Sermon, April 13, 2025, 2 Kings 5:9-14, Mike Archer #gbcny​​​​​​​​​​​ † gbcny.org

Well, if you would please turn with me in your copy of the scriptures to 2 Kings, Chapter 5. Again, that's 2 Kings, Chapter 5, verses 9 through 14. And well, the past few months we've been here in 2 Kings, Chapter 5, we've begun to see something quite remarkable.

Naaman's Need and God's Providence

We've begun to see God working through a cast of very unlikely individuals to draw perhaps one of the most unlikely of the lot to himself. In verse 1, we were introduced to our protagonist, Naaman. We were introduced to him, and we see that Naaman was a valiant commander from Syria.

He was held in high honor and esteem due to his successful military exploits, and by him, the author writes, the Lord had given victory to Syria. And with that victory came, of course, much wealth, power, prestige, notoriety.

However, as it turns out, the one thing all this greatness could not afford him was a cure for the affliction which plagued him greatest. Despite his high status, Naaman suffered from leprosy, a condition which not only affected him physically, but also socially and spiritually.

Though he had it all, right, the money, the power, everything that he could have really ever wanted for the most part, he did not have truly what he wanted and needed most, freedom from this disease. Enter the little unnamed servant girl from the land of Israel, and in stark contrast to Naaman, her introduction is anything but ceremonious.

She was among the spoils of war carried off by Naaman and his Syrian marauders during one of their raids into Israel. But as providence would have it, at some point shortly after her capture, she entered the service of a mistress who would just so happen to be Naaman's wife.

Though this little girl had every reason to loathe Naaman, to despise him for what he had taken from her, and to think little of anything at all about his welfare, we see precisely the opposite. She practically pleads with her mistress, not for freedom, nor for a raise, but rather to see her master healed via the ministry of a certain prophet who resided in Samaria, which was Israel's capital.

The wife then relays this information to her husband, who in turn relays it to his master, the king of Syria, Ben-Hadad II. In an even more shocking turn of events, the king of Syria was somehow entrusting enough to send his top guy into the heart of what would have been hostile territory in order to procure this healing.

Moreover, we see that Naaman is willing to go, and go he does, taking with him a formal request for his healing from his master, the king of Syria, to the king of Israel, King Joram. When Naaman and company arrive in Israel, you see in verses 5 -6, they arrive with great bounty.

Naaman personally bringing the ancient equivalent of what's estimated to be $85 million in US dollars, perhaps an attempt to make the request more palatable. All right, I'm your enemy, I've killed many of your people, maybe accept this from me.

However, none of that appears to work, as both the request and the circumstances surrounding it only seem to produce suspicion and dismay in King Joram. He tears his garments in a display of vexation, surmising that Naaman's quest would be impossible for him to grant.

And while this may very well have been the case, the king of Israel failed to take into consideration that with the God of Israel, anything is possible. Nothing is impossible. Enter the prophet, the prophet, a .k .a. Elisha, the man of God.

In verse 8, when Elisha catches wind of Naaman's bold request, though primarily of King Joram's response to that request, he sends a message to the king asking him why he had torn his clothes. Why was he upset about this?

And he ordered that he would allow Naaman to come to him. And why? That he may know that there was a prophet in Israel. Of course, Elisha's desire for Naaman to know this was not a means of self-promotion or self-aggrandizement, but rather a means by which Naaman would eventually come to know that there was one in Israel, and Israel alone, who speaks for the true and living God, even his very words.

In other words, he wanted Naaman and all people to know that God can and must be known by all men relationally and salvifically and experientially, which brings us to the focus of our message for this morning, which we find in verses 9 through 14.

So again, if you've been tracking me this far, we're in 2 Kings 5, verses 9 to 14, and there we read from the ESV,. So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha's house.

And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean. But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.

Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage. But his servants came near and said to him, My father, it is a great word that the prophet has spoken to you.

Will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, Wash and be clean? So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

Amen. The title of this sermon is Wash and Be Clean. What I hope for us to take away from it, among other things, is that the solution to both Naaman and all people's problem, their greatest problem, though seemingly counterintuitive, will always and ultimately result in the cleansing of all whom God has drawn to himself.

And I'll repeat that. The solution to both Naaman and all people, that includes us, our greatest problem, though seemingly counterintuitive, seemingly out of the ordinary, will always and ultimately result in the cleansing of all whom God has drawn to himself.

And to support this truth, I would like to divide our text into three sections, looking at, firstly, point number one, the simple solution, which we see in verses 9 -10. Then point number two, the disdaining disillusion, which we see in verses 11 -12.

And lastly, point number three, the convincing conclusion, which we wrap up in verses 13 -14. So looking at point number one, the simple solution, we read again in verses 9 -10. So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha's house.

And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean. Well, Naaman comes to the prophet's house with much pomp and circumstance.

The Simple Solution: Trusting God's Word Rather Than Human Power

Our text says that he brought with him horses and chariots. Now, horses and chariots play a significant role all throughout the biblical narrative, often symbolizing power and divine intervention, as well as military might.

In fact, in the ancient Near East, these elements were almost always associated with warfare and royal authority. You might recall how, during the Exodus, the Egyptians, who were well-known for their formidable horses and chariotry, pursued the Israelites with all of Pharaoh's army right to the edge of the sea.

And this would have included a multitude of horses, chariots, and horsemen. You see this in Exodus 4 -9. And yet while this very event showcased the might of Egypt, it also made increasingly clear the unmitigated power of God, who miraculously delivered Israel by drowning Pharaoh's entire army in the Red Sea.

Thus, those things proved in the end to be of little help to Pharaoh, those horses, those chariots, that supposed might. In fact, the Israelites themselves were initially forbidden from amassing great numbers of these things, great numbers of horses and chariots, as we see in Deuteronomy 17 -16.

There we read that every king was specifically instructed not to acquire for himself great numbers of horses. This command was intended to ensure that the nation would be relying not on military might and strength, but on God's deliverance, on God's power.

Sadly, despite this clear command, many of Israel's kings would go on to accumulate a significant number of horses and chariots for themselves. Even with Solomon, according to them, amassed 1 ,400 chariots and 12 ,000 horses, 1 Kings 10 -26, but this was a serious problem which God would address and admonish in his people sternly.

We see this in Isaiah 31 -1. Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots, because they are many, or in horsemen, because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the Lord.

The uses of horses and chariots also highlights the contrast between earthly kingdoms and the kingdom of God. You have the earthly kingdom on one side and the kingdom of God. While earthly rulers may boast in their military might, their prowess, their GDP, how their economy is doing, something we see even to this day, the Bible points to a higher power that governs the affairs of nations, that looks down and like a chess master is moving all of these pieces.

This is evident in the account of Elisha, where in the very next chapter, actually, of 2 Kings 6, God opens the eyes of one of Elisha's servants Elisha's in a city, and he's being surrounded by the Syrian army, and his servant is fearful of this.

Then Elisha prays, and God opens the eyes of that servant, and he sees surrounding those enemies that were ironically surrounding them is the army of the Lord, which is far greater. The mountain full of horses and chariots of fire, 2 Kings 6, 17.

While horses and chariots in the Bible often symbolize human power, and the temptation to rely on things like military might, political influence, or really anything else, rather than God, the Bible remains consistent in its emphasis that true security and lasting victory come from God and God alone, not from these other things.

Even Naaman's victories over Syria's enemies, which would have included, to a certain extent, Israel, don't forget, came from the Lord. Thus it is of little surprise that much of what we read all over the Bible testifies to this very theme.

Proverbs 21, 31, the horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to who? The Lord. Psalm 27, some trust in chariots and others in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord, our God.

Friends, the question for you and I this morning, in light of all of that, is what are the horses and chariots in our lives? What are they in mine? What are we putting our trust in? What are we looking to for deliverance, be it from our trials, our circumstances, even our sin?

What is it that you're resting upon for salvation? And there are many things that we can be looking to. It could be our money. Is it that? Our health. Our resume. Our personality. It could be our intellect, our skill set.

Our physical attributes. Your appearance. Perhaps it's your political party or cultural icons. Or even simply those places, whether tangible or intangible, that we go to for peace and for solace. What you need to know is that these things cannot and will not help you, at least not in the way that you and I need to be helped.

Naaman showed up at the prophet's house with a considerable retinue. He had horses, chariots, not to mention multiple servants, each tasked with protecting and attending to Naaman and everything that he had with him, his tribute.

However, these things, which he assumed to be an irrefutable display of his might and his worth, look at me, look at what I have, look at what I am, they were not even acknowledged upon his arrival. Not a single thing.

In fact, everything which he assumed might make him acceptable in the prophet's eyes, in Elisha's eyes, weren't even recognized. There are many things which people attempt to offer to God as acceptable sacrifices for their spiritual healing.

Things that we've even tried to offer up. Allow me to say that it's great if you realize that you need spiritual healing in the first place because many don't. But what you need to understand is that your stuff, our stuff, and I'm not just talking about physical possessions, will never be enough.

Your good deeds, your token praise, your occasional thoughts about God in and of themselves are not satisfactory forms of payment. They're not sufficient. They're not acceptable sacrifices before the Lord.

And the reason for this is because the cost of the redemption of our souls is far too costly. It's not enough. We're taught from a very young age that if you want something, you just gotta work hard for it.

It's something that we kind of still apply in life, and to varying degrees, this is true. However, when it comes to forgiveness of sin, when it comes to things like eternal life, these principles just simply don't apply.

That's the bad news. Because of our sin, which, by the way, is a disease far more pervasive than anything, especially and including leprosy, it's a disease which affects the entirety of the human race.

Because of this, we have no righteousness before God, and that's the problem. In our unconverted state, we're alienated from and hostile towards everything that he is about. And because we're dead in Adam, and because our sin is against a holy God, not just against a mere mortal, but a holy God, we start with an insurmountable deficit.

We have this crazy debt, having been born in sin. And therefore, no amount of tribute, no amount of sacrifice, no chariots or horses will be sufficient to pay what we owe. Knowing this, what we need is not good works.

There's a place for that. What we need is good news. We need the gospel. And in one sense, that is precisely what Naaman received through the messenger whom Elisha sent out to meet him. Verse 10, what do we read there?

And Elisha sent a messenger to him saying, go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean. There it is, plain and simple. The cure to that which had plagued Naaman for years, and we don't know how long he had leprosy, we don't know how long he lived with this, was right there in the waters of the Jordan.

But what's so special about the Jordan? The Jordan River is among some of the most significant theological and geographical landmarks in all of scripture. It's probably one of the most prominent rivers in the Bible.

It's mentioned upwards of 180 times. Forms the eastern border of the land of Canaan, a .k .a. the Promised Land. It flows approximately 156 miles from its sources in the anti-Lebanon mountains, way up north, down to the Sea of Galilee, and then finally into the Dead Sea.

When you look on the map, it's kind of like that river that is right on the eastern edge of Israel. Its valley is a very fertile region. It sits in stark contrast with the more arid landscape surrounding it, so it's almost like an oasis, if you will.

And the river's name is Jordan, which is actually derived from a Hebrew word, yarden, meaning to descend, which reflects its steep drop in elevation from the mountain peaks that it comes from all the way down to where it lets out into the Red Sea.

And there's a significance to that, which we'll touch on later. But the Jordan River, I think, what really makes it especially significant is what it symbolizes, namely spiritual cleansing and renewal.

The Jordan serves as a symbol of transition, purification, and divine promise. It's what is emblematic of the transition from the old life to the new, as seen by the Israelites, right? They're walking through the wilderness for 40 years, and then they finally cross this threshold.

They finally cross this river into the land that was promised to them. We see even later in the New Testament, Jesus himself being baptized there. Moreover, the river serves as a boundary between the wilderness and the land of promise, representing a passage from death to life and from sin to salvation.

So there's a lot of symbolic imagery and significance surrounding the Jordan River. It wasn't so much the little H2O that was flowing through its banks that made it so special, as if it somehow contained this mystical property that can heal diseases.

We're not going over there to be cured of cancer. Rather, I believe it was simply a means by which God would show that true healing comes from him and from him alone, especially through obedience to him.

Now, Naaman is instructed to wash in the Jordan seven times. You may be thinking to yourself, as I was, maybe not, but is there any significance to that number seven? We see that all over the Bible. Is there something to it?

The answer to that is yes. The first use of the number seven in the Bible relates to Creation Week in Genesis 1. And as a quick plug to Sunday school, we've been going through Creation Week. I believe we just wrapped up day six today.

We're going to be starting on day seven in two weeks, so join us there, 9 .30. But this is our template for a seven-day week, which the entire world follows to this day. So there's that, right? The seven-day was to be set apart for Israel as a Sabbath day, a holy day of rest.

That's right from the start of Scripture. We see this number seven being identified with this idea of finishing or completion, fullness. From then on, its association continues all throughout the Bible, and there are just far too many examples to mention.

But again, we see in those contexts completeness, and we see divine perfection. Of course, not every instance of the number seven in the Bible carries deep spiritual significance. We must assume every time we see seven in the Bible that it's always something beyond just that number.

We must be cautious about attaching symbolic meanings to anything in the Scriptures if the text in the context surrounding it is not really leaning towards that. However, there are instances where it seems that God is communicating this idea of divine completeness and perfection and wholeness by means of the number seven, and we see that, I believe, in this passage.

And this God was promising that Naaman was to be completely and thoroughly cleansed. Not halfway cleansed, but completely. Although the message would come from Elisha, and the keyword there is God, because although the message would come from Elisha, these weren't a set of arbitrary whims that Elisha was expressing in order to toy with Naaman or just to get him out of my sight, get him away from my house.

I don't like this guy. These were instructions that came ultimately from the mind of God. How do we know this? Remember, Elisha was a prophet. He was also, as Scripture says, the man of God. And with this title came much weight.

It wasn't just a kind of a light, it wasn't a nickname. As a prophet, he could not simply go around speaking idle words, especially if his speaking was to be codified in Scripture, which we read of many of the things that he says today.

Even Balaam, if we look back to Numbers, I believe it was 22, if we look at Balaam, who was a wicked prophet, not a false prophet, but just a wicked prophet, he couldn't go beyond what the Lord was telling him to prophesy.

Balak was telling him to curse Israel, curse this people that are in my backyard, and he's like, I can only say what the Lord gives me. All he uttered was blessing. Apostle Peter also explains the reason for this.

1 Peter 2, 19 -21. And we have the prophetic word, more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this, first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from one's own interpretation.

For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but man spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. So these instructions originate from God. Also, these instructions were very specific.

Elisha was commanding Naaman to wash himself in a specific body of water a specific number of times. Any deviance from this would likely not result in an outcome that would have been favorable to Naaman.

And this speaks to the specificity and exclusivity of the Gospel. Just think about that. All men are commanded to repent and believe, but they are to believe in a specific Gospel whose subject is a specific Savior who shed his blood specifically for their sin.

Following this, he was buried in a specific tomb which fulfilled a specific Scripture. He rose on a specific day and will return again to gather his saints and to judge the living and the dead. The question is, do we believe that specific Gospel?

Jesus claimed to be the way, the truth, and the life, not a way, a truth, or a lifestyle. He said that no one comes to the Father but through Him. These are bold claims, very exclusive and specific claims, John 14 6.

But this at times is somewhat unpopular, is it not? And the reason for that is because it excludes every other way. It's narrow in the eyes of many. If eternal life and godliness are what we truly seek, then that means that nonetheless our values, ideas, and worldviews must be subservient, must submit to those of Christ.

They must be founded in the Word of God. Anything else is beyond that. Just as Naaman would not come to a state of cleanliness, but by a sevenfold bath in the Jordan, so too won't we be cleansed of our sin except by faith in Christ.

And what I found particularly interesting about these instructions is that what Naaman was hearing when he was receiving this message did not come directly from the mouth of the prophet, but rather from the mouth of the prophet's messenger.

As we read, it appears that another unnamed individual, and there are many in this whole account, appears to be relaying these instructions to Naaman. And I believe this tells us a few things. Firstly, it tells us that the power of the message lies more in the message than it does in the messenger.

This kind of squashes a lot of personality sort of cult stuff. It's why the apostle Paul describes the gospel, and not necessarily the ministers of the gospel, but the gospel as that which is of first importance, 1 Corinthians 15 3.

Moreover, in Romans 1 16, he calls it the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes. He would rejoice in Philippians 1 because even though there were some preaching Christ from the heart of ill will that were trying to harm him and that were doing it with a pretense, nonetheless, Christ was being proclaimed, and in that he rejoiced.

That's the confidence that he had in the gospel. It wasn't about the messenger, but about the message. Secondly, this also tells us that Elisha had great confidence in the word not returning void. It didn't matter who shared it.

It shows that he didn't want or need to make any of this about himself. It wasn't about, oh, I'm Elisha. I've got to make sure that he hears it from me. It's like in Numbers 11 when Joshua discovered Eldad and Medad prophesying in the camp.

Up until that point, primarily, Moses was the one that was prophesying before the people. He was the one leading the people, but now these two, upon whom the Spirit of God was resting, began prophesying as well.

So naturally, Joshua, concerned about Moses' honor, urged him to stop them, stop these people. They're prophesying. I thought only you do that. And then what does Moses say in response? Numbers 11 29.

But Moses said to him, Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them. And what an amazing thing that we see the fulfillment of that in the church.

Pentecost, the outpouring of the Spirit. Now we, all believers.

Can have this. The takeaway.

Here is that we don't need to be stingy with the gospel. In fact, we ought never to be. Here at Grace Baptist, we, and keyword we, are, we have three aims. Firstly, to evangelize the laws and to edify the saints and to exalt the name of the Lord.

In light of that, it shouldn't matter who does what and when and where and how as long as we as a local body are striving to do this together and to do it for God's glory, not our own. A third and final observation about Elijah sending his messenger is that it tells us that any Christian can proclaim the gospel.

It's not reserved exclusively for pastors or deacons or for those who know much or maybe speak well. God doesn't call the equipped, rather he equips the called. Each of us have unique giftings and respective roles with which we can serve the Lord and do so joyfully, do so confidently.

Doesn't mean that we don't have to grow and learn, but we can do it nonetheless. God allows us to take part and participate in this awesome work that he's doing, in the advancement of the gospel. And whether you preach out on the street, the abortion clinic, whether you start a Bible study after school or after work, the Lord can use you and use you mightily.

And so there's just some observations about that. Well, the gospel reached Naaman, but it wasn't exactly received in the spirit that it should have been, which brings us to our next point, point number two, the disdaining disillusion.

Naaman's Anger and the Offense of God's Simple Instructions

Verses 11 through 12 we read again,. But Naaman was angry and went away saying, Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord, his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.

Are not Abana and Farpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage. Well, Naaman was presented with this extraordinary news, terrific news even.

As it would turn out, the solution to his greatest problem would not be overly complicated. In fact, it was actually quite simple. Go to this river, wash seven times. Nothing too complicated about that.

However, instead of responding with enthusiasm, instead of responding with gratitude, he would respond with wrathful indignation, scornful disdain. Naaman was disillusioned. He was furious, it says. The text says he was angry.

But why? He was furious because this was not how he imagined his healing would come. Remember, he'd likely been plagued with this disease for many years and probably expected, he probably exhausted every tonic, every remedy, had seen countless doctors, had exhausted many treatment options and spent countless hours trying to figure out a way that he can be cleansed of this, spent much of his money seeing if he can find that cure.

So when he heard that, when he heard this, when he heard that all he had to do was this, to go to the river, to bathe seven times, he probably thought to himself, you've got to be kidding me. You're joking, right?

I've done everything. I've spent everything. I'm not a man without means, and this is all I have to do to be cured? The solution did not meet his expectations. He was expecting the Prophet to put on a show.

He wanted something grand. He was a very great man, and so he wanted something suitable to his greatness. Perhaps the Prophet would wave his hands, call down fire from heaven, or utter some dramatic prayer, but instead he's told to go take a bath.

I mean, just imagine that pride just being really chipped away there. Thus naturally his response was one of disdain. He's like, how can this be? And while his attitude is in no way justifiable, it's certainly understandable.

I mean, put yourself in his shoes just for a moment. We can certainly understand why and how a person would come to think that way, if you understand the human heart. It's probably a poor analogy, but it'd be like if you were diagnosed with skin cancer.

For years you might have seen countless doctors and undergone hours of expensive treatment and testing, only to later discover that all you needed to do was apply a bit of lotion several times, maybe Aveeno, Luberderm.

While it's easy to look scornfully at Naaman and at his response, his reaction actually reveals something rather telling in all of us, in every last one of us. As irrational as it may be, people are offended by how simple God's instructions are.

We want complex religious ritual or emotional experiences. We want something we can point to and say, you know what, I earned this. I did that. That was all me. I did something worthy of note. Look at me.

John chapter 6, the multitude who had been following Jesus, solely because he'd fed them, he'd fed the 5 ,000, he exhorted them not to work for the food that perishes, but for that which endures to eternal life, which he would give them.

And they reply, John 6, 28, again having that ethos of, we work for everything that we have, John 6, 28, what must we do to be doing the works of God? Would that not have been our response? But Jesus answered them in the very next verse, saying, this is the work of God, that you believe in him who he has sent.

Just believe? God's power is not accessed by our performances. It's not accessed by our show, our talent, our gifting, our abilities. It's accessed by grace through faith, and it's shown forth in obedience as the fruit, not the root.

But what always precipitates genuine obedience is faith in Christ, always. If you don't have that faith in Christ before obedience, all you have is dead works. All you have is an outward form of piety, which is emblematic of almost every religious and philosophical system around the world.

It's just man trying to work his way to God. God, look what I have given to you. You need this. It's the height of arrogance. The issue is exposed further when, in verse 12, we consider Naaman's counter-proposal.

He says, See, for Naaman, it's not so much that he doesn't like the simplicity of the instructions. It's not even that. He dislikes where it is that he's being sent. To Naaman, the Jordan was a muddy, unimpressive, and frankly, beneath him, stream.

It wasn't something that he thought would have been that that place. He says to himself, aren't the rivers in my country better? Which raises the question, well, are they? The Abana River, known today as the Barada, begins also in the anti-Lebanon mountains, just like the Jordan.

It flows southeast to Damascus, and Damascus is way up north as well. It boasts clear water and produces no small amount of orchards and gardens, so it has that. The Farpar River, often identified today as the Awaj, flowed east from Mount Hermon on the northern border of Israel to the southern portion of Damascus.

And although less prominent than the Abana, it too contributes to the irrigation and fertility of that land. It was very integral to that society. And so we can kind of understand why he might say those things.

Compared with the humble and often muddy Jordan, these rivers would have seemed far superior to just about any observer. It's like the difference between Key West, going to a beach in Key West, and then Coney Island.

No offense to anyone from Coney Island. We've all been there. However, and again, the promise of restoration and cleansing wasn't rooted in the quality of the water. It wasn't about the H2O. You've got to get that.

It was rooted in obedience to God. It's rooted in the promises of God, the fulfillment of God. Surely, God could have used any water source. Could have used a cup of water. But he chose just one. And if the goal, just think about it, if the goal was for Naaman to know that the God of Israel was the true and living God, of all the gods that he serves, and the gods in the nations surrounding him, if it was for God's purpose to know that he was the one true God, then what better way than to use Israel's most prominent river?

Elisha wanted him to know that there was a prophet in Israel. Why not use Israel's river? To give a New Testament example, if the crowd was to understand that Jesus had the authority to forgive sins, what better way than for him to first say to the paralytic, son, your sins are forgiven you, and then follow that up with, rise, take up your bed, and walk?

There's always a purpose to what God says, and there's always a purpose to what God does. None of it's ever arbitrary. Just because we don't understand it doesn't mean that God doesn't understand it. Of course, he certainly does.

Pastor Nick, or rather, Pastor Phil read earlier, 1 Corinthians 1, the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. Verse 18, and verse 21, for since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who have believed.

It's not that the gospel is folly, but in the minds of many who see it as something mundane, who see it as something we believe in this ancient rabbi, and he saves us from our sins, to the world that's all they see, but to us whom God is actually revealing the truth about, oh, this isn't just some rabbi, this was God in the flesh who came and took on flesh so that he can save this man of flesh from his sin.