(soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) - Good morning, Church family, Happy Lord's Day.
We're gonna go ahead and begin our service with this first hymn. (soft music) (soft music) ♪ Holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ Lord God Almighty ♪ ♪ Early in the morning ♪ ♪ Our song shall rise to thee ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ Merciful and mighty ♪ ♪ God in three persons ♪ ♪ Blessed Trinity ♪ (soft music) (soft music) ♪ Holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ All the saints adore thee ♪ ♪ Casting down their golden crowns ♪ ♪ 'Round the glassy sea ♪ ♪ And cherubim and seraphim ♪ ♪ Falling down before thee ♪ ♪ Who was and is and evermore shall reign ♪ (soft music) ♪ Holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ Though the darkness thine be ♪ ♪ Though the eye of sin o'er man mine ♪ ♪ Nor remain unseen ♪ ♪ Holy, thou art holy ♪ ♪ There is none beside thee ♪ ♪ Perfect in power ♪ ♪ Love and purity ♪ (soft music) ♪ Holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ Lord God Almighty ♪ ♪ All thy works shall praise thy name ♪ ♪ In earth and sky and sea ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ Merciful and mighty ♪ ♪ God in three persons ♪ ♪ Blessed trinity ♪ ♪ Sing it out, God in three ♪ ♪ God in three persons ♪ ♪ Blessed trinity ♪ (soft music) (soft music) - All right, good morning.
Welcome to Breen Community Church. Let me make a few announcements before we get started. First of all, on April 30th, we have a welcome lunch. And this is for people who are coming into the church who have questions about how the church functions and what are some philosophies of the ministry, who are the leaders, schedules, and that kind of stuff.
So if you are interested in attending the lunch, it's happening on April 30th at 1 p.m. in the other building, not in the cafeteria, but on the other side, okay? The cafe, but on the other side. So let the welcome team know so that they can prepare the food for that.
And this is happening on April 30th. Family ministry is having a roll and stroll Saturday on April 29th at 9 a.m. So this is basically not for the Jubilee 50 and over, and it's not for the FAM 245. You're welcome to join FAM 245, but it's again a gear for the rest of you, which is probably about 70, 80% of the family ministry.
And they're getting together on Saturday from 10 to 12, just kind of fellowshipping together, strolling at Open Space Trail. Okay, I think that's what that's called. Okay, so if you want to sign up for that, you can come out, and they're going to be holding that event on that Saturday, April 29th.
Softball tournament, May 20th. So if you want to play softball and you haven't signed up, please sign up for that. I read that the practice is going to start today. Is that true? Anybody can confirm? Yes? Where is it happening? Bill Barber Park at 2 p.m., right? And is this ladies and the men?
Okay, should have figured all that out before I came up here. All right. But anyway, so that's happening at 2 o'clock, and just grab your gear and just come out, and they'll probably put you into different teams, right? Okay, so come out for that. The fundraiser for that is going to be going to support the first Korean mission trip that we're having this summer.
We have a team of about 20 people who are coming out or participating in that. It's a little bit longer trip than we normally would do, mission trips, because it is our first year going and breaking ground, and so it's going to take a little bit more work. So fundraisers are happening.
Okay, we'll let you know more about that. And then all church retreat that's happening on August 11th through 13th, that's Friday through Sunday, early registration is closing on April 30th. So you have about two or three more weeks, and then after that it's going to be regular registration, and then after that there will be late registration.
So if you are planning to come, you need to not only add your name, but you also need to pay the funds. So if you--for whatever reason you can't go, you know, and if it's close enough we can get the refund, we'll give you the refund, but we do need you to register early as possible, and that's early registration is closing at 430--not 430, 4-30, okay, end of the month, and so after that the registration fee is going to start going up.
Next Sunday we have a members meeting, our quarterly members meeting. We have actually quite a few people to present to the church. So that's happening at 1:30, but along with that, our career mission team is going to be doing a fundraiser with homemade chili. This is not canned made chili, but homemade chili.
So people are actually making the chili, and then we're going to give you a hot dog to put it on, okay? We're actually selling hot dogs. But there's going to be homemade chili, there's going to be other--sauerkraut and all this other stuff that's going to be happening. So we encourage you to stay.
Even if you don't like hot dogs, eat the buns, eat something else. So it is a fundraiser. It is going to be $10. I know what you're thinking, I can get that at $1.50 at Costco, but it will be going to missions here. So if you love Jesus-- Anyway, we're just asking you to support the team.
So bring your money and give us your money. So that's going to be happening after second service next week. Oh, actually, even after the first service, there will be hot dogs. And again, they told me to emphasize homemade chili. So after service, it's going to be given to you in a container, so if you can't eat it here, you can take that with you.
But that's happening next week, so please help us out with that. And then afterwards, our members meeting will be happening at 1.30. All right, let me pray for us. And then again, if you are visiting us or if you brought physical offering, there's a box in the back as you're leaving.
But for the rest of us, we'll give you a minute for you to give your electronic offering. Let me pray for us. Gracious Father, we thank you for the blessing of being able to come and worship you. Lord, we know what a privilege it is to be able to come to the throne of grace with confidence to seek help in time of need.
Help us, Lord God, to see through all the clutter in our lives, that we may see you causing us to stand, that your grace is what sustains us. Help us, Lord God, this morning to fix our eyes, our heart, our mind, all of it, Lord God, upon Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith.
I pray that even in this giving, help us to give it intentionally as an act of worship, and may it be multiplied 30, 60, 100-fold for your kingdom. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Church family, let's all stand together. I just want to encourage you that we come here week to week, and sometimes we bring what's on our mind into this room, but I want to encourage us that we come before God who is awesome.
He's worthy to be praised. I'm going to sing this first song. It's namely "Awesome is the Lord." Great are you, Lord, mighty in strength. You are faithful and you will ever be. We will praise you on the vartays. For your glory we offer everything. Raise your hands, all you nations, shout to God of creation.
How awesome is the Lord most high. Sing it out, where you send us. Where you send us, God, we will go. You're the answer we want the world to know. We will trust you when you call our name. Where you lead us, we'll follow all the way. Raise your hands, all you nations, shout to God of creation.
How awesome is the Lord most high. We will praise you, we will praise you together. For now and forever, how awesome is the Lord most high. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. How awesome is the Lord most high. One more time, hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. How awesome is the Lord most high. Raise your hands, all you nations, shout to God of creation.
How awesome is the Lord most high. We will praise you. We will praise you together. For now and forever, how awesome is the Lord most high. Sing it out. How awesome is the Lord most high. Amen. Let's try that one more time. If you can turn your Bibles with me to Luke chapter 5.
We're going to be reading from verse 17 through verse 26. Luke chapter 5, verse 17 through 26. Reading out of the NASB. "One day he was teaching, and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem, and performed healing.
And some men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were trying to bring him in and to set him down in front of him. But not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher into the middle of the crowd in front of Jesus.
Seeing their faith, he said, 'Friend, your sins are forgiven.' The scribes and Pharisees began to reason, saying, 'Who is this man who speaks blasphemies, who can forgive sins but God alone?' But Jesus, aware of their reasoning, answered and said to them, 'Why are you reasoning in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, "Your sins have been forgiven," forgiving you, or to say, "Get up and walk?" But so 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, get up and pick up your stretcher and go home.' Immediately he got up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home glorifying God.
They were all struck with astonishment and began glorifying God, and they were filled with fear, saying, 'We have seen remarkable things today.'" Let's pray. Lord, we pray that your word would be open to us, help us to hear from you. I pray that you would protect my mouth, this pulpit, Lord God, from speaking any falsehood.
We pray that your truth and your truth alone will go forth, that your sheep may hear your voice and follow you alone. In Christ's name we pray, amen. I think many of you guys know we are in wedding season, and so we just had a wedding yesterday. There's another wedding coming next week, and then we're getting so busy with weddings that they're starting to double up.
We have maybe sometimes a couple weddings at the same time on the same day. I'm not sure exactly what the number is, but I've heard that there's about 17, 18 weddings lined up from here to August or October. And so there's a lot of weddings that are happening. I mean, our church always had a lot of weddings, but we're kind of in hyperspace now.
You know, anytime we have weddings, you know, obviously those of you who've been married recently, there's so much going on, right, in the preparation. And again, my personal opinion is I don't think there's anything that you do in life that requires as much attention. And I know when you have your first child, there's a lot of work that goes in, but by the time the child comes, especially for the men, you're not really doing anything, right?
We're waiting. We're doing support work, right? But during the wedding, I mean, you have to prepare for the food, you have to find the venue, the flowers, you have the guest list, and you have to get the reception. And in the midst of all of that, you're getting married, right?
And then you have to get your apartment ready, you have to get the in-laws and people coming into town. There's so much that you have to do that if we're not careful, we can get sucked up into the preparation of the wedding ceremony, and then you miss the whole point of this, right?
And so if I were to ask you, all the things that you need to do, all the things that require your attention, what is the most important thing that needs to be done for the wedding? And don't answer me, just kind of think to yourself, what would you say?
Maybe some of you say, well, venue. You have to find the venue because that's hard, right? And that's going to kind of set the tone of the mood of the thing. Maybe the officiant, maybe somebody who's going to lead you well. Pictures. Everything else you might forget, but the pictures is going to be a lifetime.
Or you might say it's the food. Most of the guests may say it's the food. The food is what they remember, so you have to make sure that you have the right food. So you may have different opinions on all this, but I think you will agree with me, there's one glaring thing that is at the center of all of that.
And the answer is your marriage, right? You can do all of that, and if you didn't properly prepare to get you to start a marriage that isn't going to honor God, right? You missed the whole point. It doesn't matter how beautiful it is, and you have the best flowers and the venue.
You can have all of that beautiful, and then you missed the whole point because it didn't actually prepare you for what you're doing that day, for marriage ceremony, right? Sometimes I've seen couples who get so caught up in making the wedding as beautiful as possible and so stressed out, and they're like so tense with each other that the wife is--or fiance at that time-- is frustrated because he's not as engaged and asked questions.
He thinks he's being helpful by saying, "Well, I don't really care. You just do whatever you want. I'll support you." And then she's angered by that because, "Well, you should care. Why don't you care?" And they get into all this conflict, and then they hold it in, hold it in because they don't want to ruin their wedding day.
And then when the wedding day is over and they get to their honeymoon, they have the biggest fight that they've ever had on their honeymoon. And so I've had to counsel people after they come back from their honeymoon and to kind of help them to reconcile because the whole honeymoon, they were angry with each other.
So sometimes the way that we have weddings, that we focus on these external things to the extent that sometimes you miss the whole point of why this wedding is happening to begin with. I say all of this because even as Christians, we can spend all our lives decorating our Christian faith with what we do at church and what's right, what's wrong, studying, and you miss the whole point of why Christ came.
The story that we're looking at really gets to the point, and Jesus publicly declares--it's not the first time-- but He wants people to clearly understand why He's here, what He's doing. That in the midst of all the healing and the popularity growing and people are coming to Him because they want to have sight, and He cuts through all of that, and it's very deliberate why Luke presents it to us the way he presents it.
So this morning I'm going to divide it into three parts. One is the audience. Who's there? Two, the miracle itself, and what's happening there. And then third, the response, the response of the Pharisees, the response of the healed, the response of the crowd that participated in this. As we follow this outline so we can better understand what the point of this story is.
Why is this story here about the paralytic that gets healed, and Jesus says, "Your sins are forgiven"? First of all, the crowd. All we know in the Gospel of Luke, it says there's a large crowd gathering, but Mark gives us a little bit more detail that gives us a background behind what's going on.
In Mark 2, 1-2, it says, "When he had come back from Capernaum, several days afterwards it was heard that he was at home." Stop right there. So the room, the house that this is taking place is not just any center. It was his home. Now, was that Jesus' own home?
Probably not. It just means that that's where they were stationed, this is where he was sleeping, and this is most likely Peter's home. So when he says he was home, he was doing ministry, and he came back to basically rest. So it kind of gives us a background. We talked about this in the beginning of ministry, but already people were not leaving him alone.
He's home resting, and they have found him, and they're coming to him. And when Jesus says in Luke 9-58, Jesus said to him, "The fox have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head," he meant that literally. They wouldn't leave him alone, even at home.
So they barged in. So he's forced into this situation. So I need you to understand what's going on here. Jesus was not out doing ministry. This is happening everywhere he goes. So you can understand why he was so tired. You can understand why he was in the habit of breaking away and spending time with the Father, really to get some rest.
They hear that he's at home, and then in Luke 5-17 tells us what happened. And there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. Now Luke goes out of his way to tell us that these Pharisees came from every village, from Judea, from Jerusalem.
Now the reason why this is significant is Luke is making sure that we understand that this was not just some regular crowd that wanted healing. People came, like the leaders of Israel began to hear about this man. And so they traveled all the way from Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the epicenter of Israel's leadership.
And typically, if you wanted access to the leaders, you would have to travel there. You don't have the leaders come to you. You would have to go over there. But Jesus' popularity, could he possibly be the Messiah? And the proof that he was giving with his miracles began to spread.
So he said, "Pharisees." It got their attention. And so they were sitting. Most likely, they had the front row seats to this. Now we're not looking at a room this size. Those of you who've been to India with us, the average size house of a middle class person would have been the center where we would do our medical camps.
And it would fit maybe on the floor, not with chairs, but on the floor, maybe 50, 60, 70, 80 people, depending on the size. Maybe about that size, maybe like 300, 400 square feet max. So they're crowded in. The leaders of Israel come. And this is being an Asian culture.
Most likely, they had the seats of honor, the best seats, wherever that was. And it was in that context, it was in that context that this miracle takes place. So let's look at the miracle. Luke is going out of his way to tell us that this, like the leaders of Israel had heard about him, traveled all the way from Jerusalem to come and get an audience to see, "Is this guy really it?
Who is this guy?" Let's look at the miracle. The miracle, Luke 5.17, it begins by telling us, "The power of the Lord was present for him to perform miracles." Now, if you just read that, not understanding the context, he's like, "Oh, yeah, the power was with him, and that's why he was able to perform miracles." Now, if that was said of anybody else who would say, "Oh, this is a man of God that God has anointed." But this is the Son of God.
That statement in and of itself is humbling. Because He's God, He's the creator of the universe. All things are made for Him, by Him. He sustains all things, and yet the Bible says this miracle that He's going to perform is because God allowed it. This is a statement of humility.
That even in this miracle, even in this great thing that He does, He humbled Himself to the point where He became a servant. Where He needed God's anointing. He needed the Holy Spirit's help. He says, "The paralytic." Clearly, it paints a picture of desperateness. But I want you to understand, when He says He was a paralytic, it doesn't explain to us how He became a paralytic.
My guess is that this may have come from an injury. It seems like they were very, very desperate to get Him healed. That doesn't necessarily mean that He was injured, but I'm just kind of looking at that as maybe the desperateness came from the fact that He was injured.
And He became a paralytic, and that's why there was more of a sense of urgency to get Him healed. Now, the point that I really want you to understand in what's going on, is that here's a room, they're barred into His house, and people are crowded. Now, we don't know if Jesus was healing other people, but again, those of you who went to India, you have a picture in your head because we've experienced it.
Why do we have our medical camp inside the room? We can't do it outside because it's just too many people bombarding. Because they're desperate. They know that if we leave, they're not going to get the medical attention. They're not going to get their eyes examined by the doctors. We are the first foreigners in some of these villages that's been there for over 40 years.
So they know if we leave that they may not have another access to us. So at some points, we may have hundreds of people outside really trying to get in, and we pass out numbers to try to make it orderly, but even with the numbers, because they're desperate, they want to be seen, so they're knocking it to the door.
What I'm picturing in my head is they're bombarded in, and Jesus' fame has spread to the point that the leaders of Israel, right? So if Pharisees came from every village, and even from Jerusalem, my guess is that room was packed with Pharisees. And if you weren't a leader, if you weren't a man of significance, or maybe of tremendous wealth, you probably weren't in that room.
So an average person who came to Jesus to get healed was probably knocking outside, trying to get in, kind of like what we do, right? When we go there, we have to have guys like standing at the door, making sure that they don't barge in. So all day, we're fighting with the crowd to keep them back.
That's probably the scene that we're seeing here, and the disciples are probably outside protecting, probably, you know, this is Peter's home. And in that context, this paralytic, four of his friends, according to the Gospel of Mark, they go up to the roof, and they start breaking the roof. 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.
A typical roof at that time had wood beams, logs, and then they had some sort of a leaf cover, and they put mud over it. And that's what it was. So in order to break into that, it wasn't just something that they just kind of lifted up and they come in.
So it would take time. So can you imagine being in that crowd? First of all, they're cutting line, right? Everybody else is in the door trying to get in, but they cut line because they found another route that they're going to go in. So you can imagine everybody else looking at them is like, "What?" So how do you feel if you, even if you're at Disneyland and somebody cuts in front of you, something as frivolous as Disneyland, right?
Or at Costco, somebody tries to cut in line, you feel bad. But imagine if you were trying to get medical attention, you're trying to get Jesus to heal you, and somebody cuts in line. So imagine the crowd that's outside who's probably already angered with them, that they're cutting line, they're breaking this.
This is Peter's house. This guy's breaking his house. So they're sitting there, "Are these guys serious?" And my guess is, at the minimum, it's going to take at least five, six minutes, even if all four of them were chopping at it. So there's like four or five minutes of dust coming down, dirt, mud, you know, like all this stuff coming down.
It's like, "Wow, this guy's doing this." Pharisees are offended because these guys are leaders. They're used to being honored, and the roof is coming down on top of them, right? So you can imagine that in the middle of all of this, people are irritated. "Who is this? Who are these?" So the picture that I have is typically to get to the roof, they would have a small, narrow staircase to get up there.
So they worked hard to get him up there. So I would think that the disciples, the other crowds who are angry with them, are trying to get up there to stop them. So they have other friends at that narrow case fighting them off, right? So finally, by the time he gets dropped in front of Jesus, what do you think the response would be?
Like, "This guy cut line," right? He's like, "This is the honored guest, the Pharisees are sitting here. This is Jesus, possibly the Messiah, and then he broke my house." Everybody was probably irritated and angry with the four friends and the paralytic. Everybody except Jesus. Jesus looks at him, and instead of saying, "What are you doing?
Get in line." Everybody houses him, "You're not the only person who's sick." Instead, he looks at the effort that they made to break in, and he says, "Because of your faith, your sins have been forgiven." Now, why do you go through all that trouble? Why does God tell us to seek with all our heart?
In Matthew 7-8, it says, "Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds. And to him who knocks, it will be opened." Why does he make us seek, ask, and knock?
Even about persistent prayer in Luke 18-1-3, he says not just to pray, but to be devoted to prayer, to persistently pray. That even this wicked judge who could care less about this widow, because he badgered him, he gave in. So he says to pray like that. Not just to pray, but to pray with urgency.
In Jeremiah 29-13, "You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart." Not just seek him, not just ask, not just search, but he says with all your heart. Why does he do that? Why can't we just seek him, but it has to be completely devoted?
It tells us that even in the response, and even throughout Old Testament and New Testament, the primary thing that God is looking for is faith. Is faith. That even when we pray, he says you must pray in faith. That in our search, in our devotion, in our sense of urgency, it reveals that we understand that he's our only hope.
That we understand that he's the only one who can answer my prayers. That he's the only one that can heal. And so because they went through all of that, he instead of looking and saying, "Man, they cheated, they cut in line, they're irritated, the leaders are ticked off." He was encouraged by their faith.
The scripture clearly says in Acts 4-12, "There is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved." Just like those, when we go to Indian villages and people are really wrestling, especially as the time goes by and they know that we're probably going to leave.
There's a sense of desperateness of trying to get through the door. And trying to every crack, every possibility, every connection that they have to use that to get in because once we leave, we can't help them. It's because they know and they believe that we have the doctors that are needed to help them.
Christ sees in their desperateness, in their cry, in what they were doing. And he says, "It's because you believe." And then so he wants to reward them, but the reward that he gives them is that your sins are forgiven. At the core of that, you can look at that after all that they have done, right?
He says, "After all that, your sins are forgiven." What? We didn't go through all of that just so that you can say your sins are forgiven? We brought him down because we want him to be healed. I want you to see the response. And there's a very specific reason why Luke mentions and describes the Pharisees.
Luke chapter 5, 21-23, it says, "The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason." Again, they were thinking to themselves. This was not an emotional outburst. This was not just like an angry outburst. In fact, we're not even sure if they were arguing with Jesus. It says they were reasoning in their head.
Who is this man who speaks blasphemies, who can forgive sins but God alone? Is that correct? 100%. Their response was correct. That's why they were reasoning. They were thinking about all the laws. Think about what it took for a Jew to be forgiven of sins. All that drama of the tabernacle.
All that drama of the whole offering, the grain offering, sin offering, guilt offering, the peace offering. All the offerings that God told them and said, "You must follow these rules, that no one can touch these poles, and no one can touch the altar, and animals being slaughtered, and no one can enter into the Holy of Holies.
You have the Day of Atonement, the whole drama every single year, and just a bloody mess at the tabernacle and at the temple. They needed to do that every single year, repeat it over and over again, just so that they can have some kind of access to God with their sins forgiven.
And then to have a man just stand there and say, "Your sins forgiven." So for a Pharisee who knows the law, the teachers of the law, who's been taught this, to make sure that they kept the law perfectly, and then a man shows up, impossibly, is he the Messiah?
He's performing miracles, everybody's coming after him, and for him to say, "Your sins are forgiven." That breaks all of their system. And so when they are offered their reasoning in their head, "That's blasphemy!" They're absolutely correct. Unless he's God. Unless he's God. And that's why Luke is mentioning their presence, because they knew exactly what Jesus was saying.
They just didn't believe him. How can you mere man say that? Knowing their reasoning, Jesus responds and says, "Which is easier to say, 'Your sins have been forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk.'" You see how offensive that is if Jesus wasn't God, if he didn't have the authority to say that?
Imagine if you just went to a prison, and you have all these people who are in jail for murder, and they have life sentences, and you go and say, "Oh man, I feel compassionate for you. It must be hard in there." And you decide to open the gate. The life sentence, you know what?
You guys are all pardoned. And you open the gate and just let everybody out, because you're compassionate, and you're gracious, and you're loving. And so you open the door. Everybody, let's get out. What's going to happen? First of all, they're all going to be caught and put back into jail, and they're going to get extra time for breaking out of jail.
And the guy who opened the door, now he's going to be in prison, right? For aiding and abetting people that was not pardoned. The only person that can come and do that is maybe the governor, maybe the president of the United States. He had the authority to come and say, "Okay, I pardon all of you." But outside of the people who has authority to say, "You're pardoned," is a criminal act.
And so the Pharisees, when they hear this, it's like, "What a good thing that they hear. How can you possibly say that?" Jesus was clearly saying that He is God. And that's exactly what He came to do. In fact, the Scripture tells us in John chapter 10, 31-33, "The Jews picked up stones to stone Him.
And Jesus answered them, 'I showed you many good works from the Father. For which of them are you stoning Me?' The Jews answered Him, 'For a good work we have not stoned you, but for blasphemy. And because you, being a man, make yourself out to be God.'" They knew.
From this point on, they knew exactly what Jesus was saying. In order for you to have authority to forgive sin, you have to be God. And because you're not God, this is blasphemy. Even after they saw this miracle, no. I mean, you're a good man. Clearly you have powers.
How can you be a mere man and say that you're God? There is no middle ground. Jesus can't possibly be a good man and forgive sins. If He was just a mere man, what authority did He have to pardon you of eternal judgment? What power? He'd be a crazy man.
He'd be a guilty man. He'd be a lawbreaker Himself, deserving of judgment. If He actually did not have authority to do that. There is no middle ground. In fact, every sin that we commit is ultimately a sin against God. If you sin against Me, obviously it's up to Me to say, "Okay, you wronged Me, so I forgive you." But look what David says in Psalm 51, 3-4, when he confesses his sin of adultery and even murder.
He says, "For I know My transgressions, and My sin is ever before Me against you. 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." Now that sounds unfair. He basically raped Bathsheba. And then to cover up his sin, he murders.
He puts Uriah in a position where he knows he's going to get slaughtered, so he basically murders him. And then when he gets caught, and he confesses and he says, "To you and you only have I sinned." What does he mean by that? That sounds really offensive. He's not saying that he didn't transgress against Bathsheba.
He's not saying that there's no wrong done to Uriah. He's saying in the large scheme of things, the great sin, the greatest sin is sin against God. Although he committed adultery with Bathsheba, and forced her to break that covenant between her and her husband, the greater sin is the covenant he broke with God, because it was God.
Even though he ended up taking the life of a loyal man, Uriah, 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, that didn't belong to him. Because that was his creation, that was his child that he took.
So in the large scheme of things, he's the king of Israel. He's the guy who makes the law. Who's going to judge him? If he decides to take a wife, if he decides to take 10,000 wives, who's going to make him guilty? If he chooses to kill not only one, but 10,000 men, who's going to judge him?
But standing before God, he recognizes that his sin is against God, first and foremost. Every sin that you and I commit is a sin against God. We may feel more guilty and sorrowful and sad that we harmed somebody else, but at the end of the day, the greater sin that we need to confess is a sin that we committed against God.
It's because we do not recognize sometimes the covenant between God and that we belong to him, that we feel more sorrowful about what we do to other people than we do with the covenant between God. And that's why the only person that can forgive of any sin, ultimately, and to pardon us is God himself.
And that's the statement that he's making. In the midst of all the ministry, all the healing, all the feeding, even the raising of the dead, ultimately, was to bring sinners to repentance, to reconcile us to a holy, holy, holy God. He didn't come to fix the economy. He didn't come to fix political problems.
He says it with his own words that he came to seek and save the lost. The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. In fact, Romans 8, 28 says, "We know that God causes all things to work together for good, to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose." All things.
To work together for good. What is the good that he's referring to? He causes all things to work together for good. Like all the trials, all the struggles that your business is going to do well. Is that what he means by good? Like everything in your life, ultimately, no matter how hard it is, eventually, you're going to find out that this was for good.
That you're going to live a long life and your children are going to be taken care of. You're going to be healthy, wealthy. Is that what he means by good? No. What he means by good is to bring us to repentance and our salvation, our justification, our sanctification, our glorification.
So everything he does, the end goal is not your physical healing. The end goal of everything that God does is not your safety. It's not comfort for your children. It's not your retirement. It's not that your business is going to do. The end goal of everything that he does is to forgive us of our sins.
To bring us to repentance. So sometimes God may bless your life to bring you to repentance. Sometimes God may cause you and allow you to suffer to bring you to repentance. Sometimes God will cause you to be in comfort so that you can use that for his glory. Sometimes God will cause you to be in tears to bring you to repentance.
He brings all things. He works all things for the central purpose so that we can be married to Christ. In Isaiah 43, 25 says, "I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgression my own sake, and I will not remember your sins." Jeremiah 31, 34, "They will not teach again each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord, for they will know me.' From the least of them to the greatest of them declares the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more." Why were they not able to see him?
It says because of their sins. Between the old covenant and the new covenant, the reason why they had to stay away in the old covenant is because Christ was not crucified. And once the atonement was made, the reason why they have to have this relationship with him is because the barrier was not our ability, it was not our ingenuity.
People are not not saved because we didn't find a clever way to bring them to church. People are not not saved because we didn't figure out the best marketing to get people in here. The scripture says it's their sin. It's a sin. That's why, again, in Micah 7, 18, it says, "Who is God like you who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act to the remnant of his possession?
He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in unchanging love." He delights to forgive sins. He's not hiding. He's not simply making us work hard, but ultimately everything he does is to bring us to repentance. So when Jesus answers the skeptics, the reasoning, "This is blasphemy. Who can do this but God?" He says, "Which is easier?
To say your sins are forgiven or to tell a paralytic to get up and walk?" Well, I could say your sins are forgiven. That's so easy. I just said it. Your sins are forgiven. Your sins are forgiven. Your sins are forgiven. I can go and open up all the prisoners' doors.
Everybody's forgiven. That was easy. Even I could do that. I can tell any elementary student, any child who's three who can open his mouth, he can repeat those words. On the surface, it looks like that's easy. Now, I want you to—I hope you really understand this. Those words are easy to say, but to have any authority to actually forgive sins required the Son of God to empty himself of his glory.
If Jesus came as Caesar, we would have looked at that and said, "Why would the Son of God humble himself as a king of Rome and experience fatigue and hunger, bowel movement? Why would he humiliate himself becoming a human being, let alone a servant?" The Son of God had to come, be humiliated in human form, consider equality with God nothing to be grasped, and then he humbled himself to the point of death, the most humiliating, painful death that human beings have invented up to that point, to experience that.
But that was not the end. The real suffering wasn't human suffering. The real suffering was when his Father drew near him and placed the judgment that you and I, the elect of God, past, present, and future upon him, where the Son of God cries out, "Why have you forsaken me?" Imagine the suffering of this man.
He had to experience that and then be crucified, and then be buried, and the third day to rise in order for him to say, "Your sins are forgiven," and have any authority to do that. But to say to the man, "Get up and walk," that's all he needed to do.
Imagine when he said that. "In order for you to know that I have authority to forgive sins, I'm going to heal this man." And what does he do? Get up. That's all he had to say. Get up. He doesn't say, "We're going to have 13 sessions of healing. We're going to have 15, and then maybe in about two years, we can kind of stiffen your muscles and your joints, and we're going to work this out." He's like, "No." He just said, "Get up.
That's it." And he gets up. He goes home. The end. That's all. Easy. It is much more difficult to say, "Your sins are forgiven." Now, having said that, because it is easy to say, because it is easy to say, we have handed out this forgiveness. If you want to be forgiven, just come up.
Just come up. See what I'm saying? Okay. Now you guys are forgiven. Good. Go. You're parted. Anybody over there? Anybody? You feel bad about it? Okay. Now you're forgiven, too. We have a generation of people whose prison doors have been opened, and they are walking around saying, "Oh, he said I'm forgiven.
The pastor said I'm forgiven. What authority do I have to forgive sins? What authority do you have to forgive sins?" The only way that a man can be forgiven is according to the Word of God. You can't be like, "Oh, I want to be gracious because I want them to feel loved and to be gracious, and so I want to give them assurance of salvation." Giving assurance of salvation to a man who hasn't truly been forgiven is a death sentence because you've given him false hope to live the rest of his life, and then to meet the judge, and he says, "I never forgive you.
You never repented. You never asked for forgiveness. They who did not represent me, who had no authority against what I have explicitly said in the Scripture, has passed out forgiveness and pardoning when I never did." Think how serious of a sin that is. Think about the consequences of passing out forgiveness when it's not really there, which is easier to say you're forgiven just so that they would feel better, just so that they would feel welcome, and then have an easy, comfortable life until they meet the only one who can truly be, to be, to give the forgiveness.
This is very, very serious, and this is why Paul says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God." I am not ashamed of the gospel. The first thing that disqualifies a preacher is that he is more afraid of man's opinions than God's. He is more concerned about the power of man and the social pressure than he is of God.
He is more afraid of losing people in his church and opinions of people than he is of God. Then he has been disqualified to represent God. Because the only way that true peace can come, the only way that true salvation can come, is when the only person who has the authority to forgive sins actually forgives sins, actually pardons.
Colossians 1 Corinthians 1, 22, 24, "For indeed, Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified." Was Apostle Paul able to perform signs? Of course, he's an apostle. All the apostles were given authority to heal people, to open their eyes, even raise people from the dead.
So could he have done that easily? Because that authority was given to him. Could he have argued with the Greeks in wisdom? Yes, he was the top scholar. He was a direct disciple of Gamaliel. And so if he wanted to argue, Paul would have been perfect to argue and win every argument.
But he says, "No, that's not where the power is. They're not going to be convinced. They're not going to convert because of that." He said, "We preach Christ crucified. It is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is the power of God to those who are being saved." The power is not in our personality.
The power is not in you. The power is not like if you just love bomb people. If we just love bomb people, you can get them to come. You can get them to love you. You can get them to love the church. But you can't get them to repent.
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. But you have no power, and I have no power to bring them to repent. Only God has the authority to do that. So the best thing that we can do is to present the clear, unadulterated gospel of Jesus Christ.
For in it is the power of God. For some, they may be offended. For some, it is the power of God when they repent. Let me conclude with this, the response of the crowds in verse 25 and 26. "And immediately he got up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home glorifying God.
They were all struck with astonishment and began glorifying God, and they were filled with fear, saying, 'We have seen remarkable things today.'" The miracle that took place wasn't that this man was able to walk. I mean, all those people who are trying to get in, couldn't Jesus have walked out and said, "You're forgiven"?
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. We don't have the manpower, but if we did, right? If we had 30 eye doctors and 30 doctors, I mean, we could be outside, just spread out and heal everybody.
But couldn't Jesus have done that by himself? Couldn't he have done that by himself? Couldn't he have demonstrated his power and all of them healed and just went home? If thousands came, he healed a whole thousand. If 10,000 came, he healed 10,000. Why did he restrict himself to that room?
Because he didn't come to heal the paralytic. That was not his ultimate goal. He came to forgive sins. This man was healed and went home, and he said, "They were filled with amazement." And what does it say? How does it end? "And they were in fear." And I said, "Wait a second.
Why does it end in fear? Fear is negative." When you are genuinely in the presence of the glory of God, there is peace, there is joy, and there is fear. That was evidence that he met God. Not just that. If all he did was have his leg healed, he would have been like, "Oh, thank God I'm healed now.
I can be normal. I can walk, and I'm no longer paralytic." And that would have been it. But why was he fearful? Why was he fearful? Because he met God. The true healing, true healing, always causes a reverence and fear in God's people. And it is this reverence and fear that leads to worship.
When we recognize God, because we don't worship what is common. I know the NBA playoffs, who pays money to go see middle-aged men play basketball? You almost have to pay them to come. We'll give you $10 for everybody that comes and watches us play. Even then, like $10 for five hours?
I'm not going to go there. We don't worship what's common. We don't follow what's common. We don't obey what's common. It's when we recognize the awe of God. We follow him. We worship him. We adore him. We wait for him. And the evidence of the healing in this man was not that he was just walking.
The evidence of the healing in this man was that his eye was open, and he met God. 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. Everything that we do is so that he can bring us to him.
Because all that has gone wrong in our lives is because of our sins. If we would pursue forgiveness as urgently and as desperately as we pursue everything else in our lives, imagine what our lives would be like. Let's take some time to pray again as our worship team comes and leads us.
As our worship team leads us, let's take some time for personal prayer and reflect upon the word of God, that you would not just be the hearers of the word, but that you would be doers of the things that you have heard. Again, let's take some time to pray.
Let's all stand up for the closing praise. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we ask that the words that you have implanted in our hearts and in our mind, that it would bear fruit throughout the week. Help us, Lord God, to know the great gift that we have, and that Christ has suffered all, sacrificed all, to forgive us of our sins.
To know, Lord God, that we have been freed from the bondage of sin, that we have been called and made slaves to righteousness. Help us to reflect that grace, that love, that spirit, Lord God, that wherever we go, that we may reflect the aroma of Christ. So we pray that you would help us to open our eyes to see the darkness that is around us.
Help us, Lord God, to move from frustration to prayer, to move from any despair, Lord God, to hope in the power of Jesus Christ. Help us, Lord, not to simply be hearers of the word, but to be doers. May Christ and Christ alone be magnified. In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen. God sent his Son, they called him Jesus. He came to love, heal, and forgive. He lived and died to buy my pardon. An empty grave is there to my Savior lay. Because he lives, I can face tomorrow. Because he lives, all fear is gone. Because I know he holds the future.
And life is worth the living just because he lives.