13. The Gift of Physical Healing I feel under rather sizable constraints of time this morning so I'm going to ask you to listen very fast, because I want to cover a lot. And I'm glad to be back in this pulpit again, partly because I've heard the reports since I've been gone and I'm lucky to get my pulpit back, from what it sounds like. So I can't be gone any longer than that, I can see. Did I dismiss the children for Children's Church? They went anyway. Alright. We're trying to raise independent people here. Once again, I'd like to turn your attention to gifts of the Holy Spirit - the spiritual gifts - and remind you of three things:The gifts of the Spirit are given to unify and build up the body of Christ, not to fragment and tear down. Secondly, The gifts of the Holy Spirit are given in great variety, not in uniformity. Thirdly, The gifts of the Holy Spirit are given, they are not chosen. Remember that Paul says in I Corinthians 12, "There are a variety of gifts but the same Spirit, varieties of service but the same Lord, varieties of working but the same God Who inspires them all in every one." And what he is saying there is that there are a variety of gifts - the specific capacity or function - the charismaton - the gift has a variety and no one has the same one as everybody else or the same combination as everyone else. There are a variety of gifts. And then he says there are varieties of service (or the word could better be translated "ministries"). Theokineon is the word and it really means that there are varieties of spheres, or arenas, for those gifts which you have received will be exercised. My gifts may be exercised in an entirely different sphere (or arena) than yours although we may have similar gifts or the same gifts. Then thirdly, he says there's a variety of workings, or energamaton - energies - or effects, of those gifts but the same God Who inspires them all. In other words, one person may speak a word of prophecy and in that prophetic utterance thousands of people come to know Christ and another time he may speak the same word of utterance and the same kind of a sphere, or arena, and yet there is not that kind of response. There are varieties of energizing, or of effects of the workings of the Spirit. Now, if you will look at I Corinthians 12, picking up with the 4th verse again, "there are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit, varieties of ministries the same Lord, varieties of effects but the same God Who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. Where one is given, by the Spirit, the word of Wisdom, to another the word of Knowledge by the same Spirit, to another Faith by the same Spirit, to another the gifts of healings by the same Spirit..." And that's where we are today: the gifts of healings. Now, I'm quite sure I won't be able to get all the way through this because we are moving from more common, ordinary (or less spectacular) gifts here into the first of what can be called the spectacular gifts - the gifts of healing. Or the gifts of healings, as the original has both in plural. This one is a controversial gift in our society. Partly because of the fraudulent exploitation of this particular gift. People buy a tent and they start traveling around the country and they beat their tambourines and advertise that they have the gift of healing, and people flock because people's needs are enormous. And they frequently want the easiest way possible - which is, if I can see some person who can touch me in a particular way. A man in a former parish of mine in Alabama spent most of his livelihood spending his money running all over the country seeking the person who had the magic touch that would heal him. And he saw an awful lot of frauds. And he was very much exploited by many of the people that he went to. Now, the viewpoints on this particular gift - the gift of healing - are so extreme, and they run the gamut so much that I believe blatant dogmatism at any extreme is a pretty tenuous position to be in. So I am not taking a dogmatic position on it. I believe that there has been fraudulent exploitation of this gift. There has been bad Biblical teaching and distortion on this gift. And there's been an awful lot of interpreting the scripture on the basis of my experiences rather than interpreting my experiences from scripture. Two or three weeks ago, we were in a hotel in Jerusalem, and the first of our party (of some 42 that were in the Israeli part of our tour) got down with what we call "the crud". And we had a kind of sharing time that night and one of the ladies, from another congregation who was with our tour, began to pray. And as she prayed, I got upset. I hope God didn't get as upset as I did, because she started to pray, quoting Isaiah 53, claiming "by His stripes we are healed, therefore God we claim healing on behalf of this person" who had a gastrointestinal distress. Now, frankly, one has nothing to do with the other. The healing talked about in Isaiah 53 is not referring to "by His stripes we are physically healed" therefore God is on the line and He's got to produce, and you can use that as kind of a pressure point to get God to deal. But that's the kind of teaching a lot of people are subjected to, and interpretations that come from other people. Now the viewpoints, as I said, of this gift, are marked by extreme and so I'm not going to be blatantly dogmatic. But you'll find people who have one of three positions, or some variation. 1) People believe that anyone who has the gift of healing has the ability to heal anyone at any time that they wish 2) others believe that the gift of healing is entirely dependent upon the faith of the recipient of the healing - the sick person 3) and other people say "No, the gift of healings is for the new testament time only - it does not exist today." Now any one of those three dogmatic statements is an extreme statement that I believe is really a tenuous position. I agree with Alan Redpath, former pastor of Moody Memorial church in Chicago, who said, "Healing is a gift and I believe without any shadow of doubt God has given it to some - that is, the ability to command sickness to be removed from a person in the name of the Lord. But I believe that for every ten who practice the gift, probably only one has it, in the sovereignty of God." There is no gift so trafficked with and so commercialized today as this one. Now, with this understanding of my concern, let me try to define what I mean by the gifts of Healings. The gifts of Healings are the abilities to intervene in supernatural ways as instruments for the curing of illness and the restoration of health. The gifts of Healings are the abilities to intervene in supernatural ways as instruments for the curing of illness and the restoration of health. Now, the person who has the gifts of healings does not have power over disease. That person is, instead, only a channel through which God works when God desires to work. The sovereignty is His, not mine, or yours, or the person with those gifts. Oral Roberts is probably one of the best known public persons who has, on occasions, experienced and demonstrated the gift of healing. He says, in one of his books, "There are many things about healing we do not know. In my brief experience I have prayed for some people with all the faith that I possess, and the person was not healed. In other instances, my faith was not as strong as I thought it should be, and still the person was healed. I don't know how to explain that, except to say that there's only One Who knows what is inside you and me and what it takes to really bring it about. A doctor may work with all his skill and compassion and faith at his command. Some he helps and some he does not. And it is that way with the gift of healing." Now, this may disturb some of you, but I have to say it to be honest with you. I don't believe anyone fully understands God's position on sickness and health. I don't believe anyone fully understands God's position on sickness and health. I don't. I read in Exodus 15 where God identifies Himself and He says, "I am the Lord, your Healer." But I know that when He dealt with Job, the illness that Job endured was part of God's plan and thereby, in His sovereignty, was permitted to come to Job. I know that no healing of physical illness is permanent - everybody dies eventually. We know that His healing is not the result of a specific exercise of a type of ritual or routine, no matter how much we try to reduce His healing to formulas. We do know that God retains His sovereignty. Now because the text refers to the gifts of healings, I take it to mean that every healing is a gift from God. Whether that healing happens at the level of human need physically or emotionally or spiritually - if it is a healing, it is a gift from God. But I want to touch on physical healing. I'm sure that's the only thing I'll have a chance to touch on today. Next week we'll pick up the emotional and spiritual and add in the gift of Miracles, Lord willing. But we have to try to deal with it briefly or we'll be three weeks on just this one gift. But there's so much that I really want to say. So listen fast. We know that Jesus was the Great Physician. The Bible records absolutely no instance in the New Testament where a sick or ill or injured person came to Christ for healing who did not receive that healing. But there was no set formula or ritual, which is contrary to a lot of people today - they want you to come in a certain way, kneel in a certain way, stand in a certain way, react in a certain way, touch them with either left hand or right hand, three fingers or the whole hand, who knows what. But they all their cute little formulas. And Jesus didn't have any formula or ritual. Take, for instance, His dealing with the blind. He healed the blind in many different ways. Some He spoke to, some He touched, some He made mud and put it on their eyes and sent them to the pool of Siloam and they washed and came back seeing. Some He touched twice. No formulas. But He healed them all. Well we know that about Jesus. What about the apostles? You know, we have the impression that the apostles all had the gift of healing - you don't find that in scripture. Actually, apart from Jesus Christ, the gift of physical healings was extremely rare in the New Testament as well as today. For instance, Acts 3 tells the story that pastor Steve read of Peter and John going to the Beautiful Gate. There they find a man who was crippled, who was begging alms. And Peter says, "Look at me. Silver and Gold I don't have. But what I have, I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk. " And he took him by the hand and helped him up and his ankle bones became well and strong and he began walking and leaping and praising God. The first holy leaper! You can imagine how upset the people were in the temple that day - it was not all decorum, I'll tell you. I wonder what would happen in this congregation if we got a holy leaper who had been healed by God and just couldn't possibly stand not jumping around on those new bones. Now that ought to happen to us, spiritually, when healing comes too. How in the world can we sit there all buttoned up when God has done a marvelous work in our lives? When we've been translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of His dear Son! And we sing, "A Mighty Fortress" without any feeling at all. Impossible, but it happens. I guess it's not impossible. Alright, Acts 5, we find Peter had become so well known for the gift of healing, that the Holy Spirit had given to him, that people are now checking to see what side of the street the sun is on so that they could lay their sick on the side of the street where Peter's shadow would fall when he walked past. And they were healed. Amazing! Acts 9, Peter heals Aeneas of Lydia and Samaria. Acts 8, we find another person, Philip. The persecution has come down (chapter 7), chapter 8 begins and they were scattered everywhere, except the apostles. And they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the Gospel. And Philip also went up to Samaria. And Philip there begins a healing ministry. Acts 28 we find the apostle Paul shipwrecked on the island of Malta. And he comes to the father of the head of the island - the island leader - the clan leader - and he heals him. Now listen. Aside from Peter and Philip and Paul and Jesus, I don't find evidence of the gifts of healing, physically, in the scripture, in the New Testament. Now that shocked me. That surprised me. I thought it was all over the place. Which leads me to some tentative conclusions, okay? The book of Acts records only these three who use the gift of healing and they use it sparingly. James is the only epistle that even refers to healing and he does not command it, but he offers it. He said, "Is any of you sick? Let him call the elders of the church together and let them pray, laying on hands and anointing with oil. And the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." It's a statement of offering. Therefore I come to this conclusion (at least tentatively) that in the New Testament, and perhaps today, the gifts of healing physically are primarily a "sign" gift to authenticate the messenger. Look at Acts 3: Peter and John heal this man who is crippled, who's asking alms. What is the result? Everybody comes crowding around this man. They recognized him as the lame man who, for years, had layed by the Beautiful Gate. And then they listened as Peter begins to preach. And what does Peter preach? "I have the gift of healing"? No, "No, no, don't be so shook up. I didn't do it. It's not by my goodness or piety. It is through the power of Jesus Christ" and he proclaimed Christ and (because standing right next to him, jumping up and down, was a man whose miraculous healing authenticated Peter's words) 5,000 men alone came to know Christ. And you will find that where ever is the incidence of divine healing in the scripture, it is always in connection with the authenticating of the messenger so that people will hear his message. It's not just a special buzz to give to people. Having said that, I conclude it is a very rare gift in the New Testament and a rare gift today, but I will not dare - nor will I allow you to - suggest that we limit or dictate to the Holy Spirit (Who is sovereign) what gifts He gives, when, and to whom. He is the sovereign Giver of gifts. Should He choose to give me the gifts of Healing, or you, praise His name - it is for the building up of the body of Christ and for His glory alone. I do know that there is Biblical evidence that not every illness is cured. In fact, the contrary is true. Just three illustrations: Paul in II Corinthians 12 struggles with the fact that he has a "thorn in the flesh". I don't know what it is. I have my theory and I'm not going to burden you with my theory. All I know is three times he asked God to remove it. And he got the same answer: "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." God did not heal Paul even though Paul had exercised the gifts of Healing, he was not able to exercise those gifts on his own behalf. Instead, the apostle Paul says that he received from God grace to see him through (and also let me say God also provided him with a physician as a constant companion, Dr. Luke, which is kind of God's sense of humor there too I think). Now in I Timothy 5, Timothy's got a problem. I think he had ulcer. He has some sort of gastrointestinal distress. A young man with the responsibility of all of the house churches in the city of Ephesus. A powerful position for a young man. Nero's persecution is starting to come down on the church and it's moving toward Ephesus and oh Timothy, he's not sleeping well and his stomach's upset all the time and Paul does not exercise his gifts of Healing, but instead he prescribes the medicinal use of wine. Interesting. Then when he's in prison in Rome the church at Philippi hears about it and they send a young man by the name of Epaphrodites to minister to Paul. Epaphrodites no sooner gets there than he gets sick. I don't know what he got, but he almost died. There is no record, whatsoever, in scripture that Paul (or any of the others) exercised their gifts of healing on behalf of Epaphrodites. In fact, Paul writes to the church at Ephesus and he says, "I thought it necessary to sent to you Epaphrodites, my brother and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need. For he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. Indeed he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also lest I have sorrow upon sorrow. Because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was deficient in your service to me." Paul says, "God spared him" not "through my intervention or my exercise of the gift of Healing"; God just simply spared him. You see, God is a Spirit of variety. Some people He heals instantaneously. I could tell you a story that comes from the ministry I had in a church in Illinois that I still don't understand what happened. But God healed and it was instantaneous. There wasn't any kind of a long progression or anything else, it was just instantaneous. And, you know, when healing does take place like that (and boy wouldn't we like to put God in the position where He had to answer that way every time) the temptation is to start an international movement to promote ourselves and our ministries, start up a magazine and a headquarters and maybe a TV show. Now some people, God does heal that way. Some people, God heals gradually, like Epaphrodites. Some He heals through the application of medicine and medical knowledge. Say, speaking of medicine, there's an interesting application of folk medicine, way back in the Old Testament, in Isaiah 38. Hezekiah's the king, he's going to die. Isaiah comes and tells him, "Hezekiah, you're going to die" and Hezekiah didn't like the idea and he petitioned God very strongly. He prayed and prayed and prayed. God heard his prayer and told Isaiah, "You go tell old Hezekiah, I heard his prayer, stop moaning so much. I'll give him 15 more years." And so Isaiah goes to Hezekiah and says, "Hezekiah, God says you have 15 more years, now roll over on your back because I'm going to apply a fig poultice." Now that's folk medicine. I don't know what the healing properties of fig poultices are, I have no intention of putting them on me or applying them to you. All I know is that God deals in some strange ways. And I'm not going to dictate to Him how He heals. Physicians sometimes get very self-important. Now, there are a lot of physicians in this church so I know I'm walking on thin ice, but some of you doctors get the idea that you're prima donnas. Let me tell you the best surgeon in the crowd only removes the deterrent to health. God takes care of the rest, if He's going to. You remove the deterrent to health. Enormous skill, enormous talent, extensive training, true. But healing must come from God or it doesn't come. Now faith is clearly important in the Biblical healings of Jesus. But that does not mean that if there's no healing there was not enough faith. That idea comes from a wrong idea that sickness is always the result of the sick person's sin. You know what the rabbis used to teach? The rabbis taught that if you had dropsy, it was because you'd been immoral. If you were jaundiced, it was because you had hatred in your heart. If you were poverty stricken, it's because you had pride. If you had liver trouble, you'd been back-biting. And if you had leprosy, you had a bad mouth. Now, some sickness is due to sin. Read I Corinthians 5, 11 (which talks about the abuses at the Lord's table and says that's why some of you are weak and ill and some have even died). God does not hold sin lightly, but not all sickness is a result of sin or the lack of sin. And to say that a sick or a shut-in person is sick because of sin is a devastating and damnable lie. It is not Biblically based and it can create false guilt and lead to despairing conclusions. How many of you have not had the experience of talking with a brother or a sister in Christ who's saintliness far surpases yours and they say things like, "Oh, I must be such a bad sinner because I'm not getting well." "I lack faith, I'm not getting well." "I'm a poor Christian or I'd get well." And that is not true. Why does God allow illness? I don't presume to know the mind of God, but I know there's Biblical evidence to suggest some of His purpose. Sometimes illness comes as a discipline because of sin. That's amply demonstrated in scripture, and you can look that up yourself, and from modern medical journals we know that much. Secondly, sickness may be allowed in order to add to the glory of God. Remember in John 9, the young man who was born blind. The disciples said, "Who sinned, this young man or his parents?" And Jesus said, "Neither one. But that God may be glorified." Or in Paul's case - the thorn in the flesh - "My strength is made perfect in weakness," the word of God came to him. So sickness may come as a discipline because of sin or it may be simply allowed to add to the glory of God. Or it may be allowed for my personal growth. Paul says, listen to his testimony, "Three times I besought the Lord about this that it should leave me, but He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness.'" Then Paul says, "I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses in order that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ then I am content with weakness, and insults and hardships and persecutions and calamities. For when I am weak, then I'm strong." Not only in order to have humility but also to develop empathy - to enable a ministry to take place. Paul goes on in II Corinthians 1, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, Who comforts us in all our afflictions, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves were comforted by God." God knows, people who have gone through the valley of the shadow of death and experience great loss and enormous suffering, physically and emotionally, have frequently discovered that God has equipped them thereby for an extensive ministry - a powerful ministry - a Spirit-filled ministry - for which they could never be trained in all the schools of the land. God in His wisdom knows His plan. And the gifts of Healings may or may not be given to us. But whether I die or whether I live, whether I am well or whether I am weak, I - with Paul - want to be content in whatsoever state I am that God Himself may be glorified in my body. Whether by life or by death. Now go to a world in pain, in need of a healing touch, as men and women who have met the Healer and who they, themselves, have been healed and have been given the ministry of introducing the King to the physicians. Now the God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit will be with you in your ministry and with me in mine until, by His grace, we're together again.