Sometimes Connie thinks I’m making it up – and I might be, I don’t know – but some summer days, when there is no air
moving and it is stiflingly hot, there is a smell in the air here in town – and I’ve smelled it in Omaha, too. I think it is the
smell of people. I’m not even sure I can describe it – it’s not body odor smell. But I do know I smell something.
I wonder what kind of odor God smells in His dealings with mankind? Let’s widen our view of mankind a little bit – what
about the people in cities in third world countries who live in sewers and garbage with filth all around them – I wonder what
that smells like to God? I wonder how He looks at them. Do they look any different to Him than you and me?
Today we continue looking at a REAL human life – the life of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Luke. God has
important things for us to see and to apply to our lives in every passage of the Bible. And in the passage we’re looking at
today, He has a LOT for us to put into practice in our lives. As we get started and open up the Word of God, let’s ask
God for His help to understand the things He has for us. PRAY
Some of you noticed that we didn’t finish the story of Peter and the huge catch of fish last Sunday. I completely spaced off
verse 11. We’re going to see a similar response by another follower today, but go back to Luke 5:11. READ.
Remember that these fishermen had just caught probably the biggest load of fish they had ever seen. But Jesus’ point for
THEM was not catching fish, but getting involved with His eternal purpose and program. And they responded – they got
back to shore and left it all behind. I wonder what happened to all those fish? Remember the big crowd who Jesus had
been teaching when He asked Simon to go out to the deep and catch some fish? I think they were still there watching
Jesus. And when Jesus and the new men-fishers returned to the shore, everyone there probably got several days’ food
supplies for free.
But Simon and James and John and others in their crew, after seeing and hearing the call of Jesus, left it all to follow Him.
As we look at Jesus and His life lived like our lives, we are called to the same things – to follow Him and become fishers of
men – in whatever field of work we are in. I think we would do well to investigate what it means to “leave all” or “forsake
all” and follow Him. We’ll look at that as we continue today and over the next weeks we are in Luke.
Let’s go on with Luke’s account. Luke 5:12,13. READ. We all probably have some kind of mental picture of leprosy.
Mine must relate to what it says in the Old Testament about what happened to Miriam, Moses’ sister, for her unbelief –
kind of a fluffy white mold all over the skin. Here are some pictures of what leprosy looks like – if you have a weak
stomach, you may want to look away. LEPROSY We know that in New Testament times lepers had to stay away from
“normal” people – and if they ever had to come close to “normal” people, they had to yell out, “Unclean!” so people would
stay away from them. They were (and in our world today, still are) outcasts and rejects.
This man – full of leprosy, it says – saw Jesus and fell down before Him and begged Him, “Lord, if You are willing, You
can make me clean.” Listen to what this man is telling Jesus – I KNOW you can make me clean. That’s faith. So if YOU
are willing, it will happen. Jesus shows us over and over in the gospels that He loves to respond to faith put in action. So
Jesus sees this man’s faith and out of love does the unthinkable – He touches him. It says He put out His hand – He
reached out – and touched the guy and said, “I am willing.”
I see this as another proof that Jesus lived the perfect human life. How could the eternal Son of God – holy, perfect, pure –
how could He risk His perfection by touching this diseased man? As a matter of fact, how could the spotless Son of God
live among human beings at all – sinful and against Him? He could do it – He could touch this guy – by the same thing that
He touches US with. LOVE. Is there any difference between Jesus touching this man full of leprosy and touching ME?
The effects of sin cover all of us. And yet in His love for mankind, He touches us.
Remember Luke 4:18,19 – Jesus said that He came to preach the gospel to the poor and to heal the broken hearted and to
liberate captives and the oppressed. This man was all of those things. Jesus was willing to respond to this man’s faith.
And immediately the leprosy left him. Once again, there is a quality of personality given to this disease – just like the demon
cast out in the man at the synagogue and the fever in Peter’s mother-in-law. I think we in the 21st century need to
reexamine our view of illness. We have seen in just a few circumstances that illness is at its root spiritual.
This man who was forced to call out “Unclean” was purified by the Master. Did Jesus pull out His “God powers” to heal
this guy or was this something a human being connected with God could do? I still maintain that Jesus lived a human life the
way God wants you and me to live. His relationship with the Father was such that He knew what God wanted Him to do
and He trusted God completely to do it. Look at Luke 5:14,15. READ.
I think one reason Jesus never wanted people to make a big deal out of healing and driving out of demons is that this kind
of activity is what God wants to be the norm for people. Jesus told this man to go to a priest in the temple and do what
Moses had commanded to be done when a person is healed. Even in the Law of Moses, God had prepared people for
His miraculous work. This man was to report to the priest what God had done for him – it was a testimony of God’s work
and God’s power.
However, the news kept spreading all around the area. So more crowds of people came to hear Jesus and see Him and
be healed by Him. And look at verse 16. Luke 5:16. READ. Jesus – the REAL human being – had a habit that allowed
Him to maintain this amazing work. He regularly spent time alone with the Father. We saw this in chapter 4:42 also. For
those who desire to see the real God really working in the lives of real people like us – hopefully that’s ALL of us – we
need to spend time with the Lord away from the hustle and bustle. Especially when we know God is using us to
accomplish His work.
And if we don’t feel like we’re connected with Him at all and we aren’t seeing anything that looks like the work of God,
maybe we need to set aside some time – concentrated, quiet time listening for and to our Savior and communing with Him.
This was a pattern in Jesus’ life – it cannot be possible that we would need it less than Him. We need it MORE than Him.
Let’s go on.
This is one of my favorite stories of Jesus. Luke 5:17-20. READ. We don’t know where this was – whose house it was
at. But this huge crowd had showed up and Jesus was teaching them. There were also these religious leaders there –
checking Him out. It says in verse 17 that the power of the Lord was present to heal them – or it could be translated “was
with Him to heal.”
Arriving a little late – or maybe at just the right time – a group of guys come carrying a paralyzed friend of theirs. They
have heard about this Healer and they want their friend to be healed. And the paralyzed guy wants to be healed, too. BUT
it’s Jesus in there and no one wants to give an inch to let this group of men and this guy on a cot in – that would move us all
back and we couldn’t see or hear. But they knew they had to get to Jesus. So, quickly thinking, they said, we can get him
right in front of Jesus if we let him down from above. Get a rope!
I wonder what the owner of the house was thinking as the tiles started coming off. I wonder what the people sitting up
close to Jesus thought as the dust and sand started to fall on them from above. We know what Jesus thought as this
paralyzed guy was lowered down in front of Him. It says in verse 20 that He saw their faith. Once again, His relationship
with the Father was such that He was able to see what God wanted Him to see. He saw their faith. Have you ever seen
someone’s faith?
I think God wants us to see those kinds of things. If you have ever shared your faith with someone who put their faith in
Jesus, you have probably seen their faith. The Spirit of God shows us as we talk to people who is open and who is seeking
Him. This happens to people today – they see peoples’ faith and they respond by sharing the Good News. Does this
happen to you? God wants it to.
Well, Jesus sees the faith of these men and He speaks and opens up a whole can of worms with the religious people who
are there watching. He sees this man’s faith and He says, “Man, your sins are forgiven.” I spent a lot of time this week
thinking about this statement. Can a human being say this? If I maintain that Jesus never pulled out His God powers as He
lived His life on earth, we’ll have to deal with this statement.
The scribes and Pharisees picked up on it right away. In their own heads they were saying, You can’t say that – only GOD
can forgive sins. Jesus, by God’s work in Him, knows what they are thinking, so He addresses it head on. He did not shy
away from dealing with this difficult question – and it’s a good question. Luke 5:22,23. READ. His response is, What’s
bothering you about this? Would it have bothered you less if I had said, Rise up and walk?
Apparently, it must have been easier to say, Your sins are forgiven – because that’s what Jesus said. Notice that Jesus is
talking about what to SAY. I could have said to the man, Get up and walk, but I went with the underlying issue that is
easier to deal with for us human beings. BUT so that you can be assured that I – the Son of MAN – have power ON
EARTH to forgive sins (not in heaven – that’s definitely God’s job), I’ll tell him to rise up and walk.
When Jesus told the paralyzed man that his sins were forgiven, what had happened? All I see is that Jesus saw his faith. I
want us to look at some passages quickly that relate to this. In Matthew 9:22 a woman is healed of years of bleeding by
touching the hem of Jesus’ garment. READ. A few verses later, 2 blind men are healed. Look what Jesus says to them.
Matthew 9:29. READ. In Matthew 15, a Gentile woman asks Jesus to heal her demon possessed daughter. Look at
Jesus’ words to her – Matthew 15:28. READ.
These people all came to Jesus in faith and when He healed them, He told them that it was THEIR FAITH that had healed
them. In Luke 5, where did this man’s forgiveness have its basis? It was HIS FAITH. Jesus told him that his sins had
been forgiven and that forgiveness was based on the man’s and his friends’ faith. All Jesus had done at that point was take
notice of their faith and how determined they were to get to Jesus. He had not touched the guy or said one other thing to
him.
Jesus, the REAL human being, could say that this man’s sins were forgiven because they WERE – by the man’s faith.
Jesus was not forgiving this man’s sins – that is the work of God in heaven. He was telling the man that through faith, God
had done what the man needed. Jesus says in verse 24 that He had power ON EARTH to forgive sins. The word
“power” in the Greek means “permission and authority.” Jesus had permission and authority on earth to proclaim to people
that their sins are forgiven. When you became a believer, did anyone tell you that your sins were forgiven? THAT is what
this is – we have the SAME power, the same permission, the same authority.
And when Jesus explains this ability God has permitted for human beings, He then – to prove that He HAS that authority –
says to the man, OK, Mr. come through the roof in faith – get up, carry your cot out of here and go home. Immediately
this forgiven, healed, purified man gets up, packs up his mat and the crowd that wouldn’t let him in probably parted in front
of him as he left while his friends, who had been watching and listening from the hole in the roof, quickly replaced the tiles
and got down off the house and joyously accompanied him home. They were all believing in this Savior who showed them
that their faith had not only healed their friend, but had healed them, too.
Luke 5:26. READ. Everyone who witnessed this was amazed – even the scribes and Pharisees, the religious people. The
Amplified Bible says that they were all overwhelmingly astonished and that ecstasy had seized them all. They glorified God,
they recognized God’s power at work, they praised God and thanked Him for what He had done and what they had seen.
And they were filled with and controlled by a reverential fear of God because of this.
It’s kind of funny what they were saying – “We have seen strange things today.” Remarkable things – unthinkable things –
extraordinary things. There’s one more guy that Jesus purifies in chapter 5, but we’re not going to have time to get to him
today. Let’s think about what we have seen and what we can apply.
Jesus came to bring us life – life to the fullest (John 10:10). Through the power of His resurrection, we have that life
available to us – the same kind of life HE lived. We can be alive and we can be pure. Our sin diseased lives can be
restored to purity through the touch of Jesus. And our sins themselves are forgiven and our lives are purified by the blood
of Jesus. When we get that – when we know that, our lives take on a whole new meaning. We are clean and pure and
forgiven and righteous by the power of God. We can proclaim that same purification to those around us – that’s why we
are here. Are we doing it? Have we left it all behind and followed Jesus?
And we can also see that God is not hiding His desire to purify us – He is WILLING to make us clean. Jesus did it for the
leper. Jesus did it for the paralyzed man. By His death on the cross, Jesus did it for YOU. He wants to restore you to
health – He came for sinners. You don’t have to – and you CAN’T – clean yourself up. How ridiculous of us to think that
we could do anything to ourselves that would make us look or smell or be acceptable to God. HE is the only one who can
do those kinds of changes – and He takes us as we ARE. COME AS YOU ARE and allow God to do His purifying work
in you.
This work of purification comes from God’s LOVE for us. He wants us to be with Him – close to Him and near Him – for
all eternity because He loves us. So to make that happen, He does the cleaning up that needs to be done. There is no
soap or chemical we can use to remove our sin problem. But when Jesus died, His blood changed our sin and made us
white as snow.
Do you live with these things in mind? What difference would it make in your daily life if you saw yourself like God sees
you? Every week I encourage us to go out and live lives worthy of our calling – worthy of the gospel of Christ. You were
worth enough to God to cause Jesus to empty Himself of His God abilities and come and show us how life was meant to be
lived. You were worth enough to God to cause Jesus to willingly put Himself in the place of condemnation that you
deserved. And you were worth enough to God to bring Jesus back from the dead so that you and I can now experience
the very life of Jesus in us. We have a lot to celebrate. We have a lot to live for.