Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Greater Miracle: The Son of Man’s Authority to Forgive Sins (Matthew 9:1–8)

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The Greater Miracle: The Son of Man’s Authority to Forgive Sins (Matthew 9:1–8) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to our deep dive. We're calling this one Reformed
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  thinking. And today we are placing Matthew
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  Chapter 9, verses 138 under the microscope.
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  And this passage, it deals with Christ's authority, and it is
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  just an absolute tectonic plate shift in how we understand our
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  greatest human needs. It really is.
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  I mean if you just look at our culture today, we are surrounded
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  by what you might call a therapeutic impulse.
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  The messaging we get all the time from media, self help books
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  and even some kinds of spirituality.
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  Is it our biggest problems or external?
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  Things like our health, our anxiety, our finances.
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  Yes, modern life so often just boils down to a practical search
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  for immediate relief from whatever is making us
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  uncomfortable. Absolutely.
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  We're sort of trained to go to any higher power, or any source
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  of help really, and ask for a quick fix for the immediate
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  visible suffering. The physical issue, the mental
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  anguish. We just want to be able to get
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  up and walk. And that is precisely why this
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  passage in Matthew is so, so disruptive.
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  Jesus is faced with a man whose physical, external need is
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  undeniable. A paralytic.
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  Publicly humiliated, brought to him by 4 desperate friends.
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  And yet Christ looks at this man's terrible physical state
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  and he sees a far, far greater crisis.
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  He looks past the withered limbs to the withered soul.
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  And he offers a diagnosis that is just shocking.
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  It completely bypasses the presenting symptoms.
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  He doesn't offer a physical cure first.
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  He doesn't say stretch out your hand or stand up.
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  He says, Son, be of good cheer thy sins be forgiven thee.
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  And that single sovereign declaration just completely
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  reorders the scale of priorities for everyone in that room and
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  for us listening now. He makes the invisible reality
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  of justification infinitely more urgent than the visible reality
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  of physical restoration. And that brings us to our
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  mission. For this deep dive, we need to
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  figure out how Christ in this one action forces this
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  fundamental dilemma on everyone listening.
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  The claim He makes is so huge that it leaves no middle ground.
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  He's either the living God or he's a blasphemer who deserves
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  to die. So we're going to examine the
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  sources around this text to frame this story not just as a
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  sentimental healing story, but as what our sources call a
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  judicial proof of the deity of Christ.
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  We want to see how he establishes himself as the Son
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  of Man, the one who has the unique divine right to cancel
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  sin. The central finding we're hoping
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  you'll see from this deep dive is this Jesus performs the
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  visible miracle only to provide stone cold evidence of the
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  invisible reality. That he has the authority to
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  cancel our debt before the Father.
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  And if we really grasp that, the question we face is, are we
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  going to be content with just seeking comfort in this life, or
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  do we desire above all else, to be pardoned?
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  OK, so let's unpack the setting. First verse one tells us Jesus
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  returns to Capernaum. Which Matthew calls his own
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  city. And that detail isn't just
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  incidental, it sets up the context.
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  It foreshadows the conflict. It does.
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  Capernaum had become the strategic headquarters for his
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  Galilean ministry. It was a busy commercial center,
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  fishing, trade, a real Nexus of communication.
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  So if the King were setting up an earthly court to start his
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  revolution, this would be a smart, practical place to do it.
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  Absolutely. It also adds A tragic layer
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  though, doesn't it? He had just been rejected by the
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  Gentile region of the Gadarenes, right?
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  Where he cast the demons into the swine and messed up their
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  economy. So now he returns to Jewish
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  soil, to his own city where the king had chosen to set up his
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  base. But the irony is he returns not
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  to be welcomed and crowned. No, but to be questioned and
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  rejected by the religious gatekeepers.
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  It really sets the stage for a collision between what people
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  expected and what his spiritual mission actually was.
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  The people were, you know, naturally expecting a military
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  Messiah, a political one, someone to get them out from
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  under Roman oppression. Restore their National Health.
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  And Jesus arrives ready to deliver spiritual rescue from
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  divine condemnation. And into this volatile setting,
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  we get this scene of just desperate faith.
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  Matthews says people brought to him a man sick of the palsy,
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  lying on a bed. The.
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  Need is just so. Stark He's completely
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  immobilized, can't move toward Christ himself.
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  He's fully dependent and his suffering is public, and in that
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  culture that was often humiliating.
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  Because it was often linked right or wrong to some specific
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  sin. Exactly.
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  That image of the man is inescapable, and it's so key to
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  understanding the spiritual state of humanity.
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  Our sources point out that the paralytic is, in a way, an
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  enacted parable of our own inability.
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  He's not just weakened, he's helpless.
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  Right. He can't just stride into the
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  room on his own strength or make a dash for the Kingdom.
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  He has to be brought carried. Which is a very fitting picture
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  of the sinner's plate before God.
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  We too are completely unable to walk toward God and saving faith
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  without grace. We are, as the Scriptures say,
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  dead in our trespasses and sins. The world is always shouting.
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  Fix yourself, strengthen your resolve.
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  Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.
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  And yet Christ receives those who have to be carried.
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  The man's dependence, the very bed he's on, becomes this quiet
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  rebuke to the pride of human self-sufficiency.
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  And notice Matthew's emphasis on the collective act of
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  intercession in verse 2. Jesus seeing their faith.
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  That plural pronoun is so important.
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  The faith Christ recognized belonged to the group of friends
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  who brought. Him.
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  It's a wonderful detail. This faith was observable, it
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  was active. It was, as you said earlier,
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  faith with hands and feet. A conviction that physically
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  moved them. They refused to let the crowds
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  the obstacles. Or even the ceiling, as we know
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  from Luke's account. Right refused to let anything
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  stop them from placing their paralyzed friend at the feet of
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  the Savior. This really dignifies ordinary
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  compassion. It gives us a tangible model for
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  evangelistic persistence. It's a powerful corrective to
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  this radical individualism that says all spiritual effort must
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  be solitary. God often works through ordinary
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  means. He uses the spiritual strength
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  and conviction of the strong, the community, to bring the weak
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  into His presence. The friends could carry the man
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  to the doorway, but they couldn't save him.
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  They couldn't forgive his debt. Only Christ could do the
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  ultimate work. So we have the setting, we have
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  the desperate man, and now we arrive at the moment of tension.
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  The man and his friends are expecting physical healing, the
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  crowds expecting a spectacle. And instead Jesus looks down and
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  says, Son, be of good cheer thy sins be forgiven thee.
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  And that is the theological exploding point of the entire
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  passage. Let's look at the language.
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  That opening address is immensely tender.
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  The word Matthew uses for sun is Tenon.
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  It's a term of deep familial endearment, like what a parent
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  would use for a child. It suggests adoption into the
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  family of grace. It's a declaration of inclusion.
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  In a culture that often presumed that this kind of infirmity was
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  linked to some hidden curse or sin, Jesus starts not with
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  condemnation, but with inclusion and mercy.
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  And. Then comes the command.
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  Be of good cheer. How could a paralyzed man on a
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  map be cheerful? The answer is in the second
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  clause. Thy sins be forgiven thee.
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  Christ refuses to be dictated to by the obvious physical problem.
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  He knows the most terrifying bondage isn't the mat holding
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  the body down. It's the unforgiven guilt
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  binding the soul under God's holy judgement.
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  He applies mercy at the deepest point.
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  He strikes at the root, the sin, rather than just trimming the
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  branches, the suffering. Our sources really stress this.
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  He prioritizes the spiritual because reconciliation with God
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  is the ultimate, the eternal issue.
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  Greatest disease is condemnation.
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  The greatest gift is pardon. And notice the grammar of that
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  declaration are forgiven. Right.
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  The Greek verb form signifies A settled, authoritative reality.
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  It's a completed judicial verdict.
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  You stand forgiven. This isn't a hopeful wish or a
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  promise for the future. It's an authoritative
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  declaration, an act of supreme jurisdiction.
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  And this is where we find the doctrine of justification by
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  faith alone in seed form. Think about the man's posture.
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  He did no work. He spoke no prayer that we know
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  of. He just lay there completely
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  passive and helpless. Trust.
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  And the king declared him righteous.
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  This is the scandalous nature of grace.
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  The spiritual healing which was invisible and eternal came
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  before the physical healing which was visible and temporary.
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  That order reverses every single instinct we have as fallen human
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  beings. We naturally treat suffering,
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  pain, inconvenience as the main crisis, and sin is sort of a
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  secondary manitable problem. And Christ corrects us.
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  Sin is the root catastrophe. We have to reckon with the truth
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  Jesus forces on us. It is infinitely better to go
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  into heaven crippled than to walk into hell whole.
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  A healed body that houses a condemned soul gains nothing.
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  The sinners first comfort must be divine pardon, not self
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  improvement or physical restoration.
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  The moment that word of forgiveness, that authoritative
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  declaration, leaves Jesus's lips, the temperature in the
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  room just plummets. We shift abruptly from the
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  tenderness of grace to the cold rigidity of legalism.
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  We're introduced to the scribes. And these weren't just secular
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  skeptics. These were the authorized
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  interpreters of the law, the theological gatekeepers of
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  Israel. They knew the scriptures inside
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  and out, and Matthew tells us they said within themselves,
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  this man blasphemeth. Their accusation of blasphemy
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  was the most serious crime in the Torah, punishable by
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  stoning. So this wasn't a petty
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  disagreement over methods, it was a formal theological verdict
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  of a capital offense. And what makes their error so
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  tragic is that their premise was technically correct.
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  Their logic was sound. Sin is fundamentally a crime
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  against the holiness of Yahweh, as David confessed in Psalm 51.
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  Against thee the only have I sinned.
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  Therefore, only the offended party, God Himself, has the
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  jurisdiction to pardon the offense.
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  They were right that the implication was unavoidable.
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  If Jesus is not God, he is a blasphemer for trying to usurp
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  God's throne. So their theology was correct.
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  Their Christology was fatally wrong.
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  They failed to acknowledge that the God they claimed to defend
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  was standing right in front of them in human flesh.
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  They couldn't handle the mystery of the incarnation.
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  They preferred a distant, predictable God who could be
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  managed by their theological systems.
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  Rather than an imminent, unpredictable God who broke into
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  their world with sovereign authority outside their rigid
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  structures. And this preference for system
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  over person is the essence of religious unbelief.
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  Now Jesus immediately escalates the conflict by demonstrating
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  the very attribute they were denying him deity.
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  The scribes spoke their accusation within themselves
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  silently. They thought they were safe in
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  their inner circle, passing judgment in private.
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  But Jesus knew their thoughts. Matthew uses a Greek word that
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  means absolute inherent perception.
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  And this is where he performs a miracle just as incredible as
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  healing the paralytic. He reads their minds.
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  Yes, the ability to search the heart to know the secret
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  motivations and unspoken judgments of men is the
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  exclusive right of Yahweh. That's a critical link.
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  I mean, you look at the Old Testament, Jeremiah 17.10
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  declares I, the Lord search the heart.
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  I try the reins. The insight for us is this By
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  publicly exposing their secret, unspoken accusations, Jesus
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  steps squarely into the judicial shoes of Yahweh Himself.
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  He pulls back the curtain of their souls.
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  Revealing access to that private inner sanctum that belongs only
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  to God. It is a stunning, irrefutable
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  demonstration of his deity even before the physical healing
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  starts. But he doesn't just know their
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  thoughts, he issues a moral judgement on them.
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  He characterizes their skepticism not as caution or as
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  a reasoned defense of orthodoxy. But as evil in their hearts, the
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  word used signifies genuine malice or wickedness.
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  He calls their thoughts Ponara. This is a searing diagnosis.
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  They saw themselves as pious defenders of God's honor, but
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  Jesus exposes their defense as malicious unbelief rooted in a
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  refusal to accept the revelation of God standing in their midst.
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  Their heart attitude was evil because it was actively
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  rejecting the Messiah. They were busy preparing a
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  verdict of condemnation for Jesus, collecting ammunition
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  instead of seeking illumination. It highlights the danger of
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  religious hostility that masquerades as piety.
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  You can be outwardly conforming to the law like the scribes,
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  while inwardly judging the work of God because it doesn't fit
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  your preferred. The courtroom reversal is
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  complete. The scribes thought they were
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  putting Jesus on trial, but Jesus is judging them.
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  He establishes himself as the judge of the secrets of men, as
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  Paul later describes. He dismantles their pride before
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  he even addresses their theological argument.
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  He proves His omniscience and authority to judge their present
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  thoughts, which validates His authority to forgive the
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  paralytics past sins. Having exposed their silent
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  blasphemy, Jesus now moves to dismantle their theological
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  skepticism with what our sources call a masterstroke of divine
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  logic. He asks them for whether is
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  easier to say thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say arise
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  and walk. This is a sophisticated
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  rhetorical trap. It focuses purely on the issue
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  of verification. From the ultimate divine
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  perspective, both actions, forgiving and healing, are
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  equally impossible for any mere man.
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  Both require the direct action of God.
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  But when we talk about what is easier to claim without being
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  instantly exposed as a fake, the categories flip completely.
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  Precisely. Forgiveness is easier to claim
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  from a human standpoint because it's invisible, it's spiritual,
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  it's unverifiable. As charlatan could stand up
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  right now and claim to forgive all your sins and no physical
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  reality would contradict him. It's an easy claim to make
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  without immediate consequence. But healing the paralyzed man is
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  harder. Right.
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  It demands immediate, visible physical proof if a speaker
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  commands a cripple to walk and the man remains immobile.
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  The speaker is instantly exposed as a fraud, a liar.
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  A failure. The structure of Jesus's
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  argument is just brilliant. He's saying I am going to
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  perform the harder, visible miracle, the one that requires
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  immediate public physical validation.
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  To provide irrefutable evidence that I possessed the authority
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  for the easier invisible miracle, which is forgiveness.
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  He stakes his whole reputation on the physical healing to
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  validate his spiritual authority.
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  So the healing isn't the main point.
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  Not at all. It's the public physical stamp
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  of authenticity on the prior pronouncement of pardon.
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  It is the visible sign confirming the invisible
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  reality. The argument flows logically.
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  If I can do what is physically undeniable, then you must accept
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  that I can also do what is spiritually ultimate.
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  If you see the evidence that I have the ability of God over the
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  body, you must concede that I have the authority of God over
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  the soul. He is forcing them to connect
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  the sign to the person who has signified this debate, which has
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  been purely theological and internal among the scribes.
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  It all culminates in verse 6. Matthew records a dramatic
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  grammatical shift, a break in the sentence structure in
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  Anacolithon. Jesus is addressing the
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  skeptics, he says, But that ye may know that the Son of Man
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  hath authority on earth to forgive sins, and then he just
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  stops lecturing. He abruptly turns to action.
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  He turns physically from the legalists to the sufferer to
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  enact the truth he's proclaiming.
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  He provides the visible proof right then and there, and in
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  doing so he uses a title that is central to his whole claim.
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  Son of Man. We hear this title a lot, but it
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  is so critical we understand its weight here.
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  This is not a reference to his mere humanity.
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  No, absolutely not. It's a direct messianic claim.
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  Title Son of Man Guios to Anthropo explicitly connects
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  Jesus to the divine figure described in Daniel Chapter 7.
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  The one who comes on the clouds of heaven and receives dominion
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  and glory and a Kingdom that all people, nations and languages
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  should serve him. It is the title of cosmic
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  sovereign authority. So by applying this title to
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  himself, Jesus is asserting that the celestial court has convened
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  in Capernaum. He claims Exusia rightful
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  prerogative, legal jurisdiction on Earth.
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  Right now, in this physical location, he's bringing the
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  authority of the throne room down to the living room of
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  Capernaum. The scribes insisted that the
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  ability to forgive must remain locked in heaven, mediated
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  through their established religious systems.
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  And Jesus declares that Heaven's judicial verdict has stepped
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  onto earth in his very person. And he provides the proof suited
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  to human senses, not because our faith should only rest on sight,
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  but because the skepticism of the scribes demanded an answer.
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  Christ removed every possible excuse for unbelief.
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  The command that follows is a display of sovereign Fiat.
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  It's stark. It's authoritative.
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  No theatrical embellishment, no incantation.
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  Just arise, take up thy bed and go into thine house.
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  Every single part of that command reverses an aspect of
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  the man's bondage and humiliation.
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  And the result is instantaneous, which is a hallmark of biblical
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  miracles. And he arose and departed to his
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  house. There was no delay, no gradual
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  improvement, no need for physical therapy to relearn how
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  to use atrophied muscles. At the sound of the King's
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  voice, the muscular system, the neural pathways, they were
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  instantly recreated and restored.
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  And that detail, take up thy bed is a powerful visual metaphor.
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  He didn't leave his bed behind his trash.
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  No, he carried the very object that had carried him.
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  He turned the former instrument of his confinement into a trophy
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  carried in his own hands. It symbolizes complete
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  liberation from his past helplessness.
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  So the physical healing was the credential, the visible
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  confirmation that validated the spiritual reality that had
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  already occurred. It was a binding judicial
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  verdict against the scribes accusation.
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  They had accused him of blasphemy and Jesus forces them
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  into a corner. The ultimate God who created and
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  sustains the universe does not lend his omnipotence to confirm
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  a blasphemers lies. The flow of instantaneous
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  creative divine authority through Jesus confirmed that His
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  words of forgiveness were absolutely ratified by the
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  Father. The healing of the body was
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  effectively the visible receipt for the payment of sin.
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  The argument is closed. The visible capability over the
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  physical world provides irrefutable proof of the
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  invisible authority over the spiritual world.
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  That man walking home was a living, breathing public sermon
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  that Jesus Christ is Lord of both body and soul.
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  Possessing the singular right to declare the Sinner righteous in
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  the sight of God. The passage concludes with the
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  reaction of the multitude in verse 8, and it's a reaction
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  that is both appropriate and at the same time, deeply
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  insufficient. Matthew records that they feared
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  and glorified God. And that fear wasn't polite
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  applause. It was the trembling dread of
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  creatures in the sudden proximity of the Creator.
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  A holy hush falling over Capernaum.
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  They sensed the intrusion of massive divine ability into
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  their mundane world and realized they were in the presence of
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  something that transcended the natural order.
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  And that fear is the beginning of wisdom, as the Scripture
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  says. However, their theology
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  contained a tragic flaw. It's exposed in the final clause
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  of the verse. They glorified God, which had
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  given such authority unto men. Notice the plural men.
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  The word is answer voice. Here is the tragedy of partial
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  sight and it's a failure so many people today repeat.
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  They interpreted the event through their pre-existing
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  categories. They saw Jesus as a powerful
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  prophet, a man filled with the Spirit like Elijah or Elijah.
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  One among many men to whom God might delegate ability.
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  They missed the specific central Christological point that Jesus
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  had just risked his life to make.
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  He didn't call himself a prophet or one of the men.
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  He called himself the singular divine figure, the Son of Man,
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  who already possesses all dominion.
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  They saw the sign, but they completely missed the person who
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  was signified. They saw a great man acting on
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  behalf of God, but they failed to see the God man acting by his
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  own inherent non delegatable authority.
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  Their pluralization of the authority completely dilutes the
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  glory of the only Begotten Son. They wanted the benefits of the
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  Kingdom, the healing, the restoration, the excitement,
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  without submitting to the King's exclusive claim over their souls
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  and their sins. They were impressed by the
• 20:08
  power, but they were not converted to the person.
• 20:10
  And this error of partial sight, dismissing the God man standing
• 20:14
  before them. It serves as a searing critique
• 20:17
  of several modern errors, especially when we look at it
• 20:20
  through the lens of Reformed theology.
• 20:21
  Let's start with prosperity thinking.
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  This text absolutely rejects the idea that bodily health is the
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  chief blessing or the measure of divine favor.
• 20:31
  Jesus establishes an undeniable priority.
• 20:34
  Forgiveness comes first. Healing serves the message of
• 20:37
  pardon, not the other way around.
• 20:39
  Prosperity thinking essentially tells people your real problem
• 20:42
  is your pain in poverty. Faith should solve your
• 20:45
  circumstances. Christ says no, your real
• 20:48
  problem is your unforgiving guilt.
• 20:50
  And that is what I am here to solve.
• 20:51
  If God has pardoned you, you are safe, even if your body remains
• 20:55
  weak until the resurrection. Next, the passage offers
• 20:58
  essential clarity against sacredodilism, or the idea that
• 21:01
  forgiveness has to be administered through a
• 21:03
  priesthood or some ritualistic system.
• 21:06
  The authority to forgive is located exclusively in Christ
• 21:09
  Himself, in His unique person as the Son of Man.
• 21:12
  It's not located in a priesthood empowered to mechanically
• 21:15
  dispense absolution through a ritual.
• 21:18
  Ministers may and they should declare the verdict of
• 21:21
  forgiveness, proclaiming Christ's pardon to the penitent.
• 21:24
  Don't. Generate that pardon by any
• 21:26
  independent ability or ritualistic act.
• 21:28
  The paralytic was brought. To Jesus the Savior, not to a
• 21:32
  ceremony as an independent source of grace.
• 21:34
  And finally it. Confronts moralism, which is
• 21:37
  perhaps the most popular gospel in the modern world moralism
• 21:40
  says that the. Fundamental human crisis is
• 21:43
  social malfunction or poor choices or psychological
• 21:46
  weakness and the remedy. Is activism or self esteem or
• 21:49
  just behaving better but Matthew 9.
• 21:52
  Shows us that the fundamental crisis is rebellion, sin rooted
• 21:55
  in the evil thoughts of the heart.
• 21:57
  The scribe skepticism wasn't just a misunderstanding, it was
• 22:01
  moral wickedness. The remedy isn't just behavioral
• 22:04
  change, but radical reconciliation with God through
• 22:07
  Christ. All of this brings us back.
• 22:09
  To the nature of forgiveness itself, which we have to
• 22:11
  understand judicially, not just emotionally right forgiveness is
• 22:15
  often. Reduced to an emotional feeling
• 22:17
  or God just relaxing his standards.
• 22:19
  That is not what happened here. Forgiveness is not God saying
• 22:22
  nevermind, it wasn't that bad, it's a judicial verdict.
• 22:25
  Guilt is completely remitted, the debt is cancelled, and the
• 22:28
  Sinner is restored to a righteous standing.
• 22:31
  And this verdict is not arbitrary, no.
• 22:33
  It is grounded in Christ's own perfect righteousness and
• 22:36
  secured by his coming atonement, the cross.
• 22:40
  Jesus can speak pardon righteously in Capernaum because
• 22:43
  he is going to satisfy justice on Calvary, the Gospel
• 22:46
  declaration. Is not God sighing nevermind,
• 22:49
  but God declaring paid in full by the Son of man and this
• 22:53
  prevents. Us from reducing Jesus to a
• 22:54
  simple therapist or A roadside magician.
• 22:57
  He's the Son of man with legal authority on earth to forgive
• 23:00
  sin sins. The only proper response is not
• 23:03
  amazement, but repentance, faith and worship.
• 23:07
  The purpose of this? Deep dive isn't just to inform
• 23:09
  the intellect. We must allow the absolute
• 23:11
  authority of King Jesus to press upon our own lives and change
• 23:14
  our perspective. We have to internalize.
• 23:16
  The priority case established forgiveness over comfort, so
• 23:19
  let's structure the. Application around our head, our
• 23:22
  heart and our hands for you, the listener, so that this passage
• 23:25
  becomes a template for Christian living first.
• 23:29
  Head the doctrine of absolute authority.
• 23:32
  We must intellectually submit to the truth that spiritual
• 23:35
  paralysis, our sin, is a damnable condition we have to
• 23:39
  reject. The modern gospel of Moralistic
• 23:43
  therapeutic deism, which sees God as nothing more than a
• 23:45
  cosmic helper whose main job is to alleviate our anxiety and
• 23:49
  make us feel good about ourselves, our sources,
• 23:51
  consistently. Tell us we must anchor our minds
• 23:54
  in the truth that the forgiveness of sins is the
• 23:56
  single highest, most precious gift God can possibly give us.
• 24:01
  It's the bedrock of our standing before Holy God, Christ's
• 24:04
  authority. To forgive solves a problem
• 24:06
  condemnation that no doctor, no government program, no amount of
• 24:10
  money, and no therapist can ever touch if you operate into the.
• 24:14
  Assumption that God only loves you if he fixes your financial
• 24:16
  or physical circumstances. You're operating with a Pagan
• 24:19
  worldview, not a truly Christian 1 rooted in grace.
• 24:21
  Now let's move to the. Heart confronting idols and
• 24:25
  cultivating joy what do we truly love and fear most in our lives
• 24:30
  this passage forces us to confront the idol of physical
• 24:33
  comfort and well-being I mean, if we're.
• 24:35
  Brutally honest. Many of us fear a terminal
• 24:38
  illness or financial ruin more than we fear eternal separation
• 24:41
  from God in practical terms. Many people would prefer to hear
• 24:44
  the command arise and walk over the declaration.
• 24:47
  Thy sins are forgiven. This shows us where our true
• 24:50
  treasure is. This text however.
• 24:52
  Calls the weary St. the one suffering from chronic pain,
• 24:56
  debilitating disability or relentless financial ruin to
• 25:00
  hear the command be of good cheer.
• 25:02
  How can a sufferer? Be cheerful only if they value
• 25:04
  the. Good of divine pardon above the
• 25:07
  temporary good of physical health.
• 25:08
  If your sins are pardoned, you have the absolute title deed to
• 25:12
  eternal life and your momentary. Light affliction is working for
• 25:15
  you. Something far grander.
• 25:16
  Joy in this passage. Is found solely in pardon, not
• 25:20
  in the absence of pain. You can be utterly miserable
• 25:22
  physically, but joyful in soul, because the king has spoken
• 25:25
  peace. Finally, hands.
• 25:27
  Intercession and secret holiness the passage gives us 2 models of
• 25:32
  action to imitate or avoid the friends and the scribes, we must
• 25:36
  be the. Friends, Evangelism.
• 25:39
  We're called to be roof Breakers for the lost.
• 25:41
  Ask yourself, who is the paralytic in your life?
• 25:45
  The colleague. The friend, the child who is
• 25:48
  spiritually helpless, unable to stand before God.
• 25:51
  True faith as shown. By the friends is intrusive it's
• 25:55
  willing to expend physical effort, time and social
• 25:57
  awkwardness to bring people under the sound of the word we
• 26:00
  can't heal them or. Save them?
• 26:02
  No, but we can carry. The corner of the mat through
• 26:04
  prayer and faithful gospel witness.
• 26:06
  If you're not carrying anyone in this sense, you must examine the
• 26:09
  vitality of your own faith and devotion, and conversely.
• 26:12
  We must beware of the scribes secret holiness.
• 26:15
  We have to rigorously guard against the secret sins of the
• 26:18
  scribes, the judgment, the pride, the bitterness, the
• 26:20
  cynicism, the criticism of God's work that happens within
• 26:23
  yourself. Remember, they committed no.
• 26:24
  External crime. They were silent, respectable
• 26:27
  churchmen, yet Jesus condemned the evil in their hearts.
• 26:30
  He is the judge of. Thoughts we cannot allow.
• 26:32
  Our external religion to be a whitewashed tomb hiding internal
• 26:36
  malice. If Jesus exposed their inner
• 26:39
  sneer in Capernaum, He knows every one of ours today we have
• 26:44
  to constantly. Repent of the pride that hides
• 26:46
  behind discernment and the cynicism that critiques rather
• 26:49
  than kneels in submission to the king.
• 26:51
  This narrative. Centered on christ's authority
• 26:54
  to forgive should also shape the structure of our covenantal
• 26:57
  worship, ensuring that our corporate.
• 26:59
  Liturgy reflects the priority Jesus established the worship
• 27:02
  service. Itself should be designed to
• 27:04
  move the congregation through the stages we saw in Capernaum,
• 27:08
  from spiritual paralysis to intercession, to declaration and
• 27:12
  finally to doxology, for example, the call.
• 27:15
  To worship could be anchored in a passage like Psalm One O 3
• 27:17
  linking forgiveness and healing who forgiveth all thine.
• 27:20
  Iniquities who healeth all thy diseases.
• 27:24
  This reinforces the deity of Christ by connecting the New
• 27:27
  Testament Savior with the Jehovah of the Old Covenant.
• 27:29
  Following this the confession. Of sin must be searching,
• 27:32
  guiding the people to acknowledge both their spiritual
• 27:34
  inability, like the paralytic, and their intellectual pride,
• 27:37
  like the scribe, we confess. We are without strength to walk
• 27:41
  in God's law, and at the same time we confess the silent
• 27:45
  blasphemy of doubting God's ability or judging others in our
• 27:48
  hearts. We lay our mats of brokenness
• 27:51
  before the pulpit. The assurance of.
• 27:53
  Pardon then becomes the critical climax.
• 27:55
  The minister, standing as the herald of the King, declares the
• 27:58
  very words of Jesus to the congregation.
• 28:01
  Son, be of good cheer thy sins be forgiven thee.
• 28:05
  This is the. Declarative application of the
• 28:07
  gospel, assuring the weary St. that they're standing before God
• 28:10
  is settled permanently in the heavenly court through Christ,
• 28:13
  and finally when the Lord. 'S supper is observed.
• 28:15
  This text provides A profound theological lens, just as Jesus
• 28:19
  used. The visible miracle of healing
• 28:21
  to confirm the invisible reality of forgiveness.
• 28:23
  The elements of the supper serve as sensible signs to seal the
• 28:27
  invisible grace of the gospel to the believing heart.
• 28:30
  The bread, the wine. They confirm the invisible
• 28:33
  reality of justification when the bread is broken and.
• 28:36
  The cup is poured, the congregation is protected from
• 28:38
  the crowds error of only marveling instead they.
• 28:41
  Participate receiving the visible sign to confirm the
• 28:45
  spiritual reality. The table is the tangible
• 28:48
  liturgical proof that the Son of Man has authority on earth to
• 28:52
  forgive sins because he is paid the price in full.
• 28:55
  So we have. Investigated Matthew 9.1 through
• 28:58
  8 and seen clearly that Jesus Christ is not simply a patch up
• 29:01
  wonder worker dealing with temporary issues.
• 29:04
  No, he's the Incarnate. Lord, who strikes at the core
• 29:06
  issue of the fall, which is sin, the physical healing.
• 29:09
  Was the visible, irrefutable seal upon the invisible, eternal
• 29:13
  verdict of justification we must hold firm?
• 29:16
  Against the modern eras that prioritize physical comfort or
• 29:18
  social activism over spiritual redemption, we must proclaim
• 29:22
  that the single greatest miracle God performs is the regeneration
• 29:26
  of a heart, dead and trespasses and sins.
• 29:28
  So the final question. For you, the listener is
• 29:30
  unavoidable, impressing. Will you be like the crowds who
• 29:33
  merely saw the ability and marveled at what was given to
• 29:36
  men? Or will you submit to the person
• 29:37
  who has the singular, unique divine authority to forgive?
• 29:41
  Do not rest until. You have heard the decisive word
• 29:43
  of the King. Speak peace to your soul.
• 29:46
  The authority to forgive sins is still on earth today, mediated
• 29:49
  through the faithful proclamation of the gospel.
• 29:52
  If Christ is declared peace to your soul, then you must rise
• 29:55
  and walk in newness of life, carrying the testimony of grace
• 29:58
  home into your ordinary days. Glorify God not just for the
• 30:02
  gifts He bestows, but for who He is, the King, the Judge, and the
• 30:06
  Savior who possesses the absolute right to cancel your
• 30:09
  guilt.