1 00:00:00,680 --> 00:00:04,120 The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark. 2 00:00:05,720 --> 00:00:11,000 And when he returned to Kapenau after some days, it was reported 3 00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:15,920 that he was at home and many were gathered together so that 4 00:00:15,920 --> 00:00:18,960 there was no room, not even at the door. 5 00:00:20,120 --> 00:00:24,680 And he was preaching the word to them, and they came bringing to 6 00:00:24,680 --> 00:00:27,640 him a paralytic carried by 4 men. 7 00:00:28,440 --> 00:00:33,240 And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they 8 00:00:33,240 --> 00:00:37,240 removed the roof above him. And when they had made an 9 00:00:37,240 --> 00:00:42,280 opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. 10 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:47,600 And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Son, 11 00:00:48,240 --> 00:00:51,960 your sins are forgiven. Now some of the scribes were 12 00:00:51,960 --> 00:00:56,720 sitting there questioning in their hearts, Why does this man 13 00:00:56,720 --> 00:00:59,400 speak like that? He's blessed farming. 14 00:00:59,920 --> 00:01:02,480 Who can forgive sin but God alone? 15 00:01:03,400 --> 00:01:08,720 And immediately Jesus perceiving in his heart that they fast 16 00:01:08,720 --> 00:01:13,600 questioned within themselves, say to them, Why do you question 17 00:01:13,600 --> 00:01:17,720 these things in your hearts, which is easy to say to the 18 00:01:17,720 --> 00:01:23,240 politic, your sins are forgiven, or to say, rise, take up your 19 00:01:23,240 --> 00:01:27,320 bed and walk. But that you may know that the 20 00:01:27,320 --> 00:01:31,240 Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins. 21 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:37,520 He said to the paralytic, I said to you, rise, pick up your bed 22 00:01:37,840 --> 00:01:41,320 and go home. And he rose and immediately 23 00:01:41,320 --> 00:01:46,400 picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they 24 00:01:46,400 --> 00:01:51,520 were all amazed and glorified. God saying Whenever I saw 25 00:01:51,520 --> 00:01:57,120 anything like this, the gospel of the Lord. 26 00:01:59,280 --> 00:02:03,880 Would you pray with me, Lord, as we come to see you this morning? 27 00:02:03,880 --> 00:02:07,640 I pray that you would see us and that in response we would be 28 00:02:07,640 --> 00:02:11,920 able to say to one another, to you, and to the whole world 29 00:02:11,920 --> 00:02:14,520 who's listening? We have never seen anything like 30 00:02:14,520 --> 00:02:16,520 this. We thank you, Jesus, that you 31 00:02:16,520 --> 00:02:20,040 are a singularly unique and beautiful vision for human 32 00:02:20,040 --> 00:02:23,400 beings to behold and we pray that you would be visible to us 33 00:02:23,640 --> 00:02:26,520 as we open your gospel in Jesus name, Amen. 34 00:02:27,560 --> 00:02:29,120 Oh, please be seated. Good morning. 35 00:02:29,120 --> 00:02:31,640 Good to see you missed you all last week. 36 00:02:31,640 --> 00:02:36,320 We had a wonderful time away. We're continuing on in our 37 00:02:36,320 --> 00:02:38,880 series simply Jesus from the Gospel of Mark. 38 00:02:40,760 --> 00:02:43,880 If you're not familiar with with the what we call the Gospels, 39 00:02:44,320 --> 00:02:48,840 they are essentially they're, they're the earliest biographies 40 00:02:48,840 --> 00:02:52,560 of Jesus Christ. Mark is one of the earliest 41 00:02:52,640 --> 00:02:57,600 biographies of the four scholars believe, and they're based on 42 00:02:57,600 --> 00:03:00,440 eyewitness accounts, especially from one of his closest 43 00:03:00,440 --> 00:03:04,520 disciples, Peter. Peter was able to give his 44 00:03:04,520 --> 00:03:06,840 account to John Mark, who recorded it. 45 00:03:07,160 --> 00:03:10,840 And it is one of the most widely read pieces of literature in all 46 00:03:10,840 --> 00:03:15,160 of human history. We're studying it this season in 47 00:03:15,160 --> 00:03:19,760 the life of our church to to get a vision of Jesus and we should 48 00:03:19,760 --> 00:03:25,120 just ask the question, why is Jesus Christ after 2000 years, 49 00:03:25,480 --> 00:03:29,000 one of the most fascinating figures in all of human history? 50 00:03:30,720 --> 00:03:33,640 You think about like from the perspective of even just. 51 00:03:33,800 --> 00:03:37,800 You don't have to be a Christian to wonder at how interesting of 52 00:03:37,800 --> 00:03:41,320 a person he is for people in every culture and people in 53 00:03:41,320 --> 00:03:44,880 every era. Some of you may be familiar with 54 00:03:44,880 --> 00:03:48,720 author and historian HG Wells. HG Wells. 55 00:03:48,720 --> 00:03:52,440 He was a British author and social critic, both a historian 56 00:03:52,440 --> 00:03:56,800 as well as a novelist, and he was standing on the sort of the 57 00:03:56,800 --> 00:04:00,200 gate between the ancient world and the modern world. 58 00:04:00,480 --> 00:04:03,760 And they called him the father of science fiction because 59 00:04:03,760 --> 00:04:06,080 looking at the grand sweep of history and looking into the 60 00:04:06,080 --> 00:04:09,520 future, he was actually in his novels, predicting things like 61 00:04:09,520 --> 00:04:13,360 wireless technology, voicemail, e-mail, Believe it or not, he 62 00:04:13,360 --> 00:04:16,519 wrote books like The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man and 63 00:04:16,519 --> 00:04:20,120 The Time Machine, writing in the early 1800s. 64 00:04:20,120 --> 00:04:23,520 Here's what HG Wells said about Jesus Christ. 65 00:04:24,920 --> 00:04:27,000 I am an historian, not a believer. 66 00:04:27,320 --> 00:04:29,680 I am not a believer. But I must confess as a 67 00:04:29,680 --> 00:04:33,400 historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is 68 00:04:33,400 --> 00:04:36,320 irrevocably the very center of history. 69 00:04:37,440 --> 00:04:42,000 Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all of 70 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:47,680 history. Now, about 200 years or so since 71 00:04:47,680 --> 00:04:50,680 HG Wells wrote those words. Do you know what's happening 72 00:04:50,680 --> 00:04:54,720 now? In the year 2025, Bible sales in 73 00:04:54,720 --> 00:04:59,200 the United States have seen about a 22% increase since 74 00:04:59,640 --> 00:05:05,560 COVID, especially among Gen. Z young adults, many of which 75 00:05:05,640 --> 00:05:07,560 had no religious upbringing whatsoever. 76 00:05:08,880 --> 00:05:12,800 According to a 2025 study published by the Barner group. 3 77 00:05:12,800 --> 00:05:17,600 in 10 people who do not identify as a Christian churchgoer in any 78 00:05:17,600 --> 00:05:23,520 way. 3 in 10 of that group have themselves made a personal 79 00:05:23,520 --> 00:05:26,200 commitment to the person we're studying this morning. 80 00:05:26,800 --> 00:05:29,080 Isn't that amazing? That's the highest percentage on 81 00:05:29,080 --> 00:05:30,880 record since they started keeping track. 82 00:05:33,760 --> 00:05:37,360 There are anecdotes from the most post Christian countries in 83 00:05:37,360 --> 00:05:41,640 the world, such as France and Sweden, that churches are 84 00:05:41,640 --> 00:05:46,640 filling with young people, with college students who are not 85 00:05:46,640 --> 00:05:52,400 just interested in, but giving their lives to Jesus Christ, a 86 00:05:52,400 --> 00:05:57,320 friend who's been involved in college ministry said this week. 87 00:05:57,320 --> 00:06:00,000 He told me, he said campus ministry is fun. 88 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:07,000 Again, we have to ask, like, OK, when all of the promises of the 89 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:10,560 modern world, all of the promises of technology have 90 00:06:10,560 --> 00:06:15,280 failed, why is Jesus Christ still of great interest and 91 00:06:15,280 --> 00:06:19,560 still of great influence 2000 years after his time on earth? 92 00:06:19,880 --> 00:06:23,120 Whether we're a believer in Jesus or a skeptic, whether 93 00:06:23,120 --> 00:06:26,680 we're religious or irreligious, we owe it to ourselves, at least 94 00:06:26,680 --> 00:06:31,520 intellectually to investigate why he is such a compelling 95 00:06:31,640 --> 00:06:35,640 figure to so many people of such diverse backgrounds and 96 00:06:35,640 --> 00:06:38,240 interests. And actually, as I was studying 97 00:06:38,240 --> 00:06:44,240 this account from of healing from Mark chapter 2, the 98 00:06:44,240 --> 00:06:47,240 interesting thing is that there's a mass of people seeking 99 00:06:47,240 --> 00:06:50,000 out Jesus out of curiosity. We'll get to some of the 100 00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:53,800 motivations why, but the same dynamic was happening in his 101 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:58,440 life and in his early ministry. And one of the things this 102 00:06:58,440 --> 00:07:03,320 people find out about what it's like to seek Jesus is that when 103 00:07:03,320 --> 00:07:08,000 they seek out Jesus to see him, he sees them. 104 00:07:09,280 --> 00:07:11,720 He sees not. He doesn't just see them, He 105 00:07:11,720 --> 00:07:14,840 sees something that they almost can't even see themselves. 106 00:07:14,840 --> 00:07:17,680 He sees into the depths of their being, something that he can 107 00:07:17,680 --> 00:07:23,000 heal, something that he can address, something he can 108 00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:28,280 transform forever. And This is why he's the perfect 109 00:07:28,480 --> 00:07:31,280 incarnation of what Daniel 7 prophesied. 110 00:07:31,280 --> 00:07:35,080 Her Old Testament text, The Son of Man who's like the Ancient of 111 00:07:35,080 --> 00:07:37,200 Days, who's with the Ancient of Days. 112 00:07:37,960 --> 00:07:40,320 And the books of history are open. 113 00:07:40,440 --> 00:07:43,080 The books of every tribe, tongue, people and nation are 114 00:07:43,080 --> 00:07:45,360 open. And he's able to perfectly judge 115 00:07:45,360 --> 00:07:48,280 and perfectly heal and perfectly set forward a Kingdom. 116 00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:51,880 When we come to see this fascinating man, he sees us. 117 00:07:52,360 --> 00:07:54,120 Would you be willing to let him see you? 118 00:07:55,400 --> 00:07:59,400 Would you be willing to be as persistent as the people in this 119 00:07:59,400 --> 00:08:02,920 text war to see him? Let's look together at the quest 120 00:08:02,920 --> 00:08:06,200 to see Jesus in the first part of Mark chapter 2. 121 00:08:08,360 --> 00:08:11,600 And you can turn there in your bulletins or Bibles begins this 122 00:08:11,600 --> 00:08:13,720 way. When he Jesus entered Capernaum 123 00:08:13,720 --> 00:08:19,520 again after some days, it was reported that he was at home. 124 00:08:20,320 --> 00:08:23,440 So there's a buzz growing in Capernaum. 125 00:08:24,400 --> 00:08:30,080 You know, word spreads quickly in these small towns that Jesus 126 00:08:30,080 --> 00:08:36,480 Christ, who has electrified this area of of of Palestine is 127 00:08:36,480 --> 00:08:39,480 nearby and you can actually go see him in person. 128 00:08:40,200 --> 00:08:43,320 Verse 2, so many people gathered together and there was none more 129 00:08:43,320 --> 00:08:48,480 room, not even in the doorway. And he was speaking the word to 130 00:08:48,480 --> 00:08:52,480 them. So here's Jesus packed. 131 00:08:52,560 --> 00:08:58,400 I mean, these houses were so small that if you got 40 people 132 00:08:58,400 --> 00:09:00,640 in there, there was almost no room to breathe. 133 00:09:01,320 --> 00:09:05,680 So you can imagine about three dozen people surrounding Jesus. 134 00:09:05,840 --> 00:09:08,520 Maybe there's a foot or two in between him and the closest 135 00:09:08,520 --> 00:09:10,920 person, and he's speaking the word to them. 136 00:09:12,120 --> 00:09:14,560 We don't know exactly what he's saying, but he's probably 137 00:09:14,560 --> 00:09:19,560 proclaiming that forgiveness that he is about to display, 138 00:09:20,400 --> 00:09:24,280 that only God can ultimately forgive our deepest sins and 139 00:09:24,280 --> 00:09:25,840 ultimately heal our deepest needs. 140 00:09:25,840 --> 00:09:28,920 He's probably preaching about the Kingdom of God that is 141 00:09:28,920 --> 00:09:33,080 available to everyone who would come to God in the Son of Man. 142 00:09:33,800 --> 00:09:36,320 He's preaching the word to them. It's a message that we still 143 00:09:36,320 --> 00:09:40,880 need to hear, quite frankly, but interacting with them and, and, 144 00:09:40,880 --> 00:09:42,480 and they're really, really close to him. 145 00:09:45,760 --> 00:09:48,640 And there's no more room even for people who wanted to get in 146 00:09:48,640 --> 00:09:50,800 the door. It's so jam packed. 147 00:09:50,800 --> 00:09:52,360 You can't even like open the door. 148 00:09:54,480 --> 00:09:57,920 You think about who's made, who's making up this crowd here. 149 00:09:57,920 --> 00:10:00,160 It's probably a mixed bag of people. 150 00:10:00,360 --> 00:10:04,000 We know from other parts of Mark and other parts of the biography 151 00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:09,440 of Jesus that there were different motives driving people 152 00:10:09,640 --> 00:10:14,280 to go see Jesus in person. Some people wanted to be 153 00:10:14,280 --> 00:10:17,400 physically healed or had a family member who needed 154 00:10:17,400 --> 00:10:20,400 physical healing. And if you and I lived in that 155 00:10:20,400 --> 00:10:25,080 time, there would have been very little help from medicine. 156 00:10:25,080 --> 00:10:26,400 We did. They did not have modern 157 00:10:26,400 --> 00:10:29,480 medicine, but there were plenty of physical ailments as there 158 00:10:29,480 --> 00:10:33,760 always are in, you know. You know, after the fall, like 159 00:10:33,760 --> 00:10:37,520 human beings experienced a lot of sickness and suffering. 160 00:10:38,720 --> 00:10:41,080 And so some of them are there probably for a healing. 161 00:10:41,360 --> 00:10:45,240 Other people are probably there because they have been fighting 162 00:10:45,240 --> 00:10:49,320 a spiritual battle with a dark, oppressive force that the gospel 163 00:10:49,320 --> 00:10:52,680 calls demons. And they knew that Jesus could 164 00:10:52,680 --> 00:10:55,120 liberate them from demons because he's done it for other 165 00:10:55,120 --> 00:10:57,760 people. Now somewhere there because they 166 00:10:57,760 --> 00:11:01,000 just needed hope. They had lost hope for 167 00:11:01,000 --> 00:11:03,320 themselves, for the nation of Israel. 168 00:11:03,920 --> 00:11:08,680 And they've heard rumors that Jesus is Elijah come back from 169 00:11:08,680 --> 00:11:13,600 the dead, or he's Moses come back from the dead, or, you 170 00:11:13,600 --> 00:11:16,680 know, that he's a prophet, that he's God's chosen one. 171 00:11:16,800 --> 00:11:21,240 Some people think he could be the next son of David, king of 172 00:11:21,240 --> 00:11:25,880 Israel, to overthrow the Romans. He'll be our deliverer. 173 00:11:25,880 --> 00:11:28,240 He can deliver us nationalistically. 174 00:11:30,480 --> 00:11:33,040 Finally, there were some people there, quite frankly, that just 175 00:11:33,040 --> 00:11:36,240 suspected Jesus. He's a threat to their power. 176 00:11:36,840 --> 00:11:40,280 And these were the professional religious who like the scribes 177 00:11:40,280 --> 00:11:43,640 of the Pharisees that were really concerned. 178 00:11:43,640 --> 00:11:47,960 They thought they needed to gatekeep people like Jesus from 179 00:11:48,280 --> 00:11:51,680 their, you know, from, from their area of domain, from their 180 00:11:51,680 --> 00:11:54,280 power center. And so they're there to 181 00:11:54,280 --> 00:11:56,360 investigate. They're there to trip him up. 182 00:11:57,320 --> 00:12:01,480 So this is a very complicated, probably mix of people who have 183 00:12:01,480 --> 00:12:06,040 come to see Jesus. There's so much fascination 184 00:12:06,320 --> 00:12:10,960 about him. There's a lot of mixed motives 185 00:12:10,960 --> 00:12:15,200 about him. And so you just feel the crush 186 00:12:15,560 --> 00:12:19,960 of people trying to get to him, shoving, craning their necks, 187 00:12:19,960 --> 00:12:23,240 pushing their way forward. And he's likely having to speak 188 00:12:23,240 --> 00:12:25,320 loudly as he's preaching the word to them. 189 00:12:27,120 --> 00:12:31,400 But as he's talking, there's these clumps of mud falling on 190 00:12:31,400 --> 00:12:35,760 people's heads. There's a there's a noise and, 191 00:12:35,760 --> 00:12:39,480 and they look up and there's these men or women, there's four 192 00:12:39,480 --> 00:12:41,040 friends. And what are they doing? 193 00:12:41,040 --> 00:12:44,040 They're they're digging their way through the roof above 194 00:12:44,080 --> 00:12:46,200 Jesus. Not only is he surrounded on all 195 00:12:46,200 --> 00:12:48,600 sides, people are trying to get to him from the top. 196 00:12:49,760 --> 00:12:54,800 In this era, homes were built with a roof that you could 197 00:12:54,800 --> 00:12:57,360 actually do work on. You could be up there, You could 198 00:12:57,360 --> 00:12:59,680 dry goods up there. You could take baths up there. 199 00:12:59,680 --> 00:13:01,280 You could, you know, hang out up there. 200 00:13:01,280 --> 00:13:04,560 You could even sleep up there. It was made of beams of wood. 201 00:13:05,600 --> 00:13:08,320 And then you would have these plants, these really thick 202 00:13:08,320 --> 00:13:12,120 plants laid very thickly. And then there would be mud that 203 00:13:12,120 --> 00:13:16,040 would be kind of like caked like cement over the whole thing. 204 00:13:16,520 --> 00:13:18,400 And you do layer upon layer of this. 205 00:13:18,400 --> 00:13:21,560 You would have to constantly sort of like re roof your roof 206 00:13:21,560 --> 00:13:24,120 to make it sturdy enough to be up there. 207 00:13:24,640 --> 00:13:28,640 And So what happens is that these there's four friends and 208 00:13:28,640 --> 00:13:31,360 they have a man who is paralyzed. 209 00:13:31,360 --> 00:13:34,040 They want to bring this paralyzed friend of theirs to 210 00:13:34,040 --> 00:13:36,240 Jesus. And the only way they can get to 211 00:13:36,280 --> 00:13:43,560 Jesus is by unroofing the roof. And so they really have to kind 212 00:13:43,560 --> 00:13:46,520 of dig in there. And as Jesus is talking, you 213 00:13:46,520 --> 00:13:48,400 know, how disruptive would that have been? 214 00:13:48,600 --> 00:13:51,720 Some people think that this could have taken about an hour 215 00:13:52,960 --> 00:13:58,160 of digging for them to actually get through the roof and lower 216 00:13:58,160 --> 00:14:01,360 their friend down. And so, you know, what a 217 00:14:01,360 --> 00:14:03,600 disruptive time. I think in Ash Wednesday, some 218 00:14:03,600 --> 00:14:04,800 of you were here for Ash Wednesday. 219 00:14:04,800 --> 00:14:08,280 Matt Osterkamp was trying to preach at our old worship center 220 00:14:08,360 --> 00:14:12,400 while they were in literally installing showers in the floor 221 00:14:12,400 --> 00:14:14,000 above. And you couldn't hear Matt 222 00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:15,680 because the drilling was so loud. 223 00:14:19,440 --> 00:14:23,520 These four men, these four women, these four friends had 224 00:14:23,520 --> 00:14:26,520 such a deep love for their friend. 225 00:14:26,640 --> 00:14:29,480 They were willing to do that. They're willing to dig through 226 00:14:29,480 --> 00:14:32,800 the roof just to get him to Jesus. 227 00:14:33,120 --> 00:14:35,960 And as they do, they maneuver somehow their friend through 228 00:14:35,960 --> 00:14:40,400 those wooden slats and they gingerly lay him down at the 229 00:14:40,400 --> 00:14:43,360 feet of Jesus. And there he is right there 230 00:14:43,480 --> 00:14:46,680 standing or, you know, laying before Jesus, who stands before 231 00:14:46,680 --> 00:14:50,360 him. And I think at this point in the 232 00:14:50,400 --> 00:14:54,600 the narrative, Mark has us primed just to expect that, like 233 00:14:54,600 --> 00:14:58,720 with every other healing up to this point, that's the climax of 234 00:14:58,720 --> 00:15:02,080 the story. They go through all that 235 00:15:02,080 --> 00:15:03,880 trouble. The man standing there, 236 00:15:03,960 --> 00:15:06,880 everyone's watching. Jesus will do the healing and 237 00:15:06,880 --> 00:15:09,720 his ministry will continue as it has before. 238 00:15:10,800 --> 00:15:13,960 Why wouldn't he? Why wouldn't Jesus heal this 239 00:15:13,960 --> 00:15:17,480 man? Clearly, from our perspective as 240 00:15:17,480 --> 00:15:20,560 readers, paralysis is his biggest problem. 241 00:15:21,640 --> 00:15:23,600 On the surface, that's what it looks like. 242 00:15:23,600 --> 00:15:26,360 That's the presenting problem that he brings to Jesus. 243 00:15:28,520 --> 00:15:31,520 And yet it is at this very moment when he's come to see 244 00:15:31,520 --> 00:15:33,880 Jesus and everyone else has come to see Jesus. 245 00:15:34,080 --> 00:15:37,480 They get as close to him as they can to see him, to know him, to 246 00:15:37,480 --> 00:15:40,920 experience his power. The tables turn and Jesus sees 247 00:15:40,920 --> 00:15:43,160 them. And some of you are familiar 248 00:15:43,160 --> 00:15:45,960 with how a black light works, familiar with how a black light 249 00:15:45,960 --> 00:15:49,520 works, that you turn on a black light and it reveals things that 250 00:15:49,520 --> 00:15:54,920 you couldn't see otherwise. And Jesus has a a sort of grace 251 00:15:54,920 --> 00:15:58,360 filled black light as he's looking at this man and the 252 00:15:58,360 --> 00:16:01,600 friends and the people around, there's things that he's going 253 00:16:01,600 --> 00:16:05,880 to reveal that only he can heal, that only he can forgive, that 254 00:16:05,880 --> 00:16:09,720 only he can transform. And he does that not to judge 255 00:16:09,720 --> 00:16:12,120 them, but to to help them and transform them. 256 00:16:12,120 --> 00:16:14,120 It's as part of the power that he brings. 257 00:16:17,160 --> 00:16:19,720 And we just need to know this about Jesus, that as we come to 258 00:16:19,720 --> 00:16:22,600 him, you know, he knows everything about us. 259 00:16:23,360 --> 00:16:27,000 He can see into the depths of our heart and soul and our 260 00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:29,400 history. And when we come to him with 261 00:16:29,400 --> 00:16:33,440 whatever presenting issue, we, we come to him and he sees that. 262 00:16:33,840 --> 00:16:37,280 He understands that, but he sees something far deeper. 263 00:16:37,520 --> 00:16:40,280 He's see and he looks with eyes of compassion. 264 00:16:40,280 --> 00:16:44,920 And this is the, this is that Son of man from Daniel 7. 265 00:16:44,920 --> 00:16:49,040 This is the Son of God that is revealed in all four gospels. 266 00:16:49,200 --> 00:16:55,200 This is Jesus seeing us moved with compassion and forgiven and 267 00:16:55,200 --> 00:16:57,480 forgiveness, not with condemnation. 268 00:16:58,920 --> 00:17:01,200 This is actually one of the best ways to see him is just to 269 00:17:01,200 --> 00:17:06,960 experience how He sees us. Now in the Gospel story, Jesus 270 00:17:06,960 --> 00:17:09,240 first sees the faith of the friends. 271 00:17:09,240 --> 00:17:15,200 Do you notice that in verse 5? Jesus sees the faith of the 272 00:17:15,200 --> 00:17:21,400 friends seeing their faith. Jesus noticed that the roof 273 00:17:21,400 --> 00:17:27,720 digging was a tangible act of trust in his power to heal the 274 00:17:27,720 --> 00:17:31,320 paralyzed man. Someone once said this faith 275 00:17:31,320 --> 00:17:34,720 always works through the fingers, right? 276 00:17:34,720 --> 00:17:37,800 In the western world, we think of faith as a belief that we 277 00:17:37,800 --> 00:17:40,560 have in our heads. I believe in God the Father 278 00:17:40,560 --> 00:17:42,280 Almighty. It's good to say and it's good 279 00:17:42,280 --> 00:17:46,160 to believe that in our heads, but our but, but if we really 280 00:17:46,160 --> 00:17:49,000 trust something, it's going to work its way through the 281 00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:51,240 fingers. That means that it's going to 282 00:17:51,240 --> 00:17:55,280 impact our obedience. That faith shows itself in 283 00:17:55,280 --> 00:17:58,320 obedience and tangible acts of trust. 284 00:17:58,880 --> 00:18:02,440 And for these, for these four friends, their faith, their 285 00:18:02,440 --> 00:18:05,360 trust that Jesus could heal their friend worked its way 286 00:18:05,360 --> 00:18:08,840 through their fingers as they unroofed the roof for whatever 287 00:18:08,840 --> 00:18:15,560 an hour because they were willing to, they were willing to 288 00:18:15,560 --> 00:18:18,360 do anything it took to get their friend to Jesus because they 289 00:18:18,360 --> 00:18:21,560 trusted him. And Jesus saw it. 290 00:18:21,560 --> 00:18:25,120 Jesus took notice of it. Jesus called it faith. 291 00:18:26,480 --> 00:18:32,800 Just to pause here for a moment. Anytime we take, we move and 292 00:18:33,040 --> 00:18:37,560 intentionally to do anything that we can with our time, with 293 00:18:37,560 --> 00:18:42,240 our reputation, with our money, with our schedules, to allow 294 00:18:42,640 --> 00:18:45,080 Jesus to be close to people in our life. 295 00:18:45,080 --> 00:18:49,720 That's an act of faith. So let's say that we are just 296 00:18:49,720 --> 00:18:53,720 choosing to pray for people in our life that are not yet 297 00:18:53,720 --> 00:18:55,360 Christians, but we care about them. 298 00:18:55,520 --> 00:18:59,360 We're not trying to to force them into a conversion. 299 00:18:59,360 --> 00:19:02,280 We want them to have a personal encounter with Jesus Christ 300 00:19:02,720 --> 00:19:06,720 where they can see him in a way that is unforced and filled with 301 00:19:06,720 --> 00:19:09,920 grace. Any prayer that we pray for 302 00:19:09,920 --> 00:19:12,400 years, you know what? That's an act of faith and Jesus 303 00:19:12,400 --> 00:19:15,160 sees it. Or what about this? 304 00:19:15,160 --> 00:19:17,840 What about taking a risk and inviting someone to your 305 00:19:17,840 --> 00:19:20,640 Citigroup, or inviting someone to Lessons and Carols, or 306 00:19:20,640 --> 00:19:24,200 inviting someone to Coffee and saying, hey, tell me, what's 307 00:19:24,200 --> 00:19:26,600 your spiritual story? I'd like to hear it. 308 00:19:26,720 --> 00:19:29,360 That's an act of faith or sharing your spiritual story. 309 00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:32,440 What has Jesus done for you? That's an act of faith. 310 00:19:32,440 --> 00:19:35,360 It's not a guarantee that anything big's going to happen 311 00:19:35,360 --> 00:19:40,560 in their life. Faith works through the fingers, 312 00:19:40,720 --> 00:19:45,240 through the schedules, through the conversations, through the 313 00:19:45,240 --> 00:19:48,840 way we use our money, through the way we use our time. 314 00:19:52,560 --> 00:19:56,360 Jesus sees it now. Jesus also sees the second-half 315 00:19:56,360 --> 00:20:01,200 of verse 5, the unforgiven guilt of this man who comes paralyzed. 316 00:20:01,880 --> 00:20:05,880 Jesus said, Son or child, it's a very tender word. 317 00:20:06,160 --> 00:20:11,600 Your sins are forgiven. And this is a a bit of A twist 318 00:20:11,600 --> 00:20:13,600 in the story because we're all expecting the healing. 319 00:20:13,800 --> 00:20:17,480 Why would Jesus say your sins are forgiven for someone who's 320 00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:23,600 so obviously has a, a very debilitating literally problem? 321 00:20:24,160 --> 00:20:28,000 And it's worth saying that like Jesus does see the paralysis. 322 00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:32,200 He notices that he knows how it's impacted this man's life. 323 00:20:32,200 --> 00:20:35,600 He understands the deep pain that this man is carrying 324 00:20:35,600 --> 00:20:40,280 physically and emotionally. He sees how devastating it is 325 00:20:40,280 --> 00:20:43,400 for this man. But Jesus also sees something 326 00:20:43,400 --> 00:20:46,240 deeper, as God always looks upon the heart. 327 00:20:46,240 --> 00:20:49,840 He looks upon what is at the core of this man's life. 328 00:20:50,120 --> 00:20:53,600 And he sees that at the heart of this man's life is unforgiven 329 00:20:53,600 --> 00:21:00,800 sin, and that there's a sin in his life that goes so deep that 330 00:21:00,800 --> 00:21:07,360 only God, or only God's chosen Son of man has license to 331 00:21:07,360 --> 00:21:10,920 release him from this guilt and from this pain. 332 00:21:11,040 --> 00:21:14,920 We don't know the memories that this man was carrying with him 333 00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:18,200 wherever he went. We don't know what memories 334 00:21:18,200 --> 00:21:21,840 replayed in his mind or what he carried with him and how heavy 335 00:21:21,840 --> 00:21:24,560 that was. We don't know what spiritual 336 00:21:24,560 --> 00:21:28,680 danger this man was in if he were to have died and gone face 337 00:21:28,680 --> 00:21:30,920 to face with the living God that very night. 338 00:21:30,920 --> 00:21:33,720 We don't know. But Jesus did know and he knew 339 00:21:33,720 --> 00:21:39,120 that that was the most vital, the most important, the most 340 00:21:39,120 --> 00:21:45,080 life giving act that he could do for this man was to forgive his 341 00:21:45,080 --> 00:21:47,600 sins on the spot. He didn't even have it. 342 00:21:47,720 --> 00:21:49,520 This man didn't know to ask him for it. 343 00:21:50,720 --> 00:21:54,360 Jesus saw that he needed the forgiveness and Jesus gave him 344 00:21:54,360 --> 00:21:58,200 the forgiveness. Son, child, putting him at ease, 345 00:21:58,400 --> 00:22:03,760 your sins are forgiven. What a tender savior pardoning 346 00:22:03,760 --> 00:22:06,880 this man. And here's the final thing that 347 00:22:06,960 --> 00:22:11,160 Jesus is going to see as he looks around, and that is going 348 00:22:11,160 --> 00:22:16,240 to be the the judgmental thoughts of the scribes. 349 00:22:16,680 --> 00:22:21,320 Jesus's action of forgiving this man's sin sparked judgment from 350 00:22:21,320 --> 00:22:24,840 the scribes. Verse 6 describes it. 351 00:22:26,080 --> 00:22:28,360 Some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their 352 00:22:28,360 --> 00:22:30,000 hearts, why does he speak like this? 353 00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:34,320 He's blaspheming who can forgive sins but God alone. 354 00:22:34,400 --> 00:22:38,480 Verse 8 right away Jesus perceived in his spirit that 355 00:22:38,480 --> 00:22:42,720 they were thinking like this within themselves and said to 356 00:22:42,720 --> 00:22:48,560 them, why are you thinking these things in your hearts now? 357 00:22:48,560 --> 00:22:52,560 What a what a shock this must have been for the scribes like 358 00:22:52,680 --> 00:22:56,280 Jesus is reading their minds instantly and he's calling them 359 00:22:56,280 --> 00:23:00,000 out and he's surfacing it. He's not letting them hide in 360 00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:04,160 their judge mental thoughts. And here they were professional 361 00:23:04,160 --> 00:23:07,240 teachers of the law. They'd always been able to hide 362 00:23:07,240 --> 00:23:11,760 behind a veneer of godliness and religious sophistication. 363 00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:14,640 They're they're not even standing, They're sitting like 364 00:23:14,640 --> 00:23:20,720 scribes might do. And now Jesus is not intending 365 00:23:20,720 --> 00:23:25,080 to humiliate them, but I believe he is there to reveal himself, 366 00:23:25,080 --> 00:23:28,320 to reveal his mission. And the pushback, even the 367 00:23:28,320 --> 00:23:32,640 mental judgements of the scribes is an opportunity for him to 368 00:23:32,640 --> 00:23:35,200 describe why he's come on this earth. 369 00:23:36,520 --> 00:23:40,640 That he is a son of man, meaning that he's identifying himself 370 00:23:40,640 --> 00:23:43,720 with people. He is with us in our human 371 00:23:43,720 --> 00:23:45,840 condition. And yet at the same time, he's 372 00:23:45,840 --> 00:23:49,040 uniquely set apart. He's uniquely set apart. 373 00:23:49,040 --> 00:23:53,480 The Son of Man is also from God, and He has the unique 374 00:23:53,480 --> 00:23:57,720 opportunity to forgive the sins of the entire human race, anyone 375 00:23:57,720 --> 00:24:01,240 who would come to Him because He himself is sinless and would 376 00:24:01,240 --> 00:24:04,080 give what no one else could give, which is a perfect 377 00:24:04,080 --> 00:24:07,120 offering to God of His life on the cross. 378 00:24:09,280 --> 00:24:12,320 Now back to the crowded house. All eyes are on Jesus. 379 00:24:12,320 --> 00:24:15,040 He's just called out the Pharisees and He's about to 380 00:24:15,040 --> 00:24:18,000 reveal Himself to all who would come to him and see Him. 381 00:24:19,200 --> 00:24:22,040 So he asked all of the skeptics this question. 382 00:24:22,400 --> 00:24:26,240 It's a in the rabbinic style. We'll unpack that. 383 00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:30,120 Verse 9 He says, which is easier to say to the paralytic, your 384 00:24:30,120 --> 00:24:35,640 sins are forgiven, or to say get up, take up your mat and walk. 385 00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:38,920 Here's kind of the rabbinic method Jesus is using. 386 00:24:39,920 --> 00:24:44,200 He's saying this, Hey, look, any old fraud can claim that 387 00:24:44,200 --> 00:24:45,680 someone's sins have been forgiven. 388 00:24:46,480 --> 00:24:49,640 You wouldn't know it. I could declare everyone sins 389 00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:53,440 here or forgiven by God and and it's it's invisible. 390 00:24:53,680 --> 00:24:55,640 No one's going to know whether it's true or not. 391 00:24:57,560 --> 00:24:59,200 There's no proof that it happened. 392 00:24:59,680 --> 00:25:04,680 But it takes real spiritual authority to heal a paralytic 393 00:25:04,680 --> 00:25:08,840 man on the spot. And so as one commentator noted, 394 00:25:08,840 --> 00:25:13,800 as Jesus will perform the miracle that they can see, which 395 00:25:13,800 --> 00:25:16,920 is physical healing to confirm that he had performed the 396 00:25:16,920 --> 00:25:20,680 miracle that they could not see, which is forgiveness. 397 00:25:21,280 --> 00:25:24,160 He performs the miracle of healing this man's paralysis to 398 00:25:24,160 --> 00:25:27,160 prove that he had already performed the miracle of 399 00:25:27,160 --> 00:25:30,840 forgiving of sins. Verse 10 so that you may know 400 00:25:30,840 --> 00:25:34,040 that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive 401 00:25:34,040 --> 00:25:37,280 sins. He told the paralytic, I tell 402 00:25:37,280 --> 00:25:40,960 you, get up, take your mat and go home. 403 00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:47,240 Now all eyes dart from from Jesus, who's speaking to this 404 00:25:47,240 --> 00:25:51,760 man and they watch And immediately verse 12, he got up, 405 00:25:52,200 --> 00:25:57,440 took the mat and went out in front of everyone and how the 406 00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:01,280 how the crowds messes like gasped and sort of like backed 407 00:26:01,280 --> 00:26:05,240 up and watched him, you know, take up his mat and March his 408 00:26:05,240 --> 00:26:09,520 way through beaming, smiling in wonderment through this crowd. 409 00:26:10,760 --> 00:26:14,880 What an amazing thing this must have been, how his four friends 410 00:26:14,960 --> 00:26:19,280 who had spent an hour on roofing the roof must have wept with joy 411 00:26:19,280 --> 00:26:23,000 at the great miracle, the double miracle of this man's forgiven. 412 00:26:23,200 --> 00:26:26,720 And he's also healed physically. He's here. 413 00:26:26,720 --> 00:26:29,680 He is this, he's like this walking picture of what the Son 414 00:26:29,680 --> 00:26:33,000 of Man came to do on this earth. He's restored. 415 00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:35,960 Yet the Son of Man came to restore everything that God had 416 00:26:35,960 --> 00:26:41,080 created, restore creation from the nests, restore human beings 417 00:26:41,080 --> 00:26:46,960 from suffering and sin like to to establish a new Kingdom, to 418 00:26:46,960 --> 00:26:49,000 establish God's Kingdom here on earth. 419 00:26:49,240 --> 00:26:52,520 And here this man is. He's like just one small 420 00:26:52,520 --> 00:26:59,040 picture, one powerful, powerful parable, one man healed by the 421 00:26:59,040 --> 00:27:03,960 Son of man, showing the world. This is just a taste of what 422 00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:08,520 Jesus is intending to do for anyone that would come to him. 423 00:27:08,840 --> 00:27:11,280 Verse 12, the second-half of verse 12 says this. 424 00:27:11,440 --> 00:27:16,360 As a result, they were all astounded and gave glory to God 425 00:27:16,360 --> 00:27:20,160 saying we have never seen anything like this. 426 00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:22,560 We've never seen anything like this. 427 00:27:23,360 --> 00:27:26,120 And when you get a picture of Jesus, when you come to see him, 428 00:27:26,120 --> 00:27:28,720 that's what usually what you end up saying. 429 00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:32,440 Like there's no one on earth that gives us this same picture 430 00:27:32,680 --> 00:27:35,920 of hope and healing and restoration. 431 00:27:35,920 --> 00:27:38,800 There's no one on earth that can make promises like Jesus. 432 00:27:38,800 --> 00:27:42,080 There's no one on earth that can keep promises like Jesus. 433 00:27:43,840 --> 00:27:46,960 You know, we all like, whether it's from Mark chapter 2, these 434 00:27:46,960 --> 00:27:51,000 people or all of us or anyone, anyone who comes to Jesus, we've 435 00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:56,280 all got mixed motives. I honestly, I do, you do. 436 00:27:56,720 --> 00:27:59,680 We've all got mixed motives. We've all got little problems. 437 00:28:00,680 --> 00:28:04,880 Things were like, if only Jesus would fix this, then I would be 438 00:28:04,880 --> 00:28:11,080 happier. And when we come to him, one of 439 00:28:11,080 --> 00:28:16,720 the things that he does is he thrills us and he and he raises 440 00:28:16,720 --> 00:28:20,600 our vision and our perspective and our hope by doing things 441 00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:23,720 that we wouldn't have even thought of that are much larger 442 00:28:23,840 --> 00:28:27,920 than our little world. And he gathers us together in a 443 00:28:27,920 --> 00:28:31,160 community of people who all of us have mixed motives and all of 444 00:28:31,160 --> 00:28:34,480 us need our vision raised and all of us get to stay together. 445 00:28:34,640 --> 00:28:39,360 Glory to God in the highest. Glory to God because we've never 446 00:28:39,360 --> 00:28:43,840 seen anything like this, because his promises and his hope and 447 00:28:43,840 --> 00:28:47,600 his power is so much grander than any of the promises that 448 00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:49,640 any of us could take hold of in this life. 449 00:28:51,440 --> 00:28:55,040 And we all see that like a new day is dawning, that all of us 450 00:28:55,040 --> 00:28:57,080 have these pictures like like this man. 451 00:28:57,080 --> 00:29:00,240 But but for us, it's like, maybe it's like the college students 452 00:29:00,560 --> 00:29:02,640 of our day. We're like, look at what Jesus 453 00:29:02,640 --> 00:29:06,360 is doing with Gen. Z who came out of COVID with 454 00:29:06,360 --> 00:29:11,200 such trauma and such anxiety and they were falling apart and now 455 00:29:11,200 --> 00:29:13,680 they're turning to Christ and like they're becoming the 456 00:29:13,680 --> 00:29:15,960 leaders of the next generation. Is that incredible? 457 00:29:16,320 --> 00:29:18,840 We can say, well, we none of us saw that coming and none of us 458 00:29:18,840 --> 00:29:22,560 could have made that happen. But glory to God in the highest. 459 00:29:22,560 --> 00:29:28,080 We've never seen anything like this because the Son of Man, 460 00:29:28,480 --> 00:29:32,800 whether it's 2000 years ago or today, is rolling back the 461 00:29:32,800 --> 00:29:36,480 tyranny of evil, and he's rolling back the tyranny of 462 00:29:36,480 --> 00:29:39,720 death. And he's rolling back all of the 463 00:29:39,840 --> 00:29:43,280 threats that would threaten our life and threaten our world. 464 00:29:44,400 --> 00:29:46,440 And he's telling us that we don't need to panic about the 465 00:29:46,440 --> 00:29:50,120 biggest problems that we face. And he's saying there's a new 466 00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:52,960 day dawning and I'm coming to make all things new. 467 00:29:53,440 --> 00:29:55,440 And he's bringing glory to his father. 468 00:29:55,560 --> 00:30:02,280 The Ancient of Days, we're going to keep walking through Mark, 469 00:30:02,280 --> 00:30:05,760 guys, and we're going to see Jesus go to the cross that he's 470 00:30:05,760 --> 00:30:09,520 going to make it there and he's going to be lifted up. 471 00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:12,720 And it's not going to be a throne like we expected it's 472 00:30:12,720 --> 00:30:14,480 going to be. It's going to be a throne of 473 00:30:14,480 --> 00:30:17,960 suffering. The king is going to go to a 474 00:30:17,960 --> 00:30:22,880 cross and and then he's going to draw people from every tribe and 475 00:30:22,880 --> 00:30:27,080 tongue and people and language and culture and era and 476 00:30:27,080 --> 00:30:32,800 continent and generation. And like the centurion in 477 00:30:32,800 --> 00:30:38,720 chapter 16, we're going to say, surely this man is the Son of 478 00:30:38,720 --> 00:30:42,640 God. And that's why Jesus Christ is 479 00:30:42,640 --> 00:30:44,840 endlessly fascinating to the human race. 480 00:30:44,880 --> 00:30:47,200 You know, Swiss thinker Philip Schlaf said this. 481 00:30:48,840 --> 00:30:52,920 Jesus is Nazareth, he says, without money in arms, conquered 482 00:30:52,920 --> 00:30:58,160 more millions than Alexandra the great Caesar, Muhammad and 483 00:30:58,160 --> 00:31:00,680 Napoleon. Without science and learning, he 484 00:31:00,680 --> 00:31:03,280 shed more light on things human and divine than all the 485 00:31:03,280 --> 00:31:05,280 philosophers and scholars combined. 486 00:31:06,200 --> 00:31:10,080 Without writing a single line, he set in motion more songs of 487 00:31:10,080 --> 00:31:13,880 praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern 488 00:31:13,880 --> 00:31:17,920 times. So, friends, as we think about 489 00:31:17,920 --> 00:31:22,200 putting ourselves there with the Capernaum crowd, what would have 490 00:31:22,200 --> 00:31:24,160 brought us there? What would have brought you 491 00:31:24,160 --> 00:31:25,480 there? What would have brought me 492 00:31:25,480 --> 00:31:28,720 there? If you if you know Jesus was 493 00:31:28,720 --> 00:31:33,360 close enough to see with your own eyes and hear with your own 494 00:31:33,360 --> 00:31:36,480 ears and ready to help you with a problem that you are currently 495 00:31:36,480 --> 00:31:39,960 facing, Would you elbow your way into the crowd to get a glimpse 496 00:31:39,960 --> 00:31:44,160 of this man and get a shot at asking him your question? 497 00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:49,120 Would you tear out the roof to get to him or allow others to 498 00:31:49,120 --> 00:31:51,280 get to him? Would you see if he looked you 499 00:31:51,280 --> 00:31:52,280 in the eye? Would you? 500 00:31:52,840 --> 00:31:55,920 Would you, would you allow him to name and help you with a 501 00:31:55,920 --> 00:31:59,680 burdensome, hopeless, broken issue that you could give to 502 00:31:59,680 --> 00:32:02,440 him? And what if Jesus were to look 503 00:32:02,440 --> 00:32:04,960 you in the eye and say, What do you want me to? 504 00:32:05,080 --> 00:32:10,840 What do you want to trust to me? What can you trust to me to fix, 505 00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:14,160 help, heal, transform? What would you tell him? 506 00:32:15,360 --> 00:32:19,840 What would you give him? See, HG Wells was right. 507 00:32:20,440 --> 00:32:23,200 Jesus Christ is at the very center of history. 508 00:32:23,400 --> 00:32:27,400 But it's also true that he's, he's at the very center of of 509 00:32:27,400 --> 00:32:31,480 your story and my story. He's the key that unlocks it and 510 00:32:31,480 --> 00:32:35,720 heals it and resolves it. And he's here this morning, 511 00:32:35,720 --> 00:32:37,200 friends, through his Holy Spirit. 512 00:32:38,160 --> 00:32:41,000 He's ready to see us. He's ready to heal us. 513 00:32:41,360 --> 00:32:47,920 He's ready to invite us to get up and be forgiven and gather at 514 00:32:47,920 --> 00:32:50,880 His table and taste of the Kingdom to come. 515 00:32:52,160 --> 00:32:56,720 And we have never, ever seen anything like this. 516 00:32:56,920 --> 00:33:01,120 So let us give glory to God in the highest in the name of the 517 00:33:01,120 --> 00:33:02,840 Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.