Divine Healing

Divine Healing

Luke 7:22; Isaiah 61:1-3; Luke 5:27-32

Online Sermon: http://www.mckeesfamily.com/?page_id=3567

Where can one look for healing of the body, mind and soul when all human attempts at healing have failed? While we would all like to stay forever on the mountain top of pleasure, living in this fallen world inevitably means also walking in the valleys of incredible pain. Who can stand the pain when our bones become sore vexed and our flesh begins to fail? When sleep is the only escape from the very pain that keeps one awake all hours of the night, how can one be content and not seek any means of escape? When one feels like they are trapped at the bottom of a lake of loneliness and utter despair, where any happiness is internally viewed as a sin because pain has become one’s only faithful friend, how can one ever expect to escape when one’s own mind is a prison of relentless darkness from within? Knowing that no human can light the way in our dark, bottomless pit of despair how can one not be utterly crushed when all hope is cut away from one’s mind? And who can stand the searing pain of knowing that despite our sincere efforts to strive against it and repeated confessions to God that the indwelling of a sin has become not only a habit but part of one’s very character? After all, how could a holy God ever accept what appears to others as intentional, outright defiance against one’s own Creator? This sermon is all about giving hope to those whose broken body, mind and soul have no human physician that can heal them. My goal is to remind you that when you cry out “Jesus Help Me,” He who created you can also heal you, especially when all hope is gone!

Living in a Fallen World

Adam and Eve’s disobedience brought tragic spiritual, physical and social deprivation to this world. “Although the image of God in man survives (Genesis 9:6), reason has lost its soundness (2 Corinthians 4:4), the will no longer is free to choose God and the good (John 8:34), and sinners are spiritually blind (1 Corinthians 2:14) and dead (Ephesians 2:1, 5).” Due to sin, even the rest of God’s creation has been brought under a curse. Since the earth has been subjected to frustration and is currently under a bondage of decay (Romans 8:20-22), blessings and curses are not always the product of obedience or disobedience but can also be the product of mere chance (Ecclesiastes 9:11). While an individual’s disobedience has a direct negative impact on the health of the soul, the body is destined to decay over time and to eventually return to the dust in which it came the moment God commands it to do so! Given that one cannot stop sinning while living in a world under a curse, it should not come as a surprise that we are not immune to sin or its consequences of pain in our bodies, minds and souls!

Healing of our Body

The consequences of living in a fallen world are often realized when the body gets hurt. From the first time we skinned our knee, bumped our head or went to the dentist we soon learned that our bodies feel pain when broken. While I wished this list represented the most pain one would ever feel, there are diseases that cause far more excruciating pain than words would ever do justice to describe. For example, 19 % of men and 9 % percent of women will get kidney stones which are often described as being more painful than giving birth. While almost everyone gets lower back pain at least once in their lifetime, this single leading cause of disability worldwide leaves one in ten in chronic pain for their entire lives! One in two Canadians will develop cancer in their lifetimes and experience the pain of not only having their cells mutate but also the pain of drug therapy! While the doctors can treat, cure and remove the pain of these diseases some of the time; most patients must live with chronic pain and others face imminent death. When doctors cannot heal to whom do we turn?

22 So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.

Luke 7:21-22, NIV

Due to his denunciation of Herod Antipas for his marriage to his brother Phillip’s wife, John was thrown into prison (Matthew 6:14-29). To make matters worse this was not just any prison but the fortress of Machaerus near the Dead Sea! This was where Herod punished the worst offenders. It was halfway underground and was desperately hot. Even though having been born into a priestly family (Luke 1:5), having the Spirit of God living inside oneself since birth (Luke 1:15-17) and being the forerunner of the coming of the Messiah (Isaiah 40:3-5; Malachi 3:1) were truly joyful events, lying in a prison fortress in great anguish and pain soon resulted in John doubting whether Jesus was truly the Messiah (Matthew 1:2-6)! In response to his doubts Jesus tells both John and us that His healing of those who were blind, lame, deaf, having leprosy and had even died was ample proof of His identity!