S.M. Lockridge: The Bible says my king is the King of the Jews.
S.M. Lockridge: He's the king of Israel.
S.M. Lockridge: He's the king of righteousness.
S.M. Lockridge: He's the king of the ages.
S.M. Lockridge: He's the king of Heaven.
S.M. Lockridge: He's the king of glory.
S.M. Lockridge: He's the king of kings, and he's the Lord of Lords.
S.M. Lockridge: That's my king.
S.M. Lockridge: I wonder, do you know him?
S.M. Lockridge: My king is a sovereign king.
S.M. Lockridge: No means of measure can define his limitless love.
S.M. Lockridge: He's enduringly strong.
S.M. Lockridge: He's entirely sincere.
S.M. Lockridge: He's eternally steadfast.
S.M. Lockridge: He's immortally graceful.
S.M. Lockridge: He's imperially powerful.
S.M. Lockridge: He's impartially merciful.
S.M. Lockridge: Do you know him?
S.M. Lockridge: He's the greatest phenomenon that has ever crossed the horizon of this world.
S.M. Lockridge: He's God's son.
S.M. Lockridge: He's a sinner's savior.
S.M. Lockridge: He's the centerpiece of civilization.
S.M. Lockridge: He's unparalleled.
S.M. Lockridge: He's unprecedented.
S.M. Lockridge: He is the loftiest idea in literature.
S.M. Lockridge: He's the highest personality in philosophy.
S.M. Lockridge: He's the fundamental doctrine of theology.
S.M. Lockridge: He's the only one qualified to be an all-sufficient savior.
S.M. Lockridge: I wonder if you know him today.
S.M. Lockridge: He supplies strength for the weak.
S.M. Lockridge: He's available for the tempted and the tried.
S.M. Lockridge: He sympathizes, and he saves.
S.M. Lockridge: He strengthens and sustains.
S.M. Lockridge: He guards, and he guides.
S.M. Lockridge: He heals the sick.
S.M. Lockridge: He cleanses the lepers.
S.M. Lockridge: He forgives sinners.
S.M. Lockridge: He discharges debtors.
S.M. Lockridge: He delivers the captive.
S.M. Lockridge: He defends the feeble.
S.M. Lockridge: He nurtures the young.
S.M. Lockridge: He serves the unfortunate.
S.M. Lockridge: He regards the aged.
S.M. Lockridge: He rewards the diligent, and he beautifies the meek.
S.M. Lockridge: I wonder if you know him.
S.M. Lockridge: He's the key to knowledge.
S.M. Lockridge: He's the wellspring of wisdom.
S.M. Lockridge: He's the doorway of deliverance.
S.M. Lockridge: He's the pathway of peace.
S.M. Lockridge: He's the roadway of righteousness.
S.M. Lockridge: He's the highway of holiness.
S.M. Lockridge: He's the gateway of glory.
S.M. Lockridge: Do you know him?
S.M. Lockridge: Well, his light is matchless.
S.M. Lockridge: His goodness is limitless.
S.M. Lockridge: His mercy is everlasting.
S.M. Lockridge: His love never changes.
S.M. Lockridge: His word is enough.
S.M. Lockridge: His grace is sufficient.
S.M. Lockridge: His reign is righteous.
S.M. Lockridge: His yoke is easy, and his burden is light.
S.M. Lockridge: I wish I could describe him to you, but he's indescribable.
S.M. Lockridge: He's incomprehensible.
S.M. Lockridge: He's invincible.
S.M. Lockridge: He's irresistible.
S.M. Lockridge: Well, you can't get him out of your mind.
S.M. Lockridge: You can't get him off of your hands.
S.M. Lockridge: You can't outlive him, and you can't live without him.
S.M. Lockridge: The Pharisees couldn't stand him, but they found out they couldn't stop him.
S.M. Lockridge: Pilate couldn't find any fault in him.
S.M. Lockridge: Herod couldn't kill him.
S.M. Lockridge: Death couldn't handle him, and the grave couldn't hold him.
S.M. Lockridge: Hey! That's my king! That's my king!
Dan Werthman: I've seen that dozens of times over the last couple of decades, and it never fails to move me.
Dan Werthman: That was Dr.
Dan Werthman: Shadrach Meshach Lockridge.
Dan Werthman: If you want to find that on YouTube.
Dan Werthman: Dr.
Dan Werthman: Lockridge-- he is the longtime pastor of-- let me get this right-- Calvary Baptist Church in San Diego, having retired in 1993.
Dan Werthman: That comes from a sermon.
Dan Werthman: You can understand why that sermon became so famous.
Dan Werthman: That sermon was entitled"That's My King".
Dan Werthman: And again, if you want to find it, that's how you search for it.
Dan Werthman: "That's My King".
Dan Werthman: But let me present that to you as a question this morning: Is that the picture of who Jesus is to you?
Dan Werthman: Many people look at Jesus as simply a religious figure.
Dan Werthman: Many people look at Jesus as the baby, meek and mild, in the Christmas manger.
Dan Werthman: Many people look at Jesus as the one that, at some time in their life, they have asked into their heart.
Dan Werthman: Is Jesus your king?
Dan Werthman: Is he your sovereign?
Dan Werthman: Is he the one who is truly Lord who rules your life?
Dan Werthman: That's not just from a sermon; that is from the Gospel of Mark.
Dan Werthman: That is from all of the word of God, but particularly the Gospel of Mark, and as we've been beginning and working our way through the Gospel of Mark, that's how we see Mark present him.
Dan Werthman: That's how we see Jesus present himself.
Dan Werthman: Chapter 1, verse 14: Jesus, what does he say?
Dan Werthman: "The Kingdom of God has come near.""With my coming," in other words,"a new reign has begun, and he is the sovereign.
Dan Werthman: Now that sovereign reign looked very different during its earthly phase than it will when he returns, but he is no less the king, coming in the obscurity that he came when he originally came.
Dan Werthman: If you're visiting with us, we are working our way through the second Gospel, the second book of the New Testament, the Gospel of Mark.
Dan Werthman: And John Andrew finished out chapter one last week.
Dan Werthman: And so we begin chapter 2 today.
Dan Werthman: We see a shift.
Dan Werthman: If you've been here with us the last couple of weeks, we see a shift from chapter one to chapter two.
Dan Werthman: In chapter one, what we see is Jesus coming to prominence: people beginning to notice him, crowds developing him, but now that he has the attention of the world, or at least the world around him, now, in chapter 2, we see something new.
Dan Werthman: We see, growing throughout the rest of the Gospel, a growing hostility, a growing opposition to this one who dares to call himself king.
Dan Werthman: And I think about the application today.
Dan Werthman: You see what's going on in our world around us.
Dan Werthman: April talked about the darkness in Europe.
Dan Werthman: I think about the darkness in the United States, and the claim that he would be king, not just king of Christians, but king of all.
Dan Werthman: You can see the growing hostility and the growing opposition to that.
Dan Werthman: That's what Mark gives us a picture of.
Dan Werthman: We're going to read the first 12 verses of Mark chapter 2.
Dan Werthman: I'm reading, if you're following along with me this morning, I'm reading out of the New International Version, and we begin in verse 1.
Dan Werthman: "A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home.
Dan Werthman: So many gathered there that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them." And let me just pause there and give you a little context for that.
Dan Werthman: There's a picture coming up on the screen.
Dan Werthman: That's Capernaum today, and it is much smaller than it was at that time.
Dan Werthman: That's a picture taken from the Sea of Galilee looking down.
Dan Werthman: And really, the reason I put that picture up there is if you can make it out, in about the dead center of that photograph, you see a large round object.
Dan Werthman: That's actually a pavilion that's constructed.
Dan Werthman: If you went to Capernaum today, you would see this large pavilion, and underneath that pavilion are the archaeological ruins of what Bible scholars believe to be the home of Peter.
Dan Werthman: And that's the house that we're talking about in this text, and out of all the sites, archeological sites in Israel, this is one that archaeological scholars are pretty sure this was the house of Peter.
Dan Werthman: So what you see there is what is being described here.
Dan Werthman: It was a modest home.
Dan Werthman: It wasn't a large home.
Dan Werthman: So as the crowds heard that Jesus was there, and they heard that he had this healing, miraculous ministry, they came to see him.
Dan Werthman: They filled the house.
Dan Werthman: We read so many gathered there that there was no room left, not even outside the door.
Dan Werthman: They spilled outside the house into the area around the door, and Jesus, really not having prepared at that point for the crowds coming, still, he did what he continues to do.
Dan Werthman: He preached the word to them.
Dan Werthman: He preached that message that we've heard since the beginning of chapter 1:"God's kingdom has come near." And the response he calls for is to repent and believe in the Gospel.
Dan Werthman: Well, Mark goes on in chapter 3.
Dan Werthman: "Some men came as Jesus is preaching, and they brought to him a paralytic man carried by the four of them," and again, let me just stop there.
Dan Werthman: We use in our English translations that word"paralytic", but the word that Mark uses in his original manuscript gives us the idea this man was probably a stroke victim.
Dan Werthman: He'd had a stroke, and he was either partially, maybe just on one side, maybe fully paralyzed as a result of his stroke, and since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus, and after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on.
Dan Werthman: "When Jesus saw their faith(the faith of the four men), he said to the paralytic man,'Son, your sins are forgiven.' Now, some teachers of the law(or that's also translated'scribes'), some scribes were sitting there, thinking to themselves,'Why does this fellow talk like that?
Dan Werthman: He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?' Immediately, Jesus knew in his spirit that this is what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them,'Why are you thinking these things?
Dan Werthman: 'Which is easier to say to the paralytic:"Your sins are forgiven," or to say,"Get up, take your mat, and walk," but that you may know that the son of man has authority on Earth to forgive sins,' he said to the paralytic,'I tell you, get up, take up your mat, and go home.' And he, the paralytic man, got up, he took his mat, and he walked out in full view of all of them.
Dan Werthman: This amazed everyone, and they praised God, saying,'We have never seen anything like this.'" My outline is short, and it's pretty simple for today, but I think Mark is under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Dan Werthman: He brings together this account.
Dan Werthman: I really think he's teaching us about four things.
Dan Werthman: I think he has something to teach us about the faith of the four friends.
Dan Werthman: I think he has something to teach us about the plight of the paralytic.
Dan Werthman: I think he has something to teach us about the plight, or the heart condition, of the scribes, and I think he has much to teach us about the identity of Jesus.
Dan Werthman: So let's just jump right in at the beginning with the faith of the friends.
Dan Werthman: Notice, in verse 5,"When Jesus saw their faith(...)" Now that's an interesting expression of Mark.
Dan Werthman: What is it that Jesus saw in these men?
Dan Werthman: He didn't even speak to them, from what we can tell.
Dan Werthman: So what did he see in these men and their actions that, for him, was a representation of faith?
Dan Werthman: Because whatever they had, I want to have.
Dan Werthman: I want to have that kind of faith.
Dan Werthman: Well, let's look very practically at what Jesus saw that we can see in the text.
Dan Werthman: First of all, he saw, or at least he concluded, that these men carried their friend, probably, a long way.
Dan Werthman: They carried him, their paralytic friend, on a cot to see Jesus.
Dan Werthman: Verse 2:"Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by the four of them." Jesus' reputation as as one who could heal had been spreading.
Dan Werthman: We don't know if these men came from Capernaum; maybe they came from a long distance, somewhere else in Galilee.
Dan Werthman: These men heard that Jesus could heal, and they have this friend, this man that they cared for, that they loved, who is paralyzed.
Dan Werthman: Jesus wasn't coming to where he was, so if Jesus wasn't going to come to their paralytic friend, they determined they were going to load their paralytic friend on a cot, and they were going to bring their paralytic friend to Jesus.
Dan Werthman: But after they got there, after making the journey there, they tried to get to where Jesus was, and a crowd of people jams the doorway of the house, spilling out from where Jesus is, so they can't get through to reach Jesus.
Dan Werthman: We'll look at the persistence that Jesus notes, even up to that moment.
Dan Werthman: Jesus also notices, or knows, what we deduce here, they hoisted him up over the crowd to get to the roof of the house.
Dan Werthman: Now again, a little bit of a contextual understanding is helpful here.
Dan Werthman: Houses at that time were built mostly with flat roofs.
Dan Werthman: The evenings get very hot there, and so roofs were usually built so that the occupants of the house could sleep on a hot night up on the roof.
Dan Werthman: So when the house was constructed, either a stone staircase was built on the outside of the house or some kind of ladder structure was built so that the occupants of the house could get to the roof for sleeping on a hot night.
Dan Werthman: So these men not only carried their friend a great distance on a cot; they negotiated their way around the crowd.
Dan Werthman: And can you imagine carrying a stretcher up a ladder, or at least up a steep staircase?
Dan Werthman: They got their friend up to the roof of the house, and then, they dug a hole through the roof.
Dan Werthman: Now Luke, in his Gospel, also records the same incident, and Luke adds a little bit of detail.
Dan Werthman: Luke 5:19 tells us that this roof had clay tiles, and houses like this were built-- when you build the walls, you put timbers across the walls, and across those timbers they laid baked clay slabs, large baked clay tiles, in other words.
Dan Werthman: They would cover the rough with these clay tiles, these clay slabs.
Dan Werthman: Then, they would take wet mud and they-- wet clay, and they would cover over the slabs to seal it from the weather and to seal it from the water, and then let that dry.
Dan Werthman: Well, these men, again, I don't think they came planning to go up to the roof.
Dan Werthman: I don't think they had shovels or anything.
Dan Werthman: We're not given any indication of that.
Dan Werthman: These men get up to the roof.
Dan Werthman: They dig, probably with their bare hands, through that layer of clay, and then they remove enough of the slabs to create an opening that's large enough to lower their friend through, and that's exactly what they then proceed to do.
Dan Werthman: They lowered this man on his cot before Jesus.
Dan Werthman: Can you imagine being there?
Dan Werthman: Can you imagine being in the house?
Dan Werthman: I don't think this happened in 30 seconds.
Dan Werthman: I think, as they're there, the people, the crowd is there, and they're listening to Jesus' teaching.
Dan Werthman: I think, all of a sudden, it just starts to drop down, and then pieces and bits of clay start to fall through.
Dan Werthman: Maybe they thought it was an earthquake at first and then a shaft of light as the as the ceiling opens up, but then it becomes very apparent: there are people up there, and they're digging through it, and they probably had to wait a number of minutes while that hole was created large enough.
Dan Werthman: Can you imagine Jesus in the middle of teaching, pausing and seeing this?
Dan Werthman: For Jesus is not offended by this.
Dan Werthman: Jesus is not indignant about this.
Dan Werthman: What does Mark tell us?
Dan Werthman: He saw their faith in doing this.
Dan Werthman: He saw that these men were willing to remove any obstacle, even a roof, to get their friend before Jesus.
Dan Werthman: And I think it's interesting for you and me today.
Dan Werthman: This is the first mention of the word"faith" by Mark in his Gospel.
Dan Werthman: And do you notice what it's a picture of?
Dan Werthman: It's not a picture of what we feel, is it?
Dan Werthman: It's not a picture of something anybody was subjectively, emotionally experiencing.
Dan Werthman: It's a picture of action.
Dan Werthman: Not that faith does not include emotion.
Dan Werthman: It does, but faith here is really what we sang after the offering today.
Dan Werthman: Faith is confidence in God, that he holds the situation that we're in, in our hands.
Dan Werthman: And it is the steps.
Dan Werthman: It's the actions.
Dan Werthman: It's the decisions that we make that put ourselves in his hands, that demonstrate our confidence that his promises still stand.
Dan Werthman: So there's, I think, a picture for you and for me today about whatever we bring before Jesus.
Dan Werthman: We come, maybe, like this man, with physical issues.
Dan Werthman: Maybe we come with relational issues.
Dan Werthman: Maybe we come with financial challenges.
Dan Werthman: Faith is putting those in God's hands.
Dan Werthman: It's making the decisions.
Dan Werthman: It's taking the steps that say,"All right, Lord, I'm going to step out here.
Dan Werthman: I'm going to put my confidence in you.
Dan Werthman: "I'm going to trust that your promises still stand, that they will hold me, and I'm going to take that step, even though it may seem crazy to the people around me." Faith here is portrayed as an action, although it does include what we subjectively experience as well.
Dan Werthman: Well, secondly, the plight of the paralytic.
Dan Werthman: I find it interesting what Jesus-- actually, I find it not interesting, I find it shocking, what Jesus says to the paralytic.
Dan Werthman: This man is lowered before him.
Dan Werthman: This man is lying on a cot.
Dan Werthman: This man, obviously to the crowd and to Jesus, cannot move on his own.
Dan Werthman: He's in physical distress, and does Jesus speak immediately to his physical need?
Dan Werthman: No, he speaks to his inner need:"My son, your sins are forgiven." I find that very striking that that is how Jesus would address that.
Dan Werthman: Now, don't buy that expression of Jesus.
Dan Werthman: Don't conclude that Jesus is necessarily linking this man's physical condition to any sin that this man had committed.
Dan Werthman: That was a very predominant view during that day: that physical illness, that sickness, that disability was directly related to personal sins in your life.
Dan Werthman: It's very likely that the religious leaders, the scribes there, were thinking that that was the case here.
Dan Werthman: But Jesus is not necessarily making that connection here.
Dan Werthman: I think Jesus said this, addressing the man's sins, his inner condition, because he knows that this is not only true of this man.
Dan Werthman: He knows this is true of us as well: that our greatest need is our spiritual need.
Dan Werthman: We come to Jesus with our physical needs.
Dan Werthman: And he sees them like he sees that man with his physical needs.
Dan Werthman: We come to Jesus with our relational needs, our financial needs, our emotional needs, whatever they may be.
Dan Werthman: He sees all those needs, but he sees at the heart of those needs, there's an even deeper need: Our spiritual need.
Dan Werthman: Even when we think about physical disability like this man had, experiencing, I find it interesting.
Dan Werthman: I think we're rarely aware of how much our physical condition is influenced by the spiritual condition of our hearts.
Dan Werthman: I read recently that doctors estimate that at least half the illnesses that they treat are at least aggravated by issues in the heart, by issues like anxiety, guilt, bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness.
Dan Werthman: Doctors say if those could be resolved, it's not like every physical condition would go away, but if those could be resolved, a lot of physical conditions would be substantially relieved, and some would go away altogether.
Dan Werthman: So Jesus sees beyond just the immediate physical need, sees what is deep down in the man's heart.
Dan Werthman: Maybe it was some of this that caused the stroke that this man had had in the first place.
Dan Werthman: We don't know.
Dan Werthman: Mark doesn't tell us.
Dan Werthman: I think it's interesting as well that, of all the accounts that Mark had heard from the apostle Peter and decided to include in his Gospel at this point, he uses this picture of Jesus healing a paralytic, because paralysis is not just a present physical condition in this story; it's a spiritual image.
Dan Werthman: Paralysis is a picture of who we are spiritually apart from Christ.
Dan Werthman: We may be the healthiest person that we know.
Dan Werthman: We may be the most economically secure person we know.
Dan Werthman: We may have relationships that other people envy.
Dan Werthman: And yet, if we do not have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, the condition of our heart, spiritually, is one of paralysis, because we are unable to do anything.
Dan Werthman: We are unable to save ourselves.
Dan Werthman: Paul the Apostle uses an image very close to paralysis to describe our spiritual condition apart from Christ in Ephesians chapter 2, when he says that"apart from Christ, before you were I came to Christ," or if you're here this morning and you have not yet embraced Christ as savior, as king, Paul says that"we are dead, dead in our transgressions and sins." That image hits me.
Dan Werthman: I had the opportunity, the brief opportunity, for a couple of years in my twenties, to work in a funeral home.
Dan Werthman: And I won't go into any detail here, but part of my duties did include transferring the bodies of deceased persons from tables to caskets or whatever was required, and it is amazing how heavy a dead person is.
Dan Werthman: You can take a 200-pound person who's in a hospital bed, a live person who is in a hospital bed, but very, very sick, and as you move that person and transfer them, there's still that ability of that person, no matter how sick they are, to contribute, to help a little bit in the movement, of the transfer, of their body.
Dan Werthman: But move a dead body, and you will know why they call it"dead weight".
Dan Werthman: A 200-pound dead person, moving that person is incredibly harder than it is to move a 200-pound live person, even if that person is very, very sick.
Dan Werthman: That's the image here.
Dan Werthman: We are able to contribute nothing to our salvation, that when we are dead in our sins, when we are paralyzed in our sins before Christ, we can do nothing.
Dan Werthman: We cannot move spiritually.
Dan Werthman: We cannot help.
Dan Werthman: We cannot assist in any way spiritually.
Dan Werthman: So paralysis, death, paralysis is the picture of who you and I are apart from Christ.
Dan Werthman: This man did need to be healed of the paralyzing effects of his stroke, but Jesus knows that this man, even more, needs to be healed from the paralyzing effects of his sin, and that's true of you and me.
Dan Werthman: No matter how healthy or unhealthy we are physically, you and I, even more than our physical health, we need to be healed from the paralyzing effects of our sinful condition, and that only happens through the forgiveness of Jesus Christ.
Dan Werthman: Well third, the plight of the scribes, or I think we could even say the heart condition of the scribes.
Dan Werthman: These men were religious leaders.
Dan Werthman: They may have been an official delegation that was sent from Jerusalem to keep an eye on Jesus.
Dan Werthman: They may have been local religious authorities that were concerned about the growing influence of this man over the people that they were supposed to be the leaders of, and as they're watching this, again, Mark describes in verse 6 that they're sitting there, they're thinking to themselves, again, they're not articulating this.
Dan Werthman: They're not mumbling this, Mark says.
Dan Werthman: This is going on in their thoughts, in their head.
Dan Werthman: "Why does this fellow, why does Jesus talk like that?" Referring to"My son, your sins are forgiven.""He's blaspheming!" they think in their minds.
Dan Werthman: "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" On one hand, you know, they're right.
Dan Werthman: If Jesus is not God, he is blaspheming, and that's why they're scandalized, not yet believing that Jesus is God.
Dan Werthman: They know from the Old Testament what you and I should know if we read the Old Testament: the only one who can forgive sins is God.
Dan Werthman: A Catholic priest, if you grew up in Catholicism, all they did that they claim to be able to forgive you of your sins, ineffective.
Dan Werthman: Scribes' ability to forgive sins: they didn't claim it.
Dan Werthman: Even the high priest of Judaism, in Jerusalem, at the temple, did not claim to be able to forgive sins.
Dan Werthman: Only God, the Old Testament says, can forgive sins.
Dan Werthman: And you notice Jesus does not even say,"God has allowed me to forgive your sins." He claimed to personally, first-person be able to forgive this man's sin.
Dan Werthman: So, if Jesus is not God, he is blaspheming.
Dan Werthman: This, theme of blasphemy, by the way, this is the first time it appears in Mark, but we're going to see that over and over again.
Dan Werthman: In fact, it's going to build and build and build until we get to chapter 14, when Jesus is arrested, and he's brought to trial before the high priests, what is it that they convict him of?
Dan Werthman: Chapter 14:64, the chief priest says,"You have heard the blasphemy.
Dan Werthman: What do you think?" And that brought about the sentence of death.
Dan Werthman: They condemned him as worthy of death.
Dan Werthman: The scribes could not comprehend that this man could actually be God, God in the flesh.
Dan Werthman: And I think it's such an interesting contrast between when we are closed off to who Jesus claims to be, we have the hardened attitude of the scribes.
Dan Werthman: Contrast that with the attitude of these four friends who hear about this man and will do whatever it takes to get their friend to him.
Dan Werthman: You couldn't have a greater contrast between the two responses to Jesus.
Dan Werthman: And that's for you and for me today.
Dan Werthman: You know, it is possible of course, to reject Jesus outright.
Dan Werthman: And we see that happening in the world all around us, where people want no part of Jesus, people completely deny everything that he has said about himself.
Dan Werthman: But it is also possible to do that in lower degrees.
Dan Werthman: It's possible to say,"You know, I like the idea that Jesus has saved me, so I'm going to heaven.
Dan Werthman: But this'king' part, you know, the fact that he would actually reign over my life and have authority over my life, and that I would need to live my life for him, I don't like that part so much." That is as much a rejection as rejecting him entirely, and to the degree that we do that, to the degree that we push off Jesus' claims about who he says he is, and we resist his influence over our life as Lord, as king, it has the same paralyzing effect on our hearts that we can see it having upon the hearts of the scribes here.
Dan Werthman: So the condition of the scribes' hearts is not the condition-- that's the condition of fear that can happen to our hearts.
Dan Werthman: Finally, the identity of Jesus: Mark does not give us the full picture of all that he's going to show us throughout his gospel of who Jesus is, but he gives us some clear indication that Jesus is who he claims to be.
Dan Werthman: I like, in verse 8, what we see here: Jesus knew in his spirit what they were thinking in their hearts.
Dan Werthman: Now, I want you to think for a moment about the implications of this.
Dan Werthman: Jesus not only knew the sins of that paralyzed man; Jesus knew the thoughts that were in the hearts of these scribes.
Dan Werthman: Mark is not saying here that Jesus was really good at reading body language.
Dan Werthman: He's not saying here that Jesus somehow heard them mumbling,,or Jesus could read facial expressions.
Dan Werthman: Mark is giving us a picture here of the omniscient mind of Christ and that is who he is.
Dan Werthman: That is a piece of who he is.
Dan Werthman: Forget the miraculous healing, just for a moment here, and consider the implications of the omniscient mind of Christ.
Dan Werthman: No matter where you stand, in regards to Jesus Christ, he knows your mind.
Dan Werthman: He knows what's going on in my heart.
Dan Werthman: 1 Chronicles 28:9 says this:"The Lord searches all hearts, and he understands every intent of the thoughts." Whether you reject him entirely, or you reject him or resist him in part, he knows your thoughts.
Dan Werthman: He knows what's in your heart.
Dan Werthman: That is a picture of the identity of Jesus.
Dan Werthman: We see another picture of the identity of Jesus in verse 9, when Jesus challenges them, having omnisciently perceived that this is what's going on in their minds.
Dan Werthman: He challenges them with this question:"Which is easier to say to the paralytic:'your sins are forgiven', or to say,'Get up, take your mat, and walk.'" Again, that seems a bit odd, but let's just think about that from the human perspective.
Dan Werthman: Which of those two phrases would be humanly easier to say?
Dan Werthman: I think it's obvious.
Dan Werthman: It's easier-- perhaps I had the option to say one of those two.
Dan Werthman: Which which would I want to say?
Dan Werthman: I'd want to say,"Your sins are forgiven," because you wouldn't be able to prove whether I'd really been able to do that or not.
Dan Werthman: You wouldn't see any clear evidence of that.
Dan Werthman: Whereas if I said,"I'm going to heal you.
Dan Werthman: Get up and walk," you'd have evidence almost immediately of whether I could really do that or not.
Dan Werthman: So Jesus, on one hand, is saying,"It is easier to say that your sins are forgiven," because there's no visible evidence of that, but Jesus doesn't stop there, does he?
Dan Werthman: Jesus goes on to say,"I will provide you with evidence of my ability to forgive sins." How?
Dan Werthman: By healing this man's paralysis, which you can all see, and that's exactly what he proceeds to do in verse 10:"but that you may know that the son of man has authority on Earth to forgive sins." Now again, let me pause here.
Dan Werthman: This is another time where, again, we have the first term, or the first occurrence of a term that we'll see over and over again in Mark:"Son of Man".
Dan Werthman: Mark uses"Son of Man" 14 times in his Gospel, and there's a lot of confusion.
Dan Werthman: What does that mean?
Dan Werthman: That is Jesus' favorite reference to himself, his favorite title for himself.
Dan Werthman: The early church referred to him as Lord, as Savior, but Jesus referred to himself as the Son of Man.
Dan Werthman: Out of those 14 times, three times, not one of these times here in chapter 2, but three times, Mark records Jesus calling himself the Son of Man, really to describe how one day, he's going to return in judgment.
Dan Werthman: And if you know Old Testament prophecy, and you may know Daniel chapter 7 is a real significant chapter.
Dan Werthman: That's where this image of the Son of Man coming in final judgment is.
Dan Werthman: This is not one of those occurrences.
Dan Werthman: Another nine of those occurrences, Mark records, as Jesus talking about himself as the Son of Man, really referencing how he's going to come, and he's going to suffer for man.
Dan Werthman: He's going to come and suffer in your place and my place, which he did on the cross.
Dan Werthman: And that is not one of these occurrences.
Dan Werthman: The remaining two references where Jesus calls himself the Son of Man, one is right here, and the other is just a few verses later, in chapter 28, and they have to do with his authority that he has been given as the Son, as God's son.
Dan Werthman: He has been given, as a man on this earth, he has been given authority on this earth, here, the authority to forgive sins.
Dan Werthman: Jesus' authority: think of what that word means.
Dan Werthman: Authority is the right to do something, so Jesus' authority is the right to act as he does, and in this case, it is the right to act as only God can act by forgiving sins.
Dan Werthman: So let me just bring this together with you as we wrap this up.
Dan Werthman: What do we see of the identity of Jesus in Mark here?
Dan Werthman: We see this picture of the omniscient Christ, who knows all things, who knows our hearts, who knows, even this morning, what you're wrestling with, what you're thinking of, what you're struggling with.
Dan Werthman: We see in this picture of Jesus this self-identification as the Son of Man, the one who has the authority to be able to address you, wherever you are and whatever your need, and particularly the point of your deepest need, beneath all the rest of your needs, to forgive your sins.
Dan Werthman: And Jesus is that one.
Dan Werthman: You may know this, if you've been in church for a long time, but maybe it hasn't sunk in in a way that that the Holy Spirit working through Mark, maybe, wants to bring it home in your life today.
Dan Werthman: He is the only one who can deal with your past, who can deal with your sin.
Dan Werthman: He is the only one who can make it right.
Dan Werthman: A pastor cannot make your past right.
Dan Werthman: A counselor cannot make your past right.
Dan Werthman: A priest cannot make your past right.
Dan Werthman: No other religious figure can make your past right.
Dan Werthman: Only Jesus has the authority on Earth to forgive sins, and he can completely forgive you of your sins.
Dan Werthman: He forgives you not only have all the specific sins that you have committed; he forgives you of the ongoing sins.
Dan Werthman: He forgives you of the sinful condition that produced all of those sins.
Dan Werthman: And by the way, the authority to forgive is also the authority to heal, and that's exactly what Jesus goes on to demonstrate in verse 11, when he says to the paralytic,"I tell you, get up, take up your mat, and go home." Having been healed of his spiritual paralysis through the forgiveness of sins, this man is now healed of his physical paralysis.
Dan Werthman: He got up, he took his mat, and he walked out in full view of them all.
Dan Werthman: He is the king.
Dan Werthman: Is he your king?
Dan Werthman: As you consider him today, wherever you are spiritually, wherever you are in life at this point, do you see him as the king that Mark presents him as?
Dan Werthman: Do you see him as the Son of Man, the one who comes with the authority to forgive sins, the one who comes with the authority to heal, to heal the heart as well as the body, as well as every other area of our lives?
Dan Werthman: What is it that, this morning, using that image of paralysis, that is paralyzing you spiritually, what is it this morning that may be paralyzing you relationally?
Dan Werthman: Paralyzing you financially, paralyzing you physically?
Dan Werthman: Jesus comes, he comes as the Son of Man.
Dan Werthman: He comes as the king.
Dan Werthman: He comes as the one to whom all needs are ultimately, as they're laid on his feet, fully addressed.
Dan Werthman: Let me lead you back as we close to Pastor Lockridge's question: do you know this king?
Dan Werthman: Do you know him as this king?
Dan Werthman: He is the key to knowledge.
Dan Werthman: He's the wellspring of wisdom.
Dan Werthman: He's the doorway of deliverance.
Dan Werthman: He's the pathway of peace.
Dan Werthman: He's the roadway to righteousness.
Dan Werthman: He's the highway to holiness.
Dan Werthman: He's the gateway of glory.
Dan Werthman: He's indescribable.
Dan Werthman: He's incomprehensible.
Dan Werthman: He's invincible.
Dan Werthman: He's irresistible.
Dan Werthman: That's our king.
Dan Werthman: Do you know him?
Dan Werthman: Let's pray.
Dan Werthman: Oh Lord Jesus, we worship you.
Dan Werthman: We worship you as savior.
Dan Werthman: We worship as Son of God.
Dan Werthman: We worship you as Son of Man.
Dan Werthman: We worship you as king.
Dan Werthman: Lord, there may be some here this morning who have never really encountered you as king, and I pray you'd work by your Holy Spirit, through your inspired word in the Gospel of Mark here, to reveal Jesus to them, in a way, as savior and as king, perhaps they have never experienced before.
Dan Werthman: And Lord, for for those of us who've encountered you as savior and encountered you as king, I ask that you, by Your Holy Spirit, help us to come before you with whatever area of paralysis in our lives: relationally, financially, physically, spiritually, and to lay it for you, trusting in you, having faith in you as we see demonstrated in these four friends.
Dan Werthman: Reveal yourself, Lord, in an increasingly greater way, that we may see you, that we may run to you, that we may depend upon you, that we may worship you.
Dan Werthman: We pray, Jesus, this in your holy name.
Dan Werthman: Amen.