Sep9
Matthew 12:9-10……..Working
Going on (To illustrate His point) from that place, (Grain fields) he went into their synagogue, (Jewish place of worship.) 10 and a man with a shrivelled hand (Paralyzed hand do to disease or birth defect. Right hand-(Luke 6:6b) was there. (Possibly planted by the Pharisees) Looking for a reason to accuse (Criticize) Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” (Since Rabbinic Law allowed Sabbath healings that were life threatening. They were really trying to trap Jesus so they could charge Him with breaking the Sabbath, since the man did not meet that criteria.)
Extended Sermon Notes
“Teaches how Jesus sees our misery and puts Himself in the place where healing and wholeness are needed most.” ⇒ Jesus will meet us at any level and place were at. Jesus will move in our life when we feel down, defeated, and useless. When we feel powerless to do anything. When we are deformed by drug addiction and alcoholism.
“Teaches those whose hearts are hard will look for ways in which to criticize and find fault with others.” ⇒ We will go to great lengths to find fault. When our heart are hard against others, will rejoice at their calamity. We want things to go bad for them. We want to justify our own hatred of them. But this is wrong! When our hearts are hard against another person, we stop thinking and appreciate all the good things about them. Instead our mind searches for any little transgression that we can think of, so that we can make accusations against them; “Did you see what they did here?” “What about this?” “I can’t believe that they would have said that!” Perhaps you can relate to this. When your heart is hard toward another, their every action is interpreted as coming from evil intent against you to harm you. You will take everything done or said and will interpret it as though it was done with an intent to hurt you. A hard heart will find great offence at even the smallest issue. A little fault becomes a big fault in your eyes. It’s been said that people might be 99% in agreement with each other, but it is the 1% disagreement that gets all of the attention.
“Warns how legalism makes you unloving and uncaring of others, that you stop seeing people to seeing only rules.” ⇒ Rather than condemning others will you see people as trying to grow and learning how to obey God even if they fall short at times…..(To be Continued)
“Calls for a heart that is coming to Jesus to learn and understand. And not to justify or prove ourselves right.” ⇒ Are you coming to listen, or to criticize and find fault? Are you eager to hear all of God’s Word. Or do you only listen to certain scriptures and reject others that make you feel uncomfortable? Are you open to changing your thoughts, words, and actions in light of what God’s Word reveals. Or do you look for ways to justify your sin, bad behavior, and prove others wrong.
“Even today, legalistic people are more concerned about enforcing their rules than they are about loving and helping others.” ⇒ For the most part religious people are interested in their own activities, and their own Salvation than ministering and helping other people. Their idea of being religious is to be sure that they are doing the right thing: Worshiping, Bible reading, Church attendance, and prayer, but overlook the influence this is supposed to have on one’s character and personality? Religion is more than ritual; it results in changed lives, loving our neighbor as ourselves, and being stirred to action by the plight of the poor, the homeless, the sick, and those who have been brought low by tragedy. The scriptures declare that true religion consists of “Visiting the fatherless and widows, and keeping oneself unspotted by the world.” In contrast to ritualistic religion, Jesus went about doing good. He told the timeless story of the Good Samaritan. He showed pity for the blind, the maimed, the sorrowing, He stressed the importance of answering human need.
More Notes & Applications
Calls for making regular worship in the Lord’s house with others a priority. Just as it was Jesus’ custom to be in God’s house on the Sabbath. So to it should be our custom to be in church on Sunday, the Christian day of worship.
Teaches how breakthroughs come when we least expect it. The man with the shriveled hand probably didn’t go to the Synagogue that day expecting a miracle, yet it happened.
Warns how many will try to use crowds and public places to try to get you to back-down, compromise, and give in, that you come up short and disappoint, not just to yourself but everyone around as well.
Warns how coming to worship with a critical heart can keep you from receiving.
Warns how some will take advantage of our compassion and good nature.
Teaches just because your in worship doesn’t guarantee that everyone else is there to worship. Think about it the Pharisees were in the house of worship, not with faith and love in their hearts, but murder, while watching Jesus, Yes, it’s possible to sit worshipfully in a meeting with murder in the heart.
Teaches how the most important thing in the world is not correct performance of rituals, but the spontaneous answer to the cry of human need.
Teaches if our critics are ever going to try to criticize us, better they find us doing good lest they have ammunition to further their case.
Teaches how Christ comes seeking sinners out on their own turf. (Though were wasting away Christ meets us where we are).
The man must have felt very hurt after hearing their remark, that he was nothing more than a pawn in their wicked plan to trap Jesus.
Their question puts Jesus in a difficult spot if He said “No” they would accuse of cruelty if he said “Yes” they would accuse Him of violating the Sabbath.
Displays just how insidious and evil the Pharisees plan was in taking advantage of Jesus’ compassion knowing He couldn’t pass by the man with the withered hand without healing him.
Those who favor of the Pharisees planting of the man with a shriveled hand as a ploy to trap Jesus do so by arguing that the man would not have been allowed in the Synagogue in the first place due to the fact that he was considered unclean because of his disease. Therefore those people, like lepers, were social outcasts and not allowed into mainstream society, even less so in the Synagogue.
From the apocrypha Gospel of Hebrews it says he was a stonemason who made his living by laying bricks and stones and working in the construction business. And that he asked Jesus to heal him so we wouldn’t have to beg anymore.-( ? )
We don’t know what caused the man’s debilitating condition. Over the years there have been a lot of different notions: Some say he harmed his hand at work. There had been an accident and some rocks or bricks had fallen on the man’s hand which caused severe nerve damage. As a result his hand withered up. The man contracted a form of polio that was known to have existed around Capernaum at that time and that is what damaged his hand. The man suffered from of a type of rheumatoid arthritis that caused what some today call a “Claw hand”. The man was born that way as a result of a birth defect. The truth is we really don’t know. And to tell you the truth, it really doesn’t matter whether his hand was damaged by an accident or a disease.
If one stops to think of the severity of this man’s handicap, we think of the many restrictions his withered hand would place upon him. If he was right-handed, and depended on doing manual labor for his livelihood, then his problem was extremely serious.The hand is a powerful, multi-useful instrument to help us through life. In human relations it is used to shake hands, to offer the sign for peace or victory, wave good-bye. In practical ways it is used to write, dress, wash or wipe dishes, prepare a meal, eat a meal. On a job the hand is used on a pick or shovel, to type, to carve or chisel, to paint. In daily life it is used to drive a car, compete in sports, play a musical instrument, sweep with a broom. All of these things and more would be denied us by the loss of a hand.
- Posted by David Costa/
- Notes/
- 0 Comments
Total 0 Comments
Leave a comment