Of leprosy especially someone who was Jewish or was an Israelite at no time in the history of Israel had anyone who was an Israelite been healed of leprosy and so there were laws in the scriptures in Leviticus that had never been performed in the history of Israel so the significance of that healing was at the fair seas believed that if leprosy was a divine judgment only the divine could set someone free of their leprosy and so on that basis they believed that if a man if a Jewish man was healed of leprosy then that would be the signal that would be an indication that the Messiah was present that the Messiah had arrived so they were investigating the circumstances of the healing of the Jewish leper Now there were some rules that they imposed upon themselves to govern their investigation and one of the most important rules that they had was that they would not go and ask any questions concerning the matter that they were investigating they could make the announcement that they were investigating the circumstances but they could not ask any leading questions or any questions of any kind in order to ensure that they did not influence the facts concerning the matter that they were investigating so in this stage in this stage of their investigation they would not be allowed to speak according to their own beliefs they would restrain themselves they would restrict themselves and they would not ask any questions they would not do anything that would potentially damage or influence the facts that they were trying to find out that they were trying to obtain information about and so that was a restriction that they put upon themselves and this is a very important situation now that these people the fairest season the teachers of the law they have come to Capernaum to investigate the circumstances and they are going to be confronted with the Lord Jesus in his messianic context now of course there was no prophecy that was given that explicitly. Stated that the Messiah would heal a Jewish leper there is no prophecy concerning that this is an exclusive belief of the fairest sees and so the Lord Jesus was under no obligation he was under no obligation to perform this miracle because there was no prophecy that he was fulfilling there was no foreshadowing in the law or in the writings that he was fulfilling that he was bringing out and showing the reality there was no foreshadowing involved here there is no prophecy here this was something that he did explicitly in order to reach out to the people on the basis of what they believed on the basis of their beliefs not according to the law or the prophets so this is the context this is the circumstance that brings all of these people together and Jesus is teaching inside of a house and all of these faires he's in teachers from all over Israel are observing him they are listening to him and at this time he has a captive audience at this time in his ministry he is able to speak freely without being interrupted this is a very important part of his ministry where he is now going to be able to speak without any interruptions he has a captive audience and audience who has put a restriction upon themselves that they are not going to speak or ask any questions and so he gets to speak to them directly openly freely without any concern about them complaining about what he's saying or rejecting what he is saying outright or openly confronting him because of what he says or what he does and so what does he do in this circumstance what does he do in order to take advantage of this stage of his ministry to be able to speak freely and openly without anyone rejecting or confronting him concerning what he says what he does is he heals a man who is paralyzed now in order to fully of. It is healing again it is very valuable it's very important to understand the beliefs of the Ferris sees because if you do not fully understand the beliefs of the fairest sees you can easily see this Miracle and say something like oh look he healed the man who was paralyzed wasn't that nice Well of course it was nice but that's not all that is described here that's not all that is contained here you need to understand the context and you need to understand the beliefs of the people in order to fully appreciate what Jesus does and what he conveys indirectly through this Miracle now in Luke Chapter 5 beginning in verse 18 it says and some men were carrying on a bad 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 so here's the situation you have a man who is being lowered down from the roof they made a hole in the roof and lowered him down because they couldn't get him in any other way they probably asked people to move aside and they either would move aside or they didn't have the ability to move aside because there are too many people in this room or in this house listening to the Lord Jesus intently they're investigating him they're listening to him and seen what he does so because they were not able to get the man to Jesus they lowered him from the roof right in the middle of everyone right in front of the Lord Jesus now what are the fairest seas going to be thinking what are the teachers of the law going to be thinking when they see this man being lowered down from the roof who is paralyzed how would they see the man who was paralyzed Well they would see this man as a sinner that's how they would have seen this man they would see this man being lowered down and they would say to. Him selves look at this sinner who is being lowered down in front of Jesus why would they think of this man as a sinner they would think of this man as a sinner because he was paralyzed because he was not able to walk like they were because he was not able to do things like they could do things they would have perceived him as being under the divine judgment of God for his sins now we don't know the circumstances of him being paralyzed it could be that he was paralyzed for his whole life we don't know that we don't have enough information concerning that but we don't really need to know the circumstances of him being paralyzed in this case because the people would have perceived him as a center the Lord Jesus refers to him in the context of his sin and so considering the evidence that we do have I think we can say with great confidence that the circumstances concerning his parallelization are simply not important and so I just want to focus on the importance of recognizing that the fair is he's would see him as someone who was not being blessed he was experiencing a form of a curse because of the fact that he was paralyzed and so they would see him as a sinner under the divine judgment of God Now who is going to be able to set him free from this divine judgment if this is the case who is going to set him free from that while the only one who could set him free from a divine judgment of God would have to be God Himself because who is going to overrule the authority of God who is going to say that God was wrong or who is going to say that God has given enough punishment to this individual who is going to pass judgment on the judgment of God in that context only the divine would have the authority to set him free from being paralyzed this was the belief of the fairest see. Yes And so when this man was presented before them and the Lord Jesus they would see him as someone who was being judged for their sans Now they of course believed that they had found a way of life a lifestyle that they could live to ensure that they would never sin and so because of that they believed that they were going to be blessed by God and if they were not experiencing blessings from God right now they believed that those blessings were on their way that they would definitely be blessed by God or if they were already experiencing some blessings in their life then they could suggest that God delivered because of their obedience because of their repentance from their sins and their obedience to His commandments and so because of this added to that they would have they would believe that they did not have a need for forgiveness on the other hand this man who was paralyzed they would believe that he would definitely have a need for forgiveness from God So this belief further polarized them from this man they sincerely believed that they were not like this man that this man was not like them and they believe that it was very unlikely that they would ever find themselves in a circumstance like this because they believed that they had found a way of living that was satisfactory they believed that they had found a way of living a sinless life so that they would never experience the divine judgment of God And so because of that they believed that they had no need for forgiveness that they had no need for the forgiveness of their sins because they had succeeded in being obedient to God that they would have no need for forgiveness but this man here he definitely in their opinion would have a need for forgiveness. So what does Jesus do what does he say as we continue to read in Luke Chapter 5 Verse 20 it says seen their faith he said friend your sins are forgiven you now this is a very serious thing to say this is a very serious matter here for Jesus to declare that this man's sins are forgiven in the context in the circumstances in the midst of all these people who believe that only God can set someone free from a divine judgment through forgiveness of their sins when he says this is the real issue is not the issue of sins the real issue is that he is declaring that he is God manifested in the flesh he is declaring to the people using their vocabulary using their beliefs using their theology using a language that they understand he is declaring to them in a very direct way that he is the Messiah that he is God Many festered in the flesh and he has the authority of the Living God right then right there that there should be no confusion about this and any way whatsoever that he is declaring openly and publicly to the people who are representing the entire nation of Israel those from Galilee Judeo Jerusalem the entire country is covered by these locations he is taking the opportunity during their investigation of the healing of the Jewish leper to openly tell everyone that he is the Messiah but if you do not understand their beliefs concerning sin concerning infirmities such as this concerning these things if you don't understand this it can be very easy to miss the significance of what he is saying but do not underestimate the significance of what he is saying here he explains that he has. The authority to forgive this man sins now we certainly do not know if this was a divine judgment or if this was a natural consequence of the sins that he perhaps committed we don't know for certain if this was a divine judgment or not the what we do know is that regardless of whether this was a divine judgment in other words regardless of whether his paralyzation is the result of his sins before God or his sins before others whether it was a divine judgment or a natural consequence we don't know we don't have that much information but again this is not really the issue the issue is that Jesus is declaring that God will not hold his sins against Him any more so whether it was a divine judgment or a natural consequence he is making a declaration that it doesn't matter in this context he is not referring to the reason he is not referring to the specific sins the specific reasons why he may have been paralyzed he is just simply saying openly and directly that all of his sins are forgiven now from the Thursday's point of view they would say that it was a specific sin that caused this man to be paralyzed However when Jesus says in a general context that his sins are forgiven that is a statement that this is not just a matter of the man being paralyzed but this is a general matter to say that all of his sins are dealt with and so this man is being declared to be as righteous as holy as the fair is sees are even though the fairest sees would not have seen him that way that's what the Lord Jesus is declaring to these people openly and directly using their language using their beliefs in order to show them that he is God manifested in the flesh now describes in the fairest seas in verse $21.00 it says the. Scribes in the fairest seas began to reason saying Who is this man who speaks blasphemies who can forgive sins but God alone according to the definition of blasphemy blasphemy means that you are declaring yourself to be equal with God that you are declaring yourself to be the same as God and I did do a program on the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit I would definitely like to encourage you to listen to that one but here they say very clearly that only God can forgive sins and so if Jesus is saying that his sins are forgiven he is saying that he is God and that he is God alone that he is God manifest did in the flesh now they were reasoning but it does not say that they were reasoning openly that they were discussing the matter openly that they were asking questions openly It doesn't say that if you keep reading into verse 22 but Jesus aware of their reasonings answered and said to them Why are you reasoning in your hearts that's a very important thing to ask and is very revealing concerning these circumstances because that would be consistent with their rules concerning their stage of investigation they would not be permitted according to their own beliefs they would not allow themselves to reason openly to ask questions about as openly they would not discuss this matter they would only reason in their own hearts in other words Jesus proclaimed that this man's sins were forgiven and there was dead silence in this room dead silence in this house in this area were all of these people were at Jesus was able to speak freely openly and perform this miracle without any interruptions whatsoever and then he speaks to the people there and tells them that he knows exactly what is going on in their hearts he knows exact. What they are thinking about and what they are reasoning about in their hearts he tells them exactly what they are thinking and he says which is easier to say your sins have been forgiven you or to say get up and walk now is asking this question but who's going to answer it no one is going to answer it because a again they have put this restriction upon themselves during this phase of their investigation they are not going to answer his question so he answers the question in verse 24 but so that you may know that the Son of Man which is a reference to the Messiah the living God manifest in the flesh 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 immediately he got up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home glorifying God Now what are they going to do with this or are they going to declare that God was in their midst now they were going to do that they have not had an adequate amount of time to resolve the matter at hand they have not completed the investigation of the healing of the Jewish leper this Miracle is going to require another investigation of a different type but they're going to have to examine this as well they're going to have to reason about this all they could do was observe what was happening witnessed this and just watch the Lord Jesus work watch him perform his ministry in verse 26 it says they were all struck with astonishment and began glorifying God and they were filled with fear saying we have seen remarkable things today Ok so they were filled with astonishment they can glorify God they can say that they have seen remarkable things but they will not pass judgment on the matter and say the Jew. This is the Messiah they can't do that yet they haven't finished their investigative process yet so they can glorify God they can be astonished they can say that things are remarkable but you know what that doesn't matter it doesn't matter it doesn't matter if someone is astonished it doesn't matter if somebody says that something is remarkable or not it doesn't matter if they glorify God that does not matter what matters is that God is right there in their midst he is right there and they are not willing to acknowledge him they are not willing to believe in him they're not going to do it they're not going to do that because they have not followed through they have not completed what they believe they need to do what they need to accomplish in order to validate and verify in order to give their approval of him that's the issue they cannot stand on his approval they cannot rest on what he has done to openly declare his divinity they cannot do that according to their own beliefs they are unable to do that they have restricted themselves so the Lord Jesus is not recognized as being the Messiah by the people at this point he is not recognized by them as the Messiah not by the Thera sees the teachers of the law the representatives of all the people throughout the entire land of Israel they are not able to do that yet and this is a very serious thing to notice is a very important thing that I really wanted to mention and that is that a person's beliefs a person's attitudes what people believe is a very serious matter and this is an example of how serious this is and how a person's beliefs can prevent them from acknowledging the living God when he's right there in their presence now concerning this issue of forgiveness there is a concern with regards to forgiveness because he says that the man's sins are forgiven. Now there are many people who believe that forgiveness is salvation and that's why this can be a very important issue for Jesus to say that his sins are forgiven some people would say that this man has been saved and I personally do not believe that I personally do not believe that a person is saved by being forgiven I do believe that forgiveness is what makes salvation possible but to me it is not salvation salvation is the restoration of the Holy Spirit and forgiveness makes this restoration possible because once you receive the Holy Spirit of God and dwelling within you that he gives freely once you receive the restoration of the Holy Spirit then if you have the complete forgiveness of sins there is no sin that will cause the Holy Spirit to depart from within you but if there is any sand left Unforgiven Well then you've got a serious problem that has to be addressed and that is how are you going to get the Holy Spirit back once he leaves you how is that going to be resolved and so I personally believe that the forgiveness issue here is not a big issue as other people do believe it is an issue because other people believe that it is salvation I don't think that Jesus is telling this man that he is saved I don't believe that but others discuss this statement in that context in this program however I'm going to refer to this notion of forgiveness just by saying a couple of things the 1st thing is is that he may have said that his sins were forgiven up to that point but of course he's going to sin again and so it doesn't matter the other thing that I want to mention is that everyone there had a need for forgiveness even though the majority of people there did not believe that they had a need for forgiveness everybody there had a need for forgiveness there was no one there who was holy and righteous before God because of what they did or what they didn't do everyone there had a need for for. Ignace and so for Jesus to declare that he was not going to hold this man's sins against Him to me indirectly he was also declaring that he wasn't going to hold anybody el