A Man Like No Other, part 3

This is the First Mustang Pulpit Podcast, a podcast of the weekly preaching and teaching at First Mustang.! Thank you for joining us. Mark chapter 1. Mark chapter 1. We are continuing on in this study.

And I'll tell you, this has been such a full week for me personally. And as we've been walking through Mark 1 on Sundays, it's been very rich times for me in my own heart.

And I love seeing the Word of God just at work among our congregation. We recognized last Sunday our graduates from the Institute. We had 27 men who graduated.

It brings us up to about 75 total graduates through the Institute. And last Sunday was the deadline for guys to register to start the two-year Bible training program our church does.

And I've got to tell you, we've been a little bit overwhelmed at the response. We've got by far our largest group about to join. We've got 51 men who have registered and paid to begin the Institute.

And so, we're going to have a total of about 76 guys who are a part of it that we'll be teaching. Some of those year one, some of those year two. So, the Lord is just at work through the Institute. And I encourage you to continue to pray for us with that.

We're having to change some things and figure some things out because of just the overwhelming response. And we're excited to be able to do that. The Lord is at work there.

Tuesday night, we had our ladies' night of theology and had the largest group of ladies we've ever seen here. We had 290 ladies show up for two hours of theology teaching.

Just amazed at the hunger of God's Word that exists in our congregation. And just thrilled to be a part of what God is doing. But there is nothing sweeter for me than to be here with you on the Lord's Day on Sunday.

And to be able to regularly, faithfully as a church, we just walk through God's Word and ask Him to speak to us. And that's the greatest thing we want to do today. We're walking through this section here as we walk through Mark 1.

In verses 21 down to 45, around the theme of a man like no other. And I'm going to move really quickly today because we also, I think we have the largest group of graduates that our church has ever had.

That we're going to recognize here at the end of this service. And so I did ask if I could have just a few minutes to preach today, which they were kind enough to allow me to do. I want to go quickly though, if you'll keep up, we'll get through this.

We're looking here at who Jesus is and He reveals Himself in four ways in verses 21 through 45. We've already looked that He was a man of power.

Specifically, He was a man of power in His teaching. He was a man of power over demons. And He was a man of power over disease.

We looked the next week that He was a man of prayer. As He would get up while it was still dark, retreating from the crowds to pray.

Because prayer was a priority for the Lord. Which led us to a third thing we looked at last week. That He was a man of priority. That when the disciples wanted Him to come back to the crowds and kind of ride this wave of momentum and popularity.

The Lord says, I'm going to other cities and other towns because I have come to preach the gospel. I've not come to be cheered. I've not come to be simply admired.

I've come to preach the gospel and call people to a place of repentance and salvation. And so He was a man of power, a man of prayer, and a man of priority.

And then here at the end of chapter 1, verses 40 to 45, we see fourthly, he was a man of pity. Look with me. And a leper came to Him, imploring Him and kneeling, said to Him, If you will, you can make me clean.

And moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched Him and said to Him, I will be clean. And immediately the leprosy left Him and He was made clean.

And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once and said to him, See that you say nothing to anyone but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded for a proof to them.

But he went out and began to talk freely about it and to spread the news so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places and people were coming to Him from every quarter.

This man that was a leper that was healed is an important thing for us to consider. To do so, we've got to think about what it was like to live with leprosy in the ancient world.

The Old Testament law gave them instructions for this, that there were a number of various kinds of skin diseases, and they were to go to the priest and have that skin disease examined.

Some of those skin diseases, of course, would in time heal themselves and take care of themselves, and there was instruction for that. But there was also what we know as and call leprosy, what we in our culture today would call Hansen's disease.

It's called Hansen's disease after a Norwegian scientist who discovered the bacteria that causes it back in 1873. So what we would call Hansen's disease is almost certainly what this man in Mark 1 has.

And just to help you to understand what leprosy would be like, just listen to the description of what Hansen's disease or leprosy does.

It's a disease that affects the nerve, skin, eyes, and the lining of the nose. The bacteria attack the nerves, which can become swollen under the skin. This can cause the affected areas to lose the ability to sense touch and pain, which can lead to injuries like cuts and burns.

If left untreated, the nerve damage can result in paralysis of hands and feet. In advanced cases, the person may have multiple injuries due to lack of sensation, and eventually the body may reabsorb the affected digits over time, resulting in the apparent loss of toes and fingers.

Eye ulcers and blindness can occur if facial nerves are affected. The nose is also subject to deformity. So that's from our own CDC.

That's a current up-to-date description of what Hansen's disease would be like, what leprosy does, and what was happening here in the first century. And what you have is someone who not only has to deal with the extreme physical issues that leprosy would bring on, but in addition to that, there is an incredibly high price to pay in terms of social stigma and being ostracized.

You would be considered unclean. You would be an outcast in the community. If you had leprosy in the first century, you're not allowed to go near the temple. You're not allowed to enter into the gates of Jerusalem.

You would be removed from your family. You would be removed from employment. You had to live alone. There was no cure for this. If you came within a certain distance with somebody else, you had to yell out, unclean, unclean, to let everybody know that you were there so they could avoid you.

It's not just that this man was sick. It's that this man has an incurable disease of which nobody would get near him.

He lives life on an island, metaphorically. He lives life separated from his community. Which is why, back to the text in verse 40, it's so shocking when it says, a leper came to Jesus, imploring him and kneeling, said to him, if you will, you can make me clean.

And this man goes right up to Jesus. And not something that would by any means be anticipated or expected to see. But this man has had so much physical problem and emotional pain and societal separation.

And here is Jesus. And somehow he knows that Christ has the power to heal him if the Lord were willing to. And so he says, if you will, you can make me clean.

Verse 41, Jesus was moved with pity. And he stretched out his hand and touched him. You've got to stop for a minute and just recognize this would have never happened.

You don't touch the one with leprosy. How long has it been since this man has felt human touch?

How long has it been since anyone treated this man as if he were human? And he goes and he kneels right at the feet of Jesus.

And if there had been 100 people watching, all 100 of the people would have been running to get further away and assuming that Jesus certainly is going to take several steps back quickly and give some space so he does not interact with this man too closely.

The text says, moved with pity. Jesus reached out his hand and he touched him. Jesus is identifying with him.

Jesus doesn't have to heal him, though at this point in his ministry, he is healing many with diseases. He is casting out many demons.

And Jesus could have cured the man of leprosy. He could have done it with just his spoken word and just his voice of decree. And yet, to identify with the outcast, he will reach out his hand and touch him.

This was his entire ministry, wasn't it? Jesus left the glories of heaven and took on flesh and he dwelt among us.

What we celebrate at Christmastime is the word made flesh. What we see on the cross is Jesus taking our place.

This is the Lord identifying with the lowest of the low in that society and saying that he has come to touch and identify even with the one the world would cast aside.

Some of you may need to hear that closely today. Because while there is not physical leprosy among us today, you may feel like in your life that you're the outcast.

You feel like in your workplace because you're the only believer, you're the outcast. Or because people in your family have done crazy things that have hurt you, you feel like the outcast.

Or maybe because your life and your life situation is not what you would expect or it's not what somebody else says your life should be, whatever it may be.

There's plenty in this room that know what it is to feel like the outcast. And I want to say clearly to you today, the Lord has come to give grace and mercy to the outcast.

Jesus reached out his hand and touched him. In verse 42, immediately the leprosy left him. And this is really a remarkable thing when you consider all the damage leprosy would do to the body.

Skin is healed. Fingers are healed. Toes are healed. Because people with leprosy would lose the sensation of touch, it's not uncommon that those with leprosy would touch things that are hot that would burn them.

And because they can't feel in their fingers and toes, they can do things and walk on hot surfaces or sharp objects. And they are wearing off their digits, so to speak, without even recognizing it.

When Jesus heals this man, it is a complete restoration. Immediately the leprosy left him and he was made clean. So what does Jesus say?

Verse 43. Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once and said to him, see that you say nothing to anyone, which seems strange to our ears, right?

Why would he want the man not to say anything? He charged him, don't say anything, but go show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded.

How healed is the man? Well, Jesus tells him to go to the priest. It's about a hundred mile journey. You don't make that journey unless you're completely healed and whole.

He's to go to the temple. He's to be examined by the priest. He's to shave, bathe, wash his clothes, offer sacrifices. On the eighth day after doing so, he would offer a final sacrifice for a guilt offering and a sin offering and a burnt offering, and it would be proof to the priest that his leprosy has been healed.

Jesus, though, remember, has a reason why he's doing miracles. Yes, he was a man of pity. The text tells us this. He had compassion on the sick.

He had mercy on those who were hurting. Part of what his miracles would do was alleviate suffering in people's bodies. That's absolutely true. But that's not the ultimate reason why he did miracles.

The ultimate reason why he did was to validate his claim that he is, in fact, the Son of God. He is the Messiah. He is the Savior for those who would believe in him.

And Jesus is not interested in simply having a healing ministry to attract massive crowds. It's true that Jesus will take the boy's lunch and break it and bless it and feed thousands of people, and in so doing, he meets their physical needs of hunger.

Absolutely. But the ultimate reason why he did that was not to provide a meal. It was to show them he is the bread of life. And so Jesus is not interested in just being popular.

He's not interested in gathering the largest crowd in town. He wants people to listen to his message. He wants sinners to repent.

He wants arrogant men to be broken. He wants people to understand that salvation is found in no other name than the name of Jesus.

And so he warns the man to not say anything. It's what we call in theology the messianic secret.

That you find in the Gospels this seemingly strange reality where Jesus will do something and then warn someone, don't say anything.

And the reason is he wants the man to obey the law and do what he is supposed to do by showing himself to the priest. He doesn't tell him to circumvent the law in that regard.

And neither does Jesus want people coming to him primarily simply for physical relief. Because if the crowds follow Jesus simply for temporal things then what they will wish for is to be wealthy, well fed, healthy as long as they can and then they will die and spend eternity separated from God.

That's not what Christ is wanting to do. And so he understands that if all you speak of is me as a miracle worker and if all you come to me for is to alleviate your physical suffering so that's all you're interested in then you will have nothing to do with my message that you are a sinner and I am a savior and you must repent and be born again.

And the exact same thing happens in our world today. which is why people when they're sick all of a sudden start to pray. Why when people lose their job they all of a sudden start to want to read their Bible and praise the Lord that he can use even the worst of things to draw us to himself.

Absolutely. But if the motivation is I just want enough of Jesus so he can give me everything that I want and you don't have a heart for the spiritual issue then it is of no value.

Because all of these people who are healed are going to get sick again. All these people of a demon driven out of them are one day going to die. And the most important thing is not going to be their physical condition because no matter how much you exercise and no matter how healthy you eat at some point the outer man breaks down and physical death takes over.

And in that moment the very most important thing about us is what have we done with the gospel of Jesus Christ? And so Jesus tells the man I don't want you to go spread all this news around just do what you're supposed to do.

Go to the priest you're healed show yourself to them you'll offer the sacrifice as Moses commanded you to that's in verse 44 this will be a proof to them and a strange part of the story in my mind is verse 45.

I mean this man has come to Jesus had faith that the Lord could heal him Jesus moved by pity moved with compassion not only heals him but touches him.

He conveys that this man has value and worth and his life has honor and he touches him and he heals him and his body is restored and he has done exactly what the man hoped that he would do and then some.

And Jesus says go do what Moses called you to do now as you obey me with that I just want you to go present yourself fulfill the law don't want you to tell everybody what it did and maybe it's because the man didn't understand or maybe he just thought it didn't make sense to him whatever it is strangely in verse 45 but he went out and began to talk freely about it that's so strange to me he comes in faith the Lord meets him the Lord touches him the Lord heals him the Lord restores him the Lord blesses him and serves him and gives him one two commands go to the priest one two don't say anything and the man walks away and immediately does what Jesus said not to do maybe the guy just thought

I just understand it because I don't understand it I'm not going to obey it maybe he thought his way was better maybe he just couldn't help himself in any event he went out and began to talk freely about it now Mark tells us exactly why the Lord would say don't say anything it's because of exactly what happened look at the end of verse 45 so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town because all the crowds are flooding to him and everybody thinks of Jesus hey here's our loophole here's our loophole with Jesus in town we can always have food and we can always have money and we can always be healed and we can have the earthly physical life we want which is the exact reason they need a savior because their eyes are on the physical not their sinful condition and Jesus knows if this man goes and starts to spread the word that these very things will happen which is exactly what takes place and so he has to go out in desolate places because the crowds were coming to him in such massive numbers it does occur to me though the irony of this that

Jesus tells the man not to say anything and he keeps talking about Jesus and yet the Lord tells us to go share the gospel and for so many of us we keep our mouths silent now understand that there's no need for what we would call this messianic secret anymore Christ has died on the cross Christ has been resurrected from the grave the whole point was he did not want to be deterred by why he came that has already taken place so there is now no reason at all for us to stay silent and it's possible for us to look at verse 45 and think why would this man hear the words of Jesus and so quickly disobey them and yet we have to look in a spiritual mirror and realize we do the exact same thing he's told us to go and tell he's told us to make the gospel known he's told us to share the faith of the gospel with others and we stay so silent when it's been given to us to go and tell so what can we hold on to from this encounter let me give you three things real quick this morning number one in application we need to have a heart for the outcast and the hurting

Jesus did so should we have a heart for the outcast and the hurting if there's somebody in your school that doesn't have any friends they should right it should never really be said of a believer that a child comes home from school and says so and so has no friends that shouldn't be true because you should be the friend you say yeah but nobody likes them if I talk to her if I sit by him or if I play with him on the playground or if I talk to her in the classroom other people may not like me because nobody likes them listen here's what believers do we follow the example of our savior and we love the one who is the outcast we should have a heart of pity and compassion and grace and love and we should be quick to serve and minister to the one who is hurting practice that even this week the person in your neighborhood that nobody likes the person on your ball team that nobody likes practice loving them and welcoming them and showing

Christian love and grace to them second we need to remember the ultimate purpose of the healings remember the ultimate purpose of the healings and the ultimate purpose was to show Christ as Messiah the ultimate purpose of the healing is to show that his message is true his words can be trusted and third trust Jesus in your needs and obey him in all things trust Jesus in your needs and obey him in all things let me just close with this the man clearly did not fully understand why Jesus commanded him what he did and that's probably been true in your life too where you read the scripture and the

Lord through his word calls you to do something that's very difficult and you think to yourself but I don't really understand what Jesus is doing I don't understand why God would want this in my life I don't understand why he would ask me to do this and too many times our level of obedience is simply equal to our level of understanding why listen we are not God amen we're not God his ways are higher than our ways his thoughts are higher than our thoughts so if there are things God has called you to do through his word and you don't understand why and you don't get the point and you think that there's another way that feels better to you learn the lesson from this text trust

God to meet your needs but as he does seek to obey him in all things no matter what Lord we thank you today for your word and pray that your spirit would help us to have understanding that we would listen and obey and respond give us eyes to see your truth and hearts to obey we ask it in Jesus name amen turn your attention to our screens as we transition to honoring a very special group of students can't can't believe we've come this far and it feels just like getting started somehow we're still running like those kids back there kids back there scrape some knees and falling down but somehow we keep getting back up long as there is wonder gonna keep running yeah we'll keep running in this moment it's electric can you see it can you feel it this dream inside is still alive today yeah we're on our way we're on our way we're on our way to breaking through cause we were made for something new we're on our way we're on our way we're on our way to chase our dreams cause we were made for greater things yeah we're on our way here's to all the scared and frozen too afraid of the unknown and second guessing everything you want there's no fear that can bind you there's nowhere hope won't find you as long as we have hope we have everything we need yeah we're on our way we're on our way we're on our way to breaking through cause we were made for something new yeah we're on our way we're on our way we're on our way to chase our dreams cause we were made for greater things yeah we're on our way in this moment in this moment it's electric it's electric can you see it can you feel it cause dream and thought is still alive we're on our way we're on our way to breaking through cause we were made for something new yeah we're on our way we're on our way we're on our way to chase our dreams cause we were made good morning church it's my pleasure this morning to introduce to you our class of 2022 our

high school graduates an incredible group of students that we've been blessed by for many years in our student ministry and many many more years before that as children and we're excited to celebrate this new phase of life with them recognize them for their accomplishments and praise God for all that he's done in and through their lives and what he'll continue to do so Addy Blue is the daughter of Kayla Blue Addy is graduating from Mustang High School and plans to attend the University of Central Oklahoma and major in strategic communications Daniel Barker is the son of John and Joetta Gatliff Daniel is graduating from Mustang High School and plans to attend the University of Oklahoma and study history Joseph Beecroft is the son of Sterling Beecroft and Andrew Beecroft Joe's graduating from Mustang High School and plans to attend

Oklahoma Baptist University to study forensic psychology Kaylee Brooks is the daughter of Sterling and Kendall Brooks Kaylee's graduating from Mustang High School and plans to attend Oklahoma State University and major in nursing Conway Cothin is the son of Dodie Cothin and Terry Cothin Conway's graduating from Mustang High School and plans to work full-time this fall Hadley Daniel is the daughter of Lance and Misty Daniel Hadley's graduating from Mustang High School and plans to attend the University of Central much right of Lake in Congress in Eng in and in in in in in in with thanks