Our Greatest Need

Well, I invite you to open your Bibles, and let's read together. We'll begin our study today in Luke chapter 5 verses 12 through 26. We're going to continue our studies in the Gospel of Luke. Luke 5 verses 12 through 26. And if you like titles, the title of today's study, Our Greatest Need. Our greatest need. Here in Luke 5, what we're going to come to is what is essentially two incredible stories and incredible recordings of healing. One recording of a man who has leprosy, who's healed and restored.

Another recording of a paralyzed man who is healed and forgiven. So, let's read these accounts together. It's quite a remarkable few days that we come to with Jesus Christ here. Luke 5, beginning in verse 12. And it happened when he, Jesus, 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, saying, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.

Then he 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 go and show yourself to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing as a testimony to them, just as Moses commanded. However, the report went around concerning him, that's Christ, 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.

Now, verse 17, we come to the second healing account here. 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, Judea, and Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was present to heal them.

Then, behold, men brought 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 to the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the mist before Jesus.

When he 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 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 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 glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, We have seen strange things today. So let's stop there. Now, we'll do well to remind ourselves that prior to these two particular healings, Jesus no doubt had shocked or surprised the disciples when he said that despite all of the success, we could say, with the healings, the casting out of demons, the study that we did last time, where the disciples said that after all these things, the crowd sought him.

We read back in chapter 4 and verse 42, the crowd sought him, came to him, tried to keep him from leaving. There in chapter 4 verse 42. So everyone was looking for him, the popularity was swelling. And in fact, the inference is, in the other gospel accounts, that the disciples were coming and saying, Jesus, why are you out here? You need to... they're all looking for you. Come back. And why does it seem like you're moving on and moving away? Don't you need to come back? And then the striking comment from Jesus was verse 43 of chapter 4, where he said, I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to other towns also, because that's why I was sent.

Okay, so there in chapter 4 verse 43. So in other words, what we saw last time was that despite the stir of the healings, the casting out of demons, he says, I need to leave here. I need to go preach and teach other peoples as well. That is primary, he was saying. So we're not going to chart any progress on the swelling of numbers. He knew how easy it was to get a crowd of people and attracted to him for the wrong reasons. People are still attracted to the message of Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ himself for the wrong reasons.

For example, people are attracted to him for what they might get out of him, namely material benefits or physical blessings, physical healings, anything that whatever it may be along those lines. But Luke is making clear in the recordings of Jesus Christ that Jesus was saying, we're going to leave here. We're going to other villages in Galilee, and I'm doing this in order that I might teach and that I might preach the good news of the coming kingdom of God.

So this was what was primary. And with that, it makes this clear. It makes this clear that the material and or bodily or physical benefits from Jesus Christ, they were not and are not, we're going to see today, the things that matter most. Okay, I'm going to repeat that. That might bear saying again, the material or bodily benefits from Jesus Christ were not and are not the things that matter most. Those are not primary. They are not our greatest need. So we really want to take that notion and that truth to heart today, because the Bible, the Bible challenges our preoccupation with time on this earth, and it rather introduces us to eternity. The Bible challenges our preoccupation with material blessings, physical blessings, things which are tangible and seen. It challenges our preoccupation with those things and instead introduces us to an invisible faith-based reality. And the Bible even goes as far to say that the things which are seen, tangible, are temporary. And in fact, they're passing away. And the things actually which are unseen and not physical, spiritual, they are in fact eternal. So as the Bible, as the crowd begins to to rush Jesus Christ, their preoccupation, understandably, inevitably, is with that of the tangible bodily benefits. But what we're going to see today in these two incidences that are before us, that the truth that's going to come home to us today, is that while we might be most concerned with time on this earth, God is most concerned with eternity. While we might be most concerned with bodily healings and blessings, God is most concerned with spiritual blessings and spiritual healings. So going back to Luke 5 in this first healing account, that's where we're going to put our focus on. And so we want to train our eyes and ears now as we read this first healing account. Train your eyes and ears to look for the spiritual in this physical healing account here. This man with leprosy who's wonderfully healed by Jesus. It is a restoration story physically, but also spiritually. So we want to notice this condition of this man. We want to notice the compassion by Jesus Christ. And we want to notice the command that he gives this man after the healing. So those are the spiritual focus that we're going to look at today in this first account. The man's condition, Jesus's compassion, and Jesus's command after the healing. So verse 12, the condition was clear. This man was not only had leprosy, he was full of leprosy, it says there. Verse 12, full of leprosy. That's frank and bold, verbiage. This man was defined by this disease here. What do you know about leprosy?

I thought I'd kind of try to give you an account on leprosy, but I found it a most succinct description of explaining this phrase, full of leprosy. I found it in an Old Testament scholar that I'd like to quote to you. R. K. Harrison, an Old Testament scholar, he wrote on the book of Leviticus and a commentary on that. And this is what he says about the diagnosis of leprosy.

Listen to this, and again, train your eyes and ears for the spiritual. See what you can pick up.

A diagnosis of leprosy was essentially a death sentence to the ancient Israelites.

The diagnostic guidelines furnished by the priest position 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 the posture of a mourner, tearing his clothes, allowing his hair to become unkempt, covering his beard or mustache, while crying out and announcing unclean.

He had to live outside the camp and perhaps with a company of other lepers, but his existence was nothing more than a living death.

Unless it was a quick remission of the disease, the victim of leprosy knew his condition would be of lengthy duration, and his loathsome nature 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 would be without hope or without God in the world.

So that last phrase, without hope, without God in the world, that of course comes from the Apostle Paul. So this scholar quotes the Apostle Paul. Apostle Paul was speaking about those who did not respond to the call of God. They were without hope, without God, without that salvation brought to us by Jesus Christ. So again, as we go through this, I want you to train your eyes and ears onto the spiritual aspect of this disease and what this physical disease of leprosy, what it points to. Verse 12, again, the man was full of leprosy, and look at his approach here to Jesus Christ. Verse 12, And this leper fell on his face, and implored him, saying, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.

There's just some intense verbs that are used here in that picture. Here's this man full of leprosy. He puts himself in touching distance of Jesus Christ. You're not supposed to do that as a leper. You're supposed to stay away as far away as possible. You're supposed to announce your coming. So it's an indication of just how badly he wanted to get to the great physician, the great healer. He knew Jesus Christ was the healer.

Absolutely convinced that he had the ability to restore him to health and back to fellowship. Okay. Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. He understood his hopelessness without Jesus Christ, hopeless without the healing only he can provide. And so what you find with this condition of leprosy, every time it comes up in Scripture, it is in the Bible the classic physical symbolism of the spiritual condition that men and women find themselves in today without healing, spiritual healing.

The Bible says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He planted man and woman in the garden. And it was perfect without disappointment, without unhappiness, nothing wrong, wonderful as it gets in the Garden of Eden. But then in reading the early chapters of Genesis, sin enters into the human condition. It spreads. It spoils. It separates like a disease across humanity. Suddenly there's death. Suddenly there's murder. Suddenly there's sexual abuse. Suddenly there's just absolute chaos. Humanity is robbed of its wholeness, completeness, its perfection.

So be looking at this man in need and you'll see that it points actually to our condition today, our spiritual condition. Spiritually, how are we approaching Jesus Christ in our hopelessness through Jesus Christ to the Father? Are we acknowledging that we are removed, ousted from fellowship and relationship with God and the community of God?

Do we see our need for spiritual healing and restoration? So again, we're getting from the physical healing that's needed to actually our greatest need. This is where we're leading today. Now I want you to notice the response by Jesus Christ. It's incredible. Verse 13 again, then He, that's Jesus Christ, puts out His hand and touched Him, saying, I am willing, be cleansed. And immediately the leprosy left Him.

So He reaches out and touches this leper. He touched the leper.

I want you to keep your marker here. We're going to come right back, but I want to go to the parallel account of Mark when he records this exact account. It's found in Mark 1 verses 40 through 42. Let's go to the parallel gospel account, this time from Mark.

Mark 1 verses 40 through 42. I want to show you Mark's account because it adds just a real enlightening detail to this moment. And it points to Jesus Christ's response to our condition, our hopeless condition. Listen to this. Mark 1 verse 40.

Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, Mark writes, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, if you are willing, you can make me clean. Verse 41 of Mark 1. Then Jesus, and 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 let's stop there. So again, the record of Him reaching out, touching the leper. And I love that Mark gives us insight to some of Jesus's emotional state. This is what was going on in His heart at this time when this hopeless man comes to Him. Moved with compassion, it says.

This is how Jesus Christ feels when we come to Him in our hopelessness and in our need here.

This compassion verb, it's a strong one. We see it in other parts of the Bible when it's just describing these moments where there's just an overwhelming feeling of compassion and love for the individual in need. We're going to turn back to Luke 5, but on our way, I want to show you this verb in one other place. It's found in Luke 15. So turn to Luke 15 20. This exact compassion phrase verb is used also in the prodigal son story. So on our way back to Luke 5, let's stop first at Luke 15 verse 20. Again, this is where expressing the love of the Father to the Son, the Son who was ousted, took Himself out from under the household. And look at how this verb is used here, the same verb when the Father sees the lost, hopeless Son. Luke 15 verse 20. And when He, that's the prodigal Son, arose and came to His Father. But when He was still a great way off, the Father saw Him and had compassion and ran and fell on His neck and kissed Him. Let's stop there.

So this is the picture of a Father coming out to the front porch every day. Look at Him long to see if His Son is coming down the road. And there, that one morning, there He is.

He rounds the corner and the Father just goes and runs, falls on His Son's neck and kisses Him, filled with compassion, overflowing with compassion. So this is the same expression that Jesus Christ feels when He reaches out to the leper.

Overflowed. So in turning back to Luke 5 verse 13, Jesus is filled with compassion at this moment. Again, this man had to announce himself as unclean. You know, I'm coming, unclean. Scatter, shunned by society, distanced from the whole community of faith. Jesus Christ looks on Him, filled with compassion. He does what you should never do, and that is touch a leper. How long had it been since this leper had been touched? Jesus touches Him, you know, you get a magic. Filled with compassion. Jesus Christ gets right down into the circumstances. He identifies with this individual. And here's the spiritual. This is pointing to our greatest need here. This miracle and all of the physical miracles of Jesus Christ, they all are pictures of the ultimate fulfillment of what Jesus Christ actually came to do. That is to identify with us in our sin, in our spiritual leprosy, if you will. He did not come and shout afar off. Jesus Christ could have healed that leper at a distance. No problem.

Jesus could have come to the clouds, if you will, and then just shouted into His creation. You know, no. Comes right down into our circumstances. And God made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us, to take on that penalty, that condition, that consequence with the touch of this man. Pictures the way in which Jesus Christ takes on to us all that we deserve and the punishment for our sin. So that's the condition. That's the compassion. Be thinking about this spiritually. What about this command that Jesus Christ gives Him? So see what you... I'm going to read Luke 5, verse 14. See what you pick up here spiritually to this.

I wonder if you'll pick up on it. Luke 5, verse 14. Now, after His compassion, after the cleansing, after the healing, He charged Him to tell no one, but go and show yourself to the priests and make an offering for your cleansing as a testimony to them, just as Moses commanded. So let's stop there. This is interesting. After the cleansing, after the healing, go to the priests and make an offering as Moses commanded. Do this. Obey the law as Moses commanded. And by you doing this, by you responding in this way, you're going to give testimony, testimony, evidence to the great position, to the great healer. So the overarching directive from Jesus Christ after He's been healed is to keep the law. Express your gratitude and provide testimony by keeping the law as Moses commanded. So, how are we to respond to our spiritual healing through obedience? Are we earning anything?

No. Which one of us, along with the leper, did anything to garner this healing, this spiritual healing that we have? No, we didn't do anything. That's pure grace.

But now, what is important is that we respond to the directive. Give that evidence. Give that testimony.

Make an offering. What's the offering that we make? It's ourselves.

Now that we've been cleansed, spiritually healed of our spiritual leprosy, you are the offering. You are the offering. You're in that offering that you give every day is to give testimony.

So respond to your healing in this way, thereby give evidence of the great physician.

So you see how this is pointing to our greatest need.

So that's the first healing account. After a few days, Jesus is back to His custom. He's teaching, He's preaching here, and we find and pick up in verse 17 where we're going to begin. Now, the second healing, and this even, this is just going to nail it down for us in an amazing way.

Luke 5 verse 17, now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, He's back teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. So after a few days, where is He? He's back teaching, teaching what? He's teaching of the good news of the coming kingdom of God. That's primary, primary. Repentance, faith, respond to the call of kingdom here. Again, preaching and teaching was primary. Hearing and receiving their greatest need. You know, the majority that were hearing this were fascinated by the miracles, but Jesus was always focused on what was primary, the teaching of the good news. He wasn't only going to appeal to their fascination with the material or the bodily. He was going to stick to the purpose to which He was sent. That is proclaiming the good news of the coming kingdom of God. That's what matters, and that deals with our greatest need. So now Jesus' ministry goes from the restoration of the leper to the forgiveness of a crippled man. That's interesting. So let's move into our second account here, and we're going to move through this fairly quickly. With the arrival of the paralyzed man here on a mat, let's read this again, verse 18 and 19. Verse 18 and 19. Verse 18 and 19. Then, behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring in and lay before him.

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 let's stop there. So I can't get in by normal means. One of the other gospel records say that there were four men. I'm sure one of them took the initiative and said, this isn't going to work. You know, they were trying to get their way through.

I got it, guys. We're going to get him in there. We're going up top, you know. You can imagine. We're going to take him through the roof. Typically, this would have been a one-story. There would have been, the roof would have been made of clay and vegetation all mixed in for strength.

Sometimes there was clay tiling as well. So I don't know how they got there. Maybe they went around back, shimmied up to the roof here. You can imagine this scene. There Jesus is teaching inside the house. I don't know how many were amongst in this group.

All of a sudden, he's a little bit disrupted. A little bit of bits and pieces begin to fall from the roof there. It's a little strange. He continues on. A little bit more bits and pieces begin to fall. Finally, those in the house have to actually get out of the way as more bits and pieces of clay and vegetation begin to fall down. Eventually, a head pops through, perhaps.

Do you mind if we come in? He gets the approval from Jesus Christ. Come on down.

Eventually, they all come down. There they are. These four men, the paralyzed man, those in the house already. All eyes are trained on Jesus Christ. Here we go. They're all in great anticipation. Here's the miracle. We are ready, Jesus. Tell this man to stand up and walk. We're ready.

But none of them would have been prepared for this response from Jesus Christ. It's a provocative statement here. Here in verse 20. After all this, and getting this man in front of Jesus Christ, verse 20, when he saw their faith, he said to him, the crippled man, man, your sins are forgiven you. So absolute silence, I'm sure. After all this effort, all this working through the crowd, digging through the tile roof, dropping him down, mission accomplished, you know, Jesus Christ looks out in this group and says to the crippled man, your sins are forgiven you. There must have been just disbelief, particularly in those four that got him in there, you know. Wait a minute. We didn't go through all of that for some statement like that. We didn't go through all that for some invisible forgiveness. So we want a visible intervention here. What is this? You know, this could be considered really an inappropriate statement, honestly, you know. That's the way the four men would have taken it. It's inappropriate, and it might even be irrelevant, honestly. Your sins are forgiven. That's not the man's need. You know, there's nothing to suggest here that there is a link between the man's sin or his paralysis. The book of Job actually warns between making that application. There are links between physical sin and physical disease. You know, you can look at the plethora of sexual immorality and those kind of things and see that connection. But in this instance, there's no suggestion that the man had done anything to contribute to the paralysis. So why did Jesus Christ say what he said? Well, here's the point. I want you to listen to this carefully. It's the point of the whole story. The reason Jesus Christ said what he said was because he was putting his finger on the man's, and in fact, our and everyone's greatest need. Spiritual healing, forgiveness. He was going to show this man the real need of his life was not the paralysis of his body. The real need of this man's life was the paralysis of his being, if you will. So he addresses first things first. He's not disinterested in the man's condition. He healed him. He healed a lot of people, physically.

He's not disinterested in your physical ailments. He's healed a lot of you today. I know that physically. He's not disinterested in healing family strife and struggle. He is. He's interested in that. He's concerned with that. He's not disinterested in healing your financial situation. He is. He's absolutely concerned with that. He's not unconcerned about all those things.

But first things first. He wants for you and this man what matters most. He wants the thing that matters most. He wants that you should have a restored, healed relationship with his father and to fulfill your destiny beyond this physical temporal life and to receive the good news of the coming kingdom of God. That's primary. That is primary.

Again, let me give it to you again. The material and bodily benefits were not and are not the things that matter most. And the Bible is going to challenge. It challenges our preoccupation with time on this earth and it introduces us to eternity. The Bible challenges our preoccupation with materialism, things which are tangible, physical, and introduces us to an invisible world beyond the physical. Why? The physical is passing away and in fact the unseen is the eternal. The unseen spiritual matters are actually internal. And so the truth behind these healing stories are that they teach us that in the process of giving this man physical healing, he actually gave him his greatest need. Now you will notice immediately there is conflict that is met by Jesus Christ here. Immediately he's met with conflict. Verse 21. Verse 21, the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone? Well, they're right. Only God can forgive sin. But they were unwilling to accept the one who's making this statement is in fact the Son of God. They were unwilling to accept it. That's where they got it wrong. This is the Son of God in the flesh. But look how Jesus responds here to this question. This is one of the great moments of Jesus Christ, I think. I just find it. I'm so profound in his words. Here he says, verse 22 through 23. 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? Okay, stop there. So which is easier?

Well, we might actually say it's easier to say your sins are forgiven.

On one hand, it's almost easier to say that. How can you verify that? You can say your sins are forgiven. You don't know if that happened or not. So from the scribes and the Pharisees, from their perspective, it's actually harder from their perspective to say the latter, to say, Rise up and walk. Because if that doesn't happen, then the one giving the command is exposed here. So Jesus first says, Your sins are forgiven. How can he pronounce that? Well, he knew where he was heading. He knew what was about to be achieved. Spiritual healing at great cost to him. He would be a sacrifice for sins so that he could offer their real need, their spiritual healing.

And actually, that's not only the more difficult thing, that's the impossible thing, unless you are God or the Son of God, of course. Only God can forgive your sins. But in a way, he says, okay, having said what was easy, let me say what is seemingly hard in your eyes, so that you will know. So that you will know. Verse 24, here it is. Here's the climax scripture of the whole study today.

But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. So that you may know that. He said to the man who was paralyzed, I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house. So let's stop there. So the purpose of all physical healings is to point to the one who has the power to forgive sins here on earth. That is man's greatest need. That's the purpose of all the physical healings. They all point not to that temporary, physical, wonderful need. We need those things. But ultimately, they point to our greatest need. The fact that the Son of Man has the power to forgive sins. That's awesome. That's what we truly need. And we conclude here with verse 25 and 26. Here it is immediately. Immediately, He rose up before them, took up what He had been lying on, departed to His own house, glorifying God. There it is. That's the response.

Glorifying God, become a sacrifice. Make that sacrifice now. And they were all amazed, and they glorified God. There's the testimony, there's the evidence to others.

And they were filled with fear, saying, we have seen strange things today.

As we conclude here, we want to say a few things. I hope one day it would be so interesting to see some of these individuals that come into the picture of the New Testament, and they go out just as fast. I would love to meet this man. I'd like to meet both of these men. Maybe at Christ's returns, God willing, we're part of that first fruit harvest, and we meet this man at that time.

And just, you know, I want to hear the rest of the story. He goes home to his family. He's restored. And he said, boy, you know, after a few days, it's beginning to sink in on him. Boy, I wonder that whole forgiveness of my sins, you know. Let me let me let that sink in a little bit. And he would say, probably through his life, that he discovered that Jesus Christ actually gave him, initially, his greatest need. He thought it was secondary, I'm sure, at first, but it was actually the primary. He forgives his sins. Jesus Christ is not disinterested in your physical, embodied healings today, but just know that Jesus Christ didn't come simply to put you on your feet physically. Ultimately, he came to put you on your feet spiritually. He may heal you physically, and that's wonderful, but what he actually came to do is to heal you completely and spiritually, and to ultimately have you rise and walk in your relationship with God. It would be better to lie flat on your back and have your sins forgiven than to walk your way through life and remain unforgiven. So, let him deal with your greatest need first. Invite him into your life today in a greater way. Be grateful to this one who has come with great compassion to not only heal us physically, but to actually give us our greatest need to forgive our sins and to heal us spiritually, to lead us into a life of eternity.