Gifts of the Spirit - Healing

Scriptures: Mark 1:35, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, Philippians 4:5-7, 1 Timothy 2:1, John 14:12-14, Matthew 9:18-34, Mark 5:21-43, Luke 8:40-56, Isaiah 53:4-6

Good morning. Thank you, Joe, Jess, Billy, and Patti. As we work our way towards Palm Sunday and Easter, we’re walking through a series of talks about the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Just as a reminder, in trying to understand, how Jesus knew every day, throughout the day, what it was the Father wanted him to accomplish, or whether the God wanted him to wait before moving forward, we shared from Chapter one of Mark. (SLIDE) Mark 1:35-39 35 And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. Understanding that for all of us daily to understand what it is that the Lord is looking for in our lives, we must be spending time in the Word. We must whether it’s on our knees, not so easy for some of us, me included, laying prostrate on the floor, or just sitting where we are, we must in conversation with our Heavenly Father.

(SLIDE) Two specific scriptures we read from last week, both from Paul included 1st Thessalonians 5:16-18 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. No matter what we’re facing, rejoice. The joy of the Lord should be in our hearts and in our mouths. I just said that we need to be in conversation with our Heavenly Father. Prayer is not a one-way message from us to Him through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen? This is a conversation between us and the Lord.

When teaching the church in Philippi, Paul wrote Philippians 4:5-7 5 Let your reasonableness (gentleness) be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

So, God’s word tells us to thankfully, make our requests known to Him. To ask the Lord for what we need. Sometimes, we don’t get specific answers from the Lord because we don’t ask. Or we ask for something from selfish or for personal gain, not something that lines up with God’s plan for our lives. Just because we don’t get a direct immediate answer in a way that makes sense to us, doesn’t mean that He’s not answering. Amen? All of a sudden, I’m hearing Garth Brooks in my head. “Just because He doesn’t answer, doesn’t He don’t care. Some of God’s greatest gifts, are unanswered prayers.”

Within this passage we talked about supplication meaning that there is a heartfelt personal petition to the Lord. And I didn’t share this last week, but supplication means that our requests in prayer to the Father, come from a place of humility. Understanding who we are in relationship to a righteous and Holy God. I can tell you from my personal experience, as the Holy Spirit is moving, prayers don’t end when I stop talking, or stop just speaking in my mind and spirit. There must be a period of silence for us in our time with Him.

If prayer is a conversation, then I need to let Him speak to me as well. Sometimes it’s that still small voice. Sometimes a word from scripture will come. Sometimes I’ll need to open my bible, reading and meditating upon His word.

In all cases, it’s the Holy Spirit that tells us when this specific moment of prayer, whatever time of day it is, is finished and we’re released from that specific time of prayer. If we’re being fully obedient, it’s not our calendars, watches, or cell phones. He knows where we need to be, where we’re supposed to be, and how long it takes us to get there.

(SLIDE) We also last week read from 1 Timothy 2:1 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all. As I said last week, and on the prayer chain this week while I was in Chicago. Every one of us needs every one of us, to be praying for every one of us. The congregation, our extended families, the community, the church. Not just the Burlington Church of God, but Christ’s church, right? Because while we go by many names, and have many different practices, there Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior there is only one church.

(SLIDE) Looking at our partial alphabetical list of Gifts of the Spirit, the focus today is on healing, but within healing, certainly faith is required, and sometimes miracles do occur. In John’s testimony he quotes Christ (SLIDE) John 14:12-14 12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask (me) anything in my name, I will do it. I would not discount the stories even outside of the bible of Jesus Christ in the power of His Holy Spirit doing miraculous, unexplainable things, even today.

(SLIDE) Yet, I would venture to say, that everyone in this room, at some point in our lives, has shared our heart, our pain, our suffering with another person, who in listening to our cries, maybe wiping away our tears, showed us mercy, encouraged us in our journey and helped to heal us along the way. But I will also tell you, that more often the healing we receive, and the healing others receive, comes from the power of the Holy Spirit working through us because we are demonstrating the love of God for all His children. We are allowing Christ to be visible to others, through the mercy, the understanding, the encouragement, that we share with them, expecting nothing in return Amen?

(SLIDE) There are more than 20 documented times described in the Gospels that Jesus healed people of various issues. Men, women, children. Some were afflictions that they were born with, some illnesses that came upon them later, some were from demonic possession. Like our Gifts of the Spirit this list, which is in your bulletin, isn’t meant to have everything in it. It comes from a website called Christian Healing Today. There is a great deal we can learn in our study of scripture when we look in depth at subjects, but walking through all these healings would be more than one Sunday. We’re going to look at a couple of these today but start in Luke 5.

As Luke records the testimony of many witnesses of Jesus Christ time on this earth Chapter 5 begins with the calling of Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John as disciples. Then Jesus heals a leper. (SLIDE) Luke 5:12-16 12 While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” 13 And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him. 14 And he charged him to tell no one, but “go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”

(SLIDE) Leprosy still exists today and there could be many different skin diseases in Jesus’ time. Persons with leprosy were social outcasts, rejected, living alone or in colonies of others who were also afflicted. In those times, leprosy was the most unclean thing someone could have and still be alive. The only thing worse for a rabbi interacting with, let alone touching someone with leprosy, was touching a dead body. If you had leprosy, you to stay at least six feet away from anyone else and if it was a windy day you had to be 100 feet away from anyone else. Some of us remember the Charlton Heston film Ben Hur from the classic book written by Civil War General Lew Wallace, first published in 1880. No relation that I’m aware of. Judah Ben Hur’s mother and sister have leprosy and are living in a colony.

You may remember last week, when I said, have you ever noticed how people who look for Jesus, find Jesus? Wallace was so angry after the civil war, so against Christianity in part because of what he saw during the war, that he actually set out to prove the story of Jesus Christ wasn’t real. Just like C.S. Lewis, wasn’t a Christian when he started spending time with JR Tolkien in Oxford. Chicago Tribune author Lee Strobel was an atheist who began investigating Jesus and the bible after his wife become a Christian, wanting to prove she was wrong. They didn’t believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. That the bible was true. That the creator of the universe cared enough for them to send His only begotten son to die for them, for all of us. Until they searched. Then the evidence that exists for all of us to read, all who earnestly seek Christ, find Christ. Then they believed.

I wander off a little bit. Continuing in Luke 5. Even though Jesus told the man he’d healed, not to tell anyone, but to go to temple and give thanks to the Lord, well… (SLIDE) 15 But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. 16 But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray. Healing the leper, that’s a complete miracle, right. The leper says to Jesus, if you will, you can make me clean. That tells us two things. One, as Jesus confirms, it was Christ’s will to heal that person at that time. But it also tells us, that despite how outcast, how alone, how much physical pain, emotional pain, depression and despair, the leper had, they believed. They had faith in the Son of man. The Son of God. He heard Jesus tell him that he was clean again. And he became clean. Praise God. Then others hear the words of Jesus, and their infirmities, whatever they may, become healed as they hear the Word of God. The word from God.

(SLIDE) Sharing what Jesus has done for us. How He has healed us. It doesn’t have to be something as rare as leprosy. Everyone who has called upon the name of the Lord and accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior has been healed from something. At the very least we are healed from ourselves. That selfish nature that seeks whatever pleasure or false treasure we chased. That selfish nature that hurts others, even unintentionally.

Now, we are His disciples. Every one of us is called to share the Good News of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. When we share with others what Jesus Christ has done in our lives, they hear the word of God, and the path to the Holy Spirit healing them. From whatever it is that they need to be healed from, begins. That really is a point this morning for you to say Amen.

The more witnesses we have to an event, the more confidence we may have in what we read or hear. There are two testimonies of Jesus healing individuals that are shared with us in Matthew 9:18-25, Mark 5:21-44, and Luke 8:40-53. We’re going to read from all three. (SLIDE – MAP) A quick background. There’s Nazareth where Mary and Joseph were from. To the north on the Sea of Galilee is Magdala, where Mary Magdalene was from. On the North side of what we would call a lake is Bethsaida. That’s where Simon, Andrew, James, John, and Philip are from. That’s where Jesus walks upon the sea in the storm, the feeding of the 4,000 and the feeding of the 5,000 take place.

Where we’re beginning in for our next scripture is Gergesa. In all three gospels Jesus heals someone who was demon possessed, and the demons flee into a herd of pigs that rush into the Sea of Galilee and are drowned. That occurs in the town of Gergesa. Then Jesus takes a boat across to Capernaum. Matthew has a few more events, like his being called by Christ before we get to these passages about healing that are in all three books.

Let’s start with (SLIDE) Mark 5:21-24 21 And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. 22 Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet 23 and implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” 24 And he went with him.

If you were reading Matthew, he just calls the father of the daughter a ruler. We might understand that based on how ostracized from the Jewish community Matthew was a tax collector. Mark and Luke are more specific. Jairus (JIRUS), is a ruler of the Synagogue at Capernaum. (SLIDE) This is what remains of the 4th century Synagogue in Capernaum that you could visit today. Underneath it is the remains of the 1stcentury Synagogue that Jesus preached at. Jairus is an important person in the community, and the father of a 12-year-old girl, who earnestly implores Jesus to heal his daughter. He doesn’t say one of my children or one of my daughters. So she is the apple of his eye, so to speak.

Those words earnestly implore, very similar to what we read last week and earlier as supplication. This daughter at 12 is the age in that society that a girl is considered a woman and could be betrothed. Mark and Luke describe the young woman as dying. Matthew says she has died. So, Jesus gets up to follow Jairus to his home. And as they are walking, this happens. In Mark it’s much longer, so I’m pulling from Matthew here.

(SLIDE) Matthew 9:18-25 20 And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, 21 for she said to herself, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.” 22 Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well.

(SLIDE) First let’s understand that whatever she was suffering from, just like someone who had leprosy, that it was a blood disease, which she was an outcast, considered unclean. Not only had she had this illness for 12 years, but she’d seen many physicians and spent all her money, her property if she had any, all of her assets on physicians with no relief. Understanding that the advice of physicians at that time might include such things as, well, digging through the dung of a white female donkey to find a barley corn kernel. And if you carried that kernel with you then over time you’d be healed. That’s not a commentary on medicine and doctors today. Sometimes the Lord heals us through the wisdom He’s given to those in the medical professions. Sometimes, Jesus heals us because our faith, and the faith of those praying for us leads to an intervention and real miracles. Other times, we’re healed, because He brings us home to be with the Lord in Heaven for all eternity where there is no more pain and suffering.

Jesus knows immediately after she touches him that someone’s been healed, right? He feels the power going out of Him that cures her. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one. A scripture last week from John? All things are made through him, and without him nothing is made that is made. Not because Jesus laid hands on her, and fervently prayed over her as we might do. Take heart daughter, your faith has made you well.” This is not a stretch interpreting scripture, but let’s think about what’s missing here? Jesus has been asked, by one of the community religious leaders to go heal his daughter, right? And now this outcast, this unclean, probably very lonely, very poor, very sick woman, has delayed the healing of Jairus daughter. Notice, no matter whether you’re reading Matthew, Mark, or Luke, that Jairus isn’t complaining, or getting angry over this delay. Her faith has healed her, by the power of the Holy Spirit, but His faith is strong enough to understand that having to wait upon the Lord, waiting upon God’s timing and God’s plans is okay.

Let’s continue the testimony. This time from Luke (SLIDE) Luke 8:49-25 49 While he was still speaking, someone from the ruler's house came and said, “Your daughter is dead; do not trouble the Teacher any more.” 50 But Jesus on hearing this answered him, “Do not fear; only believe, and she will be well.” 51 And when he came to the house, he allowed no one to enter with him, except Peter and John and James, and the father and mother of the child.

Mark tells us that more than one person told them that the daughter had died while Jesus was stopping to heal the woman. Matthew describes flute players and a crowd essentially weeping and wailing. For thousands of years, if you were a person of means, you would hire professional mourners. This happened throughout Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. In the Hebrew bible it’s mentioned in Amos, Chronicles and Jeremiah. So again, we see that Jairus was not only a leader in the synagogue and the community, but a person of some wealth, whose wife or servants didn’t wait for him to return before hiring professionals. In Matthew Jesus simply says to them “Go away for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” Mark and Matthew say that the crowd laughed at Jesus. Luke shares that Peter, John, James and the parents enter into the house with Jesus where the girl lays. Resting. Mark writes it this way. Mark 5:40-43 40 But they laughed at him. After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41 He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). 42 Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. 43 He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.

Don’t you love that. Just kind of, I told you she was just sleeping, she’s probably hungry. Got any Pop Tarts? More like bread, dates, and nuts than junk food at that time. (SLIDE). It’s not difficult for us to put ourselves, in the footsteps, shoes or sandals, of the parents of this 12-year-old girl. Whether we had girls ourselves or not. I only have five sons, no daughters. But my oldest son Joshua had to have eye surgery at six months old. My middle son Sam playing in a JV football game broke his neck and for several hours we didn’t know if he’d walk again. To this day I can remember holding my grandmother’s hand after three months in a coma and weeks on Hospice at home, and praying with her, telling her that it was ok for her to go home to be with the Lord. And she did. Immediately. Praise God. Walking through what we feel when we think we’re going to lose someone from this life, when we have lost someone from this life. Everyone in this room or watching online, knows what that feels like.

But what I want you to consider is this. The last time you comforted someone. Visited someone whose needs you could meet in some way, going back to how we started today. Remember at some point in our lives, everyone in this room or watching online has shared our heart, our pain, our suffering with another person, who in listening to our cries, maybe wiping away our tears, showed us mercy, encouraged us in our journey and helped to heal us along the way. Or we have been that vessel of our Lord and Savior. We were listening or comforting. The healing we receive, and the healing others receive, comes from the power of the Holy Spirit working through us because we are demonstrating the love of God for all His children.

The Church of God has an incredible history of healing, by which I mean physical miracles. Blind seeing. Lame walking. Those near death, completely restored. There are many books and testimonies of healing written down within the history of the Church of God (Anderson). Enoch Edwin Byrum was born in 1861 and grew up near Union City, Indiana. Actually half of Union City is in Indiana, and the other half of the community is in Ohio. That could be rough. I wonder if the two has a high school on each side of the state line.

Byrum joined D.S. Warner in 1887 as a publisher of the Gospel Trumpet, while Warner travelled evangelizing. After Warner passed in 1895, Byrum travelled up to 40,000 miles a year, preaching the gospel and healing by the power of the Holy Spirit. Let me read from a biography. His devoted wife died on September 14, 1907. In 1908 he met and married Lucena Beardslee, a woman 20 years his junior. Everywhere Byrum went he taught on healing and prayed for the sick. He often saw miracles and healings at his meetings. He reports raising someone from the dead twice. Byrum wrote in 1928 that he did not believe that it was a sin to see a doctor or take medicine. He simply believed that having faith in God was a better choice for himself. He said over his lifetime he saw thousands of healings. Byrum was amazingly faithful in praying for the sick. He would often respond to a telegram or a letter and travel for hundreds of miles to pray for a desperate person. He never took up a collection and was never paid a salary. He lived "along faith lines" depending on God to provide for him and his family, which God often did in amazingly supernatural ways. https://healingandrevival.com/BioEEByrum.htm

(SLIDE) Ten of Byrum’s books including Divine Healing of the Body and Soul originally published in 1893 are available for free online and hard copies still exist. We may even have one here in our library. But in wrapping up today I want to close repeating a couple of things that are on my heart. The first is this.

There are times when we earnestly pray, interceding on behalf of others, fasting, seeking God to move, and we don’t get the answer we want. We’re not God. And yes we pray, not my will but yours be done, as Christ did on the cross. That doesn’t mean Jesus isn’t listening, and God’s not moving. It just means we’re not Him. His ways are higher than ours. I know that seems, rude or trivial, to someone who is suffering, but it’s also truth. Sometimes, Jesus heals us because our faith, and the faith of those praying for us leads to an intervention and real miracles. Other times, we’re healed, because He brings us home to be with the Lord in Heaven for all eternity where there is no more pain and suffering.

And the other thought we’ve shared the past few weeks in discussion the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are very evident in this congregation as He’s moving through us and in this building right now with us is that if we really want to see the power of God move through our families, our congregation, our communities, then we must be willing, as open vessels, that God fills by the power of the Holy Spirit, to use His gifts to do His will.

Because as Isaiah prophesied 700 years before Jesus was crucified for the sins of all humanity and raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit three days later.

Isaiah 53:4-6 4 Surely, he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

By His wounds, we are healed. By His resurrection, we are raised to new life in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Let us pray.

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