Colossians 1.3-6
Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is mystery. Today is the present and it is a healing present from the Lord if we will but accept Him in this moment, in this healing hour.
From yesterday Christians receive apostolic teaching and ministry. We’re here to celebrate Saint Luke and the apostolic call to healing which his Feast recalls.
From tomorrow when God will be all in all we receive by anticipation a touch from heaven. Whenever Christians gather they bring their Lord into their midst and the healing touch of the heavenly kingdom.
So as we read God’s word this evening from Colossians chapter one we welcome it with Paul as indeed the word of the truth, the gospel that has come to us (v5). Good news that’s not in words alone but which comes down to this day, forwarded through the centuries, with healing power. There is no word of God without power!
Then as Paul also says to the Colossians we should be grateful because of the hope laid up for us in heaven (v5). Because Our Lord is the same yesterday, today and for ever this hope has impact right now so that the apostle continues, saying this hope is bearing fruit among us from the day we heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God (v6).
The healing power of Christ flows forward to us this evening from the cross and resurrection by the teaching of the apostles handed down and backwards to us from heaven where God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more for the first things have passed away (Revelation 21.4).
God loves us and wants us well. Let’s not doubt it. God’s perfect will for us is health of body, mind and spirit.
This is what Jesus showed us in the days of his flesh. Saint Luke hands on from the Lord to us this truth, as in Chapter 9 of his Gospel in verse 11 where he tells us that crowds followed Jesus; and he welcomed them, and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed to be cured.
God’s ultimate design for healing shines back at us simultaneously from heaven, so to speak, when we ponder the last chapters of the Bible from which I just read.
Our Father loves us, Jesus says, and he wants us well. This is Saint Luke’s witness and it’s to be our experience in Horsted Keynes tonight as we gather together around God’s word with quiet confidence in the power of God’s promises.
I would say that there is an extra element of blessing due to us tonight at a service across denominations. That is the blessing expressed in Psalm 133: Behold how good and how lovely it is: when brothers and sisters live together in unity…For there the Lord has commanded his blessing: which is life for evermore (v1,4)
For Christians to unite together in faithfulness to God’s word, to pray as we are doing this evening with confidence in what he has promised and humility before his provision, this is very powerful indeed.
All the graces we receive as Pentecostals, Anglicans or Roman Catholics do not come from ourselves or our denominations but from God through Christ in the Spirit.
Our greatest resource as Christians is the sense we have of our baptism, the sense of our need for cleansing from sin and refreshing in the Spirit. This unites us – our need for forgiveness and healing and our openness to receive from Jesus.
This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Happy are those who are called to his supper. Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed.
The supper we have celebrated today around different tables anticipates the same heavenly marriage supper that lies ahead. The healing we claimed in Holy Communion today has no denominational allegiance.
So tonight we bless oil to be used ‘ecumenically’. As we do so we put faith in the Lord to act as our healer. Has he not invited us in his word to anoint the sick and needy?
When Our Lord came to earth he worked with St Joseph in a carpenter’s shop. He knew how to mend what was broken. In his 30th year he went to the Jordan where heaven opened and God revealed himself in a voice and a Dove. This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.
The sky got torn so heaven showed itself to earth. It got torn as Jesus came and it stayed torn as Jesus ministered, died and rose again. Tonight there remains in Jesus something of a gap in the heavens. O Saving victim opening wide the gate of heaven to man below. Our foes press hard on every side. Thine aid supply, thy strength bestow!
Yesterday, today and tomorrow come together in Jesus who is the same yesterday, today and for ever (Hebrews 13v8).
So in this present moment, at this evening hour, the Saviour is present to us, present to forgive, to heal, to deliver. He will honour your faith and mine, the faith that has come down to us from the apostles and which anticipates and brings into today the joys of the world to come.
Our Father loves us and wants us well. Do you believe it? Exercise your faith tonight. Comprehend, grasp the grace of God! Reach out to the Lord and let him reach out to you from heaven to bring you a touch of the healing that is to be yours in its fullness one day. The hope laid up for us in heaven …that is bearing fruit among us in Horsted Keynes!
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