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What Matters to Jesus
Mark 2:1-12
Every person can have a better understanding of who Jesus is by looking at the activities Jesus is involved in.
Introduction:
Clovis Chappell, a minister from a century back, used to tell the story of two paddleboats.
They left Memphis about the same time, traveling down the Mississippi River to New Orleans.
As they traveled side by side, sailors from one vessel made a few remarks about the snail's pace of the other.
Words were exchanged.
Challenges were made.
And the race began.
Competition became vicious as the two boats roared through the Deep South.
One boat began falling behind.
Not enough fuel.
There had been plenty of coal for the trip, but not enough for a race.
As the boat dropped back, an enterprising young sailor took some of the ship's cargo and tossed it into the ovens.
When the sailors saw that the supplies burned as well as the coal, they fueled their boat with the material they had been assigned to transport.
They ended up winning the race, but burned their cargo.
It is easy for us to assign priorities to Jesus that are not really his priories at all.
I would like to look at the activities Jesus was involved in and make sure that we understand what is really important to Jesus.
Activity I.
He preached
A. Jesus preached and what he preached was the word.
The Greek word for “word” is logos.
It is pretty commonly used in our society today in much of what we do and say.
We use the word Theology.
The last part of that word is ology, which is from the Greek word logos.
It literally means one’s logical thinking about God.
Biology is one’s logical thinking about living things.
Usually when a word ends with ology it is ones logical thinking about something.
The same is true in this passage as Jesus preaches the word.
He is giving some logical thinking about the message he has come to deliver.
Jesus came to deliver a message of good news about himself.
B.
I think that many people have convinced themselves that Jesus came to heal people.
While we see Jesus healing people that is not his primary purpose in coming to the earth.
Some people believe that Jesus came for the purpose of alleviating all suffering.
This was another thing that Jesus did, but it is not his primary function.
He did not come just for the purpose of taking away suffering.
He did a lot of things when he came into the world, but these were not necessarily the same as the reason for his coming.
C.
Jesus was not performing miracles.
He was not healing people either.
He was preaching the word to them.
Yet in the midst of this people are bringing the sick to Jesus.
It is easy for us to lose sight of what Jesus is really about.
We would like him to be about healing, prospering, and providing.
This is certainly things that Jesus brings, but they can cause us to lose sight of what Jesus is really about.
Jesus came to seek the sinners.
He came to offer a way of salvation.
He came for forgive people for their sins and show them the way to God.
In his own words Jesus said he came to seek and to save that which was lost.
If that is what Jesus came for, and that is what he is about shouldn’t we do the same?
Our primary focus and mission should be to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.
We should be telling people that there is a way for them to be forgiven of their sins and to have a right relationship with God.
Jesus’ ministry always comes back to this message.
Activity II.
He perceived
A. When I use the word perception that can be seeing things that are not there, but it can also be see things that other people are unable to see.
Last Saturday was Valentine’s Day.
Suppose your wife came to you in the middle of that week and asked if you had anything planned for Saturday.
You might answer yes I do.
In your mind that means you are going to watch a basketball game with some friends.
To her this means you have something romantic planned for Valentine’s Day.
Obviously there is going to be trouble when Saturday arrives and the two of you have very different ideas of what is going to happen that day.
When Jesus perceived something it was an accurate perception, rather than a missed line of communication.
B.
There are two things that Jesus perceives in this passage.
One is the faith of the man’s friends.
In v. 5 it says that he saw their faith.
He sees something that maybe others did not see.
He knew that they were convinced that their friend would be healed if he could only get to Jesus.
So they go to some pretty extreme lengths to get their friend in front of Jesus.
In v. 8 Jesus is being condemned by the religious leaders who are gathered there.
Rather than telling the man that he was healed, he told him his sins were forgiven.
This created a problem for the religious leaders since God was the only one who could forgive sin.
Since they had been watching Jesus they reasoned that he could not be God.
Jesus knew what the religious leaders were thinking.
He knew that this man was a sinner and he was in need of forgiveness.
Jesus could see very clearly what was going on.
C.
I might think that I am perceiving something and it ends up being one hundred percent wrong.
Other times I might be right on the mark.
Some people in our world might have a highly honed sense of perception.
They might be able to see and understand things much better than other people are able to.
No one has the ability to see things the way Jesus does.
Jesus was able to perceive what the religious leaders were thinking without an apparent hint from them.
He just knew.
He was able to address their thoughts since he knew what they were thinking.
Activity III.
He healed
A. I think it is safe for us to assume that Jesus does something that no one else has been able to do.
He is able to heal this man.
I would guess that these men had tried to get healing for their friend.
I say that because of the lengths to which they go in order to get him in front of Jesus.
This could have very well been a last resort for them.
No doubt there were people around who were able to do things for people, but no one had the success rate that Jesus had.
So the people gathered when they realize that Jesus has returned.
It says in v. 1, “The people heard that Jesus had come home.”
This simple bit of information causes Jesus to gather a crowd.
Jesus is able to heal this man who is paralyzed.
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