In the last year or so of Paul's life, when he was
imprisoned in Rome, he wrote a letter to his son in the faith, Timothy. And,
looking back across the years of his ministry, he spoke of the coming of our
Savior Christ Jesus, "who abolished death and brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel." (2 Tim. 1:10). That is the great and
central fact in the good news about Jesus Christ: He has done what no other can
ever do - he has abolished death. That is what is unique about the gospel!
Death has many forms. We actually begin to die long
before we take our last breath. Death seizes us in many areas of our life other
than the physical. There are many forms of death. Boredom is death. Sickness,
of course, is death, but despair is also death. Fear and worry are forms of
death. Mental illness is death, but so is bitterness of spirit. Death can seize
our life while we live, and rule over great areas of our life long before we
ever die. We know that from experience. But the great good news of Jesus Christ
is that he has come to abolish death, death in every form, whatever it may be.
Last year when we studied the book of Acts, we ran across
two stories of healing from two different kinds of death (see Acts 9). We
will see how in each case the power of Jesus Christ abolishes death. The first
incident is a picture of death's power to paralyze.
Acts 9:32-34
Now as Peter went here and there
among them all, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda. There he
found a man named Aeneas, bedridden for eight years, who was paralyzed. And
Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed.”
And immediately he rose. And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and
they turned to the Lord.
If you have ever been to Israel, you have probably been
to Lydda. If you fly into Israel that is where you land. The airport outside
Tel Aviv is at the ancient town of Lydda. It was to this village that
Peter came on his way down from Jerusalem, visiting among the new churches of
Judea and Samaria. The church had been thrust out from Jerusalem and pockets of
Christianity had begun in all the villages in Judea and Samaria. In Lydda he
finds a man who had been paralyzed for eight years.
Now Peter was no faith healer. He was not like the TV
faith healers in America today who make grandiose claims of possessing powers
to heal people. Peter never said that he had any power to heal anyone.
"Jesus Christ heals you," he says. Peter was but the instrument and
channel of his healing power. This man was made well instantaneously. As
we have seen before in Acts, these physical miracles are a picture of the
spiritual miracle that God wants to perform in every human spirit. God heals
physically. He still does, and there are numerous perfectly valid instances of
modern healings. But one thing is true of those today, just as in New Testament
days: God heals physically only selectively. He never heals everybody that is
sick. Jesus did not even when He walked the earth. He healed selectively,
because it is intended to picture the healing of the soul. That is what God
really wants. Any healing of the body is, at best, temporary.
Everyone who was ever healed in New Testament days died
later on. The healing of their bodies was just temporary because it was
designed to be a picture. It is God's wonderful way of illustrating the
healing of the sinful heart which would be eternal and which is really what God
wants!
Pastor Jeff Frazier
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