Our Greatest Need

Well, let's continue to give thanks to God by looking at His Word today. So, our main message title is, Our Greatest Need. That's the title of today's study, Our Greatest Need. If you have your Bible and you'd like to open it up, let's turn together to Luke chapter 5. We're going to read verses 12 through 26. Luke 5 verses 12 through 26. We are going to pick up once again in our Gospel of Luke series. In doing so, we're going to see today two absolutely incredible records of healing.

One record of a healing of a gentleman with leprosy. He is healed and restored. And then a second record of a paralyzed man who is healed and forgiven. So, let's look at these two accounts together here. Luke 5. Let's begin in verse 12. Luke writes, And it happened when he was in a certain city, That behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus, And he fell on his face and implored him, Jesus, saying, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.

Then he, that's Jesus Christ, put out his hand and touched him, saying, I am willing, be cleansed. Immediately the leprosy left him, And he charged him to tell no one but to go and show yourself to the priests And make an offering for your cleansing as a testimony to them, just as Moses commanded. However, the report went around concerning him all the more, And great multitudes came together to hear and to be healed by him of their infirmities.

So he himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed. Verse 17. Now our second healing account. Verse 17. Now it happened on a certain day that he was teaching That there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judah and Jerusalem, And the power of the Lord was present to heal them. Then, behold, men brought a bed, on a bed, a man who was paralyzed, Whom they sought to bring in and lay before him.

And when they could not find how they might bring him in, because of the crowd, They went up on the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the mist before Jesus. When he, Jesus, saw their faith, he said to him, Man, your sins are forgiven you. And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this who speaks blasphemies?

Who can forgive sins but God alone? But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered and said to them, Why are you reasoning in your hearts? Which is easier to say? Your sins are forgiven you? Or to say, rise up and walk? But you may know that the Son of Man has the power on earth to forgive sins. He said to the man who was paralyzed, I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house. Verse 25, Immediately he rose up before them, took up what he had been laying on, and departed to his own house, glorifying God. And they were all amazed, and they glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, We have seen strange things today.

Let's stop there. With two quite remarkable accounts, and previous to these two healings here, we'll do well to remind ourselves that leading up to these two healings, Jesus had really surprised the disciples when he told them that despite the previous success, if you will, that was taking place, he needed to move to a different location. We saw that last time in chapter 4, verse 42, where the disciples came to him after the healings, after the casting out of demons.

Luke tells us there in chapter 4, verse 42, the crowd sought Jesus, came to him, tried to keep him from leaving. Everyone was looking for him. The popularity of Jesus Christ was swelling. And the inference of the disciples was, Why are you out here? You need to come back to the people. They're looking for you, but we find you out here, and seemingly, you seem to be moving on. Don't you need to come back? And Jesus' response was striking. It's found there in chapter 4, verse 43, where he says to them, chapter 4, verse 43, I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to other towns also, because that is why I was sent.

So, in other words, I know there's a stir, I know there's the interest of the people from these healings, from these casting out of demons, but I need to leave here, because I need to teach, I need to preach others, I need to do that, which is primary. I need to do that, which is primary. I'm not going to chart my progress on numbers. He knew, Jesus knew how easy it was to attract interest, interest that may be surfaced because of the wrong reasons. People can be attracted to Jesus Christ, and for different, for wrong reasons, that even happens today, they may be attracted to Him for what they might get out of Him.

Material benefits, matters of physical blessings, like we're seeing here, whatever it might be along those lines. But Luke makes clear, and the other Gospel writers make clear, very clear concerning the purpose to which Jesus Christ came. We're going to leave here. I'm going to go to the surrounding villages, he says, in order that I might teach and preach there the good news of the coming Kingdom of God.

And it's very telling, because with that, it makes clear that the material and or bodily physical benefits from Jesus Christ, that is not then, and not today, what matters most. Okay? I'm going to repeat that. I might bear saying it again. The material and bodily benefits from Jesus Christ were not, and are not, what matters most. Those things aren't primary. They are not our greatest need.

We need to take this to heart today. The Bible challenges our preoccupation with time on this earth, trying to lengthen our days here on earth, and it challenges our preoccupation with that, and introduces us to, instead, to a future eternity. Okay? The Bible challenges our preoccupation with materialistic blessings, those with things which are tangible and seen, and instead, introduces us to an invisible faith-based reality. And it actually goes as far to say that things which are seen are temporal, and they're passing away, and the things which are unseen are, in fact, eternal in their nature.

And so, the crowd begins to rush to Jesus with their preoccupation, understandably and inevitably, with that of the material, the tangible, the bodily. But in these two instances of healing that are before us today, the truth that's going to come forth most forcibly to us is that, while we may be most concerned with time on this earth, God is most concerned with eternity. And while we may be most concerned with bodily healing and blessing, God is most concerned with spiritual healing and spiritual blessings.

So we're going to go back to Luke 5, and that's exactly what we are going to put our focus on here in Luke 5. And we're going to look at this man with leprosy first, who was wonderfully healed by Jesus. But in its essence, in the essence of this physical healing, is not the physical, but the spiritual. And we're going to notice three spiritual aspects of this physical healing.

First, we're going to see this man's... and talk about this man's condition. Then we're going to talk about Jesus's compassion. And then we're going to talk about a direction in which Jesus gives him. So we're going to talk about the condition, the compassion, and the direction in this first healing story. And it's all going to point to the spiritual nature of it.

This man's condition, you'll notice again, is stated there in verse 12. The man was full of leprosy. It's stated boldly there. Primarily because the disease of leprosy, it absolutely defined the individual. And rather than let me try to explain the disease to you, I want to give you a quote. I found this quote, and I think it's quite good. It's from a commentary of the book of Leviticus. It's an Old Testament scholar commentary from R.K. Harrison. And I want you to listen to this so we might be able to fully understand this phrase, a man full of leprosy. So this is from R.K. Harrison, an Old Testament scholar. Quote, A disease of leprosy was essentially a death sentence to the ancient Israelites. The diagnostic guidelines furnished by the priest would prevent the leper from bringing unnecessary hardship to his countrymen, while at the same time ensuring the health of the community. Once an individual was branded as a leper, he had to adopt a posture of a mourner by tearing his clothes, allowing his hair to become unkempt, covering his beard or mustache, while crying unclean. He had to live outside the camp, or perhaps in company with other lepers, but his existence was nothing more than a living death. Unless there was a clear and quick remission of the disease, the victim of leprosy knew his condition would be a lengthy duration, a loathsome nature, and would prevent significant contact with society. Most of all, the leper would be cut off from spiritual fellowship with the covenant people, and in a real sense, the individual would be without hope and without God in the world.

That last phrase there, you'll remember that actually, is a quote from Paul. He uses it to describe those who don't respond to God's calling without hope and without God in the world.

We want to train our ears to the spiritual aspect that these two healings are going to point to. Again, very graphically here, verse 12, This man, full of leprosy, fell on his face, implored Jesus, saying, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. Intense verbs there. So this man with leprosy, he's so determined to reach Jesus Christ, he puts himself within touching distance of him. That's something you're not supposed to do if you're a leper. You're supposed to stay away as far away as possible. It's an indication of just how badly he wanted to get within that touching distance of Jesus Christ. He knew Jesus. Of course, he had heard of Jesus's healings. He was absolutely convinced that Jesus could restore him to health and society. Lord, if you're willing, you can make me clean. So that's a recognition of his hopelessness without Jesus Christ. Absolute hopelessness without the healing that he and only he can provide. So you think it in spiritual terms. Leprosy throughout the Bible is, in fact, the classic Biblical symbolism of the spiritual condition of men and women today. Because all men and women find themselves today suffering, we could say, from the condition of spiritual leprosy. You know, God, in the beginning, made the heavens and earth. He planted man and woman in the Garden of Eden. Everything was good. No disappointment, no unhappiness. Nothing was wrong at all. Wonderful as it gets there in the Garden of Eden. It was perfect. You go on to read, then, though, that sin enters the human condition. It spreads like a disease. It spoils across humanity. Suddenly, there's death. Suddenly, there's murder. Suddenly, there's sexual abuse. Suddenly, there's absolute chaos. Humanity is robbed of its wholeness, its completion, completeness, and its perfection. So, in this story of this man in need, it leads us to the fact of our spiritual condition today. So, as displayed in this man, spiritually, we need to acknowledge our hopelessness without Jesus Christ and His Father. Without the healing power of Jesus Christ, we are removed from our relationship and our fellowship with God in the community of God. And within this man's condition, we see our need of spiritual healing and spiritual restoration. So, keep that in your mind as we now are going to move to Jesus' response. And it's a response of compassion here. So, we'll see if you can pick up on the spiritual of this.

Notice how Jesus responds here, first half of verse 13.

Then He, Jesus, puts out His hand and touches Him, saying, I am willing, be cleansed. And immediately, the left perceived left Him. So, reach down and touch Him. Touch the leper. Keep your marker here because I want to show you the parallel passage that Mark records. So, we'll come back to Luke 5 in just a moment.

Turn over to Mark 1. Keep your marker there. Mark 1 verses 40-42. I want to show you this because Mark brings out an additional enlightening detail here in his Gospel record. Mark 1 verses 40-42. Mark recording this very moment here. Look what he adds regarding Jesus' response to this man's hopeless condition.

Now, the leper, Mark 1, verse 40, came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him, and saying to Him, If you're willing, you can make me clean. Then Jesus, here it is, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand, touched Him, and said to Him, I am willing, be cleansed.

And as soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left Him, and He was cleansed. So again, recorded here additionally, reaching out, touching Him, Mark records the emotional state that Jesus was in. And His emotions toward this man are revealed to us. Jesus reached out in this way, moved with compassion. Spiritually, this is how Jesus Christ reached out to us. Moved with compassion. It is a strong verb there. You remember the story of the prodigal son? If you'd like to see that, this same verb, the same compassion verb, moved with compassion, is used with the prodigal son.

We're going to get back to Luke 5, but on our way, let's look at Luke 15, verse 20, at this same compassion phrase given in the prodigal son story. Luke 15, verse 20, here we have the love of the Father to the Son who has first turned His back on Him and now has expressed His repentance. And look at this. Luke 15, verse 20, describing the response of the Father to the sight of His long-lost Son coming up the road.

Same verb here. Luke 15, verse 20, and He arose and He came to His Father. But when He was still a great way off, His Father saw Him and had compassion and ran, ran down to Him and fell on His neck and kissed Him. That's the Father. Let's stop there. So while He was a long way off, the Father had been looking for Him. You can picture a porch scene, perhaps, every day.

The Father would go out and look to see if the Son was coming down the road. There He is, without any delay, He rushes down the road, falls on His neck and kisses Him. So, in turning back to Luke 5, verse 13, with that same emotion, Jesus now reaches out to this leper, you know, touches Him. You can imagine. Filled with compassion. A man who had to announce himself as unclean. A man shunned by society. A man distanced from the whole community. Jesus looks upon Him with compassion, does what you never should do. Jesus touches the leper. This man probably hadn't been touched in years.

Filled with compassion. So, Jesus Christ identifies Himself with this man, comes right down into His circumstances. And again, here's the spiritual. This is, what we're talking about here, is far beyond the physical here. Because in this miracle, in all the physical miracles of Jesus Christ, they are pictures of what is the ultimate fulfillment of what Jesus Christ came to do. He came to identify with us in our sins, in our spiritual leprosy.

He didn't come and shout from afar. He came right down to us into our circumstances. God made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us, and so that He would take on this penalty condition, this death, consequence. And by this touch of this man, it pictures the way in which Jesus Christ takes on to us what we deserve. He puts it on Himself, the punishment for our sins. So that's the response. That's the compassion. So we have the condition that we're thinking spiritually.

We have the compassion. And now the direction. Jesus Christ gives them a direction here. All this is pointing to the spiritual. Our ultimate need is spiritual. These physical healings are wonderful, but it's not the priority in our lives. The direction is found in verse 14. So Luke 5 verse 14. And He charged Him to tell no one, But go and show yourself to the priest, Make an offering for your cleansing, As a testimony to them, Just as Moses commanded. Let's stop there. Think about what spiritual connections you're making with these wonderful words here.

Go to the priest, make an offering as Moses commanded. In other words, do this action. Obey the law as Moses commanded. Make this sacrifice. How would we make a sacrifice in response to our spiritual healing of our spiritual leprosy? In other words, make this sacrifice follow the command, the law of Moses. And in this, you'll be providing the evidence, or you'll be providing the testimony, To those to whom you go. So the overarching directive and direction of Jesus Christ to the healed man, Go! Keep the law!

Spiritually speaking, make a sacrifice. Your life is now a sacrifice. Testimony to what has now occurred. Respond to your spiritual healing through obeying me in my obedience direction that I've given you. Respond to your spiritual healing by observing the commands of the great healer. So this man's restoration, back to the community, it's tied to his obedience to the law, the law of Moses. Simply stated, it is that he must respond to his healing through obedience, And by doing so, he will give a testimony to the great healer.

Spiritual. The spiritual is primary in all these things. Think about that in your life. As you need physical healing, as you need physical intervention in this life, Pray for that, but then pray for the primary. God, what spiritual aspect of this do I need to be learning? Give me that, ultimately. Give me the spiritual. That's the first healing account. Now we're told in verse 17, after a few days of healing, Jesus is back in town teaching. Luke 5 verse 17. Now it happened on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, and Judah, and Jerusalem. So stop there. So he's back teaching. What is he teaching? He's teaching the Word. What is the Word? It's the good news of the coming kingdom of God.

Repentance, obedience, faith, respond to the call of the kingdom. Again, preaching and teaching was primary for Jesus Christ. What was primary was for them to hear and to receive that, which was their greatest need. So while the majority of the people there were absolutely fascinated by the physical miracles, healings, Jesus was always focusing on teaching them the good news. It was not going to only be an appeal to the material and the bodily. He was going to stick to the purpose to which he was sent. That's proclaiming the good news of the coming kingdom of God. And that is what actually really matters in the end. The spiritual is, in fact, our greatest need.

So now a crippled man comes into the scene. Our second story begins here. It's verse 18. We're going to move through this fairly quickly here. With the arrival of a paralyzed man, carried on a mat, other gospel writers record it was by four other men. They are determined to get to Jesus Christ here. Verse 18 through 19. Then, verse 18, Behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring in and lay before Jesus Christ. And when they could not find out how they might bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and let him down with his bed, through the tiling, into the mist before Jesus. So I stopped there. So I can just imagine that one of the initiative takers here said, I got it. You know, there was no getting through the crowd. We are going up on the roof. What are we doing? We're going up on the roof. You heard me. These roofs, if you look it up, it was a mixture of clay, and they would mix in stinks and different vegetation and different things. The materials here overlaid with clay, sometimes clay tiles. They go up on the roof. You can imagine Jesus Christ and those in the room as the roof begins to come down, you know, the bits of clay and different debris and whatnot. I'm sure it's going to come down some of the people's heads inside. Eventually a face pokes through, you know. They get the okay from Jesus Christ, perhaps, and they lower this man. I don't know if there would have been a just chaos and everybody talking, or if there would have been absolute silence. Perhaps that's absolute silence, just at the shock of this. He's lowered down. The other gentlemen come down as well. They're all standing there. Now in place, in front of Jesus Christ, waiting. Now looking to him for the miracle.

Now, neither, though the man who was paralyzed, other men that were there and observing, could have ever been ready for what they heard next. This provocative statement here, verse 20. Verse 20. When he, Jesus, saw their faith, he said to them, Man, your sins are forgiven you.

So this is pointing us to what we're talking about today as the primary, the priority. But you can imagine, after all this effort up on the roof, digging a hole in the roof, dropping them down, there they are. We did it. I'm sure maybe there were some high fives, you know, guys. They're just waiting for this man to give, Jesus, to give the command for this man to get out of bed. And Jesus says, now, man, your sins are forgiven you. You know, I think it would have been absolute disbelief here. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute. Your sins are forgiven. Now, we're, we're looking for some visible change here. We didn't go through all of this for some invisible forgiveness. What is this? What kind of statement is this? Honestly, Jesus, it's inappropriate. It's an inappropriate statement after all of this. This man's actually crippled. And if anything, that statement is irrelevant to this man.

Why did Jesus Christ say to the man, your sins are forgiven? You know, there's nothing to suggest here that there's some link between the man's sins and the paralysis. We know the Book of Job actually warns us against that application, the link between disease and sin and physical trials. It's not to say that there isn't a link always. I mean, you have, if you have, um, immoral activity, you know, sexual immoral activity, you have the consequences of disease and things that come from that. There are links between sin and disease. But in this instance, there's no, there's no suggestion of that. That anything the man had done contributed to his paralysis. So why did Jesus say what he said?

Listen carefully, because again, this is the whole point of our study today. I think it's the whole point of these two healings. The reason Jesus Christ said what he said was because he was putting his finger on the man's, and in fact, everyone's greatest need, the need for spiritual healing, the need for forgiveness. And so he was going to show the man the real need in his life. And it didn't have to do with the paralysis of his body, but it did, in fact, have to do with the paralysis of his being, if you will. And he wanted to address first things first. First things first.

It's not as if Jesus Christ is disinterested in the man's physical condition. He healed him. He's not likewise uninterested in our health elements and healing those. He's not disinterested in healing our family conflicts. He's not disinterested in healing our financial security. He is concerned with all those things, and he will and absolutely does provide healing in all those areas. But first things first. First things first. Jesus wants for this man the things that matter the most, or if you like, he wants for this man the thing that matters the most, that he should be restored in his relationship and healed in his relationship with God, fulfill his destiny, which is beyond the temporal, and therefore receive the good news of the coming kingdom of God. So I'll say it again. We began our study this way. The material and bodily benefits were not and are not the things that matter the most in this lifetime. The Bible challenges us on our preoccupation with time on this earth and introduces us to eternity. It challenges our preoccupation with materialism and introduces us to an invisible world beyond the physical. The things which are seen are temporal, ultimately pass away. The things which are unseen deal with the notion of eternal life. And that's the truth in these healing stories. That's what they teach us today. Now, in this process of receiving this truth and living this truth, we will be challenged. There will be conflicts that will come to us. Sometimes it's our own conflict inside of us. Sometimes the conflict comes from without us. You see the immediate conflict here in verse 21. This is what Jesus was teaching them, but here's the conflict. Verse 21. And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, verse 21, Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone? So they had that right. Only God can forgive sins. That's true. But they weren't willing to accept the one who had just said, Your sins are forgiven. They weren't willing to accept Him as the Son of God in the flesh.

Those who were experts at the law could not make this connection. They were so focused, if you look throughout the Gospel, of that which was outwardly. And they lost focus of that which Christ was most concerned with.

So here it is, verse 22 and 23. Jesus perceives their thoughts. This is such a remarkable answer. Verse 22 and 23. Why are you reasoning in your hearts? Which is easier to say? Your sins are forgiven. Is that easier? Or to say, rise up and walk? Which is easier? I don't know. I was thinking about this. In many ways, it's easier to say, Your sins are forgiven in one sense. Because how can you verify that? How do you know if that happened or not? So from the scribes and the Pharisees' perspective, from their perspective, it's actually harder to say, rise up and walk. Because if it doesn't happen, then they can immediately expose Jesus and ridicule. So they're thinking physical. So it's actually, in their mind, it's harder to say, rise up and walk. So they had it flip-flopped because their focus was on the physical. So Jesus first says, Your sins are forgiven. How can He pronounce that? Well, He recognized what He was about to achieve, and it would be great cost to Him. I mean, He would be the great sacrifice for their sins. On the stake, that which would then open up their real need, spiritual healing. And actually, of course, we know that Pharisees and the scribes didn't know. Not only is saying, Your sins are forgiven difficult, it's impossible unless You are God, the Son of God. It's impossible unless only God can forgive Your sins. That's actually the most impossible thing. Only possible by the Son of God here. But He says, OK, I see who I'm talking to here. Having said what is easy in your eyes, let me say what is hard in your eyes. So that you will know. This is on their eyes. Verse 24, verse 24, But that you may know, you who are seeing physical, so that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. He said to the man who was paralyzed, I say to you, arise, take up your bed, go to your house. So the purpose of the physical healings, it's all here in verse 24, was always to point to the one who has power on earth to forgive sins. That is a big one. Verse 24 points us to the fact that the purpose of the physical healings was always to point us to the fact that He would forgive and was able to forgive our spiritual crippleness. Our spiritual leprosy. It all points to that. Our greatest need. Our greatest need.

So let's conclude with verse 25 and 26. We'll wrap up with these two verses. Immediately this crippled man arose up before them, took up his bed, he was lying on it, departed to his own house, glorifying God. That was the right response. And they were all amazed and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, we have seen strange things today. So let me just reiterate. Don't stop praying for physical healings of yourself, your loved ones. Don't stop praying for family restorations, conflicts within the physical family. Don't stop praying for those things. Financial burdens released. Pray for all of those things. But just know that the reason Jesus Christ came was not simply to put us back on our feet physically. He may. He often does. He may not. But what he came to ultimately do is to heal us spiritually. To ultimately have us rise and walk in our relationship with God. And it would be better for us to lay flat on our back, our whole physical life, and have our sins forgiven. Then to ease through this life and remain unforgiven. So let's let him deal with our greatest need. Let's be so grateful today that he did come and he has reached out to us. To give us and to heal us and to forgive us, thereby providing mankind in our greatest need today.