The nature of the gospel, Mark 3: 1-6

The nature of the gospel is the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It is the character and nature of Jesus.  Jesus is the exact representation of God’s nature.  Hebrews 1:3 says, “[Jesus]  is the radiance of His glory (speaking of God)  and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.”  

The good news then, the gospel of Jesus Christ, is that He has manifested God’s nature to us, and being God in the flesh, has become our propitiation through His sacrifice, in order to reconcile us to God.

Now we could spend a month of Sunday’s talking about the nature of God and showing from scripture all the various aspects of His character.  But what I would like to do today is just use this passage before us to examine certain aspects of God’s nature which Jesus manifests through this event.  It is probably a more traditional approach of theologians and preachers to expound on the hypocrisy of the Pharisees or to show the various aspects of the law of the Sabbath.  But I think that most of you are familiar enough with those themes.  We all know that the scribes and Pharisees were scoundrels of the worst sort.  Most of us know we are no longer under the ceremonial law but under grace.  And perhaps it’s helpful from time to time to review those things.  But I think today instead I would like to focus on Jesus.  And we can never get enough review of considering Jesus.  We should never get enough of Christ.  We can never spend enough time contemplating God’s nature.

It’s important though that in this pursuit of learning about God, we go to the right source.  There was a hit song I used to hear occasionally a few years ago which had the phrase that has stuck with me over the years.  It said “tell me all your thoughts on God cause I’d really like to meet her.”  Well, the songwriter’s going to get his chance someday.  And the first thing that he’s going to learn is that God is not a she.  But beyond that, it is important that our theology is not framed by our prejudices.  As if God is a compendium of our thoughts and ideas derived from man’s intelligence or a figment of his imagination.  No, God must be, and is self declaring.  Otherwise, we could not know God.  And He has declared Himself in His word, and in the manifestation of Christ Jesus.

So let’s look at this passage in it’s context, and notice not only the historical events recorded here, and learn the spiritual significance of these events, but let’s also learn about God by examining the nature of Jesus Christ.  

In context, it’s important to notice that the opening scene of chapter 3 is tied back to the closing scene of chapter 2.  In that scene, the disciples are walking through the grainfields and eating the grain off the stalks as they walk.  it was a practice called gleaning, which the law provided for in order to feed the hungry and impoverished.  A farmer was to leave a certain remnant of his crop in the field so that poor people could eat.  There were no government charity programs in those days to help people in need.  So God, as the Sovereign of Israel, provided for the poor through gleaning.  

But if you will recall, the Pharisees questioned Jesus why the disciples were breaking the law of the Sabbath.  And Jesus gives them an illustration of David eating the showbread, which was reserved for the priests only, in order to sustain him and his men in their extreme hunger.  But the illustration was explained when He gave this doctrine, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.”  Now that is a tremendous principle that teaches us a lot about the law, but also a lot about the nature of the Lord God.  

And then Jesus added another even more explosive statement, saying, “So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”  In other words, He is saying, someone greater than David is here.  “I made the Sabbath, and so I have authority over the Sabbath to use it for My purposes or even to change it as I see fit.”  

Now as chapter 3 opens, we come to another Sabbath, and another incident involving the Pharisees, and yet another illustration of Christ’s sovereignty over the Sabbath.  But even more significantly, we see the Lord put an even greater emphasis on the purpose of the Sabbath. 

So the first thing we notice is that though Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, and has the authority over it to do as He wills, yet on the morning of the Sabbath He is doing what all good Jews were doing; He is at church. There was no law that said you had to go to synagogue on the Sabbath.  The law was that you were not to work.  Sabbath in Hebrew means to cease, to desist.  It was to be a day of rest.  And furthermore, Exodus 20 says that it should be kept as holy.  Holy means set apart, consecrated to the Lord.  So in that respect, there is no better place to make that day holy than to be in the midst of His congregation worshipping God and learning of God.  

And Jesus, though He is Lord of the Sabbath does not excuse Himself from keeping that requirement because as God He rested on the Sabbath and established it as a day of rest.  Though He was God the Son, He loved God the Father and wanted to fellowship with Him and with His people.  And I believe He wanted to bring them into that rest that the Sabbath promised was to come.

Now in the new covenant, we are free from the law of the Sabbath.  The Sabbath was on Saturday, and we observe Sunday as a celebration of the Lord’s Day, or the resurrection.  But Hebrews 4: 9 says “So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.”  Though it is not the Saturday Sabbath under the Law, there is a Sabbath rest for the people of God in the new covenant.

That rest is found in Jesus Christ.  Listen to Hebrews 4 again, in vs.3, “For we who have believed enter that rest.” Then in vs 6 the author says those Israelites failed to enter into that rest because of disobedience.  But in vs 7, He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before,“TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS.”  And in vs 10, “For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.”  So we enter into the Sabbath rest of God through faith in Christ, and not through our works.

So what can we learn about the nature of God from Jesus attending church on the Sabbath?  First, God has not made His law to be a burden to us, or to give Him some sort of pleasure at our fawning over Him.  Rather, God has made the Sabbath for man.  When you honor God on the Sabbath, who got the benefit?  Man got the benefit.  Man was blessed.  Man was rested.  Man had fellowship with the Lord.  And that benefit to man is woven throughout the law, throughout the scripture. God wants what is best for us, and His laws are not burdensome.  Someone said that the law is not a fence to restrict us, but guardrails to keep us safe.

I read a quote by the atheist Richard Dawkins the other day, who said, “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction.”  He then proceeded to back up that assertion by calling God all kinds of unpleasant names.  But for all of Dawkins purported intelligence, he is ignorant about God.  God is not vindictive.  God does not want to make life difficult or unbearable.  But rather God loves us and wants to bless us.  However that love of God must be without compromising the other aspects of His nature.  And He does that through Jesus Christ.  God so loved the world that He gave His only Son to die in our place, so that whosoever believes in Him should have eternal life. Jesus was punished for our iniquity, that we might go free, and might even become the sons of God and share in His glory.

The problem with Dawkins and others like him, is the same  the problem of the Pharisees and scribes of Jesus day, which is that they don’t want what they want called sin.  They want to be like god and declare what is good and what isn’t.  But they do so out of ignorance, unable to discern what is  ultimately good or evil.  

So true to God’s nature, on a Sabbath morning Jesus is at church. Luke indicates that He was teaching at the synagogue.  But Mark tells us that the scene is set for the Pharisees to try to trap Jesus and find something with which to accuse Him.  Now this is purely conjecture on my part, but I think there is a possibility that this man with the withered hand was set up by the Pharisees, knowing that Jesus would be there, in order to get Him to heal on the Sabbath and be able to find fault with Him.  We know the Pharisees were not above such things, as another time they brought a woman caught in adultery before Christ to try to entrap Him. Furthermore, the way the texts say that the Pharisees were watching closely to see if He would heal him, indicates a prior scheme on their part to set up an incident whereby they might trap Him.

But regardless how or why the man with the withered hand is there, the fact is that he was there, and Jesus knew he was there.  I find in this another principle about God’s nature.  He knows our needs.  Jesus said God knows our needs before we even ask Him.  He knows the numbers of the hairs on our head. Jesus said He knows when the birds of the air fall, so how much more does the Father concern Himself with us?  

Psalms 139:17-18 says “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!  If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.”  God is concerned with our needs.  And so we see that Jesus knew this man with the withered hand was there.  He knew his need to be healed.  He knew that this man would have been unable to work, to provide for his family.  So Jesus speaks to the man and says “Get up and come forward.” 

You know, Jesus could have put off this man’s healing until the next day.  Actually, He could have told him to come back after sundown and healed him then without fear of reprisal by the Pharisees.  But Jesus doesn’t back down from conflict.  He wants to use this incident to teach a life giving principle, even if it means that He has to take the heat for it. 

And I like that attribute of God’s nature as well.  That He is willing to sacrifice Himself for our sakes.  That’s our definition of a hero, isn’t it?  Someone on a battlefield, or responding to an emergency, that risks his life to save another.  That’s the kind of nature of our God.  Jesus is willing to put Himself at risk so that this man might be made free from his sickness, and by that we might know the love of God for us.

In vs.4, after the man came forward, Jesus says to the Pharisees, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?” But they kept silent.  This question is so simple that even a child could answer it.  Of course it is always lawful to do good, and never lawful to do evil.  Regardless of what day it is.  Much more if the Sabbath is to bring rest, to be holy, then you should do good.  But anyone could have known that is always wrong to do evil.  But the Pharisees don’t care about distinguishing between  good or evil.  They already have planned evil in their hearts.  So they keep silent, hoping that He does something so that they can accuse Him of sin.  They have purposed to do evil, but Jesus has purposed to do good.

We see much here of the nature of God, who desires to benefit man, who desires to heal, who desires restoration of man, but now we see the nature of the Pharisees.  They have hardened their heart so much towards God that they hate Jesus and all He stands for.  They don’t want to see one of their sacred cows done away with.  And not only do they hate Jesus, but by their silence and their scheming to trap Jesus they show their lack of sympathy for the handicapped man. 

There is a principle found in Romans 12:21 which says, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”  This principle is founded on the nature of God.  His response to evil is to overcome it with good.  Man’s wisdom says to retaliate, to take vengeance. But that is not God’s approach.  He causes it to rain on the just and the unjust.  We are to follow Christ’s example, of overcoming evil with good. Leave vengeance and retribution to the provenance of God.

We see another attribute of God’s nature in Jesus’s response.  In vs. 5, “After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.” The word Mark uses for angry there literally means wrath.  There are a lot of people that don’t find the Old Testament God appealing, because they seem Him as a God of wrath.  But they think Jesus is not wrathful, but rather loving.  Here though we see the wrath of God displayed in Jesus.  There are other times we see this anger or wrath displayed.  For instance, when Jesus cleansed the temple, kicking over the tables of the money changers, and driving out the merchants with a whip.  That was the wrath of God displayed.  

But I want to point out the focus of that anger.  It was at sin.  It was at the hateful sin on the part of the Pharisees that hated Him so much they were willing to do anything, even use a person’s handicap for their advantage.  Their utter disregard for the pain and suffering of someone else was a just cause for God’s anger.  God is justifiably angry at those that mistreat, those that take advantage, those that hurt the weak and helpless. 

Listen, we want a just God when He deals with others, don’t we?  We just don’t like His justice when it is directed at us.  But when catastrophes or natural disasters happen, don’t we hear people cry out “Why did God allow this to happen?”  When it suits our sense of rightness we want God to be just.  But when His justice demands something from us, then we call foul.  

The fact is though, that James 2:13 says, “Mercy triumphs over judgment.”  God may have wrath towards sin, but He has mercy towards the sinner.  Psalm 30:5, “For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime; weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning.”  The wrath of God towards sin is mitigated by His mercy towards man.  

And we see a sense of that in Mark’s report here in vs 5, “After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart…”  Though He had wrath at their hardness of heart, yet He was grieved by their sin. Seeing the hardness of their hearts, the intractability of their sin caused Him grief.  It caused Him pain.  Here is the nature of God, though their sins be as horrible and cruel as man can imagine, yet God is willing to forgive them if they would only repent.  2Peter 3:9 says “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”  When their hardness of hearts nailed Him to the cross, Jesus prayed for their forgiveness, saying that they know not what they do.  Jesus grieves at the hardness of their heart.

You know, one of the most dangerous things you can do is misinterpret the patience of God for the permissiveness of God.  God is long suffering, He is patient.  Romans 2:4 “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?”  But there came a day when God’s patience ran out on the Pharisees.  In one generation, 35 years, their entire way of life, the Judaic system, the temple, the ceremonies, Jerusalem, everything Jewish was destroyed.  God was patient, yet they hardened their heart.  God is grieved today with the hardness of our hearts, that persist in rebellion, that stiffens the resolve to continue in sin in the face of God’s conviction, knowing that you are heaping coals of fire upon your head.  God wants to forgive you, if you will only turn to Him in repentance.

Well, the Pharisees showed their rebellion against God, but the withered man showed his obedience.  It was impossible for a withered hand to be stretched out.  This man had a withered hand.  We don’t know why.  But we know that it means his muscles had atrophied, perhaps due to paralysis or an accident, and his hand had shriveled up and drawn up.  But Jesus demands that he stretch it out.  And by the strength of God, he obeys and he is able to do it.

This illustrates another attribute of God’s nature, and that is His provision.  There is a little saying that you see from time to time that says, “where God guides He provides.”  It’s not in the Bible, by the way.  But it is an attempt to say that if God asks us to do something, He will provide the resources to do it.  We see that illustrated here in a command of Christ to stretch forth his hand.  It was impossible for this man to do that.  His weakness prohibited him from stretching it out.  But by his willingness to obey, God gave him the ability to stretch it out and he was healed.  We saw the same illustration in the paralyzed man in the last chapter.  He is paralyzed, and yet Jesus says to stand up and walk.  Impossible for him, and yet by believing in Christ and being willing to obey, God gives Him the strength to obey.

God provides all that we need for salvation and a life of sanctification when we believe in Him.  He gives us new desires, a new heart, and then a willing spirit.  In Ezekiel 36: 26 we read the about this purpose and provision of God;  "Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”  This passage teaches the great doctrine of God’s provision for our salvation, by changing our hearts so that we have new desires, and then giving us His Spirit to be our strength, so that we might do His commandments.  So many people have the wrong view of the Holy Spirit’s purpose.  He is the source of our strength to do the things that God has called us to do.  The provision of God gives us the desire and  capability to be what God wants us to be. 

Well, the Lord gave this man the ability to obey, the ability to stretch out this withered, atrophied hand.  Let me add something else about that.  Our nature is to be a reflection of God’s nature, is it not?  If we have the Spirit of God in us, then we are to mirror Christ, so that we are a reflection of Jesus to the world.  But we need to understand that when we see someone caught up in the snare of the world, their lives  destroyed or atrophied because of sin, their spirit is withered from despair, it is heartless on our part to ask them to do something that they are incapable of doing.  We need to realize that they need a spiritual rebirth, they need to have their eyes opened, for the lame to be made able to walk, for the withered to be able to stretch out, and that has to be a supernatural act of God to heal them.  It does no good to tell a sinner caught up in some destructive sin to get right, or get sober, or go straight, if they have not had the infilling of the Holy Spirit to give them the strength to do so.  

So as the ambassadors of the gospel, as representatives of Christ, when we call someone to obedience in Christ, we should also do what we can to provide what is necessary for them to respond with the same sense of provision that God has for us.  As James 2:15-16 says, “If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food,  and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?”  God uses His people to provide His provision.

And let me add that it is the prerogative of God to judge, not us.  Now when the Bible says do not judge, it doesn’t mean we are not to judge between right and wrong, or deduce that a person is being destroyed by sin, or that a person needs to get right with God.  There are plenty of places that tell us to judge with a righteous judgment in scripture, to rebuke, reprove, exhort with all long suffering and patience those that are caught up in sin.  We judge such things according to righteous judgment.  But when the Bible tells us not to judge it’s saying not to cast judgment as in a penalty.  I see Christians routinely call for some sort of judgment upon a person as if to wish that they endure some punishment in order for them to “hit rock bottom” or something like that.  Their motives may be that they want to see the person get right, but our job is not to condemn.  Our job is never to be vindictive.  We are never to cast the first stone.  

God is the one who condemns and judges and punishes.  Our job is to forgive, to implore, to compel them to come back to the Lord.  To execute the verse we quoted earlier, “the kindness of God leads us to repentance.” As David said, if the Lord counted our iniquities against us, then who could stand?   If God shut off our oxygen supply every time we lost our temper, some of us would have suffocated a long time ago.  If God shut down our heart every time we lusted after something or someone, most of us would be in cardiac arrest.  God gives us life and breath and health and money and mercy again and again, knowing that as soon as He does, we will forget about Him again and run off to serve ourselves.  He is long suffering towards us, He is patient towards us, how much then should we be patient and long suffering towards those that are down and out.

Well we need to draw this curtain to a close.  We see that Jesus exhibited wrath, but it was a righteous wrath, the wrath of God towards sin that leads to destruction.  But now we see the Pharisees in wrath that is sinful.  Ephesians 4:26-27 says “BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger,  and do not give the devil an opportunity.”  We see here the Pharisees going against that doctrine.  Their anger is sinful because it is out of jealousy and hate for Jesus.  It is doubly sinful because it continues for days as they plot how to destroy Jesus.  You better watch out for hate, folks.  Hate is a cancer that matastacises in you. It will lead to death.  In fact, in the sermon on the mount Jesus equated hate with murder and said it’s the same thing.  Hate will destroy you first and foremost.  God forgives our most heinous crimes against Him.  So must we forgive others for their trespasses against us.  

So the Pharisees and the Herodians begin  to plot together how to destroy Jesus.  They have given the devil an opportunity, and that hatred towards God’s Son will end up destroying all that these people held dear.  Both of these groups were political in nature, in that they had power and prestige from their party.  And that is kind of what they were; one a religious party, the Pharisees, and the Herodians a political party.  But like the old adage which says “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” these two former enemies make an alliance against Christ.  

But they offer us a contrast to the character and nature of God that we can learn from.  Where the Pharisees and Herodians were conniving for the Lord’s destruction, Christ is planning on HIs atonement for their sins.  Whereas the Pharisees were willing to burden men with laws in order to further their own benefit, Christ came to free men from the law in order to benefit us.  Whereas the Pharisees were hateful towards Christ, the Lord was loving and gracious to those in need.  Whereas the Pharisees were enslaved to the Sabbath, the Lord made the Sabbath that we might have rest.  

Today in closing, I hope that if anyone here has not entered that rest, they would simply believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  He has paid the penalty for your sin, and for those who believe in Him He has provided new life and a new spirit that we might be able to walk in that newness of life.  That we might have abundant life.  Listen, the Pharisees thought they weren’t sick and so they weren’t healed.  But the man with the withered hand knew that he was sick, and so Jesus healed him.  If you know that you are a sinner today, then that’s a good place to be.  Jesus came to save sinners.  Simply believe on Him today and receive forgiveness and a new life in Christ.  And for those that have believed in Him, and have received the new life in Christ, let us also put on the mind of Christ, reflecting the same nature and attributes as He reflected of the Father.  

Phil. 2:3-5, 15 “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;  do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.  Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, ...  so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.”

The gospel in three courses, Mark 2:13-28

The Bible has a lot to say about food and eating.  Some of you are very appreciative of that fact.  My wife thinks that food is next to godliness.  You’ve heard the phrase, “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach?”  Well, my wife thinks it should be “the way to God is through a man’s stomach.”  She loves food and loves to cook. Her solution to all of life’s problems is to make a cake.  When we were first married, she hadn’t been a Christian long.  And so she was very disappointed to learn that in heaven there is no marriage.  But the longer we have been married, the more she has come to appreciate that fact.  However, she cheered up considerably when she discovered that the marriage supper of the Lamb is going to last 1000 years.

I’m just kidding, of course.  But my wife does think that food plays an integral part in Christian fellowship.  And I have to admit that she might be on to something.  Jesus seemed to place a great deal of emphasis on food as well.  His first miracle was done at a wedding feast, turning the water into wine. You will remember He fed the 5000 and then another time 3000 some bread and fish.  He conducted the last supper.  After His resurrection, He prepared fish and bread for his disciples for breakfast.  He declared that His words were the manna or bread which had come down out of heaven.  And there are many more examples of Jesus’s use of food or meals as an opportunity to minister or teach. 

Today as well we are looking at three incidents concerning food that Jesus used to teach gospel doctrines. So in keeping with that theme, I have titled today’s message “The gospel in three courses.”  I hope to use, as Jesus did, these three incidences concerning food to teach some important biblical principles. 

The first incident is that of a dinner party held at a new disciple’s house.  Matthew, the author of the Gospel of Matthew, was also called Levi before he was converted.  Levi was a tax collector, or as some of your versions might read, a publican.  These guys were some of the most hated people in Israel.  In the case of a guy like Levi, who was obviously a Jew, he was considered a traitor to his country.  And the reason was that tax collectors worked as agents for Rome, who bid for a territory, promising Rome a certain degree of taxes, and then adding their generous commissions on top of that by Rome’s permission.  So they were generally very wealthy people, but hated by the Jewish population.

It’s interesting that in the previous study last week, we see Jesus healing, even touching the untouchable.  A leper was considered so unclean that you would walk across the street to avoid them.  And now in this passage, once again Jesus reaches out to someone that in Jewish culture was considered abhorrent.  

Now the scene starts with Jesus teaching by the seashore.  Today of course, we are teaching by the seashore.  And we do it for the same reasons that Jesus did it.  Not to be cool, or novel, but first of all out of necessity.  We have no other place, no other building that we can use.  And secondly, we do it because we want to reach people where they are with the gospel. I would love to have a building someday here in Bethany Beach that we can hold services in, but I am sure that we reach people on the beach that we will never reach inside.  

And that’s the case with Jesus’s ministry.  Matthew had his tax office near the seashore in Capernaum.  Matthew must have heard enough of Jesus’s message that he became under conviction.  And as Jesus passed by after the message, He said to Matthew, “Follow Me.”  And the scripture says simply that Matthew got up and followed Him.  In Luke’s gospel account of the same incident, Luke says that Matthew left all, and followed Him.  He walked away from his lucrative business and followed Jesus.

I can imagine Matthew’s surprise not only when Jesus acknowledged him, a despised tax collector, but when Jesus invited Him to follow Him. Jesus obviously knew his heart, He knew that Matthew was convicted by His message and was desiring to become a disciple.  But society would have prevented Matthew from even approaching a proper Jew, much less an esteemed Rabbi.  But Jesus knew Matthew’s heart, knew that he was willing to leave everything in exchange for Christ, and so Jesus simply said to him, “Follow Me.”  And Matthew left a thriving, successful business and never went back.

That’s what is required for salvation, folks.  Not just a tacit acceptance of truth, or intellectual acknowledgment of Christ, but a willingness to forsake everything and follow Him, wherever He leads.  To walk with the Lord, relinquishing your self control to His control.

Well, later that evening, Matthew’s gratitude was so great, that he decided to use whatever resources and opportunities that his job had provided to further the kingdom of God.  Prior to that, his resources and opportunities had always been used for his own advantage.  But in one final grand gesture, he invites all his friends and coworkers who were also outcasts from Jewish society, to come to his dinner party.  And the guest of honor is Jesus.  He wants to use what he had to introduce people to Jesus.  

There is a good principle to be learned in that, as Jesus taught in a parable found in Luke 16:9, ”And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.”  The principle being that your resources even of unrighteous things like money and wealth, should be used to bring people into the kingdom of God, and in so doing, you will store up treasure in heaven.  Matthew might have taken the approach that he no longer had a job and so he needed to conserve whatever money he had left.  But he willingly  spent it on a lavish dinner so that he might bring others into the kingdom of God.

So Jesus attends this dinner party in His honor, at the house of a former despised tax collector, and all of Matthew’s friends from the wrong side of town are in attendance.  Such events were commonly held in the courtyard and open spaces of wealthy homeowners.  So it was evident to everyone in the community that there was a big event going on, and the Pharisees were standing nearby offering criticisms. And so they approached his disciples and asked, “Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?”  Let me explain the word sinners.  It referred to people that openly lived in defiance of Judaic law.  They were people who had received a scarlet letter so to speak, but unable or unwilling to make themselves acceptable in polite Jewish society, they had become outcasts and lived openly in rebellion to Judaism.  So we can imagine the type of crowd that were in attendance.  And of course, the self righteous Pharisees found the whole thing scandalous. 

So they ask the disciples what is Jesus doing?  They want to establish a rift between Jesus and His disciples.  That’s why they don’t go to Him directly.  But once again, Jesus hears their question, whether supernaturally or because the disciples ask Him, and He responds to the Pharisees, ““It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”  Some commentators think that the first part of Jesus’s answer might have been a familiar proverb: “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.”  But whether that’s the case or not, it aptly describes Jesus’s purpose in attending the party. 

The Pharisees had a point in that as people of God, we are called to separate ourselves from the world and not participate in the deeds of darkness.  A lot of Christians today want to label every attempt at that sort of holiness as legalism.  And yet I’m afraid that often in their rush to prove they have a right to do certain things as Christians, they are merely using it as a covering to serve lusts of the flesh. I can tell you that as a person who was saved out of the nightclubbing, partying lifestyle, it would be a mistake for me to start hanging out at the local clubs. 1Corinthians 10:23 says “All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable.” Jude speaks of our attitude being towards such people that walk with the ungodly that we should snatch them out of the fire, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.  There are places where Christians should not go lest we be enticed by the world and drawn into destructive practices.

But Jesus establishes by His answer that is not what He is doing.  He isn’t just hanging out with some of the locals after a hard day of ministry, knocking back a few cold ones.  Far from it.  Rather, Jesus said “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.” He is like a physician that is ministering to the sick.  A doctor may need to visit the sick, but he does so to make them well, and he takes great care not to get contaminated himself.  

So also Jesus teaches that it is not the self righteous that He had come to save, but the sick, the sinner, the one who knows that He is lost. Luke’s version adds that Jesus said, “ but to call sinners to repentance.”  For that repentant person, that sees his sin as a deadly sickness, Jesus stands ready to forgive you and give you righteousness resulting in life as a gift  from God.

Now let’s move on to the second course.  And in this incident we don’t explicitly see anyone eating, but it is understood that the disciples were eating.  We know that because it was evident that the disciples were not fasting.  The only way you can know that is if someone sees you eating.  So the disciples were eating, when the Pharisees were fasting.  And they wanted to know why the disciples weren’t fasting like they were.  They knew also that John the Baptist’s disciples fasted on occasion, and so again they wanted to know why Jesus’s disciples did not fast.  There was a certain self righteous indignation on their part in asking the question, as if to question the legitimacy of Jesus’s ministry. 

This was a serious question as far as Jesus was concerned, as is obvious from the extent of His answer.  Jesus uses no less than three analogies to answer this question of fasting.  The first one Jesus gives is the analogy of a bridegroom and his attendants at a wedding feast. Jesus says when the bridegroom is with the attendants, they cannot fast.  A wedding is a celebration, a festival, a cause for rejoicing.  It would be inconceivable to expect the attendants of the bridegroom to fast while the wedding festivities are going on.  

The analogy is showing the parallel of Jesus’s ministry of the gospel, the good news, to that of a bridegroom taking his bride, which is the church.  God has become man, and made it possible for man to be reconciled to God.  He has chosen to shed abroad His love for man, to  offer forgiveness of sins, and give eternal life.  So Jesus is saying, in light of the fact that His ministry is a ministry of good news, it is to be celebrated, not mourned.  But there will come a day, He says, when He is taken away, and in that day there will be cause for fasting.

The problem with fasting as it was practiced by the Pharisees, was that it was done to be seen of men.  It wasn’t to be right with God.  The Pharisees fasted twice a week, and rubbed ashes on their faces so that everyone knew that they were fasting.  They fasted to be seen of men, and in Matthew 6, Jesus said that such received their reward; the applause of men.  But not of God.  God sees the heart.  And God knows which fast is of repentance, and which is not.  In the case of John’s disciples, they may have been fasting because their leader had been arrested.  And so they paralleled Jesus’s statement concerning HImself, that when He was taken away there would be cause for fasting in that day.  Such was the case for John’s disciples when he was taken away.  So fasting is associated with mourning, but the gospel of Christ is a reason for rejoicing; that the Savior of the world had come and made it possible to become reconciled to God.

The other two analogies are very similar to one another.  One is that of an unshrunk patch of new cloth put in an old garment.  When it is washed, or gets wet and it shrinks, it will tear away from the garment making it worse.  The other analogy is of new wine in old wineskins.  An old, dried out wineskin would not expand with the fermentation of wine and so new wine would burst it, resulting in losing the wine.  In both accounts, Jesus is saying His gospel is something new that cannot fit into the old paradigm.  The old paradigm was the ceremonial aspects of worship, the rituals that were intended to be a picture of Jesus Christ.  But now that the picture is fulfilled in Christ, the symbols are no longer necessary because the real is manifested. So Christ has enacted a new covenant, enacted on better promises, and the old symbols are no longer necessary.  The gospel is such good news, that to try to put it in the old wineskin of the ceremonial law and rituals would be to constrain it so as to even ruin it.  It would not be a covenant of grace, but of law.  Christ came to establish a new covenant, a better covenant, through His sacrifice, and not on the basis of the blood of bulls and goats.  

This principle of a new covenant of grace is spoken of to a great extent in Hebrews, but we will read just a few verses fro chapter 10:11-17 just to get a sense of it. Speaking of the old covenant based on the law it says, “Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins;  but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, waiting from that time onward UNTIL HIS ENEMIES BE MADE A FOOTSTOOL FOR HIS FEET.  For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. 15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying, "THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THEM AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS UPON THEIR HEART, AND ON THEIR MIND I WILL WRITE THEM," He then says, "AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE.”

And in Romans 8:2-4 we read that these two covenants are contrasted as flesh and Spirit. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.  For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”  So the old fleshly requirements of the law such as fasting and washing and rituals  that could never make us righteous have been replaced by a new law of the Spirit, who is given to us that we might have new life in Christ.  This is certainly good news worth celebrating.

Now let’s look at the final course.  Again we see the disciples eating.  This time however, they are eating on the run.  This is the first century equivalent of a drive through fast food restaurant.  They are walking through a grain field on a Sabbath day and pulling the grain off of the stalks and eating it.  This was called gleaning and it was provided for under the law.  It was legal, and it was a way that God provided for the poor or destitute so that they might have enough to eat.

But the Pharisees were also tagging along, trying to find something to criticize, some reason to find fault with Jesus’s teaching. And since it also happened to be the Sabbath, they thought they had found it.  Because the Pharisees and their lawyers had so embellished the law that they had made a bunch of little laws to keep from breaking the big law.  If God said to do no work on the Sabbath in the 10 commandments, then they established 39 other laws defining how to keep the Sabbath, or what constitutes work.  The problem was, as Jesus said later on, they tied burdens impossible to bear on other men’s heads, but they refused to bear them themselves.  They defined the law to the nth degree not because of a zealousness to keep the law, but so they might know how to manipulate it to their advantage.  

For instance, they said that you could not bear a burden on your back, or carry it in your hand on the Sabbath, because that would be work.  But you could carry it on your foot, or your elbow, or tie it to your hair.  And so they had all these crazy ways worked out to get around the law.  But for the uninformed, they gave the appearance of being strict and zealous for righteousness, when in fact they used it to restrict others but not themselves.  

So now they tried to turn Jesus against His disciples.  They said to Him, ““Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”  They made the case that the disciples were harvesting grain, thus they were working and breaking the Sabbath.  Jesus answers them by taking them back to the Old Testament, the source of the law, and says to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions became hungry;

how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests, and he also gave it to those who were with him?”

Now in using this example, Jesus is showing that the high priest had no problem giving David what was considered unlawful for him to eat.  The showbread on the altar was for the priests to eat, and it was unlawful for anyone else.  It was holy to the Lord.  But the high priest recognized that David and his men were starving, and in need of food, and so there was another law which took precedence over the ceremonial law.  It was a law of mercy which triumphs over judgment.  Jesus would say later on another occasion in Luke 14:5, if your ox fell into a well on the Sabbath,  which of you would not take it out?  There was a principle inherent in the scriptures, that the preservation of life takes precedence over ceremony.  

So Jesus says in vs.27, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.”  By that statement Jesus shows the order of creation establishes the precedence of life over ceremony.  Man was made before the Sabbath.  Thus the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.  The Sabbath was given that man might have rest from his labors.  

In the new covenant that Jesus came to establish, Jesus fulfilled the symbolism of the Sabbath.  He provides the Sabbath rest in that He did the work that we can rest in.  In Hebrews 4:9-10 it says,  “So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.”   Thus in the new covenant the Sabbath was changed from Saturday to Sunday, as Christ rose from the dead, so that we walk in newness of life and not labor in our dead works.  We rest in HIs righteousness, and not ours. He is the Sabbath rest that we have entered into. 

And Jesus confirms that in vs.28 saying, “So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” In other words, Jesus made the Sabbath.  He is Lord of the Sabbath.  He was not subject to the Sabbath.  And as Lord of the Sabbath, He can use the Sabbath anyway He wants.  And He has chosen to give us rest from our works, so that we might have rest in Him.  Because He finished His work, we can rest from ours. 

So in closing, I would just say that these three courses in the gospel represent salvation.  First, Jesus came to save sinners.  If you recognize you are a sinner, if you are sick of your sin, then Jesus is the Physician that has come to save you.  Secondly, the good news is that it is not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to God’s mercy He saves us.  God has come to man in Christ Jesus to reconcile us to God, so that we might have forgiveness and be invited to become the bride, or church, of God.  The gospel is the good news, it is the source of joy, peace and life.  And then thirdly, when you receive Jesus, when you follow  Him as your Savior and Lord, then He will give you rest.  You can rest in His righteousness and find rest for your souls.  

Jesus said in Matthew11:28-30 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.  "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

Not only does the Lord want to give you forgiveness and rest, but He wants to have fellowship with you, to be with you as His bride forever.  And there is verse in Revelation that speaks to that desire of Christ for His bride.  And actually it’s in another reference to food.  It’s an invitation to dinner.  Jesus says in Revelation 3:20  'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.”  I hope you will answer the door.  

The gospel’s authority to forgive sin, Mark 2: 1-12

I’ve said it many times before, that every miracle of the gospels is a spiritual parable, meant to teach spiritual principles.  And we are looking at such a miracle today and the spiritual principles that we can learn from it.

Last time we talked about the gospel’s authority over the spiritual realm and the physical realm;  the spiritual realm was illustrated by Jesus casting out the demon of the man in Capernaum, and then the physical realm was illustrated by the healing of the leper.  Today, Mark is showing us the priority of the spiritual over the physical. The purpose of Christ coming to the earth, the purpose of the gospel, is to free men from sin. 1 John 3:8 says “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.”  He came to set the captives free from the dominion of darkness, to proclaim liberty to the captives.  Christ’s authority over sin is the spiritual emancipation that delivers the physical from bondage.  Sin is the root cause of all of life’s ills.  The biggest problem in society is not lack of money or education, or resources.  The biggest problem in life is the need for forgiveness of one’s sins.

So as I said the purpose then of the miracle is to teach spiritual principles.  It is not to give us the idea that God intends for all people to be healed physically.  There are a lot of fake healers out there who purport that God doesn’t want anyone to remain in illness or any sort of malady.  And that it is a matter of faith to claim your healing. They say if you aren’t healed, it is due to a lack of faith.  I am here to tell you today that is not what the Bible teaches.  Paul had faith more than anyone, and he asked God three times for his thorn in the flesh to be removed from him, and yet God told him that His power is made perfect in weakness, and His grace was sufficient for Him to endure his illness.  As I said a moment ago, God’s purpose in the gospel is to deliver men from sin, so that they might have spiritual life, that they might escape the second death, and that they might have fellowship with God.  Everyone is going to die sooner or later.  You may be healed from cancer, or some other sort of illness, but you will still die.  The million dollar question is whether you will die in your sins, or be forgiven and receive eternal life.

Now there are several principles that we can establish that are being taught through this miracle.  Let’s take them in order of appearance.  We left off last time with the leper being cleansed, and contrary to Jesus’s command, he broadcast it far and wide, so that Jesus could hardly preach or teach due to the crowds that came looking for a miracle.  We can determine from the gospel accounts, that the crowds were drawn to the miracles, but Jesus did not want them to come for that reason.  Thus he told the leper not to tell of his healing, except to the priests.  Jesus wanted him to follow the law’s requirements for healing of leprosy and present himself to the priests so that he would be declared clean and could return to society.  Jesus wasn’t interested in building a ministry based on sensationalism.  He wasn’t interested in drawing a crowd who were just interested in miracles. But Jesus’s main ministry was preaching the gospel.  His main ministry was preaching the word.  And so that is what we find Him doing in vs 1.  He’s come back to Capernaum after a long time away, and He is in His home or possibly Peter’s home, and He is preaching the word.  Jesus would say later, that the truth would make you free.  That is the purpose of preaching the gospel.  Only the truth will make you free from the captivity and dominion of sin.  

There are a lot of people out there teaching a mixture of man’s philosophy or psychology with a little bit of the gospel mixed in.  It has the appearance of godliness, but it is man’s wisdom. It is presented as self improvement.  I heard a Christian counseling program on the radio the other day, and they gave 5 points to some poor guy who was struggling.  The first step they recommended was to go to a psychiatrist and get some anti-depressant medicine, 2, see a counselor weekly, and so on.  Around #4 they said go to a men’s Bible study, and the last one was another secular program. It sounded like wise counsel according to man’s wisdom. But that is not the truth of the gospel. Paul said in 1Cor. 2:3-7, 13 “I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling,  and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,  so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.  Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away;  but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; ... 13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.”

So we need to be aware that the wisdom of God, the power of the gospel, is the the only thing that really has the power to save.  A lot of man’s wisdom sounds good, because it focuses on the physical.  But the root of all man’s troubles are spiritual, and the sin that causes death. Jesus was teaching the word in Capernaum.  That reveals the priority of the gospel.

The second principle I want to point out is the necessity for personal evangelism.  I don’t like to use the word evangelism though.  It sounds as if it’s some sort of revival crusade.  How about we substitute the phrase personal intervention. If we can agree that sin is the source of all problems, and that the gospel is the only cure for it, then it stands to reason that men and women must help those caught in sin to come to the One who can help them.  The problem with sin is that it is a trap.  Again and again in the gospels we see sin likened to death, to leprosy, to lameness, to blindness, and here in this text, to being paralyzed. The point being that such people are in many cases helpless to help themselves.  And as such they are a perfect picture of those who are trapped in sin.  Sin is a condition that blinds people to the truth, that traps people in addiction, that causes people to be so handicapped that they are unable to extricate themselves on their own.  And so their salvation many times is dependent upon a divine intervention.  And God uses people to intervene on their behalf.  That is what the Bible calls love.  To intervene on behalf of others is loving one another.

This principle  is such an integral part of the gospel. Jesus came not to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through Him.  So as His ambassadors, we too must be about saving the world.  In Zechariah 3 there is a vision of Joshua the High Priest, and he is standing in front of God in filthy garments.  And it says that Satan was standing next to him to accuse him.  But the Lord rebuked Satan saying, “The LORD rebuke you, Satan! Indeed, the LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” And the Lord removed Joshua’s filthy garments and clothed him in righteous garments.  And as Christians, our mission is not to accuse the world as Satan does, but to tell the world of the forgiveness that is made possible through Christ, to pluck them as a brand from the fire.

As people who have the mind of Christ (let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus) our reactions towards those caught in sin should be one of forgiveness, love, encouragement, esteeming their needs for salvation as worth any cost.  The devil stands at our side to accuse us and discourage us, to tell us to give up and give in.  But we are not of the devil, so we do not stand accusing, but rather forgiving, loving, helping and encouraging the weak. That is what I mean by intervention. And God has commissioned you to be that intervener.  It’s not the job of angels, it’s not the job of psychiatrists or professional counselors, but God has chosen you to go to the lost in love, by personal sacrifice, and help them to come to him.

So it’s the mission of all Christians, to go into the world and proclaim the good news to all people.  God wants to use  us to spread the gospel, so that all may be saved.  God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.  So there is a great urgency in the gospel; people are perishing and the gospel is the antidote to sin and the death that is it’s consequence.  Not only is there an urgency, but there is a blessing.  James says in James 5:19-20 “My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”  So there is a great blessing to those who answer that call of God to go to the lost and turn them to God.

Jesus illustrated this need for intervention by telling a parable about leaving the 99 who need no repentance and seeking out the one who is lost.  In another place He gave a parable about the Good Samaritan, which not only teaches us to love our neighbor, but shows us that real love reaches down even to the stranger with the saving news of the gospel, no matter the cost or inconvenience to ourselves. No matter how much we may think the poor sinner brought it upon themselves.  Realizing but for the grace of God so goes us all.

Now let’s look at this example in our text.  Note that this paralyzed man had four friends that were determined to bring him to Christ. Four interveners.  Oh that every sinner had four such friends that were determined to bring them to Christ.  So determined were these friends that nothing would stop them.  Here we see that the great crowds were actually a deterrent to the saving power of the gospel.  God is not always in great crowds.  Man seems to equate a large crowd with effective evangelism.  But that is not so with God. 

Nevertheless, they would not let the obstacles stop them.  They climbed on the roof of the house where Jesus was teaching, and tore off the roof.  These houses were built usually one story, with flat tiled roofs, and an exterior staircase.  But can you imagine the consternation of the crowd inside and crowded around the doorway, when the roof starts being torn apart during the service, and they lower a man down  on a  stretcher at the feet of Jesus.

I would to God that we would all have such determination to see the lost saved.  In this politically correct climate we live in today we are so afraid anymore of embarrassing anyone, of inconveniencing someone, least of all inconveniencing ourselves, that we dare not bother anyone with the gospel.  Eric Clapton wrote a song a few years ago called “Tears in Heaven.”  And he repeats the oft quoted adage that there are no tears in heaven. But my friends, I think many of us are going to be in tears in heaven.  The Bible says that Jesus will wipe away all tears.  But that is after we are in heaven.  And if I can make the suggestion without being too dogmatic, I think there are going to be tears in heaven for us when we see our loved ones, our friends, cast into outer darkness for eternity, knowing that we did not do all that we could have done to bring them to the Lord.  I think the problem is that most Christians don’t really believe the Bible.  Somehow, they think that though their loved one was not saved, yet somehow Hell does not really exist, and God will not actually keep His word.  Because if we truly believed the Bible, we would move heaven and earth to bring our loved ones to the Lord.

Well, moving on, Mark says in vs.5, “And Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”  Now I want to point out something here that is going to surprise you perhaps.  But notice that Mark said, Jesus “seeing their faith….”  Now most commentators say that includes all five people.  But I tend to think that it is specifically speaking of the faith of the four friends.  I think there is a principle here that your faith, and your actions in faith, can contribute to another’s salvation.  Let me say that again.  Your faith, and your actions in faith, can contribute to another’s salvation.  Now you can’t be saved for them. But you can contend for them.  You can intercede for them.  You can intervene for them.  You can compel them to come to the Lord using every means at your disposal.

I’ll give you an Old Testament example of this principle. The Lord visited Abraham in human form one evening.  And as He was ready to leave, the Lord told Abraham what He was about to do.  He said the news of Sodom and Gomorrah’s debauchery had reached heaven, and He was going to see just how bad it was, and if it was as He had heard, He was going to destroy it.  (Gen.18)  But Abraham said, “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?”  He then began to negotiate with God for the deliverance of his nephew, Lot.  Abraham started by saying, what if there are 50 righteous, will you destroy the city? And God said “No, I won’t destroy it for the sake of 50.”  But as you are familiar with the story, Abraham negotiated with God down to 10 people.  Turns out there were not 10 righteous people either, but for the sake of righteous Lot, God did send two angels to take him out of the city before the destruction came.  

Now that’s not a perfect illustration perhaps, but it is evidence of our ability to intervene with God on another’s behalf.  James says in James 5:14-15 “Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord;  and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.”  Everyone likes to quote those verses to suggest the power of healing, but I would point to the last part, which says if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him based on the prayers of others.  I think it clearly teaches that we can pray for one another for spiritual healing, for sins to be forgiven, for their soul to be saved.  And I think we can be effective in that at least to some degree.  

You know if I were to ask a rhetorical question this morning, of how many of you have unsaved loved ones, I’m sure that 3/4 of you would raise your hands.  But I wonder if I said how many of you spent even an hour, 60 actual minutes, praying for that loved one this week, how many would still raise their hands?  There are 168 hours in a week. Is their soul not worth one hour to you?

John says something similar in 1John 5:1616 “If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death.”  Again, the principle is that someone sees his brother sinning, and petitions God on his behalf.   God uses people to reach people, to bring them to God.  We have a mission, and a responsibility to reach the lost for Christ.

The next principle I want us to look at is the priority of the spiritual over the physical.  Now I have already alluded to this principle’s importance in my opening statements.  But let’s unpack this a bit more as I believe God has a lot to say on this subject.  First of all, we need to understand that in the Hebrew mind, the paralytic was obviously a terrible sinner whom God was judging in the flesh for everyone to witness.  That was their understanding of sickness; that God brought it about as judgment.  You will remember the disciples in John 9 asking Jesus about a blind man, saying, ““Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” That was the common perception.  Well, in that case, Jesus had answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”  

But that teaching comes later.  At this point, I think Jesus plays into their misconceptions in order to teach a couple of important lessons.  So Jesus says, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”  Now there are a couple of things going on here.  I don’t think that it was that surprising that He would say that as far as the Pharisees were concerned, because they thought that sin was the reason this man was paralyzed.  However, from our perspective, we automatically think that it’s a strange thing to say, because we think that the obvious problem was the man’s paralysis.  

Jesus though answers all those problems with these words.  His insightfulness cuts right to the quick of the real problem. First He shows the Pharisees that He is God.  And He does that because of the principle that one cannot forgive someone of a sin against another.  One forgives a sin against himself.  I heard it illustrated this way.  Tom, Dick and Harry were hanging out together, and Tom punched Dick in the nose.  Harry went over and told Tom, I forgive you for punching Dick.  But Dick objected, and said you can’t forgive him, he didn’t punch you, he punched me.  The point being, the one injured is the one who has the power to forgive.  In forgiving the paralytic, Jesus was teaching that all sins were against God, and He was God.  He alone had the power to forgive sin.  

Secondly, He was teaching us, that the physical problem is not the primary problem.  It’s a symptom of a deeper problem.  Jesus, seeing the heart, goes to the root of the problem.  All sickness finds it’s root in sin.  Now I know that is not a popular thing to say in this day and age.  I might get stoned, or pelted with sand in this case, for saying such a thing.  I’m not saying that every illness is the result of an individual’s particular sin.  I am saying that sin is the result of living in a fallen world.  Romans 5:12 says, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.”  Sin is the cause of death, and death is the result of illness. The wages of sin is death.  It is appointed unto man once to die.  It is part of the curse that came upon the human race at the fall.

But in this modern world of healthcare and hospitals and luxury lifestyles, we suffer under the misconception that God wants everyone to be healthy, wealthy and happy.  So from our perspective, the most important thing is health.  But from God’s perspective, the most important thing is eternal life, undoing the curse of the fall.  Unfortunately, oftentimes today  even church leadership has the same short sided perspective.  I was at a pastor’s conference a few years ago, and about a 1000 pastors were there from all over the country.  A missionary was speaking about reaching one village after another with the gospel.  They had never heard it before.  And so entire villages were being saved and they had baptisms immediately afterwards before moving on the next village.  The missionary spoke of how dozens and dozens, if not hundreds of natives were saved in village after village.  And as he spoke, I heard a few Amens grunted here and there from the crowd.  But then he spoke of a baptism in which one woman’s baby died.  And she brought the baby to the pastor, and he said when it touched the water it came back to life, and he gave it back to the mother.  And the whole crowd of pastors gave him a standing ovation.  I found it incongruous that when 100’s of people were saved from the second death there were a few grunts of Amen.  But when one baby is saved from the first death, it results in a standing ovation.  That tells you where our theology is focused, ladies and gentlemen.  We are not focused on men’s souls, but on men’s health and prosperity.

The most important principle taught here though is that of Christ’s authority to forgive sin. When Jesus said “your sins are forgiven,” the Pharisees started thinking “blasphemy!”  They thought that they had found something to pin on Jesus in order to condemn Him.  But Mark says that Jesus knew their hearts.  He knew what they were thinking in their minds.  I wish that we really believed that.  That God could read our minds.  If we truly believed that we would be down on our knees this morning asking for forgiveness for ourselves.  Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”  Well, God knows your heart.

Mark 2:6-9 “But some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts,  "Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God alone?"  Immediately Jesus, aware in His spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves, said to them, "Why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts?  "Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven'; or to say, 'Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk'?

So we see that the Lord is willing to illustrate His authority over sin through physical healing.  But the question He asks bears some scrutiny.  The question of which is easier to say?  Well it is certainly easier to say your sins be forgiven you if you are a charlatan. Because it is virtually impossible in this life to know if they are forgiven or not.  So on the surface it would seem that Jesus is saying that it is harder to say “Get up and walk” because that requires results in real time.  Not in eternity out there some where, but right here, right now.  

But in actuality, Jesus may have been saying that it is harder to say “your sins are forgiven.”  Because Jesus was the truth personified.  He could not lie.  And so for Him to be able to say that your sins are forgiven, then He had to be willing to die on the cross for sins.  In that respect, it is immeasurably harder to forgive sins than to heal a physical handicap.  A doctor can in some cases heal, but only God can forgive sins.  

It’s interesting that the word used for “forgiven” means literally to be sent away.  I spoke a couple of weeks ago in chapter one about how after Jesus’s baptism the Holy Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness.  And I said then that was a  picture of the Day of Atonement ceremony, when the scapegoat was laid upon symbolically with the sins of the people and then driven out into the wilderness to bear away their sins.  And how Christ, the sinless Lamb of God bore our sins away.  Here again we see that illustrated.  Jesus does not merely say “I will forget about your sins, they are not important,” but He illustrates the need to bear them away. God’s justice requires that sin be paid for.  And Christ came to take away our sins upon Himself  so that we might be made free.  So it was more difficult to say “your sins are forgiven.”

But again, Jesus knows their hearts, knows their misconceptions, and so He answers them in their ignorance.  He says in vs10, “But so 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, get up, pick up your pallet and go home.”

Please understand this.  It is not that Jesus had the power to heal, therefore He has the power to forgive.  But He has the power to forgive, therefore He has the power to heal.  According to Hebrews 7:25, “He is able to save to the uttermost that come to God by Him, seeing that He ever lives to make intercession for them.” He is able to save not only physically, but eternally, because He is able to deal with the root cause of all infirmity, of all death. 

It’s interesting that the word that Jesus uses to say get up, or rise up, is the same word that is used by Mark to speak of Jesus’s resurrection from the dead.  So there is a sense in which as Jesus is healing him physically, He is also healing him spiritually, in raising him from his deadness, to walk in new life in Christ.

And that teaches us the final principle.  That the Christian life is not just believing in some sort of detached, theological or intellectual way.  But that in our sinful state we are incapacitated, unable to walk in the Spirit.  Unable to walk in fellowship with God.  Sin has paralyzed us spiritually, so that we are dead in our trespasses and sins.  But when the love of God appeared, we are saved not on the basis of our works, which was impossible being dead and in our sins.  But we were saved on the basis of Christ’s righteousness through the grace of God which is ` credited towards us.   Then being forgiven and clothed in His righteousness, we are made able to walk in new life through the power of the Holy Spirit who now dwells in us.  Faith is always tied to action in the Bible.  Rise up and walk.  Come and follow Me.  

Notice in vs.12  the result; “And he got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went out in the sight of everyone, so that they were all amazed and were glorifying God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this.”  Let me say it this way, a life that is transformed, that walks out their faith by their actions in the community, will result in not only the amazement of your community, but it will also glorify God.  Our testimony is not necessarily our words, but our actions.  When we live a life that is radically different than before, when we take on the nature of the life of Christ, then we bring glory to God.  And that is our purpose.  That is why God leaves us on this earth, to be useful in service to Him.  But for the grace of God we should all be in the death grip of infirmity.  God has granted us life and health so that we might serve Him and bring glory to God.  And when we have fulfilled that purpose according to His will, He will take us home to be with Him.  Until that day, let us use wisely the stewardship of life that He has given us, and be about the business of our Father, building up the kingdom of God.