When Others Are Healed (But You Aren't)

Thank you, Carly. That was beautiful. That was very nice. And I think you'll find this message is a pretty nice follow-on to that special music. I also appreciated the first split sermon. That maybe was the best exposition I've heard of Micah 6-8, and I've heard many of them. I really appreciated Mr. Phelps tying in the framework of Hesse into that passage. In fact, we sang it in the hymn that we just sang. We sang about God's steadfast love for us, which would be the same word from that passage that gets translated as Mercy in Micah 6-8.

Well, what I would like to talk about today... Actually, this started out... I don't see the man here. I was talking to a good friend and someone we all know really well right over here a few months ago. We're having this conversation about healings because this man has been healed miraculously several times, at least three that I know of, at least two from advanced cancer. Times where the doctor staff said, what happens to you does not happen, but it happened to you.

We were all praying for him. And I told him, you've got to write this up. We've got to get this in the United News, and it would be really inspiring for everybody. And I could see that he paused a little bit, and I don't remember exactly what he said, but what I took from that was... He's had experience talking about what happened to him, to people, and it's not always encouraging for everybody. And so what I'd like to talk about today is, when others are healed, but you aren't.

And so I'd like to start by asking, how did the New Testament church see sickness and healing? So let's turn over to Philippians 2, verse 25. We'll end up over there in just a minute. The church had a multifaceted view of illness and healing. There are some scriptures which probably shocked you the first time that you read them. Like when Paul is writing to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 11.

He's talking about the Passover and how to take it in the right manner. And he talks about them taking it in an unworthy manner, and he says, And this is why many are sick among you, and some have died. And you say, wow, wow, this is serious stuff. And then over in James... I'm just referencing this verse, James 5.14. That's where we find James writes, Wow, that sounds really simple.

This sounds like immediate, guaranteed healing. You just do this, you get that. And yet we're going to see that the New Testament people of God, they had a multifaceted view. They clearly didn't see it just that way. And they didn't necessarily view one person's sickness as a sign of God's displeasure with that person. Paul talked about Timothy. Timothy was sick all the time, he said.

He was writing to Timothy in 1 Timothy 5, and he prescribed wine for Timothy's frequent illnesses. What he didn't prescribe was repentance. You know, he didn't say, Timothy, you've got to get this figured out. You've done something wrong, you've got to figure out what it is and fix it. He understood that there's more to sickness than that. He prescribed wine for his stomach. Trophimus was another one. Paul left him sick in Miletus in 2 Timothy 4. But over in Philippians 2, I'd like to look at the case of Epaphroditus. This is Paul writing to the Philippians, and he says to them this in Philippians 2.25.

He says, This is a man, Epaphroditus. He wasn't persecuted by the Romans. He got sick on a road trip is what happened. He almost died of this sickness. Paul's conclusion from this to the Philippians is, Let's hold such men in high esteem. There's the example of Elisha in 2 Kings 13. Elisha becomes sick there, and he says he became sick with the illness of which he would die. That becomes the launch pad in that chapter for maybe his greatest miracle, which was, when he dies, they put him into the tomb, and then there's this other man who dies. There's a war going on, and they quickly put him into Elisha's tomb, and when this man's body touches Elisha's dead body, Elisha's dead body becomes the vehicle for God to raise this other man to life.

His sickness and death brings about life in someone else. What did Elisha do wrong? It doesn't look like Elisha did anything wrong there. Maybe one of the best examples is one we've talked about a lot before, which is Paul himself. In 2 Corinthians, we have the story where Paul relates this thorn in the flesh that he has. He says in 2 Corinthians 12-7, he says, Lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.

And we don't know exactly what this thorn in the flesh was. It very well could have been an illness, may not have been an illness. Either way, the dynamic of this passage has application for how we think about this. He says of this thorn in the flesh, he says, Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, most gladly, I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I'm weak, then I'm strong. So we put this all together, and we can see clearly the church didn't assume that sickness was God's rejection. Something else is going on here. So what I would like to put this all around, the main idea I'd like to get across here, is that we can think of divine healings as a prophecy. It's a prophecy to us. When one of us is healed, it is a prophecy to all of us. Now, prophecy, when we use the word prophecy, it's not always things about the future. In fact, a whole lot of prophecy is just voicing God's will. That's what the prophets did. A lot of that involved the future. The parts that are about the future, they can come in different forms. It can be a speech. God says this thing is going to happen. Or it can be a sign act. Some of the prophets would act out this thing that was going to happen. Or it could be a miracle. And the miracle is some piece of this thing that is... All of these things have something in common. They are all a piece of the future that is breaking out into the present.

You can think of it that way. That's what prophecy about the future is doing. If it's a miracle, like even the manna from heaven ends up being this forerunner of something that's even greater that happens when Christ comes. This is actually a biblical way to think about healing. So when we see a miraculous healing, we can think of it as a prophecy not just to the person who is healed, but to all of us. Because we are one body. It's a healing that's happening among us. And so God is sending a message with that healing to his body. They represent the small taste of the future, the small taste of life that is breaking into the present among his people. Let's turn over to Hebrews 2. Hebrews 2. Healings often showed that God was moving. Now this is speculation on my part. I would say this is speculation. I can't think of a place where this is defined in Scripture. It's just a pattern. But it seems like we get these clusters of increased numbers of healings, not necessarily aligned where people are more faithful, but aligned with times when God wants to show that he's working. It's a time where he's punctuating that this is a moment. Pay attention to this moment. I'm doing something with my power. And so you see more of them on the wilderness journey when God brings Israel out of Egypt. And you see more of them in Jesus Christ's ministry on earth, and more of them when the Holy Spirit is given at the first Pentecost. When the church is starting, you get a lot of these. And even in many of our living memory in the church, when most of us came to the understanding of the Sabbath and Holy Days, we were in this time where it seemed like there were this increase in healing. God was doing something. He was punctuating this by showing his power.

And here in Hebrews, the case is being made that Jesus is God and brings salvation. He says in Hebrews 2.1, So how are we going to know about this salvation? Well, he says, So these miracles, which many of them were healings, these were something happening in the present that God described as bearing witness to this salvation, which has this full future fulfillment.

So in other words, again, when one of us is healed, God is putting us all on notice. He's putting us on notice that our complete healing is coming. It's coming. He's revealing his power over sickness and death, and he's reminding us that that will all be destroyed.

If it can happen for one of us now, it'll happen for all of us one day.

We see the same thing in Matthew 11. You don't necessarily need to turn over there. I'll just read it quickly for the sake of time. In Matthew 11, this is where John is in prison, and so he sends messengers to Jesus, and he's trying to find something out here. He asks, John's got this specific expectation, this coming one, this one who's going to bring times of restoration under God's kingship. Jesus responds to him with this allusion to Old Testament passages as a way to answer his question. He does it in a way that may have communicated to him that not all of it's going to be fulfilled now, but the big answer is, yes. Yes, I am the one. This is how he says it. Jesus answered him and said, Go and tell John the things which you hear and see, the blind sea and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to him. So, Jesus didn't come and prove his power as the Son of God, just with random acts of power. He didn't come and show that he could juggle fifty balls, and no other human could juggle fifty balls. He didn't flip a bus or something like that. He didn't jump off the temple and have angels pick him up and carry him away. He didn't do those things. He did these things with purpose. He showed pieces of the future invading the present in some small way. These are bits and pieces of the future breaking into the present. So, let's turn over to Romans 8. Romans 8. What is the substance of the salvation that we read? What is it made of? What was Hebrews 2 really talking about? In Romans 8, starting in verse 9, we read, That's a promise of healing. That's a promise of complete healing to be raised from the dead. The Holy Spirit is a down payment. It's this thing that tells you about the bigger thing that comes later. And it shows it to you by being a kind of that thing, a kind of that experience in miniature. And so healing through the Spirit is evidence of that future seeping into the present. Every healing is a prophecy for the rest of us. It says, you're next. Maybe not this week, this month, maybe not this year, maybe not in this lifetime. But most certainly, it will when it counts the most in our translation into eternity. So, let's keep going with this. Let's look at another time in Acts 3.

We will be coming back to Romans 8. You could either keep your finger there or you could just stay there. I'll read this passage from Acts 3 now that I think about it. This is right after the Acts 2 sermon that Peter gives. He then heals this lame man. God heals the lame man through Peter, and Peter gives this rousing sermon about it. And he explains what happened here. How did this lame man become healed? Where does that power come from?

And he says, well, it's this man that you just killed, this man. He was the prince of life, or the source of life, whom God raised from the dead. Again, we're connecting this healing back to this raising. Of which we are witnesses. And his name through faith in him has made this man strong. It's this man's name who was raised from the dead. He is what made this man strong. Whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. Healings among Christ's body are merely signs of this future life. These signs don't last. Everybody who's had a divine healing in the past, they've died. They eventually got old, they got sick again, and they died. All of them, for now.

But he sprinkles these healings among us, every now and then. He sprinkles them among us to reassure us. They are a piece of that glorious future breaking into the present. Which brings us to a not so nice but a crucial point in all of this. Which is that suffering is part of the journey. Suffering is part of the journey. Back in Romans, if we go back to Romans 8, or if you're still there, we'll go down to verse 16, where Paul writes, that the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. We suffer with Him, we're glorified with Him. So it's not just miraculous healings that bear witness that we're children of God. It's also sharing in Christ's suffering. Christ suffered, He died, He was raised to eternal glory. Suffering, death, eternal glory. Paul is saying that even our suffering bears witness to the fact that we are following the way that Christ opened, and that leads to eternal life in God's kingdom. Let's continue in verse 18. This is Romans 8, 18.

Paul writes, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. This sounds like a maternity ward, kind of here. This earnest expectation of these children to come out. And he says that, for the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope. Because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Sometimes we will ask, why did God cause women to have pain in childbirth? Why did He increase their pain in childbirth back in Genesis 3, whenever Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil? I've heard that question asked quite a lot. And I should caveat what I'm going to say by saying, I know that the ladies here didn't wake up this morning excited to go to services and hear a man talk about the deeper symbolism of pain in childbirth. So I realize that that's thin ice to walk on, but I'd like you to bear with me for a second and consider this. That this pain in childbearing that gets increased, this is right next to where God gives this prophecy about this seed, the woman's seed, who's going to come down and he's going to be the one who's the snake crusher. He's going to crush the serpent's head and he's going to deal a death blow to death itself. So as we think about that, there's this increase in pain in childbearing, and that's going to lead down, but it's going to lead down to the seed that's going to destroy death. We can see in Revelation 12, there's an image in Revelation 12, where there's this woman who's going through this pain in labor and she produces the sun, and the sun is the one that defeats the dragon. It's the whole story in microcosm.

And when we kind of step back from that and think about that and think about Paul talking about the suffering that we go through and how creation is anticipating this production of the sons of God, we can see that there's even a prophecy here. Even in the pain that happens in childbirth, there's a kind of a prophecy.

Every one of these painful births that produce a healthy child ends up being one more countdown. It's putting even the principalities and powers out there that are Satan's kingdom. It's putting them on notice. It's putting everybody on notice. This is counting down to the king's final taking over of his kingdom, of Jesus Christ, the seed, the son doing that.

Suffering, joy. Pain on the front side, joy to follow on that. It signals Satan's ultimate defeat and the defeat of death. The pain of labor juxtaposed with joy of birth is like the plan in miniature right there. So if we continue in Romans 8, Romans 8.23, not only that, but we also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves, grown within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope. But hope that is seen is not hope. For why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. And let's skip down to verse 28. The verses between are actually important for this, but I want to save a little time here. If we go down to verse 28 of Romans 8, we read something you've probably heard before. Paul writes, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose. That's many people's favorite verse in the Bible. And I think it was Gary Petty once who pointed out to me, I don't remember exactly how he put it, he may have said, never just read Romans 8.28 without going ahead and reading Romans 8.29. Because 8.28 tells us that all things work together for good. But the next verse, Romans 8.29, tells us what God thinks is good. Because that's the only way that you will understand that passage, or that you can make sense of it with the world, is if you understand what God thinks is good. And he says, for whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. What's good to God? Conforming to the image of his Son, becoming like Jesus Christ. And that does not always feel good, and it doesn't always look good, and it can be...

Well, I'm understating it. It can be a humongous struggle, especially if, say, you're somebody who is going through years of chronic pain. It's tough words. It's tough words. But this is good. This was good for Jesus Christ. What he was doing was good. So never just read Romans 8.28. Always read Romans 8.29 with it. And this is what it means for things to work together for good. It's not necessarily health and wealth, at least not in this life. What God sees as good is conforming us to Christ's image. It's not just that Jesus died so that we wouldn't have to, or that he suffered so we wouldn't have to. These are things that we have to experience as well. What Jesus did is he made a way. He made a way through it. He experienced suffering. He experienced death. And he made a way that leads to life for us to follow him. And that's what makes him the firstborn. It makes us our older brother who's firstborn. He goes through that birth canal first. The process is not pleasant, but there's life on the other side. He's the door. He's the narrow gate. He's the difficult way.

And this doesn't mean that we necessarily need to be crucified like he is, although some have. Some people have literally gone through what he went through in his name. And so this brings us to a little bit of a paradox. I see this as a paradox. In John 7, 38, and 39, this is a passage often read in relation to the feast. This is something that happens right at the end of the Feast of Tabernacles, 8th day, where Jesus says, I say it's a paradox because sometimes living water, it can flow out of our heart and encourage others to eat water.

And in the end, Jesus says, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. And in the end, Jesus says, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Sometimes living water, it can flow out of our heart and encourage others, even as we ourselves are continuing to experience suffering. And that's a difficult thing. My wife and I knew a man a few years ago, Joe Rydner.

I see the Libousineurs here. They certainly know Joe. He died some years ago. But he was maybe the most encouraging member of the church that I ever knew, possibly. He was just such a fine man. When you talked to him, he was focused on you. He wanted to know about you, how things were going for you, and he would encourage you. But the thing about Joe was that he had this kidney disease that, if I remember right, he had to go to the hospital every day that I knew him. I think that was right. I think he had to go every day for these treatments. And he felt lousy inside.

He just felt terrible all the time. And this was someone who personified this paradox for me. Out of his heart will float rivers of living water. Clearly, that was the case with Joe. He encouraged us all, while at the same time, he was going through this suffering, and now rests and is waiting for Jesus Christ's return.

And boy, what a great moment that will be. With all that in mind, we can come back to James 5 and consider it from a new perspective here. If we turn over to James 5. In James 5, verse 13, we read, Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful?

Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. James is not just giving here a list of...it can sound in English, there's kind of a cadence to it.

It sounds like, oh, you got a problem? Here's the quick fix. Problem? Quick fix. But you look at him closely and you realize this is not a list of problems and quick fixes. James isn't saying prayer automatically fixes suffering. And he's certainly not saying that singing psalms will somehow solve cheerfulness. At least, I hope not. And he's not saying that anointing always leads to immediate physical healing, although many times, many times it can. And I've certainly seen it happen in my life and others' lives.

These aren't quick fixes. They are paths forward. That's what James is presenting here. These are the appropriate paths forward in these situations. Notice that James has reframed the sickness for us in terms of a more timeless reality when he says this. Because he says, and the Lord will raise him up. Well, that sounds like what we read back in Romans 8. When we read that it was about Jesus raising from the dead, which confirms our own raising from the dead. He kind of casted in this larger frame of healing.

So if we step back and consider the symbolism of anointing as well throughout Scripture, which we don't really have time to do here, if I can just give you the fastest gloss of it that I possibly can, I could say that anointing is declaring our identity with Jesus Christ. If we're the betrothed one, if we are going to be married to Christ, we come under his name, we come under his wing.

And so in that sense, we fuse our identity with the anointed one. And that is what we're claiming whenever we are anointed, is that we are part of the identity of the one who was raised to everlasting life. And so by claiming that identity, we are then humbly asking God to give us this little piece of the future and let it break out a little bit in the present for us at this time, in a small way.

And at the same time, we express confidence in the total fullness of life that we know is coming and that we know belongs to us in God's timing. That's what we're doing whenever we ask for God's healing when we're anointed.

So there's one more thing that I would like to mention. I... well, I'll just go to it here. It's in the same passage in James 5, 15. If we read on, it says, And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.

So now we've brought the sins back into it, and now we're back to this multifaceted understanding that the apostles in the New Testament Church had about healing. Here, sins have some kind of relevance, or at least they can. And so we wouldn't want to think that we're good with God when we're actually not.

In other words, when we are going through suffering, it is an appropriate time to consider our status with God, to ask ourselves, what is our status with God? Because it's true that we shouldn't expect to be healed if we aren't seeking God's face, and if we aren't trusting him. Think of it this way. If the branch is no longer attached to the vine that has life, the vine of life, if it's not attached, where's the healing going to come from? It's not. It's not going to be healed. So it's a good time to reevaluate that. But that said, every time you talk about these things, you realize that some people need to hear this, other people need to hear this. And I hope that the ones who need each side get the right message. So having said that, if you love God and you're seeking him and you're soft of heart and quick to repent, as Mr. Phelps talked about, you walk humbly, you love mercy, steadfast love, you... I said that in the wrong order. You do justly, you love mercy, you walk humbly with your God. If that's where you are, you've sought God. God promises to respond to those who earnestly seek him. And so if that's where you are, you don't need to imagine that God is up in heaven with his arms crossed, or that he's some kind of passive-aggressive God who says, Well, if you don't know what's wrong, I'm certainly not going to tell you. He's not going to do that to you. You can have confidence that God loves you and he's holding you in his hands, and that he is bringing glory to himself in your weakness in a way that he looks forward to fully revealing in his time. He's the Master Potter. He's conforming you to his son, even though it can be an incredibly painful process. God does promise healing, but not always now. So if we're not healed right now, let's not assume that that's evidence that we're on the outs with God.

Let's turn over to 2 Corinthians 4 to conclude. 2 Corinthians 4. I know that this is some tough stuff to hear, and it's tough stuff when we see people who receive the answer to prayer that we have been asking for, or maybe we've been asking for for years.

It's tough to rejoice with them in those moments, possibly, while God continues to have us wait.

Hebrews 11 reminds us that there are many faithful people who walk before us on that road, and that many of them God did not miraculously deliver from the predicament that they were in.

And yet God cherishes them immensely, and He hasn't lost a single one of them. He's not lost a single one. And He looks forward to raising His treasured, faithful servants to glorification. So to end, I'll just read this passage from 2 Corinthians 4, verses 7 through 18, and I'll close with this. Pay attention to the life-death language that we get through this passage. 2 Corinthians 4, 7.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed. We are perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are also delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you.

And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, I believed and therefore I spoke, we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.

Therefore we do not lose heart, even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.