Sermon Tone Analysis

! Introduction

 

I will soon return to our series on the Book of Romans, but for now, I want to share on something I believe the Lord has laid specificly upon my heart for today.

This story came to to me while I was driving somewhere in the district.

What struck me the most, was the grace of our Lord Jesus and His ability to help those who recognise their need.

In explaining this to you, I want you to look with me at the responses of the different people to (1) Who Jesus is and (2) What He can do.

The Bible tells us that He was in Capernaum in a house where He was teaching the Word and the house were filled with people.

There were basicly 3 groups of people present in that house.

The first group that Luke mentions, were:

!! I.   THE PHARISEES and THE TEACHERS OF THE LAW

They were there to criticise Jesus and see if they could find proof to show that He was a fake.

They listened to His teachings.

They watched Him do miracles and change the lives of people.

They witnessed His great power and His abilities, and... in this perticular case, they witnessed Him doing this unbelievable miracle and they heard Him declared that this man's sins were forgiven ... and instead of believing in Him, they turned against Him and criticized Jesus in such a way as to try to make others believe that Jesus is not Who He claims to be.

The other group of people were what I would like to call...

!! II THE ORDINARY PEOPLE

They were the one's with whom most people can identify on the one hand.

They probably came to hear Jesus teach and to watch Him do miracles.

We don't know what their choices were.

Some of them might have believed in Jesus that day.

Others might have said - let's wacth Him out a little more and we will make our decision later.

Other's may have turned Jesus down - we don't know.

We can just imagine what their responses would be to Jesus from what we experience from the people of our day.

And I do know poeple who put thewir faith in Jesus, I know others who postpone their decision and I know others who just don't care much about Jesus.

The point is - they were there and they heard the goodnews and they saw the power of God.

The third group of people is what I would like to call ...

!! III THE BELIEVERS AND THEIR FRIEND

They were the 4 men who brought their paralyzed friend to Jesus for a miracle and they recieved an answer to their faithfilled action and their friend became a Christian and was miraculously healed.

Their joy was probably overwhelming.

Some of us can identify with them, BUT I want to point out a few interesting matters later on.

NOW ... let's go back to the occasion and examine the responses of the 3 different groups.

What Jesus did that day - served as a glorious proof of Who He is and What He can do.

Let's consider the first two groups together ...

!! *The Responses of Groups I and II: The Pharisees and the Teachers of the Law, and the Ordinary People*

Concerning the Pharisees and the Teachers of the Law ... They chose to stand against the truth that Jesus proclaimed and they had a problem when He announced that the man was forgiven from his sins.

And they were quick to critisize the ability of Christ to forgive sins, but I can imagine how quietly and quickly they left that home after that miracle took place before everyone's eyes.

They reasoned that only God can forgive sins.

They were right.

And even though you and I are urged to forgive others, we can only forgive those that have sinned against us - and God expects us to do this but that does'nt bring salvation for those whom we forgive; but it does bring freedom for us.

It means the strongholds of things such as bitterness and grudges are demolished when we forgive those that have sinned against us.

But the kind of forgiveness Jesus brought, is able to bring salvation - for when one is born again, one of the meanings thereof is, that he is a forgiven person on the grounds of what Jesus did on the cross (or in this case what Jesus was about to do on the cross very soon - He is the Lamb of God Who came to take away the sins of this world).

Every person needs this kind of forgiveness.

Jesus knew that and that was a clear purpose for His entrance as a Man into this world - He came sothat forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His Name in all the world.

The Bible tells us that Jesus was aware of the doubt that were amongst the Pharisees.

And surely ... the ordinary people were then also made aware of this doubt ... and Jesus wanted everyone to consider the truth so He challenged them by asking them a very interesting question about what is the easiest thing to do - to forgive someone's sins, or to heal a paralyzed man?

Imagine Jesus is asking you this question ... what will you reply?

For most of us it will NOT be easy to answer.

For we know only God can forgive someone's sins and grant him eternal life, but we also know the hopelessness of the situation of a paralyzed man and it will take an absolute miracle to heal such a man.

So you can imagine the stir that question has caused.

I think the ordinary people were glad the question was'nt directly put to them but to the Pharisees and teachers of the Law.

But I guess they were interested in the answer too!

The Pharisees knew - Only God can forgive sins but they had trouble in believeing that Jesus Christ was God - to them He looked like an ordinary man with a strange ability - they would hate to admit that Jesus was God and therefor He is the Almighty.

This became clear when we read in the Gospel of Matthew (16) how they accuse Jesus that He did His miracles by the power of the devil.

They tried every plan in the book to stop Jesus from what He came to do.

But the question was put ... and ... what is their reply?

Certainly they would not like to admit that it was easier to forgive sins for then they would admit that Jesus is God and then they should start believe in Him as the Messiah and Redeemer.

On the other hand ... they could not reply that it was easier to heal a paralyzed man, for they knew that they cannot do it ... and it was not like as if this man was just ill and one could go and pull him up and make him walk to the bathroom or something.

His legs won't work.

Nothing will work.

He will absolutely fall flat on the floor.

Jesus knew they would not be able to answer Him ... therefor He did not await their reply ...

He just continued ... since He is God, He knew He alone is able to forgive men their sins - and to proof it, He decided to do the impossible miracle ...

He did the miracle sothat evrybody present could realize that He was God and had the power to forgive sins.

* - Now before we continue ... what do you think was the greatest miracle here?

* Was it the healing of the man?

Or was it the forgiveness of his sins?

...

Well, the healing surely was a phenominal miracle and it absolutely proclaims the power of God.

He did not even touched the man.

He just spoke the word and the man rose, picked up his bed and carried it out of that house.

*This is exactly how God works - in fact the Bible tells us that God created the world out of nothing - He just spoke it into being - it came into existance!

This miracle served as an excellent display of the ultimate powerful word of God.

No - one has ever seen that before.

Everyone realized that something extraordinary happened in that place.

BUT, even though it was such an extraordinary act of God. it can still not compare to the miracle of forgiveness.

I have spoken to people in the past.

I have asked them about their relationship with God and salvation and they believed they were in rightstanding with God ... On my question on what grounds they believe that ... They had testimonies of how God has helped them in times of trouble and trials and tribulations.

They could tell you wonderful stories of how they believe God has brought a change to their circumstances, or protected them, or provided for them ... BUT the Bible tells us that God in His great mercy, lets the sun shines over the rigteous and the unrighteous.

He provides and protects both the saved and unsaved.

He spare the lives of the unsaved particularly in order to give them more time to turn towards Him and recieve forgiveness and eternal life.

But as soon as the dust settle down - they return to their old ways and live their lives without God.

* - Is that salvation in Christ?

* - Is that a relationship with God?

* - Does such a person have eternal life?

* - Will he go to heaven some day?

The Bible teaches us that those who are truly saved - will be recognised by their fruit ... they wil be transformed ... everyday ... more and more into the image of Christ and they will live consecrated lives to Christ and they will have the presence of the Spirit of God in their lives - it doesn't mean they will be perfect ... * - BUT you will see the difference Christ makes in their lives!

And this is the greatest miracle of all miracles - *when a man are forgiven and restored back into a living relationship with God through His Spirit because he believed in Christ Jesus.*

Nothing can be compared to this.

WHY?

For the simple fact that no matter how great and how extraordinary the miracle of healing or protection or provision might be ... it will always be temporarily.

*But the miracle of forgiveness will last for eternity!*

Once God has spoken the words - your sins are forgiven - those words will never be made undone, because of the power of God to regenerate and re-create new life through Christ and in Christ in everyone who call upon the Name of the Lord.

And God will not revokel His promise of forgiveness.

Consider this ... Lazarus was dead but Jesus brought him back to life - back to his sisters ... he may have lived another 10/20/30 years - who knows.

But he died again for the miracle of his resurrection was not meant to be permanent at that time.

It was meant to glorify God and Christ, BUT at that same occasion - just before Jesus called Lazarus back to life ...

He said these words:

in John 11:25 "I am the resurrection and the Life.

Whoever believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live ... he shall never die.."

The same thing happened with the 10 Lepers.

All 10 of them could testify and share that they have been blessed by Jesus with the miracle of cleansing from leprosy - a great and wonderful God working miracle which brought all the honor and glory to Jesus.

But only one returned to not only recieve a healing miracle, but the miracle of eternal life.