Nazareth was located off the beaten track and located in difficult-to-reach hills

Transcription

1 After six weeks, we re finally transitining int charter 9, but we re still lking at the varius miracles Matthew recrds in the Galilee Tday we finish the secnd sectin f miracles Matthew selected, and this sectin emphasizes Jesus pwer t d things nly Gd can g Tw weeks ag we saw Jesus cntrlling the frces f nature with just a wrd that s certainly shwed the pwer f Gd Last week we studied Jesus pwer ver the judgment f demns anther rle that nly Gd can play And this week, we find Jesus demnstrating pwer and authrity that is quintessentially Gd s alne: frgiving sin S let s revisit the scene Perviusly, Jesus crssed the sea f Galilee at night t escape the crwds And as He landed in Gadara, He cnfrnted the demn pssessed men and healed them And in the aftermath f that miracle, the Gentile twnspeple were s frightened by Jesus, they begged Him t leave the area S we pick up at that pint in chapter 9 Matt. 9:1 Getting int a bat, Jesus crssed ver the sea and came t His wn city. Matt. 9:2 And they brught t Him a paralytic lying n a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said t the paralytic, Take curage, sn; yur sins are frgiven. Matt. 9:3 And sme f the scribes said t themselves, This fellw blasphemes. After the twnspeple demanded that Jesus depart, He respected their wishes and crssed back t the ther side f the lake t His wn city That city was Capernaum, which was Jesus hme base fr ministry in the Galilee Earlier in the Gspel we learned that Jesus mved with His mther and siblings t Capernaum frm Nazareth The mve made strategic sense 2018 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal ( May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.

2 2! f! 14 Nazareth was lcated ff the beaten track and lcated in difficult-t-reach hills While Capernaum sat near majr rads and n the Galilee, which meant it was well-psitined t supprt Jesus itinerant ministry S Jesus returns t His newly adpted hme with His disciples, and Luke says Jesus was teaching in the inner curtyard f a hme And n this day, Jesus has cllected a cnsiderable crwd f religius leaders Luke 5:17 One day He was teaching; and there were sme Pharisees and teachers f the law sitting there, wh had cme frm every village f Galilee and Judea and frm Jerusalem; and the pwer f the Lrd was present fr Him t perfrm healing. Jewish religius fficials frm arund Israel have descended upn Jesus Sme had even traveled the 60 miles r s frm Jerusalem Mark says there were s many scribes present that there was n space left in the rm and they spilled utside the dr Yu may remember earlier in this sectin f miracles Jesus healed a man f leprsy When we studied that miracle, we learned that fr the very first time in Israel s histry, Jesus had invked the requirements f Leviticus 14 Lev 14 gives specific instructins t Israel fr hw t respnd t a persn cured f leprsy The healed leper was t shw himself t the priests wh wuld verify the cleansing and declare the man fficially restred Yet since that law was given t Israel, n leper had ever been healed S the instructins fund in Leviticus 14 had never been put int frce That curius fact led rabbis in Israel t cnclude that if and when a leper was healed, the healer must be uniquely aninted by Gd In ther wrds, that man wuld be the Messiah 2018 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal ( May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.

3 3! f! 14 S as Jesus healed the Jewish leper, He tld the man t present himself t the priests as Leviticus 14 required Naturally, when that leper arrived at the temple and presented himself fr inspectin, the priests verified the healing And the news f the leper s healing traveled quickly amng the Jewish authrities in Israel They wuld have understd the meaning f that sign, and as a result they ve cme t investigate whether Jesus is the Messiah Whenever a self-prclaimed savir arrived, the religius authrities wuld always inspect the claims and make a determinatin If these authrities apprved a persn s claims t being Messiah, then the natin wuld be tld t fllw him If they rejected the claim, the peple were tld t ignre the persn, and he wuld be charged with blaspheme T this pint, n Messiah had ever been cnfirmed, s the natin still awaited a Deliverer S after Jesus healed the leper, He fund Himself under their micrscpe and in their sights Perhaps sme scribes cnducted their investigatin with an pen mind and hnest intentins But even if s, they all quickly set themselves against Jesus, largely because f scenes like the ne we re studying nw Because as Jesus meets this man, He declares the man t be frgiven f His sins, which leads the leaders t gasp in hrrr and declare it t be blaspheme T understand all that s happening here, let s get a better sense f the scene First, we have the man s unique entry int the rm He is paralyzed, s he s brught befre Jesus lying n his bed by friends wh carry him But the scribes were s numerus, Luke says they blcked these men frm reaching Jesus 2018 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal ( May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.

4 4! f! 14 Apparently, nne f thse pmpus, self-imprtant scribes were willing t yield their place t this needy man and his friends S the men lked fr anther way t reach Jesus Luke tells us they lwered the man dwn thrugh an pening in the rf f the huse directly in frnt f Jesus The religius leaders had made themselves a barrier t reaching Jesus They frmed a physical barrier in that rm, but in time they als became a spiritual barrier t the peple They will denied Jesus claims as Messiah and tell the peple that He was a fraud unwrthy f their attentin In the that way, the scribes put themselves between the peple and salvatin, leading Jesus t call them stumbling blcks This happens tday t false religius leaders and religius mvements tell their fllwers that nly they can grant access t Gd They claim t hld the secret t frgiveness and salvatin when in reality, such peple are actually standing in yur way Their lies and false claims are stumbling blcks Yu can be sure that when smene claims t be a gateway t accessing Gd, they are actually a wall blcking the way But thse wh are being drawn by the Spirit t Jesus will cme t Him regardless f bstacles Ntice Matthew says Jesus takes nte f the their faith That prnun is plural, which means all these men were wrking frm a cmmn belief that Jesus culd heal the man S faith finds a way, and nbdy has the pwer t prevent Gd s children frm reaching Him Next, take nte that Jesus says yur sins are frgiven The verb tense Matthew uses in Greek reflects instantaneus actin The man s sins were frgiven at that very mment Nice Jesus desn t name a particular sin that was frgiven He was declaring all the man s sins were frgiven 2018 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal ( May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.

5 5! f! 14 Jesus was saying that this man was cmpletely clean befre Gd Furthermre, the man s frgiveness was based entirely n his faith in Jesus As Jesus spke these wrds, Matthew says Jesus tk nte f their faith Cllectively, all these men were acting in a shared belief that Jesus was the Messiah and He pssessed the pwer t heal S Jesus put n burdens n the man The man did nt have t accmplish wrks f restitutin r penance r anything Only his faith in Jesus was necessary t receive Gd s frgiveness f his sins, and that frgiveness cvered all the man s sins Jesus statement psed tw cncerns fr the scribes in the rm First, these men wuld have bjected t the idea that any persn culd be exnerated f all sins merely n the basis f faith Pharisaic Judaism didn t understand salvatin in that way In the first century, Jewish religius leaders taught that being brn a Jew was sufficient t receive salvatin Elsewhere in the Gspels, the Pharisees defend themselves t Jesus saying they were brn children f Gd Jhn 8:37 I knw that yu are Abraham s descendants; yet yu seek t kill Me, because My wrd has n place in yu. Jhn 8:38 I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefre yu als d the things which yu heard frm yur father. Jhn 8:39 They answered and said t Him, Abraham is ur father. Jesus said t them, If yu are Abraham s children, d the deeds f Abraham. Jhn 8:44 Yu are f yur father the devil, and yu want t d the desires f yur father. He was a murderer frm the beginning, and des nt stand in the truth because there is n truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks frm his wn nature, fr he is a liar and the father f lies. Furthermre, scribes believed that part f being Jewish and receiving the benefits theref invlved careful bservance f the Law 2018 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal ( May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.

6 6! f! 14 S they believed that Gd saved the Jewish peple merely n the basis f their family ties t Abraham But frgiveness f sin was accmplished thrugh the Law That s why we find Paul wrking s hard in his letters t shw that frgiveness f sin is never thrugh wrks f Law In fact, keeping the law was nt a means f receiving Gd s frgiveness either fr Israel r fr the Church But many Jewish believers in Paul s day cntinued t carry that Pharisaic mindset int their relatinship with Jesus S as these men heard Jesus declaring the man frgiven f all sin based n faith alne, they bjected Nw we might ask why wuld they bject t that truth? Wuldn t it be gd news t learn yu dn t have t earn Gd s frgiveness? Yes it is unless yur heart is set n ther things And in this case, their hearts were set n maintaining their pwer ver the peple n being gateways t Gd And as lng as the peple believed that access t Gd s frgiveness depended n wrks f law, these men stayed in pwer ver the peple They decided when a persn had sinned And they decided when that persn had dne enugh wrk t receive frgiveness They did the very thing that they bjected abut Jesus They placed themselves in the place f deciding whether smene received Gd s frgiveness And that brings us t their secnd bjectin They bjected t the very idea that Jesus had the pwer t frgive sin And their cncern was actually reasnable, because n man has the pwer t frgive sins Sin isn t just a bible-ly wrd fr ding smething evil r making a mistake 2018 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal ( May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.

7 7! f! 14 Sin is a technical term Sin is an ffense against Gd it s disbeying the Creatr And that s fundamentally different than just making a mistake Fr example, when I hurt anther persn, if I speaking a false wrd against a persn, I ffend that persn If he shuld frgive me fr my ffense, all is well between us But that s nt the end f the matter, because by my behavir I als ffended Gd I ve brke His standard fr righteusness and that s sin And as a result I have incurred a debt befre Gd, a penalty I must pay fr my ffense, the Bible says Nw Gd, in His mercy and grace, can frgive me f my ffense against Him But nly Gd Himself may extend frgiveness fr sin, because He was the One ffended by it S n persn has the authrity t ffer Gd s frgiveness t anther persn Like in the case f my example the persn I insulted may chse t frgive me fr my ffense against him But n matter hw frgiving r understanding that persn is, he cannt grant me Gd s frgiveness Only Gd can d that Therefre, unless and until the Lrd is willing t frgive me, my sin f slander cntinues t cnvict me And ne day I will face the penalty fr that sin, unless and until the Lrd frgives me fr it S the religius leaders bjected t Jesus wrds, bth because Jesus was changing their rules and because He put Himself in the place f Gd Matthew said that sme scribes thught t themselves This man blasphemes Blaspheming is prfaning the hliness f Gd 2018 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal ( May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.

8 8! f! 14 We blaspheme when we presume t put urselves in Gd s place r when we misrepresent Gd s wrd r character These men cncluded Jesus had cmmitted this ffense because He tk the place f Gd and altered their view f Gd s wrd In reality, Jesus hadn t changed Gd s wrd at all Rather it was the scribes wh had misrepresented what Gd s wrd said abut frgiveness and salvatin The prphets tld the truth Hab. 2:4 Behld, as fr the prud ne, His sul is nt right within him; But the righteus will live by his faith. And Mses said the same: Deut. 30:11 Fr this cmmandment which I cmmand yu tday is nt t difficult fr yu, nr is it ut f reach. Deut. 30:12 It is nt in heaven, that yu shuld say, Wh will g up t heaven fr us t get it fr us and make us hear it, that we may bserve it? Deut. 30:13 Nr is it beynd the sea, that yu shuld say, Wh will crss the sea fr us t get it fr us and make us hear it, that we may bserve it? Deut. 30:14 But the wrd is very near yu, in yur muth and in yur heart, that yu may bserve it. Jesus was just setting the recrd straight teaching that eternal life cmes by a cnfessin f faith, nt by wrks f the Law And furthermre, Jesus s claim t have the pwer t frgive sins was nt blaspheme because it was true He is the Sn f Gd, s He pssesses Gd s pwer t grant frgiveness fr sins Hebrews says: Heb. 1:1 Gd, after He spke lng ag t the fathers in the prphets in many prtins and in many ways, Heb. 1:2 in these last days has spken t us in His Sn, whm He appinted heir f all things, thrugh whm als He made the wrld Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal ( May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.

9 9! f! 14 S Jesus did nt blaspheme, but these men didn t recgnize Jesus authrity which is why Jesus takes the next step t validate His claims Matt. 9:4 And Jesus knwing their thughts said, Why are yu thinking evil in yur hearts? Matt. 9:5 Which is easier, t say, Yur sins are frgiven, r t say, Get up, and walk? Matt. 9:6 But s that yu may knw that the Sn f Man has authrity n earth t frgive sins then He said t the paralytic, Get up, pick up yur bed and g hme. Matt. 9:7 And he gt up and went hme. Matt. 9:8 But when the crwds saw this, they were awestruck, and glrified Gd, wh had given such authrity t men. Jesus knew their thughts, Matthew says, and s Jesus respnds by asking why d yu think evil in yur hearts? That was the first step t demnstrating Jesus was Gd He culd knw their thughts I wuld have lved t see their faces in that mment They prbably tried t put n an inncent lk, denying it was them entertaining evil thughts But they ve been caught, s then Jesus turns next t ffering them prf f His claims He uses a technique f rabbinical lgic called kal v chmer, which means frm difficult t easy The idea is that I can demnstrate the pwer t accmplish a mre difficult thing, then I am als capable f the easier thing Fr example, if I claim I can lift a 500 lb blck f stne, but yu dn t believe me, I culd prve my claim by lifting a 1,000 lb stne Because anyne wh can lift a 1,000 lb stne is bvius capable f lifting 500 lbs S in this case, Jesus claimed t have the pwer t frgive sins, and that is a very easy thing t claim Because Gd s frgiveness can t be prven N ne n earth can prve ne way r anther if that statement is true there is n visible sign 2018 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal ( May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.

10 10! f! 14 Which makes saying thse wrds very easy On the ther hand, saying t a paralyzed man Get up and walk is a very hard thing t d Because instantly, yur wrds will be shwn t be true r false If the man des nt get up, yur deceptin will be expsed Yet bth these statements share ne thing in cmmn Only Gd can declare yur sins frgiven And nly the Creatr can heal the physical bdy by His wrd alne S if Jesus can heal a man by His wrd then He is prving Himself t be Gd And if Jesus is Gd, then He can als declare a man s sins be frgiven S Jesus cmmands the man t get up, which he des immediately And as he des, the rm f scribes and all the peple waiting utside witness this miracle And they were awestruck, causing them t glrify Gd fr having given such authrity, such pwer t men Which is exactly the kind f prf these men needed t verify Jesus claims t being Messiah r it shuld have been enugh But these men had evil in their hearts, as Jesus said That s why I think Jesus began this mment as He did, declaring the man t be frgiven f sin rather than declaring him healed At ther times when sick peple have cme t Jesus, He simply granted them physical healing withut a wrd But this time, Jesus grants spiritual healing initially, nt physical healing Only later, after the Pharisees refused t believe that Jesus had dne as He said did Jesus mve t physical healing I think He did s because He knew He was under inspectin fr His claims t be Messiah 2018 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal ( May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.

11 11! f 14! S in this mment, Jesus cnstructs a test fr all mankind t use in determining wh t believe abut Gd and frgiveness and salvatin And the test is simply this: when deciding wh yu believe speaks fr Gd, yu shuld trust the One Wh can back up His wrds with pwer In this mment, Jesus spke wrds f frgiveness first, and accepting thse wrds was a matter f faith They culdn t be prven they culd nly be accepted by faith The man and his friends had faith in Jesus, which is why they received Gd s frgiveness The scribes, n the ther hand, lacked faith in Jesus, which is why they did nt believe His wrds nr did they receive His frgiveness But then t prve His claims Jesus perfrmed a wrk f pwer that n ne but Gd may d By that miracle, Jesus prved Gd was wrking thrugh Him And Gd desn t grant His pwer t a fraud r liar Unfrtunately, the scribes were t hard-hearted t receive that truth despite Jesus pwer As a result, this mment is just the first f many accusatins f blaspheme that eventually lead t Jesus trial and death Befre we finish, I wnder what this paralyzed man thught when he heard Jesus say yur sins are frgiven Was he a little disappinted by what he heard? This man prbably spent mst r perhaps all f his life as a paralytic, and in that day, paralysis was a hard way t live There were n scial services, n handicap parking permits, and n sympathy Sciety typically viewed such peple as cursed by Gd S we knw this man was desperate t receive physical healing 2018 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal ( May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.

12 12! f! 14 And when his mment befre the Great Healer cmes, he hears Jesus say Yur sins are frgiven I wnder if he lked up at Jesus and said, And, and.? When I was yung, I wanted a Ht Wheels ty car race track fr Christmas I saw it advertised n a Saturday mrning TV shw and I was hked It s the nly thing I asked my parents fr that year And when Christmas Day came, I was sure my parents had given me what I wanted But after all the presents were pened, my car race track was n where t be fund, and I was s cnfused Then my parents revealed I wasn t getting the race track, because they had a better idea fr my Christmas gift S they tk me utside t shw me a basketball hp ready t be assembled and set up in the grund at the end f ur driveway They were s pleased with their chice f gift, but I culd barely hld back my disappintment They tried t explain that a basketball gal wuld last far lnger than a ty race track And that as I grew lder, I wuld appreciate playing basketball lng after I had lst interest in tys Of curse, they were right I spent cuntless hurs playing basketball n that gal until I graduated high schl And it gave me a lve fr the sprt that cntinues t this day Even still, it tk a while fr me t recgnize the wisdm f my parents decisin I had t shift my perspective frm immediate gratificatin t the future benefits f a meaningful gift Yu might say I needed t mature int having a perspective n the future r as we say here, having eyes fr eternity I m guessing this man was a little disappinted when Jesus didn t act t heal him at first 2018 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal ( May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.

13 13! f! 14 Surely, any disappintment he felt turned t relief when Jesus tld him t get up But I als wnder which f thse healings mattered mre t the man as time went alng As the end f his life apprached and his bdy began t fail again, as it des fr all f us, where did he find his hpe? I bet he wasn t hping fr anther physical healing I m sure he fund hpe knwing that when he died, he wuld stand befre Christ lved, frgiven, saved Perhaps that s why the Lrd pened the cnversatin with be f gd curage Be encuraged that salvatin is pssible by faith alne Be encuraged that Gd is willing t heal yur sul Be encuraged yu have eternal life Friends, we need t be encuraged tday by that same truth Jesus Christ prved His claims t be Gd ver and ver again He healed the bdy, cntrlled the frces f nature and put the demns in their place Then He died n a crss t satisfy the penalty yu wed Gd fr yur sin And He rse frm the grave t prve t yu that He has the pwer ver life and death And he prnunced frgiveness f sins fr thse wh place their faith in Him That has t be the basis f ur encuragement t Christians certainly have ther needs t needs fr healing, equipping, prvisin, cmfrt, restratin and the like But even if Gd answers these prayers, as He will frm time t time, these earthly things fade in time anyway S if we place ur hpe in these things, we will be disappinted 2018 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal ( May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.

14 14! f! 14 We have t remind urselves daily that ur hpe cmes frm the certain knwledge that we are frgiven by Gd And that s enugh t sustain us thrugh trials, thrugh deprivatin, thrugh sickness, and thrugh discmfrt Because thse things are passing but Gd s frgiveness is frever And if the gift f heaven desn t seem as imprtant t yu smetimes as thse thers things d I assure yu that as yu see the end f yur life upn yu, having Gd s frgiveness fr yur sin will be far mre precius t yu than anything in this wrld S where have yu placed yur trust fr yur eternal future? Are yu sure Gd has frgiven yu? Did smene prmise Gd s frgiveness? Did that smene prve they have the pwer t speak fr Gd? Jesus prved He des And Jesus stands ready t receive yu, t frgive yu, if yu wuld just trust Him 2018 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal ( May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.