Amen, go ahead, grab a seat. Just want to start out by apologizing to all of you tonight, because tonight's going to be our last Saturday night dinner for a while. And some of you may remember me saying that we're going to do a Saturday night dinner till Jesus comes back. Well, Jesus has not returned as soon as I had hoped, and so we're going to have a break. I hope you enjoy the Saturday night dinners. Yeah, Saturday night dinners don't happen for free, just to make that clear. If you want to give towards them, you can before you get your dinner, and if you want to say thank you to the hard working folks, over five hundred people, have Saturday night dinner every week. And so yeah, we could praise the Lord, but I hope that you will find it in your heart to forgive me for saying that we will have Saturday night dinners till Jesus comes back, because that may prove to not be true. And so please forgive me. I will take solace in the fact that I know Jesus has forgiven me, and I have good news, Jesus will forgive you for your sins as well, and we're going to study that tonight.
I invite you to open the Bible and turn with me to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 2, verses 1 to 12, and I am really excited to read to you this iconic passage of scripture that we get to study together. And so, Mark, chapter 2. We finished chapter one, and now we get into chapter two, verses 1 to 12, and out of respect for God's word, I invite everyone to stand up for the public reading of Scripture, and I want you to really hear what Jesus says, because what Jesus says here your life will basically be summarized whether you believe what he says or whether you don't. So please give this your full and undivided attention, because this is the Word of God, Mark 2:1-12.
And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, “Why does this man speak like that? He is 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!”
That's the reading of God's Word. Please go ahead, have your seat. And there is a handout in your bulletin, if you want to take some notes, I'm so thankful for all of you who do. And I want to just direct your attention to the keyword of the gospel of Mark, which is “immediately,” in English; you can see it there in verse 8, that “immediately,” Jesus can know what these scribes are thinking. And then “immediately” after Jesus speaks to him, the man rises, picks up his bed and walks out of the house. And so, we want to look, first of all at what Jesus saw with their faith coming in through the roof. And then we want to see what everybody else saw was they had never seen anything like this, and they glorified God for what Jesus did, not just to rise this man, but this powerful concept that he is able to forgive us for our sins.
So, if you start with me in verse 1, notice they've come back to Capernaum, and I don't know if you still have that picture in your mind from chapter 1, if you were here, there was that time they were in Simon and Andrew's house in Capernaum, and they opened the door, and there was like the whole town who had gathered together with many people who are demon possessed and many people who are sick. And He healed all the diseases. He cast out all the demons. When we come back to Capernaum. Now, I think we might be back in that same house. So, now here's another house for scene two. I think this was their home base of operations there in Capernaum.
And this time I want you to picture it from outside the house where so many people are jam packed into this place because they want to hear what Jesus has to say, and he's speaking the Word in there, and that so many people have packed in that the doors are jammed. You can't even get in. This is overflow. This isn't standing room only. This is overflow. This is a Black Friday sale deal, where the line’s around the corner, right? Have you ever been to one of those things where you go to some store, maybe you're used to going to that store and there's a line bursting out of the store, and you're like, What is going on? This is crazy. And then what they're selling in that store is so compelling you're willing to still get in that ridiculous line. That's what's happening here in this home. We can't even jam all the people that want to get in there. And so, imagine you're one of the people outside, and you're saying to your friend, can you believe this? Look how many people are trying to get in there to hear Jesus. And then all of a sudden, you see on the external stairs of the house, some of these guys going up on the roof. And you're like, what are those guys doing on the roof? And they're talking to each other. They're pointing, they're looking at things. They're on the roof. And some of them, you kind of can't really see them, because they're down. You're like, what are they doing on the roof? And then the four guys, they come down from the roof, and they pick up this guy who's lying on a bed, and very carefully, they're like, taking the guy up the external stairs of the house onto the roof. And it's a lot of work for these four guys to carry their friend lying on this bed, up on the roof. And you're just like, watching this. Why are these guys taking that guy on the roof? What are they thinking? What are they doing? And then they get up there, and then all of a sudden, you can't see the guy lying on the bed anymore. And you're like, what's going on, friend, do you see all of this? And then the guy who they just carefully took up on the roof, on the bed, he comes walking out of the house, carrying that bed. Can you imagine that? Well, you never saw anything like that. That's what happens here.
This is one of the iconic miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ and I want you to see the popularity that we learned about in chapter 1. In fact, that's your first note there. So, this crowd are still following Jesus, like his popularity has not died down. So, Mark, chapter 1, the theme is this: “Popularity”. That's what we saw that Jesus, he became famous in Capernaum, then he wanted to go to other towns. Then he became so famous he couldn't even go to any towns. That's how Chapter 1 ended. Well, now somehow he gets back into Capernaum. He sneaks back in, but the word is spreading. Jesus is back in town, and that popularity shows up again at this house, and people can't even get in there. And there are so many people who want to see and hear from Jesus. So, the popularity was becoming an obstacle in chapter 1.
Well, now that we get into chapter 2, it's not going to be popularity. That's just the problem. It's going to be “Controversy”. Controversy is our key word for Mark chapter 2. In fact, every little paragraph that we get, every account that we get in chapter 2, is all going to create some kind of tension, some kind of hostility between Jesus and the scribes, or Jesus and the Pharisees. Mark has already helped us feel the claustrophobia of the crowds coming in on Jesus. Well, now we're going to feel the tension of the scribes and the Pharisees coming against Jesus. In fact, grab your Bible, if you're there in Mark, go over to chapter 3, verse 6. This is what's going to happen all the way through chapter 2 and into chapter 3. It says, “The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.” So, in chapter 2, there are going to be four different interactions between Jesus and the religious leaders of the Jews. There's going to be another one in chapter 3, verses 1 to 5, and by chapter 3, verse 6, after these five different things that bring up controversy, they are ready to destroy Jesus already. Okay, so this is all going to escalate very quickly, and the whole tension in this passage that we're looking at has to do with what Jesus says in verse 5. If you could look with me at Mark 2:5, “When Jesus saw their faith,” so Jesus doesn't seem to mind that his speaking of the Word got interrupted, that there's some kind of hole being made into the roof, and that they're dropping this man down to Jesus. He sees it for what it is. He sees their faith. And then Jesus says, “Son,” interesting that Jesus calls this man “Son”. “Your sins are forgiven.” And that's where the controversy begins.
Jesus is claiming that he can forgive man's sins. And these men who are coming through the roof, they have faith to believe that about Jesus. And these scribes who actually maybe have nice seats in the house, they are questioning that about Jesus. And Jesus already knows who the people who have faith are and who the people who are questioning are. You don't even need to say anything. Jesus already knows who you are. I mean, we don't have anything recorded, said by the four men lowering their friend, or the paralyzed man who comes down on the bed. We don't have them say anything in this passage. But Jesus, he doesn't need them to say anything. He sees faith. And then these scribes, they just start questioning Jesus. They think he's a blasphemer. How can a man say he has authority to forgive sins? No man can forgive sins, but God alone. This guy's a blasphemer. And Jesus already knows they're questioning in their hearts. Look at Jesus just looking around the room, and he sees faith. He sees questioning. Jesus could look around this room here tonight. He knows exactly who you are, exactly how you sit here. He knows whether you come to him with faith, whether you come to him with questions, whether maybe you want to have faith, but it's hard for you to have faith. See Jesus, he sees it how it really is.
So, one of the things we've learned about the gospel of Mark is that you always want to pay attention when Mark says that Jesus “sees” something. And you want to see what Jesus is seeing. And so, if you look here at verse 5, you can see that Jesus saw their faith. Now I want to suggest to you that the faith that he sees is a real faith, a genuine faith, even a saving faith. I would suggest to you that these men have more than just a “I believe Jesus is able to help our friend walk again” kind of faith, because Jesus doesn't say, hey, I'll heal you. He doesn't say, hey, go ahead and walk. What does Jesus say? Your sins are what? Forgiven. Jesus isn't forgiving sins without real saving faith. And so, this idea here is that Jesus calls him “son,” which is pretty powerful thing for Jesus to say. And then he says, “your sins are forgiven.” And so, the idea is this man coming down in this bed who can't walk, what he can see is that he is a sinner and that he needs to be forgiven by Jesus.
Now, if you know something about the Jewish culture at the time of the first century, you know that if something bad happened, like you were blind or like you were paralyzed, they often thought that the reason you were blind or paralyzed or something like that is because you had what? Sinned. That's how the Jews thought about it. And so the fact that this guy has been paralyzed, and we don't know exactly the backstory of the situation, but the fact that he's in that condition, in the Jewish mindset, that would have led people to think that this man had sinned, and it seems like he had embraced the reality of his sin, and that was something that was on his heart, was to be forgiven for that sin. Otherwise, why would Jesus say this to the man? And so, Jesus sees faith.
Let's get that down for number one, our first point here, this is what Jesus wants: “Faith is what Jesus wants to see.” Faith is what Jesus is looking for. Faith is always what Jesus respects in anyone where he finds it, and he's always wondering if he's even going to find it at all. Jesus wants to see people who have faith, and he sees it here, and he immediately pronounces the forgiveness of sins.
So, this idea of Jesus looking for people with faith, this is a very important idea in the Gospels. Let's just track it through mark here a little bit. Let me show you some other examples where Jesus finds faith. Go ahead to chapter 5. Chapter 5, Verse 34. You'll see here that there's this woman, the woman who had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and she had tried, with many physicians to figure out what was going on with this blood. This had been a major trial for her for twelve years. And she thought, if I just even touch his garments, I will be made well. And she touches him. So, this is Mark 5:29-30, “And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30 And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him.” Jesus is like, let's stop everything. I want to find out who touched me, and look what he said to her when he finds her and she's trembling and falling down before him, she told him the whole truth of the story, and he said to her, this is Mark 5:34, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” What does Jesus call this lady? He calls her what? Daughter. What did he call the man who came down in the bed? He called him “Son”. Have you noticed this? Jesus is just out here calling people, son or daughter, and he's telling the lady two things, not just one thing. He's not just saying, hey, you're healed of your disease. What is he telling her? Go in what? Peace? Peace between her and God. And he's acknowledging her faith.
Okay, keep going with me here in Mark. Go over to chapter 11. This is going to be a real climactic passage about faith between Jesus and his disciples… The disciples. Let's just talk about these guys, because we refer to the disciples sometimes, “O ye of little what faith” and we say it sometimes. I think I've even said it like, oh, kind of a cute expression, oh, ye of little faith, you guys just keep trying, buddy. You know, kind of like, kind of good, good job sport. Well, here in Mark, we're not going to hear, “O ye of little faith.” We're going to be like, hey, do you guys not even have faith? Like, when Jesus calms the Sea of Galilee. When Jesus makes the storm obey him, when he rebukes the wind and the waves in Mark 4:40, he said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith” is how Mark puts it. So, we kind of act like, yeah, Jesus, he's looking for faith. He wishes we had more faith. No, Jesus, he rebukes his disciples because they don't have faith. And he says, here in Mark 11, he says, here in verse 22 because he cursed this fig tree. And now they're seeing the fig tree is withered. And Peter's like, look, the fig tree you cursed is withered. Like, wow, Jesus, there's some power in what you say. And Jesus answered them. This is Mark 11:22, “Have faith in God.” He's like, have faith. Where's your guy's faith? “Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours.” Have faith, Jesus says. And when you pray, man, faith is so important, because when you pray, if you have faith, your prayer is answered. If you don't have faith, what are you even doing?
James 1:5 makes it very clear that you can ask for wisdom, and if you don't doubt, if you have faith, God will always give you the wisdom you ask for. In James 5:14 he talked about calling the elders if you're sick, and there's a prayer of faith that the elders can give, and it can save those who are sick. Like there's this idea, hey, faith, do you have it? Because if you pray with faith, God will hear you, God will answer you, God will act. And so, Jesus, he really wants people to have faith. Go over back to chapter 9. There's a story in chapter 9 where a man brings his demon possessed son to Jesus, and the disciples can't cast out the demon. And the man cries out in verse 22, he's explaining it. Now, the father's explaining it to Jesus, what's been happening to his son. And he says in Mark 9:22-24, “And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” Here's a desperate Father. Jesus, if you can do anything, we need your help. “And Jesus said to him, ‘”If you can”! All things are possible for one who believes.”. And I love what “the father of the child cried out and said, ‘I believe; help my unbelief!’”
I wonder when Jesus looks at you right here tonight, does Jesus see faith? I wonder what he would think when he looks at you. Are you like, yes, I believe? Maybe you need to be like, oh, I want to believe. Help my unbelief. Maybe you would have to admit that you're just living by sight, and you're not really living by faith. But it's going to become very clear that faith is what Jesus expects to see from his disciples. It's what he wants to see. In fact, you could write down Luke, chapter 18, verse 8, where Jesus says, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” I want to be one of the people saying, yes, Jesus, I want you to find me trusting you. And so, Jesus really wants his disciples to have faith. And so we’ve got to think, wow, okay, Jesus just sees these guys and their faith. Their faith is always demonstrated in action. If you can tell me you have faith, you will show me your faith by what you do. Faith will always lead to you doing something because you trust in who Jesus is and what he has promised.
Faith will lead to things like prayer. Faith will lead to boldly going somewhere that you could have never seen yourself going before. Faith will lead you through the roof of the building, because you have to get to Jesus. We could use a lot more through-the-roof kind of faith. Here at this church and in Christianity in America today, people who aren't just wanting to have faith, so it'll work out for them, but people who really have faith in Jesus and what he said he's going to do. And so, I want you to go back and think with me now. Go back to Mark chapter 2, as we see this theme of faith is this isn't just one story about faith. This is the story. Who's going to respond to Jesus with faith, and whenever Jesus sees it, you're going to get the understanding that Jesus really appreciates it when he sees it, and where Jesus doesn't see it, where he expects to see it, like with the disciples, you're going to hear a rebuke from Jesus, like, where is your faith? Why are you guys afraid? I'm in the boat with you. Why are you still freaking out? Why have you no faith? He says to the disciples. So, this is what Jesus is looking for, and here he sees it.
Okay, so, let's try to really think this through. Come back with me now in verse 2 of chapter 2. Let's think through this incident here. Many were gathered together so that there was no more room, not even at the door. He was preaching the Word to them, or he's speaking the Word to them, and they came bringing to him this paralyzed man, and he's carried by these four other guys. He's got a whole squad of guys, one at each corner of the bed that they're carrying him and when they could not get near Jesus because of the crowd. So, here's that popularity getting in the way of these guys coming and bringing their friend to Jesus. They removed the roof above him. Wow. I mean to me, that gets me excited thinking through that first question I want to have is, well, how did these guys know to have faith in Jesus? Okay, so something must have happened with these four men and the man lying in the bed. Something must have happened before this to make them want to pick this guy up. There must have been some kind conversation between the five leading them to think that this is a good idea. You four are going to carry me, and we're going to all go to Jesus, and Jesus, he's going to heal me so I can walk again, or walk period. And so, they must have had some kind of thought.
So, where does faith come from? What inspires the faith of these men? And let me throw a verse up here on the screen, Romans, chapter 10, verse 17, maybe some of you remember this from our study through the book of Romans. “Faith comes by” what, everybody? By “hearing and hearing by the” what? By “the word of Christ.” What has Jesus been going around doing in all the towns until he was too popular to fit into the synagogues in the towns anymore? What did Jesus come to do, everybody? He came to preach. What is the message of Jesus? Repent and believe, have faith in the gospel. See, I'm guessing that these guys, the five of them, maybe they heard Jesus preach, or maybe somebody who heard Jesus preach, one of these messages came and repeated the message to them. And so, where does faith come from?
A lot of people don't seem to understand how faith is really going to grow in your life. You say, “well, I have little faith,” if you come to the conclusion that you're a person of little faith or no faith. Maybe you're even somebody questioning Jesus here tonight. Well, how could you have faith? Well, faith comes from hearing what Jesus says, from hearing the gospel of Jesus, from hearing Jesus teach. You have to hear it. Your faith will not grow unless you hear the Word of Christ. So, if you're going through your life barely making it, based on what you can see all these circumstances, all these obstacles, looks like a lot of closed doors. This is the description of a closed door. The doors are so closed, house, they're so jammed with people. There are people spilling out of the house where they won't even park the sea, so to speak, when we're clearly carrying a guy in on a bed, to Jesus. Ther are so many people crowded. They can't even make room for this guy to get in. Many people would have approached this house with good intentions. They would have seen what was going on. Closed door. I guess it's not meant to be. It's out here. A lot of Christians talk, a lot of Christians, they act like, well, I'm going to do this because it's an open door, or I'm not going to do it because I'm a closed door. Hey, I don't really care what the circumstances look like. What did Jesus say about it? Do you know what Jesus said about it? What's the promise that you're believing to go there, or what's the promise you're believing to not go there? What is the Word of Christ that's a “lamp to your feet and a light to your path”?
You can't have faith if you walk away from every closed door. I'm so glad these guys didn't do that. These guys thought of something that is not normal, that wasn't the obvious solution, that wasn't right there in front of them. Why? What compelled these guys to get up on the roof and lower their friend in faith? They knew Jesus was in there, and they knew Jesus could heal their friend. They knew Jesus could save them from their sins. So, Jesus is in there. We’ve got to go to Jesus. Our friend has a need Jesus. He's the only one who can do anything about it. We’ve got a big, closed door situation here. Hmm, let's talk about this, bros. What are we going to do? I mean, it would have been awesome to be the guy who's like, I’ve got an idea. This guy, he just gets an idea that is a story now told across the world for thousands of years, the guys who went in through the roof.
So, faith. Let's just learn a couple things about faith or remind ourselves faith comes by hearing Jesus. Faith comes by hearing Jesus. So, if you want to increase your faith. How much you listening to Jesus? How much are you reading the Word? How much are you filling your mind with the Word of God? Are you listening to preaching of the Word? Are you having fellowship with other believers talking about the Word? Are you reading and meditating on and memorizing the Word yourself? I guarantee you there will be a direct correlation between how much your mind is on the Word versus how much faith you have. If you just go through the motions, just hoping and hanging on day by day, your faith is not going to increase if you just look at the circumstances you can see, and take all the closed doors as I guess, that's just not for me, your faith is not going to increase. You have to get your eyeballs on Jesus. That's where faith comes from. When you can hear who he is, when your eyes are open to see who he is. And Jesus starts saying things like “anything is possible for someone who believes.” See, that's what you need to start thinking about. The world is anti the message of Jesus. That's what we're going to see with the controversy. The world does not want Jesus coming in saying, I'll forgive you for your sins. The world is going to rise up and hate Jesus. The world is going to be against Jesus. There will always be obstacles. Are you going to let all the obstacles slow you down? Or are you going in through the roof? See, these guys had real faith.
Now let's get that down for our second dash: “Faith overcomes what we can see.” Faith overcomes what we can see, right? This is Hebrews 11:1, sometimes referred to the Hebrews 11 as the Hall of Faith. Well, the first verse gives us a working definition of faith. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” See, right? And then you get all these examples of people of whom the world was not worthy. Why? Because they were living in a way that doesn't make sense by sight. It's not normal, it's not what is commonly done. They're living on the promises of God. They're believing in who God really is, and they're doing things that don't make sense to the world, but they're by faith in the Lord and his Word. And so, that's the idea. I wonder how many people in this room have walked away saying, that's a closed door, that's not for me, when really that was a test of your faith. That was a hurdle to leap over by faith, that was just what you could see. But God, he actually wanted you to keep trusting him, to keep believing that promise, and to not give up.
These guys, when you think about it from their perspective, they had a closed door, and they had this idea to go in through the roof. And let's just think about that for a minute. All the people in the house hanging on every word of Jesus. Now some mud or something starts falling from the ceiling, right? They must have found like a hole in the beams. Here they're taking away the thatch work, the mud, the tile from the roof. Apparently they use their roofs. They had stairs on the external side of the house going up to the roof. They would maybe dry laundry or do something up there on the roof. And so, they come in, they start making a hole that's got to interrupt the teaching of Jesus. Whatever he was saying there got interrupted. He doesn't seem to mind, because what does he see? He sees their faith. And I want to make sure, if there's one thing I want to be true about me, and I hope you want this to be true about you? If Jesus is looking at me, I want him to see faith. And it's not based on me trying to muster up something within me. It's based on me listening to what Jesus has told me, taking it to heart, believing it, and then acting like if Jesus says it, you’d better believe it's going to happen. And he says he's going to build his church. I'm going to believe him. He says he's going to answer prayer. I'm going to believe him. He says, don’t worry about the things of this life. Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. I'm going to believe him. Because whatever Jesus says, that's the truth. And I'm going to trust in the word of Christ, that's where faith comes from.
And so, we’ve got to take a moment to think, wow, would I be like these guys going in through the roof, or would I have just gone away like, I guess it's not meant to be. Jesus sees their faith. Now, the thing that Jesus says that starts all the controversy is not great faith. Rise up, take up your bed and walk. No, he says, “Your sins are forgiven.” So, this is the real emphasis of the rest of these verses. In fact, if you have the handout, look there in verse 5, where it says, “Your sins are forgiven.” Circle “forgiven”. There in verse 5, and then look at verse 7, into the thoughts of the scribes, where they're like, who can forgive sins but God alone. Circle that “forgive”. And then Jesus, who already knows people's thoughts, he doesn't even need to wait for people to say it. He already knows. Why are you questioning these things in your heart? Hey, look at verse 9. What do you want me to say? “Your sins are forgiven”? Circle that right there. Or to say, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” Well, if you're not going to believe that I can forgive sins, can I prove it to you?
So, this is just master class what Jesus does right here. He goes for the sins being forgiven, not just for healing the paralyzed man. Let me forgive his sins. And then, right away, immediately, oh, they don't like that. He said that. Why is this man talking about forgiving sins? So, there are haters in the building. Does everybody understand that these scribes, they're sitting there, probably crossed arms. They're looking for a reason to have something wrong with Jesus. Ooh, there it is. Your sins are forgiven. How dare he say that? That's blasphemy. He shouldn't be saying that. And Jesus is like, oh, you don't think I should say that he's having a conversation with people who aren't speaking. They're just thinking. Like, Jesus knows what's in the hearts of man. Well, sometimes people think, you're at church. Well, I wouldn't want to say what's really going on, because then people will know the truth. Let me just make it very clear, Jesus already knows the truth about everybody in the room right now. There's nothing hidden. There's nothing secret. Jesus knows. Jesus knows there are people in this room, you have the faith Jesus is looking for. He sees it. There are people in this room, even now, questioning, just questioning everything about Jesus. He knows that too. And he says, let me set it up like this. Should I say, “Your sins are forgiven”? Or should I tell this guy to “Rise, take up his bed and walk?” How about I prove that I can forgive sins by showing you he's going to walk out of here with his bed? That's how Jesus sets it up.
And so, look at verse 10. This is a very powerful statement, but that you may know this is this is why this story is transcended through space and time to us here tonight, that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. I'm going to do something right now to prove so that you can know the Son of Man has authority here on earth to forgive sins. And then it makes it very clear here in the language of Mark, he said to the paralytic. So, this was not said now to everybody, the statement the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. That's the bold statement to the whole house to all the way to us here, but then to this guy, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” And immediately, what does he do? He rose, he picked up his bed, and he went out before them all. And these people, they are amazed. I Mean, they glorified God. Everybody's saying something at this point, wow. We never saw anything like this. That was amazing. I can't believe that just happened right in front of our eyes, that this guy walked out. Even the people who couldn't fit in the house, they see this guy walking out. Wow. But, but what is the point? The point is not that Jesus can heal. Jesus has been proving that throughout chapter 1. No, the point here is, I can forgive sins. That's what he equates the paralyzed man walking is the same as his sins being forgiven. That's what Jesus sets up. So, this idea that Jesus has the authority to forgive your sins, this is a central idea about Jesus. This is something Jesus wants everybody here to know about him. This is something Jesus wants every single body, every soul, every person on planet Earth right now needs to hear Jesus has authority to forgive their sins. This is central to the message of Jesus.
Okay, now you can see how the controversy is going to spread from here, because Jesus is claiming to be who if he's claiming he can forgive sins? God. And the title Jesus likes to use for himself, look at verse 10, Son of man. Son of Man. This is really important in the Gospel of Mark. We need to get our heads around this. A lot of times when the Son of Man is brought up, people refer to Daniel, chapter 7, verses 13 and 14, where it says, “One like the Son of Man goes up to God,” and it's like he gets it, he's riding on the clouds, and he has the authority now. And we think of Jesus coming back like a Son of Man. He looks like a man as he comes back, right? And so, a lot of times, people use Daniel 7:13-14 to speak of the power or the authority of the Son of Man, but the Son of Man is more commonly used to describe humility, to describe like in Ezekiel. If you read through Ezekiel with us, what a great time for us to read Ezekiel right before we're studying the gospel of Mark, because God calls Ezekiel the Son of Man throughout the whole book, throughout all forty-eight chapters. And the contrast in Ezekiel is, here's the glory of God in chapter 1. And now let me speak to you, Son of man, you human in chapter 2. Here's God in all his glory. Here's you as a human down here on Earth. It's meant to be a contrast. So, Jesus is this unique one who can use Son of man to refer to God in all his glory, and he can also use Son of Man to refer to being a human being, humble, being like us. In fact. Psalm, chapter 8, verse 4, uses this phrase. I think we have the verse up here on the screen, Psalm, chapter 8, verse 4, “What is man like when we look at the heavens, the moon and the stars and all that God has made? What is man that you are mindful of him, and what is the son of man that you even care for him?” like we're so low down here, compared to how high and holy you are? Why do you even care about me? Why do you even think about me now, I think what Jesus is fully embracing in this title, Son of Man, he's a human. Can you believe this? Can you believe that God became man? Can you believe that glory put on flesh, that can you believe the eternal Son of the Father is now a Son of Man? He wants you to know, yeah, I'm the Son of Man, and I have authority on earth to forgive sins, and everybody needs to hear this. In fact, I want to just encourage some of you, if you're on a mission to make disciples and you care about talking to other people about Jesus, when was the last time you told someone that Jesus has authority to forgive their sins. Because here's Jesus seizing this moment to make that very clear. He wants it to be known in your approach to telling other people about Jesus, is this something that you bring up front and center, Jesus can forgive your sins? Because that's something that becomes front and center, and they're part of the controversy is going to be Jesus? He's going and having a meal with, or he's going and interacting with…? What kind of people is Jesus going to be interacting with in the Gospel? Sinners. Oh, look at Jesus. Yeah, he's going to forgive sinners. He came to seek and save the lost. It's not the righteous, it's the sick that he came to save.
Okay, and so, yes, Jesus, he wants everyone to know he came to forgive sins. Go back to Mark chapter 1, and we'll see this was the message of John the Baptist in Mark, chapter 1, verse 4. John was here, baptizing in the wilderness. And what is John proclaiming? What is it all about? A baptism of repentance. What for the forgiveness of sins? People need to know that the debt of what they have done has been paid in full. People need to know that the stain, the stain of sin that has corrupted their life, it can be blotted out. It can be washed as white as snow. People need to hear this. And John the Baptist, he's way out of town in the wilderness, preaching it. And they're coming to hear it.
Go over to Luke 24; go to the end of the Gospel of Luke. This is kind of Luke's version of the Great Commission in Luke 24:47. And we know famously in Matthew 28, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Well, here's how it said in Luke 24:47. “As we have the gospel that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead.” And this is verse 47 of Luke 24 that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You're the witnesses of these things. What should we tell to all the nations, to every person, starting right there in the city of Jerusalem and go into the ends of the earth? What should we proclaim in the name of Jesus? You should repent, you should turn from your sins. Why? Because Jesus has the authority to forgive all of your sins. That's the good news. That's the message.
Now go to Acts 1, where we start preaching it in Jerusalem. And then, I guess, go to Acts 2. He sends them out as witnesses. He ascends. It was just Ascension Thursday, for those of you who celebrate that, that just happened on Thursday, the day that his ascension is remembered. And then who shows up in Acts chapter 2? The Holy Spirit. And after the Holy Spirit shows up, guess what Peter starts doing? He starts preaching like you've never heard Peter before. He starts preaching that you killed Jesus, but God raised him from the dead, and the people are cut to the heart. The people are like, what do we do, Peter? Wow. This is a powerful message you're preaching here. What do we do? And what does he say in Acts 2:38? “Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the” what, everybody? The “forgiveness of your sins,” so that you may receive the Holy Spirit. That’s what you'll receive. What does he call it? The gift of the Holy Spirit. So, you can see what is Acts 2:38, a lot of people quote that verse. They say all these things about it. Acts 2:38 is a mash up of Matthew 28, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit” and Luke 24:47 “In Jesus’ name, repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached to all nations.” Well, just take those two verses, bring them together. That's Acts 2:38, part of this key message that Jesus wants to be known about him is he can forgive sins. And not only does Peter preach this. I want everybody to turn to Acts 13:38, let's go to the sermon of Paul we have here in the book of Acts, we get the sermons of Peter in Acts 2 and 3. But how about when Paul comes preaching in Acts 13, we get a sermon from Paul. Look, what's the theme of Paul's preaching here in Acts 13:38, Let it be known to you, therefore brothers, that through this man, through this man, Jesus, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Hey, I want it to be known here to all of you brothers, that in the name of Jesus there is forgiveness of sins. That's what I came to proclaim here today.
There is one name among men under heaven by which we can be saved. We often say, well, what about this idea of forgiveness of all your sins. Here's Paul proclaiming that, and by him, look at this. “By him, everyone who believes, everyone who responds to Jesus with faith, is freed or justified from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the prophets should come about. Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish. For I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe even if one tells it to you. Hey, make sure this doesn't happen to you. Where you scoff at the idea you don't question it in your heart. You don't really believe it, even when someone tells it to you. Hey, Jesus is able to forgive your sins. You need to hear it. You need to respond to it with faith, because everyone who believes in Jesus, you will be freed from all of your sin, and he who the Son sets free is free indeed. Can I get an amen from anybody here?
Does anybody want to say Jesus has forgiven you for your sins here tonight? And if he hasn't forgiven you for your sins, he is able to do it. He has the authority to do it. And if you believe in him, your sins will be forgiven this very day. Because what Jesus says is going to happen. And he says, I want to let you guys know just like this guy's going to get his on his bed, and he's going to rise up and he's going to take that bed out and walk out of here. When you see him walk out of here, here's what you should know, I am able to forgive sins. That's what Jesus said. And it needs to be said more today, and it needs to be believed, even by people at church regularly.
People at church are saying, well, you don't know what I've done. A lot of people they're in this mindset where they've done something, and they feel very guilty about what they've done. They feel very ashamed. In fact, some people, this is the way that they think. It's not even like they did one thing. They just always are feeling guilty about the things that they've done. They live a life of shame. They live a life of regret, and they begin to have this thought in their head that what I have done is so wrong before God that I don't even know if I'll be able to be forgiven. There are a lot of people that think that, and if you could just hear what Jesus is saying, if you could just hear the point of this story, being forgiven has nothing to do with what you have done. It doesn't have anything to do with what you do. Being forgiven has to do with Jesus having authority to forgive you, and if he gives you forgiveness, he gives it to you. Don't be so trapped in a works-based mindset that everything's dependent on what you have done. Forgiveness is based on what Jesus has done, and forgiveness is based on his authority to give it as a gift by grace. And the response that you need to have is to believe that Jesus can forgive you. Believe that he really did die on the cross for your sins, and he really did rise again on that third day, and he is the one, the Messiah, the Son of Man. I believe in Jesus. Then he will forgive you. And it's not based on what you've done in the sin, and it's not based on what you're going to do afterwards. It's based on Jesus.
The only reason anyone gets forgiven is because Jesus has the authority to forgive them. He does it of himself. Forgiveness comes from him. We don't earn it. We don't do anything to get it then, and that's why this picture like, what did this guy do to get forgiven? What did this guy do to pick up his bed and walk all this man? Did he mean he just laid there on a bed, and then he heard Jesus speak to him, and he believed it? That's what he did, and he went away forgiven that day. You’ve got to hear that Jesus is saying, I have the authority to forgive you. Don't make what you've done the thing. Believe in what Jesus has done. Go with me to Romans, chapter 4. Romans, chapter 4 has to do with this idea of being justified by faith. And Romans 4 really lays out this concept of faith to be forgiven. So, one way we can talk about it is all your sins being forgiven. The Bible loves to talk about sins being forgiven. We have so many beautiful pictures to bring to mind about sins being forgiven. We have this idea, famous from Isaiah, one of “your sins being washed as white as snow.” We have this beautiful idea from the end of Micah, that “your sins get cast into the sea and they drop down to the bottom, never to be seen or heard from again.” We have this idea that your sins are blotted out, like they're erased, that they're separated as far as the east is from the west. You're in a completely different direction now than your sins. Never to meet up with them again. We have clear, direct statements, like in Romans, chapter 8, “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
The Bible wants people to believe Scripture. God wants you to know Jesus. I want you to know everybody here today, from the questioners to the believers, I want everybody to know I have authority on earth to forgive sins. That's what Jesus wants to be known. The Scripture is proclaiming good news for all mankind that sins can be forgiven. And so here in Romans 4 that it also talks about it like you will be “counted as righteous.” Not only is all your sin paid for by Jesus on the cross, when he dies in your place, he pays it in full. It is finished. It's like the full tally of all your sins he paid for it. It's done. But also, as you trust in Jesus, it's his righteousness is now credited, or counted to you. So, we can talk about all your sin being erased, eliminated, you’re debt free. Or we can also talk about the righteousness that now gets imputed, counted into your account, because now, when God sees you, he doesn't see you based on your sin. He sees you based on the righteousness of his Son, Jesus Christ. And how did that get into your account? How did you get credited that righteousness? All you did was believe what Jesus said by faith. And so that's the whole point here. It starts with Abraham, who's a great example. And look at Romans 4. Let's just work our way through this. “What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather? For if Abraham was justified by work, he has something to boast about, but not before God.” For what does the Scripture say? Well, let's quote now Genesis about Abraham. “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as” what? “Righteousness.” Now, this is before Abraham gets circumcised, which is a big deal to the Jews. This is for before Abraham is willing to offer his son, Isaac, as a sacrifice, Abraham is going to go out of his faith. He's going to go do many things. Faith does lead to action. Abraham, he's going to do some amazing things by faith, but it's not based on what Abraham does. That's the point here. Abraham believed and he was righteous. It was counted to him just on the basis of his faith. God promises, I have the authority to forgive you for your sins, son, daughter, listen to me. I can forgive you. Do you believe it? Do you believe? See, that's the question. It comes down to faith. That's the issue here.
In fact, if Abraham doesn't work, let's quote David. He goes on to say here in verse 5, “And to the one who does not work but believes in him.” It's not about you, either how bad you've been or all the good you try to do. Don't think like that. That's not the way to think. To the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly. His faith is counted as righteous, just as David also speaks of “the blessing of the One to whom God counts righteousness apart from works.” Let's bring up Psalm 32. Have we already quoted Genesis with Abraham? How about Psalm 32:1 now with David, “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, whose sins are covered.” Blessed is the man whom the Lord will not count his sin. Happy, blessed, rejoicing is the one who knows that my sins have been forgiven. They're not going to be counted against me. I'm going to be counted righteous. Why? Because of Jesus, because I believe in him, because he died and rose again. I mean, it's a whole song about how David his sins are so heavy upon him, and he's wasting away like the fever heat of summer, and it's like the hand of God is convicting him and pressing on him. And what does he do? What does David do? He confesses, he acknowledges, he repents, and he believes that God will forgive. And then he's saying, “Blessed will anyone be who believes this.” Now it keeps going. Romans 4 is such a compelling argument of how faith leads to forgiveness, it leads to being counted righteous. Go down to verse 16. That is why it depends on faith in order that the promise may rest on grace, and it's guaranteed to all his offspring, not only to the adherent of the law, but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham. What's Paul saying here in Romans 4? Not just the Jews who are descendants physically of Abraham, but anybody could be in the line of Abraham, if you also have faith, if you also believe that God, through his Son Jesus, can forgive you for your sins. And so, he goes on here, “As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations.” Now it's so interesting that we know him as father Abraham. Father Abraham had many sons, right? Many sons. And Father Abraham, and we know him here. We’ve got this great promise I've made you, the father of many nations. What was the story of hundred years of Abraham's life, that he could not have a what? He couldn't have a child, and that his wife was, what? A hundred year old man with a wife who's been barren for her entire life, but God's over here saying you're going to have a son. Seems like a closed door to me. A hundred year old guy, barren woman, doesn't seem like it's going to happen. Circumstantially, doesn't look good, doesn't feel good, but God said something. And guess what? They have a son? See that's faith.
Faith is like it doesn't seem possible, but God said this promise, and I believe the promise, rather than what I can see. That's why we call him Father Abraham, because he believed God. And so, then it says this, great conclusion of Romans 4, verse 22 “That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness.” But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone. Abraham never read Genesis, everybody. It wasn't written so Abraham could read it. “But for ours also,” verse 24 “it will be counted to us who believe.” This is what we believe in him who raised from the dead, Jesus, who's Jesus our Lord, our Savior. He's the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, the Son of Man. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead, Jesus, our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses, and he was raised for our justification. He was delivered up to the cross, where they nailed him to the tree, where he was cursed for you and me. He died, what? To pay for our sins, and he was resurrected. He was raised up what? For our righteousness, for our justification.
See if you think, well, I don't know if God will forgive me. Look what I've done. That's not faith. Faith is God will forgive me. Look what Jesus has done. And not enough people are even hearing that message so they could even see it. And if you are hearing that message tonight, and you think, well, I I've messed my life up. Too bad. It cannot be redeemed. Jesus says differently. Jesus wants you to know. Look at that man picking up his bed and walking out of the house. He can forgive sins. Now, if there's anybody here tonight, you think, I don't know if I could be forgiven, you need to hear Jesus. But there's another way that I see this play out here at our church, is that people have no problem believing that Jesus can forgive them, but then it's very hard for them to believe that they're actually going to turn from their sin or stop their sin. Oh, of course, Jesus will forgive me. It's almost like Jesus will forgive me even if I keep on sinning. Well, let's think that through. If we keep reading in Romans here, chapter 6, verse 1, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? That's not how this is supposed to work. So, I don't just come here on Saturday nights or Sunday mornings. I Come here most days of the week, and I sit in this room up here, and I try to meet with as many people as I can. People have a lot of trials that they're going through. People have a lot of burdens that need to be borne. And so, I try to meet with people. I'm not just trying to be a preacher. I'm trying to be a pastor of people. And people start sharing with me what's really going on in their life. And they start sharing with me that they can't stop looking at that pornography, and they can't stop drinking that alcohol, and they can't stop hating this person. How could they possibly forgive that person? And they will fill my ears and my time with what that person has done, and they'll even say things like, well, I can't stop doing that. And then I'll say something like, well, I guess we don't really believe the gospel then. And then they kind of rethink if they really want to be there meeting with me. Sometimes, a lot of people are quick to say, oh, I believe Jesus can forgive really. Because if you believe that Jesus can forgive you, guess what you start doing to other people. You forgive them. If you really believe that the blood of Jesus cleanses you from all sin and that he paid for all of your sin, it's erased. It's white as snow. It's at the bottom of the sea. It's as far as the east is from the west. If you really believe that, why do you go home and keep doing it and then act like, oh, it's okay. There's grace for that. No, the grace that is there for that is so you would turn from that, so that you would repent of that, so that you would walk away from that. See, you wouldn’t stay paralyzed on the bed, but you would get up and walk. Jesus died for sin so you don't have to live in it. Jesus forgives your sin so it can be done in your life. There's a new way to live. There's a power of the resurrection, there's an ability of the Holy Spirit. There's a whole way of Jesus Christ. And people they say, oh, I believe he can forgive me, but they don't believe they can really turn from their sin. Is that real forgiveness? Is that what Jesus is talking about? Did Jesus teach I'm here to forgive you and then you can just keep doing what I'm forgiving you for? Or did Jesus say to things like, hey, go and sin no more. Hey, repent and turn from that. Hey, why do you call me Lord, Lord and not obey what I say? Hey, you come follow me. There's a new way to live.
So people are at church, sometimes are quick to say, oh, I believe in the Gospel of Jesus. But then, when it comes down to that pattern of sin in their life, they're not so quick to believe the gospel of Jesus. In fact, they say definitive things like, I won't be able to stop, that would be impossible for me. And I'm like, yeah, it would. I agree with you one hundred percent. It would be impossible for you. It would be impossible for me. It would be impossible for all of us. Here's what I believe, anything is possible for the one who believes, particularly your sin being forgiven and you walking in newness of life. It's impossible for you, but it is empowered by the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Do you believe that? Does the way that you think about your sin show that you believe? Has there been a fundamental difference between when you believed in the forgiveness of Jesus, how you were with sin before that and how you are with sin after that now, now you're turning from your sin? Now you're begging if you sin, you're begging for forgiveness. Now, no, you don't have the same direction of sin that you used to you have. A new way to go. Those are the people who really believe that Jesus can forgive them for their sins. Are you one of those people? Because Jesus already knows. Jesus already knows. He knows right now whether you have faith, whether you're trying to have faith, but it's not really going so well, or whether you're in your heart questioning him, he already knows the answer. And I wonder what he's thinking about you right now, and I wonder what you are seeing about him, because Jesus wants you to know that he is the son of man, and he has authority to forgive you for all of your sins. Do you believe what he says? Can you see the man pick up his bed and walk out of the crowded house? Now they're parting for him. Now they're making way. Now everybody's amazed. We've never seen anything like this, yeah, because Jesus is here.
And so, I pray that you would not only believe this yourself, but that you would be on a mission to tell other people this good news. In fact, we've got our last week of fellowship groups. If you flip your hand out over. We've got some questions to think through about your own faith. We really want you to evaluate where you're at in your faith, because we're going to be going through Mark for a while. We want to make progress. We want you to make progress in your faith in Jesus, and then we want to make progress together as a church by spreading the word during this season as we're going through Mark. We're watching Jesus make disciples. We're watching Jesus preach and call for people to repent and believe in the gospel. We want to make disciples as we go through Mark. We want to get the good news out there. And so, we're going to have a week of Fellowship Groups. If you're a part of one of the Fellowship Groups, go this week, because then we're going to be on summer break and make sure you and your group have a plan for how you're going to keep encouraging one another and praying for one another and fellowshipping throughout this summer season, particularly when it comes to faith.
I just want to ask you this summer, who are you going to go tell so that they could hear, that they could know that Jesus has the authority to forgive their sins? Is it possible that the reason they're not believing is they have not been hearing the Word of Christ, and is it possible that they're not going to hear the Word of Christ unless you speak it to them and you're thinking, but that's a closed door? No, they've jammed that up. They don't want to hear it. Well, maybe you need to start praying. Maybe you need to keep looking, because maybe there's a way that this summer, you're going to go through the roof and you're going to show them Jesus, even though they may not be thinking that's what they want. You haven't given up because you have faith that Jesus is able to forgive sins.
So, this is, this is something we're going to keep talking about, faith in Jesus, throughout Mark. How are you going to increase in your faith based on what Jesus said? So, I want to take a moment right now, and I asked Ryan and the team to come and do a song based on Psalm 32. So if everybody could turn in their Bible to Psalm 32, based on what we just heard from Romans 4, where he quoted David saying, “Blessed is the man who's forgiven.” Well, I want us to meditate on that. So, Ryan's going to sing this song based on Psalm 32 and you could read Psalm 32 but clearly, the point of the miracle of the man who came in through the roof and walked out with his bed, the point of that miracle is that Jesus is the Son of Man who has authority to forgive sins. And so, if you've believed in Jesus and your sins are forgiven, you should know that you're blessed here tonight, and I pray that as Ryan sings this song, you could express your praise to God. Thank You, Jesus, all based on you doing it for me. Thank you for forgiving me for my sin. And maybe for some you know you haven't really trusted that Jesus could forgive you for your sin, or maybe you know you've still been in your sin. This could be the time where you confess your sin, where you turn from that sin, and you really do trust in Jesus to forgive you, to free you, to be your hiding place where you can go and your sin is covered because it's counted as righteousness through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Let me pray for us.
Father in heaven. We thank you that we get to go inside the house, that we weren't kept out of it, that we could see this story, that we could see the faith of these five guys coming in through the roof, and we could see how Jesus saw them. And then we could hear the thoughts of these scribes over here, questioning Jesus, doubting Jesus, calling Jesus a blasphemer, when Jesus is actually saying that he's your Son, that he has authority, and he can't just even heal this man. He can forgive his sins. Jesus wanted everybody in that house to know that he could forgive sins. God, I pray that all of us would know it here. I pray that everybody would know the blessing of knowing that their debt has been fully paid, that their stain has been completely blotted out, that the sins that they did, that they deserve to be judged for they will never meet those sins again because of Jesus and what he did. And so, I pray that we could worship Jesus now, that we could thank Jesus now. And I pray for those who have yet to believe, because it just seems impossible to them, I pray that they could see Jesus, that they could hear from Jesus, that they could have faith from hearing what Jesus said, that he as the Son of Man, as the God who became man, he has authority here on earth to forgive sins, and he will forgive everyone who believes in him. They will be freed, they will be justified. So let people even believe in Jesus and be forgiven for their sins right now. We pray this in his name. Amen.