A sermon prepared for First Methodist Church of Zephyrhills
by Rev. Dr. Steve Ezra for October 13, 2024
Key Scripture: Luke 13:10-17 (NIV)
10 On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, 11 and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” 13 Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.
14 Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”
15 The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? 16 Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”
17 When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.
To say that the past few weeks have been “eventful” for our church family here at First Methodist Church of Zephyrhills is an understatement. Two hurricanes in a row, with flooding and wind damage and power outages and gas shortages…. If we ever thought a Category 3 hurricane wasn’t really all that bad, we woke up last Thursday morning disabused of that idea. I don’t need to share the data or details of how many people were affected and how they were affected. You lived through it. You were affected. EVERYONE in our area was affected in multiple ways, some worse than others.
So it is perhaps not a coincidence that a few months ago, when I planned this five-week worship series Supernatural, I scheduled the topic of “healing” for today. We are here with a lot of wounds… a lot of brokenness… a lot of sadness among families and people we love.
So what does this have to do with today’s topic of healing? I think it has everything to do with our thinking about God’s healing, our expectations about God’s healing, our misunderstandings about God’s healing, our faith in God’s healing, and our doubts about God’s healing.
Have you ever prayed for someone’s healing and they didn’t get healed? Of course you have. I have, too. You can be sure that there were people praying for miracles the past few weeks, in many cases involving miracles of healing. And it didn’t happen.
Have you ever prayed for someone’s healing and they did receive healing? Many of you have. I have too. Why is that? What makes the difference? Why are some people miraculously, supernaturally healed, and others aren’t?
If we’re not careful in our thinking, when we pray for someone to be healed and they’re not healed, what do we do? Often, we make some excuse like, “Well, it must not have been God’s will.” But taken to its logical extreme, that can lead persons to question God’s goodness or even His existence. This is how some people start believing that God is uncaring, even capricious.
Sometimes, when we pray for someone to be healed and they’re not healed, we start thinking that maybe we did something wrong. Maybe we didn’t have enough faith, maybe we didn’t pray the right prayer, say the right things, do the right dance….
My goal this morning is to hopefully bring some clarity to the issue, and then provide an opportunity. As I said last week—and it’s true for this entire Supernatural worship series, my goal isn’t to be comprehensive. My goal is to be helpful. This is just too big of a topic to deal with it comprehensively in 25 minutes—or, as my worship team says of me, 35 minutes. (They don’t think I can preach only 25 minutes… and sometimes they’re right!)
What do we need to know about healing? What does God’s Word say? What does it promise? What does it not promise?
When we talk about healing or praying for healing in the church, we usually think of physical healing. But the idea of healing in the Bible means more than just physical healing. The root of the word healing in New Testament Greek, sozo (σῴζω or sōzō) is the same as that of salvation and wholeness. So a broader perspective on healing from the Bible is this: God offers persons balance, harmony, and wholeness of body, mind, spirit, and relationships. And he does so through confession, forgiveness, and reconciliation.
Certainly, physical healing is part of this. Nearly one-fifth of the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—report Jesus’ miracles and the discussions they caused. The Gospels record 14 distinct instances of physical and mental healing.
We already heard one story as our key Scripture reading before the sermon. Here’s another one in…
Luke 5:12-16 (NIV)
12 While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
13 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him.
14 Then Jesus ordered him, “Don’t tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”
15 Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. 16 But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
Clearly, Jesus was a healer, among other things. But it wasn’t just Jesus who healed. Jesus commissioned His disciples to continue His basic ministry, including healing. In the book of Acts, the healing ministry continued. This is something that many skeptics today overlook. Supernatural healings continued after Jesus! Jesus said his followers would be able to do the same things He did. In fact, he said they would do even more ministry than He did.
John 14:12 (NIV)
12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
“Greater” here doesn’t mean greater in quality; it means greater in quantity. Jesus’ ministry lasted only three years. His disciples’ ministries would last much longer than that in human history.
What’s more, God’s Word tells us that healing ministry is for us today, too. James 5:13-16 tells us to pray for and anoint the sick, that they may be healed.
James 5:13-16 (NIV)
13 Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. 14 Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
From these Scriptures and other Scriptures we learn that God works through instruments and ways He chooses to bring health to persons. But healing is not just for those who are sick physically. God’s healing for our lives is more comprehensive, including emotional and mental and spiritual healing.
Healing is not magic, but underlying it is the great mystery of God’s love. Although no one can predict what will happen in a given instance, many marvelous healings still take place in our lives today.
Now let’s look at the other side of the coin. What does the Bible not say about healing?
The Bible doesn’t promise that everyone will be healed of their sickness and diseases here on earth.
Luke 7:21 (NIV)
21 At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind.
Jesus cured “many,” but there’s no indication he cured all. God does not promise that we will be cured of all illnesses, and we all must face the inevitability of death. Our bodies—our present, earthly bodies—have a shelf life. They are not designed to last forever. Things wear out. Age and disease take their toll
This is one of the consequences of sin. Because of sin, we suffer and decay, and our bodies eventually die, until that day when Christ returns, and all will be made right. On that day, we will receive resurrection bodies, and we will live with God forever without pain, without sickness, without disease.
But that day is not yet here. Today, we live in a world that still groans and suffers under the weight of sin. God does not promise that we shall be spared suffering, but He does promise to be with us in our suffering.
2 Corinthians 1:3-5 (NIV)
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.
If we trust in that promise, we can recognize God’s sustaining presence in pain, sickness, injury, and estrangement. Whether our sickness is physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual, God is with us. God doesn’t promise that we won’t suffer. Neither does God promise that we will be cured of all illnesses. We all must face the inevitability of death. But we can know and can trust that God still heals today.
Why are some healed and others aren’t? Listen, I’d love to give you a top-ten list of reasons why, but I can’t. The older I get, the more I understand that there are a lot of things I simply won’t understand this side of heaven. There’s a lot of mystery in living the Christian life. I love you enough and respect your intelligence enough to say, “I don’t always understand why some people are supernaturally healed and others aren’t.” I just don’t know. But I trust in the One who does know, and I trust Him enough to have faith and pray, even when I don’t fully understand.
The Bible strongly affirms ministries of spiritual healing. Through such healing, God works to bring about reconciliation between God and humanity, among individuals and communities, within each person, and between humanity and the rest of creation. All healing is of God. The Church’s healing ministry in no way detracts from the gifts God gives through medicine and psychotherapy. It is no substitute for either medicine or proper care of one’s health. Rather, it adds to our total resources for wholeness.
And I want to provide an opportunity to add to your health and wholeness this morning.
One scholar who spent a career studying and teaching on Christian healing said that there are three basic kinds of sickness, each requiring a different kind of prayer:
Sickness of our spirit requires prayers for repentance. Emotional sickness and problems require prayers for inner healing or healing of memories. Physical sickness in our bodies requires prayers for physical healing.
And I want to give all of us an opportunity right now to pray for healing in whatever way we need to be healed… (Invitation to come forward for healing prayer and anointing with oil if desired)