The Church of Eleven22 - S01 E18 - The Four Friends

Episode Date: April 21, 2020

Hey, church family, time for DeVos. If you got your Bible, we're going to go to Luke Chapter 5 with this incredible and miraculous account. Luke chapter 5, we'll pick it up in verse 17. On one of those days, as Jesus was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law, they were sitting there who had come from every village in Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. and the power of the Lord was with him to heal. And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed and they were seeking to bring him the paralyzed man and lay him before Jesus.

Let me stop right there. Do you have those kind of friends? Do you have those kind of friends? Do you have the kind of friends that if you are in need, then they at great expense to themselves, would help you. So in my mind, the Bible doesn't say how many men there were, but in my mind there's at least four. There's four corners of this mat, so I'm thinking there's at least one man on each corner. I dare you to write down right now four people in your life that you could

count on for anything and everything. If you don't have those kinds of friends, and I'm just telling you, you're not doing life right. God said that it's not good for man to be alone. That was just not a comment about Adam needed a date. It means that you and I were built, we were wired for a relationship. And if you're a Jesus follower, then being a Christian, it's not a solitary sport. It is not. We are supposed to do this thing together. The Bible calls the church a body and a disconnected body part will wither and die. The Bible calls the church a family. And so that means that you and I, we're brothers and sisters, and then you need to be connected in the family. If you are not connected and you think, well, how in the world could I get connected right now?

You should go to C-O-E-22.com and sign up for one of our online disciple groups so that if you find yourself in a place where you need help, you have people around you that can help you. And so that there are other people in our church right now and they may need your help. Maybe you would be one of the people that picks up the corner of the corner of the people. of their mat. And then here's the thing, man. If you wrote down those four friends, I know most of you probably have four friends. And they're like your golf buddies or your workout buddies or something like that. And if you needed a ride or if you needed some money, maybe they would give you a ride or some money. But the key with these friends is these friends love the paralytic man enough

to pick him up and take him to Jesus. That's the kind of friends I'm talking about. I'm not just talking about somebody you can bum a ride from. I mean, do you have at least four people in your life that if you were down and out, they would pick you up and take you to Jesus? This is the kind of friends that this man has. So again, and behold, some men were bringing on a bed, a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus. But finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and they let him down, and they let him down, with his bed through the tiles in the midst before Jesus. So here's what's going on.

Jesus is teaching in this house. There's so many people gathered around because of the miraculous signs that Jesus has been doing in the first few chapters of the book of Luke that there is no place in the house. And again, Jesus is teaching, so probably what was happening is the rabbi would sit and everybody would stand and crowd around the teaching rabbi. and it was the people that were already in, that were keeping the people out that really needed to be in. Let me say that again. It was the people that were on the inside, that were already in, that were keeping people out on the outside that most needed to be in.

By the way, at the Church of 1122, this is a big, big reason. We are expanding San Pablo. It's a big reason. we are launching new campuses. It's a big reason that we're putting all of our services online. Because God forbid those of us that already have a seat on the inside would be preventing people on the outside from getting in to see Jesus. Isn't the whole point of being a disciple of Jesus

as we are molded in shape to be more like him, to go find people that don't know him yet, and to do whatever it takes to get them to Jesus? And so these men, when they get there, it's crowded, and they think this crowd's not going to stop me. And so they go up on the roof, and they begin to tear the roof apart. The way a first century roof was made, it was basically layers of, they call it tiles, but it's sort of just like mud, stacked on mud, stacked on mud with some leaves and branches and then more mud.

And so they're digging through, and they're digging through. and again, at great expense to the homeowner. See, listen, if you're on the inside and you know Jesus, you should be willing to pay whatever price it takes to get those on the outside, on the inside, to be with Jesus. And so they're digging through the roof, verse 20, and when Jesus saw their faith, he said, man, your sins are forgiven. There's a lot here in this verse.

First of all, I want you to think about your one more's. have you done in the past three or four weeks to help get your one more to Jesus? Maybe this is just a reminder to be praying for your one more. Be praying for that person that God has placed in your life that you would be willing to be used by God to get that person to Jesus. May I remind you to pray for that person. May I remind you to share your faith with that person. And here's what I mean by share your faith.

sometimes it's as simple as share an invitation. Like maybe you could just share an invitation with that person since they can't attend church with us right now in the normal way. Maybe you could just share an invitation that they would watch last week's Easter sermon or whatever sermon you want to share. Sometimes you can share with them just like a phone call and just continue in that relationship. Sometimes you can share your story,

that you pray that God gives you the opportunity to share how you came to know Jesus. Sometimes you can share prayer request. Like one of the best ways to love the one more is that God has placed in your life is simply ask them this question, how can I be praying for you? And maybe they don't want to talk about Jesus right now, but the thing that I've seen happen over and over and over is this,

is the person that you have been praying for and you have been sharing your faith, or maybe you've shared the gospel, there will come a day where they find themselves on the mat, and you will be that person that is totally, toting one of the corners. And oftentimes when it seems like their whole world falls apart, do you know who they run to? They run to the person that they know talks to God on their behalf. That's you. And so, here's what's crazy. If you look at it, if you look at what it says in verse 20,

and when Jesus saw their faith, so here's Jesus' teaching, there's a hole in the roof, and it doesn't say when Jesus sees the faith of the man on the mat. It says when he sees their faith, did you ever consider that your faith can impact the eternal trajectory of one of your friends? So would you pray with that kind of faith? And so when he sees their faith, here's what he says. Man, your sins are forgiven you. Let's be honest, I don't think that's what they were looking for.

They weren't looking for their sins to be forgiven. They were looking for this man's legs to be healed. I hope you know that God gives us what we need and not always what we want. Tim Keller says in response to unanswered prayer, he says that God answers our prayers the exact same way we would answer our prayers if we knew all that God needs. And so God looks at this man, and he has an eternal condition of sin that separates him from God, and he has a temporary condition that his legs won't work. And so what God does is God immediately goes to the most important to what he really needs,

and he handles his eternal condition first. He says, man, your sins are forgiven. And the scribes and the Pharisees, they began to question saying, who is this who speaks blasphemies, who can forgive sin but God alone. Here's the thing that the scribes and the Pharisees, they're absolutely right. Pharisees, you're right. Who can forgive sin but God alone? Correct.

And the crazy thing is, is that these religious people were so wrapped up in their own religiosity that they were five feet away from the Son of God and they couldn't even recognize him. They could smell the breath of God and they didn't recognize him. They were so caught up in their pompous religiosity that they missed out on people having a relationship with Jesus. And when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, why do you question in your hearts?

and then he asked this question, which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven or to say rise and walk? Well, on the surface, it looks like it's easier to say your sins are forgiven, right? Because how do you know if it worked? You have to wait until you die to see if it actually worked or not. And it seems on the surface that the harder thing to do would say rise and walk, because in that moment, you know if it works or not. but ultimately what Jesus is saying is one is a temporary condition and one is an eternal condition then he goes on to say but that you may know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins he said to the man who was paralyzed i say to you rise pick up your bed and go home and immediately he rose up before them and he picked up what he had been lying on and he went home glorifying God.

You see, any time that Jesus did miracles all throughout the New Testament, the miracles were just signs. And a sign, a sign obviously points to something else. Like when you pull into Jacksonville, when you're coming up 95 from the south, you know, there's that big sign over that bridge and it just says Jacksonville. Now, is that sign actually Jacksonville? No. It points to all that is Jacksonville. And so what Jesus is doing here is when he would do a sign, it is to point to a greater truth. For sure, he had compassion on this man, and he loved this man, and he is concerned about his temporary condition, just like he's concerned about our temporary condition. But even more than that, he is saying the reason that I'm going to heal his leg, is because if I heal his legs, it will be a sign for you that I have authority, not over this man's

leg, but I have the authority to forgive sin. And so he says, and immediately he rose up before them. He picked up what he'd been laying on, and he went home glorifying God. And amazement sees them all, and they glorify God, and they were filled with awe saying, we have seen extraordinary things today. Church of 1122, if I saw a paralyzed man get up and walk after his friends ripped a hole in the ceiling during a church service and I saw that kind of miracle, I would give God glory, I'd be amazed, and I would tell that story over and over and over. I would say we have seen extraordinary things today. But Church of 1122, do you have any idea what you were caught up in? Do you have any idea in the move of God that we are a part of? That

that just on our Easter service, we had 154 people not just get temporarily healed in their legs to get eternally healed in their hearts. That since this church has launched, we've had over 8,000 people have their sins forgiven by Jesus Christ. May we never, ever, ever get accustomed to it. If we have to tear the roof off of every building that we own so that we can lower in more people and more people and more people to be able to see Jesus so that their sins can be forgiven, may we never tire in bringing our friends to Jesus. Because we have seen extraordinary things. And I believe our best days are still ahead. Church, I want you to be praying for your one more. I have this sense that our society right now is getting hungry and hungrier and hungrier for spiritual.

spiritual truth. I really believe that once we are able to assemble again and gather together, we will continue to worship online. That will be a thing that we offer for folks that, for whatever reason, can't come into one of our buildings right now. But I believe it's going to be very similar to right after 9-11 when almost everybody in the country said, we need to go to church. I think when we're allowed to gather together again in our facilities, I think that there is going to be a huge influx of people that want to come and see what Jesus has to say. Church of 1122, may we be ready. May we be tearing off the roofs.

May we be making room. May we be carrying our friends to Jesus. May we be carrying them to him in prayer right now so that we can continue to see the extraordinary things that God has done, namely the forgiveness of our sin. Church, way to go. Way to go, not being the kind of church. that's satisfied once the room was full.

But thank you, thank you, thank you, for reaching out to the one more is in your life and allowing God to use you to bring them to him. Let me pray for you. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, would you just remind us once again of how important relationships are? And God, would you just bring to our heart and our mind once again,

that person that we know in our lives, and they need us, they need you. but in their lives, maybe we're the only ones that know you. So, God, would you use us to draw them to you? God, would you give us the confidence right now? Would you give us the compassion to share our faith? To share an invitation to watch the service online, to share a message with them, to share our story,

to share prayer request, to share a phone call. And God, we pray. We pray for that moment where they see you eyeball to eyeball. and God, we're honored and humbled that you might use ordinary people like us, but God, we look forward to that day when you look deep into their soul and forgive their sin by the gospel of Jesus Christ. And God, we give you glory for that. We pray to in Jesus' name.