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TITLE: Shun the Leper
TEXT: Mark 1:40-45
PROPOSITION:
QUESTION:
KEY WORD:
SCRIPTURE READING:
INTRODUCTION:
  1. Under the law of Moses - lepers were to be avoided
  2. Numbers 5:1-3 - put them out of the camp
  3. Leviticus 13:43-46 - Live in isolation (whole chapter on leper rules)
  4. Let's talk about four “shuns” of Jesus in our text.


Submission - 40
  1. If you are willing
  2. Not in a position to demand, plead, beg, order
  3. Some prayers are not answered because - no submission.
  4. Jesus in the Garden - Matthew 26:42
  5. 2 Corinthians 9:13 - submit to the gospel
  6. Ephesians 5:21 - submit to one another

Compassion - 41
  1. Previous sermon on this word - the spleen - bowels
  2. Center of inward affection, tender mercy, compassion
  3. Cannot remove emotion from our religion
  4. Reached out
  5. Touched him
  6. Responded - “I will, be clean.”

Purification - 42
  1. There are specific rules about how to be cleansed after leprosy
  2. Cleanse - literally or figuratively
  3. We must be cleansed - declared clean
  4. 1 John 1:9 - He will cleanse us from all sin
  5. James 4:8 - Cleanse your hands, sinners
  6. 1 Thessalonians 4:7 - God has not called us to uncleanness

Compulsion - 44-45
  1. Told to obey the law
  2. Charged to tell no man - How do keep a secret?
  3. He began to tell everyone
  4. 2 Corinthians 5:14 - Love of Christ compels us
  5. 2 Corinthians 5:11 - Knowing the terror of the Lord - we persuade men
  6. Jeremiah 20:9 - Fire in my bones, I could not contain

Question - Why command him to say nothing?
  1. Reverse psychology - “Can't eat this spoonful” Tell a child he can't and he will.
  2. If he was told to tell others - it would be a seen as a publicity stunt
  3. Jesus sought to avoid any notion he was seeking praise or glory for his work


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