Changed by Christ

(God can take these lessons I’ve taught in the past and still use them to help me and others.  This was a Sunday School class April 15, 2007.)

 Do you want to get well?

Today I want to address the subject of healing, emotional, physical, mental healing form the perspective of the individual needing healing.

When we go to the doctor, usually because our wives made us go, we do it because we are sick.  The doctor makes what is called a diagnoses, she has to diagnose us.

Once the diagnosis is made, we are normally prescribed something to do or take. 

If we follow through with the plan we are usually cured or healed from the issue.  Often times instruction is made to change our lifestyle so that this event doesn’t happen again or that its reoccurrence is minimized.

That’s all fine and good, but what does that have to do with this class?

Let’s open the Bible to a few short examples of healing and let’s see where this can take us.

Someone read for me John 5:2-9.

1. Do you want to get well?  Many people don’t want to get well, they are comfortable and have made accommodations for their issue.  If we assume this a sin, they’ve justified it in their minds as not really a sin or no one will find out about it.  So they’re comfortable with it.  If it’s something like anger or bitterness they are holding in, some people want to be angry with others.  It gives them an excuse to avoid that person, talk and gossip about that person and never have to confront the issue (usually pride).  You get the point, I mean I don’t go to the doctor unless something is really wrong and I can’t find the symptoms on the internet.  So too spiritually I often avoid taking my concern to Jesus because I am comfortable NOT dealing with my struggle.

2.  The next verse it sounds like the man is simply whining about no one helping him.  Many of us get stuck in a rut and sit there comparing our lives with others, “He gets away with it so why can’t I?” “It’s not fair that this man lives like that and seems so much happier.” And sometimes we enjoy the crutch that it gives us, we can always point that that event and say, “I am not succeeding because of this!” It’s how we justify sitting there complaining about others.

3.  Not bothered by that, Jesus gives the man a direct command and tells him to get up and take his mat and walk.  The man had to do exactly what Jesus told him to do, he gets up and takes up his mat and walks.  It is very important about taking up the mat.  I compare that to removing all temptation to go back.  If the man left his mat there, he might be tempted to sit back down on it when he’s going through another pity party.  (Expand on this regarding often times we leave a placeholder for our sin, our comfort zone that is really a trap of Satan)

So that’s the first healing I’d like for us to see.  We have to decide that we want to get well and we have to actually do what is commanded of us.  We have to be so sick of the symptoms and the struggle, that we will do whatever it takes to get rid of it.

The second healing I want us to look at is in Mark 10:46.  Someone read that for us.

This is my favorite story of a healing.  We can learn so much about how we should respond to Jesus by watching this man, Bartimaeus. 

1.  He recognized that the way of deliverance was walking by, he already knew he wanted to be healed and he made it known very loudly.  If you are struggling in some area of your life, be in spiritual, financial, emotional, sin, etc.  You must first recognize that the deliverer is right there!  You need to know that, or you will be stuck there.

2. People will try to shut you up to block your blessing.  No one wants to be around a Jesus Freak.  No one wants to be friends with someone who always has praise on their lips or a prayer out of their mouth.  People don’t want you to be blessed or healed, because they are comfortable in the same area in their lives.  If you get blessed and delivered, then they are going to have to hear about it all the time and they will have to deal with their struggle.  These people would rather you continue to suffer, than to deal with their struggles. 

3.  He did not let them silence him and cried out louder.  Then the phonies who were trying to silence you are now faking that they are happy for you.  “Oh get up, rejoice, he’s calling for you.”  Those phony bolognas are probably jealous and angry that it’s not them, but they’ll smile in your face and say, “Praise God.”  Be careful of those around you hindering your blessings.

4.  Again we see that this man throws off his cloak.  According to what I was taught, which might be wrong, this cloak would be a symbol of his blindness and begging status.  By throwing it off, he was technically throwing off his livelihood.  He was willing to give up everything because he expected to be totally healed, what faith!  (Again expanding on getting rod of the labels and the past placeholder for sin in your life.)

5. Jesus asks, “What do you want me to do for you?”  I am sure Jesus knew the man was blind and knows what he wanted.  We need to get to the point where we don’t hide our struggle, but we name it and claim it so we can give it to God and get rid of it.  Just like with the doctor, you don’t go in there with a broken arm and talk about your foot?  No, what do you need Jesus to do for you today?  What is it that is causing you to struggle and hurt?

6.  Finally, we see what the man did; he began to follow Jesus on the way.  He knew that this miracle was a changing point in his life.  He wanted to get up and get away from the slump he was in and move on with Jesus. 

This is the picture of true healing, getting up from our crippled and broken state and allowing Jesus to heal us, spiritually, emotionally, physically… you and I can’t keep running from the things we know are causing us to miss out on the fullness of God’s blessing in our lives. 

I included two other stories in the handout, but I’ll just leave this lesson at this point.  We, especially myself included, need to get to a point where we are sick and tired or being sick and tired of where we are in life.  We need to go to the Master and name it out loud to Him and ask for healing.  We need to follow Him in the way and do what He asks us to do so we can remain bondage free. 

Does anyone have any questions or comments on today’s lesson?

Anyone have any prayer requests?

God Bless you.

Handout

You go to the doctor because you are ____________.

In order for the doctor to help you, he has to __________________ you.

The doctor _______­­­­­­___________ something for you to do or take.

If we follow this plan, we are normally healed from the issue.  Often we have to

_______________ our lifestyle in order to prevent or minimize this from happening again.

John 5:2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” 7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

 8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

Jesus asks, “Do you ____________ to get well?”

Man can be seen as a complainer. 

Jesus gives him a direct _________________ and the man is healed.

Mark 10:46 Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus), was sitting by the roadside begging. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48 Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

49 Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” 50 Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. 51 “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” 52 “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.

He ________________ that the way of deliverance was walking by him.

People will try to _____________ you up to block your __________________.

“Rabbi, I want to ____________.”

John 9:1 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

Mark 5:25 And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, 26 And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, 27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. 28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. 29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.