Is that me? Nope, there we go. Under Pressure,
this sermon series in Lent. We had our little
Ash Wednesday devotional. We were in the temple,
the synagogue of Nazareth last week. But today
we're going to see something extraordinary. We
thought we saw it last week when Jesus fulfills
the prophecy of Isaiah. He read in the temple
and they go to try to, they loved his sermon
so much they tried to kill him over it. We're
now going to see rejection again from the people.
We're going to see the Pharisees take a big part
in the story of adding that pressure. And so
we go from Nazareth to where now the roof is
going to come off in Capernaum. So put yourself
in the story, right? So now the news of this
Jesus guy spread throughout all the region. People
are showing up where he is teaching, where he
is doing miracles. So now he's a miracle worker.
He's a teacher and a miracle worker. If you have
your Messiah bingo sheet, you're checking off
some of those things. You still don't know. You're
wondering. You're hoping. Maybe he's the Messiah.
He said some Messianic junk in the temple in
Nazareth. Let me set the scene. We're in a crowded
house. Doorway is blocked. The fire chief, the
fire inspector would have given them a ticket
because they had too many people in this place.
Occupancy had been in capacity, overflowing.
Yet we see the Pharisees sitting quietly. Teachers
of the law watching closely. No one can get in
this house. How many of you grew up with a large
family? I know that's super subjective, but feel
free. If you think you were part of a large family,
how many of you had parties, it seemed like,
in the smallest house of the family? Some of
you, for whatever reason. And many of us loved
it. Many of us, those experiences made us introverts.
And we were like, we hated it, I don't like those,
I'm now triggered, or whatever it is. I remember
the Howland owner house, a lot of people at my
Uncle Hal. At my Aunt Carol's house over in Alsop.
Small house packed with people. Literally people
sitting on each other for no reason, right? Well,
that's all we're going to say about that. But
it was just, you know, you can feel the tension.
You can feel. Yet everybody loved it. There was
laughing. There was all of these things. A lot
of food. That's where we find ourselves. Jesus
is doing some work. He's doing his teaching.
He goes from the temple now to a crowded home.
So Jesus is going to bring his message wherever
it needs to be. And we're going to see something
spectacular. The roof tiles start to crack. Start
to open. Light trickles in. Dust now falls. And
there, a makeshift stretcher descends into the
room. Four desperate friends. One helpless man
and everybody, us included, we expect this guy,
a paralytic, cannot walk, cannot move, is lowered
down and we're expecting this healer to say two
words, be healed. And that would be a great story.
That would be a great testimony of the work of
Christ. But instead, he says something very different.
Six words that will bring the ultimate pressure
upon his shoulders. Man, your sins are forgiven
you. Those are six words, right? Yeah. Not be
healed, but something drastically different.
I'm going to be so bold to say it's something
you and I need to hear today as well. We've already
heard it. But if I had to guess, you're going
to need to hear it tomorrow. I know I will be.
And Tuesday. And every day that ends in Y. Your
sins are forgiven you. The pressure in the room
explodes. Why? Because in their mind, everyone
there, Pharisees, Sadducees, teachers of the
law, us, Munster Church today, 2026, forgiveness
is the hardest miracle of all. Let's walk through
this story looking at the pressure points from
Luke chapter 5. We'll be in Luke 5 starting with
verse 17. So if you have your Bible or your Bible
app and you want to get it out, we're going to
be in Luke 5, 17. Again, we use the English Standard
version here on stage. You can use whatever version
you want. It will just read and sound a little
different. Luke 5, 17 to 26. On one of those
days, he, being Jesus, was teaching. Pharisees
and teachers of the law were sitting there who
had come from every village of Galilee and Judea
and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord
was with him to heal. And behold, some men were
bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed. And
they were seeking to bring him in and lay him
before Jesus, but finding no way to bring him
in because of the crowd, they went up to the
roof to let him down with his bed through the
tiles in the midst before Jesus. And when he
saw their faith, he said, man, your sins are
forgiven you. And the scribes and the Pharisees
began to question, saying, who is this who speaks
blasphemies, who can forgive sins but God alone?
When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered
them, why do you question in your hearts? Which
is easier to say, your sins are forgiven you,
or to say, rise and walk? But that you may know
that the Son of Man has authority on earth to
forgive sins. He said to the man who was paralyzed,
I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.
And immediately he rose up before them and picked
up what he had been laying on and went home glorifying
God. And amazement seized them, seized them all.
And they glorified God and were filled with awe
saying, we have seen extraordinary things today.
The man's paralysis, obvious. known, probably
in the town, in his family, friends, all the
things. The man's paralysis was obvious. Everyone
could see that type of suffering. Think about
that right now. If tomorrow morning you woke
up, you had the inability to use any part of
your body. That is a prison. Those are shackles
that we cannot fully understand. He is a total
paralytic. But what we're going to see is Jesus
looks beyond the physical and goes much deeper.
Because with Jesus, he sees the brokenness beneath
the brokenness. He sees the disease beneath the
disease. He sees the heart of it all. Sin. We
get prayer requests every week at the church.
Dawn does her best to put them in. Some people
don't want them. They want the office to know
about them, but they don't want anyone else to,
and that's fine. We have never, ever, in the
21 years now I've pastored, I've never once received
something to be put in the bulletin from, let's
just say, Adam Smith. That's from Pocahontas,
isn't it? Never mind, don't worry about it. I
don't know why I said Adam Smith, but we're just
going to go with it. Pocahontas, just around
the river bend, he sent the email saying, please
pray for my... sin. I've never gotten that from
Adam, or any Eves, or anybody. Because that's
a weird prayer request. In the elder room, when
we go around and do prayers, I don't ever have
elder whoever stand up and go, guys, just pray
for the act of sin in my life. Because that's
way too intentional. That is way too vulnerable.
Though it is assumed, good Reformed theology,
it's assumed we're all depraved in habit. We
never put it full. Put it forward. We see it.
Same thing happened in this time with Jesus.
In that culture as in ours, sickness. was counted
and connected to the fallenness of humanity,
whether his sin or his parents' sin or his generational
sin. So Jesus addresses the deepest need first.
And one of the things I'm going to tie some of
my points with in this sermon series is the Heidelberg
Catechism. Now, some of you might be newer. You
don't know what that is, right? We are a confessional
church. We hold to three forms of unity. Again,
Bible is first and foremost. And these confessions
help us understand and interpret the scriptures.
The three of them are the Canons of Dort, the
Belgic Confession, and the Heidelberg Catechism.
So I will use that and put those in the point.
If that intrigues you, all you've got to do is
Google it and read it. 52 Lord's Days with a
bunch of questions on faith. Some that I guarantee
you've had in your life, whether you're a first
-day believer or a hundred years of a believer,
you've had those same questions. It helps us
understand. So from Lord's Day 2, Lord, say two
of the Heidelberg Catechism. From where do you
know your sin and misery? From the law of God.
We talk about that in Prep Sunday. We read that
in the scriptures. I know I'm a sinner because
God's word tells me. He doesn't say it as a sledgehammer,
but he gives it to me as an understanding of
who I am and my need for God. That vertical relationship.
Church, our greatest problem is not stress. It's
not finances. It's not politics or health. Our
greatest problem today, as it was then and it
will be tomorrow, is sin. Active sin in life.
Our greatest need is to be forgiven by Jesus.
The truth presses in on us. It humbles us. It
can expose us. It can destroy us if we let it.
And that's why. In that second point, Jesus reveals
his authority over it. In verses 21 to 24, the
scribes think and they say to themselves, who
can forgive sins but God alone? First and foremost,
they're right. They have the right understanding.
But here, as we see, what they're going to butt
up against with Jesus this entire sermon series
is what Jesus is actually claiming about himself.
They're right. Only God forgives sins. And Jesus
proves in this moment he is God. Last week it
was, I am the Messiah. I'm the one you're waiting
for, oh, by the way. Now he's going to take it
and double down. I am God. How do we know? For
he calls himself the Son of Man. This is a figure
for lunch and a conversation with Pastor Jim
that would take them to what Old Testament book?
But like the son of man who came down from on
high. What? Nope. Two more guesses. Yes. Daniel.
I already gave you lunch two weeks ago. But you
can have another one. That's fine. It's from
Daniel. Right? That Daniel has a vision. From
the Son of Man, this is now immediate, not only
Messiah, but Savior language. This is a claim
to divine authority. So if your claim is going
to have divine authority all tied up in it, who's
going to have the biggest problem with it? The
ones who think they are the authority over the
divine. The scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees.
Lord's Day 11 of the Heidelberg Catechism reminds
us. He is called Jesus because he saves us from
our sin. Last week, Lord's Day 12, reminded us
he's prophet, priest, and king. But in this moment,
Jesus is bringing it all together. All together.
He proclaims forgiveness like a prophet. He mediates
grace like a priest. And he commands healing
like a king. Talk about the pressure Jesus just
put himself under. And over, if we understand
that. And we'll get there in a minute. And this
presses us, because as we talked about last week,
we want comfort without repentance, peace without
confession. But Christ insists that forgiveness
must come first. It would have made a whole lot
more sense to us, in our minds, if he would have
healed the guy first, but he doesn't, for a reason.
Forgiveness must come first. Why? Because faith
will bring people to Jesus. Luke tells us when
Jesus saw whose faith? The paralytics? No, the
four friends. When he saw their faith, he saw
and he knew that they climbed the roof. Maybe
there were stairs, maybe there weren't. I don't
know, I wasn't there. They tore open. The clay
tiles, I'm sure the mud, the hay, all the things
that made the roof the roof. And they lowered
their friend down. They were so desperate to
get their friend in front of this Jesus. They
don't even realize that this is one of the greatest
definitions of what the church should be. The
four friends doing whatever they can to bring
their friend who was paralyzed in front of Jesus
is one of the greatest definitions, active definitions,
of what the church should be. If you feel a binding
and a conviction, join the club. Because too
many times the church can look more like a social
club than acts of desperation to get the gospel
into people's lives. This is the church. Parents
carrying children, friends praying for friends,
elders visiting homes in the sick, small groups
lifting each other up. Munster Church, this is
the call for that vision, that vision to go forth,
that vision that we are a people that will greet
each other in the name of Jesus, whether they're
in Jesus or not, that we would gather together
in worship, in our homes, in the areas of our
life. We grow in the scriptures, in worship,
in our love for Jesus and his love for us, and
then we go. So who are you carrying to Jesus
in your life? That's that record question. That's
a question we have to reconcile. If I'm called
to be the church, who in my life needs to be
brought before Jesus, not kicking and screaming?
Not by drive -by baptisms and really bad evangelism,
but who in our life needs Jesus so badly in life
that we're willing to bring them to Jesus? That
could be in a conversation. That could be at
a church. That could be the first Saturday serve.
That could be helping with the food pantry, helping
with Pastor Jermio's ministry on a Wednesday.
That could be meeting someone that God has ready
for you to meet. Maybe it's someone in your family.
Maybe it's a neighbor. Maybe it's a friend or
a family from Highland Christian, from the Munster
schools, from Ileana, from the Munster Little
League, from Intermission, This Way Ministries,
Moffitt's Barbershop. I don't care. God's going
to be the one to direct you. Are you going to
be the one willing to go? Because faith here
does something amazing. Faith climbs the roof.
Faith doesn't wait for things to clear out. I'm
not going to lie to you. Part of me was sitting
there going, all right, he was a paralytic yesterday.
He'll probably be a paralytic tomorrow. We can
just wait for my convenience. I didn't have on
my schedule and my Google calendar to bring this
guy to Jesus today. We'll do it when the crowds
are not so big. We do it for our Christmas shopping.
We can use that same mentality. We'll just wait
until the crowds are smaller. Uh -uh. Faith climbs
the roof. Because they knew, whether they knew
they knew that they knew or they just knew, Jesus
heals completely. Because not only does he forgive
sins because of faith, he heals completely. Rise,
pick up your bed, and go home. The man stands.
That alone was worth the price of admission.
I'm not going to lie to you, right? You see this
guy that he couldn't do anything. He had to be
lowered down. The fact that some of you, I'm
just feeling this now, going, how embarrassing
for the guy. I rebuke that in the name of Jesus.
You can talk about it later. That's just something
I got right now. Some of you are going, wow,
that would have been really embarrassing. Let's
move past that piece. Because you're trying to
make that healing about you and your comfort.
Does Jesus wait until you're comfortable to heal
you? Sometimes Jesus is going to go, yeah, just
finish sinning so I can wreck your world. No.
Jesus is going to do it when he, the author and
defender of our faith, wants to do it. Rise,
pick up your bed, and go home. The man stands,
the crowd is amazed, and what do they do? They
glorify God. Right response. Right response.
Jesus heals body and soul because salvation is
total. If we believe in total depravity, that's
the canons adored, right? Total depravity, then
we need to believe in total salvation, total
restoration. Forgiveness is complete. Why? Because
Jesus is still living out messianic prophecy.
Isaiah 35 promises a Messiah that would make
the lame leap. Luke shows us that promise is
now fulfilled. The Son of Man restores. everything.
Even those things you think he can't. And be
honest, we all have them. You might be going
through something right now going, there is no
way. This thing is dead in the water. Time of
death is, I don't know, army time. But understand
that we have that limitation on God at times.
Jesus is not strong enough to fix this. That's
just you worshiping yourself because you think
you can do it. Friend, if the Son of Man can't
do it, spoiler alert, you can't either. And sometimes
we need to live that out. The Son of Man restores
everything and the roof now opens its way to
heaven. Here is the moment where the roof really
opens because the story is not only about the
paralytic or his friends or the Pharisees or
what they're thinking. It's about us today. We
are the ones unable to fix ourselves. We are
the ones that need forgiveness. And we are the
ones that are lowered before Jesus. And here
is the gospel. You want to hear it today? Here
it is. Jesus speaks forgiveness before we can
walk. He loves us before we improve. And he saves
us before we earn anything. I don't know about
you, but I need to hear that, and I bet you do
as well. He speaks forgiveness before the walking.
He loves before the improving. He saves before
we start walking it out or thinking we earn anything.
The Lord's Day 1 reminds us that I am not my
own. but belong, body and soul and life and in
death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. Why?
Because he's fully paid for all of my sins with
his precious blood. The forgiveness spoken in
the house of Capernaum was paid for on another
hill, which we'll see in a couple weeks, the
hill of Calvary. The Son of Man who healed the
man is the Son of Man that's going to bear our
sin. The sins of your yesterdays, the sins of
your todays, the sins of your tomorrow was put
on his shoulders on the cross where he says and
declares over them and us today, Father, forgive
them for they know not what they do. But to me,
it's another three words that ties it all together.
It is finished. He has control over life. Your
sins are forgiven. Your guilt is lifted. Your
hope secure. This is the grace that releases
the pressure of Lent, right? We're going to walk
through where Jesus is putting himself under
pressure because he's looking at our pressure,
putting it on himself. And he is that pressure
release. So what is Luke teaching us now? Well,
he's teaching us then, first, people wanted a
leader, but Jesus revealed a Savior. What about
now? We want our comfort. Oh, we want our comfort.
But Jesus gives forgiveness first. Then, friends,
tore open a roof. But now, Christ opens heaven
for you and for me. Friend, the Son of Man is
still forgiving you. The Son of Man is still
healing you. The Son of Man is still saving you.
And he wants to do that, not just in your life,
but in the people in your life's life. Who do
you need to bring to Jesus with a word of accountability?
Not shame and guilt, because who am I and who
are you to do that to somebody? No, it's Sinners
Anonymous, my friends. It is, hi, I'm Jim, I'm
a sinner, and I have been my whole life, but
Jesus saved me, and he can save you too. That's
a lot better than going up to somebody, if you
die tomorrow, are you going to heaven or hell?
I'm not going to lie, not super effective evangelism,
especially if you don't know the person. Now,
if you have a relationship with somebody, right?
If I'm sitting down with Al in the back of church,
and I turn to him and go, Al, if you die tomorrow,
are you going to heaven or hell? He's going to
be like, why tomorrow? What if I die tonight?
I'm going to heaven because I know that Al is
saved. Are there people in your life that know
you're a believer but have never seen your Jesus?
That one wrecked my week because I doubled down
on myself. Jim, people see that you're a pastor.
but have they seen the Jesus that you believe
in? And the question is in me. Now, sometimes
I pawn it off on all of you, whether you know
it or not. You don't need to see it in me. Just
see it in my people. That's fine. Just go look
at people at Munster Church, and then I run away.
No, I don't do that. But that truth should hurt.
And maybe not hurt. Convict is probably a better
word. We'll use that word. People know you go
to Munster Church, but they've never seen you
act like Jesus. What does that mean for them?
How do they reconcile that in their life? Friends,
let me conclude with this. Open the roof. Open
the roof. In your life, imagine that house again.
Dust falling, silence, Jesus looking up. He loves
desperate faith. He does. He loves broken people.
He loves sinners who come. Guess what? We all
just got described there. And Jesus loves you,
and you need to know that. Munster Church, open
the roof. Bring your sin. Bring your doubts.
Bring your shame. Bring your friends. Because
the Son of Man is here. The Son of Man is there.
The Son of Man is wherever the Son of Man is.
And he still says, rise. Your sins are forgiven.
Pick up your mat and walk. And guess what? We
get to do that.