Faith Rewarded
Chapter 4
Faith Rewarded
And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, who were come out of every town of Galilee and Judaea and Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was present to heal them. And, behold, men brought in a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they sought means to bring him in and to lay him before him. And when they could not find any way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop and let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus. And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. (Luke 5:17-20)
Matthew, Mark, and Luke recorded this miracle. When any two or three of the gospel writers record a miracle, it is to bring out some important truth. It seems to me that the truth the Lord wants to teach us here is this: He placed worth on the faith of these four men who brought the paralyzed man to Jesus for healing. We aren’t told whether the paralyzed man had any faith, but it was when Jesus saw their faith that His power went forth to cure the paralyzed man.
I want to say to all Christian workers, that if the Lord sees our faith for those whom we wish to be blessed, He will honor it. He has never disappointed the faith of any of His children yet. You can’t find an instance in the Bible where any man or woman has exercised true faith in God and where it wasn’t honored. Nothing the Savior found when He was on this sin-cursed earth pleased Him so much as to see the faith of His disciples. Nothing refreshed His heart so much.
We read in the gospel narrative that a great stir occurred in the town of Capernaum at this time. A few weeks before, the Savior had been thrown out of His native town of Nazareth. He had come down to Capernaum, and the whole country was greatly moved. His star was just rising, and His fame just beginning to spread to the public.
Peter’s wife’s mother had been healed by a word. The servant of an officer in the Roman army had been raised up from a sick bed, and the Savior had performed many other wonderful miracles. Men came to Capernaum from every town in Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. They had gathered to witness these wonderful events. The voice of John the Baptist rang through the land proclaiming that a prophet would soon make His appearance, whose shoestring he was not worthy to untie. While the Baptist proclaimed this message, the prophet Himself made His appearance in the northern part of the country, and all these wonderful things transpired.
The Pharisees and doctors of the law had come to Capernaum to look into the reports that were spreading. The house where they gathered was filled to overflowing, and these wise men were listening to the Savior’s teaching. Many of them hardly believed a word He said, but there may have been some who believed among these wise men. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea may have been there; if so, they weren’t yet known as disciples of Jesus.
The writer of the gospel of Luke says, the power of the Lord was present to heal them (Luke 5:17). However, we aren’t told that even one of them was healed. It is like this often now. The power of the Lord may be present to heal in these gatherings, yet many come and go without being healed of their spiritual diseases and wonder what it all means. What we need is to have the power of God in our midst.
A man came into one of our meetings in London. He found himself in a part of the hall where he couldn’t hear a word of what was spoken or sung. He couldn’t even hear the text or the portion of Scripture read. He sat through the service, so to speak, alone with his own thoughts. A little while later, he told someone that as he sat there, God had revealed Himself to him and spoke peace to his soul. It’s possible for the power of God to be present to heal, even though someone can’t hear the voice of their fellow man.
These four men in this gospel account were real workers. They were worth more than a houseful of these Pharisees and doctors of the law who came merely to look on and criticize. I don’t know who the four men were, but I have always had great admiration for them. It may be that one of them had been blind and the Lord had given him sight. The other may have been lame from birth. When the Master restored this man to health he thought he would bring someone else to be healed. The third man may have been a cured leper, and he wished to help in getting some other afflicted person cured. Perhaps this paralyzed man was his next-door neighbor. The fourth man may have been deaf and dumb, and he thought he would use his newly acquired hearing and speech in helping someone else. These four young converts said, “Let’s bring our sick neighbor to Christ.” The paralyzed man may have said he had no faith in Christ, but these four friends may have told him how they had been cured, and if the Master could heal them, surely, He could heal a paralyzed man.
Now it seems to me nothing will wake up a man quicker than to have four people go after him in one day. People are sometimes afraid that they will encroach on each other’s privacy if more than one worker happens to call at the same house. For my part, I wish every family had about forty invitations to each meeting.
Recently, I heard about a man, a non-churchgoer, who didn’t believe in the Bible or religious things. Someone distributing tickets to an event asked him if he would go to the meetings. He grew quite angry. “No, I will not go. I don’t believe in any of it at all, and won’t be seen in such a crowd.”
A second man came along, not knowing that anyone had talked to the unbelieving man standing before him. He also asked the man if he would accept a ticket for the meetings. The man was still angry and gave him a piece of his mind. He told him to keep his tickets.
Before long, a third man called on him and asked, “Would you take a ticket for these meetings?” By this time, the man was awakened spiritually, but still he declined the ticket.
He went into a shop to buy something, and the man in the shop put a ticket for the meetings into his package. When the customer arrived home and opened it, there he found a ticket. Finally, he got so excited that he went, not to our meeting, but to a neighboring church. I don’t know if he has come to the Lord yet, but I believe he is in a hopeful condition.
If one visit to someone you want to reach doesn’t wake them up spiritually, send a second visitor. If that has no effect, send a third, and a fourth, and a fifth, and a sixth, and a seventh. Go on like this day after day. It is a great thing to save one person, to get them out of the pit, to have their feet set fast on a rock and a new song put in their mouth. Nothing will rouse an indifferent man quicker than to have a number of friends go after him. If you can’t bring him yourself, get others to help you.
These four men found an obstacle in the way. The door of the house was blocked, and they couldn’t get their disabled friend near the Master. They may have asked some of these philosophers to stand aside, but no, they wouldn’t do that. They wouldn’t bother themselves for a sick man. Many people won’t get into the kingdom of God themselves, and they throw obstacles in the way of others. After trying, probably for some time, to get in, these four men devised another plan. If it had been some of us, we most likely would have grown quite discouraged and carried the man back to his home.
These men had faith and perseverance too. They decided that somehow they were going to get their friend to Christ. If they couldn’t get him through the door, they would find another way − through the roof. Some people might say, “Enthusiasm without knowledge.” I’d rather have that than knowledge without enthusiasm. You can see them pulling and tugging away at the burden. If you have ever tried to carry a wounded man up a flight of stairs, you know it’s not an easy matter. But these four men weren’t going to be defeated, and they finally got him up on the roof.
This left them with one more question. “How can we get him down to where Jesus is?” They began to tear up the roof tiles. I can see those Pharisees and other wise men looking up and saying to one another, “What are those men doing? We’ve never seen anything like this in the temple or in any synagogue. It is altogether out of the ordinary. These men must be fanatics. Why, they’ve made a hole large enough for a man to fit through. Suppose a sudden rain shower were to come; it would damage the house.”
But the four workers on the roof were extremely intense. They let down the mat on which the man lay into the room. They situated their friend right at the feet of Jesus Christ. A good place to lay him, wasn’t it? Perhaps you have a skeptical son or an unbelieving husband, or some other member of your family who scoffs at the Bible and sneers at Christianity. Lay them at the feet of Jesus, and He will honor your faith.
When he saw their faith (emphasis added). I suppose these men were staring down into the house to see what was about to take place. Christ looked up at them, and when He saw their faith He said to the paralyzed man, Trust, son; thy sins are forgiven thee (Matthew 9:2). That was more than they expected. They only thought of his body being made whole. Let’s bring our friends to Christ, and we’ll get more than we expect. The Lord met this man’s deepest need first. It may be that his sins had brought on the paralysis, so the Lord forgave the man’s sins first of all.
And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone? (Luke 5:21). The Master knew their thoughts and asked them, What is easier, to say, Thy sins are forgiven thee, or to say, Rise up and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man has power upon earth to forgive sins (he said unto the paralytic), I say unto thee, Arise and take up thy couch and go to thine house (Luke 5:23-24).The man leaped to his feet made whole. He rolled up the old bed, swung it across his shoulders, and went to his house. Notice that the scribes and Pharisees who wouldn’t make way to let him in now stood aside pretty quickly to let him go out. No need for him to go out by way of the roof; he went out through the door.
Fellow believer, let us have faith for those we bring to Christ. Let’s believe for them, if they won’t believe for themselves. There may be some who are reading this book who don’t believe in the Bible, or in the gospel of the Son of God. Let us bring them to Christ in the arms of our faith. He is unchangeable − the same yesterday and today and for the ages (Hebrews 13:8). Let us look for great things to happen – to expect the dead to be raised, to reclaim women who prostitute their bodies, to see the drunkards saved and the devils cast out. I believe men are influenced by evil spirits, just like when the Son of God was on earth. We want to bring them right to the Lord Jesus Christ so He can heal and save them. Let this cursed unbelief be swept out of the way, and let us come to God as one, looking for and expecting signs and wonders to be done in the name of Jesus. He can perform miracles today, and He will if we ask Him to fulfill His promises. He is able also to save to the uttermost (Hebrews 7:25).
To anyone unsaved reading this book, let me say that God has the power to save you from your sins today. If you want to be made new, come right to the Master as the leper did in Mark 1:40. He said, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. Christ honored his faith and said, I will; be thou clean (Mark 1:41). Notice that the man put “if” in the right place. If Thou wilt. He didn’t doubt the power of the Son of God, but firmly stated that if Christ wanted to, He had all power needed to heal.
In comparison, the father who brought his son to Christ said, If thou canst do any thing, help us, having mercy on us (Mark 9:22), and the Lord straightened out his theology then and there. If thou canst believe this, all things are possible to him that believes (Mark 9:23, emphasis added). To the mothers reading this, can you believe for your boy? If you can, the Lord will speak the word, and it will be done.
It is good for us to get right down at the feet of the Master, like the poor woman who went to Elisha and told him about her dead child. He asked his servant to take his staff and lay it upon the dead child. But the mother wouldn’t leave the prophet, even though he wanted her to go with the servant. She wasn’t satisfied with the prophet’s staff, or even with his servant. She wanted the master himself. So Elisha went with her, and it was a good thing he did, because the servant couldn’t raise the child, but Elisha did.
We want to get beyond the staff and beyond the servant, right to the heart of the Master Himself. Let’s bring our paralyzed friends to Him. It is said of Christ that in one place he did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief (Matthew 13:58). Let’s ask Him to take away our cursed unbelief, which hinders the blessing from coming down, and prevents those who are sick of the paralysis of sin from being saved.
The faith that works by love,
And purifies the heart,
A foretaste of the joys above
To mortals can impart:
It bears us through this earthly strife,
And triumphs in immortal life.[1]
[1] Lowell Mason, Edwards A. Park, and Austin Phelps, eds., The Sabbath Hymn Book: For The Service of Song in the House of the Lord: Hymn 757, “Faith Which Worketh by Love” (New York: Mason Brothers, 1859).