Luke 5:18-26; A Hole in the Roof (Part 2)

All right, you're there in Luke five eighteen. So last

week we began and look at the first part of

what I called the hole in the roof sermon. We

began with sixteen and seventeen, and we talked about prayer

last week and the setting that we have here Jesus

teaching and describes in the Pharisees doctors of the Law.

They've come from everywhere, from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem,

and they're they're sitting before Jesus and they're basically examining

him as he teaches, which is hard to imagine, but

they were, of course, and it said that very last

thing there in verse seventeen said that power was present

to heal them. So today we're going to see what

happens next as we look at verses eighteen through twenty six.

So we're going to continue here with this and in

this passage eighteen through twenty six, we have the four Friends.

Is just a wonderful, wonderful story. Last week Luke gave

us a setting. Today we have these characters that appear

in the story. And notice here just before we read,

notice that in eighteen, Luke begins with Behold, Behold, so

we have this behold, and as I said in fifteen

twelve with the leper, Luke wants us to pay attention

to this moment. Now there are other people present, you know,

this is a full house, and there are folks outside,

and he's mentioned the Pharisees and the doctors of the law.

But there's a lot of people there, and Luke wants

us to focus in on these four men in their friend.

So he says, behold. He wants us to pay attention

to the moment Jesus is present. There are lots of

people there, Pharisees listening, asking questions, but all that is

kind of set aside as men bring in this man

on a couch. My sons have been after me to

watch the series of television programs called Stranger Things, and

every time that comes up, Aaron says, Dad, you've got

to watch that. You would love that show. And I'm

tell him why I can't watch it. I don't have

access to it, and he says, well, you just get

you need to get in and you need to watch

it because you would just love that. And of course

I know nothing about it. All I know is the

title Stranger Things, so there must be something strange about

what happens in that show. I would assume by the name, Well,

we're going to have some pretty strange things happen here

in this story, and we'll talk about that. Let's go

ahead and read eighteen through twenty six, and behold, men

brought in a bed a man which was taken with

a palsy. And they sought means to bring him in

and to lay him before him, and when they could find,

when they could not find, by what way they might

bring him in because of the multitude, they went up

upon the housetop and let him down through the tiling

with his couch, into the midst before Jesus. And when

he saw their faith, he said, unto him, man, thy

sins are forgiven thee. And the scribes and the Pharisees

began to reason, saying, who is this which speaketh blasphemies?

Who can forgive sins? But God alone? But when Jesus

perceived their thoughts, he answering and said to them, what

reason you in your hearts? Whether it's easier to say

thy sins be forgiven THEE or to say rise up

and walk, but that ye may know that the son

of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins. He

saith under the sick of the palsy. I say, unto thee, arise,

take up thy couch and go into thy house. And

immediately he rose up before them, took up that whereon

he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God.

And they were all amazed. And they glorified God and

were filled with fear, saying, we have seen strange things today.

Let's pray Father, your words are pure as silver, refined

in a furnace of earth seven times. Cut off all

tongues that speak vain, careless, proud things against your word. Father. Arise,

o Lord, and set the poor and needy and safety,

keep the church, preserve them from this generation forever. And

as I speak today, Father, as I speak, your words

refine me. Do a purifying work in me and in

my hearers. Help us, O, Lord, oh helper of our souls,

help us light the furnace of fire in our hearts today,

for we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So we have here,

beginning in verse eighteen, these fellows that Luke identifies with

the behold. He wants us to make sure we see

what's happening here. And the very first thing that you'll

notice is that they run into some problems. There are

three problems here, at least that I've identified for in

this passage that they have to overcome. The first one

is men. It says, there and behold men brought in

a bed a man which was taken with a palsy.

Mark tells us that there were four. Luke doesn't tell

us that. Mark in Mark, chapter two, verse three says,

and they come into him, bringing one sick of the palsy,

which was born of four. And of course you could

imagine that because if they're carrying him on a couch,

then you've got, you know, four guys, one on each

corner of this device that he's on. Palsy was a

form of paralysis, perhaps caused by a stroke or some

physical damage to nervous tissue. We don't know how he

ended up paralyzed, but he was, and we don't know

the state of his paralysis. If he was just paralyzed

on one side, if it was just his legs, if

perhaps he was a quadriplegic, you know, he was paralyzed completely.

Perhaps the stroke had just completely disabled him in some way.

But this is their first problem. The man in the

bed could not walk himself to where Jesus was, so

the transportation of the man was the first problem that

had to be overcome. They wanted to get their friend

to Jesus. The friend could not take himself. He's paralyzed. However,

that manifested itself in this man, but he couldn't go,

So they had to transport him to Jesus. And this bed,

whatever it was, was transformed into some sort of a

litter so that they could carry him. Well maybe it was,

you know that they took the bedding, the padding, and

they put it on some sort of a palate that

had handles, and they laid him on that pallet and

then picked him up and carried him to where Jesus was.

So that's problem number one. Now, their goal was that

Jesus might heal the man. So you'll notice it says

they sought means to bring him in and delay him

before him This is where they wanted to end up.

They hoped that when they got there they could just

walk in and put him down, but apparently that wasn't

going to happen. And they're not concerned about themselves here

you notice that they're concerned about their friend. They're concerned

for the paralytic. They couldn't find a back door there,

They couldn't find a side entrance. They couldn't find a

sympathetic doorman that they could. You give him a little

something and he would slip them in. No, it was

likely crowded with lots and lots of sick folk waiting,

just as they were at Peter's door. So their goal

is to get him in, but they can't. And this

is the second problem. They could not find by what

way they might bring him in because of the multitude.

So problem number two is there are so many people

there that they can't get into the building. And after

seeking means and finding none, the second problem becomes apparent.

The crowd prevented them from entering. And how do you

say to all those other sick folk that this man

needs to go to the front of the line, Because

everybody says, my condition is the most serious, I'm the

one that needs to be at the front of the line.

And so of course when the man on the palate comes,

the rest of the crowd's going to say go to

the back of the line. You know, we're all here,

just you know, go to the back of the line.

Everyone wants to Everyone wants to be the one at

the front of the line. Everyone believes their loved one

is the most important case there. So they can't get in.

So the problem number one is solved by them putting

him on some sort of a litter and carrying him.

Problem number two is they can't get in to get

the man to Jesus. So problem number three is the housetop,

or here's the solution. Rather they go up on the housetop.

So the solution to problem number two was to go

where the crowd wasn't there was no one on the

roof because everybody wanted to go in the door. But

now they had their third problem, how to get the

bed down through the roof to Jesus. What a problem

that was? First, and maybe I don't know, this may

be the hardest problem of all is to get the

man onto the roof, because now you've got four guys

and a man on a pallet or a litter of

some kind, and they have to carry him dead weight up.

Now that the houses had flat roofs, because that was

sort of their porch, and they would go up on

the roof to catch the breeze in the evenings. So

there was a ladder there or maybe some set of

steps on the outside, probably a ladder, and somehow, some

way they had to get this dead weight of I mean,

imagine a full grown man. He's probably one hundred and

fifty to two hundred pounds, and they had to get

it up onto that roof somehow. So they're doing that.

They get him up there, but now they have to

get the bed down before Jesus. So they've carried him

up onto the roof and they look around and they

have to now decide where Christ is on the inside

so they can remove the tiles that are over Jesus

so they can let him down right in front of him.

So somehow they've got to, you know, they've got to

scan the situation, peek in the window or a door,

and then direct the guys on the roof to where

Jesus is and then they're gonna have to take the

tiles off. So now they've got the tiles off, but

they have to get the bed down. So they've got

to have ropes or something to attach to the corners

of the of the litter, so they can get him

down before Jesus, and these ropes have to be strong

enough to hold this dead weight and the bed and

the man, and they had to hold off anyone who

would try to stop them from removing the tickles, because

this is somebody's house and they're taking the tiles off

the roof, and they had to work together to lower

the body without spilling the man onto the floor. Wouldn't

that be a tragedy? You know, they do all this work,

they overcome all these problems, and they get up there

and they're they're letting him down, and then somebody's hand

slips and a corner of the thing drops, and then

the man just got, you know, onto the floor. Now,

of course he's already paralyzed, so it's probably not gonna

you know, unless he hits his head real hard, but

just imagine that would be awful. So they got to

make sure that they let the bed down evenly. But

all of these things that they had to deal with,

in their mind, they had one goal, get him to Jesus,

no matter what it takes, and all of these things

that they had to overcome didn't matter to them, what

one little bit, it didn't matter. And then it says,

and when he saw their faith. So here's verse twenty.

When he saw their faith. Now they had faith, didn't

he didn't they these men had faith? How did these

men have faith? Well, here again we have an example

of the spirit's quiet work of effectually calling men. We

know not how he comes in quietly, like the wind,

it blows. We don't know where it's coming from or

where it's going, but it's blowing. And we do know

that faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word

of God. As Paul tells us in Romans chapter ten.

Perhaps they heard Jesus preaching and teaching, and the Spirit

of God took the word of God and planeted in

their hearts, giving them faith to believe. And when they believed,

they got together and they said, man, Jesus, he's wonderful.

Do you know, he is so wonderful? And they said, yeah,

But what about our friend Joseph, He needs him too.

And that faith that they had steeled them against any

obstacle that might occur. So what did Jesus see, Rather,

what didn't he see? He did not see faith mixed

with some kind of idolatry or witchcraft or superstition. These

men were not hoping that Jesus would receive their friend.

They didn't wait until the correct phase of the moon, sun, planets,

stars were in the right positions. They didn't carry with

them some lucky charm, hoping that maybe, just maybe they

would push their claim over the top because they had

in their pocket their lucky rabbit's foot. They weren't wearing

lucky garments, hat, jewelry, socks, et cetera. They based their

claim on the person of Christ and the promise of God.

Period They that know thy name will put their trust

in THEE, for Thou Lord has not forsaken them that

seek thee Psalm nine ten. This was a confident faith,

not a hope soul religion. John tells us in John

chapter six, all that or Jesus says this in John

chapter six, all that the Father giveth me shall come

to me, and him that cometh to me, I will

in no wise cast out. There's your promise. And they

knew that. Somehow, These men knew that, somehow they heard

Jesus teaching and it had birthed faith in them, and

they believed. And that belief looked around and said, well,

what about Joseph, and it didn't matter what the problem was.

They knew that if Jesus could just see him, it

would be all better. It would just be all better.

So Jesus, he didn't see some faith mixed with something else.

Know what he saw was faith. And James tells us

that even so, faith, if it hath not works, is

dead being alone. Faith always expresses itself in something. Those

men believed that Jesus would receive and heal their friend.

That faith in Christ gave them the strength to push

through all the difficulties of palsy, the big crowd, the roof,

all of it. They were so clearly confident that Jesus

could heal their friend, nothing could stop them from bringing him.

Faith always manifests in behavior. We can't say when it starts,

but we can say there it is. There it is.

We don't know when it starts, because it's the work

of the spirit of God, but there is a manifestation

of it. And we see that manifestation here in these

four friends. Hey, can't you just in your mind's eye

look up and see them smiling. They got him down.

They let the ropes go. They don't need ropes no more.

Let the ropes go and they're grinning, and they're probably

laying on the side of the hole that they just

made in the roof watching. Jesus looks up and he

sees their faith. There are others in Luke's gospel who

manifested the faith that Jesus saw. You just hey, have

your bible right there, whyn't you turn over to chapter

seven in Luke, they're just the very first verse. When

he had ended all his sayings in the audience of

the people, he entered into Capernaum, and a certain centurion

servant who was dear to him, was sick and ready

to die. And when he heard of Jesus, he said,

unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that

he would come and heal a servant. And when they

came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying that he

was worthy for whom he should do this, for he

loveth our nation and has built a synagogue. And when

Jesus went with them, then Jesus went with them, And

when he was not far from the house, the centurion

sent friends to him, saying, unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself,

for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under

my roof. There's another roof. Wherefore neither thought I myself

worthy to come unto thee. But say a word, and

my servant shall be healed. For I also am a

man under authority, having under me soldiers. And I say,

in one go and he goeth, and to another come

and he cometh, and and my servant do this, and

he doeth it. When Jesus heard these things, he marveled

at him, turned him about, and said, unto the people

that followed him, I say, unto you, I have not

found so great faith, No, not in Israel. What is

it that Jesus saw in this case? Well, he heard

the man's faith because he spoke as one who had

faith in Jesus, who could speak the word and his

servant would be healed. What about the woman with the

issue of blood, Well, right there in chapter eight, it's

right next door to where you are in seven. Let's

just look there. Let's see in verse forty eight. Well,

actually this starts in forty three. And a woman having

an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all

her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any

came behind him and touched the border of his garment,

and immediately her issue of blood staunched. And Jesus said,

who touched me? When all denied Peter, and they that

were with him said, Master, the multitude thronged thee and

pressed thee, and sayest thou who touched me? And Jesus said,

somebody hath touched me? For I perceived that virtue has

gone out of me. And when the woman saw that

she was not hid, she came trembling and falling down

before him. She declared, unto him, before all the people,

for what cause she had touched him? And how she

was healed immediately? And he said, unto her daughter, be

of good courage, be of good comfort. Thy faith hath

made thee whole go in peace? What was it that

Jesus saw in her faith? He says, it right here?

Your faith hath made the whole? Why? Because she believed

that only Jesus could heal him, could heal her? And

she comes up and touches the very the very hem

of his garment, And the disciples say, Lord, everybody's touching you. Yeah,

everybody's trying to touch him. But that's religion. It's not faith.

One woman in a crowd of hundreds touches him with faith,

and Jesus stops, who touched me? Everybody's touching you? No, no, no,

somebody touched me. He says, yeah. Faith, Faith always has

this outcome. And then there's the leper, the tenth leper

that's in Luke seventeen. She just want to run over

there real quick. This is chapter seventeen. This is verse eleven.

And it came to pass as he went to Jerusalem,

that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee,

and as he entered into a certain village, there met

him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off,

and they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus Master,

have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he

said to them, go show yourself unto the priests. And

it came to pass as they went they were cleansed.

And one of them, when he saw that he was healed,

turned back and with a loud voice glory God, and

fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks.

And he was a Samaritan. And Jesus, answering said, we're

not were there not ten cleansed? But where the nine

there are not found that returned to give glory to God,

save this stranger. And he said in him, arise, go

thy way, for thy faith hath made thee whole. Here again,

what does Jesus see? He sees and hears the faith

of this man who glorifies Jesus for the healing. And

there's others. We could look at the blind man in Jericho.

That's also here in chapter eighteen, or this is seventeen

over in eighteen. The blind man in Jericho. What does

he say to Jesus. He's beside the road and he

hears the he hears the crowd coming by. And this

is in chapter eighteen the Seeds, verse forty two. And

it came to pass that as he was come nine

to Jericho, of certain blind men sept by the wayside,

begging and hearing the multitude passed by. He asked what

it meant, and they told him Jesus of Nazareth passed

it by. And he cried, saying, Jesus, thou son of David,

have mercy on me. And they which were before rebuked

him that he should hold his peace. But he cried

so much the more, Thou son of David, have mercy

on me. And Jesus stood and commanded him to be

brought unto him. And when he was come near, he

asked him, saying, what will that I should do unto thee?

And he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight.

And Jesus sended him, receive thy sight. Thy faith hath

saved thee. Again. Notice faith as doing a work, And

what was the work that it did? The man the

only one, the only one in the gospel record that

ever said thou son of David. This man believed. We

don't know how he believed, But somehow he had heard

the word, and the spirit had taken the word and

done a work in his heart. And when Jesus is

coming by, his faith caused him to believe that only Jesus,

the son of David, the Messiah of God, could heal him.

And he cried out. And then when Jesus called him,

he cast off his robes and came straight to Jesus.

What a man of faith he was. So Jesus is

seeing all of these fellows, and they the centurion, the

sinful woman, the woman with the issue of blood, the

tenth leper, the man born blind, sinful woman. We passed

over that when that's in chapter seven as well. And

she has faith. And Jesus said, your faith has saved

thee go in peace. And then he said, unto the man,

thy sins are forgiven THEE. Now he's seen their faith.

He looks at the man and he says, thy sins

are forgiven thee. Jesus said the thing out loud that

no one wanted to hear. And we're glad and rejoiced

when the great physician does his work in human bodies,

aren't we. But when the lamb of God, who takes

away the sin of the world, pinches our sin sick hearts,

we WinCE. Everybody probably took a step back, maybe drew

in a little breath, clutched the pearls sins forgiven? Well,

certainly the Pharisees did, didn't they. When Adam plagued with fever,

or was Adam plagued with fever or leprosy or palsy

in the garden, No, what happened, Adam sinned and his

disease spread to all of us, And that sin brought

in all the other diseases that plagued our bodies. Was

this man's greatest problem palsy or was it something else

that paralyzed him? Remember the demoniac in Capernaum, Peter's mother

in law, and the leper. All of them are examples

of sin's effect. Here we have another one. They couldn't

speak for themselves, they couldn't seek Jesus for themselves. They

were helpless and hopeless and unable, crippled, broken and nine.

And so this man, his palsy, shows us another side

of sins effect. So Jesus goes right to the problem.

He doesn't just heal the outward thing, He heals the

inward thing. The root of the problem is sin. The

fruit of the sin is the palsy. He goes right

to the root and cuts it. He says, your sins

are forgiven. And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying,

who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins?

But God alone? And they're right, aren't they? Who can

forgive sins but God alone? No angel, no holy man,

no prophet, no pope, no matter how holy and good

soever they may be only God God? And who is Jesus?

He is God. Here we see the mistake They made

concluding that Jesus is simply a mere man. They ignore

the signs of miracles, the testimony of the Scripture, and

the very voice of God is baptism. Jesus is God incarnate.

But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering, said it

to them, and he knows by the way the thoughts

of every heart all is laid open before him. What

reason you in your hearts? Now that's good, old King James. There,

we would probably put it this way, why are you

thinking such things? Why do you think such things? And

you know, we might say that to a friend, to

a family member, to a co worker when they tell

us that they're thinking about such and such, and we

would squinch up our face and say, why are you

thinking about something like that? That's what Jesus says to

these fellows. Why are you thinking that? Matthew has it

in Matthew nine four? Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, wherefore

think ye evil in your hearts? In their hearts they

had had attributed evil to Jesus by accusing him of blasphemy?

How insane is that verse twenty three? Whither is easier?

Whether is easier to say thy sins be forgiven thee

or to say rise up and walk, a question which

points to their mistake. They rejoiced in the healings but

missed their testimony to his person. Everybody wanted to be healed,

but were they paying attention to what the healings said,

to whom they pointed. Only God could heal the leper.

Only God could deliver the demoniac from his bondage. Only

God could immediately heal of divers diseases. Only God could

have broken the fever in the mother in law. The

works testified to who he was, and yet they missed it.

Jesus said in John chapter fourteen, believe me that I

am in the Father and the Father and me, or

else believe me for the very work's sake, which is

easier to say, thy sins be forgiven thee or to

say rise up and walk. See they were willing to say, oh,

rise up and walk. You can do that, Jesus, but

you can't do the sin forgiven thing. Who can do both?

Who only can do both? And remember these people that

were being healed, they were getting a prescription. Come back

in ten days and we'll do a review. No, it

was right there, it was immediate. Only God could do that,

and that's what they were seeing. And now they're seeing

something stranger. Thy sins be forgiven thee. No, it's not

as stranger. It's just the same, because both things only

God can do. But that you may know this is

verse twenty f that the son of Man hath power

upon earth to forgive sins. He saith under the sick

of the palsy. I say unto thee arise, take up

thy couch, and go into thine house. Here's another work,

a work in line with a Messianic principle that Jesus

was following, another evidence that he was the very son

of God. And notice how detailed this is. Jesus didn't

want the doctors of the law to miss it. He

just didn't say you're healed. He gave it very specifically,

a rise, take up thy couch, go to your house. Detailed.

Jesus didn't want them to miss this. He said a rise.

So the paralyzed man was told to stand. Previously he

couldn't get out of bed. He was told take up

thy couch. The paralyzed man was told to carry his litter.

It took four others to take up the couch before

Now this man just scoops it up and puts it

under his arm. He was told to go into thine house.

The paralyzed man was told to walk home. He had

to be carried there. And now he's going to walk

home with his couch under his arm. And notice that

it said he stood up before them. Jesus wanted to

make sure they saw what was happening. Who can forgive sins?

Jesus can forgive sins? And Verse twenty five says, and immediately,

as soon as Jesus spoke these words, right then and there,

he rose up before them. He stood before the pharisees

and doctors of the law, at the command of Christ,

having perfect health of body and soul, and took up

that whereon he lay. He's no longer dependent on the litter.

It is dependent on him, isn't Isn't that a twist?

He was dependent on the litter and his four friends

getting him there, and now the litter is dependent upon

him getting home. Sin has a way of causing inordinate

affection for things. With the power of sin broken or

right order is re established. And it says he departed

to his own house Jesus told him more to go.

These people were not the only ones who needed to

know the Savior's work. True religion always brings in, always

begins in the home. His testimony of the power of

Christ to forgive sin and heal the body would be

a great medicine for a house that had been depressed

by sickness and sin for so very long. And now

the master of that house goes home, and he's going

to tell everybody about the Savior. And he glorifies God.

Remember the Pharisees words, who can forgive sins? But God alone?

Who is? Who is the paralyzed man glorifying as God?

We know, don't we. The paralytic rejoiced that his sins

were forgiven, his body healed. Only God could do that work,

and he did. In a house somewhere in Galilee. Songs

emanate from a grateful heart as sacrifices of praise laid

upon an eternal altar. And this man sang the whole

way home, probably sang while he was at home, probably

got up singing the next day so he'd go to work,

and he sang all the way there too, And the multitude,

as soon as they witnessed these things, it says, and

they were all amazed. This is the refrain that we've

heard about the ministry of Christ in other places. And

in four fifteen he taught in their synagogues being glorified

of all. And then four point thirty two, it says,

and they were astonished at his doctrine, for his word

was with power. But now it just says they were

all amazed, and they glorified God just as the paralytic did.

The songs of glory raised by this crowd. 'tis mercy

all immense and free? Oh, praise my God, it reaches me.

My chains fell off, my heart was free. I rose

went forth and followed thee bold. I approached the eternal

throne and claimed the crown through Christ my own amazing love.

How can it be that Thou, my God, shouldst die

for me? What praise? Friends? Life is too short and

his glory too great for us to ever end our praise.

And they were filled with fear, it says, saying, we

have seen strange things today. Something was different. Their fear

was a holy fear, for they had been in the

presence of God himself. And I think for the multitude

they were conscious of that or must have sensed it.

The phrase strange things is a translation of the Greek

word paradoxa, from which we get our word paradox. It

just simply means to be contrary to received opinion. The

hole in the roof really wasn't the strangest thing they

saw that day. The strangest thing they saw that day

was a man forgiven of sin and healed of his paralysis.

They saw the very son of God doing his work,

the work that he still does today. So how do

we apply this well? Number one, I just imagine what

if the church decided to follow this example. What if

four believers covenant to pray for one lost friend to

be saved? What would happen? What if four people in

the church covened to to pray for one lost soul?

Number two, Know that once you resolved to walk by faith,

many obstacles will crowd your way. This is not exclusive

for this story. And gentlemen, there are problems that want

to stand in the way. Satan wants to put roadblocks

in your way when you when you resolve to walk

by faith, things are going to try to keep you

from it. Thirdly, have you experienced the healing of sins, iniquities, corruptions.

Are you born again? This story, this story calls us

to ask that question, doesn't it. And Fourth, the Son

of Man has power upon earth to forgive sins. Friend,

call on him today, and dear Christian friend, call on

him today. You too, call on Jesus because he is

our only source of help. Let's vow for prayer. Dear Father, Now,

as we conclude today, we asked that you would speak

to our hearts from this passage, give us faith to believe,

just as these men did. We thank you for their example.

We thank you for the cheerful rejoicing of the man forgiven,

and for the rejoicing of the crowd in the glory

of God. Help us to be so ever for we

pray to now in Jesus name. Amen,