In the sermon 'Things Only God Can Do' based on Luke 5:12-26, Jason Dohm discusses the divine acts of Jesus that affirm His identity as the Messiah. Jesus' miraculous healings, such as the cleansing of a leper and the healing of a paralytic, serve as marks of His divine authority and compassion. The sermon highlights the significance of these miracles, not only as displays of power but as revelations of God's character and Jesus' unique ability to forgive sins, a prerogative of God. Moreover, Dohm explores the ceremonial law's role in illustrating spiritual truths and the essential need for spiritual cleanness to approach God. The sermon also emphasizes the importance of private prayer, a practice modeled by Jesus, as vital for spiritual nourishment and communion with God. Through these narratives, believers are encouraged to recognize their spiritual leprosy and seek healing and forgiveness through faith in Jesus, while unbelievers are invited to acknowledge their need for spiritual cleansing.

The title of the message today is, Things Only God Can Do. We're seeing week by week, text by text, Jesus do the things that only God can do. I keep calling these the marks of the Messiah. How do you know when the promised Savior is here? He'll be doing this and this and this and this and Jesus is checking them off one at a time.

He won't leave a single one undone. We can know with such confidence that Jesus is the one that all that God through all the prophets said would come to save sinners. Last week Jesus exercised authority over the created order and the catch of a multitude of fish. We saw a carpenter giving fishing instructions to professional fishermen. He told them all the wrong things.

You're supposed to fish in the shallows at night. He told them to fish in the deep during the day and when they obeyed His instructions they caught a multitude of fish. A net breaking, boat sinking catch of fish. Like Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 6, like Job in Job chapter 42, Simon Peter was instantly connected with the reality of the utter holiness of God and thus the utter sinfulness of himself. This is what the Bible puts before us, is when you actually come into the presence of God, if you've never known it before, you will know in that instant that God is nothing like us, that He's perfectly pure.

And it made Peter feel like he had no business in the presence of God. He actually tells Jesus to depart from Him because He's such a sinful man. Now in this week's text, Jesus continues to do those things that only God can do, putting on display what God is like. Jesus is the self-revelation of the invisible God. If you want to know what God is like?

Go to the Gospels and look at the life of Jesus. He's the self-revelation of the invisible God. And Jesus is proving that He Himself is God as we come to this expansive text. Let's ask God for help. God, I do need help in the preaching, and I know everyone here that's listening needs help to be able to hear and understand the things that are set before us in these texts.

Thank you so much for all the good that is in these texts. I pray that you would help me to Do some semblance of justice to them and for people to be able to take away Things that will encourage us during the course of the week and help us to know how we ought to walk with you. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Let's subdivide this by starting with verses 12 through 15. Hopefully your Bibles are still open to Luke chapter 5.

I'll be rereading verses 12 through 15. Follow along. And it happened when he was in a certain city, that behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus. And he fell on his face and implored him saying, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. Then he put out his hand and touched him saying, I am willing, be cleansed.

Immediately the leprosy left him, And he charged him to tell no one, but go and show yourself to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing as a testimony to them just as Moses commanded. However, the report went around concerning him. All the more and great multitudes came together to hear and to be healed by him of their infirmities." These verses, Jesus cleanses a leper. The Word is out about Jesus. He can heal.

If you live anywhere in or around this region, you've heard the stories that Jesus can heal the sick. Jesus is in a city and A man who is desperate to be healed sees Jesus and comes to Jesus and falls on his face before Jesus and implores Jesus. Many of the translations that we like say that he begs Jesus. So implores is fine as a translation, but begs is fine too. He's begging Jesus.

This is a desperate man who falls on his face to beg Jesus for his healing. This is a man who is full of leprosy. And he says to Jesus, Lord, if you're willing, you can make me clean. What is leprosy? Leprosy is a skin disease which is carefully defined and regulated in the Old Testament ceremonial law in Leviticus 13 and Leviticus 14.

You have two whole chapters of the Old Testament dedicated to what leprosy is, how to diagnose it, what happens if you have it, and then chapter 14, the second chapter about leprosy, is how do you know if you've actually been cured of it, and How do you then become restored so that you can be returned to fellowship with other people in the community? Two old chapters of the Old Testament on what leprosy is and how it ought to be regulated. What this man may have had or may not have had is what we think of as leprosy. So we have a really precise view of what leprosy is. Our view is, it's actually called Hansen's disease, but it's skin rotting away on a living person.

They would look awful. They would smell awful because they have skin rotting away. This man may have had that. He may have had advanced, it says he's full of leprosy. So whatever skin disease he has, why does he have it?

It may have been another skin disease. The definition in Leviticus 13 is broader than what we think of it as. So it could have been that, but it doesn't have to have been just that. In any event, this man is riddled with this skin disease. He doesn't have a little of it, He has a lot of it.

He is full of leprosy. In Leviticus 13, if you had a skin disease, you were to go to the central place of worship to see a priest, and the priest would inspect you. He would inspect the place infected by your skin disease. And if the skin disease met the criteria, very specifically called out in Leviticus 13, the priest would pronounce you to be unclean. So now you have a label.

The priest has inspected you. You met the criteria. He's pronounced you to be unclean. And that meant you would have to dwell alone. So you're living with people that ask to stop.

You're going to be quarantined. You're going to dwell alone outside the camp away from the people. So this man, he comes to Jesus in a city, but he's not living in the city. Not if they're going by Leviticus 13. Whenever you come into the presence of people according to Leviticus 13, you have to announce yourself unclean, unclean.

This repeated announcement of your presence as an unclean person that ought to be avoided. So you have the obligation to announce that you have this condition and have been pronounced unclean by the priests. So this man in our text is living under these constraints. Imagine what it would be like to live under these constraints. You're not living with other people anymore.

You're dwelling alone. You're not living in the community anymore. You have to dwell outside the camp. In this case, that was when they were in the wilderness. In this case, it would be outside the city.

And when you come into the presence of people, you have to announce your uncleanness. So this man is full of leprosy. This would be obvious to everyone. This is not a rash under your shirt. This man is full of leprosy.

Everyone can see it. There would be a tremendous stigma associated with being in this condition. Meaning, it would be a shame. You would be bearing shame to be in this condition. You would be announcing yourself as you came into the presence of other people unclean unclean No one would want to be near you Now I said this is in the ceremonial law.

What did I mean by that? I meant that it is not a moral defect to have skin disease. It's not a moral defect. You do not break one of the Ten Commandments by having a skin disease. The ceremonial law uses physical things to teach about spiritual things.

On the positive side, lambs are killed in the ceremonial law to teach that though the wages of sin is death, God is willing to accept a substitute for those with saving faith. So that's the positive side, meaning it's good to know that God is willing to accept a substitute to pay the penalty of death if you have saving faith. On the negative side, there are all these laws about ceremonial uncleanness, like laws governing skin diseases, Like what it means if you touch a dead body. Again, you haven't broken one of the Ten Commandments if you touch a dead body, but according to the ceremonial law, you have become ceremonially unclean and you have to stay apart and wash and you're ceremonially unclean until sundown and you can't go into the tabernacle to worship or later when they built a temple to the temple to worship. Or for when a woman has her monthly cycle.

You've not broken one of the Ten Commandments to have your monthly cycle, but the ceremonial law is using this physical thing to teach about spiritual realities and spiritual uncleanness. None of these things, having a skin disease, touching a dead body, Having a monthly cycle if you're a woman is morally sinful, but they make use of physical things to teach that God cannot be approached by the spiritually unclean. So they're all teaching. Something physical that is teaching the spiritual reality that you can't go approaching God with spiritual uncleanness? Because He's perfectly holy.

Something has to be done about your sins before you can approach Him. Now is there an aspect of public health too? Undoubtedly, this is a people, they're living together and they're navigating things like infectious disease and I have no doubt in my mind that that is part of the equation, that there is an aspect of public health to it. But I beg you, don't reduce it to just that. The ceremonial law was doing a lot more than just that.

If all you got from it was, we shouldn't be passing around infectious diseases, then you missed an enormous part of why the ceremonial law exists. It's using these physical things to teach spiritual truths. You can't just be going to God with spiritual uncleanness because He's perfectly holy. This man full of leprosy has acknowledged that Jesus can make him clean. He believes that Jesus has any and all of the power and ability needed to heal him and to make him clean.

What does Jesus do? He does the one thing you never ever ever do with the leper. He touches him. Jesus puts out his hand and touches the leper. This is not incidental contact.

He puts out his hand and he touches the leper. This man was literally the untouchable. But he wasn't untouchable to our Savior. Maybe I should stop the sermon right there. We'll sing the closing hymn.

This man was literally the untouchable, but he wasn't untouchable to Jesus. His friends wouldn't touch him, they wouldn't dare. His family wouldn't touch him, they wouldn't dare. If this man was married, his wife wouldn't touch him and she wasn't living with him. We don't know if he was married or not, but if he was married, his wife wouldn't touch him.

But Jesus puts out His hand and touches him. Mark 1.41, which is the parallel text, meaning Mark is writing about the same events, but in his gospel, Mark 1.41 says that Jesus was moved with compassion. Jesus, what are you doing touching the leper? Here's what he's doing. He was moved with compassion about a man who hasn't been touched in a long time, and he's not afraid to touch him because he doesn't need to be afraid to touch him.

He puts out his hand and he touches him. This is self-revelation, not just a bare demonstration of power. So praise God for the demonstrations of power that prove that Jesus is who He said He is and can do what He says He can do. Praise God for that. But understand, this is more than just a bare demonstration of power like Jesus walking on water.

Amazing, but doesn't help anyone. Now Jesus's heart is moved with compassion for this desperate man and he reaches out his hand based on his compassion. He's moved with compassion and he's revealing what God is like. What's God like? God's like this, if you're desperate and no one will be near you, no one will touch you, but You recognize that He has what you need and only He has what you need and you desperately need it.

If you go to Him for it, though you've been untouchable by everyone else, He will put out His hand and touch you. God is like that. This isn't just a bare demonstration of power. Jesus has moved with compassion and he's showing us what God is like. This text should make us so happy.

God is like this. We don't get to choose what God is like. God is like what God is like. Then we get to deal with it. But in this case, in the case of the reality of the universe, God is like this.

This is the best case scenario. Jesus touched him and said this, I am willing, the man said, if you're willing you can make me clean. Jesus said, I am willing. Be cleansed. Three things to note.

Number one, for the leper, Jesus' power and ability were never in question. For the leper, his power and ability to cleanse him were a given. Plenty of power, plenty of ability. And he's right, they never are. Jesus can do anything that it pleases Jesus to do.

Jesus can do anything He wants to do because Jesus is God. Because Jesus is God. The only question is, Jesus are you willing? Jesus do you want to? He can do anything, so the question that's left is, do you want to?

If he wants to, it's as good as done. Number two, what is translated as be cleansed. So that's what Jesus said to the man, I'm willing be cleansed. It's actually a single Greek word. So think of this as a pronouncement.

I'm not arguing the translation is fine, but think of it as, I am willing, cleansed. I am pronouncing the new reality. The old reality is you're desperate, you're full of leprosy, no one wants to be around you, you can't be around people. When you come around people, you have to announce your uncleanness or you're not in compliance with the law. The new reality is, cleansed.

One word. For the God who created everything out of nothing just by the power of speaking, simply calling everything into existence, let there be light. There was light. One word is all it takes to do anything. He just announces the new reality.

Cleansed. Unwilling. Cleansed. One word. Number three.

When was this man who was full of leprosy healed? Immediately, instantaneously, immediately the leprosy left him. It's like this inanimate thing, disease, picks up and leaves. Immediately the leprosy left him. For however long, this man was full of leprosy.

A week, a month, a year, a decade, we don't know, however long, the next nanosecond he was completely clean. Especially if he had the leprosy that we're imagining, skin rotting on a living person and he was full of it, so he's in the advanced stage of this, he would have looked awful, he would have smelled awful, and you would have known in an instant that there's a new reality. Immediately. You can't see a single sign of it. You can't smell a single sign of it.

There is not a single sign of it. Now Jesus charges this former leper to tell no one. Don't tell anybody. Mark 1, 43 and 44, again that's the parallel account, same circumstances but different gospel. Mark says that Jesus strictly warned him.

See that you say nothing to anyone, not a word to not a person. Strictly warned him. Luke doesn't tell us exactly this, but listen to what Mark relates in Mark 1.45. However, he went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the matter so that Jesus could no longer openly enter the city but was outside in deserted places and they came to Him from every direction. So as a result of even though Jesus strictly warned him don't tell anyone to say anything to anyone, he goes out and he shares it freely, and this essentially banishes Jesus from city life.

Because Too many people, if they know he's there, gather. He can't be there. So the report goes out all the more, and great multitudes come to hear Jesus and to be healed by Jesus. The crowds are swelling. The crowds are swelling.

This point in Jesus is like a crescendo in music where the crowds are getting bigger and bigger and bigger. The Gospel of John lets us know then he starts with the hard sayings and the crowds start to shrink. But for now it's all happiness and healing and the crowds are swelling. Jesus told the man to go show himself to the priest and make offerings for his cleansing. This is right out of Leviticus 14.

You go on day one, the priest inspects you, you look like you're healed. And so there's a sacrifice that involves two birds. One is killed and one is released. I think that's right. And Then seven days pass and then you come on day eight and if you still appear to be healed on day eight, then there's a sacrifice of two lambs.

All this is highly symbolic. This is ceremonial law, physical things, teaching spiritual realities. Day eight, then you sacrifice the two lambs and the priest says you're no longer unclean and you can go back and live with who you used to live with and the place that you used to live. You don't have to announce your presence, you are restored to the community. Jesus tells him to go do that.

Now before we move on, let's analyze this from the perspective of the ceremonial law. Let's say, with what's happening in the ceremonial law, what's it really teaching? First, in the ceremonial law, I'm gonna give you two things, analyzing this by the ceremonial law, give you two things. First, in the ceremonial law, when the unclean, so ceremonially unclean, touches the clean, the clean is defiled. So if you want to know what direction does it go?

The unclean defiles the clean. The clean doesn't make the unclean clean. The unclean makes the clean unclean. Wow. That was clear in my head.

It flows in the direction of defilement. When something is ceremonially unclean, a dead body, or a woman's impurity from the monthly cycle or touching a person with a skin disease. The person who was ceremonially clean becomes ceremonially defiled and unclean and they'll have to be restored into a state of cleanliness. But with Jesus, when Jesus touches the unclean, He makes it clean. Everything in the ceremonial law here is being Everything in the ceremony of law here is being turned on its head because he's not like us.

We're defiled by spiritually unclean things. Jesus isn't defiled. Jesus touches and makes clean. Jesus, and only Jesus, is able to upend that dynamic. You don't see it anywhere else in Scripture.

The only thing else you see across Scripture is the unclean defiling something. With Jesus, cleanliness flows from him. It makes you clean. Second, finally, leprosy is a physical thing that teaches about a spiritual thing. It teaches us that God cannot be approached by spiritual lepers.

Spiritual lepers have no business in the presence of God, are unwelcome in the presence of God. That if we're going to approach God, we have to be cleansed first. To go into that community, You have to be cleansed first. J.C. Ryle says this, We have in this wonderful history a lively emblem of Christ's power to heal our souls.

What are we all but lepers spiritually in the sight of God? What are we all but lepers spiritually in the sight of God? What are we all but lepers spiritually in the sight of God? Sin is the deadly sickness by which we are all affected. It is eaten into our constitution.

It is infected all our faculties. Heart, conscience, mind, and will are all diseased by sin. From the sole of our foot to the crown of our head there is no soundness about us but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores." Isaiah 1 6. Ryle is just pulling the language out of Isaiah 1 6. Wounds, bruises, and putrefying sores.

We are in one sense dead long before we are laid in the grave. Our bodies may be healthy and active, but our souls are by nature dead in trespasses and sins. There is medicine to heal our sickness. If we are lost it is not because we cannot be saved. However corrupt our hearts and however wicked our past lives, there is hope for us in the Gospel.

There is no case of spiritual leprosy too hard for Christ. Amen! There is no case of spiritual leprosy too hard for Christ, and He's willing. Jesus, Are you willing? I have spiritual leprosy.

I don't have any business in your presence. I have spiritual leprosy. But if you're willing, you can make me clean. I'm willing. Cleansed.

One word. Verse 16. Let's move to the next verse. Verse 16, we'll take it by itself. Follow along as I reread.

So he himself, Jesus, he himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed." We get two miracle narratives and sandwiched between them is just this one verse, not particularly related to either one, just talking about Jesus' pattern of life. Jesus, what's your pattern of life? Well, I have a very busy schedule. I do a lot. I teach a lot.

I do a lot, but often I withdraw and pray. We've seen this before at the end of the last chapter, chapter 4 verse 42. Now when it was day, he departed and went into a deserted place. When we went into the parallel account in Mark chapter 1, Mark says, and there he prayed. So we already saw it in chapter 4.

Now we're seeing it in chapter 5. He often withdrew into the wilderness, just meaning a solitary place. A lonely place. But he wasn't lonely, he was praying. We're going to see it again in chapter 6.

Look at chapter 6 verse 12. Now it came to pass in those days that he, Jesus, went out to the mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God. Chapter 4, Jesus is withdrawing to pray. Chapter 5 says he often withdrew into a deserted place to pray. Chapter 6 says he went off and continued all night in prayer.

Luke is making a point of ensuring that his readers understand that this is a pattern of Jesus' life. This is his pattern of life. When we hit this in chapter 4, I made the argument that if Jesus carved out time in a most demanding schedule to be alone with his father in prayer, how much more necessary is it for us? Do you remember that? That was my argument.

If the Son of God makes time for it, who are we to neglect this? While I think that's a strong argument, it is open to questions about ways in which Jesus is different than us. In other words, what would Jesus do isn't always a helpful question. Sometimes the answer is he would raise that person from the dead. Okay, great.

What should I do? He would give that blind man sight. Okay, what should I do? Jesus is different than us in some ways, being fully God and fully man. But Jesus actually teaches us to cultivate this same pattern.

Listen, Matthew chapter 6 verse 6. You, when you pray, when you pray, go into your room and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. So, Jesus had a pattern of being by himself to pray, but he actually also tells us to cultivate a pattern of being by ourselves, go into the room, shut the door, and pray in secret. This was Jesus' pattern, and He calls us to this pattern too. So this isn't one of those things where we say, what would Jesus do isn't helpful.

He was the Son of God, so He went off to pray. But I'm not like Jesus. No, no, no. He's calling us to have this be our pattern of life too. Right after that, He teaches us to pray, the Lord's Prayer, give us this day our daily bread.

So the assumption is, this is daily prayer, carving out time daily to be with God. So This is not something that Jesus did simply because He is the Son of God. We are seeing, well, what we are seeing is a pattern for us. Let's go ahead and apply this. Let's say that day to day in your life, you're a believer, but this is the exception and not the rule.

Private prayer is the exception and not the rule in your day-to-day life. What are you going to do about that? How many times have I said this to each one of my children? I'm looking at Abby, but I can look at Anna too. I've said this to you, if any of my other children.

I would know that I've said it to them too. This is the age of the smartphone. Don't tell me you can't remember. Before smartphones we also had notepads. There were ways to remember before the smartphone, but the point is, in the age of the smartphone, if you have a smartphone, Every excuse has been swept away to organize your life, to manage your life.

Jesus was getting up long before the sun was rising. We saw that in Mark chapter 1. Here's the point. We need it. Here's the two points.

We need it. We need time alone with God. We need it. And it's one of the sweetest things in the Christian life. If you're saying, it is, it's time to cultivate it.

It takes cultivation. I'm not saying this won't cost you anything. Let's be real. Of course it will cost you something. The question is, has Jesus called us to it?

He has. So now this is a matter of obedience. Why has He called us to it? We need it. We need it.

It feeds our souls. It gives us peace. It expresses our reliance on God and our confidence that He can be relied on. And when we cultivate it, It's sweet to go apart and be with God. I hope you know something of this, of going apart and being with God and the sweetness of it.

17 through 26. Back to Luke 5. Follow along as I re-read 17-26. Now it happened on a certain day as he was teaching that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by who would come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was present to heal them.

Then behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they sought to bring in and lay before Him. And when they could not find how they might bring Him in because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and led Him down with His bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus. When He saw their faith, He said to him, Man, your sins are forgiven you. The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?

When Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answered and said to them, Why are you reasoning in your hearts? Which is easier, to say your sins are forgiven you or to say, rise up and walk, that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, he said to the man who was paralyzed, I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house. Immediately he rose up before them, took up what he had been lying on, and departed to his own house glorifying God. They were all amazed and they glorified God and were filled with fear saying, We have seen strange things today. In these verses, Jesus forgives, then heals a paralytic.

That's the order of things. He forgives, then He heals. A day comes, Jesus is preaching, and his teaching is beginning to be monitored. Pharisees and teachers of the law are coming from all over, from all the cities of Galilee and from Judea, the region where Jerusalem is, and actually from Jerusalem. You hear what he's teaching.

Who are the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, and why are they starting to monitor Jesus' teaching? Here's what David Garland says, The Pharisees were lay persons, mostly non-priests, interested in the practical understanding of Scripture to enable the community to remain faithful to the covenant with God in their differing historical context. So this is identity, not a profession. You're not a professional Pharisee. Oh, what do you do for a living?

I'm a Pharisee. No, no, no. These are lay persons. You don't get any pay for being a Pharisee, but you have identified yourself in this group that is very precise about law keeping. They care a lot about obedience to the law.

Is that good? Yes, as long as you don't trust in that. You trust in that, and you actually gut the Gospel. So, You identify as a Pharisee, you're identifying as someone who cares a lot about being very precise, very careful about law keeping. The Thomas Nelson study Bible estimates that there were something like 6, 000 Pharisees.

It's a small group, it's a nation of millions, but only 6, 000 Pharisees, but they're the most influential. Meaning, the people, because they were serious about law keeping, the people looked to them as the, like, seriously religious people. They're the most influential. So you have Herodians, the people who have sort of integrated into the Roman power structure, and you have Sadducees, which is more of the the priests would be part of the Sadducees, religious leaders officially, but unofficially, who had the influence? The Pharisees had the influence.

Back to David Garland. The scribes of the Pharisees or law scholars are learned interpreters of the law who apply it to Jewish life. They are lawyers, but we're thinking about civil law. Think about Deuteronomy as the law of Israel. We think like experts in Old Testament law and how it ought to be applied.

He continues to say they attempted to fend off Hellenization. Israel is integrating into an ungodly world. They're seeing this and saying we should not be integrating into this ungodly world. So they're pressing against that. Why are they monitoring Jesus?

Pharisees and teachers of the law. Because Jesus is an outsider. They really don't know who Jesus is. This is an unknown quantity, only they hear there's a man doing amazing things and multitudes are coming to be taught by him. But they don't know Him, they didn't train Him, and Jesus is beginning to exercise tremendous influence among the people.

Who's losing influence? If Jesus is gaining influence, who's losing influence? Pharisees and teachers of the law. Multitudes are not gathering to hear any of them preach. They're coming and instead of recognizing marks of the Messiah, these are The Bible expert, the Bible Answer Man, is a scribe.

If anyone in Israel knows this is the marks of the promised Savior, it should be them. But instead of recognizing the marks of the Messiah, the Pharisees and teachers of the law almost immediately and universally opposed Jesus and tried to trap him in his words to discredit him to maintain their own influence. Spoiler alert, that's what we're in for the rest of the Gospel, as if you didn't already know. So Jesus is teaching in a house, and there's a crowd, big crowd. And men bring a paralytic to see if Jesus will heal him.

What is a paralytic? Children, a paralytic is someone who can't use their arms or can't use their legs or can't use both. You can stand up, walk, you have the use of your legs, run, jump, they cannot. So this man may not be able to use arms or legs, he might not be able to just use his legs, but he's paralyzed. He does not have the use of some of his limbs.

So he could not have walked here. He had to be carried here on a bed. Our text, verse 17, says that the power of the Lord was indeed present to heal. So the power of the Lord is there to heal. Because of the crowd, these men carrying the paralytic on a bed can't get anywhere near Jesus.

So probably just a person all by themselves couldn't push through the crowd to get to Jesus. But now, there are men, actually in Mark chapter 2, he fills in the blank, it's four men. These four men carrying somebody on a bed stand no chance of getting through this crowd to get to Jesus. Now, at this time, in this place, many houses had external stairs to a flat roof. Think of it like your deck.

It's an outdoor space. You don't have to go through the house to get there. There's external stairs up the side of the house. So these men, these four men, take the paralytic on the bed, up the stairs to the roof. Then you have access to the tiling.

You can peel back the tiling. They let him down. They go around the crowd, up the stairs, to the flat roof, peel back the tiling, lower him down, to get this paralytic to Jesus. Jesus sees this faith in action. If you didn't really believe that Jesus could and would heal him, you wouldn't go to all this trouble.

This is a lot of trouble. Jesus sees that's faith. Faith that will actually move you, not just talking faith. He's like, faith in action. So Jesus says to the paralytic, man your sins are forgiven you.

He can see this man can't walk. He can see that he's been brought on a pallet on a bed. Now did these men take all these pains with that paralytic for that pronouncement. That's what they came for. Those are the words they came to hear.

No. But if they were thinking biblically, the paralyzed man, the friends that brought him were thinking biblically, that life is a vapor and then eternity, that life is going to be like a night, and then eternity is going to extend on forever. And the thing that matters about life is how does it impact your forever? Would they be disappointed? No way!

If you don't have the use of your arms and legs so that all you can do is lay on a bed, guess what your greatest need is? Not that! I'm on a bed, I don't have the use of my arms, I don't have the use of my legs, what's my greatest need? Not the use of your arms and legs. Your greatest need is still that somehow your sins could be set right.

Because this life is a vapor. And then eternity stretches out before you. That it's going to make life seem like it almost didn't happen, because on the scale it's really nothing. How do we know that? Because Jesus out and out says it.

Listen to Matthew 5, 29 and 30. Matthew 5, 29 and 30. Jesus says, If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you.

For it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than that your whole body be cast into hell." Jesus is explicitly saying you're better off going through life with one eye and one hand and dealing with the hardships in this life that's just a vapor, but to secure an eternity of joy in God's presence, then you are to go through life with a perfectly functioning body, but to have your eternity under the wrath of God forever and ever and ever, a thousand ages, a million ages. If those are the only two doors, door A and door B, door A is tremendous hardship but eternal glory. Or ease and everything right in this life, but eternally under the wrath of God, always pick Dore. If you can get it all, get it all. If you can have both, if that's offered to you, I suppose you should take that.

Here's what Matthew Henry says, If the sins be forgiven you though the sickness be removed it is in wrath everything functioning just fine but you're under God's wrath. And then what? Eternity stretches before us all. We have undying souls. The scribes and Pharisees hear Jesus say, man your sins are forgiven you and they are are instantly thinking within themselves, that's blasphemy!

You can't say that! That's making yourself out to be God's equal. Only God can forgive sins. Ah, but Jesus can see into their thoughts. The text says, he perceived their thoughts.

That's terrifying. He perceived their thoughts. Jesus knows exactly what they're thinking. It isn't a good guess anticipating objections. I bet they're thinking, no one can forgive sins but God alone.

No, Jesus actually knows their thoughts. He wouldn't know it any better if they had said it out loud. It's all the same to Jesus as if they had said it out loud. In the parallel account in Matthew, Jesus says, why do you think evil in your hearts? So he's even more plain spoken in Matthew's account of these circumstances.

Why do you think evil in your hearts? What must have they been thinking when he says this? I didn't say a word. That's Matthew 9 verse 4 if you want to see it. In Mark's parallel account, it says, Jesus perceived in his spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves.

So he's perceiving in his spirit that they're reasoning thus within themselves. So they're not murmuring, they're not whispering, there's none of that. It is the thoughts of their own hearts and Jesus knows exactly what they're thinking like they had said it out loud. How does Jesus do that? Friends, in today's text, Jesus is doing only things that God can do.

The whole text. You can only proclaim a new reality for a leper if you're God. You can only forgive someone's sins if you're God. Now he's going to heal this man. You can only heal a paralytic if you're God.

You might be tempted to say, well others healed in the Bible, but understand what Jesus is doing is fundamentally different. In those other instances, either God is telling one of His servants to heal, and they heal based on God telling them to do it, or God is working through one of His servants to heal. Here, Jesus is saying, I am willing to be cleansed and your sins are forgiven. Think of the way we would say it, If you trust in Jesus and who He is and the work that He's done, your sins will be forgiven. All the things we would have to put around it because we're not authorized to forgive their sins.

We can proclaim that God will forgive you if you trust in His Son. That's not what he's doing. What he's doing is fundamentally different. Jesus isn't acting on behalf of God. Jesus is acting as God.

Not on behalf of God, as God. As God, I am willing to heal you, be cleansed. As God, I forgive your sins. Now in fairness, if any other person in human history had said, man your sins are forgiven you, the scribes and Pharisees would have been right. That's blasphemy.

Only God can forgive sins. Listen to what David said in Psalm 51. Psalm 51 is after David has committed adultery with Bathsheba and then killed her husband, had her husband killed, but essentially killed her husband to cover it up. He says this in Psalm 51 verse 4, against you God you only have I sinned. Did he sin against Bathsheba?

You better believe it. Did he sin against Uriah, her husband, to cover it up when he had him killed? You better believe it. But in an ultimate sense, He only sinned against God. It's God's law that we're breaking.

You're not breaking my law when you sin. Why would you care what my law is? Is God's law that you're breaking? Forgiving sins is the prerogative that belongs to God and only to God. Jesus isn't arguing that point at all.

Jesus is simply claiming that God's prerogative belongs to Him. By the way, Jesus wasn't killed, wasn't crucified over some misunderstanding. They understood perfectly what Jesus was laying claim to, and they killed Him for that. He claims God's prerogative, and He's willing to prove it to everyone. So He says this, which is easier to say your sins are forgiving you, how are we going to verify that?

If I say to the paralyzed man, rise up and walk. If he doesn't rise up and walk, that's false. If he rises up and goes home, you are who you say you are. Matthew Henry puts it in different words saying this, If I do not with the words speaking, cure his disease in an instant, which cannot be done by nature or art, but purely by the immediate power and efficacy of the God of nature, then I say that I am not entitled to the prerogative of forgiving sin. If I can't heal this man that no one can heal, I am not entitled to the prerogative of forgiving sin.

I am not the Messiah. I am not the Son of God and the King of Israel. But if I do, you must own that I have power to forgive sins. This high-stake moment. Right here, right now.

Here's the test. Anyone else want to go first? Anyone else want to say, rise up and go home? We'll put you to the test too. Who wants to go first?

Okay, nobody else wants to go? I'll go. Rise up and Take your bed and go home. And that's exactly how it plays out. The man goes to his own house, glorifying God, I bet he was.

Those present were amazed and glorified God and acknowledged we have seen strange things today. The Greek that's translated strange here literally means unexpected, uncommon, incredible, wonderful things. We've seen wonderful things today. We've seen incredible things today. I don't love strange as the translation here.

I'm not sure why they did that. Other translations that we like say remarkable or extraordinary things. Unprecedented would be good. Robert Stein observes this in his commentary. In Luke 5 verse 17 through Luke 6-11 we have five controversy stories, so we're getting into controversy now, We have five controversy stories that contrast the people's enthusiastic reaction toward Jesus.

They're coming, they love it that he's healing people, they love hearing him teach. And with the negative reaction of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. So there are five of these and this is the first one. So we're headed into lots of controversy where the people are reacting one way they can't get enough of Jesus healing and his teaching and the Pharisees and the scribes are reacting in a completely different other way, and they're trying to figure out how do we keep our influence. Applications I'll give you two.

Can I do it in 30 seconds? No, I cannot. 59.30. 1. To the believer.

I set before you union and communion. Union and communion. If you are a believer, really a believer, God has given you a new heart, you've trusted His Son. You are in union with His Son. You can never be more in union with His Son.

You either are or aren't. And once you are, you are forever. Joined to his son by faith. Saved by faith. Saved by that union with his son.

Communion is different. Communion can ebb and flow. Communion can be well fed or Starved. Communion was important to Jesus. He was going apart to be secret time with his father.

To believers, I would just say this, we're cheating ourselves. We're cheating ourselves. Can I still go to heaven if I don't cultivate a prayer life? Is that the question we should be asking? That's a terrible question.

Okay, I'll answer the question. Yes. Yes, you can. You can cheat yourself all the way to heaven. Congrats.

To the unbeliever. I set before you the healer of spiritual lepers. He's willing. He can make you clean. You go to him, you find him willing.

Your greatest need is to have your sins dealt with. You're not going into an eternity with God with your sins. And in the end, this life is going to feel like the snap of a finger. You have long days, you think life's going to go on forever. It's not going to go on forever.

It was just yesterday when I was a teenager. I still think of myself as a teenager. And I'm 55 more years from now, I'll have been dead and gone for a long time. Matthew Henry says this, How well is it for us that this most comfortable doctrine of the gospel, that Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and Savior, has power to forgive sin, has such a full attestation. Meaning, look at all this proof.

What more do you want from him? He pronounces a new reality for a leopard. You need more than that? Okay. He heals the paralytic.

He's going to walk on water. He's going to rise from the dead. What more do you need? What a comfort and a joy that this has so many full proofs. Not this crazy other competing stuff that's out there with a guy who has no witnesses to anything.

Says, you know, This happens to me, and he has no eye witnesses to everything. Paul, when he stood before the authorities could say, I know you've heard of these things. These things weren't done in a corner. Jesus didn't do any of this stuff in a corner. He's willing.

And there's no case too hard for Jesus. Let's pray. God, thank you for the glory of all the proof points where Jesus demonstrated that God's prerogatives were his prerogatives by fail-proof tests, like we have in our text. Thank you that we have the comforts of these things. Thank you for your willingness to save.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen.