Jesus Said...
Your Sins Are Forgiven
Mark 2:1-12
We are in a series of messages from the Gospels entitled "Jesus Said." What Jesus said while He was on earth is extremely important. And in our text today are some of the sweetest words anyone could hear. Those words are, "your sins are forgiven." If Jesus has never forgiven your sins then today all you have to do is call upon Him and ask Him.
Now I want us to go back and look at verse 1.
The real key to anything lasting and valuable as far as the church goes is to get people in contact with Jesus. “It was heard that He was in the house”. Jesus is to be the central person; Jesus is to be the central figure of everything the body of Christ does. It all centers around Him.
And I’m of the opinion when people find out that there is a church where Jesus is, there is a church where there is a mighty Savior, who has the power to forgive, who has the power to heal, who has the power to change lives, who has the power to make a difference, who has the power to move in the hearts and lives of homes and marriages when there is a church like that, that kind of church is going to be full and there is not going to be room for all who want to come.
The one essential ingredient in building a church, building a ministry, building a service is that Jesus Christ be present and be present in all of His power to heal and to bless and to save.
It was heard that Jesus was in the house. If you believe Jesus is going to be in the house on Sunday, you’ll be here also. If yo believe Jesus is going to be in the house, you’ll be busy trying to get others to come also.
It was heard that Jesus was in the house. And immediately there was such a crowd because there are always people who are hungry for the Lord. There are always people who have needy hearts. There are always people who know and understand that only Jesus can give joy in life, only Jesus can meet the needs of hearts, only Jesus has the answer to life's problems and I pray that we will noise it about that Jesus Christ is in this place. He is to be the central figure of everything we do.
There has never been a preacher like the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says that He preached the Word to them and when Jesus showed up, God showed up! What a service this was! Now as we look at this particular service today and at our mighty Savior, I want you to see these verses in three different aspects of the account. First of all there is the perspective of
I. The Sick
verse 3
Notice he was brought to Jesus. And it says he was a paralytic. Five times in these verses reference is made to his disability. Why is there so much emphasis placed on the fact that he was paralyzed? Because in many ways this man is a picture of our spiritual condition.
We are like him in the seriousness of his sickness.
We don't know exactly what his specific paralysis was, but it had left this man so totally helpless that though Jesus was in town, that though Jesus was in the area, that though Jesus had the power to heal and the power to forgive him and had the power to meet the need of his life, he was so totally helpless that he had to be brought to Jesus by four friends who were concerned enough about him that they were willing to pay the price to get the stretcher, to go to his home, to put him on the bed and to bring him to the feet of Jesus Christ.
He is a picture of every person without Christ. You see, we build our churches and our philosophy is that the lost ought to come. The pews are padded, it is air-conditioned, we have beautiful music, we have an interesting program and they ought to come to the four walls of our church.
But you see, a person without Christ is a spiritual paraplegic; he cannot walk for the Lord. He cannot dress himself for the Lord. He cannot come to the Lord. Sin totally renders a person spiritually helpless.
That is why the Bible says that we ought to bring them to Jesus. We are to win the lost at any cost. That’s why Jesus said to go out into the roadways of life and compel them to come in. That is what this story is all about. It is about a man who could not come to Jesus by himself and so those who cared about him brought him to Jesus.
Not only can we identify with the seriousness of his sickness, but we also see the source of his sickness.
verse 5
That’s kind of surprising isn’t it? We expect Jesus to say, “Your illness is healed”, but He doesn't say that. He says, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”
Why did Jesus say that? Here was a man who was paralyzed, he needs healing and yet Jesus doesn't deal with that physical part, He deals with the spiritual need in his life. And I think there has to be an undeniable connection between the man's condition and the sin in his life.
Now, all sickness is not because of personal sin. But there are times and there are instances when sickness is due to personal sin. There is all kind of speculation about what kind of disease or affliction he might have had, and we can’t know for sure. But since Jesus deals first of all with his sins, it seems to indicate the reason he was paralyzed was because of his sin.
If that be true, then it paints for us a very dramatic picture. Here is a paralytic playboy. Here is a man who said I am going to live my life the way I want to live it. Here is a man who found out that sin not only has a kick but sin has a kick back.
Here is a man who found out that you reap what you sow. And because he had been involved in sin, sin had brought paralysis to his life. And now he is totally unable to help himself and he is brought to the feet of Jesus Christ.
Whether that be true or not, I know this, all sickness comes because of a fallen race and because of the sin of mankind, whether it is physical sickness or spiritual sickness. And the only answer is the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I’ll tell you this: That is a precarious condition in which to be; the seriousness of his sin. So first of all, we see this sickly man.
But there is a second perspective and that is
II. The Servants
Verse 3 tells us that four men carried him to Jesus. Is that not a beautiful verse? Can’t you just picture that scene? They came to Jesus carrying this paralytic.
That reminds us that many people will never come to Christ unless somebody brings them. Unless you are an extremely unusual case, you didn’t get to Jesus by yourself. Someone helped you get there. Someone took enough time and interest in you to get you to the Savior.
Have you ever done that? How long has it been, if ever, that you brought someone to Jesus?
You see that is part of the reason you and I were saved. We were saved that we might bring others to Christ. Here is a man who cannot come to Jesus by himself and so these four men come carrying him.
Did you realize if the success of the church depended on the attitude of most church members, the church would have died a long time ago.
The attitude of many is that lost people ought to just come to church. And if they don’t then they can just go to hell. Most Christians don’t care. How do I know? Most are never involved in any kind of outreach.
The majority of most churches don’t come to visitation. They aren’t evangelistic in any way. They never mention the name of Jesus. They just expect the lost to show up and get saved.
Listen: that is like expecting a paralyzed man to get up in the morning, dress himself, clothe himself, shave himself, bathe himself. The problem is he can't do any of that. He is paralyzed. Everything has to be done for him. And that is exactly the way the lost man is. He is helpless apart from some friends who care, some people who will love him, some people who will carry him, some people who will bring him to the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And as I look at these four men, I praise God for them because I know some things about them.
I praise God for their compassion. And if the church needs anything today, it doesn't need more religious people looking down their noses at a lost world, it needs some people who are filled with compassion and the mercy and the love of Jesus Christ.
Let me tell you something He looked beyond your fault and saw your need. Don't ever be guilty of looking down your religious nose at a lost man. His habits may offend you, his language may be repulsive to you, but Jesus died for him and he is helpless to come to the Lord by himself.
They have to be brought. And we need to be people of compassion; people of love, people who will care.
The lack of compassion for the lost is always an amazement to me on the part of the church of Jesus Christ. I think one of the greatest sins of the body of Christ today is that we spend all the time ministering to the body, serving the body, ministering to one another, caring for one another, loving one another and we ought to do that, but my friend the problem is we don't balance that with a real concern and a real love and heart of compassion before the people for whom Jesus Christ died.
We get to see it every year at our Thanksgiving meal. Almost without exception, I get to hear someone gripe about people coming to eat and then getting a carryout meal or two or three. Someone’s always offended by that.
Usually it’s someone who’ll go get in a thirty or forty thousand dollar car and drive to a beautiful home and turn on a big screen TV for the evening. But they can’t believe someone would take a carry out meal. We’ve lost our compassion!
The problem with most of us is, we have been saved so long we forgot what it was like to be lost without Christ. Some of us grew up in the church and we never remember what it is like to be lost and not know God. And we need to be reminded today that people who are lost are helpless. And they have to be brought.
These were men of compassion. Paul said that we needed to stop looking at men after the flesh. And you see, that is our problem.
Paul said I don't look at people according to the flesh anymore, now I look at them according to the Spirit. And then he said, "The love of Christ constrains me."
If you look at a lost person according to the flesh, you will never have compassion. You have to look at him in the Spirit of God. You have to stop saying that man is a thief and start saying that thief is a man for whom Jesus died and he can be changed and he can be cleansed and he can be forgiven and he can be all God wants him to be. Men of compassion.
Secondly they were men of conviction. When they got to the house the Bible says they couldn't get in because of the crowd. How dare a Baptist give up his seat for some visitor, right?
Nobody would budge. They said, make way for the sick, make way for the sick, nobody budged an inch.
So the Bible says that they were so convicted that this man needed to go to Jesus, they were so convicted about getting him to the feet of the Lord that they went up on top of the roof. The Bible says they “uncovered the roof”.
I am confident that is not adequate to portray what really happened. You read it in the original language and you discover they literally broke open the roof. They literally broke up the tile on that oriental roof. Can you imagine what that was like? Jesus was teaching and preaching. I mean here is the ten o'clock hour on Sunday morning. We are here in all of our dignity, we look so great in our suits and ties and all of a sudden tile starts falling and dust starts falling on people's heads.
While the choir is singing, the roof begins to cave in. And these men are making a hole in the roof and it shows that they were men of conviction. They believed that their task was to get their friend to the feet of Jesus Christ.
Some of you would have had a stroke. Tear off the roof? You get upset if one of the children gets one of your donuts on Sunday morning! Why the kids spilled Kool-Aid! The bathroom floor was wet!
If that’s the cost to keep them out of hell, it’ll be OK! Whatever the cost, if you have to tear the place all to pieces to get someone to Jesus, so be it!
Not only were they men of compassion and conviction, the Bible teaches us here that they were men of confidence. They had faith that Jesus Christ could heal their friend.
In fact, according to verse 5 they had so much faith, Jesus took note of it. What about the man? Did he have any faith? Maybe he did, but until that man could get to the feet of Jesus where he could be in the presence of God Almighty and have faith sparked in his heart, somebody else had to have the faith for him. You see that is why you need to get people under the preaching of the gospel.
I don't know about you but I believe that the gospel of Christ is still the power of God to salvation. And I believe the power of God unto salvation has not decreased, and I believe the power of Jesus to save is as great as it was in that day and in that hour.
And there are people today that we have given up and they don't believe they can be saved or that God cares for them. They believe they are too far gone or too mean and wicked to be saved. And they are going to have to rely on somebody else’s faith if they ever get to Jesus.
These men had confidence. They had faith on behalf of another. And Jesus “saw their faith."
One of the problems of the church today is people have lost their faith in a mighty Savior. He is a Mighty Savior. And He has the power to save, He has the power to change the hearts of men and salvation has the power to cleanse today. There is no sinner God can't save. There is no man too hard for God.
These were men of faith. They had compassion; they had conviction; they had confidence and they had cooperation.
They were willing to work together to bring this man to Jesus. It took four of them. Three men have a difficult time carrying a stretcher. It just doesn't work right. It took four of them.
That reminds me that everyone in the church has a contribution to make. Our gifts are different, our abilities are different, but God has put us in the body of Christ to work together in the unity of the body of Christ to bring people to Jesus Christ. And as I exercise my gift and you exercise your gift and people walk down the aisle and give their lives to Christ and marriages are put back together and homes are restored and lives are changed, we can praise God together.
What an inspiration these serving men are to the church today.
The sick, the servants, and finally we see
III. The Savior
Verse 6
The central figure of the story is the Savior. These Pharisees and Scribes had rooted themselves up to the very front seat and they were presiding over the whole thing. The Bible says that they were just sitting there. They were constantly looking for something to criticize Jesus for, some fault that they could find in the Master.
They were like vultures ready to pounce on any little infraction, ready to pounce on any little thing that He did wrong. They were just sitting there, just critics.
That’s what critics do; they just sit there. They don't ever bring anybody to God. They don't ever train to be soul winners, they don't ever go out on visitation, they don't ever get involved in the intercessory prayer ministry, they just sit there.
They came to D.L. Moody one time, that great evangelist who butchered the King's English. Somebody said he was the only man in all of history who could say the word Mesopotamia in one syllable. I mean, he just slaughtered the King's English, but he won people to Christ. He had never been to seminary or Bible College, God just raised him up. And everywhere he went people were saved.
And somebody came to him one day and said Mr. Moody; I don't like your methods of reaching souls for Christ. And he said I am sure my methods could be improved. What methods are you using to reach people for Christ? They said, well I am not reaching any people for Christ. He said, well then, I like the way I’m reaching souls better than the way you’re not.
And that’s what I would say to those who are critical: I like the way we are doing it better than the way you’re not doing it!
Here were the critics and when Jesus said to this man, Your sins are forgiven, they said,
Verse 7
And they were right about that. Only God can forgive sin. The church can't forgive sin, the preacher can't forgive sin, there is no human being on earth who can forgive sin. The Pope can't forgive sin, only one person can forgive sin and that is God only. They were right about that.
But they were wrong in another way. So Jesus proposed a test and then Jesus demonstrated a triumph. The test He proposed was this: He said to them, all right, I have done something invisible by forgiving this man’s sin. Now if I do something visible, will you believe that which is invisible? That is the test He proposed.
Then look at the triumph.
Verses 10-12
They began to glorify God. They said we have never seen anything like this. Jesus, you see, proved that He was the Son of God and that He was God Himself. That He had the power to forgive sin because He also had the power to heal and to change this man's life.
And for the first time in a long time, or maybe the first time ever, that man walked home that day. And not just that, he walked home forgiven.
Now let me point out one thing, and I’ll be through. When Jesus said, “Son, your sins are forgiven you”, the word He uses for forgiven means “to send away”.
It carries the idea of release or of a burden being lifted or liberty being restored. You see, when you are forgiven, God lifts the burden of sin from your heart. God lifts the guilt of sin from your life.
When you get into the presence fo Jesus, you are in the presence of the power to forgive sin. And if you recognize what sin has done, Jesus says to you, Your sin are forgiven. And it means to send away the guilt. Jesus sends away the guilt. Jesus separates your sin from you as far as the East is from the West. Jesus lifts the burden from the guilt.
Would you like to have the burden taken away? Lay it down at the feet of Jesus. Wouldn’t you like to have the freedom of knowing you are forgiven today and your life is changed? This man began to glorify God. He began to rejoice because when that guilt is gone, when that load is lifted from your heart there is a joy, there is a freedom.
And that can be yours today. Jesus is waiting to touch you and to forgive you. He is a mighty Savior today and no matter what that sin is, the blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse you from all sin.
