Lesson for March 24, 2021
The Life of Christ
Lesson 14
Jesus Teaches from Peter’s Boat and Many are Healed
Matthew 9:1-8; Mark 1:40-45, 2:1-12; Luke 5:1-26
We now find Jesus walking by Lake Gennesaret. A crowd had gathered around Jesus and they were very positive to His teaching; so much so that they were almost crowding Him into the water. There was no mention of the crowd wanting to see miracles – they simply wanted to listen to Jesus teach. So, Jesus did the wise thing and climbed aboard Peter’s boat and began to teach from the water’s edge.
When Christ had concluded His teaching, He told Peter to launch out into deeper water. Though he was hesitant to obey Christ’s command, Peter nevertheless launched his boat into the water. Once again, Jesus used an object lesson to teach His disciples. The disciples had been fishing all night in two boats with no results. However, when they obeyed the command of Christ their nets became so full that they needed help bringing in the fish. The result was two boatloads of fish that almost sunk each boat. It was a lesson of faith. Though prone to doubt because they had been fishing all night without a catch when they obeyed Christ their catch could hardly be contained.
Peter then did an odd thing. He fell down before Jesus and asked Him to leave because he said, “I am a sinful man.” Apparently, Peter was feeling guilty for his lack of faith or unworthy to be in the presence of Christ. Jesus did not response to Peter’s request, He simply said, “Fear not, from now on you will be catching men.” Once again, we read that Peter, Andrew, James and John forsook all and followed Christ.
This is a good lesson for each of us to learn regarding following Christ. If your highest priority in life is not Jesus Christ, then you will never do the things necessary to reach spiritual maturity. There should be no excuses, no distractions and no higher purpose for the believer than to follow Christ. Following Christ means that the study and application of accurate Bible doctrine will be number one priority in your life.
The next chronological event in the life of Christ was the healing of a leper and a paralytic. The word of both of these events spread rapidly throughout the region, though Christ commanded them both not to spread the news.
The first man that Jesus healed was a leper. Leprosy was a dreaded disease without a cure until the twentieth century (about 1960). The Old Testament outlined specific instructions in Leviticus 13 regarding those with this disease. The most importantthing to do was to isolate or quarantine those with leprosy, since it is a very infectious disease.
It is obvious from this passage that this man had positive volition toward Christ – “if you are willing you can make me clean.” He was also grace oriented – “if you are willing you can” (it all depended on Christ). Christ, of course, healed this man and told Him to go to the local priest and offer a sacrifice according to the Law of Moses (they were still in the Age of Israel).
Leviticus 14 gave specific instructions for the sacrifice that was to be done after the disease of leprosy was healed. The ritual went like this: The priest collected two clean live birds, cedar wood, a scarlet string and hyssop. One bird was sacrificed over an earthenware vessel. The live bird and all the other items were dipped into the blood of the sacrificed bird and the priest sprinkled it on the healed person. The live bird was then set free.
The reason for this ritual was to teach a lesson. The symbolism was this: the leper should have been doomed to a horrible death, but instead he was healed by God. He should be the dead bird, but instead he was the live bird. This points to the sacrifice of Christ. The human race is spiritually dead in sin, but faith in Christ makes a person spiritually alive.
The cedar wood was of exceptional quality and represented the healed body of the leper. This also pointed to the resurrected body of Christ. The hyssop was known for its fragrance and its feathery spines on the stalk making it an ideal sprinkling device. It became a symbol for purification (Psalms 51:7). This was symbolic of being made spiritually pure by Christ’s death. The scarlet string was colored using crimson dye made from crushed tolah worms. This was symbolic of the judgment Christ took on the Cross for our sins (He was crushed). This dye was also used to dye royalty’s robes. The “crushing” of Christ on the Cross set up the potential for all mankind to become royalty through faith in Christ.
Matthew tells us that after healing the leper Jesus returned to “His city” and Mark 2:1 is very specific that Jesus returned to Capernaum. As was becoming typical when Jesus entered a city, a crowd began to gather. Among the crowd was a group of Pharisees and their scribes. Apparently, they were an investigative committee come to see what this “Jesus following” was all about.
The Pharisees were one of three prominent Jewish religious groups in the time of Christ (the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Essenes). The Pharisees seemed to be the most vocal and influential of the three groups. The origin of this group is not certain, but they were believed to have grown from a group that existed around the time of the Maccabees (165 B.C.). Pharisee means separatist, which they interpreted to mean separated unto God. Of course, we know that this group had distorted the Scriptures into a system of legalism and man’s tradition. The result was that they did not recognize Jesus as the Messiah and had Him killed at the hands of the Romans. Jesus always had strong words for this group as to their self-righteousness and hypocrisy.
We are told that this event took place at the home of Jesus. As He began to teach the people, certain men brought a man that had palsy to be healed. Once again, the Scriptures teach us that Christ performed miracles from the power of God the Holy Spirit, which was in keeping with the doctrine of kenosis. It was God Who chose the time and the place for healing and Jesus was the instrument by which this was accomplished. This in no way diminishes the fact that Jesus was fully human and fully divine in one Person. He simply restricted the use of His divine nature to perform miracles.
This is a story of great faith. The faith was not only in the paralytic man but in his friends as well. Unable to get through the crowd, these men climbed to the roof, dismantled part of it and lowered the man to Jesus. Upon seeing this great display of faith, Jesus was compelled to heal this man. However, in this case Jesus did not simply say, “Take up your bed and walk.” First Jesus said, “Man, your sins be forgiven you.”
Immediately when Jesus had uttered these words, the self-righteous Pharisees and their scribes began to talk among themselves saying that Jesus was speaking blasphemy. They said He was making Himself equal with God. Remember however that Jesus had restricted the use of His deity. Therefore, He could not forgive sin as a human being, but as deity He certainly could and did. He had the authority from God the Father to say, “Your sins are forgiven.” This man’s sins were forgiven because he believed in Jesus Christ as Messiah (Savior), not because Christ spoke the words. Jesus spoke the words because the man had believed.
What the Pharisees were most likely upset about was that Jesus was “cutting into their action.” This and other Jewish religious groups had set themselves up as the only true sources of knowledge of the Scriptures and the only ones with the authority to forgive sin. This was a powerful and lucrative program for these hypocrites. Jesus was about to infringe upon their way of life (wealth and power) by exposing them for who they really were.
What Jesus said next was spoken as the Messiah. He said, “So that you will know that the Son of Man (a messianic term) has power on earth to forgive sin…” He then spoke to the paralytic man. What He demonstrated to all was that He had true power from God. So, Jesus said to the paralytic man, “Take up your bed and walk,” which the man did immediately.
By healing this man, Jesus pointed out to everyone that as humanity filled with the Holy Spirit, He had power from God to perform miracles of healing and as deity He had power to forgive sin, neither of which the Pharisees could do. Theirs was a religion of works, void of any divine power or authority. The word religion comes from two Latin words, “re” meaning back and “ligio” meaning to bind. Together they mean to bind back. Religion falsely teaches that a person must bind himself back to God by some form of human works or merit.
Christianity is not a religion – it is a relationship. The Bible teaches that God has bound Himself to us in the Person of Jesus Christ. Christianity therefore is a relationship with God that begins at faith in Jesus Christ as Savior. This relationship grows as the believer learns, believes, and applies accurate Bible teaching. Our relationship with God comes in three stages: positional, experiential and eternal. Stage one is the believer’s position – the moment a person believes in Christ as Savior the Holy Spirit places him into union with Christ for all eternity. Stage two is the believer’s experience on earth – after salvation the believer is expected to grow spiritually by study and application of Bible doctrine. Stage three is the believer in Heaven for all eternity with a glorified body like that of Christ.