He Is Good | Mark 2:1-12 | Jesus and the Paralytic

We are in a series right now through the Gospel of Mark that is titled He is Good.

And the reason we titled it that is because Mark titles his gospel that way.

He doesn't call it the Gospel of Mark.

He says that it's the good news of Jesus, the beginning of the good news of Jesus.

And so spending the entire 16 chapters, or for him, just the entire portion of his writing to try and display and show and get across to Christians in Rome why Jesus is good and why he is specifically good for them in that particular case.

And so we've been working through Mark 1 and now we are moving into Mark 2 today.

Mark 2, Mark 1 took 10 weeks, Mark 2 will only take four.

So as we look at each interaction, but today we're going to deal with Jesus healing the paralytic man.

So the teaching text is Mark 2, verses 1 through 12.

Mark 2:1–12

It'll be on the screen, or you can go there in your scriptures.

This is what Mark writes.

A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home.

Not even outside the door.

And he preached the word to them.

Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man carried by four of them.

Since they could not get to him, to Jesus, because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it, and then lowered the man on a mat that he was lying on.

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, Son, your sins are forgiven.

Now some teachers of the law were sitting there thinking to themselves, Why does this fellow talk like that?

He's blaspheming.

Who can forgive sins but God alone?

And immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, Why are you thinking these things?

Which is easier to say to the paralyzed man, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Get up, take your mat and walk.

But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.

And so he said to the man, I tell you, get up and take your mat and go home.

And he got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all.

And this amazed everyone, and they praised God, saying, We have never seen anything like this.

Let's say this together.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

We are trying to teach Teddy, our son, to how to have a conversation.

One of the things that we've noticed just in general about generations growing up, um working with youth in the church in the past, is it is very possible to sit at a conversation with someone around sixth to twelfth grade and say, How are you?

And they say, Good.

How was school?

Fine.

How's life?

Fine.

And you're like, okay, well, I'm out of questions.

Like I got nothing.

I had five, I came with, we've been here for three minutes.

Conversation's pretty much done now.

And so Rainey and I are trying to figure out like how we can pour into him the ability to not only answer a question, but then what the formula that we give is like somebody asks you a question.

You answer that question, you know, then you give a detail about that thing, and then you ask them a question back.

And honestly, it can be reciprocated.

It doesn't mean you don't have to come up with a question.

They asked you, how do you like your bike?

It's good.

I like it that it's orange.

Now ask them how do they like their bike.

They may not have a bike, but at least you ask the question and continue the conversation.

And so we're trying to work on that.

And the biggest piece is teaching him to be curious about other people.

Trying to teach him to ask questions about other people versus just waiting to be asked questions.

The reason I say all that is not to talk about how amazing parents we are.

Um it's not a thing.

Uh and it's actually really difficult to get him to do that because it's work and it takes work to do that.

But the reason I say all that is because that's really what I want to do in this particular text today.

I want to respectfully ask three questions to the text and really to Jesus, because in this passage, everything that he's done up to this point has kind of made sense.

And then he gets to this space where he does these things that are kind of out of character and out of place, and the man wants healing, and he's like, Got you, your sins are forgiven.

He's like, No, no, no, my legs, it's my legs that are hurt.

Like he's he just does odd things.

And so I just want to ask three questions to Jesus in this text in order to hopefully help us understand what's happening in this text and what Jesus has for us as well.

So, three questions that we'll address.

The first is why is Jesus preaching to the crowds when they definitely came there and clearly came there for more miracles?

And so in verse one and two, this this Mark has already written and talked about how there was a space and time in Mark 1 where the crowds of Capernaum showed up at the door.

Everyone in the town came to the door.

And so he's basically just saying that again.

Well, the first time, Jesus miracles out and just like pours out all the miracles, heals everybody, casts out all the demons, does all the stuff.

And so they hear that he's back and they're like, the miracle guy's back.

Let's head over there.

So they go to the door, the same thing happens.

They gathered in such large numbers that there's no room left at all.

And then when it gets to the point of like, and what does he do?

It says, and he preached the word to them.

That's what he did.

Instead of healing them like what they want, he he he decides to go, I'll just preach the word to them.

And so these people are no doubt crowding around asking for miracles and hoping for miracles, hoping to see something really cool.

And he decides, actually, what I want to do for you is I want to preach to you.

I do not want to do miracles in front of you.

And actually, throughout the entire text, he seems resistant to want to do a miracle in front of these people.

But he does seem okay and very excited to actually preach to them.

And I think the reason is, is because miracles historically throughout the scriptures do not change people's hearts.

Like if you just look, there's 87 miracles in the Old Testament.

Not one of them transforms someone's heart.

And what Jesus is after is actually a transformed heart that leads to a transformed life, and to give you a miracle is historically not going to do any of those things.

And so he chooses to preach to them instead of miraculously healing a bunch of people again in front of them and just doing cool stuff because historically they don't do anything.

And you see this in Exodus with Pharaoh.

Pharaoh sees in in in Egypt, he sees all of these miracles happening.

And what does it say about his heart?

It gets harder, it doesn't get softer, it's not transformed into something that's like, oh, I just worship Yahweh, I worship God because He's so powerful.

The miracles don't make him do that.

They actually make him a little, they make him doubt, they make him angry, they make him hard-hearted.

You see this as with Israel, the nation itself.

Israel marches through the Red Sea on dry ground.

It splits, they see this amazing miracle, and everything happens.

The pillar of fire is guiding them by night, the pillar of cloud by day.

I mean, the Lord is just doing all kinds of miraculous things in front of them.

And then what it gets to eventually is they test the Lord, they get angry with the Lord, and they desire to go back to slavery in Egypt.

That's what all the miracles did.

Like, I don't know if he's all that powerful.

It's like, well, there's a giant tornado fire cloud in front of you.

Like, how are you not sure that he's gonna protect you?

And it's like, it just doesn't do that thing for them.

This this idea that miracles are gonna be the thing that sets them on the right course and just doesn't happen in the in that way.

They become more unbelieving as they move along.

More miracles are happening, and they're becoming more unbelieving to the point where they get to the land in Canaan and they're like, those people are giants.

And it's like, again, though, there's a pillar of cloud behind you.

Like they might be giants, but do you remember that he crushed Egypt?

Like, do you remember any of this stuff the miracles did not set faith in their hearts?

And then here in this text, the scribes, the teachers of the law, they're like, wait, this man can't do this.

He only God can do that.

And then he's like, Okay, I'll prove to you that I can forgive sin.

And he heals the man.

And that healing doesn't lead the scribes and teachers of the law to be like, oh my gosh, he's God.

It doesn't lead them to worship him, it doesn't lead them to anything.

It actually leads them to get angry with him, and they get angrier and angrier and angrier as Mark II goes along until the point where now they're like, We gotta kill him.

We have to kill him.

His miracles led to his death ultimately.

And so miracles just consistently don't do the things that we and what people think.

It's like do a cool thing, do an impressive thing, do a powerful thing that will make them believe.

And it's like it just doesn't do that.

And Jesus knows that that seeing miracles is not going to do what we think it's going to do.

And if miracles could, if a miracle in your life and the miracles in the lives of the people of Israel, if it could change their hearts, Jesus knows it would have changed the hearts of the people of Israel.

If it could happen, it would happen to you because y'all have seen the nation of Israel has seen consistently more miracles even today, more miracles historically than any other nation in the world, because God chose to display most of his miracles in that nation for that nation and to them.

And yet it still has not led them to be like Yahweh is God, Jesus is King.

It still hasn't led them to do that.

There are four miracles.

There are no promises attached to them.

And I think this is a big space of why Jesus chooses to preach his word to them.

Because there are no miracles, are no promises attached to miracles, like if you see a miracle, then you'll have peace.

If you see a miracle, then you'll have faith.

Like there's no promise to that.

But there's tons of promises about his word.

And if you look at all the promises of what's available to us in God's word, it makes sense why Jesus chose to preach, because all of the promises are attached to his word, his law, his preaching, and actually the things that come out of his mouth.

And so if there are no promises attached to the miracles, what are the promises attached to the word of God?

And we have a ton of them here.

I'm not going to read all the texts that go with them, but go to the next slide here.

So, this is the promises that are that are attached to his word.

It says that his word blesses us.

Blessed is the one whose delight is in the law of the Lord.

His word gives us joy and hope.

The precepts of the Lord are right, they give joy to the heart.

His word teaches us, corrects us, rebukes us, equips us.

That's uh 2 Timothy uh 3.

His word guides us.

Your word, O Lord, is a lamp to my feet, a light from my path.

His word warns us and gives us reward.

By your word, your servant is warned.

In keeping your word, there's great reward.

His word helps us fight temptation.

His word transforms us.

Jesus says, Sanctify them by your truth, transform them by your truth.

Your word is truth.

His word comforts us, his word upholds us and preserves our lives.

I love that I wrote this on a table on our back porch.

If your word, if your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.

Life gets so hard, but your word somehow has the ability to uphold me and preserve my life and preserve my hope.

His word gives wisdom, it gives insight, it gives understanding.

His word gives us peace, stability in uncertain times.

His word gives us fullness of life.

And his word builds our faith.

Faith comes by not miracles.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

I want to pause.

I love miracles.

I pray for miracles every day.

I want those things to happen.

I want cool stuff to break out all over the place.

I want to see it happen.

I definitely want that.

So I'm not saying it's bad to ask for miracles because I think he is a miracle-working God.

I think that he, as Paul says, like the things that we ask for, he can do far more, immeasurably more than what we even ask or imagine.

I believe that's true.

And so I'm not saying that asking for miracles is bad.

I'm just seeing Jesus chooses in this space to go, I'm not going to do the miracle worker thing for you because it's not going to do for you what I actually want to see happen in your life.

I want my word to get in there because it's alive and it's active and it's going to change stuff that you actually want to see change, but you think seeing a cool miracle will make it work and it's not going to happen.

You think a miracle from God will bring you peace and it won't.

My word brings peace.

And so this is why he preaches us his word builds faith.

Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God.

None of these promises, none of them, are made about miracles.

Miracles don't do any of these things.

And I think you see this in Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit comes on the day of Pentecost.

If you remember that story, the Holy Spirit comes and all the apostles start speaking in tongues, and everybody there, however many thousands of people are there, are hearing their words in their own language.

That's the miracle.

They're hearing tongues, and everybody can understand the words being spoken in their own language.

Okay?

Do you know how they respond to that miracle?

They say, they must be drunk.

That's their response to the miracle.

I don't know what this means.

They ask, what does this mean?

They must be drunk.

That's how they respond to the miracle.

And then Peter has to stand up and be like, y'all, it's nine in the morning, we're not drunk.

All right.

And then, which maybe that hits someone too close to home, but like, there's this space where he stands up and he's like, no, it's nine in the morning, we're not drunk.

And then he begins to preach to them.

And he preaches the gospel to them.

And at the end of his message, what they say, they're no longer confused and they're no longer thinking they're drunk.

What they say is, What we do to be saved?

And it wasn't the miracle of hearing all of the languages in their own time.

It wasn't, it wasn't that that changed their heart.

God's word preached, changed their lives, and it completely changed the direction and course of their lives.

And 3,000 come to faith that day in Jesus, not because of the miracle, but because they heard God's word preached and it cut them to the heart and they wanted to know.

And so for us and for them, God's word changed their lives.

That's why Jesus chooses to preach his word.

That's why he has given us his word.

And I think for us, if you think I will believe in God, I will believe in Jesus if I see a miracle, I'm just telling you, historically, that's not true.

Historically, it seems that if God, if you say, I won't believe until I see a miracle, historically, what it will do when you see that miracle is you'll either miss it completely or it'll lead you to doubt more or become more cynical.

That's normally what happens.

Miracles to the believing tend to be the space that like stabilizes people's faith and like grows it and builds it.

To the already believing, it builds faith.

But to the unbelieving who see miracles, it makes them more cynical.

And so if you think, I'll believe if I see, God's gonna do you the favor of not giving you that miracle so that it doesn't make you more cynical in your life.

But what he is gonna give to you consistently is his word being poured into your life.

I will believe if he saves my marriage.

I will believe if he does.

It's just not going to work that way.

Belief and faith come by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

There is power in God's word for you.

This is why Jesus preaches.

There's power in God's word for you.

And I think many times as believers and as Christians or followers of Jesus, we are looking for a miracle, or we're looking for something.

God, would you just do this?

And I think so often he's like, I what you're longing for is actually in my word.

I've promised it here.

If you if you delight yourself in my word, blessing comes from that.

If you will allow my word to be your delight, you won't perish in your affliction.

You don't need a miracle as much as you just need to spend time with the miraculous word of God that actually builds those things in you, anyways.

And I think sometimes we're waiting for him to act when he's going, I've already acted.

I've given you the thing, and it's here for you.

And I've shown you where life is, and I've showed you, like, just spend time with this.

The promises are true.

You will receive peace, you will receive joy, great joy of those who love your law.

Like all of those things exist.

We don't have to wait on the miracle for him to do something miraculous.

He's already done it and given that power to us through his word.

And so I think for us, and I think what Jesus would say to us is like, if you want to experience more of my power, spend more time with me in my word.

The promises are not in the miracles, the promises are in the text themselves.

And so spend time with me in the scriptures.

There's power in these things.

And so to me, Jesus preaches to them instead of giving them miraculous things because he actually knows this is the thing that's going to transform your life.

This is the thing that's actually going to fill you.

This is the space where you're actually going to receive what you need.

So, second question.

Second question is why forgive this man's sins?

Why forgive his sins when he clearly came to Jesus for healing?

Why do you start there?

Why is this a space?

And you see this in the text.

Some men come to him bringing a man, four of them carrying him.

They're willing to do almost anything to get him there.

Like, no room.

They go up to the roof and then can't get through.

They dig through the house, then they lower him down in some kind of like cirque de soleil kind of style thing, like lowering him before Jesus and this whole thing, like willing to do whatever.

Place him there, and Jesus looks at him clearly paralyzed, and he's like, Your sins are forgiven.

And you have to imagine the man be like, dude, you got, I'm so sorry.

My le it's the that's not it.

It's my legs.

These don't work.

These two guys, they're not, they're not functioning well.

I need, I need the healing.

I don't need thank you for the forgiveness of sin.

Could you do something about the two legs that don't move?

Like, that's what that's what he's has to clearly be thinking, some of those things.

But Jesus doesn't do that.

He says, Son, your sins are forgiven.

And the question again is like, why do that?

Why is this a space where why don't you just heal?

Why don't you just have this thing when you do this?

You're resistant to do this.

Why aren't why aren't you doing this?

And we know that it's not because he doesn't know that the man is paralyzed.

He has supernatural knowledge.

We'll find that out in a second that he can tell what people are thinking.

He knows what's going on.

It's not that he's unaware and he can see it.

It's not that, like, oh, this man's a sinner, so he has to forgive his sin first in order to heal him.

We know that's not true because Jesus even says that later in the scriptures that not all illnesses are based on sin.

And so that's not, that's that's not what's happening here.

And we know that it's not that he's just unwilling because eventually he does end up healing this man.

And so, like, why did you do this?

Why are you doing it in this order?

Why are you saying, thanks for the lowering down, you interrupted my sermon, um, uh, your sins are forgiven, and and then waiting on that and then healing this man.

Why did you do it in this way?

And I want to answer that question by reading a quote uh from a lady uh named Cynthia Heimel.

Um, and she used to be uh she used to write for the Village Voice in uh in New York in the 70s.

And um she knew all of these big name actors and artists when they were still like busing tables in New York and driving cabs and that kind of thing.

And uh she's not a believer, but I think what she writes will help us answer the question of why Jesus goes in the direction that he does and why he does these things in this order.

So, in an article back in 1990, this is what she writes about celebrities.

She says, I pity celebrities.

No, I really do.

Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, and Barbara Streisand were once perfectly pleasant human beings, but now their wrath is awful.

Sly, Bruce, and Barbara fervently, more than any of us, wanted fame.

They worked, they pushed, they stepped on the other guy's face in the desperate need, thinking, if I can become famous, people will adore me.

Life will be a breeze, and all my dreams will come true.

And yet, the morning after each of them became famous, they wanted to take an overdose.

All their fantasies, all their fantasies had been realized.

Yet the reality was still the same.

If they were miserable before, they were twice as miserable now.

Because that giant thing that they were striving for, that fame thing that was gonna make everything okay, that was gonna make their lives bearable, that was going to provide them with personal fulfillment and happiness, that thing had happened and nothing changed.

They were still them.

The disillusionment turned them howling.

I think when God wants to play a really rotten practical joke on you, he grants you your deepest wish and giggles merely when you realize you want to kill yourself.

It's a harsh quote.

But people that she actually knew and just watching this take place, and the line that stands out to me, as soon as they received everything they've wanted for their entire life, the next morning they wanted to take an overdose because that thing that would fix everything didn't fix anything.

And to me, I think Jesus does not give this man what he wants right away for that particular reason.

He knows if I give you the ability to walk, that's not gonna make your life abundant.

Tons of people can walk and they're all miserable.

Lots of folks walk.

They love it, but they don't love it enough to be like, I'm still miserable.

They're always lacking something.

Those people who can walk still want something more.

And so if I give you the ability to walk and don't take care of another need, but I just give you what you want, you'll come back in a month or two and be like, this isn't enough anymore, because it never is.

Whatever you want, whatever you place your hopes on, whatever you look out into the future, be like, if I just had that thing, then my life would be complete.

Jesus is going, it'll never do that.

It'll actually, when you get that thing, it will lead you to despair and possibly depression, and then ultimately to go, what's the point of even living if I can't ever be fulfilled?

I thought this would do it, this money, I thought this relationship, I thought this space, I thought this house, this car, living here, I thought this would do it.

None of that does it.

And I think Jesus in this way is going, you will never actually experience true, abundant life with simply the ability to walk.

If you want to experience wholeness in life, Jesus wants to lead him there by bringing him into wholeness, by restoring and repairing his relationship with the Father.

And so this is what he's trying to do, he's like, in saying first, I'm gonna forgive you of your sins, he is restoring back to this man what's been lost for generations.

And it's the space that you can actually enter into a relationship, walking along with God Himself and be filled and filled up by the one who actually can do those things.

He made you and he knows how to do that.

And so Jesus does this this way because he knows when your relationship with God is represented.

Restored and you're pressing into that, you can actually have fullness of life and abundance of life, even if you never have the ability to walk.

Like there's tons of spaces where people are in suffering and dealing with those things.

Most of the New Testament is written that way.

Paul going, I asked God to do this thing, and he never did, but you know what I found out?

His grace was sufficient for me.

He says in Philippians 3, is like I've learned to be abound and have a lot, and I've learned to have nothing.

But I can do all of those things, and we use it as like football banners.

I can do all things through Christ, which is garbage.

That's not true.

You can't win a football game based on that.

If you could, then both teams would win, which would be nothing.

That's not even fun to watch.

But that's not true.

What he's saying is like, I have learned to actually be content.

The secret of being content, and the secret of being content is Christ with me.

I can do these things with him, with me.

He's the one that empowers me and gives me the strength to actually, in any situation, to be at complete peace, complete joy, complete contentment.

And what he is referencing, what Paul's referencing is basically what Jesus is trying to get this man to here.

It's possible to get the ability to walk and still be miserable and want to kill yourself.

But it is also possible to have your relationship with God restored, never receive the thing that you wanted your entire life, and still live a full, abundant, complete life.

And I think the same is true for us.

Even if we never get the thing that right now you're like, what are you asking God for?

What's the request?

What's the desire of your heart?

Even if you never get that thing, whatever that is, Jesus would say to you, and maybe in a way that you don't like, but it's still possible to experience fullness of life, even if you never get that thing.

Now the difficulty is actually believing that.

It's like, oh, that's great to preach.

Great, it's awesome.

I don't believe any of that.

And if that's you, I understand that because it is hard to believe.

That it's possible to not have anything that you want and still be as fulfilled as the next person.

It's hard to believe that.

Um, Matthew Perry, he played Chandler and Friends, which is just my favorite friend of the Friends.

Um, but he talks about the idea of how impossible it is to believe that idea in his memoir.

And I don't think he was meaning to make it spiritual, but he he's he uh whenever he gets on Friends, he wasn't the first Chandler they picked.

There was another actor they picked for Chandler who went, had a couple of run throughs and that kind of thing, and then he came across as angry, and they ended up like, hey, you're not gonna work, Craig.

Uh, you're not gonna work, we're gonna go with somebody else.

Uh his name was Craig.

And uh and so he ends up, he ends up going to Matthew Perry, and obviously, you know, history is written the way that it is, and he was amazing at it.

And friends becomes this, I mean, hit immediately, you know, and millions of dollars start pouring in and millions of all the popularity and all the rest of the stuff.

And one day, Matthew Perry gets back to his apartment and Craig is there, and he's furious.

He's just like, in a way, it's like, you stole this from this was mine, and you stole it from me.

And you shouldn't have like, we were friends and you took this thing from me.

And it didn't work that way, but he's just mad.

Perry has all the money, he has all the popularity, he has all the fame.

And what Matthew says to him is really interesting.

This is what he says to Craig, trying to comfort him.

He says, you know, it doesn't do what we all thought it would.

Fame, money.

It doesn't fix anything.

He says, Craig stared at me.

I don't think he believed me.

I don't think he still believes me.

I think you actually have to have all of your dreams come true to realize that they're the wrong dreams.

And again, it was like, one, how awful that is to feel.

And he even goes on.

He's like, I was 26 years old at this point, and I realized that everything I'd aimed my life at didn't do anything for me.

And he goes, but the vodka helped.

That's what he said.

And the over, I mean all the different spaces that he's walked through in his whole story.

It's a great book.

Um, but my point is like, Jesus wants to spare us from this experience.

Like experiencing having all of our dreams, all of your goals, all of your wants fulfilled, being a spoiled child, and then realizing it does nothing for you, and getting to the end of your life and going, I have everything I want.

Why am I not happy?

It's like, because it does, it doesn't do that.

It can't give you that.

Whatever is in the thing, that's what it can give you.

And the thing is a thing, and it can't give you much of anything other than just a little bit of temporary joy.

But I am filled with eternal life, and I can actually pour into you the fullness and the longings and all the things that you're looking for.

I can do that whether you ever get married.

I can do that in your life, whether you ever have children.

I can do that if I if you ever see a miracle.

I can do that if you ever get the thing, the job, the money, the space, whatever you're looking for.

I can pour into you what those things never can, and I'm trying to save you from experiencing receiving everything you've ever wanted and then wanting to kill yourself because none of it satisfied.

I'm trying to, because I don't believe, I don't agree with Cynthia Heimel.

I don't think God laughs merrily as we get everything we want and then want to kill ourselves.

I think he weeps.

And he's like, I'm so sad that you got everything that you ever wanted, and it hurts, doesn't it, that it doesn't do anything.

But I'm telling you, this is why I'm saying, come to me, follow me, believe in me, allow me to be the space.

Eternal life isn't in a thing.

Eternal life is in knowing me.

And I've created space for you to know me.

And so if you're longing for that thing, the good news for us that Jesus is actually getting at is that if you're longing to be fulfilled and you have a picture in your mind that, like, I will be fulfilled if I get this, if I succeed in this, if you have that vision, Jesus is saying, the good news is you can have that fulfillment and you don't have to wait to get that thing.

You can have that fulfillment now.

It's available to you now.

If you, if you're like, as soon as I get married, then that's like that, then whatever you're hoping to experience, you don't have to wait on getting married.

You know, I can just pour that into your life right now.

Like you don't have to spend the money, you don't have to kill yourself over trying to get this thing.

Whatever you're longing for, that space that you're longing for is actually me, and you're just trying to fill it with something else.

I'm just telling you, you don't have to wait for that thing.

Maybe you'll get that thing, but you don't have to wait for that thing to happen in your life for you to feel like your life is complete.

I make your life complete and I want to do it.

And I gave my life to make your life complete.

All of that is found in him.

And I think in Jesus taking the time to go, I'm not gonna meet the want first, I'm gonna meet the need first.

And what you actually need is this.

Now you're safe enough to have to have the ability to walk.

Now you know.

Walking in general doesn't make you happy, but walking with me, that leads to real happiness.

C.S.

Lewis in his this great quote says, God made us, which is not shocking.

God made us.

He invented us as a man invents an engine.

A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else.

Now, God designed the human machine to run on himself.

He himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on.

There is no other.

That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion.

God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from himself because it is not there.

It just doesn't exist there.

And so we have this space where Jesus does this thing and it's like, you know that he's like can't walk, right?

Like, what's wrong with you?

And he's like, I'm actually doing a thing that maybe people will be confused about, but I actually have your greatest need on my mind at all times.

I will take care of you, even if you don't get the thing that you want.

That's the second question.

Last question Why does Jesus want us and the people around him to know that he can forgive sins?

Because that's the only reason he heals this man.

He does not heal this man because he asked.

He doesn't heal this man because he thinks he needs it.

He gives the reason why he heals this man.

And this is what he says.

Now, some teachers of the law are sitting there, why does this fellow talk like that?

Blaspheming, who can forgive sin but God alone?

Immediately, Jesus knew in his spirit that this is what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, Why are you thinking these things?

Which is easier?

Your sins are forgiven, or take up your mat and walk.

But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.

I want you to know that I have the authority to forgive sins.

So he said to the man, I tell you, get up, take your mat, and go home.

And so the reason he even heals this man is not to because the man, he thinks the man needs it, or or they asked, or it was really cool about the the lowering him down.

It wasn't that.

I'm trying to prove something to other people that I can forgive sin, and I'm going to prove to them that I can forgive sin.

He goes out of his way to start a conversation with these people.

They're only thinking, the scribes and the Pharisees, the teachers of the law, they're just thinking in their minds these things.

No one's ever heard what they said.

Jesus makes it public.

He calls them out in public.

He's like, hey, I know what you guys are thinking.

And it's like, woof, okay.

And then so Jesus goes after them and he goes after them to prove a point.

And he's trying to prove to them, I can forgive sin.

I need you to know this, and I'm going to heal this man so that you know I can forgive sin.

And it poses the question, why is it so important that they know that he can forgive sin?

And I think in many ways it is just the compassion of Jesus trying to be kind.

I don't think he's trying to do some, look how great I am.

It's not that.

I think he's trying to prove to them that he can forgive sins simply because they are sinners, and the way that they're trying to deal with their sin is ultimately going to kill them.

And it's going to leave them with their sin on them and never actually experiencing the fullness of life that Jesus came to give.

You have to know I can forgive it.

Otherwise, you will continue to do the things that you're doing to try and cover up your sin.

Because this is how the scribes and Pharisees dealt with their sin.

They just added more laws.

They're like, we don't want, we want to be sinless, and so we'll have another law and another law and another law.

And we'll have these things and these purity laws and this stuff.

We will cover our sin with laws.

And then it didn't work.

And they get to the point where their sin is still there and the laws aren't helping.

Actually, the laws are just going to show that now they're breaking laws that they created in themselves.

So now their sin is doubling up every single time.

It's compound interest on the sin.

And Jesus ultimately looks at them and is like, you guys are whitewashed tombs.

You look super holy on the outside, but you're dead inside.

You got nothing but sin in here.

But outside, you're following all these laws, you're doing great, but you know internally there's something still there that's destroying you, and it's destroying things in you.

And so he wants them to know that he can forgive sins so that they stop covering up their sin in their way and actually bring their sin to the only person that can actually remove it from them and remove the destructive things from them, not just forgiving it, but cleansing them from it.

And I think this is true for us too.

I think we deal with our sin and we manage our sin.

And I guess historically, as a pastor in the South, really just in general, this is how I see people deal with their sin.

First, that's the most famous, they hide it.

They hide their sin.

Normally it goes this way.

They try harder to not sin.

That never works.

They try really hard.

That leads at some point to guilt and shame that they can't do it.

And so now they're guilty and filled with shame that they can't do it, which doesn't help.

It actually just sends them back in the cycle of sinning because sinning makes the guilt and shame go away for a second, but then it doubles up on sin and shame.

And so they're trying to do that, and then they turn to self-hatred or self-condemnation and start telling themselves that they're pitiful, they're disgusting, they're terrible.

And then they begin believing that God also thinks those things about them.

And then eventually they are defeated by their sin.

And by defeated, they just go like, I accept it, this is just who I am, or this is just what I'll live with for my entire life.

And then what they settle for is they settle for outward righteousness at church.

Everything's fine, everything's good.

How's how's life?

Great.

They might not even ask a question after that.

They just answer fine.

How's life?

Fine.

So that was a joke to earlier.

It's okay.

It's just a callback.

But this idea of like, everything's good.

Look at my perfect family.

Look at my perfect life.

But internally, inside that family, inside that house, inside that job, inside this space, riddled with sin.

Because regardless of how much I tried to deal with it, regardless of how much I tried to hide it, regardless of how much I can do it to others, but somewhere in me, it is killing me and it's doing something to us.

And I think Jesus wants us to know and needs us to know the same way He wants Him to know.

You have sin.

I'm not shocked by that.

That's why I came.

And your sin cannot be dealt with by yourself.

It has to be dealt with by me.

I'm the only one who can forgive your sin.

I'm the only one who can cleanse you of sin.

Everything else is just managing it.

And if you manage death and destruction, somehow it will either affect you, or if you're good at managing it, it will only affect those things around you, which is still death and destruction.

And so for us, Jesus is trying to get us to go like, I don't want you to experience that kind of life.

I don't want you to live a life managing your sin that eventually you pass on to your kids, and then their kids pass it on to their kids, and their kids pass it on to their kids.

And it's just generational sin after generational sin after generational sin.

It just breaks into families on and on and on.

He doesn't want that.

And so he's like, you have to know that my desire and my goal and my posture towards you is forgiveness of sin.

Because if you're if you believe that Jesus' posture towards you is anger and condemnation, you'll never bring him the stuff that you do wrong.

Why would you ever do that?

You're just gonna yell at me and say you're disappointed with me and condemn me.

We have to be reminded, and Jesus is trying to make the point.

I want I want the scribes and Pharisees to know, and I want the people around the crowd to know.

I can forgive sin, and that's my posture.

I forgive sin first because it's the most greatest need that you guys have.

I do that first, and now you know that I can do it so that we can actually be saved from our sin.

This is why Peter says that we should repent and turn to God.

Repent and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out and that times of refreshing may come.

This is what Jesus wants for us.

Like, I don't want you to sit in your sin holding it, wondering and how to how to deal with it yourself.

I want you to just give it to me so that times of refreshing can come.

1 John 1 9 says, if we confess our sin, Jesus is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And we talked about this last week, but Jesus doesn't just want to forgive you and wipe the slate clean.

He actually wants to restore, drive out what's sin, the effects of sin in your life, the way that it's affected you, the things that it's stolen from you, the stuff that it's broken in your life.

He doesn't just want to forgive it and wipe the slate clean.

He actually wants to restore what sin has stolen in your life.

And if we don't believe that he can do that, and this is what Jesus is getting at, like, you need to know I have the power to forgive sin.

You also need to know I have the power to cleanse you of sin.

I have the power to do both of those things.

And so, whatever sin that you're currently dealing with that no one knows about, that's ruining your life and stealing things from you, we need to know that he has the power to forgive us and to cleanse us from those things.

And if we bring that stuff to him and go instead of hiding it, instead of trying to deal with it, or instead of just going, like, well, this is just the way that life is gonna be for me now.

I guess I'm just gonna struggle.

I guess this is the way my relationship is gonna be.

No, don't settle for that.

Don't manage your sin.

Don't allow it to have any space in there.

Give it no like steps in your life, nothing.

Because if you do, it doesn't just take one step, it takes over.

And Jesus is like, I forgive your sin.

This is what I do.

And I'm the only one who can do it.

There's no other way.

And I think the message to us in this particular thing is like, we need to know this.

It needs to be in the forefront of our minds.

What do we do with our sin?

Bring it to him.

He's the only one that can actually deal with it, he's the only one that can bring times of refreshing, he's the only one that can actually restore to us what sin has stolen and he wants to, and he has the power to do it.

And so those three questions I think are helpful just in terms of understanding what Jesus is seeking to do here.

He is trying to communicate the message that you do not always, and actually I would say you don't need a miracle in order to experience the power of God.

It exists in his word.

And people have tried to snuff it out and to destroy all the scriptures a long time ago, and my word is eternal and will last forever.

So that power is always there and it is so accessible.

And I think for us, he's saying, you don't need a miracle to experience my power.

It's right there in your grasp, on your phone, whenever you want it.

It's there.

Great peace.

Have those who love your word, your your law.

All of these things that we're looking for, he can bring fullness through his word.

He's trying to communicate that the life that we're longing for can be found in him and not in anything else.

And if you're looking for it in something else, whatever you're hoping that thing will do for you, he's going, I can do that for you.

Find it in me.

And then last, I think he genuinely wants us to know he can forgive your sin.

And we just don't know how to handle it.

It's too dangerous for us.

It's too, you know, like hot potatoes, just too hot.

Like we can't, we don't know how to deal with it.

But he knows how to deal with it, he knows how to bring life from it.

And so my encouragement to you is to read the scriptures, look to him, spend time with him, allow him to be, as the psalmist says in Psalm 37, allow him to be the delight of your life.

When it says, delight yourself in the Lord, and then he will give you the desires of your heart.

And a lot of people say, like, well, that just means that your desires will become like his desires.

I disagree with that.

I think what he's saying is like, when your delight is in me, you are now safe to give the desires of your heart to, because now those things won't take over your entire life.

So now you're a safe person to give random wants to because your delight is in me.

Was it Teddy the other day?

We were, I gave him an axe when he was like five.

Um it was like we go on bro trip, and I was like, oh, for bro trip, I'm gonna give him an axe, and it's gonna be like a man thing, and I gave him an axe, and he thought it was a toy.

And I realized very quickly that he had no idea it could chop his foot off or mine.

And I was like, oh, you think of this as a toy, you're not safe to give this thing to yet.

And I think for us, the Lord looks at us with some of the things that we want, and we we think of it as if I get this, then I will have a fulfilled life.

And he's like, I'm so you're not safe enough to get that thing just yet.

But if you delight yourself in me, then the things that you receive will just be gift.

Just be like, what a nice thing my father gave me.

What a wonderful gift that he gave me.

Not this is the end all be all, and now I have everything I've ever needed.

Not that.

He wants to be your savior.

And anything you look at thinking that will save you and fix everything, he's like, I'm not gonna give that to you.

I'm the only one that wants to be savior in your life.

So, look to him for those things, and then for the love of God, confess your sin to him.

Repent and turn.

And it's not like you, you know, I know your specific sins, but I'm like, it is what a gift that we can go to him with every single thing that we've ever done wrong tomorrow, the next day, and so on and so forth.

That he is a safe person to go to and be like, I did this again.

I did this is terrible.

I can't believe I did this.

Bring those things to him.

And he's like, I have the power to forgive you.

I have the power to restore what's been stolen from you, that sin took from you.

So bring your sin to him.

He he literally heals a man to prove that to them.

They still didn't get it, but let us get it.

The cross testifies more than ever.

Can he forgive our sin?

Absolutely, because he became our sin so that we could become the righteousness of God.

And the cross is evidence.

This was evidence, and the cross is greater evidence.

Can he forgive our sin?

Does he want to forgive our sin?

Yes, that's what he wants to do.

And so, whatever you're dealing with, whatever sin that lives in your heart and your life that is hidden there, bring those things to him.

Let me pray.

Jesus, as I read uh this particular passage, um honestly, it's just a space where I had more questions than answers.

And um like just the time with you and asking you and considering these things.

One, helped me write a sermon, but then two, it just helped me in my own life.

And so, God, I pray what you've done for me that you would do for others.

Um that you would allow your word to be power for them.

You've placed in hidden promises of things that we're longing for, peace, joy, fullness, life, these things that we long for and search in other places.

You've put that in your word, and it's available to us at all times.

And so we can experience those things just by spending time with you and your word.

And so, God, would you stir that in us, these things?

And would you allow us to experience the fullness of life we long for and looking for in other things?

Will we find that in you and delight ourselves in you?

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

We're gonna take communion.

And uh again, if you've ever wondered, how does Jesus receive me?

Will he accept me?

Does he love me?

The bread and the cup testify it was his body broken for you, and yours should have been broken over your sin.

But he was like, I'll take that.

It was his blood that was spilled instead of yours, even though it was yours that deserved to be spilled.

It was your sin that kept him there.

But he chose to stay there so that our sin would not define us, that would no longer have power over us, so that our sin we could confess it and have the shackles broken off, and it's like, oh, I don't have to live like that anymore.

And so we have this space every week to be reminded, to rehearse the gospel again.

What's true of us?

It's like, man, what's true of us is we are more sinful, as Keller says, more sinful than we dare imagine, but we're also more loved than we could ever, ever believe.

And I think this testifies to that.

It took a death to cleanse us and to forgive us of our sin and to make us right with God.

But he took that death so that we could have life with him.

And so take some time in your seats just to talk with him and uh maybe even confess your sin to bring that thing to him.

He's powerful enough to forgive it.

And then come as you feel led to receive the elements, the bread and the cup, and then go back to your seats and we'll take communion together with a liturgy.

But come as you feel led.