Joseph Hart was a man who grew up in church. And yet when he got a little older, he walked away from the faith of his parents, from the faith of the church that he grew up in. And as he described his own life, he described it as a quote, carnal and spiritual wickedness, irreligious and profane. Now during this time, he was not only just not believing himself, but he was against Christianity of his day. In fact, he even wrote a tract, a little booklet, against a John Wesley sermon. And he entitled it, The Unreasonableness of Religion, Being Remarks and Animate Versions. An animate version is a critique, a strong critique. Being Remarks and Animate Versions on the Reverend John Wesley Sermon on Romans 8.32. Now this just wasn't against the Christianity of his day, it was an admonition for people to run away. For he said all of this teaching about works being required if one is saved, that once you're saved that should ebb out of you in good works, he said no good works were needed. All you had to do is believe in God. Well, that was his way of escaping the demands of God on his own life because he claimed to believe in God. Well, we know that the demons believed that there was a God, but they didn't have faith in him. Well, as he began to grow and live further, he began to see that the truth of scriptures were that good works were necessary as evidence of one's salvation. That if you claim salvation but had no works produced by the Spirit in you because of your salvation, then you may indeed not be saved. Well, this didn't save him, but he came to a conclusion that they were needed, and that gave him even more fear because he did not see works in his own life. So here was a man who had claimed Christ, then wrote against Christ, then began a journey back to Christ, and the lack of works in his own life were what caused him to be even more fearful. Then the week before Easter, 1757, he had, quote, Such an amazing view of the agony of Christ in the garden. And that view, where he fully understood the compassion of Jesus in the garden, his willingness to go to the cross for all who would believe, that he became convinced that that could be his. But still he doubted. Still, he doubted, and every time he would read one of the judgment passages in Scripture, he would begin to think, that judgment's for me, because he had not yet come to faith. Well, 47, 48 days later on Wit Sunday, which is Pentecost, 40 days after Resurrection Sunday, he was converted by listening to a sermon by George Whitefield. And so throughout his life, he still suffered doubts, but his conversion became clear to him and he went through this progression. Now, this man became a minister. His theology was reformed, as we would say, was Calvinistic. And he wrote a bunch of hymns. And he wrote hymns that came together in a hymn book informally called Hart's Hymns. And we sing one of these hymns. One of the hymns that we sing, Come Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy. And what I found interesting in this was that his original hymn had two more lines and three more verses. which that happens a lot in older hymns as they go through the editing process of different hymnals and hymnologists and scholars who cut this and cut that and make it four verses, because you know you can only have four verses in a hymnal practically. We just sang five and it probably felt like a long hymn for you, right? Because we sang five verses. But when I looked at his original, I began to see that there were much more theological tones and his first verse was a picture of our text today. Now, I wasn't the first person to notice this. One of the commentators I read happened to allude to this song, called it a Wesley hymn. So that's in publication as a Wesley hymn. It's not a Wesley hymn. It's a man who was converted by some of Wesley's followers. But we know this first verse like this. Come ye sinners, poor and needy, weak and wounded, sick and sore, Jesus ready stands to save you, full of pity, love, and power. Now that's a pretty decent verse, but I want you to notice what he really wrote. This was his original first verse out of seven verses. Come ye sinners, poor and wretched, weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus ready stands to save you, full of pity, joined with power. He is able, he is able, he is willing, doubt no more. Now that's exactly what Jesus does in Luke chapter five. He's asked if he is willing and he says he's willing. He's not even really asked. He's just, the person who comes to him assumes that the only way, that he has the power, but he has to be willing. So I noticed this difference in these words. First of all, he is able, he is able, he is willing, doubt no more, actually fills theologically with what he's saying. But where he says, full of pity, joined with power. And our modern versions say, full of pity, love, and power. Now, he is full of compassion, right? Remember, this was written in 1757, so the language is a little bit different. By pity, he's meaning compassion. But isn't it more picturesque of what God does when he comes to us filled with compassion or pity, joined with power? And we take that theological slant away. Well, we need to see that in Luke chapter 5, because Luke wants us to visit Jesus as one who is full of compassion and power. Now we've seen his power, and we've seen a little bit of his compassion, but the way this section of scripture ties into what has preceded and what will follow, the purpose that we are supposed to see here, one, is that Jesus is compassionate. Now this is what brought the hymn writer, that's what brought him to Christ, was it not? He saw this vision of the compassion of Jesus, and that's what started his turn toward Jesus. And I wonder if you and I have lost that. I wonder if in our theological accuracy and our desire to know the scriptures and build sound theologies, that sometimes we forget in the whooping wharf of our own life that Jesus is a compassionate king. One of the, I was at a birthday party over in Conway, Paige and I were, Friday night that Grace Bible Church held for Jeff Johnson, their pastor, a birthday party, pastor appreciation. And when he came in and was greeted by his whole congregation and was surprised by it, one of the things he did is try to capture their heart. And he brought them to one of his greatest desires. And I've heard this in several settings over the last six or eight months from him, that Christ is becoming more precious to him, more sweet to him. The joy that he has just in the person and work and nature of Christ is becoming more sweet. And I can identify with that desire and with that growth the older I get. Moving away from not dismissing other aspects of Jesus, but feeling the sweetness of his compassion toward me. Because I still sin, do you? I'm still drawn by the world, and yet Jesus loves me. This I know, the Bible tells us that. So one of the things I think Luke wants us to see is, yes, this is a powerful Jesus. He is the coming king, the coming Messiah, and he has authority, a constant theme in these pictures of his teaching and his healing and his cleansing, but he's compassionate. He is drawn to us in compassion, and I wonder if we've lost that. And here's how you can ask yourself that. When you think of Jesus, what's the first thing you think about him? Now let me get more personal. When you respond to somebody in your life, what's the first thing you think about? Is the first thing you do is think about yourself and how they've insulted you or offended you or hurt your feelings or did something wrong? Or is the first thing you feel compassion for them because Jesus loved you and now you can love others? You see, if we can reconnect with this, this is what Luke wants us to do here. If we can reconnect with more of the totality of who Jesus is, we are seeing that, yes, he is a God of righteousness. Yes, he is the God of justice, and he is the judge and is the king, but he is a loving and compassionate king toward his people. We'll stand, if you will, and let's read our text. Luke chapter five, beginning in verse 12. And it happened that while he was in one of the cities, behold, there was a man covered with leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, saying, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. And he stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, I am willing, be cleansed. And immediately the leprosy left him. And he directed 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. But the news about him was spreading even farther, and large crowds were gathered to hear him and to be healed of their sickness. But he himself would often slip away to the desolate regions and pray. The grass withers and the flower falls. You may be seated. Before we continue to jump into this text, I just want to connect it with where we've been and where we're going. You've noticed that verse 12 says, and it happened. Well, that's the second occurrence of that. And it'll happen six times total in the next six sections. And it marks out these different sections as each one standing on their own, but they are connected as well. We see this section connected with what comes before because we see many similarities between the man who comes to Jesus with leprosy and Peter who receives Jesus after the miraculous catch of fish. We see much similarities in the way that they respond to or approach Jesus. We also see that just after Jesus says, you will fish for men, he now gives the example of what it looks like to fish for men. And he interacts with someone who should not be touched, who should not even be in the vicinity, and he interacts with them in a compassionate way that draws them from being unclean to clean. And we'll talk more about the significance of that in a moment. We're also being set up for what comes afterward in a little bit longer story that we'll look at next week of the paralytic who's healed. So the paralytic has the friends that come and lift up the roof and drop their friend down, and they want healing for their friend, but what does Jesus say? Your sins are forgiven. So he says that, and that's what stirs everybody up. And he said, which is easier, to forgive sins or to heal? So that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins, get up, take your mat and go home. Take your cot, your stretcher and go home. So this passage is preparing us for the more clear passage that Jesus is there to meet with and save sinners. He's come for the unrighteous, not the ones who think they're righteous. So this is all connected. It's also connected to, remember, when he was in Nazareth and he quoted from Isaiah 61, when those in Nazareth rebelled against him, he used a couple of examples of what rebellion against the Word of God looked like in the Old Testament, and one of them was a leper. And so people are going to have in their mind, and we should have in our mind, that example of rebellion in Jesus's day being the same as rebellion to the Word of God in the Old Testament as we meet a leper, because the people that would have heard this in Jesus's day would have been thinking of a specific leper and a specific story. These two sections, 12 through 16, and then 17 through 26 are connected in such a way I've done one outline for them. So if you've picked up an outline, you'll see both sections of this outline for next week. We'll just cover the first point this morning. And in these two sections put together, Jesus demonstrates his messianic power to forgive sins by performing two healings. Jesus demonstrates his messianic power to forgive sins by performing two healings. The first healing is actually a cleansing. And I've kind of changed my own outline to make sure that I'm revealing what the text actually gives us. It is a healing, I'm okay with that, but the text mentions cleansing three times. Now, what do we know when there's a repeated word or phrase? It's important for us, right? So I don't want to just skip over that and not say cleansing where the Bible is giving us this idea of cleansing because it is pointing us toward that Old Testament need to move from an unclean state to a clean state so that you could approach the Holy One according to how He determined, God Himself determined, by going through the process of being holy. You could not move from being unclean to holy. You needed to move from unclean to clean. And if you were through our Leviticus study for the time we preached through that, you understand that concept. That's primary for us here. So this first healing is actually a cleansing. Jesus cleanses a leper, making him ceremonially clean as a testimony to all. Look at verse 12. And it happened. That's our marker. Luke uses it a lot through Luke and Acts. It does mark us off as a new section, but it also ties all of these sections together. I also want to tell you that in this section, we don't have any controversy. In the following sections, that's where the controversy increases. The controversy and the hatred toward Jesus, the objection to what he's doing will increase starting in the next story. Here, we don't have it brought to us. That's another way that it sets up the next section and ties them all together. So the first thing that happens here is, and it happened, that while he was in one of the cities, so just remember, Luke doesn't give us a lot of these details while he was teaching, or he was teaching, but he doesn't tell us what was taught. We don't know what city it's in, because for Luke, he's trying to narrow us in in a literary fashion on his main point without confusing us with details. This also ties us to the very next section when we see in verse 17, and it happened that one day he was teaching. And that little phrase one day is exactly the same phrase as what we see here in one of the cities. So Luke is not going to be particular where we don't need to worry about particularities. This is one of the reasons that we take Luke and we let him stand on his own. There are times that we will reference the other Gospels, but mostly we're letting Luke's teaching and the order that he brings events stand on his own. So this cleansing begins by a request that is a statement rather than a request, but it is conveying his heart's desire, if you are willing. If you are willing, a faith-filled request for cleansing in one of these cities, behold! Now, isn't that a crazy word to have in the middle of this? Remember what this is, this is an exclamation. Behold! Why would that be there? Is it just to draw our attention? Well, I think not. What are we beholding? There was a man covered with leprosy, and when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, saying, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. So the behold is, what in the world is a leper doing in the middle of the people? That shouldn't have been. The leper should have had his face covered above his lip, and he should be crying out, unclean, unclean, and staying outside the camp, living on their own according to the Old Testament law. But this one, this one is desperate. This one is desperate for a change and he knows that Jesus is the one that can bring that change. So the behold is not just drawing our attention to look at this, it is, this is what people would have been saying even in the crowd. The whispers, can you imagine the whispers? This man would have been known in his city. He would have been known as one of those who couldn't come into the camp. He would have been known that when he did come in, he had to clear a path in front of him by screaming that he was unclean. So we are to behold and we are to be surprised. There was a man, the scripture says he is covered with leprosy. Literally he's full of leprosy. So we have to understand leprosy. Some of this will be review if you've gone through Leviticus with us, but to understand leprosy, we think of leprosy today as what we call Hansen's disease and a rotting of the flesh and all that goes with that that was identified in the early 19th century. So in biblical times, leprosy covered a myriad of skin event, problems, skin problems. It could be what we know as leprosy, but it could be boils and it could be other kinds of psoriasis and things like that. But all of those were defaults that would make you unclean or at least require cleansing if you were not pronounced unclean at that point. And the way all this would happen is that, and listen, leprosy could be on clothes, cloth material, it can also be on houses, in the walls of a house. So there could be fungus, fungi, and things like that in the walls of a house. All of that would make someone unclean if they came in contact with it, or at least require that they went through some sort of cleansing before they were pronounced that they were able to come into the people of God. If you want to learn the specifics, excuse me, I don't know what happens to my voice on Sunday morning, but it's happening again, and I don't know why. So you just pray that I can get through this, or it goes away when God's done with me and wants me to be quiet. And I mean that seriously. I know you laughed, I know why, but I mean that seriously. The Lord is in charge here. So his, the way he would be received in the community is revealed in Leviticus 13, 45 and 46. The lepers were to have their, they shall not be uncovered, but they shall cover their mustache, their hair was to be grown out so they could be identified. And they were to scream, unclean, unclean. And he shall remain unclean all the days during which he has the infection. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His place of habitation shall be outside the camp. So I'm harping on this a little bit so that you feel his predicament. Imagine yourself. You can't live in your own house with your own family. Can't come to church. You can't go to a Bible study. You can't go grocery shopping. You have to stay outside of the city limits and you have to live by yourself. You're ostracized. Many people would think that you have this in the New Testament times and Old Testament times because God granted you this because you sinned. Because we see this many times in the Old Testament. It's even a covenant curse. Remember the covenant curses. If you obey me, you will, the covenant blessings, if you obey me, I will bless you. But if you disobey me, I will curse you. And a whole list of curses that God would bring upon them. Among them are skin diseases included in Leviticus 13 and 14. So everybody would think that you have this skin disease because you're a sinner and God is punishing you. That's what this man was experienced. And that was according to the law. And so for him to be in the midst of the people and come up to Jesus at all, is something that the whole crowd would have gasped and just spread aside to stay away from this man who should have been shouting, unclean, unclean. And yet he comes to the one who is the exact opposite of uncleanliness. He knows what he has to do. Remember these cases of leprosy in the Old Testament. Remember that Deborah was one of the ones rebelling against Moses and God gave her leprosy for seven days as a punishment for her sin. There were other cases of leprosy and how that worked itself out, but the one thing that would be in our minds and would be in everybody else's minds is the leader of the Syrian army, Naaman. And his desire, he's a man who's well-respected in all the government, he's well-respected by the king, and he leads the whole Syrian or Aramaean, depending on which book you're reading in the Old Testament, he leads that army. And in one of his escapades, he ends up with a young girl who is an Israelite and she becomes a slave in his household to his wife. And in one of the passing conversations, this young slave says, I wish my master could go to the prophet in Israel and be cured. And so the king of Syria sends a messenger to the king of Israel and says, you know, heal this guy. This guy's important to me. And the response of the king of Syria tells us that no one can heal this but God. Because the king of Syria, he basically, to the request, the king of Israel basically just says, what are you doing, trying to start a fight with me? How in the world am I supposed to clear this man of leprosy? Because it was a well-known fact. Leprosy came from God and only God could heal it. Now, this is important for us to see what Jesus does. So the prophet comes in, Elisha comes in, and Elisha says that he will take care of this because he will take care of it according to the power of God. And he tells him, you know the story, he tells him he needs to go dip in the Jordan seven times. And the first thing that Naaman does, he's arrogant about this. He said, surely there's a cleaner river than that in my country. But his servant reminds him, listen, if they gave you a very hard task to do, you'd go out and do it. So do this for your cleansing, it's simple. So he humbles himself and he goes to the river and he is cleansed. Well, in comes Gehazi, right? Gehazi is the one who's the servant of Elisha, and he watches the king try to give Elisha a present for this healing, and Elisha says, no, this is God's doing, not mine. The king leaves, and Elisha says, well, there's no reason we shouldn't cash in on this, right? So he goes and chases him down, makes up a lie about there being some sons of the prophets coming out of the hills, and my master says, would you give us some money and some clothes, a lot of money, a talent of silver and two changes of clothes, would you give us that? Well, Gehazi's making up this lie because he's taking that for himself. So he comes back to his master, and of course, Elisha knows, and he says, you have something to tell me? And so what happens to Gehazi? Gehazi gets leprosy because God is the one in charge of giving this affliction and only God can heal it. So that background of leprosy, that background of what the Old Testament says about leprosy is important for us as we see what Jesus does. Look back at your text here in verse 12. The people would have been thinking this man is cursed by God because of his sin. And he comes up to Jesus and he says, he begs him. He has nothing left. He knows he's ostracized. He knows people are looking at him, and yet he begs him because he knows there's only one person who can handle this. And he says, Lord, and that doesn't just mean master or boss here. He's recognizing his divine authority. Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. Remember a couple weeks ago I told you that in Greek there were different uses of the word if? This use of the word if is conveying an uncertain outcome. He doesn't know whether the Lord was willing, but what does he know? He is able. Do you see the power of his faith? The power of his faith is he knows who Jesus is, and he knows he has the authority, and he knows he has the power, but he has to will it. Why? Because only God can cleanse leprosy. That's his mindset. He knows who Jesus is, and he knows what must be done, and he leaves it to Jesus. He says, if you are willing. And Jesus says, I am willing. And that what follows is a complete cleansing in response to a faithful request. Look at verse 13. And he stretched out his hand and touched him. And one thing I forgot to draw your attention to is the idea of clean at the end of verse 12. You can make me clean. You can make me clean. Most of the concerns about leprosy, it was about spreading, but it wasn't as much about spreading the disease as it was spreading the uncleanness. Because if you were unclean, you could not approach the temple. If you were unclean, you could not worship. Now, you may not be ostracized outside the camp for all the many ways you could be unclean, but uncleanness was the issue because you could not approach God. And if you could not approach God, you were an outcast from him. So verse 13, he stretched out his hand and touched him. Now, don't think that the touching is what took the leprosy away. That's not what our text says, is it? But this is the center of Jesus's action, isn't it? He stretched out his hand. Now, if we're thinking Old Testament language, what do we think about when we know that God, anytime that God stretched out his arm, It's an exhibit of power, right? But this, we're shocked because he touches a leper. He becomes, in the world's eyes and in all Jews' eyes, if you touch a leper, you become unclean. And so here is the one who's the Holy One of Israel, the Holy One of God, and might he become unclean? But he reaches out and he touches him. When do you think The last time was that that man was touched. He would have never been touched. Since he had leprosy, people wouldn't have come close to him, let alone touch him. Now we have the benefit in our century of knowing of all the studies that tell how important it is for human touch and what that does when someone is not touched and versus when they are in a healing process and all of that. But just imagine yourself that no one ever touches you. And now the Holy One of Israel stretches out His hand and touches you. That right there might've been worth the whole price of admission for him, might it not? Even if he was never cleansed, he was shown affection. He was shown compassion by this one who was the perfect one, who's the one he knew could heal him if he was willing. Now he's still waiting for more because what is the first thing that Jesus says after he touches him? I am willing. So compassionately. Do you see this aspect of Jesus? Jesus didn't have to touch him. He speaks words and fevers go away and demons go away, right? Just at the speaking of a word. He didn't have to touch him, but he does touch him because he understands the need of the man. The man needs love, the man needs compassion, and he reaches out and he touches him. His heart is broken, is burdened for this man, and what's he say? I am willing. Now what would happen for most men that would do that? If they could bear to reach out and touch him, what would the next response be? Sorry, mate, I can't do anything about that, but I can touch you. But Jesus touches him and says, I am willing. And then the word of command comes, right? Look at your text. I am willing, be cleansed. There's the word of command. There's where the powerful word of Jesus comes forth and the man is cleansed. And we know he's cleansed because what's the next word? And immediately, and immediately the leprosy left him. Now, this is language that makes us wonder. I'm not convinced by it, but I have to entertain it. It doesn't say that he was cured of it or healed of it, it said it left him. Same language for when the demon left, when the fever left. Remember, we thought that maybe the fever might have been caused by a demon because of the language used to having it leave. So I don't know whether it was or not, but immediately this man was changed. The touching of him changed much in his heart and soul. The word of command changed his physical ailment. And now Jesus says, be cleansed. And immediately the leprosy left him. So what's the end result? He has been cleansed. Now in this time when a Jew would be outside of the camp because they had leprosy, if the leprosy went away, it wasn't all done yet. Because they still had this process that they had to go find the priest, and the priest had to make an evaluation. And if you go back in and look at Leviticus 13 and 14, you will see they were looking at things like, you know, was the skin white? Was the hair white? Or did it remain its original color? All these things they're supposed to diagnose, and then depending on what they find, that's when they make the command of what needs to happen next. So when we keep moving through this text, If you are willing, I am willing, go to the priest, comes next in verse 14. And he directed 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. So the first thing he says is, tell no one. Now we'll see this a couple of times in Luke. We see this back and forth in the Gospels. Why does he do this? Well, I think in every setting there could be a different reason. Maybe here Jesus doesn't want his fame being exploded around around this area in this Capernaum and Nazareth and all of this area. He doesn't want his name being associated merely with healings and casting out demons. He wants his name to be associated with his word. So he says, don't tell anybody because he knows the fame is rising. Maybe it's because this is for the purpose of giving the testimony to whoever the them is. Because for him to be allowed back in, it doesn't matter that he's cleansed, he has to go through the process to be diagnosed, so to speak, by the priest, and then he has to go through a certain set of offerings, and seven days have to pass, and on the eighth day, there's another offering, and things have to go exactly according to plan from the scriptures in order for him to be brought back into the community. Now, in his emotional sense, that's what he needed, right? He needed to be allowed back into the community, restore relationships, not be a plague to everyone that he came around. But his relationship with God was restored because he was cleansed. And now the priest, according to the Old Testament law, which we're in that transition time, right? The life of Jesus coming as the fulfillment of the law. According to the Old Testament law, there were certain things he needed to do. So tell no one, but go to the priest in obedience to the law as a testimony to everyone. And I think that's what the them means. And he directed him to tell no one, verse 14. And this is a little interesting part of the Greek language. You might wonder why, in the LSB, you see, and he directed him to go tell no one. So that's the narrator speaking, that's Luke speaking. And then we have quotation marks where Jesus is speaking. So this is the different discourse that's shown to us in the original language. And so it's great because it's Luke showing us that maybe these are exactly the words from Jesus that he was told by whoever this story was told to him by. Remember, Luke has gone and researched all of these things. So wherever he got this particular story from whatever person, this is probably the exact words that they told him Jesus spoke. And where the quotation marks start, but go, So don't tell anybody, but go and show yourself to the priest, so Leviticus 13, 14 can all take shape like it's supposed to, and make an offering for your cleansing so that you do the right thing according to the scriptures, just as Moses commanded as a testimony to them. Notice he's showing himself to the priest singular, but it will be a testimony to them plural. Now, I'm not exactly sure what that is, but I think that's the priest who immediately there would have been a testimony of how this man became clean, right? What would that priest have done? What would he have been talking about at dinner that night with the other priest? Exactly what happened? All the people that saw it, they would have also been giving that testimony. So this is a testimony, what, that the man is healed? No, that the Holy One of Israel touched one who was unclean And he did not become unclean, but the man he touched became clean. This is the beauty of the gospel, is it not? You and I come to Jesus as those who are, in Old Testament language, unclean. We are filthy in our sin. We sin because we are sinners. We hate God because that is our nature. And Jesus, who has every right to keep us as an enemy because we're his enemy, Jesus overcomes that by living and dying and being raised again and now seated at the right hand of the Father so that all that believe in him become his children. We come from sinners separated from God, enemies to God, to not just being neutral, but we become children of God because of the work of Jesus Christ, because He loves us. This is the love of the Father demonstrated through the Son, so that you and I would have life. And this testimony needs to be out. The unclean become clean, and Jesus, the perfect clean one, does not become unclean. He is worthy. You see how this sets up his statement, your sins are forgiven. It sets that up coming in the next story, because this is the Old Testament way of saying this man not only was made clean, but he was made right with God. And we know he came to him humbly, right? Look back at verse 12. When he saw Jesus, he fell on his face. That's what Peter did, fell at Jesus's knees, overwhelmed by the perfection of the Holy One. So he comes humbly to Jesus. He comes knowing that Jesus is the only way to his cleansing. And now we see the full impact of this text. It's the only way to his spiritual cleansing as well, is through the one who comes to forgive sins. And so Jesus says, go do what you're supposed to do as a testimony to all of that and to everyone. but he also gives him something that he's not supposed to do. Don't tell anybody else, but do do this. And now in verse 15 and 16, we see another one of our important summary statements. You notice both verses start with but. So this has happened and then two adversities, but, but, but the news about him was spreading even farther and large crowds were gathering to hear him and to be healed of their sickness. So teaching and healing, again, is brought to us. Now, how did that happen? Was it just the people who saw this? Was it just those people? Well, Mark tells us that he didn't keep his mouth shut. Mark tells us that he went out and he told everybody. But Luke implies that, doesn't he? Because Jesus says, don't tell anybody, and the very next verse says, everybody found out. How did that happen? The word about the Savior, the Savior of the world is getting around. News about Him spread. His fame was increasing even farther. So we've seen it increasing. Now it's gone even farther. And we're going to see the results of that. I keep alluding to next week's text because they're tied together in so many ways. Look at verse 17. And it happened that one day he was teaching and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there who had come from every village in Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. Every village in Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. So these, he's telling us how that happened. Jesus continues to not only heal, but to teach as well. And even in his healing, what is the power? The power is in his word. The authority is in his word. And they're coming because they have needs as well. And they're coming because they know their needs might be met through Jesus. But they're coming to hear him, so it's about teaching, and to be healed of their sicknesses. And the second adversity talks about Jesus himself. But he himself, that is Jesus, would often slip away to the desolate regions and pray. Your version may have something other than often, but that's what the text is telling us, that this is the regular ongoing occurrence. And that's what the LSB is capturing with adding the word often. He would often slip away to the desolate regions and pray. You see the connection, right? Ministry's getting more busy. There are more people coming. His fame is spreading farther and farther. His fame is starting to reach in places very quickly. And what does he realize? He needs the connection with his father. His power comes from his father. His power is the one that comes from his father. Again, look at verse 17. after the phrase that they came from Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was present for him to perform healing. So this is our triune God working in Jesus, the God-man, to reveal God and his saving purposes for mankind. And it's his saving purposes demonstrated, he's demonstrating his power to heal and the authority of his word to speak on his own, not just quote the rabbis, so that people would be drawn to him and hear the truth about him. not just come and gawk at his healing, but would hear the truth about him. And he is tied to his father. And the more ministry gets intense, the more sleep... We've seen this already, and we'll see it yet again, where Jesus, I'm sure many of these times, are tired, but yet he continues to heal people. Remember, he's already been laying his hands on people. After Peter's mother-in-law was healed, all the people were coming, he was touching them. He was laying his hands on them. And he's done the same thing here, to no detriment from himself, because God's power is inexhaustible, right? It's not like he lays his hands on, and now he has to go get his batteries charged again, because he used all his power, and now he needs to get more. He is the infinite one. He is the infinite one who has all authority and all power, and yet he's also the one who comforts those who come to him by touching the leper. and yet he still goes to his father. Now I wonder, remember the temptation in the garden? You just don't worship me and I'll give you all these kingdoms of the earth. All was dangled before him, that he would pursue what his father had for him, but pursue it in a sinful way to bring glory to him instead of his father. I wonder, When he's tempted in all ways, but never sinned, as the Bible tells us, I wonder if some of that temptation was to just start soaking in that adulation. I'm not saying he did that. Don't like yank that out and make a meme about it, right? Jesus liked the adulation, he did it for his own power. But I wonder if part of the temptations, remember, Jesus returns at an opportune time. We don't see him, or Satan returns at an opportune time. We don't see him until later in the book. But I wonder if these ongoing temptations included things like this kind of power. This is the fame I told you about Jesus that you could have. And so Jesus knows where his power comes from and connects with his father. Do we do that? Is that normal for us? Now, when things are going bad, Christians tend to pray, right? When there's health issues or political issues or world issues or economy issues or anything else, we tend to pray. But when things are going well, isn't it awful easy for us just to keep on going in our own power as if we've had something to do with that? Well, things are going pretty well for Jesus in a human sense, and yet he pulls away to reconnect with his father into the desolate regions to pray. Now, there are many passages in the scripture where we can ask ourselves, are we praying like we should? But what I want you to see today, or hear today, is the question, not just are you praying as you should, but are you praying for the right reasons? Are you praying so that your relationship to God is continually growing, continually expanding, and that you know that His power is made perfect in your weakness, and you need that to happen. Not your strength, but His strength through you. And prayer is what keeps us connected, and it keeps us humble. This is where Peter was when he saw the power of Jesus. This is where this man was when he comes to Him to be healed. They are humbled before Him. Now that's the state of our lives at every moment of every day if we're pursuing Jesus with a passion, right? Right? Humility, right? I'm not just trying to pull something out of you. Sometimes I just want to make sure you're with me here. Humility is a mark of who we are because it was the mark of who he was. And if we live our life in an arrogant way and not a humble way, we're not matching Jesus' life at all. We're not reflecting His glory, we're reflecting our own. And we sung several things about God getting all the glory today, but yet when we refuse to pray, can I just point all the fingers back to me here? When I refuse to pray, I'm not depending on Him, I'm taking the glory for myself. And Jesus doesn't do that. He is the Holy One and the One with all authority and power, and He still bows before His Father. And if we were in the Gospel of John, we would know that He's doing it because He's doing the will of His Father. So Jesus, yes, He has power, and we can be overwhelmed by that power. Today, we can be overwhelmed by that power. When Jesus acts in such a way that just floors us, We're all gonna be surprised at the next election, right? We're gonna be surprised. No matter what happens, there's gonna be a response to that election, and we're all gonna be surprised at the election, at what did happen or what didn't happen, what followed and who did what. But you know who's not surprised? God is not surprised. So our efforts, I'm not telling you not to be involved, political or however you want, but if, are we on our face praying to God that His glory is done? Because it's going to be done. God is going to do what he wants to do in this election. He's the one who places kings in power, right? The kings just go like water in the hand, right? That's the way God controls things. Our benefit comes when we're praying to him to do according to his glory, no matter who's elected, even if it's the wrong person in our mind. Because you know what won't happen on election day? The wrong person will not be elected. You know what I'm saying? God is in charge. Our role is prayer. Now he may send us out the highways and the byways to get signatures. I don't know what your political affiliation is or how active you are in that, but he may have you do that. Hallelujah if he does, but do it so his will is done, not yours. That's just one example. It's coming up on us quick and the church better be ready for what's gonna happen no matter who's elected. Are we connected with our Father in the way Jesus was connected with our Father? Are we praying in the name of Jesus, by the power of the Spirit, to our triune God, who is the one who is about every day carrying out his own will and advancing his own kingdom. And at the same time remembering, all this is because Jesus had compassion on his people. He suffered what he did not need to suffer so that his people would have life. He died so we wouldn't. So today, listen, maybe today you have been put off by the church in your life. Maybe you've seen things in the church. Maybe you've seen things in leadership, maybe even national leadership as we've all seen in the last couple of weeks. Maybe you've seen things and you've just been put off by all those hypocrites that are in the church. Well, let me tell you, Your sole responsibility is to, in humility, recognize who you are before a holy God in spite of a hypocritical church. Your responsibility is to look at God and see who Jesus is in all his glory and all his righteousness and all his judgment, but also all his love and his compassion and bow before him and beg him to make you clean. Beg him so that you might have your sins forgiven. Because you know what I know about Jesus? He is willing. This is what the scripture teaches. He came so that we would have life. He came not to be served, but to serve so that we would have life. Now there's a day he's coming back for judgment, and that could be before I finish this sentence. Are you ready? Because you need to fear his justice. You need to fear his righteousness. But that fear is also of a God It's a reverent, holy, worshipful fear of a God who loves His people enough to die for them. And He is willing. And He will reach out and touch you wherever you are. Now, if you're already a believer here today, this same reminder is for us, isn't it? How many times do we feel like we're walking through these valleys on our own? And we know we're not. We can quote the 23rd Psalm. But we act as if Jesus isn't there, loving us, caring for us, providing for us. Because when we see Jesus there, guess what we're drawn to? We're drawn to have everything provided by him, for him to be our sustenance, for us to love him more deeply because he's reached out and touched us when we were sinners to save us, and he keeps touching us when we are saved and we're still sinning. The whole idea of the compassion and love and pity, as the songwriter says, draws us to him in such a way that, yes, we bow before him, but we love him more deeply. I began by talking to you about the hymn writer Joseph Hart. Even though he struggled with doubt for the rest of his life, He would always go back to the remembrance of what the Word of God told him about Jesus' work for sinners and the compassion and love and pity that he showed. And his strengthening of his doubt would happen then. He would remember the truth of the Word of God. Now, he became a preacher, he pastored a church, and his theology was wonderful. Let me just read to you what appears on his tombstone, and you tell me if there's a better... It's actually a memorial that stands above the ground, but you tell me if there's anything better that we might have on our tombstone. Joseph Hart was by the free and sovereign grace and spirit of God raised up from the depths of sin and delivered from the bonds of mere profession and self-righteousness and led to rest entirely for salvation in the finished atonement and perfect obedience of Christ. Isn't that our claim? That theologically just rings for us, that we are resting in this finished work of Christ. And this is the Christ that reached out and touched us in the depths of our sin and delivered us from the bonds of our own mere profession and self-righteousness. And now we can rest entirely for our salvation on his finished atonement and the perfect obedience of our Savior, which included the compassion to reach out and touch us to begin with. Well, I'd urge you to go read some of the other verses that are in his hymn. I was gonna read them, I'm not. I think his epitaph on his stone is a good place to quit. It's the Jesus who reached out and touches us, but also has the power to cleanse and forgive. It's the Jesus that we worship. He's the Jesus that we love. He's the Jesus that loved us first so that we might love him and love others. And if that love is void of the compassion that he has, void of the pity that he has, who are we actually loving? Let's pray. Father, thank you for giving us the truth of your word, helping us see Jesus more clearly. For there's nothing that we have but him. He's our only hope in every situation that we have, every situation that you place us in. For we know we're never in a situation that you haven't ordained. And our only hope, whether it's in life or in death, is Jesus and his perfect finished work. So we pray this morning that you would mold us and make us into people who love Jesus more, who are captivated by his love and mercy and compassion for his people, who reveal that compassion for people as we enter into their lives in a way that they see Jesus and not us, so that all those who you intend to save will be saved and can rest in that perfect, finished, atoning work of Jesus Christ. So make that so in our lives so that we love you more. Make that so in the lives of our church so that we are known as a church that preaches Jesus. Yes, a Jesus who requires repentance and faith, who requires submission, but also reaches out and touches those who refuse that and bring them to himself. May we be that word today as we give Jesus's word to others. We thank you for this in Jesus's name, amen.