Grace Community Church of Ramona Podcast

This morning, we will read an incredible story about the healing of a paralytic man. Jesus uses this healing to reveal to the nation of Israel that He is equal with God. As you can imagine, this totally blows their minds.

In our last lesson we looked at how the Jewish religious leaders had established “fences” to help protect the people from violating the Mosaic Law (Torah). This was a good thing that actually had its beginning with the prophet Ezra. Israel had come under divine judgment for their rejection of the Mosaic Law, so Ezra established a group of men called the “Sopherim” whose goal was to build the initial fence around the Torah.

Imagine a situation, where you despise someone so much, that to even sit down across the table with them was unthinkable. And not just that it was unthinkable, but you believed that any contact with them would make you less acceptable to God. It is difficult to even imagine feeling that strongly about someone, yet that is exactly what we find when we come into our passage today.

Pastor Matt Smith

Blasphemy or Deity?

Luke 5:17-26

Special Sermon: "Love and Serve"

For all of us, trusting in Christ is a process of hearing and being persuaded by the evidence. Jesus’ earthly ministry was one of preaching and calling upon people to trust His claim to be the Messiah. He did many, many signs and wonders such as healings and casting out of demons, to back up His claim. These signs and wonders were plenty of evidence in and of themselves to prove Jesus’ claim to be Messiah. But when He did the miracle about which we read today, it put Him over the top.

Jesus came back to Nazareth a different man. He was now a public figure. Some had seen Him clear the Temple. Others heard Him preach either in Jerusalem or on the way home along the Jordan River. They heard about the boy in Capernaum who had been healed.

Biblical faith is active trust in what we have good reason to believe is true. If we just met, you have no basis to trust me. But if over the next year I keep my word and follow through on what I say I’m going to do, you have good reasons to trust me.

In this episode of Jesus Messiah King, Jesus presents Himself to the Samaritans. As we will study, the Samaritans and Jews despised each other. Many of us probably know this. But how many of us know that the Samaritans exist to this day?