So what is the most distinctive benefit
that Christianity offers?
What is the most distinctive benefit
that Christianity offers?
If we were to hop out onto the streets
and do like an on-camera random survey
and just stop people, we might get a variety
of questions or responses to that question,
what is the most distinctive benefit
that Christianity offers?
Some might say, oh, it offers a moral guideline
or a rule of life, something to live by,
a law to keep or rules to keep.
Others might suggest it's a way of gaining
God's acceptance.
We keep those rules and then God accepts us.
He allows us to be right with him.
Others still might say, hey, it's a way
of finding meaning in this life.
Christianity offers me meaning.
Or it's a love, it's a force of love
in this evil world and that love helps
to push back the evil and so I'm all about
that love force against evil.
Some might say it's inner peace
or it promotes social responsibility,
it helps me be a better person
so that I can help this world.
And still others might say Christianity,
man, it's distinctive benefit is that
it offers me personal fulfillment.
But here's the thing, none of those
are complete answers.
None of those are right.
The most distinctive benefit that truly
sets Christianity apart and the one
that transcends all others is itself
a response to humanity's greatest need.
See, what Christianity offers as a distinctive benefit
perfectly matches up to humanity's deepest need.
And what is that need?
Well, in John chapter eight, beginning in verse 21,
21 and 24, Jesus gives this sobering warning
to the religious elites of his day,
the Pharisees and scribes.
He says, I'm going away, I'm going to leave,
I'm going to be gone and you will look for me.
At some point in time, you're going
to look for me and you will die in your sin.
For if you do not believe I am he, I am the Messiah,
then you will die in your sins.
This points us to this crucial truth.
What sins people to hell is not sin,
but unforgiven sin.
What sins people to hell is not sin,
but unforgiven sin.
We all sin.
This is a reality of human existence.
And if our sins remain unforgiven,
we would all face eternal separation from God.
But that's where the heart of the Christian message
shines most.
God has made a way for those who come to him in faith
to have their sins removed as far as the east
is from the west, amen?
So the greatest need of humanity then
is for divine forgiveness.
And this is precisely what Christianity offers.
In Acts chapter 13 verse 38, we read that through Jesus,
the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.
And that this isn't just about being free
from judgment and punishment, but it's about being made
right with God and being justified.
You see, the gospel isn't primarily about morality
or philanthropy.
It's not about a moral code to live by
or about doing good.
That's oftentimes what it's presented as,
and many Christians are confused over that.
Is it about morality?
I just need to be a better person,
or I need to live more true to what I believe
or what I believe God said?
No, set that as it's about forgiveness of sins
the essence of the gospel, the most distinctive benefit
is forgiveness.
And the astounding part is that God justifies the ungodly.
God justifies the sinner, not by ignoring justice
or simply letting people off the hook,
but by burying the punishment of sin upon himself
in the person of Jesus that the God of the universe
took on flesh, became like this so that he could take
our place as the guilty one so that we might be forgiven.
And that cuts right to the heart of Christianity.
This is the distinctive, transformative benefit
that it offers to every person, divine forgiveness
that meets our deepest need.
And this morning, the story in Mark
that we're gonna look at in Mark chapter two,
so if you have your Bibles, feel free to turn over there.
Mark chapter two, the story in Mark chapter two
is a great illustration of just that.
One of this, this story also is awesome
because it has all of the characters you want
from a good Jesus Bible story.
A good Jesus Bible story has Jesus teaching,
it's got lots of crowds around him,
it's got sinners who know they're sinners,
and it's always got these other characters,
the Pharisees and scribes, who are stirring things up
and making trouble, and so this is a great Jesus story.
Mark chapter two, beginning in verse one,
when he entered Capernaum again, after some days,
it was reported that he was at home.
So many people gathered together,
so many people gathered together,
that there was no more room, not even in the doorway,
and he was speaking the word to them.
We'll start with those first two verses.
So Capernaum is Jesus' home base for ministry.
It's from Capernaum that he's beginning to do ministry,
and he'll occasionally go out from there,
but it's home base.
Well, why is it Capernaum?
Well, that's because he was driven out of Bethlehem,
his hometown, and he was driven out of Bethlehem
under threat and duress,
which is an interesting point to begin with,
because that means Jesus, the Son of God,
the most loving, caring, merciful person
that has ever existed, was hated and driven out of his hometown
and had to make his base in Capernaum.
And that alone should tell you something about
what it means to follow Jesus,
what it means to walk with him.
He was run out of Bethlehem.
And so he's in Capernaum, and he's teaching out of a home,
probably Peter's home, and he set up camp there,
and he's teaching.
Who's he teaching?
He's teaching crowds.
There are so many people who have gathered together
at this house that there's no more room,
not even in the doorway, and he's speaking to them the Word.
Now, the crowds are kind of a group in Mark
and elsewhere in the Gospels that whenever you read about them,
you should know a little bit about them.
And what you should know is that the crowds, more or less,
are wonder seekers.
They're wonder seekers.
So here's a little tidbit about me and my life.
Me and my sons have a hobby.
I don't know if it's a good hobby.
It's a bad hobby.
Actually, it is a bad hobby.
And that is when we hear about any major forest fire
within 100 miles, what do you think the first thing we do is?
We hop in the car and go get in the way.
Exactly.
While other people are suffering under the hand of forest fires,
me and my three boys are gawking and looking at where the fire lines are
and where we can get around the police barricades
to get closer and closer and take pictures.
And we've done this for some time.
Sorry for the confession this morning.
But the one time that I remember that was really vivid
is when we lived in Bakersfield,
we heard that there was a fire over in Lake Isabella.
And we were like, hey, it was late at night.
The kids were a lot younger, a lot younger.
And they're like, yeah, Dad, let's go.
Outing, let's go see what's going on in Lake Isabella.
So we hop in the car and we begin to drive.
And as we drive up the hill, and then it kind of goes up,
and then it falls down into the lake basin there.
As we rounded that, or we came over to the top of that hill,
we looked around the lake, and all of the mountains around the lake
were just consumed with fire.
I'm talking raging fire.
It looked like an inferno.
Dante's, and it looked like hell.
I mean, it was like, what on earth, surrounded on all sides.
And we were on the main freeway.
And I remember my middle son beginning to weep
as he looked at that, as he saw the fire and the destruction.
And that's when he said, Dad, I don't want to be here anymore.
And we pretty much turned around and got out of town.
But we were fire chasers.
We were wonder seekers.
We were ambulance chasers.
We were looking to see what was going on.
We were trying to catch a glimpse of the wonder or the sparkle.
And the crowds, that's what they often were, were wonder seekers.
They were looking to see something new, like, Jesus, go ahead.
What's your new trick for today?
How can I get my thrill from your ministry?
And another feature of the crowds was they were the handout seekers.
Jesus feeds them, and they're waiting for more food.
And even later, he says, all you want is food from me.
You want what I have.
You want to see what I'm doing.
But you don't know who I am.
You don't know who I am.
And who I am is far more important than seeing all of the thrills that I can do.
Jesus did perform miracles.
He did heal the sick.
He did cast out demons.
But the miracles were never the main point.
The miracles weren't the main point.
Jesus used the miracles to demonstrate who he was, what kind of authority he had,
where he came from, and what his mission was.
Crowds couldn't see past the miracles to see Jesus as the Savior and Messiah that he was.
Mark never records that the crowds repent of their sins, put their faith in Jesus Christ,
follow him, just looking for the next thrill.
And so word is spreading that Jesus is doing these wonderful things.
And he's healed a man with leprosy just before this and told him not to tell anyone.
And guess what? The leopard just ran out and did right away.
Told everyone.
And so the crowds are coming to see this miracle worker.
And Jesus, in his compassion, speaks the word to them.
Maybe his disciples have gathered around and he's speaking,
but he's speaking the word to all those who will come in here.
And he's proclaiming the good news of the kingdom.
The good news of the kingdom, as Acts 13 said earlier, is what?
Jesus forgives sins.
And so he's teaching the good news of the kingdom, but Jesus needs an illustration.
And so this story is like a real life parable that's playing out right before them.
Verse 3.
And so we have four friends who decide that they're going to carry a paralyzed man to Jesus.
And I'll tell you this this morning.
Good friends carry their friends to Jesus.
And they're going to carry a paralyzed man to Jesus.
And I'll tell you this this morning, good friends carry their friends to Jesus.
Amen.
Good friends carry their friends to Jesus.
We don't know this man's story at all.
We don't know that what he did or how he got in the condition.
Was it from birth or did it happen later?
Was it an accident?
But one thing we do know is that he hung out with some pretty cool guys
because he was able to get four guys to hoist him up and carry him to go see Jesus.
But the crowd is out the front door.
There's going to be no way.
You're going to wait hours, maybe days.
No way to get him to Jesus.
And so you know what good friends do?
Good friends tear the roof off.
You know, good friends, they just get a little redneck.
You know, redneck, right?
Redneck is all about duct tape, camo, NASCAR, and doing whatever it takes to make it work.
Get her done.
Yeah, exactly.
Good friends go a little redneck when it comes to getting their friends to Jesus.
And these guys are no different.
Those homes were made of basalt, unfinished basalt bricks that were stacked up.
Plaster on the outside.
And the roof was made of wood beams that would have reeds laid across them and plaster on top of it.
And so it was kind of like a square box that you lived in.
And you lived inside, but you could take these stairs up to the rooftop,
maybe for a nice evening of candlelight and wine on the roof or whatever,
or for getting your friend to Jesus.
And that's exactly what they did.
They carried their friend up on top of the roof.
Could you imagine what that would have been like?
Because these guys were pretty good.
They pinpointed right where Jesus is at,
and they know exactly where to bring their friend and drop him down.
And they began to pick at that roof until it begins to open up.
And you can imagine being inside.
I mean, just imagine right now if Roy was up in the attic.
Right here, right?
And pretty soon we see his feet come through, right?
And the dust starts falling.
Like, do I keep preaching or should I stop and see if he's okay?
I don't know what to do here.
Imagine what that site would have been like.
Very unconventional.
Imagine the barriers, the social barriers that those men must have broke through
to get their friend to Jesus.
They knew they had to get him there.
They needed to get him there that day, that hour, that moment.
Are you convinced that if you could get your friends to Jesus,
that he could meet their greatest need?
Are you convinced that if you could get your friends to Jesus,
that he could meet their greatest need?
Seeing their faith, Jesus told the paralytic,
son, your sins are forgiven.
What a pronouncement.
What an amazing statement.
Probably overwhelming.
But not where the story seemed like it was going.
The story is a story of four men carrying a paralytic toward Jesus.
And the first thing that's out of Jesus' mouth is, your sins are forgiven.
This was supposed to be a healing story.
This was supposed to be about wonder and razzle and dazzle and lights and glitter.
And Jesus looks and says, oh, there's so much greater need that you have
than even your paralyzed, crippled state.
And he cuts through and says, your sins are forgiven.
They must have believed in Jesus.
Something about it says they saw their faith.
And you notice it wasn't that he saw his faith.
It was the faith of the four and the man together to get to Jesus.
Jesus saw something.
And his response means that they came with more than healing on their minds.
They weren't like the crowd.
The crowd came for the razzle and dazzle.
Whoever these four plus one is, they came with something else on the mind.
I have to get to Jesus, the Messiah.
I have to get to Jesus, the King.
I have to get to Jesus, the ruler and Lord, because he's going to do something.
I have to get to Jesus.
They must have believed him as Messiah.
Maybe they had heard of John the Baptist proclaiming as he saw Jesus approaching,
behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
Whatever it was, it was more than that consumeristic focused transaction that they had come from.
Four.
They didn't simply believe that Jesus could heal.
They believed in Jesus, in who he was, and what he could accomplish on their behalf.
They trusted in and hoped in him as Savior.
He was their Savior.
And Jesus' response to the paralytic is the response that we can expect from him for anyone who comes to him in faith.
Anyone who comes in faith, your mother, your brother, your sister, your friend, your co-worker,
if they come to Jesus in faith, he will say to them, son, daughter, your sins are forgiven.
And this faith, to come to him in trust and hope, not for the razzle-dazzle, but for who he is and what he's about,
this faith is what's necessary for salvation.
The Bible says that even demons believe.
Even demons know his power and they know his purpose and they know his authority.
They know who he is.
It even says that they shudder.
They shudder, but you know what they don't do?
They don't bow the knee.
They don't give the glory and honor alone to Christ.
They don't trust in him completely.
The faith that is necessary to save requires trust and hope in him as Savior.
Jesus had supernatural ability to discern people's motives.
But it can't go unnoticed that faith is visible.
It can't go unnoticed that faith is visible.
It's not simply some internal quality that you possess.
Oh, me and my precious little faith, I like to keep it to myself.
It's private and personal, my faith.
Not this kind of faith.
Not saving faith.
Not forgiving faith.
Forgiving faith becomes visible.
It can't help it.
It works itself outward.
It acts in accord with what it believes and what it thinks about the Savior.
And so it is with these four men.
What they believed about who Jesus was, these four men plus the paralytic,
whatever it is they believed about him, made them act.
They had to get to him.
They had to put feet to belief.
Matthew Henry, the English minister, author, many of you have probably heard of his commentaries,
the Matthew Henry commentaries.
He says of the four and the paralytic, their faith was shown by their works.
And what they could not themselves do for their friends,
they brought him to Christ to do for him.
Hey, we all love having a good friend who can help you, let you borrow a pickup truck
or come on over and help you move or just kick back with you and watch a sports game.
We all love good friends who can do for us what we need, companionship and friendship.
But when these friends realized this was beyond, above their pay grade,
they had to get him to an expert.
They had to get him to a Savior.
They had to get him to Jesus.
So how is your faith expressing in action?
Can you look at your life and say, my faith is bursting out,
bursting at the seams into my life.
I saw that I did this or said this or acted this way because my faith could not be contained,
but began to work itself out through who I am and what I do and who I know.
That may be a good question for you.
That may be a better question for the person sitting next to you.
How is my faith working its way out?
That'll tell you what you really believe.
And how is that faith changing the lives and destinies of others around you?
But some of the scribes, there they are, that one group of people.
Some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts,
why does he speak like this?
He's blaspheming.
Who can forgive sins but God alone?
Not everyone is happy.
Jesus just looked at the man and said, your sins are forgiven and not everyone's happy.
I can tell you this, not everyone will be happy with you all the time.
How many of you guys know that's true?
Let me tell you, over the last few months, I've found it to be very true
that not everyone will be happy with you all the time.
And that's okay.
That's okay.
Jesus was run out of town, out of his hometown, under threat.
Jesus was proclaiming the kingdom of God and the forgiveness of sins
and someone was sitting on the side going, I don't know if he should be doing that.
The kingdom of God was unfolding in their sight and someone was like, I don't know.
I would have done it differently.
Not everyone will be happy.
The scribes of that time, they were the religious elites.
They weren't the professionals, like they weren't the priesthood,
but they sure made themselves professional, man.
The scribes and the Pharisees, there was this class of people, lay people,
who took really seriously the laws,
so much so that they wanted to obey them and keep them down to the minutiae.
And then when they realized, man, that gets really hard
or it's really hard to remember all of the hundreds of laws,
we have a really good idea.
Let's make more laws and more rules to keep us far from the original laws
so that we don't ever get close and accidentally violate them.
That was these guys, right?
And they're looking and going, who is this man who is proclaiming forgiveness of sins?
What is he doing? Who does he think he is?
He doesn't dare think he's God, does he?
And so they, in their hearts, say he's blaspheming.
Only God can do this.
But verse 8 says, right away, Jesus perceived in his spirit
that they were thinking like this within themselves and said to them,
why are you thinking these things in your heart?
Which is easier to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven,
or to say, get up and take your mat and walk,
but so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth
to forgive sins, he told the paralytic,
I tell you, get up, take your mat, and go home.
Immediately he got up, took his mat, and went out in front of everyone.
And as a result, they were all astounded and gave glory to God,
saying, we have never seen anything like this.
The climax of this story is this, Jesus said he forgave the man's sins,
but were they really forgiven?
How could you know? Sure, he said it,
but how could anyone really, really, really know?
And Jesus validates his claim to have the power and authority as God to forgive,
and so he heals him, and people are awestruck.
They got their razzle-dazzle. They got stirred up.
The guy gets healed spiritually, physically, the friends rejoice,
the crowds, they got their show, they got their hit, one more hit,
to keep them going, Jesus, you better not say anything that hurts them
or offends them, because they're going to turn on him any second now.
And the scribes and the Pharisees, well, the story goes on, they're enraged.
Because they had the political power, they had the ear of the people,
they could pass judgment and hold all kinds of things over people,
and they're going, who's this new guy in town, and what is he doing?
He's challenging our authority. He's acting like he's God.
And he's able to do crazy, cool things, like heal that guy.
We don't know what to do. We should kill him.
And that's all in a day's work for Jesus.
This story, as I said at the beginning, illustrates the reality
that the most distinctive benefit that Christianity offers,
more than anything else, more than a moral guideline or some fulfillment in life,
is the forgiveness of sins.
I'm going to invite the worship team to come on up as we close.
I want to remind you that our greatest need is forgiveness.
And the gospel of Jesus Christ offers just that.
Your friends and your family, I'm sure if you're like me or like many,
you can see that they have lots of physical needs.
How many of you guys know someone who has a physical need right now?
There are a lot of physical needs.
Being in the position that I'm in, I oftentimes get the reports of what folks are going through.
And I'll be honest, of everything that I have to keep track of in my mind of what's going on,
that's the most difficult because it's all the time.
Sickness, disease, emergency.
Maybe those you know, friends or family, struggle with depression or feelings of worthlessness,
and you look and you go, oh, I want that to change.
I want them to be free from that affliction.
I would do anything for them if I could make them better.
Some have needs for healing.
Their body is failing or falling apart, and they need wholeness and they're hurting.
And you look and you suffer with them as you see what they go through.
Or maybe some are stuck under the power of an addiction and overcome by it.
I know a few stories that are playing out right now of families struggling with addiction
and the horrors that it wreaks on everyone around.
Maybe there's behavioral issues that you pray and you cry and you spill tears asking God,
help, change, set them free.
I don't want to invalidate any of those realities, but I do want to say before that,
their greatest need is for forgiveness.
Before their physical ailment or that thing that they're going through or the struggle,
before all of that, their greatest human need is for forgiveness.
Some of you guys know this.
Some of you guys have experienced this.
God, you've been walking with God.
You love the Lord.
You worship him with all of your heart, and yet he allows suffering into your life
because he wants to make you into something.
You know that suffering does not mean God doesn't love you.
Suffering and pain, sometimes disease and hurting, sometimes those things that I just listed off,
that does not mean God does not love you.
But God prioritizes your spiritual health.
God prioritizes more than anything the forgiveness of sin.
We're going to get to the other part, but before that, forgiveness of sin.
Are you right before God?
Have you come to Jesus Christ in faith believing that he is the only way?
Have you forsaken all other ways and cast yourself wholly upon him,
that if he doesn't save you, you are utterly lost?
That's what it means to come to Jesus in faith.
That's what it means to find salvation.
And there, if you are there, if you are in Christ, then your sins are forgiven.
Cast as far as the east is from the west.
Remember no more.
Put behind the Lord so that he no longer sees them.
And all he sees is Christ's righteousness in place of your sin.
But if you haven't, the time is now.
The day of salvation is today.
God wants to speak over you, daughter or son, your sins are forgiven.
But you know what?
For some of the folks you know, for them to ever hear that,
they may just need you to get them to him.
They may need you to carry them to Jesus.
Are you willing?
Are you willing to go through what it takes to get your friends to Jesus?
You are the key.
How are you carrying them to Jesus?
And I would say prayer is a great start.
Prayer is a great start.
And for some, maybe the relationship has shut down.
There's no more communication.
Prayer is the only thing.
Prayer is where we have to begin, and prayer is what we must maintain.
But prayer is not the whole story.
Sometimes you might have to get a little redneck with your friends to get them to Jesus.
Get her done.
Find a way.
Through all of the embarrassment, through all of the difficulty,
if you believe Jesus is who he is and he's providing what he's providing,
how could you not?
Get your friends.
Carry them to Jesus.
I was at Starbucks the other day.
I was walking up.
And if you know me, I'm pretty much, you can catch me on any given Sunday
with a Starbucks in my hand as I'm walking around.
I'm pretty much Starbucks glued to my left hand.
Mostly undrunk, though, like I drink so slow that it runs out of ice,
and I end up throwing him away.
And my wife is always on my case.
Walking up to Starbucks to get my drink.
And I overhear a man comes out of the driveway, the drive-through.
And right next to the drive-through is the outdoor seating.
And there are four women, young women, who are sitting there talking.
And I see the car out of the corner of my eye, and he pulls up,
and he rolled down his window.
And I hear him, and he says, hey, I just want to tell you something.
I know it's going to be weird.
It's going to be strange, but I just want you to know that Jesus loves you
and that he's made a way for you to have a relationship with him,
that he loves you and he wants you to come to him,
that he wants you to give yourself to him, and he's made a way,
and that through faith and coming to the Lord,
that he will accept you and love you.
That's what he wants for you.
And then he more or less says, and he says,
and my wife's in the backseat with my baby,
so don't think this is some sort of pickup line there.
He rolls up the window and drives off.
And you know what I was most interested in?
That was cool, but I wanted to hang around and hear what they had to say.
So I kind of hang around the door like a creeper, just like doing my best.
I'm not doing anything.
Did I leave something somewhere?
And I hear them go, wow, that was crazy.
Like, how odd and amazing that someone would do that.
And then one of them looked at the other one and said, do you go to church?
And she said, I haven't since I was a kid.
But, huh, interesting.
You just saw that their brains were working, their mind was working,
the spirit was working, as that man, who knows what he was doing?
He probably went away going, ugh, that was awkward.
I don't know if I ever want to do that again.
There was a moment where I saw someone who risked it.
They saw these four ladies that they never knew.
They didn't know anything and were willing to risk the embarrassment,
the shutdown to say, I met someone.
It reminds me of the woman at the well, right?
After her exchange with Jesus, she's like, what just happened?
She goes into town and she's like, I met someone.
That's where the story could end.
I met someone and you've got to meet him.
I met someone.
You've got to meet him.
What he did in me, what he did for me, what he gave to me,
how he changed me, how he accepted me and loved me.
You have to meet him.
I think oftentimes when we think about what it means to bring our friends
and our family and the people we know to Jesus,
we oftentimes just make it all about us.
But I'm going to feel weird.
But I'm not going to do that.
That would be embarrassing.
And then we try to project.
We know what they're going to think, right?
We know how they're going, oh, they wouldn't want to hear that or whatever it is.
We just need to stop thinking about ourselves.
Have you met Jesus?
Because if you met Jesus, if you've encountered Jesus like I've encountered Jesus,
we've got something to tell.
We've got someone, we've got a lot of introductions to make.
You've got to meet my Jesus.
He loved me. He accepted me.
He saw me where I was at.
He saw me when I was lost.
He knew my name.
He called to me when I was 16 years old and I didn't have any hope.
He gave me purpose. He gave me life.
I didn't have to find it in some book or set of rules to follow.
I found it in a person who loved me and knew me and called my name and said,
son, you are forgiven.
And my life changed.
It's not what it was.
I don't want to go back.
I don't want to unknow him.
But I want courage to share with everyone about this person that I met that changed my life.
Carry people to Jesus.
There's a famous magician and a vowed atheist named Penn Teller.
I can't remember what group he's in.
He's in two names, Penn and Teller.
So yes.
So his last name is probably not Teller.
But he's an avowed atheist.
And he once said he has no respect for someone, someone who believes that they know the way,
they know the truth, and they know the life, but won't evangelize the people they know.
There's no respect for people.
I may not agree with them.
I may not align with their belief, but I can tell you that they're lying through their teeth
if they say they believe it, but they won't tell anyone.
His exact quote is, how much do you have to hate someone to believe everlasting life is possible
and not tell them?
How much do you have to hate someone to actually believe that everlasting life in Christ is possible
and then not tell them?
Carry them to Jesus.
It's not as weird as you think.
I met someone who changed my life.
You can change yours, too.