May 25, 2025 • 27 mins
What kind of Savior do we need — and is Jesus really able and willing to meet that need? In his return to Capernaum, Jesus amazes the crowd by healing a paralyzed man, but also by declaring something even more powerful: “Your sins are forgiven.”
Originally preached to Ekklesia Churches by Dan on May 25, 2025.
Teaching Highlights:
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Faith is more than belief — it’s action rooted in dependence on Jesus.
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Jesus knows our deepest need is not physical, but spiritual restoration.
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The forgiveness Jesus offers is a miracle greater than healing.
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Some are drawn to Jesus in faith, others resist — but all must respond.
The good news? Jesus is both willing and able to forgive, heal, and restore all who come to him in faith.
Learn more about us at EkklesiaChurches.org.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
[Music]
This sermon is from Mark chapter 2 verses 1 through 12 and is titled "Able and Willing."
It was delivered to Ecclesia churches on Sunday, May 25th, 2025.
[Music]
So Mark showed us a lot in chapter 1 about who Jesus is.
(00:24):
He showed us that he is the Son of God with all authority.
He showed us that he came on a mission to call people to repentance,
all the while living perfectly as they could not. And then ultimately,
he came to suffer and die in our place, taking the penalty
for our imperfection so that we could be made clean.
(00:46):
We already have a better idea of who Jesus is and what he came to do than his
disciples did at that time. Certainly a better idea than the crowds
and the religious leaders, thanks to Mark. And in today's
passage, we see Jesus return to Capernaum after
preaching abroad for a time. So Peter's house
(01:09):
functioned as kind of a home away from home for him.
And people found out that he's back. Jesus is back in town.
And this crowd has gathered in the house and it says even around the door
in Jesus' preaching to them. And the story that we're covering today
is really pretty short and to the point, but it's packed
(01:31):
with responses by different people. And so that's what we're going to spend a
little bit of time looking at. This is a little different crowd
than the one he had the last time. And I suspect it's because
instead of standing at the door performing signs and healing,
he's inside preaching the word to them. We'll talk about that a little more
(01:55):
later. Some of these people in this story will identify with. And some of them
will learn from, but all of them have some kind of
problem that they bring to Jesus. And this is something that we can definitely
all identify with. And individual struggles and problems are frequently
(02:15):
something that comes up in house church discussion. So I want you to think
about this for a moment. When you have a problem, where do you go?
My guess is that the answer to that question kind of depends on what the
problem is, right? For kids, we usually go to our parents.
Or we go to a teacher or an instructor kind of depending on the issue.
(02:39):
The problem dictates who we go to. For example, my kids are in dance and karate.
And so if they have a ballet or karate question or issue,
they can sure come to me and I'm willing to help,
but they know full well that I'm usually unable. I'm not qualified
(02:59):
to deal with that particular thing. It's not that I'm unwilling,
I just don't have the ability to help. As an adult,
if you get a speeding ticket, you might choose to go show up in a court
and can test the ticket. And you can come prepared to the courtroom with
the greatest excuse about why you were speeding and your
(03:20):
headlight was out and you really just needed chocolate milk at 11 p.m.
Right? The judge does actually have the ability
to make the ticket go away, but they may not be willing
to do that. For a problem to be solved, you have to have both, right? You have to
have someone who is both willing and able to solve the issue.
(03:44):
And in today's passage, we're going to see that Jesus is both willing
and able to deal with our issues, particularly though
the issue of our sin. And it's we who have the issue
recognizing our need and bringing that to Jesus.
The good news is that grace is offered to us abundantly
(04:05):
in Christ should we choose to come to him. So with that thought on our minds,
let's go read this passage. This is Mark chapter 2
verses 1 through 12.
And when he returned to Capernaum after some days,
it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together so that
(04:26):
there was no more room, not even at the door, and he was preaching the word to
them. And they came, bringing to him a
paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because
of the crowd, they removed the roof above him.
And when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic
(04:47):
lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the
paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Now, some of the
scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts.
Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming.
Who can forgive sins but God alone? And immediately, Jesus, perceiving in his
(05:12):
spirit that they thus questioned within themselves,
said to them, "Why do you question these things in your hearts?
Which is easier to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven?'
Or to say, 'Rise, take up your bed and walk.'
But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins."
(05:35):
He said to the paralytic, "I say to you,
rise, pick up your bed and go home." And he rose and immediately picked up his
bed and went out before them all so that they were all amazed
and glorified God, saying, "We never saw anything like this."
(05:57):
So, as I mentioned before, we're going to look at three people
in this story and see how paralysis seems to be a common problem shared by
them, though they are not all aware of it. Let's start with the physically
paralyzed man. His problem is the most obvious out of
all of them, and really it's the problem presented in this story.
(06:21):
The man can't walk, and the only way he gets anywhere
is when his friends carry him around. Truly, what's unique about this man
is his friends and their concern and care for him.
In a culture that largely sets aside the lame and the sick,
as we saw with the leper, and we'll see in other parts of scripture with the
(06:43):
disabled kind of hovering around the temple gates begging for a living,
this man is set apart by his friends.
They hear that Jesus has come back to Capernaum, and they know
about the healing that happened the last time Jesus was there,
and so they pick up their paralyzed friend and they carry him to the house.
(07:04):
When they see the crowd around the door, they are not discouraged at all. They
know the only way is through the roof. Now, this isn't as strange as it seems to
us. The roof was likely accessible from the exterior
and was flat, often used as a kind of deck by those who lived there. If you
remember from the book of Acts, we get this story where Peter is spending time
(07:26):
in prayer up on the roof and someone comes up and calls him down
when the messenger arrives. And so they carry him up to this
roof and they get to work making an opening probably by removing
some clay tiles that were on the roof. And so the scene is a little less like a
man suddenly falling down through the drywall from the attic, which is kind of
(07:48):
the picture that I always had in my mind as a kid, and a little more like an
unexpected crowd surfer in a hammock that's being lowered to the ground in
front of Jesus. When you live in a house like we do with
either 10 or 12 foot ceilings, this seems a little crazier than it was. We're
probably talking about a seven foot ceiling that I would touch if I
(08:11):
lifted my hands. Smaller people at that time, smaller
architecture, not quite as far to lower this man
to the crowd below. Now let's talk about what is strange.
It's not the man in the hammock on the floor.
It's not the hole in the ceiling or the faces that are peering through it.
(08:33):
What Jesus actually takes note of here is their faith.
This gives us a really good working definition of what faith is.
It is not a feeling, as you may have heard, but rather it's an action taken
(08:53):
in response to a belief. It's a belief held so highly that it drives you
to take action, to take a step forward. This man and his friends believed
that Jesus could heal him so much that it compelled them to do something about it.
(09:13):
It compelled them to carry the man to the place where Jesus was,
to be undeterred by the crowd and head for the roof, to make a hole
and lower him through it. Notice it says, "When Jesus saw their faith,"
this is not just the faith of the friends, but the man as well. The man is
actually who he addresses. Don't get the idea that the man was
(09:35):
unwillingly carried all the way. He wanted to be healed.
When Jesus sees this man, he actually sees past
just the obvious need to have his legs healed.
He sees to a far greater need. Jesus sees a man who not only can't take a
single step on his own, but also a man who is
(09:57):
eternally separated from God because of his spiritual
condition, a man who can't take a single step closer to God
on his own. So Jesus does something that only Jesus can do.
He offers him a cure for the condition that goes past his temporary
physical one and offers him forgiveness. Before we go on,
(10:23):
let's just pause a moment to recognize some things that are worth
considering here. The actions of this man and his friends
were a kind of faith that Jesus recognized
and responded to by offering forgiveness. Don't miss how simple their faith was.
They believed Jesus was the one person who could help
(10:46):
and would stop at nothing to come to him. That's it.
They had a belief that compelled them to action and the action
was just to come to Jesus. There was no 10-step program. There was no additional
steps of penance. There was no quest with endless side quests.
(11:07):
So maybe you need to hear that today. That the kind of faith that saves us is the
simple kind that causes us to come to Jesus
because we know there is no other hope. It's the kind that knows our hope is in
this man who did what we could not and offers us the grace and healing that we
(11:29):
do not deserve. Yes, there's a life that we live out in
response to that forgiveness, but the kind of faith that saves
is the kind that moves us to come to Jesus.
So we know that the man gets healed of his physical brokenness,
right? And we'll get to that part in a minute. But before we do,
(11:51):
let's look at our next group of characters,
the scribes. If you thought some guy's making a hole in the roof and a crowd
surfing disabled man was going to cause a commotion, which it probably did,
wait until Jesus says your sins are forgiven
in front of the scribes who are the religious experts
(12:13):
of their day. That was the moment where everything really went off the rails
in that crowd. The scribes heard what Jesus said
and into their mind floods passages from the Old Testament, passages like
Exodus 34, 6, and 7. "The Lord, the Lord, a God, merciful and gracious,
(12:34):
forgiving, iniquity, and transgression, and sin."
The Lord is the one forgiving. Isaiah 43, 25. "I, I am he who blots out your
transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins."
Micah 7, 18. "Who is a God like you, pardoning, iniquity, and passing over
(12:54):
transgression for the remnants of his inheritance?"
These passages come into their minds and they question in their hearts
with perhaps a glance from one to another, thinking,
"Who does this guy think he is? What is he saying?"
If God alone can forgive sin and he just claimed to forgive this man's sins,
(13:18):
he's claiming that he's God. They think that he's blaspheming, which is
lying and speaking as though he is God because the alternative
that he is actually God is just unthinkable for them.
Not even for reference, not even the high priest could make such a claim to
forgive someone's sin. That was not even something that they could do.
(13:40):
And based on their understanding of who the Messiah was going to be,
they didn't even think he was going to be able to forgive
sin. Remember, they were expecting some kind of earthly warrior king to free
them from Roman oppression and establish a kingdom on
earth. They weren't expecting somebody who was
(14:03):
coming to deal with a far greater issue than Roman
occupation, someone who was coming to deal with the issue
of their separation from God. So Jesus does not just one thing, but two,
to give them just a hint that he might actually
be God in the flesh. First, he tells them what's happening in their hearts.
(14:27):
Remember, they haven't said a word yet. The glance from one to another that I
just inferred, that's just my assumption. The text doesn't say
that. They haven't said a word and yet Jesus knows
what they're pondering within themselves.
Psalm 4421 says that God knows the secrets
(14:48):
of the heart. First Samuel 167 says that man can only see the outside appearance,
but the Lord Yahweh looks at the heart. Jesus is here doing something
that only God can do, seeing the hearts of these men who are doubting him,
and he calls them on it in front of everybody.
(15:11):
Second, he gives them a kind of ultimatum. He knows
that they question his ability to heal, and they also question his ability to
forgive sin. So in classic rabbinic style, which just
means a classical style of teaching of a rabbi of that time,
he gives them this kind of equation that looks something like this. If
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thing A is a big claim that's hard to prove, and thing B is a big claim that's
easily proven, then I'm going to do thing B
just to prove that I can do thing A. For example, I think back to the movie
K-Pax. The main character claims to a psychiatrist
(15:53):
that he's an alien who can travel faster than the speed of light,
and so they tell him to prove it, and he says, "Okay," and he looks up,
and after pausing, he says, "You see?" And they say, "You never left,"
and his response to them is, "I'm already back."
No one is impressed in that moment. They don't believe him a bit,
(16:15):
because it wasn't a proof that he actually was able to do
what he said he could. Until a few days later, he simply disappears for a few
days from the locked building and then shows back up again, and then they start
to wonder, because there was some physical evidence that he was able to do
something. So Jesus says, "I'm going to perform
a miracle for a purpose so that you know I have
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the authority to do something even more miraculous."
And he heals the man, and they are astonished.
Another aspect of this that makes it interesting is
the cultural assumption that the man has done something
to earn this physical condition. We touched on this last week a bit with
(17:04):
the leper, but even for the disabled man, there was a belief that either they
or their parents had sinned and therefore caused this issue as a
punishment, that it was some kind of divine judgment.
And so the Scribes certainly would have seen this unfolding with that unspoken
judgment in the backs of their minds on this man,
(17:27):
when in fact they were under the same judgment the man was under,
and the rest of humanity for that matter. So what does Jesus do?
He performs a visible physical healing so that people might believe that he is
able to perform an invisible spiritual one.
(17:48):
Jesus saw the physically paralyzed man laying in front of him,
but he also saw the spiritually paralyzed men in the crowd.
Their paralysis was far more serious. This man would be healed of his
paralysis, but more importantly would be forgiven
(18:09):
of his sin. That kind of healing leads someone into
walking with Jesus for eternity. His healing was
more complete than he ever imagined, but these Scribes in the crowd
actually needed the work of Jesus just as much as the paralyzed man
did, and they don't see that. The biggest difference between the Scribes
(18:31):
and the paralyzed man wasn't their physical condition,
their social status, their education. It was that one saw Jesus as their only
hope and came to him, and one disbelieved him silently.
The greatest irony here is that the paralyzed man, even in his paralyzed state,
(18:54):
was more alive in that moment than the Scribes.
The best news, though, is that Jesus came for the man and the Scribes alike. He
came for both of them. He came for people like
Mary, who loved him well, and he came for people like Thomas,
who doubted him. The question that remained for each of these people, and
(19:16):
for each of us, is how will we respond? What shape will our faith take if faith
is recognized by Jesus as a belief that compels us to take action?
What action will we take? Will we come to Jesus
for the forgiveness of our sins, or will we hold on to our own
(19:39):
self-righteousness in silence?
This leaves us with one final group as we finish this miraculous account,
and it's the crowd. It's not, again, the same crowd as before, and part of that
could be due to what the people were gathered for. I kind of hinted at this
(20:00):
earlier. Some of the commentators on this passage point out that the people are
gathered to hear Jesus preach the word to them, indicating that there's a great
spiritual hunger. I don't disagree with them. I think they're right,
but I want to point out something else. This crowd
is significantly smaller than before. Remember the last time he was in
(20:23):
Capernaum? The whole town was at the door of the
house, and people were getting healed, demons getting
exercised. It was a whole thing. We're talking a thousand people likely,
but when Jesus comes back to Capernaum, which was the closest thing he had to a
hometown outside of Nazareth, where he's originally from,
it's a crowd maybe a tenth the size. Why?
(20:46):
It's the same Jesus, but this time, instead of being outside doing miracles,
he's inside preaching. I don't want to make too much out of this, because
I don't think it's the main point Mark is trying to get across, but I do think
it gives us a little insight into how people will repeatedly respond to Jesus.
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Even during his earthly ministry, and I think it helps us with our expectations
today too. When Jesus stops doing miracles and
starts teaching them about the kingdom of God,
a large majority lose interest. They weren't there to hear the preaching.
(21:29):
They were there for the spectacle. When Jesus starts talking about sin
and his unique ability to forgive them, some people rejoice,
but others are going to walk away offended. Now, in this story, it looks like
even some of the scribes in this crowd respond positively.
(21:49):
Glorifying God, being amazed, but we know that this charge of blasphemy will be
one that keeps getting brought up by this group of people. In fact,
it's going to be the thing that comes up later.
It's going to be the thing that Jesus is accused of
that gets him sent to the cross.
(22:13):
Another thing that we don't see is the crowd ever portrayed as
massively coming to faith in Jesus and following him. Even the majority of those
who rejoice at what God has done in this group of people and are amazed,
they don't decide to follow Jesus for the next two years or so.
So I think the takeaway here is twofold. First, you cannot find saving
(22:39):
faith in Jesus by passively observing from the
sidelines. Saving faith in Jesus by definition
requires actively responding to him and stepping out in faith, saying,
"All my hope is in you."
This is why we talk about baptism so often because we want each person in our
(23:04):
family, in the church, to take a step forward in faith,
to put all their trust in Jesus and to declare that in baptism.
You cannot be born into saving faith. That is not what the Bible teaches
anywhere. You personally have to respond to the call of Jesus
by stepping forward in faith and saying, "I believe that I am a sinner.
(23:28):
I believe that Jesus is the only one who can and did pay the price
for my sin, and I believe that repenting and following him
is the only way to eternal life." You don't have to have it all figured out.
You don't have to have every answer, but you do have to believe
that to the point where you step out in faith and say,
(23:51):
"This I know is true. Jesus is my only hope,
and he is both willing and able to save me." And if you haven't done that today,
I would love to have a conversation with you about it.
Second, for those of us following Jesus already, doing our best to follow the
command of Jesus to go and make disciples, the crowds
(24:15):
that come for the spectacle will not often stay to hear the truth.
You can have the biggest stage, the most talented
musicians, the most enigmatic speaker, and the most entertaining kids and youth
programs, all the spectacle and all of the lights,
and you will bring people in. But if you were to take all of that away,
(24:39):
how many would stay to simply hear the word of God
preached? And of those who will stay and listen,
only a few respond by following Jesus. I know this sounds like I'm being kind of
a pessimist here, so why am I sharing this? Because
while I know it's exciting to see crowds of people coming to some of the
(25:02):
spectacles you see being put on, I want us to know that the crowd
is not a reliable measure of success for those on a mission to make disciples.
By the same measure, it is easy to feel discouraged
when you are struggling to keep up with the few people
that you're trying to love and lead closer to Christ,
(25:24):
and you're comparing yourself with entertainers and mega church pastors
and Christians who seem to have all of the influence.
But for people called by Jesus on the mission to make disciples,
our success must be defined by how well
we bring people to the feet of Jesus. To be clear, this is not a condemnation
(25:48):
of churches with large gatherings of believers.
It is a clarification that the size of a crowd
should not encourage us or discourage us, because we are not called to gather
crowds, but to lead people to Jesus. You know what the greatest
miracle, though, in this entire account is? This man had his sins
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forgiven. His body was one day going to break down again, and he was going to
die, but for those who put their faith in Jesus
and have their sins forgiven, we get life abundant and eternal.
This is something that Jesus is willing and able to give us. Should we come to
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him in faith and recognize him as our only hope, this is the greatest
miracle that Jesus came for people like you and people
like me, so that we could be forgiven and
reconciled with God. This undeserved grace of God made available
to us through the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus
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is the greatest miracle, and it is one Jesus is willing and able to do
for all who would come to him and put their hope
in him.
Ecclesia is a church of house churches gathering weekly in
Councilbloss Iowa and in homes throughout the week. We are a Bible-centered
(27:17):
church focused on preaching from Scripture and making disciples of Jesus.
You can learn more about our statement of faith and contact a pastor by
visiting ecclaseachurches.org
[Music]
This sermon is from Mark chapter 2 verses 1 through 12 and is titled "Able and Willing."
It was delivered to Ecclesia churches on Sunday, May 25th, 2025.
[Music]
So Mark showed us a lot in chapter 1 about who Jesus is.
(00:24):
He showed us that he is the Son of God with all authority.
He showed us that he came on a mission to call people to repentance,
all the while living perfectly as they could not. And then ultimately,
he came to suffer and die in our place, taking the penalty
for our imperfection so that we could be made clean.
(00:46):
We already have a better idea of who Jesus is and what he came to do than his
disciples did at that time. Certainly a better idea than the crowds
and the religious leaders, thanks to Mark. And in today's
passage, we see Jesus return to Capernaum after
preaching abroad for a time. So Peter's house
(01:09):
functioned as kind of a home away from home for him.
And people found out that he's back. Jesus is back in town.
And this crowd has gathered in the house and it says even around the door
in Jesus' preaching to them. And the story that we're covering today
is really pretty short and to the point, but it's packed
(01:31):
with responses by different people. And so that's what we're going to spend a
little bit of time looking at. This is a little different crowd
than the one he had the last time. And I suspect it's because
instead of standing at the door performing signs and healing,
he's inside preaching the word to them. We'll talk about that a little more
(01:55):
later. Some of these people in this story will identify with. And some of them
will learn from, but all of them have some kind of
problem that they bring to Jesus. And this is something that we can definitely
all identify with. And individual struggles and problems are frequently
(02:15):
something that comes up in house church discussion. So I want you to think
about this for a moment. When you have a problem, where do you go?
My guess is that the answer to that question kind of depends on what the
problem is, right? For kids, we usually go to our parents.
Or we go to a teacher or an instructor kind of depending on the issue.
(02:39):
The problem dictates who we go to. For example, my kids are in dance and karate.
And so if they have a ballet or karate question or issue,
they can sure come to me and I'm willing to help,
but they know full well that I'm usually unable. I'm not qualified
(02:59):
to deal with that particular thing. It's not that I'm unwilling,
I just don't have the ability to help. As an adult,
if you get a speeding ticket, you might choose to go show up in a court
and can test the ticket. And you can come prepared to the courtroom with
the greatest excuse about why you were speeding and your
(03:20):
headlight was out and you really just needed chocolate milk at 11 p.m.
Right? The judge does actually have the ability
to make the ticket go away, but they may not be willing
to do that. For a problem to be solved, you have to have both, right? You have to
have someone who is both willing and able to solve the issue.
(03:44):
And in today's passage, we're going to see that Jesus is both willing
and able to deal with our issues, particularly though
the issue of our sin. And it's we who have the issue
recognizing our need and bringing that to Jesus.
The good news is that grace is offered to us abundantly
(04:05):
in Christ should we choose to come to him. So with that thought on our minds,
let's go read this passage. This is Mark chapter 2
verses 1 through 12.
And when he returned to Capernaum after some days,
it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together so that
(04:26):
there was no more room, not even at the door, and he was preaching the word to
them. And they came, bringing to him a
paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because
of the crowd, they removed the roof above him.
And when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic
(04:47):
lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the
paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Now, some of the
scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts.
Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming.
Who can forgive sins but God alone? And immediately, Jesus, perceiving in his
(05:12):
spirit that they thus questioned within themselves,
said to them, "Why do you question these things in your hearts?
Which is easier to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven?'
Or to say, 'Rise, take up your bed and walk.'
But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins."
(05:35):
He said to the paralytic, "I say to you,
rise, pick up your bed and go home." And he rose and immediately picked up his
bed and went out before them all so that they were all amazed
and glorified God, saying, "We never saw anything like this."
(05:57):
So, as I mentioned before, we're going to look at three people
in this story and see how paralysis seems to be a common problem shared by
them, though they are not all aware of it. Let's start with the physically
paralyzed man. His problem is the most obvious out of
all of them, and really it's the problem presented in this story.
(06:21):
The man can't walk, and the only way he gets anywhere
is when his friends carry him around. Truly, what's unique about this man
is his friends and their concern and care for him.
In a culture that largely sets aside the lame and the sick,
as we saw with the leper, and we'll see in other parts of scripture with the
(06:43):
disabled kind of hovering around the temple gates begging for a living,
this man is set apart by his friends.
They hear that Jesus has come back to Capernaum, and they know
about the healing that happened the last time Jesus was there,
and so they pick up their paralyzed friend and they carry him to the house.
(07:04):
When they see the crowd around the door, they are not discouraged at all. They
know the only way is through the roof. Now, this isn't as strange as it seems to
us. The roof was likely accessible from the exterior
and was flat, often used as a kind of deck by those who lived there. If you
remember from the book of Acts, we get this story where Peter is spending time
(07:26):
in prayer up on the roof and someone comes up and calls him down
when the messenger arrives. And so they carry him up to this
roof and they get to work making an opening probably by removing
some clay tiles that were on the roof. And so the scene is a little less like a
man suddenly falling down through the drywall from the attic, which is kind of
(07:48):
the picture that I always had in my mind as a kid, and a little more like an
unexpected crowd surfer in a hammock that's being lowered to the ground in
front of Jesus. When you live in a house like we do with
either 10 or 12 foot ceilings, this seems a little crazier than it was. We're
probably talking about a seven foot ceiling that I would touch if I
(08:11):
lifted my hands. Smaller people at that time, smaller
architecture, not quite as far to lower this man
to the crowd below. Now let's talk about what is strange.
It's not the man in the hammock on the floor.
It's not the hole in the ceiling or the faces that are peering through it.
(08:33):
What Jesus actually takes note of here is their faith.
This gives us a really good working definition of what faith is.
It is not a feeling, as you may have heard, but rather it's an action taken
(08:53):
in response to a belief. It's a belief held so highly that it drives you
to take action, to take a step forward. This man and his friends believed
that Jesus could heal him so much that it compelled them to do something about it.
(09:13):
It compelled them to carry the man to the place where Jesus was,
to be undeterred by the crowd and head for the roof, to make a hole
and lower him through it. Notice it says, "When Jesus saw their faith,"
this is not just the faith of the friends, but the man as well. The man is
actually who he addresses. Don't get the idea that the man was
(09:35):
unwillingly carried all the way. He wanted to be healed.
When Jesus sees this man, he actually sees past
just the obvious need to have his legs healed.
He sees to a far greater need. Jesus sees a man who not only can't take a
single step on his own, but also a man who is
(09:57):
eternally separated from God because of his spiritual
condition, a man who can't take a single step closer to God
on his own. So Jesus does something that only Jesus can do.
He offers him a cure for the condition that goes past his temporary
physical one and offers him forgiveness. Before we go on,
(10:23):
let's just pause a moment to recognize some things that are worth
considering here. The actions of this man and his friends
were a kind of faith that Jesus recognized
and responded to by offering forgiveness. Don't miss how simple their faith was.
They believed Jesus was the one person who could help
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and would stop at nothing to come to him. That's it.
They had a belief that compelled them to action and the action
was just to come to Jesus. There was no 10-step program. There was no additional
steps of penance. There was no quest with endless side quests.
(11:07):
So maybe you need to hear that today. That the kind of faith that saves us is the
simple kind that causes us to come to Jesus
because we know there is no other hope. It's the kind that knows our hope is in
this man who did what we could not and offers us the grace and healing that we
(11:29):
do not deserve. Yes, there's a life that we live out in
response to that forgiveness, but the kind of faith that saves
is the kind that moves us to come to Jesus.
So we know that the man gets healed of his physical brokenness,
right? And we'll get to that part in a minute. But before we do,
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let's look at our next group of characters,
the scribes. If you thought some guy's making a hole in the roof and a crowd
surfing disabled man was going to cause a commotion, which it probably did,
wait until Jesus says your sins are forgiven
in front of the scribes who are the religious experts
(12:13):
of their day. That was the moment where everything really went off the rails
in that crowd. The scribes heard what Jesus said
and into their mind floods passages from the Old Testament, passages like
Exodus 34, 6, and 7. "The Lord, the Lord, a God, merciful and gracious,
(12:34):
forgiving, iniquity, and transgression, and sin."
The Lord is the one forgiving. Isaiah 43, 25. "I, I am he who blots out your
transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins."
Micah 7, 18. "Who is a God like you, pardoning, iniquity, and passing over
(12:54):
transgression for the remnants of his inheritance?"
These passages come into their minds and they question in their hearts
with perhaps a glance from one to another, thinking,
"Who does this guy think he is? What is he saying?"
If God alone can forgive sin and he just claimed to forgive this man's sins,
(13:18):
he's claiming that he's God. They think that he's blaspheming, which is
lying and speaking as though he is God because the alternative
that he is actually God is just unthinkable for them.
Not even for reference, not even the high priest could make such a claim to
forgive someone's sin. That was not even something that they could do.
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And based on their understanding of who the Messiah was going to be,
they didn't even think he was going to be able to forgive
sin. Remember, they were expecting some kind of earthly warrior king to free
them from Roman oppression and establish a kingdom on
earth. They weren't expecting somebody who was
(14:03):
coming to deal with a far greater issue than Roman
occupation, someone who was coming to deal with the issue
of their separation from God. So Jesus does not just one thing, but two,
to give them just a hint that he might actually
be God in the flesh. First, he tells them what's happening in their hearts.
(14:27):
Remember, they haven't said a word yet. The glance from one to another that I
just inferred, that's just my assumption. The text doesn't say
that. They haven't said a word and yet Jesus knows
what they're pondering within themselves.
Psalm 4421 says that God knows the secrets
(14:48):
of the heart. First Samuel 167 says that man can only see the outside appearance,
but the Lord Yahweh looks at the heart. Jesus is here doing something
that only God can do, seeing the hearts of these men who are doubting him,
and he calls them on it in front of everybody.
(15:11):
Second, he gives them a kind of ultimatum. He knows
that they question his ability to heal, and they also question his ability to
forgive sin. So in classic rabbinic style, which just
means a classical style of teaching of a rabbi of that time,
he gives them this kind of equation that looks something like this. If
(15:33):
thing A is a big claim that's hard to prove, and thing B is a big claim that's
easily proven, then I'm going to do thing B
just to prove that I can do thing A. For example, I think back to the movie
K-Pax. The main character claims to a psychiatrist
(15:53):
that he's an alien who can travel faster than the speed of light,
and so they tell him to prove it, and he says, "Okay," and he looks up,
and after pausing, he says, "You see?" And they say, "You never left,"
and his response to them is, "I'm already back."
No one is impressed in that moment. They don't believe him a bit,
(16:15):
because it wasn't a proof that he actually was able to do
what he said he could. Until a few days later, he simply disappears for a few
days from the locked building and then shows back up again, and then they start
to wonder, because there was some physical evidence that he was able to do
something. So Jesus says, "I'm going to perform
a miracle for a purpose so that you know I have
(16:39):
the authority to do something even more miraculous."
And he heals the man, and they are astonished.
Another aspect of this that makes it interesting is
the cultural assumption that the man has done something
to earn this physical condition. We touched on this last week a bit with
(17:04):
the leper, but even for the disabled man, there was a belief that either they
or their parents had sinned and therefore caused this issue as a
punishment, that it was some kind of divine judgment.
And so the Scribes certainly would have seen this unfolding with that unspoken
judgment in the backs of their minds on this man,
(17:27):
when in fact they were under the same judgment the man was under,
and the rest of humanity for that matter. So what does Jesus do?
He performs a visible physical healing so that people might believe that he is
able to perform an invisible spiritual one.
(17:48):
Jesus saw the physically paralyzed man laying in front of him,
but he also saw the spiritually paralyzed men in the crowd.
Their paralysis was far more serious. This man would be healed of his
paralysis, but more importantly would be forgiven
(18:09):
of his sin. That kind of healing leads someone into
walking with Jesus for eternity. His healing was
more complete than he ever imagined, but these Scribes in the crowd
actually needed the work of Jesus just as much as the paralyzed man
did, and they don't see that. The biggest difference between the Scribes
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and the paralyzed man wasn't their physical condition,
their social status, their education. It was that one saw Jesus as their only
hope and came to him, and one disbelieved him silently.
The greatest irony here is that the paralyzed man, even in his paralyzed state,
(18:54):
was more alive in that moment than the Scribes.
The best news, though, is that Jesus came for the man and the Scribes alike. He
came for both of them. He came for people like
Mary, who loved him well, and he came for people like Thomas,
who doubted him. The question that remained for each of these people, and
(19:16):
for each of us, is how will we respond? What shape will our faith take if faith
is recognized by Jesus as a belief that compels us to take action?
What action will we take? Will we come to Jesus
for the forgiveness of our sins, or will we hold on to our own
(19:39):
self-righteousness in silence?
This leaves us with one final group as we finish this miraculous account,
and it's the crowd. It's not, again, the same crowd as before, and part of that
could be due to what the people were gathered for. I kind of hinted at this
(20:00):
earlier. Some of the commentators on this passage point out that the people are
gathered to hear Jesus preach the word to them, indicating that there's a great
spiritual hunger. I don't disagree with them. I think they're right,
but I want to point out something else. This crowd
is significantly smaller than before. Remember the last time he was in
(20:23):
Capernaum? The whole town was at the door of the
house, and people were getting healed, demons getting
exercised. It was a whole thing. We're talking a thousand people likely,
but when Jesus comes back to Capernaum, which was the closest thing he had to a
hometown outside of Nazareth, where he's originally from,
it's a crowd maybe a tenth the size. Why?
(20:46):
It's the same Jesus, but this time, instead of being outside doing miracles,
he's inside preaching. I don't want to make too much out of this, because
I don't think it's the main point Mark is trying to get across, but I do think
it gives us a little insight into how people will repeatedly respond to Jesus.
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Even during his earthly ministry, and I think it helps us with our expectations
today too. When Jesus stops doing miracles and
starts teaching them about the kingdom of God,
a large majority lose interest. They weren't there to hear the preaching.
(21:29):
They were there for the spectacle. When Jesus starts talking about sin
and his unique ability to forgive them, some people rejoice,
but others are going to walk away offended. Now, in this story, it looks like
even some of the scribes in this crowd respond positively.
(21:49):
Glorifying God, being amazed, but we know that this charge of blasphemy will be
one that keeps getting brought up by this group of people. In fact,
it's going to be the thing that comes up later.
It's going to be the thing that Jesus is accused of
that gets him sent to the cross.
(22:13):
Another thing that we don't see is the crowd ever portrayed as
massively coming to faith in Jesus and following him. Even the majority of those
who rejoice at what God has done in this group of people and are amazed,
they don't decide to follow Jesus for the next two years or so.
So I think the takeaway here is twofold. First, you cannot find saving
(22:39):
faith in Jesus by passively observing from the
sidelines. Saving faith in Jesus by definition
requires actively responding to him and stepping out in faith, saying,
"All my hope is in you."
This is why we talk about baptism so often because we want each person in our
(23:04):
family, in the church, to take a step forward in faith,
to put all their trust in Jesus and to declare that in baptism.
You cannot be born into saving faith. That is not what the Bible teaches
anywhere. You personally have to respond to the call of Jesus
by stepping forward in faith and saying, "I believe that I am a sinner.
(23:28):
I believe that Jesus is the only one who can and did pay the price
for my sin, and I believe that repenting and following him
is the only way to eternal life." You don't have to have it all figured out.
You don't have to have every answer, but you do have to believe
that to the point where you step out in faith and say,
(23:51):
"This I know is true. Jesus is my only hope,
and he is both willing and able to save me." And if you haven't done that today,
I would love to have a conversation with you about it.
Second, for those of us following Jesus already, doing our best to follow the
command of Jesus to go and make disciples, the crowds
(24:15):
that come for the spectacle will not often stay to hear the truth.
You can have the biggest stage, the most talented
musicians, the most enigmatic speaker, and the most entertaining kids and youth
programs, all the spectacle and all of the lights,
and you will bring people in. But if you were to take all of that away,
(24:39):
how many would stay to simply hear the word of God
preached? And of those who will stay and listen,
only a few respond by following Jesus. I know this sounds like I'm being kind of
a pessimist here, so why am I sharing this? Because
while I know it's exciting to see crowds of people coming to some of the
(25:02):
spectacles you see being put on, I want us to know that the crowd
is not a reliable measure of success for those on a mission to make disciples.
By the same measure, it is easy to feel discouraged
when you are struggling to keep up with the few people
that you're trying to love and lead closer to Christ,
(25:24):
and you're comparing yourself with entertainers and mega church pastors
and Christians who seem to have all of the influence.
But for people called by Jesus on the mission to make disciples,
our success must be defined by how well
we bring people to the feet of Jesus. To be clear, this is not a condemnation
(25:48):
of churches with large gatherings of believers.
It is a clarification that the size of a crowd
should not encourage us or discourage us, because we are not called to gather
crowds, but to lead people to Jesus. You know what the greatest
miracle, though, in this entire account is? This man had his sins
(26:12):
forgiven. His body was one day going to break down again, and he was going to
die, but for those who put their faith in Jesus
and have their sins forgiven, we get life abundant and eternal.
This is something that Jesus is willing and able to give us. Should we come to
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him in faith and recognize him as our only hope, this is the greatest
miracle that Jesus came for people like you and people
like me, so that we could be forgiven and
reconciled with God. This undeserved grace of God made available
to us through the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus
(26:56):
is the greatest miracle, and it is one Jesus is willing and able to do
for all who would come to him and put their hope
in him.
Ecclesia is a church of house churches gathering weekly in
Councilbloss Iowa and in homes throughout the week. We are a Bible-centered
(27:17):
church focused on preaching from Scripture and making disciples of Jesus.
You can learn more about our statement of faith and contact a pastor by
visiting ecclaseachurches.org
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