The Great Physician, Part 2

The divine appointing isn’t something we always see! In this text we see both sides! His faith in action, healing, and internal cleansing!

Summary: In these passages, we witness Jesus performing miraculous healings, demonstrating His authority over physical ailments and spiritual needs. He cleanses a leper and heals a paralytic!

The only one able to do all of this is God in the flesh!

Bible Passage: Lk 5:12–26, Lk 5:16–26

Application: These accounts challenge us to recognize Jesus not only as a historical figure but as the living God who has authority over our lives, inviting us to bring our struggles to Him for healing and redemption. They encourage us to respond to His authority with faith and obedience, especially in times of suffering.

Teaching: This sermon teaches that Jesus is sovereign over all aspects of life—physical, spiritual, and social. Through actions of faith in Him, believers can experience His transformative power and are called to trust in His goodness and authority.

The Healing’s of Jesus reveal that He is the ultimate healer that restores individuals, people, and all of creation to its rightful place! He makes us whole!

Jesus, being God, has the authority to heal and restore, and He calls us to recognize His divine power in our lives, enabling transformation and renewal.

1. Confident in His Cleansing

Lk 5:12-16

The Bible teaches us that Jesus is the great High Priest, who is always making intercession for us! Often believers wonder… Is Jesus really listening? Does He hear my prayers? This passage demonstrates when we bring our struggles to Him, trusting in His divinity and sovereign power to cleanse and restore.

2. Persistence leads to His Healing!

Lk 5:17-20

Perhaps, highlight the persistence of those bringing the paralytic to Jesus, underscoring the necessity for faith and action in approaching Christ’s divine authority. This passage invites believers to actively seek Christ in community and bear each other's burdens, pointing to the transformative power of faith in action. It teaches that Jesus' authority extends over our spiritual illnesses and social hindrances.

Luke 5:17 “On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal.”

What can we learn from the group that came to Jesus needing healing?

Luke 5:18 “And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus,”

A. True faith in action leads to people seeking Christ!

Luke 5:19 “but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus.”

B. True faith leads to actions of faith!

Luke 5:20 “And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.””

C. True faith leads to redemption!

James 2:14–26 “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend…”

Lk 5:21-26

Maybe focus on the confrontation and clarification Jesus provides to the skeptics. Here, He unequivocally demonstrates His authority not just to heal but to forgive sins, asserting His divine identity. This culminates in the healing of the paralytic and a call for the audience to glorify God. This point challenges believers to trust Jesus' authority over all life aspects and to praise His divine intervention.

What do I mean by “Divine appointing” by faith? Divine appointment and Divine appointing are very similar. Divine appointing is literally God’s working out all things for His glory and good! His divine appointment naturally would follow! His divine appointment is God’s divine plan that either affects you or specifically includes you into His planning out of His special plan.

I have often wondered why God would do such a thing. Why would God include us into His divine plan? There are many reasons God would include you into His divine plan.

1. God includes us into His plan because He desires to redeem fallen man!

John 3:16 ““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

2. God is in charge of all things, including those that will come to Christ!

He is the author of salvation, He is drawing us to Himself!

When God the Father speaks, when He ordains people, and life nothing can resist the will of God! This is called His Sovereign efficacious will!

There are also things in life that is what we call his

We seek refuge in our precious doctrine of justification by faith alone, forgetting that the very doctrine is to be a catalyst for the pursuit of righteousness and obedience to the preceptive will of God.

R. C. Sproul

His preceptive will refers to His will that He commands to us, but seemingly gives us the choice to do! In this natural state because of our natural state we will sin! Romans 3:10 “as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;”

We desire to sin, and resist the will of God! Not until the Spirit of God draws us to Himself do we respond as He desires us to respond!

2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

Mercy may seem slow, but it is sure. The Lord in unfailing wisdom has appointed a time for the outgoings of his gracious power, and God’s time is the best time.

Charles Spurgeon

It is clear that God will not loose any of His children! If you are His child He will not loose you to Satan! Thus, you matter greatly to Him!

His mercy endures forever! His love is an everlasting love!

3. God’s will is that His children obey, in all things, His word that He imparted to us!

God’s plan will continue on God’s schedule.

A. W. Tozer

God’s actual divine essence and his will, administration and works are absolutely beyond all human thought, human understanding or wisdom; in short, they are and ever will be incomprehensible, inscrutable, and altogether hidden to human reason.

Martin Luther (Founder of the German Reformation)

We declare that by God’s providence, not only heaven and earth and inanimate creatures, but also the counsels and wills of men, are governed so as to move precisely to that end destined by him.

John Calvin (French Reformer)

In essence what we mean by God’s will and what God divinely knows, does, and performs are completely outside of our thoughts!

Accordingly A.W. Tozer notes that God’s purpose is for us to live in a positive desire in relation to commands and pursuit!

To will the will of God is to do more than give unprotesting consent to it; it is rather to choose God’s will with positive determination.1

A. W. Tozer

The dead church holds to the shell of truth without surrendering the will to it, while the church that wills to do God’s will is immediately blessed with a visitation of spiritual powers.4

A. W. Tozer

As I just mentioned God’s detailed accounting of every thought and suggestion isn’t known. But what we do have is God’s known will through the word of God! We must then operate under the understanding that God wants us to use our known and unknown talents for His glory and His will!

Jesus is our example in all things!

In the transitions of life: what does Jesus do?

In the heat of trials: what does Jesus do?

In the time of peace: what does Jesus do?

Yes, He prays! Luke 5:16 “But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.”

Why does Jesus pray?

I have often said Jesus prayed because He was about to be tested, tried, and was going into battle to win! Sounds good, but Jesus prays not to win, but to stay in close communion with God!

Jesus says in John 17:1–5 “When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”

If this is just a sample of what Jesus’ prayer life is… then we know that prayer is primarily for communion with God the Father… Not to get things, not to have power, not for something but for someone! Unity with God!

Oneness with God is the primary purpose in prayer!

Prayer at its best is the expression of the total life, for all things else being equal, our prayers are only as powerful as our lives.

A. W. Tozer

Prayer isn’t a matter of getting on your knees. Prayer is the elevation of the heart to God and that is all a man needs to praise, to pray and to worship.8

A. W. Tozer

Luke reveals that Jesus is God, and further reveals to the reader the extent of His power and authority as God!

The text reveals Jesus is God and He sees their faith! Their faith was not just a general faith that God is real! But their faith includes seeking Him, drawing close to Him, repenting to Him, and recognizing He is Lord!