What is Your Need Today?

N.T.#508 "What is Your Need Today?"

March 17, 2025 

Luke 5-Part 5

LET IT GLOW

Jesus' reputation spread and got the attention of the Jewish religious leaders.  In Mark 2 we read about Jesus healing the paralyzed man with 4 friends who let him down on a stretcher through the roof in order to get him to Jesus for healing. (verse 19)

Shall we take a look at the 5 W's? 

• Who was there that day? A crowd of people, Pharisees, and teachers of the law were there listening to Jesus.
• Where did this take place? It was in a home in the Galilean area. 
• What happened? Four friends cared enough to take their friend to Jesus for healing. The doorway was blocked with curious people. So they climbed the outside stairs carrying the man on a stretcher to the flat top roof. They dug through the mud and thatched roof and lowered the man down through the hole. What faith! 
• When did the healing take place? It was when Jesus saw the faith of the five men in action that Jesus told the paralyzed man his sins were forgiven. (That had not been the purpose of the whole event, for the 5 guys. The man's leg muscles didn't work so he could walk. That was his problem, so they thought. Jesus saw the spiritual need of the man as being more important to deal with first.
• Why did this situation get recorded 3 times in the Bible? I think it is to show us what our priorities should be in our relationships.

The men bought their friend for physical restoration, while Jesus knew he needed spiritual restoration. Getting right with God takes priority over getting circumstances right. Do we have believing friends who can piggyback us in times of our own spiritual and physical weakness? (Tony Evans)

Are we this kind of friend to others?

LET IT GROW

The scribes and Pharisees began reasoning to themselves: God alone can forgive sins; who is this which speaks blasphemies? (verse 21)

Blasphemies, in the Greek, means evil speaking; vilification (slanderous and abusive statements against) especially against God.

They started out with the right assumption that only God can forgive sin and Jesus was making Himself equal with God. (For any other man it would have been a blasphemous statement, but not for the Son of God.) Jesus perceived their thoughts. (verse 22)

Notice that Jesus did not address the fact that He had made Himself equal to God. Jesus contradicted their conclusion that He had committed blasphemy. Jesus validated His divine authority to forgive sins in the spiritual realm by demonstrating His divine authority to heal lame legs in the physical realm. (verses 23-24)

I like good endings, don't you? Getting back to the paralytic-verse 25 tells us:

• He rose up before them. Stood up on those weak legs because just a word from Jesus and He was healed.
• He took up his cot that he was lying on for who knows how many years.
• He departed up to his own house. Don't you know he had family to share his experience with, His Jesus moment.
• He was glorifying God. I wonder if the man was shouting and dancing all the way home.

[Resource: the Tony Evans Bible Commentary]

I figure the man excused himself as he walked through the amazed crowd with their mouths open. Jesus didn't have to preach another sermon to them. He showed them who He is that day.

And they were all amazed, and they glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, We have seen strange things to day. (verse 26)

I have walked out of a hospital more than once when death tried to capture me. But my God lifted me up to proclaim His majesty!

Dear one, do you know my Jesus.?

One day death will happen to all of us. Are you ready to meet a Holy God? No worries if you have Jesus as your Savior. If not, then come to Hiim now, confessing your sins, your need for Him as your Savior. Great things He will do in your life if you will serve Him.

LET IT GO

Is anything hindering your serving Jesus? Let it go and watch Him work in your life and those around you.