What difference does it make?

This was the question asked by Hillary Clinton at the Benghazi Hearing in front of the U.S. House Oversight Committee.  My response is, “It makes a lot of difference”.  But in the context of this blog, I want to ask this question in regards to the common thread that continues through almost all of my blogs.

Many of you reading my blogs, may have asked yourself this question or have wanted to ask me that question.  Some may just look at this blog as the musings of an elderly guy with time on his hands and nothing better to do than stir up the pot or more like the tree falling in the woods with no one around.  With no one to hear the sound, is there really any sound?  Sure the musings serve as a catharsis for the elderly fellow, and it’s easy to hit the delete button, so if it makes him feel better, great.  If that’s the case, so be it.

Others may ask the same question in respect to why do I keep beating the same drumbeat?  Am I not just being picky and majoring on minor differences in what churches believe?  Do we not agree on the big issues?

I think, rightly or wrongly, that most Christian churches agree on salvation by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ Jesus.  I agree that is the most important fact; but the fact that healing was a major part of the gospels and Acts, to ignore it, is to ignore an essential aspect of the gospel preached by Christ and the early church.  There are vastly more verses regarding healing than baptism, the Lord’s Supper, giving of offerings and tithes combined.  If you don’t believe, I challenge you to prove that statement wrong.

From the first verse in Genesis to the last verse in Revelations, God, our heavenly Father reveals himself to us and reveals His plan for us.  There are around 100 different names used for God in the Old Testament.  Each reveals aspects of His character and work as He relates to His people.  The ultimate revelation of the Father is the sending of His Son Jesus.  The fact is, He was willing to send His Son, lowering Himself into the form of a man, a baby, to suffer, be beaten and die to reveal His supreme love for His people.  He could have sent Jesus as a full grown Man to die for us; but that would not have required Him to suffer the full humility of lowering Himself, nor would it have revealed His complete character. 

Many “Bible Scholars”, tell you that Jesus performed miracles to prove that He was God.  I believe that He did miracles because He was God.  Jesus did not come to prove He was God. He came to show us God.  Jesus said, “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also…He who has seen Me has seen the Father”.  Everything Jesus did was to bring glory and to do His work.  His church has been charged with continuing that work and bring glory to the Father.  How did Jesus glorify His Father?  Jesus glorified His Father through His life, death and burial.  Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil.  When Jesus healed the woman that had suffered 18 years from an infirmity, He said that she had been “bound by Satan".

God, our Father revealed himself and His redeeming character in the Old Testament.  He sent His Son to show Himself to us and to purchase our redemption, to show how much he loved us, to show us His goodness.  He showed us who He was.  The God who was, is the God who is; and, the God who is, is the God who was. His character has not changed.  When Jesus performed His first miracle John says that this was the first sign to show His glory, show His Father’s glory, His Father’s character, His goodness.  His goodness has not changed.  His character has not changed.  His love has not changed.  His will has not changed.  In the Lord’s pray Jesus prayed, “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven ". 

In John 17, Jesus prays for His disciples but He says that this pray is for all believers.

“Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, so that the Son can glorify you. You gave him authority over everyone so that he could give eternal life to everyone you gave him. This is eternal life: to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you sent.  I have glorified you on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. Now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I shared with you before the world was created.

“I have revealed your name to the people you gave me from this world. They were yours and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.  This is because I gave them the words that you gave me, and they received them. They truly understood that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.  “I'm praying for them. I'm not praying for the world but for those you gave me, because they are yours.  Everything that is mine is yours and everything that is yours is mine; I have been glorified in them.  I'm no longer in the world, but they are in the world, even as I'm coming to you. Holy Father, watch over them in your name, the name you gave me, that they will be one just as we are one.  When I was with them, I watched over them in your name, the name you gave to me, and I kept them safe. None of them were lost, except the one who was destined for destruction, so that scripture would be fulfilled.  Now I'm coming to you and I say these things while I'm in the world so that they can share completely in my joy.  I gave your word to them and the world hated them, because they don't belong to this world, just as I don't belong to this world.  I'm not asking that you take them out of this world but that you keep them safe from the evil one. They don't belong to this world, just as I don't belong to this world.  Make them holy in the truth; your word is truth.  As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.   I made myself holy on their behalf so that they also would be made holy in the truth.  “I'm not praying only for them but also for those who believe in me because of their word.  I pray they will be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. I pray that they also will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me.  I've given them the glory that you gave me so that they can be one just as we are one.   I'm in them and you are in me so that they will be made perfectly one. Then the world will know that you sent me and that you have loved them just as you loved me.  “Father, I want those you gave me to be with me where I am. Then they can see my glory, which you gave me because you loved me before the creation of the world. "Righteous Father, even the world didn't know you, but I've known you, and these believers know that you sent me. I've made your name known to them and will continue to make it known so that your love for me will be in them, and I myself will be in them."

Yes, how we carry out the work of the church, matters.  It makes a difference.  Paul told the Romans that “the goodness of God leads you to repentance”.  Jesus demonstrated that goodness through His life and through His death, burial and resurrection. We are to show His goodness by words and actions.  This is more than saying, “please and thank you”. This is more than serving coffee and pastries at Sunday School.  This is more than doing “good works”.  These are good but they are not what Christ was talking about or the fruit we are to bear.  We are to do the same works Jesus did.  We are to bring glory to the Father by continuing to do the work of the Father.  That is why Jesus sent the Holy Spirit that the disciples and all believers would receive “power” to witness, to teach everything that Jesus commanded them to do, to demonstrate the power of God to the lost world.

There is another aspect in which it makes a difference.  It matters to Satan.  And, why should I care about that?  Because if it matters to Satan, it matters to our Father.  Look through the gospels and the book of Acts.  What caused the biggest problems for Jesus and the apostles?  Whenever Jesus performed miracles, it drew people and it resulted in upsetting the religious people.  Whenever the apostles preached, signs and wonders followed, and persecution.  Miracles upset Satan.  Playing church does not excite Satan.  Religion does not bother Satan.  Wimpy preaching and teaching does not bother Satan.  Playing in that sandbox, is OK with Satan.  Miracles bother Satan.  I challenge any preacher reading this blog to start preaching and teaching healing as part of the atonement accompanied by the laying on of hands and anointing with oil, start preaching and teaching the authority of the church and believer’s role in controlling Satan, start preaching the Word with boldness and passion.  See if that matters to the religious people in your church.  Beware, Satan will attack where the Word is preached with boldness.

There is a difference!