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>> NARRATOR: Why are these orphans rejoicing?
Because gifts to the dorms for orphanages fund of Heaven's Family have provided them
with new homes.
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>> DAVID: Okay, back into this amazing story that that is found in Matthew chapter 9,
but we're looking at it in Luke's gospel because he's got more detail.
Jesus is in his home town of Capernaum.
The Pharisees and teachers of the Law have all gathered there because Jesus just shortly
before this has performed one of the three messianic miracles that it is commonly believed
amongst the Rabbis and teachers of that time could only be performed by the Messiah.
That was the cleansing of a leper. And that's why Jesus in Luke chapter 5 and verse number
14, after he cleansed that leper, he said, Don't tell anyone.
Actually reading verbatim, He order him to tell no one, but go and show yourself to the
priest and make an offering for your cleansing, just as Moses commanded, now get this, as
a testimony to them.
That is, there's more to this than just I want them to find out that a leper was cleansed.
No! I want them for the first time in Jewish history, since the giving of the law of Moses,
hundreds and hundreds of years ago, to actually have to walk through Leviticus 13 and 14,
the law of what to do when a leper is cleansed.
And which all of the teachers and all of the Rabbis believe that when somebody comes on
the scene and does that, that's the Messiah.
And so that explains in this case why Jesus said don't tell anyone.
It wasn't because he didn't want it known.
He wanted to speed line everybody knowing about it.
Send this guy to the priest down in Jerusalem for the first time in hundreds of years, you
know.
They have to apply Leviticus 13 and 14.
That will set in motion a inquiry that will be nation wide because a notable miracle,
a messianic miracle has been done.
All of the leaders and teachers in the Synagogues and so forth, then ultimately gathered in
Camernaum to watch Jesus to make an evaluation and to investigate.
Is this the messiah? And that sets the stage now for Luke chapter 5.
Now isn't this interesting what happens in verse number 18 of Luke 5. And some men were
carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in and to
set him down in front of Him. But not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd.
Stop! Who was the crowd?
Was it just a regular bunch of people from, the local Capernaum people?
The crowd is Pharisees and teachers of the Law who have gathered and filled up that house
from all over Israel. [giggle]
So that also may explain why they couldn't get a way in. Not just because of the fact
the house was stuffed.
Because the house was stuffed with people who didn't want sick people getting to Jesus.
I mean you think about it. You know, think about it, just for a moment.
Take an average crowd in Jesus' day, and uh, you know, here comes the sick.
And Jesus is well known as a healer. Well, why wouldn't the crowd part?
Why wouldn't people who are on the outside looking in say, Hey, there's a paralyzed man
who wants to be healed. Could we, you know, open the way for him to get in there and so
forth, you know?
You know, you'd just think, I mean, I can't say this with absolute certainty, but you'd
just think there'd be some mercy shown to this guy.
And that they would have said oh we'll make allowance. Let's let this guy in.
No no. This is not a regular crowd.
This is a crowd of the most religious bigoted people who we'll see soon, you know, right
from the start they had some prejudice against Jesus.
So they didn't find any way to bring him in and uh because of the crowd.
Verse number 19. They went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his
stretcher, into the middle of the crowd in front of Jesus.
Alright, this is amazing.
Ok, now first of all don't imagine, you know, a pitched roof like you might have in your
house, and these guys walking up there, and hanging onto the chimney trying to get there
friend…
No no. Flat roof first of all.
Lot of times in middle eastern countries people, they all have flat roofs for the most part.
And they have stairways leading from the exterior of the house upto the roof.
People slept there. They dry their vegetables there. They dry their fruits there and so
forth.
It's a protected place under the sun and so on. But it still is water proof.
Although there's, you know, lots of dry season, there's in Israel a lot of wet season.
And it rains, and sometimes is snows in the higher elevations and so on.
And so, you know, you just can't, you don't have like a tile roof in the sense that it's
not water proof.
No. Whatever they had, we usually think of a solid kind of clay, sun-baked roof that
just supported by wooden beams, you know, inside or as a structural support for that
clay roof.
But it says here that they removed the tiles. I don't know what that involved, but it involved
some degree of work.
And uh, we have to question if tiles were removed, I mean, how much commotion it caused in the
house below.
You know, think about that for a second.
I mean if you were sitting in any room, and someone started making their way through the
roof.
Forget about what kind of roof it is. I mean, it's going to be a show stopper.
People are going to stop and look up there and hear the noise and see the movement and
so forth.
Man if their having to bang their way through hardened clay and dig it, what's been hardened
by the sun over years and years.
There had to be dust falling. Chunks of clay falling in the room and so forth.
And there's no record that anybody tried to stop it or prevent it.
No one said no no. No need to do that we'll make a way for you to get in here. No record
of that.
There's no record of Jesus stopped it. And holes don't just start with all of a sudden
there's nothing…
It's a solid roof, a solid ceiling over everyone's head and all of a sudden they lift up a tile
that's as big as a man.
It's tiles plural. Okay, so the hole starts off small. All of a sudden a blaze, a shaft
of light comes into the room.
Another one is removed, another shaft of light. At bare minimum this had to of been a show
stopper.
And wow! Is it ever a setup for Jesus, and it is ever a setup for the teachers of the
law and the pharisees who are all there with their magnifying glasses on the Lord Jesus Christ.
What is He gonna do? And after He does what He does, what is gonna be their reaction?
Now you all know the story. I imagined it to you because you've read it many times in
the past, and we're not going to have time to finish it this time.
But there's still more insight to come that I think is going to be an absolute hugh blessing
as we look at that paralyzed man, how he was healed, as we look at the four friends and
how they were involved in his healing, as we look at the Pharisees and their reaction,
it is so very very interesting.
So I'm looking forward to it. I'll see you next time.
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