Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast,
where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
In this podcast series, we're going to be looking into biblical
words that have great significance to our faith.
The name of this series is called the Word of the Week, where
once.
A week, we will dive deeper into.
These words that we are familiar with in scripture.
So come along with me.
Let's study the Word of the Week.
Pastor Josh here.
We're back with another Word of the Week, and we are in a special
study with our Word of the Week series, and that is the study
of the names of God.
And as we've been studying the names of God, we've been learning
about his character, we've been learning about his work, and
we've been learning about how he interacts with us as his children.
So the name that we're going to be studying here this week is
Jehovah Rapha.
Jehovah Rapha, which means the Lord who heals.
And so this week, we're gonna be talking about how God heals us.
And in most cases, when we hear that word healing, we think
of physical healing.
And certainly we know that God is a God who can heal the sick.
He can repair the wounded.
Even so, with our own family, we've been praying for that with
our.
Our son Silas, in regards to some medical things that he's going
through and surgeries and recovery.
And so certainly we know that within the context of God's power,
he is a physical healer.
But we know that the greater implication to his healing would
be a spiritual healing when it comes to salvation.
Where we see this reference to Jehovah, Rapha, is in Exodus, chapter
15.
And as you well know, the Israelites are leaving Egypt.
God has allowed Moses to lead them out of Egypt, and they are running
from Pharaoh.
They cross the Red Sea.
And even though they get out of the hand of Pharaoh there in Egypt,
they obviously have a lot of other issues that they're going to
be facing.
And that one would be.
One of those issues would be a sickness.
And God Sundays in Exodus 15:26, and.
And said, if thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of
the Lord thy God, and will do that which is right in his sight,
and will give ear to his commandments and keep all of his
statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee which I
have brought upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord that
healeth thee.
And that last phrase there, for I am the Lord that healeth thee
is Jehovah Raphael.
Now, in.
In that case, it's obviously provisions and protection of the
Israelites from the diseases that were plaguing the people around
them.
But in the case of us today, we know that there is a plague, and
that plague is a plague of sin.
And, and the Bible teaches that God is a God who heals and God
is a God who restores.
And you might have even heard people call God the Great Physician
via references from the New Testament when there's, there's mention
of that.
And so what does that mean for us?
What does that mean for us as believers today?
How can we claim that God is a God that can heal?
Well, Isaiah 53 says, but he was wounded for our transgressions.
And this is speaking to Jesus.
This is a messianic reference prophesying what Jesus would do for
us as our Savior.
So he was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes
we are healed.
So the Bible says that he would bear the weight of our sins.
He was.
He was bruised for our iniquities, our.
Our sin.
And, and, and I think that's important for us to understand because
if we think of God's healing only as a physical healing, we sell
short what Jesus has done for us on the cross.
The reason why we can know that is through First Peter, chapter
2, verse 24.
It's a reference back to Isaiah 53, and it is explaining the
understanding of what it means to have this healing.
So it says in reference to Jesus, who his own self very bear
our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins,
should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes ye
were healed.
And so he directly references that passage there in Isaiah 53,
and he reconciles that to the understanding of God sending Jesus
Christ to pay the price for our sins.
We were dead to our sins.
And because of what Jesus Christ did on the tree, as we see
there in verse 24 of 1 Peter 2, we can live into righteousness.
We can be righteous in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
And so really, the greatest act of healing is the act of salvation.
And so the verse there is a reference to sin and righteousness,
not only sickness and disease.
And so in, in the bigger picture of Scripture, we know that
being healed and Isaiah 53 has the implication of being forgiven
and saved, not only physically healed, even though we know that
Jesus demonstrated the fact that if he has the power to physically
heal, he has the power to spiritually heal.
And vice versa.
Meaning, you know, you know, if God can heal us in our sin, he
can certainly heal us in our sickness.
We saw that through examples of what Jesus did in his miracles.
And so this isn't to say that we are downplaying the importance
of praying for physical healing because we should.
We, we know that even in the Book of James, it tells us to pray
for those that are sick.
And we, we know that there are plenty of passages of scripture that
give us direction in doing so.
But I think the point that I would like to make here in this lesson
is the fact that there is a greater healing in the spiritual.
And so that no matter what, no matter if God heals us physically
on, on this side of heaven or not, we know that there is an eternal
healing that will be even better than the healing that we can
have here on this earth.
And so the Bible doesn't specifically link physical, physical
healing with spiritual healing.
Sometimes people are physically healed when they put their
faith in Jesus Christ according to scripture.
But that's not always the case.
Sometimes it is God's will to heal someone physically, and sometimes
it's not his will.
And of course we, we know that the, the Apostle John gave us the,
the proper perspective in, in thinking this.
In 1 John, chapter 5, verse 14, it says, and this is the confidence
that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his
will, right, so it's all about his will when it comes to healing.
He heareth us.
And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that
we have the petitions that we have desired of Him.
So we are not downplaying miracles by any stretch of the imagination.
God still is working miracles.
God still heals people from sickness, cancer, pain, suffering,
all the things that we face in this world.
But it's according to his will.
But, but we know that even so, sometimes we forget about the miracle
of salvation.
The miracle of salvation is that all of us are dead to our sins.
For, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord.
And so the greatest miracle that we could ever experience in
our life would be the miracle of salvation, the healing of those
that are spiritually sick.
So though it's not always God's will for us to be healed physically,
it is God's will for us to be healed spiritually.
He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance.
And so ultimately our full Healing, spiritual and physical will
be when we get to heaven.
We know in the Book of Revelation the description of being
with our Savior for eternity is, is no more sickness, no more
pain, no more suffering, no more death.
Oh, death, where is thy sting?
Right?
There's no more sting in death because we know that we have eternal
life.
And so I think that if we.
And this is difficult, right?
And, and this is coming from a parent who his is praying for physical
healing for his, his child and, and physical healing for church
members and, and, and family members and, and friends.
But if, I think if we as believers are so preoccupied with
our physical condition and the things around us in the material
and forget about the spiritual condition of those around us, we
get our priorities flipped.
The spiritual condition of our world is brokenness and devastation
and lostness and punishment and death.
And we are very adamantly willing to participate in praying
for those that are hurting, and we should physically.
But how often are we willing to pray and petition for those that
are spiritually hurt?
So when our focus is on the eternal, the physical problems will
still be there, but they take a back seat to the spiritual needs
of those around us and ultimately the hope that we have
in the salvation that God extends to us in his great healing.
So Jehovah Raphael, the.
The one who heals, the God who heals.
And again, that is both physical but most importantly spiritual.
So if you're listening to this podcast and you have been going through
emotional pain, physical pain, spiritual pain, the answer to all
of that is the Lord.
The answer to all of that is putting our faith and trust in him
as the great physician, as Jehovah Rapha as the one who heals.
And we seek after his will.
And so if it is his will for someone to be healed, that is an
amazing thing when it comes to the physical.
But we know that it is his will that all come to him and that
all trust in him and have that physical and spiritual and emotional
healing in everlasting life.
So that should be our prayer.
Our prayer for the healing, first and foremost, should be the
healing of the sick when it comes to the sickness of sin.
And so another name of God that we can see, He.
He is one who cares about our pain.
He is one that cares about our future.
But even more so, he is one who can do something about our.
In our future.
You know, I think that there's a lot of times in my life that I
will have compassion for somebody or maybe even see the need.
But for whatever reason, in my limitations, I am not able to meet
that need.
I'm not able to heal, I am not able to fix what has been broken.
But we know that God notices in his omniscience and omnipresence,
he knows what to do about it.
And then in his omnipotence and his all powerful nature, he's
able to do something about it.
He is not limited by the circumstances of this world.
I'm thankful for, for doctors.
I'm thankful for surgeons.
I'm thankful for folks that are able to do surgeries that are
needed in, in this world.
Today.
Our son's about to go into surgery.
And we're thankful for those doctors who are willing to do that
surgery.
But we know that those doctors can only do what God allows them
to do.
And we know that the doctors do not do the healing.
They put things into place.
And it is God who does the healing.
And so he is the healer, the one who heals.
So he is the one that can heal you today.
He.
He is the one that can heal your brokenness, your pain, your
sorrow and your hopelessness that you might be facing.
And so my prayer for you, my prayer for me is that we can give
ourselves over to the Lord, stop trying to fight against what
he has for us and allow ourselves to learn and to grow and
to cling to him in the midst of our pain and suffering.
I wish I could tell you that that wasn't going to be the case.
But the Bible says that it is when we are weak.
Second Corinthians, chapter 12.
It is when we are weak that he is made strong.
His grace is sufficient.
And I want that to be my testimony.
I want that to be my rallying cry in the midst of my pain, suffering.
Is that Lord, Your grace is sufficient.
My grace is not enough.
My mercy is not enough.
My.
My strength is not enough.
But you are enough for me.
You are enough for all of us.
And so I hope that this can be an encouragement for you today as
we continue to study the names of God.
We've talked about Jehovah, Jireh, Jehovah, Nisi, and now we've
talked about Jehovah Rapha, the Lord who heals.
So, so he is the great healer and we have one who is on our side.
If everyone turned their back against us, we know that if we are
a child of God, he is on our side and that nothing could separate
us from his love.
So I hope that this has been an encouragement for you here today.
I hope that you have a wonderful rest of your week and we
will be back next week with another Word of the Week, studying
the names of God.
God bless you.
Take care.
We'll talk to you soon.
Hey, I really appreciate that you listen to the Word of the Week
podcast.
If you have any questions about the podcast or about our church,
Middletown Baptist Church, you can find more information about us
on Facebook or YouTube.
Or you can find the podcast on NBCPodcast.org you can contact me
directly at Josh Massaro at middletownbaptistchurch.org stay
tuned for future Word of the Week week episodes where we dive
deeper into words that impact our life according to Scripture.
Thank you so much.
God Bless.
We'll talk to you soon.