Simple Keys To Touching Jesus For Miracles

Gospel writers record several incidents where Jesus touched people and other accounts where it went the other way. Now, touching Jesus is what our focal point is today. Whenever the Master touched someone, miracles followed. Physical touch is vital; studies show its absence can be life-threatening. We need human contact. Many years ago in hospital nurseries, it was standard procedure that newborns were not to be touched except in emergencies. Dr. John Holt observed an incredible proportion of infant deaths. He believed there was a link between the failure to touch and the high death rates. He reasoned that the will to live is directly related to the experience of being held and touched as an infant. Holt instructed neo-natal nurses to give “Tender Loving Care” to six infants five times a day, to hold and cuddle them, physically conveying love through touching. They rallied immediately. Now it is standard procedure that early on, within a few minutes after birth, infants are placed in the mother’s arms. They are held by the father and the attendant. Young people who grow up in homes where there is very little touching are often withdrawn in character and personality in adulthood, retreating into a world of fantasy, often expressing hostility to others and to society at large. But when young people are raised in homes with lots of touching, hugging, kissing, physical expressions of affection, they usually grow up to be open, warm, and secure. We need to be touched if our lives are to be all they ought to be. We have here a clue as to why God came and dwelt among us. He understood that we needed to be touched, not only by our mothers and fathers and those we love, but by God. We need to know His loving caress. So God became a man. He took on flesh and blood and dwelt in our midst. I believe also that God came in flesh to touch us because touch is the highest form of communication. Words are fundamental to communication. But there are times when words fail, when touch can communicate what the tongue cannot.¹ I agree wholeheartedly with this point of view. Since physical connection is essential, isn’t spiritual touch equally, if not more, important? Absolutely! This week on Light on Life, join us for “Simple Keys to Touching Jesus for Miracles.”

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Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put it into operation.
This week’s call is:

Faith is the language that God speaks. Talk to God in His language. Jesus will be touched by your trust and His miraclous power will flow into your body.

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Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11). Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony.
This week’s question is:

Question: Have you ever reached out to touch Jesus with your faith? What happened as a result of your encounter? Please share your story in the comments section below.

Episode Resources:

If you would like to know more about growing in faith, see the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

We are currently teaching on the subject of Divine Healing. You can click on the links below to listen to more podcasts or read blog posts along this line.

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 48 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. He and his wife Sharon of 44 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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Prayer

Well again, welcome.
Let’s pray.

Father God thank you for touching our lives and as we have been looking at how you healed people in the ministry of Jesus, we see that when people touched Jesus that healing power went out of Him and restored to those individuals health and wholeness. Thank you for that and thank you that you are the same God today as you always have been. You are the Lord Most High and you never change. And, Jesus, the scripture says is the same as well yesterday, today, and forever. And since He is, we can know and tap into that same healing flow today as we reach out and touch you by faith. My, my, how wonderful! Glory be to God!

Podcast Notes

Touching Jesus: His Compassion

So, you know, we have endeavored in this series of podcasts, to dissect the methods of healing that Jesus used so that by doing so we could tap in to those methods either to receive healing for ourselves or minister healing to others.
Basically, we are looking at the mechanics of healing — you know how it works.
But, while we are doing that we should always remember to never forget compassion.
Compassion is what moved Jesus to action.
Remember that Holy Spirit inspired compassion in your heart is a leading from God.
Compassion is not just a feeling — it’s an action.
Compassion does something.

Matthew 14:14 (ESV) — 14 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

Luke 7:12–14 (ESV) — 12 As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. 13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” 14 Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.”

Compassion does something — here, it heals the sick.
When you are motivated by compassion, you are tapping into the very essence of the laws of God concerning faith.

Galatians 5:6 (ESV) — 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

Touching Jesus: Reviewing the Account of the Woman with the Issue of Blood

So, we are in Mark’s gospel, chapter five once again.

Mark 5:25–34 (ESV) — 25 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, 26 and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. 27 She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. 28 For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” 29 And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30 And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” 31 And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’ ” 32 And he looked around to see who had done it. 33 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. 34 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

So in a previous podcast, we spent sometime talking about this particular woman who suffered greatly from a dreadful disease that caused her to have an ongoing issue of blood — a condition that lasted for twelve years.
We looked at her interactions with the doctors and how instead of medical science helping her, they made things much worse.
Adding to her severity was the social segregation she had to endure over being ‘unclean’ because of this flow.
This young lady was in a bad way.
Lastly, her financial state was totally in ruins having spent all that she had on these doctors trying to find a cure.
And, instead of a cure, she came up empty.
But, when she heard about ‘THE JESUS’ she kept saying to herself ‘If I can just touch his garment, I shall be made well.
And with that thought, here is the Testimony of the Day.

This testimony concerns Sharon my beautiful love of my life, wife. It’s allergy season and she got hit pretty hard with that and it put her down for a couple of days. Well, our accountant came and we were going over our taxes but that dove-tailed into talking about Jesus. You know that’s what believers do when they get together. Now, my CPA and his wife are both Jesus followers. So, Sharon, nudged me and said, tell him about ‘THE Jesus.’ So, I did. You know it’s found in Mark 5:27 where this woman who was sick with the issue of blood, had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. In the Greek, there is an article, the word THE that wasn’t translated into the English text. The word the is right before the name Jesus. So the way this text reads when she heard the reports about THE Jesus, came in the press behind. You see there was a lot of people named Jesus running around in that day. It was a very common name in the first century among the Jews. you see it was a particular Jesus that Mark was pointing his finger at. Because this was the only Jesus that was healing the sick and doing marvelous miracles to help people. So as I was explaining that to my CPA Sharon got really chatty. Well that conversation went on for a couple of hours before we called it a night. But I asked her about that chattiness. You just have to know Sharon when Sharon is feeling good she’s talking. Not so when she’s not feeling well. Sharon said, “When you started talking about THE Jesus, the Presence of God came on me.” Well, that presence of God made an instant impact. I mean you could see it. The next day, she got up and went to cleaning her house.

Thank God for the one and only Jesus!
He touched Sharon through the Word of God and through the prayers of her Sunday School class.
Now, getting back to this woman who had this issue of blood.
When she heard about ‘THE Jesus,’ she pushed her way through that crowd and touched the hem of his garment.
Something happened to her when she did.
Mark five and verse thirty details that.

Mark 5:30 (ESV)— 30 And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?”

When she touched Jesus, power went out of him and into the woman.
Operating in faith, that is walking via trusting God, establishes a viable connection to God’s power.
The touch of faith causes power to touch you.
This insight into the mechanism of how people are healed is found here in this woman’s account.
We know it because Jesus highlighted it for us and Mark recorded it!

Jesus Touch: Matthew and Luke’s Account of the Women with the Issue of Blood.

Matthew and Luke both record the healing of this woman.

Matthew 9:20–22 (ESV) — 20 And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, 21 for she said to herself, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.” 22 Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well.

But, you see, in Matthew’s version there’s no mention of the power that flowed out of Jesus.

Luke 8:43–46 (ESV) — 43 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. 44 She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. 45 And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!” 46 But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.”

Luke mentions the power that flowed out of Jesus but not the saying part — the fact that women ‘kept saying to herself, that if she could touch Jesus garment, she would be made well.’
Only Mark’s version has the whole story.
So, thank God for Mark’s version.
Let’s talk some more now about touching Jesus.

Touching Jesus: His Reputation

You see Jesus had a reputation for getting people healed when they touched Him.

Luke 6:17–19 (ESV) — 17 And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, 18 who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19 And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all.

There it is again.
People sought to touch Him.
The result from this ‘seeking of the people’ is evident — from the touch, power came out and healed them all.
Now, what you don’t have here are the details of these people’s faith like we do with the woman with the issue of blood.
She kept saying, “If I can touch the hem of His garment I shall be whole.”
You don’t have that ‘inside information’ about any of the people in this crowd in Luke.
But is is implied by verse eighteen — ‘the people came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases.’
Now, because of what they heard, ‘all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all.’
Now, what that’s tells us is that Jesus taught on the Law of Contact and Transmission.
The law basically says that faith’s contact causes the anointing to flow.
Jesus taught that and the people responded.
Now, with that being said, let’s look at the words ‘came out’ — as people touched Him power came out.
And, with that thought, here is the Definition of the Day.

The words ‘came out’ are continuous or repetitive in the Greek meaning that as each individual person touched Jesus, that power flowed out of Him.

What this is saying is that the power came out of Him one by one.
It did not come out in one sweeping motion.
Every person that touched Jesus did so with enough faith to cause that power to flow and it happened over and over again.
Person number one, touched — and power came out and healed.
Person number two made contact — power came out and healed.
On and on — Touch — power came out and healed.
Over and over again it happened.
And that should be so encouraging to all of you — because of Hebrews 13:8.

Hebrews 13:8 (ESV) — 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

If He is the same and you know He is that means one thing here.
If you touch Him today with your faith, the power will flow out of Him and into you and you will be made whole.
Now, you understand, it’s just simple faith.
It’s just simple trusting God.
These people didn’t have Bibles to reference — we went over that.
No one had a personal copy of the scriptures.
The only Bible to be found was up in the synagogue.
This crowd of people acted on what they heard and they kept saying, “if I can touch his clothes I will be made well.”
If they did that — you can too.
Touch Him today with your faith.
The Law of Contact and Transmission is a method of divine healing.

Touching Jesus: The Message Gets Out

So this next point is a vital one and with that thought, here is the Question of the Day.

How did these people find out about Jesus and His miracle working touch? How did they come to be even gathered in a crowd on this day?

Look at what the scripture says about the areas where these people came from.
This event we are looking at in Luke six where all this crowd of people got healed one by one as they touched Jesus, this happening took place in Capernaum.
Jesus ministry was stationed there.
He had moved to Capernaum from Nazareth and Matthew details that move.

Matthew 4:12–13 (ESV) — 12 Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. 13 And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali,

Jesus moved to Capernaum from Nazareth to fulfill prophecy.
You know sometimes the Lord will ask you to move.
The Lord asked Sharon and I to leave family on the East Coast and move to the Midwest.
You may say, ‘I don’t want any of that moving business.’
Well, do you want God’s plan for your life?
Do you desire to walk in His perfect will?
Then be open to which ever way the Lord leads you.
The Father God asked Jesus to move from Nazareth, which was a remote hill village, to the city of Capernaum which was a busy lake-side town set among other thriving villages which depended largely on the productive fishing industry of the Lake of Galilee.²
Now, this move was all according to prophecy.

Matthew 4:14–16 (ESV) — 14 so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: 15 “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— 16 the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.”

You see if Jesus had stayed around the comforts of home in Nazareth, the ‘people dwelling in darkness would not have seen a great light.’
They would not have even known about it.
Because of all the ‘people traffic’ passing through Capernaum, word about Jesus healing ministry got out much faster.
That’s why the scripture says…

Matthew 4:17 (ESV) — 17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

‘From that time — from the time of His move to Capernaum, His message about the Kingdom of God got out.
Now it certainly got out because what Luke six says, and we have already read it is that people came from Tyre and Sidon to hear and be healed.
Tyre and Sidon was 50 miles north of Capernaum.
The average travel per day on foot was 15 to 20 miles per day in the first century.
So, we are talking approximately three days travel.
How is your influence three days out from where you live just for comparison?
So people knew about Jesus because the word concerning his healing ability fanned out quickly from Capernaum.
Now, for the most part, the people that lived right there where Jesus was in Capernaum, didn’t buy into Jesus.
We know that because Capernaum made the list of cities that Jesus condemned.

Matthew 11:20 (ESV) — 20 Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent.

The Greek word ‘denounce’ means to revile, to reproach, and to blame.
It’s a strong word.

Matthew 11:21–22 (ESV) — 21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you.

People from Tyre and Sidon, Gentiles made up this crowd.
Now what magnifies this is when you understand that the pagans who lived in these two cities were under the condemnation of God back in the Old Testament.

Isaiah 23: 1 (ESV) — The oracle concerning Tyre. Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for Tyre is laid waste, without house or harbor! From the land of Cyprus it is revealed to them.

Drop down to verse four.

Isaiah 23: 4 (ESV) — 4 Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying: “I have neither labored nor given birth, I have neither reared young men nor brought up young women.”

These two cities were under the judgment of God in the Old Testament yet the Lord is saying that if the miracles that took place in totally condemned pagan Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented.
What is Jesus saying?
I’d did all these miracles in your town and you didn’t repent.
That was Jesus message when He came to Capernaum: repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is here!

Matthew 11:23–24 (ESV) — 23 And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.

Now, Jesus compares Capernaum’s lack of believing to ‘nasty, filthy, homosexually crazed, burned up with fire and brimstone Sodom.

Matthew 11:24 (ESV) — 24 But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.”

Can I tell you, this is super bad.
We are out of time.
But there’s another incident with the same MO.
People healed by touching Jesus.
I’m not going to comment.
I am just going to point it out to you.
The text will speak for itself.

Touching Jesus: Another Incident

Mark 6:53–56 (ESV) — 53 When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored to the shore. 54 And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized him 55 and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was. 56 And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well.

Touching Jesus with faith is a method of divine healing.
You don’t need to physically touch today.
You can touch spiritually and when you do, you will be made whole.
Act on the Word — Act on this Word if you need healing and reach out and touch Jesus.

Now Father God, thank for giving us so many ways by which we can, in simple faith, receive. We give you all the glory for it in Jesus mighty Name, Amen.

Simple Keys To Touching Jesus For Miracles.
You guys have a great God week and we will see you next time for another edition of Light on Life.

#S2-040: More How to Release Your Faith with Words [Podcast]

__________
References:

Discipleship Journal, Issue 20 (March/April 1984) (NavPress, 1984). ↩
R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publication Co., 2007), 140. ↩

emeryhorvath.com

Equipping people to pursue God's glory

Simple Keys To Touching Jesus For Miracles

Podcast: Light on Life Season Twelve Episode Fifteen

by Emery Horvath

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Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

Episode Resources:

If you would like to know more about growing in faith, see the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

We are currently teaching on the subject of Divine Healing. You can click on the links below to listen to more podcasts or read blog posts along this line.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Share the Love

Prayer

Podcast Notes

Touching Jesus: His Compassion

Touching Jesus: Reviewing the Account of the Woman with the Issue of Blood

Jesus Touch: Matthew and Luke’s Account of the Women with the Issue of Blood.

Touching Jesus: His Reputation

Touching Jesus: The Message Gets Out

Touching Jesus: Another Incident

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Listen to the Audio

Click to Listen | Right Click to Download |Subscribe to PlayerFM

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

Episode Resources:

If you would like to know more about growing in faith, see the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

We are currently teaching on the subject of Divine Healing. You can click on the links below to listen to more podcasts or read blog posts along this line.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Share the Love

Prayer

Podcast Notes

Touching Jesus: His Compassion

Touching Jesus: Reviewing the Account of the Woman with the Issue of Blood

Jesus Touch: Matthew and Luke’s Account of the Women with the Issue of Blood.

Touching Jesus: His Reputation

Touching Jesus: The Message Gets Out

Touching Jesus: Another Incident

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