Pastor Ralph Douglas West - Visible Proof of Invisible Power - Mark 2:1-12

0:05 This is the day the Lord has made. We rejoice and we are glad in it. Good morning. Thank you men for blessing us and our children for encouraging grandparents. I never had an opportunity to grow up with any of my grandparents. And so that's a big, big swath that's cut out of my relational life. And so somebody said to me that, oh, you just spar your grandson. I said, oh, I sure do. I said, you've had the privilege of having that. I never had that in my life at all on my mother's side or father's side.

1:05 I knew my great-grandmother who died when I was a baby. My grandmother died when I was one. And so today, happy Grandparents Day to all of us. Yeah. Yeah. Take God's word this morning and open it to the gospel of Mark chapter 2. This could be a series that you hang a tag above it where you talk about encounters of a divine kind. episodes in the life of Jesus where he encounters and maybe even confronts different people along the way.

1:56 I want us to look at a familiar passage and my plea then to you is don't let the familiar make you so over familiar. that you pay no attention to what I'm about to say.

2:18 Hear God's word from the Gospel of Mark, chapter 2, commencing at verse 1. A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. They gathered in such numbers that there was no room left Not even outside the door And he preached a word to them Some men came Bringing to him a paralyzed man Carried by for them since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd They made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it And then Lord the man was lying on When Jesus saw their faith He said to the paralyzed man Son, your sins are forgiven Now some teachers of the law at the church at our walls were sitting there thinking to themselves.

3:42 Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God? Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this is what they were thinking in their hearts. And he said to them, why are you thinking these things? Which is easier to say this paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven or to say, get up, take your mat, walk. But I want you to know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins. So he said to the man, I tell you, get up, take your mat, go home. He got up, took his mat, walked out in full view of them. All of them saw him.

4:40 This amazed everyone. And they praised God, saying, we have never seen nothing. anything like this. This is the word of God. I do want to hang a tag on that. visible proofs of invisible power. You may be seated. Sometimes you can miss the significance because of over-familiarity. This happened when an art student

5:36 was tracing the design of Da Vinci's Mona Lisa in the Louvre. The art student went to look at the painting. There was a frame but no picture. And people had passed by it because of its familiarity.

6:02 He on a Tuesday, August the 22nd of 1911, reported that the painting had been taken away. And the dosants came and it was true that earlier, Vincero Puccini, along with a few accomplices, had come in on a Sunday with a package under their arm, tucked in it with a tunic that they would need later that evening to dress like the ushers, to lift the painting, place it in a case under arm, and walk out with the pedestrians who had come to look at the art in the Louvre. But nobody had missed it because of their over familiarity with it. They just assumed it was there.

7:01 They thought it would always be there. Nobody would ever remove it. But when they came there was their familiarity of the painting that actually led them to disbelief. this morning if you're not careful you can become so familiar with the familiar that your over familiarity can cause you to miss out on what God wants to say to you this is not the first time in my pastoral or preaching ministry that I have come across this story. I'm noticing some of you yawning at it already because you know it so well that you're saying how in the world can anybody tell me something new about a passage like this? I learned this in vacation Bible school and Sunday school and unfortunately that story has remained locked in that part of your life and you've never allowed it to grow up and enlarge itself with you.

8:16 This morning, fight against your familiarity and go back and see if God who spoke to you then can speak to you now. It is the story of a paralytic. a motionless man whose friends are passionate enough about his condition that they are willing to risk embarrassment, industry, and resource to get him into the presence of the living Jesus of whom they believe is the power and possesses the power to do something about his human condition. If I don't say anything else in the few minutes that remain for me to talk to you this morning, that one line is enough to go home and really rejoice about.

9:17 Allow me to unpack something about this passage and its urgency, its priority, and its clarity of how it speaks to us about a God who has power to make a difference visibly in your life. That visible proofs can be the indicator of his invisible power. This text is so neatly tailored to say something to us about the urgency of the moment. that when Christ is in our presence, that we ought not miss it. But you will if you become over-familiar with the story and think you know it so well that not even God can tell you something new.

10:16 This text begins with a few words, and it says something about Jesus Christ's availability to us today. When you read the very first line, you see that Jesus has come back to Capernaum and then it's followed up again. You don't have to be a linguist to know that if again is there, it implies he's been here. But the gravity of that statement is, is that Jesus who had been there had returned again, which says something about his desire to make himself available to those that may have missed him the first time, that they can access him on another time. And Jesus had come to Capernaum again. Capernaum is an interesting place in the beginning of Jesus' ministry. It is the headquarters of where Jesus would come. He goes to Capernaum. This would be a place where he can hide out in the public. So many people were pressing against him. He was the hottest preacher at that time. John the Baptist used to be that, but Jesus' light was brighter than his now. John said it never was about me in the first place. I was just setting the stage for the one that was to come. And when Jesus was recognized by his preaching, his teaching, and healing, the tripart ministry of Jesus Christ, he inaugurates it that way. Jesus couldn't go anywhere where people were not knocking down the doors. Unfortunately, this same available Jesus, when he started making demands on the life of the people who had followed him early.

12:13 In John 6, he would say, come on, walk one step further with me. And Jesus says, it's going to cost you something. They said, look, we signed up for the free lunch program outside. We like all of the water that we can drink at the well and the fish and bread that we can have. But we didn't sign up. the moment that it costs it says you can have it but at this moment at the beginning of Jesus ministry people are crowding in around him and this is his accessibility of the availability of his presence you say why is that important you know why it's important Jesus from his own words described his ministry this way he says now when your life is turned upside down made new he said remember the holy spirit works this way the wind blows where it wills you don't know where it comes from you don't know where it's going and that's a mysterious statement in it that he's saying to nick at night in that religious conversation but the way to interpret it is to say like the wind that moves and blows and you can't track it make sure you hoist your sail when the wind is blowing so it can push you where it wants you to go.

13:38 Availability. And it's morning. Don't miss in the familiarity. Oh, I just go to that church every Sunday. Soon as I'm old enough, I'm not going no more. Soon as I relocate, I'm out the door. Well, while you in the door and Jesus is available, raise your life so that it will be caught by the wind of God's spirit and he can take you where he wants you to go but beyond this whole idea of availability you have to give some attention to his notoriety and that is not only the crowds of people follow him everywhere he goes but notice where he's at he's in a house headquarters in Capernaum, little place. And so many people are in the house. Oh, by the way, when he gets to the house, he's gone there for respite. That's it. He's unplugging to replenish. He's done everything that he need to do for that day. He's just trying to get some rest. He's not all impressed with the hype that goes along with healing. He didn't have a stage. He had no cameras and lights.

14:48 Nobody was there taking pictures of him Selling books He just did what he had to do and kept on going He was not impressed With the mania of the mob That was not why he did what he did Jesus was impressed however With the faithfulness of the few that followed him And so they made himself available to that group But when he's at this house Nothing mysterious He's just going in to catch a break, rest, unplug, to be replenished, take a nap and just get going again. But it's hard to do that with that level of notoriety for Jesus. It spills over then from that very moment to an intensity of the moment that Jesus didn't expect himself that day. He's trying to teach a lesson to the people And while he's talking to them Multiple things are taking place The eyes of the congregation are on Jesus He's in a small room He's not in a cathedral He's in a place where people are gathered a house It has a front door That's it It is quadrangled A quadrangle And so he in this quadrangle house with a flat roof and then there's a set of steps on the outside.

16:23 It is the house in the neighborhood where the goats climb on top and they eat the hay from it. The transverse, the mud and sticks that make up the roof. That's it. and so there's nothing special about it but it is somebody's house that Jesus is in. And then under the moment of the urgency there's an intensity that Jesus is peeping literally that nobody else is paying attention to. They have their eyes on Jesus and Jesus is looking out the corner of his eye at a group of men carrying something on top of the roof. Now Jesus knows this is not his house. This is somebody else's house. And I know you can't get in, but what are they doing climbing up on this man's house?

17:23 And suddenly while he's teaching, you can hear somebody picking away at the gravel and the mud and you can see debris falling out of the ceiling and the people were so enthralled with Jesus teaching and Jesus kept teaching and he was looking on top of the roof at the same time. And while they were digging, he was teaching. And so this digging becomes so intense that Jesus just looks up and said, what in the world is going on on top of that house? But they were excited about his teaching and his preaching and his healing. And they said, that boy sure can't teach. There's a scene that gives light to this for those that may miss it when you say, Jesus sure can't teach.

18:19 There's a scene in that philosophical drama called Coming to America where sexual chocolate is performing. And he's singing and one character say, that boy sure can't sing. And so that's how they felt about Jesus. They were not moved by the disruption that was taking place on top of the house because they were distracted to the attraction of Jesus. And if you're going to be distracted, Jesus, a good attraction to be distracted from all of what is breaking loose in the world. Stuff is coming apart all around us. But if you've got to lose focus, focus on Jesus. Because he can give you the stability that you need when everything else is falling apart.

19:19 And here he is in this setting and Jesus is looking at it at the intensity and the resourcefulness that they are using to get him to Jesus. And next thing you know, you got a sunroof in the house.

19:44 You have a motionless paralytic that has been Lord in the house. And just a side note for those of you that say, I don't ever get nothing out of the Bible. If you could empty your head from what you think you know, very seriously, like a child, and just say, let me read this. Don't let me try to look for nothing. Let me just listen to it. You'll get excited because when you look at this scene, it's rather humorous on one level and is serious on the other level. We know the seriousness is of it because of who Jesus is and what he is going to say. And the humor of it is, here are some folk that don't know how to act when you invite them to your house. And Jesus is looking at this and at that moment of urgency, it moves over to a level of priority of the moment.

20:48 Jesus sees this matter and it becomes the point of the story or the turning point. He looks at it and he sees four people on the roof.

21:11 And we know about them. We don't know their name. We don't know their occupation. apparently is not important to Mark it's not important to anybody else the beauty of anonymous people in the scripture is that you can put yourself you can put your name there and you can ask yourself questions like when was the last time I saw broken humanity and I was able to do something about it and I inconvenienced myself and risk embarrassment to help somebody else. You can see in this story the need for affordable health care. Of people who cannot afford it and ways have been made so that all people can have health care reachable and accessible to them. Nobody in a country like the United States of America, whatever you call it, nobody should ever be in a position where they cannot reach for affordable health care.

22:31 Preach, Pastor West. Because this story, though, when it's told, we always look at the spiritual. Jesus never does just the spiritual. He's also interested in the physical. It always starts with the spiritual, but Jesus knows that there's something at the level of humanity that he addresses. He never finds a person who's thirsty and just say, I got spiritual water. He tells them, I have accessibility to Ozark and Fuji too. He doesn't just tell somebody that you're going to get some spiritual legs. He says, I'm able to give you new legs to walk and praise God. He's not as interested in your spiritual sight. He said, I want you to see spiritually, but I'm interested in you seeing physically too.

23:24 I want to make a way that you can go to the best ophthalmologist and optometrist and find out what's wrong with your vision so that you know that I work on both levels, not just on the spiritual level, but also on the physical level. I'm a God that's interested in the totality of your being. Preach, Pastor Wes. I'm glad he's the bread of life. But sometimes I need bread in my life. And that's why we have to be careful is not to downplay the power of the gospel. The gospel is always making ways to make the world better down here. is already taken care of up there.

24:21 And so Jesus saw this. And he looked at it and said, that's a line. When he saw their face. When he saw their face. My prayer for our church is that we never become the Christians of normality. that's all I can say I'm not talking about who shows up at church now and who doesn't I'm not talking about the world I'm talking about the church without walls that we don't become normality it doesn't matter or we die by the words we've always done it this way that we live by chapter and verse by will or by woe we live by status quo I don't want to be a part of that I want to be a part of something I want to be involved part of something that is so dynamic, so energetic, so real, that when people walk through the door of where we are, that the music is so rich, the prayers are so relevant, the scripture reading is so exciting, where people say, long before the preacher get up, I have met God and God has met me in this church, sir.

26:05 Jesus saw their faith. Lord have mercy. He saw their faith. I got to wrap this up. He saw their faith.

26:25 And then we know about that. But you ever think about, I was telling me at 8 o'clock, is that one of the things that spoke to me this time reading this passage were the people beneath the roof, those under the roof. How did they respond to it? I mean, because you got the owner who's there and they're tearing up his house. How did he react?

26:51 I think this morning, if you gave the microphone to him, he'll say, you be careful and come here, mamas and dads and all you business entrepreneurs, all that time, I want God to bless my business stuff. Do you really mean that? I'm just saying, because in church, we sell a whole lot of stuff. I'm going to tell you, you better put a caution sign there, because when you invite Jesus into your house, your job, it costs you something.

27:23 That owner would tell you, I had no idea I knew he was popular I didn't mind the crowd but I wasn't expecting that I was going to have to put a new roof on there and to make matters worse when I said this thing anybody who will help me put a roof they say you shouldn't invite Jesus to your house the crowd was there curious on lookers they were just looking I'll lead them along the Pharisees were there how did they handle the moment is the first time that they make it on the stage and Jesus drama and they sat down a religious curiosity they had gone to seminary divinity school they got a college degree so they were skeptical because they knew more than anybody else in the room they say look at him doing all that preaching he ain't never been to no rabbinical school Jesus didn't have to go He was the subject that they were studying I am the word.

28:41 He said in the beginning was the word. That ain't just, he used the word logos. He said I am the rational thought in which you engage yourself. I am rationality. They were studying about who they were crucifying. Who were they criticizing? And they were there. Wait, the disciples were there. And you know the disciples had something to say because they were saying, wait, he ain't never called none of y'all. You got to watch yourself about titles and rank and recognition. I tell this to preachers, don't worry about what title you got because usually the folk that got them don't deserve them. Those that don't deserve it don't got them. One of my favorite things, I sit around in a class,

29:38 young people, I'm old enough to be all their daddy, I always tell them that. What should we call you, Dr. West? No! Call me Ralph. That's the name my mama gave. I answer the Ralph too. And so they get uncomfortable at first, but I won't answer them if they say, Dr. West, I won't answer it. Well, that's my name. Cause my title don't make me who I am. So y'all stop tripping about some stuff. Be who you be. Worry about what they call you revving this and revving that. Just be who you are. Jesus was there. Jesus was there. I'm done. Now Jesus was in that house.

30:31 And in that house, Jesus looked at that and he says beyond the urgency and the priority of the moment, I need to give some clarity to this situation. He says, your sins are forgiven. The man holding is a paralytic. He can't walk. I don't need my sins forgiven. I need some legs. And Jesus says, well, see, that's putting the problem. Everything's been on the outside and never get on the inside. I'm going to do an inside job that's going to show up on the outside. Your sins Now you think everybody in that room Would be like y'all Standing up, clapping, getting happy about it You know, ooh this is good And all, they sitting around saying Who do you think he is? Talking about your sins Are forgiven And let me tell you something church Learn to shout, I've been telling y'all this For 30 something years, shout at the right time Your sins Have been forgiven We make too light of that stuff Start paying attention to some of these hymns You sing it on the Sunday Stop borrowing your testimony From somebody else Stop chirping what you heard somebody else say Get your own story When they sing great is thy faithfulness And you get to that line My sins are in as well And you get to that line I'm talking about my sin, I've been forgiven, not in part, but the whole.

32:09 That means that the Lord can snatch chapters out of our life and put fresh pages and say you can write something new over your story. Stop spending your time with people that keep telling you what you used to be. Tell them you got it right, that's what I used to be. But what I used to be ain't what I is no more. The Lord has given me a brand new story to tell. That is, he has blotted out your transgression. He has erased your iniquity. He has cleansed you of your sin. I know I'm not everything that I ought to be. I know I'm not everything that I could be, not everything that I should be. But I thank God I'm not what I was. God cleaned me up And has given me a new chapter And the Lord knows how to redact the lines Out of my story Your sins have been forgiven And that man said But what about my legs He said that's the easy part The easy part is that I can give you brand new legs And that's what he wanted to say To the religious people I can take care of that stuff It is the hard part Is your sins have been forgiven because for that to take place, I got to go to a hill called Calvary.

33:33 That's going to cost me something. All you're talking about is what it costs your roof to be repaired. But when you talk about what I got to pay, in fact, I got to pay it all. Jesus paid it all. And all to him I owe. Sin left the crimson stand But Jesus washed it White as snow Don't you dare look at me Like you don't know what I'm talking about The only reason you are here this morning Is because on a hill called Calvary On an old rugged cross the emblem of suffering and shame that Jesus paid it all.

34:30 Have a good day, children. May God bless you real good. But when that man got off that mat, Jesus said, what are you doing? Hanging around here. Don't you have somewhere to go? Don't you have a mom or a daddy, brother or sister? Don't hang around here. let them see what the Lord had done. And that man rolled up that mat, put it under his arm, and said, I'm on my way to tell somebody what God, what God had done. I can't wait to tell them that when I woke up this morning, I was laying on a mat. All I knew somewhere between home and the roof, the roof and the house.

35:27 The Lord said, you got new legs. But more than that, he cleaned up my life. And he walked out the door so everybody could see who he was. But then the story gets better. The people in the house started praising God. Now wait a minute. He healed the man. He didn't heal the house. But whenever you see God doing something, you ought to lift your voice, raise your hand, throw back your head, and give God the praise for what the Lord What the Lord? What the Lord, what the Lord, what the Lord has done. Is there anybody here in the room this morning that you're able to say, I know what the Lord has done.

36:37 Look at me! I'm a testimony! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah I can shout for what the Lord has done for me But I can also shout When you tell me what the Lord has done for you Oh yeah, I've been shouting When I hear people tell me he's a healer I shout with you. He's a deliverer. I shout with you. He's a promoter. I shout with you. He can give you increase. I shout with you.

37:32 And when he walked out the door, the people in the house started praising God. Now, I don't believe in this. We all praise God the same way. because that would make church real good is that everybody prays him different. When I'm at my happiest, I might share tears, but then I'll laugh out loud thinking God is my way of registering with God in his reality. I don't mean to be irreverent. It's the way I praise God. So now what I want you to do is just think for a minute, very seriously, and you got to do this because you got the, don't worry about your wife and husband or your children. And don't worry about, well, you know, I'm a person of dignity and all that. I can't.

38:26 However you praise God, because you got a way that you praise him. It might just be the raising of your hand. I don't know. I want you to think about something that the Lord has done for you. Not 20 years ago. I'm talking about lately, in the last week or so. I want you to think about it and then I want you to forget about who's looking at you and just give God praise.

38:55 Because how we want people to come be part of our family if we ain't excited about what you get the idea. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah!