There's some guys missing out here. I know you guys need to talk to your friends call somebody that you'd recognize is not here and Get on them. We're gonna have to start taking attendance and I'll call you during no, that's not right Heaven forbid we get there, huh? No, we should actually who is it was telling me this? Anyway, it's really good to see everybody this morning beautiful nice already getting warm morning and And we're really fortunate to have Dr. Strouse with us again this this weekend We're studying Luke again big surprise and we're looking forward to this whole study So thank you for being here a couple of quick announcements one is that I'm gonna shamelessly plug Dr. Strouse's trip to What is it Greece and Turkey so remember that that trip is gonna be held next year and that if you want any information He has sometimes in his bag a folder about it. So Be sure and get in and involved in that if you think you want to make that kind of trip Second thing I mean the shamelessly plug also is my my class that's starting up in the main campus on the 19th of October That'll be the new Christians Introduction to the Bible. So we'll do a seven-week class seven seven-week class and For any of you or for your friends who said I really don't know that I can come to the code and it's too deep and all this other stuff I really don't know the Bible. That's the class for them. Okay. They'll know something at least about the Bible when they get out of there At least most people do but in ways the signups are up at the main campus through the small groups tables since I'm down here all the time They're advertising it up there. So if you know somebody that needs that kind of real basic introduction get them to sign them up up there Also remember that if you want to get involved in any of the service here Talk to Kathy again. She'll be able to put you in touch with a Daily leader. We have a whole organization here that makes the code possible and we look for volunteers to work in that So if you want to do something like that be sure and see Kathy All right, well, let's have a word of prayer and then we'll get going on our study Gracious Lord, thank you so much for allowing us to be in your house again We appreciate Lord that our church has taken your guidance taking your leadership to want to train and to teach and to go into the Bible in a big way Lord We just ask you to bless our efforts here this morning to be with each person in the room As we open up the word in our minds and in our hearts We'll take it with us wherever we go We'll have a better understanding of exactly what's going on Lord and how you've expressed your desires for us your love to us and The way that our lives ought to be through your word We thank you now for Dr. Strauss We ask you to bless his teaching this morning in Jesus name. Amen Thanks Dennis Good morning We come this morning to one of my favorite passages actually in the gospels We're actually going to cover two passages. We're moving slowly through the gospel of Luke But we are going to pick up the speed at times to in order to cover it the whole book and I take us a year and a half Anyway to do that, but we're going to deal with two stories one a man cleansed of a disease of leprosy and then Jesus is healing of a paralyzed man Let me ask you a question. What's the most amazing thing you have ever done to show your love for someone to demonstrate your love now It's probably good my wife isn't here because I'm not much of her romantic I'm not very good at that. Maybe a box of candy now and then When it comes to Valentine's day, I'm struggling to try and get something So I don't have a lot of stories of amazing things I've done for my wife in terms of showing her how much I love her I tell her I love her every day. There's there's how I but my brother my brother younger brother when he Became engaged when he proposed to his wife. He's a pilot. He's a missionary pilot with M.A.F. Missionary Aviation Fellowship and When he was dating his soon-to-be his wife, he took her up in his airplane He wanted to show her some things and he's flying around and at one point he dips his wing and Looks she looks down and they're in huge letters on the ground are the words Mary-Me-Lowis They are on the ground. He went all the trouble to to spell that out and Ask her to marry him up there while flying of course It also gives you a lot of leverage because if she says no, you can you know either threaten to push her out or threaten to crack I can't live without you, you know I could it But what have you done? What's the most amazing thing you've ever done? We've meet some men today who do do go to amazing lengths to demonstrate their love for their friend This is one of the most delightful stories in the gospel as well because it's an example of extreme home improvement for the purpose of Getting a healing from Jesus. Let's review a little bit quickly before we get into the two passages We're gonna look at today last week. We saw amazing miracle Jesus was preaching as he has been in the gospel of Luke preaching what's he preaching? What does he proclaim? What's his central message the kingdom of God right the kingdom of God that God is stepping into human history To transform the creation So he's preaching by the sea when he sees a boat there and he he preaches from Peter's boat His little podium that he can preach to the entire group there After preaching though he tells Peter he'd like to go out for fishing Peter reluctantly agrees Peter's been fishing all night. He's tired. He doesn't really want to go out again But he does it anyway and he is rewarded for that as Thousands of fish pour into the the nets and Peter has a transforming encounter with Jesus's divine Affarity and we see here Jesus's call of his disciples. He's been preaching the message He's been demonstrating the power of the message through healings remember and through exorcisms now He begins to call those disciples who will spread that message ultimately from here on now Luke moves on And he begins telling more stories like he's told before some healing stories But now a new theme arises in Luke's gospel I want you to see it because the next five episodes or so will deal especially with this theme And this theme is the beginning of conflict Jesus still debt preaching the gospel He's proclaiming the power through the the miracles through the healings But also we get this new theme of conflict with the religious leaders Let's start though with this passage of the healing of a man with leprosy a man with leprosy We're in Luke chapter 5 approaches Jesus in verse 12 While Jesus was in one of the towns a man came along who was covered with leprosy When he saw Jesus he fell with his face to the ground and begged him Lord if you are willing You can make me clean now a couple of things we need to understand First of all from this passage what notice I put leprosy in quotes right there And that's because the Greek word and the Hebrew word for leprosy We actually it's a transliteration It's leprosy actually doesn't mean modern leprosy at least it doesn't exclusively mean this It's not modern leprosy is a disease called Hanson's disease We've all seen pictures of or or movies where someone has this disease where the flesh slowly rots off and they lose use of their arms Limbs actually fall off. That's notice Hanson's disease But when leprosy is described as scriptures described especially in the Leviticus chapter 13 and 14 It's clear that it's a variety of a different Contagious and even non-contagious skin diseases skin diseases could be highly contagious And so the Old Testament law and the Old Testament it describes specific diagnosis the priest was the one who Diagnosed it if you had leprosy you were treated as or if you had this one of these skin diseases You were treated as unclean. That's a very important term in the Old Testament because unclean meant Exclusion meant you weren't allowed to associate with God's people You had to stay outside of the camp when Israel was in the wilderness So the worst part of leprosy was not that your limbs were falling off the worst part of leprosy That would be pretty bad when the worst part was that you were excluded that this was social exclusion and worse than that Religious exclusion so again not not leprosy as we know it that might have been one of the diseases That's covered but for the most part these were a whole range of contagious skin disease I've psoriasis on my arm sometimes it most scholars think that psoriasis was one of these skin diseases So sometimes I might have to stay away from you because I'd be unclean Fortunately, we're in the new covenant and those unclean laws no longer apply as we'll see there were strict guidelines If you want to read them you can they're fascinating. They're interesting You'll probably need a commentary to help you because some of them are really hard to understand But strict guidelines on the diagnosis of leprosy and it's quarantine how you had to separate from the camp and stay outside Only the priest the priest was trained in diagnosing these skin diseases and then Telling you whether you were healed of those skin diseases or not So there's a little bit of background so this man approaches Jesus because of the leprosy He has to stay outside the camp away from Civilization basically if people come near he's got to cry out unclean unclean so that they will stay away So Jesus responds to the man with compassion look at verse 13 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. I am willing he said be clean and Immediately the leprosy left him now. This is amazing Jesus reaches out and touches the man. Why is that shocking? What's the significance of touching? Well in one sense Wayne once if faith faith in what did someone say faith? I think oh, I'm sorry. I think they're a person Faith in what in Jesus is Okay, the man's request for healing was a request for faith right Jesus reaches out and touches him Yes Okay, he wants to demonstrate his power. He was to demonstrate his healing power very good. How about compassion as well What is touch touches a sign of compassion? It's showing that you really care for someone so definitely Jesus is showing Compassion there's gonna be more to I'll come back to that that hand in the second Here's our first point. Here's our first takeaway. I want you to see we like Jesus should demonstrate compassion for the most marginalized members of society We see this all the time. Jesus doesn't go and hang out with the rich and powerful Jesus looks around for those who are hurting Jesus reaches out to those who are excluded from society and we need to do the same one thing my family I have taken to do it is keeping some non-perishable food in the car that way when you always see these people on the side of the road You stop at the stoplight and you know they've got the sign that they want they want you to give and you know I don't I don't feel like I should give money because you never know what they're gonna be buying with that money So I like to keep granola bars. They're great because you hand them in a girl if they say no thanks Then you know they're not they're not really serious about this. They're in it for the money if they take it Then you can you can see that they they really are in need. It's a way to demonstrate compassion That's a very small thing But we need to think of ways we can consciously demonstrate compassion. So Jesus here is showing compassion by touching the man But there's something else. Did you want to comment?
Okay, okay Okay, okay, Jesus reaches out and touches him now you're not supposed to touch You're not supposed to touch an unclean person that makes you unclean right if you do that So no one would instead Jesus what what would we expect is you stay away right? Okay, I'll heal you from a distance or something, but you you stay away. So look at what happens Jesus is not defiled by the leprosy Instead he brings cleansing to it now That's a very very powerful theological concept and it has something to do with I think the whole purpose and plan of God From the Old Testament to the New Testament Let me give you a point here You read the Old Testament and there's lots of it. We don't understand and there's lots of it that seems weird This whole read the chapter Leviticus 13 and 14 and you'll see what I mean It's like why in the world would they exclude people for psoriasis, you know, I've psoriasis since he likes such a bad Why would they do that why would they that why would you have to do these kinds of rituals in order to become clean most of it at least much of it is symbolic because That those are small much of it is symbolic to demonstrate that God is absolutely holy God is absolutely separate We talked about this before with reference to the temple. Do you remember the temple was like a series of concentric circles You've got the holiest place in the very center the holy of holies only the high priest goes there only once a year Then you've got the temple proper the out the holy place outside of that and priests could go in there once a day That was all and then you slowly there were circles of exclusion Then only the men could go then the women could go then the Gentiles on the on the other it was and we look at that We so that's not like the character of God in the sense of Separation but it is in the sense that we as human beings are not worthy to enter the presence of a holy and perfect God So throughout the Old Testament, it's all about holiness that God is separate that God is transcendent Then we come to the New Testament and we see something that's taught implicitly in the Old Testament, but that is that that God is Transforming us and enabling us to come into his presence so in the New Testament, we see Transformation so Jesus isn't isn't defiled by the unclean person instead He transforms him. What does Jesus say in Matthew chapter 5? He says you are the salt of the earth Remember in the sermon on the mountain you are the light of the world those two things salt and light are Transforming agents they transform the society around them We are transforming agents in the world today whereas Israel in the Old Testament think about that Israel was to Separate itself from all the pagan nations weren't they they were supposed to isolate themselves to stay pure to stay separate What are we supposed to do is Christians? We're supposed to go out you see it's like the movement this way versus the movement this way We are to proclaim the gospel to the ends of the earth. That has powerful implications for our mission in the world. We are not to be defiled by the world We are to transform the world around us. There's a fascinating passage I don't know if we have time to go to it, but I always do anyway don't I even when we don't have time turn to first Corinthians chapter 7 This is one of the most puzzling Passages for many Christians it's in Paul's discussion of marriage and divorce and staying with an unbeliever if you're if the unbeliever is not a Christian should you stay with them or not and I want to give you the Background to this passage first Corinthians chapter 7 some of the Corinthians were saying if you are married to an unbeliever you need to get away from that person you need to you need to separate from that person divorce that person because that Person is defiling you Understand some of the Corinthians believers are saying that that unbeliever in your presence defiles you so you need to separate from that person Paul has a different Perspective a different opinion look at verse 12 of first Corinthians 7 to the rest I say and he says I not the Lord. He's not claiming he doesn't have authority saying Jesus Didn't teach that verse 12 again to the rest I say this if any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him He must not divorce her and if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he's willing to live with her She must not divorce him Look at verse 14. This is the one that puzzles people for the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife And the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband otherwise your children notice the word at least in my Bible would be unclean But as it are they are as it is they are holy Now this is puzzled people right what does it mean that you sanctify? Does this mean that having just being in a marriage saves your husband or wife? No, it can't mean that salvation is by faith alone. We know that what does it mean? It means that you your very presence brings a healing brings a cleanness brings a sanctifying Influence into it you see the power of that that we as believers are here Why does God leave us in the world because we are to sanctify the world? We're not defiled by it the Corinthians are saying you're defiled by that marriage get out of it Paul says no no no no no no you're in that marriage for a purpose because you bring holiness to that marriage You bring sanctification to that marriage Might have mentioned this story before once in here But we went to a New Year's Eve party with some my my best friend from college and we hadn't been with them for a little while We went to this New Year's Eve party and we noticed that we were almost the only Christians there together with our friends who hosted the party And I began thinking you know, I wonder if they're falling away, you know If they're if they're slipping a little bit in their face and then it dawned on me They were being sought and light they intentionally made sure that they had most of their friends run believers So they could have a powerful influence them on them. They realized that they were to be holiness agents in the world They were to bring God's presence into a lost world Okay, so I think it's crit it's critically important that Jesus touches the man because he's demonstrating the power of Healing in the gospel the power of sanctification in the gospel. So Jesus. Let's go back now to Luke Chapter five Jesus says be clean and immediately the leprosy left him so once again We see the power of the kingdom of God the restoration of creation, right remember that's what the healings represent The healings represent that one day there'll be no no more illness no more death Jesus then does something that he's done before in these episodes then Jesus ordered him don't tell anyone Let's start with that one Jesus first of all commands silence Now why does he command silence? We talked about this a little before what do you think anyone want to Comment on why he might tell the man not to tell anyone What okay, the crowd controls an issue, right? Jesus is trying to keep his ministry on track what he wants to do Yeah, that's one thing. There's a thing is he doesn't want false messianic expectations directly related that because the people are gonna Come and try to make him king in Jesus. Jesus has a timetable A timetable for what he wants to do here's something else he does then look Jesus sends the man to the priest don't tell anyone but go show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing as a testimony to them Okay, once again once let's going on here first. Oh, he sends him to the priest the passage is Leviticus 13 and 14 Leviticus 14 describes how you have to go to the priest to get confirmation to get verification of the healing and then to offer the Appropriate sacrifice. Okay, now here's a here's another Question of interpretation. Why does Jesus do this? Isn't Jesus here to fulfill the law? So why does he tell the man to go and and do the law when Jesus is going to complete the law through his life death and resurrection? Yes, comment Okay, excellent excellent. That's his ticket back in this society. Jesus is living with his in his Jewish society He wants the person to be restored right to their family to to their community of faith around them So is Jesus affirming the law in one sense? He's affirming the law the law was good But it but it was pointing forward to the coming of Christ But in the second sense he wants the person to be restored to his community. Jesus is all about reconciliation Right? He's all about bringing people back together. Let's look at the end of this episode before we move on to our second one Yet this is always funny because you've got this command to silence. Don't tell anyone yet No one can keep it silent yet the news about him spread all the more so that crowds of people came to hear him and and to be healed Of their sicknesses Verse 16, but Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and pray There's probably should have been another application for us. We need to get alone with God We need to withdraw and pray. We need to realize where our strength comes from and turn things back over to God Okay, there's our first episode. We're gonna keep moving because I want to spend a little more time on this longer episode It's another powerful and significant episode in Jesus' ministry The healing of a paralyzed man. Let's start in here with verse 17 of Luke chapter 5 One day Jesus was teaching the Teaching I'm sorry one day Jesus was teaching and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem and the power of the Lord is with Jesus to heal the sick So Jesus is teaching in a house. This is an interesting question here Who's house is he teaching it? Well, it could be any house. Jesus is in cavernium at this time Some people think it was Peter's house as as some of the other episodes here So I just have to bring in the little archeology, right? You know me Fascinating we have to take a look at this. They have actually discovered a home a first century home It's just down just a cross really from the cavernium synagogue and they've discovered and you can see there's a first-century house Discovered under an octagonal eight-sided church the church was built in the fifth century But signs on the wall suggest that this this house served as a house church So we put two and two together a house church in cavernium Maybe maybe after the time of Peter the church continued to meet in that home because it was a time a place Of worship so that's a little tidbit possibly Peter's home is where this is that makes a story even more interesting If you think about it because who's going to get their roof torn up Peter or Peter it's going to get his roof torn up Okay, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law are present. So here's the question. Why are they there? Why are they there? Are they hostile? Well? We haven't seen any hostility yet in the gospel of Luke What do you why do you think they're there? Notice they're there from all over they're all over there from Galilee they're from Jerusalem Why would they show up? Yes in the back Okay Okay checking to see checking him out right? I mean there these rumors are swirling everywhere Here's this guy. He's preaching an amazing message. He teaches with incredible power and authority He's casting out demons. He's healing to sick Would you would you be a little interested if you heard this someone in your denomination or someone from your church was doing this? And and you'd want to go check it out. You want to go find out? So they're going to check out probably not yet in a hostile sense. However, certainly in a suspicious sense Sometimes I see a little fire and it says something like so-and-so Pastor or prophet so-and-so has come to town come see the healing ministry Hundreds healed every night anyone see those kinds of flowers you a little bit skeptical of those kinds of situations You know especially when they keep passing the offering play it again again. So you know They've heard these rumors about this rabbi Jesus and their wonder and is this another flash in the pan or is this another person who's there in it for Themselves, so they're going to check it out and An amazing thing takes place and happens look at verse 18 Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd they went up on the roof and Lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd right in front of Jesus This is so great, right? This is basically extreme home makeover extreme home makeover cappernium addition right Have you ever gotten to a restaurant and a huge crowd is there and? You go you go in and you check in there's a three hour wait or a two hour wait Oh, we saw you were just you were thinking about what you're gonna order on the menu get there They get to the house and there's this huge crowd and they can't get in and they desperately want to bring their friend in there We were coming home from Julian once and we stopped at Dudley's anyone ever get Dudley's breath You know and we're thinking all the way down. I love the jalapeno cheese bread, you know and all these and we're thinking all the way We get down there and the place is mobbed. I mean, it's mob there were there are huge crowds going out the door I don't know what was going on there So, you know, we did we climbed up the back we went on the roof and we dug a hole through the roof and we low no We didn't do that we went to Vaughn's you get Dudley bread and Vod's anyway now these days So what do they do? They dig a hole in the roof and they lower them down I have to give you a little context here. Here's a this is a little model of what Palestinian houses probably looked like This is in that Jerusalem model I've showed you before houses were flat So we say roof it doesn't mean you know one of these roofs like this they're trying to hang on they they climbed up Roos were used as storage areas roofs were used as living space They would sleep on the roofs on cool on hot summer evenings When it cooled down and they're often either a ladder or a staircase going up Also, here's a picture of a reconstruction of what probably these houses house roofs look like they would be covered with planks With kind of fatch and then beams going across now it's interesting Luke mentions Tiles because Luke is Greek right and Greco Roman houses often had tiles most Palestinian houses didn't so he may be Explaining to his readers trying to get his readers to understand the situation or in fact there might have been tiles on this roof They have discovered tiled roofs in Palestine as well But in either case they take off the top surface. They dig through the fact you can see they move aside those cross those Smaller cross beams and they lower the man down amazing amazing now. This is not you know Think of the homeowner He's sitting there, you know, and all of a sudden it starts coming you know a little dirt starts coming down and then a little hole appears and all of a sudden There's this great vehicle. This is not like home Bible study where you spill a little coffee on the carpet, you know You feel bad. Oh, I'm sorry about that. Let me clean that up for you. No, they are renovating the house They are tearing they are tearing it up Now so the homeowner would be pretty upset who else might be a little bit upset at this point Okay, Jesus might be upset. Yeah, possibly because he's busy with his ministry But think of all those people in the house Right, what do you think those people at Dudley's thought when we jumped down right in the middle in front they were taking cuts You know you've been all night long waiting to buy those Super Bowl tickets, you know waiting in line at Qualcomm or whatever this year We're going to Super Bowl, right? Yeah We're waiting waiting to buy those tickets and and you wake up and someone has just taken cuts right in front of you Be pretty upset. So so this is a dangerous situation in a lot of ways They they dig a hole and they lower this man through it Okay, here's here's our first take away with reference to this passage God calls us to audacious faith in him I love that word audacious. I just had to use the word audacious this morning audacious faith in him believing he can accomplish Anything in our lives. So why did they do it? Why did they tear up the roof? Well, they must have cared a lot about their friend. They must have really cared about him They knew that Jesus had been healing people and they wanted they they desperately wanted to bring him in. Yes, what else? They wanted him to be healed. They loved him so much. They definitely wanted him to be healed But what else what else? What did they have to do in order to do this? They must have They must that's exactly right. They must have had a huge amount of faith They truly there's no way they care this guy's house apart unless they truly believed that Jesus could heal him That's audacious faith. They truly they believed enough that they were going to do anything to get that man in there When my kids are younger they used to watch a television show called the Magic School bus anyone with grandkids or kids watch that with Miss frizzle I think Lily Tomlin is the voice of Miss frizzle and I used to love the show like Bill Nye the science guy Do you watch that? Bill Nye the science guy because it's so educational. I'm learning things you know learning things about how a car works And all these learning things that I never knew anyway, but but there's a great line from there Miss frizzle always when they're about to head off on an adventure to enter the human body to investigate it or to go Enter a car engine to investigate it. She always says the same thing. She says let's take chances Let's make mistakes. Let's get messy Is that a great philosophy of life if you don't if you don't step out in faith, right sure you'll make a few mistakes Sure, you're getting a little messy, but you're going to accomplish amazing amazing things for God I understand Thomas Edison failed failed in that light bulb thing hundreds and hundreds of times until he finally got it right God loves persistent faith. He loves people who believe in him so much that they're willing to step out and do anything I think the cove is a good example of that. I mean, this is a huge investment, right? The church said we really want to do this and they're willing to make the investment to step out in faith. Yes, comment or question
Thomas Edison didn't fail. He found a thousand ways that didn't work in every experiment. That's what he said wasn't it? Yeah, yeah, so we have to step out. We have to give it a shot. We have to try God God loves us to say you know I don't think I have the finances to give in that way So I'm going to do it anyway because I can trust in God to accomplish amazing things All right Jesus Shocks everyone now with what he does. What do they expect they expect healing? Okay, so they they when they could not find a way down. They lower the man through verse 20 When Jesus saw their faith now, first of all notice that their faith it's the faith of the man Perhaps the faith of the man being healed as well coming down, but their faith he said friend your sins are forgiven now Now that's shocking That I'm sure they're they're they're lowering their man down and he gets down there and Jesus looks to him It says your friends are forgiven. They're going where we in the healing line You know where's that's the forgiveness line is next door. This is the healing line. We thought they're they're expecting Jesus to heal the man So why doesn't Jesus say rise take up your bed and walk? Why does he start and say your sins are forgiven? Yes Okay, that was his greatest need he knew what this man really needed He was testing him. I think that's right as well He wanted to see if he if he could recognize his his true need to show him what he really need Do you think God ever deals with us in that way? Do you think God ever gives us what we need? instead of what we want Think in your life. I know he does that to me, right? God. I just really need financial security God says you don't need financial security. You need more faith in me God, I really need that person who's going to who's who's going to Make me feel good who's going to you know be my lifelong companion God says what you really need is trust in me, right? I know why I married my wife because she was going to meet all of my needs. That's why Mary I found the perfect woman who's going to do everything to meet my needs And so I married her and most of us get into that relationship and after about a year We realize this person's not holding up their part of the bargain, right? They were supposed to be here to meet all of my needs and they're not meeting all of my needs You know, I must have got the wrong model. I thought I'd check this out, you know and what do we realize? We realize at that point that maybe what we thought we needed was not what we really needed Because what I really needed was to learn how to serve Self-sacrificially. I needed to learn how to love someone despite myself, right? And so gradually God is shaping us for eternity. He's giving us what we need Not what we want and I think that's one key issue here is that Jesus Jesus has pointed out to the the essential need of This person, but I think there's also more to it and we'll get to it a little more later But Jesus is also he's also demonstrating the close connection between physical and spiritual healing You see we talked about this a lot haven't we already Jesus heals a man. That's what is that? Why doesn't he heal everybody if he's here to heal he should heal everybody? He should set up clinics off through Galley. These are just snapshots. Remember this is his slide show Because ultimately we don't need physical healing. That's not what we ultimately need. We need spiritual healing We need to be restored to a creation that is in right relationship with God and that's what Jesus Everywhere he goes when he heals. He's pointing people back He's preaching the kingdom of God. So here he wants to demonstrate why he truly came He came to restore us to a right relationship with God and with that will come ultimate healing Eternity in a new body a new life a new heaven a new earth and so forth But the religious leaders don't get it. Here's the challenge in verse 21 The Pharisees and teachers of the law began thinking to themselves Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone? Who can forgive sins but God alone so they accuse him of blasphemy? Now it's an interesting question isn't it who can forgive sins? Now think about that with me for a second who can forgive sins? I can forgive sins Right if you hurt me I will forget I can forgive you I have the opportunity for you I was driving along once in my truck I was driving to Christian Heritage College now San Diego Christian College I stopped at a stoplight that it came up kind of a broccoli on me and a guy slammed into me on the back Just bam hit me like that and I got out and this was a 1977 Toyota pickup they're indestructible they run forever I went back and looked there's a little dent in there the guys the guy's a teenager You know and I'm sure he's thinking his record is ruined his car is gone and I'm looking at it He comes up. He said I'm really really really sorry You know I didn't mean to I didn't see the light and I said don't worry about and I got my truck I said don't you want my address? I said no, it's okay It's a Toyota truck it don't problem and I just forgave the guy right there now that was in my right Right I could forgive the guy there was nothing wrong with my truck There was no problem whatsoever. We have the ability to forgive sins. I can forgive sins if you hurt me But can I forgive someone else's sins against someone else you see what we're talking about we're talking about third-party sins Can I go to a mass murder or in prison and say I forgive you you're free to go no because that person did not sin against me They sinned against God and they sinned against others and so who can forgive sins the question means who can forgive third-party sins Look at Jesus his response I think this is funny they accuse him Of blasphemy they accuse him of blasphemy because who can forgive sins except God alone only God can forgive sins look at the next line There's great irony here Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked You could say who can read minds But God alone. Do you see the point? Do you see the irony there? They're going this guy's not God He can't forgive sins Jesus meanwhile was reading their minds something that only only God can do So look at his question though. Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier to say your sins are forgiven or to say get up and walk Which is easier to say he's reading their minds Which is easier to say
To say let's emphasize that yes Your sins are forgiven. It's easier to say sins are forgiven. Why is it easier to say your sins are forgiven? You don't have to prove it right you can I your sins are forgiven Your sins are forgiven Pretty powerful, huh? I'm able to forgive sins at least I can say I can forgive sins So it's much harder to say rise take up your bed and walk. Why is that? They're gonna know you know they're gonna know unless you're using some kind of deception They're they're definitely going to know so it's much easier to say your sins are forgiven Than to say rise wake up your take up your bed and walk which is easier though to do Okay, that's I think that's going on as well here which is easier to do now That's they're both equally impossible you might say to do because God only God can heal ultimately but Really forgiveness is the harder task and we see that in Jesus ministry which was harder for Jesus to heal a man Or to ultimately and eternally Forgive the sins of the world you see where all this is going in the gospel. Where is Jesus headed in the gospel He's headed to the cross where he's going to suffer and die where he's going to bear an eternal debt of sins So you can see the depth of meaning in the statement which is easier to say your sins are forgiven Or rise take up your bed and walk which is easier to do Jesus is in it for the long run Jesus is teaching something Propound about his ministry Jesus is not just here to make people feel good He made people feel good right they listened to him. They loved his teaching They just were in fraud by his teaching Jesus is not just here to heal the lepers and the heal the sick though He did that he healed the sick He's not just here to cast out demons though He did that he's here to change the course of human history He's here to suffer and die to reverse the curse the judgment the fall of humanity to bring us back into relationship with him So Jesus you can see he's teaching object lessons through his very life, isn't he? So he says he's he first of all says your sins are forgiven to shake people up and and get them thinking What does he mean by that then though he's going to do the healing? He wants to demonstrate that the son of man has authority to forgive sins Look at the next two verses Verse 23 again, which is easier to say your sins are forgiven or to say get up and walk But I want you to know but so that you may know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins So he said to the paralyzed man. I tell you get up take your mat and walk Look at the healing and it's result the man gets up Immediately he stood up in front of them Took what he had been took what he had been lying on and went home praising God
Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with all and said we have seen remarkable things Today, imagine the scene right imagine the scene that the man is lying there Jesus take up your bed and walk every you've got this dramatic pause At that moment and the man says what you know You want me to do what and then slowly he rises to his feet and probably once he feels the strength in his legs He just starts jumping up and down Screaming there's this audible gas from everyone and he runs out Probably shouting at that point. Here's our final takeaway Spiritual and physical healing are two sides of the same coin as Christ's representatives We should meet both physical and spiritual needs Jesus Christ came to restore us to our relationship with God, but he demonstrated that by showing compassion by healing the sick By casting out demons by raising people up Someone wants to ask me have you ever seen a miracle? You've ever seen a miracle and I had to think for a second I've seen a few good card tricks, you know I've seen these guys make giant animals disappear on television. You know sick freedom Roy or whatever they are Have I seen a miracle? I saw I was at a service where someone got healed and I think they got healed I'm not sure you know, I think that was an authentic healing, but then it don't I mean I've seen the most amazing miracle of all because I've seen God take a life and Transform that life from the inside out take someone whose life is just broken a good friend really good friend It was an alcoholic drug of user until God got a hold of him and just transformed his life He's an incredible man of God Eventually married has kids and just just is living for God and changing the world in which he he lives in Transforming the world around them. That's a miracle That's the greatest miracle possible is that God can take a life a broken life and Transform it. Yes That's right because sometimes it has consequences doesn't it? It affects our lives And that's why God can forgive us and heal us and bring us into a right relationship with him as Christ representatives then we are meant to be his light his sought in the world around us think of someone in your life right now Someone in your life that you can impact Some way both physically and spiritually maybe it's someone whose family members in the hospital needs needs an encouraging word or needs a Meal brought to them right now by doing those things. What are we demonstrating? We're demonstrating the power of the kingdom We're demonstrating that that that God has stepped in and is reclaiming his creation Okay, we're gonna stop right there. I was so concerned about getting through two passages We move pretty quickly. We've got some extra time for questions if there's any issues related to this passage or any other Issues related to anything that we didn't cover. I'm happy to pick that up. Yes, question Struck me that and maybe I'm wrong here, but it struck me that God can't really heal Sends or can't forgive sins without the cross because while he has a nature that is perfect love It's also requires perfect justice and it was only at the cross where the two met and so Jesus really couldn't say Yep, I forgive your sins to the Parallytic unless he it presumed the cross on the basis of the good You know, that is a profound Theological point I sometimes ask my question my my students that very question say could God just forgive sins Could God just forgive sins are there things now this kind of sounds like last week doesn't he or the things God cannot do You ever heard that old conundrum can God create a rock so big he can't lift it you ever heard that one can God create a rock so big That he can't lift it no it's simple answer really no he cannot create a rock so big he cannot lift it because there are Certain things God cannot do God cannot limit himself right because why that would contradict his very nature can God lie No God cannot lie he cannot lie because that would contradict his very nature God cannot Forgive sins without without payment for those sins why because that would contradict his absolute justice I was listening to an apologist once I don't know if I've mentioned this story here either he was a a former Muslim who'd worked in Islamic Apologetics trying to defend the Christian faith in the face of Islam and he said the God of the God of Islam They say in Islam that that Allah is both both merciful and just He's absolutely merciful. He's absolutely just and he pointed out that's impossible If you're absolutely merciful, you're just forgiving people But if you're just forgiving people, you're not just because people are getting away with sin There's no justice in the world if Hitler is not going to be punished for what he did There is no justice in the world and so so a God God cannot be both just and merciful unless God himself takes the punishment and so you can see the incredible power of the Christian message is that God himself Took the punishment for sin God himself in Romans. It says he was both just and The justifier of the one who's faith in Jesus Christ. It's Romans three It's just a power. That's one of those powerful statements in the whole Bible and it sounds so theological It's hard for us to pick it up, but he he was both just perfectly just and The justifier and the one who stepped in and took the punishment for sins. So that's I think it's a very powerful point
Yes, I think so the question was was this the first time Certainly in in the gospel look at the first time in the first time this this episode appears early in all three of the Matthew Mark and Luke all three of the synoptic gospels Okay, and he chose a time when the religious leaders are there Yeah, keep keep that point in mind because Jesus is playing with these guys And I don't I mean that in a very positive sense Okay, at one point we'll see a little later at one point it says they were there to see if he would heal a man on the Sabbath You know just in other words there you got to think about this. They're on on the Sabbath God's holy day They're there trying to trick him into helping someone so they can accuse him of working on the Sabbath So there's all kinds, you know of of evil going on there and what does Jesus do Jesus brings the guy right in front He says come up step in front of everybody instead of taking him and healing him in the back room So they couldn't see him and accuse him so so I think what Jesus is doing is he's he's putting on a display basically He wants them to hear what he's come to do so that's a great point another question here
Okay, that's a great question was the healing based on the faith of the friend or the faith of the in the paralyzed man and That's a good question, and I'm not sure the episode actually Answers that question the other question that I didn't bring up was whether the sin was caused or that I'm sorry the prowess this was caused by sin and we certainly know that not all Not all disease is caused directly by sin We already talked to that about that before in John's gospel Jesus explicitly addresses that when the disciples say was this man born blind Because of his sin or his parents in Jesus as neither it was so God so God would be glorified So so the question that your your question was when the man stood up was at his faith In response and I'm not sure the answer to that The question would then come is do you need faith in order to be healed and I'm not sure that I would say I think God can do whatever he wants if God wanted to heal someone to demonstrate to others his power He could do that without the faith of that individual having said that we're in Luke's gospel But especially in Mark's gospel Jesus almost always heals only in response to faith So when he goes to Nazareth when he goes to Nazareth in Mark's gospel it's in Mark chapter six Mark makes an amazing statement Mark says he could not do many miracles there He could not Jesus could not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith And so that would suggest Jesus is healing in response to faith if that's the case here Then this man demonstrated faith as well as his his friends faith. Yes another question here
There Jesus saw their face. Yes, but I'm thinking you know it follows the example of the the guy with leprosy or the skin disease And you know where he knew Jesus could heal the question is Woody and so it could very well be that you know There was not a question of whether he could heal right they just wanted to get in front of him so he would yeah Yeah, that's a good point
What we're studying deals with a very specific geographical point in in in the world. Yes yet There were hundreds of millions or hundreds of thousands if not millions of people everywhere else in the world What what did God think about all these people? Why weren't they offered the same opportunity to go to know God at that point? Yeah, that's a great question and let we have we have to go back to an even bigger question Why did God choose Abraham right as the people were scattering all around the world? Why did God choose Abraham to deal with alone and well God has to have a plan to save us and so he chose a person a man Abraham and he chose a nation from that man Israel and he chose the Savior Jesus who would who would come from it So I think the choice of that location was part of his choice of how he was going to accomplish salvation The second question though is does God deal and was God dealing with other people everywhere in the world And the problem is this is not an account of human history This is an account of God's accomplishing ultimate salvation for us And so I certainly think God was dealing with people in a variety of ways in a variety of contexts We get occasional little snippets. Let me just give you two of them in the Bible that one is Joe Okay, the story of Joe Job is not in Palestine He's in the land of us. Is that the name it ooze or us? ooze is probably the way the Hebrew would be pronounced and so he's not even in it He's not Jewish and yet God is he's faithful to God. He loves God. He serves God We go oh, you know God is working elsewhere with people people have a relationship with God outside of Israel Another one within Israel is this milk hesitant guy that shows up Abraham comes back and he's he's just defeated these five kings in battle And this this priest comes out of the town of Salem Now Jerusalem and he's a priest of the most high God Well, that's just crazy because God hasn't even established the priesthood in Israel He won't establish it until Abraham's descendants Isaac Jacob Levi remember leaving so So he had who is this guy? Well the text makes it clear that he is a authentic an authentic priest of God So suddenly we realize that we're getting one story because this is the the tie the the line of the Messiah The line of the Savior, but God is working in other places and so I like to even think, you know Well, he's working in China as well and he's working in the North America But the problem we don't have that story so I'm not going to speculate beyond that But God is God works in the world and God works with every individual God loves everyone who was ever born in China before Christ came as much as he loves me And so that's that's biblical truth and having said that I think then that God is working in in various peoples So that that's a very good difficult question. Yes Established the New Testament Church And then Paul comes in and has an encounter with Christ And he continues addressing a lot of the issues that we're talking about right now He goes out into other parts of the world. He makes disciples. Yeah, and it just it's just a continuous action Yes, keeps going and going and going and going because yeah That's that's kind of what I'm kind of getting from this is that he's laying the foundation Yeah, where the cross to be established Paul comes in he has an encounter with Christ and he just continues doing what Christ had established That's exactly right. Yeah Christ Christ accomplished salvation And then it's his disciples then who are going to take that message to the ends of the earth and there also the ones who are going to unpack the implications Right because Jesus Jesus never went to church. Did you know that? Because there were no churches right he went to synagogue But the church was not yet established in that sense and so Paul has to work out the details How do you live the life of Christ in this new community of of faith? And so what we see in the book of Acts So we see the letters of Paul and other letters the letters of Peter the letter of Gent letters of James and Jude and so forth Is we see Christians wrestling with how how to live out the kingdom truth that Jesus taught in the real world? And so that's why we need both right we need the the epistles As well as the gospel there's one in the back there I'm not sure if I was reading it or if I heard it But it said Christ said something to the effect of when he's leaving. I had to go see more people in the world Where was that in the Bible? Or did I just hear it? I didn't hear the question What where where in the word here doesn't say that Christ said I have more people to go see Because the my end say they saw Christ you were saying yeah in the gospel of John Jesus says other sheep I have that are not of this fold And the Mormons for example identify themselves as that but in context that can't be what it means it means us It means the Gentiles Jesus talking to Jewish disciples and he says I'm going this this message is not going to be confined to Israel It's going to go to the rest of the world and that's been you can see that's been a central theme of our whole Talks isn't it because the salvation starts in Israel that's critically important because this is God's chosen people the Messiah was to come through the line of Israel The whole purpose was not that Israel could be comfortable and live in glory in their land with the Messiah The whole purpose was that salvation would go to the ends of the earth So when Jesus says other sheep I have he says I'm your shepherd to the 12 But I've got other sheep and they're going to get this this message as well So that's got to be a reference to the Gentiles that is non Jews around the world Yes, one more I think or well, we've got a few more Uh at the end of uh Verse 17 it says then the power of the Lord was present Another one I skipped yeah Is that An allure Were there times we were talking about Nazareth? Are there times that that presence isn't there? Yeah, if that's the case Then it doesn't necessarily tie into faith because then there's another element as well Right right and in unless like in Nazareth the power of the Lord is related directly To the faith so that's a great question and I I realized I skipped right over the comments on that It sounds a little funny doesn't the power of the Lord is with him to heal only think whoa was Jesus's power limited You know in some sense sometimes God was with him to heal sometimes God was not with him to heal It could be read that way it could also be read simply to say that this was a day of powerful ministry In other words, it's it's being viewed from the perspective of those on the outside looking at they could see That the power the Lord was present to heal but I'll go back to the first Explanation because I I do believe that Jesus is always acting in the power of the Holy Spirit Um, I think we've talked about it a little bit Jesus lived a life of humanity in total dependence on the Holy Spirit when he became a human being He entered fully into in the human flesh and as a human being and Jesus would later say in the gospel of John You'll do greater works than I Why because I go to the Father and send the Holy Spirit so Jesus is I think Jesus is reading minds I think Jesus is healing the sick because he is Depending on his father to do that. He's not calling on his own deity So I think this is this is another way of saying that the Holy Spirit was powerfully manifesting himself in this in this particular context and place. So I think that would be what Luke is trying to show He's been talking about the spirit all along right the spirit anointing Jesus the spirit empowering Jesus the spirit Lord is upon me to proclaim good news to the poor and so forth And now he says and the power synonymous with the spirit in that regard this the spirit was with him powerfully and people were getting healed That's why the friends came because people were getting getting healed. So it's saying that one more Yes Forgiveness only follows faith. Yeah, I would say that that in order to be forgiven We have to accept that forgiveness now there's a which is it chicken or egg, you know, which comes for us God has offered forgiveness to all people On the basis of the death of his son But we have to respond in faith to receive that forgiveness Yeah, let me just close our close in prayer. Let me close our time together in prayer and if you have other issues or questions You'd come forward and do it let's pray Father, we thank you for your powerful word and especially when we come to passages like this where we see We see two things we see just audacious faith faith that is willing to step out Step out and be counted step out and take a chance step out and get messy To see you work amazing things to see you work amazing miracles. So help us As your people to have that kind of faith Lord help us also to recognize What your son came to do your son came to bring The kingdom of God to restore us to a right relationship with you So um, we asked that we would bring that message to the lost world around us the message of physical healing Lord of of meeting the needs of the poor um in the power of your spirit so that they will see that you have come To restore us to a right relationship with you Lord help us to live in light of that relationship and all that we say and do this week Help us to think of people that we can reach out and share your love to In Jesus name we pray amen