Communion Message
(By His stripes we are healed)
October 7-8, 2000
Pastor Donald Sheley

For I have received from the Lord that which I also delivered unto you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me. In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me." For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

Week after week I observe your comments, and as pastor sometimes when I see certain comments being made relative maybe to one particular subject, I immediately sense that that is something that needs attention in our congregation or it’s something I should respond to. And of recent weeks we've had a number of folks requesting prayer for their physical needs, and I have always felt that it's probably one of the most appropriate moments in our worship service for praying for sick people is at the communion time, and I'll tell you why. One of the great controversies in theology has been for centuries this question: When Jesus died on the cross did He include physical healing as well as spiritual healing in the atonement? And great theologians have wrestled with this issue on both sides, but my deep conviction is that the Bible is very, very clear, and let me read the passages that confirm my position.

Isaiah says, Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our inequities; and the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes 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. So the quandary of the theologian is what did Isaiah mean in this prophecy - and by His stripes we are healed? Well I think Matthew fairly well clarifies this as he reports the events in Christ's ministry. In Matthew 8 he says, now when Jesus had come into Peter’s house, He saw his wife's mother lying sick with a fever so He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she arose and served them. When evening had come they brought to Him many who were demon possessed, and He cast out the spirits with a word, and He healed all who were sick that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying, He Himself took our infirmities and He bore our sicknesses.

So Matthew, in recording the events of Christ healing people says, this has taken place because Isaiah prophesied it. By His stripes we are healed. Now Peter picks up the theme and Peter also has a comment, he says, who when He was reviled did not revile in return, and when He suffered, He did not threatened, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously. Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree that we having died to sins might live for righteousness - by whose stripes you are healed. So I believe it's proper for us to believe that in the atonement the intention by God was to make us whole spiritually, physically, but then I run into another theological problem and that's something that we are confronted with quite frequently as we listen to religious radio and that is, or religious television, that we can demand of God to heal us and if He doesn't heal us then there's something wrong with our faith. That's absolute heresy. You don't demand a sovereign God to do anything.

When we come to Him we come to Him as recognizing His sovereignty and His greatness, and He does all things well and His ways are different than our ways, and His thoughts are different than our thoughts, and we might perceive our need of healing as being something He's obligated to do, but we have a very selfish concept of healing. We want God to do it now, and we want it to be physical in the here and now, but sometimes the greatest healing that takes place is when we pass into that eternal reward and then our bodies are made complete in Him. We don't look at it that way, but if we really recognized the sovereignty of our wonderful God, He may choose to heal us or He may choose not to heal us, but that's all right. You can read the pages of church history and you'll find that some of the great saints were people who suffered with an ailment, never were healed. Paul said I bear this thing. It's a thorn in my body, a thorn in my flesh, and I prayed, and I prayed, and the only answer I get from heaven is ‘My grace is sufficient’. Now whatever that was that Paul had a problem with physically, some theologians say that it was probably eyesight, probably poor eyesight that his eyes were affected by that terrible light that shown in his face on the road to Damascus as he was going there to persecute the Christians. So he may have, in fact, one of the words that describes one of his illness was opthalmalia in the original Greek, so maybe Paul all of his life after that event lived with poor eyesight. He said, God… Now if it's a matter of faith you can't charge Paul with not having enough faith so he didn't get healed.

Today we enjoy the ministry of Joni who as a young girl, you remember, plunged into the swimming pool and the water was shallow and she had a tragic accident. Today she's a paraplegic. And Joni tells in her story that she said, these people who lay the guilt on me that if I'm not healed it's something wrong with my faith, she said I wrestled with that and I've gone through deep depression, God over this matter - God why don't you heal me? But look at what's happened, that beautiful life and her writings, and her paintings, and her preaching. A paraplegic has blessed the lives of millions. Again, I say we have a terribly selfish definition of healing, but if we come to God with our knees and say God You're a sovereign God, You can do anything You want to do, You have all power, and I just present my need to You and if You'll heal me, I'll tell the world and I'll rejoice, and if You don't, I'll still love You just as much. It won't make any difference. Now when we come to Him that way I've watched miracle after miracle happen.

Now there is another issue with regards to healing, and I say this because as a pastor of a church I deal with it. We're not here to put on a spectacle. We don't have people line up and push them over. You know, I just, to me there's something when that happens that the sacredness and the awesomeness of a mighty God somehow disappears and showmanship takes over. Now I'm, you know, I'm big enough to realize that God, if He wants to in His awesome presence, He could prostrate us in His presence. In fact, when you read the history of some of the great revivals in the past God's presence was so awesome in even cities where people just simply fell on their knees before God because His presence was so awesome. I recognize that, and I would pray for the day to come here where the awesome presence of God was so real we couldn't even, we wouldn't want to stand, we'd want to just prostrate ourselves in His presence. That would be a holy, wonderful day. God can do anything, but He doesn't need my help. All He needs is an open heart.

So what I want you to do today if you need physical healing and you want to come for prayer, our elders are prepared to anoint you, and just bring your elements and we will anoint you. You say, why are you going to anoint Pastor? Well we want to stay with the Scriptures, and the Scriptures tell us James was the first pastor of the first Christian church in Jerusalem 2000 years ago, and James says if there's anyone that's ill among you let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over them anointing them with oil. So why anoint with oil? Well it's, oil has always been symbolic of healing in the Scriptures. It's a symbolism that's carried itself through in Christianity. You remember the man who was hurt on the way to Jericho, and the Bible tells us that the man who came along, the Good Samaritan, poured oil into his wounds. I don't know what that was. Oil has always been symbolic of healing. So we do just what the Scriptures says we anoint with oil, we pray, and we trust God. It's that simple. So if you'd like to come today our elders will just anoint you and we're going to pray that God does marvelous things this moment.

Now the Scriptures says that Jesus likened the bread to His body. It's in His body that He bore the stripes. So again, following the symbolism of Scripture, let's just lift our bread heavenward. Shall we do that? Just lift it with me heavenward. Lord Jesus, in Your body You paid the penalty for my transgression and You bore the stripes for my healing. I love You today, Lord Jesus. I know You can do anything You want to do. You have all power in heaven and earth. Here I stand in Your presence with this physical need, and I know that You do heal and I lift my need to You dear Jesus and I claim that healing. It's in Your name I pray. Let's take the bread together now, shall we? And Lord Jesus we stand here with this cup, its mystery so deep, its truths so far beyond us that we'll never really understand the full dimension of this moment till we meet with You in the New Jerusalem, but You told us to continue to do this in the proclamation of Your death, because it was there on that cross You spilt Your precious blood for our cleansing. And all of us need that cleansing. We've all sinned. We've missed the mark this week. Please cleanse us dear Jesus. And this cup we hold assures us that that's exactly what You want to do. Let's take the cup together, shall we?

Now just in simple trust and faith would you raise your hands with me? We raise our hands Lord Christ to honor You, to express our sincere love for You, and for an acknowledgment of Your sovereignty, and we leave now our needs with You and we're just expecting You dear God, as a loving heavenly Father, to do wonderful things. And everybody said, amen. Let's greet one another, shall we?