Let it Be

We look this morning at Christ our Healer. For those who have not been here, this is the third of a four week Christmas series. We are looking at the fourfold gospel, Christ our Savior, Christ our Sanctifier, Christ our Healer, and Christ our Coming King as it applies to the Christmas story. Christ our Healer in the Christmas story is a look at prophecy fulfilled, and it looks at faith in action.

Very quickly, I want to summarize a theology of healing, and then we will look at the Christmas story and see how when Jesus came to us, He came as Healer. We are going to hear some stories of how He still heals today, and see three factors concerning healing: His Word on healing, His Willingness to heal, and Our faith to receive healing. His Word of prophecy and declaration of God’s intention to send a Healer. We need to submit to God’s will and plan, and trust Him about His willingness to heal, and we need to exercise faith in our expectation to receive His healing.

Before we get to that, I want to offer some quick points on healing. I won’t be able to go into length of exposition on each of these, as they are not the main point of our message today, but they are important reference points for us to understand the doctrine of healing.

First, Why did Jesus heal so many people during His ministry? To get attention. To prove He could forgive sin. To prove He was God. To show His compassion. To show that He is the Lord of all of life, and to show that salvation starts now.

The Healings did not end with Jesus. He said they would continue. See John 14:12 and Mark 16:18. The apostles continued His work, and Jesus is still the Healer. We need to be full of the Holy Spirit and submitted to Christ and we can expect today that He will still heal.

The Power comes from Jesus, not from our faith. We respond in faith, but our faith does not create the healing. Jesus only has the power to heal. Faith is a necessary component, but faith does not heal. Healing does not one from within us. We aren't healed because we have inner peace or any new age experience. Healing is not from people. God uses the prayers of people, but the power is in Jesus. If you need a touch from Him, you don’t need to look to someone else. Look to Jesus. And healing does not come from occult objects such as crystal skulls or anything like that.

Finally, not everyone is healed. We live in a world cursed by sin, and we cannot explain why God heals one and not another, but regardless of what we see, we need to trust God and understand that He will indeed work all things for the good of those who love Him. So if someone who loves Him remains sick, it isn't necessarily because they lack the faith to be healed. We must trust Him and remain faithful to Him who has the power to heal, even if we cannot see the results we are hoping for. Our lives glorify Him when we trust Him in all things, especially the things we cannot see.

Perhaps you have heard a story of someone who has experienced a healing that was clearly outside medical treatment. Many of those stories are told by humble people, who acknowledge that even though they had faith, they are humbled to have been healed.

These stories are encouraging to me. The stories where the person isn’t arrogant about being healed. When they simply acknowledge the Healer, and that each day is another day to trust God to give them what it takes to get through. Today, I want to look at three key passages that address healing:

The first comes from the Christmas story, when Mary is told of her being chosen for a special duty. The second is about a man who acknowledges that if Jesus is willing to heal, he has the power to heal. The third is about a man whose faith amazed even Jesus, because He not only acknowledges the power of Christ to heal, but that it does not even require the personal touch of Christ. He understands that the Words of Christ are the Word of God. They have creative, supernatural power.

Luke 1:26–38 ESV

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Matthew 8:2–3 ESV

And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

Matthew 8:5–13 ESV

When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment.

As I studied these passages on healing, I was amazed once again at the marvelous way God speaks to us through His word. Here we see the three factors I mentioned regarding healing: His Word on Healing, His Willingness to heal, and our faith to receive healing.

The first point is His Word on Healing. Jesus was the promised Messiah, the anointed one. He had been foretold by numerous prophets and one of those prophecies was specifically about Christ the Healer. When God declares something through His prophets, it is sure to come true. God had spoken through Isaiah many specific predictions about the Christ, and one of them was that He would be physically harmed in order that healing could be made available to God’s people. He also proved His divinity by healing many.

Mary, that young girl who trusted the scriptures and prophecy and humbly agreed to serve God by carrying the Christ child, affirmed her trust in God, but not only that, she submits to it in a way that shows that she is resigned to the fact that whatever the Word of God is, it will come to be. So when she makes the statement, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”, She is acknowledging that in a sense, even if she were not in agreement to this arrangement, it was the Word of God, it could not be broken.

The word here that is translated to servant means bondservant, one who has no choice but to submit to the will of the master. His word is law. It must be done. She is doing so willingly, but at the same time she is doing so because she knows there is no choice but to do that which God’s Word has already declared to happen.

I want to focus on those words. I used them as the title to this sermon: “Let it be”. This from the Greek ginomai. Let it come to happen, let it be done, let it come to pass. She is saying that It is already a Word from God, let it happen. And it is according to your word. She is speaking to the angel, but as we know, angels in the bible are messengers for God. They are not allowed to craft their own message, they are simply passing on what God has declared, and so when Mary says, Let it be according to your word, it is not only according to the word of Gabriel, it is the Word of God, the Word that must come to pass.

So the Word of God must happen. Mary knows this and has faith in God that whatever He says, will be. If we can trust God to keep His word, then we also know that when He spoke through Isaiah about the Messiah, it too must come true. The Greek word used by Mary that is translated to Word here is Rhema. Rhema is Word. She Mary believes the Rhema, the Word, to be true. We must also believe that the Rhema found in Isaiah is true:

Isaiah 53:4–6 ESV

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

His Word on Healing was that He would send a Healer, and His Word was fulfilled in the incarnation, the birth of Jesus. God provides us with healing through Jesus Christ. He is our Healer. He has the power to Heal, and God’s Word said He would heal. Just as Mary trusted that if God declared something to be, it must be, so we must trust Him that when He declared through Isaiah that the Christ would be the Healer, that it is true.

So we move from God’s Word on the matter to His willingness to heal. Here we see this simple statement by a weary man who desperately wants to be healed. It is an amazing statement. He says Lord, if you will. Now, I have heard this preached before. One claim is that when Jesus said “I will”, that it means that the sovereign will of Jesus is that not only this man be healed, but also that it then also means that Jesus’ sovereign will is that EVERYONE be healed. This is putting far more into the passage than what is already there. So I looked into the Greek on this passage as well. Remember, the New testament was originally written down in Greek, not English.

So the argument really cannot be about what the English word will means here. One must go to the original language of the New Testament to find the intended meaning by Matthew. The Greek word, Thelo, Does not mean that it is Jesus’ sovereign will, that which must happen. The word has to do with desire or willingness. It can mean desire, wish, choose, like. So he is saying to Jesus “If you desire, if you wish, if you choose, if you like”. And when Jesus says I will, He is saying “I desire to heal you, I wish to heal you, I choose to heal you, I would like to heal you”.

Along with the statement of the leper that he hopes Jesus is willing to heal Him, he also implies in the statement that it is up to Jesus to do it. It is not a demand, or a legal argument saying you are the messiah and you must heal me, and my faith requires it, he is acknowledging that if Jesus is willing to heal, that Jesus has the power to heal. “Lord IF you will, you CAN make me clean.” What a powerful statement of faith! He knows that He will only be healed if Jesus is willing to do so, and He knows that if Jesus is willing to do so, He can! You can make me clean. You can. The word means you are capable, you are able, you would dare to do it!

Jesus responds that He is indeed willing to heal this man, and than touches him, proving that, Yes, He can! So The Word of God on Healing is that He would send a healer. The Willingness of God is that He is often willing to heal. But what about when He does not seem willing to heal? Is it the fault of the person? Or those praying for them? None of these. Jesus makes clear in scripture that it is not necessarily a person’s fault they are sick. He specifically said one blind man was not sick because of his sin. He also does not place it on the faith of the person. In our next example, we see he healed a person who we don’t have a record of whether they had faith or not, but the faith of the Centurion was a factor in Jesus healing His servant.

Like the leper in Matthew 8:1-4, we need to ask Jesus if He is willing to heal, and acknowledge that He has the power to heal, and trust Him with making the right call. If it is His will to heal, he has the power to heal. If it is not His will to heal in some cases, we must trust that even in not healing, He will work all things for the good of those who love him. That is Rhema, the truth of God.

So God’s Word is He provides a Healer. He has kept His Word, because Christ is our healer. In the primary sense of Isaiah, when he said by his wounds we were healed, it is a reference to a restoration, or healing of our sinful nature and our broken relationship with God. Through the cross, Jesus healed the relationship that was broken with God for all who put faith in Him.

We submit to Him in His willingness to heal. And the final component is our faith. I left faith as the last component, because as I said in the beginning, our faith may play a role in our healing, but it is Christ alone who has the power to heal. The centurion had great faith, but His faith did not heal His servant. Jesus did.

In fact, so great was His faith that Jesus marveled at what he said. You see, apparently up to this point Jesus had healed people who were present along with Him, and now comes a man, not even a Jew, who says, you don’t need to come, just speak. The Centurion evidences all three of the factors in healing we have been talking about. He knows the Rhema, the Word of Christ, has power that can heal. If Jesus speaks, what He commands will happen. Second, he acknowledges Jesus must be willing to do it. It says he appealed to Jesus. He didn't demand, He didn’t offer a bribe, he appealed to him. And why not appeal to Jesus for our healing. If we have faith like this centurion, we can appeal to Jesus with hope that He will be willing to heal, and know that if He is willing to heal, He has the power, ability, and capability to heal.

Since our faith may not always be as strong as that Centurion, we should remember another man who appealed to Jesus. But this man knew his faith was weak. He acknowledged not only the need for Jesus to be willing, and Jesus’ power to do the healing, he also said his faith was not strong when he said, “I believe, help my unbelief.” And this man, acknowledging his own personal weakness, received the healing he has petitioned Jesus for on behalf of his son.

After marveling at the Centurian’s faith, and using it as a teaching opportunity, Jesus says in 13, “Go, let it be done for you as you have believed.” Here we see the words of Mary repeated by the One she carried. “Let it be done” Mary said let it be done according to Rhema, your word. Jesus said to the Centurion, let it be done according to pisteuo, according to your belief or faith.

Christ our healer fulfills the Word, Rhema, that God spoke. Mary said Let it be done according to your word. We can appeal to Christ to ask Him about His willingness to heal, and when He responds in the positive, He tells us let it be done according to your faith.

Mary was willing to participate in the fulfillment of God’s word, knowing it must come true anyway, when she said let it be according to your word. The Leper appealed to Christ’s willingness to heal when He said if you will, and Jesus confirmed that faith is a component in healing when He told the centurion “let it be done according to your belief, your faith”

What is more important, your faith in healing, or your faith in the sovereignty of God?

James 5:13–20 ESV

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

Creation

Corruption

Catastrophe

Confusion

Christ

Cross

Consummation

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