Chico Alliance Church
“Christ Our Healer”
REVIEW
We continue our historical journey with John to learn as much as we can about the Jesus who walked this earth nearly 2000 years ago. Many claim to want to be like Jesus or follow Jesus but know very little about him.
Introduction to every theme of the book in chapter 1
Glory of God demonstrated at a wedding in chapter 2
The righteousness of God demonstrated at the temple 2
The wisdom of God demonstrated to Nicodemus through the teaching of Jesus 3
Now in chapter 4, we observe the love and forgiveness of God demonstrated to a woman of questionable reputation but unmistakable hunger for something more than her present experience. Today we focus on a remarkable aspect of Jesus ministry demonstrating his deity and power too reverse the curse of sickness on the earth.
Since the sin of Adam, sickness, disease, and death etched their unwelcome way on the canvas of human experience. God’s plan includes the eventual and eternal elimination of all of these things from the human experience. Jesus demonstrate the ability to deal with this aspect of human suffering in the next two events recorded by John in the last of chapter 4 and the first of chapter 5. Let’s join Jesus and his fumbling followers once again as they continue to learn from the Master.
John adds a bit of inside commentary following the two day unscheduled Bible Conference in Sycar.
And after the two days He went forth from there into Galilee. For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things that He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they themselves also went to the feast. Jn 4:43-45
The original destination was Galilee in order to avoid unpleasant political posturing. The group continues now their journey (40 miles from Sycar to Cana) to continue a ministry in Galilee where the normal reaction is to not give honor to homeboys.
Perhaps John is indicating that having gained a group of people who recognized the person of Christ (impacted by the miracles down in Jerusalem) , Christ went there to continue to minister and demonstrate His Sonship. His reception for now is a pleasant one “they welcomed” him.
Nobleman’s Son
Returning to Cana Jesus encounters a “nobleman” with a sick child.
He came therefore again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine. And there was a certain royal official, whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him, and was requesting Him to come down and heal his son; for he was at the point of death. John 4:46-47
This is a government official of some sort. John purposely chose this encounter to demonstrate the wide variety of people and circumstances touched by Jesus in His short ministry on this earth. The official lived in Capernaum, probably 10-15 miles away by the Sea of Galilee. The news of Jesus traveled quite a broadly by now and when this man heard that Jesus, was in Galilee, traveled to Cana to find him. He came to Jesus asking Him several times to heal his sick son who was in the process of dying. Jesus responds fro the benefit of those who crowded around him for less than pure reasons addresses the whole aspect of properly placed faith.
Jesus therefore said to him, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe."
Jesus draws this official into a deeper faith not in the events but the one who does the events. The people were not so interested in who was doing the signs but the sensation of the event themselves. At the core, faith believes the word of God. The sensation of signs and wonders fades and distracts if not followed to the source.
Pressing on the official cries out to Jesus in spite of the gentle rebuke.
The royal official said to Him, "Sir, come down before my child dies." Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your son lives." The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he started off. John 4:48-50
At the world of Jesus the son was healed and the official believes the word of Jesus. He is not quite to the point of full belief.
And as he was now going down, his slaves met him, saying that his son was living. So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. They said therefore to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him." So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, "Your son lives"; and he himself believed, and his whole household. This is again a second sign that Jesus performed, when He had come out of Judea into Galilee. John 4:51-54
Don’t miss the human emotion and Divine excellence of this event.
Lame Man
From here, we travel with Jesus back to Jerusalem to celebrate a feast. Here Jesus encounters a man far beyond the hope of ever living differently.
Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches. One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew how long he had been ill, he asked him, "Would you like to get well?"
"I can't, sir," the sick man said, "for I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I am trying to get there, someone else always gets in ahead of me."
Jesus told him, "Stand up, pick up your sleeping mat, and walk!"
Notice a few things here. Jesus again engages the thinking of those he touched. “Would you like to get well?”
Jesus touches people of all kinds. Here is a man alone in the world. No friends or family to watch over him.
He has been at the mercy of passer bys for quite some time. Jesus also tells him to stand up. This is something he hadn’t done in 38 years.
What a cruel thing to tell a lame man. It would have required a response on the part of the man to believe and obey Jesus. God so often requires us to respond to his word before things happen. At this point not even knowing fully who He was. Don’t miss the absolute power involved in this healing. Shriveled legs crippled by disuse.
Balance Mental adjustment to a new activity.
All of the necessary elements to walk were restored by Jesus in one brief movement. No physical therapy necessary.
Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up the mat and began walking!
In contrast to the glory of this wonderful miracle of Jesus, John pulls in the theme introduced in Chapter one about those who would not receive Him.
But this miracle happened on the Sabbath day. So the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, "You can't work on the Sabbath! It's illegal to carry that sleeping mat!"
He replied, "The man who healed me said to me, 'Pick up your sleeping mat and walk.' "
"Who said such a thing as that?" they demanded. The man didn't know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd.
What hardness of heart. So absorbed in the system you forget the purposes of God. Jesus leaves the man with some insight into his condition.
But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, "Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you." Then the man went to find the Jewish leaders and told them it was Jesus who had healed him.
The leaders come to a deeper understanding of the claims of Jesus.
So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules. But Jesus replied, "My Father never stops working, so why should I?" So the Jewish leaders tried all the more to kill him. In addition to disobeying the Sabbath rules, he had spoken of God as his Father, thereby making himself equal with God. John 5:1-18
Lessons
Value of intercession.
Focus on the Son not the signs.
Cast all your care because He cares for you.
Don’t give up your desire to walk again.
Sin brings consequences.
Jesus more concerned about the Father’s work than the people’s objections.
Jesus is our blessed healer.
What about healing?
What about healing today?
The Issues surrounding Healing
I. The possibility of Healing
The prophet Isaiah prophesied that Messiah would address the consequences of sin upon a fallen humanity.
Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.
But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.
All of us like sheep have gone astray, ach of us has turned to his own way;
But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. Isaiah 53:4-6
The Bible is the best interpreter of the Bible.
This passage is quoted twice in relations to healing in the New Testament.
For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls. 1 Peter 2:21-25
The obvious context here points to the healing of our sin. Matthew quotes this passage in regard to both the healing of our body from illness but demonic influence as well.
And when evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed; and He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were ill in order that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, "HE HIMSELF TOOK OUR INFIRMITIES, AND CARRIED AWAY OUR DISEASES." Matthew 8:16-17
II. Source of Suffering
There is a sickness of the body, soul, and spirit. Sin and sickness comes from two sources. There are natural consequences of sin in a fallen world. (personal and inherited, inputed). There are supernatural influences of Satan. The work of Christ becomes the only basis on which we may ask God for healing from either of these sources. Apart from His work on our behalf, we would be doomed to eternal consequences of rebellion and sin against God.
III. Eternal Purposes
• Produces purity and maturity
• Cultivates compassion for others
• Teaches to trust God alone
• Brings glory to God
• Rewards us with glory and blessing
• Helps spread the Word of God
• Keeps us humble and obedient through discipline
IV. Godly Responses
1. Rejoice, count it all joy don’t grumble and complain
2. Praise -- don’t blame
3. Take courage -- Don't lose heart
4. Comfort others -- don’t criticize
5. Pray -- don’t rely on your own resources
6. Resist the devil -- don’t ignore him
7. Persevere, Endure -- don’t give in or blow up.
V. Provision for Healing
God’s provision for healing is three fold. Jesus demonstrated all three as a demonstration of his ability address the total effects of sin.
Eternal Priorities
Renew the spirit – eternal life, rebirth
Transform the Soul – mind will and emotion
Restore the body – physical restoration
There is a preferred order and importance.
• Spirit first
• Soul second
I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:1-2
• Body third
For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. Romans 8:22-23
It is clear that God does not always eliminate the perplexing people or events or maneuver me away from those trials. Rather He uses those things to accomplish any number of objectives in my life and in His overall plan. We are encouraged, yes commanded to remain under, persevere, and endure until God's objectives for the trial have been accomplished.
What about God's promise for deliverance? I thought God is a healing God. Can I pray for healing and deliverance from difficulties? Does God ever bring about a miraculous removal of any of the terrible things I encounter? Does God promise protection for my children and me from all harm?
Yes, God is a God of the supernatural. And Scripture definitely describes some wonderful and unbelievable works of the Lord. Yet we must keep truth in balance. We must not fall off of either end of the Biblical balance beam.
At the one end of the truth beam:
God is a supernatural, healing, delivering God. His deliverance is both promised and pictured throughout the Scriptures.
The other end post:
God does not always heal in time and space and has not promised to heal everyone. This truth also is well demonstrated throughout Scripture. The guiding factor in our discussion of deliverance from suffering must be a proper perspective. To be Christ centered rather than comfort or self centered. We must have as our priority the desire to see Christ exalted. If kingdom growth will be best accomplished by a continuation of a given tribulation, so be it. If He will be more highly exalted by a miraculous deliverance than so be it.
There are NO magic sure-fire formulas to manipulate God. Job prayed every day for his children. They all died anyway. Sometimes there is a higher purpose involved. The point is to focus on faithfulness and effectiveness as a servant of God NOT on continual protection from all tribulation. As we saw in Hebrews 11, the hall of the faithful, each one demonstrated their faith by an eternal rather than a temporal focus.
Are we here to promote God’s kingdom or ours? Unless I have that focus, I will get side-tracked in my thnking regarding signs and wonders. I must also develop a balanced understanding of the supernatural work of God as revealed in the Bible.
There is nothing wrong about desiring a supernatural intervention by God. The problem comes in the motive.
The sin comes when I am obsessed with escape rather than effectiveness. When I become self-centered rather than kingdom centered. What is best for he Kingdom?
There are three categories of God's supernatural working from our present perspective.
1--Internal
2--External
3—Eventual
INTERNAL HEALING
The ultimate test of faith is not to see how excited and on fire we become because of a multitude of fiery signs and wonders. The ultimate test of the purity of faith is to see how faithful we remain in spite of a multitude of fiery trials and tribulations. Peter tells us that faith is refined and tested like Gold, and only after it has passed the test, will it result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. When gold is refined, the impurities rise to the top. When an undistorted reflection appears, the impurities have been removed. Our response to trial and stress in life say something. They shout where are trust lies. They reveal whether our priorities are temporal or eternal. Our responses are a temperature gauge for faith.
Just ask Job how this process works. Satan's contention concerning Job was that Job only served God because of God's abundant blessing and protection. Ask Israel about the effects of the miracles in the wilderness, the continual demonstrations of power and even an audible voice and manifested presence on their ability to believe God. Why do we serve God?
Today we have a new gospel, a different gospel that centers on God’s service to man not man’s service to a sovereign God. When God doesn’t come through we write Him off. People are encouraged to come to Christ through the gate of self-centeredness not the gate of repentance and faith. They come to Christ for rescue from their misery. This unbalanced brand of man-centered, sensational teaching rather than Christ-centered teaching is becoming more and more prevalent even in some of our more conservative churches. Salvation comes to those who come empty handed to Christ, having recognized their sinful condition and desperate need of a Savior. It is coming to him with realization that I have offended a holy God and Creator by my independent pride and resulting rebellious behavior. Generally the things I suffer are due to operating independently from God. God has not promised to always eliminate the negative trials and circumstance in our life. It is sometimes a greater testimony to His glory to endure and still trust. To say with Job, "Though he kills me, I will still trust Him" is a much greater accomplishment than to say, "Because He healed me of this broken arm, I know I can trust Him."
Trusting God only when He does just what we want, makes us the god of our own life and He the servant to us.
If we fall apart and turn our backs every time things turn sour, we clearly demonstrate the shallowness of our faith. Paul makes it clear that God's priority in this age is the internal not the external.
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 2Co 4:16
God often uses the external demonstrations of power in order to point to the greater, at least the more significant internal transformations.
EXAMPLE--THE PARALYTIC
Jesus declared the forgiveness of his sins an act of far greater implications than any physical healing. Yet because of the blindness to the spiritual significance of what He had just done Jesus said, "So that you may know that the Son of Man has the power to forgive sins, take up your bed and walk." We must stop exalting external demonstrations of God's power over the supernatural power of God demonstrated in the regeneration of the lost and inner healing of attitudes and personality fractures of those who come to Him. We get all excited about someone receiving physical healing only to die later anyway and if not a Christian spend eternity in hell. Yet when a physically crippled person comes to the altar weeping in repentance before God and finds eternal salvation or finds healing for their troubled soul we see it as a second-class sort of event. After all, our rebirth is the greatest miracle that could ever take place. To take a dead spirit destined to spend eternity in the fires of help and bring about its resurrection into newness of life is a miraculous work that will not be appreciated until heaven. Deliverance and healing from Satan's bondage of anger, bitterness, fear, depression is of greater significance than a healed cold.
If this is so, why do most of our requests for prayer revolve around release from some sort of physical predicament? God is concerned about those things. But it is not his priority. However, we usually are more interested in physical comfort than spiritual completeness. Miraculous physical manifestations are not the foundation upon which we are to build our faith.
"Abraham replied, `They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.' "`No, father Abraham,' he said, `but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' "He said to him, `If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' " Luk 16:31
If we insist on a physical focus we run the risk of always attempting to manipulate God for my own comfort rather than serve Him for His cause. Even Jesus did not seek to avoid His suffering and pain by supernatural means, but through prayer and trust in the Father's plan. He allowed himself to go hungry, to be beaten, to die for us. Paul went through all kinds of suffering. God simply has not made a blanket promise of physical healing to everyone. Thus Paul suffered. Epahroditus almost died. Timothy had to take Pepto Bismol for his stomach problems.
Jesus told the home town crowd demanding a miracle show to prove his worth among them that He was not sent to heal everyone.
Luke 4:25-27 (25) I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. (26) Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. (27) And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed - only Naaman the Syrian."
We must keep a proper balance and eternal perspective. We must not be so frantic to receive physical healing that we become frustrated when for God's greater purpose we don't. God is much more concerned with our maturity than He is our mirth. He is concentrating more on our holiness than our happiness. Even if that maturity and holiness requires we suffer unpleasant physical and temporal trials. Eternal transformations of the soul kind, are of greater import to the kingdom than temporal re-adjustments of the physical kind.
EXTERNAL HEALING
Striving for the Biblical balance requires that we my no means de-emphasize the supernatural power of God to remove adverse circumstances and suffering by miraculous means. God will generally operate by His own natural laws. But for His own purpose and glory He may choose to transcend those natural laws.
Physical laws
Spiritual laws
Jump off the roof and you are painfully confronted with the law of gravity. Violate Biblical principles and I am confronted with the law of sin and death, the law of sowing and reaping. Yield to Christ and I am free to experience the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. When God chooses to supercede His own natural laws it is always for a reason. Some periods and times in Biblical history were filled with more external miraculous displays of God's power with a far greater purpose than mere avoidance from misery.
Abraham walked by faith, Samuel, Enoch. Jeremiah, John the Baptist.
The miracles of Christ were to bring authentication to His person and purpose.
Each of the miracles was intended to teach a lesson. After the feeding of the 5,000-- I am the Bread of Life.
Resurrection of Lazarus--I am the resurrection and the Life.
Christ never performed miracles for His own personal benefit or just for miracles sake.
I.E. Herod, Satan's temptation.
Yes God continues to demonstrate His power through external healing. The cross of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice provides the framework for my deliverance from the suffering of a sinful world. He also allows suffering to continue and provides the supernatural internal work of endurance to His glory. Only God knows what kind of work will bring us the greatest growth and He the greatest glory. Our job is to ask, to pray, to believe to entrust our lives to our faithful creator in doing what is right. We are to leave the results in His hands and not demand from Him but receive what is best from His hand not continually nag for our own gain rather than His glory.
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, Psa 46:2
EVENTUAL RELEASE
As we gathered at the hospital to pray for Eleanor, who way dying of cancer, I longed to see God do a miracle. As I stood by the side of my father's casket, I remember that deep longing for the power to raise the dead. To bring to life to that pale lifeless shell. I realized then that God's purposes were different from mine and that far greater work had been accomplished and other begun through his death. We have no doubt about the ability or the desire of God to heal here and now. It is clear that God knows the best way.
What if Christ had insisted in escaping the suffering of the cross?
What if the Father had answered His prayer to bypass the cross?
Where would that put us?
He prayed, now my will but yours! Can we do any less if greater glory would result through the experience of suffering rather than sensationalism? We are assured that all pain and sickness will one day be removed and eliminated. These bodies will receive the redemption for which they now long with deep groaning along with all creation. Ultimate, eventual release is our glorious hope and is not to be compared to the gloom that is present in our world today. Friends, we live in a painful fallen world and we long now for that which we cannot have until Christ returns. In the meantime, we have the avenue of prayer. In prayer we seek draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need. Help we will find whether it be a supernatural internal transformation of our soul or a miraculous relief of our suffering by physical healing.
CONCLUSION
We have touched on suffering, tribulation, pain. God tells us that it is here to stay. He tells us what kinds of things it may accomplish when we choose to respond correctly. He tells us how to respond. He promises deliverance from, through, out of, in the midst of trial.
I would like to offer some principles for handling present suffering.
• Realize we live in a fallen world
• Refuse Satan’s purposes
• Understand and embrace God’s purpose for suffering
• Focus on the present fruit of endurance
• Focus on future glory
• Study those who endured before us
• Lay aside every sin and encumbrance
• Enlist the help of others
• Entrust your soul to a faithful Creator
