Thinking Like Jesus about Healing, part 1

What did Jesus think about sickness, disease, and healing? How can we think like him? I’m pastor Doug Sewell. Welcome to the Beyond Six Verses podcast. This is part one of a series, Thinking like Jesus about Healing.

Thinking like Jesus takes learning how he thinks about something than choosing to think the same way.

One of the ways that Jesus thought about sickness and healing is that healing was part of the gospel or the good news of the kingdom. In Matthew 8 and 9, Jesus traveled with the disciples and healed many people.

If we look at the end of Matthew 9, we see “Jesus went through all the towns and villages teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.

So what does he do next?

In Matthew 10, the following verses, he sent them out to preach, to heal every sickness and to cast out demons. In verses seven and eight of chapter 10, “As you go proclaim this message, that kingdom of heaven has come near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons freely you have received, freely give.”

So Jesus saw healing is in an integral part of the gospel message and its delivery. Let’s think like Jesus on this.

Let’s take a look at how the disciples reacted to this: In the Great Commission in Matthew 28, Jesus told us to teach doing what he taught. Mark 16 included healing with preaching.

Let’s look at the book of Acts. In Acts chapter 3, a man was healed at the Gate Beautiful at the temple. In Acts chapter 5 there were people that were healed by Peter’s shadow, and you can see in other chapters, you can see the apostles doing healing.

In Acts chapter 4 at the very end, they prayed for God to give them the ability to speak the word boldly, while God would heal people in the name of Jesus. Everyone look at people that weren’t apostles. You have Stephen in Acts chapter 6, you have Philips in Acts chapter 8, and Ananias in Acts chapter 9. These were not apostles, but they were doing healing.

If we look at Peter’s sermon at Cornelius’ house, about AD40. This is the first recorded sermon where the gospel went out to the Jewish people and the and beyond the Jewish people and their relatives of Samaritans.

Acts chapter 10 “when Peter began to speak, ‘I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism, but accepts from every nation, the one who fears him and does what is right. You know the message God sent to the people of Israel announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him. We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God has already chosen by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he was the one who God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sin through his name.

So, Peter preached the cross. He preached the resurrection. He preached the need to believe, but he also preached about Jesus doing good and healing. People like Jesus. Peter saw healing connected with the gospel of the kingdom.

If we look at the Greek words for salvation and healing, it’s the same word! If we look, the word for salvation is the Greek word soteria, but it also means healing. The word healed or saved is the word sozo. If you look in these up and Strong’s concordance or another Greek dictionary, you’ll see them tied to deliverance, health, make whole, be whole and salvation.

 If we look at Acts 4:12, we see both of these words. “Nor is there salvation in any other for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Now, what if we read Acts 4:12 and replace salvation and saved with healing and healed? It sounds like this, “nor is there healing in any other for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be healed.”

Let’s look at some other verses. John 3:17 for God didn’t send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but the world through him might be healed.

In 1 Timothy 2:4 it says that God would have all men to be healed. Revelation 7:10, healing belongs to our God who sits on the throne and unto the lamb.

To recap, Jesus saw healing as part of the gospel ministry and message.

In acts 10 38 we earlier read that sickness is tied to being oppressed by the devil. In the Amplified: He went about doing good, and in particular curing all who were harassed and oppressed by the power of the devil, for God was with him. 1 John 3:8 echoes this as well: The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.

Jesus knew his call was to sozo people – to save, to heal and deliver. He intended that healing be a part of the gospel of the kingdom. As we think like Jesus healing, it comes a core value of our gospel message as well.

Thank you for listening. I’m Pastor Doug Sewell. Come back tomorrow for another episode of the Beyond Six Verses podcast.

(Transcript provided by descript.com)