The Miracles of Jesus
LECTURE IX
Wednesday, April 1st, 2020
Pastor Michael McCoy, Sr., Presenter

Miracle: “A Happening With
Which Human Reasoning Has Yet To Catch Up.”
~ Dr. William Augustus Jones

Miracle #9 – Jesus Heals a Paralytic
• Matthew 9:1-8
• Mark 2:1-12
• Luke 5:17-26

• Mark 2:1-4
The scene pictures Jesus inside a house preaching the plan of salvation. He was setting up the Kingdom of God “on earth as it is in heaven.” People had gathered from far and near to hear the words of life from the mouth of the Saviour. Four men brought to the service a paralyzed man, believing that Jesus could heal him.

The crowd was too large for them to enter into the house, but the friends of this paralyzed man were determined to get him to Jesus. They could not get through the crowds packed around the doors and the windows, so they climbed up the staircase and took him up on the roof of the house.

Houses during the Biblical times were built on stone. They had flat roofs made of mud mixed with straw. Outside stairways led to the roofs. They carried the paralyzed man up the stairs to the roof and took apart the mud and straw mixture to make a hole in the roof through which to lower their friend to Jesus. DETERMINATION!

• Mark 2:5-7
Before saying to the paralyzed man, “arise,” Jesus said, “Thy sins be forgiven.” The man came for physical healing, but Jesus first provided spiritual healing.

The delegation of religious leaders became upset with Jesus. To the Jewish leaders this was blasphemy because Jesus was claiming to do something only God could do. According to the Levitical Law, the punishment for this sin was death.

• Leviticus 24:15, 16
Blasphemy – the act or offense of speaking sacrilegiously about God or sacred things. It is showing a lack of respect for God and the things of God.
The Religious Leaders, the Scribes and the Pharisees, did not accept Jesus as the Son of God. Therefore, they claimed that Jesus was being disrespectful in forgiving sin. The forgiveness of sins was reserved for God alone.

• Mark 2:8-12
Jesus healed the paralytic as a witness to the religious delegation. He wanted them to know that He was the Son of God and Son of man, who had the authority to heal a person spiritually and physically. He had the power to deliver from sin and at the same time deliver from sickness . . . “arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.” They were all amazed and glorified God.

These religious leaders who claimed spiritual authority in Judaism because they had mastered the written and oral law had come to the house of healing to criticize and pass judgment on Jesus. Jesus proved to them that He had an authority and power they could not match or imagine.