Session 3:
Refreshing Wellness
Next Level | Message Series
“He took our sicknesses and removed our diseases.”
Matthew 8:17b
Introduction
One of the most dramatic parts of Jesus’ life was his ability to miraculously heal the sick. Jesus famously cured people of leprosy (a rare skin disease), helped restore people’s ability to see and walk, and even raised a few people back to life who had died from illnesses. It’s made clear in the stories of Jesus that he performed these miracles to prove that he was, in fact, God, and that during his time on earth his desire was to show people what he really cared about. So, we can understand from Jesus’ healing abilities that God cares about the health and wholeness of our bodies.
But knowing that Jesus loved healing people brings up all sorts of other, more difficult questions: If Jesus can heal people, why doesn’t he heal everyone? How does Jesus’ care for our physical wellness relate to the picture most of us have that we’ll leave our bodies behind after death? Is there something about our physical experience of life that’s not as separate from our spiritual lives as we thought?
In this session, we’re going to explore what place God’s desire to heal has in our current—and eternal—lives.
Share Your Story
Start the conversation by using these suggested questions:
Give yourself a 1 to 10 rating in each of two categories: your physical health and your spiritual health. Are those numbers close to each other? Do they relate to each other? How does one affect the other during the different seasons of your life?
Have you or a loved one ever faced a significant health crisis? What was it like to experience that? What role, if any, did Jesus and faith play in that experience?
Watch the Video
Hear God’s Story
Matthew 8 and 9 are filled with stories of Jesus healing people who are struggling physically, emotionally and spiritually. Let’s read some of that together.
Read Matthew 8:14–17.
- What was the significance of Jesus healing Peter’s mother-in-law? Did Jesus just want her to make him a meal, or was there something bigger he was trying to show Peter’s family?
- Why was it important that Jesus’ healing powers were a fulfillment of prophesy? How could that have related to the way Jesus was seen in his time?
- If your Bible has section titles, skim through them in chapters 8-9 to see the other kinds of people Jesus healed. What does the variety of people Jesus chooses to heal in these chapters tell us about Jesus’ priorities?
Read Matthew 9:35–38.
- Jesus finishes healing many people, and then immediately turns around to ask the disciples to pray that more people would be sent out by God. Why do you think Jesus connects healing with sending out workers?
- Based on these few chapters, what kind of “healing” are we supposed to offer the world, that might not fall into the category of physical miracles?
Create a New Story
In this section, let’s talk about how we’ll apply what we’ve learned from God through the Bible passage. We’ll decide on a few practical steps we can take this week to live out God’s truth.
- Have you experienced any kind of healing (physically, relationally, emotionally, spiritually) in your connection with God? What were those experiences like, and how have they affected you afterward?
- How does our church or Life Group reflect the healing power of Jesus? Are there ways that we can point people towards God’s future redemption of the world by what we do together now?
- Jesus wants to send us out as his workers, bringing the same “healing” power he displayed to our community. Can you think of a few people you know that need healing?
- How does our reaction to physically health challenges reflect God’s ultimate goal for restoring us? How can we show hope and faith in God when we’re struggling physically?
Make sure to close your meeting in prayer, thanking God that he promises future healing. Ask him to guide us as we continue to trust him for our strength, and praise him for offering us the hope of eternal wholeness in him.
— For Parents —
It’s easy to compartmentalize our own faith from that of our children. Oftentimes the only crossover is when we ask, “What did you learn today?” when picking them up from school.
Instead of keeping your faith separate from your children, one of the best opportunities you have to model faith is to intentionally share about what God is teaching you. In this section, you will find a simple activity to create space to talk about the Sunday messages with your children. Your kids can understand more about what a relationship with God looks like and more about who God is to you.