The True Jesus: Authority To Heal

We ended Luke chapter 6 with the issue of whether or not Jesus really is our master.  If he is our master then we will live our life as His teachings direct.  Chapter 7 then starts with may at first appear to just be another healing story.  Don’t get me wrong.  Jesus does heal someone.  But, there is more being taught here than that Jesus could heal.

Jesus was not just a so-called “healer” who was somehow operating slightly above the level of a snake-oil salesman.  Neither was he a complete fake who was feeding off of the gullibility of a backward people.  People have always been gullible.  But it is in accounts such as these, that we see aspects that demonstrate that Jesus wasn’t a charlatan.  Here we see that Jesus demonstrating that he is Lord of creation and has the authority to command healing at will.  This may bring up the question of why He doesn’t then do more commanding of miracles.  Let’s look at the passage and establish His authority first.

The Request Of Intercession

In verses 1-7 we see that this is initiated by others coming up to Jesus in a city of northern Israel called Capernaum.  Rome had troops stationed throughout all of Israel and Capernaum was no exception.  A centurion would be an officer in charge of up to 100 men.  So there is no reason to expect some kind of collusion between him and Jesus.  This centurion has demonstrated a love for the Jewish people but we are not told his religious “status” with the rabbis of Israel.  Is he a convert, a proselyte, or just generous?  Whatever his status he paid enough attention to what was going on in Israel that he had heard of Jesus.  When a servant that was very dear to him was about to die, the centurion does what he can to find Jesus and ask him to heal the servant.  Now in this story the centurion asks some Jewish people to talk to Jesus first.  This is a great story illustrating intercession.

Intercession is to ask something for the sake of another out of love.  The word basically involves 3 parties: the one in need, the one who can help, and the one who goes to get the helper.  Intercession at its heart is a person serving as a mediator on behalf of another.  It is the servant who is in need.  However we have several layers of mediators.  The Jews mediate for a gentile centurion.  There are friends who also mediate for the centurion.  Lastly, although it is not clear in this telling, it seems from Matthew’s account of this story that the centurion himself speaks with Jesus in the end.  Each of these layers demonstrate an affinity or love of the other person.  The centurion cares about the servant.  The friends and the Jews probably don’t know the servant, but they do care about the centurion.  Now I point this aspect out because the Bible warns us that in the last days people will be lovers of themselves.  Thus we can use intercession as a type of barometer.  Do I pray?  And, when I do, how much of it is praying for others because I care about them?  If most of my praying is only for myself, then most likely I am being molded by the spirit of this age to love myself.  It is not wrong to pray for yourself, but we need to pay attention to this aspect.  Do I have a love for others that drives me to my knees in order to pray to God for them?

The first layer of mediators is the Jews.  They approach Jesus with some reasoning for why He should heal the man’s servant.  He is a worthy man.  They press it home by pointing out his love for the Jewish people and how he had even given money to build a synagogue.  Now before I diminish the reasoning of these Jews, let’s note that it is not the centurion who thinks he is worthy.  This is an important part of intercession.  Often, people don’t think they are worthy of God’s notice.  Or, they think that God doesn’t care about them.  Intercession is powerful because it uses the worth that they have to us, to propel us into prayer on their behalf.  However, we must be careful and not confuse their value to us with their value to God.  Yes, the centurion has shown love to God’s people and has benefitted them.  It only seems right that they should benefit him back in some way.  Yet, the centurion knows himself.  In verse 6 and 7 he states that he is not worthy.  This beautiful picture would really have been ruined if he had an attitude that he was worthy and Jesus owed Him a miracle.  Intercession can never be about demanding something and making our best case as to why God must do something.  Rather, it is a reenacting of the beauty of God’s heart that gets His attention.

Jesus does not address the worthiness issue.  He could have.  Instead he lets it drop.  However, the teaching of Christ and the apostles is that Jesus is the only one who is worthy to receive anything from God.  No one, but Jesus, is worthy of anything from God, in and of themselves.  Paul talks about his ability to be used powerfully as an apostle in 2 Corinthians 3:5, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.”  Thus, the Jews did not convince Jesus to come heal the servant by their reasoning.  Rather, they helped convince him by demonstrating that they had a heart like his.  Jesus is the ultimate intercessor and mediator.  God’s heart was so broken over the lostness of mankind that His Son comes to earth in order to intercede and mediate with the Father for man.  This wave after wave of intercessors compels Jesus to give the request, a healing. 

If we are blessed by God it is not because we are worthy, but only because we are believing on the only One who is The Worthy One.  All the money that helped build a synagogue for the Jews would be later destroyed.  It is doing them no good today.  All the love and well-wishing he had for them would do no good to stop the tragedies that lay ahead.  In a material and temporal sense, the centurion’s gifts were wasted and of little value.  But in a spiritual sense they were of great value.  Through them a heart was revealed that believed there was something more to the religion of this people called the Jews.  Through them a heart was revealed that wanted to bless what God was doing.  Through them a heart that believed was revealed, which is of eternal value to God.  God’s heart is about taking those who are far removed from Him and bringing them close.  This centurion was right in thinking that he was a nobody when it came to asking the Messiah of Israel for a healing.  But, good news!  That is exactly who Jesus is looking for.  He is looking for some nobodies.

The Power Of Christ To Heal

If Jesus is famous for anything it is the miracles of healing.  But this passage reveals something deeper about the ability Jesus had to heal.  First, of all it is not by coincidence that the centurion tells Jesus to just “say the words.”  In the Bible the Word of God is everything.  In fact in John 1 it is revealed that Jesus is the ultimate Word of God.  Thus it really is the Word of God that heals.  We must never forget this.  You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.  The Word of God is Truth.  The centurion doesn’t know that Jesus is the eternal Word of God.  But he does understand the power of authority.  When a general gives a command the centurions obey.  When the centurion gives a command the legionnaires obey.  Thus the Father spoke the Son into the world and that Word is not done.  He came first to heal the wound of sin.  But He will come again in order to remove the scourge of sin through judgment.  Yet, even that judgment is a completion of the healing of the creation.  He must remove that sin and those sinners who refuse to be healed.  The primary purpose in all that God says and does is to give life of which healing is a subcategory.  Even when God’s Word speaks judgment it is so that we will see our need of healing.  This truth is everywhere in Scripture.  God’s Word doesn’t just heal physical problems.  It is the answer to every situation and problem, if we have eyes to see and ears to hear.  Does this idea get abused by some religious people?  Sure.  But what does that have to do with the Truth?  You hear the Truth and embrace it.

Next, we see that Jesus has the authority to heal.  Authority is sometimes translated as power because of the close relationship.  The word here specifically means that Jesus not only has the ability to heal, but that he is free to do so.  He has the right to heal.  Thus Jesus is unique in this area.  He alone has the authority to heal on command.  Even those who have the spiritual gift of healing technically do not have such authority as Jesus did.  Rather, we have the authority to point people to Jesus who does have power to save and heal.  When we point people to Jesus the Holy Spirit will quite frequently come and reveal this saving and healing power.  Thus pastors and teachers do not have the Truth in and of themselves.  The best they can do is point you to the One who does and that is Jesus.  When pastors faithfully point people to the True Jesus the Holy Spirit will be there working to open their eyes and encourage belief.  However, We have the right and authority to share the Truth of who Jesus is with everyone.  The world will challenge us on that.  Even some Christians are beginning to dream up reasons why certain people shouldn’t be evangelized.  However, no matter what man says, our authority is from God Himself.  You be the judge should we obey man or God?

Notice here that faith is centered on Jesus, the One who can heal.  Today, in our desire to get Jesus to do something, we can be a lot like the Jews in this story.  We can do all manner of things in order to be worthy enough to get a healing.  But this is not what gets God’s attention.  Such motivations is what has led people to focus more on believing that the healing will happen rather than Jesus can heal on command.  Thus the miracle becomes the object of our faith instead of Jesus.  Another step away from Jesus is when we actually focus our faith on our faith itself.  This happens when we teach people that they didn’t have enough faith to be healed.  It is possible to not have faith.  But we should be talking about faith in Jesus.  People end up trying to work up some mystical powerful faith that will get them healed on demand.  We need to get back to the simplicity of this story.  A man in need, with friends helping him, intercedes with Jesus for healing.  The rest is up to Jesus.  If He says, “my grace is sufficient for you,” then we need to trust Him and leave it at that.  Thus there are two tensions in our day.  Some refuse to believe that miracles can happen today.  Notice even that statement is not focused on Jesus.  Can Jesus still heal today?  Can the Creator of the universe still create?  Of course He can.  Then healing and miracles can still occur.  We need to be using the rights that Christ has given us to point people to Jesus as their answer for sin, and sickness.  Yet, others have abused this area and turned it into a ludicrous show.  Through sleight of hand, crowd manipulation, bad interpretation of Scripture, and other means, some have abused this area of healing.  Put your faith on Jesus not the healing.  Put your faith on Jesus not your own faith.  Walk forward in trust and Jesus will give you all that you need.  Believe that.

Authority to Heal Audio

The Holy Spirit in Prayer

Today we are going to look at ways in which the Holy Spirit helps us in prayer.  I would first like to remind us that in Luke 10:1 it says that Jesus told a parable to teach his disciples that they ought to always pray and never give up.  We all have found that this is easier said than done.  We easily weary of prayer, especially when we don’t think it is helping.  Our flesh fights against this spiritual work of communicating with the God of Heaven.  We need to recognize the source of this resistance and not let it win out in the end.

He Helps Our Weaknesses

Let’s look at the passage in Romans 8:26-27.  Here we are told that the Holy Spirit helps us in our weaknesses.  This is in keeping with the description that Jesus gives of Him in John 14-16.  He is called The Helper repeatedly.  We need help because we have weak areas in our life.  Like children who need the help of parents, so we need the help of God’s Spirit to do what we couldn’t without Him.

In this passage we are told that one way the Holy Spirit helps us is by interceding for us.  There are times in prayer when we just don’t know how to pray or for what to pray.  We can be at a loss for words and yet still grieving inside.  Now this passage in Romans 8 has earlier spoken about the whole creation groaning for the curse to be removed and believers groaning for the resurrection.  Here the groan has to do with a situation we want to pray about but are too weak to do so (physically or intellectually).  It can be difficulties in relationships, or wisdom for direction.  In either case we need help.  This passage talks about the Spirit making intercession for us with “groaning which cannot be uttered.”  What we see here is the truth that the Spirit is able to “interpret” our groaning heart.  In fact, the wording implies that Spirit Himself is groaning.  The picture seems to be that it is in actuality the Spirit Himself who groans through us before the Father.   Now God knows the heart and why it groans, whether the groan is saying, “come quickly, Lord,” or “Lord, I am hurt.  Please heal me!”

So, you may feel like a time of grieving before the Lord is useless, but it God doesn’t really need our words.  He is quite capable of understanding what our heart is feeling without those words.  By yielding to God in these times we can co-labor with the Holy Spirit to communicate though it feels like we are not.

He Helps By Giving Us The Words To Say

Just as the Holy Spirit can interpret our lack of words, so He also helps by supplying us words to say.  We see this in Galatians 4:6, “Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’”

Just as important as what we pray for is how we pray.  Here we see that as children of God we approach God as a Father.  In fact the Spirit is working within us to give us the understanding and terminology that God is our Father.  He helps us understand our true position before God, which releases words that God longs to hear from His children.  Paul is speaking to people who had been slaves under the law of God.  But because of Jesus things have changed.  The Spirit had to help them take hold of this internally and vocally.

Another way in which the Holy Spirit supplies words is in the area of Tongues.  In Acts 2:4 it says, “And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”  The Spirit is the source of true speaking in tongues.  In Scripture we see several things in this area.  First, at the Day of Pentecost, we see that the Spirit supplied language that the people hadn’t learned, but was understood by those around them.  This miraculous supply of language clearly demonstrates the power and enabling of the Holy Spirit.  By His help they proclaimed the wonders of God to people in their “heart languages.”

Another thing we see in Scripture is that sometimes the Spirit supplies a language that no one around you knows.  Paul says that the Spirit will also supply an interpretation of the Word that was spoken.  Because it is in a public setting it needs to be interpreted.

A third situation is when a believer is in a private situation and speaks in tongues.  Paul talked about praying with his mind (understanding the words) and praying with his spirit (not understanding the words, speaking in tongues).  There was no need to interpret the language because you are by yourself and you know that God knows what your heart is saying.  This is an encouraging act by which we partner with the Holy Spirit to allow Him to pray through and for us.  The Bible says that through it we can build our self up in faith.

He Helps by Helping Us Repent

This last area is important to remember precisely because our weakness involves our fight against the flesh and sin.  In Zechariah 12:10 God says, “I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of Grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced.  Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.”  Here God promises Israel a time when He will help them repent.

He does so by pouring out the Spirit of Grace and Supplication.  This is clearly the Holy Spirit.  However, different descriptors are used of Him.  Grace is similar to the word favor.  As in, “Noah found grace [favor] in the eyes of the Lord.”  It is an action based upon a feeling within God.  What is interesting is that the word for “supplication” is built off the same root as the word Grace.  It literally means to cry out for Grace.  Thus God says He will pour out the Spirit of Grace and “Crying out for Grace.”  Even when we are so lost that we don’t know what to do, God helps us by sending the Spirit which helps us to cry out for grace, Help!  In this context they will see their sin and its effects.  It will cause them to mourn and yet, because God’s Spirit helps them, they will cry out for mercy and grace.

Repentance is not just for the Gentile nations, nor is it just for the Lost.  Repentance is the very path we walk on to come to God.  When we were lost and prayed the “sinner’s prayer,” we only walked through the door of hope.  But believers dare not leave repentance behind them.  Rather, it becomes the life-blood of our relationship with God.  The Spirit leads us in recognizing our sins and repenting of them before God.

Final Thoughts

Though we may often feel “too busy,” God’s Spirit is daily working to help us in prayer.  So take time to see how He is doing that and grow in learning to cooperate with Him.

Also, prayer is more than saying things to God.  It is an intimate expression of our heart to God AND His heart to us.  So we need to take time to listen and meditate before the Lord.  Don’t be afraid of times of silence.  Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.

Holy Spirit Prayer audio