Break The Roof

The main Bible text for this message is drawn from Mark chapter 2 verses 1-12: “And again he entered into Capernaum after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house. And straightway many were gathered together, in so much that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door; and he preached the word unto them. And they came unto Him, bringing one sick of the palsy which was borne of four, and when they could not come nigh unto Him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was; and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. When Jesus saw their faith, He said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. (It follows therefore that a man could become paralyzed by sin.) But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only? And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your heart? Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy), I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed and go thy way into thine house. And immediately, he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all: insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying we never saw it on this fashion.”

I would like you to say this to yourself, “So shall be my lot, in Jesus’ name. Men and women shall say unto me, they never saw it in this fashion.”

There are many lessons to learn from the passage in the foregoing. We shall diligently examine some of them.

1. Forgiveness of sin is accompanied by healing power: In other words, when people repent of their sins and give their lives to Jesus, they are born again to start a new life. A sister woke up one day to discover that there was an inscription similar to Arabic writings on her forehead. Prior to the discovery, she had been a terrible fornicator with many boyfriends. Although she had dismissed every gospel message preached to her, she was nonetheless perplexed about the strange writings that she began to look for a man of God to explain things to her. The man of God, which she eventually met, told her that she would die on the 27th of September of that year and that the only solution was for her to repent and forsake her sinful ways. The lady was quite angry that the man of God refused to pray for her, but rather insisted that she must give her life to Christ. She left in anger and went in search of herbalists who could solve her problem. But to her surprise, the herbalists could not help her, rather they emphasized that nothing would stop her sudden death on that date. Since she was quite helpless, she had no option than to run back to the man of God, where she confessed her sins and gave her life to Jesus. By the time she finished saying the sinner’s prayer, the sign on her forehead disappeared. The blood of Jesus rubbed it off. Although the evil spirits came with determination to kill her on the 27th of September, Jesus nonetheless defeated them. So, we see that forgiveness of sin is accompanied with healing power. It follows therefore that if you go back to your old sins, the old sicknesses would also come back to you.

2. Only God can forgive sin: There is no where in the scriptures where a man was made a priest to others for the purpose of confessing their sins to him and asking for forgiveness. It is only God who can forgive sins; no human being can do it.

3. Jesus is God: He was God who manifested in the flesh. This is why Jesus Himself said; “I and my Father are one.” Just like the Father, He too has the power to forgive sins. John chapter 1 verses1-3 tells us that: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.”

4. Jesus is qualified to say, “I say unto you”: All the servants of God and prophets in the Old Testament dispensation could only say, “Thus says the Lord...” But when Jesus came, He did not say, “Thus says the Lord,” because He was the very Lord. I pray that He will speak to you today, in Jesus’ name.