Midweek Study - "Popularity Breeds Contempt" (Mark 2:1-12)

Four Criticisms of Christ in Mark 2

Well, now we get to chapter 2, and chapter 2 is going to be broken down into what I'm calling the four criticisms of Christ. The four criticisms of Christ. Now if you have the book I mentioned at the beginning of this study, I mentioned the outlined Bible by Wilmington, you had mentioned about maybe wanting to get a copy.

Did you guys end up getting one? Okay, but I'm just going to say I am going to follow his four part outline for chapter 2 because what he shows us in that outlined Bible is there, what we see is four different things that Christ is criticized for, and two of them are things that they believe he should not be doing, and two are things that they believe he should be doing.

So very quickly, we're going to outline what those are, and we're going to focus on number one, but I want to at least give you the outline because this is going to be the outline for the next few weeks.

So the first thing is that they believe that Jesus should not be forgiving sin. So we'll just put that Jesus forgives sin, and they immediately take issue with that. That's going to be the crux of our lesson tonight, is who does Christ make himself to be by forgiving sin?

So that's going to be what we focus on. The second thing that they see him do that they don't think that he should do is that he befriends sinners. He befriends sinners. So not only is he forgiving sin, but he is making friends with sinners, and that's two things, as we're going to see in this chapter, that the scribes and then the Pharisees take great issue with.

One, he's forgiving sin, and two, he's spending time with sinners. He's befriending sinners. The third thing is that he does not observe the fast. And the fourth thing is, according to them, he does not keep the Sabbath.

Now, each of these is going to be its own lesson to itself, but I want to make a point because, again, what we see is what the Pharisees think he should not be doing. He should not be forgiving sin and being friends with sinners, but they think he should be observing the fast and observing the Sabbath or keeping the Sabbath.

And what we are seeing in this portion of the Gospel of Mark is we're seeing Christ dealing with, ultimately, the contempt that has come as a result of his popularity. Remember, toward the end of the last chapter, what was happening to Christ?

He was being thronged by or he was being surrounded by throngs of people. Remember when it said when he got away to pray, there were people literally sleeping outside. There were like people outside the door of his house where he was staying.

So Christ is surrounded by people. He is immensely popular. Remember why we said one of the reasons why he was popular, because he taught with what? It was that very important word. Remember? Taught with authority.

They said, this man's different. He teaches with authority. He doesn't teach like our scribes teach. Our scribes don't teach with authority. They quote other scribes and they quote other Pharisees and they quote other teachers and and writers.

They don't come and speak on their own authority. But this man here speaks as if he is God himself because he was. And so this idea of authority that was rested in the person of Jesus is created a popularity, but also created contempt.

So what we're going to do is we're just going to read verses one to twelve. I thought about trying to do the whole chapter in one shot, but it wouldn't be fair to the chapter, nor to you to try to do so much in one night.

So I'm just going to do verses one to twelve. Very familiar story, by the way. This is the story of the men who bring their friend to Jesus and let him down through the roof. If you remember that particular narrative, we're going to examine that narrative tonight and try to pick out some specific details that tell us more about our Savior.

So let's read beginning in chapter two, verse one. And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. Many were gathered together so that there was no more room, not even at the door.

And he was preaching the word to them. And they came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him. And when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay.

And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, son, your sins are forgiven. Now, some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts, why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming.

Who can forgive sins but God alone? Immediately, Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, why do you question these things in your hearts? Which is easier to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven or to say, rise, take up your bed 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 say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home. He rose and immediately picked up his bed, went out before them all so that they were all amazed and glorified, saying, we never saw anything.

Like this, father, thank you for your word, may the teaching of it glorify you in Christ's name. Amen. So that's the first narrative in this chapter. We're all pretty familiar with the story, I think, but it's always good to be reminded of those things that are familiar, because we often are the worst at picking up the particulars of things that we're familiar with.

One of the exercises that I do in hermeneutics when I teach hermeneutics in our academy is I take a passage of scripture and I make the students write down, I think I start out with 20 observations. I say, I want you to take this passage home, make 20 observations about this passage, write them down, bring it back next week.

And it's not one sentence. Usually it's a couple of paragraphs or something. But I say, write down 20 observations. Then when they come back the next week, we compare our observations and I say, OK, now go write 20 more.

And the goal is to teach observation skills. I'm a big Sherlock Holmes fan. I like to read Sherlock Holmes novels, even though it's been quite a while since I've read one. But I like how he would say to Dr. Watson, he would say, many people see, but few observe.

Many people see, but few observe. And so when I teach people how to study the scripture, the first thing I do, and this was actually taught to me in the book by Dr. Howard Hendricks called Living by the Book, he said, we must start with observation.

If your observation time immediately jumps to interpretation, then you're missing out on the big picture. And so what I want us to do tonight is sort of just follow that model. And let's begin at verse one and just sort of observe the text.

It says, And when he returned to Capernaum, after some days it was reported that he was at home. First observation. Isn't this interesting that it mentions Jesus being at home? And is this saying it's his home?

Some commentators seem to argue that this is not his home, but rather the home of a family member or the home. Some even argue that he's still at the home of Simon Peter. But if we remember the Gospel of John, when Andrew and John first meet Jesus, what did they ask him?

You remember, where do you live? Where do you stay? Right. So so it's interesting that this could be the home of Christ. And what's interesting is we're going to get a picture of this home in a moment because we're going to see that this home has a roof that is accessible, which probably tells us something about the way that it was built, because homes in that time often had an exterior staircase that allowed people to walk up on top of the roof.

And the roof was part of the place in the home that was used sometimes for relief, to go up for for rest, could go up there to look out and to survey. Or even some have said that they were used for for times of social gatherings.

So the roof was like a second story to the home, a place where people could go. And the roof would have beams that was held together by sticks and brush and things and clay. And that clay would often have tiles over it.

And those tiles would, of course, seal in the roof with the clay and the walk up there would be from this side staircase. So this is again, this is Jesus's home. That's an interesting just thinking, right?

Like and and his and this home is inundated with people. We see that in verse two, it says, and many were gathered together so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them.

So Jesus's home becomes a meeting place for people to come and hear him preach. Now, again, I can't help but have a little bit of sanctified imagination and imagine what is probably not a huge house, probably a smaller home, probably a home that only sat a few people, but is now inundated with people who have all gathered together in the house of the Lord Jesus Christ for the purpose of what?

For the purpose of hearing him preach, so many people have gathered again, going back to the home issues, this, you know, have they gathered at Mary's house, this Mary's house, this is childhood home.

We don't know. But these are questions we can ask. We can talk about. We can think through these things. You know, there's another passage which says he had no place to lay his head. Was that because he was far from home?

You know, these are questions that come up and we can walk through and talk about them and think through them. The text isn't isn't telling us one way or the other in that regard, but it's an interesting question.

But he has all these people there. They're in the home and so many people are there that there's no movement, can't get out, can't get in. It says in verse two that there was not any room even at the door.

So people were crowded around Jesus to hear the word again. He is popular. His preaching is powerful. His gifts are evident. His abilities are amazing. And therefore, he has gathered a crowd around him.

And verse three says, and they came. Bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. Now, is there anybody here not reading the ESV? I think, Andy, you probably have the new king, right? What is verse three say?

Does it say and they came? They came. This is they. OK, nobody else says anything different there. Because it's interesting what the point I'm making is, again, based just on observation as we look at the text here, it doesn't tell us who they are.

Just says and they came, who are they? They are the ones bringing the bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. So these are four men who are carrying a man who is a paralytic. Now, just for a moment, being a paralytic.

In our modern day is tremendously difficult. How many of you, how many of you familiar with Johnny Erickson Tata? Johnny Erickson Tata is a woman who has been a quadriplegic all of her adult life. When she was a young woman, I believe in her teenage years, she dove into water.

She broke her neck and as a result, lost the function of her arms and her legs. So she has lived her all of her adult life as a quadriplegic. Now, she has lived an amazing life. She has been able to marry.

She has been able to write books, give lectures. She has a wonderful ability to communicate the gospel. I have had the opportunity to hear her at times do that. She is an amazing person. She has said she is thankful for her injuries in one respect because they have caused her to be more willing to lean upon God's strength, not her own.

But she's also said things to the effect of, you know, she looks forward to the day when she can stand so that she can bow the knee to Christ. You know, they're wonderful things that she has said. But the point I'm simply making is Johnny Erickson Tata lives at probably the very best time in history to be a paraplegic.

Because even though it's a very difficult life, she lives a life that has the benefit of modern medical technology and medical. What was the word? Medicine, but I was thinking medical tools. She has a chair that is able to move her around and that she can guide with her mouth.

And, you know, there are things that she can do that just 50 years ago didn't exist. You know what I mean? A hundred years ago, a paraplegic was in a much different situation than one is today because of, like you said, medicine, medical technology, medical tools.

All of these things are available. So now go back 2000 years. 2000 years ago, a paralytic, a man who can't move his legs, possibly his arms, a man who is, we're not told, but his, you know, was this from an injury or what?

You know, we don't know. Just from a sickness. Imagine the difficulty of his life. But these four men have heard about Jesus. They have heard that Jesus can heal even a paralytic. That Jesus can heal somebody who can't walk.

And so these men go to Jesus, they bring their friend. And I've heard so many sermons about being like those four men. And there's certainly some encouraging thought to that, because these four men, they got somebody who has a need.

And what do they do? They seek out the master. They seek out the king. And there's positive thought there. Right. So they're going to take him to Jesus because they believe Jesus can do what he has done for others, for their friend.

Now, an interesting point to be made, and John MacArthur makes this point in regard to this text. He says, he says, I would, he said, I wouldn't call the faith of the friends saving faith in the same sense that.

And here's why he says it. He says, because they have this, they have a faith that would be similar to any of us who saw somebody do something and believe that they could do it. Right. And these people have seen Jesus heal others.

Well, if he can heal others, he can heal this guy. And the reason why I bring that up is because in a few minutes, when we get to the part of the text where Jesus says to this man, your sins are forgiven.

There is a salvation moment. I believe there is something that's going to be different then. But these men at least know enough about Jesus, at least believe enough about Jesus to believe he can do this.

Now, does that mean they were saved or that they were on the way to salvation? I hope so. But again, they believe it because they've seen him do it. So they get to the door, they can't get through the door.

They can't get in to an audience with Jesus. So they go up the side of the house, that stairwell we talked about a little while ago, or staircase, they climb up to the roof and it says what they did, it says and when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay.

Now, the gospel of Luke tells us that they removed the tiles. If you, you don't have to turn there, but the gospel of Luke tells the same text, the same story in the in the fifth chapter. So it's Luke chapter five, beginning at verse 17.

And it says when they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles. So that tells us a little bit more about the construction of the house. And so it doesn't mention the tiles and Mark, but we understand this is the same story, same situation.

It says they let him down in front of Jesus. Now, again, another another point that again, commentators say some funny things. Another point that one of the commentators make about this is they had to figure out where Jesus was in the house because they're going to bring him down right in front of Jesus.

And they can't really get in to see. So they're trying to figure this out. They're up there digging through the roof. And you can imagine Jesus preaching and dirt starts falling through the roof. I mean, a lot of things can get your attention while you're preaching.

Anytime you all fall asleep, it gets my attention and just anytime something happens in the service, you know, when you're preaching, something can startle you or something can get you off your message.

But Jesus is there and he's standing there and he's preaching. And here comes dirt falling from the ceiling and down comes this guy. OK, he comes down and this is where their faith comes into play because their faith is mentioned.

It says in verse five, and when Jesus saw their faith, when Jesus saw their faith. He said to the paralytic son, your sins are forgiven. Now, right away, purely observational again, we're just observing the text, right?

We're not really making interpretation. We're just recognizing what the text says. The observation here that gets me is one, it doesn't say that he saw the man's faith, says he saw their faith. So they had some kind of faith.

Like I said, MacArthur sort of argues that it's not necessarily saving faith, but be that as it may, they believe Jesus could do this. And Jesus is responding. To their faith, according to the text, it says when he saw their faith, and again, that is in the plural, you look in the Greek, that's important because it's not his faith, it's their faith.

When Jesus saw their faith, he looked down at the man. And said, your sins are forgiven now in a moment. I want to talk about wrong ways to interpret that, because I do think there are some things we have to consider.

But just for a moment, based on observation only, let's just talk about this. Does that statement really make sense in regard to the condition of this man? I'm not saying Jesus doesn't make sense. I'm not saying Jesus is wrong.

But Jesus did have a way of responding differently than we might expect. Like remember when Nicodemus came to Jesus in John chapter 3? And Nicodemus said, Lord, we know you're a teacher come from God.

For no one can do the things that you do except God be with him. And Jesus said, verily, verily, I say unto thee, lest a man be born again, he will not see the kingdom of heaven. What? That's like, that's like not at all what we were talking about.

That's, you know, I came and flattered you by telling you, obviously you're a prophet, obviously you're from God. I came with a flattering word, and you just changed the subject. Well here, Jesus, in a sense, has changed the subject.

And wouldn't you agree that the subject was healing? And yet Jesus is focusing on something else. He focuses on the man's need for forgiveness. Now we have to ask the question, why? And we have to also, again, I told you we were going to talk about interpretation.

We also have to interpret what that means regarding the man. Because I know that you know this, but I want to say it anyway. We are not forgiven based upon the faith of others, are we? I mean, really, is that true?

Are we forgiven based upon the faith of other people? No. So when Jesus looks down at this man and he says, son, your sins are forgiven, what does that tell us about the man? I think there's an inference there.

And the inference is the man also had faith. Right? He, Jesus saw their faith, but when he looks at the man, he says, your sins are forgiven. Why? Because this man has faith too. Oftentimes when this passage is preached, the faith of the other men is focused on.

And I do think there's a legitimate focus because Jesus does say he saw their faith. But we cannot think for a moment that this man is faithless. This man has saving faith because Jesus just looked at him and said, your sins are forgiven.

Now, we could maybe take a step back and talk about what that means and how does saving faith work and how does it operate? And how did this man understand about Jesus? Well, we know he understood enough that Jesus could look at him and say, your sins are forgiven.

He says that to many other people in the text. We we we see that when he talks to. Other leaders, we see or other people, we see like Zacchaeus and other people, when he tells them their sins are forgiven.

Right. What did he say to Zacchaeus when Zacchaeus took the money out and started giving it away? What is it? What did he say to Zacchaeus? Salvation has come to this house today. Because this one is truly a son of Abraham.

Right. So Jesus ties in that moment. Salvation has come to this house. And we see this here, he says to this man, your sins are forgiven. By the way, that ain't what the man came for. The man came to get working legs.

But Christ. Gave him. Something infinitely more valuable. In fact, I would say this is something just to consider. One of the things that I think we often forget. Is the true heart of the Christian message.

Is that Christ. Forgives our sins. Because we get so caught up in all of the theological debates and rigors. But our sins are forgiven. The debt is paid. That's what forgiveness means. It means the debt is no longer owed.

If you go to your bank tomorrow where you have your mortgage or your car note or whatever. And they hand you a piece of paper and it says paid in full. That means the debt is done. And that's what Jesus said on the cross.

He said, tell us thy pain in full. So when he looks at this man and says, your sins are forgiven. It's not what the man expected, I'm sure. It's not what anybody reading this story for the first time would expect.

We would expect to hear, son, your legs are working. That's not what he said. Said, son, your sins. Are forgiven. And again, just observation, he calls him son. There's a. There's a relational aspect to the language here.

Blasphemy, Authority, and the Forgiveness of Sins

But then we come to verse six and we see the real issue. Because remember what I said, this chapter, all of the miracles of this chapter, and there are several things that happen, all the things that happen in this chapter, this miracle, Jesus eating with the sinners, calling Matthew the tax collector, all those things.

All of those things are backdrops to these four things that are causing the Pharisees and the scribes to come against Jesus. Mark is painting the picture of growing opposition. So we have chapter one growing popularity.

Now we have growing contempt and opposition. And we see that in verse six says now some of the scribes. We're sitting there in Luke, it says it was Pharisees now and it says in Luke, it says there were Pharisees and teachers of the law.

The scribes were the teachers of the law. So understand this Pharisees were and maybe I should take just a second to mention we all we've all heard scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees. These groups actually were didn't exist in the Old Testament.

We don't we don't see scribes and Pharisees in the Old Testament. This group actually these groups came up during the intertestamental period during the time of the Maccabees and the Pharisees were a religiously conservative, very legalistic keepers of the rules, keepers of the law.

They were so legalistic that they created extra laws to go around the laws that existed so that they wouldn't break the laws that existed. They would. So like, for instance, the Sabbath, they would have how many steps you could take on the Sabbath because you have if you took any more than that, it would constitute work.

And if you worked on the Sabbath, it was against God's law. So they would have that. And there were all kinds of other restrictions that they would set up. And they had all of these things, the Pharisees and the scribes.

These men were legalistic. In fact, don't we use that term today when you hear somebody who's being listed, what's a common term for the Pharisee? You're being Pharisee. Well, there's a reason for it because that's where they were.

But Mark doesn't mention the Pharisees. He just mentions the scribes, at least at this part. He mentions them later. But but at this point, he just mentions the scribes. He mentions in verse 16, he mentions the Pharisees, actually mentions the scribes of the Pharisees.

So just there's a connection between the scribes and the Pharisees. He says, now, some of the scribes are sitting there questioning key phrase here in their hearts. That phrase is huge. And again, remember, we're doing observation right now.

When it says they were questioning in their hearts, what does that tell us? This is a good reason. Yeah, but but it tells us that it's an internal monologue. They're not saying anything out loud. Now, I don't know about you, but I have one of those faces where I don't have to say it for you to know what I'm thinking.

I always say my face does not have an inside voice, my face. If I'm upset, you're going to see it on my face. If I'm happy, you're going to see it on my face. So it could be that the hearts of these men was very evident on their face.

But I don't think that's the intention of Mark here. I don't think his intention is to say Jesus could read the room or Jesus understood how to discern a man's attitude by his face. I don't think that's the intention.

In fact, what I believe the intention is, is to say that Jesus actually did know the hearts of men, because as you just said, God knows the hearts of men. And as Christ comes into the world, he is able to discern the hearts of men.

And it says here, it says they were sitting there questioning in their hearts. And the question that they asked themselves was, why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone?

Great question. Who can forgive sins except God alone? And the answer is no one. They're absolutely right. At this moment, it's OK to agree with the scribes. Because in one sense, they're not wrong. Now, they're wrong when they say he's blaspheming.

But they're not wrong when they say that the only one who can forgive sin is God, because that is what the Scripture teaches. But what they are missing is Emmanuel. Jesus is the fulfillment of Isaiah 7, verse 14, which says that the virgin will give birth to a son and his name will be called Emmanuel, which means what?

God with us. Jesus is God incarnate. So he does have the ability to say your sins are forgiven and he has the authority to to back it up. This is this is amazing. If you think about it, Jesus forgives sins and he can because he's God.

So they're not wrong. They're wrong by saying he's blaspheming, but they're not wrong by asking the question, who can forgive sin? God, well, then this man is either blaspheming or he's God. They had no idea that it was the second one.

You understand, if I walk up to you and I say, based on the authority of Keith Foskey, Mary Halle, your sins are forgiven. That ain't worth nothing. It ain't worth the air that came out of my lungs to move my vocal cords because I don't have any authority to forgive your sins.

Now, I can tell you that you can have your sins forgiven in Christ. I can I can I can on the authority of Christ say you can have your sins forgiven by trusting in him. That's the only authority that we have is the authority of the word of God.

But that's the point of this. Christ is speaking on his own authority. Go back to chapter one. This was what was amazing. He spoke to me. He spoke on it with authority, not as the scribes. And he says, son, your sins are forgiven.

Now, some of the scribes were sitting there questioning their hearts. Why does he speak like this? He's blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? And immediately notice verse eight and immediately Jesus perceiving in his spirit.

That they questioned within themselves said to them, why do you question these things in your heart? Jesus, again, not just reading their face, but he reads their hearts and he says to them. And. I know what's in your heart and you're questioning my ability to forgive sin, you're questioning my authority.

So Jesus puts it to the test. Verse nine, which is easier to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven. Or to say, rise, take up your bed and walk. Now, I think for a moment what he's asking. He's asking the question.

Which is easier to say, remember observation, which is easier to say, well, both are equally easy to say. But one, if you just say it means nothing. If you just say, get up, rise and walk and he don't, then it doesn't mean anything.

Now, I bring that up because. We used to have one of the most sweet and lovely ladies in our church. And she was very godly woman and she she was in a wheelchair from the age of 12. She had been in an accident and she told me on several occasions about how people at times in her life.

Had said to her that if she just had enough faith, she could get up and walk. And she said she had had people who came and said, in the name of Jesus, rise and walk. And she stayed sedentary in the chair because they didn't have the authority or power to do what they said they were doing.

Now, the point I'm making is if Jesus says rise and walk and the guy doesn't get up and walk. Proves I'm a liar. I mean, that's what it proved for that guy, for my friend. When those people said rise and walk, you know how they always get out of it?

Oh, you just didn't believe enough. You didn't have enough faith. They always blamed it on her. But that's the question Jesus is asking, which is easier to say, rise, take up your bed or your sins are forgiven.

Well, it's easier to say your sins are forgiven because you can't see that. But he says that you may know, love that, that you may know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He says to the paralytic, I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.

Verse 12, and he rose immediately, there's that word, picked up his bed and went out before them all so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, we've never seen anything like this. The Gospel of Matthew parallel account says they were afraid and they glorified God because the power of God does bring fear into the heart often.

And in Luke's account, it says they were seized, seized with amazement. And they glorified God being filled with awe. So Jesus has now had his first run in with the scribes. And I would say from the mere perspective of putting something in the category, Jesus is one scribe's zip, because even though they didn't say anything, according to the text, they never spoke a word.

Even though they didn't say anything, Jesus knew what their heart was and their heart was, Jesus, you're a blasphemer. And Jesus said to them, what's easier to say, rise and walk or to say your sins are forgiven?

But so that I can show you that I have the authority to say your sins are forgiven. I say, rise and walk. This is an amazing text. And again, it's recounted in Matthew chapter nine and Luke chapter five.

And so I would encourage to your reading, if you want to go and hear how the other evangelists describe the text, just keep in mind, this is setting the stage in Mark's gospel for Jesus is now continual and perpetual runnings in with the Pharisees.

He's going to continue to run into them as we go through the text. In fact, as I said, this whole chapter four times the next week, we're going to see that he's going to run into them in regard to calling a tax collector to follow him.

No, no, no. And then eating with sinners. That, again, will not be acceptable. So I hope tonight was encouraging. Do you have any questions before we begin to draw to a close? Was that helpful? Well, good.

Let's pray. Father, I thank you for your word, for your truth, for your gospel and for your son who came to forgive sins. Lord, we do pray that we would have faith, that we would have faith like that man who was laid down, but also faith like his friends, Lord, who were willing to bring him before Jesus.

Lord, increase our faith. But also, Lord, we pray that we would understand that this story isn't about those four men. It's not even really about the paralytic. But Lord, this story is about Jesus, the God man who came into this world to die on a cross to offer forgiveness for all those who trust in him.

Lord, I pray. I pray that you would give us all a bigger picture of Christ and a greater understanding of who he is. And it's in his name we pray. Amen.