Introduction: Luke 5:18-26, Matt. 9:2-8, Mark 2:3-12

This wonderful story of the healing of the palsied man is told by all the Synoptic Gospels. The general outline of this material is borrowed from a sermon by John Dale, minister in Murray, KY, who presented a message from this story to my home congregation at Christian Chapel, MS during the Fall of 2000. He used four words which begin with the letter, h, to tell the story. Those words are helpless, healer, helpers, and hinderers.

Here are the major parts to the story.

* A palsied man desired to be healed by Jesus

* Four men carried the sick man on his bed

* They could not enter the house where Jesus was teaching due to the crowds

* The men tore back the roof to let the man down to Jesus

* Jesus first forgave the man of his sins; then healed him

* The man, forgiven and healed, walked away carrying his own bed

* Many glorified God when they saw this miracle

1) Most of us are like the palsied man in our concern over pressing physical problems. We want food, clothing, our bills paid, physical ailments treated, a better car, our hair cut, our nails treated, a large retirement nest egg. Then we start all over with the needs of our children---paying their college expenses, better transportation, health insurance, new home, grandchildren, etc. It never ends, does it? Remember Jesus’ words about all of this? Jesus enumerated things like food, drink, clothing, gathering into barns (savings & retirement), and even our stature (whether tall or short).

"Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or, what shall we drink? Or, wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek); for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." (Matt. 6:31-34.)

What the palsied man needed more than being able to walk (as important as that was) was forgiveness of his sins. He and his friends did not seek Jesus for that reason. They sought Jesus because they heard that he could heal the sick.

2) What stands out in this story is---Who Jesus of Nazareth is. He was not just a teacher, prophet or healer. He was God among men. The critics were right---Who can forgive sins, but God? Jesus had power on earth to forgive sins. He forgave sins which were committed against God. The palsied man had done nothing directly against Jesus. He had not cheated him or lied to him or spoken against him. But he, like all men, had sinned against God. David wrote, "Against Thee and Thee only have I sinned." (Psalm 51:4.)

3) Physical things, like blindness, deafness, poverty, riches, diseases, etc. are used to describe spiritual ailments in Scripture. There is a spiritual blindness and deafness. We can be rich or poor in faith. We can be like a palsied man or a leper. The spiritual counterpart of these ailments is far worse than the physical.

Now to the four words beginning with "h."

The English word, palsy, is derived from the Old French word, paralesie, which was shortened to palesie, the form in which it appears in Wycliffe’s version. In the KJV, it appears as palsy. The word refers to a form of paralysis. The disease is one characterized by extreme loss of the power of motion affecting either the motor centers of the brain or the spinal cord. It is always serious, usually intractable, and generally sudden in its onset. Alcimus was taken suddenly with palsy and died with a great torment. (1 Maccabees 9:55-56.) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, 2236.)

The palsied man was certainly helpless. He could not move about on his own. He was probably in great pain as is indicated by his friends letting him down through the roof. He could not wait much longer. Alcimus died quickly in great torment. It was an urgent matter from the view point of pain and death that may have been imminent.

Spiritually, all who are still in sin are very much like that paralyzed man. They are helpless. They are sick and dying. Isaiah wrote this about those in his day:

"The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire, your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate as overthrown by strangers." ( Isa. 1:5-7.)

We are helpless and we must understand that truth before we can receive help. Many are helpless spiritually, but do not understand their state of "paralysis." Many sadly and foolishly think that they are doing just fine without the Gospel and without Jesus. Some at Laodicea said that they were rich and increased with goods and had need of nothing. But the Lord said that they were wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked! (Rev. 3:17.)

A drunk usually does not understand how addicted he is to alcohol. He thinks that he can handle it. All the while, the alcohol is handling him. Such is true of all forms and kinds of addiction (smoking, drugs, gambling, gossiping, overeating, covetousness, pornography, sports, music, television, etc.). We must come to Jesus the way the paralyzed man did---knowing full well his condition and need.

There is a great difference in how men regard "the Fall." Some seem to think that it was a small or short fall. Do we see it as falling off the bottom step on the stairs? Or falling over Niagara Falls? Since the Fall, the helpless state of man without God has become self-evident. How foolish for man to think, even for a fleeting moment, that he can control his own world, life or destiny! Jesus said, "Without me, ye can do nothing." (John 15:5.)

1) Man has no power over his possessions. "Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away like an eagle toward heaven." (Prov. 23:4-5.)

2) Man has no power over his life. "No one has power over the spirit to retain the spirit; and no one has power in the day of death." (Eccl. 8:8.)

3) Man’s knowledge is always incomplete. "If any man thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing as he ought to know." (1 Cor. 8:1-2.)

4) Man cannot tame his tongue. "For every kind of beasts, of birds, serpents, and of things in the sea is tamed and hath been tamed of mankind. But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison." (James 3:7-8.)

5) Man cannot provide physical or spiritual life apart from God! It is a gift to man from God. (Eph. 2:8, Acts 17:25.)

There was only One in the crowd who could heal the palsied man. No doubt, he would have shortly suffered a painful death if Jesus had not been there. Jesus forgave the man, healing the condition of his soul, and healed his body, making it possible for him to walk again.

John the Baptism pointed his disciples to Jesus saying, "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." (John 1:29, 36.) Jesus once healed a deaf and dumb man. His ears were opened and the string of his tongue was loosed, and spake plainly. "And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well; he maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak." (Mark 7:37.)

Think about how Jesus heals us inwardly.

1) He frees us from the power of sin, the addiction of sin. Only through the power of the Gospel and the presence of God is that possible. Alcoholics have been freed from the curse of alcoholism. Gamblers have been given a greater purpose in life. These need no longer Alcoholics Anonymous or Gamblers Anonymous; the Gospel is sufficient. "Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world." (I John 4:4.) Without God, Christ and the Holy Spirit, we are powerless against "the power of darkness." (Luke 22:53, Col. 1:13.)

2) He saves us from the pleasure of sin. Some in the Bible were "traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God." (2 Tim. 3:4.) Some young widows were described as this way. "She that lives in pleasure is dead while she lives." (1 Tim. 5:6.) We are saved from the pleasure of sin by instilling within us the love for good things, wholesome things, the things of God and Christ. Our affections, by the Gospel, are changed gradually. We learn to love purity and holiness.

3) We are saved from the penalty of sin. Everywhere the Bible states that the penalty of sin is death. "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Rom. 6:23.) Jesus bore the penalty of sin on the cross. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." (Rom. 8:1.)

4) Saved from the presence of sin. While we live on earth, we must still endure the presence of sin in our world. We can never be fully free from its destructive presence around us. It still brings guilt and shame when we sin. But one day, we will be free from even the presence of sin. "And there no wise enter into it anything that defiles, neither whatsoever works abomination, or makes a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life." (Rev. 21:27.)

The Healer changes our hearts, purifies the conscience, and cleanses the soul. Our minds, the thinking process of man, need help. The world so corrupts us that we cannot think right. We make foolish mistakes and judgments.

There is no one else who can heal man of his spiritual diseases. If so, who is he? Let him come forward. Is it Mohammed? Moses? The Dalai Lama? Joseph Smith? Jim Jones? Ellen White? These cannot heal physical ailments much less spiritual diseases. They cannot remedy the problem of death that sin brings.

"No man cometh unto the Father but by me." (John 14:6.)

There were four men who carried the sick man to Jesus. They were determined to get him into the presence of Jesus. There is no other record of anyone showing such determination by tearing through a roof to get a sick person to Jesus. The man may have died without their help.

In the Gospel story there are helpers everywhere. Paul named Priscilla and Aquila his helpers in Christ Jesus. (Rom. 16:3.) Also, he named Urbane, "our helper in Christ." (16:9.) Paul wrote to the Corinthians that he wanted to be a "helper of their joy." (2 Cor. 1:24.) Andrew found his brother, Simon Peter, and said, "We have found the Messiah which is being interpreted, the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus." (John 1:40-42.) Philip helped the Eunuch to learn about Jesus. "Then Philip began at the same Scripture and preached unto him Jesus." (Acts 8:35.) There are many women who are helpers in the Gospel. Jesus sent Mary Magdalene to tell the apostles in Galilee that he arose and where to meet him in the mountain.

Everyone can be a helper. Everyone need not be an apostle, teacher, preacher, speak in tongues, prophesy, or be a foreign missionary. But there is something everyone can do. Every mother is a helper who raises her children to do right. Every father who encourages his family to do right and attend the services. Every teacher of Bible classes is a helper. Every worker in the kingdom helps the Cause.

"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord." (1 Cor. 15:58.)

The crowd hindered the men from entering the door. They made their work harder to accomplish, but they were successful even with those hindering by standing in the way. Others murmured against Jesus; yet Jesus kept on doing his work. They finally killed Jesus, but Jesus’ death was not altogether in their hands. God had planned before the foundation of the world that Jesus would come and redeem lost man by means of the cross.

When you try to help in the Kingdom, there will be those who will hinder you in your work. Even in the church, there are many critics, fault-finders, self-appointed watch-dogs, and Monday morning mutilators of the Sunday message! Critics can be our friends insomuch as they help us to become more mature and to better the way we try to teach the Gospel. But we must understand that the purpose of critics is not to help you mature in the Gospel, to encourage you in your work, or to promote the Gospel of salvation. Their purpose is to be heard, to hurt and to destroy. To that end, they are not helpers, the Lord does not approve of their work, and they are lost people.

Jesus spoke about the Pharisees in his day who hindered others who wanted to enter the Kingdom.

"But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in." (Matt. 23:13.)