Sermon Tone Analysis
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We are starting our second week of praying for our “one”.
I hope that God is opening your heart to care more and more about that individual, and that you are looking for opportunities to help them come to Christ.
Last week, we saw that Jesus extends a call to all of us to join him in seeing people given new life in him, but it comes at a great cost.
To follow his call, we have to be willing to give up anything and everything, even our jobs and our families for him.
This week, we are going to see a powerful example of what it looks like to bring someone to Jesus.
As you are thinking about your “one”, our hope is that you truly want to see this person come into the kind of relationship with Jesus that you have.
This week, we are going to see a powerful example of what it looks like to bring someone to Jesus.
What does that take, though?
What should we expect to deal with if we are going to bring our friend to know Jesus?
The account we are going to look at this morning highlights the faith and determination we need if we are going to bring our friends to Jesus.
The men in this story are going to teach us four main lessons about what to expect when we bring a friend to Jesus.
Turn over to .
Jesus’ ministry is in full swing, and we find him back at his home base in the town of Capernaum.
He has been healing and teaching, and word has really spread about all that Jesus is capable of doing.
As we pick up in verse 17-20, we find another day where Jesus is teaching.
Look at those verses with me.
Religious leaders from throughout Israel came that day to hear Jesus preach.
Add in all those who lived locally and came to hear Jesus, and the house he was in was packed to capacity.
Luke notes that the power of God was in Jesus to heal that day.
That seems like somewhat of an odd statement.
After all, isn’t Jesus God?
He is, but if you remember, he voluntarily limited the use of his divine power unless God the Father told him to use it:
Today was one of the days where the Father directed Jesus to heal those around him.
Enter some unnamed men with a friend who was paralyzed.
In the face of all these religious leaders who doubted what Jesus said, we have a group of men with a simple, hard-working faith.
They aren’t the heroes of this story, because Jesus is.
However, their faith and determination gives us a great picture of what it takes to see our friends come to Christ.
We want to copy their example as we seek to see those around us be drawn closer to Christ.
So, if that’s the case, then we are going to have to start where they did:
1) Care enough to bring them to Jesus.
Read verses 18-19.
There are so many details the Bible doesn’t give us that I would have loved to have.
We don’t know why this man was paralyzed.
Was he born that way, or did he have an illness or injury that left him paralyzed?
Who were these men?
Were they family members?
Friends?
Neighbors?
We don’t know their names, we don’t know where they came from, and we don’t know why they were in the situation that day.
Mark records this same event and lets us know there were four men, but that doesn’t really help much.
As much as I would love to know, I think God did this on purpose.
Why?
Because it keeps us from being able to explain it away.
If we knew they were his cousins, we might say, “Well, of course they did that.
He was family.”
If they were neighbors, “That just makes sense.
They lived nearby.”
Each of those could be an excuse for us not to care about someone God wants to draw to himself through us.
“You want me to witness to that person?
Well, she’s not family, so somebody else closer to her should do that.”
“You want me to go where to tell people about Jesus?
Have you seen the news?
They are so far away; someone closer to them should to it.”
Listen: If God is laying someone on your heart, you need to do what you can to see them come to Christ!
I don’t care if it is a family member, a co-worker, a neighbor, the homeless man you see out walking, or an individual in a city across the globe who doesn’t even know Jesus’ name.
Every single individual on earth is created in the image of God and needs a relationship with him.
The only way they can be right with God is by placing trust in Jesus Christ, and anyone who will place their trust in Jesus will be saved.
Do you care enough to bring them to Jesus?
These four men cared so much for their friend that when they heard Jesus was in town, they wanted to bring their friend to him.
Do you care that much?
Here’s an exercise that can help you with that: Next time you are in public, get your head out of your phone or your shopping list and look around for a minute.
Statistics tell us that it is possible that 3/4 of the people around you may not genuinely know Jesus, so picture the word “lost” over the heads of three out of every four people you see.
People-watch for a minute or so, and let the weight of that settle in on your heart.
Ask God to give you a love for those who don’t know Jesus so that you will care enough to bring them to him.
Caring enough means more than just saying, “Well, bless their heart.”
That is the second lesson we see from these men:
2) Work hard to bring them to Jesus.
Here’s where you have to love their boldness.
Pick back up in verse 19.
You have to love the tenacity of these men.
They wanted their friend well, and they weren’t going to stop at anything until they got him to Jesus.
We will look at their determination in a second, but it started before they got to the house.
They carried him on a stretcher for whatever distance they had to travel.
Although I imagine they were stronger than most of us, have you ever tried to carry someone who is paralyzed?
There is nothing that feels as heavy and awkward as a body that isn’t controlling itself.
Maybe you have picked up a child out of their car seat and tried to get them in their bed while they were asleep.
It is like wrangling an octopus!
In high school, I helped a man transport an individual who was paralyzed from the neck down.
We tried to get him into a car that was similar to mine, and it was incredibly difficult because he could do nothing to help us.
So, they carry him for whatever distance they had to carry him and they get to the house to find out that it is already packed and you can’t get in.
What happened next would have been great to watch.
You can imagine that they were frustrated when they couldn’t get in.
Maybe the paralyzed man even told them, “Thanks, guys.
I appreciate you trying, but let’s just go back home.”
I don’t know how long they deliberated, but they came up with a new plan.
The houses in that day would have had a flat roof, so the friends either grab a ladder or use an outside staircase if there was one.
They then have to carry their friend up to the roof.
Without knowing exactly what the house looked like or where in the house Jesus was, we can’t say for sure exactly what happened next.
Luke makes it sound simple, just like you were taking out a drop ceiling like we have in our sanctuary.
However, Mark indicates that it was more work than that and that removing the tiles would have required them to do some digging through the mud and straw that made up the roof.
Either way, they still had to carry their friend onto a roof that was at least 7’ off the ground, open up that same roof, and lower their friend down gently in front of Jesus.
Look back at verse 19.
It almost reads like one of the old McDonald’s commercials with Michael Jordan and Larry Bird.
Remember the “off the floor, off the scoreboard, nothing but net,” ads?
Luke says it was on the stretcher, through the roof, into the middle of the crowd, before Jesus…nothing but net.
That wouldn’t have been quick, and it would have caused a scene, wouldn’t it?
Apparently, these friends lived by the adage, “Desperate times call for drastic measures.”
Think about how hard this was!
It was physically difficult, because they had to carry him and do whatever they needed to do to open the roof up and then lower him down.
To say it would have been awkward would have been a massive understatement!
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