Wednesday, April 15, 2020 PM

And I thank you that in a world of confusion and chaos, as sinful men and unbelieving men flail about trying to do things, to try to fix all the problems that they see around them. Lord, we know that Jesus Christ is the ruler of all the kings of the earth.

And we know that he reigns from your right hand. And we know that he has promised to build his church. The gates of Hades will not prevail against it. And that you have promised repeatedly that he will reign at your right hand until you make his enemies a footstool for his feet.

And so we in confidence come together tonight to look at your word and to consider your instructions, your testimonies, your glorying in your son Jesus Christ as we look at how he conducted himself and the things that he said.

Lord, may our hearts be endeared to him. May we be warmed to his power and his character. I pray that you would instruct us how to pray. That we would be a people of prayer. That our first response would not be plotting or worry, but it would be prayer.

That we would be a people who readily offer up our prayers to you. That we would not walk around weighed down by anxieties and concerns, but that we would cast them all upon you knowing you'd care for us.

I pray that you would help us to do that in the right way for your glory. Pray these things in Jesus name, amen. Well, it's good to come back on a Wednesday night and appreciate Edgar live streaming for us tonight.

Approaching Jesus in Luke 5:17-26

We're going to be in Luke chapter 5 verses 17 to 26. A few weeks ago, I sent out a devotional the first Wednesday night that we were not able to meet. It was a devotional on this passage, the first part of the study on Luke 5, 17 through 26.

The title of the lesson is Approaching Jesus. We're thinking about that very famous story of the four men and their paralyzed friend, the paralytic friend, how they brought their friend to Jesus and went to extraordinary lengths to make sure that their friend was set before Jesus so that he could be healed.

There's a lot of very important lessons for us in this passage. So I'm going to read the text for us tonight. After that, I'll review briefly the lesson that I have already sent out. And if you want to go look at that again, you can check your emails probably there somewhere.

And then we will, after reviewing, continue further on into the lesson. So this is Luke chapter 5 verses 17 through 26. 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 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 reasoning, 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, 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.

Remarkable things today. Well, we see in the approach to Jesus, two groups especially. There are the Pharisees, the scribes, the teachers of the law, the religious leaders who have gathered around Jesus.

They have come from Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. They've all gathered here in Capernaum, which is what we discover in Mark chapter 2 and verse 1. Luke doesn't say how many men brought this paralyzed man.

I think that the flannel graph always has four. Four men carrying the paralyzed man to come see Jesus. But we're not told here exactly how many men were there. But these two groups approached Jesus in different ways.

In the first case, we have the Pharisees and the scribes benefiting from the healing ministry of Jesus. And they seem to be approaching Jesus in a sense of, Well, he's good for what ails us. And they're gathered around to see miracles and to benefit from miracles.

But as we can tell from the whole story, they don't believe in Christ and trust in him the way that these other men do who bring their paralyzed friend to Christ. Our prayer life should be instructed by all of Scripture.

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and training and righteousness. And in all areas of our prayer lives, we need that. We need instruction. We need to have good doctrine as we pray.

Jesus tells us that there are wrong ways to pray. And so reproof and correction are essential for our prayer lives, but also training, learning how to pray. So as we go through these devotionals on Wednesday night, I really want to stress how it is that the lessons that we're learning from the text instruct us how to pray.

And as we think about these friends who brought their paralyzed friend to Jesus, our approach should be more like their approach than the Pharisees and the scribes. Rather than treating Jesus as, you know, he's good for what ails us, how about Jesus without him, how lost would we be?

Our approach in prayer reflects our theology, who we think God is, who do we think we are, what do we think about everything else. That all comes out in our prayers. And the truth is, we are in need. We are actually in more need than we often realize.

Rather than consider Jesus as simply someone, you know, he's good for what ails us, if there's ever any gaps in our daily life, we'll go to Jesus to help us smooth things out. Actually, the hymn title says it better, All I Have is Christ.

He's not just filling in the holes, the missing parts of our life. All I have is Christ. To put it another way, the throne of grace does not dispense stimulus packages. The throne of grace, as we find in Revelation, is one from which the water, the river of the water of life flows.

The throne upon which Jesus sits has a river of the water of life flowing out towards us, and we are directed towards him. And so that's a better understanding. Jesus is not just kind of helping us out and bailing us out as we need it, but all that we have is Christ.

We are utterly dependent upon him. The hymn from which I take my second point, the title says, Without him, I could do nothing. Without him, I'd surely fail. Without him, I would be drifting like a ship without a sail.

Without him, I would be dying, and without him, I'd be enslaved. And without him, my life would be worthless. But with Jesus, thank God, I'm saved. We remember that hymn. Well, our passage in Luke shows us how desperately we need Christ and instructs our prayerful approach to his throne.

And tonight, we're going to think about the evidences of faith. There's also the essential of forgiveness in the text. The matter that forgiveness is elevated as far more important than anything else that we should seek from Christ.

Forgiveness of sins. Far more than our physical needs or anything else that we should be thinking about. We should come to Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. And we'll look more at that at another time.

But for now, I want us to consider the evidences of faith that are here in the passage. You'll notice an interesting contrast about the way that Christ engages these two groups. There's the Pharisees and the scribes, and then there's these friends.

And what does it say in verse 20? Seeing their faith. He saw their faith. This is contrasted to a degree to verse 22, when it says that Jesus was aware or perceiving the reasonings of the religious leaders.

The first term means that he saw with his own eyes. That there was a very clear understanding of the faith that these men had.

But he saw it.

This is in contrast to the fact that Jesus Christ knew... The Greek word has the idea of the fullness of knowledge. He knew what was going on inside the hearts of the Pharisees and the scribes. Christ had the divine power to heal what went on in the body.

We read that in the text. He also had the divine perception to know what reasonings went on in the heart. Surely, then, he has the divine prerogative to forgive the sin-ensnared soul. But in distinction from what he knew that was in the hearts of all men...

John 2 .24 says he knew what was in the hearts of men. In contrast to that, the text says he saw their faith.

He saw it.

Now, what does that mean that he saw faith? Faith itself, we read from Hebrews 11 .1, faith itself is a proof of the unseen. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.

So faith is actually an evidence in and of itself. But faith is not a physical substance. Faith is not something that we can encounter by our five senses. Faith is of the spirit, not of the flesh. But as faith is the evidence of things not seen, as faith is the evidence of our Triune Creator and Savior, so also there are evidences of faith.

James tells us that real, genuine faith is the kind that is demonstrable. Jesus says that we will know true faith by its fruits. Paul says we can test ourselves seeking evidences which speak whether or not we are in the faith.

Apostle John says the same thing in 1 John. So that's really what Jesus was seeing. When he says he saw their faith, he was seeing the evidences of their faith. The obviousness of their faith. And the approach of these men and their paralyzed friends reminds us of the way that we are to approach God in prayer.

Jesus has given us instructions concerning prayer, and it is a faith-filled approach. When we come to Christ in prayer, when we come to God in prayer, we are to come in faith. So let's see how these men approach Jesus.

Well, they seek, they knock, and they ask. It reminds us of Luke 11, 9 through 10. Luke chapter 11, verses 9 through 10 is after Jesus' instructions. His disciples came and said, teach us how to pray, just as John taught his disciples how to pray, and so Jesus taught them.

And then he begins to give them some examples to help solidify that teaching. And then he gives them some promises. He exhorts them to the task of prayer and calls them to a faithful approach, a faith-filled.

Approach.

So, verses 9 and 10 of Luke 11. So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds.

And to him who knocks, it will be opened. So what about these men and their approach to Jesus? They seek Jesus, don't they? As all these different important people are gathered to Christ from Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem, these men also seek Jesus.

They gather up their friend, and they carry him to Christ. They seek Christ. We don't know where they came from. People were coming from a long ways away, and obviously these guys show up late because it's crowded, and they can't get in.

So we don't really know how far away they began their journey. How far did they trundle their burdensome friend? If you've ever had to carry someone, perhaps in a first aid class or something like that, you'll know how heavy somebody is.

And so, they've been carrying their friend to Jesus. Now, they're coming in faith, and when they get there, and they meet Jesus, Jesus looks at them, and he says that he saw their faith. So they are approaching Jesus.

They are seeking Jesus in faith. So I wonder about their journey. If you've ever carried something heavy for a long time, you may be thinking to yourself, how much farther will we get there? But as they're going, I wonder if the thought occurred to them, to each one of them, that the return journey would not be so wearisome.

That if they could just get their friend to Jesus, Jesus would heal their friend, and they would not be carrying their friend back. Their return journey would not be so wearisome. That they would walk back on the very roads that they were now trudging through, they would walk back on those very roads light as a feather.

And I think it's important to note that in any labor of prayer, and prayer is labor, in any labor of prayer, though it be full of wrestlings, strainings, and pains, though we struggle in the flesh to voice our willing spirits as we're seeking answers from God, is it not so that the return journey from our prayer closets is not so wearisome?

I mean, have we not found it to be true that after carrying everything to God in prayer, that we may tread upon the very same ground which so worried us before, but now we are as light as a feather? Such are those who seek Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And that's the critical evidence of faith, that we seek Jesus Christ for who Jesus Christ really is. Because faith means knowing. Faith means trusting. Faith means knowing and trusting a real person, a real person.

So, is this Jesus that we read about here in Luke 5, this Jesus who knows the hearts of men, who can heal the curse of men, and saves the whole of a man, is that the Jesus to whom you go? Is that the Jesus whom you seek in prayer?

Do you approach the throne of grace as you would approach the King of kings who reigns over you, who suffered, bled, and died, and who was raised to life to purchase you and bring you to God? Is that who you go to?

Well, they know they need to get to Jesus. They are seeking Him. They have come to the right city. They have come to the right house. They must come to the right man.

But how?

With the limits of the house and the swell of the crowd, they cannot bring their friend to the feet of Jesus in a normal way. And so we see in the text, it says what? They sought means. Is that verse 18?

They were trying to bring Him in and set Him in front of him. King James says, they sought means to bring Him in and lay Him before him, so that they're.

Seeking means.

That's the posture of faith. That's the posture of faith, seeking means to get to Jesus. Unbelief lives by the will of least resistance. But faith lives by the will of God. Faith seeks means to obey Christ, to believe in Christ, to commune with Christ.

Faith will seek means to come to Christ. Faith seeks ways through to Christ. Faith registers obstacles not as stop signs, but as detour signs, perhaps merely hurdles to leap over. And that is the evidence of faith.

And I think we might get confused sometimes as Jesus' instructions on prayer. He says, seek and you will find. Seek and you will find. He says, everyone who seeks, finds. That's His promise. But many times we think, well, what if our persistence, what if our importunity, what if our focus in prayer, what if all of us does not really achieve what we want?

But remember, we are not to seek first the self, but the kingdom of God. We are to seek first the kingdom of God. And these men were seeking Jesus Christ. Now, Judas Iscariot sought the self. And so he sought means to betray Christ into the hands of his enemies.

Paul's companion Demas sought this present world, and he left the service of Christ. But when it comes to praying, to put the matter into the words of Christ Himself, when you come to prayer, as you approach His throne, really the question is this.

Whom do you seek? Whom do you seek? We must seek Christ when we come in prayer. Notice they seek, but they also knock, verse 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.

In front of Jesus.

Now, they could not knock on the door. They could not knock on the front door. They could not knock on the back door, if there was one. They could not toss pebbles at the window or holler over the crowded entryway.

So they went up onto the roof and they knocked. They knocked and knocked and knocked right through. And it was opened to them. The door, in this case, was opened to them not merely because they had made a scene by making a hole.

This was certainly a show-stopping maneuver. This was effective at arresting everyone's attention. But is it merely their force that opens the door? Is it that their vandalism gains them a hearing? Is it just their willingness to show up as the uninvited, to interrupt the scheduled proceedings at the house?

Is that what really opens the door? Is this instruction to knock just a matter of force? Apply enough force and then you'll succeed. Jesus was certainly in charge and in control of the whole proceedings.

He could have denied them access. He could have sent them away. He could have reprimanded them for their impatience and their lack of understanding. Their disturbance in one light could really be labeled, rightly labeled, a detriment to the work of the kingdom that Jesus was doing in the house.

Could they really be so daft as to think that Jesus could not set his own priorities straight?

Right?

They're interrupting him. He's in there teaching and he's doing some healing, and they interrupt the whole thing to say, no, no, no, no, no. Our friend is now your priority. I mean, he could have legitimately rebuked them for their implied assumption that he's not setting his priorities straight, and they're cutting in line and putting their friend in front of Jesus.

And truly, if he wanted to heal that man, he would have got around to it in its proper order at the appropriate time. He could have also pointed out the deficiencies of their faith. Think about the Roman centurion in Matthew 8, the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15.

Didn't they not demonstrate far greater faith? Each one of those, the Roman centurion and the Canaanite woman, they knew that Jesus could heal their loved ones without ever having to be there. He could be miles away and just say the word and heal their loved ones.

And Jesus said of them that their faith was very great indeed. Now, Jesus could have rightly said to these men who had interrupted the proceedings and busted a hole in the roof, he could have said to them rightly, oh, you of little faith, to you not know that I could restore your friend as he rested outside.

Indeed, you carried him from his house for nothing, for I could have healed him where.

He lay.

But what do we see from Christ? What do we see from Christ? He does not upbraid them and rebuke them for the clumsiness of their knocking. When the text says that he saw their faith, he really did see their faith for all that it was, in all of its flawed nature.

They had no golden, diamond-encrusted faith, but they had faith. And Jesus' promise is this. When faith knocks, grace answers to grace, and Christ opens the door. Christ did not censure their inconvenient timing.

He welcomed them to his presence. Now, why should we have confidence that if we knock, it will be opened unto us? Because when we approach Christ, our gracious Lord, it's all about his loving character, and it's all about his worthy merits, and it's not about our own.

The promise is, to him who knocks, it will be opened. Well, they seek, and they knock, and they ask.

They ask.

And verse 19 says, they let down their friend into the middle of the crowd, notice, in front of Jesus. And this is a request that is made known without making a sound, without voicing any words.

At all.

It's obvious what their request is. They don't have to explain matters to Jesus. It's obvious to everybody what they're up to. Here is their atrophied friend, the shell of a man, lowered right in front of Jesus.

The request is obvious. Their asking is powerfully silent. It is loud in its pensive quietness. They're saying, please heal our friend. And they believe in Christ. They believe he certainly can heal him.

He has the power to do that. And they know that he can do it, but will he do it? And they're asking that he will. They believe in his character, in his compassion, that he will heal their friend. The paralyzed man, he also believes in Christ.

When it says he saw their faith, he saw the faith of the friends. He saw the faith of the paralyzed man. This whole thing is that all these actions are the fruits of their faith in him. And so they ask.

They put him right in front of Christ. That's the request. And why do they ask? Because they had faith. James tells us that we do not have because we do not ask. He also tells us that we ask for the wrong things with the wrong motives, and that God will mercifully spare us our disgusting off-menu orders if we are his.

Many let this sinful propensity to ask amiss to discourage them from asking at all. And we have all been guilty of therefore failing to ask. But if we ask not, we receive not. Why do we not ask? Well, sometimes we may think that our requests are too small for God.

But he's the God who numbers all the hairs on our heads. Sometimes we think that our requests are too big for God. And yet he's the one who has spoke creation into existence. Sometimes we think ourselves too low, far and away from God.

But this is God who has, in Christ, brought us to himself. Sometimes we may think ourselves too high to admit our needs to the God who gives us every single breath. But dearly beloved, let us be a people of faith, and so let us ask.

Luke says, at Luke 9, in verse 10, Jesus says, So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Now, the question is, do we believe that promise? Do we believe that promise?

We do if we believe the one who made that promise. I'll close with this quote from John Gill, the eminent Puritan. This is said by Christ to encourage to prayer, this promise to ask, and you will receive.

This is said by Christ to encourage us to prayer, and importunity in it, that if anyone asks of God, in the name of Christ and in faith, whether it be bread for the body, or food for the soul, or any blessing, whatever, whether temporal or spiritual, it shall be given, not according to what we deserve, but according to the riches of the grace of God, who is rich unto all that call upon him in sincerity and truth.

Well, I hope our study tonight will help us as we pray, as we pray for one another, and I encourage you to pray together where you are, to pray to God where you are, and offer him prayer. Remember this, to seek, and to knock, and to ask, all focused upon Christ, and that's how we approach Jesus.

Let's pray. Father, I thank you for hearing us, hearing our prayers. Thank you for instructing us and giving us guidance through your word about how we are to approach Christ, how we are to approach the throne of grace, and I ask that you would apply these lessons to our lives, and that you would have your way in us, that you would help us to ask, and to seek, and to knock, and truly believe, and follow through on these promises that you have given to us.

We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. Well, until next time.