The Great Galilean Ministry (3)

Well, we are tracing the steps of Christ through Galilee as we're looking at his ministry, this long 18-month time period of ministry in Galilee. And we have seen several things already about Jesus being rejected in Nazareth as he spoke in the synagogue. He has relocated to Copernum and in Copernum he has gone into the synagogue to teach, has cast a demon out of a man, and then goes into Peter's home that afternoon and evening and raises Peter's mother-in-law from an illness, and then heals many other people as well. By the way, sometimes I say some things and then I get home later and realize, you know, John, that could be misunderstood. And I made some reference to mothers-in-law last time, I think it was a couple of weeks ago, and just want to make sure you understand that's not from personal experience, okay? My mother-in-law and I had a wonderful relationship. I loved her, she tolerated me very well, and my wife has a wonderful relationship with my mother as well, so no personal angles there with that. That's, you know, if you get a chance to get a mother-in-law joke in, you got to do it. That's all there is to it. Right? Walt Smith or Walt Smith? Walt's famous for mother-in-law jokes, okay? We stopped last time in Mark 1. We're going to pick back up in Mark 1 as we look at Mark's account of the description of this brief tour of Galilee, the first tour of Galilee. Do we have a map of Galilee there, very to start with? Can't remember whether we stuck one in or not, if not. Is it locked up? Well, it looks something like this, and right there's the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River coming down, Capernum's right up here, okay? That'll suffice for now. There we go. Wow, you did not, I could do wonders with this, did you? Sea of Galilee right here, here's Capernum right on the northern end of the Sea of Galilee, of course Jesus was born or grew up, I should say, in Nazareth, performed his first miracle in Cana. He has already done some ministry in Galilee, but now we're going to look at the first tour of Galilee. Now remember, Mark 1 has just described one of the busy days in the life of our Lord. There are six full days described in the Gospels. Six times where a pretty full day is described, we know what Jesus did from early in the day till the end of the day, and Mark chapter 1 is one of those days. It ends with Jesus after the Sabbath is over, which means after dark, after the sun has set, then people from the whole town of Capernum are bringing everybody they can think of to Jesus to heal, to cast out demons, so we don't know how far this extended into the evening, into the night. We do know it must have been very taxing for him from what we know, and in the descriptions of the Gospels, whenever Jesus healed someone, he could sense that power was going out from him. So this was a very long day, but I want you to notice in Mark 1, verse 35, how Mark begins to describe this first tour of Galilee very early in the morning, while it was still dark. Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place where he prayed. Now just think about that. You know, we can pick up, start reading there, and if we don't remember the context, we lose the impact of that. Jesus has just had a very busy day, but he gets up early so that he can be alone with God to spend some time with him. He goes out to a solitary place to pray. That indicates how important it was for Jesus to spend time with his father, and certainly ought to be an example for us as well to make sure that that's very important to us as well. Verse 36 says Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they explained everyone is looking for you. Yeah, I'm sure they would be after what happened yesterday, and you know, he's healing practically everybody in town. Everybody's looking for him. They want more of this. They want to hear him again. They want to be with Jesus, and notice Jesus' answer in verse 38, Jesus replied, let us go somewhere else to the nearby villages, so I can preach there. Also, that is why I have come. I've made a point of this several times, but it is impossible to escape as you trace the steps of Jesus. Jesus was a preacher. Jesus came to preach. He came to announce the news of the kingdom, and over and over and over again, he says, my mission here is to preach. His mission was not to heal. His mission was to preach the word. The healings had a purpose in confirming what he was saying, and we'll see that later, with one of the healings that he does, the very clear description of the purpose of that healing was to confirm, to verify, to authenticate the message, and that's always what miracles were for in New Testament times. They were confirming signs of the validity of the message. Jesus primary thrust was to preach. He could have stayed, done more miracles in comparison, but he said, the reason I came was to preach. I came to preach the word in Galilee. We're going to make a tour. We're going to go throughout Galilee and all the villages, and we're going to preach. That is a description. Verse 39 summarizes it. We traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons. Just an amazing description of this tour of Galilee. Now, that's kind of a summary statement of the first tour of Galilee. There are four events that are recorded, and we'll take a look at each of those. Have any comment or question about this brief lead-in summary type paragraph to the first tour of Galilee? Yeah. Yeah. Whoever's demon possess coming into the synagogues, evidently, they're showing up a church. Kind of makes you wonder, doesn't it? Yeah. Yes, John? Right. That's a great question. John, the nature of the synagogue, and was it their central place of worship, and what function did it play? They did have a temple at this time in the lifetime of Jesus. There was a temple that was functional, but the synagogues arose when the Jews were in captivity. When the Jews were taken into captivity to Babylon, 586 BC, their temple was destroyed, and obviously being in captivity, they had no place to gather for hearing the word, to worship, and so during that time, these kinds of places of worship sprang up, even in Babylon and in other places, and when they came back to the land, then 70 years later, they established, they began to establish synagogues, and synagogues became the place of teaching and reading of the Old Testament law and instruction, that kind of thing. And synagogues were planted all over the Roman Empire, Paul in the Book of Acts, whenever he would go into a town, would look first for the synagogue, and he would start there because he knew if there was enough, he had to have 10 Jewish males in a town to have a synagogue, if there were enough Jewish population to have a synagogue, you had a ready-made audience that already is familiar with the Old Testament scripture, so you find synagogues all the time in the Book of Acts. They were a place of Bible teaching, reading of the law, worship. Okay? But they arose during the time between the end of the Old Testament, the beginning of the New Testament, during that time period, that's when they arose. Okay, the first event that takes place is the healing of a leper. Let's begin, let's stay with Mark's account in verse 40. A man with leprosy came to him. We don't know where this was, he's already evidently going from village to village preaching, and this event happens and is recorded. A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, if you are willing, you can make me clean. Now notice his statement. If you are willing, you can make me clean. What does that say to you? What does that communicate? That statement of that man? Faith? Yeah, does communicate. Pardon me? Be happy with either decision, okay? He indicates he believes that he is God, only God can make him clean. Quite possible this man was familiar with Old Testament prophecies about what the kingdom would be like, what the Messiah would do, which included healings, Isaiah 35, cleansings, Ezekiel 36, and so probably he's identified, Jesus says in the Messiah. Remember, reports have gone out about what Jesus is doing all through Galilee. So he is not an unknown now, and there are people who are believing that he is in the Messiah. So faith? Yes, but what else the way he says that Chuck was on to something there? The way he says it, what does that say, David? He didn't necessarily expect to be healed. That's a very important point. He has faith, but what is his faith in? How is expressing his faith? He feels unworthy. He feels unworthy? Possibly. He's just one of the things he's doing. Okay, he may have, we don't know all that was in his mind and heart, but he may have felt unworthy, and left that in the Lord's hands to do whatever he would want to do. Vicky? Right. It goes along with what Chuck was saying that he's leaving the result in God's hands, whichever way God decides is fine. He's leaving that up to God. He's not demanding a healing. I think what we're seeing here, what you're talking about is right, that his faith is not in the healing. His faith is in the power of God. You can make me hold. There's no question about your power. I know you are powerful. I just don't know if that's what you want to do. See, if it's your will, if you're willing, you can heal me. You have, you have the power. No question about that. I believe you have the power to heal, and where that came from evidently, he recognizes something of Messianic credentials in what he's heard about Jesus. Maybe he's listened to him preach. He knows that Jesus has the power to healing. There's never a question about the power of God. The only question when we pray about something is, is this what you want to do? Is this your wills? Are you willing to do this? And you're right that he's showing faith and submission to God by phrasing his request in this way. It reminds me a lot of what Shadrach Meshach and Abednego said in Daniel 3. Remember when they're about to be thrown into the furnace and they say, oh, King, our God is able to deliver us from this furnace. But if he does not, we still will not bow to your image. See, God is able, there's no question about the ability of God. The power of God, he can do anything. He can do anything. The question is, Lord, what is your will? And it's not a question of whether or not God's sitting up in heaven with a daisy. I will, I will not. I will, I will not. Let's just see where it ends up. It's not that. It's not some capricious, well, I'm just going to decide, in this case, I want to, in this case, nah, it's not that at all. God's will is always dictated by his character and his purposes on earth. And so what, what outplay of events and circumstances is going to bring God the most glory, is going to fulfill his plan and purpose. Sometimes it is to heal. Sometimes it is not. Always for our own good. Regardless of which way it goes, it's always for our own good. Because remember all things work together for good. And that good is defined by God's terms, not ours. It's not always comfortable, convenient, easy, nice. That's not the good. The good is, how can I best be made like Jesus? How can I be made like Christ? Because it is his purpose, Romans 8.29, to conform us to the image of Christ, isn't it? So if you will, you can make me, that's one of the great statements of Scripture that shows this beautiful balance between, I have complete confidence in your power. I don't know which way this is going to work, but I have complete confidence in your power. I'm leaving it in your hands to do what you know is best. And that, to me, is a beautiful balance of faith. You know, I think quite honestly the, the, oh, call it, what you will, health and wealth, gospel, faith healers, that branch of Christianity. I think they have it all wrong because they say the faith is, if you have enough faith that you will be healed, then you will be healed. And really, then the faith is in the healing. Or if you believe enough and have enough faith, you can get the answers to your prayer. Well, that's faith in my prayers. Or that's faith in my faith. It's not faith in God. Faith in God says, I know you have all power. I know you can do all things. I trust you completely. I don't know what your purpose and will is, but I trust you completely to do what is the right thing. And I submit myself to that. I accept it knowing that whatever you decide will conform me best to the image of Christ. So I trust you, that is what the Bible talks about, boy of faith. If you will, if you're willing, you can make me clean. What a great expression of genuine biblical faith. And notice what happens verse 41, filled with compassion. And by the way, that indicates that Jesus miracles were not just, okay, I need another little credential over here. Although they did, they did serve in that form. It's not like, okay, I got to rack up a few more points here. Jesus miracles also came out of compassion. He genuinely was moved by the needs of people. And so filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man, I am willing. He said, be clean. Immediately, the left verse he left him and he was cured. Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning. Look at this in verse 44. See that you don't tell this to anyone. That seems like a strange request. Why do you think Jesus did that? Okay. So it wouldn't be swamped with more lepers. Okay. That's a good way to put it. No, that's a good way to put it. I think you're on the right track. We've talked about this a little bit before. Kiss me. He wanted to preach. Yeah. Yeah. It would be easy for people to, I think the term we've used, the expression we've used is to initiate a premature crisis. In other words, thrust Jesus into the role of, let's make him king. Let's get this health program. Let's get this feeding program into office. This is what we need. And it would be very easy for people to sweep him into some kind of real popular appeal type of deal. And Jesus, that was not the father's purpose. And that was not what his ministry was about. So that's one reason I think why I told the man that I think you're right. It's not that Jesus didn't want to heal more people, but this groundswell of popular appeal that is wrongly motivated, that just wants the healings and the feedings and the miracles. Doesn't really care who he is and why he came. They just want the good stuff. That's what Jesus is avoiding. Notice the next thing you tell them to do. See that you don't tell this to anyone, but go show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing as a testimony to them. There's something really interesting going on here. How many times do you think a priest in the temple in Jerusalem did a leper cleansing ceremony or recognizing that a leper had been cleansed? How many times do you think that happened? Pardon me? Zero. Yeah, I think we're probably close with zero. I mean, that just didn't happen. There might be a case, according to the Vitticus 13 and 14, there were ceremonies and kind of tests that were given to find out whether or not someone had a contagious skin disease, which the Hebrew word is often translated leper, but it can mean any kind of contagious skin disease can even refer to mildew in a house and that kind of thing too. And there were certain tests the priest would do to find out if this really is it, but if it really was it, there was a legitimate test to determine if the person came back and seemed to be cured, whether or not they still had it, but it would be extremely rare, probably zero cases for the average priest that they ever saw of anyone who came back that legitimately had leprosy. I mean, it's not the kind of thing that went away. It's not like dry skin. You know, that'll be gone in June, right? But the leprosy does not like that. It's a progressive disease. So they probably rarely, if ever, saw this happen. And I don't know how many lepros Jesus healed. Remember Luke 17 talks about him healing 10 at one time and he told them to go to Jerusalem to the priest and remember one of them came back to thank him and the others were high-paying around to Jerusalem. Man, we want to get this bill of health here. Yes. What do you think that refers to? Good question, Margaret. As a testimony to them, who's that talking about? The priests. Yeah. I think so. Okay. Jesus has been in Jerusalem, right? He's already been in Jerusalem. He has done some miracles there according to John 2. He's done several miracles there. The religious leaders are already interested in him and checking him out. We'll see that in just a moment. They're already checking out his credentials. He starts sending leprosy down there and they're healed. This is a powerful testimony to the priests of who he is. Okay. When they start seeing this. I don't think it's any accident that yes, Joe. Go ahead. Exactly. That's a great point. And Jesus even makes that point. Doesn't any statement? All for the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing. In other words, there is a legal ceremony to go through here. In this case, the law of Moses stipulated what should be done. You need to follow the law of Moses. I think that's a great point. I think he was. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's part of it. It's not just that Jesus was trying to avoid a premature crisis. That's part of it. But I think there is there is some truth of what you're saying, Joe, is that the first thing he needs to do is get to Jerusalem and fulfill what the law said to do rather than go on the speaking circuit and write a book and start signing books about I got healed. You know, he needs to get to Jerusalem and do what the law said. You're right. He could be easily distracted. Good point. Okay. Right. And there were. Yes. Yes. And we can sympathize with the guy in verse 45. Instead, he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. I think probably most of us would do the same thing. I hope he did end up going to Jerusalem too. I hope he did do that. But but he did start telling the story and notice it says as a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere. And again, there's a sense in which the wrong response prevents Jesus from doing some things he would have done otherwise. I want to be careful how I say that because you know, he's going to fulfill his purpose at any rate. But you know, there are occasions where, for instance, it will say later on in Nazareth that he could not do many miracles there because of their unbelief. And I think the reason is Jesus chose not to do many miracles there because the people were unresponsive. He himself later would say, don't keep throwing your pearls to the swine and go find other people. What? No, no, not all the priests were in Jerusalem. The priests, even in Old Testament times, were scattered throughout different cities. Yeah. Well, the ceremony needed to take place in the temple is the reason for that. But the priests were scattered. There were 48 cities in Old Testament times where priests lived. They were designated. And the reason for that was so that they would teach the word of God to the people. And they would be God's messengers scattered throughout the land. It's a ceremony that takes place in the temple. Tabernacle earlier temple when the temple is there. Yes, it's that kind of ceremony. Now we don't know if the same arrangement existed in the Old Testament for the priests being scattered out in the same cities. But they did come from different parts. We know, for instance, Luke 1, Zacharias, it was his turn to serve in the temple for his rotation. So he came from the hill country of Judea was at the temple for a while and then went back home. So we know that that was still happening. Just one other thing I want to say about the testimony to the priests. This is part of a crescendoing testimony. It's part of a growing body of evidence to the priests that shows who Jesus is. And so I don't think it's any surprise. Shouldn't be that by the time you get to Acts chapter 6 and verse 7 it says, and a great many priests were obedient to the faith. When the gospel started spreading in the city of Jerusalem after the resurrection after the apostles started preaching a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. And part of the evidence would have been all these lepers coming down here. You know, in their heel, they've never seen anything like that. And I'm sure they began to ask, how this happened? And you know, you just hope and trust that every leper said, well, man, name Jesus. And this body of evidence continues to grow. And of course, the capstone of it would be the rinding of the veil from top to bottom when Jesus died. That had to be pretty convincing. Evidence that something was unusual about this man. So just a little statement here. You know, offer the sacrifices as a testimony to these priests. And it was a testimony to them. Powerful testimony. Okay. Any other comments, questions about the healing of this leper? All right. The next event is described also in Mark, but we're going to turn to Luke's account. Luke chapter 5. Luke chapter 5 verses 17 to 26. And this is the healing of the paralytic. Again, let's take a look at the map. Jesus goes back to the purnum. He's been preaching. He's been going throughout Galilee. And Mark's account says that the crowd heard he had come home. Is the way it says it. But he's been touring Galilee, preaching in these villages. And now he's come home. His new home base is cappernum. So he's back in cappernum. And notice what happens. Luke chapter 5 verse 17. One day as he was teaching, there it is again. Okay. He's a teacher and preacher of the word. His main focus is the ministry of the word. As one day as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law who had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem were sitting there. What do you think those guys were doing there? Gathering evidence. Okay. All right. These are the religious leaders of Israel, right? According to Deuteronomy, the leaders of Israel were supposed to test any prophet who came to make sure that he was genuine. And the religious leaders and these were the official religious leaders of the nation were charged with the responsibility of checking anybody out who claimed to be a prophet, particularly who claimed to be a Messiah, the Messiah. So they are probably there, at least in their minds, for legitimate reasons. But they obviously do not like what they're seeing, do not like what they're hearing, do not like the response that Jesus is getting. And so very quickly, yes, this is going to turn into a gathering of evidence against him. And we'll see right after this first tour of Galilee, there are three straight Sabbath controversies that take place in the gospels. And that's when the opposition and animosity of the Pharisees really ratchets up a lot. Let's see what happens here. It says, and the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick, interesting way of saying it wasn't it? You know, God's power is always there with Jesus, but remember, Jesus in his humanity always voluntarily limited the expression of his divine power to when it was the father's purpose and will for that to happen. And so it is on this day, on this time, this place, it is God's will for that power to be unleashed. And so here's how it's going to work, verse 18, some men came carrying a paralytic on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd right in front of Jesus. Now if you have a picture in your mind of an aframe and these guys, you know, pulling him up over the gutter and getting him up there and always slipping he's small. No, we better pull him, push a little bit from that. You know, if you got that idea, that's all wrong. Try to get that out of your mind. I should have thought to put a picture of a typical house in Bible times, but a typical home in Bible times we have a flat roof and an outside staircase up to that roof. I mean, they were not, you know, shimmying up the gutters to get there. They had a way to get up there. It was a good way for them to get where they needed to be. And there were tiles on the roof that they could easily remove and then a fatch, probably fatch covering under that that they could let him down. It's not like they had pitchforks, I mean, axes and that kind of thing up there, damaging the guy's roof and tearing up his house. They were removing the tiles and putting him down through the roof. So these guys were okay. They're not doing anything wrong. But it is very ingenious and it's a very creative way to getting down into Jesus presence. They lower him right down in front of where Jesus is. First, when Jesus saw their faith, he said, friend, your sins are forgiven. Who's faith? Who's the there? The carriers, all of his friends? Did you say something else on that check? Okay. All right. The man too. Again, I can't be dogmatic about this, but I would think it's both the man and the carriers. God is honoring the faith of the men who brought him there and he's responding to the faith of the man who is paralyzed. Quite probably so. He says, to him, friend, your sins are forgiven. Now, verse 21, the Pharisees and the teachers of law began began thinking to themselves, who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins, but God alone? Is there anything wrong with those questions? Anything wrong with those statements? Not really. Okay. Okay. Obviously, I didn't believe he was the Messiah. If Jesus is not the Messiah, their first statement is true. Regardless, their second statement is true. Right? Their second statement is right. Who can forgive sins, but God? And if Jesus is a mere man, then they have every right to say what they've said in the first statement. This man's committing blasphemy because only God can forgive someone's sins and obviously the forgiveness talking about here is not me forgiving you for something you've said or done against me. It's the ultimate forgiveness of wiping away your sins, taking away the divine penalty for your sins. That's the forgiveness being spoken here. Only God can do that. And so if he's not God, their statement is very accurate, very true. Where they are wrong, obviously, is that he is God. So they are wrong in their supposition that he's committing blasphemy. Now, Jesus shows that he is God. In the very next verse, Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, why are you thinking these things in your heart? And then notice what it goes on to say, verse 23, which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven or to say get up and walk. What do you think you meant by that? Okay. Forgiveness of sins is not immediately visible. I mean, anybody can say that to someone else and you can't see whether or not that person's sins are forgiven, but you can sure see if a paralyzed man. Remember, these are small communities. These are not huge metropolitan areas. Probably everybody knows this man, knows who he is. They have known him to be paralyzed. Everybody will know if he gets up and walks, everybody can see that. Which is easier to say. Well, obviously it's easier to say your sins are forgiven. In one sense, neither is easier to say, though, right? In another sense, neither is easier to say because only God can say either one, right? Only God can say get up and walk and only God can say your sins are forgiven. So in that sense, neither one is really easier. But I think probably the point here is, Jesus is saying, okay, I know what you're thinking in your heart about what I'm saying. Yes, it's easy to say your sins are forgiven and nobody really know whether or not that any religious charlatan can come along and make those kinds of claims. Now, I want to show you that I have the authority to make those claims. I want to show you that I have the authority to say that. And so look at verse 24. And this is one of the most beautiful verses in all the New Testament to show the purpose of miracles, the purpose of signs and miracles, verse 24. But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. And then you see those three little dots. I love that. I love those three dots because it represents a pause. And everybody's on the edge of their seat wondering, yeah, what's going to happen next? What's he going to say? What's he going to do? And Jesus pauses for the maximum effect. And this is not a show, but this is designed to be the credentials to validate what he has said. And so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He pauses and then he says to the paralyzed man, I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home. And verse 25 says immediately, he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on a wind home praising God. Now again, verse 24 indicates as do other verses that talk about sign gifts and miracles and signs of an apostle. Verse 24 indicates the purpose of miracles was always to validate a truth claim, always to validate a statement. And that's what Jesus miracle was for. This miracle is to prove to you that I have the divine authority to tell people their sins are forgiven. It's the purpose of the miracle. And great statement of that that purpose here, verse 26, everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said we have seen remarkable things today. They were stunned. The word remarkable is a Greek word that we get our word paradox from paradoxia. We get our word paradox from paradoxes, something that seems to be opposites. It doesn't seem like it could or should happen. The people literally are there saying what we're seeing, that can't happen, but it did happen. It's a paradox. They were stunned. They were paradoxed. They were sitting there thinking this can't be happening, but it is. This is the ultimate paradox of God's power, something that cannot happen in the natural world we see happening by divine power. And so they were stunned by it. Yes, Mary? Mary? Yes, I appreciate that statement and question. This story and others like it, healing type stories where Jesus responds to a person's faith, and particularly this one being tied to his sins being forgiven. These kinds of stories are used by some people to teach that all illness is a result of sin. And that is blatantly untrue. That is so unbiblical. Can you think of some biblical reasons why that would be untrue? John chapter 9. Exactly. What did Jesus say to his disciples in John chapter 9? The man born blind, Jesus is about ready to heal him and he's asked his disciples, asking why was his man born blind? Was it because of his sin or his parents sin? And Jesus said neither, but so that God will be glorified by what you're going to see next. And so, yeah, that's a great example of the fact that illness is not always the result of sin. Now, okay, bigger picture, we know that illness and disease have become a part of the human experience because of Adam's sin and fall, right? That brought the curse. Sin and disease today are a part of a diseased curse world. It's not that you can tie specific illnesses always to specific sins. Not at all. The big picture, yes, illness, sin, death, all that's been brought into the world because of Adam's sin. But it doesn't mean that every illness is tied to a specific sin. There were lots of people in the New Testament who were ill, including Paul. And when Paul prayed, no, Paul prayed on three different occasions, Lord, take this thorn in the flesh away from me and God said no. And there are other illnesses too, that people had in New Testament that no indication they're related to sin. That's a great, great point, Barry. Yes? The correlation between physical healing and physical healing in this case. Okay. I have to think about that one a little bit. Is there any specific against where he healed but did not forgive the sins or vice versa? One of the issue of blood, he says your faith has made you whole. Again, there's sometimes difficulty in separating the two and knowing exactly which one Jesus meant. Anybody thinking of one right off the top of your head? We'll have to keep watching as we go through the gospel. Right. Yeah. It's, yeah, good question. The what's the difference in the faith that were they just trusting it, God could heal them, Christ could heal them or were they trusting him for the forgiveness of sins? What's the difference in that faith? I think there is a sense in which we're dealing with something a little bit different than what we would experience today in the sense that they are believing that he is the Messiah. Part of what the Messiah is come to do, it's called Isaiah 35, is to heal. And so it's all kind of wrapped up in the one with Christ's ministry. Their faith in him and who he is is also tied into those signs that indicate who he is. And so maybe there's a little closer tie there than what we would expect or experience today. Okay. Been fun but we've got to stop. So let's have a prayer and we'll pick it back up here.