The living archive is loading.
Continue exploring
Connected by scripture or shared themes.
Continue exploring
Connected by scripture or shared themes.
Welcome to 2819 Church online and to those joining us in person. Whether you're a believer or an unbeliever, we welcome you. We want you to come and hear about the great Jehovah who takes a rag-tag group of people, changes their lives, and impacts the earth.
Before we jump into Matthew 9:1-8, let's review where we've come from. In Matthew 8:33-34, Jesus had just freed two demon-possessed men. The demons ran into pigs, and the pigs ran into the sea. When the city came out to meet Jesus, they begged him to leave their region.
This teaches us something critical: When you do the work of the Lord, you do not look to men for validation. You don't look for their approval. If we're waiting for people to celebrate us before we continue in ministry, we're already finished. We must attach our worship vertically to God, and then serve horizontally as he sees fit.
In Matthew 9:1, Jesus gets into a boat and comes into his own city. Then in 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.'"
Jesus saw their faith. These people knew where to bring their friend. They knew who could help. What a profound example of what it means to be a disciple: when we see someone struggling—someone with depression, low self-esteem, or identity issues—we lay the weight of that soul on Jesus. We don't try to become their savior. We bring them to the one who can actually save them.
Let me share a story. I belonged to a largely Caucasian church for two years before moving here. They were different from me in worship style—they were more reserved, quieter. But I watched them do something that changed my perspective. They would introduce missionaries who had sold their houses, sold their cars, and sold everything to plant churches in places like Nepal where people hadn't heard the gospel. They weren't just doing short mission trips; they were saying, "This is where the Lord has told us to go." When is the last time you pushed all your chips on the table and said, "If you don't come through, God, I'm going to fall flat on my face"? That's faith. Jesus saw their faith.
In another account of this same story, the friends of the paralytic were so pressed that they couldn't get to him because of the crowds. So they got a paralyzed man on top of a roof, pulled back the tiles, and lowered him down. Think about that commitment. And when Jesus saw their faith—this particular word "son" suggests he was a young man, perhaps even a teenager—Jesus said, "Take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven."
In the Amplified Version, verse 2 continues: "Do not be afraid, son. Your sins are forgiven. The penalty is paid, the guilt removed, and you are declared to be in right standing with God."
Forgiveness is a weighty thing. When I looked up the Greek word for "forgiven," it's not found by itself in the Strong's concordance. It's actually a phrase: "be forgiven to you." It's a declaration. Of the 31 times this phrase was used in scripture, this is the only time that either no condition was expressed that one had to meet, or there wasn't a future tense put on it. It would always say "they shall be forgiven." But Jesus looks at this paralytic and says, "Be forgiven you." The weight is on him. The declaration comes from him.
Some of the scribes said to themselves, "This man is blaspheming." Let me help you understand why. The scribes were learned men and teachers in the Jewish community. They understood the law. They knew that in the Old Testament, you had to go out and kill doves or bulls, you had to go through a whole process to be forgiven for sins. And now this teacher is walking up and just giving forgiveness out like it's his to give.
Think about it on a human level. If I'm in my house and I have a piece of chicken on my plate, and a repair man comes to fix something and says he's hungry, and I give him my chicken—my son would be justified in saying, "Dad, that wasn't yours to give." The scribes were saying the same thing: "That forgiveness is not yours to give. You're acting like you're God."
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 to say, 'Rise and walk'?" Which one is easier to say with integrity? You can lie and say sins are forgiven, but you can't lie about someone getting up and walking. The proof is in the action.
The scribes likely knew Psalm 103:2-3, which says: "Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all of his benefits. He who forgives all your iniquity, sins and who heals all your diseases." Jesus caught them in a logical trap. If only God can forgive sins and heal diseases, and he's doing both, then who is he?
This brings us to verse 6: "But that you may know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins..."
Son of man is the most frequent name Jesus calls himself—recorded over 100 times in the gospels. Sometimes it's just a substitute for the pronoun "I." But other times, it's not about his humanity or humility. It's about his deity.
In Daniel 7, the prophet had a vision: "I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man, and he came to the ancient of days, and was presented before him. And to him 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 one that shall not be destroyed."
When Jesus says "son of man," he's claiming to be the one prophesied in Daniel. He's saying, "I am the one you have been waiting on. I am the savior of the world. I died for all sins. I have authority and a kingdom. I will have glory forever and ever."
After making this declaration to the scribes, Jesus turned back to the paralytic and said, "Rise, pick up your bed."
I love how Jesus dealt with the distraction. He addressed the objection, and then he turned right back to his mission: to love on the man who was in need. Someone else might have flexed on the scribes, forgotten about the paralytic laying there, and made it all about proving his power. Not Jesus.
And he rose and went home. A paralytic—someone whose whole identity was "I'm paralyzed." In those days, there were no desk jobs. Everyone was in the field doing work. Jesus changed the whole trajectory of that young man's life.
Many of you have come here and had an experience with God. You've been saved over the last couple of months. But then you went home. And I want to tell you something: God may not do a miracle on everything in your home. Your home may still be messy. Your circumstances may still be hard. But you must walk this thing out every day. Don't forget the miracle and focus on your circumstances. Too many of us judge the love of God by what home looks like right now. I encourage you to keep that miracle in your soul. Keep what the Lord has done for you. Remember his character. That's what sustains you.
Verse 8 says: "When the crowds saw it, they glorified God, who had given such authority to men."
After every work of God, after everything you do for the Lord, this is what you want to happen: You want the crowds to glorify God, not man. You don't want people puffed up, celebrating you. You want them afraid, in awe of God, glorifying him. You want them acknowledging his being, his attributes, and his acts.
I want to close by saying this: The greatest miracle isn't the miraculous healing of the paralytic, although that's amazing. There have been healings in the Old Testament. A prophet laid on a girl and she got up. Oil kept expanding and multiplying. You've seen miracles.
But it took Jesus to die once and for all to allow for all sins to be forgiven. We want to see an arm grow back. God has done it. You can look up accounts of it. But the bigger miracle—the greatest miracle—is that you've been rescued from death. You've been justified in Jesus Christ. We've been raised in Jesus Christ. We actually sit in him in heavenly places on the right hand side of the Father.
While we're still being renewed, while we're still falling short of the glory of God, while we sometimes ignore him or the promptings of the Holy Spirit and stumble, we are still in him, not being judged for every bit. He has covered the multitude of sins. He separates our transgressions as far away from us as the east is from the west. He makes us holy by the blood of Jesus.
That loving and forgiving God, that merciful Father—you can get to know him because blood was shed. Your offenses have been covered with the blood from Calvary. If one comes to know Jesus Christ, everything changes. We can walk in the authority of Christ that we have inside of us. Ultimately, God will have his way.
Welcome to 2819 Church online and to those joining us in person. Whether you're a believer or an unbeliever, we welcome you. We want you to come and hear about the great Jehovah who takes a rag-tag group of people, changes their lives, and impacts the earth.
Before we jump into Matthew 9:1-8, let's review where we've come from. In Matthew 8:33-34, Jesus had just freed two demon-possessed men. The demons ran into pigs, and the pigs ran into the sea. When the city came out to meet Jesus, they begged him to leave their region.
This teaches us something critical: When you do the work of the Lord, you do not look to men for validation. You don't look for their approval. If we're waiting for people to celebrate us before we continue in ministry, we're already finished. We must attach our worship vertically to God, and then serve horizontally as he sees fit.
In Matthew 9:1, Jesus gets into a boat and comes into his own city. Then in 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.'"
Jesus saw their faith. These people knew where to bring their friend. They knew who could help. What a profound example of what it means to be a disciple: when we see someone struggling—someone with depression, low self-esteem, or identity issues—we lay the weight of that soul on Jesus. We don't try to become their savior. We bring them to the one who can actually save them.
Let me share a story. I belonged to a largely Caucasian church for two years before moving here. They were different from me in worship style—they were more reserved, quieter. But I watched them do something that changed my perspective. They would introduce missionaries who had sold their houses, sold their cars, and sold everything to plant churches in places like Nepal where people hadn't heard the gospel. They weren't just doing short mission trips; they were saying, "This is where the Lord has told us to go." When is the last time you pushed all your chips on the table and said, "If you don't come through, God, I'm going to fall flat on my face"? That's faith. Jesus saw their faith.
In another account of this same story, the friends of the paralytic were so pressed that they couldn't get to him because of the crowds. So they got a paralyzed man on top of a roof, pulled back the tiles, and lowered him down. Think about that commitment. And when Jesus saw their faith—this particular word "son" suggests he was a young man, perhaps even a teenager—Jesus said, "Take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven."
In the Amplified Version, verse 2 continues: "Do not be afraid, son. Your sins are forgiven. The penalty is paid, the guilt removed, and you are declared to be in right standing with God."
Forgiveness is a weighty thing. When I looked up the Greek word for "forgiven," it's not found by itself in the Strong's concordance. It's actually a phrase: "be forgiven to you." It's a declaration. Of the 31 times this phrase was used in scripture, this is the only time that either no condition was expressed that one had to meet, or there wasn't a future tense put on it. It would always say "they shall be forgiven." But Jesus looks at this paralytic and says, "Be forgiven you." The weight is on him. The declaration comes from him.
Some of the scribes said to themselves, "This man is blaspheming." Let me help you understand why. The scribes were learned men and teachers in the Jewish community. They understood the law. They knew that in the Old Testament, you had to go out and kill doves or bulls, you had to go through a whole process to be forgiven for sins. And now this teacher is walking up and just giving forgiveness out like it's his to give.
Think about it on a human level. If I'm in my house and I have a piece of chicken on my plate, and a repair man comes to fix something and says he's hungry, and I give him my chicken—my son would be justified in saying, "Dad, that wasn't yours to give." The scribes were saying the same thing: "That forgiveness is not yours to give. You're acting like you're God."
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 to say, 'Rise and walk'?" Which one is easier to say with integrity? You can lie and say sins are forgiven, but you can't lie about someone getting up and walking. The proof is in the action.
The scribes likely knew Psalm 103:2-3, which says: "Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all of his benefits. He who forgives all your iniquity, sins and who heals all your diseases." Jesus caught them in a logical trap. If only God can forgive sins and heal diseases, and he's doing both, then who is he?
This brings us to verse 6: "But that you may know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins..."
Son of man is the most frequent name Jesus calls himself—recorded over 100 times in the gospels. Sometimes it's just a substitute for the pronoun "I." But other times, it's not about his humanity or humility. It's about his deity.
In Daniel 7, the prophet had a vision: "I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man, and he came to the ancient of days, and was presented before him. And to him 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 one that shall not be destroyed."
When Jesus says "son of man," he's claiming to be the one prophesied in Daniel. He's saying, "I am the one you have been waiting on. I am the savior of the world. I died for all sins. I have authority and a kingdom. I will have glory forever and ever."
After making this declaration to the scribes, Jesus turned back to the paralytic and said, "Rise, pick up your bed."
I love how Jesus dealt with the distraction. He addressed the objection, and then he turned right back to his mission: to love on the man who was in need. Someone else might have flexed on the scribes, forgotten about the paralytic laying there, and made it all about proving his power. Not Jesus.
And he rose and went home. A paralytic—someone whose whole identity was "I'm paralyzed." In those days, there were no desk jobs. Everyone was in the field doing work. Jesus changed the whole trajectory of that young man's life.
Many of you have come here and had an experience with God. You've been saved over the last couple of months. But then you went home. And I want to tell you something: God may not do a miracle on everything in your home. Your home may still be messy. Your circumstances may still be hard. But you must walk this thing out every day. Don't forget the miracle and focus on your circumstances. Too many of us judge the love of God by what home looks like right now. I encourage you to keep that miracle in your soul. Keep what the Lord has done for you. Remember his character. That's what sustains you.
Verse 8 says: "When the crowds saw it, they glorified God, who had given such authority to men."
After every work of God, after everything you do for the Lord, this is what you want to happen: You want the crowds to glorify God, not man. You don't want people puffed up, celebrating you. You want them afraid, in awe of God, glorifying him. You want them acknowledging his being, his attributes, and his acts.
I want to close by saying this: The greatest miracle isn't the miraculous healing of the paralytic, although that's amazing. There have been healings in the Old Testament. A prophet laid on a girl and she got up. Oil kept expanding and multiplying. You've seen miracles.
But it took Jesus to die once and for all to allow for all sins to be forgiven. We want to see an arm grow back. God has done it. You can look up accounts of it. But the bigger miracle—the greatest miracle—is that you've been rescued from death. You've been justified in Jesus Christ. We've been raised in Jesus Christ. We actually sit in him in heavenly places on the right hand side of the Father.
While we're still being renewed, while we're still falling short of the glory of God, while we sometimes ignore him or the promptings of the Holy Spirit and stumble, we are still in him, not being judged for every bit. He has covered the multitude of sins. He separates our transgressions as far away from us as the east is from the west. He makes us holy by the blood of Jesus.
That loving and forgiving God, that merciful Father—you can get to know him because blood was shed. Your offenses have been covered with the blood from Calvary. If one comes to know Jesus Christ, everything changes. We can walk in the authority of Christ that we have inside of us. Ultimately, God will have his way.
