Sermon Archives (October  28, 2001):

Is Healing for You? – Part  3

Is healing for you?   Some of you are in need of healing?  Do you have a problem with crack cocaine?   Do you have a problem with alcohol?  Are the economics of these habits such that you find yourself or your wife now in prostitution?  Is this the way you want to live?  No!  Are you living with other illnesses?  Are you HIV positive?  Is it cancer?  Is it emphysema?  Is it high blood pressure?  Then I ask, is healing for you?    And if healing is not for you, then maybe we should ask why?

Beloved, let us bow our heads.  Father, let every believer hear this message today and the world as well.  Help us to know is healing for us, or for somebody else?   Teach us Father.  Help us Father.  And if it be you will Father, heal us.    And all God’s people said, “Amen”.

This is the third in a series of teaching on healing and the causes of sickness.  Today, we are going to consider two areas of scripture:  First, an infirmity or illness that the Apostle Paul had, and secondly the reason why the man Jesus healed was blind from birth.  

We begin with Paul.  (2 Corinthians 12:7) “And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.”  Paul had a sickness.  The Bible does NOT explain what it was.  But if the meaning of this text were that God wanted Paul sick, then would it not follow that God intended Paul sick for a reason?  And if God intended Paul to be sick, then might it be also be God’s plan that we be sick as well?   Inquiring minds want to know. You and I deserve an answer.

What Paul is saying is that to keep himself humble, God’s plan was to keep Paul sick.  That’s Paul’s opinion.  But nowhere in the Bible is there any word from God to validate Paul’s high opinion of himself; as if God had nothing better to do than to keep Paul sick, or possibly to keep you or I sick.   God’s answer to Paul’s prayer for healing was (2 Corinthians 12:9)  “My grace is sufficient for you.”   Is God giving Paul a “yes” or a “no” for his healing?  What is this “grace” God is giving Paul.   God’s Grace is the authority to use the name of Jesus, and it is by that name, the name of Jesus, that all healing from God occurs.   So if God is giving Paul authority for the use of that name above all names, Jesus, the Son of God, then are we not also given that same sufficient grace?

(Romans 2:11, Ephesians 6:9, Colossians 3:25)   They all say the same thing.  “God is no respector of persons.”   Therefore, the same sufficient grace God gave to Paul, he also offers to you, if you will but accept it, and have the good sense to use that grace.

But the apologists comes back, and complains, well didn’t Paul have this “thorn in the flesh” for all his life, and didn’t Paul pray 3 times for God to take that illness away?  If God did not bother to heal Paul, why should he bother to heal us?   The complaint sounds reasonable.  Indeed, (2 Corinthians 12:8) reads “Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.”  But still this “messenger of Satan” – this angel of Hell – buffeted Paul.

But lets be a little more realistic in our assessment.  Paul tells us he prayed three times for the illness to depart.  Three times.  Three times, beloved.  Not ten times.  Not a hundred times.  Three times, for a man who was always in prayer.   Wait a minute.   You mean during Paul’s entire life he only found this illness worthy of three little prayers?   I don’t know about you folks, but I will pray three times for healing as soon as I get a runny nose, and maybe three more times after I blow that nose.   And when you get sick, don’t you pray over and over again?   But if Paul only bothered to bring up this subject to God just three times during his entire life, then how serious could this “thorn in the flesh” have really been?   Whatever Paul’s illness is, I submit as evidence that Paul’s lack of continued prayer on this issue, reveals that the illness was neither a serious issue nor a debilitating problem, but in all likelihood nothing more than an announce.

To be fair, Paul is one who wrote nearly half of the New Testament.   He established churches every where he went, and at the end of his life he does not cry, “Oh wow is me.”  But rather (2 Timothy 4:7)  “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race.”  If that’s chronic illness, maybe we all need some of that.

Having lost that argument, the apologist seeks to deny us healing by saying, “Well – what about the man born blind?  Didn’t Jesus say that he was sick for the glory of God?”   The answer is No.  Jesus did not say that the blind man was sick for the glory of God.   Let us examine the text.

(John 9:1-4)  “Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. His disciples asked Him, saying, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. I must work the works of Him who sent Me.“

The difficulty, the stumbling block for the apologist, is in the English translation.  The original Greek had no punctuation, and every word was in capital letters.  Thus, the translators were left to guess where to put in periods and commas, and sometimes in this case they got it wrong.   Let me demonstrate.   I’m going to read the same four verses, but this time I’m going to change the punctuation.

(John 9:1-4)  “Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. His disciples asked Him, saying, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned.”  Here I have ended this verse with a period, not a comma as in most translations.  Jesus was asked a question, to which he has given an answer, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned.”  Now I read the rest of verse 3 and 4 as if they were a single sentence. “But that the works of God should be revealed in him (Who? The blind man!), I must work the works of Him who sent me.“  Let me repeat this so you will get it, “But that the works of God should be revealed in, I must work the works of Him who sent me.“  In the English translation, the prepositional phrase “but that the works of God should be revealed” is misapplied to the sentence “neither this man nor his parents sinned” whereas by correcting the punctuation it rightly applies to Jesus doing the work that God commissioned him to do:  “But that the works of God should be revealed in, I must work the works of Him who sent me.“ 

At this point, Jesus went about administering the healing of the man.  But interestingly enough, Jesus never claimed to heal anybody.  Rather Jesus gives the credit for healing to God, (John 14:10)  “The Father that dwells in me, He does the works.”   Now let us answer the mixed up apologist and set their arguments to flight.   Given that God the Father in Jesus did the works, thus it must be the will of God to do the work, therefore the healing.  (Acts 10:38)  “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power:  who went about doing good, and healing all.”   So that must mean that it was God’s will for those people to be well, as it therefore is God’s will that we be well also.

Beloved, will you bow your heads, close your eyes, and repeat after me, “Blessed is the Father, who wishes us only healed.   Forgive us for believing Satan’s lies that you would have us sick.   Blessed be the name of God and His Son who love us and only wish us life if we will accept it.  We bind you Satan for you have no power here.   For today we claim God’s healing. Forgive me my sins. Come into my life. I believe you are the Son of God, and that You died on the cross for me.  I repent of all the works of the Devil.  Cover me with your blood.  Create by God’s Holy Spirit a clean heart, and the strength to reject Satan’s world.   Heal me and renew my spirit so that I can hear Your voice, and be used by you as your child to bring many to salvation.   I accept you as my Savior!   Your are my Lord!  Amen!”