Hope Church's Church
1.18.26 Sunday Morning Worship
  • Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me
  • Oh For A Thousand Tongues To Sing

      • Matthew 9:1-3ESV

      • Matthew 9:4-7ESV

      • Matthew 9:8ESV

  • Intro

    Sometimes, we can prioritize the wrong issues.
    Something that is commonly known and a bit of an oddity is the flashy cell phones of third world countries. People still living in Mud huts in Africa who have a fancy touch screen phone.
    I experienced this personally when I went to Romania in High School. I was in High School, living in the United Kingdom at the time when cell phones were just starting to become a big deal. Most of my friends had flip phones, because that was all that really existed. We T9 texted and paid for those texts a few cents at a time. We think texting people back today is hard sometimes, nothing compared to the T9 texting. My dad for his job would get the latest and greatest blackberry phone. Remember those? There was blackberry, and then there was all other phones. This was before Android and Apple. A few cool kids had Razor phones. But most people had standard nokia flip phones. Our church was doing mission trips to Romania. Romania was a third would country. Poverty stricken after communism. Most of the city that we would go to had people living in deplorable conditions. Because of these conditions, disease and sickness were rampant. But, all of the kids my age had really nice cell phones. Phones I hadn’t even seen before. And we see that and we think, maybe the wrong thing is being prioritized? Cool you have the latest piece of tech, but maybe consider other parts of your life.
    One specific example was the water. The people that hosted us kindly went to the local creek to fill up water bottles. One of the other people on the team carefully and subtly signalled to all of us, “don’t drink the water!” And when we looked in the water, some small creatures were swimming in the water. But they would pull out their nice cell phones. And we might think that the wrong thing was being prioritized. Cool phone, but maybe some water filtration would be a good investment.
    Today, we look at a text where another priority is going to be shown. The problem of sin verses many other problems that we have in life. We can sometimes be distracted by other problems, but in his Authority, Jesus comes to cleanse us first and foremost of sin.
    Main Point: While Jesus has authority to resolve all issues, we look to him to resolve our main problem of sin.
    A major theme in Matthew has been authority, and here, in chapter nine, we see the pinnacle of Jesus’s authority and how it connects with us.
    To get a brief flyby of where we have been, the book starts in with Jesus’s leniage in chapter one, showing us the promised David King of the Jews who would bless the nations.
    In chapter two, we saw how the events surrounding his birth further showed who he was, fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies.
    In chapter three, we saw the great figure of John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus and then baptizing him where God the Father blessed his son for ministry and the Holy Spirit empowered him.
    In chapter four, we saw that Jesus had authority to defeat Satan like no one in history ever has.
    In chapters 5-7 Jesus showed his authority over the Law to tell us how we through him can now live it out.
    In chapter eight, we saw his authority to heal the sick, his authority to calm the storm, and last week, his authority to even cast out demons.
    Last week seemed like the pinnacle of his authority to conquer the demonic realm, putting all things under his feet.
    But we need to be reminded of Jesus’s purpose for his authority. These are the words given to Joseph about the son Mary would have.
    Matthew 1:21 “21 She will give birth to a son and you will name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.””
    We are reminded that this is what Jesus came to have authority with. To save his people from their sins. And the text laid out before us today makes that clear.

    I. The Priority of Pardon

    First today, we see the priority of pardon. And we find this in the first two verses today.
    Matthew 9:1 “1 After getting into a boat he crossed to the other side and came to his own town.”
    Verse one is the transition verse between the two chapters. You will remember that Jesus casts out the demons, sends them into the swine, and the townspeople prioritize their swine over the savior, and their pigs over people.
    They tell Jesus to leave them rather than have to give up what they love.
    We know from the other gospels that this is not the end of the story. That the man freed from the demons wants to go with Jesus, but Jesus commissions him to stay and be a minister of the gospel to his own people.
    Matthew doesn’t give the details about Jesus commissioning the man because his point is different. His point is that Jesus is not like other people and will be rejected. Those who follow him will also be rejected.
    It is not convenient to follow Jesus. There will be rejection that happens.
    So Jesus and the disciples are back in their own town now
    Even with this verse verse that is easy for us to skip over, we can be reminded that we are on a timeline. If you are overwhelmed and worried, trying to fix all of the problems in your life, all of the broken parts of your life affected by the fallen world and humanity, it will not be forever. We are on a timeline, and Jesus is restoring all things.
    Look at Matthew 9:2 “2 Just then some people brought to him a paralytic lying on a stretcher. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Have courage, son! Your sins are forgiven.””
    In verse two, Matthew leaves out some details that the other gospel writers include. Mark and Luke include the part of the paralytic’s friends lowering him down through the roof. These sorts of details are not important to Matthew.
    Think about certain podcasts you might listen to. Some of you, like a podcast with some playful banter, light conversation, extra details. Maybe you have had a day at work with no people interactions, and the back and forth between people is what you need. Some of you, hate the playful banter of some podcasts. When they are going back and forth, we are thinking to ourselves, “would you just get to the main point? Get to the content please! Remove the fluff!” And maybe you have found a streamline podcast where it is just that. Strait to the point, just the facts and data, you aren’t hearing about how the host feels about avocado toast or what funny think their cat did earlier in the day.
    This is Matthew. And remember, he is an IRS guy. He is a tax collector. He loves the spread sheets and data. To our spreadsheet loving people in the room, you have a type and we love you for it! I’m the type of person, If i want to hear a story, i want to ask the person who loves their time in excel. I don’t need the fluff.
    Matthew is leaving out some of the details to carefully craft his gospel account to show you Jesus’s mission in authority.
    This verse starts with Καὶ ἰδοὺ. And introduction Matthew loves to use to show the suddenness or unexpected nature of this event.
    Notice that Jesus recognizes THEIR faith. The plural possession of the one’s having faith is significant here. Faith of the plural people, including the paralytic and the friends who brought him to Jesus. I’ve asked myself and Richard and I pondered together why this mention of their faith instead of just the paralytic’s faith.
    I think Matthew is trying to make a great contrast between what faith looks like here in chapter 9, and what it looked like in the previous two stories in chapter 8,.
    Remember the great storm in chapter 8? How he recognizes the disciples? As having little faith. But here, we see the faith of these on in chapter 9 contrasting that.
    Remember the faith of the townspeople in the previous story. After Jesus casts out demons, they seem to have faith in Jesus because they feared him, but their faith was without action. They rejected Jesus.
    Their faith driving them to action. The paralytic being willing and maybe asking to go see Jesus. And the friends of the paralytic having faith that if they could just get their friend to Jesus, he could heal them.
    But this Paralytic is brought to Jesus.
    Being a Paralytic in Jesus’s day was different than today. There was no ADA compliance. You want to build a building today, you had better expect tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars going to ADA compliance. But not so in this day. No one was making sure that this paralytic had access to everything he needed. There would have been little to know life for this guy. He couldn’t go to the town council meeting in his electric scooter and ask for more ADA accessible ramps. That didn’t exist.
    While Matthew emphasizes Jesus’s authority, he doesn’t miss an opportunity to show Jesus’s heart. And Jesus responds with compassion. Take heart, my son. Be comforted in courage, my friend, that I will act for you.
    Both clauses in verse two are introduced with the same words to show the unexpected nature of both of them. Καὶ ἰδοὺ doesn’t have a direct correlation in English. But it is meant to be an attention getter. Like the author is saying, “hey, look at this.”
    And the reason for the author calling attention to what Jesus says is because it is unexpected.
    Imagine you go into the dentist to get a teeth cleaning, something that is uncomfortable for many. I love the dentist. But not many do. Something you know you have to do. To fix and prevent problems. For us, we are bad at regular visits to the dentist and most of the time end up going when it is needed. We go in knowing you we have a problem. But pretend you go in for what you think could be a potential and he instead of cleaning your teeth, he says Be comforted, I’m going to do do surgery to clean a clogged heart valve.
    You would be like, well, that’s not what I'm here for, not what i was after. You might be taken a back a little.
    But then you would realize the greater need that you have. What is this cavity that i thought was important compared to my heart? Can you really fix that today?
    This is the story before us today. The Paralytic comes to Jesus with what he things is his biggest problem, and Jesus tells him “your sins are forgiven.” Matthew is telling us, behold, look at This! To our suprise, we would expect a healing, but Jesus, forgives sin!
    Remember how Jesus shows priority in the storm on a boat with the disciples also. He first addresses the heart issue of the disciples faith, then addresses the storm.
    How we see hear Jesus first is going to heal this mans soul, his spiritual condition, before he heals this man’s body.
    Healing this man’s physical problem is the subplot for Jesus. The main plot is salvation of souls.
    There is a truth here for us also. We often come to Jesus to try to get something out of the relationship. But Jesus is showing us what he came to do, and what should be our primary concern also.
    We come to Jesus with many problems and issues. But The main reason Jesus has come is to deal with our biggest problem. The problem that separates us from the creator of the universe. The problem that causes a broken relationship with God. The problem for which we will incur the wrath of God upon ourselves. The problem that is the direct cause or the indirect cause of all other problems. This problem is our sin. The ways we have wronged others and God. The way we have not kept God’s law.
    This is the problem Jesus comes to fix. Jesus tells this man in comfort that his sins are forgiven. Forgiven carrying this idea of being sent away. Look at all the things that Jesus has sent away. Sickness, storms, demons, now he is sending away the greatest problem of all, sin.
    Forgiveness is a prerequisite for all-encompassing healing. Jesus is demonstrating for us the transformative power of spiritual renewal. This passage invites us to reflect together on seeking spiritual health and healing through forgiveness. This spiritual health is only restored through our relationship with God.

    II. The Dilemma of Doubt

    Second today, we see the dilemma of doubt. Look with me at verses 3-5.
    Matthew 9:3– “3 Then some of the experts in the law said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming!”
    we see the so called experts of the law here say Jesus was blaspheming. These would have been scribes that in this region, would have been the expert teachers of God’s word. The one who know God’s word the best and therefore were his best representatives.
    Or so they thought!
    They see Jesus as a threat to their power and position in several ways.
    why do they say Jesus was blaspheming? What even is blaspheming?
    Blaspheming means to say something that dishonors God. To claim divine authority or to speak for God.
    This would have been a great offense to the Jewish leaders.
    This is questioning Jesus’s ministry, his mission, and his authority.
    Why is what Jesus said Blasphemy? Because only God can forgive sin. Jesus is claim to at the least speak for God, and at the most, be equal with God.
    Isaiah reminds us that this task is reserved for God.
    Isaiah 43:25 NET 2nd ed.
    25 I, I am the one who blots out your rebellious deeds for my sake; your sins I do not remember.
    God is the one who forgives sin. Who is Jesus to claim this right?
    In verse four, we see that Jesus knew their thoughts and says “Why do you respond with evil in your hearts?”
    Rather than being glad for Jesus’s authority in this moment, they doubt him with evil thoughts.
    There is a comparison of the Paralytic’s faithful friends and the evil thoughts of the religious leaders.
    Knowing their thoughts could have been Jesus showing his divinity, but it also could have been a natural assumption given the situation and their grumbling.
    We’ve all been in situations, and by we I mean I, have been in situations where we said the wrong thing, looked at peoples faces, and known quickly we said the wrong thing. One of my first Sundays here, we were talking about abortion, I accidently said something like we need to oppose the protection of unborn life, and continued to talk. You all made weird faces at me, and started to mumble, and I quickly knew the mistake I had made. Erika and I have discussed that a book should be written of all of the things that I as your pastor have said in a wrong way.
    Jesus perceived their grievance with him and will speak to it with a question like he loves to do.
    In verse 5, he says: Which is easier to say ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or to say, ‘Stand up and walk’?”
    Well, both of them are pretty hard Jesus! And I actually don’t know which one is harder!
    Notice Jesus is not questioning which one is easier to do, he is questioning which one is easier to say.
    And he will show them in the next verse.

    III. The Proof in Power

    Third, we see the proof in power. Look with me at verse 6.
    Matthew 9:6 “6 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—then he said to the paralytic—“Stand up, take your stretcher, and go home.””
    This verse is particularly awkward. But intentionally awkward when we understand what Jesus is saying. When you look at this diagramming, when you know is that it is a nightmare for any Greek grammar scholar.
    What you need to know from this is what Jesus is saying. You want to know that I am the son of God? This is how you will know. I will heal him too. Jesus forgives this man’s sin for this man’s own sake. But here, he is going to heal him both for the man’s sake and to display that he is the authoritative Messiah. His imperative to heal the sick man is the answer to the dependent clause for how they will know he is the Son of Man who has authority to forgive sins.
    Going back to the question about which one is harder, it is hard to forgive sins because this is only something God can do. People can be miricle workers, but only God forgives sin. If he is blaspheming, he would not have been able to do the lesser thing of healing the person.
    But maybe we might think that healing a paralized man is harder. It’s one thing to say empty words of “your sins are forgiven.” How are they going to fact check Jesus on his forgiveness of sins? It’s going to be a lot easier to fact check his ability to heal, making this physical healing maybe the harder thing.
    Jesus’s answer to his own question in verse six is wonderful. I believe Jesus is ironically mocking the religious leaders. Which one is harder? Fine, alright, I'll do the lesser thing too. Or the harder thing. He is the authoritative son of God, so he can do both.
    Let’s look deeper at this issue of Son of Man.
    Notice that Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man. We’ve talked before about how this title is pregnant with meaning.
    This is Jesus’s favorite way to refer to himself. With this paradox of the magnificent one who is far beyond human, but also suffers as a human. And you can see from the chart that besides Ezekiel, Matthew has the most occurences of this term. Jesus slowly shows who he is through this term.
    We looked at this chart last time and noted that this title appears all over the place, most commonly in Ezekiel as the one who would come to suffer to accomplish the plans of God. But another aspect of the son of man is having authority and deity tiven to him by God. Look at this text with me.
    Daniel 7:13–14 NET 2nd ed.
    13 “I was watching in the night visions, And with the clouds of the sky one like a son of man was approaching. He went up to the Ancient of Days and was escorted before him. 14 To him was given ruling authority, honor, and sovereignty. All peoples, nations, and language groups were serving him. His authority is eternal and will not pass away. His kingdom will not be destroyed.
    Someone walks up to God, the ancient of days, and is given all of this authority, honor, and ruling power? All people serving him? Daniel sees the son of man character as somewhat divine and far above us. Jesus is applying to himself, this character of the one who is divine. The one who has all the same authority that God has, even the ability to forgive sins.
    Authority is significant. He has authority to heal, cast out demons, calm a storm, but now, address humanities greatest problem. Sin.
    This verse is meant to be a comfort for us. Forgiveness can truly be found in Christ. The weight of your sin can be sent away by Jesus. Whether you have never experienced the forgiveness of Christ yet, or are a Christian weighted down by guild.
    Forgiveness is being offered to you today. Forgiveness from all of your lying. Forgiveness from all of your anger. Forgiveness from all of your evil thoughts about others. Forgiveness from all of your sexual sin. Forgiveness from all the things you have taken that were not yours. Forgiveness from the idols and addictions you have succumbed to in your life.
    Find his grace.

    IV. The Delight of Deliverance

    Finally, we see the delight of deliverance. We see this in verses 7 and 8.
    In verse seven, we see this man who was paralized, gets to stand up, and walk himself home. Carried to Jesus, he gets to then walk home.
    The forgiveness of sins was for the Paralytic. But the healing was not just for the paralytic. It was to show that Jesus could truly forgive the mans sins, and refute blaspheme. This man was able to get a double blessing.
    But we realize that God may not heal all of our physical problems in this life. But the expected hope for all followers of Jesus is that in the next life, all things will be restored.
    This is a massive issue in the church today, one that I deal almost every week. Where people want to come to God to get physical healing, instead of seeking the real reason Jesus came, and the greater issue behind the physical suffering. Jesus came to be what his name means, to save his people from their sin.
    Romans tells us that all creation is groaning. Groaning out because of all of the problems that sin has caused. This is a metaphorical way that biblical authors refer to the world around us and even our own bodies and minds to be broken.
    Many of us in this room suffer with ongoing pain, physical problems, mental problems. Some that often seen overwhelming and unbearable. And we look to be healed.
    The forgiveness of sin and the healing of our relationship to God is the first step. We don’t loose heart that we continue to struggle with physical and mental problems. We know that Jesus has given us phase one, spiritual healing, and will ultimately give us phase two, complete creation restoration. The Holy Spirit and our relationship with God is a down-payment of all that God has in store for us. He will deliver us. First from our sin, from our selves, from judgement, and someday, from all that creates suffering.
    Then look at the response of the crowd in verse 8.
    Matthew 9:8 “8 When the crowd saw this, they were afraid and honored God who had given such authority to men.”
    Notice they were afraid of him and responded well.
    Remember the disciples on the lake? They were afraid and asked “what is he? What kind is he?”
    The townspeople of the last story feared Jesus and wanted him to leave.
    But here we see the response to deliverance as fear that leads to worship.
    They recognize what Jesus being God’s authority, not human authority. And they praise that God was not pleased to keep his authority in power in heaven, but let it come down to us by the means of Jesus.
    We sometimes look at the word fear and question why this was the peoples response. But without spending time to do a whole biblical theology of fear, fear in a biblical way is combination of a dread of punishment, but also a devotional commitment.
    Look at a few verses with me real quick.
    Proverbs 14:26 ESV
    26 In the fear of the Lord one has strong confidence, and his children will have a refuge.
    Psalm 34:9 NET 2nd ed.
    9 Fear the Lord, you chosen people of his, for those who fear him lack nothing.
    Proverbs 23:17–18 NET 2nd ed.
    17 Do not let your heart envy sinners, but rather be zealous in fearing the Lord all the time. 18 For surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.
    Hebrews 12:28–29 NET 2nd ed.
    28 So since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us give thanks, and through this let us offer worship pleasing to God in devotion and awe. 29 For our God is indeed a devouring fire.
    These people here have a awe of the authority of Jesus and then devotedly commit themselves to him through worship. Fearing God in the Biblical sense becomes a way of identifying religiously as one who follows God.
    So it is for us. The reverence and awe that we have for Jesus is not just meant to be a thought in our brains. Jesus wants all of us, mind, heart, soul. Our belief about God should affect our relationship with him driving us to greater worship.
    We talked on Wednesday about knowledge of God is worthless if it does not drive us to our relationship with him.

    Beyond the Walls (Grace and Growth)

    The main point for us to see is what is actually our greatest need as humans. This being our biggest problem is relevant for both the believer and the unbeliever.
    If you are here today, and do not know Christ as savior, before any other issue that needs healing in your life, you need to realize that your sin has kept you far from God. But remember what Jesus’s mission is, to save his people from their sin. His grace is being offered to you today. Jesus took your sin, your punishment, your judgement, your shame, your guilt, all of your evil, to the cross. He took that on for you, was dead, burried, and rose again to give you new life, forgiveness that is found in him.
    And for the believer, our biggest problem, is still sin! This does not mean that we do not come to Jesus with all of our problems. We spent time reflecting on Matthew 7 when we ought to make our requests known to God, the one who cares for us and knows our problems.
    We should also make these requests known to each other. If you come to the elders, we will pray fervently for your requests. But do you want to know what your elders pray consistently for you? That you would be sanctified in the grace of God. That he would be bringing about the good work in you he started by removing sin and making you more like his son.
    And just because we are saved does not mean that we no longer struggle with sin!
    We as believers are in constant need of God’s grace in our lives. Our primary concern is still our relationship with God and him removing sin from our life in. We cry out with the Psalmist, search my heart and know me, remove everything evil within me.
    Let me ask us, what does our prayer life look like? Have you spent time reading through prayers of scripture? Remember when we read through Daniel’s prayer in Daniel 9 together? There is a focus on sin. A focus on God restoring us from our brokenness. When we read the prayers of scriptures, this is the focus, not treating God like a vending machine or a gene in a bottle. Asking to consume on our own desires and passions, but what would be glorifying to God.
    Do we spend time before God asking him forgive us as we forgive others, or do we simply ask for physical requests and needs?
    Church, The people in this story brought their friend to Jesus. What did it look like for them to have faith? faith in the authority of Jesus? faith that Jesus commends in them?
    Their faith was taking action in bringing the person they cared about to Jesus.
    Think of how this parallels over to our situation. Some of us may believe in Jesus, but do we believe in him enough to bring our friends and family and co workers and neighbors to him? Do we look at them and say “ah, yeah, they probably won’t accept Christ.”
    Oh we of little faith!
    True friends bring friends to Jesus.
    Let us be a people who are a kingdom of priest, bringing the people in our lives to the One who has authority to save them. Do we just say we have faith that Jesus will save them or do we take action and bring them to Jesus?
    One of my greatest joys as your pastor is seeing you bring people in your lives to church to hear the word of God and the gospel preached to them.
    Let us be a people who have faith that takes action to bring the people God has given us to the Savior. Let us be persistent in the way we pursue bring others to the glorious Gospel of our Jesus.
    It wont be easy, it will be messy, but Christ has authority to powerfully work in the lives of our neighbors, our family, our friends, our co-workers.
    Let’s take a moment to reflect on the text together.
    Father, forgive me of my sin against you.
    Jesus, help me to delight in your deliverance and authority in my life.
    Spirit, work in me that I would have faith to bring the lost to Jesus.

      • Isaiah 43:25ESV

      • Daniel 7:13–14ESV

      • Proverbs 14:26ESV

      • Psalm 34:9ESV

      • Proverbs 23:17–18ESV

      • Hebrews 12:28–29ESV

  • Grace Greater Than Our Sin
  • It Is Well With My Soul
Hope Church's Church
hopechurchmaine@gmail.com
207.886.1191
http://hopechurchmaine@gmail.com
6 members