WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.280 Okay, for a little while this morning, we're going to look back at really the first section 00:00:05.280 --> 00:00:10.279 of Luke, Mark chapter 2 that we read together. 00:00:10.279 --> 00:00:16.120 We read through to verse 17, but we're really going to focus on the story that we have at 00:00:16.120 --> 00:00:19.280 the beginning through to verse 12. 00:00:19.280 --> 00:00:25.160 And I've entitled this sermon, Jesus Talks Big, because that's exactly what He does 00:00:25.160 --> 00:00:26.160 in this passage. 00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:27.600 It's a great story. 00:00:27.600 --> 00:00:35.079 It's an amazing story of Jesus preaching to a really packed house, people outside. 00:00:35.079 --> 00:00:39.160 The doorway was rammed with people they couldn't know and could get in. 00:00:39.160 --> 00:00:43.760 This bunch of friends came with their own friend who was sick, who was paralysed, who 00:00:43.760 --> 00:00:47.560 was in a mat, and they couldn't get anywhere near Jesus, but they'd heard about Jesus and 00:00:47.560 --> 00:00:48.799 knew what was going on. 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:52.280 So they climbed up on the roof, wasn't like a Scottish house. 00:00:52.280 --> 00:00:54.520 They didn't have weather like Scotland. 00:00:54.520 --> 00:01:00.840 It wasn't the same kind of design, so it was quite easy for them to pull open the roof and 00:01:00.840 --> 00:01:05.640 they lowered the guy down right in front of Jesus as he was preaching. 00:01:05.640 --> 00:01:12.120 And there's the remarkable interaction between Jesus and the crowd and the man who was paralysed. 00:01:12.120 --> 00:01:19.640 It's a great story, and it has all the ingredients of a blockbuster, sharp. 00:01:19.640 --> 00:01:24.680 There's all the things you need in a modern-day blockbuster, it's got criminal damage, it's 00:01:24.680 --> 00:01:30.560 got loyal determination, there's a hero, there's villains, there's conflict, there's 00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:32.560 resolution, there's suspense. 00:01:32.560 --> 00:01:37.760 So all these kind of, all these elements that make up a great story and packed into these 00:01:37.760 --> 00:01:44.319 few verses that we have in front of us, but there's a huge difference. 00:01:44.319 --> 00:01:48.719 It's not just a novel, it's not just a drama, it's not just a film. 00:01:48.719 --> 00:01:54.959 It's not just a story for our entertainment because it's revealing truth that is very, 00:01:54.959 --> 00:01:58.719 very significant and very important. 00:01:58.719 --> 00:02:02.560 Just wish church was as exciting every week. 00:02:02.560 --> 00:02:03.560 Be great, wouldn't it? 00:02:03.560 --> 00:02:07.799 You know, we're flocking in week after week if there was the potential of people ripping 00:02:07.799 --> 00:02:18.960 out the roof and ruining our grade 2 protected building status by coming in the roof. 00:02:18.960 --> 00:02:20.919 But it's a great story, isn't it? 00:02:20.919 --> 00:02:26.159 And it's really important because Jesus, as we'll see as we've gone through Mark, is 00:02:26.159 --> 00:02:28.639 talking really big in this story. 00:02:28.639 --> 00:02:32.280 And we've seen already in Mark, even in the, just in the first chapter that we've looked 00:02:32.280 --> 00:02:41.120 at, that Mark is all about, is all about quickly and without a great deal of detail telling 00:02:41.120 --> 00:02:45.759 us about who Jesus is immediately, urgently. 00:02:45.759 --> 00:02:50.039 All the time we have this emphasis of He's wanting us to learn more and more about Jesus 00:02:50.039 --> 00:02:59.520 and He intersperses it with how understanding about Jesus enables us to be authentic disciples 00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:06.000 and to follow the Jesus, the authentic Jesus as is revealed by Him and knowing Him so that 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:09.719 we can be better followers of Him. 00:03:09.719 --> 00:03:14.320 It's a short book, really, but that's the emphasis of Mark. 00:03:14.320 --> 00:03:18.360 And of course, that means for Mark and it also means for us. 00:03:18.360 --> 00:03:21.120 It means getting Jesus right. 00:03:21.120 --> 00:03:24.400 It means understanding who Jesus is. 00:03:24.400 --> 00:03:31.360 And therefore, the truth that we're looking at explodes far beyond first century Galilee 00:03:31.360 --> 00:03:39.560 and explodes straight into 21st century Edinburgh for us because of what Mark says is so significant 00:03:39.560 --> 00:03:41.159 and important about Jesus. 00:03:41.159 --> 00:03:46.360 Because what he's saying in this story is, and what he's revealing about Jesus is that 00:03:46.360 --> 00:03:55.320 He is the one who claims the authority to forgive your sins and to heal the human condition 00:03:55.320 --> 00:03:57.320 and your condition. 00:03:57.320 --> 00:03:59.240 That's why it's so important. 00:03:59.240 --> 00:04:04.040 That's why we, each Sunday when we come back, we will come back to Jesus Christ and the 00:04:04.040 --> 00:04:08.320 importance of Christ and understanding Him so we can become disciples of Him, followers 00:04:08.320 --> 00:04:12.440 of Him and those who come under His Lordship. 00:04:12.439 --> 00:04:20.199 So it's not insignificant things that we deal with when we look at the gospel of Mark. 00:04:20.199 --> 00:04:26.120 And I think there's two huge challenges for us, maybe sometimes in our own minds and certainly 00:04:26.120 --> 00:04:30.839 in today's society here that we live in. 00:04:30.839 --> 00:04:37.680 The claim really that underpins everything to do with this story that Jesus says that 00:04:37.680 --> 00:04:45.319 sin and the rejection of God is at the very heart of the human condition. 00:04:45.319 --> 00:04:51.639 Not only the human condition but indeed the world in which we live with all its brokenness, 00:04:51.639 --> 00:04:54.800 even the natural world. 00:04:54.800 --> 00:05:04.240 And the second claim that true healing needs more than medicine, that true healing is not 00:05:04.240 --> 00:05:06.600 only physical healing. 00:05:06.600 --> 00:05:10.040 I'm not, it's not less than that. 00:05:10.040 --> 00:05:12.960 But true healing needs more than medicine. 00:05:12.960 --> 00:05:15.680 It's not only physical. 00:05:15.680 --> 00:05:20.760 The claim that is underpinning everything Jesus says here that sin is at the heart of 00:05:20.760 --> 00:05:26.840 the human condition and that true healing needs more than medicine. 00:05:26.840 --> 00:05:35.040 So Jesus here in this story, he kind of speaks paradoxically and uses terminology that is 00:05:35.040 --> 00:05:41.319 quite interesting, a little bit mysterious in some ways, some of what he says and definitely 00:05:41.319 --> 00:05:48.960 quite paradoxical because when he talks in this story of the healing of the man who's 00:05:48.960 --> 00:05:52.480 paralyzed, he talks like God. 00:05:52.480 --> 00:05:53.480 He talks like God. 00:05:53.480 --> 00:06:03.759 And he says, son or child, your sins are forgiven in verse 5 when the paralyzed man comes down 00:06:03.759 --> 00:06:05.079 in front of him. 00:06:05.079 --> 00:06:07.199 It's the first thing he says. 00:06:07.199 --> 00:06:10.439 He sees this guideline, physically unable to walk. 00:06:10.439 --> 00:06:13.079 He says, son, your sins are forgiven. 00:06:13.079 --> 00:06:19.360 Now this is not simply a repetition of John's message where John preached repentance for 00:06:19.360 --> 00:06:26.199 the forgiveness of sin or my message or Corey's message or any preacher's message who invite 00:06:26.199 --> 00:06:32.079 people to come to Jesus Christ for forgiveness of sins and invite Christ into their lives. 00:06:32.079 --> 00:06:35.839 Jesus here is making a categorical statement. 00:06:35.839 --> 00:06:40.879 He's not even saying, I forgive you for the wrongs you've done against me, which we can 00:06:40.879 --> 00:06:41.879 all see. 00:06:41.879 --> 00:06:43.879 We've all got that ability, haven't we? 00:06:43.879 --> 00:06:44.879 Someone's done his wrong. 00:06:44.879 --> 00:06:48.919 We've got the ability to go up to him and say, I forgive you for what you've done. 00:06:48.919 --> 00:06:51.319 It's not of that quality. 00:06:51.319 --> 00:06:53.240 He's not saying that either. 00:06:53.240 --> 00:06:59.360 What he's claiming is he's declaring the right to forgive this person. 00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:04.120 He never met the guy before, the guy had never done anything wrong in front of him to forgive 00:07:04.120 --> 00:07:05.480 him personally for his sins. 00:07:05.480 --> 00:07:06.480 He never met him. 00:07:06.480 --> 00:07:09.560 But he's claiming divinity. 00:07:09.560 --> 00:07:12.000 He's claiming to be God. 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:19.560 That's exactly why this whole section, in fact, right through to chapter 3, is a section 00:07:19.560 --> 00:07:24.879 that Mark is wanting to highlight, the opposition that Jesus is coming under because he's claiming 00:07:24.879 --> 00:07:31.560 to be God because we see the scribes immediately say, you know, why does he speak like this? 00:07:31.560 --> 00:07:32.560 He's blaspheming. 00:07:32.560 --> 00:07:34.759 Who can forgive sins but God alone? 00:07:34.759 --> 00:07:35.759 They were right. 00:07:35.759 --> 00:07:37.399 They were right. 00:07:37.399 --> 00:07:39.600 The second half of that statement was right. 00:07:39.600 --> 00:07:41.439 Who can forgive sins but God alone? 00:07:41.439 --> 00:07:45.199 There's an implicit statement there that God is God. 00:07:45.199 --> 00:07:50.360 He alone can forgive sins and the weaves sinned against him and he's our judge as well as 00:07:50.360 --> 00:07:54.040 being our Creator and Lord the one who gives us life. 00:07:54.040 --> 00:08:00.319 So he's saying, Jesus is saying, I alone am able to forgive you your sins because I alone 00:08:00.319 --> 00:08:04.200 are the one that you're ultimately accountable to. 00:08:04.200 --> 00:08:05.640 It's mad, isn't it? 00:08:05.640 --> 00:08:11.080 It's a mad statement and it's a statement any of us could make. 00:08:11.080 --> 00:08:15.800 Anyone could make that claim today because it's an invisible statement. 00:08:15.800 --> 00:08:18.520 It couldn't be verified, could it? 00:08:18.520 --> 00:08:23.480 He says to this guy, you know, his sins are unseen, aren't they? 00:08:23.480 --> 00:08:29.319 His condition before God is unseen, at least in some ways to some people. 00:08:29.319 --> 00:08:33.159 Other people held them gilly but he says to them, your sins are forgiven. 00:08:33.159 --> 00:08:35.680 Now that nothing changed. 00:08:35.680 --> 00:08:37.920 He didn't stand up. 00:08:37.920 --> 00:08:39.519 He wasn't healed. 00:08:39.519 --> 00:08:41.440 He remained lying there. 00:08:41.440 --> 00:08:48.080 It was an invisible claim that Jesus made but the scribes, the religious leaders recognized 00:08:48.080 --> 00:08:55.040 that it was a claim to divinity, claim to madness or divinity and blasphemy. 00:08:55.040 --> 00:09:04.120 So he talks like God but then he calls himself unusually in verse 10, the Son of Man. 00:09:04.120 --> 00:09:09.280 But you may know that the Son of Man has authority and authority to forgive sins, he says to 00:09:09.280 --> 00:09:11.440 the Palatinate, I say to you, get up. 00:09:11.440 --> 00:09:18.360 Now this statement, this name of Jesus is uniquely used by Jesus. 00:09:18.360 --> 00:09:22.840 Nobody else uses this name that he gives himself, the Son of Man. 00:09:22.840 --> 00:09:27.360 And there's a lot of scholarly debate about what it means that we're not going into. 00:09:27.360 --> 00:09:36.160 But there's a uniqueness about this, the Son of Man, that Jesus loves this name that he 00:09:36.160 --> 00:09:38.120 gives himself. 00:09:38.120 --> 00:09:44.960 He's reminding himself by using this name, I think, of his humanity, of his being on 00:09:44.960 --> 00:09:45.960 the earth. 00:09:45.960 --> 00:09:47.120 He's the Son of Man. 00:09:47.120 --> 00:09:52.560 He's here on earth and he sees himself right from his baptism into this representative 00:09:52.560 --> 00:10:01.519 role born into humanity of the dust with a divine and a human nature. 00:10:01.519 --> 00:10:12.840 And I think it was a name that constantly reminded himself of why he'd come and the 00:10:12.840 --> 00:10:15.199 reason for his being. 00:10:15.199 --> 00:10:22.960 Reverently, I hope, it's kind of like a nickname in a sense. 00:10:22.960 --> 00:10:27.879 In the way you would call an electrician a sparky, and might be known as a sparky. 00:10:27.879 --> 00:10:32.000 Because God, Jesus, calling himself almost by his nickname, the Son of Man, because it 00:10:32.000 --> 00:10:36.120 reminded him of who he was and why he had come. 00:10:36.120 --> 00:10:43.960 And he often used it, most often used it in reference to his, what he had come to do on 00:10:43.960 --> 00:10:44.960 the cross. 00:10:44.960 --> 00:10:51.200 If you see, if you move forward just quickly to Mark chapter 8 and verse 31, it reminds 00:10:51.200 --> 00:10:52.200 us of that. 00:10:52.200 --> 00:10:58.320 He says, and he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected 00:10:58.320 --> 00:11:02.320 by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and after three days 00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:03.320 rise again. 00:11:03.320 --> 00:11:11.000 It was, so he often used it in this thinking forward phase of his life. 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:16.400 And he used it a lot in this section which we began with and it ends in chapter 3 and 00:11:16.399 --> 00:11:22.559 verse 6 where it's been growing and growing and growing the opposition and that chapters 00:11:22.559 --> 00:11:27.360 3, verse 6, the Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him 00:11:27.360 --> 00:11:29.360 how to destroy him. 00:11:29.360 --> 00:11:34.840 So from the passage we read with right through to 3, verse 6, Mark is highlighting the opposition 00:11:34.840 --> 00:11:41.840 and that there was a religious cabal that made the decision that they needed to get 00:11:41.840 --> 00:11:44.919 rid of him, the Son of Man. 00:11:44.919 --> 00:11:49.159 And so this section introduced the skeptics and the opposition. 00:11:49.159 --> 00:11:51.639 Who does he think he is, this mere man? 00:11:51.639 --> 00:11:58.919 And Mark wants us to see that and to see that he's building the reality of the opposition. 00:11:58.919 --> 00:12:08.079 But what we do see is not only that he talks like God but he claims this unique authority 00:12:08.080 --> 00:12:18.120 in verses 8 to 12 to forgive sins and he claims the unique authority when he heals the man 00:12:18.120 --> 00:12:22.560 and that's tremendously important. 00:12:22.560 --> 00:12:27.000 The claiming of forgiving sins was invisible, wasn't it? 00:12:27.000 --> 00:12:28.840 It was invisible. 00:12:28.840 --> 00:12:29.840 It was unverifiable. 00:12:29.840 --> 00:12:37.320 So I could say to someone, you know, I have the power to forgive you your sins, your forgiven 00:12:37.320 --> 00:12:40.080 sins and nobody could verify that claim. 00:12:40.080 --> 00:12:43.240 They would all think I was mad, rightly so. 00:12:43.240 --> 00:12:48.480 But Jesus wants to back up this invisible claim to have forgiven this man's sins by 00:12:48.480 --> 00:12:55.120 backing it up with the revelation of his power and his authority. 00:12:55.120 --> 00:12:58.520 His claim was not bogus and it wasn't empty. 00:12:58.520 --> 00:13:05.760 So what he does here, he's dovetailing his claim to authority, to forgive sins, with 00:13:05.759 --> 00:13:15.279 the power to heal the man that reveals his power to forgive sins. 00:13:15.279 --> 00:13:22.120 Now, can I say it's not about this man's paralysis as judgment for personal sin. 00:13:22.120 --> 00:13:24.360 That is not what this passage is about. 00:13:24.360 --> 00:13:28.799 It's not about saying he's paralyzed because he's a sinner, God's forgiven him of sins 00:13:28.799 --> 00:13:30.919 so he can walk again. 00:13:30.919 --> 00:13:33.480 That's not what's on show here. 00:13:33.480 --> 00:13:38.240 Just when he makes that claim to forgiveness, the man is still lying on his mat. 00:13:38.240 --> 00:13:42.960 It's not until later that he gets up and has to respond to Jesus. 00:13:42.960 --> 00:13:48.240 And we see that from John 9 verse 2 where the disciples ask, whose sin first was that 00:13:48.240 --> 00:13:51.039 this man or his parents and Jesus is neither of them. 00:13:51.039 --> 00:13:58.080 It's not about the individual being punished for specific and individual sins. 00:13:58.080 --> 00:14:03.720 It's a different message, a wider message. 00:14:03.720 --> 00:14:10.759 There is this reality that rejecting God has broken everything, including health and healing, 00:14:10.759 --> 00:14:12.759 wholeness. 00:14:12.759 --> 00:14:18.240 And this man, just like every one of us was indeed a sinner. 00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:25.160 But the deeper healing that he needed, the deeper healing we need is always spiritual 00:14:25.159 --> 00:14:34.559 because humanity and the material universe is living under the sentence of death. 00:14:34.559 --> 00:14:39.600 It's the cost of rejecting the author of life and of light. 00:14:39.600 --> 00:14:46.000 And it's pointing towards his redemptive act. 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:52.399 It's always pointing towards his redemptive act where Christ takes the weight of our sin 00:14:52.399 --> 00:14:58.959 so that he can forgive and say, your sins are forgiven. 00:14:58.959 --> 00:15:06.720 And he dies and takes our paralysis in death and hell and that darkness on the cross in 00:15:06.720 --> 00:15:09.840 order to offer us life and healing. 00:15:09.840 --> 00:15:17.319 The paralysis of this man is real, but it's also, I think, symbolic of our spiritual condition. 00:15:17.319 --> 00:15:19.860 That we need Jesus to heal us. 00:15:19.860 --> 00:15:22.319 We need Jesus to forgive us. 00:15:22.320 --> 00:15:25.520 We need Jesus to make us whole. 00:15:25.520 --> 00:15:29.879 And there is a real clarity in that message, an unpopular message in many ways, but there's 00:15:29.879 --> 00:15:35.360 real clarity in it for us today that this is who Jesus claims to be. 00:15:35.360 --> 00:15:40.240 Not only the one who will heal, ultimately will heal, because remember this guy, he grew 00:15:40.240 --> 00:15:49.640 old again, although he could walk, and he died because the ultimate healing was not in this 00:15:49.640 --> 00:15:51.680 life. 00:15:51.679 --> 00:15:56.039 The temporary healing he enjoyed only pointed to something greater that would happen for 00:15:56.039 --> 00:15:57.039 him. 00:15:57.039 --> 00:16:01.000 It was that all of us will enjoy as we walk in the light. 00:16:01.000 --> 00:16:04.879 And yet the forgiveness was what was tremendously important. 00:16:04.879 --> 00:16:13.000 And he wanted to back up his claim to forgiveness by empowering this guy to walk, having been 00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:14.079 paralyzed all his life. 00:16:14.079 --> 00:16:21.159 So people could see that he had power, that the claim that he made was backed up by the 00:16:21.159 --> 00:16:26.600 power of healing, physical healing in this man's case, to back up what he said. 00:16:26.600 --> 00:16:30.319 We know that the people understood that. 00:16:30.319 --> 00:16:32.519 They were amazed and glorified God. 00:16:32.519 --> 00:16:34.839 So we've never seen anything like this. 00:16:34.839 --> 00:16:40.519 Someone who not only claimed to be God, but had the power to back it up in this man's 00:16:40.519 --> 00:16:42.120 life. 00:16:42.120 --> 00:16:50.120 So let's briefly, as we close, consider the responses to what Jesus did in that amazing 00:16:50.120 --> 00:16:53.679 historical little moment that we've shared. 00:16:53.679 --> 00:17:00.360 For some there was a growing discomfort with who Jesus claimed to be and what Jesus involved 00:17:00.360 --> 00:17:11.440 himself in, particularly among the scribes and the religious leaders, which multiplies 00:17:11.440 --> 00:17:13.640 in the passages following. 00:17:13.640 --> 00:17:18.000 So in verse 7 we see, why does this man speak like this? 00:17:18.000 --> 00:17:21.400 He's blaspheming who can forgive sins but God alone. 00:17:21.400 --> 00:17:28.279 In verse 18 we're told, they question Jesus as disciples. 00:17:28.279 --> 00:17:33.319 Why they don't fast like the disciples of John and the Pharisees fast. 00:17:33.319 --> 00:17:35.119 Why do your disciples not fast? 00:17:35.119 --> 00:17:37.400 Lots of questions, lots of unhappiness. 00:17:37.400 --> 00:17:41.799 And then of course that leads up to what he says about the Sabbath at the end of the chapter. 00:17:41.799 --> 00:17:52.839 And then in chapter 3 it comes to culmination with them vowing to nail Jesus, literally, 00:17:52.839 --> 00:17:55.639 to bring him down. 00:17:55.639 --> 00:18:01.799 Because Jesus is challenging very deeply their understanding of truth and their own fixed 00:18:01.799 --> 00:18:03.839 conclusion about God. 00:18:03.839 --> 00:18:08.359 You know they were right at one level because they say, well who can forgive sins but God 00:18:08.359 --> 00:18:09.359 alone? 00:18:09.359 --> 00:18:12.359 That was the one moment they were right. 00:18:12.359 --> 00:18:17.359 But they didn't take the influence of that and then apply it obviously to Jesus. 00:18:17.359 --> 00:18:19.079 They didn't think Jesus was God. 00:18:19.079 --> 00:18:21.039 They didn't think Jesus was a Messiah. 00:18:21.039 --> 00:18:23.559 They didn't need a Jesus kind of Messiah. 00:18:23.559 --> 00:18:26.839 They didn't want someone telling them they needed their sins forgiven. 00:18:26.839 --> 00:18:31.959 They could be morally right as they followed their understanding of the Old Testament law 00:18:31.959 --> 00:18:33.639 of God. 00:18:33.639 --> 00:18:38.759 And they certainly didn't need a carpenter son from Joseph who was uneducated in the 00:18:38.759 --> 00:18:49.680 Old Testament as they were telling them how they should see and know and understand God. 00:18:49.680 --> 00:18:54.000 Now the question remains for us today and it may be among some people you know or it 00:18:54.000 --> 00:18:55.400 may be in your own life today. 00:18:55.400 --> 00:18:59.640 If you're not a Christian here today, it's always fantastic to see people in church who 00:18:59.640 --> 00:19:06.039 are not Christians who are maybe seeking or searching out or here for many different reasons. 00:19:06.039 --> 00:19:11.319 The more we know about Jesus, there can be a growing discomfort. 00:19:11.319 --> 00:19:15.960 And many of our friends, the more that we share with them about Jesus, the deeper their 00:19:15.960 --> 00:19:17.359 discomfort becomes. 00:19:17.359 --> 00:19:21.639 You know it's like that in the gospels that when He did these kind of things, it was great. 00:19:21.639 --> 00:19:23.839 Lots of people followed Him and they thought it was great. 00:19:23.839 --> 00:19:31.000 And then we're told later on in the gospels, when Jesus started maybe explaining more about 00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:36.000 the cross and more about their need of a Savior, we're told that from that moment on many people 00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:37.359 stopped following Him. 00:19:37.359 --> 00:19:41.519 It turned away from the hard saying, we're told the hard sayings of Jesus. 00:19:41.519 --> 00:19:47.359 Once in a series on the hard sayings of Jesus, might do that again. 00:19:47.359 --> 00:19:53.160 But if He is who He says He is, you know very often isn't it your whole understanding of 00:19:53.160 --> 00:19:59.079 who you are, our whole understanding of who we are, our life and our future and our future 00:19:59.079 --> 00:20:01.039 plans maybe needs to change. 00:20:01.039 --> 00:20:06.559 But sometimes we find the cost of that, the cost of facing the truth of Jesus Christ and 00:20:06.559 --> 00:20:08.839 His claims just too great. 00:20:08.839 --> 00:20:14.519 Because we've got our own fixed ideas of who God is and what God will do and how, why God 00:20:14.519 --> 00:20:18.200 will accept me for the kind of things that I've done. 00:20:18.200 --> 00:20:21.039 And we would rather just shut Jesus down. 00:20:21.039 --> 00:20:23.279 We'd just quench Him all together. 00:20:23.279 --> 00:20:33.519 I think that's incredibly common among people, especially those who simply cannot accept 00:20:33.519 --> 00:20:39.879 who God reveals Himself to be and the cost of being accepted or rejected by God or the 00:20:39.879 --> 00:20:46.440 fact that God has ultimate authority over our lives to whom we will give account. 00:20:46.440 --> 00:20:55.960 And it will often be a groundless objection to the living God, but simply a recognition 00:20:55.960 --> 00:21:03.840 that we don't want Him in our lives. 00:21:03.840 --> 00:21:09.000 After this, many of His disciples turn back and no longer walked with Him. 00:21:09.000 --> 00:21:19.359 In 6 verse 66, the cost of relational faithfulness, dealing with our idols, dealing with selfishness, 00:21:19.359 --> 00:21:26.640 dealing with our own agendas, dealing with our love of everything that God hates will 00:21:26.640 --> 00:21:33.039 often cause us, maybe as Christians too, to drift and to move away and think it's too 00:21:33.039 --> 00:21:40.000 hard because we lose sight of the reality that He calls us into a battle, that there 00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:47.960 is a cost, but He has paid the cost for us and the cost of our discipleship is the cost 00:21:47.960 --> 00:21:49.960 of healing. 00:21:49.960 --> 00:21:57.879 It's the cost of trusting Him in the battle, knowing that the battle is temporary and victory 00:21:57.879 --> 00:21:59.879 has been won by Jesus. 00:21:59.880 --> 00:22:05.480 Now there is a battle and it is a struggle, but we recognize who Jesus is. 00:22:05.480 --> 00:22:11.160 We recognize the great gift of salvation that He's given us and the cost that He's paid, 00:22:11.160 --> 00:22:15.400 the Son of Man, and we entrust ourselves to Him. 00:22:15.400 --> 00:22:20.320 So our response is very important and as we grow older as Christians, let's be aware 00:22:20.320 --> 00:22:28.040 that we don't have a growing discomfort towards Jesus because He absolutely does put us on 00:22:28.039 --> 00:22:31.119 a trajectory that is very different from the world in which we're living in, the thinking 00:22:31.119 --> 00:22:38.980 pattern and everything in which this world maybe regards as significant or important. 00:22:38.980 --> 00:22:47.440 So growing discomfort can be one response, but a fledgling faith is a second response 00:22:47.440 --> 00:22:51.240 that is highlighted here and I think that it's great. 00:22:51.240 --> 00:22:56.200 It's very simple, it's very obvious, but it's important to remind ourselves of. 00:22:56.200 --> 00:23:02.600 I think we see it in the friends, for example, not in the program, but in the friends who 00:23:02.600 --> 00:23:08.240 carry their paralyzed friends to Jesus. 00:23:08.240 --> 00:23:16.680 They're accepting great risk, accepting potential reputational damage because they are very 00:23:16.680 --> 00:23:21.240 publicly announcing that they believe Jesus could do something great and important here 00:23:21.240 --> 00:23:27.640 and it was worth making a fool of themselves in order so to do and it was worth them disrupting 00:23:27.640 --> 00:23:32.759 Jesus and disrupting the meeting and being opposed by those who thought they were being 00:23:32.759 --> 00:23:40.720 ludicrous because they valued an audience for their friend with Jesus. 00:23:40.720 --> 00:23:49.880 So there's risk in their fledgling faith and there is risk for us in our fledgling faith, 00:23:49.880 --> 00:23:58.880 but are we willing to take that risk to stand by Jesus and to share Jesus with others? 00:23:58.880 --> 00:24:06.240 For the paralyzed man, I think there's risk too because Jesus says he forgives the sin 00:24:06.240 --> 00:24:13.160 and he's still lying paralyzed on the mat and then Jesus says, I say to you, rise, pick 00:24:13.160 --> 00:24:15.480 up your bed and go home. 00:24:15.480 --> 00:24:22.920 So there was a risk of obedience and not being able to rise and walk. 00:24:22.920 --> 00:24:29.360 There was the risk of just, well, I'm going to just, I'm just going to obey Jesus here. 00:24:29.360 --> 00:24:34.000 Nothing's happened so far, he says, I forgive my sin, but I haven't been, I can't walk yet. 00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:41.960 And yet in response to the command of Jesus and the risk that may be involved in seeking 00:24:41.960 --> 00:24:50.600 to obey that command, he does rise up and follow Jesus and goes home. 00:24:50.600 --> 00:24:56.720 And therein is a challenge to us, I think, also to take the risk of faith because ultimately 00:24:56.720 --> 00:25:02.480 it's not real risk at all to our own sinful paralysis in life. 00:25:02.480 --> 00:25:07.200 And very often we spend our lives, I think of myself as an older Christian, probably 00:25:07.200 --> 00:25:13.240 been a Christian for, I don't know, 40, 45 years. 00:25:13.240 --> 00:25:19.600 The older a Christian, the more paralyzed you can become for many different reasons. 00:25:19.600 --> 00:25:26.240 And so there's a recalling to us all, old or young in faith, to remember that it's not 00:25:26.240 --> 00:25:30.080 really a risk to follow Jesus and to obey Him and to serve Him. 00:25:30.080 --> 00:25:35.120 We're called to love Jesus Christ and serve Him in such a way that will at different points 00:25:35.119 --> 00:25:38.719 be a challenge to the reputation we want. 00:25:38.719 --> 00:25:43.119 It'll be a challenge to putting others before ourselves, serving God and serving others 00:25:43.119 --> 00:25:45.719 with a great loving heart. 00:25:45.719 --> 00:25:49.239 There will be a challenge to what other people think about us. 00:25:49.239 --> 00:25:52.119 However foolish it may seem to follow Christ. 00:25:52.119 --> 00:25:53.119 What a clown. 00:25:53.119 --> 00:25:57.959 Look at these clowns, they're ripping the roof apart in order to do something crazy 00:25:57.959 --> 00:25:58.959 here. 00:25:58.959 --> 00:26:04.119 And it may be that many people think that following Jesus is a foolish thing to do, 00:26:04.119 --> 00:26:11.879 washing other people's feet symbolically, mainly hopefully, helping the vulnerable, 00:26:11.879 --> 00:26:18.479 ripping over open roof spaces, whatever that looks like in our 21st society. 00:26:18.479 --> 00:26:23.479 Working our faith today is His calling to us. 00:26:23.479 --> 00:26:26.599 We're called to love Christ in a committed way. 00:26:26.599 --> 00:26:31.719 Each of us are called to love Christ and love one another in a hugely committed way. 00:26:31.720 --> 00:26:37.519 And we are called also to walk in the light, to get up and walk in the light and follow 00:26:37.519 --> 00:26:40.120 Him even when it seems like an impossibility. 00:26:40.120 --> 00:26:45.600 And the more we go on, the further society moves away from the fundamental truths of 00:26:45.600 --> 00:26:51.160 the gospel and of Jesus Christ and of God as Lord in Christ, then the more it seems 00:26:51.160 --> 00:26:53.759 to be an impossibility for us. 00:26:53.759 --> 00:26:56.600 And maybe especially for the younger generation. 00:26:56.599 --> 00:27:02.759 And I'm calling you to follow Jesus Christ and the impossibility of faith because our 00:27:02.759 --> 00:27:07.679 condition hasn't changed, our humanity hasn't changed, and ultimately our relationship with 00:27:07.679 --> 00:27:09.039 God hasn't changed. 00:27:09.039 --> 00:27:12.199 We need Him to do what nobody else can do. 00:27:12.199 --> 00:27:20.039 Nobody has risen from the dead on the third day backing up everything He has said up to 00:27:20.039 --> 00:27:21.719 that point. 00:27:21.719 --> 00:27:24.839 It's good and it's right to follow Him. 00:27:24.839 --> 00:27:33.199 And to do so will bring testimony to His healing and His saving grace to those around us. 00:27:33.199 --> 00:27:38.480 Follow me is the invitation that He goes on to give to Levi. 00:27:38.480 --> 00:27:42.399 It's not a lifestyle choice. 00:27:42.399 --> 00:27:50.439 It is response to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords that you will one day meet. 00:27:50.440 --> 00:27:55.160 And the only qualification is seeing your need of Him. 00:27:55.160 --> 00:28:02.200 Why does this guy eat with the dregs of society? 00:28:02.200 --> 00:28:07.200 Jesus says, I came not to call the righteous but sinners. 00:28:07.200 --> 00:28:12.240 Those who recognize their need and that's the only qualification to fall in our knees 00:28:12.240 --> 00:28:13.960 and seek Him in our lives. 00:28:13.960 --> 00:28:17.759 And it's one we never grow out of as believers. 00:28:17.759 --> 00:28:23.480 It's one we need every day to recognize our need and His beauty and His healing and His 00:28:23.480 --> 00:28:24.480 forgiveness. 00:28:24.480 --> 00:28:25.480 Let's pray. 00:28:25.480 --> 00:28:30.599 Father, God, help us to see these things more clearly. 00:28:30.599 --> 00:28:35.879 May your spirit work in our hearts and in the hearts of us all today, convicting us of 00:28:35.879 --> 00:28:37.680 our needs. 00:28:37.680 --> 00:28:45.240 Forgive us, Lord, when we jump out of bed in the morning without a thought for you and 00:28:45.240 --> 00:28:50.720 when we boldly proclaim that we don't need you. 00:28:50.720 --> 00:28:58.039 And we know that at a human level we can survive for a little while doing that. 00:28:58.039 --> 00:29:04.559 But we know it's empty and we know that we are turning our backs on the author of life, 00:29:04.559 --> 00:29:13.519 the author of hope and healing and forgiveness and that that ultimate reality of guilt being 00:29:13.519 --> 00:29:23.759 removed from us will be evidenced by a healing and a fruitfulness that is transformational 00:29:23.759 --> 00:29:32.960 and ongoing and that has a real future element onto which we cling onto with hope. 00:29:32.960 --> 00:29:38.839 So may we be reminded of faith in Jesus Christ today, the hope of the gospel and the future 00:29:38.839 --> 00:29:43.679 fulfillment that has yet to come for us and of love. 00:29:43.679 --> 00:29:51.919 The greatest of these is love that will stick with us in this life, will grow in this life, 00:29:51.919 --> 00:29:57.879 love for God and for others, but will find its true fulfillment as the greatest of all 00:29:57.879 --> 00:30:04.759 of these characteristics because it will remain where hope and faith will no longer be needed. 00:30:04.759 --> 00:30:10.160 Love will be the currency of the new creation. 00:30:10.160 --> 00:30:15.279 So help us to grasp that more clearly today we ask in Jesus' name. 00:30:15.279 --> 00:30:34.960 Amen.