January 3, 2016
Scripture:
Hymn 253 - Oh! Why did Jesus leave His home
Prayer
Last time we talked about the leprous man who Jesus healed. We talked about how leprosy just keeps getting worse and that there is really no cure for it. He had come to Jesus and said, “If Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.” He knew Jesus could do it, but he didn’t know if he would. He found out Jesus was willing and gracious. He knew God’s power, he didn’t know His heart. When Jesus touched him, he was well from that time on.
The next man we will talk about is the palsied man, but first I want to take a look at the verse between the two events.
Luke 5:15 - 25
(v. 16) Jesus withdrew Himself and prayed. Why do people pray? Well, we pray because we are dependent on Someone for something we can’t do for ourselves. This Man had healed others with power from above,and He is the One who goes away and prays.
Read Hymn 377, v. 3, from Book 2.
The whole power of the universe was packed into a human. He was perfectly God and perfectly man. A God who can forgive sin, but a man that needs time alone to pray. When He was crossing the lake with His disciples He showed He was perfectly man by sleeping and needing rest. But He was perfectly God when He calmed the storm with His words. He is so perfectly man that He knows us, and so perfectly God that He can lift us up to His Father.
It appears Jesus was teaching in a house, and was surrounded by people. The leperous man could come to Jesus by himself, but the palsied man couldn’t even walk. He lay flat on his back all the time. But he had friends who wanted to see him healed. They tried to get in the front door, and the back door; but they couldn’t get into the house to see Jesus. So they took him to the roof, which was tiled. They tore up enough tiles to be able to lower him down through the roof. They lowered him down right in front of Jesus. Jesus saw their faith, and faith is what is needed for blessing. They were hoping that Jesus would heal the man, but Jesus looked at him and said, “Man, thy sins be forgiven thee”.
The Pharisees didn’t have any faith in Jesus at all. So when Jesus told him his sins were forgiven they said that He was blaspheming because only God could forgive sin. Well, they were wrong that Jesus was blaspheming, but they were right that only God could forgive; and Jesus had every right to forgive sin.
Jesus asked the Pharisees which was easier to tell the man: that his sins were forgiven, or to rise up and walk. If He says only the former, no one knows if anything really happened, but all could see if the later happened. Jesus is God and can and did both. He wanted everyone to know that there was now power on earth to forgive sins. Jesus told the man to rise up and walk, and he jumped up, rolled up his bed, and went home glorifying God.
The Lord has power on earth to forgive sin. We can find forgiveness for our sin, and we too will be able to glorify God. In the case of the leper, he was defiled and unclean. That’s what sin does; makes us unclean and defiled in God’s sight. In the case of the palsied man we saw that sin makes us completely helpless. Sin makes us corrupt, unclean, and helpless; but Jesus is gracious, powerful, and willing to heal, and He gets all the glory for it.
Philippians 1
It seems that it was Paul visit that started the assembly at Philippi. He got thrown into jail there, and an earthquake opened the prison doors. The first people in the assembly seem to have been Lydia and the jailer’s family.
Philippians is one of Paul’s prison epistles. Despite imprisonment, though, he had a joy that went beyond this world. That’s why we’ll find joy as one of the themes of this epistle. Also, each of the four chapters will bring out Christ in a different way: Christ as our life in chapter 1, Christ our joy in 2, our resource in 3, and finally our strength in 4. Paul also puts a lot of emphasis on fellowship, and how important it is. We need to meet with one another, and can join with other believers through prayer and giving, even if they are far away.
Timothy was with Paul when this letter was written, and together they addressed all the saints in Philippi. Not canonized saints, but called saints. 1 Corinthians 1 shows us that we have been called to be saints. On top of that, Paul was called to be an apostle. He doesn’t use that authority in this epistle, but rather presents himself as servant of Jesus Christ.
Most of Paul’s letters start with his blessing the believers with grace and peace, and—if he’s writing to an individual—mercy. These are wonderful blessings to have, and they come from “God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” We live in the Church Age, or the Period of Grace. When Jesus came, he brought grace upon grace (John 1), and we can be thankful for that, for grace is unmerited favour. Also while here, Jesus left us with peace, and gave us His own peace (John 14). Then we also have peace with God through His work, and the peace of God because of it. With all the conflict that is around today, it’s good to pray for the peace of our nation.
The apostle was interested in and concerned for each believer at Philippi. He thanked God for each one, and made requests for them with joy. We can pray for all the saints, but not all of them bring us the joy that these brought Paul! He didn’t need to reprove them much.
One thing Paul thanked God for was the fellowship in the gospel that the Philippians had with him from the “first day”. That first day must be the day they trusted Christ. The very day they were born again, they joined Paul in communion and thought.
Verse 6 reminds us that we are all still a work in progress. There is still refining to be done; we haven’t achieved our final state just yet!
Hymn 97 – O how sweet the gospel message
Prayer