For Mar 1

Sermon Notes: The Healing Jesus

Intro; On this Second Sunday of Lent, we continue our journey to Easter via the Cross. We started our journey on Ash Wednesday, where we prepared by lightening our load of sin and guilt by confessing our sins, repenting of them, asking for forgiveness, and being reassured they had been forever removed from us. But that cycle is a continuing process, because we’re human, prone to sin leaving us feeling guilty unless we continue to confess, and repent of those sins too.  Last week we encountered Jesus as the Lamb of God, the sacrificial lamb previewed in the Passover, where a perfect lamb was slain, and its blood painted on the doorposts of the home’s threshold, protecting those inside as the Angel of Death passed over Egypt. Passover was celebrated annually as a preview of the coming Messiah who would be the perfect permanent sacrifice for our sins, and whose blood would protect us from spiritual death. The preview became reality as John the Baptist, the prophesied Voice crying in the wilderness “prepare the way of the Lord”, identified Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The preview of Passover became reality as Jesus paid the redemption price of sin by His blood shed on that threshold Cross.

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I. Healing Beyond Forgiveness

A. Although forgiven of our sins, we still bear the consequences of our sin. Those we’ve hurt by our sins, and the damage to our own lives by our sins. David was forgiven of the sins of adultery, the murder of Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, and lying to God in the coverup. But he still had to bear the consequences of those sins. The baby born of their sin, that soon died, the betrayal of his loyal friend, Uriah, and the respect lost by his coverup lies. Forgiveness doesn’t heal the wounds caused by our sins. We all bear those sin inflicted wounds. Broken relationships, deep regrets, damaged reputations, even feelings of shame, to name a few. So, this morning, we will encounter Jesus’ healing beyond forgiveness. Isaiah prophesied about Jesus being the Suffering Servant who, “by His stripes we are healed”. the results of His Crucifixion. Healing in forgiveness as well as healing following forgiveness.

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II. II Chronicles1:11-22

A. In our OT lesson, God gave King Solomon His conditions for healing. For context, King David wanted to build a magnificent Temple for God’s permanent dwelling among the people, replacing the mobile Tabernacle housing the sacred Ark of the Covenant. God chose his son, Solomon for that task. As the new king, Solomon had asked God for wisdom instead of wealth, and God granted that request, as well as wealth. The finished Temple reflected these request as one of the seven wonders of the world.

B. God had accepted the Temple for His residence, advising Solomon that if he was faithful like his father David, and obeyed God’s commands and decrees, He would establish Solomon’s throne, as God had covenanted with David, that his sons would always have a successor to his throne. But if he turned away, forsaking God’s ways, and served idols, then God

would bring troubles on Israel, and would reject the Temple, destroying it and making it a landmark for all to see about having forsaken God.

C. But God included an interesting clause in his options to Solomon. If God would ever send a drought, or plague, due to their sins, and the people called by His Name humbled themselves, and prayed, seeking His face and repent of their wicked ways, He would hear them, forgive their sins, and heal their land. Healing following forgiveness. By extension, all those called by His Name, even us, would have that assurance.   

D. Regrettably, Solomon, with 700 wives with their foreign gods, soon turned from God. Out of loyalty to David, God let Solomon continue as king until his death, but then civil war resulted in two of the 12 tribes remaining as Israel under the rule of Solomon’s son, Rheoboam, while the other ten tribes became Judah, ruled by Jeroboam, a non-descendant of David or Solomon. Troubles between the split nation and with other powers continued for years, until the Babylonians destroyed the Temple, as God said would happen for their unfaithfulness, while taking many Israelites into exile. Israel and Judah eventually reunited, but never regained the golden years under David. Although cycles of sin, repentance, and forgiveness occurred over many years, the consequences of their sins left Israel a troubled nation needing healing.

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III.  Jesus Healing Miracles.

 A. A 400 year silence between God and any prophet ended with the NT birth of Jesus, the Messiah to lead them out of their sin. Even though the Jewish leaders rejected Him as Messiah, instead sentencing Him to the Cross, Jesus worked tirelessly among the people, modeling God’s love, showing them God’s forgiveness, and, especially relevant to today’s message, healing individuals. Forgiveness and healing were often seen as connected issues. By forgiveness, people could be spiritually healed, showing them hope of eternal life through God’s power.  

B. Jewish belief in those times was that one’s physical state reflected their spiritual health. People were poor, disabled, or unhealthy, because God was displeased by their sin. Conversely, wealth and physical well being reflected God’s approval in their life. In the OT, Job’s wife and his friends believed his suddenly reversed fortunes were the result of a hidden sin. Actually, God was showcasing Job’s faith by those hardships. Job even challenges God about his righteousness not deserving God’s inflicted miseries. Conversely, Jesus harshly criticized the elite religious leaders who paraded their piety and self-righteousness, but were morally corrupt, and whose hearts were far from God.

C. Jesus’ healings didn’t seem be limited to a particular methodology, He healed Peter’s fevered mother-in-law with a touch. He healed others without ever seeing or touching the person, like the servant of the Gentile Roman centurion who felt unworthy for Jesus to even come to his home. The woman suffering from years of bleeding was healed by her faith by just touching the hem of His cloak.

D. . Jesus extended His healing mercy to even those who would have been considered outside Jewish culture. Traveling beyond Israel’s borders, Jesus was confronted by a Gentile woman to heal her daughter, which He does with just a word without ever seeing or touching her.

E. But His healings can be seen as having a purpose, showing people’s souls were His main concern, as we see in His healing a demon possessed man living in the Gentile Decapolis area on the Sea of Galilee’s eastern shore. Forced by his over 1000 occupying demons, terrified by Jesus’ mere presence, to beg Jesus for mercy, Jesus casts out those demons. His soul healed, the man was instantly calmed, healed of even his self abusing life as a madman among the tombs. The healed man then only wanted to remain near Jesus.

F. At a well in Samaria, although Samaritan Jews and Israelite Jews had been hostile enemies for centuries, Jesus deliberately sought out a Samaritan woman, who had been rejected by her village as immoral for her sins. Jesus not only forgave her sins, healing her soul, but by her testimony brought her village to hear Him, and they became believers.

K. Some healings had even more dramatic effects. Leprosy was a much feared disease in those times, believed to be contagious though physical contact. Feeling judged as disapproved by God, physical degeneration that would eventually end in death, and forced isolation from family and society was a desolate life of rejection. Yet Jesus healed one leper by deliberately touching him. Jesus’ compassionate touch would have done much to first heal his troubled soul, as well as cure his leprosy.

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IV. John 5:11-22

A. In our NT lesson, Jesus initiates a conversation with a man unable to walk who had laid by the Bethesda pool for 38 years, waiting to be healed. Many with disabilities waited there, believing that when the still waters were suddenly disturbed, it was a healing angel stirring the waters, and the first person entering the pool would be healed. But this man was never able to get to the water soon enough, and still awaiting opportunity. One might question the man’s determination – where he waited, and the lack of any friend who could helped him during those 38 years.

B. But, of all those waiting to be healed, Jesus approaches this particular man, and asks him if he wanted to be healed. Not realizing who was asking, the man offers the excuse that he had no one to help get to the water in time. Jesus merely tells him to pick up his mat and walk. Not having walked in at least 38 years, it was an incredible expectation, but the man does pick up his mat...and walks. Curiously, the man didn’t ask who his healer was, or thank Him, but Jesus seems to purposely do this healing on the Sabbath, knowing the Jewish leaders considered carrying his mat, as well as Jesus’ healing the man as working on the Sabbath, violating Sabbath laws. Jesus had showed compassion and mercy for this man’s condition by healing him, as well as bringing attention to the folly of laws preventing such compassionate healing.  

C. So, Jesus did not just randomly heal those suffering physical problems throughout Israel. Although people would seek Him to cure their physical ailments, Jesus was far more concerned with their spiritual needs. Fear only those who can kill the soul, not the body. He had compassion and mercy for those physically suffering, but His healing went well beyond that. He knew the needs of the soul to find peace in its Creator. He would often precede His healings with forgiveness, or afterwards with a warning to “Go, sin no more”. This was the real power of the Messiah, to heal the sin sick soul, and even die to free it from sin, and in the Resurrection, prove His power over death.

D. Perhaps the most dramatic of Jesus’ healings was the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus had been dead for four days, a lapse of time that his soul would have departed from his body. This unprecedented healing miracle proved His power over death to the many mourners at the tomb. It was also a preview of Jesus’ Resurrection a few days later.

E. His healing power is critical in our lives as well. We often find it easier to ask Him to heal our physical needs than forgiveness of our sin affecting our spiritual health. We may even get angry if we feel He hasn’t responded to our physical healing desires. But, In our Lenten journey, we need to examine our Christian living. Do we know His forgiveness for our sins for our spiritual health?

F. David’s psalms are strong testimony of his suffering from his sins, and his relief in knowing God’s forgiveness. We need that same forgiveness for our spiritual health, We shouldn’t overlook the consequences of our sins even after forgiveness. But God cares, and as we’ve seen, answers our prayers that He knows so well with compassion, but while accomplishing His purposes. We might even ask, ‘ why must I endure hardships?  Why do bad things happen to good people?’

G. A biology class studying the life cycle of butterflies had been watching a butterfly struggling to emerge from its cocoon. Sympathetically, one student used scissors to free the butterfly. The student didn’t know that the struggle was essential to force fluids into the unfolding wings that made its wings strong and able to fly. By eliminating the butterfly’s struggles, it emerged with underdeveloped wings, unable to fly. God used those struggles to make it stronger, beautiful, able to function as He created it.

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Conclusion: I wish I could tell you that God will heal us of whatever we ask Him to, but God often uses our struggles to develop our faith and character we need to meet the plans God has for us. Many of us have undergone trauma in our lives that we blamed God for, only to later find His purpose in our lives that He used to develop through those trials. Where would be today if God had let Jesus escape the agonies of the Cross?  But praise God, He didn’t, and today, regardless of our physical conditions we are the Resurrection people, who humbly seek His face, and find forgiveness so we can be perfectly healed in eternal life with Him. Amen

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