The great physician:
redeeming the time brothers podcast a podcast by Gene Kissinger and Norman Kissinger, two brothers who have spent their lives in ministry and raising large families our desire is provide a digital place for those who longed to belong. We are developing discipleship tools, distributing them across multiple platforms to bring about a Rapture Ready body of believers so that when Jesus Christ comes back, he will have no trouble recognizing his own children. Tonight's nightlight is at Luke chapter five and verse 31.
It says, Jesus answered and said unto them, they that our whole need not a physician, but they that are sick, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
The great physician is Jesus. I want to read you about a physician and then we're going to talk about the great physician. Dr. Pedro Jose Greer has something become something of a legend in Miami as an intern in 1984. Dr. Greer treated a homeless man with tuberculosis a normally curable disease that had progressed to a fatal stage where was appalled that someone in his own neighborhood could be so poor that he failed to get medical treatment as the man lay dying. Greer spent four days searching the streets for the man's family hoping the man wouldn't die alone. Rather than merely be moan that one case Greer took action, he set up a clinic in a shelter. Beginning with only a folding table, it took other doctors along with him. His camillus health concern is now one of the largest providers for medical care for the poor in South Florida, treating 4500 patients a year. Bria has won numerous awards for his humanitarian efforts. But he's never forgotten the man who died alone.
between the three days he spends at the clinic and the time he spends in private practice. He searches Miami's worst streets for those who are in need of medical care, Greer's work costs much yet he sees himself as blessed. I've had the privilege of treating the sick and the honor of working with the poor.
That's a truly worthwhile thing in life. And that is a good physician, maybe even a great physician. But I want to talk to you about the great physician in the context of the passage that I read. Jesus had called Levi from the IRS of his day to come in to follow him. The publicans as they were called, were despised by the culture around them. They weren't somebody that was going to get treated well by anybody. In the Jewish community. They were despised, lumped together with prostitutes, publicans and prostitutes would have been at the same level in that biblical era, and really despised looked down on and Jesus didn't look down on either one of those. He reached out to everyone in every circumstance, he was that great physician. And when the Pharisees criticized him over reaching out to levi, He said those that are whole don't need a physician, but those that are sick do, I didn't come to call the righteous, I came to call sinners. Here's a little secret this Pharisees didn't know they were sinners, He came for them, but they were just too proud to admit that, they were too proud to get care. Because they had the pharisee attitude, that pride that I know it all, I've got it all worked out, everything is under control, because they had that sort of a mindset they missed Messiahm levi didn't miss Messiah. Levi, ( Matthew is his other name,) is the author of a gospel. He didn't miss Messiah because he was humble enough to admit his need and follow the great physician. That great physician wants to reach out to you. The Great Physician stepped out of the corridors of heaven, and came down and walked the dusty Galilean pathways to call men and women boys and girls, to repentant and believe for the Kingdom of God is at hand. And that same physician strides down the wide avenues of this world that are leading to destruction and cause us to turn off into a straight and narrow way that leads to life everlasting. Unfortunately, there are very few people that will take the treatment, are you one that's wise enough and humble enough to say, "Jesus you know what, I'm a dressed up mess, I am a sinner, guilty before you. God I have a lying tongue, Lord, I have an adulterous heart, I've got a heated anger that can bend towards hatred and Your word calls that murder. God, I'm a mass all of the best that I have, all of my righteousness is nothing but filthy rags. I've got nothing that could earn me heaven, because your Word says, 'Be He therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.' Matthew 5:48 and if that's the standard for heaven, Jesus, I won't make it on my own. I need you to apply your righteousness, the medication of your blood that was shed on the cross to my life so that I can be made right with you."
The blood of Jesus Christ is the antidote to your sin problem. It's the only antidote, there's no other, you can't add enough good works to deal with your sin issue. You can't get enough accolades from human sources, to somehow get God to let you into heaven because of your wonderful letters of reference. The only way that you and I get there is by the grace of God and the grace of God was purchased by the cross of Christ, and the shed blood that the great physician poured out for us. What a good God. I'm so thankful for Him, I hope that you will take what I'm saying seriously, and I hope that you'll, in a humble way, repent before God today. It's so simple. It just means confessing that we're sinner. And I am and you are, Billy Graham was, Mother Teresa was, everybody that's ever been born of a woman with the exception of Christ, is a sinner. And we need that sin problem dealt with and as you repent of your sin, and you believe that Christ's work on the cross is what provides salvation full and free to you. You receive that salvation and accept Him as Lord, the supreme authority of your life and it begins to change how you behave. He changes your attitudes and actions, your belief and your behavior, your character and your conduct. He changes everything. What a good God.
Can we pray? I'm gonna pray and give a prayer that you can offer up to God right now, and then I'm going to pray for you. If you'd like to trust Christ as your Lord and Savior, pray this prayer after me but speak it to God. If it represents the thoughts and feelings of your heart, say, dear Lord,
"Please forgive me of my sins.
And they are many God.
Come into my heart, and wash me with your blood.
Thank you for dying on the cross for me.
Thank you for filling me with your Holy Spirit at this moment.
Thank you for heaven as my home.
Lord, right now I make you the authority in my life, the boss of my life.
Lord, I turn the steering wheel of my life over to you allowing you to control what direction I go and the speed that I go. Help me God to live in a way that is well pleasing to you. I asked this in the name of Jesus. Amen."
Dear Lord God, I pray thee to be with those that prayed this prayer. Help them to get a hold of me, or another believer that they might learn the next steps to take. I thank you for the gift of salvation. I thank you that you made it simple enough that I, as a child of seven, could understand how to do it and I thank you that you've made it so doctrinally rich and powerful that theologians can spend their entire existence trying to understand it, in its depth, I pray that you would be with these give them a supernatural sense of your presence. Today
Let them know you love them and care for them. I thank you for all that you've done. We ask this in Jesus name, amen.
Hey, God bless you.
I love you. But Jesus loves you even more. You have a great Day.
