Subject 13 : The Gospel According to MATTHEW
[Chapter 9-2] Jesus Who Came to Save Us, the Spiritual Paralytics (Matthew 9:1-13)
(Matthew 9:1-13)
“So
He got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city. Then
behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw
their faith, He said to the paralytic, ‘Son, be of good cheer; your sins
are forgiven you.’ And at once some of the scribes said within
themselves, ‘This Man blasphemes!’ But Jesus, knowing their thoughts,
said, ‘Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to
say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? But that
you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive
sins’—then He said to the paralytic, ‘Arise, take up your bed, and go to
your house.’ And he arose and departed to his house. Now when the
multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such
power to men. As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew
sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, ‘Follow Me.’ So he arose
and followed Him. Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the
house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down
with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to
His disciples, ‘Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and
sinners?’ When Jesus heard that, He said to them, ‘Those who are well
have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn
what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come
to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.’”
In
today’s Scripture passage of Matthew 9, there comes a paralytic who was
healed from his paralysis by Jesus. Through this passage, I would like
to share with you our Lord’s blessings, contemplating on this disease of
paralysis and explaining how the Lord has saved us.
Everyone
in this world is a spiritual paralytic before God. A paralytic is
someone who, while retaining his mental faculty, is physically disabled
as his members are paralyzed. This paralysis renders him unable to move
certain body parts. So when someone becomes paralyzed, he cannot move
his body parts freely according to his mind’s wish.
One
such paralytic was brought in bed to Jesus by his friends, and Jesus,
seeing the faith of this paralytic and that of those who brought him,
remitted away all his sins and healed him from his disability as well.
Our Lord then told him to take up his bed and go home.
When
the Bible talks about healing, it is in fact talking about the
remission of souls’ sins. So when the Bible describes all these sick
people who were healed by Jesus, it is actually talking about the
remission of our sins.
Let
us, first, think about who we really are before God. Let us consider
here whether we have been saved from our sins even though we were not
spiritual paralytics, or we have received the remission of our sins as
we had indeed been seriously paralyzed—whether, in other words, we have
been saved from our sins by having the same faith in the Lord as the
paralytic from today’s Scripture passage had. First of all, we need to
think about whether we had been spiritual paralytics. And then we need
to consider if everyone is a spiritual paralytic.
There
is no doubt that you and I had been spiritual paralytics. There are
certain things in which our bodies do not follow our thoughts, and this
is owing to our basic sinful nature. But how much have we all desired to
live according to the will of God? While we have sincerely yearned to
do so in our thoughts and minds, what has been the actual result? In our
flesh, have we really followed the Lord with perfect deeds and lived
our lives as He wanted us to live? No, we have all failed to do so. This
is why you and I were in fact suffering from serious cases of spiritual
paralysis. While we had thus been spiritual paralytics, we have still
been saved from our sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit.
I
know myself well. Can I really do everything that my heart desires? I
can honestly confess to you that I am not capable of achieving this. My
heart truly desires to follow the will of the Lord 100%, and to live
according to how He wants me to live. But more often than not, I fail in
this endeavor. There are many times when my deeds do not follow my
heart’s wish. But I still believe, “Even though I am truly a spiritual
paralytic, the Lord has saved me from all my sins.”
I
believe that you are like this also. You, too, had been spiritual
paralytics who could not do what you wanted to do owing to your
disability, but I believe that our Lord has saved such people like us
from all our sins by the gospel power of the water and the Spirit. Are
you perfect in both body and spirit? Are your flesh, thoughts, hearts,
and deeds perfect and whole? No, of course they are not perfect! You and
I are all insufficient, just like this paralytic.
Just
how many shortcomings do we have? Because we are insufficient, the Lord
could not but come to us. And by doing so, He thus had to save us from
all our sins. Through the baptism of Jesus Christ and His bloodshed, we
have been able to be saved from all our sins. When we realize that we
are truly insufficient, we can receive the salvation and all the
blessings from God. Therefore, all of us must admit our insufficiencies
before God, and live in His grace in thankfulness.
When
do you recognize your insufficiencies? It is when we fail to live
according to the will of the Lord, and when we fail to do the righteous
deeds as He wants us to, that we come to admit ourselves as insufficient
beings. We come to discover this fact in reality, not in mere theory.
And our hearts are then humbled and become meek.
My
dear fellow believers, we are insufficient and paralytics, and yet the
Lord has saved such people like us from all our sins. We must therefore
never forget the blessings of God, that He has saved us from all our
sins for our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. When we
recognize our fundamental insufficiencies as they are, we cannot but be
thankful for His salvation that has saved us from such a spiritually
fatal condition. Only then can we humbly and gratefully keep the Truth
that the Lord has saved us from all our sins by the power of the gospel
of the water and the Spirit.
However,
as we carry on with our lives of faith before God, we often forget our
own insufficiencies, thinking that everything is okay now that we have
received the remission of our sins. And there are many times when we
know very well about the shortcomings of other people, and yet we do not
acknowledge our own insufficiencies.
When
a woman caught for adultery in the very act was brought to Jesus, He
had told those around her who sought to stone her, “He who is without
sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” When Jesus said
this, no one could cast a single stone.
As
a matter of fact, we, too, are like this woman who was caught for
adultery in the very act, for all of us also sin, just like this woman.
We are in no place to comment on whether others have blemishes or not.
Each and every one of us is a spiritual paralytic, and we all are
insufficient. It is because this is who we really are that our Lord has
saved us from our sins with the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and
all that we have done is that we have accepted this salvation from our
sins by believing in this Truth.
Among
the righteous, no one is better or worse than anyone else. It is far
better for us to have little abilities and thus nothing to boast of than
to think arrogantly that we are somehow better than others. While those
who know their own insufficiencies will find and believe in the
God-given gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, those who don’t
recognize their own insufficiencies will end up rejecting the true
gospel that can wash away all their sins. Therefore, knowing ourselves
correctly is critically important to us, for if we fail to know our
fundamental insufficiencies, it is impossible for us to rely on the
power of the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Our
Lord also said in today’s Scripture passage, “I did not come to call
the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” It is not right for us to
fail to realize just how weak and insufficient we are, and yet instead
assign all faults to others and judge them. It is a marked human
tendency to come up with all sorts of excuses, claiming that it is not
because we are inherently evil, but because the others are evil that we
are also wicked. So consequently, we fail to realize that the problem is
not found with the others, but with ourselves, and that it is our own
insufficiencies that explain the problem.
Even
after receiving the remission of our sins, we still remain
insufficient. We may have worked the whole day doing the works of God,
but is there anything that we can really boast of? No. Only a few hours
are actually spent productively for the works of God, and the rest are
often simply wasted away. Those who believe that God has saved the truly
insufficient one from all their sins by the gospel power of the water
and the Spirit—none other than these are the blessed.
My
fellow believers, do not flaunt your own righteousness before God or
before man. You may think, “I am not like this. I am different from him.
I am really good. I am not insufficient. As days go by, I am perfected
even more.” It is because you think like this that you are deceiving
yourselves on your own. This is why you cannot come before the salvation
of the Lord. This is why, even if you are saved, you are unable to run
toward the salvation of others’ souls by believing in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit.
At
all times, we must confess to the Lord, “I am like the paralytic,
Lord.” This truth is not a hypothetical conjecture, but it is real. As
we carry on with our lives of faith, we must realize before God that we
are always insufficient in our acts. Only then can we tolerate our own
insufficiencies and the insufficiencies of others as well.
What
happens if we say that we are not insufficient but the others are? Our
hearts are prone to become arrogant as if we are their judges. But who
can stand upright before the Law of God? Do you watch TV? What do you
see in the news? We see that even the powerful who had exercised great
influence on political circles are branded as criminals when they turned
out to have broken the law. When a criminal is brought to the Public
Prosecutor’s office, he has to stand right at that spot that is reserved
for criminals. Reporters then take pictures of him, and he has to
subject himself to the investigation. He then has to stand in the court
as the accused and be sentenced to his punishment.
So
regardless of how powerful anyone might have been in this world, if he
committed a crime and broke the existing law, not only is his pride
ruined, but also his reputation and status are all destroyed. All that
power this person had is but only a dream, as he crumbles down and falls
apart—this is the portrait of a criminal. Even before the secular law
of this world, anyone who commits a crime is turned into such a pathetic
figure.
We
also cannot avoid becoming such a pathetic figure, if we apply the Law
strictly to ourselves. But, from the Law we must see our sinful selves,
and by placing our faith in the baptism that Jesus Christ received from
John and in His bloodshed as our own remission of sin, we must be
remitted from all our sins. We can then be bold and confident by this
faith of ours that knows and believes in the power of the gospel of the
water and the Spirit. Jesus Christ has saved us from all our sins as the
righteous Savior. We must have confidence placing our faith in this
Lord.
Were
it not for this faith in the gospel power of the water and the Spirit,
who could ever stand before the Law of God? My fellow believers, the
hypocrites who sought to stone the adulterous woman were self-righteous
only because their sins were not revealed yet, but had they stood before
the Law of God honestly, could they have dared to raise a single
stone?
As
you and I stand before God, it is only by believing in the gospel that
holds His righteousness that we can enter Heaven. Everyone is a sinner
and will forever remain so unless he believes in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit. Sinners are nothing at all before God. Were it not for
our faith in this gospel that holds the righteousness of God, we would
not have been able to live by faith like this to this day. Even if one
had said, “I am completely guilt-free and I have nothing to hide,”
without the powerful mercy of God, he cannot be saved from his sins.
The
paralytic here was brought before Jesus by his friends. Jesus then said
to this paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”
My
fellow saints, how many sins could a paralytic possibly have committed?
Would he have committed more sins than those who are healthy and
normal? Why, then, did Jesus say, “Son, your sins are forgiven you”?
This means that each and every human being is a born sinner because sin
entered into the world owing to our common ancestor Adam (Romans 5:12).
Put differently, we are born with sin because we inherited sin innately
from our parents. As such, this paralytic had inherited his sinful
nature from his parents, and therefore he also had to be forgiven from
his sins. As it is written in Matthew 26:41, “The spirit indeed is
willing, but the flesh is weak,” both our hearts and deeds have not been
whole.
From
the very moment we were born from the womb of our mothers into this
world, we have inherited all the sins of this world, all the twelve
kinds of wickedness, and as such we were born as sinners from the very
beginning. Therefore, from this very day on we have been spiritually
paralyzed. It is because we came into this world with sinful hearts from
the day we were born that we have been unable to do what our hearts
desire. And because we have failed to live according to the will of the
Lord, as our hearts so desired, we have come to realize that
fundamentally, there is sin in our hearts.
The
Apostle Paul also confessed his sinful nature as it was: “For we know
that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I
am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not
practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to
do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who
do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my
flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to
perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do
not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do
what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells
in me” (Romans 7:14-20).
You
need to realize here that Jesus did not say so because the paralytic
had somehow committed more sins against God than we have. The very
paralytic was you and I who had to be forgiven from all our sins.
Therefore, those who have not yet received the remission of sins must
first admit the truth that they are mortal sinners before God, and must
be anxious to be saved from all their sins. They must first lament their
predicament just as Paul cried out, “O wretched man that I am! Who will
deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24)
Who
has delivered you and me from this body of death? He is Jesus Christ.
That we have been remitted from all our sins, and that we are to enter
the heavenly Kingdom of God, all depend on the baptism that Jesus Christ
received, His bloodshed, and His power. If we realize how Jesus Christ
has blotted out all the sins that we commit throughout our entire
lifetime out of our insufficiencies, and if we believe in this gospel
Truth with all our hearts, we can indeed be saved from all our sins. The
Bible tells us that no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he is
first born again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit
(John 3:5).
My
fellow saints, our remission of sin, too, has been made possible only
by believing in the gospel power of the water and the Spirit. For us to
follow the Lord and do His works is only possible when we believe in the
power of the gospel of the water and the Spirit that our Lord has given
us. Our spreading of this gospel of the water and the Spirit is also
made possible only by the power of our God.
In
the last chapter of Hosea, it is written, “Who is wise? Let him
understand these things. Who is prudent? Let him know them. For the ways
of the LORD are right; The righteous walk in them, But transgressors
stumble in them” (Hosea 14:9).
My
fellow believers, how could we stand upright but only by our faith in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit? How could we overcome Satan’s
schemes but only by our faith in this gospel of power? It is absolutely
impossible for us to do so unless we place all our faith in the gospel
power of the water and the Spirit. This is why the passage from Hosea
declares that only the righteous can follow the ways of the Lord.
Every
Sunday, you go to your church and stand before God to worship Him, but
can you really come before His presence and worship Him only with your
acts, without the power of your faith in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit? No, this cannot be done! Our spreading of this true gospel is
also impossible without placing our faith in the Lord.
Could
anyone whose acts are upright and who has committed no sin in this
world really spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Such people
who think their deeds are upright cannot believe in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, nor can they preach the righteousness of God. In
our flesh, furthermore, we can never do the righteous works.
Can
you live even a day without committing any sin? Do you now realize that
you and I are insufficient before God, and that God has saved such
people like us, who had been paralytics? Do you acknowledge the power of
the gospel of the water and the Spirit?
Though
we are this insufficient, God has still saved us from the sins of the
world. Therefore, we cannot but confess like this: “Lord, Your are the
Christ and the Son of the living God. You are the true God. You are the
King of kings. You are the Lord of creation who made the universe and
all things in it. Lord, You are truly the Son of God, and came to me as
my Savior.” Through Romans chapter 7 and 8, we can see that the Apostle
Paul believed in Jesus as his God and his Savior. And we, too, believe
in Jesus just like Paul had believed.
My
fellow saints, in times like these when the world is darkening even
more, sin is widespread, and selfish individualism abounds in it, we
must walk on the righteous way of the Lord boldly by placing our faith
in the gospel power of the water and the Spirit. In this age and time,
if we want to live in God’s Church until the end of the world by
believing in the power of this gospel that holds the righteousness of
God, we must realize that we are insufficient, and we must live our
lives before God by faith, by believing in the gospel power of the water
and the Spirit. Placing all our faith in this gospel power of the water
and the Spirit, we must praise God and run toward Him.
My
fellow believers, could any of us really stand before the presence of
God with our own merits? You should never nod to such an erroneous
claim! If some of your brothers and sisters are insufficient in your
eyes, do not try to judge them. Who can judge whom, and who can condemn
whom? To be quite honest, could pastors know all the difficulties that
the laymen are facing? Can anyone who has not worked know the hardship
that the working people face? Can junior pastors understand all the
difficulties that senior pastors must take care of? All that we know is
only superficial, some glimpses of what appears outside, and we do not
really know all the difficulties that the others are facing. Therefore,
you need to stand before God by placing your faith in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, and you must do His works in humility, rather than
judging others.
How
tiresome is it to live in this age? Words cannot describe all the
stresses that we are facing on a daily basis. The whole world is moving
against the will of God, but we, the minority, are going against this
tide. Hence, the stress and the hardship that are accrued from this are
only too palpable for us. Do you think we are walking the way of the
Lord because we do not know how to go with the flow of this world? No,
it is because we live clothed in the gospel power of the water and the
Spirit that we have put the flow the world behind us, and we obey only
the will of the God and are running toward Him.
My
fellow saints, if someone around you is going through a hard time, you
should try to understand him, rather than judging him. “So this is why
he is having such a hard time.” This is how you should think. All of us
really need to sympathize with our fellow saints. As we serve the gospel
of the water and the Spirit, there are many joyful things that happen
to us as well. What I am saying here is to live by placing your faith in
the power of the gospel before God.
In
all honesty, I, too, had been a paralytic spiritually, but the Lord has
saved me from all my sins. And frankly, you had also been paralytics,
but the Lord has saved you from all the sins of the world. There is no
one among you whom the Lord has saved from sin even though he was
fundamentally perfect. Hasn’t our Lord saved us with the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, even though you and I alike had been just like the
paralytic?
It
is not only with our words that we admit that we are paralytics, and
that we are insufficient. Are we not actually insufficient in our flesh?
Of course we are. Do you have any idea how much time it takes for a
person to know his true self? It is not easy at all for one to truly
know oneself. So anyone who knows his fundamental nature well is quite a
remarkable person.
If
we admit that we are paralytics, then, we have to walk by faith from
now on: We must live by faith, spread the gospel by faith, defend our
heart by faith, stand before God by faith, overcome this world by faith,
and treat one another in faith. What else do we have but our faith?
There is nothing remaining in you if your faith is taken away.
The
basic human faculty actually amounts to nothing. We are no one without
the power of the gospel. What greatness is there to mankind? We are as
ephemeral as morning mists and as fragile as grass. It is written, “All
flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.
The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the LORD
endures forever” (1 Peter 1:24-25).
It
takes a lot of time for plants to grow, but the time they take to
blossom flowers and for these flowers to wither is very short. Just take
a look at a flower vase in your own home. The grass adorning the
flowers may be firm right now, but leave it for a couple of weeks and
see what happens to it. It will wither away. The same thing will happen
to the flowers, whose beauty is only ephemeral, for they, too, will
wither away. We humans are just likes these withering flowers. Life is
just like this. Just as blossoming flowers wither in no time, our true
human reflection is such that we, too, will wither away like them.
Even
though we are mere ephemeral beings, we now have the everlasting Word
of God that has made us the people of faith and God’s children who will
not perish. As a matter of fact, it is because we have faith in the
gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit that we have become righteous
by this faith, and that we can live for the righteousness of God on this
faith. It is because we have placed our faith in Christ as our Savior,
and because we are preaching the gospel, that we remain in this world,
and there is no other reason but this.
God
has thus made us His people of faith. But there still are too many
souls in this world that are dying from their ignorance of the gospel of
the water and the Spirit. As there are still many souls in this world
who will be saved from their sins by believing in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, I would like to admonish you to preach this gospel
to them. I am not demanding you to become holy saints. I just want to
encourage you to spend the rest of your lives for the gospel of the
water and the Spirit. There is nothing else that I want from you.
I
easily get into a temper over nothing when I am very tired. I am this
insufficient. You and I know very well that we are all insufficient.
Even so, we have the responsibility to preach the gospel of the water
and the Spirit throughout the whole world, to the very last day. It is
because of this duty that you and I are living. We are not living for
any other reason. Though we are all insufficient, we know that it is
because we have things to do while remaining on this earth, to preach
this gospel throughout the whole world, that we are carrying on with our
lives.
Do
not demand anything else—a good temper or a virtuous manner, for
example—from one another. Preaching the gospel of the water and the
Spirit and having fellowship of faith with one another, these are all
that we have to do in our every waking moment. If we do not spread the
gospel power, who will ever do this?
Just
how many people in this world are suffering without the gospel of the
water and the Spirit? We can see many wretched Christians who are trying
so hard to live according to the will of God through their prayers of
repentance and their own determination. In fact, they are doing so
because they are demon-possessed. Do you not feel compassionate for
them? Indeed, there are so many people in this world who have not even
heard the gospel of the water and the Spirit that if I were able to
spread this gospel to them, I will have no more want. It is because of
the gospel that my eyes are all bloodshot; it is because of the gospel
that I shed tears, and it is because of the gospel that I am doing all
these different works. I would never have put up with any of these
things were it not for the gospel. Had I not dedicated my life to the
spreading of the gospel, I would be working hard everyday for my own
ends. But since this is not how we are living, but we are in fact living
for the gospel, all of us are indeed doing truly precious works. God
has entrusted us with such extremely precious works.
There
are times when our brothers are ordained as the workers of God and sent
out to their places of ministry. In such times, I see some of them
having doubts and thinking, “Why am I being sent there, instead of
sending me here?” I then used to say to them, “Why do you care about
where and how you live, when you are living to spread the gospel of the
water and the Spirit? What is more precious work than this in the whole
world? You may go there and find yourself spending the whole day not
doing much, but if you preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to
even just one person, the Lord would approve you! How would you do this
truly precious work in the world? Were it not for God’s Church, where
else would you do such precious works?” I believe that all of us, who
are serving the gospel, from our ministers to you and I, are extremely
precious to God. By believing in the power of this gospel, we have all
become God’s own people.
Because
Satan has sowed his lies throughout the whole world, people are
drowning in such lies without realizing the true gospel of the water and
the Spirit. All that we have to do is spread the Truth of the water and
the Spirit throughout this earth that is filled with lies, and go to
the Lord when He comes back for us. If the Lord does not return in our
lifetime, then let us just continue to preach the gospel.
There
are times when we volunteer to do difficult jobs for this gospel. But
there are also many moments of joy that we experience while serving the
gospel by faith. God gives us consolations and new strength whenever we
yearn for His help.
My
dear fellow believers, I yearn to preach the power of this gospel until
the day our Lord returns. If I can’t preach the gospel myself because
of my weak body, I at least want to fulfill my role as a supporter of
the gospel. I, too, must serve the gospel with my prayers until the day
our Lord returns, and so must you.
Let
us hold each other, help one another, and trust each other, so that
each of us may achieve this. I believe that even if we do not edify
ourselves to a particular level of sanctification in this world, if we
would just preach the gospel of power throughout the whole world, the
Lord will be pleased by us. Let us live for the spreading of the gospel,
and let us go to our Lord after preaching this gospel to our ends. If
people do not accept the gospel even after hearing it, leave them
unsaved and let’s preach the gospel to the others. And if no one accepts
it no matter how much we preach it at last, then let us, too, stop
preaching it and just wait for His return.
The
paralytic in today’s Scripture passage received the remission of his
sins by encountering the Lord and believing in His power. It was because
he was insufficient that he received this remission of sin by faith—by
believing, in other words, in the power of the Lord. Had his deeds been
without blemish, he might not have come to Jesus asking for His
salvation, and eventually, could not have been remitted from all his
sins by believing in the Lord’s power.
My
fellow believers, before God, only those who know they are extremely
deficient in their deeds can receive the remission of their sins by
believing in the power of the Lord’s gospel. Do you think that it is by
practicing asceticism, as if we were Buddha, that we can be remitted
from our sins? It is those who know themselves as the piles of sins that
can be remitted from all their sins by believing in the gospel of
power, that Jesus came to this earth and has blotted out their sins with
the water and the blood.
I thank our Lord for saving us from all our sins. Amen.
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