(upbeat music) - Now we have two remaining episodes this week, both devoted to physical healing. On Friday, we'll talk about healing ministries. Today, should we trust them or not? And if we don't, if we avoid them, are we doing so because we think such a ministry is fraudulent, or are we doing it because we are stopped by our own unbelief?

Great question. But first up today, we talk about the timing of healing. When will God heal us of our pain in this life? And why did Christ seem to heal so few in his earthly ministry? At least it appears that way. To these questions come the following excerpts from John Piper's sermon titled, "Christ in Cancer." This is a sermon he preached very early in his pastorate.

Already by then, Pastor John was only at it for about a month in his pastorate, and he was well acquainted already with death and cancer and sickness. I'll begin with his testimony. - Before I entered college, I scarcely gave any thought to cancer and terminal illness in general. Then I went away to school at Wheaton, and two of my very close acquaintances died before they were 22, one of leukemia and one of cancer of the lymph glands.

Then I went to Fuller Seminary, and within one year, watched my systematics professor, Jim Morgan, shrivel up and die of cancer of the intestines. He was 36. Then I went to Germany to study for three years, and six months before I was finished, my mentor, Professor Goeppelt, dropped dead on the way to the subway of a massive coronary.

And then I came to Bethel and taught for six years and watched administration and students and faculty die of cancer, Sue Port, Paul Greeley, Bob Bergerud, Ruth Ludeman, Graydon Held, Chet Lindsay, Mary Ellen Carlson, all Christians, all dead before their three score and 10 were up. And now I've come to Bethlehem and Harvey Ring is gone, and you could multiply the list tenfold.

What shall we say to these things? - Sobering. And then I'm gonna fast forward into the message later in the sermon, Pastor John goes on into healing, God's promises for our healing and his timing for that healing. Here he is. - There is coming a day when every crutch will be carved and every wheelchair melted down into medallions of redemption.

And Merlin and Reuben and Jim and Hazel and Ruth and all the others are gonna do cartwheels through the kingdom of heaven. And we will rejoice, but not yet. It may not be yet. The day is coming. And that's my second affirmation. Third, Jesus Christ came into the world to die, to purchase that redemption, demonstrate its character as both spiritual and physical and to give us a foretaste of it.

Now listen very carefully here, because right here is where I think many healers in our day misunderstand God's purposes. And distort his intentions. The prophet Isaiah said in chapter 53, verses five through six, a text which Peter in chapter two of his epistle, verse 24, picks up and applies to Christians.

He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him with his stripes, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquities of us all.

The blessing of forgiveness and the blessing of healing were purchased in the death of Christ. And everyone who joins to Christ and lives for Christ will have both blessings. But when? When? That's the question of our day. When do those blessings come in full force? When will our bodies no longer be enslaved to corruption?

The ministry of Jesus, as we read it in the Gospels, was a ministry of healing and a ministry of forgiveness. He said, for example, to those disciples of John the Baptist who were very perplexed, he said, "You go tell John what you see and hear. "The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, "the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, "the dead are raised up, "the poor have good news preached to them, "and blessed is he who takes no offense at me." Offense?

Why would anybody take offense? He raises the dead. He's bringing the kingdom, the long-awaited kingdom. Why would anybody take offense at someone who can do that? Easy. He raised three people and left thousands in the tombs. Why? Why did he only raise three if he came to raise the dead?

Maybe because the relatives of all the others didn't have enough faith. Baloney. In Luke chapter seven, he raised the widow's son. She didn't know him from Adam. She didn't know who Jesus was. She hadn't even seen him. All the text says was he felt compassion on her as they were carrying the boy out of the town in his casket.

Well, didn't he pity all the widows in Israel? Sure he did. The answer to why Jesus only raised a few people and not everybody is that contrary to Jewish expectation, the first coming of the Messiah was not the consummation of redemption nor the closing of this fallen age. The first coming of the Messiah was to purchase that redemption and to illustrate the nature of that redemption as physical and spiritual and to give us a foretaste of it.

He is gonna come again and now we know from his illustrations that when he comes there will be resurrection for all his people and there will be healing for all his people. No more crying, no more pain at that day. But let me stress here lest there be a misunderstanding.

We do have a foretaste. We do have a foretaste of that redemption. The benefits of forgiveness and the healing are real. God can and does heal the sick now in answer to our prayers. And nothing I say should be construed to imply that he doesn't. But he doesn't always, does he?

The miracle mongers of our day who guarantee that Jesus wants you well now are guilty of a gross distortion of God's intention. And I think it's this, they have failed to understand the nature of God's purpose in this fallen age. They have minimized the depth of sin and the cruciality of the purgative nature of suffering and the value of faith that comes through suffering.

And they're guilty of trying to force into this age what God has reserved for the age to come. Notice the flow of thought in Romans 8, verses 23 and 24. "We ourselves, having the firstfruits of the Spirit, "even we ourselves grown in ourselves, "waiting eagerly for adoption as sons, "the redemption of our bodies, "for in hope we have been saved." Because of Christ's purchase redemption, we already have the Spirit.

But it's only a first fruit, it's only a down payment, it's only a foretaste of redemption. And you can't help but see that when Paul stresses this, "We ourselves, even we grown in ourselves," that what he's doing by stressing "even we" is by warning the Romans and warning us against a false inference.

The false inference would be, "I have the Holy Spirit, "Almighty God reigning in my life. "How then shall I remain subject to the bondage of this age?" And Paul's against that inference. He's against it. You can see it in the word "we." "Even we ourselves grown in ourselves, "waiting, waiting, waiting the redemption of our bodies." He's against those who want to bring into this age too much salvation.

And here in this text, we wait also for the redemption of our bodies. And we groan waiting. Christ has purchased redemption. He has demonstrated and illustrated that it is both physical and both spiritual. And he has given us a glorious foretaste of it. - Amen. That was John Piper and his sermon titled "Christ in Cancer" preached a month into his pastorate, way back on August 17th, 1980.

Sermon on Romans 8, verses 18 to 28. I found this clip while listening through his early sermons. And if you find the clip, email it to me. Give me your name, hometown, the sermon title, and timestamp of where the clip happens in the audio and make a note of what stands out to you.

Put the word clip in the subject line of an email and send it to me at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org. That's an email address, askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org. Well, God has promised to heal our bodies. He has a timeline for that healing. He could heal you today. So then should we put our trust in faith healers and healing ministries today?

That's the topic we haven't addressed on the podcast until now. It's up on Friday when Pastor John returns in the studio with me. I'm your host, Tony Rehnke. We'll see you then. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)