Miracles - Hold Out Your Hand

About one year after Kristy and I got married, I lost my wedding band. During church league softball, I took off my glove, and unknowingly my band came off with it.

During college – I lost my memory. I was playing racquetball, swung hard, slipped on sweat, and landed on my head.  Concussion and temporary amnesia is what I was diagnosed with at the ER. I could remember my Social Security number and birthdate – but I could not remember what day it was, what state I lived in, or anything else I had done that day.

I have lost keys, homework, and a few thousand photos of the kids I thought were backed up. And I have been accused of losing my marbles.

But everything I ever lost came back or got replaced. I have never PERMANENTLY lost something that changed what I could do every day. Have you ever lost something you thought you would always have?

Maybe you lost a relationship.
Maybe you lost a job.
Maybe you lost your health.
Maybe something that used to be part of your life is gone, and you would give almost anything to have it back.

In this passage, a man LOST the use of his hand. And Jesus gives the use back to him.

Matthew 12:9-14 (NLT2)
9  Then Jesus went over to their synagogue, 10  where he noticed a man with a deformed hand. The Pharisees asked Jesus, “Does the law permit a person to work by healing on the Sabbath?” (They were hoping he would say yes, so they could bring charges against him.) 11  And he answered, “If you had a sheep that fell into a well on the Sabbath, wouldn’t you work to pull it out? Of course you would. 12  And how much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Yes, the law permits a person to do good on the Sabbath.” 13  Then he said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” So the man held out his hand, and it was restored, just like the other one! 14  Then the Pharisees called a meeting to plot how to kill Jesus.

This miracle also shows up in Mark 3 and Luke 6. Since we are studying the miracle and not just Matthew, I am going to pull from all three.

There is an old tradition about this man. A scholar named Jerome passed it along around the year 400. The tradition says he was a stonemason. He earned his living with his hands. We cannot prove it, but it fits the story. Luke tells us it was his RIGHT hand. The word Matthew uses means withered. Dried up. This was a hand that once worked and now hung there. I have worked in the bricklaying world. Stone, block, brick. I can tell you it is nearly impossible to lay stone with one hand. This man lost his trade. He lost the way he fed his family. YET - he still made his way to worship.

Maybe you have LOST something. Maybe you feel broken because of what you lost. Maybe something is going on in your life. Not everybody knows about it, but you are hurting.

Church is the right place for you to be.

 This man entered the synagogue to worship God even though he was broken. He worshiped God while his hand was still withered. That shows me that…

BROKEN PEOPLE ARE DRAWN TO JESUS

When you read through the Gospels, we see that broken people were constantly drawn to Jesus. People with leprosy came to Jesus. Blind people cried out to Jesus. Paralyzed people were carried to Jesus. Parents with sick and dying children came to Jesus. People who had been rejected by everybody else came to Jesus. There was something about Jesus that drew hurting people to Him. 

Luke 15:1 (NLT2)
1  Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach.

The people with the worst reputations in town wanted to be near Him. He never went easy on sin. And they were still drawn to him. Broken people did not RUN from Him. They RAN to Him.

That is AMAZING when you consider Jesus never lowered God’s standard to make somebody feel better.

Jesus never sinned. Jesus never compromised truth. Yet broken people wanted to be around Him.

Why?

Because they knew He saw them as PEOPLE and not PROBLEMS. They knew that when everybody else looked at what was wrong with them, Jesus saw THEM. And…for the last 2,000 years, broken people have been coming to Jesus.

Beach Church is a place where broken people can find Jesus. Hurting people can come. Confused people can come. People with addictions can come. People with messed-up marriages can come. People who have made terrible decisions can come.

Now look at the man in the synagogue again. Jesus KNEW that this man was struggling. He was hurting. The life that he once enjoyed was gone, and his new normal was this dangling, useless limb that people stared at and kids tried to touch. But the man wasn’t the only person there with Jesus.

Those pesky religious leaders were watching Jesus – If Jesus healed the man, they were going to accuse Him of working on the Sabbath. Nothing new. Religious people are good at finding flaws in everybody else. That day they were hunting for one in Jesus.

I love what we read in verse Luke 6:8: “Jesus KNEW their thoughts.”

No wonder the Religious Leaders always had a hard time tricking Jesus. He knew their thoughts. He knew what they were thinking. Now, could you imagine how crazy your life would become if people could actually read your mind and hear your thoughts?

If you are arguing with your spouse, and like a cartoon drawing, a speech bubble forms over your head and your spouse could see exactly what you thought…

Just like Jesus knew the thoughts of the religious leaders…Jesus knows our thoughts too.  He knows what we have lost.  He knows why we hurt… 

OUR STRUGGLES ARE NOT HIDDEN FROM GOD

 Jesus did NOT ignore this man…and today…God is not ignoring you. God knows you COMPLETELY.  He knows our thoughts and our struggles.

Psalm 139:1-4 (NLT2)
1  O LORD, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. 2  You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. 3  You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. 4  You know what I am going to say even before I say it, LORD.

 …God understands your struggles right now. If you are a follower of Jesus, this truth should COMFORT you. When I was a younger believer, it did not…God knows my thoughts? ALL of them? YIKES…God sees me ALL the time? GULP.

I have followed Jesus since 1991, and somewhere along the way the fear changed. God knowing everything about me became the most comforting thing I know. The TRUTH that He KNOWS you and SEES you can be VERY comforting!…because GOD knows precisely how to counsel us with whatever we struggle with.

He knows exactly what we need to hear, to motivate us and to comfort us.
He knows the people to put in your path, to encourage you and challenge you.
He knows how to help you and get you back on track.

Your STRUGGLES are not HIDDEN from God.

If we could all know each other's thoughts and see everybody’s actions, I don't think we would like each other very much. God knows all of it. He knows we fail. He knows we are not perfect. And He LOVES you anyway. And because Jesus understands us so completely…

JESUS CAN RESTORE WHAT IS BROKEN IN YOUR LIFE. (v. 13)

 We find out a few more details about this miracle in the Gospel of Luke.

Luke 6:8b (NLT)
...He said to the man with the deformed hand, “Come and stand in front of everyone.” So the man came forward.

I imagine that this man could have been a little embarrassed about being called to come to the front of the room.  Maybe he had slipped into the back of the room. He didn’t want more people staring at his hand. The Religious Leaders were already staring at him.

 In Elementary School, one of the kids who rode our bus had an arm that never developed.  He always tried to hide it, and everybody always stared at it. Yet, Jesus brought this man to stand in front of everybody before he worked the miracle.

He said, “Hold out your hand.” The man held out his hand right in front of everybody – His hand was restored. Maybe the bones grew. Maybe the skin stretched. Maybe the fingers, fingernails, fingerprints, all miraculously grew right in front of everybody.

A stonemason got his working hand back.

AND as unbelievable as that moment was, understand JESUS CAN RESTORE WHAT IS BROKEN in YOUR life too!

Look at what the man did first. Jesus said hold out your hand, and he held out the BROKEN one. In front of the religious leaders. In front of the whole room. He did not hide it. He trusted Jesus enough to hold it out.

That is where restoration starts.

You do not have to hold it out to a whole room. Hold it out to somebody. Expose your hurt to somebody. Expose your brokenness to somebody.

What have you been trying to hide that Jesus already sees?

Inside your Lifegroup – live transparently.
Inside your Celebrate Recovery group – live transparently.

That friendship you lost? If you are willing to admit you were wrong and apologize to the person, God may restore your friendship. That distant relationship with a family member? If you are willing to be humble, God can restore it. 

God can RESTORE your life to what it should have been from the beginning. 

Sometimes restoration requires us to stop hiding what is broken. You cannot hold out what you insist on hiding.

If you have never trusted Jesus, that is the first thing to hold out. Following Jesus means you trust that He died on the cross for your sin, rose from the dead, and is alive today, and you have handed Him your life. 

A man walked into worship with a hand that no longer worked. He did not ask for anything. Jesus saw him, called him forward, and gave him back the thing he had lost. God sees you right now. He knows what you lost. He knows why it hurts. And He is saying to you what He said to that man.

Hold out your hand.