THE ANATOMY OF A MIRACLE: THE LYSTRA CRIPPLE HEALED
Acts 14:8-10
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: HE CAUGHT ON QUICKLY
1. A Jewish man moved into a Catholic neighborhood. Every Friday the Catholic's went crazy because, while they were morosely eating fish, the Jew was outside barbecuing steaks. So the Catholics worked on the Jew to convert him.
2. Finally, by threats and pleading, the Catholics succeeded. They took the Jew to a priest who sprinkled holy water on him and intoned, "Born a Jew, raised a Jew, now a Catholic."
3. The Catholics were ecstatic. No more delicious, maddening smells every Friday evening, they thought. But the next Friday evening, the scent of barbecue wafted through the neighborhood once again.
4. The Catholics all rushed to the new convert’s house to remind him of his new diet. They saw him standing over the grilled steak sprinkling it with water. As he did so, he said, "Born a cow, raised a cow, now a fish."
B. TEXT
1 At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed. 2 But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. 3 So Paul and Barnabas spent a considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders. 4 The people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews, others with the apostles. 5 There was a plot afoot among the Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, to mistreat them and stone them. 6 But they found out about it and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding country, 7 where they continued to preach the good news. 8 In Lystra there sat a man
crippled in his feet, who was lame from birth and had never walked. 9 He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed 10 and called out, “Stand up on your feet!” At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.
C. THESIS: HOW IMPORTANCE IS DIVINE HEALING?
1. You couldn’t enjoy $100 million dollars if you are in substantial pain. You’d give your last dollar for good health.
2. You can’t be effective for God if you’re sick. If I’m well, I’m a threat to the kingdom of darkness. If I’m sick, it’s hard to do anything but take care of myself.
3. We’re going to look this morning at the possibility of miracles, why it’s God’s will for you to be healed, and how to lay claim to your healing.
4. The title of today’s message is “The Anatomy of a Miracle: The Lystra Cripple Healed.”
I. THE POSSIBILITY OF MIRACLES
A. MIRACLES
1. Some laugh at the idea of the possibility of miracles. They argue that miracles are a violation of scientific laws, and are therefore unacceptable to modern man.
2. LOUIS BERKHOF, “When a miracle is performed, the laws of nature are not violated, but superseded (at a particular point) by a force superior to the powers of nature.”
3. Belief in miracles is easy -- if you believe that God exists and that He created the universe. If there’s a God who intervenes in history, then the Flood of Noah, the parting of the Red Sea, the virgin birth, Peter walking on water, feeding 5,000 people with a boy’s lunch, and the other biblical miracles, become not only possible, but expected.
B. DIVINE HEALING IS THE WILL OF GOD
Now some people have been wrongly taught that it’s not always God’s will to heal. There ARE sometimes HINDRANCES to God healing us, but I do believe it’s always God’s desire (because He’s good) to heal us. Here are five reasons why:
1. The ORIGINAL PATTERN for the human race in the Garden of Eden was that there was no sin, sickness nor death. That’s God's highest will (Rom. 5:12; Gen. 2:17).
2. God would not have HEALED people in BOTH TESTAMENTS if it had not been His will to heal all who come in faith to him. Just in O.T.: 16 individual healings, 7 mass healings; for a total of 23 separate accounts of healing.
3. When JESUS ATONED for mankind, He not only atoned for the sins of the soul, but FOR the diseases of the BODY, according to Isa. 53 and Matt. 8:16-17.
4. That SICKNESS is said to be the WORK OF THE DEVIL proves that God wills to get rid of it in His children (Lk. 13:11-17; Acts 10:38; Heb. 2:14-15; 1 John 3:8; Job 2:7).
5. Every time people ASKED CHRIST TO HEAL THEM, HE DID IT and repeatedly said, "I will" (Matt. 8:2,7; John 5:6).
6. If it were not the will of God to always heal He never would have had His Son beaten for our healing, made a covenant to heal, promised healing, demonstrated it, rebuked men for not having faith for it, continued to heal in every age, and He never would have made healing part of the spiritual equipment of the church and proof that an individual is a full believer (John 14:12; 1 Cor. 12:7-11; Acts 1:8; Acts 3:6; Acts 4:30; Acts 5:10; Acts 19:11.) [William Poovey]
II. PAUL PREACHED THE WORD
A. THE POWER OF THE WORD
1. Paul, when he went to Lystra, wasn't talking about politics -- whether Caesar was doing a good job or not; he wasn’t talking about the latest Star Wars movie, or about his favorite sports team; Paul was talking about the Word! We invade the devil’s airspace when we talk about Jesus!
2. “For the Word of God is alive and active [KJV – powerful]. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” Heb. 4:12, NIV.
3. God’s Word is Alive! (Zoe – moving, active and “energns”) energy -- “Full of power to achieve results.”
4. ILLUSTRATION
a. I heard the story about a man who is going through the airport in Rome Italy carrying a large package. Customs officers asked him what it contained. He nonchalantly declared, "Dynamite!" The officers jumped. One of them seized the package and the other seized the man and both were taken to customs headquarters.
b. When the package was opened it was found to contain -- Bibles! "Where is the dynamite?," inquired the officers. The man quoted Romans 1:16, "[This] Gospel…is the power [dunamis]of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile."
c. The Bible is spiritual dynamite, for it blows out the old man/nature, and blows in the new nature. If you will dare to believe the Bible, you'll be saved and transformed.
5. Verse 9 tells us, “He listened to Paul as he was speaking.”
B. THE WORD DEVELOPED FAITH
Verse 9 adds, “Paul…saw that he had faith to be healed.”
1. FAITH is defined as "an intellectual, moral and spiritual power that brings a person into vital and conscious union with God."
2. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The Amplified Version adds, “faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses.”
3. THE GREATER BENEFITS OF FAITH:
a. Gives divine vision to see past trials.
b. Unlocks the doors to God's power. God's power is activated by faith; "As is your faith, so be it unto you.” “Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes” Mk. 9:23.
c. Shields us from fiery darts. Ephesians 6:16.
d. Is our victory over the world. 1 John 5:4.
5. HOW DO WE GET FAITH? “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” Rom. 10:17. The Word of God inspires Faith, which opens the door to miracles.
C. THIS MAN HAD “FAITH TO BE HEALED”
1. Paul was preaching about Christ's willingness to heal!
2. HE WAS TELLING HOW JESUS HEALED THEM ALL!
a. “…healing every disease and sickness among the people” Mt. 4:23.
b. “…healing every disease and sickness” Matt. 9:35.
c. “He healed all who were sick” Matt. 12:15.
d. “He…healed [all] their sick” Matt. 14:14.
e. “People brought all their sick to him…and all who touched it [cloak] were healed” Matt. 14:34-36.
f. “…power was coming from Him and healing them all,” Luke 6:17-19.
3. TELLING HOW JESUS WAS SCOURGED WITH THE CAT-OF -9-TAILS SO WE COULD BE HEALED. “and with His stripes we are healed” Isa. 53:4-5. The scourging of Jesus was not an afterthought of God. It was prophesied by God 750 years before, that Jesus would not only die for your SINS, but also be scourged for your DISEASES.
4. PAUL PROB. QUOTED SCRIPTURES ABOUT HEALING:
Exodus 15:26, "I am the Lord that heals you.” JehovahRapha
Exodus 23:25, "And you shall serve the Lord your God, and He shall bless your bread and your water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of you."
Deuteronomy 7:15, "And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you heard about upon you, but will lay them upon all them that hate you."
Psalm 41:3, "The Lord will sustain him on his sick bed and restore him from his bed of illness."
Psalm 103:3, "Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases."
Psalm 107: 20, "He sent His Word and healed them, and delivered them from all their destructions."
Proverbs 4:20, 22, "My son, attend to my words; incline your ear to my sayings... For they are life to those that find them, and health to all their flesh."
Mark 16:17-18, "And these signs shall follow them that believe... they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."
Luke 5:17, "... and the power of the Lord was present to heal the sick."
Acts 10:38, "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him."
James 5:15-16 “Is any sick among you? Let the call for the elders of the church…the prayer of faith will save the sick…”
3 John 2, "Beloved I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers."
III. THE POINT OF CONTACT FOR FAITH
“[Paul] called out, “Stand up on your feet!” At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.”
A. A MIRACLE MUST HAVE A MOMENT OF BEGINNING
1. Faith must be combined with action in order to result in the release of the miraculous. This is when God's power is appropriated. It’s the convergence between the natural and the supernatural.
2. A “point of contact” is a something you do to release your faith in God and claim the promises of God and focus your attention on God, and believe in that moment that you are receiving.
3. BIBLICAL "POINTS OF CONTACT" of faith
a. For the woman with the issue of blood, she believed the miracle would occur when she touched the hem of Jesus’ robe.
b. For the Centurion with the sick servant, it was the
spoken word of Jesus.
c. Four New Testament believers, it was when hands were laid upon the sick. This would be the "point of contact" -- the point when they believed the miracle would occur.
4. JOKE
a. 2 Guys went fishing. One fisherman was experienced, the other wasn't. Every time the experienced fisherman caught a big fish, he put it in the cooler.
b. When the inexperienced fisherman caught a big fish, he threw it back. Finally, the experienced fisherman asked, "Why do you keep throwing back all the big fish you catch?"
c. The inexperienced fisherman replied, "I only have a small frying pan."
d. Sometimes, like that fisherman, we throw back the big plans, big dreams, miracles, and big opportunities that God gives us. Our faith is too small.
e. If we’re like that fisherman what we really ought to do is get a bigger frying pan! What do you need to increase the size of your faith?
B. PAUL PERCEIVED THE MOMENT HAD ARRIVED
1. A word of wisdom/knowledge from the Spirit came to Paul, "That man is ready to be healed!"
2. The MANNER OF CONTACT with the "Standing to his feet."
3. We have to give God an opportunity. Some sort of action is required. You must do something with your faith. You must step out.
4. You must put the miracle you desire into the realm of time, nail it down, and believe your moment of fulfillment has arrived.
5. "There is a time for all things under heaven a time to be born in a time to die... [I add]... a time for your miracle to occur and that time is now!"
6. God says, "Now is the accepted time; now is the day/time of salvation." God's time is now!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. A businessman had to travel to a small town for a meeting and invited his wife to come with him. She was excited about the trip until she learned they were going to fly on a twin engine Cessna plane.
2. "Honey, I've decided not to go." "What! Why not?" "I'm not getting on a little-bitty twin-engine Cessna."
3. Her husband smiled and knowingly said, "Honey, your faith is too small." "No, the plane is too small."
4. The husband really wanted his wife to go with him, so he canceled the Cessna and booked to travel on a major airline.
5. His wife went with him because, as she put it, "her faith grew because the size of the plane grew."
6. The object of her faith determined how much faith she decided to have. The object of our faith is Jesus Christ. Since He is so great, we should have great faith!
B. THE CALL
1. Do you need God to do something extraordinary for you? Now to claim your miracle. What kind do you need?
2. A miracle of New Life? of healing? of provision? A miracle in your family? Inner healing?
3. Believe for it now! Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you” Matt. 17:20.
