The gospels are full of stories documenting Jesus’s miracles—healing bodies and raising the dead—but what if there was a miracle more profound than that? Our friend Ryan Leak kicked off the first week of our new series with a powerful word that will jumpstart your faith and renew your belief in the miraculous.
Notes 📓✏️:
Mark 2:1-12 NIV – A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that He had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and He preached the word to them.
3 Some men came, bringing to Him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them.
4 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.
5 When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7 “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
8 Immediately Jesus knew in His spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and He said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? 9 Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? 10 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So He said to the man, 11 “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 12 He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
Discussion Questions 📝❓:
- How can we demonstrate faith and determination like the four friends in the Gospel of Mark?
- Why do you think Jesus chose to forgive the paralyzed man’s sins before healing him?
- How can we be faithful friends for others in our lives and encourage them to believe in miracles
- What do you think Jesus meant when he asked which was easier: to forgive sins or to heal the man physically?