As we've gathered today to assemble around the Lord's table and to share this sacrament together and with His body and blood, we turn in our Bibles this morning to the Gospel of Mark. The Gospel of Mark, chapter 2. And here we will turn our attention to a very familiar account of Jesus' healing of a paralytic. In fact, that's how our NIV Bibles title this section, The Jesus Heals of Paralytic. And up until this point, we've learned from Mark that Jesus came to proclaim the good news of God, to announce that the kingdom of God is near. He came to wage war against the enemies of God, sin, the flesh, and the devil, and he came to call upon men and women to repent and believe the good news of this kingdom or to suffer the judgment of God against his enemies. Mark reported in chapter 1 how Jesus amazed the people with his new teaching and the authority with which he spoke and how these set him apart from the teachers of the law the scribes. He drew to himself such great crowds that he would have to go away from time to time just to escape to rest but they would find him even there and beginning in chapter 2 and continuing through chapter 3 verse 6, Mark focuses on the controversy Jesus created in Galilee. In the conflict this generated with the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, their interpreters, the scribes. And our text this morning is the first in five episodes of conflict that show how this conflict escalated from the private thoughts of the scribes to the beginning of their conspiracy to destroy him. And in this particular conflict, we are centered upon Jesus' statement. Your sins are forgiven. And we will consider this morning how Jesus says it. How Jesus verifies it. And how Jesus purchased it. Forgiveness of our sins. Let's read together. Follow along as I read from Mark, chapter 2, verses 1 through 12. Hear the Word of God. A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. So many gathered there that no room was left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus, and after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven. Now some teachers of the law were sitting there thinking to themselves, Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts. And he said to them, Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven, or to say, get up, take your mat 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 tell you, get up, take your mat and go home. He got up, he took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God saying, We have never seen anything like this. And here ends the reading of God's Word. Verses 1 through 5 set the stage and lead us up to the point where Jesus says it. Your sins are forgiven. It begins with Jesus returning home to Capernaum, perhaps to where His mother Mary was now living, or perhaps to the home of Peter. We cannot know for sure. But it became known throughout the region that Jesus was back in town and it didn't take long for a crowd to gather at his home. And of all those gathered there, including the disciples and friends and family, there were seekers after truth and perhaps even curiosity seekers. But our attention is drawn only to the teachers of the law. And Luke tells us that they had come, along with the Pharisees, from every village of Galilee, and from Judea, and from Jerusalem. They did not like having their teaching and authority compared to this man from Nazareth. After all, what good could come from there? They came not to simply to evaluate him, they came to oppose him. They made a point of arriving early that day in order to get a front row seat for the sellout event. And as Jesus preached the word to the crowd in the quiet of this house, a bustle of activity developed outside. Some men arrived carrying a paralyzed man, and they knew Jesus was in there, and they had to get to him. They made straight for the door, but they couldn't even get close. But these men knew that Jesus was the man to see. They were not about to turn back now, so they did an end run around this crowd. They marched up an outside staircase to the roof of this house or neighboring house and they made it to the place where Jesus was below. And they stripped off some tiles and they dug down through the supports. And the clamor of their efforts broke into and disturbed the silence of the room. And the fruit of their faith became evident for all to see. As Mark says, they unroofed the roof and they lowered the man in the spotlight of the sun. to the feet of Jesus. Silence and dust settled over that room as every eye turned to Jesus. Can you sense their anticipation? Can you sense their expectation? They had heard about this Jesus and the amazing things He had done, the diseases He had healed, the demons that He had cast out. And they had come and taken a place in his home with the hopes that they might see such a thing. And lo and behold, served up on a silver platter, as it were, came this paralytic. A man who cannot walk and who will never walk unless Jesus would heal him. What would Jesus do? Well, notice what he didn't do. He didn't cast out a demon. He didn't touch and heal him. It seems he didn't do anything. Instead, Jesus broke the silence by tenderly speaking to the paralytic as if he were his own dear child. Son, your sins are forgiven. Everyone remains silent, speechless, bewildered. Put yourself in their shoes for a moment. even though nothing was said, clearly the men who carried the paralytic there were wanting him to be healed. Surely that was the paralytic's hope as well. So what does his sin have to do with that? Well, maybe he was guilty of such wickedness that God had punished him with paralysis. But if that was the case, why didn't Jesus tell him to obey the law and present an animal for the priest to offer as a sacrifice of atonement for his sin. Well, maybe Jesus was a prophet and the Lord had revealed to him this man's sin. But if that was the case, why didn't he speak like a prophet? His good friend John the Baptist never spoke this way. If he were here, he would tell him to repent and be baptized. The paralytic had said nothing at all, let alone confess his sin. And even the prophet Nathan waited until King David confessed his sin before announcing to him the Lord's forgiveness. The Lord has taken away your sin. Out of all the thoughts that were stimulated by these unexpected words from Jesus, your sins are forgiven. We know for certain only the thoughts of the scribes. They responded to Jesus according to verses 6 and 7 by arguing with what they thought was the privacy of their own minds. Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? You see, the scribes had rightly understood Jesus. His words were unmistakably clear. Your sins are forgiven was not intended to be a pleasant platitude to calm the paralytic's conscience. They were not empty words. Jesus' words were precise and pointed in the Greek. Dismissed are your sins. Once and for all, beginning right now your sins are blotted out and removed from your record. They will never be found again, for they have been removed as far from you as the east is from the west. Dismissed are your sins. Who does Jesus think He is that He can declare your sins are forgiven? He speaks like the angel of the Lord who spoke to the high priest Joshua in Zechariah's vision. See, I have taken away your sins. And he speaks as if he were the Lord himself who said to Isaiah the prophet, I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake and remembers your sins no more. He speaks as if he were God. The scribes knew what they had heard. And they also knew what they saw in Jesus. A mere man. At best, he was a lunatic. who did not realize what he was saying. At worst, he was a liar who was trying to deceive God's people. You see, the scribes, like you and me, when we hear these words of Jesus, not only here, but throughout the Word of God, must contend with what is told of him, what he says, and what he's done, and we must conclude that he's a lunatic, or he's a liar, For He is who He says He is, the Son of God in the flesh. And it becomes clear that the scribes considered Jesus to be a liar when they accuse Him, toward the end of chapter 3, of being possessed by Beelzebub, Satan himself, the father of lies. With this view of Jesus, they interpret Jesus' lack of action here in the home as a deception. The physical inability and desperate need of this man was clear for everyone to see. And if ever there was an opportunity for Jesus to display his supposed authority, his supposed right and his supposed might, this was it. But, they reasoned, he didn't say to the man, get up, take your mat and walk. Because that would have exposed him as a fraud. That would be too difficult a thing. So he chose the easy way out and said, Your sins are forgiven. How convenient. No one could know whether or not the sins were really forgiven. You see their reasoning. In their hearts, the scribes charged Jesus with blasphemy. And they concluded that he must be put to death. These are the teachers of the law. They knew that the law required in Leviticus chapter 11 verse 24 that one who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. And they knew the law in Deuteronomy chapter 19 verse 15. One witness is not enough to convict a man accused of any crime. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. And that's why they were there. But immediately, Mark says in verse 8, Jesus knew in his spirit that this is what they were thinking in their hearts. And without hesitation, Jesus went on to verify that his words to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven, were not empty words. Jesus verifies it by using the very law of God in his behalf. He establishes his authority, his divine right, and his divine might to forgive sins. by witnessing to Himself as God alone can do. And the first witness that Jesus offers to Himself was a display of His omniscience. He demonstrated that He knows all things by charging the scribes with what they believed to be their secret thoughts. He said to them, beginning in verse 8, Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven, or to say, get up, take your mat, and walk. Why are you thinking these things? Now we might be tempted to ignore the full impact of what Jesus said here as we rush ahead to the real miracle, the restoration of the paralytic. But we can be certain that the scribes felt its sting. Even if they did not show it, and even if they did not soften their hearts toward Jesus. We know from Matthew that not only did Jesus know their thoughts, He also judged their thoughts to be evil thoughts, and He told them so. Jesus, the very One who will expose every secret when He comes again in glory to judge the nations, expose to them their false accusations against Him. But because His glory was veiled in His flesh that had not yet died and had not yet been raised. They did not see him for who he was and they did not cry out for the mountains to hide them from his judgment. See, Jesus saw and continues to see what all others are blind to, the thoughts and the intentions of the heart. And just as he saw the hearts of the scribes, he knew the heart of the paralytic as well. Although he and his friends had said absolutely nothing, Jesus knew absolutely everything. And he knew the paralytic to be a child of God. Jesus knew him to be one whose eyes God the Father had opened and who had a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Christ. By faith he had looked to Jesus for forgiveness. And Jesus had compassion on him and said, In the hearing of all, dear child, your sins are forgiven. Well, the second witness that Christ offers of himself or to himself was a display of his omnipotence. He exposed their questions in verse 19 which had to do with power. Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven, or to say, get up, take your mat and walk? See, the scribes were thinking like men and they were thinking of Jesus as a man. And as is true for them, as is true for us, both are equally easy to say. Your sins are forgiven. Get up, take your mat and walk. But for us they are equally impossible to accomplish. For Jesus, on the other hand, both are equally easy to say. And in His saying, they are equally and certainly accomplished. For this is the nature of God's Word. It is absolutely authoritative. What God says is what God does. And He alone has the right to say what He will. And He alone has the might to accomplish all that He says. And it is this authority that Jesus wielded on the earth even as He does now in heaven. As God in the flesh, Jesus here reveals what He declared of Himself in Isaiah chapter 55. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Jesus spoke and restored the paralytic's body. He granted power to what was powerless. He granted life to what was effectively dead. He said to the paralytic in verse 11, I tell you, get up. Take your mat and go home. He got up, took his mat, and walked out in full view of them all. The mat which had been a proof of his weakness he carried out as a testimony to the strength Christ had given him. And this double testimony of Jesus was not without its effect. Mark says in verse 12 that this amazed everyone and they praised God saying, we have never seen anything like this. The silence was chaos. And Matthew describes the people as being filled with awe. But then he goes on to say that they praised God because He had given such authority to men. You see, it's clear from not only Mark's account, but Luke and Matthew's account. That although Jesus amazed the people by what he taught and what he did, they really did not understand who he is or what he'd come to do. The scribes had asked, which is easier? But they had neglected a more important question. Which is costlier to say your sins are forgiven or to say, get up, take your mat and walk? What the scribes and the crowd did not yet know is the fullness of the gospel that many of us today take for granted. We read Mark through the eyes of fully informed understanding of the gospel. They did not have that perspective in this episode. They didn't think about the power of God to create the heavens and the earth, The power of God to heal the body of this paralytic is the power of God that costs God nothing. By the word of His power, He created out of nothing. But the power of God to redeem His people from sin and from death costs the Son of God His life. You see, Jesus purchased it. The forgiveness of our sins with His precious blood on the cross. of Calvary. Jesus would later teach His disciples and us through them of all that this forgiveness would cost Him. And He did so by teaching them about the Son of Man. Now Mark's mention of the Son of Man in verse 10 presents a difficulty. As it reads in all of our English translations, it reads as though Jesus said to the scribes as He turned to heal the paralytic, but that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. And then he speaks to the man. We're led to understand that Jesus' purpose for healing the paralytic was to convince the scribes of his authority to forgive sins. And if this is the case, then we're presented with a second difficulty, I think a greater difficulty, and that is that Jesus did not accomplish his purpose. the fact is that as a group, the scribes opposed Jesus all the way to the end, sentencing Him to death for blasphemy. We find them at the foot of the cross in chapter 15, verses 31 and 32, mocking Jesus and saying, He saved others, but He can't save Himself. Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe. well they'd seen Jesus heal the paralytic and they didn't believe that he had the authority to forgive sins if however we look at verse 10 and understand it to be a comment on these events by Mark we will be better served it stands in the middle of Jesus two-fold testimony his witness to his authority and it represents Mark's inspired conclusion that we too should draw from this event. Know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. Know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. Now, why do I suggest this? Because not only did the scribes and the crowd not understand who Jesus is or what He came to do, neither did His disciples. Jesus did not reveal anything about Himself as the Son of Man to anyone until after Peter confessed Him, You are the Christ. And Mark starts recording in chapter 8, beginning in verse 31, that Jesus then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. See, only after Peter's confession of faith did Jesus begin to reveal the costliness of this forgiveness and then only to his disciples. He pointed them to the cross again and again, but still they did not understand why He must go and what He would accomplish there. They did not understand that He, the Son of Man, had come to earth to give His life as a ransom for many. That He was the Lamb of God, slain before the foundation of the world. They did not understand. Even after he celebrated the Passover with them in the upper room. Even after he gave thanks, broke bread and gave it to them saying, Take it! This is my body. Even after he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them saying, This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many. Even after they had abandoned him to suffer and die on the cross of Calvary, They did not understand. They still did not understand that he was raised to life the third day. Even after he commissioned them to disciple the nations. And even after he ascended to glory, to the right hand of God the Father, in the clouds, just as Daniel had prophesied about the Son of Man, they didn't understand. It was only after Christ poured out His Spirit upon the church at Pentecost that they began to understand. The promised counselor taught them all things and reminded them of everything that Jesus had said to them. And it was only then that they understood that Jesus was the Son of Man. And not only had He come to the earth to forgive sins, but that He would come again. He taught them in chapter 13, verse 26, That on the last day, men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and authority. They understood that He will come to judge between His sheep and the goats. That He will come to judge those who believe in Him as worthy of Him because of His grace toward them. He will come and they will understand how those who believe in him will be spared eternal death because they already enjoy eternal life today in Christ. See, only then did Mark set down this gospel about the coming of the kingdom of God to the earth in the person of Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah, the Savior of the world, the Son of Man. And only then did He include this account of the healing of the paralytic. When Jesus revealed uniquely in all the Gospel stories, this event is where Jesus revealed His authority to forgive sins. And from it we learn that forgiveness of sins is no longer only for the last day, the day of judgment when the books will be opened. It belongs to the children of God now. because Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, has come to earth and purchased it with His own precious blood. See, this event is recorded in the Gospel of Mark as it is in the Gospel of Matthew and in the Gospel of Luke for each and every man, woman, and child here today. And whoever will come across it in preaching or in reading, If you with the scribes reject Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, you will suffer his wrath on the day of judgment. He will remain your judge as he judged the scribes in our text. But if you share the faith of the paralytic, if you know your sin and your misery, and you trust in the God-man, Jesus Christ, alone to save you from your sin and your misery, and you long for His appearing in glory, then you can know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. And you can know that your sins are forgiven now and forever. And this day, by this faith, you may come and partake of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper and be nourished in Your Spirit on the Son of Man as You wait for His return in glory. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. Let's pray. Almighty God and Heavenly Father, we are awestruck as were the people in the room with Jesus. We thank You, Father, that our eyes can see in a way that theirs could not. That we can know that the man Jesus who spoke the word of forgiveness, who spoke the restoration of the body, spoke as the son of man, the son of God, God in the flesh. And we can know that he has the authority on earth to forgive sins. And we can know that by faith, just as the paralytic received that forgiveness. We too have received that forgiveness by His Word because of His shed blood and His broken body, the Calvary. We thank You, Father, for this record. We thank You that we may be instructed by it. We pray, Father, that this knowledge is certain in our own hearts that we have the full assurance of this grace through faith in Christ our Lord, we pray. Amen. Thank you.