Scandalous Healing
Illus. cured
A woman went to her doctor’s office. She was seen by one of the new doctors, but after about 4 minutes in the examination room, she burst out screaming and ran down the hall.
An older doctor stopped her and asked what the problem was, and she explained. He had her sit down and relax in another room.
The older doctor marched back to the first and demanded, "What’s the matter with you? Mrs. Terry is 63 years old, she has four grown children and seven grandchildren, and you told her she was pregnant?"
The new doctor smiled smugly as he continued to write on his clipboard.
"Cured her hiccups though, didn’t it?"
*Thanks to Pastor Tim for this joke! http://www.cybersalt.org/cleanlaugh
While we laugh at the impossibility of what the doctor told that woman...
What the doctor did...by some might have been considered
A little bit scandalous.
By that I mean...telling that woman whatever he had to tell her
to get the results that he thought she needed..
Politicians and businessman have been doing it for years...
Telling someone else whatever they have to, or doing
Whatever it takes to get the results your looking for...
Remember:
Watergate..from the 70's
Our healthcare system
Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme...
Some would argue against… Most would argue
that those were all and are scandalous things and events
That happened..right in front of our eyes
Whatever the motivation might've been…
Either Greed or power, or the well being of someone
It caused the participants to do some drastic things...
Even to the point of humiliation and dire consequences..
To get the outcome they were looking for.
And as I was thinking this week about today's word..
I wondered why aren't more people willing to go to the point
of something someone might consider scandalous...
to get the promises and the gifts that God has given
To each and everyone of us..
And while there are many… The one I want to talk about today
is the promise and the gift of healing.
For you see this gift and this promise cost God a great deal...
It cost Him the cross..
It cost Him His one and only Son..Jesus
Isaiah 53:1-5 NKJ
53 Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
3 He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
Anyone who has ever seen the passion play, or seen the movie "the Passion of Christ" realizes the extent of the price that was paid for the grace that has been extended to us...
TBS He was beaten beyond recognition..so there is no doubt as to whether what he did was ever enough to be the guarantee to the promises the cross gave us...
He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
So I don't think there's any doubt in anyone's mind this morning
as to whether or not Jesus has the authority
and the power...or the will to heal.
The question is this morning… Why aren't more people Healed??
That in and of itself by some..is considered a scandalous statement
And some may say...Well that was for then, and this is now..
My bible says in Hebrews 13:7-9 NKJ
7 Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 9 Do not be carried about[c] with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them.
While men may have changed… Jesus has not changed, the grace He introduced on the cross has not changed either...nor the message of it
For the heart to be established by it
Others may say…"it's not Gods Will to heal"
Quote from Bill Johnson:
How can God choose not to heal someone when He already purchased their healing? Was His blood enough for all sin, or just certain sins?
Were the stripes He bore only for certain illnesses, or certain seasons of time? When He bore stripes in His body He made a payment for our miracle. He already decided to heal.
You can’t decide not to buy something after you’ve already bought it.
Jesus healed everyone that came to Him needing a healing...
He even went out of His way to find people who needed Him
in their situation and weren't even aware of it...
The only time someone wasn’t healed in the Bible (gospels) is when the disciples prayed for them. For example, Mark 9 when they prayed for the tormented child. They did not have breakthrough. But then, Jesus came and brought healing and deliverance to the child.
How about this one..."they have more faith than I do"
Acts 10:34King James Version (KJV)
34 Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:
Luke 17:6 Msg
But the Master said, “You don’t need more faith. There is no ‘more’ or ‘less’ in faith. If you have a bare kernel of faith, say the size of a poppy seed, you could say to this sycamore tree, ‘Go jump in the lake,’ and it would do it.
Romans 12:3 NKJ
3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.
TBS there is no more or less in faith…
God doesn't respect one person more than another...
Everyone has been given a measure of faith…
The difference is… Some choose to use and exercise
Their faith on a daily basis...and it grows right along with their relationship
They are willing to create what some might call a scandal...
For they are willing to pursue Jesus and what He did for them at all costs...
Until they see the breakthrough…
Until they see God working in their situation...
Until they see the light at the end of the tunnel…
Until there's NO MORE NEED!!!
We may not understand it… But the good news is
we don't have to understand it...all we have to do is except it
and believe and trust that Jesus can do what he says
he can do in our lives and every part of our body
that needs His healing touch in it....
Jesus is Gods will..
What Jesus did for you on the cross was God's will...
What Jesus can do for you today is Gods will...
Healing is Gods will for you...
The devil knows this…
The devil knows this better than anyone else...
That's what the devil fights so hard and that's why there is doubt...
He knows once he has planted the seed of doubt...
once that you have any inkling that God's will in your life
and God's healing plan for your life is not going to work...
Human nature will take over and the rest is history...
You will just accept your condition as your fate
Many have accepted that seed of doubt and surrendered to it..
And suffered the consequences of death from it..
But God never intended for it to be that way…
That's why he sent his son to the cross...
that's what you made a way of escape for you and I...
The question is are you willing to pursue such a scandalous healing?
For yourself…
For your family...
For a friend…
Mark 5:25-34 MSG
25-29 A woman who had suffered a condition of hemorrhaging for twelve years—a long succession of physicians had treated her, and treated her badly, taking all her money and leaving her worse off than before—had heard about Jesus.
( so here is a woman… Considered an outcast, considered unclean...
who had been treated for 12 years...
and scammed for 12 years...
Who no doubt had been weakened from this condition...
Who had probably try to conceal his condition for 12 long years...
Who had no doubt sick and tired of this condition for 12 long agonizing years... and then...AND THEN....she heard about Jesus!!
Could He help her? Would He help her?
She had heard He helped everyone else..
but would He help her?
And if He would..how would she approach Him?
She was unclean..she was an outcast..it would create a scene..
If she got caught..."IT WOULD BE SCANDALOUS"
she didn't care if it was, she was willing to do whatever it took...even if it was scandalous)
TBS. She slipped in from behind and touched his robe. She was thinking to herself, “If I can put a finger on his robe, I can get well.” The moment she did it, the flow of blood dried up. She could feel the change and knew her plague was over and done with.
30 At the same moment, Jesus felt energy discharging from him. He turned around to the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?”
31 His disciples said, “What are you talking about? With this crowd pushing and jostling you, you’re asking, ‘Who touched me?’ Dozens have touched you!”
32-33 But he went on asking, looking around to see who had done it.
(This if only was the dreaded part of the scandalous deed the woman had done...the owning up to the fact in deed she was the one who had touched Jesus robe...she was the one who had received that energy
TBS. The woman, knowing what had happened, knowing she was the one, stepped up in fear and trembling, knelt before him, and gave him the whole story.
34 Jesus said to her, “Daughter, you took a risk of faith, and now you’re healed and whole. Live well, live blessed! Be healed of your plague.”
I imagine there were others there that day that might have considered this woman's healing, a scandalous one in nature...no doubt the pharisee's were taking notes in the back ground...thinking this guy has got to go
Scandalous, scandalous, nothing short of scandalous...
What measures are you willing to take to see you're miracle come to fruition?
Are you willing to do something extreme?
Are you willing to put aside what others might think or say?
Are you willing to do something you haven't done before?
Are you willing to dare to be scandalous?
Illus. by Joe Smith
Charlotte Elliott was a sickly English woman who had developed a long history of refusing to do things she was asked to do because of her illness. Her brother, who was a pastor, had been particularly persistent in trying to get her out of herself, trying to get her involved in doing something positive. But Charlotte had always refused. "I'm not feeling up to it. I'm an invalid, you know. I just don't think I can."
In 1834 her brother asked one more time. They were trying to raise funds for a school for young women. Charlotte Elliott was asked to help ... at least just to go to the event and do something, anything. But again she refused, again she spoke of being too tired, too sick. And so the family all went off and left her home alone.
That night, Charlotte Elliott began to think about how sickness was taking over her life. She began to feel ashamed, because she would not risk anything for the Kingdom. She realized that that her brokenness had become the most important thing, maybe the only thing, in her life.
And that night Charlotte Elliott heard the call of God. Out of her restlessness, out of her self-hatred, she wrote, "Just as I am, without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me, and that Thou bidd'st me come to Thee, 0 Lamb of God, I come....I come
That's all that God is asking...for you to come and rest in what He can do for you
To drink freely of the life giving, life changing, miracle giving Healing water that freely flows from His throne...
Let us pray...
