The Healing Ministry of Jesus: Introduction

A MESSAGE EXCERPT FROM PASTOR JONATHAN MORGAN

The Bible says that faith comes by hearing the Word of God. How do you know what to believe unless you hear what God says on the subject?

So if we know what God promised, we know what God will do. We know what to expect God to do in our life. I want to share with you about the healing ministry of Jesus. I believe your faith is going to be built up and you're going to receive a miracle from God.

the healing ministry of jesus - the pattern of teaching

Lets begin in Matthew 4:23.

“And Jesus went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.” Matthew 4:23

That's the first scripture in the New Testament that tells us anything about the healing ministry of Jesus. Since it's the first verse, I believe that it's significant. This verse tells us what about his healing ministry becomes a pattern of how he's going to minister healing. You'll find that pattern throughout the Gospels. We believe that it continues even to this day.

It says that Jesus went about teaching and preaching. So what we see is that Jesus is first of all a teacher and a preacher before he's a miracle worker. I want to give you two scriptures in the gospels about how the people responded to the teaching ministry of Jesus.

But so much the more went there a fame abroad of him: and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities. Luke 5:15

Notice the scripture says the people came to hear AND to be healed. They didn't just come to be healed, they came to hear. That tells us there was a hunger. There was a curiosity about the healing ministry of Jesus. He's healing multitudes of people. They've heard about his miracles, but now they've come to hear from him exactly how does this work? And so the Bible said they came to hear and to be healed of their infirmities.

And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judaea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases; Luke 6:17

The Bible said faith comes by hearing the word of God, Teaching and preaching is the way Jesus is ministering healing to the people. That's the way he's administering the power of God into their life.

He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. Psalm 107:20

So Jesus teaching and preaching was the way He ministered healing to the sick. There's another scripture that declares that while Jesus was teaching, the power of the Lord was present to heal them. So, it's in the middle of the teaching, while the people were listening enjoying the message, learning from God's Word, and suddenly the power of God is present to heal them.

The Bible says again and again that He healed all of their sickness and diseases. That is the healing ministry of Jesus. That's how it works. It's ministered through teaching and preaching. While you're listening to the word, His presence is there to heal you.

“all manner of”

“And Jesus went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.” Matthew 4:23

What is interesting is this scripture is the phrase “all manner of” is the same exact Greek word that's used in John 3:16 that is translated as whosoever.

We believe God wants to save everybody. We believe that God will forgive everybody. His desire to save everybody, forgive everybody, is based on one word in John 3:16 of “whosoever”.

But did you realize that the healing ministry of Jesus, the Bible uses exactly the same word? He went about healing whosoever of disease, whosoever of sickness.

I've got good news for you today and that is that God loves you, his compassion is toward you, and he wants to heal you today!

Whosoever. It means whoever came to him. If you read the story of Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, he never said no. There was never an occasion where someone came to him that he turned them away for any reason.

The Bible says again and again that he healed them all. I tell you, I'm so happy that Jesus healed them all because if Jesus only healed some people, then I don't know if He'll heal me. But if the Bible says that He healed them all, then I know He'll heal me and I know He'll heal you. We can have faith now. We can have confidence now in the healing ministry of Jesus for us, for you, right where you are, amen.

All i want you to do is see jesus

All I want you to do is see Jesus. There's so many doctrines, so many traditions, so much anti -healing people but I just want you to see Jesus.

When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: Matthew 8:16

 And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. Matthew 9:35

But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence: and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all; Matthew 12:15

And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick. Matthew 14:14

And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet; and he healed them: Matthew 15:30

And great multitudes followed him; and he healed them there. Matthew 19:2

And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them. Matthew 21:14

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Hebrews 13:8

Jesus went to all the cities, all the villages, healing every sickness and every disease. Great multitudes followed him and he healed them all. Following our theology, certainly there would have been somebody in that crowd of great multitude that maybe it wasn't God's will to heal. Maybe in that great multitude there had to be somebody that God was punishing them for their sin with a sickness, but it wasn't the case. Great multitudes came to him, and he healed them all. Hallelujah.

Jesus never changes. People change, churches change, nations change, but Jesus never changes. Maybe you're hurting, maybe the doctors are giving you a bad diagnosis and you have no hope. I tell you today that you can look to Jesus. He's coming to you right where you are, and he wants to heal you. He's moving compassion toward you. The Bible says that Jesus healed every sickness and every disease.

I want to encourage you today that no matter what you're going through, no matter what you've been through, Jesus is the same, and He wants to heal you. He's moved with compassion toward you to heal you.

Understanding Healing: Is sickness part of God's original design?

A MESSAGE EXCERPT FROM PASTOR JONATHAN MORGAN

It's so important that we understand what the Bible says. We need for the revelation truth from the Bible to be our foundation of faith. That is taking line upon line, precept upon precept and laying a foundation of faith for the people of God.

When I grew up in a spirit filled, Pentecostal church, healing was written in our doctrine book. In other words if you were to read our doctrine it said very specifically that healing is provided for all in what they call the atonement. All of my life we went to church: Sunday morning, Sunday school, Sunday night, Wednesday night, revival and camp meetings. BUT I never heard one single sermon dedicated to teaching on the truths of divine healing from the Bible.

You have to have a foundation from which you act in faith. Without that foundation you don't have confidence to act. Once the foundation is laid then you have great confidence to act on God's Word. When you act on the Word of God then the power of the Holy Spirit will manifest in your life and you will be healed. So, it is important that we have a great foundation for healing from the Bible.

what is God’s original intention?

To lay a strong foundation, we of course, begin with Genesis. In the book of Genesis chapter 1, chapter 2 and part of chapter 3, we see God's original intention.

We know God has never changed (Malachi 3:6). Therefore, when we identify God's original plan, God's original purpose, God's original intention toward man, we understand that is still his intention for us today.

Of course as you know, the Genesis chapter 1 we are given the details of creation.

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day. Genesis 1:31

So good means that all of creation, all of nature, reflected the nature of God. In creation, we do not find anything that would hurt, destroy, make sick, oppress or harass. Everything was good. Everything was peaceful. That's exactly the way God intended it to be.

Further in Genesis 1, God creates man. The Bible says, Genesis chapter 1 verse 26, God said, let us make man in our image and in our likeness.

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them,“Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. Genesis 1:26-28

We can say it like this, God rules everything, but in the earth, God delegated authority to Adam. God gave authority to Adam. That's the way God planned it.

According to God's original design, Adam was never going to die. God said to Adam in Genesis 2:17 very specifically, don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for in the day you eat of it you are going to die. What does that mean? That means that Adam's got the breath of God in him and if he doesn't sin, if he doesn't eat that tree, he's never going to die.

He's going to live forever, live forever and never grow old. Live forever and never get sick. There was no disease there. There was no cancer there. There was no blindness there. There was no arthritis there. There was no sugar diabetes there. No sickness at all in that original creation.

So where does sickness come from? Well, it's obvious sickness came with sin. The moment Adam sinned, he opened the door for death, sickness and disease into the human race and into the earth.

If Adam had left that door shut, if he had just walked with God and enjoyed his fellowship with God and fulfilled his purpose, then there would have never been a single sick person in the world. God's will, God's intention would have been and continued to be fulfilled.

There was no sin there, there was no sickness there, there was no poverty there, there were no demons there. That was God's original plan. We know what happened: Adam disobeyed God.

According to Genesis chapter 3, he disobeyed God, God said, in the day you eat, you shall surely die. I want to add another thought to that: when Adam disobeyed God, he obeyed Satan. He submitted himself to Satan and Satan became his ruler. Satan brought sickness that made men sick and then died. All of humanity has suffered because of that ever since that day.

After Adam's sin, God never gave up on his plan. He did not call it quits on his original intention. Instead, He sent a Savior, His son, Jesus to the earth.

Sickness was never God's plan or God's intention.
God has never changed.

Next week, we’ll look at Jesus revealed in scripture to further understand God’s plan to redeem man back to his original design.