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What Happens When the Roof Comes Off
A Sermon Preached
by Dr. James Flamming
First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
Feb 5, 2006
Scripture: Mark 2:3-4
I invite your attention, please, to Mark, the second
chapter. If you have a pew Bible, the page number is 1-5-5-3. It is a familiar
story, a favorite of mine since I was a boy. It’s been fun for me through the
years to preach on it, but today, rather than simply talking about the four, I’d
like you to look at the roof.
All right, let’s look at it. Some men, verse three, Mark
2, some men came bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Huh, four
is the same number you have in a backfield on a football team which may be
significant today, I don’t know. It’s also a quartet for all the musicians
behind me and out there. Isn’t it interesting that … in the Old Testament, for
example, Noah is a single hammer. When you get to the New Testament it is
almost always plural – the twelve, the four. Well, they got to the place and it
was all crowded up. Probably it was Jesus’ headquarters, home, there in
Capernaum, and so, they decided, these four, that they would open up the roof,
verse four, above Jesus.
Now the roof in those days had two levels. The first one
was stone slabs above the ceiling joists and then on top of the stone slabs
there was a mixture of tar, and of sand, of ashes. Mark says they dug down into
the roof. Luke says they took the tiles off. Both were true. Now they are
looking at the sky, at the heavens. Hmmm. The ceiling’s gone and all of a
sudden they are looking up at the God who sees them through his possibilities.
What happens when the roof goes off in your life?
There are so many roofs in our lives. Some of them are
very common. One of them is the roof called “I can’t.” Another one is, hm, a
roof that says “we’ve never done it that way.” And a third one is a roof
called “let them do it.” And you see, a person who says “let them do it” has a
wonderful advantage. They don’t have to get involved but after it’s all over
they can criticize all they want to. And, if you will look at some of these
roofs that you might have … Let me mention that last one I talked about.
At the door, last Sunday morning -- We had ten additions
during the eleven o’clock service, you may remember. Wonderful service. Not
only that, we presented our first graders with their Bibles and the first
graders were all the way across, we had so many of them. What a privilege it
was for me to give them their Bibles –
And the lady at the back, when she left, said, “You know,
I couldn’t see a thing. I just would love to have seen our new members and I
would have loved to have seen all of the children.” Said, “all I could see was
about six or seven of them. Why don’t you do something about that?”
And I said, “You know, a passion team studied that, made a
proposal in the fall, that we put screens over there and over there so that
everybody could see what was going on all over, all over the building.”
“Well, why didn’t they do something about it?”
And I said, “Well, were you there the night they discussed
it?”
“No, I didn’t know about it.”
I said “We tried to publicize it.” I said, “Were you there
the night the vote was taken?”
It did pass, by the way, but by a rather narrow margin.
I said, “Were you there the night the vote was taken at
the business meeting?”
“I don’t believe in business meetings.”
Now, you know what that is? That’s a roof that says “let
them do it.” And you see, you’ve got all these advantages. You don’t have to
get involved but when it’s all over you can just criticize all you want to.
Let me give you a fourth roof. “It can’t be done.” And a
lot of times that’s true, but, mix God into it, and all of a sudden the can’t
becomes a can. It can be done, with God’s help.
Let us salute these four guys -- the backfield of the
spirit, the quartet of praise. I want to salute them because of their
commitment. This is commitment day in our church. One of the things we need to
salute in their commitment is the realization that they were willing to lower
their friend, once the roof came off, right to the feet of Jesus. And you see,
that’s the place of greatest potential. Anytime you are under the influence of
Christ, you are in the place of greatest potential. Spiritually speaking,
that’s where you gotta be. It is, uh, kind of a troubling question, to ask
ourselves how many times have we, in the past days and weeks, invited somebody
to the church, which is a time when you can introduce people to the Jesus of
greatest potential. The trouble is, there’s a roof, we get lockjaw. And we
don’t share what we are experiencing. Now that’s awkward, I know. Not asking
you to do that unless you’re comfortable doing it, but couldn’t you at least
invite somebody to come with you to church. And you see that’s what the church
is about, is the body of Christ on earth. It’s, it’s to introduce people to the
Lord Christ, who is the person whose influence provides the greatest potential.
Let us salute the four who knew how to do it.
And let us salute the fact they did it together.
Togetherness is a key word in the New Testament, it is a key word for Jesus.
“As I have loved you,” he said, “love one another.” James W. Moore, who is
pastor at St. Luke’s Methodist Church in Houston, tells of a very wealthy man in
Houston who came to see him, not a member of his church. He had come from the
doctor’s office and he had been told that he had a terminal illness and he had
six to twelve months to live. The man was just visibly shaken. Probably for
one of the few times in his life, he wept. And then he said, “As the news sank
in, I realized, sadly, that I had no spiritual resources, no spiritual strength
to face this. I have nothing to fall back on, nothing to lean on. If you were
to say my name to almost anybody in Houston, they would know my name. I am
wealthy. I could call any bank in this city, give them my name, and, on my name
alone, I could borrow thousands. But that doesn’t matter now, does it? I am
poor in the things that count the most. I see it now, that all of my life I
have put my faith in the wrong things. The real truth is I’m spiritually
destitute.”
Dear friends, let me tell you what the gospel is. The
gospel is you don’t have to be spiritually destitute. And that the Lord Jesus
Christ came in order that you could have togetherness with him through all of
life and that he would open to you spiritual resources you never dreamed that
you had. But more than that, he would introduce you to people whose spiritual
resources are vibrant and you can learn from. In the Lord’s Prayer, a little
poem about it. Love it very much. Listen to it.
A Thing You Cannot Do
You cannot say The Lord’s Prayer and even once
say “I”.
You cannot pray The Lord’s Prayer and even once
say “my.”
You cannot pray The Lord’s Prayer and not
include another
For when you seek your daily bread, you must
include your brother.
For others are included in each and every plea.
From the beginning of it to the end of it, it
doesn’t once say “me”.
The Lord was a togetherness person.
This is a year of transition in the life of our church.
It is a year of transition for your pastor. Let me tell you something. In a
year like this year, claim the gospel word that says “together”. With God, all
things are possible.
Do you believe that? If you believe that, say “amen.”
God be with you.
There is a third thing we need to salute about this
backfield of the spirit. Because they tore the ceiling off, hmm… because they
tore the ceiling off, they could see a greater span than that little room. You
see, they were there, probably, in Jesus’ apartment, if we could call it that.
And they crowded in, wall to wall people. But when the roof came off, the
heavens above were exposed. You see, one of the neat things about bringing your
friend to Christ or being brought to Christ is you get more than you asked for.
They brought their friend because he was a paralytic and they introduced their
friend to the man, eternal Son of God of promise. They brought their friend to
be healed. They got healing, but they also got forgiveness. They brought their
friend because of a physical ailment and he left with eternal salvation. They
brought him with a broken body and he left with a redirected life. I’m saying
to you that the great bonus of following Jesus is that you always get more than
you asked for.
In her book, in Lynn Austin’s book, Hidden Places,
there is a young widow named Eliza. The scene is during the depression. Life
has caved in on her. In the last year, living there with her two little
children, she has lost her father-in-law who owned the place. She has lost her
husband and she is now a widow. And, down the way a little ways, is a two acre
plot and a cabin. One of the relatives, her name -- Aunt Betsy, but she claimed
to have been given a new name by God. Aunt Batty. Everybody called her Aunt
Batty. Enter her home and you thought you were in library because she loved
books but, more than that, she loved the Lord. And she loved joy, and she knew
how to celebrate the temporary and, when the roof caved in because of a heavy
snow, she came to live with Eliza. Then the banker knocked on the door and said
“Your father-in-law took a loan out on the property. Our bank is about to
foreclose. And we are foreclosing on your property.” And, during the
depression, of course, that did happen.
One morning, Eliza got up early before dawn because she
was roused by the barking of the little dog, Blinky, outside. And there, a
ghost-like figure in white, was dancing around the cherry trees. In between the
branches, pirouette like a ballet dancer. Eliza couldn’t believe it. She
looked out and that was Aunt Batty. She got the coat -- Aunt Batty’s coat, her
own, and boots -- and went into the chill of the morning.
And Aunt Batty saw her coming and said, “Oh, you came out
to dance with us.”
Eliza said, “No! What are you doing out here in your
nightclothes? You’ll catch your death.”
And Aunt Batty said, “Not death, Toots. Life!
Resurrection life. Spring life. Eternal life. I’ve seen spring come to the
orchard every year as far back as I can remember and God has said to me, ‘When
it comes, celebrate.’ And I’m out here celebrating. You know, God is so
wonderful. Look at this outrageous beauty. He didn’t have to give us cherry
blossoms, you know. He didn’t have to give us apple trees and peach trees which
burst into flower and into fragrance. But you see, God loves to splurge. He
gives us all this magnificence and then, if that isn’t enough, he provides fruit
from the blossoms. Isn’t God good?” Hmm.
She danced around the trees as the sun came up and, as the
sun came up, a whole chorus of birds, as if on cue, began to sing and then said
Aunt Batty, “And there’s so much more. So much more. Because Jesus said
whoever believes in him will never die. You and your kids will see Sam again
and I will see my relatives again and Gabe will see his friends again. And,
springtime is God’s promise that someday we’ll share his resurrection life.”
And then she quoted from the Psalms: “Your weeping may
linger for the night, but joy comes in the morning.”
Hear me. God is an extravagant God who splurges. And
what you get may not always be what you expected, but I’m gonna tell you
something. It’s going ... As you look back, it’s going to be more than you ever
dreamed. Hm.
Pray with me, will you.
You know, Lord, we’re just frail people and we have
ceilings we build for ourselves. Just now, I pray that you’ll just rip those
ceilings off so we can see you and see your possibilities and see your heaven
and see us as you see us. Take away the chains, the straightjackets, we built
for ourselves and help us to see hope and joy and possibilities. And oh Lord,
as we come now around your table, help us to realize the immense possibility
that comes because of what you did for us so long ago. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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