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Hi, this is Pastor Tom Holliday and I want to welcome you to Daily Drive Time
Devotions. This is week two of our look at the Book of Mark, chapter two this
week. We're going to be looking at verses one to twelve today.

We're beginning our look at chapter two of this incredible book. I want to
remind you of where we started last week. We began our look at Mark and reminded
ourselves that this is a book of action.

In Mark there's no genealogy, there's no list of the long genealogy of Jesus
like you'd find in Matthew or in Luke because Mark is focusing on Jesus not as
the King of the Jews but as the servant of all. And we looked last week at the
fact that this word immediately is used 41 times in this book. It's a book about
this spontaneous immediacy of Jesus' actions as a servant of all.

And this week as we look at Mark chapter two we're going to be looking at some
experiences from the life of Jesus, what some people thought about those
experiences, some of the enemies of Jesus begin to come up in this chapter and
then Jesus' teaching based on what they said. Let's begin in Mark chapter two,
verses one, we're going to look at verses one to twelve today but let me just
begin by verses one to five. A few days later when Jesus again entered Capernaum
the people heard that he had come home.

So many gathered 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 paralytic carried by
four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd they
made an opening in the roof above Jesus and after digging through it lowered the
mat the paralyzed man was lying on.

When Jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are
forgiven. " So here is Jesus back at Capernaum where he began his ministry in
the book of Mark. Here he is back at a house, it doesn't say what house he is at
but it's safe to assume it might be the same house that he was at last time he
was in Capernaum, Peter and Andrew's house and just as last time he was in
Capernaum so many people gathered they couldn't get in the door.

This time so many people gathered they couldn't get in the door. And Jesus is
going to do a great miracle in just a moment but don't miss, don't miss that
much of the day was Jesus preaching the word to them and he preached the word to
them. He taught them the truth, he showed them about life, he showed them about
God's love and God's power.

And in the midst of this teaching something happened that Mark wants us to know
about. There were some men who came with a paralyzed man hoping that Jesus would
heal him. But they couldn't get through the crowd.

It took four of them to carry this man, there may have been more than four that
came with the man but it took four to carry him on a stretcher and with that
bigger group they just couldn't get the crowd to part enough to get this man to
Jesus. And so they came up with this very inventive solution, they lowered the
man through the roof. Now in that day most houses would have had a flat roof and
the roof beams would have been oh about three feet apart and between those beams
there was a filling of saplings and clay and dirt and oftentimes over that there
would be some tiles placed.

So these men went up and they put the tiles to the side and they took some of
the dirt out and then there was an opening. It was easily fixed so it's not like
they were damaging the house in a way that could never be repaired and then
through that opening they lowered this man so that he could be healed by Jesus.
And Jesus sees this and he doesn't get angry that what did you do to this guy's
roof?

He doesn't scold them, why did you interrupt me when I was teaching? He saw
their faith. He saw their faith and because of that he heals this man.

First of all many people look at this and they say wait what does this mean?
Jesus saw their faith and so he said to the paralytic son your sins are
forgiven. Can I have faith so that somebody else's sins are forgiven?

When it says he saw their faith it means all of them. It means he saw the faith
of the four who brought him and lowered him, he saw the faith of those who came
and weren't carrying him and he also saw the faith of the man who was lowered
and needed healing. Without the man's faith, the paralytic who needed to be
healed, he couldn't have been forgiven of his sins.

But also without the faith of the four who carried him and the others who
brought him, he wouldn't have even been put into a place where he could trust
Jesus. Here's the interesting thing that you and I can learn from this. When
someone is coming to a relationship with Jesus, Jesus sees the faith of the one
who's telling the good news and he also sees the faith of the one who is
accepting the good news and it takes faith for someone to tell and it takes
faith for someone to accept and Jesus sees them both.

Remember that sometimes your faith, your faith helps someone to get to a place
where they can have faith. Never forget that. Jesus says to this man who needs
healing immediately, "Your sins are forgiven.

" Now why does he say that? Well why doesn't he just say you're healed or get up
and walk? Why does he say your sins are forgiven?

Jesus was confronting the belief of that time. It was the common belief of that
time. It was commonly taught that suffering was always caused by someone's sin.

If you were sick or you were paralyzed like this man was, it was your fault
because of your sin. Now just imagine the burden that this belief put on people.
There is no doubt that our sin can make us sick.

There's no doubt about that at all. But there's also no doubt that many of our
sicknesses are not because of our own sin but maybe because of somebody else's
or just the fact that we live in a sinful world where there is sickness. But
this idea that if I am sick it had to be my fault because of some specific sin
in my life, Jesus was confronting that.

He looked at this man who needed to be healed and he said, "Your sins are
forgiven. " Jesus knew some teachers were there, some who had been teaching
about sin and forgiveness. And so he began by saying, "Your sins are forgiven,"
and here's what happened beginning in verse 6 and then reading through verse 12.

Now some 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 paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven' or to say, 'Get up,
take your mat and walk. ' But that you may know that the Son of Man has
authority on earth to forgive sins.

" He said to the paralytic, "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. This amazed
everyone and they praised God saying, "We have never seen anything like this.

" So here are these teachers listening to Jesus, these teachers who believe that
all sickness is connected to sin and they watch Jesus say to this man, "Your
sins can be forgiven. " And they think two things immediately. They think he's
not God so he must be blaspheming and they think no one can forgive sins but God
and the Bible tells us that Jesus knew what they were thinking.

Now Jesus was not omniscient while he was on this earth. He didn't know
everything that was happening everywhere. That was one of the ways that he
limited himself, chose to limit himself when he became a man but he's still God.

He is God and man fully and so he often knew, as you read through the Gospels,
he often knew what those around him were thinking and in this case he knew
exactly what they were thinking. They were thinking this man is blaspheming
saying that he's God and no one can forgive sins but God alone. Now Jesus
confronts them because they believe that no one could heal besides God and
because they believe that this sickness had to be a result of sin, Jesus said
get up and walk.

By their own belief, if that man got up and walked, it meant that Jesus had to
be God. No one could forgive sins but God alone. And that man's sickness,
according to their belief, had to be connected to his sin in his life.

He couldn't be healed without being forgiven. So when Jesus says get up and
walk, it confronted everything in these teachers' belief. The man got up and
walked.

And what did they do? We're going to look at the sad answer to that tomorrow,
how they got to the point of rejecting Jesus in their life. But today, as we end
today, I want to return to focusing on the man and the friends and and my faith
and your faith.

And just for a moment, as we think about what happened that day, put yourself in
the crowd. Just imagine that you were sitting there, standing there watching
what happened that day. At the end of that day, the Bible says that they said we
have never seen anything like this.

They were amazed. Don't stop being amazed by what Jesus can do. Even if you've
heard this story a hundred times, don't stop being amazed by what only Jesus can
do.

Put yourself now not in the crowd but as one of those four men who are holding
the stretcher, one of those who chose to do the unlikely thing because of their
faith. What unlikely thing is God challenging you to do in your life because you
have faith in him? Others may not understand it.

Others might even criticize it, but God's challenging you to do it. And then put
yourself not in the crowd, not the men holding the stretcher. Put yourself on
the stretcher.

That man who that day was depending on others, totally depended on them to get
him to Jesus. And that man who that day was depending on Jesus, depending on
Jesus for healing. As we talk to God for just a few minutes today, let's talk to
him about faith.

Our Father, we pray we could have the kind of faith that people had this day.
Help us to be amazed, Jesus, by what only you can do. And help us to do the
unlikely thing because of our faith.

And help us, we pray, to depend on others and to depend on you because we have
faith, we have trust in you. Lord, it's so easy to depend on myself. It's so
easy to think that I can figure it all out myself, but I can't.

I need you. And I need others. And I pray that you'd help me today to see how I
can depend on you.

And in depending on you, depend on the other people you put in my life in new
and fresh ways. And I ask this, Jesus, in your name, amen. Tomorrow, we're going
to focus together on the reaction of those who oppose the good news that Jesus
was living and teaching, and we're going to learn together how you and I can,
instead of rejecting Jesus, accept him in our daily lives.