We Bring Others

Let the nations be glad and sing for joy.  Psalm 67:4a

Jesus is the one that will make all the nations glad and able to sing for joy.  Only through Jesus can we go to God the Father in Heaven and be part of that big group of people who will be singing for joy and worshiping God.

The woman at the well from last week had an amazing meeting with Jesus Himself.  She ran back to her town to tell others about Jesus and how He had told her things about her life that no one knew.  More importantly, Jesus had revealed to her that He was the Messiah, the Promised One, the Savior.  Many people from the town were able to listen to Jesus and believed Him too.

The story today is about some men who also believed that Jesus was very special, that He was sent by God.  Maybe they didn't understand everything, but they believed that Jesus could heal their friend.  Four men who believed Jesus could help their friend did something extraordinary.

Their friend was paralyzed--that means he could not walk.  He needed to be carried to be able to go anywhere.  His friends heard that Jesus was in their town and in a house nearby.  Together they picked up their friend and started walking toward the house.  They knew which one it was because there were people crowded at every door and window.  They would not be able to get through!

But they believed Jesus could help their friend, so they did not give up.  They slowly and carefully climbed on top of the house and started to make a hole in the roof.  Can you imagine how little pieces of roof fell into the house?  Would everyone have stopped and looked up?

There were men working very hard to make the hole large enough for their friend to fit through.  When they could, the slowly and carefully lowered their paralyzed friend in front of Jesus.

People who know about Jesus bring others to Him.

Jesus could see how much faith they had because of all the trouble they had gone through to get their friend to Jesus.  Jesus looked at the paralyzed man and said, "Young man, your sins are forgiven."

There were some leaders and teachers of the law that were there and they did not like that Jesus had said that.  "Only God can forgive sins," they thought.

Jesus could tell what they were thinking and asked them, "Why do you think that?  The Son of Man has power to forgive sins, but I can't prove it to you.  What if I said, 'Stand up, take your mat and walk?' Then you would be see I have this power."

Jesus then turned to the man, "Stand up.  Take your mat and go home."

Immediately the man stood up, picked up his mat and walked out.  Jesus healed the man!