Matthew pt. 26 - Jesus Forgives Sin and Heals

Matthew Chapter 9 I'm going to read to you verses one through 8

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

this morning. Before I do the quick context,

remember Jesus was on one side of the Sea of Galilee and he

said hey. Let's go across to the other

side. The storm comes up.

He calms the storm. They arrive at the other side,

Two demon possessed men chained up.

They broke the chains naked. They lived in the tombs, violent

men, so much so that no one would pass through this area

because no one wanted to come across these two guys.

They come to Jesus and the demons within them begin begging

Jesus for mercy. Please, son of God, swear that

you won't torture us before the time They're afraid of Jesus.

That's how demons react to Jesus.

Contrary to every stupid movie that has ever portrayed it

otherwise. Demons are afraid of Jesus.

Jesus eats demons for breakfast. Jesus goes bump in the night.

Jesus check under their bed to make sure Jesus.

Demons check under their bed to make sure Jesus isn't under

there. They check in the closet to make

sure he's not in there, going to come get him.

This is the perspective that demons have of Jesus.

And then he commands them to come out.

He says come out. He drives them out.

And then these two men are clothed.

They're sitting in their right mind.

They're restored at the glory of God for the will of God.

And then the whole testimony spreads because all the pigs

that had died and now it goes into the city, all the city

comes out. And they said to Jesus, they

begged him to leave. This is the reaction that people

can have to Jesus. Some people go, I beg you not to

leave me and other people go, I beg you to leave.

You're disruptive. Jesus is disruptive.

Jesus will change everything. Well, I'm not up for that

disruption. Then by all means, you have

that. You can cast your vote.

It'll be the worst vote. It'll be the worst decision that

you've ever made. It's the worst decision any

human could ever make. But he allows you to make it.

So if you beg Jesus to leave, what did he do?

He left. So he got back in the boat and

he crossed back to the other side.

And that brings us here. Chapter 9, verse one, Getting

into a boat. He crossed.

Over. And came to his own city.

That's Capernaum. So that was basically

headquarters for the ministry of Jesus.

He does a lot of traveling throughout his three years of

ministry, but Capernaum was home base.

This is where Peter's home was. Seems as though Jesus stayed

there. Getting into a boat, he crossed

over and came to his own city, and behold, some people brought

to. Him a paralytic lying on a bed.

And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Take

heart, my son, your sins are forgiven.

And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, this man is

blaspheming. But Jesus, knowing their

thoughts, said, why do you think evil in your hearts?

For which is easier to say Your sins are forgiven, or rise and

walk, but that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on

earth to forgive sins. He then said to the paralytic

rise, pick up your bed and go home.

And he rose and went home. When the crowd saw it, they were

afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to

men. God, thank you for your powerful

word. It's living and it's active.

It's speaking. It tells us what happened then

for purpose, and it also tells us about something now, about

who you are, about what you want to do, and about what you still

will do in the future. Bring light.

Bring clarity. As we honor you, as we want to

know you more, and as we want to become more like Jesus.

Bring transformation in the Saints and the renewal of our

minds in Jesus name we thank you.

Amen. So multiple gospel accounts give

us this story and others give us different details.

So if you'll remember, remember the four friends who brought

their friend and lowered him through the roof?

That's this occasion, that's this.

Matthew just didn't go into that detail.

So you'll see the Holy Spirit saw fit to to have different

disciples emphasize different things throughout the Gospels.

So Matthew didn't give us all of that detail.

But these four friends climb on top of Peter's house.

And these flat roofs, a lot of thatch and mud and different

things. They began picking at this as

Jesus is teaching, just destroying Peter's roof.

And then these are the guys who lower their friend down in front

of Jesus. Matthew has been laying out his

gospel for the past couple chapters, not so much

chronologically. He's still done some things in

chronological order, but not everything that he's been doing

here is in chronological order, because that's not the greatest

priority that he's making here. What he's been doing for the

past couple chapters, at least for 8:00 and 9:00 or for 7-8 and

nine, is he's been laying out some theological points because

Matthew wrote the Gospel of Matthew, for who he wrote it for

the Jews. So he's laying out a theological

account and he's building Jesus's authority.

He's showing them who he is over and over and over again.

It's very systematic. He shows Jesus's authority over

sickness multiple times. Large crowds gather in their

healed. And individuals are healed.

Got to stay in front of this. Give me a second.

Better that than a 3 minute coughing fit in front of you,

right? Over sickness, multiple times,

large crowds and individuals. Jesus has authority over the

religious leaders. How He says that their

righteousness is false and that it is insufficient and he keeps

showing the Jews this. What else does Jesus have

authority over? He shows them that Jesus has

authority over governments. He does this by showing the

powerful Roman centurion coming to the all powerful one, Jesus

for help. Again, shocking.

For the Jews to see A Roman coming to A Jew.

A Jewish Rabbi, could you please help me?

The powerful Roman who's supposed to be ruling over you.

Jesus has all authority over governments.

What else does Jesus have? All of all authority over over

nature. Why?

He tells the wind and the waves to shut up and to be quiet.

He controls nature itself. The case is building goodness.

That's everything, isn't it? No, we're not done.

Jesus has authority over demons. They beg him for mercy and he

drives them out. So you can see the escalation

that took place as Matthew's building his case.

He's going, he heals people and you go, wow, that's amazing.

Like, paralyzed people, lame people, deaf people, mute

people, you name it. People, religious leaders.

Wow. He has authority over them.

Wow. The government, he has authority

over that. Nature itself.

Does it get any bigger? Oh yeah, The spiritual dominion.

He has power over the demons. Does it get any bigger than

that? And here, this is the this is

the tip of the spear, the boys. And I've been watching a lot of

WWE lately. So the wrestlers, they all have

like the basic wrestling moves, but then some of them they have

like their signature move. You know what I'm talking about?

Like this is his special thing. This is the the the Stone Cold.

Back in the day, he had the Stone Cold stunner.

So sure, everybody's got the. Clothesline.

But this is the thing of all things.

This is the this is the premier thing that Jesus is going to

come and do, and this is his authority over sin.

Jesus has the power to forgive, to pardon, to dismiss, to

cancel, and to absorb sin. This is the greatest miracle

that he will perform. He will absorb.

He will swallow. He will take into himself the

sin of the whole earth all the way from Adam all the way to the

last person who's going to be born.

Every single one is a Sinner. Jesus will absorb it all into

himself and he will destroy it. It will not overtake him, even

though the Scripture says he will become sin who knew no sin.

We will become the righteousness of God.

But Jesus is not overcome by sin.

His righteousness swallows it all up.

So Jesus has all authority over sin.

And that's what Matthew is emphasizing here today.

Often times this story is told as look at the paralyzed man

being healed and yes again we've looked at healing over and over

and over and we'll continue to say yes, our God is a healer

then, now and later. Our God is a healer.

You should expect it. You should stand on it.

You should believe for it. Clearly that's that is made

plain in the scriptures. And yet Matthew's point here was

look at what Jesus is doing, because that's also what Jesus's

point was, just so you can know that the Son of Man also has.

Power to forgive sins. I'll also do this other thing.

I would have done it anyway. I've been doing it over and

over. But I want you to know.

So let's keep going here. Verse 2.

And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic lying on a

bed. And when Jesus saw their faith,

he said to the paralytic, Take heart, my son.

Your sins are forgiven, says Jesus saw their faith.

We've talked many times about how Jesus is impressed with

faith and he's and he's surprised at a lack of faith.

Those two things make him react. It's going, that's faith.

I love it. He's going, where is your faith?

Those are the two things. It it seems to be a black and

white thing for him, not a not necessarily this Gray area.

But it's like if faith is present, it's enough and I can

work with it. And if it's not?

Why won't you believe me? Where is your faith?

Where is your expectation? These men revealed their faith.

They're willing to destroy a man's house.

They're willing. I mean, this is a process.

Jesus is teaching. The house is filled.

People are in at the door, all over the place, just to hear his

words, to hear what he's going to do, to see what he's going to

say. Pharisees, scribes.

They've got the prize seats, probably.

And the the roof begins being torn.

Pebbles are falling in front of Jesus.

Dust is filling the air. I mean, this is awkward.

Did he pause? Did he stop and go, OK, we'll

give these guys a minute and then slowly they lower their

friend down and he's lying there in front of Jesus.

Is he embarrassed? Is he excited?

Is he nervous? Hey, I know we just messed.

Peter's sitting there like Peter's wife's.

Like, what are these guys doing? That's our roof.

He's like, I know, I know. Weird stuff happens around

Jesus, babe. Like, we're going to.

I'll fix it like it's going to be OK or maybe the.

I'm sure the guys hung around and fixed it, rightfully so.

That's only right. We can tear up somebody's.

Roof to do so. But Jesus sees their faith like

this is great expectation. Look at the links that we're

willing to go to. Why?

Because I know if we get to Jesus, I know how the story ends

and I'm willing to get to Jesus. So they come in and they're

like, look at the crowd. We can't get to the door.

We're never going to be able to get to him.

There's too many people and someone friend.

Are you that friend in the group who's like, we should go on the

roof? Brock Williams.

Like, I'm that guy. He gets that from his dad.

Like, well, why don't we just go on the roof?

Well, how would that help? Well, we could tear a hole in

the roof. I guess you're right.

We could do it. We could do it.

Jesus won't turn us away. Jesus won't turn that away.

Jesus won't rebuke us for this. Do you think in your zeal,

Christian, the world will often try and get you to back away

from your zeal for the Lord? Do you think that the Lord will

rebuke you for your zeal? Do you think that the Lord will

rebuke you for going off the deep end?

That's how people will try and get you to pull back away from

Jesus. Oh, you're kind of like you're

so heavily minded. You're no earthly good.

There's all kinds of nonsensical phrases.

They get used to tell you to back away, back away from the

Presence, back away from the flame, and instead to press in

deeper and say, no, I want, I want more of Jesus, and I don't

expect he'll rebuke me for this. So Jesus is blessed and

impressed by their faith. What do you think these four

friends were looking to get for their paralyzed friend when they

lowered in front of Jesus? It's not a trick question.

What do you think they were expecting?

They wanted him to be healed. They wanted his body to be

physically healed. That was their expectation.

Why would they think that? Well, because they know what

Jesus has been doing and they're going.

Finally, he's back in Capernaum. This is our chance.

We've heard the testimonies are building.

Our faith has been increased. We trust in Jesus.

Why would they think that? Because that's what he's been

doing. That's who he is.

That's what he's about. And faith will always have

action. When you believe something,

there will be an action to go along with it.

If you say you believe something and there's no action to go

along with it, I would say, friend, you really don't believe

that. You might have some mental

acknowledgement around it, but I would argue that you don't

believe something unless it changes the way that you live.

Sometimes in dramatic ways, sometimes in less dramatic ways.

But if you have faith for anything in particular, it will

change the way that you live. It will change your expectation.

It will. And because your expectation is

real, it's not pretend. It's not false.

You'll do something different, something that you wouldn't have

done without it. So these friends are bringing

this man to Jesus to be healed. Of his paralysis.

We don't know how he got sick. We don't know if this was an

injury that took place. Maybe these are five

construction worker friends and this guy falls off a roof and

broke his neck years ago and this has been his life ever

since. We don't know.

We don't know if he was Born This Way.

We don't know the situation and we also don't know if sin had

any part to play in it. Some theologians, some some

Christians have come and approached this text and said

this issue was directly connected to some sin through

some way that we don't know. It's not our business and that's

why Jesus begins with healing his body first.

We really don't know that. It's a speculation that could be

made, but we don't know for sure.

But Jesus takes this opportunity to show us His greatest

authority. Jesus takes this opportunity to

show us the greatest, the greatest priority of His

ministry and of His gospel and that is this, the forgiveness of

sins. Here in verse 2, Jesus says take

heart my son. So he's lowered in front of him.

He's finally here. Jesus might look up and smile at

the guys. Good job, guys.

Looks back down to him. Take heart, my son.

He's like, oh, words of encouragement.

And then the very next thing he says to him, Your sins are

forgiven. Your sins are forgiven.

Jesus is word of the paralytic. Take heart.

This is the word of encouragement that the Lord has

for you. Today as well.

Take heart. Be of good cheer.

Get your hopes up. Be encouraged.

Why? Because God Forgives sinners

like you. God Forgives sinners like me.

God Forgives sinners like all of us.

Joe Michael Aren't we Aren't we Saints now?

Yes, yes, we are actually Saints by by definition and by

identity. If you are in Christ, you are a

St. And yet we were sinners.

We were sinners who have been saved by the grace of God,

making us Saints. There's oftentimes

denominational arguments here. Some would skew towards we're

just Saints, we're just Saints, don't acknowledge our sin.

Others would say I'm just a St. I'm just a Sinner save by grace.

I'm a worm in the dirt and going well, we can tell the whole

truth. We can say we are actually

Saints with a new identity fully and completely restored.

And yes, I still have the capacity and the ability to sin.

And I most definitely was by identity, a Sinner, completely,

by nature a child of wrath. That's who I was, a child of, my

father, the devil, before. But Jesus is saying be

encouraged. Why?

Why should this man be encouraged?

Because God Forgives sin. Sin is the reason that we're

separated from God. That's it.

That's the reason that you were separated from God.

That's the reason if you are currently.

That's the reason. Well, like we said earlier, well

my personality has always been kind of, well, I've never really

taken to all these things that we want to act like are some

sort of external input. I prefer all these external

inputs because they become excuses for me.

Well, it's not really this. It's like it was the way I was

raised or the culture I was in or, you know, my parents were

like this or or the the trauma that I suffered, all real

things, but also become a scapegoat for me to not say it's

because of my sin. All of these things serve to

protect my ego. All of these things serve to

keep me from recognizing the fact that if I was all alone on

the planet earth, I would still be a Sinner and sin would still

come out of my own heart. I would create new ways of evil.

This is what the Bible believes about you.

This is what the Bible believes about me.

Because this is reality. Sin comes from the heart of

fallen man. I create things all by myself.

Did I skew towards a certain thing because of environmental

factors? Sure, but they.

But the impulse came from within me.

Well, I was tempted, yeah, but the fulfillment came from within

me. Jesus was tempted in every way,

just like you, John Michael. Jesus was tempted in every way,

just like you Saints. But he didn't fall.

Why? Because sin wasn't within him.

It was always an external temptation, and it was never an

internal desire. It was just a it was a it was a

temptation, but not to the degree of sin, And that is the

distinction. Our sin is the reason we're

separated from God. Our own sin is the reason that

we're lost and the reason that we are children of wrath.

But God is rich in mercy, and He delivers.

He. Saves.

Jesus brings this most powerful proclamation of his entire

ministry to us right here. So it's not all the other

reasons that I want to excuse. Well, you only did that.

You only did that wrong thing because of what they did wrong

to you first. You know you only treated your

wife this way because she was nagging.

You only were disrespectful to your husband because he wasn't

caring. You only blew up on your kids

because they were misbehaving. You only did this thing in the

workplace because that person sinned for it.

You didn't really sin. You were just doing.

You were you were bringing justice to the circumstance,

actually. Well done.

You're just you're just trying to level things out.

You see how quickly that that all feels normal, doesn't it?

We've all heard that little story running in our head.

I'm like, well, I just. I didn't really.

I just instead of. No, it was your sin.

It was your retribution. It was your retaliation.

It was you being sinned against that caused your own sin to

swell up and go. How dare you?

Do you know who I am? Do you know what I'm worthy of?

Do you know what you're worthy of?

Do you know what you deserve? It brings a humility when when

we take this approach. And This is why the forgiveness

of sins is the best news that anyone will ever hear.

But it's only the humble heart who recognizes as the best news.

If you're not the humble, if you're not meek and poor and

lowly in heart, then you go, well, yeah, I mean, that's cool,

but healing is cooler. Miracles, I think, are even

better. You go, well, that's then.

That just means you don't know who you are.

And that means you don't know you actually don't recognize

your need, and you should pray and ask the Lord to reveal your

need to you. If we were all.

Alone in the earth, we would still have sin.

In our hearts. It feels like a comfort to us,

but in the end it leads to death because all these excuses serve

to protect our ego and our flesh.

But if you're never guilty, then you're never forgiven.

If you're never a guilty person, then you can never be a forgiven

person. So it's a good thing to say

guilty. And yet I plead the blood of

Jesus. I run under the blood of Jesus

for covering and for protection. The gospel crushes the human ego

because to be forgiven means that you were guilty.

To need a savior means that you are weak.

To be made alive in Christ means you were dead.

And this is how the gospel works.

This is different from everything else.

Every other world religion, every other philosophy, it says

you've got to accomplish all these things.

You have a checklist. And in doing your checklist, you

will earn your reward. And Christianity says Jesus

earned your reward. He gives it to you freely.

And now here, yeah, there are many things to do in light of

this new revelation, in light of this new life, your royalty.

So of course it's appropriate to act differently.

Put on the new man, you've been made new inside.

And now, just so you know, here's what it looks like you'll

you'll sense these desires and these new impulses obey them.

Follow them and let's be more clear.

The scripture tells us, here's really what they look like.

So there can't be mystery and interpretation.

Well, to me, the new desires say this.

To me. The new desires say that.

Well, thank God we have the New Testament full of hundreds of

commands, by the way, country to popular belief, hundreds of

commands in the New Testament, which will fill you up with

clarity and the renewal of your mind so that you can be more

like, say, his name. That's our purpose, That's our

point. I want to be more like Jesus.

I want to be more like Jesus. That's my purpose.

That's my mission. That's my life.

That's the whole thing. That's Christianity.

That's maturity. That's growth.

I want to be more like the one who loved me, who gave himself.

Why? Because that's what he wants.

That's how he gets glory. The Father is so pleased with

Jesus. He wants everybody to look just

like him. What about my individuality?

What about my personality? God made your personality, and

God loves you as an individual. He's not creating clones, and

yet it brings the Lord pleasure and glory through the diverse,

broad and body of Christ. Then everyone would still look

like Christ through their nature and their character.

So you'll still be you, and yet you will.

Look, more and more like Christ Jesus asks.

Can I protect you from sickness? From disease, from injury?

Yes. Can I protect you from

governments? Yes.

Can I protect you from nature? Yes.

Can I protect you from demons? Yes.

But even more than all of that, he says I will forgive your

sins. All other ministry of Jesus

blesses. And brings the Kingdom to our

temporary situation. But only this purpose, the

forgiveness of sins, affects the deep.

Part of our souls. And our eternity.

What kind of people go to heaven?

Forgiven people. What kind of people Walk with

Jesus? Forgiven people.

Those are the people who love most.

And when you recognize that you've been forgiven of a lot,

you will love a lot. If you think you've been

forgiven of little, then you go, I appreciate it.

I was wasn't that big of a deal. You didn't forgive me a much,

like it wasn't that big of a deal.

I was actually a pretty good person.

So your little bit of forgiveness isn't that special

to me. But actually when you recognize

the truth you go who from the depths.

You become the woman who breaks open the the years worth of

wages and it and pours it on the feet of Jesus.

You take the most honourable thing that you can have and you

give it to him. Have you ever imagined what

you'll do when you first see him?

I've always imagined just collapsing to his feet, my face

in between his feet. It's just one of my I've

pictured in my mind's eye just to love him, to honour him.

And I suspect that he would lift me up knowing him.

I expect that's what he would do.

That he would. I love you.

I've restored you. You're you're you're now mine.

You're now royalty with me. And yet still just this desire

to worship and to make myself low before him.

To to to want to honor him as much as possible and go.

Your feet. I want to touch you.

I want to be close to you. But your feet, your feet are

enough for me. And he said no, bro.

I I intended to bring you face to face.

I intended always to bring you eye to eye.

This is the restoration that our king offers to us.

This is what the forgiveness of sins does.

It's not merely a You will no longer be penalized for the

crime that you have committed. It's not all the forgiveness of

sins is. It's also the redemption.

You have been forgiven. So no, you will not be punished

and penalized for the crimes that you've committed.

And you just go, Thanks, judge, and you leave the courtroom and

you never see the judge again. That's not what happens at all.

He says not only will you not be punished and penalized for the

crimes you've committed, you're going to come into my house.

I'm adopting you as my son. All of my wealth, all of my

love, all of my identity and my name will become yours.

But you're the judge, you're righteous.

You keep the law. You obey the law.

And he said, yeah, and now that's your name, that's who you

are, and you're to be with me. So it's it's far greater.

It's far beyond. You're not getting in trouble

anymore. It's a place of restoration and

complete redemption. That's the story of the Bible

Saints from beginning to end. The big theme of the Scripture

we know the whole Bible points to Jesus.

We've said that many times. And we see that all throughout

the Old and New Testament. But the whole, the whole arc of

Scripture is what? What's the big story of the

Bible? It's redemption.

It's the redemption of mankind and the glory of God.

God is real. God is alive.

But this is all His story. Things went South as soon as

Adam sinned. As soon as Adam sinned, all

humanity fell. And from that moment forward,

the Lord was restoring things all the way until we get to the

marriage supper of the Lamb. And then we all live happily

ever after, restored in Christ, God's enemies, receiving what

they chose out of their rejection for Jesus.

People who didn't need to be forgiven, so they said.

People who didn't love. The Son they weren't willing to

honor and bow down to the king. If you're not guilty, you can't

be forgiven, and Jesus reveals that this is the greatest thing

that he could possibly offer to anybody.

Verse 3. And behold, some of the scribes

said to themselves, this man is blaspheming.

So remember, scribes are religious leaders.

Remember one of the scribes recently said to Jesus, Lord,

I'll follow you wherever you go. Jesus saw the crowd gathering,

so he said it's time for a test, time to separate them.

He says, I'm going across to the other side of the lake and one

of the scribes recognized, He goes, I know what he's doing.

He's trying to see who he's. This is a test.

And he goes, Lord, I follow you wherever you go.

Maybe this is one of the same scribes.

Maybe maybe one actually followed.

Maybe that guy fell off before then, but he's falling apart

here. Unfortunately.

Now he's saying that Jesus is going too far for him.

He's blaspheming. So to blasphemy means to

slander, to lie when speaking about God.

So if somebody were to say I'm God and they're not, well then

that would be blasphemy. It's a lie.

It's according to the scriptures that was punishable by death.

So they're sitting there thinking among themselves when

this when this man, this just mere man, says I forgive you and

your sins are forgiven, Go only God can forgive sins.

Well, that's correct. So far so good, scribe.

So far so good. Pharisee, you're doing a good

job. Other accounts tell us that they

thought to themselves, who can forgive sins?

Except God alone, which is a good question.

You can't forgive someone of the money that they owe to the bank,

right? I can't tell you.

Hey everybody, your mortgage is forgiven like.

OK. Like that.

That was a nice gesture, Joe. Michael, we really appreciate

it. If only the bank happened to

agree with you, then, then that would really be a great blessing

to us. So that's what the scribes think

Jesus is doing here. He's going, your sins are

forgiven and they're like, you're not the bank, you're not

the bank. And that's what they don't

realize. He is the bank.

The debt is owed to him, therefore he can forgive the

debt. So if you owe me money, I could

say, hey, forget it, it's forgiven.

And then what's your response? Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Gratitude and joy. But only the bank can do the

forgiving. And all people owe God.

All people everywhere. Oh God, perfect holiness, That's

what we owe him. And God owes all people wrath

and punishment because they didn't pay.

So the scribes understood correctly so far, but what they

miss is that Jesus is God. Jesus is the one who is owed the

holiness. Jesus is the one who is owed the

perfection. So he does have the power to

forgive sin. This is the this is the wave.

Jesus is the tsunami that just keeps on coming.

He's the whole ocean that just invades.

He doesn't stop his authority. Man, is there a limit to it?

No. And that's what he finalizes at

the end of Matthew. All authority in heaven and on

earth has been given to me. All of it.

Everything belongs to him. There's nothing that he can't

touch. This is why this should build

your faith. This should encourage you.

When you've sinned, when the enemy is accusing you, when he's

telling you to be ashamed, when he's telling you stay away.

All the lies that come, all the intimidation, all the.

Well, now people are going to think.

Or now, oh, you're just coming to Jesus because all these

things that he tells you, you just go.

My God is merciful. My God is eager to forgive sins.

However, I can get to him if I have to press through the crowd

and grab his garment, if I have to tear the roof off, Whatever I

have to do, I've got to get to Jesus, because I know Jesus is

forgiving. I know Jesus is kind, and I know

Jesus forgives sins and he forgives sinners.

Verse 4 But knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, why do you

think evil in your hearts? Some have said that this is one

of the gifts of the Spirit in operation.

There are others who believe that Jesus constantly had all

thoughts in his head at all times like that he was always

aware of every single thing. I actually don't believe that

Jesus is always God. Jesus always all powerful.

There's no limit to what he could do except that he chose to

operate in a particular way at a particular time.

So it's not that he was limited, apart from the fact that he

chose to set himself into a particular way.

So some believe that this was one of the gifts of the Spirit,

that he had a word of knowledge that he was saying.

Some people are thinking this right now.

Others could say something is simple.

And I could see both arguments where you could just say it's

obvious what they would be thinking.

You know, it seems obvious what Scribes and Pharisees, You know,

if you're familiar with a belief system of a group of people, you

could say certain things that you could trigger, certain

thoughts of them that you could predict.

You go, well, I know that they're going to have that

expectation. It's not the most important

thing here. The most important thing is

Jesus does know their thoughts and he says, why do you think

evil in your hearts? He calls their thoughts evil.

Of course they're evil because they're thinking you're a

blasphemer. He's going no, no, no, no, no,

no. Well, well, in our defense, you

don't have a defense because if you're watching the Messiah

closely and actually looking at the scriptures.

You'd see who he is and what he's doing, and he has power to

do everything that he says. But look what he does here, he

acknowledges, Yes, it's easy to say your sins are forgiven,

right? That's what he means when he

says, which is easier to say Your sins are forgiven.

And they're like, yeah, anybody can say that.

I can say your mortgage is forgiven.

Which? Which is easier, to say that or

to say to the paralyzed man, rise up, take up your mat.

Well, both technically are easy to say with your mouth, but is

there power to back? Is there power to support?

So Jesus then makes his point. He says but I'll prove it with

some action some have mistakenly said This isn't really about

healing at all because he's just wanting to prioritize the

emphasis of forgiveness of sins and the only reason he heals

this man is to prove the forgiveness of sins.

Which is a super dumb argument if you've read all of Matthew up

until this point. Like Jesus isn't going to heal

anybody except to prove a point. Like Jesus heals people because

it's manifestation of the Kingdom of God.

So that's why he's going to heal people.

And yes, also most definitely he's very wise and perfect in

what he does here in the way that he does it.

So it does it. He does bring it across as

though he's saying, but so you can know that I have the power

to forgive sins. Here's what I'll do.

But he doesn't just say the power that I will have, right.

He speaks and he uses that phrase from Daniel Chapter 7

Daniel 7 · chapter mention

again the Son of Man. Remember this phrase.

The son of Man. Jesus is most most preferred

language that he would use to describe himself.

He would say when the Son of Man He's speaking a third person,

but he would reference This is Daniel Chapter 7 that he's

Daniel 7 · chapter mention

referencing who is the Son of Man.

I'll remind you So every time you see Son of Man in the

scriptures you can remember. This is what Jesus was saying.

Daniel chapter 13. I saw.

Daniel Chapter 7, verse 13. I saw in the night visions, and

Daniel 7:13

behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son

of man, and he came to the ancient of days, That's the

Father. And he was presented before him,

and to him Jesus was given dominion and glory and a Kingdom

that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass

away, and his Kingdom is one that shall not be destroyed.

This is what Jesus is saying every time he says Son of Man.

So we just go, It's a quick label.

It's not. He's going.

I have the everlasting Kingdom that will never be destroyed.

So that's how he's speaking. That's what he's correcting.

The scribes again. He's saying it's me, I'm the

Messiah. Some people claim that John is

really the only gospel where Jesus lays out his divinity

really plainly. It's just not true.

He does it in a way that even the layman who's never read

anything could understand because he spells it out for

you. But all through the Gospels,

every gospel clarifies Jesus is the Messiah if you just have a

little bit more scriptural context around it.

Every gospel, the whole Bible points to Jesus as God and the

Gospels. Make it very very plain, Jesus,

knowing their thoughts. So why do you think evil in your

heart? Which is easier to say your sins

are forgiven, or to say rise and walk, but that you may know that

the Son of Man. Has authority on earth to

forgive sins, he then said to the paralytic rise.

Pick up your bed and go home. All authority is Jesus's, and

this is great news because Jesus is so good.

He makes the unclean clean. He makes the awful.

Good. He makes the dead alive, and he

makes the Sinner righteous. Go to verse seven and eight as

we close. And he rose, talking about the

paralyzed man, and he rose and went home.

When the crowd saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God,

who had given such authority to men.

Luke tells us that there was a little bit more rejoicing that

happened here. Matthew just gave the detail.

He rose, took up his bed and went home.

It doesn't sound that exciting, you know?

But the different gospel accounts again point out

different details. But he he rises and praises God,

obviously full of joy and gratitude.

We don't know how long this man's been paralyzed, but we

can't imagine. Have you ever been around a

paralyzed person? When I worked as an EMT, I had

different patients and just your entire life.

Your entire life. You're completely dependent when

you urinate, when you defecate, to be turned, to be rolled, to

be clean, to be bathed, to eat. You can do nothing.

You can do nothing. And if people chose to not care

about you, then that'd be the end of you.

You're at the mercy of everyone, and thank God this man had four

friends who loved him. So this man stuck, confined to

this man. Your sins are forgiven and your

body is healed and restored. The greatest priority was given

first, and then he went to a secondary 1.

He's healed. He's forgiven.

The crowd sees it. They fear God and they glorify.

God the crowd is an interesting principle.

Remember the crowd versus the disciple?

We've been talking about that over the past few weeks.

Every time Jesus sees a large crowd gathering, he says

something to divide them. Not because he wants to push

anyone away. He doesn't want to push any of

you away. But it is a test.

It is a test. He will test your love.

He will test your loyalty. He will test your faithfulness.

Jesus sees thousands gathering, and the disciples are getting

excited. They go, oh, we got some

momentum. This ministry's building.

It's taking off. And Jesus says, you have to eat

my flesh and drink my blood. And they go, oh, this is a hard

saying, I'm out of here. And they all leave.

And Jesus goes, it's working. I'm sifting him out.

He sees the large crowd gathering, and everybody's all

excited. The miracles, the miracles, the

miracles, it's awesome. And he says, I'm going to cross

over and go to the other side, to the gatherings where these

two crazy guys are that you've heard about.

And they're like, thank you for the miracles.

It's been awesome. God bless you.

God bless you. No hard feelings, but I'm not

following you. The disciples get in the boat.

The disciples say you're not leaving my sight like Elisha

with Elijah. You will not.

You will not leave this earth without me by your side.

I'll be with you every moment. That's the.

That's the heart of the disciple.

I'm not leaving you. Well, it's going to be

difficult. Like the scribe.

Lord, I'll follow you wherever you go.

And Jesus said it's going to be very difficult.

You're going to give up all kinds of comforts that you're

used to. I will disrupt your entire

world. I'm not so down for that.

I understand. If you knew that I was worth it,

you would. Be.

But you get to cast your vote, Saints.

I've cast mine. Cast yours.

You can cast it fresh. You can renew it.

You can renew your vow to the Lord.

Lord, I love you. I'm thankful for you.

I'm eager to follow you. The crowd would come and go.

They would gather and they would disperse, and they would gather

and then he would disperse, not because he didn't love them, but

because he told them over and over.

If you won't take up your cross and follow me, you're not worthy

to be to my disciple. Well, am I worthy or am I not

worthy? You get to pick.

You get to pick. Nobody gets to cast you out.

And he will not cast you out. You see, I just feel so weak.

Hey, the the the candle flame that's barely flickering.

Scripture says he won't extinguish it.

The Reed that's bruised and and bending in the wind.

He won't knock it down. He won't destroy the thing.

He won't break it all the way. He will strengthen you.

But you will get to cast your vote.

You get to follow. You get to pick your degree of

faithfulness. It's just that it's going to

cost me. Absolutely.

And he was honest with you about that from day one.

He told you that. And that's how he divided us.

That's how he sorted us. The crowd.

The disciple. The crowd.

The disciple, the crowd. Would come and go all the way up

until Jesus last week before his crucifixion, Palm Sunday today,

the triumphal entry. Lazarus has been raised it's

let's gather around him again. I know he shooed us off with

some of the things he said and done but but he raised Lazarus

from the dead and and he and he did it right outside of

Jerusalem. So he's he's already raised

people from the dead but he did it right outside of Jerusalem

when all these people have gathered for the week of

Passover. So Jerusalem is packed.

Bethany is packed. Like there's people everywhere.

It's family reunion. It's honoring the scriptures.

It's it's wonderful festival and celebration.

So there's people everywhere. And somebody's just been raised

from the dead. Yeah, it's this rabbi.

He's been here like three years doing crazy and amazing things.

He's raised other people from the dead.

But now you can go talk to Lazarus.

Like, where's the guy? Where did he really raise you

from The dead? Yeah.

There's his sisters. Did he really raise him from the

dead? Yeah.

Yeah, we were there too. We saw it.

All these people saw it. Poor Lazarus.

The scripture says the Pharisees plotted to kill him.

It's like because because so many of the Jews were going away

and following him, and they were looking at each other going,

this is pointless. It's they said the whole world

is going after him now, after Jesus.

So they plot to kill Lazarus. That's that's rough, right?

I died last week from natural causes.

Later this week. I'm like, people are going to

try and murder me. We never have any account that

Lazarus gets murdered. So that's good news for him.

But everybody's rejoicing. Everybody's excited.

The crowd is here. Let's honor the Messiah.

Is this the moment that he'll take over and free us from Roman

oppression? Well, he's going to free you

from oppression, but it's the oppression that you didn't even

recognize the priority. You didn't recognize it was the

greatest thing. They still don't know about his

greatest work yet. The cross and their redemption.

Nobody wants their their saviour.

To go to the. Cross Nobody wants the their

hero to die. And yet this hero designed it,

and it's all set up so that he has to die because he's going to

come back. He will be coming back in glory,

and he will resurrect his people with him.

Your greatest testimony for every Christian.

Your greatest testimony is that Jesus forgave you and made you

righteous. If you have been healed, if you

have been rescued from natural disaster, if you have been

delivered from demons, praise. God.

Who loves you? And still, your greatest

testimony is that Jesus forgave your sins and made you a new

creation. Your testimony is dramatic, and

your testimony is incredible. It was.

I was lost and now I'm found. I was dead and now I'm alive.

Jesus forgives sinners like you. Heavenly Father, thank you so

much for your glorious gospel for the mission being

accomplished by the King Jesus, who didn't give way to

temptation, to the false glory of man, our fickle, our fickle

faithfulness that would come and go, Jesus the faithful one.

All the way to the. Cross being faithful to

accomplish the will of the Father.

Praying as he did, Father, not my.

Will but your will be done, not giving way to temptation,

because within him there was no sin.

He became sin who knew no sin so that we could become the

righteousness of God. Lord, I pray for your people

right now. For any who are heavy hearted,

with sin, with shame, things that go back decades, things

that are as fresh as last night or this morning.

Saints receive the forgiveness of God.

God loves you. Your sins can be forgiven, you

might say. How?

What's the mechanism by which it happens?

Well, they have to be punished, but they were punished in

Christ. Somebody has to suffer.

You're right about that. And he did, and it was enough.

And he even said so It is finished.

Don't be unbelieving, but believe.

Believe the words of Jesus. For whoever would.

Put faith in him. Has their sins forgiven?

Has their soul cleansed? Has redemption and restoration?

Would you repeat after me, Saints Heavenly Father, thank

you for Jesus for your plan of redemption to save me, a Sinner.

The things in my past, the things in my future.

Jesus paid it all. Build my faith in Him and his

completeness and his sacrifice and his purity and in his

forgiveness. I've been made alive.

Help me put on the new man. Walk in faithfulness to you.

Make me. Look more like.

Jesus make me look more like Jesus.

That's my aim and my purpose. That's my aim and my purpose.

To love you, to glorify you, and to be closer to you every day of

my life. Holy Spirit, thank you for

helping me in the work, revealing Jesus to me, revealing

Jesus to me, and being my constant comfort.

I believe your word, God. I am forgiven and I am free in

Jesus name. And now the Lord bless you and

keep you. The Lord make his face shine

down upon you and be gracious to you.

The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you great

peace. In Jesus name.

Amen.