Wednesday Night Service 7PM - Mark 2:1-12 - "Jesus' Power over the Paralytic and Everything" - Pasto

Hello everyone. Let's start with a word of prayer. Dear God, thank you for this beautiful weather that you've blessed us with today. Thank you for the ability that we have to gather together this evening and to take that break in the middle of the week to refocus our minds on you. I pray that as we sing these songs that we will remember that we were created to worship you

and we will clear our minds of everything that has been stressful or everything that has occupied our minds throughout this week and just return the focus solely on you where it belongs. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Dear God, thank you for being the saving one. Thank you for coming to earth and taking everything upon yourself, all of our sin on yourself, on the cross, dying for us.

There's nothing we can do to earn that and you just gave it to us freely. And we are so thankful to you every day for what you've done for us. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Pastor Ryan is gone tonight so we're going to invite Pastor Alan up this evening to give the message. Good evening. Hope everybody's doing well. Pastor Ryan had a family things come up this evening so for those who are ready and raring to jump into 2 Chronicles 17, well that's next week.

Actually it won't even be next week because we'll be at the pastor's conference. So in the future, two weeks. So anyway, that's if the Lord tarries. Who knows, maybe we get to go home. Yes, amen. So this evening I'm going to continue teaching what I started back in, I think it was November or December, in Mark. The second book of the Gospels. Studying through chapter two. And I don't think we're going to get

very far in chapter two because, wow, the paralytic, there's a lot of info there. And so I thought that's pretty much where we'll be tonight. But before we do that, let's let the Lord lead. And as we go into prayer, let's pray with him and let him handle all of this. Lord Jesus, we just come before you this evening and we thank you so much that we can get together and worship and praise you. And we just

ask that you would prepare our hearts. I know you've already done that. Prepare our hearts to hear from your word. Help me to speak forth your word. And Holy Spirit, just do the work that you only can do in our lives. So be glorified, we pray, in your precious and only name, Lord Jesus. Amen. Okay. So, you know, my place here again. I'm really good at getting out of place. So again, as we said

earlier, there's four Gospels and the good news about Jesus and his coming to earth to be the sacrifice for our sins. And why? When God created us, he created us to have a relationship with him. But we, in our incredibly earthly wisdom, bought the lie that God was not out for our best. We chose to follow Satan's deception, which broke our fellowship with God, a loving, independent relationship.

As you read through the entirety of the Old Testament, you will see glimpses of the plan, if your eyes are open to it. As Ryan touched on in Hebrews 3 this past Sunday, referencing back on what Moses said in Deuteronomy 18.18 and John 5.44, Jesus is our Savior and always was to be our Savior. The four Gospels are written with different focuses to show who Jesus is. He's one person, but they show together a multifaceted picture of who he is, a king, a servant, a man, and God.

And it's not much different than looking at our lives. Depending on who you're telling this story about and the point that they're trying to make, an example would be just looking at my life. Not that anybody really cares, but I can be seen as a child from my folks' perspective. I can be seen as a husband from my wife's perspective. I'm a father to three daughters, and to my grandchildren, I'm their papa.

You kind of get the idea. So Matthew was written to show that Jesus is the king. Mark was written to show that Jesus, even though he's the Messiah and the king, he's an active and powerful servant. Mark was written to show that Jesus, even though he's the Messiah and the king, he's an active and powerful servant. Mark was written to show that Jesus, even though he's the Messiah and the king, he's an active and powerful servant.

Luke was written primarily to a broader Gentile world, with its theme being, Jesus is the savior for all people. And John was written to reveal Jesus as the divine son of God. The author is Mark, or John Mark, depending on what part of the scriptures you're reading. He was around Jesus and the disciples as a young boy. He was around Jesus and the disciples as a young boy.

As his mom was one of the Marys, they were the followers of Jesus. His uncle was Barnabas, and as, well, he also was very close to Peter. And being with and learning from him was where Mark's eyewitness account is believed to have come from. From most of the commentaries that I've studied, it says that Mark's gospel was probably the first one to be written.

Followed by Matthew. Followed by Matthew. Followed by Matthew. Luke, and then John, sometime after that. You will see when you compare the gospels that Mark is really trying to communicate that Jesus has gone out of his way to serve us, to bring us back into fellowship with God, and as well as exampling what we as followers of Jesus are to live like toward God and our fellow man.

And as we recap chapter one, starting with John, There's Matthew 12, verse 1 and verse 4. John the Baptist, whom Isaiah prophesied would come to prepare the hearts of the people for the message that the Messiah, Jesus, would bring... Jesus was about teaching to those who wanted to hear, listen, and follow. Jesus was teaching what God really desired from his followers, which is not the teaching of the religious leaders of that time.

He was interbulging them. You heard it. He hadние. story. Sign? the law and if you aren't we're going to be dealing with you.

But Jesus showed that God is a loving God and that he loves man. The original law had been given them to show that we couldn't keep the law and that we needed a savior to pay for our sins. So Jesus focused on teaching but healing folks is also what he would do because he was meeting needs of people. He was a servant. Jesus from chapter 1 Jesus healed a demon

possessed man in their synagogue service. Peter's mother-in-law with a fever and then a man with leprosy was cleansed. And at the end of chapter 1 the leper rather than obeying Jesus and telling no one what Jesus had done except to go to the priests and offer what Moses had commanded. Look what happened. We'll look at verse 45 of chapter 1 the last verse. It says but he went out

and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the news about to such an extent that Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city but stayed out in unpopulated areas and they were coming to him. From everywhere. So as shared the masses wanted to be healed. They wanted to hear the word of God but it meant that you everybody wanted to flock to be around Jesus. So as we look into chapter 2 this evening we need to consider

a few points. Jesus was healing people by his power through speaking. Jesus was casting out demons by just the power of his word and the demons obeyed. The religious leaders were perplexed because they never before had a person and seen a person be able to do the things that Jesus was doing and it was out there participation and teaching.

So Jesus taught that the desire of God was a relationship with everyone with repentant hearts which seemed totally at odds with the teachers of the law who were constantly laying heavy burdens of works related guilt trips on the followers of God. Jesus' teachings followed in the way of John the Baptist and matched what the word said. So let's just read through the first 12 verses and then we'll dig in. Chapter 2 verse 1 through 12 and when he had come back to Troy and he had gone away.

So he said to him let us go to the place where Jesus was covered with blood. Capernaum several days afterwards it was heard that he was at home and many were gathered together so that there was no longer room even near the door and he was speaking the word to them and they came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men and being unable to get to him because of the crowd they removed the roof above him and when they had dug an opening they let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying and Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic my son your sins are forgiven but there were some of the scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts why does this man speak that way

he is blaspheming who can forgive sins but God alone and immediately Jesus aware in his spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves said to them why are we are you reasoning about these things in your heart which is easier to say to the paralytic your sins are forgiven or to say arise and take up your pallet and walk but in order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins he said to the paralytic I say to you rise take up your pallet and go home and he rose and immediately took us the pallet and went out and did the purgatory and when he had come he said,'Are you å not in the sight of the Jews?

all that they were all amazed and were glorifying God being we have never seen anything like this that must have been an incredible place to be at that point but so Jesus and his disciples have left statements as they had gifts and saw the kolossomata because they wanted to teach throughout Jesus wanted to teach them the root for brothers in a tax. It talked about that people do want the fig, for Jesus was四司o to them theม do yeah we would get tested because they wanted to stop suffering the day prior to the miracle he did that and the persecuted Era and the person who was sinning was an executioner of the dead and they did not give the others hope in time just theiruchar NGC one night. Even a whole table Titus. These toss 갬 neon, dude.

throughout galilee and get to the people he didn't want to be tied down totally with just healing people he wanted people to seek his word and he wanted to share the the good news the galilee is really more the northwestern part of israel and they came back most probably to peter's house so this house that got damaged hopefully quickly repaired um was probably peter's house because they kind of based out of peter's place earlier and the word spread that jesus and his disciples were back in town so over a few days quite a crowd formed to see and hear jesus teach the word a few points about the multitudes and who and why they were there you there were those who wanted to be made well and the pharisees and the teachers of the law

coming from every town of galilee judea and jerusalem wanted to see what's going on because this man was doing things that they knew were special but they just weren't understanding what was going on and then those who wanted to hear god's word taught jesus now you must remember at this time the study of god's word was not quite as easy it is for us today the word was handed handwritten in scrolls and the synagogues except for the main one most of the time up in jerusalem the synagogues really didn't have the whole word of god in their building you know they'd have scrolls some of it and what everybody was as i was doing my study it was saying that most of the folks

were they had the uh the pentateuch because that was a law and that was what was supposed to get taught we know otherwise because jesus down the road actually also spoke out of isaiah but so different different scrolls were in different places and they were all in different synagogues but you know the other thing to take to look at was um jesus was teaching things that the religious believe religious leaders could not believe because he wasn't educated by them he hadn't been taught in a school and yet he was teaching the word and pretty much as far as they could tell he was without error and he was teaching the word and he was teaching the word and he was

teaching the word and he was teaching the word and he was teaching the word and he was teaching the word and he was teaching the word and he was teaching the word and he was teaching the word and he was teaching the word and he was teaching the word and he was teaching the word and he was teaching the word and he was teaching the word and he was teaching the word and he was teaching the word and he was teaching the word and he was teaching the word and he was teaching the word and he was teaching the word and he was teaching the word and he was teaching the word and he was teaching the word and he was teaching the word and he was teaching the word and he was teaching the word and

he was teaching the word and he was teaching the word and he was teaching the word and he was teaching the word and he was teaching the word and he was teaching the word and he was teaching the word and he was this awesome book that is in front of each one of us. God's Word is life-changing, and with Jesus teaching it, it was even more productive. Jesus was teaching the people like they had never heard. They were hearing the whole counsel of God from the Son of God. And with the crowd wanting to hear

and filling all the space in and around the house, everyone would have been focused on every word he spoke. There was probably a whole lot of shushing going on. Because if you can imagine, houses weren't huge. They had normal living spaces. And Jesus was in one of those places, and He filled that room. And there were people outside the house. There were people trying to

listen in through windows and standing in the doorways. So these folks wanted to hear what Jesus had to say. And the next couple of verses kind of change the focus on what's going on. You know, because they were all wanting to hear Jesus and what he had to say. So let's look at verse 3 and 4. And they came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men and being unable to get to him

because of the crowd they removed the roof above him and when they had dug an opening they let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying. Now, I don't know about you but I've done a little bit of construction work around my house and when you're doing construction work dirt and dust kind of get everywhere and and and and if you can imagine that situation plus sound there was they were trying to hear carefully what Jesus was having to say. Of course, the folks who were in the room weren't having a difficult time but everybody else was outside trying to listen trying to carefully pick up the words with all the sounds of the surrounding area.

But you know, whether or not it was four people or more because it doesn't really tie it down but we do know that at least four were carrying this paralytic. They had heard that Jesus was in town and they wanted to see their friend healed and they were not deterred by the crowd of immovable listening people. They were not going to get through that crowd. Now, I doubt that what was about to take place was normal.

But it clearly showed how much they wanted to get their friend to Jesus. They knew that if they could get their friend to Jesus he would heal them. Have we ever believed in Jesus' ability enough that we would go to this much effort to see a friend come to know Jesus? Something to think about. But at the same time here they were crowded around the house lots of people

and they were and those folks were listening and they weren't going to get out of the way. So, quite a feat of problem solving was was accomplished here. I don't know, that one always fits for me because that's what I do and for work. And you're sitting there thinking about this. Now, I can honestly say I would never think about clawing up on the roof and ripping the roof out so I could get down inside.

That seems like an awful lot of work. But these guys wanted their friend saved. They wanted their friend healed. And so they were about ready to go and accomplish something that most of us wouldn't even consider. These people are incredible friends. So, back to the task at hand. Getting their friend to Jesus once on the roof I doubt they had a skylight that they could remove and pass their friend through

since glass panes were not developed until around 100 A.D. So this was a feat, you know. In that time, roofs were used as part of the home's usable space meant to walk on and cool off on in the hot summer days. We aren't told how close they were to the owner of the house, but they were bold enough to say, I'm bold enough to tear up the roof above Jesus. I picture that the entire setting changed

as the roof was being disassembled. How would you feel if you were in the room listening to Jesus and maybe conversing with Jesus? You know, because he was wanting to share with people. And if people had questions, he would he would converse with them and talk to them about it. And all of a sudden, the roof is being disassembled above you. If you're ever in a room

and you've ever done any type of house project, you know the dirt and debris would just be everywhere. And at that point, there would be a whole lot of noise and disruption. They were a little distracted down in the room. So you wonder how long it took, what tools they needed, how big a hole they made, you know, all of that. My brain sits there and goes, well, I don't want to build a hole big enough.

to drop something flat down there. Maybe I could tie my friend on his on his pallet and I could drop him straight down. So he's feet first. Who knows? We don't know. That's the sort of stuff crazy people like me think about. But anyway, however it was done, he was lowered down to in front of Jesus. And I love this next verse, verse five. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic,

Son, your sins are forgiven. Wow, seeing their faith. Jesus knew there was faith because you wouldn't punch a hole through someone's roof to get someone in front of him, if there wasn't faith. And you know, different commentators kind of mentioned that they probably knew Jesus, they'd probably seen him heal. knew that Jesus could take care of their friend. So

they wanted to get their friend to Jesus. One thing to keep in mind is Jesus is all knowingness. I don't know whether that's a word, but it fits. Jesus already knows the faith and persistence of you and I. And clearly he knew it of this guy's friends. One of the things that Jesus said was, my son, your sins are forgiven. My son is a term of endearment for a child. Jesus sets first things first.

Your sins are forgiven. Think about that statement. We as present day Christians don't see this with the same pre-resurrection stigmas that these folks did. They'd never heard that before. Your sins are forgiven came from the priest. When you were at the temple and you had offered a sacrifice, these folks had never heard someone say, son, your sins are forgiven. And that to me

just kind of blows me away. He related to this guy as a child, as Jesus always does with all of us, because we're all his children and he wants so much. For us to see him as our brother, as our father, and we as his kids, even as his bride. But he clearly was sharing something that was pretty incredible. My guess is that everyone caught it, or maybe not. Consider the disciples

and us when we're listening to a message or studying the word. Do we understand everything that you read or that you hear? I don't know about you, but I can say no. And sometimes I just blow over it, and other times I dig in a little bit. But sometimes even with my digging in, I don't get it. And so there's such a need for us to dig in and let Jesus speak to our hearts. We need to ask.

But anyway, so Jesus clearly sets things first. If the man were healed without having his sins forgiven, what good is that from eternity's sake? It's no good. The most important thing for all of us is to have our sins forgiven. We may not think that initially, but, you know, we'd rather have a bill paid sometimes, or we'd rather have someone get well. Or maybe even ourselves get well. Not necessarily

thinking about our eternal salvation. But Jesus knew what was important. So, but there's one more thing to this. Who can forgive sins? God alone. But even God required a properly administered sacrifice at the temple with the priests and all the rest as described in Leviticus. So, what's going on here? But still, what an awesome situation. To me, one of the things that stood out when I

read through it was the thief on the cross with a twist. You know, here the thief is there railing accusations of Jesus, and then something came over him. And he just said, Lord, remember me when you go to your throne. And Jesus said, You will be with me in paradise. And so here we have another situation where someone who really did nothing to deserve salvation was saved.

And sometimes, that's really hard for us to grasp because we're a people who pretty much every other area of our life, we've gotta work for things, And God even planned for us to work for things, but not for our salvation because we're all sinners right from the get-go and we can't take care of that. The only way that that can be taken care of is with a sacrifice, which would be Jesus, so that we could benefit.

So the man didn't even ask for it, but Jesus saw the faith of the paralytic and his friend and forgave him his sins. He did not deserve it, no works of any kind. What an awesome Savior we'd serve. The scribes and the Pharisees caught this as we read through verse 6 and 7, and they felt he was blaspheming. But there were some of the scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts.

Why does the man speak that way? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? Well, they caught it, but they didn't catch it because even though they've been seeing Jesus do all these wonderful miracles and doing all the things that were definitely ascribed to the Messiah, they couldn't, he just didn't fit their picture of who the Messiah was. And so they got the second part right.

God alone can save and give us salvation. But they got the first part wrong. He wasn't blaspheming because he was God.

But verses 8, 9, 10, and 11 describe Jesus' response to their thoughts. Their thoughts. Think about that. They didn't even have to say anything. Now there was probably some mumbling amongst themselves, but they weren't speaking to Jesus. Jesus may have perfect hearing, better than we can hear, but definitely better than I can hear. Ask my wife. But he knew what was going on.

Let's look at 8 through 11. And immediately Jesus, aware in his spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves, said to them, why are you reasoning about these things in your heart?

Which is easier to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven, or to say arise and take up your pallet and walk? But in order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, he said to the paralytic, I say to you, rise, take up your pallet, and go home. So, there was, probably commotion with that statement, but Jesus knew exactly what they were thinking. And I think that's pretty awesome.

You know, another personal application point from this is, did you ever think about the fact that Jesus knows everything you think about? Everything. He knows what's in your mind right now.

And if there's issues, he wants to help.

He would love us to talk with him about those things. You know, why not talk about everything that goes through your mind? He already knows it and wants to help you through it. Sin or not. Why did they think he was blaspheming? Because they couldn't get out of their heads that Jesus was God or the Messiah. They just could not see that. He wasn't doing things the way they expected

or how they expected. The story finishes with a totally unbelievable ending. As Jesus said, you know, after Jesus told the paralytic to get up and walk is the next miracle. Have you ever been bedridden for any length of time or had a limb held stationary for a couple of months? You know where I'm going. You just don't get up under your own power and balance without rehab.

It just doesn't happen. And Jesus' miracle was complete and addressed all those issues. The man now got up, stood to his feet, bent down and picked up his pallet and did as Jesus said. He went home. And this time the crowd cleared the way so that he could do just that. What an awesome Jesus story. You know, you can read through these stories like this and just

breeze through them. You know that some miracles going on and you just kind of take them at face value. But as you really dig in, you really see what's going on. A person who's been laying in a cot for a while, for a long while, isn't going to be able to stand up and just go off and walk away. And at that even bend down and pick up a pallet. I can tell you after only being a few months,

a few weeks in bed, I couldn't do that. So, I don't know. This is a pretty awesome story of Jesus and his power. So, I kind of want to close with some takeaways. How concerned are we for our friends and family who don't know Jesus? Are we willing to go as far as these these guys who went to rip a hole through a roof so that their friend could get to see Jesus

and get in front of Jesus because they knew that Jesus could heal them? I don't think they realized that he could save them at that point. But, Jesus did anyway. Because that's our Jesus. That's our Lord. But think about that. I mean, we need to be just like Jesus.

Those friends. And we need to be bold. Sometimes it's scary to do that sort of thing. I can't imagine just showing up at a house. Hopefully they knew the guys. Hopefully that they were neighbors, you know, small enough town. And they might have been very frustrated that their roof was getting ripped up. But, they were able to do it and then prayerfully fix it back

equally or better than it was before. Number two, Jesus knows what you're thinking. Do you think he would like to have you share it with him since he already knows so you could have a better relationship with him? I say yes. And number three, Jesus wants to give each one of us eternal life. And we need to remember there is no work on our part but to ask, repent,

and be saved. And that's pretty awesome stuff. You know, we have a lot of religions out there. A lot of people even call themselves Christians. You got to do this. You got to do this. You got to be baptized. This, that, and the other thing. Jesus just says, follow me, seek me, ask, and you will receive. What an awesome, awesome response that Jesus has for each one of us.

So, with that, let's close in prayer. Lord Jesus, thank you so much for your word. Thank you for the examples that you show in it. Thank you for the love that you show through it. We just ask that you help each one of us as we consider this little message that we desire to draw closer to you and do it without works. We just do it out of love because you love us.

You first loved us and that's how we can love you. So, Lord, lead and guide. Take care of each one of us and just draw us close as only you can do. We love you and praise you. In your name, Jesus. Amen. Have an awesome week.