Sermon Tone Analysis

What Kind of Man is This?

This morning we continue with our series: What kind of Man is This?

We have seen that Jesus is the kind of man who rebukes winds and waves, and they submit into complete calm.

Last Sunday, we saw that Jesus is the kind of man who speaks to demons, and they flee at his command.

“What kind of a man speaks to the wind and waves, and they obey Him?”

This morning we consider the question, “What kind of man forgive sins?”

Matthew Sees Purpose

In the region of the Gadarenes, on the other side of the Sea of Galilee from Capernaum, Jesus healed two demon possessed persons.

Frightened by the transforming power of God among them, which they neither expected nor understood, the people of the nearby town pleaded with Jesus to leave them.

Always in control, always purposeful, Jesus stepped into the boat.

These gentiles did not force Jesus to leave.

Jesus did not merely bend to their plea.

Jesus chose to leave them.

By using the phrase “Jesus stepped,” Matthew is communicating an intentional and purposeful action by Jesus.

It foreshadows, the instructions that Jesus will give his disciples when he sends them out to proclaim the message of the kingdom.

Jesus stepped into the boat, crossed over and came to his own town – Capernaum.

Jesus returns to the amazed, but not committed crowd.

Yet with in that crowd there were a few who had saving faith.

For example, the leper, the centurion, and Peter’s mother-in-law.

Now, we see men bringing a paralyzed man to Jesus.

These men came with a purpose.

They were confident that Jesus could heal and would heal this man.

Jesus Sees Faith

Mark and Luke also report this event.

They note that Jesus was teaching in a house.

It was likely Peter’s house where Jesus had healed Peter’s mother-in-law.

The crowd around Jesus was so thick that the only way these men could get the paralyzed man to Jesus was to create a hole in the roof big enough to lower the man on his mat down in front of Jesus.

It was a bold act.

Jesus saw the faith of the man’s friends or relatives whoever they were.

Jesus saw that their faith was not merely a faith that things would get better, but faith in Jesus that he was who he said he was and would do what he said he could do.

Jesus saw this faith and was moved to action.

Jesus Sees Sin and Sickness

Jesus saw the man as he really was.

The root of this man’s misery was his unforgiven sins.

Maybe it was his sinful lifestyle that led to his paralysis.

Maybe it was a tragic accident that left this man in physical misery.

Maybe he was born paralyzed.

It does not matter how or when the man became paralyzed, Jesus saw the man’s sin was devouring him.

Jesus went immediately to the root problem.

Jesus knows sin is the root of all sickness and physical brokenness.

While not all sickness is a direct result of sin; all physical brokenness flows from humankind’s refusal to live in obedience to God.

One of the benefits of our deliverance from sin is our relief from sickness and physical deformity, particularly promised in the new heaven and the new earth, “where there will be no more death, mourning, crying or pain.”

One commentator put it this way,

God has graciously provided for removing our sin in the sacrificial death and triumphant resurrection of Jesus; and therefore the fundamental means God has provided for removing our sickness is the sacrificial death and triumphant resurrection of Jesus.

Although the man’s paralysis was real and not allegorical, it provides a picture of the effects of sin in our lives.

When sin runs its course in our life, we are completely powerless to do anything about it.

All our efforts at a better life are useless because we are spiritually paralyzed.

Our life as vibrant and productive as it may appear to others is meaningless because our sin has us on the broad road to destruction.

We can’t get ourselves off the road.

We must be delivered from the broad road to hell.

That is what Jesus, the Son of God came to do.

Our deliverance begins when we hear Jesus say to us, “take heart, son, take heart daughter, your sins (all of them) are forgiven.”

These sweet words can only come from the lips of God.

When the words “your sins are forgiven” take up residence, not in our intellect only, but in the lived experience of our soul, we experience the joy of our salvation.

For this paralyzed man and for us too, God’s work of forgiveness produces an inner healing not visible to the natural eye.

It takes spiritual sight to see God’s forgiving work in our lives and in the lives of others.

Teachers of the Law See Blasphemy

We see that the teachers of the Law were spiritually blind because they could not see God standing among them doing what only God can do – forgiving sins.

They thought they saw “a man” forgiving sins, when they were seeing the Son of God forgiving sins.

Because they did not see, really perceive, what they were looking at they drew the wrong conclusion about what was happening in front of their eyes.

These blind teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!”

Mark and Luke add the phrase, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

Blasphemy occurs when a human insults the honor of God.

For the teachers of the law Jesus is dishonoring God by claiming for himself an ability and authority that belongs exclusively to God.

According to the Law, blasphemy required death by stoning.

The word translated “thoughts” implies this condemnation of Jesus as a blasphemer was not a rush to an unjustified judgment.

Rather, their conclusion was their well-considered, scholarly, legal, and biblically based assessment of what was going on before their eyes.

Jesus Sees Unbelief

Jesus knew their thoughts and said, “Why do you entertain such evil thoughts in your heart.”

The word translated “entertain” has the sense of “to meditate deeply on a subject.”

This implies a that their condemnation of Jesus had settled deeply within them.

Why did Jesus call these thoughts evil thoughts?

Their thoughts were evil because they were calling the work of God unfolding before their eyes evil.

In fact, it was their own words that were blasphemy.

In Mark’s Gospel the teachers of the law accuse Jesus of casting out demons by the power of Satan.

In saying this they were calling the work of God, Jesus’s work among them, the work of Satan.

Jesus said this to them,

Because the teachers of the law could not see God at work right in front of their eyes, they were unable to join with God in what He was doing in this moment.

Their spiritual blindness meant that they were completely missing the point not just of this specific moment but of all of life.

They misinterpreted who Jesus was and what Jesus was doing.

It was an eternally damningly wrong misinterpretation.

Before we throw these teachers of the law under the bus, we must recognize we have the same faults.

Sometimes, because of our hardness of heart, we cannot see God at work in the moment.

Then because of our spiritual blindness we are unable to align ourselves with what God is doing right now.

When this happens, we completely miss the point of the moment and the point of our lives.

When we can’t see God at work in the moment, we miss the point of our lives, because our whole life – every moment, every experience is sovereignly crafted to make us more like Jesus.

Romans 8:28–29 (NIV)

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.

When we become more like Jesus, the Son of God, we are able, like Jesus to recognize the work our Father in Heaven is doing right now and join Him in His work.

Jesus said,

John 5:19 (NIV)

“Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.

Jesus’ relationship with the Father enabled Jesus to see and engage the will of the Father in each moment.

Jesus said that our relationship with Him should be like his relationship with the Father, we are to be dependent upon Him in every moment to know what to do next.

Jesus said,

John 15:5 (NIV)

I am the vine; you are the branches.

If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

The Crowd Sees a Miracle