Jesus does not care about your sin!

Background

Mark 2:1-12

When Jesus returned to Capernaum several days later, the news spread quickly that he was back home. Soon the house where he was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room, even outside the door. While he was preaching God’s word to them, four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. They couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above his head. Then they lowered the man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “My child, your sins are forgiven.”

But some of the teachers of religious law who were sitting thought to themselves, “what is he saying? This is blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins!”

Jesus knew immediately what they were thinking, so he asked them, “why do you question this in your hearts? Is it easier to say to the paralyzed man ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk’? So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!”

And the man jumped up, grabbed his mat, and walked out through the stunned onlookers. They were all amazed and praised God, exclaiming, “We’ve never seen anything like this before!”

Its not about what you’ve done

We always seem to put Jesus in the same box that we put others into. We treat Jesus as though he only loves us when we are obedient and living a perfect life. We act as though our past is too bad for Jesus to deal with and he wouldn’t love us if he knew about our past. Can I ask you something?

How can you keep your past from the person who was there at the beginning of the world? How can you hide your past from the one who loved you before you were even born? The person who loved you enough to die for your sin thousands of years before your birth? The answer is simple, you can’t!

In the text you can see that Jesus did not ask about the paralyzed man’s past. He didn’t say to the man’s friends “when did he become like this?” or “what happened to him?”. We can safely assume that the paralyzed man was not always paralyzed. If he were he would have been referred to as a lame man and would have been a beggar. He would not have had friends because people did not usually associate with the lame. This means that man had a past and a life before he was paralyzed. He had a history with his friends and it was obviously an interesting one because his friends wanted him back. They wanted to get their friend back to how he used to be so they could have some good times again. These men were so passionate about getting their friend back that they were willing to lower him on his sleeping mat through a roof to set him in front of Jesus. These friends couldn’t get him through the traditional route because the crowd was too much. Everyone was using the route they had originally intended to use so they had to find another way to get to their target. How committed are you to getting to your goal? What are you willing to do to get the attention of Jesus? This current generation know exactly what to do to get the attention of their peers or the media or the general public. They have become so good at it that they are now known as “social influencers” and if you want to get yourself noticed or get your product/service noticed you can enlist the help of one of these social influencers and they can help you promote your product/service/brand. I wonder how many people know how to get themselves noticed by Jesus? Luckily we actually don’t need to do anything extreme to get noticed by Jesus because in the first instance, he sees us. Jesus knows you, your history, your present and your future but he will not impose himself on you. You have to want Jesus to get involved and invite him into your life and then you will begin to experience the influence of Jesus in your life. Although there is nothing you need to do to get Jesus to see you, there are things you can do to really flourish in relationship with Jesus.

Before I go on to talk about how you can flourish in relationship with Jesus, I want to talk about why it is not about what you have done in the past.

For those of you who have been reading my posts for a while you will know that I am an ambassador of the gospel of grace and it is this principle that drives this message.

I realized that I have a scripture that I live by and hold on to because it is what centers me and keeps me focused. That is not to say that it is the only scripture that matters to me, that is far from the truth but it is a scripture that reminds me of where I came from and where I am going.

My personal battle started at the age of 11, 2 years after I entered into relationship with Jesus. At the time I had no idea that asking Jesus to be my Lord and savior was the same thing as painting a target on my back. At 11 I discovered the opposite sex; well it was when I realized that their anatomy was not exactly the same as mine and that we were designed to fit together in a special way. For an 11 year old who wanted to live for Jesus, this discovery created all sorts of confusing chemical signals and an addiction to the female form was born. Now I am not ashamed to admit that I struggle with my appreciation of the female form but I can gladly say that my struggle is not new news to my wife who I have learnt to be completely open and transparent with (read my blog themarriagemanspeaks.blogspot.com) and this openness and accountability is helping me to overcome and win. I am not going to say that there have never been lapses in judgement but what I have is an undeniable desire to please God in all areas and honor God in my marriage by honoring my wife so I can safely say that by the grace of God I did not sleep around in my youth and I have never stepped out on my wife. I say all that to say this, I continuously meditate on Romans 5:6 which tells us that when we were still weak and unworthy, Jesus came and died for us. Because of this I can look at my past and say that when Jesus died for me, I wasn’t even ready to hand everything over to him. Matter of fact, even after I had made my decision to live for Christ I still didn’t have it all together. My teenage years were filled with constant battles not to succumb to peer pressure. One friend was trying to get me to join a street gang, one friend was becoming a stoner and wanted me to hang with his new stoner friends. Another friend was introducing me to girls which was actually hilarious. Given my love for the female form, I was extremely shy and could not talk to girls. I was insecure and afraid of rejection. I was also a late bloomer so I didn’t really start to fill out till I left secondary school. Looking back on all of this I actually think these were little things God used to protect me from the world, bar the insecurity. That decision I made at the age of 9 started a chain of events that would ultimately see me set apart for his work, no matter how long it took me to get it. God had already chosen me and decided he wanted me for his service and I just needed to accept that he saw me as worthwhile and worthy to be called his own.

Some people will read this and may even stop reading but I believe that part of my ministry is to give you an unedited and unfiltered window into who I am and what made me who I am. As I said, if you are looking for a perfect minister then you are looking for someone other than me. If you are looking for someone who tells you that making mistakes is normally and God is not going to punish you for your mistakes, so much so that he created a system of grace to allow for these ‘slip ups’ then keep reading.

My past is significant to me because I learnt from my mistakes. I learnt that God was making provision for me to keep me protected ever since I accepted him. I learnt that the enemy dropped little things in my life to take me out and God allowed me to go through the tests but throughout it all he never forsook me. It reminds me a little of a Rocky movie and I am Rocky. I am taking a beating in the ring (my test and tribulation) and I want to give up but something won’t let me quit, something is keeping me standing (God) and then I hear voices from my corner, shouting and encouraging me, telling me to fight (Jesus and the Holy Spirit). I can look back through every dark experience and see the covering of God. Even when I decided that I was going to chase other things, God was still protecting me and keeping me out of trouble. There were constant reminders of the call he put on my life but God allowed me to come in my own time. I hear people trying to scare people into coming to Christ, it doesn’t work. You can only do one thing and that is love them. Show them the love of Christ and pray for them, talk with them, be there for them, listen to them and treat the like a human being. I am always embarrassed and annoyed by Christians who think they have the right to tell someone else how to live their life. So because you think you know Christ, you think you are Christ and you can tell those who are seeking what to do? You suddenly hold the keys to life and death? Get real, all you have done is joined the ranks of the religious who think that deeds alone are sufficient to see them through. The Pharisees believed that their obedience to the law of Moses was enough and made them superior to everyone else but Jesus called them wicked and referred to them as white washed tombs. A white washed tomb is one that on the outside is glistening and spotless but unbeknown to the onlooker, it is full of dead means bones. From the outside, anyone looking at the Pharisees can only see a person who knows the scripture inside out, someone who tithes everything he/she earns and a person who appears to be a saint but thank God that Jesus does not look at the outward appearance but he looks at the heart, as demonstrated in our text. Jesus knows the heart and the intent behind words. You can carry out religious task after religious task but the bible says it is all nothing if you haven’t loved. Jesus tells a Pharisee and teacher of religious law in Luke 11 that they take so much time taking care of the outside of the cup but inside it is filled with extortion and wickedness. They live for the seats of honor and want everyone to see their deeds but inside the lack love, mercy and compassion for others. This has not changed in our time. All I will say is that he without sin cast the first stone. Because I know what I have been saved from, what I battle and what the grace of God has done for me, I cannot accuse, judge or condemn any one. I don’t have the power or authority to do so. We who have been called by his name are responsible for those who come behind us and woe to any of us who cause them to stumble of fall away. In the same way that you have been forgiven, and grace has been shown to you by Christ Jesus, the same applies to anyone and Jesus says to us all, come as you are.

How far will you go?

So going back to what I said earlier about what it takes to flourish in your relationship with Christ, it takes the following things:

·      Commitment

·      Dedication

·      Self-examination

·      Faith

These in my opinion are the key things that you will need and you cannot have one without the rest. You need to be committed to becoming the best version of yourself, to do this you need to be dedicated to the cause and willing to continually examine yourself to identify the weak areas and finally, you need to have faith to see yourself as the best version of yourself. You are not going to be that best version of yourself on day 1 or day 10. Even on day 1000 you will not be that best version of yourself but you will be a much better version than you were at day 1.

Commitment

In Luke 9:62 Jesus says that no man having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. In Revelations 3:15 – 16 we are told about how it is better to be hot or cold than to be lukewarm; and those who are lukewarm being spat out. Again Jesus talks about people being the salt of the earth and what good is salt if it has lost its flavor. He said it would be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless (Matthew 5:13).

Let me give you a practical example. I train in the gym 5 to 6 days a week and my goal is to be in amazing shape before I turn 40. One of my key fitness targets is to see a six pack and anyone who is into their fitness knows how difficult this is to achieve. To see a six pack, the average man has to hit 9 – 11% body fat. I am currently at 15% and that 4% is a mammoth task. If you know me, you will know that I love to cook and I love to bake. These two things make my goal more difficult because anyone who wants to get down to the single digit levels of body fat needs to eat a very strict and restrictive diet. I have taught myself to reduce my intake of cakes, chocolates and treats because I have made a commitment to my cause. I train regularly and I do not slack off in the gym because I am committed to my cause. On the other hand, since I have failed to cut out these treats completely, my effort is half hearted. The time period required is not extensive. With a strict diet and my current training regime I could achieve my goal in as little as 12 weeks but I have been lukewarm in my pursuit of my six pack. I have not really done all that I can do to get to my destination because I am refusing to let go of something that is holding me back. As I have said before, when I minister to you I minister to myself.

In the same way I am committed to my training, I have committed myself to my relationship with God. I find time to read his word, I listen to sermons from my favorite pastors and I spend quality time in conversation with God. I thank God that I have not treated him like my pursuit of my six pack but it is easy to do. Sometimes we say “I’ll only do a little of x activity, it won’t harm me” or “I’ll just skip prayer time this once, it won’t harm me”. What we allow as a one time thing can quickly become routine and when something becomes routine, it becomes a habit. When you become committed to God, you have to make the things of God your routine, so that they become your habit.

Dedication

This word here is what will see you through. Like fitness and working out, it is easy to start with God. We make it harder than it really needs to be. Just as you go to the gym as you are to be transformed into something new, it is the same with God. Don’t get it twisted, Jesus coined the phrase “come as you are” because that is exactly how he approached every broken person that he met in the bible. The people that he told to make a change were the self-righteous, arrogant, self-absorbed and religious people.

So you have taken the first step to come to Jesus and you have decided that you are now committed to getting to know and walk with Jesus so what next. Well you will have your honeymoon period. Some people are going to read that and be like “you can’t say that” well, I just did. It is natural; you will have a period where you seem to be unstoppable and you are so focused on your walk and you make time for Jesus no matter what, then it happens. Life sets back in and you start to make excuses. Tiredness sets in and you just need to go to sleep or work mounts up at the office and you have to get in early and leave late. What I have learnt having gone through this hoop more than once is that these things will never change and they will always be a stumbling block if you allow them to be. In the same way that you have a contract with your job, you now have a spiritual contract with Jesus. You make time to honor your work contract so why not do the same for your spiritual contract. In my personal opinion the spiritual contract supersedes the work contract and when you honor that contract all other areas are dealt with. The reason those things ramp up when you are honoring God is because the enemy needs to find something to distract you from your daily walk and time with Jesus. People only seem to think that it is the enemy when it is a big catastrophic event in their life; wake up and smell the coffee. The enemy is sneaky and tactical. A major catastrophe is more than likely to plunge you into the hands of God AND more to the point the enemy does not have authority to touch you in that manner for the bible says in Psalm 105:16 “Do not touch my anointed ones; do my prophets no harm”. The enemy knows that the best way to take you off course is just to make you busy. It’s that simple. Make you busy and you will do the rest yourself. When Jesus calls, you will hit that button that sends Jesus to voicemail or sends him a message asking if you can call him back, which you never do!

To flourish you need to dedicate your time to Jesus and make him part of your routine. Don’t do it as a sideline thing, make it an important part of your day.

Listen to the bible in the car or on the train on the way to work. Use your mandatory lunch break to find a quiet place and have some prayer time with God. Find other Christians in your workplace you can fellowship with. Drop the kids at school and take an hour to be with God before you start your daily activities. Swap your gym music for a sermon while you are on a treadmill. We are dedicated to so many things and we do it without hesitation but the one thing that has the power to transform every other area of our lives, we push to the back and make little or no time for. Which routines will you allow to become your habits? I know about the book “the 7 habits of highly effective people” but I can tell you now, there is one habit that you need that will help you to become more effective and successful that those 7 ever could. Quality time with Jesus is the routine that you need to make a habit.

Self-Examination

Life is an amalgamation and accumulation of all the choices that we make. We are a product of our decisions and our environment. We are experts in looking externally at what others are doing and we also love to blame our situations on external factors. It’s human nature, it is that sinful nature. As soon as sin entered the world, passing the buck came in with it. When God asked Adam what he had done he said ‘it was the woman you gave to me” and Eve immediately said “it was the serpents fault”. Neither one of them took responsibility for their mistake and I wonder how different things would have been if they said to God “we were weak, we were tempted and we failed to resist. We broke your law and we regret it. Please forgive us!”

Before any of us can really move forward in life it is not about looking in the past because the past is long gone, we need to look at the present and look at what is within us. Why do we turn to the things that we do? If you have an alcohol dependency, why do you find such comfort in it? Why does it help you to escape? I know for myself I always turned to pornography because I believed that I would not be rejected. There was no one there to tell me you are not handsome enough or you do not have what it takes to get with someone like me. There was no one there to damage my self-esteem but the truth was my self-esteem was already damaged and the damage was getting worse because every time I looked at pornography I felt more ashamed and more broken. I had to deal with the cause and not the symptom. I had to find acceptance and not from the people around me but from the God who made me and told me that he has always accepted me and loved me before I even knew what love was. I had to find the God that said come to me and I will cover your shame, just as he did for Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:21). The God that found me in the midst of brokenness and in the depth of my sin and told me I was beautiful, precious and unlike any other out there in this world.

To start the journey we need to look within to find the broken pieces and to put them in his hands. Self-examination will help identify your triggers and the things that lead you to stumble. You may think that it is your friends or your environment but we all know where we should go and who we should hang out with. We can make the choice to walk away from people and places but there is something within us that draws us to these people or places. There is some affirmation that we are looking for in these places and we need to identify why so that God can begin the healing process.

Do not look at someone else and think that their brokenness is more significant than yours, fix your eyes on yourself and determine what makes you believe that there is no brokenness in you or that your brokenness is minor. You see as you find one piece you find all the other fragmented pieces that are hidden underneath bigger pieces. There is no shame in being broken, it is the doorway to restoration. A jigsaw cannot be completed if it is not broken in the first place.

Faith

All things in this life require faith. We use our faith for insignificant things on a day to day basis but nonetheless it is faith. We put our faith in people when we need them to do something. They give us their word that they will accomplish a task by a given time or date and we believe and trust them that they will. It seems quite easy for us to put our faith in humans who have a track record of deceiving and cheating each other. We find it difficult however to put our faith in God who created all things and through whom all things are sustained. I am not even speaking to people who do not believe in God here, I am speaking to you and me who are believers. As soon as a new obstacle or challenge comes our way we come out of the realm of faith back into the physical and look at the circumstantial evidence. The dictionary defines circumstantial as follows:

1.    Of pertaining to, or derived from circumstances

2.    Of the nature of a circumstance; secondary;

3.    Dealing with or giving circumstances;

4.    Pertaining to conditions of material welfare.

If we are in relationship with a God that can only work with what is in your hands then we are all doomed and there is no hope for us all because based on the definition above, if it comes down to our circumstances then 9 out of 10 times we do not have enough of what it takes to overcome the challenge.

The fact that we deal with a God whose currency is faith and praise then how much we have is dependent on how much we believe and how much we can give. What are you capable of dreaming and how much can you believe that it is possible? How much praise can you give to God before the situation is resolved or the answer has been given? Hebrews 11:1 tells us “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.”

Let’s look at the definition of a few of these words. Confidence:

1.    Full trust; belief in the powers, trustworthiness, or reliability of a person or thing.

2.    Certitude; assurance.

Assurance:

1.    A positive declaration intended to give confidence.

2.    Promise or pledge; guaranty; surety

3.    Full confidence; freedom from doubt; certainty

4.    Freedom from timidity

5.    Presumptuous boldness

Hope:

1.    The feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best

2.    A person or thing in which expectations are centered

3.    To look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence

4.    To believe, desire or trust

5.    To feel that something desired may happen

6.    To place trust; rely

So looking back at Hebrews 11:1 we can read it as:

Faith is the assurance, full trust, belief in the power, reliability in God that what we believe and desire will actually happen because of the one in whom our expectations are centered (God); it gives us a promise, guaranty, full confidence, freedom from doubt and certainty and presumptuous boldness about things we cannot see so we can make a positive declaration to give confidence.

Our faith is a circular thing, it gives us assurance so that we can have confidence in what we are hoping for and can declare with confidence so someone else can have an assurance and declare with confidence and so on and so on.

Your faith is not for you, it is for the person look to you, the person next to you, the person coming behind you.

We serve a supernatural God meaning we serve a God that is above and beyond what we can comprehend in the natural world. His interaction and influence in our lives cannot be explained by natural law or phenomena. When you look at God from this perspective how can circumstantial evidence, which is based on the material, determine the life of someone who is dependent and rooted in faith, a supernatural currency? A currency which increases exponentially in value in relation to praise. When praise is high, faith becomes extremely valuable. Your praise is a catalyst for the power of your faith. When you learn to praise God despite your circumstances, something begins to happen and that faith that you have been sowing begins to grow. Your faith investment starts to grow exponentially in value. Unlike regular stock, this asset does not mature, and never tops out. If you can keep praising then this asset can continue to increase in value and its dividends can pay in many areas of your life. Your faith can heal the sick, your faith can get someone of drugs, your faith can turn a desperate situation into a hopefully situation, your faith can turn mourning into celebration, your faith can replenish a depleted bank account, your faith can put life back in to failing muscle tissue, your faith can restore sight to the blind, your faith can make the lame walk your faith can make miracles happen. Just like the paralyzed man that started this post off, it’s not about their faith, because if you have enough faith, God can act on their behalf. What will you use your faith for?

Spending your faith on other is more valuable than spending it on yourself and let me assure you that your needs will be taken care of when you spend your faith on others. The story of Elijah and the widow at Zarephath in 1 Kings 17: 7 - 16 is an example of how God intervenes in your affairs when you spend your faith on others. God sent Elijah to this woman and told him that she would feed him. Now this woman had a tiny bit of flour and a tiny portion of oil but God knew that this woman was obedient and had a generous portion of faith. When Elijah asked her for food her first reaction was “dude, I’m tired, I’m gathering these sticks to make a fire. I’m about to bake me and mine our last loaf of bread and then we are going to check out of this world.” When Elijah told her that God had said that the flour and the oil will not run out, she did not protest or argue. She did not ask him how he knew and how he was sure, she just believed and went with it. She baked bread day in and day out for herself, her son and Elijah and the flour and oil never ran out. God knows the measure of faith he has given you and when he sends someone into your life who needs help, even when all the chips seem as though they are down, he knows how much faith you have and what that faith is capable of achieving.

Remember, the key to all this is grace. Remember that there is nothing you could ever have done that God cannot bring you back from. The price has been eternally paid and all you have to do is take his hand. Jesus does not care about your sin, he cares about you and what he can do through you.