DIVINE HEALING IS GOD’S WILL
Mt. 4:23-24
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: THE REAL CHARACTER
1. It’s wild to see the real nature come out.
2. 2 ladies went out to a restaurant to eat lunch They know how big the portions are so they order only one dish of ‘fried fish pieces’ which they intend to share.
3. When the order arrives, the plate contains one big piece of fish and one little piece of fish. Jill and Vickie politely look at each other.
4. Jill says, "Vickie, you choose first." "No," replied Vickie, "I want you to go first."
5. Jill says, "OK, I'll go first," and picks the big piece of fish to put on her plate. Vickie’s surprised. "Why did you take the big piece? That's not very polite."
6. "Well, which piece would you have taken?" asked Jill. "I would’ve taken the small piece," replied Vickie. "So what’s the problem?” replied Jill, "Isn’t that what you’ve got?"
B. TEXT
“Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them” Matt. 4:23-24.
C. THESIS
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.
WHY SHOULD WE EXPECT WE SHOULD BE HEALED?
I. GOD’S HEALING CHARACTER
A. GOD DECLARES HE’S OUR HEALER
1. God is by nature a healing God. Satan, on the other hand, has come to kill, steal, and destroy; but Jesus says, “I have come that you might have life, abundantly.” In Ex. 15:26, God says, “I am the Lord that heals you.”
2. Just days before, the Israelites ate the Passover Lamb which was equivalent to SALVATION. They then crossed the Red Sea, in which Paul declared they were BAPTIZED (1 Cor. 10:2).
3. Their very first experience after salvation and baptism was to know God as their HEALER (Exodus 15:26). God "showed him (Moses) a Tree" = symbolic of the Cross.
4. God called himself by a Compound Name – Jehovah Rapha. It is translated in the King James version as "heal." Compound names represent God's character, the kind of God that He is.
5. Rapha is the only word for "heal" in the O.T. (except Ezekiel 30:21). Rapha is used 58X in the O.T. Rapha also is the technical word for "Physician.” (Gen. 50:2; 2 Chr. 16:2; Job 13:4; Jeremiah 8:22). Yes, God is our Healer!
B. THE COVENANT OF HEALING
1. When God set apart the nation of Israel as His people, He gave them the priesthood and sacrifices to remove sin from being a barrier. With sin removed, its effects could be eliminated; blessing could flow.
2. God’s First Covenant with His people said that if they obeyed Him, He would take away sickness from them. “Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you” Ex. 23:25
3. “He will bless the babies from your womb and the harvest of grain, new wine, and oil from your fields; he’ll bless the calves from your herds and lambs from your flocks in the country he promised your ancestors that he’d give you. You’ll be blessed beyond all other peoples: no sterility or barrenness in you or your animals. God will get rid of all sickness. And all the evil afflictions you experienced in Egypt he’ll put not on you but on those who hate you” Deut. 7:13-15 Msg. Version.
4. The Bible says “and there was not one feeble person in all their tribes” Ps. 105:37 KJV.
C. GOD HAS ALWAYS BEEN A GOD WHO HEALED
1. 5X in O.T. God healed barren women;
2. 4X God healed plagues brought on by sin;
3. Healed Moses, Miriam, and Naaman the leper;
4. 3X raised the dead;
5. At least 6 other instances, two of them 1,000s of people;
6. Total: 16 individual healings, 7 mass healings; 23 separate accounts recorded in Scripture.
II. CHRIST ATONED FOR SICKNESS
A. SIN & SICKNESS ARE INSEPARABLY UNITED
1. POWERPOINT of the TREE OF SIN, with many types of fruit, one of which is sickness. But if you cut down the tree, the fruit will no longer be borne.
2. Before Adam and Eve sinned, they lived in a perfect world; there was no sickness.
3. But the fall of man and woman brought about all the problems of society that we see today:
a. Broken homes e. Addictions
b. Crime f. Hate, prejudice
c. Lust, Pride g. Slavery, abuse
d. War, violence h. Sickness
4. But the fountain of it all, what caused it all -- was SIN! If somehow we could turn back the clock to where sin would be eradicated, so also would these other evils -- including sickness.
B. THE CURSE OF THE LAW
1. The violation of God's law automatically brings a curse, part of which involves sickness and disease.
2. In Deut. 28:15-61, God lays out the "Curse of the Law," many of which are sicknesses: wasting diseases, madness, fever, blindness, inflammation, fearful plagues, painful boils, severe & lingering illnesses, the itch, and festering sores.
3. Deut. 28:61 says the Curse of the Law also includes not only the diseases and sicknesses just mentioned, but ALL the other diseases/ sicknesses that exist!
4. The point is, if the Curse of the Law could be lifted, so would be lifted all the effects of that Curse!
5. WHAT DID CHRIST DO WITH THE ‘CURSE OF THE LAW’?
a. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree’” Gal. 3:13.
b. “having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross” Col. 2:14.
C. CHRIST’S ATONEMENT FOR SICKNESS
1. Some try to say that Jesus’ atonement only heals the soul and doesn’t include the body. That is a lie.
2. Matt. 8:16-17 settles it; “And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: “He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses” (NKJV).
3. When Jesus healed their bodies, He FULFILLED WHAT WAS PROPHESIED IN ISAIAH 53, the chapter describing His work of atonement. Physical healing IS part of the atonement.
4. Isa. 53 says in the Hebrew language:
a. Vs. 3 “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of griefs and well acquainted with disease..."
b. Vs. 4 "Surely He has borne our diseases and carried our pains..."
c. Vs. 5 "but he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed."
d. Vs. 8 "... for the transgression of my people was He plagued."
e. Vs. 10 "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. He hath made Him sick..."
5. NOT JUST SINS, BUT SICKNESSES TOO
a. On Calvary, Jesus "bare our sins" 1 Pet. 2:24.
On Calvary, Jesus "bare our sicknesses" Matt. 8:17.
b. Jesus was “made sin for us" (2 Cor. 5:21) for our sins; Jesus was "made a curse for us" (Gal. 3:13), when He bore our sicknesses.
c. Jesus’ blood was shed "for the remission of sins" Mt. 26:28; Jesus’ body was beaten, "by whose stripes ye were healed."
d. "Who forgives all your iniquities; Who heals all your diseases." Jesus redeemed and saves the "whole" man.
III. JESUS HEALED THE SICK AND CALLED US TO DO THE SAME
1. We believe God has given us doctors and medicine, however, we ought to pray first and give God a chance.
2. JOKE. An elderly friend of mine was recently hospitalized for heart trouble.
a. "I'm so worried," she said as his nurse plumped up the pillows. "Last week, I read about a man who was in the hospital because of heart trouble, and he died of malaria."
b. "Relax," the nurse said smiling. "This is a first-rate hospital. When we treat someone for heart trouble, they die of heart trouble!"
3. Healing was a significant part of our Lord Jesus’ ministry. Of the 3,779 verses of the Four Gospels, 727
(1/5) of them are devoted to Jesus’ healing ministry!
4. Jesus said, "He that has seen Me, has seen the Father." We know God's will is to heal the sick, because Jesus healed the sick!
A. JESUS HEALED EVERYTHING AND ALL
1. “…healing every disease and sickness among the people” Mt. 4:23.
2. “…healing every disease and sickness” Matt. 9:35.
3. “He healed all who were sick” Matt. 12:15.
4. “He…healed [all] their sick” Matt. 14:14.
5. “People brought all their sick to him…and all who touched it [cloak] were healed” Matt. 14:34-36.
6. “…power was coming from Him and healing them all Luke 6:17-19.
7. If it wasn’t God’s will to heal ALL, then in those large crowds of thousands, there certainly would have been some it wasn’t God’s will to heal; yet Jesus healed them ALL!
B. JESUS COMMISSIONED OTHERS TO DO THE SAME
1. 12 apostles
2. 70 others told to "heal the sick" Lk. 10:9.
3. All Believers -- Mark 16:15-18. "Signs" -- spiritual billboards, advertising Christ (John 11:4).
C. REGULAR PEOPLE WHO ALSO HEALED THE SICK
1. The Uncommissioned Disciple (Mark 9:38) who was casting out demons without Christ's permission and was not one of the disciples, but he was doing it in Jesus’ name.
2. Ananias of Damascus – Acts 9:18.
3. Philip -- Acts 8:13.
4. Stephen – Acts 6:8.
5. The Elders James wrote to -- James 5:14-15.
6. The Corinthians 1:7, "you come behind in no gift."
1 Cor. 12:28, "God has set in the church... gifts of healings."
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: Rahab's Miraculous Transformation
1. Rahab, a little African girl in Kenya, sat on a dusty road and sobbed. She hurt all over from the beating her father had given her. She shook her head and tried to hear the neighborhood sounds, but something was very wrong.
2. She had been beaten so badly that she had lost hearing in one ear. Rahab and her parents were very poor and lived in the slums, and she was often mistreated and beaten, but this was the worst. She went o live with her sister.
3. Rahab’s sister had heard about a program of the Kenya Assemblies of God for abused girls, so she sent Rahab off to live there. The girls were fed, loved, encouraged, and taught about Jesus.
4. Slowly Rahab became a believer. Finally, when the girls were invited to ask Jesus into their hearts, Rahab did just that. Suddenly the sounds around her began to change. To her surprise, she could hear out of her deaf ear! A miracle had happened the moment she asked Jesus into her heart. [Assemblies of God Missions, BGMC site]
B. THE CALL
1. How many of you need a physical touch/divine healing? Come forward and form a line just in front of the altars.
2. I want a believer to come stand behind each one. Are there some of you who believe you have the ministry of healing? Come join me and the elders, and let us anoint them with oil and pray the prayer of faith.
3. Don't look at symptoms, but to the promises of God. Claim the promises of healing as for you. Have a point of contact – a moment when you believe God has heard you and the answer is on the way. Then claim it, even if you don’t feel any different.
4. The Lord Jesus said, “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it (past tense), and it will be (future tense) yours” Mk. 11:24. [Romans 4:19-20 is a great example to follow.]
5. Come forward and let's pray and believe for a miracle!
