‘And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” —he said to the paralytic— “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this’
This is a great story, a great testimony of faith and friendship.
We don’t know much about this paralyzed man, in other places in the Bible where we meet the sick we are told a little more about them, for example the guy in Acts who was ‘paralized from birth’, another guy who was born blind etc. This guy, all we know is that he was paralyzed. We don’t know if it was a long term paralysis or something new in his life. We don’t whether it’s the result of an illness or an accident.
All we know is this guy has a condition and is unable to move, he’s paralyzed and is unable to get around on his own.
By this time, news of Jesus, of His teachings and of His healings have begun to spread, He had become famous and, as Luke records people ‘…had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem’ to hear and see Him.
And when the friends had heard about Jesus, heard about what He was saying and what He’d been doing they immedieatley went to their friend, put him on a bed, and carried him to where Jesus was!
We don’t know where they came from, how far they carried him, could have been living in that place or they could have come from to towns and villiages around, we don’t know, but what we do know is this, when they heard about Jesus they knew that He was the only one who could do anything for their friend, and distance and difficulty meant nothing to them, they wanted, theny needed to get their friend to Jesus!
That’s the 1st thing I want us to have in our minds. We’ve all heard about Jesus, and I’m sure most of us hear have experienced Jesus in our lives, we trust Him, we have faith in Him, we know Him as the Great Physician. We know Him as the Good Shephard who loves and leads and protects and provides for His sheep.
We know He is the only way to salvation, the only one who can heal a sick world, the answer to all our problems….
You could say then we are like those four friends. We know …. We know Jesus and we know what He is about!
The paralyzed guy doesn’t know at all! He’s stuck in his room. His condition prevents him even opening his door or window or to meet people to ask what’s going on.
And we may know many people like that. We may be friends with many people like that. Maybe not paralyzed, but the sinful condition of every man prevents them from knowing anything about Jesus.
And the sad and unbelievable thing is, there are many parents who know nothing about Jesus, who have no interest in Jesus and no intrest in sending their kids to Sunday school to learn about Jesus. It won’t be long before kids in muslim countries know more about Jesus than kids here do!
But we know!
And the question I want to ask today is this: What are you willing to do to get your friend to Jesus?
These guys so want their friend to get to Jesus, they go out of their way. And the thing is, there are going to be many obstacles in our way to getting our friends to Jesus. And these guys met them all! Obstacles inside and outside of the Church!
The 1st of course, the friend can’t move! That’s a pretty big obstacle! He can’t get there on his own! So they get a cot, they carry him. They climb up on the roof, they dismantle the roof, and they lower him down. These are guys who really want to get their friend to Jesus.
Statistically, at things like evangelistic rallies and crusades, about ? of the people who actually give their lives to Jesus were brought by a Christian. You know what it is? It’s Christians bringing their non-Christian friends, family, coworkers, neighbors. And some of you, you know people who don’t know Jesus and you need to bring them to Jesus and the question is, what are you willing to do to make that happen?
Have you even invited them to church, to a cell group if you have one, to tea with the King? have you bought them a Bible, have you bought them a book, have you brought them a meal? Some of you say, “I’ve invited them, but they never come.” Go pick them up, ‘cause non-Christians will make excuses like, “Well, I forgot.” Go to their house and take them.
“Well, I didn’t know where it was.” “I know where it is, I’ll come get you. I’ll bring tea and a welsh cake, I’ll smile. I’m not going to do this in a mean way. After we’re done, I’ll buy you something to eat. Oh, here’s a Bible with your name on it, you know, I love you.” What are you willing to do to bring your friends to Jesus?
Friends, that’s what God is asking of us all. People need Jesus and it is our great privilege to bring them to him, and there’s always going to be obstacles. The question is are you going to be creative and resilient enough to get around those obstacle and to find a way to get them to Jesus. And his friends do this, these are great friends, these are great friends. They get him to Jesus.
But when they get him to Jesus, when they get him to church or to the meeting place, they face more obstacles! They can’t get to Jesus!
The place is full! People are spewing out of the doors and into the streets! And when I say spewing I don’t mean…. I mean…. You know what I mean! There are just too many people!
And don’t get me wrong, this is a good thing! It would be great to see every Bible believing, Bible preaching church have this same problem every time the doors are opend and the Word is being proclaimed, people flocking from all over to get in to hear about and meet with with Jesus! And that should be our prayer, our constant prayer, even if it does seem like a big prayer!
But the problem they faced here was the ‘religious people’, the self righteous people, the Pharisees and the Scribes!
Remember, they came from all around, they came from Jerusalem, where the ‘Big Guns’ were. And you can be sure they made sure they had the best seats, the front row seats. They would have been sitting around Jesus, cramping Him, making sure they could hear everything He said and see everything He did.
And the problem with them is, they didn’t come to learn or to help, they came to judge and to criticize and to condemn! They came to find faults and use them to judge and tear down!
And the interesting thing here, the sad thing we see here which is pretty much the same thing we see with religious people today is this, they do nothing at all to help this guy!
These men are carrying their friend on a bed, he can’t walk, they’ve carried him however far, but even if its just down the road, they would be tired and struggling by now, they’ve brought him to see Jesus and these religious people don’t do anything to help! Not even make some room for them!
Instead they have to climb up onto the roof, make a hole and lower him own through the ceiling!
And these guys don’t do a thing! They don’t jump upand move out of the way. They don’t say, “Hey, you know what? We should step aside so that the paralytic man could get to Jesus.” No, they don’t. They’re so worried about finding anything Jesus would say that they would disagree with so that they could criticize him that they’re completely oblivious to the fact that they’re surrounded with hurting and needy people.
That’s the way religious people are. They come not to learn, they come to argue. I would ask you that: do you come to learn or do you come to argue? Some people just have that critical disposition, that pharisaical attitude which is, “I’m always right, there’s always something wrong, and it’s my job to find it and criticize it. I’m not here to learn, I’m here to critique.” They’re completely oblivious to the hurting and needy people around them.
Furthermore, Jesus is going to help this man. They don’t do anything. They don’t pray for him, they don’t help him, they don’t do anything. Religious people tend to criticize those who are helping rather than helping, and they do the same thing tragically with Jesus.
But the thing is this…..there’s a little Pharisee in us all. There is a bit of religion in each of us. Martin Luther says that religion is the default mode of the human heart. We are all religious people! Sure, we may have different rules on our list, but we are all religious people and we need to be careful that our religion doesn’t make us a hinderence to people wanting to get to Jesus and not a help!
And the other thing about the Pharisees and the Scribes is they started out with good intentions, with the right idea. They loved God and His word, they were passionate about Him and devoted to Him and to serving Him, yet they went off track! Somewhere along the line, in their zeal and their passion, they went off track!
And, if we love the Lord, if we are zealous for Him, passionate about His Word and His people, devoted to serving Him in our Church and our community, then we must be careful not to follow the ways of the Pharisees.
How can tell if we are become like them? Well, let’s have a look at them:
1. They were Proud. Pharisee means ‘Seperated one’ and they thought they were different from everyone else, better than everyone else! They were proud. “We’re the good guys, you’re the bad guys. “We have the answers, you have the questions. We have the solutions, you have the problems.”
2. They were unloving! They didn’t help the people, they didn’t care about the people, they weren’t there for the people. It’s interesting to see that people flocked to Jesus in a way that they didn’t flock to Pharisees. That people wanted to have dinner with Jesus in a way that they didn’t want to have dinner with the Pharisees. Do you know why? Because Jesus was loving. He actually cared about people.
3. They were hypocritical. Religious people always seem to have a list of rules that they demand everyone else must follow yet don’t seem to follow themselves. Read Mathew 23!
4. They are joyless. They are not happy people! They’re defined by what they’re against. They’re always railing against something. They’re always upset at somebody. They’re not fun at all.
We need to be careful not to become religious!! Be serious about the Bible, Yes! Be too serious, and you know what I mean by too serious, No!
When it comes to walking with God, be selfish! Concentrate on you and Him. Make sure you are walking right with Him. That you are obeying what He tells you to do. Don’t worry about other people, other than to point them to Jesus and trust That He, through the working of the Holy Spirit, will mould and shape and prepare them for whatever it is He has for them to do.
And then, if we do need to step in for some reason, we’ll step in with love and not a religious, self righteous, unloving heart!
And then, finally, we see what happens when the man gets to Jesus! His sins are forgiven! He is healed!
Does everyone who come to Christ get healed? No at all! Im sure we all know of people who are born again, Bible believeing Christians who are sick, who suffer from some serious ailments in some cases. And if we don’t know anyone like that, look at the Apostle Paul, a man who was used to heal many, he lived with a condition that he was never healed of.
But does everyone who calls on the Name of Jesus receive forgiveness of their sins? Yes! Yes and Yes!
No one else has the authority to forgive sin! No one else is able to make us clean, to make us right with God! No one but Jesus!
Acts 4:12 says, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
Do you know people who are hurting? Do you know people whose sin has destroyed their lives? Do you love them or judge them?
If you love them, bring them to Jesus! If you love them do all you can to get them to Jesus! If you need to, go that extra mile, but get them to Jesus! Because they need Him! We all need Him! We all need to feel His touch! We all need His forgiveness! And He does! Jesus forgives. He just does. He’s not like religious people giving you a list to do. He’s a God who comes to live and to die and to rise and to give forgiveness. That’s what he does. He forgives! He makes whole!
If you need Him, come to Him! If you know anyone who needs Him, Bring them to Him! If you’re religious and are a hinderance to Him, repent, and give in to Him!
Then rejoice in Him, give the glory to Him, go home and have a party to celebrate Him, invite all your friends, have good food, a good time and tell them about Him! Pray for them and trust that He will do in them what He did in us and then continue to glorify God for everything! Amen?
