"Sitting By"

“One Day Jesus was teaching, and pharisees and teachers of the Law were sitting by.” — Luke 5:17

I told you last week we would be revisiting this passage in Luke’s Gospel again this week… Why? We’ve already looked at the paralytic man, and his four friends… We’ve seen their faith… We’ve seen their commitment to seeing him healed… We’ve heard Christ’s words: “Your sins are forgiven.”

So… Why are we revisiting this story?

Because… It contains a lesson that every church in America needs to hear!

You see… There were more people involved in this story than just these four men, the paralytic, and Jesus… and this story reveals a truth about the Church.

Spurgeon writes — “A congregation is a strange aggregate: it is like the gatherings of a net, or the collections of a dredge. If it is a very large one, it is especially remarkable. What strange varieties of creatures meet in the Noah’s ark of a crowded house of prayer!” — Spurgeon

In the congregations I’ve been a part of — including this one — we have had people who have long known the Lord, who have rejoiced in His Name for years… We’ve had people who did not know His salvation, but had/have heard the Gospel, and aren’t far from the Kingdom…

And, We’ve had those who are far removed from God… these are people of whom we have little hope… BUT… It is from this group that we reap the richest rewards from Christ!

You see… Jesus has compassion on the ignorant… on those who are “out of the way”…

After all, we were ALL once out-of-the-way! We who know Him personally — as both Lord and Saviour — are evidence of His Love and Grace!!!

Now… That is three classes of people within the Church, within our congregations (and yes, I include our little congregation in this)…

Within every congregation, we have a fourth class of people…

I want to read to you what Spurgeon writes about this class of people:

(read excerpt - “We have a fourth class…”)

“They have not come with any wish to learn, or understand, or feel, or be saved: They are only ‘Sitting By’.” — Spurgeon

Luke 5:18–19 NIV

18 Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. 19 When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.

What were these people doing?

— They were “sitting by”.

— They had come to indulge their curiosity.

— They had come from every town of Galilee, and Judea, and Jerusalem… to know what this stir was all about.

they had heard of Jesus’s fame

of the miracles He performed

of His healings… and teachings…

And this drew them to continually surround Him…

The crowd itself that drew many of them.

— This is the case in many large churches.

“Why is there so many people there?”

“What is this all about?”

“What makes Him so special?”

They had to know for their own curiosity… So, they would go hear Him speak, just so that they could say they had… But, they were not going to be influenced by Him.

“They would hear him as outsiders, ‘Sitting By’.”

You see… They were curious, but not anxious…

Here’s the truth: Very little comes from this kind of attendance in Church, but just like Spurgeon, I’d rather have people here because of this motive, than not at all!

At least than, we might have a chance to reach them… to speak some truth into their lives… to be a “stepping-stone” to something better…

But… In itself, what good is it?

There are people in churches all over this community… they are at First Baptist, 7th and Main, Calvary Baptist, First Methodist, the Presbyterian church, and even right here in Bonham Community… who suppose that they are worshipping God, But… they might as well have gone to see a show!

As far as their motive is concerned, that is what they’re doing!

If you are going to church simply to look at the other people there… to hear certain music… or to only be lifted up and praised and never convicted and challenged… if you are attending the church you are attending just to “brag” about what that church is doing, and not participate in the work yourself… than you are no more worshipping God than if you walked in the fields, or went to a concert!

You are only “Sitting By”.

There are many people who come to church and simply “sit by” — “they are altogether indifferent.” — Spurgeon

Verse 17 tells us that that is how these people were.

Luke 5:17 NIV

17 One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick.

You see… The Pharisees and scribes were quite good enough and so they were indifferent to Christ’s teaching…

It’s as though they said to themselves, “I came to hear this noted preacher, say that I’ve heard Him, but I don’t know His doctrine, nor do I care. I already know the truth.”

They never ask:

“What is this doctrine of the Fall?”

“What is this depravity of the heart?”

“What is this work of the Spirit?”

“What is this vicarious sacrifice?”

They don’t care to know… So they don’t ask, “What is this new birth, this transition from dark to light, this sanctification?”

You see… They hear a theological term, and they dismiss it as no concern of theirs! They don’t want to know too much!

Is that us?!?! Do we feel like we already have this Christian thing figured out? That we already know all that we need to know?

O’ that God would open our hearts!

That He would build a hunger in us for His Word!

That we would stop “sitting by,” stop thinking we already have it figured out, and start thinking: “Perhaps there is something here for me. Perhaps there is a peace I haven’t known… Perhaps there is a Joy I never imagined… Perhaps there is freedom from my struggles… my anxieties… my fears… and begin asking the questions that will lead us into the fullness of the life Christ has promised us!”

Let us start seeking and stop “sitting by” in stolid indifference!

But… We’re not done with these Pharisees and scribes yet…

You see… They were “Sitting By” in a worse sense…

Luke 5:21 NIV

21 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

They were there to criticize in an unfriendly spirit. They were there to either find faults in Christ’s words, or to invent them!

I can just see them… Taking out their little notebooks, jotting things down… whispering to each other… twisting His words into something they could criticize… After all, Who was He to be teaching these things? To be convicting them? To be opposed to their teaching? They were the trained, learned, experienced teachers… If they could just catch Him in something major....

And then it happens!

Jesus says to the paralytic man “Your sins are forgiven.”

Aha! Now they’ve got him! He has blasphemed! Triumphantly they ask: “Who can forgive sins but God Himself?!?”

Then they sit back arrogantly watching… waiting for Him to try and talk his way out of this… Like a cat watching a trapped mouse, they wait for Him to stumble…

How eagerly they sprung upon Him with the accusation!

How often do people in the church do just this?!?

How often are their people in attendance who are eager to find fault in the pastor?

“This is wretched business!”

“It is very poor business to go into the house of God to criticize a fellow-mortal who is sincerely trying to do us good.” — Spurgeon

Now… It won’t affect Jesus, because His skin is hardened, and He does not feel the tiny strokes of criticism.

But that is not true for human pastors! Undo criticisms do no good… I don’t know a single pastor who doesn’t earnestly desire to show you the way to salvation… to see you understand… and begin to walk in the life that Christ has called us ALL to… BUT…

Some people hinder us by petty observations based in faulty mannerisms and assumptions — a slight blunder here… a decision we don’t understand there… a mispronounced word… an inaccurate accent, or incomplete example…

It is sad how small things are that are used to put aside eternal truth!

It was Carlyle who wrote about the cricket that was chirping amidst the crack of doom!

Many people are like that cricket! They go on with their idle chit-chat and gossip while Christ Himself is being set before them!

Here’s what this is like:

You’re hungry… You haven’t eaten in days… You’ve been invited to a banquet… You come, and before you lies the biggest, most amazing spread of food you’ve ever seen… but instead of feasting on the bounteous meal provided…

You spend your time criticizing the waiters… abusing the arrangements in the banquet hall… and complaining about the food!

You end up going home as hungry as you came… and who do you blame?!?

The best criticism you can give a friend’s banquet is to partake in it.

“The greatest honor we can do to Christ is to feed upon Him… to receive Him… to trust Him… to live upon Him.” — Spurgeon

To merely criticize and question brings no good to anyone.

How can it?!?

It is a pitiful waste of time and a trial to the temper of others.

Yet there are so many who, just like the Pharisees, are in this manner “sitting by.”

I don’t want to beat this topic to death, but there is another group that are “sitting by” that we need to see.

There are some who “kindly admire, but do not profit.”

There are hundreds of people in churches every Sunday who are “attentive hearers and warm friends, and yet have no part nor lot in the matter.” (Spurgeon)

They have been regular attendees for a long time, but they are no better for it. Some go from the Church — from public worship — to the public-house!

Yet they would not neglect “the coming together” on any account…

They’ve heard the message… but they are no better at home for it!

And their spouses are sorrowful witnesses of this fact.

“Some [people] have been prayed for time out of mind, [they’ve] been preached at as well, and still [they] are ‘Sitting By’.” — Spurgeon

Let me tell you: “If you think something is so important that you spend one day a week in hearing about it, and yet it is not important enough to apply it to your life, you stultify yourself by your own actions!”

How will you answer God when He asks:

“You believed enough to go and hear My Word, why did you not believe enough to accept it?”

“You believed enough to quarrel about it; to criticize others over your beliefs about it; and yet you failed to apply it to your life. Why were you just ‘Sitting By’?”

How will you answer?

There are a lot of things that happen all around us while we are just “Sitting By”.

Look at what was happening while these people were “Sitting By”.

They had entered the room where Jesus was preaching… the crowds were listening… miracles were being performed… Yet they were criticizing, carping, and cavilling… What was happening to them all the while?

They were incurring responsibility.

You cannot hear the gospel and refuse it, and yet remain as you are!

It demands a response!

You are either better or worse for it!

It has become either a saviour in your life, or death upon death.

Matthew 11:23–24 NIV

23 And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades. For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. 24 But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”

What is the difference?

They had heard the gospel…

Jesus taught that the men of Nineveh would condemn the men of Jerusalem because they had taken the warning and Jerusalem did not.

You cannot hear God’s word and continue to just “sit by”!

Their hearts were hardening.

Every time you hear the gospel… every time you hear God’s direction for your life, and you bar your heart against it, you as less and less likely to follow it.

“If I could have a congregation that never heard the gospel before, I should feel more hopeful than I do when I speak to you who have heard it for years.” — Spurgeon

I empathize with his words here… So many of us have hardened our hearts to a “new word” from God because of our long-held beliefs.

We staunchly refuse to accept something that may contradict something we have always believed to be true… We reject it… We refuse to hear it… and worse, we criticize the pastor for speaking it!

When we are stuck in that mode, what can possibly affect us?

What fresh word can the pastor bring?

What more can he say?

Sure I can tell you a new story… I can come up with some fun “object lesson,” but what of it? What good is it if it does not get applied into your life?

My hope today is that I begin to reach hearts that I have shot so many arrows at that have completely missed the mark!

You see… Those who were “sitting by” were obstructing Christ all they could.

I think sometimes we in the church do this unintentionally… We don’t realize how much our attitudes and our actions affect the preacher.

You see… there is something in the congregation that affects the preacher just as he affects the congregation.

I can tell the difference between times when I have a group of godly men and women praying over me…crying out to God “O’ Lord, help him preach! Bring us a message through him!”

Some congregations set a pastor on fire, and some freeze us in our tracks!

Every honest pastor will admit this…

When “doctors of the law” and Pharisees are “Sitting By”, they drag us down and we cannot do the “mighty works” of God.

When my eye catches the indifference in someone’s demeanor… the half-concealed contempt… the judgment… the whispers… I am weakened by it.

Every preacher is.

Believe it or not, I hear when people say “We don’t care for your message. We know it better than you, you cannot influence us.” and it chills me to the bone!

When you are simply “Sitting By” — You chill the pastor, and in doing so you cause boundless mischief to the congregation.

It even happened to Jesus.

Matthew 13:58 NIV

58 And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.

"Sitting By” is dangerous to others.

Are we hindering the salvation of others with our indifference to the gospel?!?

I think that sometimes we are, and we don’t even realize it.

We look at our lives… at our works… and we think we are doing well, but something is missing!

We don’t fear God, and our very goodness works for evil.

Here’s how it works:

When young men see and excellent person like you, so moral and amiable, without exposed Faith and godly works, they gather from your example that godliness is not absolutely needful, and take license to do without it.

When you are “Sitting By”, when you’re whispering your disagreements… you become a curse without even realizing it. Your actions may be encouraging others to attempt to live without Christ!

Let me ask you: What caused these people to just “Sit By”?

Why did they come to hear Jesus, but refuse to become a part of the attentive congregation?

— Self-conceit —

They were not part of the common people… They were superior.

Their thought was: “Why do we need to hear Jesus and his message of pardoned sin?”

“We are highly educated people, we don’t need this uneducated preacher.”

“Besides, we’re not lost!”

You see… It was their own arrogance… their own ego… that kept them from Christ.

In their opinion they were good enough… What they were doing was enough… they didn’t need to change.

They were the most respectable people… they believed that they were upright and generous…

Let me tell you: “It is the man who is most afraid to be turned inside out by the Word of God that most needs it!”

There are so many people who go to church, but will not allow the Word of God to search them… They say to themselves, “That’s good, that’s very good, but it’s not for me… it’s for them.”

People who are “Sitting By” will not look in the mirror of scripture… They turn every challenge to do so into a statement about the general public…

When something challenging is said, you can see them draw themselves up and look at others as if to say “There! That’s for you! You take that home!”

For them, the preacher has no message for them…

These people were “Sitting By” because there was no sense of personal need in them.

They had no sense of their own personal nakedness and the fact that only Christ can cover it!

There was no sense of inward hunger that only Christ can fill.... they didn’t want a saviour for themselves… they didn’t require mercy for themselves… their eyes were open already!

They were good… They had all that they needed… They had no poverty to plead!

It is always this way when preaching the Word… There are those who will hear it and accept it eagerly, and there are those who just have no interest…

Conscious need inclines the ear to hear.

Until we can admit our need for God’s Word, we will remain “Sitting By.”

There was also in them a common issue in the church. They were a mass of prejudice. (No, I don’t mean racist!)

As Spurgeon states: They “had drunk the old wine, these immovable people do not desire new… they feel the old is better.”

The old intoxicating wine of salvation through human merit, or ceremonies, is preferred to the Lord’s new wine of the Kingdom, and justification by Faith.

“Believe and Live” is set aside for “the man that does these things shall live.”

They prefer Sinai to Calvary… their own filthy rags to the Lord’s perfect robe…

The prejudice of proud human nature is difficult to overcome… People are not willing to search the scriptures for what they can tell them, but instead search for what “proves” their beliefs… They hold on to “inherited falsehoods” or “Grandma’s teaching”…

Many of us are “Sitting By” in resolute unbelief and determined self-confidence.

It’s born into us! By nature, we believe in ourselves. Isn’t that idolatry?!?

Prejudice is the ruin of thousands! They may be made to see if only they did not think they already saw.

They might be happy in the Lord, if their groundless conceit did not cause them to be “Sitting By.”

So… What can we say about these sitters-by?

I want to read you what Spurgeon says about them… (read passage)

“Sitting By” is equally incongruous with the rest of the congregation.

Luke 5:18–19 NIV

18 Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. 19 When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.

These four men wanted to bring this paralyzed friend into the presence of Christ, but they cannot get near him!

No one will make way…

So they take him to the roof… they break up the tile… dig through the roof, and lower this man down into the crowd…

Think about that… they lower this man right into the midst of learned scribes and Pharisees… Dust, dirt, broken tiles, are falling all over these people… and yet, these men are “Sitting By” with cold indifference!

They’re seeking fault… They cooly observe… They aren’t moved!

A man is being healed right in front of them… and they treat it as though it is “an interesting case in the hospital, around which a group of medical students gather, as a show.”

How can they act that way?!?

“Common humanity [should] affect them, but no… they will not enter into anything that Jesus says or does: They are merely “Sitting By.” — Spurgeon

Is that you?

Are you just “Sitting By”?

I think some of us sitting here today have heard the message… We know that we should not be among those who are just “Sitting By”… We know that that is just what we have been doing…

You feel your soul-sickness… you feel your guilt… you feel your need of Christ…

You are broken… searching… Jesus is calling!

Don’t wait! Come to the altar!

Jesus is calling us to stop “Sitting By”… to stop relying on the past… to stop thinking we know it all and can do it without Him…

To let go of our apathy… and our complacency… and to let Him heal us!

Don’t leave this place today without seeking Him… without committing yourself to Him…

He poured out His blood for you, will you pour out yours for Him?!?

Or, Will you just “Sit By”?

(prayer)