Pastor Cal Lord's Recent Sermons
Show Me Your Faith
Mark 2:1-12 February 23, 2003
As we gather here in church this morning and sing God’s praises, someone looking in on us
would certainly be able to conclude that we had a lot of faith. We’ve taken the time to come
together and put aside our own interests to worship God. We are sitting with some people we
know and others we’ve never spoken to. Together, we are listening to words of scripture that
may or may not have any meaning to us, but we come with the expectation that something that
happens here will make a difference in our lives and in the world around us. That’s faith isn’t it?
Well maybe. There’s an old story told about a tightrope walker who did incredible stunts. All
over Paris, he would do tightrope acts at scary heights. Then, he would do it blindfolded. Then
he would go across the tightrope, blindfolded, pushing a wheelbarrow.
There was an American promoter who read about this in the newspapers and wrote a letter to the
tightrope walker, saying, "I don’t believe you can do it, but I’m willing to make you an offer. I
would like to challenge you to do your act over Niagara Falls. If you come, I will pay all your
expenses and give you a hundred thousand dollars to boot."
The tightrope wrote back and said, "Sir, I’d love to come." When the day for the big event
arrived, a crowd of people came to see the event. The tightrope walker was to start on the
Canadian side and come over to the American side on this rope suspended over the falls. After a
suspenseful drum roll, he came across blindfolded.
The crowds went wild, and he came to the promoter and says, "Well, Mr. Promoter, now do
you believe I can do it?" He said, "Well of course I do. I mean, I just saw you do it." "No," said
Tightrope, "do you really believe I can do it?" "Well of course I do, you just did it." "No, no, no,"
said Tightrope, "do you believe I can do it?" "Yes," said Mr. Promoter, "I believe you can do it."
"Good," said Tightrope, "then get in the wheelbarrow."
You see, faith is never something just to be talked about. It is something that must be
demonstrated in the way we live. Paul Harvey once said, “If you don’t live it, you don’t believe
it.” There’s Biblical basis for that statement too. James said, “Show me your faith without your
works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” (James 2:18). In other words, it is easy to
come together here on a Sunday morning and listen to words about faith, sing songs about faith,
and even talk to each other about faith, but living out our faith is another thing altogether.
Our text today, from the second chapter of Mark, demonstrates this principle. As we look at this
story I want to draw your attention to four short words in verse 5: It says “Jesus saw their faith”.
Now most people would say, “You can’t ‘see’ faith. Faith isn’t in the physical, visible realm.”
But I want to suggest today that it is. And the point of this story is that Jesus saw the faith of
these four men. And he honored it.
Now, to set the stage for our story, in verse 1, we’re told that Jesus had “come home.” When
people found out that Jesus was there, they began to gather outside the house where he was
staying. He had developed quite a reputation, throughout the area, as a man of compassion and a
man of God. Word got out that he was healing sick people in every town. So it was only natural
that when the people heard he was there, the crowd wanted to see and hear him. Before long
they filled the house and overflowed into the street.
Now as Jesus was doing his thing inside, unbeknownst to him, four men were making their way
to his house with a good friend of theirs. The friend was a paraplegic and in order to get him to
Jesus, they carried him on a mat all the way from his house to Jesus’ house. And when they
arrived, I can almost imagine their frustration at seeing the place packed solid with people, inside
and out. At that point, many people would have given up and decided to come back another day.
I confess that this is how it is at my barber shop. I’ve been going to Anne Ciccone over in Yantic
Flats since I came to Norwich in 1985. But she’s older now and she has cut her hours and there
is almost always a line of people waiting. Some days I’ll stop in and if I see too large of a
crowd, I’ll just keep right on going, and make plans to get my haircut on another day. I can’t be
bothered to wait. And if that happens too often, I’ll probably consider going somewhere else.
That is not what happens in this story though. The fact that Jesus was completely surrounded
and there was no easy way to get to him, did not stop the men from doing what they wanted to
do for their friend. You see, they believed that the only person who could heal their friend, was
Jesus. And they loved him enough that they wanted him to be healed today. So that made it
imperative that they get into the house so that Jesus could meet him face to face. The door was
blocked, the windows filled with bodies, and the crowd was so thick, that it seemed impossible.
But like that old saying, “if there is a will, there is a way,” the men put their mind to solving this
problem.
Now in Palestine, the roofs of most houses were flat. They would be used for finding peace and
quiet, for drying clothes and even storing things. In I Kings 17, we read about Elijah living on the
roof. In Acts 10, we find Peter up on the roof praying. Generally there were stairs going up
along an outside wall. The roofs were usually made of beams about 3 feet apart. These beams
would be filled with twigs, then packed with clay and covered with dirt.
When the four men saw they couldn’t get to Jesus by conventional means, someone must have
thought about going up on the rooftop. Even though it was highly unorthodox, the friends knew
that if their friend was to be healed, they needed to get him to Jesus at any cost. They climbed on
top of the house, dug out a section of the roof and immediately began working together to lower
the friend right into the center of the room where Jesus was speaking. Seems like the thing to do
right?
Well, think about it for a minute. If you were going to visit a famous rabbi who had a large
following, who possessed some degree of prominence, and if you wanted to treat the rabbi
respectfully, as Jews were taught to do, and in addition you wanted him to heal your friend,
wouldn’t you try to make a good impression on him before you asked him to do something for
you? It seems to me that the last thing you would want to do is tear up his house! But Jesus’
words tell a different story.
These men evidently had heard Jesus talk about himself. They had undoubtably heard him say
that he was the Physician who had come for the sick rather than for the well. And I’m sure that
throughout his teaching in those early days in the Galilean ministry, Jesus repeatedly made the
point that needy, broken, hurting, and desperate people were the very ones for whom he had
come and on whom his ministry was focused. And from looking at their actions, there is no
doubt that these men were audacious enough to believe him! In bringing their friend to Jesus and
then tearing apart the roof to gain access to him, they were boldly saying, "If you say so, we are
going to trust that you care more about people than buildings, and put before you one of the very
kinds of people you said you have come to help." They believed the things that he had said about
himself and they acted on their belief. And the text says that in this act, “Jesus saw their faith.”
Their faith became visible in all they did for their friend. It wasn’t just words anymore. It was
real.
I think this passage is meant to show us what real faith is all about it. There is a boldness that
comes by believing deeply that God means what he says. It means that we are willing to make
fools of ourselves because we believe so deeply that God’s is true to his word.
This is a great story that gives us a picture of faith in action. Let’s look at three qualities of their
faith that I believe need to be a part of our faith as well.
First, Jesus saw four men who cared. These were four men who weren’t thinking of
themselves. They didn’t need anything. But they had a friend who did. They had a “Christ-like”
faith, faith that shows compassion on those in need.
As the body of Christ today, we are called to be a people who truly care. Paul wrote, "Rejoice
with those who rejoice, weep with them that weep." (Romans 12:15). In other words, get
involved in the lives of others. What a tremendous difference it would make if we would just
spend a bit of each day looking for someone who has a need. It might be someone in the church.
It might be your next-door neighbor. It might be someone who has a material need. It might be
someone who needs a babysitter for a couple of hours. It might be someone who needs someone
to talk to. It might be someone who is anxious to learn more about God’s Word. Remember,
"They won’t care how much we know until they know how much we care."
Can you imagine these four men visiting their paralyzed friend? They stop by to say hello, talk
about their big plans for the week-end, then they start out the door saying, "Yeah, we’re going to
hear this fellow Jesus speak. By the way, this Jesus has the power to heal anybody, even
somebody paralyzed like you. Listen, if there’s ever anything we can do for you, you just let us
know!"
James said, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?....
Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ’Go, I
wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is
it?" (James 2:14-16).
Indeed, what good is it? Caring about people only has meaning when we are doing something.
Jesus saw four men with a faith that cared. We need to have the same kind of faith.
Second, Jesus Saw Four Men Who Wanted to Share Christ. These four men didn’t want to take
the paralyzed man to a chariot race. They didn’t want to take him down to the lake to go fishing.
They wanted to share Christ with him. And that made all the difference in his life.
The church needs to be a people with a faith that is anxious to share Christ. Like Andrew.
Andrew is not one of the prominent apostles. Not like James and John, or Peter, his brother. But
every time we read about Andrew, he’s bringing someone to Christ. He brought his brother,
Peter, to the Lord. He brought the boy with the fish to Jesus. He brought some Greeks with
questions to Jesus. No, he’s not recognized as great. But he shared Christ with the people around
him. And when you stop to think about it, what could possibly be greater than that?
We ought to feel about Christ the way the apostles did when they said, "We cannot help speaking
about what we have seen and heard." (Acts 4:20). They couldn’t hold it inside of them. They had
to share it! The four men in our lesson were men in good health. They didn’t need a special
blessing from the Lord, but they brought someone who did. And that’s also the goal of all
Christians. Indeed, what greater compliment could be given than to say, "He brought people to
Christ"?
Third, The Lord Saw Four Men Who Wouldn’t Give Up. These four men brought their friend to
Jesus. But when they got near the house, they saw that there was no room to get through.
Now, if they had quit at this point, they would have had a good excuse or reason to go home.
But they weren’t looking for a way out. It’s amazing how many people are looking, it seems, for
a reason to get out of doing something. They always seem to have a “reason” for their
unfaithfulness to the things of the Lord. The New Testament calls them excuses.
You know there are a lot of good reasons for not coming to church here on a Sunday morning
and you and I have heard them all. There are no parking spaces. It is raining outside. I was out
late last night. The people weren’t very friendly to me. I don’t know anyone there. I don’t have
any money for the offering. The pastor made fun of me in his sermon last week – Sorry Curt!
But the truth is that when it comes to testing our faith, none of them can cut it.
But these four men had a faith so great that it refused to die in the face of obstacles. They were
determined that nothing would stop them from seeing Jesus. You see, our failures as churches
and as individuals generally lie not so much in our obstacles and problems as they do in our lack
of faith. We’ve already decided what’s not going to work and who’s not going to respond and
what can’t be done. And somehow that soothes our conscience a little bit when we don’t do
anything because "it wouldn’t do any good anyhow." There are many who are anxious to cry, "It
can’t be done." And until we put forth the effort, it won’t be done. But so much can be
accomplished when we recognize the power of God. Certainly the Apostle Paul did and he tells
us, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."(Philippians 4:13).
The Lord’s work has not always been accomplished by talented people or intelligent people or
strong people. But it has always been done by people who believed in the power of God, who did
what they could, relying on God to supply the rest.
There is a poem by Edgar Guest that I like:
There are thousands that tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
That "cannot be done", and you’ll do it.
So let’s learn from this story. Yes we need to praise God with our lips. We want a thousand
tongues to sing God’s praises. But even more we want the love of Christ to be as free flowing
as the wind, moving here and there through the power of the Holy spirit. I pray that your faith
and my faith might not only be something in here, but also something that is visible to the whole
world.
Amen
Mark 2:1-12 February 23, 2003
As we gather here in church this morning and sing God’s praises, someone looking in on us
would certainly be able to conclude that we had a lot of faith. We’ve taken the time to come
together and put aside our own interests to worship God. We are sitting with some people we
know and others we’ve never spoken to. Together, we are listening to words of scripture that
may or may not have any meaning to us, but we come with the expectation that something that
happens here will make a difference in our lives and in the world around us. That’s faith isn’t it?
Well maybe. There’s an old story told about a tightrope walker who did incredible stunts. All
over Paris, he would do tightrope acts at scary heights. Then, he would do it blindfolded. Then
he would go across the tightrope, blindfolded, pushing a wheelbarrow.
There was an American promoter who read about this in the newspapers and wrote a letter to the
tightrope walker, saying, "I don’t believe you can do it, but I’m willing to make you an offer. I
would like to challenge you to do your act over Niagara Falls. If you come, I will pay all your
expenses and give you a hundred thousand dollars to boot."
The tightrope wrote back and said, "Sir, I’d love to come." When the day for the big event
arrived, a crowd of people came to see the event. The tightrope walker was to start on the
Canadian side and come over to the American side on this rope suspended over the falls. After a
suspenseful drum roll, he came across blindfolded.
The crowds went wild, and he came to the promoter and says, "Well, Mr. Promoter, now do
you believe I can do it?" He said, "Well of course I do. I mean, I just saw you do it." "No," said
Tightrope, "do you really believe I can do it?" "Well of course I do, you just did it." "No, no, no,"
said Tightrope, "do you believe I can do it?" "Yes," said Mr. Promoter, "I believe you can do it."
"Good," said Tightrope, "then get in the wheelbarrow."
You see, faith is never something just to be talked about. It is something that must be
demonstrated in the way we live. Paul Harvey once said, “If you don’t live it, you don’t believe
it.” There’s Biblical basis for that statement too. James said, “Show me your faith without your
works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” (James 2:18). In other words, it is easy to
come together here on a Sunday morning and listen to words about faith, sing songs about faith,
and even talk to each other about faith, but living out our faith is another thing altogether.
Our text today, from the second chapter of Mark, demonstrates this principle. As we look at this
story I want to draw your attention to four short words in verse 5: It says “Jesus saw their faith”.
Now most people would say, “You can’t ‘see’ faith. Faith isn’t in the physical, visible realm.”
But I want to suggest today that it is. And the point of this story is that Jesus saw the faith of
these four men. And he honored it.
Now, to set the stage for our story, in verse 1, we’re told that Jesus had “come home.” When
people found out that Jesus was there, they began to gather outside the house where he was
staying. He had developed quite a reputation, throughout the area, as a man of compassion and a
man of God. Word got out that he was healing sick people in every town. So it was only natural
that when the people heard he was there, the crowd wanted to see and hear him. Before long
they filled the house and overflowed into the street.
Now as Jesus was doing his thing inside, unbeknownst to him, four men were making their way
to his house with a good friend of theirs. The friend was a paraplegic and in order to get him to
Jesus, they carried him on a mat all the way from his house to Jesus’ house. And when they
arrived, I can almost imagine their frustration at seeing the place packed solid with people, inside
and out. At that point, many people would have given up and decided to come back another day.
I confess that this is how it is at my barber shop. I’ve been going to Anne Ciccone over in Yantic
Flats since I came to Norwich in 1985. But she’s older now and she has cut her hours and there
is almost always a line of people waiting. Some days I’ll stop in and if I see too large of a
crowd, I’ll just keep right on going, and make plans to get my haircut on another day. I can’t be
bothered to wait. And if that happens too often, I’ll probably consider going somewhere else.
That is not what happens in this story though. The fact that Jesus was completely surrounded
and there was no easy way to get to him, did not stop the men from doing what they wanted to
do for their friend. You see, they believed that the only person who could heal their friend, was
Jesus. And they loved him enough that they wanted him to be healed today. So that made it
imperative that they get into the house so that Jesus could meet him face to face. The door was
blocked, the windows filled with bodies, and the crowd was so thick, that it seemed impossible.
But like that old saying, “if there is a will, there is a way,” the men put their mind to solving this
problem.
Now in Palestine, the roofs of most houses were flat. They would be used for finding peace and
quiet, for drying clothes and even storing things. In I Kings 17, we read about Elijah living on the
roof. In Acts 10, we find Peter up on the roof praying. Generally there were stairs going up
along an outside wall. The roofs were usually made of beams about 3 feet apart. These beams
would be filled with twigs, then packed with clay and covered with dirt.
When the four men saw they couldn’t get to Jesus by conventional means, someone must have
thought about going up on the rooftop. Even though it was highly unorthodox, the friends knew
that if their friend was to be healed, they needed to get him to Jesus at any cost. They climbed on
top of the house, dug out a section of the roof and immediately began working together to lower
the friend right into the center of the room where Jesus was speaking. Seems like the thing to do
right?
Well, think about it for a minute. If you were going to visit a famous rabbi who had a large
following, who possessed some degree of prominence, and if you wanted to treat the rabbi
respectfully, as Jews were taught to do, and in addition you wanted him to heal your friend,
wouldn’t you try to make a good impression on him before you asked him to do something for
you? It seems to me that the last thing you would want to do is tear up his house! But Jesus’
words tell a different story.
These men evidently had heard Jesus talk about himself. They had undoubtably heard him say
that he was the Physician who had come for the sick rather than for the well. And I’m sure that
throughout his teaching in those early days in the Galilean ministry, Jesus repeatedly made the
point that needy, broken, hurting, and desperate people were the very ones for whom he had
come and on whom his ministry was focused. And from looking at their actions, there is no
doubt that these men were audacious enough to believe him! In bringing their friend to Jesus and
then tearing apart the roof to gain access to him, they were boldly saying, "If you say so, we are
going to trust that you care more about people than buildings, and put before you one of the very
kinds of people you said you have come to help." They believed the things that he had said about
himself and they acted on their belief. And the text says that in this act, “Jesus saw their faith.”
Their faith became visible in all they did for their friend. It wasn’t just words anymore. It was
real.
I think this passage is meant to show us what real faith is all about it. There is a boldness that
comes by believing deeply that God means what he says. It means that we are willing to make
fools of ourselves because we believe so deeply that God’s is true to his word.
This is a great story that gives us a picture of faith in action. Let’s look at three qualities of their
faith that I believe need to be a part of our faith as well.
First, Jesus saw four men who cared. These were four men who weren’t thinking of
themselves. They didn’t need anything. But they had a friend who did. They had a “Christ-like”
faith, faith that shows compassion on those in need.
As the body of Christ today, we are called to be a people who truly care. Paul wrote, "Rejoice
with those who rejoice, weep with them that weep." (Romans 12:15). In other words, get
involved in the lives of others. What a tremendous difference it would make if we would just
spend a bit of each day looking for someone who has a need. It might be someone in the church.
It might be your next-door neighbor. It might be someone who has a material need. It might be
someone who needs a babysitter for a couple of hours. It might be someone who needs someone
to talk to. It might be someone who is anxious to learn more about God’s Word. Remember,
"They won’t care how much we know until they know how much we care."
Can you imagine these four men visiting their paralyzed friend? They stop by to say hello, talk
about their big plans for the week-end, then they start out the door saying, "Yeah, we’re going to
hear this fellow Jesus speak. By the way, this Jesus has the power to heal anybody, even
somebody paralyzed like you. Listen, if there’s ever anything we can do for you, you just let us
know!"
James said, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?....
Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ’Go, I
wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is
it?" (James 2:14-16).
Indeed, what good is it? Caring about people only has meaning when we are doing something.
Jesus saw four men with a faith that cared. We need to have the same kind of faith.
Second, Jesus Saw Four Men Who Wanted to Share Christ. These four men didn’t want to take
the paralyzed man to a chariot race. They didn’t want to take him down to the lake to go fishing.
They wanted to share Christ with him. And that made all the difference in his life.
The church needs to be a people with a faith that is anxious to share Christ. Like Andrew.
Andrew is not one of the prominent apostles. Not like James and John, or Peter, his brother. But
every time we read about Andrew, he’s bringing someone to Christ. He brought his brother,
Peter, to the Lord. He brought the boy with the fish to Jesus. He brought some Greeks with
questions to Jesus. No, he’s not recognized as great. But he shared Christ with the people around
him. And when you stop to think about it, what could possibly be greater than that?
We ought to feel about Christ the way the apostles did when they said, "We cannot help speaking
about what we have seen and heard." (Acts 4:20). They couldn’t hold it inside of them. They had
to share it! The four men in our lesson were men in good health. They didn’t need a special
blessing from the Lord, but they brought someone who did. And that’s also the goal of all
Christians. Indeed, what greater compliment could be given than to say, "He brought people to
Christ"?
Third, The Lord Saw Four Men Who Wouldn’t Give Up. These four men brought their friend to
Jesus. But when they got near the house, they saw that there was no room to get through.
Now, if they had quit at this point, they would have had a good excuse or reason to go home.
But they weren’t looking for a way out. It’s amazing how many people are looking, it seems, for
a reason to get out of doing something. They always seem to have a “reason” for their
unfaithfulness to the things of the Lord. The New Testament calls them excuses.
You know there are a lot of good reasons for not coming to church here on a Sunday morning
and you and I have heard them all. There are no parking spaces. It is raining outside. I was out
late last night. The people weren’t very friendly to me. I don’t know anyone there. I don’t have
any money for the offering. The pastor made fun of me in his sermon last week – Sorry Curt!
But the truth is that when it comes to testing our faith, none of them can cut it.
But these four men had a faith so great that it refused to die in the face of obstacles. They were
determined that nothing would stop them from seeing Jesus. You see, our failures as churches
and as individuals generally lie not so much in our obstacles and problems as they do in our lack
of faith. We’ve already decided what’s not going to work and who’s not going to respond and
what can’t be done. And somehow that soothes our conscience a little bit when we don’t do
anything because "it wouldn’t do any good anyhow." There are many who are anxious to cry, "It
can’t be done." And until we put forth the effort, it won’t be done. But so much can be
accomplished when we recognize the power of God. Certainly the Apostle Paul did and he tells
us, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."(Philippians 4:13).
The Lord’s work has not always been accomplished by talented people or intelligent people or
strong people. But it has always been done by people who believed in the power of God, who did
what they could, relying on God to supply the rest.
There is a poem by Edgar Guest that I like:
There are thousands that tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
That "cannot be done", and you’ll do it.
So let’s learn from this story. Yes we need to praise God with our lips. We want a thousand
tongues to sing God’s praises. But even more we want the love of Christ to be as free flowing
as the wind, moving here and there through the power of the Holy spirit. I pray that your faith
and my faith might not only be something in here, but also something that is visible to the whole
world.
Amen
| Welcome to the First Baptist Church of Norwich 239 West Main Street Norwich, Connecticut Phone: 860-889-0369 |
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