Jesus and the Paralytic Man

Goal: Following Jesus brings the Kingdom to the present

To Do: Recognize that what Jesus has we need, seek healing and restoration from Him, find healing and restoration from Him, glorify God because of His grace shown you

Time: 20-25 minutes

Scripture:

I believe we live in a time that I would describe as disordered or out of sorts. We seem the world over in dire need of a reset.

Mark 1:15 NASB95

and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Mark 1:14–15 NASB95

Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Jesus’ role of teacher should be wholly seen in the context of who he is as a reigning King. expresses one of the most important ideas in the entire Bible.

Jesus’ role of teacher should be wholly seen in the context of who he is as a reigning King. expresses one of the most important ideas in the entire Bible.

Mark 1:14–15 NASB95

Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Jesus’ role of teacher should be wholly seen in the context of who he is as a reigning King. expresses one of the most important ideas in the entire Bible.

If God was enthroned right here and now, what would you expect?

If the Kingdom of God were near you, what would you expect?

If the Kingdom of God were near you, what would you expect?

At the End of the Bible in there is a proclamation of what the reign of God realized will bring.

Revelation 21:1–5 NASB95

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”

This scene is a reality that all people everywhere want and God says that this reality will one day exist.

In the midst of that hope Jesus then comes and it is recorded that He reads to a group of people in a synagoge

In Jesus Reads and part of 2

Isaiah 61:1–2 NASB95

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Because the Lord has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners; To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn,

Jesus is saying that God has sent Him to start reigning/ruling right now. It means to exercise power and authority that they have.

This power and authority is typically exercised according to the character of the one who wields it.

God has sent his good son to be a good king…look at the action language

Jesus is meant to be the reset that everyone needs - where He reigns/rules!

Jesus’ role of teacher should be wholly seen in the context of who he is as a reigning King. expresses one of the most important ideas in the entire Bible.

Mark 1:14–15 NASB95

Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Jesus is saying in more common language, “the King has arrived, trust this news and put your lives in the hands of this good King”

I asked you to reflect on the question in your personal time - If God was King of Columbia, SC right here and now, what would you expect?

in our current

As you have just read the passage from we should be aware that we are seeing the Kingdom of God break into the world. What will be has come.

Let’s look the 5:17-26 passage, but don’t reread - they can follow along

Let’s look at our passage this morning

(NASB95)

Luke 5:17–26 NASB95

One day He was teaching; and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing. And some men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in and to set him down in front of Him. But not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, He said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.” The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” But Jesus, aware of their reasonings, answered and said to them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts? “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins have been forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up 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, and pick up your stretcher and go home.” Immediately he got up before them, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God. They were all struck with astonishment and began glorifying God; and they were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen remarkable things today.”

17 One day He was teaching; and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing. 18 And some men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in and to set him down in front of Him. 19 But not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus. 20 Seeing their faith, He said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.” 21 The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” 22 But Jesus, aware of their reasonings, answered and said to them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts? 23 “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins have been forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 24 “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, and pick up your stretcher and go home.” 25 Immediately he got up before them, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God. 26 They were all struck with astonishment and began glorifying God; and they were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen remarkable things today.”

v. 17 - Scene: Jesus is teaching a crowd that included people from every village in Galilee and Judea and some from Jerusalem - among the crowd are some Pharisees (poltical group) and teachers of the law (other Rabbis ?)

v.17 - Noteworthy: The author mentions that the power of the Lord was present to perform miracles of healing. Possibly other healings has occured in the area and men were seeking to get someone they knew help from Jesus.

v.18-19 - Main action: Some men, unable to get to Jesus through normal means, took extreme measures and successfully lowered their paralyzed friend through an opening in the roof of the building where Jesus was teaching.

Main action: Some men, unable to get to Jesus through normal means, took extreme measures and successfully lowered their paralyzed friend through an opening in the roof of the building where Jesus was teaching.

v.20 - Jesus response: Jesus felt this action warranted faith on the part of the paralytic man and his friend and He declared that the man’s sin’s were forgiven loud enough for the crowd to hear.

v.21 - Pharisee’s and teacher’s of the law response: they took umbrage with Jesus’ declaration going so far as to accuse Jesus of blasphemy. He was claiming to have God’s power

They did not see Jesus as God - this is the reason for the teaching moment

You are questioning my ability to forgive sins. Your experience, tradition and teaching says that is only done one way

To faith you must see who I am

v.22-24 - Jesus’ teaching moment: I have God’s power.

I came to proclaim the in-breaking of the kingdom - the availability of forgiveness of sins and healing

so you know I can do one I will do the other

v.25 - Response from healed paralytic: He got up and began doing what he hadn’t been able to do before and he glorified God accordingly.

v.26 - Response from the crowd: all the crowd struck with astonishment about how God works and began glorifying God accordingly

Here are 4 questions that this story raises

Do we understand our dependence on God?

I believe many of us understand we are not what we should be, but I don’t know if people truly grasp the extent of their trouble or the solution to it (including Christians)

We live in an age of “solutions” where God is invoked as a last resort

You are more dependent on Him than you know - you might as well be on a stretcher

Dependence is an inability to do without. We are dependent on God for all of life - recognition is the beginning to live in this truth

Are you lying their receiving sub-par treatment or do you recognize Jesus as the person who can be everything you need

Do we come seeking healing/restoration from God?

When we understand than I am dependent on Him (not just interested in His help), we begin seeking Him in all circumstances, obstacles don’t keep me from Him

Ex. Help is nice, dependence is necessary - holding a toddlers hand verses carrying a baby

Faith is required to seek, because faith in the object matters.

Ex. the men were not carrying him from house to house to looking for “sugar”…they took him to Jesus because they trusted that what he did for others he could do for him

What the man wanted and what Jesus wanted was to heal/restore Him. I don’t know if that is what we want.

Do we find healing/restoration from God?

I think that we often don’t find healing/restoration because our faith stops short

Do we find healing/restoration?

We can often place our faith in getting what we want and not in Him

This is the reason that Jesus declares the man’s sin’s forgiven, He came for Jesus and Jesus fixed both His problems.

See when Jesus responds to John’s inquirey with testimony about healing/restoration

Luke 7:22 NASB95

And He answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them.

Think of the rich young ruler in - he came for something and left with nothing - Jesus wanted him to follow him and he could not

Do we glorify God when we benefit from our dependence on Him?

Do we glorify God when we benefit from our dependence?

The idea of Glory is to shine a spotlight on. We often do this by testifying to a great thing God has done or bragging on Him about his goodness to us

too often to don’t give God his due, because we ask for things that are mundane

example - help me focus so I can learn this material for the test (we forget that we can all the sudden focus)

example - or don’t write down or take time to reflect on the prayers that God has answered (i prayed for focus, as I reflect on my studying last night, He did allow me to focus - thank you, thank you, thank you!)

If God is not receiving Glory due his name, how do people know what he can do and what he is doing?

What if we were His only witnesses and others were dependent on our testimony to know that he existed and what he was like? If they are not reading a bible (which people are not) and if they are not in a service (which they often are not) then its on you!

I have been terrible about this for all the above reasons

2 Corinthians 12:9 NASB95

And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

this is what it means to be dependent and to glorify God

Close

How might those following him have experienced this? Always astonished to see miracles happening, but also the conviction and confidence he had in what he was there to do. Jesus wants us to know who He is and what he can do. He is most concerned with the man, but doesn’t hesitate to use the situation to teach those who would learn what he wants to teach them.

What does it take for you to follow someone? What does it take for you to consider someone your teacher?

What did they possibly learn? What can we learn? They learned that he is the son of God, H can heal and forgive sins. These are reasons for placing our trust in Him. He is the way to the father and the way to restoration. Those same lesson’s are so important for us as well because we struggle with knowing and caring what he has come to do. Our affluence masks our need both for forgiveness and healing. But we can’t forget the order here. forgiveness and restoration comes after trusting/faithing and is in accordance with it.

What does it take for you to follow someone? What does it take for you to consider someone your teacher?

How bout them being God!

We need to recover the idea that Jesus is God!

Jesus needs to be God to us again!

Jesus is often the icon, the symbol, or the SS answer

Jesus is often the figure that we don’t really analyze what he is doing!

He is simply Jesusing in the gospels. That is just Jesus being Jesus.

and because of that we don’t really analyze what he is doing!

Jesus is our teacher because of who He has proved himself to be

Jesus is our teacher because of who He has proved himself to be

We should follow him for the same reason

We are not just random students but students of God

Jesus is God in the flesh, eternity wrapped in temporality, life amidst death, light among the darkness

we too are going to continue to live temporarily until we learn the 4 things we mentioned earlier

Do we understand our dependence on God?

Figures we could be:

Do we come seeking healing/restoration from God?

Do we find healing/restoration from God?

Do we glorify God when we benefit from our dependence on Him?

Paralytic: He is our example here and so is the community that helped him

What a picture of the church

people carrying people to Christ

faith begetting faith

you can’t do it alone

we can’t do it alone

Sun and Thursdays are times to form this community

Pharisee’s/teachers of the law: were not seeing what the paralytic saw

Crowd: were there just to hear teaching

Isaiah 61:1 NASB95

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Because the Lord has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners;

Isaiah 61:1–2 NASB95

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Because the Lord has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners; To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn,

The spirit of God has anointed you to do the same thing

extra:

Do we come seeking healing/restoration?

How might those following him have experienced this? Always astonished to see miracles happening, but also the conviction and confidence he had in what he was there to do. Jesus wants us to know who He is and what he can do. He is most concerned with the man, but doesn’t hesitate to use the situation to teach those who would learn what he wants to teach them.

Do we find healing/restoration?

Do we glorify God?

2 Corinthians 12:9 NASB95

And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

What did they possibly learn? What can we learn? They learned that he is the son of God, H can heal and forgive sins. These are reasons for placing our trust in Him. He is the way to the father and the way to restoration. Those same lesson’s are so important for us as well because we struggle with knowing and caring what he has come to do. Our affluence masks our need both for forgiveness and healing. But we can’t forget the order here. forgiveness and restoration comes after trusting/faithing and is in accordance with it.

Luke 7:22 NASB95

And He answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them.