Sickness and Healing

Sickness and Healing                                          September 24, 2016

 

Charlene and I had a very interesting week 

Charlene niece and her husband came to visit and he came down sick.    

He is a Vietnam veteran and has Agent Orange results, cancer in the neck and his bad hands cause him major problems.   He takes a large amount of morphine for the pain.  Right now he has pneumonia in the lungs and strep in the ICU unit. 

He was put into hospital, in the ICU area.  Tuesday night, Release about 5 days later. 

We look at our own sickness and illness. What does this mean. 

What would you have to do if we lived during the times of Moses. 

In the Old Testament, individual who are sick were to go see the Priests. 

The Priests will examine the person. 

A swelling, a scab, or a bright spot would often be a minor ailment that healed within a few days and caused no further concern. If a condition persisted, and became like a leprous sore, it required further attention.

Any given sore might or might not be leprous; that was for the priest to determine by examination. 

Leviticus 14:2-6  "This is the law concerning those who have infectious skin diseases, after they have been cleansed.  (3)  "The priest is to go outside the camp and examine the infectious skin disease to confirm that the person has been healed.   

(4)  If he has been healed, then the priest is to command that two live and clean birds, some cedar wood, some crimson thread, and hyssop be brought for the one cleansed.  (5)  Then the priest is to command that one bird be slaughtered on an earthen vessel over flowing water.  (6)  He is then to take the live bird, the cedar wood, the crimson thread, and the hyssop, dip them together with the bird in the blood of the bird that had been slaughtered over the flowing water. 

The person had to do.   Two birds: one for death; the other typifying the resurrection. 

What are we to do today, as a Christian or Believer,  

We know that Jesus is our High Priest (we go to him) and Jesus became our sacrifice.  

Hebrews 4:14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone to heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us live our lives consistent with our confession of faith. 

1 John 2:1-2  My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you might not sin. Yet if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus, the Messiah, one who is righteous.  (2)  It is he who is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world's. 

Jesus healed the lepers and told them to give the proper sacrifice for their sickness.  He sent them to the priests on the ground that Moses had commanded this in such cases.   

Matthew 8:2-4  Suddenly a leper came up to him, fell down before him, and said, "Sir, if you want to, you can make me clean."  (3)  So Jesus reached out his hand, touched him, and said, "I do want to. Be clean!" And instantly his leprosy was made clean.  (4)  Then Jesus told him, "See to it that you don't speak to anyone. Instead, go and show yourself to the priest, and then offer the sacrifice that Moses commanded as proof to the authorities." 

We read what that sacrifice was in Leviticus 14:4 

We learn at each Passover why Jesus was beaten, because by the bruises and wounds he received, we are healed.  

Isaiah 53:4-5 "Surely he has borne our sufferings and carried our sorrows; yet we considered him stricken, and struck down by God, and afflicted.  (5)  But he was wounded for our transgressions, and he was crushed for our iniquities, and the punishment that made us whole was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed. 

1 Peter 2:22-24 "He never sinned, and he never told a lie."  (23)  When he was insulted, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he did not threaten. It was his habit to commit the matter to the one who judges fairly.  (24)  "He himself bore our sins" in his body on the tree, so that we might die to those sins and live righteously. "By his wounds you have been healed." 

Faith is very important in healing.  What is faith? 

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance that what we hope for will come about and the certainty that what we cannot see exists. 

Mark 5:34 And He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction." 

Mark 10:51-52  So Jesus answered and said to him, "What do you want Me to do for you?" The blind man said to Him, "Rabboni, that I may receive my sight."  (52)  Then Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your faith has made you well." And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road. 

Luke 17:19  And He said to him, "Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well." 

Our personal trust and confidence in Jesus, springing from faith in God 

Matthew 9:2 Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you." 

Matthew 9:35 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. 

Matthew 10:1  And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease. 

Matthew 10:8  Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. 

Luke 9:2  He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. 

Acts 5:14-16 And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women,  (15)  so that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them.  (16)  Also a multitude gathered from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed. 

When we are sick, we are to call the elders 

James 5:13-16  Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.   

(14)  Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.  (15)  And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.  (16)  Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. 

Anointed cloths  

Acts 19:11-12  Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul,  (12)  so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them. 

We know God has healed individual in ways that defy medical knowledge. We are told we are to pray for healing, either for ourselves or others. The Bible tells us to pray for whatever we need, and that surely includes freedom from pain. 

We know that healing does not always occur, but we know if we are not healed during in this life, there is something greater awaiting us afterward. 

Jeremiah 17:14 Heal me, LORD, and I'll be healed; deliver me, and I'll be delivered, because you are my praise. 

Jeremiah 30:17 Indeed, I'll bring you healing, and I'll heal you of your wounds,' declares the LORD, because they have called you an outcast and have said, "It is Zion, no one cares for her!"'" 

The Apostle Paul had a "thorn in the flesh" of some kind of physical problem.  Paul is a man of faith, yet he was healed of it.

2 Corinthians 12:8-10 I pleaded with the Lord three times to take it away from me,  (9)  but he has told me, "My grace is all you need, because my power is perfected in weakness." Therefore, I will most happily boast about my weaknesses, so that the Messiah's power may rest on me.  (10)  That is why I take such pleasure in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties for the Messiah's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong. 

We know as a fact, every person who has ever been healed has died.   Jesus friend, Lazarus, was raised from the dead, but died again.

Jesus makes no promise that our present bodies, whatever our condition, will stay healthy or last forever. In fact, Jesus gives us a promise that something much more glorious: a new body, like our present ones but also different, a spiritual body made for eternity. 

2 Corinthians  4:16 That's why we are not discouraged. No, even if outwardly we are wearing out, inwardly we are being renewed each and every day. 

2 Corinthians 5:1-4 We know that if the earthly tent we live in is torn down, we have a building in heaven that comes from God, an eternal house not built by human hands.  (2)  For in this one we sigh, since we long to put on our heavenly dwelling.  (3)  Of course, if we do put it on, we will not be found without a body.  (4)  So while we are still in this tent, we sigh under our burdens, because we do not want to put it off but to put it on, so that our dying bodies may be swallowed up by life. 

Paul is going to tell us a secret, most exciting secret 

1 Corinthians 15:51-57 Let me tell you a secret. Not all of us will die, but all of us will be changed— (52)  in a moment, faster than an eye can blink, at the sound of the last trumpet. Indeed, that trumpet will sound, and then the dead will be raised never to decay, and we will be changed.  (53)  For what is decaying must be clothed with what cannot decay, and what is dying must be clothed with what cannot die.   

(54)  Now, when what is decaying is clothed with what cannot decay, and what is dying is clothed with what cannot die, then the written word will be fulfilled: "Death has been swallowed up by victory!"  (55)  "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"  (56)  Now death's stinger is sin, and sin's power is the Law.  (57)  But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus the Messiah! 

We are waiting for our change, what a unbelievable miracle.