The Hermeneutics of Healing (Luke 4:38–40) | The Gospel of Luke (Part 36)

Transcript

JRNT 87
06/22/2025
The Gospel of Luke: The Hermeneutics of Healing
Luke 4:38-40
Jesse Randolph


Well, we're going to start our time this morning with a story that was first reported by C. Everett Koop. For some of you who may remember, C. Everett Koop was the Surgeon General of The United States of America in the '80s during the Reagan administration, and Koop was a man who was quite vocal about his faith. In fact, he used his very public platform and role to call out the evils of abortion in his day. In addition to that, he was very vocal in his opposition to the faith healers who had become so popularized by the 1980s. See, in those days when there were only a handful of channels on the dial of your TV, it wasn't uncommon to turn to the TV and see faith healers like Oral Roberts or Kathryn Kuhlman or members of the 700 Club telling you how it was God's will for your life to be well. That God's will for your life was not to be sick, and that they had the power and the ability to heal you. If you would just sow a seed into their ministry, the Lord would not only prosper you, but He would prosper many more fortunate souls who would benefit from the miraculous healing power of Jesus if you would just give a little bit more. Well, Koop did this thorough investigation into the practices of the faith healers of his day. And at the conclusion of that investigation, he prepared a report. I'm going to read a bit of this report.

This is Koop writing. He says: ÒOur investigator traveled to a Southwestern city where a healing campaign had been advertised some weeks in advance. Among those who applied for healing was an elderly gentleman who lived out on the prairie. His vision was becoming dim, and he most likely was developing cataracts. The only lighting in the little cabin where he lived was a kerosene lamp. He was a devout Christian, read his Bible daily, or tried to, and had all the faith necessary for healing, if faith indeed does secure healing. His major complaint was that his sight had deteriorated to the point where he could no longer read his Bible. On the night of his appearance before the healer, the old man was brought up in the atmosphere of a sideshow. The faith healer said, Well, Pop, you can't see anymore. You've gotten old. You can't even see with your glasses. Your vision is failing. Then he reached over and took the old man's spectacles, threw them on the platform, stomped them, and broke them. He then handed the elderly gentleman a large print Bible, which under the lights necessary for television in those days, enabled the gentleman to read John 3:16 out loud to the astonishment and applause of the audience. The elderly gentleman praised God. The healer praised God. The audience praised God. The old man went back to his dimly lit cabin and could not find his Bible because his glasses were destroyed. The man went back to the healer but was told the most discouraging thing a godly man like that could possibly hear. You don't have enough faith, or the healing would have stuck.

So, this gentleman that Koop is describing went from having fading vision, the natural process that we'll all go through as we age, to having no vision. From having difficulty reading his Bible to not even being able to find his Bible. He was used as a prop. He was played like a fiddle, and ultimately, he was blamed for not having enough faith.

I'll remind you that we're in the middle of a series in the Gospel of Luke, and right now we're in the middle of a miniseries within that series, you could say. We're going to be looking more deeply at a few topics here that are going to come up in Luke's Gospel. We're going to do so, that as we continue to hit these topics head on, as we plow forward in Luke, we'll be able to better understand the setting in which these various instances of healing are given to us as we work through the Gospel verse by verse. You know, last Sunday, we did something similar. We went into one of these topics, demonology or demon possession, in a sermon that was titled The Doctrine of Demons. In today's message, we're going to get into another topic, healing, specifically miraculous healing, as we look at this topic not through the lens of experience, not through the lens of what somebody told us they experienced, not through the lens of TV or what we've seen on YouTube, but instead through the lens of Scripture. See, ultimately, all that really matters when it comes to this issue of miraculous healing or really anything else is what does God's Word have to say on this subject? And which principles of hermeneutics, that's a fancy word for Bible interpretation, are we going to employ to ensure that we're reading God's Word correctly? So, the title of the message this morning is The Hermeneutics of Healing.

You'll recall that we're currently parked in the middle of this scene in Luke 4. Jesus has just been run out of His native land or native town of Nazareth. That was in fulfillment of what He Himself declared, that a prophet is not welcome in his hometown. The Lord had to escape this crowd of angry Nazarenes who had run Him out to the city's edge. They tried to throw Him off a cliff. Then, leaving Nazareth, He comes to Capernaum, and you see it here in Luke 4:31. He comes to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and He was teaching them on the Sabbath. Verse 32 says, ÒThey were amazed at His teaching, for His message was with authority.Ó And then there's the scene that we covered last Sunday, verses 33-37, where Jesus comes face to face with this demon possessed man, and He casts the demon out of the man. You'll remember that last Sunday, we used that text as our jumping off point to work through the doctrine of demons. Today, we're going to do something similar. Remember, this is all part of our series in the Gospel of Luke, and we're going to specifically go to these next three verses, verses 38-40, Luke 4:38-40, and then launch from those verses into what the Bible teaches more broadly about healing.

With that, our text for this morning, officially, is Luke 4:38-40. God's Word reads, ÒThen He stood up and left the synagogue, and entered Simon's home. Now Simon's mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Him to help her. And standing over her, He rebuked the fever, and it left her. Immediately, she stood up and began waiting on them. And while the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to Him, and laying His hands on each one of them, He was healing them.Ó So again, like last Sunday, this is not going to be an exposition of those verses proper. Rather, we're going to take this text like we did last time and launch from this passage into the broader topic of what do the Scriptures teach, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, specifically in the Gospel of Luke, about healing. What key Biblical principles can we draw? What principles of sound Bible interpretation can we extract to help us as we deal with the Gospel of Luke as a whole in months to come. As we look through the text as a whole, as we work through it passage by passage, and see what God's revealed will is for healing.

So, with that, here's our road map for this morning. First, we're going to do a Biblical survey of healing. We'll be turning a lot of pages in that one. Then we're going to consider some Biblical traits of healing, where we'll look at the typical scene and the typical setting of these various incidents where Jesus or His apostles were healing. Then we'll consider some Biblical principles for healing as we draw some application for today. It's a Biblical Survey of Healing, Biblical Traits of Healing, and Biblical Principles for Healing. We'll go to our Biblical Survey first.

Now, where we're going to start is consider briefly what the Old Testament reveals about sickness and about healing before we get into the Gospel of Luke specifically. Right away it's important to note that at a couple of points in the Old Testament, it is said very clearly that God is the author of sickness and health. Deuteronomy 32:39, this is God speaking. He says, ÒSee now that I, I am He, and there is no God besides Me. It is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded, and it is I who heal.Ó Exodus 4:11, ÒAnd Yahweh said to him, who has made man's mouth?Ó He's speaking to Moses. ÒOr who makes him mute or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, Yahweh?Ó Job 5:17, ÒBehold how blessed is the man whom God reproves, so do not reject the discipline of the Almighty. For He inflicts pain and gives relief, He wounds, and His hands also heal.Ó

So the God who is sovereign over all creation, the God who is sovereign over kings and nations is the God who is sovereign over life and death, and the God who is sovereign over health and sickness. That's our general principle from the Old Testament. We do see it recorded in the Old Testament, these various instances where individuals were struck with some form of sickness or disease. Miriam, in Numbers 12, was struck with leprosy. The son of David and Bathsheba, the one conceived in their adulterous relationship, died. Isaac, who was told in Genesis 27:1, became old and his eyes were too dim to see. Jacob, who weÕre told in Genesis 48:1, became sick. Job, we're told in Job 2:7, was severely smitten with boils. So, in the Old Testament, there's this God-breathed record of some of this suffering and illness and disease that people went through. Now when we trace through that same record, another thing to note from those 39 books of the Old Testament is that God did not always intervene, and God did not always heal.
There are a few instances where He did heal, like Miriam. She was healed of her leprosy. Or Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4. He's afflicted by God for seven years and he's healed. Naaman, the Syrian general, dipped seven times in the Jordan River and he was healed. But God overall, as you look at the Old Testament revelation as a whole, rarely intervened and healed. When He did intervene and heal, it was more the exception than the rule. What that tells us in terms of principle is that it is not always God's will to heal. If God had willed all the time that all be healed, well, we'd all be healed. We would have a much fuller record of healings in the Old Testament and in the New. So that's our very brief survey of sickness and healing in the Old Testament.

Now what we're going to do is go through a survey of sickness and healing in the Gospel of Luke. I do want you to get your page-turning fingers ready, because we're going to lay our eyes on each of these different occasions of healing in Luke's Gospel, where Jesus healed somebody who was sick or afflicted. I'm not going to go into each of these deeply, but you are going to hear me read long sections of this to get a full picture of what type of healing the Lord was doing in the Gospel of Luke. Look at Luke 5:12, this will be our first one. We'll get to this one in just a couple of weeks. Luke 5:12, this is Jesus's healing of the leper in Galilee. It says, ÒAnd it happened that while He was in one of the cities, behold, there was a man covered with leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged Him saying, Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean. And He stretched out His hand and touched him saying, I am willing, be cleansed. And immediately the leprosy left him. And He directed him to tell no one but go and show yourself to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing, just as Moses commanded as a testimony to them. But the news about Him was spreading even farther, and large crowds were gathering to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But He Himself would often slip away to the desolate regions and pray.Ó So, Jesus healed this leper and in a couple of weeks, we'll learn more about leprosy than we would ever want to know as we study this passage. But note that the result was these large crowds, verse 15, were gathering to witness more of these encounters.

The next instance follows. Verse 17 of chapter 5, ÒAnd it happened that one day He was teaching and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee in Judea and from Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing. And behold, some men were carrying on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed. And they were trying to bring him in and to set him down before Him. But not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher into the middle of the crowd in front of Jesus. And seeing their faith, He said, Friend, your sins are forgiven you. The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, who is this who speaks of blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone? But Jesus, knowing their reasonings, answered and said to them, ÔWhy are you reasoning in your hearts?Õ Which is easier to say, your sins have been forgiven you, or to say, get up and walk? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, He said to the paralytic, I say to you, get up, and picking up your stretcher, go home. And immediately he rose before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home glorifying God. And astonishment seized them all, and they began glorifying God. And they were filled with fear saying, ÔWe have seen remarkable things today.Ó So, Jesus first healed a leper, then he healed a paralytic.

The next instance of healing in Luke is found in Luke 7:1. Luke 7:1 says, ÒWhen He had completed all His words in the hearing of the people, He went to Capernaum. And the centurion's slave, who was highly regarded by him, was sick and about to die. Now when he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders, asking Him to come and save the life of his slave. And when they came to Jesus, they were earnestly pleading with Him, saying, He is worthy for You to grant this to him, for he loves our nation, and it was he who built us our synagogue. Now Jesus was going on His way with them and when He was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends saying to Him, Lord, do not trouble Yourself further for I am not good enough for You to come under my roof. For this reason, I did not even consider myself worthy to come to You, but just say the word and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man placed under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to this one, go and he goes, and to another, come and he comes, and to my slave, do this and he does it. Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled at him. And He turned to the crowd that was following Him and said, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith. And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.Ó All right, so we have a leper cleansed, we have a paralytic walking, and now we have this slave who had been on death's door revived.

In that same vein, look at verse 11. ÒAnd it happened that soon afterwards He went to a city called Nain, and His disciples were going along with Him accompanied by a large crowd. Now as He approached the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a sizeable crowd from the city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, He felt compassion for her and said to her, ÔDo not cry.Õ And He came up and touched the coffin. And the bearers came to a halt. And He said, ÔYoung man, I say to you, arise.Õ And the dead man sat up and began to speak. And Jesus gave him back to his mother. And fear gripped them all, and they began glorifying God, saying, A great prophet has risen among us, and God has visited His people. And this report concerning Him went out all over Judea and in all the surrounding district.Ó

Now apparently the records that we've read so far from Luke's Gospel are not exhaustive, meaning that there would have been even more healings than what we've looked at already. Just drop down the page to verse 21 where Luke makes this mention. Luke 7:21, ÒAt that very time, He cured many people of diseases and afflictions and evil spirits, and He granted sight to many who were blind.Ó There was more than what we've seen here, in other words.

Look at Luke 8 now, where we're going to see this double healing taking placeÑone of a woman who had a hemorrhage for 12 years and one of a 12-year-old girl who was weak and dying. Look at verse 40 of chapter 8, ÒAnd as Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed Him, and they had all been waiting for Him. And behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was an official of the synagogue. And falling at Jesus's feet, he began to plead with Him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter about twelve years old, and she was dying. But as He went, the crowds were pressing against Him. And a woman who had a hemorrhage for twelve years and could not be healed by anyone came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His garment, and immediately her hemorrhage stopped.Ó There is healing number one. ÔAnd Jesus said, who is the one who touched Me?Õ And while they were all denying it, Peter said, Master, the crowds are surrounding and pressing in on You. But Jesus said, ÔSomeone did touch Me for I knew that power had gone out of Me.Õ And when the woman saw that she had not escaped notice, she came trembling. And falling down before Him, she declared in the presence of all the people the reason why she had touched Him and how she had been immediately healed. And He said to her, ÔDaughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace.Õ While He was still speaking, someone came from the house of the synagogue official saying, your daughter has died. Do not trouble the teacher anymore. But when Jesus heard this, He answered him, ÔDo not be afraid any longer. Only believe, and she will be saved.Õ So when He came to the house, He did not allow anyone to enter with Him, except Peter and John and James and the girl's father and mother. Now they were all crying and lamenting for her, but He said, ÔStop crying for she has not died but is asleep.Õ And they began laughing at Him, knowing that she had died. He, however, took her by the hand and called saying, ÔChild, arise.Õ And her spirit returned, and she stood up immediately. And He gave orders for something to be given to her to eat, and her parents were astounded. But He directed them to tell no one what had happened.Ó So here we're already seeing the scope of Jesus's healing power. From leprosy to hemorrhages, from paralysis to death, He had comprehensive healing power.

Speaking of power, turn to Luke 17, where Jesus was involved in the healing of ten leprous men. Luke 17:11, there it says, ÒAnd it happened that while He was on the way to Jerusalem, He was passing through Samaria and Galilee. And as He entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met Him. And they raised their voices saying, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when He saw them, He said to them, ÔGo and show yourselves to the priests.Õ And it happened that as they were going, they were cleansed. Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him, and he was a Samaritan.Ó

Last one, Luke 18:35. ÒNow it happened that as Jesus was approaching Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the road begging. Now hearing a crowd going by, he began to inquire what this was. They reported to him; Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. And he called out saying, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. And those who went ahead were rebuking him so that he would be quiet, but he kept crying out all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stopped and commanded that he be brought to Him. And when he came near, He questioned him, ÔWhat do you want Me to do for you?Õ And he said, ÒLord, I want to regain my sight. And Jesus said to him, ÔReceive your sight, your faith has saved you.Õ Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him, glorifying God. And when all the people saw it, they gave praise to God.

That's the lay of the land on the healings that we see Jesus performing in the Gospel of Luke. Should we close in prayer? No. There's a lot more to cover. He healed the blind, we see. He healed the paralyzed. He healed the leprous. He healed the hemorrhaging. He healed the dead. He healed the dying. Now what we want to do now is go more wide angle, as we consider more of the common characteristics of the healings that we see not only in the Gospel of Luke, as we've just laid our eyes on, but in the other three Gospels as well. That's going to bring us to our second point for this morning, the Biblical Traits of Healing. That was our Biblical Survey of Healing, now we want to look at some Biblical Traits of Healing. We're going to make several different observations about Jesus's works of healing, not just in Luke, but in all four Gospel accounts.

For starters, His healings were abundant. We've just gone through six or seven of them in the Gospel of Luke, many more are recorded in the other three Gospels. His healings were abundant, they were great in number, they were far ranging in scope. I'll give you a passage. Matthew 15:31 says, ÒThe crowd marveled as they saw the mute speaking, the crippled restored, and the lame walking, and the blind seeing, and they glorified the God of Israel.Ó They were abundant, He was healing in a variety of different ways. His healings were not only abundant though, but they were also purposeful, meaning He didn't wield His healing powers indiscriminately, He didn't heal everyone who needed healing. His healings rather, were targeted, His healings were selective. In John 5:3 we're told, this is the pool at Bethesda scene, that Òthere was a multitude around who were sick and blind and lame and withered,Ó but Jesus singles one of them out, this man who had been sick for 38 years in John 5:5 and heals him.

Here's another one. His healings were controlled; meaning the Lord decided who it was who He was going to heal. He didn't heal on demand. Matthew 12:38 tells us that as ÒSome of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, Teacher, we want to see a sign from You. He answered and said to them, ÔAn evil and adulterous generation eagerly seeks for a sign, and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.Ó The Pharisees wanted a sign, but Jesus here is saying, I'm not going to give you the immediate sign, I'm not going to heal right away to scratch your intellectual itch. He wasn't some sort of performer. He wasn't like the guy you see at the carnival or the festival who's got the guitar case open, and if you throw a quarter in, he'll strum a few more chords. He wasn't some sideshow act. No. His healings were controlled, controlled in the sense that others couldn't dictate or demand who it was He would heal.

Now on the other hand, His healings were commonplace. Now by commonplace, I don't mean common. Quite the contrary, His healings weren't normal, they were miraculous, but they were commonplace, meaning they took place in the ordinary course of His travels in His ministry. He didn't set special times or locations for healings. He didn't set special healing services like we hear of today. No. His healings happened as ordinary folk approached Him in the ordinary course of His life and ministry. Like in Matthew 29:7 it says, ÒAs Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him crying out, Have mercy on us, Son of David. And when He entered the house, the blind men came up to Him and Jesus said to them, ÔDo you believe that I am able to do this?Õ They said to Him, yes, Lord. Then He touched their eyes saying, ÔIt shall be done to you according to your faith.Ó They came up to Him in the ordinary course of business, you could say, and He healed.

Jesus's healings weren't limited by time or space. That's another one. You know, Jesus was capable of healing even when He wasn't physically in the presence of the one who was healed. John 4:49, ÒThe royal official said to Him, Sir, come down before my child dies. Jesus said to him, ÔGo, your son lives.Õ The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way.Ó So, he leaves Jesus's presence. ÒAnd while he was still going down, his slaves met him, saying that his son was alive. He inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. Then they said to him, Yesterday, at the seventh hour, the fever left him. The father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, ÔYour son lives,Õ and he believed himself and his whole household.Ó So, He could heal even when He wasn't in the presence of the one who is being healed.

His healing, Jesus's, was multifaceted. He healed in a number of different ways. He didn't need holy water, He didn't need a magic rabbit's foot, He didn't need a healing cloth, He didn't need a white coat. It was through the power of God that He healed. The power of God came through Jesus as He healed in a number of different ways. We know that He healed by touching, Matthew 8:15. We know that He healed by being touched, the woman with the hemorrhage of twelve years. We know that He healed by speaking, get up, pick up your mat, and walk. And we even know that He healed by spitting and making mud out of the saliva that mixed with the clay as He healed people's ears and eyes.

His healings were instantaneous. The Lord's healings didn't leave people wondering or if there was something more that He was going to do or something more that they needed to do. No, the afflicted whom He healed were returned to complete health immediately. Matthew 9:6, ÒBut so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, then He said to the paralytic, ÔGet up, pick up your bed, and go home. And He got up and went home.Ó

His healings were total; He didn't partially heal anyone. He didn't leave anyone doubting, He didn't leave anyone hanging. He finished what He started, He followed through. Mark 8:22, ÒThey came to Bethsaida, and they brought a blind man to Jesus and pleaded with Him to touch him. And taking the blind man by the hand, He brought him out of the village. And after spitting on his eyes and laying His hands on him, He was asking him, ÔDo you see anything?Õ And he looked up and was saying, I see men, for I see them like trees walking around. Then again, He laid his hands on his eyes, and he looked intently and was restored, and began to see everything clearly. And He sent him to his home saying, ÔDo not even enter the village.Ó

His healings were undeniable. The reaction to Jesus's healings was one of wonder, one of astonishment. Not only by those who were for Jesus, and not only by those who were neutral toward Jesus, but by those who were against Jesus. By those who were His outward enemies, by those who were motivated to discredit or deny the very miracles He performed, but they couldn't. John 11:47, ÒTherefore, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the Sanhedrin together and they were saying, ÔWhat are we doing? For this Man is doing many signs. If we let Him go on like this, all will believe in Him. And the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.Ó There was wonder, there was amazement even by His adversaries.

Though there was wonder and there was amazement at the miracles of healing He was performing, Jesus wasn't turning a profit on the work that He was doing. He wasn't doing what He was doing for His own fame and fortune. Hardly. In Luke 9:58 He says famously, ÒThe foxes have holes, the birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.Ó He wasn't living high on the hog; He wasn't gaining anything from healing others. He encouraged His apostles as they healed to adopt the same mindset. Luke 10:20, He says to them, ÒNevertheless do not rejoice in this, the spirits are subject to you but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.Ó He didn't heal for His own benefit; He didn't heal for His own advancement. Rather, He healed for God's glory. In a couple of different places in the Gospels, it's said that both the sickness and the healing that occurred in Jesus's ministry took place so that God would be glorified. John 11:4, ÒThis sickness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.Ó

All right, we've sort of covered the waterfront there on the different marks or the different traits of Jesus's healing ministry as recorded in all four Gospel accounts. We've seen that His healings were, among other things, undeniable, unparalleled, unique, abundant, spectacular, overwhelming, and awe inducing. And while no one has ever come close to approaching that level of power that Jesus had in His healing ministry, as we read on in the Bible narrative, specifically as we get to the book of Acts. We see that He imparted healing powers to His apostles and to His disciples. In fact, in John 14:12, as He sat with His disciples in the upper room on the night He was betrayed, He said this, ÒTruly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also. And greater works than these, he will do because I go to the Father.Ó Jesus would keep that promise to those disciples. He would, after His crucifixion, after His resurrection, return to the Father in His ascension. Then, with the sending of the Spirit, He would empower His disciples in the earliest decades of the church, in that unique period of church history where the canon of Scripture had not yet been closed, and as new revelation was still being given through the apostles and the disciples, to perform signs and wonders. Just as His own claims to be who He was and is were certified and authenticated through His miracles, that's Acts 2:22, ÒJesus the Nazarene, a Man attested to you by faith with God through miracles and wonders and signs, which God did through Him in your midst,Ó so, too, were the apostles' claims to be sent and commissioned representatives of Jesus authenticated by their miracles and authenticated by their signs and by their wonders and by their healings. Consider these words from Hebrews 2:3, it speaks of the salvation ÒFirst spoken by the Lord was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.Ó Or these words from Paul in Romans 15:18, ÒFor I will not be bold to speak of anything except what Christ has brought about through me, leading to the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit, so that from Jerusalem and all around us, as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.Ó

As we read through the book of Acts, we see these very words coming to fruition as various apostles and disciples were used of the Lord to bring about healing. That includes Ananias, who was used of God in Acts 9 to help Saul, later Paul, regain his vision. Then there's the Apostle Paul healing the lame man in Lystra in Acts 14. Then there is Paul healing the man with the fever and dysentery on the island of Malta in Acts 28. So, as was the case with Jesus before them, the healings that the apostles and the disciples performed, this is the big idea here, they weren't performed for the sake of showmanship or even ultimately for the benefit of the person who was being healed. Rather the apostles, as they were given the authority to heal and as they carried out their healing ministries, they did so to reveal, in a time when God was still giving new revelation through men in the mouths of men, and to certify that they were Christ's chosen spokesmen. The words of II Corinthians 12:12 confirm this very point, that Òthe signs of a true apostle were worked out among you with all perseverance by signs and wonders and miracles.Ó Now someone might say, and in fact many have said, and many have claimed that just like Jesus and just like the apostles after Him; there's no reason to believe that healings like those that they performed cannot still be performed today. Maybe I can put that positively, that there is such a thing, some will say, as the gift of healing right now in the church age that Jesus and the apostles had, and that believers in the church age should earnestly strive to pursue and exercise that gift.

Well, a couple of responses to make to that type of claim. First of all, as we've just seen, the miracles that Jesus and the apostles performed, including the miracles of healing, were performed for the very purpose of affirming and certifying that they truly were God's messengers in an era when the canon of Scripture was not yet fully complete or recognized and new revelation was still being given. In that era, it was necessary before God had given us all that He's given us in the Word, to have somebody perform a sign to validate that they really were who they claimed to be. But once the final jot and tittle of Scripture was written, once the book of Revelation was done, when that was written around 95 or 96 A.D. Once the last living apostle, John, died, somewhere around 99 A.D, there was no reason for God to perform these types of miracles through men. The foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Ephesians 2:20, had already been laid. In fact, as we trace our way through the letters of the New Testament, knowing when each of those letters was written, we can detect this noticeable shift of what the authors, the human authors of those letters, were writing on the subject of healing, as they elevate more and more these commonplace illnesses that various individuals were experiencing. Suddenly you're not seeing so many references to the healing of those illnesses. Right? In the Gospels and Acts, as we've surveyed at laser fast speed just now, those are all recording events that occurred around the 30s A.D. We see, we have seen these frequent references to miraculous healing in the 30s A.D. But then as you get to the New Testament letters, to the epistles, and you line them up on a chronological timeline, you quickly start to detect that these instances of miraculous healing of illnesses and diseases are very clearly and gradually waning. They're very clearly going off the stage.

For instance, in Philippians 2, written somewhere around 60 A.D., Paul mentions in Philippians 2:25-27 that his companion, Epaphroditus, is ill. But Paul makes no mention of Epaphroditus being healed or that he should seek a faith healer to heal him of his illness. Or in I Timothy 5:23, written likely around 62 or 63 A.D., Paul mentions that Timothy is experiencing various discomforts and ailments. But Paul doesn't say that he should go seek healing by some miraculous means, instead he gives a very common remedy of a little wine for your frequent ailments. II Timothy 4:20, written around 67 or 66 A.D., Trophimus there is referred to as being ill. But there's no mention of healing. There's no mention of, you know, take this magic cloth and wave it over you and you'll be okay. No. Paul didn't heal these men. Paul wasn't a faith healer. Paul didn't call in a faith healer or even suggest that this was an option at this time in history. In fact, Paul himself, who we know from Galatians 4:13-14, was dealing with his own health issues. He doesn't even miraculously heal himself. Galatians 4:13, ÒBut you know that it was because of a bodily illness that I proclaimed the gospel to you the first time.Ó

What all of this is pointing to is the fact that the type of miraculous healings that Jesus and the apostles performed at their point in history had a very specific purpose, at a very specific time in history when they were ministering. That purpose was to authenticate God's spokesmen as being certifiable heaven-sent messengers. But when the canon of Scripture closed, when the book of Revelation was written, when the last living apostle, John, died, there was no longer any revelatory reason for God to perform miraculous healings through men; and so those miraculous healings ceased.

We've done a Biblical survey of healing. We've looked at the Biblical traits of healing, and that the healing that was performed by Jesus and later the apostles carried those traits. Now we're going to look at, this is our third point, Biblical Purposes of Healing. Why did Jesus heal? Why did the apostles heal? What is the reason for my sickness? Why am I not healed? Before we get there though, if you'll indulge me as I take us on a bit of a side trail, a bunny trail, I want to take us into the subject of the sovereignty of God and sickness. We have to start there; we have to start by developing a Biblical theology of sickness. To rightly consider the hermeneutics of healing, we need to first rightly recognize that there is sickness in this world. We must grapple with the truth that Scripture reveals that God is sovereign over our sickness. That God's sovereignty over our sickness really is just an extension of the truth that He is sovereign over all things. Here are a few Scriptures to consider on this point, where it's affirmed Biblically that God is sovereign over every aspect of our physical lives. Exodus 4:11, ÒWho has made man's mouth? Or Who makes him mute or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, Yahweh?Ó Deuteronomy 32:39, ÒSee now that I, I am He, and there is no God besides Me. It is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded, and it is I who heal.Ó I Samuel 2:6, ÒYahweh puts to death and makes alive.Ó Lamentations 3:38, ÒIs it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good go forth?Ó So, from death to life, from sight to blindness, from good to bad, God is sovereign over it all.

Here's another preliminary truth that we need to consider, which is that at the root of illness, at the root of disease, at the root of sickness that we all deal with is what? Sin. Sin entered this world through the fall of Adam and Eve. Romans 5:12 just says, ÒThrough one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men. And we know that sin brings forth death.Ó James 1:15, ÒThen when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is fully matured, it brings forth death.Ó We know that sin will continue until the curse is removed in the coming new heavens and new earth. We get that out of Revelation 22:3. Now according to God's rich mercy, His amazing kindness, and as a matter of a way to satisfy His righteous justice, Christ did take on the penalty for our sin, sparing all who would believe upon Him from the ultimate death that we deserve, eternal death. Because of His great love for us, God has offered us hope and eternal life through the person and work of His Son, Jesus Christ. And we praise Him for that. We really are recipients of true amazing grace.

But also note this, that the great love that God has shown us in Christ and through Christ, Romans 5:8, that ÒGod demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we're yet sinners, Christ died for us,Ó that does not negate the consequences of sin. It is possible for sin to be forgiven and yet for sin to carry consequences. If you want an example, think of the forgiven drunkard who still has a liver problem, or the forgiven liar who still has people who have trust issues with him or her, or the forgiven adulterer who sleeps on the couch for a few weeks. Sin, though forgiven, might still have consequences. Well, so it is with the sin that first entered the world through Adam. That offer of forgiveness for our sin is now extended to us by God through the death of His Son, but the consequences of Adam's sin linger on, including the consequences of sickness and death. The world that we live in is still under the curse of sin, and as long as sin exists in this world, so will sickness. The reason that hair turns gray, the reason muscles atrophy, the reason backs start aching, the reason teeth fall out is sin. While God is not the author of sin, He can't be, I John 1:5, ÒGod is light and in Him there is no darkness at all,Ó God does employ the sin He allows. God does employ the consequences He metes out for sin, like sickness and death, to accomplish His divine prerogative and purposes. He Òworks all things,Ó Ephesians 1:11, that includes sickness, Òaccording to the counsel of His will.Ó He Òcauses all things,Ó Romans 8:28, that includes sickness, Òto work together for our good and for those who are called according to His purpose.Ó So, on this sin cursed planet, God permits sickness and illness and disease to occur, and occasionally, when He sees fit, He heals our sickness.

Now maybe you haven't seen a faith healer, maybe you haven't sown a seed in some online ministry. That would be a good thing. Praise the Lord. But if you've ever broken a bone, if you've ever torn a muscle, if you ever experienced a fever or a flu or the sniffles, you are the recipient already of divine healing. How do I know that? Well, that bone is no longer broken. That muscle is no longer torn. That fever has since passed. You no longer have those sniffles and what that means is that you have experienced healing, divine healing. The divine healing you experienced wasn't necessitated; you didn't need a faith healer to get you through that. No. The divine healing you experienced was not because of your inherent goodness or because you deserved to be healed, it was all because of God's grace and ultimately for His glory.

So that's our side trail on the sovereignty of God in sickness. We're still under this third heading of Biblical Purposes of Healing. I want to get us back to answer this question, why did Jesus heal? Why did His apostles after Him heal? We've already covered some of this, but there is more to say on what the Scriptures reveal about this subject. See the reality is that the purpose of our Lord's healing ministry went far beyond the immediate physical benefit to those who were healed. It wasn't about the blind man; it wasn't about the deaf man. As we've already seen, Jesus's miraculous works of healing were ultimately done for the glory of God. John 11:4, ÒThis sickness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God.Ó But then you bring it down a little bit and even more fundamentally. Jesus performed the healings He performed to certify and authenticate His claim in front of the people He was ministering to, to be the Messiah of Israel who had been long promised, going back to the days of David. It had been said long before to the people of Israel that the Messiah who would come would be a healer. We remember the words of Isaiah 53:3, ÒSurely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried, yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities, the chastening for our peace fell upon Him, and by His wounds, we are healed.Ó

Now Jesus, of course, would come to earth in fulfillment of this prophecy, and He would ultimately fulfill those prophetic words on the cross. But before the cross came His own ministry of healing. His ministry of healing affirmed and certified and established that He truly was this promised Messiah, that He was and is the Son of God. John 20:30 says, ÒTherefore many other signs Jesus also did in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. But these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you may have life in His name.Ó But note how that purpose statement of John is tied back to the signs that Jesus performed. So, His healing ministry had a purpose, His healing ministry established that He truly was the Christ, the promised Messiah of Israel. His healing ministry showed that He was and is the Son of God. God in flesh, God incarnate. His healing ministry showed that He was the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world, that He came offering forgiveness for sin for those who would turn from their sin and put their faith in Him. So, He healed with a purpose and the apostles after Him healed with a purpose.

We still need to answer this question, which surely some of you have been thinking about, especially since the opening story from C. Everett Koop, which is, does God still heal today? Does God still heal today? Answer, yes. Does God heal miraculously today? Answer, yes. Let's focus in a little bit. Does God heal miraculously today through specially gifted, specially anointed men or women? Answer, no. How can I make that statement so plainly? How can I say it in such black and white terms? Well, having specially anointed or specially gifted men running around all day today performing healings would not serve God's purpose of authenticating Jesus as the Messiah, of authenticating Jesus as the Son of God, of authenticating Jesus as the Savior of the world. That already happened. That foundation has already been laid through the ministry of Christ and His apostles, as has been recorded for us in the Word. Hebrews 2:3, Òthat salvation first spoken by the Lord was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them both by signs and wonders and by various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.Ó That already happened. The question is not really whether God can or cannot heal. He can and He does. The issue instead is whether these days of miraculous healings being performed by specific men, like we see in the Gospels, like we see in the book of Acts, still happen today. And the answer is no. Those days are gone. That form of miraculous healing ceased with the apostolic age ending. When the last of the apostles died, when the canon of Scripture closed, those gifts and those healings went with it. And today instead, in the church age, we have what Peter calls Òa more sure prophetic word,Ó II Peter 1:19.

So does God heal? Sure He does. But God in our generation, has He funneled that inherent power to heal into a few anointed individuals who claim that they can perform a healing for you, if you just write a check for $9.99 or sow a seed to their ministry by calling this number at the bottom of your screen? No. If God had chosen, let's put it this way, if God had chosen to raise up healers for this generation, I guarantee you two things would have already happened by now. Number one, every emergency room and NICU and urgent care facility would be completely cleared out. Right? All the healers, if that were a thing or that were a gift today, all of the healers, because they would want to give glory to God, they would urgently rush to all those facilities to heal the sick and the afflicted and the diseased, and the doctors and the nurses and those who work in the hospitals wouldn't be able to fill out the discharge paperwork fast enough. Second, if miraculous healings like that were actually happening today, as it did in the days of Jesus and the apostles; that healing would be done with the same purpose that Jesus and the apostles healed with. Testifying to the fact that Jesus is the Messiah, that He is the Son of God, that forgiveness of sins is found through Him. And that eternal life is found in His name through those who repent of their sin and put their faith in God the Son. But that's not the aim of today's so-called faith healers, is it? No. Those who claim the ability to heal today, they don't call on those who follow their ministry to repent of their sins and believe upon Jesus as the only means by which a man or a woman or a child might be saved. Instead, they call on those who give them an audience to have more faith, it's always tied to money, so that their physical ailments can be taken care of. Those who call themselves healers today, they don't go to the terminal cancer ward in a hospital with no fanfare and heal. No. Everything is done in a controlled environment, like a TV studio, where they can dictate who it is they'll see and what it is they'll say back to them. They don't perform their services with humility and with no fanfare. No. They put on a show where the spotlight doesn't shine on Jesus, but on them. They don't perform their services free of charge. Instead, they put a price tag on their supposed gift. They don't advance the gospel, they take away from the gospel, they detract from the saving gospel. So again, does God heal today? Yes, He does. Sure He does. If He wants to heal, if He wills to heal, He will heal. It's all within His power. But He doesn't heal through the means of the individuals I just mentioned who are looking to turn a profit on the name of Christ.

All right, a few final thoughts on this topic that we've been addressing today, sickness and healing. As those who are living in the year 2025, nearly 2,000 years after Jesus lived, and in this time where I am making the case, Biblically, that God is not using men in our day to perform these miraculous works of healing, what comfort are we supposed to have? If we can't go to a faith healer, if we can't call a certain number, go to a certain website and have all of our afflictions taken care of. What kind of hope can we have for that creak in the knee or that twitch in the eye or whatever the affliction is? Does our sickness, does our illness, does it have a purpose of any sort? The answer is, yes, it does. In the moment, it may not seem that that's the case. In the moment, it may not be clear to us how God is fitting our sickness or our ailment into His perfect eternal plan. But what we think, and what we feel, and what we know, and what's clear to us, and what's unclear to us ultimately is not the arbiter of truth. God's Word is the arbiter of truth on this matter and on every matter. God's Word tells us clearly that our suffering and our sickness is for a purpose, even in seasons where God chooses not to immediately reveal to us what that purpose is. For instance, our suffering in sickness fulfills God's will. I Peter 4:19, ÒTherefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God must entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing good.Ó It's all part of God's will. Our suffering in sickness heightens our dependence upon the Lord. Paul, writes in II Corinthians 12, his Òthorn in the flesh,Ó what did he learn there? ÒMy grace is sufficient for you.Ó Our suffering and sickness conform us in the greater Christ likeness as we, Philippians 3:10, Òexperience the fellowship of our Lord's sufferings.Ó Our suffering and sickness authenticates our faith. I Peter 1:6, ÒIn this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials. So that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.Ó Our suffering and sickness produADces endurance. Romans 5:3, ÒAnd not only this, but we also boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction brings about perseverance, and perseverance proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not put to shame because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.Ó I hope that encourages you, that our suffering is not for no reason or for no purpose. God is working through it and in it for ultimately His glory and for our good.

Well, we have worked through the hermeneutics of healing. That was a Biblical survey of healing, some Biblical traits of healing, and some Biblical purposes for healing. We've looked a little bit at the sickness and healing in the Old Testament and New Testament context. We've drawn out some takeaways and some applications. Next week, we're going to hit another one of these major themes in Luke's Gospel, the kingdom. That won't stir any pots. But what does it mean when Jesus says in Luke's Gospel that the kingdom of God is at hand or even that the kingdom of God is in your midst? We'll cover that next Sunday when we look at the keys to the kingdom.

Let's pray. Father, we thank You for this chance this morning to consider what Your Word says about the subject of sickness and disease and healing. God, You are so good to us to reveal Yourself through Your Word, and we can go back and understand that Jesus and the apostles, they ministered in a specific way, in a specific season before the Word was fully given to Your people. But now we have the Òmore sure prophetic word,Ó as Peter says in II Peter 1:19. And we have all that we need pertaining to life and to godliness. And we can go to the Word and remember that You are working in the midst of our sickness, our diseases, and broadening that out a bit, in our frustration, our disappointments. It's all ultimately being done in a way to conform us into the image of our Savior, all by the power of Your Spirit. God, I pray that in our sickness, in our healing, in our grieving, in our seasons of hopelessness, that You would give us that eternal perspective, that You truly are working all things according to Your purposes for our good and for Your glory. Thank You for this body of Believers. Thank You for the hope that we have in Christ. It's in His name we pray. Amen.