How Far Will you Go to introduce Jesus?

How Far Will you Go to Introduce  Jesus?

I must at admit coming into this weekend I was not prepared for any bible study.  I wanted to take this opportunity to make this more of a sharing experience.  So Trinity UMC decided to go to the beach this weekend and what a crazy idea that turned out to be.  Temperature was at least at the 50's and the wind made it even colder.  Our little bonfire was not enough keep us all warm.  But we enjoyed the time we spent together anyway.

After wards we all descended to Crystal's place and had our lock in.  It gave us a chance to unwine and relax and I got the opportunity to try and get to know as many of the members as I could. It was definitely worth it.

But what capped it off was today when Rev. Max Dumlao shared a very powerful sermon about the totality of God's love must be reciprocated by the totality of our love by being in service of others.  And at that moment the Lord spoke to me and told me exactly what He wanted me to share for today's bible study.  Found in Mark 2: 1-12 and it says,

Jesus Forgives and Heals a Paralyzed Man2 A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. ² They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. ³ Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. ⁴ Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. ⁵ When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
⁶ Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, ⁷ “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
⁸ Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? ⁹ Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? ¹⁰ But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, ¹¹ “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” ¹² He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

There was a few things that we as a group highlighted.  How Jesus had the authority of forgiving sins because He was the fulfillment of the law as it is written in Matthew 5:17 and it says,

¹⁷ “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.  

Meaning that law was written to try and bring man back to the Kingdom of God but it was not enough according to the book of Romans 8:3-4 which reads

³ For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,^[a] God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.^[b] And so he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

But I believe the story really starts with the friends who cared enough about their friend that when they heard that a man that has the power to heal was in town they took their paralyzed friend and took him to see Jesus.  Not might be too much for our standards but remember this was during the days of no cars and they walked everywhere they needed to go.  After getting there, they noticed a large crowd and there was no way to bring their crippled friend in and instead of giving up the friends decided to not only cut a whole in the roof but to carry their friend on top of the roof and gently lower him down to Jesus for they knew that Jesus can heal their friend.  This to me is what it means to love your neighbor as to love yourself.  Many would have tried to get Jesus to go to their crippled friend, but instead they carried him.  Many would have turned back the moment the line gotten too long instead they carried him on the roof and cut a hole.

Today we have the luxury of cars and all the technologies that our generations enjoy yet how many of us have made the excuse as to why we do not bring a friend to Church or to bible study or a beach bonfire day even though it the middle of November?  To truly show love for our friends we must stop at nothing to introduce them to Jesus Christ.