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[0:00] Sometimes an event happens that affects us for a week and sometimes an event happens that affects us for a month and sometimes it affects a generation.!

[0:30] Jesus. Mark chapter 2 beginning verse 1 says, And when he, speaking of Christ, returned to Capernaum after some days it was reported that he was at home.

[0:43] 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.

[0:55] And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him. When they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay.

[1:06] 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 this?

[1:19] He's blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they had questioned within themselves, said to them, Why do you question these things in your heart?

[1:33] 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.

[1:44] 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.

[2:08] When Jesus entered Capernaum, there was a buzz in the air. Jesus was in town again. He had been going from village to village throughout the Galilean area for weeks, possibly even months.

[2:25] I believe that time was probably cut short because the crowds so swamped those little villages along the way that he may not have been able to continue.

[2:36] But as the word spread, the crowds gathered. Now he's back at Capernaum, where his home base is. And he's at home. It may be speaking of his home.

[2:49] It may be speaking of Simon Peter and Andrew's home, where he resided. We don't know. But we do know the house was full. And the Galilean culture was an open-door policy kind of atmosphere.

[3:03] When somebody got up in the morning and opened their door, that meant you were welcome to come in and be a part of what they were doing. If they wanted privacy that day, they kept the door shut.

[3:16] But they literally had an open-door policy. And that day, they had the door open. And the people came by the masses. Apparently, the Sanhedrin got word of it as well.

[3:27] And they came too. Luke identifies them as Pharisees. That is the largest sect of religious leaders that we deal with in the New Testament.

[3:41] Pharisees, by the very name, means separated ones. And they prided themselves on being studiers of the law and separating themselves from the masses.

[3:54] They would never want to be seen with a bunch of Gentiles. They would never want to be seen with tax collectors. Thought of as authorized thieves.

[4:08] Sometimes still today. And they never wanted to be a part of being around sinners. They were holy. And if you don't believe it, just ask them.

[4:20] They believed it. And they looked the part. They wore royal robes. They put tassels on the bottom so that you could let you know how elite they were.

[4:32] They looked at others with disdain and condemnation. Now, having said all that, they were not all bad. They were dedicated to knowing, studying, preserving the law.

[4:48] They were also, and I'm talking about Mosaic law. But they were also very protective of the rabbinical law. The rabbinical law is the law that the rabbis added to the Mosaic law to further define what the Mosaic law meant by what it says.

[5:10] And the reality is that most rabbis in that day valued the rabbinical law that they developed more than they did the Mosaic law in which God developed.

[5:21] And so they were protective of not only the Mosaic law, but their interpretation of it through the rabbinical law and making sure that was taken care of. They were devout men.

[5:32] And they were proud. And they sat in this house to see what all the fuss was about. Somebody, while they were there, took a picture, and we got it today.

[5:47] They were dull-faced and miserable. And I always am amazed when the State of the Union is spoken and the Supreme Court comes in and sits down. And the rest of the people in the room either cheer or jeer.

[6:03] They do something. The Supreme Court does nothing. They are dull and seemingly uninterested along the way. By the way, don't look like that in church.

[6:16] Don't you do it. Notice that Scripture says they were sitting while others were standing in a standing room only kind of circumstance.

[6:28] They were standing not only in the room but also throughout the streets. And I don't believe this was an organized revival meeting. I don't believe that they had equipped with flyers or newspaper announcements or anything like that.

[6:40] Instead, it was word of mouth. That's the best way to get a message out, folks. That's the best way to get a message out. That's the best way to get a message out. Still today, we can blitz social media.

[6:54] We can put banners up in front of the church. We can do all those things. The best way to get the word out is word of mouth. It's called testimonies.

[7:04] And the result of that was a house that was overflowing with people. Now listen, most houses in that day were very small. They said that the exterior wall of a house typically was only about 18 feet long.

[7:18] So we're talking about small homes. Fifty people in there would literally be hanging out the edges. We do know, as I've shown you in the last couple of weeks, that Peter's house was a larger house.

[7:31] But we don't know if that's the case at this point. We do know that the church met in Peter's house. But that was probably after the resurrection of Christ. And so we don't know what size it was at the time.

[7:44] But we do know from Scripture that it was overflowing with folks. People were everywhere. The rooms were filled. The doorways were filled. The windows were filled.

[7:54] People were everywhere. And there was a special need on the outer edge of the crowd. And thankfully, that man had help. There's nothing like good friends. This man was paralyzed.

[8:07] And he needed help. And thankfully, he had friends. They had a burden for him. They wanted to see him well. When they heard of Jesus and his power, they wanted to get the paralyzed man to Jesus.

[8:19] And my friend, that's what we need to do. Is bring them to Jesus. This man could not have come to Jesus by himself.

[8:31] He was physically unable to do that. Jesus may have passed by him that day. But he would not have passed by Jesus that day.

[8:41] He was physically lame. Physically incapable of coming. And what I want you to realize this morning is that there's a lot more people that are spiritually incapable of coming.

[8:54] Then there are people who are physically incapable of coming. Romans chapter 3 verse 10 through 12 says this. None is righteous.

[9:05] No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good.

[9:16] Not even one. And verse 17 and 18 of that same chapter says, And the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

[9:28] A person does not wake up to the fact that he or she needs Jesus on their own. It don't happen. God always makes the initiative.

[9:42] And listen to me. And he often does that through us. He often does it through us. He's commissioned us to join him in the task.

[9:55] To bring others to him. However, there is a resistance. And I'm not talking about a resistance in this world. There is a resistance to the gospel in this world. But there is a resistance in us as well.

[10:11] Unless you are spirit-filled and led by the Spirit of God, you most likely do not share your faith with other folks.

[10:23] In addition to that, people may not be interested in listening to you. And you know what that does? That scares a lot of Christians off.

[10:34] Before they even know if somebody don't want to hear it or not, it scares them off. Because they don't want to be rejected. And they feel like that if somebody don't like the conversation, that they're rejecting us.

[10:46] That's not the reality. They're rejecting the message that we give to them is what they're rejecting. I'm going to tell you, Satan's all over all of that.

[10:58] He oppresses Christians. He influences society. He indoctrinates carnal people. Friend, we're in a war. And if we're not sharing Christ, we're losing it.

[11:11] Let me be more personal. If I'm not sharing Christ, I'm losing it. If you're not sharing Christ, you're losing it. We're in a war. And the only hope that the world has is the hope found in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[11:26] Most people will never come to know the Lord if Christian friends don't bring them to Jesus. Now, we may think it's none of our business. When Scripture tells us that it is, we think they can see the Christ option openly and clearly.

[11:45] When Scripture tells us they can't. Why can't they see it? John 1, verse 5, it says that Jesus is the light that shined in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

[11:58] Never expect someone spiritually in the dark to become spiritually enlightened without the outreach of a Christian friend. I believe the shooting of Charlie Kirk is a reminder of the spiritual battle that we're in.

[12:17] Darkness does not want the gospel shared, especially when it's shared in a non-Christian gathering that typically is about politics.

[12:30] When someone of influence gives the clear gospel to thousands of people that came to hear about other matters, that, my friend, is a hilltop light.

[12:44] That, my friend, is earthly salt, and it is a danger to the evil world. Why? Because it is impactful and because lives change. And the Lord chooses to use those bold in the faith and willing to bring others to Jesus, just like these four did.

[13:06] They just brought him to Jesus. It's our job to bring folks to Christ. Listen, if you don't have the boldness to ask them about a personal relationship with Christ, if you can't invite them to come to Christ, you invite them to come to church.

[13:27] Because I promise you, if they'll come to church, they're going to hear the gospel. Let them fellowship with your life group. Invite them to be a part of a discipleship group, but bring them to Jesus.

[13:40] The second thing I learned from them is go out of the way. Go out of the way. These guys had planned to lead him through, but the crowd was too great for that.

[13:52] They couldn't get through, so they went to the nth degree, and four of them carried him to the roof. Now, typically, in those homes, there were clay steps on either the side of the home or on the back of the home.

[14:04] You climb those steps. You go to the top, and the roofs were flat, and they were very practical. They were used for storage.

[14:16] They were used for drying out things like fruit or maybe clothes. They were also used for overflow, possibly, like a deck would be of sorts.

[14:26] The roofs were made of beams that were usually about three feet apart. Brushwood would fall across those, and then they would be covered with thatch.

[14:41] That thatch was made of grain and straw and mud and clay, and then sometimes tiles, and I believe it's Luke that tells us that they ripped up the tiles, but sometimes tiles would be placed on top of that mud and clay to ensure waterproofing.

[15:00] But to be honest with you, it wasn't hard to tear through that roof, and it wasn't hard to repair a roof like that. Therefore, those friends just removed the tiles, and they broke through the mud, and they removed the branches, and they lowered him between the beams, probably by rope.

[15:21] But can you imagine the scene inside? As Jesus was teaching, the roof was falling. And I can't help but think about what those friends must have thought.

[15:37] I mean, on the way up those steps. They had to be bold, but it would have been easy for them to say, dude, we've toted you far enough. We ain't going up those steps.

[15:50] What are we going to do when we get up there? Or what are the people going to thank? Or what's the owner of the house going to thank?

[16:02] Or what's Jesus going to thank? Why don't we wait? Why don't we come back another day? All of those responses would have been unacceptable.

[16:18] It was a day of a miracle, and none of those friends knew that when they got up that morning. You never know what God's going to do, and when he's going to do a miracle in somebody else's life, because of your effort.

[16:39] And let me ask you something. What is too much? When have you done too much to try to lead somebody to the Lord Jesus?

[16:51] When have you went too far to lead one to Christ? When have you done too much to lead somebody into a real relationship with Christ and keep him or her out of an eternal hell?

[17:05] When do you give up trying? When do you stop that? These guys showed us you don't give up. If the crowd gets thick, you work through the crowd.

[17:20] If entrance is not possible, then go to the top. And God worked in that because God chooses to work in extreme efforts. And in those times, he often makes his greatest moves.

[17:36] Let me tell you something else. As I learned from them, be assured he will meet them. Notice the reason that Jesus did what he did.

[17:49] In verse 5, it says that he saw their faith. He was blessed by their faith. He was blessed by the man's faith as well as those who carried him and who tore him through that roof.

[18:06] Faith can be a head thing. Faith can be just a belief. I believe that Christ changes things.

[18:18] I believe that Christ was really God. I believe Christ really is. That's head stuff. But real faith, the faith that Scripture speaks of, must be active.

[18:32] Real faith moves. Real faith takes risk. Real faith does not just ponder but acts. Real faith does what it takes to bring someone to Christ.

[18:44] Real faith trusts that God will do his thing when we bring them to Christ. We just provide the opportunity. We just provide the opportunity. And they did that. And when they did that, Jesus did not give them what they expected.

[18:58] He forgave the man's sins. Not only was that the man's greatest needs, which Christ always deals with our greatest needs, but I want you to understand the culture in which they lived because the thought was that if you had an illness or you had some type of physical difficulty, that it came because of sin.

[19:20] As a matter of fact, let me remind you what John 9, verse 2 through 3 says. When the disciples asked Jesus, they said, Rabbi, who has sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?

[19:36] And Jesus responded to them, it wasn't that this man's sin or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. Now, what they were speaking to was a common trend and an understanding.

[19:46] As a matter of fact, rabbis, one statement, a saying that rabbis often would say would be, there is no sick man healed of his sickness until all sins have been forgiven.

[19:59] And therefore, what happens is, Jesus deals with three different matters. For one, he forgives the man's sins. That means he washed and cleansed and took his sins away.

[20:10] He forgave the man's sins. The second thing he did was, he satisfied what everybody else was thinking. And the third thing was, he healed the man. But I want you to be clear this morning, Jesus always looks past our physical condition and looks to our spiritual condition.

[20:28] Yes, he healed this man as proof of what he could do in his heart, but I bet nobody thought it was gonna go that way. Understand something. It's not our job to determine someone's greatest need.

[20:39] That's not the job we have. It's our job to get them to Jesus. Jesus is the one that'll meet their needs. Jesus is the one that'll work it out. We often think somebody needs to change their lifestyle or change the places they go or act differently or show a concern for different things.

[20:58] Never forget this, folks. Never forget people without Jesus are without Jesus.

[21:09] people that don't have the Lord don't have the Lord. And if they could fix all those things, they wouldn't need a Savior.

[21:22] But the reality is, they can't fix all that. And if you're waiting to come to Christ for you to fix some things before you do, don't wait. Don't wait. Don't worry about what God needs you to do in your life before you come.

[21:38] Don't wait on that. You come as you are and let God change you from who you are to what He'd have you to be. And don't worry about what God needs to do in someone's life. Get them to Jesus.

[21:52] He'll meet them where they are. He'll change them. Let me tell you what else will happen when you bring them to Jesus. The impact will change things.

[22:06] The last verse we read, verse 12, says this, and He rose, speaking of the paralytic, and immediately, or the former paralytic, and immediately picked up the bed and went out before them all so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, we've never saw anything like this.

[22:25] This transformation was not done in secret. People saw what took place. And when they saw what took place, they couldn't help but share it.

[22:38] It is powerful when somebody comes to Christ. Because it not only affects that person, it affects so many others. Your faith, if it's in Christ, is not a private matter.

[22:55] private faith is dead faith because it has no fruit. Salvation is not to be done in inclusion.

[23:10] It's to be made public. A couple of months ago, someone asked Charlie Kirk in a podcast, I believe, how he wanted to be remembered.

[23:25] And Charlie looked at him and said, if I die? And the man said, if it all goes away, if you could be associated with one thing, how would you want to be remembered?

[23:41] And Charlie said, I want to be remembered for courage of my faith. That would be the most important thing. The most important thing is my faith.

[23:58] Let me be honest with you. I don't know everything about him. What I had seen had been on reels or sound bites before his death. Since then, I've seen a lot more of them.

[24:12] But I know this. He was not ashamed to tell others about Christ. He was not afraid to give a clear gospel no matter the setting.

[24:30] Faith is not to be private. Faith is to be public. And when it is, say people get fired up.

[24:43] And when it is, lost people get saved. And when it is, private Christians became public, will become public. And churches will experience revival.

[24:55] And the kingdom of God will grow. And heaven will celebrate. And the church will shout. Or at least it should. Why? Because some friends went to the extreme to bring a man to Jesus.

[25:10] Jesus. Because Jesus healed his deepest hurts. Cured his deepest wounds. Changed him inside and out. And because many lives witnessed it and have never been the same since.

[25:28] So I ask you this morning, who do you need to bring to Jesus? What are you willing to do to bring someone to Jesus?

[25:48] Let me be even more personal than that. Do you need to come to Jesus today? Has there ever been a time in your life when you've asked the Lord Jesus to forgive you for your sins?

[26:01] To come into your life and to save you and to change you from this day forward? Not only does that give you eternity with Him, you can have a certainty of where you'll spend eternity, but it also gives you an uptick, as an understatement, for the rest of your life.

[26:27] Because Jesus promises us that He will empower us with the Spirit of God and He'll give us the ability to rise above whatever those things are that encumber us.

[26:40] That He'll always provide a way out for those things that tempt us. If you've never given your heart and life to the Lord, even if everybody thinks you have, I want you to know there's not a better day for you to surrender your life to Christ than today.

[27:01] Maybe you're here and you have done that, but it's private. You don't share your faith and you've never acknowledged it publicly. Jesus said, if you're ashamed of me before men, I'll be ashamed of you before my Father.

[27:15] Which really means that if all you've got is this private faith down in you, that it's really not real. I didn't say that. Jesus said that. And so the reality is, you need to acknowledge that.

[27:32] Jesus, by His commission and by His example, tells us that we acknowledge that publicly confessing our faith through baptism. If you've never been baptized as a believer, we're doing it next week. We'd love to include you.

[27:47] Or maybe you're here this morning and there's a matter in your life that you need to bring to Jesus. There's something within you that you're not handling the way you need to be handling it because you're trying to handle it on your own and you need to surrender that to the Lord.

[28:07] Or maybe God's drawing you to fix the First Baptist Church. He's doing a wonderful work in our midst. I'm thankful for that. God's drawing you. You come. We'll be happy to guide you.

[28:17] And I don't have a clue what God's telling you to do. I really don't. But I know that if you'll do it, He'll change your life.

[28:31] You just come to Jesus and commit to bring others to Jesus and trust Him every step of the way. Lord Jesus, I love you. Thank you, Lord, for your love for us.

[28:42]  Lead us right now to just simply be obedient as you speak to our hearts and lives. In Jesus' precious name, amen.