“An Active Faith!”
Falling in Love with Jesus…all over again! An epic journey through the Gospel of Mark (message #11)
Pastor Jerry Ingalls
March 27, 2011
Today we will be looking at the story of a miraculous healing found in Mark 2:1-12. We are going to focus on the healing narrative today and next week we will dive deeper into the first of five controversy narratives (Mark 2:6-10) that are tightly packaged by the evangelist Mark from Mark 2:1 – 3:6. Let’s focus in.
The word of God from Mark 2:1-5, 11-12 (NAU) for a message “An Active Faith!”, “When He had come back to Capernaum several days afterward, it was heard that He was at home. 2 And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room, not even near the door; and He was speaking the word to them. 3 And they came, bringing to Him a paralytic, carried by four men. 4 Being unable to get to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him; and when they had dug an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying. 5 And Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’ . . . 11 ‘I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home.’ 12 And he got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went out in the sight of everyone, so that they were all amazed and were glorifying God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this.’” [Prayer]
What does it mean to live with “an active faith”?
Hebrews 11:1 defines faith for us, “Now faith [pistis] is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”
Let’s learn from these four stretcher-bearers what it means to be a person with an active faith. First, A PERSON WITH AN ACTIVE FAITH KNOWS THE WAY TO GOD!
Our Scripture lesson in Mark 2:1-2 sets up the context for this story, “When He had come back to Capernaum several days afterward, it was heard that He was at home [it is widely attested that this is referring to Simon’s home referenced earlier in Mark 1:29]. And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room, not even near the door; and He was speaking the word [logos] to them.”
Jesus has now returned to the city that He had left in quite the uproar with clamoring crowds wanting more and more from Him and He could only keep his return quiet for days, but once the word got out that Jesus of Nazareth was back at Simon’s house, the crowds returned in the same way they had come months earlier (Mark 1:29-39). Jesus is inside the house teaching the “word to them”. The word is the logos which points to the gospel of God through the person of Jesus Christ.
Here is the scene: there is Jesus in the house teaching with His disciples closest to Him attentive to His every word, with a pocket of Scribes close by as well also listening very attentively to His every word, but with a very different heart and motivation.
Imagine every square inch of the inside of the house is taken up by people who were healed by Jesus the last time He was in town. Then outside the door the crowds were building as people wanted to hear and see Jesus of Nazareth; to be healed by Him. People were most likely starting to bring their sick and demon-possessed nearby hoping there would be a repeat of that fateful night when Jesus had healed so many, but Jesus was focusing on why He came—preaching the word!
Imagine the scene: human waves of clamoring crowds and expectant seekers served as an obstacle to get this paralytic man to Jesus Christ. This paralytic man is considered by his own people as being cursed by God; separated from God; and he doesn’t know the way to God—the way is blocked to Jesus, the Son of God, who came to earth to remove the obstacle between humanity and God! Are there obstacles between you and God? Is it hard for you to pray, to understand the word of God, or to connect to the church (the family of God)?
The life of a person with active faith starts by having the primary obstacle removed between a person and God. That obstacle is sin and there is only one way to having the obstacle of sin removed so that you can know God. Romans 6:23 teaches, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Do you need healing and wholeness in your life? It starts by knowing the way to God is in a relationship with Jesus Christ through the forgiveness of sins.
The Gospel of John 14:6 states, “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”
Have you accepted Jesus Christ as the way to God and entered into a personal relationship with God?
It starts there, but for us who know the way to God it cannot end there. A PERSON WITH AN ACTIVE FAITH BRINGS PEOPLE IN NEED TO JESUS CHRIST!
The story continues in Mark 2:3, “And they came, bringing to Him a paralytic, carried by four men.” We are to engage faith by bringing other people to Jesus; this is what it means to have an active faith—to be a disciple is to be a stretcher-bearer for people in need. Are you a stretcher-bearer? Who are the people in your life who need to experience the love of Jesus Christ?
When you have tasted how sweet the love of God is through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, then you want to tell everyone you know about this great love. The Gospel of John 1:41-42 demonstrates the active faith of a disciple, “The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus.” There is no greater joy than to see a friend, a family member, a neighbor or co-worker experience healing and wholeness by walking with the Lord. These four men set out to do one thing—to bring this man who could not walk to Jesus Christ and their faith gave them confidence in what they hoped for and assurance of what they could not yet see.
They believed Jesus could restore their friend and they would see Him walk. Their active faith would not allow any obstacle from stopping them. And that is our third lesson: A PERSON WITH AN ACTIVE FAITH REMOVES THE OBSTACLES! The story continues in Mark 2:4, “Being unable to get to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him; and when they had dug an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying.”
These are determined men with a faith that believed what they could not yet see. It was this faith that gave them the creative solution to their problem. Jesus had layers and layers of people around Him, but these men would not let any obstacle prevent them from getting their friend to Jesus. They could not go in through the front door, so they carried their friend up the side stairs that went to the roof. The roof would have been easy to dig through and easy to repair afterwards as the roof was flat covered with hardened mud, straw, and brushwood with planks going down as support beams at 3 foot intervals. They dug through the roof and lowered the paralytic man down to Jesus. Can you imagine their confidence that spurred them to do this?
Today, there may not be human walls keeping people from experiencing the love of Jesus in today’s world, but there are still human obstacles that prevent people from knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Have we, the followers of Jesus Christ, become human obstacles to people coming to know Jesus Christ?
Let me ask this in a more personal way: Are there obstacles in your lifestyle that would prevent someone from coming to Jesus through your efforts?
Here are some famous quotes that we need to soberly hear and heed:
1. Mahatma Ghandi stated, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. … If it weren't for Christians, I'd be a Christian.”
2. Philosopher Fredrick Nietzsche wrote, “I might believe in the Redeemer if His followers looked more Redeemed.”
3. An anointed evangelical pastor, Ray C. Stedman, stated, “It has always seemed unfair to me that many churches (and some individual Christians) keep careful records on how many converts they make to Christianity, but never keep any record of how many they drive away from Christ!”
4. Mark Twain wrote, “The church is always trying to get other people to reform; it might not be a bad idea to reform itself a little by way of example.”
This healing narrative captures the heart of being a minister of reconciliation—a stretcher-bearer for God! First, we have to know the way to God through faith in Jesus Christ. It starts with us being in right relationship with God before we can help anyone else. Second, we have to love people enough to intentionally bring those who do not know the way to God to Jesus Christ. God never intended for us to have a private passive faith all for ourselves; we are to share what He has given us!
Third, we need to remove any obstacles from our life to ensure that we do not become a stumbling block that prevents people from seeing Jesus in us. That is why discipleship is so important—we must become more and more like Jesus Christ so that our lives become a witness of who God is. This is an intentional process!
Paul stated in Romans 14:13, “Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister.” Paul again highlights the importance of our lifestyles in 2 Corinthians 6:3-4, “We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way…”
A disciple of Jesus Christ does not add obstacles to the path of other people to know God by making man-made rules that we can judge one another by, but rather a disciple of Jesus Christ removes obstacles so that people can know God through Jesus Christ. Don’t let obstacles stop you from fulfilling your life mission! What steps of discipleship are you willing to take so that you can be a minister of reconciliation in people’s lives?
Our lives become beacons of hope when we live out our faith and love God and love one another as Jesus taught us. It is amazing how many obstacles love removes when we live the way of Jesus Christ! And that leads us to this reality: A PERSON WITH AN ACTIVE FAITH SEES MIRACLES IN PEOPLE’S LIVES! Mark 2:5, 11-12 tells the end of the story, “And Jesus seeing their faith [pistis] said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’ . . . ‘I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home.’ And he got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went out in the sight of everyone, so that they were all amazed and were glorifying God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this.’”
Whose faith did Jesus see? He saw the faith of the four people who carried the paralytic to Jesus. Who did Jesus heal? He healed a man whose faith we know nothing about because of the active faith of these four stretcher-bearers. A person with an active faith is assured of what he hopes for and certain of what he does not yet see. A person with an active faith sees miracles in people’s lives and there is no greater miracle than a transformed life in Jesus Christ!
Are you ready to join with me and be a stretcher-bearer for our community? It is possible when Christians—men and women with active faiths—work together to bring God’s miraculous power to their community. Watch this video: Show short video clip for An Appalachian Dawn at http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=9EB09FNU.
There are entire communities of broken people throughout our land who need to experience God. You are called to live an active faith; to be a stretcher-bearer.
Do you want to see our community transformed by the forgiveness of God and the healing power of Jesus Christ? Are you ready to live by faith? It’s time for Christians to unite in active faith and be stretcher-bearers!
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