Popularity Breeds Contempt

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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.
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The Four Criticisms of Christ.
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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.
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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.
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So the first thing is that they believe that Jesus should not be forgiving sin.
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So we'll just put that Jesus forgives sin, and they immediately take issue with that.
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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.
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The second thing that they see him do that they don't think that he should do is that he befriends sinners.
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He befriends sinners.
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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.
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One, he's forgiving sin, and two, he's spending time with sinners.
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He's befriending sinners.
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The third thing is that he does not observe the fast.
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And the fourth thing is, according to them, he does not keep the Sabbath.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Remember toward the end of the last chapter what was happening to Christ.
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He was being thronged by, or he was being surrounded by throngs of people.
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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.
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So Christ is surrounded by people.
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He is immensely popular.
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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.
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They said, this man's different.
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He teaches with authority.
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He doesn't teach like our scribes teach.
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Our scribes don't teach with authority.
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They quote other scribes and they quote other Pharisees and they quote other teachers and writers.
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They don't come and speak on their own authority.
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But this man here speaks as if he is God himself.
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Because he was.
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And so this idea of authority that was rested in the person of Jesus has created a popularity, but also created contempt.
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So what we're going to do is we're just going to read verses 1-12.
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I had 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.
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So I'm just going to do verses 1-12.
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Very familiar story, by the way.
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This is the story of the men who bring their friend to Jesus and let him down through the roof.
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If you remember that particular narrative.
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We're going to examine that narrative tonight and try to pick out some specific details that tell us more about our Savior.
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So let's read beginning in chapter 2, verse 1.
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And when he returned to Capernaum, after some days it was reported that he was at home.
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And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door.
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And he was preaching the word to them.
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And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.
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And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him.
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And when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay.
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And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven.
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Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming.
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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.
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And he rose, and immediately picked up his bed, and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified, saying, We never saw anything like this.
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Father, thank you for your word.
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May the teaching of it glorify you.
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In Christ's name, Amen.
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So that's the first narrative in this chapter.
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We're all pretty familiar with the story, I think.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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And then when they come back the next week, we compare our observations, and I say, Okay, now go write 20 more.
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And the goal is to teach observation skills.
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I'm a big Sherlock Holmes fan.
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I like to read Sherlock Holmes novels, even though it's been quite a while since I've read one.
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But I like how he would say to Dr.
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Watson, he would say, Many people see, but few observe.
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Many people see, but few observe.
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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.
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Howard Hendricks called Living by the Book, where he said, We must start with observation.
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If your observation time immediately jumps to interpretation, then you're missing out on the big picture.
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And so what I want us to do tonight is sort of just follow that model.
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And let's begin at verse 1 and just sort of observe the text.
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It says, And when he returned to Capernaum, after some days it was reported that he was at home.
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First observation.
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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 some even argue that he's still at the home of Simon Peter.
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But if we remember the Gospel of John, when Andrew and John first meet Jesus, what did they ask him? You remember? Yeah, where do you live? Where do you stay? So it's interesting that this could be the home of Christ.
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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.
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And the roof was part of the place in the home that was used sometimes for relief, to go up for rest, to go up there to look out and to survey.
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Or even some have said that they were used for times of social gatherings.
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So the roof was like a second story to the home, a place where people could go.
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And the roof would have beams that was held together by sticks and brush and things and clay.
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And that clay would often have tiles over it.
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And those tiles would of course seal in the roof with the clay and the walk up there would be from this side staircase.
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So this is again, this is Jesus' home.
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That's an interesting just thinking, right? And this home is inundated with people.
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We see that in verse 2.
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It says, And many were gathered together so that there was no more room, not even at the door.
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And he was preaching the word to them.
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So Jesus' home becomes a meeting place for people to come and hear him preach.
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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.
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So many people have gathered.
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Again, going back to the home issue.
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Have they gathered at Mary's home? Is this Mary's home? Is this his childhood home? We don't know.
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But these are questions we can ask, we can talk about, we can think through these things.
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You know, there's another passage which says he had no place to lay his head.
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Well, is 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.
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The text isn't telling us one way or the other in that regard but it's an interesting question.
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But he has all these people there, they're in the home and so many people are there that there's no movement.
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Can't get out, can't get in.
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It says in verse 2 that there was not any room even at the door.
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So people were crowded around Jesus to hear the word.
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Again, he is popular, his preaching is powerful, his gifts are evident, his abilities are amazing.
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And therefore he has gathered a crowd around him.
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Verse 3 says, And they came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.
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Now, is anybody here not reading the ESV? I think Andy, you probably have the New King, right? What does verse 3 say? Does it say, And they came? It says they, okay.
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Nobody else says anything different there? Because it's interesting, 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.
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It just says, And they came, who are they? They are the ones bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.
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So these are four men who are carrying a man who is a paralytic.
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Now, just for a moment, being a paralytic in our modern day is tremendously difficult.
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How many of you are familiar with Johnny Erickson Tata? Johnny Erickson Tata is a woman who has been a quadriplegic all of her adult life.
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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.
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So she has lived all of her adult life as a quadriplegic.
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Now, she has lived an amazing life.
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She has been able to marry.
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She has been able to write books, give lectures.
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She has a wonderful ability to communicate the gospel.
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I have had the opportunity to hear her at times do that.
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She is an amazing person.
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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.
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But she has also said things to the effect of, she looks forward to the day when she can stand so that she can bow the knee to Christ.
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There are wonderful things that she has said.
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But the point I am simply making is Johnny Erickson Tata lives at probably the very best time in history to be a paraplegic.
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Because even though it is a very difficult life, she lives a life that has the benefit of modern medical technology and medical...
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What was the word? Medicine.
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Medicine, but I was thinking medical tools.
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She has a chair that is able to move her around and that she can guide with her mouth.
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There are things that she can do that just 50 years ago didn't exist.
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100 years ago a paraplegic was in a much different situation than one is today because of, like you said, medicine, medical technology, medical tools.
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All of these things are available.
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So now go back 2,000 years.
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2,000 years ago a paralytic, a man who can't move his legs, possibly his arms, a man who is...
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We are not told, but was this from an injury or what? We don't know.
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Is this from a sickness? Imagine the difficulty of his life.
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But these four men have heard about Jesus.
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They have heard that Jesus can heal even a paralytic.
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That Jesus can heal somebody who can't walk.
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And so these men go to Jesus.
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They bring their friend.
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And I've heard so many sermons about being like those four men.
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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.
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They seek out the king.
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There's positive thought there.
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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.
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Now, an interesting point to be made, and John MacArthur makes this point in regard to this text.
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He says, I wouldn't call the faith of the friend saving faith in the same sense that...
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And here's why he says it.
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He says because they have a faith that would be similar to any of us who saw somebody do something and believed that they could do it.
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And these people have seen Jesus heal others.
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Well, if he can heal others, he can heal this guy.
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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.
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There is something that's going to be different then.
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But these men at least know enough about Jesus, at least believe enough about Jesus to believe he can do this.
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Now, does that mean they were saved or that they were on the way to salvation? I hope so.
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But again, they believe it because they've seen him do it.
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So they get to the door.
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They can't get through the door.
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They can't get in to an audience with Jesus.
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So they go up the side of the house, that stairwell we talked about a little while ago, or staircase.
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They climb up to the roof and it says what they did.
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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.
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Now, the Gospel of Luke tells us that they removed the tiles.
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If you, you don't have to turn there, but the Gospel of Luke tells the same text, the same story in the 5th chapter.
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So it's Luke chapter 5 beginning at verse 17 and it says when they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles.
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So that tells us a little bit more about the construction of the house.
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And so, it doesn't mention the tiles and mark, but we understand this is the same story, same situation.
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It says they let him down in front of Jesus.
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Now, again, another point that again, commentators say some funny things.
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Another point that one of the commentators make about this is they had to figure out where Jesus was in the house.
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Because they're going to bring him down right in front of Jesus.
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And they can't really get in to see.
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So they're trying to figure this out.
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They're up there digging through the roof and you can imagine Jesus preaching and dirt starts falling through the roof.
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I mean, a lot of things can get your attention while you're preaching.
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Anytime y'all fall asleep it gets my attention.
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Anytime something happens in the service when you're preaching something can startle you or something can get you off your message.
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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.
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Okay.
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He comes down and this is where their faith comes into play because their faith is mentioned.
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It says in verse 5, and when Jesus saw their faith when Jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic son your sins are forgiven.
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Now right away purely observational.
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Again, we're just observing the text, right? We're not really making interpretations.
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We're just recognizing what the text says.
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The observation here that gets me is one, it doesn't say that he saw the man's faith.
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It says he saw their faith.
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So they had some kind of faith.
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Like I said, MacArthur sort of argues that it's not necessarily saving faith but be that as it may.
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They believe Jesus could do this and Jesus is responding to their faith according to the text.
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It says when he saw their faith, and again that is in the plural if you look in the Greek that's important because it's not his faith, it's their faith.
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When Jesus saw their faith he looked down at the man and said your sins are forgiven.
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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.
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But just for a moment based on observation only let's just talk about this.
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Does that statement really make sense in regard to the condition of this man? I'm not saying Jesus doesn't make sense.
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I'm not saying Jesus is wrong.