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10 MAY:
And again, He entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that He was in the house. Immediately many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door. And He preached the word to them. Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men. And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, “Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” But immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, “Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralytic, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” Immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”
LESSONS To Be Learned:
- THE CROWD VS. US COMING TO JESUS - Mark 8:1-3 “In those days, when there was a large crowd, and they had nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples and said to them, ‘I feel compassion for the people because they have remained with Me now three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way; and some of them have come from a great distance.’” I don’t know how far the people in this particular crowd has come but I suspect it would be probable for some to have journeyed just as far as with Marks crowd. My question: How FAR would you go to see/hear Jesus? How much time and effort do you sacrifice to better know Christ and His Word? How much time do you spend time in prayer/meditation? Are we truly illustrating a heart and life that obeys the First Great Commandment? Quote John 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” Know them 1st. Jer 31:33 “ “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put My law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people.” Has this happened in OUR lives, hearts and minds? Acts 17:11 “Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. Is this true of us??? Their coming in order to know the Lord and hear His word and receive His blessings required time, travel and money (food). What is the required cost of us in order to better know Jesus? What sacrifices are we having to make in order to better know, love and serve Him?
- THE FOUR MEN – These men were certain that Jesus could do something for their paralytic friend and was determined that it happen Their actions spoke of their faith. Or another way to put it is ‘their faith resulted in action.’ What has James told us? “…. I will show you my faith by my works.” (Jas 2:18) And what did Jesus say in John 14 – ‘if you love Me, you will do what? Keep My commandments! That word KEEP indicates ACTION motivated from love.
Notice also that they illustrated a sense of urgency, not waiting to come back later when they weren’t sure where Jesus would be. How far are we willing to go to fulfill the 2nd Great Commandment? You will remember that when Jesus healed the man that He first forgave him his sins. Jesus ‘helped’ the man in the physical and spiritual realm. In the parable of the sheep and goats we are taught to see to the needs of the hungry, naked, thirsty homeless and lonely (prison). There are too many verses to recount them all about the importance of the lost to Jesus and the Father; too many verses of the need for the lost to hear the gospel and our being a light leading them to God. If we see and respond to their physical needs how much more important is it that that we address their spiritual needs?
- Jesus – Jesus was NEW on the scene. It is little wonder then when the scribes immediately questioned Jesus’ statement of forgiving sins. They are right about a number of things. They are right in that no one has the power to forgive sins but God (cf. Isaiah 43:25). By offering to forgive this man of his sins Jesus is thereby equating Himself to be on the same level as God. They are therefore also correct about Jesus committing blasphemy – IF He isn't God.
We see a similar situation in John 5:17,18 “But He answered them, ‘My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.; For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.”
So it is true that He has blasphemed if He is not God. Their failure then is in not “seeing” what happens next. It can also be seen that they are failing to ‘listening’ to what Jesus tells them – “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk.’” And the paralytic proceeds to do exactly that. Jesus miraculously heals this man, and because He has done so physically, then He can and has forgiven him his sins as well. If Jesus could do one, He could do the other. He undeniably healed the man therefore He has also undeniably forgiven the man. You see a very clear example of this happening again with the thief on the cross. Christ undeniably Christ’ authority.
The import of this event is to bring us to self-awareness. Have we been united with Christ in baptism and had our sins removed/forgiven; do we have the faith needed to motivate us to obedience to God’s commands? Do we have the devotion, commitment and desire to take up our cross and follow Christ in order to be God’s ambassador to the lost? Do we truly love God and therefore love His children? Do we truly put God’s kingdom before this world and all its enticements and passions? Are we as passionate for God as we are for self? Its true – actions do speak louder than words. How are people seeing us live our lives – for God or self?
This paralytic left a completely new man. Ezekiel 36:26 I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your body and give you a heart of flesh.
When your tombstone or obituary is written, how much of what will be written will speak of how your faith affected how you lived your life and impacted the lives around you?
26 April: Jesus Said: “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Mtt 11:28-30
TGC: The Verse That Helped My Spiritual Anxiety 04/04/2026 Sara Gonzalez
(all emphasis is mine)
Sara Gonzalez wrote the following article that we are going to be looking at.
Let me just say up front that all the words written in bold are of my own choosing. This story starts out with Sara asking a question:
“Am I doing what I’m supposed to be doing?” Sara says: I thought I was doing fairly well in the Christian life—until a few years ago, when I started reading the Bible on my own more. As I read the Word, I began to understand God’s standard of perfection and just how short I fell. Realizing my potential for sin before a perfect God began a weighty, restless anxiety in me. I filtered every action, big or small, through God’s holy standard, feeling condemned when I fell short.
Of course, I knew that Jesus died for my sins and gave me His righteousness. But that righteousness felt like a label for the future, not who I am NOW. As I struggled against this anxious introspection, the Holy Spirit kept bringing me back to 2 Cor 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” I’d read this verse many times growing up, but I hadn’t really considered what it meant for me. I’d understood it as a label that would come in handy later when I died rather than an identity I could claim in this life. But as I carefully considered Paul’s teaching in this verse, I found help to lay aside my anxiety over my sin and rest in Christ’s righteousness now.
My Old Nature Died with Christ
We’re not perfect, and we know it. The more we get to know our perfect, holy, righteous God, the more we understand just how short we fall – Rom 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. When we can’t change on our own, the flesh tempts us to fear God’s judgment, as if God is as ill-tempered as our sinful nature. Works (wrongly) become a way to soothe a guilty conscience, training us (wrongly) to rely more on our strength than on God’s grace. We know theologically that we can never be good enough on our own to merit God’s favor and that by believing in Christ’s death for our sins, we’re counted righteous: 2 Cor 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Do you see what we are being told here? We are becoming righteous because Jesus died, was punished, because of our sins. NOW, those sins are removed and we are empty and undeclared. If we have any kind of good sense then we are going to rush forward and claim the righteousness of God for ourselves because it has been made available to us. We, as sinless people, because Jesus died for us to remove our sins, can now accept the mantle of righteousness. And who in their right mind would not accept that opportunity?
Yet the flesh tempts us to feel like impostors when reminded of the truth that we’re pure and washed clean. And you know who is behind that feeling, don’t you? It is Satan. He is the one who is trying to make us feel like it is not possible for sinner me – to now be pure and clean. But, I think that I will listen to what God says rather than what Satan is saying.
Notice what Paul says in 2 Cor 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” The verb tense here is important. The old has passed away. Yes, we’ll struggle with sin on this earth. But our identity is no longer defined by sin.
As Christ bore the punishment for us guilty sinners, He uttered, “It is finished” (John 19:30) Those words marked the end of our old, wretched selves. As we continue to struggle against our sin, we do so with the hope that one day we’ll sin no more and the assurance that, even now, our sin isn’t our identity.
Christ took away the power of our old nature, but that’s not all. Paul also says in that verse that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation . . . the new has come” (emphasis added). The new isn’t just a future label. It’s the true identity of the believer—right now. Just as our old nature died with Jesus, we have been raised to life with Him: Col 3:1,2 “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” Our identity is irrevocably bound to Him. Christ is our life Col 3:3,4 “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.” Again, listen to what God has just told us. Don’t listen to Satan. We are hidden in Christ and when Christ is revealed at the end of time – then we too will burst forth and be accepted into the presence of God.
Understanding our present identity in this way changes our motivation for pursuing righteousness. Paul explains, “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Cor 5:14,15)
As new creations, we live out of love for Christ because He killed our condemning identities. Understanding who we are shapes how we approach the Christian life: Col 3:5-8 “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality…..in them you also once walked, when you were living in (the world). But now you (have) put them all aside”.
Remembering My Identity Brings Rest
If we’re identifying with the old self, we’ll seek sanctification by anxious works. However, if we see ourselves as God does—a new creation in Christ— sanctification will be the fruit of restful dependence on Him. But how can we shed our old identities and live as new creations in Christ?
We can do this by accepting Jesus’s call: Mtt 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”
(When we finally come to grips with the nature of sin and how it affects our relationship with our heavenly Father then we can hear and obey Peter’s instructions to another group of people who committed a great sin against Jesus Christ, Himself: “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”, Acts 2:38 )
Living in our new identity involves learning about the gentle, loving, lowly heart of Christ. It involves following Him in obedience and trust, not forging a moral life in our own fleshly strength. Our identity is tied to, yoked to, Christ. Just as He bore the death of our sin, He now bears the burden of our new growth.
If you’re in Christ, you can lay down the burden of your anxious striving. The old has passed away. The new has come. You can't and won’t be perfectly righteous on your own on this side of heaven, but Christ’s perfect righteousness covers you now.
I think Peter wraps up this lesson very well: “Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls._1 Peter 1:8,9
And it is this knowledge, this assurance of our salvation, that is the source of our love for the Son of God who died for us and restored our relationship with the heavenly Father! Like the Prodigal Son who was received back, unashamedly, and unconditionally, we love and appreciate our loving Father who accepts us into His presence.