New Hope Church

Day 14 – Lenten Devotional

LENTEN DEVOTIONAL – DAY 14 – THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 2019

Jesus performed many miracles of physical healing

Matthew 4:23   “Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.”

Of the many miracles that Jesus performed none are more numerous than the miracles of physical healing. Jesus physical healings included internal sicknesses of all sorts, healing leprosy, paralysis, seizures, hemorrhaging, the deaf, dumb, and lastly the blind.  He healed individuals by themselves and healed many among the crowds of people who sought Him out.  In just about all of these examples Jesus was also teaching or preaching the gospel. He also acknowledged the faith of many who were healed. Jesus even empowered His apostles “… go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’  “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give.” (Mat 10:7-8)  Healings were always accompanied in some way by the Word of God and in many cases their faith in Jesus was recognized.

The healings were “signs” of the Divine Messiah who would come to heal His people.  When John the Baptist sent his messengers to hear assurance from Jesus that He was indeed the Messiah Jesus replied quoting from passages in Isaiah, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.”   (Luke 7:20-22)  He confirmed to John that the Kingdom of God was at hand, the Messiah had come.  Healings and the word preached by the Living Word.

Jesus healings were not the unverifiable kind we sometimes see today where someone has a bad back and can suddenly walk. In other words, some malady that cannot be accurately or visually verified.  Most of Jesus miracles were ones that could be visually verified.  Crippled hands, legs, feet, atrophied muscles that were miraculously made whole. Limbs that would grow back right before others eyes.  Lepers whose crusted and dying faces, hands, and feet would be cleansed of the hideous sores and scabs and their flesh made clean!  Jesus exercised His divine authority over atoms in the human body; growing new limbs, restoring dying flesh, vocal cords and ear drums, repairing rods and cones and retinas in eyeballs…regenerating, creating, restoring the human beings He created to health and true faith!   Remember that miracles are linked to “signs” because they point to something greater and bigger than themselves.  Jesus healed bodies as a sign that He was the Christ, the Son of God.  But most important Jesus also healed human hearts to believe in the Son of God so that they may have eternal life!

REFLECT:  The Christ walked among us and His divinity was so powerful that even if one touched His clothing they were healed (Matthew 14:34-36; Mark 6:53-56)

REPENT:  Change your ways. Do not discount the healing miracles of Jesus. To doubt or rationalize these miracles lowers Christ to your level instead of raising Jesus up as Christ.  John 1:3-4  “Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.”

RESTORE:   It was God incarnate who walked among us for a time. By faith in Him, Jesus still heals today.  He takes hearts of stone and softens them into living hearts of faith.  Draw close to Jesus and the miracle He performed in your life when you believed.

1Peter 2:24-25  “and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.  For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.”

Blessings,
Pastor Tom Bellhy