The Good Physician
With all the sickness and disease, we see around us today, it can’t help but make us think why God would allow these things to happen to us. Why would He take people from us, cause us so much suffering and put us through the things we’re forced to cope with every day.
What we fail to realize is how much our Lord has done for us already. How much He as influenced our lives and how much he touches us every day we exist. We are NOT abandoned!
We all have heard the story of John the Baptist…
Matthew 3:1-2 – “In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’”
Matthew 3:4-6 – “John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.”
Jesus knew of John’s work and travelled to him from Galilee to be baptized by John. When Jesus approached him, John said…
Matthew 3: 14 – “But John tried to deter him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’”
Jesus proceeded to enter the waters saying “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness”
…and John went on to baptize Jesus as he wished.
Matthew 3:16-17 – “As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’”
John is Imprisoned
John was soon imprisoned by Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great who had been king of Judea. As John was in prison, he heard of the great things surrounding this Jesus Christ whom he had just baptized.
He then asked of his disciples to go and ask Jesus if he was the one or not…
Matthew 11:3, “when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”
Jesus responded to John’s disciples…
Matthew 11:4 – “Jesus replied, ‘Go back and report to John what you hear and see’”
And the disciples responded to John with…
Matthew 11:5 – “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.”
Now, John knew this was “The One”
to be no other.
The Blind Can See
As Jesus was making His journey he came across a blind man… blind since birth. “Neither this man or his parents had sinned…”
John 9:6-7 – “After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. ‘Go,’ he told him, ‘wash in the Pool of Siloam’ (this word means ‘Sent’). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.”
John 8:31-32 – “To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’”
…and Jesus is the truth, and now we see!
The Lame Can Walk
Jesus comes across a lame man…
John 5:8 – “Jesus told him, Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!’”
We could not even walk with God until He brought us to saving faith in Christ. We were lame from the head down, but we are not new creations in Christ, and now we can truly walk with God. He continues to heal us.
With all that we struggle with today, our Lord has never left our side. Our troubles make us weak. We struggle to simply survive and we “limp along” through life searching for the answers we seek… God provides us with those answers and helps us to walk beside Him.
The Lepers Are Cleansed
Jesus comes across a leper…
Matthew 8:3 – “Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be clean!’ Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy.”
Isaiah writes that our works are nothing more than filthy rags to God…
Isaiah 64:6 – “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”
…and the rags that Isaiah was writing about are the same rags that were used to wrap and bandage lepers. That’s why we cannot ever be saved by works…
Ephesians 2:8 – “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.”
Our rags have been removed… we are cleansed!
The Deaf/Mute Can Hear and Speak
…and He comes across a blind/mute man
Mark 7:33-35 – “And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, ‘Ephphatha,’ that is, ‘Be opened.’ And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.
Jesus spoke to his disciples in parables.
Jesus said that the reason He spoke in parables was because…
Matthew 13:11 – “He replied, ‘Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.’”
and so, Jesus spoke to us in Parables. Stories that only we, his people, would understand…
Matthew 13:13 – “This is why I speak to them in parables: ‘Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.’”
For us, God has given us His Spirit so that we might hear and obey but the Jewish religious leaders of Jesus’ day proved; you can listen but still not hear.
…and now we understand and we do hear!
The Dead are Raised
Jesus raised people from the dead, and should have been proof enough to the Jews of His day that He was the fulfillment of their expected Messiah, but they just wouldn’t accept that fact. That’s because, they, like us, were dead in their sins.
Martha, the sister of Lazarus, and friends with our Lord pleaded with Jesus to raise her brother…
John 11:41-44 – “So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.’
When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, ‘Take off the grave clothes and let him go.’”
Until we are born again or born from above…
John 3:3-7 – “Jesus replied, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.’
‘How can someone be born when they are old?’ Nicodemus asked. ‘Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!’
Jesus answered, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’
…and we have been reborn in Christ!
Conclusion
Jesus’ sinless life, death, and resurrection made it possible for those of us who were once blind to now see; for those of us who walked with the Devil but now walk with God; to wash away the leprosy of sin; to have ears to hear and obey; to raise us from our death of living in sin; and to hear the good news of the gospel of the kingdom of God.
We continued to be healed by the Greatest Physician that ever lived every single day of our lives!
Walk with God; be good to one another; always be humble, always be kind… God Bless!