Bearing One Another's Burdens
Lessons in Discipleship • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Today we are continuing our series entitled “Lessons in Discipleship”, which is taking us through the Gospel of Mark. As we have learned previously, the book of Mark was written to believers, most likely in Rome, who were suffering for the faith. It makes sense then, that Mark would focus on the cost of discipleship as he was writing his Gospel. Simply put, throughout Mark we see a recurring theme of discipleship. In other words, Mark emphasizes the cost of faithfully following the Lord Jesus Christ.
Today we are continuing our series entitled “Lessons in Discipleship”, which is taking us through the Gospel of Mark. As we have learned previously, the book of Mark was written to believers, most likely in Rome, who were suffering for the faith. It makes sense then, that Mark would focus on the cost of discipleship as he was writing his Gospel. Simply put, throughout Mark we see a recurring theme of discipleship. In other words, Mark emphasizes the cost of faithfully following the Lord Jesus Christ.
The text we are going to read this morning is no different. Today, we are going to see a beautiful example of four men bearing the burden of their crippled brother, and they are doing everything in their power to get this man to Jesus. My prayer for this church is that all of us as a body of believers can have this same testimony as we stand before the Lord. I pray we can all say at the end of our lives, “Lord I did everything I could to get people to you. Lord I spent my life, carrying the burdens of my brother so they could enjoy fellowship with you.” In fact, this is a command from the Apostle Paul. He writes to the Galatians saying,
2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Paul command his readers in this verse to bear on another’s burden. In the original language that word burden carries the idea of “
Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words Burden, Burdened, Burdensome
“A weight, anything pressing on one physically,” or “that makes a demand on one’s resources,” whether material or spiritual...
Simply put, a burden can be a physical burden or a spiritual one. So the question we need to answer is which one does Paul have in mind in verse 2? Well, we figure out the answer to that question by looking at the context. In the verse before this one Paul has instructed mature believers to gently restore any brother who has been overtaken by sin. In fact, let’s read verse 1.
1 Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.
Now, notice the first word Paul writes, “Brethren”. That is an extremely common way to refer to believers in the New Testament. In other words, Paul is writing to the church and commanding them to do something for a fellow believer who has been “overtaken in any trespass”. The picture Paul paints here is one of a fellow believer who is running away from sin but sin, being faster, overtakes and catches him. Simply put, this brother who is caught in a sin has a burden. It is a spiritual burden that is zapping his resources. Which leads Paul to say...
2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
The point that Paul is making is that the spiritually mature believers should come alongside of the struggling Christian. Paul is saying, that we the body of Christ should lend a helping hand with the burdens of other struggling Christians. And in the context of this verse, the burden is the heavy and oppressive weight of temptation and spiritual failure.
Let me say it this way. When we see a brother struggling under the heavy weight of failure, temptation, and trials we should come alongside them. We shouldn’t stand off at a distance pointing fingers and criticizing. No we should rush to their side and help them shoulder the burden and lighten their load. Now of course this is to help them get free of the sin that caught them. We aren’t providing help so that they are able to continue sinning. We deal with this a lot in our recovery ministry. We help people shoulder their burden of addiction, or whatever this issue is, so that they can be restored and set free from the trespass that has tripped them up.
Which brings us to today’s text. Today we are going to see a paralytic who has no hope of getting to the Lord Jesus Christ on his own. His burden was being paralyzed, and because of the large crowds that were around Jesus, this man could have never gotten to the Lord without the help of his brothers.
So, with that being said go ahead and turn with me if you will to Mark chapter 2. Again, Mark chapter 2 and we are going to read verses 1-12.
1 And again He entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that He was in the house. 2 Immediately many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door. And He preached the word to them.
3 Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men. 4 And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”
6 And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, 7 “Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 8 But immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, “Why do you reason about these things in your hearts?
9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk’? 10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralytic, 11 “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”
12 Immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”
Let’s Pray.
OK, let’s dig in, starting back at verse 1.
1 And again He entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that He was in the house. 2 Immediately many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door. And He preached the word to them.
As we opened the service we read about Jesus performing all of these miraculous healings, and Mark records that the town brought “all who were sick and demon-oppressed. And the whole city was gathered at the door.” In fact, this crowd was so large that Jesus leaves Capernaum with His disciples to preach elsewhere. Well, verse 1 records that He went back to Capernaum “after some days”. So, some time has passed since Jesus was there and the excitement has died down, but not for long. The rest of verse 1 says, “and it was heard that He was in the house”. Now, this is talking about Peter and Andrew’s house. Jesus and the disciples return to this house many times throughout Mark’s Gospel. And listen to what happens as the word gets out that Jesus is back in town. Let’s read verse 2. “Immediately many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door. And He preached the word to them.”
I cannot overstate the importance of the end of verse 2. It says, “He preached the word to them.”
All throughout Mark’s gospel the emphasis is on Jesus’ preaching and teaching. The teaching was the most important thing. Sadly, often times the crowds only wanted the miracles, but what they desperately needed was the Lord’s teaching.
Now I want us to be able to picture the scene. The houses in Capernaum were small, and not everyone who was listening would have fit on the inside. So, inside the house would have been completely full, and there would have been people of the outside of the house trying to listen in as well. Ok, let’s now on to the next verses.
3 Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men. 4 And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”
So, here come these four men carrying a paralytic, and verse four let’s us know that he was lying on a bed or a stretcher of some kind. Now, we don’t know how far they had to carry this man, but just getting him to the house would have been an enormous amount of work, especially if they were coming from outside of the city. So, they get the man to the house, and look what they find. Verse 4 says, “they could not come near Him because of the crowd”. This is an important detail because it shows the determination of these men. They carry their brother all the way to the house, but once they get there the crowd is so large that the can’t get to Jesus. So what do they do? They come up with a different plan. It says, “they uncovered the roof where He was”. Now, I don’t want us to just read right past this without considering how much labor this would have taken. Houses at this time had flat roofs and on the outside of the house there would have been a ladder or a set up stairs leading up to the roof. So, now that they can’t go through the front door these men have to get this man up on the roof, but that is just the beginning. Once they get up there they’ve got to cut out a big enough hole for this man to fit through.
Remember, none of this would have been planned in advance so these men are improvising to overcome the obstacle of the large crowd. Now, let’s talk about the roof for a second. This roof would have had wooden beams with compacted dirt, grass, and tiles. Really think about this for a minute. This is turned into a quite an ordeal for these four men. They not only carried this man who knows how far, they somehow got him up on the roof, and now they’ve dug out a man sized hole through Peter and Andrews roof. Not only was this hard work and determination, but it would have cost them financially as well. They are going to have to fix this roof. But they are dissuaded from their mission. They are determined to get this man to the Lord.
I have to tell you. These verses are convicting. It should make all of us think, “Am I that determined to carry the burden of my brother? Am I that that committed to helping my struggling brother get to the Lord Jesus Christ. Does my life look like these four men? Am I willing to go through the struggle these men went through, not for myself, but for the love and devotion for my brother in Christ.
Legacy, this is what discipleship looks like. It is selflessly committing to bear the burden of our brother. It is picking them up when they stumble. It is carrying them back into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us follow the example of these four men of faith and let us follow the command of the Apostle Paul.
2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Ok, let’s get back to Mark. So, these men have the paralytic up on the roof, and they cut out a hole big enough to lower him down through the roof, and picking up here at verse 4.
4 And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying.
The second sentence of verse 4 says, “So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying.” Now I have to assume that these men lowered this man down using ropes, and I am also pretty confident that they didn’t show up with ropes. Maybe they found some ropes on Peter’s roof, he was a fisherman after all. But again, this all points to these men’s determination to get this man to Jesus, and I find it absolutely amazing. Now moving on to verse 5,
5 When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”
Now before we go any further, I want to point something out. Notice it says, when Jesus saw their faith. I believe this refers to the four men carrying the paralytic, and the paralytic himself. Then look what Jesus calls the paralytic. He says, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” Jesus calls this man His son. To me, this makes it clear that these men were already believers. The only other time Mark uses this Greek word is in chapter 10 when Jesus refers to the disciples as “Children”. It is the same Greek word translated son here, but in the plural form. So, I believe these men had heard Jesus’ teaching and come to faith, and now they are on a mission to get this man to Jesus so that he can be healed.
So, now let’s talk about Jesus’ statement. “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” It makes me wonder what these men were thinking when Jesus made this statement. Were they disappointed? Were they thinking is that it? Were they waiting for the man to spring up now that Jesus had pronounced his sins forgiven? We don’t know. But I will tell you this. The blessing of having our sins forgiven beats a physical healing everyday of the weak. Jesus telling this man His sins are forgiven is a far superior blessing than any physical healing.
Jesus knows that man’s greatest need is spiritual, not physical. And we need to remember that. So often we pray for our brother’s physical needs, but we should be praying for their spiritual needs. I am constantly praying for this church’s spiritual needs. I am always praying that the Holy Spirit speaks to us through His word so that we grow in the grace and the knowledge of our coming King. We need spiritual healing and growth before we ever need physical healing.
Now, the Lord’s statement, “your sins are forgiven” raises some questions, and let me tell you there is plenty of ink spilled in commentaries over this. And the questions is this. What did Jesus mean when He said your sins are forgiven you? Did he mean that there were specific sins the man committed. Sins that lead to his paralysis, and Jesus was forgiving those which would enable him to walk again? It’s possible. Or did Jesus mean that since the man believed in Him all of His sins were forgiven? That is what happens when we come to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. At the moment of faith all of our past sins are forgiven, and we begin our Christian lives with a blank slate. This is also a possibility. Maybe Jesus is giving this man assurance that His sins are forgiven now that He is a child of God.
But there is a third possibility that I want to explore today, and I’m going to call it discipleship forgiveness. So, now you are thinking well what is discipleship forgiveness William? I’ve never heard of that term. Well, me neither because I came up with it myself. But it is Biblical so let me explain.
As I mentioned before the moment we come to faith all of our sins are forgiven. The Lord gives us a clean slate as we begin our Christian walk. But as we all know, we sin daily. And when we sin daily we need to confess our sins to God. This is what 1 John 1:9 teaches us.
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Now the forgiveness that John is speaking about has to do with being in fellowship with God. In other words, John isn’t writing to unbelievers about how to get saved. No he is writing to believers on how to remain in fellowship with God. We need to confess our sins daily to God so that our relationship with Him isn’t affected. We are children of God the moment we believe in Jesus. That means were are a part of God’s family, and there is a father/son or daughter relationship there.
Let me put it do you this way. When our children are disobedient it angers us. And if our children continue in disobedience it affects our relationship with them. When our children aren’t behaving we have to discipline them. Instead of peace and joy in the relationship their is anger and consequences. We still love them, nothing they could ever do could make us disown them, but the relationship is affected. We might say we are out of fellowship during those times.
Well, what restores the fellowship? When the child comes to us and says, “Dad, I messed up. What I did was wrong. I’m sorry”. The second that that happens we forgive them, and we are back in fellowship”. And that is what John is talking about in this verse. He is talking about believers remaining in fellowship with God, by admitting when we sin. And when we do this this verse says, “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins”. You see, in that moment fellowship is restored with God. This doesn’t mean all the consequences of our sin are gone, but it means we are back in fellowship with God.
So, it is this kind of forgiveness that I am calling discipleship forgiveness. You see, to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ we need to be in fellowship with Him. We need to be confessing our sin so that our relationship with God is in a good place. As a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ we can’t go through our daily lives committing sins, and then acting like they never happened. We can’t go through this life acting like our sin isn’t a big deal. No as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ we are seeking after Him everyday, and the moment we realize we have sinned; we need to confess it. This i what I mean by discipleship forgiveness. And I think this is the forgiveness that the paralytic receives.
Now just so I’m clear let me say this. This kind of forgiveness has nothing to do with going to hell. The moment we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ we are eternally secure, and nothing can ever change that. But if we live in disobedience and fail to confess our sins before Him. We are out of fellowship, and we can expect God to discipline us. We can expect to suffer the consequences of our sin. A faithful disciple who is seeking after the Lord confesses His sin regularly so that they can experience all the joy associated with being in an intimate relationship with with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Here is my point. I think paralytic was a believer. I am convinced this paralytic was a believer and the forgiveness He experiences is discipleship forgiveness. I think the Lord is saying, my son your sins are forgiven, and now you can walk in fellowship with Me. I believe the Lord is saying, now my son you can walk with me. Which is the next thing the Lord is going to do. Restore this man’s health so that he can walk with the Him. God is good. Amen and amen.
Ok, I’m running out of time so we need to move on. Read verse 6 with me.
6 And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, 7 “Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
Let’s talk about the scribes for a minute. The scribes weren’t just making copies of manuscripts. That is what most of us think, but that’s incorrect. The scribes were experts in the Mosaic Law, and experts in the oral traditions of the Law. A jew only became a scribe after many years of study, and they held positions of honor in the government and even acted as judges in many cases. These men were highly respected in the Jewish community, as we see here. Remember, the crowd is so big people are outside the house listening in, but notice these men were seated. This paints a picture of the scribes being the most important people in the room. Everyone else is standing and even straining to hear from outside the house. These men were given seats, and I’m sure they were on the front row. And notice, what the verse says, “the scribes were sitting there reasoning in their hearts”. They weren’t speaking these things out loud. They were thinking them. And they were right in thinking only God can forgive sins, but sadly they fail to recognize God is standing right in front of them. So the Lord knows what is going on in their hearts. The next verse tells us that.
8 But immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, “Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? 9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk’?
I absolutely love this question. It’s like a riddle, and I thought a lot about what Jesus meant when He said this. But notice carefully what He says, “Which is easier to say to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven you”, or to say, “Arise, take up your bed and walk”? He doesn’t say which is easier to do. Forgiving a person’s sins and healing a paralytic are equally impossible for everyone but God. But it would be much easier to say to someone their sins are forgiven because you could say that without providing any evidence that the forgiveness actually happened. But that is not the case when you tell a paralytic to pick up his mat and walk out the door. So, it is much harder to say to a paralytic to get up and walk out the door because that would require outward proof.
This is Jesus’ point to the scribes. I think in effect He is saying something like this. You think I’m committing blasphemy and lying when I said this man’s sins were forgiven. So, I’m going to say something much harder. I’m going to say something that can’t be faked. I’m going to tell this man to pick up his mat and walk out of the room. So after Jesus poses the question to them He continues on in verse 10,
10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralytic, 11 “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”
Jesus tells them. “But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”. In other words, Jesus says I’m going to prove to you that this mans sins are forgiven by saying and doing something that cannot be faked, and it is something that only God can do, just like forgiving someone’s sins. Then, Jesus commands Him, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”
12 Immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”
There are some many amazing details about this healing. I’m sure we’ve all seen a paralytic, and we know that after they have been paralyzed for sometime all their muscles atrophy. They lose all their muscle, and their limbs draw up into awkward looking positions. If Jesus had just healed whatever had been caused the paralysis, It would have taken years of therapy to get this man on his feet again, but none of that was needed. This means there would have been new muscle. This means limbs that were draw up, straightened themselves out, and looked fully restored. It was a true miracle, and it happens right in front of the religious authorities. Here is the sad thing. The scribes should have taken note of at least 2 things. Number 1 Jesus had read their minds. Jesus is answering questions that they are only thinking about in their hearts. An obviously the second thing was a paralytic walking again. The OT prophet Isaiah speaking of the Messiah wrote, “Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing.” These experts in the law just saw the fulfillment of a key OT prophecy, but their hearts are so hardened they can’t see it. They can’t see their Messiah standing right in front of them. This proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that He has the power to forgive sins. They can’t see that the Man standing in front of them has the power to undue all the effects of sins both spiritual and physical. They should have realized that this what the Holy One of Israel, the only begotten Son of God, the coming King, the one who would bring in an everlasting Kingdom, where there will be no paralysis. Jesus was offering the Nation of Israel the Kingdom, but they reject Him.
We are about out of time so let me leave you with a couple of challenges. First to the unbeliever. The Lord Jesus Christ has the power to forgive sins. The Lord Jesus Christ is eternal life, and He gives it to whoever believes in Him for that life. Do not be like the Scribes and Pharisees. Do not harden your heart to this truth. You are reading an eye witness account from the men who were there. Mark is closely linked with Peter, and it is entirely possible that this is Peter’s account. It took place in Peter’s home. You have heard the truth, and you are responsible to receive it. Keep an open mind, but God has given you the truth. If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life you have it, and it can never be lost.
The second challenge is to believers. What does your walk with Jesus look like? Are you walking in fellowship with Him? Are you confessing your sins to Him daily? Does your life look like these four men? Are you bearing the burden of your brother or sister in Christ. Are you serving them, are you struggling with them, do you feel the weight of their burdens? I hope so because this is the core of discipleship. It is forsaking our desires, and becoming a slave to the body of Christ. I said earlier that I pray for Legacy’s spiritual health, and I want you know that I meant that sincerely. I pray constantly that the Holy Spirit is going to speak to you hearts through His word. I constantly pray for your spiritual growth so that we all bear fruit. But you must do your part. You must get serious about your Bible. I must be the one thing that comes before everything else. It is the key to maintaining our fellowship with God. It is what transforms and renews our minds, and allows us to focus less on ourselves and more on Christ and His body. Church, they isn’t much time left. The King is coming, let us work while we still have time. Let us seek to hear well done good and faithful servant. Let’s pray.
