The Faith of Four Friends

What does it mean to be a good friend?

Proverbs 18:24 says:

”A man [that hath] friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend [that] sticketh closer than a brother.”

One of the greatest blessings of life is good friends; friends that will pick you up when you are down; friends that will cheer you up when you are sad; friends that you can just share life with; friends that you can go back and forth with and learn from.

Friends can do a lot of good for you, but the greatest thing a friend can do is bring you to Jesus. If you have the kind of friends who pray for you, the kind of friends who share the gospel with you, or the kind of friends who point you to Jesus, then you have real friends and you are blessed.

I’ve got a couple really good friends. Some of my best friends are missionaries. Here is kind of a little secret for you: One ulterior motive to having missionaries come in and present to you is the fellowship. They encourage me and my family.

My stepdad and my brothers are some of my best friends, and I talk to them almost every day. They encourage me. They challenge me. They call me out if I’m being silly. They sharpen my thinking.

I hope you have good, godly friends. I truly believe that who you choose to be your close friends has a bigger impact on your life than almost anything.

”He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools will be destroyed.” (Proverbs 13:20)

Listen: If you get nothing out of this message today besides a challenge to pick great, wise, godly friends, it will still change your life for the better.

In our passage today, we are going to look at one of the greatest stories of faith and friendship we see anywhere in the Bible. It’s a very familiar story. It’s probably one of the stories you remember from Sunday School as a kid, and it’s still a great one and has some lessons for us today.

Let’s read our text, Mark 2:1-12

”Mark 2:1-12 (KJV) 1 And again he entered into Capernaum after [some] days; and it was noised that he was in the house. 2 And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive [them], no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the word unto them. 3 And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four. 4 And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken [it] up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. 6 But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, 7 Why doth this [man] thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only? 8 And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts? 9 Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, [Thy] sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk? 10 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,) 11 I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. 12 And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion.”

The main thrust of Mark 2 is actually opposition. This chapter is setting up the bad guys in the story (the Pharisees) with a bunch of little pictures where we see the Pharisees’ bad attitude and opposition to Jesus, but we are actually going to spend about a month covering that and I’m excited about it. But that’s for next week.

What I want to do this morning is to consider the amazing faith and friendship of these four friends.

Jesus is preaching in Capernaum, which has kind of become his home base. He’s in a house—maybe Simon Peter’s house—and people get wind that He’s there, so they just start filling up the house to see Jesus. History tells us that the Jews in Palestine had a very open culture. It wasn’t a locked door kind of place. You’d just leave your front door open, and anyone could come into your house and visit.

Well, everyone came into this house. It becomes this great crowd. The house is just slammed, and Jesus is preaching to them.

Verse 3 says:

”3 And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four.”

Let me explain what is going on here. “Palsy” refers to paralysis. This man is bedridden and paralyzed. We don’t know why. Some kind of mystery sickness has left him unable to move his legs.

Five years ago, we had Jimmy and Alicia Reagan with us. Alicia was fairly healthy, but she got sick while she was expecting a baby and for some mysterious reason, she woke up paralyzed from the waist down. That’s been ten years ago. She’ll likely never walk again. God has greatly used the Reagans to minister to handicapped people and to encourage lots of other people going through adversity.

That’s probably what this man went through. For whatever reason, something happened, and he couldn’t walk any more. He was paralyzed and completely unable to take care of himself.

All of a sudden, there was a lot this man didn’t have: He didn’t have the ability to take care of himself. He didn’t have the ability to go out on the fishing boats and make a living for his family. He didn’t have the ability to walk to the bathroom in the middle of the night. He didn’t have legs that could stretch and take him out for a stroll in the countryside.

But for all he didn’t have, he did have four awesome friends. These four guys knew he needed help, and they knew that the best chance—the only chance—he had was to see Jesus, and they were determined to bring him to Jesus, no matter what.

I want to give you four points this morning about the faith of these four friends. I think they are a great example of what it sometimes takes to bring people to Jesus.

Let’s pray and I’ll give you those four points.

What kind of faith did these four friends have to have to bring their friend to Jesus?

First,

1. These four friends had a loving, compassionate faith.

We don’t know how they knew the man sick of the palsy. Maybe they were cousins. Maybe they were coworkers. Maybe they were on the same bowling team. We don’t know the details, but we do know that they loved him and cared about him enough to do something bold about it.

Jude 22 says:

”and some have compassion, making a difference.”

Several times in scripture it says that Jesus looked at people and was “moved with compassion.” Compassion is a good thing. It’s a Christlike thing. It makes a difference.

In Jesus’ day, if you came down with some kind of life altering illness like this one, everyone assumed it was because you did something. They assumed it was because of sin.

Many people would have heard about a neighbor coming down with the palsy and thought, “Well, that’s too bad. I wonder what he did. Must have been bad. Looks like the welfare rolls are swelling again.”

But these guys cared, and they did something about it.

Church, if we are going to bring people to Jesus, it’s going to take compassion. We won’t be able to look at people through the eyes of self-righteousness, pat ourselves on the back, and say, “I’m so glad I’m not like that lowlife.” We’ll have to see people as people Jesus died for, and as people struggling with different symptoms of the same disease we had. We have to have compassion.

You know you struggle with this sometimes. I sure do. Sometimes I see the mess of people’s life, and I want to say, “They brought it on themselves. It serves them right,” but that attitude never once brought a soul to Jesus.

It takes compassion, and these four guys had a compassionate faith.

Not only did they have a compassionate faith...

2. These four friends had a certain faith.

What goes through the mind of someone that would cause them to carry a guy through town on a stretcher to bring them to someone to be healed? I mean, that’s kind of an imposition. That’s kind of a difficult task.

There is no way that these four guys would have done what they did unless they believed two things completely:

1. They had to believe that Jesus could heal their friend—that He had the power.
2. They had to believe that Jesus wanted to heal their friend—that He had the desire.

Think about it: If they thought in their mind, “I don’t know if this Jesus can actually do this,” there is no way they would have carried a guy through town on a stretcher. If they thought, “He probably won’t care or want to do anything about it. He’ll probably be like the other religious teachers who just say, ‘It serves him right,’” there is no way they would do what they did in this passage.

They had to come to this with absolute certain belief in the willingness and ability of Jesus to heal.

Can I tell you that the reason why many never tell anyone else about Jesus is because they don’t really believe that He can save and heal their friends? They look at their friends or their coworkers and they think, “That guy is too far gone. That guy is past hope.”

Maybe they think to themselves that Jesus doesn’t really care. Jesus doesn’t really want to save people.

Friends, no one is past hope for Jesus. He is able to save to the uttermost anyone who comes to Him. Jesus said that if any man comes to Him, He will in no wise cast him out.

Jesus wants to save. Jesus wants to see people saved far more than you or I ever could.

If we are ever going to bring people to Jesus, we are going to have to believe with certainty three things:

• God wants to save people.
• God can save people.
• God is actively working to bring people to Himself.

These four friends had a compassionate faith and a certain faith. Thirdly...

3. These four friends had a determined faith.

They carried their friend through town to see Jesus, and there was no way they were getting in. It was full; jam-packed; slammed. It was like Cracker Barrel on Mother’s Day; like Game 7 of the Finals. They weren’t getting in there.

What most people would have done at this point—what I probably would have done—was say, “Oh well, looks like it’s not our day. Let’s go home and get some pizza,” But these guys were determined. They were going to bring their friend to Jesus.

I did a little research this week into the way they build houses in Israel when Jesus lived there. Most people lived in a one-story house with a flat roof. The ceiling would have been exposed beams with sticks laid across it. Then they would seal the sticks with a kind of mud and put about a foot of dirt on top of it. A lot of houses would even grow grass on the top of their roof.

On the side of the house, there would be a staircase, and people could walk up the stairs to enjoy the rooftop.

These guys carried their friend up to the rooftop, and they started digging. Imagine being in the house. Imagine hearing noises. Dirt starts falling through the cracks. The roof fills with dust. They look up, and there is a hole in the roof. Sunshine is streaming in. The hole gets bigger, and four guys are up there with impish smiles on their faces. Then they take off their belts and lower the stretcher at the foot of Jesus.

That’s determination. That’s not taking “No” for an answer.

If we are going to bring people to Jesus, it’s going to take determination. There will always be closed doors. There will always be opposition. It’s not ever going to be an easy task where everything goes right.

Lazy people work hard at making excuses. Determined people refuse to take “No” for an answer.

Sometimes it’s going to take a determined faith.

• Sometimes you’ll have to pray for a friend for years or decades. Don’t give up.
• Sometimes you’ll have to share Jesus with someone multiple times. Don’t give up.

Let me read you something I read recently about the evangelist George Mueller:

In November 1844, I began to pray for the conversion of five individuals. I prayed every day without a single intermission, whether sick or in health, on the land, on the sea, and whatever the pressure of my engagements might be. Eighteen months elapsed before the first of the five was converted. I thanked God and prayed on for the others. Five years elapsed, and then the second was converted. I thanked God for the second, and prayed on for the other three. Day by day, I continued to pray for them, and six years passed before the third was converted. I thanked God for the three, and went on praying for the other two. These two remained unconverted.

Thirty-six years later he wrote that the other two, sons of one of Mueller’s friends, were still not converted. He wrote, “But I hope in God, I pray on, and look for the answer. They are not converted yet, but they will be.” In 1897, fifty-two years after he began to pray daily, without interruption, for these two men, they were finally converted—but after he died!

Listen folks, Mueller prayed for these guys for over fifty years. That’s determination.

So they had a compassionate faith, a certain faith, a determined faith, and look at one more thing with me...

4. These four friends had a sacrificial faith.

These four guys gave up a lot of things in this passage. They gave up a day. They took the day off to bring their friend to Jesus.

They gave up their strength. It had to be hard to carry the man through town and up the stairs. It had to be exhausting burrowing through the sod covered roof and then lowering him down to Jesus.

They were probably giving up money, too. I don’t know about you, but if you put a hole in my roof, even for a good reason, I’d expect you to pay to fix it. These guys probably understood that.

And if we are going to bring people to Jesus, it’s going to take a sacrifice sometimes. Ministry is a sacrifice. It takes time. It takes effort. It takes strength. Sometimes it costs you money.

And they were definitely risking their reputation. I mean, they were vandalizing somebody’s house in the middle of a crowd. A bunch of old ladies sitting in the house probably got dirt all over their dresses. They wouldn’t forget that. These guys were going to get the reputation of being a little crazy and maybe a little reckless.

But the rewards are worth it.

You know the rest of the story: Jesus forgave this man of his sins, and then He healed this man of his palsy. When people come to Jesus in faith, He saves them and heals them.

We’ll probably talk about the Pharisees and their reaction as part of next week’s message, but this morning I wanted to talk about the friends who brought a man to Jesus. They cared; they knew Jesus could and would help him; they wouldn’t take “No” for an answer, and they were willing to sacrifice.

Conclusion

Is there someone who God is laying on your heart to bring to Jesus? Is there someone you are praying for? Working on? Witnessing to?

Bringing people to Jesus often requires compassion, certainty that God has the ability and the desire to heal them, determination to overcome obstacles, and a willingness to sacrifice our time, our strength, our property, and our reputation.

But when people get to Jesus, it’s worth it all. When people get to Jesus, their sins are forgiven. When people get to Jesus, they are born again. When people get to Jesus, miracles happen.

Let’s be people who are compassionate, determined, and sacrificing to bring others to Jesus, because we know He wants to save them and can.

Lets’s stand for prayer and invitation.