Jesus answered, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.Jesus answered them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do.And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are in health have no need of a physician; but they that are sick.
4 sermons cite this verse
… know. But Jesus then answers, first of all, by way of a proverb with which none of his opponents could realistically disagree. In other words, he says, it's not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. Anybody got a problem with that? That makes perfect sense, doesn't it? It was probably a proverbial statement at the time. So he quotes a proverb, and then he explains his purpose and his mission. First of all, he speaks in the third person with a proverb, and then he speaks in the first person when he tells what he's doing. The healthy don't need a doctor, the sick do. And here he says, I have not come to call the righteous but sinners. In other words, he says to them, you are here asking if it is permissible for me to do this, and I want you to know it is my purpose to do this. This is my reason for being here. I mix with sinners because they have a disease and I have a cure. That's what he's saying. Makes perfect sense. Why would I spend time with religious people? Why would I spend time with the folks who are so sure that they're in the right and they're fine? They never listen to me in any case. No, the people I've come to spend time with are the ones who know themselves to be in need. I've come to spend time with the sick and the sinners. He had not and he has not come to call those who believe themselves to be righteous, …
… On hearing this, Jesus said to them, It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. Some years ago as a church, we took as a statement of purpose the ten words to see unbelieving people become committed followers of Jesus Christ. And we have tried as best we can to keep that before us, not simply by keeping it in print, but also in approaching all of the opportunities and responsibilities that we have as a church in light of the awareness of the fact that Jesus, in leaving his disciples behind, promised them the power and authority of the Holy Spirit so that they might go out into the world and proclaim the good news of Jesus, baptizing people, making disciples, and establishing the work of the kingdom. And as much as we pay lip service to that, we recognize that there is an inherent danger in thinking that just because that is the phrase that we are able to rehearse and repeat, that somehow or another that may actually be happening, when in point of fact it might not. And one of the great questions that is before us as a church is to look around and to see just how seriously we believe it is important for us to take the command of Jesus to go out into the world and to make disciples. In other words, we face the risk that after a relatively short period of time, the comfortability of being in …
… Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? And Jesus answered them, it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but I have come to call sinners to repentance. Write down number four today. Jesus sits with his mission. And I just love this because Luke is trying to get us to understand that Jesus was not a you guys come to me and let's talk. Jesus was a, I'll go to you and let's talk. And so Levi gets his life changed and he goes, what do I do to signal to the world that this man changed my life? He's thinking of it, and I just believe this. When God touches your heart, he opens your hand. If you get your heart touched, you get your hand opened. By the way, law of opposite. If you get your heart creased, your fists closed. If you get your heart broken, your fists closed. But when his heart got touched, his hand got opened. …
And when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, they that behold need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth. I will have mercy and not sacrifice, for I'm not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Matthew was a hated tax collector. Jesus went to his house to eat. It'd be like if you were to walk down the street today and saw Jesus in a pizza parlor having pizza with pimps and drug pushers. What's he doing in there with that crowd? I'll tell you what he's doing in there with that crowd. They're the sick ones and he's the physician. That's what he was doing with them. I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. This matter of submission. Should women submit to their husbands? Yes. Should children be submissive to their parents? Yes. But submission is not subservience. I've seen men take a principle and use it to beat their wives to death with it. …