Miracles: Our Wonder Working God

Sunday, July 24 th 2022

Luke 5:17-26
Introduction
Forgiveness of Sin and Healing of the Body are Only Things GOD Can Do
I. What Is Sin
The Bible defines sin as ‘missing the mark’ or ‘missing the mark of God’s perfection. Sin
is anything that is contrary to the holiness and the justice of God.
Sin is missing the standard of righteousness set forth by a holy and just God.
“…For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Romans 3:23

II. The Setting (v.17-19)
“One day He was teaching; and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law
sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from
Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing.”

And some men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed; and they were trying
to bring him in and to set him down in front of Him.
But not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof
and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle of the crowd, in
front of Jesus.

III. The Statement (v.20)
“And when he saw their faith, he said, ‘Man, your sins are forgiven you.”
‘forgiven’ – aphiemi - means to send from one's self, to forsake, to hurl away, to put
away, let alone, disregard, put off.
It conveys the basic idea of an action which causes separation and refers to total
detachment, total separation, from a previous location or condition.

IV. The Struggle (v.21-24)
“And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, ‘Who is this who speaks
blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?
Only God can forgive sins. A mere man cannot say what Jesus was saying without
blasphemy.
But Jesus, aware of their reasonings, answered and said to them, "Why are you
reasoning in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins have been forgiven you,’ or
to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has
authority on earth to forgive sins," He said to the paralytic, "I say to you, get up, and
pick up your stretcher and go home."

V. The Celebration (v.25,26)
Immediately he got up before them, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went
home glorifying God. They were all struck with astonishment and began glorifying God;
and they were filled with fear, saying, "We have seen remarkable things today."