{2:1} And again he entered into Capernaum, after [some] days; and it was noised that he was in the house. {2:2} And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive [them,] no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the word unto them. {2:3} And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four. {2:4} And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken [it] up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. {2:5} When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. {2:6} But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, {2:7} Why doth this [man] thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only? {2:8} And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts? {2:9} Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, [Thy] sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk? {2:10} But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,) {2:11} I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. {2:12} And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion. – Mark 2: 1-12 (KJV)
Unstoppable expectation! Those two words are the key words of that team. Unstoppable, something you cannot stop, a relentless, unyielding, persistence thing that you can just not stop. Expectation talks of your anticipation and belief. What you believe is going to happen. What you anticipate that is your expectation.
Coming back to the text, you could see that Jesus was back to town. He had been in Capernaum before then and when He was in Capernaum we saw that He did some miracles and the crowd were all over Him they wouldn’t let Him rest. They were so much around Him that as a matter of fact, He had to force Himself out of town but He had come back to that same Capernaum. And when He came back, because of the mighty miracles He did, while He was there before, the crowd came again.
They people crowding into the place, they filled every available space. So if you were in front and now changed your mind and say you want to go, you can’t even go out. There is no space for you to say let us squeeze out. The only way such a crowd could be dispersed is for all the people at the back to start going out. You exit right from the back as they will be going out from the back, then there would be space but because they came for something, those at the back would want to come to the front. Those in front would not want to go back. So you would see everybody will be pressing each other. That was the type of crowd that they had.
Now you will notice something. As these crowd came, in it you would be able to see something. Those that were able to come early, they were privileged. They had advantage over some others. Maybe they heard about it earlier; maybe they were close to the place so they were able to rush in. But the point is that they were privileged and some were not so privileged. They could not come as early as those that where privileged. They came late. So of them could not enter at all, so they had to stay outside. So of them may not be able to even hear what Jesus was saying and they felt frustrated.
Now I don’t know who you are, talking about privilege. Maybe you also feel that you are not privileged. In life generally, you look at your life things seem to conspire against you. You feel that life has not been fair to you. Maybe it is your background, maybe you don’t have good education, maybe you don’t have a source of livelihood; maybe your marriage is in tatters. I don’t know what it maybe, I don’t know what area of your life that seems to tell you that life has not been fair to you.
They were people in that meeting who felt the same way. We saw that they were four men who carried a paralyzed man and they had no chance at all to enter. They were carrying load, those that were not carrying anything could not enter, how much more those that were carrying load. In life you may be carrying load now and you are wondering how can I, those that are very educated they have not even got this thing, myself that is not so educated how can I. Inspirational Thoughts About Money And How To Secure Your Future
But look at those men though they were carrying a burden, a load, they were carrying a man that was paralyzed. When they came they could not enter but I thank God for those men. They had an unstoppable expectation. That day, they had made up they mind that they were going to get solution to their problem. As you are here, I don’t know how made up your mind is? You know some people believe in coming and coming and coming. Some people believe every time I come, I must get something I will never leave empty handed. If you believe God for a miracle, God will give you a miracle.
These four men, they believe God for a miracle. They had unstoppable, persistence yielding expectation that God will meet them at their point of need. They refused to take no for an answer. Then let’s look at some principle that God would want us to apply to ourselves. The question is what did they do? Look at verse 4. They could not bring him into where Jesus was because of the crowd. So what did they do?
The first thing we see, that is the first principle. They dug a hole through the barrier. In other words, they dug a hole through the barrier instead of been hindered by the barrier. They broke through the barrier. When you read this scripture; you may not know what it entails. You just say they dug a hole through the barrier.
You know John told us that if everything that happened in the Bible was recorded, that the world will not even have space to contain it. So what you see in the Bible are usually summaries. They didn’t give us details of what happened when those men tried to break through the roof. Obviously they were resisted.
Nobody will just allow you to damage his roof. It doesn’t happen. That is to give you an idea about their expectation. They knew their investment was not going to be in vain. They knew that their struggle was not going to be wasted. So when they came and everywhere was jammed, they did not go back and say we have tried we cannot succeed. They refused to take no for an answer.
You know some people come to a meeting and the place is filled up they will just go back. Don’t allow any hindrance to hinder you. Don’t allow any barrier to stop you. Determine that you are going to break through the barrier. You have seen the barrier, yes, but barrier, you are not going to stop me. I am going to break through you. That is what the people did. Barrier or no barrier, we must get our solution. So we can see the first principle there, they broke through the barrier. The question now is what is your barrier? When you identify you barrier, then you can break through it.
Now the second one, they carried their loved one. Those four men carried their loved one. Who are you carrying? It could be your family member that is your load, it could be your husband, it could be your wife, it could be your child, it could be your parent, it could be your siblings, your brother or your sister. I don’t know who you are carrying. I don’t know who is that load you are carrying? It could be your friend, it could be anybody.
I want to assure you that no matter who you are carrying as long as you have expectation in God, that as you come to His throne of grace, you will receive grace. God will not disappoint you. Whatever you carry, as long as you are carrying it to the throne of grace, the God of grace will meet you at the point of your need. I want you to believe God for your miracles for your loved ones no matter where they are. No matter how impossible it may look, don’t allow the devil to deceive you our God is the God that knows no impossibility. They carried their loved one like many of us are carrying today. That is the second thing we saw.
Then the third thing, they lower him. They lower their problem. Then they lower the man on his mat. That is a principle. Some of us exhaust our problem instead of lowering your problem; you lift your problem up. When you are before the throne of grace, when you are before the Master, all you need to do is to lower your problem. You don’t lift your problem up, you lower your problem. They lower their problem; they did not exhaust their problem. Do not think that your problem is beyond God. Don’t exhaust you problem above God. They lower their problem. That is the third thing.
Then the fourth principle. They lower that problem before Jesus. They made their problem to face Jesus. They brought their problem face-to-face with Jesus. Jesus said bring all your burdens to Him. Do you know when you said you would not bring all your burden to Jesus, you are insulting Jesus. That is all it means. You are thinking that Jesus is a man that cannot carry all your problems. Jesus is God and all the problems of this world put together, they are not up to a grain of sand in weight for Jesus. There mean nothing to Him. Multiple your problem as much as you can, when you bring them to Jesus, it means nothing. Lower your problem at His feet, don’t hold back on some. Don’t say I will take some and give Him some. If you are not ready to give Him all, He will not touch anything. It is either all or nothing.
Source: A Message Preached by Pastor Sonny Wogu at the Monthly Throne of Grace Hour, 16th February, 2013
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