The Hope of Christmas

Mark 2:1-13

a. Jesus came to redeem us in our need (2:1-5)

b. Jesus came to redeem us in our sins (2:6-13)

1. INTRODUCTION

a. One of the best reminders of Christmas is the fact that we have hope because of this holiday. For many Americans, many people have shifted the focus of Christmas from Christ to Family Time and Gifts. For many, it is a time to celebrate giving gifts to their loved ones and eating a nice dinner. While that is one of the nice things about Christmas, the reason for why we give gifts, the reason for why we celebrate for Christians, must be because the Savior has come into this world and has come to bring hope into this world.

b. This week, I was reminded of this again when Bethany went into the ER and I was there watching and listening to people talk about their stories. I saw and heard one gentleman who was talking about his wife on the phone who collapsed and was grieving. I saw children there who were sick, elderly people who were sick. I was just reminded again, how much pain and suffering there is in this world.

c. Now today’s text is not about Christmas, I am aware. It’s about the ministry of Christ. But whenever we deal with the ministry of Christ, we must be reminded of why Jesus came. Mark 1:38 tells us that Jesus came so that He may preach the Gospel. What is the Gospel that Jesus preached? Mark 1:15, the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the Gospel.

d. So when we think about Christmas, we must recognize that Jesus came to give us hope. He is helping us to realize that the prophecies have been fulfilled, that He was the Messiah who would come and now through Him, He has ushered in the kingdom of God. All must turn to Him, repent and believe. That is His message. Acts 16:31 reminds us that the message is, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

e. So when we turn to our text, we see 2 ways Jesus redeemed us. The first found in verse 1-5, is that Jesus came to redeem us in our need. Then in verses 6-13, Jesus came to redeem us in our sins.

2. BODY

a. Jesus came to redeem us in our need (2:1-5)

i. One of the reminders that I had while being in the ER is that, sickness is a common thing in a fallen world. Sickness and suffering is the result of sin entering our world. The Bible tells us in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death. You see, everything that sin touches, it dies. So when we deal with suffering and pain, we should not be surprised by it. Now we can be depressed by this reality, but that is exactly the reason why Jesus came.

ii. What’s beautiful about the coming of Christ is that God doesn’t want His people to suffer. The tension we all must live with is, although God doesn’t want His people to suffer, He allows us to suffer. This is the question that has been asked throughout human history, if God is good, why does He allow bad things to happen?

iii. Why does God allow so much sickness and hurt in this world? Well, one answer to this question is, to give us hope in the Kingdom of God. I mean why would we hope in the Kingdom if this life is perfect?

iv. The context of today’s message comes from 1:28 that the news spread everywhere into all the surrounding district of Galilee. When Jesus healed a man who had an unclean spirit and Jesus chased out this demon, people were amazed.

v. Which is why in 1:33, it says that the whole city had gathered at the door. People were gathered to meet Jesus hoping that he would have compassion on their loved ones, or on them if they were the ones who were sick and would be healed of their illness.

vi. This leads us to 2:1-4 where the context is the whole city knows of Jesus and His ability to heal people. Which is why the setting is set to verses 1-2 where people heard that He was home. People were anxiously waiting for Jesus to return to Capernaum because in 1:38, Jesus was going to other towns nearby to preach the Gospel and heal people. So when we read in 2:1, He had now returned and was home. Then verse 2, and many were gathered together, and He was speaking the word to them.

vii. Notice what’s happening. A bunch of people have gathered to hear Him preach and to heal people. Now we know the story of this paralytic who was carried by four men and because there was no room to meet Jesus, they make an opening on the ceiling and let him down.

viii. When the four men brought their friend down, verse 5 says Jesus seeing their faith. These men clearly believed that Jesus had the power to heal their friend. But Jesus responds with a bizarre statement. The friends knew that Jesus could heal and their faith was trusting in Him. But they were expecting, Jesus to heal their friend not to say, Son your sins are forgiven. This was a bizarre and startling statement.

ix. It is a bizarre statement because you would expect Jesus to say, I have healed you. I could imagine that when this man heard this, he must be thinking, wait, I didn’t come for this. I came here because I heard that you could heal me and I could walk again. Please do that.

x. This is where we must look into our own hearts too. Many of us believe that God is not entitled to give us salvation. Salvation is by grace and God is the one who determines who would be saved. Yet, we feel sometimes that’s not good enough. We’d rather have something else. We’d rather have the things of this world because that stuff is tangible. If we had a billion dollars in this life, we sometimes think that would be better than being a child of God.

xi. You see, when we hear this bizarre statement, God knows what is best for us. This statement, Son your sins are forgiven is God giving us what is best. We might sometimes think that there are other things in the world that would be better, but God gives us the best even when we think it’s not the best. Why do I say this? Because Jesus came to redeem us in our need. Our need is not the things of this world. Our hope is not the things of this world. But our hope is found in Christ. It is to be with Him eternally. But what’s beautiful about this passage? God gives us a glimpse of Heaven through this story. Jesus tells us that if He can forgive our sins, He can provide us anything we want or need. This is why when He forgives this man of his sin, He has given him his deepest need.

b. Jesus came to redeem us in our sins (2:6-13)

i. This response by Jesus causes a problem with some of the people there. We see in verses 6-7 that there were people reasoning within themselves, questioning, why is this person elevating Himself as God? They knew that Jesus was a mighty man, but could not believe that He was God. This is why they asked these questions. They acknowledged that He can do great things but He’s not God. He’s not allowed to forgive sins. Only God could forgive sins.

ii. This is why verse 9, Jesus asks them, what’s easier? Do you think me forgiving sins is easier or healing this man of his illness? By Jesus asking this question, the scribes most likely thought in their eyes, that making a simple statement of forgiveness is easier. In their minds, if only God could heal and this man isn’t God, than he’s just saying random things. We see their reaction in verse 7 when they ask, why does this man speak that way? Why does He talk like He can actually do this?

iii. We see in verses 11-12 clearly that healing the man was easier than forgiving Him of His sin. This is why He forgives this man’s forgiveness before He heals Him. What we see in Jesus’s pronouncement of this man’s forgiveness is that this was more essential and the more difficult. Again, Jesus’s answer was to show that only God knows what our greatest need is. Our need is not hope in this world. But rather, our hope is found in the world that is to come. Our hope is to be with Christ.

iv. When we go back to this idea of Christmas, what is our hope? Is our hope found in God blessing us during our time here on Earth, or do we really have a hope in Heaven?

v. I want to close with a question. Verse 9 asks the question, Which is easier? But if the question is, What do you want more? If you could have one of the two, what would you want more? If God could fix the one thing in your life, maybe we struggle with health or finances, or whatever it is we want in this world, or Jesus could forgive us of our sins, what would we want?

vi. My hope and prayer is that we would find our hope in knowing that our greatest need has been completed by Christ. My hope is that we would learn that there is no greater blessing than to know Christ and to be known by Him. That is the essence of Christmas. It is to know that Christ came into this world to die for my sins. May we grow in our love for Christ for who He is and what He has done for us.

3. CONCLUSION