Hebrews 11:6 says: No one can please
Romans 10:17
informs us that faith comes by hearing, & hearing by the word of God.
So there are two
things we are going to look @ over the next few weeks as we study what God says
about healing us.
The First is the
theory & theology undergirding the principles of healing. The 2nd is the practical
application. Today I am going to show you how these 2 things worked together
for the woman with the issue of blood.
Her story is recorded in Luke8: 43:48,
Matthew 9:20~22 & Mark 5:25–34.
You will find that
the fundamentals of receiving healing are exactly the same as for everything
else we teach. It is word based. "He sent His word
and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions" (Ps
107:20).
Know the word of
God. Believe the word of God. Speak the word of God. Do the word of God. Why? Because faith comes by hearing & hearing
by the word of God [Romans 10:17] & the word of God is Truth. [John 17:17]
Mark
5 has the most detailed description of what happened. 24 Jesus went with him, and all the people
followed, crowding around him. 25 A woman in the crowd had suffered for
twelve years with constant bleeding. 26 She had suffered a great deal from
many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but
she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. 27 She had heard
about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his
robe. 28 For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will
be healed.” 29 Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her
body that she had been healed of her terrible condition.
30 Jesus
realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around
in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?”
31 His
disciples said to him, “Look at this crowd pressing around you. How can you
ask, ‘Who touched me?’”
32 But he
kept on looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the frightened
woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell
to her knees in front of him and told him what she had done. 34
And he said
to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your
suffering is over.”
The
first thing I want to highlight are the facts of this case. It was a fact that this woman had an issue of
blood. It was a fact she had had the
problem for 12 years. It was a fact that she was considered spiritually &
ceremonially unclean. Mark tells us she had spent everything she had on
physicians to no avail, growing worse not better. It is a fact she was
healed. It is a fact that it was her
faith that made her well.
What
was it about this woman’s faith that enabled her to believe for her
healing? She knew who Jesus was!
When
I say that she knew who Jesus was I mean that she understood what God had said
about Himself in the scriptures & she applied that word to her situation.
So
you have to read this passage with a Hebrew mindset & you can’t do that
unless you understand what this woman is saying & why she believed it.
Jesus,
like most Jewish men of His time would have worn a long robe over which He
would have worn an outer garment. This outer garment would have been seamless
with 4 corners known as a tallit. On
each of those four corners there was a knotted cord made of 4 white threads
& a blue thread known as the Tzizizt.
The tzizizt were knotted in such a way as to remind
the Jewish people of God’s law. It was a
constant visible reminder of their covenant with God. The whole purpose of the Tallit (prayer shawl) was a reminder to God’s people that
they had been set aside, sanctified and made Holy unto God.
The 4
tzizizt represented ties to family, status within the community ~ a problem in
Jesus day with some Pharisees wearing long, ostentatious tassels as a way of
expressing their spiritual superiority~ authority & the priesthood with its
emphasis on power & personal holiness. It also alludes to the four expressions of redemption associated with Exodus: 6:6~7
“Therefore, say to the
people of Israel: ‘I am the Lord. I will free you from your oppression
and will rescue you from your
slavery in Egypt. I will redeem you with a powerful arm and great acts
of judgment. 7 I will claim you as my own
people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God who has
freed you from your oppression in Egypt.
The last thing, that will help tie all this together, is a
word. The word used when giving
instructions for the tallit is the word kanaf, “wing,” which can also
mean “corner”.
So Exodus 19:4 , for example, has a broader interpretation, because
the tallit [prayer shawl] had *wings* & prayer carries us to God.
You have seen what I did to the Egyptians. You
know how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.
These are
verses the woman with the issue of blood would have known, just as she would
have known Malachi 4:2…
"But for you who fear my name, the Sun of
Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free,
leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture.”
The woman’s
thinking goes like this…
“If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed”.
Some translations render this
verse as ..touch the hem of his garment… So
just stop & think for a moment. The
crowd is so thick Jesus is being pressed about on all sides ~ so much so when
Jesus queries who touched him Peter goes… Look
at this crowd! What do you mean, who
touched you?
So what is this woman thinking?
Where is the hem of Jesus garment?
Near His feet. This woman is not down on the ground grovelling round, through
different robes & people’s grubby feet, reaching between all those legs to
try & grab hold of the bottom of Jesus’ garment. It’s ridiculous. It would certainly have
drawn attention to her before she got anywhere near Jesus. No.
Now when we look at the 3 different
gospel versions we find our answer in the
Greek. Mark uses the word himaton
,
which means cloak or outer garment
ie the
tallit, or prayer shawl, while both Matthew
& Luke use the word
kraspedon, which
means fringe or tassle & which were
attached to the
tallit.
Malachi
4:2…suddenly makes a lot more sense.
"But for you who fear
my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will
go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture.”
Immediately Jesus
asks, “Who touched me?”
Peter, naturally,
thinks this is an insane question. We’ve all been in crowds so dense you can
barely move: at the Ekka, or a rock concert, maybe a dance or the world
cup. You know how it is: lots & lots
of strangers pressing up against you constantly. This touch was different.
Again we see different English words used to
explain what happened. Some use power, some say healing power & some
translate it as virtue but the Greek word is dynamis ~ power. The root is the same word as in dunamis, which
is the word used of the Holy Spirit.
Now Jesus had the
Spirit without measure & it was the Holy Spirit power Jesus realised had
left Him. What draws the Holy Spirit? Recognition of who Jesus is! That’s part of His job, to testify of Jesus.
This woman had
heard of Jesus. That’s why she was there
in the crowd in the first place. She knew, according to scripture, that if
Jesus was who He said He was there was *healing in His wings*, in the tzizizt
of His prayer shawl. Her faith drew forth the power of God to heal.
There were lots
& lots of other people in the crowd that day ~ including the leader of a
synagogue whose daughter had just died & who wanted a miracle. The crowd
was all agoggle to see what would happen.
They were hangers on. They were
curious by~standers. They had nothing to
lose & nothing to gain.
This woman, though,
was outcaste. Her position in society
couldn’t get any worse. She had nothing to lose & everything to gain. She was desperate.
Now I want to be as
careful as possible as I say this next part because God is not a man that He
should lie. I don’t want anyone to leave
here under condemnation because I know as well as you do, some of you have
received a partial healing; some have received temporary healing & some are
still waiting on healing. Whatever your circumstances, the Truth of God’s word
does not change because of your circumstances. Over & over & over God
says He is our healer. It is one of His names & we know the names of God
describe attributes of His character. It is God’s character to heal.
Nowhere in
scripture do I find it in God’s nature to inflict His children with sickness or
disease. Indeed we find that is satan’s nature: to rob us of our health, to
kill our bodies, to destroy our well being. His goal? To destroy the image of
God we carry. He doesn’t care how He
does that, only that it happens.
I know it can be
very hurtful when you have prayed for healing, when you have been prayed for,
for healing & if you don’t receive your brothers & sisters in Christ
start pointing fingers. We are not to do
that.
As your preacher I
like to have answers for you. I will tell you what I believe the Holy Spirit
said to me, over & over as I wrestled with this dilemma. I believe He said: Thy word is Truth.
We live in a very
noisy world; a world that has lots & lots of different information coming
at us all the time & all of it is worldly. It presents worldly facts that
this that or the other will cause something or other ~ & they are facts but…they are not the Truth.
Jesus is
the Truth. Jesus is Life. God’s word is the Truth. We need to renew our minds
& replace the world’s information with God’s information. We need a revelation deep in our spirit of
the Truth of exactly who Jesus is; not who the church teaches He is; not who
the traditions of men say He; not how we feel or what our body is telling us, but who Jesus says He is & He said He came
that we might have life & have it abundantly! Gratitude is a great starting
point. We can thank Jesus that He came
to give us life.
I am going to give
you 3 confessions that we will say together & then we will come together
& pray for each other because where the Truth of God’s Word is preached He
will confirm it with signs & wonders.
1. You are Jehovah Rophay,
the God who heals me.
2. Thank you, Jesus, that
you came to give me life & by your stripes, I am healed.
3. Your Holy Spirit in me
testifies to these Truths: You are a healing God; He who is in me is greater
than He who is in the world ; & by Jesus
stripes I am healed.
No comments:
Post a Comment