Hark! The Herald Angels Sing! Part 2
Healing in His Wings
(Hark! The Herald Angels Sing! stanzas 3-4)
1. One woman writes: Our fourth grader celebrated his birthday on crutches, so he couldn’t carry the cupcakes into school without help. I asked our sixth-grader, Noah, to help his brother carry them in. I could,”he said, but
I’d prefer not to.”Spotting a teaching moment, my husband asked Noah, What would Jesus do?” Noah answered, “Jesus would heal him so he could carry his own cupcakes.“ Rachel Nichols [source: rd.com]
2. That Jesus worked miracles is clearly state in the Scriptures. In the Jewish Talmud, we discover that the unbelieving Jews thought Jesus was a sorcerer. By saying this, they are indirectly acknowledging that He did some inexplicable miracles – so they attributed it to sorcery.
3. But Jesus greatest concern was not the healing of bodies, but of souls.
Main Idea: Jesus was born to heal our spiritual ills, both delivering us from hell and transforming us into godly men and women. Let’s look at two “hows” that explain these blessings.
I. How REGENERATION Is the Sign of Jesus’ Work on Our Behalf (Stanza 3)
A. Jesus sometimes heals people physically and, more importantly, SPIRITUALLY.
Hail the heav’n-born Prince of Peace! Hail the Sun of righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings, Ris’n with healing in His wings:
Malachi 4:2, But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its [his] wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.
Mark 6:56, And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well.
• Wesley focuses on the permanent, more important type of healing.
Jesus and the man lowered through the roof (Mark 2:3-12)
B. The healing sun has become the RISEN Son.
1. He brings a different kind of light.
2. He brings new life.
John 1:4, In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
1. Life is spiritual life, regeneration; light is illumination and freeing, spiritual knowledge.
2. We have direction and a certain pathway that pleases God...the light of grace, not just the Law
C. He became incarnate and died so that we will not die the SECOND death.
Mild He lays His glory by, Born that man no more may die;
Revelation 2:11; 21:8 ….He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death… But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.
2 Timothy 1:19, … and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,
D. SECOND birth (aka, “Regeneration”) is the hallmark of one escaping the second death.
Born to raise the sons of earth; Born to give them second birth.
John 3:3, Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Titus 3:5, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit...
II. How Jesus SANCTIFIES Us (Stanza 4)
To come to know the Lord without a concern for living for him
My mother in law was going to make cabbage rolls… forgot the rice. Marylu forgot the cabbage.
Need all ingredients.
Weselyan theology has its unique beliefs about sanctification. Historically, it became a stepping stone to the holiness Pentecostal movement which was a precursor of the charismatic movement.
Second blessing becomes the Baptism of the Spirit and brings complete holiness. The Pentecostal movement took it further with tongues being the sign of the Spirit’s baptism and then the charismatic movement tended to remove the holiness belief.
We believe every true believer has been baptized into the Body of Christ by the Spirit, and that being filled with the Spirit is an ongoing responsibility and that spiritual gifts are given by the Spirit according to His choice, not a pre-existing pattern.
What we do share in common is the belief that getting saved is not the end, but the beginning. We all agree that God wants us to grow. And, in reality – if you look at measurable behaviors, there is no real difference in lifestyle between people from all these groups.
A. We invite Christ to be at HOME in our hearts.
Come, Desire of nations, come! Fix in us Thy humble home:
Ephesians 3:17a, 19b, … so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith...that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Romans 12:1-2, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
B. As the VICTOR, Christ conquers Satan in our lives.
Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring seed, Bruise in us the serpent’s head;
Genesis 3:15, I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.
I Corinthians 15:20, 56-57, But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep...The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
C. Jesus helps transform us from being Adam-like to being CHRIST-like.
Adam’s likeness now efface, Stamp Thine image in its place:
Romans 5:19 For as by the one man's disobedience [Adam] the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.
2 Corinthians 3:18, And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
D. The end result: we are REINSTATED in God’s love.
Second Adam from above, Reinstate us in Thy love.
I Corinthians 15:45-49, Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
CONCLUSION
1. Have you experienced the Second Birth?
2. Are you paving the way for the Holy Spirit to sanctify you?
3. Is Christ conquering the deeds of Satan in your life?
4. Are you becoming more Christlike?
5. This is why Jesus came: to save us and set us apart as His holy people.
