So again a good morning to all of you, whether present here in the hall or through live stream. I was just thinking that it must be every pastor’s nightmare to come to church on a Sunday morning and to see an empty hall alright. I’m just taken to heart that though empty here, you are out there with us. This morning, I’m gonna look at a text in the gospel of Luke. And so if you would turn to me again to your Scripture to the gospel of Luke chapter 5. 

Alright let me just read the text, and here is a miracle of the Lord Jesus Christ. Luke chapter 5, and we’re going to look at verse 12 through verse 16. Verse 12: “And it happened when He was in a certain city, that behold, there came a man who was full of leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Then He put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.”

Immediately the leprosy left him. And He charged him to tell no one, “But go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as a testimony (or proof) to them, just as Moses commanded.” However, the report went around concerning Him all the more; and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities. And so He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.”. Now let us have a word of prayer before we look at the text. Let us pray.

“Our Father in heaven, we want to thank You again that we are able even at a time like this to gather in an unusual way around Your Word. And we pray that You would help us to understand Your truth. We pray that You would minister to us this morning from Your Word. We pray that we would not just understand Your truth, but we would be obedient to Your Word. And so we pray that You will bless our time together as we consider this passage of Scripture, for we want to pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Alright, I think a few people have asked me whether I’m doing a new series. Obviously, this is not the last series. And so this is something new. And I guess that it will probably turn into a new series because we are looking at the miracles of Jesus, and there are many miracles of Jesus. I think it’s worth and will be beneficial for us to consider some of these miracles. Now first, what is a miracle?

A miracle is a supernatural act. And so if you want to have a cup of coffee this morning, you can do it two ways. One is to get a kettle of water alright, boil it, and then get your cup. And then you put some coffee powder into the cup, pour the hot water into the cup, and then you would have your nice cup of coffee. Now that is not a supernatural way of getting your coffee alright. The supernatural way is to perhaps just clap your hand, and there the cup of coffee just appears right in front of you. That is supernatural.

Now that is what a miracle is, but it’s also important for us as we consider the miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ to ask: Why? Why miracles? Now the reasons alright are these, or we may say the reason is twofold. So firstly, it is to authenticate the messiahship of the Lord Jesus Christ, to prove His personhood, who He really is. Now you can see that for example in Luke 4:35-36. Now notice here in these two verses, it says: “But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!””. Now Jesus was rebuking the demons. “And when the demon had thrown him in their midst, it came out of him and did not hurt him.”.

And we are told in verse 36 that “they were all amazed and spoke among themselves, saying, “What a word this is! For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.””. Now I want you to notice in verse 36 that these people recognized that this is something unusual. They said: Who is this guy as it were that He could do a thing like this?

Or in chapter 5 verses 8 alright- in verse 8, we are told when Simon Peter saw it, and that is when he saw the miraculous catch alright earlier on, now “he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” For he”, verse 9, “and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken”. So here is an incident of the miraculous catch.

And when that happened, we are told that Peter just fell on his knee because he begins to see that this person, this man, Jesus is no ordinary person. He’s no ordinary man. He could do a thing like that. And verse 9 says that the people who were with him, they were all astonished. They were surprised at what happened because it was a miracle. And they began to see something unusual about this man.

And then again in chapter 5 of Luke, and you look down at verse 24 through verse 26, we are told this: “But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the man who was paralyzed, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” Immediately he rose up before them, took up what he had been lying on, and departed to his own house, glorifying God.” Verse 26: “And they were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen” what? “Strange things today!” Strange. Miracles are strange things.

Now when you read in the Bible, you get the impression that they were not expecting things like that to happen, that these things were unusual. Unusual occurrence. And yet today you know, we know that there are many people, churches who want us to believe that miracles ought to be, you know, common occurrences and everyone and anyone as it were, we can expect to see miracles all the time. But no, you see miracles were rare even in the days of our Lord Jesus Christ. When people saw it, they recognized that it’s unusual. It’s rare, it’s strange things that they have seen. And so when they saw that, they saw that this person who performed these miracles were no ordinary man. And that is the reason, the first reason for miracles in the Bible: to authenticate the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But there is another reason for miracles in the Bible. The other reason is this: that miracles, they are pictures and illustrations. They are pictures and illustrations of Jesus’ mission. What is the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ? There are many people who perhaps wants us to believe that the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ is to simply feed the poor and to heal the sick.

But no, that is not true because you go back again to Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 4, and beginning in verse 40. Verse 40, and you read there: “When the sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to Jesus; and Jesus laid His hands on every one of them and healed them.”. And so people quickly latched on to this verse and then tell us: You see, that is what Jesus had come to this world to do, to heal everybody on earth. And so there is this theory, this teaching that we should all expect perfect health and healing because it is Jesus’ mission.

But read on, verse 41: “And demons also came out of many, crying out saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of God!” And Jesus rebuked them, and did not allow them to speak, for they knew that He was the Christ.”. And then verse 42: “Now when it was day, He departed and went into a deserted place. And the crowd sought Him and came to Him, and tried to keep Him from leaving”. But Jesus was going away, but the crowd tried to stop Him from going away because they want Him to remain and to continue to heal, for there were still many people who are sick and perhaps still possessed by demons.

But read in verse 43: “but He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.”. What’s the purpose? You see for this purpose I have been sent to preach the kingdom of God. And verse 44: “And He was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee (or Judea)”. And so Jesus says: I’m here on the saving mission. I’m here to save souls, not just to save physical lives. Now I’m here to save souls. That’s what Jesus is saying.

So what is the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ? “For God so loved the world”, the Bible tells us, that He sent His Son. Why did God send His Son to this world? Not simply to heal us of all diseases, because there were still people waiting for Him to be healed. But Jesus says, enough because that is not My mission. I have to go and preach the gospel. So God sent His Son to this world so that “whoever believes in Him shall not perish”, and that perishing is not just physical dying. Shall not perish means shall not be condemned to eternal damnation in hell, but that they might have eternal life.

That was Jesus’ mission. “And you shall call His name JESUS”. Why? Because He shall “save His people from their sin”. Not from their sickness, from their sin. So that is the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I’m saying here that the miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ, apart from authenticating His person, His deity that He’s the Son of God, that He’s the Saviour of the world. Also, they are to picture and to illustrate His mission, and which is His saving work. His saving work. Now you might ask: In what ways? In what way do these miracles serve to picture, to illustrate, or to teach the saving works of the Lord Jesus Christ? 

Now in these ways: in that salvation requires a supernatural act of God. Nobody is saved without the supernatural act of the Holy Spirit in that person. You cannot save yourself, nobody can save you. Only God by His mighty power and mighty act of a miracle as it were, and that would save you, for you are dead in your trespasses and sin. And therefore every conversion is a miracle. People say that we do not believe in miracles. We believe in miracles. For every person who is converted, we are seeing a miraculous act of the Holy Spirit in the life of that person. We are seeing a miracle. In other words, we must not miss the point of the miracles of Jesus, and that is to point us to that grand miracle. All these miracles were to point us to the grand miracle of salvation.

And so that is how we should approach the miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ. As we come this morning to consider this particular miracle, that is what we need to bear in mind. We are here seeing a picture and an illustration of the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So what does this incident here in Luke 5 teach us about the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ? How does it illustrate? And so let us now come to this passage, this incident here in Luke 5, beginning in verse 12: “And it happened when He was in a certain city, that behold, there came a man who was full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and (pleaded or) implored Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.””.

Now a few things I want to draw your attention to in this incident about this man and how this incident teaches about the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now first, here we see a man with a great need. Here we see a man with a great need. Here is a powerful picture of humanity that we are all in a great need. Question is: What was his need? I think I don’t need to try very hard to tell you that you have needs, but what really is your great need? Now here let’s consider this man. What was this man’s great need?

Now here you see that we are confronted with the sight of a man, not in need of money or food or clothing, but that of a man who was dying, for he was (we are told here) covered or full with leprosy. Now that is the picture before us. This man, that is his great need. A man dying. And we know that leprosy was the most feared or dreaded disease of the ancient world, for it was a disease that attacked the nerves of the person. And when the person contracts that disease, you know that he cannot feel pain. And because of that, he could step on a nail and not feel it, and injures his body. Or he can put his hand into hot waters and he cannot sense it.

And so you can see the danger this man would feel. And you see what will happen to this man sooner or later that he would be disfigured, and perhaps you see a man a leper without fingers or without toes, or maybe the ear loops have fallen off. Now that is the picture before us here- a pitiful sight. And we are told that this man’s case was especially bad, for he was very far advanced in the disease. Because when they described here that the man was full of leprosy, Luke wants us to understand that it’s not just at the initial state. It means he is in a very advanced state. And therefore, it must have been an awful sight.

And this man had no illusion alright- he had no illusion about himself. For every time perhaps he tried to take some food to put into his mouth, I guess he might see maybe his fingerless hand. Maybe only three fingers left. Every time he looks into the mirror, he could see how bad his situation was. And perhaps more dreadful than this physical thing is the social and the religious implication of being a leper in those days, for we are told that the leper must be quarantined because it was a very contagious disease. So there would be a place that they will put all the lepers, and nobody will go there, and they cannot come out, for they had to be isolated.

And you could see that the people that he lived with and he sleeps with were all lepers. And he could see the condition, they’re all mirrors of himself. He could see their needs as well as his. He could see they’re all dying people. He could see they are people without hope. Is that not the world that we’re living in? We’re all in need, we’re all dying, we’re all without hope. Perhaps every now and then, he could look far out. And if he was a married man, he could see his wife perhaps somewhere from a distance, and maybe his children too. And he could only look at them perhaps with tears in his eyes, but he could never be able to touch them again.

Or perhaps if some children, some people just pass by and see them, they would be running away from them. What a life that people are avoiding you like the plague. Maybe they even hear cries like “yer, yer”, or maybe some children screaming seeing a monster. But worst of all, worst of all for these people and for this man is that there was nothing he could do about it and was nothing anyone could do about it. And therefore he was helpless, hopeless, and waiting to die. Now I say that that is what this incident is meant to teach us that that is a picture of humanity. We are all like this pitiful man, that we are decaying day by day. We are a living death.

And then we look at the second thing we are told in this story here. Now firstly we see a man with a great need. But we also see in this story that here is a man who made a great discovery. He made a great discovery, for he heard of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we are told in chapter 4 that Jesus came to Capernaum. Now we are told that He performed many miracles. He delivered the demon-possessed man, He healed Peter’s mother-in-law, and then we are told as we read earlier on that He healed all the people, all the sick people who came to Him. And this leper heard about it.

Now somehow the news reached the place where he lived with the other lepers. Now somehow there were some people bothered to tell the lepers of this news. You see when this happened, the news spread. You look at verse 37 of chapter 4, we are told here: “And the report about Him went out into every place in the surrounding region.”. And that is how the news spread. And that is how the gospel spread. And that is how this man was introduced to Jesus Christ. Somehow some people bothered to tell these people about Jesus Christ.

And when they heard it, when the lepers heard it, did their heart beat faster? Did they say to one another: “Maybe there is hope for us! Maybe Jesus will come here or maybe He will not.”? But for this man, whether Jesus comes to him or not, he said I must go to Jesus, for he has made a great discovery. He heard about the good news of Jesus Christ. And that leads us to the third thing we should see here in this passage, that this man was a man with a great need and he made a great discovery. He heard about Jesus, and thirdly, this man came to Jesus.

This man came to Jesus, for this man had to get well, and he had to go and look for Jesus. And so we are told in verse 12 that “behold”. And then in the other translation right in the ESV, it says “there came a man”, that’s missing in your KJV. “Behold, there came a man.”. That means this man came. There came a man who was covered with leprosy. He came to Jesus. He came to the Son of God. He came to the Saviour. He came to the only One he knew who could help him because he has heard that He had helped many, many, many other people because we are told all who came to Him were healed. And so he came to Jesus, for he had heard of the good news.

And when finally, when he met Jesus, we are told again in verse 12 that there was a man who came alright to Jesus. He was full of leprosy. When he saw Jesus, what did he do? He fell on his face and he pleaded. He begged. He implored Jesus to heal him. You see, Luke did not tell us how old this man was or what was his name, but he did tell us one thing. He told us what this man did. He came to Jesus. He begged Jesus. He knelt before Jesus. He asked Jesus for help, and he said this to Jesus. He said this to Jesus: “You can make me clean”. That is faith. He has heard of Jesus, he came to Jesus, he begged Jesus, and he said to Jesus: Jesus, Lord, you can make me clean.

And that leads us to the last thing we want to see here in this story, and that is what Jesus said to this man. This man with a great need, who made a great discovery, and then he came to Jesus, he begged Jesus. What did Jesus do? The last point I want to show from this incident is that Jesus will save all who come to Him. Just as all those who were, you know, who earlier on who were sick came to Him, He healed them all.

Jesus will save all who come to Him, for Jesus said in verse 13 alright- in verse 13 we are told: And then “He put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing”. The leper asked Jesus. He says: I know you can do it. Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. You can do it if you want to do it. And Jesus says, I am willing. This is the marvellous truth of the gospel. Now Jesus here sees a man covered with leprosy, and Jesus can see that his condition was terrible. Jesus could see his hurt, his sorrow, his loneliness.

But Jesus did not just see and feel pity for this man. He did something more because we are told here in verse 13 that He stretched out His hand. Jesus stretches out His hand, and He what? Now in the English translation is translated as “touched”, and Jesus touched. But actually the original word, original word actually means he grabbed hold of this man. He grabbed hold of this man. Jesus responded with compassion. He responded with great feelings of love for this man, and He stretched out His hand and He lay hold of this man. He held this man close to Himself.

You see what a sight this must be for all who were there, for no one touched a leper. Now it is in a very graphic, vivid manner showing that that is what Jesus has come to do. He has come to embrace us. And when He touches us, our sins flow to Him. That disease, He will contract that disease by right. That is a picture. He saved us by touching us, by taking away our disease, by taking away our sin. Jesus always reaches out to people that way. He stretches out His hand to take Peter’s mother-in-law and healed her. And remember, He too took Jairus’ daughter. He touched her and healed her.

When Jesus saw children coming to Him, He stretched out His hand and He carried the children. That’s a picture of our Saviour: a loving, compassionate, merciful Saviour, so well captured in the hymns that we’ve sung earlier on. That is the amazing grace and love of God. Now think of what this must have meant to this leper. How long had it been since he felt the touch of another person? If he had been a married man like I said, he would not have known the embrace of his wife for a long time perhaps, or his children. There had been no kiss, no handshake, no touch of another person for years perhaps, and then suddenly that there is this man that he’s heard of who came to him. What a wonderful Saviour we have!

Now the leper knew. He knew that not only Jesus was able to save, but he also now learned that He was willing to save. Have you learned that? Have you discovered this great and amazing truth of the gospel that Jesus is able to save, and He is willing to save? For the Bible says all who come to Him, He will in no wise cast out. Jesus, while He was on earth, time and time again have been calling out to people: Come unto Me. “Come unto Me, all you who are weary and are heavy laden”. All you lepers out there, all you who are hurt and dying with no hope, no help. Here is Jesus who is able and who is willing to save you. Let us pray.

“Our dear Father in heaven, we want to thank You once again even in this very unusual way that we can study Your Word. We pray once again that Your Holy Spirit may impress this truth upon our heart. Help us to see our great need, our need of a saviour, and help us to see this wonderful truth that we indeed have a saviour who is not only able to save us, not just save us from the physical pains in this life, the physical diseases of this life, but to save us from eternal damnation, save us from our sin.

And not only He’s able, He’s willing. He’s daily calling out through the preaching of His Word to people who hears, that they might come to this Saviour who is so compassionate, so merciful, and so willing to save. For this, we want to thank You and praise You, for we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.