How to Have Godly Friendships | The Gospels | Mark 2:1-12

[music] Welcome to 10 Minute Bible Talks. Where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmuth, Friendship. It's an important part of life. Your ability to be a friend, your capacity to foster friendship and your humility to receive friendship are things worth working on your whole life. Your relationships will either take you closer to or further away from the person you want to be. Maybe this is why the Bible makes such a big deal out of friendship. In Mark 2, scripture shows us how friends can help us live in the upside-down kingdom of God. Where people are not out to advance themselves or protect their own agendas. But instead are given faith to surrender to God's plans and advance the good news of His love and mercy to a dark, waiting, and restless world. Do you have friends that do that? Are you that kind of friend? The four friends in Comparnam had heard about Jesus, but they did not fully know Him yet. When Jesus began His ministry, people realized He was different. The way He talked about scripture, the way He prayed, the way He healed. It was unlike anything they'd witnessed before. Crowds gathered, people followed and some hoped to catch His attention. They were intrigued or skeptical, maybe both. Who was this man? Who taught the law with authority? Who was this person that spoke of God's promises with such hope? Who was this teacher who could heal the sick? Was this the promised Messiah? In Mark 2, Jesus was still very early in this ministry when He returned to Comparnam and began teaching in the house where He was staying. Mark tells us the house was so crowded, there was no room left, not even near the door. Imagine the scene. People packed shoulder to shoulder, those in the back asking those in the front to pass the words along. What is He saying? Who is this man? Because their friend was paralyzed and had to be carried on a mat. The four friends of Mark chapter two arrived late. And when they did, they quickly realized they could not get through the door to bring their friend to Jesus for healing. To bring them to the one who just might be able to heal them like they'd heard he had done for others. But they didn't seem to be worried about causing a scene and they were not concerned with being disruptive or drawing attention to themselves. They must have been convinced that Jesus could help their friend. They must have loved him deeply to carry him all that way. And they must have been both humble and bold to cut a hole through the roof of the house and lower him down into the room where Jesus sat. Now from a human point of view, they probably looked like a problem. Disruptive and considerate, disrespectful. But from Jesus point of view, the situation looked very different. Mark two verse five says, "When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralyzed man, my child, your sins are forgiven. Where the crowd saw a spectacle, Jesus saw faith. Where other saw a man who could not walk, Jesus saw someone who needed forgiveness. This is what upset the teachers of the law because they did not understand who Jesus was. Looking at them and knowing their thoughts, Jesus asked, "Why do you question this in your hearts? Which is easier to say. Your sins are forgiven or to say stand up, take your mat and walk. But so that you may know the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. And then he told the man to take up his mat and walk. And the man did exactly that. He stood up, grabbed his mat and walked out through the stunned crowd. Mark tells us the crowd was amazed and praised God. Some saw Jesus from a human point of view. Others saw him as he truly was. The Son of the living God. Paul explains this shift in perspective and second Corinthians 516. He says, "So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now. And then Paul takes it even further. This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone. The new life has begun. If you have been reconciled to Jesus, you have a new point of view. With that new point of view comes a new role. Paul continues, all of this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ ambassadors. As ambassadors to the King, what does that mean? What does it actually look like in our friendships and our relationships? Well, it means we get to share the message, the method and the character of Jesus, the message. You look at every situation and relationship through the lens of Scripture. You help others do the same. The skeptics are Jesus as untrained and impressive and out of step with culture and law. But those with faith saw him as the fulfillment of Scripture and the author of a much bigger story. As ambassadors, we help people see their lives not as isolated moments, but as part of God's greater redemptive story. The method. You allow God to use you as an instrument of the kind of change he wants to make. That means staying connected to him through prayer and friendship with Christ. It means being willing to live differently and to embrace the upside-down kingdom because you trust that God goes before you. Character. You ask yourself again and again, what about Jesus? Does this person need to see through me? Kindness, patience, generosity and mercy are evidence of the new life that we have been given in Christ. And yes, this kind of friendship can feel awkward, praying with someone instead of just saying you will, inviting someone to church and then actually sitting with them, telling a family member how much God loves them and how much you do too. Seeing people from God's point of view takes humility and effort. It can be hard. But what else are we here to do? What is the point of our work, of our school of our friendships, if we do not believe we're living in a bigger story? If we don't live out the new life, God has given us through Jesus Christ. Because our sins are no longer counted against us, we have been entrusted with the message of reconciliation. And maybe that is what true friendship looks like. Not from a human point of view, but from God's.