Luke's Selective Narrative of Christ
This morning, we're in Luke chapter 5 as we continue our series through the Gospel of Luke, where we're considering how the author Luke is showing us to be convinced of Christ. Throughout this series, we're seeing Luke unfold the story of the events surrounding Jesus and his life.
And we've said that Luke's narrative is selective. He's not recording every possible thing that happened in Jesus' life, but he is recording for us the things that stood out that are most important to help us understand Jesus' deity, but also his humanity. And as Luke tells us these things, he wants us to become so sure of Christ that we would become Christ followers.
Some criticize the gospels as being too selective, perhaps even one-sided, biased, or working together some conspiracy to present a false Jesus. But I would push back against that narrative and say that even that has an agenda to try to undermine the scripture and to bring into doubt the Son of God.
This was something that happened right from the beginning in the first century. And we'll see some of it this morning in our passage with the Pharisees. But we also see it at the death and resurrection of Jesus, where the religious leaders said, "This is the narrative that we're going to say." Not that Jesus was risen from the dead, but that Jesus' body was stolen, that the tomb had been disrupted.
Demonstrating Jesus' Divine Authority
And right down into the present, such stories persist and others have come up that would suggest that Jesus is not who he claims to be. Luke asserts the authority of Jesus.
And in this section we've been looking at since chapter three, we've seen Luke demonstrate Jesus' authority in multiple ways. That Jesus, the son of Mary and Joseph, who was actually God's son, simply being raised by Joseph and Mary, this man was more than simply a villager from Galilee. He was more than simply a carpenter's son, but he was none other than the Son of God.
So Luke is going to great pains to demonstrate Jesus' divine authority in several spheres of this world. One of them that we looked at a few weeks ago was his divine authority over the demons, that Jesus could speak and silence the demons who were resisting him.
Then we've also seen that Jesus has the power and authority over diseases, that he was healing the sick, and people were flocking to him in order to find healing. And we also see earlier in this passage, that Pastor Dan preached well last week, that Jesus has authority over his disciples, that he calls whomever he wishes to be his follower, and the only right response is to simply obey. And that's what the early disciples did.
And we see that in the section we're going to look at this morning as well with Levi. In all of these ways, Luke is showing the Gentile audience that received his gospel that Jesus Christ was not simply a Jewish man, but Jesus Christ was the Son of God, the promised Messiah who would take away our sins.
The Paralyzed Man and Sins
Well, as we look through our passage this morning, we're going to be in verses 17 through 32. And I want to read these verses to us as we consider what God has for us this morning.
So beginning in verse 17 of chapter 5: 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. Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. 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.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven." 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?" When Jesus knew what they were thinking, he asked, "Why are you thinking these things in your heart? Which is easier to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins."
So Jesus 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. Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, "We have seen remarkable things today."
After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. "Follow me," Jesus said to him. And Levi got up, left everything, and followed him. Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.
But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and with sinners?" Jesus answered them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
Amen. As we consider this passage this morning, we will see clearly that Jesus is using his divine authority to heal sinners.
Two Types of Sinners
We see a sinner who is first paralyzed, unable to move under his own power, and he is healed by first Jesus announcing that his sins were forgiven.
But we also see in this passage a man who was a tax collector named Levi, whose sins were forgiven in spite of his class and society. He had all the power over his body, and yet he had no power to atone for his own sins.
Both the paralyzed man and Levi illustrate the point that Jesus came to save sinners, and these sinners followed Jesus.
Authority to Forgive Sins
As we look at this passage this morning, I think we see Jesus' authority to heal sinners in at least three overlapping ways. The first point in my outline is that Jesus reveals his authority to forgive sins. So far, he's demonstrated his authority over demons, his authority over diseases, and his authority over the disciples, but now he's going to do something even more outrageous. He's going to reveal that he can forgive sins.
As Luke introduces this section, he starts here by saying, "One day." If you read through the narrative of this gospel, multiple times Luke uses this formula, "One day," to mark a different event in the life of Jesus. He's not presenting Jesus' life strictly in a chronological order, but he's presenting different events that happened to illustrate Jesus' authority and to convince us and his first-century audience that Jesus is worthy of our worship.
As Luke begins this section, he introduces a different healing. Pastor Dan preached on the man who was healed from leprosy last week. Well, now Jesus on another day turns to another man who has another set of problems. But this time, the man is brought to Jesus by his friends.
But before we get to the healing, it's noteworthy that Jesus started by teaching, verse number 17. And he was teaching a growing crowd of people. And this was his primary ministry. You see, Jesus was teaching from the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings from the Jewish scriptures to show that he was the promised Messiah. He would come and he would read the scriptures like other rabbis did. But unlike the other teachers of his day, Jesus taught with authority. And he taught because the scriptures spoke about him, and those who were listening carefully realized that Jesus was pointing to himself—not because he was prideful and trying to elevate himself in a way to put others down, but he was pointing to himself as the hope of Israel, the one who had been promised to redeem them from their sins.
But Jesus not only had teaching authority; it says also in verse number 17 that he had the power of the Lord to heal the sick. Again, Luke is making the point that Jesus healed the sick to demonstrate his divine authority. He did not heal the sick to gather a crowd or to simply amass some huge following. Instead, he restored health to people with physical illnesses to prove his identity as the Son of God.
As Jesus walked and ministered among people, he had ample opportunities to heal. He could not heal everyone, or I should say he was capable of healing everyone, but he chose not to heal them all. Because those whom he healed, he healed with purpose. He healed to show his power and his authority.
On this particular day that Luke records for us, he was not teaching in a synagogue, but in someone's home. It's not unlike when he went to Simon's mother-in-law and healed her at her home. And there were now people following Jesus everywhere he went. They were eager to hear what he would teach, but they were also curious to see who was going to be healed. Perhaps they hoped for themselves to find healing by Jesus' touch. Whatever their motives, people were cramming inside every room of this house recorded in this section. And the people were so crowded that Matthew's gospel and Mark's gospel points out that there were thronging outside and it was hard to get through the crowd. With people in every corner of the house and elbow to elbow outside of the house, there were some men who were eager to help their paralyzed
The Courage of Faithful Friends
Friend. A man who was unable to walk and come to the house himself, but a man who depended on his friend, friends, and his family to care for him, to provide for him, and to take him anywhere he needed to go. And these friends, it says, beginning in verse number 18, took the paralyzed man to this crowded house because they wanted to introduce him to Jesus. They were undeterred by the crush of the swelling crowd. And it says they went on the roof and they lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd right in front of Jesus.
I remember this lesson from when I was a child in Sunday school and when I was shown it on a flannel graph. And while those lessons were true, I want you to think beyond the flannel graph and think about what's happening here. You have able-bodied men bringing their disabled friend into the presence of Jesus. They were disruptive in their efforts. They didn't take no for an answer and they didn't look at the crowd and turn away. Instead, they made their way to the roof where they tore the roof apart to bring their friend into the presence of Jesus.
These men removed roof tiles and they temporarily damaged someone's house for the chance to permanently restore their friend. Jesus recognized their courage. He didn't call them out for vandalism and for trespassing, but instead he commends their faith. When he saw them, verse number 20, it says he saw their faith, their belief in him. Jesus knew that these men believed in him as the savior. They may not have had all of the theological answers. They may not have understood with precision all the ways that Jesus had come to fulfill the Old Testament prophecies, but they took enough to bring their friend into the presence of Jesus.
And when Jesus saw their faith, it says he forgave the man's sins and healed his limp body. These men believed in Jesus and they acted boldly on behalf of their friend. It should stand out to us that they didn't come for their own benefit or for their own healing, but they brought someone else that needed intervention from God. And that's exactly what happened.
I mean, imagine the scene as they're making a huge noise, and I'm sure dirt and debris are falling into the house as they're removing the ceiling tiles and the roof tiles. And then suddenly they start lowering a man on a mat into the middle of Jesus' teaching area. It could have gone terribly wrong for them. Not only did they risk offending Jesus and the homeowner, but the crowds could have turned against them and said, "Who do you think you are? Why are you stopping this meeting?" And yet Jesus paused his teaching to recognize their faith.
And this faith became a blessing for their friend because Jesus was able to forgive the paralyzed man's sins before he healed their body. With these simple words, Jesus said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven." And Jesus healed the man's soul by speaking words of life to him. This is central to Luke's point throughout this section of the gospel. Luke has recorded examples of Jesus' divine authority, but this is an example of his deity. He was the holy one of God, Luke said in chapter 4. And now Luke is demonstrating that he is in fact the Son of God.
I would say here by implication that our belief in Jesus Christ ought to compel us to tell others about him. Our faith, like the men who took their friend to Jesus, ought to motivate our witness. Too many times, if you're like me, you stop yourself from sharing the gospel before you even open your mouth. It's easy to make excuses and stay quiet and think of all the reasons not to be bold and not to introduce our friends to Christ.
But someone recently reminded me at lunch about a story from Dwight Moody. If you don't know Dwight Moody's name, sometimes D.L. Moody, as people call him, he was an evangelist in the 19th century. And he preached the gospel in the United States and overseas. And he often spent hours after he preached with inquirers after his sermons. In fact, in his church in Chicago, he set up an inquiry room where he would meet with people at the end of church and talk with them as long as necessary to answer their questions about his sermon and about Christ.
Well, on one such occasion, a woman came up to him after his service and she wanted to air a grievance with D.L. Moody. And she said to him, "Mr. Moody, I don't like the way you do evangelism." He responded to her with care. He said, "Well, ma'am, let me ask you a question. How do you do evangelism?" And the woman curtly replied, "I don't." So Moody responded without missing a beat and said to her, "Well, I like my way of doing evangelism better than your way of not doing it." His point was he may not have been doing it perfectly. Maybe he could have done it better, but at least he was doing it.
As we see these men bringing their lame friend to Jesus for healing, there's no doubt that these men were not expert theologians. They probably were not stroking their beards and saying, "Aha, Jesus. Yes, I remember how the prophets..." and they connected all the dots and now we need to get this man to Jesus.
But no, instead, they gathered up their robes and they ran at the chance to introduce their friend to the Messiah. Though they didn't have all the answers, they took what they knew and they shared what they knew for the benefit of their friend.
And really, when we think of doing the work of an evangelist, as Paul calls it in Timothy, our job is simply to share what we know. You don't have to go to seminary and earn a master's degree to be an evangelist, but you simply have to know Jesus and invite other people to know him with you.
That's what these men were doing, and God honored it by forgiving this man's sins. This is incredible because this man was healed not only in his soul, but Jesus also healed his body. But before we get to that point, it's worth commenting on the fact that Jesus' teaching also attracted detractors.
The Religious Critics of Jesus
That says in verse 17 that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. Word of Jesus was traveling quickly and the religious establishment moved to find out more about this popular teacher. This is the first time in Luke's gospel that he mentions the Pharisees and these teachers of the law. These religious men taught in the Jewish synagogues and they considered themselves the guardians of the Mosaic law, and there were thousands of them across Israel.
The Pharisees and the teachers of the law had come this day to observe Jesus and to perhaps even oppose him if he said the wrong thing or did the wrong thing. They were listening intently to every word that Jesus uttered and they were watching everything that he did. They weren't coming as humble students who were eager to learn from the scriptures or as humble students who desired the Son of God. No, they recognized simply that Jesus was not one of them. Yet he was drawing larger crowds than any of them. He was teaching with words of authority that people were responding to. So they wanted to find out what was going on.
But rather than coming with open hearts and teachable minds, they had come to question Jesus' teaching, to doubt his miracles, and to undermine his authority. These religious leaders considered Jesus' words, "Friend, your sins are forgiven," to be blasphemy because they understood from the scriptures that only God was capable of forgiving someone's sins. And ironically enough for them, Jesus agreed with their assessment that he was making the claim to be God. But Jesus was not blaspheming because Jesus was who he said that he was: he was God.
Jesus had forgiven this man's sins to demonstrate his power and identity as God. The physical healing that he was providing would be undeniable evidence that he had divine authority to forgive sins. And therefore, the Pharisees, the teachers, the man, his friends, and the whole crowd should accept Jesus as God. Anyone, Jesus says, could have said the words, "Your sins are forgiven," because it was easier to say that. Who would be able to measure whether or not that was true or just a religious trope?
Yet Jesus told the man to get up and walk. If Jesus did not have the power to heal this paralyzed man, then everyone would have known it. If he had said, "Get up and walk," and the man just lay there limp, Jesus would have looked like a fool. But when Jesus said, "Get up and walk," the paralyzed man stood up, gathered his belongings, and walked home. Jesus revealed that he had healed the man physically as proof that he had forgiven the man spiritually.
Jesus' healing here is instant and total. It says he immediately stood up in front of them and took what he had been lying on, went home praising God. Verse 25. Jesus did not start a healing process and say, "Well, your muscles are going to be atrophied and they've just not been used. So it's going to take a while to build up your strength." He didn't ask this man or his friends for money and say, "If you plant a seed of faith, then I will bless the seed by giving you prosperity." And he did not demand more faith and say, "Well, if the man has faith like his friends, then I will heal him." No, God did not do any of these things and he also did not manipulate the crowds. Instead, Jesus simply spoke. And the man stood up and he went home.
Jesus demonstrated his authority to heal a sinner by first dealing with his sin and then secondly healing his sickness. The Pharisees, however, questioned Jesus' divine authority and they began thinking and they said out loud, verse 21, "Who is this guy? Who is this fellow who speaks such blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?" The Pharisees rightly understood that Jesus' words meant that he was declaring his deity. He was not merely announcing that God forgives sinners like we do when we share the gospel. But Jesus was asserting that he alone could forgive someone's sins.
But Jesus, being God, further demonstrated his deity because he knew what they were thinking, verse number 22. And he asked them out loud, "Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?" Unlike the Pharisees who judged outward appearances in conformity to the Mosaic law, Jesus knew these teachers' inmost thoughts and private motivations. He wanted the teachers and the crowd to know that he was the Son of Man with the authority to forgive their sins.
Luke calls Jesus the Son of Man. He's fully man and fully God. He's not simply a religious guru or some mesmerizing teacher, but he is none other than the incarnate God who had come to deal with our sins. While it may have been easier to merely say, "Your sins are forgiven," as some religious trope, Jesus said, "Get up and walk," to show the truth of his power. Jesus said both of these statements, not one against the other, but both of them together. He forgave the man's sins and he restored the man's body.
Everyone could see Jesus' authority on full display when this man suddenly got up and gathered his things and went home. But Jesus' authority here accomplished something much harder than healing: He forgave the man's sins. He made this man right with his father God.
Luke does not teach here or anywhere in his gospel, nor is it taught in the New Testament, that a man like this paraplegic had been given this illness because he had sinned or because God was punishing him for his sin. In fact, God was not punishing his parents or his siblings or someone in his sphere of influence for something that they had done wrong. This man's problems, as severe as they were, were simply a physical reminder that we live in a world under the curse of sin. This curse includes sickness, suffering, and diseases.
And Jesus healed this man's body to show his supernatural ability to break sin's curse. But Jesus could have forgiven his sins without restoring his body. But in this case, Luke is saying he restored his body to prove that his sins had been forgiven.
The man responded with obedience and praise. It says he went home praising God. And everyone else who was there, verse 26, was amazed and they gave praise to God. The crowd who witnessed this divine miracle responded with worship. They were filled with awe and said, "We have seen remarkable things today." They recognized the presence and the power of God and they worshiped. Notice that they did not beg for more miracles. They were not saying, "Me, me, me." Instead, they were just simply in awe of what Jesus had done.
The forgiveness of our sins is far more important than physical healing. As our great high priest and the one who gave his life as a sacrifice for our sins, Jesus has divine authority to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If you find yourself wracked with guilt because of sin, confess your sin to Jesus and he can forgive you. If you're suffering with physical pain or illness, remember the curse of sin has been broken. It doesn't mean that God will restore everyone's body, but he will instead heal our souls.
The Pharisees and the religious teachers opposed Jesus. They knew the most about the scriptures. They understood theology and they mastered redemptive history. But these individuals also soundly rejected Jesus' divine authority to forgive sins. They rejected Jesus because of their self-righteousness. It's ironic, but sometimes the most religious people do not believe God. They place their faith in superior knowledge of the Bible, a mastery of theology, or knowledge of church history, and they find their assurance in obedience to some moral code. And yet they live their lives wrapped with guilt and shame for their sin. So their answer is to simply work harder, to look better, and to do more. They don't find their healing in the gospel. Instead, they depend on their own self-righteousness.
And that's what Jesus wants to expose by connecting this account of the healing of a paralyzed man with his calling of Levi. Because Jesus first reveals his authority to forgive sins, but secondly, Jesus calls all sinners to repentance. Jesus calls all sinners to repentance. Whether it is someone far away from God or someone who is more religious than most, Jesus calls sinners to receive the forgiving balm of the gospel.
The Calling of Levi
After this incident, when Jesus healed the paralyzed man, it says beginning in verse number 27 that he left the house where he had been and he saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his booth. Levi was also known as Matthew. And this man was sitting in his tax booth and he was collecting taxes and fees from his fellow countrymen for the benefit of the Roman Empire when Jesus came to him.
And Jesus' words were very direct. He simply said to Levi, "Follow me." Levi's response could not be more dramatic. As he left what he was doing, it says he left everything and he followed him. Levi's position as a tax collector would have put him at odds with the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. Not only were the Pharisees and the teachers of the law upset about Jesus' indiscriminate works of healing and his claim to be God, but now they were upset that Jesus was courting tax collectors.
These religious leaders considered Levi an unrighteous sinner beyond the reach of God. Tax collectors were considered traitors because they betrayed the people of Israel. Not only did they collect taxes from Israel for the Roman oppressors, but they also grifted what they took for their own monetary gain. Levi's response, however, paralleled the fisherman's response earlier in this chapter. The fishermen had pulled their boats on shore and left everything to follow Jesus, verse 11. Now, similarly, Levi got up from his booth, left everything, and followed Jesus.
What's noteworthy is that the fishermen left their boats overloaded with the largest catch of their lives. And now a tax collector left his access to lavish material prosperity, perhaps leaving in the middle of his shift and simply going to follow Jesus. As soon as Levi left, it says he held a great banquet for Jesus at his house. Levi went all in with Jesus. He not only left his prosperous workstation, but he also used his great wealth to throw a grand party for Jesus and his friends. Levi invited his coworkers to meet his new master, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others ate with them.
Once Levi decided to follow Jesus, he wanted to introduce his family and friends to Christ as well. He wasted no time. Now, it's not to say that these things happened within minutes of one another. There could have been time involved here. But the point is that Levi wasted no time. He went immediately. He didn't say, "Wait, let me finish putting my cash register away. Let me balance the books. Let me get my ledger. Let me say goodbye to all my coworkers. Let me resign and give a two-week notice." No, he went immediately.
And then he decided to spare no expense. He threw a great banquet to introduce his family and friends to Jesus. He didn't throw a religious party with a subdued mood, and he wasn't a cheapskate. He hosted a rocking party with joyous vibes, and he celebrated Jesus.
But apparently there were some uninvited guests there. These Pharisees and teachers of the law that had now been shadowing Jesus were there on the edges of this party. They were not in the party, but they were around to recognize that Levi and Jesus were associating with unrighteous people. These men complained to Jesus' disciples in verse 30 and said, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?" It's bad enough we have to have them in our society. It's another thing that you would choose to have fellowship with them.
These religious leaders who had earlier questioned Jesus about his authority to forgive sins now questioned his association with obvious sinners. They could have perhaps excused a man being suddenly lowered through a roof and interrupting the meeting, but now Jesus voluntarily went into a hostile environment. Although the religious leaders complained to his disciples, Jesus responded directly to them about their objections, and he told them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick."
Jesus pursued close fellowship with tax collectors like Levi and other sinners because they understood that they sinned. They were sick and they knew they needed a doctor. They were sinners who knew they needed forgiveness. However, Jesus condemned the Pharisees for their self-righteousness. They did not admit their sinfulness. Instead, they asserted their rectitude and they considered themselves healthy. They did not sense their need for repentance of sin or forgiveness from Jesus.
Thus, Jesus said to them, "I've not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Jesus came to heal the unrighteous and forgive their sins. Jesus was not saying the Pharisees were healthy or righteous. He was being ironic to show that the Pharisees were deceived. They did not understand their own sickness and unrighteousness. They were rejecting Jesus for the same reason that notorious sinners were believing him. The Pharisees loathed Jesus and his righteousness and his divinity. And the sinners loved Jesus because of his righteousness and his divinity. The Pharisees depended on their own righteousness and they rejected Jesus' sacrifice that would come later. They trusted their own knowledge of the Mosaic law, their religious works, and their positions of power and privilege.
But Levi and the other tax collectors believed what Jesus said. They confessed their sins and accepted Jesus' forgiveness. The sinners who followed Jesus repented of their sins and experienced God's forgiving grace. Jesus was healing their souls with the balm of the gospel—the good news of his atoning death for their sins and his resurrection power for their eternal life. All of that would become more clear later, but at least for now, they understood that this incredible teacher was claiming to be God and capable of forgiving their sins. They simply had to believe that he would do it.
Oftentimes, the biggest sinners make the best Christians. They know they've sinned against God and they feel the weight of their sin. They want the healing balm of the gospel. So they confess their sins and they experience the relief of Christ's forgiveness. We ought to be Christians who share the gospel with anybody and everybody, but perhaps we should share it especially with people who appear to be reprobate sinners. Reprobate is an old-fashioned word, but the idea is people who are beyond hope, people who are condemned in their sin.
Too many times we are quick to share the gospel or think we should share it with people just like us—people who are more savable, who are nice, people who would be a nice addition to our church. And yet Jesus seeks and saves the lost, the people who are the farthest away from him. I have found in my own personal witness that sometimes the people that are the easiest to talk to about the gospel are the people who look the scariest to talk to. The people who are signaling with their hair or their clothes that they have a different perspective on life and that they don't want to talk about Christianity can actually be some of the most fruitful gospel conversations. We simply have to have the courage to talk to them.
Sadly, I think too many times I and most of us censor ourselves and say, "Well, they wouldn't want to talk about that. They look like they represent a different part of our culture, a different agenda, a different emphasis, or a different set of ethics." But yet those are exactly the kinds of people that Jesus was associating here with Levi, the tax collectors, and other sinners. So let's boldly share the gospel with anybody and everybody and watch what God does to bring them into his kingdom.
As we do all of this, be reminded that Jesus expressed his authority to heal sinners. And he does this first, I said, by revealing his authority to forgive sins. Secondly, he calls sinners to repentance. And third, which is a summation of the first two points, Jesus forgives repentant sinners. The Apostle Paul picked up on Jesus' teaching and invited ungodly sinners to repent. He says in Romans chapter 5, beginning in verse 6, "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person, someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his love for us in this. While we were sinners, Christ died for us."
Paul's point is the same as Jesus and the same as what Luke is trying to emphasize about Jesus, and that is that Christ forgives sins. But that means we have to confess our sins and forsake them. We don't repent as a work unto salvation. We repent as a recognition that we've been saved. We confess our sins as those who know we need forgiveness, and then we live lives that are transformed by the grace of the gospel.
This past Thursday, Miles and I visited the University of Georgia as he's considering where he ought to attend. So I know we have lots of Georgia Tech people, and we love Georgia Tech, but we were in Athens, so forgive us. So in addition to doing the campus tour, which I like to say I've done twice now—once when Miles was in eighth grade getting ready and now as he's a senior—but in addition to seeing the campus and hearing the pitch, we also met with some local church pastors around Athens because we wanted to learn not just about campus life and what UGA wanted us to hear, but we also wanted to find out about local church ministries from the people who were leading them.
The brothers that we met with spoke well of multiple healthy churches and they commended them to Miles if he chooses to go to college there. What we were really blessed by is that each pastor said, "You should go to this other church," not because they were trying to steer us away from their own, but because they truly understand partnership in the gospel. Then, as we met with one of the pastors, we heard a story about another one of the churches. This is what was fascinating to us. One church in particular in Athens had an unusual testimony of God's grace. A few years ago, the church had declined to about 40 or 50 people who were gathering for worship on Sundays. Then they decided to solve this decline, they would call a new pastor.
And the new pastor got to work as pastors do. He started meeting with one of the young men that he knew who was a student at UGA, and they started having a Bible study, just the two of them. Then this young believer started getting excited about what he was learning and he was growing in his faith, so he started inviting his friends. And they started inviting their friends. In less than a semester, they had 50 young men gathering for this Bible study and they were turning people away. Then they decided, "Well, we can't keep turning people away. We've got to do something about this."
And by the end of the academic year, they had over 100 people gathering for their Bible study that started with the pastor and one young man. They obviously invited these college students to start coming to the church. And before they knew it, this church of 40 to 50 now had 140 to 150, both believers and unbelievers. These newcomers, mostly college students, wanted to learn about God. They were hungry.
Though we hear in our culture that people have turned away from God and that Christianity is declining, there is a move among Gen Z and Alpha to return to the gospel. The pastor who shared this story with Miles and I does not lead the church where this was happening. He was simply sharing it with Miles and I to challenge Miles in particular to be faithful to the gospel and to share his faith when he goes to college. The pastor and the young believer at this other church had no idea that God was going to turn their one-on-one Bible study into a 100-person group. God may use one person, 10 people, 20 people, or 100 people to share his message.
The point is not about college ministry. Athens is a different context. I could tell you another story of a church in Scotland, in the northern reaches of the country where the population is sparse. A church had declined to literally three elderly women, and they didn't know what they were going to do. So they started to pray and they asked for help from some other churches, and they started reaching out to families in their village. And over a period of a couple years, those three elderly women gathered 40 people to worship on Sunday.
So you don't have to be in a college town with rambunctious and energetic young people. You can be anywhere. The point is, Jesus uses his divine authority to heal sinners, but sinners like us have to introduce them to the healing balm of the gospel. The Apostle Paul put it this way: "How then can they call on the one in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in the one in whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?"
When I look at our large worship center and the vast seating that we have available in 2026, I have a sense of anticipation and excitement. God's given us an incredible asset for gospel ministry in Milton and North Atlanta. We have a beautiful campus in the heart of our community that we could not afford to buy today. Faithful believers before us, and some of them that are still here today, sacrificed to build this building and to make sure that our debts were paid off. We have cash in the bank and members are continuing to give faithfully for the gospel.
But now God has called us and given us an opportunity to fill this place with his glory and to boldly declare God heals sinners with Christ's forgiving grace. All it takes is for one person or a small group of people to catch a glimpse of Jesus and introduce their family, their friends, their neighbors, their classmates, their co-workers, and acquaintances to Jesus. We cannot control the results and the goal is not church growth. But we can control our witness, and the point is to multiply grace for the glory of God.
Jesus uses his divine authority to heal sinners. The question is, do we believe it? Do we believe that Jesus' words can forgive? Have we been forgiven? And are we asking others to consider that Jesus would forgive them? As we're faithful to do this, God will be faithful to grow our church as he sees fit. We don't have to set numerical goals and say, "Well, we've got seats for 600, so we need 600 people in this place." We want to set the goal of simply being faithful to share the gospel of Jesus and let God bring whomever he wishes.
Whether we're the pastor and the college student who simply decide to meet together to study the word of God and then other people want to get in on it, or whether we're the three elderly ladies in Scotland who were desperate to see God preserve their church and the gospel witness in their community—would we be faithful? Would we share Jesus? Would we be like these men who took their paralyzed friends into the presence of Jesus? As powerless as they may have seemed, they watched the power of God flow that day as Jesus said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven."
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, help us to boldly declare the gospel of Jesus. Help us to believe that it is the healing balm that you say that it is, that you have dealt with our sins through your death. You have satisfied the Father's wrath with your sacrifice, and you have claimed victory by resurrecting from the dead.
God, help us to never give up on this message. Help us not to become like the Pharisees who simply sat back and judge, or like the woman who confronted D.L. Moody and said, "I don't like the way you evangelize."
Instead, Father, help us to be busy about the gospel, sharing the good news of Jesus with whomever we can, and trusting that you'll bring whomever you want. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.