TREASURY OF SERMONS
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Jesus, Healer of All Our Diseases
By Rev (Dr) Timothy Tow
(Preached at Life BPC, 10.30 am service, 1 April 2001)
Text: Matt 8:1-18
After Jesus’ long sermon preached on a mountain,
identified as one overlooking the Sea of Galilee, He decided to go
to the plain. Hundreds and thousands followed him. Out of the crowd,
a leper managed to push his way to the Saviour. He fell on his knees
and begged Jesus to heal him. Jesus taking pity on him touched him
and immediately he was cleansed. Jesus said to him, "See thou tell
no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the
gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them" (Lev 14).
Jesus did not want to be mobbed by crowds of sick people.
Whether the leper quietly went to the priest or
not, news of Jesus’ healing was spread abroad. When he entered
Capernaum, a village on the Sea of Galilee, a centurion begged Him
to heal his son. When he entered Peter’s house there lay Peter’s
wife’s mother sick. Both were also healed. Now the news spread like
wild fire that by evening time hundreds must have surrounded the
house where Jesus stayed, including those possessed by devils. Jesus
healed them all by His Word. This fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy,
"Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses" (Isa 53:4).
This picture of multitudes of sick people
seeking healing is the same today. Go, visit any hospital or
out-patient clinic and you meet crowds and crowds of them. Sickness
is due to sin, which we inherited from Adam. Jesus, the Second Adam,
who came to save us cannot but heal us on compassion, and by His
divine power. Jesus heals all the diseases of the body, but He has a
greater ministry of healing our soul’s diseases, in saving us from
our sins and giving us eternal life.
Hence, when he was overwhelmed by the physically
sick, when His main purpose was to heal the spiritually dying, He
"gave commandment to depart unto the other side" (Matt 8:18). Mark
tells us the same story, "And when they had found him, they said
unto him, All men seek for thee. And he said unto them, Let us go
into the next towns, that I may preach there also: for therefore
came I forth" (Mk 1:37,38). Luke confirms, "And he said unto them, I
must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore
am I sent" (Lk 4:43,44).
When we say, "Jesus, Healer of our Diseases,"
the greater importance of the healing is our soul’s diseases, the
forgiving of our sins and the receiving of everlasting life. This is
how God has worked out our mission to Cambodia. We have sent two
medical missions there and treated nearly 2,500 cases, but the work
of evangelising, the preaching of the Gospel to sinners has gone on,
without a break, for the last three-and-a-half years, and hundreds
have been baptised.
The emphasis on the spiritual over the physical
is seen also in the feeding of the Five Thousand. When the hungry
crowds were fed, they would not leave Jesus and wanted more. God
gave them physical relief out of compassion, but they must not look
for material benefits but rather the spiritual. When the people
would come and take him by force to make him king, He departed again
into a mountain. When the people found Him, seeking for a second
feeding, Jesus answered them and said, "Verily, verily, I say unto
you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did
eat of the loaves, and were filled . . . Labour not for the meat
which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting
life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the
Father sealed" (Jn 6:26, 27).
Following Jesus’ pattern for the spiritual above
the physical, our Church sent material help to the starving
Cambodians by way of ten containers of food and clothing. This has
cost Life Church many tens of thousands over a three-and-a-half year
period. The Lord blessed Life Church groups that gave to the
containers. But, having done our part, as Jesus had in feeding not
only the Five Thousand but Four Thousand, we stopped further
sending. For the preaching of the Gospel to save their souls is what
our Lord wants, as He said of His own ministry.
To put the healing ministry at a par with the
preaching ministry is therefore out of step with our Saviour. And to
practise divine healing with the apostles, whether recorded in the
Gospels or Acts is wrong. The healing ministry was committed only to
the Apostles, specially chosen men, and not to any ordinary Church
member (Matt 10:7; Acts 5:12). The Charismatics make their healing
ministry to be like our Lord’s, that they are also able to cast out
devils, and raise the dead, to make the lame to walk and the blind
to see. This was the claim when one of their big boys, Reinhard
Bonke, visited Singapore many years ago. It was a fiasco.
The healing ministry is now extended even to
their members sitting in the pews. One day, we went to pray for a
dying brother in hospital. Suddenly there came three charismatic
young men who might be acquaintances of our dying brother. As we
prayed they quickly joined us. The three of them raised their arms
in prayer support. Knowing our brother was soon leaving this earth,
we asked for the Lord’s mercies to carry him through. But the three
youngsters seemed to say, "We can resurrect him."
That Jesus healed every one in the first public
healing ministry does not give the charismatics the divine power to
heal one and all. Many so-called healings are self-induced and
self-delusions.
The fact is, "And he did not many mighty works
there because of their unbelief." Jesus did not come to a town like
the charismatics and announce he would hold a "miracle rally" to
heal the sick.
The right way to heal the sick is given by the
Apostle James. "Is any sick among you? 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: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick,
and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they
shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray
one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much" (5:14-16).
While seeking the Lord through the elders is
Biblical, it is in accord to this pattern to seek the doctors, the
specialists. They are also gifts of God to a sick mankind. To take
two tablets of Panadol with thanks to God heals your headaches
quickly. But there are those who refuse to take because they think
they are more spiritual, but to their own misery.
In a case like cancer, some are curable if
diagnosed early. Others are incurable, no matter how. Those
incurable ones are appointed of the Lord, according to His holy
will. No complaint against God can be made. Our lives are entirely
in His hands.
The prayer list for the sick put out by Life
Church shows the concern of the Church for her members. God has
answered some prayers but not others. At any rate what the Church
does is according to God’s will and for His glory.
Jesus is Healer of all our diseases. To be
healed of our physical diseases is good, but to be healed of our
soul’s diseases is infinitely better, for to be healed physically
might prolong our life for a number of years. To be healed of our
spiritual diseases, we will live unto life everlasting.
The big question is, "Have you been healed of
your soul’s diseases?"
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