Preaching and the Healing of Messiah: The Reason for Signs & Wonders is the Gospel

FREE DOWNLOAD OF THE STUDY: PREACHING FOLLOWING HEALING

As I was studying the book of Acts, I noticed one particular passage, in which the Apostles got in trouble for healing a lame or impotent person, and when they respond to the Magistrates who later imprison them (we will consider the event in a moment in more depth), their answer encompasses on of the best pieces of oratory in history! They manage to gracefully answer the Magistrates and then within a few sentences, preach the whole of the Gospel. That little piece of preaching may not be the great sermon of Stephen being stoned, nor Paul on Mars Hill, but it was concise and perfect, and points to the reason for healing, signs and wonders: the preaching of the Gospel of Yshua HaMeschiach, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Lord, the Adonai of Heaven.

It is not that God does not love us enough, that he would not have healed any, and it is not told just how many He healed followed Him, but it is often told that many did. Everytime though, that Jesus healed, the Gospel went out, and it was by faith. And every time preaching followed the healing, it included several major 'essentials' which Israel needed to hear, to believe and be made whole. That healing to God was the most important thing of all, leading to and being part and parcel of Salvation wrought by faith. Healing was so integral to preaching the Gospel that if the preaching that followed was not mentioned in every passage in detail, it can most certainly be observed to be a sort of preaching in itself, for it declared openly the power and healing of God through Jesus, Yshua.

The purpose of this study is two-fold: 1) to show that healing and preaching go hand in hand, and both declare the Gospel (prophecy also is in league with healing, but that is a study for another time), and that 2) there was a certain way the Apostle's preached, and that they were always 'instant in season and out', even when being arrested , beaten and imprisoned.

There is no doubt that unlike the Church today, they took the harvest of Souls very seriously in the wake of Messiah's ascension, and with the filling of the Holy Spirit: they knew that as long as they preached the Gospel, they would not be held accountable in the final judgment of any they failed to inform. They did not want that blood on their hands. How unlike today when people are concerned if they even share their faith, they might have a moment's dissension in their reputation! The followers of Yshua in the first century had eyes only on the eternal; they were unwavering in their purpose having seen the pearl of great price which caused them all to leave all for the great calling of the Lord and Savior.

Healing and Preaching

I will not belabor what a whole book would be needed to cover, but throughout the Scriptures, Healing and Preaching go together. This is even more so in the New Testament than the Old, but in both the Old and New Testament, healing serves as a declaration of God's nature and power. When Elijah heals the widows son, it declares the power of God through the prophet. When Miriam is blighted with leprosy and then healed, it was to declare God's anointed and the consequences of disobedience. While examples abound, the Old Testament incidents foreshadow the primary intent of healing in the New Testament, the preaching of the Good News of Salvation.

In the New Testament, almost every incident of healing, is followed by a preaching of all or part of the Gospel. When Jesus heals (we have covered a number of His healings in this blog), he turned often to those He had healed and those who witnessed the healing and would exact from them the most critical thing He was looking for : faith. When Jesus healed the centurion's servant he was so impressed at the Centurion, a roman's faith in the Son of God, that he gave him great accolades:

Mat 8:10 When Jesus heard [it], he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.

When Jesus heals the man at the pool of Bethesda, he notes to the man and others that he has been made whole and is to sin no more. When the Pharisees rebuke Jesus for the healing on the Sabbath, and equating himself with God, Jesus explains He is doing His Father's work, and expounds a bit on His purpose and mission, and then stating:

Jhn 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

The Gospel is preached by the Son of Man, himself.

After Pentecost, though, when thousands were saved at a time, the apostles and disciples took to the streets and every public forum within reach, healing, performing miracles, and preaching the Gospel . Peter and John are put in jail after a stir by Magistrates for the healing of a lame man and preaching the resurrection from the dead. They are in jail overnight and then tried before the 'reappearing' Annas & Caiaphas. Alexander and John are there. Annas and Caiaphas recall presided over the Temple Trial of Yshua, Jesus, and then turned Him over to Rome. Now, Peter and John, the stalwart leaders of the church, face the same. Yet even when they are arrested, even before the trial, just after the healing of the the lame man, they preach the 'essence' of the Gospel, succinctly and quickly, as though the hearers might never hear it again, or at least as though they couldn't take that chance!. The very short sermon is declared:

Be it known unto you all and to Israel
That by the name of Jeus Christ of Nazareth,
Whom Ye Crucified , Whom God raised from the dead,
even by him doth this man stand before you whole. 4:60

The means of Preaching Post-Pentecost

This same pattern is found in most post-Pentecost preaching by the Apostles and early disciples. There is both

A. An order to what is preached
B. The Content of What is Preached, certain points are always made,
C. An urgency of what is preached.

In the healing of the lame man, people want to know where the power of healing came from, and Peter and John address the crowd, with the knowledge of Jesus and the power of God. When a blind man is healed by Jesus in John 9, the Light of the World is preached. There are countless examples. Yet once can take an even closer look, to learn what the Holy Spirit filled disciples knew was most important to preach, even in a crisis and even in the face of danger. Look again at the above passage and we will note the most important lessons:

Who the Gospel was directed to:
Be it known unto you all and to Israel,

The Name of Jesus
that by the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth (the name of Jesus , the "name above all names"--- Phl 2:9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:)

Our Sin Against Him

whom ye crucified (Note that this sin was above all others!)

The Resurrection

whom God raised from the dead,(the greatest display of God's power and sovereignty)

The Cause of Healing-Power of God
even by him doth this man stand before you whole
(They declare the power of God is behind the healing, and the Resurrection of the one we all killed).

Note that while not expounded in depth, the whole of the Gospel is presented, including one more major point which is seen in post-pentecost preaching, repentance. In the passage above, though not stated outright as in other preaching following healing and 'signs and wonders' , the pointing out of our sin towards the LORD's Messiah, implies a need for repentance. So then in sum, we see the very basis, the foundation of what must always be preached at healing, and indeed anywhere else, even when there is only a brief time span, and with no excuses:

1. Who the Gospel is for : first Israel, and then the Gentiles
2. The Name of Jesus: not just who Jesus is, but the Power and Sovereignty of His Name
3. Our Sin: We crucified our own Messiah, the gift of God, by our own nature, and likewise, the preaching of the Cross and what was done there.
4. The Resurrection: the utter Love of Sovereignty of God over death: Salvation
5. Repentance (here implied, but elsewhere clearly called for)
6. The reason for the healing or miracle.

More on the nature of 'Pentecostal' Preaching

In another passage in Acts, we see the same similar PILLARS OF PREACHING which follow healing, but certainly can stand alone as daily preaching as well. Consider the following passage: Acts 3:12-25, another case of Preaching after healing which leads to Salvation and 'being made whole'. This is the healing of the lame man at the Gate Beautiful.

Act 3:12-26 And when Peter saw [it], he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let [him] go.But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you;And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.
And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did [it], as [did] also your rulers. But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. AAnd it shall come to pass, [that] every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.

TO WHOM

Acts 3:12 Ye Men of Israel... (note it is always the Jews first)

BY WHOM

The god of Abraham and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our Fathers, hath glorified his son Jesus;

OUR SIN AGAINST HIM & WHO HE IS

whom ye delivered up and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. 3:13

3:14 But ye denied the Holy One and the Just and desired a murderer be granted unto you

(this passage also declares Messiah's innocence).

THE NAME AND RESURRECTION

3:15 And killed the Prince of LIfe, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.

Note up to now, that Yshua, Jesus is delivered and denied to the 'State' the Roman Government when innocent, so part of Our sin against Him, and theirs at the time is the betrayal of innocent blood, so innocent that even the brutal Pilate could tell. It was also the betrayal of an innocent Prophet, the consequences which were deadly and well known in Israel, and there are several times in the Gospels when people referred to Yshua, Jesus as a prophet. (Matthew 13:57; 14:5; 21:11,46; Mark 6:15; Luke 4:24, 7:16,39 13:33, 24:19.) And lastly, most significantly, we crucified our Messiah, the gift from God that we not die forever. The notion that we must hammer people with individual sins like drinking, drugs, sexual sin, lying, etc is far secondary: the apostle preached the sin our what we did to Jesus. Repentance of the other things comes later. Our first sin for repentance is what we did against the LORD and SAVIOR.

Consider also that while in this passage it does not say the "name of Jesus" as in others, He is in vs 15 called the Prince of LIFE, in the preaching of the resurrection. The apostles are convicting their hearers that they chose death over life, and the Prince of Death over the Prince of Life. The sin against God was even greater than the sin at Eden. Why? Because after Eden, God did not have to give us a 'way out'. Ever. And here, after centuries of toil, brambles, thistles, heartache pain and sin, God was not only giving the human race a way out, but was allowing us to sacrifice His son to provide that way out, and we rejected the gift. And yet, the gift, made it possible for us to be made whole, healed to God, and given eternal life. That is why when we reject Him yet another time, no 'way out' remains.
The ultimate choice was foreshadowed centuries earlier

Deu 30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, [that] I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:

The passage also notes the Resurrection, as in others, without which there is no Life or Gospel, only a dead martyr. And it shows as well that when we see and receive, look and believe, as Spurgeon used to cry, we are WITNESSES. The word in Greek is 'martyria' from whence comes the word 'Martyr' and 'testimony'. We do not just die for our faith as 'heroes', nor preach according to styles or methods, but we are to TELL WHAT WE LEARNED AND SAW---that is when belief in others comes. Who is Jesus? Why did He die, When did you see His Resurrection and what did it mean? We often get that in a night here or there in church when people give their testimonies, but we are to preach it regularly to the unsaved.

HIS NAME

And his name, through faith in his name hath made this man strong whom ye see and know, yea, the faith which is by him hath given him the perfect soundness in the presence of ye all.
The prior passage already called him the Prince of Life, but this more detailed preaching that the first we looked at in the beginning, notes that HIS NAME has power, and is not to be taken lightly: real, not metaphorical or convened power. What made the man whole? FAITH IN HIS NAME. Healings, prayers and miracles are always in the NAME OF JESUS, the NAME OF YSHUA. Darkness cannot touch his name, and no name is above his. Further, one sees the preaching of faith. Not a self-generated, 'get myself ready' kind of faith that some preach today, but the faith given by God as a gift that makes a person whole.


CHRIST PROPHESIED & A SUFFERING MESSIAH

One thing in Acts 3 which is not in all, but still in many of the passages of the apostle's preaching is the emphasis on the fulfillment of Old Testament Prophecies, or Messianic prophecies which were fulfilled by Jesus, Yshua, with an emphasis on the 'Suffering Messiah.' Why did the apostles teach about the fulfillment of prophecy? Because there could be no Messiah who did not fulfill every prophecy of Messiah in the Torah/Tenach. Had to be. Israel had to have more than just signs and wonders, even in power and Love to rest assured that this man Jesus, the Rabbi of Rabbis, was who he said he was. And He had to be presented as a suffering Messiah. Why? Because Israel, partially mistakenly was looking only for a worldly King in Messiah who would come and deliver them from their enemies and from death. In Ancient times, both a suffering Messiah and a Kingly Messiah were noted by rabbinical teachers in the Book of Isaiah. Many surmised that there might be two Messiahs, although no one could estimate a 'suffering' King of Isaiah 53 and other passages. "It pleased the LORD to bruise Him" did not meet with former ideas of the great deliverers like David, Saul, Joshua, the Judges or Abraham. And crucifixion was never a Jewish form of a death penalty, but even Jesus on the Cross pointed to Ps 22 by reciting a passage from Psalm 22 that pointed back to the whole psalm about a crucified Messiah.
All the prophets prophesied some aspect of Messiah: his birth, birthplace, characteristics, ministry and so forth, but the Holy One Jesus had to be tied to those prophecies for the 'imprimatur' of Israel. SO Acts 3:18:

But those things which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath fulfilled.

THE CALL TO REPENT

We mentioned just earlier, that implied in our sin towards the Savior was our need to repent. Anyone in church for awhile knows that 'repent' means a literal 'turning away'. The turning away is from sin, darkness, death, old ways and all that keeps us apart from God. This passage is more direct about the need to repent. Modern concepts some fear are little more than 'saying you are sorry' or demeaning someone to do right, but repentance in the early church and in the true Gospel sense means to turn away from what is not of God. Why? Because it's killing us. People coming to the LORD fear giving up things they think they love, but are really addicted to: drugs, cigarettes, sleeping around, ill business practices, and so they do not want to come to the LORD because of what they think they will have to give up. But like bad food and poisons, those things are killing us little by little and robbing us of life, health, being 'whole' and living in the presence of God. So included is a call to repentance, first and foremost away from the death of an earthly life without God, to Life through Yshua, Jesus, the prophesied Messiah:

Call to Repent

Acts 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the time of refreshing shall come from the presence of the LORD.

Note also that after the conversion or turning, comes REDEMPTION, 'that your sins may be blotted out' (referring to the Book of Life), both biblical and Jewish. And what follows is the reward of heaven:
when the time of refesing shall come from the presence of the LORD"

with the vail rent in two, the blessing comes directly from the Throne of Heaven. The time of refreshing is also used as describing Pentecost and the Second Coming.
Calling for repentance then, in Preaching following healing or in general, is not a condemnatory oratory of how bad people are, but of the great reward from turning from death to life and being made whole and given eternal life. Much of our current preaching which has at least remained 'fundamental' in the correct usage of the word, has too often been 'telling people off' for how bad they are in their sins and how they need to get 'saved' without ever teaching what that even means. Or how real it is.

What more of the 'refreshing' is told? The next point of the apostle's preaching is

THE SENDING OF MESSIAH

3:20 And he shall send Jesus Christ which before was preached unto you; 3:21 Whom the heavens must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

The sending of Jesus after his ascension comes first through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit Comforter, the spirit of Jesus, the 'Parakletos', who walks in and with us in this world, keeping us in the presence of the LORD, and later, the passage speaks very clearly to the 'all in all' the 'restitution of all things' when Messiah comes again, and which the prophets told from the beginning. Abraham is the first named prophet, but God spoke to more than one even before Abraham, and even as early as Noah and Enoch, the endtime promises began to form, although Genesis 3:16 included the LORD's triumph in a Messiah from the start.

Acts 23-24 turns to a discourse on Moses prophecy of 'The Prophet and from Samuel and then returns to preaching.

REDEMPTION FROM SIN

What does being saved mean and why is it preached? I sometimes wish we could use a few other words, because some repeat 'get saved' so often it has lost its very mighty meaning. Yet the Cross, the sacrifice, the blood akedah, meant that our sins are gone in the Covenant of Covenants. He took our sin away. What joy would there be if we still had to earn some part of salvation? Two mistakes are made today in teaching that all we have to do is nod at the Cross in acquiescence and then forget living in and for Christ, or to believe that Jesus opened up a way but we still have to struggle to get in and may not. We are admonished to persevere, and we are admonished to trust in the finished work of Messiah on the Cross. We hear "I know whom I have believeth and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I delivered unto him until that day", and we hear 'faith without works is dead'. Theologians struggle but it is not really a contradiction, rather a dialectic. If the way had not been open by Messiah, we would not go to heaven. If the blood had not paid the price, we would not go to Heaven. Yet if we receive and accept Him and His way, why would we choose to get out of it? Or return to the slavery of sin? Why would we choose to get off the way, when we chose it for ourselves? Acts 3:26 says

Unto you first, God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you in turning away everyone of your from his iniquities.

Corrie Ten Boom referred to a similar idea as saying it was like a ceiling with two ropes hanging down, and they look opposed because one cannot see the rope intertwined into one above the ceiling out of site. So here is the healing Messiah, who once He heals and saves does not really expect one who experiences total love, forgiveness and eternal life to say, No, I'm sorry Lord but I want to go back to destruction, death, horror and nightmares without anyone to turn to." The Messiah is the Way, The Truth and the Life, and that is not to be dissected.

The Preaching at Pentecost

Going backwards in Acts a little, we find again the same elements of preaching, healing and miracles at Pentecost: It started with

1. The Miracle of the tongues of flame which appeared at Pentecost, and
2. Questions about how

"how hear we every man in his own tongue"...2:8

Peter, the Rock on whom Messiah built his church stands to preach and answer, using not a formula, the the soul of the Gospel, so to speak

ACTS 2:14
1. TO WHOM: Men of Judea and all ye who dwell in Jerusalem

2. MESSIANIC PROPHECIES FULFILLED: Joel is mentioned:

Act 2:16 But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;
And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:And it shall come to pass, [that] whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

3. SALVATION

Acts 2:21, Then it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the NAME of the LORD shall be saved.

(that's a mighty powerful name), and yet in Acts 2:21, it immediately shows to 'way out' to those infected with and beset by sin, and a divine curse since Adam which they could neither bare nor rid themselves of.



4. THE PREACHING OF JESUS (THE NAME) AND TO WHOM

Act 2:22 Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know

5: THE SIN AGAINST MESSIAH

...Ye have taken by wicked hands and have crucified and slain;


6. THE RESURRECTION

Whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death; because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.

7.SHADOWS AND TYPES OF THE MESSIAH IN THE SCRIPTURES

This is just a shade different from direct prophecies of Messiah, but the apostle preaches about the men who foreshadowed Jesus, Yshua and who He would be such as David, the King of Israel, Joseph rejected of his brothers, whose body was born to Canaan after saving Israel, and a myriad others. Even the resurrection is foreshadowed in 2:27 's reference to Ps 110

'thou wilt not leave my soul in hell'

He emphasized that David believed in Messiah:

Therefore being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh he would raise up Christ to sit on his Throne: He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ that his soul ws not left in hell neither his flesh did see corruption. 2:30-1.

There were a few more references that Peter made, such as 2:36 GOD MADE HIM LORD AND CHRIST, 2:38 REPENTANCE: repent and be baptized for the remisionof sinces and receive the Holy Ghost.and 2:39 PROMISE IS TO THE JEWS FIRST , the Covenant and Prophecies of Messiah.

REAL PREACHING VS FORMULA PREACHING

In concluding these examples of many, about the nature and topics preached by the early CHURCH in the days near Pentecost, it must be stated above all that the intent here is never, never to suggest a 'formula' or 'method' for preaching. Healing was an opportunity for preaching, and the preaching always gave a reason for the healing and where the power came from: Jesus. It would be remiss though not to make clear that real preaching , like healing comes not from a set of standards or 'points' but from the Holy Ghost. Jesus was very clear in telling his disciples not to even plan what to say before the magistrates and rulers, for He said that what they should say in that hour would be given them. Now, too many take that as an excuse not to prepare a sermon, but the real preparation is time in the Word of God, even more than outlines and commentaries. Preachers often remark that they had a sermon prepared but the one that came out was different: the Holy Spirit knows who is there, what they need to hear, what passage is timely and anointed, and who should preach, heal, sing, etc, so for all our planning and study, we cannot nearly do what the Holy Spirit can, and our job is to listen, pray, keep in the Word and surrender to the will of the Lord and not our own. This study though came of an observation, that those brave Holy Spirit filled men of the first century, who had been there at Pentecost, been with the LORD just a time before, preached with more wisdom and less encumbrance than we have or use today. Their early preaching helps direct and form preaching today, and corrects doctrine, and points to loving preaching. The Word wins souls, the Holy Spirit preaches Messiah and lifts Him up and draws all men to Him. We yield first to the working of the Spirit. ekbest.
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Note: Alexander who was present when the apostles were tried, was the brother of Rufus, both sons of Simon of Cyrene who bore Jesus' cross on the road to Golgotha. Alexander was with Paul when the riot occurred regarding Diana of the Ephesians: he tried to testify but they started shouting.

Abiding in the Vine: Part II-Video

Rather than belabor the points in writing, I am including a brief overview of some major principles Jesus taught in John 15 and I John 4 on Abiding in the Vine. This study may be found also at propheteuo.blogspot.com . We will continue with the topic of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as a critical topic, but parenthetical to the other healing studies, hopefully within a week or two. Hope you enjoy the video, and yes, you can use it in church as long as the credits stay on.

Abiding, IN THE VINE...and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit

While usually each new study in this Bible blog on Healing and the Mind of Christ has been directed towards a particular incident of healing, and most recently the healings which Jesus performed, the current study, a sort of parenthesis will deal instead with a few principles which affect all of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.

One must begin by saying that the Holy Spirit, to do a work of God in this world, does not absolutely REQUIRE anybody, anything or any circumstance or atmosphere. When God does a work in this world through the power of the Holy Spirit, he can make a stone speak, or a foal of a colt, he can part waters, or even slay wicked men regardless of the circumstance. Samson was not your typical 'church-going' Christian, yet God made him the great defender and Judge of Israel for a season who brought down the stronghold of the Philistines. Likewise, when several of the wars of Israel were fought, God gave the soldiers of Israel through their leaders instruction or performed acts which were sometimes 'supernatural' and sometimes relied on the enemy's deception in which they thought they heard thundering hooves or one in which the light glimmered on the water in such a way as to make it look blood red and filled with dead bodies, causing the enemies of Israel to retreat. Even Israeli soldiers were alot like soldiers of the day in general: not exactly virgin stoics, yet God caused events to happen in the defense and deliverance of Israel for His Name and purposes alone to bring about His will in the world.

So, before outlining some very important principles of living and walking in the Holy Spirit, enabling and facilitating the good and right use of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost, it should be noted that these are not like 'earthly exercises' which must be conducted in order to hear from God or see Him work. That would rob Him of his sovereignty and amount to our thinking we were somehow capable of 'calling up' or even 'conjuring' the gifts, which would be a great sin and offense. However, there are real Biblical commands, straight from the mouth of Jesus coupled with promises, which show us just exactly what 'walking in the Holy Spirit' is like, or as Jesus portrays it 'abiding in the Vine'. There are things that grieve the Holy
Spirit and lessen the chance that God will answer our prayers, or that the gifts make present in a less powerful way. An example of this is fairly commonly known, such as fasting and praying before healing services, repenting of sin and unforgiveness before prayer and supplication, or fasting and praying before preaching a sermon. If a preacher was indulging in sexual sin, he would not be preaching in the power of God in the same way as if he were not. That does not mean he would not be dynamic necessarily, only that the very sovereign work of the Spirit would not be as pronounced or even present with the sin grieving the Holy Spirit. Likewise though, doing what pleases God in obedience to the Holy Spirit, with a forgiving spirit having no contention with others and 'prayed up', preaching becomes easy and a joy, with the feeling of 'living waters' flowing through, aiding everyone who hears including the preacher.

Abiding in the Vine
In John Chapter 15, Jesus expounds the teaching of abiding in the Vine, walking in the Spirit which leads to the premiere and excellent gift of Love, and the other gifts flowing out of it. ....

The Light of the World Opens Blind Eyes: The Healing that Declared Messiah!

The Beauty of the Word and the Healing of a Man Born Blind.

By the time one of the Gospels concludes it is noted that the things that Jesus did, healings, miracles, and such, if they had all been recorded could have filled volumes.

john 21:25 And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.

That mention in Scripture, referred to only the things he did in the last three years of his life, his 'earthly' ministry as many call it, and doesn't even include every healing, anointing, work or miracle which has happened since by his power in those who believe. Among all the miracles and healings though, while others were more eminent and astounding such as walking on water, of all the healings in the Bible save for the raising of Lazarus, the healing of the Man born blind since birth carries an eternal significance, for in addition to the act of healing, it heralded the declaration that Jesus, Yshua Ha Meschiach, was the Messiah of Israel, the Holy One of Israel, expected for centuries.

After Jesus heals the man at the Pool of Bethesda, and after he teaches about tolerance and forgiveness for the woman caught in adultery, following the feast of Tabernacles, in Chapter 8 of John, he pronounces that he is the "Light of the World".
(See Promise of Messiah: Light of the World) This also is no small pronouncement, for he explains what that means to the darkness that holds this world so tightly, John 1:5,9
expounds

Jhn 1:4 -5 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. and...

John 1:9 That was the true LIght which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

So soon after celebrating the feast of Tabernacles, the Light of the World which lasts beyond one feast, explicates his role as the Light of the Whole world, forever.
Now the Light of the World can do many things excellently, but a magnificent feature of Yshua was that he could make darkness flee. Spiritual darkness, Social darkness, the darkness of sin, and the darkness of the physical body in blindness. The declaration of his being the "Light of the World" precipitates, the healing of the man born blind since birth.

The True Test of the Messiah

Why is the healing of a man born blind since birth so significant? Because, as shall be seen, even the common people counted this as the sure sign that the Messiah had come. Why this sign and not another?

1. The sign had been prophesied, notably in Isaiah, and
2. It was the one 'impossible' task, that even the great prophets of God, since Abraham, Moses, Elijah and Elisha had not performed.

It was not to be merely the opening of blind eyes: Jesus opened many blind eyes. In his role as liberator, much of his ministry was spent delivering people from the bondage of deafness, blindness, lameness, mental and spiritual afflictions and most critically the bondage of sin and unbelief.

Isaiah and the Messiah Who Heals the Blind

The verses and promises Israel clung to in Isaiah as a litmus test of Messiah were:

Isaiah 29:18 "the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity"
Isaiah 35:5 "the eyes of the blind shall be opened..."
Isaiah 42:7 ...to open blind eyes
Isaiah 42:16: I will bring the blind by a way they knew not...
Isaiah 42:18- "look ye blind that you may see"
Isaiah 42:19 "Who is blind but my servant or deaf....."
Isaiah 43:8 "Bring forth the blind people that have eyes"
Isaiah 56:10 His watchmen are blind..."
Isaiah 59:10 "We grope for the wall like the blind...

and in other passages:

Lamentations 4:14 They [referring to Israel] have wandered as blind men..."
Malachi 1:8 blind not allowed for sacrifice.

Two important issues arise here: one is the test of Messiahship in the healing of one born blind since birth, and one is that the blindness that Yshua meant to heal was more than mere physical blindness, but the spiritual blindness that had beset Israel since her birth: there eyes had been darkened at many times in history to who they were, to what they were, to who and how great their God was, and to the Salvation and Deliverance of God which came to be repeated over and over in the course of God's wilderness people. Note a few lines above where he compares Israel to the blind:

Lamentations 4:14 "They have wandered as blind men..." or in Is 56:10 where even the watchmen are blind.

The porch of Solomon was not the only place God had declared that He was the Light of Israel. Remember the burning bush of Moshe or the pillar of fire in the Wilderness of Zin: there were other times the Light of Israel and the world appeared. Between the theophanies though, there were great periods of darkness in Israel, when eyes were darkened. It was that Spiritual darkness that Messiah came to deliver out of, and He did it first, by performing the long awaited miracle of the opening of blind eyes, or a man who had never seen a thing, who was born blind.

The Blind Guides of Israel

As soon as the eyes of the man are opened, without even completely knowing who Jesus was or where he was from, he began to expound his way and light to the Pharisees, who at another time Jesus called

"Mat 15:14 Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch"

In Matthew 23:16 he refers to:

Mat 23:16 Woe unto you, [ye] blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor![Ye] fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold? And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty.[Ye] fools and blind: for whether [is] greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?

Before any confrontation with the Pharisees and other leaders of the Temple, Jesus, Yshua, rebukes them for being blind themselves, and for leading Israel into Spiritual and moral blindness. It is no small wonder that the Great Love of God incarnate would do that, as he had seen firsthand what those men had done to Israel: selling the holy things of God as merchandise, merchandising their positions, buddying up to Rome while young zealots gave their lives for Israel, and breaking every law of man and God. They were merciless, though keeping Shabbat by refusing to lift even a finger lest it be declared work. They made sure the Temple's coffers were filled with the paltry riches of widows they had swindled with 'corban' laws. The high priest Caiaphas and his cohort Annas were not even from Levitical lines: they had bartered their positions from Rome, and yet these were the men , who by the end of the healing on Solomon's Porch, were declaring that no true prophet came out of Galilee!---showing they did not even know the Word of God very well, for several had including Jonah, Elijah, Elisha and others of the 'minor' prophets. Yet these men, who had taken the Spiritual leadership of Israel by force and merchandising, patronizing Roman authorities, were sitting in judgment, of one who had just healed the eyes of a man born blind. While this is getting ahead of the study, the blind man, who can now see, retorts against the Pharisees:

Jhn 9:30 The man answered and said unto them, Why herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and [yet] he hath opened mine eyes.

So the Scriptures to this point, have noted that Israel was too wont to walk in darkness herself, and that by this time in History, even the leadership was blind to God's true ways, or to a real, living, breathing, powerful Messiah. Sounds familiar.

Luke 4:18, further notes that a part of Messiah's "inaugural address" is the 'recovering of sight to the blind:, a reflection of the passage in Isaiah 61.


Blindness and Sin

Messiah came to deliver from sin. There is no question even in unbelievers' minds that this is the essential task of God's Christ, or Messiah. [Meschiach in hebrew].
Nor should there be doubt that sin is equated with darkness and blindness. Even in descriptions in Zechariah of the Anti-Christ, it speaks of him having one eye darkened:

Zec 11:17 Woe to the idol shepherd that leaveth the flock! the sword [shall be] upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.

The Hebrew word 'kahal' for darkened refers to a dimming, or darkening, in which the light is decreased, and while that seems very straightforward and it indicates that sin, which is often defined as 'missing the mark', is a dimming of the glory which we were meant to have, and the more one sins, the more darkness prevails. Darkness leads to confusion, chaos, the dissension of the Spirit and an inability to hear from God in prayer not to mention trouble in the world: it is often the case that before a number of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit work in power, sins may need to be repented of. Darkness also, is found at the edge of Glory, including God's abode we call 'Heaven'. (see Genesis 15: The Horror of Great Darkness)

Sin and Punishment: Who Did Sin?
As Jesus encounters the man born blind, the people who gather want to know the following:

9:2 ...Master, Who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind."

In Ancient Israel as today, we often assume that when we see trial or trouble the person must have deserved it somehow, and while that can occasionally be true, it can also be from happenstance, providence or even as a test of faith. Note that

1. Blindness since birth was equated with sin
2. A Generational Effect is noted-that the sin of a parent could cause a consequence in the child's life.

The second point is indicative of a lack of teaching about sin, for in Jeremiah, God does a new thing:

Jer 31:29-30 In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge.But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.

Basically, the sins of a father were to be no longer visited upon the son, although initially this was the case:

more to follow....

The Troubling of the Waters: Jesus Heals at Bethesda

prophIntro-enhancements.mp3

One of the most well known stories in the New Covenant is the telling of the healing of the man, infirm for 38 years, at the Pool of Bethesda. Jesus has just a few days before been at a feast day, and following, he heals a Nobleman's son after rebuking him a little for wanting to see only signs and wonders. The healings begun, and two miracles of healing into the Gospel of John, Jesus arrives at Bethesda.

There was at Bethesda a pool, surrounded by five porches, and the sick of all kinds waited at the pool for what was said to be an angel 'troubling the waters'. We have in our cultures today, similar places, such as Lourdes and Medagorje in the Catholic religion, or the portion of the Ganges for several religions in India, in which pilgrims from all over the world go to bathe in the waters believing they have a divine element which heals diseases. The Pool of Bethesda, known in Israel for the same, attracted the infirm and impotent from all over who sat among the columns, with stairs going down into the pool, and it was reported that whoever was first to the water, was healed of whatever infirmity ailed them. John 5:2 remarks that there were 'a great multitude', and lists the types who waited the stirred waters:

1. Blind
2. Impotent ( a variety of illness)
3. Halt (motor dysfunction and lameness)
4. Withered.

Angels were not at all unknown in Israel: they had a strict Scriptural interpretation of Angels as the emissaries of God advantaging the Children of Israel in many ways in their history, such as the visitation of Abraham and Sarah announcing Isaac, or the 'dragging' of Lot's family from Sodom, bound for destruction, or the angel guarding the way back into the Garden of Eden, the paradise of God. So the saying of an angel troubling the waters, was based no doubt upon some divine observation.

For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool , and troubled the water:
Whosoever then first after the troubling of the water, stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.5:4

At least one other 'troubling of the water' is mentioned in Scripture although in an inverse way: in Ezekiel 32:2 in a lamentation for Pharaoh, Pharaoh is described as troubling the waters for contention:

...and troublest the waters with thy feet, and foulest their rivers. (Ez 32:2)

Both words, Old and New, for troubling, mean what one would naturally assume: the Greek tarache, meaning disturbance or troubling, and the 'dalah' [daleph, lamed he]
means to churn, stir up, or trouble. An amusing side note is that a related and very similar word, delaya or delayhu, is the name for 'Delilah' in Hebrew, who troubled Samson's waters to no end!.

So whatever the mechanism or reason or etiology, the waters stirred by the angel at Bethesda was certainly convincing enough, that a multitude, including this man waited even for years to make their way down into the pool, although one had to be first. If one looks at photographs of the pools, of the remnants left, one can see why a man unable to walk well or at all would have a very difficult time ever being first to the waters: it was impossible to get down the stairs in time amidst the many rushing into the waters.

The Man with the Infirmity

the man with an infirmity was said to have had it for 38 years. John 5:5. Jesus, as it is mentioned elsewhere, knowing what was in a man, encounters the man, and and immediately knew how long he had been in that condition.

Jesus ....knew that he had now been a long time in that case.. Jn 5:6

and said to him

Wilt thou be made whole?

Now, these remarks seem minor, but they contain a lot of information: the first verse points to one characteristic of our Lord and Savior that often gets 'read-over', that he knew people based upon their spirit: one verse puts it 'he knew what was in a man'. Jesus was already conversing in his Kingdom, living in the ways of Heaven- a person was 'known' to him without asking, and this can be seen as the 'conversation' or citizenship of heaven, when it is noted in .... that we will be 'known as we are known.'.

1Cr 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

So Jesus encounters the man in utter truth, because he can see all about him, with the loving eyes of Heaven.

There is more though, in the statement 'Wilt thou be made whole'. I have discussed a sort of 'model' of the person which is central to the Mind of Christ, in the concept of 'wholeness' vs 'dissension'. When a person is whole and right, he is everything that God meant him to be, although most of us never get near to this. Since sin entered the world at the Fall of Adam and Eve, most of what is in the world conspires to make us anything but 'whole'. It is well within the description God gives of the Potter and the clay: the fresh lump of clay begins whole and without imperfections but with air bubbles, too much slip, dirt and particles, hits, uneven pressure etc, the clay can become either a vessel which can be used, or so 'dissensioned' that it can be ruined forever.

Our lives are very much that way: though we may have differing 'temperaments' or a few other characteristics, those things rudimentarily given at birth are meant in God's plan for our lives to contribute to the 'wholeness' of what we are to be and do in his loving care. Most however, do not find God young, and the world hits hard, and blow after blow, hurt after hurt, sorrow after sorrow, depending on the degree, a person becomes 'dissensioned' from what he or she was to have been, and the healing process, whether it is mental, emotional, spiritual or physical, involves 'making whole' or bringing the dissensioned state, back into the 'shape' or state(not always literal) that it was supposed to be. This places in divine context Jesus' words: 'Wilt thou be made whole', referring to physical wholeness, but the later events show that Jesus is concerned uttermost with the man's spiritual wholeness.

The Willingness to be made Whole

There is also here a fascinating note of the 'willingness' to be made whole!. I have been around many deeply troubled people in my career and in life: some were overcome by grief and mourning, some by depression, some by deeply distorted states of imaginations and even hallucinations, what the world refers to as psychosis, and while they will participate sometimes for years in therapy, they do not want to change. It is hard to believe, that those who are hurting and in horrible circumstances would not want to be whole and well, but they feel a certain amount of 'comfort' in their circumstance: they know it and though it is painful, they prefer it to the unknown, even healing. The poet Rainer Maria Rilke once remarked after abandoning psychotherapy, that he was afraid that 'if his demons left, his angels would leave also'. Like Rilke some feel safe in self-destruction, a premier oxymoron, rather than accepting what a healing might bring. John 5:7 though implies it is not only his willingness but the inteference of events and others that encumber him:

Jhn 5:7 The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.

This passage also speaks to the nature of man, even in divine things, and more so in this day and time: pushing and shoving others out of the way in order to get even a healing from the Lord. This selfishness on the part of others kept this man in suffering for 38 years, and yet of all on the porch that day, he was the one appointed to healing and later defending and declaring the Gospel!!! However, the wait was worth it, for Jesus himself, not a mere emissary came to him, and well, life just wasn't the same later. At that point he did not need the Angel nor the healing waters, for the Living Water confronted him directly and healed him.

The Command of Healing

In this healing, Jesus does not mix a substance, nor lay on hands, but as in many healings, only speaks the healing, even 'commands' the man to be whole. He starts interestingly, with a command, that was not possible before--to

1. Rise
2. Take up thy bed and
3. Walk Jn 5:8

Most would expect, that Jesus instead would have just said 'be healed', or something similar, but He was giving also the frame of faith. When God intends and speaks, the thing is already done. It is a foregone conclusion. That bed, and that bent condition had imprisoned the poor fellow for 38 years! Now, in a moment, in front of the living Messiah, he is instructed to pick up that prison and take it with him. It no longer binds him: he binds it!

What was the result?

And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the Sabbath 5:9.

The man obviously immediately BELIEVED and OBEYED and wholeness and healing followed in an amazing way.

The Legalists and the Healing Messiah

Now legalists in any religion attend to every word of doctrine hoping to catch error almost always in everyone but themselves, and this healing was no exception. And as the healed man, goes immediately to show his healing as is commanded in the Old Testament, (Lev 13:2-59) to the priests in Israel to declare the healing, but is met with the legalisms so many meet with today in the House of God: they do not attend at all to the healing, except for the way it was done, by whom, and why on the Sabbath day. They do not give thanks and glory to the LORD for such a miraculous healing, or rejoice that the LORD is among them, but instead look to 'get the guy who did it'.

John 5:12

What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed and walk?

1. They turn to accuse the Healer (the Messiah)
2. They accuse Him of a crime that doesn't exist
3. They seek strife on the Sabbath [Shabbat]

So really, they are the ones sinning against God: the crime doesn't exist!. It is wrong to work on the Sabbath in such a way that defiles the rest and quiet God gives to be alone with Him and rest from labor in joy and health, but it is nothing but the work of God to heal on the Sabbath, and it is 'ok' with God! Jesus points out later that it is not wrong to do good on Shabbat!

Mk 3:4
And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life or to kill?

They want to know who did this thing? but the healed man did not know, he just knew he believed.
And he that was healed wist not who it was; for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place John 5:13.

Note that Jesus did not stay for the accolades, Healing is to make whole not for reward, which is always rightfully his.

These men would have reversed the healing of 38 years of misery, just to win an argument. Don't we have them in the church today?

Sin No More: Can the Healing Be Undone?

There is though a small codicil of faith necessary for the healing to continue, direct from the Savior's mouth. Jesus finds the man later in the Temple, for it was of essence that the man come to know the Messiah:

Behold, thou art made whole; sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. Jn 5:14

Jesus notes that there is a relationship between healing and sin. It was commonly known and believed that sin and healing were related: remember when the blind man was healed in the Temple, and the question Israel had for Jesus was 'who did sin, this man or his parents ?' (Jn 9:2) When the disaster of the tower of Siloam occurred, again the same question came up. Jesus there also noted that they did not sin more than others. Another time, Jesus notes that the reason for an infirmity was to show the Glory of God, so that illness and hardship and even disaster can be:

A. For no reason at all, other than natural occurrences
B. As a judgment from God
C. Because of Sin
D. To show the Glory of God

and that these things can occasionally overlap. Job, the perfect and upright man, finds all gone in a moment, including his health, for no sin. Daniel, dedicated to the LORD in the last days of Jerusalem before the exile, finds himself torn from his parents, and alone in captivity for most of the rest of his life, and so did Joseph at 17, but it was for the glory of God.

But sin and disease and healing CAN be related and must not be overlooked. We do not like as a society or even as a world today to receive such notions as the 'judgment of God', we somehow feel that a God of Love is just generally o.k. with our destroying his world and everything and everyone in it. Therefore we never repent, and the world is seldom healed. The Church at the end of the holocaust, millions of deaths later, looking the other way at best, debated whether Germany should really have to repent at Stuttgart. Here, however, Jesus is warning the healed man, to sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee' Jn 5:14.

The healing can be equated with Jesus' description of the casting out of devils or demons as in Luke 12:44-45

Then he said, I will return to my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty , swept and garnished. 45 Then goeth he and taketh with himself 7 other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.

Devils and the Healed Person

This is not a popular teaching in a day when men consider themselves so sophisticated they can make it alone without God. Devils? We have 'psychology' whatever that is, and mental illness with diagnostic categories, not 'devils'. C.S. Lewis, in the Screwtape Letters, mentions that the greatest demonic strategy of Satan is for modern man not to believe he exists. So, professing to become wise, they become fools, and the foolishness of God surpasses the wisdom of man in a slight paraphrase.

In Luke 11:25, the process of 'casting out' a spirit or devil or demon is spoken of by the Messiah himself:

When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man he walketh through dry places, seeking rest and finding one he saith, I will return unto my house when I came out. 24 And when he come he findeth it swept and garnished.25, Then goeth he and taketh to him 7 other spirits more wicked than himself and he entered in and dwell thee and the last state of that man is worse than the first. John 24-26.

This passage also refers to the healing of the man at Bethesda and Jesus' warning. The nature of it is
1. The Spirit (causing the possession or infirmity) is cast out.
2. The spirit or devil 'walketh thru dry places
3 The devil 'seeketh rest'
4. Finding none (no rest for the wicked)
5 Seeks to return and
6. Finds the original host 'clean'.

The 7 plus 1 devils, overthrow the original host, and it is sin which has made it possible: returning to the practice or sin which caused the first possession to occur. The healing can be undone, and the last state worse than the first.

This also points to the process of devils and disease as well: the dissensioned state is one of 'overthrow'--whether in a person, a family, a city state or nation. Even the unbelieving existential psychologist Rollo May wrote about the phenomena psychological. He called the demonic anything which overpowered a person. When a person is then healed by God himself, if he chooses to go back to the state of distress, the result is seven fold worse, and that can be readily seen in persons who for example come to the LORD, live life in the LORD for a little while, sobering up, giving up drugs, adultery, gambling, or any of the thousands of things people are delivered of, and then, deciding it is easier (?) to live in the flesh they just quit and go back. Often, the latter state is worse than before they walked with the Lord.

It is just a small note, but the fact that devils find NO REST apart from a host person, shows a little of the nature of the demonic: restlessness, agitation, ill-ease, anxiety etc. In Hell, there are not 'hosts' to attach to so all live in a state of unrest. Nothing swept clean there. In short, the process of demonization is overthrow.

The healing of disease follows a similar patter when sin is antecedent, which we must assume in the case of the man at Bethesda, since he is told to 'sin no more'. Again though, sin is not always but often antecedent: sin can lead to natural causes of disease such as in smoking, drinking, etc, unclean habits can lead to septicemia, sin can lead to demonic activity as can be the case with stress and psychological disease, or sin can lead to disease as a chastisement.

Those who snub and ridicule the notion of all this also go without healing, and often lead chaotic, stressed , rushed painful lives without rest. Jesus, Yshua, Messiah is our rest and our peace, he is our healing, but we have to believe and receive. Until next time: many blessings, and no 'troubled waters'. ekbest

Healing from Death: The Resurrection and the Life, Raises the Dead

We know when Jesus said in John 14:6, that he was "The Way, The Truth and The Life", and that "no man cometh unto the Father but by me", that He was speaking no small truth. That statement looks so simple, with three descriptors of the Lord and Savior, that he is the 'Way'- in which all must walk to dwell in the Lord, and He is the Way to heaven, that He is the Truth, and we think we know what that means but it envelopes the Word of God, the Plan of God , the Salvation of God, the Doctrine of God and the light shining on 'the way it really is', and we at least once a year at Easter say he is the "Life", and we tell the story, which for too many has grown into a glorified 'myth' of how the stone was rolled and he rose from the dead.
Raising People from the Dead

While all the books in the world could not get to the bottom of John 14:6, or the fullness of the name Jesus calls himself in that passage, the most remarkable and the most neglected, is that He is the "Life". In these studies on Healing, and what Jesus, or Yshua did when he healed, how he healed, what he said, and the many other aspects of healing, the most remarkable 'healing' was that of raising four people in the Bible from death to life, and then 'taking captivity captive' by rising from the dead, near the end of His earthly ministry, an idea which receives very little sermon time. Why? because the truth is, most Christians nod in agreement to the Resurrection, but do not understand the fullness of what Jesus meant when He said He was the 'Resurrection and the Life'. But if he had not been the 'Resurrection and the Life', there would have been no Salvation, no healing, no gifts of the Holy Spirit, and we would have only a dead faith, with the memory of a Martyr who believed in love. Yshua, Jesus, however, was Love and Life, not just in a metaphorical sense but in a divine sense, a super-natural sense, and the power of God, seen even today in those who will follow true, is the continuing prima facie evidence of Jesus, our Life, and Resurrection, the Power of God, and the evidence of the Life which will continue after death before Him.

Yshua, The Resurrection and the Life

In the Gospel of John, Jesus declares that he is the Resurrection and the Life, and those he speaks to have under-estimated the resurrection thinking it refers only to an ethereal future event in which both the Torah and New Testament teach that all will rise.

esus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.

Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world. John 11:23-27

It is not that they did not believe, nor even fail to understand that He is the Messiah (Christ is the same as 'Messiah'), and that Messiah is the Son of God, long waited for, but there is a distance between the cognitive understanding, and before-pentecost trust, and the trust which came after the Resurrection of the Messiah. 'I agree' is what the sisters say, but they still grieve, yet they are about to see something so startling, that it calls them outside the complacency of expected daily events.

God's Power and the Healing from Death

They had seen Jesus heal so many they could not be counted already. They knew he was the power and presence of God, and had adjusted to this divine event in theirs and other's lives. God's power had been shown before in Israel: Moses had raised a staff and waters parted to the Sinai desert, he threw his rod down before Pharaoh and it turned into a serpent, he cast a stick into the bitter waters of Marah and they turned sweet, and Elijah had brought back a dying or just dead child, and increased the oil and flour for a widow and her son, and throughout the wars of Israel, when the Children of Israel trusted in their God, many battles were won without lifting a weapon. {Occasionally God has one lift a finger].

Jesus, Yshua, however, had come at an appointed time, and dumbfounded the hierarchy of the Sanhedrin and Rome. They accused him of gluttony, drunkardness, wantoness, breaking the Sabbath, mental problems, and even being demonic, and He never argued back, He just continued to heal, teach, preach and prophesy, and show the Kingdom of Heaven as no other one had ever done before. They became so angry at the clear manifestation of the Messiah, that their one desire became His overthrow and death, wanting only to go back to 'the way things were'. But here was the power of God, walking around Israel, literally, taking down unbelief like Joshua [yshua, also] took down Jericho, and like Gideon took down the Midianites. [See warsofisrael.com].


The Power of God and healing from the Dead

Several in the Bible are mentioned as having been 'healed from death' or coming back from the dead, and most are by Jesus in the New Testament. Elijah heals the widow of Zarapheth's son after doing them well. The son at a later visit is sick unto death. The woman is concerned that her child has fallen sick because of some failing of her own, but as Jesus noted in a later healing, some sicknesses are for 'chastisement' but some for the showing of the Glory of God.

I Kings 17:18 And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thous man of God" art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance and to slay my son?

The widow, as many of all times, believes that the calamity and death of her son is her own doing, a sin, a failing, a curse, something she had done wrong. But the world is a Divine Battle, always with elements of the Curse of the Fall and the demonic confronting and battling against the ways of God and the people of God. There are real instances when bodily or mental 'sickness' comes about because of something we do: sometimes it is merely a natural consequence: e.g. wanton behavior may result in disease, over-consumption of alcohol may destroy the liver. Other times, disease and death may come from environmental factors which we have little control over: bacteria causes septicemia, radiation causes radiation poisoning, and many factors are suspected to be carcinogenic. Whether we develop diseases or handicaps because of these are accidents are partially because the world can be a hazardous place, and while God is sovereign over all, few fail to walk so close to Him to always hear warnings about what to eat or not eat, or where to live or other considerations. When we end up outside of God's will, fences do indeed come down, and a variety of worldly harms can enter in. We tell our children not to heed or speak to strangers, yet tragedy after tragedy arises when some do. It is not that we do not protect them, or take care of them, but there are the twists of life that lead us sometimes unknowingly outside of that protection, and so it is with God's ways.

In this passage, though, there is no specific reason given why the child became ill unto death. In the passage in the new Testament regarding the death of Lazarus , Jesus remarks,

Jhn 11:4 When Jesus heard [that], he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.

God himself designed the moment, so to speak, not 'inflicting' and 'afflicting' (although it is not out of his ability to do that too), for as Jeremiah speaks, "he doth not willingly afflict the children of men". God's wrath is real, and he sometimes directs harsh judgment to His world, but it is to satisfy his nature of Justice, for although He is so much a loving God that the New Testament states "God is Love", His nature did not change from Old to New Testament, and Jesus Christ is still "the same yesterday , today and tomorrow'.

But Jesus IS LIFE, so to some degree, it is easier to understand that He can give or take life, and less easier to comprehend when He puts it in the hands of His Prophets and Healers. In the New Testament, though, the power of God, the dunamous power of the Holy Spirit INDWELLS the believer, and obedience to the commands, ways and words of the LORD, lead us to understand and practice the gifts of the Holy Spirit such as healing. Healing even from death, is still just as possible for the God whose name is the Way, Truth and the Life as ever, for it was even done in the instance of Elijah and the son in Zerapheth as then or now. God's breath gives life, and it has since the beginning. God's Word is life, and the disposing of the number of our days are His.

Providence, and Raising of the Dead

Does this mean that if we only get 'right' enough with God that we will live disease free, and go on living this earthly life without end, or even to the fullness of a normal lifespan? No, not really, for the Sovereignty of God is bigger than that. When we pray our wishes and wants constantly, without regard for God's will, we too often get what we want, only to our detriment. I heard the story once in a sermon of a mother whose child was about to die, and in despair, she cried to God and said, "You can't have him!" The son recovered but became anything but a blessing, into crime and drugs, etc, and died, unsaved. It is a hard truth which we all rebel against, that not just the 'outcome' of life is at hand, but whether or not a life should last, for example, indefinitely. This is not the euthanasia issue, but one of surrender to God in His wisdom. Some live on, deadly incident after deadly incident, while others, turn their head slightly and a blood vessel bursts. Our job is not to end life, but to bear the understanding of God having his way. I worked with parents who had infants die for many years. Is there anything more seemingly unjust than a stillbirth? Yet those tiny lives often accomplish more in changing hearts then some old men and women dying in their 90s. It is what God wills, and to turn back again to the Widow's son, or Lazarus, or the little maid, or the Widow of Nain's son, whether it was deserved, by accident, or set apart for the glory of God, to show God's work in the world, it is i his hands and discernment is called for so as not to blame the victim of tragedy. Job's circumstance and the lengthy discourse of whys and wherefores regarding why God would allow a just man to go through all that Job went through, the loss of children, house, belongings, health, and a wife turning from faith so much as to tell Job to curse God and die, the discourse is about

whether Job did wrong, although the total answer can be summed up by one declaration:

Job 19:25-7 For I know [that] my redeemer liveth, and [that] he shall stand at the latter [day] upon the earth:
And [though] after my skin [worms] destroy this [body], yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; [though] my reins be consumed within me.

So back to Elijah, after some explanation, the Widow's son has died, as evidence by 'no breath left in him, an(vs17) and by Elijah being asked if he was come to slay the son, and when healed, the note that his 'soul' returned.

1Ki 17:20-24 And he cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?
And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again.
And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.
And Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him unto his mother: and Elijah said, See, thy son liveth. And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou [art] a man of God, [and] that the word of the LORD in thy mouth [is] truth.

Note a few things about the above passage:

1. The child has died, but a reason is not given
2. Elijah takes a 3 fold 'prophetic stance' for the child's restoration
3. Elijah's prayer is for the 'child's soul to come into him again.

The result is the revival of the child.

It was custom and tradition in ancient Israel, that by the 4th day after death, the soul was completely gone, and could not return under any circumstances. This is important, as here in this 'well before Pentecost' raising from death, it was at or near the time of death, and the action was of a prophetic stance or prayer. God actually did the healing by request 'restoring' the child's soul.


New Testament Raising from the Dead

In the New Testament, there are several times beside Jesus' resurrection, when Israelite were raised from the dead. These include the Widow of Nain's Son, healed on the bier (Luke 7), and the 'Little Maid' to whom Jesus called 'Talitha Cume' [Little maid arise], and Lazarus most notably. Dorcas is raised in Acts after Pentecost. The healing from Death, though must be seen as something more than mere healing of which thousands of instances were spoken of. All of the other types of healing we have looked at in these studies: the healing of deafness, dumbness, blindness, lunacy, and demonic possession, are instances of restoring a distorted condition back to a whole and excellent state. Raising the dead, though, involved
reinstating Life back into the person, so the dynamic is a little different.
In the next section regarding 'Healing From Death', we will look at the New Testament instances of the most phenomenal Restoration of life.

His Eyes were Blind, He could not See...Bar Timaeus

"And they came to Jericho: and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus , the son of Timaeus sat by the highway side begging."

I would like to begin "in those days" as though the blind no longer have to beg, but the truth is, physical blindness today, is often treated just as inhumanely now as back then: we have a sort of "chrono-centricity" in which we think we are far advanced and more 'mature' than back in the first century a.d. but the truth is, if anything, while our technology has grown, our hearts have stayed the same, or perhaps grown even more cold and brutal.

As the disciples and Jesus came to Jericho (and went out of Jericho*) they encounter a blind beggar by the name "Bar-Timaeus", or son of Timaeus. That day, they were in no small number, and 'blind bartimaeus' would probably have gone unnoticed to another crowd of this size, but when Bartimaeus heard that it was "Jesus of Nazareth", Yshua the "nazarim" something in his spirit caused him to 'cry out'. Before the healing, before even the gaze of the Lord turned to him, he cried out something rather unusual, for a Jewish beggar with no sight---not 'help me', nor 'give me something', but

"Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me." 10:47

Eager to calm the crowds and hustle and bustle, many charged him to be quiet, after all, the real Jesus of Nazareth was at hand, and seemingly to many, if he were the Messiah, he would have no time to deal with this poor blind man, whom most saw as the bottom rung of the social ladder of Israel. This encounter has been written of no doubt thousands of times, but the healing often gets little more than a brief pause, and the 'cry' of an Israeli beggar for his Lord and Savior, receives almost none.

The more they tried to stop him, the more he continued in his plea and purpose [like much of Israel], he cried out "all the more"

"Thou son of David, have mercy on me."

Why did the blind man call out son of David? The title "Son of David" is mentioned exactly 23 times, 9 in the Old testament. The titles 'son of Man', son of the Blessed, son of Adam, and son of God as well as son of the most High and others are also mentioned.....to be continued when the thieves are gone.


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note 1: skeptics sometimes point to this passage as an 'error' for how could Jesus be coming and going to the same place. Do a little research and find out why this is no error!

The Light of the World Heals the Blind-Belief and Unbelief

Of all the healing Jesus, or Yeshua did, the one most tied to his Messiahship was that of opening the eyes of the blind. Even more than that, the one true mark of Messiah would be that he could heal one born blind since birth. Blindness caused at a later age, while robbing the person of sight, was often from disease or accident, and even the healing of that though miraculous could always have been assigned to some unknown process correcting itself. IN all of Israel however, no one had been healed of blindness since birth, and the equation of physical and spiritual blindness is readily apparent: The Light of the World, came to open eyes, hearts, ears and minds in more ways than one.

There are many instances mentioned of Jesus healing the blind in the Holy Scriptures, and they are far fewer than the number he actually healed: it is mentioned that if all the works he did were reported, there would not be enough room in all the books in the world: God is a rather prolific author of healing and other works of grace. Further, the people of Israel recognized that the true "Son of David", another name for Messiah, would heal one blind since birth in addition to others, for in one instance (Mt 12:22) after healing one possessed, blind and dumb, the people responded,

"And all of the people were amazed and said "is this not the Son of David."

Jesus and the Man Born Blind Since Birth

While other healings of the blind will be attended to later, the study here will focus on the healing in the Temple of the man born blind since birth in John 9. This healing of blindness above others is unique and intricate: there is far more than merely correcting or restoring vision, but instead a discourse between the Light of the World and the Blindness of the World, between Religion and Relationship with God, between Unbelief and belief.

LIGHT OF THE WORLD

Jesus begins, by attributing to himself yet one more name, 'the Light of the World' which is also an 'office' of Messiah. He has not just come to BRING light into the world, he has come AS Light in the World. There is a metaphorical allusion to day and night as well:

"I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is DAY; the NIGHT cometh, when no man can work. 9:4

Night and Day

Blindness is equated then with night and sight with day. Jesus dies as evening approaches, and rises with the break of the third day. Psalms reports darkness at the outer reach of glory

He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him [were] dark waters [and] thick clouds of the skies.Psalm 18:11

and sinners, in the end, in unbelief and non-acceptance of God's 'way out', are cast to outer darkness.

Mat 25:30 And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

While there are many references to day and night in the Bible, these are eminent, along with the plague of darkness which fell on Egypt, a type of the world, when Pharaoh refused to let the Children of Israel go free.

And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days:They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. Exodus 10:22-23.

The darkness and light of the Bible, the day and night, and vision and blindness, are all mentioned similarly with differing emphasis. While the literal darkness, night, and blindness have literal meanings, they point likewise to unbelief, not just cognitive unbelief or conversely for day and light, belief, but the unbelief of the soul. That is the point of the divine battle always, and is the pivotal choice of eternal life.

THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD HEALS DARKNESS

All of this is essential to understand in the healing of the man born blind since birth, for Jesus had come not only to do the one healing, but to make a major point to Israel and her leaders regarding belief, and light and day, and an Israel which would live in full worship of God in the Light of the Day. Following the discourse on night, Jesus says

As long as I am in the world, I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.[my emphasis] 9:5

We will see three principles emerge in the healing:

1. The man was blind from birth, and it was a DIVINE APPOINTMENT-for the purpose of showing the glory of God.
2. The Blind condition was equated with sin, at least sometimes.
3. The Blind condition and sin were seen as ancestral.

The equation of blindness with sin , perhaps committed byhis parents or himself showed the view of blindness as punishment. Jesus corrects that view at least in this case:

"Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents; but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. 9:3.

The work was an APPOINTMENT, an ANOINTING, waiting for the time of Christ, set apart since the beginning: it was a healing ensign, of God opening the eyes of Israel, blind since birth, to the degree of his love and salvation.

The HEALING
Right after making it clear, that he, the Messiah was the light of the World, the healing takes place:

9:6 When he had thus spoken he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle

and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.

It is announced right on the doorstep of the great healing which will confirm him as messiah. The Light of the World opens the eyes of the blind.

In the performing of the miracle, first the LORD speaks: as noted in another healing, a healing requires nothing more than the LORD speaking as when the centurion intercedes for his servant , 'only speak the word'.

Jesus next mixes spittle and clay. Here is the potter and the vessel, and he has a little repair work to do. Adam was drawn from the clay, and Jesus, the Creator is using clay to restore this created vessel at a point in time. Lastly he "anoints'
the eyes of the blind man: the sight which will be given all Israel is tied up in the healing of this man. This blindness had a purpose during all the years when its anointing could not be seen.

Jesus Speaks

"and he said unto him, Go and wash in the pool of Siloam
which is by interpretation 'sent'.

The command of the LORD is the only effort required, although there is a physical means, and the obedience to the command results in the healing. The passage continueds

He went his way, therefore and washed and came seeing.

The otucome of obedience is sight on two levels, for the man will now see much. The healing of the blind since birth was a first in Israel and heralded the presence of the Messiah (in part II we will see, that Jesus definitively declares, he is indeed the Messiah.)

IN 9:8-9, immediately after this hitherto unseen miracle, the first reaction of onlookers is to question the miracle, remarkable since the immediate difference was seen:

Some said, This is he: others said He is like him; but he said, I am he.

The observers weren't even sure it was the same man: they had nothing to compare the opening of always dead eyes to.

Therefore they said unto him How were thine eyes opened?

The response of the healed man, speaks for centuries for all Israel, for all believers:

He answered and said,

A man that is called Jesus made clay
and anointed mine eyes
and siad unto me
'Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash' and I went and washed
and I received sight.

Amazing Grace how sweet the sound...was blind, but now I see. Here is the response of all believers to the cynical:

I don't know how he has opened my eyes, I don't know how he has saved me, I don't know how his power and love abides in me know through the indwelling of the HOly Spirit, I don't know HOW one man dying on a Cross can be born of a virgin and carry all sin to the cross and put it to death once and for all, I don't know, but I have seen it, and it was Jesus.

The crowd immediately seeks to find Jesus at the wonder, but the healed does not know for the moment where he has gone. 9:12.

Following the prescription set forth in Leviticus, the healed man was brought to the priests, in this case the Pharisees (13)

Darkness Creeps in

Immediately following the great light of the healing and belief, the divine battle steps up to plate again, and Unbelief makes it's attempt on dismissing the Messiah and the Miracle. Their first strategy is the strategy of all religionists: fault-finding and nitpicking. The target is Shabbat: the Sabbath day, in which there is to be no servile work.

9:14 And it was the Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes.

Shabbat is a day of rest, worship and light : a perfect day for the blind to be healed for both Old and New Testament teach that it is not wrong to do good on the Sabbath. But the Pharisees needed Jesus to be a sinner to make their argument: in their eyes, bending down obtaining clay and mixing it with spittle was work. Back in those days, some argued that even eating the egg of a chicken which was laid on Shabbat, should be forbidden as it caused the chicken work. While there was an intense effort to obey God's commands concerning the day of rest, [I observe the Sabbath rest failing only a little once in a long while], the rules and nitpicking can rob the day of joy, which was supposed to be an integral effect of the day. The Pharisees did not perfectly obey either: Jesus at another passage refers to an ox being pulled out of ditch so that even a Pharisee would not lose the animal or cause suffering or monetary loss as being o.k. on the Sabbath, but here they did not want a man to receive sight from God on the Shabbat due to a technicality! Not even a sin, but an interpretation of what work was. They exhibit another characteristic of religious unbelief:
Condemnation, an overly critical nature of everyone and everything, and even a murderous spirit. In the face of a miracle they see only minute details to condemn and do not attend to the wonder. We have all met these folks in Christian circles: we have even tended to it ourselves at certain times: we have both an obligation to keep doctrine accurate and excellent without dissension, but to also be filled with grace, peace and love. It is the extremes though that kill faith: not of the person trying hard to obey for themselves, but in the people who will not let others live and breathe without an analysis.

The man born blind explains the course of his healing by Jesus to the Pharisees, and true to form, their response is Condemnation.

Therefore, said some of the Pharisees,

This man is not of God
because he keepeth not the Sabbath Day[he was the Sabbath]

Others said,
"How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles?

And there was division among them.

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1.The Pharisees immediately without much investigation condemn
2.Pharisees cause strife and division where there is none
3. Pharisees commit condemnation on the Shabbat or Sabbath, a serious sin,
accompanied by slander, and yet worry about mixing clay and spittle for a once
in a lifetime healing.


The nature and course of the healing has been described in this short study. We notice
I.that it occurs on Shabbat, that it is a first,
II. that it is a sign of Messiah, and
III.that it is a physical portrayal of the Light of the World granting light and vision where none was before.

In the next study, we examine the divine importance of this great healing of the blind, and then will continue later with other healings of other blindmen in Israel.

Blessings from Elizabeth K. Best
Director, Judah's Glory
"I am the Way, the Truth and the Life,
and no man cometh unto the Father but by me." John 14:6

See Judahsglory.com/biblestudies.html and other Bible studies at warsofisrael.com and propheteuo.blogspot.com and housethatwillnotdie.blogspot.com.