Today we begin an exciting new series!
I read an Easter FB Post – it was from a September 2018 Tim Tebow Instagram. It summed up the eternal hope that humanity received as a result of Christ’s horrific death on the cross and ensuing exultant resurrection. But it also talks about the subject of this series—healing!
“What we can’t understand in the midst of pain is, we serve a God Who heals broken things and broken people and He sent His son down to this earth and I can only imagine what kind of agony it caused Him. But He did that so that…His son could heal broken people. You see God was broken and Jesus was broken so that we don’t have to be. And in the midst of our pain He can heal our broken-ness, and He can mend us and He can bring us together so that it doesn’t end with tragedy, it ends with triumph; it doesn’t end with hurting, it ends with healing; it doesn’t end with (mourning), it ends with celebration. And when we know Jesus, all those things are true. And we win.
“(What) if we were playing in a game right now and we were down by a huge margin, 50 to nothing…and it’s still the first quarter; but we knew, we just knew that at the end, we were going to have a miraculous comeback. How much confidence would we have, how much excitement would we have knowing that at some point in this game (we win…)–at some point we come back, and at some point, our MVP “steps up and balls out for us…” We can have that hope, we can have that assurance, we can have that faith and it doesn’t mean it’s easy; it doesn’t mean that we are not devastated through it. But it means that we can look thru our devastation, we can look past it, into the hope that Jesus brings to us.”1
In this new series, we will be talking about all of Jesus’ healing miracles in the New Testament—and asking a question about each one: what does this specific miracle teach us about the nature of our triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? 😊
Some of the sub-topics that we will touch upon include:
- Twenty-eight Healing accounts – not counting the miracles that happened in Jesus’ Name, above and beyond the gospels in the New Testament
- Fifteen Permanent Disabilities Healed
- Six Illnesses/Injuries Healed
- Four Demonic Deliverances
- Three Raisings (that is…from the dead)
- Eleven Unique Healings (recounted in only one of the four gospels)
- Seven Faith-based healings
- One total unfaith healing
- Three mass healings
- The Jewish healings
- The Gentile healings
- The long-distance healings
- Healings that happened when the people weren’t seeking a healing
- Healing that happened when the person wasn’t cooperating
- Healing that started as a soul/heart healing followed by a dramatic physical healing
- Healings that never happened
- The gradual healing
- The countless healings not documented
- The healing timeline
- Jesus’ healing criteria.
So what was Jesus’ healing criteria—what was the criteria that someone needed to meet before Jesus would heal them?
Did the person have to be…
wealthy, well-connected;
seeking Him, or respecting Him, or loving Him, or praising Him, or thanking Him, or serving as an evangelist for Him;
lawful, or sanctified, or spiritual, or one of Jesus’ followers;
suffering from a disability;
poor in heart or spirit;
cash poor;
suffering from an incurable disease;
suffering from schizophrenia…bipolar disorder…PTSD;
bedfast;
terminal (terminated ☹)?
Although Jesus healed people with all these criteria in the New Testament, essentially the only criterion needed was broken-ness.
Matthew 4 says that He healed every kind of disease and illness. News about him spread as far as Syria, and people soon began bringing to him all who were sick. And whatever their sickness or disease, or if they were demon possessed or epileptic or paralyzed—he healed them all.
This tells us that no medical problem was too challenging for Jesus—and He didn’t turn anyone down/away. Not only that, but He was dependably present in the time of trouble (Ps 46:1)—and he showed up ready: when He was present, the power to heal was present (Luke 5:17). Plus He never ran out of miracles—He was virtually unlimited in His healing capacity:Jesus also did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written. John 21:25
What does this teach us about the nature of our triune God: He is ready, willing, and well able to heal any broken person.
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1CBN Website: /cbnnews/entertainment/2018/september/jesus-is-on-your-side-tim-tebow-preaches-powerful-message-to-fans
Cross-Denominational Bible Study 