I am reading a book called, “Practicing the Way,” by John Mark Comer. It is a book about discipleship. It’s an easy-to-read and compelling book for simplifying the Christian life to three principles. We need to be with Jesus, become like Jesus and do as Jesus did. I commend it to each of you for your personal study. Interestingly, when we boarded our plane to come home from our trip just over a week ago, when I sat down in my seat, the gentleman sitting right next to me was reading the same book. If you are someone who wants to learn to share in the power of Jesus’ resurrection and understand the intensity of His power that can be made manifest in your life during times of suffering with the end goal of becoming like Him, be encouraged. You are not alone. More and more, people are going back to the Scriptures, back to ancient practices for spiritual discipline with the goal of apprenticing Jesus and becoming like Him to replicate His life on earth. That is my heart’s desire. I want to live Jesus’ life here on earth.
I got to a section in the book that gave me pause. It highlighted an experience with Jesus in a way I am not sure I had considered in quite some time. Comer began this particular section of the book by talking about sin as a sickness. Growing up, it was drilled into me that sin separates us from God. Because God is holy, He cannot dwell in fullness or move in fullness or participate fully with the person who chooses sin over His righteousness. It causes separation from God. It causes spiritual death that makes life with God in eternity impossible.
Now, we know God is merciful. We know He is aware that each of us is in a various stage of understanding and processing and moving towards a relationship with Him. I believe He moves obstacles out of our way so that we can see Him. I believe He still lifts scales from people’s eyes so that they can detect His presence. I believe He reveals His power to all people so that they have a choice whether or not to respond to His goodness and His saving power, but for those who don’t make that choice, I am not sure they understand that they are choosing sickness over health. If you don’t choose life with God, you are choosing sickness over health.
How do you view sin? Do you view it as something to feel guilty about? Is it something that causes shame to shroud you? Does it create fear for you because in the end, you aren’t really sure if you are going to make it to Heaven or not? Does it make you feel dirty and defiled? Is there a sense that you are lost, unanchored, untethered to something true and enduring? Do you view sin like turbulence? Something that just creates a few moments of chaos now and then, but you just brace yourself because you’re hoping smoother air is just ahead? Does sin lead you to despair? Does it destroy your hope? Each of these facets of sin is a reality, but none of these captures the full essence of our sin issue.
Legally speaking, we know our sin makes us guilty before a holy God. That’s a problem. God has the right to put us away, to send us away because of our sin. But the same God who could condemn us has come in the flesh to take care of the sin problem we all face because when He looks at us in our sinful condition, He sees us a people who are spiritually sick. God is called the “Great Physician” not only because He can heal our physical bodies, but because He can and wants to heal our souls.
You see, sin is more than a “legal” issue. It is more than the breaking of a law. It is a disease, a condition that we can’t escape simply by making a choice to be good. We can’t cure our sin problem on our own. It requires an application of healing from God Himself.
In the book, Comer quoted Christian psychologist and expert on trauma, Dan Allender who said that sin is a deforming illness. It compromises every part of our body and every part of the human experience. Embracing the idea of sin as a sickness enables us to see that salvation brings healing.
I think Comer and Allender are spot on. Didn’t Jesus say, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick?” He followed that up with “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Mark 2:17)
Jesus used the analogy of sin as a sickness and pointed to Himself as the cure. He is the doctor with the antidote. Notice that He said we had a part to play in our healing. Repentance is on us. Jesus can’t repent for us. What is repentance? Practically speaking, it is a turning from sin, but before someone can turn from sin, they have to admit that there is something from which they must turn. They have to admit they have an issue that needs addressed. They have to admit they are sick and can’t heal themselves.
Many people avoid going to the doctor. So, too, many people avoid dealing with the sickness of sin for various reasons. People will minimize health concerns and chalk aches and pains up to old age or compare their struggles with the ailments of others and conclude they will somehow be alright, that with the passing of time things will just clear up…that might work in some instances where our health is concerned, but listen, our soul won’t ever just clear up. It has to be cleansed and for it to be cleansed we have to ask for it to be washed. We have to go to the One with the Holy Water, the Holy Fire, the Holy Power. We have to position ourselves to receive the healing Jesus has to give.
Let’s view sin as it is, as a fatal disease. Sin is a fatal disease. Not sold on the idea yet? Did you know that the Greek work that is translated as the word “saved” in the New Testament is sozo? Sozo is a word that is often translated as “healed.” When Comer mentions this in his book, he makes the point that when you read in the Gospels that Jesus saves someone and then you read that He healed someone you are often reading the exact same word! There was an intentional blurring of the lines between salvation and healing because they were often one in the same.
Remember the woman who had the 12-year-long bleeding disorder? The lady who was so desperate for healing that she pressed through the crowd to get to Jesus? The lady who thought if she just touched the hem of His garment she would be healed? She did get her physical healing, but she also received spiritual healing. Some translations of that story say, “Daughter, your faith has healed you,” and some say, “Daughter, your faith has saved you.” Those aren’t contradictory translations because salvation is spiritual healing.
Maybe we need to quit looking at salvation as a decision to stop doing the wrong things and start viewing salvation as a reception of healing for our souls. Can we take that in this morning?
Church, salvation isn’t just about being forgiven, about being technically or legally free from your sin-debt, but it is about being made whole! Yes, we need to be forgiven of sin, but we need to be made new so that we stop desiring to do the very things we then have to be forgiven for. Salvation isn’t translated to us on a behavioral level, but on a soul level where the sickness lies. We must get to the point where we aren’t satisfied with simply being justified before God, where our sentence is dropped in a legal sense, but where we long to be changed through deep spiritual healing.
Don’t settle for eternity in Heaven when you can also have spiritual healing and wholeness while you live on earth. Sadly, I encounter a lot of spiritually sick believers, people who need healing on a soul level. Our souls are not only marred by sin, but they are bruised by rejection, crushed by anger, and bound by unforgiveness. They are lifeless because of abuse, and our souls are often alienated from God because of the walls we put up. Some of you here today may be angry with God over something you have suffered, something you are having to endure now, or something that happened in your childhood or even decades ago, and so you tend to keep Him at a distance. Hear God’s voice today. He is inviting you to come close. He wants to dispense spiritual healing to you this morning. He wants it to be well with your soul!
While God has reasons for sometimes withholding physical healing in this life, He will not withhold spiritual healing for anyone who wants to receive it. What I believe God wants to say to you today is that you need to position yourself to receive the spiritual healing He wants to give.
If you continue to pretend you are Ok, if you continue to try to just mask the symptoms of your spiritual sickness, if you keep fortifying your spiritual walls, you won’t get the deep healing work Jesus offers.
When you read the Gospels, you can see the way people positioned themselves to receive spiritual healing. There are so many stories of how people came to Jesus, how they made a move toward Him, how they reached out and presented their need, how they exercised faith and asked for the help they believed He could give.
Look at Matthew 8:2-3- 8 When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. 2 And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” 3 Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
Church, I want you first to see that multitudes followed Jesus. Crowds were there for the show. There was no shortage of looky lou’s. People were excited to see what Jesus would do next, but in the context of Jesus and the crowd, there was one who was bold enough, desperate enough, who believed enough in the healing power of Jesus that he came out of from the crowd to encounter Jesus one on one.
This is strategic when it comes to positioning yourself to receive spiritual healing from Jesus. I’m thankful we have a crowd here each Sunday. I’m glad every one of you is in this room today, but I am not so naïve as to think that every person who comes gets what they need because I’m sure there are some who are content to simply remain part of the crowd. You don’t have to standout to stay part of the crowd. You don’t risk your need being known in the crowd. You can hang back and hang out in the crowd. This man wasn’t content to simply hear Jesus speak. He wanted to encounter Him personally and on a soul level. So, I would submit to you that step one in attaining spiritually healing is to come out of the crowd, and get yourself to Jesus.
Notice what he did when he got to Jesus. Matthew 8:2 says the leper worshiped Him. Other translations say he knelt before Him. Cultural norms would have said he didn’t even have any business being in the crowd. You thought Covid protocol was bad. Lepers had to keep six feet away from everyone at all times, and if the wind was blowing toward a person from a leper, that person had to be 150 feet away from the leper. The only thing worse that you could come into contact with than a leper would have been a dead body. Both were considered to defile someone.
It’s obvious that this man was desperate to experience a healing touch from Jesus. He broke societal and religious norms to come into contact with Jesus. What others thought or how they would react was put behind him. Can you imagine how alone he felt in his condition? He wasn’t just avoided. He was despised. He had every reason to hibernate and die as he was, but he came out of the crowd and deposited himself on his knees in front of Jesus and began to worship Him.
The Greek verb there for “worship” is proskenein. It is never used of anything but for worship. Everyone there knew the man was worshiping Jesus. He positioned himself to receive a special healing as he started his appeal with worship. He acknowledged Jesus as Lord when he said, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” You can see him expressing great faith in Jesus’ ability to do the healing that was necessary. And notice how he phrased his need for healing. He said, “You can make me clean.” He asked for a cleansing. Leprosy was the outward manifestation of other illnesses, other effects on his life and soul that needed to be removed from him.
Imagine how bitter you would feel if no one could ever touch you. Don’t we all need a good hug from time to time? How would it hit you if no one would shake your hand or pat you on the back or fist bump with you? How rejected would you feel every day if you had to maintain a six-foot distance from everyone you came into contact with? Think about the emotional impact of the disease of leprosy, the toll it would take on a person on the inside. This man was asking for more than physical healing. He was asking for a cleansing from everything that had negatively impacted his life. Maybe his thoughts needed washed. Maybe he was so dejected he had considered suicide. Given his circumstance it is certainly plausible. This man didn’t just want physical healing, but he wanted a whole, full life.
Listen, because the man came out of the crowd, because the man humbled himself in worship and placed himself at the feet of Jesus, he was close enough in proximity for Jesus to touch him. He could have easily concluded that Jesus could have cleansed him from six feet away and kept his distance, but by coming right up to Jesus’ feet, the leper demonstrated an understanding that he needed to be touched by Jesus and he demonstrated faith that Jesus actually wanted to touch him.
Come on, somebody! How close are you willing to get to Jesus in order to receive your special healing? Jesus was willing to heal the man. You need to believe that Jesus is willing to give you the special healing, the special cleansing you need as well. Come out of the crowd. Worship Jesus Christ as the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings and ask Him to remove everything that is keeping your soul from thriving this morning. If a physical illness is impacting your soul, ask God to heal it all. If bitterness and unforgiveness are robbing you of your best life, ask God to pluck them out at the root. If addiction is ruining your ability to produce and prosper and build a godly earthly life, get low before a high and holy God and tell Him your hope is in Him.
Does that scare the life out of you? To come out of the crowd? To make yourself vulnerable? To publicly demonstrate humility, worship and faith? Maybe I can help you with one final story. It is found in Mark 2.
2 A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
Remember, the man was paralyzed. Before Jesus ever addressed his physical condition, he addressed him on a soul level. He healed him on a soul level. I know some of you are living in pain this morning. I know some of you deal with physical limitations and your social calendar is filled with far more doctor appointments than time with friends, but your greatest need isn’t for a condition to be healed or a circumstance to be changed, but it is for your soul to be freed from anything that has contaminated it.
And I submit to you that you must be positioned to receive it! The man couldn’t get to Jesus on his own. I think it is quite possible that he asked four of his friends to help him get there. It is also possible that they came to him and said, “We’re taking you whether you want to go or not,” but I don’t think he would have received the spiritual healing that he did, had he not had a desire to receive it, so I believe he asked for the support of his friends to get to Jesus.
Some of you here today might need the help of a friend to position yourself to receive the spiritual healing you need, and like the lame man and the leper, when you get into position, you might just get both a spiritual and physical healing if that is needed.
It was after Jesus forgave the man’s sins, and after Jesus was criticized by the teachers of the law who didn’t think He had the authority to dispense forgiveness, and after Jesus dealt with them and set them straight, that He also healed the man physically. Do you ever wonder why the man could just matter of fact get up, take up his mat and walk home? Do you ever wonder why there was no hesitation? He didn’t question his capability to do it. I believe it was because something deep, something profound had already taken place in his soul, something only he knew had taken place. When the power of God enters a person on a soul level, they suddenly know beyond a shadow of a doubt that all things are possible with God. I love that Jesus did something personal and private for the man first, something that only the man could have felt and acknowledged before doing something public for everyone to see. You never forget moments like that with Jesus.
With the help of his friends, he positioned himself to receive a profound and transformational spiritual healing. Friends, sometimes you need to ask your friends to help get you to Jesus. Today, when the invitation is given, you might need to turn to the person next to you and say, “Will you go with me?” I will go out on a limb in this moment. You may not know the person seated next to you, but I dare to say, if you ask them to walk to a prayer counselor with you, they will readily go. In fact, let me see your hand, if you are willing to walk to a prayer counselor with someone who just needs the support to make it to the place of prayer, raise your hand right now.
You also may be seated by someone who might struggle to ask for support, so right now, I just want you to turn to the person to your right and left, to the person in front of you and behind you and simply say, “If you want to go for prayer, I’ll go with you.”
Sin is a sickness. There is a cure, but you have to come to Jesus to receive it. Spiritual healing takes care of the stuff in our hearts that makes us hard, mean, shallow, untrusting, crusty, unkind, short-tempered, weak, insecure, bitter, crass, and self-protective. Can you give Jesus access to that place in your soul today? If you need to be saved, that is the greatest form of spiritual healing. Come to Jesus.
Come out of the crowd. Worship Christ as Lord. Acknowledge that He alone has what you need and ask for help to get there if you need it. Part of receiving from God involves having a spirit of humility. If you needed some treatment and couldn’t get to a doctor’s appointment, wouldn’t you ask someone for a ride? I believe today could be an historic day at Teays Valley Church of God when it comes to the Body of Christ truly being the hands and feet of Jesus. My question for you is simply this: Are you positioned for spiritual healing?
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