How to bring a friend to Jesus
Do you know someone who you want to introduce to Jesus? Have you tried your best to get them to come to church or read a bible or attend a Christian event in the hope it might change their life? Is there someone on your heart whom you know would love to be here with us today but for some reason can not due to a physical restriction of some kind?
Well lets look at scripture and see how we can get our friends to Jesus even when they themselves are unable to take the first step.
This passage is one of my favorites as it tells of the love, faith and hope of true friends and demonstrates how Jesus deals with self righteous religious leaders.
It seems the first thing that is necessary is that the person actually wants to meet Jesus but for some reason they are physically unable to do it for themselves.
This reminds me of my sister-in-law who lies in a hospital bed and she cannot move hardly at all. For folks like her and others they rely on us to do the walking for them.
In todays scripture we see four friends mentioned, the first thing they do is agree together to take on the task on behalf of their friend. From their example we can learn to agree together in prayer when someone we know needs to see Jesus.
Jesus Heals a Paralytic
Matthew 9:1-8
4Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts?
Luke 5:17-26
Mark 2:1-12 NIV
Jesus Heals a Paralytic
1A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them.
4Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. 5When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven.
6Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7"Why does this fellow talk like that? Hes blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?
8Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, "Why are you thinking these things? 9Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Get up, take your mat and walk?
10But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . . He said to the paralytic, 11 I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home. 12He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, We have never seen anything like this!
The next thing we would need to do is to come together and lift that person up in spirit before the Lord. The friends in our scripture passage had to lift their friend high over the crowd. Now we get into the fundamentals of the task.
This is going to take the strength of everyone involved; its going to take commitment, a common goal and team work. It will take unity of purpose.
Just as in todays scripture we see that there will be crowds of people in the way. There will be those who want to keep us at the back of the line. Those who will not let us pass forward easily. In a way it demonstrates the spiritual battle that we can encounter as we pray for someone who needs to see Jesus.
But we like the friends in the story must press on using our united strength to break through the crowds. Through all this we must realize it is not for our benefit that we seek Jesus but it is for the sake of our friend. That is the measure of our love we display it through our faithful undertaking.
The next problem the friends encounter is the doorway. It is blocked.
We realize that so many people have the same desire, the same need, and the same goal. Many people want to be close to Jesus, as close as they can and few will be willing to give up their position for someone they do not know.
In the scripture passage the friends evaluate their situation. The door is blocked; the walls of the house stand in the way. There are many walls that we face as we try to bring others to Christ and there are doors that sometimes get slammed in our face. The enemy does not want one more person coming to Jesus. The enemy will do everything to discourage us and make the effort greater than we imagined.
Well, what to do? We can not enter at the door or go through the walls so lets climb to the roof. The last two weeks I have talking about the mountains of the bible and some of the challenges and trials associated with climbing. This situation is similar. The friends must get the person up on the roof. We too must bring our loved ones to the place where we can finally get them in front of Jesus.
The four friends had already made a great effort. They carried the person from their home to the place where Jesus was only to find a huge crowd gathered. They made it past the crowd holding their friend high over themselves only to find the door blocked. They encountered the walls of the house and realized they had to go up.
Friends when you bring someone to Jesus its going to be difficult. You will need others to help you; it is a task that will need the strength of many. You will face opposition and crowds who want to discourage you. When you finally get them there the door may be closed or blocked. The walls may seem insurmountable but it is then you must climb.
You may have experienced many of these difficulties as you have tried to bring people to Christ. Sometimes its the crowd around you saying dont bother. Sometimes its the door to the persons heart saying no not today. Sometimes it seems utterly impossible and you think there is no way in to see Jesus. It is then you must really work as a team.
The four friends do not let the height of the roof stop them, they do not let the blocked doorway stop them, and they do not let the crowd stop them. They do not let the weight of carrying their friend stop them.
They go even further, they begin to remove the tiles on the roof one by one and make a hole that did not exist until they did it.
Then they lower their friend right in front of Jesus. Mission accomplished. They were not going to Jesus for their own sake or their own needs they went because a friend needed Jesus more.
Now the miracle comes Jesus seeing their faith tells the paralytic on the mat your sins are forgiven. Friends that is the miracle! That is the ultimate gift from God. To have your sins forgiven. The people assembled expected Jesus to heal the man not forgive his sins. They were religious people who thought they knew the law. There was a teaching that such condition was a kind of divine judgment on such people. You were sick because you are a sinner. That was the kind of bad logic they employed.
But Jesus took the opportunity to do a couple of things. First he forgave the mans sins but left him in his paralyzed condition. This was totally contrary to the teaching the religious leaders practiced. For them there was no way that such a thing could happen. You could not be forgiven and still suffer a physical ailment, it made no sense to them.
They then challenged Jesus and let him know that they knew only God could forgive sins. To demonstrate His authority over sin and over disease and the human condition Jesus says to the man.
10But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . . ." He said to the paralytic, 11"I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." 12He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!"
This past week the current Pope of the Roman Catholic Church made an official statement that makes the Roman Catholic Church the only real true church as they define a church. The Orthodox Church and the Protestant Churches are not considered true churches by this Pope.
By his actions he is blocking the way for sinners to find Jesus. He is crowding the doorway and is in fact suggesting there is only one doorway and that he holds the keys. This Pope is acting like the religious leaders of Jesus day. He is saying that he knows best, that he alone knows how to find the way to Jesus. But in todays message we see that we can find Jesus for ourselves and for our friends despite the obstacles that the enemy puts in our way.
Well friends take heart for we are churches in the truest sense, for the church is not an institution built by men but it is a holy spiritual institution built in the hearts of men, women, boys, and girls all over the world. The church is the body of believers not the college of deceivers. Like the friends in todays scripture passage let us press on against the crowd that would like us to give up and turn back.
Let us bare the weight of our church history of our traditions of our way to Jesus Christ and let us bring others into the family of God and not look to count heads in a particular denomination. In Christ all are equal.
Galatians 3
Sons of God
26You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29If you belong to Christ, then you are Abrahams seed, and heirs according to the promise.
It is a shame that the Roman Catholic Church has decided to set itself up as having primacy before God for all mankind. Could this be a sign of the end of the age as the book of Revelation suggests?
The book of Revelations talks of a coming one world church that sets itself up above God. Such statement from the Pope are cause for alarm, not for ourselves but for the many Catholics relying on such a Pope for spiritual leadership.
Just as in todays scripture we need to lift up this Pope and the Roman Catholics of the world and carry them to Jesus. We need to bare the weight of the task and the crowds and the blocked doorways and the steep walls and find a way to break through the tiles and set them before Jesus. Let us agree around the world that it is they who are lying paralyzed on the mat and it is we who must carry them not the other way around.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19692094/?GT1=10150
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 9:52 a.m. ET July 10, 2007
LORENZAGO DI CADORE, Italy - Pope Benedict XVI has reasserted the universal primacy of the Roman Catholic Church, approving a document released Tuesday that says Orthodox churches were defective and that other Christian denominations were not true churches.
