Listen, I don't know who you are. I don't know what you think your greatest need is. I don't know if you feel like you need a car, a job, a spouse, a different spouse, a better roommate, healing from cancer. What you most need is forgiveness. Jesus cares about all those other things, but what you most need is forgiveness.
And the good news is that that is why Jesus came. Thanks for joining us today for the Summit Life podcast with JD Greer. Before we get started today, did you know that we have a weekly newsletter packed with free content just for you? Every Tuesday, we'll send you the latest from Pastor JD. Links to recent radio and podcast episodes, news on free downloads, updates on new releases, and even stories from fellow listeners.
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Now, today we continue our in-step teaching series through the Gospel of Luke.
So grab your Bible and settle in. Here's Pastor JD in Luke chapter 5. Luke chapter 5, if you have your Bibles. Luke 5, you have your Bibles. We have been for several weeks and will be for several more weeks in the Gospel of Luke, looking at some of just the most basic and incredible things that Jesus taught about a revolutionary way to live and a way to know God.
Luke 5, over as you're turning in your Bibles there, over the break, my family and I watched an old movie that I remembered from, I think it was college age years. It was called Mrs. Doubtfire. We had to fast-forward a couple of scenes in it, but it was Robin Williams at his finest. In that movie, Robin Williams plays an actor who is down on his luck and he's made a complete mess of his marriage, and so his wife leaves him.
And because his life is so chaotic, the courts give her, his wife, full custody of the kids, but he loves his kids passionately and he's desperate to see them.
So he dresses up like an old English housekeeper and applies for a job as their maid, tries to fool them. All about who he is so that he can see his kids every day. And I know that sounds impossible to pull off, even in a movie, but that was the genius of Robin Williams. The movie is hilarious and it is sad and it is inspiring all at the same time. Much, I might add, like Robin Williams' actual life.
The movie illustrates something that all of us have experienced at some point. And what the movie illustrates is that desperation will drive you to do some radical things. things you might never dream of doing otherwise. I share that because that's the sense of desperation that you get in this story. And that's the lens through which you have to read this story on multiple levels.
Luke 5:17. On one of those days while Jesus was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea, and also from Jerusalem. And the Lord's power to heal was in him.
Now, that's a very interesting phrase. The Lord's power was present to heal. The New King James Version translates that phrase as the power of the Lord was present at that moment to heal. The Spirit of God, in other words, was present in that moment in a very special way, ready to heal if somebody would ask for it. And Jesus was, of course, unusually sensitive to the Holy Spirit.
And so he knew that's what the Spirit wanted to do. And so he was ready to grant that for anybody who was bold enough and had the sensitivity to ask for it. When Jesus carried out his ministry on earth, he did his miracles through the power of the Spirit. And Luke is trying to show you that same power is available to you.
So he's saying it was present in an unusual way in that moment. Verse 18. Just then, some men came carrying on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed. They tried to bring him in and set him down before him. Since they could not find a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and they lowered him on the stretcher through the roof tiles into the middle of the crowd right in front of Jesus.
When you are ripping the roof off of a place to get access to somebody, that's desperation. Verse 20, seeing their faith. Their faith. That's an important detail we're going to come back to, seeing their faith. If you underline stuff in your Bible, underline the word their.
He said, friend. Your sins are forgiven. to which I imagine the friends probably said, well, okay. I mean, that's awesome. Sins forgiven is always a good thing.
That's certainly better than your sins aren't forgiven. But doesn't this guy have a more desperate problem right now? And isn't it kind of obvious what he really needs and why we lowered him through the roof? Isn't his real need pretty obvious? And Jesus' response was no.
He does not have a more urgent need than the forgiveness of sins. Verse 21. Then the scribes and the Pharisees began to think to themselves. Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Because who can forgive sins but God alone?
Now, that's a fair question. I explained this a few weeks ago. The only way it would make sense for Jesus to forgive sins. is if Jesus considered himself to be the one who was sinned against. You don't forgive things that do not involve you.
And we all get that, right? I mean, say you and your spouse or your roommate had a terrible fight last night. And they said some of the meanest, rudest things that anybody has ever said to you. And you were furious, and you were hurt, and their words left you wondering how you can even continue on in a relationship with somebody who thinks, much less says, things like they said about you. And this morning you got up and you came on to church, and of course, you put on the church act for everybody.
How are you? Oh, blessed and highly favored brother, how are you? But inside, you are seething and you are waiting until you get home so you can just let them have it.
Well, after church, as you guys are leaving, I walk up to that person in your presence and I look at them and I say, I know about your fight last night. And I didn't know what you said to her. And I just want you to know that you are forgiven for that. You don't have to feel bad about that anymore. You would probably look at me and say, excuse me, Pastor.
This has got nothing to do with you. You might be a pastor, but you can't forgive something that wasn't done to you. And you would be correct. When Jesus forgave sins, and they said, who can forgive sins but God alone? Jesus said, ding, ding, ding, you got it.
And forgiving sins, he was claiming to be God. Does that make sense? I point that out because every once in a while you'll hear somebody, a New Testament professor in college or somebody say that in the earliest gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, which were each written about 20 to 30 years after Jesus' death, they'll say Jesus never really claimed to be God in those earlier writings. That was something only the Apostle John, who wrote his gospel about 20 years after the others. That was something only John claimed that Jesus did.
And they say that that was something John added to try and get people to worship Jesus, to beef up his claims, which from the beginning, the earliest Christians didn't think he was God. In the earliest days, these scholars will say they only thought of Jesus as a prophet. And then John comes along and added the stuff about him being God. I point this out because you can see right here in the Gospel of Luke that that accusation is not true. In forgiving sins, or in allowing himself to be worshipped, or in claiming to be the temple that the presence of God dwelt in, Jesus is claiming to be God.
And everybody understood that.
So they started to whisper to themselves, blasphemy. Verse 22, verse 22, but perceiving their thoughts, Jesus replied to them. Why are you thinking this in your hearts? Which is easier to say. Which is easier to say your sins are forgiven?
Or to say, get up and walk. That's a good question. Let me ask you, what do you think? What is easier to say? Is it easier to say?
Your sins are forgiven? Or is it easier to say to a lame man, get up and walk?
Well, clearly it is easier to say your sins are forgiven. Why?
Well, because you can't tell whether or not it happened. But if I say to a lame man, walk, then you can tell right away whether I've got the power that I'm claiming to have. If I say, get up and walk to a lame man and he doesn't do it, you know right away that I'm a phony.
So see, Jesus' logic goes like this. We know that forgiving sins... and making the lame walk. are both things that only God can do.
So if I say to a lame man, get up and walk, and he does it. then it's safe to say that if I say to him, your sins are forgiven, I can do that also. If I can do the verifiable one. Then you can trust me that I can do the unverifiable one as well. Do you follow his logic?
In showing that he has the power to make this lame man walk, he's also proving he has the power to make good on his promise to forgive sins. You see what he says next, verse 24. But so that you may know that the Son of Man has that authority on earth to forgive sins. Let me do the thing that you can verify. He tells the paralyzed man: I tell you, get up, take up your stretcher, and go home.
Verse 25, and immediately he got up before them. He picked up what he had been lying on. And he went home glorifying God. My title for this story is: Jesus Heals a Ceiling Fan. See what I did there?
Right? He's a fan of Jesus coming through the roof, and Jesus heals him, right?
Some of you will think about that all day, and you will get that later. That's just my little gift to you. Verse 26: Then everybody was astounded. And they were giving glory to God, and they were filled with awe, and they said, we have seen incredible things today. Yes, they had indeed.
There are two main things that I want us to see in the story. These are two very distinct ideas, but I think they're both really important for us right now, and they both center around this theme of desperation. They are our desperate need. I just heard somebody on the side of the auditorium laugh, which means they just got the ceiling fan reference. They are, number one, our desperate need.
And they are number two, our desperate faith, our desperate need and our desperate faith. Let's look firstly at our desperate need. At first, Jesus is offered to forgive this guy's sins. almost seems a little Three. I mean, at best, just insensitive, doesn't it?
I mean, isn't it obvious what this guy wants? Here is a crippled man lying on a bed in front of Jesus, yet Jesus just ignores that and goes straight for forgiveness. Isn't that insensitive and a little tone deaf? But what if Jesus saw that this man's greatest need? Greater than his need for healing was his need for forgiveness.
This guy is desperate to be healed, but Jesus is even more desperate to see him restored to God. That is the constant theme of Jesus' ministry in Luke. People yearn for physical relief to their pain. Jesus yearns in an almost frantic way to see them restored to God. In Luke 15, he is the shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep to go after the one that is lost.
He's the desperate widow who searches her entire house from top to bottom to find a lost coin. He is the scorned father who stands at the gate, anxiously waiting for his prodigal son to come home, who runs with abandon when he finally sees his son coming. In Luke 13, Jesus weeps over Jerusalem and says, Oh, Jerusalem, how many times I've wanted just to get you to turn to me. In Luke 19, Jesus summarizes his entire ministry as saying, I've come to seek, to desperately go after, to search for, and save at the cost of my life. Those who are lost.
So let me ask you, what do you think the greatest need of your life is? Here's my question. What if your greatest need? is different than your most pressing desire. What if your greatest need is different than your most pressing desire?
What if the greatest, most pressing need of your life? is the need for forgiveness. And maybe even me saying that strikes you as insensitive. I mean, maybe you're sitting here and you've been wronged. or you've been really hurt.
Maybe you've been abused. And you listen to me and you say, how dare you say? that I need forgiveness. I'm the one who's been wronged. Sure, I need to learn to forgive the person who wronged me, and I'm struggling with that, but it seems insensitive.
For you to say that I, my greatest need is forgiveness also.
Well, you're partially right. I understand that, but listen to Jesus' wisdom. This is really quite practical. if you've really been wronged. What you need most is a way to forgive those who wronged you.
to be able to be released from the bitterness that will consume you. And guess what? You can't ever forgive heinous wrongs unless you've experienced great forgiveness yourself. embracing forgiveness from God. enables you to forgive others.
It may be true that you've been wronged. But it's also true that all of us have wronged God far more than any of us have ever been wronged. And realizing that and embracing that grants you the power to forgive others. Forgiveness, an experience of forgiveness turns bitter water in your heart. It turns it sweet.
Listen, I don't know who you are. I don't know what you think your greatest need is. I don't know what you would love for God to change most. I don't know if you feel like you need a car, a job, a spouse, a different spouse, a better roommate, healing from cancer. What you most need is forgiveness.
Jesus cares about all those other things. I'm going to show you that in a minute because the way he heals this guy. But what you most need is forgiveness. And the good news is that that is why Jesus came. That's why he first offered forgiveness to a lame man lying before him in a stretcher before healing his legs.
It's why ultimately the trajectory of Jesus' life was toward a cross. Jesus' main purpose on earth was not to teach great morals or to do great miracles. His main purpose. was to go to a cross to pay the price for our forgiveness. Jesus' main ministry was not what he taught to us.
It's what he did for us. Saying your sins are forgiven was not just a blessing that he uttered flippantly. Forgiveness of sins was something he purchased by his blood. His death on the cross is why he can say to you, I forgive your sins. There is a fountain filled with blood.
drawn from Emmanuel's veins, And sinners plunge beneath that flood. lose all their guilty stain. And he proved that he had the ability to make good on that offer to forgive you. If you were like, well, I don't know if. You don't know exactly what I've done.
You don't know what I carry into this year. And I'm not sure he's got the power to do that. He proved it by raising from the dead. If the Apostle Paul said that one of the main purposes of the resurrection was to show that Jesus' claim to be dying for our sins was true.
So don't just believe Jesus has the power to forgive because he says so. Believe him because he demonstrated the power to back that up. You see, here's the deal. If he could make the lame walk, and he could command the waves and the wind to cease, and he could bring dead men out of the grave, and then he could come back from the dead himself.
Well, see, that means he can make good on his promise to forgive your sins. The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day. There may I, the vile as he, wash all our sins away, all my sins away. There is a power in forgiveness you can be sure of because Jesus backed it up with these kinds of miracles and mainly by resurrecting from the dead.
So you've got your desperate need. Second, in this story, we've got number two. Our desperate faith. Our desperate faith, I pointed this out as we were reading the story, verse 20. Verse 20 says that when Jesus saw their faith, he said, Their faith.
Then he said, your sins are forgiven. Rise up and walk. According to Luke, Jesus did this miracle not so much because of the lame man's faith. He did it because of the faith of his friends. on behalf of their faith.
On behalf of their desperate faith, Jesus healed him.
Now you say, well, why doesn't Why doesn't the man just ask for it himself? I don't know. Doesn't tell us. Maybe he was so sick that he could barely speak anymore. Maybe he'd just been lame for so long.
that he'd given up hope. He just stopped believing the future could be any different. And so into that gap, into that void of despair. Their faith, not his, their faith stepped in and said, No. I believe Jesus is good.
And I believe he cares about you. And I believe he will help you. It was their faith that loaded him up into that stretcher and carried him out to where Jesus was. It was their faith that pushed its way through the crowd. It was their faith that spawned the ingenuity to go to the top of the house and tear open the roof above Jesus' head.
It was their faith. That made them ignore all the people who were yelling, hey, what are you doing? Or ignore the guy who was like, hey, get off my roof. You can't do that to my roof. It was their faith that set that man down expectantly at Jesus' feet as if to say, Jesus, what are you going to do about this?
Write this down. when the paralyzed man could do little for himself. It was the active faith of his friends. that made the difference. When the paralyzed man could do little for himself, it was the active faith of his friends that made the difference.
Hey, pay attention. What is Luke trying to teach us? He's trying to teach us that sometimes the faith of somebody around us is so weak. That we have to believe for them. And maybe that comes for you in the form of a prodigal child who is confused.
And have stopped seeking God and may be departed from all the things you tried to teach them when they grew up in your house. And so you're the one. You're the one on your knees every night. Pleading with God. To awaken them in their spiritually paralyzed state.
And you're the one that's bringing into Jesus, and you're the one tearing open the roof, and you're the one laying them down at Jesus' feet and saying, Master, please do something, because they've even lost their ability to ask. Maybe it's a spouse. For a friend. or a co-worker. And God has placed you in their lives.
Because they're too spiritually weak to pray for themselves. Maybe they've just given up on the marriage. Or maybe they've given up hope. And so, see, you got to fight your way through the crowd, and you got to do all the work to open up that roof, and you got to believe God for them. In the New Testament, this special urgency to pray.
That drive to tear open a roof and lay a person down at Jesus' feet, believing that he will heal them. That understanding that the power of Jesus is present to heal. That's a spiritual gift called the gift of faith. It is a gift. Listen, otherwise you'll get confused.
It's a gift that God gives in different degrees at different times when he wants to do something in somebody's life. It's a gift he gives when his power is present to heal. It comes in different amounts at different times to people who are walking with the Spirit. It's a gift we honestly don't talk about enough at our church, but one I really want you to recognize and embrace. Oh.
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So, would you consider joining us with your gift today? Call us at 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220. or visit jdgreer.com to start your partnership with us today. I read a book a couple of years ago written by a friend named Sam Storms.
who really helped me get my mind around this. The book is called Practicing the Power. Dr. Storms, he says that when the New Testament uses the word faith, It uses the word faith in three different ways. And unless you recognize the three different uses of the word faith, you will probably get confused.
First, he said, You've got salvation faith. That's the faith that embraces Christ as Lord and Savior. Ephesians 2:8, it is by grace that you have been saved through faith. All Christians, all Christians have that kind of faith. That's what makes us Christians.
Second, he says you've got sustaining faith. Sustaining faith is the general confidence that God is present, that He's with us, He will never leave us or forsake us. It's confidence in His goodness, confidence that He is in control and sovereignly working all things for good. That's typically what people mean when they say so-and-so has strong faith. We mean that they have an unshakable confidence in God's plan.
Again, all Christians should have this at all times. But there's a third kind of faith, Dr. Storm says, I think points out correctly from the New Testament, and that is the spiritual gift of faith. And that is what you see here in this story at work. It's a special bestowal of faith that God gives to certain Christians at certain times because he wants to do something miraculous through you or around you or in you.
And so you sense in that moment by the Spirit an urge to pray. An urge to press into the goodness of God, an urge to tear open a roof and lay somebody down at Jesus' feet. That's the kind of faith Paul had in mind when he spoke of the spiritual gift of faith in 1 Corinthians 12:9.
Some, he says, some he says, are given the gift of faith. I was always confused. When Paul said that, some are given the gift of faith. I'm like, don't all Christians have faith? Isn't it our duty to trust God?
Why would Paul say that some of us have a special gift of faith?
Well, Paul doesn't, you know, he didn't say some have the gift of purity or the gift of honesty, so why would he say some have the gift of faith? And that was always my question. All right, so what is he talking about? It's because he's not talking about salvation faith. He's not talking about sustaining faith, which we should all have.
He's talking about a special spiritual gift of faith, which God gives to those who are walking in the Spirit when He wants to do something miraculous. It's a faith that moves them to pray and trust God for somebody. Let me quote Dr. Storms here. While all faith is an expression of trust and humble dependence upon God.
This, the spiritual gift of faith. Is the experience of faith that arises somewhat spontaneously and unexpectedly in our hearts. We feel certain that God wants to do something. We sense his power is present to heal. When God wants to bless us with a miraculous answer to our prayer, pay attention.
When God wants to bless us with a miraculous answer to our prayer, He will take the initiative to cultivate and build into our hearts the fulfillment of the condition that He requires. What is his requirement? Faith.
So he works in you by his spirit to produce that faith, that sense that is bold and just ask. Jesus only does his miracles in response to faith.
So when he wants to do a miracle, he stirs up often in the heart of somebody around the person who needs the miracle, he stirs up in them. the confidence to ask for it. Therefore, he says, each time as we pray, each time as we seek God, let us begin. By asking God for an extraordinary powerful faith, let us ask God that He work in us to produce and sustain the confidence that He is pleased to bless. That's the faith that these friends in Luke 5 are showing.
God put it in the hearts of these friends to press through the crowds so that he could work in this man the miracle that he desired. The power of the Lord was present to heal, so he put the faith in their hearts that moved them to ask for the miracle.
So my question for you, I hope, is obvious. What paralyzed person around you Has God put in your heart to pray for? A friend? A prodigal child, a parent? A whole people group?
We have missionaries out all over the world right now who have a special kind of sense. that the power of the Lord is present to heal this. particular nation at this particular time. I recently Read a book by James Banks. Who's a pastor, by the way, right here in Durham, pastor of a Presbyterian church?
He's become a friend. He talks about the journey of praying for two prodigal kids. One of whom, they're both grown now, one of whom has come back to Jesus and the other who has not yet. Here's what he said in that book. He says, when we pray for our prodigal kids.
We carry them on stretchers of faith to Jesus. We do the heavy lifting. But they received the benefit. They may be entirely passive. or even actively resisting us.
But Jesus sees. Who's faith? Our faith. As we bring them. to him.
Parents, don't you sense faith rising up in your heart as I say that? Do you realize that God at this very moment has put you in a place to intercede? to pray. His power, His presence to heal. And your desire to pray is evidence of that.
But see, he won't grant the miracle until you exercise the faith. Had those friends not made the journey? Had they not torn open the roof? Had they gotten discouraged? Had they looked at the crowd and said, Oh, well, this is just too hard.
If God really wanted this man healed, he'd have made it easier. They'd have seen those things and given up, their friend would never have received that miracle. Hey, even if it's not a prodigal son or daughter that you're praying for, I bet there's somebody. I bet there's somebody today, this morning, that God has put into your heart to pray for. I want to urge you to obey that impulse.
Years ago, I read a book. It's become my favorite book. It's old. I read it when it first came out. It's probably been out 20-something years.
Fresh Wind and Fresh Fire by Jim Simbola. In this book. Pastor Sembla tells the story of how God brought his own. Prodigal. Daughter home.
Who was grown, she was in college, she'd forsaken God and run away from home. Their church called the Brooklyn Tabernacle does a Tuesday night prayer meeting each week. I've actually been, it's one of the most powerful things that I've ever experienced. One night, Pastor Simbala shared from Acts chapter 4. about how the church boldly called on God even in the face of discouragement.
Let me let him tell the story, okay? We entered into a time of prayer like Acts 4. Everybody reaching out to the Lord in concert together. And usher handed me a note. A young woman whom I felt to be spiritually sensitive had written.
She said, Pastor Simbala. I feel impressed that we should stop the meeting and all pray for your daughter. In a few minutes, I picked up the microphone and told the congregation what was going on with my daughter. There arose from the congregation a groaning. A sense of desperate determination, as if to say, Satan, you will not have this girl.
Take your hands off of her. She is coming back. I was overwhelmed. The force of that vast throng calling on God almost literally knocked me over. When I got home that night, Carol was waiting up for me.
We sat at the kitchen table and I said, it's over with Chrissy, his daughter's name. You would have had to have been in that prayer meeting tonight. I tell you, if there is a God in heaven. This whole nightmare is finally over. 32 hours later on Thursday morning, My daughter walked in and we both just began to cry.
Daddy, she said with a start, who was praying for me? Who was praying for me? On Tuesday night, Daddy, who was praying for me? I didn't say anything, so she continued. In the middle of the night, God woke me up and showed me I was heading toward the abyss.
There was no bottom to it. It scared me to death. I was so frightened. I realized how hard I'd been, how wrong, how rebellious. But at the same time, it was like God wrapped his arms around me and held me tight in that moment.
He kept me from sliding any farther as he assured me, I still love you, and I am not walking away. That same Tuesday night, the very hour that the church was praying. God moved in her soul and showed her that she was headed toward destruction. All the while, flooding her heart with the sense of his love. That's a group of friends being bestowed with the gift of faith.
James Banks says, he says, our prodigal kids desperately need us. to lift them to Jesus on the stretcher of prayer, even if they don't have faith. Jesus will see ours. And they'll be blessed because of it. I've told you before, Jesus said that we're to be known as a house of prayer.
Some at church. Is that one of the top things you would use to describe our church? I mean, COVID disrupted things for a while. And so it was we relaunched the church this year. I want us to do it with prayer as a staple.
as a core, as a foundation in all that we do. We're not going to try to fit it in at the margins while we preach and we program. We're going to lay it in at the foundation. Thanks for listening today. Like we mentioned earlier, each month we have new resources to equip and encourage you, something both digital and in print.
This month, when you support Summit Life, we'll send you a copy of our 2026 Summit Life daily planner. You'll find a place to plan the events of the day, but also a daily Bible reading plan featuring one Old Testament and one New Testament reading each day. Reserve your copy right now at jdgreer.com. Thanks for hanging out with us today. We'll see you next time.
Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.
