Jesus, The Thought Reader

Transcript

Welcome to this week’s sermon from Trinity Church in Portland, Oregon. Following the scripture reading by Pastor Ryan Lister, Pastor Thomas Terry will deliver the message entitled, Jesus the Thought Reader. This sermon is part of our series called, Follow the Son, which goes through the book of Mark. Thanks for joining us, here’s Ryan. This morning our scripture passage will be from Mark chapter 2, verses 1 through 12.

And when he 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 had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay.

— Mark 2

(ESV)

And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, son, your sins are forgiven. Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, why do you question these things in your heart? Which is easier to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven? Or to say, rise, take up your bed and walk, but that you may know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He said to the paralytic, I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home. And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all so that they were all amazed and glorified God saying, we never saw anything like this.

— Mark 2

(ESV)

Trinity Church, this is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Would you pray with me? Father, whenever we approach your word, we must do so with a posture and a heart of complete and total dependence. If we intend to hear anything, if we intend to see anything, to feel anything, to know anything, to respond to anything, we need what we don’t have on our own. We need the help of the Holy Spirit to put the spotlight on the truth contained in your word, to put the spotlight on Jesus. When we receive the necessary help from the Holy Spirit, we get an accurate picture of your word and we get an accurate picture of Jesus. And by virtue of seeing Jesus clearly in the text, Father, we are changed. And so we pray, Father, that you would help us, that you would send the Holy Spirit and

The Authority Theme Continues

that we might see Jesus this morning and be captured by the beauty of his authority, his wisdom, and his power. We pray these things in Jesus’ name, amen. Well, we made it to chapter two and it only took us six weeks to get through chapter one. At this pace, we’ll get through Mark in about two years. But don’t get overwhelmed because the pastors have decided that we will take periodic and strategic breaks from Mark. So we’ll take breaks and return to Mark’s gospel periodically. But over the last few weeks, as we’ve gone through Mark, we’ve been looking at this theme of authority. So far, we’ve seen Jesus’ authority with his words. He speaks and he calls disciples. He preaches. He speaks and he preaches with such authority that it baffles the people in the synagogue. As he speaks, a demon stands up at attention and Jesus casts out this demon.

We see Jesus’ authority as it collides with compassion and pity as he touched and healed Simon’s mother-in-law, demonstrating not only dignity towards this woman, but also demonstrating his authority over the Sabbath. We saw his power and authority as he systematically healed and cast out demons from all types of people in the city as they approached him. We saw his authority to touch and to heal the leper, to make him instantaneously clean despite the social scrutiny that comes from touching unclean people. And this morning we see this same theme of authority continue. To be honest with you, this theme never actually stops. So if you’re getting tired of authority, I’m sorry, it’s going to continue. You see this theme all throughout the gospel. But this morning in our passage, we get a different perspective. We get an interesting turn on the gospel. It’s here when we see Jesus’ authority as demonstrated through his supernatural acts,

where he begins to come under severe scrutiny from the scribes. We see conflict with Jesus’ authority. See, prior to this point in Mark’s gospel, the scribes or the religious elite, they welcomed Jesus. They welcomed the young rabbi. They were interested in not only his teaching, but his miraculous acts. Jesus was to these scribes somewhat of an anomaly. But just as Jesus begins his ministry momentum and the people begin to flock to him, the inquiry of the scribes quickly turns to investigation. And it’s made very clear in this periscope this morning and all throughout this gospel that Jesus’ message of the kingdom of God, Jesus’ message of peace and liberty and the forgiveness of sins is often met with incredible conflict, especially from the religious community. But what pierces through this periscope this morning again is the authority of Jesus. And that’s precisely what we’ll see this morning as we look at this story that I call

Crowd Control

Jesus the Thought Reader. And as we move through it, what I want to do is pull your focus on five specific themes in this story. So let’s begin with the first scene, the crowd control. We’ll begin at verses one and two. And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together so there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. Now if you remember last week in our text, Jesus cleanses this leper. And immediately after he cleanses this leper, this leper disobeys God, begins to run out and tell everyone about what Jesus had just done. And so as a result, Jesus is no longer free to enter the town because of all the hype surrounding his miracles. So Jesus was therefore pushed into the desolate places where people would have to go and look

for him. Well, here Jesus and his disciples, they slide back into Capernaum from the desolate places. Remember Simon Andrew’s house was somewhat of a launchpad for Jesus’s ministry while he was in Galilee. So they would go do ministry, and after a few days, they would eventually make their way back to the home in Capernaum. Now you kind of get a sense here of Jesus and his disciples, that they covertly and quietly slide back home. Likely because these people need rest, they’re exhausted, they need a meal and some quiet time before they get back to the busyness of preaching and ministry. But Capernaum is a small town, and small towns are too small for secrets. So word gets out that Jesus is back at Simon and Andrew’s house. And just like that, a flash mob comes. The crowds begin to gather at the home, and not just around the home or the outside of

the home, but they’re all up in the house. The very place that Jesus initially escaped from to get away from the crowds, Jesus returns to and the crowds find their way back to him. They find their way back to Jesus, and the crowd is so big, the house is completely packed. There is an ocean of people in their home. What’s interesting is that the last time folks came to this house, Jesus was casting out demons and healing people. He was doing so much work of healing and casting out demons that he wakes up early in the morning to get away from all of the craziness, to pray, to seek refuge. And when the disciples come and find him, they tell him, hey, people are looking for you. There’s other people that need to get healed. And Jesus says, no, I’m not going back there. I’m going to go to other towns because I came to preach.

And so Jesus, when he gets back to the house and all the people are there, what does the text say Jesus is doing? Preaching. It’s as if Jesus had made the decision that if I’m going to come back home here over and over again, I’m going to do what I want to do. I’m going to do what my ministry priority is, and that’s preaching. See, Jesus knows the thoughts of these people. He knows why they’re there. Some of the people there, they want to see healing. Some of these people, they actually want to receive healing. Some are there only because they want to see some miraculous action. But Jesus’s preoccupation is preaching. So for whatever reason they came, Jesus controls the crowd. He does what he came to do. He does what he wants to do. He is in complete control of everything that’s going on in the house.

Four Faithful Friends

He keeps the crowd controlled. He has everyone captivated by the authority of his preaching, including these scribes who were the religious elite of the city. I just get a picture in my mind of these scribes who are most likely seated in the place of honor at the house while the rest of the people are crammed, standing up and just watching and hanging off of everything Jesus had to say. And as Jesus is preaching, all of a sudden in the middle of his message, chaos occurs. And it’s here where Mark introduces us to the next scene, the four faithful friends, verse three and four. 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 had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay.

Now this scene is amazing, but the truth is you probably heard this story so many times that you’ve lost its beauty, that you’ve lost the sense of emotional capture by it. So if you just read this without engaging your senses and just dismiss it, then it’s standard and it’s typical. But if you actually dive into the scene a bit with fresh eyes and fresh ears, you get this beautiful picture of what faithful friendship looks like. Just take a quick look at your Bibles at verse three and four and count how many times Mark uses the word they. He says, and they came bringing to him a paralytic man 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 had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay.

Five times Mark uses the word they. The emphasis in verses three and four is not so much on the paralytic man, but on these faithful friends. When you read these two verses and you really sink in to the story, when you dive into the scene, what you can pull out of it are four distinct features of faithful friendship. The first is that they were loving. I think about this for a second. This paralytic man could do nothing for himself, nothing. No matter how much he wanted to do something for himself, he couldn’t. He was incapable of doing anything. He was in every way dependent upon the help of others to do things. Now the text doesn’t give us much about this man, but one thing is for sure. He wanted to get to Jesus. In fact, he needed to get to Jesus. He believed wholeheartedly that Jesus could heal him, but what he wanted and what he needed

was not met with his own abilities. He couldn’t get to Jesus on his own. He needed friends who loved him enough to help him get to Jesus. He was going to need his friends to carry him to Jesus. He was going to need his friends to put him on a mat and drag him all across the town to get to Jesus. Who knows how far these friends would have to take this man, but his friends love him enough that they’re willing to do it. They’re willing to put action behind their words, and when these friends find out that Jesus is healing people, they also believed wholeheartedly that if they could just simply get their friend to Jesus, if they could get close enough to Jesus, then Jesus would heal their friend. So they love this man with more than superficial words and begin this journey of dragging this

man to Jesus. Not many friends would do that, because when push comes to shove, love has limits, and dragging your friend for miles across the town is definitely one of those limits. But these friends love without limits and bring their friend to Jesus. The second distinctive is that they were creative. Now I know I talk a lot about creativity, but these friends did actually use and exercise creativity. They creatively find a way to get their friend to Jesus. See, when these friends finally get to the house, there was a sea separating people from this man and Jesus. The crowd was so thick and so tight that there was no way they were going to get close enough to Jesus to request healing. They came all this way to be healed, but now they’re hindered by this huge crowd. I can imagine these young and zealous friends trying to push their way through the crowd,

maybe begging people, please just make a little bit of room. We have to get our friend through. You don’t understand. This is this man’s only chance to get healing. Please just open up a little bit so we can get our friend through the crowd. He has to see Jesus. Every attempt is met with opposition and resistance and indifference from the crowd towards their friend’s need. This kind of gives you somewhat of a picture or a perspective of the type of people who were in the crowd. If there was a genuine healer who was in the crowd, it seems to me that any decent human being would make enough room for a paralytic man to get to the healer, but they don’t. The crowd doesn’t budge. For whatever reason, they were blocking this man from Jesus, and we don’t know how long they tried to break through the crowd, but what we do know is that they don’t give up.

They don’t say, dang, bro, I’m sorry, we tried. We did everything we could. We just couldn’t get you close enough. Maybe we’ll just pray about it. They exercise creativity. One creative and a little bit crazy of a friend says to the other four guys, what if we go over the crowd to get to Jesus? So they creatively construct a plan. Okay, here’s what we’re gonna do. They’re mapping it out. We’ll get on the roof. We’ll map out the exact coordinates to where Jesus is preaching. Then we’re gonna dig a hole in the roof. Then we’re gonna make a makeshift kind of harness, and then we’re gonna lower you through the roof, and then we’ll land you right at the feet of Jesus, and he will surely see you and heal you. This plan is crazy, but it’s undeniably creative. These friends creatively conquer any and all obstacles that stand between Jesus and their

friend’s healing, and the creativity pays off like it always does. They’re crazy, but the creative plan works because they get their friend to Jesus. The third distinctive here is that they were courageous. They were willing to do extreme things to bring their friend to Jesus. See, it’s one thing to conjure up this outlandish plan in your mind, but to actually go through with it would require courage. They were gonna have to first carry their friend to the top of the roof, and when they actually get to the top of the roof, they were gonna have to dig through the roof. Now roofs in this culture and in this climate were a composite of sticks and branches and thick, dry, hardened mud. Because of the climate, sometimes when it would get hot, people would sleep on top of the roof. So the roof had some stability, but not much.

There wasn’t wood, hardwood, or rebar that would reinforce the roof. So you get these five dudes up on top of the roof, there was a high possibility that the roof would come collapsing down. But then once you get up on top of the roof, you start breaking a hole in the roof big enough for a man to go through, well now you’re disrupting the sticks and the mud that’s actually holding the roof together. So now it’s even more scary. But more than all that, imagine the people inside of the house hearing all of the commotion going on up on top of the roof, the pieces of roof falling down, the dust and the dirt falling down on the crowd. No matter how this was going to go down, it was going to be awkward. Either all these guys were going to fall through the roof, or they were going to actually get

their friend through the roof. Either way, it was going to be awkward. But these friends, they don’t care. They don’t care how awkward it is, or how scary it was. There was a single-minded commitment to get their friend to Jesus. And the fourth distinctive was they were sacrificial. They were willing to suffer whatever the cost to bring their friend to Jesus. They were willing to risk being socially ostracized by the people. I mean, you can imagine the people in the house, what they were thinking. When they start to hear this noise, and the dust begins to fall down on the crowd, and then all of a sudden this small beam of light cracks through the roof, and then they see these eight dirty hands ripping apart the roof, the hole gets bigger and bigger. The crowd is likely thinking to themselves, look at these vandals.

Look what they’re doing to this house. Furthermore, they’re disrespecting the rabbi who’s in the middle of his sermon. Who does that? I mean, you could think that this is so socially unacceptable. They’re ripping apart Simon and Andrew’s roof. I mean, what does Simon’s mother-in-law think about this situation? But they were willing to deal with all the social scrutiny to get their friend to Jesus. There’s also the reality that the roof was going to have to be fixed, is going to have to be repaired. There was significant cost associated with their actions, or at least it was going to be labor and time to fix the roof. But nonetheless, these friends counted the cost and they say, it’s worth it. If it gets our friend to Jesus, it’s worth it. So let’s go. These men were willing to risk harming themselves, harming their reputation, and harming their

pocketbooks to get their friend to Jesus. These men, they sacrificed a lot to get their friend to Jesus. I wonder how many of us would make this kind of sacrifice for our friends. At what point in this whole scene would we just stop and say, this is just too much? How far are you willing to go for your friends to bring them to Jesus? Do you even care about bringing your friends to Jesus? The people in the crowd looked at this situation with frustration, contempt, and total disbelief at the actions of these four guys. But Jesus surveys the scene and sees it for what it really is. Jesus reads the thoughts and the actions behind these four friends and he sees faithfulness. He sees belief and persistence, and this moves Jesus. Jesus is so incredibly moved by their faith, by their radical belief.

See, no one would go through all this drama. No one would go through all this work unless they actually and completely believed that Jesus would heal. Jesus sees with these four friends perhaps one of the greatest demonstrations of faith so far in his earthly ministry. I can’t help but think that maybe Jesus is also moved by these four friends because he sees in these four friends a small glimpse of what Jesus himself perfectly personifies. The faithfulness of these four friends looks just a little bit like Jesus’s perfect faithfulness to his friends. See, Jesus is the perfect friend. Jesus demonstrates perfect love for his friends. He sees us in our desperate need when we could do nothing for ourselves to fix ourselves or to help ourselves, and Jesus carries us. He heals us. Jesus puts his love into action and meets our greatest need. He is not indifferent towards us.

Instead, he is jealous for us because he loves us. Jesus is perfectly creative. He creatively gets to our hearts by removing any and all obstacles that impede or hinder us. His creative plan of redemption exchanges all of our guilt, all of our shame, and all of our sin to give us freedom, hope, and righteousness. Jesus is perfectly courageous. He endures chastisement, ridicule, and humiliation. He endures the cross for our sake. He does the unthinkable to deal with our greatest need, and Jesus is perfectly sacrificial. He literally lays down his life for our sin to give us life. John 15, 13 says, greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. Jesus sees the faithfulness of these four friends, and immediately, he is moved, and he responds, and it’s here where we see, in this scene, the priority of healing.

The Priority of Healing

Verse five, and when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, son, your sins are forgiven. Jesus, having seen this amazing demonstration of faith and belief from these friends, says to the paralytic man, your sins are forgiven. But Jesus’ response seems a bit strange, does it not? The forgiveness of sins was not really what the paralytic man was entirely hoping for. This man came to Jesus for what? To be healed. Jesus’ response is so unexpected and so seemingly out of nowhere, but it’s amazing. This man wants to be healed, but Jesus forgives his sins. Jesus gives this man not what he thinks he needs most, but what he actually needs most. He forgives his sins. This man does need healing, but the healing this man needs is the healing that moves him from hell to heaven. Jesus again demonstrates his ministry priority, and he places spiritual healing far above

physical healing. Again, what benefit would it be to heal the physical body and do nothing to deal with the sin that kills the soul? This man’s greatest need was to have his sins forgiven, and Jesus does it. He just does it. And notice the pronouncement of forgiveness is a fact. Jesus didn’t say, I will forgive your sins. Jesus says, your sins are forgiven. It’s a done deal. It’s a fact. Jesus does what only God can do, and when he does this, the scribes notice. They notice. See, the presence of the scribes might have appeared to the crowd as an endorsement of Jesus, but they were actually there to investigate Jesus. These scribes were not present because they believed in Jesus or his message. They were not there in support of the young rabbi. They were there as lawyers with the sole purpose of trying to find some type of fault with

this young rabbi. And after Jesus’s pronouncement of forgiveness, these scribes see what they think they believe they were looking for. They think we got him. Now we got him. We think we found fault with Jesus, but it’s here where we see the scene, the silent scrutiny of the scribes. Verse six. Now, some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts. Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? And immediately Jesus perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves said to them, why do you question these things in your hearts? See, if only God can forgive sins and Jesus just claimed to forgive this man’s sins, then Jesus was acting as if he was God. So in the quiet of their thoughts, totally misreading the situation, these scribes silently and incorrectly begin to charge Jesus of blasphemy.

Now what is blasphemy? In this context, blasphemy means to insult the honor of God. It is to say or to do something that would cause disrespect or dishonor to God. So acting or speaking as if you were God was a supreme expression of disrespect and dishonor towards God. Also Proverbs 17 15 says, he who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord. Why does Proverbs say that? Because only God can justify the wicked. And here Jesus justifies the wicked when he declares this paralytic man was forgiven of sins. Jesus the thought reader knows exactly what these scribes are thinking about him. Jesus surveys the thoughts and hearts and intentions of everyone in the room at the same time, including these religious leaders in the room. These scribes were not interested in listening to Jesus’s message of the kingdom of God.

Their only intentions were to catch Jesus slipping. And in their minds, the idea of Jesus claiming the same authority of God to forgive people of sins was so impossible, so outlandish that they immediately go to the extreme of calling it blasphemy. They think to themselves, this man is disrespecting the honor of God by making himself equal with God. But Jesus, the thought reader knows their thoughts and he makes it clear to these scribes that he knows their thoughts. So he says to these scribes, why would you think this about me in your hearts? How could you think that about me? Have you not heard anything that I’ve preached to you so far? You’ve been sitting in this room the whole time. Have you not heard anything? And you can imagine how Jesus must have felt here. Think of the humanness of Jesus in this moment.

These were scribes, the religious elite, the ones who were supposedly the teachers of God, the ones closest to God, here rejecting God by calling him a blasphemer. This is the beginning of Jesus’s hostility towards religious leaders. From here on out, it’s all bad between these religious leaders and Jesus. And do you see the irony in all of this? These scribes accused Jesus of blasphemy. They were saying Jesus was disrespecting and dishonoring God by claiming to forgive sins. But it’s actually the other way around. The scribes themselves were the ones disrespecting and dishonoring God by doubting Jesus had the authority to forgive sins and accusing Jesus of blasphemy. So much irony in all this. Remember, they were thinking to themselves that only God can forgive sins, but Jesus, the thought reader, reads their thoughts, which is something that only God can do. But these scribes were so thirsty to find fault with Jesus that they failed to see the

fact that Jesus just read their mind. Jesus had just proved again that he was God, but the scribes don’t get it. And in their legalistic, drunken stupor, and spiritual blindness, they accused Jesus of blaspheming God. See, these scribes were right when they said that only God could forgive sins. But these scribes were so wrong that they missed Jesus’s divine authority to forgive sins. Instead of seeing Jesus as God in the flesh, they reject him, and the scribes unknowingly accuse God of blaspheming God. This, by the way, is the very accusation against Jesus that will eventually get him crucified. But the accusation is only that, an accusation. There’s no proof. There’s no validity. There’s nothing to back up their claim of blasphemy. It’s a false accusation, which ultimately leads to a false conviction. Everything about these scribes was bogus. But Jesus, in his divine wisdom, in his divine logic, speaks directly to these scribes, not

The Greater Miracle

only to publicly chastise them, but also to demonstrate to the people the power and authority and glory of God. And it’s here in this scene where we see the greater miracle, verse 9 through 15, which is easier to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven, or to say, rise, take up your bed and walk. But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, he said to the paralytic, I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home. And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before all them so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, we never saw anything like this. It’s here in this scene where we see the correction of Jesus coupled with the compassion of Jesus. Jesus, in his infinite wisdom, puts these fools in their place while simultaneously

demonstrating physical healing for the paralytic man. The religious leaders have challenged his authority to forgive sins. And so right here in this moment, Jesus challenges their logic. Jesus says to these men, what’s easier for you to comprehend? What I say or what I do? See, these scribes didn’t actually believe that Jesus had the power and authority to forgive sins. They only thought Jesus was talking, just using words. They didn’t think that there was any action behind the claim of forgiveness. But of course, Jesus was speaking words, but not the same way you and I use words or the way that mere humans use words. These were powerful and authoritative words. These were divine words. The word of God speaking the very words of God. The same powerful word that spoke stars and planets into existence. The same powerful word that holds the universe together. The same power that speaks everything from nothing.

Jesus speaks here to these scribes. See, these scribes didn’t believe that Jesus could forgive sins because they didn’t understand the power and the authority of Jesus’s words. They didn’t understand the weight behind Jesus’s words. They didn’t understand that Jesus was the word. They didn’t believe Jesus also because they didn’t really see any way to prove or verify that this man’s sins were actually forgiven. So Jesus, who knows their thoughts, knows that they don’t believe that Jesus actually forgave this man’s sin. So here’s what Jesus does. He backs up the greater miracle of the unseen forgiveness of sins by demonstrating the lesser miracle of the visible physical healing. Jesus again, with his powerful words, speaking to the scribes first says, so that you may know the son of man has authority to forgive sins. Then he turns his attention to the paralytic man and says, get up, pick up and go home.

Jesus heals this man’s body instantaneously, which for the scribes was a big deal. Because here now they could see the physical manifestation of healing before their eyes. This was the verifiable proof that if Jesus could speak healing to the paralytic, then Jesus could have also forgiven this man’s sins. And there is an element here of humiliation. Jesus makes these scribes look like fools when he heals this man. The rhetorical question, which is easier, forgive sins or to heal this person. It’s divine genius. Jesus boxes them in with this rhetorical question. He knows what this question means. Jesus here checkmates his critics and forces them to recognize that the declaration of forgiveness was legitimate by using the lesser miracle to do it. What a shallow and superficial faith these scribes had. These should have been men of great faith. They spent their whole life studying God, studying about God.

But these religious men acted more like scientific materialists than religious leaders. They put more stock in what is humanly seen over and against what is unseen. What a contrast here between these so-called religious leaders and the four faithful friends. These scribes failed to realize the cosmic authority of Jesus to forgive sins. And it’s only after they see Jesus visibly and physically healing this man where they’re checkmated. Jesus used divine logic on these pseudo-spiritual scientific materialists. These well-respected scribes in the community were humiliated in the public eye as Jesus flexes his divine wisdom, his divine authority, and his divine power. And all throughout this conflict, in the middle of this conflict between Jesus and the scribes, what is so beautiful is that the paralytic man gets up and walks away healed and forgiven. This is the wisdom and wonder of God. How in the midst of scrutiny and conflict refutes these scribes while simultaneously

forgiving and healing the paralytic man. This here gives you a multifaceted picture of the God that we worship. A God full of wrath, and at the same time full of grace. A God full of justice, but at the same time full of mercy. Jesus gives this man, because of his faith and the faithfulness of his friends, holistic healing. And the result of this whole conflict is that when the people see the authority of Jesus put on display, when they observe everything that is happening here, when they witness the power of God to heal not just the body, but to forgive sins, how do they respond? In amazement. But not amazement that ends in simple entertainment. Amazement that ends in the glory of God. The people in the crowd see these miraculous acts, things that they’ve never seen before, and they glorify God. As Jesus meets their greatest need, as he meets the greatest need of the paralyzed man,

Your Greatest Need

the crowd responds in amazement by giving glory to God. Can I ask you a question this morning? What is your greatest need? In the grand scheme of things, what do you think your greatest need is? Despite what you think your greatest need might be, I want to tell you this morning your greatest need is the forgiveness of sins. Your most important need is the forgiveness of sins. Unforgiven sin carries an eternal consequence. Unforgiven sin will separate you from God. Unforgiven sin rightly condemns you where you sit. You need to be forgiven, and Jesus alone has the authority to forgive sins because Jesus alone paid for your sins with his very life. Jesus took the punishment that our sins deserve so that we might be not only declared forgiven, but verifiably forgiven. Have you been forgiven by Jesus? Have you been declared forgiven by Jesus? If you haven’t, you can experience forgiveness this morning.

Learn from your sin and trust in Jesus. He will forgive you. He has the authority to forgive sins. Jesus is in the business of healing the paralyzed of heart. He is in the business of meeting your greatest needs. As easy as it was for Jesus to heal the paralytic man by just speaking words, he can pronounce your sins forgiven right now. Trust and believe wholeheartedly like these four faithful friends, like this paralytic man that Jesus will meet your greatest needs, and he will. He will forgive you if that’s what you want. If you have been forgiven by Jesus, if you have experienced the life and freedom that comes with being forgiven from Jesus, then my question for you this morning is, are you like these four faithful friends bringing your unforgiving friends to the feet of Jesus? Has your forgiveness compelled you to engage your friends in such a way where you are doing

anything and everything to bring them to Jesus so that they might be forgiven and have life? Your unbelieving friends need to be carried to Jesus. They were just like you. In their sin and in their rebellion, they were helpless and needed to be brought to Jesus. Some of your friends need to be carried to Jesus. Some of your friends need to be dragged to Jesus. They can’t clean themselves. They need you, loving, creative, courageous, and sacrificial to lead them to the feet of Jesus. This is what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Not only do you personally, faithfully, and persistently chase after Jesus, but you also find ways to bring your friends to Jesus so that they might be forgiven of their sins, that they might come to experience the fullness of life that is only found in redemption. This is our prayer for us, is that we would be radically zealous to engage our friends

with the message of this gospel so that people might be saved. This story gives us a beautiful picture of not only the heart of Jesus who is willing to forgive, but the authority to forgive sins that is only found in Jesus Christ. This is what makes Christianity unique. Your works don’t save you. The authority of Jesus is what forgives you and saves you. Let us be a church who chases after our friends to bring them to the feet of Jesus to find forgiveness. Let’s pray. Father, as we look at this story, there are so many places that we can see ourself in this story. Needy, helpless, loving friends, cynical, indifferent towards Jesus, against Jesus like the scribes. But wherever we sit in this story, Lord, what we see most clearly in this story is the heart of Jesus. The God who reads our innermost thoughts and knows what we think before we say a word.

The God who is all powerful, who exercises all authority, the authority to meet our greatest need, to forgive us of our sins and to bring us back into right relationship with you. I pray, God, that this story would capture our hearts and capture our affection in such a way that not only do we pick up our mats and go, but as we go, we would grab as many people with us as we head towards Jesus. Father, I pray that you would make us faithful and loving friends who would be willing to give up everything for our friends, to model ourselves after you, to model ourselves after Jesus who laid down his life for his friends. May we be that kind of friend, both to our believing Christian friends and to our unbelieving friends. Help us, Lord, we ask in Jesus’ name.

Thanks for joining us for this week’s sermon from Trinity Church in Portland, Oregon. If you’d like to learn more about us, you can visit our website at www.trinityportland.com.