Mark 2022

We're gonna read God's word together now. We're going through Mark's gospel, and this should infuse You're gonna infuse us to be part of Mark drama, Tom. I'd like to do my best. You do your best.

Is that your third point? Yeah. You only believe if you're part of Mark drama. Yeah. Yeah.

We're gonna read Mark chapter 2. We've been reading Through Mark, it's been a great joy and we're going to read Mark chapter 2 verses 1 to 17. Let me pray. Father, this is your word. These are real events, and they're dynamite.

We pray that you would help them explode in our minds and our hearts. That we may love you and serve you in Jesus' name. Oh, ma'am. A few days later when Jesus again entered Capernium, the people heard that he had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them.

Some men came bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by 4 of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus, because of a crowd. They made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered to the mat, the was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, son, your sins are forgiven. Now some of the teachers of the law were sitting there thinking to themselves, why does this fellow talk like that?

He's blaspheming. Who can forgive sins, but God alone? Immediately, Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking. In their hearts. And he said to them, why are you thinking these things?

Which is easier to say to the paralyzed man your sins are forgiven, or to get up, take your mat and walk. But I want you to know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins. So he said to the man, I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home. Got up, took his mat, and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone, and they praised God saying, We've never seen anything like this.

Once again, Jesus went out beside the lake. Large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. As he walked along, He saw Levi, son of elfius sitting at the tax collector's booth. Follow me. Jesus told him.

Levi got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples. For there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law, who were Pharaces, saw him eating with sinners and tax collectors. They asked his disciple, why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?

On hearing this, Jesus said to them, it is not a healthy who need a doctor, but those who are ill. I've not come to call a righteous, but sinners. Good morning. My name is Tom. I'm 1 of the pastors here.

Lovely to have you with us and joining online, good to welcome you as well. Just before we get going and to to kind of underline Pete's last notice there. 1 of the real strengths of that information lunch that we had last week for the Mark was through the videos and in the presentation, the idea is to show everybody that you really do not need any kind of professional acting skills in order to be part of this. You know, time and time again, he is able to assemble a team to teach them to memorize the order of events in Mark's gospel to teach them how to act it out in the round and it's just a tried, tested, and proven model. If he could only work with those who either loved acting or had acting experience.

The Mark drama would have died a long time ago. The reason it continues to thrive and grow is because he can take just regular church members and and make it happen time and time again. So do let me encourage you to sign up to come to ask about being part of the acting team James Thatcher, who was on bay he's on base today. At the information lunch, James Thatcher stood up in front of everyone there, and had been taught and could remember the order of events in quite a big chunk of Mark's gospel, couldn't you, brother? Okay.

Well, don't let that discourage you, everybody. You can't remember it this week, a week on. But it is possible to do and So but it was great. So just do come ask more, we'd love to have love to have you part of it. Should we pray together as we come back to this passage?

Father, we do thank you for the amazing gospel, which we have in front of us, recorded and inspired and preserved by the Holy Spirit. And we do pray that you would speak to us to to every 1 of us here in this room. We thank you that no 1 is here by accident, that we are all here because of your sovereignty because of your providence, and lord, you have a word for each 1 of us this morning and we pray that you would give us ears to hear. Help us to understand, help us to love Jesus, help us to understand about our greatest need and what he is able to do to heal and restore us. And we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.

It's hard to put into words all that she meant to me. That was 1 lady's reflection as she waited to see the queen this week and was interviewed in the queue. It's hard to put into words all that she meant to me. Somebody else was asked, what made you want to come down here and wait so long and join the queue and to be part of this? And he said, I had to do this.

It was my moment with my monarch. Another 1 said, I served 14 years in the army. I swore an oath of allegiance to this queen. And I had to pay respect for my fallen brothers and sisters. 350000 people, they reckon or they're estimating, will have been through Westminster by tomorrow morning in order to see The Queen lying in state and all of them will have their own reasons for going and for wanting to be to be part of that.

The BBC this week showed some footage from 19 52. I don't know if you saw that footage when King George the sixth died and this event his lying in state was also filmed and when you look at that footage, perhaps the biggest difference in it is the people who are going and the clothes that they're wearing. Now back in the fifties, London was a lot less diverse than it is now, but in the footage everybody was wearing their Sunday best. They add their neatly pressed suits, tasteful hats, loads of hats and their their ties that they put on their black ties for the occasion. But today, quote, you could see everything from the red berets of the royal military police, to track suits and mountain warehouse waterproofs.

There are women in hijabs and wearing papooses, And memorably, even a man dressed as the tardis. I don't know if you saw I don't know if you saw him. And that that I think is both a sign of how much society has changed since the fifties, but also a sign of just how broadly this queen appealed to so many different types of people. Everybody who was interviewed that I saw was saying for 1 reason or another, I had to come. Now 1 of the things that we saw last week at the end of Mark chapter 1 was that was the crowds, the thousands, the multitudes, that were coming from the various towns and villages in order to see King Jesus.

Chapter 1 verse 32, we're told that evening after sunset that people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon possessed. The whole town gathered at the door. And I think if you had gone along the queue with a microphone, If you had interviewed the members of that crowd that was gathering to see Jesus and said to them, and what makes you be here today. What led you to come out and join this crowd? Why are you here?

What are you hoping to get from this? I think they would have said different things. 1 might have said, to be honest with you, I don't actually know how I ended up here. My whole town was just leaving and coming out to see this man and I thought I don't wanna be left out. I don't wanna miss this opportunity.

I'm gonna go with them. I'm gonna join the queue. What made you join the queue here today, madam? Well in the last few years, my eyesight has been getting worse and worse. And I'm afraid I'm gonna go blind soon.

This is really my last chance. I've heard this man can help people. I'm here today and I'm in the queue to see if he can help me. And what about you, sir? Why are you here?

Why have you come to be part of this moment? Why are you in the crowd? Well, keep this to yourself. But I've felt the first signs of what I think is a skin disease at the end of my fingers. And I'm worried that if I don't get this sorted soon, I'm gonna be outcasted from society.

I have to leave my family, my loved ones. I won't be able to go to the temple. This I've heard this man can help people like me and so I'm here I'm here today to see if he can help me. All of those people gathering around Jesus, all of them who had joined the queue would have their own reasons for being there. That evening after sunset, the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon possessed.

The whole town gathered at the door. And now imagine yourself in that queue. Try to put yourself there. You're waiting to see the king. You're gathering around the house.

You've heard he's in town and the microphone comes to you. Why have you come today, sir? Why are you here, madam? What are you hoping the king will do for you? What would you like to get out of this experience?

I wonder how you would answer those questions. Why are you here? Why have you come? To see the king. Because what we're going to learn today is although the needs that we have in this life are very often not trivial.

They're serious and they do matter to the Lord. Mark wants us to see that there is a deeper reason why we should queue up to see the king. And because Mark just loves a good story, He's not gonna tell us what that reason is. He's gonna show us. And these 2 stories that we've read the small verse 1 to 12 and verse 13 to 17 are some of the most most loved stories in all of God Mark's gospel and they make the same basic point.

The reason that we should go into town and queue up to see the king. The reason that we should gather around him wherever he is is because Jesus Christ is God's greatest gift to meet our greatest need. That's why we should queue up drop what we're doing, take a day off, and go and see the king. He is God's greatest gift to meet our greatest need. Let's see it as Mark tells us in these 2 stories.

The first 1, first heading. The son of man and the paralyzed man. The son of man and the paralyzed man. Let's pick it up in verse 1 of chapter 2. A few days later when Jesus again entered Capurnum, the whole tap the people heard that he had come home.

They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door and he preached the word to them. He preached the word to them. Now the crowds may not have come for that They may not have joined the queue in order to be preached at but that's what's going to happen. That's what is happening. Jesus is teaching them.

And that shouldn't be a surprise to us if we were here last week because we saw last week, didn't we? That of all the needs that Jesus has come to help and redeem the priority, the reason that he came forth, the the very thing that he wanted to be the heartbeat of his ministry was a word ministry. He had come to preach and to announce the arrival of the kingdom of God and that all people through a repentant faith in him the king could come in be saved, be part of it. Preaching was what he was all about. It was his priority.

But then these friends show up. There's 4 of them, plus their mate and a few others it seems and the whole scene is about to change. I saw another article this week that had the headline friendly crowds honor 2 great British traditions. The queen and the queue. Friendly crowds on a 2 great British traditions.

The queen and the queue. There was even an article on the BBC entitled where do I join the queue which I thought was just such a British article, was it? Where do I join the queue? And that was quite a big concern, wasn't it? You know, they had this live queue tracker which I guess is still going on.

You could see how long it was going to take you to get to the queen if you from the back. It would tell you what station to get off. You could plot your map. There was GPS, start everything. The queue was a huge part of this week, wasn't it?

And you imagine these men, these 4 men bringing their friend to see Jesus and they get to the house and look at the size of the queue. There's people everywhere. There's no GPS tracker to tell them where they need to join it. There's no recommendation as to which station they should have got at They must have felt hopeless to begin with. They turn up at the house.

What is the point in this? Look at the size of it. We're never gonna we're never gonna get there. Well, verse 4, since they could not get to him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above. So these old houses would have had staircases on the side apparently, so there would have been a way up to the roof.

They made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it. And it's worth knowing this was not like a a Velcro roof. That you could just peel off. You know, this would have been quite an operation. They would have had to dig through tiles, dismantle the tiles.

They would have had to scoop out bits of earth properly, even remove some of the beams in order to lower their friend down to see Jesus. And with all of that work that was required to get him to the feet of Christ. With all of that discouragement of a massive crowd, you can just hear Satan whispering in their ears, can't you? Just give it up fellas. There's no there's no point.

You're not gonna see him today. How long has he been paralyzed? A long time. Yeah? 1 more day is not gonna hurt him.

Why don't you come back tomorrow? Why don't you try then? He's gonna be too bit just think of all the needs in there. He's gonna be too busy for this guy. Why don't you try again another time?

It's interesting, isn't it? Whenever we want to bring people to Jesus, there's obstacles. Whenever we want to try to bring friends to meet the Savior, there's reasons not to do it. Oh, they're too busy. They're never gonna say yes.

This leaflet is crummy. Why would they come on the basis of that? They seem so happy without God. They don't really look like they need anything. Maybe I'll just wait till next year.

Maybe I'll do it I'll tell you what, when I move house, I'll make way more of an effort with those neighbours. There's always reasons, isn't there? Always obstacles when we want to bring people to Jesus. And those are not unreal, but these guys carrying their friends seem to have these 2 basic convictions. Our friend on this stretcher needs help and we think this man can do something about it.

And so look what they do. Verse 4. They lowered the mat that the man was lying on. I'm a just imagine that. Just imagine what it must have been like in that house as this hole begins to open up in the roof.

The sunlight bursts in and illuminates the room. And then all of a sudden this stretcher shaped shadow appears. Casting a shadow on the floor, and you see these men with their ropes gently lowering down the man in front of Jesus in a crowded room with the religious leaders sat there, it's impossible to ignore. It it must have gone deadly silent. I mean, when you're preaching, particularly the middle of town in a room like this.

There are all kinds of things you have to ignore. You just see something and you just think, I can't speak into gonna ignore that. You hear the sound of an ambulance and you think, okay, I've got to compete with that, but I'm going to ignore it. There's all kinds of things. You could not have ignored this.

Jesus in the middle of his sermon, could not have pretended that this was not going on. This man has been lowered down in front of him. You would have been able to hear a pin drop. It would have been silent as everybody takes a sharp intake of breath. What is Jesus going to do about this interruption.

What's he going to say? Look what it says in verse 5. When Jesus saw their faith. As far as we know from this story, these men don't say anything. But the faith of these men could be seen.

Sometimes we claim to trust in God with our words. But if you look at our reactions in reality, we are moving up and away from him. We say, my faith is strong. It's never been stronger. I've never enjoyed a richer experience with Jesus than I do at the moment.

And yet if you look at the decisions that we make, the actions that we take, the priorities that we have, if you look at those things and assess it by what we do, Then it would look like we're actually hoisting ourselves out of the room and away from Jesus. And yet as Jesus looks at these ropes and he sees the faces of these men and sees the man coming down on the stretcher, Mark tells us that Jesus could see their faith. I mean the question is, did these men ever intend to carry their friend out of the house again? You see it's 1 thing, isn't it? To lower him down into the room.

It would have been a heck of a lot harder to carry him up like that, wouldn't it? To try to pull him up. He would have folded off that thing. But you wonder whether they actually lowered him in fully expecting that that friend was going to walk out of there. He wasn't going to be carried out.

When Jesus saw their faith. Often, I think what I say about my faith is that ambulance. Say I told you. Can't ignore it now that I've used it as an illustration. Can I?

Come on. Often, I think what I say about my faith and what Jesus sees in my faith are further apart than they should be. How about you? When Christ looks at you, can he would he say when I saw their faith. He said to this paralyzed man, son, your sins.

Are forgiven. And I don't know what these mates were thinking. But in that moment, I Some of them in the room must have been thinking, your sins are forgiven. That is both inappropriate and irrelevant. It is irrelevant because that is clearly not the reason we've brought him here.

The reason that he is here is plain for all to see. Look at the bloke. This is how he gets around. This is what we do. We have to carry him for his need, his obvious, he's paralyzed.

Why do you think we bought him here? Why do you think we went to the trouble of digging out this roof and lowering him down? He's your sins are forgiven. It may be important to address that down the line. But it's not why we bought him here today.

It's irrelevant, and it's inappropriate, isn't it? Isn't it inappropriate when this man has been suffering physically with this condition to then bring up his sin, to sort of begin to make him feel a bit worse about himself perhaps than he already does, your sins are forgiven. It would feel inappropriate and it would feel irrelevant. But Jesus has made no mistake. Without minimizing His pain or his condition.

He sees through the presenting issue to this man's deepest most enduring need. Your sins are forgiven. And everyone's thinking, well let's see what they're thinking. Verse 6, Now some teachers of the law were sitting there and that's interesting, isn't it that they've got a seat? I mean everyone else is crowding in.

I would think it's standing room there's loads of people outside but the religious leaders have got to see. How did they do that? I mean, did they come early because they were so keen to investigate Jesus. Were they there really early? Did they come into the room push past the queue like some of the less popular celebrities did this week?

I don't know if you heard of a few of them, no need to name them now, but they got slammed, didn't they? Some of the celebrities because they refused to queue like David Beckham did and pushed their way to the front. Is that what they did? Just cut the queue and get there? Or maybe Jesus was just incredibly gracious to them, and in a sense wanted to honor their position and and move people out the way so that they could sit down.

We don't know, but they've got a seat. It's interesting, isn't it? They're thinking to themselves, why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming. Who can forgive sins, but God alone.

Now, if you're familiar at all with the Gospel, you know that words like scribe, ERC teacher of the law mean bad guys. Okay? But before before we dismiss them out of hand here, they do have a right to be suspicious about this sort of thing. You know, here is a man going around, gathering attention claiming to forgive sins, claiming to speak in the name of God. They as the religious leaders have a right and even a duty to investigate that, don't they?

In fact, that's not only the wise thing to do. They were commanded in the Scriptures to investigate that sort of thing. You look at deuteronomy 13, where it specifically says, if there is a profit among you claiming to speak in the name of the Lord, taking God's authority on his own lips, thinking that he can do signs. You have to check him out. You have to go and make sure that he really is a messenger of God.

And so before we come down too hard on them, there is something okay in what they're doing in investigating this. But Jesus sees what is really behind their investigation. That's the key thing. Verse 8, immediately and this is in itself a miracle, isn't it? Immediately Jesus knew in His Spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts and he said to them, why are you thinking these things?

Which is easier to say to this paralyzed man you'll sin are forgiven or to say get up, take your mat and walk. And it's a good question, isn't it? Whenever you come back to this passage, I don't know if you find yourself wrestling with that. Which is actually which is easier. I know I worked this out last time, but what is easier here?

And the reality is it is easier to say you're forgiven, isn't it? It is easier to say that because there's no way of proving it. If Jesus says, I tell you get up, take your mat and walk, and there's just tumble weed and inaction. It's gonna be hard for him to bounce back from that as a preacher. He's just said something declaring something authority and nothing happens.

But this forgiveness is a hard work and it's very difficult to measure it. If you've ever read the book the pilgrims progress, you'll know that the main the main character Christian and before he gets to the cross, he has this enormous burden, this weight, this pack on his back. Which represents his sin and his guilt before God and he's carrying this thing around until the moment he sees the cross and it rolls off his back and down and into the empty too. There's a very visual image. Something visit you can see his sins falling off his back and into the tomb.

Doesn't happen in real We don't carry that weight around literally because this forgiveness is a hidden, it's an inside, it's a hard work. But Jesus is wanting to show that he can do both. He's not gonna leave them thinking about that for long. Verse 10. But I want you to know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins.

So he said to the man, I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home. He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. Amazing isn't it? When Jesus said last week to the demon possessed man, Be quiet, the demon left him. When he said to the leper be clean, he was clean.

When he said get up take your mat and walk, he got up took his mat and walked and that means when Jesus said, son, your sins are forgiven. That reality took place in his life, in his heart before God. There's no real way to object to him now, is that? This is the son of man. He chooses that title.

It's his favorite title in Mark's Gospel. This is the 1 from Daniel of 7, entrusted with all authority led before the ancient of days and given all authority and he is channeling his God given son of man authority into the forgiveness of this man's sin. Your sins are forgiven. This amazed everyone. And they praised God saying, we have never seen anything like this.

And although that sounds like a really hopeful response, I mean, if someone said that after the sermon, we've never heard anything like this. You'd be quite encouraged as a preacher. But Mark wants us to know we shouldn't get too excited because they're praising of God doesn't seem to go any further than we have never seen anything like this. It's interesting in Matthew's Gospel, when Jesus talks about Capurnum, in Matthew 11 23. He says capernum, you will be lift will you be lifted up to the heavens?

No. You will go down to Katies. For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in sodom, it would have remained to this day. In other words, Capernum, you are a privileged place if all these miracles happened in sodom, if they had seen what you've seen, they'd still be standing. They would have repented and turned to the Lord and avoided destruction, but you Do you think you will escape?

In other words, they are excited, they are impressed but generally the Gospels want us to know they did not repent. At the miracles. Now we're gonna come back to this scene and we're gonna apply it a bit more at the end. But secondly and more briefly, let's move on to the next scene now. We've seen the son of man and the paralyzed man and now let's look at the doctor and his patients.

The doctor and his patients. And just look with me at verse 13. Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him and he began to teach them. So same kind of thing there, isn't there?

He's out. There's a large crowd. He's preaching. Same things going on. As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alpheus sitting at the tax collectors booth.

Now there's 2 things that are different about this man Firstly, we know his name. This is Levi. And in Matthew's Gospel, we're told that Levi is in fact Matthew. So this is Levi. This Matthew, 1 of the disciples of Jesus and we know something about his life.

He is a tax collector. He's a tax collector. And this is a little bit like, and I stress the word little because it's only a little bit like. This is like an Everton fan. Working and being employed in the Liverpool trophy room.

Okay? This is what this is like. So so in his social life, This fan wears an everton shirt, but when he goes to work, he has to wear a Liverpool shirt and he spends his days polishing Liverpool silverware and showing people around the trophy room. That's his job. Now how would other everton fans view him at that moment?

Wearing the everton shirt down the pub but spending his days polishing Liverpool's trophies and waxing lyrical about them to all the guests who come. I don't think he would be seen as really a true fan. Well, the tax collector was a little bit like that. Levi was working for herod and the Romans. He's meant to be a Jew and he is working for Levi and the Romans.

In other words, he is funding gentile occupation. That's what he's doing. He's funding the gentile machine. But more than that, they were famous for overcharging people famous for exploiting people. They were famous for kind of thuggish behavior.

Okay? Now Mark doesn't tell us that Levi was personally into that side of things, but the point is the profession that he took made him despised. And so if his parents if his dad, Alpheus, was at a dinner party and someone said to him, and your son, Levi, isn't it? What's he doing with himself at the moment? That's what parents do when they get together.

They just talk about their kids and their prospects of their kids. What what's your what's what's he up to at the moment? I think Alpheus would be said, look, he's between things at the moment. To be honest with you, he's he's still working out what to do. He's waiting on the results of an interview.

He's, yeah, he's doing well. He's just, you know what it's like there. He's tough climate at the moment. He's getting what he can. He's making his way and what, you know, there would be avoidance techniques going on.

To the max, okay? To work as a tax collector is that would have made him despise, but it's all changed for Levi. Follow me Jesus told him and Levi got up and followed him. Now that sounds like he was desperate for a new job, isn't it? Follow me gets up follows him.

I've been waiting for someone to give me a way out of here. Yeah. It sounds like he was desperate. Who knows? But when Jesus calls he goes, that's the point.

And this is a big deal for him because if you think about the other disciples, Simon and Andrew, if the whole Jesus thing doesn't work out, they can easily go back to their nets. Just can. They can they can go back to fishing and they'll be able to make a lot. This is a much bigger thing to leave behind. He's walking away from Roman herod's employment He's gonna change his cards again.

This is gonna be a sort after job. It's gonna be hard for him to go. This is a costly decision for him. He gets up and he goes at the word of Jesus. And as you can see, he doesn't really seem to mind because the very first thing he does is invite all his mates to dinner with Jesus.

He gets the tax collectors and he gets his fellow sabbath breakers and he gets gentiles and he gets prostitutes and he gets whoever he can, whoever contacts he's got and he basically says, Right. You guys, I want you to meet him and him, I want you to meet them, which is all evangelism really is, isn't it? You become a Christian, you want to follow Jesus and you say to your friends, I want you to meet him and I want him to meet you. That's just all that's all it is. And so he throws this dinner party and it is full of the the what 1 author would call the last, the least and the lost.

That's who's at the table. It's the last, the least, and the lost. And you know, because we know Jesus, most of us in this room, this isn't surprising to us really. But this this really would have been a shocking thing for a religious teacher to be doing. It really would And you could see that by what the by what the teachers of the law say verse 6.

When the teachers of the law now were they invited, did they just turn up, you know? When the teachers of the law who were pharisees saw him eating with sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? And it's interesting that they asked the disciples, isn't it? And Mark doesn't record how they responded to that question. And I guess, to be honest, they probably didn't really know the answer at this stage.

Maybe they didn't know. Why does your teacher eat with people like this? Yeah. Do you know that's a good question. I don't know.

Shouldn't really, should he? I agree it's a bit messy. It doesn't look good, does it? And again, there's something in the Faracy which may be a right instinct here. You know, all of the wisdom literature in the bible would say be careful who you hang out with because people like that can corrupt good character.

You know, you you that's how a gang works, isn't It's based on shared values and a shared morality. Jesus is hanging out with all these guys. You know, what is what is that about? Is he gonna be into that? Is he gonna start promoting that?

But once again, Jesus knows what's going on in their hearts. Verse 17, he breaks in over the disciples. On hearing this, he knows their thoughts, he overhears their conversations. Jesus said to them, it is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.

It's a beautiful sentence, isn't it? Jesus came to this world to preach. But in his preaching, he was so unlike the pharisees. When the pharisees preached, people would have sent something of their authority. They would have been made aware of the burdens and just how far away they were from God's standard.

But they would have left the sermon feeling overwhelmed by their burdens like the people talking to them wouldn't even be willing to lift a little finger to help them they would have been aware of their sin but gone away guilty and crushed by their sin. When Jesus spoke, there was honesty about their sin. But the last and the least and the lost were just attracted to him in a way they had never been to anyone else. They sensed in His words God's condemnation of sin, but there was also a warmth and a sensitivity in kindness about him that made them want to be with him even though he spoke like that about their sin. That's why he got the name.

The friend of sinners because they sense that in him that he was a doctor who had come not just to tell them that they were sick and that it was terminal, but to give them an honest report about their health and to say, and I'm qualified to heal you. And I love to heal you. And whatever sickness you've got come to me, I'm going to cleanse it out of your blood, and I'm going to make you right again. That's the sort of doctor you want. You don't want a doctor that looks at your scan and pretends that it's not serious.

You want 1 that gives you the honest truth but then brings a sweet word of. And you know me and my team, we reckon we can sort this out entirely and we can give you a clean bill of health. And so these 2 scenes describing to us who Jesus is, what our greatest need is and how we should engage the world. And those are the 2 application points. I just want to rub in now that we've looked at these scenes.

These stories affect how we view the world and they affect how we view ourselves. They affect how we view the world and how we view ourselves. Firstly, let's think about how they affect our view of the world. If Jesus is the friend of sinners. If Jesus has come to be with sinners and to give them good news, that is surely a model for how Christians ought to be too.

That must be 1 of the reasons that Mark put this in his gospels. What what 1 thing he wanted the early church to know. But just like our lord, we should be the friends of sinners. And some people and you know, we're all gonna have different battles on this. Some some people will look at the world and they will vote worry very very much about being swallowed up by it.

We look at the agendas that are pushed in our culture. We look at the world views which gather such momentum. We hear the things that our friends and neighbors believe and we think if I if I surround myself with that, If I spend too much time with them, if I in any way sit under their teaching, I'm lost. I'm gonna be swallowed up, and so what we do then is we withdraw and we separate ourselves and we want to pull back entirely. So as not to in any way be under or influenced by anyone who thinks differently to us.

And there's something like a good instinct in there because Jesus says, you know what the Bible tells us that we should come out in a sense and be separate from those things. But if that is our dominant attitude, Increasingly we will find ourselves cut off from Jesus, who was a cut off from people who need Jesus. We will. Maybe not at work, but socially we will find ourselves cut off from the very people that Jesus came into the world to save. Or the other way, we might be so the friend of sinners that we slowly stop caring about the standards of God's word.

And this often can happen in relationships. We've got loads of friends who don't know the Lord. And do you know what they believe things that seem pretty plausible? And they don't know God and they don't base their life or relationships around God and they seem pretty happy, they seem okay, they seem content. Do you know maybe God's word isn't right on this after all?

And slowly, our light gets put out. But there is a life giving tension between those 2 things, isn't there? Which Jesus models. A tension where we do not compromise standards of the word of God. But like Jesus, we become a friend of sinners.

We want to be warm and attractive and have an attractive message. To the last, the least, and the lost. Verse 17 is as much a mission statement as anything else. So it affects how we relate to the world. But lastly, it affects how we view ourselves.

And let me just as we close, put this question to you. Do you agree with Jesus about your greatest need? Do you agree with Jesus? About your greatest need. Let's say that microphone comes to you.

Why are you here today? What made you come to see the King? How would you answer that? We might think that a better job or that relationship we wanted for ages, or more obedient children, or a more healthy marriage or more more general health are our greatest and most important needs. But Jesus, through both of these stories, without dismissing the importance of those things, says friends, sons, daughters, your it it it is your sins.

Which need to be sorted out. Your sins are the thing that needs to be dealt with so that you can be reconciled to God. That is your greatest need. What good would it be for you to gain the whole world? To have every 1 of your other needs met.

But then on the last day to forfeit your soul. These other things which do matter and are important to us. What these stories tell us is that those needs do not threaten our souls. In the way that sin does. That is the thing that has got to be put right.

1 writer says forgiveness is the greatest miracle that Jesus ever performs. It meets the greatest needs. It costs the greatest price. It brings the greatest blessing. And so which is easier to say to this paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven or to say get up take your mat and walk.

Well, it's easier to say your sins are forgiven. But in order to make it a reality, it's going to cost the life of the son of God. It's gonna require him sacrificing his perfect self on the cross for our sins so that we through faith could be made clean and holes. It's easiest to say, but it's harder to do because it requires that great sacrifice. And the invitation of this passage is that whoever you are and whatever you've done, if you will agree with Jesus about your greatest need, he will see you now.

And he will make you clean. And he will take away the sin sickness which threatens our eternity and he will give us a new forgiven life. The only people that Jesus cannot help in this room are the people who think that they're good enough without him. It's the only people he cannot help. Everybody else, whatever the need, whatever the sickness, whatever the sin.

It can be brought to Jesus. And you can find a new life in him. As we sing in 1 of our songs, all the fitness he requires is to feel your need of him. All the fitness he requires is to feel your need of him. Let's have a moment of quiet, and I'll hand over to to Pete.

It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but those who are ill. They have not come to call a righteous. But sinners. Father God help us to put down our pride. Such a killer.

Help us to recognize our deepest need. We failed you. We failed even people that we love. We failed even ourselves. We've messed up.

As a people, we've messed this world up, we mess other people groups up, We've been selfish. We've grabbed. We've turned a blind eye to those in pain and suffering. We've thought ourselves more righteous than we are. And we pray that we would come to you as sinners.

And what a delight to be able to call out to dial 9 9 9 that you, the great health worker, the great ambulance. The great doctor are there, already died on the cross, already risen again. Take and deal with our sin. Please help us to respond. Help us to come to you.

Even now. Let me pray in Jesus' name, amen.