And He Healed them all: The Healing Ministry of Jesus VII.mp3 Podcast: Download (34.4MB)
Key Text:
Luke 7:11-23
Luke 7:36-50
Luke 8:1-3
Luke 8:26-40
Overview:
At this point we are seeing many reaffirmations of lessons we have learned over the course of the past 2 months.
Among those are..
- God (through Jesus) sees you and is aware of you and is moved with compassion towards you. YOU ARE NOT INVISIBLE TO GOD!
- That Jesus reaffirms and strengthens wavering faith.
- We need to come to Him, not wait for Him to come to us.
- Even those strong in faith (like John the Baptist) sometimes need strengthening.
- Jesus never wavered from faith because neither circumstances nor man ever dictated His focus. As He heard…as He saw – He spoke and did!
A great portion of the time we spent this morning was again focused on healing being a kingdom issue.
This was initially demonstrated by the answer Jesus gave to John the Baptist through his disciples.
Let’s read it,
“And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” And when the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?'”
In that hour He healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind He bestowed sight.
And He answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” ~
Luke 7:18-23
Remembering that John was a Jew and so therefore his question had a Jewish ontology to it – is Jesus the Coming One? Is He the Messiah who will deliver us from our enemies and establish God’s Kingdom on earth?
Notice Jesus’ response was both verbal and demonstrative. Before answering the question of John’s disciples He…“healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind He bestowed sight” THEN He said, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
Don’t miss the significance of this…Jesus answered the question John was asking! “Are you the One through Whom the Kingdom comes?” By healing sicknesses, delivering from demons and raising the dead – THIS DEMONSTRATED THE KINGDOM OF GOD TO JOHN!
It demonstrated the coming liberation from the kingdom of death and darkness and despair into the kingdom of Light and Life and Jesus believed a clear demonstration of His coming rule was deliverance from sickness, disease, demons and even physical death itself!
We also had a very vulnerable question asked tonight, that most people would not care to ask because it takes courage.
The Question:
If people so easily received healing who were not even born again in the ministry of Jesus, why does it seem so hard to receive healing or faith for healing once you are born again?
Answer:
Listen to the recording.