Encounters with the Great Physician

A Sermon edited by Steve Fountain originally preached on February 10, 2013 called "Encounters with the Great Physician" from Luke 5:12-32.

Luke points us to a doctor who cares and is willing to spend the time trying to understand what is going on. Jesus is not only the Son of God; he is also the Curer of Souls.  We see Jesus do three healings, each offering a glimpse of the tenderness, depth, and gentleness of our Great Physician.             

1.  A Man Full of Leprosy (Luke 5:12-16).  As a leper, this man was an outcast living a slow and painful death.  He was a man without family, employment, and hope.  In verse 12, the leper fell down on his face and begged Jesus, saying “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean?”  Notice he asks “will,” not “can.” The man had faith that Jesus was powerful enough, but he was unsure if Jesus would help a leper.

Contrary to social norms, Jesus defiled Himself and touched him, saying, “I will; Be clean.”   The tenderness of the moment cannot be overstated.

Jesus asks the man to tell no one and to show himself to the priest. It may be that Jesus is attempting to force the priesthood to recognize the signs of the age.  Jesus is reversing the affects of sin.  If they verified the cleansing, the priest would be forced whether or not to announce the arrival of the Messiah. 

2. A Man Full of Paralysis (Luke 5:17-26).  In these verses, we view a paralyzed man whose friends have so much faith in Jesus that they go the the crowded house where Jesus is teaching.  Undeterred — just like the unclean man venturing from the leper colony  — they scale the walls, punch a hole through the roof, and lower their friend to Jesus.

Jesus was completely aware of who is listening in the audience when He says: “Man, your sins are forgiven you” (v. 20).  This forced the Pharisees and teachers of the law present to whisper “Who is this who speaks blasphemies?  Who can forgive sins but God alone?”  (v. 21)

What does Jesus mean when he says, “What is easier to say” (v. 23)?  In that day, most Jewish writings made a cause and effect conclusion that paralysis (effect) was the result of sin (cause).  So, Jesus says, if you believe that paralysis is the result of sin, and I heal him, then have I not overturned the effect of sin and therefore forgiven the cause of the paralysis?  So, Jesus says, “It doesn’t make much difference how I say it, to heal the man is to forgive the man.”

Jesus connects the dots for the Pharisees, but they still refuse to listen and believe.

So Jesus looks at the man and says, “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.”  And immediately he does!

3.  A Man Full of Regret (Luke 5:27-32).  Meet Levi.  He is a Jewish man who earns his living through highway robbery — collecting tolls from merchants as they moved their products from place to place. Often, the toll collectors gouged the people with the enforcement of a watchful Roman soldier. He knows it is wrong and is feeling the burden. 

Yet Levi makes a great feast, and invites a large company of tax collectors to come—and Jesus and His disciples.  The Pharisees are grumbling while standing outside looking in. (v. 30).  One of them says to Peter, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors an sinners?” (v. 32).

And Jesus responds, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:31–32).

Conclusion:  Something that all these three encounters have in common is the awareness of inability and powerlessness.  This is called humility.  If you are strong, it will be very difficult for you to recognize that you need a savior.  Better to discover your inability now, rather than when it is too late.

Perhaps we do not see restoration because of a lack of desire to deal with our root issue called sin.  Any attempt to fix you apart from the prescription of repentance will result in an incomplete healing.  We might as well stick a band-aid on a victim of a heart attack.  For if we look to the surface issues of self-esteem, or environmental causes, we actually miss the healing balm of the gospel.   What greater medicine to know that all who repent will be forgiven!  And then forgiven people can go and forgive others.

Jesus is a compassionate, and tender practitioner of grace.  He is the Great Physician.

Encounters with the Kingdom of God

A Sermon edited by Steve Fountain originally preached on February 3, 2013 called "Encounters with the Kingdom of God" from Luke 4:31-5:11

In Luke 4, we read that Jesus’ first public miracle takes place in a synagogue as he releases a demon-possessed man.  We should not be surprised if Jesus' used the same or very similar message that He did earlier in Nazareth, as he summarizes the content of Jesus’ preaching from town to town in 4:43.

If the good news of the kingdom of God was the content of Jesus preaching in the Capernaum Synagogue, then we might say that there would be a very noticeable collision between two kingdoms: the kingdoms of Satan and God.  

Notice three reactions as these two kingdoms collide.  

 

1.  The reaction of the demons (4:33-35, 41).  As Jesus is preaching — and very possibly from Isaiah 61 — he is proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor, and the good news of God’s kingdom. The demon asked Jesus this very question.  “Ha! What have you to do with us Jesus of Nazareth? [Why are you bothering me, or why are you bugging me?] Have you come to destroy us?”

It is as if the demon says, “In order to get me, you also have to destroy the man.’  And while the exorcism is miraculous in itself, Jesus’ authority becomes even more apparent, as the man is left without harm (verse 35).

Ironically, the demons know whom Jesus is even if people do not.  Please notice the description of Jesus from the throat of hell.  Jesus is not just a Nazarene; He is (1) the Holy One of God (v. 34), and (2) the Son of God (v. 41). 

The demons know that Jesus is the King who will one day rule on the throne of David, and they shudder. Yet their awareness and belief that he is the Son of God does nothing for them and here is the difference: those who see Jesus as Lord of All, believe and repent from their life pursuit of godlessness; demons refuse to submit to his authority. 

2.  The reaction of the crowds (4:31-32, 36-37, 40, 42-44).  The crowds are astonished as they recognized that his word possessed authority (v. 32, 36).  And as they discussed what was going on, they remark, “What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!”  The word power is the Greek word the English has borrowed to describe explosives— the word dynamite.  

The news of Jesus began to spread very quickly.  People brought their sick to him.  He very tenderly healed them (v. 40). 

As the crowds gather looking for the miracle worker, Jesus retires to a desolate place, and instead of staying as they would wish, he restates his mission to preach the good news of the Kingdom of God.  

It is important to recognize that in any crowd of people, there will be varying degrees of belief and unbelief.  A crowd does not make a church.  Many people come and gather because they have various needs.  What do you look for in a church?

The crowds of Jesus day are no different than ours, today.  Jesus tells a crowd not to look for external needs, as great and as good as they may be, rather to look for life itself. 

Crowds come and crowds go.  But those who follow Christ will live forever.

3.  The reaction of a fisherman (5:1-11).  Jesus gets into a fishing boat and tells the weary fisherman to put the boat back out into deep water and let down his net. The fisherman, Simon Peter, laments the futility of their efforts that night, yet — “at Your word I will let down the net.” (v. 5:5)

This is in sharp contrast to the fear from the demon and the unbelief of the crowd.

The catch was so great that I second boat was summoned to help. On shore, Simon falls before Jesus and says: “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” (v. 5:8)

Simon's partners, James and John, too were astonished.

Jesus tells Simon “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.” (v. 5:10)

Once the boats were in, Simon, James and John “forsook all and followed Him.”  (v. 5:11)

Is the kingdom of God colliding with your kingdom?  Is his rule, his authority — the truth of His Word — demonstrating that you are not the master of your own destiny?  How will you react?  Will you react like the demons, who shudder, but do not repent and change, or do you react like the crowds with a somewhat detached fascination as your needs are met?  Or will you see Jesus as Simon Peter did, as your Lord?  Will you repent and believe that Jesus is the only one who can forgive your sins, and give you a life worth living? 

Understanding Translational Philosophy

Why do some translations have differences of wording?  

For example, in Luke 4:44, we read a summary of Jesus ministry and it is characterized as being mainly in synagogues, and regardless if you are holding a NKJV, NASB, ESV, or NIV you will see a footnote on the location as either Judea or Galilee.  

The NKJV inserts Galilee in the text, and points to alternate reading of Judea.  

The NASB, ESV, and NIV insert Judea, and footnotes Galilee as the alternate margin reading.  

This is a good example of a common, yet insignificant difference between translation philosophy.  

The NKJV was translated under the philosophy, of holding to a majority text position.  In other words, if the majority of the 6000 texts available to us indicate a common reading, they will generally side with the majority.  

However, the NASB, ESV, and NIV generally hold older manuscripts in high regard, and obviously there are less older manuscripts in the collection of 6000 available for comparison, and this is often called a minority text position.  

The comparison of manuscripts is quite an involved science, yet both sides of the gentleman's debate, are actually interested in the same thing...what was the original reading? 

Below are two examples of how a translation committee made a decision one way or another.  While I have simplified the argument, please note that the method is actually quite involved.  

A.  From the minority position (Judea):

1.  The older manuscripts seem to have Judea.

2.  The context makes the inclusion of Judea, harder to explain.  So, it is more likely, that if a scribe considered the word Judea to be a mistake, he may judge the context and change it to Galilee, and start a copy tradition with a new word.  Since the context of the miracles and the conversation with Peter is in Galilee, a scribe might see Galilee the better option, and 'gently correct' the original text. 

3.  Luke's literary style and audience suggests that he might possibly use a larger geographical term that people in Italy would be more familiar with.

B.  From the majority position (Galilee): 

1.  The majority of manuscripts seem to have included Galilee.  And the majority of manuscripts available to us are dated after the 1200s.  Anything older, are fewer in number.  

2.  There is safety in tradition, and a wide geographic audience of copies.  

Either position cannot definitively say they know the original reading that Luke chose; however, some arguments are stronger than others, and boil down to taking the time to carefully think through the choices, and make an educated decision.  

Regardless, of which word is chosen, the sense of the passage is retained, and in the end, nothing significant is lost.  Approximately 98-99% of the differences between manuscripts fall into the category of inconsequential, like this example from Luke 4:44.  

What about the 1% that may be considered consequential? 

In these cases, if the words do not appear to be in the original, the doctrine that is thought to be affected is actually never lost--in fact, it is always found in another location of Scripture.  Typically, these are scribal errors of addition to the original from other similar sounding verses in another gospel account or letter of Paul.  

And at the offset, it is to be remembered that no translation listed above are conspiratorially trying to disrupt God's Word.  All the translations cited above are honest about the 'debate' among scholars by pointing out various options in their margins.