Good morning church. I'd encourage you to find a copy of God's word and open it up to Mark chapter two. As you're doing that, I just want to draw your attention to one of the announcements that was already made this morning. I'm not going to give you any new information, but I just want to highlight for you the fact that that November 24th date is a really special date. A couple years ago, we had the opportunity to come together as a whole church and do a banquet celebrating 125 years that this church has been in existence. 125 years. Started in 1897 with a group of people that were tired of getting in their horse and buggy and going into Gresham to have church, and so they started a church out here in their own community, and God has faithfully and graciously kept it in existence this whole time. There have been good times and not as good of times, but there is God's grace over it all. And this coming month, we have another opportunity to celebrate a wonderful time in this church's existence. Not only have we been around for 127 years, some of you almost all of that time, but We now have the opportunity and the privilege to be used by God to plant a new church. Unfortunately, in our own day, there are a number of churches across our land that are closing every month, every week. Churches that were once faithful with the gospel, churches that were once a bright light in their own community have been closing their doors for the last several decades. And it's such a privilege and an amazing blessing that our church is healthy enough that we get to actually be part of doing the opposite of that. And so on December 1st, the church plant that's been meeting now and kind of just getting to know one another and making some planning and preparation things, they are going to launch officially, Lord willing, on December 1st. And we've been talking about this for years, really, as a church, as we saw the growth that was happening here. Tried to anticipate what the Lord would have us do, but really it's been the last nine months or so that we have been talking about it officially and that we've been planning and preparing. And in those nine months, it does kind of feel like a pregnancy. And we're in that last stage where everyone just wants to not be pregnant anymore. Do you know what I'm saying? Some of you pregnant ladies know what I'm saying? It's an amazing privilege, but it's also a difficult time, and it's going to be sad to say goodbye to friends that we're used to coming together and worshiping with, our brothers and sisters in Christ. But the delight of all of this, the joy in all of this, is that we know that God is going to use it for His good. and for the strengthening of his kingdom. And so we delight, even though there is some sadness, even though there is some pain and discomfort, I would just remind you what I often have to remind my own heart, and that is that we are not here for our own pleasure. We're not here for our own agenda. We're not here for our own well-being. We're here for the kingdom of God, and we're here to make Christ known. And if having two churches gives us that greater opportunity, then so be it, and may the Lord do more so even in the future. So come together with us on November 24th. We're going to cancel our morning services because we're going to have our church service together on that same day in the afternoon at 2 p.m. So if you don't come, shame on you. Unless you have other engagements, then you're forgiven. But we would like to know who's gonna be there because we're gonna order food, we want it to be catered so that way You don't have to be rushing around and preparing things, and so we can just come together and enjoy our time together, enjoy some sweet fellowship, and enjoy some good food. And so please reach out to the church office. I think there's a way in the bulletin. I'm not entirely sure. If not, we'll send out an email this week, and you can respond and let us know how many people are gonna be there so we know how much food to order. All right? With that, hopefully you've found your way to Mark chapter two. Let me pray, and then we'll jump into the text here. Lord Jesus, we thank you for this immense privilege. The privilege that we have to be known by you and be loved by you, to be part of your family, it's absolutely staggering. But then on top of that, Lord, that you would invite us to partner with you and serve along with you and to be your co-servants in this great kingdom effort. And we pray, Lord, that you would bless our efforts. We pray that you would help us to be about your business and not our own. We ask God that you would do great and marvelous things through us and for us, and that in all of this, you would receive the glory and the praise that is due your name. We pray, Lord, that your light would go forth, not only from this church, but also from FBC, and that you would make yourself known in our own generation, in our own communities. And this morning, God, as we look to your word, as we open up this text, I pray that you, Holy Spirit, would be our teacher and our guide that you would comfort those who need comforting, that you would instruct those who need instruction, that you would rebuke those who have gone astray, but that you would, in every way, minister to us according to our needs and according to your grace. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. In Mark chapter 2, we find ourselves deep into the ministry of Jesus in the region of Galilee. Mark has not wasted any time. In fact, he has rushed to this point and he's rushing us along even to the end. He has a stated goal. He has a purpose to show us that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and he is doing his best to present the case that Jesus is, in fact, the Son of God. As we saw just a couple weeks ago, Jesus was ministering in the city of Capernaum. He came into the town, the village, really, of Capernaum, where Peter and Andrew lived, and there he taught in their synagogue, and after that synagogue teaching time, and after he healed that demon-possessed man by casting out the demon. Jesus went home. He went back to Peter's house and there he healed Peter's mother-in-law. And after the Sabbath, after the sun had gone down, so many people had heard about this encounter that they started to come over to Peter's house. They rushed the door, they crowded in to find out if Jesus could do the same for their sick family member. And as they did, Jesus, it tells us, from the time the sun went down, probably till the wee hours of the morning, Jesus was healing people and teaching them and casting out demons. It was a full night of ministry. And upon going to sleep, once everyone was kind of done for the night and had gone home, Jesus fell asleep for a few hours, only to be woken up so that he could go and spend some quiet time alone with his father in prayer. It's there, while he's praying, that he's interrupted by Peter and the others who have come now to look for him, because it's now the morning time, the sun has probably risen, and those same people, and probably more, have now come back to Peter's house. Imagine what Peter's wife thought about all this. So many visitors, so many guests, all the time, without expectation, they just show up at the door, and they've been looking for Jesus this morning, and Peter goes out with the disciples, and they find him praying, and Jesus says, let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out. And the text just kind of seems to imply, as it just moves on with the story, the text seems to imply that there from that secluded place of prayer, Peter and the disciples just moved along with Jesus. I don't think they went back to the town through all the crowd of people to pick up their last bit of supplies. I believe from there they just left. So the crowd that had formed at Peter's home eventually just disbanded. They eventually just lost interest and went home because Jesus never showed up to minister to them. What Mark tells us is that from there Jesus went out and he went throughout all Galilee preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons. For how many weeks or months he was doing this, we don't know, but eventually in chapter two, what we learn is that Jesus came back to Capernaum. Jesus had come back, and during that time away, it was his custom to go into a new town, to go into the synagogue, to preach in the synagogue, and there those demons would expose themselves, probably because the light was so glaring in their eyes, the light of Jesus. And Jesus would cast them out, and Jesus would heal people, but all the while, Jesus is preaching, and teaching, and making known the kingdom of God. Last week, we looked at this section between the end of chapter one and beginning of chapter two, where Jesus healed a man with leprosy. That rancid disease that struck this man's body to where it was wasting away and just literally eating itself up from the inside or from the members of his body. And Jesus cleansed this man of his leprosy. And then he strictly warned him not to go into the town and tell people, but he said specifically, go to the temple, that 100 mile plus journey, take that long journey down to the temple, present the offering that the priest prescribed that Moses wrote down for us, and then you can come back. Instead of doing that, the man went out and immediately began to tell everyone what happened. And as a result of that, Jesus could no longer go into a town unnoticed. It was his custom. He was going from one town to the next and he would come into a new town and he would have the opportunity to kind of start with a normal ministry and people would get to hear him for the first time and people would begin to see the miraculous things that he could do. But now he is famous and so his reputation goes before him. So now even if he's seen coming into a town, he's just swarmed by people. As a result, Jesus stayed out in the secluded places. Kind of the space in between towns. Rather than going into the town and into the synagogue, Jesus was forced out into desolate places and the people would come to him and there he would teach them the word of God. But in chapter two, we read that Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days. After some days, it doesn't tell us how many days. It does say days, not years. This is probably weeks or months that Jesus has been gone now. The last they saw of him was that Saturday evening, deep into the night, when everyone kinda disbanded and went home. No doubt they were thinking, we're gonna get up early and we're gonna come back and get a front row seat for more of this Jesus ministry. And by the time they got back, Jesus was gone. He's been gone for weeks, if not months. Maybe they've heard reports of people passing through town of this miracle working teacher who is teaching and doing these wonderful things throughout Galilee, but now all they hear is just reports. They haven't seen him. They haven't heard him. And now he's come back to town. It says that it was reported that he was at home. which means he was able to get into the home of probably Peter there in Capernaum. Remember that Jesus even himself told us the son of man has no place to lay his head. He didn't have like his own home. He didn't have his own property. He had left his mother's house, probably was taking care of her, and then went out into full-time ministry and then met up with Peter and his brother and then that's probably where he was staying when he was in Capernaum. So now they've come back. Perhaps because of the situation, Jesus is forced to come into town at night. Maybe they sneak in like Navy SEALs and they just go straight into the home and no one's able to see them and they're in the home and they have some peace and some quiet and some rest, able to get a full night's sleep. But at some point in the morning probably, some passerby maybe hears a voice that sounds familiar or someone coming to borrow a cup of sugar, I don't know what happened, but at any point, someone noticed that Jesus was there in the home, and word began to spread like wildfire. It was reported that he was at home. One person tells this person, and that person goes and tells these three people, and it just spreads like wildfire. So that, verse two, many were gathered together. As soon as people hear the reports that Jesus has returned back to Capernaum, they stop what they're doing, they leave their nets, they leave their bread making and all the other things that they were doing, and they rush over to Peter's house because this is the greatest show in town. And I say that on purpose because I don't think these are kingdom-seeking, God-loving people. I think these are curious bystanders. These are your average person who doesn't really care so much about God or the things of God, but cares mostly for the things that are entertaining to them. They remember what it was like on that Saturday morning as Jesus taught in the synagogue and as he commanded the evil spirit and it gone out. They remember the sense of awe and the shock that they felt at hearing his words. They remember that evening, those of them that were able to make it, when they went over to Peter's house and they saw all of these miraculous things and they've just been stewing on these things for weeks or months now. They've been thinking, did that really happen? Did I just trick myself into believing that happened? And now he's back. He's come back to town and people stop what they're doing and they rush over to Peter's house. Many were gathered together. How many? Well, so many that there was no room. There was no more room, not even at the door. Those that got there earliest went into the home. They made their way around the perimeter as Jesus probably stood there or sat there in the middle, and they made their way crushing into the home to see and hear Jesus. Those who got there later were forced to stand in the doorway and then it spilled over outside of the doorway even into the courtyard so that people were pressed all around the home lending their ear to try and hear even though they probably couldn't see Jesus. This is the scene of what's happening on this, what was a quiet, peaceful morning. Now it's been hijacked by this crowd that desperately wants to see and hear Jesus. What the text tells us at the end of chapter, or verse two, is that he was preaching the word to them. Which by now, this should not come as any surprise to us because that is in fact why Jesus came. You remember just weeks or months ago when it was that Jesus was praying out in a desolate place and Peter came to him and said, the whole crowd there, everyone wants to see you. Everyone is gathered together, they want you. And Jesus said, let us go on to the next towns that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out. Jesus knows, even though he has the ability and the power and the authority to heal and drive out demons, even though he can do miraculous deeds, That's not why he came. He came to preach. He came to make known the kingdom of God. He came as a spokesperson of heaven and he came ultimately to make the Father known. God who is invisible. God who cannot be seen with the naked eye. God who we can't look upon. Jesus came to make known in human flesh. He is the God-man. And by looking at Jesus, and by talking to Jesus, and by seeing the work in the ministry of Jesus, these people are able to see God incarnate. So when the people come, Jesus does what he does. He begins to preach. He's teaching them. Maybe someone asked a question and from there he launches into an answer which turns into a sermon. Or maybe he just had something brewing in his mind and in his heart. Maybe he just went with the standard, the kingdom of heaven, and talked about the kingdom of heaven. Whatever it was that Jesus was declaring and whatever prompted it, Jesus did what Jesus did. He preached. He was preaching the word to them. And verse three comes to us just in an almost shocking, abrupt, awkward way. And they came. Who came? Mark just is inserting information here that we as readers don't know about yet. It's almost awkward and clumsy the way that it's written, but I think it's to shock us and to get our attention and to make us think through these texts quickly. There's the scene, Jesus is teaching, the crowd is crushing in, people are lending their ears to try and hear Jesus, and they came. The text goes on to say, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. So the they is at least the four men plus one on a mat, the paralyzed man. And for me, this begs the question, this man is obviously from Capernaum. I doubt they carried him from another town. So he lives in or around the area of Capernaum. And it doesn't tell us how long he's been paralyzed, but I think it's safe to assume and safe to imply that this man was paralyzed when Jesus was in town several weeks earlier. Maybe because of the quick ministry of Jesus on that long ministry day in Capernaum, maybe these people didn't have the time to get this man organized and get a plan together in order to get this man to Peter's house. Perhaps, and I know this is speculation, perhaps though, on that next morning, that Sunday morning when Jesus went out early to pray, And the crowd began to swell outside of Peter's home, and Peter and the other disciples realized, we need to go find Jesus. Maybe there in that crowd were these four men with their friend lying paralyzed on a mat. Maybe it took them the previous night to realize, you know what we need to do? we need to get our friend over here to Jesus's house. We need to bring him to Peter's house so that he can be put in front of Jesus so that Jesus can do something for our friend. At any rate, whether they were there that morning or not, Jesus left town. And with Jesus leaving town, their hope of healing left with him. Sure, there were still scribes around, there were still Pharisees, there were still religious leaders, but none of them could do anything for their friend who lay paralyzed on a mat. And now word begins to spread. The town is all abuzz as people are rushing home and they're telling their neighbors on the way, Jesus is here, come out to see him. And these friends rush to their other friend. and they put him on a mat and they pick him up by the corners and they start to make their way over to Peter's house, but by the time they got there, the crowd was well ahead of them. By the time they got there, the crowd was already spilling out into the courtyard and even into the streets. Dozens if not hundreds of people trying to just hear what Jesus is saying. And these men bringing to him, that is to Jesus, a paralytic, that is someone whose body does not work, carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they went home and felt sorry for themselves. Is that what your text says? No, it doesn't say that. And if it did, we wouldn't even be reading this story. Because so many people respond to Jesus that way and their stories are never told. How many people in the years that Jesus ministered all throughout Galilee, how many people saw him from a distance or heard about him or were even maybe in the crowd and knew they needed help but never had the audacity, never had the vulnerability to raise their hand, to go forward and to say, Jesus, I need you to heal me. And therefore, they remained unhealed. I've been looking for 20 some years for a story where Jesus turned someone away. You know what, I don't wanna heal you. I haven't found one yet. I haven't found a place where someone came forward and made their need known to Jesus and Jesus said, I don't care about you or your need. Quite the opposite, I find over and over and over again. People come, men, women, children, they come to Jesus. They present their need in a heart of desperation and faith. Jesus heals them. Jesus ministers to them. Jesus gives himself away. And the only reason we're reading this story this morning is because it was recorded because these men went forward, had faith, and brought their friend to Jesus when they could not get near him. Maybe they tried, maybe they tapped some people on the shoulder and said, excuse me, we're trying to get our friend to Jesus, only to have shoulders close the gap and people ignore the needs. That sounds like what a crowd would do. When they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him. What? Well, their roofs were different than ours. I'll just say that. In the ancient world, they would have had these stone houses, these stone structures. And then on top of those things, they would have had wooden poles that would have gone the length of the house. And then on top of that would have been some sticks to kind of firm it up. And then they would have had thatch on top of that. And then on top of that, they would have put hardened like mud or mud that hardened into a firm footing. And then sometimes, even on top of that, they would have put tiles. Because the rooftop, which was flat and level on all these homes, would have been living space as well. It would have been useful space. And these homes had external staircases or ladders that would have taken you up to the flat roof. And there you could eat a meal together. There you could spread out your laundry and let it dry. Or you could lay out your flax and wheat and let it dry. These flat roofs were very useful parts of the home. On a hot summer night, you could go up there and sleep because the house itself, you could imagine, would have become an oven during the day, cooked in the heat of the sun. And so these flat roofs were very common, and they were just kind of an extension of the home. And these men, carrying their friend, one of them gets an idea, aha, We can't get through the crowd, people won't let us in to get to Jesus, and so someone sees the stairs, they make their way up the stairs, and they maybe set their friend down and they begin to dig. I've never dug through a roof, I don't know how long it takes, but I doubt it was an immediate thing. This hardened mud would have been like hard concrete almost, and they would have had to use sticks or other implements to try and dig through it. And once they broke through the external part, the dirt, then they would have had to start to pull back the thatch and the sticks, exposing those rafters, which eventually brought light into the home. So you can just imagine the scene. As this is unfolding for several minutes, The people inside the home who are listening to Jesus teach can begin to hear scratching and clawing and breaking of branches on the rooftop. Eventually, dirt begins to fall. Eventually, pieces of debris begin to fall and land on people in the home, maybe even including Jesus. Eventually, light peers through the roof. In an unlit home, it would have been fairly dark until that skylight was opened up. Thanks for that. For however many minutes this went on, I don't know if Jesus was still teaching, if he just taught through the interruptions, if he drew attention to it, or if he just ignored it altogether. At what point did it become so distracting that it just actually captivates everyone's attention? Don't know, love to know. But at a certain point, the hole is large enough that these four men can lower their friend who's bound to this mat, who is just lying lifelessly almost on this mat, and they lower him down through the rafters until he finally sets on the floor. They removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. Verse five says this, and when Jesus saw their faith. It's an interesting phrase. He doesn't say when Jesus saw their effort, that is what they were putting forth, there's a lot of effort. a lot of effort to get their friend to Jesus, there was a lot of expenditure of energy, and Jesus didn't see their effort, he saw their faith, something that we would typically say is invisible. When we think of faith, we think of reciting some creed or some doctrinal statement, some external thing that we hold to and we agree with, which all those things are good and right. and yet faith resides in the heart. Faith is something that is invisible and yet Jesus here sees their faith. I wonder if James, who wrote that epistle, and might even have been here in this moment, or heard about it later from the disciples, I wonder if this is what James had in mind when he said, faith without works is dead. Something like this, that Jesus was able to see their faith. He was able to see those four men, plus probably the man on the mat. It was visible, it was evident, it was persistent. They didn't give up on the outside of the crowd and say, you know what, let's just take Joe home, this is pointless. They didn't say, you know what, let's wait till next time when Jesus comes back to Capernaum. They did not take no for an answer. All of the hurdles, all the things that were put in front of them, all the things that could have kept them from getting to Jesus were only hiccups. They could not be deterred. And finally, the roof is opened, revealing this man with his obvious need, but also revealing their faith, which Jesus saw. Is your faith visible? I have to ask myself that question. Is my faith visible? Is it just something I talk about or is it something that people can see in my life? Is it something that is evident by my neighbors and my family and my friends? Can strangers see that I have faith? Jesus in another place said, let your good deeds be done in such a way that people would see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Obviously, these people wanted to see Jesus. Obviously, they wanted to get their friend in front of Jesus and it became obvious that they believed that Jesus could do something about their predicament. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, son, your sins are forgiven. And I don't know what goes through your mind, excuse me, when you hear that. I don't know what you imagine the scene looked like at that point. But I know for certain this, that this is not what they came for. This sounds a little bit anticlimactic. I mean, they just brought their friend, they got him all the way there, Jesus is still in the house, good, okay, that's great. There's a large crowd, it's okay, we'll get up on the roof, we'll dig through the roof, we'll lower the man down in front of Jesus, all of that, check. And now Jesus is there, this man has a captive audience, Jesus has a captive audience, and Jesus says, son, your sins are forgiven. Did he celebrate? I imagine there was maybe some bewilderment and some disappointment. It reminds me, when I read this earlier last week, or earlier this week, it reminded me of a time when I was younger. I was a young boy, I don't remember how old I was, but I was at like a great grandma's house, like one you don't know that well. And I was there, and it was Christmas time, and so they were handing out gifts, and I'm a little boy, so I wanna open a gift, right? And my time came, and the gift was given, and I opened it up feverishly, just wondering what wonderful toy was inside. And there was a piece of paper, a certificate that someone had to read to me, and it was a $50 bond. And I thought, useless. This is worth nothing to me. I want a toy. I want to put something in my hand. I want to throw something. I wish I still had that piece of paper. It's probably worth something now. I don't know. But as a little boy, that's not what I expected when I opened a Christmas present. And in a similar way, Jesus gives a response. Jesus makes a declaration that is amazing and yet was totally unexpected and was not necessarily what they were looking for. Mark doesn't give us anybody else's response except for one group of people. This group of people that would have been in the crowds, the crowds that are always around Jesus' ministry, the crowds that are always there, the crowds that are always interested in what Jesus were doing, were interested for different reasons. And here we have a group within the crowd known as the scribes. Notice they were sitting there. They had the best seats in the house, because that's how people treated them. That's how they expected to be treated. So the scribes were sitting there, and maybe as this whole scene is unfolding, they're thinking, this is totally unorthodox. What is going on here? But they're shook to the core when Jesus said, son, your sins are forgiven. This was like nails across the chalkboard to them. Now some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts. Notice they're not saying anything, they're questioning in their hearts. No doubt their faces are probably contorted with disgust and disapproval, but at this point they're just questioning in their hearts. The questions go something like this. Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? The scribes were the experts. They were the ones that had been to school. They were the ones with letters before and after their names. They were the ones that told everyone else that they were the experts. Everyone respected and looked up to the scribes even though probably in their own homes they didn't talk so great about them. But here the scribes represent the religious authorities. From here on out in the story, Jesus is gonna continue to run up against the religious authorities. Already in Mark's gospel, he has shown us that Jesus has authority over demons. He has authority in his teaching. He has authority over sickness and illness. And now, Jesus's authority is being questioned by the religious establishment. and they make this bold claim in their heart, he is blaspheming, which is a sin of the highest order. To blaspheme God is to speak evil of God or to speak wrong of God, but here, on an even greater way, they assume this man is making himself out to be like God, because he's taken upon himself the prerogative to forgive sins, and no man on earth can forgive sins. Even the priest at the temple didn't forgive sins. All the priest could do was say, if you did what God called you to, then this is what God says in his word, your sins are forgiven. The priest didn't go around forgiving people's sins. The priest was just there to mediate God's covenant to the people that if you do these things, your sins will be covered. The prophets couldn't go around forgiving people's sins. King David couldn't go around forgiving people's sins because ultimately, if you sin, you sin against God and God alone. Sure, other people can forgive the sin against them, but they can't forgive the sin that you committed against God. So this is a pretty bold statement. Son, your sins are forgiven, and immediately there's shock. You can feel the tension rising up in their hearts, the angst and the frustration and the disapproval that they feel in their hearts as they're wrestling with these thoughts. Wait a second, you can't say that. You're blaspheming. And then this question, who can forgive sins but God alone? Great question. We'll hear the answer here in a moment. And immediately, Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, notice what's going on here. Nothing's been spoken. Jesus declares to the man on the mat, your sins are forgiven. There's maybe a moment of silence. The faces of these religious leaders start to go sideways and contort with their disapproval. And Jesus perceives, I know what you're thinking. They were too, cowardly to actually voice what they were thinking. They were too afraid to say to Jesus what they were thinking in front of all these people, but this is no doubt what they're thinking. You're a blasphemer. And Jesus perceives in his spirit that they questioned him and says, why do you question these things in your hearts? All of a sudden there's a confrontation. All of a sudden, they are called out on the carpet. All of a sudden, Jesus draws a line in the sand and calls them out and exposes what they're thinking in their hearts. It's almost as if Jesus is picking a fight. It's almost as if Jesus is calling them on the carpet and saying, you don't believe me, do you? You don't trust me, do you? Well, let's just see who has greater authority. And thus he's setting up this scene. I think maybe while the man was being let down, Jesus is looking around and Jesus is saying, you know what, I'm gonna continue to teach. I'm just gonna use this man as a teaching illustration. He'll get what he ultimately wants, but I'll give him more than he wants. I'll give him something far greater. But in the meantime, I'm gonna use him to display to all these people who I really am. Jesus asks this question, verse nine, which is easier to say? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven, or to say, rise, take up your bed and walk? Just on a purely simplistic level, we would say, your sins are forgiven, is fewer words, and so therefore, is easier to say, but I don't think that's what Jesus is talking about. If I were to say so to someone, or if Jesus in this case says to someone, your sins are forgiven, well, sure they are. Okay, great, prove it. How do we know that? Like so many religious charlatans of our day, they make these statements that are generic enough or that are improvable so that you just have to believe them. Jesus says it's, in a sense, it's easier to say your sins are forgiven because you can't prove that they really are. But to say, rise, take up your bed and walk, that is to put yourself on the hook. Because if the man doesn't rise and get up and take up his bed and walk, then you look like a fool. And you are known immediately to be a liar. So, Jesus asks these questions, and now the whole crowd, not only the scribes, but the whole crowd is wondering, what is going on? Every time they're with Jesus, they're wondering that, probably. What is going on? These scribes are now called out. There is, as it were, lines drawn, like that great battle at the Mount of Carmel, Mount Carmel, where Elijah calls out the prophets of Baal, And he makes this contest of sacrifices and says, you guys put forward a sacrifice, and I'll put forward a sacrifice, and we'll see which God from heaven answers our prayers. And the prophets of Baal cry out for all day long, half a day, and they cut themselves, and they dance around, and they say all these prayers, and nothing happens. No fire from heaven falls. And then Elijah prays, and fire falls from heaven. So too in a similar fashion, Jesus has now just created a situation that's either going to ruin his ministry or catapult his ministry to a greater level. The religious leaders represent the authority of the day, the experts in the law, the ones who said they knew it all, or at least knew as much as you could know. But, verse 10, Jesus continues on, but that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. Here Mark presents Jesus doing yet another thing to represent and to show to all that he has unique authority. Authority is the power, the right, the privilege to do something, to act in a way, but it's also a word that can be translated jurisdiction. Because you might have authority in your home, husband, but you don't have authority in my home. And Jesus is saying here that, he's acknowledging what these scribes are saying, that God, who lives in heaven, alone has authority to forgive sins. You, Jesus, a man of the earth, are claiming a heavenly authority to be your own, and that's not right. And Jesus says, I'll show you what's right. I'll show you that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. And so he said to the paralytic, I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home. And if the man never rose, Jesus's ministry would have ended that day. But Immediately, the man got up, he picked up his bed, and he went home. He rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all. The crowd splits like the Red Sea, and there's almost like a red carpet laid out there, and now this man who couldn't get into Jesus picks up his mat and just walks out. It's absolutely dumbfounding. Wouldn't you love to have been there, to see this? Just to see, like did his body just restore all at once? Think of the, even now when someone is in the hospital for a long time and then they come home, they have to first go to physical therapy, they have to get their legs and their arms and their body strengthened through exercises. This man's been paralyzed on a mat for who knows how long. And Jesus says, be healed. And he just gets up. Like it's no big deal. Probably easier than you and I would get up. Definitely with a lot more enthusiasm. He gets up, he picks up his bed and he just went out before them all. So that all were amazed. Yeah, to say the least. This is an understatement. They were amazed. They were astounded. They were already this several weeks ago when Jesus was in their town previously. They're dumbfounded. They don't know what to think. They don't know how to put this into a category in their minds. This is altogether different than anything they've ever seen or heard. They've never even read things like this in the Old Testament. Jesus now proves that he has authority, not only over demons, not even over sickness, not just in his teaching, but he has authority to forgive sins. He truly is God. His life resembles God, his message resembles God, and here his authority is equal with God. You might think to yourself that these scribes, who were front row witnesses to this amazing miracle, that these scribes would have immediately humbled themselves and says, you win, Jesus, tell us what to do. But rather than doing that, these scribes, at least most of them, went out and began to harden their hearts against the things they just saw. Probably began to say, well, maybe the guy wasn't really paralyzed. This is probably just some trick that his disciples pulled so that he could gain a crowd and a following. I don't know. People say all kinds of dumb things when they refuse to believe something they see. All I know is this man rose up, picked up his mat, and went home. And all who were there were amazed and glorified God, maybe muttering under their breath, hallelujah, praise God. But no doubt saying this, we never saw anything like this. No one has. No one since has ever seen anything like this. This is altogether unique because when the king of heaven comes to earth, you would expect that the king of heaven is unique among the sons of man. And here we see that the king is in fact unique, that his life is unique, and that everyone who saw him recognized this man stands alone. There's no one like him. Well, there's lots we could take away from this, but what I would just say is this, this is my prayer for us, it's my prayer for myself, that we would read stories like this and recognize that the greater miracle here was the forgiveness of sins, not the restoring of the man's body. This man went out and lived a life, we don't know for how long, but eventually his body, which was once paralyzed and then restored, eventually his body wore out again. Eventually he died. His body failed him. It went back into the dust. But his sins were forgiven and so therefore this man still lives. And the promise that we have is true for him as well, that he will receive a new body, that one day he will live forever on a physical earth with the Lord Jesus in his kingdom. This is the greater miracle. You can have your life fixed up, you can have your life cleaned up and organized, but if you do not have your sins forgiven, your life will fail you and you will end up back under judgment. The people were not amazed, the people did not glorify God when Jesus said, son, your sins are forgiven. The only time people did that was when they saw something. And I think that Christianity in our generation falls into the same trap. God promises to forgive sins because of the cross of Jesus Christ. Because of his death and resurrection, his blood is now available so that you can come and receive forgiveness of sins. And still people want something more, something better. As if there's something better than the forgiveness of your sins. So church, let us be those who recognize the greater miracle. Jesus drew attention to this man's ultimate need, not his immediate need. And his ultimate need was that he needed to be right with God. Let's pray. Father, thank you for these things. Thank you for these truths. Thank you that you allowed and even purposed that your son would go to the cross and thank you that you rose him from the grave. His resurrection is the ultimate sign, the ultimate evidence that forgiveness is available. And so we pray, Lord, that you would open up our eyes to see our greatest need before you. Not that our bank account would be fixed, or that our home would be fixed, or that our health would be better, but our ultimate need is that we be made right with you forever. Please show us that truth. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.