Sermons

FILTER BY:

← back to list

Oct 24, 2021

I’m Not Going Anywhere

I’m Not Going Anywhere

Passage: Mark 2:1-12

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: Follow: Learning from Mark about Jesus’ Most Misunderstood Command

Keywords: faith, forgiveness, authority, sins, son of man, trespasses

Rare is the life that is not confronted with the occasion for forgiveness–whether needing it or extending it. Despite its place in our cultural heritage, some reasonably argue our capacity for it is “fading”. Others concede new foundations for upholding it are flawed and unsustainable. Following Jesus requires grappling with the primacy of it, the difficulty in it, and the responsibility to it. Both a memorable moment and a pointed comment in the life of Jesus will make the case that forgiveness boils down to one message: “not going anywhere.”

Readings & Scriptures

PREPARATION: Psalm 103:1-5
LEADER: Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!

ALL: Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,

LEADER: who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,

ALL: who satisfies you with good
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

CENTRAL TEXT: Mark 2:1-12, 11:23-25
And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts,“Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic—“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”…. “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

BENEDICTION: Jude 24-25
LEADER: Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever..

ALL: Amen

Related SCRIPTURES:

Genesis 3:1-12
Daniel 7:13
Matthew 6:12-14
Romans 5:10
2 Corinthians 5:18-20

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. Perhaps we’ve asked this before, but it’s worth asking again. Would you be willing to speak of a moment when someone forgave you? (parent, friend, spouse, colleague, classmate) Describe that to the extent you feel comfortable. Flip it around now: when’s a time you were faced with a choice whether to forgive? Forgiveness is never easy; talk about the struggle, the process, the outcome.
  2. How do you see faith exhibited in this account? Whose faith? How does the example offer us something like a definition of faith?
  3. In the encounter preceding this passage (1:35-45), Jesus expressly asks the healed leper to keep things quiet. Why does Jesus seem to have less concern in this passage for word getting out about what He says and does? Venture a guess.
  4. What point might Jesus be making by responding to the search for healing with a declaration about forgiveness?
  5. Where has forgiveness as a virtue been abused or misused? What happens to a society that begins to devalue forgiveness? How do justice and forgiveness function together–a joining together that, so to speak, no man should tear asunder?
  6. What’s hard about receiving forgiveness? What is your response to the modern wisdom that argues, “you just need to forgive yourself?” 
  7. What’s hard about extending forgiveness? What basis for and responsibility to extending it do we find in the gospel? Do we forgive because we could’ve done just as bad as was done to us, or because Jesus has done better for us and all?

QUOTES:

  • As a society we have absolutely no coherent story — none whatsoever — about how a person who’s done wrong can atone, make amends, and retain some continuity between their life before and after the mistake. Elisabeth Bruenig
  • Without being forgiven, released from the consequences of what we have done, our capacity to act would, as it were, be confined to one single deed from which we could never recover; we would remain the victims of its consequences forever, not unlike the sorcerer’s apprentice who lacked the magic formula to break the spell. Hannah Arendt. (More on forgiveness from Arendt here.)
  • [Forgiveness is] a decision that’s kind of like the 12 Steps program: You remake it every day, and you do it every day. Because sometimes it’ll come to you, the thing that happened. You’re standing at the sink or looking out the window at the bird feeder, and the fury comes back to you and you want to explode all over again. At that point, you have to remake the decision to forgive. A lot of forgiveness, at least as it’s manifested in my life, is me reaching out and being there, and being friendly and warm and open for the restoration of a relationship with a person who hurt me and saying, “I’m still here, I’m not going anywhere. Elisabeth Bruenig
  • Forgiveness is a gift. It’s revenge that’s predictable. Revenge is the automatic, natural reaction to being hurt. Forgiveness is an entirely creative act. It comes out of nowhere. It is completely unpredictable. For most human beings, it is incomprehensible. It is as close as human beings come to creating something out of nothing — the same way God made the universe.  Stephen Viccio, Ivan & Adolf: The Last Man in Hell
  • Hanging on the cross, in the process of being tortured and executed, Christ looks down onto the people responsible for his death and prays to God to forgive them. He is not ridding himself of anger to achieve spiritual tranquility; he is not trying to restore the karmic balance of the universe; he is not trying to showcase his own virtue. His concern, in the midst of his execution, is for the good of those who have wronged him. And it is entirely for their sake that he utters his prayer of forgiveness. Joseph Keegin

BOOKS / DOCS

SERMONS / TALKS: 

“A paralytic forgiven,” Tim Keller