#36. Luke 5:17-26 JESUS, THE ONE
WHO CAN FORGIVE SIN
Introduction:
When Jesus began His ministry it did not take Him long to become famous.
Great crowds of people began to come to
Him to hear Him preach, to see Him
perform
miracles, or to be healed. In our text last Sunday we learned that
Jesus healed a man of leprosy and became
more famous than ever. The crowds
increased
all the more. In our text today we see
that Jesus is able to do
more than just to heal the
physical body. Jesus is able to cleanse
from sin.
I.
The coming of the scribes and Pharisees to
V. 17, "And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was
teaching..."
Luke does not tell us, but according to
both Matthew and Mark, Jesus had
returned
to the city of
and healing the sick in the
city of
home of Simon Peter where He had
earlier healed Simon Peter's mother-in-law.
At any rate, a great crowd of both friends and enemies gathered there to
see and hear. Luke does not say a great deal about the
friends, who made up
the greater part of the
crowd. Luke focuses his attention on the
enemies of
Jesus.
(V. 17), "...that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law
sitting
by, which were come out of every town of
These people were not there to be healed of some kind of disease. There
were not there out of
curiosity. They were not there to thrill
at the sight
of the miracles that He was
performing. They certainly were not
there out
of any desire to learn the
truth of God.
These men were there to put Jesus to the test. It was obvious to them
that most of the nation of
It had also come to their attention that a
growing number of people were
claiming
that Jesus is the Christ whom God had promised.
These men
considered
themselves to be the authority who would determine on behalf of
the nation of
great
deal about Jesus, but now they were to see and hear Him in person and
see for themselves if Jesus is
the Christ. If they should decide that
Jesus
really
is the Christ, they would say so and the people of the nation would
be encouraged to believe in
Him. But on the other hand, if they
should
decide
that Jesus is not the Christ, then they would do everything in their
power
to prevent the people of the nation from believing in Him. They had
the same attitude as the woman
on the television. She says, "It's
not Hanes
until
I say that it's Hanes." They had
the idea, "Jesus is not the Christ
until
we say that He's the Christ."
So they were there from all parts of the land. They were there from
throughout
The Pharisees were there and the most
scholarly scribes were there. They
were there to examine Jesus
first hand and officially decide what attitude
the Jewish leadership would
take toward Jesus.
II. The claim of Jesus that He is able to
forgive sin
While Jesus was not dependent on their support, yet He gave them every
opportunity
to believe that He is the Christ and to lend Him their support.
In their presence, He gave conclusive
proof that He has authority to forgive
men their sin. This is a power and authority that He could
only have if He
were indeed God dwelling in
Human flesh. Thus He is the Christ. Not only
were they putting Jesus to the
test. Jesus was putting them to the test
and
they failed the test.
(V. 17), "...and the power of the Lord was present to heal
them." That
is, the power of the Lord was
in Jesus to heal the sick people in the crowd.
Jesus demonstrated in the presence of His
enemies that He had power to heal
the sick by actually healing
many of them. He healed all who came to
Him
for healing.
V. 18-19, "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 way
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." Luke
informs
us that a paralyzed man was brought to Jesus by some of his family
or friends. They tried to get through the door of the
house where Jesus
was, but they could not get
through the door. The picture I get is
that
they could not even get to the
door. If this had been just one
individual
trying
to push his way through the crowd, he might could have made it. But
for four men to get through
that crowd carrying another man on a couch or
bed was just impossible.
So they went up the stairway, which in those days was built on the
outside
of the house and they went to the rooftop.
Once they were on the
top of the house, they pulled
loose some of the tile of the roof and let
Jesus down into the room right in the presence of Jesus so
that Jesus
could
not help but see him.
I must confess. It used to bother
me somewhat when I would read that
they tore a hole in the roof of
the house. I guess I could somewhat
sympathize
with the owner of the house. But it
finally dawned on me that
they really did not hurt the
house. The tile which they took up could
be
easily
laid back down again.
At any rate, here is this man with the palsy, this paralyzed man who is
let down right in front of
Jesus. V. 20, "And when he saw
their faith..."
When He saw whose faith? He saw the faith of the four men who brought
the
paralyzed
man to Him. He saw that they truly
believed that Jesus could heal
this man. He saw also the faith of the man on the
bed. He could not
actively
demonstrate his faith by coming to Jesus Himself because he was
paralyzed
and could not walk. But he surely must
have had believed that
Jesus could heal him, because apparently
he raised no objection to their
bringing
him to Jesus and he raised no objection to the rather unorthodox
way they went about getting him
into the presence of Jesus.
So when Jesus saw their faith He spoke to the man and what wonderful
words
they were. (V. 20), "...he said
unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven
thee." These words must have meant the world to that
man. You see he was
surely
conscious of the fact that he is a sinner before God. More than
that. He was conscious that certain sins he had
committed had put him in
this condition. The Bible does not tell us what particular
sins had brought
this condition upon Him, but it
does make it clear that he had done
something
that caused it. Since the Bible does not
tell what he had done to
cause
his paralysis, I am not going to speculate.
But I think we can be
sure that he knew what he had
done that caused it.
So since the man knew that it was his sins that had caused his
paralysis
and since Jesus said that his sins were forgiven, he knew that
Jesus was going to heal him. He knew that Jesus was going to make him to
walk again.
III. The failure of the scribes and
Pharisees to believe His claim
But instead of going on to tell us immediately about the healing of the
palsied
man, Luke draws our attention again to the enemies of the Lord who
were present on this
occasion. V. 21, "And the scribes
and the Pharisees
began
to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh
blasphemies? Who can
forgive
sins, but God alone?"
Immediately the scribes and Pharisees jump to a conclusion before
examining
all the facts. They jump to the conclusion
that Jesus is not the
Christ and that He is a blasphemer. They had just heard Him claim to
forgive
the man's sins and they knew that nobody but God could forgive sin.
They certainly did not believe that He is
God dwelling in human flesh. They
were not willing to even
consider the possibility that He is God in human
flesh. They were not willing to be persuaded no
matter what evidence He
might
present that He is God in human flesh.
So they jumped to the
conclusion
that He is a blasphemer and they held doggedly to that position
to the very end.
Now let me clarify: They did not
make this charge of blasphemy against
Jesus publicly at this time. This was just the conclusion they reached in
their
own minds and hearts.. V. 22, "But
when Jesus perceived their
thoughts,
he answering said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts?" Jesus
brought
the matter right out into the open. He
wanted to show publicly that
they were wrong.
V. 23, "Whether
is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to
say, Rise up and
walk?" Technically, it is easier to
say, "Thy sins be
forgiven
thee." All that is required in
saying that the man's sins are
forgiven
is to just speak. Nobody can see whether
the sins are forgiven or
not. Men may deny that He actually forgave the
man's sins, but nobody can
prove
Him wrong, because nobody can see whether He did or not. But to say,
"Rise up and walk" would require
some action on His part that everybody
could
see. They would be able to see whether
or not Jesus was able to make
him to walk.
IV. The failure of the scribes and
Pharisees to accept positive proof that
Jesus can forgive sin
V. 24, "But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon
earth
to forgive sins, (he said unto
the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee,
Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into
thine house." Jesus was
interested
in doing more than merely healing the
man. Jesus wanted them to
know that He had power to
forgive sin. Jesus could forgive a man's
sin so
that before God the Father that
man was free of sin. If He were able to
cause
the man to rise up and walk that would be proof that He had forgiven
the sins that had caused the
paralysis. So Jesus just turned to the
man and
told him to rise, to take up his
own bed and to walk to his own house on his
own two feet. If that man could not get up---if he had to
be carried back
to his house on his bed, then
this would be proof that Jesus is not able to
forgive
sin and that He is not the Christ. But
if that man does get up, if
he takes up his bed and
carries his bed back to his house, then that is
positive
proof that Jesus does forgive sin and that He is the Christ of God,
the Savior of men. Nobody can forgive sin but God.
V. 25, "And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that
whereon
he lay, and departed to his
own house, glorifying God."
Now let me comment on something that Luke says nothing about. Jesus
showed
conclusive proof to the scribes and Pharisees that He is Deity God
dwelling
in human flesh. Nobody but God can
forgive sin. But Jesus did
forgive
sin showing that He is Deity God. But
those scribes and Pharisees
would
not be persuaded. They had made up their
minds and that was that.
Luke does tell us about the reaction of the rest of the people in that
great
crowd. V. 26, "And they were all
amazed, and they glorified God, and
were filled with fear, saying,
We have seen strange things to day."
Not all
the people of the crowd
accepted the fact that He is Deity God born in human
flesh. Not all of them accepted Him as the Messiah,
the Christ of God. But
all the rest of that crowd did
understand that the power of God was with
Jesus and that He is indeed a prophet of
God. I personally believe that a
goodly
number of them actually accepted Him as Christ and trusted in Him to
save them from their own
sins. They saw that He could forgive
sins, surely
some of them must have trusted
Him to save them from their own sins.
V.
Men's need of forgiveness today
But what about you?
What about you and your sins? Are
you willing to
believe
what this passage of Scripture plainly teaches.
It teaches that
Jesus Christ can forgive you of your
sins. He forgave that man. He forgave
me when I trusted in Him. He forgave many others. He has forgiven very of
the people who are here in this
service this morning. Has He forgiven
you?
Have you ever looked to Him and trusted
Him to save your soul and to forgive
your sins? If not, I am urging you to do so right now in
this service
today.
I feel sure that there is no need for me to try to convince you that you
have sinned. I think you know that you have sinned. I hope you know that
your sins are deadly. The wages of sin is death. The wages of sin is even
the second death. In other words, if God has to judge you for
your sins and
pay punish you in eternity for
your sins, you will experience the second
death.
You will be cast into the
Christ died on
sins and to cleanse you from
every sin. Won't you come today and put
your
trust
in Jesus Christ that you might be saved.
Conclusion: Will you be one of those who do believe and
who do trust in
Jesus for forgiveness of sin? If so come today and trust in Him.