Steven Furtick - Danger In The Distance (01/27/2026)
In this sermon Steven Furtick delves into Mark 1:40-45, where Jesus heals a man with leprosy. He emphasizes that God's grace is dangerous because it disrupts our comfort zones, as Jesus touched the untouchable and took the leper's place of isolation. You should step out from behind screens of shame and seek intimate healing from a willing God.
The Danger of Grace and a Nameless Man
A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean." Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cured. Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: "See that you do not tell this to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing as a testimony to them." Instead, he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly, but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.
I'd like to speak today for a few moments about danger in the distance. It's danger in the distance. Certain phrases in our Christian vocabulary lose their power or at least their ability to penetrate our psyche because of usage. Like when we say grace, grace. This is a phrase or a word, a concept that is so familiar to many of us that I am afraid when we sing amazing grace, we can barely through our yawning understand just how scandalous the concept is. I also thought that maybe one of our worship leaders at one of our locations would write us a song called Dangerous Grace, because to really understand the grace of God is to understand that it jeopardizes the way you have lived your life, and it will not be contained by our conception of it, but our conception of it must come up to the level of its efficacy.
In Mark 1, verses 40 through 45, we see an example of this kind of grace. I'd like to spend the majority of my time in just one verse, the first verse, verse 40. It says that a man with leprosy came to him. I looked in Matthew's gospel, Luke's gospel, and John's gospel to see if I could find a little more information about this man. Mark doesn't tell us much about his background, his hair color, his eye color. He doesn't even give the common courtesy of stating his name. Now, come on. You even ask your server his name at the restaurant, and this man who is the subject of one of the first miracles recorded in this Mark and account does not even get a name.
We are not told his name, but we are told about his condition, which is leprosy. We're not given his name, but we know about his issue, which is leprosy. It goes to show that sometimes your identity can be consumed by your issues. That is, you can become more known by what's wrong with you than who you have the potential to be. Is anybody here? To the point that you no longer know your own name or you no longer have a real sense of your identity or yourself. We are losing a sense of ourself at times because our issues have run so rampant that they have consumed. Our issues have consumed our identity.
When Issues Define You
Now, when Moses met with God, the fire was burning the bush, but it did not consume the bush. It burned and burned and burned. God spoke from the bush. He said, "I want you to know who I am." Moses said, "Who are you?" He said, "I am." Moses said, "I am is a good start. What comes next?" Then God said without saying, "Whatever you need comes next. Because I will not change, I am. But what you will need in different seasons of your life will change. Whatever you need, I will already be. Before you even know your need, I am what you need."
How many are grateful for an omnipotent omniscient God who knows what you need and can be what you need? Now, some people know what you need, but they cannot be it. Some people would love to give you what you need if they could. But they can't. God is the only one who simultaneously knows what you need and is what you need. I dare you to look at the person next to you, even if you've been married for 43 years, and tell them you can't be what I need. You maybe come close sometimes, But I need a God who is familiar with my secrets and my most intimate issues and has still made the decision to love me on my worst day with no makeup on, in my failure with my flaws.
I need a God who will choose me not just despite my flaws but because of my flaws and cause all things to work together for my good according to his purpose, who will make my weakness his strength, who will set up and dwell in the midst of a broken praise. God is that to me. This man is given no name. We know his issue, but not his name. His identity has been completely consumed by his issue. I'm hanging out on this point because I wonder, has it ever happened to you? God did not say, "I am the great I did." But there is always a temptation in life to over-identify, either with your issues or with your gifts.
So, if you are really good at something, you can learn in life to perform in such a way that you receive the praise of people because of what you do. God is not the great I do. He is the great I am. I feel like the revelation of this is worth us hanging out in verse 40 for just a minute. We've got time. A man with leprosy, whose name has been consumed by his disease for which there is no cure. A man who has been relegated and confined and quarantined to the outside quarters of society, prohibited from normal human relationships, caused to dwell in desolation.
The Pain of Isolation and the Law
In Leviticus 13, we see a snapshot of the kind of situation this man would have lived in. The book of Leviticus at points reads more like a Whole30 book than it does like a Scripture verse, because all the dietary restrictions are there. Then when you get to Leviticus 13, it's more like a dermatology manual than it is like a devotion. So, don't read Leviticus if you're looking for that quick inspiration. It gives prescriptions like this. It says, "If you have leprosy, anyone with such a defiling disease must wear torn clothes, let their hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of their face, and cry out, 'Unclean! Unclean!'" Watch what's next. "As long as they have the disease, they remain unclean. They must live alone. They must live outside the camp."
The greatest pain of this particular issue is not physical. It is emotional. It is the pain of isolation. So, now you understand the significance of this phrase. A man with leprosy, who had no name, came to him who was the name above every name. I could preach that for a whole series. That thing just hit me. The Holy Spirit of God just told me to tell you that whatever name your issue has, there is a name that is above that name. And if you can name the issue, I know a name that is above it that can make your issue, she got it, that can make your issue take a knee in the presence of a mighty God.
Let's take 10 seconds and praise that name. Come on, at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue confess, I don't want to wait until one day. I might as well use my tongue right now. Let's praise his name. He came to him, and he did it all wrong. He did it all wrong. He did the total wrong thing. This man broke every religious rule in the book. He didn't, first of all, announce, "unclean, unclean." He didn't identify himself by his issue, "unclean, unclean." And he did not keep the appropriate distance. Because when you have leprosy, you have to stay back, because you are contagious.
This law was not given because people were cruel. It's kind of like… I didn't think to say this in the other ones, but y'all are so advanced you pull stuff out of me. You know how there are certain kids you don't want your kid around? Not that you don't like that kid, but if that kid rubs off on your kid, it's just like they don't have the same values, and then you might realize your kid is that kid. That's a parenting sermon, and I don't do that. It's crazy that he would think to approach anyone, let alone the miracle worker from Galilee, a man with leprosy came to him. Came to him… Let me do this real quick.
Fifty Paces to Grace
Let me take a second. 50 paces away. Fifty paces away. That's the appropriate distance a leper was supposed to keep in order that they would not defile someone who was clean. Fifty paces. I thought about calling this a message. Fifty paces to grace. Fifty paces to grace. He's allowed to be around people, not too close though, just at a distance. He can come to church. The leper can come to church, but if he comes to church, he has to sit behind a special screen so nobody will catch what he has. The only way that we'll make you sit in a special place at elevation is if you are late.
But we don't check you at the door, you know, what's your issue, and then seat you accordingly. Wouldn't that be interesting? See, the leper had an advantage over a lot of us. His issue was on the outside. A lot of us don't have spots on our skin. We have secret spots, spots in our soul. Issues of insecurity. You can't see them. Certain issues you can see. You know, certain addictions manifest in practical ways, and then someone goes to get help. The thing about secret spots, though, is when they are on the inside of you, you can be in church, but you are behind a screen.
So, the screen keeps other people from seeing you as you really are, but it also keeps you from seeing God as he really is. Y'all need to help me preach this. I'm feeling very vulnerable back here. You can come to church, but you're behind a screen. You can come to church, but you don't really let the presence of God touch you. You can come to church, but you fight down the emotions. You can come to church, but you play it off, because the people next to you kind of know you, and you feel kind of ashamed.
See, shame always creates a screen, A screen to keep you from being who you really are, from seeing and being seen. Back here behind this screen, I'm at church but not really. I'm coming home physically, but I'm staying at work emotionally. I learned how to hide behind this screen because if I stay behind this screen they can't see me. Behind this screen. Give me a phone. I need a phone. Behind the screen. Behind the screen. The devil has got us hiding behind screens. How creepy is it with my hand preaching to you right now? Behind that screen where you create digital personas to hide your dysfunction.
In an age where we have more apparatus to connect than ever before, we are impotent to be intimate because intimacy requires proximity. In other words, you have to come out and be seen. You can't be seen behind a screen. The man violated the law that was meant to protect the people from being infected by what had consumed his skin. He heard that there was a man who had been standing up in synagogues and telling demons to sit down and shut up. He figured, if Jesus can deal with demons, maybe he has something for my skin too. If Jesus can do that for them… See, that's what you need to be encouraged. If he ever did it for anyone, what's to stop him from doing it for you?
The Walk of Shame and Desperation
He decided to take the walk of shame. Fifty steps. The first one must have been the hardest. If I stay here, I'm going to die. I'd rather die trying to be whole than live half-hearted. Here's my whole sermon in case you're watching this online in Wisconsin and you need to get lunch in the oven and you can't watch the rest. The danger of isolation is much greater than the risk of intimacy. That's the whole sermon. It's safer to come out from behind the screen and be seen as you really are than it is to hide behind an image of what you want people to think you are while you die inside. Secret spots. Secret insecurities that cause us to stay behind performance and profession.
So he started that wall of shame. Forty-nine. Forty-eight. Nobody stopped me yet. Forty-seven. I have a question. Just a question. Where was Peter? Peter shouldn't have let this man get that close to Jesus. Remember when Peter cut off Malchus's ear in the garden? Where was his sword? This could have ruined the whole ministry. Because if the unclean touches the clean, the clean becomes unclean. Forty-six. But this man had apparently become desperate. I don't know what happened on this day or if it was just his personality type, but he decided to try. I'm going to present myself. Forty-five. Forty-four. Forty-three. Forty-two. Forty-one. Forty. Forty-three. Still got a long way to go, but I'd rather find out for myself.
Thirty-nine. Thirty-eight. Because if he can really do what they say he can do, I can hold my daughter again. Thirty-seven. Thirty-six. Thirty-five. I don't even know if I'm going to make it to him, because they could kill me for what I'm doing right now. They can stone me outside the camp for daring to bring my defiled self in the presence of the undefiled. But thirty-four. Thirty-three. Because sometimes you come to a point where you don't even care how it looks anymore or really even what it costs you, because I'd rather live as I really am than die in this lonely place. So, thirty-two. Thirty-one. I wonder if there's anybody coming today.
Thirty. Twenty-nine. Twenty-eight. I hope they don't kill me. Twenty-seven. Twenty-six. Twenty-five. I know I look crazy, but twenty-four. Twenty-three. Twenty-two. I might as well. Twenty-one. I've already lost so much. Twenty-one. I'm desperate now. I'm closer now. Eighteen. Seventeen. Sixteen. There he is. Fifteen. Fourteen. Thirteen. Twelve. Eleven. Ten. Nine. Eight. Am I really going to do this? Too far to turn around. I'm closer to this than I am to that. Seven. Six. You're going to keep marching around those walls, or are you going to stop them? Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Somebody shout out here!
The Humble Approach and Jesus' Touch
Here I am, Lord. I'm a man of unclean lips, and I live amongst the people of unclean lips. You can see in my skin that on the surface I'm defiled, but I have more faith than a lot of the people who have perfect skin, because at least I came. I heard that you could heal, and I'm here, and I know I'm not supposed to be here, and I know they could kill me for being here. If you are who I've heard you are, you are the Holy One of God, and your holiness and my unholiness do not belong in this same vicinity, but I'm here. I took 50 steps to get here that I wasn't supposed to take, but I'm here. I'm here. I'm completely out of place, but I'm here. Put the verse up again. I'm here. I'm out of place.
It wasn't the 50 steps that got him healed. It was the next thing he did when he got there. I'm here. I'm here, and I'm humble. It wasn't those first 50 steps that got him healed. It was the 51st. You can come all the way to church and not get healed, because you won't get it like this, but if you will humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and hit your knees in your heart and let God know, I don't want to be my issues anymore. I heard what you could do, and if you will, you can make me clean. I know you can. I'm just not sure if you will. I found out it's much easier to get people to believe that God is great than it is to get them to believe that God is good.
It's not hard to get people to believe that God can do anything. The universe declares the glory of God, and the skies show forth his power, the firmament, his handiwork. It's not can God make an ocean that I wonder about. It's can God still the seas within me? I know you can, but will you? Jesus did something so scandalous, so dangerous. See, intimacy is risky. For Jesus to touch this man, it put him at risk of catching what the man had, and he touched the man. He touched the man. Some of you won't even high-five your neighbor in church without hand sanitizer, and Jesus touched the man. He touched them. You can't do that, Jesus, because according to Levitical law, if the unclean touches the clean, the clean will become unclean.
Jesus said, "I did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it." See, when that which is perfect has come, that which is imperfect will be done away with. Now, one greater than Moses is on the scene. This is one greater than he who heard I am. This is the I am which was spoken of in that bush, and he's on the scene. So, Jesus says, I'm not worried about touching him. If the unclean touch the clean, then the clean becomes unclean. But if the unclean touches Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Y'all better get ready. I'm going to drop this. Who is the perfect, sinless, spotless Lamb of God? When what is unclean touches what is perfectly clean, the unclean doesn't make the clean unclean. The clean makes the unclean clean. Shout about grace!
The Contagious Nature of Grace and Compassion
God, that made me happy when I read it. I thought about how he is not ashamed to be identified with me. How he's not worried about touching what I got. But if I get close enough to Jesus, his righteousness will rub off on me. Now, how do I find somebody and say, catch this! Catch grace! Catch praise! Hey, announcement! Grace is contagious! Praise is contagious! For all of y'all who are sitting next to somebody who doesn't want to praise God, I dare you to break out and seize on him! Until your whole role is praising God! Come on, play the alley! Three people in the center section! Praise is contagious! Oh, magnify the Lord with me! Let us exalt! Touch everybody you can reach! Say, grace is contagious! It's contagious! It's contagious! It's contagious! Grace is more contagious than shame! It doesn't matter what you've done! It doesn't matter where you've been! It doesn't matter what you smell like! It doesn't matter what they labeled you! You are not what you did, and you are not what they said!
Somebody shout, I am! The righteousness of God! Now take 20 seconds and act like you just got healed! I am. I never heard it before. I heard I am the bread of life. I heard I am the light of the world. I heard I am the gate. I heard I am the good Shepherd. I heard I am the way, the truth, and the light. I heard I am the resurrection. I've never heard this one. I am willing. God's nickname is Will, and he touched him. He touched that man. The first time that man felt something on his skin, he was touched by the one who wrapped him in flesh, and the Word became flesh. This is just a gospel message. This is just a gospel message. It's not very deep. I understand that. It's not very profound. I get that. But it's so much shame that keeps us away from the presence of the God who is already willing to take it away. So much shame.
Jesus' Indignation and Compassion
When Jesus looked at that man, the Bible says he was filled with compassion. He was filled with compassion. I saw you had that digital Bible. When I was sitting next to you, I noticed you had that digital Bible. When I just said that Jesus was filled with compassion, you looked confused. When I was sitting next to you, I said that Jesus was filled with compassion. Yep, there it is. Give me yours. This is a mess right here. Let me break out this woman's pink Bible to show you what the Word of God is. Oh, see? This is what church says too. It says filled with compassion. We're all reading that same translation. Who's got an orange elevation Bible? You got one? We gave away like 19,000 of these to people who made a profession of faith or rededication in Christ last year. Praise the Lord.
Let's study the Bible like this. Yep. See, this one we gave you. This one is the one I wanted to show. They translated it from Greek. Sometimes the languages… There's a distance between culturally how they saw certain concepts and how we see certain concepts. When we say grace, it's a soft term. But when the Hebrew mind thought of grace, they imagined grace coming from the same place that anger came from. It all came from… I'm going to teach you a word. You have any friends who make fun of you for coming to this church? Break this out on them at lunch today. Yeah, just say it with confidence. They will know if you said it right. Just say, in the Greek… Tell your neighbor, in the Greek, it's splanitsomai. Here in this translation, which they did in 2011, the NIV translation committee, they did it a little different. They said Jesus was indignant. In 1984, when they got together to translate it according to the same protocol of translation, they put it as compassion. Then when they translated it again, they said, no, it should be indignant, angry, furious, frustrated, annoyed, indignant, undignified. Which one is it? Was he filled with compassion or was he indignant? Yes. Yes. He was filled with compassion and he was indignant. It came from the same place. Splanitsomai. It means the guts, the bowels, the place where you really feel it, which becomes much more meaningful when you remember that the first sign of leprosy is that you lose feeling in your extremities.
Now this man who has lost the ability to feel and who has gone numb is touched by a Savior who can feel for him. This is where Christianity is different than every other world religion. This is why we're not just one in a list, because we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but he is able to be touched with the feeling. You know what happens in life? We go numb, especially in this age of information where we are expected to process all of the events all at once, the good ones, the bad ones. We can't feel it anymore. When you go numb, you can get hurt and not feel it, and you can die of a small cut that becomes infected because you do not feel it, and you don't know it needs healing because you do not feel it. Has the Enemy made you go numb to the point that you no longer feel splagnizomai? Jesus felt for the man. The religious system had gone numb. When Jesus healed a man with a shriveled hand one chapter later in Mark, they were worried about which day he did it on. They had gone so numb that the only thing they could think about was he broke the rules. But Jesus, who is the righteousness of God, looked at this man with compassion, and he looked at the shame the man carried with anger, splagnizomai.
The Desire to Feel Again
Jesus, looking at the man's condition, breaks the rules, makes a move. He feels for the man. He touches the man. He touches him because he feels for him. I want to feel again, God. I want my heart to break over the state of my family. I want my heart to break over the state of race relations in my nation. I want my heart to break over what is not yet perfect. I want to feel again God. I want to feel the joy of your presence. Cast me not away from your presence. Renew a right spirit in me. I want to feel again. I don't want to go through life hiding behind screens and numb on the inside. I want to feel again. I want your presence more than I want approval. I want to feel again. Why was he angry? He wasn't angry at the man. It wasn't the man's fault he had leprosy. Maybe he was mad because he knew the man was going to do exactly what he told him not to do. Did you catch that part? In verse 43, Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning. Again, the English is weak. It's weak. It's not wrong. It's just weak. It means Jesus charged the man with a flared nostril. That's the picture. Look this up on Google. You will see. One scholar said, Jesus snorted.
Now, I know you don't like snorting Jesus. You like snuggie Jesus. But Jesus snorted and told the man, don't tell anyone what I did to you, because if you tell people, it will prohibit me, because they will just want me to do for them this kind of miracle. But I've got to do what I came to do, which is die for their sin, not just fix their issues. Jesus said that Marty McFly thing going on, that Back to the Future. He knew the man was going to do exactly what he told him to do, but he healed him anyway. He knew you would still struggle with sin, but he saved you anyway. This is so powerful. I need to hurry up. Touch somebody and say, he did it anyway. He knew that even though my chains would be broken, I would still struggle with the remnant of my sin, but he did it anyway. Jesus told the man, don't tell anyone, and the man went and told him anyway. I could preach that a couple of ways. One way would be, when God has touched you and healed you in ways that no one can, you can't keep it to yourself. No one will have to train you to evangelize. You will just naturally tell somebody, he changed me. In fact, your life will be like product placement. People will start asking you, what happened to you? You'll be like, come see a man who told me… Come see a man who wasn't ashamed to touch me. Don't touch me. Don't just come to church with me. You need to meet a man. He went and told everybody what he wasn't supposed to tell.
Jesus Takes Our Place
The Bible says that because he did…. Jesus, verse 45, could no longer enter a place openly. Do you see it? Do you see it? But stayed outside in lonely places. Jesus. When this story started, the leper was in a lonely place. By the time it was over, Jesus was where the leper belonged. Here is the gospel. He did not just heal the man's skin. He took his place. Jesus. That's why I praise him. Not just because he gave me a good parking spot. Not just because my family always went to church. Not just because I feel guilty, but because he took my place. Somebody shout, he took my place. See, the Bible says the leper came to Jesus. I beg to differ, because in the fullness of time God sent his son to be born of a virgin. The leper didn't come to Jesus. Jesus came to the leper. I want you to know he sees where you are. He knows what you struggle with. He is not ashamed to come to you. Somebody give him praise because he came. He didn't just heal my issue. He took my place. He took my place.
Now the leper can go in and Jesus must stay out. He became sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God. God, this gospel I preach has the power to take away your guilt and your shame. God, this is the word you have to say. But you have to get in position, my brother, my sister. You can't get this grace until you're willing to bring yourself into submission. If you will, you can. You see, I'm weak. Look, I heard you were strong. Will you do it for me, God? On the inside, I don't just want my screen to be shinier. I want you to touch me on the inside. I want to feel again. I want to return to my first love. I want my lamp to burn again with holy oil. Will you touch me, Lord? And Jesus reached out, touched the man, and his shame was gone.