PILLARS 16 - Heaven on Earth Part 3: Christ Our Healer (Is 53.1-6)

We’ve been talking about heaven on earth.  How when the King of heaven comes to live IN our hearts, we can experience the reality of heaven right here, right now.  The Kingdom of heaven in us - and showing out thru us - every day. Lighthouses of living hope. Because Jesus Christ, risen from the grave and living in us is the hope of glory.  Through Him we’re reborn to a hope that is real and lasting - and it’s backed by heavenly Holy Spirit transformation.  Metamorphosis.  Epiphany.  Thru the resurrection power of Jesus.

Now sometimes heaven on earth sounds too good to be true.  Christ is our Savior/Sanctifier, but Heaven is a distant dream. Right now, life is a fog of brokenness.  The bed of roses is full of thorns.  Surely the thorns of life are never so close that Jesus is not closer still.  He wore a crown of thorns, lugged that cross up Calvary’s hill - for you.  And you know what else He carried? [Is. 53:3-5  …a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief… Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried… and by His stripes we are healed.]  As He climbed up that hill and onto that cross, forsaken by friends AND family, He carried our sorrows.  He bore our sins, yes, but He also bore our griefs.  And by His scourging, by His stripes, we are healed.  Christ is our Healer.

Broken hearts.  Old hurts.  Relationships.  But the Hebrew literally says, He lifted our sicknesses.  He carried our pains.  Some versions prefer to choose words that sound less physical.  Why do they do that?  Does Jesus only come to help us with sin and sadness?  What about physical healing?  Does Jesus do the supernatural today?  Miracles.  Signs and wonders.  The world normally defaults to natural solutions.  “Scientific explanations”.  But even some Christians insist that miracles have ceased.  That once the Scriptures were complete, God pretty much stopped doing wonders.  Really? [Got a hold of a copy of the book, Heavenly Man, and read first-hand accounts of what God is doing today...]  What do you think?  Is a wonderful impossible no longer possible?  Is “super-natural” some overhyped oxymoron?  A thing of the past?

It’s possible that the NAS/ESV translators who changed the Hebrew to sound less supernatural perhaps were concerned about endorsing the [excesses].  The name-it-claim-it folks.  The ones who say, if you have enough faith, God is guaranteed to make you healthy AND wealthy. Mark 9:23 And Jesus said to him, “‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.”  The LIE says, if YOU have ENOUGH faith God WILL do a miracle for you.  The danger is that we turn faith into a [work]. Mark 10:27 Looking at them, Jesus *said, “With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.” 

Faith.  All things ARE possible.  But not everyone gets a miracle.  Hebrews chapter 11, [heroes of the faith].  Some saw great miracles.  And some never saw a miracle, never even saw God’s promises fulfilled [Heb 11.36-38 Others experienced mockings and scourgings, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.].  Sometimes the journey of faith involves loss.  Loss of health or freedom, or possessions.  In fact the journey of faith begins with loss: Matt. 16:25 “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”  Look at Paul - in prison.  Stephen, so many others - executed.  Even Jesus - more faith than anyone. In the garden, asking His Father IF a miracle is possible: Matt. 26:39 He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, IF it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” Did He get a miracle?  Maybe not the one He was hoping for: Luke 22:43 Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him.  As those who trust in Christ we do look to a guaranteed future reward [Heb. 11:25-26 By faith Moses…chose rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward.].  But Jesus never doubted what God could do today: Matt. 26:53 “Or do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?”  Just because we don’t SEE a miracle doesn’t mean that God can’t do one.  Nor does it even mean we don’t get one.

What is it that demonstrates our faith?  Asking.  Asking is the primary means by which the supernatural shows up in our world.  Have you ever noticed the language Jesus uses in connection with prayer?  Matt. 21:22 “And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”  Limitless!  Never underestimate the power of prayer.  James 4:2 You do not have because you do not ask.  And never underestimate the importance of corporate prayer.  Matt. 18:19  “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.”  

And as we ask, whatever we see, miracle or no, we thank the Lord.  Thanking Him reinforces faith.  And it brings Him in to our situation.  Cuz life is full of challenges to faith.  Joy stealers. [James 1:2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. 1Thess 5.16-18 Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.]  But joy and grateful prayer go together.  Never underestimate the power of gratitude, nor the miracle of the joy that God gives, even in trials.  God, this hurts, this is hard, but I thank You - You are in control, You know what You are doing, and You are going to work this for good [Rom. 8:28  God works all things together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.].  Lord, I may not know Your purpose here, but I trust You.  THIS kind of prayer and heart gratitude brings heaven down to earth, pours it out into and through my life.  Couldn't we say that even the promise of God's presence with us in the midst of trials is in fact a miracle? [Psa. 34:18  The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.]  Truth be told, heroic faith isn’t about miracles - it’s about trusting in the God of the impossible even/especially when that feels impossible..  When it’s hard to even see Him.  Trusting that He IS able.

Some came to Jesus looking for a miracle. What’s in it for me? Some came looking for signs. The sad testimony of Jesus’ hometown is they saw NO miracles because of their unbelief.  They are marked out forever because of what they believed Jesus could NOT do.  The LIE says, God can’t do that. God forbid that we should be ones who are marked by what we think the Lord cannot (or will not) do.

And the world is DYING for a glimpse.  Those around us, those who are standing away from the Lord, they desperately need a glimpse of what God CAN do.  What the world probably doesn’t need to see is how grateful I can be when life IS that bed of roses.  Anyone can be happy in seasons of plenty.  OF course a miracle might get their attention.  But absent that, it’s the hard things, seasons of trials, when life deals us a curveball and God gives endurance and His people keep on trusting Him - these are the times when grateful faith gets to shine.  [Matt. 5:14  “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.”]

Can God heal today?  Can He do miracles today?  Does He?  Here at HF, the Alliance, we believe God still does work miracles.  We won’t make that the focus, but we believe in asking God to do the supernatural.  Again, [James 4:2b You do not have because you do not ask.][James 5:14,16  Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord…pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.].  Prayer for healing is commanded in the New Testament.  And today stories abound of [supernatural] things that God is still doing.  We DO aspire to be a Christ-centered Acts 1.8 family.  You WILL receive power, Jesus said.  But it’s His power.  He does the work.  And ultimately, the point of talking about Christ our Healer is to point people to Christ.  Miracles always point to the God Who works miracles.  And He has chosen to build His kingdom and show off His greatness in and thru the hearts and lives of those who trust in Him, for better OR worse.  THAT is Heaven on earth.  Will we trust Him today?  Will you?

At age 19, Yassir Eric, living in Sudan, was a radicalized Muslim. He had memorized much of the Quran and was militant in his hatred of Christians—indeed, of anything that was not in conformity to the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood. But then Yassir met a missionary at a hospital where Yassir was visiting his sick uncle in Sudan. The missionary had come to pray for a sick child. Yassir asked him why he had bothered to come since the child had little chance of living. Yassir was puzzled. Misled by extremist propaganda, he didn’t think Christians prayed or even believed in God. He watched as the missionary prayed and then to his astonishment, observed the young boy open his eyes and move his hands as life reappeared. “In that day, the Lord opened my eyes,” Yassir recalled.

PILLARS 15 - Heaven on Earth Part 2: Epiphany (2Corinthians 3.13-18)

We’re looking at Heaven, not the physical place per se as much as the eternal relationship with God, Who made everything, and created us, all people, in His image, to enjoy a personal relationship with Him, to enjoy Him, forever.  That is heaven.  Knowing Christ - Better than anything else on earth.  HE is the Destination.  He is the There AND the Way to get there.  Christ is our Savior - He saves us, rescues us from the death penalty of sin, His death the only way to get to heaven.  It’s a gift we receive by faith.  Nothing we can do to earn it - and nothing we can do to lose of it.  This (Christ Our Savior) is the first of the 4 pillars which are the distinct emphases of the CMA - and pretty much every evangelical Christian church believes this.  All other religions believe you need to work your way to paradise - sadly so do some supposedly Christian churches: you work your way to heaven, and you’ve got to work to stay there [Phil 2.12-13]. [Rom 8.30?]

Christ is also our [Sanctifier]. To sanctify means to make holy.  Christ comes to earth and literally comes into our lives to make us more like Him.  We talked about how the presence of God turns any place into paradise, makes it sacred.  When the Lord comes to dwell in my heart, any where can be heaven on earth [1Cor 6.19].  My life becomes a sacred outpost of heaven.  We talked about this: the Kingdom of heaven is IN you.  AND the Kingdom comes out - the values of heaven, the business of heaven…

[Gal 2.20] is both motivational [a la "I am with you always"], AND transformational.  Consider: when Christ came to earth physically, it inspired a holiday called [Epiphany].  A revealing.  January 6, it’s the conclusion to the 12 days of [Christmas].  Epiphany.  It’s a festival - aka Three King’s Day - when the Christ was revealed to all the Gentiles as represented by the kings/wise men who sought Him out in Bethlehem.  Epiphany.  But epiphany can also be any revealing or manifestation of a divine being.  Heaven come down to earth.  We do find this in the birth of Jesus Christ, God the Son.  But isn’t this mind-blowing notion of the infinite almighty God showing up in our finite fallen broken world, isn’t this notion the crux of what it means to be a Christian?  Christ lives in me.  It’s not just a creed.  This is for real [2Cor 5:17, 3:18 - metamorphosis, a la the transformation of a lowly caterpillar into a glorious butterfly].  Every person who trusts in Christ enters into a real lifelong process of being transformed more and more into the image of Christ.  Not just one day in heaven, but every day.  A gooey messy chrysalis of heaven, here on earth, today.  And tomorrow.  And the next day.  We are re-created to be an epiphany, a revealing of the divine supernatural Christ.  Christ in me = heaven on earth. [PBPGINFWMY]

Christianity is not just “fire insurance”.  [get-out-of-the-lake-of-fire free card].  Yes, Christ is our Savior, He saves us fully and forever from the penalty of sin, of separation from God and His goodness for all eternity - but in Christ we’re also completely new creations.  His Spirit comes into our lives and ignites a total home makeover.  He begins this good work of metamorphosis [Phil. 1:6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.].  It is a lifelong, exceedingly good work, gradually revealing, day by day, Jesus Christ through us.  Epiphany.  This isn’t just a makeover - it’s a takeover, an invasion of the heavenly kind.  Paradise invades and begins to take over my life.  My desires.  My words.  My actions.  It’s the Kingdom of heaven, showing out in a life near you.  Heaven/Jesus begins to come oozing out of every single pore and orifice and fiber of my being - or He should.  But He doesn’t always - and that’s the million dollar question before us today: why not? [Not all have trusted…][cf Rom 7:21-24]

Epiphany also means revelation, as in a sudden insight?  What needs to take place in the life of a believer is this revelation, this light needs to go on in our brains telling us that the same way we gain access to heaven is the same way we progress towards heaven on earth.  The way we come to know Jesus is the same way we become more like Him. [Gal 3.1-3 - the Galatians needed this epiphany].  This is good ol' fashioned Faith [cf Heb 12.1].  Trusting in Christ, fixing our eyes on Jesus - and HE does the work [Jn 7.37-38].  Jesus does the heavy lifting.  He did the heavy lifting on the cross (it is finished!), and now every day He does the heavy lifting in our lives as He lives inside us through His Spirit.  Our job is to let Jesus do His job.  To keep in step with His Spirit [Gal 5.16].  And our struggle begins when(ever) we begin to take our eyes OFF of Jesus.

[Rom 12.1-2]  Present your bodies.  This is an altar, and whatever is on the [altar] is dedicated/given over to God.  Fully.  [it is the aorist tense, meaning a point in time].  We come to the point where we fully surrender to Christ.  That means all of us.  We put our whole selves in [we do the hokey pokey].  We surrender all TO Him, cuz of all He’s done FOR us.  We are a living sacrifice.  Of course a living sacrifice can crawl off the altar.  Surrender is not easy.  Cuz now Christ gets the remote.  It’s no longer, I do whatever I want.  I do this on my own.  I got this.  I can figure this out.  I know what to do, and I can do it.  No, no I don’t.  No I can’t.  Many of life’s best (but hard) lessons are God graciously revealing to us that apart from Christ, there’s nothing we can do [Jn 15.5].  The problem with having a little strength?  I think I can pull it off.  The little engine who could.  I think I can, I think I can.  The LIE says, do more, try harder.  And as long as we think we have even the least little bit of strength, we’re tempted to try and do it ourselves.  When the truth is, we’re talking about doing the supernatural.  Epiphany.  Heaven revealed thru me.  Loving the Lord with all our heart.  Loving strangers, our enemies.  Be holy as I am holy.  We don’t have the super spiritual strength required to pull off any of that.  It's humanly impossible - and that’s precisely the point.  We don’t have the strength to pull off the least little bit of this.  Not on our own.  Ours is the lesson of learning that we don’t even have a little bit of strength.

[Jn 16.5-7] Jesus is leaving, their Heavenly Roommate is moving out and the disciples are thinking they are going to be on their own.  And what He is saying is, you are never alone.  We’re never on our own.  Our job is not to try and figure this all out and follow as best we can.  We know the One Who has all the power in the universe - AND, bonus - He lives in the heart of every person who trusts in Jesus.  Have you trusted in Jesus?  Then He lives in your heart.  And so the rest of this becomes no sweat - literally no sweat whatsoever on my part, cuz my part is simply to trust.  To surrender.  Let Jesus do His thing.

Do not be conformed, but be transformed.  Not being conformed means, don’t be just like the world.  And that’s not easy - cuz we want to fit in.  We want to be liked - and the world they don’t like those who are different.  They don’t like those who disagree with them.  There are things the world does, things the world says, things the world believes, things the world values and wants - often those do not line up with what God wants.  With what is well-pleasing to Him.  And so not being conformed means learning to say no - to the world.  We love our neighbors, we bless them, but we don’t value or do and say everything they do.  Sometimes we gotta say no.  And sometimes, like with polyps that can turn cancerous - we gotta cut them out!  Hopefully we can find those ways to fruitfully engaged in the world but conformed to it.  And God gives us His Spirit to help us do that.

Again, epiphany, being transformed is metamorphosis.  Caterpillar to butterfly.  This of course is a supernatural spiritual process, a miracle, a wonderful impossible - a work which only God can do.  But He’s good for it [Phil 1.6].  Our part begins with this surrender - and it continues with the renewing of our mind.  How do we do that?  How do our hearts and minds and then our choices and our lives begin to reflect and show off what God wants?  Regular, daily looking in that mirror of God's glory…  Every day, constantly, in His Word [Col 3.16].  And every day, every moment, being filled [Eph 5:18, Gal 5:22].  The fruit of heaven shows up and shows out in ME - not by me trying harder, but as I trust in Jesus.  Lord, be merciful to me, and please help me…

Rev 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them.

Luke 17:20   Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; 21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

2Cor. 13:5   Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you — unless indeed you fail the test?

John 14:17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

Rom. 8:9   However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. 10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

Col. 1:27 to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

1John 4:4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.

Rom. 12:1-2   Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.  And do not be conformed to the image of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Rom. 8:13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 

2Cor. 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. 

Gal. 3:1-3   You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?  Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

John 16:5-7   “But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.”

2Cor. 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

Gal. 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

2Cor. 4:16   Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.

Col. 1:27 to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Gal. 4:19 My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you 

John 7:38-39 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”  But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Gal. 5:16   But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

1Cor. 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?