Out of the Crowd . . . a Leper!, Part 3

Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll reminds those who feel unworthy that God is on your side.

The magnetic presence of Jesus draws us closer to Him. Only a skeptic will tell you that God is a God that walks around heaven looking for someone to pound into submission. That's not the God of the Scriptures. Whoever comes with his contrite heart, I find the Lord saying, come here, come here.

You who feel most unworthy can be drawn the closest. Our sinful nature tends to typecast God as angry, just waiting for us to slip up so He can deliver judgment. But clearly that's not the God of the Scriptures. And today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll will describe an amazing encounter between Jesus and a man who suffered from leprosy. In their exchange, we view our compassionate and gracious God in action. Chuck will draw relevant application from this dramatic story in Matthew chapter 8, but he begins with the last few verses in Matthew 7. This follows Jesus' renowned Sermon on the Mount. Look at the end of the sermon, the very end, verse 28, verse 29. When Jesus had finished, when He had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching. In fact, they had never heard such great teaching in their lives.

Verse 29, the teaching came as one who had authority from one who had authority and not as the scribes. The sermon has ended, the people are amazed, Jesus makes His way down the mount and look, look, there's the crowd again, except now it's larger. There's been a little time that's passed and more people have gathered. From all around, more have come, He came down from the mountain, look closely, large crowds followed Him. Earlier we read large crowds followed Him. Life doesn't stop because the preacher prepares and delivers a message, it doesn't even stop after it's over.

In fact, one of the most significant things that ever happened happens now. Out of the crowd, a leper appears. They were the ultimate outcast. You didn't get near a leper.

If you were downwind, you had to be at least 150 feet away and you wonder what that person is doing out in public. The hair is disheveled, the clothing is left in rags, usually barefoot, toes missing, fingers missing, often entire hands missing, lips are gone, the teeth protrude, the eyes stare. If a leper so much as put his head into a house, the house totally became unclean, all the way to the roof beams. There was never any disease that so isolated an individual as leprosy, nor was there one of those times in which there was more dreaded, except for the case of death itself. It is dreadful beyond description. Out of the crowd emerges a leper.

The crowd must have backed away. The ultimate outcast is in their midst. He's a picture of depression and humiliation and complete lack of self-worth. You and I cannot imagine the desperation that accompanies leprosy one cannot describe. In the scriptures, leprosy is often compared to sin. That's why leprosy is not cured.

It's cleansed. And that's what he asks for. He came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him, and a leper let it land in full force. A leper came to him and worshiped. The New American Standard renders this, bowed down before him, the Greek has one word, worshiped. He worshiped. Bowed low and uttered the word, kurios, Lord. What respect. It's a great moment. Lord.

Literally, the verse reads from Matthew's pen, behold, a leper approaching worshiped him, saying, Lord, if you are willing, you are able to cleanse me. Look at the statement. If you are willing. Why would he say that? Why? He's a nobody. He's an outcast.

He's alone with only other lepers, except now he is in the crowd and they must have been frowning, mumbling, wondering how he got loose. I want you to hold your place right here. I want every one of you to turn to the Book of Psalms and locate number 51. We'll be back shortly, but a brief excursion to Psalm 51. Why Psalm 51?

Because these are the words of a man who had lost all self-worth. This is David. This is King David. This is after Bathsheba, after the deception, after the adultery, after the murder of her husband Uriah, and he lives in the humiliation of the confrontation from Nathan.

You are the man. And David admits, guilty as charged, I've sinned. Sometime between that moment and later, when the baby dies, he picks up the stylist to write again, and he writes this song. This is a song of heartbreaking humility. Look how it begins. Be gracious to me, O God. According to your loving kindness, according to the greatness of your compassion, blot out my transgressions. You feel the shame? You feel the self-blame?

You hear the humiliation? Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse, look at it, cleanse me from my sin. I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. This is a broken man.

Look at the words. The sacrifices of God are a broken heart, a broken spirit, a broken, a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Said negatively, what he is saying is you are pleased with brokenness and a word we seldom use, a contrite heart.

What is it that makes a contrite heart such a beautiful sacrifice? It makes no demands. It nurses no blame or grudges. It entertains no expectations.

It offers no conditions. It anticipates no favors. It is that attitude that God loves, and that's the attitude of the leper. The compassionate response of Jesus is disarming. By the way, who knows how long the man has been a leper? He's been a leper long enough to know that he's never felt a handshake. He can't remember the embrace, maybe when he was a little boy. He doesn't remember someone who loves him holding his hand, which makes the response of Jesus all the more eloquent. The very first response, he reaches out and touches him. But rather than contaminating the one who touched him, it cleansed the one who was touched. Look at it. Reached out and touched him. That was first. And then he said, I am willing.

I'm willing. It's like the words of a mother to a fevered child. She's holding in her arms and she's stroking her hair off her face.

And she's holding her close, saying, I'm willing to stay up all night to be with you. The next line is like a foreman says to a wrecking crew, be cleansed. Get out leprosy. And it's gone. Gone. In fact, the word immediately, Mark's favorite word, appears in Matthew's record. Immediately, immediately, his leprosy was cleansed.

Just like that. There's no showmanship. There's no healing line. There's no big sign. There's no tent. There's no gathering so that people would make much of the healer. He touches him, people in the crowd must have gasped. And the leper is cleansed. Oh, man.

I'd love to have been there. Well, if I'd have been there, I'd have been as prejudiced as everybody else, wondering why in the world would he touch a filthy thing like that? Because, you see, when people who have no self-worth come to one who considers them worthy, other people don't get it. They want to put you on probation. They don't want anything like an immediate change, because that's phony.

They want to see you pay for your shame. Not here. Immediate cleansing. Now, note what Jesus said. See that you tell no one. Right.

Oh, yeah. Mark says he went out and told everybody. So the first thing he did after being healed was to disobey.

He's still human. Well, why would he say don't tell anybody? Because my time has not come. I'm not trying to gather a big crowd and have people follow me as the big-time healer.

I'm Messiah. I have a plan in motion, and the timing must be just right for those moments. And for you to step in and announce all of this would push the time around and confuse people. They would want to make me their king based on the fact that I have the power to heal. It isn't about that. I transform lives.

Give me time to build this base. But he does say show yourself to the priest and present the offering Moses commanded. I won't take time to read it. But if you go to Leviticus, you'll see a whole long list of things that he was to take care of in order for the priest to verify there's been cleansing. And it becomes an official announcement.

I want you to get an official endorsement that your cleansing is true. He does that. That's later. But take care of that as a testimony.

I love the way one man writes, Jesus will not storm Israel with messianic claims. Instead, he will knock quietly at its door, leper by leper, little by little. You're the leper and I am as well. We've seen the picture, now let's look at the mirror. Here we are.

Undeserving, unworthy, broken, saying if you are willing to even care, I would so want to be cleansed. If you think back where we've been, I see three scenes. I see a crowd, large, many needs. I see a leper with a humble request. And then I see the Lord's powerful touch.

And I draw three principles for our application. First, here it is, the magnetic presence of Jesus draws us closer to him. The magnetic presence of Jesus draws us closer to him. Only a skeptic will tell you that God is a God that walks around heaven looking for someone to pound into submission. That's not the God of the scriptures.

The God of the Bible, the Lord Jesus himself, has his arms open. I don't care what your past has been. I don't care how filthy. I don't care how immoral.

I don't care what shame there has been. I was at another ministry at another time in another state and a man knocked on my door. He walked in, he was filthy. He said, I'm a male prostitute, began to cry.

He said, I don't know why I stopped here, but I saw a cross and I saw a named church and I thought I might find somebody. Can I talk to you? And I said, sure. He said, I don't deserve to be talked to. You deserve to, you ought to kick me out.

I said, no, I'm not going to kick you out. He said, well, God has. No, you've been told that God has done that. See, the whole concept is because I am by nature and by choice and by birth and by action, filthy. Making wrong choices and shameful decisions and therefore God says, get out of my sight.

I never read that in the scriptures. Whoever comes with his contrite heart, I find the Lord said, come here, come here. Come to me all who are weary and heavily and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. I'm meek and lowly in heart. You'll find rest for your soul. My yoke is easy. My burden is light.

The magnetic presence of Jesus draws us closer to him as some of you right now are being drawn. I wish I knew who you are. I could talk with you following this meeting.

I would love to do that. You who feel most unworthy can be drawn the closest. Here's the second principle. The quiet compassion of Jesus invites us to ask for relief. When you know he's not going to slap you across the face, when you know he's not going to embarrass you, when you know he's not going to call you out by name and put your shameful sins on the screen, he won't do that.

He could, he knows all, but he won't do that. The quiet compassion of Jesus invites us to ask for relief. Lord, if you will, if you're willing, here I am. And the third, the transforming touch of Jesus changes us deep within. You're surrounded by people in this room who've been transformed through Christ.

Not one of them deserved it, but we all rejoice in it. He touched us. Shackled by a heavy burden beneath the load of guilt and shame in the hand of Jesus. Touched me. Now I'm no longer the same. He touched me. Oh, he touched me. And oh, the joy that floods my soul.

Something happened. Now I know he touched me and made me whole. Let's bow before the Lord, shall we? Very sacred moment right now. Very significant moment.

Could be the most important moment of your entire life to let the Lord touch you, cleanse you from within, take away the shame, send the guilt away, bring you relief. You don't have to believe it. In fact, I am sad to tell you the man who's dropped in my study years ago walked out shaking his head saying, there's no way. There's no way he would ever accept me. We just read the story of a man who could not have been worse off touched and transformed.

That can happen to you today. Trust in the Lord Jesus. Just trust him. Don't try to figure it all out. Don't argue about it. Don't think you have to get all cleaned up and promise him the moon and put a long list together of you'll do this and that.

No, no, no. Accept his touch. It's called grace.

Let it wash over you. We'd love to help you in your journey. It's a long one and it could be arduous. Maybe the mess you've made leaves things complicated.

You may need help through that. Connect with us while we're here. Thank you, Father, for this touching story of a man who was a human being who had the courage to stand in front of your son and request the ultimate. Thank you for the compassion of our Savior who touched him and made him whole. Thank you.

That's still going on day after day. Make us quiet through this afternoon, our Father, as we think about your transforming power. Give us a heart to accept those who are struggling to put one foot in front of the other. Give us this kind of compassion and love and acceptance. In the name of Jesus who unshackles us and sets us free.

Everyone said, Amen. In a moment, I'll be giving our mailing address. And if you find your personal story is intertwined with the man Chuck Swindoll described today, we'd love to hear from you. This is Insight for Living. And Chuck titled this study in Matthew chapter 8, Out of the Crowd, a Leper. To learn more about this ministry, please visit us online at insightworld.org. We invite you to take your understanding of Matthew's gospel to a deeper level and at your own pace. To guide you in this journey, you'll be glad to know Chuck wrote a commentary on the book of Matthew. In fact, because of the in-depth nature of his study, the commentary for Matthew comes in two volumes. Many people are delightfully surprised when they discover the format of these books. Unlike a traditional academic approach, Chuck's commentaries are written in the engaging style you've come to expect.

And the material includes background articles, application, and even a variety of relevant pictures. And whether you're a serious student of the Bible, or you're just beginning to learn what it means to follow Jesus, we believe Swindoll's Living Insights commentary on Matthew will help you. To purchase both volumes, go to insight.org slash store.

Or call us if you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888. In addition to the commentary, each of the messages you hear on this program is complemented by an interactive online lesson. We call them Searching the Scriptures. These study notes are absolutely free. You can even print out the PDF files and share them with your friends. So again, to study with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to take advantage of this creative resource called Searching the Scriptures.

To access these documents, go to insight.org slash studies. As God prompts you to contribute to this nonprofit ministry, we invite you to participate financially. To give a donation over the phone, call us. If you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888 or give online at insight.org. In March 2022, Insight for Living Ministries is hosting an unforgettable journey to Israel, carefully planned to deepen your understanding of the Bible and draw you closer to God.

Chuck Swindoll. For thousands of years, no place has been more meaningful to God's children than the land of Israel. The rugged landscape reminds us to find refuge in God alone. The fertile valleys invite us to follow our shepherd. Jerusalem's position at the very center of the world announces the good news of Christ to every nation. And now you can see Israel with Chuck Swindoll and Insight for Living Ministries March 6 through 17, 2022. Every time I've visited the Holy Land, I've returned home with a refreshed heart for God and a renewed vision for the world.

Really, I mean it every time. And so I want you to have the same life-changing experience. To learn more, go to insight.org slash events or call this number 1-888-447-0444. Insight for Living Ministries Tour to Israel is paid for and made possible by only those who choose to attend. Tomorrow Chuck Swindoll presents several snapshots that portray the power of Jesus. Join us Wednesday to hear Insight for Living. The preceding message, Out of the Crowd, a Leper was copyrighted in 2015 and 2021 and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2021 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.