Category Archives: Healing

Where is God in a messed-up world?

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The following forms the substance of a talk given in October, 2020 as part of a webinar from Holy Trinity Church, Norwich.

I am giving it some prominence now (February, 2023) because of its relevance to the challenging situation documented in the series of bulletins entitled “I’ll Walk Beside You”.

The video of the talk may be found here.

Intro

We were being shown round the charming spa town of Great Malvern, in Worcestershire.  Our friendly guide pointed out the statue of Sir Edward Elgar, the famous composer. …

Healing miracles

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I have recently returned, after a period of absence, to consider the question of miracles in general, and of divine healing in particular.

Looking again at the work of Rex Gardner (a consultant gynaecologist and an ordained minister), I found myself pretty much in agreement with his conclusions:-

  1. Intellectual honesty demands that (after discounting cases with dubious diagnoses, those where psychosomatic considerations are important, and others where the cure might be attributable to adjuvant medical therapy or where spontaneous remission might be the explanation) there remain some cures for which medicine has no explanation.
…

Signs and wonders today?

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Does God grant signs and wonders in response to the prayers of Christians today?  Some very readily answer, ‘No’, and every scrap of interest or belief in contemporary miracles is dismissed as ‘strange fire’.  Others reply with a simple, ‘Yes!’, regarding any doubt of qualification as a quenching of the Holy Spirit.

I like John Piper‘s candour, when he tells us how much he has struggled over the question of whether we should pray, as the early Christians prayed (Acts 4:29-30), for such miracles today. …

Discussion Starters, Mark 2:1-12, Luke 5:17-26

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1. Which is more important: physical healing, or the forgiveness of sins?  Why?  And why do you think the two are linked together on this occasion?

2. Surely, healing and forgiveness are good things?  So why do you think the Jewish authorities we so resentful of what Jesus did?

3. In what ways can we follow in Jesus’ footsteps by bringing God’s healing and forgiveness to others?…

Mk 10:52 – “Your faith has healed you” – sermon notes

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Text: Mark 10:52

An effect: ‘healed’

‘Sozo’ = to save.

We tend to think of salvation as

  • accepting Jesus into our hearts
  • experiencing the love of God
  • going to heaven when we die

Clearly, salvation for Bartimaeus involved physical healing.  But there is a hint in the word itself that something more than physical healing is going on here: he received his sight; and he became a disciple (v52)

Mark 10 – ‘to inherit eternal life’ (v17), ‘to enter the kingdom of God’ (vv23-26), and ‘to be saved’ (v26) are used synonymously.…

Why did Jesus heal?

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Briefly, we may say that healing miracles

  1. provide ‘signs’ to authenticate the gospel message.
  2. show God’s mercy and compassion in bringing relief and comfort to the suffering.
  3. equip and strengthen people for God’s service.
  4. give opportunity for God to be glorified as people see concrete evidence of his goodness, love, power, wisdom and presence.

According to N.T. Wright (Jesus and the Victory of God) the healing miracles of Jesus went further than the relief of physical suffering, or even social acceptance.  …

What if God does not heal?

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Not all prayers for healing will be answered in this age. God may withold healing for his own sovereign reasons. Though we continue to experience the ‘sufferings of this present time’, Rom 8:28, and ‘groan inwardly as we wait for…the redemption of our bodies’, Rom 8:18,23, we nevertheless ‘know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose’, Rom 8:28. Paul recognised that ‘our outer nature is wasting away’, 2 Cor 4:16, and that sometimes sickness and disease would not be healed.…

Psa 107:2 – Be thankful for great mercies – sermon notes

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As part of my current drive to be less dependent on written notes, this was a largely unscripted sermon which used the following Powerpoint presentation as a basis:-

There were just a few sections that I did script out more fully, though even these I adapted at the time of delivery:-

SLIDE 7

There are other ways of being

Lost – there is the lostness that comes from simply not knowing the God who made us and to we must give an account

Enslaved – there is the moral slavery that comes when we find ourselves trapped in repeated patterns of unhealthy thoughts, feelings, attitudes, behaviours and we can find no means of escape

Damaged – there is the damage that comes from a guilty conscience that eats away at us and stunts our spiritual and emotional growth

Storm-tossed – There is the anxiety of feeling that everything has got on top of us and we can see no rhyme nor reason in it

The human condition.…

Miracles yesterday and today

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Many Christians must have wondered: If so many miracles are recorded in the pages of the New Testament, why are few (if any) witnessed today?  For sceptics, the answer is that the New Testament accounts of miracles cannot be believed.  For some believers, the answer is that although the New Testament accounts can be believed, the gift of miracles ceased when the canon of Scripture was completed.

New Testament scholar Craig Keener has recently published a work that bids fair to blow both the sceptical and the ultra-conservative views right out of the water. …

Mk 9:9-32 – A demonised boy healed – sermon notes

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It had been a mountain-top experience to top the lot. Right there, in front of three of his disciples, Jesus had experienced a brief but amazing transformation. His face shone; even his clothes became dazzling white. Two godly men from long ago, Moses and Elijah, had put in personal appearances. And God himself had spoken: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”

As they come down the mountain, Jesus gave Peter, James and John a solemn instruction, v9: “Don’t tell anyone about what you have just seen until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.”…