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Series from Exodus 2 – Deuteronomy 34 –  Preaching from ChristChurch London’s Sunday Service

SLIDE 1: MOSES

This is week 2 of an eight-week series on the life of Moses, which will take us right through the summer.

Now we read about Moses’ birth in Exodus chapter 2, and he’s alive all through Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, and he dies in Deuteronomy 34. That is a massive 136 chapters later. There is no way we can do 136 chapters in detail in 8 sermons. So inevitably we are going to have to pick and choose and take key themes from Moses life.

Now Moses did a lot of amazing things . . .

• Moses led the nation of Israel. But you don’t get to do that.
• Moses was told to go up Mount Sinai and receive the 10 commandments. But you don’t get to do that. We’ve already got the 10 commandments. As a parent of 4 children, I am often tempted to create additional commandments, but I’m not supposed to.
• Moses was told to sprinkle the blood of young bulls on the people of God. But if you turn up at your life group on Tuesday, and you start sprinkling bulls’ blood on your friends from life group, they are going to be annoyed. They’ll say, “What are you doing? That was Moses job 3,500 years ago. We don’t need to do that stuff any more. It says so in the book of Hebrews.”
• Moses wrote Scripture. That’s pretty cool, but you don’t get to do that.

Now here is the difference . . .

• Moses moved in the supernatural, in miracles and healings, and according to the Bible, you do get to do that.

If what I have just said is true, then that has got to be one of the most exciting facts about you. According to the Bible, we will see today, that like Moses, you have been authorized and empowered to perform miracles and healings.

And today the theme we are going to look at is the miraculous. We are going to look at the miracles of Moses.

SLIDE 2: Moses – Moving in God’s Power

The title I’ve been given for today is “Moses – Moving in God’s power.”

I could list 100 things Moses did that were specific to the particular point when he lived in redemptive history. We’re not asked to repeat any of those 100 things because they are historically now done and dusted. God’s people are no longer trying to move the 260 miles from Ramses in Egypt to Jericho in Israel. It’s happened. It took nearly 40 years longer than it should have done, but they did get there in the end.

But what Moses did in terms of the miraculous and healing of the sick – that is different. Because we do have direct explicit statements from Jesus, where Jesus commands his followers to heal the sick.

And we have clear statements from other New Testament writers that healing in the church is normal, everyday Christianity.

So let me ask you, straight up. Are you praying for the sick?

Well, here’s why I feel brave enough to ask you the question directly. It’s because for most of my Christian life, I have been a total failure in this area.

For most of my Christian life, I did not even attempt to heal the sick. For most of my Christian life, I hardly ever prayed for anyone to be healed, and if I did, I had no expectation that anything would happen. I had so many doubts and questions and reservations. And it’s only recently that this has changed.

And one of the first times I ever prayed for the sick was in August 2006, at a youth event called Newday. Now I’m going to show you a DVD now of the same event one year later.

And this is an interview with 3 people, who got healed the year before.

Now in this video I make a fool of myself by trying to get the band to quieten down, because they are doing this drum and bass bed during the interviews, which on stage sounds really loud to me, but actually it isn’t, so I show my nerves there.

My other problem is that I am so nervous about the praying for the sick that’s going to happen after the interviews, that I am totally expressionless during the interviews. That’s because, I’m thinking, “I can’t believe that I’m about to pray for thousands of people to be healed.” So just try and blot out the expression on my face as you watch this.

VIDEO: 7:35

That last girl, Charlotte Wood, when she arrived at Newday 06, the only thing she could write was her name and address. She got healed in August 06, 10 months later, she sat her GCSE English, which her teacher said she would never pass, and she got an A star.

Now I’ve shown you that DVD because it proved to me that you can see healings even as an absolute beginner. And you also see there God’s mercy for suffering people. Heather Sloane who would have had a pacemaker fitted, but now she’s winning cross-country races. Charlotte Wood’s whole life has changed because she can now see normally. God shows his mercy towards suffering people.

Anyway, let’s dive in. If you have a bible, then turn to Exodus chapter 7.

As you’re doing so, it would be true to say that when God wants to re-establish orthodoxy, he will often do so through the miraculous. We see that, for example, in the life of Elijah, who demonstrates that the God of Israel is the true God, by doing miracles, most notably in the showdown with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel.

Do you remember what happened? [Prophets of Baal, and Elijah]

The same thing is true with the ministry of Jesus. There are no miracles, no word from God for 400 years, and then Jesus arrives in Capernaum and says “the Kingdom of God is suddenly among you.” What’s the evidence? Well, cripples walk, the deaf hear, the blind see.

God was doing through Jesus, what he had done previously through Elijah. He was re-establishing orthodoxy in Israel through the miraculous. You see miracles demonstrate who is really in charge.

And that is what God is doing here in Exodus 7.

Up until Exodus 7, it doesn’t look like God is in charge because his people are slaves in Egypt. They’ve been slaves for 400 years. Things are getting worse not better. They’ve been told to make bricks without straw.

Things look pretty bleak. But God is about to re-establish orthodoxy. God is going to show Pharaoh and the world, who is really in charge.

SLIDE:
Point 1: In Moses life we see the miraculous as a demonstration of God’s power and authority.

14 Then the LORD said to Moses . . . 15 “Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the water. Wait on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake. 16 Then say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the desert. But until now you have not listened. 17 This is what the LORD says: By this you will know that I am the LORD: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood.’” (Exodus 7:14-17)

So my first point is that in Moses life we see the miraculous as a demonstration of God’s power and authority.

The purpose of the miracle is that “by this you will know that I am the Lord.”

So the miracle is done, the river turns to blood. Now it takes a further ten miracles, or 10 plagues before Pharaoh does actually let the people go. But the miracles do demonstrate to Pharaoh, to the Israelites and to the Egyptians that Israel’s God is real.

So the Israelites eat the Passover meal, which James Haslam will be preaching about next week, and they escape through the Red Sea, and out of Egypt. And once they are out of Egypt, God reveals one of his covenant names to them. It’s the foundation for all healing, and it’s in chapter 15.

Exodus 15, and the key verse here is verse 26.

SLIDE:
Point 2: In Moses life we see healing as an expression of God’s loving character.

22 Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. 23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. [‘Marah’ means bitter] 24 So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?” 25 Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the LORD made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them. 26 He said, “If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you.” (Exodus 15:22-26)

And my second point here is that: In Moses life we see healing as an expression of God’s loving character.

If you are sick, if you are injured, if you have a physical need, or if you want to minister to those who do, then the good news here is that it’s in God’s nature to heal. It’s his name.

These people had followed God, and followed their leader, and after 3 days without water, they thought they’d found fresh water. They’d found an Oasis: “Yippee, this is it! Fresh water at last.” But when they actually tasted the water, it was undrinkable. It was brackish. So they called it Marah, a bitter place. Are you in a bitter place? Maybe like these Hebrew people, you’ve been following God, and you find yourself in Marah, which means bitter. You are in a bitter place.

What did they do? They complained. But God forgave them, and not only healed the water, so that they could drink it, but God then reveals that this is not just a one off miracle. Not just one of a series of miracles, God tells the Israelites that in his very character, he is a healer.

If you are in a bitter place, it’s in God’s nature to bring healing to you.

That’s because God’s name, his very character is healing.

I did a guest service a few weeks ago, at the newfrontiers church at Sidcup, and it just struck me that it’s so natural, so easy for God to heal people.

Sidcup stories:
• Jonny (the Marine)
• Julie
• Esther Beale (and some of you Heart FM listeners, might know her husband Simon Beale, who’s one of the presenters)
• Esther Beale’s brother, Jon Bell said: “With regards my sister, she is completely healed! She had just been diagnosed with a cracked skull and my understanding is that there is now no sign of the problem and it has been medically verified. I’ll ask her to get in touch with you to give you the full story.”

I’m thinking, she had a crack in her skull. 10 years of pain. Now it’s all gone. Just like that? Wow!

And as I drove away from Sidcup, I just thought, this is a big deal for me, and for the people who got healed, but it wasn’t a big deal for God, because his name is healing. That’s what he does. I am the Lord who heals you.

And so folks, 3 or 4 years ago, very reluctantly, I started praying for the sick, and guess what, I started to see some people healed.

And you can develop in healing. Healing comes out of authority and compassion. You can grow in both. I now watch documentaries on TV about people who are worse off than I am. One of the reasons I’m doing that is I’m trying to develop more compassion. I want to identify more and more with the pain that people are living with. I want to grow in compassion.

Five years ago, I broke my leg playing football. And now, whenever I see a man of about my age with a broken leg, I will always go up and talk to him, even if he’s a total stranger, because I feel something for men in that situation.

Describe what happened to me using Early Learning Centre Toddle Truck

The fact I went through that has helped me have compassion for other people. So let me encourage you, if you’ve had a lot of pain in your life, you’re at a distinct advantage when it comes to healing the sick. Because you’re going to have more compassion, and compassion is one of the two keys in healing (the other is authority, as we’ve already seen.)

And it’s interesting to me that we also see in Moses life that it’s not necessary to actually lay hands on people to see them healed.

Let’s look at what happens in Numbers 21. Here, once again the Israelites are complaining at Moses: “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the desert? Some of them start getting bitten by venomous snakes, and they immediately change their tune.
SLIDE:
The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.
8 The LORD said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived. (Numbers 21:7-9)

Now what interests me here is the means of healing. Moses doesn’t lay hands on them. Moses doesn’t touch them to heal them. All they have to do is look.

There is no big song and dance.

It’s the same thing, for example, as with the centurion in Matthew 8. He comes to Jesus and says: “Lord, my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering.”

And Jesus replies: “I will go and heal him.”

But the centurion’s got more faith than that. So he says: “No, you don’t have to come over. Just say the word, and he’ll be healed.”

Jesus is amazed by the Centurion’s faith. And so Jesus says:

SLIDE:
“Go! It will be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that very hour. (Matthew 8:13)

So picture the scene miles away at the house. The paralysed man’s just lying there, on his own, lying down, watching daytime TV, watching Richard & Judy, he’s not even praying, then instantly, he’s totally healed, gets up and wonders “How come I can walk? What happened?” What happened was that two combustible elements just came into contact with each other and ignited. Someone with faith (in this case the Centurion), connected with someone in authority (in this case Jesus). That’s what happens when people get healed today. Oftentimes, you’ll find someone with faith comes to someone with authority and there’s a connection, and the healing is activated, or released as a result.

There doesn’t have to be any physical contact. And this has been the biggest surprise to me.

Here’s another one . . .
SLIDE: Mitra Hajebi

This is Mitra Hajebi, who was healed at Newday last year. She was almost totally deaf in both ears. She wore hearing aids in both ears, but couldn’t really hear anything in her right ear.

This is what she said in November, that is 3 months after her healing . . .

“Hi Matt! Yes that’s true, I was healed at Newday when Adrian prayed for me! I felt that his voice was getting louder, then I realised that I wasn’t even wearing a hearing aid in my right ear so I shouldn’t have been able to hear! I told my friend, ‘I think I can hear now!’ I took my left hearing aid off and knelt down and started to pray then I heard everything Adrian said, and I’ve been healed! I made an appointment at hospital to see a specialist, but praise God last Friday they checked my hearing and they told me my hearing is NORMAL! I have a copy of my old and new hearing test and I returned my hearing aid back to hospital!

SLIDE: Test

So you can see there, the bottom line is her previous test before she was healed, with profound hearing loss in both, ears and the top line is what is considered “completely normal” which is after she was healed.

She subsequently said this about her healing . . .

All the pain I experienced had gone and I could hear everything, the rain on the tents, the birds in the morning, and even people whispering.

On return to work I told my colleagues about my summer healing, some were initially shocked, and couldn’t get their head around it. There was no need for them to repeat themselves or raise their voices. They were so happy for me. And we decided to book an appointment with the hospital to confirm the healing.

The day came of my appointment and I sat in the chair. The doctor assessing my hearing assumed that my hearing was getting worse. I told him “No, I believe it is better.” She was skeptical and began to test my hearing. When she finished, she said: “I don’t understand? How can your hearing be perfectly normal? I’m so glad for you.”

My doctor, and the audiologist in the hospital were both shocked and pleased at my test result, and the doctor said that my hearing was completely normal. Then I explained that God healed me.”

Now all I did was speak words, like I’m speaking words now, and she was healed. No-one touched her. You can do that! You can speak words!

Jesus authorizes you to heal the sick

Now here’s a promise, in John 14, which is worthy of being cut out and stuck on any fridge. It’s Jesus speaking. He says . . .

SLIDE:
“Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name . . . You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” (John 14:11-12)

I’ve never said this to my children! I’ve never said to Esther, Bethany, Grace or Emma, you may ask me for anything, and I will do it. Yet when it comes to miracles, that is what Jesus is saying to you!

Now Jesus doing miracles is one thing, you and me doing miracles is quite another. The big surprise is that Jesus, here, gives his followers authority to heal the sick and they do . . .

So in the first instance, he calls the twelve disciples together and

SLIDE:
“he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” (Luke 9:1-2)

“they set out and went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere.” (Luke 9:6)

“he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” (Luke 9:1-2)

Now, that, to my mind, seems like a pretty risky strategy. Because as we know the disciples were basically unreliable and vain. They jostled for position, arguing about who was the greatest disciple. If you’ve got this in your life group, you’ve got trouble. I think you’ll find that I am the greatest. No, on the contrary, I think you’ll find that I am the greatest. I think you’ll find that I will be sitting at Jesus’ right hand side in heaven. You! You’re such an average disciple. Even after 3 years of seeing miracles, even after 3 years of being with Jesus every day, they deserted Jesus at the crucial moment. In fact, Peter disowned him and Judas betrayed him, so these 12 men in Luke chapter 9 could never be described as a safe pair of hands. But Jesus risky strategy works! Here’s the results . . .

“they set out and went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere.” (Luke 9:6)

Jesus has now successfully extended the franchise. It’s no longer just 1 solo healer (called Jesus) anymore. There are now 13 healers. Jesus plus 12 others. Fishermen are healing people everywhere.

And then Jesus takes, what seems to me, to be an even bigger risk. Having sent out 12 loose canons, he then sends out seventy-two. And here are their instructions . . .

SLIDE:
“When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The Kingdom of God is near you.’” (Luke 10:8-9)

The Seventy-Two returned with joy, and said: “Lord even the demons submit to us in your name.” (Luke 10:17)

And again it works. The 72 return with joy, and say: “Lord even the demons submit to us in your name.”

And they are clearly surprised. It worked. People got healed, even though it was us doing it.

OK, are you getting the message? Tax collectors healed the sick. Some of you are tax collectors. You can do it! You can heal the sick. Yes you! I’m not speaking to the person next to you, I am speaking to you . . . you can heal the sick! Let’s look at Jesus’ final instructions to his followers . . .

SLIDE:
“Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation . . . And these signs will accompany those who believe . . . they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” (Mark 16:15-18)

And again, if we study what happens next, we find . . . it works! We see Jesus’ prediction come true in the book of Acts.

But it’s not just the apostles who do miracles, in Acts 6 we find Stephen, a non-apostle, doing “great wonders and miraculous signs among the people.” In Acts 8 we find Philip, another non-apostle doing such amazing miracles in Samaria that it sparks off a major move of God.

And also outside of Acts, we find other miracles and healings happening, for example, Galatians 3:5, tells us that God was working miracles amongst the Galatian churches. Well there were no apostles there. Looks like normal Christianity.

When Paul writes to the Corinthian church, he says: “Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.” (1 Corinthians 1:7) Later in the letter, in chapter 12, he says one of those gifts is “gifts of healing and miraculous powers.” So clearly those gifts were not lacking at Corinth Community Church, they had healings and miracles. Again looks like normal Christianity.

And as we finish reading through the New Testament what we don’t find is a verse that says that at some future point in history, God is going to switch off healing ministry. There is no verse, which suggests that when the apostles die out, or when the Bible writers stop writing scripture, that at that point, God is going to stop healing the sick. In fact James 5:16 says the opposite, saying that healing ministry should be normal practice in normal church life.

SLIDE:
Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” (James 5:14-16)

Elijah was a man just like us. He wasn’t God. Moses was a man just like us. He wasn’t God, but he did miracles. Moses saw people healed.

We should expect God to heal because James 5:16, proves once and for all, if there be any doubt about it, that healing is for today.

What we need to notice is that this command “to pray for each other so that you may be healed” is a command to all Christians, to all believers. It’s not just a command for mega keen Christians. It’s definitely not a command just for apostles or just for the early church. The people James is writing to are just ordinary Christians like you or me.

Mark Bailey anecdote

Maybe the band could come up and join me?

Listen, I thought that God wouldn’t ever use me in healing for two reasons. Firstly because I was a naturally sceptical person, I mean I am absolutely the last person for whom any of this stuff comes naturally, and secondly I just didn’t think I was holy enough.

I reckoned – healing is obviously from God, healing is pure Holy Spirit power, so God’s going to use a pure vessel. And if I was God, I wouldn’t use me. If I was God, I’d find a safer pair of hands. I’d find someone who was living a holier life than I am, so I didn’t expect God to use me to heal the sick.

And what’s amazed me is that the very little progress I’ve made, has not come out of a mystical experience. I always thought that’s how it worked. But I didn’t have to immerse myself in goat’s milk five times a day and then drag a huge boulder up a mountain in Tibet. And I am absolutely convinced that if God is willing to use me, he will definitely use you. You can do it. You can heal the sick. You have got the same Bible I have. You’ve got the same verses.

Advice for those wanting to get started:
1. Read the bible as if you’ve never read it before
2. Read books about healing
3. Go to meetings where people are praying for the sick

Our heart for this church, is that this church would be a place where people hear, that if you go there, you might be healed. So and so got healed at that church. And that’s why the healing team are here every other Sunday. That’s not just a small thing. That’s one of the biggest teams in church now. They are a big part of what we are doing, and just recently as you’ve heard, they’ve seen some real breakthroughs.

Prayer:
a) For people who know they need to go away and read what the bible says about healing, as if they had never read the bible before.
b) For people who are beyond that stage and are ready to go for it, and look for opportunities tomorrow to pray for the sick.

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