Lord Over Sin – Matthew 9:1-9

1 – The terrible sickness (Mark 2:1-5)

It was known that Jesus was in the house. The crowds come to hear what Jesus has to say. Four men come with a man who is a paralytic.

The seriousness of his sickness. (vs. 3). He is paralysed. He cannot move. He is a very serious condition. Others have to carry him. He is paralysed spiritually. Jesus will forgive his sins.
The source of his sickness (vs. 5). The words of Jesus seem strange to people. The man was looking for a physical miracle. The source of his sickness seems to have been spiritual. This is not always the case. It is false teaching to state otherwise. There are times that you reap exactly what you have sown

These four men carried this man on a palette. Our responsibility is to get people to Jesus.

Their determination (vs. 4). They uncovered the roof and let the man down! They couldn’t get through on the ground. No one else wanted to move when Jesus was speaking. The roofs were usually flat. The dig through the roof and lower the man down on a rope. You have to admire their determination.
They were unselfish. They were not thinking about themselves. We could do with less selfishness in the world. They activated their faith with shoe leather. Faith without works is dead. We are to pray and do.
They were not discouraged by difficulties. They could have just given up. We do this too easily at times.
They are unified. It is not often that you can get four men to work together! Disunity will kill any group. They had a vision and they carried it out.
They dared to be different. We just want to do what everyone else is doing rather than be different. They had a goal and they were not going to be diverted from it by a few difficulties. You have to make run for the Holy Spirit to move.
Their expectation (vs. 5). They had faith. They knew Jesus had done it before and that He could do it again. They were expecting God to do something. It is right to expect God to do something good for you today. We are not to be negative in our outlook. These men had faith and Jesus loved it.

The miracle is stunning in that the man is healed and that Jesus demonstrates that He can forgive sins.

Jesus goes beyond the physical sickness. The root cause of the problem was sin. His sins were forgiven – right now. It was done after Jesus spoke the words. Our sins are already forgiven if we are trusting in the saviour. If you tell Jesus about sins that have been forgiven – He won’t know what you are talking about! See Colossians 2:13-14 & Hebrews 10:17.
Slaying the critics. They are thinking in their own hearts and looking at each other. They haven’t said anything out loud. Jesus heard every word! Jesus knows your thoughts.
Jesus proposes a test. (Vs. 8-9). It was humanly impossible to do either. Jesus will do both. Jesus takes their bullet and puts it in his gun and shoots them dead. They all believed that sickness was a result of sin. Jesus takes the visible to prove the invisible. The man is told to get up and walk. It happened in an instance.
The triumph of Jesus. They glorified God. They had never seen anything like this before. The healing of the man was a great miracle but the forgiveness of his sins was the greatest miracle of all.

Categories: Matthew