Wednesday, April 22, 2020 PM

Prayer for the Spirit, the Church, and God’s Glory

A comforter, so that we are not left orphans, but we are indeed in relationship with you, and that you, having filled us with your Holy Spirit, are building us into a temple, into your temple, one that is holy and brings glory to you.

Now, Father, I pray that as we read your Word and as we think about the words that you have breathed out that are eternal and perfect and convey who you are to us, that you would do your work in our hearts and help us to be more and more like your Son, Jesus Christ.

And I especially ask that you would help us to learn how to pray as we look at your Word, that we would know how to pray according to your will, how to pray in agreement with your character, to have confidence that we are praying in a way that would be honoring and glorifying to you, our Heavenly Father.

And it's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. Well, I hope you have your Bibles, and if you would turn with me to Luke chapter 5, I'm going to read verses 17 through 26. Again, this particular passage is a famous story of Jesus healing the paralytic.

It was brought to him by his friends and lowered him through the roof of the house where Jesus was teaching and healing. And as we have looked at this passage for a while now, our goal is to understand, according to the text, how it is that God would have us to pray.

And we thought about, first of all, how we approach Jesus. Is He simply good for what ails us? Are we approaching Jesus because we are that focused on our problems and our difficulties, that we know that when we have some kind of gap in our resources, some sort of tangle that we can't unravel, that we know then it's time to pray and let Jesus sort it out?

Is it simply that He's good for what ails us? Or do we understand how lost we would be without Him, not just that He fills the gap and helps us out, but that, as the hymn says, all I have is Christ? So, that's what we've been talking about, how we approach Jesus.

We see that there are different kinds of folks in the text. There are the scribes and Pharisees. There is the crowd. There's a paralytic man and his friends. They seem to approach Jesus differently. They don't approach Him just the same.

The responses of the scribes and Pharisees are different than the responses of the paralytic and his friends. And as we're thinking about how lost we would be without Jesus, how essential He is as our Savior, as our Creator, how He is to have the preeminence in all things, we looked at the evidences of faith where we see the paralytic and his friends showing the way of praying by faith.

Now, they weren't praying, but they were asking and seeking and knocking. And that's exactly what Jesus said in His instructions even in the Gospel of Luke about how to pray, to ask and to seek and to knock.

And they certainly did as they sought the healing and indeed the salvation of their friend. And now we're coming to our last point of the story and applying it to our prayer lives, the essential of forgiveness, the essential of forgiveness.

There's a lot of things that happened here in Luke chapter 5 verses 17 through 26, a lot of different things that happened here, but the most important thing that happens, indeed the most controversial thing that happens is that Jesus forgives the sins of the paralyzed man.

And so, that's what we need to focus on as the most essential. So, I'm going to read for us Luke 5 beginning in verse 17. 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 to 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 reasonings, 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 and 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 all were struck with astonishment and began glorifying God. And they were filled with fear saying, we have seen remarkable things today.

Who Can Forgive Sins but God Alone?

Well, it's been over a month since I first started studying on this passage and considering how to bring its truths to bear on our prayer lives. And we have been living through a trial, a tribulation, the judgment of God through this pestilence.

But we have also been given something good and necessary by our providential God, our heavenly Father. Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation nor shifting shadow.

And this defining moment is precisely that. It's a defining moment. We're scrambling for definitions. What is wisdom in this case? What is proper submission? What are righteous interactions between families and churches and civil governments?

How do faith and courage and hope and prudence work together? We're praying about these things. We should be studying the scriptures about these things and our answers, Lord willing, will become more clear and will be more effective at answering these types of matters as they come to us again and again.

Another important question is this, how are we going to love and accept one another in Christ when we come to diverging answers to some of these questions? That's an important question to ask and to answer biblically.

And so, we see that God has been very good to us to give us this trial, to stretch us, to promote more careful biblical thinking, to show us our weaknesses, to show us our ignorance, to show us that we have a lot of growing up to do in Christ.

Here's another question I think that pertains to the text and to our situation, one that should show up in our prayer lives. The answer to this should show up in our prayer lives. Do we desire normalcy more than revival?

In other words, what are we praying for right now? Are we praying that God would bring everything back to the way it was? Or are we praying that God would not bring everything back the way it was, but that He would change things?

Even if it's drastic, that there would be a change in the hearts of church members all across the world, all across our land, that there would be a spiritual awakening among the people who have been living in fear these last many weeks.

So, what are we praying for? Now, in this passage, Luke 5, 17 through 26, the last few verses, verses 20 through 26, I want us to see how this story concludes with three sections. There are two sets of double questions, and then there's a double exclamation.

Two sets of two questions each, and then two exclamations of praise. So, you see that there are two questions asked by the religious leaders. They were reasoning within themselves, and they ask two questions.

You know, who is this? Who does he think he is? Who is this man? They think he speaks blasphemy. And who can forgive sins? There's their questions, and then there's the questions that Jesus asks. Why are you reasoning within yourselves?

Which is easier? And then everything concludes with a double exclamation. We have the paralyzed man healed, and he gets up, and he's glorifying God and praising God. And then everybody who witnessed this, they also praise God, and they say, we have seen incredible things, amazing things today.

So, that's the way that the story unfolds, and that's what we're going to be following. I want us to focus on a couple of questions and an exclamation. And the first one is this, who can forgive sins?

Who can forgive sins? That's a critical question. Jesus looks with love at this paralyzed man before Him who has been lowered down through the hole in the roof, and He looks why did His friends carry Him all this way?

Well, to be healed of His paralysis, to be healed of the palsy, as the King James would say. Now, think about the common assumption of the people there as they look at this man who is paralyzed, as they consider his situation.

Consider the common assumptions even of the man himself and his friends. Consider the assumptions of the Pharisees and the scribes. What would they have thought about this man? There he is, paralyzed.

They must have thought to themselves that this man had sinned greatly to have been paralyzed in this way. You remember the story that Jesus and His disciples were walking along together in John chapter 9 and verse 2, and they found a man who was blind.

In fact, he was born blind. And the question that the disciples asked was, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind? You see, they believe that any illness, any being disabled, some problem, some handicap, it must have been because of someone's sin.

It is, of course, true, very true, more true than we perhaps realize that sin has a detrimental impact on the body. Sin always incurs real-time consequences, harming body and soul. It would be a mistake, however, to then falsely conclude from the other direction that every physical ailment is precisely traced to some personal transgression.

We do live in a fallen world, a cursed creation after all. Sin has brought suffering into the world and Christ will usher it out. But I bring up the connection between sin and suffering because it would have been foremost in the minds of those present, even the friends who brought their paralyzed acquaintance and the paralyzed man himself.

And they knew at some level that for Christ to heal the man would mean that Jesus would be taking some kind of authoritative action against sin. And we should recognize that when God heals, that is a testimony to His sovereign power over the effects of sin.

It is a true blessing of Christ's triumph over sin and death and the curse through His death and resurrection. And now this healing of the man would have been amazing all on its own. But when Jesus addresses the man and then He says in the presence of them all, your sins are forgiven, your sins are forgiven, that was unexpected.

That was kind of like Jesus punching a hole in the roof of their theology. This forgiveness Jesus speaks of, you see, is not merely the subjective kind, the kind when someone wrongs you personally and then asks you for your forgiveness.

That's important. But what is Jesus saying to this paralyzed man? He is declaring the objective forgiveness. And He's not just promising that there's a way of forgiveness. He's actually providing the forgiveness.

He's not just conveying information about how to be forgiven. He's actually canceling this man's sin debt. And at that, the scribes and Pharisees ask a right question, but they ask in such a way that shows their resistance to Christ's preaching of the kingdom.

They say, who can forgive sins but God alone? It's interesting, the Chaldean paraphrase of Job 14 .4, with which the religious leaders would be familiar, reads this way, who can give a pure man out of a man that is defiled with sins, but God, who alone is He that can pardon him?

Similar phrasing there. Who can forgive sins? Who can pardon sins but God alone? And certainly, these scribes and Pharisees would know the unique glory and authority of God declared in such passages as Micah 7, 18 through 19.

Who is a God like you, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever because He delights in unchanging love. He will again have compassion on us.

He will tread down our iniquities underfoot. Yes, you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Only God can do that. Isaiah 43 verse 25, God says, I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.

This question, who can forgive sins but God alone? That is a vital question. And if we were to pair it in good faith with part of the first question the Pharisees ask within themselves, who is this man?

That is a real blessing to our prayer lives. Who can forgive sins but God alone? But who is this man? If we really know who Jesus Christ is, then we know the forgiveness of our sins. Now, the scribes and Pharisees obviously reject Jesus of Nazareth.

They reject Him as having divine authority. They accuse Him of blasphemy. They did not believe that He was the Christ, the Son of the living God, the second person of the Trinity incarnate. But what do you believe?

Do you believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God? Who is this man? He has the power to forgive sins. He has done all that is required in His life, death, and resurrection as the God-man to justify God's justification of sinners, to show that God is right in the forgiveness of sinners.

And Jesus Christ Himself reigns even now as our intercessor at the right hand of God, which means He pleads His own blood and His own righteousness to the Father. To put a spin on the question in the text, we can say this, who can forgive sins but God alone through Christ alone?

It's a good question to ask. It's a rhetorical question to be sure. Jesus answers the scribes and Pharisees with a question of His own, two questions of His own. And as He does so, He addresses their internal reasonings specifically on the matter of authority.

He tells them, eventually, He says, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. They are accusing Him of blasphemy, you see, because they did not believe He had the authority to forgive sins, but He responds in such a way that they would know that He did have the authority to forgive sins.

And why did He have that authority? Because He is the Son of Man, the Son of Man. Jesus uses that self-designation, Son of Man, dozens and dozens of times throughout the four gospels, 30 times at least in the gospel of Luke.

And He does that to identify Himself as God's chosen Savior, as God's favored ruler. In Daniel chapter 7 verses 13 through 14, we hear about this Son of Man, we hear about Jesus Christ. Daniel said, I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, one like a Son of Man, capital S, capital M, one like a Son of Man was coming.

And He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him, to the Son of Man, was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve Him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away, and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed. So Jesus, by calling Himself the Son of Man, He all at once is declaring Himself as the King of the kingdom.

In fact, He is stating that He is the centerpiece of history. He is declaring that He is the one with whom all mankind has to do. So, when you go to God in prayer, remember who it is alone who can forgive sins.

Remember that Jesus Christ, the Son of Man has authority on earth, and He has the authority to forgive sins. This strengthens our faith by reading this in this passage. As we seek forgiveness, as we seek forgiveness in Christ, we are not simply talking about the alleviation of our guilt feelings, and it's not simply a cathartic release, just getting out into the open what happened and what we did wrong.

It's not even really just a comforting assurance. Now, all those things are true on the subjective level. Those things can actually be blessings. But remember this, the forgiveness which comes from the Son of Man means this, you have committed crimes, treason against the throne of thrones, and the one upon the throne, when He forgives you, it means that He absolves you utterly.

And that is amazing grace. Psalm 80, 17 -19 also talks about the Son of Man. Let your hand be upon the man of your right hand. Of course, we know that to be Christ. Upon the Son of Man, whom you made strong for yourself, then we shall not turn back from you.

Revive us, and we will call upon your name, O Lord God of hosts. Restore us, cause your face to shine upon us, and we will be saved. How? Because of the favor that God has upon the man at His right hand, the Son of Man, His very own Son.

So, the question is, who can forgive sins? Well, Jesus Christ can. He's the one who forgives us. He's the one who died on the cross for us. Now, Jesus asks two more questions. He asks why they are reasoning in their hearts, but He also asks, which is easier to say?

Which is easier to say? Your sins are forgiven you, or rise, take up your bed and walk? Now, Jesus is not allowing in these questions, He's not allowing the Pharisees and scribes to remain private with their reasonings, private with their accusations of blasphemy against Him.

And so, He actually reveals His divine power by asking them, why are you reasoning in your hearts? You see, He knew what was going on in their hearts. And they had kept it private so that nobody would know, but He knew.

Why did He know what was going on in their hearts? Why did He know that they were questioning His authority? How could He know that they were charging Him with blasphemy? Well, 1 Samuel 16 .7 says that God sees not as man sees.

Remember this story when Samuel's anointing one of the sons of Jesse? And we read 1 Samuel 16 .7, God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. You see, the Lord here in human flesh, Jesus Christ is looking upon the heart.

He knows exactly what's going on. So, He knew that they were reasoning in their hearts. And so, He put that reasoning to a better use than accusing Him of blasphemy. So, He asks them a riddle. And so, He asked this, which is easier to say, your sins have been forgiven you or to say, get up and walk?

Well, there's a difference between saying which is easier and saying which is easier to say, because it is easier to say your sins are forgiven. I mean, because who can tell? Who can enter into the throne room of God and check His holy accounts?

Some charismatic charlatan may easily blaspheme with no objective evidence to disprove Him. And Jesus readily acknowledges that conundrum. And so, here He has declared this man's sins forgiven, not just promised forgiveness, but apparently actually provided forgiveness right there on the spot.

But who can tell if that is true? What proof did the scribes and Pharisees have? What proof does even this paralyzed man have? How can he know that his sins are forgiven? So, Jesus offers proof of His authority by verbally ordering the lame man to rise and walk.

And that, of course, is the harder thing to say. No charismatic charlatan would risk saying to a paralyzed stranger, a stranger, not some stooge he's planted in the crowd, but he wouldn't risk saying to an absolute stranger who's paralyzed, rise, take up your bed and walk.

Because in the failure of that display, all of the charlatan's influence would instantly evaporate. Everyone would know that he's a fake. It is a more difficult matter to tell the lame to walk than to tell the sinner, I forgive you, or you are forgiven by God.

However, it is a more difficult matter to actually forgive sins than to actually make the lame walk. So, Jesus employs a common teaching structure moving from the lesser to the greater. That's a very common thing He would teach.

Well, if God knows the number of your hairs, and if He takes care of the sparrows, don't you think He's going to know more about your needs and take care of you? He goes from the lesser to the greater.

And so, He does that here. He moves from the lesser to the greater. He says, the less difficult thing to say, your sins are forgiven you. And now He says, the more difficult thing to say, rise up, take your bed and walk.

And then when the lame man walks, which is the lesser matter to accomplish, this leads to the understanding that greater work has been done, which is the forgiveness of this man's sins. And Jesus expects this to be proof and be received as proof by these folks, including the paralyzed man.

He says, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, I say to you, rise, take up your bed and walk. Here's the proof of it. It's interesting, and when Jesus says that in verse 24, but so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, that word know is the exact same Greek word as the word in verse 20, seeing their faith.

It's the kind of knowing that comes through the eyes. It's the kind of knowing that comes from perceiving the truth with your eyes. You see the evidence of it, the reality of it, you know it through your eyes.

And so, that's the same word that Jesus uses here. And it's the very same word, very same Greek word that is also used in verse 26, when the people are praising God and saying, we have seen remarkable things today.

Same word there, same word there. So, Jesus offers proof. Here's how you can see for yourselves that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins, rise, take up your bed and walk, and the man does. Now, which is easier to say?

Your sins are forgiven you, rise, take up your bed and walk. Well, which is easier to pray? Which is easier to pray? What comes more readily to our lips? What comes more to the forefront of our minds?

What is it that we emphasize more and are more willing to pray? What are we praying at this time? Jesus sees the paralyzed man. There he is on the stretcher. His friends are desperate. The man can't move.

His muscles have all atrophied. He's a shell of a man, and he looks at him and he says, your sins are forgiven you. Do you see the priority Jesus places on the forgiveness of sins? The essential is that the sins are forgiven, and then Jesus takes care of the rest.

So, how are we praying? Which is easier to pray? Jesus, forgive me of my sins, or please, Jesus, eradicate COVID -19, deliver the sick, rescue the starving poor in the wake of global economic collapse.

How are we praying? It's not wrong to pray both, but which one is more essential? Which is the more important? Which is easier to do? To put the shattered crystal economy globe back together again, put it back up there on the shelf, or to forgive the sins of a single person?

Indeed, bring revival to worldly churches, spiritual awakening to our paganized land. So, consider how you pray. Are we desiring normalcy more than revival, change to the glory of God? Well, we got questions, who can forgive sins, which is easier, and then the exclamations.

We have seen remarkable things today. Notice that the man obeyed, just like Lazarus obeyed coming out of the tomb when Jesus says, Lazarus, come out. So, this paralyzed man obeys Jesus, and he got up and he went out because Jesus had healed him.

Verse 25, immediately, he got up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home glorifying God. There's the man exclaiming his praise and his joy in God, and then that is answered by all the people.

They were all struck with astonishment, began glorifying God, and they were filled with fear, filled with fear, saying, we have seen remarkable things today. They have seen remarkable... What had they seen?

Yes, they saw a paralyzed man be healed, the man that could not walk and put down through the roof, get up, carry his own bed, and walk out of the house, they saw that. But what else did they see? Jesus said, so that you may know, that you may see for yourself that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, that's why He healed the paralyzed man.

So, they saw that too. The people saw that too. They saw a paralyzed man healed, but they also saw a man forgiven, a man forgiven of his sins, a man's whole debt, all of his guilt completely removed. That's what they saw.

They saw the kingdom of Jesus Christ advanced, the kingdom that He'd been preaching in this very house. They saw it in action. They saw the kingdom advance. They saw the forgiveness of sins and the restoration of brokenness.

How often have we thought to ourselves in recent weeks, man, I just want everything to get back to normal, but we should have that catch in our spirit, right? A little bit of conviction from the Holy Spirit.

Well, not everything back to the way it was. There are a lot of things that need to be changed. What will we say? What will we say as we pray to God and entrust Him with our cares and ask Him to answer our prayers?

What will we say at the end of this year? What will we say at the end of this year? If all that happens at the end of this year is that the annual death rate doesn't even move the needle, doesn't even really change, no more people died than normal, will we say we have seen remarkable things?

What if the economy fully recovers within a year? Are we going to say we have seen remarkable things? It's possible some of us would say that, but would we be filled with fear like they were in this verse?

Would we be filled with reverential awe of God? Will we glorify God in astonishment? And is that what we're praying for, for God to do something that would leave us in that state? We ought to be praying for the forgiveness of sins, the essential, praying for revival, praying for spiritual awakening, praying for the Holy Spirit to bring a blitzkrieg of saving grace, transforming everything.

That's what we should be praying for. And then we will say that we have seen remarkable things. May God be pleased pleased to make COVID -19 just the preamble to something far greater, something far better that He is doing.

Let's close with a word of prayer. Father, I thank You for the time You've given us in Your Word. I pray that You would help us to have Your priorities, the priorities of Jesus Christ as we pray. We would have confidence that we're praying according to Your will, not guessing at it, but knowing it.

Give us boldness as we pray to You. Give us clarity. Strengthen our faith in this time. We pray these things for Jesus' sake. Amen.