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[0:00] Now, if we could, with the Lord's help this evening, turn back to the portion of Scripture that we read in the Gospel according to Mark, chapter 2.

[0:12] And last week, as we considered together the end of the first chapter in Mark's Gospel, we saw the authority of Jesus over the sickness, over sickness with the healing of a leper.

[0:23] And this evening, we see the authority of Jesus over sickness with the healing of a paralyzed man. And if we read again from verse 5, Mark, chapter 2, verse 5.

[0:36] When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven. But mainly the first, probably the first three words in verse 5.

[0:52] When Jesus saw. When Jesus saw. And as we saw last Lord's Day, the Gospel according to Mark is one which presents to us who Jesus Christ is and what He came to do.

[1:10] And as Mark says himself, that Jesus came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. But in this great story of redemption, Mark opens and closes his Gospel with the statement that Jesus is the Son of God.

[1:27] His emphasis upon Jesus as God's beloved Son are the words that act as bookends to this entire Gospel. With the first verse in the Bible. With the first verse in his Gospel, Mark directs us to who this Gospel is about.

[1:42] It is about, he says, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And then when Mark reaches the climax of his Gospel, he tells us that there is a centurion who stood at the cross in front of Jesus and heard his cry and saw how he had died and said, truly, truly, this man was the Son of God.

[2:05] So, you see, Mark had a desire to portray Jesus as the one who has authority over sickness, sin, and even death. And the authority which Jesus has is all because he is the Son of God.

[2:20] But Mark tells us at the beginning of this chapter in verse 1 that after a few days, Jesus entered into Capernaum again. And that many people had heard that Jesus was in town and that he was staying at home.

[2:35] And although it's not clear whether or not it was his own home, as some suggest it was Peter's house. But the way it's put in the text, it suggests that where Jesus was to be found was in this familiar location.

[2:48] It was in a location where Jesus had been before and where miracles had been performed. In chapter 1, we see that he was in Capernaum and it was there that Jesus healed the man with the unclean spirit.

[3:03] And then he also healed Peter's mother-in-law who was sick with a fever. But at the outset of this chapter, wherever it was, Mark brings us back to Capernaum in Galilee.

[3:15] And he shows us that not even the unwritten laws of hospitality in the Middle East were able to stop these people coming to Jesus. Eastern tradition believed that it was right and proper to wait for an invitation to come to someone's house.

[3:32] Instead of just inviting yourself and turning up at the door. But these people, they had this desire to come and see Jesus. They didn't wait for an invite or to be told that they could come.

[3:44] They came because they wanted to see who Jesus was. And they wanted to see the miracles that he performed. And they wanted to hear what he had to say to them.

[3:55] And it's interesting to know that there were so many people in this home that there was no room to receive any more of them. And yet if you go to the beginning of Jesus' life, there was no room to receive him into this world.

[4:09] When Jesus was born, there was no room for him there. But in this chapter, we see that people were flocking to him. But the question we must ask is, what was the attraction with Jesus now?

[4:23] What was it that drew people to him? Why did people follow him from absolutely everywhere? We know why Jesus did miracles. We saw last week that Jesus healed the leper because he was moved with compassion.

[4:38] And that Jesus showed compassion towards those who were sick and demon-possessed. But why did these people come to this home in Capernaum? What was it that attracted them to Jesus?

[4:51] They came to hear the famous preacher. Everyone had heard about him. His fame had spread throughout all of Galilee. He had been seen in all the synagogues and throughout the region and in the streets.

[5:05] He was healing all those people who were sick. Jesus was doing things that were never so seen in Israel. So when they came to see what new doctrine he had and with what authority he commanded, and to hear this famous preacher, it tells us at the end of verse 2 that that's exactly what he did.

[5:26] He preached the word unto them. And what did he preach? In a sense, the same sermon. The time is fulfilled. And the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

[5:39] Repent and believe in the gospel. But what these people gathered in this home would not understand or ever expect is that this message which Jesus preached was to come alive right before their eyes.

[5:53] As a paralyzed man is going to be brought before this great crowd, and he is going to experience the transforming power of the gospel, this paralyzed man would be a living example of what it means to repent and to believe in the gospel.

[6:10] And this is the second encounter I would like us to focus on. And I would like us to consider this encounter from the perspective of Jesus by literally looking through the eyes of Jesus to see what Jesus saw.

[6:29] What Jesus saw. And the first direction I want us to look is upward. Because he looks upward towards the men who were on the roof of the house.

[6:43] He looked up. It says in verse 5, When Jesus saw their faith. When Jesus saw their faith. And having lowered their sick friend down through the hole which they had made, Jesus looked up and saw these four men standing on the roof of his house.

[7:02] But when these men came to this house in Capernaum, carrying this paralyzed man, he was like dead weight to them. And the place was jam-packed with people.

[7:13] The house was filled right to the door, so much so that no one else could get in. The place was absolutely crammed with people. So as these men looked around, trying to get closer to Jesus, they saw the staircase that would lead up towards the roof.

[7:29] And in those days, every house in Galilee, it had a staircase that would go up to the roof. They didn't need a ladder. They didn't need a cherry picker to get this man onto the roof.

[7:40] There was this staircase which led up to a flat roof. And it wouldn't have been difficult to remove the tiles and the coating of mixture that was on top of the tiles, made of clay and hay.

[7:52] It wouldn't have been difficult for them to make this hole large enough to get their paralyzed friend through. And when you think about it, you can almost imagine what was going on.

[8:04] And as Jesus was standing in the front room of his house, preaching to all those who gathered to hear him, and suddenly they hear this thudding above their heads, something moving across the ceiling, and they hear this thudding, thudding, thudding noise.

[8:22] And then there's silence for a moment. And then all of a sudden, the noise of scratching and scraping starts to begin as the roof has been pulled apart. And these people, they're saying to each other, the roof has been pulled apart.

[8:35] What on earth are these people thinking? What are they doing? And for anyone to witness this, it must have been some sight to see these men pulling someone's roof apart, lifting the tiles and breaking the clay mixture.

[8:49] Maybe some of it falling down on the inside into the house. And yet Jesus doesn't say, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. He doesn't say anything. He doesn't say, don't make a mess of my house.

[9:00] Don't wreck my roof because it cost me a fortune. Just come down and make room for them in the house. He doesn't say a word. Because Jesus waits to see their faith.

[9:11] And as the men on the roof begin to scratch away at the clay mixture and all the tiles, eventually they break through into this man's house. And as the tiles are moved away and pushed to the one side, they keep digging.

[9:24] And this rays of light begin to break through into the home. And all of a sudden you can see the tired faces of these men peering down through this hole.

[9:36] And without any announcement, they begin to lower this man, this paralyzed friend through the roof, laying on a mattress, dangling and swaying to the left and to the right until he's dropped at Jesus' feet.

[9:51] And when Jesus looks up at these four men, he sees faith. He sees faith. Jesus could see that these men were so concerned about their friend and that they wanted to help him in the best way that they could.

[10:09] And these men had the faith to believe that Jesus could and Jesus would meet his need. They didn't simply pray about it. Pray about it and hope that something would change for their friend.

[10:24] But they put some feet into those prayers and did something about it. And when we consider these four friends, it was not enough for them simply to pray for him.

[10:35] Yes, it was good and right and proper. And of course, there is wonder working power in prayer. And sometimes we need to realize the power that is actually in prayer and the need for the Lord's people to gather themselves to pray for the cause of Christ, where we need to realize and return to the fact that the prayer meeting is a priority for a Christian because it is the prayer of faith that moves the hand of God.

[11:02] And I'm not saying that your prayers for your family and your friends are of none effect. I'm not saying that at all. But what I am saying is that it's not enough to stop at prayer.

[11:14] We must, prayer must work alongside actions of faith because our prayers must have feet. And for these four men, it was not enough simply to pray for their paralyzed friend.

[11:28] They had to bring him to Jesus. And regardless of their difficult circumstances, it didn't discourage them because they were determined to help their friend.

[11:40] And with all the opposition that they had, they could have gone home. It was easy enough for them. How easy would it have been just to turn around, see the crowd turn around and go home, to give up on all that they had done, to walk away from it all?

[11:54] They could have gone home. They could have waited. Or they could have shouted for Jesus to come out. But the what-ifs and the could-haves were of no use to these men because they were determined to get to Jesus.

[12:08] Because if an opening to Jesus cannot be found, then an opening to Jesus must be made. And that is a description of faith. It will remove any obstacle, whether woof if necessary, just to get to Jesus.

[12:25] And Jesus saw their faith. And as I know what James said in his letter, where he said to the effect, okay, you have faith and I believe you.

[12:37] I believe you, that's good. You have faith and you pray earnestly. But show me your works. Because he says, faith without works, dead.

[12:50] It's dead. It's no use. You have faith, my friend. Show me your works. And these men, they didn't bring the paralyzed man in order to earn their faith.

[13:02] They brought him because of their faith. And is that not what we're meant to do? We're not only to bring people to the feet of Jesus through prayer, but literally to bring people to the feet of Jesus by introducing them to the gospel.

[13:17] And sometimes we have no idea what will happen when we introduce people to the gospel. Maybe we think it will never change them. In the back of our mind, we think, no, never.

[13:30] It will never do them any good. They aren't interested. It's not for them. They don't have the same background as me. But who would have thought that Peter would become the rock upon which the gates of hell would not prevail?

[13:48] Who would have said that Peter would deny Jesus three times with cursing and swearing, saying that, I do not know the man? We would have written him off as a Christian, said, backslider.

[14:01] Total backslider. But who would have dared to say that this Peter, this Galilean fisherman, after he had denied the Lord and backslidden and been restored, who would have thought that one day he would stand and preach in front of so many people and over 3,000 souls would be saved?

[14:20] And looking at Peter in the early years of his life, who would have thought that he would be used mightily by the Lord? Who would have thought it? Who would have written this man's biography before it ever happened?

[14:31] And Galilean fisherman, he won't do much with himself. But do you know what changed this man's life? What changed Peter's life? Do you know how he was transformed by the power of the gospel?

[14:46] His brother. His own flesh and blood brought him to Jesus. John tells us in his gospel that Andrew, Peter's brother, heard what John the Baptist had said about Jesus.

[15:00] And the first place Andrew went was to his own home to find his own brother and tell Peter that the Messiah has come. And he brought him to Jesus.

[15:12] And the reason Peter brought, Andrew brought Peter, was his love for his own brother. And the reason these men brought this paralyzed man was their love for their friend.

[15:23] And it makes us question our motive when we share the gospel with people. Is it for self-praise? Is it to be seen by others?

[15:34] Is it because we want to say that we have aided in their conversion? But that's not faith. That's pride. But is our motive in sharing this gospel, a desire to bring people to Christ, a love for them and their soul, whether it's inviting them to come to church or speaking to them about their undying soul, our motive must always be love.

[16:01] Always love. How much do we love our unconverted friends to keep this message from them? How much do we love our family to allow them to go their own way?

[16:13] How much do we love those whom we work with to withhold this message of salvation from them? How much? But if we saw it from their perspective, the people we work with, the people who we love, or who saw it from their perspective, would they see our love for them being shown?

[16:37] Would they see our love for them no matter how difficult it may be, no matter how hard it is for us to speak to them, no matter how close they are or how much they swear or take the Lord's name in vain, how much they may make a joke of the whole thing, would they still see our love towards them as lost sinners?

[16:57] Yes, you have faith, but show me your works. And that's what Jesus saw when he looked up. He saw four men on a roof, lowering their paralyzed friend to the feet of Jesus.

[17:12] So Jesus, he looked up, and then Jesus, he looked down. Jesus looked down. It says in verse 5, when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven.

[17:30] Jesus looked down and saw this paralyzed man lying on his mat. And for us to picture this scene, all we can see is this crowded room full of people who wanted to hear Jesus speak.

[17:42] And when they were rudely interrupted by this unbelievable entrance of this paralyzed man coming down through this gaping hole in a roof. And this man, he lies at Jesus' feet, all rigid, looking up at him.

[17:56] And the scribes standing around there just picking off the dust that was on them, dusting themselves down and making sure they were all clean. And these four friends of this paralyzed man peering down from the roof.

[18:10] And all of them, they're all there waiting, expecting to see what Jesus will do next. What will he say? What will he do? They have just ruined his roof, interrupted their important meeting, and placed a paralyzed man in the front living room of his house.

[18:26] But what will he say to this paralyzed man? What's he going to say to him? What's he going to do? And Jesus speaks and says, Son, your sins are forgiven.

[18:38] And almost instantly, you know that what others, you know what they're thinking. Absolute disbelief of it all, left speechless saying, What?

[18:51] Is that it? They couldn't get it into their head. But regardless of what anyone thought the paralyzed man needed, Jesus knew him better.

[19:02] And Jesus went straight to the heart of the paralyzed man's problem, which was the problem of the paralyzed man's heart. And the problem he had was sin.

[19:14] And by all accounts of his outward appearance, the problem which this disabled man had to encounter every single day of his life was his inability to walk. But what Jesus saw first was not his inability to walk, but his inability to believe.

[19:31] And for this man to allow his friends to take him to Jesus, he must have acknowledged that there was a far greater problem than his paralysis. And this paralyzed man knew that the reason he could not walk was a result of sin.

[19:45] It may not have been his fault that he was paralyzed. Could have been an accident which caused his paralysis, an accident because of human error. Or he could have been born that way, lame from birth, because not all sickness and disease is a direct result of someone sinning.

[20:04] This paralyzed man was in the exact same situation as the blind man who Jesus met in John chapter 9, where the disciples asked Jesus on that occasion.

[20:15] They asked about this blind man. They said, Master, who sinned? Who sinned? Was it this man or his parents that he was born blind? But Jesus answered and said to them, Neither hath this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

[20:35] The man who was born blind was to be a living example of the wonder-working power of the gospel. And when we look at this paralyzed man, the paralysis was not a problem, but his sin was.

[20:48] Yes, the disease which he had had caused the paralysis. It was all a result of sin, as every one of us are subject to the effects of sin because of the fall, where all mankind, descending from Adam, as the catechism says, we sinned in him and fell with him in his first transgression.

[21:09] We are all subject to the effects of sin, whether or not it's our fault. But this man's greater need was his spiritual need, not his temporal need.

[21:22] That's not to say we emphasize one over the other. Both are important to Jesus, and that is seen in the way he heals this man. But one is temporal.

[21:33] One is the temporal need, and the other is eternal. And the eternal need of someone should always outweigh the temporal need. And you often hear people saying, Oh, there they go again.

[21:47] That's all the church ever wants to talk about. All it talks about is the problems of society and sin, sin, sin, sin. They don't have anything good to tell us, nothing good to share with us, and yet God doesn't exist until bad things happen.

[22:04] When things go wrong and the questions that start flying about us, where is God when bad things happen? Where is God when my friends and family are taken from me? Where is God? God doesn't care.

[22:17] And this man, he could have gone through his whole life thinking that God didn't care about him and that God wanted nothing to do with him because he was an outcast, just like the leper in chapter 1.

[22:29] He couldn't do anything for himself. He couldn't work or he couldn't wash. He couldn't do things that others could. And maybe he had come to the conclusion that God didn't want him.

[22:40] But when these friends of his showed him that God does care and that God loves and that Jesus is able to restore the blind their sight and make the deaf hear and the lame to walk, this man saw the smallness of his temporal need in comparison to his eternal need.

[23:02] He didn't say that the temporal need was not important, but in comparison to his eternal well-being, there was no comparison. Son, your sins are forgiven.

[23:16] And before Jesus healed this man's body, Jesus spoke peace to this man's heart and announced that his sins were forgiven because forgiveness is the greatest miracle that Jesus ever performs.

[23:30] And I'm not going to take away from the fact that you may struggle with an illness or you have to cope with a disability in your life or that you have lost someone close to you and it hurts.

[23:43] And it really, really hurts. I'm not going to take, I'm not going to belittle it and say it doesn't matter to me and it doesn't matter to God. That's not what I'm saying because it does matter.

[23:56] But what I am saying is that in light of eternity, your eternal need of salvation is of the greatest importance because forgiveness is the greatest miracle that Jesus ever performs.

[24:09] And it meets the greatest need because it costs the greatest price and it brings the greatest blessing. So can I ask you, my friend, have you experienced the greatest miracle that Jesus ever performs?

[24:25] Have you experienced his forgiveness and experienced his peace and blessing? Do you know what it is to be forgiven? Do you know that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness?

[24:41] Have you experienced the greatest miracle that Jesus ever performs? Do you know the words, son or daughter, your sins are forgiven?

[24:55] So Jesus looked up and Jesus looked down and as the room remained in silence as to what Jesus had said, Jesus looked around.

[25:08] And with Jesus having declared this paralytic, paralytic forgiven, you can almost hear the gasp. No one could speak, no one said anything because of the horror of Jesus' statement.

[25:22] It was the last thing anyone was expecting him to say. They probably expected him to say you're healed or rise up and walk. Things he usually said, not your sins are forgiven.

[25:34] Who does he think he is? Why does he talk like that? He's blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? And Jesus looked around and saw this crowd who was crammed into his home.

[25:47] And for Mark, his emphasis upon the crowds was an important one. Because time and time again, Mark confirms Jesus' popularity by referring to the crowds that followed him.

[26:00] And he mentions it nearly 40 times before chapter 10. And you see that Mark notes that the crowds which followed Jesus formed the audiences for all his teaching and were the object of his compassion.

[26:15] But Mark never tells us that these crowds turned to Jesus in repentance and belief in the gospel. It seems that despite the popularity of Jesus, the crowds which came to him are not to be considered as a measure of his success in the book of Mark, but a reminder to us that they are the ones who obstruct the way to Jesus.

[26:37] These crowds constitute the outsiders who either stand in contradiction to Jesus and the purpose of his ministry, or stand in absolute opposition to Jesus and the purpose of his ministry.

[26:54] And this is the reason Jesus spoke to them in parables. Because although they can see, they do not see. And although they can hear, they do not hear or understand.

[27:07] And the point that the gospel writers are trying to present is that enthusiasm for Jesus and close proximity to him is not the same as faith in him.

[27:17] And that every parable and every miracle that Jesus presents to these crowds that follow him, he is telling them that coming to me is not enough. You need commitment.

[27:28] You need faith. You need faith to see and to hear and to understand. You need faith. Because being part of a crowd is not the same as being a disciple of Jesus.

[27:39] There were so many who followed Jesus and heard the words that he spoke and saw the miracles he performed and witnessed the transformation of people's lives.

[27:49] But it was no use to them being on the periphery. It was no use being a bystander to the things of God. It was no use being an onlooker or a passerby or a spectator.

[28:02] Because you need to have faith and commitment to Jesus Christ. And this wasn't to the unconverted he was addressing. Not just to the unconverted.

[28:14] It's to those who knew their Bibles and those who knew all about salvation but they needed to reboot their Christian lives and remind themselves of the beauty of Christ and the glory of the gospel.

[28:27] Because it's not enough just to know about Jesus and come and hear his words and fill a space in church. You must commit yourself to him wholeheartedly.

[28:41] Wholeheartedly. John tells us that Jesus came unto his own. And it's these people. But his own did not receive him.

[28:53] So why did these people come to Jesus? Did they come for the message or did they come to see what they could get out of Jesus? Did they come to correct him?

[29:05] Or did some of them just come to see what all the fuss was about? But by this point the people who gathered in this house they couldn't have thought that Jesus was actually God's Son.

[29:16] I don't think it had even crossed their mind. They hadn't contemplated that the Messiah had come and that he was in their midst. They would have never thought that Jesus Christ was the Son of God.

[29:28] And I'm thinking about it. The gospel which would have been a perfect gift to all the crowds that followed Jesus would have been a copy of the gospel according to Mark.

[29:41] Because the more I read it the more it seems to me that it was written for them. He mentions them so many times and on so many different occasions. And if they only could have seen it and read it and understood it if they could only have a copy for themselves they would have known who Jesus really was.

[30:02] Because Mark wants to present to his readers that being a bystander to the things of the gospel is not enough. Staying in the crowd even as part of a church is not enough.

[30:14] Because coming forward and making yourself known to Jesus is what's required. It's what's required. So Jesus looks up.

[30:25] Jesus looks down. Jesus looks around and then Jesus looks within. Jesus looks within. Up, down, around, within.

[30:39] If you look at verse 8 it says immediately Mark's trademark word 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?

[30:53] 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.

[31:05] 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.

[31:22] And Jesus he looked within and saw the critics that had come to spy on him. Of course these religious leaders had every right to investigate the ministry of this new teacher since the religious life of the nation was under their supervision but they should have come with open minds and open hearts seeking the truth desiring to know the truth and be shaped by the truth instead of coming with this critical spirit seeking seeking the heresy and looking for all the faults that he may have had.

[31:57] My friend how we can be so like them. It's a frightening thing to have a critical spirit where all we see is what is wrong and what is bad instead of what is right and what is good.

[32:13] And it's a terrible thing to have a critical spirit where we must always ask ourselves is there legalism in our heart that hinders the gospel. Nobody wants to be a hindrance to the gospel.

[32:26] No one wants to be a hindrance to this gospel but is our critical spirit ruining our spiritual life and quenching our spiritual thirst for the Lord.

[32:39] And as this crowd questioned the authority of Jesus wondering why he talked with such authoritative words they thought to themselves he's blaspheming he's robbing God of his honor.

[32:51] He's what does he think he's doing? Who does he think he is? And they would have been right to say these things perfectly in their right to make these accusations because if there was anyone if this was anyone else they would be blaspheming.

[33:11] They would be robbing God of his honor. But this wasn't any ordinary man. This was an extraordinary man. He was God incarnate in the flesh.

[33:23] He was Jesus Christ the Son of God. But when Jesus looked within he saw the critical spirit that was in their heart and he knew that they were accusing him of blasphemy.

[33:34] And yes their theology was correct. Only God could forgive sins. But what they couldn't understand was why Jesus told the paralytic that his sins were forgiven.

[33:46] They couldn't understand that Jesus was claiming to be God. But if these men these theologians if they knew their Bibles as well as they said they did they would have noticed that Jesus spoke to them.

[34:00] And when he spoke to them he was referring to the book of Daniel and the title of that significant figure who would be in this close relationship to God and sovereign over all of mankind.

[34:12] Even as it says in Daniel chapter 7 and verse 13 it speaks of the Son of Man. And it says I saw in the night visions and behold one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven and came to the ancient of days and they brought him near before him and there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people nations and languages should serve him.

[34:39] His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. And throughout the four Gospels Jesus constantly refers to himself as the Son of Man.

[34:54] And he gives himself this title not only because it was Messianic but because it spoke of the authority which Jesus had as God's own Son. It was a divine title given to the one who would perform a divine function.

[35:10] And on numerous occasions Jesus would take this title to himself in order to emphasize his authority as God's Son. In these verses that we read Jesus makes the statement that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins.

[35:26] And on other occasions Jesus is going to tell us that the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. And that the Son of Man must suffer many things. And that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of men and they will kill him.

[35:41] But Jesus also speaks of the Son of Man as coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And that on the last day when all things will come to an end.

[35:52] And that when we're called to the bar of God's judgment Jesus tells us that you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven.

[36:05] This title that Jesus gives to himself is not one that is to be taken lightly. He is claiming that he is the Son of God and that all authority is given to him in heaven and on earth and that there is no one like him because he is high and lifted up.

[36:22] His name is holy where heaven is his throne and the earth is his footstool. He is the one whom Daniel spoke of. The Son of Man has been given all dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples and nations and languages and tongues should serve him and his dominion will be from everlasting to everlasting.

[36:44] It will not pass away and his kingdom shall not be destroyed. He will put all his enemies under his feet because his kingdom hath none end at all.

[36:55] Who is likened unto him? Who is he that is the king of glory? Who is this the Lord of hosts and none but he the king of glory is?

[37:10] O crown him he says. Crown him, crown him, crown him Lord of all. And this authority of Jesus says to us on the pages of his written word the son of man of power on earth to forgive sins.

[37:28] And that's exactly what he does. And the reason we gather in church this evening is not because we are good. It's not because we have saved ourselves or forgiven our own sin.

[37:42] The church is not for good people because there is none good except God alone. The church is not for good people it's all for bad people. it's for sinners.

[37:53] The church is for sinners and good people are not welcome here. Sinners are welcome. Those who need forgiveness are welcome.

[38:06] Those with burdens in their life and problems to bear they are welcome. Why? Because the son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins. And although there were some who were amazed and who praised God for the miracle which they had witnessed they said we have never seen anything like this.

[38:25] Yet for these scribes and Pharisees the words of Jesus fell on deaf ears. And the only and this miracle only caused them to harden their heart even more.

[38:38] And it was this event in Galilee which would be the beginning of Jesus' opposition that would ultimately lead to his arrest and crucifixion. This was the beginning of the road to Calvary.

[38:51] This was the start of his journey. And it's amazing that after all the scribes and the Pharisees had seen and experienced in the presence of the Lord they were willing to harden their heart.

[39:04] And Jesus knew it. He knew what was going on in their heart. John tells us that Jesus knew what was in every man. And Jesus knew that one day soon these scribes and Pharisees would respond to Jesus and his profound teaching not with the words my Lord and my God but crucify him.

[39:28] Away with him. Crucify him. And it raises the question how will we respond to Jesus and the miracles he performs.

[39:39] Jesus looked up. Jesus looked down. He looked around and he looked within. And you know the eyes of Jesus they haven't stopped looking.

[39:53] He can still see and he still knows our condition and our need. And our greatest need is forgiveness. The greatest need because forgiveness is the greatest miracle that Jesus ever performs.

[40:08] and it meets the greatest need because it costs the greatest price and it brings the greatest blessing. So my friend make sure that on the last day when you stand before this Jesus and he these eyes are looking upon you.

[40:29] These eyes look upon you face to face. That when he sees you he sees his own righteousness. and that he sees that you are forgiven.

[40:40] And that he sees that you are cleansed in his blood. And that when you see him you will be like him. For then he will say well done good and faithful servant.

[40:57]  Enter thou into the joy of the Lord. May the Lord bless these thoughts to us. Let us pray.