Sermon
What Does Our Bible Say About Divine Healing?
May 15, 2004
Pastor Donald Sheley

On our notes I have printed a number of the Scripture verses that relate to the subject of healing. In Matthew 4:23 it says, "And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. Then His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics and paralytics; and He healed them.

And then the Hebrews passage, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever."

And then James, who was the first pastor of the Christian Church in Jerusalem 2000 years ago, here are the instructions that he gives as to how the healing service was to be conducted in the early Church, and here's his instruction: "Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. 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 sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much."

So James is quite clear...those who need healing, the elders of the church anoint them with oil, pray with them, and God then performs His divine plan.

Now in the Corinthian passage we have here Paul's observations as to the various gifts, spiritual gifts that were given to the church. He says, "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant. There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all; for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills."

So Paul is making the observation that in the early church and to the church of the church age God has given the gift of wisdom, knowledge, miracles, tongues, and he lists them for us.

Now let's go to the Matthew passage because this one is a very, very important verse. It says, "When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, "He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses." And so what Matthew does is tie the healing ministry of Christ to the Old Testament text and says that He is doing this healing as the fulfillment of the prophecies concerning Isaiah.

Now Isaiah 53 says, "Surely He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken and smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed."

Now those are the verses that we want to refer to as we study just for a few moments this evening. I'd like to suggest that physical sickness came as a result of the fall of Adam, and illness and disease are simply a part of the outworking of the curse after the fall, and will eventually lead to physical death. However, Christ redeemed us from that curse when He died on the cross. And the passage we have just quoted from Isaiah 53 in the NIV reads: "Surely, He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows...by His wounds we are healed."

Now this passage refers to both physical and spiritual healing that Christ purchased for us, for Peter quotes it when he refers to our salvation. Look at what he writes, "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed." Now as we go along here in just another few paragraphs, these are very, very important verses because we're going to note that those within the church who reject the idea of healing do not address these particular verses. Let's read on.

All Christians would probably agree that in the atonement Christ purchased for us not only complete freedom from sin but also complete freedom from physical weakness and infirmity in the work of redemption. Now I say that as...I have to add the next sentence - And all Christians would also no doubt agree that our full and complete possession of all the benefits that Christ earned for us will not come until Christ returns. It is only at His coming that we receive our perfect resurrection bodies. Now let's pause here just for a moment.

The reason why I put that sentence there is because we believe that when Christ died and He rose again, when He went out on that hilltop it was a physical...it was His resurrection body that disappeared into the skies. And thus not only was there the redemption for the soul, but there is redemption for the body and that is a part of our faith. The Bible says that the day will come when the trump shall sound and the dead in Christ shall rise first then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. And thus the completeness of redemption not only affects the soul, but it also affects the body. This mortal, Paul says, will put on immortality. This corruption will put on incorruption. So he speaks of a tremendous change and he says that when we see Him we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is. And that was a body that could be seen, a resurrection body, that was ascended into heaven, and the Bible says the day will come when you and I will have a body just like Christ's resurrected body. So in the redemption not only is the soul redeemed but also the redemption of the body.

Let's go down to the bottom of the page. But the question that confronts us with respect to the gift of healing is whether God may from time to time grant us a foretaste or a down payment of the physical healing which He will grant to us fully in the future. Now the healing miracles of Jesus certainly demonstrate that at times God is willing to grant a partial foretaste of the perfect health that will be ours in eternity. And the ministry of healing seen in the lives of the apostles and others in the early Church also indicates that this was part of the ministry of the new covenant age or the new church age. So what I'm saying is that it is our deep conviction that healing is a part of the church age, but we always preface this by saying that God is sovereign and God chooses who He decides to heal, and that sovereignty is exampled frequently in the New Testament text.

Jesus walks into a pool and around that pool literally there must have been hundreds of people because they were waiting for the waters to move so that they could get in so they could be healed. Now we would think that Jesus the healer was walking into a scene where all those people needed to be touched, but what does He do? He walks over to one person and asks the man, 'Do you want to be healed,' and He heals him, and walks out and leaves the rest of them not healed. There is a sovereignty in the acts of God, and He chooses to heal whom He will.

Over the years I have observed that there have been wonderful healings. My sister came to me this evening and her daughter had cancer and after 10 years the cancer is totally gone as a result of prayer. I have often told my story of healing. When I was a little guy, six or seven years of age, polio broke out in our little Sierra foothills community and in those days we sat three to a desk. The boy on my right died a couple of days later and the other boy was an invalid all of his life, but my mother prayed that God would touch me and I was healed from polio. So I understand healing.

But you and I have witnessed...there's Joni who travels the world. And remember when she jumped off the diving board into a swimming pool and she's a total paraplegic, and yet she has prayed and asked God to heal her and it never has happened, and yet God has used her physical limitations to bless the world. So God is sovereign and when somebody tells you that you can demand that God heals somebody, that's not scriptural. God is a sovereign God and He heals whom He wills, but we believe with all of our hearts that Jesus Christ has the power to heal. Now let's go back.

When you go through the Book of Acts...here's the New Testament church, you'll notice a number. Here in Acts 3:1-8 it says, "Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple; who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, "Look at us." So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. Then Peter said, "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk." And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them-walking, leaping and praising God."

Another scene, Acts 5, "And through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. And they were all with one accord in Solomon's Porch. Yet none of the rest dared join them, but the people esteemed them highly. And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, so that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them. Also a multitude gathered from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed." Now this is a scene of the early Church.

Here's another one, Acts 19, "Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and evil spirits went out of them." So we have stated that throughout the book of Acts you have these healings that occur over and over again as part of the divine record that we have.

At the bottom of the page...As with other spiritual gifts, healing has several purposes. Certainly it functions as a sign to authenticate the gospel message, because that's what's taking place in the early church as they preached to make them authentic, to show them to be authentic men of God healings took place. Also it brings comfort to those who are ill, and thirdly, healing equips people for service; and fourthly, healing provides opportunity for God to be glorified as people see physical evidence of His goodness, His love, His power, His wisdom, and His presence.

Now in the act of healing, Jesus most frequently laid His hands on the ill. In Luke 4:40, it says: "All those who had any that were sick, with various diseases brought them to Him, and He laid His hands on every one of them and healed them." So the laying on of the hands seems to have been the primary means that Jesus used to heal, because when people came and asked Him for healing they did not simply ask for prayer but said, for example, come and lay Your hands on her, and she will live.

And another physical symbol of the Holy Spirit's power coming for healing was the anointing with oil. Jesus' disciples anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them. Now in the passage which gives the instructions to the Body of Christ to pray for those who are sick, James tells the elders of the church to anoint the sick person with oil when they pray: "Is any 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 sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven."

So we included that in our lesson tonight because Jesus at times would touch people, and at other times there was the anointing of oil. Now look at the next one. The New Testament often emphasizes the role of faith in the healing process, sometimes the faith of the sick person, but at other times it's the faith of others who bring the sick person for healing. When the four men let down a paralytic through a hole in the roof where Jesus was preaching, we read, "And when Jesus saw their faith." And at other times Jesus mentions the faith of the Canaanite woman regarding the healing of her daughter, or of the centurion for the healing of his servant. So that is an interesting aspect about divine healing that not always is it the faith of the person who's asking for the healing, but oft times in the Scripture it's somebody else's faith that brings about the healing in a body.

And I use this illustration, in fact, I got a call this week of a lady who is going to be here tomorrow and she remembers a story I told in our church -we had a little boy whose feet were born with his toes touching each other. Mother carried him to church, her name was Mrs. Baker, carried him to church every Sunday and we had an evening when there was praying for the sick, and she brought her little boy and the preacher was very honest. He said, Mrs. Baker, I do not have faith that God would heal your little one. He was honest. But I remember as a little fellow...I was just a young person sitting in the back of the church and I thought, now what is the preacher going to do now? And he was very wise, he said, congregation, is there anyone here that you have faith that this little boy can be healed?

And a little mother who no one ever knew, she was always quiet, she sat there are a lovely, godly woman, she quietly got up and came forward, and she touched the little boy's feet and she prayed a very simple prayer: Jesus, would You heal this little boy? And she turned around and went back to her seat, and over a period of the next couple of weeks those feet turned, the ankles turned, and that boy was healed. And about ten years ago I was aware that in our hometown he was a businessman and serving God, but I remember the moment when his little feet were healed. But it wasn't the preacher's faith, it wasn't the mother's faith, it was somebody sitting in the congregation, and so in making that observation we have in our notes here that sometimes God heals because of somebody else's faith.

We've got people that have been calling and they're coming tomorrow. They are being brought by people, and I'm just praying and I trust that this evening as you go to your bed and say your evening prayer say; Jesus, tomorrow when the people are being prayed, in Your sovereign grace and in Your power I'm asking You to touch bodies and to heal people. You say pastor, have people been healed here? Yes. We never make an issue out of it. We don't get up and yell about it. It's just part of our faith. It's something that flows with the life of our church.

We had a man many years ago, about five or six years ago, walk in and he had broken his back and had lain on ice for nearly eighteen months; walked with crutches, canes. He prayed and God healed him, so I believe in healing, but that doesn't mean He heals everyone. Let's go back to our notes.

In discussing the subject of divine healing, we should know not all Christians believe that the age of miracles of healing still is a part of the ministry of the Body of Christ. They believe that miracles ceased when the age of the apostles ceased. Now let me pause here just for a moment. I put that there because this is the general opinion of most evangelical pastors today; that we have passed the age of miracles because the miracles ceased when the apostles died. It's called the cessationist point of view. Okay? Top of page 5.

Now before discussing the position held by the cessationists, that's people who believe that miracles ceased when the apostles died, let's present the reasons why we believe that God still works miracles and healings in the church today. Now I'll just quickly hurry through these. God performed miracles in redemptive history. They are recorded from Genesis through Revelation. There seems to be no reason or Biblical statement that could clearly state that miracles ceased with the apostles.

Then we bring in the Old Testament covenant. I'm dropping down; healing and health were based on obedience to the Lord. So healing and the forgiveness of sins were on the same basis in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, forgiveness of sins and healing are also on the same basis--faith in the Sacrifice of Christ at Calvary. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities: (notice, and) who healeth all thy diseases." I made the observation a few moments ago that in the Old Testament text always the forgiveness of sins is coupled with the healing of the body. You'll notice it's so in this particular verse here too.

Secondly, God has not changed! "For I am the Lord, I do not change." "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever." And so I maintain that if the miracle-working God has not and does not change, then why would miracles cease? Jesus spoke of continuing miracles. He said, "Anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father." So Jesus in His closing days before going to the cross, made the observation greater things will you do because I'm going to the Father.

Notice another one: In His commission as recorded in Mark, Jesus said that miracles would accompany the gospel as it went out to the world. Remember He said pray for them and touch them and heal them. That was part of the commission that He gave; Go into all the world and preach the gospel.

Miracles manifest God's glory and greatness. "Jesus said to her (Martha at the tomb of her brother), "Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?" Miracles communicate God's message to His people. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders and with various miracles the gifts of the Holy Spirit. So the point is this, that why should miracles cease when they vindicate the message of the person and they glorify God? Now at the top of page 6.

Now this is, I think, the interesting part of our lesson. For those who believe that miracles and healing ceased when the apostles died, 1 Corinthians 13:8-13 is the proof text. Now ladies and gentlemen, what you have to understand is this is the only Scripture verse in all the New Testament of which the cessationists built their argument that we cannot expect miracles today. Look at what it says: "Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect is come, the imperfect will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

Now the phrase...WHEN THE PERFECT IS COME...is the statement on which the cessationists build their argument. It is their position that this refers to the completion of the Scriptures, and/or...In other words, they say that when the Scriptures, when the canon of Scriptures was complete, now perfection had come. So the completion of the Scriptures was the time of perfection. They go on to say that it was the inclusion when the Gentiles came into the Church, and/or the "maturity" of the Church. Now the cessation view concludes that based on both the Scripture as they see it, and the facts of history, that extraordinary sign gifts, such as the apostles exercised, have not been possessed by any since their time. While special gift miracles have ceased, the fact of miracles has not necessarily vanished.

The cessationists view notes that there are three characteristics missing in the acts performed by any modern-day miracle worker which do not parallel with the miracles of Christ and the apostles. Now think about this one. You and I know that on certain television stations there are those who claim to be miracle workers, okay? And so the cessationists who believe that miracles stopped say there are three reasons why we don't believe in the modern-day miracle worker.

(1) First of all, when Jesus or the apostles performed a miracle, the results were always immediate -- now that's a correct observation. When you go through the Scriptures Jesus prayed...There were sometimes remember He prayed for the man that was blind and the man wasn't completely healed. Jesus said, do you see? He said, no, I see men walking as trees. He touched him again and healed him, but I'm implying that there was an immediacy to Christ's healing.

(2) A New Testament miracle never failed. There is no record in the Scriptures that tell us that the person who received the miracle ever relapsed into a previous condition. Now here's one of the sad results of surveys of those today who go to these miracle working conventions. They have done a survey and a massively high percentage of the people a few days or a few weeks after they reverse to their original condition. Now that's sad, but it's true.

(3) The New Testament miracles were successful on all kinds of conditions. And I imply Jesus...those who couldn't walk, the miracle of bringing people out of the grave, whatever the need was there was nothing there was no limitation -- Jesus healed them and healing was complete and it was immediate.

Now I don't know...I know that down in Indonesia in the years of 1967 or 68 it was imply that somebody was raised from the dead, but that has never been verified and in our day we have never seen the miracle of raising somebody from the dead. Implied -- when Jesus healed, when Jesus prayed, even the dead came out of the grave.

Is it a historical fact that miraculous gifts ceased early in the history of the Church as the cessationists maintain? Now I put this in here because one of the points of argument by those who maintain that miracles do not happen today is that they stopped with the apostles. So the last of the apostles, John, was most likely the oldest and he died in the year of 100, because he was about 100 years old. So that would imply that if the miracles ceased with the death of the last apostle, then miracles ceased in the year of 100, or thereabouts. Okay? That's the logic. Well, let's see if that's true.

Writing in 165 A.D., that's 65 years after the death of John, the last of the Apostles, Justin Martyr says...Remember, we have at our disposal folks 38 massive volumes known as the apostolic fathers, and so we have the writings of all of these men 2000 years ago that followed the church and were a part of the church and Justin Martyr was one of them.

This is what he writes: "For numberless demoniacs throughout the whole world and in your city, many of our Christian men, exorcising them [casting out] in the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, have healed, and do heal, rendering helpless and driving the possessing devils out of men, though they could not be cured by all the other exorcists, and those who used incantations and drugs."

Then we go to the year of 192 and here's Irenaeus. Look at what he writes: "...Those who are in truth the disciples receiving grace from Him do in His name perform miracles so as to promote the welfare of others, according to the gift which each has received from Him...Others still heal the sick by laying their hands upon them, and they are made whole. Yea moreover, as I have said, the dead even have been raised up, and remained among us for years." So, here again, now we're 92 years later than John and Irenaeus is saying people are praying in the church and people are being healed.

Well let's read on in the history book. Now here's the year 250 and Origen testifies: "And some give evidence of their having received through their faith a marvelous power by the cures which they perform, invoking no other name over those who need their help than that of the God of all things, and of Jesus...For by these means we too have seen many persons freed from grievous calamities, and from distractions of mind, madness, and countless other ills which could be cured neither by men nor devils."

So now again we're just following the history book that simply says if you use the argument that miracles stopped in the year of 100 when the apostle ceased, that's not true because the evidence is so ample that miracles have continued on.

And John Wesley, a very brilliant man, a graduate from Oxford, this is what he writes speaking of the period after Constantine, says: "The grand reason why the miraculous gifts were so soon withdrawn was not only that Faith and Holiness were well nigh lost, but that dry formal orthodox men began to ridicule whatever gifts they had not in themselves, and to decry them all as either madness or impostures."

Now here's John Wesley's observation: a sad moment where a time came in the history of the church when there was a decline in holiness and righteousness and truth, and that meant that people were getting further away from God. And as a result he is saying that those who did not have the blessing of God on their lives they were mocking and calling those who were healing as imposters and they created this lack...this loss of faith in healing itself.

Now ladies and gentlemen, I really believe that what we have on their hands today in the church, we have the miracle workers who to me I have intense questions as to their procedures and their results, and because we not only have the falseness of supposed divine healing, but we have those who say that it's not a part of the atonement. And when you move away from the possibility of a miracle, you'll never see a miracle. And if God's blessing is...we're moving away from God and His holiness and His righteousness, He's not going to heal. So what does this say to me? It says this; I have this deep conviction that men's opinions do not change the truth of God's eternal Word.

"Jesus Christ (the Messiah) is [always] the same, yesterday, today, and forever (to the closing of the ages)." Now let's bring it to our close. Now, in closing, let us come back to a point which I talked about early is our lesson. It has to do with healing in relation to the atonement. No doubt it is entertained regarding Christ's ability to heal, but the heart of the matter centers around the question: Did Christ make special provision for healing of the body? Is this blessing included in the Atoning Sacrifice, which He made on Calvary's cross?

And the great redemption chapter of the Old Testament, I'm at the top of page 8, Isaiah chapter 53, teaches that Christ bore our sickness, as well as our sins, on Calvary. And through the eye of prophecy, Isaiah is describing the events which were to take place on Calvary hundreds of years after he wrote. Verse 4 reads: "Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows..." The word translated GRIEF means SICKNESSES. And in Deuteronomy it's the same word: "The Lord shall take away from thee all sicknesses." So the literal translation if we were reading from the original Hebrew of the Old Testament, Isaiah 53:4 would say: "Surely He hath borne our sicknesses, and carried our pain."

Rotherham's translation reads: "Yet surely our sicknesses He carried, and as for our pains He bore the burden of them." Now the word BORNE in the Hebrew is, and we give it there, and the word CARRIED also we give it, SABAL. It means to bear in the sense of suffering punishment for something. How did Christ bare our sins? Vicariously, that is, our substitute. He bore our sins vicariously in the same way, and the same verb is used for both. The verb carried (sabal) also means to bear something as a penalty or chastisement. And so in that Isaiah passage when we get to the original text, it simply means He bore our pains and our sicknesses there at the cross. He bore them for us in our stead.

Now Isaiah continues to describe the scene about Calvary in verse 5. "But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed." Now the word STRIPES is literally BRUISES. So it signifies that the entire wounding or bruising of Christ, including the stripes that were laid on His back, the buffeting, the plucking out of His beard, the nails driven through His hands and feet, the crown of thorns on His brow and the spear thrust in His side; all of His bodily sufferings were in order that you and I might be healed.

And Peter bears this out when he quotes Isaiah 53:5: "Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed."

Now in closing you say, Pastor, why did you take that line of thought? It's because my desire for us here at Church of the Highlands is to have an open heart and believe that God can do anything He wants to do. I do not go along with the modern-day healer that says that you can demand God to heal. That is not right; it's wrong. And oft times they also teach people that if you're not healed then there's something wrong with your faith. Ladies and gentlemen, that is not true. I mean, in all cases you cannot imply that. Because when you go through the Scriptures God sovereignly touches and heals who He makes the choice for. And so it's not our faith it's God's sovereignty that's at work in healing. And many, many times He chooses in His sovereignty will to heal.

So if we take that position as a congregation we save ourselves from fanaticism, we save ourselves from heresy, we have an open heart that says, God, You haven't changed. If You healed 2000 years ago, if You healed 4000 years ago, You can heal now. And if we have that openness and trusting in God's mercy and His grace and His power for healing, then He will do for us what's in His divine plan. That's really what I want for our church; an openness, an intelligent approach to the Scriptures, but it's very, very clear healing is for the church and it's for us as individuals. Amen?

Father, I know that our lesson today is somewhat complex, but we're living in an age where so many Christians do not have the joy or the anticipation of experiencing Your power and Your grace in healing simply because they don't believe it's possible. We here at the church open our hearts to You dear God and our lives knowing that You love us, knowing that You not only want to save us but You also have the power to heal us. And I pray dear God that our faith will be such that we can lift our hearts in times of need, physical need, whatever it is, and trust You to be all that You can be as God.

Father, we as a congregation sit here this evening and we know that tomorrow many folks will be coming. The whole service is planned to bring the needs of people before You, and I just pray dear God that it will be a glorious time where You meet the needs of our congregation in a very wonderful way. Thank you dear Jesus. Thank you very much, and everybody said...amen. God bless you all and thank you all for coming tonight.