The Miracle of Forgiveness

Welcome and announcements

Easter Service

I want to set a goal to have 50 people here on Easter.

We are not going to advertise like we did last year

I want each of you to take this responsibility personally and bring people with you

If everyone in here brings at least 1 person on Easter we will meet or exceed our goal

I will not be going Door-to-Door evangelism this afternoon

That does not mean you cannot go!

I am taking my family to the zoo to look at dinosaurs.

2022 Goals

Goals are important because they give us some accountability to our calling.

Here is the thing about goals: WE MUST SEE OURSELVES AS PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE

If 3 out of 20 are working towards meeting these goals then we will never meet them

But if we all get involved, we will have a successful year

Ways you can help meet these goals:

Give sacrificially!

Witness faithfully!

Pray continuously!

Scripture Reading

1 Chron 16:23-25 “Sing to the Lord, all the earth; Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day. Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples. For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; He also is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, But the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him, Strength and joy are in His place. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; Bring an offering, and come before Him; Worship the Lord in holy array.”

Pastoral Prayer

May your Holy Spirit fill this place today

break our hearts for you and may Your word penetrate deep within Today.

INTRODUCTION

I am so excited to be here today! What a great day to worship God and to hear His Word preached! What a great day to come together to exalt Jesus Christ with born again believers!

This morning we are going to talk about forgiveness. Not as in we must forgive one another (though we should) but “The Miracle of Forgiveness” that each one of us desperately needs. The kind of forgiveness that makes us right with God. The kind of forgiveness that washes away all of our sins: past, present, and future. The kind of forgiveness that only God can grant to us.

As we approach Easter, this is really what Easter is about. It is about the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ that paid the penalty for our sins. The forgiveness that Jesus offers that can only come through the cross.

Matthew 9:1-2

Matthew 9:1–2 NASB95

Getting into a boat, Jesus crossed over the sea and came to His own city. And they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, “Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.”

Explanation

By this time Jesus has healed many people. His reputation has gone out all over the place as one who can heal the sick, cast out demons, turn water into wine. Crowds are coming to him. Jesus is becoming widely known as a miracle worker because he can do what the world has never seen.

Here we have four men bringing to Jesus a man who is laying on a bed paralyzed because he needs a miracle. We do not know much about the man other than he is unable to walk because he had to be carried to Jesus. And we can imagine these four men each holding a corner of this mat carrying this man to the Healer.

As we are reading this story, what we expect to happen is Jesus to heal this man’s physical ailment. We expect Him to touch or command the man to walk and the man to get up and walk. Because clearly this man is in great distress and has probably suffered for many many years. And it seems so obvious that by bringing this man to Jesus is to expect him to be healed.

But that is not what happens. It almost seems as though Jesus completely ignores the man’s paralysis and yet grants him forgiveness instead.

And this verse ends with Jesus telling the man to “take courage!” In other words, there is no need to fear anymore child because your sins have been forgiven and everything else is trivial compared to this.

This is what Jesus is saying with His action: your biggest problem, the root of all of your problems, the problem that has separated you from God your entire life is gone.

That great need of being able to walk cannot even be compared to the burden that I have taken off of your back.

1) There is no greater need in the human life than to be forgiven

Can you imagine the looks on the faces of the people who were watching this thing unfold. We can only imagine what was going through those men’s hearts as they carried this man all the way to Jesus, and instead of healing him, He forgives him.

And I could only imagine there were some people in that crowd who felt like the man got cheated! Here is the great Healer! Here was the man’s chance to have another shot at life! To get up off the streets and go and make a living! To go and have a wife and children and have some kind of quality of life! And Jesus completely ignores this man’s obvious physical need!

Bridge

Jesus knows so much more than we think we know. Quality of life does not come from the ability to walk, but by being made right with God! And the only way to be made right with God is to have our sins forgiven!

It does matter how much we have, or how good our health is we will never have the true quality of life apart from the forgiveness of God.

John tells us: “In Him was [life], and the life was the Light of men”.

Life doesn’t begin when we begin to walk, it doesn’t begin when we begin to talk, it doesn’t begin when we grow up and get a job and a family, LIFE BEGINS WHEN WE ARE BORN AGAIN!

There are essential things that we need for life and Jesus gives them all!

Miracles of healing are temporary! Everyone is going to die! If Jesus came and made my body whole today, that will not matter at all when I draw my last breath! What matters most in this life is not having the best earthly life, but having spiritual life!

These earthly bodies are temporary, they are going to wear out I promise! But our spirits are eternal!

And what Jesus has done to this man we must understand if by far greater than any kind of healing of these earthly bodies!

Application

Do you know what brought this paralyzed to Jesus? It was his paralysis. It was the condition of his physical body. It was the situation that he had been given in his life. It was his predicament in which he had no way out of!

And do you know what God often uses to bring us to Jesus? It is some sort of physical, relational, or predicament that we find ourselves in with no way out.

Do you know that God will let your life fall apart if that is what it takes to bring you to Him? Do you know God will let bad times and hard times come into your life so that the only hope you have left is Jesus Christ?

It was a broken marriage and alcoholism and a hopeless situation that God used to bring me to Christ.

It was the extreme hopelessness and darkness in Ashley’s life that God used to bring her to Christ.

God often uses the broken areas of our lives to bring our focus to Him so He can give us the greater need.

2) Your faith plays a part in the forgiveness of others

Matthew 9:2 (NASB95)

And they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, “Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.”

Explanation

What on earth does this mean? Is Jesus saying the faith of the men somehow granted forgiveness to this man? No that would go directly against the teaching of Scripture.

Listen to what Paul said: Rom 9:3 “For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh,”

Paul is saying here he would give up his place in heaven if he thought it would save his people.

Paul was a man of great faith and surely his faith outweighed that of these men, yet his faith could not save his anyone but himself.

So “their faith” must be a combination of the four men and the paralyzed man. It wasn’t just the faith of the friends, but he man on the mat as well.

The Point: If these friends never had any faith in Jesus, then the man on the mat may have never came to Christ. And this is what Jesus is saying when this verse says, “seeing their faith”.

Imagine had his friends had no faith, they would have never went through all that trouble to get him to Jesus. They would have never carried him through town dragging him on that old mat. They would have never wasted the time and effort of lowering him down through the roof just so he could be in the presence of Jesus.

Just imagine if his friends had been luke-warm Christians who really did not care about this man’s soul...where he would be today?

Just imagine the impact this Scripture must had upon this man when he died and came into the presence of Jesus and reads these words, “Because of their faith your sins are forgiven!”

Just imagine the gratitude this man must have had when he WALKED up to his friends in his brand new body and hugged their necks thanked them for their love of this man’s soul!

Just imagine being his friends and seeing that one that you for labored over and begged to God to save, come up to you and say because of your faith, I stand here forgiven.

Application

Does your faith motivate you to bring others to Christ?

Will you have friends in heaven because of the effort that you put into bringing them to Christ? Will there be people in heaven who are just like this paralyzed who come running to you saying, “Because of your faith, I am here!”

What about your children? What about your grandchildren? What about your family members? What are you doing about their souls?

I think its time we start putting what matters most first in our lives. And what matters most is not that someone doesn’t get their feelings hurts, or that we may get our feelings hurt, or that we will experience embarrassment, or that someone gets a better job or a new car but that we do all that we can for the souls of everyone that God puts in our lives!

It is about time that be willing to go to extreme measures to bring people to Jesus because what matters most is forgiveness!

Practical ways you can start:

Invite as many people to church on Easter as you can.

Learn how to share the gospel effectively!

And my goodness come on Sunday afternoons and help us spread the good news, that Jesus forgives sin!

I fear for the man or woman who stands before the Lord on that Day who must admit that he did not even try. You and I cannot save anyone, but if we do not even put in the effort then we are the unfaithful servant.

3) Jesus proves his authority to forgive sin today by the lives who have been transformed

Matthew 9:3–7 NASB95

And some of the scribes said to themselves, “This fellow blasphemes.” And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, “Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, and walk’? “But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Get up, pick up your bed and go home.” And he got up and went home.

Explanation

When the Scribes heard Jesus say, “Your sins are forgiven”, they called Jesus a “blasphemer” in their hearts. Why? Because anyone who claims to have the authority to forgive sins is claiming to have the same authority as God.

But Jesus knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts. And He knows exactly what these men are thinking. Just as he knows what each one of us are thinking inhere today.

And He asks, what is easier to say one’s sins are forgiven or to say rise and walk? Which would you say is easier? It is easier to say “your sins are forgiven” because there is no proof if you are right or wrong. It is harder to say rise up and walk because then there must be proof that His words truly have authority to make a man walk!

Here is the point: Jesus demonstrates His authority by healing what can be seen to prove what cannot be seen.

He heals the man’s legs to prove that He has done the greater healing of the man’s soul. He makes the man well on the outside to prove that he has made Him well on the inside. And the proof in in the fact that this man obeyed the command of Christ, got up and went home.

Bridge

What does this mean to us today? How does do we know today that Jesus has the authority to forgive our sins? In a similar manner as this man’s life was changed, so are people today radically changed because of what Christ has done on the inside.

When Jesus pronounces forgiveness over someone today…something happens. That person is changed. That person no longer walks the way they once did, that person no longer talks the way they once did. When people come to Christ and become born again their life is changed in such a radical fashion that it is undeniable!

And the world who doubts that Jesus truly has this authority to forgive sins can look out and see miracle after miracle in the lives of His people. People are set free from addictions, they now obey the commands of Christ, they set free from the love of this world and that is all the proof this world needs to see the visible work of Christ! The evidence is still very clear today!

Application

Has your life been radically changed by the forgiveness of Christ? Has your life been so transformed by the forgiveness of Christ that you there is a noticeable difference in the way you once lived and the way that you live now?

I am telling that the proof of one’s conversion is nothing short of a radically transformed life! A transformed life that hears and obeys the commands of Christ. Forgiveness brings transformation. And where no transformation has happened, then there has been no forgiveness of sins.

2 Cor 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

I am pleading with you today if Jesus has not radically changed your life then you do not have the real thing and you so desperately need it! There is quickly coming a day when there will not be another chance for you! There is coming a day when Jesus will not extend out his hand and offer what healing that lasts eternity! Time is limited so you must not ignore this great offer of forgiveness!

4) Men should fear Him who has authority over sin

Matthew 9:8 NASB95

But when the crowds saw this, they were awestruck, and glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

Explanation

Notice that the crowd was “awestruck”. This Greek literally means to be afraid or to have terror. When they saw Jesus tell this man his sins are forgiven and seen Jesus heal this man to prove he was forgiven, fear filled their hearts.

Last week we talked about the cost of discipleship. We talked about willingness to give up things of this world to follow Christ. What motivates a man like Peter to “leave everything” and follow Jesus? What motivates a man like King David to devote his life to God? What motivates Paul, James, John to give up everything for the things of God?

It is a holy fear of God. It is the realization that Jesus Christ has the authority to forgive sins and pay the debts that we cannot pay on our own. It is to know that with deep conviction that the Word of God is authoritative and tells us what men must do to be saved.

It is to believe what God so much that we live it out ion our lives! It is the deep conviction that there is a day coming when Jesus is going judge the earth.

Application

Do you have a fear of God? Has that fear motivated you to leave everything and serve Him? Has that fear motivated you to depart from your sinful ways and cling to the forgiveness of Christ?

People cringe at this thought today because this is not a popular way to think about God. We want God to be all love and forgiveness but no judgement.

Jesus said, “fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell”. (Matt 10:28)

The fact that we have sin in our live, should cause us to fear God. A holy fear of God is good and healthy thing! It will motivate us to flee from sin and pursue righteousness! And any man that does not have any fear of God is like the Scribes who doubt that he could forgive their sins.

Without fear, we do not obey. Without fear we do not treasure what Christ has done for us. Without fear we are fools and live life only waiting to die again.

CONCLUSION

Have your sins been forgiven? Has your life been radically changed by the blood of Jesus Christ and you have never been the same inside and out? Do you have peace with God?

I want to give you some good new this morning. Jesus died for your sins. That is why he hung on that cross. It wasn’t because God is cruel, but because the need is that great.

Do you know your greatest need is to be forgiven? Do you know that Jesus promises to never cast anyone away who comes to Him seeking forgiveness?

How can you receive forgiveness? The same way this paralytic man did. It was by his faith! It was to believe in Him as the source of life and that He would save Him. He believed that Jesus could heal him. He believed there was no hope apart from Jesus.

If you will come this morning believing that he is able, and knowing that forgiveness is your greatest need, He will save you. He will forgive you. And He will give you new life!

~PRAYER~