Four People Brought Me to the Lord

By Alan Sharpe

How many people does it take to lead somebody to the Lord? You want to find out? Please turn with me in your Bibles to the Gospel of Mark, chapter two.

And again he entered into Capernaum, after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house. nd 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. And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four. 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. When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only? 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? 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? 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,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. 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

Notice verse three: “They came unto Jesus bringing one sick of the palsy, which was born of four.” I’m going to tell you my story about how four people led me to the Lord. And I love to tell my story because, just like this man, people could have argued with him about his doctrine, but nobody could argue with him about what the Lord had done for him. And people can argue with me about ecclesiology, eschatology, soteriology, but they can’t argue with me about what the Lord did in my life.

Early Life

I was born in 1960 during a blizzard in the city of Ottawa. My dad was John Sharpe. My mother was Allison Sharpe. I’ve got three siblings, an older brother, an older sister and a younger brother. My dad worked for the Department of External Affairs. He was a diplomat. I grew up in a nominally Christian home, Presbyterian. We didn’t read the Bible. We didn’t have family devotions. We didn’t pray. I didn’t go to Bible camp. I didn’t go to AWANA. I didn’t go to Vacation Bible School. And yet my parents taught me right from wrong. I was a nominal Christian.

Just after I was born, my parents were posted to Washington DC. From there, they were posted to Dublin, Ireland, then to Paris, France, then back to Ottawa, then to London, England. And so, by the time I got to England at the age of 12, I had learned pretty quickly not to make friends, because if you make friends, a couple of years later, you’re going to get posted, not to another city, but to another country.

And so I became a bit of a loner, and kind of liked doing things on my own. And at the age of 16, my parents were posted back to Ottawa. I decided that I was going to be a man. And I joined the British Royal Marine Commandos.

You can do that as a Canadian. So I did the basic training. I did the commando training, and for nine years I served as a professional soldier in the British Royal Marine Commandos. I served active duty in Northern Ireland, two tours. I led a rifle section during the Falklands War, and I left the Royal Marines at the age of 25. But during that time I learned how to fight, swear, drink, and fornicate. There are 8,000 men in the Royal Marines. I didn’t meet one single Christian as a soldier. I never heard the Gospel in any of that time.

A Search for Meaning

I came back to Canada at the age of 25, and I decided I was going to discover why the world was the way it was. Why is there so much fighting? Why is there so much hatred? Why is there so much adultery and divorce and child abuse? And so I decided, “I’m going to get some answers.” So I went to the University of Toronto and I studied Buddhism. I studied Daoism. I studied Confucius. I studied Marx, Freud. I read all the existentialist novelists. And I just got myself further and further depressed.

I developed a drinking problem during those years. When I was in the Royal Marines, every Friday night, and every Saturday night, I went out with all my buddies and we got smashed. And when I became a civilian at the age of 25, I did the same thing. I got drunk every week. I couldn’t imagine a life without alcohol. So I left the University of Toronto depressed, and I figured the best way to find answers to why the world was in the state it was in was to hitchhike to Tibet and study at the feet of a Tibetan monk.

I was going to get answers through that religion. I started in Scotland at a new age community. I hitchhiked through England, through France, got into Spain. And I got drunk one night. It was the summer, 1991. I was 31 years old. I got drunk and I woke up the next morning with a hangover. I felt awful. I stood on the side of the Autopista, the highway that runs down the coast of Spain all the way down to Gibraltar. I was just north of the town of Alicante. I was thumbing a lift.

I had a Canadian flag on my backpack. Now, word to the young people. If you want to do really well in Europe, put a Canadian flag on your backpack. Because everybody in Europe has an aunt, an uncle, a brother, sister, cousin, somebody who lives in Canada. And they love Canadians, not Americans. Don’t put an American flag on your backpack.

The First Person

Now this is a part of Spain where the Basque terrorists have been active. So it’s really dumb to pick up somebody on the side of the Autopista. A Canadian missionary was driving her car with her son down the Autopista. And she passed me and her son said, “Mom, you’ve got to stop. Mom, you’ve got to stop.” She said, “I’m not going to stop on the side of the Autopista and pick up some stranger.” He said, “Mom you’ve got to stop. Mom, you’ve got to stop. Mom, you’ve got to stop.” He begged her to stop. So she stopped.

I got in the car and I met Marty McTavish, missionary with the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. She said, “Where are you headed?” I said, “Well, I’m heading down to Gibraltar. I’m going to cross the water into Northern Africa. And I’m going to go to Morocco. And I’m going to hitchhike across Northern Africa. And I’m going to go to Turkey. And I’m going to teach English as a second language in the underground economy. And then I’m going to hitchhike through Afghanistan and Iran. And I’m going to make my way hitchhiking into Tibet. And I’m going to learn why the world is the way it is.” She said, “Okay, do you want to meet my husband and get a shower? And would you like a meal for the night?” I said, “Sure.”

So I met her husband, Dan McTavish, missionary with a Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, planting a church in Alicante, Spain. He said, “Hey Alan, what are you doing?” I said, “Well, I’m hitchhiking around the world. I’m going to discover why people are so ugly and why people are so angry and why there’s so much bitterness and hatred in the world.” He replied, “You’re never going to find out. I just turned 40. We’ve only got one life to live. It’ll soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.” And I thought, “Oh, give me a break!” He said, “You have to live your life for Jesus. Jesus is your savior. Jesus died on the cross for you. And I thought, “Stop, stop, stop.”

So Marty and Dan gave me a meal. I got a shower. I stayed the night. And Dan asked me, “So, you want to see the sights of Alicante?” I said, “Sure.” I was carefree. So I got in his car and he drove me up and down the highway. And he was a Pentecostal, so when he saw the Mediterranean, he said, “Alan, look at this Mediterranean. Isn’t it gorgeous? Thank you, Jesus.” Right in the car like that. Gave me a fright. He’d say, “Look at these mountains, Alan. Aren’t they glorious? Thank you, Jesus.” He’d say it right in the car while he was driving. It freaked me out.

I met some of his missionary pals and they had a bit of a Bible study of some kind and they all prayed for me. They laid hands on me and I thought, “Give me a break!” But Dan said, “I can see you’ve got lots of objections. You think that the Bible was just written by a bunch of men. You think that Jesus might not have even existed. You think that the Bible’s full of contradictions. Why don’t you buy yourself a Bible? You should read the book of John, the book of Acts and the book of Romans, in that order, and ask God to open your eyes.”

So I thought, “Why not?” So I left Marty and Dan McTavish and I traveled down to Torremolinos, which is the sin city capital of Spain, where all sorts of debauchery goes on. And I took part in all the debauchery. They had a secondhand bookstore there with an English section. They had one Bible, a King James version. I bought that Bible.

I hitchhiked into Morocco and I began reading the book of John, the book of Acts and the book of Romans, in that order. And the Lord got hold of my heart and persuaded me. There had to be some truth to the Gospel. Because, I thought to myself, “Why would any man or woman in their right minds who were the age of Dan and Marty McTavish, in their forties, why would they go to Spain from Canada and try to start a church about a man who might not have even existed, might not have died on the cross, might not have risen again from the dead?”

I thought, “There has to be some truth to it because Dan is an intelligent man.” And I met his kids, I met his family. And I admired him. I thought “He’s a nice, decent man.” In fact, while I was with him for those couple of days that he was driving around, I took the Lord’s name in vain the whole time. And one day, maybe day two, or day three, I noticed that I was saying, “Jesus Christ,” and “Oh my God.” I was taking the Lord’s name in vain. I noticed. But Dan never pointed it out to me. And I thought, “Wow, that is really nice that he never did that to me.”

The Second Person

So I decided that, instead of hitchhiking through Northern Africa and over to Tibet, I was going to go back to Canada and investigate the claims of the Gospel. I got a bus up to Paris. I got an Air France flight, an overnight flight to Ottawa. I was sitting at the back of the aircraft. There weren’t that many people on the aircraft. And I had my Bible next to me. I wasn’t going to let anybody see that I had a Bible. It was covered by a napkin. All that was showing was part of the spine. The stewardess came past. “Oh you have a Bible. Are you a Christian?” I said, “No, no, I’m not a Christian. The Bible was written by a bunch of men. It’s full of contradictions. We don’t even know that Jesus existed.”

She said, “I’m a Christian. Do you want to hear my story?” It was an overnight flight. She didn’t have much to do. So I said, “Sure.” So she sat opposite me, across the aisle. And she told me her story. She had been a Hindu born in England, raised a Hindu. Then she became an agnostic. Then she became a born again Christian. She said, “Alan, don’t you think it’s kind of remarkable that everywhere you go, people are popping up in your life, telling you that Jesus died for your sins? He rose again the third day. He’s your savior. You need to repent of your sins and believe in him. I thought, “Oh, it’s just coincidence. You know. What can I tell you?”

Dan McTavish and Marty McTavish were on one corner of the stretcher that brought me to Jesus. And this stewardess, whose name I forget, was on the other corner.

So I got back to Ottawa, and back on my home territory. I got back to my old ways. I went out fornicating. I went out drinking. I got myself into trouble. I was so in trouble with alcohol, I was working as a busboy for six bucks an hour. And I thought, “I can’t support my drinking habit on six bucks an hour. I know what I’m going to do. I’m going to steal a keg of beer from my work.” I was working at the Mayflower Restaurant, on Elgin Street in Ottawa. I was going to steal a keg of beer. You know what a keg of beer looks like? They’re metal. They probably weigh 150 pounds. I was going to steal that and I was going to ride home on my bicycle with this keg of beer. Then I thought, “No, that wouldn’t work. I’ll get a taxi and I’ll get away with it.” It’s just, alcohol clouds your mind. I just wasn’t thinking rationally.

The Third Person

In Ottawa, I went out one night to go drinking. And there was a preacher from West Virginia called Chip Welton with the Open Air Campaigners. He was preaching the Gospel in the Byward Market in Ottawa. I thought, “What man in his right mind would move to Canada from the United States and preach the Gospel in the open air and have people spit on him, laugh at him, throw their trash at him, flick their cigarette butts in his face? Why would anybody do that?”

I stood as far away from Chip Welton as I could so he wouldn’t see me, but so that I could still hear the Gospel. And of course he’d been doing this for years. He knew that I was listening in from the other side of the street. He finished his message. And then he crossed the street and he came up to me and he asked, “So, what do you think of this message?”

I said, “Well, it’s hard to believe. The Bible’s full of contradictions. It was written by men and Jesus might not have even existed.” He said, “Oh, wow. You’ve got lots of objections. You should read Josh McDowell’s Evidence that Demands a Verdict. You should come to my church, the Metropolitan Bible Church. You should come to the men’s retreat we have that’s coming up. And so Chip Welton invited me to his church.

I went for a visit. I sat at the back of the church so nobody would talk to me. It was one of those annoying congregations where, during the service, the pastor says, “Hey, everybody, stand up and say hi to your neighbor.” I hated that. So I’m right at the back of the church. And the guy sitting in front of me is the youth pastor. He’s the college and careers pastor. He stands up, “Hey, welcome. What’s your name?” “I’m Alan.” “I’m the youth pastor. Do you want to come to the men’s retreat?” “Sure.”

So I went to the men’s retreat. I heard the Gospel. I heard lots of people witnessing to me. I was the only unbeliever at this men’s retreat. I had no clue what was going on. All these brothers are praying for me. And each of them told me their testimony. These are lawyers, doctors, dentists, professional men, people working for the federal government, who believed the Gospel. I thought, “There has to be some truth to it.” Chip Welton was the third person on this stretcher that brought me to Jesus.

The Fourth Person

Now, during that time, I was infrequently going to the Metropolitan Bible Church. But everywhere I went in the city of Ottawa, I found Gospel tracts. I’d go to get a bus, the Greyhound bus, there’d be a Gospel tract. I’d go to make a phone call at a public phone booth (this is pre-cellphone days). I’d find a Gospel tract. I’d go to eat a meal. I’d find a Gospel tract. I found Gospel tracts everywhere. And they all said the same thing. “You’re a sinner. You deserve judgment. Christ came into the world to save sinners. He died on the cross for your sins. He rose again the third day. He’s coming back again. You need to repent of your sins and believe in him.” Every tract I found, I read it cover to cover many times and I kept them all. That stranger, I don’t know who it was, who left those tracts everywhere. But that is the fourth person who brought me to the Gospel and brought me to the Savior.

The Miracle that God Performed for Me

Now the thing about this man that we read about today is that you’ll notice that Jesus forgave his sins and then healed him. In my case, he healed me and then he forgave my sins.

In those days, I was an alcoholic. I was drinking alcoholically. Every Friday night when it was payday, I would buy a 12 pack of beer and a Kraft dinner. And I thought it would last me the weekend. But it never did. I was drinking myself into oblivion. One night, I went out into the Byward Market and I went to the Chateau Lafayette, which sold the cheapest beer in Ottawa. This was in July of 1991. And I stood outside the Chateau Lafayette. I think it was a Friday night. I could hear the people inside, laughing and having a great old time. And I didn’t want to go in. I thought, “This is nuts. I’m 31 years old. I’ve been drinking alcoholically since I was 16, every Friday, every Saturday night. I’m single. I go out. I get smashed.”

Here I was, outside the Chateau Lafayette thinking I wanted to get drunk, but I didn’t want to go in. Now, God parted the Red Sea. I call that a Class A miracle. And God took away my desire to drink. I call that a Class A miracle. I didn’t even ask Him to do it. It’s not like I struggled, struggled, struggled, struggled with my drinking, and begged God to help me. But He helped me. I went out to get drunk, but I discovered outside the bar that I didn’t want to drink. And I haven’t had a drink since. That was July, 1991. And when God did that in my life, when he took away my desire to drink, I sobered up.

Giving Up. And Looking Up.

I kept reading the tracts that I had. I was reading the New Testament. I was listening to what Chip Welton said. Chip Welton was one of these evangelists who followed up. When he shared the Gospel with me, he took my phone number and he called me and he followed up and he stayed with me. It was during that time, sometime in July of 1991, that I basically gave up. I said, “Lord, please help me. I am a sinner. I am lost. I am wicked. I deserve to go to hell.” I thought about the things that I did and the things that I said when I was drunk. And I knew that I was a wicked, wicked person. And I repented of my sins. I asked God to forgive me. And I trusted that Christ died for me. God saved me.

So that was in 1991. I’m here to encourage you that salvation isn’t just something that happens and then you’re on your way to glory and everything’s fine. I mean, your eternal destiny is taken care of. But my experience was that I had lots of rough edges. I was proud. I was opinionated. I was egotistical. I was single, right? I knew everything when I was single. I’m not picking on single people here. I don’t mean to do that. I had the luxury of having an opinion about everything when I was single. And the Lord has worked in my life over the years to soften me, to make me more tender, to make me more gentle, to take me from being a professional soldier who was trained to kill people into someone who reads the New Testament and learns, “Oh, I’m to turn the other cheek. I’m to go the extra mile. I’m to love my enemies.” Not easy to do.

The Lord has worked a work in my life. And he’s also given me victory over temptations that are just as strong as alcohol. The Lord’s given me victory. I’ve learned in the decades that I’ve been a Christian that not only did God take away my desire to drink miraculously, without me even asking, but in other areas of my life, He’s given me the victory by me asking Him and trusting Him and reading His word and praying to Him and begging Him to help me in other areas of my life. God has done it. He’s able to do it today. I don’t have to wait for a miracle for God to help me, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

A Word to You

Now, I just want to finish by encouraging you. There were four people that brought me to Jesus.

The first person was Marty McTavish. She picked me up off the side of the highway in Spain, through the prompting of her son. She introduced me to her husband. And the two of them introduced me to Christian hospitality. I sat in their home. I ate at their table with their children. I saw them thank the Lord for their food. I heard them talk about the Lord. They listened to Christian music all the time. That music drove me bats, but the McTavish family were the real article. They used their lives and hospitality to lead me to Jesus.

The second person was the flight attendant on my flight. She used her personal testimony to bring me to Jesus. Not hospitality, but a personal testimony that I couldn’t argue with.

The third person who brought me to Jesus was Chip Welton, an Open Air evangelist who used the proclamation of the Gospel in the open air that I couldn’t get away from. I wasn’t going to go to a church. I wasn’t going to call some number or go to some Bible study. He preached the Gospel in the open air, and I heard it. He used open air, public evangelism.

The fourth person who brought me to Jesus was a stranger who used Gospel literature placed strategically around the city of Ottawa. Wherever I went, I found it. And God used it.

So I’m here to encourage you today that it’s possible for you to be a part of the Lord’s work in saving a soul by doing Christian hospitality, giving a personal word of testimony, doing open air evangelism, and, even if you’re shy, anonymously leaving Gospel tracts and Gospel literature around your city.

You never know, some hardened drunk like me might come along and you’ll be the second person they’ve met, the third person they’ve met, maybe the fourth person. Two people couldn’t have carried that man to Jesus. Have you ever tried carrying a loaded stretcher, just you and one other person, upstairs and down, then lowering them down through a roof? It took four people to carry him. It took four people to carry me. So I just encourage you. You could be part of that miracle of bringing somebody to Jesus.