Wednesday 04-10-13

Jesus Heals with shadow-site

 

   

 And He Healed them all: Examples of Healing XIV.mp3 

 

Key Text:

Acts 28:1-10

Mark 16:15-18

II Cor. 12:1-11

Ezek. 28:24

Joshua 23:13

Gal. 4:12-15

II Tim. 3:10,11

 

Overview:

We finished up the book of Acts tonight by looking at Paul’s ministry to the island of Malta. In this case Paul found unusual kindness being displayed by the natives and especially the Chief of Malta, Publius. They stayed with him for several days and found that his father was sick – so Paul healed him. When the natives heard of this all who had diseases came to Paul and were healed. This is yet another example of God not denying healing to anyone, which makes sense, since the ministry of the New Testament church is the continued ministry of Christ as it says in II Cor. 5:18-20,

“Now everything is from God, Who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed the message of reconciliation to us. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ; certain that God is appealing through us, we plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.”

Due to this knowledge it is not a strange nor a surprising thing that God continued throughout the book of Acts and throughout time – working out the ministry of Jesus Christ through His church to the world – which includes “Healing them all”.

This is also demonstrated by the last commission Jesus gave to His followers before He ascended,And he said to them,

Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in My Name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.~ Mark 16:15-18

NOTE: It is interesting that the last passage in Acts which we read included the example of Paul being bitten by a venomous snake without being effected.

Though Jesus said many things here, what is of particular interest to us in our study on healing is that believers will lay their hands on the sick and they WILL recover.

Now this take a little teaching to understand and can be summarized into 3 points:

  1. Jesus was speaking to about 150 people here, for they are the ones who left from this place and immediately went to Jerusalem to wait for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. (See Acts 1:15) This is important because it demonstrates that the healing ministry of Jesus Christ was not JUST relegated to the Apostles but was for every believer.
  2. “They will recover” – This is an important word. It does not mean they will be instantly healed – that would be a miracle and thus the manifestation of a special spiritual gift (See I Cor. 12:7-10). No these ones recover, which means a slow mending together.
  3. Noteworthy also is the unambiguous nature of the promise. It is not a question of whether they will be healed, but that it will take place over time. There was no indication of rejection for healing on any level nor for any reason.

I believe that a major reason why many fail to receive healing when Jesus clearly promised it here in these verses is because…

  1. Because they do not really know what He promised. They expect that IF it were going to work they would feel healed immediately, but that is NOT what He promised. Their “faith”, isn’t real, because they are believing He said something he never promised. So, when it appears that it failed to work, they make excuses for the failure by either getting angry at God or claiming that this promise was just for the Apostles or for the early church. They allow their experience to create a subjective “interpretation” of God’s word – and that is how many theologies are formed.
  2. They dont really believe in the first place. It is interesting to read this passage in the Wuest translation. Wuest pays particular attention to tenses and sentence structure and is therefore often a tremedous help in understanding what was actually being communicated. In this case, it reads…

“And these attesting miracles will accompany those who believe these things.” ~ Wuest Translation

Notice, it will not just follow the believer – for there are many believers who have never laid their hands on anyone for healing and many who have “tried” it, only see it fail to manifest. The reason for this is actually clear in the Greek – this sign will NOT follow the believer…but the one who believes these things.

If you do not believe it, it will not follow you – it is as simple as that!

Next we dealt with Paul’s thorn in the flesh. I’ve often found many Christian’s “Creative interpretations” of this passage rather humorous. In my experience, most of the time people do not read this text, they read into it what they want it to say – or rather need for it to say in order for it to support their pet theologies. Most of the more popular “interpretations” are immediately dismantled by actually reading the text, while other require only a passing familiarity with scripture to debunk.

Paul’s thorn in the flesh

2 Cor. 12:1-11

It would be most unusual if Paul’s thorn in the flesh was a physical aliment. The phrase “thorn in the flesh” was a colloquialism used at least two times previously in scripture. To my knowledge, the exact phrase does not appear, but its equivalent does. Being translated from the Hebrew it sounds different but it is the same core expression. They are found in Ezekiel 28:24 & Joshua 23:13.

In both of these references the “thorn” was the opposition from people or nations and was not indicative of a physical ailment, and it very much corresponds to our English phrase “pain in the neck” which no one takes literally.

Paul’s thorn was almost certainly the opposition he received everywhere he went (largely by the Jewish community). Which he could have avoided to a large degree if he had stuck exclusively to the grace calling God gave him which was to be an Apostle to the Gentiles.

This is most likely why God’s answer to Paul was,

“My grace (influence upon your heart) is enough for you Paul”

If you are a Christian, have you not experienced this as well?

Have you not had times when you knew in your inner heart that God wanted you to do something, but your stubbornness ed you another way?

When you took that other path, did not your heart sense the draw of the Spirit (His influence) to return to what He placed within your heart to do?

If you responded to that impulse, did it not cure the buffeting you received within (and perhaps even without) once you submitted your will again to His? 

The “thorn” was from Satan not God as the passage says and it was there to buffet (hinder) him lest he be exalted above measure by the abundant revelation God gave him in his ministry to the Gentiles. Notice that the revelation God gave to Paul was 14 years prior, and at the time it was a revelation which was forbidden for any human to talk about. It is perhaps possible that it never has been reveled to mankind what God told Paul, but I think it more likely that it was only unlawful for a time. Later in Paul’s ministry he began talking about the “mystery” which God revealed to him which had been hidden from man since the beginning of the world.

At the time of this letter it was 56AD. If we look at the time period during which Paul began to speak about the Mystery God had revealed to him, they all occur after this letter.

57AD Romans 11:25

57AD Romans 16:25

61AD Ephesians 1:9

61AD Ephesians 3:3, & 9

60AD Col. 1:26,27

62AD I Tim. 3:16

This is most likely the same idea that Jesus was conveying to His disciples in John 16:12,13

“I have still much to say to you, but you are not strong enough for it now. However, when he, the Spirit of true knowledge, has come, he will be your guide into all true knowledge: for his words will not come from himself, but whatever has come to his hearing, that he will say: and he will make clear to you the things to come.”

The exalting which satan was keen to stop was not pride but an exaltation from God.

 “Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time”.

Satan would not buffet Paul to keep him from pride, he would have been tempting him to get into pride. make no silly theological mistake here – satan is NOT in God’s employ. They are enemies and satan is NOT buffeting men to keep them FROM sin.

 

What about Paul’s eye problem? 

As far as Paul’s eyes (which is the only reference to sickness concerning Paul in the whole bible).  Paul told the Galatians that it was a temptation towards sickness which “was” in my flesh – past tense. Meaning, by the time of the writing of the letter to the Galatians it was already healed.

 “Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.” ~ Gal. 4:13-14

Even if you believe that Paul was somehow still afflicted with his infirmity when he wrote his letter to the Galatians, he could not have been by the time he wrote his first letter to Timothy. Second Corinthians & Galatians were both written at very latest by 56AD and the second letter Paul wrote to Timothy was written in 67AD.

Paul said to Timothy in that letter that out of all the afflictions and persecutions he endured God had delivered him!

Let me just interject here, that Paul’s infirmity (whether is was really his eyes or not) was in fact a temptation IN HIS FLESH – NOT a temptation to the Galatians. Unfortunately here are several translations out there which actually add to the word of God and say, that the temptation was to the Galatians. Brothers and sisters, that is simply NOT true. Those words do not even appear in the Greek manuscripts, but were added.

Here are a few examples:

ESV – Gal 4:14  “…and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me,”

Good News Bible – “Gal 4:14  But even though my physical condition was a great trial to you,”

The Message – Gal 4:14  “…And don’t you remember that even though taking in a sick guest was most troublesome for you,”

Now here is the verse in the King James version which shows the Greek words from which they come…

KJV – Gal 4:14 “…And G2532 my G3450 temptation G3986 which G3588 was in G1722 my G3450 flesh G4561 ye despised G1848 not, G3756 nor G3761 rejected; G1609 but G235 received G1209 me G3165 as G5613 an angel G32 of God, G2316 even as G5613 Christ G5547 Jesus. G2424”

Notice that the words “my temptation” and “in my flesh” ALL have correlating Greek words from which they were translated. Also notice the total absence f any notion that the temptation was to the Galatians! This is scary to me and it has helped to lead many to poor conclusions about sickness which needed never happen!

We covered much more than this, but these are some of the highlights.

For more, listen to the audio.

Hi my name is Mark and though I am opposed to titles, I am currently the only Pastor (shepherd/elder) serving our assembly right now.

I have been Pastoring in one capacity or another for nearly 30 years now, though never quite like I am today.

Early in 2009 the Lord revealed to me that the way we had structured our assembly (church) was not scriptural in that it was out of sync with what Paul modeled for us in the New Testament. In truth, I (like many pastors I am sure) never even gave this fundamental issue of church structure the first thought. I had always assumed that church structure was largely the same everywhere and had been so from the beginning. While I knew Paul had some very stringent things to say about the local assembly of believers, the point of our gatherings together and who may or may not lead, I never even considered studying these issues but assumed we were all pretty much doing it right...safety in numbers right?! Boy, I couldn't have been more wrong!

So needless to say, my discovery that we had been doing it wrong for nearly two decades was a bit of a shock to me! Now, this "revelation" did not come about all at once but over the course of a few weeks. We were a traditional single pastor led congregation. It was a top-bottom model of ministry which is in part biblical, but not in the form of a monarchy.

The needed change did not come into focus until following 9 very intense months of study and discussions with those who were leaders in our church at the time.

We now understand and believe that the Bible teaches co-leadership with equal authority in each local assembly. Having multiple shepherds with God's heart and equal authority protects both Shepherds and sheep. Equal accountability keeps authority and doctrine in check. Multiple shepherds also provide teaching with various styles and giftings with leadership skills which are both different and complementary.

For a while we had two co-pastors (elders) (myself and one other man) who led the church with equal authority, but different giftings. We both taught in our own ways and styles, and our leadership skills were quite different, but complimentary. We were in complete submission to each other and worked side-by-side in the labor of shepherding the flock.

Our other Pastor has since moved on to other ministry which has left us with just myself. While we currently only have one Pastor/Elder, it is our desire that God, in His faithfulness and timing, may bring us more as we grow in maturity and even in numbers.

As to my home, I have been married since 1995 to my wonderful wife Terissa Woodson who is my closest friend and most trusted ally.

As far as my education goes, I grew up in a Christian home, but questioned everything I was ever taught.

I graduated from Bible college in 1990 and continued to question everything I was ever taught (I do not mention my college in order to avoid being labeled).

Perhaps my greatest preparation for ministry has been life and ministry itself. To quote an author I have come to enjoy namely Fredrick Buechner in his writing entitled, Now and Then, "If God speaks to us at all other than through such official channels as the Bible and the church, then I think that He speaks to us largely through what happens to us...if we keep our hearts open as well as our ears, if we listen with patience and hope, if we remember at all deeply and honestly, then I think we come to recognize beyond all doubt, that, however faintly we may hear Him, He is indeed speaking to us, and that, however little we may understand of it, His word to each of us is both recoverable and precious beyond telling." ~ Fredrick Buechner

Well that is about all there is of interest to tell you about me.

I hope our ministry here is a blessing to you and your family. I also hope that it is only a supplement to a local church where you are committed to other believers in a community of grace.

~God Bless!