Jesus came to heal those who needed healing. Our problem is that we think we can decide who needs healing and who doesn’t. We need to believe that we need Jesus’ healing. We must also believe that Jesus came to heal all, not just those who deserved it. Our biggest sign that we need healing is when we think we don’t need it, yet say that others don’t deserve it. The gospel of Jesus teaches us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

We tend to underestimate the Authority of Jesus in every area of our lives and overestimate our own authority. This is why we fight a losing battle for control over our circumstances rather than surrender to the one who is greater than our circumstances. Jesus has authority over everything – Every realm, every space, every part of our lives: Spiritual, Emotional and physical. To believe the gospel is to surrender all that we are to the authority of Jesus, and when we do, He redeems every part of who we are.

The world has indoctrinated us to seek its pleasures and purposes as our ultimate good, something that can never satisfy us. It compels us to live for the now instead of the eternity promised to all who believe. Christ came to live and die for an eternal kingdom that can actually satisfy us. And he calls us to forsake our stake on this world and apprentice under him so he can lead us to a better one.

Humanity is plagued with feelings of guilt, failure, shame and brokenness, but far too often we look everywhere else except to the One who can help us, the Son of God. Jesus is the true Son of God, the hope of this world. His death and resurrection are the only hope for people’s despair, and we need to be crazy enough and bold enough to tell the world, no matter the cost, so they can find their hope in him!

Because of our sin, we tend to stay blind to what God is doing. We wonder what God is doing or if he is really in control. We misunderstand that God is using the greatest suffering to bring about the greatest victory. Jesus willingly suffers, dies, and is buried to fulfill and porve everything that was ever written about him. The gospel shows how Jesus was using the greatest evil in the sinful hearts of man to bring about the good possible. The full redemption and salvation to every one who would put their faith and Trust in Jesus as their King.

We have all sinned and rebelled against God, and like Barabbas, we deserve the death penalty, eternal, spiritual death. The innocent One, Jesus Christ, took the criminal’s place so that the criminals could be set free. The King of the universe was mocked as a fake king, and he allowed it to happen in order to save us. If we have a Savior and King like this, what can we do but serve him, love him, and worship him?

We all screw up, but how we respond when we do is what matters most. Our sin nature makes us want to hide from God when we sin when He is, in fact, the One person we need most! Christ died to save sinners like you and me. When we understand his sacrifice and what it does for us, we aren’t afraid of the Father. We run to him in our mistakes and receive his forgiveness.

We think we can control what Jesus can or cannot do in our lives. We think we can define how and when he works in our lives. The gospel teaches us that God is sovereign over all things, even when it seems like we are in control and he is not. He is always in control. His work of grace, redemption, and salvation will be accomplished whether we want to or not.