Following Jesus is really what the Christian life is all about. Following Jesus makes life easy in many ways. You don’t have to figure everything out yourself, you simply need to do what Jesus tells you to do. To follow Jesus is to be like Him in your attitudes and thought life. To follow Jesus is to speak the truth in love as Jesus did. To follow Jesus is to do the things that Jesus did.
Today, our message is entitled “Does God Heal Today?” Some people say no. Others only through doctors. Yet others, say rarely. Today, we’re going to look at God’s Word to see how it answers the question.
Luke 4:40-41 (ESV) Now when the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. And demons also came out of many,
This is one of many verses that describe Jesus’ healing ministry. People flocked to Jesus and He healed their diseases and cast demons out of them. As we’ve begun our journey through the Gospel of Luke, we’ve seen summary accounts of Jesus’ healing many. We’ve also read of detailed examples of Jesus healing people. As Jesus was healing people, His disciples were being trained by watching Him. Then Jesus decided it was time for His disciples to do the same things.
Luke 9:1-2 (ESV) And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.
Jesus’ disciples were given the same power that Jesus had to heal and cast out demons. Some would say, well that was the twelve apostles and we’re not apostles. If we disregarded everything that Jesus told His apostles to do, there wouldn’t be much of anything in the Gospels for us to follow. So, to make it clearer to us the Jesus desires for all His followers to heal people, let’s look at
Luke 10:1, 9 (ESV) After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. … Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’
These are 72 unnamed other disciples who were instructed to do the same things. Not only did they heal the sick, but they also cast out demons, just as Jesus had done. Jesus instructed His disciples and us that we need the power of the Holy Spirit to do supernatural things, like heal the sick and cast out demons. The power of the Holy Spirit, called by Jesus the baptism in the Holy Spirit must be asked for in order to receive it. The Holy Spirit gives out specific gifts related to healing.
1 Corinthians 12:9-10a (ESV) to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles
Here we see three gifts of the spirit mentioned, including gifts of healing. Some would say, well if God wants me to have it, He’ll just have to give it to me. But that’s not the way God works. The way that we receive gifts from God is by asking Him for them. If we don’t ask, we won’t receive.
1 Corinthians 14:1 (ESV) Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts,
This verse is a command, this is not an option for a follower of Jesus. Every follower of Jesus should earnestly desire spiritual gifts. What does it mean to earnestly desire spiritual gifts? It means to earnestly pray and ask God for them in your life. It’s not just asking once, it’s asking until God gives you the power to use them to show His love to others. And notice that there are gifts (plural) of healing, so there are different kinds of gifts of healing. If God commands you to earnestly desire something, do you think that He then wouldn’t give it to you? I don’t think so. If you seek, you will find. Yes, God still heals today and He wants to use you and me to bring His healing into our world. So, let’s learn how we can learn to follow Jesus in healing.