WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.099 Good morning everybody. Great. So it would be difficult for me to talk about this chapter 00:00:10.099 --> 00:00:16.080 without talking about healing. And healing there as we see is very much part of Jesus' 00:00:16.320 --> 00:00:23.660 story and of the early church's story too. The story shows Peter and John healing a man 00:00:23.660 --> 00:00:29.980 in the power of Jesus' name. And it's a great story, but more than that it shows us that 00:00:29.980 --> 00:00:37.420 Jesus loves to heal and that Peter and John and us can be part of that story too. So when I read 00:00:37.420 --> 00:00:43.719 stories like this, they build my faith and they raise my expectations, which sometimes I have to 00:00:43.719 --> 00:00:51.260 admit can be quite low. And I see God has the power to do amazing things and God is on the move. 00:00:52.439 --> 00:00:58.540 So let's break the story down a bit. So Peter and John are going to pray and they come across a lame 00:00:58.539 --> 00:01:05.079 man that's been lame for many years, 30, 40 years, and he's there at the gate to the temple. He's been 00:01:05.079 --> 00:01:11.140 put there because he's lame and I think he's a bit street savvy because he realises that where he's 00:01:11.140 --> 00:01:17.299 positioned, that's where he might get the most cash each day as people are walking backwards and forwards 00:01:17.299 --> 00:01:27.879 as he's begging. But it says that he's there every single day. Now I don't know what the response would be to him, 00:01:28.399 --> 00:01:34.599 but I imagine that even if each day he gets a few coins tossed in his hat or whatever he's got there, 00:01:35.379 --> 00:01:40.439 actually a lot of the time people will just blatantly ignore him or pretend they haven't seen him. 00:01:40.439 --> 00:01:50.079 And I think that this is why Peter bends down to him and talks to him directly. He gives him his full 00:01:50.079 --> 00:01:56.700 attention. When Peter says, silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give to you in the name 00:01:56.700 --> 00:02:04.579 of Jesus of Nazareth, walk. Peter had something much better to give him than money. What he had was simple, 00:02:04.579 --> 00:02:10.699 but I think it needed a lot of courage and boldness because he was filled with the Holy Spirit. 00:02:11.620 --> 00:02:19.840 And I love the next bit when it goes on to say that he bent down and helped him up. So God's power 00:02:19.840 --> 00:02:28.939 healed the guy, but actually Peter was used to get down and help him up. And I wonder whether Peter had 00:02:28.939 --> 00:02:33.840 maybe seen this when he'd been following Jesus and Jesus had been healing people, whether 00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:40.340 Jesus had modeled that to him. The next thing that happens is that the guy is healed instantly. 00:02:40.759 --> 00:02:45.280 There's no recovery period. He's completely healed. He's jumping about and praising God. 00:02:46.099 --> 00:02:51.699 So he's instantly transformed and the people will have seen this. Verse nine goes on to say, 00:02:52.140 --> 00:02:57.659 when all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man that used to 00:02:57.659 --> 00:03:02.659 sit begging at the temple and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. 00:03:02.659 --> 00:03:09.759 So this was an amazing God moment. All of them knew the chap. They'd seen him there day after day 00:03:09.759 --> 00:03:15.300 after day. So they would know that God had healed him. It would have completely transformed their 00:03:15.300 --> 00:03:21.219 thinking, I imagine. And in those days, in that society, if you were disabled, you were kind of like 00:03:21.219 --> 00:03:27.400 the lowest of the low. So that transformation there would have just changed his whole life forever 00:03:27.400 --> 00:03:33.760 and the people that were around him. And then Peter goes on to say to the crowd, well, you've seen me do 00:03:33.760 --> 00:03:40.300 this. Why has it surprised you that I've done it? So he was bold and courageous because he had the Holy 00:03:40.300 --> 00:03:48.259 Spirit on him. Now for us, when we approach the subject of healing, I think we need to remember 00:03:48.259 --> 00:03:54.479 that God is free to do whatever pleases him. And I really want to add straight away 00:03:54.479 --> 00:04:02.659 that what pleases him is to always act in love towards us. He always wants to bless his children, 00:04:03.159 --> 00:04:11.399 but he doesn't always choose to make us happy. Blessedness is different to happiness. And in the 00:04:11.400 --> 00:04:16.459 Bible, we don't see God promise or guarantee perfect healing before Jesus returns again. 00:04:17.360 --> 00:04:22.040 And as a result, we're living in that tension, which I think we've talked about before, which is the now 00:04:22.040 --> 00:04:30.860 and the not yet. Sometimes we see God's kingdom breaking in. That's the now. And sometimes we don't. 00:04:31.240 --> 00:04:37.620 That's the not yet. This is the mystery of the kingdom. This is a mysterious kingdom theology. 00:04:37.620 --> 00:04:45.840 So we can't pin our promises on God, saying he's definitely going to heal. And we also can't limit 00:04:45.840 --> 00:04:52.819 God with what might be helpful for our eternal destinies. It needs to be God's agenda, not ours. 00:04:53.600 --> 00:05:00.639 And I confess that very often, I have a really good plan. In fact, I have a great plan. And God says, 00:05:00.720 --> 00:05:05.000 do you know what? That's lovely, Suzanne, but actually, I'm going to do something different there. 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:09.439 And I get really frustrated about that. And I don't know whether that kind of rings any bells 00:05:09.439 --> 00:05:14.800 with you guys there. But when we approach the subject of healing, we always have to enter 00:05:14.800 --> 00:05:19.379 the mystery of our relationship with God. The kingdom of God is a mystery. 00:05:20.959 --> 00:05:26.680 Now, there's a chap called Alexander Ventner, and he's written a brilliant book called Doing Healing. 00:05:27.180 --> 00:05:32.279 And I'd just like to read a little excerpt from that book, which I think is really helpful in 00:05:32.279 --> 00:05:40.059 explaining, but now and the not yet to us. Healing is a mystery. When I think I have healing worked out, 00:05:40.399 --> 00:05:49.319 I find that what happens and doesn't happen confuses me. I think I know, but I realise only God knows. 00:05:50.299 --> 00:05:57.319 The God of surprises heals when you least expect it. At times of little or no faith, 00:05:57.319 --> 00:06:04.319 we may merely go through the motions and healing happens. I have even seen people miraculously healed 00:06:04.319 --> 00:06:09.860 who did not even ask for healing. And then when after intense prayer and fasting, 00:06:10.360 --> 00:06:17.339 when you think healing is taking place, apparently nothing happens. I know godly people who have suffered 00:06:17.339 --> 00:06:23.500 and have faithfully prayed for decades without receiving physical healing. These and other 00:06:23.500 --> 00:06:31.079 contradictions raise many questions, some of which can be answered, while others often remain unanswered. 00:06:31.680 --> 00:06:36.699 And we must be humble about the limits of our knowledge and respectful of the mystery of God's 00:06:36.699 --> 00:06:44.500 kingdom and its war against evil. So I found this really helpful because I think that sometimes we 00:06:44.500 --> 00:06:49.980 can really struggle with this subject. And unfortunately, I think we've got to have a file in our brains 00:06:49.980 --> 00:06:56.620 called unknown until we get to heaven. And it's okay to have a file like that. And I've definitely 00:06:56.620 --> 00:07:03.100 got quite a few questions that I'm going to be asking God when I get there. There might be people 00:07:03.100 --> 00:07:08.920 here today who have had long-term illnesses, or who are caring for those with long-term illnesses. 00:07:09.500 --> 00:07:16.280 And it's incredibly draining and tough to be in that place an extended time. And really hard if 00:07:16.279 --> 00:07:23.599 actually you've gone for prayer and you've not seen a physical healing. But in the midst of those 00:07:23.599 --> 00:07:31.279 situations, I know that God loves to be near us in that painful place, providing comfort, strength, 00:07:31.339 --> 00:07:40.159 and hope. So sometimes we see healing and sometimes we don't. And even when we don't see it, we still 00:07:40.160 --> 00:07:46.500 have to be expectant and ask God, would you come and heal? If we go to the doctors and we get some 00:07:46.500 --> 00:07:51.800 kind of diagnosis and they sort our medication out, and then we're finding it's not working properly, 00:07:52.020 --> 00:07:57.140 we don't just think, no, I've been to the doctor, I'm not going back again. We go back. And I think 00:07:57.140 --> 00:08:03.480 that's what we've got to do with God as well. We're expectant and we continue to ask. We see in the 00:08:03.480 --> 00:08:10.860 Bible that God heals again and again. We know that the Lord loves to heal. So we have to do something 00:08:10.860 --> 00:08:18.759 difficult as Christians. We have to stand in that gap in attention and not lean on two extremes. 00:08:19.580 --> 00:08:24.860 Standing in the gap between Christians that think God never heals, it's not going to happen, 00:08:25.040 --> 00:08:30.819 it's ceased, and actually the other extreme, which is God's always going to heal. And if he doesn't heal, 00:08:30.819 --> 00:08:34.960 you know, there's something wrong with you. There are two extremes that I've heard which are not very 00:08:34.960 --> 00:08:42.720 helpful. When Jesus died and rose again, that gap was created. The kingdom is here, but it's not here 00:08:42.720 --> 00:08:49.939 in all its fullness. It's frustrating, but it's in heaven that we're going to experience perfect healing. 00:08:51.240 --> 00:08:56.600 But in this time before heaven, we want to be constantly pressing into the Lord and saying, 00:08:56.600 --> 00:09:03.860 Lord, let your kingdom come. Jesus wants us to be full of the Holy Spirit and praying for the sick. 00:09:05.040 --> 00:09:11.820 Healing, as I said, can bring out two healthy extremes, which is why we need to hold this kingdom tension. 00:09:13.379 --> 00:09:18.060 In the past, I've heard somebody praying with somebody in a different church to this, 00:09:18.720 --> 00:09:21.200 and they were trying to be really helpful, but they said to somebody, 00:09:21.200 --> 00:09:25.540 you're already healed, but you know what? You don't know it yet. 00:09:27.580 --> 00:09:34.240 But what if we're not? What is the reality of the situation? We need to be real about what's going on, 00:09:34.500 --> 00:09:41.640 but at the same time, expect that the Lord can and does heal. Imagine if the church stopped praying 00:09:41.640 --> 00:09:46.720 for healing because it's too difficult. Well, if we do that, we're not going to see any healing, 00:09:46.720 --> 00:09:53.060 are we? And surely as a church, we want to partner with Jesus when the kingdom of God is breaking in. 00:09:54.240 --> 00:09:58.600 If we go back to the passage in verse 6, Peter said, silver or gold I don't have, 00:09:59.759 --> 00:10:04.399 but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ, stand up and walk. 00:10:05.240 --> 00:10:11.600 So when we see miracles happen, we can often think that we need to use magic or special words. 00:10:11.600 --> 00:10:17.300 They must be said to promote and produce the miracle. But God isn't a slot machine. 00:10:18.180 --> 00:10:23.440 Putting the correct prayer in and getting the right result out doesn't work. It doesn't work like that. 00:10:24.300 --> 00:10:31.120 Peter uses simple words. And I must say, I find it a bit unnerving how simple they were. 00:10:31.759 --> 00:10:36.200 You would have thought that he would have think, this is going to be tricky. This guy's been lame for 30, 00:10:36.200 --> 00:10:44.460 40 years. I need to pull out my best prayer in order to get God to do it. But actually, no. He knew who Jesus was. 00:10:45.100 --> 00:10:53.940 And his prayer revealed his thoughts about God. And I think it's the same for us. Our prayers reveal our thoughts about God. 00:10:55.200 --> 00:11:00.400 And practically, when we pray for people, I believe that we really need to listen to the Lord more, 00:11:00.399 --> 00:11:08.600 even if it's a bit uncomfortable to be quiet. In that time of quiet, we can be waiting. We're not just 00:11:08.600 --> 00:11:16.019 sitting there absently. We're listening. What is the Holy Spirit saying? Maybe ask for revelation. 00:11:16.259 --> 00:11:23.539 What's going on here? Are there any underlying issues? Often the physical ailments can be linked to 00:11:23.539 --> 00:11:31.819 psychological wounds. Sometimes unresolved issues confess to her. Sometimes the more words we use, 00:11:32.099 --> 00:11:38.379 the less we listen, and the less healing there is. Imagine if someone came up to you for healing, 00:11:38.500 --> 00:11:43.980 and you just said, I'm going to be quiet for a minute. The person might think, no, I wanted a 00:11:43.980 --> 00:11:49.500 brilliant pair straight away. But it's when we're quiet, we hear those nuggets from the Lord. 00:11:49.500 --> 00:11:55.539 We're actually acknowledging that we require the Holy Spirit's leading, rather than doing it in our 00:11:55.539 --> 00:12:01.480 own strength. We don't need lengthy prayers. We don't need magic prayers, that, you know, wonderful 00:12:01.480 --> 00:12:07.899 flowery prayers. God knows better than we do what's going on. That's why it's important to listen. 00:12:09.120 --> 00:12:16.340 When we're praying with God, and praying for people, we're partnering with the Lord, who's always moving. 00:12:16.340 --> 00:12:19.660 We don't need to beg him, and we don't need to be stingy. 00:12:23.420 --> 00:12:32.200 It's also okay to be direct with our prayers. We don't need to beat around the bush, using flowery 00:12:32.200 --> 00:12:39.100 words to flatter God. God already knows what we need before we pray it, and Jesus prayed like that 00:12:39.100 --> 00:12:45.420 because he had great intimacy with the Father and great authority. We can also make the mistake that 00:12:45.419 --> 00:12:52.759 only special people can pray for healing. We can come to that conclusion, that it's only people 00:12:52.759 --> 00:12:58.839 that have this unique relationship with God that can do it. But actually, Peter dispels that. 00:12:59.839 --> 00:13:06.439 He's keen to deflect the glory. He knew it was all about Jesus. So you don't have to be a special 00:13:06.439 --> 00:13:13.159 person for a miracle to be released through you and your prayers. Jesus is the only one divine healer. 00:13:13.159 --> 00:13:18.419 It is true that some people are used more frequently than others to heal the sick. 00:13:19.179 --> 00:13:23.259 You might say that they have the gift of healing or an anointing that's been said over people. 00:13:23.659 --> 00:13:28.419 But the practice of healing has been given to the whole church, all of us, as we see in the 00:13:28.419 --> 00:13:33.719 mandate from Matthew when it says, the kingdom of God has come near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, 00:13:34.219 --> 00:13:40.019 cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons, freely have received, freely give, 00:13:40.019 --> 00:13:45.980 and teach them to obey everything I've commanded you. So we believe in healing and transformational 00:13:45.980 --> 00:13:53.019 church. Everyone can be involved. We're all commissioned to do this. Years ago, when I had 00:13:53.019 --> 00:13:58.620 not prayed for anybody and I was really worried about doing it, I just got paired up with somebody 00:13:58.620 --> 00:14:02.699 from the prayer ministry team that looked like they knew what they were doing and that's how I 00:14:02.699 --> 00:14:08.460 learned. I just had a go. Imagine if everyone in this room today was commissioned and released to our 00:14:08.460 --> 00:14:13.740 communities this week to pray for maybe 10 people. What a load of prayers for healing that would be. 00:14:14.420 --> 00:14:20.200 That will just be walking in the commission that Jesus gives us. We all get to do it. God really 00:14:20.200 --> 00:14:25.540 longs to use us, so don't disqualify yourselves by thinking, I've not been a Christian long enough, 00:14:25.620 --> 00:14:29.800 I don't know how to pray, I'm not very good at praying with people. Nobody's disqualified. 00:14:30.519 --> 00:14:34.280 There are some helpful things that we can learn in the process of doing it well, 00:14:34.279 --> 00:14:39.399 but at the heart of it, we can all pray for the sick. And I want to say at this point, 00:14:39.500 --> 00:14:44.519 if you're nervous about praying with people, maybe start doing it in your home group, just pray in 00:14:44.519 --> 00:14:50.019 that safe place together. Maybe go on Clive's ministry training that he runs quite regularly. 00:14:50.100 --> 00:14:55.199 That's really good to go and learn there. Join the prayer ministry team and again, stand with somebody 00:14:55.199 --> 00:14:59.699 that looks like they know what they're doing and follow their lead. That's what I did. 00:14:59.700 --> 00:15:03.680 And then you're just going to be in that environment to learn. 00:15:06.240 --> 00:15:10.740 So Lord, thank you that you're here this morning, Lord, and what you've been doing 00:15:10.740 --> 00:15:14.820 this morning through and with us, Lord, and for your healing power. 00:15:15.820 --> 00:15:19.460 Lord, help us to remember that whatever's going on, that whatever we see, 00:15:20.300 --> 00:15:23.540 that you're always working in our lives, Lord. And help us 00:15:23.540 --> 00:15:27.720 to stand in that gap, in that tension of the now and the not yet. 00:15:27.720 --> 00:15:33.019 Lord, thank you for this community here. And I just pray a blessing on them, Lord. 00:15:33.879 --> 00:15:37.660 Bring us peace, Lord, and bring us healing. Amen.