Luke 5:17-26

Luke chapter 5 verses 17 to 26. We looked at the first part of this section through 20, 17 to 20 previously. But I want to look at the whole section here together this morning. And it came to pass on a certain day as he was teaching. There were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting, by which came out of every town of Galilee in Judea and Jerusalem. The power of the Lord was present to heal them. And behold, men brought in a bed, a man which was taken with a palsy. And they sought means to bring him in and to lay him before him. And when they could not find by what would, they might bring him in because of the multitude. They went upon the housetop and let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus. And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, man, thy sins are forgiven thee. And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphes? Who can forgive sins but God alone? And when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answered and said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts? Whether it is easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, rise up and walk. But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, he said under the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee arise, take up thy thy sins. couch and go into thine house. And immediately he rose up before him and took up that whereupon he lay and departed to his own house, glorifying God, and they were all amazed. And they glorified God and were filled with fear saying, we have seen strange things today. May God bless to us is sacred and holy words. As you read the Bible, you will find many strange things record. Strange in the sense of uncommon, unexpected, things never seen before. Incredible to the human understanding. For instance, we have Moses, who is watching sheep on the backside of the desert, who sees a burning bush, which isn’t consumed. During the plagues of Egypt, darkness, blankets, the whole land, except in the land of Goshen where the Israelites were and the sun shines there. During the wilderness journey, God miraculously rains down, if you would, manna from heaven. Upon the dew of the ground, so that the Israelites will have food to eat. He does it for 40 years. In Joshua’s Day, the sun stands still so that he can finish the battle and complete the destruction of the enemy forces. These are strange things. And yet here in our text we see in verse 26, the people saying, we have seen strange things today. We’re used to what’s commonplace, life for most people’s rather hummed, drum however, you can’t spend a day with the Lord Jesus Christ without seeing strange things happen because that’s all he’s about he’s about. Every time we turn around, he’s doing something miraculous. Read any gospel and you’ll be continuously amazed at the things Christ does. Our text here is a case in point. This particular day was astonishing. People were surprised by what they saw. what are these strange things? Here you find that Christ has the power to forgive sins. That amazed some people. You find that Christ has perfect knowledge of people’s thoughts. That’s astonishing, isn’t it? And you find that Christ can heal people in body and soul, which surprised many as well. Christ does strange things here. Well, let me begin by saying this. You find Christ has the power to forgive sins. In verses 17 to 20. Now, we looked at this section last week, but let me touch on it a little more. Christ’s word alone is sufficient to forgive your sins. Verse 20, man, thy sins are forgiven thee. The poor paralyzed man has been low. down through the roof into Christ’s presence. This paralyzed man desired to be healed of his physical ailment, but he needed something else as well. Secretly in his soul, we find that he had a heavy burden regarding his sin. You expect Christ to say, rise up and walk, but Jesus addresses the soul’s condition first. My sins. be forgiven thee. Notice that Christ spoke the words, and forgiveness is granted. It’s almost as if it was like the creation of God. Let there be light, and there was light. You are forgiven, and the sins are gone. Christ has the right. He has the power. He has the authority to forgive sins, and not everyone has that. This is a truth, though, that needs to be emphasized. Acts 531, we read that Him, speaking of Jesus Christ, have God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. It is vain for a priest to say to you, I absolve you of your sin. It’s foolish for, for you to request this of him. Father, forgive me for I have sinned. But he has no authority to do so. No power, no right to do so. The scribes and the Pharisees were correct. Who can forgive sins but God alone? Verse 21. Jesus Christ is God manifested in the flesh, and he has the power and the right to forgive sins. Jesus Christ is the mediator, not some Roman Catholic priest, and they’re usurping the place of Christ when they claim they can forgive sins. I tell you there were many priests in Israel in the time of David, but the Psalmist went to God and asked for forgiveness in Psalm 32 and Psalm 51. There were many priests in Israel. Israel and King Hasakiah’s day when he and his people confessed their sins to God, not to the Jewish priest. Although the Jewish priests were nearby, when the publican was in the temple, he confessed his sins to God and went to home justified. You know who confessed his sin to the priest? Judas Ascariot confessed his sins of the priest. I have betrayed innocent blood, and yet he was never forgiven. So if you desire forgiveness and sins, you go to Christ. His word is all you need. Man, my sins are forgiven thee. Notice that Christ’s forgiveness of your sins is comprehensive. Thy sins, plural, are forgiven thee. Not one sin alone, not most of the sins. All. of his sins were forgiven by the Savior here. This is an all-inclusive forgiveness. Sins against the Holy God. Sins that were a violation of God’s holy law. Hostility toward the gospel, whatever the case may be. He’s forgiven. The scripture says in John, 1 John 1.7, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us of all sin. All sin. all men are sin and of blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men. Matthew 12.31. We think about murder. Moses killed a man. David had Uriah killed. But both were forgiven, men. I read about adultery. There’s a woman that’s taken in the act, but she’s forgiven. I read about theft. We could talk about Zakias. We could talk about the man on the cross. cross, the thief who believed in the Lord. They were forgiven. We could talk about lying, and David and Abraham both lied. They were forgiven. We could talk about blasphemy. Paul says that he was a blasphemer. And 1. Timothy 113 before he was converted. He was forgiven, he tells us. We could talk about fornication. The Corinthians, we read about them and what they were, but you are washed, he says. He talks about all their sinful activities, and they were caught up in all types of ritualistic, religious, sexual sins and forgiven. No such thing is a half-pardon with Jesus Christ. He forgives all sins. The whole mass of your sins. When Mr. Christian came to the highway, which was walled on both sides, that highway, that highway was called salvation. It led him to a hill where there was a cross. And Christian struggles up the hill. He struggles because of this heavy burden on his back, so he’s having trouble getting up there. But he soon reached the cross, and as soon as he did, the burden was loose from his back, rolled down the hill, rolled in an open grave, and he never saw that burden again. It was gone. Completely removed. it was buried. That’s what Bunyan is saying. It’s buried. And he’s joyful. He had given me rest by his sorrow and life by his death, Mr. Christian says, about the Savior, Jesus Christ. This portrays how Jesus Christ removes the entire burden of your sins by his death. So Christ’s forgiveness of your sins is comprehensive. Thy sins, plural. are forgiven thee. Notice that Christ’s forgiveness is granted when you come in faith. It says here in verse 20, when he saw their faith, he said unto the man, man thy sins are forgiven thee. This man had a faith which reached out to Jesus. He was completely paralyzed, but as he lay in his hopeless state, he heard of this Jesus of Nazareth. He believed that he had the power, to heal him. His friends would not have brought him to Jesus unless he really believed he could be healed by Jesus. And they did too. And so he found forgiveness of all his sins, as well as healing of the body. By faith in Christ. The same is true today. There are no conditions. There are no works for this man to perform. He comes to Christ in faith and is forgiven. Friends, the message is believe in Christ, and your sins, which are many, will all be forgiven. So you find Christ has a power to forgive sins. Secondly, you find Christ’s perfect knowledge of people’s thoughts. Look at verses 21 to 23. And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason saying, who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone. But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering, said unto them, why reason ye in your hearts, whether it is easier to say thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, rise up and walk. You cannot keep anything secret from Christ. When the scribes and the Pharisees began to secretly reason in their hearts, they were condemning Jesus. Their minds were, their minds were, negative toward the Savior. They were actually hostile in their reasoning. Who does he think he is? Only God can forgive sins. This man should be put to death. However, Jesus perceived their thoughts. He could read their minds. He knew exactly what they were thinking. Jesus knew all men and needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. John 2. 24 and 25. Jesus possesses omniscience and infallibly knows the inner workings and the inner secrets of your heart. Nothing can be hidden from him. I read a story about the ancient Greeks and ancient times the Greeks worshipped images as their gods, such as Zeus, Roman name was Jupiter, but it’s the same God. They worshipped Zeus. And there would be these huge statues that they made of Zeus. People would come before these statues and worship their God. Now, spiders would stretch their webs across the eyes of Zeus. And the people like that idea. They like that situation. For the reasoned that Zeus then would not be able to see their sins and their evil doings, and thus not know what they had done, and therefore they would escape punishment. So they were pleased when there were any spiders that would cross over the eyes of Zeus. They were grateful for the spiders. Kept things hidden from God. What a pathetic view of your God. that you would believe this. That’s not the God of the Bible. That’s not the God of Heaven and Earth. Jesus doesn’t need to see or hear anything. He perceives. He knows the very thoughts hidden deeply in your heart. All things are naked and open under the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Hebrews 4. 4.13. This amazes many people. No doubt, when he revealed, what the scribes and Pharisees were thinking. It probably was stunning to them. So you can keep nothing secret from Christ. Your knowledge of Christ omniscience ought to stimulate a more holy walk in your life. Carefully reflect on this ability of Christ to know your innermost secrets. The psalmist pondered this truth about God in Psalm 139, verse 4. For there is not a word in my tongue, meaning yet unspoken thought, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Before I even speak it, when it’s still in my mind, you know it. Notice what the psalmist concludes. At the end of that Psalm, Psalm, Psalm 139, 24, search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and leave me in the way everlasting. Whoa. Not only my actions, but my thoughts. Do you perceive Christ searches your heart? Do you perceive that he knows every secret that we have? He knows your hypocrisy. He knows when there is a lack of zeal for his kingdom. He knows the secret sins. He knows the harsh thoughts we have. There’s nothing that can be hidden from him. The Bible says the thought of foolishness is sin, and we’ve had many of those. So when you come to worship before Christ, know that your heart, he knows whether your heart’s sincere or not. He knows whether you’re coming as a hypocritory or whether your heart is sincere in worship. Boy, what a stimulus to repent. What a stimulus to pray to the Lord. What a fearful thing it is to be before such a God. But there’s a comforting side to God’s Christ omniscience? Because we can say with Peter, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee. Yes, I failed you. Yes, I’ve sinned against you. Yes, I shouldn’t have done what I did. But I still love you. And he knows that too. He knows when we’re sincere. So regardless of your many sins and failures, Christ knows where you really stand with him. That shouldn’t be overlooked either. So you find Christ’s perfect knowledge. of people’s thoughts. That’s pretty shocking, isn’t it? The third thing we see is you find Christ can heal people in body and soul in verses 24 to 26. That you may know that the son of man have power upon earth to forgive sins. He said, unto the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee arise, take up thy couch and go into thine house. It immediately he rose up before them and took that upon whereon he lay and departed to his own house, glorifying God. and they were all amazed and they glorify God and we’re filled with fear saying we have seen strange things today. You see if Christ has the amazing healing power, first with regard to your soul, thy sins be forgiven thee. This was a pronouncement of absolution. It’s not a mere wish here. When you come to Christ in faith then and there, your sins are fully forgiven. You stay. justified in the sight of God. Sin is not imputed to you. It’s not charged to your account. I like what we read in Romans 4 verse 7 and 8. Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. That is a wonderful blessing. Is it not? Do you see what Christ did for this paralyzed means? he can do it for you. We have to go to him that our soul may be healed of sin. What a great blessing that is. Christ is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him. That’s what the scripture says. And then with regard to your body, Jesus took away the paralysis itself. Rise up and walk. Every limb in the the man’s body was restored to a state of health. You can see the nerves and the muscles gaining strength here. And the man first be able to rise up and stand, and then even be able to pick up the couch and carry it. Now, in this life, we have no promise that God will heal all our bodily afflictions and illnesses. Sometimes a thorn in the flesh brings more glory to God than the healing. And therefore, we may have to bear like Paul a thorn in the flesh. However, we are assured here that when we pray for the sick, that Christ has the power to heal. That’s our encouragement. The prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up, according to James 515. You can be assured on the last day when Jesus raises our bodies from the grave, he has the power to heal and put back all the molecules, if you would, and re-establish our bodies, even though they have rotted in the grave. So you can see Christ has this amazing healing power over the body and the soul. Now, your duty is to glorify God on this in this situation. Now think of the personal blessing here. You see the paralyzed man. He sits up, he stands, he carries his bed to God’s glory. He moves his whole body and does what he was not able to do before he met Christ. And as he does this, and sees what a wonderful healing that he has had and the forgiveness of sins that he’s been given, he glorifies Christ, God. Not only for the physical healing, but for the salvation. When you are saved, you instinctively are led to glorify God. And for a double blessing, when it affects both your body and your soul, why your praise ought to be great. Sometimes when suffering under a physical ailment. We get so focused on the physical ailment, we’re not thankful for the salvation that we’ve been granted. We need to think about, you know, the salvation is worthy of praise regardless of whether our body is healed or not. Bless, oh the Lord, bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all his benefits, the Psalmist says in Psalm 1-032, whether they be physical or whether they be spiritual. Notice the blessing of others. In verse 26 here, they were all amazed and they glorified God. The four friends who brought the paralyzed man to Jesus, who also, according to Scripture, had faith in Jesus, the Savior, certainly were glorifying God. They must have rejoiced because of God rewarded their labors. He healed the man. Their faith was rewarded and, and lowering the couch from the roof and so forth in the Christ’s presence. Imagine the people who witnessed this double healing, the great multitude that was there, taking all this in, seeing all this happen, how Christ was revealing the truth about what even the Pharisees and scribes and Jewish religious leaders were thinking. This throng witnessed a great miracle. Psalm 1033 says, Who forgiveth all iniquities? Who healeth all thy diseases, body and soul. The paralyzed man’s household must have glorified God. Imagine him walking into that house with that couch that day. What a shock that had to be. I’m healed. I went to Jesus. He’s carrying his couch. You should always be ready to glorify God when in answer to your prayers a person is saved from sin or is healed by God’s power. we should always be ready to praise the Lord. We should always be thankful when our prayers are heard and answered by the Lord. Let your heart rejoice with praise and thanksgiving when Jesus exerts his power and touches the body or the soul. Let me conclude. There are many strange things record in the Bible, but for sheer volume, you’re never going to surpass the Gospels and what Christ did. There are three strange things. things here. Stand out in our text. Christ is the power to forgive sins, which only God alone has. Christ has perfect knowledge of people’s thoughts. He is omniscience. Who else has that? And Christ can heal people in body and in soul. These are the strange things that people saw and had to praise God for. Let us do likewise this morning. Let us close with prayer.