|
We have just finished up a series on healing. The focus of our series has not been merely a theological study of healing, but a model for praying for people as a part of what we do on a normal basis.
We have seen that healing has always been an expression of the character and nature of God. God healed people in the Old Testament. Jesus healed people as a part of His ministry. The apostles, as well as other New Testament believers, healed the sick. Healing prayer has been used throughout the ages by the church. God is still in the healing business.
The foundation for our study was a passage from Luke 4 where Jesus read these words in the synagogue in Nazareth …
Jesus read these words from Isaiah and described the ministry He would embark on for the next three years.
When I share on this passage I usually do so with the intent of encouraging us to take up the ministry of Jesus – to share the Gospel with those who do not yet know God's love, to help free people from demonic influence or captivity, to pray for the sick, and to mend broken hearts. All of these things are an expression of the favor of God being extended to people.
I want to end this emphasis on healing today by revisiting this passage, but looking at it from a different perspective. Usually we see this passage as compelling us to do the same things Jesus did. Today I want to look at it from the standpoint of what Jesus has done for us.
The Father Anointed Jesus to Bring You the
Kind of Life He Made You For.
I am going to read the passage again, but this time changing it a bit to reflect the ministry that Jesus Christ came to offer to each one of us…
18 "God's Holy Spirit has come upon me with great power. He has anointed me for a purpose, and that purpose is for your benefit.
He has empowered me to tell you good news…
Because you know you are needy He has sent me to
meet you in your place of greatest need.
You may be spiritually bankrupt, but you don't have to stay that way.
He has sent me to tell you that He is intent on
breaking every chain that Satan has ever placed on your life.
The Father wants you free.
He has empowered me to heal your diseases,
and to mend your broken heart.
19 He has told me to tell you that you have found favor with God!"
Do you think I'm stretching it? Jesus Himself said,
You see, these words are not only the things that Jesus came to do during His ministry in Palestine 2000 years ago, and they are not only the things He wants to do through us in the life of others. These are the very things Jesus came to do in your life, and in mine.
Jesus didn't just come with a message. He came with power. The Holy Spirit came upon Him like no one else in history. He amazed people with His authority, with His love and with His power. He was unlike anyone the world has ever seen, and the world has never seen another one like Him.
Jesus came directly from God, and He came with you in mind. He came with a purpose, and He came with power, and He came to do some things in your life. Do you want to hear what they are?
1. He knows you are spiritually broke. He knows you don't have anything to offer Him. He knows you don't deserve His love, His mercy, His favor…but He came precisely to give them to you. Jesus came to fill your empty moral bank account. He came to forgive your spiritual debts. He came to tell you Good News. God loves you…no matter what you have done, no matter how many times. God loves you and He wants you to know it. God wants you to experience His love, over and over and over again.
2. Jesus came to set you free from anything that enslaves you. John wrote that, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work.” Jesus came to put an end to what the devil is doing to people. Whatever bondage you may have experienced, Jesus came to break. One of the primary focuses of Jesus ministry was to set you free from anything that has ensnared you.
You may have hang ups. You may have bad habits. You may have addictions. You may even have demons! Jesus came with a mission, with the authority and with the power to put and end to all of it. He came to set you free.
3. Jesus has made healing available to you. Jesus healed the sick everywhere He went. He didn't always heal everyone. But ultimately everyone will be healed. And God does still heal today. The blind eyes that Jesus opens are not just spiritual ones, but literal ones as well. We have been talking a lot about our being obedient to pray for the sick. But God wants us to receive prayer as well. God still heals today, and sometimes He will heal us.
I often say that, “More people get healed when we pray that when we don't.” Guess what. We will get healed a lot more often if we ask, and if we allow others to pray for us, that if we don't.
4. Jesus came to heal your broken heart. Through this experience we call life every one of us will experience disappointment. We will all be hurt. Sometimes those hurts will leave wounds. Jesus came to heal those wounds. On earth He reached out to the most wounded people in His culture, and told them that they were blessed. He forgave their sins and healed their broken hearts. He even invited them into His circle of friends.
Whatever your hurts are, Jesus wants to heal them. He doesn't want you depressed, suicidal, wounded, bitter, angry, cold, hardened… He wants you to experience life, and enjoy it. He wants you to live the life that you were created for. He wants to give you that kind of life – NOW!
5. You have found favor with God. The whole point of the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount is to tell us that we have all blown it. No one is righteous on their own. Even the most religious person has sinned too greatly to merit the favor of God. But God has offered His favor for those who will admit their need.
It is precisely the fact that you need God that makes His favor available to you. Stop trying to prove your worth to God. Stop trying to live up to His expectations. Recognize that god knows all of your shortcomings, and He loves you anyway. He has extended His had to you. He wants to forgive you, to heal you, to free you, to mend you, and to give you a life far greater than anything you ever imagined, or dared to ask for.
Jesus came to do all of the things Jesus does – for you . Can you believe that? It is true. He came to earth 2000 years ago with great power and did great things. He changed the lives of the people He met. And He is still doing that. He wants to do a whole bunch of that this morning, right here.
|
