There’s Still Room For One
Aim: To show the authority and willingness of Christ to forgive sins.
Text: Mark 2:1-12.
Introduction: This is not a sermon for the claustrophobic, for it speaks of a room so tightly packed with people that one could not move. Have you ever been in a room like that? I will never forget a meeting we had in Belfast many years ago. We had invited a former Roman Catholic priest, Frank Eberhardt, to share his testimony. It was at the end of a full week of mission, and it came on a Monday evening. Monday evenings are not usually good for church meetings, attendance wise, but that Monday night was an exception. Our little hall which was packed with about 100 people in it, had to house around twice that number as people came in their droves. There were so many that we had to send out for extra chairs, and by the time the meeting started we had standing room only, with people crammed onto the platform packed around the pulpit. I can remember thinking of it as a mixed blessing. In truth we were overcrowded, and I was glad that so many folks were getting to hear the gospel, but I was also worried the whole time what would happen if we had some kind of emergency. It was quite a night.
As Mark 2 opens up Jesus has returned from the wilderness. You will recall that he had retired there following the cleansing of the leper, but the desert provided little solace for Him as, during this time of popularity, many went out from every quarter to see Him there. At some point He decided He might as well be in the town as in the desert, and so privately, maybe under the cover of darkness Jesus returns to Capernaum. In verses 1 & 2 we read of:
I. A House Full – vss 1-2
A. Now, there is some discussion as to whose house this was.
1. Some suggest that Jesus may have hired a house in Capernaum, as they reason, Peter’s humble dwelling could not have sustained the numbers coming to see Him.
2. But I would remind you that the Lord Jesus testified, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.”
3. Given that, and the context of Mark’s writing it seems to me that this must indeed have been Peter’s house.
B. Regardless of whose home it was, one thing we know for sure, that having arrived there in secret, the rumour mill was soon pointing to the Saviour’s presence in that palace.
1. “…it was noised that he was in the house…”
2. Literally, people were running through Capernaum shouting, “He’s in the house! He’s in the house!”
3. How glad they were to have him back within the precincts of their city!
4. Of course, no sooner was word out that He was there than the people started coming, and they came in their droves.
5. Soon Peter’s modest home was filled and people were pressing at the door and peering through the window to get a peek at Jesus.
C. What happened next is very telling.
1. The Bible says, “And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the word unto them.”
2. He preached the Word. We are not told from which passage he preached, nor does Mark convey the subject matter He dealt with, but of this we are convinced Jesus was a preacher of the Word.
3. And I am sorry to say that a lot of people are getting away from that today, and in some churches one might just well here a sermon on the minister’s holiday, hobbies or home life as hear anything from the Word of God.
4. Others are seeking some Word from God in places outside the Bible.
a. Illus: I recently received a letter from a fellowship group in this city, inviting me to a meeting, that contained the following line, “Many Christians have sensed that the recent discovery of the Staffordshire gold hoard could be a prophetic sign pointing to a future opportunity when God will reveal more of the ‘gold’ of His presence across our area.”
b. Then some of them wonder why I won’t go to these things.
c. My friends, God is not speaking to us through the Staffordshire Hoard, no matter what some Christians “sense”.
d. I tell you what I sense, I sense that some people need to stop all this nonsense and get their heads out of the clouds and into God’s Word.
e. Jesus preached the Word; that is, He taught them from the Scriptures, he opened the Old Testament up to them and expounded its truths.
e. I can’t think of a better thing to do, should you have a house full.
II. Helpful Friends – vss 3-5
A. Now we find that such was the crush in Peter’s home that four men, desirous to secure the healing of the paralytic friend, were unable to penetrate the crowd.
1. Now you cannot read this account and have some admiration for these four men.
2. I like how Mark puts it, “And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four.”
a. You know, we often speak about one-to-one witness, but sometimes it is four to one, sometimes we need people to bear up those who need Jesus and to work together in bringing men to Him.
b. I think that is what is so important about our midweek meetings right now, we are praying not just for each other and our needs, but we are flagging up the names up those we are trying to win so that we can all bear those people before the throne of grace, and whilst one might be doing the inviting or the witnessing, others are helping carry the load.
B. These four fellows came to the door of Peter’s home, but there was no way in.
1. No one was moving, in or out, I suspect the crowd was so keen to see and hear Jesus that they instinctively closed rank anytime anyone tried to worm their way through.
2. It would have been so easy for these four friends to get discouraged – they may have been tempted to say, “Well, there’s just no room, let’s try another time.”
3. But they did something unique, the clambered unto the roof of Peter’s home, and they began to dig their way through to Jesus.
4. I love that, it reminds me of Ira Stamphill’s hymn, “Room At The Cross”.
5. I don’t know that the songwriter was inspired by this passage, but his song seems to fit Mark’s theme here:
Though millions have found him a friend
And have turned from the sins they have sinned
The Saviour still waits to open the gates
And welcome a sinner before it's too late.
There's room at the cross for you
There's room at the cross for you
Though millions have come,
There's still room for one,
Yes there's room at the cross for you.
6. These four men looked at that crowd, they looked at each other and they said, “Though many have come, there’s still room for one,” let’s get our friend to Jesus.
C. Now, when Mark tells us that they uncovered the roof, and broke it up, we should steer away from the architecture of modern western homes, with trusses and tiles and travel back in time to ancient Israel where roofs were (and often still are), flat, where they were composed of mortar, tar, ashes and sand, all of which was rolled out and compacted hard, and often had grass growing from it and sometimes even had animals grazing up there.
1. There would have been a staircase running up the outside of the home leading to the roof, because this was a functional part of the home.
2. Sometimes people would store things up there, and sometimes they would get away from it all and have a little 'me' time, a siesta on the roof.
3. These guys were quite literally scooping out the material that made up the roof of that home, they were digging with their bare hands, just above the place where Jesus was preaching.
4. We cannot pass this scene by and not think about what was going on in the inside.
a. The people must have heard these men at work above their heads, and Peter probably wanted to go outside and see what was happening to his home, but he couldn’t move for the crowd.
b. And what a picture his face must have been as bits of dirt began to fall from the ceiling above and a hole opened up, and looking up, there were four faces silhouetted by the morning sun.
c. I can almost see Jesus looking at Peter out of the corner of his eye, knowing full well what was happening and giving a little wry smile.
D. Eventually, the hole was large enough to allow the palsied man through, and they lowered him on his quilt to the feet of Jesus.
E. Now notice what verse 5 says, it reads, “When Jesus saw their faith…”
1. Faith that can be seen is alive and real.
a. The apostle James taught, “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.” (James 2;17-18)
b. These men showed what they believed. They showed their trust in Christ, their faith in His compassion, in His power, in His love.
2. And seeing the reality of their faith Jesus looks at the paralysed man, and he says something truly amazing – “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.”
a. Consider two words in that sentence.
b. The first is “Son” or “Child”.
c. The second word is “forgiven”
d. The first brings him into the family of God, and the second brings him into the fellowship of God.
e. You see this man had a need that went deeper than his physical ailment, he had a spiritual need that far outweighed his physical condition.
f. And Jesus saw that, and He knew that more than anything this man needed to know God’s forgiveness.
g. And that need is the same for all – we all need to know God’s forgiveness, we all need to know that we belong to Him, that we are part of his family and welcomed into His fellowship.
h. Do you know that tonight? Maybe some faithful friend has brought you here. Thank God for faithful friends. They want you to meet Jesus, to know that there’s room at the cross for you.
F. Now as this passage closes out we find that was not only some helpful friends there that day, but there was also some:
III. Hostile Foes – vss 6-12.
A. “But there were certain of the scribes sitting there…”
1. Bearing in mind where we are geographically, we must ask ourselves the question, why are there scribes sitting there?
2. Scribes are the leaders of the Jewish nation, members of the Sanhedrin, custodians of the law; their natural home is Jerusalem in the south, not Capernaum in the north.
a. Luke tells us, “And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judaea, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them.” (Luke 5:17)
b. Some of these fellows had traveled a fair way to get to Peter’s house.
c. Could it be that they had heard the testimony of a certain leper as he shared his healing with the priests?
d. In any case, they were not there to witness as such, but to investigate the goings on at Peter’s house.
B. Hearing the Lord absolve the paralytic man of his sins, they began to make mental notes.
1. They reasoned in their hearts, “Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?”
2. Understand, not a word was spoken. They are listening in, but as Jesus declares the forgiveness of sin they begin to question his right to do so.
a. The term translated “reasoning” is the same Greek term that gives us the English word “dialogue”.
b. In other words they were talking to themselves, NOT among themselves, but each within his own heart.
3. And Jesus heard it.
a. Who but God knows the thoughts of a heart?
b. We might think, well maybe there was a look on their faces that belied their thoughts, but the Greek is absolutely clear about the extent of Jesus’ knowledge of them.
c. It intimates that He knew their thoughts immediately and was fully aware of their nature.
d. And so, just as though they had audibly announced them, the Lord Jesus answered those thoughts, “He said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts?”
4. Now that should have been enough to get their attention right there, but he goes on…
C. “Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?”
1. Of course anyone can SAY anything, but which is more provable, more incontestable? A statement that intimates the healing of a spiritual condition, or one that declares the healing of a physical condition.
2. The answer is obvious.
3. Anyone can say a man’s sins are forgiven (though that is certainly the prerogative of God), but if he says, ”You are healed, rise, take up your bed and walk”, well, now the onus is upon Him to prove His words carry that kind of power, by pointing to the reality of the healing proclaimed.
4. So to make His point, Jesus looks toward the paralysed man and says, “Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.”
D. Now this wasn’t about showmanship. This was a contest of authorities.
1. The authority of man-made religions with its trappings of the law, against the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ with His gospel of grace.
2. Jesus’ purpose here was to prove that He alone has “power (authority) on earth to forgive sins.”
3. And notice that grace extends to men whilst still on earth.
4. You see there are those who teach that it is presumptuous to say one is saved, to say your sins have been forgiven, that this cannot be told until we pass from this life.
5. But Scripture says of the life to come, “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.” (Rev 22:11)
a. In other words your course for eternity is not set at some time in the future, it is established here and now.
b. We need to have our sins forgiven on earth, if we are to enter into heaven.
c. We have our sins forgiven here and now or not at all.
Conclusion: At the word of Jesus, the man in question rose to his feet, healed and forgiven, and pushed his way out the door to begin his journey home. And all they that saw it were amazed, and they glorified God – they understood the implications of Jesus’ words and actions, and they said, “We never saw it on this fashion,” or as we might say, “Wow! That’s never happened before!!”
My friends that’s the power of the gospel – it changes people, it sets them on a new path, and those looking in cannot but be impressed and surprised by the difference trusting Jesus makes.
