The Little Word That Leads to Great Awakening

CONSECRATE Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.  Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you.  Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.  HEAR (But First READ MATTHEW 8) Matthew 8:1–3 ESV When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. CONSIDER There's a tiny word of enormous consequence in today's text which sadly is often not even translated in most versions of the Bible. In fact, because I know you have already read the whole of chapter 8 I would love it if you would scan back quickly and see if the word appears in your Bible. The word is there in verse 2. It is behold. The Greek word is pronounced "ho-rah-o." It means something like "to stare at intently" and "to discern clearly" and "to attend to comprehensively" and "to experience deeply."   Understand something. The goal of the Bible, the written Word of God, is not to give us information but revelation. And yet the revelation contained in the Bible attempts to capture something so extraordinary it defies words and even language altogether. Jesus Christ, a human being, the Son of God, is walking the earth and doing God-things. Because we have them written down in a book that collects dust on our shelves and side tables, we so easily miss the gravity of this. It's why this whole project is called the Wake-Up Call—because we so easily drift off to sleep. Because we so easily go to sleep at the wheel, the Holy Spirit inserted an alarm clock right into the middle of the text. This little word—behold—is meant to cause great awakening. It means wake up, sleeper!  Now, get this. It appears some two hundred times in the New Testament alone. We see it sixty-two (count them sixty-two) times in the Gospel of Matthew. We behold it today for the eleventh time so far and we've likely not even noticed, because many popular translations simply don't translate it (try the ESV or the KJV or the NKJV). Please see the P.S. today bc I'm starting a petition to my friends, the translators of my favorite translation—the NIV (New International Version) to bring back beholding to the Bible.  Okay, we're Gospelling now!  And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him . . .  There is a synonym for leper: unclean! And there is a verb associated with the word leper: run! There is also another word for the completely different and unprecedented thing that is happening here: Jesus! Go splash some cold water on your face and behold what is going on here.  And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him . . .  Now, you noticed in verse 1 a "great crowd." People had to be losing it—running for the doors. But we are now beholding this utterly devastated man, sick to death, banished from society, consumed alive by the soul-eating bacteria of shame—he starts talking to Jesus.  “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” It's one thing to watch this on television on the Chosen. It's another thing entirely to behold it at the level of your own soul.  And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, . . .  Wait! What! Can you hear the collective gasp as his hand moves in slow motion toward this deathly contagious man? Did he have to touch him? Couldn't he just speak healing?  Not Jesus! He will reach and he will speak . . .  saying, “I will; . . .  And that's a word in itself. Can you hear him saying it, "I will"? And do you know what? He says it over you too. Can you say it out loud right now for him over yourself—"I will." Then this:  . . . be clean.” Now, behold this: And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And he's only getting started. Our little alarm clock of a watchword will appear no less than four more times in chapter 8 alone and I can already hear the pages turning on your Bible as you are diving in. Let me know where you spot them. Jump into our Facebook group for some collective beholding today. PRAY My Lord! My King! Jesus! We behold you and we are in awe! We hear your word now spoken over us—over me—"I will." Now, Jesus, would you speak into our own deep heart and spirit what you will to do in our lives—in my life? I'm listening and ready to write it down in faith. Praying in your name, amen.