Look at what I brought with me this morning! (A sleeping bag) Let's unroll it here and see what it looks like.

I brought this sleeping bag to remind me to tell you one of my favorite stories in the Bible. It's the story about a very sick man. In fact, he was so sick, he couldn't even roll up his own sleeping bag. You see, he was paralyzed and had been that way for a long time. To be paralyzed means that your arms and legs don't work. Whenever this man wanted to go someplace he had to ask his friends to pick him up and take him on a stretcher.

One day Jesus was teaching in an area nearby where the paralyzed man lived. Some friends had heard that Jesus could heal people so they picked up the paralyzed man on his stretcher and took him there in the hope that he might be healed. But when they got there the crowd in and around the house was very large. They couldn't get near Jesus. So here is what they did.

They climbed up on top of the house and made a hole in the roof. Then they lowered their paralyzed friend down through the roof on ropes until he was right in front of Jesus!

Jesus wasn't angry with what these men did because He could see how much they cared for their friend. So do you know what Jesus told the paralyzed man? He told him his sins were forgiven. That's a good thing. We all need our sins forgiven.

But in the room that day besides Jesus and the paralyzed man were some religious leaders who thought that Jesus didn't have the right to forgive anyone of their sins. "Only God can forgive sins!" they said. They had not yet come to understand that Jesus was God's Son who had all the same power and authority as His Father.

So Jesus said to them, "Which do you think would be harder for me to do - to say 'Your sins are forgiven' or 'Pick up your stretcher and go home?'" They couldn't answer that.

So Jesus said to the paralyzed man, "Pick up your stretcher and walk home!" At that the paralyzed man who had not been able to move before, suddenly got up and started walking around just like he had never been paralyzed.

Everyone was amazed! This miracle (that's what it was) proved beyond doubt that Jesus was God's Son and could really forgive sins.

Jesus doesn't always heal people today but He is always willing to forgive their sins when they become Christians. That's because He is truly God's Son and He has the power to forgive sins.

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

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All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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