TRUE FRIENDSHIP
LUKE 5:17-26
INTRODUCTION: Euripides (C. 484-406 B.C.) said, “Real friendship is shown in times of trouble; prosperity is full of friends.” In Luke 5, we see a man who was fortunate to have four real friends, who cared deeply about him. They provide a valuable lesson to us as they demonstrate the qualities of true friendship – qualities that you and I should possess.
I. They recognized their friend had a desperate need
A. Luke 5:18 “…a man which was taken with a palsy (a contraction of the word paralysis)”
B. According to John Gill this man apparently had a disease, which deprived his body of all motion and all sensation at the same time leaving him virtually motionless. At this time the art of medicine had no known cure for this form of paraplegia.
C. He was in a state of total helplessness and hopelessness.
D. Noted psychiatrist Viktor Frankl who barely survived a Nazi concentration camp in the 1940s made an interesting observation about hopelessness. In a sobering account of its horrors. Frankl described how some prisoners lost touch with reality. A prisoner who no longer saw hope for the future quickly would begin to decline physically and mentally. Then one day, without warning, he simply would give up. No amount of pleading by other prisoners, no amount of beating by the guards, no barking of threats brought any response. The prisoner just laid on his bunk corpse-like, uncaring, barely moving. Admittedly that is an extreme situation of hopelessness. Few of us will ever face such desperate times.
E. This man was living a life of despair and desperation.
F. I wonder how many people walked by this man every day and failed to notice him or his condition. His friends saw him lie there day after day withering away with the paralysis that immobilized him from the neck down. They saw the anguish and despondency written upon his face. They were fully aware of His desperate need but were frustrated by the fact that they were not able to help him.
G. Psalms 60:11 ...vain is the help of man.
H. Just like these four men you too have friends, relatives, co-workers, and neighbors who, like this paraplegic, have an incurable, terminal disease – not a physical disease but a spiritual disease. All mankind has been infected with the disease of sin.
I. Romans 5:12 Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned
J. Ephesians 2:12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
K. The major difference between this man’s terminal illness and the terminal illness of those without Christ is that this man’s physical suffering would cease upon his physical death; while those who die spiritual face an eternity of incessant suffering in the everlasting fires of hell.
L. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 10:28 “And do not fear those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. But rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
II. They realized that there was a cure available.
A. Luke 5:15, 17 HCSB “the news about Him spread even more and large crowds would come together to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses… And the Lord’s power to heal was in Him.”
B. They had heard about Jesus Christ and His mighty power. They had heard about how cast out demons in Capernaum. They undoubtedly heard about Christ healing Simon Peter’s mother-in-law. They heard of the healings that Christ did throughout Galilee. They heard of His cleansing of a leper, another incurable disease. They realized Christ had the power to do for their friend what other men could not do.
C. Those of us who have trusted Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior have found the answer to all life’s questions and the solution to all life’s problems, the cure to the terminal disease of sin.
D. Jesus Christ came to provide the cure for sin.
E. Mark 2:17 When Jesus heard it, he said unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
F. Let me illustrate. "Suppose you were dying of cancer, and I could changed places with you. Somehow I could take all the cancer cells from your body and put them into my body. What would happen to me? I would be dying in your place. What would happen to you? You would live because I change places with you. The Bible says Christ took the penalty that we deserve for sin, placed it upon Himself, and died in our place. Three days later Christ came back to life to prove that sin and death had been conquered and that His claims to be God were true. He changed places with us. He became our substitute and died on the cross to save us. He took our sins and when we by faith put our trust in Him, He gives us His perfect righteousness. He IS the cure for the disease of sin. (adapted from Dr. A. Ray Stanford, Handbook of Personal Evangelism, pages 231-236)
III. They sought for an opportunity to bring their friend to Christ.
A. Luke 5:18 “they sought to bring in and lay before Him.”
B. What kind of friends would these four men be if they sat on the knowledge of the cure and refused to share it with the paraplegic?
C. 2 Kings 7:9 MKJV And they said to one another, We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, and we hold our peace. If we stay until the morning light, some punishment will come on us. And now come, so that we may go and tell the king’s household.
D. Once a little boy was lost in the woods. The alarm was sounded; a church meeting broke up; the whole congregation and neighborhood responded. Fishermen abandoned their nets and merchants closed their shops. Plows were left in the field and washing in the tub. Everyone turned out to hunt for the little fellow. There was a feverish haste. The night was dark and harm might befall the little fellow. After hours of search, he was found, and oh, the joy that was felt because of the rescue! Today that boy is grown. He is lost again! But no one seems to care. Mom and Dad are busy with other things. The church does not seem to care. No alarm has been sent out. Yet, a far worse fate awaits him now. You see, he is now lost in sin! Do we really care? Enough to do something?
IV. They cared enough to overcome every obstacle in bringing Him to Christ.
A. Luke 5:19 And when they could not find how they might bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus.
B. Not being able to bring him in through the multitude, they went round about by a back passage, and going up the stairs on the outside, they came upon the flat - roofed house, and untiled the roof, or took away tiles, which were about the customary trap door on the roofs of Jewish homes, making it wider, to let down the man upon his bed, into the middle of the room and of the people.
C. They persisted in spite of enormous difficulty. Nothing was going to stop them from bringing their friend to Christ.
D. Do we have the same zeal and determination when it comes to seeing our relatives, friends, and acquaintances come to Christ?
E. What obstacles hinder us from sharing Christ - Fear of rejection or mockery? Persecution? Are we too busy? Do we see it as too hard?
F. On July 25, 2002, nine coal miners entered Quecreek Mine in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. About 9 p.m., the miners were drilling nearby the nearby abandoned Saxman Mine and when 50 million gallons of water released into their own shaft, cutting them off from the surface. In a desperate race against time, more than 200 rescuers worked to save the trapped miners who were trapped in a small chamber just over four feet high and 18ft wide, in frigid 55 degree water. What would you think if those rescue workers had said, “I don’t have time. It’s too difficult. The miners might not want me to interfere. They can work it out for themselves.”?
G. Christianity demands a level of caring that transcends human inclinations. – Erwin W. Lutzer (1941- )
H. Ezekiel 33:8-9 MKJV When I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die; if you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked one shall die in his iniquity; but I will require his blood at your hand. But, if you warn the wicked of his way, to turn from it; if he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your soul.
V. They rejoiced to see him restored to health.
A. "When we are flat on our backs there is no way to look but up." – Roger W. Babson, Instant Quotation Dictionary, p. 92.
B. Luke 5:20-26 When He saw their faith, He said to him, "Man, your sins are forgiven you." And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, "Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?" But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answered and said to them, "Why are you reasoning in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ’Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ’Rise up and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins"--He said to the man who was paralyzed, "I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house." Immediately he rose up before them, took up what he had been lying on, and departed to his own house, glorifying God. And they were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, "We have seen strange things today!"
C. Consider the joy and happiness of seeing a friend or relative miraculously cured from an incurable disease.
D. Thorough repentance of sin by the sin-plagued sinner, followed by complete spiritual regeneration by God’s Spirit, brings to an end that soul’s exile from God and healing from sin’s curse. The cure is complete. The doors of salvation are flung open, and all heaven rejoices with the happy saints below in the admittance of one more sin-cured soul into the fellowship of Christ’s kingdom!
E. Luke 15:10 Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repents.
