Tag: healed

  • Ordinary Men – 1

    Ordinary Men – 1

    … he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead.

    – Acts 4:10b

    Suppose you were arrested and brought before a court of leaders asking how you had healed a lame man. Would you witness Christ?

    The Apostle Peter in effect told the very court which convicted Christ, ‘you are the guilty ones.’ The resurrected Lord healed him.

    We have heard of this blindness before

    The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

    John 9:30-33

    Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” – John 9:39

    Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?”

    Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt [from sin]; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.

    Blind Leadership

    Peter and John had just healed a crippled beggar known to the same authorities who once witnessed a similar powerful miracle, then expelled from the Temple a man blind from birth healed by Jesus. My previous post, the three o’clock prayer service, details this healing recorded in Acts 3. The Apostles face similar retribution as Jesus after healing a lame man in front of many witnesses.

    Acts 3:12 And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk?

    … 17 “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers.

    Acts 4:

    And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, 2 greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. 3 And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. 4 But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.

    Jewish Stratification

    During the times of Herod’s Temple, social center of religious life in Jerusalem at that time of Jesus and the Apostles, Temple leaders were esteemed above ordinary men. The political appointment of priests claimed status from traditional Jewish Biblical offices and responsibilities.

    • The social world of the priests during the Iron Age and Persian Period was one fraught with concerns about power and status. To be a priest was, at least in terms of public rhetoric, an ascribed, not an achieved status.

    Priests

    • Throughout the Hebrew Bible, the term priest (kōhēn) is commonly used to refer to an official who was set apart from the rest of the community in order to carry out certain duties associated with worship and sacrifice. As “ministers of the LORD” (Joel 1:9; 2:17), priests functioned as mediators of God’s presence and were responsible for the day-to-day operation of cultic sites, whether the tabernacle, local shrines, or the Temple in Jerusalem.
    • Deuteronomy employs the term “Levitical priests” (hakkōhănîm halwiyyim) most likely to underscore the fact that all Levites were qualified to be priests (Deut 17:9, 18; 18:1; 24:8; 27:9).
    • The most prominent and persistent controversy regarding the priesthood had to do with whether all Levities could serve as priests or, alternatively, if only certain branches of the Levitical line (the Aaronides or the Zadokites) were qualified for the priestly office.

    Scribes

    • Outside of their sacrificial duties, priests also oversaw many other aspects of ancient Israelite life… In this role, priests were responsible for communicating the law and adjudicating legal matters (Lev 10:10–11; Deut 17:8–13; 21:5; Ezek 44:24), though in the Second Temple period, such activity was eventually taken over by scribes.
    • Scribes of various degrees of competence were attached to all government and temple offices. Apparently there were also independent scribes who either served the public or were in the employ of men of means.
    • Later the scribe was a professional expert in the writing of Torah scrolls, *tefillin , *mezuzot , and bills of *divorce .

    Sadducees

    • (followers of Zadok), (Matthew 3:7; 16:1,6,11,12; 22:23,31; Mark 12:18; Luke 20:27; Acts 4:1; 5:17; 23:6,7,8) a religious party or school among the Jews at the time of Christ, who denied that the oral law was a revelation of God to the Israelites. and who deemed the written law alone to be obligatory on the nation, as of divine authority.
    • To these sons of Zadok were afterward attached all who for any reason reckoned themselves as belonging to the aristocrats; such, for example, as the families of the high priest, who had obtained consideration under the dynasty of Herod. These were for the most part judges, and individuals of the official and governing class.

    Sadducees held the majority of the seats in the ruling Jewish court of the Sanhedrin. They held political power and influence in Judah, even under Rome.

    As you can see from description of these several classes of ‘blind guides,’ these Jewish rulers are not in any way ordinary men.

    Though five thousand men came to believe Peter and John, these arresting authorities are in no way intimidated.  The Apostles face a trial, the first of many, for proclaiming Christ Jesus.

    Allow me to ask you, what is your response to opposition to Jesus Christ?

    To be continued…

     

     

  • Interrupting Jesus 5 – persistent faith

    Interrupting Jesus 5 – persistent faith

    And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying,

    “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and

    “God has visited his people!”

    17 And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country. – Luke 7:15-17

    Can you imagine hearing about this? Can you imagine what you would think as you heard other stories about this Jesus of Nazareth (who now lived in Capernaum) healing many in the crowds who now followed this expected Messiah of Israel?

    And dare we wonder how the Good News (Gospel) must have affected those with continued needs of healing. The Good News about Jesus is abuzz in the ears of all Galilee, Judea and even Samaria.

    mark-1-21-28-jesus_rebukes_the_unclean_spirit_in_a_possessed_man_in_the_synagogue_001Mark 1

    21 And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. 22 And they were astonished at his teaching,for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. 23 And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, 24 “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.”

    Jesus routinely goes to worship, but is interrupted by a demon who knows He is the Son of God.

    Jesus frees the man from his demon! He goes to the house of Simon Peter and heals his wife’s mother of a fever. He heals many sick as the crowds come to hear the Messiah in Galilee.

    … Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter. – Mark 1:45b

    Jesus’ personal and daily life (normalcy, we might call it) was interrupted in every way. God, in the Person of Christ, in your neighborhood is Headline News… Good News.


    Mark 2

    man lowered through roofAnd when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them.And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay.

    And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

    I love friends persistent in their love; don’t you? These men had heard all about God With Us, the Christ who heals. They had little chance of getting to Him through the crowds, but by persistence of faith and constancy of love pressed on to reach the unreachable God, interrupting the teaching of this Superstar in their midst.

    It reminds me of the love of the friends of Job.

    Job 2:7-8; 11-13 excerpt

    Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place…  They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him… And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.

    These are the quality of friends who would bring a man to the Messiah, boldly interrupting Him, asking the Lord for the mercy of healing.

    And what was the usual reaction of the congregation? What are they thinking as Jesus is teaching to them in this most worshipful setting; that is, until the commotion of men breaking through the roof above them? And how does a compassionate God With Us react to this interruption of His preaching?

    “Son, your sins are forgiven.” (The paralyzed man is healed!) That should be the end of it: another miracle.

    (Now moving on: what was I telling you about God?)

    Yet these witnesses of God’s mercy now receive the rebuke of an even more authoritative teaching:

    “Why do you question these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’?

    (You, church goer! Are you paying attention here? My sermon about God’s judgement, mercy, love and power is for ALL; not just you.)

    [Well, that’s probably the unkind way I might have said it.] Jesus turns to those of his original faithful audience with the best seats in church:

    10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”

    —he said to the paralytic— 11 “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.”

    12 And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”

    Other eye-witness accounts of the miracles of the Messiah, the Good News of the Gospels might say something like:

    ‘Because of their faith, many believed.’

    Does anyone believe because of your faith in Jesus Christ?

     

    All were amazed. Some believed.

    The Apostle Matthew in his Gospel reports: And he rose and went home.  When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men. Matthew 9:7-8

    Imagine that you are one in the crowd who pressed against this house in Capernaum where Jesus was surrounded by Scribes and many others – a house where men with a make-shift stretcher had pushed through until visibly climbing onto the roof and relaying the paralyzed man up to each other then lowering him down inside. Out the door walks a group of faithful friends which included the joyous man healed by Christ Jesus! What is your reaction?

    • Does Jesus Christ have authority in your life?
    • Do you believe in the Messiah of Almighty God now?
    • Do you have just a bit more hope and joy like the man walking on legs which were lifeless?
    • Is your soul lifeless without the hope of the forgiveness of sins spoken by Christ Jesus?

    “God has visited his people!”

     

    “Son [or daughter], your sins are forgiven.”

     

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