1. INTRODUCTION
1. (Series Slide)
2. Good morning! My name is David Sorn, and I’m the Lead Pastor here at Renovation Church.
1. Let me start with a question: Can God still heal today?
1. Many of you already have an answer to that question.
2. For some of you, it’s an automatic, “Absolutely! I’ve seen Him do it!”
3. For others of you, it’s a “I don’t know”
4. For others, you’re thinking:
1. “That sounds kind of far fetched.”
2. Or maybe it’s just “God doesn’t do that anymore…or at least not for me”
3. Because this isn’t just theoretical.
1. For many of us it’s actually quite personal.
1. You prayed God would heal your dad of cancer, or your friend, of even for yourself.
4. And so as we answer this tough question today, let’s start not with a system, but with a story.
1. Go ahead and grab a Bible
1. Matthew 8:5-13
2. Page 662
1. We are in week 2 of a series called “The Authority of Jesus”
1. Which is kind of a different style of series for us.
2. We are still teaching verse-by-verse through a passage…but 6 passages from different places
1. All on the Authority of Jesus
1. So let me show you where we are going
3. The Authority of Jesus
4. 2/15: Authority over the Storm
5. 2/22: Authority to Heal
6. 3/1: Authority of Teaching
7. 3/8: Authority to Serve
8. 3/15: Authority over Darkness
9. 3/22: Authority over Death
1. This will help us get laser focus on a particular Biblical aspect of the character of God.
2. THE PASSAGE
1. Okay, let’s get to today’s passage
1. Matthew 8:5-13
2. Page 662
3. (Matthew 8:5-13) – NIV
4. 5 When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6 “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”
   7 Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”
   8 The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
   10 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. 11 I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
   13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment.
5. (Authority to Heal)
6. Now, at this time in history, the Romans were both occupying and controlling Jewish lands.
1. This passage centers around the faith of a Roman Centurion.
1. A Centurion was a Roman soldier in charge of 100 men
1. And centurion in our passage had a well-liked servant who was paralyzed and suffering terribly.
7. And when Jesus offered to come heal the servant (look at verse 8), “The Centurion replied, “Lord, I do not DESERVE to have you come under my roof”
1. And that statement really is twofold.
1. One, the centurion can feel his sin in comparison to the perfect Jesus. He feels undeserving.
2. And two, most Jews of those days believed that Gentile (that is a non-Jew) homes were not worthy of them…
1. And so the Centurion likely believed Jesus would never come to his Gentile home (even though Jesus would have)
2. And so the Centurion says, “Just say the Word,” and he’ll be healed.
1. This is great faith! In fact, Jesus marvels at it.
8. And the centurion says he believes this because of Jesus’ what? His AUTHORITY!
1. Did you see that?
1. He says, “I know how it works. I tell this soldier to go, and he goes. This one to come, and he comes”
1. And they obey, why?
1. Because in those days of the Roman Empire, the Emperor had full authority, which he delegated to his officers.
1. So when a centurion spoke, he was representing the authority of the emperor.
1. So if a soldier disobeyed, it was like he was disobeying the emperor himself.
2. And the Centurion sees that Jesus has the same Authority over sickness and disease.
1. Jesus has come on the Authority of God the Father (who is much greater than the Roman Emperor)
2. So as the Son of God, Jesus has full power…and full authority to heal anyone He chooses
9. OBJECTIONS SET-UP
1. And this is what we see throughout the Gospel narratives about Jesus
1. Jesus acts like what you would expect the Son of God to act like when he arrives on earth.
1. He heals the leper, heals the paralytic lowered through the roof, heals the man with the withered hand, a woman with bleeding issues, the blind, the deaf, even heals a man whose ear has been cut off.
1. In fact, the Bible records 27 unique healings done by Jesus
2. So for most people, the question isn’t, “Did Jesus heal?”…it’s
1. Does Jesus still heal today?
1. Is it possible?
1. Not that we don’t want to consult doctors and use modern medicine…and all the wisdom available to us. YES
2. But Does Jesus still heal today?
1. I’ve been teaching the Bible for just over 20 years now, and I don’t think I’ve ever done a message just on this question.
2. Now, as Bible-believing church, we see unmistakably that Jesus is a healer, and because Jesus is still alive today, we believe that, yes, He can still heal today.
1. But what if you don’t believe that?
1. Plenty of people don’t…and they have well-thought-out objections
1. So what I want to do is to cover those objections this morning.
1. Some are theological, and some are practical, and some are more personal.
3. And listen, I’m not a big showman, and I’m not even that emotional of a person.
1. So this is going to be one of the most chill & logical talks you’ve ever heard on in your life on “healing”
1. I’m the son of a math teacher, so we’re going to approach this systematically by talking through the four biggest objections
1. Let’s start with the first one.
10. OBJECTION #1
1. Does Jesus Still Heal Today?
2. Objection #1: Miracles ended when the apostles died
1. Out of our four objections, this is the most theological objection
1. I remember when I was in college, and I was a new Christian, I had told a Christian friend back home that I believed God could do miracles still.
1. And his mom, who was this amazing Christian woman, sat me down when I was home from college, and tried to explain to me why Jesus didn’t do that anymore.
1. She even gave me a book to read!
2. This is a certain type of theology called:
1. Cessationism: The belief that the miraculous gifts were signs to authenticate the apostles’ message, and thus once the New Testament was complete, and the church was founded, those gifts died out.
1. Before you throw this out as a fringe belief, believe it or not, Cessationism was actually the dominant Protestant belief during the Reformation of the 1500’s in the days of Martin Luther & John Calvin.
1. It’s also what the majority of Christians believed from the 1920’s to 1960’s during the peak of Fundamentalism
2. And again, it isn’t that these folks didn’t believe that Jesus did the miracles he did, they just didn’t believe that miraculous gifts (speaking in tongues, prophecy, healing etc.) happened anymore or were necessary for the church.
3. So how would we Biblically answer this first objection?
1. Because answering from our own experience, while important, is not how we develop right theology about who God is and how He operates
1. Well, take a look at our text in Matthew 8.
1. Who performs the miracle?
1. Is it an apostle, one of the 12 disciples?
1. No, it’s Jesus.
1. Jesus, who has the authority to override basic biological functioning.
1. Why?
2. Because he invented biology!
4. Does Jesus Still Heal Today?
5. Objection #1: Miracles ended when the apostles died
1. And so we should ask then: “Was Jesus’ authority to heal diminished or lessened after he ascended back to heaven?”
1. No. In Matthew 28, right before he ascended, He even declared, “All authority on heaven and earth has been given to me”
1. And so He still has authority over sickness today.
6. Another way you can respond to this particular objection is to point out that the miracles in the NT were not limited to the 12 apostles only.
1. People like Stephen, Philip, and Ananias and others also performed miracles in the New Testament
7. You can also answer this objection by studying the spiritual gifts passages in the Bible
1. Spiritual Gifts Chapters
2. 1 Corinthians 12
3. Romans 12
4. Ephesians 4
5. (which I encourage you to write down & study later)
1. These particular passages talk about the spiritual gifts that believers are given so that the church can function.
1. And they each list miraculous gifts even (like healing), but keep in mind, these lists were given for ordinary people in the church, not just the 12 disciples.
1. And so it would be odd for Paul to instruct his churches to use these gifts if the gifts were meant to end as the last apostles died out (as that wasn’t even that long after Paul wrote!)
11. OBJECTION #2
1. But let’s get to second objection
2. Does Jesus Still Heal Today?
3. Objection #1: Miracles ended when the apostles died
4. Objection #2: If God still heals, why doesn’t He heal everyone?
1. This one is often more personal than theological.
1. Maybe you’re thinking:
1. “If God still heals, why didn’t he heal my mom when she got Parkinson’s, and I prayed for healing?”
1. I prayed and prayed, but nothing happened.
2. Or maybe you’re thinking,
1. “If God can heal and He loves us, why would he watch us suffer? Why would a good God not heal us?”
5. Let me answer that in a couple of different ways because those are important questions
1. It’s important to point out that not everyone in the Bible is healed.
1. Yes, in today’s passage, the Centurion’s servant is healed, but that’s not always the case in Scripture
1. In 2 Timothy, Paul had to leave his friend Trophimus behind in Miletus because Trophimus was so sick (so obviously Paul couldn’t heal him)
1. Last year we read together in 1 Timothy that Timothy was frequently sick, and Paul even tells him to drink a bit more wine for his stomach
2. And in 2 Corinthians, we learn that Paul himself prays 3 times for God to “remove the thorn in his flesh,” which most scholars speculate was some sort or ailment (perhaps with his eyes), and yet God doesn’t heal the Apostle Paul of all people.
1. God instead tells Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you”
1. And so it absolutely is a false teaching when people say, “It’s always God’s will to heal”
1. No, in fact, God often intends for us, as Pastor Nate said last week, to go through the storm.
6. One thing that is really important to understand: healing isn’t an end in and of itself, healing is meant to be a sign that points people to God.
1. Which is why we see SO much of it in Bible while Jesus is on earth!
1. In fact, even now, if I ever hear a story of God healing someone, many times it comes from missionaries overseas
1. I think of the Timothy Initiative, which we support from our missions fund.
1. They plant churches in mostly among unreached people groups
1. And the Timothy Initiative is just a group of normal Bible-believing churches like us, but when you come to a new region where literally no one believes, often the way that God gets their attention, so that the Gospel can be even heard, is through the miraculous.
2. And yet, after groups or nations have been primarily reached, we see in history that the frequency of miracles will often decrease.
1. Now, there are a lot of reasons for that, but at least one of them is because God doesn’t want the miracle to become the primary focus.
1. He is to be our primary focus.
2. And remember, the stage of Biblical history that we’re in is what theologians call the “already, but not yet”
1. The Kingdom of God has come, but we won’t experience the full power of the Kingdom until heaven…where everyone will be healed.
12. OBJECTION #3:
1. Let’s take a look at a 3rd objection:
2. Does Jesus Still Heal Today?
3. Objection #1: Miracles ended when the apostles died
4. Objection #2: If God still heals, why doesn’t He heal everyone?
5. Objection #3: If I’ve ever heard of a healing, it looks fake or even manipulative
1. This is a fair objection.
1. There are a lot of showmen and fakers out there like “the Benny Hinn’s of the world” who are faking miracles for money.
1. And unfortunately, much of this has been exported from America to all over the world.
1. I was in Mozambique a few years ago, and they were praying for people to be filled with God’s spirit, and they’d often (like you might see on TV), put their hands on people, and the people would fall over.
1. And I’m totally out of my element, right.
1. Culture shock.
2. And I watched one of my translators (young guy, early 20’s) put his hand on someone’s head and literally just pushed them over.
1. And I grabbed him, and I said, “Buddy, that is not of God. Let’s look at this (the Bible) together…that’s not in here.
2. When Jesus is healing, there’s nothing flashy or attention-grabbing about it.
1. In our passage in Matthew 8, he’s not even in the same room with the servant.
2. But the fake and flashy stuff IS out there.
1. And with the proliferation of social media, it’s worse.
1. And it’ll get even worse now with AI
2. So what do we do about that?
1. Well, I think of it this way: the existence of counterfeit money does not change the fact that real money exists.
1. If you found a fake $100 bill, you wouldn’t say, “Ha, there’s your proof! Real money does not exist!”
1. And just because you see someone faking a healing, doesn’t mean God can’t still do that.
6. I mean, think of it this way, most people believe that God created the entire universe.
1. Most people also believe that when they die, God is going to take something inside of them (called a soul) and miraculously transport it to another dimension called heaven where they will live forever.
1. And so if you already believe those two things, it’s not any more of a stretch to believe that this SAME God could heal someone’s pain in their wrist today.
1. In fact, it would actually be illogical to believe in a God that was like, “Yeah, created the Milky Way, no problem! But I can’t figure out what to do with that wrist!”
2. Again, I’m just trying to approach this not through emotion or crazy belief, but through the Scriptures and logic.
1. So much so that I want you to realize that
1. Almost every prayer request you pray is a request for God to do the miraculous
3. When you pray, “God help my 26-year-old daughter become a Christian…”
1. …you’re not asking God to just let things play out
1. …you’re asking him to miraculously intervene somehow!
1. To interrupt her thoughts…to convince her to read a Christian book, anything!
4. And similarly, when you pray, “God, my 4-year old is really down from this Influenza B thing that’s going around. His fever is high, his cough is bad. God, would you just help him get better?”
1. Are you not praying for a miraculous healing?
1. When we talk to God like that, no one really means, “God I actually don’t want you to do anything. Just let Influenza work its natural course. Just checking in to say ‘hi.”
1. NO! You’re praying that God would heal your child. Or, at least, shorten up the time they’re sick! Maybe from 5 days to 2 days!”
1. We’re so afraid to pray for healing, we just pray for a lot of mini healings instead!
2. So the truth is, you’re probably already praying for healing without knowing it.
13. 4th OBJECTION
1. Let me cover one more objection
2. Does Jesus Still Heal Today?
3. Objection #1: Miracles ended when the apostles died
4. Objection #2: If God still heals, why doesn’t He heal everyone?
5. Objection #3: If I’ve ever heard of a healing, it looks fake or even manipulative
6. Objection #4: What if I don’t have enough faith?
1. This is a really common objection.
1. Ther are many people in this room that could say, “I did for pray for healing, but it didn’t happen, so it must have been because I didn’t have enough faith.
1. “Or maybe I have too much sin. Or it’s my past…or it’s…
2. And I think people feel this way because of all of the false teaching out there.
1. The false teachers, the prosperity gospel teachers, say, “If you have enough faith, you can claim your healing, and it will be yours!”
1. But that’s not how it works.
3. Faith matters, sure.
1. There are a number of healings where Jesus tells people that it was their FAITH that healed them.
1. But how much does faith play a role? That’s the question!
2. Timothy Keller once gave the following example:
1. He said, imagine two mountain climbers are out climbing when they suddenly trip and fall onto a ledge below…and there are only two ways off the ledge.
1. The first climber says, “I know which way will hold us up. I have no doubts. I PASSIONATELY have faith that this is the way.”
1. The other climber says, “I kind of think it’s the other way, but I’m not 100%... I just have a measure of faith based upon the evidence I see.
2. The first climber, who believed passionately, steps the way he was certain was right, only to step on unstable rock and fall all the way down to the ground.
1. The second climber, then steps the other way, the way he thought was right… and the rock was stable, and he’s just fine.
3. And Keller says that’s because:
1. It’s not the strength of your faith that saves you, but the object of your faith that saves you.
1. I heard someone say once, “How much faith did that Centurion need for Jesus to heal his servant?”
1. Just enough to call on Jesus.
1. It’s the OBJECT of your faith that matters!
3. Faith isn’t some lever you pull that then requires God to act.
1. God is God.
1. And God is going to do what God is going to do.
2. But faith is the door through which we walk into the room and ask God to do what only God can do.
3. Faith is the boldness to believe that Jesus has the authority to heal…to change lives…to do miracles.
4. 2 or 3 times a year I teach you that real Biblical faith is this:
1. As believers in Jesus, we pray the impossible. We pray with a faith that God can do absolutely anything, but we believe with the same amount faith that God is right even if He chooses to do nothing”
1. Because God is God, and we are not.
1. But we should still come in faith, and ask!
1. We see here in our passage that Jesus LOVES when we see and recognize his authority to heal.

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1. CALL TO ACTION
1. And so, we call ourselves a Bible Teaching and Bible-believing church, but listen, belief isn’t real belief unless it leads to action.
1. And so if we just talk about things and never do it, that’s not real faith either.
2. And so here’s what we’re going to do…even though is very different for us.
1. We have asked a number of our pastoral staff and prayer team members to come forward at this point (and you all can come down now)
1. And during this last song, if you would like prayer for healing, I want you to come and ask them to pray for you, and we will pray for healing.
2. No one’s going to be rolling down the aisles or anything like that…
1. But we believe in a Big God…a powerful God.
2. And we’re taking God at His Word
3. And we’re trusting that He is the authority to heal.
1. And so we’re praying the impossible, yet trusting in His sovereign will no matter what.
3. And so if you need healing for anything…I want you to come and ask God for healing.