Going Through the Roof: What Four Friends Teach Us About Reaching People for Jesus (Part 2)
By Pastor Rick Warren
Together we’ve been walking through what lessons we can learn about evangelism from the gospel story of the four friends who lowered their paralyzed friend down through the roof to get to Jesus. This story is found in Matthew 9, Mark 2, and Luke 5 – and if you haven’t read part one of this message with lessons one through four, I invite you to go back and read it here.
In Part 1, we saw that these four friends teach us to care about lost people, believe God can change lives, intentionally bring people to Jesus, and refuse to give up when obstacles arise.
But the story isn’t finished.
The most memorable part of the account is still ahead: these men climb onto a roof, tear it apart, and lower their friend into the middle of the crowd. Their actions reveal three more powerful lessons about what it takes to reach people for Christ.
5. Dare to Do Something Different and Creative
In reaching out to the people around you, God will ask you to do something different many, many times. That’s the history of Saddleback Church. We did all kinds of different and creative things over the years. Sometimes we tried things no church had ever done before, but we were willing to get creative to reach the people we were trying to reach.
Notice the description of the scene in Luke 5:19, “When they couldn’t find a way in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof, removed some tiles, and let him down in the middle of everyone, right in front of Jesus” (MSG).
This is hysterical to imagine:
Jesus is below in a packed room, suddenly there’s noise up on the ceiling. Then plaster starts falling. Everyone is thinking, “What is going on?” All of a sudden, there’s a little peephole. Jesus and everyone else are looking up. Above the crowd the hole is getting bigger and bigger.
Not only are these friends destroying a stranger’s roof, they’re disrupting the Son of God while he’s teaching. Think about the noise and the mess they made. They didn’t have a laser beam to cut a smooth hole or any type of electric saw. They’re tearing this roof apart.
There’s a sub-point I want to make here for church leaders: church is about people, not about buildings. At Saddleback, we went 15 years without a building. Buildings are not monuments to be loved; they are tools to be used. Buildings are not important; what is important are people going to heaven. If your building ever gets in the way of you reaching people, you need to rethink your building.
So these men cared about their friend more than the building and they were willing to get creative. They were willing to go through the roof.
Question: have you ever gone through the roof for anyone? Have you ever gone to an extreme? It takes people with extreme faith to bring some people to Jesus.
Notice what the Bible says, “Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds” (Heb. 10:24 NLT). In other words, be creative. Another verse tells us to, “Be inventive in hospitality” (Rom. 12:13 MSG).
In the New Testament one of the disciples was a tax collector named Matthew. You know what his inventive way to bring people to Jesus was? He held a party for tax collectors, and Jesus went to the party.
Imagine what would happen if say all the bankers at your church held a party for other bankers. What would happen if all the managers held a party for other managers? If all the drivers held a party for other drivers, if all the accountants held a party for other accountants.
I know of a Saddleback small group in San Diego who are all football fanatics. They all bought season tickets to the Charger games and pitched in to buy an extra ticket. Every time there’s a home game, the small group goes and they take one different couple with them each time. They’ve reached 12 couples for Jesus Christ!
Be creative. Dare to do something different. The Bible says, “Make the most of your chances to tell others the good news. Be wise in all your contacts with them” (Col. 4:5 TLB).
6. Work Together to Get the Job Done
This is the sixth lesson: cooperation. Luke 5:19 says, “They went up on the roof and lowered the man, on his mat, through the ceiling, into the middle of the crowd” (NET).
Why did they cooperate? Because the load was too heavy for any of them individually.
A large portion of people in our world know nothing of Jesus Christ. They have not a personal relationship with Him. They don’t know the joy of having their sins forgiven, a home in heaven, a purpose for living. Reaching each person is a huge task. That’s why we weren’t meant to do it alone. God created the Church, the body of Christ to work together, support each other, and encourage each other.
Philippians 1:27 says, “Remember always to live as Christians should so that you are standing side by side with one strong purpose, to tell the Good News” (TLB) Similarly in 1 Corinthians 3:9 it says, “We are co-workers in God’s service” (NIV).
Some of you will never feel like you have the courage to win a person to Christ by yourself, but with the help of a group you can bring somebody to Jesus.
There’s power in a group witness. When someone sees a room full of people sincerely worshiping God, loving one another, and serving together, they begin to think, “There must be something real happening here.”
7. Be Willing to Pay the Cost
Nothing great is ever done without sacrifice.
Here’s something to think about in our story of the friends on the roof: who paid for the roof?
They tore a total stranger’s roof up. Obviously, those guys wouldn’t just tear it up and leave it. Someone paid for it. I believe that these friends said, “I don’t care what it costs, we want to get our friend to Jesus, and we’ll pay the cost.”
Here’s the principle. There is always a cost in bringing people to Christ – whether it’s time, money, effort, or energy. Too often we’re unwilling to sacrifice.
William Temple once said, “The church is the only organization that exists for the benefit of the non-members.” We do not exist for ourselves.
To reach people we have to reach outside of our comfort zone
Jesus said, “I will make you fishers of men” (Matt. 4:19 NKJV).
Did you know that the average fisherman never strays more than about a half a mile from a paved road? They are aiming to fish conveniently. Serious fishermen, however, are willing to go to any length. They’ll climb over brush, go through trees, and wade deep into water. They’ll do whatever it takes to get where the fish are.
I’ve noticed when I go fishing, fish do not automatically jump into my boat. They don’t say, “Catch me! Catch me!” No. What I’ve noticed is that my culture, air, is very different than the culture of fish, water. I’ve noticed that fish are not going to come into my culture, air, automatically. If I’m going to catch any fish, I have to make sure I get in their culture. I’m not expecting them to get in mine.
To put up a sign on a church and said, “You’re all welcome. Come on in!” is asking fish to come into the air. No, we have to take the message and put it right in front of their nose in their culture. We have to make an intentional effort to make contact. You know what that takes? It takes sacrifice. It takes being willing to do something inconvenient.
You know the sad thing about the story of the paralytic man? The man who desperately needed to be saved and forgiven could not get into the room with Jesus because it was filled with religious people. Is it possible your church is so full or so intimidating that people who need the Lord can’t access it?
Here’s my fear. I fear the day that we the Church have become too comfortable. My fear is that we become fat, happy, and at ease in Zion. Too many churches and small groups eventually become inward focused. You’ve been together a long time and developed some very close relationships, and that’s wonderful. That’s what koinonia is all about. But you’re not at all excited about reaching new people – you’ve got a little holy huddle. I sometimes joke that they get a disease called “koinonitis“—a love of fellowship that forgets the mission. We enjoy each other so much that we stop making room for anyone new. Us four and no more. Us seven all the way to heaven.
There’s another word for that; it’s called selfishness. God is not impressed with our little groups; he wants us to reach out.
God is going to stretch you. If you’re willing to grow, he will stretch you the rest of your life. There’s never going to be any time in your life where he lets you coast. When you’re coasting, you’re always going downhill. There will always be inconveniences in your life if you’re going to be used by God. That’s the price of being used by God.
I once got an email from a friend of mine, a missionary in Southeast Asia. He said, “Rick, don’t forget to encourage people to count the cost.” Many people think that the cost of missions is a plane ticket, but the real cost is putting other people in front of you, putting others first before your own comfort.
This principle of sacrifice has implications on how we spend our money. Will I spend my money on anything I want, or will I use a portion of my money to further the kingdom of God? What portion am I going to spend on myself, and what portion am I going to spend on others?
I once spoke at a Korean church that told me how they funded the construction of their building. They were poor and had no resources. Someone suggested selling their blood. Their response was simple: “Jesus Christ gave his blood for us. We can give our blood for him.” And they did. They built that church through extraordinary sacrifice – the literal blood of their members.
Most of us don’t know that kind of sacrifice. Only God can help you figure out what is a sacrifice for you. Ask him what sacrifices he might want you to make to reach the people around you.
Will You Be a Stretcher Bearer?
This is an incredibly exciting time to be alive, and you can either get used by God or you can be left on the sidelines. Here’s my question. Are you ready to go through the roof for Jesus?
Friends, there are paralyzed people all around us.
Will you be a stretcher bearer?
People around you are trapped by fear, by guilt, by loneliness, and by hopelessness.
They need someone willing to carry them to Jesus.
Do you think any of these four men with the paralyzed friend imagined that 2,000 years later, across the world, we would still be talking about them? Not likely. The greatest way to leave a legacy is bring people to Jesus. There is no greater legacy than bringing people to Jesus.
I want to challenge you to make a new determination that reaching others will not be a side issue for you, but that you will say, “The rest of my life I’m going to take as many people into heaven as I can. My family and my small group will make this a matter of prayer and focus, and we’re not just going to be a self-centered, looking inward, encouraging each other. We are going to reach out, and we will multiply.”
Here’s my prayer for you as I hope you make a fresh commitment to reaching people for Christ:
God, I pray that you will take each of us to the next level of passion for people who don’t know you. May we never become comfortable. May we never become complacent. May we always care more about other people that you died for than our own convenience and our own plans.
Thank you in advance for a new wave of people coming to Christ. Thank you that you’re going to use the person reading this in a new way this year. Thank you that there’s going to be joy in heaven over those who come to know you. We right now pray for every person who came to mind that doesn’t yet know you. You know those names, you’ve watched every moment of their life, and they matter more to you than they do to us.
We commit to being used, to being vessels, to fulfilling the mission you’ve given to us. We ask for your strength, and we thank you in advance that you’ll give it. In Jesus’ name, amen.
