else.
However much we may “understand or
explain” his enthusiasm and desire to tell others, it was still against what
Jesus had told him to do. And there
were consequences.
Because of this one man’s
disobedience Jesus was left the city.
He left those who this man was telling what had happened. Jesus separated Himself from them.
Sin always separates us from
God. We cannot turn away from His Holy
Will and expect to be traveling the same path.
Jesus went away from the city out
into the country, into the wasted places, the desert. Sin had caused Him to leave the city and go out into the dry and
wasted land.
But; notice what this mans sin DID
NOT DO.
q Sin did not destroy Jesus Christ. He left the sin, but He was still alive. Sin removed Him from our world on the Cross,
but He is still here – alive and well and very busy in our world.
q Sin did not stop the ministry of Jesus. When He separated Himself from the sin,
those who were living in sin came to Him for forgiveness. Today He is still here for us if we have the
faith to ask for the cleansing,
restoration and eternal life He has waiting for us.
q Sin did not limit Christ’s power. He was still God and He still is the only way to God.
This sin did have negative effects.
q Jesus was no longer in the city
q Those who wanted Him had to search for Him
Adam and Eve had total and constant
access to God, until sin entered in to the world through their unbelief. Today we are instructed to Seek Him while He
may be found.
Mark 1:40-45
{Jesus Heals a Man with Leprosy--}
in front of Jesus, OUR NEED
begging to be healed.
"If you want to, you can make me well again," he said. STATEMENT OF FAITH
Moved with pity,
Jesus touched him.
"I want to,"
he said. THE LOVE OF GOD
"Be healed!"
Instantly
the leprosy disappeared— LOVE MADE MANIFEST THROUGH FAITH BY CHRIST
the man was healed.
Then
Jesus sent him on his way COMMISSION
and told him sternly,
"Go right over to the priest COMMAND
and let him examine you.
Don't talk to anyone along the way.
Take along the offering required
in the law of Moses OBEDIENCE TO THE WORD
for those who have been healed of leprosy,
so everyone will have proof of your healing."
But as the man went on his way,
he spread the news, DISOBEDIENCE/SIN
telling everyone what had happened to him.
As a result,
such crowds soon surrounded Jesus
that he couldn't enter a town SIN SEPERATES
anywhere publicly.
He had to stay out in the secluded places,
and people from everywhere came to him there. CHRIST
PROVIDES A WAY TO HIM
THROUGH
FAITH. WHAT SIN SEPERATES CHRIST UNITES