September 3, 2014

"Now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was present to heal them. Then behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring in and lay before Him. And when they could not find how they might bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus. When He saw their faith, He said to him, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”  And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”  But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answered and said to them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise up and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the man who was paralyzed, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”Immediately he rose up before them, took up what he had been lying on, and departed to his own house, glorifying God. And they were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen strange things today!”  Luke 5:17-26

People came from far and near because they heard Jesus was in the house.

That is typical of what happens when Jesus is in the house!

Also typical is the two kinds of people who came to see Jesus that day.

First, there were the fault-finders. The fault-finders were represented by the scribes and the Pharisees.

Their fault-finding came out of their self-righteousness, which by its very nature cannot be wrong, thus finds it necessary to prove others wrong.

Fault-finders lift themselves up by tearing other people down. That's why they came from all over the region to be in the house with Jesus.

While Fault-finders are quick to recognize the needs of others, they are not aware of their own spiritual neediness.

Jesus message of righteousness and truth was exposing  the unrighteousness of those trusting in self-righteousness . That was causing them great anxiety and it was time to discredit Jesus once and for all. 

Then there were the faith-finders as represented by the four friends who carried their faithless friend clear across town in order to get them to Jesus.

Faith finders believe God's Word and whenever He speaks the Word they believe it and learn it and shape their lives according to it.

Faith-finders are sensitive to the spiritual needs of others since they are so painfully aware of their own neediness! Because they knew where to go to have their spiritual needs met, they knew where to take their needy friend!

Fault-finders and faith-finders. 

Every church has some of each.

So, I ask you, which are you? 

Are you a fault-finder or a faith-finder?