Order of Worship

25th of January 2026 | 10:30 (Espoo) & 16:00 (Helsinki)

Our welcome team members will pass an offering basket during this song.

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A warm welcome to all, and especially to any visitors joining us today – if you’re new to our community please take a moment to fill out our digital visitors card or speak to us after the service!  

If you have children, they are welcome to join our Sunday school classes! 

12 While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”13 And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him. 14 And he charged him to tell no one, but “go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” 15 But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. 16 But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.

17 On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal. 18 And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, 19 but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. 20 And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” 21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 22 When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, “Why do you question in your hearts? 23 Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? 24 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralyzed—“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.” 25 And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God. 26 And amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen extraordinary things today.”

In Jesus, God’s holiness moves toward broken people to heal, forgive, and restore.

I. Jesus Touches the Leper vv 12-13
II. Jesus Forgives the Paralytic vv 14-20
III. Jesus Forgives as God vv 21-26

Introduction
1. What assumptions do people often have about God being holy and God being kind, and why do those two ideas sometimes feel like they pull in opposite directions?
2. Before reading Luke 5:12-26, how would you have explained where forgiveness of sins comes from?
 
Into the Text 
3. In verses 12-13, Jesus touches the leper. According to the Law, what should have happened when someone touched a leper, and why does Jesus’ action matter?
4. In verse 20, Jesus says, “Your sins are forgiven.” Why would that statement have been more shocking to the crowd than a physical healing?
5. The scribes ask in verse 21, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Why is that question theologically correct, and how does Jesus respond to it?
6. Why does Jesus heal the paralytic after forgiving his sins, and how does the healing confirm what He has already said?
7. Verse 26 says the people were amazed, glorified God, and were filled with fear. How does Psalm 130 help explain why forgiveness would lead to fear rather than casual comfort?
 
Apply the Text
8. What does this passage teach us about how close Jesus is willing to come to sin and brokenness?
9. The paralytic is brought to Jesus by friends. What might it look like for us to carry someone to Jesus who cannot come on their own?
10. If Jesus forgives sins with divine authority and at great cost, how should that shape the way we forgive others?