Picture this: a house packed wall to wall, a teacher whose words held everyone's attention, and then dust begins to fall from the ceiling. Light breaks through, and a man who can't move is lowered right in the middle of everything. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll opens the second chapter of Mark, and a scene unlike any other. Four friends, so determined to reach Jesus, they'll tear through a roof to do it. But what Jesus says next isn't what anyone expects.
It exposes the deepest need in that room, and maybe in yours. Today we gather from all different walks and journeys and stages of life.
Some of you. Sit among us with broken hearts.
Some of you are in physical pain. Others of you have gone through a time of great disillusionment, disappointment, perhaps even climbing your way out of cynicism and skepticism. You were just as welcome in this place as the. The believer with the heart that overflows with praise. We're going to read a story in a moment of a miracle, and we want to have the right perspective on that, since God still does miracles, though they are very rare.
This is one of those occasions when He chooses to record the event. I'm referring to the second chapter of the Gospel by Mark, the first twelve verses. Mark two, verse one, referring to Jesus when he had come back to Capernaum. Several days afterward, it was heard that he was at home, and many were gathered together so that there was no longer room. Not even near the door, and he was speaking the word to them.
And they came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four men. Being unable to get to him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had dug an opening. They let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying, and Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven." But some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, "Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone?" Immediately, Jesus, aware in his spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves, said to them, "Why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts?
Which is easier to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and pick up your pallet and walk.'" But so 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, get up, pick up your pallet, and go home." And he got up, and immediately picked up the pallet, and went out in the sight of everyone, so that they were all amazed. And we're glorifying God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this." You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into the Gospel according to Mark, be sure to purchase a copy of our Searching the Scriptures Bible Study Workbooks by going to insight.org/offer. Chuck titled today's message "The Day a Paraplegic Walked Home." Hope for a miraculous healing is one thing; experiencing the miracle of healing is something altogether different. Hoping for healing is a human and very, very natural thing.
Experiencing a healing that is immediate. Is is the God thing? It's supernatural. The former happens all the time. There isn't a person hearing me right now who doesn't deep within his or her own heart hope that there would be a healing in the life of an individual we could name, even several people we could name.
But not only are those miraculous healings unusual; they are exceedingly rare, rare indeed. In fact, I have a friend who says if they were that common, we'd call them regulars. But miracles are not found that often. When you find a parking place at Christmas time, it isn't a miracle. Don't call it a miracle.
When you get the job you wanted and you've been looking for it for many days, maybe even weeks, and you land it, it isn't a miraculous landing. It is a great thing. It is a wonderful thing. But a miracle. That's in a category all by itself.
Unfortunately, there are some today who would teach that they are very common. Just come, get in line, and I'll heal you. Let's go there for a few moments as we travel back to the mid 1970s. My wife and I had been invited to enjoy a part of the. 50th anniversary celebration as we returned to our alma mater at Dallas Theological Seminary.
Back in February of 1974, we, along with a number of fellow classmates and. And wives and husbands traveled together on a big jumbo jet. Back in those days, when they flew those big Boeing seven forty seven s from the west coast to Dallas, we flew to Dallas on one of those, and we flew back as well. And by the time we had been here, better part of that week, we had gotten to see one another and gotten to know each other even better. By then, we were full of stories, reminiscing and laughter.
And having fun, especially on our way home, we took up a couple, if not three, of the big long rows of three and five and three across the plane, and we were having such a great time together. We enjoyed our meal together. It was back in the days when they served meals, and we were just having a great time.
However, there was a couple on the plane not laughing and not enjoying the meal. They were sitting very near the back of the plane. That was on purpose. The plane wasn't full, and the whole middle section was open. And the flight attendants allowed the husband of the couple to take up all five seats.
They pulled the armrests up, and I don't believe he ever lifted his head the entire trip. He was sick with advanced cancer. I met the wife, and she noticed that we were talking of ministry and the Lord and the Bible and seminary, and she was, of course, very curious, because they had just left Louisiana, their home where they had sold everything, planning to bring all of the money they have that they might lay it at the feet of one who promised to heal her husband. He was terribly sick. And she was, of course, distraught.
But by now, living in the hope that he would be healed. And then, in an unguarded moment, she took me by the arm and said, "What do you think of that?" That was a very, very difficult place to be. I owed her the truth, and yet I certainly needed to be tactful and careful. I began very cautiously by saying, "Of course, God can, God can do anything. I know it.
I know it. That's we we know this is what He's." I said, "Well, just wait a minute. He can do anything. He certainly is able." If his son could still the storms and calm the seas and and raise the dead and give sight to the blind, he certainly is able to to raise your husband. But he could have done that for you when you were in Louisiana.
No, no, no, no. They had burned their bridges. All hope was placed in this miracle worker. Who resided on the west coast, and they were going to bring their husband, that man, there, and she was counting on that healing. And she said, "I, I'm confident that's what's going to happen." I'm going to save the rest of the story until the end of the message.
Um, but you have listened well enough to know that. This is a very tender subject for many. I'm aware of that, and anyone who hears these words and leaves saying Swindall doesn't believe in a miracle-working God is misquoting me. Don't put those words in my mouth. Listen to my words.
I believe God can do whatever He wishes, whenever He wishes, however He wishes, at any time He wishes. But I also know from my study of the Scriptures that miracles are rare. I just was looking over Wayne Grudem's book, "Our Miraculous Gifts for Today," and I came to a chapter written by my friend Robert Sosey. Who held the theology department chair at Talbot Seminary for a number of years, Dr.
Sosie writes this about healing: the close association of the spiritual gift of healing with other supernatural manifestations of the Spirit suggests that this gift also refers to that which was clearly miraculous. The reports of such healings in Scripture reveal that they were instantaneous. Marks of the miraculous gift of healing in Scripture make it questionable as to how many reports of healing today truly manifest this gift. Still reading. We must also remember before we identify a supposed supernatural healing as the result of the gift of healing that extraordinary healings can have other explanations.
Some illnesses, including blindness, deafness, and paralysis, may be symptoms of psychological trauma or hysteria, not genuine organic diseases. Emotional healing campaigns, with their powerful suggestions, can produce at least temporary, spectacular results in such cases. But these are not genuine miracles. God has so constituted us that spiritual healing can have a powerful effect on the body. Not all sickness is the result of sin.
Healing that results from confession of sin may simply be the result of the natural spirit body symbiosis. A theology of healing must recognize that bodily health is nowhere promised as a provision of salvation for this age. Little is said about the ministry of healing in the church. Only one passage refers to healing as a gift, First Corinthians twelve nine. Only one passage refers to healing as a gift.
A repeat.
Nowhere else are the saints to minister to each other through healing. Nor is it listed in the ministries of the gathered community. And he concludes: for the church to place an emphasis on miraculous physical healing, or to hold special healing campaigns, therefore, seems foreign to the New Testament picture of the church community. Having read that and having said what I've said, we come to a section of Scripture where we will witness in words and in our imaginations an instantaneous miracle. One of the characteristics of a miracle is its instantaneous nature.
There's no waiting. There's no lingering. There's no exchange of money. Healing is never purchased. Healing is a sovereign act of a sovereign God who, on these rare occasions, chooses to remove the sickness, the disease, the ailment, and to bring about full bodily health, as in the case of the man who was called a paralytic.
We would call him today a paraplegic. The man is unable to move, perhaps unable to talk. We read nothing of his words here in Mark two. We only read of his helpless condition when four friends bring him to a setting that is revealed here in the first two verses of Mark chapter two. If you have your Bible open.
Please notice that the setting includes three specifics. First of all, we are told where Jesus was when he came back to Capernaum. Several days afterward, it was heard that he was at home. Capernaum is a village located to the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. You can visit.
Capernaum today, the village of Nahum, still in existence, ancient that it is, and all who go to Galilee certainly include Capernaum as a part of their journey. He is at Capernaum at a home, not his, since the Son of Man had no place to lay his head. It is someone's home, probably not the same home where he has healed Peter's mother-in-law, mentioned for us in chapter one. It is a home, like all other homes in Capernaum of the first century. It is a small, square dwelling where one main room held everything.
We'll read of the roof in a moment, but this is a simple dwelling, and in this case, we are told who was there. Many were gathered. Verse two, many were gathered there, so that there was no longer room, not even near the door. We would say the place was packed. The house is full of people.
They go all the way to the doorway and out the door, out into the open area to the front of the house, and it's obvious that the place. Is full and running over because by now Jesus' name is a household word in Galilee. He has been meeting needs. He has been exorcising demons. He has been healing the sick.
He has been engaged in a ministry of teaching, sharing the good news of himself to others. Never once does he advertise himself as a healer. Healing was never the reason he wanted people to follow him. He healed so that people would realize he is in fact from God. The healings that Jesus performed, and they were many, were designed to corroborate his authenticity.
They validated his authority as having come from God. As of being, in fact, God.
So, not surprisingly, there are a number of healings during the era of Christ's three and a half year earthly ministry. This is one of the cases in point. We are told now what he was doing. The end of verse two, he was speaking the word to them. I take it that there was a scroll, and the scroll was unrolled, and some part of the Old Testament truth was being declared.
Paul writes in Romans fifteen four, whatever was written in earlier times was written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort from the Scriptures, might have hope. Paul wrote of that while the New Testament was still being written.
So whatever was written in earlier times is a reference to Old Testament scripture. Jesus is unrolling the scroll of some part of the Old Testament, or perhaps speaking ex cathedra, for he in fact knew God's word. He in fact is engaged in the writing of God's word supernaturally. He is the word in manifest form, and so no one could teach as he would teach. But by now, I am sure many had gathered to watch the miracles, to see the healings.
Though again, I repeat, that was not the motivation of his gathering them together. He is teaching them. He is speaking the word to them. I drive that point home because it is easy to be drawn to the miracle and to miss the ministry Jesus is sustaining. He always is teaching and preaching and declaring and proclaiming the truth to equip his disciples and also to prepare people for the kingdom that he is declaring.
In the midst of his teaching, there is a very unusual interruption. We read of it in verses three, four, and five. Simply, these words: "They came." We don't know who the four are. Bringing to him a paraplegic or a paralytic, we don't know who he was. He has four friends, and the five of them agreed that to bring him to Jesus was the best thing they could do.
For no one else had that kind of authority, that kind of power. Certainly, if they brought him to Jesus, there could be. A miraculous healing. They were certainly hoping for that. Verse four.
Being unable to get to him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him.
Now we have to stop there because everybody thinks in terms of his or her own roof. You'd work a long time to break through our roof at our home or your roof. Because roofs now are built differently than they were then, Kent Hughes writes. The typical Syrian roof was constructed of timbers laid parallel to each other, about two or three feet apart. Then, crosswise over the timbers, sticks were laid close together, close to each other, thus forming the basic roof.
Upon this was laid reeds, branches of trees, and thistles. The whole thing was overlaid with about a foot of earth, which was then packed down to resist water. All told, the roof was about two feet thick. During the spring, grass flourished on these primitive roofs. These men were digging through the roof.
Those inside heard the shoveling, then the pounding amidst loud conversation as the men dug away the dirt, tore the branches, and pried the roofing loose between the beams. Debris began to fall on those in the house. I wanted to read that for you so you could get the picture. Imagine our being in that house, and all of a sudden. There starts to fall on us little bits of, of debris and earth and who knows what else.
And we look up and a little ray of light breaks open and finally a large enough hole. And then they poke this guy through and they let him down on this soft pallet, we would call it a stretcher, and they let him down into the room.
Now, he's teaching, and nobody says, "May we interrupt?" They simply break open this roof while he's teaching, and I'll tell you. Since a good part of my life is spent teaching, you have amazing things happen when you're teaching. I have never had somebody break through a roof. Thank goodness. I've had people answer back.
I've had people stare. I've had people stomp out. That happens a lot. I have people. Disagree?
I have people ready to shout glory. I've got even a few Baptists ready to say Amen. And invariably, it's like saying "suck him to a bulldog." Makes the sermon go longer and longer.
So watch it. Watch it. Maybe that's why we're so quiet here, huh? They break through the roof, and Jesus must pause at that moment. And down comes a man who cannot move.
He's suddenly in their midst. Jesus sees something and then says something. What he sees is not what you and I would have seen, and what he says is not what you or I would have said. Being Jesus, having this kind of perception, he cuts to the chase. He doesn't see the man's body first; he sees his heart condition.
He doesn't witness all the debris and concern himself with the trouble it took to get him through the roof. What he sees is the faith in the hearts of those five men, and then what he says has to do with that faith. Look at verse five. Jesus seeing their faith. Only Christ can see faith.
Only Christ. We see evidence. He knows faith when he sees it. He knows deep within the heart of this paralytic, though he may not be able to move a muscle, is a heart that beats hot for God. He longs to have a relationship.
He longs to know what it is, and so Jesus, seeing him, says to him, "Son, not all four of the other men, but the one man in the pallet, son, your sins are forgiven." You. He saw the faith of all of them, but he sees the one who is on the pallet and addresses him singular, "Son, your sins are forgiven." What a great moment! Suddenly, there is a man who is born into the family of God.
Son is a family name. You're one of us. You're in the family. You're a part of the life. What an incredible scene!
Before Jesus healed a single muscle, he reached the man's deepest need and called him son. That's the heart of today's message from Chuck Swindoll. You see, our greatest need isn't physical; it's spiritual. And if you're facing pain or uncertainty in your life, know this: the one who saw faith in that crowded room sees you too. This is insight for living.
Chuck titled today's message: "The Day a Paraplegic Walked Home." Here at Insight for Living, we're committed to providing helpful resources to strengthen your walk with God. And today, we want to tell you about a brand new tool. Imagine starting every single day with a fresh word from Scripture and a rich insight from Chuck to go along with it. That's exactly what you'll find in Swindoll's Living Insights for Every Day. It's a colorful flip calendar from Insight for Living.
The calendar offers a key passage from most chapters of the New Testament, paired with one of Chuck's thoughtful reflections. And because it's perpetual, you can use it year after year. There's no expiration date on Truth. To purchase Swindall's Living Insights for every day, call 800-772-8888 or go to insight.org/offer.
Well, who would have guessed that an insecure, stuttering boy from South Texas would one day carry God's word to millions around the world? Certainly not Chuck, and that's exactly the point of his new memoir, Awakened by Grace. This isn't the story of a gifted man who set out to build something great. It's the story of an ordinary boy whom God chose, shaped, and used in ways that no one could have predicted. Page after page, you'll see that God doesn't call the qualified; He qualifies the called.
And the same God who wrote this remarkable story in Chuck's life wants to write his story in yours. We'd love to send you a copy of *Awakened by Grace*. To order Chuck Swindoll's memoir, call eight hundred seven seven two eighty eight eighty eight, or go to insight dot org slash memoir. I'm Bill Meyer. Join us when Chuck Swindoll continues to describe that amazing day when the paraplegic walked home.
Tuesday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, "The Day a Paraplegic Walked Home," was copyrighted in 2010 and 2026, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2026 by Charles R. Swindoll Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.
