The Paralytic Man

[0:00] God willing. Let's worship God. We're here to worship him and to sing his praise. We can do so from Sing Psalms. Sing Psalms. And first of all singing from Psalm 61. Sing Psalms and Psalm 61. It's on page 78 off the blue psalm books. Sing Psalms, Psalm 61 on page 78.

[0:26] We can sing verses 1 down to verse 6 of the psalm. Sing Psalms, Psalm 61 verses 1 down to verse 6.

[0:38] Oh hear my urgent cry, my God, and listen to my plea. From earth's remotest bounds I call when my heart faints in me. Oh God, conduct me to the rock that's higher far than I, for you're my refuge from the foe, my tower of strength on high.

[0:54] Stanley sing, if you're able. Amen. Oh hear my urgent cry, my God, and listen to my plea.

[1:17] Oh God, conduct me to the rock that's higher, I'll be able to see. Oh God, conduct me to the rock that's higher, I'll be able to see.

[1:47] Oh God, conduct me to the rock that's higher, I'll be able to see.

[2:17] O let it wrap up in your tent Fall and learn and fear O Father, shall thou ever bring The refuge first again For you have held my last, O God And you have held me

[3:18] The refuge of the Lord And you have held my last, O God And you have held my last, O God And you have held my last, O God And you have held my last, O God Let's join together now.

[4:27] A word of prayer. Let's pray. Lord our God, we come and we bow ourselves down before you once more on this day. We come before you.

[4:39] A God that is holy, holy, holy. We ask you would come to this place just now with hearts and minds set. What it is we're here to do.

[4:51] Here to worship you. Here to magnify and glorify and praise your holy name. We confess that we often come to this place and we come to times of worship with so many things distracting us, with so many other things in our mind.

[5:08] What took place this past week, the interactions and conversations, the situations we perhaps found ourselves in. We come to this place today with all the looming responsibilities and burdens of this coming week.

[5:24] We take all these things and for this short time of fellowship together, this short time of fellowship with you, we take these things to the foot of the throne of grace and we lay them there.

[5:37] And we confess that we have no strength, that we have no ability, that we have almost no say in what happens to us in life.

[5:48] And we come and we confess that we are weak, that we find ourselves and have indeed found ourselves this weak and will no doubt find ourselves this weak at an end of ourselves.

[6:00] We find our ability ended, our strength gone, our ideas and our plans gone completely away from what we thought they might be.

[6:11] And we confess once more that we have no power and no say, that we find ourselves so often moved by the winds of this world, so often buffeted around by what takes place around us.

[6:25] And we come once more this day to you, the rock of our salvation. You who do not change and will never change. You who have been from eternity and to all eternity.

[6:37] We come and we cling on to that immovable rock, that sure and steady foothold where we can know for certain we are kept safe. And kept safe by you, the God of eternal power, whose plans are not changed by the circumstances of this world, whose ideas and whose will is not influenced by what takes place around us.

[7:01] We come to you this day, the God who has created and sustains the whole universe, the God who has planned out all that will come to pass to an eternal degree.

[7:12] It's to you we rest and it's in you we rest this morning. It's to you just now we come and we bring these many burdens that we have, our private burdens, our private worries.

[7:23] As we think of family members and friends, as we think of their situations. Think of our own perhaps personal situation, our health situation perhaps today, mental or physical, our financial or job situation.

[7:41] As we bring just now before you our families, our siblings, our parents, our children. We bring before you all those who are close and near to us. Those who we have in our minds just now for various reasons.

[7:55] Lord, we bring all these things to the place of grace. That place where you tell us to come and where you tell us that your people will find mercy to help in times of need. Lord, help us not to find the answer to life's questions and our own plans.

[8:13] As we'll see later on from your word that life is often so complicated. And life can often be so, at times seem so cruel. We'll give you praise that we come to you.

[8:24] A God who is not cruel. A God who is full of compassion. That your love towards your people is never ending. That your love towards your people is so full of your covenant keeping mercy.

[8:36] You promise for all who come to you and all who find a rest in you, you will no wise cast them out. Thank you, Lord, for the chance we have today as your people.

[8:47] We do pray for all your people here today. Those who are here just now and perhaps those who may listen in in the weeks or months to come. Thank you for the privilege we have of calling ourselves your people.

[8:58] We pray for ourselves today. Help us to focus on your word. To leave this place not just having grown in our knowledge, but having grown also in our love for you, an understanding of who you are.

[9:10] Help us then in turn to apply that love and apply that knowledge this new week. Help us never just to be healers, but help us to be doers of the word. To apply in our lives what it is you're telling us today from your word.

[9:25] We pray today for any who long to be here. Brothers and sisters who long to be here, but who cannot be here. Through illness or age or for other various reasons, we ask you to be with them and comfort them and come alongside them.

[9:39] We pray today for those who are here, but who as of yet have no saving knowledge of Jesus. We thank you for their presence here. We thank you that you brought them here once more to again hear the gospel.

[9:52] We ask that this again would be the day that they hear the gospel for themselves truly. Not just for a head knowledge, but for a heart knowledge. We pray for any here today who would rather not be here.

[10:06] Those who are here today because of their duty towards loved ones, because their duty towards perhaps family. We thank you again that they are here. Regardless of their reasons, Lord, that they find themselves under the word.

[10:19] Lord, that they would know that not just that we are glad they're here, but as your word tells us, Lord, that you answer those who seek after you. We do pray for those of a seeking heart today.

[10:30] Those who are looking for answers to life's questions. To life's big questions. Of why we are here. Of what it all means. Of what the point of any of this truly is in the end.

[10:41] We ask, as they ask these questions to you, that they would find that in you they have a full and complete answer to even the most difficult questions of this life. We pray today for our friends and indeed our brothers and sisters next door as they join together.

[10:58] Especially pray for them today, this weekend, as they spend time around your word. As they come just now to the table of your love and the table of your provision.

[11:09] We ask for them as they join together to share in that supper prepared for them. That simple supper of bread and of wine. But that shows us and that tells us of a greater reality.

[11:24] That we worship a saviour who gave himself for us. Both blood and body. And also looking forward to the coming day when we will join with you for that heavenly feast that awaits us not too long in the future, Lord.

[11:37] We do pray for them. We pray, Lord, for a blessing from your word to all who listen next door today. We ask once more, as we ask again and again, that we trust it's in your will to ask these things.

[11:49] That we would see days of refreshing and days of renewal and days of revival in this community. We pray for our brothers and sisters next door. We pray for ourselves.

[11:59] That together we would see days of freshness and days of hearts and minds being turned to you. We would see hearts of stone in this village, in this district, in this area, being turned to hearts of flesh.

[12:13] We would see many who have no knowledge of you come to know you, perhaps even for the first time. Lord, we ask that knowing it's beyond our power, but knowing it is not beyond yours. Lord, until we see these days of renewal and revival in our villages, we ask first and foremost for a renewed heart for ourselves.

[12:31] Lord, we pray for our first love. Lord, we pray for our first love. We often wander so far away, we confess, into plans and into our own ideas and into our own sin, if we're honest.

[12:42] Lord, revive us and renew us and bring us back to that place where we can serve you joyfully in this place. Lord, we pray for our congregation. We pray for all that goes on behind the scenes for your service here.

[12:57] We pray just now especially for the boys and the girls and for their teachers as they come today once more for Sunday school. We thank you that the boys and the girls are here. We thank you also for the mums and dads and gris and granddads and all who love and who care for the boys and the girls.

[13:11] We thank you for them, for those who look after the boys and the girls and who bring them to this place and who look after them all week. We ask you to bless them and look after them.

[13:21] They would know that they are serving you well by bringing the boys and the girls out to hear the Bible and to hear it and to listen well on Sunday school. We pray for the teachers also again, the teachers who look after the boys and the girls and who love the boys and the girls and who care for the boys and the girls and who want the boys and the girls to hear and to learn about Jesus.

[13:41] We ask you to bless all that goes on in the Sunday school. Bless all that goes on, Lord, as it were, behind the scenes with various situations taking place, Lord, and the various acts of service that take place in this place week after week.

[13:54] Or we'd indeed see refreshment and renewal even in our own place, even in our own congregation here. Be with us, Lord, we ask. Help us for a short time to focus on your word.

[14:06] Lord, we pray again for those who don't have the privileges that we have, who love you and who care for you, but who are meeting in secret and are meeting in fear of their lives. We do pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters who are at this very moment in prison, at this very moment in hiding.

[14:25] Some who at this very moment are in fear of their lives, who are in prison cells awaiting to hear their sentences. As we pray for them, we also remember Dr. Adam. We thank you for him and for his family and for all the work that goes on in his sphere of ministry.

[14:40] We ask blessing on him just now as he has this time of rest. We ask for all that goes on in his visits around the congregations across Scotland, that you would encourage your people through our brother as he shares the experience and shares the gospel.

[14:56] Lord, bless all that goes on in this world as we see the gospel cause spreading. We give you praise that even though we perhaps see a day of small things for ourselves, we know the gospel is spreading across the world, often in places the gospel has not seen and spread before.

[15:11] We give you praise that you are building your kingdom, you are doing your work and nothing is standing in your way. Lord, forgive us our sins. We come today, we confess sin. We confess we have sinned before you this past week, this past day, Lord, this past hour.

[15:26] We find ourselves at times to our shame so willingly engaging in that which we know is against your holiness. Lord, help us, we ask, to not just to see the horror of sin and the pain of sin, but as your people here today, those who know and who love you, but to see the rescuing from sin we receive and have received in the finished work of our Saviour.

[15:51] Help us to cling on to him and as we cling on to him, we know that he holds on to us. It's in his name we ask all these things and for his sake, amen. That's for the boys and girls to come down for a second.

[16:04] Amen. Amen. Amen.

[16:23] Amen. Really good. Okay. So what have we talked about the last few weeks? What's the things around the village, remind us about?

[16:43] Yes. The things around the village remind us about Jesus. So we have the dangerous corner first with the stacks. Then we have, what was next after that? Water.

[16:56] The water. So we look at water. I'm going to exchange things that you get. That tells that Jesus is the water of life. And last week, what object were we looking at?

[17:14] I mean, what happened? Why are we looking at it? We're talking about we're looking at Tulsa, aren't we? Actually, everyone's welcome in Tulsa.

[17:26] I say most churches. Everyone's welcome in church. Everyone. And if we know Jesus and we love Jesus, He reminds us, He tells us, He knows us and He loves us.

[17:39] Okay, so we come past a sign. I'm cheating on you today. I'm going to cheat. I'm skipping another sign to my own kitchen. Okay? My kitchen is up there somewhere. It's in the house of course.

[17:50] It's in the house of your somewhere. And my kitchen faces... ...Battle. So, it's not really an object. But what am I talking about today? Something in the bag. The object in the bag is just a clue.

[18:06] In this bag, an object, everybody gets what it is. It is about that big. Big bag of the object. That big. It's got some glass in it. It's got some plastic, some metal.

[18:18] One big object. It's... You can take bits off, put bits on. Sometimes when you like it, stick hard. You can use it on a nice day.

[18:31] You can see things. It says, close it's got glass in it.

[18:50] Mm-hmm. The lens in it. Is it good? George, no. So, it's... It's... You know, it's... It's made...

[19:01] I think it's a strap of it. So, I have to put it in my... Right? Right? Camera. Camera. Camera. Camera. So, here's my camera. So, this camera. For a kitchen window yesterday, I was looking at it.

[19:13] I saw something really beautiful on the hill over there. There's a little hill over there. And the sun always seems to hit it. I think that hill is part of a mess. And for the many chucks here, I know that's the joy of your ears.

[19:25] What happened is it's a nice little mess. A few shoes were. Now, look, it's beautiful. It's beautiful. The sun hits it. That's the thing. That's so nice. So, I got the camera. I thought, can I zoom in a wee bit? Of course, you can zoom in, of course.

[19:36] And you can keep zooming in, keep zooming in, keep zooming in. Keep zooming in. And I want to see more of it. So, actually, you can just keep... Hopefully. Doing even more. What happens as I get closer and closer and doing the more and more on this group?

[19:51] See, what do I see? I can see more and more and more. And it became what? It became even more beautiful. You can see, if I can show you what you can see, a nice bright hill.

[20:03] Look at this. And then you see bits of rock. And when I zoom right in, you can see the sun hits, almost a wee stream, with fewer rocks. And you can see the sparkling water, the sparkling rocks.

[20:15] It is so, so beautiful. So, why do I talk about the streams? And why do I have a bit of some more? It's a nice view. Because, I was thinking, sometimes, I don't know anything about you guys, but for me anyway, right? And this is, I'll be very honest with you, okay?

[20:35] Sometimes, I think, I don't know very much about Jesus or the Bible. I want to know more. Do you guys see what I say? You think, look, who are these adults behind you, these mums and dads and dads and granddadson, the ones here behind you, they are a lot older than you, and some are a lot older than you too.

[20:52] You think, these guys are so, they've lived a long time, and they know so much about the Bible, they know so much about Jesus, and I just wish, I wish I could know all that they know.

[21:05] And you guys see, sometimes you think, oh, you're so young, and I want to know more. But if you ask, I won't look at you, if you ask, the oldest Christian here, I won't say who she is, but if she's a Christian, if you ask a Christian here, if you ask a Christian for the longest time, and sitting right close to Hideo, I wouldn't have asked her, if you know who she is, sitting right behind you, if you ask her, I think, how well, how much she owed Jesus, you might say the same thing, I would say, you guys would say, I've known Jesus a long time, but I still want to know him, I want to see him, much, much better.

[21:41] I think that she agrees, if that's that, she agrees, it's true, isn't it? Sometimes, no matter how well, we know Jesus, we want to see him born, but how close I can see that, nice little rock in front of my house, how do I see it better?

[21:56] So I can't actually go a little bit, get closer, and closer, and closer. You guys are doing so well, you guys listen so well, on church, and you listen so well, on Sunday school, and the mums and dads, you guys listen so well, sometimes, most of these, and as we listen in church, and listen in Sunday school, and read our bibles, and listen to our grandparents, and our parents, and our family, talk about Jesus, you always want to learn more, and more, and more.

[22:27] And the amazing thing is, because Jesus is so wonderful, and so amazing, we will never learn everything. So never ever worry that you don't go enough to know Jesus.

[22:39] No one ever goes enough. All Jesus says is, that you want to get some more. And as you get older, grow up, and learn about him more, you want to learn about him even more, and even more, and even more, and even more.

[22:53] You ask the older Christians here, and tell you the same thing. After all the 10 years, 20 years, 40 years, 70 almost years, some of all Jesus will see. You still don't know him, like you want to.

[23:05] So don't worry about not seeing it. I like that camera. But Jesus, you can keep zooming in, and zooming in, and zooming in, and finding out all about him. You never feel too young, to believe in Jesus.

[23:17] You never feel like you don't know enough, to believe in Jesus. Jesus tells everyone, boys and girls, mums and dads, just keep holding back, keep learning about him, keep talking to him, keep praying to him.

[23:29] And as you do that, you learn more, and more, and love him more, and more, and more. As you love, and learn about him more, and more, there's so much more to learn.

[23:40] The truth is, it's not that we get to heaven, but I should be getting to learn anything really. And then, even then, I think we'll be learning, for years, and years, and more, forever.

[23:52] You guys listen so well, so well. Again, I promise, hopefully after my holiday, we'll be sweets. Hopefully, remember, I'll stop them all, but it'll be sweets.

[24:03] You guys are learning so well. Just you guys, not the adults, just you guys, okay? It'll be sweets on holiday, I don't stop them all the way home, but I promise, so well. Enjoy Sunday school today, okay?

[24:18] As the boys and the girls, leave to Sunday school, we can turn to read, in God's word, carrying on our series, in the book of Mark, Mark chapter 2.

[24:32] Mark chapter 2. That's on page 786, of the church Bibles. Mark chapter 2, on page 786, of the church Bibles.

[24:53] Let's hear the word, of God. And when he returned, to Capernaum, after some days, it was reported, that he was at home. And many were gathered together, so there was no room, nor even at the door.

[25:10] As he was preaching the word to them, and they came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four men. When they could not get near him, because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him.

[25:22] When they had made an opening, they let down the bed, on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven.

[25:35] Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins, but God alone?

[25:48] And immediately, Jesus, perceiving in his spirit, that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, Why do you question these things, in your hearts? Which is easier?

[26:00] To say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven. Or to say, rise, take up your bed, and walk. But that you may know, that the Son of Man, has authority on earth, to forgive sins.

[26:13] He said to the paralytic, I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home. And he rose, and immediately picked up his bed, and went out before them all, so that we were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw anything like this.

[26:34] He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. As he passed by, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, Follow me.

[26:48] And he rose, and followed him. And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining of Jesus, and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.

[27:02] And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners, and tax collectors, said to his disciples, Why does he eat with tax collectors, and sinners?

[27:13] And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, I came to call the righteous, not to call the righteous, but sinners.

[27:26] Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and people came and said to him, Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?

[27:38] And Jesus said to them, Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and they will fast in that day.

[27:55] No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from the new, from the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.

[28:06] And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is destroyed. And so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.

[28:18] One Sabbath he was going through the grain fields, and as they made their way, the disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to him, Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?

[28:33] And he said to them, Have you never read what David did? When he was in need and was hungry, he and those who are with him, how he entered the house of God, the town of Abathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who are with him.

[28:53] And he said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord, even of the Sabbath.

[29:04] Amen. We could praise to God for his holy and his perfect word. Let's again sing to God's praise, this time from the Scottish Psalter, and Psalm 105.

[29:17] In the Scottish Psalter, Psalm 105. I'm singing verses 1 down to verse 6 of the Psalm. It's on page 374 of the Psalm book.

[29:30] Scottish Psalter, Psalm 105, page 374. I'm singing verses 1 down to verse 6 of the Psalm. Give thanks to God, call on his name, to men his deeds make known.

[29:44] Sing ye to him, sing psalms, the psalms proclaim his wondrous works each one. Say that ye in his holy name to glory do accord, and let the heart of everyone rejoice that seeks the Lord.

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[30:53] And let the heart of every one Rejoice as it's the Lord The Lord Almighty Beyond this pain With sick and scarred seeding His blessing on this gracious face Sick and continue Think of the works that He hath done

[31:57] With strong and strong wind As thunder's come The cash and stone With strong and strong seed O ye glad I have Of Abraham's grace This third and well of whom And we have made Come children now You need your father's home

[32:59] Let's turn back for a short time to the chapter we had Mark chapter 2 Mark chapter 2 So we're carrying on Our series looking At the book of Mark Family leaving chapter 1 Arriving in chapter 2 Perhaps after the time away We might take a few weeks Break from the series We'll come back to it Soon enough But we'll carry on today Perhaps a few weeks more In chapter 2 Looking at the verses we had Verses 1 Down to verse 12 Of a section Again An account we've all I'm sure heard many times before But an account Which we always say Doesn't perhaps Stick with us as it should As we said before With the book of Jonah And with many of the passages We look at They're passages we know so well We've heard so many times before We perhaps lose sight As to what's really going on

[34:00] We can think of this whole section This whole account But for the sake of a text We can take the glorious words Of verse 11 And Jesus of course speaking I say to you Rise Pick up your bed And go home In this short account Just 12 verses We see So many things taking place So much so That really We have a broad overview Today There's really room For many sermons In this one section A broad overview For us to go home And to look again Perhaps At this section We see the love Of friends We see of course The care And the love of Jesus We see the faith Of friends We see also The saving power And the real Working power Of Jesus We see the changing Of lives We see the changing Of one life

[35:01] We see healing We see Jesus Defending his ministry And defending his deity Against those Who hate him There's a lot going on In just a few Short verses But to help us To understand At least in a small way What's going on We can just take Very broad headings And don't panic There's five headings But very broad First of all Seeing the crowds Quickly and simply Seeing the crowds Verses one Down to verse three Then seeing First of all The compassion Of the friends The compassion Of the friends Then the compassion Of Jesus Then the cruelty Of the scribes The Pharisees And finally Seeing the cure So the crowds The compassion Of friends The compassion Of Jesus The cruelty Of the Pharisees And the cure We find

[36:01] In Jesus For the Christians Here today For those here Who know And who love Jesus As you spend time Reading this Section once more Let's remind ourselves Let's be reminded As just to the Care of our Saviour Who transforms This man's life In a second In a second Who shows such Love and care To this man As we read This section Let's for a short While allow ourselves To be full Of thankful praise As we give thanks To the Lord Who changed Our lives In some ways Perhaps a similar Way to this man For those here today Who as of yet And we always say that Who as of yet And that's important Who as of yet Cannot say that You know Jesus For yourself Who as of yet You can't say that You love him That you trust in him That you can call him Lord Look as we see This section And look at the Love

[37:02] And the patience And the care Of Jesus As he deals With this man So first of all Very briefly Just looking at the crowds Verses 1 Down to verse 3 We ended Last time In chapter 2 We saw that Chapter 1 Sorry That the crowds Beginning to increase As Jesus becomes More popular As his fame Begins to spread We see that In the first few verses Here It was reported He was at home Jesus is now So popular That wherever he goes He's being talked about It was reported He was home He's back to this place Of rest for a few days At the start Of his very busy Public ministry And there's no rest For our saviour He goes home For a short time And straight away There is people At the door Wanting help Wanting saving Wanting rescuing Wanting healing And so on And so on We see that We saw last time That Jesus commands

[38:03] The ones he heals He commands them Not to tell anyone He heals them And he commands them To say nothing We think Well why Is that strange He commands them To say nothing Because he knows What will happen As those he heals Starts talking about This man Who healed them Who saved them Who rescued them Who cured them His fame will spread And his job As it were With respect His access His ability To move around freely Will become more And more difficult It's amazing What Satan uses To try and disrupt The gospel We've covered before Here and next door In the prayer meetings Again I know You're probably Tired of me saying this But it's a reminder Prayer meeting Time of worship Time of prayer Prayer meeting is open To everyone To come along to Regardless of who you are You won't be asked to pray Unless you're a member Don't worry about it Come and sit And just Be under the word

[39:04] It's open to all Seven o'clock On a Thursday We look before There and here At the reality Of Satan's tactics And Satan's power To disrupt the gospel But here we see The destruction of the gospel Can even be used By the gospels As it were Popularity By the By the gathering Of people So many people That they couldn't Even get into the building Never be surprised Of a tactic Satan Could use So there's no more room The word has got around The area Jesus is here Jesus is home Jesus is in his house And everyone goes And we see the wording Of the first few verses here The crowd are gathering around And verse 2 Many gathered together So that there was No more room Not even at the door You can't even have Standing room The house is just Jam packed There's no access Anymore To Jesus As Jesus is there In the house In the middle somewhere He is preaching And he is teaching And there's no

[40:06] More room There's no more room Those outside Couldn't get in Well some could We'll see in a second But in general Those outside Couldn't get in They had no access To the saviour No access to his power No access To seeing him To talking with him We stop for a second And look around Ourselves today We see a church That is A quarter full maybe If we all bunch together In one area Downstairs That is A third full maybe If we A quarter full probably A fifth full If we really bunch together We have room Our brother and sisters Next door They have room The problem Is not lack of room For today's Community Not hearing the gospel The problem is not That people can't Get into this building The problem is We'll see this In future weeks Is they don't want To come here And part of that

[41:07] We'll see this In future weeks Part of that Perhaps is our fault We have not Invited them here We haven't Done the As it were Leg work We haven't Made known to them That they are welcome To come to this place They are welcome To take part As much as they can In our worship here They are welcome To sit And to hear the word For themselves But also The overriding reason Is because of sin Because naturally We want nothing To do with the Lord Naturally we won't Crowd around Where Jesus is We go the opposite direction If you're here today You think you're here Because of your Weekly patterns You're here because of Whatever reason You can think of But if you're here Today You're here because The Lord has placed You here today To be under his word You might be here Out of intrigue You might be here To be part of the community And we value that And we enjoy that And we like that But you're here today Not to please a loved one

[42:08] You're here today Not to tick the box off For your weekly visit To church You're here today Because the Lord Has placed you Under his word The crowds around Jesus And that no one Can get in near Jesus Then we see the glorious Words of verse 3 And they came The crowd is here The house is here Overflowing of people Then we see These men coming And they came These men carrying Their poor friend And you can just Picture them You can just picture Them on their way They're determined And we'll see in a second They are more than determined Despite the crowd Despite the obstacle These men Jesus will see Their friend This men Their friend Will be cured By this man Who has cured And healed So many others That brings us To the compassion Of these men Verses 4 And verse 5 Verse 4

[43:08] And verse 5 So they come Bringing this man And we see in verse 4 And when they Could not Get near him They couldn't get near him But they are determined These men They love Their paralyzed Friend So much That they are determined And you can imagine Them You can just imagine Them One of them goes And tries to find A way Into the Into the building Tries to find a way To get this poor man To see the one Who they believe Can heal him And as they try All the options They have They look into the window And the door They can see There is no way Of their friend Will get to be near Jesus But these men Are full of compassion Are full of compassion And love For their paralyzed friend For the friend Who they have brought To Jesus For healing So much so And again Here is where we Know this story Perhaps so well We lose sight As to what Is taking place here

[44:09] They are so determined To find Their friend In front of Jesus They clamber Onto the roof And they begin To take away Sections Off the roof We know this account But think for a second Yourself You are there In the building And you hear noise Above you Of course It is a flat Roofed building We can assume As they were Quite simple buildings A mud Paste mixture On top Underneath Was often Rafters of sorts And a solidified Roof on top So they've dug Into the top Bit of the roof So you're in the building And you're hearing Noise above you Jesus is teaching And you're hearing noise You think What's going on here And there's digging noises And there's digging noises And we see that They dig They remove the roof They take off the top Part of the roof We see that At the top In the middle Of verse 4 They removed the roof Above them And when they had

[45:11] Made an opening When they made an opening We didn't just Take off the roof There's then Again There's cross beams We could say There's rafters To be removed This is someone's house This is not just A story in the bible This is someone's house Someone's house Now has A huge hole In the roof These men Don't care anymore These men Will do whatever It takes To get their friend To see Jesus So they work hard They remove Big sections Of the roof And off the ceiling We could say And they lower Their friend Down To Jesus What a beautiful scene These determined men Who will do Whatever it takes Whatever it takes For their friend To meet With Jesus As it were Face To face So what takes place From this Wonderfully strange Scene

[46:11] Taking place In the corner Of this house And when They made an opening At the end Of verse 4 They let down The bed On which a Paralytic lay And what do we see In this Dust filled Wood filled Probably chaos And carnage As a roof Falls into the house What do we see Oh Mark takes us Straight And zooms in We could say With respect Straight into The face of Jesus And when Jesus Saw their faith He said to the Paralytic Son your sins Are forgiven When Jesus Saw their faith The effort The love The compassion Of these faithful Men Who stopped Quite literally Stopped at nothing For their friend To see Jesus To meet Jesus Face to face Look what faith

[47:14] Look what faith Made them do These men believed What they heard About Jesus They heard about His healing power His saving power These men Had real faith And the obvious But the very real Challenge here As we read this section Is Where do we find Ourselves Brothers Sisters Where do the Christians here Where do Myself very much Included Where do we Find ourselves When we think Of our own Friends Our own family How much Effort We could say How much How far Do we go In sharing The gospel And making sure Those who we Care for Those who we Love That they would See Jesus That they would As it were See Jesus Face to face How much Do we care When we ask That question Look at this Section It's a Challenging one It's a Challenging one How quickly And to our

[48:14] Shame How happily At times Do we just Not make Any use Whatsoever Of the chances We have To share the Gospel To point Like these men To point Those around Us to Jesus These men Couldn't heal Their friend These men Couldn't rescue A friend These men Couldn't make Their friend Walk But they Did the job What every Christian is Called to do They took The poor Man To the one Who they Knew Could help Him Could rescue Him Could heal Him As we think Of our loved Ones just Now As we think Of parents Kids Children Brothers and Sisters Perhaps To think Of those Close friends Those who Are closest To us And who We love So much And who We care For so Deeply Just now And those Who at This moment Have no Gospel help Have no Gospel interest Who are not Saved As we think And as we

[49:15] Think of them Just now As we think Of our duty Towards them We must be Like these men It's our Calling And mine With you It's our Calling To make Sure That we Take every Chance the Lord gives Us to Point them Towards Jesus We can't Save them We can't Save anybody I nor you With me We cannot Save anybody Our job Is simple Our job Is simple Our job Is to point Those around Us Like these Men To take Those around Us To the one Who can Save them Who can Change our Lives To Jesus These men Do whatever They can To get Their friend To Jesus In love And faith They work Hard As they Bring their Friend to Jesus What do We see We then See the Compassion Of Jesus Again Verses 4 And verse 5 We see the Same thing The compassion Of Jesus The man Lowered

[50:15] Down Verse 5 When Jesus Saw their Faith He said To the Paralytic Son Your sins Are Forgiven Son Your sins Are forgiven Jesus Saw their Faith Jesus Saw the Trust These men Had In him Jesus Saw The Care And the Effort These men Put Into bringing Their friend To him Just as we Have a Responsibility To bring Our family And friends To Jesus Never feel As if you're Doing nothing Never feel As if you're Doing nothing As is to the Christians Brothers and Sisters If we're Honest We often feel As if our Witness Is so Rubbish And so Useless We often Feel as if We're not Serving the Lord well If in your Homes With your Family With your Siblings With your Wherever your

[51:16] Living Situation Is With those You live Around And those You live Beside With family And friends If you are Actively And not Always doing Well Sometimes Failing But if you're Always trying To be a Witness To show The love Of Jesus To show The care Of Jesus To point Towards Jesus If that Is your Goal Each day Then you Are serving The Lord In an Incredible Way In an Incredible Way Never feel Like you're Doing nothing For the Kingdom Of God If you Are simply Just trying To live Each life Each day Of your Life Serving Your Lord You're Doing a Wonderful Job For the Kingdom A wonderful Job For the Kingdom Just by Being a Living Example You are Showing Those Around You That Jesus Is live That he Is real That they Must come To him Son Your sins Are forgiven Son This is A paralyzed Man There's No NHS We know

[52:16] In scripture We know From outside Of scripture That to be Paralyzed In this Society To be Physically Unwell At all In a Society You're Often Outcast Not just Because you're Useless In the Job Sense But you're Outcast Because the Culture of This day Unfortunately Taught That if You are Paralyzed It was Somehow Because of Sin Sin And not Just as We would Understand It Yes We would Say also That illness Is from Sin Because we Live in a World that's Tainted by Sin But they Believe that In a Real sense That your Parents must Have sinned Or that Somehow the Lord knew That you Would have Sinned Awful in Your life So you're Born Paralyzed It's your Fault Your parents Fault Your fault Your family's Fault Somehow You're Born Disabled You're Unclean You're Useless You're Worthless So on And so on So this

[53:17] Man has Probably Heard this All his Life No use He's Got no Worth And Jesus Speaks to This man Not as An unclean Useless Paralyzed Man But he Speaks to This man In care And in Love Son Son Son Your sins Are forgiven For all The theological Importance Of the word Son There's also The reality That this Is a word Of care Jesus speaks Tenderly To a man Who probably Didn't hear Much tender Conversation From those Around him A useless Paralyzed Unclean Man Unclean By the Law of the Day Untouchable And Jesus Uses the Most affectionate Term possible Here to Address this Man Son My beloved One My close

[54:18] One Literally My close One Son Your sins Are Forgiven Jesus This Gets The root Of the Problem This man Is paralysed Yes And that Has damaged Him And affected His life But what Is this Man's Greatest Problem It's not That his Legs Don't work His Greatest Problem Is that He Is Not Saved His His Greatest Problem Is that He Does Not Know The Love And the Care And the Forgiveness Of a Saviour This man's Biggest Problem Despite His Legs Not Working His Biggest Problem Is His Sins Are Still Not Forgiven That He Goes And he Dies And he Goes To Lost Eternity That Is this Man's Biggest Problem And Jesus Deals With The Very Deepest Problem This Man Has Sons Your Sins Are Forgiven This

[55:22] Is the Focus On who Jesus Is On his Saving Work When we Come to Jesus We Come to Him To save Us To rescue Us To forgive Us We Don't Come to Jesus For what He Can Do For us We Come to Jesus First and Foremost For who He Is And what He Has Done Who He Is The Son Of God The Saviour What He's Done Is He Has Died And Taken On Himself The Full Wrath Of All The Sins Of All His People And From That Flows Eternal And Sure And Certain Forgiveness Of Sins For all Who Come To Him That's What we Come to Jesus For First and Foremost Not For what He Can Do For Us We Come to Him For Who He Is For What He Has Done Come Come to Him Because He

[56:22] Because He Is King Because He Is Lord Because He Deserves Our Worship Because He Is Saviour Who Has Bought His Precious Blood Redemption Saving For All Our Sins Son Your Sins Are Forgiven The Love Of Jesus Towards This Man Who Was By Society Standards Unlovable But Jesus Loved This Man The Same Time Is Going Quickly On As It Always Does But Just To Briefly Touch On The Cruelty Of The Pharisees Verses 6 Down To Verse 8 If you've Seen This Amazing Thing Take Place The Pharisees Of Course Are In The Crowd They're Always In The Crowd They're Always Watching Jesus The Pharisees Were The Scribes Here I Guess We Could Say The Those Who Would Read And Write Out The Law Again And Again They

[57:22] They Knew Their Stuff There's Much We Can Say But In Short These Are The Men Who Knew Their Stuff They Knew All The Scripture Had To Say They Had It Memorized They Could Write It From Memory They Knew Their Stuff But Also The Scribes Added On To God's Word The Pharisees Also They Added On To God's Word They Had Added Their Own Rules Their Own Ideas They Kept The Word And They Memorized The Word And They Memorized Additional Bits And Pieces Hundreds And Hundreds Of Bits And Pieces That's A Sermon For A Different Day But Safe To Say These Men Knew Their Stuff And These Men Seen This Man Healing They Seen Jesus Heal This Poor Man And Their First Well Not Healing Yet They Have Seen Forgive This Man And Their First Reaction Is To Call Jesus A Blasphemer They Have Seen The Faith Of The Friends They Have Seen The Roof Come In They Have Seen A Man Being Lowered Down They Have Heard Of Jesus All The

[58:22] Healing Work He's Done All The Miracles He Performed And Before The Eyes These Men See Jesus Forgives Someone's Sins And The First Thing They Say They Scream They Cry In Themselves He's Blaspheming He's Blaspheming You can Almost Hear The Anger Seathing Out Of Him Who Does He Think He Is Who Can Forgive Sins But God Alone In Verse Seven Jesus Knows Jesus Understands Jesus Knows Their Thoughts And It's A Reminder For Us But There's Nothing We Can Think Or Say Or Do The Lord Does Not See And Does Know For The Christians That Gives Hope And Peace The Lord Knows Our Minds For Those Who Are Not Yet Saved It's A Worry Isn't It It's A Worry The Lord Knows You The Lord Hears You The Lord Sees You But There's Nothing In Your Life He Does Know And Fully Understand And Fully See And Here We See The Same Situation For These Men In Their Hearts They Hate Jesus In Their Hearts They Call Blasphemer

[59:23] And So On So On And Jesus Knows Jesus Hears That Jesus Perceives That And Jesus Asks Them Directly Directly Why Do You Question The End Of Verse 8 Why Do You Question These Things In Your Heart Which Is Easier To Say To The Paralytic Your Sins Are Forgiven Or To Say Rise Take Up Your Bed And Walk He Shows Them That He Is Able To Not Just Cure This Man's Physical Situation But To Forgive His Sins And Almost As A Word To To Show To Show To Show That This Is True To Show That Jesus Has The Power To Forgive Sins We See That In Verse 10 But That You May Know That The Son Of Man Has Authority On Earth To Forgive Sins Jesus He Said The Proletic I Say To You Here We See Finally The Cure

[60:23] I Say To You Rise Pick Up Your Bed And Go Home Rise Pick Up Your Bed And Go Home Rise Pick Up Or Take Up Rise Take Up Go Home Free Actions Free Free Movement Actions Describe To Make Doubly Sure These Pharisees Describes That They Know The Power Of Jesus He Tells Us Man In Three Different Ways To Move Rise Get Get Get Rise Rise Jesus Says To Get Up Rise And Then Once You Rise Take Up Your Bed Grab Your Bed And Walk Home You Are Carried Here Because Of My Power You're Carrying Your Bed Back Home Again Yourself Here we See

[61:23] The Cure As It Were The Love The Care Of Jesus He Doesn't Just Forgive Sins As If That's A Small Thing He Doesn't Just Save His People From The Wrath That Lies Before Us No He Rescues Us He Forgives Sins But Then Jesus And His Love And His Care Also Restores Doesn't He And The Christians Here We Know This We Are Eternally Thankful For The Lord For Giving Us Eternally Thankful For The Lord Giving Us Life And Salvation But Then He Also Restores Doesn't He Restores To Us What Sin Has Taken Away From Us He Restores To Us For This Man He Restored His Walking He Restored To Him The Damage Of Sin In This World Now The Days Of Healing The Days Of Healing At Show As we See Healing Was Used By The Lord To Show His Gospel

[62:24] Power To Show His Deity And These Days Are Past At For Us Anyway But Here We See Something More Taking Place Here And The Christians Here Will Testify To This I'm Sure After You Were Saved After You Were Saved How Did The Lord Restore Back To You That Which Sin Took Away From You Family Situations Personal Situations I'm Sure You All Got Stories To Tell Relationships Once Broken Now Restored Personal Situations Once Destroyed Now Restored Life Is Not Perfect And We're Not Saying That It Is We're Not Saying Come To Jesus And Have A Perfect Life We Are Saying Come To Jesus And See Him Restore Parts Of Your Life Areas Of Your Life Which You Never Thought Would Be Restored Take Your Bed Rise Take Up Your Bed And Walk Friends

[63:24] We'll End With This Friends And I Call You Friends Friends Friends You Might Say Today I Am So Weighed Down By Sin I Am So Weighed Down By What I've Done My Actions My Past Life My Thoughts My Current Life I'm So Weighed Down By The Things I've Said The Things I've Done The Things I've Thought I'm I'm I'm So I'm So I'm Down By I'm So On And So On And So On The Breadth Of The Damage Of Sin Is Monumental At Times In Jesus We See Complete And Total Forgiveness And Restoration For All Who Come To Him And Our Prayer And Our Hope Is You Would Hear These Words For Yourself As You Come To Jesus Sick Of Your Sin Come To Jesus Paralyzed By Your Sin And You Hear

[64:24] The Words Of Jesus Son Or Daughter Your Sins Are Forgiven Followed By The Glorious Reality Rise Take Up Your Bed And Walk Your Sins Are Forgiven Now Go And Live A Life Glorifying Him That's Our Hope For You All Today That's Our Encouragement For The Brothers And Sisters Here Today Let's Bear Our Heads In A Word Of Prayer Lord Help As We Come To Spend This Time Your Word That We Would Not Leave This Place Having Just Grown Our Knowledge But Leave This Place Having Grown Our Love For Who You Are We Confess Lord We Are Often So Burdened By Sin So Distracted By It We Ask For Any Here Who As Of Don't Know Jesus That You Would Even Use These Words To Change Their Lives To Bring Them To A Saving Knowledge Of Your Self As Always You Forgive Anything That Was Said Not In Accordance To Your Word To Give You Praise That The Power Is Not Found In The Jar Of Clay Who Stands Up Here The Power Is Found In You As You Work Through Your Word It's Got These Things In

[65:24] And Through And For Jesus Precious Name's Amen We Can Conclude Sing God's Praise Sing Psalms Sing Psalms And Psalm 98 Sing Psalms Psalm 98 It's On Page 129 Of The Psalm Book Sing Psalms Psalm 98 On Page 129 We Can Sing Verses 1 To Double Marked Verse 3 A Song Of Joy To The Lord For His Saving Work Psalm 98 Sing Psalms Sing A New Song To The Lord For Wonders He Has Done His Right Hand And His Holy Arm The Victory Of One The Lord Declared His Saving Work And Made It To Be Known To All The Nations Of The World His Righteousness Is Shown Psalm 98 Verses 1 To End Verse 3 To God's Praise Now

[66:24] He May Wondant To Person One Say His Ass Dieu His right hand, His holy arm, the victor is the blood.

[67:00] The Lord did bear His shining work, and the Lord did bear His holy arm, to all the nations of the world.

[67:28] His righteousness is shown. The star-spangled banner yet wave in H Leg Wars.

[68:12] is I am and all the nations of the earth have seen what God has done our God to bring deliver us thy hands like time alone in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit with you now and forevermore Amen re

[69:18] Re reоф re we let