Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Welcome to the Saints Church Glastonbury podcast! We are a local church network based in Alberta, Canada. We go to places no one wants to go and do things no one thought possible so that anyone and everyone can discover hope and life in Jesus.
This week, the sermon explores the holistic healing mission of Jesus, emphasizing the significance of faith in achieving both spiritual and physical restoration.
Verses:
- Luke 4
- Mark 8
- Psalm 1
- Psalm 52:8
- Psalm 92
- Jeremiah 17
- Zechariah 4:11
- Revelation 11:3-4
- Matthew 7:17
- Matthew 8:16
- Isaiah 53
- 1 Peter 2
- John 9:39-41
- Mark 8:25
- Mark 9:24
If you need PRAYER, Text or call 587-400-2010
If you would like to GIVE today to build the house of God, click here: www.saintschurch.ca/give
For more information and to stay connected, visit www.saintschurch.ca
★ Support this podcast ★
This week, the sermon explores the holistic healing mission of Jesus, emphasizing the significance of faith in achieving both spiritual and physical restoration.
Verses:
- Luke 4
- Mark 8
- Psalm 1
- Psalm 52:8
- Psalm 92
- Jeremiah 17
- Zechariah 4:11
- Revelation 11:3-4
- Matthew 7:17
- Matthew 8:16
- Isaiah 53
- 1 Peter 2
- John 9:39-41
- Mark 8:25
- Mark 9:24
If you need PRAYER, Text or call 587-400-2010
If you would like to GIVE today to build the house of God, click here: www.saintschurch.ca/give
For more information and to stay connected, visit www.saintschurch.ca
Creators & Guests
What is Saints Church Glastonbury?
A Modern Expression of a Timeless Tradition. A local church in the Glastonbury Neighbourhood of West Edmonton. Sr Pastor Brett Esslinger.
Hey, pastor Brett here. This is the Saints Church Podcast. This is coming live off the stage from our Glastonbury location. It's a message on the subject of healing We've been looking at the idea of Jesus changes everything, the four key ministries of Jesus from Luke 4. This is called For the Broken.
Let's go, okay, let's grab our Bibles, and if you can't see it because of our lights, then grab your phones or use the screens and we're going to track along. You might notice I don't have any notes for this for you, in part because I just want to remind you that faith comes by hearing and hearing the good news about Jesus, and so I want you to take notes, but on your own, just so you can recall these things. But also, just today especially, there's a bunch of scripture. I think it's important that we take that in, and so I'm just going to ask you to do something maybe slightly different than we would do on a Sunday, and maybe this will become your practice, that when I'm reading a portion of scripture, if you're not going to actively read along, close your eyes and just take it in. Okay, faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. This is Luke 4, verse 18, jesus speaking quoting the prophet Isaiah. This is his mission statement. He says the spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released. In the blind We'll see, that the oppressed will be set free and that the time of the Lord's favor has come. This is Jesus' mission when he's on the planet and this is his mission right now. These are the core ministries of Jesus week.
When we looked at salvation, then we looked at the idea of Jesus men's the broken heart. So he wants to bring emotional healing. He wants to bring 360 healing to our bodies sorry to our spirits, to our emotions. That he can heal those things. Last week in, pastor Brennan did an amazing job talking about freedom, that he wants to set you free, and we're going to continue on this path and we're really looking at this line that the blind will see and that the oppressed will be set free.
I want you to understand today that Jesus heals today. Now sometimes we're like I can receive the emotional healing because I understand that I don't really have to have much faith for it, because no one can see it and nobody can tell me it didn't happen. Sometimes we struggle with the idea of physical healing because we're like, but what if I pray and nothing happened? If we are stopping ourselves from praying and believing because we're worried about what happens, if nothing happens, then we're allowing our pride to direct our practice. So Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever, and he wants to heal.
And today I want us to understand this on two levels. He wants to heal on a natural level and on a spiritual level, and we're going to look at both. Okay, we're going to actually start with the spiritual level. I don't want to show you something and we're going to go to Mark, chapter eight. So if you're with me in a Bible, go to Mark chapter eight. If you're following law, follow along.
If I'm going to read a passage of scripture, just take it in and listen and receive to this. This is Mark chapter eight, going from verses 22 to 25. And in this moment, right here, all kinds of things have happened already to this point, and this man meets Jesus. This is verse 22 of Mark eight. When they arrived at Beth Sada, some people brought a blind man to Jesus and they begged him to touch the man and healed him. Jesus took the man by the hand and led him out of the village. Then, spitting on the man's eyes Controversial, I get it he laid his hands on him and asked Can you see anything? Now? What do you see? The man looked around. Yes, he said I see people, but I can't see them very clearly. They look like trees walking around. That's interesting. Then Jesus placed his hand on the man's eyes again and his eyes were open. His sight was completely restored. He could see everything clearly.
Now, when I read the Bible, I can't help but ask questions of the text. Jesus, why did you have to take him outside of the village? Probably because there were so many negative voices around that said it's not possible, it's not going to happen, it's not going to happen for you, don't you know who you are? Because what we have to understand about this era of life on planet earth is that if you had an infirmity of any kind, if you were sick in any way, it was thought that this was judgment for sin in your life. And if it wasn't something you did, it was definitely something your mom or dad did. So there would be all kinds of voices speaking to this guy saying you're not good enough, you're not worth it, you're a mess. And they would have looked down on him and said listen, why would God, jesus, who's walking around, who's doing all these things? Why would he want anything to do with you? Because clearly you've screwed up and now you're living that. Consequently, I start asking questions of the text.
I don't know why Jesus used the elements that he used, why he prayed in that way. It intrigues me for sure. I don't think we're going to try it on a Sunday morning. I just there's not a lot of dirt that I have access to to spit in and put in your eyes or something. But then did you notice he saw first and it appears to be blurry. Now, if I'm here and I take my glasses off, I can't see anybody. And I know you're deeply now emotionally destroyed because you see me without glasses, like I don't even understand what's happening. I'll put them back on, I'll save you the pain. But if I take these glasses off, I can't see anything. I can't. I can't see Mark's face, I can't see Matt's face, like it's close, but I can't see. I know that there's there's, there's just this, this, this blur out there. So if the man was blind and Jesus prayed. Did he partially heal him? Did it not work? Was his prayer not good enough? Did he not have the juice on the first time? Or is something else happening? Because he saw something? What did he see? I see, but not very clearly. I see people. They look like trees walking around. I see people, they look like trees walking around. What did he see?
I believe that in that moment, with that first prayer, jesus opened his spiritual eyes. See, when we read this book, we have to understand. It's a spiritual book, right? I don't know if you've realized this First thing that you need to understand. This book is the only book that's going to read you as much as you read it. But in this book, men are described as trees throughout Scripture. Can I show you a few, and I don't have time to put them all in, but I just put a handful in and just track with me here. And this might even feel stretching, and I would suggest that if it's feeling stretching, it's because God's opened your spiritual eyes.
Today Someone says oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked or stand with sinners or join in with mockers, but they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their lives never wither and they prosper in all they do here Psalm 52-8,. But I am like an olive tree Thriving in the house of God. I will always trust in God's unfailing love, psalm 92,. But the godly will flourish like palm trees and grow strong like the cedars of Lebanon. Jeremiah 17,. But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like what Trees planted along riverbank, with roots that reach down into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Such trees can handle any circumstance. Their leaves stay green and they never stop producing fruit.
Now watch this in Zechariah 4, verse 11. Then I asked the angels Zechariah prophet is having a vision. He says what are these two olive trees on each side of the lampstand? In Revelation the question is answered Revelation 11, verse 3-4,. And I will give power to my two witnesses and they will be closed in burlap and prophesy during these 1260 days. These two prophets are like two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of all the earth.
So Jesus lays his hands on a blind man and says to him what do you see? He said I see men like trees. He's opening his spiritual life. Yeah, I don't know about that. Okay, let's take the words of Jesus in Matthew 7, verse 17. A good speaking of people, a good tree produces good fruit and a bad tree produces bad fruit. That's Matthew 7, 17, matthew 7, 20. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions. So what do we do with this? We see that Jesus prays for somebody. Their eyes are open. They see men. It said men, I can't see clearly. They look like trees, because we don't fully understand what it is we're seeing when our spiritual eyes are being opened.
Okay, you might even be thinking Okay, I don't know that we're interpreting this right. Okay, so let's think about interpreting scripture for a moment. Scripture is of no private interpretation, which means that you don't interpret it, it interprets you. That's where we start. But another way that we can understand scripture interpretation is that the Bible interprets itself. So, first of all, it has to agree with all of scripture, with the whole of scripture. So is what we're studying agreeing with the whole of scripture. And if it agrees with all of scripture, which I've showed you just a handful of verses that are pointing in this direction we also have to then understand that it has to agree with the context of scripture. So how do we do that? Well, let's go backwards in the same chapter and see how this encounter that Jesus has with the blind man fits the context of the chapter. Are you still tracking with me? I told you we're just going to have an overgrown Bible study today.
So Mark 8 in this chapter, the moment with the man getting healed, is happening at the end of the chapter. But at the beginning of the chapter it starts with the feeding of the 4000. Now the feeding of the 4000 is different than the feeding of the 5000. There's two different feedings. Your minds might be blown just on that alone. You're like I thought there was one. He did this twice. He did this twice With the 5000, there's five loaves and for the 4000, he had seven loaves. But right before all this happens, he feeds people, 4000 people with seven loaves, and then, as soon as he's finished feeding all these people the Pharisees were the religious leaders of the time, so literally he just feeds 4000 people from like a bunch of loaves of bread from Cops bakery. They all have lunch and then these religious leaders show up and they're like hey, jesus, why don't you give us a sign, show us that you're real? He's like where are you not paying attention a moment ago? But this is what happens right after. This is what I'm interested in. This is what happens right after Jesus feeds in 4th dollar.
Verse 14 of Mark 8, sorry, but the disciples had forgotten to bring any food. They only had one loaf of bread with them in the boat. As they were crossing the lake, jesus warned them watch out, beware of the yeast, of the Pharisees, the religious leaders and of Herod. At this, they began to argue with each other because they hadn't brought any bread. Jesus knew what they were saying, so he said why are you arguing about having no bread? Don't you know or understand even yet? Or are your hearts too hard to take it in? You have eyes but you can't see. You have ears but you can't hear. Don't you remember anything at all?
When I fed the 5,000 with five loaves of bread, how many baskets of leftovers did you pick up afterwards?
12, they said.
And when I fed the 4,000 with seven loaves.
How many large baskets of leftovers?
Notice?
He said large baskets.
So there's more leftovers the second time than the first time.
How many large baskets of leftovers did you pick up?
Seven?
They said Don't you understand yet? Yes, they didn't get it. Can I give you a hint? It wasn't about the bread. What were they arguing? What was Jesus trying to say? They were trying to argue because he mentioned yeast and their mind just went okay, bread, who forgot the bread? And all they wanted to do is lay blame on somebody who didn't bring the bread.
The truth is, when there's disunity in the church, it's because we've taken our eyes off the mission in Jesus. We've lost the plot for what he's saying, what he's doing, what he wants to accomplish, and we would rather lay blame than follow the plans and purposes of God. So what was he trying to tell them? We'll go to John 9 to figure out what he was trying to tell them, you still with me. Then Jesus told them this is John 9, 39 to 41,.
Then Jesus told them I entered this world to render judgment, to give sight to the blind. Oh, it's coming together To give sight to the blind and to show those who think that they see that they are blind. Some Pharisees who were standing nearby heard Him and asked are you saying we're blind? This is how he replied. He clapped back If you were blind, you wouldn't be guilty, but you remain guilty because you claim you can see. Jesus said beware the feast of the Pharisees, beware of spiritual blindness, where you claim that you can see but you cannot. That's what he was trying to talk about.
Now many of us think that we are humans having a spiritual experience. Right, you come to church. You're like what are we doing? We're humans, we're having a spiritual experience. Actually, you are spirits who are having a human experience because you're going to spend eternity as a spirit in heaven. Your time on earth is short. It's the shortest window of your lifespan. Your body's going to die and your spirit's going to live on.
Jesus wants to open our eyes spiritually so we can begin to see the world the way that he sees the world. I would suggest today that Jesus came to open the eyes of the blind, both naturally and spiritually. So let's go back to our main text Mark 8, 25. Then Jesus placed His hands on the man's eyes again and His eyes were open. His sight was completely restored and he could see everything clearly. So Jesus came what To do? Two things when he says that he's going to bring sight to the blind? He came to open our eyes of spiritual blindness. But we're largely okay with that. We're largely okay with that concept and with that idea because, again, there's no impact, there's no implication on my life. We sometimes struggle with this next one, but I would suggest the reason that he's opening our eyes of spiritual blindness is so we can step into the authority and the gift that he has given us in the second realm. He wants to open the spiritually blind eyes, but he wants to open the natural eyes. He wants to heal people. Today, one person in the room believes that today Jesus heals. Today let's look at Matthew 8. We'll continue on the journey.
Verse 16, that evening, many demon possessed people were brought to Jesus. He cast out the spirits with a simple command and he healed all the sick. How many. This fulfilled the word of the Lord to the prophet Isaiah, who said he took our sicknesses and removed our diseases. 1 Peter 2 builds on that passage, which is actually quoting Isaiah 53. He says he personally carried our sins in His body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right by His wounds. You are Isaiah 53 which Jesus was quoting, and Peter was quoting Isaiah 53, yet it was our weakness as he carried, it was our sorrows that weighed Him down and we thought His troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for His own sins. But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins, and he was beaten so that we could be made. He was whipped so that we could be. Pastor Robert Morris breaks it down like this If Jesus bore our sickness, why do we still get sick?
It's a good question. Let's answer it with a question Did he bury your sins on the cross? Do you still sin? Yeah, because you're a human and you live in a human body. Jesus saved us from the penalty of sin immediately to finished work. He is saving us as we walk this life out from the power of sin and he will one day save us from the presence of sin. Right now, we still have fallen bodies. We live in a fallen world. I don't know if you noticed Kind of getting worth, but one day we're going to have a resurrected body and there will be no sickness, there will be no pain, there will be no tears. That's coming. But does he still heal today? This is a simple question to answer. Of course he does. Why? Because Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. He does not change. You can't build a doctrine in Scripture that says God changes, he doesn't. He's the same God yesterday, today and forever. If he healed, then he can heal now. If you can read it here, he can do it here. You may know this or you may not know this.
I grew up. My grandparents were healing evangelists. My grandpa I want to say in his 50s spent three days in prayer and fasting, trying to figure out what to do with his life. Business didn't go the way he thought it was going to go. He spent three days prayer and fasting and here's what he could only describe God as as close as to what he could say was the audible voice of God. And he says that he was to pray for the sick in his 50s. He did it with not much fanfare. They ran small groups. You think all these guys are trying to heal people are out in it for the money. Well, if they're in it for the money, nobody told my grandparents that Because they did it for free, they just went over it.
When we would have sleepovers at kids and my grandparents' acreage, they had a phone, not in their bedroom but in the hallway outside, and at any time of the night somebody could call and my grandpa would go, wake up, answer the phone and if someone was in the hospital he would get in his car at two in the morning and drive there to pray for somebody. I am used to, or I was used to, on Saturday morning sleepovers. Well, you guys all do whatever you do on Saturday morning sleepovers. We read the Bible, had devotions, grandma made the greatest segment muffins of all time and then grandpa would tell me story after story after story of people that he prayed for and how they had been healed. He told me stories of muscles being reattached after they read and ripped and rolled back into a ball into somebody's arm. He told me about going to the hospital and a baby was born with an opening in their skull and they prayed and as they were sitting there in the observation area, the skull closed.
It's kind of normal to me on some level to hear about the healing power of God. It should be normal to us to hear that about the healing power of God, but if it doesn't work? If it doesn't work, I'm worried about my reputation, not God. Well, how am I going to explain it? You don't have to explain. Well, how can we does it sometimes? He doesn't do it other times because we're spiritually blind and he's opening our eyes to his word, because we have to learn and we have to grow, just like in any other area of our life.
You don't wake up a genius in a certain area. You wake up with gift, talents and abilities that you have to develop. My son right now is taking piano lessons and he's amazing. He's doing so good. It's in him, he comes by naturally. Desiree is musical. I'm musical, it's in his genes, it's in his genetics. But he has to go to piano lessons and he has to practice and he has to learn how. Same thing is true in the spiritual dynamics. There are gifts, but you have to use them, you have to learn about them, you have to develop them. There is more for us to learn. Are you still with me? Okay, here's what we need to understand.
Jesus right now heals in three ways. Okay, he heals in three ways. He heals naturally, he heals medically and he heals miraculously. You're like I don't think that Jesus is healing if it's a doctor. Let me ask you a question who made the doctor? Who gave them the intelligence and the capacity to study and learn and grow, who inspired them down that road of research? I'd like to get us, I'd love for us to get in the habit of giving God all of the credit that he deserves. He gave us bodies that can fight off sickness, like you can break something and your arm will heal, or your ribs will heal. Right, it just, it just heals. This body is amazing, not this body. Thank you, wow, you guys are too kind. Our human bodies are amazing and the Creator of the universe made us that way. He made us that way. So when you're naturally healing, he's in the business of healing you because he created you that way. He heals naturally, he heals medically.
Here's the crazy thing when God heals medically through a surgery, what happens? You then begin to heal. What, naturally? When Jesus heals miraculously, what does he do? He takes you exactly where you are with whatever you're dealing with, and he heals you. He can heal you because he knows how you work and how you operate. Because he made you. He knows how your body heals. He knows how your body works. Sometimes, when Jesus heals miraculously, he's actually accelerating a natural process. That's the behind-the-scenes stuff of the miracle. He's accelerating a natural process. Let's give him all the glory.
You know who I'm thankful for, salvatino Diomarte, like I don't know who that is. I didn't either, until Google. In 1290, he figured out in Pisa, italy, that he could correct vision with lenses. That's been Precurses of spectacles found as early back as 8025 to 2020 in China, through the Eastern Han Dynasty. I'm thankful for human breakthrough and development, but human breakthrough and development is possible because God created you with a mind to think and dream.
Now I'm going to share this verse with you, and I think this is the most relatable verse in the Bible. You have a read a verse like oh, I get that Before we put it on the screen. This is the words of a desperate dad. His son has a condition. He keeps throwing himself down onto the ground in dangerous situations. When they're cooking with the fire, he throws himself down onto the ground and he rolls into the fire. He falls right into the fire. This is a desperate dad who just wants to see his son well, so he brings his son to the disciples.
Jesus took a few disciples and went up onto a mountain. It's the moment of transfiguration where there's incredible spiritual experience at the top of the mountain and at the bottom of the mountain, the disciples, who have successfully gone and traveled and prayed for so many people, cast out demons. They did all the things, they did what they knew how to do and they prayed and nothing happened. And then Jesus joins them. And this dad comes up to Jesus and he says if it's possible, if it's possible, if it's possible, could you help my son? And Jesus kind of looks at him. He's like if it's possible, anything is possible for those who believe. And this is how he responds in Mark 24.
The father instantly cried out I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief. Come on, that's the most relatable Bible verse in scripture. God, I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief. God, I believe it's possible. I believe you want to move. I believe in signs, wonders and miracles. I believe it, but help me believe it Today.
I believe Jesus wants to open our spiritual eyes. You know that prayer, in the Lord's prayer, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. You need a new set of eyes to be able to see how God sees. You can see how he operates and how he wants to change atmospheres, environments, physical conditions and afflictions that we don't only exist in this physical world. We sang in the song His name is the greatest, his name is the highest, all powers and positions. He's over every authority. There's no authority that is greater than Him.
Sometimes we get in the business, believers, of giving more authority to every other principality and power on the face of the planet. We give more authority to governments. We give more authorities to demonic forces. We give more let's be honest we give more power to our insecurity than we often give to Jesus. But it's the other way around. You can't stop him, you can't contain him. Today he wants to turn the lights on, and in part we probably need to repent because we've been so fixated on the temporal, natural, physical world around us so we have been blinded to the spiritual realities. We just sometimes go to God as a cosmic genie, hoping that we pull the handle on the spiritual slot machine and he gives us what we want.
So one of the things that I would encourage you to do as every time you hear somebody speak a message is before they're rapping, and we're going to do this. In a moment like this, we're going to just take a moment to pray. I want you to bow your heads, close your eyes, and I want you to pray. God, what are you saying to me through this message? What are you saying to me through this message? Just take a moment, god. What are you saying to me through this message? What area do you want to heal? What area do you want to change or transform? God? What are you saying to me through this message, god? What do you want to do? What are you saying to me?
For some of us, who wants to open your spiritual eyes? For others of us, you literally need them to open your natural eyes. God, what are you saying? What are you doing? You might be here now and he's sharing with you what he wants to say to you or what he is saying to you. And now the question is God, what do you want to do here, today, in this space and place?
And we can ask Him. We can ask Him to open our spiritual eyes, that we could see, eliminate our spiritual blindness, but we can also ask Him to heal our natural eyes or our natural bodies, and sometimes, like man, am I asking Him too much and I'll say to you what Jesus said to this Father anything is possible for those who believe hey, I'm Believen for healing and breakthrough in your life. It's a new season and God wants to do something significant. If you need prayer, I want to invite you to text the word prayer to 587-400-2010. If you'd like to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior two things I want to invite you to text the word Jesus to 587-400-2010. Then I want you to go check out IHaveDecidedca, an incredible resource for you as you start your journey with Jesus. If you want to share the good things that God has done in your life, text the word testimony to 587-400-2010 and you can share all the amazing things that God is doing. Thanks for listening. This is the St George Glass and Breit podcast. I'm Pastor Brett.