The Power of the Lord was Present

A Story of Holy Compromise

January 5, 1991

Luke 5:17-26

Text Mark 2:3 "And they came, bringing to Him a paralytic, carried by four men."

The word "compromise" raises a flag of caution among people of principle. And yet in the real world of human relationships, compromise is perhaps the most overlooked source of genuine joy. The facts are that (1) Bringing people to Jesus is just about always a cooperative effort. In fact, doing anything for Jesus means cooperating with His people. And (2) Cooperative effort just about always involves holy compromise. But the strange and wonderful truth that follows is that (3) holy compromise just about always brings about holy fellowship and joy.

No pastor of integrity would ever suggest that anybody should compromise with any form of sin. But by the same token any minister of integrity would have to say in all honesty that more pain and damage has been done than one can imagine by people who not only refuse to compromise on issues of principle, but refuse to bend or adapt or compromise in lesser matters of opinion, custom, or even personal taste.

Here in Luke's Gospel is a brief story about some people who tore the tiles off a flat roof and lowered a paralyzed man down into the interior of the house where Jesus was. In the Gospel of Mark, probably prompted by Peter, we are told that it was four men who brought the helpless man to the Savior.

[Bringing people to Jesus is just about always a cooperative effort.] It goes without saying that here was a cooperative effort that required some compromise. Unless these four men were all the same build and same height and same strength the simple fact of carrying a heavy, inert object requires bending and stretching.

In my mind's eye I have gone into considerable more detail than you can find in your Bible. If some of the personalities of the Wollaston church had been present the line-up might have looked like this [although any resemblance to people in your church or mine living or dead is purely conjectural!]

AMOS

FIRST THERE IS AMOS. Amos is a seasoned, experienced, grounded (rather old) believer. He had been brought up in the scriptures from a lad. [Cut his teeth on the KJV.] He had waited for years in faith that Messiah was coming. Early on in Jesus' ministry he had been convinced that Jesus was the fulfillment of all the OT prophecies.

Amos is MATURE! He would probably not want to talk about it, but secretly in his heart of hearts he is a little impatient and even irked by immaturity. He detests taped accompaniments! He is not the least impulsive and not too outwardly emotional.

But make no mistake! Amos is the salt of the earth, and he loves Jesus and follows Him with all his heart.

BARTHOLOMEW

THEN THERE IS BARTHOLOMEW. Bartholomew is a young believer, full of energy. He is not a rebel; really he is not! But he has this sensation down deep in his insides that anyone over 30 is "over the hill."

Bartholomew is full of JOY! And Bartholomew is full of LIFE! He has never had a sick day in his life. And frankly he isn't always too patient with people who have aches and pains. He doesn't understand people who don't like LOUD hosannas— preferably with at least 100 watts of amplification behind them. Bart will be at all the Christian concerts within 50 miles radius!

CRISPUS

THE THIRD MEMBER OF THE CAST IS CRISPUS. Crispus is an intellectual, and a dedicated social activist. He wears wire-rimmed glasses that make him look like an intellectual and a dedicated social activist.

Crispus has heard Christ's call to minister to the poor. He has put his life on the line. He has sold all that he possesses, and is personally involved in an inner-city ministry. And quite frankly, Crispus questions other Christians who don't do the same as he has done.

DEMAS

THE LAST OF THE FOUR IS DEMAS. Demas is a died-in-the-wool conservative. Demas wears a Jesus-First pin. He has "Jesus bumper stickers" on his car. He is a real "Mary" type who simply wants to sit at Jesus' feet. He has a secular job only because he has to pay his rent and eat, but he wants to keep unspotted from the world— so he doesn't use dice with board games. (Just 'spinners.') And he doesn't think the church teens ought to go roller skating.

But once again, here is a genuine Christian! Demas really belongs to Jesus and loves Him with all of his heart. Here are four people about as different in temperament as you can imagine. Four people who agree on just about one thing and only one thing— at least at the beginning of this little drama. They knew in their hearts that Jesus IS the answer to the needs of the world.

It doesn't even matter that they saw the needs of the world very differently. They didn't even stop to consider that the world's problems might be more complex or different from the way they understood them. What matters was that they agreed (without knowing it) THAT FINALLY, JESUS IS WHAT THIS SINFUL WORLD NEEDS!

Our four friends had a great deal more that was NOT in common, at least on the surface, than points of agreement. They would have disagreed violently on political candidates. They would have almost come to blows over whether or not one could fall from grace, or just 'from fellowship with God.' Any kind of abstract or theoretical question probably would have started WW I 2,000 years early!

Christians are like that! They disagree in theory— they love to argue minor points of doctrine in various kinds of abstract argument. There (probably) is a place for that, but . . .but what saved them was the fact that these four men faced a very specific problem.

SILAS

They had a mutual friend SILAS, who was dear to them all. SILAS WAS HELPLESS, A PARALYTIC. Perhaps Silas was related to one, and a friend of a friend of another— but at any rate each of these four, Amos, Bartholomew, Crispus, and Demas had said to himself many times: "If I could just get Silas over to Jesus I know that Jesus could touch him and meet his need!"

I'm not sure how they got together. Since I'm telling the story I can imagine it was one of those strange coincidences that God can arrange whenever He wants to. And in my imagination there was a mutual disappointment when the four met.

Amos thought: "A lot of good hallelujahs will do now! We need someone who KNOWS someone, and some money to hire an ambulance." And Crispus was thinking: "That Demas guy will want to have a prayer meeting for this guy— and what he REALLY needs is a new pallet and we need to arrange hot meals for him until we can find a way to get him to the meetings."

But one of them— I don't know which one— says out loud: "If only we could get Silas to Jesus I believe HE could heal him!" And the rest have to agree.

They begin to realize that together they can do what they can't do alone. And they demonstrate that (1) BRINGING PEOPLE TO JESUS IS JUST ABOUT ALWAYS A COOPERATIVE EFFORT! So off they start! What a sight they are! Carrying a helpless man on a stretcher is not an easy or a dignified task. And as they get nearer they see that their task isn't only hard—it is apparently impossible. There is a huge crowd gathered around Peter's house, where the Master is teaching.

They simply cannot get through the crowd. There are too many people! You can't find Christ in a big crowd! You can't really worship! You can't really get near to Jesus, can you?

But by now someone comes up with another suggestion. "We've come this far! Too far to be defeated! We won't take 'No' for an answer!

Let's go up on the roof! Let's take off a few tiles and drop Silas right down on the front row!"

AND THEY DID! And the Word says "Jesus saw THEIR faith!"

Jesus didn't seem to be surprised at all!

First Jesus forgave Silas his sins. And then Jesus healed him, and sent him walking out in the sight of everyone. It was one unforgettable celebration!

How, do you suppose, did Amos and Bartholomew and Crispus and Demas "debrief" after the service was over? What was the "afterglow" like that day? I see them as they put the tiles back and they talk.

"Well, I'll have to admit that I could never have done it alone! And no two of us could have done it, either!"

"Yes, I'll have to admit that we make a pretty good team!"

I see it as the beginning of genuine Christian fellowship—cross-generational, cross-cultural, even cross-intellectual, if there is such a thing. They were still persuaded that Jesus was the answer to the needs of their world. And they still saw those needs from their own perspectives.

But they also began to see that there were other, honest, Christian perspectives beside their own. That is the way Christian faith in obedient action tends to work. It brings people together who seem to have little in common, and makes them love and deeply appreciate one another.

If we wait until we know all the answers- until we have enough loaves and fishes to feed the multitude- we will never get Jesus and needy people together. But if we will be looking for ways to share our faith, we may just find help in bringing people to Christ in the most unlikely ways, help from people who are the same as we are— and from people who are very, very different, too, perhaps!

[He was sitting in the waiting room of a car dealer. He was a professional man- a lawyer, actually. He is very dignified, professionally, but casually he often wears a sweatshirt that says "Jesus- He's the Real thing!." He pulled out his Bible, and the big, black man next to him said, "Are you a Christian?"

Really, I wish I could let him tell you himself— and may be that some day you will hear him.

But that black man was a Muslim from a Muslim family of generations who had found the Lord in a miraculous way. The lawyer is sitting in the congregation back in my church this morning, brought up in a good Roman Catholic family. Not much in common with a died-in-the-wool black Muslim! Only Jesus! And who knows what will come of that meeting!]

Oh, make no mistake THERE ARE SOME ISSUES THAT DEMAND SOLID, UNIFIED CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE. Our compromise can never be with sin, with the breaking of any of the clear commandments of God. But as amazing as it may seem there are many serious issues, important issues, where good and sincere Christians can and will disagree. Issues that would divide and kill fellowship if we would let them.

There are "outside-the-church issues" about which Christians feel strongly: We all agree that abortion is bad. But how should Christians oppose it? Sincere and committed Christians disagree about the best methods!

We all hate the filth and pornography, and the protection given to obscenity by rulings on First Amendment rights. But what is the best course in rolling back the tide? Again, sincere Christians do not always agree.

Just mentioning these issues may be foolish, but I am trying to show that in so many ways we can agree to disagree— and still agree to love each other, and to love God, and to do our best to bring people to Jesus.

And particularly these days there are always "inside-the-church issues," those matters of policy, of building, of financing, and above all, of ministry and serving Christ here in Bel Air, and on the Washington district. These crucial days in a world with recession and war scare there is the challenge of bringing people to Jesus—of developing and continuing normal ministry to families with both father and mother at home, as well as reaching broken homes and individuals and people that don't neatly "fit" any categories.

Some church experts tell us that the growing kind of church is the homogenous-unit type of church. But our Nazarene church is potentially about as heterogeneous as a church can get! And in more ways than dear Reuben may have meant in his wonderful little book, WE REALLY DO NEED EACH OTHER!

We, each one, individually, as well as together as a church, have an opportunity to meet and know people who love the Lord and yet are very unlike ourselves.

We will be stimulated, if not offended, by many different ways of looking at the task God has set before us. We will be seeing the curse of sin as the problem— but we will be seeing it in many more than just FOUR ways!

But if we agree that Jesus is LORD; and if we agree that Jesus is what this world needs— then like these four men who brought the paralytic to Jesus WE WILL FIND WAYS OF GETTING AT THE TASK GOD HAS FOR US!

And the best part, perhaps, is that as we learn to work together we'll discover the holy JOY that comes from finding how BIG and how BROAD and how WIDE God's holy family can be! We are in for some dramatic surprises! We'll find that TOGETHER WE CAN BRING PEOPLE TO JESUS! And when Jesus sees OUR FAITH we'll find that holy compromise brings holy JOY!

#57 The Servant Song (Sing for each other, for the ones together we can lift)