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Life Altering Minute

As one reads the gospels, it quickly becomes apparent that the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ was a people-centered ministry.

There are two verses that declare this. They're almost like mission statements in detail. Our Lord's mission statement is found in Luke 19:10 and Mark 10:45.

Luke 19:10 says:

"For the Son of Man has come to seek and save that which is lost."

Mark 10:45 says:

"For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life as a ransom for many."

So, it's obvious when you read the scriptures that Jesus came into this world with the cross already on His mind, in His heart. He was literally born to die.

In the passage of Mark 10:45, it tells us Jesus came to give His life as a ransom for many. But it tells us that He came to earth to serve. That's what the word "minister" means in there. Ministry, minister, it's serving. That's the same word.

Jesus came into this world to die for human beings. But He also came to save mankind. And in doing so, He came to serve mankind. That's where the attitude of service comes from. And it is seen time and again in the personal encounters Jesus had while He walked on the world and He walked around the earth.

Minutes spent with Jesus are powerful, life-changing moments. So powerful some of us have had them—it's why we're here today or why we're watching from wherever we're watching. As we observe Jesus and His interactions with people of the day, we'll see how He will interact with anyone who will take the time to just spend some minutes with the King.

Part One: The Condition of the Leper

The passage we're looking at finds the Lord Jesus in the midst of a tiring and trying ministry campaign.

Just in the verses leading up to our text today, we're told that just the day before Jesus had:

• Taught in the synagogue (Mark 1:21-22)
• Cast out a demon (Mark 1:23-28)
• Healed Simon Peter's mother-in-law (Mark 1:29-31)
• Healed many sick folks and delivered others from demonic possession (Mark 1:32-34)

Now, I don't know about you, but I'm thinking maybe Jesus wanted to chill a little bit. Maybe He'd want to just take a little break, get a period of rest after such a frenzied schedule.

But Mark 1:35 finds Jesus up and in the place of prayer well before daylight. Came to serve.

When His disciples find Him, He tells them it's time to go into the neighboring cities and preach for that the serving ministry of Jesus was the reason He came into the world. That's in Mark 1:38-39.

So in the midst of His preaching and teaching ministry in and around Capernaum, He is interrupted by a single man, a leper. It is this personal encounter that we want to focus on. And while there were great crowds there to be healed, helped and taught, one managed to get a minute with the King.

Let's witness for ourselves a life-altering minute.

Mark 1:40-45 says:

"And a leper came to him imploring him and kneeling said to him, 'If you will, you can make me clean.' Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, 'I will. Be clean.' And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once, and said to him, 'See that you say nothing to anyone, but go show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to them.' But he went out and began to talk freely about it and to spread the news so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town but was out in desolate places and the people were coming to him from every quarter."

The Leper's Disease

We hear "leper" and it just—I don't think it registers. Even if we've studied it before, getting a fresh look at it brings forth a fresh understanding.

The man who approached Jesus was a leper. Of all the diseases and afflictions that devastated the ancient world, none was more feared or more fearsome than leprosy.

It might be helpful then to get a brief description of this horrific disease. Maybe then we can see how staggering it was that Jesus actually touched this guy.

See, the disease usually started with a person beginning to feel a little tired for no reason necessarily. They would have a feeling of fatigue and then one day they would notice that they had these little spots appearing all over their skin. Just little white spots.

And then those white spots begin to harden into small lumps and they turn from white to pink to brown and became very scaly.

And then those formations began to spread all over the body and they would afflict the face and the configuration and the appearance of the person's face would actually change and there would be wrinkles and growths covering the face until a man or a woman covered with leprosy like that would begin to resemble a lion.

And then those lumps would give off a foul odor. It was a terrible stench. Folks couldn't even stand to be around the odor.

The growth lumps would then cover the vocal cords. And when they breathe, there would be a wheezing. And when they talked, there would be a raspiness to the voice.

You see, the disease of leprosy begins to totally consume a person until that person's body becomes little more than a walking, rotting corpse.

All over their body would be affected. Eyebrows would begin to fall out. Hair would turn white. And inch by inch, this person's body would begin to rot.

Stay with me. I know.

Fingers would fall off, toes would fall off, feet would begin to fall off.

And another thing—it attacked the nervous system in such a way that a person might start losing all sensation to pain. So if they got into the grips of leprosy, one of the things that might happen to them is they might put their hand accidentally in the fire and feel no pain and burn themselves or they'd step on something and get stuck in their foot and they'd have no idea and then add infection to the list of torment that these people are going through.

So what a person was when you see "leper" in the Bible is walking death. It affected both men and women and lasted about an average of eight or nine years and then the person would finally just collapse. Terrible debilitating disease.

Social Isolation

Now if this weren't enough, social isolation went hand-in-hand with this disease.

By the way, much of the actual condition and symptoms have been left out because it was just too gross to share. And once you learn what leprosy actually was, the rules enacted in those days, although harsh, they're actually quite understandable.

See, when it was determined that a person had leprosy, they would banish them from the village. They were no longer allowed to have communion with other people. They would have to leave their family. They had to leave their friends.

It was unlawful for a leper to approach any other human being within 50 feet of a clean person. And on a windy day, that rule changed to 200 feet.

They could not touch family, could only see them from a distance.

So little leper groups would congregate out in the wilderness. Although many ended up being alone in the wilderness.

Research of the ancient culture tells us that many families would bring food and clothing for a while. But after a time, most families had a funeral service and regarded the afflicted person as dead and went on with their lives.

Lepers had to tear their garments so people would recognize them from a distance as a leper. If you know your scriptures, you know that tearing your garments is like a mourner going to a funeral. So these people every day were on the way to their own funeral.

Over the upper lip, they had to wear a cloth so they wouldn't spread the contamination. And every time they saw another human being, they would be required to start shouting "Unclean! Unclean!" and it would warn people that a leper was on the premises.

Now, most lepers complied with all of this. Why? Because the condition was so bad. They didn't wish this on their worst enemy.

It was common that folks would pick up stones and would begin to throw rocks at them if they got too close. And this rock throwing was viewed as justified by the culture.

So here is the condition of this man. Here is the picture of this man the Bible says is filled with leprosy.

Yeah, I know. It's a horrible image I just painted and I even omitted the grossest parts of the leper condition. And some may say, "Dude, no one here has leprosy. Why do we all have to hear all this?"

And I would answer it this way: Because in the Bible, leprosy is far more than a disease.

Leprosy Is an Archetype for Sin

Leprosy is also an archetype for sin.

No one reading this may be a leper, but everyone has problems with sin. And of all the diseases mentioned in the Bible, none pictures sin any more clearly than does the disease called leprosy.

In Leviticus 13, we are given the regulations of diagnosing and dealing with leprosy. Here are a few similarities between leprosy and sin:

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1. Leprosy Is Deeper Than the Skin

Leviticus 13:3 talks about skin depths. So is sin.

The outward manifestations of sin are merely a window into the heart. You see, man isn't a sinner because he sins. Man sins because he's a sinner.

Quick external religious fixes won't do the job. A lost person needs radical surgery in their hearts. They need a miracle. They need a new life.

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2. Leprosy Starts Out Small and Then It Spreads

Just as that leper may have seen tiny white spots on the skin one day, it wasn't many days until his flesh was consumed by this awful condition.

What a picture of sin.

Look at David in 2 Samuel 11. A little spot of laziness turned into adultery, an unwanted pregnancy, lies, and murder.

I've witnessed folks who've had that little substance and it turns into a big problem with addictions.

Let down the walls a little here, allow a little sin there, and before you know it, your whole life has been ruined and ransacked by the inertia of sin.

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3. Leprosy Defiles Everything It Touches

When a man was afflicted with leprosy, he was totally and thoroughly defiled.

So it is with sin. Sin has a way of poisoning a person's entire life. It will poison your family. It will poison your relationships. It will devastate and ruin everything it touches in your life.

Just ask Achan from Joshua 7 if a little gold, a little silver, and a garment were worth his life and the life of his family.

Ask David if a few stolen moments with another man's wife were worth the devastation and calamities that came into his family as a result.

Just saying.

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4. Leprosy Isolates

The leper was isolated from the camp of the clean. He was forced to dwell alone on the fringes of society.

Sin also isolates. It drives a wedge between family members and it separates the sinner from God.

Isaiah 59:2 spikes the football on this deal. It says:

"But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear."

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5. Leprosy Destines Things for the Fire

Everything the leper touched was burned.

So it is with sin. It destines the afflicted person to the fires of eternal torment, says the scriptures.

It's easy to see why leprosy of the physical variety was such a big deal. But it's also easy to see how that cruel and terrible disease pictures the horror of sin.

And we don't process it like we should. Many of us used to be—those of us who are soundly saved used to be—and many who are not soundly saved, they have this attitude of, "Well, I'm not that bad. I haven't murdered anybody. Everyone else is doing it."

That doesn't cut it in the truth and view of God's word.

Hope Awakens

So, back to the leper in our text.

Here is this man. His life has been devastated by the scourge of leprosy. Perhaps he awoke that morning in a leper colony and he heard that a man named Jesus was in town. Maybe he heard how this Jesus had healed all sorts of diseases and even cast out demons.

Listen now. Maybe for the first time in a long time, hope awakened in his heart because he had been conditioned to only feel hopelessness.

People lost in their sin know what I'm talking about.

You see, most people believed that leprosy was a stroke of God. We've since found out that it's a bacteria type growth and all of those things—but back then they thought it was a direct judgment of God for the sin in a leper's life. That's how the world viewed leprosy back then.

What a cruel blow to someone's self-esteem. It made them feel unloved, unwanted, and uncared for.

But that morning, faith awakened in the heart of this leper, and he knew he had to get to Jesus.

Whatever motivated this poor, wretched man to begin to hobble his way to Jesus. Can you picture what's going on around the King, around the Savior? Can you hear the crowd's commotion? There's a leper in the midst. Can you hear them start to rise up? Can you hear the crowd stir with fear and disgust as this man approaches their location?

He makes his way through an obviously frightened and ticked off crowd and stops within an arm's length of Jesus.

He kneels before the Lord and he declared to the Lord his desire.

What His Words Reveal

Now what he said to Jesus is very telling of his condition. Listen closely here.

Number one: His words indicate a desire to be free from his disease.

Number two: His words declare his faith in Christ's ability.

Number three: His words reveal his own sense of unworthiness before the Lord.

These three things are a picture of what should be in the heart of a sinner who wants to come to Jesus to be saved from their sins.

There must be a desire to be free from the sins that bind you. Conviction produces the desire in the heart of the sinner. Otherwise, you're scattering seed and creating false converts.

There must be faith in the ability of Jesus to actually save the soul. This faith is God's gift and it's produced in the heart of a sinner by the Holy Spirit.

You want to pray in the spirit? You pray in faith. That's what praying in the spirit actually means biblically.

Ephesians 2:8-9 doubles down on this. It says:

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one can boast."

Have you figured out yet that there will always be a sense of unworthiness to come before the Lord? This is true because none of us deserve to be saved.

One of the best lines about what authentic Christianity actually is goes like this: Christianity in its fullness is simply one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.

When we come to Jesus, the enemy will whisper to us, "You're not worthy to come to Jesus."

And guess what? He's right.

Your own heart will tell you, "You're not worthy to come to Jesus."

Your heart is also right.

But don't let that stop you from coming to Jesus. You might not be worthy to come. I might not be worthy to come. But He will never turn us away when we do come.

Powerful verse about this is in John 6:37. It says:

"All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out."

That's the power of God's amazing grace. When the flesh and the devil say you're not worthy to come, they are right. But when they say He won't have you, they are wrong.

That's the power of what we do. That's the gratitude in our heart. That's why we come and make His name great. Those of us who've been touched by the King.

Divine Intervention

Now, this old leper, he'd reached a place where he knows he needs a miracle of God to deliver him from his disease.

Now, apparently, he's in the last stages. You know why I say that? Because when Luke tells us this exact same story in Luke 5:12, it says he was full of leprosy. See, he's nearly gone. He needs divine intervention.

So, he comes to Jesus.

Look, peeps, if your life has been wrecked and ruined by sin, let me tell you, you too need divine intervention. You need what only Jesus can give you. You need a miracle. You need to do what this leper did and get to the feet of Jesus.

Part Two: The Compassion of the Lord

So now let's look at the compassion of the King.

Back to our story. As the crowd watches this leper falls down before the Lord and asks for a miracle, what's Jesus going to do? Is He going to turn away in disgust? Will He call for the man to be stoned? That's what many people would have done.

No, Jesus does the unthinkable. He shows him compassion.

Not only that, but in a staggering move, Jesus reaches out and touches him.

I've always envisioned it to be hands on the shoulders. I don't know why, but that's my envision.

It seems this man. It's been years since he's held his wife or children. It has been years since he had any kind of human interaction. It had been years since he'd been able to even maybe even kiss his wife.

He had been isolated and alone.

To touch a leper made one unclean and was strictly forbidden by the law. Touching a leper could cause the one touching to become infected as well.

But what did Jesus do? He touched him.

Now I don't know what that leper expected. Probably to be run off at best and stoned to death at worst.

But imagine his surprise when Jesus reached out His hand and touched him. He never expected that.

Can you hear the crowd gasp in surprise and shock as they see Jesus reaching out to touch this unclean man?

How glorious though that one touch must have felt to this man. If there was any feeling left in his skin, it must have felt like nothing he had ever felt before.

Others would have never touched the leper out of fear. However, Jesus, the cleanest man in the entire crowd, touched him without fear.

And what was the difference of His touch? The leper did not transmit to Jesus the corruption of his disease. Rather, Jesus transmitted to the leper the cleansing of His deity.

See that today. Know that Jesus is still touching lives today.

It makes no difference who you are or what you have done. You are not so bad as to be beyond the glorious touch of Jesus.

Have you experienced this touch? Do you remember how it felt to be locked in that dark sin state, helpless, feeling hopeless, lost in your sins? Do you remember how good it felt when the Lord reached into the hellfire of your life and touched you?

And if you do, then you know the glory of His touch.

And if you don't, I want you to know, He still will touch you regardless of who you are or where you've been or what you've done.

Everything Changed

As soon as Jesus touched him, he was made clean.

His leprosy instantly departed and his skin is new, as fresh as a newborn. He's literally given a new lease on life.

Listen, he's given a new life.

He can return to his loved ones. He can rejoin society. Everything changed when he felt the transforming touch of Jesus on his skin.

That is what happens spiritually when a sinner feels the saving touch of the Lord Jesus.

Instantly, the blackness and deadness of sin is replaced with the life and the glory of God. The sinner is no longer lost but found. Is no longer dead but is now alive. Is no longer an outcast but is made a child of God.

If you are lost, friend, listen. Just as Jesus changed this leper's life and set him free from the bondage of disease, Jesus can instantly and eternally change your life and set you free from bondage and damnation of your sins, of your circumstances.

If you come to Him, He will transform your life.

That is much different than just say a little prayer. Try this Jesus thing for a while. See if it can help you out of your problems.

Part Three: The Demands of the Law

The leper was to go and present himself to the priest and he was to get a certificate of cleansing on the basis of a ceremony laid out in Leviticus chapter 14.

Now over there in Leviticus 14, here's what it says. It says that a leper was to come to the priest and the priest was to go outside the camp where the leper was.

This was not an everyday occurrence at the temple. It could have been centuries since they last performed what was in Leviticus 14.

But here's the thing—the priest must help the leper understand the place of his cleansing. The priest has to go out to the leper. The leper doesn't get to go into the temple till after this cleansing certificate.

Do you see? That's exactly what Jesus did for us.

Think about it for a second. When we couldn't get to heaven where Jesus was, Jesus came down here to where we are.

See?

And then that priest had to take an earthen vessel filled with water. This is what he had to do. He was to take two birds. Now, one of those birds he killed and let the blood of that bird pour into the water. And then the priest was to take that blood and apply it to the wings of the living bird. And then he took that living bird with the blood sprinkling from its wing out to an open field. And he let that bird loose.

And that bird would fly up into the air. The leper would see the blood dropping down from the bird and he would understand the price of his cleansing.

And the message would come to the leper: I am clean because of the blood.

The Power of the Blood

You see, there's only one element that can cleanse you from your sins today. Only one. And that's the blood of Jesus Christ.

You say, "Well, my sins are so deep."

The Lord says, "But my blood goes much deeper."

"Oh, but Lord, I've gone too far."

Jesus says, "My blood has gone farther."

"Oh, my sins are so strong."

Jesus says, "My blood is much stronger."

Just as that leper had cleansing completed by the application of blood, so the sinner today is made clean through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 1:18-19 says this:

"Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot."

For Proof to Them

As we get back to our text, I want you to notice one thing in Mark 1:44. I want you to notice that Jesus said, "For proof unto them."

I'm telling you, I believe it's most likely true that the high priest had never seen a leper cleansed. I would venture to say he had never utilized the commandments given in Leviticus 14.

But that day, he was put on notice that there was a man in town who had the power to take away leprosy.

What a testimony it was when that poor old leper was gloriously healed and applied at the temple for cleansing.

What a testimony it is when Jesus changes a life. When He liberates a soul from the bondage of sin that sets the sinner free. It's a glorious thing. It honors Him and draws others to Him.

Notice Mark 1:45. Everyone who had been set free from the bondage of sin ought to be out there like this leper. Can't help it. Got to spread the news telling a watching world that Jesus sets sinners free and changes lives forever.

A Minute with the King

Are you anything like that old leper? Are you diseased spiritually and you need help getting free?

Jesus Christ is still in the life-changing, soul-saving business.

If He's dealing with your heart, you need to know that you do not have to live with your sins for one more minute. You come have a minute with the King today and He will save you.

If you come to Him today, He will do for you what He did for that leper. Believing Him for your soul's salvation, everything will forever change in your life.

If God is calling you and you are ready for a new life, come to Him today.

For those of us who have been redeemed, let us celebrate our spiritual cleansing together always and without pretense. And we don't give a rip what anybody else thinks of us. We don't.

And then we welcome in any that need cleansing. And if they do turn from their sins and ask the Savior to make them clean, we're going to be there to celebrate with them as well.

That's what all of this is.

We share the good news because we can't help it. We make His name great. We share the gospel any way we can. And everybody's welcome to come in and hear the settled truth.

And when they come to know Jesus, when Jesus touches them, we celebrate with them. That's what we do.