The Power Of The Lord Jesus (part 2) - [Matthew 8:18 - 9:8]

Bethlehem Bible Church

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Are you worshiping the right Jesus? Good. I praise the

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Lord for that. By the way, I regularly tell pastors that you should be preaching, of course, for adults, but also you should be preaching in such a way that the children ask questions and are listening as well.

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So I'm very glad for that answer. My next question is, how do you know you're worshiping the right

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Jesus? After all, there's lots of people that say they're

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Jesus. I found a few, even in the last hundred years, people that claim to be

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Jesus are a reincarnation of Jesus. Anne Lee, founder of the Shakers, was referred to by her followers as Mother because she thought she was the female reincarnation of Jesus.

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Arnold Potter claimed he had the spirit of Jesus and that he became known as Potter Christ.

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He did unfortunately die though, when he tried to ascend into heaven by jumping off a cliff.

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The people in the first service didn't laugh on that one. Jones Verry was an American essayist and a

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Greek tutor here in Massachusetts at Harvard. And he claimed to be Jesus, the second coming of Jesus, and then subsequently had a nervous breakdown right after that.

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William Davies started a group called the Kingdom of Heaven, located in, of all places,

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Walla Walla, Washington. And he taught his followers that he was the angel Michael and that he had previously lived as Adam, Abraham, as David.

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And when he had a son, he named that son Jesus. And when he had another son, he named that son

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God the Father. How do you know you have the right Jesus? Lots of people say they're

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Jesus. Krishna Venta founded the Fountain of the World cult in Simi Valley, California.

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In 1984, he said that he was Christ and he had claimed to have led a convoy of rocket ships to earth from the extinct planet of Nefritus.

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He died, by the way, after two of his followers suicide bombed him after he mishandled both ladies and money.

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Are you worshiping the right Jesus? How would you know? Oscar Hernandez, in 2011, fired nine shots into the

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White House in Washington, DC, believing that he was Jesus Christ sent to kill

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President Barack Obama. Are you worshiping the right Jesus? How would you know?

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Well, take your Bibles and let's turn to Matthew chapter eight, because in this very passage, the credentials of Jesus the

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King are given. How do you know this is the right Messiah? How do you know this is the Messiah that fulfills everything in the

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Old Testament? How do you know this is the eternal son who's added humanity so he can both be a representative for us and a savior for us as substitute?

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Here we have Matthew chapter eight through credentials of the King. Jesus, of course, burst onto the scene in Matthew as the

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King and immediately Herod is after him and Satan is after him. And Jesus in Matthew chapter five through seven on the

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Sermon on the Mount says many things like, you have heard it said, but I say to you.

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Who has the authority to talk like that? Who can just say, well, this is what you've heard it said all these years, but I'm telling you, you listen to my words.

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My words are the important words. Who has the authority and the credentials to speak in such a way?

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So today we're gonna look at Matthew chapter eight and the beginning of Matthew chapter nine, seven distinct snapshots of Jesus and his power and his compassion so that you say,

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I'm worshiping the right Jesus. So you don't get fooled by a David Koresh or somebody else that comes down the pike.

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One day we'll all stand before God. We are creatures and God is the creator and we will have to give an account.

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And of course we realize we have fallen short and sinned. We have not obeyed perfectly and entirely and perpetually.

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And so we'll have to answer for our sins. So we're going to need a Messiah who has the right credentials so that he not only can live for us, but also die for us.

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And then confirm that by his resurrection. So last week we saw the first three snapshots and today we're gonna look at the next four.

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Once again, all designed for you to answer the question, who do you say that the son of man is?

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So that you're believing the right one. If you're not a Christian, this is perfect because what happens with this passage is you'll say, well, there's no one like this.

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And I do know that I'm sinful and I do have a conscience and I realize death is coming someday and I'm going to need a savior.

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This is a good picture of Jesus, the savior on his way to Calvary.

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And if you are a Christian, this works out perfectly as well because we need to be bolstered in our view of Jesus so that we keep on believing and trusting and resting in the risen savior.

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So let's look at the first snapshot and I'll just read it and maybe make a comment or two in review.

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And we have that found in verses one through four, Jesus's power and sovereignty and compassion showing his credentials as king as he heals the leper with a touch.

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When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him and behold, Matthew loves to do that. So our attention is directed.

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A leper came to him and knelt before him saying, Lord, if you will, I know you're powerful, but are you willing, you can make me clean.

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And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him saying, I will be clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

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And Jesus said to him, see that you say nothing to anyone, but go show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a proof to them.

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And so no one had been healed of leprosy since Naaman the leper, Miriam had been healed thousands of years before.

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And Matthew 11 will go on to say, you'll know Jesus is the Messiah because he can heal lepers.

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And so we should be thinking, yes, that's true. Jesus is the Messiah. As the leper recognizes

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Jesus's Lordship, so too should we. The next one's found in verses five through 13.

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And even with your Bibles, you can see how it's broken down in that paragraph, powerful credentials of authority to authenticate

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Jesus's message and himself. When he had entered

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Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him saying, Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.

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And he said to him, I will come and heal him. But the centurion replied, Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word and my servant will be healed.

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For I too am a man under authority. See, he recognized that Jesus was a man under authority as well, sent by the father.

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I am also a man under authority. With soldiers under me, I say to one, go, and he goes.

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And to another, come, and he comes. And to my servant, do this, and he does it. When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, truly,

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I tell you with no one in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness.

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In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And the centurion Jesus said, go, let it be done for you as you have believed.

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And the servant was healed at that very moment. And so the writer Matthew is most likely putting these things in not chronological order, but he's putting these together so that you say, you know what?

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Jesus has the power and the authority and the credentials to be the Messiah. He heals lepers.

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He heals the servant from a distant distance. And then we saw the last one just in review from last week, and then we'll get into new material.

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Verses 14 through 17, Jesus has authority over disease and demons. And when

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Jesus entered Peter's house, Matthew 8, 14, he saw his mother -in -law lying sick with a fever.

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He touched her hand and the fever left her. And she rose and began to serve him. That evening, they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick.

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This was to fulfill what was spoken by Isaiah the prophet. That is Isaiah 53. He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.

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So Jesus is Lord. He is the King. He's come to save the people from their sins. Does he have the authority and the credentials to do it?

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So now we come to the fourth area where Jesus shows his authority and his sovereignty and his

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Lordship. And that is his authority over people. His authority stretches to lepers.

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It includes servants. But what about people? God is the creator.

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You're the creature. I'm a creature as well. And we stand before God. And does he have authority to tell us what to do?

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The answer is yes. And we'll see that in this particular case with verses 18 through 22.

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And we're gonna see two men. And the first one's too eager to follow Jesus. And the next one's not eager enough.

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One's too fast to wanna follow without counting the cost. And the other one has other priorities that aren't the

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Lord Jesus. And of course, we don't wanna see ourselves in either of these men. We wanna make sure we're the ones who say, by the grace of God, I have repented and I'm believing

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Jesus. And therefore now as a Christian, I follow him. Verse 18, will these men respond to Jesus the

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King? Will you? Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side.

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And a scribe came to him and said, teacher, I will follow you wherever you go. Pretty enthusiastic.

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Hasn't really figured out what's going on, accounting the cost. And by the way, this is perfect because Jesus just has probably some

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Galilean fishermen. What good are they? How much do they invest? How rich are they?

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How high are they on the totem pole? But now we have a scribe. And this is not just somebody that writes, although that would be something.

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A scribe dealt with the law of God. A scribe dealt with things that were important in the scriptures and the traditions of the

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Jews. I mean, this is gonna be a perfect catch for Jesus, is it not? And Jesus said to him,

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I mean, this is the Jesus we're not familiar with often. Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.

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I mean, foxes have a home, not much, but it's a hole. Birds, they have a home.

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It's not very luxurious, but at least it's something. But the son of man, think

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Daniel chapter seven, coming back with glory and power and dominion and all authority.

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This great son of man has nowhere to lay his head. Are you sure you white collar scribe wanna follow me?

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Because I'm homeless. And if I'm homeless, that means what? You're gonna be homeless too.

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Are you sure you really wanna follow me? Jesus, of course, is a pilgrim on the earth.

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He's a stranger, he's a sojourner. And he wants this man to know, you're not gonna fare any better than I am because the suffering servant has servants who suffer.

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You wanna follow Jesus? Remember, when you think about theology, you ought to be thinking kind of back in the days of Martin Luther, there was a theology of glory.

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Get your best life now, get everything now. And there was a theology of suffering.

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And so glory is in our future. It is in the future of every Christian. But there's suffering first, it's suffering then glory.

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Remember, Satan says, Jesus, bypass the suffering, go straight to glory. And we're prone to do that as well.

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And so Jesus is wanting to have this man know, if you're going to follow me, it's going to be costly. It's going to cost you something.

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Be careful, count the costs. Yes, this great

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Jesus will come in glory and set up his kingdom. But right now on earth, that's not the situation.

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He doesn't have a regular home. The mission of Jesus was one of humiliation, yes.

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The mission of Jesus ultimately would be a vindication. But right now, you better be careful and count the costs, he says.

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Well, that man was probably too quick. We don't hear anything else of him. But there's another one that maybe is too slow.

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Trusting in Jesus, not fast enough. And another of his disciples said to him, when you hear disciples, it's just somebody, it could be like one of the 12, but it could also just be any kind of follower, even a false follower.

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Lord, let me go first and bury my father. And Jesus said to him,

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I mean, this is amazing. Follow me and leave the dead to bury their own dead.

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Who has the authority to say things like that? Now, there's a couple options.

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And maybe your study Bible has the options. I don't know if you dare to admit it, but when

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I'm preaching, do you sometimes compare what I say about a passage to your study Bible notes? What is it,

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Abendroth and then the ESV study Bible, and then how does that all rank? If you did read your study

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Bible notes, you'd probably say there's two options. The man's father was actually dead. And he says, you know what?

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I've got funeral arrangements and I'm the firstborn and I have prayers to do. And if it was our day,

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I have caskets to pick out and obituaries to write. And I need to take care of my father. That could be, but most likely, and most commentators think, the man's father was still alive.

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Aged, yes. Needy, yes. But even if we have the desire for our family and to take care of our parents, it's a good thing to honor your father and mother.

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But there's something that has a higher priority and that's trusting in the Savior. If the guy's father's still alive, basically he's saying, you know, after my father dies, then

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I'll come and follow you. Yet Jesus is the creator and he's the Messiah.

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And therefore he has ownership over every person and they must believe. He expects them to believe enough to follow.

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And I could make it very personal now. Did you know that Jesus has absolute claim on your life?

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Every person here from the young ones to the older ones, Jesus has claim on your life.

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He made you to worship him and he expects that. And of course we realize we could never do that and we've fallen short and that's why we need the

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Savior. And he's provided himself as your own Savior. If Jesus didn't have the power with the leper and the power with the servant and the power with Peter's mother -in -law, how dare he say this?

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This is just as crazy as these people I quoted at the very beginning of the sermon where they say they're

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Jesus. But if he does do what the Messiah says he, what the

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Bible says the Messiah does, then it's not outlandish, it's reasonable.

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It's right. It's the only right response. There's something more important than family.

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And by the way, there are people in America but more overseas. It's cost them their family to follow the

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Lord Jesus with persecution. What will you give the, what would you give if your soul is lost but you gain everything?

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And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. No word of either of these people, but the disciples, his disciples did follow him, but they needed a lesson on who this

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Jesus was. And they're gonna have a little field trip. This is what I call a little Awana field trip, right?

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Remember Awana? Let's have Awana back. What do you say? Okay, good.

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We come to the fifth snapshot of Jesus' authority. Put all together here so you can,

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Christians can say, I'm worshiping the right Jesus. I'm not worshiping Yahweh ben Yahweh or some kind of weird cultish guy,

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Jim Jones or someone else. This is the right Jesus. And it's power and authority over the

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Sea of Galilee, the water. And behold, verse 24, and you kind of feel that again with Matthew.

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Behold, there arose a great storm on the sea so that the boat was being swamped by the waves, but he was asleep.

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This was a violent shaking. If you put Matthew, Mark and Luke together, it's like an earthquake underwater.

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It's like a tsunami type of effect. You have 9 ,200 feet of a mountain called

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Mount Hermon and the wind comes down Mount Hermon into the Sea of Galilee, which is 700 feet below sea level.

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And it's like this wind tunnel vortex. When I was there, I've been on the Sea of Galilee, I don't know, five times.

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And it was always kind of nice. I don't think the tour boats take you out when it's a chaotic, crazy sea.

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Although that would have been interesting. Well, foxes have some place to lay their head and birds could probably put their head down.

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The son of man has nowhere to lay his head except on a cushion in a boat.

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He was asleep. Other texts tell us he put his head down on this pillow they would have in a boat.

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As great windstorm comes, fierce gale of wind, it's a squall. Even today in Galilee, when fishermen talk about this kind of a wind blowing, they call it the shark because it just comes up like a shark out of nowhere.

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This sounds like Jonah, does it not? The Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up.

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It sounds just like Jonah. Wasn't Jonah at the bottom of the boat, what? Sleeping?

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Jesus was asleep. Dear friends, while the son of God is gonna come with power and authority and glory as the divine son of God, Jesus is also, and we've seen it in chapter eight all throughout, but don't miss it here.

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Jesus is truly human. He is perfectly human and he has to be to represent us.

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He can't just be some angelic thing. He has to be human so he can represent us as the last

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Adam. And Jesus is asleep. Total humanity of Jesus.

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Verse 25, and they went and woke him saying, "'Save us, Lord, we're perishing.'" They got the

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Lord part right, but don't you think these fishermen would know what to do? Don't you think the fishermen would know what to do in the middle of the

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Sea of Galilee? Six miles out maybe? And they're gonna ask the carpenter for help?

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At least they knew who to ask for help. This reminds me of Martha in John 11. "'Lord, if you had been here, "'my brother would not have died.

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"'Please take care of us, help us.' And he said to them, he addresses them first.

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I'd switch it around if I was Jesus, but thankfully I'm not. "'Why are you afraid,

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O you of little faith?' It's all about faith. It's all about trusting. This whole book was written so that you would believe.

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And if you are a Christian, no matter what trials you're going through, that you keep believing, keep believing, keep trusting.

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Trials come and then we're like, oh, now what? "'Then he rose, rebuked the winds and the sea, "'and there was a great calm.'"

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Interestingly, it doesn't just say he rebuked the wind because the sea would have still been going. It doesn't say he rebuked the sea because the winds would keep going and then the sea would be fomenting again.

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So he has to rebuke both. He rebukes them like he rebukes demons, like you rebuke a bad dog.

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He rebukes the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. So January 1st, we love to get a group of people.

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Well, I shouldn't say we love it, but we do it anyway. And we go up to Hampton Beach for the polar plunge. And I'm usually the oldest one doing it, or the most foolish, or both.

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And so we just go into Hampton Beach. There's the wall there, and you walk down and jump in for the polar plunge.

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I don't think we could do it the last two years because it was so cold. I thought maybe somebody would die and I had to be a pastor at least once in a while and say, no.

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Next time you're there, let's say January 1st, let's all go to the wall and whatever the waves are doing there, let's just stand there and rebuke the waves and the wind and see what happens.

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Jesus says the word. It's flat, like placid. Why are you afraid?

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I have the credentials. I not only have the power, I have the compassion. I touch lepers.

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I heal your mother -in -law, Peter. You'd expect Jesus to wake up and immediately just, okay,

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I'll fix everything. Now we'll have the lesson. When the wind and the waves are still going crazy, there's the lesson.

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Why are you having little faith? He doesn't want us to have the little faith.

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He rebukes the sea and wants them to realize who he is.

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Jesus wasn't afraid. He wasn't startled. He says, in Mark's account, be still, be muzzled.

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Put a muzzle on it, stop. And it doesn't just kind of die down on its own.

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It's immediately flat. We just saw he was sleeping and can't you see his perfect humanity?

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But here, can't you see his perfect deity? Of course you can. Some say, the liberals say,

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Jesus only stilled the storm of fear in the disciples' hearts. Is that true?

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No, he made them fearful by putting them in the boat and then causing the storm.

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Who has the power to look at the sea and say, be still? Psalm 107, God made the storm be still and the waves of the sea were hushed.

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Then they were glad that the waters were quiet. Only God has power over the sea. Jesus has power over the sea.

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Jesus is, verse 27, you should be asking this question.

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The men marveled saying, what sort of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him?

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Answer, he's the God -man. He's the Messiah we've been waiting for. He's the one who can bear my sins.

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He's the one that can get me to heaven. He's a man, yes, but he's more than a man. Only God can control the sea.

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What sort of man is this that even the winds and sea obey him? Commentator Lenski said, there was little need to record the answer.

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Well, not only that, we have our next section of authority and it's found in verses 28 and following.

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The power and credentials of Jesus over leprosy, over the servant of the centurion, over disease, over people, over the ocean, over the sea, and then now, over demon -possessed men.

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Kids, wait till you hear this, okay? You're not gonna forget this. You ready?

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I dare you not to listen. The power of Jesus over the supernatural, including demons.

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And when he came to the other side, to the country of the gatherings, two demon -possessed men met him coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way.

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And the focus here is not gonna be on anybody else, not the disciples, except Jesus. What is

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Jesus going to do? Insane people, no?

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Demon -possessed people. And this is not kind of like what you see on TV today and they're like, well, I'm gonna cast a demon of postnasal drip out of you and I'm gonna cast a demon of the flu out of you.

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These are real demon -possessed people. And when you read Mark and when you read

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Luke, it tells you they're naked, they're living in the tombs, they cut themselves.

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I'm sure they smell awful, they look horrible. Two demon -possessed men.

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When you put together the other accounts in the gospels, they run up to Jesus, they're on their face before Jesus, and what's he going to do?

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I'd like to know where the disciples were. Were they in front of Jesus? Were they behind Jesus? What's going on here?

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What will Jesus do? What could the Messiah do? He's out of the boat, it's dark, by the way, because Mark says evening had come.

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These strong men cutting themselves, crying out. Nobody can go that way.

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I mean, of course, I'm thinking Billy Goat Gruff, right? Not allowed to pass. But how about demonic

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Billy Goat Gruff? Luke says they had not put on any clothing for a long time, living not in a house, but in the tombs.

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Nobody can control them. Mark says no one was able to bind them anymore, even with a chain.

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Who can control these people? Not any human. No one on earth can control these people. What will

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Jesus do? These fierce, frenzied, crazy people. No, they're demonic.

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What would you do if some kind of crazy, demonic, naked man who lived in the tombs ran up to you and got down on his face before you?

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And of course, I know Steve's probably heard the story 50 times, so it might as well be 51. I'll just make it brief.

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I don't have much experience with demon -possessed people. I only have one experience dealing with a naked, crazy man in North Hollywood out front of my house.

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I was mowing the lawn, and all of a sudden there's a guy. He walks out in the middle of the street in our nice little neighborhood, and he starts taking off his clothes and starts dancing and starts jumping up and down.

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And I've got to mow because it's getting dark and I keep mowing back and forth. And so I can see him while I'm going this direction, but when

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I turn around to mow that way, I can't see him. So I'm kind of wondering if he's gonna get me or attack me or what.

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And then I thought, well, I think I'm okay because he has no weapons on him and I have a mower. So I thought

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I'd probably be okay. And so I watch him go, and then all of a sudden,

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I needed to call 911 probably right away, but this is typical, it's

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California, right? But when he started to go into people's windows and started knocking and doing crazy things.

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Later on, we found out he was off his medicine. But what if you have real demon -possessed people?

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What's going to happen? What will Jesus do? Verse 29, behold, there it is again, behold, they cried out, what have you to do with us,

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O son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time? It's like they were negative and he's positive and it's magnets and they're just flying.

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Forced by supernatural drawing to come right up to him and then say, by the way, we know we're gonna get thrown into the abyss, we know we're gonna be damned forever, but please don't make it now.

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Stop it, we don't know what to do. This naked, crazy group of men don't torment us before the time.

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I like it so far, I've just seen a repose in Jesus, a calmness of Jesus. He's not wondering what to do, he's not worried, he's not concerned.

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What do you have to do with us? Some people think, hey, this is a kind of a curse on Jesus.

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Oh, why are you interfering? Mind your own business. But I think they realize in the presence of the almighty

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Messiah, we bow. Don't punish us before God's appointed time.

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Jesus goes on to say in Matthew 25, that he will also say to those on his left, depart from me, accursed one, into the eternal fire, which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.

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We know we're going there. Here we have a legion of demons. I don't know if there's an actual legion of demons or that's just the name because there's a multiple, but a legion is about 6 ,000 people.

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What if there are 6 ,000 demons in this person? In Mary Magdalene, at least there was only seven. My name is legion for we as many when

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Jesus asked the name and mark. So many people. Luke 8, they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss.

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Verse 30, in your text, Matthew 8, now a herd of many pigs was feeding at some distance from them.

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And the demons begged him saying, if you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs.

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Well, why do they want to go into the pigs? Well, we don't want to go into the abyss yet. Maybe they say we want to go into pigs because we know pigs are unclean and we want unclean things.

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We want to have some kind of inhabitation of some bodies. Or maybe they're thinking Jesus is going to get in trouble for this.

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Verse 32, and he said to them, here's the power of the Messiah. That's all he said, go.

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So they came out and went into the pigs and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the waters.

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He says, go, and then there's like chain reaction of rapid things happening. Sheep follow one another, but pigs don't.

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They're individualistic. But here, this whole herd, because they're indwelt by the legion of demons, down they go.

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Can you imagine drowning in the sea? Mark talks about this ongoing kind of language of being drowned and choked in the sea.

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I wonder what it would sound like, kids, to have hundreds and thousands of pigs drowning one on top of another, choking and snorting and making these sounds with demon -energized power.

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Why did Jesus send them into the pigs? I will not say anything about deviled ham or hog heaven or anything like that.

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I would never stoop so low. I think one of the reasons he did this is because he wanted to make sure the men who had been demon -possessed could see for certain those demons are gone.

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They're forever gone. See the end of them. Forever dealt with.

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P .S., if you're weeping for the pigs right now and you think Jesus ought to be condemned by PETA, which some people think he should be, pigs have no soul.

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And every one of these pigs was gonna die. Right? How many pigs are worth two image -bearers?

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Even a liberal commentator said, "'There's a cheap sentimentalism "'which will languish in grief over the pain of an animal "'and will never turn a hair at the wretched state "'of millions of God's men and women.'"

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So true. Verse 33, oh, what's the response of people to this great

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Messiah who's powerful and compassionate and loves people? The herdsmen fled. Going into the city, they told everything, especially what had happened to the demon -possessed men.

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And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus, to praise

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Him and to thank Him and to worship Him and to bow down and to believe in Him and say, you have the authority and the credentials of the

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King. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. That what the text says.

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And when they saw Him, they begged Him to leave their region. And the crazy part is,

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Luke 8, it says when they came to Jesus, they found the man with whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in His right mind, and they were afraid.

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When it comes to pigs or people, we gotta make money for the pigs. We don't care about the person.

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There was an old poem written about this, and it's just devastatingly convicting. "'Rabbi, be gone.

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"'Thy powers bring loss to us and ours. "'Our ways are not as thine. "'Thou

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God, love us men, we lovest swine.'" The man whom

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Jesus had authority over and cast the demons out, he didn't say, you know what?

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I think I've gotta go follow my dad. I need to go take care of my father.

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He wanted to be with Jesus and worship Him. And Jesus said to him, after he requested to be with Jesus, "'Go home to your people.

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"'Report to them what great things the Lord has done for you "'and how He had mercy on you.'" Jesus even calls

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Himself Lord, does He not? And then we have one last one, finally, and ultimately, and at the very top of it all, the most important one, maybe for last,

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Matthew 9, verses one through eight. We'll go through it quickly. Remember, there are no chapter divisions in the original manuscript, so this just flows right from Matthew 8 -9.

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Jesus has the authority to forgive sins. It'd be one thing if He was the Messiah and He could do all these powerful things, but what about can

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He change people? Can He forgive them? Can He have their status changed before God because of His great redeeming work?

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Every one of us need a Messiah to discharge the debt that we have occurred.

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Will He forgive? Can He forgive? Can He make satisfaction for all our sins at Calvary?

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Could He conquer the grave? The most important subject of all time, you ought to ask yourself, is the forgiveness of sins?

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Do I believe that? Can I have my sins forgiven? And by the way, if you're not a Christian here today, you can have your sins forgiven.

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And if you're a Christian, you can be thankful that you are forgiven. Let's take a look at it just quickly. Is Jesus willing to forgive sins?

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Does He have the authority? By the way, unless you're God, you have no authority. It's blasphemy to act like God and say,

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I'm trying to forgive sins. Getting into the boat, He crossed over and came to His own city, Capernaum. By the way, there's a lot of people there.

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There's not much room. He's inside. He's preaching the word. There's some Pharisees in there.

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You can't get to the door according to Mark and the other accounts. Remember Matthew, Mark, and Luke show pictures of this from different angles.

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And so when you put them together, right, there's no way anybody else can get there because of the crowd and you're gonna have to come in through the roof.

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Remember, even though Matthew doesn't talk about that. And behold, some people brought to Him a paralytic lying on the bed, through the roof, by the way.

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When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven.

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And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, this man's blaspheming. But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, why do you think evil in your hearts?

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For which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven or to say, rise and walk? Stop there for a second.

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Which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven or rise and walk? Which is easier to say? Well, they're both just easy to say,

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I just said them both. Well, that's not what He's talking about. If I say your sins are forgiven, it's an invisible thing, right?

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We don't know. The man might know, God might know, but we wouldn't know.

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But what if I said, rise and walk? If I have no power to forgive sins, I have no power to say, rise and walk.

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So the easier one to say is, your sins are forgiven, but so you understand what's going on, He says, but so that you may know that the

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Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He then said to the paralytic, which one's harder to say?

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Rise, pick up your bed and go home. I mean, instantly, he rose, went home.

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When the crowd saw it, they were afraid and they glorified God. And here's the key to all this whole section in Matthew chapter eight and now nine, don't miss it.

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Who had given authority to men. Such authority to men. Who has this kind of authority?

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Everything is about the authority of God. These false teachers knew, these false leaders knew, only

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God can forgive sins. Jesus is forgiving sins. He's blaspheming. And I just want you to know, if you're here today and you're not a

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Christian, the Bible is very clear that if you'll simply trust in Jesus and receive

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Him by resting in Him, you think about your sins and you think, there's repentance involved with my sins.

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Even though I've done all those sins and even though there's so many things I've been ashamed of and I haven't loved

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God and I haven't loved my neighbor, if you'll simply trust in this Messiah, this risen Savior, He has the authority and I can tell you from the word of God, your sins can be forgiven.

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Wouldn't you like to be forgiven? If you're not a Christian, you need to be forgiven. Why don't you just say,

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Lord, help my unbelief. Would you show me yourself? Would you convince me that this is true?

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I need forgiveness. And your conscience bears witness to the very fact that you're a sinner. And if you're a

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Christian, can you imagine? Because of Jesus, there's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

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Christian, how'd your week go this week? Did you live in such a way where you think to yourself, you know what,

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I lived this week in such a way that God would be pleased with me to the extent that I could stand before Him based on my own righteous deeds.

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Anybody have a week like that? If you do, you're deluded, right?

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We've sinned in so many ways, but remember, because of what Jesus has done, your sins are forgiven.

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Jesus died for the sins of Christians too. That should make us want to honor Him and obey

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Him and love Him and submit ourselves to Him. Your sins are forgiven. Could there be any greater words in all of the world than God the

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Son saying, your sins are forgiven? Heidelberg 56, what do you believe concerning the forgiveness of sins?

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That God, for the sake of Christ's satisfaction, will no more remember my sins, nor the sinful nature with which

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I have to struggle all my life long, but graciously imputes to me the righteousness of Christ that I may never more come into condemnation.

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That is so wonderful. God never remembers the sins of Christians. He never remembers the sinful nature where we struggle all the time because He sees us in Christ Jesus.

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That is such a wonderful truth. No more condemnation.

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I'll tell you, when I meet Christians, they're just like me, and here's what I struggle with. God will accept me this week if I do these things.

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If I pray enough, read enough, evangelize enough, don't sin enough, God will accept me. And that is a lie, lie, lie, lie, lie.

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God will accept you, Christian, and has accepted you because of the merits of Jesus Christ who prayed enough, read enough, evangelized enough, and showed

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His power and compassion enough. You can rest in Him. And then, like we sang this morning,

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I wanna respond now with gratitude. I wanna obey a

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God like that who loved me and gave His Son for me. Your sins are forgiven.

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Jesus is the right Messiah. You can trust in Him. He has the credentials.