The Recipe For Healing Series

The recipe for healing John 9:1-7

In this passage Jesus heals a man who was born blind. And this in itself is something that should get our attention because this is one of those miracles that no one can fake. I’ve watched these supposed miracle workers who heal lower back pain and all kinds of things that can never be confirmed but I’ve never seen them heal someone who was blind. I’ve seen a news expose on Benny Hinn showing how his people pick and chose those who can get on the stage. They’re very careful not to let anyone get up there who can expose him for what he really is.

There was another guy who got caught using a voice receiver so he could hear the people tell his wife what their problems were. And then when they came up on the stage he told them what they told his wife. And they all thought it was miraculous until he was exposed. But listen, none of these guys would touch someone who was born blind. Some things are just too hard to fake.

I’m not suggesting we try this but imagine what happen if we were to show up at one of these healing meetings with a dead body. What would these faith healers do then? I think the jig would be up. But twice we see Jesus encountering the dead and both times He raised them back to life.

I believe God still heals but I don’t believe He gives anyone the gift of healing. There is a passage in James where we are told to anoint the sick with oil with the idea that God will heal them. So, the question is, are we still to do this? Does God still heal? I think He does, but He doesn’t do it as a fundraiser.

Stuart Taylor told me he had two different women who at two different times were in the hospital and they asked to be anointed with oil and prayed for so God could heal them. And both of these women were very sick and neither of them were expected to last very long. He and the deacons went and prayed as they were asked. The one was released from the hospital the very next day and the other died not long after they prayed. I said, “What did that tell you.” And he said, “That only God knows what He’s doing.”

I believe the miracles we see in this book serve to demonstrate the spiritual lessons they teach and yet there are only seven miracles in the entire book of John. There is the changing of the water into wine, the healing of the nobleman’s son, the curing of the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda, the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus walking on the water, the restoring of sight to the blind man and the raising of Lazarus, and that’s it. And the purpose of every one of these miracles is to demonstrate who Jesus is and why He came.

Now, we read of a lot of other miracles in the other three gospels and we also notice that John says at the end of this book in chapter 21:25 “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.” So, John’s acknowledging that other miracles were performed but these seven specific miracles were chosen so that everyone who would read about them might be led to put their faith in Jesus Christ.

Last week we began to look at the healing of this blind man and you’ll remember that I said that one of the unusual things about this particular miracle was that no one even mentions this guy’s name. And I guess we could say that it doesn’t really matter, because, the purpose of John’s telling us about this miracle is to show us who Jesus is, as much as it’s to demonstrate the reason for these miracles.

And what I mean by that is, the purpose of this miracle is not so much to show us what happened to the blind man as it is to show us what Jesus could and did do. And by this demonstration of His power we can see that He is God come in the flesh. After all, this was no slight of hand trick or someone pretending to be a blind man who was set in the crowd in order to deceive a bunch of gullible people. Everybody knew who the blind man was. I mean, he had probably sat on the same spot begging for most of their lives.

Now, getting back to verse 5 for a minute I want you to see that this is the third time in this book Jesus reminded His disciples that He is the light of the world. In John 1:4 John wrote, “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.” And then in John 8:12 it says, “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” And then in verse 5 of this chapter He says the same thing, that He was the light of the world.