Dear Christian friends:

Christians should be very happy people. St. Paul admonishes us, "Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say, Rejoice!" And David in Psalm 51 prays to God, "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation." This does not mean that we have no troubles or problems. The Bible also teaches that we Christians will have plenty of temptation and trials in this wicked and sinful world. But at the same time we are to be happy in our heart because we have such a wonderful God and Savior in Jesus.

But I am afraid that often we are not really happy in Jesus. If we are happy we are happy about other things: a good job, nice home, and success in our work. These earthly things do not last long and if we establish our happiness only on these things we will be disappointed one day.

True, lasting happiness we find only in Jesus as our text shows us. So lets attend to that and see how to:


We read here in our text about a paralyzed man whose friends brought him to Jesus. He had lost his health. Who can be happy when they must lie helpless in bed day and night? Also, it seems that his sins bothered him, his conscience blamed him because of past wrongs, which he had done.

He felt that God was angry at him and didn't care about him. Also, he was displeased and angry at God. But he had heard about Jesus and how Jesus had healed many other sick people, when Jesus came to his town that day he asked some friends to carry him to Jesus.

When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Cheer up son! Your sins are forgiven." He should, "Cheer up!", be happy because God now forgives his sins.

So we, too, have sickness, troubles and many problems. Often our sins bother us and our conscience blames us. We think, "God doesn't care about me! God is angry with me. He can't love me or forgive me because I sin too much." Sometimes we are angry and blame God or other people because we have troubles and we act smart and try to hide or excuse our sins.

But no matter how hard we try we have no peace or happiness in our hearts. As this man here was helpless, so we poor sinners are helpless before God. We cannot save ourselves.

But if we go to Jesus and hear his words and promises and then believe His promise that He forgives our sins, we will have peace and true happiness. We must both hear His Word and then believe it. Hearing His Word without faith will not help.

We Lutherans have Jesus' pure words about forgiveness of sins. We hear it often here in church and at home but many times we fail to believe it and so are not really happy in Jesus. The devil tempts us to doubt God's Word and promises as do other friends and relatives and our own sinful heart.

Some people have faith but no Word or promise from God. That is not enough. Many people who do not believe in Jesus say: "We are sorry about our sins; we believe that God is kind and good and will forgive us if we are sorry and then try to improve." If you ask, "Do you believe in Jesus Christ?" they say "no." They have no word or promise from God. They only think and imagine that God forgives. But God does not forgive without Jesus who died on the cross and rose again for our sins.

So faith without promise is no help and promise without faith is no help. We need both: Hear His promise, "I forgive your sins in Jesus" name and then believe and trust it. Then we will have true joy in Jesus.

Secondly, our text shows that we must understand that God forgives sins through men. If we don't understand that we will not be happy in Jesus.

When Jesus forgave the paralytic some Jews said, "He blasphemes!" They thought Jesus has no power to forgive sins because He is a man. They said, "Only God can forgive sins, man can't." But Jesus showed them they were wrong about that. He said, "Why do you think evil in hearts? etc. ...."

But you will say, "Jesus is God, too, so He can forgive sins, but can we? Can our pastor? (Tell the story about the deaf in Duluth) Jesus has given power to every Christian, (John 20) So God has given you a pastor or parents and brothers and sisters and other Christian friends His Word and promise in Jesus, so they can speak forgiveness and comfort to you.

Every Christian has the power and duty to forgive sin in Jesus' name. We should not despise that when another man announces forgiveness to us, especially when our pastor does. He does that in Jesus' name and with His authority. It is as if Jesus Himself has forgiven us.

Amen.