From Isolation to Connection A Biblical Tale of Change

Have you ever felt the deep resonance of compassion in action, or pondered the striking balance between divine intervention and human law? Join us as we navigate the touching narrative of Jesus healing a leper in Matthew 8:1-4, a story that challenges societal norms and invites us to recognize the humanity in everyone. This episode unfolds the layers of empathy and purity inherent in this biblical account, drawing a compelling parallel to our own modern experiences of isolation and the longing for connection. Witness how one act of kindness can set the wheels of transformation in motion, not just for an individual, but for an entire community.

As we share personal anecdotes and scriptural insights, you'll discover the undeniable joy that comes from participating in another's journey of faith and rebirth. Our conversation reveals the everyday miracles that occur when we support each other's spiritual paths, and how these moments of growth contribute to a legacy far greater than ourselves. Through the tales of transformation, both from scripture and our lives, we illuminate the crucial role of community—be it a traditional church or a house church—in nurturing these seeds of change. Tune in to experience the power of transformation and faith as they unfold within and around us, inspiring a ripple effect of positive change in the world.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:05

God, I thank you so much for who you are. The fact that you love us, the way that you do, is astounding, but I know that your desire for all of us is to become the men and women that you want us to be, the ones you've created us to be in, not just individually, but as a church, and I pray that we just continue to seek out that transformation in our lives and we continue to ask the tough questions and we continue to wrestle with the things that are not of you. But we also rely on you to get us to where we need to be. We rely on your strength, your power, your wisdom, everything you've given us, to be more like you, to be holy as you are holy. That's such a large order, it's a huge request, but in you I believe it's possible. God, thank you for everything you do. As always, I pray you protect the words that come out of my mouth, the ones that have already been spoken and the ones that yet to come. It's always your spirit guiding. It's always more of you and less of me.

Speaker 1: 2:19

God, thank you so much for who you are. Thank you for everything you do. It's something I pray Amen. It's a leopard. Stay back, cover your mouth, don't breathe his hair. Don't come any closer. It's okay, john, it's okay Rabbi, rabbi, rabbi, rabbi, you cannot disease your. Please, please, please, don't turn noise from me, I won't. Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. Only if you want to. I submit to you my sister. She was a servant at the wedding. She told me what you can do. I know you can heal me if you are willing. I am willing. Be cleansed. Amen, let that make you. Thank you, I know it. I know it. What can I ever do? Do not say anything to anyone. You don't seek your own honor. Please, just do me this one thing. But what do I tell people? Go show your self to the priest, let him inspect you and see that you are cleansed. Make the proper offering in the temple, as Moses commanded, and go on your way. Who has an extra tunic? Just one of you. Just one of you, that's enough. Green is definitely your color, not to shabby. You know that. Uh, there's a lot in that moment that happens.

Speaker 1: 6:18

Like I said, we're talking about two different scenarios, but Matthew 8, 1-4 is where he finds the clip that we just watched. So this is right after Jesus came down off the mountain he delivers this incredible sermon and on his way down, says when Jesus came, starting in verse 1, matthew 8, jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. I am willing. He said be clean. And merely he was cleansed of his leprosy. And Jesus said to him see that you don't tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded as a testimony to them. And there's a couple things that happen in this moment. One Jesus reaches out to touch the man, in the same way that the woman who came to him bleeding last week was ceremonially unclean. If you were a leper, you were unclean A lot of times.

Speaker 1: 7:38

They were ostracized and actually lived in communities outside the area. Leprosy is, if you've ever dealt with it, it's a, so it shows up on the skin, but it's actually a nerve disorder. They've done a lot of research but it is highly contagious. Now, when I say highly contagious, you have to have a decent amount of exposure. But at the time of Jesus, that kind of disease. They didn't know a whole lot about it, and so their solution was to quarantine people, and we all know what it's like to be quarantined. Like as I was reading through this week, that's all I could think about is, a couple years ago, having to stay in my house, not being allowed around people, not being able to socialize like I regularly did, and how difficult that was because it felt like it was at some point. It felt like it was never going to end. We felt like things were never going to give back to what we would call normal.

Speaker 1: 8:53

So these lepers this is how they felt every day of their life. They weren't allowed to participate in worship, they weren't allowed to be around other people. They might, they were allowed to be around each other, but they were cast off. They were set aside, and if somehow they were able to become clean, they could be brought back into society. But if you were to come across a leper whose skin was open source and you could see the rashes, you would avoid them at all costs. I mean, even the reaction of the disciples is it's a leper, don't go near him. I don't know if you noticed in the clip, but I think it was Peter at one point has his hand on his sword Like he's willing to kill the man if he even touches Jesus, because they were so deathly afraid of them because it would disrupt their entire life.

Speaker 1: 10:03

And Jesus sees this man and he doesn't see the disease, he sees the humanity. He's able to look past what the outside shows and he reaches out and he touches the man and he heals him. This is what Jesus does for people. He sees people as they are, but he has this really unique ability to see who they can become. He saw the man with leprosy. He knew the laws and listen, he wasn't disregarding the laws and he doesn't, because even when the man says, you know, what do I do? And Jesus says, listen, go, show yourself to the priests. That was common practice. He wasn't against the law, but he understood that the law didn't matter if people don't matter, and that's one of the things that he changed.

Speaker 1: 11:17

That was so dynamic about him is he looked at people and he saw the brokenness of humanity and he realized what they needed was a genuine encounter with the God of creation. They needed someone to show them compassion. They needed someone to love them. They needed someone who was willing to reach out and touch them when the rest of society had given up Church. That's what we should be, to the fullest extent of everything we are. We should be the people looking at a broken humanity and saying we're going to love you, we're going to find you, we're going to bring you in, we're going to let you be part of our community, because we know, because we've been broken, that what you need is you need someone to see past that brokenness and see you. And we have an opportunity to do that every single day. Jesus modeled for us something that at that time they were lacking.

Speaker 1: 12:37

So in the Pharisees, they knew all the rules, they knew all the laws, they knew what they couldn't and what they could do, and they had made it increasingly difficult for people. I know I've talked about this before, but 632, some laws existed around that time of things you had to do to be considered a good Jew. Can you imagine the burden of that? And then, once you have something like leprosy, someone who's paralyzed, someone who you know the woman who's bleeding for 12, is considered unclean. That's it for you. I mean, it wasn't impossible to come back with men. It was really really hard to come back from that there wasn't medicine for leprosy. A lot of people just had to let it run its course, and sometimes it could last for years. By the way, leprosy still exists. We don't see it in this country a lot, but it still exists.

Speaker 1: 13:49

So not only did these people have to suffer being ostracized, but they had to deal with bumps and rashes and numbness on limbs. The bumps on their skin could swell and become open sores. They had muscle weakness, sores on the bottom of their feet. They could have stuffy nose, lost the vision or blindness, fever, swollen lip nodes. Not only did they have to feel the burden of not being around people, they had to deal with chronic pain, constant chronic pain, suffering on so many ways, and then to try to find comfort in people and to be turned away just made it that more unbearable.

Speaker 1: 14:40

But then Jesus showed up. I love that idea. But then Jesus. How many times in my life I've made that statement when things were difficult, I was going through a hard time, and then I would think back on those moments and I would remind myself. But then Jesus did this. But then Jesus showed up. But then Jesus changed the course of my life and I love that because in this moment when there was no hope, when there was no hope for these people. But then Jesus showed up and, against the law, against all odds, he found them and he touched them and he healed them and he transformed them into something better. The beauty of knowing God is the fact that you and I are in the stage of our life that we are becoming the better version of who we can be. And it's not because of me, it's not because of my hard work or your hard work and not to say that doesn't matter but it's because the power of God in our life is transforming us to be better. And this is what I love about this idea of transformation is it's what God wants.

Speaker 1: 16:36

Jesus was a reflection of what God wanted to see happen, and so he healed people, he restored them, he made the paralytic walk, he forgave them of his sin. He calls the woman bleeding for 12 years daughter, he restores her right, he offers healing, not just physically but spiritually, and he gives people new life, because that is what he does, and he does it very well, and he wants us to be part of it. He wants us to be part of that transformation. The problem is is not everyone wants it. Not everyone desires to be transformed by God. I can prove it and, by the way, this is not a knock to anyone that we've ever baptized, and so please don't take it that way, but one of the things that I see happen a lot of times is when people make that decision to give their life to Jesus, and they make that decision to get baptized, and John talked about it last week at our meeting. We got to celebrate somewhere around 20 last year, and it's amazing. That's phenomenal.

Speaker 1: 18:00

The danger is, though, there are people who get baptized and then you never see them again, and I think part of that is, I think, our fault, I think part of that is society's fault. Baptism is taught as this kind of like one off thing that you do and then you're good, and then you never have to worry about it again. I know ministers that have done that, that they've done everything they could to get someone into the water, and then that person makes a decision, and then they celebrate, and then they never talk to them again. Or I see people that they think, well, I'm baptized now, I don't really have to be changed, I'm good, I'm saved, I don't need anything, and then they never come back. But that's not what. Not only is that not what the Bible teaches, but that's not the expectation. The expectation of a transformed life is to go out into the world and to show someone else how to be transformed. At the same time, you and I are constantly being transformed. It's a process, I tell people all the time. Baptism is the start of the process. That moment you make the decision to follow Jesus, that moment you give your life to Him, that moment the new life has become attached to you. It is something that you will have to work out for the rest of your life. It's not a one time event. What makes it hard is that's how people treat it. By the way, it's not a new thing.

Speaker 1: 19:48

Luke, chapter 17, verses 11 through 19, says now, on his way to Jerusalem, jesus traveled on the border between Samaria and Galilee and he was going into a village and 10 men who had leprosy met him and they stood at a distance and called out on loud voice Jesus, master, have pity on us. When he saw them, he said go, show yourself to the priests. And as they went, they were cleansed. Only one of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus' feet and he thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked were not all 10 cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God, except this foreigner? Then he said to him rise and go, your faith has made you well. So Jesus wasn't unaware of how that would happen, right? So he heals 10 lepers. He does this phenomenal thing, and out of that 10, only one of them make their way back. Only one of them come back and show gratitude to God. And it doesn't say anything about the other nine. It doesn't say that their healing was revoked. There's no reason for us to think that. But the one was about to have an experience with Jesus that would set him apart, because as he stands, as he kneels at the feet of Jesus and he praises God by the way, he's a Samaritan, which was not something you were overly proud of there was a separation between them. So this Samaritan returns and Jesus says rise and go, your faith has made you well. And so he has this encounter, this transformation, and he's so grateful for it.

Speaker 1: 21:57

And once again, we have limited details when it comes to scripture, but I can't imagine that that man just went away and was quiet about it. It wasn't right. We see this with the woman. We see this with the paralytic that people who have this genuine transformation everyone else sees it around them and they start to experience it. They start to realize that this incredible thing has happened and word probably got around fast. Right, this is how it's supposed to be. We are supposed to be.

Speaker 1: 22:40

As we're transformed, people should look at us and think that I want that and we should say, yeah, you should, and then help them find it. Not because we're proud, not because we're arrogant, but because we know that without God, you can't have this. This is why church is so important. This is why we invite people to church. This is why we I talked about community groups we invite people, we want them to see what it looks to live in a community of genuinely transformed people, because it's for them just like it is for us.

Speaker 1: 23:18

But this transformation cannot happen. One, they have to mean Jesus, and they do that by us and our conversations we have. And two, they have to show back up. This is not a one-time thing. Growth and maturity takes time, but we live in a society that just wants everything to be instantaneous. We live in a culture that just wants everything now, but that's not how faith works. That's not what Jesus is offering. He's offering a changed life From the moment you meet Him to the moment you die into your eternity, and it's a process that you and I are actively participating in, and we have to keep participating. We have to keep reading, we have to keep studying, we have to keep surrounding ourselves with people who want the same things that we do. There is no such thing as a lone wolf Christian. I don't care what anyone says, and I'll argue this to the day that I die.

Speaker 1: 24:44

People tell me all the time well, I don't really need to go to church. Yes, you do. You need a community of believers to rally around you and support you and listen. It doesn't have to be a traditional church. There's house churches all over the country. There's ways to have church that doesn't necessarily fit the mold that we have now. There's nothing wrong with that but you still need people to be part of your transformation, and you and I need to be people who wanna help people be transformed. We want people here because we wanna see what God can do in their life, because we can't believe what he's done in ours. And so, when we look at everything we've come from, we wanna help people get from here to here, because we know how hard it is to get from here to here and we know that if they have God, if they really genuinely can just meet Jesus, their life will be changed forever. But that doesn't happen unless you and I go out and tell them.

Speaker 1: 26:04

I was sitting here this week thinking about why is it so hard to share faith? And I think there's a couple different reasons. But I think we're gonna be in Matthew, chapter 13. We're gonna start in verse one. But looking at that question, why is it so hard to tell people about Jesus? And I think it's because a couple things. One, you and I wanna see instant response in people. We wanna talk about Jesus, wanna see them accept Jesus and we wanna see them become the best version of themselves, like today.

Speaker 1: 26:48

So we don't like the process of it. We don't tell people about Jesus because we feel like we have a failure and a success rate and I've heard this from people well, yeah, but I've tried and no one's responded Okay. Or we feel like we're not worthy enough. How am I still living in sin, gonna tell people that they need to change their lives. Well, actually you're in a perfect position for that because you realize that you're being changed. I people say it not all the time. But when people say, well, the church is full of hypocrites, I'm like, yeah, because we're all broken and we're all still trying to figure it out. So all we're doing is trying to help you figure it out too. But Jesus, once again, is not unaware of this. So Matthew 13, starting in verse one, tells the parable Said that same day Jesus went out to the house and he sat by the lake.

Speaker 1: 27:51

So the large crowds gathered around him and he got into the boat and he sat While all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying a farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow, but when the sun came up the plants were scorched and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns which grew up and choked the plants. Other seed fell on good soil or produced a crop 160 or 30 times that was sown.

Speaker 1: 28:33

Whoever has ears, let them hear. The disciples came to him and asked why do you speak to people in parables? He replied because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has, will be given more and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have Some what they have will be taken from them. This is why I speak to them in parables. Those seeing, they do not see, those hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah you will be ever hearing but never understanding. You will be never seeing but never perceiving. So for this, people's hearts become callous. They hardly hear at their ears and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise, they might see with their eyes, hear at their ears, understand with their hearts in turn, and I would heal them. But blessed are your eyes because they see and your ears because they hear. For, truly, I tell you, many prophets and righteous people long to see what you see, but they did not see it, and hear what you hear, but they did not hear.

Speaker 1: 29:40

Listen to, then, what the parable of sower means. When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away with sown in their heart. This is the seed sown on the path. A seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of his life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making you unfruitful. But the seed falling on good sower refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop yielding 160 or 30 times what was sown. Listen, jesus was not unaware that sometimes that we're going to share our faith and people aren't going to get it. I think we see it now, probably more than ever. I think we're nuts. People think it's crazy. People don't understand it. But that doesn't stop us from continuing to sow and continuing to pray and continuing to allow people to see the transformation that's happening in us, because my transformation is my testimony.

Speaker 1: 31:13

If you only knew who I used to be. There's less than a handful of people in here who knew me when I was younger. I was a tyrant, I was a bully, and I don't always treat people very well. I've run across people that I used to go to school with and tell them what I do now, and the response is almost the same all the time. Well, that's weird and no fault of their own. Listen, I tried to be a good person, but I wasn't who I should have been, even though, like I found Jesus when I was 15 years old, I still wasn't really living that transformation in my life. But I'm not the same person I was when I was 15, and I thank God for that. I'm not going to be the same person I am when I'm 63 either, because that's how transformation works. There's still stuff in my life that I'm working on. There's still stuff in our life that we're working on. That's how it's supposed to be.

Speaker 1: 32:23

But what makes it beautiful is when you can bring someone else along with you and you can help them experience that same transformation. And as you walk through life, you can see them grow and change and mature. You can see them overcome addictions. You can see marriages saved. You can see relationships between parents and kids restored. We get to participate in that and Jesus knows he knew that not everyone is going to respond, but we keep doing it anyway. We keep spreading the word, we keep telling the truth, we keep trying to point people back to Jesus because it's stuck for us.

Speaker 1: 33:17

At some point in your life it went from this hey, I don't know when I'm going. Hey, this is great, I get to do this. And when that transformation happens and when you see it, there's always a moment in someone's life when they really start to take their faith seriously. I see it all the time and that's the moment that you say thank God that I didn't stop, thank God that I didn't stop sharing my faith, thank God that I didn't stop praying for them. Because when it connects, when you get to see someone else's life be transformed and makes your transformation even better. I don't know how to explain that, but when you see God use you to help someone else find Him, it's the greatest thing that you'll ever experience in your life. Everything that I've accomplished in my life and everything that I will ever accomplish in my life fails in comparison to when I bring someone to the knowledge of Christ and I see Him take hold of their life and I see them no longer for who they are, but I see them in the way that Jesus does and everything they can become.

Speaker 1: 34:56

Transformation is a process, not only for you and me, but it's a process that we get to participate in and helping other people be transformed as well. Don't underestimate what you can bring to the life of the people around you. You have the single greatest truth that they will ever find. Don't take that lightly. At the same time, don't take your transformation lightly either. It's going to be hard, it's going to take some time. It's a process, but, thank God, he doesn't expect you to do it alone.

Speaker 1: 35:52

Jesus, two thousand some years ago, spent a large part of His life a large part of the later part of His life transforming lives, so much so that it made crowds of people follow Him and they gathered around Him. He's still in the business of that. People are still drawn to the change he brings because he's the only one who can really do it. I cannot wait to see what happens this year.

Speaker 1: 36:41

I cannot wait to be sitting in a chair 30 years from now and reflecting on everything that this church and everything its people have done because we embrace the call for transformation and we believed and we prayed honestly and earnestly that God would transform not only us but the community around us. I cannot wait to tell my grandkids this community was a little bit better, because the church that I was a part of made a difference, not only for what we've already done, don't get me wrong. I want to take away from that. So many people have found Jesus here, but there's so many people yet to come. Transformation stuff, but, man, it's worth it every time. Alright, that's right.