Tuesday, May 14, 2019
Meanwhile, Peter traveled from place to place, and he came down to visit the believers in the town of Lydda. There he met a man named Aeneas, who had been paralyzed and bedridden for eight years. Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you! Get up, and roll up your sleeping mat!” And he was healed instantly. Then the whole population of Lydda and Sharon saw Aeneas walking around, and they turned to the Lord. Acts 9:32-35
There is
healing, and there is HEALING!
That first, rather subdued mention is the gradual, sometimes tedious
journey our bodies take to knit back together or fight off a germ-riddled sickness. More serious still, is the relapsing flu or
cold that just hangs-on…or the allergies that return with that magical yellow
dust in the trees. This healing may take
a lifetime…or only ceases when we stop breathing in and out. That is different
than the kind of healing Aeneas experienced.
When Peter spoke the words Jesus Christ heals you, the
healing was immediate and complete.
Aeneas went from paralyzed to perfect in a heartbeat.
The
healing, I believe, came in between Peter’s sentences. In fact, the second sentence, get
up, roll up your sleeping mat, was an instruction that followed the
announcement. The sequence was “Jesus
heals you,” then healing and strength came to his body, and then the command: “here’s what you do about that”. There is meaning for us in every part of this
event that took two seconds and changed the course of history for a man and two
towns.
From Lydda
to the plains of Sharon, distance of up to 50 miles, this instantaneous healing
of Aeneas turned people to faith in Jesus at a time when the movement was still
in its infancy. The paralyzed man had
been sick for eight years. The people
who knew him also knew the sound of his grunts and groans as he hauled himself
from one aching, bed sore position to another.
They knew the pain on his face, and the smell of his presence. And, in an instant, Aeneas, that odious reminder
of approaching death, a fixture in that corner of the city square, is standing,
and rolling up that mat…usefulness in the community and joy in his soul are written
all over his face.
Now, that’s
a heartwarming story about one man, but it pales in comparison to what happened
to the community, and the movement of turning the world upside down for the
cause of Christ. Up and down the coast
the message of Aeneas’ healing stirred faith in the hearts of people. So many people turned to faith in Jesus
Christ that Luke’s hyperbolic recording of the response was that the whole
population believed and turned to the Lord.
Whatever
you’ve seen or heard about some slick, televangelist faith-healing hucksters,
try to remember that Christ does heal, and his healing takes us from hurt to
health in an instant.
For You Today
Let’s carry all this about healing just a bit further…there’s a bigger
fish to fry than physical healing; Jesus once gave us another statement
and instruction:
The statement: It is
finished!
The instruction: Go
into all the world…tell them about healing from their sin!
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[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©
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