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REVIEW
So we began a new series last week entitled “How To Be Made Whole” where we will be learning that the Lord’s will is for each of us to be made completely whole – spirit, soul, and body. But we are not just focusing on what the Lord wants, but how to get what He wants. You see, the Bible holds the answer to every problem, and if we just allow the Holy Spirit to shine his light on it, He can and will show us the way of escape from any bondage or brokenness that we have. He just loves us that much! So our golden text for this study is First Thessalonians 5:23 where the apostle Paul clearly reveals to us God’s heart in this area. Again, this verse reads – “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Notice the terminology that the apostle Paul uses in this verse: How God wants to sanctify us “completely,” and how He wants our “whole” spirit, soul, and body to be preserved blameless. By using terms like “completely” and “whole,” this insinuates that Paul believed these three things – spirit, soul, and body – are what thoroughly describe what each person is comprised of. In other words, our spirit, soul, and body are what each of us are, nothing more and nothing less. So, Paul believed that we are a three-part being, not just one or two-parts. And he also evidently believed that all three parts of us need to be sanctified and preserved – indicating that all three parts of us are in need of being kept in a certain condition. And last week, we looked at how we got in this predicament: It occurred in the beginning when the law of sin & death entered this world. This is when the curse came, and when all manner of evil became a part of God’s creation. And this is ultimately why everything became broken whether that be our spirit having death abide in it, our soul having the opportunity to become damaged by sin being done against it, or our body being subject to sickness & disease. Yes, all of these things & more have come as a result of the sin in the Garden. But the truth is – God sent His only begotten Son to this earth to take care of this sin problem, which he did in glorious fashion through His death, burial, and resurrection. So, there is the opportunity for every person born on this planet to be made whole – spirit, soul, and body. Therefore, what we can learn from this verse is that it is evidently God’s will that we completely and wholly be made whole in all three areas of our entire being. But our main point last week was that it’s not just about what God wills; it’s also about our will. We learned this from the example of the man healed at the Pool of Bethesda where Jesus asked this man, “Do you want to be made whole?” Now we saw how the scene for this story was a supernatural phenomenon where an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters to where the first person to get in would get healed. But what we learned from this is that these special miracles are few & far between. In fact, the odds were definitely not in your favor to get healed even if you were one of the many who spent all their time on these porches because the Bible says that there were great multitudes there and only one person got healed at a time. However, everyone got healed who came to Jesus in faith. Yes, He would make whole every person who came to Him. Therefore, statistically speaking, what was the best way to get healed? It wasn’t going to this place (i.e. Bethesda); it was going to that Person (i.e. Jesus Christ). Of course, this man had an infirmity that kept him from being able to do this, so Jesus came to him. But when Jesus asked him the question of the hour, excuses began to abound. This man said that he had no one to help him get in the pool and when he tried to do it himself, someone else got in in front of him. And we saw how so many of us do the same thing. We blame our condition on what someone else has done in the past or currently isn’t doing for us. We also blame our condition on someone keeping us from it. The list of these excuses could go on and on. But we learned that this was the reason Jesus asked this man this question – because it’s ultimately up to what we want. And as we saw, if we really want to be made whole, we can. There’s nothing that has happened to us or is currently happening to us that can keep us from God’s will for us. Amen? But it’s all about what we want. Yes, do we want to be made whole or not? As we learned, if we do, we will ask, we will seek Him with all our heart, and we will take. This is the foundation to being made well. Now, this week, let’s look at another thing in First Thessalonians 5:23 … YOU MAY GO NOW Notice how Paul begins this verse by saying, “Now may the God of peace Himself …” The word “may” indicate the possibility of something. A good synonym is “can.” So this can happen, or it may not happen. It also describes being given permission like how someone might tell another person – “You may go now.” I hear the Lord saying to us today – “You may go now.” No, not leave the service at this time, but you may leave all of the junk, all of the infirmities, all of the things which bind man, and be set free into the perfect liberty of Christ. Amen! So the word “may” here shows us that this is not automatic. No, this doesn’t happen to every believer, but is contingent on some things. Most would assume that this is based on if God Himself decides to do it or not, but if you know anything about God’s nature, you’ll know that He doesn’t operate that way. He is not the Great Puppeteer in the sky raining down blessings on some and curses on others. No, He gives His creation free will – that is, the ability to choose life or death, blessing or cursing. So when I read the word “may” here, I look at it more as “may” we cooperate with the spiritual laws that bring these things to pass, “may” we position ourselves to receiving these blessings, and “may” we press into their reality. Not, “can” God do it, but “can” we receive it? You see, God wills the truths in this verse for ALL of us. He is not a respecter of persons. He loves all of us the same. Therefore, He makes the possibility of this available to each of God’s children. Amen? And the fact is, we cannot blame someone else – whether that be God or some other person – for our current condition. We might not have been able to stop what happened to us. We might not have chosen what family we were born into. We might not have been able to do anything about the specific time and place we were born in. But we can ALWAYS choose to take the higher road of the kingdom of heaven and come out of every situation & circumstance without even the smell of smoke. Amen? This is what we “may” have if we choose to press into it. THE STORY OF THE TEN LEPERS So again, our point in this series is to not only teach that we can be made whole, but it’s also to teach how one can be made whole. And we are doing this by looking at specific examples in the Gospels where an individual was made whole when they came to Jesus. So this week, I want us to look at another particular account of healing in Jesus’ ministry where Jesus made an individual whole. This is the story of the healing of the ten lepers found in Luke chapter 17. Let’s look at it … Luke 17:11-12 says, “Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Then as He entered a certain village …” I want you to notice that Jesus was not holding a healing meeting here. He wasn’t teaching, He wasn’t preaching. He was simply traveling. However, these ten lepers came to Him as He entered this certain village and received what they came for. This was actually common in many of these accounts of healings that we are covering here – Many of these people came to Jesus when He was “off the clock” (so to speak)—showing us that healing is not just available when there is an altar call or when hands are being laid on people. No, healing is available all the time—even as you sit in those seats right now. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT LEPROSY Then notice what verse 12 goes on to say – “… there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off.” Now leprosy is referred to many times in the Bible, both in the Old and New Testaments. Jesus is said to have healed many different persons affected by leprosy and we also see examples of God healing certain lepers in the Old Testament. So it’s important to understand that leprosy was an epidemic in bible times, including in Jesus’ day. In fact, it was considered a death sentence, and even if it was not considered immediately terminal, it was at best considered a death sentence socially. Regardless of this, the law prescribed ways of dealing with lepers, namely that they were to be put outside the camp. Eventually, leper colonies were started, and they dwelt there apart from their family & friends. Therefore, those who were perceived to have leprosy in the regions where the Bible was written were considered the lowest in society. They faced rejection and were banished to become beggars on the side of the road. In Jesus’ culture, it was forbidden for Rabbis to touch people who were classed as ‘unclean’, which included those affected by leprosy. Now as we consider all of this, don’t you think that a person affected by leprosy might have more problems than simply the physical disease itself? I guarantee you they did! I’m sure, being thrown out and looked down on like they were, did something to their souls that was similar to what the disease itself did to their bodies. I bet that while not many of us can relate to their physical condition, some of us here can relate to the other issues that came with their leprosy. I’m sure we can see some similarities in our own life. No, not necessarily in the physical part but in that we might have gone through similar forms of rejection that they did like being kicked out, rejected, frowned upon, despised, etc., etc., etc. Church, those experiences can do things to our souls that sickness & disease can do to our bodies. They can hurt us. They can make infirm. Therefore, there is sometimes a need to be healed from these various things. But sometimes these wounds can come through a physical problem too … For example, while we still have cases of leprosy on the earth today, there are different diseases that we are more familiar with that run as rampant and are as prominent as leprosy was then. One of those diseases in particular would be cancer, because it has similar effects on bodies today as leprosy had then, i.e. leprosy involved lesions in the skin which we might call today “malignancy.” So my point is that sometimes diseases that are a little more prevalent in our society, like cancer or other diseases, can make us feel alone and unseen. And can you guess what that can do to us? It can do exactly what we see in this verse … STANDING AFAR OFF Notice how this verse tells us that these ten lepers “stood afar off.” According to the Law, not getting anywhere close to others was required of lepers. This was obviously because they were considered contagious. But while lepers “stood afar off,” did you know that this illustrates how those who either have the same experiences that lepers did and those who see themselves as “lepers” (spiritually speaking) relate to the Lord. But I believe one of the reasons that we see so much in the Bible about “leprosy” is because it is a type & shadow of sin, and the effects sin has on us. Therefore, someone who sins and sees themselves as a sinner will tend towards the same experiences that lepers did. They will leave the camp. They will stand afar off. And they will be considered “unclean” by others. Now, first of all, it is important to understand that sin is bad and does a lot of bad things to us when we choose to partake in it. For example, one of the effects that leprosy had on the individual is that they would lose sensitivity in parts of their body which would cause them to maybe break their ankle and still walk on it for days. How does this relate to the effects sin has on us, you ask? Well, when we are plagued with sin, it creates an insensitivity to what is righteous and true. In other words, sin makes one dull and hardened to the things of God—and if left untreated, it will eat away at the various limbs of your life. But this phrase here denotes that when we are spiritually lepers, we become sin-conscious, and it causes us to withdraw from the Lord—running from Him and not to Him. Friends, sin causes many good, well-meaning believers to stand afar off from the Lord and not draw near to Him. This is as old as the original sin in the beginning: Yes, when Adam & Eve sinned in the Garden, the Bible tells us that they ran and hid themselves from the presence of the Lord. In fact, in Genesis 3:7 we are told why they hid themselves. It said, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.” So sin did something to them. Their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked. Essentially what this means is that committing sin will open our eyes to things, and not in a good way. It will open our eyes to the ugly – thus creating shame, guilt, and condemnation. And this resulted in what we see in verse 8 – “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” This is also what Jonah did, right? When he was unwilling to do what God was telling him to do, the Bible says he fled from the presence of the Lord. Church, partaking in sin and being sin-conscious will always tend towards us standing “afar off.” We will do this with other believers, and we will do this with the Lord. But you see, this “standing afar off” from both the Lord and other people is an indication that there is something that needs to be dealt with. We were created for relationship, saints. So it’s rarely ever going to be a God thing for a person to withdraw themselves from a body of believers. We see this with depression in people. What does it tend to do? It generally makes you isolate yourself. Yes, it causes one to withdraw from people and violate many exhortations that we find in the Bible to not forsake the assembling of ourselves and to be joined & knit together as a body. So anything that would try and make us “stand afar off” from others is not healthy, nor is it to be condoned in our lives. So if there is something that is in us that seems to try to get us to violate the truths of fellowship, then we need to seek freedom in that area. LORD, HAVE MERCY! So what did these ten lepers do? In verse 13 we are told— “And they lifted up their voices and said, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’” Now we’ve seen this before, haven’t we? We have seen how in many of these accounts in the Gospels that the sick & infirm person would cry out for “mercy.” And why do you think that time after time these sick & infirm people continuously asked the Lord for mercy in regard to their infirmities? It is because this is the way they were taught! You see, to the Jewish mind, under the Old Covenant, they equated sickness, disease, & poverty as curses that were brought on because of sin. This is why you see in the Gospels people asking questions of Jesus like “Why did this bad thing happen to these people? Was it because they were worse sinners than others!” or “Why was this man born blind? Was it his sin or the sins of his parents?” You see, this was their belief system, but Jesus corrected that mindset by teaching that not all sicknesses and tragedies are because someone has transgressed God’s commandments. But there was certainly a mindset in their culture that if any physical issue was a curse from God, it was this one right here. You see, leprosy was viewed as something that happened to people because of sin or because God was judging for some other reason. But we see Jesus on many different occasions reaching out to the leper and showing them mercy. This is because Jesus Christ is full of mercy and His Heavenly Father’s heart was to show compassion on the leper and erase the common view that their leprosy was a sign that God was angry with them. So I believe this is the reason why you see this pattern in the gospels of the sick and infirm individual asking for mercy—it’s because they had such a law mentality that they believed that they deserved the infirmity that they had. And the “gospel” is that Jesus healed them all—every one of these people who felt that they were getting what they deserved according to the Law they were under. Friends, that is what “Grace” Himself has done— He has provided “mercy” over “judgment”! Amen! SHOWING OURSELVES TO THE PRIEST Notice in verse 14 that Jesus responded to their cry for mercy with – “Go show yourselves to the priests.” Now allow me to continue with this analogy of how we approach the Lord: Did you know that sometimes healing simply comes as you are willing to be transparent? I have personally experienced how as being the “preacher” that people try to hide their weaknesses, faults and shortcomings from me. They will hide their cigarettes when I approach them. They will clean up their language when I am around them. But what we need to understand is that if we are not willing to put our struggles & weaknesses on the table, then the Lord is going to have a harder time taking them from us. We must walk in truth and transparency – being willing to acknowledge and deal with our stuff in order to have it eradicated from our lives. Verse 14 goes on to say, “So when He saw them, He said to them, ‘Go, show yourselves to the priests.’ And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.” First of all, notice how this verse starts by saying, “So when He saw them …” The word “them” is actually not in the original language, so it just says, “So when He saw.” How many of you know the Lord is the God who sees? Hagar called Him this in Genesis 16:13. And also, how many of you know that she called Him this after she left Abraham’s camp due to how Sarai dealt with her. So she was outside the camp similarly to how lepers were, yet the Lord saw her, giving her instructions and making her a promise. But I think a lot of believers are like Hagar when later, she and Ishmael were sent away into the wilderness and were on the verge of death. They were in desperate need of water and the Lord had to open her eyes to where she could see a well of water. Now most people believe that God supernaturally provided a well, but the Bible doesn’t say that. It says that God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water—indicating that it was there already; she just couldn’t see it. (See Genesis 21:19) This is what I believe the Holy Spirit was showing us in this story of the ten lepers—that the Lord was still the God who sees. And just as he saw Hagar when she was separated from the people, He saw these lepers when they were separated from the people. And guess what? He still is the God who sees! He sees you even if you are in a situation where you feel alone and ostracized. He sees you even if you feel no one else does. However, even though God sees us; we need to have our eyes opened to see what He has already provided. Amen! So again, when Jesus saw them, we are told that He said to them— “Go show yourselves to the priests.” Now wait a minute! Who was it that, according to the law, was supposed to show themselves to the priests? It was those who were cleansed of leprosy, right? So essentially when Jesus said to them to go show themselves to the priests, what Jesus was doing was calling them clean! This is proof positive that Jesus was doing what He saw His Father doing—calling things that be not as though they were (Romans 4:17)! We actually see Jesus following this spiritual principle time and time again, like when Jesus told the man with the withered hand to stretch out his hand. What He was doing was getting them to act on the truth instead of living by the facts. And this is how we too must learn to receive from God. He will oftentimes tell you to do things that make no sense, acting on the provision that you are expecting. And then we see the results in the rest of this verse— “And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.” Notice that it was “as they went” that they were cleansed. It was not the other way around— “they were cleansed and so they went to show themselves to the priests.” In other words, they were cleansed as they “went,” not as they “came.” You see, when are we going to believe that we are healed? Someone will say, “Well, when I am healed.” But this is not how God does things. We must believe that we are healed even when, in the natural, we don’t see or feel it. We move in the direction that the Spirit moves us in, and we act on the Word! Then we see and feel the cleansing in the natural. WHAT HEALED PEOPLE DO So after they did what the Lord commanded, verses 15-16 say, “And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.” Now I want you to notice something very important that the Holy Spirit says in these verses … Verse 15 says that one of them, “when he saw that he was healed,” did some things. Did you know that these same things are what you and I will do when we see that we are already healed? Yeah, I know people will say, “But he was already healed!” And you’re not? Sure, you might not have had it physically manifest in your body yet, but it’s important that we see ourselves as already healed before we ever see any manifestation of it. This is a big key to being made whole, church! We have to be able to see what God has already revealed to us in His Word as truth. We need to see ourselves the way God said that we are and not just how others see us or how we feel. And when we do, there are some things that we will do: The first thing we see this man doing is that he “returned” to the Lord. You see, when I see myself the way God sees me and the way He says that I am, I will become closer to him and not further apart. Yes, I will draw nearer to the Lord the more I see what He’s done for me! Amen? This is the power of grace, saints! Seeing ourselves the way He sees us and seeing what all He has done for us in Christ Jesus will cause us to deny ungodliness and pursue God. Glory to God! The next thing seeing what He has done for us will cause us to do is “with a loud voice, glorified God … giving Him thanks.” Now this does not mean that he was lifting his voice, saying, “I glorify you, God!” No, he was actually saying something with a loud voice that glorified God. Now what does it mean to “glorify” something? Webster’s 1828 dictionary defines it this way— “to make glorious or to exalt in glory.” It also says, “to praise, magnify or to ascribe honor to.” So we see here that when we “glorify” God, what we are doing is making Him more glorious by exalting and magnifying Him. Now, of course, this does not mean that we are making God any more glorious than He already is, but what it does mean is we are making Him more glorious, magnified and exalted in our sight. Amen! Friends, this is exactly what we do when we praise & worship the Lord correctly; we glorify Him—thus making Him more exalted and magnified in our eyes! But what was this Samaritan saying that “glorified” God? Well, we are told in the following verse what he was saying that exalted, magnified & glorified the Lord when it says that this Samaritan fell at His feet, giving Him thanks! We see in Romans 1:21 that the progressive steps that man takes away from knowing God: It starts with a failure to glorify God coupled together with being unthankful. This verse says that this results in them becoming “futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts being darkened.” But, again, this begins with a failure to glorify God and being unthankful. (Compare with Psalm 69:30) A SAMARITAN GOT ISSUES In fact, notice that in verse 16, Luke makes sure to let us know that this particular leper was a “Samaritan.” So on top of the issues a leper might have, do you reckon that the fact this guy was also a Samaritan might have brought more issues to the table? I guarantee you it did! You see, Samaritan’s were hated by the Jews. This was one of the greatest racial & religious tensions in their world. Today, we have racism of whites against blacks and vice versa. We even have racism of other ethnic groups. But back then, in Palestine, this was one of the biggies – Jews versus Samaritans. And theirs also involved religious differences. So a Samaritan being surrounded by Jews would be like a black person being surrounded by white folks, and not only that, but it would be like this black person was Pentecostal and he was surrounded by white Baptists. And not the nice kind either. No, they let you know they didn’t like the color of your skin nor do they like your religious beliefs. And this is where you were forced to live in the neighborhood of and attend church with. That would be tough, wouldn’t it? Well, that was the life of this Samaritan. You see, this guy, being a leper, joined himself to a leper colony apparently. And while I’m sure it had other Samaritans in it, in that Jesus was passing through Samaria and Galilee, the fact that Jesus told them to go show themselves to the priest shows me that these ten lepers must have been mainly made up of Jewish people because Samaritans did not follow the Jewish law. So Jesus would have only told Jews to do what the law said to do when one was cleansed of leprosy. Again, this is another example of the Gentiles showing great faith, like the Centurion and the Syrophoenician Woman whom Jesus praised for their “great faith” and even the good Samaritan that Jesus described as being the one who helped the man beaten on the road. But my point is that this Samaritan had to have some serious issues because he was forced to be around Jews on top of the fact that he had leprosy. YOUR FAITH WILL MAKE YOU WHOLE So when this guy returned to thank & glorify the Lord, Jesus said to him – “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.” Church, this one truth right here completely counters so much popular theology: Notice that Jesus said out of His own mouth that it was not His power that made this man whole. Yes, He said that it was his own faith that made him well! Now, of course, it was the Lord who had the power, anointing, and grace. No one is denying that. But Jesus always had the power. It was there all the time. But it was the people who had faith who came and laid hold of that power. Therefore, that’s the reason the Lord said that it was their faith that made them whole. Now if this was the only time the Lord would have ever said this, we might not hammer this point quite so hard. But it was not the only time. In fact, he said this exact same phrase to two others, and he indicated the same thing to a few others. Let’s look at this and a few similar things that Jesus said to those who came to receive from Him:
So here we have more than four witnesses (all out of Jesus’ own mouth I might add) that clearly show us that it is one’s own faith that heals them, not God’s. Now, of course, this does not mean that we are not healed by means of the power and anointing of God. That should go without saying. But the truth is that since Jesus, the grace of God Himself, has come, it is our faith that simply receives that power and anointing that has already been given by God’s grace. Understanding this is the key to learning how to receive our healing from the Lord. We are not waiting on God. We are not looking for Him to do it. No, we are believing in what He has already done and expecting to receive it by faith & hope. So what happened in this story? All ten of the lepers that came to Jesus were “cleansed,” but one of them – the Samaritan – was made “whole.” You see, this man received more than the other nine because of what he did when he saw he had been healed.
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INTRODUCTION
Did you know that it is the Lord’s will that everyone be made whole? And no, I do not just mean spiritually. Of course, this certainly includes the part of us that must be born again, saved, and made alive in Christ, but it also includes our whole man. Let’s look at a verse that describes to us what our entire person is made up of – First Thessalonians 5:23. Now if this isn’t one of your favorite verses before today, it just might be when it’s all said and done – because it is chalk full of some incredibly wonderful promises. This verse reads – “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Notice the terminology that the apostle Paul uses in this verse: How God wants to sanctify us “completely,” and how He wants our “whole” spirit, soul, and body to be preserved blameless. By using terms like “completely” and “whole,” this insinuates that Paul believed these three things – spirit, soul, and body – are what thoroughly describe what each person is comprised of. In other words, our spirit, soul, and body are what each of us are, nothing more and nothing less. Now if you listen to a lot of Christians, you might think differently: There are some people who would call themselves Christians that think we are nothing more than a blob of flesh. In other words, they have zero revelation that we are anything more than our physical body. Then there are others – and this probably represents the majority of Christendom – who believe that we are body and soul. In other words, they acknowledge that there is a spiritual, immaterial part of us that is not physical. But Paul evidently thought there was more to us than this, here describing our whole man as spirit, soul, and body. Yes, he believed that we are a three-part being, not just one or two-parts. And he also evidently believed that all three parts of us need to be sanctified and preserved – indicating that all three parts of us are in need of being kept in a certain condition. So what we can learn from that is that if Paul was praying for the members of this church’s entire beings to be set apart, kept, etc., then it is possible for one, two, or even all three parts of our whole man to be injured, harmed, sick, etc. And sadly, this is the case for most people, even born-again believers. Sure, just as I’m sure we all realize our bodies can be infirm, sick, etc., the other parts of us can be in a similar condition. Yes, just as our bodies can be dead, our spirits can be dead. Just our bodies can be sick, our souls can be sick. Thus the necessity of having every part of our whole man being made whole. And I use the word “necessity” very specifically here because it is necessary for each of us to be made whole. IN THE BEGINNING Now it is important to understand how God originally designed things and why we are in the situation we are in today … You see, in the beginning, God created everything perfect & whole. Yes, He created everything with life in it and for all of His creation to produce that life after their own kind (i.e. in their own image and likeness). However, what He did for man was much better! He did not create us to reproduce after our own kind; He created us to reproduce after His own kind! Let’s look at Genesis 1:26 … It says, “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness, let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” You see, with every other living creature that He created, He said that they would reproduce after their own kind. But with us, He said that we were to be made in His own likeness and image! In other words, we were to reproduce after His own kind! And notice that God said, “Let Us”… This is the first reference we have to what we call the Trinity in the Word of God, where God counsels among Himself that He would create man in their image and according to their likeness. I believe that this is why we find that we are created as a tri-fold being as well, a “trinity” if you would. Let’s look over at Genesis 2:7, where we see the original reference to man being a three-part being: In this passage, we are told that God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into His nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. So before there ever was a Letter to the Thessalonians that described our complete & whole man, we had Genesis 2:7 that shows us that we are a three part being – spirit, soul, and body – the body being what God formed from the dust of the ground (making the physical from something natural), the spirit of man being that breath of life that God breathed into his nostrils (breathe being another term used for spirit), and then the soul’s being made as a result. But as we well know what happened – There was the fall where Adam & Eve ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good & evil. This is when the image and likeness that they were created in was partly ruined. Although man maintained His physical appearance to a certain degree (aside from the death that works in each one of us causing things to stop working in our bodies and things to waste away), the death that we experienced was mainly unseen. This was the result that God forewarned them would happen if they ate of that tree when He said, “You shall surely die”… In the Hebrew language, the phrase “surely die” literally means, “in dying, you shall die.” In other words, there are two deaths that came as a result of the sin in the Garden: Number one, “in dying” He meant they would die spiritually. They would experience a separation from God in their spirit which caused them to lose many of the elements of His likeness. But then He said, “in dying, you shall die,” or in other words, “because of your death spiritually, you shall die naturally.” So this is what happened: When Adam and Eve partook of the fruit, they immediately experienced death by having their spirit die. This was like being killed from the root. So then, the result of having their root system die, was that “in dying spiritually, they shall die physically.” This will come with time but because what is unseen and underground (i.e. the root) is spoiled, it will eventually cause the part of us that is seen to spoil as well. You see, what we lost in the Garden was the image and likeness of God in our spirit. Our root system was killed. So this obviously affected our outward man as well. This is why we see things like sickness, weakness, infirmities, diseases, and death rampant in the world today. It is because we lost the glory, and the curse entered this physical realm! This opened the door for sin and the death that comes as a result. DO WE NEED TO BE MADE WHOLE? So what this all means is that we all have a desperate need to be made whole. First and foremost, we need to have our spirit made whole. Yes, we need to be made alive again spiritually which occurs through the new birth. But we also likely need to experience the same life in our body & soul because we live in this sin-cursed and fallen world that exposes us to death on so many levels. Yes, we all will likely have the need to have our physical condition made whole because we live in a world where sickness, disease, and infirmities run rampant. Now this will ultimately be fulfilled when Jesus returns and our bodies are resurrected, but the Scriptures teach us that we can walk in that resurrection life now and receive His power in our bodies. And we all likely need to have parts of our soul made whole because life happens, and we can experience things that have impacted our souls negatively. You see, many people do not even realize that they need healing in some of these areas. Sure, with most physical conditions, we know there’s a need to be made whole, but when it comes to the soul, it is a lot more difficult to tell whether something needs healing. Yes, those of us with these unseen infirmities, might not even be aware that there is something that is keeping us from living out the quality of life that God has provided. In fact, these spiritual and soul conditions are like that of a physically sick person – in need of healing and soundness. In other words, a lot of people’s inward condition mirrors that of a person who cannot see, speak, walk, or do other normal physical things. But like I said, most people don’t realize that this is their condition. Why? Because they’ve learned to live with it. It’s been with them seemingly their entire life, so it’s normal. If it were something very obvious to others and to themselves, they might be aware. But for those so-called personality quirks and triggers that people have, that’s just how we see them – as just who we are. A good example of this is with our physical vision: If we have a hard time reading just about anything without glasses, we might more easily recognize the need for some help with our vision. But like it was with some of us, we never thought we had an issue with our eyesight – that is, until we went to the optometrist and had him show us the difference between my regular eyesight and what it looks like with some help. This is when I realized I needed some help. So my point is that sometimes, we just live with our stuff for so long that we don’t recognize that there is something more that is available. For example, if you’ve never had any peace, how would you know what an absence of worry, anxiety, fear, etc. even felt like? If you’ve never really had joy, how would you know what it was like to actually be happy? What if you were always something else like angry, suspicious, irritable, depressed, etc., etc., etc.? How would someone who has lived that way for so long know that they could live differently? This is when we need someone to come show us that there is something more. That is when we need to go before the Lord and let the Great Physician both show us our true condition and prescribe to us the way of escape from it. So I’m here to tell you today that if there is something that seems to keep you from being the way God’s Word reveals that you can be, then that is something that we can target as a potential area of healing. But my point is that it is clear that there is both the opportunity and the need for wholeness in all three aspects of our entire person. So what I want to do in this series is not just recognize the need to be made whole in our whole being, but to get into how we can be made whole. Yes, this is not going to just be about what the problem is and that there is a solution to it. We are going to look at some examples each week of people who needed to be made whole and how they were. You see, while we might have a lot of theories and philosophies of how this happens, I think it’s wise that we search the Scriptures to see what the Bible has to say about this. How many of you know that all the knowledge, all the wisdom, and all the truth that we need to experience healing, wholeness, and life is found in the Scriptures? The world might think they have the answers, but the truth is that God alone has the answers. So we do well to search His Word for those answers in this area. DO YOU WANT TO BE MADE WHOLE? So this week, I want us to look at story in the Gospels where Jesus asked an infirm individual a very important question that we need to answer ourselves – because this is the foundation to everything else we will learn through this study. So let’s look at this Scriptural example in John 5:2-9, where we have the account of the man healed at the Pool of Bethesda, and learn some truths from it … In verse 2, we see John calling this place, in Hebrew, “Bethesda.” Some translate this as “House of Mercy” or “House of Grace,” but others translate it as “Place of Outpouring.” Now a lot of us have our “Bethesda’s” too – that is, physical places where we believe God gives mercy, provides grace, and where His outpouring is. And we will run to those places, worship those places, and see these places as the source of everything we need. It’s just the tendency of man. And guess what? The Pool of Bethesda really was a place where God sovereignly “poured out” His “grace & mercy.” Thank God for these places, but I want you to realize today that in the life & ministry of Jesus, there were many more who came to Him and received their healing than there were those who the Lord came to and healed. Therefore, our “Pools of Bethesda” are not to be the primary source of grace & mercy; Jesus was, is, and evermore shall be! In other words, don’t look for a place; look for the Person. Amen! (We will hammer this point more in today’s teaching). And we also see in verse 3 that a “great multitude” of sick people were gathered there. So this is more than just a couple of dozen people; this is talking about what is likely hundreds of sick people. And what were all of these infirm people doing? Verse 3 says they were “waiting for the moving of the water.” Did you know that this is what most Christians are doing today? They are waiting for God to move so that they can experience His various blessings such as healing. But there are two major problems with this statement when we, as God’s children, do this today:
I feel a lot of Christians are like that—they are dying of thirst and begging the Lord for those rivers of living water when He has already put those wells of salvation on the inside of them and they simply just need to have their eyes opened to see that. But again, most of us tend to wait for the supernatural visitations of God, where there is a legitimate move of God, or some especially anointed man or woman of God holds a meeting – which is essentially what happened in this story. But I want you to notice what happened in it … Verse 4 tells us that an angel came down at a certain time into the pool. Now we don’t know how this happened—maybe this angel put his massive finger in the water and stirred it like that, maybe he did a big cannonball in there and then proceeded to do backstrokes, stirring up the water. We don’t know how he did it, but evidently there was something going on in the water to where the people could tell that something supernaturally was happening. Then we are told that whoever stepped in first was made well of whatever disease he had. So you can just imagine what was happening here. All of these sick and infirm people were gathered around the pool like a bunch of turtles, waiting for the stirring of the waters. Then when it happened, they started plopping in one at a time like turtles. And whoever was quick enough to get in first was supernaturally healed. Now I want to remind you that there were multitudes of sick people gathered around this pool, hoping to be the first one to get in. So we don’t know how many people were there to be healed, but a multitude indicates that it was a lot. So the odds of you being the one who got healed through this supernatural phenomenon were highly unlikely. Yes, it was statistically not in your favor at all. So I make this point to again say that living our lives waiting for the supernatural movings of God to get the miracle we need is not the best way. Sure, these situations do happen, and praise God when they do, but the odds of it happening are not in our favor. So does that mean we are up the creek without a paddle? No! There is another way to receive our wholeness, and that is through Jesus Himself! We will learn how this works throughout this series. But I want you to notice that in verse 5, John is sure to tell us that this man had his infirmity for 38 years! Now the word “infirmity” literally describes a “weakness” or “illness.” So, we don’t know exactly what this man’s physical issue was, but I think it is safe to assume that we are talking here about a literal physical impotence (i.e. helplessness). Perhaps he lost the working ability of his legs. It was indeed something that caused this man to not be able to get himself in the pool when the waters were being stirred. But the fact that this man was this way for 38 years shows that this man’s infirmity likely had become his identity. We have reason to believe this because of what Jesus asked him (i.e. Do you want to be made well?) and also because of his response to that question (i.e. Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool). Let’s first touch on what Jesus asked him … In verse 6, we see that when Jesus saw him lying there and knew (likely a gift of knowledge) that he had been in that condition a long time, He went to him and asked – “Do you want to be made well?” What an interesting question … I mean, of course he wants to be made well, right? Well, the answer is not all that simple. Some people like their infirmity. It’s like a little pet that they are able to stroke and brings them comfort. Some people like the attention that it gives them and the sympathy that it generates. Some people get sustenance for their physical, mental, and emotional issues. So, yes, there are many reasons that people don’t really want to be made well for. But I’m sure this man thought he wanted to be made whole. I guarantee you that he believed he really wanted his healing. But do you know how you can tell whether someone really does or not? Look at how he responded to Jesus’ question … In verse 7, we see the excuses abounding in this guy: He, first of all, says that the reason he can’t get into the pool to receive his miracle was because he doesn’t have anyone to throw him in the pool. Then, he blames it on the fact that someone else was cutting in ahead of him. So you could say that he was saying, “I don’t have anyone to help me” and “Others are keeping me back from it.” Do you know of anyone like this? Always blaming someone else for their plight. Well, I believe this is why Jesus asked him this question – because our will is the most important part of the equation. And if we are making excuses, we don’t want it. And if we want it, the excuses are not an issue. We press through them, and go after what we want. But the fact is, the moment we begin blaming it on others holding us back, not supporting us, etc. we are digging ourselves a hole that we can’t get out of. Blame-shifting is as old as the Garden; it was wrong then and it is still wrong now. Here are some other translations of this question: The King James Version says, “Wilt thou be made whole?” The English Standard Version puts it this way – “Do you want to be healed?” The word that is used for “want” here literally means “to have in mind, to intend, to be resolved or determined, to purpose, to choose or prefer. This is the same word that the leper used when saying to Jesus, “Lord, if you are willing, You can make me clean.” In other words, He wanted to know if Jesus chose, preferred, or desired for him to be cleansed. So yes, the gist of this question is, do you desire, or do you wish to, be healed and made whole. But it also means, are you resolved and determined to be healed? So let’s look at that question that Jesus asked this man in a different light: If Jesus was asking him, “Do you want (wish or desire) to be made well?”, do you think that this had anything to do with him being made well? Absolutely! Now we know that Jesus bypassed a lot of this in this man’s life and sovereignly intervened on his behalf, but what we again need to understand is that this is the exception to the rule. But I’m here to tell you today that if one wants to be made well, they can! They don’t have to wait for Jesus to come rescue them like this man did. They don’t have to wait for the stirring of the waters to get their miracle like this great multitude did. If you and I want to be made well, we can. HOW TO GET WHAT YOU WANT So, what I “want” to do today, is talk about how to get what we want: Now I believe this “want to” is manifested in different ways, so let’s consider how one gets what they want in this physical world we live in. Yes, let’s get into some keys to getting what we want. In other words, if we really want to be made whole, what are the things we need to do? Well, the primary way that I would venture to say that people get what they truly want is by simply asking for it. Now I am not suggesting that we ask God to heal us or anything like that. All I am saying is that going after something in prayer is one way in which we get what we desire. Let’s look at some verses that substantiate this …
Here are some Scriptures that describe the asking with our whole heart …
But here’s an important point – when we ask in faith and with all our heart, there is also the receiving & taking part … I see this one as the biggest problem in most Christian’s life. They ask. They even seek some. But they don’t take what is there and what is theirs! We see this mindset in so many of the people who came to Jesus to be made whole. Many of them took their healing. They received what the Lord had to offer. I just think sometimes Christians are too nice. We try to be kind & polite. But the fact is, there are a lot of times when we have to take what we want. Jesus said in Matthew 11:12 that the kingdom God suffers violence and the violent take it by force. You see, some things just must be taken forcefully. Not this willy nilly, que sera sera mentality that expects it to just happen to us. No, we take it because it has been made available to us. Amen! Saints, we can be whole if we really want to be made whole. And if we are not, we can’t blame it on what someone else is not doing for us or what someone else has done to us. We must take responsibility for our own wellness and seek to take what is ours. Do you want to me made whole? Then you can, and you will. Amen! |
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