Transcription

Jeff
Hey, Wesley, have you ever had any severe damage to your house? Like a storm blow through or something? Do you ever have to repair your roof?

Wesley
Yeah, we’ve had that a couple times.

Jeff
Yeah, well, Jesus comes into town, and this guy had to repair his roof after he left. Yeah. So we’re going to talk about he’s Wesley and I’m Jeff and you’re listening to the Bible guys. Okay, so, uh, Wesley, have you ever played the game taboo?

Wesley
Yeah, a long time ago. Yeah, yeah.

Jeff
So usually there’s, like, there’s a main word that, uh. So I’m going to be the one given the words. I’m going to try to get you to say a word. Yeah, but there’s five words that I cannot say. And they’re the, the easiest words I could use to get you to say it.

Wesley
All right. Okay. I’m ready for this. So here we go.

Jeff
The first one is this, um, it is your favorite thing to eat. Uh, well, one of your favorite things to eat. You’re kind of a connoisseur.

Wesley
Pizza? Yes. Yeah, that was easy. I am a pizza snob.

Jeff
I wasn’t allowed to say food. Italian round cook or favorite. Oh, I said favorite.

Wesley
Oh, okay. Jeff
Oh I blew it, I blew it. So whoops. There. Okay.

Jeff
There’s a book in the Bible that has a man’s name. That also can refer to your career.

Wesley
Married to my job. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jeff
So j-o-b job or job?

Wesley
I was thinking refer to my what?

Jeff
I wasn’t allowed to say. Work wages, money, give or pay.

Wesley
Yeah.

Jeff
So I was trying to get around that. That was.

Wesley
Pretty good.

Jeff
Okay, okay. Uh, man. Oh, I don’t even know how to do this one. Um. Uh. The first time your mom met you at the hospital was your what? Birthday? There you.

Wesley
Go. Okay, that wasn’t too bad. Yeah, uh, I.

Jeff
Wasn’t allowed to say born. Celebrate present day or baby.

Wesley
Yeah, it was pretty good.

Jeff
Good job. Wesley, that was fantastic. Okay, uh, let me see. Uh, okay, here’s the next one. Number four. The people who live in your house that you love.

Wesley
Family. There you go. Family? Yeah.

Jeff
Good job. I wasn’t I wasn’t allowed to say relatives. Bloodline parents. Mom, dad. Okay.

Wesley
I’m glad I didn’t say pet. Yep yep yep.

Jeff
Uh. We live in the state of Michigan and. This part of the year lasts for like five minutes.

Wesley
One day. Summer. Summer? Yeah. That’s easy. Yeah. That’s easy. Summer. You blink and it’s over.

Jeff
That’s right. Okay, so season sun, beach hot and June. I wasn’t allowed to say. Okay. Uh, so when you are. In another country around the world, and you’re looking at all of their neat things. You’re a.

Wesley
Tourist. Tourist.

Jeff
There you go.

Wesley
Yep, yep.

Jeff
So I wasn’t allowed to say map. Yeah. Foreigner visit travel or holiday okay. Okay. And then, um. This tool that you carry in your pocket. Uh, you have a preference for one. And I have a preference for the right kind. What is the right kind?

Wesley
Oh, this is easy. Android or smartphone or. No, no, no, that’s not it.

Jeff
You have the wrong one. I have the right one.

Wesley
No apple.

Jeff
Well, what’s it.

Wesley
Called, a smartphone?

Jeff
Well, no. What is an apple? I’m not allowed to say the word apple. But what’s a.

Wesley
Smartphone. Cell phone.

Jeff
It’s it’s it’s what what is this specifically. What what what what do we call it. It’s a. Oh it’s not. You already said the word Android. It’s not an Android.

Wesley
It’s not an Android. It’s not an Apple. It’s not a smartphone.

Jeff
So it is Apple.

Wesley
But yeah.

Jeff
But what is the Apple?

Wesley
Oh, I don’t know.

Jeff
This is a 14 Pro max. It’s a. Apple app. Blank 14 Pro Max iPhone.

Wesley
Oh man, I’m literally thinking of all around the edges. So okay, so.

Jeff
Wesley and I have had some severe, significant conversations about, I don’t know, his misguided preference for androids.

Wesley
Hey, this is an Android tablet right here. Why? Why? You know.

Jeff
Apple exists in the world.

Wesley
Yeah, but, see, Apple doesn’t use Intel.

Jeff
That’s true, that’s true.

Wesley
They have to do their proprietary thing. Yeah, because it’s better.

Jeff
That’s that’s, uh. Yeah, it’s upsetting to me. So in our office, Wesley and Chad, I think you guys are like the only two.

Wesley
But, see, Chad has an iPhone.

Jeff
I know, but.

Wesley
But his computer. Yeah. Yes, he.

Jeff
Prefers these other things. I don’t understand why you guys.

Wesley
I’m one of the only few. I think there’s, like, one other somebody else that has an android. Yeah. Yep.

Jeff
I didn’t even know that existed before you came.

Wesley
People send me stuff. I’m like, why is it in pages? What is this? Yeah. Okay.

Jeff
Well, uh, when you when you finally meet Jesus. Yeah. And you convert over to the iPhone thing. Uh, it’s so funny. We did six of those, and the only one you couldn’t think of was.

Wesley
Was the iPhone. I’m like, what is this device? I have no clue. What device is this that you speak of?

Jeff
Okay. Well, um. So we are in this series again. If you’re joining us for the first time, we’re going chronologically through the 250 events in Jesus life. And, um, and then we’re also looking at it in parallel, meaning it shows up in more than one book. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. The four Gospels tell the stories. So this story today shows up in Matthew, Mark and Luke. Luke again, and they’re sharing it. But John does not include this story, so we’ll just read them. It’s just a few verses in each passage, but it says, Jesus climbed into a boat, went back across the lake to his own town. Some people brought to him a paralyzed man on a mat and seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, be encouraged, my child. Your sins are forgiven. But some of the teachers who were religious law said to themselves, that’s blasphemy. Does he think he’s God? And Jesus knew what they were thinking? So he asked them, why do you have such evil thoughts in your hearts? Is it easier to say your sins are forgiven or stand up and walk? So I’ll prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins. And then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, stand up, pick up your mat, and go home. And the man jumped up and went home. Fear swept through the crowd as they saw this happen, and they praised God for sending a man with such great authority. Yeah, that’s pretty amazing. Yeah, right. So there’s a detail that’s missed in Matthew’s that is kind of surprising detail to miss. Yeah. Uh, he just doesn’t mention it, but it says here in Mark, it brings it up Mark chapter two, which, by the way, hey, we’re finally out of Mark chapter one.

Wesley
We finally made it out.

Jeff
All this time. But we’re in Mark chapter two. It says when Jesus returned to Capernaum several days later, that’s Jesus hometown. So Matthew just said he went back to his hometown. Here he goes to Capernaum. That’s his hometown. Several days later, the news spread quickly that he was back home, and soon the house where he was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room, even outside the door. And while he was preaching God’s Word to them, four men carried arrived, carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. They couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above his head. And then. Then they lowered the man on his mat right down in front of Jesus. And seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, my child, your sins are forgiven. But some of the teachers of religious law who were sitting there thought to themselves, what is he saying? This is blasphemy. Only God can forgive sins. And Jesus knew immediately what they were thinking. So he asked them, why do you question this in your hearts? Is it easier to say to the paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven? Or stand up, pick up your mat and walk? So I’ll prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins. And then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, stand up, pick up your mat and go home. And the man jumped up, grabbed his mat, and walked out through the stunned onlookers. They were all amazed and praised God, exclaiming, we’ve never seen anything like this before, I bet. And then in Luke, Luke chapter five, he says, uh, he tells the same story.

Jeff
He says one day, while Jesus was teaching, some Pharisees and teachers of religious law were sitting nearby. It seemed these men showed up from every village in all Galilee and Judea, as well as from Jerusalem. And the Lord’s healing power was strongly with Jesus. Some men carrying a paralyzed man on a sleeping mat. They tried to take him inside to Jesus, but they couldn’t reach him because of the crowd. So they went up to the roof and took off some tiles. Then they lowered the sick man on his mat down into the crowd right in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the man, young man, your sins are forgiven. But the Pharisees and teachers of religious law said to themselves, who does he think he is? That’s blasphemy. Only God can forgive sins. And Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he asked them. Why do you question this in your heart? Is it easier to say your sins are forgiven? Or stand up and walk? So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins. Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, stand up, pick up your mat and go home. And immediately, as everyone watched, the man jumped up, picked up his mat and went home, praising God. And everyone was gripped with great wonder and awe. And they praised God, exclaiming, we have seen amazing things today! Yeah!

Wesley
Hahaha.

Jeff
So some couple buddies, uh, four buddies bring this guy in and tear somebody’s roof up to get him to Jesus.

Wesley
And then lower him down through the roof. I mean, to me, that takes some. I mean, you got to be committed. Yeah, they really wanted their friends healed. That’s some doing. The friend heal. Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. To rip off the roof. There’s one thing in here, Jeff, that’s kind of interesting to me. And we can look at it in Matthew as an example when he says, be encouraged, my child. Your sins are forgiven. And it says it. Yeah. And the other ones too. But. Being careful here not to because I’ve heard people say this, not link. Sickness with sin.

Jeff
Oh, right. Right, right.

Wesley
I’ve heard people say before, oh, that person is in that condition. Maybe because they did X, Y or Z. Yes. And I think it’s we have to be very careful with that. That that’s not what Jesus was saying here.

Jeff
You’re exactly right on that. As a matter of fact, I’m glad you brought that up. You know, yesterday we referenced this just just a little bit. Yeah. Jesus main mission was not to heal people. Yeah, that was an incidental thing. That was an extra thing. Jesus main mission was to come and to seek and to save that which was lost. Right? Those that were lost, he came to save sinners. And so the most important thing in that guy’s life, when Jesus looked at him, was not that his body wasn’t functioning. Yeah, because we’re all dying. None of us. Our bodies function perfectly. He’s the creator. He knows exactly how he designed us. And he knows none of us are functioning perfectly physically. Yeah. And so every person he saw was flawed and all those things. But in this situation, he saw the faith of the man’s friends. He sees this guy coming down from the the roof above.

Wesley
Healing and.

Jeff
And, and the most important thing for this guy was his soul. Yeah. And so Jesus forgave his sins. Yeah. Right. And then, uh, uh, then he healed him. When? Only as proof that he had the authority to forgive sins. Jesus intent always was only to forgive the sins. And then the the Pharisees are like, whoa, that’s he’s not God. He’s not allowed to do that. Just. All right, let me show you I’m God too. And he healed him, right. So the most important thing was not his physical issues. The most important thing was his spiritual. Yeah, uh, issue. And, you know, sometimes I think it’s easier for us to say, hey, pray for my aunt. She has, you know, a hangnail. Uh, that’s that’s silly. Uh, you know, pray for my uncle. He has, you know, a heart issue or whatever. Um. It’s easier to do that than it is to say, hey, I don’t know if my uncle is saved. Yeah, right. Pray for his soul. And so if you’re trying to get into the priority of things, the most important thing would be the person’s soul. And that’s what Jesus is addressing. Yeah.

Wesley
That their life would be transformed.

Jeff
Not that the physical isn’t important. He. He healed the physical, too.

Wesley
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. No. That’s good.

Jeff
So I’ve been to Capernaum just recently. And by the way, we’re taking another trip to Israel next year. Mhm. Um, so all of our listeners, you guys should. To, uh, go to Israel with us.

Wesley
Do they have pizza in Israel?

Jeff
Uh, did I have.

Wesley
Pizza last night?

Jeff
I can’t remember if I had pizza or not, but yes, they do have pizza. Yeah.

Wesley
Okay. So you.

Jeff
Can go? Yeah, you.

Wesley
Can go now.

Jeff
Yeah, yeah, yeah. There’s also a lot of hummus and olives, let me tell you. And fish. Uh, so in Capernaum, it’s beautiful. As a matter of fact, I think Capernaum was my favorite place. Yeah. To be. It’s right there on the Sea of Galilee. The view is beautiful. It’s this beautiful little slope down to the water. And a lot of the this town was has been excavated. Not all of it, but a lot of it has been. It was a very substantial town. Uh, the biggest town, definitely in that part of the area. There was a Roman garrison there. And, uh, it kind of sat on a main road where, uh, travelers from as far away as Damascus, coming through the Mediterranean Sea, coming back the other way. They traveled through that town. So there was a lot of international travel. It was very strategic for Jesus. Right. If you want to get the word out and you live in that part of the country, that’s where you go because people are coming and going all the time. Yeah, right. And, uh, but it’s really beautiful. So there, there’s a beautiful synagogue that, um, uh, is, was really cool to be able to see. Then there’s the foundations of all these homes, some, some of the stones. And there’s, uh, in that area, they built the homes out of the rock that was available, which is mostly dark rock. It’s it’s dark, um, like volcanic rock. Yeah. And so they would make the homes out of rock, and then they would cover the homes in plaster. Then they painted those. It was very beautiful. A lot of color. Yeah. Uh, and then on most homes they used branches and like, palm leaves and things mixed with plaster and kind of like, would make a concrete roof to it and the roofs would be flat. Jeff
So, you know, we think, you know, the slope of the roof, how hard. But oftentimes there would be stairs that would go up on top. Um, but this one, Luke says, is that Luke that says that they tore the tiles out. Right, isn’t it? Isn’t it what says.

Wesley
In.

Jeff
Uh.

Wesley
Form in Korea.

Jeff
Where did it say that? They tore out the tiles. Uh, he heals, uh, bringing him to Jesus. They lowered the man.

Jeff
Yeah, yeah. It says, um. Yeah, yeah. In verse 19. So they went up to the roof and took off some tiles. Oh yeah. Right. So this would have been a pretty substantial home. Yeah. So the tiles were way more expensive than just using palm leaves and making kind of a concrete plaster kind of a thing. Yeah. You know, beams and, and and brush and then the concrete. So there’s tiles here too. And that would be used for drainage and a little bit more sophisticated modern kind of a Roman look to things. Uh, so this is a pretty wealthy person’s home. And so tradition has said this was Peter’s home, which is kind of neat. Peter had a big house for the for the area. His house was substantially larger. Uh, we know and we’ve talked about this in the podcast before. We know that he had multiple boats, that there was kind of a fishing operation going on. It talked about.

Wesley
Makes sense, you know, in the area that they’re located right off the sea. And it talked.

Jeff
About how he had other workers. Yeah. Uh, in one of the passages that there were other workers that he needed help with the paid help, it said. And then there was James and John and Zebedee, their father, and seemed like they all kind of worked together. So he had a pretty apparently, he was a pretty prosperous person. His home was pretty big. Yeah. So the church tradition says, uh, and our guide made a big deal about it. Very likely. Uh, Peter’s house was the biggest house in the in the village at the time. And, um, uh, there’s tiles on the roof, which means those are some real resources that took to put those tiles in there. So this may have been Peter’s house. Can you imagine that? You know, you’re helping Jesus out. You’re still not sure who Jesus is? This dude’s amazing. He he made me catch a bunch of fish. I’ve seen him heal some people. He says some really amazing things. I’m going to follow Jesus. And he’s like, hey, what are you doing here in all of my room? Yeah, right. This is what happens. I’ve given all my life to Jesus and these.

Wesley
Crazy a guy down. Yeah, and.

Jeff
All your crazy fans are tearing holes in my roof. Yeah, right. And, uh, the inconvenience sometimes of serving the people who need to meet. Jesus. Yeah. Uh, there’s sometimes there’s a cost to it, and. And we never even hear anybody complain. Yeah, we hear.

Wesley
There’s never.

Jeff
Mentioned.

Wesley
In any of these gospels.

Jeff
There’s some weird little details that are included here, but it never mentions. And the homeowner was really ticked about it.

Wesley
Yeah.

Jeff
Right. It’s.

Wesley
And he angrily walked away.

Jeff
Although it would have been pretty astounding to see a paralyzed man get up and walk. Yeah. So okay, I guess I can afford to fix that hole in the roof. Yeah. Um, and, you know, maybe he’s going to just call Geico. Yeah, and have him put in a claim. Yeah, and have them come and fix this house. But, uh, uh, I love that. But the faith is, you know, the faith of his friends. They didn’t know how to fix their friend’s problem. They were even focused on the wrong problem. Yeah, right. But they knew if they could just get their friend to Jesus, Jesus would change everything in his life.

Wesley
And some could even speculate they didn’t even go about it the right way. I mean, you damage someone else’s property to lower somebody down. Yeah, but like you said, their faith was just that strong that I maybe we don’t even know if this guy Jesus can fix our friend, but we’re going to give it a shot, right? Right. We’re just going to see what happens. Well, can you imagine.

Jeff
If you and I, uh, along with two of two of our other friends, we decide we’re going to we got to get our friend to Jesus. The crowd is too big. There’s too many people. And then you go, hey, let’s just take him up on the roof and tear a hole in the roof. Yeah, well, you know, there’d be some work to that, but yeah, that’s not unheard of. I mean, it’s a possible thing to do. Yeah. So we got a bunch of, you know, you know, so we’re digging through the roof, we’re moving some tiles, we’re pulling back the, the dried out palm leaves and breaking up some of the plaster. And people are looking.

Wesley
At us like, what are you guys doing?

Jeff
And what would you say? You would probably say, don’t worry, we’ll fix it. Yeah. That’s what we would say. Right? So is your chance here. Don’t worry, we’ll fix it. Uh, but man, we got to get, you know, our friend to Jesus, Bob Johnson needs Jesus.

Wesley
And so in practically speaking, this had to be a big hole. Oh, yeah. It says he was on a mat, a grown man. Yeah. So I imagine he wasn’t in, like, a fetal position. He was probably laid out. So let’s just imagine. Let’s just go small. See, he was five foot. Yeah, yeah. They had to cut a five foot hole in this. So this isn’t like a little tiny hole they cut in the ceiling. Right, right.

Jeff
And but how strategic. They got him to exactly where he needed to be. And they did whatever it took. And then very likely, if you and I were tearing a hole in the roof and people were shocked by it, we would probably say, don’t worry, we’ll fix it. Yeah, we’ll pay to fix it. And they were willing to do whatever it took at any cost to get their friend to Jesus. And yet for many of us, I think we struggle, uh, getting our friends to Jesus because we’re afraid we might get canceled. Yeah, we’re afraid somebody might say something negative to us or think that we’re crazy. Yeah, right. Or some kind of religious nut or whatever. And they were willing to do whatever it took, you know, and then, uh, and then I guess the other thing that I love about this passage is Jesus knew what his detractors were thinking. Yeah, right. He knew what they were thinking. He’s like, I know what you guys are thinking. Yeah. So, yeah, I don’t have the right to forgive his sins. So, uh, stand up and walk, and this guy throws a party and leaves. And it doesn’t say that that convinced the Pharisees.

Wesley
Which is the interesting thing you would have thought. And I know we’re just focusing on these scriptures, but if you look at the lifespan of Jesus, you would have thought by the end they would have said, okay, we’ve seen this guy do this, this, this, this. Okay, maybe he actually is the Son of God. Well.

Jeff
Some Pharisees did follow Jesus, some Pharisees did become Christians. And, you know, we talked about Nicodemus in last week and different things. Um, they some did certainly we know when Paul became a preacher. Yeah. Pharisees began to follow. Many Pharisees began to follow Jesus. But, um, I think it’s interesting Jesus response to heal this lame guy. It doesn’t say anything that the Pharisees were convinced. Now, um, instead, the Bible says the crowd was amazed and said something amazing happened. Sometimes our responses aren’t for our detractors. Yeah, sometimes our responses are for the people who are watching the exchange between us and our detractors. Yeah, and so what Jesus didn’t do was pick a fight. He didn’t call them a bunch of vipers. And he didn’t. He didn’t come after them like you bums. Why do you question everything I say? He didn’t say. All he did was the exact thing the crowd needed most. Yeah, he didn’t give an apologetic argument. He just healed this guy. Yeah, and go turn to the Congo now. What do you think? Yeah.

Wesley
Drops the mic and walks off. Drop the mic.

Jeff
Moment. Right. So he didn’t win the argument with his detractors. And you know, most of the time the people who are attacking you, most of the time you’re not going to win the argument. Yeah. But there are people who are watching how you handle the argument. Yeah.

Wesley
Which is and I think that’s for every Christian. My grandmother used to say, uh, have this saying that you’re always on TV. Yeah. And she would say that all the time. Like wherever you go, whatever you do, you’re always on TV. Someone’s watching. So, you know, watch what you do, watch what you say and watch how you interact with other people. Yeah, yeah.

Jeff
And so that’s precisely what Jesus did. So again, we we read these things. And I’m not likely to heal a paralyzed guy, but I can pay attention to how I respond to those who are attacking me. Yeah. And do for the people who are watching what they need rather than just trying to win an argument with the people who I’m never going to win with anyways. Yeah, yeah.

Wesley
I think that’s a good point that someone needs to hear. Stop trying to win arguments. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then do.

Jeff
Whatever it takes at any cost, even if it costs you something later, uh, a little bit of embarrassment or whatever to get your friends to Jesus. Those are the two big lessons I take away.

Wesley
From this, even for the individuals watching. Maybe you’re in a tough spot in your life right now. You don’t know what to do. You don’t know what the answer is. Kind of like the friends. Maybe the answer is Jesus. Yeah, yeah. And you don’t have have to have it all figured out or, uh, I don’t know what I do next or I don’t know what the next step out of this addiction is. I don’t know what the next. Maybe the answer is. Just get to Jesus as step one and Jesus will work everything else out. That’s great. Yeah, I.

Jeff
Think we should wrap it up right there. Yeah. So, hey, would you do us a favor? Would you like or subscribe? Uh, share. We need a few dozen of you to share this podcast today with your friends and family that help us out so much. Uh, we love you. God bless you. And we’ll see you tomorrow on The Bible Guys.