Building a house: Luke 5: 27-32

I’m not much of a sports enthusiast.  I can’t tell you who won the Super Bowl last year, or the baseball championships or much about traditional sports.  But one sport I do have a weakness for watching is surf competitions.  Thankfully, they aren’t on very often, because they can last for days and eat up a  lot of my time.  But in surf competitions they have color commentators like they do in other sports who make the long lulls that you have to wait out between swells more interesting.  And there is a phrase that I hear these commentators use from time to time which I haven’t heard elsewhere.  Maybe it is used for other sports, but since I don’t follow other sports it would stand to reason that I haven’t heard it.  Anyway, when a pro surfer is trying to establish a winnable score during his heat, it is often referred to as “building a house.”  The surfer goes out and starts getting waves right away, not necessarily waiting for the biggest and best wave, but trying to get on the scoreboard.  And the announcers often refer to that as building a house.

Well, as I was studying this passage in Luke this week in an effort to prepare for my message, it occurred to me that in a sense, Luke is building a house. As Luke takes us through this series of seemingly unrelated events, I believe he is building a house, so to speak.  He has laid a foundation of who Jesus was and how He arrived on earth, recorded the prophecies of what it was He came to do, and then he has systematically presented a series of events to reveal how Jesus is fulfilling that prophecy.  And as we get to this last section of chapter 5, I think Luke is finally starting to show more clearly the focus and purpose of the ministry of Jesus Christ.  Yes, Jesus would heal some people from disease, and yes, Jesus would deliver some demon possessed people from spiritual oppression, but all  those things were merely earthly demonstrations of an even greater spiritual transaction.  In other words, as Jesus said in regards to the healing of the paralytic back in verse 24, “but so that you may know that I have the authority to forgive sins, I say to you, get up, take up your bed and walk.”  See, the point  Luke was endeavoring to make was that Jesus had the power to forgive sins, which is a spiritual transaction.  Forgiveness of sins is not something that can really be seen in the human realm.   So Jesus heals a man  with the word of His mouth, to prove that He also had the power to forgive sins by the word of His mouth.  The healing was secondary, forgiveness is primary.

And so Luke having introduced that concept in the last passage, now takes that a step further.  He is building a house,  teaching us the concept of forgiveness, and grace and divine sovereignty, and now introducing some other concepts as well, such as discipleship, what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.  Not to just give lip service to Christ, but to actually become transformed, by the power of Christ.  The outcome then is a new life, the old passes away and all things become new.  And so the example that Luke gives us next helps to build that part of our house of doctrine as we grow in wisdom and maturity in Christ.

In this next example then we see an almost inconspicuous event that at first hardly seems worth a second look.  But I think there are many things here that will be instructive.  It says in verse 27 and 28 that “After that He went out and noticed a tax collector named Levi sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, "Follow Me." (28)And he left everything behind, and got up and began to follow Him.”

So first of all, notice that this seems to follow immediately the healing of the paralytic, right after Jesus had just stated that He had the authority to forgive sins.  The principle of forgiveness was introduced there.  Now, almost immediately afterwards, Jesus just seems to randomly pick someone off the street and walk up to him and tell him to follow Him.  But I think there is much more to it than that.

It might help to understand as background the tax system that was employed in the Roman Empire and throughout it’s territories, such as in Israel.  There would be an official known as a publican, who worked for the Roman government, who was responsible for the tax  collection for a particular district.  And this publican was given a goal of revenue that he had to collect for each district.  To do that, he would employ tax collectors, who worked various areas of commerce and so forth in order to bring in the prescribed amount of money.  And one area that was heavily taxed was customs.  The tax or custom that was charged for transport and shipping in the Roman colony.  Levi occupied such a position. Now this could be a very lucrative franchise.  There was a standard fee that had been assessed by the publican and the Roman government regarding the tariff that was to be added to every dollar amount in merchandise, but the way the tax collector made money was he would charge above and beyond that amount and keep the difference.  They really couldn’t argue with him, and he had the power of enforcement with the Roman government standing behind him.  So it was really a form of highway robbery.

As a result of this system, the tax  collectors got rich at the expense of people in their own community.  They were considered traitors, turncoats working for the hated Romans, and working against their own neighbors and fellow citizens.  In fact, in all of Israel, they were probably the most hated, detested people around.  They were usually disowned by their families, and even barred from the synagogues.  They were considered unredeemable.  The  only people that would hang around them were other tax collectors, and perhaps other thieves and low lifes in the community.

So as Jesus is preaching and teaching and living in the area of Capernaum, I’m sure this tax collector became aware of Him, and perhaps even heard him preach.  Maybe he was there at his booth when Jesus pushed out from the beach in Peter’s boat and he listened to Jesus preach, and saw at the end of the message Peter and James and John leave their nets and follow Jesus. Maybe Jesus had his eye on Levi for a while now.  But one thing is for sure.  Jesus knew what was in his heart.  I’m sure that Jesus knew that Levi might have been rich, but he was miserable.  He had found that money didn’t solve all his problems.  And he could tell that Levi was ready for salvation.  The only problem was, the culture had made tax  collectors such outcasts from society, that he probably didn’t think that the gospel message applied to him.  After all, the Pharisees had barred him from the synagogues.  In their eyes, he was to be hated, and not worthy of the benefit of God’s grace.

But Jesus wants to make a point about salvation, and He knows Levi illustrates that point exactly.  So as poor old Levi is sitting over there in his tax booth, an outcast of society watching the parade of people following Jesus around, Jesus reads his heart, and He walks over to a startled Levi, and declares; "Follow Me."

Now, let me tell you something right there.  Jesus offered no less than salvation, forgiveness of sins to Levi.  There are three parallel gospel accounts of this event in Matthew, Mark and Luke, and all of them agree on what was said.  It wasn’t some long drawn out invitation.  Just two simple words conveyed enough because Jesus knew his heart.  “Follow me.”  And Levi understood it perfectly.  He knew what that meant.  What that entailed.  It meant walking away from an immoral lifestyle, walking away from a deceitful business. And in one instant, Levi got up, left everything and followed Him.  He knew he could not continue to be a cheat and follow Jesus.  He knew he could not just come as you are and stay as you are.  No, he left everything.  Listen, the decision to follow Christ is not a trivial decision.  We do a disservice to the gospel to try to lower the bar in an attempt to win people.

You want to know what it means to be a Christian folks?  It means following Jesus.  It’s not being baptized, it’s not turning over a new leaf, it’s not getting your act together, it’s not adding some religion to your life.  Salvation, forgiveness of sins, is following Jesus, being obedient to what He has told us to do through His word and leaving behind everything else.

Jesus told the rich young ruler in Luke 18 who had kept all the laws, Jesus said, “sell all you have and come and follow Me.” But the young ruler went away sad because he had many possessions.  We look at that today and say, well, that is just an exaggeration, Jesus is just making a point by exaggeration.  Really?  You think?  How about Peter, James and John in Matt. 4:19, “And He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." And immediately they left their nets and followed Him.  In other words, they left the biggest pile of fish they had ever seen on the beach, and their boats and their nets and followed  Jesus.  How about Matt. 8:21, “Another of the disciples said to Him, "Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Follow Me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead."  Wow, that’s pretty harsh, isn’t it?  He must be exaggerating!  Jesus really doesn’t call us to follow Him like that, does He?

How about John 1:43, which says, “The next day Jesus purposed to go into Galilee, and He found Philip. And Jesus said to him, "Follow Me."  Starting to sound familiar now, doesn’t it?  How about  Matt. 16:24 “Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”   Oh, there were many people that followed Jesus when He was passing out loaves and fishes, but not many when He was passing out crosses.  But Jesus says a true disciple of mine will take up his cross and follow Me, denying his self, that is denying his own natural inclinations, his natural will, his good old fashioned common sense, and follow Him, walking where He walks, talking like He talks, doing what He does.

Let me assure you folks, that isn’t easy.  It’s not easy to follow the Lord.  There is a cost involved.  A cost of friendships, associations, financial security, money making opportunities, boyfriends, girlfriends, you name it, there is a cost in following Jesus.  But like Paul said in Phil. 3:8  “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

Listen, don’t fool yourself and know you certainly aren’t fooling God:  if you’re not following Christ, then you aren’t really a disciple of Christ.  We are never going to be perfect in this life, but that doesn’t exempt you from picking your cross back up after you stumble and keep on following Christ.  Peter is a great example.  He had good intentions.  He boldly swung a sword at a Roman guard’s ear.  He was loud mouthed and a big talker.  But when Jesus was about to be crucified he lost his nerve late one night around the enemies campfire and denied he even knew Jesus.  Did it three times.  That was almost enough to destroy ol’ Peter.  He might have been in such despair that he would have hung himself like Judas.  But Jesus didn’t come to save perfect people.  Jesus came to save sinners, and Peter was a sinner just like you and me.  And so Jesus made a special point to connect with Peter after his resurrection and offer him a way back.  He says to him twice, “Peter, follow Me!”  And again, “ You follow Me!”

Listen, too many people want fellowship but not follow-ship.  They want to join the club, but are not willing to pay the dues.  They want the prize, but aren’t willing to pay the price.  Jesus said in Luke 14 that to be His disciple you have to count the cost. "Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.”

Well, Levi knew the cost.  He didn’t even have to be told.  He just left his booth sitting there, and the money in the drawer and walked away from a very valuable franchise, because he knew it was incompatible with following Jesus.  But what He gained more than made up for a few baubles here on earth.  He may have lost his business, but he gained an inheritance far beyond all comparison.

There is a second characteristic of a disciple of Jesus Christ, and Levi exemplifies that as well.  By the way, Levi is none other than Matthew, who becomes one of Christ’s 12 apostles.  And he was probably one of the wealthiest disciples of Christ.  It’s certain that he was worth quite a bit more than the average fishermen.  We get that insight from verse 29, “And Levi gave a big reception for Him in his house; and there was a great crowd of tax collectors and other people who were reclining at the table with them.”  It stands to reason that having a lot of money he was able to invite a lot of people from his profession and that knew him to his house for a big reception.  He more than likely had a big house to be able to accommodate a lot of people.  But the main reason that Matthew has invited all these people was so that they could meet Jesus.  He was willing to give up that money to win the lost.

And that’s the point that I think needs to be made.  Some people like to take passages like this and extrapolate from them that somehow this gives us permission to go hang out in bars and nightclubs in order to reach the lost.  Or some with less noble ambitions just think it gives us permission to drink ourselves into a stupor every evening.  But I don’t find that drunkeness works in the greater context of scripture.  Rather, I think that what Matthew is doing is indicative of what happens in any new believer’s life.  There is such joy at being forgiven, such joy of discovery, that naively we assume that everyone wants to hear about it, or at least should hear about it.  So another characteristic of a follower of Jesus Christ is that he wants to share the good news with all his old friends and acquaintances.

And I’ve found that it’s easier to do that in the beginning.  One reason is that your friendships are still fresh.  But what I have found is that in my walk with Christ, it’s not so much that I refuse to hang around with the old crowd, but that the old crowd eventually doesn’t want to hang around with me.  They are going to be curious at first, and that’s a real good opportunity to introduce them to Jesus, but when they find that you no longer have an interest in amoral things, and all you want to do is talk about Jesus, most of those old acquaintances are going to start slipping away.

Peter, who found out what it cost to follow Christ, speaks in this way in 1Pet.  4:1, “Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.
For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries. In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation, and they malign you; but they will give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.”

I don’t know about you, but I’ve found that I can be convicting without saying a word.  Maybe it’s the nature of being a pastor, but I think it’s the case with anyone that is trying to walk after God.  We are going to be convicting by just showing up.  And conviction works either one or two ways;  it’s either going to make them aggravated at you, even to the point of hating you, or it’s going to cause them to examine themselves and seek your advice on getting right with the Lord.

Well, in Matthew’s case, he invites all his old friends and introduces them to Jesus.  Boy, that sounds like a party, doesn’t it?  Want to really impress your friends?  Try inviting them all over next weekend for a big dinner and tell them you have a special guest.  But instead of trying to sell them Avon or some vitamins or some of those multi level marketing scams, try introducing the preacher and have him preach salvation to them.  Guarantee you will only do it once!

But as Jesus is inside preaching to the tax collector’s society, the self righteous Pharisees and scribes are outside attacking the disciples. Vs 30, “The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, saying, "Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?"

And that’s the third characteristic of becoming a true follower of Christ, is not everyone is going to be a fan.  In fact, chances are the devil’s going to target you for attack.  I’ve found in ministry that the worse attacks come not from outside the church, but from within.  From the self righteous.  From those that think that they aren’t sinners like everyone else, but somehow they have received a special dispensation from God, and they have all knowledge and wisdom and judgment.

And I’ve also found that when the devil wants to tear down a church, he starts his attacks on the flock.  See, the Pharisees haven’t been able to get too far by confronting Jesus, so they try to undermine His credibility with His followers.  We need to remember to be harmless as doves and wise as serpents when people start coming around or calling on us to try to disparage the pastor or another Christian.

Jesus recognized right away what was going on, and He addresses it in the next verse; Luke 5:31 “And Jesus answered and said to them, "It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance."

Jesus is the master of illustration, isn’t He? I really don’t find much reason to use many illustrations outside of the Bible.  I think the illustrations of Jesus can’t be improved upon.  So Jesus explains the principle of forgiveness and salvation with an illustration of a sick person who needs a doctor.

I don’t know about you, but I hate to go to the doctor.  Maybe it’s a man thing.  Most of us men are big babies when it comes to needles and pain and we don’t like to have to admit we are hurting bad enough to see a doctor.   I hate the dentist office.  But I’ll tell you what, I had a nerve in a tooth go bad one time and it almost killed me.  I waited around and then finally made an appointment to see a root canal specialist and the soonest they could see me was in three days.  And by the time I got through those three days I thought I would actually die.  I hadn’t slept and couldn’t eat and was in constant pain.  I was as sick as I have ever been.  And you know what, when I got really sick I really wanted to see the dentist.  All my fears and dislike of the dentist’s office melted away.  I wanted to go to the dentist more than anything.

And that is exactly what Jesus is illustrating to the Pharisees.  Sick people know that they need a doctor and are ready and willing to see the doctor.  But people that don’t think they are sick don’t want to see the doctor.  Jesus came to save sick people.

Listen, I have to close.  But last week I told you that the purpose of Jesus coming to earth was not just to be our example, or just to heal some people of physical diseases, or just to overcome some social injustice.  Jesus came to earth, according to Luke 19:10 "For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."  He came to forgive sins so that man might be reconciled to God.  That was His purpose.  But for that sacrifice to be appropriated for you here today, you must first recognize that you are a sinner.  That you are lost, an outcast from God, hopelessly sinful and desperately wicked.  That all your righteousness is as filthy rags before Him.  That as Romans 3:12 says, there is no one that does good, no not one.”  Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”

And if you’re here today, and you recognize that you are sick, that you are a sinner, and that you need a Physician, then I have some good news.  The Bible says in Rom. 10:13 for "WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED."

Jesus came to seek and to save those that are lost, those that are sick of their sin, that are ready to repent of their sins and receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ as a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.  And repentance is the same for you that it was for Levi, leave it all behind and follow Jesus.  Step by step, He will lead you through His word.  But you have to be willing to follow Him.  You can do that today.

There may be some here today that say that they don’t need a physician.  They think they are good with God.  They may be trusting in something they did years ago at an altar, or at an invitation in some church.  They tried to have a relationship with God.  They performed some religious act.  But the truth is, they haven’t really been following Christ.  They’ve claimed the benefits, but haven’t carried their cross.  And right now the Holy Spirit is convicting you that you are following another God, no less than an idol of your own making.  Maybe your god is your career, maybe it’s your boyfriend or girlfriend, or your friendships.  Whatever it is, it has distracted you from following the Savior fully and completely like Levi did, willing to leave everything.  Today is the day God is calling you to make things right with Him.  To come before Him and ask for forgiveness and ask Him to restore to you a right spirit like David prayed for.  To restore unto you the joy of your salvation.  Wherever you are today, God stands ready to forgive for those that come in repentance.

The power to forgive: Luke 5:15-26

Years ago, I used to work in the luxury hotel industry, specifically in the hotel restaurants.  One of the things that I used to do for the main company that I worked for was something like a troubleshooter or a consultant, that would evaluate a troubled restaurant, and come up with a training program to revamp it’s service so as to bring it up to the standards of the company. 

And what I found to be helpful when I did this sort of work was to try to take the restaurant concept down to the lowest common denominator, so to speak.  Boil the purpose and the goals down to as small of a statement as possible.  For instance, if I were doing a McDonalds then it would be something like this: “to make a tasty, economical hamburger and serve it as quickly as possible and make a reasonable profit.”  Or something like that.  But the point is to figure out the essence of what the restaurant is trying to accomplish, to take it back to it’s roots, and then everything that doesn’t contribute to that goal or that might interfere with that goal you eliminate.  And when you build the restaurant around the purpose you will get success.  I found that many restaurants build their buildings first, decorate them, staff them, and then try to figure out what they are going to serve.  That’s the wrong approach.  If you want success, first figure out what it is that you’re trying to accomplish and then build up from that.  That’s what makes places like Chick Fil A such a success.  They have figured out how to do one thing very well and everything they do compliments that goal.  (I love Chick fil A!)

As I was studying this passage this week in preparation for this message, I thought  it might be helpful to take this principle of finding the essence or the purpose in something  and apply it  to Christianity.  And so I ask you a rhetorical question today that perhaps you have never asked yourself.  Maybe you’ve been busy in a religious building, and practicing religious works, and trying to do a good job at it, but you really don’t know what it is that Christianity is supposed to be accomplishing.  So the question is:  What is the purpose, or the essence of Christianity?  What is really the main goal? 

Is the objective simply to get God’s blessing on our lives so we can have a better life?  Is the goal to become a better person? Is it to avoid hell when we die?  Is it to get into heaven one day?  What is the goal of Christianity?  Well, I believe the Bible teaches us that the goal of Christianity is to reconcile men to God by the forgiveness of their sins.  The heart of Christianity is the message of forgiveness of man’s sins. God reconciling man back to his original state once enjoyed in the garden of Eden after creation.  That is, that man is counted by God as being holy, righteous, all that God calls good, by virtue of the substitutionary atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  That is the immediate goal of Christianity.  There is another future goal, and that goes even further than the original status of man in the garden, the future purpose is the exalted status of man promised in the future eternal realm, when men are changed to become like God, reaching the full maturity of body, soul and spirit and thus able to become full heirs of the kingdom with Christ.

But for that to happen the primary goal of Christianity must be to reconcile man with God through the forgiveness of sins. The message that God will forgive all your sins if you repent and ask Him is the good news, that's the gospel. Jesus came to preach that message and He came to make forgiveness possible by His death on the cross. Forgiveness is the single most important benefit that God can provide. Forgiveness is the door to all blessing. Forgiveness is the door to eternal life in heaven. And so the matter of forgiveness is the heart of the Christian gospel.

But you cannot preach the Christian gospel of forgiveness unless you understand sin and its consequences. To understand that all men are sinners, that all men are alienated from God, all humanity is headed toward eternal hell where they will forever be punished for their sins and then to understand that God by grace has devised a means by which He can forgive sinners all their sins so they can escape judgment and enter into eternal  glory of His heaven, that is the message of the gospel, that is the good news. And any true preacher preaches that message because that is the message that goes right through the story of redemption, it is the story of reconciliation;  God forgiving sinners.

Do you understand the word reconciliation?  We are supposed to reconcile our checkbooks, aren’t we?  I never was very good at it.  But it’s where there is an accounting done, where you take what you think you have in the bank, and compare it to what the bank says you have.  And the bank, I’ve found out the hard way, is always right.  And so then you reconcile your account of your money in the bank, to what the bank says you have in the bank.  And that illustrates the essence of reconciliation.  We look at God’s Word and discover what God’s standard of righteousness is, and compare that to what we think our righteousness is, and then the Bible tells us that we have fallen short of the glory of God.  Rom. 3:23:  “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”  All of our good works, or good intentions, have fallen short of what God says is necessary for us to be made right with Him.  And so there must needs be a restitution made that will right our account with God.  Yet here is the conundrum, we have no means to pay for this debt. Isaiah 64:6 says “all our righteousness is as filthy rags.” The debt is beyond our ability to pay.  But here is the good news, the gospel - Jesus paid it all in full.

Paul calls this purpose of Christianity the ministry of reconciliation in 2Cor. 5:18 “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. [God] made [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

So if forgiveness is the purpose of Christianity, then it is necessary that as sinners we must recognize our need to be forgiven in order to be reconciled to God.  And as we look at this story today, we see that there are two main groups of people that Luke introduces us to. In Vs. 17 we see the first group;  “One day He was teaching; and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing.”  And then in the next verse we see the second classification.  V.18            “And some men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in and to set him down in front of Him.”

Now this is not a parable, it is an actual, historical event.  But there is a spiritual lesson here that is seen in these two groups.  On the one hand, you have the really religious people in the Jewish culture coming out from all quarters to check out Jesus.  They have already been seated in the best seats of the house.  The Pharisees and lawyers were the legalists of the Jewish culture.  They were focused on keeping the law to the nth degree in their efforts to please God.

In the eyes of the Jews these Pharisees were the most religious people in their culture.  Jesus said in another place that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees then you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. And these guys practiced righteous deeds.  Furthermore, they were experts in scripture.  They knew the scriptures backwards and forwards.  They believed in the one true God of Israel.  They did good deeds and did their best to keep the law.  They worshipped God according to all the commandments. They kept the Sabbath, from Friday evening to Saturday evening.  They wouldn’t lift their finger to do any work whatsoever, even kindling a fire or cooking a meal.  They tithed of everything they made, even to the point of tithing out of their herb garden a tenth of their mint, dill and cumin.  Most people would think that if anyone was a candidate for Christianity, then these guys fit the bill perfectly.  And yet, they weren’t saved, they had not been reconciled to God.  Jesus called them in another place  serpents like their father the devil. 

Then you have the other group, which we know from the other gospels was made up of four men plus this one man who was a paralytic.  Nothing much more is said about him.  We don’t know his name, only his condition.  He was paralyzed, most likely from his neck down.  It’s the type of paralysis that often comes from falling.  It’s a common threat in surfing that I often think about.  I knew a man named Bill Wise that lived here locally who fell forward on a relatively small day surfing just a little ways down this beach, and hit his forehead in such a way that it snapped his vertebrae and he was instantly paralyzed.  He spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair, tended to by his wife until he died just a few years ago. 

Now as to this paralytic in the gospel of Luke we can be sure that he wasn’t a Pharisee or a lawyer or scribe.  He wasn’t a religionist.  But after his accident I’m sure that he had a lot of time to ponder his life and what he wished he could have done, and some things perhaps he should have done.  And one day he hears that Jesus is just down the street teaching at a house, and he has heard that Jesus can heal.  This man knows one thing for sure, his condition is hopeless.  He cannot do anything for himself.  He has no hope for the future.  It’s a completely debilitating condition that he has found himself in.  And all he knows is that there is hope in Jesus. 

This man has four friends.  And somehow or another these five men come up with a plan to see Jesus.  He is their only hope for this poor paralyzed man.  And they are determined to bring their friend before Jesus.  I can’t help but interject something here.  If you’re here today and you claim to know the Lord, and you have unsaved friends or family, you need to go get them and bring them to Jesus.  You don’t have to know all the answers yourself.  You may not know how to lead someone to the Lord or answer all the questions they might have about the Bible.  But if you are really their friend you will stop worrying about offending them and start inviting them to church to hear the gospel.  One day you are going to stand before a holy God and see your friend standing there condemned to hell for eternity and he is going to look at you and ask “Why didn’t you tell me? If you really believed this was the truth, then why didn’t you drag me even kicking and screaming to church so I might hear the truth and be saved?”

You know, we don’t hear a lot in the scriptures about a disciple named Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.  His main claim to fame was that he met Jesus, and then he went home and got Simon Peter his brother and brought him to Christ.  And look at what Peter ended up doing.  You might bring the next Peter to Christ.

So there are two categories of people that have come to see Jesus.  There are the ultra religious, self righteous Pharisees who on the exterior seem to be spiritual and religious people.  And then there is this paralytic, desperate, helpless and hopeless.  By the way, you notice that the Pharisees are described as just sitting there.  Just sitting there, bystanders, spectators, waiting for Jesus to do something spectacular, or make some mistake, or something.  But just sitting there.   I think that churches all across America today are filled with people who are just sitting there.  They have a form of religion, but they have denied the real power of Christianity to forgive sins.  They have ulterior motives for appearing religious.  And so they sit there waiting to be entertained.  Waiting for something that they can criticize later at the dinner table.  And their hypocrisy is keeping those that want salvation away from the church, and away from the saving truth of Jesus  Christ.  The unsaved can’t come in. 

We’ve got this upside down mentality today that you need to get your act together to come to church.  You need to put on your best clothes and be on your best behavior.  And while I don’t have any problem with dressing up, or reverence, know this;  the gospel is for sick people like the leper.  It is for hopeless people, like the paralytic.  The gospel is for people who need deliverance from their enslavement to sin like the demonic.  Jesus said in verse 32 of this chapter, “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance."  Bring in the poor, bring in the sick, bring in the despairing, there is hope in the gospel.  It’s the only real hope for mankind.

Listen folks, you cannot be saved until you realize that you are lost.  I’m sometimes criticized for preaching too much on sin, but only the right understanding of my sin produces the right response.  That right response is to throw myself down at the foot of the cross and admit my sin and my guilt, and call upon the Lord for mercy.

Jesus told a parable recorded in Luke 18:10 that illustrates these two groups. He said, "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: 'God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, the sinner!' "I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."

Another illustration is found in the book of Genesis.  Cain and Abel both come to worship God.  And Cain brings the best out of his fields as a offering of sacrifice to God.  His brother Abel on the other hand brings a lamb for a sacrifice.  They both came to worship God. Yet God rejected Cain’s offering and accepts Abel’s offering.  See Cain’s offering was a prideful offering of HIS best, but Abel’s offering was an offering for his sin.  It was an offering that acknowledged that he was unable to pay for his sin, that he was worthy of death,  and the lamb was a symbolic substitute in faith for the substitute that Christ would one day make on his behalf.

Now back to our text, the men bringing the paralytic are unable to enter the house because of the crowd, so they climb on the roof and tear open the tiles to let him down in front of Jesus.   And the text says in verse 20, “Man, your sins are forgiven you."  This was an astounding thing for Jesus to say.  The Pharisees became indignant.  V.21 “The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, "Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?" But Jesus, aware of their reasoning’s, answered and said to them, "Why are you reasoning in your hearts?  "Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins have been forgiven you,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,"—He said to the paralytic—"I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home."

The Pharisees condemned themselves in their criticism.  They said that no one has the authority to forgive sins but God alone.  Their analysis was correct, but their problem was that they didn’t recognize God was right in front of them.  Their problem was that Jesus overturned their system that they believed made them righteous, and they could never confess that they were actually sinners.  They had worked too hard at outward appearances for that.  So they were incensed at Jesus for claiming to be able to forgive sins and to infer that they needed forgiveness. 

But Jesus doesn’t leave it with them getting mad and criticizing Him.  But rather He offers them proof that He has the power to forgive sins.  He said, which is easier to say.  They are both impossible for man to do, either heal or forgive sins, both are impossible for man.  But all things are possible with God.  It was however, easier to say your sins are forgiven, because that is a divine transaction that happens in the spiritual world and who can know?  But Jesus says, "But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,"—He said to the paralytic—"I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home."

Which was the greater miracle?  To forgive his sins or to heal him from paralysis? I would say to you that the greater miracle is to forgive sins.  We have our priorities so upside down today.  In the church today we attribute fleshly things to spiritual things.  The modern church puts all it’s emphasis on altruistic charities, on providing physical needs, and yet is not providing the more essential  spiritual things.  We celebrate what we can see and feel, and call it spiritual, and ignore the more weighty eternal things that are found in the Word of God. 

I was at a Bible conference a couple of years ago and a missionary was talking about his work in Africa.  And in one village he gave testimony that when the gospel was preached the whole village got saved.  And there were about a 1000 men at this conference and I heard perhaps one or two amen’s at that announcement.  Then later on in the talk, the missionary claimed that a woman’s baby died during a baptismal service and somehow or another, when they baptized the woman, the baby came back to life.  And the whole crowd of 1000 men stood up and gave a standing ovation.  A whole village gets saved and there were only a few grunts, and one baby supposedly gets healed, and you get a 1000 people giving a standing ovation.  There is something wrong with that picture.

Jesus said, so you can know that I have the power to forgive sins, take up your bed and walk.  And immediately the man was healed and went away glorifying God.  Imagine that, his atrophied muscles were instantly brought back to life.  There have been people who have been healed by doctors from some form of paralysis or sickness who hadn’t walked in a long time, and when they are healed the muscles no longer work right.  They have atrophied.  And so the person usually has to go through extensive physical therapy and work out his muscles and actually relearn how to walk.  But when Jesus heals this man he immediately gets up and walks away.  He is not only healed, but he is fully restored. 

But folks, don’t lose sight of the reason Jesus healed.  He healed to prove that He was God, because they knew that only God has the power to forgive sins.  Healing was the easy part.  Listen, it’s great to get healed, to get delivered, but it’s more important to be forgiven, to be saved.  You can be healed but not saved.  You can graduate from a twelve steps program and be delivered from alcohol or drugs and not be saved.  You can go to hell cold stone sober. You can have your cancer go into remission and not be forgiven, not be saved.  Don’t miss the eternal looking for the temporal.  Jesus said it’s better to go into heaven blind or lame, than to go into hell with eyes wide open and walking. 

Finally the last verse we have time for today, Luke 5:26 “They were all struck with astonishment and began glorifying God; and they were filled with fear, saying, "We have seen remarkable things today."   Listen, when you come to realize your hopelessness before God, when you are totally dependent upon His mercy to save you, then you will be astonished at the things that He will do in you.  He charges your sins against Jesus, and transfers the righteousness of Jesus to your account.  He makes you holy, righteous and justified (Just as if I never sinned).  He changes your desires, He changes your attitude, and He changes your actions.  And another hallmark of real Christianity is a healthy dose of fear.  Not the fear of punishment, but a reverence for who God is and what He has done.   It says they were filled with fear, which means awe and reverence. 

And it's a necessary fear. It's a healthy fear. In fact, in some ways it helps to produce a godly life. The awareness of God's presence, the awareness of God's holiness, the awareness of God's power is the source of great consecration. It's the source of holiness. Second Corinthians 7:1 says we are to be "Perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”  In Phil. 2:12 we are instructed to "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." It's the basis of our service to God. We are subject to one another in the fear of Christ, Ephesians 5:21.  And it's the motive for our evangelism, "Knowing the fear of the Lord we persuade men." 2 Cor. 5:11.

Listen, you’re either in one or two camps today, the camp of the self sufficient, self righteous person like the Pharisees who didn’t think that they needed forgiveness of sin, and went away offended and resentful.  Or you can be in the camp of the paralytic, hopeless and desperate for healing, and recognizing  your hopelessly lost condition call upon God for mercy.  And God in His infinite mercy and grace, offers you forgiveness of your sins, acceptance with God, reconciliation, the greatest miracle of all.  I hope you call upon Jesus today to be your Savior. 

And if you’re already a child of God, then knowing the fear of God, persuade men.  Go out into the highways and by ways and compel them to come in.  Be like the paralytic’s friends, and bring someone to Jesus.  Start this week by inviting your friends to come to church.  

Healing the disease of sin; Luke 5:12-14

For those of you that are visiting today, you should understand that we come upon these verses this morning in the process of teaching through the book of Luke, verse by verse, chapter by chapter.  So if there is any design in these particular verses being preached on today in your presence, it can only be by divine plan.  And I believe God in His sovereignty and grand design has brought us here today  for such a time as this, to consider what the Holy Spirit would say through His Word.

So that answers the question why we are looking at this particular passage today.  But there is another question, and that is what was the point that Luke, the human author, was being led to make under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  After all, the Apostle John said in his gospel; chapter 21 verse 25, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself  would not contain the books that  would be written.”

So we can surmise by John’s statement that Luke and the other gospel writers are not necessarily endeavoring to write a complete biography of the life of Jesus Christ, and this incident is just another event that happened that Luke dutifully records.  But rather, I believe that as in the case of every other event that Luke has written about so far, this is yet another specifically chosen incident which helps to comprise a complete testimony  of the gospel of  Jesus Christ.   It’s not just a random incident, but Luke specifically included it because it helps him to build his case concerning who Christ is, and what He came to do.

So while there is the obvious historical record presented here by Luke, I believe there are at least a couple of  points that he is making by including this episode in the ministry of Christ.  The most obvious point is that he is showing that Christ is the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 61 that Christ preached to his hometown in the previous chapter 4:16, where Jesus stood up in a packed out synagogue in front of all his hometown neighbors and read from Isaiah 61, which says, “"THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD."  And then He closed the scroll and said, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”  He was claiming to be the promised Messiah, the Son of God, of whom that prophecy was made.  And if you remember, his neighbors grew enraged at Him and tried to throw Him off a cliff.

So we can correctly conclude that Luke is including these incidents of Jesus healing the sick, and delivering those people who were oppressed by the Devil, as examples of Jesus fulfillment of this prophecy of Isaiah 61, that He would preach the gospel to the poor in spirit, proclaim release to the captives of sin, recovery of sight to the spiritually blind, and set free those who are oppressed by sin and the devil.  And so physical healing of this man from leprosy certainly fulfills that prophecy.

But I think there is another deeper application that Luke is teaching through this incident, and that is what I would like to look at today.  I believe that Luke through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit includes this incident of a man healed from the devastating affects of the disease of leprosy, as an allegorical representation of the nature of man’s sinful condition.

So first of all, let’s look at the disease of leprosy.  It is an ancient disease, documented for over 4000 years.  In Leviticus 13 and 14 God gives very specific instructions for how to deal with leprosy.  He did so for the protection of the nation of Israel.  I have read that it was a disease that has been found in the mummified remains of Egyptians.   Today leprosy is also known as Hansen’s disease, and is largely treatable with certain medicines.  But in ancient times it was greatly feared, because of the fact that it was communicable, or contagious, and it was an extremely disfiguring disease that usually resulted in death.  

Leprosy is characterized by scaly, bumpy skin lesions that first appear on the body in one area, sometimes as just a spot, but if left untreated it begins to spread throughout the body.  It not only affects the skin, but it affects the muscle tissue beneath the skin, and causes the nerves to deteriorate.  In severe cases, the person can start to lose appendages due to the nerve and tissue damage, and the raw skin becoming infected.  There are photographs of people that I have seen that have extensive skin and tissue loss on their bodies, even to the point of becoming blinded and unable to walk.  In advanced cases, they literally can look the way zombies have been depicted in movies.

In Judaism, such people were put outside the city or outside the camp.  They were cut off and isolated from society.  It was impossible for them to have a job.  If they came near a normal person they were supposed to cry out, “Unclean, unclean!” Most of them became beggars, living on the street.  They were known as the walking dead.
By all accounts it was a horrific disease, of which there was no cure.  Such people were hopeless, cut off, and dying a slow, painful death.

In this passage Luke presents for us, Jesus enters a city in the area of Galilee and a leper has obviously heard that Jesus is miraculously healing people in that area, and when he hears that Jesus is coming his way, he comes out to meet Him.  Vs. 12 tells us that this man was “full of leprosy.”  In other words, it was in the advanced stages.  Chances are, he had fingers or ears or his nose missing, as was often the case in advanced stages of the disease.  He has undoubtedly been living under this curse of disease for many years.  He had probably lost everything in life that he once held dear.  His family no longer associated with him.  He had to call out “Unclean, unclean!” every time he got near to anyone.  He was more than likely a beggar, living on the street, and so repulsive to look at that people would turn away from him.  In fact, rabbinical records say that most people would walk across the street to avoid them.  This man was doomed by his disease.  He was without hope.  He was without a cure.  And he was fully aware of his condition.

So he comes to Jesus in desperation, having heard that He was able to heal, and he throws himself down prostrate on the ground in front of Jesus, and begged Him, implored Him saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

What a picture.  The spotless lamb of God, Jesus Christ, the Messiah, standing in front of this poor diseased, deformed man lying flat on his face before Him, begging Jesus to make him clean.  Notice first of all that this man calls Jesus Lord.  It was a term signifying divinity which was interpreted from the name of God or Yahweh in the scriptures.  And secondly, notice that the man doesn’t just ask for healing, but he asks for cleansing.  He asks to be made clean.

And notice what Jesus’ response is.  Vs. 13:  “And He stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing; be cleansed." And immediately the leprosy left him.”  Jesus many times healed with just a word.  But in this case, Jesus reaches out and touches the untouchable.  In Leviticus 13, when a man was afraid that he had contracted the disease of leprosy, he was to show himself to the priest who would look at the scales and determine according to the Law whether or not the man had leprosy.  And the priest would either declare him clean or unclean.

Here you have this man, coming to show himself to Jesus Christ,  the great high priest, who touches him and declares him clean.  And the man was made instantly, immediately clean.

What a wonderful picture this is of the mercy and grace of God.  See, leprosy is a picture of sin.  Sin seems to start out small, a seemingly innocuous blight on our soul, but it quickly masticizes throughout our entire body, corrupting our entire being.  Sin is numbing to our conscience, sin is damning to our souls,  sin causes deadness in our spirit, sin causes isolation from God, and we are unable to do anything to get better on our own, resulting in our eternal death and condemnation.

 Like leprosy, sin is contagious, it is a communicable disease.  We inherited our sin nature from our forefathers, passed on from generation to generation down from Adam. Rom. 5:12 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.”  Furthermore,  we all have this disease. Rom. 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  Like leprosy, the uncleanness of our sin cuts us off from a righteous and holy God. Rom. 8:7 “Because the carnal mind [is] enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”

Because of man’s disease of sin, 1Timothy 4:2 says that our minds are  “seared in our conscience as with a branding iron.”  According to 2 Timothy 3:6, as hopeless depraved men and women we are “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”  And finally, like with leprosy, our condition is terminal.  Romans 6:23 says that the wages of sin is death.  Ezek. 18:20, “The person who sins will die.”

This is man’s condition in our natural state. It isn’t a message that we want to hear.  No one, going to see the doctor, wants to hear a report that we have a terminal illness.  But it is important to know the truth.  What kind of doctor would it be if he told you that your illness was nothing serious, that you could put a band aid on it and take an  aspirin and everything will be ok?  I don’t know about you, but I want to know the truth.  Because the good news of the gospel can only really be good news if you acknowledge the fact that you are dead in your sins and in need of a Savior.

Listen, there is only one sin that cannot be forgiven.  No matter how egregious or horrible your sins may be, all sins can be forgiven except one.  There is only one sin that cannot be forgiven, and that is the sin that is not confessed to be sin.  The person that refuses to see his sin for what it really is, a terrible, deforming, condemning, terminable disease, cannot be healed.  He cannot be forgiven. 1John 1:8,  “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.”  It is imperative that we understand our condition, that we are lost, dead in our trespasses and sins, and without hope.

So now that we understand our condition, what is the remedy?  What can we do?  Well Titus 3:5 says the remedy is “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.”  The answer for our predicament is the same as the answer for the leper.  It’s to come to Jesus as Lord, and cast ourselves prostrate at His feet, and implore Him in His mercy to make us clean.

When the leper came to Jesus and begged him to make him clean, Jesus reached out and did the unthinkable.  He touched the leper.  How many years had this man been without being touched by another human.  But now, not only is he touched by a human, but he is touched by the hand of God.  Listen, this is such an important element in our salvation.  In order for us to be cleansed, God sent Jesus to become identified with man, to take on our sin, our disease upon himself.  This virtuous, spotless, lamb of God, touched us, became one of us, took our sins upon Himself that we might be cleansed from our iniquities. "HE HIMSELF TOOK OUR INFIRMITIES AND CARRIED AWAY OUR DISEASES." (Matt. 8:17)  Jesus willingly touched a leper that he might be disfigured for us, that he might suffer for us. Isaiah 53, “He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.”

See, 2Cor. 5 says, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their sins against them.   But it wasn’t that God doesn’t count sins.  Oh no, a holy and just God must account for sins. God didn’t count our sins against us, He counted them instead against Jesus Christ. V. 21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

When the leper beseeched Jesus for cleansing, he fully understood his condition.   He recognized Jesus as Lord, as God.  He believed Jesus was able to cleanse Him.  And so he said “if you are willing, you can make me clean.”  He recognized that he was hopeless, totally dependent upon the mercy of God for his healing and his cleansing.  And Jesus said, “I am willing, be cleansed.”   2 Peter 3:9 says that the Lord is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

So then, to be cleansed, we must understand our condition.  We must come to Christ in confession.  Then in order to be cleansed, there must be the compassion of God, reconciling the sinful world to Himself through the atoning work of Christ on the cross.  And then finally, to be cleansed, we must be cured by the mercy and grace of God.

Salvation from our sins is the cure, it is a gift of God. Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  Not only is our salvation a gift of God, but our faith is a gift of God.  We who are dead, and diseased are unable to come to God.  Jesus said in John 6:44, “"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.”  God has to turn on the lights so to speak in our hearts, so that we might recognize the truth and respond in faith.  Perhaps you are here today, and you don’t know the joy of forgiveness, you haven’t received salvation as a gift of God, and today you feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit tugging at your heart.  God is calling you.  God is convicting you to come and acknowledge your sin and ask for His mercy.

For you, like for the leper, to be cleansed it is going to take a miracle.  Today God is calling you.  Perhaps He is using the voice of this preacher to call you.  He is using the Word to convict you.  But listen, intellectual assent of some facts about Jesus will not save you.  Recognition that some facts about Jesus may be true cannot save you.  The only thing that will save you is a miraculous conversion.  A miraculous transformation.  And the only way to appropriate that is to call upon the Lord for mercy and cleansing, to be made new.

David cried out to the Lord after his sin in Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a clean heart O Lord, and renew a right spirit within me.”  And God heard him and forgave him.  He said in the verse 17 following, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”

Listen, there is  joy in being forgiven.  Knowing that God has counted your sins against Jesus and counted you as righteous.  There is great, everlasting joy in knowing that you are eternally cleansed from all unrighteousness.

Well, there was one thing left for the cleansed leper to do.  Jesus said to him in verse14, “And He ordered him to tell no one, "But go and show yourself to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing, just as Moses commanded, as a testimony to them."  And the application for this is nothing short of simple obedience to God’s commandments.  Jesus was following the prescription found in the law, in Leviticus 14.  There was a procedure which lasted for 8 days, wherein the man who was cleansed of leprosy had to appear before the priest who would confirm his being made clean.  So it wasn’t that Jesus didn’t want the man to testify that he had been healed, but Jesus wanted him to do it according to the way Moses had prescribed it in the law.  So that when the priests had to declare that the man was indeed clean, that they would have irrefutable proof that Jesus had indeed miraculously cleansed him.  

And this application is for the believer.  When this man was dead in his leprosy, all that the law could do was condemn him as unclean.  But when this man was miraculously cleansed of his leprosy, the law could no longer condemn him, but must affirm him as having been cleansed.

And isn’t that the purpose of the law?  The law came that we might know we are sinners and that we needed a Savior, a miraculous substitution in our place. Gal. 4:4 says Christ provided that miracle substitution, “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”

Now having been made righteous, and having been adopted into the family of God, we are to be obedient unto God, that we might bear proper testimony of the grace of God to the world.  We don’t always understand why God asks us to do some things.  But we don’t have to understand.  We simply have to remember that He is Lord, He has given us life and cleansed us, and healed us, and adopted us into the family of God.  And when we understand that, we will want to be obedient to His commands.  And when we are obedient, then we are a true testimony of the transforming grace of God to the world.

There is no greater testimony than the miracle of a transformed life.  And the hallmark of a transformed life is no longer being enslaved to the sins of the flesh, but being obedient to the will of God.  The prophet Samuel said in 1Sam. 15:22 “Samuel said, "Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.’”

And if you are here this morning and you have come to the point where you recognize your condition, you know you are hopelessly lost and dead in your sins, and you want to be made clean, then know that Jesus says, I am willing, be cleansed.  He has paid the price, He has suffered and died for you, so that you might be made clean, and having been made clean, you might receive the adoption into the family of God.  All that is left is for you to confess your sins, fall on your face and ask for mercy, and He will make you clean.  You have but to appropriate this free gift.  But if you sit here today, your feathers ruffled, and unwilling to confess that you are a sinner, condemned to eternal death and separation from God, then Christ’s atonement does you no good whatsoever.  You will die in your sins.  The choice is yours.  I pray you choose life.  Let’s pray.

Progressive discipleship: Luke 5: 1-11

I have spoken in the past from time to time about what I believe is an essential, yet oftentimes missing element in  Christianity today.  Actually, it is two things, but in application they must be one.  And what I am talking about I have called progressive discipleship, which when broken down is the result of  progressive revelation and progressive sanctification.

Now please do not misunderstand what I am talking about.  I am not talking about progressive salvation.  I believe the Bible teaches clearly that salvation comes at a moment of time in response to faith in Christ,  which results in repentance from sin, and forgiveness by God.  Salvation is a gift of God in response to our faith in Christ. Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

But what I am talking about is once that step has been taken, once you have been born again by the Spirit, then there is a progression of revelation that happens in your walk, that is dependent upon your continuing to be faithful and obedient so that you may grow into spiritual maturity. Being born again and stopping there means that you stay a spiritual infant. There is a large number of professing Christians that have never grown beyond the first step.  They had a spiritual experience at one point in their life and they hold on dearly to that memory.  But they never grow beyond that infancy into spiritual maturity.  They may have learned to walk a few steps, but it never resulted in really following Jesus as a disciple.   When we see a person who is mentally challenged to the point that they are still mentally an infant but their body is an adult we think that is a tragedy, don’t we?  What less should we think of a spiritual infant?  But our goal should be spiritual maturity.  Ephesians 4:15 says that we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head even Christ.

So we are to grow up into spiritual maturity.  And spiritual maturity is nothing less than being remade in the likeness of Jesus Christ.  First we must be born again, and then in the processes of God, we are conformed to the image of Christ. Romans  8:29 “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.”  Our purpose of being born again is to become conformed to the image of Christ.

Now I’m not just talking religious theory here, I am talking about very practical, everyday ways in which God is growing us,  making us, and conforming us into the image of Christ.  But it is a process.  It is a process that requires being faithful to the study and reading and teaching of the Word, and then in response to each revelation, being obedient which results in our sanctification.  It is step by step, obeying what God shows us, and reveals through His Word.  Salvation is not a one stop shop whereby everything is revealed, but nothing changes.  But rather as truth is revealed, we need to respond in obedience that we might grow in Christ.

This isn’t just my own opinion, by the way.  You see this principle over and over again in scripture.  For instance, Noah was given limited revelation by God.  God said it was going to rain, and I want you to build an arc.  And Noah was obedient to that revelation.  He did not have access to scripture.  He did not understand all theology.  But he was obedient to what God revealed to him.  You see the same thing with Abraham.  He had limited revelation.  He had no scriptures to consider.  Yet God told him to move to another country and he was obedient to that command.  And as a result of that faith in God’s word, God gave him more revelation, and Abraham was obedient each step of the way.  God gave more revelation, actually a whole lot more, to Moses.  And Moses was obedient to each revelation.  In response to his obedience to go be God’s mouthpiece to Pharaoh, God gave him more revelation, culminated at Mt. Sinai.  And as we fast forward through the scriptures we see this principle played out over and over again.  More and more revelation was given by God through his prophets and God expected obedience to His word.  Jesus of course, was the greatest revelation of all from God.  Because He said in John 14:9 that “he who has seen Me has seen the Father.”  That was the greatest revelation to man that there has ever been.  Yet even when Jesus was revealed, there is a continuation of progressive revelation, and then progressive sanctification as the disciples are obedient to the Word.

A good example of this principle of progressive discipleship comes in this chapter that we are looking at today.   Jesus is continuing preaching and teaching throughout the area of Galilee, and on this day He is teaching by Lake Gennesaret, which is also known in the other gospels as the Sea of Galilee.  And verse one tells us that Jesus was teaching the Word of God.  That’s a good place for discipleship to start, isn’t it?  With the Word of God.  And we know that Jesus was preaching it with authority and people were wondering at the words that He was saying.

But also, Jesus has been performing miracles.  In the last chapter, two miracles happened somewhat as a matter of course as Jesus was preaching and teaching.  First, a man cried out in the sermon who was demon possessed, and so Jesus cast out the demon.  And then afterwards, they went to Simon Peter’s mother in law’s house expecting to be fed lunch, and instead she was lying sick with the fever.  So Jesus healed her of her fever.  Now it was the Sabbath when he did those miracles, but later that evening, word had gotten around and after the sun went down the  people were free to travel, and the Bible says that many people were coming to Him to be healed, and they were bringing demon possessed people to him to be cast out and He was healing them.

So we don’t know if chapter 5 is Monday morning, or sometime later, but by now word is really getting around Galilee that Jesus is performing many miracles and that news resulted in a great crowd coming to see Him.  But note that Jesus isn’t doing miracles or holding healing services to draw a crowd, they are a natural result of the mercy and compassion of God.  Jesus said in another place, all that come to Me I will never cast out.    And so Jesus’ ministry was preaching and teaching the Word of God.  But when He was confronted with someone who came needing to be healed, then He would have compassion on them and heal them.  But physical healing was never the point His ministry.  It was just a natural offshoot of His ministry to teach and preach the word of God concerning acceptance in the Kingdom of Heaven.

But nevertheless, His fame was spreading so fast it was difficult to do His work.  So as this huge throng of people are crushing around Him, Jesus knows that He needs to separate Himself to a degree so that He might be able to teach, and so that everyone could hear what He had to say.  So He sees two boats pushed up on the shoreline which the fishermen had beached after fishing all night and whose owners were now mending and washing their nets.   And of course, Jesus, knowing all things, knows that these particular boats belong to Simon Peter and James and John.

I just mentioned that in the previous chapter there is the incident in which Jesus goes to Simon Peter’s home and heals his mother in law.  So we know from that that Jesus already knew Peter.  In fact, if you go over to John 1, you see that way back when John the Baptist was proclaiming that Jesus was the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, we see one of John’s disciples is Andrew, Simon’s brother, and he introduces him to Jesus who renames him Peter.

So Jesus has known Peter for a while.  He has called Peter and the disciples to follow Him.  And they have confessed that Jesus is the Messiah.  Some have gone so far, such as Nathaniel, to say that Jesus is the Son of God. But I think especially in Peter’s case, there is a sense in which he has not fully committed to Christ yet.  And because he is sort of the natural leader of these men, and verse 10 says that James and John were business partners in the fishing industry with Peter, Christ has a special purpose in getting into Simon Peter’s boat.  And there is a practical consideration as well, as the boat gives Jesus a platform and the space necessary to address the crowd and preach the Word of God to them.  I believe Jesus wants to reach Peter in a way that will bring Him to a greater commitment in his spiritual walk.  I can’t help but wonder if someone here today has experienced Jesus getting into his boat lately.  The Lord has done something in your life lately to get your attention, to get you to respond to a greater commitment to follow Him completely, without reservation.  Perhaps it’s happening right now.  The Holy Spirit is convicting you that God is calling you to a deeper level of commitment.

So in our text we see that Luke isn’t really reporting on the results in the crowd of Christ’s preaching, but he is zeroed in on this one man, Simon Peter, and his response to the continued revelation of Jesus Christ.  You know, true Christianity is an individual thing.  God so loved the world, yes, but He died on the cross for your sins.  Salvation is not a universal thing that God applies to the entire world.  But it comes down to an individual response to the revelation of God.  You may be here today and feel as if this message is speaking directly to you.  Well, it is directly to you.  The Holy Spirit works through the Word of God to speak directly to your heart.  And your response must be an individual response.  You cannot be saved as a result of what your mother believed, or your father believed, or what your wife or husband believes.  But it is an individual decision, an individual response, to a direct appeal by the Holy Spirit to you.

So Christ picks out Simon’s boat, and when He finishes teaching He says to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch."  Now Jesus is not under any obligation to bless Simon because Simon let him use his boat for a while.  Jesus is going to give Simon a demonstration of His divinity, knowing that Simon will finally respond in a full commitment.  So much of our religious activity is motivated by selfish ambitions, isn’t it?  We think that somehow that if we can give God something, then that obligates Him to give us back with interest.  We like the idea of 10 fold interest.  But God will not be put in a box.  However, God will in His mercy and grace sometimes use some extraordinary thing to make us aware of His Sovereignty and to get our attention.

So you have a command of Christ to Peter to put out his boat into deep water and let down your nets for a catch. That sounds pretty straightforward and simple when we read it here, but in actuality it wasn’t quite so easy for Peter.  First of all, he had fished all night and caught nothing.  And in that kind of fishing in particular, night fishing was the way it was done,  when the fish would come up to the surface to eat and get caught in the nets.  During the heat of the day, the fish would head to deep water and stay near the bottom, so that was when the fishermen would head back to shore and wash and mend their nets in preparation for another night of fishing.  So I’m sure Peter is shaking his head, at least inwardly, thinking what does a carpenter know about fishing?  I’m the professional fisherman here.  He may know about preaching, He may know the scriptures, but, hey, I know fish.  And I know the fish aren’t biting.

At least, that’s the way most of us would think, isn’t it?  I mean, that God stuff is fine on Sunday mornings, and in theory, but when it comes to my work, my career, I’m the expert.  The Bible really doesn’t have much relevance when it comes to dealing with suppliers, or dealing with subcontractors, or dealing with employees or making sales.  I know my business and I do what I have to do.  We make a lot of excuses don’t we in the name of “doing what I have to do.”  This is what the job entails.  As if the job somehow supersedes our spiritual responsibilities.  I hear more excuses that come out of job responsibilities.  We say we love God and put Him first in our lives, but actually far too often God is somewhere below the career, below the job, because in the back of our minds, our careers supply our needs, not God.   We need to get our priorities straight. Phil. 4:19 says “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”  But I submit to you that that verse is contingent upon another verse, found in Matt. 6:33 "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

As a result of our self interests, so much of our life is lived in shallow water.  We have never moved out in obedience to deep water and found the blessings that God wants to bring into our life.  We want to hang on to what we know, to the false security of what we think we can achieve.  Thankfully, Peter was willing to go out deeper with Christ.  We fault Peter a lot for his failures.  But one thing I will say about Peter was he was willing to go for the big stuff.  He wanted to go all the way, but he had to wrestle with his flesh just like we do.  But notice Peter says, “Look Master, we fished all night and caught nothing, but nevertheless,  “I will do as You say and let down the nets."

How important is that response.  Because you say so Lord I will do it.  I’m going to look pretty foolish if I do this thing you know Lord, but because you say so, I will do it.  This doesn’t make any sense to me Lord, but because you say so I will do it.  This goes against all common sense Lord, but because you say so I will do it.  This isn’t what I want to do, but because you say so I will do it.  Obedience is the necessary essential ingredient that so many of us are lacking in our lives.  Listen, every fiber in Abraham’s body recoiled at the thought of offering up his son as a sacrifice on the altar, but he obeyed God in faith, and God counted it to him as righteousness.

 Perhaps God is showing you something in his word, through the preaching of the word, He has commanded you to do something contrary to your good old common sense, or contrary to your education, or contrary to your experience, and you are fighting it.  You have resisted it because you think you know better, or you can’t let go of some security that you are clinging to.  But God has called you, and commanded you, and you need to be obedient if you want to really follow Christ and receive all the blessings that He has in store for you.

Vs. 6 continues the story; Luke 5:6 “When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break; so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink.”

Now a lot of us if we were writing the story would stop right there.  That would be the happy ending that we are looking for. Peter obeyed God and got rich.  But that’s not the end of the story.  This is just the beginning of the story.  Jesus didn’t get in Peter’s boat just to give Peter the biggest catch of fish that he had ever seen.  That would be enough for most of us.  But Jesus knows that there is something better in store for Peter than just catching fish.  It’s becoming a catcher of men.

Peter sees this great quantity of fish, larger than any catch they had ever seen before, so much that the boats began to sink, and look at his response;  vs. 8, “But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus' feet, saying, "Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!"  When you think about Peter’s response you can’t help but think how strange it is.  I mean, most of us if we were in a boat with Jesus and just hauled in the catch of a lifetime would be snapping pictures on our iphones so we could post it on our facebook page and let everyone know what a special person we really are.  But there is a principle here that I think is important.  In the Bible when we see a man encounter a true revelation from God, there is a recognition of the fact that they are a sinful man in the presence of a Holy God.  And that is what Peter is experiencing here.  I’m always skeptical of these people that want to tell you about some revelation that they had which they think is from God, and there were angels singing and butterflies fluttering around and they were just in a happy place with God himself telling them all this incredible revelation and secret messages.

Actually, look at the example of Job, who said I repent in dust and ashes.  Look at Daniel who was astounded and exhausted and sick for days after his revelation.  Look at Isaiah, who said “Woe is me, for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips and I live in the midst of an unclean lips.  For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”  Isaiah 6:5  So it is fitting that the response of Peter is that of a penitent man, who sees himself in the light of the holiness of God.

When I was a young boy and I confessed my sins to God in salvation I knew I was a sinner, but I didn’t really know about sin.  But at 54 years old, I know more about sin than I care to know.  This is not a story of conversion but a story of conviction.  It’s a story of progress, of discipleship.  And the committed Christian recognizes his sinfulness more and more as he knows more and more about our Savior and our God.  The more you know about God, the more you realize how weak and corrupt we are in our flesh, and how much more dependent we must be upon the grace of God.  

We stand in grace in the presence of a holy God.  But being born again isn’t the end, it is just the beginning.   There is a purpose in salvation.  And that purpose is new life in Christ, through the power of His Spirit who lives in us.  Look at the end of the story.   The end of the story isn’t gaining earthly riches or becoming a better fisherman, or becoming a better business man, or becoming any number of things that in our natural state we may think are important.  But the end of the story is the beginning of a new life in service to Christ.  Jesus says in vs. 10, "Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men."

Listen, everyone that has been born again by faith in Jesus Christ is called into ministry, did you know that?  We have been called to be ministers of the kingdom of heaven.  We have been commanded to be representatives of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world.  That calling should be paramount in your life. Your ministry should come first and then depending on where God calls you then find a job that supports that ministry.  If your job interferes with your ministry then you need to find another job.  God’s called you for a greater blessing than you can possibly find by trying to put career first and God second.  Your ministry opportunity today may not look like much.  Maybe all you can do is commit to church at this point.  Commit to studying the word and being obedient to the word and helping in the church and supporting the church and praying for others in the church.  That is your ministry.  When you are faithful to that and obedient to that then God will reveal something more to you as you are being faithful in your ministry.  But if you can’t do that, then don’t expect Him to give you more revelation or more opportunity until you are obedient to what He has shown you so far.

Notice verse 11;  “When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.”  That’s amazing.  Peter, James and John left the richest haul of fish they had ever caught, they left their nets and their boats, they left their livelihood, their trade, their security, their families, friends and their homes and followed Jesus.  When their eyes were opened suddenly the fish weren’t nearly as important as the One who made the fish.  Some of us are following the fish, rather than the One who made the fish, and the ocean, and the world and all things in it.

Peter saw past the carpenter’s son, he saw past the security of his experience, past the allure of riches, and saw that the greatest treasure on earth is following the God of heaven.  And as a consequence of that revelation, he was willing to forsake everything the world offers, for the sake of knowing Christ. Paul said in Phil. 3:7 “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

Jesus said, “from now on I will make you fisher’s of men.”  “from now on…”  Christianity is the story of “from now on.”  Once born again, old things pass away, all things become new.  And from now on, I will commit my entire life to living for God, forsaking all else, for the sake of knowing Christ my Lord, and I will be his disciple, following in His footsteps, being obedient to every revelation in God’s Word.  That is the path to glory.  I hope you recognize Jesus for who He is, and in response, you will commit this morning to lay everything else aside and follow Him fully.