Making Rounds with Jesus: A Physician Looks at the Ministry and Mission of Jesus

By Kenneth C. Parsons MD

Have you ever wanted to study the Bible with a fresh understanding?

If you were given the opportunity, would you want to spend time with Jesus as He goes about healing all those with needs while simultaneously teaching His disciples?

If you were one of His disciples, what would you experience as you watched and listened to Jesus?

Making Rounds with Jesus: A Physician Looks at the Ministry and Mission of Jesus will awaken in you a sense of being present as you read familiar Bible accounts and imagine yourself being an eyewitness. Watch and listen to Jesus as if you are present. See how He establishes rapport with almost every person He meets. Wonder at how He always knows the need and the correct diagnosis for each person He meets. See how He handles skeptics who don't recognize His identity as the promised Messiah. You will learn lessons from Jesus in new ways. You will find yourself progressing from being a reader to a witness to a learner to a participant. When Jesus describes the Great Commission to you, He promises that the Holy Spirit will empower you to embark on a new journey.

Just as Jesus transformed the minds and actions of His disciples, so He will do the same for you as He prepares you to go forth as a trained ambassador for the kingdom of God on earth. This transformation process is a delightful new way to experience the Bible as you grow in your relationship with Jesus.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 24, 2023
• ISBN: 9781685177355

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Making Rounds with Jesus

A Physician Looks at the Ministry and Mission of Jesus

Kenneth C. Parsons, MD

ISBN 978-1-68517-734-8 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88685-439-8 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-68517-735-5 (digital)

Copyright © 2023 by Kenneth C. Parsons, MD

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

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Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV)

Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers

All rights reserved

The Holy Bible, New King James Version (NKJV)

Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc

The Holy Bible, New International Version®, (NIV®)

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™

Used by Permission. All rights reserved worldwide

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Put Yourself in the Picture: An Exercise in Imagination

Introduction

The Healing Miracles of the New Testament

Recruiting, Transforming, and Training of the Disciples

After His Resurrection

Review of the Transformation of the Disciples

Pentecost: New Beginnings for the Apostles

Born Again, Adoption, and Transformation to Reestablish God's Original Plan for His Children

How Does God Transform Us Today?

Personal Testimony

Each Path Unique

The Mission of Jesus: Restore Our Relationship with His Father

How Are We to Attract More People to Become Children of God?

What Is Your Calling or Your Purpose in God's Kingdom?

Conclusions and an Assignment

Appendix A

Salvation

Appendix B

Holy Spirit Baptism

Appendix C

Hearing God's Voice

Appendix D

Contemporary Idolatry

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Put Yourself in the Picture: An Exercise in Imagination

Imagine that you are a medical student, and your instructor announces a guest teacher is coming today to make rounds with your class. In medical education, making rounds is when medical students accompany a more experienced physician while seeing and treating patients. Making rounds accomplishes many things simultaneously as we will see in this book. Suppose that the guest teacher today is Jesus, and you and your classmates will go on rounds with Jesus as He does good things for patients in the hospital while simultaneously teaching you. What would you observe? What would you experience?

This book will help you experience Jesus in a new way.

In memory of Mark Howard Parsons

December 7, 1975 to May 14, 2020

Greatly loved

Gone too soon

Put Yourself in the Picture: An Exercise in Imagination

Imagine that you are a medical student, and your instructor announces a guest teacher is coming today to make rounds with your class. In medical education, making rounds is a process where medical students accompany a more experienced physician while seeing and treating patients. Making rounds accomplishes many things simultaneously as we will see in the next section. Now suppose that the guest teacher today is Jesus and you and your classmates will go on rounds with Jesus as He goes about doing good things for patients in the hospital while simultaneously teaching you. What would you observe? What would you experience? Put yourself in this imaginary setting.

You listen to His every word and watch His every move. You notice the compassionate way He interacts with the sick and the dying. You see miraculous things happen before your eyes. News of His presence quickly spreads, and soon people from throughout the medical center flock to join you as you continue to follow Him about.

In the crowd you might recognize some folks who are not your classmates. Some are people seeking healing for themselves. Others are the family members of the person who is being healed while you watch. All of these folks are excited and eager to see what Jesus will do next.

But some in the crowd are skeptics, doubting the reality of what they are seeing in front of their faces. The most critical questions and scoffing comments come from these witnesses. They are seeing the same events that you observe, but their reactions are entirely different from yours. Later it occurs to you that these skeptics might be called modern-day Pharisees.

Over time you notice a pattern. Jesus will be drawn to someone with a problem, although perhaps not a visible problem that you would recognize. He asks a few questions and listens intently to the answers. Then He responds with a word or a touch, and something miraculous happens! Once you even see Him use His own saliva to restore vision! He fearlessly touches people who are in isolation mandated by their contagious infections. You realize that Jesus is fearlessly motivated by compassion and does not observe universal precautions in the face of infectious disease. Apparently, no contagious disease can attach itself to Him. Everyone He touches is healed! And most are healed instantaneously! After each miracle, Jesus asks each person to perform some simple act of obedience, which they gladly do. Pain free, breathing comfortably, seeing clearly, with restored strength, they eagerly join the throng which is following Jesus.

In encounters with agitated people, Jesus commands demons to come out. Jesus speaks with authority, but without raising His voice or uttering a threat against these demons. You watch as one such person suddenly falls screaming to the floor and appears to have a convulsion. You are shocked and amazed that Jesus exercises such power through His words. Moments later, you see that person regain consciousness and get up off the floor. No longer agitated, his visage is transformed! The look of peace and freedom on his face indicates that something radical has just happened. You have a lot of questions in your mind, and you notice perplexity on the faces of your classmates around you!

Jesus encounters some others who are obviously suffering with physical ailments, but instead of commanding that they be healed or delivered, He assures them that their sins have been forgiven. Instantaneously their physical suffering ceases. He tells them to go and sin no more! How can forgiving someone's sins bring healing? you ask. Jesus patiently answers that they were under a curse that attached itself to them because of their past sins or the sins of an ancestor. Remarkable! No one has ever mentioned curses in the differential diagnosis of any condition in any class you have attended since entering medical school!

Near the end of your time together, you are walking down a hallway. Coming from the opposite direction is a covered gurney with a single attendant pushing it. You recognize the cart and the attendant, and you realize that hidden within the cart is a dead body, a corpse on the way to the morgue! Jesus stops the attendant, pulls back the sheet, and speaks to the lifeless corpse. Suddenly you see the appearance of the corpse is changing. The chest rises and falls as breathing returns. Skin color improves, and his eyes open. Before your own eyes, the person on the cart is restored to life. You are amazed when the person jumps from the cart and follows along with you in the throng as you all continue to follow Jesus! You are awestruck and amazed!

Later, Jesus leads the throng into the largest lecture hall on campus and begins to teach. You and your colleagues have seen that His actions and words have produced immediate, miraculous results unlike any teacher you have ever encountered before. You are eager to hear every word, and you intend to take copious notes because you do not want to forget a thing He says. He begins, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3 NKJV). Nothing in the world could distract you from listening to His every word.

Introduction

I entered the process of becoming a physician in August 1966 when I enrolled in the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Since the age of sixteen, I had been focused on becoming a physician, but it was only after starting medical school that I caught an early glimpse of what the process would entail. Over a period of four years, I was transformed from an entry-level student to a medical school graduate. But the process of preparation for practice continued. Internship (now called post-graduate year 1 or PGY 1) followed. After passing a basic licensure examination I was certified to call myself a physician. But several years of residency and various other examinations extended my training process. In addition, my residency was interrupted when I served two years of active duty in the US Army Reserves as a general medical officer, before returning to my residency. In 1976 my formal training was complete, and I started practice. However, my continuing education activities over the years kept me current in my field so I could provide the best possible care for my patients. Along the way, I discovered that I really enjoyed teaching younger physicians in training, mentoring them as my teachers had mentored me throughout my formal training. For me, the best setting for teaching was while I was simultaneously attending to the needs of my patients. So when I began to study the ministry and mission of Jesus, as illustrated in the Gospels, I recognized that He was training the disciples in a teaching model that I knew well; namely, see one, do one, teach one or, abbreviated, SO, DO, TO. Training disciples, like training physicians, is a process; but it is not a do-it-yourself process. The goal of training in both settings is that eventually, the trainee goes forth fully prepared to emulate the teacher. This book is my attempt to demonstrate how Jesus trained and prepared His disciples while simultaneously meeting the needs of the people He encountered (His ministry) and establishing the kingdom of God on earth, which was His mission from His Father.

We will look at how Jesus recruited, trained, and empowered the first disciples, as He inaugurated His Father's kingdom on earth. Because Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8), this is also a book about how Jesus recruits, trains, and empowers present-day disciples.

The wonderful story about how God began to reestablish His kingdom on earth begins with the miraculous healing of Elizabeth, the barren wife of Zechariah, as recorded in Luke 1. Their son, John, had a divine calling. As an adult, John the Baptist called people to repentance from their sins. His role was to restore the hearts of the fathers back to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous to make ready a people prepared for the Lord (Luke 1:17 and Malachi 4:6). John's message repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matthew 3:2 NKJV) was a call for restoration of the relationship of His children to God's heart.

Jesus came to him and was baptized in water and then by the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:13–17 NKJV). After His baptism and His forty-day fast in the desert, Jesus began His ministry with the same message: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel (Mark 1:15 NKJV). Jesus proclaimed His basic message early and often. His mission was to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth.

To catch a glimpse of how God achieves His will through vastly different people, take a moment to contrast John the Baptist and Jesus regarding their families of origin. John was the son of a well-respected priest. Jesus was the son of an unwed, teenage, bride and was raised in the home of a carpenter. What is the common denominator here? Both sets of parents were in a relationship with God and were obedient to His instructions. That is why God chose them to bear and raise up these two remarkable young men.

This book will examine how Jesus conveyed this message and accomplished His mission, while He went about doing good. To prepare for His legacy, Jesus trained twelve disciples about the kingdom that He was inaugurating so they could carry on His mission after He returned to His Father's side.

Each of us has a preferred learning style. Some like to see demonstrations, others like to hear lessons, and some prefer to read. To watch the initiation of the kingdom of heaven on earth, we will visit many familiar Gospel narratives in a new way that combines all three learning styles as we put ourselves in the picture by the power of our imaginations. In my men's Bible study group, we call this Experiential Bible Study or EBS. I do not know if this would be a seminary approved approach to Bible study, but we have found this to be a way for each reader to read God's Word with the help of the Holy Spirit. Putting yourself in the picture, abbreviated PYP involves imagining yourself present in each scene, watching and listening to Jesus, and observing His results. You hear the discussions of the people around you. You share each experience with the disciples in training. With practice, PYP and EBS will make biblical events seem like current events at which you are present. You will find that you can even identify who you are in each scene along with what you are learning and the impact it is having on you personally. To master this skill requires slow reading and contemplation. Some of the scripture references will be quoted in the pages of this book. Many references are given for you to look up and study on your own. Reading this book and your Bible should be an interactive experience between you and God, facilitated by the Holy Spirit.

Experiential Bible study lends itself well to small groups of eager participants so that each member of the group takes on an identity of someone in the passage. One person in the group can be a disciple, one can be the person being healed, one can be a family member of the person being healed, one can be a skeptical Pharisee or Sadducee, and one can be a bystander who is seeing Jesus in action for the first time. The Holy Spirit will help you PYP, so you participate in the action in each scene. When you read the Acts of the Apostles you will find scenes where the Holy Spirit is in action through the apostles, demonstrating how well they were trained and empowered by Jesus. Here's some good news: The Holy Spirit will also work in you, as you PYP, to let God's Word come alive for you in a new way. The teachings of Jesus will take on new clarity. His commandments, conveyed from His Father, will be much more compelling. Jesus was fond of saying that He said what He heard His Father saying (John 12:49) and that He did what He saw His Father doing (John 14:10). I encourage you to let the Holy Spirit develop your spiritual vision and spiritual hearing though experiential Bible study. Seeing Jesus in action will develop your spiritual vision. Hearing Jesus speak will develop your spiritual hearing.

The core truths of God's written word are all about Jesus: who He is, what He did, and the consequences of what He accomplished. Experiential Bible study supports these core truths and reinforces them to you if you are willing to take the time to enter each scene and participate in the learning process along with the disciples.

I believe that PYP will have another benefit. Each new encounter with Jesus will strengthen your faith. Increased faith will influence your actions. For instance, look at the provision miracles as examples of how trusting God will open the windows of heaven. Another example: As a witness, present when Jesus tells the story of the good Samaritan, you will have a new impetus to step out and meet the needs of a someone even though there may be sacrifices of time and money involved.

As I thought about His teaching methods, I recognized that the way Jesus trained the disciples was by making rounds. For the reader who has not trained in a health-care profession, let me illustrate the process of making rounds in more detail, based on my experience in the early days of my training. My best learning experiences happened when I watched and listened on rounds with a teaching physician. I would watch and listen as the teacher talked with patients, and I would note things like whether a personal connection was being established. I would listen to how the teacher elicited their symptoms or complaints. Then the teacher would examine them, make a diagnosis, and recommend a treatment plan. I was learning facts and how the teacher synthetized those facts into a correct diagnosis and a treatment plan. For one patient, the treatment plan might be a medication. For another, the treatment might be a surgical procedure. In other words, my teachers taught me how to think like a physician and how to interact with a patient. After treatment, we would make rounds again to see if the treatment has been successful.

On a surgical rotation, when I could scrub in for a case in the operating room, I could watch, listen, and learn how the senior surgeon thought and acted while performing the procedure. The teaching content was focused on the patient, the one with needs. I benefited from watching, listening, and learning in each encounter. These lessons did not fade with time. I think the disciples had similar learning experiences as they watched, listened, and learned from Jesus.

A good clinical teacher knows how to multitask while making rounds. He or she focuses on the needs of the patient, while demonstrating the application of medical knowledge and experience to the trainees who listen carefully to every word. Sometimes the teacher asks the learners questions about the patient's problems, the possible diagnosis, or the treatment options. The way the learners answer those questions reveals how well they are learning. The dual purposes of the teaching physician are, therefore, to do good for the patients while teaching the learners how to function as physicians in their future careers. As I mentioned earlier, we called this model see one, do one, teach one (abbreviated SO, DO, TO). After I saw what my teachers did, I was given opportunities to copy their actions, under supervision. When I was competent in my skills, I was then allowed to work independently. Eventually I could teach others using the same model. The lessons I learned while watching and listening to my teachers on rounds have stayed with me to the present day. As a teacher, see one, do one, teach one is the model I have used for thirty years of clinical teaching and practice. Over the span of my career, I have treated thousands of patients and trained hundreds of learners in this model.

A good teacher invests time, knowledge, and wisdom in eager learners. Willing teachers invest willingly. As a physician and a teacher of physicians, I have come to recognize Jesus as the greatest physician and teacher who ever lived. Like Him, I found that teaching slowed down my care for my patients. He was investing Himself in His disciples just as I invested time and attention in my trainees so I could know they were learning what they needed to know. I appreciate how remarkably patient He was with His disciples. He often had to repeat the lessons so the disciples really absorbed them. As a consequence, during my Bible study time, I try to imagine myself making rounds with Jesus while He walked the earth so I can learn His attitudes, His methods, and His content. I find that I can imagine myself in the picture, along with the disciples, for each encounter as I watch and listen to Jesus.

You may not be a physician, but if you are a disciple of Jesus, I hope you can imagine being with Him as He demonstrates the kingdom of heaven in action. He ministers while He teaches. Since the day He first asked you to join Him, perhaps at the Sea of Galilee, you have walked with Him, watching and listening while He interacts with people. You have seen that Jesus consistently shows love and compassion toward those in need. You see how He makes a personal connection with each person He meets. Some days He teaches in the temple or a synagogue or on a hillside. Some days, He performs miracles, signs, and wonders among the people He encounters. Sometimes He asks you questions to see if you are paying attention and learning His lessons. Always He is accomplishing three simultaneous roles: He is making life better for the people He meets, He is teaching you, and He is modeling the nature of His Father. He says what He hears His Father saying and does what He sees His Father doing (John 5:19). Because of His supernatural power to heal and His marvelous teachings, you begin to recognize that Jesus is indeed the Son of God. He helps you comprehend more about the nature of the kingdom that God is establishing on earth as you study what His Son is revealing about Him.

After many months with Him, He tells you that you are to go forth and do the things He has been doing. After specific instructions, He sends you and your colleagues out, two by two, to minister to others as He has been doing in your presence. With trepidation you set out. When you and your colleagues return you joyfully report that you saw the same successes that He had demonstrated (Mark 6:7 and 13). This practical experience might be called a field trip or a mission trip. These experiences help to build your confidence in doing what Jesus has been doing. The see one phase has become the do one phase of your training. Then He enlists your help in miraculously feeding more than five thousand people with the contents of a boy's sack lunch. Somehow you are not surprised that twelve servers are able to distribute food to over five thousand people and then collect twelve baskets full of leftovers (Mark 6:34–44).

Shortly before He goes to be with His Father, He tells you that you will be His apostles and you will be sent out to do the same things that He has been doing. In fact, you will be doing even greater things because He is going to be with His Father so that the Holy Spirit can come to be in you (John 14:12). You are going to live out the lessons Jesus has taught you.

See one, do one, teach one is the model Jesus has been using to prepare you for your future ministry. Later, after Pentecost, you realize that the encounters Jesus had with all those folks in need were never accidental but were orchestrated by His Father to simultaneously meet their needs, to prepare you for your future ministry, and to establish the Father's kingdom on earth.

Let me encourage you. As you read each of the healing and teaching scriptures in this book, imagine yourself present for each event. Slow down and take the time to imagine yourself as a disciple, watching, listening, and learning. You will be amazed at what Jesus says and does. You will see people who are instantly healed of deafness, blindness, or paralysis. You will see demons come out of people because Jesus orders them out. You will see sinners receive forgiveness for their sins and watch as the curses on their lives are instantly broken. You will see the dead are brought back to life.

During your rounds with Jesus, you will be transformed in your thinking and your actions, just as the disciples were transformed. All people who encounter Jesus have their thought lives changed. As you watch and listen, you become aware that Jesus is teaching about His Father and the kingdom His Father wants to reestablish on earth. As an eyewitness, you become aware of how your thinking is changing since you first encountered Jesus. How do you feel about those changes? Are your new insights and feelings attracting you to spend more time with Jesus? Are your attitudes changing? Are your actions changing? Are you starting to live out the lessons you have been learning?

There are other ways to PYP. You can imagine that you are the person in need of healing. Suppose you have leprosy. Since you were diagnosed last year by the priest, you have been socially ostracized, and you are now impoverished. People avoid being in your presence because they fear that your leprosy will