The Power Is in the Promise

Matthew 9:1–8 (NKJV)

1 So He got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city. 2 Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.”

3 And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, “This Man blasphemes!”

4 But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? 5 For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? 6 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” 7 And he arose and departed to his house.

8 Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men.

OPENING PRAYER

Father, thank you for every person that you brought to church today. I ask that through the power of your Holy Spirit we will not leave like we came. That when they leave, they are leave with more hope, more joyful, and more like Jesus. In Jesus name, say Amen.

Introduction: Know Where the Power Source Is

God is our power source! We need to get up every morning and power up with Him.

If you have a phone like this most of us went to bed first plugging our phone into the power source so that our phone’s can be fully charged. Sabbath is like plugging into the power source.

Just like you would plug your phone in, we need to plug our spiritual life into God, too. And all through the day, we need to check our levels. You check the power of your phone all day long, don't you? You know when you're at 50%, 40%, 13%. You know when you are getting low and need to plug back in.

Do you ever check the power of God in your life? Do you say, "God, it's time for me to stop what I'm doing and go plug into You?" Most people carry a phone charger with them or leave one in their car because they don't want to be without power.

Well, you can connect with God all through the day, too. He is closer than the air you breathe. All you have to do is call on His name and turn your attention to Him. Reach up and acknowledge Him, give Him praise and thanksgiving, and He will give you power beyond your own ability!

So this Sabbath I pray that you come fully charged by recognizing that the power is in God’s promise. It is my prayer that today's message will strengthen your confidence in knowing that:

No power can prevent what God has promised.

Nothing can stop what God has spoken. That through faith we can arise and get up when life seems to be dragging us down.

We will be introduced to a person that has tried to get help but everyone told him his case was helpless. So he is brought  to Jesus.

Context

In Matthew 5 the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus shows His authority over the law;

In chap. 8 He cleanses the leper and heals the centurion's servant and reveals that has authority over physical ailments, demons, and creation;

Here in chapter 9 Jesus how His authority extends to sin. He doesn’t only change my circumstances but he can also change me.

The title of my message this morning is the Power is in the Promise!

Matthew 9:2 NKJV

2 Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.”

The Bible says Jesus saw the faith of these men and the paralytics. The fact that Jesus saw their faith implies that Jesus saw something other people don’t usually see. How many people are thankful this morning that God can see what other people don’t see?

Because you can be with someone and they don’t truly see you. Don’t ever be with someone that doesn’t truly see you for who you are. People can work with you and not really see you. Because people can come to church with you and not really see you. People can lie in bed with you and not see you.

But Jesus saw their faith and the paralytics faith and just because his legs weren’t moving doesn’t mean that his faith wasn’t working. My body may be lying in bed but my faith is standing.

Don’t just see my situation see my faith.

For some of you this morning the promise you may need to hear is the promise that Jesus said to the paralytic, “Be encouraged my child, your sins are forgiven!” Now Jesus does something that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. If I was the paralytic, the first words I would have wanted to hear from Jesus would be “Get up and walk.” But Jesus doesn’t do that, He says, cheer up, your sins are forgiven. And the question I have is, why does the pronouncement of forgiveness precede the act of healing?

Maybe for some of you that is the only message that you need to hear this morning. That my son, my daughter - You are forgiven. Why does the spiritual healing come before the physical healing?

POINT: Perhaps the reason is Jesus won’t fix our outward circumstances before He fixes our inward condition.

ILLUS: Treating the Cause, Not the Symptom William Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura were recently awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine. The prize recognizes their discovery in the 1970s of a special class of drugs that fight two of the world's most vicious tropical diseases: lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis. However, the diseases still affect hundreds of millions of people annually. Why? The treatments developed from Campbell's and Ōmura's discovery only treats the symptoms of the diseases. The parasites that cause them, however, remain largely unaffected. This has convinced modern researchers that they still need to find a cure that will attack and kill the root of the problem, rather than just its effects.

ILLUS POINT: Sometimes, we try to deal with our sin in similar ways, by covering up or hiding the surface-level effects, while the real root of the problem—our sin nature—remains. Maybe we are praying to God and asking Him to heal us where the pain is but He says, first I am going to get to the heart of the issue and deal with where the problem lies first.

Maybe you may be praying to God asking Him to heal your marriage and he says, “I can’t heal your marriage until I deal with your anger.”

I can’t provide you a promotion at work until we heal your pride.

I can’t give you a wife until we work in this pornography issue.

I can’t give deal with your insecurity until you find your true security in me.

Because this is what will happen if we don’t allow God to have His way in our life. We will take the issues we have in this season to the next season. And there are some issues we need to fix here before God moves us there. Or else will take those issues into our marriage, into our workplace, into our friendships.

God might be saying to you right now, you are treating the symptoms but I want to treat the cause.

Matthew 9:2 NKJV

2 Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.”

Matthew 9:6 NKJV

6 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”

Matthew 9:2 vs Matthew 9:6: The Middle

What do you when what you are told looks nothing like what you are going through?

David: In the old testament the prophet of God Samuel anoints David and declares him as king. Yet what was declared over him looked nothing like what he was actually going through. He was hunted down by Saul, pursued as an enemy of the state.

As Seventh-day Adventist we know what it feels like to live between verses. Since 1844 we have been anticipating the soon return of our Lord and saviour Jesus. We recognize that we are in the end of times but are awaiting the ending of time when Jesus comes.

People sometimes people have asked me what church I belong to and I say, Seventh-day Adventist. And their response is, are you the church that does not do blood transfusions? No, that is the Jehovah’s witnesses. And I begin to think, Lord, how are your three angels messages that you have entrusted Adventist church with going to go around the world if people don’t even know who the Seventh-day Adventist Church is?

We can feel stuck between verse 2 and verse 9 because the conditions and circumstances don’t seem to match the promises. And God says, the power is in the promise not your circumstances.

ILLUS: IKEA

Sometimes in life assembly is required. What do you do when what you ordered looks nothing like what is delivered.

I thought I wouldn’t have to face another setback. I thought they would forgive me by now.

Matthew 9:3–4 NIV

3 At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!” 4 Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts?

Have you ever been in a situation where people were watching you, waiting for you to slip up?

How many of you know that not every who is watching you is for you? Not everyone who is around you is cheering you on.

There are some people waiting for you to mess up. They are waiting for you to get a divorce, they are waiting for you to get fired from your job, waiting to fail that exam, waiting for you to make a mistake, waiting to see if you are going to lose your temper.

And Jesus, the one who was the word and is the word, and who became flesh to fulfill the Word is now accused of blaspheming the words of scripture. And the Bible says Jesus, “knew their thoughts.” They never publicly verbalized it to Him rather they were just content to speak about Him. How many young people have given up on a dream to do something because they were criticized? How many older people have looked back at their lives and said “if only” I didn’t let the voice of critics get the better of me I would have pursued an opportunity.

There is not person in church today, no one who is worshipping online with us that will escape criticism. All we can do is learn to cope with it.

POINT: Whenever you are the leader you are the first line of attack. Some people say, I wish I could be the leader but are you ready for the attack that will also come your way?[Text Wrapping Break]

ILLUS: Donkey in the Well The story is told of a Donkey that fell into an abandoned well.

The farmer who owned him paced frantically around trying to figure out how to get the donkey out.

The neighbours convinced the owner that the donkey was old and not worth saving and the most human thing to do was to bury the donkey alive. (Some kind of neighbours.) So they each grabbed a shovel and began toss dirt into the well.

The donkey began to wail as the realized he was being buried alive. But instinctively, every time a shovel of dirt landed on he shook it off. After a while the donkey stopped whining but each time the shovel of dirt landed on him he shook it off.

As the dirt fell beneath the donkey’s feet he would stomp on it and made it turned hard.

Eventually the farmer had enough courage to look down into the well and to his astonishment he saw that for every new load of dirt that would be thrown into the well, the donkey would shake that dirt off and step up to a new layer. It wasn’t long before the donkey stepped up over the well and trotted off in front of the farmer and the neighbours.

What every you are going don’t let criticism bury you. Use it as a stepping stone to take you to the next level.

Matthew 9:5–7 NKJV

5 For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? 6 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” 7 And he arose and departed to his house.

For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’?

And he arose! My question is, how did the man arise! Jesus did not touch him, he only spoke to him. Where did the power come from!

Jesus not only forgives me, but that same grace gives me power to walk in newness of life. God does not keep down where he found me, he gives me the power to arise!

The power to do what God says is in the promise that God speaks. So question, are the ten commandments simply commandments or are they also promises?

The ten commandments, Thou shalt, and Thou shalt not, are ten promises assured to us if we render obedience to the law governing the universe.

Ellen Gould White, Sons and Daughters of God (Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1955), 56.

Thus, the Ten Commandments were not given to Israel that they may obey them in order to be saved but rather they were given to those who have already been redeemed. In other words, they are not a means to salvation but promises of the covenant relationship God wants to have with His people.

Terminology: “The Ten Commandments”

The expression “the Ten Commandments” is unknown to the original Hebrew Bible, though it appears three times in the English Bible (Exod. 34:28; Deut. 4:13; 10:4). Deliberately, in these three occur­rences, Moses employed a derivative of dabar, “word,” rather than mits­vah, “commandment,” which, and its derivatives, he used extensively in the Pentateuch. In fact, the Ten Commandments are introduced as words—“And God spoke all these words” (Exod. 20:1; cf. Deut. 5:22; 10:2). This shows that God did not give Ten Commandments; He gave “ten words,” that is, the decalogue.

The word dabar is rendered “prom­ise” in many places in the English Bible.7 Moreover, its verbal form, “he spoke,” is rendered “he promised.”8 This suggests that God’s words may be understood as promises, hence, “ten words” as “ten promises.”

So what is the difference between a command and promise?

The difference is a promise is God’s action for the obedient while a com­mand is God’s action through the obedient.

“The creative energy that called the worlds into existence is in the word of God. This word imparts power; it begets life. Every command is a promise; accepted by the will, received into the soul, it brings with it the life of the Infinite One. It transforms the nature and re-creates the soul in the image of God.”

24 White, Education (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1952), 126.

Could it be that the same faith that he had in the promise that Jesus forgave him, is the same faith that now gives him the power to walk? That he was able to stand because He believed in the promise that He was forgiven. The miracle did not happen so that the paralytic could get faith, the miracle happened because he had faith.

And I wonder how many people may still be laying down because they do not believe they have been forgiven. CLOSE It doesn't matter how you came to church today. You may have needed someone to help you come to church today

Maybe you are here because you did something last night that you're ashamed of. Said something that you regret. You knew it was wrong but lately even that hasn't stopped you. You came just as you are but you don’t have to leave here the same way you came in. When you come by faith God’s forgives you and he says arise into your calling and destiny.