{"id":4346,"date":"2021-09-18T16:59:34","date_gmt":"2021-09-18T16:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/?p=4346"},"modified":"2021-09-18T16:59:34","modified_gmt":"2021-09-18T16:59:34","slug":"the-power-of-the-son-of-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2021\/09\/18\/the-power-of-the-son-of-man\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of the Son of Man"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>The Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity| Rev. Rolf Preus| October 11, 2009| St. Matthew 9:1-8<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/TrinityNineteen2009.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>So he got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city. Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, &#8220;Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.&#8221; And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, &#8220;This Man blasphemes!&#8221; But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, &#8220;Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, &#8216;Your sins are forgiven you,&#8217; or to say, &#8216;Arise and walk&#8217;? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins&#8221;; then He said to the paralytic, &#8220;Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.&#8221; &nbsp; And he arose and departed to his house.&nbsp; Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men.&nbsp; St. Matthew 9:1-8<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some folks have a problem with authority.&nbsp; They won\u2019t submit to it.&nbsp; When they have it they abuse it.&nbsp; Usually, those who are the least willing to submit to legitimate authority are those who abuse authority when they get their hands on it.&nbsp; The words in Proverbs 30, 22 about \u201ca servant when he reigneth\u201d inspired a poem by Rudyard Kipling entitled, appropriately, \u201cA Servant When He Reigneth.\u201d&nbsp; Kipling wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He knows no use for power<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Except to show his might.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He gives no heed to judgment<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unless it prove him right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not everyone is suited for the exercise of authority.&nbsp; Those who wield power should understand what it is all about.&nbsp; Servants take orders.&nbsp; This doesn\u2019t qualify them to give orders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But there was and is and ever shall be a Servant who reigns with love, justice, compassion, and equity.&nbsp; His rule provides perfect liberty.&nbsp; It sets prisoners free.&nbsp; It lifts the poor out of poverty.&nbsp; It changes sinners into saints.&nbsp; I am talking about the suffering Servant, the Lord Jesus Christ.&nbsp; He called himself the Son of man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Son of man is the Son of God.&nbsp; The Son of God is the Son of man.&nbsp; It is the same person.&nbsp; God became a man.&nbsp; If God became a man then whatever he does a man does because he is both God and man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When we confess that God became a man we are not confessing that the Father became a man.&nbsp; He did not.&nbsp; We are not confessing that the Holy Spirit became a man.&nbsp; He did not.&nbsp; We are confessing that the Son became a man.&nbsp; He who received his divine nature from his Father in eternity received his human nature from his mother in time.&nbsp; The eternal Son of the eternal Father become bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary.&nbsp; As we confess, \u201cAnd was made man.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why in the world would God do such a thing?&nbsp; Look and see!&nbsp; \u201cSon, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.\u201d&nbsp; Who is this forgiving sins?&nbsp; \u201cWhy, he\u2019s a man.&nbsp; Look at him!&nbsp; He\u2019s a man.&nbsp; Who is he, a man, claiming power that belongs to God alone?&nbsp; Why, he\u2019s blaspheming!&nbsp; That\u2019s what he\u2019s doing!&nbsp; He is speaking disrespectfully about God by claiming to do what only God can do.\u201d&nbsp; This was the charge that the Bible scholars were making.&nbsp; Oh, they didn\u2019t have the courage to say so out loud.&nbsp; They were only thinking.&nbsp; They weren\u2019t actually saying anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Jesus can read thoughts.&nbsp; Who, but God, can read another\u2019s thoughts?&nbsp; \u201cWhy do you think evil in your hearts?\u201d he asks them.&nbsp; Now they are on trial.&nbsp; They who would put Jesus on trial must answer his question.&nbsp; \u201cWhich is easier, to say, &#8216;Your sins are forgiven you,&#8217; or to say, &#8216;Arise and walk&#8217;?\u201d&nbsp; Well, a mere man can say neither with any effect.&nbsp; Only God can, by a word, enable a paralytic to stand up and walk.&nbsp; Only God can, by a word, forgive a sinner his sins.&nbsp; The power to do the one is the power to do the other.&nbsp; Only God can do either and God can do both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But wait a minute.&nbsp; If God has become a man it is no longer true that only God can forgive sins.&nbsp; If God has become a man then a man can forgive sins.&nbsp; Jesus said so.&nbsp; He said, \u201cBut that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins,\u201d then he healed the man.&nbsp; He did so in full view of the crowd of onlookers who were amazed.&nbsp; They saw with their own eyes his power to forgive.&nbsp; He healed the paralytic and thus proved his power to forgive.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All physical ailments are a result of sin.&nbsp; It\u2019s not that this ailment is caused by that sin.&nbsp; But if there were no sin in this world there would be no sickness or suffering.&nbsp; When Jesus demonstrated his power over physical ailments he demonstrated his power to forgive.&nbsp; The One who can bring life to dead limbs can forgive sins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Who is this man who forgives sins?&nbsp; He is our God.&nbsp; Who is this God who forgives sins?&nbsp; He is our brother.&nbsp; And he is with us right here and now.&nbsp; The Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins.&nbsp; He has this power right now and right here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If he didn\u2019t have this power here on earth it wouldn\u2019t do us any good because we are living here on earth.&nbsp; We\u2019re certainly not in heaven yet.&nbsp; If we were we\u2019d be sinless and we wouldn\u2019t need to receive the forgiveness of sins.&nbsp; But we need the forgiveness of sins right here on earth where we live.&nbsp; Here it is that we sin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus has the authority on earth to forgive sins.&nbsp; Make no mistake.&nbsp; He earned it.&nbsp; He who bore all of our sins on the cross has the power to forgive the sins he bore.&nbsp; He has the power to forgive you your sins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You know what they are.&nbsp; God knows.&nbsp; Nobody else really does.&nbsp; No one else can see the real sin you do because the real sin lies within you.&nbsp; It is your desire for what is wrong.&nbsp; You disobey God because you don\u2019t love God as much as you love yourself, but God\u2019s law tells you to love God with your whole heart, soul, and strength.&nbsp; Why do people tell lies about their neighbors?&nbsp; Why do they cheat and steal?&nbsp; Why do they break the marriage vow?&nbsp; Why do they break the rules?&nbsp; They think that they are more important than others.&nbsp; They are their own gods.&nbsp; They want to be in charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If they really were, all hell would break lose.&nbsp; Indeed, that\u2019s what hell is like.&nbsp; It\u2019s where God chooses not to be and sinners are left to stew in their own juice, so to speak.&nbsp; People bring a little piece of hell to earth whenever they sin against God.&nbsp; They also bring upon their souls an unbearable burden.&nbsp; Sin must be forgiven or it will condemn us to hell.&nbsp; We can\u2019t live before God without forgiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He who later went to the cross to suffer and die for the sin of the world demonstrated his power to forgive sins by healing the paralytic.&nbsp; He forgave him before he healed him.&nbsp; First things first.&nbsp; You need forgiveness more than you need anything else.&nbsp; And you need it here and now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He depended on his friends to go anywhere at all.&nbsp; There were no wheelchairs in those days.&nbsp; There was no handicap access to buildings, either.&nbsp; St. Luke records in his Gospel how the man\u2019s friends made a hole in the roof of the house where Jesus was in order to lower the man down to Jesus from above.&nbsp; This man needed help!&nbsp; He needed healing!&nbsp; And in the judgment of the one who healed him he needed forgiveness first and most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus alone has the authority to forgive sins on this earth.&nbsp; No one else has won this right.&nbsp; No one else can exercise this right.&nbsp; But here we are faced with a question.&nbsp; If Jesus does indeed have authority on earth to forgive sins, where do we find him doing so?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We notice that the crowd that witnessed Jesus forgiving and healing the paralytic glorified God who, in St. Matthew\u2019s words, \u201chad given such power to men.\u201d&nbsp; To men.&nbsp; That\u2019s men in the plural; not man in the singular.&nbsp; The power that Jesus has to forgive sins here on earth is exercised here on earth by men.&nbsp; St. John writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So Jesus said to them again, \u201cPeace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.\u201d And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, \u201cReceive the Holy Spirit.&nbsp; If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.\u201d&nbsp; St. John 20, 21-22<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins.&nbsp; He did not take this power away from the earth when he ascended into heaven.&nbsp; No, it is precisely as he is exalted in heaven far above all earthly powers that he deigns to serve us here on earth by forgiving us our sins.&nbsp; We confess.&nbsp; Jesus forgives.&nbsp; Jesus speaks through the mouths of his ministers and absolves us today just as surely as he absolved that paralytic lying on a mat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most Protestants deny this.&nbsp; Jesus claims the power on earth to forgive sins.&nbsp; That is clear from the words of our text.&nbsp; Jesus gave to his Church on earth the power to forgive sins.&nbsp; That is clear from the words Jesus spoke to his disciples as recorded by St. John.&nbsp; If we are to believe the Bible, Jesus has been forgiving sins right here on earth for nearly two thousand years now.&nbsp; He forgives sins through the speaking of his ministers.&nbsp; Yet it is a tragic fact of church life that millions of people who consider themselves Bible believers do not believe what the Bible says on this matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They will pit one truth of the Bible against another truth of the Bible and then deny what the Bible says when it doesn\u2019t fit into their system of thought.&nbsp; They say that only Christ has the power to forgive sins.&nbsp; That\u2019s perfectly true.&nbsp; But then they falsely assume that if a minister speaks words that convey Christ\u2019s forgiveness this must mean that Christ himself isn\u2019t doing the forgiving.&nbsp; But he is!&nbsp; He\u2019s also doing the baptizing.&nbsp; He\u2019s also the one who gives us to eat and to drink of his body and blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of sins.&nbsp; The Son of man is doing these things.&nbsp; He is doing these things right here on earth where we need to have these things done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOh, I don\u2019t need to go to church to be forgiven of my sins.&nbsp; I can pray to Jesus when I\u2019m all alone.\u201d&nbsp; Yes, you can.&nbsp; But unless you have some special kind of power most Christians don\u2019t have, you haven\u2019t actually heard Jesus answer your prayer for forgiveness when you pray all alone.&nbsp; Have you?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But when the Church gathers together in the name of Jesus he is here among us as he promised he would be.&nbsp; The minister is just his spokesman.&nbsp; Jesus is the one doing the talking.&nbsp; Jesus is the one who is forgiving us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the main reason why we come to church.&nbsp; We\u2019re like that paralyzed fellow lying on a cot.&nbsp; We can\u2019t make ourselves whole and we can\u2019t make ourselves innocent.&nbsp; Jesus can.&nbsp; Jesus does.&nbsp; He does so among us here and now.&nbsp; He has the power on earth to forgive sins and he exercises that power today.&nbsp; He won\u2019t take that power away from his Church because he loves her.&nbsp; Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity| Rev. Rolf Preus| October 11, 2009| St. Matthew 9:1-8 So he got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city. Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, &#8220;Son, be of good&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2021\/09\/18\/the-power-of-the-son-of-man\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,17,4,80],"tags":[578,238,223],"class_list":["post-4346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-sermons","category-sermons-by-historical-lectionary","category-sermons-by-rolf-preus","category-trinity-19","tag-matthew-9","tag-rolf-preus","tag-trinity-19"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4346"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4348,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4346\/revisions\/4348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}