Rev. David Holwick ZF Book of James series
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
August 28, 1994
James 5:13-16
DIVINE HEALING
I. WHEN PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED.
It was March, 1980.
Marie Hermann was 61 years old, and she had a football-sized
metastatic tumor in her abdomen.
She also had other tumors in her neck, liver, bones, and
chest.
The chemotherapy had caused her thyroid glands to fail.
In the next 6 months she lost 82 pounds.
Her husband, who was a doctor, thought she was going to die
in a few short weeks.
On September 28 of that year she went to church at Bethel Temple.
It was not a charismatic or Pentecostal church.
But on that particular Sunday the pastor asked the 1000 members
to join hands and pray for the healing of those in the church.
He never mentioned Marie, but she prayed with everyone else.
She says she would have been pleased to hold down her supper
that night.
She didn't. She got sick as usual.
But the next morning her nausea lifted [inexplicably].
She ate breakfast, then lunch, with no problems.
Her husband was skeptical of any spectacular or miraculous
recoveries.
He checked her abdomen and was surprised that he could feel no
cancer.
Ten days later she saw her cancer doctor.
No cancer was found anywhere in her body.
The doctors were baffled.
Cancers have been known to go into remission, but never this
quickly and completely.
#2737
A. Had Marie been healed by God?
1) Some say there is no such thing as miracles.
a) It is an illusion.
b) Or it is a random coincidence.
c) Most "faith healers" are flashy frauds.
1> Example of one who received divine insight -
from his wife through an earplug.
2) Others say miracles ceased with apostles in first century.
a) We live in a different age and God does not work
like this now.
b) A few verses in support, but not strong.
3) Most Christians believe the Bible teaches God can heal.
a) He not only can, he does.
b) He will never stop as long as there is a need.
B. The Bible is full of miraculous healings.
1) Ignored for centuries, but now interest is revived.
a) I believe God can heal, though I have many questions.
b) I don't accept every claim made.
2) Healing is broad: physical, but also emotional, relational.
II. PENTECOSTALS HAVE BEEN THE BIGGEST PROMOTERS OF DIVINE HEALING.
A. Three main arguments:
1) Jesus redeemed us from the curse, which includes illness.
a) Deut 28:21-22; Gal 3:14.
2) Old Testament prophecies made healing claims for Messiah.
a) Isa 53:4; quoted in Matthew 8:17.
b) Isa 54:5; quoted in 1 Peter 2:24.
1> Therefore, Jesus' death on cross not only washed
our sins away, but healed all our diseases.
3) God honors faith.
a) If we believe, God will heal. Jam 5:15
B. Corrections.
1) Paul's curse is not the Law's curse.
a) Paul is not talking about physical healing but about
getting right with God for all eternity.
b) Many aspects of the curse of Eden still affect us.
2) Matthew applies Isaiah's prophecy to the healing ministry
of Jesus, not to his death on the cross.
a) Jesus did not heal everyone in Israel in his day.
b) After Jesus' death, the apostle Peter healed a crippled
man whom Jesus had probably known, since he begged
every day for years right outside the Temple.
c) When Peter quotes Isaiah, he is referring to the
symbolic sickness of sin in our lives, not to
physical sickness itself.
3) The "faith" passages are key to divine healing.
a) Christians must be careful how they handle them.
1> Easy way to produce blame: if you only believed
harder, you wouldn't be in that wheelchair.
2> Also wrong to go too far the other way: your
faith doesn't matter. God's will is going to be
done no matter what you do.
b) Faith is critical.
1> Our response is important to God.
2> Where there is a lack of faith his power can be
blocked. Matt 13:58
3> James says what Jesus says: all things are
possible to those of faith. Matt 21:22
c) No matter how "hard" we believe, God's will is not always
going to agree with ours.
1> Jesus at Gethsemane.
2> Foolish to "claim a promise" God hasn't made.
Gordon Fee, a pentecostal teacher at my seminary,
knew of blind people who claimed a healing.
Jesus had healed them and they were no longer blind.
They couldn't see, either, but they were healed.
3> We pray with full counsel of God in mind.
III. WE HAVE A TASTE OF GOD'S PROMISES, NOT THE TOTALITY.
A. If Christians were not to be sick, we would not die.
1) Death is the ultimate sickness, and sign of the curse.
2) All Christians still die, at least until the Rapture.
B. Examples from the Bible itself.
1) Prophet Elisha performed many miraculous healings.
a) He even raised the dead.
b) Yet he died from an illness. 2 Kg 13:14
2) The apostle Paul practiced healing.
a) Yet he had to leave his friend Trophimus sick
in Miletus. Probably not a lack of faith.
b) Our bodies are in "bondage to decay" until the
Resurrection. Rom 8:21
IV. GOD STILL ACTS TODAY.
A. We have no ironclad guarantees, but miracles do happen.
1) Most of our prayer requests are for sick people.
2) If God actually healed them, we would keel over.
a) (illust of Marilyn Patterson's friend)
3) Sometimes we don't get much because we don't expect much.
B. What James says about healing.
1) The sick person should take the initiative.
a) They call on elders, not faith healers.
b) Elders pray "over," may indicate they are bedridden.
2) Anointing oil has a variety of interpretations.
a) Sacramental.
1> It is holy and has sacred power.
2> This is basis of RCC "last rites."
A> For years, just done for the dying, ironically.
B> Some interpreters believe eternal healing is in
view, not earthly healing, so appropriate.
C> Now called the "rites of healing."
b) Medicine.
1> Many examples from ancient times.
A> Note story of Good Samaritan. (oil & wine)
2> Prayer should go hand-in-hand with medicine.
c) Symbolic.
1> Probably represents Holy Spirit.
2> Jesus used symbols (mud, spit) to increase faith.
A> Faith is important here: "the prayer of faith."
B> Faith is trust in God, not just hopefulness or
optimism.
3) Physical health is intertwined with spiritual health.
a) Forgiveness of sins tied with healing.
b) Not all disease or illness is caused by sin (note
the "if") but some is.
1> Alcoholism, drug abuse, sexual disease can all lead
to broken health.
2> (Healing of wheelchair bound man in Heidelberg)
3> Few things are more healing than knowing your sin
and guilt has been removed.
c) The emphasis is on your relationship with God.
V. DON'T UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF PRAYER.
A. Even secular authorities are taking notice.
In 1983 an unusual experiment was conducted in a large
San Francisco hospital.
393 sick people were prayed for by Christians.
A control group had no one praying for them.
The patients and the doctors did not know which group they
were in.
The people praying were born again Christians and did not
know the patients.
Results: the ones prayed for had fewer complications,
heart attacks and pneumonia.
Something found in the National Enquirer?
No, the study was published in the Journal of the American
Medical Association in 1989, which is noteworthy in itself!
#761
B. Some examples are so powerful they cannot be ignored.
At the age of 14, Barbara Cummiskey had nothing wrong with
her.
But at 15 she began to stumble and lose her coordination.
She thought it was just part of growing up.
Then her vision began to blur.
Her left hand tightened into a half-fist.
By age 19 her doctors knew exactly what she had - Multiple
Sclerosis, or M.S.
It is an unpredictable disease.
There were times she would get a little better, and even
walk without a cane.
But by 1977 her diaphragm was paralyzing.
Breathing was a problem, and then she got a severe lung
disease.
A year later, one lung collapsed and withered, and the other
had only half-strength.
The M.S. proceeded to strike her intestines, proving she had
the most dangerous form of the disease.
As a result, most of her intestines had to be removed.
A hole had to be cut in her neck so she could breathe.
Three times she had a heart attack.
As a final indignity, tumors related to M.S. began to grow
on her beautiful hands and face.
She and her family were preparing for her to die.
She was only 31 years old.
22 years before, at age 9, she had said to Jesus: "My life
is yours."
For a while she turned away from God, but as the disease came
to its final stages she became closer to him than ever.
Nurses would come in and find her talking to God as if he
were right in the room.
June 7, 1981.
A local religious radio station had mentioned Barbara and
450 cards poured in.
On this Sunday, two women from her church came to read the
cards to her.
Barbara heard a voice over her shoulder.
The others in the room heard nothing.
This calm voice told her, "My child, get up and walk."
Barbara told the women she was going to walk, so they should
go get her family.
She had not walked in two years.
She got out of the bed and started down the hall.
Her atrophied legs now had muscle tone and firmness.
Her father could not say a word.
He grabbed her and danced around the room.
M.S. is incurable - her doctors say she never should have
gotten well.
Yet spinal taps showed no trace of M.S. left in her.
Her lung should have been destroyed, yet it was completely
healthy and functioning.
The lung disease, the tumors, and the nerve damage were gone.
Her health was completely restored, instantly.
God can do more than we ask or imagine.
#11
==================================
Original sermon: January 31, 1988
==================================
I. Illustration of miraculous healing of cancer.
A. Healed by God?
1) Some say there is no such thing as miracles.
a) It is an illusion.
b) Or it is a random coincidence.
c) Most "faith healers" are flashy frauds.
1> Example of one who received divine insight -
from his wife through an earplug.
2) Others say miracles ceased with apostles in first century.
a) We live in a different age and God does not work
like this now.
b) A few verses in support, but not strong.
3) Most Christians believe the Bible teaches God can heal.
a) He not only can, he does.
b) He will never stop as long as there is a need.
B. The Bible is full of miraculous healings.
1) Ignored for centuries, but now interest is revived.
a) I believe God can heal, though I have many questions.
b) I don't accept every claim made.
2) Healing is broad: physical, but also emotional, relational.
II. Pentecostals have been the biggest promoters of divine healing.
A. Three main arguments:
1) Jesus redeemed us from the curse, which includes illness.
a) Deut 28:21-22; Gal 3:14.
2) Old Testament prophecies made healing claims for Messiah.
a) Isa 53:4; quoted in Matthew 8:17.
b) Isa 54:5; quoted in 1 Peter 2:24.
1> Therefore, Jesus' death on cross not only washed
our sins away, but healed all our diseases.
3) God honors faith.
a) If we believe, God will heal. Jam 5:15
b) He does not want us to be sick.
B. Corrections.
1) Paul's curse is not the Law's curse.
a) Paul is not talking about physical healing but about
getting right with God for all eternity.
b) Many aspects of the curse of Eden still affect us.
2) Matthew applies Isaiah's prophecy to the healing ministry
of Jesus, not to his death on the cross.
a) Jesus did not heal everyone in Israel in his day.
b) After Jesus' death, the apostle Peter healed a crippled
man whom Jesus had probably known, since he begged
every day for years right outside the Temple.
c) When Peter quotes Isaiah, he is referring to the
symbolic sickness of sin in our lives, not to
physical sickness itself.
3) The "faith" passages are key to divine healing.
a) Christians must be careful how they handle them.
1> Easy way to produce blame: if you only believed
harder, you wouldn't be in that wheelchair.
2> Also wrong to go too far the other way: your
faith doesn't matter. God's will is going to be
done no matter what you do.
b) Faith is important.
1> Our response is important to God.
2> Where there is a lack of faith his power can be
blocked. Matt 13:58
c) No matter how "hard" we believe, God's will is not always
going to agree with ours.
1> Jesus at Gethsemane.
2> Foolish to "claim a promise" God hasn't made.
Gordon Fee, a pentecostal teacher at my seminary,
knew of blind people who claimed a healing.
Jesus had healed them and they were no longer blind.
They couldn't see, either, but they were healed.
3> More tragic - family in extreme Pentecostal sect
that refused to see doctors.
A> Relied on faith alone.
B> Two of their children died as a result.
C. We have a taste of God's promises, not the totality.
1) If Christians were not to be sick, we would not die.
a) Death is the ultimate sickness, and sign of the curse.
b) All Christians still die, at least until the Rapture.
2) Examples from the Bible itself.
a) Prophet Elisha performed many miraculous healings.
1> He even raised the dead.
2> Yet he died from an illness. 2 Kg 13:14
b) The apostle Paul practiced healing.
1> Yet he had to leave his friend Trophimus sick
in Miletus. 2 Tim 4:20
A> Probably not due to lack of faith.
2> Our bodies are in "bondage to decay" until the
Resurrection. Rom 8:21
III. God still acts today.
A. We have no ironclad guarantees, but miracles do happen.
1) Most of our prayer requests are for sick people.
2) If God actually healed them, we would keel over.
a) (illust of Marilyn Patterson's friend)
3) Sometimes we don't get much because we don't expect much.
B. What James says about healing.
1) The sick person should take the initiative.
a) They call on elders, not faith healers.
b) Elders pray "over," may indicate they are bedridden.
2) Anointing oil has a variety of interpretations.
a) Sacramental.
1> It is holy and has sacred power.
2> This is basis of RCC "last rites."
A> For years, just done for the dying, ironically.
B> Now called the "rites of healing."
b) Medicine. Many examples from ancient times.
c) Symbolic.
1> Probably represents Holy Spirit.
2> Jesus used symbols (mud, spit) to increase faith.
3> Faith is important here: "the prayer of faith."
3) Physical health is intertwined with spiritual health.
a) Forgiveness of sins tied with healing.
b) Not all disease or illness is caused by sin (note
the "if") but some is.
1> Man born blind in John 9. John 9:2-3
A> His illness was an occasion for God's glory.
B> Every calamity should be viewed this way.
2> (Healing of wheelchair bound man in Heidelberg)
3> Few things are more healing than knowing your sin
and guilt has been removed.
c) The emphasis is on your relationship with God.
1> Note that 5:13 includes all kinds of troubles,
as well as happiness.
2> All of our life relates to God.
C. Don't underestimate the power of prayer.
