21, September 2003
Dakota Community Church
Jesus the Healer
Week Six: Imitate Christ Series
Remember last week I said there may be one more in this series but not likely.
My plan was to move on and leave this topic alone.
There are always some who get offended when I teach on healing. We are pre-programmed in this area and experiences rule in a big way.
Then I got a phone call on Monday evening from a friend who is battling cancer, she said she is coming to church this week because she wants to learn about God.
On Teusday at the local pastors ministerial meeting where a group of about 10 of us get togeather to pray for and support one another (inter-denominatioal), someone mentioned how their congregation was wrestling with the recent death of a young man who died after much prayer and many positive words and reports from the church and medical communities.
Finally at prayer Wednesday morning as I was going over my idea of what should be preached here this evening I got the distinct impression that God was going in a completely different direction than I was.
So here we are looking at imitating the healing ministry of Jesus.
Tonight I believe the Lord wants me to focus on the will of God to heal so here goes.
1. Healing is in the atonement.
Definition from "your dictionary.com"
a·tone·ment
1. Amends or reparation made for an injury or wrong; expiation.
2.
a. Reconciliation or an instance of reconciliation between God and humans.
b. Atonement Christianity The reconciliation of God and humans brought about by the redemptive life and death of Jesus.
Isaiah 53 (Amp.)
1WHO HAS believed (trusted in, relied upon, and clung to) our message [of that which was revealed to us]? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been disclosed?
2For [the Servant of God] grew up before Him like a tender plant, and like a root out of dry ground; He has no form or comeliness [royal, kingly pomp], that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him.
3He was despised and rejected and forsaken by men, a Man of sorrows and pains, and acquainted with grief and sickness; and like One from Whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we did not appreciate His worth or have any esteem for Him.
4Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy].
5But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole.
6All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has made to light upon Him the guilt and iniquity of us all
7He was oppressed, [yet when] He was afflicted, He was submissive and opened not His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.
8By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who among them considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living [stricken to His death] for the transgression of my [Isaiah’s] people, to whom the stroke was due?
9And they assigned Him a grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in His death, although He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth.
10Yet it was the will of the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief and made Him sick. When You and He make His life an offering for sin [and He has risen from the dead, in time to come], He shall see His [spiritual] offspring, He shall prolong His days, and the will and pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
11He shall see [the fruit] of the travail of His soul and be satisfied; by His knowledge of Himself [which He possesses and imparts to others] shall My [uncompromisingly] righteous One, My Servant, justify many and make many righteous (upright and in right standing with God), for He shall bear their iniquities and their guilt [with the consequences, says the Lord].
12Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great [kings and rulers], and He shall divide the spoil with the mighty, because He poured out His life unto death, and [He let Himself] be regarded as a criminal and be numbered with the transgressors; yet He bore [and took away] the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors (the rebellious).
Isaiah was born approx. 765B.C. and ministered between 740B.C. and 697B.C.
- Healing and salvation were accomplished on the same day.
- They are both promised parts of the New Covenant.
- They are both received in the same way – by faith.
- Some think we cannot order God to heal. Of coarse we are not doing so.
- By accepting Jesus as savior are we ordering Him to save?
- No we are doing what He said to do and He has obligated Himself to keep His word.
- Why is healing harder for us to believe?
- Because we cannot see salvation with the five senses. You have no trouble believing your name is written in the Lambs Book of Life because you will never see the book. No one will ever walk up to you with it and say ,"Hey you’re name’s not here."
We can however see healing or the apparent evidence of it’s absence.
1Peter 2:24 Amp.
24He personally bore our sins in His [own] body on the tree [as on an altar and offered Himself on it], that we might die (cease to exist) to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.
Isaiah looked forward and said with his stripes we are healed, Peter looks backward to the cross and says by his stripes you have been healed.
Have you received the atonement? Have you accepted Christ’s Sacrifice?
Salvation and healing are both yours now.
2. Jesus never refused healing.
Matthew 4:24
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.
Matthew 8:16
When evening came, many who were demon possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick.
Matthew 12:15
Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. Many followed him, and he healed all their sick,
Matthew 14:36
and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.
Mark 6:56
And wherever he went–into villages, towns or countryside–they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.
Luke 4:40
When the sun was setting, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them.
Luke 5:15
Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses.
Luke 8:47
Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed.
Matthew 9:35
35Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.
- NOTICE: Jesus did not decide who was healed, the people did.
Mark 6:1-6
1Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. 2When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed.
3"Where did this man get these things?" they asked. "What’s this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles! Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him.
4Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor." 5He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6And he was amazed at their lack of faith.
HE COULD NOT DO ANY MIRICLES THERE, not he would not or He didn’t because they treated Him bad. Their lack of faith prevented Him from doing it!
Luke 8:43-48
43As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. 44She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.
45"Who touched me?" Jesus asked.
When they all denied it, Peter said, "Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you."
46But Jesus said, "Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me."
47Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. 48Then he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace."
This woman was healed without Jesus even knowing who she was. She determined who was healed - Not Jesus.
- You are wearing the garment now. You don’t have to reach out and touch Him as he goes by, You are the Body of Christ now! You have the healing already!
- You are the healed enforcing the victory Jesus won for you. Not the sick trying to get healed.
- In North America we are raised not to believe. I am a skeptic myself. From diet pills and exercise devices to the ads for the price of a new car we are conditioned to know if it sounds to good to be true - it is. We carry that skeptical cynicism into our faith life. Unfortunately:
- Skepticism does not unlock the supernatural – faith does.
3. Healing is supposed to be a part of Christian Ministry.
Mark 16:14-20
14Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.
15He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. 16Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well."
19After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. 20Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.
These signs will follow who?
- the disciples? - No
- the apostles but only for the first 20 years? - No
- just those who are around until the printing press is invented and the bible is printed - No
These signs will follow those who believe!
Question:
Are You A Believer?
James 5:13-16
13Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. 14Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
Join me in a prayer of faith for any who need healing.
