“The Man with Ten Feet”
Mark 2:1-12
Mark 2:1 And again he entered into Capernaum after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house.
2 And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the word unto them.
3 And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four.
4 And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay.
5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.
6 But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts,
7 Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?
8 And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts?
9 Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?
10 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,)
11 I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.
12 And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion.
We live today in a land where the church houses are often filled; it is not uncommon to hear of a church with hundreds and even thousands in attendance. In and of itself attendance is not the issue that we will address in this message, but rather the condition of the hearts of those in attendance. It is often the case that we come to church for the wrong reasons: for personal blessings, for personal worship, for personal edification. When God is moving in the church house personal blessings should be the farthest things on our hearts. The large crowds that followed Jesus in his earthly ministry followed expecting their daily, physical needs to be met. Whether the need was healing, miracles, or simply the daily bread needed for life. When we come and bask in the glory of God, accepting his blessings, without ever considering the needs of the lost and undone outside of the saving grace of Jesus, we are no different than the crowds that followed Jesus simply for what he could do for them.
Illustration:
A German soldier was wounded. He was ordered to go to the military hospital for treatment. When he arrived at the large and imposing building, he saw two doors, one marked, "For the slightly wounded," and the other, "For the seriously wounded."
He entered through the first door and found himself going down a long hall. At the end of it were two more doors, one marked, "For officer" and the other, "For non-officers." He entered through the latter and found himself going down another long hall. At the end of it were two more doors, one marked, "For party members" and the other, "For non-party members." He took the second door, and when he opened it he found himself out on the street.
When the soldier returned home, his mother asked him, "How did you get along at the hospital?"
"Well, Mother," he replied, "to tell the truth, the people there didn’t do anything for me, but you ought to see the tremendous organization they have!"
The soldier’s comment describes many churches in our day: really organized, but accomplishing little. These men took it upon themselves to do something for this man. They weren’t content just to wish that “someone would do something,” They did something! There are four things about these men that I want to highlight this evening. First;
I. They had empathy for this man.
a. There was a need and they saw it – The man was paralyzed. We don’t know if this was congenital or the result of disease or accident, the fact remains that he could not help himself. One or all of this “God squad,” saw the need and decided to do something about it.
A woman went to the doctors office, where she was seen by one of the new doctors, but after about 4 minutes in the examination room, she burst out, screaming as she ran down the hall. An older doctor stopped her and asked what the problem was, and she told him her story. After listening, he had her sit down and told her to go relax in another room. The older doctor marched down hallway to the back where the first doctor was and demanded,"What’s the matter with you? Mrs. Terry is 63 yearsold, she has four grown children and seven grandchildren, and you told her she was pregnant?" The new doctor continued to write on his clipboard and without looking up said, "Does she still have the hiccups?"
b. They believed that Jesus was the answer – Jesus had ministered in this area before and we are sure that He had healed many others. Word of these miracles had no doubt spread throughout the land.
c. They were men of persevering faith – That’s what the Lord says (verse 5) and He always honors faith.
II. Their efforts on his behalf of this man
a. The complications – They could not reach Jesus by ordinary means so they had to get creative, they had to improvise.
The crowd (press) was the first complication. I wonderful how many either saw what was happening and didn’t move or were asked to move and make way and refused to move because they would lose their place close to Jesus?
The construction of the house was the second. The houses in the east are generally made flat-roofed, that the inhabitants may have the benefit of taking the air on them; they are also furnished with battlements round about, to prevent persons from falling off; and have a trap door by which they descend into the house. This door, it appears, was too narrow to let down the sick man and his couch; so they uncovered the roof, removed a part of the tiles; and having broken it up, taken away the laths or timber, to which the tiles had been attached, they then had room to let down the afflicted man. See (Luke 5:19) And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop, and let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus.
The critics were the third. The scribes had been in attendance to criticize and complain, many today attend for the same purpose, and they hinder the moving of the Holy Ghost. How many of us complained about something today?
The story was told some years ago of a pastor who found the roads blocked one Sunday morning and was forced to skate on the river to get to church, which he did. When he arrived the elders of the church were horrified that their preacher had skated on the Lord’s Day. After the service they held a meeting where the pastor explained that it was either skate to church or not go at all. Finally one elder asked, “Did you enjoy it?” When the preacher answered, “No,” the board decided it was all right! (Today in the Word, MBI, December, 1989, p. 12)
b. The cooperation – Their efforts were concerted, that is they worked together to solve the problem. If they had worked hard, but in different directions, the sinner would have never reached Jesus. Division in the house of God will lead to no good end and the loss of many opportunities to lead the lost to the Savior. Paul writes:
1 Corinthians 1:10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
c. The commitment - These men had a single motive, to get this sinner to the Savior. Nothing would stop them, not pride, manners, people, nothing could deter them from their goal of seeing this sinner meet Jesus, the great physician.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
d. The creativity –
A pastor was walking along a river one day, when he came across some boys who were fishing. But this was no ordinary way of fishing, because to the surprise of the onlooker, they were casting a tire into the water. The result? They were hauling the fish in by the bucketload! As he started walking away the Lord seemed to say to him, "It’s radical methods of fishing that will catch souls."
We read in Mark 2:4, "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." Now that’s a radical method of getting the attention of Jesus, and it worked!
A truck driver thought that he’d take a short-cut. But the sign posts were right. His truck was slightly higher than the bridge clearance above the road. With traffic stopped, engineers were called to work out how to remove the jammed truck and minimize further damage to the bridge. A little girl in the traffic jam wound down her window and simply said "Try letting the air out of the tires." Well it worked, and we can see from this simple story an illustration of how a radical solution can help solve a problem.
III. The effect of their service
a. The cleansing of the paralytic – His sins were forgiven.
b. The cure of the paralytic – At Jesus command this man was healed and “took up his bed and walked.”
c. The commendation of the paralytic – “…insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion.”
Luke 5:25 And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God.
Getting people to Jesus may require something radical.
FASTING BEFORE THE GREAT AWAKENING
Jonathan Edwards was a man used by God in the First Great Awakening. I have read that he preached in a weak, squeaking, monotone voice and held his tiny manuscript so close to his face that people could not see his expressions. When he preached, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," in his weak, squeaking, monotone, people had to strain to hear him. It is said that he preached powerfully without the energy, eloquence, or theatrics some modern "evangelists" depend on. Strong men gripped pews and pillars as if they felt themselves falling into hell. Judgment day had dawned and they were desperately holding on to life until the altar call.
For three days before he first preached that sermon, he did not eat or sleep. Claiming New England for Christ was the only thing that mattered to him. Prayer was important to him. Food and sleep were not. Nothing distracted him. I am certain he did not intend it, but people passing his room heard his weak, squeaking voice as he sobbed, "God, give me New England! Give me New England!"
He finally rose from his knees and made his way to the pulpit. He was so weak, he could barely prop himself up. Before he opened his mouth, great conviction had already fallen on the congregation.
