Who is the Man called JESUS?
Luke5:17-26
– These are the words of Napoleon Bonaparte:
I know men and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man.
Between him and every other person in the world there is no
possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar,
Charlemagne and I have founded empires. But upon what
did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus
Christ founded his empire upon love. And at this hour millions
of men would die for him.
Although it has been 2,000 years since Jesus walked the dusty
roads of Palestine, the words of Napoleon are more true today
than when he first spoke them. “At this hour, millions of men
would die for him.”
A. It is a fact that the men and women of the world
are instinctively drawn to Jesus.
1. Many people do not know him well, but what
they know, they like.
2. It is rare to find a man on the street who will
speak ill of Jesus
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH JESUS
A. What was Jesus really like? What was it like
to be around him?
1. What kind of person was he?
2. How did he deal with the problems of
life? How did he treat people?
3. What would we have seen if we had been
there in Galilee by the sea or in
Jericho or in Bethany?
4. What was Jesus really like?
B. In order to answer those questions, we have to
go back to the only records we have–the four
gospels.
2. I not looking for “Jesus the great
teacher” or “Jesus and his disciples,”
but for “Jesus and the common man
THE GOSPEL OF THE UNDERDOG
A. No gospel answers that question better than
Luke. It is the gospel of the individual. It is full of
real stories about real people. f
1. In Luke’s gospel we see Jesus dealing
with a tax collector up a tree and with
a prostitute who washed his feet with
her tears.
2. We see him with the rich young ruler who
went away sorrowful and with the woman
who touched the hem of his garment.
B. We know that Luke was a physician.
1. It has been said that a minister sees men at their best,
2. a lawyer sees men at their worst,
3. but a physician sees men as they really are.
C. Luke saw men as they were and loved them all
D. His gospel is the story of Jesus written by a kind
and compassionate family doctor.
E. To my mind, he has given us the most appealing
picture of our Lord.
1. If you want to see Jesus as the Messiah
read Matthew;
2. if you want to see Jesus as the
powerful Savior, read Mark;
3 if you want to see Jesus as the Son of
God, read John.
4. But if you want to see Jesus as the man
for all men, read Luke
BAITING THE HOOK
Our first close encounter with Jesus comes from Luke 5"17-19
It is the story of a miracle and a controversy. Jesus Forgives
and Heals a Paralyzed Man17 One day Jesus was teaching,
and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They
had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and
Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal
the sick. 18 Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a
mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus.
19 When they could not find a way to do this because of the
crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat
through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.
A. One day as he was teaching, Pharisees and
teachers of the law, who had come from every
village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem,
were sitting there.
1.And the power of the Lord was present to
heal the sick.
2.Some men came carrying a paralytic on a
mat and tried to take him into the house
to lay him before Jesus.
B. When they could not find a way to do this
because of the crowd, they went up on the roof
and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into
the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.
C. As we study this little photograph clipped from
Luke’s mental scrapbook, the players in this
drama come clearly in focus.
1. First, there is Jesus who is teaching the people.
2. Second, there are the Pharisees, the
professional teachers of the law.
D. They have come from all over Galilee, have
made the long, hard trip to Capernaum to check
out this new man from Nazareth.
E. Who are they?
1. They are full-time students of the Old
Testament and of the Jewish tradition.
2. They were legal experts who made their
living by splitting hairs in 40 different
ways.
3. They were deeply religious, highly
educated, very sincere, very moral, very
upright. They saw themselves as the
guardians of the law of God.
F. But what brings this impressive assemblage
to an out-of-the-way place like Capernaum?
1. Rumors. Stories have been flying across
the countryside about Jesus and so they
have come to check him out.
2. They have gathered this day partly as
spectators, partly as censors and partly
as spies.
3 They are a self-appointed board of
inquisition and they mean to trap
Jesus in his own words.
Keep them in mind. They are the key to this close encounter.
UP ON THE ROOFTOP
But there is a third group we must examine. Off to the side, just
out of the view of the Pharisees, are five very determined men.
One lays on a stretcher, four are at the corners. Together they
are determined to get to Jesus.
A. Luke tells us that the man was a paralytic. He
had some form of chronic paralysis, a disease
that would be nearly as hopeless today as it was
back then. He must have been desperately ill
because his friends took desperate steps to get
him to Jesus.
B. The house itself was typical for those days.
It had one room, with a flat roof and an
outside stairway. The roof was made of
thatch and tiles laid over thick wooden
beams.
C. The room is crowded with eager listeners who
lean forward to catch every word.
1. Around the walls sit the Pharisees, silent,
impassive, inscrutable, their faces showing no
emotion.
2. They are waiting for Jesus to make a mistake.
D. Suddenly there is a noise above them, muffled
words and the sound of tiles moving.
1. More noise, then dirt begins to fall
from the ceiling.
2. Suddenly a shaft of light breaks
through. Somebody has knocked a
hole in the roof! Jesus stops,
looks up and smiles.
E. Everyone else looks up only to see four faces in
the hole peering down at them.
1. All eyes are on them. Slowly the four men
lower a stretcher through the hole in the
roof. No one knows what to say.
F. In a few moments the stretcher comes to rest in
the middle of the room. On the stretcher a man
lies silently.
1. Even a casual glance tells you that he is very ill. He looks at
Jesus expecting
2. A hush falls on the room. What
will Jesus do?
HEALING THE INNER HURT
WHAT WILL JESUS DO?
Luke gives us the answer: When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven. (20)
A. Immediately we spot something unusual.
1. The Bible says that Jesus saw their faith.
a. Whose faith? Doubtless, it is the
faith of the four men.
b. This is an example of intercessory
faith, “faith that benefits another
in need.” Jesus saw their their
persistence and behind it all he saw
faith.
B. Jesus also saw the faith of the man on
the stretcher. His faith and the deep
faith of his friends shone brightly that
day. It was perhaps the only faith Jesus
saw in that whole room.
C. Jesus didn’t heal the man at first.
1, Instead he says, “Your sins are
forgiven.”
Why? Because this man had a deeper
need than physical healing.
D. This man also had paralysis of the soul--He had
a sin problem and only Jesus could heal him of this
because death and disease are consequences of sin.
Romans 3:23 is still true. “All have sinned and come
short of the glory of God.” That is true of king and clown,
philosopher and fool, teacher and student. All of us have
the same problem and all of us need the same thing.
We need what Jesus gave this poor man
We need to have our sins forgiven more important than
physical healing because without forgiveness, healing
doesn’t really matter. It touches the body but it doesn’t
touch the soul.
“WHO DOES THIS GUY THINK HE IS?”
A. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law
began thinking to themselves, “Who is this
fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins
but God alone?”
B. Their reasoning is clear.
1. Only God can forgive sins.
2. This man is claiming to do that which only God can do.
3. Obviously, this man is a blasphemer.
It was pretty simple, really. 1 plus 2
equals
4. An open and shut case.
I should add that blasphemy was the most serious sin a Jew could
commit. It was the “unmistakable and overt defilement of God’s name
1. Please note that the Pharisees understood
exactly what Jesus was saying. Give them
credit for that.
2. It’s true that only God can forgive sin.
3. It’s also true that he had forgiven this
man’s sin.
4. When the Pharisees heard that, they said to
themselves, “Who does he think he is? God?”
5. That’s the whole point.
a. Who is this man? Either he’s a blasphemer
or he’s God.
b. You can kill him … or you can worship
him. Which will it be?
1. The Pharisees are brilliant, analytical,
informed, well-read, highly-educated, but
they have no category big enough for
Jesus.
2. As a healer? Yes.
3. A teacher? Yes.
4. A wise man? Yes.
5. The Son of God from heaven? No way.
They have no room for that new idea.
C. Their problem was that they had Jesus in
a box and their box was too small.
D. Jesus was bigger than their box.
E. The most unfortunate part about this story
is the Pharisees didn’t have to make that
mistake.
1. They had all the tools to come to the
right conclusion.
2. They had forgotten more about the Bible
than most people would ever know.
3. They were religious to a fault.
4. They spent their days arguing about the
Bible.
5. They knew all the Old Testament
predictions concerning the Messiah and
they knew exactly what signs to look for.
6. Yet with all that going for them, they
still came to the wrong conclusion.
The issue is sharply drawn–WHO IS THIS MAN?
TWO MIRACLES FOR THE PRICE OF ONE
But the story is not yet over. One miracle has
already taken place. Another is about to happen:
Jesus knew what they were thinking and
asked, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?
Which is easier: To say, ’Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say,
’Get up and walk?’ But that you may know that the Son of
Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” … He said to the
paralyzed man, ‘I tell you, get up, take your mat and go
home.’ Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what
he had been lying on and went home praising God. (22-25)
A. Jesus answers a question with a
question, a appreciate.
1. Which is easier to say–"Your sins are
forgiven” or “Rise and walk?”
2. On one level the answer is neither.
You can say either one. Both are
equally impossible for man to do.
But there is one crucial difference.
You can say, “Your sins are forgiven” and no one can
contradict you because forgiveness is not visible to
the eyes. So you can say it all you want and no one
will know whether you’ve really done it or not.
B. On the other hand, there’s an easy way to
check if someone says, “Rise and walk.”
Healing is a visible miracle. It can’t
be faked.
Jesus is proposing a test. He’s offering the Pharisees
incontrovertible proof of who he really is. If Jesus is a
blasphemer, how could he perform a miracle? That would
be impossible.
Jesus is saying, “If I don’t heal this man, then you’re right
about who I am. But if I do heal him, you must admit that
I am who I claim to be.”
Notice what he says in verse 24: That you may know. That’s
the key to this whole passage. Let me put it in one sentence:
Jesus did the miracle they could see so that they might know
he had already done the other miracle they couldn’t see.
SCRIPTURES REFERENCED
The healing itself is instantaneous, complete and public. The four
who brought the paralytic could testify how sick he had been; the
whole crowd could testify how well he was now.
So complete was the healing that the man picked up his bed and
began to walk home. As he did, the crowd parted to let him through.
Off to the side, people whispered, “Ooh, did you see that? How did he do it?”
As one commentator put it: “The bed had borne the man; now the
man was bearing the bed.”
FLABBERGASTED!
A. Everyone was amazed and gave praise to
God. They were filled with awe and said, “We
have seen remarkable things today.” (26)
1. The people who had come to hear Jesus
were utterly, totally and absolutely blown
away. They had never seen anything like
it.
2. They were praising God and they were
scared to death all at the same time.
B. Meanwhile, the Pharisees were silent. Not
that they believed in Jesus. They just didn’t
have anything to say.
C. Four things happened on this day
1. The man on the stretcher was healed.
2. His sins were forgiven.
3. The crowd was amazed.
4. The Pharisees were confounded.
THE QUESTION EVERYONE MUST ANSWER
A. What is the main point of this story?
1. Not the miracle! It only raises the
central question–"Who is this man?”
B. In order to be forgiven, two things must
happen:
1. You must be willing to be forgiven
2. You must believe Jesus has the
authority to forgive your sins.
That brings us face-to-face with the most profound question
in the world–"Who is this man?” Every man, every woman,
every boy, every girl must answer that question. No one can
remain neutral.
C. Most people consider Jesus a “good man” or
a “good teacher” or “the best man who ever
walked on the earth.”
1.Who is this man?
2. Who is this man?
D. What does your heart say? Who is this man?
1. Is he just a carpenter or is he
something much greater?
2. Is he just another religious leader or
is he the Son of God from heaven?
a. If he is a blasphemer … then join
the crowd in killing him.
b. If he is the Son of God … then crown
him the Lord of your life.
THE NEXT MOVE IS UP TO YOU
Let me draw all the strands together in three simple statements:
1. There is enough evidence to convince
those who want to believe.
2. There are always ways to avoid the truth
for those who want to avoid it.
3. The next move is up to you.
You have the evidence, the testimony, all the proof
you will ever need. But you must take the final step
.
*Who is this man?
*
Who is Jesus?
HE IS JESUS
IN CHEMISTRY, HE TURNED WATER TO WINE.
IN BIOLOGY, HE WAS BORN WITHOUT THE
NORMAL CONCEPTION;
IN PHYSICS, HE DISPROVED THE LAW OF
GRAVITY WHEN HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN;
IN ECONOMICS, HE DISPROVED THE LAW
OF DIMINISHING RETURN BY FEEDING 5000 MEN WITH
TWO FISHES & 5 LOAVES OF BREAD;
IN MEDICINE, HE CURED THE SICK AND THE
BLIND WITHOUT ADMINISTERING A SINGLE DOSE OF DRUGS,
IN HISTORY, HE IS THE BEGINN ING AND THE END;
IN GOVERNMENT, HE SAID THAT HE SHALL
BE CALLED WONDERFUL COUNSELOR, PRINCE OF PEACE;
IN RELIGION, HE SAID NO ONE COMES TO
THE FATHER EXCEPT THROUGH HIM;
The Greatest Man in History
Jesus had no servants, yet they called Him Master.
Had no degree, yet they called Him Teacher.
Had no medicines, yet the called Him Healer.
He had no army, yet kings feared Him..
He won no military battles, yet He conquered the world.
He committed no crime, yet they crucified Him.
He was buried in a tomb, yet He lives today.
I feel honored to serve such a Leader who loves us!
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