Helping and Healing

MEMORY SELECTION: “He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” —John 5:24

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: John 5:2-15

IN ACTS 10:38 the Apostle Peter said of Jesus, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.” Jesus was anointed to preach the Gospel of the kingdom, which is defined by the Apostle Paul thus: “And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.” (Gal. 3:8) The blessings of the kingdom are partially enumerated in Revelation 21:4: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”

It was necessary that Jesus, in addition to simply preaching, establish the authenticity of his ministry. It had been prophesied that the Messiah, when he came, would heal the sick, restore sight to the blind, and raise the dead. One of these prophecies is found in Isaiah 42:7: “To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.” And so Jesus, in fulfilling the prophecies concerning himself, used the power of God that had been granted him to demonstrate to the people that he did come with the authority of God. Also, his miracles illustrated the future great work to be done in the kingdom.

In John 10:30-38 is an instance where Jesus spoke of his miraculous power as an evidence of his messiahship. Jesus had said, “I and my Father are one.” The Jews were offended and took up stones to stone him. Jesus said, “Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?” The Jews replied that it was not for his works that they took up stones but because he was calling himself a god. Jesus then replied: “If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.”

The “works” that Jesus spoke of were those things the prophecies had foretold of him. That is why they were the works of God.

One of the most difficult things for some to believe about the kingdom is the resurrection from the dead. But this is a most essential part of the divine plan of salvation if all the nations of the earth are to be blessed. This is the only way those who have lived in ages past can have a hope for salvation and eternal life. The doctrine of the resurrection is one of the most prominent themes in the Bible.—Isa. 26:19; Hos. 13:14; Ezek. 37:12,13; John 11:24; 5:28,29; Luke 20:37,38; I Cor. 15th chap.

Jesus, to illustrate this great work of the kingdom, performed one of his most wonderful miracles when he resurrected Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus had been ill, but Jesus deliberately delayed going to him until he died. Then he said, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.” Death, in the Bible, is spoken of as a sleep, in anticipation of an awakening. When Jesus and his disciples arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus had lived, he had been dead four days. Jesus then, standing before the large crowd at the tomb, said, “Take ye away the stone.” Then he lifted his eyes and prayed: “I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe thou halt sent me.” Then in a loud voice he cried, “Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth.” The record states that many saw and believed.—John 11:1-45

When John the Baptist sent messengers to Jesus to question him as to whether he was the Messiah, Jesus did not answer him directly, but rather he asked the messengers to observe him and his ministry, and then said: “Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the Gospel is preached. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.”—Luke 7:19-23

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