In this message, Pastor Ben breaks down how Jesus is our healer, both of the sickness of our souls and of our diseases and illnesses, and how Jesus’ healing work promises us complete healing and eternal life at the resurrection.
Transcript
Put up your hand for me if you have been here longer than five years. Keep it up if you’ve been here longer than ten, or twenty. How about longer than twenty-five? Those numbers are getting smaller as we go along. You can put your hands down.
As you can see, there are a lot of us who are actually quite new to Valley Alliance, and maybe even new to church in general. You might even be new to the Christian faith, having walked with the Lord for only a short time. September 16 marked two years for me at our church, so I am also still fairly new to Valley Alliance.
You may also be new to this denomination that we call the Christian and Missionary Alliance, established in 1882 by the Reverend Dr. Albert Benjamin Simpson. If we break down that name—Christian and Missionary Alliance—we find a few key things. First of all, any church under this name is Christian. Not Buddhist, not Islamic, not an Earth Day cult, but Christian. We are also a church of missions—a church that loves missions, supports missionaries, prays for missionaries, and desires the whole gospel to go to the whole world. Finally, we are an alliance, which simply means we are a group of churches working together to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to all the world. Jesus is our message, His work is our focus, and He is the one we treasure and strive to proclaim in all that we do.
So you might wonder, why are we talking about healing today? Well, not to burst your bubble, but we are going to talk about healing for the next three weeks. Healing has been a key part of Christian and Missionary Alliance history, but it is also a big part of what we value and teach. This is why it appears in our doctrinal statement. As your pastor, bound by both Scripture and our doctrinal statement, I believe the Bible teaches that healing is available for the believer today. We believe that healing is made possible only because of Christ’s atoning work on the cross for us. The Great Physician is still powerfully at work.
Now, healing has been—and still is—somewhat controversial. We are talking about it because healing is ultimately all about the work of Jesus, and because we need to clear up a few misunderstandings. Often, people fall into two extreme camps. Far in one corner is the camp that never talks about healing; they believe it does not happen anymore, that the apostolic age is finished, and the book is closed. Then, on the other end of the spectrum, there are those who feel that every time we preach or hold a prayer meeting, somebody had better get healed or we are doing something wrong. You can probably guess that neither of those extremes is correct.
That is why our three-week series is titled Making Atonement for Healing—because I want to make amends for the excesses of particular teachers on one side, and the lack of teaching from others on the opposite side. (Also, I am currently going through ordination with the Alliance, and I am required to preach three sermons on this topic! That is another reason, though not the main point.) Today, we will hear from God’s Word about how Christ is our healer.
Defining Divine Healing
Before we get too far, we have to define our terms. What is divine healing? When we talk about divine healing, we are talking about the power of God repairing what is broken by sin.
When God created Adam and Eve and declared creation “very good,” they were not only without sin, but also without physical infirmity—no aches, no pains, no imperfections. All of creation was without defect. None of your tomatoes had bottom rot, none of your potatoes grew bulbous in the wrong directions, and none of your trees suffered from bark-eating caterpillars. Everything worked as it was meant to work.
However, when sin entered the world through the disobedience of Adam, the curse of sin affected and infected all of creation. Paul writes in Romans 8 that creation was subjected to futility in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption. What does that mean? Simply this: every time you see something rotting, rusting, decaying, wearing down, falling apart, or dying, it is a sign that sin is in the world. It is a sign that things are not working the way God originally designed them. It is the result of human sin, and now the entire world is under that curse—thorns, thistles, aches, pains, murder, and theft are all results of the Fall.
We do not rust, but we do get sick, we wear down, and ultimately, we die. Sickness is a physical symptom of sin in the world.
Therefore, let us define divine healing this way: Divine healing is the healing of the body by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, made possible by His death and resurrection.
Do not miss this key distinction: Christ is our healer. Faith does not heal by itself. Prayer by itself does not heal. Anointing with oil by itself does not heal. Christ Himself does the work. Even when medicine is used or mud is applied to the eyes of a blind man, Christ is still the one at work.
If you look at the Gospels, Jesus’ healing ministry is not uniform or identical. He heals all kinds of people in a variety of ways—whether driving out demons, curing leprosy, or restoring sight. Sometimes it is a simple touch of His hand; sometimes it is a spoken word; sometimes He applies mud. In one rare instance, Jesus puts His fingers into a man’s ears, spits on the ground, and says, “Be opened,” and the deaf man hears. (Don’t try that one at home, by the way.)
The Purpose of Jesus’ Miracles
Matthew 8:14–17 gives us an example of Christ’s healing ministry:
And when Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him. That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.”
Notice those last words—they come from Isaiah 53, one of the clearest Old Testament prophecies regarding the suffering and death of Christ for the sins of the world. Matthew directly connects the work of Christ on the cross with Jesus’ ministry of physical healing in the Gospels.
Matthew 4:23–24 helps clarify this relationship:
And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.
The gospel message is clearly proclaimed—Christ announces that He is King and Savior—and that proclamation is accompanied by signs of His power and authority. Driving out demons, healing physical bodies, raising the dead, multiplying fish and loaves, and calming stormy waters all demonstrate that He is the promised King.
When John the Baptist sent messengers to ask if Jesus was indeed the Messiah, Jesus replied:
“Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.” (Matthew 11:4–5)
The signs Jesus performed demonstrated to the world that He was the promised Savior.
The Supreme Healing of the Soul
However, the chief form of healing—the form most necessary for every human being—is not merely physical healing or living a thousand years in good health. The greatest and truest healing you and I need is not the healing of our bodies, but the healing of our souls.
We need to be born again, justified, saved by grace through faith, and made new creations in Jesus Christ. We must not confuse the signs of the Kingdom with the central message itself. The physical miracles pointed to the message, declaring, “I am the One you have been waiting for.”
And what is that central message? “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).
Our greatest problem is not physical sickness. Sickness causes great pain and eventually leads to bodily death, but sin leads to eternal death. The only cure for sin is not something concocted by doctors or found in a family recipe book; it is the blood of Jesus Christ, which cleanses us from all sin. We need a Savior who can raise us to new life, give us a new heart, and transform us from the inside out, rather than simply treating our external symptoms.
Jesus says in Luke 5:31–32:
“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
People only call a doctor when they recognize they are sick. My family tends to avoid the doctor. Someone will be coughing terribly, and when asked about it, they’ll insist, “Oh, I’m fine!” Or if a bone is sticking out, “I can walk it off.” No, you can’t—you need to go to the hospital! In the same way, we must recognize our spiritual sickness if we are to receive the gospel remedy.
Bearing Our Infirmities
If we look closely at Isaiah 53:4–5, we read:
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
The word translated as “griefs” or “sorrows” can also mean “infirmities”—the weaknesses and afflictions that result from living in a fallen world. In the Old Testament, physical blemishes or diseases prevented people from serving as priests or entering certain areas of the temple. While those physical conditions were not personal sins in themselves, they served as visual reminders that the effects of sin keep us from worshiping God as we ought.
Today, anyone can walk into this church regardless of physical condition, but the internal effects of sin remain in all our hearts. We are prone to pride, selfishness, distrust, greed, and jealousy. As Paul writes in Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Yet we are not without hope. The Suffering Servant bore our infirmities and carried our sins to the cross. He was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. The punishment He endured brings us peace with God. The Lamb of God not only takes away our sin, declaring us righteous and removing our transgressions as far as the east is from the west, but He also transforms us.
When we are saved, God answers the prayer of Psalm 51: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Apart from Christ, our sinful souls are like a tangled mass of old Christmas lights—knotted up, useless, and impossible to untangle on our own. But Christ takes our lives, untangles the knots, cleanses us, restores us, and sets us in right working order for His glory. He makes us new creations, born not of the flesh, but of the Holy Spirit.
That is divine healing. By the power and grace of Christ, we are raised to new life with new desires and affections that align with the will of God.
The Promise of Final Redemption
We also have a future promise. Consider Paul’s words in Romans 8:9–11:
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
This passage promises life as we wait for Christ, and ultimate life when we are raised with Him on the last day. At the resurrection, every believer will experience the complete removal of sin’s effects: no more tears, crying, pain, or illness. We will receive glorious resurrection bodies and be made like Jesus, completely free from the presence and power of sin.
All healing—whether of cancer, a common cold, or a cold and greedy heart—finds its ultimate fulfillment in the resurrection.
Because of that future hope, we can confidently affirm that Jesus still heals today. Every act of physical healing now is an act of His grace. It is not something we earn, deserve, or can demand from God, but a merciful gift. Any healing we experience in the present serves as a foretaste and reminder of the total restoration awaiting us when Christ returns.
Revelation 11:15 summarizes this grand hope:
“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”
When the King returns, He will set everything right. Everything will function as it was designed to do, bringing eternal glory to His name.
Living in Light of the Healer
What does it mean for us practically that Christ is our healer?
First, it means Jesus is the Savior of sinners. We must acknowledge our need for Him. None of us are sinless; all of us—including your pastors—desperately need the grace of Jesus Christ. Because of His death and resurrection, everyone who trusts in Him is forgiven, born again, and filled with the Holy Spirit.
Second, Jesus heals physical bodies today as a testimony that He is King and that His kingdom is at hand. These acts of healing remind us that He will one day raise us to perfect, incorruptible life.
So I ask you: Have you trusted in Christ for the healing of your soul?
Do you recognize that you are a sinner in thought, word, and deed, and that Christ died for your sins and was raised for your justification? If you believe in Him, the ultimate work of healing has begun in you. Justification happens in a moment, but sanctification—learning to walk with Him and becoming more like Him—takes the rest of your life. It is like recovering from an illness: the cure is applied immediately, but the rehabilitation takes time.
If you have not yet believed, do not delay. We do not know when Christ will return. Reading through the minor prophet Zephaniah reminds us that the Lord’s judgment is real and impending. Christ is coming not merely as a gentle teacher, but as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords to judge the earth and vindicate His people. Place your trust in Him today—not only because judgment is real, but because He is the only One who can cure your sin-sick soul and walk with you every step of the way.
Finally, if you are currently seeking physical healing, are you seeking Christ Himself above the cure?
There is a tendency today to rely on our own efforts—thinking, “If only I had more faith, God would heal me,” or looking exclusively to the latest medical treatments, diets, or internet remedies to eliminate pain. While divine healing includes the merciful reception of physical relief, it also includes receiving the grace of Christ to sustain us through hardship.
God has not promised us an easy life. Jesus plainly told us, “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20), and that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22). But He has promised, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).
It is entirely right to pray for physical relief and ease, but our hearts must seek Christ first. Ask Him: “Lord, be near to me. Give me strength, help me to be faithful, and show Yourself precious to me.” Christ provides richly for our every need. He is the Great Physician, the Savior of all who call upon Him, and our only hope in life and in death.