Friends, if you have a Bible, let me invite you to turn with me to Mark chapter 2 verses 1 through 12. We've begun to study in the gospel with the good news according to Mark and we've come to chapter 2 verses 1 through 12 and the healing of the paralytic man and our thing tonight is the forgiveness of sins. A rabbi named David Nelson likes to tell the story of two brothers who came to the rabbi to settle a feud, a long standing disagreement. The rabbi got a two to reconcile them to shake hands and as they were about to leave he asked each one to make a wish for the other in honor of the Jewish New Year and the first brother turned to the other and said, I wish for you what you wish for me.
And that second brother threw up his hands and said, Rabbi, he started at it again. What does it take to make human relationships thrive, forgiveness from the heart, not holding the failures of others against them but releasing them into the freedom that says, I forgive you, I won't punish you, I won't give you back what you deserve for hurting me. Look, it merges. That remained friendly.
That's how it works. In sibling relationships that grow close and actually grow up where siblings enjoy one another, forgiveness has to abound. And if that's how human relationships thrive, why do we think that a relationship with God would work in any other way? Of course he has to forgive us when we offend him.
We need that forgiveness and tonight's passage is about that release that Jesus offers to us. Let me invite you to hear God's Word from Mark 2 verses 1 through 12. This is God's Word. And when he, Jesus, returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home and many were gathered together so that there was no more room not even at the door and he was preaching the Word to them.
And they came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him. And when they made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, my son, your sins are forgiven.
Now some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts, why does this man speak like this? He's blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to him, why do you question these things in your hearts?
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, 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 never have been. First off, anything like this, amen.
This is God's Word, may he write it on our hearts. Let's look at him in prayer. Oh Father bless us tonight. Help us to see Jesus as he truly is and to hear his Word and to have it in our hearts.
In praying his name, amen. Jesus does a very unexpected thing here that startles everyone and I want you to consider this tonight, the subject of forgiveness. And I want you to see three things from the passage. I want you to see the unexpected priority of forgiveness.
I want you to see the sovereign freium of forgiveness and I want you to see the hidden cost of forgiveness. In the first place is the unexpected priority of forgiveness. Here in verses one through five, we find Jesus has gone home. He had a home and he was in his home and the crowds had heard of Jesus and they filled the house to overflowing so that this man who is paralyzed can't get in through the front door.
But his friends or family members stopped at absolutely nothing to get him before Jesus. Evidently climb up the outside staircase, they go on to the roof, they begin to dig through what was likely a mud-fatch roof with perhaps some sticks or boards of some kind. But they begin to imagine being inside the house with Jesus when this is happening. As Jesus is preaching above them, the tiles begin to fall or the dirt begins to fall and a window opens up and the crowd probably pushes to the side of the room.
Four people slowly drop through that hole, a paralytic man looking for Jesus to do what? To heal. Everybody knows what this man needs, but paralyzed man just wants to walk. His friends just want him to walk so he's not a burden to his family and friends and for his own good.
Everybody expects Jesus to heal him and he gets before Jesus and Jesus says, my son, your sins are forgiven. And undoubtedly, there's some of that room thinking, you know, that's not really what these people are asking for. He has a much more immediate problem and Jesus says, well, you have a much more visible problem, sure. But you have a greater invisible problem.
Your soul, I know, it's almost as Jesus is saying, your soul, I know, feels trapped in a body that does not work. But you don't understand that your soul is trapped in a broken relationship with God that does not work. And you need to be released. I forgive you.
This is what Jesus says to him. This by the way is not an example of physical illness being brought out by sin. There's nothing in this passage that says the man is paralyzed because of his sin. Sin can cause illness and injury like any driver who's had an accident can tell you is likely to happen.
But it doesn't always cause illness and injury. And frankly, it's cruel to tell people that it does. Oh, you're sick, are you? You must have done something really immoral.
Oh, you're sick, are you? You've got a demon as I heard one person was told. A friend of mine. Oh, you're sick, are you?
Well, if you just had enough faith, if you just trusted God enough, it wouldn't be this way in your life. You see, all those things are absolutely cruel and untrue. And Jesus isn't saying that. He isn't trying to tie the paralysis to sin.
And he isn't saying if you would just straighten up your life, God would straighten up your legs. That is not what's happening here. But he is saying to all of us this, you think your difficulty in life, some circumstance, some problem is your biggest problem. You think your body falling apart is your biggest problem?
It isn't. You are. You are your biggest problem. Your sins are your biggest problem.
And God is your biggest problem. He's holding. He's just. And you have a much more immediate need than to be able to walk.
This is what Jesus is saying to all of us. Our offenses friends against God are a great chain that bind us and tie us to what our offenses deserve, namely punishment. And we need to be released from that chain. And you're saying to me, well, where is this chain?
I don't feel it. If I'm so guilty, Ted, that I deserve punishment, why don't I feel that way? A preacher was explaining to a crowd that sin was like a great way he chained, wrapped around them which bound them and held them captive. And no strength of theirs could break that chain.
And a man asked, well, if there's such a great chain wrapped around me, why don't I feel it? Let me ask you this, the preacher replied, does a dead man know he's trapped in chains? Well, no. A dead man feels nothing at all.
Why? Because he's dead. So it is for us friends where there is no spiritual life. There is no sense of bondage in sin.
It will be insensitive to the problem at hand. Very few people in our culture now that get up in the morning or go to bed at night worrying about whether their sins will be forgiven. And that's the one thing really worth worrying about. If you're sick, friends, if you are sick in this life and God heals you, that is a great thing.
But I guarantee you, unless Jesus returns, you're going to die of something. And if you have massive frustrations and problems in this life and God helps you, that is a great thing. But you will not escape death and no one escapes death and everyone faces God on the day they die. You will meet your maker.
And we need to be on good terms with him. We need his forgiveness. And so it's such an unexpected priority that these people did not anticipate. And it's such an unexpected gift to this paralytic.
Jesus says, I've got something much better for you. You know those videos on, you can see these on YouTube. I catch one every now and then of a returning soldier. I caught one where this soldier's wife had been invited to a ballpark for a large baseball game with thousands of people in attendance.
She was being honored in some way or so she thought and she was asked to throw out the first pitch. And so she's standing there on the pitcher's mound and she throws the ball to the catcher. And the catcher comes running up to the pitcher's mound to hand the ball back and gets about six feet from her and rips off his catcher's mask. And it's her husband caught her totally visor-wise.
You can just see her. She crumbles over with joy and delight. But weeping as she does is such an unexpectedly better thing. This is what Jesus is doing.
Forgiveness is like that. It's far more important that healing in this life because sin is far more problematic in this life and for eternity. And so you see Jesus rather unexpected priority. But then you see the sovereign freedom of forgiveness here in verses 5 through 7.
Verse 5, Jesus says, you're forgiven. You release your freedom. I'm not going to hold your sins against you. And the scribes at verse 6, the Pharisees of religious leaders think that Jesus is blaspheming.
I mean here's their question, who can forgive sins, but God alone. We need God to forgive us. God has to forgive us. Yes.
But what about is Jesus denying we need to forgive one another? No, of course not. Relationships at a human level thrive. Church life thrives.
When somebody does something wrong and they come to you and they say, please forgive me. You say, I forgive you. I release you. We're going to see a lot of that in this church.
I hope if the gospel is at work in our hearts, we're going to stumble all over one another and we're going to say, I'm so sorry. I failed you. I hurt you. I didn't live up to your expectations.
I blew it. Please forgive me. I forgive you. This needs to be the language of the Christian in the church and in the home.
But we also need God to forgive us because every offense, even against one another, is ultimately a offense and a offense against God. Why is that? We should ask why? Why is that?
Why would you imagine for a moment that I take a picture of you and I print it and I blow it up and I carry it around it by pocket. And then every now and then I pull that picture out. I spit on it. I poke the face with needles.
I crumple it up. I throw it on the ground and I step on it in the dirt. And then I pick it up, fold back up, put it in my pocket and dare to later I do it again. What would you think of me?
That's really weird, Ted. We think you're pretty strange. Well, I understand. That would be very strange.
Absolutely. But wouldn't you also say, what do you have against me? What's your problem with me? You're not going to be a robot not to take it personally.
Why? The picture is an image of you. Now listen, you are an image of God. You are his representative on the earth and to offend the image is to offend the one in whose image we are.
So, we sin against Him when we sin against one another. And we need Him to forgive us. And Jesus says to this man, you're forgiving. And they say, who can forgive sins but God alone and we give them credit.
They get that He's claiming to be God. They're absolutely right here. That is blasphemy if you aren't God. But Jesus is God.
In Tim Keller's book, I think it's in the reason for God, but it might be his work on the gospel of Mark. He talks about this idea and he says something like, when Larry and Curly and Mo walk into a room and Larry punches Curly, Mo walks up and says, Larry, I forgive you. Curly says, what? How can you forgive him for hitting me?
You can only forgive us sin if it's against you. And Jesus here is our Creator saying, all your sins have been against me and I forgive you. Now what is it this man is being forgiven for? It's not said.
What's he guilty of particularly? It's not said. We do know that he lived in a culture that thought more of sin than we do in culture in which people were more aware of God and human guilt than our culture is. A culture then that was steeped in the Tench Amhermets and the holiness code, a culture very different from ours.
So it's possible you're here and you don't feel guilty at all. But you are. I want you to imagine a kid raised by his grandmother. And she tells him, I want you to always tell the truth.
I want you to help the poor. I want you to keep your promises and I want you to work hard. And he grows up and he doesn't. He tells the truth and he helps the poor.
He keeps his promises and he works hard. Turns into a fine young man. Everybody likes him. And his grandmother, seeing his potential, sacrifices her lifestyle, saves all of her pennies and sends him to college.
And he does well. And he does all that she says. He tells the truth. He helps the poor.
He keeps his promises and he works really hard. But he never acknowledges her. He might send her a Christmas card, but that's about it. He expresses no gratitude.
He never says thank you. He builds no relationship with her. He lives without communication with her. What would you say?
You would say that's wrong. And I would say you, that's you. You're guilty. You ignore God every day.
The God who made you. The God who keeps you alive moment by moment. The God who has given you everything that you have. And yet God is very willing to forgive.
But know this, friends. He is under no obligation to do so. He does promise, he does promise forgiveness, but he does not promise to forgive everyone. What Jesus gives to this man is what he offers to you.
You can't get it from him by demand. Like with each other, when we hurt someone, we need to be forgiven and we go to them with hat and hand. And we have no excuse. If we offer justifications for why we did what we did, we're not really asking for forgiveness.
We're asking for understanding. Here's what I did. I know it hurts you, but this is why I did it. Would you please understand what made this acceptable?
We're asking for understanding. But listen, take out all the excuses. Take out all the reasons you think justify your offense or make it less evil than it is. Remove all that and there may be nuggets and kernels of an excuse.
But you remove all that and there is still a rotten core. Of stuff that needs to be forgiven, not just understood. And you can't command that. You can't appeal to justice for that.
Justice is your guilty and you should be punished. And so it's mercy from God when he says, I'm willing to forgive you. And it's free. You don't have to oppress him to get it.
You can't impress him to get it. And he's more willing to freely forgive you than you are willing to ask him. Take him up on his offer. Ask him.
But know this, friends, though it is free to you. It is costly to him. Don't imagine for a second that forgiveness isn't costly. And that's our third and final point.
I want you to see the hidden cost of forgiveness. In verses 7 through 12 here, some of the scribes here, having said, this fellow blaspheme's, Jesus knowing their thoughts gets said, why are you thinking? Even in your hearts, which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven or to say, get up and walk. Jesus question is one that has troubled Bible commentators for 20 centuries, which is easier.
Which is? The answer is if it's us, well neither are easy. I can't forgive another person since before God, and I can't make anybody get up and walk. And he's charlatan, however, can claim to forgive a man's sin.
For it's to say if it's really forgiven or not. But if the paralytic does get up and walk, everybody will know that you have power. If he doesn't get up and walk, everyone will know that you are up for all. And that's the point.
Jesus can do both. And so he says, you want to know that I'm able to forgive your sins? Watch this. Rise.
Take up your mat and go home. And the man rises. Takes up his mat and walks out the door. But do not think, however easy that looks for the Son of God to do, do not think that it is not costly.
It is right here in the Book of Mark that opposition to Jesus begins to arise from their religious leaders. Right in the face of this compassion and the face of this healing, they hardened their hearts in anger towards him. This miracle doesn't make them tender. It makes them angry and frustrating.
They don't turn to Jesus and say, oh, forgive me too. No, they're proud people. Who are you to forgive? And who am I that you would need to forgive me?
Is there a attitude? And what happens from this point on in the Gospel of Mark is an escalation of their opposition. You would attract down at verse 8, first of the questioning in their hearts. Then later in verse 16, they challenge his disciples.
Then in verse 18, they question Jesus about the practices of his disciples. They don't like any of it. In chapter 3, verse 6, they hold court with the Herodians trying to figure out how to destroy Jesus. They want him dead.
And Jesus knows all this. And he knows that if he heals this man, they're going to kill him. And knowing that, he signs his own death warrant. Jesus knows that free forgiveness is going to be costly to him.
As Tim Keller writes, the only way to make this man's legs move is if Jesus' legs are made immovable nail to the cross. Only way to release this man from his sin is to bind his sins to the Savior upon the cross. The two will go together. The scribes and the Pharisees sit there, and they watch this miracle, and yet they harden their hearts.
Oh, the Lord keep us from a hard, hard towards Jesus. Our sins were nailed on Christ on the cross. For all who looked at him. So you might ask, what's God like?
God's like Jesus. He sees people at their worst and most helpless. And he loves them. It was this wonderful movie called The Fisher King, which Robin Williams and Amanda Plummer go on a date together.
And they're two completely dysfunctional people. They hate themselves. But they go out on this date, and they come back, and he says, can I call you? And she says, no, you can never see me again.
Why? He says, well, it's paraphrasing you. By some weird accident, she says, we got to the end of the first date, and you didn't hate me, but you will. And I just can't handle the rejection.
You'll hate me, and I don't want that. So thanks. But no thanks. And Robin Williams at this point, standing on the steps to her doorway, confesses to her, I've been watching you.
I know you're clumsy, and you knock things over. I know you're down on yourself. I know you're horribly shy. I know you have no friends.
I already know all that about you. And I still love you. So you see, I will never leave you. She says, are you for real?
And it absolutely transforms her. It melts her heart. That is a love that will never wear out. The love all of us are looking for.
The kind of love the Bible says is like this. We did not love God, but God loved us, and gave his only son to be a substitutionary sacrifice for our sins. Jesus says, do you think he really know what you mean? But I know you better than that.
So don't harden your heart against me. But ask me, I will freely harden you. Show you my love at great cost to myself. This is the good news of the gospel.
Let's practice. Father, have mercy on our souls. Show us our sin, but give us a glorious picture of our Savior to heal our wounds in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Let me invite you to stand, and we're going to sing, and then take the Lord's Supper in response to the gospel.