I Get By with a Little Help from My Friends

It's good to be with all of you this morning.

If you have your Bibles, let's open up to Mark chapter 2, Mark chapter 2, and let me pray for us as you turn there.

Mark 2 · chapter mention Mark 2 · chapter mention

Father, just as Adam and Noel just saying for us, speak, O Lord, until your church is built.

Lord, until your people are built up in Christ, until we are formed into his likeness, until your glory, Lord, is made manifest, is made obvious in our lives in this city and in every tongue, tribe, and nation, Lord.

We pray all this in Christ's name.

Amen.

Mark chapter 2, and if you're still finding that, I want you to just think about this in your mind.

Mark 2 · chapter mention

When you meet somebody new, maybe somebody new moves into your neighborhood, maybe you get a new boss, a new employee at work, somebody new at church, sitting next to you in the row.

How do you tend to evaluate that person?

What type of thoughts go through your mind in the inner dialogue as you're observing them, as you're listening to them?

Do you tend to be more critical or do you tend to be more compassionate?

I want you to think about that as we go through this story.

Jesus' fame as a teacher is growing.

His fame as a healer is growing.

And where we ended last week, the people are flocking to him so much, he really can't even go into the towns and villages anymore.

He's having to stay on the outskirts.

But we're going to pick up today when he has come back to his home base of operations.

And the scribes, the religious leaders of the day, the supposed experts in the Old Testament have heard about Jesus and they're starting to follow him around and evaluate him.

They're investigating him, trying to check him out.

All right, so there's the context.

Let's start in Mark chapter 2, verse 1.

Mark 2:1

And when he, that's 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, My son, your sins are forgiven.

Now some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts, Why does this man speak like this?

He is blaspheming.

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.

Now, this is God's word.

Capernaum was Jesus, like I said, kind of his home base of operations.

So he's come back home.

We don't know exactly.

This was probably Peter's house that he was staying at.

We don't know that for sure.

But he's teaching, and the people are flocking to him, so many that there's a crowd spilling out of the door into the street, that if you wanted to get close to even the door to here, you couldn't even.

It's overwhelming.

The people are so attracted to the power and the truth that he's teaching.

And some men come for and they're carrying a paralytic.

They probably had a rug of some sort, some sort of pallet, because they know Jesus can heal this man.

They've got faith.

They believe that Jesus is a healer.

The paralytic seems to believe as well.

They get there, but they can't even get close.

Couldn't see Jesus, probably couldn't even hear him.

Most Middle Eastern homes back then would have a flat roof.

Now, I'm not an expert in Middle Eastern architecture of the first century.

I had to read several commentaries to figure all this out, okay?

But most of them would have a flat roof, and there would be a staircase on the outside of the house that would go up there.

And a lot of times if it was too hot, you'd sleep outside on the roof, cool breeze.

And the way the roofs were built back then is you would have timber that you would lay down, but then you would kind of stuff the middle with earth, debris, twigs, whatever you could find.

It would be about two feet thick.

Sometimes grass would even start to grow on the roof.

But usually once a year, maybe in the fall before the rainy season came, you'd have to repair it to get ready.

So these men easily get up on the roof and they start to dig a hole through the roof.

Now just try to imagine if right now I'm preaching, I'm teaching, not near as good at Jesus, okay?

But all of a sudden it's like somebody started ripping through the shringles and the tile.

I mean, debris would be coming in.

It'd be a distraction.

But they make this hole, they come down, they let the man down right in front of Jesus, and it seems pretty obvious.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to wonder, I wonder why they did that.

They want their friend to be healed.

And Jesus looks, stops his teaching, and says, My son, it's kind of an affectionate term, your sins are forgiven.

Now, the scribes are sitting there, and almost certainly they were sitting close to the front.

They like the seat of honor, and most of the Jewish people would give them the seat of honor.

So there they are, sitting close to the front.

And they're questioning.

They're thinking in their minds, in their hearts, wait a second.

Who does this guy think he is?

Only God can just absolve somebody, just pardon somebody outright.

All your sins are forgiven.

And this is a mere man.

For a mere man to say that is blasphemy.

Now, I just want to pause here for a second.

They got a lot right.

Only God can ultimately say to a human being, all your sins are forgiven.

And for a mere man to do that, that would be the sin of blasphemy.

The sin of blasphemy is basically the idea of talking about God and divine things in a light, in a profane way, in an irreverent way.

And for a mere man to act like he was God and just say, I'll just I'll forgive all your sins, would be blasphemy.

And blasphemy, based on Old Testament law, would have been punishable by stoning.

They got a lot right.

They missed the most crucial part.

I heard a sermon by Matt Chandler one time, Baptist preacher out in Texas, and he said, you know, if you were hanging out with Jesus, he he would like always try to meditate on scripture or be singing praise choruses in a mind or something, because Jesus can always be reading your mind.

A little terrifying, isn't it?

The scribes don't know who they're dealing with.

See, most Jewish people, most people in that day and even today, a lot of times, subtly, though we may not say it out loud, we tend to link big, bad sickness and pain and suffering in life with sin.

And so these Jewish scribes would have thought, hey, this guy must have done something really terrible to be paralyzed.

But then they see what Jesus does and their heart shift to say, wait a second, we got even a bigger sinner in the room.

That was part of the problem with the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus' day.

They like to kind of look around and just judge people all the time.

Who's the worst sinner in the room?

Gotta be the paralytic.

Wait a second, this dude just blasphemed, now it's him.

Jesus reads their minds.

Why are you guys thinking like that?

Let me ask you a question.

You want to question me?

I mean, here's another thing you learn when you read the gospels.

Be really careful asking Jesus an arrogant question.

He is the master of flipping it on you.

You want to question me?

Let me ask you a question.

What do you think is easier to say?

Your sins are forgiven?

Or get up, pick up your bed, and go home.

I wonder what they would have said.

I think I know, but we'll never know for sure because he doesn't even give them time to answer.

He's trying to make them think.

He's testing them.

He says, But you know what?

So that you guys will know, the Son of Man, and that was Jesus' favorite self-designation that he liked to refer to himself.

And it came from a prophecy in Daniel chapter 7.

Daniel 7 · chapter mention

We'll talk about that more in just a second.

But he says, so you guys can know that the Son of Man has the power on earth to forgive sins absolutely.

And then he looks at the paralytic.

Rise, get up, take your bed, and go home.

And the man does, and everybody sees it and they are shocked.

And we would have been too.

Lots of application here.

The first would be this wherever you have blessings in life, I've said this before here because it keeps coming out in the text.

We're blessed to be a blessing.

God loves to bless his children, but he doesn't want to bless us in selfish ways where we're just a cul-de-sac that receive the blessings and keep it.

He wants us to be a conduit to pass it on to others.

So where do you have blessings in your life and how can you leverage those blessings to bring others to Jesus, to bless them?

Maybe you do have lots of money and you can support missionaries in foreign lands.

Maybe you have a nice big house and you love to host people and serve people and have events there.

Maybe you are a little bit like Jesus in this regard, that you're very insightful.

You ask good questions.

And so sometimes you can ask some of your co-workers questions that really make them wrestle with their faith.

I don't know.

But some of you, I do know this.

Just like James shared partially in his testimony, there may be some of you here this morning saying, I don't have a big house.

I don't have a lot of disposable questions to ask people, I don't have a lot of disposable income.

I don't feel like I have anything.

Well, let me ask you this: can you walk?

Because practically speaking, all that we know for sure that these four men had that the paralytic didn't have is they could walk.

So if you have anything that can be used to bless others, you should be using it.

The second thing is this the best way to do personal ministry like this is always in a team.

That doesn't mean there's not a place for one-on-one conversation, service, what have you.

But it tends to always be more effective.

If that's your law term, law firm, or wherever you work, fire station, whatever.

If there's one other Christian, it's like, hey, we're gonna start a Bible study here together.

I'd be willing to bet my house if two guys at a place of employment try to start a Bible study together, then one guy someplace else, all by himself, I wonder which one's gonna last longer.

Even when Jesus sent the disciples out, it was two by two.

So try to partner with other people in your neighborhood, in your friend group to do ministry together.

The third thing would be this: true faith is never passive.

True saving faith is never just a mental assent to truth claims about Jesus.

True saving faith always leads to action.

Right?

Do you remember that kind of famous verse in James chapter 2, verse 18, where James a little bit mockingly says to people, You say that you have faith without works?

James 2:18

I'll show you my faith by my works, by what I do.

I mean, it says that Jesus saw their faith.

How did he see their faith?

He saw them taking action.

He saw them being willing to haul their buddy, for the buddy to be willing to be hauled, to climb the roof, to dig a hole through about two feet of roof.

Can people see your faith?

One commentator said this see what the faith of others may do for the one.

This is a really interesting passage because oftentimes when Jesus heals somebody or he forgives somebody, what he typically says is something like, Your faith has made you well.

And that adds up with our doctrine, right?

Faith in Christ leads to salvation.

But did you notice what Jesus said here?

He saw their faith.

Plural.

And guys, just think about this.

If you're here today and you're a Christian, who are the people that prayed for you?

Who are the people that shared the gospel with you?

Who are the people that loved you enough to be willing to take maybe an awkward step in the conversation and ask you a question that ruffled your feathers a little bit, but it made you think.

They confronted you maybe.

Now, nobody can get saved based on just the faith of other people, right?

I mean, it can't be like, well, my mom and dad, they have super strong faith, so I'm good.

Doesn't work that way.

I think Billy Graham said, God has no grandchildren.

You can't get in on the faith of your parents.

Ultimately, you have to have your own faith, but other people's faith can help you get there.

Faith, okay, one of the ways that you really know you have genuine faith is it will lead to a kind of persevering desperation.

And here's what I mean.

Do you remember how chapter one ended last week?

There was a leper that was supposed to stay distant from all healthy people.

Unclean, unclean.

But this leper was so desperate and he was so hungry, what did he do?

He ran right up to Jesus.

He didn't care about ceremonial law, he didn't care about the health code anymore.

These men break basically all proper decorum.

They climb on somebody's roof.

I mean, I guess technically they could have been accused of trespassing, and then they just start vandalizing, just ripping a hole in the roof.

Now, I'm sure later they came and maybe paid the guy back for his roof.

But in that moment, they were so hungry to get their friend close to Jesus.

That was a sign of their faith.

Okay?

There was an old preacher I used to listen to a lot, and uh he had a quote where he would say, God never answers prayer.

God only answers desperate prayer.

Now, guys, listen, that's not technically true.

God is such a kind, gentle Father that he often answers our half-hearted, lazy prayers.

And aren't you glad?

I probably wouldn't be standing here today if God didn't do that.

And yet, Jeremiah 29, 13 does say, You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.

God makes bigger and better and deeper promises to us when we get desperate and we get hungry and we just quit going through the motions in kind of a lazy, haphazard way.

And we really wrestle with Him.

Now, I think this is point five if you're keeping up.

God often, this is an important one, but you got a nuance that you got to be careful.

So please listen carefully.

God often uses physical sufferings in our lives to address deeper issues.

The Bible never says that all pain, all suffering, all sickness, all disease, all hardship is a direct result of some specific sin that we committed, right?

Are we all clear on that?

Bible never, in fact, the Bible says the opposite of that.

Sometimes it might be, but I can't look at somebody else and say, that guy's sick.

He must have a demon.

Doesn't work that way.

She's had some long-term illness, that must mean she's got some unrepentant sin.

You can't do that.

So that's not what we're talking about right now.

But I'm talking about your own life.

Oftentimes, God will use pain and hardship to get our attention.

And listen, parents do the same thing, don't you?

I got a couple of my boys here today just ask them after service.

There used to be some times growing up in church where maybe, if at least in their opinion, the sermon was a little too long and boring and they're getting a little wiggly and loud, that I might lean over and say, hey, buddy, please be still and quiet.

And they would just totally ignore me and continue their shenanigans.

And so then I would take my fingers and grab maybe their ear or the soft part of their neck and kind of squeeze and turn.

And at least one of them was like, Dad, why'd you pinch me?

Which just kind of ruined the whole point.

But here, I said, Well, you didn't listen to my voice, maybe you'll listen to pain.

God does the same thing, right?

C.

S.

Lewis famously said, God shouts at us in our pain.

Now, again, please, guys, please hear me.

That doesn't mean every time you're going through something that God is getting you for that certain thing you did.

But I'm just saying, it is a wise practice when pain comes in your life to at least slow down and ask the question.

God, are you trying to get my attention?

Are you trying to say something to me?

Because, guys, listen, when everything is going right in your life, right?

When your marriage is hot and happy, and your stocks are doing great, and your business is thriving, it's fun, it's easy, you're not even having to work hard, and just profits rolling in, and your kids are all being obedient for once in your life, and you're on a really nice vacation, and the weather's perfect, and you got your favorite drink in hand, most of us are probably not having our most fervent prayer times on that vacation, are we?

Listen, I'm not saying times like that are sinful.

I mean, I Lord, I'd like to have more if you're dishing those out.

I am saying this, I got an amen on that.

Times like that, number one, they're rare, aren't they?

If you're in one of those seasons, please enjoy it for the rest of us.

Because it's not gonna last.

But times like that are dangerous.

Not sinful, not bad, but they are dangerous.

Why?

Because they lull you to sleep spiritually.

But when suffering comes, we often end up like Jacob wrestling in prayer.

And saying to God, I won't quit praying until you bless me.

When's the last time you prayed like that?

How's your desperation?

How's your hunger?

About five years ago, I had some serious lower back pain.

It got so bad at one point, literally, like to go to sleep, I would have to lay face down, no pillow.

I would take way too many melatonin and Tylenol PM, and I would basically lay like this and turn my face just to the side so I could breathe and say, Oh God, please let me fall asleep.

I mean, it was miserable.

And about the only kind of exercise I could do was just walk.

And I'd pray a lot.

Listen, what was I praying for?

I was right, heal me, God, fix me.

And and praise the Lord, he did eventually.

But it wasn't very long before I started saying, Hey, Father, if there's something you're trying to say to me in this suffering, I am listening.

Please speak loud and clear.

If there's something you're wanting me to adjust in my life, I am ready to do basically anything.

God is the master of taking physical circumstances, pain, suffering, hardship, and getting us to go deeper.

Just listen to three verses that I'm gonna read from Psalm chapter 119.

Psalms 119 · chapter mention

You don't have to flip there, maybe write this down.

You can look later.

This is Psalm 119, 67 through 75, and I'm just reading three verses.

Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word.

It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.

I know, O Lord, that your rules are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.

Can you say that?

Martin Luther, probably one of the greatest theologians of all time, he said, You want to know how to become a great theologian?

Three things.

Prayer, all right, that makes sense, meditation, that makes sense, and suffering.

You're like, whoa, whoa, wait a second.

I like the prayer meditation part.

But why would he say that?

Because again, when everything's wonderful in your life, you it's easy to just keep things at surface level, isn't it?

Yeah, God's good.

You know, I'm one of his people, everything's cool.

Praise Jesus.

When suffering comes in, you start to wrestle.

Why is this happening?

What are you doing?

Where is God?

Martin Luther said, you know, the Pope persecuted me so much, that's how I became a good theologian.

Prayed, meditated, suffered.

All right.

Sixth point.

Be careful how you think alone in your heart, because, guys, that's where all sin starts.

Really small, really tiny, just the little thoughts in our mind.

And here's one of the things that hit me as I studied this text this week is this sinful people, and we're all sinful, but people that are dominated by sin in their life, they tend to like to sit on the sideline, so to speak, and just criticize others.

Critique.

Listen, I am not saying, and more importantly, the Bible does not say that there is not a righteous way to listen, observe, and make evaluations.

God gave you a brain, he wants you to use it.

But you better be very open handed and not condemning and judgmental in the way that you do that.

Right?

There's a right Time and place to offer constructive criticism.

But godly people get in the game, they get active, they take risk, risky steps of faith, even if they might be falsely accused of sin.

And just ask yourself do you tend to be more of somebody sitting on the sideline, kind of observing, kind of critiquing, kind of pointing out?

Or do you tend to be somebody more like, I'm gonna take a risky step of faith, even though it might be misunderstood.

I'm trying to obey in my imperfection.

Lord use me.

Okay?

I mean, these Pharisees arrogantly assumed that they were right and Jesus is wrong, but they were so wrong.

Practically speaking, guys, this is one of the reasons that we need the church.

By that, I don't mean a building, I mean other people, good Christian friends in our lives.

So that listen, we all have inner dialogue going on, right?

And part of the way that you protect yourself is you have at least a small handful of friends that you can talk about about.

Let me tell you about what I was thinking yesterday.

Let me tell you about what I was feeling yesterday.

And they can lovingly listen and sometimes push back, and you give them the right to push back.

Now, Jesus would have been more than willing to be that kind of friend for the scribes and the Pharisees, but they didn't want that.

They loved their seat of honor, they loved their place of power, they like criticizing other people, they didn't want anybody criticizing them.

You ever known somebody like that in life?

They always love being the teacher, they are always quick to give somebody else advice.

And if anybody ever says, hey, let me give you something like that.

I got it.

We don't do that.

That's not how it works.

This is one way.

You shut up and listen and take notes.

Jesus would have been that kind of friend of the scribes and Pharisees if they were humble enough to have him.

And guys, here's the good news: Jesus will be that kind of friend for me and you.

He may not be standing in your living room with his beard, his robe, and his sandals.

But guys, he's standing right in front of you.

His word, his power.

Read the Bible, guys.

And when you read the Bible metaphorically, don't come to the Bible to scrutinize it.

Do I like this?

Do I trust this?

It's better to say, read the Bible and let it scrutinize you.

It's over you, it's looking at you, affirming certain things in your life, encouraging you, but also convicting you and me.

So Jesus asked these guys a trick question, really.

What's easier to say?

And probably what they would have said is, well, it's easier to say your sins are forgiven.

I mean, because it's not like we can falsify that or but if you say you're healed, I mean, there's gonna be proof in about two seconds, either he's gonna stand up or not.

They doubted his words.

Do we ever doubt his words?

See, for Jesus, the main issue that day was not the man's healing.

That was important.

Jesus cares about our physical pain and suffering.

He does.

If you're physically suffering, get some people to pray for you.

But the bigger, deeper issue is always the sins that are going on in our life.

And this is part of what makes Jesus such a great, wise teacher, but so much more than that, our Savior is that He always goes to the heart of the matter.

He doesn't want to just give us surface level comfort.

When I was wrestling with my back pain, pretty quickly I got to a place like, Lord, because this is the kind of inner dialogue, at least I happen to have, and my guess is a lot of us too.

It's like, Lord, if there's something you're trying to do, some sin you're trying to remove, if I have to choose between physical healing and spiritual sanctification, okay, I choose spiritual sanctification.

I know that's more important.

I'd really like to have both.

But Jesus is always trying to take us from more of our surface-level desires, our surface-level prayer requests, again, that aren't bad and go to the deepest level issues of our sin, of our faith, of our doubt, of our relationship with Him.

And that's what He did with this guy.

He just skipped to the bottom line.

This guy's biggest need is not physical healing, although he's lame.

This guy's biggest need is to get rid of his sin so he can have a right relationship with me.

He's got faith, that's all it takes.

I give it to him.

But then why did he do the healing anyway?

One commentator said this: Jesus' healings, it was a sacrament of forgiveness.

It was a tangible outward sign.

The fact that this guy is healed, can heal people is proof that he can forgive.

Now, why did Jesus call himself the Son of Man?

Listen to this quote by a commentator named Brooks.

By using the term, Jesus further avoided the undesirable political connotations of the term Messiah in Christ.

Remember what we said?

All the Jews were expecting David Part II, a very nationalistic kind of Messiah.

Throw off the Roman oppressors and set up the Jewish nation again for the golden age.

And Jesus is saying that that's like that's like less than 1% of what I came to do.

Number one, I'm not just here for the Jews, I'm here for every tongue tribe and nation.

And aren't you glad?

And then number two, I'm not here just to throw off the Roman oppressors.

I'm here to throw off sin and Satan, the real oppressors of your soul.

Brooks goes on.

It had overtones of both humanity and deity.

By using it, Jesus forced persons to make up their own minds as to what kind of person he was.

Was he a man or was he the man?

And another commentator said this Jesus is the divine pardon incarnate.

And guys, what we know is for Jesus to say, rise, take up your pallet, walk, that was a piece of cake for him.

That was nothing.

To say your sins are forgiven?

That was gonna cost him everything.

Because he was gonna have to go and lay down.

Not on a bed, not on a pallet.

He was gonna have to go lay down in my grave, in your grave, after suffering a terrible death on the cross under the wrath of God for all the sins of all the people that would ever trust in him.

And just like we sang earlier, Jesus is full of pity and of power.

And so if we come to him by faith, he can forgive all of our sins, past, present, and future.

And as we bring other friends to him, he can forgive them as well.

And he can heal them, by the way, if he wants to, and sanctify them and grow us up.

And here's one of the most beautiful things to me.

When Jesus saves us, he doesn't just say, Hey, now you're saved.

Just kind of sit on the sidelines, I'll see you in heaven.

Everything's will be great.

He says, Now you're saved, now you're on Team Jesus.

Now you get to get in the game.

Now you get to go to work with dad.

And it's fun, it's exciting, it's risky at times, it's crazy at times.

Sometimes you'll hurt and suffer.

But there's a joy in being in this redemptive work as one of his ambassadors.

What a privilege.

Let's pray, Lord Jesus.

Thank you for your mercy.

Thank you for your grace.

Thank you for your pity and your power.

And even now as we move to celebrate this sacrament, this tangible sign of your presence with us, of your love for us, of your sacrifice for us, of your promise to come back.

I pray for every single person here.

Draw us closer to you.

If we have already been saved and forgiven, would you deepen us in our faith?

Would you mature us in our usefulness for you?

And Lord, if there are any here who have never fully trusted in Christ, I pray that by your grace today would be the day of their salvation.

We pray all this in Christ's name.

Amen.