Well, I'm so grateful now to
be co-pastoring with Austin Duncan here with Crossroads and what
a joy it always is to be here with you. Do we turn up the lights
or do we just always leave them off? We do turn them on? Normally? Ah, there we go. Okay, good...good.
Because I want you to be able to look in your Bible and for
those of you who are note-takers, for you to be able to see what
you're writing. I want you to take your Bible
and turn with me to the gospel according to Mark, to Mark chapter
2. And I want us to look at one
of the most remarkable incidents in the life of our Lord. If I had to put a title over
this, it would simply be, The Absolute Authority of Jesus. Mark chapter 2, I want to begin
reading in verse 1. I want to reintroduce you to
this passage and set it before your eyes and before your heart.
Mark chapter 2, beginning in verse 1. When he, referring to
the Lord Jesus Christ, had come back to Capernaum several days
afterward, it was heard that he was at home. And many were
gathered together so that there was no longer room, not even
near the door. And he was speaking the word
to them. And they came, bringing to him
a paralytic carried by four men. being unable to get to him because
of the crowd, they removed the roof above him. And when they
had dug an opening, they let down the pallet on which the
paralytic was lying. And Jesus, seeing their faith,
said to the paralytic, son, your sins are forgiven. But one of
the scribes, or some of the scribes were sitting there reasoning
in their hearts, what is this man? Why does this man speak
that way? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive
sins but God alone? Immediately, Jesus, aware in
His spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves, they
said to them, Or He said to them, why are you reasoning about these
things in your hearts? Which is easier to say to the
paralytic, your sins are forgiven, or to say, get up and pick up
your pallet and walk, but so that you may know that the Son
of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He said to the
paralytic, I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go
home." And he got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went
out in the sight of everyone so that they were all amazed
and were glorifying God saying, we have never seen anything like
this. This passage is all about the
authority of Jesus. We see that in verse 10, that
you may know that the Son of Man has authority. The word authority is a Greek
word, exousia, which really means the right and the privilege to
do exactly as you please. It is the right to rule. It is the right to govern and
to preside and that everything is under your authority. Jesus has absolute authority. There is no one above His authority. There is no one beside His authority. Every aspect of creation is under
His authority. And when Jesus came into this
world, Jesus voluntarily chose not to exercise all of the aspects
of His authority. He chose to limit Himself, though
He never relinquished His authority. As He took the form of a bondservant,
He chose to humble Himself under the will of the Father. But there
are some isolated times in the four gospels where Jesus just
pulls back the curtain, pulls back the veil, and there is a
flash of that authority and it is stunning, it is brilliant. And this passage is one of those
instances where we see His supreme authority. And Jesus exercised
His authority. At different times in His ministry,
He exercised authority over disease and could just command the disease
to leave the person who was ill and they instantly, immediately
became well. Jesus would exercise authority
over demons. And he would but speak to the
demon, and the demon would immediately comply and obey with the command
of Jesus. Jesus exercised His authority
to the storm and to the weather, and He would simply but say,
peace be still. And all of creation under His
supreme governing authority, the storm became as placid and
still as could be. And Jesus possesses all authority
in heaven and earth. He exercised authority to send
the Holy Spirit. He exercised authority to open
closed hearts. He exercised authority to overturn
circumstances. He but speaks the word and it
is overturned. He exercised authority to convert
his enemies. And Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus
Road in a heartbeat was brought to his knees under the authority
of the Lord Jesus Christ. What will you have me to do,
Lord? He exercised authority in answering
prayer. And there is no prayer but that
Jesus has the authority to answer that prayer. He has authority
to save as the Savior of the world. He has authority to judge. And on the last day, every knee
will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, kurios,
the one who has all authority. He has authority to cast down
to hell. He has authority to damn. He has authority to reconcile
sinners to a holy God. Jesus possesses the right and
He exercises the privilege of His absolute sovereignty. In the organizational chart of
all creation, Jesus is at the very apex and everything and
everyone is under the dominion of His authority. And what we
will see today as we look at this passage is we will see but
a brief flash of His authority, but a brief glimpse of the extraordinary
right that He has to forgive sin and to raise a paralytic
to His feet. What encouragement this should
be to us today that no matter what challenge we face in our
lives, no matter what may be before us, Jesus has authority
over everything in our lives. He has authority over our future.
He has authority over our destiny. He has all authority over every
aspect of our circumstances. and the affairs of our lives. So, let's look at this passage
and let us be reminded of this absolute authority. When we say
absolute, We mean there are no restrictions. It is a limitless
authority. It is an unconditional authority
that is not dependent upon anything that we would need to contribute
to cause this authority to be effective. So as we look at this
passage, let's just enjoy looking at this today as we behold our
Savior, as we behold our Lord. And I want to give you several
headings as we'll just walk through this passage together. And the
first thing that I want you to note is the circuit. At the beginning
of verse 1, we see the preaching circuit of Jesus. The beginning
of verse 1, when He had come back to Capernaum several days
afterward. And the reason I call this the
circuit because Jesus has been basing His ministry out of Capernaum. Capernaum was His base of operation. It's in the north. west corner
of the Sea of Galilee. And it was here in Capernaum
that Jesus called four fishermen to leave their nets and to come
follow Him. He called Peter and Andrew and
James and John to follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.
And they came under the sway of His authority as He but commanded
them to come follow Him. And they dropped their nets and
they became followers of Christ under His authority. And here
in Capernaum... Jesus was preaching the gospel
and there were so many people coming to Him wanting to be healed
because Jesus exercised His authority over disease that Jesus literally
had to leave town. And if you'll turn back to chapter
1, chapter 1, let's look, for example, beginning in verse 35.
In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up,
left the house, went away to a secluded place and was praying
there. And Jesus was under the authority
of His Father during His incarnation here upon the earth. Verse 36,
Simon and his companions searched for Him and they found Him. And
that really shows us or indicates that Jesus regularly got up early
in the morning before the sun arose and within His humanity
came before the Father in prayer and called out for the great...not
the...for the power that He would need to carry out His ministry.
And in verse 37, everyone's looking for you, and he said to them,
let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby so that I may preach
there also for that is what I came for. And he went into their synagogues
throughout all Galilee preaching and casting out demons. You see, Jesus was really an
itinerant evangelist at this stage in His ministry. He wasn't
pastoring a local church or a local assembly of believers or a synagogue. Jesus was a man on the move.
There was no grass growing under His feet. He was constantly moving
out. And everything was being affected
around him. In fact, he was so moving out
that the main word in the gospel of Mark is the word immediately.
Jesus was immediately carrying out the ministry and carrying
out His mission. And so, verse 29, immediately
after they came out of the synagogue, they came into the house of Simon
and Andrew. Verse 37, immediately they spoke
to Jesus about her. Earlier, verse 28, immediately
the news spread about him. Verse 21, they went into Capernaum
and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue. Verse 20, immediately they called
them. Verse 18, immediately they left
their nets and followed him. Not only was there an immediacy
about the ministry of the Lord Jesus, but people were responding
immediately around him. And there was a sense of urgency. about the work to which the Father
had given Him to do. And all that Jesus did compressed
into a three-year period of time. He had to be immediately doing
what He did. And there is something for us
to learn about this as well. that Jesus was not shuffling
through life, He wasn't hanging out, but there was a rapidity
about the pace of His life. And so it must be for us a sense
of urgency. So Jesus, as He's made this full
circuit through the cities of Galilee, going from one place
to the next, to the next, to the next, and going into synagogues,
and going into houses, and no doubt going into public places,
and wherever He went, He was preaching the Word of God. And
He was a fisher of men Himself, and He was training His disciples
to be fishers of men. And so back in Mark chapter 2
and verse 1, we see the circuit. He had come back to Capernaum. several days afterward. He had to leave town because
there were so many people surrounding him wanting to be healed that
he had to get out of town because that wasn't the primary reason
why he came into this world, to heal people. That was simply
to validate the preaching and he had to go elsewhere so that
he could have the space to preach the Word. So that's the circuit. I want you to note second, the
crowd, because as he...verse 1, as he came back... It was
heard that he was at home. Interesting. See, Capernaum was
his home. It was his home base and probably
spent a lot of time in Simon Peter's house there in Capernaum
and probably even called that house somewhat of a home. I mean, the son of man had no
place to lay his head, but this is one of those rare places in
Jesus' ministry that he could call home. And it was heard that
he was at home. I mean, the word just spread
like wildfire. Word of mouth. And verse 2, and many were gathered
together so that there was no longer room, not even near Well,
we don't know exactly how large this house was. They usually
were not divided up like our houses are with lots of walls
and small rooms. The rooms were larger rooms. and would have open spaces for
doors and some of them would have some type of means of closing
what would be for us like a door, if it wasn't a rug or a tapestry,
something, and there would be open spaces to allow the air
to come in for what we would call windows. And so the word
came that Jesus is now back in Capernaum. He has now come back
home. He is now back in Simon Peter's
house, and he's like a magnet. I mean, the people are just drawn
to where He is and they jam into this house so much so you couldn't
get another person into the house with a shoehorn. It was standing
room only. And at the end of verse 2, Jesus
did what any preacher does. It takes the opportunity to preach
to the people who have come. That's what preachers do. They
preach the Word of God. And at the end of verse 2, that's
what we see Jesus doing. Whether this was scheduled, whether
this was planned, or whether this was just an impromptu moment,
as long as you're here and I'm here, But Jesus was a preacher
of the Word of God and He began to preach the Word and we know
something of what He was preaching because back in chapter 1 verses
14 and 15, Jesus was a gospel preacher. He was preaching the good news
of salvation and the good news of the kingdom of heaven, the
sphere of God's rule and reign in the hearts of men and women
when He, the King, comes into those lives. And in chapter 1
verse 14, we read that Jesus came into Galilee preaching the
gospel of God. Verse 15 is saying, the time
is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. repent, and
believe in the gospel. Jesus was such a powerful preacher. He was such a straightforward
herald of the message of the kingdom of heaven, and he called
people to respond. He wasn't just a teacher. He
was an evangelist. And He called them to repent,
to turn away from their sin, to turn away from their self-righteousness
and their self-reliance and to be broken over their sin and
to turn to Him and to entrust their lives to Him. He called
them to surrender their life to Him and to come under His
authority and His dominion and to enter into the kingdom of
heaven. So that's what Jesus is doing.
It's the end of verse 2. And so we see this swelling crowd,
this multiplying multitude of people. who are coming to be
around Jesus. Some of them are there just out
of curiosity. People always want to be where
there's a crowd. Wherever people are, that's what
draws more people. And if it's a small little crowd,
people many times just human nature stay away. Well, success
builds success and here the crowds are drawing more people, some
of them just out of curiosity. Others were genuinely committed. Certainly 11 of the 12 were genuinely
committed to the Lord, and also there would be those who were
counterfeit. They thought they were in the
kingdom, but in reality they were not. They were a part of
the external religiosity of the nation Israel. at the time. The same is true here today as
we've gathered this large crowd. There are those here today who
are genuinely committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and
you have bowed the knee and you have surrendered your life to
Jesus Christ. You have repented of your sin
and you have entered into the kingdom of heaven. There are
others here today with this many people, it would be impossible
for us all to be committed to the Lord Jesus Christ. And there
would be those here today who are simply interested. and curious
about the things of the Lord and want to be where your friends
are and to be where other people are that you would like to be
a part of that group and you've not yet committed your life to
Christ. And if that is true for you,
then I pray that today would be the day that you would cross
the line and that you would repent of your sins. and that you would
believe the gospel and that you would take that step of faith
today and enter through the narrow gate and enter into the kingdom
of heaven. And no doubt there are others
here today, just like in this crowd, those who were religious
but lost. Those who had been raised in
a religious Jewish home, just like you may have been raised
in a fine Christian home, but you've not yet come to the point
of realizing that you must be born again within your own soul. So that's the crowd. It was a
mixed crowd that day. Third, I want you to note the
cripple in verse 3, and they came bringing to him a paralytic
carried by four men. I mean, the reason that they
did so is very obvious. Jesus has been healing people
throughout Galilee. He has authority over disease. He has authority over sickness. He even has exercised authority
over death itself and can raise the dead to life. He has such
authority over disease and sickness, He but speaks the Word and immediately
and instantly they are healed and made new. And so here is
a paralytic. He has no hope of recovery in
this day and time. The practice of medicine was
so infantile that a person who found themselves in this state
would be totally dependent upon the help and mercy of companions,
or family, or friends. And that's exactly where this
paralytic finds himself. He cannot care for himself. He
cannot travel about. He cannot walk. He cannot earn
a living. He is totally, completely dependent
upon the mercy and the help of others. And the word had spread
that Jesus was back in Capernaum. And these four men, friends no
doubt of this paralytic, realized that this was their opportunity. If they could just get their
friend to Jesus, Jesus could heal this paralytic just like
Jesus has healed no doubt hundreds of other people as He's making
His preaching circuits throughout Galilee. And so, they pick their
friend up. He is laying on a pallet. They pick him up, one on each
of the corner of the pallet, no doubt, and it says that they
brought him to Jesus. And this was an act of faith
on their part, believing that Jesus can heal their friend. And so they bring him to where
Jesus is, and the beginning of verse 4 says they were unable
to get to him because of the crowd, because the house was
jam-packed. You couldn't slide another person
into the house and into the room, much less someone who had to
be carried by four people and be brought in on a pallet. Now the average Christian today
would have simply surmised, well, you know, it's just not God's
will that we get our friend to Jesus. We tried, but it was a
closed door. God opens doors. God closes doors. So this was a closed door. They
could have very easily said to their paralytic friend, it just
wasn't the day that the Lord would have had us bring you to
Jesus. So you're just going to have
to trust the Lord for another time. But they wouldn't take
no for an answer. And what they did is they climbed
up on the roof of this house. Now, we're not told how they
got up there. There could have been a stairwell
on the outside, as there was in many of these homes, and there
would be a large, flat roof on top of the house. In fact, the
upper room where Jesus met with the disciples before His crucifixion
was...there was a large room up on top. Sometimes they would
be completed with walls and a ceiling. Other times they just were left
bare and people would sit there and visit and talk in the evening. It's probably the latter. They
climb up onto the roof of of this house. And we know from
Luke's gospel that they tried to determine where exactly Jesus
was standing inside the...inside the room because they have an
ingenious plan. They are going to bring the house
down. They are going to begin to pull
back tiles and pull back wood and create A hole in the roof,
not a small hole, not a keyhole, but a hole, a gaping hole, large
enough that a grown man laying down on a pallet could be lowered
down into the room. So you can imagine all the people
sitting, no doubt, on the floor and standing around the walls
and Jesus preaching the Word of God, and suddenly debris begins
to come down, maybe even onto Jesus' head while He's talking,
and then some more tile just fall down and hit the floor.
And what a distraction, people start to look up and then suddenly
there's light shining down into the room. Now this is a total
disruption. And you see four little faces
peering over the edge of the roof, and they look at each other,
and they lift their friend up, and no doubt have rope attached
to each of the four corners, and they begin to just let this
man down into the room in the middle of the sermon that Jesus
is giving. And you can just imagine this
man on the pallet as he looks around and smiles at everyone
as he's coming down into the room and he looks at Jesus and
Jesus would have looked at him. Everyone in the room is looking
at this man. And what we see here is in these
men, they are doing the greatest thing that they can do for someone
else, and that is to take someone to Jesus. The greatest thing
that they could do for their paralytic friend other than just
to pray for him was to bring their friend to Jesus and to
be where Jesus is ministering the Word of God. And I want to
say to you that the greatest thing that you can do for someone
else is to be used by God to bring them to the Lord Jesus
Christ. for you to tell them about Jesus
Christ, for you to be the means by which someone else comes to
faith in Jesus Christ. The greatest joy in all the world
is to know Jesus Christ, and the second greatest joy is to
be used by God to bring someone else to know Jesus Christ. And so I need to ask you this
question. Are you bringing people to Jesus? Are you inviting people to come
to Christ? Are you inviting people to come
here to Crossroads? Are you bringing people here
to hear Austin Duncan preach the Word of God, just like Jesus
was preaching the Word of God? I remember when I was your age,
when I was in college, My father had a red Volkswagen bus. And when I would come home for
the summers from college, on Sunday mornings, I began to call
my friends that I played high school football with. And I said,
I'll pick you up at 9, I'll pick you up at 910, I'll pick you
up at 920, and I had this thing all measured, and I just drove
all around my old high school district in my red Volkswagen
van, picking up all my buddies that I had played ball with and
driving them to the church where I was a member to hear the Word
of God and to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and to hear the
call to repent of your sins and to believe in Jesus Christ. And I want to tell you, God worked
through that and there are a number of my teammates who came to faith
in Jesus Christ. What a glorious privilege it
is to be able to bring others to Jesus. And that's exactly
what these four men are doing. We don't know what their spiritual
gifts were. We don't know what their abilities were. But you
know what they could do? They had enough resolve that
they could physically pick up their buddy and bring him to
where Jesus was. So, that's the cripple. Now I
want you to see in verse 5 the compassion. I want you to see
the compassion in verse 5, and Jesus seeing their faith.
Now, I'll have to admit, if I was the preacher that day, I probably
would have been a little irritated. Like, can't you guys wait for
the second service? Or, you know, why are...I'm doing
such a spiritual thing here, why are you interrupting me while
I am preaching the Word of God to people? But Jesus was so full
of compassion, it says, seeing their faith. Now stop right there. Faith gets God's attention. The Bible says in Hebrews 11
verse 6, without faith it's impossible to please God. For he must believe
that God is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek
Him. And when Jesus saw their faith, the sinless Son of God responded to their faith. And
when Jesus sees faith in you and your trust in Him and His
Word, that gets His attention. You see, when we're without faith,
the Bible says we're like the wave of the ocean just tossed
back and forth whichever way. We're so weak without faith.
But when we anchor ourselves to Jesus by faith, He notices
and here He stops what He is doing to respond to their faith
and even a little faith in a great Savior accomplishes the work. And so, verse 5, Jesus, seeing
their faith... Now, also note, before I move
on, their faith, that's plural, their, because it's more than
just the paralytic. It's no doubt all five of them.
that Jesus...it registers with our Lord when He sees their faith. They said to the paralytic...He
said to the paralytic, son, that's a term of endearment, your sins,
plural, are forgiven. Wow. Everyone else in the room
saw only the external need the man had. Everyone in the room
only saw the physical limitation that this man had, but Jesus
has x-ray vision. Jesus looked beyond and deeper
than the man's physical problems, and Jesus looked into the man's
soul and into his heart, and Jesus saw not the external need,
Jesus saw the eternal need. Jesus saw the sin in the man's
life that separates him from God. He sees the sin that brings
him under the curse of the law. He sees the sin that produces
spiritual death. He sees the sin that is destroying
the inner soul of the man. And so Jesus cuts to the chase and
Jesus goes to the real root issue. And Jesus says, son, your sins
are forgiven. It's in the plural, meaning all
of their...all of his sins. Now, the word forgiveness means
to send away or the sending away. And when Jesus said, your sins
are forgiven, Jesus is saying, the Father is sending away your
sins, because of your faith in Me." Sola fide, by faith alone
in Christ alone, because of your faith in Me, you are forgiven. There was nothing this paralytic
could do to earn forgiveness of sin. He can't even get into
the meeting, much less make himself worthy of this forgiveness. It
was all by the mercy and the grace. of the Lord Jesus Christ,
just like it is for you and me, for any forgiveness that we would
ever have, it is simply because God in His mercy and in His grace
and in His love for sinners sends the sin away. How far has He sent the sin away? Not next door. As far as the
east is from the west, so far has He removed our sins from
us. He's taken our sins and placed
them behind His back where He can see them no more. He's taken
our sins and buried them in the sea of His forgetfulness. He says, your iniquities I remember
no more. And in the fuller counsel of
God, all of our sins were transferred to Jesus Himself there upon the
cross and He became our scapegoat as He took our sins far, far
away, right? John 1 verse 29, He is the Lamb
of God who takes away the sins of the world. I need to have
my sins taken away. You need to have your sins taken
away. And the real issue in your life
is not the external, the real issue in your life is the eternal,
it's the internal, it's your own heart and soul before God
that has become stained by your sin. And there's only one who
can remove that stain. And it is the one who spoke this
word, son, your sins are forgiven. There's no limitation on these
sins. All of your sins in the past, all of your sins in the
present, all of your sins for the rest of your life, I command
them by my authority to be removed from you as far as the east is
from the west. Has the Lord sent your sins away? Has the Lord said to you, son,
your sins are forgiven? Has Christ said to you, daughter,
your sins I send away? That's what it is to be converted
to Christ. It is for you to believe in Him
and for Him to forgive you your sins. I want you to note next
the conflict because in verse 6, the religious crowd there
that day did not like this. And in verse 6, but some of the
scribes, the scribes were the lawyers, the experts in the law
of God. They were the brilliant scholastic
minds in studying the Mosaic Law as well as other laws in
the Talmud. And some of the scribes were
sitting there and reasoning in their heart. Their wheels are
turning. They're not speaking, they're
not saying anything, but they might as well be and this is
what they're thinking in verse 7. And here is this conflict,
there's a clash of light and darkness. Why does this man,
and there's a certain sensuous tone about this, censorious tone,
why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God
alone? They were right that only God
can forgive sin. Eternally, only God can forgive
sin. Psalm 103 verse 1, bless the
Lord, O my soul and all that is within me, bless His holy
name. Verse 3, who pardons all of our
iniquities. Only God can pardon our iniquities
by His grace through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And outside
of Christ, there is not one drop of forgiveness. It is all contained
within Christ. And so this conflict is aroused,
just like there is always conflict aroused. When the pure grace
of God in the Lord Jesus Christ is preached to a religious crowd,
it causes consternation. And that is what happens here.
But I want you to note in verse 8, the command. Here is the authority. Here is the command of His authority. Verse 8, immediately. Jesus aware
in His spirit, small s, that they were reasoning that way
within themselves. Here is a flash of His deity
for us to see. Jesus can read their mail without
ever opening the envelope. Jesus can look into their heart
and He knows exactly what He is thinking. Not only does He
look into their heart, He looks through their heart. He knows
everything about them. In fact, He knows what they're
going to say before they even say it. He knows what they're
thinking before they even think it. And so it says, Jesus, aware
in His Spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves,
said to them, and how courageous Jesus is,
how bold Jesus is to take on the establishment. That's what
He's doing here. He's speaking directly to the
scribes. And Jesus could have just let
it lie, but no, He is provocative. And He says in verse 8, why are
you reasoning about these things in your hearts, and no doubt
they felt a little nervous in the service at this point because
you know exactly what we're thinking without us ever opening our mouth. And by the way, Jesus knows every
thought that's in you. He knows every motive. He knows
every ambition. He knows every desire. He knows
you inside out and outside in. He knows you perfectly. So it says in verse 9, which
is easier to say to the paralytic? Now, catch the profundity of
this argument. Which is easier to say to the
paralytic? Your sins are forgiven or to say get up and pick up
your pallet and walk? Well, the answer is very obvious
as we think about it. It would be much easier for me
to say your sins are forgiven because how can you prove that?
I mean, it's just easy to say the words, your sins are forgiven.
No one can actually really know that those sins are forgiven
as they sat in that house that day. I mean, we could easily
say talk is cheap. What would be much harder to
say? would be for Jesus to look at
this paralytic who has been lowered through the ceiling and is now
no doubt laying on the floor immediately in front of Him at
His feet and to say to Him, get up, take your pallet and go home. That would be much harder to
say. for there to be the reality that would come to pass from
those words, right? Because you're going to have
to actually now visibly document your authority to do this. So, please note, verse 10, but
so that you may know. That the Son of Man, by the way,
that's Jesus' favorite self-expression. He referred to Himself as the
Son of Man more than any other title. He referred to Himself
as the Son of Man more than He did as the Son of God. And Son
of Man has a twofold meaning, and let's just pause for a second.
Let me tell you, first of all, it's a messianic title, going
back to Daniel 7, 13 and 14. But it also represents His identity
with the sinful human race, that the Son of God became the Son
of Man. He entered into this world. He became one of us. He got into
our skin. He stood in our shoes. He was
born of a woman under the law, Galatians 4 verse 4, and Jesus
loved to Make Himself known to people by saying, I am the Son
of Man. I have come all the way down
from heaven to earth because you could not pull yourself up
from earth to heaven. You couldn't work your way up
to heaven, so I have had to come down from heaven to the earth
so that I can take you back to heaven with me. But so that you
may know, verse 10, that the Son of Man has...here is our
million-dollar word, our billion, trillion-dollar word, has authority
on earth to forgive sin, that the Son of Man has the right
to command sin to leave, that the Son of Man has the authority
to command forgiveness of sin, that the Son of Man alone has
authority to wash away the pollution of sin and to remove the guilt
of sin, that you may know that the Son of Man has authority
to forgive sin He said to the paralytic, verse 11, I say to
you, get up, pick up your pallet, and go home. No doubt you could have heard
a pin drop in that room. Every eye in that house riveted
upon this paralytic. Every person standing in the
doorways, every person sitting in the windows, every person
outside the house looking through between the shoulders of people
sitting in the windows. What's going to happen? Verse 12, and he got up and immediately picked up his
pallet and went out in the sight of everyone. You know what's
amazing? They couldn't get him into the
house because there were so many people in the house, but he marched
out. No doubt the people, they parted
like the Red Sea. Those people fell back, opening
a way for this paralytic, maybe in his entire life has never
walked. We don't know. but he immediately springs to
his feet. He's not like a calf that's born
and wobbles around for a while. He's like a piece of toast coming
out of a toaster. He just pops up to his feet and
he picks up his pallet and he just rolls it up like the Wall
Street Journal. and sticks that thing under his
arm and immediately he goes walking out a triumphant believer in
Jesus Christ, one not simply that he has...his body has been
made well, but one whose soul has been made well, whose sins
are forgiven, the heavy weight and burden of sin that has weighed
him down the entirety of his life. It is like the weight of
the world. has been rolled off of his weak
shoulders and now he springs to his feet as one without the
burden of sin anymore and his body and his legs are made strong
and he now begins a new walk. He now begins to live as he has
never lived before. He has a transformed life. He
is a new man. And it all takes place in a moment,
in a second, in the twinkling of an eye. There's no progressive
work here. Because when Jesus speaks with
authority, it comes to pass. When Jesus said, let there be
light, and there was immediately light that lit up the universe.
Son, your sins are forgiven. And immediately his four sins
are completely taken away. And so, please note, it says, they were all amazed. That word amazed means to be
out of the mind. We would say today that this
blew their mind. They didn't even have a category
for this. This is unbelievable. They were
amazed and astonished and if you and I had been there that
day and standing in that room and if we had seen this with
our own eyes, we would have been stunned and shocked to have seen the Lord Jesus put
His authority on display. and says they were glorifying
God. This is so obviously God. No man can do this. The scribes
said, well, this man...no, this isn't just a man, this is God
in human flesh. This is God who has come to be
one of us. This is God who has invaded time,
space, dimension. This is God who was born of a
woman. This was God who has exercised
authority that belongs to God alone. And they were glorifying God
because only God could have healed this man, therefore only God
could have forgiven the sins of this man. And this miracle
validated that Jesus Christ is the Son of Man. This authenticated
His claim. to be the Son of God, the Son
of Man, exactly who He claimed to be. And they said, we have
never seen anything like this. Do you see what authority Jesus
Christ possesses? And before he ascended back to
heaven in Matthew 28, 18, he said, all authority in heaven
and earth has been given unto me. There is no authority outside
of Jesus Christ. This is sheer sovereignty. And when he comes back, it says
he will have many diadems stacked on his head, sovereignty on top
of sovereignty, on top of sovereignty, on top of sovereignty, absolute,
unrestricted, limitless authority. As R.C. Sproul says, there's not one
maverick molecule in the entire universe but that everything
obeys His command because He is the Son of Man with authority. If you're here today as a believer,
He has authority to answer your prayers. He has authority to
open doors. He has authority to make a way
where there is no way for your life. He has authority to bring
to pass everything that the Father desires in your life. There is
nothing that is impossible to Him within the purview of the
purposeful will of the Father. And if you're a believer, He
has commanded your sins to be taken away. And there is not
a blot or a blemish on your soul as you stand before God within
your heart this very moment because He has said, son, daughter, your
sins are forgiven. And if you're not a believer
in Christ today, I've got good news for you, this sin that just...it's
like the weight of the world pressing down on you the guilt,
the shame. He can but in a moment say, your
sins are forgiven and they will be commanded to leave. If you would repent of your sin
and believe on Jesus Christ this very moment, He will exercise
His unlimited authority. and command the pardon and the
sending away of every sin that you have ever committed or ever
will for the rest of your life. That is good news and there is
no one else who can do this but Jesus Christ who is the Son of
Man. May we all recognize His limitless
authority. And may we all humble ourselves
beneath the mighty hand of God. Let us pray. Father in heaven,
we are overwhelmed as we have considered
the authority that You have invested in Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. and the right that You have entrusted
to Him to command that our sins be removed. Father, thank You
for giving to us such a Savior who is able to save under the
uttermost all who draw near to Him. Father, in this large room
today, I pray that each and every one of us
within our heart and souls would humble ourselves under the authority
of the One who is Lord over heaven and earth. In His name we pray. Amen.