Mark 2:1-12

He's impartially merciful. Do you know him? He's the greatest phenomenon that has ever crossed the horizon of this world. He's God's son. He's a sinner's savior. He's the centerpiece of civilization. He's unparalleled. He's unprecedented. He is the loftiest idea in literature. He's the highest personality in philosophy. He's the fundamental doctrine of theology. He's the only one qualified to be an all-sufficient savior. I wonder if you know him today. He supplies strength for the weak.

He's available for the tempted and the tried. He sympathizes, and he saves. He strengthens and sustains. He guards, and he guides. He heals the sick. He cleanses the lepers. He forgives sinners. He discharges debtors. He delivers the captive. He defends the feeble. He nurtures the young. He serves the unfortunate. He regards the aged. He rewards the diligent, and he beautifies the meek. I wonder if you know him. He's the key to knowledge. He's the wellspring of wisdom.

He's the doorway of deliverance. He's the pathway of peace. He's the roadway of righteousness. He's the highway of holiness. He's the gateway of glory. Do you know him? Well, his light is matchless. His goodness is limitless. His mercy is everlasting. His love never changes. His word is enough. His grace is sufficient. His reign is righteous. His yoke is easy, and his burden is light. I wish I could describe him to you, but he's indescribable. He's incomprehensible. He's invincible.

He's irresistible. Well, you can't get him out of your mind. You can't get him off of your hands. You can't outlive him, and you can't live without him. The Pharisees couldn't stand him, but they found out they couldn't stop him. Pilate couldn't find any fault in him. Herod couldn't kill him. Death couldn't handle him, and the grave couldn't hold him. Hey! That's my king! That's my king!

"That's My King". But let me present that to you as a question this morning: Is that the picture of who Jesus is to you? Many people look at Jesus as simply a religious figure. Many people look at Jesus as the baby, meek and mild, in the Christmas manger. Many people look at Jesus as the one that, at some time in their life, they have asked into their heart. Is Jesus your king? Is he your sovereign? Is he the one who is truly Lord who rules your life?

That's not just from a sermon; that is from the Gospel of Mark. That is from all of the word of God, but particularly the Gospel of Mark, and as we've been beginning and working our way through the Gospel of Mark, that's how we see Mark present him. That's how we see Jesus present himself. Chapter 1, verse 14: Jesus, what does he say? "The Kingdom of God has come near." "With my coming," in other words, "a new reign has begun, and he is the sovereign.

Now that sovereign reign looked very different during its earthly phase than it will when he returns, but he is no less the king, coming in the obscurity that he came when he originally came. If you're visiting with us, we are working our way through the second Gospel, the second book of the New Testament, the Gospel of Mark. And John Andrew finished out chapter one last week. And so we begin chapter 2 today. We see a shift.

If you've been here with us the last couple of weeks, we see a shift from chapter one to chapter two. In chapter one, what we see is Jesus coming to prominence: people beginning to notice him, crowds developing him, but now that he has the attention of the world, or at least the world around him, now, in chapter 2, we see something new. We see, growing throughout the rest of the Gospel, a growing hostility, a growing opposition to this one who dares to call himself king.

And I think about the application today. You see what's going on in our world around us. April talked about the darkness in Europe. I think about the darkness in the United States, and the claim that he would be king, not just king of Christians, but king of all. You can see the growing hostility and the growing opposition to that. That's what Mark gives us a picture of. We're going to read the first 12 verses of Mark chapter 2.

I'm reading, if you're following along with me this morning, I'm reading out of the New International Version, and we begin in verse 1. "A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. So many gathered there that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them." And let me just pause there and give you a little context for that. There's a picture coming up on the screen.

That's Capernaum today, and it is much smaller than it was at that time. That's a picture taken from the Sea of Galilee looking down. And really, the reason I put that picture up there is if you can make it out, in about the dead center of that photograph, you see a large round object. That's actually a pavilion that's constructed.

If you went to Capernaum today, you would see this large pavilion, and underneath that pavilion are the archaeological ruins of what Bible scholars believe to be the home of Peter. And that's the house that we're talking about in this text, and out of all the sites, archeological sites in Israel, this is one that archaeological scholars are pretty sure this was the house of Peter. So what you see there is what is being described here. It was a modest home. It wasn't a large home.

So as the crowds heard that Jesus was there, and they heard that he had this healing, miraculous ministry, they came to see him. They filled the house. We read so many gathered there that there was no room left, not even outside the door. They spilled outside the house into the area around the door, and Jesus, really not having prepared at that point for the crowds coming, still, he did what he continues to do. He preached the word to them.

He preached that message that we've heard since the beginning of chapter 1: "God's kingdom has come near." And the response he calls for is to repent and believe in the Gospel. Well, Mark goes on in chapter 3. "Some men came as Jesus is preaching, and they brought to him a paralytic man carried by the four of them," and again, let me just stop there.

We use in our English translations that word "paralytic", but the word that Mark uses in his original manuscript gives us the idea this man was probably a stroke victim. He'd had a stroke, and he was either partially, maybe just on one side, maybe fully paralyzed as a result of his stroke, and since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus, and after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on.

"When Jesus saw their faith (the faith of the four men), he said to the paralytic man, 'Son, your sins are forgiven.' Now, some teachers of the law (or that's also translated 'scribes'), some scribes were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 'Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?' Immediately, Jesus knew in his spirit that this is what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, 'Why are you thinking these things?

'Which is easier to say to the paralytic: "Your sins are forgiven," or to say, "Get up, take your mat, and walk," but that you may know that the son of man has authority on Earth to forgive sins,' he said to the paralytic, 'I tell you, get up, take up your mat, and go home.' And he, the paralytic man, got up, he took his mat, and he walked out in full view of all of them.

This amazed everyone, and they praised God, saying, 'We have never seen anything like this.'" My outline is short, and it's pretty simple for today, but I think Mark is under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He brings together this account. I really think he's teaching us about four things. I think he has something to teach us about the faith of the four friends. I think he has something to teach us about the plight of the paralytic.

I think he has something to teach us about the plight, or the heart condition, of the scribes, and I think he has much to teach us about the identity of Jesus. So let's just jump right in at the beginning with the faith of the friends. Notice, in verse 5, "When Jesus saw their faith (...)" Now that's an interesting expression of Mark. What is it that Jesus saw in these men? He didn't even speak to them, from what we can tell.

So what did he see in these men and their actions that, for him, was a representation of faith? Because whatever they had, I want to have. I want to have that kind of faith. Well, let's look very practically at what Jesus saw that we can see in the text. First of all, he saw, or at least he concluded, that these men carried their friend, probably, a long way. They carried him, their paralytic friend, on a cot to see Jesus.

Verse 2: "Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by the four of them." Jesus' reputation as as one who could heal had been spreading. We don't know if these men came from Capernaum; maybe they came from a long distance, somewhere else in Galilee. These men heard that Jesus could heal, and they have this friend, this man that they cared for, that they loved, who is paralyzed.

Jesus wasn't coming to where he was, so if Jesus wasn't going to come to their paralytic friend, they determined they were going to load their paralytic friend on a cot, and they were going to bring their paralytic friend to Jesus. But after they got there, after making the journey there, they tried to get to where Jesus was, and a crowd of people jams the doorway of the house, spilling out from where Jesus is, so they can't get through to reach Jesus.

We'll look at the persistence that Jesus notes, even up to that moment. Jesus also notices, or knows, what we deduce here, they hoisted him up over the crowd to get to the roof of the house. Now again, a little bit of a contextual understanding is helpful here. Houses at that time were built mostly with flat roofs. The evenings get very hot there, and so roofs were usually built so that the occupants of the house could sleep on a hot night up on the roof.

So when the house was constructed, either a stone staircase was built on the outside of the house or some kind of ladder structure was built so that the occupants of the house could get to the roof for sleeping on a hot night. So these men not only carried their friend a great distance on a cot; they negotiated their way around the crowd. And can you imagine carrying a stretcher up a ladder, or at least up a steep staircase?

They got their friend up to the roof of the house, and then, they dug a hole through the roof. Now Luke, in his Gospel, also records the same incident, and Luke adds a little bit of detail. Luke 5:19 tells us that this roof had clay tiles, and houses like this were built-- when you build the walls, you put timbers across the walls, and across those timbers they laid baked clay slabs, large baked clay tiles, in other words. They would cover the rough with these clay tiles, these clay slabs.

Then, they would take wet mud and they-- wet clay, and they would cover over the slabs to seal it from the weather and to seal it from the water, and then let that dry. Well, these men, again, I don't think they came planning to go up to the roof. I don't think they had shovels or anything. We're not given any indication of that. These men get up to the roof.

They dig, probably with their bare hands, through that layer of clay, and then they remove enough of the slabs to create an opening that's large enough to lower their friend through, and that's exactly what they then proceed to do. They lowered this man on his cot before Jesus. Can you imagine being there? Can you imagine being in the house? I don't think this happened in 30 seconds. I think, as they're there, the people, the crowd is there, and they're listening to Jesus' teaching.

I think, all of a sudden, it just starts to drop down, and then pieces and bits of clay start to fall through. Maybe they thought it was an earthquake at first and then a shaft of light as the as the ceiling opens up, but then it becomes very apparent: there are people up there, and they're digging through it, and they probably had to wait a number of minutes while that hole was created large enough. Can you imagine Jesus in the middle of teaching, pausing and seeing this?

For Jesus is not offended by this. Jesus is not indignant about this. What does Mark tell us? He saw their faith in doing this. He saw that these men were willing to remove any obstacle, even a roof, to get their friend before Jesus. And I think it's interesting for you and me today. This is the first mention of the word "faith" by Mark in his Gospel. And do you notice what it's a picture of? It's not a picture of what we feel, is it?

It's not a picture of something anybody was subjectively, emotionally experiencing. It's a picture of action. Not that faith does not include emotion. It does, but faith here is really what we sang after the offering today. Faith is confidence in God, that he holds the situation that we're in, in our hands. And it is the steps. It's the actions. It's the decisions that we make that put ourselves in his hands, that demonstrate our confidence that his promises still stand.

So there's, I think, a picture for you and for me today about whatever we bring before Jesus. We come, maybe, like this man, with physical issues. Maybe we come with relational issues. Maybe we come with financial challenges. Faith is putting those in God's hands. It's making the decisions. It's taking the steps that say, "All right, Lord, I'm going to step out here. I'm going to put my confidence in you.

"I'm going to trust that your promises still stand, that they will hold me, and I'm going to take that step, even though it may seem crazy to the people around me." Faith here is portrayed as an action, although it does include what we subjectively experience as well. Well, secondly, the plight of the paralytic. I find it interesting what Jesus-- actually, I find it not interesting, I find it shocking, what Jesus says to the paralytic. This man is lowered before him. This man is lying on a cot.

This man, obviously to the crowd and to Jesus, cannot move on his own. He's in physical distress, and does Jesus speak immediately to his physical need? No, he speaks to his inner need: "My son, your sins are forgiven." I find that very striking that that is how Jesus would address that. Now, don't buy that expression of Jesus. Don't conclude that Jesus is necessarily linking this man's physical condition to any sin that this man had committed.

That was a very predominant view during that day: that physical illness, that sickness, that disability was directly related to personal sins in your life. It's very likely that the religious leaders, the scribes there, were thinking that that was the case here. But Jesus is not necessarily making that connection here. I think Jesus said this, addressing the man's sins, his inner condition, because he knows that this is not only true of this man.

He knows this is true of us as well: that our greatest need is our spiritual need. We come to Jesus with our physical needs. And he sees them like he sees that man with his physical needs. We come to Jesus with our relational needs, our financial needs, our emotional needs, whatever they may be. He sees all those needs, but he sees at the heart of those needs, there's an even deeper need: Our spiritual need.

Even when we think about physical disability like this man had, experiencing, I find it interesting. I think we're rarely aware of how much our physical condition is influenced by the spiritual condition of our hearts. I read recently that doctors estimate that at least half the illnesses that they treat are at least aggravated by issues in the heart, by issues like anxiety, guilt, bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness.

Doctors say if those could be resolved, it's not like every physical condition would go away, but if those could be resolved, a lot of physical conditions would be substantially relieved, and some would go away altogether. So Jesus sees beyond just the immediate physical need, sees what is deep down in the man's heart. Maybe it was some of this that caused the stroke that this man had had in the first place. We don't know. Mark doesn't tell us.

I think it's interesting as well that, of all the accounts that Mark had heard from the apostle Peter and decided to include in his Gospel at this point, he uses this picture of Jesus healing a paralytic, because paralysis is not just a present physical condition in this story; it's a spiritual image. Paralysis is a picture of who we are spiritually apart from Christ. We may be the healthiest person that we know. We may be the most economically secure person we know.

We may have relationships that other people envy. And yet, if we do not have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, the condition of our heart, spiritually, is one of paralysis, because we are unable to do anything. We are unable to save ourselves.

Paul the Apostle uses an image very close to paralysis to describe our spiritual condition apart from Christ in Ephesians chapter 2, when he says that "apart from Christ, before you were I came to Christ," or if you're here this morning and you have not yet embraced Christ as savior, as king, Paul says that "we are dead, dead in our transgressions and sins." That image hits me. I had the opportunity, the brief opportunity, for a couple of years in my twenties, to work in a funeral home.

And I won't go into any detail here, but part of my duties did include transferring the bodies of deceased persons from tables to caskets or whatever was required, and it is amazing how heavy a dead person is.

You can take a 200-pound person who's in a hospital bed, a live person who is in a hospital bed, but very, very sick, and as you move that person and transfer them, there's still that ability of that person, no matter how sick they are, to contribute, to help a little bit in the movement, of the transfer, of their body. But move a dead body, and you will know why they call it "dead weight".

A 200-pound dead person, moving that person is incredibly harder than it is to move a 200-pound live person, even if that person is very, very sick. That's the image here. We are able to contribute nothing to our salvation, that when we are dead in our sins, when we are paralyzed in our sins before Christ, we can do nothing. We cannot move spiritually. We cannot help. We cannot assist in any way spiritually. So paralysis, death, paralysis is the picture of who you and I are apart from Christ.

This man did need to be healed of the paralyzing effects of his stroke, but Jesus knows that this man, even more, needs to be healed from the paralyzing effects of his sin, and that's true of you and me. No matter how healthy or unhealthy we are physically, you and I, even more than our physical health, we need to be healed from the paralyzing effects of our sinful condition, and that only happens through the forgiveness of Jesus Christ.

Well third, the plight of the scribes, or I think we could even say the heart condition of the scribes. These men were religious leaders. They may have been an official delegation that was sent from Jerusalem to keep an eye on Jesus.

They may have been local religious authorities that were concerned about the growing influence of this man over the people that they were supposed to be the leaders of, and as they're watching this, again, Mark describes in verse 6 that they're sitting there, they're thinking to themselves, again, they're not articulating this. They're not mumbling this, Mark says. This is going on in their thoughts, in their head.

"Why does this fellow, why does Jesus talk like that?" Referring to "My son, your sins are forgiven." "He's blaspheming!" they think in their minds. "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" On one hand, you know, they're right. If Jesus is not God, he is blaspheming, and that's why they're scandalized, not yet believing that Jesus is God. They know from the Old Testament what you and I should know if we read the Old Testament: the only one who can forgive sins is God.

A Catholic priest, if you grew up in Catholicism, all they did that they claim to be able to forgive you of your sins, ineffective. Scribes' ability to forgive sins: they didn't claim it. Even the high priest of Judaism, in Jerusalem, at the temple, did not claim to be able to forgive sins. Only God, the Old Testament says, can forgive sins. And you notice Jesus does not even say, "God has allowed me to forgive your sins." He claimed to personally, first-person be able to forgive this man's sin.

So, if Jesus is not God, he is blaspheming. This, theme of blasphemy, by the way, this is the first time it appears in Mark, but we're going to see that over and over again. In fact, it's going to build and build and build until we get to chapter 14, when Jesus is arrested, and he's brought to trial before the high priests, what is it that they convict him of? Chapter 14:64, the chief priest says, "You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?" And that brought about the sentence of death.

They condemned him as worthy of death. The scribes could not comprehend that this man could actually be God, God in the flesh. And I think it's such an interesting contrast between when we are closed off to who Jesus claims to be, we have the hardened attitude of the scribes. Contrast that with the attitude of these four friends who hear about this man and will do whatever it takes to get their friend to him. You couldn't have a greater contrast between the two responses to Jesus.

And that's for you and for me today. You know, it is possible of course, to reject Jesus outright. And we see that happening in the world all around us, where people want no part of Jesus, people completely deny everything that he has said about himself. But it is also possible to do that in lower degrees. It's possible to say, "You know, I like the idea that Jesus has saved me, so I'm going to heaven.

But this 'king' part, you know, the fact that he would actually reign over my life and have authority over my life, and that I would need to live my life for him, I don't like that part so much."

That is as much a rejection as rejecting him entirely, and to the degree that we do that, to the degree that we push off Jesus' claims about who he says he is, and we resist his influence over our life as Lord, as king, it has the same paralyzing effect on our hearts that we can see it having upon the hearts of the scribes here. So the condition of the scribes' hearts is not the condition-- that's the condition of fear that can happen to our hearts.

Finally, the identity of Jesus: Mark does not give us the full picture of all that he's going to show us throughout his gospel of who Jesus is, but he gives us some clear indication that Jesus is who he claims to be. I like, in verse 8, what we see here: Jesus knew in his spirit what they were thinking in their hearts. Now, I want you to think for a moment about the implications of this.

Jesus not only knew the sins of that paralyzed man; Jesus knew the thoughts that were in the hearts of these scribes. Mark is not saying here that Jesus was really good at reading body language. He's not saying here that Jesus somehow heard them mumbling, ,or Jesus could read facial expressions. Mark is giving us a picture here of the omniscient mind of Christ and that is who he is. That is a piece of who he is.

Forget the miraculous healing, just for a moment here, and consider the implications of the omniscient mind of Christ. No matter where you stand, in regards to Jesus Christ, he knows your mind. He knows what's going on in my heart. 1 Chronicles 28:9 says this: "The Lord searches all hearts, and he understands every intent of the thoughts." Whether you reject him entirely, or you reject him or resist him in part, he knows your thoughts. He knows what's in your heart.

That is a picture of the identity of Jesus. We see another picture of the identity of Jesus in verse 9, when Jesus challenges them, having omnisciently perceived that this is what's going on in their minds. He challenges them with this question: "Which is easier to say to the paralytic: 'your sins are forgiven', or to say, 'Get up, take your mat, and walk.'" Again, that seems a bit odd, but let's just think about that from the human perspective.

Which of those two phrases would be humanly easier to say? I think it's obvious. It's easier-- perhaps I had the option to say one of those two. Which which would I want to say? I'd want to say, "Your sins are forgiven," because you wouldn't be able to prove whether I'd really been able to do that or not. You wouldn't see any clear evidence of that. Whereas if I said, "I'm going to heal you. Get up and walk," you'd have evidence almost immediately of whether I could really do that or not.

So Jesus, on one hand, is saying, "It is easier to say that your sins are forgiven," because there's no visible evidence of that, but Jesus doesn't stop there, does he? Jesus goes on to say, "I will provide you with evidence of my ability to forgive sins." How? By healing this man's paralysis, which you can all see, and that's exactly what he proceeds to do in verse 10: "but that you may know that the son of man has authority on Earth to forgive sins." Now again, let me pause here.

This is another time where, again, we have the first term, or the first occurrence of a term that we'll see over and over again in Mark: "Son of Man". Mark uses "Son of Man" 14 times in his Gospel, and there's a lot of confusion. What does that mean? That is Jesus' favorite reference to himself, his favorite title for himself. The early church referred to him as Lord, as Savior, but Jesus referred to himself as the Son of Man.

Out of those 14 times, three times, not one of these times here in chapter 2, but three times, Mark records Jesus calling himself the Son of Man, really to describe how one day, he's going to return in judgment. And if you know Old Testament prophecy, and you may know Daniel chapter 7 is a real significant chapter. That's where this image of the Son of Man coming in final judgment is. This is not one of those occurrences.

Another nine of those occurrences, Mark records, as Jesus talking about himself as the Son of Man, really referencing how he's going to come, and he's going to suffer for man. He's going to come and suffer in your place and my place, which he did on the cross. And that is not one of these occurrences.

The remaining two references where Jesus calls himself the Son of Man, one is right here, and the other is just a few verses later, in chapter 28, and they have to do with his authority that he has been given as the Son, as God's son. He has been given, as a man on this earth, he has been given authority on this earth, here, the authority to forgive sins. Jesus' authority: think of what that word means.

Authority is the right to do something, so Jesus' authority is the right to act as he does, and in this case, it is the right to act as only God can act by forgiving sins. So let me just bring this together with you as we wrap this up. What do we see of the identity of Jesus in Mark here? We see this picture of the omniscient Christ, who knows all things, who knows our hearts, who knows, even this morning, what you're wrestling with, what you're thinking of, what you're struggling with.

We see in this picture of Jesus this self-identification as the Son of Man, the one who has the authority to be able to address you, wherever you are and whatever your need, and particularly the point of your deepest need, beneath all the rest of your needs, to forgive your sins. And Jesus is that one. You may know this, if you've been in church for a long time, but maybe it hasn't sunk in in a way that that the Holy Spirit working through Mark, maybe, wants to bring it home in your life today.

He is the only one who can deal with your past, who can deal with your sin. He is the only one who can make it right. A pastor cannot make your past right. A counselor cannot make your past right. A priest cannot make your past right. No other religious figure can make your past right. Only Jesus has the authority on Earth to forgive sins, and he can completely forgive you of your sins.

He forgives you not only have all the specific sins that you have committed; he forgives you of the ongoing sins. He forgives you of the sinful condition that produced all of those sins. And by the way, the authority to forgive is also the authority to heal, and that's exactly what Jesus goes on to demonstrate in verse 11, when he says to the paralytic, "I tell you, get up, take up your mat, and go home."

Having been healed of his spiritual paralysis through the forgiveness of sins, this man is now healed of his physical paralysis. He got up, he took his mat, and he walked out in full view of them all. He is the king. Is he your king? As you consider him today, wherever you are spiritually, wherever you are in life at this point, do you see him as the king that Mark presents him as?

Do you see him as the Son of Man, the one who comes with the authority to forgive sins, the one who comes with the authority to heal, to heal the heart as well as the body, as well as every other area of our lives? What is it that, this morning, using that image of paralysis, that is paralyzing you spiritually, what is it this morning that may be paralyzing you relationally? Paralyzing you financially, paralyzing you physically? Jesus comes, he comes as the Son of Man. He comes as the king.

He comes as the one to whom all needs are ultimately, as they're laid on his feet, fully addressed. Let me lead you back as we close to Pastor Lockridge's question: do you know this king? Do you know him as this king? He is the key to knowledge. He's the wellspring of wisdom. He's the doorway of deliverance. He's the pathway of peace. He's the roadway to righteousness. He's the highway to holiness. He's the gateway of glory. He's indescribable. He's incomprehensible. He's invincible.

He's irresistible. That's our king. Do you know him? Let's pray. Oh Lord Jesus, we worship you. We worship you as savior. We worship as Son of God. We worship you as Son of Man. We worship you as king. Lord, there may be some here this morning who have never really encountered you as king, and I pray you'd work by your Holy Spirit, through your inspired word in the Gospel of Mark here, to reveal Jesus to them, in a way, as savior and as king, perhaps they have never experienced before.

And Lord, for for those of us who've encountered you as savior and encountered you as king, I ask that you, by Your Holy Spirit, help us to come before you with whatever area of paralysis in our lives: relationally, financially, physically, spiritually, and to lay it for you, trusting in you, having faith in you as we see demonstrated in these four friends.

Reveal yourself, Lord, in an increasingly greater way, that we may see you, that we may run to you, that we may depend upon you, that we may worship you. We pray, Jesus, this in your holy name. Amen.