Turn with me in your Bibles to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 2.  And as you do, I feel I should explain a little here.  It might feel like “The Jason Show” to you this morning.  Why does this guy keep …?  Where’s pastor Andrew?  Well, you know, we tried as best we could to communicate the time change to everybody, that we’d be meeting at 10 a.m. this morning.  [Laughter]  We knew there’d be some people who missed the memo, you know. 

Andrew texted me last night.  He is incredibly sick with a fever, which if you know anything about Andrew, he’s been here a number of times preaching to you with a fever, and you had no idea how miserably sick he was.  He’s extremely committed to this pulpit and to this Book and to this body.  But he also lost his voice.  So that kind of put a halt to things. 

So, he texted me last night and asked me if I would be willing to bring the word to you this morning.  Of course, I’m happy to do that.  I began immediately foaming at the mouth, and here we are in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 2.  I love this text.  I want to read it to you, as we begin, and ask the Lord’s blessing one more time on our time together.

Mark, chapter 2, we’ll read verses 1 through 12:

¹ And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. ² 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. ³ And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. ⁴ 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. ⁵ And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” ⁶ Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, ⁷ “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” ⁸ 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? ⁹ Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’? ¹⁰ But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— ¹¹ “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” ¹² 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!”

Lord, we want to see your glory in the pages of Scripture this morning.  We want to be transformed into the image of your Son.  These words are living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword.  Father, your word pierces us to the division of soul, spirit and of joints and marrow and it’s a discerner of the thoughts and the intentions of every one of us in this room. 

And that’s why we’re here, Lord, to humble ourselves before your word and to behold your glory in the face of Jesus Christ in the pages of Scripture.  Lord, put your glory on display through your word this morning.  Let us walk out of here changed and ready to reach this world with your gospel.  We pray in the name of this man who healed this paralytic, Jesus Christ, our King.  Amen.

Half a million people show up to see it.  Maybe some of you were there.  There is intense parking problems because it’s in Southern California.  There are long lines.  There are hours of waiting once you find just the right spot for just the right view.  Known as the “Big Bay Boom,” San Diego Bay, one of the largest fireworks shows in America on the Fourth of July and one of the largest fireworks shows in the world year-round. 

Typically, the Big Bay Boom is a series of one place on the land, two places on barges out in the bay where there is a 15-minute display of some of the greatest pyrotechnics the world has ever known.  But in 2012 in what’s known as the “Big Bay Boom Bust” (I don’t name these things—Twitter does), a computer glitch caused all of the pyrotechnics to ignite within a window of 15 seconds.  Fifteen minutes of fireworks within 15 seconds.  Maybe some of you have seen this on YouTube.  If not, you should.  Just not right now.

Responses ranged from angry to excited.  One person who was there said, “I waited three hours in the cold and paid $12 for parking and not one little explosion.”  I read that and thought, some people will just never be satisfied.  Another person who was interviewed captured my feelings on the matter and said, “The best part about the Big Bay Boom fail is that everyone has always wondered what would happen if all the fireworks went off at once.”  And another person interviewed said, “I think a yacht blew up.”

Garden State Fireworks, the firm responsible for producing the show each year, said, “We will be working throughout the night to determine what technical problem caused the entire show to be launched within 15 seconds.  We apologize for the brevity of the show and the technical difficulties.”  But over and over again the consistent response—and it was so good—people interviewed said the same thing.  Whatever else they said, they also said, “I’ve never seen anything like that!” 

And that’s what we want, isn’t it?  Mankind, there’s this craving in our hearts.  We fly to the other side of the world to just stand there and look at things that have been sitting there for thousands of years just to have this longing fulfilled and to be able to see some sense of awe and wonder as we look at this canyon, mountain, waterfall.  We stand in our backyard and just stare up at water vapor floating in the sky, called clouds.  As the sun bounces off of it, we tear up at the glory of it. 

We have phrases for this, we use phrases like “I was blown away.”  Or “it rocked my world.”  In the story we’re looking at this morning, that’s exactly what people say.  They say, we have never seen anything like this.  I think that the goal of many of the stories in the gospel is to put the glory of God on display as we watch the life of God on earth.  We see Jesus, the God-man, interacting with humanity.

Second Corinthians 3 describes the process of our sanctification and spiritual growth as beholding his glory and being transformed from one degree of glory to another, so we’re made more like him as we look at him and just say, wow, he is awesome.  I’ve never seen anything like that.

And so you’re here with me in Mark, chapter 2.  Let’s take a look at verse 1 as it sets the stage.  Verse 1 says, “And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home.”  Now, this story starts in verse 1 saying when he come back to Capernaum—back to Capernaum brings up some good questions, right?  You kinda ask why all these words are here when you study your Bible.  He’s coming back—huh?  Well, where’s he coming from?  Back?  Why?  When was the last time Jesus was in Capernaum.

When you read your Bible, don’t just pass over stuff like this.  God didn’t waste any words.  It’s all here for a reason.  What does God want us to understand about this story, beginning the story with ‘when he had come back to Capernaum’?  Well, the story doesn’t start here, obviously.  You’re like, thanks, Captain Obvious, because this is chapter 2.  I mean, who opens the book and starts in chapter 2?  We do, this morning.

But it’s important that we understand that chapter 1 is there.  And chapter 1 begins the story.  And in chapter 1 the last time Jesus was in Capernaum he drove out an unclean spirit from a man.  He healed Peter’s mother-in-law.  And then look at chapter 1, verses 32-34. 

³² That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. ³³ And the whole city was gathered together at the door. ³⁴ And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.

You know, in the Gospel of Mark, the constant refrain is what people know about Jesus.  Who is this Jesus?  What do people know about him?  And so, he would not permit the demons to speak because they know who he is.  That’s sets the stage for our story.

So, last time they’re in Capernaum, they’re at Peter’s house.  People start hearing about this guy named Jesus.  They start bringing all the sick and the demon-possessed, and Jesus is healing all of them.  He gets up early the next morning to pray, and the disciples come and find him and say in 1:37: “Everyone is looking for you.”

That’s the last time Jesus was in Capernaum, and Jesus is crazy popular in Capernaum.  The question is: Who is this guy?  What do people know about Jesus?  Now watch how that understanding makes this first sentence more meaningful and understand why you can’t gloss over stuff like this.

Verse 1: “And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home.”  So he’s back in Capernaum.  His reputation has caused many people to come and ask who this man Jesus is, and they’re looking to find out the answer to that same question: Who is he?  Imagine how packed this place was. 

It says—look at it there in verse 2: “And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door.”  I mean just think about that for a second.  Picture your house.  They’re in what I believe is Peter’s house here because Peter lived in Capernaum.  It says they’re back home.  They had been in Peter’s house in chapter 1, and so to say he’s back home in Capernaum, they’re probably back in Peter’s house.

But I mean just imagine this in your house, for example.  I mean, not that Peter’s house was probably as big as our house, but just think about how many people it would take to have people everywhere.  On the floor, in the chairs—like sorry, guys, we’re out of chairs; you’ll have to sit on the floor.  There’s people everywhere.  People standing in the back.  People all crowded in.  People peeking in the door so that when these people come with their paralytic friend, they come to the door, and there’s like people bulging out the door.  And they’re like, excuse me, can we get … no, no, uh-huh.  Okay.  They can’t even get in, there are so many people here.

So, what does Jesus do when he gets a packed house?  Teaches the word to them.  It says he was speaking the word to them.  So, what’s that?  What’s he teaching them about?  Well, same as chapter 1, verse 15.  It says he’s proclaiming the gospel of God and saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent and believe in the gospel.  Jesus is preaching the gospel to people.

So that was all while the credits were rolling in this story.  That’s kind of like the setting of the stage there.  Scholars have compared the gospel of Mark to a movie in the way that it flows.  And it’s almost like that was while the credits were rolling.  Now the action slows, the camera angle comes in, and the story starts.

Take a look at verse 3.  We’re going to see Christ’s response to people with faith here.  Verse 3.  You can even feel kind of the change of the tone here, the change of pace.  It says, “And they came …”  Now, if you have an NASB, there’s a little asterisk next to the word “came.”  That means the verb here is in the present tense.  It’s called a historical present.  Why does Mark do this?  Why does he say “and they come” instead of “and they came”? 

You’re telling a story in the past.  Well, Mark wants to pull you out of your chair, you know, like Mary Poppins jumping into the chalk drawings style, and plop you into this story.  So, he even changes not just the pace, but he changes the tense.  He says, and they come.  I mean, we do this too, right?  When you tell a story and you want to get somebody into it.  Right? 

You don’t say, “I was driving down the street and this guy cut me off and we almost got in a wreck and I almost drove into the ditch.”  You say, “I was driving down the street, and then this guy cuts me off, and I jerk the wheel, and I almost drive right into the ditch!”  Right?  We immediately switch into the present tense like it’s happening right now because I want you to feel the intensity of what it was like to be there with me. 

That’s exactly what Mark was doing here.  He’s setting the scene, setting the stage, showing you the players.  Who’s all here?  What’s going on?  And he says, “and they come.”  And it’s almost like you can see everybody’s head go to the door, you know, like, I see.  You can almost see them coming, right?

So, Mark begins, “And they come, bringing to him a paralytic …”  Jesus has developed this reputation for healing people.  Here these are four guys who want to bring their friend to Jesus so Jesus can heal them.  But the people, the crowd, they’re all in the way, and they won’t move.  I mean who gives up their front row spot, you know?  Who gives up their backrow spot, if they’re going to get pushed out the door?  Like people are not going to get out of the way.  They want to see what Jesus is doing.

Notice verse 4 says, and being unable to get to them because of the crowds … These men are unable to get to him at first. They’re unable to get to Jesus.  This is where there’s a general rule that applies: If at first you don’t succeed, rip the roof off somebody’s house.  Right?  That’s how you do that.

Verse 4 continues to tell the story.  “[T]hey removed the roof above him, and when they had [dug] an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic [was] lay[ing].”  So they got this guy on some kind of a mattress or a stretcher, and they take him up onto the roof and because they dig a hole in the roof …  And maybe you’re like me.  When you read this story at first, it seems really strange.  I envision them with like a crowbar, like a demo fork, like breaking shingles off of my house.  Plywood pealed back and insulation’s going everywhere. Right?  And then they’re digging through the drywall in the ceiling and …

But I also can’t help but ask myself, how’d these guys get on the roof in the first place carrying a paralyzed guy?  You can barely get down the road doing that.  People are heavy.  When you understand what Peter’s house would have been like though, a typical Palestinian peasant’s house.  Their houses were a lot different from ours.  I’m sure you’ve seen pictures of these.  Even as I describe it to you, you’ll visualize it. 

It was usually a small, one-room structure with a flat roof on top, and access to the roof was by means of an outside staircase.  So they kind of go up the stairs and be on the roof.  The roof itself would have been made out of wooden beams with then some kind of a tile or thatch or boards laid across it and then thatch and mud like packed in there so that it would shed the water off.  So that’s why the word “dig” makes sense because there’s a bunch of dirt up there.  This is what Peter’s house would have been like.

Nonetheless, the construction of Peter’s house didn’t make it normal to be tearing somebody’s roof off.  That’s just not something you do all the time.  These men are acting in faith.  They have a deep trust that Jesus can heal our friend, and we are taking our friend to Jesus, and whatever it takes, we’re going to get to him.

So, while they may not have gotten out a crowbar to ply off the shingles and plywood, this did require some serious effort, out of the norm.  The fact that they’re willing to rip up somebody’s house seems to indicate that they did have a great deal of faith in Christ’s ability to heal their friend, and verse 5 confirms their faith as a reality when it says that Jesus saw their faith.

So, at this point you can imagine in the story it says, he’s preaching, they come, they bring 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 lie. 

So you can just imagine, if we’re in here this morning and I’m teaching and all of a sudden a hole opens up in the roof and like this paralyzed guy comes down like plop.  And now, I mean, imagine Jesus is standing there teaching.  Probably a couple of people that were close to him would have had to scoot back.  And now there’s this paralyzed guy lying on the floor, kind of center of attention.  Like talk about that moment when the record goes [sound effect that sounds like a needle scratching across a record].  Everybody’s just kind of like, uh, guys, can I offer a moment for the rest of you because I’m not really sure what we’re supposed to do here.

I mean just imagine if you’re one of the people in the room, right?  We’re just listening to a sermon from Jesus, and all of a sudden, like dust from the ceiling, dust is falling in your face, and now here’s this guy, this dude, on a stretcher.  Now, I can’t read these guy’s minds, but I’m pretty sure at least most of them are good Jews who knew their Bible well.  At least most of them and certainly the men who let their friend down would have been thinking, this is it.  Isaiah 35.

Because Isaiah 35:5-6 prophesies a time when the Messiah would come, when the one comes.  And it says, then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped and the lame man will leap like a deer.  Written nearly 800 years prior, a prophecy before the story of Mark ever takes place.  And these folks, many of them, would have been thinking, if in fact this man is our Messiah, then he will heal this lame man.  I mean, that’s what Jesus had already been doing in the story so far. 

So we see these men acting in faith, and it begs the question, okay, well, how does Jesus respond to people with faith in him?  Let’s take a look at the next part of the story in verse 5.  Verse 5 says, “And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’”  Wait.  Sins?  Forgiven?  What about the healing, Jesus?  When did sins ever come into the picture?  How did that come up?  What are you talking about?  Like, the guy’s paralyzed!  It’s like, help him!

You see, Jesus knew more than this man needed to be physically healed, he needed to be spiritually healed.  So, Jesus says, my son, your sins are forgiven.  This would have been a clock-stopping moment, not only because it seemed a little bit non sequitur, but also because Jesus says your sins are forgiven, and everyone in the room is probably thinking like, wait a minute. 

This is an absolutely shocking statement for any man to speak.  You see, when we commit sins, yes, often they’re against people, but they’re always against God.  And God has said very clearly that he’s sending people to a real place called hell because of their sin against him.  So for any man to say your sins are forgiven, that’s a pretty big deal.  I mean you don’t just throw this kind of stuff around lightly.  “Hey, your sins are forgiven.  Have a nice day.”

What’s more amazing is what a beautiful picture.  The man’s paralyzed.  He can’t do anything.  I mean, what has he done to earn forgiveness?  What has he done?  Who has he helped with his life?  How has he served the Lord to deserve to be forgiven?  Nothing.  He’s done nothing.  He’s paralyzed.  No works.  Just faith.

That’s a great picture of our salvation because that’s what salvation is.  It’s when God forgives someone of their disobedience, their sin, and he transfers that person out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of his beloved Son Jesus.  And he rescues them and he makes them right with him again, and their sins are forgiven not because of anything that they did but because of who God is and because they trusted him.

So Jesus says to this man, son, your sins are forgiven.  And it’s really just setting the stage for what’s about to happen.  But what about you?  Have you responded to Jesus in faith?  Faith isn’t a nebulous word.  It’s not like a kind of Christianese term, right?  When we have faith in something, it means we trust in it.  We believe that it’s true and we respond and live and act accordingly. 

These people knew.  They had faith that Jesus was the Messiah, that he could heal their friend, and they lived it out.  They walked the walk, so to speak.  They brought their friend to Jesus.  They acted in faith, and Jesus seeing their faith says, my son, your sins are forgiven.

See, we read this story and we even refer to this as “Jesus heals the paralytic.”  Right?  That’s the heading in the ESV.  And that’s fine.  That is what happens here.  We think this story is about Jesus healing the paralytic.  In reality this is about a contrast.  This is about Jesus’ response to people with faith and Jesus’ response to people without faith.

So, we saw how Jesus responds to people with faith.  When we trust in him, he forgives our sin.  That’s what happens to these men, to this paralytic.  But notice the first word of verse 6.  The ESV says “Now.”  You can feel that transition there.  The NAS probably better translates it “But.”  This is a contrasting conjunction in the original language.  There’s a turn of events here.  It’s almost like the story has been going this way, and then Mark says, but there’s more.

So, if you look there in verse 6 it says, “[But or] Now some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts.”  Why does this man speak like that?  He’s blaspheming.  Who can forgive sins but God alone?  Exactly.  It shows that even though there’s this great thing happening, there’s a problem because there are also people in the room who are responding to Jesus without faith—the Scribes.

So, let’s take a look at Jesus’ response to those without faith.  Of course, you guys know that the Scribes were the religious leaders in their day.  They were like the pastors of the church, so to speak, the elders.  These are the spiritual leaders of the community, and it says in verse 6 they’re sitting there reasoning in their hearts or questioning in their hearts.  Why does that man speak this way?  He’s blaspheming.  Who can forgive sins but God alone?

And so, the Scribes, in essence, think Jesus is speaking irreverently about God.  Why?  Why do they think he’s blaspheming?  Well, because they knew what the Bible says about forgiving sin.  They knew from the Old Testament just as we do that God alone forgives sin.

Daniel 9:9 says, “To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness.”  And Psalm 103:3 and Psalm 130:4 and Exodus 34:1-9 and Daniel 9:9 and Isaiah 43:25—all over the place in the Old Testament.  Isaiah 43:25 says, “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”  And so, in a sense, the Scribes were right.  God alone forgives sin.

What a great reminder for us that you can be 100% right and still be 100% wrong.  Not because truth is malleable.  Because they knew the facts, but they held the facts without humility, without faith, without trust in the Lord.  I mean if any man were to say this, it would in fact be blasphemy. 

But the terrible irony here is that the Scribes knew the Bible very, very well.  They should have recognized what’s taking place.  Only God can forgive sins, and they should have seen this means Jesus is God.  It’s clear as day.  In fact, if anyone should have seen it, it should have been these guys.  They’re the ones responsible for teaching people the Bible.  But the people who knew the Bible the best still rejected their Savior.

It brings us to a crucial point to think about.  You cannot be saved through Bible knowledge alone.  Don’t miss this.  The Bible (2 Timothy 3) makes us wise unto salvation (verse 15), but only knowing it does not make you saved.  This is good for us because we know the Bible pretty well.  We always say, we’re Canyon Bible Church.  Bible’s our middle name.  We know the Bible.  We study the Bible.  We read the Bible.  We hear the Bible.  We preach the Bible.  We see the Bible, speak the Bible.  We teach the Bible.  We know the Bible!

You can know the Bible forwards and backwards.  You can have listened to every sermon by your favorite online preacher.  You can know the Bible forwards and backwards, but if you reject Jesus Christ as the Messiah, if you do not have a relationship with him by faith in which you are trusting in him for the forgiveness of your sins, you can know the Bible as well as you want, but you’re lost like the Scribes in outer darkness.

The Scribes thought they lived their entire lives according to the Bible, but they were not saved.  Why?  Because they heard, but what they heard was not united with faith (Hebrews 4).

Look at verse 8.  Well, verses 6 and 7 says they’re questioning in their hearts.  Verse 8 says, “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?’”  So he challenges them on this.  This is different than when someone says to you, I heard what you said about me.  This is far different.  It’s not what they said about Jesus that Jesus confronts them on.  It’s what they thought about Jesus.

They didn’t say anything out loud.  It says they’re questioning in their hearts.  They haven’t said anything, and it’s like Jesus spins around and he’s like, why are you thinking about that?  I mean they had to realize that Jesus just read their minds and confronted them on their thoughts. 

I mean, imagine if someone did this to you.  Imagine it’s like right now.  Sorta like, hey, you, that fight you had with your wife last night, she was right.  You need to ask her forgiveness.  Hey, stop thinking about that concert a couple weeks ago.  Pay attention to the Bible. Right?  I mean, what if I just sort of like confronted you right now on things that you were thinking?  That’s not normal.  That doesn’t happen.

Jesus basically just turns to them, and it’s like, hey, why are you thinking that way?  They would have known 1 Samuel 16:7, right?  The Lord sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.  Jesus is looking right past our external actions, and he sees their heart.  And he goes straight to the issue and confronts them on their heart.

They should have made the logical correlation here.  I mean there’s enough going on.  Jesus Christ has just proven that he’s God by reading their minds as only God can do.  Now they’ve been asking in their hearts, who can forgive sins but God alone?  And their point is, they don’t believe Jesus is God.  So Jesus tackles that head on.

Look at what he says in verse 9.  Which of these is easier?  Here you go, two options.  Think about this.  Which of these is easier?  “… to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk.’”  So, the choice is to forgive sin or to heal a paralyzed man.  Which of those is easier?  The point is, they’re both impossible for everyone but God.  Nobody can do either one of these things. 

However, the point Jesus is making is not just trying to get them to think about that fact but to help them see while anyone can simply say your sins are forgiven with no way of proving it, right?  I mean it’s not like you glow blue when you’re forgiven.  Forgiveness is an invisible transaction.  You don’t see it happen.  However, healing a paralytic man is the type of thing that can be witnessed and verified. 

So, it’s Jesus’ goal here to validate his claim to just forgiving sins by showing his ability to heal a paralyzed man.  In other words, to prove the invisible miracle of forgiveness by doing a visible miracle of healing.  And notice that Jesus never gave them an opportunity to answer the question, which was probably smart.  No, it was smart because this is Jesus. 

Check out verse 10.  This is good.  He asks the question … Before they have an opportunity to respond, he says, verse 10: “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins …”  Jesus begins by stating the purpose of all of this to the Scribes.  So that you will know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sin.

Jesus basically says, listen, what I’m about to do is meant to prove to you that I have the authority to forgive this man’s sin, i.e., that I am God in the flesh.  And like a subliminal message here, the phrase “the Son of Man” kind of rapidly flashes by like, let me just take a second to show you.  Why is Jesus referring to himself here as the Son of Man in the context of proving that he has authority? 

I mean, you finish these sentences.  In the beginning, God created … yeah, yeah.  God so loved the world that he … yeah, right?  There are verses in Scripture that we know very well.  When I say a verse that everyone knows really well, it’s pretty common for you to just be able to finish it. 

Well, we’re going to Daniel, chapter 7.  This is a passage that they would have known.  Jesus calls himself the Son of Man.  Just like when I say a phrase from Scripture that you know and the rest of it comes to mind for you, Jesus calls himself the Son of Man, and all the Jews who knew their Bible well would have known exactly what he meant here. 

You know what’s ringing in their ears is Daniel 7, the Son of Man.  And in the context of authority … whew.  Look at Daniel 7, verse 13.

¹³ I saw in the night visions,
and behold, with the clouds of heaven
    there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
    and was presented before him.

¹⁴ And to him [the Son of Man] was given dominion
    and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
    should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
    which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom one
    that shall not be destroyed.

Talk about authority.  That’s what they’re all thinking when Jesus says, in order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sin.  Jesus could have said, you want to know where I get my authority?  You want to know where I got my authority to forgive sins?  I got it from the Ancient of Days.  God the Father has given me, God the Son, authority to forgive your sin.  That’s where I got my authority.

Jesus doesn’t even finish the sentence to them.  When you read it, right?  In order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins …  And then he turns to the paralytic, doesn’t even finish his sentence.  He says, verse 11: “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.”  Verse 12: “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!’”

I mean the man gets up and it’s like the crowd goes wild.  Literally.  You see, if you remember from the beginning of the story, there’s so many people in this room that these four guys had to dig a hole in the roof just to get into the room specifically because there are so many people in the way.  You can’t get to the door.  This man gets up and walks out in the sight of all. 

I mean everybody saw this.  Nobody got in his way on the way out.  In fact, if they’re all in the way of him getting in, it implies they would have had to move out of his way in order for him to walk out.  And so you can just imagine, the guy gets up and everybody’s like ohhhhhh!  And they’re thinking Jesus told him, rise, take your bed and go home.  And they’re like the door’s behind me.  I’m outta the way.  Right? 

I mean can you imagine, they’ve just witnessed this incredible miracle.  Scripture says they were all amazed, glorifying God and saying they’ve never seen anything like this.  And in fact, they never have.  This was precisely the point.  Jesus Christ was and is the eternal God come to earth as a man, and he clearly makes that point in the miracles he performs in this story, forgiving sins, reading minds, healing the lame.  These are not the work of a man.  These are the work of God.

And Mark pictures Christ not only as the long-awaited Messiah, but as God himself.  In God’s perfect plan these same Scribes who saw all of this would later kill Jesus by nailing him to the cross.  In God’s wisdom he used the greatest act of evil in all of history to accomplish the greatest good in all of history, because when Jesus died on the cross, God killed our sin with him so that if we, like this paralyzed man and his friends, would put our faith in Jesus Christ, our sins, like this paralyzed man, would be forgiven.  We would hear from Jesus, son, your sins are forgiven.

This story becomes an illustration of what happens to us.  Once guilty, once spiritually crippled, unable to do any good in the sight of God, and you can be forgiven and made to walk in the newness of life because Jesus died in your place and came back to life to show the power over sin and death.  That’s the gospel.  That’s the most important thing you will ever hear.

And if you’re here this morning and you’re a believer, you’ve been saved by God’s grace through faith in this man, Jesus Christ.  And let me point something out to you, believers.  The first thing Jesus says in the Gospel of Mark in chapter 1, verse 15 is, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”  In chapter 1, verse 21, Jesus is teaching the gospel in the synagogues.  In chapter 1, verses 38 and 39, the reason he came—to preach the gospel.

When our story begins here in chapter 2, verse 2, it says Jesus is speaking the word to them.  He’s teaching people about the gospel.  When Jesus is interrupted by a bunch of guys who tear the roof off and lower their friend into the room, in a completely awkward situation, he uses it as an opportunity to demonstrate the gospel.

When the Scribes respond by criticizing Jesus in their hearts, he confronts them on their thoughts and uses it as an opportunity to illustrate the gospel.  And after all of this is over, at the end of the story, look at verse 13.  “He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them.”  Verse 13 is where the credits are beginning to roll at the end of this movie.  What’s Jesus doing?  He’s out there again teaching people the gospel, teaching people the word of God.

You see, he recognized the word of God, this gospel, is the most important thing that every human being needs to hear and understand and respond to and live out in their lives.  He saw every moment, every circumstance, every problem, every interruption, everything as an opportunity for somebody to hear the word of God and respond to the gospel.

Jesus said he did this miracle in order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.  Man, that’s a bunch of good news for a room full of sinners on earth.  Friends, you need to know that Jesus has the authority to forgive your sin.  Jesus has the authority to wash away your guilt.  He has the authority to make you right with God.  Jesus has the authority to save you. 

Don’t let this message fall on deaf ears this morning.  You have heard the truth of the gospel.  You will be accountable to God for having heard his word, the good news of his Son Jesus Christ.  You will stand before God and answer as to whether you responded like this paralyzed man and his friends with faith or like the Scribes without faith.  They both heard the same message, and their response to the message of the gospel made all the difference in the world.

So cry out to Jesus.  He is alive today with as much power, as much authority as the day he healed this paralytic man and preached the gospel to these people.  And as a believer, we need to recognize that the most important thing for us to know and speak and live is the gospel.  We must begin to see every moment of our lives, every circumstance, every problem, every interruption, everything that wasn’t on your calendar, that wasn’t in your budget, that wasn’t part of your plan, it’s all an opportunity to be reminded of the gospel, to tell other people about the gospel, to live out the gospel, the good news about this God-man, Jesus Christ.

And we put the gospel of Jesus on display in the way that we live every day, every detail of our lives as believers, because the gospel is not too big to fit into every detail of our lives.  It’s too big not to.

Father, we’re so grateful for this precious opportunity to look ever so briefly at this one small episode in the gospel of Mark.  This one small story about what your Son did on this earth.  About the way that people responded to him.  About the truth of the gospel that he came to teach and to preach. 

Lord, let there be some in this room this morning who, having never responded by faith before, would run to Christ, confess their sins and be forgiven.  That they would see that every problem in this life, no matter how serious, as far as paralysis, nothing is more important than that we be reconciled to you.  Every problem that we have is smaller, insignificant compared to our problem with sin. 

Let it be that this morning someone would see that for the first time and respond with faith and cry out to be forgiven.  Lord, you’ve promised when we confess our sins to you, you are faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.  And for every one of us as believers, Lord, let us be people who see every detail and moment of our lives, no matter how we’re interrupted, no matter how things don’t go according to our plan, no matter what takes place, let our whole lives be centered around the glory of Christ and the spread of your gospel. 

And as we behold your glory in the pages of Scripture, in the face of Jesus Christ, may we be transformed from one degree of glory to another.  Make us more like you, God.  We’re crying out for your help.  We need you.  And we pray in Jesus’ name.  Amen.