And He Healed them all: The Healing Ministry of Jesus XI.mp3 Podcast: Download (37.5MB)
Key Text:
John 11:1-57
John 12:1-11
John 21:17-19
Rom. 8:31-39
I Cor. 6:18-20
Rev. 12:11
Rev. 3:21,22
Overview:
Today we were thrown a curve-ball! Instead of continuing to follow Jesus’ Healing ministry through the Gospel of John we skipped ahead several chapters because I felt the Lord prompt me to do so.
Quite frankly I was not prepared to cover this chapter, but I believe it was the right direction.
This chapter brings into question whether some sicknesses are deliberately sponsored by God. Many years ago I would have found a “work-around” for this passage because I believed it to be misleading due to poor translation. Today, I am free to read it for what it says, feeling no need to protect my faith from a theology which may present a difficulty for my current beliefs.
In the end, we came to a “soft” conclusion that God did not cause this sickness, but that He used it. However, we have not taken it entirely off the radar to be wrong about this -we are all still learning, and things which to US seem contradictory may not be so at all.
As we learn, we need to always be open to the question – “Is there something about the character of God – (something which I do not yet know) – which could allow Him to predicate a sickness, just to turn around and heal it so that He may receive Glory?” Currently my knowledge requires me to say no. However, if I ever learn otherwise I will change my belief accordingly!
Regardless of this – one thing we know absolutely! In every example in which we have a question concerning healing – from Job – to the man born blind – to Paul’s eyes – to Lazarus’ death, there is ONE thing which remains CONSTANT – God is NEVER glorified by the sickness, but by healing the sickness!
So regardless of what conclusion you come to, you cannot hide behind your sickness – claiming that BY it God is getting glory, for THAT remains unsupported throughout scripture!
The passage in question was in John 11 where Jesus rose Lazarus from the dead.
Let’s look at it…
“But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness is not meant to end in death. It is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” ~ John 11:4
In this verse the word “meant” simply means the intention of this illness is NOT for death but for the glory God will get through it.
Notice that the glory God gets here is not because of the sickness – but THROUGH the sickness. This may seem to some to be picking at words, but if you knew the Greek language this word was chosen intentionally instead of many other words which could have left us with lingering doubts. No, this word usage is significant because it places God’s glory not on the illness, but on what happened as the result of it – which was the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead.
The difficulty here is in knowing – where did the sickness come from? This is a VERY Greek question and was not in the view of the inspired author to reveal. It wasn’t even the point of this statement. So to jump to conclusions about the why’s and wherefores is to go beyond the intended scope of this passage.
We’ve seen many things like this in scripture…
1. Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery due to their jealous rage against him. This could hardly be attributed to God, for God would never tempt anyone towards evil – James 1:11. Yet, the word of God through Joseph at a later date was,
“And Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come near to me.” So they came near. Then he said: “I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.” ~ Gen. 45:4-8
This is often difficult for people to grasp – God will get done what He wants – even though He does not always control HOW it happens.
This is NOT to say that it is outside of God’s power to control, it simply seems like it is outside of His normal flow of character to control.
I say this because there are times when God may force an issue like He did with Nebuchadnezzar! I doubt very much that this king wanted to loose his sanity and become like a beast. So we see that God CAN, but even in this case God gave Nebuchadnezzar one full year to humble himself so as to avoid this predicted outcome and the king would not comply! – Daniel 4
2. We see this with Pharaoh in Egypt. God wanted to make His Name famous and to display His power to the surrounding nations (Rom. 9:17). This would have been accomplished either by Pharaoh letting Israel go -OR- by resisting. Either way – God’s people would have been set free, His fame would have been made known and His power displayed.
HOW it worked out was entirely in Pharaohs hands!
3. We see this also in the life of Paul,
“I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice,” ~ Philippeans 1:12-18
Is Paul here claiming that those who lied about and accused him before Rome were actually agents of God – led by Him to be envious, angry and lie in order to have a just man imprisoned and murdered? Not in any way!
Often satan tempts those he can influence, to do things which God is fully capable of turning around for the good and benefit of the kingdom – and many times for our own personal good as well – though that is ALWAYS secondary.
4. What about in the life of Jesus? We see Judas was very clearly tempted by the devil to do what he did and even possessed by him. Was this demon possession the will and in fact the command of God so that Judas had no choice? NO!
“Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death, for they feared the people. Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve. He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them. And they were glad, and agreed to give him money. So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd.” ~ Luke 22:1-6
God did not need Judas to betray Jesus in order to have Him nailed to a cross. In fact, if the Jewish people had welcomed Jesus as their Messiah, Rome would have had Him crucified themselves for fear of revolt.
You see, either way, God gets what He wants and does not require the aid of man nor demons to accomplish it!
What I mean to show here is that Jesus’ statement,
“But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness is not meant to end in death. It is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” ~ John 11:4
was about the Glory God was going to get by raising Lazarus from the dead (something He could not have done if Lazarus had not died) – NOT the fact that Lazarus died from an illness.
Notice that in both this and the case of the man who was born blind, Jesus made mention of working “during the day” -John 9:4,5 & John 11:9,10.In John 9, Jesus said He must work the work of His Father while it was day – the night was coming when no man could work – and then He healed the blind man.
These verses leave no room for private interpretation as to what God’s work was – it was Healing! No attention was being paid to why or how the man was born that way.
We also made mention of something back when we covered John chapter 9 that bares repeating here.
Jesus said to a group of Pharisees that it was inconsistent to claim that satan would cast out satan because that would be a temple (or kingdom) divided in it’s interests which would be its undoing!
Are we to assume then that God would make a man sick or kill him with sickness, just to turn around and heal him so as to get glory?
How is this not the same thing?
Would not God’s kingdom be equally divided by such trickery?
Would we not consider it crooked for someone to cause damage to a car just so they could offer to repair it in their auto shop? The car would need no repairing if you had not damaged it!
I believe the greater truth of this passage was in the fact that Jesus was a two day journey from Bethany in a town where God had no doubt led Him to do ministry.
By the time the messengers arrived to tell Jesus of Lazarus’ sickness, he had already died. Jesus waited two days because God told Him He was going to use this as an illustration for His own resurrection after being dead for only 3 days – that they may believe.
Jesus told them as much,
Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”~ John 11:14-15
What Jesus says here is SO telling!
First – it tells us that it was important that He not be there when Lazarus was just sick, because He would have healed him. This is important because it give s us another behind -the-scenes look at what was really going on.
Jesus NEVER did ANYTHING but that His Father directed Him to do it.
So what is Jesus saying here?
If I had been present – the Father would not have let him die!
Which answers my question, “Did God cause this?” I don’t believe He did! Will He never the less USE this? ABSOLUTELY!
Second – He was glad He was not there so that they might believe!
Believe what…that Jesus could raise the dead? No! They already knew that, for Jesus had already raised at least two people from the dead.
Then believe what? That even after 4 days, the power of God could raise from the dead.
Why was this important? For two reasons!
1. Jewish custom held that a person’s spirit would hang around the body for 3 days seeking opportunity to re-enter it.
2. Jesus was about to be offered up, die and be raised on the THIRD DAY.
This whole episode would put the argument to rest!
God was with Jesus in everything He did and that Jesus did not just succeed in returning to His body after 3 days of being dead by His own power. This miracle was for the Glory of God through the disciples coming to a state of absolute belief!
Later God continues this lesson by Jesus returning to Bethany the week before His crucifixion. It was at this time that Mary signified the Lord’s death and burial by perfuming His feet at dinner.
Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.” ~ John 12:7-8
There were many more things we covered today, but this was by far the most important.
For more, listen to the audio.
