A Church that Heals
Present the service project for the Salvation Army to the church prior to the message.
Thesis: We need to commit as a church to creating an environment that fosters spiritual, emotional and physical healing. We need to do this for the glory of God and for those who are wounded and in need of God’s healing touch.
Scripture Text:
John 5:1-17:
1Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 2Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
8Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
11But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”
12So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”
13The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
14Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
16So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. 17Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.” 18For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
Introduction:
Doug Murren wrote the book Churches That Heal and it revealed to me the necessity an importance of being a church that heals and restores people’s lives. Murren states, “Churches should heal because people need healing” (2). Such a simple statement but so filled with deep spiritual truth. The church needs to get to work and focus on its divine purpose which is to assist in helping people to heal by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Doug shared his vision on why he wanted to write a book about this subject. He opens his book in the introduction with this thought:
Why should churches be places of healing? That’s the question I got from several doctors when I mentioned the title of this book to them. We have modern medicine. We have great scientific understanding. We have new breakthroughs occurring nearly every day. Why in the world would churches want to get into the act (1)?
Have you ever thought about this question? Why would a church want to be in the healing field? Why not just go through the ritualistic act of traditional religion and never let it impact you or someone else. It’s less work and less painful. Do you realize how hard it is to help people progress through the healing process? They will scream in pain and you will have to listen to it. They will moan and groan and complain about all the pain and you will have to continue to treat them with compassion! They will get mad and angry because they are tired of suffering through the pain and then they will take it out on you. They will lose proper body functions and wet themselves and create a mess that you will have to clean up. Some will continue to do bad things to their bodies and expect you to fix them with a power pill. You will have to learn to deal with death because not everyone will be healed. You will have to deal with the loss of ones you learned to love. People will even die in your arms and you will not be able to do anything but pray for them. Why in the world would the church want to get involved in this difficult heart wrenching process?
May be because some people do get healed and do get better? May be because your labor of love does bring rich and great eternal rewards? May be because it’s what God wants you to do? May be because you will be blessed in the process of helping others heal. May be you have realized that a church which does not heal is really missing their divine mission on earth?
T.S. - So I am convinced that churches must be focused on helping others to heal and be willing to assist people through the healing process.
I. We need to be intentional about creating an environment that fosters healing.
a. We must focus on creating a place that becomes an unstoppable force for healing in our community!
i. For this to happen we will have to get away from the “survival” mentality in the church.
1. Mc Manus states, “Once survival has become our supreme goal, we have lost our way…, the church is not called to survive history but to serve humanity. As with each individual, there is a difference between living and existing for the church…The church exists to serve as the body of Christ, and it is through this commitment to serve that we are forced to engage our culture…The serving that we are called to requires direct contact. You cannot wash the feet of a dirty world if you refuse to touch it” (pg. 23, An Unstoppable Force).
ii. For this to happen we will have to be willing to change and be willing to grow and to stretch in our faith.
1. We have to be intentional about making sure we are producing a church that has purpose and meaning for the hurting.
a. The church must be relevant for the hurting in this world and culture.
i. We do need to prepare a place that is sanitary and trained which provides excellent health care to the hurting.
b. The hurting must be able to see that we are a church that helps people through the healing process.
i. Show the gifts from the Agape Support Groups you have received over the years.
2. This man was not healed at the pool because no one would help him in to the healing pool.
a. Not one person would take time out of their busy day to help this man get healed.
i. This same lack of love for the hurting occurs today.
b. They could not sacrifice any of their time for the benefit of another.
i. Think about this – how much time would it have taken to help this man into a healing pool?
c. So this man became a victim of a religious system that did not foster healing and hope. Why? Because no one cared enough to help him into the pool to be healed.
i. Key point: NO ONE CARED!
ii. Everyone was too busy doing their own thing – they did not have time to commit to helping someone into the healing pool.
3. We must be willing to step out of our spiritual apathy and engage the hurting so that they can be healed.
a. We must care about others by helping them heal! It means involvement, it does require a time commitment, and it does involve a willingness to serve others – even when they don’t appreciate it!
i. Personal Illustration: Share the stories of the Lepers in India
4. The truth is a church quits healing people when they fall into the mindset of being a place of refuge from the world. When church people believe that the hurting ones from the world need to kept out of the church so as to prevent it from being polluted they close the door to healing.
a. So many have closed the door on the hurting and told them to stay out!
i. Personal story: Share the response of the pastoral search team in the church that became upset over me telling them I would reach out to the lost and the hurting and that they needed to be aware that it would mess up their pretty church.
b. The lesson here is we must open the door!
i. This business is a risky business and it’s not about a “safe theology”.
ii. It’s about taking risks to help the hurting to heal.
c. Just read about the heroes of the faith and you discover that Christianity is not about playing it safe and hiding out in our spiritual little bubbles from the world.
i. It’s telling us to become salt and light to this lost and corrupt world.
1. The reason we must become salt and light is so the world can experience a healing from the Lord through our faithful lives.
ii. Video Illustration of Mother Theresa “A hero of the Faith.”
b. Creating a church that heals will require us to take risks and to leave our safety and comfort zones.
i. Illustration- Risks
To laugh is to risk appearing the fool
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental
To reach out for another is to risk involvement
To expose feelings is to risk exposing, your true self
To place your ideas, your dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss
To love is to risk not being loved in return
To live is to risk dying
To hope is to risk despair
To try is to risk failure
But risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing
The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing and is nothing
They may avoid suffering and sorrow but they cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love or live
Charmed by their attitudes they are a slave, they have forfeited their freedom
Only a person who risks is free
1. McManus reminds us that Christianity is a dangerous faith. Listen to what he says: “How could we ever think the Christian faith would be safe when its central metaphor is an instrument of death? It is not a coincidence that baptism is a water grave depicting death and resurrection” …“It is no less significant that the ongoing ordinance of the Lord’s Supper is a reminder of sacrifice. How did we ever develop a safe theology from such a dangerous faith” (33)?
T.S. – We need to be intentional about creating an environment that fosters healing. It does not just happen on its own instead we have to partner with the Lord and see that it happens. To do this we must take risks and learn what to do to help people heal.
II. How do we create a church that heals?
a. Here are some suggestions gleamed from Doug Murren’s book Churches That Heal.
i. We need to lighten up and not take ourselves so seriously.
1. The church people need to lose the masks of being phonies by taking themselves too seriously.
a. We need to drop our guards and be willing to open up to those around us. For us to be involved in the process of healing we must be willing to reach out to others by risking involvement in their lives and exposing our hearts to them.
i. It’s time the church removes the masks of religion and perfection and learns to become real to the people in need.
1. They need to see that they are not the only ones who have problems and are in need of healing.
a. They need to see that everyone has struggles, no one is perfect.
2. We need to lovingly assimilate people into the kingdom of God by developing unselfish relationships with others.
ii. We need to smile and be happy in Jesus and portray a life filled with joy.
1. Too many people in the church need to quit frowning and start smiling if they want to help others to heal.
a. Lose your cynical attitude and look for the positive in the church and in the hurting.
b. No one wants to come to a place where people are grumpy and critical of others.
c. No one wants to come to a church filled with hatred and bitterness toward each other.
d. No one wants to come to a church filled with un-forgiveness toward each other.
i. We need to lose the Spirit of Offense and choose to allow the Spirit of Love to control.
iii. We need to quit working ourselves to the point of exhaustion and then end up blaming others for our over commitment and fatigue.
1. The church needs to quit burning out willing workers because they think programs will change people’s lives.
a. The Holy Spirit is the power behind healing and restoration not me!
2. We need to quit letting the few do all the work of the Lord in the church and decide to help out.
a. We all need to pull our weight and use our gifts in the church – I see no retiring in the Bible!
3. Truth is it takes a willingness of all to work together at creating and maintaining a healing church.
a. God has gifted all of us with talents and we need to use them for the Kingdom of God.
iv. We need to learn to slow down and learn to take spiritual sabbaticals with the Lord.
1. We today need to lose the busy as a bee obsession.
a. John Ortberg calls it “The hurry up sickness”
i. Illustration of standing in line a store and counting the others lanes and people to see who get through first.
2. We must schedule times of spiritual refreshing in our lives if we want to be effective in ministry.
a. Times of prayer
b. Altar times between us and the Lord
c. Times of fasting
d. Times of reflection and meditation on Jesus
3. If we want to stay spiritually healthy we must spend time away with the Lord.
v. We must quit talking so much and learn to become an active listener to the heartbeat of others.
1. The best thing many could do in the church is to be quiet and listen more to those who are hurting!
a. We must learn to listen to the heart of others so as to assist the process of healing.
i. Personal Illustration: Mark’s situation with the Doctor listening to his heart.
b. What are the characteristics of a person who is an active listener and who helps people heal?
i. A person who can listen to everyday conversations of others and be genuinely concerned. The following is gleamed from When Someone You Know is Hurting-What Can you Do to Help. (Richards, pages 61-71).
1. We tend to not hear what people say to us today.
a. Our minds are moving a mile a minute and we fail to listen to the person speaking to us.
2. We interrupt people we are talking to and do not acknowledge what they themselves have just said.
a. This shows that we did not listen!
3. The truth is people who listen are usually considered our best friend and people who genuinely care about us.
4. An effective listener is someone who helps you to sort out your hurts and pains and your emotions so that healing can take place.
ii. A person learns to ask questions and then allows for free expression which will help people to progress in the healing process.
1. We need to be genuinely concerned about others and ask questions to help in the healing process.
iii. Don’t take the negative comments from the hurting person personally.
1. People may say things like, “God hates me!” “God is cruel!” It’s important to learn to let people “Blow off steam!” without trying to fix them right then and there.
2. The best thing we can do is pray for them and help them to see the truth in their situation with gentle patience and concern.
iv. Be accepting and affirming of the person who needs a healing.
1. Remember keep the process of healing moving forward.
v. Make sure that you give nonverbal affirmative actions toward the one who is in the process of healing.
vi. Work at the gift of patience with the ones laboring through the healing process.
1. It’s the best gift you could give.
vi. Churches which hinder a healing environment and do not create one have a customer service mindset among the members.
1. For us to foster a healing environment we will have to lose the customer service attitude toward others in the Body of Christ.
2. McManus put it this way, “Our motto degenerated from ‘We are the church, here to serve a lost and broken world’ to ‘What does the church have to offer me’ (30)?”
a. If a church does not meet my needs - when I want them - then I am gone.
b. If the church does not have all the programs so that I don’t have to do anything then I am gone.
c. The mindset of this type of Christian is: “I am the one who matters first and foremost not others!”
3. This has created a belief system in some church people that says, “I am the center of the universe and it’s all about meeting my wants and needs.”
a. Therefore we have all types of self-centered Christians in our culture today.
i. Video Clip: “It’s all about me.”
b. We have people all wrapped up in themselves and the result is an “apathetic attitude toward helping others.
c. It’s no different than the attitudes we saw demonstrated by the ones who refused to help the injured person in the Good Samaritan parable told by Jesus.
T.S. – We do need to know how to create a healing environment here and we also must understand that healing is a slow process.
III. To create a healing church we need to understand that healing is a process.
a. Most healings do not happen overnight in spite of what most believe and want.
i. Healing takes time-patience-and determination to persevere through the long process of healing.
1. It’s not easy but it is the reality of the healing process.
ii. Personal Illustration: My own experience with the healing process of my right knee.
1. About two years ago I had a total right knee replacement.
a. When my knee started acting up and hindering my walking I wanted my knee to be better right now -not tomorrow. I wanted a microwave healing. I wanted an immediate result from my first surgery. I wanted it fixed now because I had things to do and I was tired of waiting for it to heal! I did not want to have to walk with crutches for 6 weeks. I wanted to be able to drive and transport myself around without relying on the girls. I did not want to be dependent on others. I did not want to have to ask people to get things for me. I did not want to have to wait for others to do things for me. I did not want people to have to get my food and my coffee because I could not carry it.
i. Why did I do this and think like this? Reason - Because I wanted an instant healing - but it did not work that way!
ii. God had a plan to teach me some spiritual life lessons through this process.
iii. You see I was very independent and I felt that I should always be able to take care of myself. I prided myself on being independent and not in need of anyone else’s help. But I learned through this experience that God wanted me to become interdependent on others and not independent.
b. Being independent does not make God proud of us! What He wants is the willingness for us to care for one another and to be dependent on one another.
i. He is not pleased with independent self centered spirits!
c. God wants us to be united not independent contractors. Listen to these thoughts from the Word of God.
i. 1 Corinthians 12:27: “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is part of it.”
ii. John 17:20-26: 20“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.24“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
1. The Lord Jesus prayed that we would be one and understand the importance of being linked together through his sacrificial acts for us.
2. He wants us dependent on Him and on one another.
2. This is the lesson the Lord has taught me through my long 12 months of healing.
a. Yes, I wanted instant healing and I did get frustrated with the slow process.
b. Yes, I wanted instant answers to my prayers. I did not want to have to wait for my prayers to be answered.
c. There was a battle raging in my heart and I needed to understand that patience would build my character and help me to mature more in Jesus.
d. Life and healing is not a microwave process! It is a slow but effective process that brings long lasting healing to people’s lives. The key to pay attention to in the process is the willingness to learn through the process the lesson God wants us to learn.
e. Yes, I still battle with myself because it wants things now and not tomorrow! But I am determined to grow through life’s challenges and experiences.
3. There is another lesson that I am learning through this healing process.
a. I did not like to be considered “handicapped.”
i. It hurt my pride!
b. I learned a valuable lesson one day: I went to Wal-Mart one day with Kathy so as to experience a change of scenery. I was still on crutches so I got a motorized cart at Wal-Mart and began cruising the store. I quickly noticed how others responded to me in that motorized chair. All the other people in wheel chairs said “Hi” to me and smiled at me. I especially recall one little girl in a wheel chair about 9 or 10. She looked at me, smiled and waved and mouthed “Hi.” But most of the normal people walked by without even acknowledging me or even making eye contact with me. They walked by not even noticing that I was there or that I existed. I even had a few people I knew walk right past me and not even look down at me. One was even from New Life. I thought to myself while experiencing this moment - I have a little sense of what that man felt like by the pool of Bethesda for so many years. He was ignored, not acknowledged by the upright ones. I actually started feeling even worse about my situation. Then I thought to myself, “This man had to deal with this for a very long time 30 plus years --unlike me my condition was going to last 3-5 months maybe a year.”
b. The process of healing takes time and most of all patience. We as the church need to be kind toward the sick and the wounded.
i. We often fail in helping the healing process to progress. You ask. “How do we do this?”
1. Murren gives us reasons why we fail to help people heal and recover:
a. “We tend to rely too heavily on ascribing a moral solution for everything” (202).
i. When Jesus went to heal the blind man the disciples asked, “Who sinned this man or his parents?” Jesus said in John 9:2 “It’s for the glory God.” In other words neither he nor his parent were to blame for his blindness, But he was born blind and going to be healed at this moment to give God the glory! (202).
ii. Far too often we write people off with moral answers to wounds that a person has sustained in life.
iii. I think for many this then justifies why they do not have to help this person heal.
b. “We often have little patience for the relapses that all addicts face” (202).
i. Statistics tell us that 85% - 90% of addicts relapse at some time in their life. But the truth is we all slip and blow it in life. We all make mistakes in our lives. The key is to help these individuals get back up - not kick them when they are down.
ii. We need to learn to forgive and forget and decide to help others up. We must be committed to helping others move toward the completion of their healing.
c. “We tend not to let people grow” (204).
i. We far too often hinder people’s growth by making them adopt our ideas, our methodologies and theologies. And if they deviate from our ideas we criticize them for what they are doing and even blame them for their wounds.
ii. We have a tendency to not allow the Holy Spirit to lead them into who He wants them to be.
1. Because we want them to be what we want them to be.
iii. This is what the religious leaders did to the wounded in the NT. Listen to them:
1. John 5:9-10: 8Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
2. They were not excited that he was healed. They are mad that he is carrying his mat on the Sabbath.
a. Talk about being blind and legalistic.
3. Then they want to know who did this terrible thing to him. They had no regard for his healing but where more concerned with him carrying his mat.
a. They were more concerned about doing things their way then rejoicing in this man’s supernatural healing.
4. The sad fact is this is what happens far too often in the church today.
iv. We also tend to hinder people’s growth by the way we keep reminding people how they are imperfect.
1. When we can only see the flaws in others then we are the ones with the problem not them!
v. We need to forget who people where and rejoice in who they are today because if we don’t then we could be a hindrance to their healing.
Conclusion:
If we want to be a healing church it becomes imperative that we look and act like Jesus.
Learn the act of caring for others to help the healing process progress. Here are some thoughts and ideas on what you personally can do to help people heal.
Practical actions we can do to help people progress in their healing:
1. Write them a note of encouragement.
2. Send a card.
3. Give them a call and listen to what they have to say.
4. Take them out for a meal or invite them over for a meal.
5. Take them out for coffee and visit.
6. Pray for them.
7. Remember their birthday and do something nice for them.
8. Encourage them with a good book.
9. Encourage them with a blessing of a CD that helps them to heal.
10. Be present in their lives and don’t shun them.
11. Help them out with a financial blessing.
12. Transport them to church and other healing meetings.
13. Do a Bible study with them.
14. Forgive them when they do things different than you do.
If we want to be a healing church it becomes imperative that we look and act like Jesus and that we take the time to pray for those who need a healing in their lives and take the time to help them into the healing pool.
Altar Call: Psalm 147:1-3(NIV)
1 Praise the LORD.
How good it is to sing praises to our God,
how pleasant and fitting to praise him!
2 The LORD builds up Jerusalem;
he gathers the exiles of Israel.
3 He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
Call people forward and have the elders, Kathy and I pray for them.
Challenge: The Lord has laid a project before us today and we all need to choose to be a part of this community project so that we become known as a healing church. We need to put our faith into action and help others through the healing process.
