The Great Physician
Mark 2:1-12
September 25, 2016
preached by Doug Cooper
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Time of Reflection Quotations
“Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.”
~ Hippocrates (460-370 BC), Greek physician often considered the Father of Modern Medicine
“Those who think they are healthy but have a hidden moral cancer are incurable; the sick who want to be healed have a chance. All denial of guilt keeps people out of the area of love and, by inducing self-righteousness, prevents a cure. The two facts of healing in the physical order are these: A physician cannot heal us unless we put ourselves into his hands, and we will not put ourselves into his hands unless we know that we are sick.”
~ Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1979), American Catholic archbishop
“Biblical faith is not in a new set of beliefs and friends; it is much deeper than that. It is a shift that comes about through an exchange of one identity for another, from an old identity to a new identity ‘in Christ.’”
~ Jonathan Dodson, author and pastor of City Life Church in Austin, TX
“I saw that the church wasn’t a museum for good people; it was a hospital for the broken. Jesus wasn’t trying to create a place to show off his shiny employees; he wanted a place where his children could be healed.”
~ Jefferson Bethke, contemporary author and recording artist from Tacoma, WA
“To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you….We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it is to refuse God’s mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what He says.”
~ C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), British author, lay theologian, and Christian apologist
“Run, John, run, the law commands, but gives us neither feet nor hands. Far better news the gospel brings: it bids us fly and gives us wings.”
~ ascribed to John Bunyan (1628-1688), English writer and pastor
Sermon Passage
Mark 2:1-12 (NIV)
1 A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7 “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
8 Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? 9 Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? 10 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, 11 “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 12 He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”