Chapter 8: Healing and the Kingdom of God.

Chapter 8: Healing and the Kingdom of God.

The great hope of the Old Testament is that one day the Messiah would come and establish the kingdom of God. The Jews divided human history into two ages: this present evil age and the age to come, when God and his Messiah will rule.

As a diagram it looks like this:

 

We need to understand what this means – at least in the Jewish understanding.

The present evil age is the age, the period of time, when this world is under the domination of evil forces – of Satan and his hosts. As a result of this Satanic domination there is suffering and evil in the world, including death, sickness, war, natural disaster, physical disability, political domination and so on. This present age is evil and is unjust – the innocent suffer and the guilty often get away with their evil acts.

But one day God and his Messiah will come and there will be a great battle, the forces of evil will be defeated and God will set up a kingdom on earth that will never end. The evil forces of Satan will be overcome and a kingdom of righteousness, peace and justice will result. Of course, in that coming age, there will be no suffering, sickness or death.

The Jews, in their popular thinking, had a tendency to downgrade this expectation. They tended to interpret this kingdom in Jewish terms – God will set up a new Jewish kingdom and the enemies of God – the Gentile nations – will be defeated and ruled forevermore by the Jews. The coming of the Messiah would bring about this great deliverance for Israel. We see that this was the understanding the Jews in general, and also the disciples of Jesus had – even after the resurrection. On his last time with the disciples Jesus is asked, “Will you again at this time restore the kingdom to Israel (Acts 1:6)?” They are still thinking in purely nationalistic terms. They wanted a deliverance from the power of Rome. But Jesus had bigger fish to fry – he had just defeated the spiritual powers behind Rome, the principalities and powers and the kingdom had already come but in a way totally unexpected by the Jews. This was not something radically new – in fact the prophets had indicated that this was to be the true nature of the kingdom. But the Jews had only seen the promises through the eyes of their own suffering and had missed the point entirely.

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, he made earth to be the centre of his kingdom and man to be his co-reagent on earth. The kingdom of God was on earth, and visibly so. But through the Fall of Adam the ownership of earth passed to Satan, so the kingdom of God was no longer visible on earth. Then God promised that one day his future king would overcome the serpent who had brought about this change of affairs. “He shall bruise you head and you shall bruise his heel (Gen 3:15)” - thus indicating that the defeat of the serpent would be through the death of the coming messiah, the seed of the woman. Through him the kingdom of Satan would be defeated and God’s kingdom would again be established on earth. Then the evils of this world – including sickness – would be done away with.

This was prophesied in more detail by the later prophets, we will only look at one at the moment. The context of this is the future rule of God: “For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; it is he who will save us. Your rigging hangs loose: The mast is not held secure, the sail is not spread. Then an abundance of spoils will be divided and even the lame will carry off plunder. No one living in Zion will say, "I am ill"; and the sins of those who dwell there will be forgiven ( Isa 33:22-24).”

This passage gives us an insight into salvation – it is about the God “who will save us.”

It is describing a future state, the kingdom of God – but it also has an application to this life, to present deliverance and salvation.

When you can say three things (v22) you have salvation: The Lord is my Judge, The Lord is my Lawgiver, The Lord is my King. The results of that salvation are no sickness and no iniquity (v24).

What does this mean in practice?

The Lord is my judge:

What this means is that He tells me what is wrong and right. This can dramatically alter one’s behaviour. It leads to two guiding principles:

(i)What you do – do all to the glory of God (1 Cor 10:23).

(ii) What you do – do in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Col 3;17).

You are free to do anything you can do in obedience to these two principles.

The Lord is my Lawgiver.

This means the Lord sets my lifestyle. This is built around three things: diet, exercise and rest. You cannot expect to be healthy and functioning effectively if you ignore these three areas. It will eventually catch up with you.

All progress in the Christian life is by faith. And to serve God you need a healthy, fit body.

Rest is as important as diet and exercise. It takes faith to rest. This is not a legalism of the Sabbath, but a principle of rest.

The Lord is my King:

“God, whatever you tell me, I’ll do.”

When it comes to personal relationship with God it matters where you are. You can’t be righteous if you are not living where he wants you to be. God has a geographic location for you.

The kingdom of God is a total social security kingdom. When you are in it everything is included. But you have to be seeking him first.

A New Testament scripture gives us the same picture of the future kingdom: “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away (REV 21:3-4)."”

Sickness is the result of incipient death, as we have seen, and in the new kingdom there will be no sickness or pain.

So the Jewish expectation was that one day God and his Messiah would come and establish his kingdom and when he did so sickness, pain and death would be removed from our experience.

Another Old Testament scripture casts this hope in terms of the coming day of Redemption, the day of the Lord: “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendour (ISA 61:1-3).”

The coming age was thought of as being an age of the Spirit of God - that creator spirit who, in the beginning made the heavens and earth at the command of the Word of God. He would again recreate and restore things to be in the order God originally intended. The coming kingdom was an age of the activity of the Spirit. But the activity is not exactly what Israel expected – instead it was an activity of preaching, physical and emotional healing and deliverance from spiritual bondage.

The rest of the chapter talks of restoration of the Promised Land as an inheritance – but there is a twist – the whole thing has a much greater meaning than the words appear to have on the surface. The apostle Paul was right when he interpreted the promise to Abraham about the land in Romans 4 to mean the whole world, not just Palestine. Abraham’s descendent will possess the whole world but those descendents are those who have the faith of Abraham. It is not about natural descent but about faith in the promise of God. So the Gentiles are included in this – and Isaiah hints at this here: “Aliens will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your fields and vineyards (ISA 61:5).”

“And you will be called priests of the LORD, you will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast (ISA 61:6).”

“Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the LORD has blessed (ISA 61:9)."

 “For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations (ISA 61:11).”

This is about God’s blessing going to all men, to all nations. All nations would enjoy the benefits of the kingdom – forgiveness of sins, physical and emotional healing and deliverance from evil spirits, and these things would come to all through the preaching of the good news of the coming kingdom.

So this kingdom was promised in the Old Testament, but the time came when God began to bring this kingdom to birth on the earth.

The first step was through John the Baptist. The Old Testament had promised that, before the Messiah came and set up the kingdom, there would come a forerunner warning that the time was near: “In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: "A voice of one calling in the desert, `Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him (MATT 3:1-3).'"

The kingdom did not come in John, but he was called to announce it would soon be here. “The Kingdom is near.” He was a voice of preparation. John understood some things about this coming kingdom. First he understood that it was not something to be restricted to Israel, it was not a matter of physical descent from Abraham: “And do not think you can say to yourselves, `We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham (MATT 3:9).”

In fact John dispossessed the whole nation of Israel from the future promised kingdom. He did this in a simple but profound way. You see, when a Gentile became a worshipper of God, a proselyte to Judaism, they had to get baptised to show their repentance. This showed that they had been separated from God and from his covenants of promise. Every Jew knew that this was a requirement of the Gentiles. To become a child of the covenants meant to become a Jew – and part of the process of conversion to Judaism was baptism.

What John did is demanded baptism for repentance of Jews also. In doing this he was saying: “The coming kingdom is not for Israel as a nation because you are separated from God and his promises. The future kingdom is for those who are truly repentant and who have submitted to the rule of God. It has nothing to do with national deliverance from Rome; it has everything to do with deliverance from sin and spiritual evil.”

The second thing John knew for sure about this coming kingdom was that it was to be an age of the Spirit of God: “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire (MATT 3:11).”

 After John came Jesus and he was Baptised by John:“Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John (MATT 3:13).”

 “As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased (MATT 3:16-17)."”

The words from God are particularly significant. They are a combination of two different Old Testament scriptures. The first phrase is from Psalm 2:7 “You are my son.” Psalm 2 is a kingship psalm, or a messianic psalm speaking of the future king of God’s kingdom. When a king ascended to the throne in ancient times it was considered that they were adopted by the God of the nation and became their son. So this phrase is a traditional phrase and means: You are the one who has become king, or in Jewish terms, the Messiah. So this identifies Jesus as the Messiah of God. The second phrase comes from Isa 42:1 “in whom I delight.” This is taken from one of what are known as the servant songs of Isaiah. There are four prophetic songs concerning the coming “servant of the Lord.” Thus Jesus is identified by this phrase as the coming “servant of the Lord.”

The interesting thing is that Israel had never before made the connection between the messiah and the servant. They never saw them as the same people or person. In fact regular Jewish interpretation saw the servant as being a symbol of the nation of Israel. By joining these two quotes together a new thread of understanding is brought into being: The messiah is the servant of the Lord, the one who will suffer for the sins of God’s people (Isa 53:4, 5). Through him will come the forgiveness and healing that had been promised for so long. And Jesus was the man who fulfilled the promise of the servant.

 “Surely he took up our infirmities (sicknesses) and carried our sorrows (pains), yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed (ISA 53:4-5).”

The other important thing about Jesus baptism was the coming on him of the Spirit in the form of a dove. When the kings of Israel ascended to the throne they were anointed with oil, symbolizing the Holy Spirit. The coming of the Spirit on Jesus at his baptism has to be understood in this light. This is when he was “chrismed” – when he was anointed, when he became the anointed one, the Christ. He was born to be the Christ, but it was at this point of time he became the Christ, the king.

From that point on Jesus is the bearer of the kingdom because he is the king of the kingdom. Where the king is there is the kingdom and the authority of the kingdom and power of the kingdom is found in him. So from that point on Jesus goes out and proclaims the kingdom: “From that time on Jesus began to preach, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near (MATT 4:17)."”

This sounds the same as what John said but the meaning is different. John meant that the time was near. Jesus meant that the kingdom was near – “at hand” as the KJV translated is. It is present and those who want to partake of the kingdom now have access to it. But you can’t see it – it comes to you by faith. In fact the kingdom was present in a unique way – Jesus was the king of the kingdom and so the kingdom was present in him.

The kingdom is within reach to those who want to possess it – but this is not a physical kingdom – it is a spiritual kingdom. As a result it is not to be taken hold of in a physical way; it can only be taken hold of through faith.

He demonstrated that the kingdom was present in himself by doing the works that were expected in the coming kingdom. It was expected that when the kingdom came sickness would be done away with and bondage to evil spirits would cease, so that is what we see happening in the life of Jesus: “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them (MATT 4:23-24).”

In doing this he was fulfilling he words we read in Isa 61 concerning the future kingdom: “He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour."

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing (LUKE 4:16-21)."

What he was saying – and they would have all understood this – is that the future kingdom has come – it had come in Him, in Jesus and the proof of that was the miracles of healing and deliverance that Jesus worked among the people.

Later on, when John the Baptist was in prison, John sent to Jesus asking if he was in fact the Messiah: “When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?" Jesus replied, "Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me (MATT 11:2-6.)." The proof of the kingdom is seen in preaching and the signs that follow it. Jesus never expected mankind to believe in an unproven gospel message. It is proven by the signs that follow.

Jesus central message concerned the kingdom of God. He entrusted the same message to his 12 disciples and the 72. We will come back to the commissioning of the 12 and 72 in another chapter.

Yet Jesus never defined the kingdom. This implies that the concept was commonly understood by his contemporaries or that it was defined in his own words and deeds. Both appear to be true, in part.

Whatever his contemporaries understood, they did not find in Jesus the king they hoped for and expected, his idea of kingship differed from theirs. They wanted a restoration of the Davidic dynasty. They did not expect too much of the kingdom, but too little. Jesus came not simply to bring political liberation to one nation but to bring spiritual, physical and relational liberation to all people. He came, not to dethrone Caesar, but to destroy the evil force behind all unsanctioned power, Satan himself. And to do that he had to die.

Jesus was sure that this kingdom was an age of the Spirit also. When he was challenged by the Jewish leaders about his right to exorcise demons he responded: “But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you (MATT 12:28).” Healing and casting out demons is the clash of the kingdoms.

Even the demons knew what Jesus was about: “Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, "What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are- the Holy One of God (MARK 1:23-24)!"

Even more telling is the following: “When he arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were so violent that no one could pass that way. "What do you want with us, Son of God?" they shouted. "Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time (MATT 8:28-29)?" These demons knew there was a future time when they would be bound and sent away – the time when the kingdom came. But they also knew that Jesus was the king of the kingdom and so had the authority to bind them now. They knew now was not the time of the future kingdom but they also knew that the future kingdom was standing right in front of them in the person of Jesus.

Jesus saw Satan as the cause of all kinds of physical suffering. Often, when the text states that Jesus healed the sick, it included the driving off of a spirit. While not all sicknesses are the work of demons, they may all be seen as the work of Satan. The work of the kingdom is to undo the work of the evil one: “He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work (1 JOHN 3:8).”

GE Ladd in his classic book, The Gospel of the Kingdom, illustrates it this way:

The kingdom of God has come, but it is a sort of parallel universe to our universe. It is here but it is invisible to our natural senses. One day it will become visible but it is still here now. We can reach out in faith and take hold of it – if we want to.

Jesus defeated Satan on the Cross: “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross (COL 2:15).” Jesus did not put an end to Satan’s power, rather he bound it so we may have authority over it. Satan is bound and his pseudokingdom is breaking up, yet God has left him room to maneuver.

Satan’s power over us was a legal authority. Sin brought a condemnation of death. Christ, on the Cross, paid the price of death so that the condemnation was annulled. Satan was not destroyed at that time – that is still to come – but his legal authority to act in the way he does was taken away and his rights to control the kingdom of man on earth removed.

The kingdom of God is a power already released in the world. It’s beginnings are tiny.

Jesus illustrated how it has come in parables: “Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop- a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. He who has ears, let him hear (MATT 13:3-9)."

The kingdom has come in a small way – like a seed. But it will grow and one day cover the whole earth. The Jews had expected it to come with a mighty battle and God’s rule to cover the whole earth as a result of a great victory. But Jesus tells us in the parables that it has come in a different way. Jesus went on to talk of leaven, a mustard seed, sowing grain – small beginnings but with a great result.

Prior to the coming of Christ they had little defense against satanic bondage. Now, however they discovered in their daily experience something in the essential makeup of the cosmos had changed. Their authority over Satan and his works was actual and experiential. It did not have to be hoped for in the future, it could be had now.

Jesus did not promise forgiveness of sins – he bestowed it. He did not simply assure men of the future fellowship of the kingdom but invited them into fellowship with himself as bearer of the kingdom. He did not merely promise vindication in the Day of Judgment but bestowed on men a present righteousness. He not only taught an eschatological deliverance from physical evil – he went about demonstrating the redeeming power of the kingdom delivering men from sickness and death.

So the kingdom has come - it is here. How do we experience it?

The power of the Kingdom is, as we have seen, the Holy Spirit: “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (ROM 14:17).” These are the key hallmarks of the promised kingdom:

Righteousness – a kingdom where justice and right will prevail.

Peace – we have to understand this in the Jewish sense, Shalom – which, as we have already seen means to be living in God’s blessing and provision in every area of life.

Joy – no sorrow shall be there.

So as we experience the Holy Spirit we experience the kingdom.

Another scripture shows this connection clearly. We are not interested in the actual context here but only with the connection between the Holy Spirit and the kingdom to come: “It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age (HEB 6:4-5).” To share in the Holy Spirit is to taste of the powers of the coming age – the kingdom of God.

However we need to be clear on one thing – though the kingdom has come in Jesus and the Spirit, it has not come in its fullness. There is a “not yet” to the fullness of the kingdom. This is where Ladd’s diagramme illustrates it well for us. The kingdom is here – but it is only partially here. There is still a future time when the fullness of the kingdom will be seen visibly on earth and when the blessings of the kingdom will be available fully to all of the citizens of the kingdom. Until then the kingdom is only here in a provisional way.

It is near – we can reach out and touch it and possess its blessings – but it is not fully here. For this reason sometimes some of the blessings are not fully realised. Death is one case in point. In the kingdom there will be no more death – and consequently no more sickness, which is incipient death. Clearly this is not the case today where people, including Christians, still die. And clearly Christians still get sick.

So though the blessings of the kingdom are available now – and as such healing is available – the provisional nature of the kingdom means that sometimes a particular blessing is not manifested in a particular person’s life. Not all the sick get healed. And that is just a factor in the provisional nature of the kingdom as we presently experience it.

Sickness is incipient death – so there may not be a total victory over it while we are in these bodies of death. Only on the last day, when we receive our resurrection bodies, will salvation be complete.

The parables of the kingdom illustrate this incompleteness of the kingdom. In the parable of the soils not everyone receives the kingdom – this parallels healing. The word of healing goes out, but not all are able to receive it for various reasons.

Freedom from sin and sickness is eschatological. Full freedom will only come with our resurrection. Yet freedom has already come, and we experience it now in partial yet real ways through following Jesus Christ. But can we have a strong expectation of healing today because the kingdom has come in Jesus? The answer is yes. Jesus taught us to pray the prayer of the kingdom: “Your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matt 6:9).” Where is the kingdom to come – answer, on earth. Most Christians think the aim is to get us to heaven. Not so. The gospel is to get heaven to earth. Do you believe God’s will can be done on earth to the same extent as it is in heaven? This prayer is about the coming of God’s kingdom. It is not about our going to heaven. Our needs are met in the kingdom, but that starts with a spiritual relationship with the King.

God commands us to pray that his will shall be done; that his kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven. This is not a prayer for the future, for Christ to come again. When Christ comes again his will WILL be done. Rather it is a prayer for God’s will and kingdom to be manifested in our lives NOW. And part of that is to be free of sickness and disease.