Good morning. Of course I will be praying for you and your family. Jesus then goes into the synagogue. There is a man with a withered hand. The Pharisees wanted to know, “is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” This was so that they could accuse Him. After all this was a much worse breaking of the Sabbath than the disciples picking and eating grain. Jesus asks them, “what man shall there be among you, who shall have one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it, and lift it out? How much more value then is a man than a sheep! So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” This would be akin to today saying that you could not get healed on Sunday. Today most Christians think that that is the only day you can get healed; and of course it must be done in church. Jesus tells the man to stretch out his hand, and he does. If you think about it, that took faith on the part of the man. He did not have time to talk himself out of it by thinking what would it look like if he tried to and nothing happened. Because he had faith in Jesus, his hand was restored to normal. Of course the Pharisees were happy that the man was healed – not. It just made them madder than a wet hen. They talked it over about how they might destroy Jesus. He was making them and all of their rules look bad. After all the people would think “how could the man be healed if it were not of God?” Jesus knew what the Pharisees were thinking, and so He left. Many followed Him, and He healed them all. That did not happen earlier in Matthew when Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law. They waited until sundown – after the Sabbath was over. This put God’s seal of approval upon Jesus healing on the Sabbath. God has a way of countermanding man's sets of rules. Father thank You that the reader’s family does not have to wait till Sunday to be healed. They can be healed right now!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners

  Good morning. So, was the law a bad thing? We know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully (not to control people, as some were), realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane…, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel of the Blessed God, with which I have been entrusted. I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer etc. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. Formerly Paul was good in the eyes of the law, but unrighteous in the eyes of God. Despite that, God was more than able to use him in a magnificent way to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. Father thank You that Your Grace is gre...
Read more

Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me

  Good morning. Paul then gives a list of a lot of things that he has gone through as an apostle. I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. There could be many people that you listen to either in church or through the Internet or other means; but there was only one person (as a general rule it was a person) that lead you to Christ. Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. He was saying that just like a child imitates his or her father, they were to imitate him. He says that again seven chapters later. Since it is easy to forget some things about people we have not seen in a while, Paul says that he sent Timothy to them to remind them of his ways which are in Christ, just as he taught everywhere in every church. Some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. I shall find ou...
Read more

Philip, who was one of the seven deacons, went down to the city of Samaria and began preaching Christ to them.

  Good morning. Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word. Philip, who was one of the seven deacons, went down to the city of Samaria and began preaching Christ to them. This is the area where Jesus had the discussion with the woman at the well. Remember from Acts 1:8 that after Jerusalem, Samaria was mentioned. Samaritans were looked down upon by the Jews and considered more or less half Jews. A lot of the Jews of the northern kingdom were taken away and replaced by others who were not Jews. They intermingled with the Jews that were living in the northern kingdom. Even though Samaria was not far away, the disciples had not come there to preach the word before this. The disciples may have even thought that it was impossible for them to get saved, just like the Gentiles. The crowds with one accord were giving attention to what was said by Philip, as they heard and saw the signs which he was performing. Even though he was “just a deacon”, God worked throug...
Read more