The Authority Of Jesus
Sermon Transcript
Good morning. What a week, what a week has been lost in all that crazies this week, I had forgotten that Today is August 11. Today is special for several reasons. One, we have a couple church members with that birthday. Actually, Jane Harrelson and Jim Santini had their birthday today, and also my sister's birthday, but on August 11, 2013 was a Sunday, and the good people of First Baptist Church voted me in Asher pastor 11 years ago today. So that's kind of cool, and please clap. It's kind of awkward if you didn't clap. But anyway, pretty appreciate that. But yeah, 1111, years and my children were six, four, no, 641, and negative six, and so at the time. So anyway, I think that's right. Think that's about right, right? Yeah, negative six. Anyway, it's a cool milestone in our family's life. Well, this year, we've been looking at the life of Jesus, and in our preaching series for the entire year. We started out by looking at the circumstances surrounding his birth, then we looked at his early ministry, when he called his first disciples. Then we took the summer, most of the summer, to move through the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus lays the groundwork for what it looks like to be a Christ follower, how they live, how they act. And now, for a few weeks, we'll be looking at some of what I'm calling the works of Jesus, His miracles that He did, some of the signs that he did, and he did these to authenticate his ministry, to give credence to his ministry, as well as his identity, which is being the son of God. And today, we're specifically looking at Jesus healing a paralyzed man whose friends went to great length to get him to see Jesus last weekend, and we were gone for our annual family reunion. This is Emily's side of the family and a lake house there in Lake Huey. So I have to drive through Clemson to get there. So that tells you how much I love my wife. Just go right through Clemson to get there. Try not to stop anywhere if I can. One time, I did stop at a McDonald's in Clemson, and I was head to toe in gamecock gear. Didn't even think about it. But anyway, I snuck in and snuck out. But as we were going, we took the toll road 185 south of Greenville, and as we were on the road, we got a complete tire blowout, complete blowout. And so we have a car full of children, suitcases packed up everywhere, you know, just we're going to a family reunion, and a couple people ask me, what would you try to change the flat? I don't even know where the tire is in that van. Maybe it's from the bottom. Who knows, but it's 95 degrees. I got four kids. I got, you know, things, you know, bags. I have three women, you know, in my, in my, you know, in my car, so I got massive bags to pull out and everything. It's like, No, we're not going to do that. We'll just call a tow truck driver. So it took about an hour for them to get here, but he did, and my children did pretty well. I was sitting in the one seat where the sun was shining constantly, so I was kind of hot, but John David would did well, the five year old. He was just kind of bored, but a couple times he would say, We're never going to be saved. We're never going to be saved. I said, Yes, we are. The tow truck driver is on his way. And when that guy got there, you know, I never met him before, but I want to give him big hug, and he was a little confused. But anyhow, we're glad that he came. I had written down for this sermon to ask you this question, have you ever been in a situation where you thought, am I ever going to be saved? And then this week, literally, people in our community were saved from rising flood waters like you. My phone beeped at 130 and four in the morning telling me to seek high ground. This is life threatening. I'm thinking, Well, I guess I can't go back to sleep. And I walked around as the rest of my house, including the dog, slept soundly, walked around just to make sure our house didn't take any water in. And it didn't. It was doing well, but I had to kind of look at that. And so then what did I do? I did what anybody does at 130 in the morning, who's awake? I went to Facebook and went on there and saw all this video footage already of people being rescued with chest high water, then some of these houses just a mile down the road. And I bet they were thinking, are we going to be saved? Maybe you were worried about that. Maybe that was you. Maybe you've had situations like that before where you weren't sure God was going to come through for you. Maybe it was a real life and death situation. Maybe it was a. Financial disaster by which you thought that God would never get you through that? Maybe it was an emotional, mental breakdown where you just hit your limit, whatever it was. Did you think that not even God could save you? Well, if you did what we call that, I'm not trying to make you feel guilty. I'm just saying, well, we call that. We call that the opposite of faith. Faith is a trust that God is going to save us and we can trust in that, because Jesus has the authority to do that. That's what we're talking about today, the authority of Jesus. He has the authority to save you from any situation, including your most extreme situation, that of being spiritually dead in your sins apart from God, with no way to make you right to him, Jesus has the authority to save you from that We're in Luke chapter five, starting in verse 17, you Luke says, on one of those days, as he was teaching Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was with him to heal. And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, but finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd. They went up on the roof and they let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. And when he saw their faith, he said, man, Your sins are forgiven you. And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, Who is this? Who speaks blasphemies, who can forgive sins, but God alone? And when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, why do you question in your hearts which is easier to say your sins forgiven you, or to say, rise and walk, but that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, He said to the man who was paralyzed, I say to you, rise, pick up Your bed and go home. And immediately he rose up before them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God. And amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with all saying, we have seen extraordinary things today, Heavenly Father. We thank you for bringing us through this storm. You gave our community. We, thank you for keeping those safe, Lord. I don't know of anyone who lost their lives, and so I thank You, Lord, for doing that and increasing our faith in You, Lord, because we know when these times come, we have no one else to turn to but you, who we should always turn to in these times. But it's a realization that you have the authority to save so we thank you for that Lord. We thank you for bringing us here. We thank you for the worship we've experienced so far. I pray that You would speak through me today, Lord, that that my words would reflect your heart, that you would fill me with your Spirit, and that we would receive your word today in Jesus name, amen, today, I want you to see three things about the authority of Jesus that we see in this passage, three things about the authority of Jesus that we see in this passage, first, Jesus has the authority to teach truth. Jesus has the authority to teach truth. 17 says, as he was teaching Pharisees and teachers of the law were were sitting there, and they had come from every village, and the power of the Lord was with him to heal. So as Jesus went through town after town went through the region, teaching and preaching, he also was sporadically healing people. Now these healings quickly came onto the radar of the religious authorities, and so we see verse 18, some men, they brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him and lay him before Jesus. They couldn't find a way to bring him in because the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. So if you've ever been in church, even as a child, you've probably heard this story before. It's very familiar story. What we see is Jesus teaching in the house that was packed with people who had gathered to listen to Him teach. They weren't there for necessarily, to hear it for. Him to heal. They wanted to hear him teach. Now, some had come with hopes of being healed, and these men couldn't get in because of the crowd, but this group of friends were determined to get them in there, so they carried their friend on a mat. They walked through the crowd to the house. They climbed on the roof, they took the tiles off the roof, lowered him in to see Jesus, what effort, what determination. And Jesus saw their faith. And what did he do? He healed the man. Now that's the first thing he did. He forgave the man. Forgave the man of his sins. He was a this man was a sinner. We don't often think about the paralyzed man being a sinner, but he was like all people. This was not supposed to be a healing session. Jesus was teaching about the Kingdom of God. This healing opportunity was almost like an interruption, because Jesus's primary purpose was to teach the truth of who he was, who he is, in order that people would turn to Him for salvation. Why does Jesus have the authority to teach truth? Well, first, he's the son of God. Jesus is God in the flesh. He also had lived a sinless life. When someone lives a sinless life, they are then able to talk about how people should live, because he demonstrated his moral authority. He also fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah, so that gave them credibility and authority. He then performed miracles. He healed the sick, he he had authority over nature. He calmed the storm, which we learned about in Sunday school today. He casted out evil spirits, and when he taught, he had an especially profound understanding of the Scriptures and of the will of God, and His teachings were marked with wisdom and truth and compassion and clarity, and everyone he spoke to that was willing to listen. They got it. They understood because of who he was, he demonstrated in all these ways that he had the authority to teach the truth. So what does this mean for our lives? That Jesus has the authority to teach truth? It means that, because Jesus is the authority of truth and on truth, we should accept what he says. Sometimes there's things in God's Word we don't want to accept, but he is the arbiter of truth. We are not we should believe. When he tells us something's going to happen, we should believe it, and we should obey it. If Jesus is the arbiter of truth, we should accept it. We should believe it. We should obey it. It means that we trust in Him, and what he has told us in the difficult times, when I called the tow truck driver, they would never give me an ETA, probably because it was going to be an hour. But I called and I said, are there? How long is it going to be here? And the guy said they're on their way. So after about 30 minutes, I called back. I said, let's let you know I got four children in the car. How long will they be here? Oh, he's right around the corner any minute. So I believed, I kind of believed, but I halfway believed. So we can trust him. We can have faith in him. We're not going to know when he shows up or how he's going to show up, but he will because he has the authority to teach truth. Secondly, Jesus has the authority to forgive sins. He is the authority to forgive sins. Verse 20, when he saw their faith, he said, man, Your sins are forgiven you when he saw their faith. What is faith? It's a belief, as I mentioned. It's a trust. And these men believed in and they trusted that Jesus could do something for this man. And when he saw the faith of these men, and then that'll be the man had it too, he forgave the man's sins. Now this really got the Pharisees attention, because it's one thing to heal someone, right? If I was a doctor and I performed a surgery on someone and I effectively healed them by performing a surgery, they would be thankful and thankful for healing me, doctor. But then, if I said, Your sins are forgiven, they would say, what? Wait, wait, now, what? Now, what? You can't forgive me my sins. You're a healer. So for him to heal him is one thing, but for him to say, Your sins are forgiven. The Pharisees said verse 21 Whoa, only God can do that. This is blasphemous. Who does he think he is? Verse 22 and so when he perceived their thoughts, he says, Why do you question this? And then he gives him a curious, curious question. Verse 23 he says, What is easier to say, Your sins are forgiven? You or say, rise and walk. What he's not saying, what is the easier sentence to say, like, literally, rise and walks? Three words. You know your sins are forgiven. Used five words. That's not what he means. What he means is, by asking this question, he's saying that he is able to do both. Says, I can do both just as easy. I have the authority to heal. I have the authority to forgive sins. Healing is one thing. Forgiving sins is different. What is forgiveness? Essentially, we kind of know what it is when we know when we haven't forgiven. We know when we have forgiven. We know how it feels to forgive or not to forgive, but forgiveness, by definition, is a pardon of sins. When a criminal is pardoned, it's like they never did what they did. So when you forgive another person, you're taking it off their record. If you keep, get bringing it up, it's still on your record. You haven't forgiven them. If you really have forgiven someone, you never bring it up again. That's what pardoning is. You can say you've forgiven a person. But if you say, you know, 20 years ago, you did that thing, and I've forgiven you, but you know, I'll never forget. No, you haven't forgiven them. You haven't pardoned them. See, Forgiveness means the sin has been wiped away. Look at first John one nine, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's what forgiveness is. This is why Jesus focuses primarily on forgiving the man's sins. His ultimate need was not the physical healing that he did receive. It was the spiritual healing. And this was the overarching point of the ministry of Jesus to give people the keys to the kingdom of God, because believing that Jesus is who he said he was, and believing in his work on the cross is what saves us, because he has the authority to forgive sins. That's what makes him different from every other person who's ever lived. He's fully man, but he's fully God. He is God in the flesh, and only Jesus can make you right with God, and only God can make you right with himself, and he does that through Jesus Christ. So z is the authority to forgive sins. And finally, number three, Jesus has the authority to heal people, the authority to heal people, verse 24 but that you may know that the Son of Man has authority not to forgive sins, He said to the man who is paralyzed, I say to you, Rise, pick up your bed and go home. He says, in order for you to know, for you to really believe that I do have the authority to forgive sins, I'm just going to go ahead and heal them right now, then you'll believe. And that's what he did. Many reasons why Jesus healed people, you know, He healed people to show compassion for them, to show empathy for them, for the hurt people. He healed people to fulfill the prophecies that the Messiah would be a healer. He healed people to bring that physical or spiritual healing that they needed. He He healed people to draw attention to the kingdom of God. He healed people to illustrate the importance of forgiveness that we've talked about. And He healed people to challenge these religious leaders. And had a horrible idea that that sin was related to illness. That illness was related to sin, that many of their their believed that this man was paralyzed, not because he was a victim, but because he was a sinner. He had done something so bad that he was cursed to paralysis. But the primary reason Jesus healed people was to demonstrate His power, His authority as the Son of God, He heals this man to authenticate his claims and his demonstration that He is God in the flesh. On the mission field, it is not uncommon when a missionary first comes into a place where the gospel has never been preached, that as they preach the gospel, miracles happen. Think. People will see that, and the natives will see it, and they'll say, this is clearly a God thing. It authenticates that ministry, not that he needs to use it, but he chooses to use that to show people visible representation of who he is and what he can do. Jesus showed that he had the authority to heal, so that people would know that he was the authority in life, verse 25 and immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home glorifying God. Now this is a miracle. If you don't lose your legs for a period of time, the atrophy your muscles break down. So somehow this man's muscles healed so fast and whatever nerve damage he had healed so fast that he just popped up, like, I think, like a baby giraffe walking for the first time, for something popped up, and he went home glorifying God. And amazement seized them all which it would. And they glorified God, and they were filled with awe. So we've seen extraordinary things today now. They didn't they weren't amazed that his sins were forgiven. They were amazed that he could walk. That's why he gave the sign. So they would then think about, if this man can heal, what else can he do for me? Maybe he is God. When he forgave the paralyzed man, he didn't just heal his physical body. He transformed his heart, he transformed his soul. That's the power of forgiveness. It changes our lives from the inside out. We've all been there. We've harbored unforgiveness in our hearts at the time. We feel like we're doing the right thing, but then when we forgive and moved on, we look back and we think, what was I doing that was the miserable time of my life, no matter how broken we are, no matter how paralyzed we are or hopeless we may feel, Jesus has that power to Forgive us, to heal us, to transform us, and just as the paralyzed man was brought to Jesus by his friends, we're called to bring ourselves and we're called to bring others to Jesus for healing and for restoration. I'll leave you four steps as we leave here today that we see from this passage, that I think God's calling us to do. Number one, forgive those who have hurt you. Forgive those who have hurt you. Now, we often see this story as a story of Jesus having compassion on this poor old, paralyzed man. If this were to happen today, we would view this man as a victim. We would, you know, he can't do anything. Why did this happen to him? None of us would think, maybe a few, but not many of us would think he deserves to be paralyzed. We would not think that, but the Jewish world did. They thought their belief was wrongly that if you had a problem, it's because you sinned and God was cursing you, but we would see him as a victim. That's how we would see him. But he wasn't a victim. We don't know what he did in his life, but we do know this, that he was a sinner. He the paralyzed man, like all people, have sinned and broken God's law, and as hard it is is for us to forgive people who sin against us. Jesus had to forgive this paralyzed man for sinning against him. That's the thing about the gospel. I think we don't think about Imagine if you had to forgive every person in the world, what if every person in the world did something bad to you and hurt you bad, and you had to forgive 7 billion people? I might get through three or four. We forget about Jesus dying on the cross and forgiving people. When He's forgiving people, he's not just saying, Okay, you're good, move on. He is hurting and processing and forgiving that hurt from each person that has sin against him. This man was not a victim. He was a sinner who broke God's law. He, like everybody else, needed to be forgiven, and so when Jesus sees him with compassion, he doesn't say, oh, helpless man who can't walk. He says, Oh, here's a man that has sinned against me that I have to forgive. He has confronted me. There's an affront of sin. He's hurt me, and I'm going to heal him, and I'm going to forgive him. And. And Jesus says to us, forgive others. When every person has hurt God, but He forgives us anyway. That is supernatural love. The paralyzed man was just like all of us now. He could have just forgiven him and then let them stay paralyzed the way. You know, there's consequences to your sin, so I forgive you, but that's your consequence. No, then he made him whole and let him walk. And we can forgive someone, but do we go about the extra mile? Probably not. No. God doesn't really call us to do that. He calls us to really good people. But do you also put them back together? Do you also bring healing into their lives, even though they've sinned against you, even though it's their fault, even though they brought it into your life? Forgive those who've hurt you. Secondly, believe in Jesus's power to forgive. Now, looking at our own lives, no matter how unworthy we may feel, Jesus has the authority and power to forgive us and make us NEW. As I mentioned, the Pharisees taught that he deserved him being paralyzed. So he probably thought of himself as a sinner, not as a victim. And we look at him now and say, Oh, that's an unfortunate problem as a victim. That's not the way they thought. So this man was coming to Jesus as a poor, as a broken sinner. He was not looking for someone to say, Poor soul. He was desperate. He believed in Jesus' power to forgive. Thirdly, share the power of forgiveness with others, just like the Paralyzed men's friends brought him to Jesus, we need to encourage and bring others to Him for forgiveness. You have friends that need Jesus. Maybe they think they're a victim. Maybe they need to be told, in the Holy Spirit way, in a loving way, that they too, are sinners. Maybe they know they're a sinner, but they think they burn the church down just by entering. Invite your friends here. You can tell them about Jesus. You can invite him here, I'll tell them. I'll do it every week. You'd be surprised at the amount of people who would say yes, give them a chance to introduce them to Jesus, like these friends did. And finally, fourth, give glory to God when we witness miracles. There are people I know today that are saved, that I knew years ago, that weren't, and I still don't know how in the world God did that. I'm not talking about myself, but I mean people I'm like, I just can't believe that guy, that person, is a Christian, that is a miracle. Our salvation is a miracle. If you've known Jesus for many years, even as a child, you can't imagine what your life would be like without Christ. He would be so far gone. You just can't imagine where you would be. So we need to give glory to God. When miracles happen, he has the authority. They are people all over our area who are lost as we know that. I think about the families just down the road, the one man that I saw on the TV. I don't even know him. They interviewed him. He woke up at 130 in the morning Thursday night, or whatever night that was, to his dog barking and his baby crying, and he walked outside, and lights were shining into his window, and the firemen were out there, and the police officer says, You need to come out of your house. Your house is about the flood. That's the great thing about our first responders, is they were pulling people out before they even knew there was a threat. For me, I'll be like, I'd be in a water bed before I knew. Right? You know, they didn't even know. They pulled them out the house before they even knew they were a threat. Pulled them out any he says, I got my wife out, my 13 year old, my little baby, and we, we got out of the house. But he didn't know he was in danger until someone said Your house is flooding. You need to get out. There are people all in our community who have no idea the flood waters are rising in their life, no idea. Now, how silly would it be if those first responders went from house to house and got into one house and thought that guy's a little difficult to deal with, someone else will get him. Oh, that's so and so's house we have. We have a problem. We have beef you know, we have something together. Someone else, another fireman will come for them. We would think, how could you do that? But you. People in your life that you know are lost and headed to hell to meet judgment from God you know they are. And you walk past their house and you say, it's not the right time, someone else will get them. I do it too. We all do it, but praise the Lord. If you know Jesus today, someone didn't say that to you. Someone knocked on your door. Maybe you were seven year old in Sunday school, they knocked on your door and they said, the flood waters are rising. You need to be saved. But how many people don't even know they need Jesus? Jesus has the authority to save and guess what? God puts people in your life for you to tell them about it, Heavenly Father. We, thank you so much for what you done for us. We, thank you so much that for those of us that know you, that whether we were a child or an adult or whatever it was when we were, we realized where we were that we needed salvation. Somebody told us about you. Well, I thank you for those first responders that risked their lives this week across our town and community to pull people out of their houses, many who were sleeping, who didn't know what was going on, to let them know they needed to be saved. So Lord, we thank you for that, and let that be a reminder to us that when we know people who are lost, that maybe we or that maybe we are that first responder in their lives. We can say, I know what you need. We can't make them leave their house, but we can tell them, and we can urge them, so, Lord, if there's one in here today that's never placed their faith in you, that they fit that description. Today they would grab hold of your hand. Today they would be saved. And Lord, for those of us that know you, that you would show us as we leave here today, those people in our lives that you've put there for a reason, Father, we love you. We ask these things in your name. Amen.
