1st Point “The great physician”
In our bible one of the wonderful attributes of Jesus is being the great physician, no sickness, no disease, no demon inflicted sore or clamor can stand victorious being confronted with the great physician, the one who has the cure.
Jesus bore it all, he is considered the go to man, who can heal and save all who would come. And many did. They came to the one who had the answers for their distressed episodes in life. He healed them all.
The doctors oath is one that is of most importance to today’s medical field, it is an oath to always have care and concern for the patient, to care carefully for ones life, partial of this oath says: I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.
Jesus being the greatest physician showed warmth, sympathy, pity, care, love that was beyond the understanding of man. He loved those He came to heal and die for.
People from all over the region came to Jesus for healing, they came for answers, they came for mercy.
There are people that are sick all around us, but many of the sicknesses are not even noticeable, there are sicknesses that we are not able to see with the natural eye. Sicknesses that if we were able to see into the spiritual as Jesus did we would be amazed at what lies before our eyes.
We look at Peter walking out of the boat onto the water he was able to see in the supernatural and this distracted his focus yet we cannot deny that he was in the realm of the supernatural, let us look very quickly,
“But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!””
??Matthew? ?14:30? ?NKJV??????????????????
Beloved who here can see wind, I am sure we can only see the effects but not the wind, I dare say he was in the supernatural. “Lord permit me”, was his cry.
The Bible records Jesus casting out demons and healing all who came to Him with diseases, there is a spiritual side to the healing’s and if we don’t dig deep in this relationship with Christ we will never see what Jesus is able to see.
People are sick, they look fine on the outside, they look normal nothing is going wrong, but in the inside they are dying, they are mad, distressed, lonely, upset, depressed, unsure, suicidal, they are in need of a great physician. Jesus Christ is there answer, He can heal their sickness He can do anything we ask Him to do.
Let us look for a moment at the whole chapter of Matthew 8 at what does all day. This is just a glimpse, He had healed a leper, then He had sent healing to the centurion's servant. He had healed Peter's wife's mother. No doubt he had preached and taught all day; and no doubt he had encountered those who were bitter in their opposition to him. Now it was evening. God gave to men the day for work, and the evening for rest. The evening is the time of quiet when work is laid aside. But it was not so for Jesus. At the time when he might have expected rest, he was surrounded by the insistent demands of human need--and selflessly and uncomplainingly and with a divine generosity he met them all. So long as there was a soul in need there was no rest for Jesus Christ. The one who said come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest was restless for souls. Jesus took responsibility, He made it a demand in His own heart to see the needs of people.
I dare ask are you still restless for souls? Is your burden still for the hunger of God’s own heart? Will you consider your state this evening? Where is the physicians heart in His saints?
2nd “He Himself took our infirmities”
In our scripture beloved the writer of this particular book quoted a verse from Isaiah which said: “He Himself took our infirmities And bore our sicknesses.” This verse bothered me, He took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.
Responsibility: the state or fact of having a duty to deal with something or of having control over someone.
Jesus took responsibility for those who were in need. He took responsibility for us. I remember the prayers I would hear when we were at 1291 Allerton I still cherish and hold to those prayers today those prayers shook my soul to the core, stirred my heart for more, “God give me your heart, Lord give me your burden, God give me your agony for this city”. See beloved His compassion for those who were in desperate need was and still is His business, it was and still is His desire, it was and still is His responsibility and He took it upon Himself to take their/our sicknesses and heal all of their diseases. Including you and I.
What would make Jesus do such a thing, what would cause this wonderful majestic King to leave His throne of glory and come down to this fragile/infected and fractured place we call earth and take responsibility for the sick, broken and demon possessed? The very love of God toward man.
But the problem we have is that we try to explain God’s love but we can’t because His love is incomprehensible. God’s love is incomprehensible. You cannot explain it.
No human mind can comprehend God. We cannot define God. We cannot provide a comprehensive account of who he is. He "dwells in an unapproachable light" (1 Tim. 6:16). If God is incomprehensible, then so is His love. While we may and must speak truthfully about his love, we can never fathom it, because it is divine love, as different from our love as his being is different from our being. The truth is we have boundaries, we have limits, we go but so far, anything that bothers our momentum, bothers our spouse anything that interrupts our plans we stop.
What we do know is that according to scripture He loved those in need enough to take responsibility for their sicknesses and their diseases. He bore them, He wore them, He took them upon Himself.
I began to think of this act, this precious act of love, all He was able to see, all He was able to do and yet He chose to take my sickness and your sickness and place it upon Himself so we can be made whole. And He did it without a word of complaining, not a word.
Beloved we are to fight for this heart, we are to desire this responsibility, we are to ask God for it, for in it we take on the very spirit of God.
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
Isaiah 53:7
He bore this shame upon Him, the great physician saw the spiritual condition of human error, human sin and made it His business and took it as His responsibility to be shamed for us, to be a curse for us. This is the very love of God. Let us look at our scripture they came to Him by night.
Here we see the sheer universality of the love of God in action. To Jesus no one was ever a nuisance; he had no hours when he was on duty and hours when he was off duty. Any man could come to him at any time and receive the willing, gracious help of the love of God. At any time, we can come to God and ask for help. And yet we have limits. God I will do anything for you except that.
“God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.”
??Psalms? ?46:1? ?????????????????????????????????????
You see beloved you might think all is well but even we have areas that need healing, areas that we need help. Those around us that smile at work, at school, at the park, all around us are in need of this great physician just as we were before we surrendered our sin to Him. The great physician the lamb of God, Jesus Christ.
3rd Point “The cross tells it all”
Love was compressed for all history in that lonely figure on the cross, who said that he could call down angels at any moment on a rescue mission, but chose not to – because of us. At Calvary, God accepted his own unbreakable terms of justice.
His brokenhearted cry on the cross, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do, shows God’s love towards sinners.
“Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.” But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.””
??Luke? ?23:39-43? ?????????????????????????????????????
Here we have two criminals one mocks Jesus and the other realizes something that we readily forget, our bible records him saying, “And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.”
This statement shook me, because I had to place myself in the place of this criminal and realize that I also had to look at Christ and petition the same request remember me, because it is because of me you are there. The great physician, the healer, the redeemer, the absolute example of love has taken my place on that cross. See beloved the moment you forget what Christ has done for you, you lose the purpose of your Christian existence, you no longer live for God but you now refuse to take responsibility as a soul winner.
Let us realize that sickness is not only physical but spiritual as well and even though people look like they are okay on the outside I petition you to look on the inside and ask God to show you who you really are next to His son and help you to see who they really beyond the façade.
God proved His love on the Cross. When Christ hung, and bled, and died, it was God saying to the world, “I love you.” His arms spread wide and His heart burst with love that cannot be denied, He did this for you.
