Audio/Video podcast covering Matthew 9:
Part 1
https://soundcloud.com/walking-as-christ/matthew-9-pt-1-the-body
https://youtu.be/0Jc9SgDJfIY
Part 2
https://soundcloud.com/walking-as-christ/matthew-9-pt-2-the-body
https://youtu.be/FVkCX__P5NE
And he entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into his own city. And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee. And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth. And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. And he arose, and departed to his house. But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.
Jesus is now in Capernaum. He has made this His dwelling place or central location for His ministry since Nazareth. Capernaum was more of a metropolis compared to Nazareth which was more of a obscure village.
The people then brought a man laying on a bed, sick of the palsy/paralytic unto to Jesus. Jesus noticed their Faith(likely the Faith of the man sick of the palsy and the people who brought him). Understanding their Faith, Jesus said to the paralytic man; “Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee”. As we know; Faith in Jesus Christ brings the Forgiveness of sins! Faith in Jesus Christ can bring about of Healing, but more importantly, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ brings about the Forgiveness of sins!
Jesus knew the man had this condition that to men was incurable, but the man and the people who brought him had Faith enough in Jesus that He could cure him. The people were concerned about the condition/sickness of the man, but the Lord is concerned about the sin problem. The Lord is concerned about the people of the world achieving right standing with God the Father in Heaven! How often are many people worried about their present day condition, but how rarely do people take the time to consider the sins in their life that is causing them to have no communion with God the Father. Sin is the problem brothers & sisters. Our conditions of today can be handled by the Lord in an instance, all power is in His hands. The Lord is known for performing works that to man are impossible. We need not be overly worried about the trials, tribulations, and infirmities that this temporal life we are currently living is plagued with. The Lord can take them away at anytime.
What we must primarily be concerned with is; having right standing with the Lord. Receiving the Forgiveness of our sins/errors/transgressions in the sight of the Lord. Jesus here address the Root issue, sin and then all the Blessing begin to follow. In many of our lives, we had lived a life involving sin before surrendering to the Lord and putting our Faith in Him, now that we have the Forgiveness of those sins and we walk in this New life carrying our cross following Jesus, we have received many blessings. The Lord is Faithful to bring the cure to our problems, but first the sin issue must be addressed and they can all be taken away through Faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ of Nazareth!
Some of the scribes said within themselves; “This man Blasphemeth” when they understood that Jesus told the man that his sins were forgiven. Jesus knew even the thoughts of these scribes AND questioned them. Jesus remarked the thoughts of those scribes to be Evil. He further explained how He, the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins! Hallelujah!
The natural eye does not know for sure whose sins have been forgiven and whose have not, but here Jesus displays that He indeed does have the Power to forgive sins by removing the ramifications of sin in this man. Jesus exercised His power on earth to forgive sins and the result was a man who came to Him paralyzed carried by others then got up on his own by the command of Jesus and walked to his own house. This was an amazing work and the people glorified God because He has given such power unto men.
And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him. And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Matthew whose name was also Levi was sitting at the booth for the Tax collectors when Jesus was passing by. Jesus seen him and told matthew; “follow me”. Matthew then got up and followed Jesus Christ! Matthew means “Gift of Jehovah” possibly a name given to Levi by Jesus to remind him that his conversion and call were gifts from God. Jesus later sat down to eat and many publicans and sinners came and sat down with Him. Jesus then made it clear that people who are 100% healthy do not need the help of a doctor, sick people need the help of a doctor. Jesus came to call sinners(people who were living in ways against the ways of God) to Repentance, not people who were already righteous. God did not need to come to earth to teach righteous people to turn from sin and live righteous. The people who needed Repentance were the sinners. The people not following God’s ways were in need of understanding their ways were wrong and learning the right ways of God. Notice how the publicans and sinners came to sit with Jesus, He did not go to them, but they came to sit with Him. They were drawn to the Lord and He did not refuse them. He is the physician. The doctors do not just knock on our door to see if we are okay, we seek a doctor when we have need of medical attention. These people who realized their need of Jesus were doing what was right. It is very beautiful how Jesus called matthew a publican to follow Him/become one of His disciples and then many publicans came to Jesus to sit and eat with Him. God’s call in one person’s life can then lead to the conversion of entire families.
These Pharisees who likely had sin in their own lives were not humble enough to see that they have need of the Lord also. A part of our conversion is confessing our sins. We must acknowledge that we were wrong and see our need for forgiveness for our errors. The soul the acknowledges they are wrong is the soul the is humble and the Lord will work with to Build up into a new person in Him.
Let us be careful not to Intentionally put ourselves around darkness knowing that we are the Light. Let us also be careful never to shun darkness when it comes to us, seeking how to become Light. We are the representatives of Jesus Christ on this earth today. The Lord will likely send people our way to learn of Him. If we are doing our Job and always speaking the things of God and promoting and exhibiting His Holy and RIghteous ways, people can been led to repentance and have the opportunity at eternal life in Heaven. We can be the physicians led by the Holy Spirit of God, helping people to their healing, Repentance of sin and picking up their cross and following Jesus Christ through Faith.
So much of what we have learned so far in the Gospel of Matthew are the Righteous and Holy ways of God. We have learned what people understood was okay by God and then we learned the teaching of Jesus Christ showing what actually is the True and acceptable way of God. Jesus has the answers, Jesus has Righteous standard of God, Jesus has the Power to Heal, Jesus has the Power to forgive sins, Jesus is teaching the ways of God the father more perfectly. He is who we need. He is who we need to be close with. He is who the people needed to be next to. His Words are the Word of life. His Words are what the people needed to and wanted to hear!
Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not? And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast. No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse. Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.
The disciples of John(the followers of John the Baptist) inquired of Jesus about why they fast regularly, similarly to a religious exercise but His disciples do not fast at all.
Jesus then makes it clear that His ministry on earth is currently in progress. While Jesus is with His disciples they will not have much trouble, this is their time of rejoicing, not their time of fasting and mourning. The time will later come when Jesus the leader of His disciples will be taken away from them and put to death. In this time is when His disciples shall fast and mourn. Remember, around this time John the baptist was cast into prison. His disciples were in their time period of mourning and fasting.
It is not wise for a person to sew on a piece of new(unshrunk) cloth onto an old garment, the patch will pull away from the garment and the tear will then become worse than before. It is not wise to put new wine into old wineskins(bottle made of animal skin used to store wine). The new wine goes through a fermentation process and can burst old frail wineskins, but a New Wineskin would have some elasticity to it so that the wine contained would ferment without bursting the bottle.
These disciple of John were coming with the intention to bring the disciples of Jesus into the practice of keeping regular religious fasting. That was the former way accepted by many Jews. Jesus came being the right type of cloth and the new wine bottle. Jesus was not teaching His disciples all these new ways for them to go pick up the old religious practices of the jews(not commandments of God, but religious practices). Jesus way is the way intended by the Father in Heaven. His way is the right way for those that seek to be living according to God’s will.
The way of the Lord is for us to fast unto Him as He leads us to, fast in the instances that call for it. Jesus is not calling us into a ceremonial way of fasting where it is done out of routine or regular religious service.
#FollowJesusChrist #HisBottleIsNew #ItWontBurst Consider all things through the teaching and ways of Christ. Don’t try to force His new perfected Word from the Father into the old customs. #ItWontWork
While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live. And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples.
An official of the Synagogue/church came to Jesus as He was talking to the disciples of John and kneeled down to Jesus saying how his daughter has just died. The Synagogue official continues and tells Jesus to come and lay His hand on his daughter and she shall live. This man had great Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He knew of assurity that Jesus could bring his daughter back from death.
Upon hearing what the Synagogue official said to Him, Jesus got up and followed him to go to his daughter. When we come to the Lord with our Faith fully in Him, He will respond. The Bible does not record here that Jesus asked what sickness the man’s daughter has, Jesus did not inquire how long she has been dead, Jesus did not ask how far the man lived from where they were. Jesus realized the need and seen the Faith the man had, so He got up to go attend to the need.
And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment: For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.
This woman according to the Law was Unclean because of her issue of blood. She suffered for 12 years with this issue and upon seeing Jesus she clearly put her Faith in Him knowing that He has so much virtue that all she needs to do is touch His outer robe and she will be healed. Jesus turned to the woman and told her to be of good comfort because her Faith has made her whole/healed. The Faith is what can move mountains. Faith is what moves the Lord. Let us put all our Faith in Him unwaveringly and watch how He works! This woman was stuck with this disease for 12 years and when she put her Faith in the Lord, she was healed in the same hour!
And when Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise, He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose. And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land.
When Jesus arrived to the Synagogue officials home, He saw that there were hired mourners already there and a crowd of people grieving making a bunch of noise. Jesus told the people to go away and that the daughter was not dead, but is sleeping. The people laughed and made mocking remarks when they heard what Jesus said about this girl whom they all have already accepted as dead. Once the crowd was sent outside, Jesus took the girl by the hand and she got up!
Those that lacked the Faith in the Lord to trust what He says as truth needed to be put out before the Lord brought the girl back to life. Jesus has now healed many in many different ways, but now He has risen someone from the dead. The word of His miracles was from that point spread around all that land.
The daughters dad had Faith that Jesus could bring her back to life. The faith of the dad in Jesus produced blessing in the life of his daughter.
#TrustThatTheLordWillDoIt #PutAllYourFaithInHim Let your Faith go further than the natural.
Similar to how this girl was raised from sleep, the believers in Jesus Christ who have passed away will rise at the resurrection. 1 Thessalonians 4:16 “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:”
And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou son of David, have mercy on us. And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you. And their eyes were opened; and Jesus straitly charged them, saying, See that no man know it. But they, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame in all that country.
These two blind men followed Jesus in tears addressing Him as the Son of David and asking for Him to have Mercy on them. These blind men were acknowledging Jesus as the Messiah(the King anointed by God to rule over His people). The Old Testament scriptures identify that the Messiah will come through the line of David. Jesus asked the men if they Believe that He is able to do it and they replied expressing their Faith in Him and His healing power. Jesus touched their eyes and said; “According to your faith be it unto you”. Notice Jesus put the outcome of the request they had of Him for Mercy/healing in the hands of their Faith. If they did not really believe they likely would have received no healing. Because these men actually did have the Faith, their eyes were opened. Jesus instructed them not to let others know about the miracles He has done for them. These men have come to the Lord blind and now they see. This miracle was likely so great in their lives, that they even after hearing the direction by the Lord not to tell others, could not contain themselves and told many people.
As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed with a devil. And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake: and the multitudes marvelled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel.
A man who could not speak/mute and was possessed with a devil was brought unto the Lord. Jesus cast out the devil and the man who could not speak, then spoke. The many people witnessing these miracles were amazed saying “ It was never so seen in Israel”. Jesus by doing these works, was fulfilling prophecies from Isaiah 35:5-6 “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.”
But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils.
The Pharisees could not deny the works done by the Lord. The last resort they could cling to was claiming that Jesus could only do the miracles that He has done because He has alliance with the devil. Their claim was that the power that He is using to cast out evil is coming from the evil one himself. Jesus will address these accusations very soon.
And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.
Brethren; The Workers Are Few!
All around us are many that have the opportunity at eternal life, but there are very few bringing the message to them. People of the world are desperate for peace, desperate for love, desperate hope. We as the called of God know the resource of all these things, but who is getting the message out to the people? Who is caring for the flock of God? Who is willing to put aside his/her own pursuits to do the Kingdom work of the Lord? Very few are willing to leave whatever it is that they are doing and go out into the field to gather the harvest. The Lord is calling His people to go out and gather the harvest, but who will go? Obey the Lord.
There were priest, Levites, and scribes all over the land, but they were idle shepards. Christ had compassion on the people as sheep that were scattered, as men pershing due to lack of knowledge/understanding. There were many following Christ desiring His spiritual instruction. There is a plentiful harvest, but a large harvest needs a multitude of ACTIVE labourers. Let us pray that the Lord may raise up more people willing to be sent forth to labour in bringing in souls to Christ.