• Healing was a big part of Jesus' work
  • 30% of first 10 chapters of Mark's gospel
• Read Matthew 9v9-13, 18-26
  • Jesus compares his mission to a doctor healing
  • It's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick
  • Forgiveness of sinners
  • Restored relationships – tax collectors were despised by everyone
  • Mercy is God's desire

A woman who had been ill 12 years.

• Her bleeding illness made her an outcast
• Why had she not been healed before?
• Why isn't everyone healed?

• She reached out in hopeful expectation
  • "If I only touch his cloak I will be healed"
• Jesus said, "Your faith has healed you"
  • Is a lack of faith always indicated if there's no healing? NO!!!!
  • What's our expectation individually & as a Church?
  • He was not able to perform any miracles there… the people did not have faith" (Mark 5v5)

A dying, and eventually dead girl

• Jesus responded to her father's prayer
  • For whom are we praying?
  • Jesus was willing to be interrupted, but still saw things through with the child
• The mourners knew she was dead
  • Jesus' faith saw beyond that to her healing
• "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and for ever" (Hebrews 13v8) - do we believe that?
• "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" (Genesis 18v4; cf. Jeremiah 32v17, 27)

The early Church's expectations…… Read James 5v13-16

• If you're sick, then pray is the expectation
• Prayer of the Church (elders represent this)
• Anointing with oil – to symbolize the Spirit
• Prayer of faith
• What link with sin & forgiveness?
  • My or others' sin may cause sickness
  • There's not always a cause we can know
  • We may need to forgive to be set free
  • Avoid making people feel wrongly guilty (John 9v2)
• Does God ever inflict illness on us?
  • God always wants what's best for us

St Paul's personal example

• "To keep me from becoming conceited … there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Corinthians 12v7-10)
  • Paul prays for healing until God tells him to stop
  • "God works all things together for good to those who love him" (Romans 8v28)

What should my expectations be for prayer for healing for myself or for others?