Ultimate Power: Mark 2:1-12

You get as excited as I do to see those kids leave every week.

Let the little children come to me, Jesus said.

They're going to Jesus downstairs.

After being with Jesus upstairs.

We're in a sermon series on the Gospel of Mark.

This morning we're looking at chapter 2, verses 1 to 12.

You'll find that printed in your bulletin if you'd like to follow along there or in your Bible.

This is the story of Jesus through the eyes of Mark, from the ears in the mouth of Peter.

And when he, that is Jesus, returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home.

And many were gathered together so that 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 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 blasphemy.

Who can forgive sins but God alone?

And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his 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.

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.

This is God's majestic, powerful, beautiful word, authoritative word that we sit under this morning.

As we sang, so we pray for the Spirit's help.

Father, thank you.

Thank you for giving us a Son like Jesus.

Thank you for giving us the Holy Spirit.

The same in substance, equal in power and glory with the Father and the Son.

Tryune, God, be glorified this morning as you do your work in our hearts.

Amen.

So we continue this exciting story in the life of Jesus.

As I've said in the series, it's my prayer for myself, and it's my prayer for you that you will see these gospels with fresh eyes.

With an open heart.

We don't just get so familiar with the story that we take it for granted.

That we don't be so familiar with the story and the gospel that we just kind of yawn through it.

Well, of course, that's what Jesus does.

That's who he is.

That's not my prayer.

My prayer is that the Holy Spirit will reach in and make parts of us come alive in new ways because we are awestruck by Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

And he just never lets us down, does he?

He's a busy man, as we saw last week.

And by the way, I've been encouraged by a lot of conversations I've had this past week with many of you.

What does the rhythm of a gospel life look like in your life?

Keep thinking.

Keep asking that question.

We saw that in the life of Jesus.

The rhythm of a gospel life.

Engage, withdraw, minister, retreat.

We need that.

We all need that.

What is Jesus going to teach us here?

Well, he goes back to Capernaum, and we believe it was most likely the home of Peter and Andrew.

And families tended to live together in those days, and it would have been most likely, that's where he healed, Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law.

They go back to Capernaum, and now the news is spreading, even though Jesus told the leopard, don't go around talking about this.

The leper went around talking about this.

And many others did as well.

It seems as they could not stop.

And so the crowds are growing.

And here in the town of Capernaum, which at some point Jesus made his home, many were gathered together, said there's no more room.

And these were not big houses.

These were smaller houses.

But Jesus is there, and he's teaching, and he's healing, and as the word gets around, everybody in town wants to be there.

Because they've heard that this is no ordinary man.

And so there happens to be four men, friends of a man who was paralyzed.

We don't know how long he'd been paralyzed.

We can imagine what challenges he faced in that condition.

And these four men believed that this man could heal their friend.

They so believed it that they put him on a stretcher, and that's really what the word means.

It's not a fancy bed.

It was a poor man's stretcher, probably.

Just enough to hold him.

Four men, pick him up on the mat.

But then when they get to the house, they can't get in.

It is so crowded.

They can't get in the door.

But because they so wanted to bring their friend to Jesus, they get creative.

And there's a lesson there for you too.

When you really want to bring your friends to Jesus, you get creative.

You get prayerful.

You're not easily dissuaded when you want to bring your friend to Jesus.

And so somebody gets the brilliant idea.

Hey, let's go up the stairs and go through the roof.

Now, if that happened right now, I think worship would be over, maybe.

I mean, I watched, I watched that ceiling, I watched that roof built every day.

It was quite a project.

That roof would be harder to get through than that roof.

But if somebody started digging through that roof right now, it would be really hard for me to keep your attention.

And it would be really hard for me to stay focused.

They got creative.

And beautiful things happen when we get desperate to bring our friends to Jesus.

And so, can you imagine?

I mean, there is, who knows what's falling from the ceiling?

Dust, dirt, tiles.

It's falling down.

And they're not apologetic about it.

I mean, did they help to clean up afterward?

Perhaps they did.

But it's just a very strange scene going on here.

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 he lay.

Listen to this.

And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, son, your sins are forgiven.

I have to acknowledge that the first time I, first few times I preached through this text years ago, I think I missed the faith of the man himself.

I think I was so focused on the faith of the friends when he saw their faith.

And so scholars and commentators asked the question who is that referring to?

I think I'm convinced that it's the faith of the man, the sick, the paralyzed man as well.

It doesn't say explicitly, but surely he had to have faith to go along with this.

Right?

He had to have faith.

But he had to consent.

When Jesus saw their faith, he said the most beautiful words that this man ever heard.

Son, turn with endearment.

Son, your sins are forgiven.

Like oftentimes, in the midst of the greatest blessing, there was doubt, there was skepticism, there was criticism of Jesus.

And that still happens today.

Isn't it amazing?

When Jesus is doing a beautiful work, that there are usually or often people criticizing.

People who are missing it.

They're missing what's really going on in the kingdom of God.

They're pointing out nitpick errors.

Jesus, come on.

Would you quit with the critical spirit?

Would you just put your eyes and your focus on what I am doing and building the kingdom of God?

Yeah.

I need to remember that.

And so then he gets these critics who say, Who are you to pronounce forgiveness on him?

Only God can do that.

And here's the thing they were right.

But what they missed and what they didn't know was this was God in the flesh.

There's no stronger passage in the New Testament on the deity of Jesus Christ than this.

There's no stronger passage of the deity that Jesus Christ is God.

Fully God.

Fully man.

In the flesh, incarnate.

If you doubt the deity of Jesus Christ, I direct you to this passage.

Don't miss it.

And Jesus says, Well, I know what's going on in your hearts, you critics, you doubters.

I know what's going on in your hearts.

So let me ask you a question.

Which is easier?

To say your sins are forgiven, or to say, rise up and walk.

Why do you think?

Here's my question for you.

Why do you think Jesus chose to say rise up and walk?

Rather than saying that, he said, son, your sins are forgiven.

I got that backwards, didn't I?

You guys stand with me?

Why do you think he said, rise up and walk, rather than your sins are forgiven?

Let's take 30 seconds to ponder that.

This is good silence right now.

Think about it.

What would be the empirical proof that he was the Son of God?

If he said, your sins are forgiven, which was true, if he simply said, your sins are forgiven, how would that be empirically verified?

Right?

You with me?

I mean, who knows what God is doing in the depths of a human heart?

But when he says to a man that many of those people knew had been paralyzed, they knew the man.

They knew his condition.

Nobody could refute that this was divine power on display.

The man who was paralyzed when he rose up.

Can you imagine?

Again, we don't know how long it had been since he'd been paralyzed.

Was it most of his life?

We don't know.

Can you imagine when he got up on his knees?

It's like, wait a minute.

I'm standing up.

Nobody's assisting me.

I'm standing up.

I'm walking.

It was not lost on the crowd.

Only God could do this.

The Jewish leaders of the day believed that only God could forgive sins.

The people, the Jewish leaders of the day, believed that when Messiah came back, he would not forgive sins.

He would build the kingdom of God.

He would restore Israel.

He would do mighty things, but he, the Messiah, would not forgive sins.

Only God could do that.

What's Jesus saying right here?

You're looking at God.

You're looking in the face of God in the flesh, in the person of Jesus Christ.

As I said, there's no passage in the New Testament that is a stronger directive to the deity of Jesus Christ than this one.

What a power! What are we seeing through the Gospel of Mark?

The ultimate power and ultimate compassion that meet in this man, Jesus Christ.

That's why we love him.

Who has power like him?

What has he brought alive in you that's been dead?

If you're a Christian, if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, if you're trusting in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation, you know the greatest miracle in your life is not physical, it's spiritual.

You know that you were dead in your sins, the Bible says.

You know that though you were dead in your sins, you came to see Jesus, the Messiah, who can forgive sins.

You came to see and to receive Him.

And that's what changes your life, and that's what gives you eternal life.

That eternal life begins now on earth, but it extends throughout eternity.

You know that eternal life begins the moment you receive Christ.

Have you had that experience?

Have you met that Jesus?

People today are so confused about who Jesus is.

Have you met that Jesus?

The giver of life.

But then there are other things.

Because of the infirmities of our mortal bodies, there are other things and ways that we need Jesus, right?

What is it that you need Jesus to do in your life at this season?

Would you even know what to ask him?

If he asked you, would you know what to answer?

You know when we're so busy and we're so stressed and we're so distracted and we're so self-focused, it's hard to really know what's going on.

But what would you ask him?

Jesus, would you put your healing hand on this?

What's the this?

I think only the Holy Spirit can show you that.

The good news is the Holy Spirit is very good at showing us when we ask sincerely, when we ask honestly.

Friends, my friends, this morning, let's just pause and once again give thanks to Jesus of Nazareth.

Through his atoning work on the cross, we are saved by his grace.

We have a home in heaven.

We ought not to go many days without reflecting on this.

What's deformed?

What's not in place?

What's out of place in my thinking?

In my schedule, in my relationships.

What needs to be set right?

What needs to be put in place?

Oh, friends, this is why we come to worship and to invite this Jesus, the Son of God, to make all things right within us.

I love this story.

Blasphemy?

Only if he wasn't the Son of God.

Only if he was not God in the flesh.

But because he was, it wasn't blasphemy.

It was freedom for this man.

I don't suppose this man stopped talking either.

You know, when we read these stories in the Gospels, are you like me?

You're like taking notes, like, I want to meet that guy in heaven.

Do you do that?

I do that all the time.

I want to meet this guy.

I want to have a conversation with him.

What was that like?

What was it like to be able to walk and run and use your limbs the rest of your life?

Only God can forgive sins.

Jesus is claiming this power to forgive, therefore, Jesus is claiming to be God.

This is the gospel.

The paralyzed man responded.

He believed that Jesus had the power to heal his body and he had power to forgive his sins.

Otherwise, he would not be there.

Otherwise, he would not have experienced this forgiveness.

The Old Testament, healing, and forgiveness are closely related.

The more I've studied the Bible, the more I've come to appreciate that truth.

Healing and forgiveness are related.

The Old Testament prophets speak about this many times.

To heal a diseased body requires divine power.

To heal a diseased soul requires divine suffering.

In order to heal our physical problems, all Jesus needed to do was speak.

In order to heal our spiritual needs, he needed to bleed.

That's true.

In order to create the world, he simply spoke.

And it came into existence.

But in order to save sinners like us, he had to do more than speak.

He had to bleed.

He had to die.

May our reverence for Jesus Christ be growing.

Day by day.

Jesus heals his body so that he would know, they would know that He has this kind of power.

To forgive.

A woman by the name of Margarita Lasky, some of you may have heard of.

She was a secular humanist who wrote a lot about secular humanism.

She said near the end of her life in 1988, what I most envy about you Christians is your forgiveness.

I have nobody to forgive me.

Honest words from an honest woman.

I wish I had somebody who could forgive me.

In my worldview, I have no one.

That's a sad way to live.

It's a terrible way to die.

As we close, I want to tell you a story.

It's a true story.

And may it in some ways just kind of pull things together that we've been looking at this morning in the gospel.

Has anybody ever heard the name of John Harper in church history?

I didn't think so.

His name was John Harper.

He was on the Titanic when it sunk.

The title of this article is John Harper's Last Convert.

It was John Harper and his sister and his six-year-old daughter.

His wife had already died.

This was a man, the new heartache.

His sister and his six-year-old daughter are on the Titanic.

And as the Titanic started to sink, John Harper admonished people to be prepared to die.

He made sure his sister and daughter were in a lifeboat even as he continued to share the gospel with whoever would listen.

And when he found himself in the icy water with a life jacket floating near another man, he asked that man, the name he did not know, Are you saved?

The man said, No, I'm not saved.

John Harper said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, he shouted, in the icy waters.

One report says that Harper, knowing that he can no longer survive in the icy water, took off his jacket and threw it to another person with the words, You need this more than I do.

Moments later, Harper disappeared beneath the water.

Four years later, when there was a reunion of the survivors of the Titantic, the man to whom Harper had witnessed told the story of his rescue and gave a testimony of his conversion.

The title of his tract was I Was John Harper's Last Convert.

Before disappearing beneath the two and a half miles of water, John Harper shared for the last time the message of the gospel, which is in a nutshell that Jesus came to earth to die in our stead that we might be saved.

The gospel does not spare us from drowning in an ocean, but it does spare us from a far worse eternal destruction.

I've been thinking about that as I've read this article and I've been in this passage this week.

Jesus is the one who saves.

But Jesus says, I will work through my people.

He wants to work through you.

He wants to use you to reach the lost.

You say, well, I'm not a preacher.

That's not the question.

Do you know Jesus?

Do you really believe in the reality of eternity, that people will either spend eternity in heaven or hell?

There's no in between.

Do we think about that?

How long could we go without thinking about that?

Jesus says, I want you to be my arms.

I want you to be my legs.

That man needed people to carry him to Jesus.

And we all know people that need us to carry them to Jesus.

Do you know that?

Do you believe that?

He says, I want you to be.

I want you to be the kind of people that carry your friends to Jesus.

He knows what to do with them.

What an amazing privilege.

If you know Jesus, you're recruited.

If you know Jesus, you will be empowered by the Spirit as you cry out to the Spirit.

Didn't we sing that?

I love the words of that song.

We cry out, Holy Spirit.

He knows what to do.

But he needs my attention.

He needs to get my attention.

Tom, do you even care about these things?

Are you listening?

Or are you so distracted with life that you're just not even listening?

We're here this morning to listen.

We're here this morning to listen to the word of Jesus.

We're here this morning to be reminded of the power of Jesus, the compassion of Jesus, and we're here to say, Holy Spirit, take us to Jesus.

Take me to Jesus.

Until he takes you to Jesus, you're not going to take anybody else to Jesus.

Until he takes you to Jesus, you're not going to take anybody.

Who are you going to carry to Jesus?

Can we pray about this?

Like now.

Oh Father, we have met you again this morning in your word.

Once again this morning, we have met your son in your word.

But Holy Spirit, would you please take this beyond mental ascension, intellectual ascent?

Oh Lord God, we need to get out of our heads.

When we think ourselves into doubt, when we think ourselves into unbelief.

And Lord, the truth is oftentimes when we do that, there's something deeper going on in our hearts.

It usually is not academic.

It's usually personal.

Why we don't listen, why we don't believe.

Touch our hearts this morning, Jesus.

Give us faith.

Lord, if there's some here this morning that have never trusted you alone to save them, oh Jesus, speak your word now.

Save lost people.

Even this morning, we know that you can do that.

Father, for all of us, would you just show us?

Grow us.

Grow our hearts in compassion like yours.

Grow our understanding in the reality of eternity.

That everybody we know is going to spend eternity in heaven or hell.

There's nothing in between.

God, we want to see the people we love with us in heaven.

So, Lord, fill us with your spirit.

Spirit, take us to Jesus.

And Jesus take us to our friends, our neighbors, the people that we can carry to you.

You know what to do with them.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Amen.