The Healing of the Paralytic, Part 1

Introduction and Reading of Mark 2:1-12

0:02 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, May 6th, 1984, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now will you turn with me, please, to the second chapter of Mark's Gospel, the Gospel according to Mark, and follow in your own Bibles as I read the first twelve verses, Mark chapter 2, verses 1 through 12. With reference to our Lord, Mark writes,

1:07 A paralytic, and they come bringing unto him a paralytic born of four. And when they could not come near unto him for the crowd, they uncovered the roof where he was, and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed or the pallet whereon the paralytic lay. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said unto the paralytic, Son, Thy sins are forgiven. But there were certain of the scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, Why does this man speak this way?

1:49 He blasphemes. Who can forgive sins but one, even God? And straightway Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, said unto them, Why do you reason these things in your hearts? Which is easier?

2:08 To say to the sick of the palsy, Your sins are forgiven? Or to say, Arise, and take up your bed, and walk? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, he said to the paralytic, I say unto you, Arise, take up your bed, and go unto your house. And he arose, and straightway took up his bed, and went.

2:38 And he went forth before them all, insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion. Now let us again seek the face of God in prayer for the Lord's blessing upon our study of his own holy and infallible word. Our Father, as we come again this morning to this record of the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus, we remember his own words concerning the sending of the Holy Spirit, that he would come and take of the very things of himself and reveal them to the people of God. And we pray that the Spirit who has spoken in the Scriptures would come this morning to illuminate our minds, that we may behold the very glory of our Savior in this portion of his word. Holy Spirit, take of the things of Christ and reveal them to us this morning, we plead. Amen.

The Shifting Emphasis in Mark's Gospel: From Popularity to Opposition

3:53 Now as we return this morning to our studies in the Gospel of Mark, we shall consider together the specific contents and message of the paragraph read in your hearing. However, before we begin this consideration of verses 1 through 12 in detail, we need to pause and reflect on the passage of the Gospel of Mark. We need to pause and reflect on the passage of the Gospel of Mark. We need to pause and reflect on the passage of the Gospel of Mark.

4:18 We need to pause and spend a brief time seeking to be sensitive to the very noticeable shift in the emphasis of Mark's record of the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now this shift of emphasis begins in the paragraph read in your hearing. It goes clean through the second chapter and on into the third chapter, coming to its fullest expression in chapter 3, and verse 6. In chapter 1, those of you who are with us for the expositions will remember that in this chapter our Lord was set before us as the mighty worker whose ministry of healing and preaching and casting out demons brought him to a crest of tremendous notoriety and popularity throughout Galilee, that is, the northern part of Palestine. In all of this, there was opposition from the devil, from demons, and even a measure of what we might call a wholesome opposition from the very popularity for the chapter closed, saying that after the leper went about in disobedience to the Lord, telling people what happened to him, Jesus could no longer openly enter into a city because of the tremendous pressure of the thronging multitudes.

5:45 But when we begin our study of chapter 2, we notice that Mark begins to lay before us a theme that introduces an entirely different note. For now it is no longer merely opposition from the devil and from demons, but there is concentrated opposition from organized religious leaders. You will notice in chapter 2 and verse 6 that Mark tells us that there were certain opponents, the scribes, sitting there and reasoning in their hearts. In the next incident, the calling of Levi, we read in chapter 2 and verse 16, and the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was sitting or eating with sinners and publicans, said unto his disciples, and then the next incident is a question about the apparent lack of ascetic practices in the life and ministry, and who raises the question? Verse 24, And the Pharisees said unto him, Why do they on the Sabbath day, that which is not lawful, I'm sorry, verse 18 is the question about fasting, which is asked by John's disciples and the Pharisees, and then verse 24, it's a question from the Pharisees again concerning his activities on the Sabbath,

7:14 and then in chapter 3 and verse 6 we read, And the Pharisees went out and straightway with the Herodians took counsel together against him, how they might destroy him. So you'll notice there is the introduction of this theme of the opposition of the organized religious leaders, or the leaders of organized religion. And it begins in a rather subtle way with their reasonings within their hearts. It's in the passage read in your hearing.

7:48 The opposition of the Pharisees and scribes would be utterly unknown to us did Jesus not reveal it in his own words. He said, Why do you thus reason within your hearts? But by the time we come to their opposition to his close affinity with sinners such as Levi and other publicans, they now begin to get bold enough to ask his disciples, Why does your master eat with publicans and sinners? And by the time we come to verse 18 they're getting even a little bit bolder in company with others.

8:24 They come to the Lord himself and they ask a question. And now by the time we come to verse 24 they're bolder yet. They don't even need the support of another group. They come simply as Pharisees and challenge his Sabbath activities.

8:39 And by the time we reach chapter 3 and verse 6 they join with the Herodians, those who were up to this point their inveterate enemies, and they now lock arms with them and they have no less an end in view than the utter destruction, the doing away with our Lord Jesus Christ. So you see that progression? From mere thoughts and reasonings within their hearts that he's a blasphemer, there is this progression of expressed hostility and opposition until it climaxes in chapter 3 and verse 6 with their commitment to seek to find a way that they might destroy the Lord Jesus Christ. So in a very real sense, Mark has used this very opposition of the scribes and Pharisees as the organizing principle of this section of his gospel. As he continues to describe the Galilean ministry of our Lord Jesus, he turns from these marvelous statements of his mighty work and his popularity in chapter 2 to further...

9:47 to further statements of his mighty work, but his mighty work selected on the basis of the opposition which it precipitated particularly from the scribes and Pharisees. Now why do you think Mark did that? Well, you say because the Holy Spirit guided him to do it. That's the bottom line.

10:08 Yes, he wrote under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. But is there any discernible purpose which Mark himself might have had to do? He had in mind which became the very instrument that the Spirit of God used to give us this section of the gospel. And I think we need not look far for the answer.

10:30 Mark's overarching concern was announced to us in the very first words of his gospel record. Chapter 1 in verse 1. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He is concerned to set forth the gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ, God's Son.

10:52 And in what events does the gospel find its pinnacle expressions? In the events that Mark will record for us in what has now come to us as chapters 14 and 15 of his gospel. He will go into the same kind of graphic detail that we've been reading in Matthew's gospel relative to the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ outside the gospel. The city gates of Jerusalem suffering as a common malefactor.

11:24 He will describe that glorious fact which is central to the gospel, namely, Christ died for our sins. And in a very real sense, what Mark is doing is he is giving us an account of certain events in the life and ministry of Christ in this part of his Galilean ministry over which he takes a felt mark and he outlines for us a cross. And there is, as it were, a shadow being cast backward from the cross upon this earlier segment of our Lord's ministry for it was this very spirit manifested in chapter 3 and verse 6 that from the human side ultimately led to our Lord's crucifixion. It was this commitment on the part of the leaders of organized ministries to do away with this Jesus of Nazareth which resulted in his crucifixion. And so Mark, as it were, gives us this preview of the ultimate rejection that we might not be shocked when we come to it and that you and I in reading through the record might be reminded that though the Lord Jesus is set before us as God's servant and mighty worker who preaches with power, who heals the sick, who casts out demons,

12:53 his ultimate purpose was not even to be an earthly preacher and to be a healer and to be the one who binds the strong man and casts out demons. But he was born to die. And the rejection that is here set before us would find its culminating expression in that rejection which results in the cross. Well, that's the setting now of chapter 2 and on into chapter 3 up to verse 6.

The Setting of the Incident: Capernaum and the Crowded House

13:26 And having sketched in by way of introduction that general flavor of the setting and the emphasis of this part of the gospel, now we come this morning to this first incident in chapter 2, the healing and the forgiving of the paralytic. And all we'll have time to do this morning is first of all to grasp the major feature facts of the incident and then secondly the major point of application in this incident. And God willing, next week we will flesh out many of the secondary lines of application and instruction contained in these 12 verses. Now the major facts of the incident are grouped like a good speech with an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion. Now the introduction is the setting of the incident recorded in verses 1 to 2. Notice now the setting of the incident as given to us in verses 1 and 2. When he, speaking of the Lord Jesus, entered again into Capernaum after some days, it was noised that he was in the house.

14:36 And many were gathered together so there was no longer room for them, no, not even about the door, and he spoke the word unto them. The setting of the incident is very important. Very clearly set before us by Mark. After the completion of the preaching tour throughout Galilee described in chapter 1 and verse 39 and again in verse 45, Jesus returns after some days to his base of operation in the city of Capernaum.

15:10 In the parallel passage in Matthew 9, Matthew calls Capernaum Jesus' own city. And Capernaum, as we discovered in previous studies, was now the base of our Lord's operation. When he returns to Capernaum, he is found in house. Like our English friends say, so-and-so is in hospital.

15:34 A more literal rending would be that Jesus is in house. And what it means by that is that he had again taken up his residence either in that house described in chapter 1 in verse 29, the house of Simon and Andrew, or it could have been his own house, temporarily occupied along with some of his disciples and perhaps his own relatives. And the commentators go round and round and round as to whose house it may have been, but frankly, I don't see the relevance of having to decide whose house it was. The important thing is that the passage comes to us in the setting of a house instead of the synagogue or the open air or by the seashore.

16:15 And so our Lord returns from this preaching itinerary, takes up his residence in what is now called his own city, his city away from his home, his home away from home, and he's not there long, but word spreads around that he is there. And in the light of his past activity in Capernaum and even in a house, his healing ministry, his preaching ministry, the people do not wait for the next Sabbath to hear Jesus of Nazareth, to hear Jesus of Nazareth preach. And the text tells us that they crowd into that house. We don't know how large a room it was, and here again the commentators describe all kinds of houses.

17:00 All we need to remember is this. When it says he was in the house, it does not mean he was in a dwelling that is like a Cape Cod, a split or bi-level or ranch home of the 20th century in suburbia. Or we need to understand it was not even anything like a row house, or an old brownstone in an old inner city dwelling. It was a house in Palestine in the first century.

17:29 And so when we read some things that seem rather strange, put yourself in your space capsule, remember the message of some months ago, and don't try to import into the word house what a house means to you. It was what a house was at that time and in those circumstances. And the crowds come from the city and throng every available place in the house where they can see and hear Jesus. And many of them can't get in.

17:57 And so the door becomes like the open end of the funnel. And the text tells us, and it's a stroke that only Mark gives us, that the crowd is pressing in even about the door. And so you get the picture of people who can't get in and they're spilling over from the doorway perhaps out into a little courtyard or perhaps the house was right out on the street. And there, there's the picture and Jesus is found in the midst preaching unto them.

18:25 And the word used for preaching is the less strong word. He is informally speaking the word unto them. And there is a touch that Luke gives us that's absolutely vital if we're to understand the passage. For in the midst of that crowd there were not a few of those religious leaders.

18:46 Luke chapter 5 and verse 17, tells us the parallel passage. And it came to pass on one of those days that he was teaching and there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by who were come out of every village of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal. And behold, men bring on a bed a man who was a paralytic.

19:17 But here was this large contingent of Pharisees and doctors of the law. Notice, not only from the major cities and villages of Galilee, but further down in Judea and all the way from down in Jerusalem.

19:35 So you see, something is going on in the network of communication amongst these leaders of organized religion. So that all the way down in Jerusalem, word spreads that Jesus is back home in Capernaum. And they come together from Jerusalem, Judea, and the cities and villages of Galilee, representatives of this powerful religious leadership sect, the Pharisees and the doctors of the law, the official instructors and guides of the people. And in that crowd, there is no little contingency of this bunch.

20:15 Now that's absolutely vital in understanding the passage. And so the setting of the law is the setting of the law. The setting should be clear. I hope you have it vividly in your mind.

The Paralytic's Approach and Determined Access to Jesus

20:25 Then we come to the details of the actual incident with the paralytic. First of all, there is the approach to Jesus described in verse 3. The approach to Jesus. And they come, bringing unto him a paralytic born or carried by four.

20:46 So here is the picture of a man who has a disease that has led him to a hospital. He has left him, if not completely paralyzed, paralyzed to such a degree that he is unable to walk. He was not ambulatory. And so four men are found carrying him.

21:05 And again, not upon a bed as we know a bed. Something very substantial with a box spring and a mattress on top. But it would be more like the little foam mattress that some of you put under your sleeping bag when you go camping. Something that would, it would be more like a few layers of quilts sewed together.

21:25 And so you must picture these four men, probably each one holding a corner of this thick quilt. And on it, this paralytic. And their purpose is to come toward Jesus. Notice the text says, and they come, bringing unto him.

21:42 Their purpose is to bring this one into the very immediate presence of Jesus in the confidence that if they, in bringing there, there is hope for his pitiful condition. So there's their approach to Jesus. Then verse four describes their determined access to Jesus. And when they could not come nigh unto him for the crowd, they uncovered, they literally unroofed the roof.

22:11 And that would be a literal translation where he was. And when they had broken it up, they let down the pallet, the quilted, the bed whereon the sick or the paralytic lay. Now they get into trouble. They want to come to Jesus.

22:28 They get close to the house and they see the doorway is jammed. And the people jammed into the doorway are on their tiptoes looking in and straining to hear. And behind them, others jostling and pushing. And they can't get in.

22:41 So what do they do? And here again, the commentators write page after page and the archaeologists and the people who visit Palestine tell us their theories. All we know is this. They got up on top of the roof.

22:55 But remember, it wasn't a pitched roof like we now have. So don't think in terms of our roofs. It was a flat roof. And as we bring together particularly the added details of the Gospel of Luke, what they did is to remove the very rather flimsy, according to our standards, covering of the roof.

23:16 And then they let down this man on his pallet whether, the space was such that they could actually reach down or whether they found some ropes and tied on the corner. It doesn't tell us. All the text tells us is this. That they were determined to have access to Jesus.

23:34 And in that determination, when they couldn't get through the door, they came down from the roof in order to place this needy friend in the presence of Jesus of Nazareth. Now, imagine what this must have done for that man. A crowd who was listening to Jesus who was doing what? Speaking the Word.

23:55 Hear He speak. All eyes are upon Him. People who were there in the doorway are straining to look in and to listen and hear. And all of a sudden, they hear a commotion above Jesus' head.

24:08 Now, if you were here this morning, most of you are looking at me while I'm preaching. And all of a sudden, while I'm preaching and you're trying to pay attention to me as I'm speaking the Word, you heard some commotion right up in this area. Some rattling, some scraping. And then you began to see some dust fall down through.

24:27 I think you'd find it hard to concentrate on me talking, wouldn't you? What would happen? Instinctively, your eyes would look up and say, what in the world is going on around here? Well, people were no different then.

24:38 And we have every reason to believe that this was not done silently, that it was done in a completely sterile situation with no dust, no clatter, no noise. So we can only imagine our Lord Jesus being silent and sensitive to people. I doubt He would have droned on when He lost people's attention. So when the noise and the dust and the commotion and the distraction were such that He could no longer communicate, I can only picture our Lord standing back and looking.

25:09 Now as His eyes are fixed at that place, all eyes are fixed there and everyone wonders what in the world is going on? And then suddenly they see the clear blue Palestinian sky.

25:23 And next, they begin to see a thick quilt-like something being let down. And right before their eyes, right in front of the standing Lord Jesus, the paralytic is laid. That's what the text tells us. Here is a record of their determined access to Jesus.

Jesus's Initial Activity: Forgiving Sins

25:46 Then, verse 5, records the initial activity of Jesus.

25:53 The man is now before Him. He doesn't pick up his sermon at the last minute. At the last point, he has a new sermon to give because there is new need in front of him. And verse 5 tells us, And Jesus, seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy, or unto the paralytic, Son, your sins have been forgiven, or your sins are being forgiven.

26:20 There's a textual problem, but in any case, the message was the same on His ear. Your sins are forgiven. Now, what a strange thing for Jesus to do. Here are people who've heard of His power to heal.

26:37 Luke tells us in chapter 5 that on that day, the power of the Lord was present to heal. There's an inference that He was already healing in the midst of His speaking. And no doubt, many of these have been witnesses to the previous healings. They had heard how He even touched a leper, how He cast out demons, and all manner of sickness and disease was healed by His power.

27:02 And one can only imagine something of the electricity that was in the air that morning when after this strange and unusual event of the man being let down by the four into their midst, everyone now with breathless anticipation wonders, will Jesus stretch out His hand and heal him? Will Jesus simply command him get up and walk? What will Jesus do to this man who obviously has been let down with a view to Jesus meeting him in his physical need? But instead, Jesus says strange words.

27:37 He looks at the paralytic and He says, not, be of good cheer, I am about to heal you, but He says, combining the testimony of Matthew and of Mark, be of good cheer, child or son. And He's not speaking literally, for Luke tells us He also addresses him as man, but He's speaking in the intimacy with which Jesus uses this very term with His disciples. He is touching a tender cord in this man's heart and saying, in the intimacy of true saving compassion, son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven you. In other words, Jesus saw something in that man that no one else saw. The four who brought him saw his paralyzed condition and he obviously consented that he would be brought to Jesus.

28:41 The throng that was pressed into the house that day saw his paralyzed condition. But there's something that was the most significant factor about that man that only Christ saw. And it was this, that he, when he was let down, had a burden upon his spirit far heavier than the burden of death. He was heavier than the burden of his paralyzed condition.

29:05 His spirit was weighed down with a concern far weightier than the concern of his immobile body. His spirit was oppressed and heavy. And it was oppressed and heavy with conviction of sin and with at least some degree of conviction that in Jesus of Nazareth there was a man who was a savior for sinners. And Jesus seeing their faith, that is the faith of all five of them, a faith which on the part of the four was expressed in their confidence that if they could get their friend to Jesus, he could heal their body, his body, if he would. But a faith which in the case of the paralytic himself went far beyond the concern of physical healing. For the Bible nowhere teaches that any man is ever forgiven apart from faith. And the Bible everywhere teaches that no man ever truly believes who does not repent.

30:12 And the Bible everywhere teaches that no man repents who is not under conviction of sin. And so when Jesus said in the language of Matthew 9, Son, be of good cheer, what was he doing? He was addressing himself to the deepest need of this man's heart. And that deepest need was the burden of his sin.

30:35 And so he says to him, cheer up, be heavy no longer. I see the motions of deep repentance. I see the motions of faith in the forgiving mercy of God now flowing in measures never known before through my very word and ministry. I see your heart.

The Religious Leaders' Reaction: Blasphemy in Their Hearts

30:57 I see those motions of repentance and faith for they're the very fruit of my own grace. Be of good cheer, son. Thy sins are forgiven. Now then, verses 6 and 7 record the reaction of the religious leaders to all of this.

31:15 They heard this. They were sitting there. They were listening. They were watching.

31:21 What was their reaction? Mark describes it. But there were certain of the scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, why does this man speak thus? And they didn't even call him a man.

31:34 A more free rendering would be, why does this guy speak this way?

31:40 Why does this guy speak this way? He's blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but one, even God? You see the reaction of the religious leaders?

31:51 Someone said that they were listening with gall in their ears. The moment they heard something they could seize upon, they seized upon it. And in their hearts and minds there is a symphony of cynicism and opposition to what Jesus said. They reasoned this way in their minds.

32:12 Only God can forgive sin on His own authority. Now follow closely. Prophets had previously pronounced God's willingness to forgive sinners. They had promised that God would cast the sins of His people behind His back and bury them in the depths of the sea.

32:32 It was not that a man was speaking of divine forgiveness. It was that a man was speaking of forgiveness. He was speaking of the conferral of forgiveness on his own authority. He didn't say, Jehovah forgives you.

32:47 He says your sins are forgiven and he says it in such a way that the Pharisees note that that authority for forgiveness resided in him and emanated from him.

32:59 And so their reaction is he's blaspheming. Only God has authority to forgive sin in this way. He is guilty of blasphemy. Now what's the response of Jesus to their thoughts?

Jesus's Response: Omniscience and Authority to Forgive

33:14 Verses 8 to 11. Look at the response of Jesus. And straightway Jesus, notice, not hearing with His ears their reasoning, perceiving in His Spirit that they so reasoned within themselves. In other words, Jesus read their very thoughts.

33:35 While their thoughts in this symphony of cynicism are echoing in the deepest voice, in these chambers of their hearts, the Lord Jesus puts His ear of omniscience to those hearts and He hears all of that reasoning. And so He responds to their question, why does this guy speak this way? With His own question. Perceiving in His Spirit they reasoned within themselves, He said unto them, why do you reason these things in your hearts?

34:07 You're thinking, why do I speak this way? I ask you, why do you think that way? And He answers their unspoken question with His own verbal question. And then He proceeds to say something that perhaps on the surface is difficult to grasp, but just hang in there and I think you'll see the significance of it.

34:30 Which is easier? To say to the sick of the palsy, your sins are forgiven, or to say, arise and take up your bed and walk? Which is easier? Well, obviously, neither is an easy thing.

34:43 Only God can forgive sin and only God can speak a creative word to a paralytic and have the man immediately restored to health. So neither one is easy. But in a sense, it's easier to say your sins are forgiven. Who can tell when the mountain of sin that rests upon the soul of a sinner is swept away in a moment of true penitent faith?

35:09 You see, that lies in the unseen realm of the spiritual. So in a sense, it's easier for someone to say your sins be forgiven and you can't check out as to whether or not the sins actually left the soul of that man who with any kind of eye and any kind of vision could have actually seen the mountain of that man's iniquity buried in the sea of God's forgiveness the moment Jesus spoke the word of forgiveness. So, it's easier to say your sins be forgiven than it is to say rise up and walk because if you say that, with the proper authority, the very authority of God who alone can forgive, then you can see with your eyes whether or not that word comes to pass. So it's easier to say your sins are forgiven than to say rise up and walk. But now notice what Jesus does. He says, but that you may know that the Son of Man indeed has authority on earth to forgive. That you may know that when I said to this man your sins are forgiven, his sins were truly forgiven, though you could not see the mountain of sin roll off from his soul, it rolled from his soul at my word, and that you may know that I have such authority.

36:27 He said to the paralytic, I say unto you three imperatives. Arise, take up your pallet, go to your house. Three simple imperatives. Get up, take your pallet, and walk out and go home.

36:48 There was the response of Jesus to their thoughts. Now what was the response of the paralytic to the words of Jesus? The first part of verse 12.

36:58 And he arose, straightway took up the pallet, and went forth before or in the face of them all, including the scribes and the Pharisees.

37:14 Now that's divine healing. That's divine. Divine healing. Here's a man so paralyzed that he's let down by his four friends.

37:26 And when Jesus says, rise up, take up your pallet, and go home, immediately, his creative word puts strength into that man's enfeebled body, completely stripped away all the influence of the paralysis, endowed him with normal strength. He rolls up his pallet, sticks it up, under his arm, and goes marching out right in the face of them all. That's divine healing. And Jesus said, I do this, that you may know that when this same mouth said, your sins are forgiven, it was indeed an authoritative word.

The Paralytic's Response and the Crowd's Reaction

38:07 For with that same word, I now speak with creative right and authority and power, and my word comes to pass. Now then, what was, the result of this incident? We saw the introduction, the setting. We've looked at all the major facts.

38:26 Now what was the result? This is the conclusion of the paragraph. In so much that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, we never saw it on this fashion. Listen to Luke's description.

38:42 It adds some other interesting dimensions. Verse 26 of Luke 5. Amazement took hold on, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, we have seen strange things today. And then in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 9, verse 8, and when the multitude saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority unto men.

39:14 So what was the result of the incident? There was an inward result. What? Here in Mark's Gospel, literally, they were in ecstasy.

39:25 They were astonished. They were filled with this mingled spirit of bafflement, amazement, dread, and fear. And it's as though the Gospel writers are all fishing for something in the vocabulary to describe it. They were unstrung.

39:40 That kind of puts it all together. They were unstrung. Amazed. Filled with wonderment.

39:46 They were in ecstasy. They were baffled. That was the inward, inward disposition. And what did it give birth to vocally?

39:54 It was the acknowledgement they'd never seen anything like this before. We have seen strange things today, Luke tells us. Mark says that they confess we never saw it on this fashion. And then we also read in Matthew's Gospel that they glorified God.

40:13 And also in Mark's Gospel, and they glorified God. So the inward disposition, the chin of unstrungness and bafflement and astonishment and ecstasy then gave birth to these verbal expressions of amazement, of wonderment, of praise to God. And yet something very significant in Matthew's Gospel. They were amazed that God had given such authority to man.

40:42 Amidst all of their amazement, there was no true spiritual perception of the identity of Jesus at Nazareth. For though they were not sitting there with a symphony of cynicism in their hearts as the scribes and Pharisees, there was greater sympathy and amazement in the place and in contrast with cynicism. There was not yet that response of the paralytic who saw more than a man, who when he looked upon Jesus in that house, having been let down by his four friends, he saw the God against whom he had offended in all of his sinfulness and in whom there was a plenitude of grace and forgiving mercy. And the Lord Jesus, seeing in the heart of that man true saving faith, says to him, Your sins are forgiven. Whereas the result with the vast multitudes was simply a matter of astonishment and amazement and a measure of glorifying God for what they had seen. And we know from the subsequent history that the response of the scribes and Pharisees was just intensified jealousy and animosity.

41:58 Remember earlier in Mark, people were making a contrast saying, We've never heard preaching like this before. He preaches with authority! Not like our scribes and our Pharisees. You see, one thing preachers can't stand is to be compared with other preachers, especially when the comparison is negative.

42:18 You want to see remaining sin come out more quickly? In any other way, get in a group of preachers and start talking about a preacher who can preach better than the ones you're talking to.

42:29 You see what happens. It's amazing how jealousy, jealousy is one of the crowning sins of the ministry. It's a shame, but it's true. These scribes and Pharisees couldn't stand it and it became something of common knowledge.

42:44 Even the heathen potentate, it says of him that he knew that for envy they had delivered Jesus unto them. So all this incident did for them was to intensify the envy. The envy and the animosity. Whereas with the vast multitudes it increased his popularity.

Major Application: Jesus Knows the Hearts of Men

43:00 Well, that's the passage. Those are the facts of it. And I've labored to try to condense them to their irreducible minimum, but to give you the sense of the passage. Now, in the few moments that remain, what's the major application of this passage to us?

43:16 The passage literally oozes with instructive material on many points. And God willing, next week we'll look at some of that oozing. But this morning, I want us to concentrate on one central focal point of application. And I believe in so doing we're true to the spirit of Mark's gospel.

43:37 His great concern is to give us good news about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And what Mark reports in this passage, whatever else it is in the way of instruction about the nature of saving faith, about the actings of faith, whatever it is about many things, and there are many points of application, surely, surely above all else, it is good news about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And what is the good news that this passage contains? It has two trumpets in it.

44:15 The first is this. It tells us that Jesus knows what is in the hearts of men.

44:23 It announces to us in a way that is unmistakable. That Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God, knows what is in the hearts of men. Our Bible tells us that seeing their faith, referring to the four and probably also including the paralytic, He saw their faith. Well, is faith something that can be materialized?

44:50 It has its actings and it has its motions in deeds. So that James can say, you say you have faith? Try to show me your faith with no works and I'll show you my faith by my works. But you see, the faith and the works are not the same thing.

45:05 It's the invisible faith that can be seen by works. And Mark may be underscoring that Jesus saw the fruit of the faith of the four and of the paralytic in that there was this determination to get to Him, even if it meant this rather unorthodox means of entry. But as we've already discovered, Jesus saw something far deeper in the heart of that paralytic. He saw that in his heart there were the motions of genuine grief and pain for his sin.

45:37 He was downcast because of his iniquity. Jesus saw the motions of trust and confidence in himself. And then we read that Jesus was able to answer with incisiveness, not the verbal dialogue of the scribes and of the Pharisees and the doctors of the law, but He was able to answer with incisive accuracy the reasonings of their hearts. Notice the emphasis again in chapter 2, verse 6.

46:09 They were reasoning in their hearts. Verse 8. Jesus perceiving not by His ears, but in, or it could be translated, that particular case, by His Spirit that they so reasoned within themselves said unto them, Why do you reason these things in your hearts?

46:34 Ah, but you say, Pastor Martin, that's when Jesus was there in the days of His flesh. What relevance does that have to us today? I want you to turn to a very key text in the book of the Revelation because it's spoken by Christ when He's no longer in the midst of His people after the flesh. He's in the midst of His people according to the Spirit.

46:57 And He says to the church, from His place of exaltation and power by the Spirit, Revelation 2.23, speaking to the church in Thyatira, I will kill her children with death and all the churches shall know. What are the churches to know? That not I was He that searches the reins in hearts, but I am, I am that searches the reins and the hearts.

47:36 In other words, He says, I want the churches to know that in their midst,

47:43 searcher of hearts,

47:47 with incisive accuracy, all the reasonings of your heart. Now stop for a minute and think. There that day, who could see what Jesus saw? All men saw was a poor, paralytic, Jesus saw, penitent and believing man.

48:09 All any outsider would see is the great doctor, who was of the law, sitting there in all of their finery. While others may have stood because of the press, they were given a place of honor. All men could see was pompous, orthodox, strict, correct religion and people listening to preaching.

48:32 But Jesus saw the foul, wretched, cynical, unbelieving disposition of the heart. And my friend, He sees your heart this morning. You may be sitting there, looking at me, looking ever so religious, ever so pious, ever so orthodox, and God, your rotten head, sitting there saying, what's that guy up there getting red-faced about and hollering inside? What's this, a big religious charade?

49:06 Jesus Christ hears those reasonings of your heart. And if you don't repent and humble yourself before His Word, He'll bring every one of those reasonings out and emblazon them before the whole moral universe in the day of judgment and send you to hell with your very thoughts ringing in your ears. But the Scripture says in the day of judgment, men will be judged according to the secrets of their hearts.

49:38 My dear young man, woman, older man or woman, you better stop this playing church business. God sees your heart. And even here this morning in this place, your heart's been full of thoughts, thoughts of business and worthiness and women and men and things, everything but God and Christ and your own...

50:04 You don't fool Christ. When you meet Him in judgment, you didn't fool Him.

50:14 He sees the reasonings. He knows them. He knows them. Listen as I make this statement.

50:22 Generally speaking, the first step to a man's conversion is when he begins to take seriously that his heart is known by God. Generally speaking, the first step to a sinner's conversion is when he takes seriously the...

50:46 You see my heart. You know my thoughts and all my reasonings. You know my heart. You know my heart.

50:58 And may I say, the foundation block of all true religion is when you are concerned more than anything else with what Jesus knows your heart to be. That's the foundation block of all true godliness. I'm more concerned above all other concerns with what Jesus Christ knows my heart to be. That is my great concern.

51:27 Not what my wife thinks I am. Not what my kids think me to be. Not what my elders think me to be. Not what the church thinks me to be.

51:35 No. Know what Jesus Christ knows me to be. In my heart. Is your professed piety built on that foundation block?

51:46 So that you're as jealous to guard your heart from an evil thought when you're out in the woods a hundred miles from any living human being as you are to guard your life in the midst of a congregation of four hundred of God's people? If you're not as jealous to guard your heart under the eye of Christ as you are to guard your external conduct under the eye of your fellow men, you have reason to question whether the root of true godliness is in you.

52:17 That's searching business, my friends. But that's reality. Now where do you stand in the light of that?

Major Application: Jesus Has Legitimate Authority to Forgive Sin

52:27 The first thing the passage tells us about our Savior is He knows what's in the hearts of men. And where that may be the searching, the negative, the heavy point of the application, the glorious point is this. And this is the second strand of application about our Lord. He has legitimately legitimate authority to forgive sin.

52:52 Notice His words. In order that you may know that the Son of Man has legitimately possesses authority to forgive sin, He said to the sick, to the palsy, or to the paralytic, rise up, pick up your bed, and go home. And He rose up, picked up His pallet, and He went home in the face of all of that. He has legitimate authority to forgive sin.

53:21 Now follow. He has that authority in His person as God. He is the Son of Man. And we'll come back to that next week.

53:31 It's the first use of that title concerning Himself in Mark's Gospel. That you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive. And that title, Son of Man, is nothing less than a divine human title. And Jesus possesses legitimate authority to forgive because of what He is in His person as God.

53:54 And secondly, because of what He is in His position as Messiah. He has been anointed by the Father. Chapter 1, we saw Him identified with His people in the baptismal waters of Jordan. The Father speaking from Heaven, this is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

54:14 And He goes forth anointed with the Spirit, officially designated God's Son of Man. God's prophet, priest, and king. And as our great high priest, He has a plenitude of divine authority to forgive sin. Any sin, all kinds of sin, He delights to be called the friend of sinners.

54:37 In this very chapter, He brings upon Himself the crown of that religious crowd again. He's too intimate with sinners. But what was to them a point of shame was to Him a point of glory. Jesus, what a friend to sinners.

54:56 Jesus, lover of my soul. My friend, do you need to hear what that man heard that day? That in Jesus of Nazareth there is legitimate authority to forgive sin and not to forgive it in some detached way of merely shuffling the legal books of Heaven. Oh, the tenderness when Jesus, when Jesus says to this man using a term of endearment that Jesus uses later on with His disciples when He calls them His children, He says, Child, Son, be of good cheer.

55:32 Don't allow your spirit to oppress you any longer with the weight of your sin. Cheer up, man! I see the penitent sigh. I see the actings of faith upon Myself.

55:45 Your sins have been utterly, forever, eternally removed. Hallelujah! Sin forgiven. And Jesus has the same heart towards all penitent, believing sinners in this present hour.

56:04 He has a legitimate authority to forgive sin. And it's an authority that He has validated by His own miraculous works as then, so now. We are given this record. Not that we should experience that Jesus to heal paralyzed people again before we'll believe He can forgive.

56:24 He has done it once for all in time, space, history. He has manifested and validated His claims. Must He do it again and again and again and again? Were we to tell God that He must?

56:39 God says that He has done it once for all in the sending of His Son and in the validation of the message of His apostles. And He bore witness, unto them with mighty signs and wonders and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to His will. But God has done it once for all in history. Now, I'm not saying that the Lord Jesus does not now sovereignly and graciously according to the mystery of His own will and purpose heal paralyzed people.

57:11 Yes, He is able and at times and places He does. But He doesn't do so to validate His claims to be the forgiver of sin. No. He has been validated once and for all.

57:25 You and I do not need miracles in order to believe. All we need is that sense of sin that causes our spirits to be heavy as was this paralytic and recognize that there is no hope in ourselves or in fellow mortals, no pastor, no priest. Think of the arrogance of the Pope and his minions. Daring to say Christ is given to them.

57:53 To pronounce absolution. We could say of them in truth they blaspheme. Who has authority to forgive sins but God only? And it's God only in Jesus Christ and in the work of Christ.

58:07 Not in any lineage of so-called victors of Christ.

58:12 He is a blasphemer in spite of all of his clever acting and all of his charisma. Pope John Paul and his whole ilk are blasphemers. To say they offer up my Lord afresh upon their altars. No!

Call to Repentance and Faith

58:28 He was offered up once and for all and he has gone to the right hand of the majesty on high where he sits in power and glory prepared to receive every sinner who comes in penitence and faith unto God through him. That's the great message of the passage. And oh my friend, you need not be brought to the place that this man was in all the dramatic circumstances. All you need do is this very moment in the acknowledgement of your own undone-ness and wretchedness.

59:03 Look beyond that wretchedness and undone-ness and see in Jesus Christ, God's only but sufficient and sincerely offered and well-validated Savior who has authority to forgive sin. And oh, that you might run to him. That you might not wait as it were to be carried to him by others, but you would even now run to him and say, Lord Jesus, have mercy upon me, the sinner. And you come in that spirit and he'll not turn you away.

59:38 You have his own pledge and word of promise. Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out. And my friend, it's not enough. It's not enough to have come near as it were and relive the passage with the multitudes.

59:55 They heard, they heard his pardoning word. They saw his word of power, but they only went as far as being blown out of their minds, astounded, unstrung, filled with ecstasy. But they never came to faith, the great multitudes of Capernaum. For you remember, Jesus said, In thou, Capernaum, shalt thou be exalted to heaven, thou shalt be cast down unto hell.

60:19 For they repented not. My friend, it's not enough that you've sat here this morning and stood as it were by the eye of imagination with the crowd in the house there in Capernaum. It's not enough that even in your heart you've sensed something of the wonder and amazement as you've heard the truth expounded. It's not enough.

60:43 Stopped short of anything less than coming to Christ himself and you've missed it all. And you've only added to your judgment by what you've heard this morning. And the fact that you heard with enough attention to be amazed at what the scripture says and astounded at what it declares will only increase your judgment unless it leads you to repentance and faith. Oh, may God help you to flee to Christ.

61:09 May God help those of us who fled to continue to flee. For we grow not from the cross but in the cross. And we grow not from repentance and faith but in repentance and faith. And that growth is always new and nurtured by the blood of the cross as well as by the gift of the Spirit.

Concluding Prayer

61:31 And may God keep us then in that posture of ongoing penitence and faith that Christ in his capacity as the great Savior of sinners will be precious to us. Let us pray.

61:54 Our Father, how we thank you for the record of the life and ministry of your beloved Son. And we would acknowledge as we bow in your presence that as then, so now, our hearts are naked and opened before him. And we pray that his concern with respect to our hearts may be our concern. Deliver us from contentment with mere form and ritual and respectability in the eyes of our fellow men.

62:27 Oh, Lord, may arrows of conviction find their mark in some whose hearts are not right with you, in whose hearts you read cynicism and unbelief and pride and lust and unmortified ambition and worldliness and covetousness. Oh, Lord, you read it all. And we pray that you would trouble such with your own gracious pressure of Holy Spirit conviction. Give them no rest until they know that in those very hearts which now are filled with the din of the voices of all of their lusts and appetites and ambitions, there echoes the language and the spirit of true repentance and faith and a panting after holiness and a love for yourself. Oh, God, may your word not be preached in vain this morning. Oh, God, may it result in some taking the posture of that poor paralytic and hearing you say to them, Son, thy sins are forgiven. Seal your word, oh, God, and renew our confidence in our blessed Savior.

63:45 We ask these mercies in his worthy name. Amen.