MORE ABOUT GOD’S WILLINGNESS TO HEAL
1. A careful study of the Bible shows us that God is a healer and that it is always
His will to heal. There is controversy over this because:
a. People lack knowledge from God’s word on the subject.
b. People put experience above God’s word.
2. In order to be healed, you must know two vital keys:
a. You must know that God has already provided healing for you through the Cross of Christ. It is His will to heal you. He has already said yes through Jesus. Isa 53:4-6; I Pet 2:24
b. You must know how to take or receive what God has already provided.
We take it by faith. Heb 6:12
3. In this series, we are looking at both areas-that healing has been provided
and that we can and must take what He has provided by faith.
4. Last time, we began to look at God’s willingness, even eagerness, to heal His
people. We want to continue that theme in this lesson.
1. Sickness is not part of God’s plan for man. Eph 1:4,5; Rom 8:29
a. There was no sickness in the Garden of Eden before man sinned. Gen 1:31
b. There is not sickness in heaven, and there’ll be none in the kingdom which Jesus will set up when He returns to earth. Isa 65:19,20
c. There won’t be any sickness in the new heaven and earth which God will ultimately establish. Rev 21:1-4
d. Sickness is in the earth because of sin. Rom 5:12
2. God dealt with our sicknesses at the same time and in the same way He dealt
with our sins.
a. Jesus bore our sins and our sicknesses on the Cross to remove them from us. Isa 53:4-6
b. We know that it is God’s will to heal all because healing is included in His redemptive plan which is for all.
3. In the last lesson we did a survey of healing in the OT and found:
a. The first promise of healing in the Bible was made to people who had just been redeemed. Ex 15:13,26
1. Not only did God promise to be their healer, He brought His people out of Egypt healthy. Ps 105:37
2. The last thing they did before they left Egypt was eat the Passover lamb. Ex 12:3;8
3. Christ is our Passover Lamb and His body was broken for us, to heal us. I Cor 5:7
b. God promised to be their physician and promised to take sickness away from them in the Promised Land. Ex 23:23-26
c. When the Israelites were bitten by poisonous snakes on their journey in the wilderness, all who looked at a brass snake on a pole (a type of Jesus on the Cross), were healed. Num 21:4-9; John 3:14
1. A type = a person or thing believed to foreshadow or symbolize another. All who looked at the type of Jesus were healed.
2. Some say that it isn’t God’s will to heal all. If all who looked at the type of Christ were healed, how can we say that not all who look to Christ will be healed? Did the type have more power than the fulfillment of the type?
d. When Israel reached the edge of the Promised Land, God restated His promise of health to them. Deut 7:12-15
1. Several dramatic accounts of healing during their time in the land are described for us. II Kings 5:1-14; II Kings 20:1-7
2. There is not a single instance recorded in the OT of God refusing to heal one of His own people.
e. Job got healed. David got healed. Job 42:10; Ps 30:2,3; 103:1-3
4. In Prov 4:20-22 God gave His people specific instructions on how to be
healthy. Health = MARPE = curative, lit: medicine.
a. Prov 3:8–health = a form of RAPHA = a cure.
b. People who live for God the way He instructs them to should be healthy.
5. Even in the prophets, we find healing for God’s people.
a. Isa 53 contains the prophetic picture of the Lord bearing our sins and sicknesses in order to remove them.
b. The OT ends with a promise of healing to God’s people. Mal 4:2 (Healing = same word as Prov 3:8)
1. The NT begins with the gospel, four eye witness accounts of the life and
ministry of Jesus Christ on the earth. Note these things:
a. Jesus was the will of God in action on the earth. John 4:34; 14:9; Heb 1:1-3
b. Jesus healed all who came to Him. He did not refuse to heal a single
person. He made no one sick. Matt 4:23,24; 8:16; 9:35; 12:15; 14:13,14;
15:29-31; 19:1,2; 21:14
c. He healed people on the ground of the Cross where He bore our sicknesses
and carried our diseases. Matt 8:17
d. He commissioned and empowered His followers to minister healing.
Matt 9:35-38; 10:1:1;7,8; Mark 6:12,13; Luke 10:1; 9;17
e. Those who believe on Jesus are to do the works He did. John 14:12
f. Just before Jesus went back to heaven, He commissioned His followers to
lay hands on the sick and see them recover. Mark 16:15-18
g. The only limit on Jesus’s healing power was unbelief. Mark 6:5,6;
Matt 13:58; 17:14-21
2. In Acts, this healing ministry continued through the Apostles and others (Philip
and Stephen). Acts 3:1-9; 5:12-16; 6:8; 8:5-8; 14:8-10; 19:11,12
a. The epistles are letters written to churches established and believers converted in the atmosphere we see in the Book of Acts.
b. So, when healing and health are mentioned in the epistles, the Book of Acts is the context in which the information in the epistles was written, received, and understood.
c. One of the things Christianity meant to them is that people got healed.
d. Nowhere in Acts is anyone not healed because it wasn’t God’s will.
3. In the epistles, we find more references to healing.
a. I Cor 12:28–God put gifts of healings in the church.
1. Gifts = manifestations = ways in which the Holy Ghost demonstrates Himself through believers. I Cor 12:4-11
2. These manifestations operate as He wills, for the common good. v7;11
b. James 5:14,15–Believers are told what to do if they are sick.
1. Remember the context in which this would have been written and received-the Book of Acts.
2. Note, this prayer of faith shall (not may, not might) heal the sick.
3. Note that this powerful verse on healing is four verses away from the only NT reference to Job. James 5:10,11
4. Jesus explained the prayer of faith in Mark 11:24–believe you have it before you see it.
c. I Peter 2:24; III John 2–We have two Holy Ghost inspired comments from two men who saw Jesus heal and ministered healing with and for Jesus before and after the Crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension.
1. The had a personal Bible study from Jesus on Isa 53. Luke 24:44,45
2. Christianity and healing to them and their readers was the Christianity and healing seen in the Book of Acts.
4. A main theme found in the epistles is that Christians are the Body of Christ.
Eph 5:30; 1:22,23; I Cor 12:27
a. Sickness has as much right to our bodies as it does to Jesus. Acts 9:4,5
b. A major argument against sin for a Christian is that we are taking the body of Christ and using it as an instrument of sin. I Cor 6:15-20
c. It’s also an excellent argument against sickness in the body of a believer.
d. Jesus nourishes and cherishes His body. He doesn’t make it sick. Eph 5:29
5. We are now united to Jesus as truly as a branch to a vine. John 15:5
a. Through union with Christ, we have the life of Christ in us. I John 5:11,12
b. We have the privilege of claiming that life for our flesh. II Cor 4:11,12;
12:9,10; Rom 8:11
c. Eph 3:19(b)–That you may be filled (through all your being) unto all the fullness of God — [that is] may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself. (Amp)
d. It is our privilege to enjoy the health of the body of Christ, the health and life of the Lord Jesus Himself.
1. Let’s first get the context. Paul is rebuking the Corinthians for the way they were carrying out the Lord’s Supper. v18-22
a. There was division, drunkenness, and gluttony at their assemblies.
b. v20–So when you gather for your meetings, it is not the supper instituted
by the Lord that you eat. (Amp)
2. Then, Paul states for them what communion is supposed to be. v23-26
a. v23–Evidently, Jesus Himself instructed Paul on communion. Acts 26:16;
Gal 1:11,12
b. V26–For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are representing and signifying and proclaiming the fact of the Lord’s death until He comes [again]. (Amp)
3. The Corinthian communion service was irreverent. Unworthily = irreverently.
a. v27–So then whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in a way that is unworthy [of Him] will be guilty of (profaning and sinning against) the body and blood of the Lord. (Amp)
b. v29–For anyone who eats and drinks without discriminating and recognizing with due appreciation [it is Christ’s] body, eats and drinks a sentence-a verdict of judgment upon himself. (Amp)
c. Their irreverence and failure to recognize the value of the sacrifice of Jesus brought judgment on them in the form of sickness and death.
4. Notice these points:
a. The sickness they were experiencing was totally preventable. They could have, should have, judged themselves = discerned their sin and repented.
b. Judgment comes to those who “deliberately outrage the grace and mercy of God.” (Gordon Lindsay)
c. Judgment = God allows you to reap the fruit of your sin and withdraws
His protection. I Cor 5:1-5
5. If failure to recognize and reverence the meaning of the breaking of the Lord’s body made the Corinthians sick, recognizing and reverencing what His body and blood did will keep us well.
a. Many Christians today are sick because they don’t recognize that the body of Christ was broken for their physical health. Gal 3:13; I Pet 2:24
b. They aren’t being judged in the same sense as the Corinthians, but their lack of knowledge is killing them. Hosea 4:6
1. When we look at the Bible, we see no sickness before sin occurred, we see no sickness after sin is removed, and in between, we see God removing sickness and healing people.
2. Matt 8:1-3–When a leper came to Jesus recognizing Jesus’s power to heal, but not sure of His willingness to heal, Jesus corrected the man’s understanding.
a. v3–Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him and said, of course I want to! Be cured. (Jeru)
b. When you come to God for healing unsure of His will, the first thing He wants to do is correct your understanding. He does that through His word.
c. He says to you: Of course I want to!!
3. God provided salvation which includes healing for you while you were yet a sinner. Rom 5:8
a. If He provided it for you while you were a sinner, why would He withhold it now that you are His child? Rom 5:10; 8:32
b. God is willing, eager to heal you!! Believe it!!