SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/4/2021 10:10 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “Faith”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt. 9:2a
Message of the verse: “2 And they brought
to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. Seeing their faith,”
We
have been talking about sin and illness and what the two have to do with each
other. I have mentioned that when
mankind fell as seen in Genesis chapter three that the entire universe was then
cursed, and a part of that curse has to do with people getting sick and people
dying. However not all sickness has to do
with the personal sinfulness, meaning that not all sickness is caused because a
person sins. The Bible tells us that we
have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. We talked about how way back in the book of
Job, perhaps the oldest book in the Word of God that Job’s “friends” blamed his
troubles, including his sicknesses on the fact that he had sinned. Job would have none of that and in the end
God confirmed this truth. In the days
when Jesus walked on the earth the Jews, including Jesus’ disciples believed
that all sickness had to do with direct sinfulness of the one who was sick;
including this man in our story we have been looking at for the last two days,
and will continue to look at for some time.
The Jews thought that this man’s physical problems had to do with his
individual sinfulness and we have mentioned that in this case that may have
been true, but if it were true then this man knew it and thus desired to repent
of whatever sinfulness caused him to be a paralytic. I can’t help but think of Jonnie Erikson who
when she was in her teens had a diving accident and ended up in a similar
position that this man was in, but with modern things like wheelchairs and
other things she can function, and has functioned to serve the Lord for many years
in that condition.
The
Jews also thought that sickness could actually be blamed on parents or grandparents,
and one way that could have been true is if the mother had some kind of venereal
disease that would affect the child or in today’s world some kind of drug
problem that could affect the child.
This
man and his friends believed, had faith, that Jesus could help his condition,
and the condition that they believed He could help was more than the healing of
the body of the paralytic, but also help his problem with sinfulness. Their faith was so strong that they brought
this man to Jesus and actually lowered him down right in front of Jesus, so
they must have known exactly which tiles to take off the roof in order to bring
him in this correct position, right in front of Jesus. There is now better place in the entire
universe to be than looking into the face of Jesus.
MacArthur
writes “Because the paralytic said nothing to Jesus, it is possible to conclude
that the paralysis had affected his vocal chords or his tongue. Or the man, despite his faith, may have been
overcome with awe as he came face-to-face with the One who had power to heal
all kinds of disease. Perhaps he now
wondered if He could also heal hearts.
In any case, he willingly and silently exposed himself to Jesus and to
the whole crowd in all his physical, moral, and spiritual ugliness. He was literally at Jesus’ feet, and in his
heart he threw himself on Jesus’ mercy.
He approached the Lord in true humility, in the poverty of spirit God
requires of the seeking heart (Matt. 3:3).
“Jesus
sometimes healed people who had little faith and even some who had no faith, bt
He especially disposed to heal those with great faith, such as this man and his
friends demonstrated. It was the kind of
great faith shown by the centurion man (8:10) and that would soon be shown by
the man whose daughter had died (9:18).”
5/4/2021 10:35 AM
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