Evangelism, Hope and Assurance

In today's passage we witness Christ healing of a paralyzed man. Central to the narrative is the fact that Jesus' teaching ministry has been hampered by the result of his last miracle (the healing of the leper in chapter 1). The leper proclaimed his healing but the result was crowds who came to receive physical healing but didn't want to hear Christ's teaching. In this passage, Christ deals with those crowds, teaches and gives a message of the gospel through another healing. We see a practical form and example of true evangelism, learn that our only hope lies in God's sovereignty over salvation and of the assurance we can have in that salvation.