Clean, Forgiven, Connected | Sunday, September 7, 2025

Luke chapter 5 is where we're going to be today. It will be up on the screen here, starting in verse 12. These stories might be familiar to you, but let's read them together and then we'll get into the words. Does that sound good?

It says, "And as it happened, again, Luke chapter 5, verse 12, when he was in a certain city, behold, a man who was full of leprosy 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 to go show yourself to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing as a testimony 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. So he often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.

Now it happened on a certain day, as he was teaching, that the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were sitting by, who had come out of every town in Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was present to heal them. Then behold, a man was brought on a bed who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring and lay before him. When they could not find how they might bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus.

When he saw their faith, he said to them, 'Man, your sins are forgiven.' The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, 'Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?' But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered and said to them, 'Why are you reasoning in your hearts? Which is easier to say, "Your sins are forgiven you," or to say, "Rise up and walk"? But that you might 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. They were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, 'We have seen strange things today.'

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I do thank You so much for Your Word. It is a living Word; it is alive today, and I pray that we would be able to see it in a new light. Our prayer is this, Lord: that You would make us to know Your ways. Teach us Your path, lead us in Your truth, and teach us, for You are the God of our salvation, and we wait for You all day long. Lord, we desire to know Your ways, and some of us this morning may have strayed from Your path. I pray that You would realign us with Your truth. Teach us this morning through Your Word, as it is a lamp unto our feet and a light to our path. We pray these things in Jesus' precious name. We all said, Amen.

You guys may be seated. All right, well, it is great to be back with you again. Miles will be back next week, but I'm looking forward to teaching through Luke with you. I love the Gospels. Currently, in the youth room, we are going through the Gospel of Mark, and in fact, it's pretty funny because where we're at in Mark this week lines up exactly with the same story in the book of Luke. It just worked out that way. I didn't plan it exactly, but I love God's divine intervention, and it just worked out.

So I get to teach today. Have you guys ever been praying for something, like when you read a passage that's familiar? How many of you are familiar with these stories? I mean, you guys have been raised in the church, and you've read the story of the leper. You've read the story of the paralytic. You've read through the Gospels. In fact, both of these stories are in three of our Gospels, so they're important, right? You read these stories, and they're familiar to you, and you're like, "Okay, I kind of know what the story is. I know where this is going."

But whenever I open up the Word, I believe that the Gospel, the Word of God, is alive and active, and it's sharper than any two-edged sword. I always pray when I open up the text like this, "Lord, would You help me to understand this in a fresh light, in a fresh way?" Have you guys ever done that? I prayed that prayer about a week and a half, two weeks ago when I was reading through this passage again, preparing to teach it.

A week and a half ago, on Wednesday, I was picking some weeds in the back of the church here, cleaning up by the AC units, and then I was doing the same thing at home. By Thursday night, I was like, "Man, I've got this rash on my arms." Has anyone ever had poison oak or poison ivy? Okay. So I was like, "Lord, You know I wanted to understand this in a new way. I didn't want leprosy." Thank God it wasn't; it was just a little rash from some poison oak.

If you have ever experienced it, you know it's awful. You're constantly scrubbing it clean and then applying things to get rid of the itch. I can relate to the leper on a whole other level. Of course, none of us in this room has ever had leprosy, right? So, we'll be talking a little bit about leprosy to provide some context. As I studied this story this week, I found myself relating more to the leper.

It's interesting how God works sometimes. He surprises us. When we ask for something, He often gives us more than we were asking for, which we will discuss. Have you ever been to a store, like Costco, for example? You walk in for one thing, but then you come out with a whole cartload of stuff. This is the story of my life right now. I used to judge my dad for doing this, but now, as a dad with three kids, I understand. We are a family that goes through three or four gallons of milk a week, so we're always buying milk.

I remember running into Costco for one thing of milk, only to come out with a cart full of items. It’s the diapers, the baby wipes, everything. I would think, "Man, I can barely fit this in my car now." I used to judge my dad because he would walk down every single aisle in Costco, looking at everything. Now, I find myself doing the same thing, and my wife constantly gives me a hard time for it.

Sometimes, that's what life is like. We come in looking for one thing, but we end up finding something much greater, something more. Sometimes it’s a little heavier. You go to the doctor for a routine checkup, and they find something more significant that needs to be addressed. Other times, it’s the dentist. You go for a cleaning, and what do they find? Cavities. They tell you, "Yeah, you have two cavities that need to be fixed." It’s frustrating, but that’s how it goes.

In Luke chapter 5, we find two stories that might be familiar: the story of the leper and the story of the paralytic. These stories present two different pictures of sin and two different pictures of faith. The leper comes looking for physical cleansing, but he receives much more. He receives the compassionate touch of Christ and a completely new life.

Whereas the paralytic came to Jesus looking to walk again, Jesus gives him something infinitely better: the forgiveness of his sins. Both encounters show us that when we come to Jesus in faith, we always get more than we asked for. This is the picture that Luke is giving us here. It's two people, two men with desperate needs.

Maybe you're here this morning and you've got some desperate needs, right? You have the leper longing to be healed and the paralyzed man hoping to walk. They both walk away from Jesus with far more than they could have imagined. I have found this throughout my journey in faith as well. I put my faith in Jesus every single day, and I always find that God surprises me by how much more I receive than what I even give. I put my faith in Him, and He always surprises me.

However, this passage is far more than just about these two men who are healed. It is about who Jesus is and what He values the most. It is about the love that He has for you. While we were still sinners, Christ came into this world and died for our sins. He loved us so much that He gave Himself for us. That is what we get to see: who Jesus is. This is what I love about the Gospels; we really get to dig in and see who Jesus is. I am excited to do that with you this morning as we walk through these verses.

Luke, again, is a doctor. He is a physician who writes the Gospel of Luke. When he writes the Gospel, he sometimes uses terms that describe physical conditions a little better, like your doctor would when talking to you. I love how he starts both of these stories. It’s just kind of a side note: it happened that when he was in a certain city, on a certain day, a man full of leprosy came to Jesus.

You see, Jesus meets us on the ordinary days—today, on a Monday, on a Tuesday. Where is Jesus going to meet you? It’s in the ordinary days. There is something so natural about this. It happened that he was in a certain city, and behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus.

The terminology "full of leprosy" is important for us here for context. Leprosy was a disease that affected the skin. It would cause boils to appear, and it was contagious. It would spread across the body, starting to eat not only the skin but also the flesh. There would be open, gaping red and white wounds all over the body. In the first century and earlier, there were laws concerning leprosy.

Because if you had leprosy, it was a contagious disease. You had to be separated from society, and it was the priest who would determine whether or not you were unclean or clean. They would look at the boils on your skin and say, "We're going to set you aside basically for a week, and we're going to reassess afterwards."

There are two whole chapters in the Bible that are dedicated just to leprosy, believe it or not. Yet here today, how many of you have had leprosy? Nobody, right? But two whole chapters in Leviticus, chapter 13 and chapter 14, talk about leprosy and how the priest would have this active role in determining whether you were clean or unclean by visually inspecting the disease from a distance to see if it would go away or not. This was ultimately an incurable disease that would lead to death.

Now, when Luke says this man was full of leprosy, it was not just that he had some rashes from poison oak on his arms. This man was covered from head to toe in itchy, scratchy, leprous sores all over his body. Just picture that for a moment. I think about how miserable I am with just a little bit of poison oak or one bug bite. Some of you might be thinking, "You're angry, right? It itches." But imagine it being all over your body. This man was full of leprosy; it was an advanced stage. It was terminal. He was hopeless.

For him, to hear the words from the priest, "You are unclean," would have been a social death sentence. What did that mean back then? It meant that whenever he was declared unclean by the priest, he had to live outside of society. He could no longer go into the temple and worship his God.

I see this story from a whole new perspective now as a dad of three and a husband. Did that man have a family? We don't know, but from the moment he was declared unclean, he couldn't see his kids. He couldn't hold their hands across the street. He couldn't give them a hug. He couldn't see his wife. I can think of all the different things that this entailed for a man with advanced leprosy. This man was desperate. This leprosy was all over his body; it was incurable. There was no hope.

But then he heard of Jesus. Maybe that's why you are here this morning. Perhaps you heard of Jesus and you're curious. Maybe you're investigating these things for yourself, wondering, "Who is this Jesus?" This man might have heard that Jesus just healed the mother-in-law of Simon Peter.

Her sickness happened just prior to this verse. You might have heard of the demons being cast out by Jesus. You might have heard of Jesus' teaching. You might have heard that Jesus had gone to John the Baptist and was baptized. Whatever the case, this man sought out Jesus because he had an incurable disease. He was hopeless, helpless, and isolated.

Leprosy provides us with one of the two pictures of sin that we're going to see this morning. Spiritually, leprosy is a great picture of sin. Sin always starts by affecting us just a little bit. We say, "Okay, it's no big deal," but it corrupts our entire being, our entire body, and sin leads to death. Sin separates us from God, just like this man was separated from society. It corrupts us, isolates us, and leaves us helpless.

No matter how much you wash yourself, no matter how much the leper washed himself, he could not be cleaned. In fact, one of the greatest miracles in the Bible is in the Old Testament when Naaman goes to the prophet Elijah and asks, "How can I be cleaned?" Elijah tells him to go wash seven times in the Jordan River. Naaman initially refuses, saying, "No way, I'm not going to do that." But he eventually does, and he ends up being completely clean. It was a miracle, not because the water was special, but because it was a miracle of God.

Leprosy was one of those diseases, just like sin is a disease in our lives, that separates us from God. It is incurable; no matter how much you wash yourself and try to get right before God, you can't do it on your own power. You can't clean up your act by yourself. The leper represents our human condition: broken, unclean, and unable to fix ourselves.

This leper fell on his face before Jesus, saying, "If you are willing, Lord, you can make me clean." This is a great picture of how we approach Jesus. This man didn't come and say, "Lord, if you can." There was no question about whether or not Jesus could heal him. He came to Him and identified Him as Lord.

This man came with great faith, and his faith challenges me. He had to risk everything to come to Jesus. He had to risk far more than we typically do when we come to Jesus, especially in the American context. In the Western world, it's not a huge risk to come to Jesus. This man had to risk everything by coming into the city, breaking political law.

He was being too close to other people. He couldn't touch anyone because he could potentially spread the disease. The consequence for that, if he got caught, could have been death. He had to risk everything to come in and see Jesus in the first place. He approached Him and said, "Lord, if you are willing—not if you're able, but if you are willing—you can make me clean."

I love this picture. Jesus responds, "I am willing." You see, God is willing to cleanse us of our sins. Isn't it amazing that God is willing to take all of your past, all of the shame that you're holding this morning, and all the weight on your shoulders? He is saying, "I'm willing to forgive that and put it aside, separating it from you as far as the East is from the West." That's an incredible image, right?

The leper's faith really challenges me. God is willing. He never doubts Jesus's ability, but he comes to Jesus humble, desperate, and worshipful. This is a picture of great faith. Point number one on your outlines is about great faith. Great faith in Jesus always receives more than it seeks. Just as we talked about that Costco trip, we always get more than we came in for. When you come to Jesus, you always get more than you asked for. You will always receive more than you sought.

Think about this man's life. Consider what he had to leave behind: the social interaction, the physical touch. I hope each of you was welcomed by one of our greeters as you came in. We have some great greeters who probably handed you one of the cups here because we're going to take communion later. They may have shaken your hand and given you a service guide. Now, imagine being a complete outcast, unable to shake someone's hand for years.

According to the Levitical law, lepers had to cover themselves. In fact, they had to cover their faces and stay a certain distance away. If someone approached, they had to yell, "Unclean! Unclean!" That's a dreadful and humiliating situation. The poor soul came from a desperate condition. Yet, Jesus said, "I am willing." He stretched out His hand and touched him. Immediately, the leprosy left him.

Jesus did the unthinkable. The priest would have to meet with lepers outside of the city. What's interesting is that Jesus is a great picture of our great high priest. When He meets with us, He does so in the city, and His touch transforms lives.

Because the touch of a holy God cleanses us of all unrighteousness, right? When you come to Jesus Christ, when He touches your life, He cleanses you of everything. He is a holy God. There is no defilement in Him. There is no sin in Him. He touches the untouchable.

You see, rabbis would avoid lepers for fear of defilement, but Jesus reverses it. His holiness makes the unclean clean. Immediately, it stresses the power of God; this man was clean. But more than that, for years, think about this: this man had not been touched by a single soul. Anytime he came near somebody, he had to yell "unclean." He had to humiliate himself and remind himself of his own dreadful condition every single time he got too close to someone.

Now, Jesus's touch was something that he did not expect. I guarantee this is what he expected when he came and bowed on his hands and knees before Jesus, saying, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." I guarantee his expectation was for Jesus to say, "Yes, be clean," but from a distance. Jesus could have said, "I'm going to stay back here because leprosy is also smelly." There would be open sores all over his body; you don't want to get too close.

But Jesus comes right up to him, and I imagine this man feeling his heart pounding as Jesus walks up to him—the first person to approach a leprous man—and He touches him. This was the first time he had been touched in how many years? We don't know, but seeing as this is an advanced case of leprosy, it's probably been a very long time since he felt the loving touch of another human.

We are made for life in connection, church. That's why it's in our vision. That's why we say we are made for life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus Christ. Jesus comes to restore that connection when He touches that man and heals him.

For any of our visitors here this morning who are feeling unclean, maybe you feel like you don't belong here. You're sitting in the seat and feeling kind of uncomfortable. We've been there; I've been there. Maybe your past haunts you. Perhaps you think you need to clean up your own life before you can come to Jesus. That is not true. Jesus models for us that He comes to us while we are unclean and makes us clean.

That's the good gospel news in this story. He doesn't wait for you to get your act together or to become clean. He comes to you, touches you, and grabs you on the shoulder, saying, "You can be clean." Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old has gone; the new is here. This is amazing news, right? This is the gospel. He charged the leper, saying to the man who is now clean, "Don't tell anyone. Go show yourself to the priest. Make an offering as Moses commanded you for proof to them." I think that's interesting. He says, "I want you to still follow the Levitical law." Jesus came to fulfill the law, and he did. The priest would have to meet you outside the town to see that you're clean. Jesus made this man clean with one touch.

Jesus honors the law of Moses while fulfilling it. He sends this man to the priest for verification, but also for proof of the power of God. It was an act of God that would have cured leprosy in that day. So that healing, again, wasn't just physical; it restored the man to worship. He can now go to the temple and worship God again with his friends and family. He could go back and see his wife and kids, his mom and dad, and those people he hadn't been able to see or even be in their house for years. That's an amazing restoration.

The reality is that Jesus comes not only to heal us spiritually, but he also restores our fellowship with himself first and with each other. When you become a believer, you come into the family of God. We call it the family of God because we are all adopted by God, and we are all his sons and daughters now. Because we're adopted children of God, we receive an inheritance that is imperishable, that lasts forever. That is eternal life.

It says that even more, the report went about him abroad. Great crowds gathered around, bringing the sick to Jesus so he would heal them and teach them. Then there's verse 16. Just as Jesus is getting popular and famous, with people coming from all over, Jesus is basically like the first-century ER. If you've ever sat in the ER, it's just a bunch of coughing sick people. I can imagine that everywhere Jesus went, these people were bringing all their sick to him, and Jesus was healing them and teaching them. This is just an amazing sight.

However, verse 16 really caught my eye as I was reading this again. It says he would withdraw often to desolate, lonely, or private places to pray. Sandwiched right in between these two great miracles is Jesus getting alone by himself with the Father. I think, man, that's a great picture for us this morning. Isn't that a great reminder and a challenging word for us as believers? If you've been part of the church, how is your prayer life? You see, we have this great picture of Jesus and the leper, Jesus with the Father, and then...

Jesus with the paralytic had to get alone by Himself to pray. How much more do we? Getting alone in these private places to pray is, I believe, the secret to both the strength and the sweetness in all servants and followers of Christ in every age. You have to have intimacy with the Father. You have to have a good prayer life, which is why my second point is about prayer. If you have your outlines with you, you can go ahead and fill that in: prayer positions us to receive God's power. Prayer aligns us with God. We have to be spending time in prayer with God.

Perhaps some of you are thinking, "I've never prayed before." Today's a great day to start. You don't need to say anything special or anything sweet. It doesn't have to be fancy; it just has to be between you and God. Maybe some of you are like me. I have three little kids at home and a wife, and it's hard for me to leave all of that and get to desolate places to pray like Jesus did. Maybe some of you find it easy to get away and do that, but you can still find those places to pray.

One of the places I have found throughout the years to pray is when I'm driving from here to home or from home to here. When you're in your car by yourself, that's a lonely place. You're by yourself with God. How many of you drive by yourself every day? Just about almost every single one of us. I have had some of my most intimate, sweetest moments with God in my car, praying to Him, pouring out my heart for other people, asking God for healing and forgiveness, and asking God for all of these different things for others. I ask God to soften the hearts of those who don't believe so that they would come to be reconciled with Jesus. Those were some of the most precious times I've ever had.

Prayer positions us to receive the power of God, working through our lives to be witnesses of Jesus Christ, whether at work, at home, or at school. Yet, I feel that prayer is one of the most neglected practices in the church. My encouragement to you believers out there, whether you're listening online or here in person, is to pray. We need to be a church, Cross-Connection, that is a praying church. That's why we have these prayer cards. On the back of that prayer card in your chair backs, it says at the very bottom, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks," from 1 Thessalonians 5.

Thanks for this. This is the will of God for you in Jesus Christ. You can't get more plain than that or more direct than that. God wants us to be prayerful all the time. If you've been here at Cross Connection any length of time, you've probably heard Pastor Miles teach it like this: where prayer is focused, power falls.

When we focus our prayer for the unbelievers, for our co-workers, our family members who don't believe, or our kids who don't believe yet or have fallen away from the faith, the power of God falls on them. When the Holy Spirit begins to do this work that we can't do, He convicts us in our hearts, and it starts this work from the inside out. It's an amazing thing that happens. Jesus prayed, so that is a challenge for us.

Without prayer, I know this was an A.W. Tozer quote that I really love. He wrote a whole book on prayer. He said, "Remember that without prayer, you cannot win. And with it, you cannot lose." I thought, man, that's very true. Are we spending enough time in prayer? It's something I want you to examine in your own hearts and in your own lives. Spend some more time in prayer this week.

Now let's get to the paralytic. The paralytic is another interesting story because we have our second picture of sin and our second picture of faith, right? The heart of Jesus is displayed in both of these. It says, "One of these days," again, Luke starts this off so classically, just one of these days, just a normal day with Jesus, right? You never know what's going to happen, followers of Jesus, on a normal day. Who God is going to bring across your path, right? What He is going to do through your life on any normal day?

On one of those days, as He was teaching, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were sitting there. Jesus had now gotten the attention of the religious leaders, those who study the Bible. They were there, sitting in this room, and now we're not in the city anymore; we're in a room in a house. The power of the Lord was with Him to heal, and Jesus was healing the sick.

We have this crazy scene shift right now: the power of God was with Him, and the Pharisees were there observing and critiquing. Maybe this morning, that's you. Maybe you're here at Cross Connection to observe and to critique. You've heard about Jesus, and you're like, "I got to observe; I got to see what this is all about." You're welcome here. You're going to experience Jesus' power present here to both heal and to restore.

And behold, some men were bringing to Him on a bed a man who had been paralyzed, but they found no way to bring him in. In the other two Gospel accounts, we find out that it was four men. I believe the Gospel of Mark tells us that four men were carrying this man on his mat, and they were determined to take him to Jesus. This is the greatest picture of faith. They were going to take their friend to Jesus.

We have no idea if the paralytic even wanted to go, because he was completely helpless. Think about it: you're paralyzed, you can't move, and you're at the mercy of others. These men were carrying him to Jesus. What a great picture of friendship and faith! When they arrived, they saw an obstacle. Jesus was so popular at that time that the house was crowded; it was packed. They couldn't get in to see Him.

So what did they do? They refused to give up. This is what true friends do; they don't give up on you. Isn't that a great thing? True friends don't give up, and great faith doesn't give up either. These friends went up to the roof. Now, has anyone ever laid a roof or done roofing? It makes me cringe a lot because I did my whole roof on my house. If someone just started cutting through my roof, I would be so mad, but it's all for Jesus.

They got up there and, in that day, it was the tiles on the roof. They would replace these tiles, so they moved the tiles out of the way and lowered their friend down through the roof in front of Jesus, amidst everyone there. Do you think that paralyzed man felt a little guilty? He might have thought, "I can't do anything about this, but my friends just tore up this guy's roof, and now they're lowering me down into this room before Jesus, who is teaching these people." He probably felt a little guilty, a little weird, and awkward.

I’m just trying to help you imagine being in his shoes, or in this case, on his bed. These friends didn't give up, and as he was being lowered down, I can imagine he felt a weight of guilt on his shoulders. We don't know if this man believed in Jesus or not, but I can imagine he felt an incredible burden. In fact, in that day, most people would have thought, "What did his parents do? What sin did his parents commit for him to be paralyzed? Or what did he do? What sin did he commit for him to be paralyzed?" His paralysis reminded him that sin was present.

When he was lowered down in front of Jesus, and Jesus saw the faith of these four friends, I love what He said. He said the unexpected. This man was lowered down to receive his legs again, to be able to walk again, but Jesus...

Looks to Him and He says, "Man, your sins are forgiven you." This is incredible. Why did Jesus say that? It's important because it was the most important thing that this man needed: the forgiveness of sins.

Now, if we look at the friends, we have to ask the question about ourselves. It's a crucial question for us as believers: What are you willing to do to bring your friend, your coworker, your family member, or your neighbor to Christ? What are you willing to do? These friends were willing to dig a hole through a roof. They were willing to lower him down through the roof; they were able to find the rope to do that.

What are you willing to do to bring your friends to Jesus? Romans 10, verse 14 reminds us, "How then can they, those who are unsaved, call on the one whom they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one whom they have not heard of? How can they hear without somebody telling them?" When Christ ascended into heaven, He said, "Behold, I’m sending you a helper. He’s going to help you to be my witness in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth." The power of the Holy Spirit in our church, in your life, is there for you to be a witness of Christ.

Have you been witnessing Christ? Have you been telling people about Jesus? Now, you might say, "Well, Pastor Garrett, I’m not a preacher. I can’t get up there and do what you do." That’s totally fine. The church doesn’t need a bunch of preachers; we need people to get out there and tell others about Jesus. We need witnesses. We need you to get out there and say, "Guess what Jesus did in my life? Have you considered Jesus?"

We need people who, maybe you can’t even talk. Let’s pretend you’re mute for a second. Guess what? In the Bible, in all the accounts, we have zero words recorded for us that these four friends said. Zero words, but we have what their action was: they brought their paralyzed friend to Jesus, and they didn’t let anything stop them. That’s amazing, right?

So maybe you can simply grab a corner of the bed. Maybe you can get three friends together and pray for a mutual friend or family member who doesn’t know Jesus. Are you willing to grab a corner of the bed? Are you willing to grab a rope and lower somebody down through a roof? There are a lot of different ways we can bring people to Jesus, but I hope that this inspires us with a holy ingenuity in our church to bring people to Him.

To be reconciled with Him—nothing else matters. This man could have been paralyzed for the rest of his life, but his sins had been forgiven, right? I'd rather go into heaven paralyzed than run into hell with my two feet. This is important.

Point number three on your outlines is this: often what we think we need the most may not be what we need first. Sometimes we have this great idea of what we need right now, but God's plans are different. That's often the case in my life, especially when it comes to sin. Sin is our greatest need. When Jesus looked at me and said, "Your sins are forgiven you," that was His greatest need. Why? Because sin leaves us like the paralytic. The paralytic is another picture of sin in this story.

We have the leper and the paralytic, and sin does leave us in a way paralyzed and in despair. What we might even call it is spiritual paralysis. Before people reach Christ, they are often in a state of what we might call spiritual paralysis, where they feel like they are in a dreadful loop of doing the same thing over and over again because they can't help it. Sin paralyzes us with despair. Despair largely comes from unbelief, which is also a sin, but at its root, it comes from unpardoned sin in our lives.

If you have unpardoned sin, if you have not come to Christ and said, "God, would you forgive me of my sin? I confess that I'm a sinner," I'm going to give you an opportunity to do that before we take communion today. Sin leaves us paralyzed, separated from God, and Christ comes to restore that. He comes to give you a way to get to God, and He doesn't wait for you to get your act together or clean up your sin. He says, "Nope, I'm going to come to you. Your sins are forgiven you." He is willing to forgive your sins.

However, the scribes and the Pharisees began to question Jesus, asking, "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" It's an interesting point. The Pharisees were right in their theology, but they were wrong in their application. They were correct in the fact that only God can forgive sins; there is nobody else.

A priest cannot forgive your sins. I cannot forgive your sins. Only through Jesus Christ and the blood that He shed on that cross can you have your sins forgiven and not counted against you when you see Jesus face to face. Only God can forgive sins, but they missed the obvious: Jesus is revealing His divine authority on earth to forgive sins.

He says to them, "Which is easier for me to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' which is an invisible thing, right? Anybody could say, 'Oh, his sins are forgiven.' I can't see it change, right? I can't see anything immediately change." But He says, "To prove to you that I have the authority to do this, rise, pick up your bed and walk." And this man does. The bed that had been carrying this man for so many years was now the bed that this man carried. It's an amazing reversal.

When we come to Jesus, He makes all of us new. He does this crazy 180 with our lives where we completely become new. This man was healed instantly and walked away glorifying God.

So point number four is this: it is good for us to remember that Jesus is willing to cleanse, He is able to forgive, and He is worthy of glory. The response to this man getting up out of his bed, picking up his bed, and starting to walk home while glorifying God is significant. All these people were saying, "We have seen some strange things today." They glorified God because God is worthy of all of our glory and all of our affection. When we see the great things that God is doing, He is worthy of our praise. That's why we worship Him together.

There is no boring day in the life of a believer. Can I just say that? I believe if you're following the Most High God and have put your faith in Jesus, there is no boring day because everything then becomes providence—God's plan for your life. This means that everyone you meet, everyone you talk to, and everyone you see at Costco has a purpose. God wants to work in and through you every single day of your life to be a witness.

There is no boring day in that. He also wants to give you the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit, all of these things to glorify Him in this world and to bring other people to Himself so that they might be saved and reconciled to God. What's crazy is that this whole passage shows that Jesus is willing; He touches the leper, He is able, He forgives the paralytic, and He is worthy because He receives.

Glory comes from the leper, the paralytic, and the astonished crowd. The only people who don't seem to be glorifying Him are those who studied the book: the religious leaders. We have to be careful of religion sometimes. Amazement seized them all.

Now, we're going to be closing today with communion. I want to wrap this up here because when we put these two stories together, Luke is showing us something powerful about who Jesus is and the heart of Jesus. He loved us immensely and came to do great things for us. The leper shows us that great faith in Jesus always receives more than it seeks. He came for cleansing, but he received the compassionate touch of Christ and a brand new life.

The paralytic reminds us that what we need the most might not be what we need first. He came to receive his legs, his ability to walk, but he received the forgiveness of his sins. Both encounters show us again that through prayer and faith, we are positioned to receive God's power at work in us. It is not that we've earned it or deserve it, but that He gives it freely to us. In both cases, Jesus is willing and able to cleanse and forgive, and He is worthy of our praise.

As we take communion, I will invite the worship team up. I want to give a quick explanation about communion because it's good for us to remember why we do this. Here at Cross Connection Church, we practice what is often called open communion. This means that we don't regulate who takes communion and who doesn't; you don't have to be a member necessarily to participate. We don't have a formal membership here. What matters is that you are a follower of Christ.

The Scriptures remind us in 1 Corinthians 11:28 that each person is to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink of the cup. So this morning, whether you believe or not, I want you to examine yourself. The word "examine" in the text literally means to test, to prove, to scrutinize, to determine whether something is genuine or not. Do you have a genuine faith? If you need the communion elements, you can raise your hand. Our ushers are great; we have one right up front here. Test yourself to examine whether or not you have genuine faith in Jesus.

It's a time for us to reflect, to confess, and to come to the table in faith. This isn't something to be taken lightly, church, but with gratitude for all that Christ has done. If you have trusted in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, we welcome you to join us. If you are not yet a believer, we encourage you to take this time to consider the grace of Jesus, who is willing to cleanse and able to forgive you, no matter where you're coming from or what you've done.

Perhaps you haven't prayed in a long time. I want to lead us through what we will call a sinner's prayer. This is important for those of us who feel like we haven't prayed in a long time and don't even know where to start. You can pray this prayer quietly in your own heart; you don't have to pray it out loud, but just pray it with me. I will lead us through this quick prayer, and then Anthony is going to lead us in a song. If you prayed that prayer, you will be welcome to take these elements with us and remember the body that was broken for us and the blood that was shed for us for the remission of our sins.

You can pray this prayer:

"Lord Jesus, I come to you today realizing that I am like this leper; I am unclean and unable to save myself. I realize I am like the paralytic; I am spiritually helpless and in need of your forgiveness. I believe that you are willing to cleanse me and that you are able to forgive my sins. I want to confess that I have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. I believe that you died on the cross for my sins and that you rose again from the dead. Jesus, I ask you to forgive my sins and make me clean. I surrender my life to you and ask you to be my Lord and Savior. Allow me to follow you, Jesus, to live for you from this day forward. In your name we pray, amen."

Let's worship Him together.

On the night that Jesus was betrayed, He took the bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." Let's partake of the bread together. Likewise, He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood."

Blood, which is shed for you. Let's partake of the cup together in remembrance of the blood that was poured out for us. God is good, amen.