Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  Day 80

March 21;      Mark 2:5;       30/260(IV);        ‘Joint Effort’

Mark 2:5 When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven you." 

How important it is to have spiritual friends that will stand with you when you have a challenge. The Lord Jesus entered Capernaum and His fame preceded Him.  He went into a home and soon there was no longer any room in the house for anyone else to come in.  These four men of God were not daunted, but climbed up on the roof of the house, removed some tiles and lowered the paralytic down right in front of Jesus.  Notice, the Lord saw their faith.  These men had to believe Jesus could heal their paralyzed friend or they would not have gone through all of the trouble.  Jesus then told the paralytic that his sins were forgiven.  Our Lord never did anything for no reason.  As usual, the religious leaders were there to challenge everything He did.  Jesus in this account revealed to the religious leaders and to us that He, because He is the Son of God has the ability to not only heal our body, but to forgive our sins.  That is exactly what He would soon do on the cross.  When the religious leaders were ‘in a tither’ Jesus then tells everyone present so that they would all know that Jesus has the power to forgive sins, He tells the paralytic to rise, take his bed and go home.  That is exactly what happened.  None of this would have happened if the paralytic did not have the four faithful friends.  When a Christian is having a tough time, the Body of Christ should rally around that person and help them.  That had to bless Jesus, knowing the paralytic had no other way of getting to the Lord.  The paralytic was forgiven and healed.  Once again the religious leaders were silenced, though their hatred must have continued to grow and the multitude was amazed glorifying the Lord.