Physician Heal Thyself 1979

There was this little old broken-down church in a broken-down part of the city, and it only had a little handful of broken-down people left in it. One Wednesday night prayer meeting, they were especially discouraged, and they prayed, Lord, you know how old we are and how weak we are. We can't go out there in those streets anymore with the gospel.

So if you want us to serve you here, send some people to us who need the gospel. The prayer was answered. Sunday morning, as this handful of souls came together for their dry little service, people started coming in off the street, 50 of them the first Sunday.

But the weird part about it was that every one of these 50 people was sick. Some were on crutches. Some were talking to themselves.

Some could hardly breathe. And some were drunk. Lord, how are we going to preach the gospel to these people? They're too sick.

A prophecy came forth for the first time in 10 years. Heal them. How can we heal them, Lord, when we're so sick ourselves? And then a little old man with Parkinson's disease who had been a member of that church for 73 years got up on his feet, shaking so violently it looked like he was going to fly apart any minute, and prayed.

Lord, manifest your love to these friends who have come to us today. Suddenly, there was shouting in the back of the church. Thank you, Lord, for giving me my sight.

Thank you, Lord, I can walk again. Thank you, Lord, for giving me my mind back again. When the service was over, a little old man with Parkinson's disease was still shaking.

But there wasn't a more joyful soul in all the world than this trembling servant of God. As the weeks passed, more and more people crowded into that little place and found healing. And many of them opened their hearts to the healer and entered the kingdom of God.

And the little old man with Parkinson's disease kept right on shaking. You might say that the platform from which the gospel is to be proclaimed with power is the platform of healing. There has to be some confirmation that the river of God's mercy that was opened upon this planet at Calvary is still flowing.

The call to proclaim the gospel is always also a call to heal. Just as surely as we have been ordained to take that gospel out, we have also been ordained to heal in the name of Jesus. But we tend to have a rather shallow idea of what this ministry of healing is and what it's going to cause.

We look at the successful American physician with all his status, his power to make things happen. You know, we'll perform surgery day after tomorrow at 8 o'clock. His fabulous income.

Or we look at some man or woman who has had a notable healing ministry and how the crowds gather at the door of the auditorium hours before the thing begins. And then we look at ourselves, bogged down with problems. Problems in our circumstances.

Problems in our relationships. In our bodies and in our minds. We may look relatively normal on the outside sometimes, but inside we know that we can't even swim to the top of our own mess, much less help somebody else's mess.

How can I even think about trying to exercise some kind of ministry of healing until I get clear of this pain in my own life? And so we wallow in our unhappiness and dream about the day that we might be able to do something for other people if it ever happens that this pain is lifted from our backs or our minds or our bodies or whatever. But a ministry of healing in the name of Jesus bears absolutely no similarity to the career of a successful neurosurgeon or a successful celebrity healing evangelist. The model to which we have to look is Jesus.

And when we look at Jesus, what do we see? And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, and he went into the synagogue as his custom was on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And there was given to him the book of Isaiah. He opened the book and found a place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him, and he began to say to them, Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

And all spoke well of him and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son? And he said to them, Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, Physician, heal yourself. That's how his ministry began.

Notice how it ends. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads. He's hanging on the cross and saying, You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself.

If you are the son of God, come down from the cross. So also the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him, saying, He saved others. He cannot save himself.

He is the king of Israel. Let him come down from the cross and we will believe in him. He trusts in God.

Let God deliver him now if he desires him. For he said, I am the son of God. He was despised and rejected of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And when he finally came to the place where he in fact worked the healing for the human race, By his own death and his own agony, No applause. No thanks. All the world could say to him was, Physician, heal yourself.

And yet, that moment of apparent defeat, With all the pain and the suffering and the rejection, And the disgrace and the defeat that it seemed to manifest, Was the point where the fountain of healing was opened for us and for the world. The fact that we have problems in our lives, Or that there's some kind of pain that keeps bearing down upon us, The fact that somehow or other we're all the time kept weak, Is never to be the excuse for not being able to bring healing to other people. As a matter of fact, this very weakness, This very thing that makes us look like failures, May be exactly what we need To become effective in bringing some kind of life from God to somebody else.

Well, we have this treasure in earthen vessels To show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way but not crushed, Perplexed but not driven to despair, Persecuted but not forsaken, Struck down but not destroyed, Always carrying in the body, that is our body, The death of Jesus, So that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our mortal flesh. For while we live, we are always being delivered up to death for Jesus' sake, So that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

So then, death works in us but life in you, says Paul. Now certainly, where there is sin in our life that God has put his finger on, Grudges that we continue to hold, Fantasies of self-pity or lust or resentment or revenge, Or where we continue to allow ourselves to give in to covetousness So that we're constantly being perverted into takers instead of givers, These things have to go. See, but the wounds and the pain and the affliction And these things which have so often made us think that we're defeated, They can't hinder us.

They, in fact, can be turned around to become the means by which We bring life and healing to those around us. For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake, So that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us but life in you.

Each of us here, as an individual, And all of us corporately, and this includes people Who may be members of other congregations or fellowships, communities, All of us have been called into a ministry of healing. And the source, the basis of this healing is the cross. The place where God the Son is hung up to die In disgrace and defeat and pain and loneliness.

Every miracle of healing that Jesus ever performed Had its source in the cross. And every form of healing, of body, mind, spirit, nation, family, Every kind of healing that has ever taken place in His name since Has had its source in the cross. See, but we have to touch the cross with more than just our inner light.

We have to touch the cross of Jesus with our life. And the place where our life touches the cross of Jesus Is the very place where we're weak, where we're wounded. See, this pain, this affliction, you know, these calamities and hardships, These things that keep us low become the doorway To blazing communion with the crucified God.

And instead of running away from these things or denying them, Pretending that they're not there or constantly complaining about them, We turn around and we make them the doorway into communion with Jesus. And to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, A thorn was given to me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, To keep me from being too elated. Three times I besought the Lord about this, that it should leave me.

But He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness. I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses That the power of Christ may rest upon me.

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, Insults, hardships, persecutions, calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. This weakness in my life drives me to the Lord.

And in a mystery, I come forth from His presence with power to heal others. This pain that I suffer takes me down into genuine fellowship With the suffering, wounded ones in this world. Causes me and enables me now to become the link between their pain And the Lamb of God who bears their sicknesses and their sins.

Until this sorrow came into my life, I was comfortable but blind. Now I begin to have some idea of the sorrow that afflicts the whole human race. The weeping that's going on in this world that I've walked past for all my life and never saw.

Now this sorrow in my life drives me to God for comfort. And in a mystery, I now begin to have words of comfort And deeds of comfort for those around me that I never even noticed before. This very wound in my soul becomes the wound of Calvary.

The blood of Jesus in my flesh that enables me to heal. This frustration has been driving me mad. Now becomes the death of Jesus working in my mortal flesh.

By which I can now minister liberty, freedom to other prisoners. This is the only way. Don't talk about this snap your fingers healing bit.

You want to be a healer? Hang on to the cross and let the anguish of the cross become your life. Until Jesus comes back, every one of us who follows him will have a wounded thigh like Jacob, a thorn in the flesh like Paul. Something that limits us, keeps us down, causes pain, makes us hurt.

We have a choice now of what we're going to do with this thing. We can either spend our lives wallowing in it. Using this limitation as the excuse for burying the talent God gave us.

Wrapping these gifts in a napkin and never using them. Or we can let this very wound, this thing that nails me to the cross of Jesus. Become the doorway to daily union with the Son of God.

The fountainhead of healing and life for the wounded ones around me. Satan will say to the wounded follower of the Lamb. The same thing he said through those sneering multitudes to Jesus on Good Friday.

Physician, heal yourself. And he'll mock us with that. But Jesus says to us.

My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness. So weak as you are, I send you forth.

To heal the sick. To raise the dead. And to bring the lost home to the Father.

Let's wait upon God. It's amazing Lord how we never saw it. Walked out there among the masses of humanity.

Read the papers every day. Watch the news on TV. Never saw how many people hurt.

Until we started to hurt. And yet Lord how we've taken our hurt and made it the excuse for just pulling in. And thinking of nobody but ourselves.

Grant that this day you might help us by your Spirit Lord Jesus. To let that become the link between ourselves and your cross. That we might instead of wasting our strength.

Weeping over ourselves. We might be able to begin to use the energies that you pour into us. To bring redemption and life to the world.

Oh God. Grant that your servants across the earth. Everywhere on this planet today.

Who name your name Lord Jesus. Might become enabled by your grace to become broken bread. Poured out wine.

In fact. And that healing might start to appear. In ways that nobody ever dreamed.