Introduction
      When John Wimber became a Christian back in the 1960s, he came to Christ as a part of the Jesus Movement in southern California with no background in the church growing up.  The Lord changed his life in a remarkable way, and he became very passionate about following Jesus as he read the New Testament day and night during the early weeks after his conversion. 
      One Sunday he wandered into a church, and after the worship service, he went up to the pastor and said, “Hey, your sermon made me really think, and the music was great and all, but when do we get to do the cool stuff?”
      The pastor looked puzzled and said, “The cool stuff?”
      Wimber replied, “Yeah, the cool stuff.  You know, like healing people and raising them from the dead.  The cool stuff that I’ve been reading about in the New Testament.  When do we get to do the cool stuff?”
      The pastor thought for a moment, and then he answered, “I’m sorry, we don’t do the cool stuff here.  We talk about it, but we don’t do it.  You might try another church down the street.  But I’m not sure if they do the cool stuff either.”
      Why is it that the church of Jesus Christ in North America is reluctant to ask God to do the “cool stuff,” as Wimber called it?  What exactly does the Bible teach on the subject of healing, and how are we to apply it to our lives today?  This morning I hope to address some of these questions. 
      As we consider this passage in Acts 9, I would like for you to think about three things with me: the power of God to heal; what do we do when God chooses not to heal; and a bit of my personal story.

I.  The Power of God to Heal
      For most of chapter 9, Luke has been writing about the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, who later became the apostle Paul, and the author relates the early phases of Saul’s ministry.  However, in verse 32 Luke takes us back to the life and ministry of Peter. 
      The apostle Peter is reintroduced in this passage as engaged in an itinerant ministry as he traveled about the country.  You will recall that previously when persecution had broken out, all the apostles decided to remain in Jerusalem (8:1), but now that the church was enjoying a time of peace (since Saul's conversion), they felt free to leave the city.  The purpose of Peter's travels was 2-fold: to preach the gospel; and to visit new followers of Christ in order to teach and encourage them.  On one of these tours, Peter was itinerating along the western seacoast when two particular miraculous events took place in the cities of Lydda and Joppa respectively.
      While in Lydda, Peter came across a paralytic named Aeneas, who had been bedridden for eight years.  The apostle spoke to the cripple and said, "Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you.  Get up and take care of your mat."  Immediately, the man got up, and he was healed.  The news of his healing spread throughout the town and the surrounding area, and when people saw him walking and heard the testimony of his healing, many turned to the Lord themselves.
      The passage also tells us that in Joppa there lived a woman named Tabitha, or Dorcas (the Greek translation of her Aramaic name).  Both names were the respective words for "gazelle."  Luke describes her as a very special woman who had a heart for the poor and a talent for sewing.  Perhaps she was an original member of the church’s Sewing Circle like we have here at First Pres! 
      Tabitha became sick and died.  Her body was washed in preparation for burial and placed in an upper room.  They sent two men to Lydda, 12 miles away, who pleaded with Peter to come and help.  When the apostle arrived, he sent the mourners who were crying out of the room, got down on his knees and prayed.  Turning to the dead woman, he said, "Tabitha, get up."  She opened her eyes, Peter took her by the hand, and he helped her to her feet.  She was raised from the dead.  (I am sure in the fall when school starts again, many of you will say these same words to your teenagers, "David, get up," and if they do, it will be a miracle, too!)
      This passage which talks about the healing of Aeneas and the raising of Tabitha reminds us there is healing power in the name of Jesus.  Part of the ministry that Christ began in the world and His disciples continued was a ministry of healing.  Death and disease entered the world as a result of the Fall, but Christ came into the world to reverse the curse and to bring healing and life to His people. 
      We must sadly admit that most of us, by and large, do not expect much from God.  He is given credit for all the ordinary and even special blessings in our lives, but most of us have a pretty low expectation level of the power of God to do anything great for us.  Even though we pray, "Lord, heal so-and-so," if God actually answered our prayer, we would probably fall over in a dead faint! 
      This passage makes clear that our God is a God of miracles. It is His desire to work supernaturally on many occasions in the lives of His children.  William Carey said it well, "Expect great things from God, and attempt great things for God."  And Jesus’ word to His disciples long ago all too often applies to us today, "O, you of little faith."  But we must never come to the point where we presume to know God's will in every given situation.  Our perspective is limited and our judgment is flawed by sin.  And all too often our asking is purely selfish.  In the end, we must submit our requests to our heavenly Father and trust that His grace can be revealed not only in our healing, but even in our suffering, too.  That leads us to the second thing I want you to consider this morning – what do we do when God chooses not to heal?

II.  What Do We Do When God Chooses Not To Heal?
      Have you ever had to deal with unanswered prayer, or, even worse, have you had God tell you “no” in answer to your prayer?  I know I have.  There are many stories I could tell you of faithful prayer which have a happy ending of God’s healing power.  But I also can tell you of many other friends who have had people praying for them with equal fervency and faith, but nevertheless they continued to suffer, and some died.  Many of you know our middle son Jason suffers from asthma, although it appears that he is growing out of it now.  Once, a number of years ago, we took him to a leading Christian figure who has been given the gift of healing.  I had personally seen God heal a number of people through the ministry of this man.  Our friend prayed over Jason, asking God to heal him.  The next day Jason went into a terrible asthma attack.  He actually got worse after we prayed for healing!
      Many of you know my father died almost 30 years ago after a massive heart attack.  I was the one who found him when I came home late one night after being out on a date.  I tried to revive him, but it was to no avail.  After I called the authorities and our family doctor to find out what I should do, I went back into my bedroom and knelt down beside my bed.  I prayed to God with all my heart and with all the faith I could muster and said, "Lord Jesus, you raised people from the dead in your day, and I know you are able to raise my father, too.  I pray that you will raise him for a spiritual purpose to your glory."  (I was not sure of my dad's relationship with the Lord and had many doubts.)  When I walked back into the den where his body lay, I was confident I would see my father alive again.  I knew Christ was able.  But when I walked in, I saw that he was as dead as ever.  God had chosen to say "no" in answer to that prayer.
      If God is all-powerful and He can heal people, like Aeneas, and even raise them from the dead, like Tabitha, what are we to make of those times when His answer is “no”?  How do we make sense of it all and find a way to move ahead in our faith?  I’m convinced that one reason people are reluctant to pray for healing is they don’t want to be disappointed.  They are not sure their faith can stand what feels like a rejection from God. 
      I know a man whose wife is battling colon cancer today, but he is reluctant to ask God to heal her.  As she has gone through the surgery and now the rounds of chemo, he is faithful to attend to her needs and give her all the emotional support he can, but he doesn’t want to ask God to heal his wife.  Is this because he is afraid the Lord will answer “no”?  I’m not sure.
      In 2 Corinthians 12, we are given a picture of a person of faith who prayed diligently for healing, but to whom God answered “no” in response to his request.  The apostle Paul struggled with a “thorn in the flesh”, as he called it.  We’re not sure what the physical problem was, but it is clear the illness was debilitating, and Paul felt it was limiting his effectiveness in ministry.  Three times he asked the Lord to remove this thorn, to heal him, but three times the Lord answered “no.”  Then God added, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).  Reflecting on this, Paul said that his human weakness provided the ideal opportunity for God to demonstrate His divine power, and Paul’s physical illness kept him humble before the Lord and before other people.
      The reality is that the most faithful among us still get sick, and even our most fervent prayers are not always answered in the way we hope.  Even with Peter in Lydda and Joppa, only Aeneas and Tabitha were healed.  How many other sick people in those towns were not?  During Jesus’ earthly ministry, scores of people were healed by the Lord, but not every sick person experienced the healing touch of the Savior.  Jesus said to those who followed Him, "You believe because you see the miracles.  Blessed is he who does not see and still believes."   Sometimes, the true measure of faith is how we respond to the "no’s" we receive from God in answer to our prayers, trusting that He has a good purpose in it all for us.
      The best way I can make sense of what the Bible has to say about these things is that physical healing is intended by God to be temporary, as a witness to the inbreaking power of the kingdom of God in this world. We should ask for the Lord to do a great work and demonstrate His power with boldness.  However, we should never yearn for that more than we yearn to be in the center of God’s will.  If our heavenly Father believes we can glorify Him more in a state of illness than a state of health, then it is our calling in Christ to accept even this as a gift from His hand, and we should use our weakness to lean upon God in a new way.  Everyone who is healed by God eventually gets sick again, and even those who are raised again from the dead are only resuscitated.  They will eventually die again, as we all will.  The blessing is only temporary.
      Healing is faith's reward on many occasions, because faith is confident that when people have done their utmost and failed, the power of God in Christ is inexhaustible.  God is revealed in Scripture to have limitless power and resources, and He regularly demonstrates His strength on behalf of His people.  Yet, as Christians we still live out our lives in a fallen world, and we await the time when we will experience the full "redemption of our bodies,” as Paul says (Rm. 8:23).  In this life, as believers we can enjoy substantial healing, but not total healing.  In this life we can enjoy substantial victory over sin, but not total victory – not until Jesus comes again.

My personal story
      I’ve talked a lot in a theological way about what the Bible has to say with regard to healing, but how do we put it into practice, and what does this teaching look like in real life?  I want to share with you a bit autobiographically.  This is not intended to say, “Look at me! I’ve got it all together!”, but to provide an example of a struggling soul who has tried to be faithful to Christ and live out the teachings of the Bible and to demonstrate the faithfulness of God.
      When I was 24, I developed rheumatoid arthritis during my first year of marriage to Lorie.  She was probably thinking to herself, “Oh boy, I’ve gotten damaged goods!”   I noticed a gradual but increasing pain in my hip that shot down my right leg which eventually crippled me.  I remember the Sunday morning Lorie had to dress me because I was in such pain.  Eventually, I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, because the blood tests indicated the possibility of the disease, and I responded to the anti-inflammatory drugs. 
      After months of no physical exercise, once I got on the meds, I rejoiced at being able to run and play basketball again, and I felt like a kid all over again.  However, there were side-effects to the drugs I was taking, and eventually these began to have a debilitating effect on my body as well.  By this time, Lorie and I were in Washington, DC, and I was serving as an assistant pastor in a church there.  I was also seeing a rheumatologist who was a Christian and who had been a missionary in Africa.  In consultation with him, I approached the senior pastor of my church and the Session to ask them to lay hands on me, anoint me with oil, and pray for my healing, much as we do here at First Pres.  The doctor supported my decision, and after the elders prayed over me, I began to back off my medication.  The pain was gone, and I was healed.  Over the last 30 years, I have experienced only minor pain in my hip on very rare occasions, and an Advil has been sufficient to address the pain.  I feel like I experienced a miracle of God’s healing, and I praise His name for it!
      However, I have a current ailment with which I am dealing now, and it is quite a puzzle.  On a Monday a little over a month ago, I noticed a pain in my ankle.  It felt like I had sprained it, even though there had been no event that would have caused this kind of pain.  By the time I returned home from a Personnel Committee meeting the next day, I was in a bit of a crisis.  (Now, some of you may be saying, “Oh, that explains it.  Committee meetings can be a real pain!”)  I called my friend Dr. Jim Rector, who is an orthopedic in our congregation, somewhat in a panic.  I was leaving the next day for DIA to pick up five pastors from around the country and head to the mountains for one of my covenant groups.  What could I do? I asked.  Eventually, I was on crutches and was unable to walk without a limp.
      Over the past five weeks, they’ve taken x-rays, I’ve tried different drugs, they’ve done an MRI, they gave me a cortisone injection, they’ve drawn blood, and no one can quite figure it out.  I remember coming to a point about two weeks ago when I realized there was a chance I might never run or play basketball again, and I have to confess I slipped into a bit of depression over it.  It was a time of testing and leaning on God, because it meant losing something very dear to me.  That may sound silly to some of you, but I know the athletes in our congregation understand what I’m talking about.
      Three Sundays ago, I stayed back after the service, and instead of greeting people at the door, I went back for healing prayer.  Elders anointed me with oil, laid hands on me and prayed.  I have to be honest and say that nothing much improved after that for a couple of weeks.  However, just this past Monday, I felt a strength in my ankle and an absence of pain unlike I’ve experienced in quite some time.  Gradually, the pain has mostly left, and this past week I was able to run for the first time, and I even played tennis on Friday!  I haven’t made it back to the basketball court yet, but that may be on the way.  The ankle is still not strong, and there is some pain.  It’s at 90% today.
      Now, to what should I attribute the improvement in the ankle?  Was it the healing prayer?  Was it the cortisone injection?  Was it just a virus that attacked the joint, and it is working its way out (which has been one of the theories)?  Is my current relief only temporary, and will it reoccur?  Has something gone into remission, or have I been healed?  I’m not exactly sure, but I do know that God is called the Great Physician in Scripture, and whenever healing occurs, whether it is as a result of medical treatment, prayer, or a spontaneous miracle, God is at work to bring healing to body, mind and spirit.  It is for our good, but it is also for His glory.

Conclusion
      God can be glorified by healing us of physical disease, but He can also be glorified by sustaining us in the midst of suffering, as I have experienced this past month.  The Lord is more concerned with what is happening inside us, in our spirits, than He is what is happening in our physical bodies.  One relates to the other, but God is always more concerned with the interior of the soul, which will last forever, than our flesh and bones, which will one day pass away.  I close with this.
      Wade Boggs was an All Star third baseman who used to play for the Boston Red Sox.  A friend of mine worked as a chaplain to the Red Sox team, and he has told me that for the longest time Wade had no interest in spiritual things.  Even when his world was shattered apart by a moral scandal involving a woman other than his wife that was in all the papers, he still had no interest in God.  But then one winter, Wade's sister was miraculously healed of MS, and as a result he made a promise to God that he would turn his life over to the Lord.  Wade began to attend chapel with the team, and he started coming to the Friday Bible study.  It was a quiet thing, because he didn't want to become a Christian celebrity and appear on the Christian talk shows. 
      Wade Boggs came to Christ because of the miracle of healing in his sister's life.  But I would suggest to you that the real miracle here was not the healing of the MS; it was the healing of Wade's heart and spirit.  God is more concerned with what happens in us than He is with what happens to us.  Physical healing is only for a season, but the healing of the soul will last for eternity.  Do you need healing in your body, and more importantly in your heart, today?  Look to Jesus.  He has the power to heal.  Amen.