back to indexBerean Community Church Sunday Service 4.16.23
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- Good morning, Church family, Happy Lord's Day. 00:11:23.580 |
Let me make a few announcements before we get started. 00:11:26.580 |
First of all, on April 30th, we have a welcome lunch. 00:11:30.580 |
And this is for people who are coming into the church 00:11:33.580 |
who have questions about how the church functions 00:11:36.580 |
and what are some philosophies of the ministry, 00:11:39.580 |
who are the leaders, schedules, and that kind of stuff. 00:11:42.580 |
So if you are interested in attending the lunch, 00:11:45.580 |
it's happening on April 30th at 1 p.m. in the other building, 00:11:49.580 |
not in the cafeteria, but on the other side, okay? 00:12:01.580 |
Family ministry is having a roll and stroll Saturday 00:12:06.580 |
So this is basically not for the Jubilee 50 and over, 00:12:18.580 |
which is probably about 70, 80% of the family ministry. 00:12:22.580 |
And they're getting together on Saturday from 10 to 12, 00:12:35.580 |
you can come out, and they're going to be holding that event 00:12:45.580 |
So if you want to play softball and you haven't signed up, 00:12:49.580 |
I read that the practice is going to start today. 00:13:03.580 |
Okay, should have figured all that out before I came up here. 00:13:07.580 |
But anyway, so that's happening at 2 o'clock, 00:13:11.580 |
and they'll probably put you into different teams, right? 00:13:15.580 |
The fundraiser for that is going to be going to support 00:13:21.580 |
the first Korean mission trip that we're having this summer. 00:13:25.580 |
We have a team of about 20 people who are coming out 00:13:29.580 |
It's a little bit longer trip than we normally would do, 00:13:32.580 |
mission trips, because it is our first year going 00:13:35.580 |
and breaking ground, and so it's going to take a little bit more work. 00:13:47.580 |
And then all church retreat that's happening on August 11th 00:13:56.580 |
and then after that it's going to be regular registration, 00:13:59.580 |
and then after that there will be late registration. 00:14:01.580 |
So if you are planning to come, you need to not only add your name, 00:14:07.580 |
So if you--for whatever reason you can't go, you know, 00:14:10.580 |
and if it's close enough we can get the refund, 00:14:13.580 |
we'll give you the refund, but we do need you to register early as possible, 00:14:17.580 |
and that's early registration is closing at 430--not 430, 4-30, okay, 00:14:24.580 |
end of the month, and so after that the registration fee is going to start going up. 00:14:29.580 |
Next Sunday we have a members meeting, our quarterly members meeting. 00:14:33.580 |
We have actually quite a few people to present to the church. 00:14:37.580 |
So that's happening at 1:30, but along with that, 00:14:40.580 |
our career mission team is going to be doing a fundraiser with homemade chili. 00:14:45.580 |
This is not canned made chili, but homemade chili. 00:14:50.580 |
and then we're going to give you a hot dog to put it on, okay? 00:14:57.580 |
But there's going to be homemade chili, there's going to be other--sauerkraut 00:15:00.580 |
and all this other stuff that's going to be happening. 00:15:05.580 |
Even if you don't like hot dogs, eat the buns, eat something else. 00:15:15.580 |
I know what you're thinking, I can get that at $1.50 at Costco, 00:15:27.580 |
Anyway, we're just asking you to support the team. 00:15:33.580 |
So that's going to be happening after second service next week. 00:15:36.580 |
Oh, actually, even after the first service, there will be hot dogs. 00:15:40.580 |
And again, they told me to emphasize homemade chili. 00:15:46.580 |
So after service, it's going to be given to you in a container, 00:15:49.580 |
so if you can't eat it here, you can take that with you. 00:15:52.580 |
But that's happening next week, so please help us out with that. 00:15:55.580 |
And then afterwards, our members meeting will be happening at 1.30. 00:16:02.580 |
And then again, if you are visiting us or if you brought physical offering, 00:16:08.580 |
But for the rest of us, we'll give you a minute for you to give your electronic offering. 00:16:17.580 |
Gracious Father, we thank you for the blessing of being able to come and worship you. 00:16:23.580 |
Lord, we know what a privilege it is to be able to come to the throne of grace 00:16:29.580 |
with confidence to seek help in time of need. 00:16:33.580 |
Help us, Lord God, to see through all the clutter in our lives, 00:16:44.580 |
Help us, Lord God, this morning to fix our eyes, our heart, our mind, 00:16:48.580 |
all of it, Lord God, upon Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith. 00:16:54.580 |
I pray that even in this giving, help us to give it intentionally as an act of worship, 00:16:58.580 |
and may it be multiplied 30, 60, 100-fold for your kingdom. 00:17:49.580 |
I just want to encourage you that we come here week to week, 00:17:52.580 |
and sometimes we bring what's on our mind into this room, 00:17:57.580 |
but I want to encourage us that we come before God who is awesome. 00:18:03.580 |
I'm going to sing this first song. It's namely "Awesome is the Lord." 00:18:45.580 |
Raise your hands, all you nations, shout to God of creation. 00:19:26.580 |
Raise your hands, all you nations, shout to God of creation. 00:19:38.580 |
We will praise you, we will praise you together. 00:19:43.580 |
For now and forever, how awesome is the Lord most high. 00:20:21.580 |
Raise your hands, all you nations, shout to God of creation. 00:20:38.580 |
For now and forever, how awesome is the Lord most high. 00:21:01.580 |
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If you can turn your Bibles with me to Luke chapter 5. 00:25:55.580 |
We're going to be reading from verse 17 through verse 26. 00:26:07.580 |
"One day he was teaching, and there were some Pharisees 00:26:12.580 |
who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea 00:26:17.580 |
And some men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed, 00:26:24.580 |
But not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, 00:26:27.580 |
they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles 00:26:30.580 |
with his stretcher into the middle of the crowd 00:26:34.580 |
Seeing their faith, he said, 'Friend, your sins are forgiven.' 00:26:37.580 |
The scribes and Pharisees began to reason, saying, 00:26:40.580 |
'Who is this man who speaks blasphemies, who can forgive sins but God alone?' 00:26:44.580 |
But Jesus, aware of their reasoning, answered and said to them, 00:26:50.580 |
Which is easier, to say, "Your sins have been forgiven," 00:27:00.580 |
he said to the paralytic, 'I say to you, get up 00:27:04.580 |
Immediately he got up before them and picked up 00:27:07.580 |
what he had been lying on and went home glorifying God. 00:27:10.580 |
They were all struck with astonishment and began glorifying God, 00:27:19.580 |
Lord, we pray that your word would be open to us, 00:27:27.580 |
I pray that you would protect my mouth, this pulpit, Lord God, 00:27:33.580 |
We pray that your truth and your truth alone will go forth, 00:27:37.580 |
that your sheep may hear your voice and follow you alone. 00:27:43.580 |
I think many of you guys know we are in wedding season, 00:28:03.580 |
but I've heard that there's about 17, 18 weddings 00:28:08.580 |
And so there's a lot of weddings that are happening. 00:28:10.580 |
I mean, our church always had a lot of weddings, 00:28:19.580 |
you know, obviously those of you who've been married recently, 00:28:22.580 |
there's so much going on, right, in the preparation. 00:28:25.580 |
And again, my personal opinion is I don't think there's 00:28:28.580 |
anything that you do in life that requires as much attention. 00:28:35.580 |
but by the time the child comes, especially for the men, 00:28:41.580 |
We're waiting. We're doing support work, right? 00:28:44.580 |
But during the wedding, I mean, you have to prepare for the food, 00:28:49.580 |
you have the guest list, and you have to get the reception. 00:28:52.580 |
And in the midst of all of that, you're getting married, right? 00:28:55.580 |
And then you have to get your apartment ready, 00:28:57.580 |
you have to get the in-laws and people coming into town. 00:28:59.580 |
There's so much that you have to do that if we're not careful, 00:29:08.580 |
and then you miss the whole point of this, right? 00:29:19.580 |
what is the most important thing that needs to be done for the wedding? 00:29:24.580 |
And don't answer me, just kind of think to yourself, 00:29:30.580 |
You have to find the venue because that's hard, right? 00:29:32.580 |
And that's going to kind of set the tone of the mood of the thing. 00:29:44.580 |
Everything else you might forget, but the pictures is going to be a lifetime. 00:29:54.580 |
so you have to make sure that you have the right food. 00:29:56.580 |
So you may have different opinions on all this, 00:30:01.580 |
there's one glaring thing that is at the center of all of that. 00:30:14.580 |
and if you didn't properly prepare to get you to start a marriage 00:30:29.580 |
and then you missed the whole point because it didn't actually prepare you 00:30:38.580 |
Sometimes I've seen couples who get so caught up 00:30:41.580 |
in making the wedding as beautiful as possible and so stressed out, 00:30:53.580 |
is frustrated because he's not as engaged and asked questions. 00:30:57.580 |
He thinks he's being helpful by saying, "Well, I don't really care. 00:31:00.580 |
You just do whatever you want. I'll support you." 00:31:02.580 |
And then she's angered by that because, "Well, you should care. 00:31:06.580 |
And they get into all this conflict, and then they hold it in, hold it in 00:31:10.580 |
because they don't want to ruin their wedding day. 00:31:13.580 |
And then when the wedding day is over and they get to their honeymoon, 00:31:17.580 |
they have the biggest fight that they've ever had on their honeymoon. 00:31:21.580 |
And so I've had to counsel people after they come back from their honeymoon 00:31:25.580 |
and to kind of help them to reconcile because the whole honeymoon, 00:31:35.580 |
that we focus on these external things to the extent 00:31:39.580 |
that sometimes you miss the whole point of why this wedding is happening 00:31:46.580 |
I say all of this because even as Christians, we can spend all our lives 00:31:49.580 |
decorating our Christian faith with what we do at church 00:31:57.580 |
and you miss the whole point of why Christ came. 00:32:02.580 |
The story that we're looking at really gets to the point, 00:32:05.580 |
and Jesus publicly declares--it's not the first time-- 00:32:08.580 |
but He wants people to clearly understand why He's here, what He's doing. 00:32:14.580 |
That in the midst of all the healing and the popularity growing 00:32:17.580 |
and people are coming to Him because they want to have sight, 00:32:21.580 |
and He cuts through all of that, and it's very deliberate 00:32:24.580 |
why Luke presents it to us the way he presents it. 00:32:28.580 |
So this morning I'm going to divide it into three parts. 00:32:35.580 |
Two, the miracle itself, and what's happening there. 00:32:39.580 |
And then third, the response, the response of the Pharisees, 00:32:42.580 |
the response of the healed, the response of the crowd 00:32:47.580 |
As we follow this outline so we can better understand 00:32:53.580 |
Why is this story here about the paralytic that gets healed, 00:33:02.580 |
All we know in the Gospel of Luke, it says there's a large crowd gathering, 00:33:05.580 |
but Mark gives us a little bit more detail that gives us a background 00:33:10.580 |
In Mark 2, 1-2, it says, "When he had come back from Capernaum, 00:33:13.580 |
several days afterwards it was heard that he was at home." 00:33:19.580 |
So the room, the house that this is taking place is not just any center. 00:33:29.580 |
It just means that that's where they were stationed, 00:33:31.580 |
this is where he was sleeping, and this is most likely Peter's home. 00:33:36.580 |
So when he says he was home, he was doing ministry, 00:33:44.580 |
We talked about this in the beginning of ministry, 00:33:46.580 |
but already people were not leaving him alone. 00:33:48.580 |
He's home resting, and they have found him, and they're coming to him. 00:33:53.580 |
And when Jesus says in Luke 9-58, Jesus said to him, 00:33:57.580 |
"The fox have holes, the birds of the air have nests, 00:33:59.580 |
but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head," 00:34:07.580 |
So they barged in. So he's forced into this situation. 00:34:10.580 |
So I need you to understand what's going on here. 00:34:19.580 |
You can understand why he was in the habit of breaking away 00:34:22.580 |
and spending time with the Father, really to get some rest. 00:34:28.580 |
They hear that he's at home, and then in Luke 5-17 tells us what happened. 00:34:32.580 |
And there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there 00:34:36.580 |
who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. 00:34:41.580 |
Now Luke goes out of his way to tell us that these Pharisees came 00:34:45.580 |
from every village, from Judea, from Jerusalem. 00:34:48.580 |
Now the reason why this is significant is Luke is making sure that we understand 00:34:52.580 |
that this was not just some regular crowd that wanted healing. 00:34:56.580 |
People came, like the leaders of Israel began to hear about this man. 00:35:01.580 |
And so they traveled all the way from Jerusalem. 00:35:04.580 |
Jerusalem is the epicenter of Israel's leadership. 00:35:08.580 |
And typically, if you wanted access to the leaders, you would have to travel there. 00:35:19.580 |
But Jesus' popularity, could he possibly be the Messiah? 00:35:24.580 |
And the proof that he was giving with his miracles began to spread. 00:35:27.580 |
So he said, "Pharisees." It got their attention. 00:35:31.580 |
And so they were sitting. Most likely, they had the front row seats to this. 00:35:40.580 |
Those of you who've been to India with us, the average size house of a middle class person 00:35:45.580 |
would have been the center where we would do our medical camps. 00:35:50.580 |
And it would fit maybe on the floor, not with chairs, but on the floor, 00:35:53.580 |
maybe 50, 60, 70, 80 people, depending on the size. 00:35:57.580 |
Maybe about that size, maybe like 300, 400 square feet max. 00:36:03.580 |
So they're crowded in. The leaders of Israel come. 00:36:08.580 |
Most likely, they had the seats of honor, the best seats, wherever that was. 00:36:14.580 |
And it was in that context, it was in that context that this miracle takes place. 00:36:23.580 |
Luke is going out of his way to tell us that this, like the leaders of Israel 00:36:29.580 |
had heard about him, traveled all the way from Jerusalem to come and get an audience to see, 00:36:38.580 |
Let's look at the miracle. The miracle, Luke 5.17, it begins by telling us, 00:36:43.580 |
"The power of the Lord was present for him to perform miracles." 00:36:47.580 |
Now, if you just read that, not understanding the context, 00:36:52.580 |
he's like, "Oh, yeah, the power was with him, and that's why he was able to perform miracles." 00:36:55.580 |
Now, if that was said of anybody else who would say, 00:36:58.580 |
"Oh, this is a man of God that God has anointed." 00:37:07.580 |
Because He's God, He's the creator of the universe. 00:37:12.580 |
He sustains all things, and yet the Bible says this miracle that He's going to perform 00:37:23.580 |
That even in this miracle, even in this great thing that He does, 00:37:26.580 |
He humbled Himself to the point where He became a servant. 00:37:39.580 |
Clearly, it paints a picture of desperateness. 00:37:42.580 |
But I want you to understand, when He says He was a paralytic, 00:37:46.580 |
it doesn't explain to us how He became a paralytic. 00:37:49.580 |
My guess is that this may have come from an injury. 00:37:53.580 |
It seems like they were very, very desperate to get Him healed. 00:37:58.580 |
That doesn't necessarily mean that He was injured, 00:38:00.580 |
but I'm just kind of looking at that as maybe the desperateness came from the fact that He was injured. 00:38:05.580 |
And He became a paralytic, and that's why there was more of a sense of urgency to get Him healed. 00:38:11.580 |
Now, the point that I really want you to understand in what's going on, 00:38:17.580 |
is that here's a room, they're barred into His house, and people are crowded. 00:38:23.580 |
Now, we don't know if Jesus was healing other people, but again, those of you who went to India, 00:38:28.580 |
you have a picture in your head because we've experienced it. 00:38:31.580 |
Why do we have our medical camp inside the room? 00:38:36.580 |
We can't do it outside because it's just too many people bombarding. 00:38:41.580 |
Because they're desperate. They know that if we leave, they're not going to get the medical attention. 00:38:45.580 |
They're not going to get their eyes examined by the doctors. 00:38:50.580 |
We are the first foreigners in some of these villages that's been there for over 40 years. 00:38:55.580 |
So they know if we leave that they may not have another access to us. 00:38:59.580 |
So at some points, we may have hundreds of people outside really trying to get in, 00:39:03.580 |
and we pass out numbers to try to make it orderly, but even with the numbers, 00:39:08.580 |
because they're desperate, they want to be seen, so they're knocking it to the door. 00:39:11.580 |
What I'm picturing in my head is they're bombarded in, 00:39:16.580 |
and Jesus' fame has spread to the point that the leaders of Israel, right? 00:39:21.580 |
So if Pharisees came from every village, and even from Jerusalem, 00:39:27.580 |
my guess is that room was packed with Pharisees. 00:39:31.580 |
And if you weren't a leader, if you weren't a man of significance, or maybe of tremendous wealth, 00:39:39.580 |
So an average person who came to Jesus to get healed was probably knocking outside, 00:39:44.580 |
trying to get in, kind of like what we do, right? 00:39:47.580 |
When we go there, we have to have guys like standing at the door, 00:39:54.580 |
So all day, we're fighting with the crowd to keep them back. 00:39:58.580 |
That's probably the scene that we're seeing here, 00:40:01.580 |
and the disciples are probably outside protecting, probably, you know, this is Peter's home. 00:40:07.580 |
And in that context, this paralytic, four of his friends, according to the Gospel of Mark, 00:40:15.580 |
they go up to the roof, and they start breaking the roof. 00:40:19.580 |
Now you have to understand, to break the roof, that's not like one that they open up the top and they drop them in. 00:40:25.580 |
A typical roof at that time had wood beams, logs, 00:40:29.580 |
and then they had some sort of a leaf cover, and they put mud over it. 00:40:34.580 |
So in order to break into that, it wasn't just something that they just kind of lifted up and they come in. 00:40:47.580 |
Everybody else is in the door trying to get in, 00:40:50.580 |
but they cut line because they found another route that they're going to go in. 00:40:53.580 |
So you can imagine everybody else looking at them is like, "What?" 00:40:57.580 |
So how do you feel if you, even if you're at Disneyland and somebody cuts in front of you, 00:41:05.580 |
Or at Costco, somebody tries to cut in line, you feel bad. 00:41:08.580 |
But imagine if you were trying to get medical attention, you're trying to get Jesus to heal you, 00:41:13.580 |
So imagine the crowd that's outside who's probably already angered with them, 00:41:17.580 |
that they're cutting line, they're breaking this. 00:41:23.580 |
So they're sitting there, "Are these guys serious?" 00:41:27.580 |
And my guess is, at the minimum, it's going to take at least five, six minutes, 00:41:31.580 |
even if all four of them were chopping at it. 00:41:33.580 |
So there's like four or five minutes of dust coming down, dirt, mud, you know, 00:41:41.580 |
Pharisees are offended because these guys are leaders. 00:41:43.580 |
They're used to being honored, and the roof is coming down on top of them, right? 00:41:48.580 |
So you can imagine that in the middle of all of this, people are irritated. 00:41:55.580 |
So the picture that I have is typically to get to the roof, 00:41:58.580 |
they would have a small, narrow staircase to get up there. 00:42:04.580 |
So I would think that the disciples, the other crowds who are angry with them, 00:42:10.580 |
So they have other friends at that narrow case fighting them off, right? 00:42:15.580 |
So finally, by the time he gets dropped in front of Jesus, 00:42:25.580 |
He's like, "This is the honored guest, the Pharisees are sitting here. 00:42:28.580 |
This is Jesus, possibly the Messiah, and then he broke my house." 00:42:34.580 |
Everybody was probably irritated and angry with the four friends and the paralytic. 00:42:45.580 |
Jesus looks at him, and instead of saying, "What are you doing? Get in line." 00:42:49.580 |
Everybody houses him, "You're not the only person who's sick." 00:42:52.580 |
Instead, he looks at the effort that they made to break in, and he says, 00:42:57.580 |
"Because of your faith, your sins have been forgiven." 00:43:05.580 |
Why does God tell us to seek with all our heart? 00:43:10.580 |
In Matthew 7-8, it says, "Ask, and it will be given to you. 00:43:13.580 |
Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. 00:43:16.580 |
For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds. 00:43:25.580 |
Even about persistent prayer in Luke 18-1-3, he says not just to pray, 00:43:30.580 |
but to be devoted to prayer, to persistently pray. 00:43:33.580 |
That even this wicked judge who could care less about this widow, 00:43:47.580 |
In Jeremiah 29-13, "You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart." 00:43:55.580 |
Not just seek him, not just ask, not just search, but he says with all your heart. 00:44:03.580 |
Why can't we just seek him, but it has to be completely devoted? 00:44:08.580 |
It tells us that even in the response, and even throughout Old Testament and New Testament, 00:44:13.580 |
the primary thing that God is looking for is faith. 00:44:20.580 |
That even when we pray, he says you must pray in faith. 00:44:24.580 |
That in our search, in our devotion, in our sense of urgency, 00:44:28.580 |
it reveals that we understand that he's our only hope. 00:44:33.580 |
That we understand that he's the only one who can answer my prayers. 00:44:41.580 |
And so because they went through all of that, he instead of looking and saying, 00:44:44.580 |
"Man, they cheated, they cut in line, they're irritated, the leaders are ticked off." 00:44:55.580 |
The scripture clearly says in Acts 4-12, "There is salvation in no one else. 00:45:00.580 |
For there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved." 00:45:07.580 |
Just like those, when we go to Indian villages and people are really wrestling, 00:45:12.580 |
especially as the time goes by and they know that we're probably going to leave. 00:45:16.580 |
There's a sense of desperateness of trying to get through the door. 00:45:19.580 |
And trying to every crack, every possibility, every connection that they have 00:45:24.580 |
to use that to get in because once we leave, we can't help them. 00:45:29.580 |
It's because they know and they believe that we have the doctors that are needed to help them. 00:45:37.580 |
Christ sees in their desperateness, in their cry, in what they were doing. 00:45:45.580 |
And then so he wants to reward them, but the reward that he gives them is that your sins are forgiven. 00:45:54.580 |
At the core of that, you can look at that after all that they have done, right? 00:46:00.580 |
He says, "After all that, your sins are forgiven." 00:46:04.580 |
What? We didn't go through all of that just so that you can say your sins are forgiven? 00:46:09.580 |
We brought him down because we want him to be healed. 00:46:16.580 |
And there's a very specific reason why Luke mentions and describes the Pharisees. 00:46:23.580 |
Luke chapter 5, 21-23, it says, "The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason." 00:46:27.580 |
Again, they were thinking to themselves. This was not an emotional outburst. 00:46:34.580 |
In fact, we're not even sure if they were arguing with Jesus. 00:46:40.580 |
Who is this man who speaks blasphemies, who can forgive sins but God alone? 00:46:48.580 |
100%. Their response was correct. That's why they were reasoning. 00:46:55.580 |
Think about what it took for a Jew to be forgiven of sins. 00:47:03.580 |
All that drama of the whole offering, the grain offering, sin offering, guilt offering, the peace offering. 00:47:09.580 |
All the offerings that God told them and said, "You must follow these rules, 00:47:13.580 |
that no one can touch these poles, and no one can touch the altar, and animals being slaughtered, 00:47:19.580 |
and no one can enter into the Holy of Holies. 00:47:22.580 |
You have the Day of Atonement, the whole drama every single year, 00:47:27.580 |
and just a bloody mess at the tabernacle and at the temple. 00:47:32.580 |
They needed to do that every single year, repeat it over and over again, 00:47:37.580 |
just so that they can have some kind of access to God with their sins forgiven. 00:47:43.580 |
And then to have a man just stand there and say, "Your sins forgiven." 00:47:49.580 |
So for a Pharisee who knows the law, the teachers of the law, who's been taught this, 00:47:54.580 |
to make sure that they kept the law perfectly, 00:47:58.580 |
and then a man shows up, impossibly, is he the Messiah? He's performing miracles, 00:48:02.580 |
everybody's coming after him, and for him to say, "Your sins are forgiven." 00:48:08.580 |
And so when they are offered their reasoning in their head, "That's blasphemy!" 00:48:20.580 |
And that's why Luke is mentioning their presence, 00:48:24.580 |
because they knew exactly what Jesus was saying. 00:48:34.580 |
Knowing their reasoning, Jesus responds and says, "Which is easier to say, 00:48:38.580 |
'Your sins have been forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk.'" 00:48:44.580 |
You see how offensive that is if Jesus wasn't God, if he didn't have the authority to say that? 00:48:53.580 |
and you have all these people who are in jail for murder, and they have life sentences, 00:48:57.580 |
and you go and say, "Oh man, I feel compassionate for you. It must be hard in there." 00:49:05.580 |
The life sentence, you know what? You guys are all pardoned. 00:49:09.580 |
And you open the gate and just let everybody out, because you're compassionate, 00:49:16.580 |
And so you open the door. Everybody, let's get out. What's going to happen? 00:49:21.580 |
First of all, they're all going to be caught and put back into jail, 00:49:24.580 |
and they're going to get extra time for breaking out of jail. 00:49:29.580 |
And the guy who opened the door, now he's going to be in prison, right? 00:49:34.580 |
For aiding and abetting people that was not pardoned. 00:49:38.580 |
The only person that can come and do that is maybe the governor, maybe the president of the United States. 00:49:42.580 |
He had the authority to come and say, "Okay, I pardon all of you." 00:49:46.580 |
But outside of the people who has authority to say, "You're pardoned," 00:49:54.580 |
And so the Pharisees, when they hear this, it's like, 00:49:57.580 |
"What a good thing that they hear. How can you possibly say that?" 00:50:11.580 |
In fact, the Scripture tells us in John chapter 10, 31-33, 00:50:23.580 |
And Jesus answered them, 'I showed you many good works from the Father. For which of them are you stoning Me?' 00:50:28.580 |
The Jews answered Him, 'For a good work we have not stoned you, but for blasphemy. 00:50:32.580 |
And because you, being a man, make yourself out to be God.'" 00:50:41.580 |
From this point on, they knew exactly what Jesus was saying. 00:50:44.580 |
In order for you to have authority to forgive sin, you have to be God. 00:50:48.580 |
And because you're not God, this is blasphemy. 00:50:55.580 |
I mean, you're a good man. Clearly you have powers. 00:50:59.580 |
How can you be a mere man and say that you're God? 00:51:07.580 |
Jesus can't possibly be a good man and forgive sins. 00:51:13.580 |
If He was just a mere man, what authority did He have to pardon you of eternal judgment? 00:51:19.580 |
What power? He'd be a crazy man. He'd be a guilty man. 00:51:22.580 |
He'd be a lawbreaker Himself, deserving of judgment. 00:51:26.580 |
If He actually did not have authority to do that. 00:51:33.580 |
In fact, every sin that we commit is ultimately a sin against God. 00:51:39.580 |
If you sin against Me, obviously it's up to Me to say, "Okay, you wronged Me, so I forgive you." 00:51:46.580 |
But look what David says in Psalm 51, 3-4, when he confesses his sin of adultery and even murder. 00:51:54.580 |
He says, "For I know My transgressions, and My sin is ever before Me against you. 00:52:00.580 |
You only I have sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified when you speak and blameless when you judge." 00:52:08.580 |
Now that sounds unfair. He basically raped Bathsheba. 00:52:18.580 |
He puts Uriah in a position where he knows he's going to get slaughtered, so he basically murders him. 00:52:23.580 |
And then when he gets caught, and he confesses and he says, "To you and you only have I sinned." 00:52:29.580 |
What does he mean by that? That sounds really offensive. 00:52:33.580 |
He's not saying that he didn't transgress against Bathsheba. 00:52:37.580 |
He's not saying that there's no wrong done to Uriah. 00:52:40.580 |
He's saying in the large scheme of things, the great sin, the greatest sin is sin against God. 00:52:48.580 |
Although he committed adultery with Bathsheba, and forced her to break that covenant between her and her husband, 00:52:59.580 |
the greater sin is the covenant he broke with God, because it was God. 00:53:06.580 |
Even though he ended up taking the life of a loyal man, Uriah, 00:53:12.580 |
and obviously he sins against him because he takes his life, but the greater sin is the life that belonged to God that he took, 00:53:22.580 |
Because that was his creation, that was his child that he took. 00:53:27.580 |
So in the large scheme of things, he's the king of Israel. 00:53:34.580 |
If he decides to take a wife, if he decides to take 10,000 wives, who's going to make him guilty? 00:53:39.580 |
If he chooses to kill not only one, but 10,000 men, who's going to judge him? 00:53:46.580 |
But standing before God, he recognizes that his sin is against God, first and foremost. 00:53:52.580 |
Every sin that you and I commit is a sin against God. 00:53:56.580 |
We may feel more guilty and sorrowful and sad that we harmed somebody else, 00:54:01.580 |
but at the end of the day, the greater sin that we need to confess is a sin that we committed against God. 00:54:08.580 |
It's because we do not recognize sometimes the covenant between God and that we belong to him, 00:54:14.580 |
that we feel more sorrowful about what we do to other people than we do with the covenant between God. 00:54:20.580 |
And that's why the only person that can forgive of any sin, ultimately, and to pardon us is God himself. 00:54:30.580 |
In the midst of all the ministry, all the healing, all the feeding, even the raising of the dead, 00:54:36.580 |
ultimately, was to bring sinners to repentance, to reconcile us to a holy, holy, holy God. 00:54:43.580 |
He didn't come to fix the economy. He didn't come to fix political problems. 00:54:47.580 |
He says it with his own words that he came to seek and save the lost. 00:54:52.580 |
The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. 00:54:57.580 |
In fact, Romans 8, 28 says, "We know that God causes all things to work together for good, 00:55:02.580 |
to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose." 00:55:09.580 |
To work together for good. What is the good that he's referring to? 00:55:13.580 |
He causes all things to work together for good. 00:55:16.580 |
Like all the trials, all the struggles that your business is going to do well. 00:55:22.580 |
Like everything in your life, ultimately, no matter how hard it is, 00:55:25.580 |
eventually, you're going to find out that this was for good. 00:55:28.580 |
That you're going to live a long life and your children are going to be taken care of. 00:55:31.580 |
You're going to be healthy, wealthy. Is that what he means by good? 00:55:36.580 |
No. What he means by good is to bring us to repentance and our salvation, 00:55:41.580 |
our justification, our sanctification, our glorification. 00:55:45.580 |
So everything he does, the end goal is not your physical healing. 00:55:52.580 |
The end goal of everything that God does is not your safety. 00:55:57.580 |
It's not comfort for your children. It's not your retirement. 00:56:02.580 |
The end goal of everything that he does is to forgive us of our sins. 00:56:11.580 |
So sometimes God may bless your life to bring you to repentance. 00:56:15.580 |
Sometimes God may cause you and allow you to suffer to bring you to repentance. 00:56:21.580 |
Sometimes God will cause you to be in comfort so that you can use that for his glory. 00:56:27.580 |
Sometimes God will cause you to be in tears to bring you to repentance. 00:56:35.580 |
He brings all things. He works all things for the central purpose so that we can be married to Christ. 00:56:47.580 |
In Isaiah 43, 25 says, "I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgression my own sake, 00:56:55.580 |
Jeremiah 31, 34, "They will not teach again each man his neighbor and each man his brother, 00:57:00.580 |
saying, 'Know the Lord, for they will know me.' 00:57:04.580 |
From the least of them to the greatest of them declares the Lord, 00:57:06.580 |
for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more." 00:57:18.580 |
Between the old covenant and the new covenant, the reason why they had to stay away in the old covenant 00:57:30.580 |
the reason why they have to have this relationship with him 00:57:33.580 |
is because the barrier was not our ability, it was not our ingenuity. 00:57:40.580 |
People are not not saved because we didn't find a clever way to bring them to church. 00:57:48.580 |
People are not not saved because we didn't figure out the best marketing to get people in here. 00:58:04.580 |
"Who is God like you who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act to the remnant of his possession? 00:58:09.580 |
He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in unchanging love." 00:58:22.580 |
but ultimately everything he does is to bring us to repentance. 00:58:27.580 |
So when Jesus answers the skeptics, the reasoning, 00:58:30.580 |
"This is blasphemy. Who can do this but God?" 00:58:35.580 |
To say your sins are forgiven or to tell a paralytic to get up and walk?" 00:58:41.580 |
Well, I could say your sins are forgiven. That's so easy. 00:58:47.580 |
Your sins are forgiven. Your sins are forgiven. 00:58:49.580 |
I can go and open up all the prisoners' doors. Everybody's forgiven. 00:58:55.580 |
I can tell any elementary student, any child who's three who can open his mouth, he can repeat those words. 00:59:06.580 |
Now, I want you to—I hope you really understand this. 00:59:16.580 |
but to have any authority to actually forgive sins 00:59:21.580 |
required the Son of God to empty himself of his glory. 00:59:28.580 |
If Jesus came as Caesar, we would have looked at that and said, 00:59:33.580 |
"Why would the Son of God humble himself as a king of Rome 00:59:39.580 |
and experience fatigue and hunger, bowel movement? 00:59:43.580 |
Why would he humiliate himself becoming a human being, let alone a servant?" 00:59:49.580 |
The Son of God had to come, be humiliated in human form, 00:59:54.580 |
consider equality with God nothing to be grasped, 00:59:57.580 |
and then he humbled himself to the point of death, 01:00:00.580 |
the most humiliating, painful death that human beings have invented up to that point, 01:00:13.580 |
The real suffering was when his Father drew near him 01:00:19.580 |
and placed the judgment that you and I, the elect of God, past, present, and future upon him, 01:00:26.580 |
where the Son of God cries out, "Why have you forsaken me?" 01:00:34.580 |
He had to experience that and then be crucified, 01:00:37.580 |
and then be buried, and the third day to rise in order for him to say, 01:00:40.580 |
"Your sins are forgiven," and have any authority to do that. 01:00:45.580 |
But to say to the man, "Get up and walk," that's all he needed to do. 01:00:52.580 |
"In order for you to know that I have authority to forgive sins, I'm going to heal this man." 01:01:01.580 |
Get up. He doesn't say, "We're going to have 13 sessions of healing. 01:01:05.580 |
We're going to have 15, and then maybe in about two years, 01:01:08.580 |
we can kind of stiffen your muscles and your joints, and we're going to work this out." 01:01:12.580 |
He's like, "No." He just said, "Get up. That's it." 01:01:23.580 |
It is much more difficult to say, "Your sins are forgiven." 01:01:27.580 |
Now, having said that, because it is easy to say, 01:01:43.580 |
If you want to be forgiven, just come up. Just come up. 01:01:46.580 |
See what I'm saying? Okay. Now you guys are forgiven. Good. Go. 01:01:52.580 |
Anybody? You feel bad about it? Okay. Now you're forgiven, too. 01:01:55.580 |
We have a generation of people whose prison doors have been opened, 01:02:00.580 |
and they are walking around saying, "Oh, he said I'm forgiven. The pastor said I'm forgiven. 01:02:11.580 |
The only way that a man can be forgiven is according to the Word of God. 01:02:17.580 |
You can't be like, "Oh, I want to be gracious because I want them to feel loved and to be gracious, 01:02:22.580 |
and so I want to give them assurance of salvation." 01:02:25.580 |
Giving assurance of salvation to a man who hasn't truly been forgiven is a death sentence 01:02:31.580 |
because you've given him false hope to live the rest of his life, 01:02:35.580 |
and then to meet the judge, and he says, "I never forgive you. 01:02:39.580 |
You never repented. You never asked for forgiveness. 01:02:43.580 |
They who did not represent me, who had no authority against what I have explicitly said in the Scripture, 01:02:51.580 |
has passed out forgiveness and pardoning when I never did." 01:03:02.580 |
Think about the consequences of passing out forgiveness when it's not really there, 01:03:10.580 |
which is easier to say you're forgiven just so that they would feel better, 01:03:16.580 |
just so that they would feel welcome, and then have an easy, comfortable life 01:03:22.580 |
until they meet the only one who can truly be, to be, to give the forgiveness. 01:03:32.580 |
This is very, very serious, and this is why Paul says, 01:03:40.580 |
"I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God." 01:03:46.580 |
The first thing that disqualifies a preacher is that he is more afraid of man's opinions than God's. 01:03:54.580 |
He is more concerned about the power of man and the social pressure than he is of God. 01:04:00.580 |
He is more afraid of losing people in his church and opinions of people than he is of God. 01:04:05.580 |
Then he has been disqualified to represent God. 01:04:10.580 |
Because the only way that true peace can come, the only way that true salvation can come, 01:04:14.580 |
is when the only person who has the authority to forgive sins actually forgives sins, actually pardons. 01:04:23.580 |
Colossians 1 Corinthians 1, 22, 24, "For indeed, Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom, 01:04:32.580 |
Was Apostle Paul able to perform signs? Of course, he's an apostle. 01:04:37.580 |
All the apostles were given authority to heal people, to open their eyes, even raise people from the dead. 01:04:43.580 |
So could he have done that easily? Because that authority was given to him. 01:04:47.580 |
Could he have argued with the Greeks in wisdom? Yes, he was the top scholar. 01:04:55.580 |
And so if he wanted to argue, Paul would have been perfect to argue and win every argument. 01:05:00.580 |
But he says, "No, that's not where the power is. They're not going to be convinced. 01:05:03.580 |
They're not going to convert because of that." 01:05:08.580 |
It is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is the power of God to those who are being saved." 01:05:19.580 |
The power is not like if you just love bomb people. 01:05:23.580 |
If we just love bomb people, you can get them to come. 01:05:27.580 |
You can get them to love you. You can get them to love the church. 01:05:35.580 |
You can do everything that you can do in your power to get them to like what you like and to appreciate you and to thank you. 01:05:42.580 |
But you have no power, and I have no power to bring them to repent. 01:05:48.580 |
So the best thing that we can do is to present the clear, unadulterated gospel of Jesus Christ. 01:05:59.580 |
For some, they may be offended. For some, it is the power of God when they repent. 01:06:07.580 |
Let me conclude with this, the response of the crowds in verse 25 and 26. 01:06:13.580 |
"And immediately he got up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home glorifying God. 01:06:20.580 |
They were all struck with astonishment and began glorifying God, and they were filled with fear, saying, 'We have seen remarkable things today.'" 01:06:30.580 |
The miracle that took place wasn't that this man was able to walk. 01:06:36.580 |
I mean, all those people who are trying to get in, couldn't Jesus have walked out and said, "You're forgiven"? 01:06:41.580 |
I mean, the reason why we get into, when we go to India, into a room, because we don't have the manpower to do that. 01:06:47.580 |
We don't have the manpower, but if we did, right? 01:06:51.580 |
If we had 30 eye doctors and 30 doctors, I mean, we could be outside, just spread out and heal everybody. 01:06:57.580 |
But couldn't Jesus have done that by himself? 01:07:01.580 |
Couldn't he have done that by himself? Couldn't he have demonstrated his power and all of them healed and just went home? 01:07:06.580 |
If thousands came, he healed a whole thousand. If 10,000 came, he healed 10,000. 01:07:14.580 |
Because he didn't come to heal the paralytic. That was not his ultimate goal. 01:07:23.580 |
This man was healed and went home, and he said, "They were filled with amazement." 01:07:28.580 |
And what does it say? How does it end? "And they were in fear." 01:07:33.580 |
And I said, "Wait a second. Why does it end in fear? Fear is negative." 01:07:39.580 |
When you are genuinely in the presence of the glory of God, 01:07:45.580 |
there is peace, there is joy, and there is fear. 01:07:57.580 |
Not just that. If all he did was have his leg healed, he would have been like, 01:08:02.580 |
"Oh, thank God I'm healed now. I can be normal. I can walk, and I'm no longer paralytic." 01:08:07.580 |
And that would have been it. But why was he fearful? 01:08:19.580 |
The true healing, true healing, always causes a reverence and fear in God's people. 01:08:29.580 |
And it is this reverence and fear that leads to worship. 01:08:33.580 |
When we recognize God, because we don't worship what is common. 01:08:38.580 |
I know the NBA playoffs, who pays money to go see middle-aged men play basketball? 01:08:44.580 |
You almost have to pay them to come. We'll give you $10 for everybody that comes and watches us play. 01:08:50.580 |
Even then, like $10 for five hours? I'm not going to go there. 01:08:54.580 |
We don't worship what's common. We don't follow what's common. 01:08:59.580 |
We don't obey what's common. It's when we recognize the awe of God. 01:09:06.580 |
We follow him. We worship him. We adore him. We wait for him. 01:09:13.580 |
And the evidence of the healing in this man was not that he was just walking. 01:09:18.580 |
The evidence of the healing in this man was that his eye was open, and he met God. 01:09:25.580 |
In the midst of all that we do, let's be careful that we don't prepare for the wedding ceremony and miss the whole point. 01:09:38.580 |
Everything that we do is so that he can bring us to him. 01:09:44.580 |
Because all that has gone wrong in our lives is because of our sins. 01:09:50.580 |
If we would pursue forgiveness as urgently and as desperately as we pursue everything else in our lives, 01:10:05.580 |
Let's take some time to pray again as our worship team comes and leads us. 01:10:14.580 |
As our worship team leads us, let's take some time for personal prayer and reflect upon the word of God, 01:10:20.580 |
that you would not just be the hearers of the word, but that you would be doers of the things that you have heard. 01:16:32.580 |
Heavenly Father, we ask that the words that you have implanted in our hearts and in our mind, 01:16:38.580 |
that it would bear fruit throughout the week. 01:16:41.580 |
Help us, Lord God, to know the great gift that we have, 01:16:46.580 |
and that Christ has suffered all, sacrificed all, to forgive us of our sins. 01:16:52.580 |
To know, Lord God, that we have been freed from the bondage of sin, 01:16:56.580 |
that we have been called and made slaves to righteousness. 01:17:00.580 |
Help us to reflect that grace, that love, that spirit, Lord God, 01:17:05.580 |
that wherever we go, that we may reflect the aroma of Christ. 01:17:09.580 |
So we pray that you would help us to open our eyes to see the darkness that is around us. 01:17:15.580 |
Help us, Lord God, to move from frustration to prayer, 01:17:20.580 |
to move from any despair, Lord God, to hope in the power of Jesus Christ. 01:17:26.580 |
Help us, Lord, not to simply be hearers of the word, but to be doers. 01:18:47.580 |
And life is worth the living just because he lives.