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It Will Never Happen February 11, 2013 • By Ed Wrather
02.11.13
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!" - Mark 2:1-12 NKJV.
Back in December (2012),
Scot and Wanda Denhalter moved into a new home that they had rented in
St. George, Utah. Scot was somewhat concerned about a ridge above the
back of the home that was covered with boulders. Wanda was not
concerned. However, only a few weeks later Wanda barely escaped being
killed by a 12 foot wide boulder that crashed into their house. The
boulder hit the bed Wanda was sleeping in and caused injuries, including
a gash to her leg, which required four hours of surgery to repair. Scot was not at home when the boulder hit, but said he had told Wanda before they moved in that, "...you could have a big boulder snap and come down and come right through the house, but she said that would never happen." (FoxNews 01.21.13)
The incident recorded in the Gospel of Mark,
when Jesus heals a paralyzed man is fascinating. What great faith the
friends of the man who was paralyzed must have had! To get their friend
to Jesus they tore up the roof of someone's house, and interrupted the
sermon Jesus was preaching in a most dramatic way. Can you imagine
sitting in your pew at your church, peacefully listening to your pastor
preach God's Word...when suddenly debris begins to fall from the ceiling
as a hole opens up. Then, a stretcher with a man on it is lowered
through the hole to the floor! If you had been sleeping in church, that
would probably wake you up! However, the most amazing part of the event
was that Jesus forgave the man his sins, healed the man, and the
formerly paralyzed man picked up his bed and walked out of the house!
What a Sunday service that would be!! And we would all be saying just
like the people that day, "We never saw anything like this!"
If you could have interviewed the people present prior to the event recorded in Mark chapter 2,
and asked them if they thought Jesus would forgive a man's sins and
heal a paralyzed man during the service what would they have said? They
would have said, "It will never happen!" However, there were four men that day who believed that it would happen, and it did!
We
must be careful not to discount the power of God. If anyone had told
me, or even told those who knew me when I was a teenager that I would
spend more than 20 years of my life as a pastor; we all would have said,
"It will never happen!" Here is what God says, "...if
you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move
from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible
for you (Matthew 17:20)."
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