WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.299 So, I run a graduate program in Christian apologetics. If you don't know what apologetics 00:00:06.299 --> 00:00:12.160 is, that's not unusual. Sometimes we have large conferences devoted to apologetics, 00:00:12.359 --> 00:00:16.179 and half the crowd attending the conference really doesn't know what apologetics is. 00:00:16.600 --> 00:00:22.179 So, let me give you a brief definition, and it's very simple. It's offering reasons for faith, 00:00:22.859 --> 00:00:29.120 offering reasons to put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what apologetics does. 00:00:29.120 --> 00:00:36.700 It's not just for, you know, super intellectual people or people who just love to study philosophy 00:00:36.700 --> 00:00:41.880 and things. It's for everybody. It's something that we've actually been commanded to do in the 00:00:41.880 --> 00:00:48.320 Scriptures. In fact, the great apologetics verse is in 1 Peter 3.15, where Peter writes this, 00:00:48.780 --> 00:00:55.500 always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that 00:00:55.500 --> 00:01:01.899 you have. Yet, do this with gentleness and respect. And that last part is very important. We want to 00:01:01.899 --> 00:01:08.140 be able to engage people and do our very best to accurately answer their questions, but always doing 00:01:08.140 --> 00:01:13.400 this with gentleness and respect. If we're not doing it with gentleness and respect, they might 00:01:13.400 --> 00:01:19.000 understand our answer, and it's even a good answer, but it's not going to have an impact on them. So, 00:01:19.120 --> 00:01:23.340 we're ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we need to deliver these wonderful messages 00:01:23.340 --> 00:01:31.040 with gentleness, reverence, and respect. Well, running an apologetics program, I get a chance to 00:01:31.040 --> 00:01:36.980 go to a lot of churches, and some churches are a bit resistant to offering reasons for faith. That's 00:01:36.980 --> 00:01:41.460 a bit strange to me because I think the Scriptures are pretty clear that this is something we ought to 00:01:41.460 --> 00:01:48.879 be doing. And so, I've really poured over the Scriptures looking for good biblical justification 00:01:48.879 --> 00:01:54.879 for doing what I do. You know, it actually encourages me a great deal to know that what I'm doing is 00:01:54.879 --> 00:02:01.939 supported by the Bible. So, I've sat down in my comfortable Bible reading chair, and I've read 00:02:01.939 --> 00:02:08.879 through the entire Bible looking for the ways God loves to demonstrate the truth of His message. 00:02:09.319 --> 00:02:15.000 He likes to demonstrate who He is, His great power, His great wisdom, and His great love for us. He likes to 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:23.960 demonstrate it so that we walk around with knowledge. He likes us to have knowledge. Now, some people 00:02:23.960 --> 00:02:29.139 think, well, maybe that's not the way we're supposed to do this. Aren't we supposed to have faith, 00:02:29.620 --> 00:02:35.520 not knowledge? I've got to help you out with this one if you're confused by that. Knowledge is not the 00:02:35.520 --> 00:02:42.659 opposite of faith. In fact, let me read to you something that came from an editorial piece in a 00:02:42.659 --> 00:02:48.419 Los Angeles newspaper. It's from an engineering professor at the University of Southern California. 00:02:48.979 --> 00:02:55.199 And he wrote this piece because he was annoyed that the government was helping support faith-based 00:02:55.199 --> 00:03:02.000 initiatives in the community. And so, he didn't like the concept of faith entering into the public 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:07.340 sphere. But here's what this engineering professor, this unbelieving engineering professor, says faith is. 00:03:07.340 --> 00:03:17.039 He says, faith is unwarranted belief. Faith is belief without evidence or despite evidence to the 00:03:17.039 --> 00:03:25.580 contrary. Faith occurs when a person believes that something is true even though he suspects it's false. 00:03:26.699 --> 00:03:35.080 It takes large doses of such faith to support the very existence of gambling casinos, psychic hotlines, 00:03:35.080 --> 00:03:42.440 astrology columns, mall Santas, and most organized religions. 00:03:46.040 --> 00:03:54.360 Is that what faith is? Good heavens, no. The problem is very many people in the churches I've been to, 00:03:55.360 --> 00:04:00.939 Christians walk around with an idea of this as faith. And notice he thinks faith is really the 00:04:00.939 --> 00:04:06.740 opposite of the opposite of knowledge. It's believing things that you actually suspect aren't true. 00:04:07.219 --> 00:04:11.900 But you're just going to close your eyes and you're going to leap into them. What he's describing here, 00:04:12.079 --> 00:04:21.899 I call blind leaping, not biblical faith. Biblical faith is very simply trusting Jesus. It's trusting God 00:04:21.899 --> 00:04:30.120 to save you. It's putting your faith or your trust in Him. And that trust can be built upon a wonderful, 00:04:30.120 --> 00:04:37.519 solid foundation of knowledge. In fact, that's the greatest way to come to faith is if the knowledge 00:04:37.519 --> 00:04:44.259 has compelled you in that direction. So I'm going to trust Jesus because, wow, this thing has to be 00:04:44.259 --> 00:04:50.699 true. God was very generous in giving us the evidence and good reasons to understand that His 00:04:50.699 --> 00:04:57.259 message is true, His Word and His identity. So if you read through the Scriptures, you find this 00:04:57.259 --> 00:05:04.300 constantly God demonstrating the truth of His identity and His Word. Now, I don't have time to 00:05:04.300 --> 00:05:08.819 give you a whole lot of these passages, but let me give you my favorite from the Old Testament. 00:05:09.480 --> 00:05:15.579 I think you're going to like this one. You've probably been delighted to read this passage yourself. 00:05:15.879 --> 00:05:24.719 But it's Elijah, the prophet Elijah, squaring off against the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 16, 17, 00:05:24.720 --> 00:05:30.900 18. It's quite a remarkable passage. I love the prophet Elijah, by the way, don't you? He's not 00:05:30.900 --> 00:05:37.840 a writing prophet like Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel. He's a doing prophet. You know, he just 00:05:37.840 --> 00:05:43.180 wanders around in the desert, you know, and I always picture him looking kind of scraggly. He's got hair 00:05:43.180 --> 00:05:48.120 going out here, and he's got a funny look on his face and a scraggly beard. He's got a sword. He's 00:05:48.120 --> 00:05:53.860 marching around in a sword and sandals. And can you imagine he would wander into town what the little 00:05:53.860 --> 00:05:59.060 children would do, you know, trying throwing rocks at him and hiding, and he'd snarl at them. 00:06:00.199 --> 00:06:04.460 He's quite a figure, you know, if you really think about him, somebody very unusual. 00:06:06.379 --> 00:06:15.100 Well, it turns out in 1 Kings, the land of Israel is being dominated by a foreign type of worship, 00:06:15.180 --> 00:06:22.699 a worship that is not pleasing to Yahweh at all. It's Baal worship. And there are busloads of 00:06:22.699 --> 00:06:27.439 prophets of Baal out there, and they're all supported by Ahab and Jezebel, the king and queen 00:06:27.439 --> 00:06:36.360 of the land. And Elijah is annoyed at this, so he wants to deal with it. And here's the way he dealt 00:06:36.360 --> 00:06:43.120 with it in 1 Kings. In fact, let me give the setup here in 1 Kings chapter 16, starting with verse 29. 00:06:43.120 --> 00:06:51.920 In the 38th year of Asa, king of Judah, Ahab, son of Omri, became king of Israel, and he reigned in 00:06:51.920 --> 00:07:00.600 Samaria over Israel 22 years. Ahab, son of Omri, did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of 00:07:00.600 --> 00:07:07.879 those before him. How would you like people to be writing that in the Bible about you? Oh, goodness, 00:07:07.879 --> 00:07:15.240 that's not a great epitaph. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam, son of 00:07:15.240 --> 00:07:21.639 Nabat, but he also married Jezebel, daughter of Ethbal, king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and 00:07:21.639 --> 00:07:29.600 worship him. He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also made 00:07:29.600 --> 00:07:36.939 an Asherah pole and did more to arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than did all the kings 00:07:36.939 --> 00:07:44.560 of Israel before him. My goodness. So, Elijah understands this, and he wants to confront this. 00:07:46.660 --> 00:07:53.819 And it says in chapter 18, verse 17, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. This was going to be quite a 00:07:53.819 --> 00:08:03.079 meeting. When he saw Elijah, he said, is that you, you troubler of Israel? And Elijah writes or says, 00:08:03.079 --> 00:08:08.579 I have not made trouble for Israel, but you and your father's family have. You have abandoned the 00:08:08.579 --> 00:08:13.819 Lord's commands and have followed the Baals. Now, summon the people from all over Israel to meet me 00:08:13.819 --> 00:08:22.039 and bring the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table. 00:08:22.719 --> 00:08:29.019 So, Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. Elijah went before the 00:08:29.019 --> 00:08:36.639 people and said, how long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him, but if 00:08:36.639 --> 00:08:45.120 Baal is God, follow him. Well, this is quite a setup. So, Elijah proposes this little contest between him, 00:08:45.960 --> 00:08:55.480 the one outstanding prophet of God in the land, and then 400 plus prophets of Baal and Asherah. 00:08:55.480 --> 00:09:04.360 So, that's quite a contest. One man against busloads of false prophets. So, he proposes that 00:09:04.360 --> 00:09:10.420 they climb up onto Mount Carmel and they build two altars, right? And what they're going to do is 00:09:10.420 --> 00:09:14.180 they're going to put a slab of meat on top of these altars, and they are going to pray to their 00:09:14.180 --> 00:09:19.039 respective deities, and they're going to see who sends down fire from heaven to consume the offering. 00:09:19.039 --> 00:09:25.099 So, the prophets of Baal get to go first. They build a lovely altar over here. They put a fine 00:09:25.099 --> 00:09:30.980 slab of meat on there. The sun is low in the sky. It's in the early morning, and they get to go first. 00:09:31.620 --> 00:09:36.799 And so, they begin to chant and dance. You know, I have no idea how they did this, but just imagine. 00:09:37.799 --> 00:09:43.939 And they're calling out to Baal to send down fire to consume the offering. And there's 400 of them, 00:09:43.940 --> 00:09:48.740 so they can take turns, and everybody can be very vigorous in their activity. And they're moving 00:09:48.740 --> 00:09:53.420 along quite well. The sun is getting higher in the sky, but nothing's happening. There's no sparks. 00:09:53.700 --> 00:09:59.080 There's no smoke. There's nothing. There's birds flying over, and there's flies gathering on the 00:09:59.080 --> 00:10:04.620 meat, you know. It's not going particularly well. So, they ramp it up. They start moving faster. 00:10:05.460 --> 00:10:10.400 They chant more. Elijah is over here taunting them. He's saying things like, 00:10:10.399 --> 00:10:18.079 hey, guys, shout louder. Your God probably can't hear you. He actually says this, you know, 00:10:18.120 --> 00:10:24.240 hey, guys, he might be on the toilet. Keep working at it, you know. So, they're working at it, 00:10:24.319 --> 00:10:29.419 and it's not going well. Nothing's happening. And so, their time was getting close to the end, 00:10:30.600 --> 00:10:36.340 and so they pulled out, says the text, swords and spears and began to cut themselves, 00:10:36.340 --> 00:10:42.500 hoping that a little bit of blood on the skin would attract Baal's attention. 00:10:43.740 --> 00:10:48.639 So, they're stagging around. They're bleeding. They're falling and fainting. There's probably a 00:10:48.639 --> 00:10:56.660 pile of prophets here, but their time is up, and now it's Elijah's turn. Elijah builds a lovely altar 00:10:56.660 --> 00:11:02.500 over here, puts this nice slab of meat on top of it, and he has people dig a trench around the altar, 00:11:02.500 --> 00:11:09.179 and he has people bring in buckets of water to pour over the offering, and it's running down into the 00:11:09.179 --> 00:11:16.539 trench. I was teaching this to some small children one time, fourth graders, and I asked them, 00:11:16.820 --> 00:11:25.600 so why do you think Elijah had to pour water over the offering? And one small kid raised his hand 00:11:25.600 --> 00:11:30.899 right away. He had a good answer. I called him, and he said, to make gravy. 00:11:30.899 --> 00:11:37.559 So, yeah. I'm sure he could have got the answer out of these guys down here. 00:11:39.980 --> 00:11:46.720 So, it's Elijah's turn. The prophets of Baal failed miserably. He's got his altar built. He's got the 00:11:46.720 --> 00:11:52.879 water poured, and he says a little prayer, and I always picture him kind of winking at God. 00:11:52.879 --> 00:12:04.919 And down comes fire from heaven, takes up the offering, laps up the water in the trench, probably 00:12:04.919 --> 00:12:12.860 takes up a couple of prophets of Baal for good measure. It's a definitive demonstration that Yahweh's 00:12:12.860 --> 00:12:20.120 God and Baal is not. Definitive demonstration. And the text says that all of Israel was there watching 00:12:20.120 --> 00:12:27.259 this. Probably not every person in Israel, but leaders from all the tribes. And they witnessed 00:12:27.259 --> 00:12:32.860 this. Now, think about it. What do you think they did once this little contest was over? Do you think 00:12:32.860 --> 00:12:39.039 they walked away going, huh? You know, religion's a tricky thing. You know, who can know? It's all so 00:12:39.039 --> 00:12:45.019 mysterious, and it's about all that's going on inside of you, and who can really know what's going on? 00:12:45.019 --> 00:12:52.399 No, that's not what they did at all. They said, oh my goodness, Yahweh's God, Baal is not, and Yahweh 00:12:52.399 --> 00:12:59.299 seems a little mad. And so they ran for the caves. They ran for to hide in the clefts of rocks and so 00:12:59.299 --> 00:13:06.259 on. No, no. It was a definitive demonstration. Yahweh's God and Baal is not. God loves to demonstrate 00:13:06.259 --> 00:13:12.000 the truth of His identity and the truth of His Word. There are so many examples in the Old Testament of 00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:18.720 this. It's a bit difficult to choose others. But when you begin to roll right into the New Testament, 00:13:19.460 --> 00:13:26.299 this almost gets too much. I remember as a young man reading the New Testament for the first time. 00:13:26.879 --> 00:13:32.799 I became a Christian when I was a 17-year-old, a senior in high school. And I'm reading through 00:13:32.799 --> 00:13:40.019 the New Testament thinking, these followers of Jesus are kind of obsessed with Jesus and His 00:13:40.019 --> 00:13:48.399 resurrection. And I was reading passages like this. Get this, 2 Peter 1.16. 2 Peter 1.16. Peter writes, 00:13:48.939 --> 00:13:55.259 for we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus 00:13:55.259 --> 00:14:03.259 Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. John takes it several steps further in 1 John 00:14:03.259 --> 00:14:08.879 1.1. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, 00:14:09.039 --> 00:14:15.059 which we have looked at and our hands have touched, this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 00:14:16.500 --> 00:14:23.460 It's like they're saying, no, don't you make this mistake for a second. This really happened. It was 00:14:23.460 --> 00:14:30.000 not some figment of our imagination. It was not some mystical dream or spiritual vision. He was here. 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:36.039 We saw Him. We heard Him. We touched Him. This is what we're proclaiming. They wanted to make sure 00:14:36.039 --> 00:14:42.759 nobody got it wrong on that count. There was knowledge involved in this. It was not some 00:14:42.759 --> 00:14:51.240 mystical apparition. Now, Jesus Himself was big on demonstrating the truth of His teaching. 00:14:52.519 --> 00:14:56.700 In fact, really the whole center point of Christianity is about a demonstration. 00:14:56.700 --> 00:15:03.200 When Jesus was wandering around the Holy Land during His ministry, He was often confronted by 00:15:03.200 --> 00:15:09.200 Jewish teachers of the law. And on several occasions, they confronted Him and said, hey, 00:15:09.580 --> 00:15:17.759 show us a sign, right? Show us a sign. Give us some evidence that you are who you say you are. We need 00:15:17.759 --> 00:15:24.120 something going. We need a sign. And Jesus would respond, I'm paraphrasing a little bit here, but He'd say, 00:15:24.120 --> 00:15:35.440 I'm not going to show a sign to a bunch of rascals. Except for one. Tear down this temple and I will 00:15:35.440 --> 00:15:41.080 raise it up again on the third day. And John tells us he was talking about the temple of His body. 00:15:41.539 --> 00:15:49.000 The resurrection of Jesus was going to be the great sign, right? And it really is the center point of 00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:54.779 Christian demonstration. It's something that sets Christianity apart from the other great world 00:15:54.779 --> 00:16:01.759 religious traditions in rather dramatic fashion. And it also makes Christianity testable. The Apostle 00:16:01.759 --> 00:16:08.120 Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 says that if Jesus did not come back from the dead, our faith is worthless. 00:16:08.779 --> 00:16:17.600 It's empty. It's of no account. That is a crazy statement. You don't find that kind of statement in 00:16:17.600 --> 00:16:24.360 other world religious literature. I consider that passage in 1 Corinthians 15 by the Apostle Paul to 00:16:24.360 --> 00:16:31.879 be one of the strangest passages in all of religious literature. It makes Christianity testable. And 00:16:31.879 --> 00:16:39.080 Jesus was interested in people having knowledge. And His resurrection from the dead in front of 00:16:39.080 --> 00:16:44.680 eyewitnesses was going to be the great sign that He truly was the Messiah, the very Son of God, 00:16:44.679 --> 00:16:47.739 and had conquered death for all of us. 00:16:51.620 --> 00:17:01.299 Now, Jesus showed His love for demonstration in another way as well. Mark chapter 2. Thank you so 00:17:01.299 --> 00:17:05.079 much for reading the passage this morning. I'm glad you were able to hear it from the text because I 00:17:05.079 --> 00:17:10.579 think I'm going to give a bit of a dramatic reading. I'm not going to display it in terms of 00:17:10.579 --> 00:17:17.039 interpretive dance. I won't go quite that far, and I didn't bring my leotard, so that's not going to 00:17:17.039 --> 00:17:23.279 work anyway. But I love this passage. Actually, I love the gospel of Mark in general. If any of you have 00:17:23.279 --> 00:17:28.740 ever studied the ancient Greek language, you know, Koine Greek, you get to appreciate the gospel of Mark 00:17:28.740 --> 00:17:34.539 because it's got this very simple cadence. It's obviously written by a person who was not super good 00:17:34.539 --> 00:17:40.399 at the Greek language. But so it has, you know, it's almost like it's written by a 10-year-old or 00:17:40.399 --> 00:17:47.099 something, the way it plods along. But it also has this texture of authenticity that's quite remarkable. 00:17:48.460 --> 00:17:56.700 In fact, just a little sideline here on the gospel of Mark. I've been part of a team exploring some 00:17:56.700 --> 00:18:03.680 ancient manuscripts that have been found. There's been some new manuscripts found, and I don't know if 00:18:03.680 --> 00:18:12.140 you know about these yet, but they've been found in a very unusual place. Ancient Egyptians around the 00:18:12.140 --> 00:18:20.060 time of Jesus and the apostles, they loved to have funeral masks when they died. Now, we're not talking 00:18:20.060 --> 00:18:27.779 about great kings and queens who had gold masks and all that. Even people who had just modest incomes 00:18:27.779 --> 00:18:35.859 would like a burial mask. It was an Egyptian burial tradition. So if you were an everyday Egyptian and 00:18:35.859 --> 00:18:41.680 you wanted a funeral mask and you couldn't afford a gold variety, what you would do is you would have 00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:49.859 somebody make you a paper mache mask. They'd take papyrus fragments that they found in local 00:18:49.859 --> 00:18:57.119 garbage cans, basically, and they would use some glue and patch them together and make a mask. 00:18:57.819 --> 00:19:03.619 Well, it turns out the papyrus fragments that they were using to make these masks contains all kinds of 00:19:03.619 --> 00:19:11.379 interesting things like letters to kings, pieces of the writings of Homer, the great Greek poet, 00:19:11.380 --> 00:19:21.240 people's laundry lists and grocery lists, and on occasion, a piece of the Bible, for goodness sakes. 00:19:21.940 --> 00:19:28.600 So once this was discovered, we were collecting these masks and dissolving them in a solution that 00:19:28.600 --> 00:19:33.780 wouldn't harm the manuscripts. And they'd float apart, and we'd take the scraps, and we'd read them, 00:19:33.779 --> 00:19:43.200 and we'd found several passages of Scripture. And these date to the earliest fragments ever found of 00:19:43.200 --> 00:19:51.180 these books. And we found a fragment of the Gospel of Mark that almost certainly dates back into the 00:19:51.180 --> 00:19:59.680 first century, probably just a decade or two after the death and resurrection of Jesus. We have never had 00:19:59.680 --> 00:20:05.039 a fragment that went that early. The earliest fragment we have had before this is the John 00:20:05.039 --> 00:20:13.100 Ryland's papyrus, which dates at about 125 AD. It's a fragment of the Gospel of John found in the Egyptian 00:20:13.100 --> 00:20:21.900 desert. This predates it by 30 or 40 years. It's a fragment of the Gospel of Mark. So this dashes the 00:20:21.900 --> 00:20:29.480 objection to Scripture that it was written very late, many generations after the events that they speak of. 00:20:29.680 --> 00:20:36.259 And hence, they could have been doctored or tampered with. No, no. We've got fragments now pushing right 00:20:36.259 --> 00:20:41.860 back on to the time of these events. So these announcements will be coming, so keep an eye out 00:20:41.860 --> 00:20:51.580 for them. So back to the Gospel of Mark, Mark chapter 2. In Mark chapter 2, it's a big deal. Jesus is coming 00:20:51.580 --> 00:20:59.400 to Capernaum. Jesus is coming to Capernaum. Capernaum's a sleepy fishing village on the north shore of the Sea of 00:20:59.400 --> 00:21:07.080 Galilee. Nothing happens in Capernaum. It's a dead zone. I mean, you fish, you cook fish, you sell fish, 00:21:07.880 --> 00:21:15.519 and you just live your life. It's a bit boring. So when there is a fellow like Jesus of Nazareth 00:21:15.519 --> 00:21:21.880 coming to town, this isn't a ticket, right? This is something you want to make sure you attend. 00:21:21.880 --> 00:21:29.420 There's no movie theaters or video games or concert halls in Capernaum. If a guy like Jesus is coming to town, 00:21:29.600 --> 00:21:34.140 you get there, you get there early, and you attempt to get a front row seat because this is going to be the best 00:21:34.140 --> 00:21:40.820 thing that happened in town in a very long time. Jesus is coming to Capernaum. So then the text says that he was 00:21:40.820 --> 00:21:48.340 set up in a home teaching. It was very likely Peter's home. Peter had a home there, and it's likely Jesus had set up in his 00:21:48.339 --> 00:21:52.899 home to give this little talk. I always imagine Jesus giving a nice talk on the kingdom of God. 00:21:53.299 --> 00:21:59.519 But interestingly, the focus of the text is not on what Jesus was talking about, but all these strange 00:21:59.519 --> 00:22:04.899 occurrences taking place around him. Now, people wanted to get there, so many got there early and 00:22:04.899 --> 00:22:12.019 filled the home. In fact, the text says it was filled to overflowing. People were packed out, maybe 10 deep 00:22:12.019 --> 00:22:20.460 outside, craning their necks, hoping to hear what's going on inside the home. Then the story takes a quick 00:22:20.460 --> 00:22:29.519 shift. So it moves away from this message of Jesus in this home to four guys, four men. I love these guys. 00:22:29.799 --> 00:22:35.339 How about you, there's guys like this all over this room too. These are guys who are gonna go hear Jesus, 00:22:35.339 --> 00:22:41.519 and they said, wait a minute, let's go get the paralytic, right? The guy who can't use his legs. 00:22:41.699 --> 00:22:46.019 So these men are filled with compassion, and they want to go get their friend who can't use his legs, 00:22:46.039 --> 00:22:51.599 which is a terrible sentence in those days when you really have to use your body to make a living. 00:22:51.919 --> 00:22:57.079 This man was probably dependent on people giving him things and helping him out in every way. 00:22:57.299 --> 00:23:03.480 So they had compassion. They run down to get him. They put him on a mat, and they trot him down to 00:23:03.480 --> 00:23:09.059 where Jesus is teaching. And they stop, and they look, and they go, oh, they can't get near the place. 00:23:09.120 --> 00:23:17.920 It's jammed. Here's why I like these guys. They were not daunted by this. They found a way to get 00:23:17.920 --> 00:23:23.720 this poor man up on the roof of the dwelling, right? They found a way to get the paralytic up on the roof. 00:23:23.839 --> 00:23:29.480 Now, I don't know how they did that. The text doesn't say, but I'm imagining maybe two throwers and 00:23:29.480 --> 00:23:37.220 two catchers, you know, or maybe a special rope and pulley system, you know, but they get this guy 00:23:37.220 --> 00:23:45.640 up on the roof, and they start to dig through. They're pulling up tiles, and they're starting to 00:23:45.640 --> 00:23:51.720 dig around, you know, and could you imagine the scene inside as people are watching the ceiling 00:23:51.720 --> 00:24:00.620 shaking, and there's dust falling, and a leaf. And suddenly, a little beam of light breaks through, 00:24:01.059 --> 00:24:06.980 and the light is hitting the dust in the air, and it looks very spiritual and ethereal, and all the 00:24:06.980 --> 00:24:13.240 people who got there earlier were going, I'm so glad I got here, you know. So, and I'm sure Jesus was 00:24:13.240 --> 00:24:19.640 standing there going, what in the world is going on here? The hole gets bigger, and a head pops through. 00:24:21.640 --> 00:24:25.740 A guy looks around, the head disappears, and the hole gets even bigger. 00:24:27.400 --> 00:24:33.920 Light is pouring in, there's dust everywhere. As if this is not strange enough, moments later, 00:24:34.259 --> 00:24:41.940 the ceiling of this little dwelling begins to give birth. They have this poor man probably wrapped in 00:24:41.940 --> 00:24:47.059 his mat with some ropes, and they're stuffing him through the hole they've made in the roof. 00:24:47.240 --> 00:24:52.580 They're pushing and pop. This man goes through, and he's got a hold of a rope. His arms are 00:24:52.580 --> 00:25:00.360 plenty good. He's got the rope, and he's spinning around, and he plops on the floor, you know, cross-legged, 00:25:00.900 --> 00:25:07.480 and dust puffs up, and now there's light pouring in. There's dust everywhere. There's four heads poking 00:25:07.480 --> 00:25:16.860 through the big hole at the top now, and as the dust begins to settle, you can see everybody leaning 00:25:16.860 --> 00:25:23.759 forward at Jesus standing there, thinking, what in the world is the rabbi gonna say about this? 00:25:25.860 --> 00:25:31.720 And so, Jesus sees this scene. This man is sitting in front of him. The dust is settling. There's 00:25:31.720 --> 00:25:39.420 light pouring into the room. Still plenty of dust in the air. And Jesus says this, 00:25:40.799 --> 00:25:43.420 son, your sins are forgiven. 00:25:47.640 --> 00:25:51.220 Some of you have the same look on your face, I think, that they may have had. You're kind of like... 00:25:54.500 --> 00:26:00.660 Now, okay, here's the funny thing when I read this text. Why didn't the crowd leap to their feet and go, 00:26:00.660 --> 00:26:05.880 what a happy day? You know, this man's sins have been forgiven. This is a great day. You know, 00:26:06.200 --> 00:26:12.940 why didn't they do that? Well, if this man's sins have had really been forgiven, 00:26:14.160 --> 00:26:23.640 that is an invisible spiritual act, right? And you can't see it happen, so you kind of have to trust 00:26:23.640 --> 00:26:28.320 the guy who's saying it. There's...some of you are probably medical doctors and nurses and so on here, 00:26:28.319 --> 00:26:33.819 medical professionals of various sorts. I think you would agree with me that there's no LED light 00:26:33.819 --> 00:26:38.839 in a person's temple that starts flashing when their sins have been forgiven, right? There's...you 00:26:38.839 --> 00:26:44.359 can't go to the doctor and say, doc, you got to check this...the sin state I have. And he takes some 00:26:44.359 --> 00:26:47.980 instrument and he plunges it into you and pulls it out and goes, nope, you're good. You know, 00:26:48.179 --> 00:26:54.899 there's nothing like that, right? It's not a physical event. It's a spiritual event. And so, 00:26:54.900 --> 00:27:01.259 you have to trust the person who's talking about it. And I think Jesus knew that, right? So he says, 00:27:01.340 --> 00:27:06.540 son, your sins are forgiven. And of course, the text says that there were some Jewish teachers of 00:27:06.540 --> 00:27:12.259 the law in the room going, hey, wait a minute, who can forgive sins but God alone? And I'm sure Mark 00:27:12.259 --> 00:27:15.940 throws that in there to, you know, just give everybody the clue. That's exactly right. That's 00:27:15.940 --> 00:27:21.300 the question people should have been asking. But most of the people, I think, were just going, 00:27:21.299 --> 00:27:29.259 can he do that? Is that all right? And their partner at the event would say something like, 00:27:29.359 --> 00:27:34.059 you know, well, let's...whatever we do, let's hang in there. The word on the street is that he can make 00:27:34.059 --> 00:27:43.579 lunch. So we'll just wait for this. So, son, your sins are forgiven. There it is. And Jesus leaves it 00:27:43.579 --> 00:27:49.359 hanging in the air. In fact, just to give you the same kind of example, say the door opens in the back 00:27:49.359 --> 00:27:57.000 of the room here. And in walks a man with a long white robe, right? And a beard. Maybe he's got a 00:27:57.000 --> 00:28:02.039 big hat and he's got a staff and sandals. And maybe he has some little disciples following him or 00:28:02.039 --> 00:28:08.099 something. And he walks in. He comes down here and walks right up to the stage and pushes me aside. 00:28:08.839 --> 00:28:13.240 He looks like Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings movies. You know, Gandalf the White. 00:28:13.240 --> 00:28:19.480 And he pushes me aside and he says, lo. Because that's what religious guys say for some reason. 00:28:19.799 --> 00:28:26.500 Or maybe he says, behold. Or maybe he really, you know, does a great number on it and says, 00:28:26.579 --> 00:28:33.180 lo and behold. And he stands up here and he's a very impressive figure. And this is a very unusual 00:28:33.180 --> 00:28:36.519 circumstance. They have a man dressed all in white with a big hat and a staff coming up, 00:28:36.880 --> 00:28:41.880 pushing me aside and saying this. And he says to you, my children, your sins. 00:28:41.880 --> 00:28:44.320 They are forgiven. 00:28:47.360 --> 00:28:53.340 Now, why aren't you leaping to your feet, you know, and going, what a happy day. This is great. Our sins 00:28:53.340 --> 00:28:58.860 have been forgiven. You know, Gandalf has told us so, you know. Well, this is a very strange circumstance, 00:28:58.940 --> 00:29:05.320 but you get the point. It sounds interesting and somewhat attractive to have your sins forgiven. 00:29:05.700 --> 00:29:11.300 But you don't know if Gandalf can really do it, right? Even if he's proclaiming it, you don't know 00:29:11.299 --> 00:29:16.740 what's really going on. Because if it's true, it's an invisible spiritual act. It's exactly where 00:29:16.740 --> 00:29:23.639 Jesus was. Son, your sins are forgiven. But he did not want people left in a state of unknowing. 00:29:24.019 --> 00:29:33.379 And this is the big crescendo of this particular biblical story. Jesus says this. He says, 00:29:33.380 --> 00:29:41.540 so that you will know, so that you will know, so that you will know that the Son of Man has the 00:29:41.540 --> 00:29:49.720 authority on earth to forgive sins. Pick up your mat and go home. This guy gets to his feet, maybe for 00:29:49.720 --> 00:29:54.860 the first time in his life. He scoops up his mat and he starts to walk out of the room. And people are 00:29:54.860 --> 00:30:00.440 backing up, making a way for this guy as he walks out. And the gospel of Mark uses the strongest language 00:30:00.440 --> 00:30:09.180 in, uh, use the strongest words in that language. They were astonished. They had never seen anything 00:30:09.180 --> 00:30:15.440 like this. And guess what? Everybody in that room had excellent reason to believe that God could indeed 00:30:15.440 --> 00:30:22.000 forgive sins. Because Jesus demonstrated it through a miracle right there in front of people's eyes. The 00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:28.039 man they knew for years not to be able to use his leg was suddenly on them walking out of the room with 00:30:28.039 --> 00:30:33.960 his mat. They'd never seen anything like it. There was excellent reason to believe that Jesus could indeed 00:30:33.960 --> 00:30:41.119 forgive sins. I think there's excellent reason to believe that Jesus has come back from the dead. I think 00:30:41.119 --> 00:30:48.639 it's one of the best attested facts of the ancient world. I've studied this for years. And I think God was 00:30:48.639 --> 00:30:57.180 incredibly generous giving us the evidence that Jesus truly was alive at point A, dead at point B, and alive 00:30:57.180 --> 00:31:03.220 again at point C. We can know that. And I use the word know intentionally. We can know that to be true. 00:31:03.220 --> 00:31:09.759 And not just in some spiritual way. We can know it that way if we'd like. But also the facts of history 00:31:09.759 --> 00:31:15.640 testify to that. And I wish I could give you a case for the resurrection of Jesus right now, but don't have 00:31:15.640 --> 00:31:21.640 time for that this morning. Maybe another time. But the evidence is compelling and actually quite 00:31:21.640 --> 00:31:28.740 overwhelming in terms of the testimony you get from ancient history. It's remarkable. Jesus came 00:31:28.740 --> 00:31:33.800 back from the dead. And you can know it to be true from the facts of history, as well as from the Holy 00:31:33.800 --> 00:31:40.540 Spirit testifying in your heart. God wants us to know. He wants us to know that our sins can be forgiven. 00:31:40.940 --> 00:31:47.300 And he wants us to know that we can have eternal life by trusting in him. Now, some of you may be hearing 00:31:47.299 --> 00:31:53.819 this for the first time. This is the real deal. You can know this to be true. And I encourage you to 00:31:53.819 --> 00:32:00.919 study it out. Think through it carefully. Read the text of Scripture and read some very smart people who 00:32:00.919 --> 00:32:07.220 helped to interpret that text. And what you will find is Jesus is indeed the Son of God, 00:32:08.119 --> 00:32:13.859 the unique Savior of humankind, who not only can forgive sins, but after he was killed 00:32:13.859 --> 00:32:21.219 by a Roman execution team on a cross, he came back from the dead on the third day. And you can know 00:32:21.219 --> 00:32:27.779 these things to be true. And by putting your trust in him, saying, all right, I'm pretty sure I'm not 00:32:27.779 --> 00:32:34.000 going to be able to save myself. Jesus, I'm going to trust you. You do that this morning. You will enter 00:32:34.000 --> 00:32:41.219 into a whole new existence. You will be a child of God. You will be born again. And you will inherit 00:32:41.220 --> 00:32:49.140 eternal life. This is something we can jump up and shout praises about. Join me in a word of prayer. 00:32:50.180 --> 00:32:54.500 Our Heavenly Father, our great King, what a joy it is to serve you. What a joy it is to know that you 00:32:54.500 --> 00:33:03.039 didn't leave us stranded in our own time without a witness, a witness that you are who you say you are 00:33:03.039 --> 00:33:09.480 and that your word is true. Lord, if there's any among us today who are wondering if they should 00:33:09.480 --> 00:33:14.680 commit to you, I just pray that your Holy Spirit would move in their hearts, that they would 00:33:14.680 --> 00:33:20.059 understand that they've been alienated or separated from you and that you can bring them back, that you 00:33:20.059 --> 00:33:26.019 can forgive their sins, you can make their lives right, right now, right at this moment, and that 00:33:26.019 --> 00:33:32.740 you could give them eternal life, give them a new birth and a new outlook on life starting today. 00:33:32.740 --> 00:33:36.640 In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you all so much.