July 29, 2024 • 37 mins
We'd love to hear from you. Message us here.
Experience the awe-inspiring power of faith and healing as we recount Jesus' return to Capernaum and His profound teachings. Can faith really move mountains? Witness the determined faith of friends who defied convention to see their paralyzed companion healed by Jesus. This episode sheds light on how tangible faith can be and the miracles that unfold when we trust in His divine power.
Reflect on the challenging yet vital role of faith in everyday life. Sometimes, faith calls us to act in ways that may seem irrational or even embarrassing, like sharing the gospel with those around us despite potential judgment. We'll draw inspiration from the unwavering persistence of George Mueller, a man who relied solely on prayer to support an orphanage, emphasizing the importance of placing spiritual well-being above material comforts.
Finally, we'll explore themes of persistence, forgiveness, and the transformative power of Jesus' love. Hear how George Mueller's lifelong prayers for his non-believing friends were eventually answered, illustrating the profound impact of persistent faith. We'll also address misconceptions about sickness and sin, underscoring that not all suffering is due to personal wrongdoing. Join us for a heartfelt reflection on the gift of forgiveness and learn how to share these truths with the world, ending with a prayer for strength and courage in our faith journey.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Here we are.
Mark, chapter 2 will work.
If your Bible is Mark, chapter2, we have broken into chapter 2
.
Okay, no rush, no hurry.
Verse 1 is where we will jumpoff today.
(00:39):
Going through the book of Mark,the Gospel of Mark, the account
of the life of Jesus, andbacking up just a smidge here to
chapter 1, verse 38, we willsee that it was there in
Capernaum, jesus, having lots ofgreat ministry going on there
in the city.
(00:59):
Verse 38, he says after praying, he says let us go into the
next towns that I may preachthere also, because for this
purpose I have come forth.
So jesus spent a lot of time incapernaum, kind of a base of
operations there.
Um, and through prayer he comesto this conclusion that the
(01:25):
will of the Father is to go tothe surrounding villages.
So picture it all thesevillages around the Sea of
Galilee, little fishing villages, beautiful place, and Jesus is
just kind of going town to town.
He's sharing the same good news, the gospel there of what God
was doing, and he moves on Well,in chapter two, verse one, we
(01:51):
start with this and again, heentered Capernaum.
So time has gone by and Mark'snot so worried about
chronological, but time has goneby, and again he entered
Capernaum.
So after some days, and, andJesus goes back to Capernaum,
the town of Peter and James,john, andrew, and he begins to
(02:15):
minister there again.
And here in chapter two, verseone, is a rather famous account
Matthew, mark and Luke all coverthis of the man let down
through the roof.
We'll read it, you'll see.
So, chapter 2, verse 1.
And again he entered Capernaumand after some days, and it was
(02:37):
heard that he was in the house.
So Jesus back in the house.
So Jesus back in the house.
We're going to assume notguaranteed, but we're going to
assume for just the sake of somecolor here in the story that
we're back at Peter's houseSeems like a good place.
Lots of ministry goes down atPeter's house and immediately,
(02:57):
verse two, many gatheredtogether so that there was no
longer room to receive them, noteven near the door, and he
preached the word to them.
So Jesus picks up right wherehe left off preaching the word,
teaching the word.
Can you imagine God in fleshtalking about things like heaven
(03:20):
, the heart of the Father,talking about things like heaven
, the heart of the Father, allthe secrets and things that you
ever wanted to know about GodJesus is there teaching and
they're just on every word thathe says.
They're packing out the house.
Now, the houses in that areadidn't really get any bigger
than what we see here.
(03:40):
Probably.
This is huge.
This area right here wouldprobably be way bigger than a
house would be.
But 40 or 50 people was the maxthat we're talking about in
these houses in that area and itwas packed out.
As Jesus taught the word andpreached the word to them, they
couldn't even get to the door.
People are hanging out in thecourtyard, people are hanging
(04:02):
out in the yard all around thehouse to hear what Jesus says.
So picture that the place ispacked and verse 4, no verse 3.
Then they came to him bringing aparalytic who was carried by
four men and when they could notcome near him because of the
(04:25):
crowd, they uncovered the roofwhere he was.
So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which
the paralytic was lying.
So, as Jesus is teaching andpreaching, the place is packed,
a group, a squad of people, Iguess you could say come, four
(04:46):
men carrying a man who'sparalyzed and the spotlight goes
over to them.
Here in Mark's account, thespotlight goes to them like some
kind of sideshow act, it seems,and we picture it as they get
to the house.
They've got this guy, they'retrotting along, you know he's on
(05:07):
a stretcher, and they get thereand they can't get in the house
, it's too crowded.
Well, you know the story they goup on the roof.
Now, this was not a hard thingto do because the houses in
those days had flat roofs and itbecame kind of like a patio,
kind of a patio of sorts wherepeople would go and hang out.
(05:31):
So picture it, picture it here.
These men, these four men, theyhead up on the roof and, what's
more, they look at the roof andthey've got an idea and they
(05:52):
begin to take this roof apart.
The word here, the word here,is kind of interesting in the
Greek they unroof the roof.
Right is what this is.
They went up on the roof andthey unroofed the roof.
Right is what this is.
They went up on the roof andthey unroofed the roof because
in those days, everything prettynatural, we were not looking at
(06:13):
, you know shingles made of taror anything like that.
They had boards that were putacross these roofs, these big
beams, and then they would putpalm branches, thatch mud and it
was like layer of palm branchesmud, palm branches, mud, and
they would put these layers ofdirt and like whatever they
(06:34):
could find on top of the roofuntil it was about two feet
thick.
These roofs Pretty significantroof there.
So as these guys go up and theybegin to unroof the roof,
they're taking layer after layer, they're peeling these layers
off and the goal here is to gettheir friend down to Jesus.
(07:03):
So a pretty detailed processhere of doing this, but they're
determined.
Now notice, they had faith inthis, verse five.
(07:25):
When Jesus saw their faith theman, his friends, their faith.
When Jesus saw their faith, hesaid to the paralytic son your
sins are forgiven you.
So Jesus saw their faith.
Come back for a second here.
Something we get from thisfaith is something you can see
(07:45):
Now.
Faith if we were to find faith,it'd probably be belief or
trust.
That's what we'd say if I saidwhat's faith to you?
Well, it's believing something,it's trusting someone.
I have faith in them.
But here we see that faith issomething you can see.
Jesus saw it.
(08:06):
And we go back to what Jamessays many times in his book
Faith without works is dead.
Real faith, honest faith, willdo something, it will act.
If it's alive it'll act.
Now we're saved through faith,by grace.
I'm sorry, through faith, butfaith of outworks is is dead.
(08:30):
And here these guys come andthey show their faith.
They show their simple trustthat Jesus was the answer, or
had an answer, to their friend'sproblem, and they believed it,
and that belief absolutelychanged their actions, right.
So consider that their faith,their belief, absolutely changed
(08:53):
their actions, and it wasbeautiful.
So here's this guy.
He's being brought to Jesus by,we would say, the faith or the
trust, the belief of his friends, something we want to notice in
this for this guy, this guywho's crippled.
He's been that way we don'tknow how long, but he's unable
(09:14):
to walk, and his friends hadfaith.
His friends' faith couldn'tsave him, though that's
important to understand aboutfaith, faith has to be personal.
We're going to talk aboutforgiveness that comes to this
crippled guy and healing thatcomes to him.
His friends had faith, buttheir faith couldn't save him.
(09:37):
It had to be personal.
His friends, though, had faithin who Jesus was.
Now, they had no idea who Jesuswas right.
Did anybody really know whoJesus was?
At this point in the book, noone had a clue.
His disciples had some ideas,probably, but they had no clue.
(10:01):
So they have an incompletefaith, but they had no clue.
So they have an incompletefaith, but they look at Jesus
and they go that guy, he doesmiracles, that guy has healed
people, that guy is kind, right.
So what they knew about Jesushe's kind, he's able to heal,
he's powerful they didn'tunderstand much, but that what
(10:23):
they understood of Jesus causedthem to bring their friend to
Jesus and notice, they became aspectacle for their faith.
I think, right here they comedown the street.
Now I picture them a littleyounger, right?
Younger people don't care whatthe world thinks about them
generally.
Right, they come running downthe street.
(10:45):
They're like, let's do it, comeon, guys.
Yeah, going to Jesus, you know.
And they're coming down thestreet, this little parade,
carrying their friend.
They go up on top of the roof,somebody's roof, and they begin
to disassemble it.
Right, vandalism, in the nameof faith, right, I don't
(11:05):
recommend that, by the way, butyou know it was a big deal they
start tearing the roof apart.
Now there's this one cartoon Ihave and do watch cartoons from
time to time it's Claymationactually of the life of Jesus
and I love it because most ofthe people in this Claymation
account of the life of Jesus andI love it because most of the
people in this claymationaccount of the life of Jesus
(11:29):
have British accents.
I have no idea why they haveBritish accents, but they do
right, most of them have Britishaccents.
Peter, whose house we assumethis might've been, he has a
Scottish accent because he's afisherman, for goodness sake,
right.
So here's Peter in this accountand I think it's accurate.
Honestly, I don't know aboutthe Scottish accent, but maybe
(11:51):
and he's watching as fragmentsof his roof start coming down
into the house and he looks upand he goes what in the world?
My roof, what are they doing tomy roof?
My roof, what are they doing tomy roof?
Imagine that's a big deal totear apart somebody's roof To
cause collateral damage.
Because you believe Jesus canheal your friend.
(12:13):
They were kind of a spectacle.
What did people think of them?
Now, faith will make you docrazy things from time to time.
Faith will make you do crazythings from time to time.
A lot of times people won'tunderstand the things you'll do,
because I feel like God'stelling me.
Now, know what God's tellingyou.
(12:33):
Don't just do random things.
But sometimes living by faithcan be embarrassing, right?
Think about just the groundfloor of this.
We believe in God, we believeJesus is the only way to the
father, the only way forforgiveness, and we believe
(12:54):
heaven is a real place.
We believe hell is a real place, and so we have friends, and it
panics us to say stuff likethis, but we must say to our
friends, to our familiessometimes you got to trust Jesus
.
You can't trust your works.
(13:15):
You got to trust Jesus.
This is a real deal.
Heaven is real.
Hell is real.
The truth is that we're allsinners and we need a savior,
and Jesus is it.
And I tell you, I panic whenGod's leading me to say
something like that to someone,and half the time, honestly, I
(13:35):
chicken out.
But God calls us for our faithto sometimes make a stir and our
heart beats, you know, and weworry.
What are people going to think?
They're going to think I'm somekind of crazy or something.
And yet sometimes our faithwill move us to do these kinds
(13:56):
of things uncover a roof, have aconversation.
That's heavy and real, butthat's what faith does.
And why did they do it?
Well, they believed it for one.
But check it out.
They believed that their friendwas more important than the
things that they were losing.
(14:17):
Check it out their friend wasworth more than that roof.
And a lot of times in our worldtoday we don't feel that way
about people anymore, do we?
We hear a lot of numbers on thenews A thousand people October
7th perished.
And we go oh, that's lousy.
(14:38):
What's for dinner?
Right, you know, we think aboutearthquakes where hundreds of
thousands of people die.
We go that's a shame, what?
What are we going to do now?
And we just go on with it.
I understand those are safetyfeatures in our lives sometimes,
but check it out, people areworth it.
(15:00):
People are worth more than theroof worth it.
People are worth more than theroof.
People are worth more thansuccess, right, all these
different kinds of things.
These guys had a faith thattheir friend was worth the
discomfort, worth being aspectacle, worth bringing him to
(15:21):
Jesus.
Their faith was also persistent.
Think about that.
If the roof was two feet thickand they had to peel, layer and
layer and layer off of that, ittook some persistence.
They didn't just get to thedoor and say, well, not today,
and they left, right, theydidn't just go up in the roof
(15:43):
and say, well, we're up here,but this is a thick roof.
They were persistent.
They were consistent with thethings they did to get their
friend to Jesus and bringingpeople to Jesus.
It takes persistence, doesn'tit?
Lifelong persistence sometimes.
(16:04):
I love the account of GeorgeMueller.
George Mueller kind ofoverwhelms me sometimes.
He's a guy from the 1800sEngland, bristol, england.
He had a heart for orphansthere in Bristol and so he
started an orphanage and,without government help or
anything like that, he startedan orphanage and he determined
(16:26):
he was only going to pray.
He wasn't going to tell peoplewhat he needed, he was just
going to pray for the thingsthat he needed Pretty intense
and George Mueller not perfect,but he needed.
He was just going to pray forthe things that he needed Pretty
intense and George Mueller notperfect, but he prayed.
He's an example of praying.
Well, the story is told ofGeorge Mueller that he had five
specific friends that weren'tChristians, weren't believers,
(16:47):
just people he had come incontact with, and he dedicated
to pray for these friends untilthey got saved.
We have people like that in ourlife, don't we?
That we determine I'm going topray for them, to love them and
pray for them.
And throughout George Miller'slife some of these guys got
(17:08):
saved.
Mark them off the list.
They become a praise report,right?
Well, one never did get saved,but George Mueller prayed for
this guy.
Now, it wasn't George Muellerthat did it, right, it was God,
right, god's the one who doesthe saving.
But he prayed for this guy hisentire life.
(17:28):
And when George Mueller diedthe guy still was not a
Christian, still did not believe.
But after George Mueller diedhe came to the Lord.
Now, that's not guaranteed thateverybody we pray for is going
to be saved.
I think there's a thing calledfree will.
That's my thought on the issue.
Everybody's got a choice.
(17:49):
But man, persistence inbringing people to Jesus,
persistence in just dailypraying we pray for a lot of
things, man.
When there's sickness in ourlife, we can pray day and night,
we can pray while we sleep, youknow.
When there's difficulty orbills to be paid, we can panic
(18:11):
and we can pray.
But you know, this persistencein bringing our friends to Jesus
, no matter what it takes,that's sometimes a lifelong
thing.
And these guys, through thethick and thin of it, they
persisted in that.
Now the end of the story here wesee is that the man had to have
(18:35):
faith himself and it's justtotally necessary.
Let's look on and see whathappens as his friends bring him
there.
They let him down through theroof in front of Jesus Verse 5,.
When Jesus saw their faith, hesaid to the paralytic Son your
sins are forgiven you.
(18:56):
Now, that's not what the manwas looking for at this point,
right, the man was looking forhealing and Jesus gave him
forgiveness.
But Jesus dealt with the mostimportant part.
Check it out what does itprofit a man if he's healed of
(19:16):
every sickness and loses hissoul?
Kind of a variation of thatpassage, right?
What does it profit a person ifthey're healed of every
sickness and yet they lose theirsoul?
Jesus here deals with the mostimportant problem the
forgiveness of sins.
Now, some in this have thoughtperhaps this sickness is related
(19:45):
to some kind of sin.
Jesus deals with the sin.
In healing, the man deals withthe sin.
So maybe this sickness wasrelated to sin.
And that was a big thought inthe day, as we have a thought of
it too, that if somebody wassick or going through it, that
the reason why they were goingthrough it was because they were
(20:06):
worse sinners than everyoneelse, that's a nice theory to
have, but not if you're the onethat's sick.
Else, that's a nice theory tohave, but not if you're the one
that's sick.
Right that every sickness wasbecause of sin.
In fact, jesus dealt with hisdisciples on this in John
chapter 9, right?
Another sweet story there, johnchapter 9, a man who's born
(20:26):
blind.
And Jesus' disciples ask himwell, was it this man that
sinned, or his parents, that heshould be born blind?
Now, what a horrible thing tosay to someone or about someone.
This guy can't see becauseeither his parents sinned or he
sinned.
(20:46):
Number one how did he sin?
They're in the womb.
Had a bad thought, you know,had an evil thought, you know.
He lied while in his mother'swomb.
How could he sin before beingborn?
Impossible, right.
And Jesus here says who sinned?
(21:07):
Neither, I think, is the way itreads.
Neither of these sinned, butthat you would know.
The glory of God, here I am.
Jesus says and so why is theresickness?
Well, because of sin in theworld, but not necessarily
because of a person's sin.
But it could have been.
(21:30):
Now, come back for a second.
I know I've been okay.
Come back for a second, I knowI've been okay, come back for a
second.
Perhaps this man's beingparalyzed was because of sin.
I've done some pretty lamethings in my life that's a
terrible word to use there.
I've done some pretty lousythings in my life and you ever
(21:54):
do something that has likefuture repercussions.
You know what I mean.
Like, okay, I was walkingaround Dallas not that long ago
and I was taking pictures,because that's what I was into.
I was just taking pictures ofbuildings and stuff and I
tripped on a crack.
You know you can do that whenyou're 50, right, you can trip
on a crack.
You know, and I tripped on acrack.
You know you can do that whenyou're 50, right, you can trip
(22:16):
on a crack.
You know, and I tripped andnobody saw it that I know of.
But I bloodied myself up realbad leg and I tried to get up
and just keep walking likenothing happened.
You know, because that's whatyou do.
But you know, my knee has neverbeen the same since that
falling on that knee.
Don't you hate it when you canpinpoint a silly thing that you
did and you go now?
(22:37):
My life is never the same,right?
Well, this guy, perhaps his sinreally did lead to his being
paralyzed.
Maybe it was a bad idea, maybehe was out when his parents said
don't go out, I don't know.
You know, maybe it was someother kind of sin that brought
(22:58):
this crippling effect to hislife, because that's what sin
does.
But just picture him because wecan all picture this that there
he is lying on this stretcherand he knows, he knows that
lousy thing, that I did that onemoment of time, and now my life
(23:20):
is totally different.
I wouldn't be in this place ifI hadn't done that thing.
And just imagine the guilt thathe would have felt and just the
depression that goes along withthat.
And here Jesus is going to healhim.
We know the end of the story,right, but Jesus deals with the
(23:46):
most important thing his sin.
We all have sin.
You know this Romans 3, 23,.
All have sinned.
You know this, romans 3, 23.
All have sinned and fall shortof the glory of God.
We've all done lousy things andit's an offense to God.
It separates us from God.
Our sin, the wages of sin, isdeath.
(24:10):
And yet here Jesus says to theman right off son, your sins are
forgiven you and it's going tolead to his healing.
But how does this happen.
If Jesus has forgiven thisman's sin, something has to
(24:33):
happen, because God doesn't justforgive sin, just the world.
Here's the world.
Your sin is forgiven, you'reall forgiven.
That's not how it works.
A few things are actuallynecessary for sin to be forgiven
.
Number one is confession.
Right, you know it.
(24:53):
1 John 1.9,.
If we confess our sins, he isfaithful and just to forgive us
our sins and to cleanse us fromall unrighteousness.
Now you got to understand this.
If we confess, if we don'tconfess our sins, we don't
(25:16):
confess our sins.
There's no forgiveness of sins,there's no cleansing.
The word confess means to agreeto say the same thing.
So follow this To confess oursins means to say God, I was
wrong, the things that I did andthe attitudes that I have.
They're wrong Because we canaccept forgiveness.
If God were offering usforgiveness, we can be like have
they're wrong Because we canaccept forgiveness.
If God were offering usforgiveness, we can be like oh,
(25:37):
that's nice, I'm forgiven, butcheck it out.
We can go through our wholelife and say but you know what?
I was right in what I did, thatthing that I did, I was right,
I don't have to be sorry for it.
I don't have to say sorry forit.
I'm right and you know.
We can hold to that our wholelife.
But check it out If we don'tconfess our sins, we don't say
(26:03):
God, you were right and I waswrong, we're not forgiven.
So, in order for this man to beforgiven, he had to confess in
some kind of way in his heart.
He had to realize, god, I waswrong in the things I've done.
I've been wrong and I am wrong,and so, definitely, if this man
(26:29):
was forgiven, then he had toconfess.
He also had to repent.
That's another thing that'simportant to salvation is
repenting.
Now, repenting is a big Bibleterm, maybe too big for a Sunday
morning right.
Repenting, though, is simply togo the opposite direction.
(26:52):
So check it out.
If we're sinners and do thewrong things, we confess I was
wrong, this is wrong.
Then we repent.
This is important.
We have to hear this.
We go the other direction Ifwe're going our own way and if
we're going the way towards sin.
(27:13):
To repent means to turn aroundand go towards God, to do
different things.
Now, we're not going to beperfect, but it's a place in the
heart.
Repentance means I'm going tostop stubbornly going my own way
and I'm going to go God'sdirection.
You repent.
This man had to have repented,because, without repenting, he
(27:35):
would have never come to God.
The last thing, though, andthis is the most important thing
, the last thing that we knowabout this man is that he had to
have a sacrifice, becauseHebrews 9.22 says this Without
the shedding of blood, there isno remission of sin.
Without a sacrifice, sin can'tbe taken away, sin can't be
(28:01):
forgiven.
So this man had to have asacrifice for his sin.
Well how Jesus hadn't went tothe cross, yet, how could this
man have a sacrifice for his sin?
Well how Jesus hadn't went tothe cross, yet how could this
man have a sacrifice for his sin?
Well, he was saved.
The same way, everybody,whoever went before him, was
saved.
That was saved by faith in whatGod was going to do there in
(28:25):
the garden.
God promised he would take careof sin.
A Messiah would come.
One would come and deal withsin.
Now check it out.
People in the Old Testamentdidn't always know everything
about what this Savior would be,but they knew they needed one,
and they knew that God was goingto be the one to provide it,
(28:48):
and so, just like Abel, lookedforward to a sacrifice for his
sin.
Just like Abraham looked for asacrifice for sin, just like
they all look forward to asacrifice, so this man had to
look forward to the sacrificethat Jesus would be.
And Jesus was the lamb slainbefore the foundation of the
(29:11):
world, god's intention beforetime began.
And this man would have to looktoward that same sacrifice.
So check it out.
These things are important tothis guy.
As Jesus says son, your sinsare forgiven.
He had to confess.
Yeah, I got sins.
Yeah, I'm sorry, I was wrong.
He had to repent.
(29:32):
He had to turn from his sin andturn to God.
And he had to have a sacrifice.
And he looked forward.
He had to look forward to whatGod would do for him there on
the cross through Jesus.
Now let's read on and see whathappens.
We'll go very quickly here.
This all happens.
Jesus says son, your sins areforgiven.
You and some of the scribes, theBible teachers really of the
(29:56):
day, were sitting there andreasoning in their hearts.
So we can only see that in ourstory.
Right, they're reasoning in ourhearts.
You're reasoning in your heartright now, wonder what's for
lunch, wonder how much longerhe's going to go.
You're reasoning in your heartright now.
Right, it's hot in here.
You're reasoning in your heart,but I can't see what you're
(30:17):
reasoning in your heart.
And you're glad, because thatwould be embarrassing, wouldn't
it, right now.
But they were reasoning intheir heart.
They're just thinking.
Notice what they're thinking.
Verse 7, why does this man speak?
Blasphemies like this?
Who can forgive sins?
But God alone?
(30:38):
So they're thinking in theirown hearts and their heads.
You could say this guy can'tforgive sin, only God can
forgive sin.
And they're right.
Only God can forgive sin,because sin is always between us
and God.
Even David, right, david inPsalm 51, who's committed
(30:59):
adultery with Bathsheba, who'shad her husband killed?
Right, big time sin in ourminds.
David says God against you andyou only have I sinned.
Now he sinned against Bathshebaand Uriah and all of them.
But David understood that sin,our sin, is really between us
(31:23):
and God, and so they're right.
Who can forgive sin?
But God alone, only God.
In fact, they didn't believethat even the Messiah could
forgive sin.
Only God could forgive sin.
Now the trick here is Jesus isMessiah and God, right.
But notice as they're thinkingthis, but immediately verse 8,
(31:47):
when Jesus perceived in hisspirit that they reasoned thus
within themselves.
He said to them why do youreason about these things in
your heart?
What, huh, what the busted?
Right?
Which is easier to say to theparalytic your sins are
forgiving you?
Or to say rise, take up yourbed and walk?
So Jesus starts a conversationwith them as they're thinking
(32:11):
not only God can forgive sins.
Jesus says you're thinking itonly God can forgive sins.
And they're like what?
And then Jesus says but whichis easier?
To say rise and walk or yoursins are forgiven?
Well, to say your sins areforgiven is easier, right?
I could just right now goaround the room.
(32:32):
Your sins are forgiven, yoursins are forgiven, your sins are
forgiven.
Now, it may not be true, but Icould say that.
And how can you tell if itreally happened, right?
How can you tell if your sin isforgiven?
It's a nice thought, but howcan you tell?
Which is more difficult is tosay rise and walk, because if it
(32:54):
doesn't happen, you know he's aliar, right?
If he doesn't get up and startwalking around, then well then,
you know what happened.
And so Jesus says which iseasier?
But verse 10, that you may knowthat the son of man he's talking
about himself has power onearth to forgive sins.
(33:15):
He said to the paralytic I sayto you, arise, take up your bed
and go to your house immediately.
He arose and took up his bedand went out in the presence of
them all.
So Jesus says so that you knowI can forgive sin, I'll say it
rise and walk.
(33:35):
And the guy got up and he tookup his bed and walked out, right
, and that was it Probably kindof happy I would guess at that
point, but he did it.
Now that's wonderful.
The man can walk.
But what's even more wonderfulis that we can be forgiven, that
Jesus has the ability toforgive us.
(33:57):
More amazing than somebody whocan't walk anymore being able to
walk.
You can be forgiven and we canall look back, as that guy would
have probably looked back atthe regret in our life, the
things that separate us from arelationship with God.
Wish I wouldn't have done that.
I wish you wouldn't have saidthat, boy, now I'm paying the
(34:19):
consequence of this, all thesethings.
And Jesus says you can beforgiven.
Now they were all amazed.
We'll just read it very quickly.
So they were all amazed andglorified God.
Read it very quickly.
So they were all amazed andglorified God, saying we never
saw anything like this.
Never saw anything like peoplebeing healed.
No, capernaum had seen peoplebeing healed, but people being
(34:40):
forgiven of their sins by Jesus.
That's amazing stuff.
Never heard anything like thatbefore.
And yet that's the bottom lineof this whole thing.
Come back for these last coupleminutes here.
The most amazing thing God canforgive us, but the same is true
(35:00):
for us.
There really needs to beconfession.
This is important.
There needs to be confession.
God, I've messed up.
God.
I've messed up God, I'm notright.
We confess God, you were right,I'm wrong.
We turn from our sin, even inour heart.
(35:23):
That's where it all startsright the direction of my life.
I was going this way witheverything that I had.
God, I want to come towards youRepentance.
But we need a sacrifice, andJesus is that sacrifice for each
(35:44):
one of us.
But we have to come personallyto that cross.
We have to realize it was forour sin that he died, because he
loved us.
He paid the price for our sins.
But we have to receive itpersonally like a gift
confessing our sins, turningfrom our sins, turning to God
(36:05):
and receiving this amazing gift.
That's not because we makeourselves a better person.
We get some things right.
That's not it.
But, god, I'm lost.
I'm drowning in this sin.
(36:28):
God, will you save me, like yousaid you would, and he will, but
we have to come to himpersonally.
God, I absolutely know I can'tdo a work in my heart.
I can't do a work in anyone'sheart, but God, you can and
you've been so sweet to us.
God, when we were without hope,god, you loved us and you had
(36:49):
pity on us.
God, we don't have pity onpeople going their own way, but,
god, you have pity on us andcompassion on us.
You love us enough to tell usthe truth, to turn from our sin,
to turn towards you.
And, god, you provide a way forus to be forgiven and set free
(37:12):
from sin and the wages of sin.
God, I know you can do that workin our hearts, so I pray.
Whatever it is, god, we wouldcome to you personally today,
see you at that cross loving us,dying for us, doing everything
that we needed.
God, because you're so goodthat we receive it as a gift.
(37:33):
God, we'd celebrate it thisweek.
God, help us to believe thosetruths enough to share it with
this world around us, no matterwhat it costs us.
I would pray these things inJesus' name Amen.
In Jesus' name amen.
Here we are.
Mark, chapter 2 will work.
If your Bible is Mark, chapter2, we have broken into chapter 2
.
Okay, no rush, no hurry.
Verse 1 is where we will jumpoff today.
(00:39):
Going through the book of Mark,the Gospel of Mark, the account
of the life of Jesus, andbacking up just a smidge here to
chapter 1, verse 38, we willsee that it was there in
Capernaum, jesus, having lots ofgreat ministry going on there
in the city.
(00:59):
Verse 38, he says after praying, he says let us go into the
next towns that I may preachthere also, because for this
purpose I have come forth.
So jesus spent a lot of time incapernaum, kind of a base of
operations there.
Um, and through prayer he comesto this conclusion that the
(01:25):
will of the Father is to go tothe surrounding villages.
So picture it all thesevillages around the Sea of
Galilee, little fishing villages, beautiful place, and Jesus is
just kind of going town to town.
He's sharing the same good news, the gospel there of what God
was doing, and he moves on Well,in chapter two, verse one, we
(01:51):
start with this and again, heentered Capernaum.
So time has gone by and Mark'snot so worried about
chronological, but time has goneby, and again he entered
Capernaum.
So after some days, and, andJesus goes back to Capernaum,
the town of Peter and James,john, andrew, and he begins to
(02:15):
minister there again.
And here in chapter two, verseone, is a rather famous account
Matthew, mark and Luke all coverthis of the man let down
through the roof.
We'll read it, you'll see.
So, chapter 2, verse 1.
And again he entered Capernaumand after some days, and it was
(02:37):
heard that he was in the house.
So Jesus back in the house.
So Jesus back in the house.
We're going to assume notguaranteed, but we're going to
assume for just the sake of somecolor here in the story that
we're back at Peter's houseSeems like a good place.
Lots of ministry goes down atPeter's house and immediately,
(02:57):
verse two, many gatheredtogether so that there was no
longer room to receive them, noteven near the door, and he
preached the word to them.
So Jesus picks up right wherehe left off preaching the word,
teaching the word.
Can you imagine God in fleshtalking about things like heaven
(03:20):
, the heart of the Father,talking about things like heaven
, the heart of the Father, allthe secrets and things that you
ever wanted to know about GodJesus is there teaching and
they're just on every word thathe says.
They're packing out the house.
Now, the houses in that areadidn't really get any bigger
than what we see here.
(03:40):
Probably.
This is huge.
This area right here wouldprobably be way bigger than a
house would be.
But 40 or 50 people was the maxthat we're talking about in
these houses in that area and itwas packed out.
As Jesus taught the word andpreached the word to them, they
couldn't even get to the door.
People are hanging out in thecourtyard, people are hanging
(04:02):
out in the yard all around thehouse to hear what Jesus says.
So picture that the place ispacked and verse 4, no verse 3.
Then they came to him bringing aparalytic who was carried by
four men and when they could notcome near him because of the
(04:25):
crowd, they uncovered the roofwhere he was.
So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which
the paralytic was lying.
So, as Jesus is teaching andpreaching, the place is packed,
a group, a squad of people, Iguess you could say come, four
(04:46):
men carrying a man who'sparalyzed and the spotlight goes
over to them.
Here in Mark's account, thespotlight goes to them like some
kind of sideshow act, it seems,and we picture it as they get
to the house.
They've got this guy, they'retrotting along, you know he's on
(05:07):
a stretcher, and they get thereand they can't get in the house
, it's too crowded.
Well, you know the story they goup on the roof.
Now, this was not a hard thingto do because the houses in
those days had flat roofs and itbecame kind of like a patio,
kind of a patio of sorts wherepeople would go and hang out.
(05:31):
So picture it, picture it here.
These men, these four men, theyhead up on the roof and, what's
more, they look at the roof andthey've got an idea and they
(05:52):
begin to take this roof apart.
The word here, the word here,is kind of interesting in the
Greek they unroof the roof.
Right is what this is.
They went up on the roof andthey unroofed the roof.
Right is what this is.
They went up on the roof andthey unroofed the roof because
in those days, everything prettynatural, we were not looking at
(06:13):
, you know shingles made of taror anything like that.
They had boards that were putacross these roofs, these big
beams, and then they would putpalm branches, thatch mud and it
was like layer of palm branchesmud, palm branches, mud, and
they would put these layers ofdirt and like whatever they
(06:34):
could find on top of the roofuntil it was about two feet
thick.
These roofs Pretty significantroof there.
So as these guys go up and theybegin to unroof the roof,
they're taking layer after layer, they're peeling these layers
off and the goal here is to gettheir friend down to Jesus.
(07:03):
So a pretty detailed processhere of doing this, but they're
determined.
Now notice, they had faith inthis, verse five.
(07:25):
When Jesus saw their faith theman, his friends, their faith.
When Jesus saw their faith, hesaid to the paralytic son your
sins are forgiven you.
So Jesus saw their faith.
Come back for a second here.
Something we get from thisfaith is something you can see
(07:45):
Now.
Faith if we were to find faith,it'd probably be belief or
trust.
That's what we'd say if I saidwhat's faith to you?
Well, it's believing something,it's trusting someone.
I have faith in them.
But here we see that faith issomething you can see.
Jesus saw it.
(08:06):
And we go back to what Jamessays many times in his book
Faith without works is dead.
Real faith, honest faith, willdo something, it will act.
If it's alive it'll act.
Now we're saved through faith,by grace.
I'm sorry, through faith, butfaith of outworks is is dead.
(08:30):
And here these guys come andthey show their faith.
They show their simple trustthat Jesus was the answer, or
had an answer, to their friend'sproblem, and they believed it,
and that belief absolutelychanged their actions, right.
So consider that their faith,their belief, absolutely changed
(08:53):
their actions, and it wasbeautiful.
So here's this guy.
He's being brought to Jesus by,we would say, the faith or the
trust, the belief of his friends, something we want to notice in
this for this guy, this guywho's crippled.
He's been that way we don'tknow how long, but he's unable
(09:14):
to walk, and his friends hadfaith.
His friends' faith couldn'tsave him, though that's
important to understand aboutfaith, faith has to be personal.
We're going to talk aboutforgiveness that comes to this
crippled guy and healing thatcomes to him.
His friends had faith, buttheir faith couldn't save him.
(09:37):
It had to be personal.
His friends, though, had faithin who Jesus was.
Now, they had no idea who Jesuswas right.
Did anybody really know whoJesus was?
At this point in the book, noone had a clue.
His disciples had some ideas,probably, but they had no clue.
(10:01):
So they have an incompletefaith, but they had no clue.
So they have an incompletefaith, but they look at Jesus
and they go that guy, he doesmiracles, that guy has healed
people, that guy is kind, right.
So what they knew about Jesushe's kind, he's able to heal,
he's powerful they didn'tunderstand much, but that what
(10:23):
they understood of Jesus causedthem to bring their friend to
Jesus and notice, they became aspectacle for their faith.
I think, right here they comedown the street.
Now I picture them a littleyounger, right?
Younger people don't care whatthe world thinks about them
generally.
Right, they come running downthe street.
(10:45):
They're like, let's do it, comeon, guys.
Yeah, going to Jesus, you know.
And they're coming down thestreet, this little parade,
carrying their friend.
They go up on top of the roof,somebody's roof, and they begin
to disassemble it.
Right, vandalism, in the nameof faith, right, I don't
(11:05):
recommend that, by the way, butyou know it was a big deal they
start tearing the roof apart.
Now there's this one cartoon Ihave and do watch cartoons from
time to time it's Claymationactually of the life of Jesus
and I love it because most ofthe people in this Claymation
account of the life of Jesus andI love it because most of the
people in this claymationaccount of the life of Jesus
(11:29):
have British accents.
I have no idea why they haveBritish accents, but they do
right, most of them have Britishaccents.
Peter, whose house we assumethis might've been, he has a
Scottish accent because he's afisherman, for goodness sake,
right.
So here's Peter in this accountand I think it's accurate.
Honestly, I don't know aboutthe Scottish accent, but maybe
(11:51):
and he's watching as fragmentsof his roof start coming down
into the house and he looks upand he goes what in the world?
My roof, what are they doing tomy roof?
My roof, what are they doing tomy roof?
Imagine that's a big deal totear apart somebody's roof To
cause collateral damage.
Because you believe Jesus canheal your friend.
(12:13):
They were kind of a spectacle.
What did people think of them?
Now, faith will make you docrazy things from time to time.
Faith will make you do crazythings from time to time.
A lot of times people won'tunderstand the things you'll do,
because I feel like God'stelling me.
Now, know what God's tellingyou.
(12:33):
Don't just do random things.
But sometimes living by faithcan be embarrassing, right?
Think about just the groundfloor of this.
We believe in God, we believeJesus is the only way to the
father, the only way forforgiveness, and we believe
(12:54):
heaven is a real place.
We believe hell is a real place, and so we have friends, and it
panics us to say stuff likethis, but we must say to our
friends, to our familiessometimes you got to trust Jesus
.
You can't trust your works.
(13:15):
You got to trust Jesus.
This is a real deal.
Heaven is real.
Hell is real.
The truth is that we're allsinners and we need a savior,
and Jesus is it.
And I tell you, I panic whenGod's leading me to say
something like that to someone,and half the time, honestly, I
(13:35):
chicken out.
But God calls us for our faithto sometimes make a stir and our
heart beats, you know, and weworry.
What are people going to think?
They're going to think I'm somekind of crazy or something.
And yet sometimes our faithwill move us to do these kinds
(13:56):
of things uncover a roof, have aconversation.
That's heavy and real, butthat's what faith does.
And why did they do it?
Well, they believed it for one.
But check it out.
They believed that their friendwas more important than the
things that they were losing.
(14:17):
Check it out their friend wasworth more than that roof.
And a lot of times in our worldtoday we don't feel that way
about people anymore, do we?
We hear a lot of numbers on thenews A thousand people October
7th perished.
And we go oh, that's lousy.
(14:38):
What's for dinner?
Right, you know, we think aboutearthquakes where hundreds of
thousands of people die.
We go that's a shame, what?
What are we going to do now?
And we just go on with it.
I understand those are safetyfeatures in our lives sometimes,
but check it out, people areworth it.
(15:00):
People are worth more than theroof worth it.
People are worth more than theroof.
People are worth more thansuccess, right, all these
different kinds of things.
These guys had a faith thattheir friend was worth the
discomfort, worth being aspectacle, worth bringing him to
(15:21):
Jesus.
Their faith was also persistent.
Think about that.
If the roof was two feet thickand they had to peel, layer and
layer and layer off of that, ittook some persistence.
They didn't just get to thedoor and say, well, not today,
and they left, right, theydidn't just go up in the roof
(15:43):
and say, well, we're up here,but this is a thick roof.
They were persistent.
They were consistent with thethings they did to get their
friend to Jesus and bringingpeople to Jesus.
It takes persistence, doesn'tit?
Lifelong persistence sometimes.
(16:04):
I love the account of GeorgeMueller.
George Mueller kind ofoverwhelms me sometimes.
He's a guy from the 1800sEngland, bristol, england.
He had a heart for orphansthere in Bristol and so he
started an orphanage and,without government help or
anything like that, he startedan orphanage and he determined
(16:26):
he was only going to pray.
He wasn't going to tell peoplewhat he needed, he was just
going to pray for the thingsthat he needed Pretty intense
and George Mueller not perfect,but he needed.
He was just going to pray forthe things that he needed Pretty
intense and George Mueller notperfect, but he prayed.
He's an example of praying.
Well, the story is told ofGeorge Mueller that he had five
specific friends that weren'tChristians, weren't believers,
(16:47):
just people he had come incontact with, and he dedicated
to pray for these friends untilthey got saved.
We have people like that in ourlife, don't we?
That we determine I'm going topray for them, to love them and
pray for them.
And throughout George Miller'slife some of these guys got
(17:08):
saved.
Mark them off the list.
They become a praise report,right?
Well, one never did get saved,but George Mueller prayed for
this guy.
Now, it wasn't George Muellerthat did it, right, it was God,
right, god's the one who doesthe saving.
But he prayed for this guy hisentire life.
(17:28):
And when George Mueller diedthe guy still was not a
Christian, still did not believe.
But after George Mueller diedhe came to the Lord.
Now, that's not guaranteed thateverybody we pray for is going
to be saved.
I think there's a thing calledfree will.
That's my thought on the issue.
Everybody's got a choice.
(17:49):
But man, persistence inbringing people to Jesus,
persistence in just dailypraying we pray for a lot of
things, man.
When there's sickness in ourlife, we can pray day and night,
we can pray while we sleep, youknow.
When there's difficulty orbills to be paid, we can panic
(18:11):
and we can pray.
But you know, this persistencein bringing our friends to Jesus
, no matter what it takes,that's sometimes a lifelong
thing.
And these guys, through thethick and thin of it, they
persisted in that.
Now the end of the story here wesee is that the man had to have
(18:35):
faith himself and it's justtotally necessary.
Let's look on and see whathappens as his friends bring him
there.
They let him down through theroof in front of Jesus Verse 5,.
When Jesus saw their faith, hesaid to the paralytic Son your
sins are forgiven you.
(18:56):
Now, that's not what the manwas looking for at this point,
right, the man was looking forhealing and Jesus gave him
forgiveness.
But Jesus dealt with the mostimportant part.
Check it out what does itprofit a man if he's healed of
(19:16):
every sickness and loses hissoul?
Kind of a variation of thatpassage, right?
What does it profit a person ifthey're healed of every
sickness and yet they lose theirsoul?
Jesus here deals with the mostimportant problem the
forgiveness of sins.
Now, some in this have thoughtperhaps this sickness is related
(19:45):
to some kind of sin.
Jesus deals with the sin.
In healing, the man deals withthe sin.
So maybe this sickness wasrelated to sin.
And that was a big thought inthe day, as we have a thought of
it too, that if somebody wassick or going through it, that
the reason why they were goingthrough it was because they were
(20:06):
worse sinners than everyoneelse, that's a nice theory to
have, but not if you're the onethat's sick.
Else, that's a nice theory tohave, but not if you're the one
that's sick.
Right that every sickness wasbecause of sin.
In fact, jesus dealt with hisdisciples on this in John
chapter 9, right?
Another sweet story there, johnchapter 9, a man who's born
(20:26):
blind.
And Jesus' disciples ask himwell, was it this man that
sinned, or his parents, that heshould be born blind?
Now, what a horrible thing tosay to someone or about someone.
This guy can't see becauseeither his parents sinned or he
sinned.
(20:46):
Number one how did he sin?
They're in the womb.
Had a bad thought, you know,had an evil thought, you know.
He lied while in his mother'swomb.
How could he sin before beingborn?
Impossible, right.
And Jesus here says who sinned?
(21:07):
Neither, I think, is the way itreads.
Neither of these sinned, butthat you would know.
The glory of God, here I am.
Jesus says and so why is theresickness?
Well, because of sin in theworld, but not necessarily
because of a person's sin.
But it could have been.
(21:30):
Now, come back for a second.
I know I've been okay.
Come back for a second, I knowI've been okay, come back for a
second.
Perhaps this man's beingparalyzed was because of sin.
I've done some pretty lamethings in my life that's a
terrible word to use there.
I've done some pretty lousythings in my life and you ever
(21:54):
do something that has likefuture repercussions.
You know what I mean.
Like, okay, I was walkingaround Dallas not that long ago
and I was taking pictures,because that's what I was into.
I was just taking pictures ofbuildings and stuff and I
tripped on a crack.
You know you can do that whenyou're 50, right, you can trip
on a crack.
You know, and I tripped on acrack.
You know you can do that whenyou're 50, right, you can trip
(22:16):
on a crack.
You know, and I tripped andnobody saw it that I know of.
But I bloodied myself up realbad leg and I tried to get up
and just keep walking likenothing happened.
You know, because that's whatyou do.
But you know, my knee has neverbeen the same since that
falling on that knee.
Don't you hate it when you canpinpoint a silly thing that you
did and you go now?
(22:37):
My life is never the same,right?
Well, this guy, perhaps his sinreally did lead to his being
paralyzed.
Maybe it was a bad idea, maybehe was out when his parents said
don't go out, I don't know.
You know, maybe it was someother kind of sin that brought
(22:58):
this crippling effect to hislife, because that's what sin
does.
But just picture him because wecan all picture this that there
he is lying on this stretcherand he knows, he knows that
lousy thing, that I did that onemoment of time, and now my life
(23:20):
is totally different.
I wouldn't be in this place ifI hadn't done that thing.
And just imagine the guilt thathe would have felt and just the
depression that goes along withthat.
And here Jesus is going to healhim.
We know the end of the story,right, but Jesus deals with the
(23:46):
most important thing his sin.
We all have sin.
You know this Romans 3, 23,.
All have sinned.
You know this, romans 3, 23.
All have sinned and fall shortof the glory of God.
We've all done lousy things andit's an offense to God.
It separates us from God.
Our sin, the wages of sin, isdeath.
(24:10):
And yet here Jesus says to theman right off son, your sins are
forgiven you and it's going tolead to his healing.
But how does this happen.
If Jesus has forgiven thisman's sin, something has to
(24:33):
happen, because God doesn't justforgive sin, just the world.
Here's the world.
Your sin is forgiven, you'reall forgiven.
That's not how it works.
A few things are actuallynecessary for sin to be forgiven
.
Number one is confession.
Right, you know it.
(24:53):
1 John 1.9,.
If we confess our sins, he isfaithful and just to forgive us
our sins and to cleanse us fromall unrighteousness.
Now you got to understand this.
If we confess, if we don'tconfess our sins, we don't
(25:16):
confess our sins.
There's no forgiveness of sins,there's no cleansing.
The word confess means to agreeto say the same thing.
So follow this To confess oursins means to say God, I was
wrong, the things that I did andthe attitudes that I have.
They're wrong Because we canaccept forgiveness.
If God were offering usforgiveness, we can be like have
they're wrong Because we canaccept forgiveness.
If God were offering usforgiveness, we can be like oh,
(25:37):
that's nice, I'm forgiven, butcheck it out.
We can go through our wholelife and say but you know what?
I was right in what I did, thatthing that I did, I was right,
I don't have to be sorry for it.
I don't have to say sorry forit.
I'm right and you know.
We can hold to that our wholelife.
But check it out If we don'tconfess our sins, we don't say
(26:03):
God, you were right and I waswrong, we're not forgiven.
So, in order for this man to beforgiven, he had to confess in
some kind of way in his heart.
He had to realize, god, I waswrong in the things I've done.
I've been wrong and I am wrong,and so, definitely, if this man
(26:29):
was forgiven, then he had toconfess.
He also had to repent.
That's another thing that'simportant to salvation is
repenting.
Now, repenting is a big Bibleterm, maybe too big for a Sunday
morning right.
Repenting, though, is simply togo the opposite direction.
(26:52):
So check it out.
If we're sinners and do thewrong things, we confess I was
wrong, this is wrong.
Then we repent.
This is important.
We have to hear this.
We go the other direction Ifwe're going our own way and if
we're going the way towards sin.
(27:13):
To repent means to turn aroundand go towards God, to do
different things.
Now, we're not going to beperfect, but it's a place in the
heart.
Repentance means I'm going tostop stubbornly going my own way
and I'm going to go God'sdirection.
You repent.
This man had to have repented,because, without repenting, he
(27:35):
would have never come to God.
The last thing, though, andthis is the most important thing
, the last thing that we knowabout this man is that he had to
have a sacrifice, becauseHebrews 9.22 says this Without
the shedding of blood, there isno remission of sin.
Without a sacrifice, sin can'tbe taken away, sin can't be
(28:01):
forgiven.
So this man had to have asacrifice for his sin.
Well how Jesus hadn't went tothe cross, yet, how could this
man have a sacrifice for his sin?
Well how Jesus hadn't went tothe cross, yet how could this
man have a sacrifice for his sin?
Well, he was saved.
The same way, everybody,whoever went before him, was
saved.
That was saved by faith in whatGod was going to do there in
(28:25):
the garden.
God promised he would take careof sin.
A Messiah would come.
One would come and deal withsin.
Now check it out.
People in the Old Testamentdidn't always know everything
about what this Savior would be,but they knew they needed one,
and they knew that God was goingto be the one to provide it,
(28:48):
and so, just like Abel, lookedforward to a sacrifice for his
sin.
Just like Abraham looked for asacrifice for sin, just like
they all look forward to asacrifice, so this man had to
look forward to the sacrificethat Jesus would be.
And Jesus was the lamb slainbefore the foundation of the
(29:11):
world, god's intention beforetime began.
And this man would have to looktoward that same sacrifice.
So check it out.
These things are important tothis guy.
As Jesus says son, your sinsare forgiven.
He had to confess.
Yeah, I got sins.
Yeah, I'm sorry, I was wrong.
He had to repent.
(29:32):
He had to turn from his sin andturn to God.
And he had to have a sacrifice.
And he looked forward.
He had to look forward to whatGod would do for him there on
the cross through Jesus.
Now let's read on and see whathappens.
We'll go very quickly here.
This all happens.
Jesus says son, your sins areforgiven.
You and some of the scribes, theBible teachers really of the
(29:56):
day, were sitting there andreasoning in their hearts.
So we can only see that in ourstory.
Right, they're reasoning in ourhearts.
You're reasoning in your heartright now, wonder what's for
lunch, wonder how much longerhe's going to go.
You're reasoning in your heartright now.
Right, it's hot in here.
You're reasoning in your heart,but I can't see what you're
(30:17):
reasoning in your heart.
And you're glad, because thatwould be embarrassing, wouldn't
it, right now.
But they were reasoning intheir heart.
They're just thinking.
Notice what they're thinking.
Verse 7, why does this man speak?
Blasphemies like this?
Who can forgive sins?
But God alone?
(30:38):
So they're thinking in theirown hearts and their heads.
You could say this guy can'tforgive sin, only God can
forgive sin.
And they're right.
Only God can forgive sin,because sin is always between us
and God.
Even David, right, david inPsalm 51, who's committed
(30:59):
adultery with Bathsheba, who'shad her husband killed?
Right, big time sin in ourminds.
David says God against you andyou only have I sinned.
Now he sinned against Bathshebaand Uriah and all of them.
But David understood that sin,our sin, is really between us
(31:23):
and God, and so they're right.
Who can forgive sin?
But God alone, only God.
In fact, they didn't believethat even the Messiah could
forgive sin.
Only God could forgive sin.
Now the trick here is Jesus isMessiah and God, right.
But notice as they're thinkingthis, but immediately verse 8,
(31:47):
when Jesus perceived in hisspirit that they reasoned thus
within themselves.
He said to them why do youreason about these things in
your heart?
What, huh, what the busted?
Right?
Which is easier to say to theparalytic your sins are
forgiving you?
Or to say rise, take up yourbed and walk?
So Jesus starts a conversationwith them as they're thinking
(32:11):
not only God can forgive sins.
Jesus says you're thinking itonly God can forgive sins.
And they're like what?
And then Jesus says but whichis easier?
To say rise and walk or yoursins are forgiven?
Well, to say your sins areforgiven is easier, right?
I could just right now goaround the room.
(32:32):
Your sins are forgiven, yoursins are forgiven, your sins are
forgiven.
Now, it may not be true, but Icould say that.
And how can you tell if itreally happened, right?
How can you tell if your sin isforgiven?
It's a nice thought, but howcan you tell?
Which is more difficult is tosay rise and walk, because if it
(32:54):
doesn't happen, you know he's aliar, right?
If he doesn't get up and startwalking around, then well then,
you know what happened.
And so Jesus says which iseasier?
But verse 10, that you may knowthat the son of man he's talking
about himself has power onearth to forgive sins.
(33:15):
He said to the paralytic I sayto you, arise, take up your bed
and go to your house immediately.
He arose and took up his bedand went out in the presence of
them all.
So Jesus says so that you knowI can forgive sin, I'll say it
rise and walk.
(33:35):
And the guy got up and he tookup his bed and walked out, right
, and that was it Probably kindof happy I would guess at that
point, but he did it.
Now that's wonderful.
The man can walk.
But what's even more wonderfulis that we can be forgiven, that
Jesus has the ability toforgive us.
(33:57):
More amazing than somebody whocan't walk anymore being able to
walk.
You can be forgiven and we canall look back, as that guy would
have probably looked back atthe regret in our life, the
things that separate us from arelationship with God.
Wish I wouldn't have done that.
I wish you wouldn't have saidthat, boy, now I'm paying the
(34:19):
consequence of this, all thesethings.
And Jesus says you can beforgiven.
Now they were all amazed.
We'll just read it very quickly.
So they were all amazed andglorified God.
Read it very quickly.
So they were all amazed andglorified God, saying we never
saw anything like this.
Never saw anything like peoplebeing healed.
No, capernaum had seen peoplebeing healed, but people being
(34:40):
forgiven of their sins by Jesus.
That's amazing stuff.
Never heard anything like thatbefore.
And yet that's the bottom lineof this whole thing.
Come back for these last coupleminutes here.
The most amazing thing God canforgive us, but the same is true
(35:00):
for us.
There really needs to beconfession.
This is important.
There needs to be confession.
God, I've messed up.
God.
I've messed up God, I'm notright.
We confess God, you were right,I'm wrong.
We turn from our sin, even inour heart.
(35:23):
That's where it all startsright the direction of my life.
I was going this way witheverything that I had.
God, I want to come towards youRepentance.
But we need a sacrifice, andJesus is that sacrifice for each
(35:44):
one of us.
But we have to come personallyto that cross.
We have to realize it was forour sin that he died, because he
loved us.
He paid the price for our sins.
But we have to receive itpersonally like a gift
confessing our sins, turningfrom our sins, turning to God
(36:05):
and receiving this amazing gift.
That's not because we makeourselves a better person.
We get some things right.
That's not it.
But, god, I'm lost.
I'm drowning in this sin.
(36:28):
God, will you save me, like yousaid you would, and he will, but
we have to come to himpersonally.
God, I absolutely know I can'tdo a work in my heart.
I can't do a work in anyone'sheart, but God, you can and
you've been so sweet to us.
God, when we were without hope,god, you loved us and you had
(36:49):
pity on us.
God, we don't have pity onpeople going their own way, but,
god, you have pity on us andcompassion on us.
You love us enough to tell usthe truth, to turn from our sin,
to turn towards you.
And, god, you provide a way forus to be forgiven and set free
(37:12):
from sin and the wages of sin.
God, I know you can do that workin our hearts, so I pray.
Whatever it is, god, we wouldcome to you personally today,
see you at that cross loving us,dying for us, doing everything
that we needed.
God, because you're so goodthat we receive it as a gift.
(37:33):
God, we'd celebrate it thisweek.
God, help us to believe thosetruths enough to share it with
this world around us, no matterwhat it costs us.
I would pray these things inJesus' name Amen.
In Jesus' name amen.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.