Ultimate Healing
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Introduction
How do you view the healing miracles of Jesus? Jesus does some amazing stuff when he’s on earth and we’ve read some of them today. He makes blind people see, deaf people hear, he makes lame people walk and he even raises the dead.
And it happens all the time in the gospels…but today - where’s all this healing?
And those questions are asked today...
Why didn’t Jesus heal...?
Why didn’t Jesus heal my mother of cancer? Why didn’t Jesus heal my father…And I can say the same thing...
Why didn’t Jesus raise MY dad from the dead? Why doesn’t Jesus heal my daughter Naomi?
I suppose part of the answer to that question has to do with what we mean by healing, and we’re going to look at that today.
Were they misunderstandings of what really happened and Jesus didn’t actually HEAL anyone, he just helped them in their sickness?
Or were they actual miracles?
Where would you sit on that spectrum? Are you a skeptic or do you believe?
Cos it does sound a bit far fetched, doesn’t it - So far in Mark’s gospel, and you saw some of it last week and we read it this week - Jesus is healing all these people, driving out demons, healing lepers and making paralysed people walk and loads more.
I mean, to someone looking in from the outside, you can just imagine what they’re saying here - ‘I can’t actually believe that you are gullible enough to be sucked in by this! Nobody can do something like this. People are healed through medicine - NOT by someone speaking a word or touching a hand - wise up!’
Maybe you’re thinking that too. But that wouldn’t attract a crowd would it?
If Jesus WASN’T healing all these people then there wouldn’t be the following he had. Crowds don’t follow people like Mark writes unless something AMAZING is happening…Unless you don’t believe Mark’s account of Jesus. But if you don’t believe Mark’s account of Jesus, WHO IS JESUS? Who is he to you?
I mean, all historians - Christian or not - believe that there was a man called Jesus who lived around 2000 years ago, and this man drew a crowd and changed peoples lives.
But is this Jesus just a nice man who said some nice things and helped people to reach into themselves and find their inner good and make the world a better place, or is this Jesus ACTUALLY God himself, and if he is what difference does that make to us? Is this far fetched story writing or is there any truth to this?
Pause
Today we’re going through a lot of text, and you know me - I usually like to go verse by verse, as much as possible, but today we’ve too many verses to do that. Instead we’re going to look at these passages about healing from a bird’s-eye-view. So we’re going to take a few steps back and look down on these healing stories, cos there’s a pattern here that we might miss if we’re too close and it concerns our perception of what we mean by healing.
So we have a LOT of healing going on here with loads of incidental healing going on at the same time.
First of all, we have Peters mother-in-law who gets healed and I have SO many mother-in-law jokes right now that I have to refrain.
But Jesus touches her - he takes her by the hand and lifts her up and she recovers and ends up serving Jesus and the disciples. The way I put it there and the fact that we’ve heard of Jesus’ miracles so many times we’re kinda desensitised to them - we should be going, ‘WOW’ right now.
But the point is that she served Jesus as a result of her healing. And we’ll come back to that.
Peter’s mother-in-law served Jesus after she was healed
And after that, MANY people brought their sick to Jesus and he healed them - in fact, the whole city brought their sick. And the next morning Jesus takes himself off to pray.
Now, at this point, the reader doesn’t fully know who Jesus really is - Mark has this ‘messianic secret’ that commentators like to refer to, where Mark reveals who Jesus is in stages, and you’ll see this as we go through the book....
But after this healing of all the sick in the city, what the reader sees is Jesus’ humanity here - cos Jesus is human…and like every other human, Jesus gets tired. In fact, he is drained - spiritually drained, and probably physically too. Ministry does that to you. Helping people in their hour of need is so rewarding and worthwhile, but it is draining - and if it’s draining for Jesus, think about us.
Now, why do I say he’s drained? Because Jesus takes himself off early the next morning to pray - to spend time with the Father - in other words to spiritually recharge...
So Jesus takes himself off early the next morning to pray - to spend time with the Father - to recharge.
In order to give out, Jesus has to receive from the Father
Pause
One of the things taught at Union College is the importance of taking time away to spend time with God. They advise an away-day every month - not as annual leave, as part of work - to spend in quiet and in prayer and worship of God.
And that seems counter-productive - ‘you’re taking a day away to do nothing? What are we paying you for?’ but think about it....Anyone who has a mobile phone knows how frustrating it is when the battery runs out - it renders the phone useless. It becomes just a really expensive paperweight. You need to give your phone a rest and recharge. That’s like a minister.
A minster will run out of steam if he doesn’t recharge, and if he doesn’t recharge he is rendered useless - absolutely useless…either cos they’ve nothing to give or they’re off on stress leave indefinitely - and apparently there is a high percentage of ministers off on stress leave for that very reason.
Now, sometimes you can charge your phone and use it at the same time - that’s like our daily quiet time - when we meet with God every day to spend time in worship and prayer and reading. That’s like using the phone while it’s charging.
But to get the most LIFE out of the phone you need to charge it overnight, or put it on charge for a long period of time without using it - you need to give it a rest. That’s what an away day does. It’s a time to take away from work and family and everything - to take yourself off to a quiet place and spend the day in prayer and worship and reading and sitting in God’s presence. That’s what Jesus did and that’s what anyone involved in ministry needs to do.
And that’s what we’ve been TOLD to do by our leaders in PCI. And if you’re presbyterian then that’s what you’ve got to accept that your minister needs to do this too, cos it’s coming from the top.
And it makes sense. So I would recommend anyone who is involved in ministry to do this, especially Paul - otherwise he’ll be rendered useless - and we don’t want that. And I’m not talking about taking a holiday - this is different.
So Jesus takes himself off and prays and then Peter says, ‘the crowd are looking for you - what are you doing?’ And Jesus’ response is strange. Instead of saying, ‘OK, I’m coming to see them,’ he says, ‘OK, let’s go somewhere else.’
And you’ve gotta wonder why Jesus responded in this way...
Well, here’s the thing - the crowd have been healed, cos the whole city have been to see him with their sick. Yes , they want to see Jesus and hear him, but Jesus has already preached to them and healed them and Jesus has a mission - to preach to other people and heal OTHER people, so off he goes somewhere else to find people who haven’t yet been healed.
Interestingly, in any church there are sick people - and I’m not JUST talking physically sick. And there are those who HAVE BEEN HEALED through the ministry of the Holy Spirit through the church - be that the minister or an elder or whoever - which is awesome when you stop to think about it.
But there are so many other people who are sick and need healed - and I’m not just talking physically. There are other people who NEED ministered to.
But there are those who have been ministered to and they want more and more - and if we had the resources then we would be able to do that, and we’d love to do that - but at the same, by doing that, those other people who are sick and need healed are missing out on a healing ministry from the church.
So I can understand why Jesus moved on. The crowd may not have been happy - ‘Jesus hasn’t seen me in ages’, but I’d like to think they’d understand that Jesus had other places to go and other people to see and heal. I’d like to think that those who had been ministered to welcomed the fact that they had experienced God’s hand at work and were excited to see God’s hand work in OTHER people through Jesus’ ministry rather than complain that THEY hadn’t seen Jesus in a while.
Pause
And so Jesus moves on and encounters a leper. Now, lepers were outcast. They were considered the living dead. They wore black and shouted ‘unclean’ so that people wouldn’t touch them. Touching a leper meant you would be unclean and also that you’d be a leper too cos it’s so infectious. They couldn’t live in the city, they couldn’t attend worship - they were practically the living dead.
And another big cultural tag with leprosy is that it was the general opinion that you got leprosy if you had sinned. Leprosy was divine punishment for sin - a bit like Aids in the 80s. Now that was a perception back then. It wasn’t reality, but that’s what they believed.
And this leper breaks protocol and comes to Jesus with faith - ‘I know that if you want to, you can make me clean’. The leper breaks all cultural protocol and approaches Jesus - that’s a BIG no no. If you’ve leprosy you STAY AWAY.
And what does Jesus do?
He touches him!!!
Jesus touches the untouchable
Jesus breaks all religious protocol and touches him, but then he does ask the leper to jump through all the hoops that the law requires to bring him back into society.
Now, join the dots here...if leprosy is linked with sinning and Jesus healed this man of leprosy - could it be that he forgave his sins too? I mean, if leprosy is connected with sin and if you’ve been healed of the disease, then you must have been healed of the cause of the disease. At least to people who believed sin and leprosy are connected - which is practically everyone back then - that MIGHT be going through your mind.... ‘Did Jesus forgive his sins too?’
So Mark has revealed a wee bit more of Jesus here. First of all by casting out demons he shows he has authority over the demonic - and his teaching comes with authority - you saw that last week.
Then he has authority over leprosy, which is intimately connected to a person’s sin - so maybe this man, Jesus is more than a healer of physical sickness.
And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
And of course the leper blabs to everyone what had happened.
Pause
He also told the demons not to speak about him.
And then on to chapter 2 - Jesus is in a room, preaching and a paralysed man is brought through the roof by his friends.
So there he is, lying on the floor - and Jesus sees their faith - the faith of all of them, and every eye is on him.
He’s touched a leper and made him whole…and there are bound to be questions from those to whom the leper blabbed - ‘I just saw this man totally changed, but does that mean his sins are forgiven too?’ Who IS this man, Jesus?
Every eye is on Jesus....
So what does Jesus do - THIS time he does something different…up to now Jesus heals and heals and heals and heals…NOW, instead of healing the man physically, Jesus does something even MORE amazing....He heals him spiritually.
He says, ‘your sins are forgiven.’
And now the questions are answered - woah, hang on a second - Jesus actually CAN forgive sins? NO WAY - only God can do that!
And that’s exactly what the scribes were thinking. And so either you believe Jesus is God or you accuse Jesus of referring to himself as God when he’s not actually God, which is blasphemy.
But the problem is - how can you verify that someone’s sins are forgiven? It’s hard to tell. So Jesus essentially says, ‘ok, since you’ve no way of telling if this man’s sins are forgiven - just to show you that they ARE forgiven and that I have the power to do that... son, get up and go home.’
Pause
Now the veil has been removed a little more from Jesus - he has authority over demons, he has authority over physical illness, and he has authority over sin…and if only GOD can forgive sins then put 2 and 2 together - this man, Jesus IS GOD HIMSELF!
What Matthew and Luke revealed through their Christmas story, Mark reveals through Jesus’ very actions. Jesus is not any ordinary man - he is the Son of Man - he’s God incarnate and he has authority over sickness and even sin - and he has the power to forgive sin.
That’s who Jesus is.
Pause
So, back to our question about healing...
Does Jesus not heal today because we don’t have enough faith? Is THAT our problem?
Cos it was the FAITH of the friends and the paralysed man that healed the paralysed man - It was the leper’s faith that healed him.
And yes, it’s OUR faith that heals us…but I’m not just talking physical healing. And this is the crux of the message...
Cos, let’s face it - we don’t see healing like this today, do we? Well, not in this country anyway. I’ve heard reports of miraculous healing across the world where the Spirit of God is moving in a mighty way - but here - we’re so dependant on our doctors and nurses and the healthcare system that we don’t look for the miraculous even though it’s happening in front of our eyes.
But when we put our faith in healthcare, that faith might do us good and we might get healed from our sickness and our illnesses…but there’s more than one way to be sick, and there’s more than one way to be dead.
There’s more than one way to be sick
You can be physically sick and you can be spiritually sick. You can be physically dead, and you can be spiritually dead. And the NHS can’t fix your spiritual sickness. No doctor can heal you of that!
But there is someone who can - Jesus Christ - who we have just found out is God himself, and he can heal both physical and, more importantly spiritual sickness. He can bring you back from the dead, if you have faith.
And so back to the question earlier - why didn’t Jesus raise my dad from the dead? Why does Jesus heal Naomi?
Well, my dad had some heart problems, but now - his heart is perfect. He has been ultimately healed - because he believed in Jesus Christ AND physically he’s the best he has EVER been, because for him, death in Christ is the ultimate healing.
And Naomi - well, physically she’s still got some problems, but Spiritually - she’s a child of the covenant, she’s professed a very simple faith in Jesus and so she has been healed - in fact, she’s been raised from the dead, Spiritually. So she IS healed.
What’s better - to have Naomi healed physically but have no interest in Jesus? Or for her to still have her physical problems but be raised from death to life through her faith in Jesus Christ?
What’s better for you? Would you rather be healed physically, or would you rather be healed spiritually?
Cos you have a potential in the kingdom of God - a potential to do great things for the kingdom - but not if you’re in your sickbed - you can do NOTHING in your sickbed. You can do NOTHING if you’re dead.
This flu outbreak that’s hitting the country and the world is nasty. I’ve heard stories from people in this church who had the flu and couldn’t walk to the bathroom. You can do NOTHING if you’re physically sick - and if you’re spiritually sick you can do NOTHING for God and his kingdom.
Jesus offers healing to anyone who comes to him and acknowledges that they are sick…and I’m NOT talking physically sick, I’m talking sin-sick.
But...
Healing come with a price
Pause
Back to the first healing we read...
Peter’s mother-in-law was healed and immediately she began to serve Jesus.
Let’s say you got cancer - And something like that changes your whole perspective on the disease.
And so Jesus’ healing comes with it a call to serve him - to minister to others too - to pass on healing through the ministry of the Holy Spirit working through you.
So what does that mean?
For example, I don’t have cancer, that I know of, but I’d hazard a guess that Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood means nothing to you and you have no vested interest in finding a cure for that. Of course, I do - that’s why Kate and I are frantically trying to raise money to put into research to find a cure for Naomi. So while I’m not putting much effort into finding a cure for cancer, if I GOT cancer, my priorities would shift slightly. I’d be more eagerly looking for a cure for cancer - because it directly affects me.
Pause
So let’s say you got cancer, but you also found a cure for cancer. There’s some herbal thing you stumbled on and it cured your cancer for good. Now, forget about the money you’d make from this, wouldn’t you do whatever you could to pass it on to other people who had cancer? Wouldn’t you be shouting from the rooftops that you’ve got this cure for cancer and wouldn’t you take people through their journey of recovery because YOU WERE THERE TOO and you’ve come out?
Being cured of something like this changes your perspective - cos you’ve been there and you have a different outlook on what’s important.
How many times have you heard of someone who has been cured of cancer or any other illness and they’ve done something with their lives. Beforehand they were a bum and didn’t do much - but after being cured they have a new-found love for life and they are exploring the world or learning new languages or whatever - you hear these stories all the time. You know what i’m talking about.
But HOW MUCH MORE would you do something with your life if you were the one who fou
Listen, if you’re a Christian then you’ve been healed of something that is more potent and deadly than cancer - but let me ask you, what are you doing about it? What are you doing with your new-found love for life? Do you even have a new-found love for life? Who are you telling about the miraculous? HOW are you serving God?
Maybe the fact is that you didn’t really know you were sick or you didn’t really know how serious it was, or maybe you haven’t really been healed.
found a cure for cancer.
If you’re a Christian, honestly ask yourself that right now…Jesus has raised you from the dead and given you life - what are you doing with this new-found life? How are you serving God? God has healed you…for what? Just so you can sail into heaven? That’s not what Paul says...
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 1:
If you’ve been healed, you’ve been healed to serve
Think about that. In this church, how many of us are helping out in some way shape or form? In a church of 925 people, how many are serving God regularly - as part of their Christian life?
Listen, there are so many ways you can be part of the process of bringing healing to other people - real miraculous healing - cos there are so many sick, dead and dying people around here and they need to encounter the diving healer, and YOU can be part of that process.
Pause
Don’t forget there’s more than one way to be sick, and there’s more than one way to be dead...And there are people in churches all over the country who are blind and deaf and dead, and they need healed - they NEED to come to life.
And the only one who can do that is Jesus Christ, but we are his messengers. Jesus is the divine healer, our passage has told us that. He heals physically, but more importantly, he heals spiritually. Jesus gives the blind their sight, he gives the deaf their hearing and he brings people to life. If you’re a Christian he’s done if for you - and your duty, your act of service - every one who has been healed - is to pass it on and heal others in Jesus’ name. How selfish are we if we don’t?
Jesus said...
“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.
Jesus could do what is claimed in the bible because he is fully God. I know I said he is fully human earlier, but he is also fully God - such is the mind-blowing awesomeness of Jesus.
But we can do what he did - even greater things. Our potential in Christ and in his kingdom is limitless - because Jesus IS GOD and because we have help from the Holy Spirit to do greater things than Jesus did on earth.
What’s easier? To say that your sins are forgiven and that you are healed????
OR
To live your life in such a way that people KNOW that your sins are forgiven and that you are on a mission to bring the good news to others and minister to them?
Let’s pray.
If you’re thinking to yourself, ‘I want to do something with my new-found life in Christ,’ but you don’t know what you can do, please come and speak to myself or Paul and we’d be more than happy to talk to you about your gifts and how you can use that in service within the church.