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.
C. GOD HAS ALWAYS BEEN A GOD WHO HEALED
1. 5X in O.T. God healed barren women;
2. 4X God healed plagues brought on by sin;
3. Healed Moses, Miriam, and Naaman the leper;
4. 3X raised the dead;
5. At least 6 other instances, two of them 1,000s of people;
6. Total: 16 individual healings, 7 mass healings; 23 separate accounts.
D. GOD’S ALWAYS FELT LOVE/COMPASSION TO US
1. “God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them” Ex. 2:24-25.
2. “When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick” Matt. 14:14.
II. CHRIST ATONED FOR SICKNESS
A. SIN & SICKNESS ARE INSEPARABLY UNITED
1. POWERPOINT of the TREE OF SIN, with many types of fruit, one of which is sickness. But if you cut down the tree, the fruit will no longer be borne.
2. Before Adam and Eve sinned, they lived in a perfect world; there was no sickness.
3. But the fall of man and woman brought about all the problems of society that we see today:
a. Broken homes e. Addictions
b. Crime f. Hate, prejudice
c. Lust, Pride g. Slavery, abuse
d. War, violence h. Sickness
4. But the fountain of it all, what caused it all -- was SIN! If somehow we could turn back the clock to where sin would be eradicated, so also would these other evils -- including sickness.
B. THE CURSE OF THE LAW
1. The violation of God's law automatically brings a curse, part of which involves sickness and disease.
2. In Deut. 28:15-61, God lays out the "Curse of the Law," many of which are sicknesses: wasting diseases, madness, fever, blindness, inflammation, fearful plagues, painful boils, severe & lingering illnesses, the itch, and festering sores.
3. Deut. 28:61 says the Curse of the Law also includes not only the diseases and sicknesses just mentioned, but ALL the other diseases/ sicknesses that exist!
4. The point is, if the Curse of the Law could be lifted, so would be lifted all the effects of that Curse!
5. WHAT DID CHRIST DO WITH THE ‘CURSE OF THE LAW’?
a. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree’” Gal. 3:13.
b. “having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross” Col. 2:14.
C. CHRIST’S ATONEMENT FOR SICKNESS
1. Some try to say that Jesus’ atonement only extends to the soul and doesn’t include the body. That is not true to the Word of God.
2. Matt. 8:16-17 settles it; “And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: “He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses” (NKJV).
3. When Jesus healed their bodies, He FULFILLED WHAT WAS PROPHESIED IN ISAIAH 53, the chapter describing His work of atonement. Physical healing IS part of the atonement.
4. Isa. 53 says in the Hebrew language:
a. Vs. 3 “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of griefs and well acquainted with disease..."
b. Vs. 4 "Surely He has borne our diseases and carried our pains..."
c. Vs. 5 "but he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed."
d. Vs. 8 "... for the transgression of my people was He plagued."
e. Vs. 10 "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. He hath made Him sick..."
5. NOT JUST SINS, BUT SICKNESSES TOO
a. On Calvary, Jesus "bare our sins" 1 Pet. 2:24;
On Calvary, Jesus "bare our sicknesses" Matt. 8:17.
b. Jesus was “made sin for us" (2 Cor. 5:21) for our sins; Jesus was "made a curse for us" (Gal. 3:13), when He bore our sicknesses.
c. Jesus’ blood was shed "for the remission of sins" Mt. 26:28; Jesus’ body was beaten, "by whose stripes ye were healed."
d. "Who forgives all your iniquities; Who heals all your diseases." Jesus redeemed and saves the "whole" man.
III. JESUS HEALED THE SICK AND CALLED US TO DO THE SAME
1. We do believe God has given us doctors and medicine. We ought to pray first and give God a chance.
2. JOKE. An elderly friend of mine was recently hospitalized for heart trouble.
a. "I'm so worried," she said as his nurse plumped up the pillows. "Last week, I read about a man who was in the hospital because of heart trouble, and he died of malaria."
b. "Relax," the nurse said smiling. "This is a first-rate hospital. When we treat someone for heart trouble, they die of heart trouble!"
3. Healing was a significant part of our Lord Jesus’ ministry. Of the 3,779 verses of the Four Gospels, 727
(1/5) of them are devoted to Jesus’ healing ministry!
4. Jesus said, "He that hath seen Me, has seen the Father."
5. We know God's will is to heal the sick, because Jesus healed the sick!
A. JESUS HEALED EVERYTHING AND ALL
1. “…healing every disease and sickness among the people” Mt. 4:23.
2. “…healing every disease and sickness” Matt. 9:35.
3. “He healed all who were sick” Matt. 12:15.
4. “He…healed [all] their sick” Matt. 14:14.
5. “People brought all their sick to him…and all who touched it [cloak] were healed” Matt. 14:34-36.
6. “…power was coming from Him and healing them all Luke 6:17-19.
7. If it wasn’t God’s will to heal ALL, then in those large crowds of thousands, there certainly would have been some it wasn’t God’s will to heal; yet Jesus healed them ALL!
B. JESUS COMMISSIONED OTHERS TO DO THE SAME
1. 12 apostles
2. 70 others told to "heal the sick" Lk. 10:9.
3. All Believers -- Mark 16:15-18
"Signs" -- spiritual billboards, advertising Christ (John 11:4).
C. REGULAR PEOPLE WHO ALSO HEALED THE SICK
1. Uncommissioned Disciple (Mark 9:38) who was casting out demons without Christ's permission and was not one of the disciples, but he was doing it in Jesus’ name.
2. Ananias of Damascus – Acts 9:18.
3. Philip -- Acts 8:13.
4. Stephen – Acts 6:8.
5. The Elders James wrote to -- James 5:14-15.
6. The Corinthians 1:7, "you come behind in no gift."
1 Cor. 12:28, "God has set in the church... gifts of healings."
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: When God did a U-Turn
1. Norma Gardner sat quietly on the crude, worn bench in the sweltering African church listening to her missionary husband, Andy, inform his congregation that soon he & his 29-year-old wife back had to go to the States. She had been diagnosed with cancer.
2. German doctors had confirmed it, she had three months to live. She stood to face her African friends, people she had taught, loved, cared for and won to Christ.
3. Opening her Bible, she said, "God has given me two verses in Psalm 118:17,18: "I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord hath chastened me sore, but he hath not given me over unto death."
In her heart, she knew their work was not finished; indeed, it had barely begun.
4. Ultimately, her choices were two: accept the verdict of the German doctors or place her faith in the timeless Word of God. She chose the latter. She would stand on the promises of her Lord.
5. Arriving in New York, examinations revealed indeed she was full of malignant tumors. Doctors discussed the necessity of a hysterectomy. For years she had been praying for children.
6. But six weeks later, the New York specialists were stunned. They could detect nothing. The malignant tumors had virtually disappeared. There was no trace whatsoever of cancer.
7. God directed their return to Africa seven months later to continue the ministry to which He called them, a ministry that extended over 30 years.
8. Two years to the day from Norma’s arrival in America with Andy, their first daughter was born. In the six years following, two sons were added to the family of this dedicated couple.
9. Two of the children returned as missionaries to Africa and a third, also a seminary graduate, is on the staff of an upstate New York church. (Mariane Holbrook)
B. THE CALL
1. God is wanting to heal the sick.
a. Jesus has taken away the occasion for sickness.
b. Jesus healed & called us to do the same.
c. As we obey Jesus, He will heal the sick.
2. How many of you need a physical touch/divine healing? Come forward and form a line just in front of the altars.
3. I want a believer to come stand behind each one. Are there some of you who believe you have the ministry of healing? Come join me and the elders, and let us anoint them with oil and pray the prayer of faith.
C. FINAL EXHORTATIONS
1. Don't look at symptoms, but to the promise of God the unwavering. Remember Peter walking on the water: while he looked to Jesus he stayed aloft; but when he looked to the senses (the wind, waves, lightning), he sank.
2. “Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise” Heb. 10:35-36.
3. Take your stand upon the verse (promise) of Scripture and if the enemy comes to Rob you, say "It is written!" and quote the verse.
4. Let's pray and believe now.
