Jesus' Authority Over Sin

[music] [music] [music] >> Well, good morning Cross Church Phoenix. How are you? Good morning. I am DJ. I'm the pastor here at Cross Church Phoenix. And if you're visiting with us, welcome in. If I haven't met you before, come find me afterwards. I'd love to chat with you, get to know you more. And now, I invite you to open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 9. Matthew chapter 9. And I was informed um just a bit ago that there are reading glasses on the back uh table. So, if you're missing reading glasses or looking for them, they're on the back table. Um And also, if you don't have a Bible, there are um Bibles in the seatbacks in front of you. Feel free to use that. That is our gift to you. You can keep it. You can highlight it, mark it up, make that your Bible um and bring it back with you next week and just use make it your Bible. That is our gift to you. We'll replace it. It would help if the preacher opened his Bible to Matthew 9 as well. >> [clears throat] >> I uh yeah, yeah, yeah. Amen. Um Well, all of humanity can be is split between the answer to these two questions. Is Jesus God or is Jesus a blasphemer? Because the two are mutually exclusive, you can't be both. And that's the question that this text answers this morning. One of the great ironies of Jesus' trial before his crucifixion was that he was arrested before there were any formal charges against him. Part of his trial was figuring out what to charge him with. Now, you think our government's messed up. I mean, try that. Right? It was after Jesus was arrested that they sought out false witnesses to accuse him so they could drum up a charge that would stick. At first, they came up empty-handed. This is how bad it was. They couldn't get their false testimonies to agree. So, they seek out false witnesses and we're like, "Guys, we need a charge against Jesus. We've already arrested him. But we need a charge against him." And this is how ridiculous the whole thing is. They can't even agree on their lies. Let's get together and make and lie about Jesus. They can't even agree on how to lie. That's how bad it was. They couldn't agree on their lies until finally, two men come forward. And they say this in Matthew 26:61, "This man," talking about Jesus, "said, I am able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in 3 days." Well, that got the attention of the high priest, as you all know. And so, he's asked Jesus, "How do you respond to this?" As you know, Jesus was silent until the high priest said, "I adjure you by the living God, tell us, listen, if you are the Christ, the Son of God." Jesus then did speak up in Matthew 26:64. He says, "You have said so." And from now on, you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. Now, at this, the high priest tore his robes. That is a sign of outrage and mourning, right? Tore his robes and said, "He has uttered blasphemy." And it was blasphemy that Jesus was falsely charged with and ultimately crucified for. What the religious leaders knew was Jesus' claim to be the Christ, the Son of God, and the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power coming on the clouds of heaven are all claims reserved for God and God alone. They knew that. The Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven is a reference to Daniel chapter 7. And Jesus is making a claim that he's the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, and the Son of Man. So, the only possible way for Jesus to not be blaspheming is for him to be God cuz there's no in between. That's why they charged him with blasphemy because if they didn't, that would be an admission that he is God and they couldn't have that. The bogus trial they put Jesus through led to their final verdict, Jesus must be a blasphemer. Now, this is nothing new. They have thought this all along about Jesus. Jesus' relationship with the scribes and the Pharisees, who are the religious leaders of the day, it begins and ends with the same charge. He's a blasphemer. Our text this morning here in Matthew chapter 9 marks the first time that the scribes and the Pharisees are publicly opposing Jesus Christ. This is his first He's begun in Matthew 9. He's begun his ministry. So, these are the early stages of his ministry. And this is the first time that they are mentioned. And they oppose his claims and say he is a blasphemer. So, Jesus' ministry begin His relationship with the scribes and Pharisees begins and ends with the same thing. But instead of the bogus kangaroo court trial Jesus was put through when he was arrested, I want to invite us invite you to look at this text with a real desire to know the true verdict, okay? Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for your word. I pray that you would help us, God, to have eyes to see and ears to hear what your spirit has to say to the church here at Cross Church Phoenix in Jesus' name. Amen. I invite you, if you are able to stand as we read Matthew 9:1-8. Um and if you are unable to stand, that is fine. You can stand with us in spirit. Um but we are going to read the passage. And it starts out this way. So, he, Jesus, got into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. Just then, some men brought to him a paralytic lying on a stretcher. Seeing their faith, Jesus told the paralytic, "Have courage, son. Your sins are forgiven." At this, some of the scribes said to themselves, "He's blaspheming." Perceiving their thoughts, Jesus said, "Why are you thinking evil things in your hearts? For which is easier to say, 'Your sins are forgiven' 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." Then he told the parrot, "Get up, take your stretcher, and go home." So, he got up and went home. When the crowd saw this, they were awestruck and gave glory to God who had given such authority to men. Thanks. You can be seated. So, the answer to the question whether or not Jesus is God or a blasphemer is found in this scene. Now, I've said this before and I need to mention this again. When you're interpret We're in a series in the miracles. And then after the miracles, we'll be doing the parables of Jesus. And we're We're taking them all from Matthew. But when you're interpreting these things, we need to understand and know what the other gospel writers say about it. So, when Jesus here in Matthew uh tells the paralytic in verse two, "Your sins are forgiven." Mark and Luke add some details about the scribes and the Pharisees' response. And we quoted Mark a more last week. So, you know, equal opportunity gospel quota. We'll we'll quote more of of Luke this week, okay? So, Luke 5:21 says this, "And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question saying, 'Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?'" That is the question behind the question. Is Jesus a blasphemer or God? If he can forgive sin, then he's God. If he can't, he's blaspheming because he's saying he can do what only God can do. So, the stage is set. Now, as I read over this passage throughout the week, it began really to sound like a courtroom to me. Not only bookended with the charge of blasphemy between the beginning of his ministry and the end of his ministry, and the bogus kangaroo court trial that they put him through at the end of his ministry, but this is a minute a little little miniature courtroom. I'm going to invite you in. Let's put Jesus on trial. That's your main heading there. Jesus makes a claim, the scribes and the Pharisees object, and Jesus provides his closing argument, so to speak. So, we're going to approach the text in this way, and I'm hoping it'll help you see it more clearly. Our main heading this morning is this, Jesus on trial, who can forgive sins? Who can forgive sins? And so, first couple verses, number one, our first point, Jesus' opening statement. His opening statement, verses one and two, "Your sins are forgiven." Now, we just finished Matthew chapter 8, where Jesus showed his authority over demons. And if you remember when he was on the other side of the lake, he was in the region of the Gadarenes, and they rejected him, right? They were begging him to leave, and so he left. He got up and left. And so, Jesus has been rejected on the other side of the sea. Now, he says in verse one, "So, he got into a boat, crossed over, and came to his own town." After being rejected, he comes back, and he is presented with a paralytic on a stretcher. Now, I don't want you to think that as soon as he got out of the boat on the shore that they brought him the paralytic. That's not the picture. The CSB, which is the the Bible that we're reading in the seat backs, um it says, "Just then." At the beginning of verse two, "Just then." And it makes it sound like like right away. That's not the picture that this is happening on the seashore. It makes it sound immediate, but it's not. The the Greek word there, I'm just real quick, the two words is kai do. Kai just means and. It's all over the Greek New Testament. It do simply means, sometimes the translators drive me nuts. It's just like, "Guys, let's just keep it what it's supposed to be." It means behold. And behold is like if you were seeing something like in the sky, and you're with your friend, you're like, "Dude, check that out." It's meant to grab your attention. Something's happening that you should like know about. And so, it's simply and behold is the best translation. It's just to to draw your attention. Cuz if you were to read the same account in in in gospel accounts in Mark and Luke, they mention that a few days have passed. So, if I could quickly simplify the scene, it would go like this. Jesus arrives on the other side. A few days later, he's teaching at someone's house, maybe Peter's, we don't know for sure. Either way, he's teaching inside someone's house, doing what he always does, and a huge crowd is gathering in the house. That's the scene, okay? Now, Matthew gets straight into the point, right? The paralytic was brought to him. That's what Matthew wants you to know. The paralytic was brought to him. And he is a very straight shooter, short and to the point. Mark and Luke add this, okay? And behold, yes, they got it right. And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, but finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. So, so this is taking place a few days later in a house. The paralytic is being carried by four friends, and they can't find the way to Jesus from the ground, so they go outside up the stairs to the roof. It was common in those days to have a staircase, little staircase outside that goes to the roof. There's no air conditioning. It gets hot. You might want to hang out on the roof sometimes. They go up to the roof and start digging a hole in it. So, if you can imagine the scene, Jesus is teaching, and dust, dirt, tiles start falling from the roof. That would all get your attention if like the roof started to like dump stuff onto us right now. We'd be like, "I'm not listening to DJ. What is going on up here?" That would get all of our attention. And so, that is what the and behold or just then, like that's what this is supposed to be is like, "Behold! The roof! There's a hole forming in the roof. And there's like there's four friends dropping this paralytic down on his stretcher, his bed, through the roof, right in front of everyone. Remember, this is a crowded scene. Behold, right? So, this got everyone's attention, right? What is going on? And so, what they see, what the people see, is four people letting a paralytic down through a roof. What does Jesus see? Their faith, right? Their faith. Seeing their faith, and then Jesus says what? "Have courage, son, your sins are forgiven." What? What did he just say? This is a massive statement. We don't feel the weight of it. But up to this point, no one said anything about sin. Uh no one has asked about sin. The topic of sin, as far as we can tell biblically, right, hasn't come up until out of nowhere, Jesus says, "Take courage, my son, your sins are forgiven." That's the miracle before the miracle, right? You might be thinking, "But yeah, DJ, so what? Like Ephesians 4:32 says that all Christians should forgive." Right? Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. Aren't all Christians called to forgive sin? Yes, of course we are. We are all called to be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another. Somebody hurts you or something. We are called to be loving, kind, and forgiving. Yes. Mhm. But you want to know something really cool? This is fascinating. The word Jesus uses here in Matthew 9 is different than the word Paul uses in Ephesians 4:32. So, Paul is talking about our graciousness towards each other. The word in Greek is charidzomai. All it is is it comes from the Greek word charis, which means grace. So, what Paul is saying is because God has been gracious to you in Jesus Christ, be gracious to other people. Be nice, be kind, be tenderhearted, be gracious cuz God has been gracious to you. That's Paul's message in Ephesians 4:32. But in our text, Matthew chapter 9, the word for forgiven is different. The popular one that we all know about is like love, right? In Greek, we have agape love, then we have phileo, brotherly love, you know? And then we have the romantic love. But in English, it's boring cuz it's just love. Right? Greek has different words to describe these things, and English is like, "Well, love." You know? Like if a if a guy loves football who's married and he also loves his wife, well, like do we really think that he loves football the same way he loves his wife? Like we would know that there's a difference in that. But we don't have different words to articulate that. It's just love. The same thing's going on here with the word forgive or forgiven. Here in our text, the word in Greek is aphiemi. This word means to be sent away. To to to leave. A literal reading would be, "Have courage, son, your sins have left you." Your sins, if you were had like kind of that broken English, like a more an exact literal translation, "Have courage, son, your sins have been have have taken leave from you." What? This is grand. This is glorious. Your sins have taken leave from you. They're gone, sent away from you. Only God can do that. Amen. We can't send each other's sins away. That's why Paul uses a different word in Ephesians 4:32 for forgive, cuz we can be kind and gracious to each other and we ought to be, but we can't remove each other's sin. That's something only God can do. We can't send each other's sins out like Jesus can. And that's why Jesus' claim is so polarizing. And the scribes and the Pharisees know exactly what he's saying. He's not just being gracious or kind to this man, which of course he is, but this is a bigger claim than just well, he that was really nice. He just healed a paralytic. How kind. He was very kind, but it's more than that. It's bigger. This is a claim to have set this man free from his sin, that the consequences and guilt of his sin are gone because his sins have left him. That's the claim. The forgiveness Jesus is giving here is not simply a kind gesture. It's a cleansing. That is Jesus' claim and it's a big one, right? So big that the scribes and Pharisees know it's a claim to be God. Which leads to our second point, the scribes, just to use courtroom language, right? Their cross-examination. He's blaspheming, right? Jesus lays out his opening statement, he can forgive sin. The scribes and the Pharisees, who are the religious leaders of the time, object. They think he must be a blasphemer because as Mark and Luke tell us, they're thinking to themselves, who can forgive sins but God alone? And Jesus knew their thoughts. That's like another sermon in and of itself, right? Like oh boy, I'm in trouble, right? Jesus knows your thoughts just as much as he knew theirs, right? But they're half right and half wrong. They're right, only God can forgive sin. We we could give a hearty amen to that, right? But they're wrong when they conclude that Jesus can't and must be blaspheming God. So, the stage is set, right? It's kind of like a you know, showdown, right? Jesus, I can forgive sin. The Pharisees, no, you can't. You're a blasphemer. This is a showdown of eternal proportions. Does Jesus then possess the authority it takes to truly forgive someone of their sin, which leads us to our last third point, the final verdict. The final verdict is get up, take your stretcher and go home. And you're like, how does that work? I'm glad you asked, right? Let me first ask you a question. Has a miracle already occurred before the paralyzed man is healed? Yes. The fact that this man's sins are forgiven is a miracle in and of itself. Imagine for a moment every single person listening to my voice, if you're online, imagine for a moment, right? You're the paralyzed man or you're a paralyzed woman. Imagine, just put yourself in their sandals for a second. You're the paralyzed man or woman. If all Jesus did was forgive your sin and sent you home still paralyzed, would you be disappointed? Would you feel shortchanged? I hope not. I hope we would rejoice, right? That our sins are forgiven. Is that enough for you? Is that enough for us? Is it enough for you that Jesus forgave your sin? If that's all he ever did for you, is that enough for you? Now, [sighs] imagine you're the same paralyzed man or woman and Jesus heals you of your paralysis and sends you away with no forgiveness of sin. Is that really a win? You can hop, skip, and jump home. You've got use of your arms and legs now and you can skip right on home and have a party with your family, but if you don't have forgiveness of sin, did you really just like have a win in your life? No. No, no, no, no. You would not. Because you can be healed physically and still headed straight for hell for all eternity cuz you have no forgiveness of sin. Right? The number one reason, did I mention the number one? The number one reason that we come to Christ is for forgiveness of sin, not for physical healing, not for financial relief or a job promotion, not for a check in the mail or for him to take away your headache. We come first and foremost to Christ for forgiveness of sin. Yes, he may heal you. He may bless you financially or with that position that you want. He may take care of that other problem you have that the pastor didn't mention. Absolutely, he might and he might not. Remember Job? God blessed him greatly and he took it all away. And if you know the end of Job, he even restored. But God blessed Job, took it all the way. What is Job's mindset? And yes, he messes up at the end and God humbles him, but ultimately, God describes Job as a righteous man. What was Job's response? The Lord giveth, right? The old King James, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Whether he gives or takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Is that your mindset? Can you share that attitude that Job has? Or is it he took this thing and oh, blessed be the name of the Lord. What did the Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego say? Or Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, their Hebrew names, right? But yeah, we always call them by their pagan names. But their Hebrew names are different. But [snorts] what did they say? You can throw me in the furnace. You could try to kill us, do whatever you want. God will protect us and if not, he is still good. Even if God, their devotion to God was so strong, even if God let them perish, they're like, he's still good and I'm going to honor and glorify God and not bow down to this image and worship an idol. It's amazing. Do we have that same approach in our walk with the Lord? The Lord may let a problem linger in your life to teach you to lean on him, to draw you closer to him. If we come to Christ for any other reason than cleansing from sin, primarily, number one, yes, we plead with him, yes, we make our requests known to him, yes, we pray for the things that we pray for, healing and all these things, absolutely, we do. I'm talking about primary, numero uno, number one reason. If you if we come to Christ for any other reason than the first and foremost cleansing of sin, we're coming for the wrong reason. Notice, for Jesus, the man's physical healing from paralysis is secondary. This is our Lord and Savior saying secondary. In fact, Jesus is doing it as evidence. Yes, he's blessing the guy and his physical life's about to change big time, but Jesus gives us the purpose of healing the man in verse six. So that, [snorts] purpose statement, right? So that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He tells the paralytic, get up, take your stretcher and go home. So you know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sin, get up, take your bed and go home, bro. All right. And he goes. The physical healing's purpose is to confront the scribes and the Pharisees' false accusation of blasphemy. The physical healing is secondary. Look back at verse four. Jesus knows their thoughts. He knows they're thinking he's a blasphemer and only God can forgive sin. That's what he knows and he confronts them head on, right? Which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven or to say, get up and walk? Well, naturally, of course, right? Naturally, well, it's easier to say your sins are forgiven. Why? Because there's no visible, tangible proof for that. That's a spiritual statement, right? The point Jesus is making is that someone could say, your sins are forgiven pretty easily and there's no way to actually verify that. But, telling a paralytic to get up and walk, there'll going to be vivid evidence of that if it happens, right? That is right in front of your face. It'll also open you up to ridicule if you're wrong. Right? Imagine you tell you tell a paralytic to get up and walk and he looks at you staring at you like you're growing a second head on your like shoulder. Like what? No, I can't. Like this is not working. It would open you up to ridicule and what everyone's going to think you're a fake and a fraud. But Jesus says, "Get up, take your bed and walk." And dude, off he goes. Jesus commands the man to get up and walk away and he does. But why? Not just to bless the guy, though it is a blessing, but it's not just for that reason. It was to show that he is God and that his authority to forgive sin is legitimate. That's why. The point of the paralytic's healing is not that the paralytic was healed. Do you see the point of the passage? The point of the passage is not the secondary healing. It is the first point that Jesus can forgive sin. This miracle is evidence of that truth. The logic is this, if Jesus can remove the the man's paralysis, the tangible miracle, then it stands that he can remove the man's sin, the intangible miracle. Because really, to forgive sin is harder. Because it cost Jesus his life. His death on the cross for our sin. Did Jesus have to die on the cross for him to walk around and heal people? No, he's already he's healing people while he's still alive. The only way to forgive sin was to know he's going to the cross to pay for it. Right? >> [clears throat] >> Matthew closes the parable rather quickly. So, the guy got up and went home. The crowds are in awe and gave glory to God. Yes and amen. The reason verse 8 says, I want to clarify something real quickly that you might be reading and wondering if I'm going to address it or not. Where it says, "He gave glory to God who had given such authority to men." The reason they say that is because they don't fully know who Jesus is yet. Everything's still unfolding. They still think Jesus is merely just a man. They don't realize he's fully God also. So, they simply think, "Hey, God gave Jesus superpower. This is super Jesus. Wow, it's crazy. God gave human being this kind of power. Wow, this is But as the story unfolds, if you read all of Matthew, he wants us, his readers, to learn that Jesus is God and only through him can you have forgiveness of sin. So, the bottom line is this. You and I, every person listening, are confronted with the same truth the scribes and Pharisees were confronted with. Do you believe Jesus is God? Or do you believe he's a liar and therefore a blasphemer? So, you have your two options, right? You don't have another one. Because of his claim, he's either lying and blaspheming God or he is God and it's a true claim, verified by the healing. That's the point. The evidence then is clear. Based on the text, he's God. And if he's God, the eternal Son of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we believe in the Trinity. If he's the eternal Son of God, you will answer to him someday. Why does Paul tell Timothy to preach the word of God in season and out of season? Because judgment's coming. We all know 2 Timothy 4:2, but don't forget 2 Timothy 4:1 tells you why. I charge you in the presence of God and Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word. In season and out of season, for the time will come and we I want to preach 2 Timothy so you have no idea. Someday, right? But we preach the word, we preach the gospel because judgment is coming. You will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ someday. The only way to know if you will stand before him with your sins forgiven is to be found in him, right? The only way to be sure your sins are forgiven is to come to him in repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to save you from your sin. And could I plead with you? If you don't know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, turn away, run away from your sin, and run to Christ right now. Not for like self-help or the life improvement gospel though. We all want to come to Christ and have a better life, sure. Sure. Sure we do. But don't forget that like, I don't know, all the disciples minus Judas like gave their life and John was deserted on an island. Paul himself was beheaded. In a worldly sense, we would say that's not the better life. Um, but Paul would say something different. I gave my life as a witness to the gospel. Of course it's better. We as Americans need to redefine the good life, right? The good life is the one found in Christ, not money and cars and blah blah blah, right? That's not the good life. The good life is being in Christ. And if you need to come to him, come. You can find me. I'll be back in the in the I said yes corner. You can come talk to me. I'd love to introduce you to the Lord Jesus Christ, but come to him for forgiveness of sin, for new life. I'm going to invite the worship team back up as we close with one final song, but um once again, Jesus is God and he's wonderful and he's glorious and I hope I hope that you'll come to him. Come to know him. Not know about Jesus, know Jesus. If you want to know God, you have to come to him through Jesus. Jesus said, "I'm the way, the truth, and life. No one comes to the Father except through me." What does that mean? He's the only way to worship and love God is to worship and love Jesus. If I If you try to worship God or love be in love with God outside of Jesus, it's a problem. Not according to DJ. That's a problem according to Jesus himself. He's either the only way, the only truth, and the only life or he's not, right? And he is. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for your word. I pray that you would help us to see the truth that Jesus Christ has the authority to forgive sin and he's laid out the path to it and it's pretty simple. Come to him. That's what it is. It's simple. It's uh reject your sin, turn to Jesus. And I pray God that you would work in the lives and the hearts of your people in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand as we sing our last song.