SERMON: A FULL HOUSE

Preached by Gregory W. Lee
24 June 2007

I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Mark 1 -- we're going to start at verse 45
-- as this verse opens, Mark has begun to record the beginning of Jesus' ministry -- at this point, He is known as a healer, and has cast demons from people in the synagogue and had healed many people of their diseases
-- this verse concludes the story of Jesus healing a man with leprosy -- after He healed him, Jesus warned him to go to the priest and offer the required sacrifices, but not to tell anyone else what had happened
-- look now at verse 45

1:45. Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.
1. A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home.
2. So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them.
3. Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them.
4. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on.
5. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."

-- this is a very familiar passage for most of us -- the story of the healing of a paralytic man who was lowered through the roof by his four friends because they could not get into the room where Jesus was
-- it is so familiar to us, though, that we tend to miss the richness of what Mark is trying to tell us -- if you would, I would like for you to close your eyes for just a moment and use your imaginations -- I want you to try to picture in your mind what this scene looked like when it happened

-- first, imagine what the room might have looked like -- it would have been a room about the size of your living room or your great room -- maybe about fifteen feet by about twenty feet at the most -- in about six steps, you could cross the entire room
-- the walls would have been made out of stone or mud -- possibly with a couple of windows on each side that let in a little light -- and the door would have been in the center of the wall and would have been covered with a thick curtain -- other than the light from the window, the only other light would have come from oil-burning lamps placed around the room
-- now Mark tells us that Jesus was in the room, preaching the word to them -- He was probably seated in the middle of the room next to the wall -- and the people were gathered in a kind of semi-circle around Him -- the owner of the house and a few other select guests were probably closest to Jesus -- sitting down cross-legged in front of Him while He taught
-- Mark tells us that the room was full -- so I want you to picture that in your mind -- imagine that you are in the room -- standing there shoulder to shoulder with everyone else as part of the crowd -- we've all been in crowds before -- picture what it might look and feel like -- it is crowded -- it is hot -- you are pressed up against the people in front of you -- and the people on your side and behind you are slightly pushing up against you -- jostling you as you try to listen to Jesus -- you have to keep moving your head to look through the people to see Jesus sitting down there next to the wall
-- you look at the door -- and you see the door is absolutely filled with people trying to get in -- they are leaned in -- trying to listen to Jesus -- outside the door is a little crowd -- they are pressing against each other -- trying to catch a word as Jesus teaches or just a glimpse of Him in the room -- people in the street stop and wonder at the crowd around the door and ask what is going on -- they can't see or hear Jesus from where they are -- all they see is a crowd of people pressing in around the door
-- each window also has a crowd around it -- a few lucky ones are leaning in the open window -- their bodies are half-way in the room and they are able to see and listen to Jesus as He teaches -- others behind them are pressing them and squeezing them against the wall as they try to get close -- everyone is pushing against everyone else and everyone is straining to catch Jesus' voice as He teaches
-- do you have that picture in your mind? -- can you feel the crowd jostling against you? -- can you imagine what it looked like?
-- now, open your eyes -- look around this room -- what is different here? -- compared to the scene that Mark described and that you just pictured in your mind, what is different?
-- that's what I want to talk about this morning

II. The People are Missing
-- just a casual glance around this room confirms what we already know about the churches of the United Methodist Church -- the people are missing
-- this is no secret -- I have spoken about this many times -- and Bishop Watson and his cabinet have been trying to address the declining membership in the South Georgia Conference for several years now
-- Roy Blackwood, the conference layleader, pointed out in his address to the conference that the "greatest threat to our church is our continuous decline of members" -- since the creation of the United Methodist Church in 1968, the church has lost members every single year
-- last year in south Georgia we lost over 1,000 members while the population continued to grow by over 12% -- not only does this mean that we are not bringing people into the church, but we are losing the ones that we have -- and if this trend continues, we are going to be witnesses to the lingering death of the United Methodist Church in this country
-- we see the same thing in our church -- while we may have been somewhat constant in our membership over the last several years, I think everyone here can point to a time when the church was filled -- when the church had lots more members than it has now and when the pews were filled with worshipers on Sunday mornings

-- the scene that we see before us today in our church is not that different from other United Methodist congregations throughout the U.S. -- but, it is vastly different from the scene that Mark portrays in his gospel
-- as Mark relates to us the early ministry of Jesus, he points out that Jesus always drew a crowd -- for instance, after Jesus had cast the demon out of the man in the synagogue and went to the home of Simon and Andrew to rest, Mark tells us that the "whole town gathered at the door" to see Jesus
-- and after Jesus healed the man with leprosy and the man told everyone the news about his healing, Mark tells us that the people came to Jesus where ever He went -- to the point where He could no longer enter a town openly but had to stay outside in the lonely places just to keep from getting mobbed
-- and in this story of the healing of the paralytic man in Capernaum, we read in verse 2 that "so many gathered [to hear Jesus] that there was no room left, not even outside the door" -- in fact, there were so many people gathered that the four men couldn't get their paralytic friend to Jesus to be healed but had to make a hole in the roof and lower him down on his mat in front of Jesus

III. Steps to Revival
-- so, what made the difference? -- why did the people fill that house in Capernaum to the point that no one else could come in? -- and why do our pews and our churches remain mostly empty today?

-- first, there had to be something of substance in that place to attract the people
-- for the last several months, the Glasgow University Chapel in Scotland -- which usually stands empty except for Sunday worship services -- has been crowded with people
-- you see, the university recently hired a new janitor -- an immigrant from Poland who came to Scotland in the hopes of making a better living there -- as part of his job, he would clean the chapel and his eyes would fall on the grand piano that was in the room -- one day, he asked if he could practice on the piano when he was finished cleaning the floors and no one else was around -- the vicar said it would be alright
-- so the immigrant -- Aleksander Kudajczyk -- would play for an audience of one -- but, what happened next was amazing -- you see, Aleksander did not know that there was a webcam in the chapel that continually broadcasted live images of the chapel across the internet -- one day, the chapel's pastor, Reverend MacQuarrie, happened to be at his computer as Aleksander began to play
-- as he heard the masterful sounds of Chopin and Rachmaninov come across his computer's speakers, he said he assumed someone was playing a classical CD in the chapel's sound system -- but, as he looked up at the screen, he saw the music was coming from the talented hands of his janitor
-- MacQuarrie mentioned it to one person -- who told another -- and, all of a sudden, Aleksander found himself giving concerts to a chapel full of people on a regular basis -- the room became so crowded and the demand to see him so great, that Aleksander was asked to play at Glasgow's West End Festival and the International Organ Festival
-- there has to be something of substance present in order to attract people

-- what was present in the crowded little room in Capernaum that drew the people to that place? -- Jesus, of course -- the people had gathered to hear the words of Jesus taught -- to listen to His message and to witness the miracles of His healing and the forgiveness of sins
-- does anyone doubt that that same Jesus is here this morning? -- let me say this emphatically so that you all get it -- Jesus is here today -- He has not left this church or the United Methodist Church -- He is here and He offers to us His words and His healing and His forgiveness and His power and His grace -- the same Jesus that drew the people and that filled the room in Capernaum to overflowing is present in this sanctuary at this moment -- His Holy Spirit is here, filling our hearts with His presence and His power
-- so, we have something here of substance that should be attracting people to come -- we have Jesus -- so why aren't the people coming? -- what made the difference between the house in Capernaum and our church this morning?

-- look back at verse 45 in Chapter 1
1:45. Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.

-- now, read vs. 1 in Chapter 2

1. A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home.

-- what did you read? -- the man who had been healed with leprosy went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news -- when Jesus came to Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home
-- what is the second reason why the house in Capernaum was filled with people? -- those who knew about Jesus told others about Him and where they could find Him
-- if there is anything missing in the Methodist Church -- if there is anything missing in our church today -- it is that we are not telling people about Jesus or where they can find Him
-- Roy Blackwood, the conference layleader, said that it seems "as if we have lost our desire to share the Gospel with others" -- if you want to know why our churches are not filled and why the membership in the Methodist Church continues to decline, it is mainly for this reason -- we are not sharing the Gospel with others
-- for several years now, the slogan of the United Methodist Church has been, "Open Hearts -- Open Minds -- Open Doors" -- I have had a problem with that slogan since they came out with it -- I don't care how open your heart is -- how open your mind is -- or how open your door is -- if you don't tell people what they can find on the other side of the door, no one is going to come
-- if the owner of the house at Capernaum had just invited Jesus to come and told no one else, we wouldn't be reading about it this morning -- if the owner of the house at Capernaum had just opened his door to Jesus and not invited anyone else in, then the room would not have been filled to overflowing -- and, if we don't start inviting people to come to our churches and to hear and experience Jesus in our midst, then our sanctuaries are going to continue to be filled with empty pews and just the select few who know that Jesus is here
-- if we are going to fulfill the Great Commandment -- if we are going to see the membership declines in our churches reversed -- if we are going to see people come to our churches and experience the healing power of Jesus in this place -- then we must not only develop a desire to see people come to Jesus -- but we must develop a desire to tell them about Him and to bring them here
-- for this year's annual conference, Bishop Watson selected the theme, "By All Means," referring back to the Apostle Paul's words that he had become all things to all men so that by all means he might save some
-- this theme is a call to us to imitate Paul -- to imitate the man with leprosy -- to imitate all those in Jesus' day who told others about Jesus and where people could find Him -- to use any and all means at our disposal to tell people about Jesus and to invite them to come to our churches and experience His presence in a real and mighty way
-- Blackwood pointed out that 80 to 90% of all Christians come to faith through a friend or family member -- do you know what that means? -- by and large, people don't come to faith in a church -- that's not the real purpose of a church -- the purpose of a church is to build up and equip the saints -- the people sitting in the pews -- to go out and be more effective ministers of the Gospel of Christ
-- people come to faith when their friends and family members share with them the story of Jesus -- when they demonstrate it to them in their life -- when they show it through their love

IV. Closing
-- we have to get intentional about telling people about Christ and His healing and His forgiveness -- not just so that our churches are filled to overflowing -- but because the results of living a life apart from Jesus have an eternal significance

-- Evangelist Ray Comfort shared about a conversation that he had with an atheist -- he had been talking with the atheist and trying to witness to him -- he had shared with him the truth of the gospel and the truth of heaven and hell -- one day, the atheist went by a fire and watched as a fireman sat in the front of the truck with headphones on listening to a CD while his fellow firefighters ran into a burning building to rescue people who were trapped inside -- the atheist thought about everything that Ray had been telling him and then sent him an e-mail
-- this is an excerpt of the e-mail to Ray from the atheist: "You are really convinced that you've got all the answers. You've really got yourself tricked into believing that you're 100% right. Well, let me tell you just one thing. Do you consider yourself to be compassionate of other humans? If you're right, as you say you are, and you believe that, then how can you sleep at night? When you speak with me, you are speaking with someone who you believe is walking directly into eternal damnation, into an endless onslaught of horrendous pain which your 'loving' God created, yet you stand by and do nothing"
-- "If you believed one bit that thousands every day were falling into an eternal and unchangeable fate, you should be running the streets mad with rage at their blindness. That's equivalent to standing on a street corner and watching every person that passes you walk blindly directly into the path of a bus and die, yet you stand idly by and do nothing. You're just twiddling your thumbs, happy in the knowledge that one day that 'walk' signal will shine your way across the road."
-- "Think about it. Imagine the horrors Hell must have in store if the Bible is true. You're just going to allow that to happen and not care about saving anyone but yourself? If you're right, then you're an uncaring, unemotional and purely selfish (expletive) [person] that has no right to talk about subjects such as love and caring."

-- why should we care that the United Methodist Church has been losing members every year since 1968? -- why should we care that the South Georgia Conference lost over 1,000 members last year? -- why should we care that we have empty pews surrounding us right now?
-- because we want more people? -- because we want our churches to be prosperous? -- NO!
-- we care because every empty space in this sanctuary -- every empty spot on a pew -- represents someone who is valuable to God and who may be headed to hell and not heaven simply because we haven't told them about Jesus
-- a declining membership means a lot more than empty churches -- it means that we are not sharing our faith and bringing people to Christ and rescuing them from the flames of hell
-- do I want to see this church filled with people? -- Do I want to see so many people here on a Sunday morning that they're crowded around the door trying to get in? -- Do I want to see the Methodist Church grow every year? -- YES!
-- but not because I want a bigger church -- not because I want to see our church rolls grow -- but because I understand the consequences for those who don't come
-- as I opened the sermon this morning, I had you close your eyes and imagine what the scene looked like in that little room in Capernaum where Jesus healed the paralytic man -- I want to ask you to close your eyes again -- this time, I want you to picture this santuary in your mind -- picture each pew -- the altar -- the pulpit -- the piano
-- you know what it looked like when you closed your eyes -- now, I want you to imagine what it would look like filled -- with every pew filled -- with a person seated in every spot -- picture them standing and singing -- praising God and lifting their eyes and their hearts to heaven as they thank Him for His forgiveness and His healing in their lives
-- use your imagination -- look at the people there in the pews -- who did you bring with you? -- how many came because you used all means possible to share with them the good news of Jesus Christ? -- how many souls in heaven will thank you for introducing them to Jesus?
-- now open your eyes -- will you do what it takes to make that vision a reality?
-- let us pray