Lord Give Us An Eternal Perspective

Introduction:

We live in a culture today that has a very temporal, or worldly, focus. What I mean by that is that we get told to focus on the here and now and live in the moment without focusing on what may lie ahead. This sort of focus can be dangerous on multiple levels, but because of this focus, we tend to concentrate only on our wants rather than our needs. For example, if you were to ask me to write down my two most significant needs in life about four months ago, it probably would have been for healing and job security. Because, in that moment, those were the main things taking up all of my focus. That night when I was in the hospital, my two main concerns were pain control and making sure my professors knew I would be turning in homework a little late that week. If you were to ask me today, it might be something like a beach and enough money that I don’t have to work anymore because that beach is what I love and I don’t like to be cold. But we get so focused on the here and now and living for this very moment that we tend to lose our eternal perspective on things.

Turn with me to Colossians 3:1-4 for a moment, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” We forget that what matters most in this life is our love for God and our love for others.

We must be people who seek God above ourselves. We must be people who put the needs of others before our own. We must want the glory of God among all people, above all things.

John D. Barry; Rebecca Kruyswijk

This is what having an eternal perspective looks like. But when we lose our eternal perspective for the here and now, we lose any sense of what really matters, and it becomes a matter of wants over all else. Paul reminds the church at Colossae, in Colossians 3:1-4 to keep their eternal focus by seeking the things that are above and not what is on this earth. This worldly focus is not a new concept found only here in the twenty-first century; it is a timeless truth that we will see for ourselves, even in our text today. But before we get into our text, I want us to look at the story so far in Mark. More specifically, I want us to recount the moments when Jesus exercised his authority.

Displays of Jesus’ authority so far.

Mark 1:21-28

Jesus exercises his authority in teaching.

We can only speculate here but it is reasonable to believe that the religious teachers of the day, those teaching in the synagogues, had become very lax in their teaching. Then enters Jesus who comes in and teaches with such force, passion, and authority that the people are in awe. In other words the people were simply blown away at the way Jesus was teaching them. And then there is an interruption.

Jesus exercises his authority in casting out demons.

Verse 23 tells us that a man with an unclean, or evil, spirit begins to cry out. And we need to understand this is in verse 24, that the demons themselves knew exactly who Jesus was, calling him the “Holy One of God.” Jesus rebukes the evil spirit and comes out of the man, after inflicting some pain, and the people are once again watching in pure amazement at what this Jesus can do.

Mark 1:29-45

Jesus exercises his authority over illnesses.

Last week we seen Jesus and the disciples traveling to the house of Simon Peter where is mother-in-law is sick in bed. Jesus learns of the illness and we see Jesus exercise his authority over illnesses. Now, something that is important to notice here is that after Simon’s mother-in-law was healed, she immediately began to serve. This is what happens when we encounter the restoration that Jesus Christ offers, we serve. Out of the love and thanksgiving for what Jesus has done for us we serve and we love. There is no waiting period. We don’t get saved and say, “well thanks Jesus. Now give me about 10 years to get all of this partying out of my system and then I’ll serve you.” No, we are saved, transformed, our hearts are renewed and out of that we immediately begin to serve and love in any way that we can.

Jesus exercises his authority in casting out a demon for the second time.

And then we see Jesus exercise authority a second time over the demon possessed. Then Jesus and his disciples begin to move throughout Galilee so that Jesus can move forward in his preaching ministry.

Lastly, Jesus cleanses a leper.

To finish up the text from last week, we see Jesus heal a leper. After healing this man, Jesus tells him to show hisself to the priests and make appropriate sacrifice to be “clean” amongst society once again.

This week we will see Jesus exercising his authority yet again, only this time the healing goes much deeper than a mere physical illness or demon possession. This is also the beginning of five controversies we will see from here until chapter 3 and in this first one, it is Jesus forgiving the sins of a paralytic and the religious leaders getting upset, accusing Jesus of blasphemy. There are three confirmations that we will see in todays text 1. this connection between the forgiveness of sin and a fallen creation 2. the importance in having faith in the healing power of Jesus Christ and 3. most importantly a confirmation that Jesus is “the Holy One of God.”

Read Mark 2:1-12

Mark 2:1–12 ESV

And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”

Jesus travels back home.

V. 1-5 Jesus heads back home and the people are now flocking to hear Him teach and hoping that they will get to witness some miracle being performed.

V. 1-2 Sets the scene for us. Jesus and his disciples are back in Capernaum and news about Jesus was traveling fast. People were hearing the stories and upon Jesus’s arrival back in Capernaum, the people started coming to see for themselves and to experience the teaching of Jesus. The text says that there was so many people gathered that there was no more room inside of the house. Standing room only and Jesus was preaching the Word to them.

Now think about this for a moment. Have you ever been to a major sporting event or a popular concert and had to get tickets in the standing room only section? It can be pretty miserable standing shoulder to shoulder, except for the fact that you are getting to watch your favorite team or artist perform. In a sense the same thing is happening here, the people heard that Jesus was coming back and they were willing to be uncomfortable just to hear Jesus teach. It was standing room only in this house. Now, again, I want us to really think about this. These people, who had previously experienced Jesus’ teaching, healing, and casting out demons heard that He was back in town and they got excited. So excited, that they were willing to cram themselves inside this house to hear Jesus teach.

Do we get this excited? When we open the Bible for ourselves, do we get excited to hear God speak to us through his Word? Do we get excited to come to church on Sunday mornings and hear the Word proclaimed, knowing that God is speaking to us through his Word? We should. I’ll be the first to admit that I am not always excited about these things. You see, sometimes we forget the real reason we come to church and when we do, we tend to be a whole lot less excited about it. We lose that eternal perspective and decide that sleeping in or not missing that football game is more important than gathering with the saints to worship the God that has given us everything. These people didn’t cram into the nose bleed section of this house simply because it was what they did, they did it because they were excited to experience and hear a word from this Jesus who exercised authority like no one else could. There is a lot we can learn from these people when we pay attention to the smaller details that often get ignored. Not only were the people excited to hear from Jesus but many were even beginning to put their faith in Jesus.

The controversy

V. 3-5 Begins to move us forward in this first controversy between Jesus and the religious leaders, it also begins to reveal the first two confirmations I mentioned earlier; that 1. there is a connection between sinfulness and the fallen creation and 2. that there is an importance of exercising faith in the healing power of Jesus Christ.

V. 3 In verse 3 we see these four men, bring a friend who is paralyzed to see Jesus in hopes of Jesus healing the man. Now this should paint for us, a beautiful picture of brotherly love for one another. These four men, carried there friend on some sort of stretcher to this house, not so they could boast in what they had done, but so that Jesus might heal their friend. I can tell you from personal experience that carrying someone on a stretcher for long periods is not an easy task. In Mark 12:30-31 Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is to love God and love people. In the gospel of John Jesus tells us that, John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” And again in 1 John 4:9 we are told that “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.” God loves us enough that he provided a way for us to be restored and we ought to be a people that reciprocates that love by bringing others to know Jesus and experience restoration for themselves. The greatest expression of love that we have been shown is life through Christ and the greatest expression of love we can show others is to bring them to Jesus. These four men, loved their friend. But let us remember the eternal perspective here. Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, has said -

You do not love the Lord at all unless you love the souls of others.

Charles Spurgeon

Our love for God is expressed in our love towards others. But, what does this love look like? Augustine of Hippo answers -

What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has the eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.

Augustine of Hippo

Love is seeing those without Christ and bringing them to Christ. And moving on to verses four and five, we continue to see this brotherly love play out.

V. 4-5 Now, remember there is standing room only in this house and so these four men cannot just walk up to Jesus carrying their friend on a stretcher. The text explains to us that these men, “being unable to bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof over which He was.” These men knew Jesus was their only hope and so they were desperate enough to do whatever it took to get their friend in front of Jesus. And because of the way houses were constructed in that time period, and still are in some places today, they knew they could go through the roof, but it was going to take some work. Houses in this time period were built with mud and whatever else they could use to make it sturdy. The roof on these houses were also used for a lot of different purposes and most would have a staircase going up the side of the house to the roof. These men carried their friend up onto the roof and began to dig through the hardened mud and grass, or palm leaves that would have been used. Again this was no easy task, but they loved their friend enough to do this for him. And eventually they break through enough to lower their friend down on this stretcher. And Jesus, “seeing their faith,” looks at the man and says, “your sins are forgiven.”

Now remember those first two confirmations I told us about. The first is this connection between sin and fallen creation. What I am not saying is that our sicknesses and disease are some direct result of some personal sin we are in. I am also not saying that it isn't, because some sin does cause sickness. But, because of the fall, what we see in Genesis chapter 3, is that because of the sin of Adam and Eve this world has been subjected to brokenness. What I am saying is that because of that first sin by Adam and Eve, we experience sin, death, illness, evil in the world, and even that natural disasters happening all across the globe. This man was not brought to Jesus for the forgiveness of his sin, but for a physical ailment. And what we see is that Jesus forgave the man of his sin before he healed him of his physical ailment. This also reveals to us that Jesus was more than just a healer of the sick, and the forgiveness of our sinful rebellion against God is always the primary restoration we will experience.

The second confirmation we see is the importance of faith in the healing power of Christ. While our primary concern should always be the forgiveness of our sin, we can and should still seek healing through the power of Christ. Ricky mentioned this last week, that it is ok to seek healing from God. I can tell you from a recent personal experience, that God is still in the business of healing. We should confidently and in faith, approach the throne of God to seek healing. That does not mean that it is always going to happen in the way we want it to, but God can and will heal his people. This man in the story was healed, both physically and spiritually, through faith and faith alone. Martin Luther says this about the faith we should have -

Faith is nothing but believing what God promises or says. Whatever remarkable thing we read of happening in the Old or New Testament, we read that it was done by faith—not by works, not by a general faith, but by faith directed to the matter in hand.

Martin Luther

Do we believe what God promises through his Word in the OT and NT? If we do our faith will be great. If we do not, then we will lose our eternal perspective and we will not come to God for much of anything of real significance. And now the tension gets a little thicker when the Scribes who are witnessing this begin to accuse Jesus of blasphemy.

The skeptical Scribes and a new man

V. 6-7 In verses six and seven we are told that these Scribes, who have witnessed everything happening, are now “reasoning in their hearts.” In other words, these Scribes are thinking to themselves, “who does this guy think he is, doing what only God can do? He is blaspheming God!” Now this word, “blasphemy,” it simply means to disrespect or mock God. So, Jesus telling this man that his sins were forgiven, something only God can do, means that either Jesus is God or Jesus is mocking God. And then we see Jesus’ response to this happening. Jesus asks, “why are you reasoning this way in your hearts?”

V. 8-11 Jesus being fully God, not only has the authority to forgive sin but he knows the hearts of man and that should scare us. Jesus goes on to ask another question and makes a very important theological statement, Mark 2:9-11 “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven’; or to say, ‘Get up, and pick up your mat 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 mat, and go to your home.”

Jesus poses a simple rhetorical question to the skeptical Scribes, “Is it easier to say your sins are forgiven? Or get up and walk?” In other words, Jesus is saying that it would be really easy to simply tell this man, in front of all these people, that his sins are forgiven, because no one would ever really know for sure. It is like me telling a skeptic that all my sins have been forgiven. How would they ever know if they actually were or not, unless they believed through faith in the One who forgives? So, Jesus turns to the man and tells him, “Go ahead, get up, pick up your mat and go home.” You see, if the man had remained on the ground paralyzed, Jesus would have proven himself to be a fake and guilty of blasphemy. But, by the man getting up and walking out of that house in front of everyone, Jesus revealed two things, 1. that he has the authority to heal, and 2. he has the authority to forgive sin; proving He was truly God incarnate. The Son of Man, fully God and fully Man, is the chief authority on healing and forgiving sin. At this point we are seeing that third confirmation, that Jesus truly is the “Holy One of God.”

V. 12 In a truly miraculous moment, the man gets up, and walks out of the house and everyone glorifies God in their amazement.

Conclusion:

Ever since the sin of Adam and Eve the world has been in a fallen state, which experiences death and decay. The central theme of the message Jesus is preaching is that God is reclaiming his creation. Through the forgiveness of sin and even the healing and restoration of the human body, God is restoring what was broken in the fall. And one day all things will be made new. Do we believe this? Is this where our faith is when we experience sin, death, and brokenness in this world? Does knowing this drive us to love our neighbor in such a way that our primary concern is the salvation of their souls? Do we have an eternal perspective or are we simply focusing on the things of this world? Throughout the gospel of Mark we will see that faith is always in close connection to every healing and in chapter 6, we will see that Jesus was not able to heal on account of the lack of faith by the people. That does not mean that we have to muster up faith on our own, but to flat out reject God and his promises reveals a lack of trust and dependance on the only One who can do these things for us. One of the hardest truths I have wrestled with in Scripture is that those who reject God will themselves be rejected. Matthew 10:33 says, “But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.” That is a scary thought and a very hard truth to swallow. But the Good news is the verse just before that one, Matthew 10:32 “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.” Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, will forever acknowledge us as we acknowledge Him! This is good news! So, find your rest and restoration in Christ today.

Invitation, invite the band up.

If you're a Christian, if you have acknowledged Christ as Lord and Savior before men, then Christ is acknowledging you right now before the Father. Christ is our mediator with the Father. He is speaking on our behalf and has restored our souls by forgiving our sin. This is accomplished through faith and faith alone in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ for his people. We can rest in this. This truth should also turn our focus from the worldly things to the eternal things. Driving us to love God and love people, bringing them to Christ. If you are not a Christian or are unsure if you are, then we make this plea to you today as we do every week, do not harden your hearts against Christ. Acknowledge your sin and acknowledge Christ as your Lord and Savior and find rest for your souls. The things of this world cannot compare with the things of our God and King. Don’t leave here today without fully understanding the gospel and what it means for you. I’ll be in the back if anyone needs to pray or just needs to talk about something going on in their life. Let’s pray. (eternal perspective, leaving the worldly things behind, that we might love others by bringing them to Christ in faith just as the men in our text today did.)