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Jesus...will you help me overcome
paralyzing doubt?
New Beginnings in Christ
Mark 1:40-2:12
Sunday February 19, 2006
The Problem:
A man with leprosy came to Jesus...
Mark 1:40 NIV
Some men came came, bringing to him a paralytic...Jesus saw their
faith..." Mark 2:3, 5 NIV
Question: What do a desperate leper and a hopeless paralytic have in
common? Answer: the need for someone to deliver them from desperation,
hopelessness, and paralyzing fears and sin.
That "someone" is Jesus Christ!
The Leper was desperate:
He was the victim of a disease that left him utterly disfigured on the
outside with terrible scales and sores all over his skin
But down under the skin was where the disease did its worse:
destroying nerves, the victim lost all sense of touch and pain, and
leaving the limbs unprotected against infection and disease
And to add to the pain, because there was no cure at that time, the
Bible protected the community by an absolute, 100% quarantine of
lepers, a complete and utter social separation of the unclean from the
clean, until they died
The person with such an infectious disease must wear torn clothes, let his
hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of his face and cry out "Unclean!
Unclean!" As long as he has the infection he remains unclean. He must
live alone; he must live outside the camp." Leviticus 13:45-46 NIV
Lately I've become a bit of a "social leper" to some of my friends in
professional circles, because of some public stands I've taken. And I
can tell you that it has been a real painful and lonely time. But it's
nothing like the pain of isolation and loneliness that the leper felt.
Isolated from the mainstream of society, children throwing rocks at
you as you called out and passed by, your circle of friends
diminishing daily until the only person who comes to visit is your
mother, the only person willing to get close to you...until finally she
can't stand it anymore, and you retreat to your cave--without dignity,
without love, without hope
The paralytic was actually in a little better shape:
He at least had friends who were willing to bring Him to Jesus! To
touch him and carry him and dig their way through the mud and straw
roof and interrupt Jesus right in the middle of his teaching so that they
could get their friend in front of the great physician
And when Jesus saw THEIR FAITH, it says in the story, he healed
their friend the paralytic. I think that's a clue to what was going on
inside the paralytic: You see, he wasn't just paralyzed in his body.
He'd lain their so long, helpless and unable to move, that he was also
paralyzed in his spirit. Perhaps he had given up all hope of ever being
well...And when Jesus came to town, he was prepared to count
himself out--even if he could heal, Jesus healing touch was not going
to be there for him that day, or ever... He was going to remain on the
edge of the crowd, an outsider looking in...
But he had friends who wouldn't give up on him, and THEIR faith
literally carried him to Jesus, despite his helplessness and
hopelessness
Like the leper and the paralytic, many of us have also come to the end of
ourselves and cried out in our hearts "God, if you're there, help me! And
then that faith stopping question pops into your mind-- "Yes, God can
help...Yes God might help others...But why would he help ME?..."
How can I believe that God would heal ME, when he doesn't answer
MY prayers for others to be healed?
How can I believe that God can change ME from the inside out, when
I've been trying all these years to change without any success?
How can I believe that God can provide for MY NEEDS when my
experience tells me that if I don't work myself to the bone, I'll only
be one step ahead of the collection agency?
And for whatever reasons, for whatever guilt or disappointment or
sense of failure, we lower the horizon of our hopes and turn
away...Maybe we see God answering other prayers, changing other
lives, and we conclude then that God doesn't care very much for us.
The Question: that reveals the paralyzing doubt is the question of
the Leper: "Jesus, I know you can heal... But will you?"
So Jesus, what's your answer to that?! Jesus' Simple Answer is this :
"I am willing... Be clean!" Mark 1:41 NIV
When he looked into that Leper's face, Jesus heart was literally
shaken and convulsed with passion! He was moved with love for the
man, a love that felt his pain, his isolation, and his loneliness--so he
says "I AM WILLING--I want to heal you. Your healing is my will,
and my purpose, and my resolve"... And then he reaches out and
touches him, and heals him instantly!
When Jesus looked at the Paralytic, he felt the same compassion in his
heart... But he also saw a deeper need in the paralytic's life: a need
for forgiveness of sins. Jesus knew that there was a connection
between the paralysis of his spirit from unforgiven sin, and the
paralysis in his body. So Jesus adds authority to his compassion--
authority to address the deeper need--and he says
Jesus said, "But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on
earth to forgive sins..." He said to the paralytic, "I tell you, get up, take
your mat and go home." Mark 2:11-12 NIV And immediately, that's
exactly what the paralytic did! No longer paralyzed...
Why is Jesus willing to help and heal us?
· His Passion:
Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man...
Mk. 1:41
Jesus was FILLED with compassion--did you catch that? It wasn't a
moment of compassion, or an event of compassion, or a compassion
interruption in an otherwise stern and unforgiving ministry. Jesus
heart was breaking for this man!
Time and again the Bible uses this phrase to describe the heart of
Jesus: a heart that is deeply, painfully, violently moved to pity, and
compassion and care. It means his heart literally shuddered and
convulsed with love...
When Jesus saw the crowds coming after him, his heart shuddered
with love and broke for them, because they were all harassed and
helpless, like sheep without a shepherd (Mt 9:36)... He was filled with
compassion when he saw crowds of sick people coming to him,
desperate for healing (Mt 14:14)... When they had stayed with him
awhile and it was getting too late for them to go home for dinner,
Jesus was filled with compassion for their hunger and miraculously
fed a crowd of 5,000 (Mt 15:32) and then another 4,000 (Mk.
8:2)...and when he saw just two blind men by the side of the road,
drowned out by the crowd but crying out for him to heal them-- Jesus
was so filled with compassion that he walked through the crowd, heart
broken for their blindness, and healed these two blind men! (Mt.
20:34) When Jesus came to home of his good friends Mary, Martha
and Lazarus, four days after Lazarus had died, seeing Mary and
Martha's grief, he was so moved in his heart that he wept
And when Jesus looks at you and me, he is filled with compassion--
not condemnation; not correction--HIS HEART IS FILLED WITH
LOVE FOR YOU AND ME FIRST AND FOREMOST.
And whenever you decide to seek His face, the first thing you will
ever see is his love and compassion for you!
· His Power:
Immediately, the leprosy left him and he was cured... Mk. 1:4
...[the paralytic] got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all.
This amazed everyone and they praised God saying, "We have never seen
anything like this! " Mk. 2:12
The greatest demonstration of Jesus' power was when He suffered
crucifixion and death for your sins and mine, and after three days in the
tomb stone cold dead, he rose bodily and triumphed over death once and for
all.
The bottom line is this: If Jesus triumphed over sin and death, then He
can answer any question, heal any hurt, and deliver you and me from any
paralyzing doubt we may ever have. Paul put it this way in Romans 8:38-
39.... We might put it this way: there is no cancer, no wound from the past,
no fear in the present, no crippling disease or addiction, no disappointment,
no regret, that can possibly stand up to the compassion and the power of
Jesus Christ. Period.
So How can we overcome paralyzing doubts to embrace Jesus'
willingness?
Let me close by suggesting five things, five steps if you will, that you and I
can take to bring our doubts to Jesus and to find His compassion and His
Power
· RECOGNIZE Jesus' compassion & power
Really, it's to recognize Jesus for who He really is. And that takes a
recognition that our culture has been engaged for years in an attempt to
remove Jesus from any discussion in the marketplace of ideas, to relegate
him to the position of a great teacher or philosopher, and hope that he will
quietly disappear on the margins. But Jesus will not disappear despite
2,000 years of organized skepticism and persecution, because he is NOT
just a great teacher or philosopher. When Jesus forgave the sins of the
paralytic, HE MADE AN INCREDIBLE, AUDACIOUS STATEMENT
ABOUT HIMSELF--Since only God can forgive sins, Jesus was in effect
saying "I'm God--because I have the authority to forgive sins"!!
A great teacher or philosopher would never say that--unless it were true!
And so, in the words of the great Anglican writer CS Lewis, we have a
decision to make: we must decide whether Jesus Christ was a liar, or a
deranged lunatic--or exactly who he said he was--LORD. Liar, lunatic or
Lord--what will it be?
Have you even begun to ask your self that question? Some of us haven't
begun because we have objections and questions--paralyzing doubts.
Really, we've lived so long saying "NO" to God, in our pride and
independence, that we're unwilling to say "YES" to Him. It's time to stop
hiding behind those questions and objections! Deal with your objections and
your questions--don't deny them. Deal with the question "Is Jesus a liar, a
lunatic or LORD?" Get serious about Jesus because he's serious about
you.
· REPENT of anything that ruins your heart
Behind every paralyzing doubt there is a pattern of sin. Jesus saw it right
away in the paralytic... For the Jews, leprosy was a symbol and a parable of
the effects of human sin on a person's heart and spirit. Sin separates us from
God and each other. So does leprosy. Sin slowly rots away human life and
all feeling for God and others. So does leprosy. Sin is at first not easy to
diagnose: it works silently and secretly. So does leprosy. Sin disfigures
and distorts. So does leprosy. Sin paralyzes and removes feeling and
sensitivity. So does leprosy. Sin ultimately causes death. So does leprosy.
But the good news is that Jesus is willing to heal the leprosy in our hearts
as decisively and compassionately as he healed that leper! All we have to
do is come to him, with whatever sin pattern is in our lives--the pride that
has caused us to say NO to God too many times, our self-indulgent appetites
and ways that have turned us in upon ourselves, the anger at our own
frustration, dwelling in disappointment and self-pity-- whatever sin pattern
that has paralyzed us, Jesus can forgive, and cleanse, and heal!
Repentance is turning away from the sin pattern that's ruining your heart,
in order to turn to Jesus and receive his help... and that brings up the next
step:
· REACH OUT to Jesus...get as close as you can
That's exactly what the leper did when he approached Jesus...in fact, he
probably even violated the distance he was supposed to keep. But he did
whatever he could to get as close to Jesus as he possibly could... That's
what the friends of the paralytic did: they didn't allow the size of the crowd,
or the size of his problem, or the embarrassment of digging through a roof to
keep them from bringing their friend to Jesus!
How about you? Are you getting as close to Jesus as you can? Are you
reaching out to him for help? If you're as paralyzed as the paralytic, are
you at least willing to let your believing friends take you to a place--like a
home group, or a healing service, or a time together to share and pray--
where Jesus can heal you, and deal with your doubts?
· REQUEST His help
The Leper came to Jesus and begged him on his knees. The friends of the
paralytic demonstrated their request for Jesus help by raining mud and straw
down upon him in the middle of his sermon, and lowering their friend
through the hole. Jesus got their request loud and clear--and it didn't
bother him a bit!
Jesus made it absolutely clear that we are to ask, seek and find. He longs
to hear our requests. He wants to have a conversation with you and me!
The Bible says in the book of James "You have not because you ask not".
That's why we have prayer teams available every Sunday for anybody here
to go and in a quiet and set apart space to ask...that's why we ask every
small group at SRC to spend time in conversational prayer with God--
sharing, and then offering up the needs of every person... When was the last
time you had a conversation with him--when you really poured out your
heart, and then listened??
· RECEIVE Whatever He has for you
Jesus wants to give you MORE than you think you need! Jesus physically
touched the leper when he healed him. He did something he didn't need to
do to satisfy the request for healing because he knew that this man was not
only dying from a physical disease, he was dying from the lack of human
touch. Jesus forgave the paralytic's sins, because he knew that forgiveness
was the number one need, and it would lead to physical healing.
Let Jesus show you what you need--and then let him meet that need.
Because when you do, like the leper and the paralytic, you'll receive
everything you need, and more!
What step are you on right now?
Are you recognizing Jesus for who He really is?
Are you repenting from any sin pattern that is paralyzing your heart?
Are you reaching out to Jesus, getting as close to Him as you can?
Are you requesting his help?
Are you receiving everything he has to offer you?
Let's pray...
The Rev. J. Philip Ashey
Copyright © 2006