MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER
RIDGE CHAPEL,KANSAS, OK
(revised:2016)
(Powerpoint slides are available at no charge. Just e-mail me at mnewland@sstelco.com with your request - #217.)
TEXT: Mark 1:40-2:12
ILL. In my opinion, one of the most beautiful songs in our hymnbooks is #528, entitled "No One Ever Cared for Me Like Jesus." Notice the words in verse 1:
I would love to tell you what I think of Jesus
Since I found in Him a friend so strong & true;
I would tell you how He changed my life completely
He did something that no other friend could do.
No one ever cared for me like Jesus,
There's no other friend so kind as He;
No one else could take the sin & darkness from me
O how much He cared for me!
That is the message of the Gospel writers. Jesus knows & cares about us. He knows what is inside us. He knows how we think. He knows when we're telling the truth & when we're lying. He knows who & what we really are, & He loves us anyway.
PROP. With that in mind, I want to look at 2 events in the life of Jesus which so clearly show that God knows us, & that He knows our greatest needs.
I. THE CLEANSING OF A LEPER
The first story is found in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 1, beginning in vs. 40. It tells about a leper who was healed.
Listen to Mark 1:40 42. "A man with leprosy came to Him & begged Him on his knees, 'If you are willing, you can make me clean.'
"Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out His hand & touched the man. 'I am willing,' He said. 'Be clean!' Immediately the leprosy left him & he was cured."
A. Now you have all heard about leprosy, but I imagine that no one in this room has ever seen someone with that disease. Leprosy in its advanced stages is not a pretty sight. Nodules in a leper's skin swell & ulcerate. And from those ulcers come a foul smelling odor.
Nerve deterioration often results in loss of toes & fingers, even ears & noses. Various parts of the body can swell so much that a leper looks grotesque.
No wonder lepers hid themselves from other people. And whenever a leper would dare come out in the open he had to cry "Unclean! Unclean!" to warn people away because they thought leprosy was contagious & they were very afraid of catching it.
Now, knowing the love & compassion of Jesus, I can easily understand Him healing this man of his leprosy. But why did Jesus touch him?
I mean, all Jesus had to do was say the word, & the man would have been healed. Jesus didn't have to touch him. But He deliberately reached out & touched the leper!
Remember, according to the law, when Jesus touched him Jesus became unclean, too. But Jesus went ahead & did it anyway. Why?
I think it was because Jesus was giving him a gift he would never forget. There is something special about human touch that communicates friendship & concern & even love.
But in that day no one else would ever dare to come close to a leper. So when Jesus actually reached out & touched him, that must have been a very emotional moment that the leper would remember forever.
B. And consider this. Jesus didn't put on sideshows. There is always a reason behind everything that God does.
And if we stopped right here in the reading of this miracle we might think that it simply shows the compassion of Jesus. But go on & read a little bit further & you'll discover that there is more to it than that.
The purpose behind the miracle is described in Mark 1:43-44. It says, "Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: 'See that you don't tell this to any one.
'But go, show yourself to the priest & offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing. . .' And Jesus gave this reason, 'as a testimony to them.'
A testimony to whom? To the priests as well as to everyone else. Not only did He heal this man, but Jesus clearly says that He wants this healing to be a testimony to the priests.
If the man had gone to the priests in the temple, as Jesus told him to do, & said, "Look at me. For years I have had leprosy. But now I’m cleansed, & the one who healed me told me to come to you & make the appropriate sacrifice for my cleansing. But I'm not sure what sacrifice to offer. Tell me, what am I supposed to do?"
The priests would not have known what to tell him, because there had not been a cleansing of a leper since the time of the prophet Elisha, nearly 800 years before. And the man who was cleansed then was not a Jew who was required to offer sacrifices, but a Gentile by the name of Naaman.
So the priests would have had to go back & search the O.T. scrolls to find out just what to do. And in their reading they would have discovered that the cleansing of a leper is a sign of the Messiah's presence.
For the prophets proclaimed that when the Messiah comes blind eyes will see, the lame will leap for joy, dumb tongues will speak, & the leper will be cleansed. Jesus had sent this man to be a testimony to the priests.
But the man couldn't keep the good news to himself long enough to go to the priests.
Mark 1:45 tells us, "Instead he went out & began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to Him from everywhere."
SUM. So Jesus reveals in this first miracle that He knows & meets our needs. He also sought to meet the needs of the priests, but that failed because the man did not obey what Jesus told him to do.
II. THE HEALING OF A PARALYTIC
Then we move to the 2nd miracle, beginning with Mark 2:1. It is a familiar miracle & I want you to see it now in the light of the idea that Jesus knows our hearts & our needs.
A. Jesus went to Capernaum, & great throngs crowded around him, filling the house where He was staying, blocking the doorway, listening to every word that Jesus said.
Then we are told that 4 men got their friend who was paralyzed & lying on a pallet, & brought him to where Jesus was teaching. The first 5 verses of the 2nd chapter of Mark tell us about the faith of these men. And we need to notice what faith does. In these 5 verses we learn 3 things about faith.
1. First of all, faith is never discouraged by the difficult. Have you noticed that? Faith is never discouraged by the difficult.
I don't know how big this guy was, but if he was only an average sized man, to carry him through the winding streets of Capernaum would have been a difficult task.
These men must have assumed that once they got there that they would just carry him into the presence of Jesus. But when they arrive the doorway is blocked & the house is so packed that there is no way to get him to Jesus.
So what did they do? Did they give up? No, not at all. They decided to try something else. They carried him up onto the flat roof. If you thought it was tough carrying him on the street, think about trying to carry him up the stairs, struggling up the stairs until finally they get up on the roof.
Now what are they going to do? There is no opening up there to get into the house. So do they call off the whole idea & say, "It must not be God's Will for us to do it"? No. They set to work & begin to make a hole in the roof.
SUM. You see, faith is never discouraged by the difficult. When you meet one barrier you bounce off & go to the next but you keep on going. The important thing was to get the man to Jesus, & their faith would not be thwarted.
2. Secondly, faith is willing to do the unexpected. The usual way to enter a house is through a door, never through the roof. But that was the only way to get to Jesus, & so as unexpected as it was, that is what they did.
APPL. A church which says, "We’ve never done it that way before," or, "We tried it once & it didn't work," will never succeed in its God-given tasks unless it dares to try something different once in a while. And the example of these men teach us that faith will always continue trying.
3. Then finally, faith will pay the price. Every time I read this story I think about the homeowner. I can just see him sitting there watching the hole getting bigger & bigger, wondering to himself, "Who is going to pay for all this?"
Undoubtedly, those men on the roof were willing. It costs something to repair roofs, but faith & love are never discouraged by what it costs. They know that if you're going to do something worthwhile that it will cost something.
SUM. So faith is willing to tackle that which is difficult that which is different & that which will cost something.
B. What happened once that man was in the presence of Jesus? Jesus looks at him & instantly knows his need, & He knows the needs of the people sitting there. So "He said to the paralytic, 'Son, your sins are forgiven.'" (Mark 2:5)
If Jesus had said almost anything else, there would have been no problem. But that statement shocked the religious leaders, & Jesus knew it would.
Mark 2:6-7 tells us, "Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to them-selves, 'Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"
Now remember, the man is still paralyzed. He is still lying flat on his back. And Jesus knows what the scribes are thinking. Jesus knows their hearts.
So He asks them, "Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take up your mat & walk'?
"But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…. He said to the paralytic, 'I tell you, get up, take your mat & go home.'
"He got up took his mat & walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone & they praised God, saying, 'We have never seen anything like this!'" (Mark 2:8-12)
CONCL. Folks, I'm convinced that God knows our needs. He knows what is going on in our hearts, our spirits & our minds. And because of His love He is reaching out to us, offering Himself to us as our Savior & our Lord.
ILL. Listen to this story from a taxicab driver. He wrote: Because I drive the night shift, my cab often becomes a moving confessional. Passengers climb in, sit behind me in almost total darkness, & tell me about their lives.
I encounter people whose lives amaze me, ennoble me, make me laugh & sometimes cry. But no one touched me more than a woman I picked up late one August night.
Responding to a call from a small brick four-plex in a quiet part of town, I assumed I was being sent to pick up some partiers, or someone who had just had a fight with a lover, or a worker heading to an early shift at some factory in the industrial part of town.
When I arrived at 4 a.m., the building was dark except for a single light in a ground floor window. Under these circumstances, many drivers would just honk once or twice, then drive away.
But I had seen too many people who depend on taxis as their only means of transportation. Unless a situation smelled of danger, I always went to the door. This passenger might be someone who needs my assistance. So I walked to the door & knocked.
"Just a minute," answered a frail, elderly voice. After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 80s stood before me. She was wearing a print dress & a pillbox hat with a veil pinned on it, like somebody out of a 1940's movie.
The apartment looked as if no one was living there anymore. All the furniture was covered with sheets. There were no clocks on the walls, no knickknacks or utensils on the counters. In the corner was a box filled with photos & glassware.
"Would you carry my bag out to the car?" she asked. I took the bag & then turned to assist her. She took my arm & we walked slowly toward the curb. She kept thanking me for my kindness. "It's nothing," I told her. "I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother treated." "Oh, you're such a good boy," she said.
When we got in the cab, she gave me an address, then asked, "Could you drive through downtown?" "It's not the shortest way," I answered quickly. "Oh, I don't mind," she said. "I'm in no hurry. I'm on my way to a hospice."
I looked in the rearview mirror. Her eyes were glistening. "I don't have any family left," she continued. "The doctor says I don't have very long." I quietly reached over & shut off the meter. "What route would you like me to take?" I asked.
For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator. We drove through the neighborhood where she & her husband had lived when they were newlyweds.
And we also saw the old warehouse which had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl.
Then, as the first hint of sun was creasing the horizon, she said, "I'm tired. Let's go now."
We drove in silence to the address she had given me. Two orderlies came out to the cab as soon as we pulled up. They were solicitous & intent, watching her every move. They must have been expecting her. I opened the trunk & took her small suitcase to the door. The woman was already seated in a wheelchair.
"How much do I owe you?" she asked, reaching into her purse. "Nothing," I said. "You have to make a living," she answered. "There are other passengers," I responded.
Almost without thinking, I bent down & gave her a hug. She held onto me tightly. "You gave an old woman a little moment of joy," she said. "Thank you."
I squeezed her hand, then walked into the dim morning light. Behind me, a door shut. It was the sound of the closing of a life. I drove aimlessly, lost in thought. For the rest of that day, I could hardly talk.
What if that woman had gotten an angry driver, or one who was impatient to end his shift? What if I had refused to take the run, or had honked once, then driven away?
Somehow I don't think that I have ever done anything more important in my life. We're conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great moments. But great moments often catch us unaware - beautifully wrapped in what others may consider just small ones.
Folks, people may not remember exactly what you did, or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel.
No one ever cared for me like Jesus,
There's no other friend so kind as He;
No one else could take the sin & darkness from me
O how much He cared for me!
INVITATION
