Physical Healing – A Biblical Assessment

I was a young pastor in Texas and there was a lady in our church, Susan, forty-six, forty-eight years old. Godly. She spent time in the Scriptures, you wanted someone to pray, Susan…

Her husband was not necessarily a strong follower, but he would come to church now and then. Her daughter was in our youth group and making great progress in Christ.

Susan was diagnosed with cancer, she went through chemotherapy, there was a slight remission and then it returned. And they said, “There’s not a whole lot more that we can do.”

Well, Susan did what anyone would do. She began to dig in the Scriptures, she began to listen a little bit more to the radio, watched a little bit more TV. And in her desperation was searching, God, if there is a way, if there’s healing, I want to know about it.

She found herself getting connected to a group in Dallas that believed that all people should be healed all the time. It goes something like this is that healing is in the atonement. They usually quote Isaiah 53:6 that, “By His stripes you are healed.”

So you have already been healed, you just need to claim your healing and you need more faith. So she would go to seminars where they would read the Bible for six or eight hours out loud. And she would come back and all we heard from Susan was, “I’m healed. I’m already healed. I just have to…it’s not manifested yet. I just have to keep believing and believing and then it’s going to happen.”

And I buried Susan. And her daughter, in tears, said, “I’m done with God because He promised to heal my mom. She said so and He didn’t come through so I’m out of here.” And I never saw her again. Actually, I saw her one other time with a group of young people moving in a direction that broke my heart. I never saw her husband again.

So I don’t know what you believe about physical healing and God intervening, but what I am going to ask you to do with an open mind is dig in the Scriptures with me and then, no matter what you hear, you search them for yourself and then you determine what you believe, because I will guarantee probably in the next five years, someone close to you – a friend, a neighbor, a co-worker, or someone – will have a situation where you really need to know what the Scripture teaches and you need to have convictions.

So with that, open your notes if you would and what I would like to do is begin with a big picture of context. I’ll look at the whole issue of healing. Well, let’s start with the problem.

As you would search through the Scriptures, I would suggest there are at least four reasons why people get sick.

The first reason is, actually, some people get sick and die.

A couple passages I have given you, there’s a sin that leads to death, but remember when Jesus was talking about Lazarus? And He said, “No, this isn’t a sickness unto death, but it’s for the glory of God.”

But unless you are murdered or in an accident, most people are going to get sick before you die.

The second reason that you’re sick is a sickness for discipline: 1 Corinthians 11:30 talks about a group of people who were in blatant relational sin and God disciplined them. He said, “Because of how you are treating one another and dishonoring Me around the Lord’s Supper, some of you are sick and some are asleep prematurely,” literally talking about fellow believers who God disciplined through health issues.

The third reason that sickness happens is for the glory of God. In John chapter 9, the disciples were saying, “Jesus, this man who is blind. Was that his sin or his parents’ sin?” And Jesus said, “You’re mistaken. It’s neither. But it’s for the glory of God.”

And then finally, there’s a sickness from the enemy. In Luke 13, Jesus is in a synagogue and they are very angry because He heals this woman who, for eighteen years, was bound by an evil spirit and He did it on the Sabbath. And as they accuse Him, He says, “Look, each of you would release your oxen during the day on the Sabbath. Why do you accuse Me for releasing this woman from this sickness that has bound her because of this evil spirit for the last eighteen years?”

So at least in Scripture we know there are at least four basic reasons why people get sick.

The next section I would like to give you a little bit of the religious landscape in terms of five views of healing.

The first one is what I will call, “The sensationalist.” These are the faith healers. It’s emotionally charged, flamboyant, this strong psychological, the cameras are rolling. Often you have to pay for parking. They rent out big arenas.

Now, what I will tell you is I’m not sure what’s happening. 20/20 and 60 Minutes have done research and there’s certainly fraud there. But I have also heard stories of people who have actually experienced supernatural healing.

All I can tell you is the methodology and the means and the focus is the opposite of how Jesus did it. Jesus, liked to keep a low profile. The focus was on God. There weren’t outrageous things. There wasn’t wild emotionalism.

The second is what I call, “Confessionalists.” This is the name it and claim it group. It’s called, “The Word of Faith Movement.” It’s that everyone has already been healed, it occurred on the cross, and you have to believe it. And the only person who loses on this are the recipients. It’s never the teacher’s fault.

If you’re not healed, you didn’t have enough faith. I cannot even count the number of people that I’ve met who have lived with guilt because they didn’t have enough faith when they prayed for someone or their mother or their father or their daughter or their son or someone died because of this false theology.

We’re going to learn that God does supernaturally heal, but God doesn’t heal all the people all the time. And you can go all the way through Scripture. He heals an unbeliever here; another person, “It’s because of your faith;” another person has no faith. You can’t build a case from the work in the gospels or the book of Acts that people have faith all the time or that everyone is supposed to be healed.

Third is what I call the “Anti-supernaturalists,” and this comes in about three categories. There’s one group called “ultra dispensationalists” who believe that healing occurred and miracles occurred in the first century to affirm the Word of God but those days are gone.

There’s another group who would be called “liberal theologians” who don’t believe in miracles at all. They believe this contains great thoughts, but they don’t think it’s the Word of God.

And then there’s another group that, “We can’t measure that, we don’t believe in the supernatural” – scientific, anti-supernatural. “These kinds of things simply don’t happen.”

The fourth group is what I call the “rationalists.” These are actually, this is a Christian Scientist if you have ever had any familiarity. They believe that there is no such thing as sickness. It’s a figment of your imagination. And that when you begin to think good thoughts, the illusion of sickness or even the illusion of death gets removed.

And then the last one I have called different things. But I call it the “medical, biblical, spiritual integration” group. How’s that? I used to call it the biblical realist, but realist sounds like it’s just all reality and you don’t really believe that God would do something supernatural.

What I mean by this is that this group believes that God actually has medicine and doctors and vaccines and He heals in that way. They also believe in the Bible as an historic document and that He does supernatural things today, He did supernatural things back then, but He is a sovereign God so God heals people, but He doesn’t heal everyone all the time. He has very specific purposes.

And the last word – spiritual – is that healing and sickness really is often very much connected to how we are thinking, how we are living, our walk, our relationships with others.

And so those things are integrated. So there’s a medical aspect of healing, there’s a supernatural aspect of healing, and there’s a lifestyle aspect. There’s actual impact like how much sleep you get and what kind of food you eat and how much exercise.

So the medical, the spiritual, and the lifestyle all come together in an integrated way, because we don’t have a body. We have a mind, a body, and a spirit. And all those things work together.

And so with that, I’d like to try and ask and answer the question: What does the Bible actually say? Most of all those different views of healing take something from the book of Acts, something from the gospels, some Old Testament passages.

But where is the one passage in the New Testament that says directly, If you’re physically sick, what should you do? And that passage is James chapter 5, verses 14 to 18.

God’s specific instruction for the physically ill, “Is anyone among you sick?” And we’ll talk about what that word means in a minute. It’s not the flu. It’s not a cold. It’s very serious illness.

“Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing,” or literally, “having anointed him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.”

So what I want to do is break this down and ask some very basic questions about this passage, and then we are going to get at least the clearest teaching in the New Testament on healing.

Who are the sick? The word literally means without strength, unable to work, physically disabled, or bedridden. When Lazarus was dying, this is the word that is used. When Dorcas was dying, this is the word that was used. The man who was by the Pool of Bethesda for thirty-eight years, this is the word that was used.

In other words, even when it talks about, “The Lord will raise them up,” this is a life-threatening illness.

So, what are the sick to do? Well, they are to call the elders of the church. Put a little asterisk there. The responsibility is not with the church leadership. The responsibility is with the people who are sick.

That sick person calls, takes the initiative for the elders of the church. And it’s implied that the person actually isn’t well enough to make it to the church.

Now, we do a lot of praying in the back room and anointing people with oil. We pray up front. So you don’t have to be bedridden. But this is a prayer for serious things and the person takes initiative.

And so what are the elders to do? Two things. One: anoint with oil and pray.

Now, if you are a Bible student and like to read lots of commentaries and want to hear a lot of people go in about eight different directions on what all this means, I would invite you to do that. I did that again this week just to stay fresh.

There are two different words for anoint in the New Testament. One is a more medical, medicinal word. It’s used for rubbing the olive oil and different types of oils where you would take it internally and externally.

And then there was a different word for anoint that is ceremonial. This is the medical word. There’s debate and people, depending on your theology, it’s interesting how they take these passages. But he says, “Having anointed with oil.”

A.T. Robertson is the one who wrote the Greek grammar that all of us pastors of all backgrounds and all denominations use. And this is his take on these two words: “The use of olive oil was one of the best remedial agencies known in the ancient world. They used it internally and externally. Some physicians prescribed it today. It is clear in this passage in James and also Mark 6:13 that it is a medicinal value attached to the use of the oil. And the emphasis is placed on the worth of prayer.

There is nothing here of pagan magic or practice or any thought of extreme unction, which didn’t even occur in practice until the eighth century. It is by no means certain that this word here means to anoint in any ceremonial fashion.

What we have here is medicine and prayer combined together to bring healing to people.” And so when we as elders go and talk to people about an illness, one of the first things we do is ask them, “So, what did the x-rays show? What did the doctors say? What is your MRI?” In other words, having “anointed.”

The other view is that this is symbolic of the Holy Spirit. I’m fine with that. But having “anointed with oil,” what you want to know when you’re going to pray for someone who is in a dire situation is: Have you received the best medical help anywhere?

So having anointed with oil. And then they pray. And then what does God promise to do? He says He will restore the one who is sick, He will raise him up, and forgive his or her sin.

By the way, this is a promise. It’s what He says to do. But like every, single verse in Scripture, like Mark 11:24 if you have ever read that, that one gets butchered. It says, “Believe,” right? “If you believe, God will do whatever you ask.”

Well, true in the context. So notice the passage says, “And they pray in faith in the name of the Lord.” So the prayer offered in faith is godly people who believe not only that God can, but that in this particular case, trusting that God will. But notice it’s in the name of the Lord. And that’s a euphemism for in the authority and the power of God, but under the will of God. If this is Your will. You don’t put God in a box and tell Him He has to do this or He has to do that. I am sure the apostle Paul prayed three different times for himself. God said no.

Finally, notice that it says, “If he has sinned, they will be forgiven him.” I would like you, in your notes, to circle the word if and then underline the little phrase they will be forgiven him.

In English if we say, “if” it can mean: Well, if and then. If things work out, then I will be coming on Saturday. Well, we don’t know what that means. Well it could work out or it could not work out. It’s called a conditional clause. In Greek, you don’t have to wonder. There are four different conditional clauses. This is what is called a third-class condition.

A third-class condition is what is called the condition of future probability.

In other words, if he has sinned and in this context likely this happens to be the case, not always, but likely this happens to be the case, when you go and you pray for them, his sins will be forgiven.

So, one of the things that we do when we anoint people with oil, and it’s honestly a little bit awkward and I often get that job, is I sit down with people after finding out: How long has this happened? What does the doctor say? We have all prayed. We are ready. We have some olive oil here as a symbol. But before we pray, I need to ask you something. Is there any known sin in your life? Is there anything between you and God that could prevent Him from answering? Do you have any resentment toward anyone? Is there an unfulfilled commitment you made to someone? Are there issues?”

And so, part of what causes sickness, we will see a little bit later, is sin. And often, can I be as bold to say to us in our current culture, things that the Bible clearly calls sin are so common among some of us, we don’t even recognize it. And when it causes the consequences of sickness, since we don’t call it sin anymore, like being a workaholic. Have you thought of that as sin? Or what about an addiction?

So that’s why there are medical issues, there are spiritual issues, and there are lifestyle issues. And those things are interwoven.
Notice on the next part of your notes, it says, “The general application.” How do you stay physically healthy, then? Okay? How would you remain physically healthy? It’s a New Testament time. It’s not like there are lots of doctors.

By the way, sometimes you get sick because of bacteria. Okay? What we do is one group wants to spiritualize everything and another group wants everything to be super empirical and I’ll tell you what: I sure don’t understand it all. But I don’t think anybody does.

But here’s what we can know as followers of Jesus that will highly impact our physical health. Therefore, notice, in light of physical illness, in light of what you should do when you get in a desperate situation, in light of what elders do and how God works and in light of the high probability that that physical illness often is rooted in sin, not all sickness is sin, but a lot of it is. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another – why? So that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

And that group, then, this was the very first book in the New Testament written. That group then would be like us, “You know, hey, when Peter prays, yeah, I get it. When the apostle John prays I get it. But we’re just regular people.”

And so notice what James says. He says, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain. And it didn’t rain on earth for three and a half years. And then he prayed again and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit.

Literally, what he is saying is: He’s a regular guy like us. And, literally, the phrase here when he prayed, literally, it’s with prayer he prayed. In other words, he really prayed in his prayers.

I ask myself sometimes, Do I really pray in my prayers or do I just say words? He’s talking about fervent, focused, believing. I’m coming before You, God. This is the situation. This is who You are. These are Your promises. I am asking You, specifically, to intervene. And I am going to keep coming and I’m going to press into You and I want to hear from You.

If there is an issue in my life or an issue in this situation, God often uses health issues to get our attention to bring about major things in our life and relationship with Him and others.

So let’s ask a few questions of this passage.

What is the presumed relationship between sin and sickness in this passage?

Very high. Now, jot a note, okay? Because someone is going to walk away with, Chip said that people are always sick because they have sinned. Errrrrrgg. Okay? No.

But is there a very high correlation between a number of illnesses and sin? Yes. Let me give you a list of some common sins that create physical illness. Unresolved anger. Anxiety and worry. And when you worry, your stomach acid goes, right? And when you worry and when you’re under stress, your immune system drops.

Stress. Unbelief. Bitterness. Rebellion. Addictions. Gluttony. Gluttony gets a lot of press in the Bible. When was the last time you ever, in a small group, Let’s confess our sins one to another.

Can anyone remember a small group like: Gluttony. That’s me. I eat too much. I eat bad stuff. I eat when I’m not hungry. I use comfort food. I eat lots of food that has no nutrition. And, by the way, my doctor, he says I’m thirty-two pounds overweight. He says I have high blood pressure. He says I put too much salt in my diet. He says this and this and this. And because of that I’m on blood pressure medicine over here and I’ve got this medicine over here and I’ve got this medicine over here. Now, has it ever dawned on us as Christians, it’s called gluttony!

Or when was the last time in a small group, someone in prayer said, “Please forgive me because I am materialistic.” Well, how do you know you’re materialistic? Well, because I’m never satisfied with what I have. And so I have this humongous debt because the new TV came out and then a new car came out and I couldn’t pay cash and so I keep buying stuff and everyone does it. And it’s the new plan. You can get a twelve-year plan to buy a car. I’m joking.

And so I have to have the next best thing so now I have overwhelming debt. The overwhelming debt has produced stress. Now I have stress and I have conflict in my marriage. Now I’ve got a problem with this. And, oh, I’ve got all this stomach acid. So now I’ve got migraine headaches that I can’t explain. I have ulcers.

How much of that, how much of that, if we just cleared the deck, and said: those are rooted in unhealthy, ungodly, sinful patterns and lifestyles.

And you and I live in a therapeutic world where what we do is treat the symptoms with, you can’t watch a half hour program without at least two of the commercials – what? Here’s the pill that will change that. Here’s the remedy that will change that.

And then at the last half of every commercial is what? They run the B-roll of people having fun, right? Sunlight. While they’re going, “This may cause damage to your liver. Some people have died according to this. There are seven implications of people who have taken this. If you can’t choke, can’t breathe, can’t see, can’t urinate, can’t do anything, call your doctor,” while the pictures of the people on the pond. You know?

And so we live in a world where we sinfully have lifestyles that are killing us. We create drugs to treat the symptoms and our souls are starving. So what is the solution?

What are we told to do regularly for our health? Confess. And he says, “Confess your sins,” literally it’s the sin specifically, “to one another that you might be healed, and pray for one another.”

Literally, the word is intercede. Intercede means: I have heard your struggle. You confess that you have resentment toward your husband. You confess that it’s not a glass of wine, it’s three or four. You confess that you have resentment toward your boss.

You have confessed that your priorities are out of whack, you’re not giving your children the time that you know they need. You have confessed that there is someone at work that you have this emotional attachment and you’re fantasizing. You have confessed that you’re logging on to the Internet. You confess that you’re a shopaholic or a workaholic. And these are unhealthy things. And I am going to stand before God and I am going to ask Him to help you.

The power of sin is secret. If you go through Church history, when revivals happen, whether it’s the Moravians, whether it’s the Wesleys, whether it’s movement in our country with Whitefield the small groups in the Wesleyan groups, they would meet twice a week and they had this set of questions on a card. They would ask one another, “How is thy soul with God?” Second question, it went something like this, they were all doing King James so forgive me, right? “Has thou sinned against thy Creator or anyone else by thought, word, and deed?”

And you know what they did in these small groups? They confessed their sins to each other. What we do is pose. We project we are doing better than we are. And what I can tell you, what we have all experienced, see, we start confessing when we get desperate, right? When there’s nowhere else to go.

That’s like taking a bath once a year. Man, I just feel so dirty and everyone has told me how much I stink. I’m just going to break down and go ahead and take that bath. And where the prescription is, like, try a shower every day or at least every other day. Good for you; good for us. Right?

1 John says, “If any of us claim we are without sin, we are a liar and the truth isn’t in us.”

And it is not something that Christians normally do, but I will tell you, when someone says, and it goes something like this in a very unthreatening way, “He’s got different questions. Questions about our finances, about our health, about our thought life.”

And someone will ask the question and you’ll have time, and you just pray, Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me and see if there is any wicked thing. And you know what? Condemnation is from the enemy. If you hear voices like, You’re a terrible mother, you’re a terrible dad, you’re a bad person, that’s not from God.

The Holy Spirit will speak like this: Last Thursday afternoon, in that business meeting, you blew up. Oh. Your son asked you to do so and so and you blew him off. You were tempted and you made a commitment that you were no longer going to and you logged on. It will be very specific.

And the rules are that it doesn’t go outside that room. I will tell you, if we will follow Scripture and confess our sins to one another, one, you’ll be shocked at how regular everybody else is. And, two, God promises He will bring healing.

This is preventative healing. I have practiced this and seen this in very, very powerful ways. We are to confess to one another.

And then notice what kind of prayer has healing impact. It’s earnest, fervent, believing prayer. Godly people shooting it straight, being for one another.

Who qualifies to be heard by God for healing and the miraculous? Ordinary people like you and me.

So, my wife is interesting. When I’m teaching things and studying things I run them by her, “What do you think?” And she goes, “Oh, Chip, this is really interesting. I have a question for you.” This is my sweet wife. Cute, little blonde-haired wife. “So there are four different reasons for sickness. Why do you think your back? What do you think God is up to? I said, “Honey, look, I just teach this stuff. Okay?”

And, actually, I have laid on my back for a lot of hours. I said, “Honey, I think God has revealed to me, and He may intervene in a supernatural way, but God made it very, very clear. I confessed it but last fall, I violated the Sabbath. There were some really important meetings on Friday and I started going to those. And I was on a board that they only could meet on one Friday a month and so I went to those. And I was very disciplined for a lot of time where I really set my phone aside and email and I began to slowly violate that. Honey, I think during the fall I got myself into an unsustainable pace and did not take twenty-four hours and honor the Sabbath principle and life.” And I feel like God graciously, I actually think He has been kind. And what He did to Israel when they didn’t honor the Sabbath, He said, Hey, we’ll make it up here for seventy years. And He did.

And I feel like God said, Chip, I love you a lot. And you’re living in a way that is unhealthy for you. It’s ungodly. It puts you in a bad spot. It’s going to hurt your lifespan. At the heart of it is something, it’s not just work. It’s grandiosity. What makes you think that the world can’t go on without you for twenty-four hours? We have been down this road before. You broke this pattern before. You have slid back into go, go, go, go, go. And so it’s a lack of faith and unbelief. You think if you don’t make this meeting that the church won’t catch the next wave or you’re going to miss out on something. I’m God! Cease striving! Shut it down. Believe Me.

And so I confessed my sin to the Lord. And I have known this. We privately had been talking about it. But it was really interesting this week in preparation to come clean with my wife. And when your wife’s voice and the Holy Spirit sound exactly alike, it’s hard. And she looked at me like, Like that was rocket science? I’ve seen that one! But it’s freeing.

I want to summarize, because I want to give you something that is very tangible as you walk away that you can think through healing in a very, very specific way.

And as you do, the big picture is you are going to meet people who have very strong, emotional views. And they have had experiences and all I am saying is I am all for everyone’s experience. I just don’t want to build my theology on anyone’s experience or anyone on radio or anyone on TV or myself.

I want my theology about everything to be around: What does the Bible actually say? And I would encourage you to take these notes, look at these passages, and agree or disagree. But get your convictions from God.

But by way of overview, I think there are three things we can learn about healing.

Number one is at times, it’s called the intervention of God. It’s Acts 3, right? Peter and John are on their way to the temple. And there’s a guy there, they don’t have any money. He has been lame since birth. “Silver and gold have I none, but in the name of the Lord Jesus, arise and walk!” He reaches up, bam! Miraculous intervention. I always pray for that one.

The second one is the interaction of God: 1 Timothy 5. Timothy, you’re my son in the faith. Paul had a lot of faith. Paul healed a lot of people. Take a little wine for your stomach. In other words, there’s some medicine you should take. God is going to use the medicine prescribed to heal your body. It’s going to be the Spirit of God using medicine to heal your body.

And third is what I call the enabling of God. And this is like the Joni Eareckson Tada answer to prayer. The apostle Paul said…Paul had faith. Paul believed. Paul had been to the third heaven. Paul healed people. “Heal me, God!” “No.” “Heal me, God!” “No.” “Heal me, God.” “No. Paul, My grace is sufficient for you.”

Here’s the deal with healing: It’s not primarily, even when Jesus did it, it was never primarily about simply solving a physical problem.

Every miracle and every healing, almost always was to affirm or make clear or deliver a person. But it was to make a major, major point. Sometimes God heals to make that point. Sometimes you endure it and His grace is sufficient and He gets glory through it. Sometimes He uses a doctor and an MRI and a medicine and a surgery.

Biblical, medical, spiritual integration is what I believe the Bible clearly teaches and is the call of God for us to believe He can intervene, to believe and step out, to have lifestyles of nutrition and rest and wisdom and obedience and confessing our sin to one another. And finally, where at the right time, in the right way, we use medicine that God has given us. That’s what He uses to bring about transformation.