Peter Allison's sermon, 'Faith in Action,' explores the themes of faith, action, and divine authority through the narrative of Luke chapter 5. The sermon emphasizes the significance of Jesus's title 'Son of Man,' which ties to a prophecy in Daniel about a divine kingdom. Allison discusses the healing of a paralyzed man as a demonstration of faith in action, highlighting that Jesus recognized the faith of the man's friends, which led to both physical healing and forgiveness of sins. The sermon also delves into the opposition Jesus faced from the Pharisees and scribes, who saw Him as a threat to their authority. Through Jesus's miracles and teachings, His divine authority to forgive sins and heal is affirmed. Allison underscores that salvation is ultimately for God's glory, and believers are called to live in a way that glorifies God through their actions and faith.

Luke chapter 5 is our scripture reading. I'd like to begin reading at verse 15, just to pick up those two verses. We'll be looking at verses 17 and following. However, the report went around concerning him all the more, and great multitudes came together to hear and to be healed of him by their infirmities. So he himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.

Now it happened on a certain day as he was teaching that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was present to heal them. And behold men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom 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 let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus. And when he saw their faith, he said to them, Man, your sins are forgiven you. And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this who speaks blasphemies?

Who can forgive sins but God alone? But 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 have forgiven you, or to say, rise up and walk, but 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. And immediately he rose up before them, took up what he had been lying on 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. Let us restrain our feet from every evil way that we may keep this as word. Almighty Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. It is life-giving. It is powerful.

We ask that you may teach us today, may we see your power in your word. May we hear your voice as your spirit speaks. May you be exalted Father, as your word is proclaimed. May you be glorified in our midst in Jesus name. Amen.

Well, Luke has collected in this chapter five, five different events all dealing in some way with sin. There is in the first event, and these are not in this chapter, these are not in chronological order. Luke is putting them together thematically we there are some other Sometimes Luke does put things in in chronological order, but these events we can, if we compare with Matthew and Mark, which also record many of these same events, there we see chronological language and we can order many of these events. And these events here in chapter five are not chronologically put together, but they are thematically put together around this issue of sin that Luke brings out. You remember In the first event that we looked at where Jesus tells them to launch out into the deep and let down their nets, Peter cries out when the boat is filled with fish miraculously.

After they had toiled all night and not caught anything. Remember what Peter cries out, he cries out, depart from me for I am a sinful man. There is a realization of sin. Peter realizes that he is in the presence of a holy God and that he's a sinner And his and his cries depart from me I am a sinful man and then in the in the next event Luke recounts that of the healing of the leper, we see this the corruption of sin, the complete and total corruption of sin and the alienation that that brings. This leper is cast out of the society.

He's cut off from fellowship with people because of his corruption, because of his condition. And he asked to be cleansed. He asked to be cleansed. Remember, he didn't ask to be healed, but he asked to be cleansed. He asked to be restored to that fellowship that he had been cut off from by his complete and total corruption of his body.

And so crowds hear this and they are gathered around him. They are gathered to hear because Jesus spoke with authority. He didn't speak like the scribes and Pharisees, did he? He spoke differently. And they wanted to hear what he had to say but they also came because they wanted to be healed.

Jesus healed people. He didn't heal everybody but he healed many. And so there is this Luke then recounts this. It happened on a certain day. In other words, he's not giving us any chronological information, he's just taking this one day that in Jesus' ministry in Galilee, Remember this followed his ministry where he'd gone through Judea and he left there because of the opposition of the Jews.

So he's known, people know about him. The Pharisees know about him. And as he's continuing to do these miracles, the word is getting out about him. Great crowds, it says in 15. Great multitudes are coming to him.

And so the Pharisees come around to investigate this guy. They realize that he's a problem for them. He's a challenge to their authority and their position and they are out they begin to seek how they can undo him in some way and So what Luke tells us is one of these days when Jesus is teaching and there are great crowds gathered around him that the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, the teachers of the law is what it literally says, which other places we call scribes, they have come from all around. They've come, Luke says, from every village in Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. They've gathered everybody together to come and listen and to investigate.

To try to catch Jesus saying or doing something for which they could implicate Him, for which they could accuse Him, for which they could destroy His credibility, for which they could drag him in front of their courts and condemn him, anything that they can find to discredit him, to take him out, to end this embarrassment to them, this threat to them. Threat to them. The threat that he posed to their control of the land. And this was a very wealthy, lucrative proposition for them. They made a lot of money the priesthood made a lot of money through the sacrifices that people had to buy, you know, they the Sadducees and the high priesthood They controlled a lot of that.

And so there's money involved in this. This is a threat to their money. Remember Jesus has cleansed the temple once already. And they didn't like that. That was an attack on their income, attack on their credibility, attack on their prestige, attack on their control they exercised in the land.

They are here, they are gathered to see if they can catch him saying something. Now they're there and Jesus is there. Jesus is there and in this passage, he for the first time calls himself the son of man. This is a very significant claim. This is a very significant title that Jesus has chosen to identify himself with.

He says, but that you may know that the Son of man, speaking of himself. Now what is Jesus saying by son of man? Well it certainly means that Jesus is human, Jesus is a man. The fact that Jesus is the son of God has reference to his deity and the fact that he is the son of man as a reference to the fact that he is a man he is he was born of a woman but there's a lot more that Jesus is asserting by his use of this title son of Man. This title comes from Daniel, chapter 7, where Daniel has a vision of four great beasts coming up out of the sea.

And We don't have time to look in detail at this prophecy, this amazing prophecy, but this is a parallel vision, this vision that Daniel has in chapter 7 is a parallel vision to the one he had in chapter two. They are saying the same thing. The vision he had in chapter two of the image of that great man that had the head of gold, the chest of silver, the belly and thighs of bronze, the legs of iron, and the feet of clay. Remember this great image. Nebuchadnezzar had this vision and Daniel explained it to him.

And in that vision, this stone that's cut without hands smashes this image made of these metals, iron, bronze, stone smashes and pulverizes them to dust and they're blown away as if they never existed. And the stone that's cut without hands grows to fill, becomes a mountain and to fill the earth and The Daniel explains that that that that That image represented the four major empires of the ancient world the gold represented the Babylonian Empire the the chest shoulders of silver represented the Medo-Persian Empire, the bronze belly and thighs represented the Greek Empire under Alexander the Great and then his four generals, and the legs of iron and the feet of clay represented the Roman Empire. And the stone cut without hands, Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar, represents the kingdom that God, the God of heaven would set up that would never be destroyed And it would never be inherited. It would never pass to somebody else. Every earthly kingdom, the king dies and the authority of that kingdom passes to somebody else.

Daniel said, told Nebuchadnezzar, this stone represented a kingdom that God would set up and it would never be destroyed and it would never be passed to anyone else. Its king, in other words, would never die. But that kingdom would break in pieces and destroy every other kingdom and that is indeed exactly what happened when the kingdom of heaven came it destroyed defeated the Roman Empire in in 300 less than 300 years and so in in Daniel 7 then there is a parallel vision the same four kingdoms are represented by four beasts that come up out of a sea. One is a lion with eagle's wings, another is a bear with three ribs in its mouth, another is a leopard that has four wings on it like a bird and four heads, which represent the four kings that arose after Alexander the Great and and then the the last is this dreadful terrible beast exceedingly strong we're only told it has teeth of iron and that it crushes and devours and breaks in pieces and tramples the residue with its feet. And then this last beast was different from all the other beasts and it had ten horns.

And so in Daniel 7, we read then, Daniel says, I watched till thrones were put in place, And the Ancient of Days was seated, his garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, his wheels a burning fire, or its wheels a burning fire, a fiery stream issued and came forth from before him. A thousand thousands ministered to him, ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated and the books were open." This is a very similar description to Revelation, Chapter 4. And Daniel says, I then watched because of the sound of the pompous words which the horn was speaking.

And I watched till the beast was slain. Remember this beast is the Roman Empire, and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame. And as for the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time." And Daniel goes on to say this And here's where we come to this use of the title the son of man and I was watching in the night visions and Behold one like the son of man Coming with the clouds of heaven He came up to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. And to Him, to this one who comes up to the Ancient of Days, which is God the Father, To this Son of Man is given dominion and glory and a kingdom, and that all the peoples and the nations and languages should serve Him, the Son of Man, one like the Son of Man. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed this is the Son of Man This Son of Man is the one to whom peoples and nations and languages would serve.

This is the one whose kingdom will not be destroyed. And this, in saying that when Jesus called himself the son of man, he is taking to himself this title, this one who has come up to the ancient of days and to whom is given a kingdom and that all the nations of the earth, all the people of the earth should serve him. He's saying I'm that king, I'm that one to whom all the nations of the earth has been given. Remember, Psalm 2 and Psalm 10 describe this anointed one, this Messiah. This son of man, of course, Daniel has described this vision, he is the Messiah the one to whom the King is given the kingdom is given just like Psalm 2 and Psalm 110 talk about you know God says I have Anointed my son He's my heir I've given the nations to him as his inheritance.

Jesus is with that title claiming to be the Messiah. Remember he said in, when he stood at trial before the Pharisees, these same people, just a little bit later, He said, you will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds. Referencing the same the same event that Daniel's vision is describing. Jesus is saying, I'm the one to whom all authority in heaven and earth has been given. I am that one who has all Power.

That should be a comfort to us today. Remember, this is a kingdom that doesn't pass away. It's not destroyed. It's not defeated. It's never thwarted.

Its course is never diverted. Rather, Jesus will reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. You know, all the powers and authorities and principalities that today we see as against the church, we see as evil. When Jesus says he's the son of man, he's saying all these things are going to be destroyed, they're going to be defeated, They're going to be like crushed to powder just like that image and blown away There is nothing there is nothing that can harm us apart from God's sovereign will. That should be a comfort, that should be an encouragement, that should lead us to not fear.

As Jesus told his disciples many times, don't be afraid. Do not be afraid. Now also present, we have the Pharisees and scribes seeking to trap Jesus. We have the Son of Man who is present. But we also have this that the power of the Lord was present to heal them.

The power of God was present to heal. The power of God, the power to heal is only from God. It's only God. And the power of God is still present to heal. God's power to heal is not diminished today.

We might think, well, we don't see this, But God still heals today. There are people that are healed. There are people that are healed when man thought the disease was incurable. God, if you are ever sick and get better, it's God that heals you. So this power to heal is specifically there, present.

And it is into this setting then, that four men, this big crowd around Jesus with the Pharisees and the scribes gathered to catch him With the power of God present to heal the son of man teaching and healing it's into this setting than that for men bring a paralyzed man to be healed. Now paralysis like this man had is a rather humbling disease. When you have paralysis and you can't move anything, You may not have even been able to speak You can't do much for yourself you need to have help to be fed Just like a little baby Because you can't move your arms to feed you You have to have help to to move you can't even adjust yourself to get comfortable Somebody has to do it for you you need help to Get dressed You need help using the bathroom. You need help to do anything at all when you're paralyzed like this man was. And that's a picture of our spiritual condition.

The leper was the picture of total corruption of his body, of being cut off from fellowship. This is a picture of our complete and utter inability to do anything for ourselves. We are unable to save ourselves. We are unable to do anything. We're dead.

We're dead. We're powerless to come to God on our own ability, on our own terms. It is Jesus that commands the dead to rise, to come to life. And so these men bring this paralyzed man, these four men, I think it's Mark that tells us it's four men, Luke doesn't say. They come and they're not able to get in the door because it's crowded.

The room is packed, the door is packed, who knows how far out into the street it goes. But they don't give up, they don't get in the back of the line and say, well wait. No they know that Jesus can heal this man. And so they go up onto the roof. Now, that's not as unusual as it might seem to us, because in that day, roofs were flat.

And you did things on the roof. You may have dried food up there, you may have eaten up there, you may have lived up there on the roof. And so they bring this man up onto the roof. And Luke uses the word that they let him down through the tiling on the roof. That word for tiling is the word we get our word ceramic from.

These were probably ceramic tiles on the roof. So it's a flat roof and the tiles are just laid on the roof. The tile roofs today are often, if they're shallow enough, are the same way. Gravity just holds the tile in place. There's nothing needed to fasten it.

The roofs are still made like that in some places. If you travel to the Mediterranean climate, you can still see tile roofs like that. This is the only time this word is used in the New Testament. And for many years there were people who don't believe the Bible, who didn't believe the Bible is true and true in everything it says. They saw this as just one more little oops.

Luke maybe didn't know what he was talking about or made a little mistake or wasn't precise because you see it was widely believed that Jewish roofs weren't made of tile that they were made of some kind of mud or thatching of some sort. But we know that the Bible is true in everything it says, and if this roof was made of tile, if Luke says that they removed the tiling to let this man down, then that's what they did. This was a tile roof and of course The Bible is true even if the experts don't don't recognize that it's true and so sure enough There there came a time in history when they excavated places like Rafid in the Golan Heights, a city that was destroyed in the Six Days War, where they have found houses, Jewish houses, that did indeed have tile roofs. And so these men went up onto the roof. They probably had stairways, external stairways to the roof.

They removed the tiles and whatever else there may have been cross slats or something and they with ropes Would have let this man down on his bed right in front of Jesus Because they knew that Jesus could heal him And when Jesus saw their faith He's he pronounced the paralytic sins forgiven. He said, man, your sins are forgiven. There was nothing said to Jesus. The men didn't, we have none of the accounts, does anybody say anything to Jesus? The paralytic doesn't say anything.

The men who brought him don't say anything, at least nothing is recorded. They simply acted. They simply let him down into Jesus' presence through the roof. And it says when Jesus saw their faith, he saw the faith of these friends who had brought him. He said, man, your sins are forgiven you.

He wasn't just making a statement that his sins Would be forgiven he was forgiving this man's sins And it's in the passive as well. This man didn't do anything for his sins to be forgiven. This was God's work to forgive his sins. This man didn't do anything to be able to be brought to Jesus. He didn't even say anything.

But he was, his sins were forgiven. And then Jesus gave him three commands. Rise, pick up your bed, and go home. Here's a man who hasn't even spoken. He can't move anything.

He needs somebody to feed him, somebody to dress him, somebody to put him, to move him anywhere he goes. Jesus says to him, rise, pick up your bed, and go to your house. Now imagine if we went down to the Shriner's Hospital, where there's some child lying, paralyzed, unable to move, having been born that way. And we say, child, rise up, go home. Well, that would be considered cruel.

We're giving him a command that he has no ability to keep. And isn't that what Jesus does? He commands the blind to see. He even went to a tomb in Bethany and commanded a dead man to walk out of his grave bound in his clothes and the dead man Walked out of his grave in this case this paralyzed man picked up his bed, arose, and went home. Jesus healed him because he saw his faith.

He saw his faith because that was a living faith and it resulted in action. It resulted in doing something. That belief that Jesus could heal him and those men believing that Jesus could heal their friend they didn't just sit there and say well we know Jesus can heal him and continue doing what they were doing because they believed that Jesus could heal them they acted They took this man to Jesus and they didn't stop when they couldn't get in the door. They went up on the roof and made a hole in the roof and let him down. That's faith motivating that action.

Faith that's resulting in action. Living faith produces works. That's why James can say that Rahab demonstrated her faith by her works. It's through the things that she did that her faith was demonstrated. Likewise was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out the other way for as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead That these people had a living faith and a living faith always produces action it produces Something it results in us doing something Someone will say you have faith and I have works.

Show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works. Meaning that our faith is declared, is shown, is demonstrated. You believe there is one God, you do well. Even the demons believe and tremble. But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?

Was not Abraham our father justified by works? Was he not declared to be just when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works and by works faith was made perfect? You see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith only. That's a different use of the word justified, meaning to be declared, to be demonstrated.

But what we see here, This man is completely unable to do anything. He's brought to Jesus by his friends who are acting out of faith. They have a living faith. And so Jesus sees their actions and he declares your sins are forgiven. So faith believed that the Son of Man could heal.

Faith resulted in action to take this man there and the fruit of that faith is that God was glorified. This man took what he had been lying on and departed to his own house glorifying God. Glorifying. He hadn't done anything. It was nothing for him to boast about.

He had lain there, been carried there, didn't say anything. Jesus, by His power, saved him. And this man glorifies God. And I think everyone who has saving faith comes to that same realization whether you were born in a Christian home and regenerated before you can remember or whether you were regenerated later in life in a dramatic conversion where there was a night and day change in your life. I think we all recognize that we are helpless.

We are like this paralytic. There is nothing in us that Saves us that we can save ourselves Not every conversion is like this Not every conversion is like the leper's experience. Remember there are times, sometimes Jesus healed people gradually. Sometimes he would say to them, he put clay on their eyes and they'd say, do you see? And they'd say, well, I just see dimly.

I see people like shadows. And there'd be another step. And then they would be able to see. Jesus doesn't always save in overnight moment conversions but sometimes he does. Sometimes the process is slow.

We can't make our conversion normative. Well these Pharisees, They were there trying to catch Jesus on something. And as soon as Jesus said, man your sins are forgiven, they recognized that Jesus was exercising the prerogative that belonged to God alone. And they thought, aha, we've got him. He's blaspheming God.

They had two choices they could make. Either Jesus was a liar and a fraud who was blaspheming God by claiming to do what only God can do, they recognize that only God can forgive sins. Or he was God. They had two choices. They decided he wasn't God.

And they compounded that error by thinking that anyone can say your sins are forgiven and who would know who would know whether that's true or not. Right? You can if I can if I say something that nobody else can verify you don't know whether it's true or not. And so they thought, well, anybody can say your sins are forgiven. Who would know they're not?

It would be much harder if you said, if you healed Him. And so in their thoughts, they haven't said anything, but in their thoughts they are judging Jesus as to be blaspheming. The scribes and Pharisees began to reason saying who is this who speaks blasphemy? Because who can forgive sins but God alone? Now Jesus knows their thoughts.

They never say anything but he knew their thoughts. He perceived their thoughts and he said to them, why are you reasoning in your hearts? Which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven or to say rise up and walk? Which is easier? Well, to say your sins are forgiven means that Christ died, suffered the wrath of God for all of those sins.

It's not easy to say. It's not easy to do. But Jesus says, but that you might know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, he said to the man who was paralyzed, rise up, take your bed and go home. Why did he heal this man? He forgave his sins because when he saw their faith.

It says that he healed this man so that he, God, Jesus Christ, would be glorified. That's why he healed them. Jesus healed the paralytic so that he would be glorified. So that these critics, these skeptics would have a testimony that the Son of Man had power on earth to heal and to forgive sins. So this sign that he did was to validate His authority as God to forgive sins.

It was to demonstrate that. It was so that these people could see and have no excuse. But it also, I think, it's to see here. It's to bring glory to God. And ultimately that is why God saves anyone.

That's why, it's ultimately why God heals anyone. Why does God save the elect? Why did he send his son? Well, he ultimately, The Bible says he ultimately did that so that he would be glorified. It's through the church, Paul told the Ephesians, his saved people, that the manifold wisdom of God is made known to the principalities and powers of heaven.

Why are there reprobate? It's so that God might make his power known. God wanting to show his wrath and make his power known endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had prepared beforehand for glory. See, yes God loves us and God died for us because he loves us but there's a much bigger purpose in our salvation and that is the glory of God. So that God is glorified, so that His power is made known, so that His wisdom is displayed.

That's why He saves us. Are you living? The question is, are you and I living in such a way as to glorify God with our life? We have been saved so that we might obey the Lord. That's the purpose.

So the crowds were amazed and they glorified God as well and they were filled with fear Saying we have seen strange things today We have been saved so that we may glorify the Lord, so that we may praise him, so that from our lips and from our lives might flow his worship as we dedicate our bodies as a living sacrifice to God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your love of us, that you sent your Son to die for us. But we also have learned that you have done all these things for your own glory. We pray that we as your redeemed people may be the first to praise you, may be the first to with our lives glorify you in our bodies.

Father, may all that we do be done to glorify you, even our eating and drinking, our relationships in our families, and with one another. That by our love for one another, may we show those who are around us that we are your children. That we are your servants. That our lives are sold out to you, that you are our Lord and our Master. And that all that we do, We do out of reverence and honor and devotion to you.

Father, wherever you call us, we will go. And what you give to us, we receive. And what you take from us, we give, we yield to you. We yield all that we have to you. We yield our health, our wealth, our income, our reputation, our very lives, Father.

We yield to you. It is yours. You have created us for your glory. You have created us to worship you. And we ask, Lord, that you would fill us with your spirit that we might do that through Jesus Christ.

Amen.