How to Be Made Whole - Part 2: What Whole People Do

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:

1. Mark 5:34 - The Woman with the Issue of Blood - “your faith has made you well.”
2. Mark 10:52 – Blind Bartimaeus – “your faith has made you well.” 
3. Matthew 8:13- The Healing of the Centurion’s Servant- “as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” 
4. Matthew 9:29- The Healing of the Two Blind Men- “according to your faith let it be to you.”

And these aren’t the only ones: In the Healing of Syrophoenician woman’s daughter, He said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” In the Healing of the Boy with Epilepsy, we heard Jesus saying to the boy’s father- “All things are possible to him who believes.”  
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.