Welcome to our Together on Mission podcast, where we seek to be with and like Jesus, as we begin a conversation with Jesus in the morning, through scripture, prayer, and meditation, and then continue that conversation within throughout your day. Your host is Travis Twyman, the pastor at the Inland Vineyard Church in Corona, California. Good morning, everyone. This is Travis.
Happy Wednesday morning. Welcome to the podcast. We're going to get right into it because there's so much going on in Luke chapter 5. And so the title of the podcast this morning is Cleansed.
And we have heard so much about forgiveness, right? Sermon after sermon, podcast after podcast. We know the answer. We could explain it to someone.
We would get the answers about how forgiveness works right on a test. But very, very often our experience is one of guilt or abiding shame or condemnation. How could I? How can I?
It's like a heavy weight that we carry almost daily. And here's the irony. We carry this weight almost daily about things that we actually say that God has forgiven us for. Yet they hang on.
They pop up. They are there. And they're things that we would say that God has forgiven us for. So what's the problem?
What's going on? And I think, first of all, can you relate? I can relate. Can you relate?
I mean, you could explain forgiveness to someone else. So could I. So we get it. But do we get it?
And if we do get it, then why the guilt or the shame or the condemnation of regret and all of that? I mean, could we just ponder that for just a moment? Because forgiveness is only good news if we actually live it, experience it, celebrate it. Because the good news of the gospel is meant to be relevant, good news, like really, really good news, not only right now, but certainly right now.
So forgiveness is only good news if we actually live it, celebrate it, experience it. And so often we don't. And I guess as we enter into Luke chapter 5 this morning, if we could ponder that irony that we still experience guilt over the things that we would say that God has forgiven us for. And so I would say that Luke is saying that maybe we haven't fully actually grasped what forgiveness is or how it happened.
Maybe we haven't actually picked up what Luke is seeking to lay down in the gospel. Maybe we haven't actually seen Jesus and what he actually did. So when we get to Luke chapter 5, and let's be thinking about that irony of we still feel guilt and shame about things that we would say God has forgiven us for. And we get to Luke chapter 5, which is a key chapter in Luke.
It's all about cleansing. It's all about forgiveness. I mean, Luke is saying that fundamentally the jubilee, this year of God's favor, is the reality of being cleansed, being forgiven, right? No longer walking in guilt and shame and condemnation for anything that we've done.
And again, we know this. So why do we still feel defeated by guilt and shame? So let's look at a few verses in Luke chapter 5. And first is the story of Peter.
And right on the heels of the miraculous catch, Peter says to Jesus in verse 8, get away from me, Lord. I'm a sinful man. Get away from me. And then Jesus in verse 10 says to Peter, don't be afraid.
So Luke gives us that story. And then Luke moves on to the healing of the leper. Notice the language that Luke uses. Verse 13.
And Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. I am willing. He said, be clean, right? Be cleansed.
And immediately the leprosy left him. And then we go down into verse 20 where Luke is telling the story of a paralyzed man. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, friend, your sins are forgiven, right? So don't be afraid of your sin.
You're cleansed. Your sins are forgiven. And it comes to a crescendo with the story of Levi and his friends where Jesus is literally eating with tax collectors and sinners. And Jesus doesn't seem to be worried in any way, shape, or form about their uncleanness.
And then he says at the climax of chapter 5, verse 31, Jesus answered the Pharisees, it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. Now, can we ponder that for a minute? It's not the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick. Let's think about this doctor image for a moment.
Obviously, God is a doctor and we're the sick patient, right? We know that. But here's the question. How has God healed us as the doctor?
You see, we tend to think that God as the doctor stands above us and offers forgiveness, which is the prescription, and we must receive it. And once we do our part in receiving it, the deal is sealed. So God does his part as the doctor offering the prescription, and we do our part as the patient to receive it, and then there is that healing or that forgiving. The problem is, and this goes back to where we started, we don't do a good job on our part.
We don't. We never have. We never will. We would say that God does a pretty good job at his part, but we keep falling short and failing at our part.
So where does that leave us? In guilt. In shame. In condemnation.
Talking about forgiveness, but not experiencing it. And I think Luke would say we've actually missed the Gospels. We've actually missed Jesus because the Gospel is about God the Father. This is so important.
The God the Father doing his part, and Jesus the Son doing our part. Think about that. In other words, God does both parts. Jesus offering the prescription as God the Father, and then Jesus the Son receiving in our name for us.
So when Jesus is baptized, that's our baptism that he's undergoing for us in the Jordan. When Jesus lives a perfect life, that is him living a perfect life for us. And this is so important. When Jesus accepts the verdict of guilty on the cross, that's our verdict of guilty that he's accepting for us.
So how has God the physician healed us or forgiven us? He's done so by becoming the patient. By becoming the patient. That's how God the physician has healed us.
He's truly got his hands dirty. He doesn't stand above us. That wouldn't work, and we know it. So God the Father, see, there's two moves in grace.
God the Father reaches out to humanity, to you with grace, to me with grace. And then God the Son, in our name and in our humanity, reaches back to the Father, repenting for us, living for us, and praying for us. So God has done it in Christ and by the power of the Spirit. And once we see this full version of the Gospel of Grace, how God has become the patient, and that's how he's healed us and forgiven us.
There's absolutely no room for guilt, for shame, for condemnation is swallowed up in the victory of not only what the Father has done to us, but what the Son has done for us in our name, receiving that prescription and offering that vicarious repentance in our place. It's been done. It's been done. We've been forgiven.
And it's not only because of the Father's mercy, but because of the Son's response on our behalf. The deal is done. Forgiveness. Cleansing.
We don't need to be afraid because God has healed humanity by becoming the patient. So let's just enjoy God's grace this morning. Let's just rest in the forgiveness of God. Let's rest in enjoying that guilt and shame and condemnation have been truly, truly, truly defeated.
And let's rejoice and let's celebrate and let's receive that today as we walk and talk with the God that has done it by Christ through the power of the Spirit. We'll talk tomorrow. Thanks for listening to the Together on Mission podcast. We truly hope that you were blessed and encouraged by it today.
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