Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God.

Script Notes:

… the people heard that [Jesus] had come home...Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

The Gospel of Mark, chapter 2, verses 2 through 5. New International Version

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VK: Hi! Welcome back to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. I’m Victoria K and today we are going to continue a series we call “A Miraculous Christ.” We started this series a couple of episodes ago and this is a special series for us because we are featuring Jay Ammerman. Jay has an inspirational story that everyone should hear. After being an Army combat medic and enduring three deployments with front line infantry Jay came home and began working in a hospital. Unfortunately, Jay also returned from combat with an addiction to opiate pain killers. But our God is a God of healing and deliverance and God delivered Jay from that addiction. That delivery began a journey that led Jay to ultimately enter the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary from which he will shortly graduate. Jay’s life road has included its share of bends and curves, but Jesus has been with him for all of them. Jay’s faith in Christ has grown so steadily that he has now been called by the Lord to full time service. So let’s welcome Jay Ammerman, the owner of Black Thumb Services to Anchored by Truth. Jay, your story is remarkable – but the one constant throughout has been the presence of Christ. That’s why when we met you we thought so many people needed to hear it and hear about your passion to serve the Lord in whatever way He calls. When you told us that you would really like to help people think more deeply about the miracles Christ performed during his earthly ministry it seemed like a good idea to get your episodes started by playing one of our Life Lessons with a Laugh on the miracles of Christ. So, let’s listen to one of those. This one has to do with how Jesus responded to the loyalty of four very faithful friends.

 Life Lessons with a Laugh - Miracles of Jesus 3- Thru the Roof

VK: Well, Jay it’s hard to know what wild things are going to take place in one of our Life Lessons with a Laugh. So, what are some of the lessons that we can take away from Jesus healing the paralyzed man whose friends literally went through the roof for him?

Jay: Comments the historical foundation of Mark 2 -

2:57 VK: So, we have very good, early manuscript evidence that supports the historical accuracy of this miracle that Mark describes. But even beyond the fact that the manuscript evidence supports the historicity there is other compelling evidence isn’t there?

Jay: Comments about cultural context -

5:30 VK: What you’re saying is that the Jews of Jesus day should have been able to put 2 and 2 together and get 4. The had scriptures going back hundreds of years that said that the coming Messiah would be a miracle working figure and that He would perform miraculous healings. So, when Jesus began healing people that should have been a big clue as to who He was. But you also say that the geographic setting of the miracle is also important, isn’t it?

Jay: Comments about geographic factors -

6:30 VK: So, Jesus performed a very notable miracle in a place where word of the miracle was bound to spread quickly. As you said a lot of people were coming and going from Capernaum. And just like today people like nothing more than to pass news, so the people passing through would have heard the story and they would have carried it with them to their next stop. Well, when did this miracle take place within the context of Jesus’ public ministry?

Jay: Comments about miracle being early in Jesus ministry -

7:30 VK: So, Jesus performed a very notable miracle in a place where word of the miracle was bound to spread quickly and he performed it early during his ministry. This really helped establish the basis of his ministry which was going to be necessary as Jesus sought to help his disciples build their faith. How do we see that?

Jay: Comments about exegetical factors of the miracle -

9:40 VK: So the crowd contained seekers, skeptics, and spectators. That’s pretty similar to what we see all around us today. What do you see as being the big problem of the skeptics?

Jay: Comments about the skeptics of the miracle -

10:15 VK: But thankfully there weren’t just skeptics present that day. I mean the paralyzed man certainly had friends who seemed to believe in Jesus.

Jay: Comments about the friends of the paralyzed man -

12:00 VK: So the friends’ faith in God led them to overcome the obstacles that were in their way. That demonstrates that God rewards faith. So, earlier you said that Peter’s house was apparently close to the synagogue. Why is that important?

Jay: Comments about the house being close to the synagogue -

13:00 VK: What else should be noticed about the faith of the paralyzed man’s friends?

Jay: Comments about faith of the friends -

14:00 VK: What other observations do you think are important from Jesus healing the paralyzed man? Why is the story so significant?

Jay: Comments about Jesus being able to forgive sins -

end VK: Well, you’ve made some really powerful points here today, Jay. But the most important one is that Jesus has authority to forgive our sins and He is eager to do so if we will only acknowledge those sins and acknowledge that we want him to be our savior. And perhaps one thing we should emphasize before we close for today is that we are truly blessed if we have faithful friends like the paralyzed man in the story. There are going to be times in all our lives when we are going to need the support and strength of others. The paralyzed man was blessed by having such friends even before he received the even greater blessing of having his sins forgiven and his paralysis removed. This miracle is another illustration of why we all need to build and preserve friendships with other believers? We’d really like to thank Jay Ammerman for being our guest on Anchored by Truth today. We can all still learn lessons from the miracles that Jesus performed even though they took place 2,000 years ago. As we’ve said before Jay’s life after his conversion is a great illustration of how Jesus continues to redeem destinies in our day and time. The Bible has been instrumental in changing Jay’s destiny and it can be instrumental in changing your destiny and the destinies of your friends. Today for our closing prayer, let’s listen to a prayer for our friends. We should all spend some time every day in intercessory prayer for our friends both inside and outside the church. And if we have friends who have not yielded their lives to Christ we must always pray for that time to come in their lives.

---- PRAYER FOR FRIENDS (June)

VK: We hope you’ll be with us in the future when we’ll continue our discussion with Jay. And we hope you’ll take some time to encourage some friends to tune in too, or listen to the podcast version of this show.

If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not perfect but our Boss is!”

(Bible Quote from the New International Version)