Jesus, My Healer

Introduction

I am presenting a collection of sermons and series focused on Rediscovering God as a healer of our bodies.

These sermons have two goals:

• My first goal is for you to see God as someone who heals readily and not reluctantly.
• My second goal is you to receive healing from God readily and not reluctantly.

Review

God presents Himself prominently as a healer early in His relationship with the Children of Israel.

• Exodus 15:26 (ESV) – ²⁶ saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.”

God’s commitment to healing is part of a broader package of benefits:

• Psalm 103:1-6 (ESV) – 1 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! 2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, 3 who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, 5 who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. 6 The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.
• This is a short list of blessing from the treaty stipulations presented in Deuteronomy 28.

These benefits are the expression of a single promise to bless Abraham’s descendants:

• Genesis 12:2–3 (ESV) – ² And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
• He validates this in
  • His covenant with Abraham (Genesis 15:10-19)
  • His covenant with Israel (Exodus 19, 20, 24)
  • His reaffirmation of His covenant with Israel (Deuteronomy 2:5, Deuteronomy 28)

Two Covenants at Work

• Abraham’s Covenant (unconditional)
• Moses Covenant (conditional) 

Isaiah Shows the Power of Two Covenants

• Terms of the Mosaic Covenant enacted [Present]: Isaiah 1:5-7 (ESV) – 5 Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 6 From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil. 7 Your country lies desolate; your cities are burned with fire; in your very presence foreigners devour your land; it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners.
• Terms of the Abrahamic Covenant enacted [Future]: Isaiah 2:2-4 (ESV) – 2 It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, 3 and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4 He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

Isaiah Brings Together Past, Present, and Future

• Isaiah 14:12-14 (ESV) – 12 “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! 13 You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’

Jesus is a Prominent Figure in Isaiah

• Isaiah frames Jesus as a figure whose ability to bless is not limited by time:
  • His Birth: Isaiah 9:6-7 (ESV) – 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
  • His Crucifixion: Isaiah 9:6-7 (ESV) – 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
    5 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.

• Isaiah’s revelation of Jesus parallels John’s revelation of Jesus as a timeless figure:
  • Revelation 22:13 (ESV) – ¹³ I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
    • Who Jesus is and what He has to offer are not limited by time.
      • It was possible to access the blessings of Jesus before He was crucified; It was possible to access the blessings of Jesus before He was born.

Accessing the Future in the Present

• • • • How do we know this?
        • Because Abraham did that: Galatians 3:3–9 (ESV) – ³ Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? ⁴ Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? ⁵ Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— ⁶ just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? ⁷ Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. ⁸ And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” ⁹ So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

• • • • • Matthew 8:14–17 (ESV) – ¹⁴ And when Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. ¹⁵ He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him. ¹⁶ 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. ¹⁷ This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.”

The Holy Spirit Gives Us Access to Jesus’ Virtue

• Ephesians 1:13–14 (ESV) – ¹³ In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴ who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
• Romans 8:11 (ESV) – ¹¹ 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.

© Joshua D. Smith, Ph.D., 2023