We Must Help Bring More People To Jesus! Series

We Must Help Bring More People to Jesus!

The Gospel of Matthew

Matthew 9:1-8; Mark 2:1-12; Luke 5:15-26

Sermon by Rick Crandall

(Prepared September 22, 2021)

BACKGROUND:

*Think about how many miracles Jesus performed. In John 20:30-31, God's Word tells us that, "truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name." John 21:25 tells us that "there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written."

*Jesus worked an astounding number of miracles while He was here on earth. But counting His birth, resurrection and return to Heaven, only 40 of these miracles are detailed in the four Gospels. (1)

*Matthew 8 showed us that Jesus worked many miracles in Capernaum, but in vs. 18, the large crowd became a problem, and Jesus decided to take a boat to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. We don't know all the reasons why Jesus left Capernaum, but He surely needed some rest. And wherever the Lord chose to go, was exactly where He needed to be. So, in Matthew 8:23-27, when Jesus:

23. . . got into a boat, His disciples followed Him.

24. And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep.

25. Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, "Lord, save us! We are perishing!''

26. But He said to them, "Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?'' Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea. And there was a great calm.

27. And the men marveled, saying, "Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?''

*After that amazing miracle, Jesus and His disciples landed at the country of the Gergesenes, and there the Lord miraculously cast thousands of demons out of two tormented men. Today in Matthew 9:1-8, Jesus crossed back over the sea to Capernaum, and there He worked another great healing miracle. In this case, it was the healing of a paralyzed man who was brought to the Lord by four good friends.

*Under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, Mark 2, and Luke 5 both give more details to the story. Luke 5:17 gives this background: "Now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was present to heal them."

*Mark and Luke also explain how strongly committed these four men were to get their sick friend to Jesus. That's our focus for today, so please open your Bibles to Mark 2, and we will begin by reading vs. 1-12.

MESSAGE:

*If you are Christian today, how did you get there? How did you become a Christian? Every believer has a unique story, your own story of how God worked in your life to help you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

*One of our daughters was saved when she was 5, our son was 6, and our other daughter was 7. I was saved when I was 24, and my mother was saved when she was 67. Every believer has a unique story, but all of our stories have this thing in common: SOMEBODY HELPED US GET TO JESUS.

*It may have been Mom or Dad, a co-worker, or a friend at school. It could have been the neighbors across the street. (That's who helped my wife Mary get to Jesus when she was a little girl.) Who helped you? It could have even been a total stranger. But somebody helped bring you to Jesus, and your life was changed forever.

*Now God wants us to be those helpers. God wants us to help bring other people to Jesus Christ. How can we do it?

1. FIRST: WE MUST FIND WAYS TO BE A FRIEND.

*The paralyzed man in the Scripture today desperately needed some friends. Think how helpless and hopeless he was in that day. He had no access to the modern technology that we usually take for granted.

*Geoff Thomas explained the man's troubles by saying, "We are told just one thing about him: He was a paralyzed man, that and nothing else. We are not told his name, his age, his marriage status, or the job he might have once had. We are given information about one thing: That he could not move. Nothing else was as important as that. Nothing else was relevant.