SPEAKER_00: We study study through books of the Bible here at the village chapel.
SPEAKER_00: If you'd like a paper copy, just lift up your hand.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to look at a couple different texts this morning, so it'd be good to set our eyes on that.
SPEAKER_00: Someone will bring you one.
SPEAKER_00: We'd also like to again welcome those who are worshiping with us online.
SPEAKER_00: Hope that you can follow along in the text as well from your screen or perhaps a paper Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, this morning you and I are here by the guiding grace of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you know that.
SPEAKER_00: Towards the end of our service this morning, we'll have the privilege of coming to the Lord's table.
SPEAKER_00: It's a meal that was instituted by our Lord as a physical reminder of what he has done for us.
SPEAKER_00: We just sang about it.
SPEAKER_00: What he has done for us on our behalf almost 2,000 years ago on the cross, laying down his life to provide a way for us to have peace with God.
SPEAKER_00: Right relationship with him and new life by the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: So glad we've been singing about that already.
SPEAKER_00: Our King has come and has defeated our greatest enemy, death itself.
SPEAKER_00: Not only that, this table, some streams of the faith call it Eucharist, Thanksgiving, also serves as a pointer to the great feast that you and I will one day celebrate when he comes again, the King, fully, fully in his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Finally establishing and restoring all of what has been disordered by sin.
SPEAKER_00: When we come to this table, we are at one and the same time looking back to what he has done on our behalf, breaking into history, making a way to save rebels like me.
SPEAKER_00: So at one and the same time looking back, but also looking forward to what he will do when he wraps up history with justice and righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Don't we all want that this morning?
SPEAKER_00: All of this extraordinary news for undeserving sinners like me.
SPEAKER_00: An acquaintance friend of mine, Isaac Adams, likes to say, friends, we are one day closer to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: All this through the person of Jesus Christ and his great love for you and for me.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew in his gospel is giving an account of the life and ministry of this Jesus we sing of and we talk about this morning.
SPEAKER_00: From beginning to end, Matthew's primary goal is for his readers, for us to have a clearer vision of just who this God man, Jesus Christ, was and is, and for us to see him for his immeasurable worth.
SPEAKER_00: How worthy, how worthy.
SPEAKER_00: What an appropriate thing to say.
SPEAKER_00: From beginning to end, Matthew references the fulfillment.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the fulfillment of God's plan for redemption from the very beginning.
SPEAKER_00: He is the Messiah for whom the Jewish people had been waiting for, and he is the hope for everyone who would come to him in faith, including you here in this room today.
SPEAKER_00: The Old Testament prophets spoke of the deaf hearing again, the lame walking again, life where death once was when the promised king arrives on the scene.
SPEAKER_00: We see that in Isaiah 35.
SPEAKER_00: And Matthew is beginning to unfold that fulfillment here in the person of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Throughout the Gospel of Matthew, either implicitly or explicitly, we see both, we can't help but ponder that question: who is this?
SPEAKER_00: Who is this Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Who is this who speaks with an authority unlike our religious leaders?
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember that from a few weeks ago?
SPEAKER_00: Who is this that even the winds and the sea obey him?
SPEAKER_00: Who is this who can command demons to go from this man to these pigs?
SPEAKER_00: As we read about last week.
SPEAKER_00: It's the question the Gospel of Matthew invites me and you to ask this morning, and I'd love to persuade you, it's the most significant question you and I can ever ask and answer.
SPEAKER_00: Who is this Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Is he worthy?
SPEAKER_00: We just sang about.
SPEAKER_00: So in our study of Matthew so far, we've learned about in chapters one through four the person of Christ and his birth, in his baptism, in his temptation, the preparation for his ministry, the principles of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: In chapters five through seven, the Sermon on the Mount, perhaps the most well-known sermon in all of history, starts with, Blessed are the poor in spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are those who know their need.
SPEAKER_00: And then he goes on to describe in this great sermon how it is that those who are in the kingdom, who are a part of the kingdom, how they can and should live.
SPEAKER_00: And then here in chapters eight and nine that we've been studying the last couple of weeks, we see the power of Christ vividly on display.
SPEAKER_00: We see it in the miracles he performed.
SPEAKER_00: He performed nine miracles recorded in these chapters.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to look at one today.
SPEAKER_00: And it's important to note the miracles of Jesus are not just magic tricks or spectacles to attract a crowd.
SPEAKER_00: They have purpose and they have meaning for the ministry of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll often say it as we go through the Gospel of Matthew: the miracles do at least four things, these four things here.
SPEAKER_00: They reveal his compassion, his great love for those who encounters.
SPEAKER_00: It displays these miracles display his authority.
SPEAKER_00: The miracles affirm his identity as one who is worthy.
SPEAKER_00: His miracles inspire faith, wonder, and worship.
SPEAKER_00: In the negative, I would add a fifth one.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the miracles reveal unbelief and hardness of heart for those who witness miracles.
SPEAKER_00: Matt Chandler in the book The Explicit Gospel says the miracles of Jesus are signs of the right order of things.
SPEAKER_00: I love this.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was not so much turning things upside down as turning them right side up, or at least giving his followers glimpses of the right side up.
SPEAKER_00: The miracles of healing, deliverance, provision, and resurrection all reveal that God, through Jesus, is making all things new.
SPEAKER_00: He is restoring what once was unbroken.
SPEAKER_00: Well said.
SPEAKER_00: So I pray for us this morning, for my own heart and for yours, whether you're on the fringes of faith, perhaps you're still considering this question: who is this?
SPEAKER_00: Who is this Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: I pray for you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for all of us who have been believers for many years that his word might come alive to us this morning, that we might witness with more depth and clarity just who he is.
SPEAKER_00: Before we do that, if you would turn to Matthew chapter 9, verse 1, and I'm going to pray for us and we'll get started.
SPEAKER_00: Living God, help us so to hear your holy word that we may truly understand.
SPEAKER_00: And that in understanding we may believe.
SPEAKER_00: And in believing we may follow in all faithfulness and obedience, and in following we may come to know you with such intimacy that our ears are attuned to your voice.
SPEAKER_00: May your Spirit empower us to seek your glory in all that we do.
SPEAKER_00: Through Jesus Christ our Lord, we all said.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And getting into a boat, he crossed over and came to his own city.
SPEAKER_00: Pause here for a second.
SPEAKER_00: His own city, this would be a reference to Capernaum.
SPEAKER_00: If you remember last week, he was across the Sea of Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a map here.
SPEAKER_00: In the region of the Gadarenes, Gergesaw would be that particular city that they likely would have come out.
SPEAKER_00: So they were on that side, on the eastern side, and now they're going back to Capernaum.
SPEAKER_00: This would be the hub of Jesus' ministry, Jesus and his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: So that's where we are.
SPEAKER_00: The Gospel of Matthew actually gives us a bit more detail.
SPEAKER_00: This was in a home.
SPEAKER_00: This encounter that we'll see here was in a home, likely Peter's home.
SPEAKER_00: So keep that in mind as we read.
SPEAKER_00: So in getting into a boat that he crossed, or in getting into a boat, he crossed over and came to his own city, Capernaum.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 2, and behold, some people brought to him a paralytic lying on a bed.
SPEAKER_00: And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Take heart, my son.
SPEAKER_00: Your sins are forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: We'll come back to this in a minute, but this is familial language.
SPEAKER_00: This is intimate, this is tender language.
SPEAKER_00: Take heart.
SPEAKER_00: Be of good cheer, some of your translations might say.
SPEAKER_00: Son.
SPEAKER_00: This is the language of intimacy.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus used the same language later when we'll read about the miracle of the woman who is hemorrhaging blood.
SPEAKER_00: Take heart, my daughter.
SPEAKER_00: Such beautiful language.
SPEAKER_00: Take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
SPEAKER_00: Surprising, surprising response there.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, This man is blaspheming.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, interesting, said, Why do you think evil in your hearts?
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus cuts to the quick right to their motives of these scribes.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you think evil in your hearts?
SPEAKER_00: For which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven, or to say, Rise and walk?
SPEAKER_00: But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.
SPEAKER_00: And he doesn't even stop the sentence.
SPEAKER_00: He just immediately says to the paralytic, Rise, pick up your bed, and go home.
SPEAKER_00: And he rose and he went home.
SPEAKER_00: When the crowd saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God who had given such authority to men.
SPEAKER_00: What a surprising, what an amazing, marvelous story this is.
SPEAKER_00: Interesting, in verse 6, it says, But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority.
SPEAKER_00: Son of man, this is Jesus' most often self-reference.
SPEAKER_00: It's used over 30 times in the Gospel of Matthew, over 80 times in all of the Gospels.
SPEAKER_00: This would have been a reference to Daniel 7.
SPEAKER_00: And if you read Daniel 7, it's a prophecy of the coming Messiah who would have dominion and authority, exactly what he's displaying here in this text.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is telling these scribes, he's revealing who he is, the Son of Man who has authority.
SPEAKER_00: I'd invite you to turn, if you would, in your Bibles over to Luke.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 5.
SPEAKER_00: So the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, all tell this story, and each give their own perspective and bit of detail.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to read Luke's as well, just to fill in a little bit more detail.
SPEAKER_00: And this shouldn't bother us.
SPEAKER_00: The other day we went to a birthday party for my niece and nephew.
SPEAKER_00: We went to this farm down in Spring Hill.
SPEAKER_00: And somebody asked us to describe the farm and how it was set up.
SPEAKER_00: It was basically a petting zoo for kids.
SPEAKER_00: And the first thing that I said, so it was my wife and I, the first thing I said was that they had spitting alpacas.
SPEAKER_00: That was what immediately came to my mind.
SPEAKER_00: And then my wife Emily, and this reveals a little bit of our personality, said how beautiful the grounds were.
SPEAKER_00: Me, the spitting alpacas, her the beautiful grounds.
SPEAKER_00: Same story, different perspectives.
SPEAKER_00: So let's read a little bit of Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Luke, who investigated this, asked people questions, would certainly, as a doctor, be interested in understanding how this paralytic was raised from his mat.
SPEAKER_00: So chapter 5, verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 5, verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Interesting, so it wasn't scribes alone, which is what Matthew tells us, but it was also others, Pharisees, other teachers of the law.
SPEAKER_00: And they were from every village in Galilee, and some even from Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: So I think we could even conclude speculation a little bit, but this is maybe an official investigative body, some folks who are coming to figure out who this man, Jesus, this one who is making some really rather bold claims, who is healing people, telling demons to go from there to there.
SPEAKER_00: Who is this man?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: And behold, some men who were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed.
SPEAKER_00: So we have friends here, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Many of us are familiar with this story.
SPEAKER_00: But think for a minute of the of the detail, of the great cost that this would have been.
SPEAKER_00: These friends who are taking their friend to this healer, busting through the crowds, going to the top of a roof, likely Peter's home, at great cost to themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Prying open these clay tiles.
SPEAKER_00: And the folks in the room, I can imagine dust falling down.
SPEAKER_00: They're looking up to see the sky.
SPEAKER_00: And this man coming down.
SPEAKER_00: Tenacious, creative.
SPEAKER_00: Ones with faith.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, Jesus, the text tells us saw their faith.
SPEAKER_00: We had a professor at uh at uh seminary who would call it faithing.
SPEAKER_00: Their faith in action.
SPEAKER_00: It's being demonstrated.
SPEAKER_00: They must get their friend to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: There's some real weight in what they're doing.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: And when he, Jesus, saw their faith, he said, Man, your sins are forgiven you.
SPEAKER_00: And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, Who is this who speaks blasphemies?
SPEAKER_00: Who can forgive sins but God alone?
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, Why do you question in your hearts?
SPEAKER_00: Which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven you, or rise and walk.
SPEAKER_00: But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, he said to the man who was paralyzed, I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.
SPEAKER_00: Interesting question here, almost a riddle that Jesus poses to these scribes, these religious leaders.
SPEAKER_00: Which is easier to say.
SPEAKER_00: Your sins are forgiven, or rise and pick up your mat and walk.
SPEAKER_00: And I think actually it's it you can take it from different angles.
SPEAKER_00: On one hand, it is easy to say your sins are forgiven because it can't be demonstrated, not objectively, in front of this group publicly.
SPEAKER_00: We can't know exactly metaphysically what's happening unless we know that you have authority.
SPEAKER_00: So it's easier to say, but on the other hand, if you prove that you do have authority to both heal this person and forgive sins, well then to forgive sins is one of the hardest things you can do because it can only be done by God alone.
SPEAKER_00: This is something the religious leaders, of course, would know.
SPEAKER_00: This is something the religious leaders would preach themselves.
SPEAKER_00: There's real depth to this question here.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says to this man, this paralyzed man, I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 25.
SPEAKER_00: And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on, and he went home glorifying God.
SPEAKER_00: There's another little detail.
SPEAKER_00: He was worshiping on his way out the door.
SPEAKER_00: But of course he was.
SPEAKER_00: This is a proper response.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 26, and amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe.
SPEAKER_00: We have seen extraordinary things today.
SPEAKER_00: This is the crowd, this is the whole group saying this.
SPEAKER_00: Paradoxos in the Greece.
SPEAKER_00: A paradox.
SPEAKER_00: Something unexpected has happened here in this encounter.
SPEAKER_00: What an amazing story.
SPEAKER_00: We have so much to learn from this miracle.
SPEAKER_00: This morning I'd love for us to briefly reflect on three groups in this account.
SPEAKER_00: Those religious leaders, the crowds, and the paralyzed man and his friends.
SPEAKER_00: Each of those three groups.
SPEAKER_00: And like us here today, each of these groups came with a variety of different expectations, perspectives, fears, and hopes when coming to see this man, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They were all witnessed to his extraordinary power and were surprised in some way.
SPEAKER_00: I think all faced this question, at least implicitly, who is this?
SPEAKER_00: Each of the responses in the story reveals something about their disposition of heart towards Jesus, what they made of him.
SPEAKER_00: For you and me today, perhaps in witnessing their responses, the Spirit can pry open sometimes my dry, crusty heart, maybe your dry, crusty heart, to reveal ways in which my answer to that question, who is this, is lacking.
SPEAKER_00: Blinding me in some ways to the blazing, hot glory of who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_00: Lord of all.
SPEAKER_00: And it appears to me that they had sent this group of folks on an investigative trip.
SPEAKER_00: In one sense, though, I think this is important, in one sense, some initial level of skepticism would have been warranted, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to flatten all the religious leaders and their motives into a one-dimensional bad group, the bad guys.
SPEAKER_00: But they were the authorities on religious law and practice, and as they saw it, an untrained man making extraordinary claims needed to be investigated and judged according to the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: But they were blinded to the reality that stood before them in Peter's home that day.
SPEAKER_00: Their initial response to the healing of this paralyzed man was discreet.
SPEAKER_00: Did you notice that?
SPEAKER_00: Matthew tells us that they said to themselves, they were grumbling to themselves, this man is a blasphemer.
SPEAKER_00: And in another display of Jesus' power and authority, he perceives what they were saying.
SPEAKER_00: As we'll continue reading the account of Matthew, there's a progression in this cynicism and the anger, even of the religious leaders.
SPEAKER_00: Today, they're saying it discreetly.
SPEAKER_00: They call him a blasphemer.
SPEAKER_00: Just a few chapters later, they'll complain publicly that he associates with sinners.
SPEAKER_00: And by implication, he himself is a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: And later, when he heals another, he does another exorcism of a demon, they say he casts out demons by the power of Satan publicly.
SPEAKER_00: So we go from discreet to public, you're a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: To know this guy is powered by Satan.
SPEAKER_00: This is the progression that we'll see of these religious leaders.
SPEAKER_00: The leaders obviously recognize that there's something different about this man, but rather than recognize that his power and authority is from God, rather than connecting the dots from the very scriptures that they themselves were experts in, they responded in antagonistic unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 35.
SPEAKER_00: The deaf will hear.
SPEAKER_00: What was once dead is now alive.
SPEAKER_00: And they see it and they witness it and they don't see it.
SPEAKER_00: We can't know every motive, but we know that Jesus' claim to forgive sin steps right onto their territory as experts in the law of God.
SPEAKER_00: They would certainly never, the religious leaders, they would never claim themselves to be able to forgive sins.
SPEAKER_00: That's important to note.
SPEAKER_00: But as professionals in the Mosaic law, it was their responsibility to recognize when someone has done what was necessary to be forgiven their sins.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is stepping right onto their territory and forgiving this man directly.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was claiming authority from God.
SPEAKER_00: And in doing so, Jesus threatened their earthly power and authority.
SPEAKER_00: So we know that's at least one of their motives.
SPEAKER_00: As uh You know, the Lord worked on my own heart as I was reading this text.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy for me to stand from on high and make judgments.
SPEAKER_00: But aren't I prone to some similar errors in my own life?
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps you are as well.
SPEAKER_00: When the Lord speaks through his written word, when he speaks through a godly brother or sister and reminds us of a truth that maybe pushes back against something I want, something I need, something I desire, it's easy for me to immediately go into territorial mode.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to say Jesus is Lord of all.
SPEAKER_00: It's another thing altogether to live as if he is the Lord of all.
SPEAKER_00: Especially when it bumps against my way.
SPEAKER_00: Lord of all is a big word.
SPEAKER_00: My territory.
SPEAKER_00: Don't tell me what to do with my time, my money.
SPEAKER_00: You can't possibly forgive that person or heal that one.
SPEAKER_00: I can clearly see who's in, who's out.
SPEAKER_00: The religious leaders walked away from Jesus with hard hearts.
SPEAKER_00: They asked the question: who is this?
SPEAKER_00: This was not the Messiah that they expected.
SPEAKER_00: When the scriptures were filled right before their eyes.
SPEAKER_00: When we are presented with a king who claims to have power and authority over all of life, we can either, we have this choice, harden our hearts or walk in faith, bending the knee to the one who has the power to heal and to forgive.
SPEAKER_00: And the good news is, is he uses that power for his glory and for our good.
SPEAKER_00: Come to my kingdom, and you'll have rest.
SPEAKER_00: Fleming Rutledge says this: if the kingdom of heaven is at hand, then all our other kingdoms are called radically into question, including my own private kingdom and yours.
SPEAKER_00: So let's turn a moment to look at a second group in our story: the crowds, the uncommitted crowds.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew tells us the crowds were afraid after Jesus performed this miracle.
SPEAKER_00: Some translations, yours might have said, awestruck.
SPEAKER_00: Luke tells us they were seized with amazement and said, We have seen extraordinary things, paradox us, something we did not expect.
SPEAKER_00: They even glorified God because of the healing.
SPEAKER_00: They knew something was different about this man, Jesus, but weren't quite sure.
SPEAKER_00: They were certainly, I would imagine, pondering the question: who is this?
SPEAKER_00: The Gospel writers don't call this group of people disciples.
SPEAKER_00: There's a distinction here.
SPEAKER_00: They are simply called the crowds.
SPEAKER_00: This is likely an ever-changing group of people that will witness all along the way as we continue to study the Gospel of Matthew.
SPEAKER_00: This is the group of onlookers astonished from the fringes, but not yet a follower of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Surprised by him, amazed at his power to heal, perhaps curious about this kingdom that he proclaims, all good dispositions, but ultimately insufficient responses to the one who has the power to forgive and to heal.
SPEAKER_00: It's the difference between reading a book about swimming and actually getting into the water to swim.
SPEAKER_00: The uncommitted crowds.
SPEAKER_00: The miracles of Jesus do indeed reveal his compassion, his great love for people for this man here in the story.
SPEAKER_00: It displays his authority, affirms his identity, and the only proper response is simple faith and worship.
SPEAKER_00: I love this Spurgeon.
SPEAKER_00: I may know all the doctrines in the Bible, but unless I know Christ, there is not one of them that can save me.
SPEAKER_00: I may know all the doctrines about the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: I may think that Jesus was extraordinary.
SPEAKER_00: I might even marvel at the spectacle.
SPEAKER_00: I might even think he's a wonderful teacher.
SPEAKER_00: But a spurgeon says, unless I know Christ, none of those things save me.
SPEAKER_00: He's the Lord of all.
SPEAKER_00: So we have the unbelieving religious leaders, and a little bit closer to Jesus, we have the uncommitted crowds.
SPEAKER_00: But next, let's give our attention to the paralyzed man and his friends, who demonstrated an unwavering faith.
SPEAKER_00: We're actually not told much about the paralyzed man.
SPEAKER_00: We know a little bit more about his friends.
SPEAKER_00: The text tells us that Jesus saw their faith.
SPEAKER_00: Faithing.
SPEAKER_00: I love that verb.
SPEAKER_00: It's made up words.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we make up words here.
SPEAKER_00: It was perhaps a budding faith, but a bold faith.
SPEAKER_00: Demonstrated, made visible in their tenacity to get their friend to the feet of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Who is this?
SPEAKER_00: Might be the question they asked.
SPEAKER_00: They likely couldn't give you a snappy 10-point systematic theology of the person and work of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: No, but they knew they needed to get their friend to this man.
SPEAKER_00: What a vivid display of Jesus' own words.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are the poor in spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are those who know their need.
SPEAKER_00: And here it is with these four men and their friend who busted through the fringe of the crowd, tore open the roof of someone's home at great cost to themselves, just because they knew their need.
SPEAKER_00: And they knew that this one had power to meet their need.
SPEAKER_00: They had to get their friend to this Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I ask you the question: do you have friends like that?
SPEAKER_00: Are you a friend like that?
SPEAKER_00: Who would tear open a roof, stop at nothing, to bring your friend to the Lord of all?
SPEAKER_00: Deep, committed, loving friendships are perhaps one of the greatest needs of our day.
SPEAKER_00: You and I have never been more digitally connected, but both statistics and our own observable experience tell us that many of our brothers and sisters have never been more lonely.
SPEAKER_00: Sociologist Sherry Turkle labels this phenomenon alone together.
SPEAKER_00: Friendships like we see here in this text tether us to the king.
SPEAKER_00: They keep us close to the ancient paths where the good way is, walking side by side with our brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: As pastors, one of our great objectives in cultivating church life is praying for the Spirit's guidance to do what we can to resource, to support, and to strengthen the bonds of genuine friendship.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope you see that.
SPEAKER_00: In community, in groups of all kinds, one-on-one discipleship, simple things like breaking bread in a home or in a potluck.
SPEAKER_00: Or bowling.
SPEAKER_00: The world, the flesh, and the devil would like nothing less than to keep us distracted and busy, eroding the tether of godly friendships.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray that we are cultivating those friendships, my friends.
SPEAKER_00: Love means doing all that we can, Piper says, at whatever cost to ourselves, to help people be enthralled with the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: When they are, they are satisfied and God is glorified.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, loving people and glorifying God are one.
SPEAKER_00: After these friends bring their paralyzed buddy to Jesus, lowering through the, lowering him through the roof, it's likely that everyone who was in that home was caught off guard.
SPEAKER_00: I hope we were.
SPEAKER_00: It's an interesting story, a surprise that Jesus didn't heal the man physically first.
SPEAKER_00: We shouldn't misread that as an unconcern for the physical body.
SPEAKER_00: Christ intends one day to fully restore all of creation.
SPEAKER_00: All things new means all, including our ailing bodies.
SPEAKER_00: Can we say amen?
SPEAKER_00: But in this context, in this account rather, he looks at the paralyzed man with tenderness, gentleness, and using the intimate language of a father says, Take heart, be of good cheer, my son.
SPEAKER_00: Your sins are forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: Were the friends disappointed?
SPEAKER_00: Were the crowds?
SPEAKER_00: Was the paralytic?
SPEAKER_00: They had come from a touch, they had come for a touch from this Jesus to restore his limp legs, and instead, Jesus offers something much more fundamental.
SPEAKER_00: He meets a deeper need of the heart first.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus loves this man.
SPEAKER_00: He knows the greatest need of every person, every human person is a restored relationship with God, including the man in front of him here.
SPEAKER_00: To enter into this life of the kingdom, he must be made new from the inside out.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is not forgiving this man because of a particular sin that caused his paralysis.
SPEAKER_00: Let's make that really clear.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing to indicate that here in the text.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is forgiving this man all his sins.
SPEAKER_00: And he can do the same for you, and that's why we come to the table in a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: The fact is, though, that we know from many of our understanding of first century views on disease and disability, I'm sure that this man had heard most of his life the painful accusations.
SPEAKER_00: What did you do?
SPEAKER_00: What sin did you commit to deserve this?
SPEAKER_00: What sin did your parents commit to deserve this?
SPEAKER_00: Accusations cast aside as less than human, but Jesus reaches in with tenderness and calls him Son.
SPEAKER_00: We should not let that escape our view.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is doing far more than they asked, far more that they could even comprehend in the moment, I'm sure of it.
SPEAKER_00: Meeting this man at his deepest point of need, forgiving this man all his sins as only God can do, so that he might walk as a new man that day, adopted as a child of the king, with a hope of a fully restored, resurrected body when the king comes in his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: After offering forgiveness to the man, the religious leaders grumble at the audacity of this untrained carpenter rabbi, and Jesus then calls them out, and he tells them why he's going to do this healing, so that you might know that the Son of Man has the power to forgive.
SPEAKER_00: Rise, get up and walk.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus invites this paralyzed man to get up and walk, we can't miss the gravity of this moment in history.
SPEAKER_00: Here in this moment, the messianic hope of the Jews that were in that room, the hope of every nation, tribe, and tongue, hung in the balance.
SPEAKER_00: If this man gets up off the mat, then Jesus has the power to both heal and to forgive.
SPEAKER_00: Then he is the Lord of all.
SPEAKER_00: If he doesn't get off the mat, then Jesus is a liar or a lunatic, as Lewis would say.
SPEAKER_00: But the man gets up.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes home worshiping.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is indeed the Lord of all.
SPEAKER_00: The only fitting response to the Son of Man, to the Lord of all, to the King of Kings, is worship.
SPEAKER_00: Amen, church?
SPEAKER_00: For believers, many of us who have been for years, we can be a forgetful people, and we must always be reminded afresh, at least I do, pointed back again to the glory, the treasure of our Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: For if he has the power to heal broken bodies, and he does, if he has the power to calm stormy seas, who would indeed lay down his life and then raise it up again, then it is no stretch to believe that he is presently reigning right now and will continue to fulfill every promise of Scripture when he returns.
SPEAKER_00: There isn't a square inch of the cosmos that is not under his rule.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope you hear that this morning.
SPEAKER_00: It's true that he didn't heal every broken body in the first century.
SPEAKER_00: It's true that he doesn't heal every broken body today.
SPEAKER_00: Indeed, I wish he did.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't always know why.
SPEAKER_00: I have a friend who's going in for surgery tomorrow for cancer.
SPEAKER_00: My sister is dealing with chronic pain, and we don't know why.
SPEAKER_00: Talked to a friend this morning who lost a coworker.
SPEAKER_00: Can turn on the news.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know why.
SPEAKER_00: We do pray for healing, though, today, because he invites us to, and because we know that he can, and many of us have seen genuine answers to prayer.
SPEAKER_00: I invite you to ask your friends here today, brothers and sisters who have perhaps been around the block.
SPEAKER_00: But my trust must be located not in my own expectations, timelines, and hopes.
SPEAKER_00: If they were, God would be in my image.
SPEAKER_00: My trust must be located in the one who the Apostle Paul reminds us, in whom all things are held together.
SPEAKER_00: The healing we read about today is one of many demonstrations of both his power and authority to save those who would only come to him in simple faith.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are the poor in spirit.
SPEAKER_00: These friends, this paralyzed man, they were desperate.
SPEAKER_00: Why else?
SPEAKER_00: Break through the crowds, bust through a roof that was not their own.
SPEAKER_00: It's why Jesus recognized them as displaying, demonstrating genuine faith.
SPEAKER_00: But we also look to the resurrection of Jesus, which we'll read about in the next few chapters, that proved once and for all that he has the power to fully restore all things.
SPEAKER_00: Indeed, promises one day to do just that.
SPEAKER_00: And we pray for his coming soon.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you pray for his coming soon.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, we're one day closer to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: But until then, we wait with hope, walking side by side with brothers and sisters, with friends, with hope rooted and grounded in this person, Jesus, who really walked the earth, who really raised paralyzed men up from their beds, who really laid down his life and was resurrected after three days in a tomb.
SPEAKER_00: Our hope is rooted in something that happened and will happen when he returns.
SPEAKER_00: The paralyzed man was brought by his friends for a physical healing, and he received far more.
SPEAKER_00: The good news of Jesus can be summed up in his, and Jesus' surprising words to that man.
SPEAKER_00: Take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: The sum of the gospel, right there.
SPEAKER_00: Who is this Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: The Lord of all.
SPEAKER_00: Yet still its grandeur eluded them until they consulted the sculptor himself.
SPEAKER_00: And he would invariably reply, There's only one angle from which this statue can be truly seen.
SPEAKER_00: You must kneel.
SPEAKER_00: He is the Lord of all, my friends.
SPEAKER_00: The power to heal, the power to forgive.
SPEAKER_00: In just a moment, we'll give thanks at the table.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Our Savior, King, and Lord, thank you for your immeasurable kindness to us.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, this morning we acknowledge our need.
SPEAKER_00: Some of our hearts are broken.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us are on the fringes in the, perhaps in the crowds, a little bit uncommitted but curious.
SPEAKER_00: We pray your spirit would soften our hearts to see you as our greatest treasure.
SPEAKER_00: Wake us up to all the riches that we have in your love for us.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, we acknowledge that our hearts long for healing this morning of all kinds.
SPEAKER_00: And we say, along with the psalmist, How long, O Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Come quickly.
SPEAKER_00: But, Spirit, we pray that as we've read about this act in history when you've healed this man, I pray that it stirs up our faith.
SPEAKER_00: It strengthens our trust and our hope that you intend to fully restore.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name, we thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.