Sickness and disease are facts of life and inevitable occurrences to many people. But is this God’s intention, or do sickness and disease have another source? Why do we get sick? Where does sickness come from?
Pastor Joe continues his sermon on The Source of Sickness with a deeper dive into what scripture says about healing from sickness and disease, as well as other forms of oppression of the devil.
He addresses who God wants to heal, and the thought process some Christians subscribe to: “God is sovereign, and we believe he can heal but we aren’t sure if it’s his will.”
Pastor Joe closes with how the modern-day Church should minister today. Does scripture have anything to say about how the church should be sharing the Gospel beyond the salvation story? What role should divine healing play in our lives and our ministry to others?
Listen to the episode here.
Additional Resources
Divine Healing, The Basics – full audio series (a continuation of this episode)
Healing Study and Meditation Manual
Doctors, Medicine and Faith – MP3
Don’t Blame God! Why God isn’t responsible for evil – full audio series
Healing by Faith – book
Full Transcript
Probably one of the greatest verses in the Bible for understanding the triune attitude of heart, is Acts chapter 10 verse 38, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth, with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” Now you have the triune, God in one verse. God, the Father, anointed Jesus of Nazareth, the Son, with the Holy Spirit, who went about doing good and healing all who are oppressed by the devil. Now this verse is a sermon in itself. God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and power, and he went about doing good. So healing the sick is good. And he was delivering all those who were oppressed by the devil. So sickness is oppression of the devil. I mean, this outlines things so clearly. You have the Triune God working together to destroy the works of the devil, by healing sickness and disease and delivering people from the oppression of the devil. So not only physical healing, but deliverance, emotional healing. The Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, in the divine conspiracy, came to Earth in the person of Christ and destroyed the works of the devil. That’s a very powerful verse.
Another passage that’s quite relevant is Luke chapter 13 verse 10. “Now he was teaching in one of their synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up. But when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said to her woman, you are loosed from your infirmity. And he laid his hands on her. And immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath. And he said to the crowd, there are six days on which men ought to work, therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day. And the Lord then answered him and said, hypocrite, Does not each of you, on the Sabbath loose his ox or his donkey from the stall and lead it away to water? So ought not this woman being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound,” think of it “for 18 years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?”
So we see a lot of fascinating realities here, some that we’ll develop later, but she had a spirit of infirmity. Now, one of the things, if you’ve never had a lot of teaching about deliverance, you may not be aware of the fact that the phrase, demon possession is not a translation of anything in the Greek New Testament. We find it in the King James Version and the New King James and other translations. But actually, it’s just the Greek word for demon in the verbal form. And so what it really means is to be demonized. In other words, to be under the influence of a demon. It has nothing to do necessarily with possession. And so you’ll find people say, well, demons, Christians cannot be demon possessed. Well, I agree. But Christians can be afflicted by a spirit of infirmity, and they can need the power of that spirit broken off their body in order for their healing to manifest.
“How do you know that it’s not just sickness?” Well, one way you know is if you can’t get any results praying for them, it’s likely to be an oppressing spirit. Or if the pain moves around in their body it is definitely a demonic spirit, an afflicting spirit. Has nothing to do with demon possession. You see, this woman was an Israelite, she’s in the synagogue, and yet her body, her physical body is afflicted by a spirit. Well, Jesus dealt with the spirit and loosed her from that infirmity, and the the physical affliction went away. So that’s an important thing to recognize. But it’s also important to recognize what Jesus says in the 16th verse, “Ought not this woman being a daughter of Abraham?”
Now we could, we could spend a whole sermon on the fact that we are the seed of Abraham, and Abraham’s blessing belongs to us. Well, if Jesus looked on this woman, and said, she should be loosed, because she’s the daughter of Abraham, then all of us in the New Covenant should. Jesus’ attitude toward us is that we ought to be loosed because we’re the seed of Abraham, you see, and he says, “Satan has found her low these eighteen years.” So he recognized the source of the sickness, and then he recognized also, her right to be free. People will sometimes say, “Well, God is sovereign, he can heal if he wants to, but we don’t know if he wants to.” Well, do you have a covenant with him? “Well, yes.” Well, what what does God’s Word say about his covenant people? In Galatians 3″13. Paul says “Christ has redeemed from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us as it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs upon a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles in Christ Jesus.”
So we are the heirs of the of the blessing of Abraham. And that includes deliverance from oppressive spirits that would bring affliction as well as from other kinds of sickness and disease. So Jesus healed all who are sick. We could go through more of the Gospels, and record all the places where it says, He healed all that came to him in these various cities. There’s quite a number of verses that do that, but I’ll leave that to your study.
Now here’s the part where it starts to get really dramatic, and this is what challenges a lot of modern thinking. Jesus demonstrated the kingdom of God. And the first verse we have there is 1st Corinthians chapter 4, verse 20, which says, “For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.” And let me just say something. A number of years ago, I did a very definite study and read a number of books on the kingdom of God, because I wanted to understand it. And one of the things that I kept coming across from these various scholars was that the word for kingdom… you know, sometimes people think of a kingdom as the area over which a king rules, that’s his kingdom. But the Hebrew and Greek words for Kingdom don’t mean that. They mean the authority to rule. In other words, a better translation for the kingdom of God would be the rule of God. So what Jesus was doing, when he proclaimed the kingdom and demonstrated it, he was saying, “If you want to know what it looks like, when God rules, bring your sickness, here, I’ll heal it and you’ll know what God’s rule looks like.” He said, “The Kingdom or rule of God is at hand, Repent and believe the good news.” You see, the good news of the kingdom is when God rules, the work of darkness bows and is driven out, because God’s rule does not leave room for Satan’s rule. Now, in this age, we’ve got the conflict of the kingdom. And we are to proclaim the present manifestation of the rule of God. Jesus has been seated at the Father’s right hand, on the throne of David.
Peter was a good Jew, and he’s waiting for the Messiah to come to drive out the Romans, and set up His throne on Mount Zion, in Jerusalem, and reign over the nations. But on the day of Pentecost, Peter got a Holy Ghost overhaul on his view of the future. Because by revelation, he saw Christ resurrected and enthroned in the heavenly Jerusalem, on heavenly Mount Zion, and sitting on the heavenly throne of David, and beginning his rule on that day of Pentecost. And it upset his whole view of the Messiah’s coming. The Messiah has come, he’s enthroned, his rule has begun, and we are to go forth and proclaim His rule. And that’s what the early church did. They said, “There’s another king, his name is Jesus, and he’s the king of kings and the Lord of lords. He’s the highest authority in the earth.” Well, as you can imagine, that was not a popular message with the kings and rulers of the day. But the Roman Empire eventually succumbed to the kingdom of Jesus and the Church, whatever its faults may have been it rose to the ascendancy in the culture, and Christian values and principles ruled over the pagan principles that had dominated Rome for hundreds of years.
But I want you to see that the Kingdom… Jesus came preaching the kingdom. His message was the kingdom. A lot of people want to preach the gospel of salvation. Well, you know, God certainly wants people saved, but the gospel of the kingdom include salvation and much more than initial conversion. You see, a lot of people want to get people saved, so they go to heaven when they die. But if we look in Matthew six, the prayer that Jesus told us to pray, is pray to our Father in heaven, your kingdom come, Your will be done in earth as it is in heaven. In other words, the motion is the kingdom, the rule of God coming from the heavenly realms, into the earthly realms, and being extended through the church. As his rule comes over us, individually, and corporately, we go out into the culture, and we infect the culture with the kingdom, you see.
God wants us to reveal his rule by praying for people, by sharing the gospel with them, by feeding them, helping them, clothing them, doing all that we can to minister to them in the name of the Lord. And also telling them the story of what Christ has done for them, so that they want to escape the judgment at the end of the age, and join us in going into the fullness of the kingdom. So it’s important to understand that the message of Jesus and the early church was the kingdom of God and its demonstration. Not in word only, but in power and in demonstration. And the church has tried to accomplish the goal of world evangelism without power. And it’s been an utter failure. With the places where the gospel is taken off, like in Africa and South America, Central America, and Asia, Malaysia is an empowered gospel, where they believe in the gifts of spirit. Regardless of their denominational background, they’re moving in the Spirit of God. They’re all Pentecostal by practice, even if they aren’t by theology. And because it takes the power of God to get the job done. God never intended the gospel to be without power.
In fact, I read an interesting book recently by a vineyard pastor in Oregon, and he was talking about what Antichrist is. And he said, “Well, Christ means anointed one. So for something to be antichrist, it will be against the anointing.” And he said, “Much of the church is listening to the spirit of antichrist, because they’re against the anointing, they don’t want to see the power. They insist it’s not for today, and they’ve bought into a doctrine of demons, that the gifts and power of God, healing, miracles, signs and wonders are not for today.” And his observation was, he said, “That’s the antichrist spirit.” And I think he might be on to something. That fits better with what John writes about in first and third, John. Actually, a lot of people think the Antichrist is mentioned in the Book of Revelation. The Antichrist Antichrist is not mentioned in the book of Revelation. It’s superimposed on there by end time preachers. The only place the word antichrist is used is in first John and in third John, and it’s never used of an individual. It’s used of present realities in the church at that time who deny the incarnation.
Anyway, that’s another subject, but I think, you know, how many controversies can you stir up in one sermon and that’s my thought. As many as you want. Alright, so Jesus comes preaching the kingdom of God, but then in Matthew, chapter nine, we find him releasing… you see, the demand for the kingdom has so increased, that he has to release more ministers. And so in Matthew chapter 9 verse 35, we find “And Jesus went about all their cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.” Every sickness, every disease among the people. You know, I’m thankful for the amount of healing we see today. But I’m pressing for the day when we see every every sickness and every disease healed. That’s biblically normal. And if we’re subnormal then let’s get over it.
But now notice the phrase in verse 35, “every sickness and every disease.” I want you to notice those two phrases, because let’s read on, “But when he saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. And then he said to his disciples, The harvest is truly plentiful. but the laborers are few, therefore pray the lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. And when he had called his twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness, and all kinds of disease.” In other words, he imparted to them the very anointing he carried to do the very job he was doing. He wanted them to preach the kingdom, and to demonstrate it by healing the sick of every kind of sickness, and every kind of disease. I recall from research I did earlier, I think where it says every disease and every sickness, it’s the exact same in the Greek, every kind of sickness, every kind of disease. The phrase is identical. And then verse five through seven, he says, “Then these twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying, Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out, demons, freely you have received, freely give. So they were supposed to go out.
Now, here’s a way we can apply this to the church today. Jesus came to a church that had drifted far from God’s purpose and intention for them. And Jesus came and sent his disciples and later the seventy, into the lost sheep of the house of Israel. In the words, the covenant people who’d lost sight of their covenant. And I believe today, God is wanting to raise up many equipped believers to bring the good news of the kingdom to the church. The church which has lost the vision for what we’re supposed to be proclaiming and demonstrating. See Jesus didn’t want them to go to the world yet. The first job for restoration is among God’s people, then they go to the world. You see, the problem is people are being sent out who are not equipped. They don’t know how to heal the sick. They don’t know how to cast out demons.
Recently, someone in a small group that we know of, not a part of this church, but a small group that a missionary came back from the mission field and during their small group, he was sharing about healing the sick and casting out demons. One of the women in the group began to manifest demonic spirits. Well, everybody in the group went crazy panicking, they didn’t know what to do, because they didn’t know what had happened. The missionary guy ministered to her and endeavored to get her set free. But the result was total chaos in the meeting because it’s unusual for believers to be confronted with the reality of the demonic.
Well, that’s not the way it’s supposed to be. We are supposed to be equipped believers are to cast out demons and to lay hands on the sick and they should recover. That should be normal for Christians. It isn’t normal, I understand. But it should be normal. And if God’s allowed to have his way in his church, we’re going to find equipped believers who know how to pray for the sick, know how to share the gospel, and they know how to cast out demons. Because as the harvest comes in, we are going to find more and more people demonized because they bought into the lies that are being promoted in our culture, and they’re going to need deliverance.
I remember, kind of getting plunged into deliverance ministry early in my Christian life. I remember going with another man in my church who was experienced in deliverance, and we got a call to go and minister to a man we knew. And we took one other brother with us. And so we started praying for him. Well, he was, he was quite demonized. He fell on the ground and the demons were coming out, shouting their names and coming out. It was very, very dramatic. It was much like what’s described in the New Testament. And the young brother that was with us, he said, “Joe, you know, when you taught on deliverance, I believed you because it was in the Bible. But you know what seeing it makes all the difference in the world. I now know it in a way I didn’t know it before.” You can get too far and praying for the sick, before you begin to encounter demonic spirits. And you have to know how to deal with them. You cannot be intimidated by them. If you’re intimidated by them, they’ll know it, and they’ll put on a big circus performance. But if they know that you know your authority, you will just say “Stop that in the name of Jesus, I forbid you to manifest. Come out.” And they’ll know you know.
So the kingdom is to be demonstrated by definite spiritual power. And if we were to turn to Luke 10, we won’t we’ll just kind of wind up here tonight. We’ll take it up next week. But in Luke 10, we find Jesus sending out seventy more. So now he’s got a he’s got a ministry team of 82. Now, let me just point out that if you have the New American Standard, NIV or one of the modern translations, it will say 72, that Jesus sent out 72. But it’s different manuscripts. The King James Bible and the New King James Bible, are from one set of manuscripts. And the modern translations are from another set. And there are some slight discrepancies between the two manuscripts. And the modern ones say 72 others also. But I’m happy with 70.Because it’s a biblical number of significance.
But the point is that Jesus then, “After these things, the Lord appointed seveny others also and sent them out two by two before his face into every city and place where he himself was about to go. And he said, The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few, therefore pray the lord of the harvest, to send out laborers into the harvest.” Now, it’s fascinating this is this is exactly what he said, when he was sending up twelve. And so then, in verse 9, he says, “And heal the sick, who are there, and say to them, the kingdom of God has come near you.” Heal the sick, and tell them, you have just experienced the rule of God.
This is what the rule of God means, that you get delivered from the devil and his works. And then verse 17, “And the seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name. And he said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” There are a lot of thoughts on Satan falling like lightning from heaven. I heard an evangelist one time, who did a lot of street ministry, and his take on that was when seventy came into the city and demonstrated the kingdom of God with supernatural power, it dislodged Satan from his place of exaltation over that community. And in that particular community where the seventy went, Satan’s power was dropped out, and the gospel went forth with power. Out. There are other takes on that verse, but I thought, that’s a nice take. I like that.
Sometimes people want to pull down Satan by intercessory prayer. But the pattern in the New Testament would seem to be that Satan is pulled down where God is exalted by the demonstration of the kingdom with power. And so often, people are wanting to do through prayer, that which can only be done by the demonstration of the kingdom. And I’m a great advocate of intercessory prayer, don’t misunderstand. But I just think that sometimes we’ve overlooked the primary method of destroying the works of darkness, which is the demonstration of the kingdom with power.
In Mark 16, the whole church is commissioned to go out into the world. The first two groups, the 12, and the 70, were sent to Israel. But now after Pentecost, the church is sent out into the world, to proclaim the kingdom and to demonstrate it with power. There’s a lot we could say about that, but I just want to close tonight by reading these verses at the bottom of the page, in the various translations. The reason the Son of God was made manifest, visible was to undo, destroy, loosen and dissolve the works the devil has done. The Bible in basic English says the Son of God was seen on Earth, so that he might put an end to the works of the evil one. Weymouth says the Son of God appeared for the purpose of undoing the work of the devil. And he came to demonstrate the rule of God, and wherever the rule of God was manifested, the rule of the enemy was driven out, and God was glorified, and lives were changed and touched. Hallelujah. Amen.
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