Matthew 9:1

POWER TO FORGIVE SINS. -- Matthew 9:1-8.

GOLDEN TEXT. -- The Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins. -- Matthew 9:6. TIME. --A. D. 28. Probably May or June. PLACE. -At Capernaum. HELPFUL READINGS. -- Matthew 8:28-34; Mark 2:1-17; Luke 5:17-32. LESSON ANALYSIS. --1. Sins Forgiven; 2. Blasphemy; 3. Power of the Son of Man.

INTRODUCTION.

Some place the feast of Matthew immediately after his call (Tischendorf, Stier). But Andrews and Robinson place it several weeks later, and all the events recorded in Mark 2:18-5:21 intervene between verses 14 and 15. In this interval are included the cure of the withered hand (Matthew 12:9-14), the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5, 6, 7), many parables by the sea-shore (Matthew 13:1-52; Mark 4:1-34), the stilling of the tempest, and the healing the Gergesene demoniac (Matthew 8:28-34).

I. SINS FORGIVEN.

1. He entered into. ship.

The last chapter left the Savior in the country of the Gadarenes on the eastern side of the lake. He now returns to Capernaum.

Came into his own city.

Capernaum, so called because after leaving Nazareth he made Capernaum his Galilean home. He came again into Capernaum, as his headquarters or the center of his operations, to which he constantly returned from his itinerant labors throughout Galilee.