The Healing of a Broken Heart.
Yesterday, we looked at Jesus being the truth that sets us free. We saw that
“knowing”
the truth, which brings freedom, meant having an intimate relationship with Jesus. Today, I would like to show you something the Lord revealed to me many years ago that changed my perspective and how I ministered to people. I really believe this will be a big blessing to you as it was to me.
Let’s look at a proclamation Jesus made that shaped and framed His life and ministry.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19).
Notice that Jesus did not start His miracle ministry until after He was anointed by God. We see this anointing come upon Him in Matthew 3:13-17.
Some people read Luke 4:18-19 and lump opening the eyes of the blind, preaching the gospel to the poor, healing the brokenhearted, setting at liberty those who were bruised and declaring the acceptable year of the Lord etc. as “stuff” Jesus came to do. And it is. But where I (like many) missed something very crucial in reading this passage is overlooking the priority Jesus listed in explaining the reasons He was anointed by God. Something very powerful is revealed when we see the divine order in which Jesus ministers under the anointing to the people listed.
Jesus says He was anointed to preach the gospel to the poor. Some have speculated He was referring to impoverished people. While it is true the gospel is good news to the poor, it is also good news to everyone because every single person who doesn’t know Jesus is poor in spirit. Notice what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3)
The kingdom of God or heaven is as Paul tells us in Romans 14:17,
“For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.”
Jesus is simply telling us that if we believe the gospel, it gives us access to God’s righteousness. Knowing we are righteous gives us the peace of God because He is at peace with us. These two truths are the major source of joy in the heart of the believer. When a person believes the gospel his heart overflows with joy unspeakable. When Philip the evangelist went to Samaria to preach the gospel, the city was full of joy!
The second thing Jesus said He came to do was heal the broken hearted. Some have speculated this refers to being a new spiritual creation in Christ. While it is true a person who believes the gospel is a new creation in Christ, I don’t believe that is what Jesus was talking about when He said He came to heal the brokenhearted. As believers, we are
“new”
creations in Christ, not healed creations. Our spirits didn’t need healing; they needed a supernatural rebirth. Our “old man” has passed on and in Christ, we are new creations.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
What does Jesus mean by
“healing a broken heart”
? Your heart is where you believe from and connect to God with. Some people confuse the heart with the spirit. I did for years but as I studied it more in depth, I realized the heart couldn’t be the spirit. Our new recreated spirit in Christ is a new creation that is perfect and complete in Him. Yet, the heart of a believer can be filled with doubt, fear, and confusion; it can be twisted and skewed. This is why Paul tells believers to renew their minds, so they can experience the transformation that happens by God’s grace.
“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2).
The purpose of renewing our minds is to establish our hearts in God’s truth for us. Transformation occurs when our hearts align with who we are in Christ. Renewing our minds is bringing our thoughts, ideas, and meditations in cohesion with our identity as new creations in Christ. Transformation is the work of the Holy Spirit in you that happens when you agree with what God says about you and who He made you to be. Simply stated,
stop believing the lies about yourself.
Choose to believe the truth about who you are in Christ. Lies hold you in bondage, but the truth will set you free. God doesn’t love you because you are perfect; He loves you because He is perfect. His perfect love for you brings you to perfection in Him.
You can change any bad or sinful behavior by simply renewing your mind. Doing so will establish your heart in the truth that frees and empowers you to walk in the newness of the life we have in Christ.
A broken heart is a heart that doesn’t trust God! Our broken hearts are healed when we hear the truth and choose to persuade our hearts to believe the truth we have heard. Knowing and believing these two truths create joy unspeakable in the hearts of people:
1.
The gospel is about God offering humanity the free gift of righteousness
2.
Because of Jesus’ work on the cross, we are at peace with God
This joy is part of the healing process of a broken heart. God wants you to trust Him and know that He is faithful. Many ministers today put an emphasis on people being faithful to God but ignore His faithfulness to us. Our ability to be faithful to God comes from knowing and believing in His faithfulness to us. We can love and forgive because God has loved and forgiven us. The same principle is true when it comes to being faithful. Our faithfulness is a response to knowing and trusting in the truth that God is faithful.
Notice that the preaching of the gospel comes before the broken heart is healed. Only the truth contained in the gospel can heal a broken heart. Now, after the broken heart is healed, what follows? The captives are set free; the blind eyes open; the bruised are healed and have the ability to accept or receive the Lord. All of this happens after or as a result of the broken heart being healed. Hearing the good news caused the heart to be healed and be able to trust God.
A close examination of the four Gospels reveals this to be true. Many times, Jesus gave the credit to a person being healed or receiving a miracle to that person’s “faith.” He said,
“Your faith has healed you.”
Where did that faith come from? It came from hearing about Jesus. These people came to Jesus believing He would help or heal them before they even encountered Him.
What people hear about Jesus will determine if they pursue Him or if they want nothing to do with Him. The people who came to Jesus believed the truth they had heard about Him and what they heard gave them hope. People with broken hearts have no hope, but a hopeful heart is a healed heart.
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).
Without hope, faith has no reason to exist because hope is what faith is rooted in.
“Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life” (Proverbs 13:12).
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).
It is the hope the gospel provides that heals our hearts, so we can trust God.
“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus according to the commandment of God our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, who is our hope” (1Timothy 1:1).
When we focus people’s attention on why God is faithful and who He is, that truth heals their hearts and gives them the confidence they need to trust Him. As a result, His power can open their blind eyes, set them free and heal their bruised bodies. Most important of all, it helps them receive Jesus as their Lord.
I believe one reason we don’t see more people healed, delivered, set free or come to Jesus today is their broken hearts have not been healed. Only the gospel can heal a broken heart.
Tomorrow, we will explore how true biblical transformation happens and why knowing the truth about God’s will is the key.
