The Faithful Friends
In the story of the man sick of palsy in Luke 5:17-26, we see a great story of Jesus' healing. My favorite characters in this story are the sick man's friends. We don't know their names or anything about them except that there were four of them (see Mark 2:3) and that they had faith (Luke 5:20, Mark 2:5, and Matthew 9:2), but we can see that they were great friends.
1. They saw their friend's need: These men saw that their friend was sick. He was paralyzed and could not get out of bed. He could not stand and could not walk. He needed to be healed.
2. They believed Jesus could heal their friend: When they heard the Savior was in town and that He was healing people, they did not hesitate to bring their sick friend to Him.
3. They didn't give up on their friend: The crowd was huge and there were people everywhere. It couldn't have been easy to push through that crowd carrying a man on a mat. I imagine that they were shoved around, bumped into, and probably knocked down quite a few times while they were trying to get to Jesus, but they never gave up.
4. They didn't lose faith in their Savior: Those men believed that if their friend could just meet Jesus, he would be healed. They were determined for their friend to meet the Savior. In fact, they were so determined that they took their friend to the roof and tore out a place in the rooftop so they could lower him in to see Jesus ("...they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of palsy lay." Mark 2:4).
How determined are we to introduce our unsaved friends to the Savior?
5. They witnessed a miracle because of their faith: This story is written in Matthew 9, Mark 2, and Luke 5. They all highlight different parts of the story, but all three accounts say that Jesus forgave the man of his sins and healed him when he saw the faith these four friends had -
Matthew 9:2 "...and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee."
Mark 2:5 "When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee."
Luke 5:20 "And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee."
These men were faithful friends. They were there in the worst of times, and I have no doubt that they were there with their friend celebrating the best of times after Jesus healed him. It was because of their faith that their friend was healed!
5. They witnessed a miracle because of their faith: This story is written in Matthew 9, Mark 2, and Luke 5. They all highlight different parts of the story, but all three accounts say that Jesus forgave the man of his sins and healed him when he saw the faith these four friends had -
Matthew 9:2 "...and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee."
Mark 2:5 "When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee."
Luke 5:20 "And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee."
These men were faithful friends. They were there in the worst of times, and I have no doubt that they were there with their friend celebrating the best of times after Jesus healed him. It was because of their faith that their friend was healed!
"A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother." Proverbs 18:24
What kind of friend are you?
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