Have you ever wondered what it feels like to witness a true miracle? Join Dr. Robert Jackson, in this episode of More Than Medicine as he recounts the awe-inspiring story of Jesus healing the paralytic in Mark 2:1-12. Drawing from my experience as a physician, I share personal insights into the limitations of modern medicine in treating paralysis and explore how this biblical miracle highlights the unmatched authority and power of Christ. Through poignant stories from my practice, I'll delve into the profound impact of sin—something that even the most advanced medical interventions can't touch—and reflect on the miraculous healing power of Jesus.
Discover how embracing Jesus as your ultimate healer and Savior can transform your life. Through heartfelt testimonies, including a powerful account of a patient who experienced profound change, we emphasize the significance of confessing sins and repenting. This episode isn't just about stories from the past; it connects deeply with the ongoing struggles faced by individuals today. I encourage you to share these reflections with your loved ones and explore further resources through the Jackson Family Ministry. Tune in for an episode that promises to be both enlightening and spiritually enriching, highlighting the life-changing impact of faith and the boundless healing power of Jesus Christ.
Have you ever wondered what it feels like to witness a true miracle? Join Dr. Robert Jackson, in this episode of More Than Medicine as he recounts the awe-inspiring story of Jesus healing the paralytic in Mark 2:1-12. Drawing from my experience as a physician, I share personal insights into the limitations of modern medicine in treating paralysis and explore how this biblical miracle highlights the unmatched authority and power of Christ. Through poignant stories from my practice, I'll delve into the profound impact of sin—something that even the most advanced medical interventions can't touch—and reflect on the miraculous healing power of Jesus.
Discover how embracing Jesus as your ultimate healer and Savior can transform your life. Through heartfelt testimonies, including a powerful account of a patient who experienced profound change, we emphasize the significance of confessing sins and repenting. This episode isn't just about stories from the past; it connects deeply with the ongoing struggles faced by individuals today. I encourage you to share these reflections with your loved ones and explore further resources through the Jackson Family Ministry. Tune in for an episode that promises to be both enlightening and spiritually enriching, highlighting the life-changing impact of faith and the boundless healing power of Jesus Christ.
Welcome to More Than Medicine, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and our country. Hosted by author and physician, Dr Robert Jackson.
Speaker 2:
Papa, can you tell me a story? Do you really want me to tell you a story? Well, you go, get your brother and your sisters and I will tell you a story. Well, you go, get your brother and your sisters and I will tell you a story. Welcome to Devotions with Dr Papa. Grab your Bibles and gather around and let us look into the written word, which reveals to us the living word, which is our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I promised you that I would share with you a few lessons that I've learned from my medical practice. That gives me additional insight into the Scriptures, and I want to start by reading to you a Bible passage that I have found to be one of the most amazing stories for me as a medical doctor, and this passage is in Mark, chapter 2, verses 1 through 12. And it's the story of the paralytic being healed. Now I'm going to read it and then we'll talk about it.
Speaker 2:
When Jesus had come back to Capernaum several days afterward, it was heard that he was at home and many were gathered together so that there was no longer room, not even near the door, and he was speaking the word to them, and they came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men being unable to get to him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him and when they had dug an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic Son, your sins are forgiven. But some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? Immediately, jesus, aware in his spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves, said to them why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts? Which is easier to say to the paralytic your sins are forgiven. Or to say Get up and pick up your pallet and walk, but so that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He said to the paralytic I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home. And he got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went out in the sight of everyone, so that they were all amazed and were glorifying God, saying we have never seen anything like this. Oh, my goodness gracious, oh, my goodness gracious, what an amazing story. And you have to understand that, as a physician, this is absolutely amazing.
Speaker 2:
You see, there are certain things that we as physicians simply cannot address, and one of those is paralysis. Even modern medicine simply cannot provide a cure for paralysis, and I have patients who have permanent paralysis. I have one of my patients who was paralyzed even at birth and her right arm is useless. Her right leg is weak not completely paralyzed and she walks with a limp, and she's been that way ever since childhood. She knows no other way to live her life except with a paralyzed right arm and a very weak right leg that causes her to limp all the time. I have another patient who is a cocaine abuser and in his mid 40s he had a hypertensive crisis from the cocaine abuse which caused him to have a cerebral bleed. And he's been paralyzed and in a wheelchair ever since his mid 40s due to a completed stroke from a brain bleed caused by cocaine abuse. And it's so sad because there's nothing that myself or any other physician can do to repair the damage caused by that stroke. And he's not alone.
Speaker 2:
I have many other patients who've had strokes caused by high blood pressure or diabetes, and when that stroke is completed, all I can do is order a little bit of physical therapy or maybe some splints. Sometimes neurologists or neurosurgeons ordered brain stimulators, but these things provide very little real benefit. So there are certain things that we as physicians simply cannot address. We cannot correct a completed stroke. I have patients who've been in accidents, like motor vehicle accidents or diving accidents, where they injure their spinal cord or have an injury to their brain a traumatic brain injury and they will have a stroke-like injury to their brain or their spinal cord and they end up with paralysis in one arm or one leg and there's very little that I can do to undo the damage caused by the brain and spinal cord injuries. And of course, it's very sad that these people go through the rest of their lives with unilateral damage, sometimes they are hemiplegic, one side damage, sometimes they are hemiplegic, one side damaged, or paraplegic, meaning maybe both lower extremities are paralyzed, or quadriplegic, meaning arms and legs are paralyzed.
Speaker 2:
Well then, the other thing that I really can't address that Jesus addressed easily in this passage is the consequences of sin. Doctors cannot repair the consequences of paralysis. Doctors cannot repair the consequences of sin, and as a physician, I deal with many faces of sin every day Broken hearts from a cheating heart, broken finances from gambling or excessive use of drugs and alcohol, Broken homes from drugs and alcohol, broken bones or, even worse, from drunken driving accidents, broken laws, in jail time from drug dealing or theft. You understand that doctors, sheriffs, deputies, morticians and pastors are all well acquainted with the consequences of sin in every community. They see well the underbelly of every city, that part of a community that medicine cannot repair.
Speaker 2:
In this passage that we just read in Mark, chapter 2, jesus miraculously heals both paralysis and sin, not with potions or surgery or incantations, but with the spoken word. The same word that spoke the heavens and the earth into existence in the very beginning, that brought order out of chaos. The same spoken word that hung the sun and the moon in space and that flung the stars into heaven. The same spoken word that calmed the wind and waves on the Sea of Galilee, that left the disciples, most of whom were professional fishermen, awestruck and terrified, saying to themselves who is this man that even the winds and the waves obey him? Indeed, who is this man who even forgives sins? You see, that was the question that the Pharisees were asking in their hearts, but not out loud, and you see, jesus read their thoughts and responded quickly, asking is it easier to forgive sins than to say to the crippled, paralyzed man to get up and walk, but so that you will know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He then turned to the paralyzed man and said Get up, take up your pallet and go home, which, to the crowd's utter amazement that man did. Jesus validated his claim to be God and to have authority on earth to forgive sins, which, I remind you, only God can do, by healing a paralyzed man.
Speaker 2:
This story leaves me utterly speechless because, you see, I have patients in my clinic, often who are paralyzed, in a wheelchair, using splints or crutches, and I absolutely have nothing to offer them, but just with a spoken word, the Son of God healed them completely. No rehabilitation, no rehabilitation, no physical therapy, no time element involved, but instantaneously, with a single spoken word, he healed them. It didn't take months or years of time, but in an instant they were completely restored. The Pharisees couldn't do that, modern physicians can't even do that. Now, when confronted with a hemiplegic, paraplegic or quadriplegic patient, physicians can only sadly shake their heads, apply splints or physical therapy or maybe even a neurostimulator that have very little real benefit.
Speaker 2:
But Jesus, I remind you Jesus who in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him and apart from Him, nothing came into being. That has come into being In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. Do you understand who this man is? This Jesus that overcomes paralysis and forgives sins? Forgives sins, the living Word had no difficulty speaking, healing into the life of this paralyzed man what we modern physicians would consider a most difficult case. But that's not all On the spot. Jesus forgave the paralyzed man of his sins. No conditions, no requirements, just divine prerogative. No doctor can do that, no physician or specialist can do that. All medical personnel are confronted with the consequences of bad life choices, really and truly sinful choices.
Speaker 2:
I see patients with cirrhosis of the liver from years of alcohol abuse. I see patients with brain damage from years of drug abuse. I see patients with strokes from cocaine abuse. I see people with motor vehicle accidents from driving while intoxicated. I see patients who deal with domestic abuse due to uncontrolled anger. On and on it goes and I cannot change any of these life or family dynamics, but Jesus can.
Speaker 2:
And let me share a story with you. Some years ago I had a patient come into my office. He was a new patient. He sat down and he looked at me and he said Dr Jackson, I need to share with you something about myself. And he began immediately to say for years and years I was to share with you something about myself.
Speaker 2:
And he began immediately to say for years and years I was a drug abuser and an alcoholic. And he said I abused my wife and children. I spent all of my income on alcohol and drugs. He said I even spent some time in jail. And he said but two years ago I was gloriously saved by the grace of God and by the blood of Jesus Christ. And he said I want you to know that I am not that guy anymore. He said when I got saved, the first thing I did was I got right with my wife and my children. He said then I got a good job. He said now I provide for my wife and my children. I take them to church every Sunday. He said I'm now active in my local church. And he said I'm glad to say that I now have a wonderful marriage, a good relationship with my wife and children. And he said I just want you to know that I am not that guy anymore and I want you to know. That phrase has stuck in my mind I am not that guy anymore.
Speaker 2:
You see, the first thing that truly transformed men do, when they are transformed by the grace of God, the first thing they always do is they make things right with their wife and children. In fact, that's what the book of Malachi says, the very last verse in the Old Testament. It says Remember the law of Moses, my servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Oreb for all Israel. Behold, I am going to send you Elijah, the prophet, before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord, and he will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse. You see, the first thing that happens when a man gets right with God is God restores the hearts of the fathers to the children. A man gets right with his wife and his children first when he gets right with God, and that's exactly what this man did. There's no medication that will accomplish that, only a life truly transformed by the grace of God.
Speaker 2:
Without apology, dear listener, I introduce my broken families and individual patients to the great physician who can transfer them from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of God's beloved son. There's no medication, no potion and no therapy that can change their hearts. There are limits to what modern medicine can accomplish, but there is no limitation on the great physician. He can do what none else can do. He can heal the brokenhearted, he can set the captives free, he can open the eyes of the blind and, yes, he can raise the dead.
Speaker 2:
Please let me introduce you to Jesus. He is the healing balm of Gilead. If you listen to me and you do not know Jesus as your personal Savior, let me encourage you today to confess your sins to Him, repent, turn your back on your sinful ways and receive him as your only Savior and the true King of your life. He is able to make you like my patient who said I am not that guy anymore. You're listening to Devotions with Dr Papa. If you like what you hear, I'd like you to take it and share it, and I'd like you to download it and share it with your friends and family, and I pray that the Lord will bless you. Real good.
Speaker 1:
Thank you for listening to this edition of More Than Medicine. For more information about the Jackson Family Ministry, dr Jackson's books or to schedule a speaking engagement Dr Jackson's books or to schedule a speaking engagement, go to their Facebook page, instagram or their webpage at jacksonfamilyministrycom. This podcast is produced by Bob Sloan Audio Production at bobsloancom.
