Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm20090114.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Luke: Jesus, The Son Of Man For All Mankind
Part XV: Christ's Identity As The World's Savior By His Healing For Israel's Leaders
(Luke 5:12-26)
  1. Introduction
    1. If Jesus is God's Savior of the world, we would expect Him to give evidence of this fact to Israel's leaders. After all, as the world's Savior, He should be willing to expose that truth to His own nation's leaders!
    2. Luke 5:12-26 reveals two miracles that were performed by Jesus specifically to attract the belief of Israel's leaders, revealing that He was candidly presenting Himself to them as God's worldwide Savior:
  2. Christ's Identify As The World's Savior By His Healing For Israel's Leaders, Luke 5:12-26.
    1. Christ healed a leper and directed him to fulfill the Mosaic Law to be pronounced cured by a Levitical priest as a testimony of His identity as God's Savior to Israel's priests, Luke 5:12-16:
      1. In a certain town when Jesus was ministering, a leper asked Jesus to cure him if He so willed, Lk. 5:12.
      2. Jesus responded, "I will: be thou clean," and he reached out to touch him and immediately cured him, Luke 5:13. This was an amazing action, for, touching a leper or an object he possessed normally made the one doing the touching ceremonially unclean. (Lev. 13:45-46; Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 216) However, Jesus' power to purify the unclean contrasted with the norm as seen in His remaining pure when He touched what was unclean, Ibid. This made Jesus the Source of purity as Savior of the world.
      3. However, since Jesus was then under the rule of the Mosaic Law (cf. Galatians 4:4), He sent the cured man to a priest for lawful Biblical examination and certification that he had been cured:
        1. Leviticus 14:1-32 laid out extensive rituals covering 8 days of time in which the priest would test to see if a leper who had come to him claiming to be healed had truly been cured, esp. Lev. 14:8, 10.
        2. Accordingly, since He was under the Law's jurisdiction, Jesus told the cleansed leper to go to the priest to fulfill the Law's prescribed examination and ritual cleansing, Luke 5:14.
        3. Jesus wanted the man to do this privately, for He wanted to avoid attracting too great a crowd lest it inhibit His being able to minister in the cities to which God had called Him, Luke 5:14a; 4:43.
      4. In sending the cured man to a priest, Jesus noted his cure was to be a testimony to "them", a witness of Jesus' identity as God's Savior to Israel's priestly leaders as a group, Luke 5:14c KJV, NIV, ESV!
      5. The crowds learned of this healing, and they thronged Him for healing, making it impractical for Jesus to enter into the cities. Thus, He withdrew into a wilderness area and prayed, Luke 5:15-16!
    2. Christ healed a man in a way that showed He was God Incarnate to Israel's religious teachers, Lk. 5:17-26:
      1. On a certain day, Jesus taught when Pharisees and doctors of the Law were present from all over Israel to evaluate His teaching, Luke 5:17a,b; Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978 ed., ftn. to Luke 5:17.
      2. God's power was present for Him to heal (Luke 5:17c), so Jesus used it to teach of His Incarnation:
        1. When a paralytic was let down through the roof on his bed to be healed due to the crowd, and Jesus knew He had the full attention of all the teachers present due to this big interruption (Luke 5:18-19), before healing the man, He told him, "Man, thy sins are forgiven thee." (Luke 5:20 KJV)
        2. The teachers knew that only God could forgive sin, so they thought that Jesus had just blasphemed, that He as a man had presented Himself as God by announcing He forgave the man his sins, 5:21.
        3. Perceiving their thoughts, Jesus asked them why they thought as they did, and backed his claim that the man's sins were forgiven since He was God "on the earth" (Incarnate) by healing him, 5:22-25!
        4. The healing was so instantaneous and complete, with the man taking up his bed and going home, the teachers could only marvel and glorify God, being filled with awe; thus, these teachers of the Law from all over Israel admitted that they had seen "remarkable" things that day, Luke 5:26 NIV!
Lesson: Jesus openly displayed His healing of the man full of leprosy as a testimony to Israel's priests, and his healing of the paralytic brought to Him down through a roof before teachers of the Law from all over Israel to testify to Israel's rulers that He was God Incarnate, the Savior of the world!

Application: (1) May we believe in Jesus as God-come-in-the-flesh, as God "Incarnate," the Savior of the world by the way He openly revealed Himself as such to Israel's religious leaders. (2) May we openly present our faith to LEADERS, religious or civil, as GOD wants to evangelize them, too!