The Healing Word

Announcer: The Healing Word Ministry on One Place is brought to you by the generous donations of people like you. At any time during today's message, feel free to send a prayer request or make a donation using the links provided. Now, I pray you will be blessed as Pastor Jack Morris delivers a message from the Word of God that will encourage and strengthen your faith in him.

Pastor Jack Morris: So I pray in Jesus' name, meaning I pray in the character, the life, the love. When I pray in Jesus' name, I'm just not using a formula, tacking a name, I'm tacking a personality, a life, the one who died and rose again. All of that is in when I say in Jesus' name. Now heaven opens.

Announcer: Welcome to The Healing Word, a ministry dedicated to offering strength and encouragement through God's Word for anyone facing life's challenges. As believers, we want to serve God and walk in his will, though the path isn't always easy. Today's message is here to meet you at your point of need, bringing hope and renewing your faith. Now, here's Pastor Jack Morris.

Pastor Jack Morris: Matthew chapter 3, verses 13 through 17. Notice the first three words. What are the first three words in verse 13? Then Jesus came. Came to be baptized. 18 years supporting his family. He goes back to his village of Nazareth, just a small village, where he and his dad Joseph had a carpenter shop. He apprenticed under Joseph all of those for many years, and then it is thought that Joseph died. And the reason we think he was not available for those 18 years, or most of those 18 years, because when Jesus went back to Nazareth for a brief visit, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath, and he was given the scroll, and he read from the scroll.

He began to teach the people, and the villagers were just literally nonplussed. They were scratching their head. They said, where did this man get all this wisdom? Is not this the carpenter? 18 years they told the story of what Jesus was doing, they being the villagers of Nazareth. They said, we have his mother here, Mary. We have four brothers. They named the brothers. We have his sisters. Now, they didn't name Joseph because it is presumed that Joseph wasn't there. If Joseph had been there, they'd have named him along with Mary. So we presume that Joseph had passed away. Jesus being the eldest son, took over the responsibility of his dad, and he would provide for the family.

Jesus was the firstborn, so he now supports his mother, his four brothers, and his sisters for 18 years. But then the time came. Somehow, by the revelation of the Holy Spirit, he knew it was time. The last night he, I'm sure, cleaned up the tools, hung them up, took off the carpenter's apron, walked out and closed the shop door for the last time. And early the next morning he got up, he went to Jordan to be baptized of John, who was no doubt his cousin. They'd no doubt played together as little boys. But on this occasion, when he approached John, John had a special revelation because John himself said, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." This just isn't a playmate now.

This is the Lamb of God. He's the Savior. John was the Elijah of the New Testament. He was the forerunner of Jesus. Hundreds and hundreds of Jews were going out to be baptized of John. John was preaching repentance and confession of sins, and when he saw Jesus coming, John asked this question, and he tried to deter him, saying, I need to be baptized of you, and you come to me? John was thinking, here's the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. He has no sin of himself, for himself. If he had sin in himself, he need to die for his own sins. A sinner can't die for another sinner's salvation.

Here is the Lamb of God, and he's coming for baptism. Why are you coming? I need to be baptized. I'm not worthy to even take the latches off your shoe and take your sandals off. You come to me? It was a strange thing for John to see Jesus coming to him. Why was Jesus coming to him? Let me tell you, friends, it was for you and your salvation, so that you might go to heaven when you die, so that you might live a victorious life right now. Listen, I pray the Holy Spirit will speak through me, and I pray, oh, how I pray that your heart, your eyes, your ears, your understanding would be open, that you would hear in a way that perhaps you've never heard before.

He came there not for himself. He had no sin to confess. He had no sin to repent of, but you and I were dead in trespasses and sins, and somebody needed to get us up. And it was Jesus, and he's the only one who could do it because he was the Lamb of God who had never sinned and came to save us from our sins. And when John tried to deter Jesus, Jesus said, I have come to fulfill all righteousness. Fulfill all righteousness? Friend, listen to me. Do you have any understanding of what he said? We have quoted that, glossed over it. He came to fulfill all righteousness. What is he talking about? He was saying that you're not righteous before God.

The world is wrong before God. The world does not have right standing with God, and unless somebody helps the world, the world will be lost and never be brought into a right standing with God. Jesus is saying, I have come to bring people into righteousness or into a right standing with God. Somebody said to me some time ago, regarding their children, they said, I know that my children are going to be okay because they believe in Jesus and they know about Christmas, they know about Easter, and I think they're going to be all right. Friend, the Bible says if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart and repent of your sins, thou shalt be saved.

Even the devil believes and trembles. Friend, that means that you and I have to acknowledge who we are, sinners without the grace of God, until God's grace comes upon us and our sins are taken away. We need to repent and confess, which many of you have done, and if you haven't done it yet, there's never a better opportune time than right now to let that happen to you. Right relationship with God. I have come to fulfill all righteousness. It's not fulfilled. People aren't fulfilled in their life. People are empty and lost and lonely. Oh, they have friends, but not the kind of friend that we'd call a soulmate, not the kind of friend whose their name and my name is written in the book of life together.

We're the family of God. We're the church of Jesus Christ, all because he came and gave himself. Now, to fulfill all righteousness, meaning bring us into a right standing with God, close that gap between us and God now, and we can live a right standing with God life now, a victorious life, a good life, a wonderful life. We couldn't live it without him. And then when we die, we go to heaven. So we have the best of both worlds because Jesus came. Now look what happened in verse 16. Do you want to read it with me in unison? 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.

Now, as soon as Jesus was baptized. Baptism, here it is. Here it is, friends. Baptism is a sign of judgment. When you're baptized, when Jesus was baptized, a sign of judgment. The Bible says, listen, the wages of sin is death. Death not only physical, but a spiritual death that is an eternal separation from God. The wages of sin. Now Jesus came to pay your bill, to pay your wages. Friend, you had a wager, a paycheck of hell waiting on you. Your name was on it, and you lived a life that endorsed that check. Who was going to cash that check? Jesus said to the Father, I'll cash it. So when Jesus goes down into the water, speaking, now that is a sign that pointed to the cross when he took our sins and he died on that cross, nailing our sins to the cross.

Jesus is saying, I am symbolizing what I am yet going to do. So he was baptized. He died to our sin. He died for our sin. God's judgment of wrath came upon him. Jesus was standing there. You were standing there. God's wrath was about to come down. The wages of sin is death. And Jesus said, step aside. And Jesus stepped over, and the wrath of God hit him. Friend, you're free today. You're a new creature in Christ Jesus today because of God's mercy and grace. We ought to celebrate and rejoice in the Lord. This was a sign of God's judgment and of him dying to sin. Then when John the Baptist pulled him up out of the water, that was a sign of the resurrection.

Jesus is saying, I'm going to die for the sins of the world, and then I'm going to be buried. He was buried, and then he brought him up out of the water, but the third day I'm going to rise again. This is only a sign of that which I'm going to do, and I'm going to do it. The devil did everything within his power to stop Jesus. Phil, I think I better go ahead next week with that message. After that baptism, he was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. He also took your temptation, what Jesus took off of you and me. I don't know that we'll ever know until eternity, and maybe even we'll not fully, completely comprehend it then.

But Jesus went down in judgment. Only a couple of years later, approximately age 33, Jesus was crucified. And when he was crucified, that was going down. That was God's judgment. God was judging Jesus. You and I deserve to be put on the cross. Jesus said, I'll take their place. I'll be their substitute. And Jesus took our place on that cross, and the wrath of God fell on him. Heaven was open that day. Heaven was open when Jesus was baptized, and he came up out of the water, letting us know that the judgment of God and the resurrection of Jesus would open heaven to all of us. Heaven is no longer brass.

It's Jesus penetrated heaven. He broke through in great victory. Jesus did because of God's great love to us. He rose from the dead, and heaven was open. Heaven was open. All these Christians that I've been burying since December and January, and I'm still not finished. And for all these years, I have sent many people from the Largo Community Church into the presence of God because heaven is open. Jesus opened it. The scripture says heaven opened when Stephen, one of the first deacons, and board members, wherever you are, former board members, present board members, remember there's a great legacy that has followed you.

Know who you are, know what you've been called to. Know who has graced you and put you in a place of leadership in the church. Here was the first deacon, Stephen. He testified to Jesus by the life he lived. He testified to Jesus by the death he died. They took up stones and they mashed his skull. Hey, deacon, it's a sacrifice, a love sacrifice. They mashed his skull, but when he was going down, he said, I see heaven open and the Son of God standing at the right hand of the Father. Christians, deacons, Sunday school teachers, choir members, worshippers, heaven is open. Do you see it in your heart?

Are you aware that you're not just a person of this world, a person of time? You live in a temporal body that dies, but heaven is going to be open to you. It is open to you. And I'm so thankful when I can stand in this pulpit, that casket is there before me, knowing that heaven is open, and that dear brother, that dear sister, that saint of God that lived for Jesus, part of this church all these years. Friend, the Bible tells us that God opened heaven to Stephen, and he died seeing heaven open. But not just that. Let me tell you something. Heaven is open in prayer. Yes. You can pray. Heaven is open to you.

Do you know the advantages that you have in God because you're saved? You're not just saved to go to heaven, you're saved to live a happy, just joyous, victorious, overcoming life right now, regardless of the temptation that I'm going to talk to you about next week. Right now, victory in the Lord Jesus Christ. The heavens opened. I can pray. My prayer will go immediately to the throne of grace. Heaven is not a ceiling that is closed, a ceiling closing off heaven. Heaven is open to me today, and the Bible, by the power of the Holy Spirit, is saying, let us come boldly to the throne of grace. Why are you waiting?

Be bold. You're a child of God. You've been redeemed. Jesus took your judgment. Why are you quiet? Open your heart, open your mouth, talk to the Lord. Heaven is open. And then the scripture says the Spirit of God descended. The Holy Spirit, like a dove, came down and lit upon Jesus, and Jesus seeing what was taking place. The dove, the dove. Remember in Genesis 1:1, you can't get any further back than Genesis 1:1. That's as far back as you can go. The scripture says the earth was without form, the earth was void, there was darkness upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered over it all.

Much like a helicopter will come down and stop in midair, the propeller's still going, and it just hovers there. And God looked at the terrible chaos on the face of the earth, the Spirit of God, and then God began to speak. Let there be light. Light came. Let dry land appear. Dry land appeared. Friend, what I'm trying to say today, when I'm preaching a sermon or the Sunday school teacher is teaching or the choir is singing, God is speaking. Let there be light. Let there be joy. Let there be healing. The Word of God is not a closed book. I can't just decide, I think I'll go out and hear a sermon today.

I might not be able to get there for the next several weeks. I'll go hear another. Friend, doesn't the Word of God mean something to you? Of course it does. It's the Word of God that brings light into your soul. The Holy Spirit brought light and life to this earth, and your life and mine, chaos, darkness, covered with sin. And then the Holy Spirit comes. The Holy Spirit descends. I hear a message. I hear a word. It's always, always the word. Like Bob Hill said, you're going to hear the word. And it's the word that heals, the word that saves, the word that brings faith, the word that causes worship and rejoicing.

Yes, sometimes I tell some little stories, and they're humorous, and I'm happy to do it because I'm a laughter. I like to laugh. But those little stories don't do anything for your soul. They don't open heaven, they don't get you into the kingdom of God. What they do do is sometimes help illustrate a particular point, and so we'll continue to use those illustrations. Jesus used them all the time. They're called parables. Every sermon, he preached parables. And the Spirit of God descended on Jesus. Now I'm praying and believing that the Spirit of God will descend upon you today. If there's chaos, if there's darkness, if there's conflict, whatever it is, the Spirit of God, where the Word is going forth, you can be sure the Holy Ghost is hovering over us today, waiting to come upon you, to bless you, to forgive your sins, to heal you of your backslidings, to take away the apathy of serving God, and to put energy, spiritual enthusiasm into your heart and get you going again.

The Holy Spirit is hovering. You see, the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus. Now, I'm going to close, but this is so important. The Holy Spirit, see if I can say it right, is not coming upon you because you're you. The Holy Spirit came upon Jesus. The Holy Spirit will come upon you because the Holy Spirit will see Jesus in you. The Holy Spirit only comes upon Jesus. Are you living for Jesus? Is Jesus on the throne of your heart? Is Jesus bringing victory into your life? Heaven opens, the Holy Spirit comes, and God sees his Son, the Son that he said, that I'm well pleased, my beloved Son, whom I love.

He sees his Son in you, and on his Son the Holy Spirit descends. Friend, don't expect to receive anything from God unless Jesus is on the throne of your heart. And when God sees Jesus, the Holy Spirit will come. The Holy Spirit will come. Sometimes we're praying prayers and we're wondering, why aren't those prayers answered? Why don't I have more energy? Why isn't there healing? This may not be the only answer, and I'm sure it isn't. But does the Holy Spirit, does the Father see Jesus? The Holy Spirit comes upon Jesus in you. Now, when the rapture takes place or you die before the rapture takes place, heaven is still open.

You leave this body, and you go into the presence of the Lord. Why? Because heaven is open to Jesus. Heaven is open to, and heaven will open. I was going to start naming some of the people we've just had funerals for that I know that are in heaven. But they went into heaven because God opened heaven's door and he saw Jesus in that person's body and he said, my son has entrance. My son has entrance. And that person went into heaven because God saw Jesus and it was Jesus that opened heaven and caused the entrance. Now the same thing when you pray. When you pray, God is not necessarily hearing your prayer.

He is, but he's hearing the prayer, listen, that is prayed in Jesus' name. I don't go over there and say, Lord, in the name of Jack Morris, whose sins have been forgiven, whose name is in the book of life, who tithes his income. Jack Morris is a sinner, saved by grace. So I pray in Jesus' name, meaning I pray in the character, the life, the love. I pray in Jesus, and when I pray in Jesus' name, I'm just not using a formula, tacking a name, I'm tacking a personality, a life, the one who died and rose again. All of that is in when I say in Jesus' name. Now heaven opens. Now heaven opens. The blessings of God begin to come.

Healing and salvation, forgiveness and happiness and joy and power to go through that temptation, that difficulty, that conflict that you're going through. You say, I can never stand it. I'm going through this by myself. Of course you can't, but Jesus is in you, and God's spirit is coming upon Jesus that is in you. That's why it says, seek first the kingdom of God. We said, oh, when I get ready to get this done, and I'll try to, I'll try to do it. When I get this, I'm not looking at my watch because I'm going to keep right on preaching, maybe. No, I'm not. I'm almost finished. No, but we're serving God with our wristwatch.

Friend, have you heard the word today? Have you received the word today? God's blessing has come. This is the holy word of God and a voice from heaven. You see, God is communicating with us. He's communicated with you this morning. He has. Now, if you have been passive, you're not as energetic for the Lord, you're serving God in a convenient way. Now you need to come to the Lord and tell the Lord that and clear the fog away so that God can move that fog away and look in and see Jesus in there, so that your life will become victorious and meaningful, overcoming, so that right now, right now, you will have a resurrected life.

All right, God spoke. Now God is speaking today, but I have to say, many Christians aren't hearing the word anymore. They're looking for something else, and whatever that anything else is, other than the word of God, it will not bless your soul. It just won't do it. It's the word. He has spoken. He has called. Jesus is available to sit upon the throne of your heart, provided you will bring him in, and God will see Jesus in you, and the blessing of God will come upon Jesus in you, and then the victory will be yours.

Announcer: Are you seeking a way to start your week filled with hope and inspiration? Every Monday morning, receive a fresh devotional delivered right to your inbox to uplift your spirit and encourage you throughout the week. Pastor Jack Morris carefully crafts each message with scripture that speaks to the heart, reflections to inspire growth, and practical steps to help you live out your faith every day. These are words of hope and strength, meant to meet you right where you are. Ready to begin? Just visit thehealingword.com and click the banner to sign up. Start each week with renewed purpose, feeling connected to God and ready for what lies ahead.

Join us tomorrow for another Healing Word message. Until then, blessings on you.