The Healing Word

Guest (Male): We're soaking up all of this like a sponge. We talk more about politics, we talk more about government, we talk more about economy than we do talk about Jesus or sing about Jesus. I mean, we, if we're not careful, we're going to be just filled with what's going on in the newspapers and on the news and all that is not subjected to Jesus.

Pastor Jack Morris: Notice it says in the scripture, verse nine, Hebrews two, verse nine, "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels." But we see Jesus. The question is, do we see him? Are we looking for him?

But we see Jesus. Now, the verse right before that, the writer is telling us that God has put everything under Jesus, subjected everything to Jesus. But right now, we do not see everything subjected to Jesus because of all the sin, all the transgression, all the hate, the bloodshed, racism, prejudice, lying, bloodshed. On and on it goes. We don't see that yet.

What we see in the papers and on the television and on the news is rankling and wrangling over and over repeatedly. If we keep seeing that, whatever we're looking at is going to get inside of us. We're soaking up all of this like a sponge. We talk more about politics, we talk more about government, we talk more about economy than we do talk about Jesus or sing about Jesus. I mean, we, if we're not careful, we're going to be just filled with what's going on in the newspapers and on the news and all that is not subjected to Jesus.

Guest (Male): But then the writer says, "But we see Jesus." We're going to lift our eyes up above all of the lying and the cheating and the corruption and all the wrong that is in the world. We're going to look at Jesus. Aren't you tired of all the wrangling that is going on, that you're hearing about? Aren't you tired of all that and all the corruption and the sin and the murder and the divorce and all that is going on in the world today? It just seems like the world has turned against God in every way.

Now that they're talking about lesbianism and gayism and homosexuality. If you love somebody, you ought to be able to go ahead and do whatever you want to do. Love covers everything. Love is just lovely. Now they're saying if we love two or three or four people, why don't we just go ahead and marry two or three or four people and start polygamy because love is all there is.

Friend, it's not going to get any better. Yeah, we're moving closer and closer to the sins that we can never even imagine that would have ever come our way. But it's now just open and it's there for everyone, and particularly our children. Do you know there was a time they said you had to reach a child before he was or she was 18 if you got them into the kingdom of God? Now the number has been dropped to age 12. You have to reach them before age 12 if they're going to really get into the kingdom of God and begin to live a Christian life. There are exceptions to that, of course.

Pastor Jack Morris: But the writer to the Hebrews is saying, "But we see Jesus." We who are born again, we who have our names in the Book of Life, we're looking at something different because we are of a different world. Am I saying anything strange here this morning?

We're looking at Jesus, not with a natural eye, not with the physical eye, but with the eye of the heart, the eye of the soul. We are looking at the Lord Jesus with the vision of faith. We are seeing him in the way that Thomas spoke to Jesus about in John chapter 20.

Jesus was raised from the dead. The disciples said to Thomas, "We have seen him." Thomas says, "Except I see in his hands and his feet the nail prints, I won't believe." Then Jesus appears and says, "Look, Thomas, here's my hands, here's the nail prints." And Thomas believed. Then Jesus said, "You believe because you see, but blessed are those who never saw me in the flesh and yet believe." He was talking about us. We have never seen Jesus in the flesh, but only by the power of the Holy Spirit can we catch a vision of Jesus and his love and his mission toward us and for us. For we walk by faith, we don't walk by sight. In the scripture, faith is always spoken of as sight. We see by faith. Faith is the sight of the soul.

Now, here's what I'm trying to do this morning, and I am praying that the Holy Spirit will help me. The Holy Spirit will guard my words. The Holy Spirit will make my words plain that the Word of God might truly come and be understood. We read the stories of Jesus in the Bible. We read about them. They're beautiful stories. And we close the book. We read the Bible today. We read the stories.

Guest (Male): But the Holy Spirit wants us now to see these stories that we're reading. By faith, see Jesus in action. Once we see Jesus in action, then we will begin to experience Jesus in action. Jesus wants us to experience what we're reading. We're not experiencing it to the degree he wants us to. But today, by the help of the Holy Spirit, we are going to believe and receive.

Now he was made a little lower than the angels, simply meaning he came into the world in a human form, in a body. Mary built a body for him. He was born into the world, put in a manger, a little tiny baby. Angels sang. Shepherds and wise men came and knelt. Here he is now in the flesh. He grows up and now he begins to do great and mighty things.

These great and mighty things that he began to do and that he did, I want to read about it, but now in my heart, by faith, I want to see it and I want to experience it. I want to experience Jesus. I don't want to just sing about him. I want to do that. I want to read about him. I want to do that. But I want to see him and experience him the way he wants me to see him and experience him.

Pastor Jack Morris: We see Jesus. Do we see him? We see Jesus. Are we looking for him? We see Jesus. Now I'm going to use those words over and over this morning. We see Jesus. Those three words. But we see Jesus.

The world is seeing the world. The world is caught up in many pursuits and enterprises. The world is caught up in politics and government and bloodshed and war and finances and oh, just so many goals and ambitions, desires and wishes that they're just occupying us. But not us. We see Jesus because our citizenship is in heaven. We're born into this world, but we've been born again into another world by the blood of Jesus Christ. That's what we're going to celebrate.

Guest (Male): But we see Jesus. What do we see? We see him healing. Now listen to this. A blind man receives sight, a deaf man receives hearing. A lady who was crippled and all bent over, she's now straightened up, she's tall. There's a leper that is cleansed. Sometimes Jesus spoke the word of healing. Sometimes he reached out and touched or put on his hands. One time he made clay with spittle. But he healed.

Now I want to see that. Here's an illustration. Blind Bartimaeus is on the outskirts of the city of Jericho. Jesus is walking out of the city of Jericho. Somewhere along the way, Blind Bartimaeus heard about Jesus. He never saw Jesus. His eyes were blind. But he had heard. Friend, it's what we hear. We hear about Jesus. Blind Bartimaeus heard about Jesus.

Pastor Jack Morris: And when all the commotion was going on, Blind Bartimaeus apparently asked, "What's going on?" Someone said, "Jesus of Nazareth." "I heard about him! I heard about him. Here's my chance. Here's my opportunity." It's Sunday morning. We're at the communion table. This is my day to receive something from God.

Well, Blind Bartimaeus cried out, "Lord Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me." Can you see that old blind man? You've got to see. There he is, begging away. Here's Jesus, here's a crowd of people. Here's this old man calling out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me." Can you hear him? "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me."

Guest (Male): Some of the people said, "Be quiet. You're making too much noise. This isn't proper. Be quiet." Well, this was his day. This was his chance. This was his opportunity. This was Sunday morning to him. This was Holy Communion service to him. And he cried out that much the more. Friend, he put his body, soul, and spirit into seeking after Jesus. And Jesus stopped.

Pastor Jack Morris: We're just too casual about our worship. Jesus stops and says, "What's going on? Who is that fellow?" I'm using my own words now, it's not in the book quite like that. So he said, "Bring him over here." And the people told him, said, "Hey, Bartimaeus, he's asking for you."

Bartimaeus jumped to his feet. Nothing wrong with his legs. And he took his coat off. Watch him. He took his coat off and he threw his coat. Now, why would a blind man do that? A beggar, he needed that coat. He was saying, in so many words, "I'm going to see where I threw my coat in just a few moments. I'm going to be able to see and go back and pick it up." And Jesus says, "You're healed." He went back and picked his coat up.

Guest (Male): Now friend, I've got to get involved in that. Now, what does that story tell me? It tells me that I can go to Jesus with my physical needs. That there should be no hesitation whatsoever. Friend, come on, get earnest, get excited, put your heart into this thing. Let the Lord Jesus do something beautiful for you today. Jesus is here today to lift heavy burdens.

How about loneliness? We see Jesus comforting the lonely. Now, there are lonely people. Every person sometime or other experience loneliness. There are single people who are lonely for companionship. There are married people who have a companion and they are lonely with a companion in the house. There's no real intimacy and interaction between them anymore. And there are people who are lonely with a particular problem that nobody can reach that problem. Nobody can touch them, even though they do have an intimate, significant other there with them. No one can quite reach that problem, it's so deep. It's a particular problem that they have.

Pastor Jack Morris: Last week, Fran and I were in Missouri. I was at a convention. I had an opportunity to minister. I was invited to do that and I did. 50 miles, 60 miles away, there's a retirement home where there are aged, retired pastors and missionaries. And Fran and I have a dear friend that is in that retirement community, a retired pastor. A dear friend that we've known for many years. He's maybe 87, 88 years old.

He's all alone, but he has many people around him. He had a great ministry for a number of years. He and his wife were in our home. We were in their home. He was older preacher, and when he pastored, he would help me and let me come and preach in his church so I could practice and get ready for Largo Community Church someday. Well, she betrayed him. The wife betrayed him, betrayed him in a terrible way. Fran and I couldn't believe it. We knew these people. We were close to these people. We knew their children, their children the same age of our children.

Now this old, old pastor, he gave up his ministry. He's a nobleman. He said, "I can't go on any longer pastoring a church, not with what has happened. My wife playing the piano, my wife singing songs, my wife so active, and then she did what she did and embarrassed and betrayed us to the community and to everybody else." He's the one of the most noble men of integrity and kindness that I have met. I don't know that I've met anyone more noble than this man.

Guest (Male): Actually, while I was there with him, Fran and I went to church with him in a chapel service and all of those old people came in. I'm glad Fran and I weren't old, but all those white-haired, all those white-haired people, we just felt right at home. No, I didn't really feel at home. I thought these people are too old for me.

Pastor Jack Morris: These elderly missionaries came up to me and asked me, said, "Is that man your friend?" I said, "Yes, he is. He's my friend." He said, "You're with him?" I said, "Yes, I'm with him." He said, "That man has the gift of kindness. Has the gift of kindness." What a reputation.

When the meeting was over, there was a hospital, a small hospital for these old clergy people, and it had a big, almost as wide as that room, a big corridor, a small hospital, and the corridor, hospital corridor came right into the chapel. And all those people on wheelchairs, the missionaries and all over the world, there were about 200, but they had been missionaries in various parts of the world. Well, we grabbed wheelchairs, and my dear old brother, he's baby, he only weighs maybe 106 pounds. He's hooped now and he took the wheelchair and he went with a wheelchair. I grabbed a wheelchair and there were people, others who could walk and push wheelchairs. We were taking them back to their room and getting them ready for lunchtime. I mean, it was, it was a sight to behold and to be part of.

Well, this old pastor and I went out to lunch and Fran, and we talked. And he started telling me about the days when he pastored here in Maryland, in Virginia, very close to all of us.

Then he told me about the brokenness in the family. I mean, this man, Bible college and university trained. After the breakup, he went, he became a school teacher. And how he told me about the call to preach and how things just went wrong. You know, sometimes things go wrong, there's no explanation, and all I could do was listen. And I listened and I knew the story. I'd known it for years.

And after we would talk for a while, he said, "Oh, I appreciate you listening. So good to have somebody to talk to once in a while." The people all around, but who knows the story? We knew the story and he could talk to us and he could open up and he could share.

Guest (Male): He loves God, he serves the Lord. I gave him some money, some of your money, help your neighbor money. I knew you would have wanted me to. It was a joy being with him. But what I'm trying to say, friend, some of us have pain that nobody can reach it.

When I was finished talking with him, his pain was still there. The hurt was still there, the memory, the scars were still there. But he so appreciated somebody listening. And we held hands and we prayed. We did all the right things. But then I left and I had to come home back here and he stays there. But what I'm saying, sometimes we can have family members, even church members, even pastor, all around us. But nobody can reach the pain like Jesus can. Why? Because Jesus experienced the pain. He knows the pain. He knows what betrayal is. He was tempted and he was bruised and hurt and wounded in every way that we have been.

Friend, I want you to know today, if you're hurting and you're hurting deep and no one has been able to touch that pain yet, I want you to know Jesus is here today. Jesus is here. I hope you didn't come just to hear a sermon, but I hope you came to experience Jesus and his healing. We see Jesus healing. We see Jesus comforting. We see Jesus.

Pastor Jack Morris: He's here today. Jesus is here. What is your need? The Lord Jesus is here to meet that need. And he's here to erase the past. I don't have a whole lot of time today, but let me tell you this story. There's an organization called Chi Alpha. It's for young college students, university students. It's nationwide. I became somewhat involved in it many, many years ago and I know a little bit about it. There's a man and a woman. Her name is Kay, his name is Brad. They are campus pastors at two universities, North Dakota University at Fargo and Minnesota State University at Moorhead. These universities are only about five miles apart. These people are campus pastors at the North Dakota University. They pastor 600 students. At the Minnesota, they pastor 300 students.

Guest (Male): Well, Kay was molested sexually as a little girl by family members. And when she grew up, as sometimes the case is, not always, but sometimes when a child is sexually molested, the child becomes promiscuous sexually when they become a teenager or an adult. And this happened to Kay. She became promiscuously sexual. And she had been raped.

She tells this story to these kids. She's married to a godly man. She's a godly woman now. They have two children. But Kay couldn't forget and she couldn't forgive after she came to Jesus and accepted Jesus as her own personal Lord and Savior. She couldn't forgive those people who had done that wrong to her. Friend, you can be saved and still have a past that needs help. But Jesus is with us to help us. He's with us to help us.

Pastor Jack Morris: And Kay went into her pastor years ago and she said, "I can't forgive. I know I'm saved, but I can't forgive. I still have bitterness, I still have anger, I still have hate. And I can't move on with my life." Friend, unforgiveness will shut you down spiritually. It'll stop you.

The pastor talked to her. He couldn't quite reach that pain, but he said, "Kay, you must forgive, even as Jesus has forgiven you, you must forgive. Then you can go on with your Christian life." Kay left the pastor's office, came into the sanctuary, came into the kneeler, knelt down and began to sob and pray uncontrollably, sobbing and praying. Friend, we need to cry over our sins. We need to have our heart broken over our past. We need to come to Jesus with a broken heart because the scripture says he is near those of a broken heart and of a contrite spirit.

And Kay said years ago as a young woman, young adult, while at that altar praying, she said, "I felt the power and presence of Jesus come." She said, "The bitterness went away, the anger went away, the hurt went away. God made me completely brand new." Friend, only one person can eradicate and purge the past.

Guest (Male): Some of us have sinned and broken fellowship with other Christians after becoming a Christian. And we're trying to sweep it under the rug and forget about it that it never happened. It was their fault. Friend, it may be their fault, but you're the one that is sinning with unforgiveness in your heart. Come on, somebody. Are you with me today? God wants to help you and me, but we need to see Jesus today. We need to see Jesus.