Lesson 1 - Outline
| I. | Healing is part of Christ’s Atonement. | |
| A. | If He suffered and took stripes on His back for our physical healing, then it’s not insignificant. | |
| B. | If He thought enough of healing to purchase it for us, then we ought to think enough of it to receive. | |
| C. | God the Father caused His Son to bear all of our sins and all of our sicknesses on the cross. Jesus took our diseases just as much as He took our sins. | |
| II. | The Lord used healing like a bell to get people’s attention and to prove that He did have power on earth to forgive sins.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only? And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts? Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk? | |
| A. | Jesus was saying that it’s easier to say “Your sins are forgiven” than “Rise up and walk” because they would immediately be able to tell if He had the power or not by whether this man rose up and walked. | |
| B. | If you can do the greater work, then certainly you can do the lesser. If you can jump fifteen feet, then certainly you can jump two feet.
But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion. | |
| C. | Jesus made it very clear that the reason He healed this man was so people would know He also had power on earth to forgive sins. | |
| III. | Jesus also said that the miracles He did authenticated who He was and confirmed what He said.
But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me. | |
| A. | If Jesus needed the witness of the miracles He performed to validate His authority, then how can we possibly do less? | |
| B. | It is the height of arrogance to think that we can use words alone to persuade people, when Jesus had to have signs and miracles to confirm His words. | |
| IV. | Some folks say, “We don’t need miracles today; we have the Word of God.” Yet that’s not what the Bible teaches.
And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. | |
| A. | What people say must always be checked against God’s Word. | |
| B. | In God’s system, when His Word is truly preached, there will be signs and wonders to confirm that it is the truth. | |
| V. | If all we preach are things having spiritual, eternal value and the forgiveness of sins, then all we’ll see is people being born again. | |
| A. | But if we preach and teach the whole counsel of God, He will confirm it with signs, wonders, and miracles. | |
| B. | If both Jesus and the early believers needed miracles, signs, and wonders to confirm the message from God that they preached, then we do too! | |
