Feb 17 - Breaking In to Breakthrough

This morning's messages. I titled breaking into breakthrough and mainly focused on these friends caring this guy to Jesus. Loving him so much and caring for him enough to take the effort of breaking apart to someone house in order to get someone before the presence of Jesus because they knew you what Jesus can do they had faith that this was going to happen for this guy. They love them enough and was willing to do something physically in order to get him before Jesus. Do you have friends like that?

So it's out from Isaiah 43:25 228 his the Old Testament reference and Luke 5:17 to 26 and the Isaiah passage because it would be Isaiah passage that these people were talking about. They wanted to focus on this particular verse. first twenty-five when they said when when when it's God's talkin and I even I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake and remembers your sins no more.

I know some of you guys are working on a roof before I am in some fashion either you had to replace shingles with some pipe or maybe there's something under the shingles one summer. I had to do some Landscaping work and also some Roofing work that we did in a park for Pavilion and we had to we had to take off the shingles take off the paper take take off the wood panels and putting it with new plyboard down and and and just replace all that all and it was of like a hot work. It was long work. So we were up there for a while. We didn't have a lot of tools headed back home. So, you know, it's a little harder to get around. We didn't have all the resources like a lot of people do but we did when we could hard work and with the houses. They had back then as it's a little bit different cuz he eating your wood that lays out the structure and then he had to put like a clay or mud material that sets into a hard material on top of that. So it's it's never easy and sometimes it's dangerous. Right? So the picture re-roof might be rather steep in at any time. You have a steep pitch roof. I mean you and anchor yourself down somewhere, right? You want to tie yourself to something or at least put two by fours down and drill them in so you have somewhere to place your feet. So it is sometimes it is downright dangerous work. Especially when you're in your somewhere closer to the Equator and say it's going to be hot work. You're going to be doing it during the summer. He might fry while you're up on the roof when we are in Texas. It was always tired of it anywhere you got anywhere close to a roof and it's just that much hotter. Yeah that the heat reflecting off the roof on do you like all the time? So in this story the house was full of people. Not generally you don't work on a house when on its roof while it's full of people. I mean the stuff is going to fall down on them and in some way whether he get out with their rooms is going to be like clay and wood and maybe some stones and things are going to fall down on top of them with our rooms. Maybe not so much because there's stuff in the way. Usually you have an attic and so stuff might fall into that attic but people we're all in this house and it makes it a dangerous environment. Not only were they all in the house, but they were all worshipping. They weren't they were all there when Jesus and we're tripping in the end getting killed. So you're not going to work on the roof of a place. Usually when you have a place full of people and they're worshipping God is going to be packed into the building, you know, things might fall down on some people might distract them from what's going on all kinds of things. You can imagine like being in this like, I mean, it's got to be hot. This place is packed with people you're closer to the Equator hot already and then you have all this stuff falling in all the roof and you're like, what is it? You got to be wondering what is going on in this house? Cuz these houses, you know, the usually there their they're in some sort of form of square, right? You got the wood and you've got strong claim. I put on the roof to seal it up and usually he'll have some sort of water catching sister and her something to have the water go into your And so, you know, this is a poor house. So usually if your upper class a bigger house, you might have a courtyard in the center, but that's not not not typical people of this time. And you knows and in usually has some animals down here, you know that sort of thing. Imagining this house is either like this or even the smaller house might not even have this bottom part. I mean their kitchen might be, you know with the rest of the stuff and it might Mall just be this level here and I'm thinking it's even even the smaller house there cuz I don't even talk about like the Courtyard area or any of that stuff. It's just packed like that just in the area like that size and you're trying to break through the roof and get a guy down in there. That's not this is not

Accident at the beginning of this passage. You haven't talked about the Pharisees and you and it's talking about the teachers of the law and still I want to quit go through and just an overview of those people are

First of the Pharisees were the the strict one strict adherence to the laws of Moses and usually they included the law but other and rabbinical writings other rabbis and I didn't necessarily serve inside of the temple might have written about God did right about God and so there was an occlusion of those things as an add-on to the law of Moses considered a hedge law. If you will like rules built around the law and said they insisted that the average people would even obey even Priestly loss. You know in in the original Law in the Old Testament, there were laws for priests and there were laws for the average person and the priest would have to do particular things of washing in a particular way before they went and sacrifice for the people and so the Pharisees they just included all those things in with everything else and told everybody you have to do these things. Otherwise, why do them at all? The Sadducees the teachers of the law here, which is talking about had a strict adherence to the pentateuch only the first five books of our Bible and that's what they focused on just the written pentateuch and that's what they took his soul. All there was no hedge wall writings around them that they considered. It ain't consider the rabbi's works. I'll part of that work. It's wasn't required for them. They were they didn't believe in the resurrection. They didn't necessarily believe in an afterlife even Which is weird, I do not get that at all. I don't understand it. Cuz if you're not going to be leaving after like you're not going to believe in the spiritual things of God. What is the point? What is the point?

I saw they were motivated more by power and money and they were the ones who controlled the temple. So these two things sort of go hand-in-hand it they focus so much on Power and money and they were usually of the D upper classes of their society and so because they were driven so much by power and money and position and the upper classes of society and they wanted maintain those things. They didn't want that the average people to to to be further to control things as much as I hated. So they were considered to be collaborators with the Romans the Romans who were in control of the people in the area this time. Sutton NE have a third Group, which this passage doesn't refer to but it is if it's still one of the three main groups and they were the essenes they were aesthetic. They denied worldly pleasures and I can be like any pleasure. I mean if you think of anything being good for you or comfortable for you, that would be something that you would have to deny having a scene and usually they were about communal living in voluntary poverty and taking daily daily rituals of purification. I mean getting baptized as much as possible. There wasn't one baptism for them. There was a bad cousin for everything. Daily ritual purification and abstinence was a part of their lifestyle. This was a contemplatively lifestyle for everyone, but the priests themselves were celibate. And so that's where it's some of these traditions of the Christian face were to boil out of these particular three areas, right? There were some there some groups in the Christian church later on that developed out of these three different sort of mindsets through three groups. And the last part was they focused on charity and benevolence and that's not a bad thing. I mean who doesn't want, you know people to go out and take care of people making sure they got food and making sure they were helped by all the pleasures and charity and benevolence sort of went in this overall package of you deny yourself pleasure, but then you give some of that to somebody else so it is sort of leveling out. I guess some of the people who live there and these are actually the people who that Dead Sea Scrolls. Worse than they were the ones who stored the Dead Sea Scrolls. So that's where that came from. So they were out in the wilderness Judean Wilderness and that's where they found the Dead Sea Scrolls and their communities. But they're not in this passage.

Sorry, didn't hit that button. So here in this passage, the the Pharisees the teacher of the law wanted catch Jesus and sort of some sort of heresy saying something or doing something that they thought was a violation of the law and they try to use those things to discredit them including healing including healing. They're trying to describe them. No matter how that they can they can discredit him. Whatever. He said they just took it the wrong way be interpreted throw away or try to use scripture to in the wrong way. In order to say that Jesus was being led by the devil instead of being led by God to Jesus can forgive sins. Because they didn't know who Jesus was. Any not knowing Jesus as as God not recognizing his divinity and referring back to a passage like this and Isaiah. I mean, it's going to sound like heresy. especially when Jesus says because he was looking at the friends and the guy on the you know, that was being lowered down hadn't said a thing at all. Especially when Jesus says his sins are forgiven. because of what his friends did and today we have a problem prank for the problem here. today, even we have the idea that

You yes, you are responsible for the sins that you do and yes you were responsible for coming before God. However, this is a mathematical problem. It's not one plus one equals two two doesn't equal healing in this process. Had two dozen equal being forgiven in this process. God forgives as God will forgive. Out of his love and out of his graciousness. He will forgive as he wouldn't want to forget. It's not up to us. We're not God. We don't have to beg controlling we don't have the ability to forgive but God does and he does so graciously and overflowing Ali such that if he sees the love of friends breaking into a building email to get him there before him to Tequila him to forgive him of his sins. He he is going to say yes.

Is going to say yes, and sometimes we build into our faith this structure of rules about what can be forgiven and what cannot be forgiven that we deny other people forgiveness unless in meats are rules charger. We deny other people killing unless it meets our rule structure. Instead of understanding that God is a god of love and a god of grace of God of mercy and peace and he wants to forgive and he wants to heal.

10 G's does take this opportunity to do that.

To the Jews had rejected what the prophets has said. What the prophet spoke from God? In the same way. They rejected would Jesus would say and the same way because Jesus is still fine to be what prophet priest and King. So I have the prophet Jesus comes and he speaks like John the Baptist right and down the Baptist says prepare the way of the Lord and repent of your sins because the Lord is coming the kingdom of God is coming now and Jesus says the kingdom of God is here in Jesus and what that means is all of the kingdom of God all the healing the restoration the love the power and the authority to be able to overcome the evilness in this world.

They wanted their own authority. But Jesus had his authority and I was over all evil. Jesus forgave the man because of the sake of the efforts of his friends if they lowered him down. This is loving acting right. This is love an action. This isn't just a simple repentance. What is loving actions of friends because they knew this guy, but I loved him. I knew that he loved God. They knew that there was something in there. They had to be something there and we don't we don't know the heart of the guy because we wouldn't we are on our told you know what he said exactly what he did and all we know is that the guy was laying there on the matinee lowered and down he didn't do anything at all in this In this passage other than the fact that he was there before Jesus and Jesus is one. I wanted him healed.

Could you the man did not deserve forgiveness anyway? Do any of us deserve forgiveness?

Do any of us deserve forgiveness?

And this is Grace. This is the Forgiveness of God he comes because God is good and not because we are good or we can do something to make us good. Are some decision that we can make for ourselves, but it's by God's grace that we are make good. They couldn't understand Grace.

So this passage says and be missed it, right? If not, just I am he who blots out your transgressions. for my own sake Jesus doesn't matter God doesn't just forgive us just because he's the only one who can forgive us. And he's the only one who does that and he did and he doesn't because of a roof structure. But he forgives us because of himself because he himself is good because he himself is loving and kind and gentle and peaceful and graceful and all these things. We are given in the spirit all the fruits of the spirit. Because God can be said to be all the things they missed a part of scripture and they missed a key piece of the Theology of healing here.

Caduceus constant disciples to guard against the teachings of the Pharisees and the Sadducees right because they thought about God in this hyper rule structured way. They thought that things can only happen by doing particular things to do said to guard your hearts against them because they would distort the truth. Kubota legalism and Corruption there never to be tolerated among the Jesus's disciples. The legalism is that hyper roof structure and you can only fit in this one particular Wayne you can only do this particular thing here and within that then you can be forgiven and you can be healed.

So love expressed through obedience to Jesus teachings and Jesus teachings are about Grace and love and the free expression of guide to be able to do all these things. Because he is gone. A serving of others rather than love as an emotional as emotionalism.

TV codes love is it emotionalism will take us anywhere. Play without without God guy didn't guiding us to the way his way his way of Grace his way of love. Then our love is defined as anything. I mean look at all the songs that are in our culture about love we can be guided toward anyting even violence in relationships are approved of in our culture and these definitions of love.

Do we need God to define those things for us Define our relationships? They tried to discredit Jesus his teachings by confusing the meaning of his word to but they could not discredit healing. I mean who who is Hank that is if somebody is going to get up from being disabled for years the whole town knowing that this guy has been disabled for you for years who can deny the fact that him getting out by Jesus's words. What's something of God?

What they did they still didn't believe.

Team, Jesus showed them up by healing the man because I said that Jesus couldn't forgive and Jesus was like, okay because you don't believe that I can forgive sins. I'm just going to heal this guy, right? It isn't even there is no qualifications to what Jesus is doing here. He just says because you don't believe that I can do this. I'm going to heal him he's going to get out from here and he's going to walk out here without his mat and that's what happened. I think that's amazing completely ridiculous and it's ridiculous working. This is ridiculous. And the fact that Jesus is like you're forgiven because these guys let you down it's ridiculous because Jesus says I'm going to heal this guy because you still don't believe that I can forgive your sins. And maybe some of you might believe because that guy is going to get up and walk out of here.

10 Edgewood Baptist communion this was an outward sign of what was happening inside what was happening in the invisible in the spiritual and with Jesus has Authority here. It was a sign for people to believe in some people definitely did believe it. If you go to the end of this passage people did believe some of the Pharisees some of the Sadducees in Aleve. Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with all and said we have seen remarkable things today. They were convinced out of their legalism. They were convinced out of the corruption in mentality.

About the lives that they were leading all because Jesus was Weiland willing to heal this guy.

In doing this he showed Grace and holiness. pointing people to God, but also saying I'm going to do this simply because you still don't believe

everybody responded with and was filled with all

They were willing to break through a house to get the guy did Cheese's. Do you have friends like that? Are you willing to do that for someone else? Are you willing to break through the walls break through the doors of the church? Break through the roof of this building. Break through the unbelief of someone else's life to bring them before the presence of God so that they can be made whole.

So that they can be healed before God. If you don't have that expectation, what will it take for you to have the expectation that God will do this.

Another way to put that is do you have enough Faith to bring your friends before God?

to say I know you're hurting I know your you're in the hospital today. I I can see that I want to pray for you right now. Can I pray for you? Because I know that something can happen.

At the grace of God the goodness of God is good enough to take you out of this thing.

If we don't have that faith.

Will you ask God for it?

Because the Bible says that we can and we should.

Because I can't believe in God until God comes into my life. The holy spirit is present in my life and says and gives me peace and says I will take care of this.