Special

Matthew chapter 8 verses 1 to 4.

When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, Lord. If you are willing, you can make me clean. Jesus reached out his hand and touched him. I am willing, he said.

Be clean. Immediately, he was cleansed of his leprosy. Then Jesus said to him, see that you don't tell anyone, but go and show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded. As a testimony to them. Thanks, Abby.

If you'd like to keep that open, we're just gonna spend a few moments thinking about this passage. And, you may have been coming here tonight and thinking, what is so special about this Jesus fella that 5 young people would, you know, get up here on a stage and talk about him so lovingly, in a bit weird. What's so special about this Jesus? I don't know what you think don't want you to think about who the lord Jesus Christ is, but it's not it's not uncommon that people wanted to see who Jesus was. Did you notice in that first verse there of chapter 8 When he's coming down the mountains, large crowds are following him.

Jesus has always been an attractive character in terms of intrigue has sort of followed him all of his days. When he was here, people just flocked to see who he was. You know what, it's no different today. There are millions and millions of people who come and say that Jesus is a special character, that he's a special person. If he was here today, there would be crowds of people coming to see him.

You know, you think about when a celebrity comes into town or or a royal man I mean, I lived in a place called mold when I grew up. Yeah? What an attractive sounding place that sounds. Mold, the queen once came to visit. Whoa.

Why? Was she lost? Perhaps? But when when that happened, I was in school, and all of my schoolmates, apart from me, went and flocked, and they lined the street to see queen Elizabeth. And as to what it's like with Jesus, he's walking down this mountain, you'll notice, and people are flocking to see him.

And you would, all the things that he says, all the things that he does that's recorded in the Bible. But as you see that crowd, and maybe you can picture those crowds, suddenly you'll see a commotion. Suddenly you'll you'll you'll see like people screaming and hear people screaming and and there's away partying in that crowd, and they're recoiling like they've seen some sort of grotesque animal. I mean, you might be like this if you are ever confronted with a spider. Yeah?

Or a rat. Yeah? The the the the party why are they and then why is it that they're parting? Why is their commotion? Why are people trying to get away?

Well, look down with me at verse 2, a man with leprosy came. A man with leprosy came. Now for those who don't know what leprosy is, leprosy is this like really slow and progressive disease that starts in the body. It's like a bacterial infection, and it just spreads and spreads and spreads. And firstly, you'll get a little a little spot or a little patch on your face, and then suddenly you'll get these sort of nodules around your nose and around your body and in your cheeks, and then they will start to ulcerate and be filled with pus.

Your your voice will go hoarse. Your breathing will go wheezy. And what happens with leprosy is that it attacks the nerves. So you can't feel any pain, which is a disaster because if you put your hand on a boiling kettle and you can't feel the pain, you're not gonna feel the damage. In fact, what used to it could happen?

Because because they couldn't feel anything, they might fall asleep and wake up with no hand the next day because a rat might come and eat it off. This is a horrendous disease. It's numbing. There there will be, bleeding stumps of limbs. There'll be things that nose can fall off.

And not only that, but in this society, if you had this disease, you were known as someone who was unclean. In fact, you had to walk around and shout unclean, unclean, so that whenever anybody came near you, they could say, we must stay away from this guy. He's disgusting. And so what would happen to you is that you would be cut off from society. You would be cast out from your family.

Sometimes families would have a funeral for the leper, even though they were still alive. You were rejected by everybody. You were unclean. You were untouchable. No 1 could touch it.

If you touched a leper, you too would be seen as unclean. You you I mean, this is quite familiar. We've talked about lockdown a few times today, but you remember COVID. If you came into contact with a jolly COVID person, they weren't jolly usually, actually. You had to self isolate.

You suddenly you were you were infected. You had to isolate. You know, and we see this in our, you know, in our day and age. If you associate with certain types of people, you will be seen as 1 of those type of people. You know?

You think about, Kanye West. Yeah. He says some outrageous things. And so what did Adidas do? They said we better drop him because if we have him as part of our label, then, we will be seen as what he believes.

So we can't, you can't associate with a leper. You're cut off. You're rejected, and there is no cure for this disease in these days. You're just slowly rotting away to your death. And so this leper realizes there's no cure, there's no hope, and he is completely desperate.

So desperate is he that he's willing to risk it all? He shouldn't be around people, and he walks through a crowd of people who will hate him. And he may pick up stones to try and chuck it at him to say, get out your unclean wretch. But he comes, he's willing to risk it all so desperate, is he, and you'll notice in verse 2 that he comes, and he kneels before Jesus. He realizes that he shouldn't be here.

He realizes that he doesn't deserve to be here. He realizes he's unclean, and he's taking a massive risk to be just amongst this huge crowd and near the lord Jesus. And he realizes that he must give himself the posture of someone that knows that this is someone who who's great and can deal with my problem, but I don't deserve to be here. And look what he says. Lord.

If you are willing, you can make me clean. See, this this man knows that Jesus has the power to make him clean. He knows that this man has the power to sort his leprosy out. But is he willing? You may have had that question said before in an r s lesson.

It's always r s. If god is all powerful why is there suffering in the world? And that's sort of the question that we've got here. If if you're willing, you can make me clean you. I know you're powerful enough, Jesus, but are you willing?

And so he, the crowd, hold their breath. How will Jesus react? How will he react? First 3. And I this is an amazing scene.

I I'm sorry that I don't do it justice. You see what it says in verse 3? Jesus reached out his hand. What's he gonna do with that hand? He's gonna reach out his hand and pick up a stone and love it at this man.

Get out. Is he gonna use his hand to point at this leper and say, how dare you come into this place? And infect us all and give us put us all at risk? Is he gonna point away? So get out Is that what Jesus will do?

Verse 3, Jesus reached out his hands and touched the man. Touched him. Now that isn't just, touch it. Yeah. It's not like that.

He reads that. It's a it's a touch of love. It's a touch that embraces this man. It grabs this man and says, I am willing. And that's what he says.

I am willing. I do care. I do care enough about you. I do love you enough. Says this says Jesus to this leper.

He reaches out his hand, and he embraces him. And remember what happens when you touch a an unclean leper, you become unclean yourself. He's willing to be the unclean for this man. He says, I am willing Is he powerful enough is the next question? Well, what does he say?

Be clean. Immediately. He was cleansed off his leprosy. Did you see that? It wasn't 6 to 12 months, which I believe is usually the length of time it takes to get over leprosy nowadays because we do have a cure now.

No. It's immediate. The stumps suddenly have limbs again. The nose is restored. The patches of skin are are are are cleared, and he has a clear face.

The power of Jesus is a power here is amazing. He's both able and he is willing. And so verse 4, look what he says, then Jesus said to him, see that you don't tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded as a testimony to them. And all that means is you go to the priest, he'll check you over, and you can come back to society. Can you see how he's completely changed this man's life?

This man was once outside alienated, physically ill. Unclean, cut off from his family, cut off from his friends, cut off from his society, and now Jesus, the 1 who was willing and able, has brought him into society, has brought him into his family again. Now you might be sitting there going, why is this bloke telling us this story? I only came to see a couple of people that are like, get wet. What does it mean?

What does it mean for us? Well, I wonder, I wonder if you've had similar experiences or similar thoughts to what this leper would have felt. It's interesting listening to a to these young people, and and maybe you resonated with these young people, that they felt lonely, that they felt isolated, that they felt rejected, or maybe you felt that. Maybe you felt even though you're in a party that you're the loneliest person in the world. Maybe you've have that experience of filling your life with social media and you're comparing yourself with people, that it makes you feel completely repulsive, that it makes you feel completely unworthy.

And rejected. Maybe you've done things and said things and thought things that you know you shouldn't have done. And it makes you feel unclean, and it makes you feel guilty, and it makes you feel shameful. Maybe you've been treated like this leopard would have been treated. Get away from us.

Get away from us. We want nothing to do with you. You're at odds with the world. But I wanna suggest to you that that is because you're at odds with God. So the Bible says that we are all sinful.

And actually, this leper is a picture of us before god? And you think, wow. I'm that repulsive, and the answer is yes. You are. Before a holy righteous, pure and clean god, you are guilty, you are shameful, you are dying a slow death because of your sin.

And like this leper, you have no right and you have no place to approach this god. And you may have felt these these feelings of shame and guilt because on a on a larger scale, that's because you're guilty and shameful of breaking god's law and living however you wanna live. And so god says you are unclean. You are unclean. You are repulsive.

You are a spiritual leper. And there's nothing you can do about it. You could get the most the most, whatever soap you wanna get. What's a good soap? Who knows?

Radox? Because I don't know what it is. Anyway, let's move on. Yeah. You could get the most incredible barm there is.

You can do all the things that you think might get you right. But at the end of the day, there's nothing that you can do that can cure you from your spiritual leprosy. And so like this leper, you must you have to come and say, To be honest, God, I haven't got anything, but I'm desperate because I know that I'm worthy of your punishment and your your your condemnation, and you must come to him in desperation. Now you might be thinking I've thought about this before, but I am totally unlovable. I'm so repulsive.

And the answer is, yes, you are. You are. You're dirty thing. Oh, sorry. You are.

But you're coming to 1 who is both able and is willing. He is able to save you, but not only is he able, not only does he have the power to clean you from all your, your, your, your, your, your, your, shame and your guilt and your sin. You're not only is he able to clean you of that. He is willing to That's how incredible Jesus is. I don't know what you've heard about him, but if you look at this story alone, you can see that he is a loving, willing, savior.

And do you know how we know? Ultimately, that this is the case because he dies on a cross. The lord Jesus Christ didn't just come to say a few nice words and walk on water. Now he's come His ultimate purses is to come and to go to a cross and to have nails driven through his wrists and his feet and to hang there, not because he did anything wrong, but because of your spiritual leprosy. There's an amazing verse in 2 Corinthians and chapter 2, in chapter 5 verse 21, it says this.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us So that in him, we might become the righteousness of god. Did you hear that? Let me read it again in case you switched off because that is incredible words right there. It said god made him Jesus who had no sin. He was completely pure and perfect and lovely and gorgeous, right?

He he had no sin to be sin. He became a spiritual leper for you. He became shameful and guilty for you, for your sin, for all the things that you've done wrong, for all the times that you've rebelled against God. So why? So that you may become the righteousness I've got, that you might become clean so that you might be with god so that you might be in the family of god.

See, Jesus hangs on a cross, and he says, my god, my god. Why have you forsaken me? Why have you abandoned me? He's abandoned so that you are never alone. Do you know why it's not great to hear you young people.

I've felt lonely, but you know why you don't have to worry about being lonely, because the lord Jesus said I'll be alone, all alone on a cross, the darkness of a cross so that you never have to be alone. The lord Jesus Christ says you have all your shame, but I will take your shame so that you can be innocent. The lord Jesus Christ says I will be rejected so that you will always be accepted. The lord Jesus says I'll be worthy of death so that you will be worthy of life. The lord Jesus Christ says I will become unclean so that you can become clean.

That is fantastic. And so maybe you've been invited here and you've thought, I don't really know what all this Jesus stuff is about. Hopefully, you've seen just in the story alone. That he is both able to deal with all your problems, and he is willing. And maybe you will decide that today's the day that's worth trusting in him.

And maybe you're not sure yet. But why don't you ask some questions about who he is? Why don't you find out a bit more about him? Why don't you ask the people that invited you here? Why don't you listen to Julius and realize that the Bible isn't boring?

It's the words of life, and it shows us the lord Jesus Christ, and he's worth listening to. And if you're a Christian here today, what a joy? Let's rejoice that we who are unclean have been made clean, and let us be those who are willing as our lord Jesus Christ was to hold up this message to unclean people. Let's pray. And then we'll sing and then we'll dunk these guys.

Father, we thank you so much for this incredible story of the lord Jesus Christ. We thank you that he is both willing and able to deal with our spiritual uncleanness. We thank you that there is nothing that we deserve to to be saved. There's no reason why you should say it was in fact, by very nature, we were repulsive to you. But we praise you that the lord Jesus was willing to do something about it, that he was willing to go to a cross and die our death for us so that we may be clean, that we may be accepted that we may always have someone with us, and so he prays you for Jesus in his name, amen.