The Life of Christ

SECTION 53

Lk. 5:17 And it came about one day that He was teaching; and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing.

The setting of this particular gathering was in a house.

• Edersheim suggests that it was most likely during the winter, which would explain the need to be indoors.

▪ Those present were primarily the leading scholars and theologians of the day. The room was filled with Pharisees, Sadducees, Rabbis, and scholars from all over Israel.

• Some were probably sent on assignment from Jerusalem to bring back a report to those who opposed Him.

Verse 17 indicates that the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform a healing.

• Why would there be mention of the “power of the Lord being present to perform healing”? Is this any different than when Jesus would heal the crowds?

• Due to the strong presence of religious unbelief, without this strong sovereign presence of healing power, this might have turned into a duplicate of what happened at Nazareth.

• Mt. 13:58 says He was unable to do miracles in Nazareth because of their unbelief.

• We learn from this that there will be times when a sovereign presence of God is needed and comes specifically to heal.

• One of the key reasons for the healing was to establish a strong theological connection — the iron- clad union between salvation and physical healing.

Lk. 5:18 And behold, some men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in, and to set him down in front of Him.

Mark's account says there were four of them.

Lk. 5:19 And not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, right in the center, in front of Jesus.

When they arrived with this man, the crowd had completely surrounded the house and extended well into the surrounding streets.

• The four could have waited for the crowd to disperse or given up altogether and gone home.

• At this moment they practiced their great act of “faith” of which they would later be commended; this act of faith was made up of many secondary decisions of faith.

• Faith is usually taking a number of uncomfortable steps into the unknown; faith walks where the natural man refuses to go.

The only way to maneuver their friend into proximity with Jesus was to lug him up to the roof, disassemble the ceiling tiles, and then lower him down through their newly made opening.

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