Christ The Healer

CHRIST THE HEALER

Mt. 10:5-8

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR

1. JOKE #1 The prison hospital

a. Prisoner: “Look here, doctor! You've already removed my spleen, tonsils, adenoids, and one of my kidneys. I only came to see if you could get me out of this place!”

b. Doctor: “I am, organ by organ!”

2. JOKE #2 I want to lose some weight

a. A man, seeking to lose some of his excess weight, visited the local doctor.

b. John: “How can I lose twelve pounds of ugly fat?”

c. Doctor: “Of course! Cut your head off.”

3. JOKE #3 I have bad and very bad news

a. Doctor: “I have some bad news and some very bad news.”

b. Patient: “Well, might as well give me the bad news first.”

c. Doctor: “The lab called with your test results. They said you have 24 hours to live.”

d. Patient: “24 hours! That's terrible! What could be worse? What's the very bad news?”

e. Doctor: “I've been trying to reach you since yesterday!”

B. TEXT

5These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. 6 Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. 7 As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.

C. THESIS

1. I want you to notice that in verse 8, Jesus commands his disciples -- that's us -- to heal the sick.

2. Divine Healing is our right, part of our inheritance in Christ, and is even called "the Children's Bread" in Mt. 15:26.

3. Many large corporations and most governmental jobs offer "Fringe Benefits" that are worth almost as much as the salary.

4. Examples of these Benefits are:

a. Health Insurance e. Company Car

b. Workers Comp. f. Retirement

c. Paid Vacation g. Profit Sharing

d. Sick Pay h. Stock Options

5. Listen as the Psalmist begins to recount some of the Lord's fringe benefits: “Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits— who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases” Ps. 103:1-3.

6. For Christians, our main pay (reward) = eternal life; but there are many fringe benefits such as physical healing, guidance, material provision, doors being opened for us, etc.

7. My thesis today is: God wants us to have confidence and think it normal, to pray for the sick and expect them to be healed.

8. The title of today's message is, "Christ The Healer." WHY SHOULD WE EXPECT THEY SHOULD BE HEALED?

I. GOD’S HEALING CHARACTER

A. GOD DECLARES HE’S OUR HEALER

1. God is by nature a healing God. Satan, on the other hand, has come to kill, steal, and destroy; but Jesus says, “I have come that you might have life, abundantly.” In Ex. 15:26, God says, “I am the Lord that heals you.”

2. Just days before, the Israelites ate the Passover Lamb which was equivalent to SALVATION. They then crossed the Red Sea, in which Paul declared they were BAPTIZED (1 Cor. 10:2).

3. Their very first experience after salvation and baptism was to know God as their HEALER (Exodus 15:26).

4. God "showed him (Moses) a Tree" = symbolic of the Cross.

5. God called himself by a Compound Name – Jehovah Rapha. It is translated in the King James version as "healed." Compound names represent God's character, the kind of God that He is.

6. Rapha is the only word for "heal" in the O.T. (except Ezekiel 30:21). Rapha is used 58X in the O.T.

7. Rapha also is the technical word for "Physician."

a. Gen. 50:2, "and the physicians embalmed Israel."

b. 2 Chr. 16:2, Asa "sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians."

c. Job 13:4, "you are all physicians of no value."

d. Jeremiah 8:22, "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?" Yes, God is our Healer!

B. THE COVENANT OF HEALING

1. It was part of God’s Covenant with the people of Israel, that if they obeyed Him, He would take away sickness from them. “Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you” Ex. 23:25

2. “He will bless the babies from your womb and the harvest of grain, new wine, and oil from your fields; he’ll bless the calves from your herds and lambs from your flocks in the country he promised your ancestors that he’d give you. You’ll be blessed beyond all other peoples: no sterility or barrenness in you or your animals. God will get rid of all sickness. And all the evil afflictions you experienced in Egypt he’ll put not on you but on those who hate you” Deut. 7:13-15 Msg. Version.