THE LORD JESUS CHRIST’ SAYINGS 7a

CÁC LỜI PHÁN CỦA ĐỨC CHÚA JÊSUS 7a

Kinh thánh: Ma-thi-ơ 9: 1-8

Câu gốc: 1SA-MU-ÊN 16: 7 phần A – Đức Giê-hô-va chẳng xem điều gì loài người xem; loài người xem bề ngoài, nhưng Đức Giê-hô-va nhìn thấy trong lòng.

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THE LORD JESUS CHRIST’ SAYINGS 7a

Bible: Matthew 9: 1-8

Main verse: 1SAMUEL 16: 7A – For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

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– These were Jesus’ sayings when He healed a paralytic. His sayings concern three things: He saw their faith, He forgave the paralytic’ sins and He healed him. We are going to study all these three together today and the next couple of weeks.

– The story lets us know that there were people who helped to bring the paralytic to Jesus. And Jesus saw they all had faith in God as they did that.

– I have heard many people considered their bringing the paralytic to Jesus as an example of faith, but it not simple like that.

– The act of helping someone to see a healer is not the action of faith, because lots of people have done just that throughout history. In real life we can see people help to bring their family’s members, friends, or even strangers to see doctors or some kind of healers, real or fake.

– Because people always want to be healed from sickness and diseases, so they are all eager to go to see doctors and healers, for themselves or helping others to do so, sometimes disregarding good or bad doctors, real or fake healers. And they are all willing to accept harsh conditions in order to seek healers or to follow difficult instructions, even obscure or dangerous ones.

– Therefore when Jesus saw their faith, it was not their action that showed faith but their hearts, as Scripture has described God’s power as such:

1SAMUEL 16: 7A – For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

1SA-MU-ÊN 16: 7 phần A – Đức Giê-hô-va chẳng xem điều gì loài người xem; loài người xem bề ngoài, nhưng Đức Giê-hô-va nhìn thấy trong lòng.

– In this life, there are many people who have taken advantage of others’ desire to be healed from diseases and sickness to draw them to their religions or to themselves. Even that has happened within Christian’s churches.

– I have heard someone prayed to God for sick people like this: Dear God, this person has strong faith in you, please bless him and heal him. Or like this: In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I command this evil of disease must leave this person right away.

– Those people seemed very sure of the faith of sick people and they acted like guiding God to do their own bidding. Or in other words, they acted like commanding God to do things according to their own judgments.

– In one particular case, I had asked them: How did you know this person has faith in God? They simply answered: Because they came here to see me and asked me to pray for them to be healed.

– And I am telling you, that was not a right answer, because faith is started within a person’s heart then it shows outward, not vice versa.

– As I have said before, coming to a doctor or a healer with the wish to be healed from disease or sickness is not the action of faith. And one question we should always ask when a person comes to God for healing is this: How can we know this person really has faith in God, or in this case we are studying, Jesus?

– Because this topic is concerning faith with sickness healing (and in this case, healing of a paralytic) and the forgiveness of sins, we should again look at how faith is defined in Scripture.

– According to the Bible, for those who come to God, faith is believing His existence is real and at the same time must seek Him in all aspects of his life:

HEBREWS 11: 6 – But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

HÊ-BƠ-RƠ 11: 6 – Vả, không có đức tin, thì chẳng hề có thế nào ở cho đẹp ý Ngài; vì kẻ đến gần Đức Chúa Trời phải tin rằng có Đức Chúa Trời, và Ngài là Đấng hay thưởng cho kẻ tìm kiếm Ngài.

– Merely coming to God wishing to be healed is not the act of faith. Although people can say that they believe God is real, that kind of belief is not different for the belief of those who believe idols are real, too.

– That kind of believing even Satan has it, and he is still the evil one:

JAMES 2: 19 – You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that and shudder.

GIA-CƠ 2: 19 – Ngươi tin rằng chỉ có một Đức Chúa Trời mà thôi, ngươi tin phải; ma quỉ cũng tin như vậy và run sợ.

– As the verse quoted above in Hebrews indicates, faith is believing in God and seeking Him at the same time. But many Christians understand ‘seeking’ only on the surface of that word, that means to come to churches or to some preachers that declare themselves healers.

– God is invisible to us who live in flesh and blood, so, according to the Bible, seeking God means to live up to the standards set forth in Scripture and really want to be able entering the kingdom of God to see Him face to face, as the Scripture has said so:

MATTHEW 6: 33 – But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

MA-THI-Ơ 6: 33 – Nhưng trước hết, hãy tìm kiếm nước Đức Chúa Trời và sự công bình của Ngài, thì Ngài sẽ cho thêm các ngươi mọi điều ấy nữa.

– Therefore, real faith is to repent and to change, to live a godly life according to God’s commands and the Bible’ standards.

– Although we have many people came to the church with faith but we have also seen that some who came to churches for healing were not actually had faith in God. Some of them came and promised that if God healed them, they would be a church goers, but not a real Christian, because they refused to change in order to live a godly life.

– They continued to live like before coming to God, with behaviors, attitude and the thinking way of unbelievers. They still loved that old life and refused to abandon it, refused to change, refused to be born again. They even brought the way of idol’s worshipping into the church, like in the time of Jesus’ disciples that Paul had mentioned in his letter to the Galatians:

GALATIANS 4: 10-11 – You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.

GA-LA-TI 4: 10-11 – Anh em hãy còn giữ ngày, tháng, mùa, năm ư! Tôi lo cho anh em, e tôi đã làm việc luống công giữa anh em.

– Some of them even had dedicated to church’s works, but it’s not an indication of a Christian’s life, the one who was born again, because other earthly religious people also had the same dedication to their idols, even with much more effort than Christians’ one.

– But if they came to churches and did not receive healing for their sickness, they just went off, never to return. By doing so, it showed that when they first came, they did not have any real faith in God, they just wanted to be healed, that’s all. For if they really had faith, healed or no healed, they should continue to come back to worship God, not faltering and went off.

– So when Jesus said that those who brought the paralytic to Him, including the disable man, had faith, He meant the faith in their hearts, not merely their action, although because of their faith that they acted accordingly.

– And because of the faith in their hearts, including the paralytic man, that Jesus said His second saying of forgiving his sins

MATTHEW 9: 2 – Some men brought to Him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the man: Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.

MA-THI-Ơ 9: 2 – Nầy, có người đem lại cho Ngài một người đau bại nằm trên giường. Đức Chúa Jêsus thấy đức tin của các người đó, thì phán cùng người bại rằng: Hỡi con, hãy vững lòng, tội lỗi con đã được tha.

– By saying that Jesus indicated that the man was paralyzed because of his sins. So, they must be forgiven first before he was healed.

– Thus, according to Scripture, one of the main reasons that make a person getting sick or becoming disabled is sins that he committed in the past. And his sickness is going to be healed or not depending on his sins are forgiven or not.

– That’s why I have said before that we do not know a person’s faith is real or not when he comes to the church for healing, that he really repents his sins or just fakes it, and that’s why we cannot pray to God like some preachers did as to order God performing the miracle of healing on that particular person.

– Instead we should pray like this: Dear God, only You know what is in his heart, that he really repents his sins against You and Your standards for mankind or not, so depending on the faith in his heart, real or no, please perform on his life and his sickness what You think is best for Him. Please have mercy on him. We pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

– By praying like that, we show our respect for God to do whatever He pleases according to what He sees in a person life rather what we see with our own eyes or know with our own knowledge.

– We have seen many preachers have used God as a way to get them being famous, elevated and being worshipped by those who did not know the truth of the Bible. They had been falsely cheating others to believe that they had the power to command God perform the miracle of healing for them whenever they liked, like they were masters of the Lord. Those people were blasphemed God in public and they will certainly pay the heavy price of their soul for doing like that. And we should avoid those false teachers as far as possible.

– We will continue to study this story on the Sunday after Christmas in order to fully understand all of the meanings of the Lord Jesus Christ’ sayings when He healed the paralytic man.

– In the meantime, may God bless us to know how to seek God in all aspects of our lives in order to please Him and being able to receive His blessings much more in this Christmas season and in all the years to come. Amen.