Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Welcome to NUMA Church Podcast, wherever you are in the world. We are so glad you've joined us. Our prayer is that this message will reveal more of who our Heavenly Father is as we all grow deeper in intimacy with Jesus. Enjoy the message.
Okay, can we take our Bibles and turn to Luke chapter eight, please? I'm going to read out of Luke chapter eight.
This is not going to be a message that I finished today.
So I think it'll be probably two to three messages will come out of this.
But I want to talk about the supernatural. I want to talk about miracles.
And we're going to be diving into that. That's part of our kingdom culture values. Miracles are normal. Holy Spirit is obviously the one that Jesus gave to us to be able to live an overcoming life and advance his kingdom. So by using even the gifts that he, he provides for us as well. So Luke chapter 8, starting at verse number one, we're going to go through the first three verses. This is the English Standard Version and the ESV and the new King James Version. Those are the ones I use particularly because they're more literal. And I'll explain to you why in just a second why I'm using the SV here. Okay. It says, soon afterward, he, Jesus, went on through cities and villages proclaiming. Watch this. Proclaiming and what?
Bringing. Proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the 12 were with him. And also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities.
Mary called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out. Joanna, the wife of Cusa, Herod's household manager, and Susanna and many others who provided for them out of their means. All right, this is a powerful little portion of scripture as it shows us kind of a life in the day of Jesus, that he's traveling, he's going around, he's heading to cities and villages.
Miracles are happening. It specifically mentions women being healed of evil spirits and infirmities or sicknesses, mentions some of the names, which gives us kind of a profile of who these different people were. Even inside Herod's household, we see this happening. So it's very, very powerful. But what I want to point out here is that Jesus, it actually says in verse one, was proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. Proclaiming and bringing the good news or the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. If you go back to the old Elizabethan English King James Version, do you know what it says? It says proclaiming or preaching and shooing.
Okay. We don't say shooing anymore, but shewing means what?
Showing. So Jesus was preaching and showing the kingdom. So he was declaring and demonstrating the kingdom. He was actually preaching it, he was proclaiming it. But he was seeing the power of the kingdom manifest everywhere he went. This is normal. In fact, I want to challenge us this morning. There's nowhere in the Gospels where you just see Jesus giving a sermon.
One of my favorite verses is Matthew 4:23, which actually says that Jesus ministry consisted of the following three elements. Number one, he preached the kingdom.
Number two, he taught the people.
And number three, he healed the sick, cast out demons, etc. So we see he proclaims the kingdom. He literally would go in and say, repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And he told his disciples to do that also in Matthew 10, verse number seven. But he also taught people, didn't he?
He explained the truths. There was revelation, there was discipleship that was happening. He was unpacking things so they could understand who the Father is, most importantly. And then he demonstrated the power of the kingdom of God. Matthew 12:28. He says, if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.
So the idea is this, because I'm casting out demons, because I'm healing the sick, the kingdom of God has come upon you, right? Matthew 10:7 already referred to as you go preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. But then verse 8 says this. Heal the sick, cast out demons, cleanse lepers, raise the dead freely. You've received freely. Give.
Now can I. May I submit to us that Jesus actually commanded his followers to do that.
It was a commandment. Sometimes we cherry pick what we think is relevant, like, oh yeah, preach the kingdom. Well, we don't even do that, do we? But secondly, in many instances. But what about the healing the sick, casting out demons, cleansing the lepers, raising the dead. I know we don't have much leprosy today. We still do in other countries, India and Africa. But we definitely see that Jesus demonstrated that in his ministry, didn't he? He went around doing good. Acts 10:38, healing all that were oppressed of the devil. For God was with him, anointed him with the holy Spirit and power. So this is the truth of what Jesus did when he was on the earth. And I want to just set the tone for us as God's people to begin to believe and contend with for the miraculous.
I believe we talk about miracles being normal, and I know that can be cliche. And we Go, yeah, miracles are normal. And then we're like. Even though I don't see them all too often.
Hang on a minute. Miracles are normal in the kingdom, and they were with Jesus, but are they with us?
Okay, so that's something we have to be honest about. Let's not just be honest, you know, glib and. And as I said, cliche. Oh, yeah, miracles are normal. Yep. Like, yeah, right. When was. What was the last one you saw?
Right. Oh, I got a. I got a car park today. That was a miracle. Yeah, okay, true. But, but, but let's talk about something that is impossible for man to do. Yeah, okay. So what is possible.
What is impossible for man is possible with God. So the word supernatural, even though we may not find it in the New Testament, actually speaks of the fact that God is above.
Okay? He's from the heavenly realm. And miracles happen right on earth. As it is in. So in heaven. We see literally that it's a place of utopia. It's a place of wholeness, of fullness, of the. Of the presence of God and his will being done. So really, really important. All right, a couple more scriptures here.
1 Corinthians 2, 4, 5. Paul says this. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration, demonstration of the spirit and of power. So in other words, it wasn't just to preach. There was power. It wasn't just a decree or a declaration. It was a demonstration. And then look at this. Watch this. Verse 5, that your faith should not be or rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
Now flip that for a moment. If all we are seeing is a preach, if all we're experiencing is a good preach, good teaching, but we're not seeing the demonstration of the kingdom of God, it seems that it actually feeds, that we put our trust or our confidence, our faith, he says, in the wisdom of men, but not in the power of God. Now, what do I mean by that? What I'm trying to say to us is that the normal New Testament way is to see the gospel confirmed with signs, wonders, and miracles.
And if we're not seeing the power of God manifested, then we are unwittingly promoting a form, a subtle form, albeit, of idolatry. What do I mean by that? There is nowhere in the Bible where we are called to look at people like, you know, oh, they're eloquent. Remember when the disciples were. It says, actually In Acts, chapter four, I believe it's number 13, it says that 12 or 13. It actually says there that when they saw, okay, the wisdom, right, of Peter and John and all of that, and it says who they were, not the wisdom, the boldness of Peter and John. It actually says they took note that they had been with Jesus. Now it says they noted this. These are unschooled, uneducated, ordinary people.
So it wasn't their education, it wasn't their eloquence, it wasn't their expertise.
It wasn't their Bachelor of Theology or their Master of divinity or their doctor of theology or their doctor of divinity or their PhD.
It was the fact that they had been with Jesus. They took notice that they had been with Jesus. Something is different about these guys. They remind us of someone. Who is it that they remind us of? And it's like, ah, I got it. Jesus.
They talk boldly like Jesus. They speak with confidence like Jesus did. And they did miracles like Jesus did.
And so there is so much more we could say about that. But ultimately, they were representing Jesus and they were replicating the ministry of Jesus.
So it wasn't just a good preach. It wasn't just contrary to the rabbis in that day, who were brilliant theologians, and contrary to the Greek orators in that day, who could wax eloquent and were brilliant in terms of rhetoric, these guys did not literally lean on any of these things. It wasn't about their theology, even though they knew the Word better than the Pharisees. It wasn't about their ability to preach, even though they stood up and proclaimed with boldness and confidently the word of God on many occasions.
See, it was about Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the power of God, the kingdom, being with them.
All right, let's look at another two verses. Romans, chapter 15, verses 18 and 19. Okay, I'm just teeing things up. Are you ready? I will not venture, Paul says, to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me.
What's he saying? He's saying I'm not going to preach when I'm not practicing already.
I'm not going to preach when I'm not practicing.
So what he's saying is that in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said, notice this. And done, said and done. And then by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit. So from Jerusalem all the way to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the Gospel of Christ.
I fully proclaimed the Gospel of Christ. Now, I want to point out something. Paul is referencing the Gospel not just in word, but in power, but in the original language. It does not Say I have fully proclaimed the Gospel of Christ.
What it says in the original New Testament language is I have fulfilled the Gospel of Christ.
In other words, the Gospel is not the full gospel unless there's miracles, unless it is a show and tell gospel. It's not just a gospel of talk.
1 Corinthians 4:20. The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.
The kingdom of God is not Logos, but Dunamis is. What Paul says there, it's not just a message, it's not just didactic, it's not just theology, but it's a demonstration of the miraculous Dunamis power of God unlike any other message, unlike any other religion. It is different because the power of God has, has been given by the Holy Spirit to demonstrate the kingdom of God so that people actually believe, who would not believe otherwise.
So the gospel is fulfilled only when it's preached with power and with signs and wonders.
It's not the full gospel if it's just words.
We need the scripture. We need sound biblical teaching. We are all about that. There's too many who lean the other way, who want to just have, you know, the manifestations. And some of them aren't even biblical manifestations. They're crazy manifestations that are not God.
But we don't want that. But we want the real, we want the legit.
We want to see people healed, we want to see marriages restored, people delivered and set free.
And the Gospel Paul said in Romans 1:16, For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes.
It's a word, it's a message that actually has power. Power unto salvation, power unto Soteria. The Greek word means, and we'll see as we go through this this morning what it actually means. It's powerful. And so I want to challenge you today. You might be in one ditch over here or you might be in one ditch over there. It's not just about, you know, certain manifestations and things happening. But it's not just the word. It's not just preaching. We need both. In fact, Jesus said in John 6:63, the words that I speak to you, they are spirit and life.
The words that he spoke literally were spirit and life. You could see the presence of God. And we're going to look here as we go on this journey of understanding what the Bible and the New Testament teaches in particular regarding the foundational precedent in Scripture for contending for the release of the power of the kingdom of God on the earth today. We're going to look at four different areas, but today we're going to focus on the first two. Number one, the compassion of God.
Jesus came to demonstrate the Father, the heart of the Father. Who was the Father?
Many people in that day had. It was literally like a caricature. There was a misrepresentation of who the Father was because the Pharisees misrepresented Him.
So Jesus came to say, no, no, no, no. You'll never understand the Father if you go to that church.
Hello, hello, hello, hello. You'll never understand who the Father is if you hang out with the Pharisees, is what Jesus was saying in John 5. He says, they neither know him nor make him known.
Whoa.
But the Father. I know who my Father is, and he knows who I am. Jesus said, whoa.
So this is all about understanding who the Father is. Do you know that? It's critical, it's indispensable that we understand who the Father is if we're going to see the activation of miracles.
It says in Galatians that faith works by love.
Faith works by love. What does that mean? It means if I go, God's good, He has compassion, then I'm going to expect him to do good things.
But I'm like, God's not in a good mood today. You know, he's bipolar. One day he's happy, one day he's not. Come on.
Like, honestly, that's the way we think about God sometimes, right? He's not an angry God. He's not a God that. Even though the Bible does say, let's balance it in Psalm chapter seven, he's angry with the sinners every day, okay? But those who are his children, who come under the blood, even when we mess up, we go to him in a sense of, oh, God, I thank youk, you're so merciful. And Lord, we don't use this as a license for immorality or sin. We recognize that because of who he is, we don't have to live in shame. We can come before him, and neither do we have to live in bondage. We don't cover up our lifestyles. We don't have a secret in our life, because in reality, we know we can bring it to him and he'll deal with it and he'll help us without condemning us.
That revelation will change everything.
So let's look at this. Every miracle and healing Jesus performed was motivated by his compassion, his great mercy.
See, throughout the Gospels, there are at least 14 references to Jesus having compassion on people.
At least 14 in each incident, there was an action that accompanied it.
He didn't just say, hey guys, I feel for you.
Have a great day.
Be blessed.
He did something, you know, when he showed compassion. One time it says he saw them as sheep without shepherd, right? And had compassion on them. So what did he do? He fed them. They were hungry. Very practical. Another time it says he had compassion on them. And guess what he did. He healed all who were sick.
On another time, it actually says this. He had compassion on them. So he taught them many things.
In other words, you guys are idiots. I need to teach you a few things.
In other words, you don't know anything. Let me teach you. But Lord, we thought, he's like, no, no, I have compassion on you. Let me teach you. Okay, so he was motivated by compassion, powerful. And we know that, like Matthew 14:14, Jesus went forth, saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them. He healed their sick. Mark, chapter one, verses 39 to 41. So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons. Again, not just preaching. Preaching in their synagogues, driving out demons. How many know that? If our theology doesn't line up with the word of God, guess what needs to change.
Many Christians try, they develop or they devise a theology to justify their lifestyle or their beliefs, or even what they don't say, well, I don't believe it, because this didn't happen to me, didn't happen to me. I prayed didn't occur. So therefore God must not be doing that anymore. We call them cessationists. But the reality is there are many Pentecostal charismatic cessationists today who actually, even though they will, give assent to the reality or the existence of the gifts of the Spirit. And yes, of course, miracles happen today. But we don't believe, we don't contend, we don't pray, we don't expect, and we don't operate in miracles.
So in Mark 1, he travels throughout Galilee, preaching in the synagogues, driving out demons. A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees.
He said this, if you are willing, if you are willing, you can make me clean.
Filled with. With compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. And he said, I am willing be clean.
I am willing be clean. There's another example.
In Mark, Chapter 9 is one place where you can find it. But it's also in the other two of the synoptic gospels. In Matthew and Luke, where Jesus was on the mount of transfiguration. He came down, and guess what? He Says he sees his disciples gathered with this Father who has a son. And depending on the account, it says that he had seizures. It said he'd throw himself in the fire. At times he tried to drown himself. But clearly it was actually a demonic spirit that was behind all of this. And so he runs to Jesus when Jesus comes down from the mountain with his other three disciples, and he says to him, I brought my son to your disciples.
And, you know, he needed healed, he needed delivered, but they weren't able to do anything.
And then Jesus rebukes them for their unbelief. You can read it. And then what ends up happening is he says this. The man looks at Jesus, he says, have compassion on us. If you can do anything.
Paraphrase. If you can do anything. Jesus said, if I can do anything.
If I can. So here in Mark, it's, are you willing?
Here in Luke, it's, are you able?
The answer is, he said, all things are possible for those who believe, who don't doubt, who believe.
And then he told us a secret to seeing miracles, particularly in Mark 11, 22, 24. We won't go into it deep today, but we'll just highlight this. That he said that you've got to believe in your heart that what you ask for is going to happen unless you ask contrary to God's will.
Obviously, we can get into that in the future, but the fact is, when you're praying according to the word and will of God, believe it, expect it.
You know what amazes me? How many people there are that will spend so much time and effort and energy fighting, contending, refuting that God does miracles today?
Well, yeah, God can do anything, but he seldom does.
Yeah. In your life.
Can I tell you, in my life, I see a lot of miracles, but there's a lot of miracles I'm not yet seeing. There's greater things that I want to see.
There's more, there's more, and I'm believing for more.
I don't want to justify what I'm not saying.
I want to lean in and receive and say, lord, why is it that I'm not experiencing that in my life? What is it about me that needs to come into alignment? Is it faith? Is it just what I see? Is it. I don't know. Do. Do we know all the answers? Absolutely not.
We don't know. Sometimes people. We know most people die. The Bible says is appointed unto man to die once and then judgment. We know that the great prophet Elisha, who had the double portion of Elijah's anointing died of a sickness. Absolutely. We can't necessarily go to the other extreme. We're not God. So we don't fully understand why sometimes our prayers aren't answered, why sometimes this happens. But what that does not mean is that we just go, oh, whatever shall be, shall be, Comme si, comme saw. No, not at all. We have to come to a place where we actually believe and expect. Jesus said, believe, believe, expect, expect. If you.
If you believe and you expect it, he said, all things are possible.
All things are possible. Let it happen. All right, let's look at one more verse here, one more portion of Scripture. Mark chapter three.
Jesus enters the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand. So they watched him closely whether he would heal him on the Sabbath so they might accuse him. And he said to the man who had the withered hand, step forward.
Then he said to them, he looks around because he knows what they're thinking, right? Oh, yeah, Jesus, you're going to heal this man. It's the Sabbath.
Like they're not. Isn't it interesting that they're not even doubting that Jesus can do it? It's like Jesus is going to heal this guy. Yeah, yeah. He does miracles. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, oh, it's the Sabbath. That's not right.
So he steps forward and he says to them, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save or to kill?
Now, I want you to notice something he didn't say, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do nothing, to save life or to not save life?
He actually used two terms that directly contradict and are the extreme antithesis in meaning.
So here you've got him saying, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good good, or should we do evil?
Is it lawful to save life or kill?
This wasn't just hyperbole. Jesus wasn't trying to capture them with some type of literary trap. He's actually challenging them to recognize something here.
So they're silent. So he looks around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, and he says to the man, stretch out your hand. He stretched it out, and his man was restored as whole as the other.
But see the significance of verse 4. Jesus says that if he refused to heal this man, it would be an evil act.
You know, the Bible says that Paul said that to him who knows to do good and doesn't do it, it's evil.
It says in Proverbs that if you have the Ability to do. To do good to someone, and you refuse to do it. It's evil.
Okay? So Jesus commissioned us as his disciples and said, I'm going to give you power. Go back to Luke chapter nine. He says, I give you power and authority. Cast out demons, heal the sick, do all these things, right? So he gives us power and authority. He's not going to ask us to do something if we're incapable of doing it. Now, we might have to learn some things about how to operate in our authority, how to release the power of the Holy Spirit. But the first thing that we have to be convinced of is the goodness of God.
We have to be convinced that he is a good God. And he wants to do these things because he cares for people.
He cares for you. He cares for what you're going through. He wants to give you the desires of your heart. He wants to answer your prayers. He wants to use you and me to manifest his power in the lives of others. And what I have seen. I remember just before COVID I was in Kenya, and we went out to a community. It's called Chuca. It's a university town. And I was ministering at Chuuka at a very large church that a friend of mine pastors. I'd met him years ago when we used to do massive crusades all over Africa. And what happened was he invited me in, and we saw these people, and we started praying for people.
I don't know if you guys realize this, but I wear glasses.
So do some of you. We're praying for people. And guess what? I saw at least 10 people that morning who were blind. Completely restored their vision.
Deaf people healed. Okay, I'm still wearing glasses, all right? But does that mean I'm like Smith Wigglesworth? Read his story. Some of the greatest miracles that happened in his life when he was acutely ill.
Kathryn Kuhlman as well. So we don't understand it all, guys, but we don't stop believing. Not for ourselves either. We need to believe for ourselves. I'm believing. I'm believing. I want to be healed. If it doesn't happen, oh, well. But I believe it's going to. And I'm not going to just sit back passively and we'll talk about what biblical faith really is, okay? Because many of us, we just sit back and go, hey, God, if you want to do it, you can do it. That's not faith.
The devil believes that God can do it. Yeah, yeah. Read James, chapter one. And he trembles. Demons believe God can do it, and they Tremble.
So the fact is, there's more to it. But some of the greatest miracles that I've seen have been just when I came with a sense of. I just knew the Father was willing, and I prayed with faith and expectation.
And I saw it happen.
We saw it happen. We've seen things recently as well, what we've been praying for. Guys. Believe it. Start praying with faith. Right?
Why pray when you can worry?
It's supposed to be the other way around.
Why worry when you could pray? Remember that. That song about.
It's all about Jesus coming before him in prayer and, you know, have we. Needless. What's the words? Help me out. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Come on. Right? Oh, needless pain we suffer. Oh, what needless pain we bear. Right? Do you remember that song? All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Yeah, it's old school, but it's true. Like, it's so old, I don't even know the words anymore. And I'm old.
No, not really.
But the point is, look, it's biblical.
Biblical. I'm coming to you. I'm casting my cares upon you. I'm believing. I'm asking. It's powerful. So compassion. He's merciful. He's compassionate. Secondly, not only the compassion of God, but the completeness of the gospel, or we could say the comprehensiveness of the gospel. Now, this is really powerful, guys. This has to do with covenant, understanding covenant. See, a lot of believers, a lot of followers of Jesus don't understand covenant. And if you don't understand how covenant operates, you'll always come out shortchanged.
How many want to learn about covenant?
Okay, so one of the most common misconceptions related to the gospel, that's really only concerned about our spiritual needs, right?
How many? If I had a dollar for every person that came to me and said, well, I want you to pray for this person or pray for my husband or pray for this. And I look at them and I go, what about you? And sometimes I really just sense it. Like the Lord says they have something they need healing for. And I say, what about you? Oh, I'm good. God knows it's not important. I'm like, oh, you think God, like, he just can't handle two things at once?
Like, really? Oh, it's not really that important. Mine's trivial. It's compared to. Compared to this need. And then what happens is we don't see God do these type of things.
And because we're not expecting him to do it, and it's like, well, this is just a small, menial, you know, maybe physical thing or whatever it may be, but that's not the gospel. Let's look at Matthew, chapter 8, verses 16 and 17. Are you guys ready? You want to see the two verses here that will destroy every argument about whether or not God wants to do miracles today. He does do miracles. Okay? This is in the life and ministry of Jesus. Watch this. When evening came, many who were demon possessed were brought to him. And look at this. He drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. Now, just a footnote here. When it says he drove out the spirits with the word, how many know there's two primary terms in the Greek language for word, right? Who knows what they are?
There's Lagos and there's what? Rhema, right? Those are hideous pronunciations. That's not how you say it in Greek, but we'll go with that because that's how we say it in English. Okay, so what do we teach people about the rhema is? The rhema is the what kind of word?
It's a spoken word, right? That's what we say, isn't it? And then we turn around and we say, but the Logos is by what? The written word. But guess what? Jesus healed the sick and drove out demons. Not with the rhema, with the Logos.
So what does that mean?
Right? What does that mean with the fullness of the word is this is a specific promise. This is God speaking right now into a specific situation. Jesus didn't go word of knowledge, word of knowledge, word of knowledge right now, Father. Oh, there's someone sitting over in that section. You've got this problem, this sickness, this disease, even though Jesus operated in the Word of Knowledge. And I'm not discrediting that because I. I've seen that happen many times. But what I'm telling you this is Jesus did not heal based on that. He healed based on the truth.
Watch this. Of the Word and who the Father is.
In the beginning was the Word, the Logos, and the Word was with God, the Logos and the Word. The Logos was God.
God is the Logos, the Logos is God.
So what did Jesus operate from? He operated from an understanding of what the Bible at that time, what the Father says and what's his will and intention.
So he operated from the expression of who God is and what he wants humankind to know. And what is that?
That he's good, he's merciful, he's powerful, that he cares for people and that he sent his son to not only die for our sins. But as we'll see, to die for sickness, to set us free, to deliver us. Are you ready?
Come on now. Let's get the sword of the spirit out.
Come on, let's get the sword out.
The sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Guess what term it is?
It's logos. It's not rhema.
There's two scriptures that contradict that teaching, right? Straight up.
Yes.
Check it out. Google it. Do whatever you have to. Bring out a concordance. You'll see what I'm saying is true.
All right, here's what he says. He drove out the spirits with word, healed all the sick. Why?
This was in a direct result of a word of wisdom and a word of knowledge that he received. No, this was to fulfill.
To fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah.
Lagos.
What? Isaiah says, jesus here. And of course, we've got Matthew quoting. He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases. So maybe. Maybe this wasn't actually Jesus who said this. Most commentators think this was Matthew's. And he was saying when Jesus was doing this, he was fulfilling what the prophet Isaiah said, which is he took up our infirmities and carried our diseases.
Now watch this. Where is that verse found in Isaiah? It's found in chapter 53, verse 4.
And interestingly, when you read it in the old Testament in chapter 53, verse 4, it does not say infirmities and diseases.
What?
It actually says Isaiah 53, 4. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.
Whoa, watch this. Okay, so we look at this here and we see Matthew says infirmities and diseases.
Isaiah says griefs and sorrows. So there's a seeming discrepancy here comparatively between these two accounts. But what I would like you to understand is there's no contradiction here. In fact, the Hebrew word for grief in Isaiah's text literally refers to being rubbed or worn. We'll send this out in the notes. Which can imply physical weakness, sickness or affliction. This is the primary concrete meaning in the Hebrew. But figuratively, it extends to being weak, sick or afflicted in a broader sense, not just physically, but emotionally or spiritually.
And causatively. It actually speaks of sickness that causes someone to struggle with anxiety and grief.
In other words, it includes the whole plight of humanity.
Someone is sick, they become weak.
Someone is sick, they struggle, someone is sick. And it doesn't just mean physically sick. It could be soul sickness as well, or spiritual sickness. It means that they sometimes deal with anxiety and grief.
So Jesus came To deal with the entire lot.
Whoa.
Come on.
Somebody better praise his holy name. Come on.
Ain't nobody done that for you.
Come on, now. Only Jesus. Only Jesus. He's so good. All right, you ready for this? Okay. Sorrows. The Hebrew word means to feel pain.
And it can mean literally or figuratively to feel pain. Could be spiritual pain, emotional pain, torment in your mind, physical, doesn't matter. So when Matthew is saying Jesus came to heal people, guess what, guys? When people who were tormented for years, sickness or unclean spirits in their life, guess what happens when they're delivered and set free? When they fully turn to Jesus, they get their mind back. Their emotions get healed. Physically, they're healed. Spiritually, they're healed, the whole thing. Well, so this is powerful. It speaks of Jesus going to the cross so that we can be healed in every way. Spiritually, physically, emotionally, psychologically, in every way. We can be completely healed. All right, I've already mentioned Romans 1:16. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. Paul said, it's the power of God unto salvation to all who believed. So the word salvation in the New Testament is soteria. This is a teaching day. Okay? Is that all good? This is teaching. This isn't so much preaching as his teaching. Okay. The word for salvation is soteria. There's another word that is a verb that we use and we're more familiar with. It's sozo. Okay. It's not sozo, by the way. It's sozo. There's like a D in there, just if you're technical and you want to know the right way to pronounce it. Okay, so what it actually speaks of that word sozo is used at least four different ways in the New Testament. You ready? Number one, Matthew 1:21. The angels appears to Mary and says, call him Yeshua Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. He will sozo them from their sins. So it speaks of the forgiveness of sins. Sozo. Number two, Luke 8:36. There was a man called a Gadarian who was severely demonized, and he was delivered and healed by Jesus. And it actually says that he was healed and they saw him, that he was whole or he was healed. And it refers to him being set free from these demons. Okay, James 5:15 speaks of physical healing, healing of sickness and disease. And it says, the prayer of faith shall sozo the sick.
So. So the sick. So it speaks of it. Okay, the last one is healing of the mind, healing of the psyche. How many know that's real, right? It Is real. And listen to this. James 1:21. He's saying this. You need to receive with meekness the implanted word which is. Listen to what he says, which is able to save your souls. This implanted word is able to. Are you ready? Sozo your suke.
It's able to sozo your psuke.
What is psuke?
Psyche. Psychological.
So the word is able to heal your mind, able to heal your emotions, able to heal you of whatever you know. Even if you have addiction or you just have, you know, just this strong desire to live a certain way, think a certain way, you know. And you say, I was born that way. No. The word of God is able to sozo your thinking, affections, emotions, desires, and realign you so that you're in sync with what God wants.
Wow.
So it's a healing, the entire person. In fact, we'll close with this.
The word soteria, the noun salvation. If you research this, you'll see it's true. It was quite commonly used more so in pre New Testament times.
And it was translated this way. Or the implication was this. You ready? So turiya means this freedom from someone or something that's harassing you.
Salvation is freedom from someone or something that's harassing you.
Wow.
Jesus came. I'm not ashamed of the Gospel. For it's the power of God unto Soteria. Freedom from anything and everything that's harassing you.
Can we just look at one more passage? This is not in the notes, but you got to see this because I want to show you how it's used. Go to Luke chapter one.
John the Baptist. Daddy.
He was a priest. His name was Zacharias.
You know what? He couldn't speak, right? Because he was out of turn and he was out of line. So he couldn't speak for a while, but finally his voice was restored.
And he prophesied in Luke chapter one about Jesus, about Messiah Yeshua, when he was like coming. And this is what it starts. In verse 67 of Luke chapter 1, it says, and his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied.
Wow. Would you love that?
Okay. And then he goes on. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel. He's visited and redeemed his people. Watch this. Verse 69. He's raised up a horn of salvation for us, OK? In the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from old. Watch this, watch this. Verse 71. That we might be saved from our enemies and from the hands of all who Hate us so, Turia, that we be saved from our enemies and the hand of all who hate us, the people.
Not that God's going to kill them, but circumstances, things, Satan, sin, sickness.
That we can be saved from that. Okay, now watch this. Verse 74 and 75. Watch this closely, please.
That we being delivered from the hand of our enemies.
Whoa.
Might serve him without fear.
Verse 75. How often? In holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
Whoa.
Somebody needs to get slain in the spirit right now.
I want to read that again.
That we would be delivered from the hand of our enemies. Why? So we might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
So good.
Such a good father. Such a good God. So the first two foundational elements of stepping into a life where we begin to anticipate and even dream again for the restoration of. Of God's promises. Believing for answered prayer and to see miracles take place. Is number one, to know his goodness, to understand who he is, his compassion, his goodness? Yeah. He's willing and he's able. Okay, Number two. To understand the comprehensiveness of the gospel. Or we could say the character of the gospel. The gospel is all about healing the entire person, bringing restoration. In fact. In fact, I want to add number five. Are you ready?
Do you know when Jesus told us that we are to pray, you know, that we would be. What's the word? Deliver us from evil. Right. Okay. When he said deliver us from evil or the evil one, some translations say. Do you know that word evil actually has. If you go back, it's derived from two other words.
The first, the one word is this pain.
So deliver us not only from evil, like doing bad, evil things. Yes, but deliver us from pain.
Panas. And deliver us. Are you ready? From this poverty penance.
Deliver us from evil, Lord. Deliver us from pain. Is that not what.
Who prayed that? The Jabez, right? Yeah.
And deliver me from poverty.
I don't like poverty because there's a lot of things I think God wants to do to help people, to take the gospel, to see people that are struggling. You know, the Bible says, don't muzzle the oxen, right. While it's treading grain.
Can you imagine the oxen thinking, like, where's my next meal coming from?
That's how many of us live, right? No, some of us live. No, no, no. Guys, can we believe in a God who says he's good, he's compassionate, faith works by love and believe what the scripture says and get a revelation of it and begin to contend for it, it's not about the stuff, it's not about that, but it's about just having the resource to do what God's called us to do and to reach people, to bless people, share the gospel and so on. Amen.
[00:56:47] Speaker B: Thank you for joining us. We hope that you enjoyed today's podcast and we realize that not everyone has had the opportunity to respond to the good news of the Gospel. And for this reason, in all of our services and platforms, we want to extend to you the opportunity to follow Jesus. The Bible teaches us that we have been created for a relationship with God. However, sin, which is essentially disobedience, independence and disbelief, or us simply missing the mark, entered the world and separated us from God. Romans 6:23 says that the wages of sin is death and a debt was owed. And the Bible tells us that he, Jesus demonstrated his love for us, that while we were still sinners, he died for us. Jesus paid the penalty for our sin. John 3:16 says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God so loved the world that he gave us Jesus that whoever believes in him will be saved. All that is required of anyone is that they believe in Jesus, the Son of God who came, lived, died and rose again so that we could be forgiven, made right and given the right to become children of God and to have life forevermore with Him.
Today you can begin a relationship with Jesus. To believe in him is to simply to respond with faith in our hearts and confess with our mouths that he is Lord. And we do that through a simple prayer.
Follow along with me Dear Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God. I thank you that you love me and came to forgive me of my sin. I repent from my old way of life and I turn to follow you. I receive the free gift of eternal life and I ask that you fill me with the Holy Spirit so that I can live a life of following after you. I thank you that I am born again as a child of God and that I am a new creation in Christ Jesus. Amen. If you prayed this prayer for the first time, we would love to connect with you and connect you to your next step and the local church in your area. You can contact us on our website at NUMA Church. Thanks for listening.
