Jesus Christ Heals You

Jesus Christ Heals You

Introduction

• Raise your hand if (death in the last year, You are sick, Someone you know is sick)
  • Look around the room for a second. You know what that is? That’s everybody… or almost everybody. What this tells us is that this is a big problem.  Something is terribly wrong with this world if every one of us is currently seeing, or experiencing sickness, pain, and death.
  • And it’s not like we’re not trying to fix these problems, right?  Health insurance, doctors, endless new drugs and medications, the medical industry. We’re trying to extend our life. People are doing everything they can to have health and wellness and to extend their days. Yet here we are, still sick, still dying… and there’s seemingly nothing we can do to fix the problem.
    • But God is not constrained like we are. His power is limitless, his knowledge is endless, and his reach is universal
• Our text this morning gives us two examples.  First of Jesus healing a paralytic, and the second is of Jesus raising the dead.

Acts 9:32-43

Context/Story

• Healing is a part of Jesus’ ministry. Spiritual healing, Emotional healing, and yes, Physical healing also.
  • Jesus heals at least 27 different people in the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). He heals 10 different groups of people, and we don’t know the exact numbers.
    • Sometimes the scriptures say that Jesus would enter a town and heal everyone in the town.  Can you imagine?  No more sickness in Montrose.  Why? Jesus shut down the hospital… All the doctors and nurses got an extended vacation.
  • He went about healing people physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  When that makes too much of a ruckus, he is crucified.  
    • This week is palm Sunday.  On this day, we remember his entry into Jerusalem.  He is ushered in as a king.  He is loved by everyone. His ministry has been extremely successful.  But within a week, by next Sunday, the sentiment will have changed and the people will no longer shout Hosanna, They will shout crucify Him.
  • Jesus dies on the cross, and he dies in our place for our sin, He heals our sin problem, which ultimately is the root of all of our sickness and all of our death. Then he rises from the grave, and he conquers sin and death, and then he ascends into heaven, where he is today…
    • And the question is, do we still have access to his power? Will he still forgive our sins if he’s not here with us? Will he still hear our prayers if he’s not here with us? Will he still heal our bodies if he’s not here with us? That’s the question. Once Jesus has gone, has the hope departed? Are we abandoned? Have we been left unto our own devices and God is no longer here to help us, especially when we’re sick and dying?
      • Our text this morning is a case study of Jesus still doing ministry from his heavenly kingdom.

Jesus Can Heal – Aeneas

• • Some theologies would say he doesn’t heal people anymore. Yes he does. Yes he does. 
    • I have seen it!  Unexplainable healing.  
  • Other theologies would say he HAS TO HEAL everyone immediately.  No He doesn’t.  No he doesn’t.  
    • He doesn’t have to do anything, he’s God. He isn’t a Genie, with power that we get to wield as we see fit.  He does what He wants, and in this life, sometimes he heals, and sometimes he doesn’t.
  • Aeneas was bedridden for 8 years.
    • His life is contained in and constrained by a bed. That’s their whole life. Now, go back a few thousand years before all of modern-day technology and medicine. There are no wheelchairs. This is someone who can’t provide for themselves, they can’t travel, they don’t have any of the freedoms or luxuries.
      • Imagine with me you wake up tomorrow, and you try to get out of bed… and you can’t.  And you are like that for 8 years.
    • Vs 34 – “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you.”
      • Who heals him? Jesus heals him
        • Peter doesn’t say:
          • I’ve got the gift of healing for a gift of $9.95. 
          • For a love offering to this ministry we’ll send you the hanky, and if you wave the hanky three times, then shazam, you’re all better. 
          • We have this oil we got from Jerusalem, and for 2 thousand dollars a thimble, you can put it on your injury and you can be healed if you have enough faith.
            • NO, Peter’s not taking any credit for this.
  • Prove
    • 1st Peter 2:24 – 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
  • Apply
    • “Rise and make your bed” – How many of you moms are really glad Peter said that?  I know my wife has been looking for a verse to use on me and the kids.  
      • I hate making my bed.  I hate it, it seems like it has to be done EVERY DAY… But next time you have to go make your bed, think of this guy, and thank Jesus that you are healthy enough to get out of bed and make your bed. 

• Prayers for Healing

• • • • Do you think this paralytic has prayed for healing? Absolutely.  Have others prayed? Absolutely.  He has probably been praying for so long that he may have even given up on praying. 
        • praying for politicians (12 percent) and celebrities (5 percent). prayed for a parking spot (7 percent), to not get caught speeding (7 percent), their favorite team to win a game (13 percent), someone else to get fired (5%) and to win the lottery (21 percent).
        • 82% of Americans are praying for some health issue or sickness for themselves or someone else.
      • Medicine vs Miracle (God works in both the natural and the supernatural)
        • The famous storm story (Bus, Boat, Helicopter, heaven, “Why didn’t you save me?”)
          • Don’t try to tell God how to do His job.

• Sometimes God doesn’t heal.

• • • • Sometimes when we hear that Jesus can heal, the question that comes is, “How do we make him do that?”
      • Let me tell you this. You can’t make Jesus heal. You can’t make him heal.
        • You can’t make him do what you want, otherwise you’d be in authority over him, and your throne would be above his, and then you could command him, and then he would have to do what you tell him, which means you are the Lord…Not Him.  And that’s just not how it works.  
          • We can make requests, but that’s it.  This is why I get so uncomfortable when someone decrees and declares what God will do in a certain situation.  That’s not our place.
          • Paul the apostle had a thorn in the flesh that he himself could not heal.  
            • 2nd Corinthians 12:8-9a – Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
        • If he heals you, worship him. If he doesn’t heal you, worship him because his grace is sufficient for you.

Jesus Can Raise the Dead – Tabitha

• • Tabitha- a nice name…
    • Dorcas was a charitable person who made things, especially clothing, for the needy in Joppa – She is probably very wealthy, and she wants to use her money to help God’s people
      • She was a seamstress, a quilter, she made things with her hands.
      • We don’t hear anything about her husband. She may have been single or a widow. Which means that life probably hadn’t gone perfectly for her.
      • Full of Good works – This is something we should aspire to. That is a great thing to be full of.  People are full of all sorts of things these days.
        • But perhaps we should strive to be full of Good works.
    • Tabitha falls ill, and then passes away.  They put her upstairs so they can prepare the body for burial. Then they call for Peter who is in Joppa.  They likely want Peter to come do the funeral… to pray for them and pastor them and help them through the passing of their dear friend.  
    • Peter puts everyone out of the room and prays, then turns to Tabitha and tells her to get up.  She does.
      • Can you imagine that? You show up for the funeral, and the guy comes out and is like, “The funeral’s going to be short and Tabitha would like the cookies.”
        • The Difference between Resurrected and Revived
  • Prove
    • The reason Jesus brought Tabitha back from the dead was to show everybody else what the future holds.
    • 1st Thessalonians 4:16-17 – For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
  • Apply
    • Tabitha finished well – She went out doing what God had called her to. Taking care of others. Loving others, giving to others.  She finished well, and Jesus brought her back for a few more years.
      • Celebration groups this week – Finishing well.  We young people need examples of others finishing well
        • Story of a young man who was mentored by an older man, taught him about God, about the world, about finances, about love, and how to grow into maturity.  But one day, after many years, he gets a call, and learns that his mentor has a terminal disease…
          • “I have taught you how to live well, now let me teach you how to die well”
    • If you aren’t a Christian, What happens when you die?
      • “I don’t need to be a Christian. My life’s going fine. It’s working.” It might until you die, and then it doesn’t work at all.
        • You might have ideas about what happens to you after you die, but the truth is, they are just guesses.  You have no certainty.  
        • But Christianity has something special here.  Because, Only Jesus has gone through death and back to tell us that he awaits us on the other side and that the only way to pass through death into eternal life is with him.

• This is not our home.  

• • • We’re pilgrims, we’re aliens, we’re sojourners. We’re on our way to the kingdom, but we’re not there yet.
    • John 11:25-26 – Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
      • The worst thing that can happen to you is not dying. The worst thing is dying without believing in Jesus. Because if you believe in Jesus, even though you die, he says yet you shall live.

Death Will be Defeated (Conclusion)

• • People aren’t supposed to get sick, people aren’t supposed to die. That’s not the way that the world was when God created it and declared it to be very good.  And it is not the way things will be in the new heaven and new earth.  What is currently broken will be made new. 
    • Resurrection is going to be awesome!  We don’t know all the details, But we do have some information about it.  
  • Revelation 21:4 – He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.
    • We are not talking about sitting around on a cloud with a harp all day.  That’s boring.  Some nightmare from my childhood.
    • No, everything good we have here on earth will be better there.  
      • Better bodies, imperishable
      • A Greater Beauty in creation, untwisted by sin
      • Tastier food, at the table of the King
      • A more wonderful world to explore and rule

• God is not in the business of disappointing his people.  That world will put this one to shame in every way.  I don’t know about you, but I can hardly wait!