Humility Brings to Bear Powerful Healing for the Christian

I was here, I wanted to begin a series for the Passover. Actually, the last time I spoke was a sermon that was a step in that direction. But more specifically, I want to cover something with you today that I think is very, very important. On Passover evening, which will be Tuesday, April 7th, as I mentioned, in addition to partaking of some unleavened bread and some wine, a little piece of unleavened bread, a little pouring of wine, we will be participating in the foot washing ceremony.

In that ceremony, as you're very familiar, one man will pair up with another man, and another lady will pair up with another lady, and we will wash one another's feet. It is a very simple act, and yet a very profound act, even though it only takes a few minutes. Jesus Christ made mention on multiple occasions just how important the foot washing is, but especially the idea of humility, which is behind the act of foot washing. We understand that in ancient times it was one of the lowliest jobs to wash somebody's feet, but is that the only lesson we learn about the foot washing, that we are to be lowly servants one to another?

Well, that's certainly a very big lesson, and people who have not learned that lesson have really suffered. We, as a church-era, church-area and church-era have suffered as a result of people not having the proper amount of humility. The various splits that we've had in the church over the years, to my thinking, have been a large part due to some who felt they had to be in charge and things had to go their way, and because of a lack of humility, the church has suffered great harm.

Well, today I want to, even more specifically, go into something that's very important. Today, the next two times I'm with you, we will go through the three various aspects of the Passover service. Today we're going to take a look behind the scenes at foot washing. The next time we're going to take a look at the bread, Jesus Christ as the bread, and then the time after that Jesus Christ as the wine. And again, we want to take a look today at humility.

To the ancient Greeks, to the philosophers who helped establish a great deal of Western civilization thought, to the Greeks, humility was something to be despised. Humility was something that they felt was worthless, that made a person inadequate. So obviously, the Greeks had a far different view of humility than God does. To some, humility means weakness.

But today, we're going to see where there is power in humility. There is great power in humility. And my point very specifically, drilling down, humility brings to bear powerful healing for the Christian. Humility brings to bear powerful healing for the Christian. Let's take a look at a scripture that is one of my all-time favorites. Let's go to 2 Chronicles 7. We all have many favorite scriptures. Those we really love. This is one of mine. Such a scripture is rich in meaning.

2 Chronicles 7, verse 14. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Forgive their sin and heal their land. There is a connection between humility and healing. Now today, we're going to examine much more closely the idea of humility and powerful healing.

Point number one in our journey through the message today. Point number one, humility brings about the healing powers of rest. Do you need rest? I think we all can use some rest. Humility brings about the healing powers of rest. And brethren, this is a Passover theme. A Passover theme. How so? Well, let me show you. Let's take a look over at Matthew here, chapter 11. Matthew, chapter 11. We're going to see the words of Jesus Christ here in my Bible in red letters.

Matthew, chapter 11, starting here in verse 28. Matthew 11, 28. Christ says, Come to me, all you who labor. The word labor there, according to the Theorist Greek lexicon, according to the exegetical dictionary of the New Testament.

Labor means those who are exhausted. Come to me, Christ says, all you who are exhausted and are heavily laden. Heavy laden means with the consciousness of sin. So we are exhausted by fighting the battles. We are exhausted by the continual fight we have within ourselves against Satan, against society, against our human nature. Come to me, you who are exhausted and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. So Jesus Christ says he will give rest. And the word rest here, again, this is from Thayer's Greek lexicon. Rest means to cause or to commit one to cease from any movement or labor in order to recover, to collect his strength, to refresh. So as you and I are fighting our human nature, society, Satan, as we are exhausted by the battle at times, with our consciousness of sin, Christ says, you come to me, come to Christ, and he will give us rest. And that's something we want at Passover time, something we want all year long, every day of the year. Notice verse 29. Take my yoke upon you. Now for you to do that, or for I to do that, me to do that, we've got to say, okay, I'm going to give up something of myself and give myself over to Christ. That takes humility. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. To learn from Christ again takes humility. And for I am gentle and lowly of heart. Now let's notice the connection.

We are to learn from Christ so we can be like Christ. He is gentle and lowly in heart. He is humble. Christ wants us to be humble. And notice the connection. As you and I are humble, we gain rest. We gain rest. Verse 30. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Jesus here applied the word rest to himself spiritually.

If we follow Christ, we'll find refreshment in the renewed relationship we have with Him.

If we abide in Christ, we talked about last time, we have freedom over guilt, freedom over sin.

Because through the sacrifice of Christ, through our Passover, our sins are forgiven.

Our conscience, as we read in Hebrews on Passover evening, I'm not going to turn to it here and now, but our consciences can be purged and cleansed so we can move forward to serve the great God. We are delivered from sin. We are delivered from despair.

Because we look to the great Christ and we have rest in Him. Let's take a look at Mark 6.

Mark 6.

There's a thought here that we want to take a look at. Mark 6.

And Christ said to them, to His disciples, Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest for a while. This word rest is the same word we saw in Matthew 11, where you can be refreshed and so forth, where you can recover, where you can regather your strength.

Come aside by yourselves in a deserted place and rest for a while, for there were many coming and going and they did not even have time to eat.

Brother, there are times in our life when we are so busy with physical things around us that we can, as I said at the Bible study here this last week, we can schedule God right out of our lives.

We can schedule God right out of our lives with lack of prayer, lack of study, fasting only on a day of atonement, that sort of thing. We don't want to be doing that.

We want to be humble people who look to the great God and realize that, yeah, I've got a busy life, but you know something? I don't have to do everything.

There are other people at my job where I work, where they can do some things. I don't have to do everything. There are things around the house that, you know, maybe another family member could do, or what have you. I don't have to do everything, which relates to the idea of humility.

Rest. Isaiah chapter 57. We were in Isaiah 59 just a few minutes ago. Let's look at Isaiah 57. Verse 15. Isaiah 57 verse 15. For thus as the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place with him who is a contrite and humble spirit.

Now, isn't that something we want? To dwell with God? Well, he dwells with those who have a contrite and humble spirit. And notice what happens as we are humble and contrite. To revive the spirit of the humble. To revive the heart of the contrite ones. So again, here we see through Isaiah that we have, we come alive through humility. Unlike the Greeks who thought it was something that was worthless, there is tremendous value to humility. The word contrite here means that which is broken, crushed, beaten small, trodden down. It denotes a soul that is born down with a sense of sin and unworthiness. A heart that is crushed under the weight of guilt. You and I can be free from that.

You and I can be free from that. We can have rest from that as we embrace humility.

God is there for the humble. I will dwell with those who have a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble. To revive the heart of the contrite ones. And that all comes through humility. So yes, we want to be lowly servants one to another. But we also want to make sure that as you and I look at the subject of humility, we realize there's a tremendous power here in humility. And part of that power is the rest that it gives us. So there's a frame of mind.

And I'll just want to quote a few scriptures here. We want a heart like Isaiah's. Isaiah 6.5. I'll quote this for you. Isaiah 6.5. Where Isaiah said, Woe is me from a man of unclean lips and dwell among a people of unclean lips. He realized his sin. He was humble about who and what he was and what God had needed to do in his life. Jeremiah chapter 9 verse 1. Again, I'll read this for you.

Jeremiah 9.1. Although my head were waters and my eyes a fountain of tears, he saw his sin. He was humble in God's eyes. And he was one of the great men of God.

We just recently, in the first sermon today, heard about Daniel. And Daniel chapter 9.

I'm not going to turn there, but Daniel chapter 9 verses 7 and 8. Where Daniel was confessing before God, not only the people's sins, but his own.

He was a humble man. That's why he was one of the great men of all time in the Word of God.

So point number one, talking about the power of humility, humility brings about the healing powers of rest. The healing powers of rest. Point number two.

Humility brings about the healing powers of cleansing. The healing powers of cleansing.

You know, again, I can refer to Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 14. We'll read that on Passover evening, where it talks about how we are cleansed from our sin. Our conscience is cleansed, it's purged, so we can move forward. But I want to take us over here to a story in 2 Kings chapter 5. If you would, go to 2 Kings chapter 5.

Because here is a tremendous example of humility through cleansing. The cleansing, or humility bringing about the power of cleansing.

2 Kings chapter 5. We're going to read a good bit of this chapter.

2 Kings chapter 5 verse 1. Now Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was also a mighty man of valor, but a leper.

So here you've got a man who God had given great victory to. And I wondered out loud last week as I was giving this sermon in Chicago, that maybe God was moving with this man to teach us all some very powerful lessons. It said here, the Lord gave him victory. Because God gave him victory, he stood very tall in the eyes of the king of Syria. He was a leper. The king of Syria wanted his best commander to be well, to be able to function. Now let's see how this plays out. Verse 2. And the Syrians had gone out in raids and had brought back a captive young girl from the land of Israel. She waited on Naaman's wife. Now is that just coincidence? Or is God moving the chess pieces on the chessboard for a certain reason? Just like God did something in your life. Maybe there were people that were involved in your life that brought you to God.

Verse 3. Then she said to her mistress, if only my master were with the prophet who was in Samaria, for he would heal him of his leprosy. Now of course that got her attention, and it got Naaman's attention as well. Verse 4. And Naaman went in and told his master the king of Syria, saying, Thus, and thus said the girl who was from the land of Israel. Then the king of Syria said, Go now, and I'll send a letter to the king of Israel. So he departed and took with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing.

The king of Syria wanted his general, and some commentators think he was maybe the second in command in all of the nation of Syria. He wanted that man well.

Verse 6. Then he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which said, Now be advised, when this letter comes to you, that I have sent name in my servant to you, that you may heal him of his leprosy. And it happened when the king of Israel read the letter that he tore his clothes and said, Am I God to kill and make alive? That this man sends a man to me to heal him of his leprosy? Therefore, please consider and see how he seeks a quarrel with me. So the king of Israel says, I can't do this. There's no way in the world I can do this. The king of Syria was setting me up for a fall. And so he's looking at this very politically. Verse 8. So it was when Elisha, the man of God, heard the king of Israel, had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, Why have you torn your clothes? Please let him come. Let Naaman come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. So some interesting things happening here.

Then Naaman went with his horses and chariot, and he stood at the door of Elisha's house.

Now I'm sure this took a little bit of humility for Naaman. Not a great deal of humility, because we're going to see in a moment that he is still pretty full of himself.

But this man, Naaman, when you are the top commander of an army, of a nation, you don't go anyplace publicly by yourself. He's probably got his mighty men with him. He may have a fairly large entourage with him. And so this whole group finds itself on Elisha's doorstep.

Verse 10. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, Go and wash into Jordan seven times, and your flesh will be restored to you, and you shall be clean.

How did this commander take this? Verse 11. But Naaman became furious, and went away, and said, Indeed, I said to myself, He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord of his God, and wave his hand over this place, and heal the leprosy.

Now does that sound familiar to any of you?

Have you ever told God exactly how he's supposed to answer your prayers?

That's exactly what this man's doing. Not very humble. He thought he was such a great personage that as soon as he shows up, people are just going to bow and scrape and cancel all their dinner plans and take care of him. And that didn't happen. Elisha didn't even go to see him at that point. And then he continues in verse 12. Are not the Abana and the fire power, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?

So now he begins to dispute about this course of action that Elisha wanted him to take.

Could I not wash on them and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.

Again, not very humble here, right? And the servants came near and spoke to him and said, My master, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it?

If he told you to go attack a city and take a city, something really great, wouldn't you have done that? Well, of course you would. How much more then when he says to you, Wash and be clean?

So God is now softening this man up. He actually listened to those under him.

And he said, You know what? You're right. Verse 14. So he went down and dipped seven times into Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. He was humble, and that humility gave him cleansing. That is a Passover theme. As you and I are humble before God, we are cleansed. Now, he was cleansed physically of leprosy. We are cleansed spiritually of our sin. But you know, in the Bible, leprosy is a type of sin. Leprosy is destructive. It will bring death, just like sin. It goes deep into the flesh, just like sin is a deep matter of the flesh. And if you're going to live, you need to be healed. Otherwise, you very certainly could die. And so he was cleansed, and he was restored. Verse 15. And he returned to the man of God, he and all of his aides, and he came and stood before him and said, Indeed, I now know there is no God in all the earth except in Israel. Now therefore, please take a gift from your servant. But he said, As the Lord lives before whom I stand, I will receive nothing. And he urged him to take it, but he refused. So we see an example there of something we've used in a church for a long, long time. Matthew 10. Not going to turn there.

Matthew 10. Freely you have received, freely give. That's the way Mr. Armstrong established us to do the work way back in the 1920s. It's what we do to this day. It's what happened here. Freely received, freely give. Verse 17. So Naaman said, Then if not, please let your servant be given two mule loads of earth, for your servant will no longer offer either burnt offerings or sacrifices to other gods, but to the Lord. So here this great man not only had a physical cleansing, but it appears there was some kind of a spiritual cleansing as well. He wanted two mule loads full of earth to go back and build an altar so he can worship the true God of Israel properly. He's a Syrian commander. So here we see a very powerful story. You know, before God can meet our needs, we must lay aside our pride. We must lay aside our pride. We must lay aside our selfishness. We must lay aside our self-exaltation. And when we do that, the power, the healing power of cleansing by the hand of humility takes place. Number three. Number three. Humility brings about the healing power that overcomes the forces of evil. That's a long one. Let me reread it. Humility brings about the healing power that overcomes the forces of evil. Now, what are the forces of evil? Well, Satan is a force of evil. His demons are a force of evil. You know, if you're going to try to overcome Satan with an army, it's not going to happen. If you're going to try to overcome Satan with a nuclear weapon, it's not going to happen. But humility will make it happen. You and I can overcome Satan the devil, his demons, society, our own human nature, through the power that comes through humility. Let's take a look at Matthew chapter 15. Matthew chapter 15. Very interesting story.

Matthew chapter 15, starting here in verse 21. Matthew 15, 21. Then Jesus went from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan, a Gentile woman, came from that region and cried out to him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David. My daughter is severely demon-possessed.

We can relate to this lady. If you've got children or grandchildren, you can relate to this woman. Notice, she says up above here in the middle of verse 22, Have mercy on me.

Now, her daughter was the one who was severely demon-possessed, but she was so in tune with her daughter. She loved her daughter so much. Just like you love your children, your grandchildren, how many times have they been sick and you've wanted to be there for them? You wanted to take that from them. Take it on yourself. Take that sickness on yourself. That's something that, you know, we've all thought from time to time. And yet, that's exactly what Jesus Christ did, didn't he? He took things on himself for our sake.

You know, I was relating to the folks in Chicago last week, you know, my first grandson.

You know, as my daughter-in-law was carrying the little guy, every time they went to the doctor, there was some horrible, well, he's got this or he's got that. We knew something was terribly, terribly wrong. But it seemed like every time they went to the doctor was something new or something different, but everything was terribly wrong. There was all sorts of prayers and fastings and so forth. When the little guy was born, we found out at that point that his kidneys had not been functioning properly in the womb. And they were just holding water and holding water, and they began to get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and took up basically all of his chest cavity. And the little guy almost had no lungs at all. And so, you know, when the doctors came to us and told us what they were trying to do, give him oxygen, and there was just hardly anything to put oxygen in. So there I was, you know, there my son was and my daughter-in-law and, you know, various other family members. And, you know, I'm holding this little guy and looking at this little guy. He only lived six hours. He was a beautiful little eight-pound boy, only lived six hours. And just like here, you know, God have mercy on Randy Delosandro. You know, we were thinking, you know, if something can be done, if I could take this on myself, if I can give him the rest of my years, you know, we'd be happy to do something like that. And you've all felt that way. That's the way we feel as loving parents and grandparents. So we can understand this lady here. Have mercy on me, verse 22. But notice he says, O Lord, son of David.

So she was a Gentile who didn't fully understand who Christ was. She knew that he was a man of renown. She knew that he was famous for his healings. Obviously, there was a, you know, both physical and casting demons out. So she knew he could do that, and that's why she came.

But Jesus Christ, always the teacher, wanted her to learn more. He saw something valuable in her.

And yet he wanted to perfect what he saw in her. Verse 23. But he answered her, not a word.

Have you been there? Have you gone with great passion to God and poured out your heart and cried real tears? And God doesn't seem to answer your prayer. Well, I think all of us have been there too, right? And like I said in the Bible study the other day, just because we don't get a yes doesn't mean God hasn't heard our prayers. Sometimes the answer is no. We don't like no, but sometimes the answer is no. Sometimes the answer is not yet or not now. You know, you can't handle what you're asking for. You're not asking for something that's bad or wrong, but right now that's not the best for you. It's kind of like our kids. As our kids are growing up, as I was growing up, I would want a candy bar with every meal and several in-between meals.

Well, I would grow up to be toothless. So we all need character so that we can handle life. And I didn't have the character as a little kid. One of your little kids, all you want to do is go someplace and swim all day long. And now the last thing I want to do is go someplace and swim all day long. I could care less about swimming. You know, I take a daily shower and that's good.

In one sense, take that back because we are members of a, what's that place called, raging waves. If I hit the lights just right where we live, in five minutes I can be at Raging Waves, which is a water park. It's the largest water park in Illinois, and it's great. Mary and I enjoy going down, floating down the lazy river. It takes about 20 minutes to make a full rotation, and there's all the slides, and of course there's always lunch there, and nice stuff.

So he answered her not a word, but he's not done with her. Just like at times when you don't seem to get an answer to your prayers, that doesn't mean God's walked off and left you.

He answered her not a word, but his disciples came and urged him, saying, send her away, for she cries out after us. So there were other people saying, you know, let's get rid of this girl. Send her away! Has that happened to you? That people kind of got on your case? Say, you know, get out of here, please leave me alone. What are you doing here? But, you know, she wouldn't leave. She would not leave. She loved her daughter. She would not be denied.

But he answered and said, I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So Christ answers her and says a truth. Notice what she says in verse 25. She came and worshiped, saying, Lord, help me. So again, she is not going to be denied. She is persistent in her prayers.

But he answered and said, it is not good to take the little children's bread and throw it to the little dogs. Now, she could have been offended at that. She wasn't. She had great love for her daughter. She wasn't going to be turned aside. And she said, Yes, Lord, even the little dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table. And notice what Christ said, because he's putting her through her paces. Then Jesus answered and said to her, Oh, woman, great is your faith. See, he is now responding to her. He wasn't about to just walk away, but there were three things he wanted her to learn. And in verse 27, it's dawning on her that this is somebody more than just a son of David, more than just some physical healer. She began to see something more. Christ saw that she began to see something more. And then he said to her, Oh, woman, great is your faith. Let it be to you as you desire. And her daughter was healed from that very hour. What was she healed of? She was severely demon possessed. What was her strength? What was her power? Well, love was part of her power. But another part of her power was she was humble. And through her humility, she was able to defeat in her daughter's life, the demons that were the demon or demons that were there.

And we should always remember this story. Always remember this story. Humility is strong. Humility helps us overcome. Humility is there for us to use as a power, the very power that God wants us to have. So point number three was that humility brings about the healing power that overcomes the forces of evil. It will overcome Satan. It will overcome the demons. It will overcome our human nature and society. Lastly, point number four. Point number four, humility brings about the healing power of the resurrection to glory. Through humility, it brings about the healing power of the resurrection to glory. Again, the Greeks would say humility is worthless. But if you and I aren't humble people, if we don't have a foot-washing attitude, and not just an attitude, but actions that demonstrate the service aspects of Christianity, if we don't have that, we're not going to be resurrected to glory. Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2. Starting here in verse 5.

Philippians 2.5. Let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus.

Well, part of that mind, a big part of that mind, was humility, who, being in the form of God, did not consider robbery to be equal with God. So here we see the greatness, the unbelievably unspeakable greatness of Jesus Christ. Verse 7. But made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men. So here's this beautiful, radiant, vibrant spirit being that the naked eye cannot even, you know, if our eyes were to see the power of God, it's like looking into the sun. What happens when you look straight into the sun for any length of time? And yet the power of God makes our sun look like nothing. But made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in the appearance of a man, he humbled himself. Notice the power of humility. He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Humility was there so he could serve. Not himself, but to serve others. Therefore, because of what we've just read, because of this humility, therefore God has also highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, those in heaven and those on the earth and those under the earth. That every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So here we see the tremendous power of humility when it comes to our future. Not just overcoming today, not just setting a good example today, those are all great things. But in terms of our nature, our future, Matthew chapter 5. Just a couple more scriptures when we're done. Matthew chapter 5. Here we've got the beautiful attitudes, the be attitudes.

Matthew chapter 5 verse 3.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the humble, for theirs is the kingdom of God.

Brethren, being poor in spirit means a number of things. Being poor in spirit means that we acknowledge our helplessness before God. We acknowledge our spiritual poverty. We acknowledge our spiritual need. We acknowledge that we are solely dependent upon God for Him to meet those needs. We acknowledge our utter lack in facing life and eternity apart from God.

We acknowledge that the real blessings of life and eternity come from only having a right relationship with Him. And as we read earlier in Isaiah, that relationship is with a great God because we are humble and contrite. And that gives us power in the sight of God.

Tremendous power in the sight of God. Romans chapter 8.

Romans chapter 8. Verse 16 and 17. Romans chapter 8 verse 16.

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.

And if children, then heirs. Heirs of God, enjoin heirs with Christ. If indeed we suffer with Him, then we may also be glorified together. We suffer. We have the same spirit. We've got the same attitude. And that attitude is an attitude of humility. A foot-washing attitude. Humility brings to bear the powerful healing for the Christian. Healing powers of rest.

Healing powers of cleansing. Healing powers that overcome the forces of evil.

Healing powers that bring us to a resurrection to glory.

These are important things, brethren. This Passover season lets you and I make sure we think about this deeply as we examine ourselves. Let's ask ourselves, each and every one, let's not think about the other guy. The person in front of us or beside us or behind us.

We need to look at ourselves deeply and ask ourselves, how humble are we? And if we're not humble, well, we know where to go. We know where to go and we know who to ask to help us to become more humble. Of course, that's a powerful thing in itself. When we ask God to help us to be humble, He will give us trials. He'll give us tests. He may give us all sorts of things to humble us. He may give us some people in our lives who are, like I said earlier, a few months ago, sandpaper people.

Sandpaper people have a way of humbling us, don't they? So, anyhow, I'm looking forward to dinner.

We've done our part, Mr. Duran and I, and we'll have some nice fellowship and then we'll break for dinner.