Good morning. I'd like to thank you for inviting me to come to your pulpit this morning and thank you for your prayers. Many of y'all know my family and I have been the last three months have been through a lot and appreciate your prayers. Let's turn to the scriptures now to Mark chapter 2. Mark chapter 2. Listen and hear for this is God's holy and inerrant word. And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home and many were gathered together as there was no more room and not even at the door as he preached to them the word of God. And they came bring to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get in to see him, they removed the roof above him and made an opening and let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, son, your sins are forgiven. Now some of the scribes are sitting there questioning in their hearts. Why does this man speak like this? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? Immediately Jesus perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves said to them, why do you question these things in your heart? Which is easier to say to the paralytic? your sins are forgiven, or to say, rise, take up your bed, 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 say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home. And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, we have never seen anything like this. Let's pray. Father, we pray that you would take this word, that you would do heart surgery on us this morning. And Father, that as we have gathered together and sang your praises for the Psalms, that Lord, that you would change our hearts and encourage us as we leave here as your people. For us in Christ's name we pray, amen. My first church I served was in South Atlanta, in Georgia. And many years after I left, they had hired a person to do their Christian education program. And one Christmas Eve, she and her husband were coming to church and had a terrible accident. Someone ran a red light. It was touch and go whether she would live, but she lived, but she was a paraplegic. And so one of the things that happened with her is that she could not move anything but her head. That was it. And it was amazing to see the church come around those people. The church would bring food to them twice a week. They would have people go sit with her while her husband went off to do his job. The church just came around them because she was totally incapable of doing anything except move her head. It's an amazing thing to see the church come behind that family. This morning as we begin our lesson here, our section of scripture, we come to a place where there is a paraplegic. And he is unable to move, unable to help himself. And we're going to see how people came around him, brought them to Jesus, how that faith that they exhibited impressed Jesus, and some other things about how Jesus forgave his sin. So let's dig in this morning. What we're gonna look at first is the faith of the paraplegic and the four men. The paraplegic in this story is someone, and if you know the times and the era that this is set in, that has no ability to see Jesus. He cannot take himself. He can only lie around. During those times, people like him would find a place to sit and often ask for help, ask for alms to be able to live. And so he would sit all day, and maybe someone would help him move somewhere at night, or maybe he would stay in the same place every day, out in the weather. There were people that were non-people to the society, in reality. And he would sit and beg for food or money. He needed help to get anywhere. And whatever he did would come from the care of people around him. You know, it's not like today when people, you have services from the government that will help you out, you have all the other things, you have vans that will actually pick you up and you can go shop somewhere. It is something that was unheard of at this time and place. And yet, and yet, four men, saw to it that he would see Jesus. Four men saw to it that he would see Jesus. This is the only chance that he knew that he could walk again. If you'll look with me in the first chapter of Mark, we have these verses in verse 29. And immediately this is talking about Jesus. He left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. Now Simon's mother-in-law lay ill with a fever. immediately took him to her and he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up and the fever left her and she began to serve them. That evening at sundown they brought to him all those who were sick or oppressed by demons and the whole city was gathered together at the door and he healed many who were sick with various diseases and cast out demons And he would not permit the demons to speak because they knew who he was. And so this paraplegic, he would have heard that this Jesus is healing people. He's going about healing people of diseases, of all sorts of things. So he would certainly have a desire to see Jesus because this may be his only chance at ever walking. Think about that. that you would have your only chance at ever living a life. It all depends on you getting somewhere. It all depends on people that were willing to take you. So he put his life in the hands of these four men. You know, it's interesting, in the Bible, you read scenes like this, and you also don't know their names. You know, these four men that exhibited a certain compassion for this man, but we don't know their names. And it all comes down to the fact that, you know, God uses strangers. God uses people with no names. You know, God uses you and me in ministry. And sometimes our names won't be written in the paper for doing it. You know, as a pastor, I always felt uncomfortable when they wanted to put my name on signs and stuff like that. I didn't like that. And I finally, they made me do it. It was a big sign at our first church and say, you're the associate pastor, your name needs to be up there. And I said, I don't want it up there. They said, well, you're just gonna have to do it. So they made me do it. And six months later, I took another church. So they learned their lesson after that. But these men came and helped this guy. Who were these men? We don't know anything about them. Maybe they were friends, maybe people that have noticed him over the years, wherever he would be placed during the day. And they showed him compassion. And so these four men took a challenge to them. They took the challenge to bring him to Jesus, and yet they had to face barriers to do so. First of all, physical barriers. You had to carry him. We don't know how far this was to this house that Jesus was preaching in, but yet there were barriers that they had to overcome to carry this man who was unable to really help them at all. to seek Jesus. And plus, they get there and they find the house completely and utterly filled. Filled. You can't get in. I remember back in my seminary days, one of my seminary professors was R.C. Sproul. And he, I got invited to a dinner for him at a friend's house. And I thought, this is going to be great. I'm going to be able to sit down with Dr. Sproul and ask him questions and all this stuff. I get there, and the guy had invited so many people, I ended up in a tent outside eating. Not sitting inside Dr. Sproul, that I thought I was going to do. And finally, at the end of the night, I ended up sitting with Dr. Sproul's wife, Vesta. And I said, what are you doing in the tent? She said, I can't get to my husband. People won't get out of my way. So things like this happen. They're part of life. And yet, they get to this house, and suddenly, before them, this throng of people, they can't even get to the door to get him in. And that happens. It happens because someone important is in there. And so you're sitting there with this paraplegic, and they're not letting him in. And what do you think the people are thinking? Well, I've been here since four o'clock to see Jesus. I'm not gonna give my space up to this guy. I'm just gonna sit there. That's life, that happens all the time. A few years ago, I was at the, the fair that they have here in town. And I just forgot its name, help me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I wanted to see Representative Thompson, Lynn Thompson. He sometimes goes to a Bible study I go to. And I wanted to see him, and I went to see him, and there were just stronger people around him. And I sort of tried to make my way through the crowd. And people would look at me like I'm trying to steal something from them. So eventually I did see him because he came to me. He saw me in the crowd and I left. And I got back and told my wife who was sitting at a bench waiting for me, and she said, did you see GT? And I said, no. I said, there are too many people around him. I couldn't get there. And I said, I'm not that important anyway. He said, oh, yes, you are. He was standing right behind me. Okay. But again, the crowd kept him out. And so what did these guys do? Did they give up? Did they decide to, oh, it's a bad day to get to see Jesus. So we're going to take him back to wherever he's going to be at that night. And maybe we'll try again. No. They did something very provocative. They took him to the roof. Now, the architecture of this time, most of the roofs were flat. There were also outside stairs because a lot of people would spend the evening on the roof because of why? It was cooler. It was cooler. It was cooler to be up there at night a lot of times. And they would also socialize up there a lot of times on their roofs. And they took them up to the roof and they began to tear away the roof. to lower this man down. You know, I thought a lot about this as I was working on this sermon. What the reaction would be from the people in the room, okay? And so what I did, I went through the office at Oakwood, and I would walk up to people and say, okay, let me give this scenario to you, and I want you to do the same thing with me here. All right, you're sitting here and say, God's blessed you greatly with your new pastor, or whoever that will be, and the people are lined outside. In fact, the windows are open, maybe it's summertime, and windows are open and people are listening, and you're sitting there and you're intently listening to Jesus preach, to your pastor preach, and suddenly you see some dust fall down from the ceiling. What would you think? What do you think would be happening? And don't be super spiritual and say, well, I was so enthralled with our pastor that I couldn't have noticed. Everybody does this stuff, okay? All right, so this is the reactions I got from people. Let me find them here. Maybe, the person cleaning the church didn't do too good a job this week. Maybe they forgot to see some dust that was somewhere in that area of the church and didn't clean it. Another person said maybe it was an animal. That happened at my church. Unbeknownst to us, for a whole week, a cat was loose in our church. And I was preaching and the cat ran across the front of the church. So maybe it was a cat. Maybe it was some animal that was up there. A lady in our church who spent most of her time in California, what did she think it was? Earthquake. Because she's been through them before. She said, I've seen the dust. I've seen the particles come down from the roof before in an earthquake. And then also think that as you're watching this stuff, suddenly there are other things that come down from the roof, like pieces of wood, maybe larger chunks of whatever holds the roof together. And then all of a sudden, slowly but surely, a man is lowered slowly, right in front of Jesus. I imagine some people will be looking around them and going, wait a sec, he's in my way. Or he's distracting me. But all of a sudden, he comes down. He comes down right in front of the people. What's Jesus' reaction to this? You know, as a pastor, I see everything that's going on out there. No matter what you're doing. I know who's listening, I know who's not. I know who's asleep. And sometimes it's distracting to me. I remember one time, one of our elders at the first church I served in, he had a form of narcolepsy. It was true, he did have that. And he was also a dentist, and my dentist. And sometimes in between fillings, he would fall asleep right beside me. It was interesting. Now he'd wake up, he'd know what was going on. I didn't care anything about that. But he also had two little girls, really tiny girls. His wife was 5'1", and he was 6'3", and weighed 300 pounds. But he had these two really tiny girls, and his wife was head of a chemistry department at a local college, and sometimes on Sundays she would have to work about once a month. And he'd bring them to work, I'd bring them to church. And they would sit back in the back. And one Sunday I was up there preaching, the senior pastor was behind me, it was my Sunday to preach. And I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Mike had gone to sleep. And so I'm preaching and I look over and I see Mike begin to lean over a little bit. toward his girls. And all of a sudden I realized, he's going to topple on top of those tiny girls over there. In fact, the girls did this. And he finally woke up and everything was fine. I forgot where I was preaching. because I was watching this thing. People thought it was some kind of pause. I had my, and they were waiting for me to go, and I had to look down at my notes and find myself. So you see that things are distracting, but yet we don't get that idea of Jesus. He wasn't distracted. In fact, he looks up and he says this, and when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, son, your sins are forgiven. Wow. When he saw their faith, he said, son, your sins are forgiven. See, Jesus' reaction is that faith that has action had happened before him. Faith that had action that happened before him. The paralytic had put his life in the hands of the people that brought him and accepted help. And it's important for us to know that he had put his faith in those four men, that they would get him there. And Jesus saw that faith. So what do we learn from this? That when you're unable and people ask, can I help you? You take it. My wife, back on the 23rd of December, had open heart surgery, had four biopasses done. It was something that happened very quickly. She had not had a heart attack, but she had had a test. They did this very quickly. And it was amazing to me how many people wanted to help. Every phone call I got during that time was, what can I do? I need to do something for y'all, was what people said to us. And I tend to be really self-reliant. And often, I don't want to ask people for help. When people offer, I try to not be a bother. In fact, I had so many people, I had tons of messages on my phone from people in our church, from colleagues at the school, from everywhere you can imagine. In fact, Dan Keel, our pastor at Oakwood, I joked with him one time, I said, well, I got to get home really soon because I got to make a list for all these people to do, you know. And then I thought, no, I'm not gonna do that. But yet, people helped out. They helped get my children to work, they brought food, they asked if they could help financially, and everything imaginable. And you see, that's how the church should work. That's how, as believers, should work. We should be like these four men. willing to take advantage of the situation and help somebody that really needs help. We need to get rid of our Western self-alliance and lean on our brothers and sisters. You see, it's the way you see the gospel of Jesus at work, where you care for brothers and sisters that can't do for themselves. And notice this, these four men had to step out of their comfort zone. and help. And imagine this, would you tear down a roof to help somebody? That took guts. Now we're not sure whose house this is. Some of the commentators said it was Simon Peters. I'm not sure Simon Peters would take too kindly somebody ripping his roof off his house. Knowing him, he got pretty mad about it, okay? And yet these guys took a chance, took a challenge, and made sure their friend or someone they had compassion for was able to see Jesus. You know, it talks to us about our evangelism, too. If you have friends and neighbors that they don't know Jesus, do you take the challenge of making sure they get there, that they come to church, That they do all the things that they need to do to get to see Jesus. Well, these guys did. And again, we don't know their names. They stepped out of their comfort zone to help. They saw need and responded. And in Corinthians, it talks about when one part of the body hurts, it all hurts. Now, you know, They don't know anything about that. They're Jews. I'm assuming they are. But they were Jews and they saw a man and had compassion for him and made sure he got to see Jesus. That he got to see Jesus. Speaks to us in what we do with our friends and neighbors and people that we see in spiritual need. You know, a friend of mine once said to me, He said, I have trouble speaking to people. And I said, you got a car? He said, yeah. I said, bring him to church. Simple. And you know, from that, the next couple of months, he brought 12 people to church with him. He said, I just, I have hard time. But part of the gospel is being willing to be available and be willing to bring, being willing to meet the need that eventually leads, in this paralytic's life, to a healed life, both spiritually and physically. You see, faith in Jesus brings forgiveness. Jesus sees this faith of this man. And I believe also the people that brought him. Now, it's not very clear there. It sort of insinuates that. But I think he sees that the people that brought him were special. and he forgives the paralytic. You see, the faith of the paralytic shows an active belief in Jesus. He knew he had to get there. And so did the four men. You know, these guys just didn't buy into this, didn't say, oh, it's like, take him to the market. No. These four men had to buy into what Jesus was preaching. Well, they heard about it. And being willing to be lowered down in front of a crowd managed the paralytic. he had to get to a point of desperation. To have these guys rip apart a roof and lower yourself down in front of everybody. You know not everybody's gonna be happy about this. The homeowner, some of the people trying to watch the sermon, and yet he was willing to put his faith in Jesus. his faith and knowing that he was going to be judged. And Jesus saw that. You see, this is the faith that works, that is alive. And these men would forsake all, these four guys, and plus the paralytic, they were going to forsake all to get to Jesus. That's incredible to me. That's incredible to me. But yet, there in the crowd, there were those that would challenge Jesus. And let's read that here in verse five. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, son, your sins are forgiven. Now some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts, why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming. There's always those in the crowd. They would say, who is this man? You know, these guys obviously wanted to see Jesus preach. They were there, they were listening to him. They were in the room, obviously they got there early. And yet, when something that doesn't strike them well, they immediately judge him. See, Jesus forgives the man of his sin and is immediately judged by some of the crowd as a blasphemer. Who is this person? And they're really theologically right. Only God can forgive sin. Think about that. They're theologically right. You know, in this way, Sinclair Ferguson says this, in this way they were right, but sometimes good theology can be bad logic. Get this, sometimes good theology can be bad logic because you don't know everything. Sometimes you're right, but in this case, they were wrong. So Jesus answers their challenge, and the answer is this. Jesus, knowing that they questioned themselves from within, confronted them, and Jesus asked them this. Is it easier to say to the man, your sins are forgiven, which is difficult to prove or disprove? Now, when Jesus said that, it can prove it's not. Or, get up and walk to the paraplegic, which is hard to say because the effects are easily seen. In fact, what Jesus is saying this, you know, I can say this and it's hard to prove it happens, but if I say this and it's done, you have to deal with it. Okay. And so in a lot of ways, he's setting him up. He's saying, listen, if you want to know who I am, really, that I can do this, then I'm going to prove it to you. He says, can I forgive sin? I'm going to make this man walk. And what did he do? He made him walk. And it says, everyone was amazed. You see, his actions argued for one conclusion. If his word has been effective, surely his word of forgiveness must have been effective too. It must have been effective too. So the man, Jesus told him to walk. So the man rose, picked up his mat and walked out and they were all amazed. And they were all amazed. You know, we have, uh, you know, I have several friends who are theologically liberal. And when we were growing up, there were people I grew up with who are now pastors in other churches, liberal churches. And I noticed when they were going through their seminary, one of the first things they would stop believing in was the virgin birth. They would stop believing in the virgin birth. It's not physically possible. But yet, they would believe in the resurrection of Jesus. Which I find incredible that you believe in something that really is something that is, the person's still alive. There's life coming out of it. And yet, a person that's dead, you believe that she came back from the dead. And eventually, they don't believe in the resurrection, but they believe Jesus is still God. Then all of a sudden, they don't believe Jesus is God any longer. And after a time, they don't believe anything. Well, Jesus is telling them this. Believe in me. Believe in me. I forgive sin, and to prove it, a man who has never walked is gonna walk. And it happens. And it happens. Well, how do I apply this passage? And I'm gonna make a lot of my application about the first part of it. Never say no to help. No matter what you think, no matter what you believe or self-reliant you are, never say no to help. And why is that? Because it gives the people, Christian people, the church, the gospel, to embody the gospel to you. You know, the gospel is about service. The gospel is about taking care of other people. The gospel is about witness, and to show witness, your faith has to have action. It has to have action. Secondly, be willing to give in times of need. It'll help your faith grow, and you may be part of something very special. Be willing to help in times of need, and you put your faith to work And God works. God works. You know, when I, my first church I served in, we had a family, the Dooley family, who's had five children. And their first child died of a mysterious disease. And then the boy died at 35. And at 35, the boys that were twins caught a similar disease. It turned out during that time that they identified a blood disease that both the parents were carriers. And they married and all their children would get it. So at 35, the twins died. And they had a girl next. And she didn't die at 35, but at 40. And the last child that they had was, the last child they had was retarded. And she didn't get it. And talk about suffering. This family went through it. And I was there for the death of all the children. And it's devastating, yet, The people that came and helped them during that time were so blessed. Why is that? Because this family, through it all, kept their faith in Jesus. Always at church, always there to help other people, they embodied the gospel to everyone that knew them. It was a special privilege for me to be around them, even in their pain. It helped me in my life as we've gone through our difficulties, which were nowhere compared to what they went through. And that's one of the reasons you help. And also you need to stretch yourself. We don't like stepping out. If you're from the RPs, and I'm from PCA, and Presbyterians often, we have a good reputation of being the frozen chosen. And we don't take chances. We have our theology set and stuff, which is good. You didn't tell me, I didn't say theology isn't bad. It's good that we have set theology. But sometimes in our actions, we don't take chances. I challenge you to take chances. To take people and bring people to Jesus. And finally, people need forgiveness. It is only through Jesus that we can have that forgiveness. And Jesus has chosen us to bring the people that are unable to him. You believe in Jesus, you'll believe in more in Jesus if you do that. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the word that is here. Father, that there's challenges in this world, but yet the answer is Jesus and bringing people to him. And Father, we know by doing this, we also strengthen our own faith and strengthen the faith of the church. For it's in Christ's name I pray, amen.