What Are You Wiling To Do To Bring Your Friends To Jesus?

‘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!