Sermon Central
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"The Four Faithful Friends"
Contributed by Ray Scott on Sep 18, 2003 (message contributor)
Summary: This story teaches us that we can make a difference in people’s lives ... and to overcome obstacles that keep us away from the power of God.
“The Four Faithful Friends”
INTRODUCTION: We continue in our series on ‘Great Events In The Life Of Jesus’.
TODAY, we want to look at a man whom Jesus healed.
Luke 5:17-20 – all turn – READ
5:17 – Jesus was in a house, teaching a large group of people. The place was packed! Every pew was filled, so to speak. There were chairs in the aisles … there wasn’t even ‘standing room’.
They lived differently in Bible times. When we go inside our house, we close the door. In some places (Gainesville, not Bell), they LOCK the door whenever they go inside. BUT … in Bible times, they opened their door at sunrise, and closed it when it got dark. An open door meant that anyone could come in at anytime … everyone was welcome … they didn’t even have to knock. A closed door meant that something was going on inside that you were ashamed of … or wanted to hide from someone. They didn’t have this “privacy” hang-up that we have today.
Jesus began to preach in this house … the doors were open … anybody could come in at any time. And they did! Including the Pharisees and educated men with PhD’s in the Old Testament (more on them later).
NOTICE: “And the power of the Lord was present to heal them”. Where you find Jesus, you find His power … His power to change your life.
Jesus was TEACHING … BUT … He wasn’t HEALING anybody. The POWER to heal was there … but no one was being healed, up to this time. WHY?
o MAYBE because there wasn’t any sick in the house.
o MAYBE because the sick didn’t really believe Jesus could heal them.
o MAYBE because they didn’t ASK Jesus to heal them.
I don’t know WHY. BUT … the power was there … BECAUSE … Jesus was there.
LESSON: If you aren’t saved, it’s NOT BECAUSE the power of Jesus isn’t able to save you.
CHRISTIAN …
o If your needs aren’t met, it’s NOT BECAUSE the power of Jesus isn’t able to meet your needs.
o If you’re living a defeated Christian life, it’s NOT BECAUSE the power of Jesus isn’t able to give you victory.
o If your faith is weak, it’s NOT BECAUSE the power of Jesus isn’t able to strengthen you.
o If you don’t have the joy, peace, hope & love that you need, it’s NOT BECAUSE Jesus doesn’t have the power to give it to you.
It’s because you haven’t come to Jesus for the power that you need … that Jesus is able to give you. “The power of the Lord was present” … and it STILL IS.
5:18 – Mark tells us that there were 4 men who brought their sick friend to Jesus that day. The POWER to heal him was there. AND … that’s where they wanted to be. SO … they carried their friend on a stretcher … one on each corner.
Their friend had “palsy”. We don’t know much about this particular disease that they called “palsy”. We don’t know how long he had it … what caused it … how close to death he was. We do know that he couldn’t walk. He needed help. He had 4 friends who were willing to carry him to Jesus … Who had the POWER to heal him.
5:19 – They must have come to the door (if they could even get that far because of the crowd). There was no room inside, where Jesus was. Nobody was going to budge. Most of them didn’t know that they were outside & couldn’t get in.
Most of us would have taken our sick friend back home. “Well, we tried, but we just couldn’t get in to see Jesus. Maybe we’ll try again next time Jesus is in town.” Not these friends! They weren’t going to give up that easily. They came to receive the POWER of Jesus … and they weren’t leaving without it. They were determined. They weren’t giving up. They wanted the POWER of Jesus.
LESSON: You’ll never receive the POWER of Jesus in your life if you don’t seek for it. The POWER is in Jesus. As long as you keep Him out of your life, you’ll miss out on His power. Jeremiah 29:13 – “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”
They didn’t give up. They knew what they wanted … needed … were missing. They had found where Jesus was. They weren’t going to leave until they had received the POWER of Jesus.
WHAT DID THEY DO? They tore the roof apart! 5:19
In Bible times, they built houses different than we do (their building codes weren’t as strict!). Their houses had flat roofs made out of rafters, with sticks & hardened mud for mortar. They spent a lot of time on their roofs. There was usually grass growing on the roof … it was cooler up there. There were stairs on the outside going up to the roofs.
