The Son of Man | Under Pressure

Is that me? Nope, there we go. Under Pressure,

this sermon series in Lent. We had our little

Ash Wednesday devotional. We were in the temple,

the synagogue of Nazareth last week. But today

we're going to see something extraordinary. We

thought we saw it last week when Jesus fulfills

the prophecy of Isaiah. He read in the temple

and they go to try to, they loved his sermon

so much they tried to kill him over it. We're

now going to see rejection again from the people.

We're going to see the Pharisees take a big part

in the story of adding that pressure. And so

we go from Nazareth to where now the roof is

going to come off in Capernaum. So put yourself

in the story, right? So now the news of this

Jesus guy spread throughout all the region. People

are showing up where he is teaching, where he

is doing miracles. So now he's a miracle worker.

He's a teacher and a miracle worker. If you have

your Messiah bingo sheet, you're checking off

some of those things. You still don't know. You're

wondering. You're hoping. Maybe he's the Messiah.

He said some Messianic junk in the temple in

Nazareth. Let me set the scene. We're in a crowded

house. Doorway is blocked. The fire chief, the

fire inspector would have given them a ticket

because they had too many people in this place.

Occupancy had been in capacity, overflowing.

Yet we see the Pharisees sitting quietly. Teachers

of the law watching closely. No one can get in

this house. How many of you grew up with a large

family? I know that's super subjective, but feel

free. If you think you were part of a large family,

how many of you had parties, it seemed like,

in the smallest house of the family? Some of

you, for whatever reason. And many of us loved

it. Many of us, those experiences made us introverts.

And we were like, we hated it, I don't like those,

I'm now triggered, or whatever it is. I remember

the Howland owner house, a lot of people at my

Uncle Hal. At my Aunt Carol's house over in Alsop.

Small house packed with people. Literally people

sitting on each other for no reason, right? Well,

that's all we're going to say about that. But

it was just, you know, you can feel the tension.

You can feel. Yet everybody loved it. There was

laughing. There was all of these things. A lot

of food. That's where we find ourselves. Jesus

is doing some work. He's doing his teaching.

He goes from the temple now to a crowded home.

So Jesus is going to bring his message wherever

it needs to be. And we're going to see something

spectacular. The roof tiles start to crack. Start

to open. Light trickles in. Dust now falls. And

there, a makeshift stretcher descends into the

room. Four desperate friends. One helpless man

and everybody, us included, we expect this guy,

a paralytic, cannot walk, cannot move, is lowered

down and we're expecting this healer to say two

words, be healed. And that would be a great story.

That would be a great testimony of the work of

Christ. But instead, he says something very different.

Six words that will bring the ultimate pressure

upon his shoulders. Man, your sins are forgiven

you. Those are six words, right? Yeah. Not be

healed, but something drastically different.

I'm going to be so bold to say it's something

you and I need to hear today as well. We've already

heard it. But if I had to guess, you're going

to need to hear it tomorrow. I know I will be.

And Tuesday. And every day that ends in Y. Your

sins are forgiven you. The pressure in the room

explodes. Why? Because in their mind, everyone

there, Pharisees, Sadducees, teachers of the

law, us, Munster Church today, 2026, forgiveness

is the hardest miracle of all. Let's walk through

this story looking at the pressure points from

Luke chapter 5. We'll be in Luke 5 starting with

Luke 5 · chapter mention

verse 17. So if you have your Bible or your Bible

app and you want to get it out, we're going to

be in Luke 5, 17. Again, we use the English Standard

version here on stage. You can use whatever version

you want. It will just read and sound a little

different. Luke 5, 17 to 26. On one of those

days, he, being Jesus, was teaching. Pharisees

and teachers of the law were sitting there who

had come from every village of Galilee and Judea

and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord

was with him to heal. And behold, some men were

bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed. And

they were seeking to bring him in and lay him

before Jesus, but finding no way to bring him

in because of the crowd, they went up to the

roof to let him down with his bed through the

tiles in the midst before Jesus. And when he

saw their faith, he said, man, your sins are

forgiven you. And the scribes and the Pharisees

began to question, saying, who is this who speaks

blasphemies, who can forgive sins but God alone?

When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered

them, why do you question in your hearts? Which

is easier to say, your sins are forgiven you,

or to say, rise and walk? But that you may know

that the Son of Man has authority on earth to

forgive sins. He said to the man who was paralyzed,

I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.

And immediately he rose up before them and picked

up what he had been laying on and went home glorifying

God. And amazement seized them, seized them all.

And they glorified God and were filled with awe

saying, we have seen extraordinary things today.

The man's paralysis, obvious. known, probably

in the town, in his family, friends, all the

things. The man's paralysis was obvious. Everyone

could see that type of suffering. Think about

that right now. If tomorrow morning you woke

up, you had the inability to use any part of

your body. That is a prison. Those are shackles

that we cannot fully understand. He is a total

paralytic. But what we're going to see is Jesus

looks beyond the physical and goes much deeper.

Because with Jesus, he sees the brokenness beneath

the brokenness. He sees the disease beneath the

disease. He sees the heart of it all. Sin. We

get prayer requests every week at the church.

Dawn does her best to put them in. Some people

don't want them. They want the office to know

about them, but they don't want anyone else to,

and that's fine. We have never, ever, in the

21 years now I've pastored, I've never once received

something to be put in the bulletin from, let's

just say, Adam Smith. That's from Pocahontas,

isn't it? Never mind, don't worry about it. I

don't know why I said Adam Smith, but we're just

going to go with it. Pocahontas, just around

the river bend, he sent the email saying, please

pray for my... sin. I've never gotten that from

Adam, or any Eves, or anybody. Because that's

a weird prayer request. In the elder room, when

we go around and do prayers, I don't ever have

elder whoever stand up and go, guys, just pray

for the act of sin in my life. Because that's

way too intentional. That is way too vulnerable.

Though it is assumed, good Reformed theology,

it's assumed we're all depraved in habit. We

never put it full. Put it forward. We see it.

Same thing happened in this time with Jesus.

In that culture as in ours, sickness. was counted

and connected to the fallenness of humanity,

whether his sin or his parents' sin or his generational

sin. So Jesus addresses the deepest need first.

And one of the things I'm going to tie some of

my points with in this sermon series is the Heidelberg

Catechism. Now, some of you might be newer. You

don't know what that is, right? We are a confessional

church. We hold to three forms of unity. Again,

Bible is first and foremost. And these confessions

help us understand and interpret the scriptures.

The three of them are the Canons of Dort, the

Belgic Confession, and the Heidelberg Catechism.

So I will use that and put those in the point.

If that intrigues you, all you've got to do is

Google it and read it. 52 Lord's Days with a

bunch of questions on faith. Some that I guarantee

you've had in your life, whether you're a first

-day believer or a hundred years of a believer,

you've had those same questions. It helps us

understand. So from Lord's Day 2, Lord, say two

of the Heidelberg Catechism. From where do you

know your sin and misery? From the law of God.

We talk about that in Prep Sunday. We read that

in the scriptures. I know I'm a sinner because

God's word tells me. He doesn't say it as a sledgehammer,

but he gives it to me as an understanding of

who I am and my need for God. That vertical relationship.

Church, our greatest problem is not stress. It's

not finances. It's not politics or health. Our

greatest problem today, as it was then and it

will be tomorrow, is sin. Active sin in life.

Our greatest need is to be forgiven by Jesus.

The truth presses in on us. It humbles us. It

can expose us. It can destroy us if we let it.

And that's why. In that second point, Jesus reveals

his authority over it. In verses 21 to 24, the

scribes think and they say to themselves, who

can forgive sins but God alone? First and foremost,

they're right. They have the right understanding.

But here, as we see, what they're going to butt

up against with Jesus this entire sermon series

is what Jesus is actually claiming about himself.

They're right. Only God forgives sins. And Jesus

proves in this moment he is God. Last week it

was, I am the Messiah. I'm the one you're waiting

for, oh, by the way. Now he's going to take it

and double down. I am God. How do we know? For

he calls himself the Son of Man. This is a figure

for lunch and a conversation with Pastor Jim

that would take them to what Old Testament book?

But like the son of man who came down from on

high. What? Nope. Two more guesses. Yes. Daniel.

I already gave you lunch two weeks ago. But you

can have another one. That's fine. It's from

Daniel. Right? That Daniel has a vision. From

the Son of Man, this is now immediate, not only

Messiah, but Savior language. This is a claim

to divine authority. So if your claim is going

to have divine authority all tied up in it, who's

going to have the biggest problem with it? The

ones who think they are the authority over the

divine. The scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees.

Lord's Day 11 of the Heidelberg Catechism reminds

us. He is called Jesus because he saves us from

our sin. Last week, Lord's Day 12, reminded us

he's prophet, priest, and king. But in this moment,

Jesus is bringing it all together. All together.

He proclaims forgiveness like a prophet. He mediates

grace like a priest. And he commands healing

like a king. Talk about the pressure Jesus just

put himself under. And over, if we understand

that. And we'll get there in a minute. And this

presses us, because as we talked about last week,

we want comfort without repentance, peace without

confession. But Christ insists that forgiveness

must come first. It would have made a whole lot

more sense to us, in our minds, if he would have

healed the guy first, but he doesn't, for a reason.

Forgiveness must come first. Why? Because faith

will bring people to Jesus. Luke tells us when

Jesus saw whose faith? The paralytics? No, the

four friends. When he saw their faith, he saw

and he knew that they climbed the roof. Maybe

there were stairs, maybe there weren't. I don't

know, I wasn't there. They tore open. The clay

tiles, I'm sure the mud, the hay, all the things

that made the roof the roof. And they lowered

their friend down. They were so desperate to

get their friend in front of this Jesus. They

don't even realize that this is one of the greatest

definitions of what the church should be. The

four friends doing whatever they can to bring

their friend who was paralyzed in front of Jesus

is one of the greatest definitions, active definitions,

of what the church should be. If you feel a binding

and a conviction, join the club. Because too

many times the church can look more like a social

club than acts of desperation to get the gospel

into people's lives. This is the church. Parents

carrying children, friends praying for friends,

elders visiting homes in the sick, small groups

lifting each other up. Munster Church, this is

the call for that vision, that vision to go forth,

that vision that we are a people that will greet

each other in the name of Jesus, whether they're

in Jesus or not, that we would gather together

in worship, in our homes, in the areas of our

life. We grow in the scriptures, in worship,

in our love for Jesus and his love for us, and

then we go. So who are you carrying to Jesus

in your life? That's that record question. That's

a question we have to reconcile. If I'm called

to be the church, who in my life needs to be

brought before Jesus, not kicking and screaming?

Not by drive -by baptisms and really bad evangelism,

but who in our life needs Jesus so badly in life

that we're willing to bring them to Jesus? That

could be in a conversation. That could be at

a church. That could be the first Saturday serve.

That could be helping with the food pantry, helping

with Pastor Jermio's ministry on a Wednesday.

That could be meeting someone that God has ready

for you to meet. Maybe it's someone in your family.

Maybe it's a neighbor. Maybe it's a friend or

a family from Highland Christian, from the Munster

schools, from Ileana, from the Munster Little

League, from Intermission, This Way Ministries,

Moffitt's Barbershop. I don't care. God's going

to be the one to direct you. Are you going to

be the one willing to go? Because faith here

does something amazing. Faith climbs the roof.

Faith doesn't wait for things to clear out. I'm

not going to lie to you. Part of me was sitting

there going, all right, he was a paralytic yesterday.

He'll probably be a paralytic tomorrow. We can

just wait for my convenience. I didn't have on

my schedule and my Google calendar to bring this

guy to Jesus today. We'll do it when the crowds

are not so big. We do it for our Christmas shopping.

We can use that same mentality. We'll just wait

until the crowds are smaller. Uh -uh. Faith climbs

the roof. Because they knew, whether they knew

they knew that they knew or they just knew, Jesus

heals completely. Because not only does he forgive

sins because of faith, he heals completely. Rise,

pick up your bed, and go home. The man stands.

That alone was worth the price of admission.

I'm not going to lie to you, right? You see this

guy that he couldn't do anything. He had to be

lowered down. The fact that some of you, I'm

just feeling this now, going, how embarrassing

for the guy. I rebuke that in the name of Jesus.

You can talk about it later. That's just something

I got right now. Some of you are going, wow,

that would have been really embarrassing. Let's

move past that piece. Because you're trying to

make that healing about you and your comfort.

Does Jesus wait until you're comfortable to heal

you? Sometimes Jesus is going to go, yeah, just

finish sinning so I can wreck your world. No.

Jesus is going to do it when he, the author and

defender of our faith, wants to do it. Rise,

pick up your bed, and go home. The man stands,

the crowd is amazed, and what do they do? They

glorify God. Right response. Right response.

Jesus heals body and soul because salvation is

total. If we believe in total depravity, that's

the canons adored, right? Total depravity, then

we need to believe in total salvation, total

restoration. Forgiveness is complete. Why? Because

Jesus is still living out messianic prophecy.

Isaiah 35 promises a Messiah that would make

the lame leap. Luke shows us that promise is

now fulfilled. The Son of Man restores. everything.

Even those things you think he can't. And be

honest, we all have them. You might be going

through something right now going, there is no

way. This thing is dead in the water. Time of

death is, I don't know, army time. But understand

that we have that limitation on God at times.

Jesus is not strong enough to fix this. That's

just you worshiping yourself because you think

you can do it. Friend, if the Son of Man can't

do it, spoiler alert, you can't either. And sometimes

we need to live that out. The Son of Man restores

everything and the roof now opens its way to

heaven. Here is the moment where the roof really

opens because the story is not only about the

paralytic or his friends or the Pharisees or

what they're thinking. It's about us today. We

are the ones unable to fix ourselves. We are

the ones that need forgiveness. And we are the

ones that are lowered before Jesus. And here

is the gospel. You want to hear it today? Here

it is. Jesus speaks forgiveness before we can

walk. He loves us before we improve. And he saves

us before we earn anything. I don't know about

you, but I need to hear that, and I bet you do

as well. He speaks forgiveness before the walking.

He loves before the improving. He saves before

we start walking it out or thinking we earn anything.

The Lord's Day 1 reminds us that I am not my

own. but belong, body and soul and life and in

death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. Why?

Because he's fully paid for all of my sins with

his precious blood. The forgiveness spoken in

the house of Capernaum was paid for on another

hill, which we'll see in a couple weeks, the

hill of Calvary. The Son of Man who healed the

man is the Son of Man that's going to bear our

sin. The sins of your yesterdays, the sins of

your todays, the sins of your tomorrow was put

on his shoulders on the cross where he says and

declares over them and us today, Father, forgive

them for they know not what they do. But to me,

it's another three words that ties it all together.

It is finished. He has control over life. Your

sins are forgiven. Your guilt is lifted. Your

hope secure. This is the grace that releases

the pressure of Lent, right? We're going to walk

through where Jesus is putting himself under

pressure because he's looking at our pressure,

putting it on himself. And he is that pressure

release. So what is Luke teaching us now? Well,

he's teaching us then, first, people wanted a

leader, but Jesus revealed a Savior. What about

now? We want our comfort. Oh, we want our comfort.

But Jesus gives forgiveness first. Then, friends,

tore open a roof. But now, Christ opens heaven

for you and for me. Friend, the Son of Man is

still forgiving you. The Son of Man is still

healing you. The Son of Man is still saving you.

And he wants to do that, not just in your life,

but in the people in your life's life. Who do

you need to bring to Jesus with a word of accountability?

Not shame and guilt, because who am I and who

are you to do that to somebody? No, it's Sinners

Anonymous, my friends. It is, hi, I'm Jim, I'm

a sinner, and I have been my whole life, but

Jesus saved me, and he can save you too. That's

a lot better than going up to somebody, if you

die tomorrow, are you going to heaven or hell?

I'm not going to lie, not super effective evangelism,

especially if you don't know the person. Now,

if you have a relationship with somebody, right?

If I'm sitting down with Al in the back of church,

and I turn to him and go, Al, if you die tomorrow,

are you going to heaven or hell? He's going to

be like, why tomorrow? What if I die tonight?

I'm going to heaven because I know that Al is

saved. Are there people in your life that know

you're a believer but have never seen your Jesus?

That one wrecked my week because I doubled down

on myself. Jim, people see that you're a pastor.

but have they seen the Jesus that you believe

in? And the question is in me. Now, sometimes

I pawn it off on all of you, whether you know

it or not. You don't need to see it in me. Just

see it in my people. That's fine. Just go look

at people at Munster Church, and then I run away.

No, I don't do that. But that truth should hurt.

And maybe not hurt. Convict is probably a better

word. We'll use that word. People know you go

to Munster Church, but they've never seen you

act like Jesus. What does that mean for them?

How do they reconcile that in their life? Friends,

let me conclude with this. Open the roof. Open

the roof. In your life, imagine that house again.

Dust falling, silence, Jesus looking up. He loves

desperate faith. He does. He loves broken people.

He loves sinners who come. Guess what? We all

just got described there. And Jesus loves you,

and you need to know that. Munster Church, open

the roof. Bring your sin. Bring your doubts.

Bring your shame. Bring your friends. Because

the Son of Man is here. The Son of Man is there.

The Son of Man is wherever the Son of Man is.

And he still says, rise. Your sins are forgiven.

Pick up your mat and walk. And guess what? We

get to do that.