Extraordinary Things (2)

Introduction

Luke has been showing us Jesus’ absolute authority over everyone and everything.

Luke has shown us Jesus casting out demons and ordering them to silence (, ).

He has shown us Jesus healing Peter’s mother-in-law and many others of their physical ailments ().

He has shown us Jesus ordaining a huge catch of fish for Peter, James and John just before he called them to follow him ().

He has show us Jesus immediately healing a man full of leprosy ().

So, Jesus has authority over the spiritual forces of evil; over physical disease and sickness in the body; over the natural created order; over the occupational choices of his disciples...

…but does he have authority over man’s moral problem? Does Jesus has the authority to forgive sin?

Does Jesus has the authority to forgive sin?

Our passage this morning answers that question with a resounding “YES!”

[CIT] Here in Jesus, the Son of Man, proved his authority to forgive sins by doing only what God could do—instantly healing a paralytic of his paralysis.

[PROP] The greatest need we have in life is to be forgiven our sins, and only Jesus has the authority to forgive us.

We began to see some introductory extraordinary things in this passage last week—the way the Pharisees and teachers of the law fought against Jesus, the way they influenced others to reject Jesus as the Christ, and the compassion and persistence of the four men who brought this paralytic to Jesus.

This morning, however, we come to the most EXTRAORDINARY THINGS in this passage.

We’ll talk about two of them this morning and two of them tonight...

Major Ideas

Extraordinary Thing #1: The Forgiveness of Sins (v. 20)

Luke 5:20 ESV

And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”

[Exp] Imagine that you’re this paralytic. You’ve been unable to move for so long. You’ve felt helpless and at the mercy of others. Everyone else works and plays and you have to just lie there. When you’re hungry, you can’t get up to get yourself something to eat. When you’re thirsty you have to ask someone to bring you water and then ask them to help you sit up so you don’t choke on it. You can’t bath yourself or go to the bathroom by yourself.

[Illus] I had a distant cousin named “PeeWee,” so you know he was big. He was also paralyzed from the waist down. He had some of my other relatives were in a car accident. Some were killed and PeeWee was paralyzed.

Pee Wee could do a lot of things for himself. He could get in and out of bed. He could drive.

But there were many things that PeeWee couldn’t do for himself because his paralyzed body simply wouldn’t allow it.

I’m not sure how often, but fairly frequently a nurse would come to PeeWee’s house to clean him up and make sure that everything was as it needed to be.

If you were paralyzed and you went to Jesus, what would you want him to do?

What do you think PeeWee would’ve wanted Jesus to do for him?

That’s why is seems odd that Jesus doesn’t start by healing the paralytic’s paralysis.

Why does Jesus begin by forgiving this paralytic’s sin? It’s obvious that the paralytic has been brought to Jesus to have his paralysis healed, so why does Jesus first say, “Man, your sins are forgiven”?

The answer is twofold: Jesus was setting up a showdown with the Pharisees and teachers of the law (a point we’ll come to tonight), but Jesus was also addressing this man’s biggest problem first.

You see, this paralytic has a moral problem that was bigger than his physical problem.

What good would it have done for this man to be healed physically only to walk into hell?

By forgiving the paralytic’s sins, Jesus addressed his greatest need and healed him forever before he healed him in the body.

[Illus]

[App] There are many of us today who only look to Jesus to address a physical or temporal need. He, however, wants to do so much than that for us.

[Illus] There was a church out in Las Vegas (they do have churches there believe it or not) that gave away used cars to needy families on one particular Sunday. The news media ran stories about the event and many people entered to win one of the cars.

On the day of the event, the church was packed; the largest crowd the church eve had in attendance.

Now consider for a moment that that church likely offered forgiveness in the Name of Jesus every Sunday, but it was the car-giveaway Sunday that drew the biggest crowd.

Why was that? Because people saw an opportunity to have a material need met, and people usually value that over having a spiritual need met.

[App] Thankfully Jesus knows better than we do what we truly need.

Though we may be full of leprosy, he knows that our its our souls that truly need cleansing.

Though we are paralyzed in the body, he knows our greatest need is to have our sins forgiven.

I wonder what you think your greatest need is this morning.

What if God told you, “I’ll give you anything you ask for, but you can only ask me for one thing”—what you ask God for?

Would you ask him for more money?

Would you ask him for better relationships?

How about healing in the body for yourself or someone else?

Maybe you’d ask for a new life altogether.

If you’ve never done so, the one thing you should ask for is forgiveness because that’s your most fundamental need!

Your sin separates you from the life-giving presence of God!

Your sin invites the wrath of God to fall upon you on a daily basis!

Your sin will lead to your eternal death in hell unless you call on Jesus for forgiveness!

He gave his life on the cross to pay the price for your forgiveness—call on him this morning and be forgiven!

Receive the forgiveness that God offers you in Jesus!

[Illus] Back in 1830 two men, James Porter and George Wilson, were arrested for robbing the United States mail.

Porter was soon hanged, but friends lobbied on the behalf of Wilson who was subsequently offered a pardon by President Andrew Jackson.

Wilson, however, refused to accept it.

President Andrew Jackson issued a pardon for Wilson, but Wilson pridefully refused to accept it.

The matter went to Chief Justice John Marshall who concluded that Wilson would have to be hanged.

He wrote, “A pardon is a slip of paper, the value of which is determined by the acceptance of the person to be pardoned. If it is refused, it is no pardon. George Wilson must be hanged.”

The forgiveness that God offers to you in Jesus will only have life-giving value for you if you accept it.

But if you’ve already accepted it; if you’ve already been forgiven of your sins, then is forgiveness the thing you are most thankful for?

Jesus told us to forgive or we wouldn’t be forgiven.

If we are not forgiving others their sins against us, perhaps it means we’ve not been forgiven of our sins against God… or perhaps we are not as thankful as we once were for forgiveness.

There’s something that happens to us after we are forgiven that shouldn’t happen.

We are like poor orphans rescued from the slums by a rich uncle only to grow spoiled and arrogant because someone we’ve forgotten that we ever lived in the slums.

If we struggle to forgive, then though we are forgiven, it must be that we’ve somehow forgotten that we ever stood in need of forgiveness ourselves.

If we truly appreciated the forgiveness we’ve received, we’d give others the forgiveness they need.

[Illus] Jesus, of course, gives us a parable to this end. In , Jesus taught us about the unforgiving servant—a man who owed his king ten thousand talents.

One talent was equal to about twenty years worth of wages for a laborer, so this was 200,000 years worth of pay that this man owed; an absurd amount of money—one the unforgiving servant could never hope to repay.

He begged his king, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything,” and the king took pity and forgave his enormous debt!

Rejoicing on his way out, however, the unforgiving servants runs into a fellow servant who owes him a hundred denarii.

One denarius was worth one day’s wages for the laborer, so one hundred denarii was a significant amount of money, but it was nothing compared to ten thousand talents.

Yet, the unforgiving servant (as his name suggests) refused to forgive his fellow servant.

The one who had been forgiven so much refused to forgive so little.

The king responded to the unforgiving servant with wrath. His debt was reinstated, and he was thrown in prison until he paid back 200,000 years worth of wages.

Those forgiven, forgive others.

Those who refuse to forgive haven’t been forgiven.

Which are you?

This paralytic’s greatest need was to be forgiven, and don’t you know he gladly forgave others.

Likewise, your greatest need is forgiveness, and you can know you’ve been forgiven if you are willing to forgive others.

[TS] Extraordinary Thing #1: The Forgiveness of Sins.

Extraordinary Thing #2: The Perceiving of Thoughts (vv. 21-23)

Luke 5:21–23 ESV

And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, “Why do you question in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?

[Exp] Jesus knew what the scribes and Pharisees were thinking, but it was deeper than just what they were thinking. What they were thinking reflected what they were feeling about Jesus; their thoughts reflected the inner, heart-response they were having toward Jesus.

Rather than responding in faith to Jesus, they responded with accusations about Jesus. They accused him of blasphemy—of taking for himself a right that belongs to God alone.

They asked, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (v. 21).

Jesus knew the question swirling in their doubting hearts. He asked in v. 22, “Why do you question in your hearts?”

It’s not that all questions are bad, but some are. Some questions are meant to feed doubt while others are meant to foster belief.

Jesus knew which type of question floated around in the hearts of the scribes and Pharisees.

Some questions are meant to feed doubt while others are meant to foster belief.

They were not asking so that they could understand and then believe. They were asking so they could accuse and continue in unbelief.

And what was it that they doubted and disbelieved?

First, they doubted the ability of Jesus to forgive sins.

And that was because, second, they doubted Jesus’ identity as the Son of God.

As they asked in 21, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” They didn’t believe that Jesus was the Son of God, God in the flesh, so they didn’t believe that he had the ability to forgive sins.

But, third, I think they also doubted that they were sinners in need of what we ca call “grace-based forgiveness,” which is the only kind of forgiveness God offers.

They didn’t believe that Jesus was the Son of God, God in the flesh, so they didn’t believe that he really had the ability to forgive sins.

But the formerly paralyzed man, those men who brought him to Jesus, and others all convince them that this was no trick. Besides the overjoyed look on the man’s face as he bounced along on legs that actually worked was proof enough that he had really been healed.

You see, the religious leaders knew about sin and the need for forgiveness but they saw themselves as earning forgiveness with their strict traditions, long prayers, and showy righteousness.

But then the scribes and Pharisees ask the man, “But you know that your sins are not really forgiven, right?”

Even if they had believed Jesus capable of forgiving his sins, when the paralytic was forgiven by Jesus, these religious leaders would’ve thought, “Well, what did he do to deserve forgiveness?”

They didn’t realize that their was nothing they or anyone else could do to deserve forgiveness.

Forgiveness is offered only by grace, and it is received only through faith in Jesus, the Son of God.

[Illus]

[Illus] A friend once asked Isidor I. Rabi, a Nobel prize winner in science, how he became a scientist.

Rabi replied that every day after school his mother would talk to him about his school day. She wasn’t so much interested in what he learned, but she always wanted to know if young Rabi asked a good question.

“Asking good questions,” Rabi said, “made me become a scientist.”

Asking good questions about Jesus is also a way to become a Christian.

[App] Consider these questions which the Lord might use to lead you to forgiveness:

[App]

What must I do to inherit eternal life?

What good will it do for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?

How many times should I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me?

If you could only ask God for one thing, what would you ask for?

What are you most thankful for?

Who can forgive sins but God alone?

What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun?

[Illus] That last question is from , and it was a question like that that God used to bring Ray Comfort to Jesus.

Ray Comfort was a normal in California terms. He was married, owned a surf shop, and enjoyed life until one day it hit him, “What happens when I die? What becomes of the surf shop? Who takes care of my wife? What will happen to me?”

As Ecclesiastes repeatedly points out, everything seemed meaningless in light of death.

But forgiveness in the Name of Jesus changed everything!

Because of good questions, Ray came to understand that death is the result of sin, but God offered forgiveness of sins in Jesus, his Son.

Today, as many of you know, Ray Comfort is the head of Living Waters Ministries, which seeks to share the Gospel with the lost and equip other Christians to do the same.

That’s the power of the right questions asked genuinely.

What questions are swirling in your heart this morning about Jesus?

Perhaps they are questions like...

“Is Jesus really God?”

“Is he really the only way of salvation?”

“Is the sacrifice of the Christian life really worth it?”

“Can Jesus really forgive me?”

Are these questions ones that feed your doubts or foster your faith?

Are they questions that feed your doubts or foster your faith?

Jesus knows your questions this morning, and he knows which type they are.

The Pharisees and scribes whispered their questions about Jesus under their breaths, but he perceived their thoughts.

You might as well be open and honest with him about your questions.

He can perceive your thoughts too.

[TS] {see below}

Conclusion

The greatest need we have is to be forgiven our sins, and only Jesus has the authority to forgive us.

{prayer}

Extraordinary Thing #3: The Healing of Paralysis (vv. 24-25)

Luke 5:24–25 ESV

But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralyzed—“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.” And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God.

[Exp]

[Illus] Imagine that as the formerly paralyzed man was on the way home some of these Pharisees and teachers of the law come running to catch up with him. They ask, “Did Jesus put you up to this?”

But the formerly paralyzed man, those men who brought him to Jesus, and others all convince them that this was no trick. Besides the overjoyed look on the man’s face as he bounced along on legs that actually worked was proof enough that he had really been healed.

But then the scribes and Pharisees ask the man, “But you know that your sins are not really forgiven, right?”

[App]

[TS]

Extraordinary Thing #4: The Glory of God (v. 26)

Luke 5:26 ESV

And amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen extraordinary things today.”

[Exp]

[Illus]

[App]

[TS]

Conclusion

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