IN HEALTH AS YOUR SOUL PROSPERS
3 Jn. 2
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: OUTBOASTING TEXAS
1. A Texan was visiting Niagara Falls. The New York tour guide said, “I know you have a lot of big things in Texas, but I bet you haven’t got anything like that in Texas!” pointing to the Falls.
2. The Texan scratched his head and said, “No, but we have a plumber in Texas who could stop that leak!”
B. TEXT
3 John 2, “Beloved, I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers.”
C. THESIS
1. Soul prospering is the key to health and all other forms of prospering.
2. I want to bring out 3 points in this message: 1. It’s God’s will for all to be healed; 2. Healing is hindered by sin; and 3. John’s Revelation about healing.
3. Title, “In Health As Your Soul Prospers.”
I. IT’S GOD’S WILL FOR ALL TO BE HEALED
A. GOD’S ORIGINAL INTENT: EDEN
1. The Garden of EDEN is the PATTERN of what God’s perfect will for humans is (Mt. 19:4-8;“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female….Moses permitted you to divorce…But it was not this way from the beginning”).
2. In the Garden, before their fall into sin, there was no sin, no sickness, no death, no crime, no doctors, and no taxes. They were perfectly healthy. This is God’s best will for us. It wasn’t until Adam and Eve sinned that sickness gained entrance. Sickness is an invader into God’s perfect world, through sin.
3. Sickness was not God’s will, nor did sickness originate with God; it originated with sin. So if God’s perfect will were to be restored, there would be no sickness.
B. GOD’S COVENANT OF HEALING WITH ISRAEL
1. Under Moses, God set up the sacrificial system of the Old Testament, as a way to temporarily put away the sins of the people until His permanent sacrifice in Christ was come.
2. That’s why God could dwell among them (Fire & Pillar of cloud) and they could approach God without dying, because their sins were actually removed from God’s sight.
3. When their sins were removed, then sickness, as one of those consequences, was removed from them. God said, “Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span” Ex. 23:25-26. Blessing rested on them.
4. When God brought them out of Egypt under the protection of the blood of the Passover Lamb, the Bible says, “…there was not one feeble person among their tribes” Ps. 105:37. All were made well and strong.
C. JESUS ATONED FOR ALL SICKNESS
1. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us” Gal. 3:13. Jesus not only atoned for our sins but for our sicknesses as well.
2. When Jesus healing sick bodies, Matthew said, “This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases” (8:17).
3. Matthew was quoting Isaiah 53:4, which speaks of the Messiah’s atonement, including for sickness.
4. Jesus "bore our sins" 1 Pet. 2:24 and He also "bore our sicknesses" Matt. 8:17. Jesus was “made sin for us" (2 Cor. 5:21) but He was also "made a curse for us" (Gal. 3:13), atoning for our sicknesses. Jesus’ blood was shed for our sins but His body was beaten for our sicknesses, "by whose stripes you were healed.” He forgives all our iniquities and heals all our diseases (Ps. 103:3). Jesus redeems and saves the "whole" man.
II. HEALING IS HINDERED BY…
Even though God wants us to be healed, and Christ atoned for our healing, we often do not receive healing. Why? Principally, because the conditions are not right for healing. When the conditions get right, it will rain. Similarly, when God’s conditions are met, healing can freely be experienced. What conditions for Healing?
A. FREE WILL: DO WE WANT IT?
First is involved the idea of free will - do we want it? The Lord Jesus asked the lame man if he wanted to be healed (John 5:6). The first step to receiving is to determine we want it.
B. DO WE HAVE FAITH?
1. The second step has to do with faith. Jesus asked two blind men if they believed He could heal them (Matt. 9:28). Jesus told many people that their faith had saved/healed them (Mk. 9:23; Mt. 9:22).
2. Do we have faith that Jesus will do it? Do we believe that God is a healing God and that He is still working miracles — including healing — today? Jesus Christ, the same; yesterday, today, and forever! Faith is an essential to receiving anything from God (Heb. 11:6).
3. THE CHURCH’S WRONG ASSESSMENT. A retraction was printed in a newspaper; “First Church’s musical in last week's paper should have been recorded as ‘Our God Reigns.’ We erroneously printed it as ‘Our God Resigns.’”
4. Thankfully we serve a God who hasn’t resigned or given up on sinful people, but has chosen to reign in our hearts as the King of Kings & Lord of lords!
C. DISOBEDIENCE
1. Disobedience is another issue. This can go many directions - like unforgiveness (Matt. 6:14-15); unkindness to one’s wife (1 Pet. 3:7); secret sin (Ps. 66:17-19), sinning against the Church (1 Cor. 11:30), greed (Mk. 10:31), etc. We need to confess and forsake our sins to be healed (James 5:16). Anything that hinders prayer will also hinder healing.
2. ILLUSTRATION. One of my favorite stories is about the boy who went into the alley behind his house and found part of a cigarette, lit it and was smoking it. He saw his father coming & hid the cigarette behind his
back. To distract his father from noticing the smoke, he pointed to a billboard of a circus and said, “Dad, will you take me to the circus?” His father answered, “Never ask for a favor when there’s a smoldering disobedience behind your back.”
3. Sometimes God won’t answer another request until we’ve done what He told us to do the last time!
D. LACK OF KNOWLEDGE
1. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” Hos. 4:6. When we are in tune with God’s Word - reading it, memorizing it, living it out in our lives — the healing and prosperity will happen naturally.
2. “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful” (Josh. 1:8-9). Seek first His kingdom & righteousness and ALL THESE OTHER THINGS WILL BE ADDED TO YOUAS WELL!
3. When you know God’s Word, then you know what’s yours in Christ and can lay claim to it. It bolsters your faith to “possess your possessions” Obad. 1:17.
4. Many people aren’t healed because they don’t know and claim God’s promises of healing. So we need to memorize the healing scriptures; get God’s Word into you. It’s “seed” that will bear fruit. It won’t return void, but will come to pass when embraced by faith!
III. JOHN’S REVELATION: Soul prospering is the key to all other forms of prospering.
A. WHAT SOUL PROSPERING IS
1. The crucial point is, if we want healing in our bodies, we should aim to “prosper” or be “edified” in our spiritual man. God doesn’t look on the outer shell of people, but He looks primarily at our inner life (1 Sam. 16:7).
2. John saw that the key to being blessed by God is the development of our spiritual being. The more we’re conformed to the image of Jesus, then the more God’s blessings will flow to us, just like they did to Jesus.
3. He wants us to be new creatures in Christ, to be “strong in spirit” (Luke 1:80), to be filled with the Spirit (1 Cor. 6:17) and have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16).
4. There can be no “soul prospering” without relationship to Jesus; the spiritual sap only flows in the branch connected into the trunk of the tree, which is Jesus.
5. Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” John 15:5,7.
B. JOHN’S WORDS ARE GOD’S WORDS
1. 3 John 2, “Beloved, I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers.”
2. This wish is not only John’s wish, but inspired by the Holy Spirit, it’s God’s wish for every believer — that we be as healthy in body as we are in our spiritual life.
3. Do you want to be healthy? Then you should press in to know God, to please God, and to obey God.
4. NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD
A boy was traveling by train to see his grandfather. He was seated beside a skeptic and was reading a devotional book. The skeptic, seeing this, commented, “Son, if you can tell me something God can do, I’ll give you a big, shiny apple.” The boy replied, “Mister, if you can tell me something God CAN’T do, I’ll give you a whole barrel of apples!”
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. Jennifer Rees Larcombe is a Christian teacher and author. She is the mother of six children and one foster child. Her happy life was plunged into darkness and despair when she became seriously ill with a brain virus.
2. “I was whisked away in an ambulance unable to breathe, eat, swallow, speak or move. She was confined to a wheelchair for eight years because of the brain infection.
3. Countless people prayed for her. Then one day a young lady – converted only for three weeks – asked Jennifer if she could pray for her at a Christian conference. Jennifer was instantly healed and she carried her wheelchair home! [Inspire Magazine interview]
4. God is still working miracles!
B. THE CALL
1. How many of you need a healing in your body? Please stand.
2. How many of you want God to give you divine health? To get divine health you need to get into the Word of God, into prayer, and strive to obey God in your decisions. Are you willing to do that? Then let’s pray!
