Infinite Fellowship Ministries

The Bruised Heel Prison: Sermon By Deacon Rob Omol

For I am not ashamed of the Gospel (good news) of Christ, for it is God’s power working unto salvation [for deliverance from eternal death] to everyone who believes with a personal trust and a confident surrender and firm reliance, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 

Romans 1:16 (AMP)

The impact of the Gospel of Christ is a continuous process. We need to be believers who live for the Gospel.

If people cannot see Jesus in you without you telling them you’re a believer, you lack an aspect of the Gospel.

The disciples had little to no understanding of what Jesus said while they were with Him but they knew that He was the Son of God sent to reign.

Jesus didn’t come like any ordinary king. Because of His birth, just like in the time of Moses, a whole generation was sacrificed by king Herod.

The Gospel is glorious but there is a constricting that comes with the Gospel.

Mark died in Alexandria in Egypt after being dragged by horses in public.

Luke was hanged in Greece for preaching to the lost.

John was boiled in a pot of oil and then banished to the Isle of Patmos from where he wrote the book of Revelation. Later, he became the Bishop in Turkey and died peacefully in old age.

Peter was crucified upside down then hewn into two with a saw.

James was thrown from a pinnacle of 100 feet. He survived the fall and then was beaten to death. 

James the Great, the son of Zebedee, was beheaded in Jerusalem. The Centurion that accompanied him to the place of crucifixion accepted Christ and was beheaded together with James.

Thomas was stabbed with a spear in India as he was evangelizing. Jude was shot with arrows. 

Matheus was stoned then beheaded.

Paul was tortured and beheaded by Nero in AD 67 after a long imprisonment during which he wrote the Epistles.

We should not despair. Jesus said that in this world we will have many tribulations but we should fear not because we have overcome. Our funerals are not like those who do not have hope. It is just like falling asleep. We will arise in a glorious state. We should not fear death because it is but a sleeping because we arise in glory with Christ. Death is not the end.

The apostles gave their lives for the Gospel and because of what Jesus did in their hearts. Like them, we need to be believers who live for the Gospel.

In the book of Acts, when persecution broke out, their numbers increased because they would preach Christ wherever they go.

When preaching the Good News of Christ, begin with who Jesus Christ is. Show kindness to your enemies. Kindness is showing up when needed. Love is a choice and a sacrifice, not convenience.

Kindness is being a servant. Unity is laying down your self for the sake of the Body.

Love is letting the persuasions of God govern your thought process, actions and attitude of the people around you.

There can never be love without freedom and there can never be freedom without love.

I know your affliction and distress and pressing trouble and your poverty—but you are rich! and how you are abused and reviled and slandered by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Fear nothing that you are about to suffer. [Dismiss your dread and your fears!] Behold, the devil is indeed about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested and proved and critically appraised, and for ten days you will have affliction. Be loyally faithful unto death [even if you must die for it], and I will give you the crown of life. He who is able to hear, let him listen to and heed what the Spirit says to the assemblies (churches). He who overcomes (is victorious) shall in no way be injured by the second death. 

Revelations 2:9-11 (NKJV)

We cannot take our call lightly. It behooves us to be in unity. There is a weight that comes with the Gospel.

The Head

The head is the most important part of your body. It is the centre for thought, sight, smell and taste. A damaged head makes a body totally dysfunctional.

Remember [earnestly] also your Creator [that you are not your own, but His property now] in the days of your youth, before the evil days come or the years draw near when you will say [of physical pleasures], I have no enjoyment in them— Before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened [sight is impaired], and the clouds [of depression] return after the rain [of tears]; In the day when the keepers of the house [the hands and the arms] tremble, and the strong men [the feet and the knees] bow themselves, and the grinders [the molar teeth] cease because they are few, and those who look out of the windows [the eyes] are darkened;

When the doors [the lips] are shut in the streets and the sound of the grinding [of the teeth] is low, and one rises up at the voice of a bird and the crowing of a cock, and all the daughters of music [the voice and the ear] are brought low; Also when [the old] are afraid of danger from that which is high, and fears are in the way, and the almond tree [their white hair] blooms, and the grasshopper [a little thing] is a burden, and desire and appetite fail, because man goes to his everlasting home and the mourners go about the streets or marketplaces. [Remember your Creator earnestly now] before the silver cord [of life] is snapped apart, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern [and the whole circulatory system of the blood ceases to function];

Then shall the dust [out of which God made man’s body] return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return to God Who gave it. Vapor of vapors and futility of futilities, says the Preacher. All is futility (emptiness, falsity, vainglory, and transitoriness)! And furthermore, because the Preacher was wise, he [Solomon] still taught the people knowledge; and he pondered and searched out and set in order many proverbs. The Preacher sought acceptable words, even to write down rightly words of truth or correct sentiment. The words of the wise are like prodding goads, and firmly fixed [in the mind] like nails are the collected sayings which are given [as proceeding] from one Shepherd.  

Ecclesiastes 12:1-11 (AMPC)

But God will shatter the heads of His enemies, the hairy scalp of such a one as goes on still in his trespasses and guilty ways.

Psalm 68:21 (AMPC) 

You did divide the [Red] Sea by Your might; You broke the heads of the [Egyptian] dragons in the waters. 

Psalm 74:13 (AMPC) 

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her Offspring; He will bruise and tread your head underfoot, and you will lie in wait and bruise His heel. 

Genesis 3:15 (AMP)

The Heel

This is the back part of the foot. It is very sensitive. Figuratively, once it is injured, it means that one is hindered. The heel represents Jesus Christ and His Body (believers).

Afterward his brother came forth, and his hand grasped Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob [supplanter]. Isaac was sixty years old when she gave birth to them. Jacob means one who seizes the heel or supplanter. 

Genesis 25:26 (AMPC) 

The Lord has also a controversy (a pleading contention) with Judah, and will punish Jacob by visiting upon him according to his ways; according to his doings will He recompense him. Dan was to be like a serpent. 

Hosea 12:2 (AMPC) 

It was foretold that the serpent would bruise the heel of the seed of the woman.

Dan shall be a serpent by the way, a horned snake in the path, that bites at the horse’s heels, so that his rider falls backward. The tribe of Dan was at the heel of things in the wilderness inflicting damage to Israel’s enemies. 

Genesis 49:17 (AMPC) 

Then the standard of the camp of the sons of Dan, which was the rear guard of all the camps, set forward according to their companies; and over Dan’s host was Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai. Unfaithful Israel was to be punished like a direputable woman by having a heel punished over rough terrain. He has magnified his heel against me. 

Numbers 10:25 (AMPC) 

Even my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted (relied on and was confident), who ate of my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. 

Psalm 41:9 (AMPC) 

I am not speaking of and I do not mean all of you. I know whom I have chosen; but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled, He who eats My bread with Me has raised up his heel against Me. Eternal promises. 

John 13:18 (AMPC) 

Now the promises (covenants, agreements) were decreed and made to Abraham and his Seed (his Offspring, his Heir). He [God] does not say, And to seeds (descendants, heirs), as if referring to many persons, but, And to your Seed (your Descendant, your Heir), obviously referring to one individual, Who is [none other than] Christ (the Messiah). 

Galatians 3:16 (AMPC) 

A bruise on the heel is not permanently disabling.

Jesus died to redeem us from sin and to give us eternal life. He was bruised for our healing.

What is the purpose of your riches?

Have you embraced the prison that God has put you in?

We need to be totally sold out to the Gospel of Christ. God calls us to embrace the Gospel and share it with others because it is the power that leads to salvation.

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole. Have embraced the prison the God has put us in? We are compelled to share the gospel. 

Isaiah 53:5 (AMPC) 

For the love of Christ controls and urges and impels us, because we are of the opinion and conviction that [if] One died for all, then all died; And He died for all, so that all those who live might live no longer to and for themselves, but to and for Him Who died and was raised again for their sake. Consequently, from now on we estimate and regard no one from a [purely] human point of view [in terms of natural standards of value]. [No] even though we once did estimate Christ from a human viewpoint and as a man, yet now [we have such knowledge of Him that] we know Him no longer [in terms of the flesh]. Glory covers us from the head to the toe. 

2 Corinthians 5:14-16 (AMPC) 

From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness or health in [the nation’s body]—but wounds and bruises and fresh and bleeding stripes; they have not been pressed out and closed up or bound up or softened with oil. [No one has troubled to seek a remedy.] 

Isaiah 1:6 (AMPC)

Considerations:

Are you of the truth?

Pilate said to Him, Then You are a King? Jesus answered, You say it! [You speak correctly!] For I am a King. [Certainly I am a King!] This is why I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the Truth. Everyone who is of the Truth [who is a friend of the Truth, who belongs to the Truth] hears and listens to My voice. 

John 18:37 (AMPC) 

Because of this, brethren, be all the more solicitous and eager to make sure (to ratify, to strengthen, to make steadfast) your calling and election; for if you do this, you will never stumble or fall. Thus there will be richly and abundantly provided for you entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Are you living off the truth? 

2 Peter 1:10-11 (AMPC) 

So then, whatever you desire that others would do to and for you, even so do also to and for them, for this is (sums up) the Law and the Prophets. Enter through the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and spacious and broad is the way that leads away to destruction, and many are those who are entering through it. But the gate is narrow (contracted by pressure) and the way is straitened and compressed that leads away to life, and few are those who find it.  Are you sharing the truth? 

Matthew 7:12-14 (AMPC) 

These are the things that you shall do: speak every man the truth with his neighbor; render the truth and pronounce the judgment or verdict that makes for peace in [the courts at] your gates. 

Zechariah 8:16 (AMPC) 

For the fruit (the effect, the product) of the Light or the Spirit [consists] in every form of kindly goodness, uprightness of heart, and trueness of life. The presence of peace doesn’t mean termination of suffering in the context of process and purpose. The gospel is not complicated; it takes application as part of a lifestyle.

 Ephesians 5:9 (AMPC)

The presence of peace doesn’t mean termination of suffering in the context of process and purpose.

The place of tribulation is the place of the bruised heel. 

The Gospel is not complicated. It takes application as part of a lifestyle. 

Let us not forget how beautiful are the feet that bring Good News.