The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
Ephesians 2:8opening encouragement before worship: God has saved us by His grace when we believed, and we cannot take credit for this, it is a gift from God
8 for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
the sermon text for the morning, covering the healing of the bent woman and the parables of the mustard seed and leaven
10 He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath day.
11 Behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and she was bent over, and could in no way straighten herself up.
12 When Jesus saw her, he called her, and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your infirmity.”
13 He laid his hands on her, and immediately she stood up straight, and glorified God.
14 The ruler of the synagogue, being indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the multitude, “There are six days in which men ought to work. Therefore come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day!”
15 Therefore the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each one of you free his ox or his donkey from the stall on the Sabbath, and lead him away to water?
16 Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound eighteen long years, be freed from this bondage on the Sabbath day?”
17 As he said these things, all his adversaries were disappointed, and all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.
18 He said, “What is God’s Kingdom like? To what shall I compare it?
19 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and put in his own garden. It grew, and became a large tree, and the birds of the sky live in its branches.”
20 Again he said, “To what shall I compare God’s Kingdom?
21 It is like yeast, which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.”
closing benediction urging the congregation to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger because human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires
1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are in the Dispersion: Greetings.
2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
4 Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach; and it will be given to him.
6 But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed.
7 For that man shouldn’t think that he will receive anything from the Lord.
8 He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
9 But let the brother in humble circumstances glory in his high position;
10 and the rich, in that he is made humble, because like the flower in the grass, he will pass away.
11 For the sun arises with the scorching wind, and withers the grass, and the flower in it falls, and the beauty of its appearance perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in his pursuits.
12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love him.
13 Let no man say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God can’t be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one.
14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed.
15 Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin; and the sin, when it is full grown, produces death.
16 Don’t be deceived, my beloved brothers.
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor turning shadow.
18 Of his own will he gave birth to us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
19 So, then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger;
20 for the anger of man doesn’t produce the righteousness of God.
21 Therefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves.
23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror;
24 for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
25 But he who looks into the perfect law of freedom, and continues, not being a hearer who forgets, but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does.
26 If anyone among you thinks himself to be religious while he doesn’t bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is worthless.
27 Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Pastor John walked through Luke 13:10-21, a healing on the Sabbath that got the synagogue leader furious, and asked why we get so angry at the things God is doing. The sermon was honest, almost confessional, and it stayed close to the text.
What was said
Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath when he noticed a woman who had been bent over double for eighteen years. He called her over, told her she was freed from her sickness, laid his hands on her, and she stood up straight immediately. Her response was to glorify God. The synagogue leader's response was indignation.
To understand why the Sabbath kept producing conflict in the Gospels, Pastor John walked through the 39 categories of work the Jewish teachers had defined as forbidden. Most of those categories do not come from Torah itself. They come from the Halakah, layers of legal commentary running to hundreds of pages, including a general clause covering anything deemed incompatible with the honor due to the Sabbath. Jesus had not broken a single one of those rules. He spoke to the woman. That was it.
The synagogue leader did not confront Jesus directly. He turned to the crowd and told them there were six days for getting healed, and they should come then, not on the Sabbath. Pastor John connected this to an earlier Sabbath controversy in Luke 6, where the Pharisees responded to another healing with what the text calls senseless rage, and began plotting how to destroy Jesus. In both cases, the anger was pointed at the work of God rather than at any actual wrong.
Jesus answered the synagogue leader by pointing out that every man there would untie his ox or donkey on the Sabbath to lead it to water. He then called the woman a daughter of Abraham, a term that appears rarely, and asked whether she, bound by Satan for eighteen years, should not have been released on the Sabbath day. All his opponents were humiliated, and the crowd rejoiced.
Pastor John was honest that he recognized himself in the synagogue leader. He told the congregation about a men's intensive he attended recently that made him furious almost from the minute he arrived. He was certain he was right, and he felt righteous in that certainty. But looking back, he could see that other men were set free from things that had been weighing on them for years, and his indignation had almost kept him from seeing that.
Jesus then compared the kingdom of God to a mustard seed that grows into a tree where birds nest, and to leaven hidden in a large amount of flour until the whole batch is leavened. Pastor John read both parables as describing how the kingdom starts small, even one family, even one person, and works its way through everything around it. The healing of one woman in a synagogue was that kind of beginning.
The sermon closed with James 1, where James tells his readers that human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. The call was to examine our anger honestly, to be quick to listen and slow to speak, and to stay open to what God is doing around us rather than getting in the way of it.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
Pastor Mark described the synagogue leader as a man whose indignation at the miracle defined him in scripture for all of human history. Is there a place in your own life where righteous-feeling anger has caused you to miss what God was doing right in front of you?
The woman had been bent over for eighteen years and still kept coming to the synagogue. What does her faithfulness in suffering say to you about how we should respond to our own long-term struggles?
Speaker 3Well, good morning, church. How are doing this morning? We've got signs of spring outside. That's a good thing, and we're here to worship. So an encouraging word from Ephesians two eight to lead us into worship.
It's God has saved us by his grace when we believed, and we can't take credit for this. This is a gift from God. Amen? Would you stand with me, and we'll sing about grace.
Speaker 2Life and that I would be savory. Jesus, I sing for
Speaker 1have a few announcements to work our way through them. Last week, I felt like I was announcing everything that had happened the week before last. Monday nights at first b. What's happening?
Speaker 3Yeah. We're on town hall tomorrow night, 06:00 meal, music message, and the Jesus kind of has a conversation with the the rich young ruler. He's he's looking under the hood. He's looking at more than just the commandments, but where is his heart and where is the treasure of his heart? It's a it's a fantastic fantastic passage of scripture.
And I don't know what the meal is. It's a surprise, but Barb is cooking.
Speaker 1Meal music and a message tomorrow night, 06:00 down the hall. Awana is happening in the same at the same time all over the rest of the church. Awana, the kids program, kids club where we get together and pour scripture into the minds of the kids to reach the hearts of the kids. The Jackson Hole Men's Alliance meets the first Wednesday of each month. That's just to get you in the frame of knowing that.
First Wednesday of each month, that's not coming up this week. But the first Wednesday of each month, there'll be food and fellowship down the hall, 06:30, AM on the first Wednesday. Ladies fellowship happens on Thursday evenings at 06:00. That's also in the fellowship hall. They get together.
They eat together. They meet together, they pray together, and they study the word together, and it's good. It's really, really good. Just the overflow of what comes out of that is wonderful. I got a witness here.
Oh, fantastic. Okay. So for the ladies fellowship, this week is the last week they're going into the book and then they're getting to this. We'll be starting here soon, Christian Life and Witness Course, 05/04/1118 in the evening seven to nine p. M.
The staff actually is going this week on Tuesday. We're going over in anticipation of this event. There are several speakers that are speaking and it's kind of an all day thing for the staff. So we're leaving here super early. Church office will be mostly closed.
Still text us, call us if you have an emergency or something that you need to. But plan on Tuesday this week, we're going to be somewhere else. We'll be over the hill together. We're all over the hill together. Okay.
Sorry. Sorry. The Ladies Spring Luncheon is happening today in between after the second service up to about two p. M. There's some sign up sheets in the foyer, but I think showing up.
Nancy T. Is in charge of that. So that's the ladies spring luncheon. Last night, we had this. Did you want to say anything about it?
Oh, you want me to say something about it? It was a good a good time was had by all. How about that? It is amazing to see what one family can do in a community. One family can have a great impact on a community, and it was a time of, them kind of sharing what they were going to be doing in Romania, but also, receiving not just questions, but more than that, blessings from the people of the church.
And so you've been a blessing to us, brother. We thank you, and I'm glad. I see the last line. They still need monthly supporters. They're leaving, but it would be nice for them to know that they had some ongoing support.
Last Not yet. Yeah. Last Sunday is in June, so don't yeah. I I heard that just take the air out of the room. They are they're here around around June 4 is last Sunday.
Right? Would you stand with us, and we're gonna carry on worshiping God together. There's a song in my soul. Glad you're here.
Speaker 2Know for sure. There's a joy. There's a joy in my soul. And it rises like the morning. This I know for sure
Speaker 3You pray with
Speaker 2me.
Speaker 3God, we thank you for the opportunity to worship you in song. The people of God, in the presence of God, singing the praises of God. It truly is a privilege. Thank you that we get to do this. And, Lord, may your joy well up in us and spill over.
We have so much to be thankful for because you are good. Your steadfast love, it endures forever. Would you remind us of that this morning? In Jesus' name. Amen.
Speaker 2Come to Jesus and find your peace. If you're run down empty and deep, of everything, defender, deliverer, king of kings, he is helper and healer forevermore, shelter for every storm,
Speaker 3Can we just rest on those character traits, those attributes of God? That he is our comforter, that he's our counselor, that he is our prince of peace. He's the author, and he is the maker of everything. Colossians says he holds all things together. He is holding us together, church.
He's our defender. He's our deliverer. He's our king of kings, our lord of lords. He's our helper, and he's our healer forevermore. He's our savior, and he's our shelter through every storm.
He's our refuge and our redeemer, and he's our lord of lords. He's the child of heaven, and he's the son of man. He's the provider, and he's the protector, and the great I am. He's the alpha, omega, beginning, and then he is. And shall we sing of his holiness?
You can have a a seat here for a moment. It's the worship through giving, part of the the service, and I invite the ushers to come on forward, and we're gonna sing your words from Isaiah. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of God, it stands forever. But before we sing, Ray, would you pray?
Speaker 1Yeah. God, thank you for this, beautiful morning. I thank you for this gathering of your people. Lord, you have called us out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of marvelous light. May we walk in that light.
Lord, continually, just take in your presence. And, Lord, reflect it to those who are still walking in darkness. In Jesus' name, we ask that you would use your people humble and obedient before you, Lord, that you'd use them to carry the message of the good news of the finished work of Jesus Christ to the very uttermost parts. I pray, Lord, that you would be, covering this globe, just saturating it, with your word that has the power to transform with your spirit, that is the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, that there would be no sting left in death. Lord, for those of us who have lost dear ones just recently this week, I pray that you would comfort our hearts with the resurrection, the the reality of the resurrection.
I thank you. In Jesus' name, that you promise us that now we do prophesy in part, but then we'll know just as we are known. We'll see things as they are. And yet, Lord, we cannot understand how we would be without tears. God, would you show us that?
Would you show us your view of our existence? Would you show us? In Jesus' name, ask that you'd bless every gift that's placed in these plates, Lord, the gift and the giver. I pray that you would multiply their efforts, our efforts to do what you would have us to do, your will done in your way. In Jesus name.
Amen.
Speaker 2Fade away. Everything else will fade away. And everything else will fade away.
Speaker 1It's time for Children's Church downstairs. All right. How are you all this morning? Things looking up? Feeling good?
Good. Last week, I did a chapter and a half. This week, I have just 12 verses, just this, 10 through 21. And when I read the story the first time, I was like, that's an admission right there. It's confessional preaching.
How dare I? Right? Read the sermon text, trying to look for what's the what's the place to start, what's the place to stop. And I looked at it and thought, that'll do. And then I thought, let me dig into this.
And it got to be so good. And not just so good, it got to be so good for me, Like, the confessional preaching aspect of it. Oh, gracious. Well, we get to it. I'm sure.
Here it is. Now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues. Just normal day. Doesn't say which day. It doesn't necessarily follow.
The reason I went last week such a long passage is because it's evident that was one conversation that Jesus had primarily with his disciples, but also with a larger group. More than 10,000, the text says. Right? A lot of people. We're going that.
Speaker 2To
Speaker 1that. Jesus we're was teaching do in one of the synagogues. And Synagogue so is it can be big or small. Typically, if an area was large enough to have 10 Jewish families, it's big enough for a synagogue, and they would establish one. So we don't know if it's a big one or a small one.
Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath, nonspecific locale, I think nonspecific time, but it does further the message. This is the last time that Jesus is mentioned in a synagogue in Luke. So we see him in synagogues various times before that, and we see controversy around each of those. And then we see him at this one, and it's the last time that it's mentioned. This is still fairly early.
We're in chapter 13. This is still fairly early in Luke. But Luke, the Gentile doctor, notes that this happened. He's teaching the one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And when you just hear Sabbath, reading through the gospels, you're going, oh, gracious.
It's on the Sabbath. On the Sabbath. We know there's gonna be conflict, it seems, every time that that's mentioned. They try to throw him off of Nazareth Ridge early in Luke. There's a dispute where the Pharisees and the Herodians get together and seek to destroy him in Matthew.
Oh, the Sabbath. We don't think about that. I I don't I think, besides finding your shoes and maybe where you put your Bible, the Sabbath is not something that's a huge, huge deal for us these days. And I don't think we realized that at the time and still today, there are 39 categories of work that are to be avoided on the Sabbath. And here they are.
No carry, no burning, no extinguishing, no finishing, no writing, erasing, no writing, no erasing, No cooking, no washing, no sowing, no tearing, no knotting, no untying, no shaping, no plowing, no planting, no reaping, no harvesting, no threshing, no winnowing. Remember the last time that we saw the argument was not Jesus, but his disciples taking some grain off of a stock and eating the grain, and that was threshing. Letting go of the chaff was winnowing. Your disciples, they're breaking the Sabbath. Winnowing, selecting, you cannot select.
Sifting, grinding, kneading, combing, spinning, dying, chain stitching. Don't chain stitching. Warping, weaving, unraveling, building, demolishing, trapping, shearing, slaughtering, skinning, tanning, smoothing or marking. Don't even mark the ones that you're going to shear on the Sabbath. That's why it's a big deal every time we read about Sabbath because in the Torah, the only one that's really mentioned in the Torah, it does say remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
It does it does say that. Carrying something is mentioned specifically in Torah. The rest of the 38 are not in Torah. It does say six days shall you labor, do all your work, and this is what was classified as work. But that in the text of the Torah, it doesn't say that the halakah, the halakah is the and I'm terrible with Hebrew pronunciation, sorry, that's closest this Georgia guy can get it.
The halakah is the one that outlines this and there are chapters and chapters and chapters and chapters, hundreds and hundreds of pages defining what constitutes carrying, what constitutes each of these. Years could be spent. Okay. Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath, and there was a woman, okay, set in the scene, who for eighteen years had had a sickness caused by a spirit. Luke, the Gentile doctor, wants to point out that it appears that this was a spiritual thing, but it was a sickness.
It was a psychosomatic. Some people would call it today. It was something that was physical that was brought on by what was on either her mind, her heart, or being oppressed by a spirit. Had a sickness that was caused by a spirit, and she was bent over double, and she could not straighten up at all. So her walking for eighteen years had been like this.
That's a terrible state to be in. Could not at all straighten up or could not straighten up at all. Either way, it's bad. Now when Jesus saw her, he noticed, and he called her over, and he said to her, woman, that's not an ugly thing. I know that the way you hear that's a woman.
That's that's the immediate kind of thing these days. But Jesus had called his mother. Woman, he'd called the the Syrophoenician woman. Woman, it's a tender term of endearment almost. Woman, you are freed from your sickness.
Amen. And he laid his hands on her. Did he burn, extinguish? Did he do any of those 39 things? It didn't say you couldn't speak on the Sabbath.
Did he saw her. He recognized that she was suffering, and he called her over and said to her, Woman, you're freed from your sickness. And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she stood up straight again after eighteen years. Wow. Oh, that makes my back feel good just thinking about it.
He laid his hands on her, and immediately she stood up straight again, and she had the proper response. She began glorifying God. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, that you just did that, that you set me free. Oh, can you imagine going from this for eighteen years?
She's still going to the Sabbath. She's still going and and she's able to stand up, and she stood up straight again and began glorifying God. But, oh, this makes me so mad. Wait a second. This is what this is all about.
But the synagogue leader, indignant. It made him mad. This is this is something that I told you all a while back. I'm not going go into it all today. I told you a while back, Karl and I went on a pastor's retreat recently that we thought was going to be a pastoral retreat.
That's the way it was built. Had a friend invited us, you need this, Karl needs this, okay. I had said no for eighteen months. No significance to the eighteen, just I had been saying no since he invited me. And we went, and it was not a pastoral retreat.
It was a men's intensive. Whatever that means. And it made me so mad. If I had had my own car, I didn't. If I had any other choice, I would have left within five minutes of getting there, and that's not an exaggeration.
I was so angry. And it was a forty two hour long intensive, and I had just been to a great, actually, men's retreat two weeks before. I've never been on one in my life and I went on two in two weeks. The first one was wonderful. Thank you.
That was great. The guys coming here that morning finishing up the thing, that was a really good time. This made me mad the whole time. I was so angry. In fact, one of the times they called on me and said, what did you think of that?
I said, and they said, what do you think? I said, it's wrong. What you're doing here is wrong. And he said, why is that? Do you want to drill down into that a little bit?
And I said, because emotional manipulation is always abhorrent. Next man. Okay. Just move right along. I was so mad.
Now I will say this after having had some time to process it. I was very, very angry. And I you know what? This is an assembly of more than 10 families. I'm a synagogue leader.
It just means assembly. That's all it means. We put a Jewish connotation on it, but it's an it's this is an assembly, and I I happen to be in the position of being a leader. And even if I didn't agree with it, there were some guys who were set free from the stuff that was keeping them down that weekend in forty two hour stuff that I think takes six months, eight months, maybe a year counseling, you know, my way. Goodness.
I was so and that's the perfect word for it. I was so indignant. I was so angry, and I felt so righteous in my indignance, in my anger. The synagogue leader, indignant. Now we don't know which synagogue this was.
We don't know exactly when it was. All we know about this guy is that. That's what defines this guy in the scripture and what he'll be known for throughout all of human history. Synagogue leader, indignant. I don't wanna be known like that.
I don't wanna be known like that. I don't I if if Jesus chooses to heal somebody in a way that is different from the way I think he normally does it, why should that make me mad? Why should that hurt my feelings? Goodness gracious. The synagogue leader, I was telling the story this week, and I was talking about how right I was.
But I was also studying this that I had previously gone, no big deal. Simple miracle story. Yeah. Jesus doing what Jesus does. Oh my goodness though.
Jesus is doing what Jesus does. This guy had everything he needed to recognize Messiah. He had everything he needed to recognize him. And one of the things he needed to know was that he would be able to do this at his word. He just heal people.
And when he did, rather than the synagogue leader immediately glorifying God with the lady, the synagogue leader, indignant, grieving much to be indignant, to be angry. The synagogue leader, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath. Eighteen years this woman has suffered. Presumably, she knows the synagogue leader. He knows her, presumably.
Maybe not, but that we don't pass through as much, I don't think. Or we, you know, we pass through more these days where we just might pop into a service. Jesus and his disciples do that often, but I think about that woman and that leader, that man that saw her in her suffering, and he got mad because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath. He began saying, this is another move. This is just terrible.
He began saying to the crowd. He's not speaking directly to Jesus. He began speaking to the crowd in response saying, hey, y'all, don't let me catch any of you looking for healing on the Sabbath. You know better. There are six days during which we should the work should be done.
Six days. Actually, this is tacitly. He would never have said this out loud, but he recognized that this was Jesus' work. It really wasn't against any of those rules. Right?
He had not broken any of those rules. Now on previous occasions, his disciples had on the Sabbath done a little bit, and that's where Jesus told the pharisees, hey. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. They're feeding themselves. There's hunger, and they're feeding themselves.
It's it's gonna be okay. Right? Relax. There are six days during which work should be done. So y'all come during during those to get healed.
Y'all y'all just get here during the week, not on the Sabbath day. We got to remember and keep it holy. You got to keep on suffering through the Sabbath day. That is a quote from Exodus 20. It's the beginning of verse nine.
For six days, you shall labor and do all of your work. And they're holding Jesus' work. They're holding him responsible for this healing. He was responsible for this healing, but he had not broken any rules. I think back to that time when in Matthew, Mark, and Luke all tell the story about the disciples in the grain and then him healing a man with a withered hand.
And as he heals the man with the withered hand, they freak out. You know? And he's asked actually, I think I have it in the slides. We'll get to it in a minute. Oh, the Sabbath.
Here it is. These are all the rules. He had not broken any of those rules. Can you find one that he broke by what he did, what he said? No.
So he hadn't even broken their rules. Okay? Then these rules are based on this. I wish I'd split them down. Just read them one at a time with me.
There are five types of interdictions. These are verboten. These things are no no's that were laid down by the Jews of this time. First of all, the things that are specifically forbidden in the scriptures. Okay.
I'm with them on that one. The next one, those things that are supposedly forbidden in the scriptures. It's arguable that it might be a breaking of the Sabbath if you did this thing. So supposedly, by what reading? They actually literally in all those thousands of pages of Halakah had the majority and the minority voices.
Okay? So okay, okay. It's not there in Torah, but it's real it seems like it should be. Okay. Add that one.
That's a hedge around the law. The law was just given to let us know where we lacked, to know that we needed God, to know that we needed a savior, to know that we needed messiah. First, specifically forbidden. Second, supposedly forgiven. Third, things forgiven because they might lead to a transgression of the biblical command.
Oh, I think about a thousand jokes right here about Baptist mainly. Things that are forbidden because they might lead to a transgression. It this is a slippery slope. This is the that's a slippery slope. Don't go anywhere near that.
Okay? Fourth, actions that are similar to the kinds of labor supposed to be forbidden in the Bible. These are this is real. This is not didn't make this up. I didn't even make up the definitions.
I just took it straight from this as well how they determine what would be Sabbath breaking. And then the fifth one, actions that are regarded as incompatible with the honor due to the Sabbath. That was the general duty clause. Have you ever read a series of I used to be a safety man. In the code of federal regulations for OSHA's rules, it says you need to guard this and guard that and wear this and wear that.
And then it says this will be an infraction worth $7,000 And if you don't pay attention or it's a willful violation, it's $70,000 And there are all kinds of regulations. And then down at the end, instead of just saying, okay, that's everything, it says, and anything else that we deem to be unsafe. That's that. Actions that are regarded by whom? Our hearts are judged before God, right?
But if we are seeking to lead others, we need to go about what the Bible actually says. Yes. Don't give that away. But when we start adding hedges further and further and further out, and there are things that we don't struggle with. This guy was pretty proud, I'm sure, of his Sabbath keeping.
Then I'm gonna deem whatever you do, and we've used various examples in the past. And and I hear from Florine about Romania. In church in Romania, if you did x y z, they think you're not a Christian. In Mexico, I could wear blue jeans all week long, but if I wore blue jeans to church, it's like, is this guy really a Christian? Actions that are regarded as incompatible with the honor that's due to the Sabbath is really broad, and it's subject to whoever is the judge.
Right? So that's tough. Okay. Let's go back just for a second. I'm gonna run through this.
This is the last time in Luke that it was another Sabbath controversy. On another Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and he talked, and a man was there whose right hand was withered, and now the scribes and the pharisees were watching him closely. They're they're gonna figure out how it is that he's gonna break the law to see if he healed on the Sabbath so that they might find a reason to accuse him. But he knew what they were thinking, and he said to the man, it's not against the rules to say to a man. Get up and come forward.
And he got up and came forward. Obedience is important for that guy. He listened to Jesus and did what he said. He had to know the Pharisees were there. He had to know they're looking.
And Jesus said to them, the Pharisees, I ask you whether it's lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do harm, to save a life or to destroy it. And after looking around at them all, they didn't answer apparently, he said to them, stretch out your hand, and he did so. Obedience is important. And his hand was restored. Amen.
Had he done anything wrong according to their rules? No. Had he done anything wrong according to Torah? Absolutely not. Had the man?
No. He had not. But they themselves were filled with, oh, here it is again, senseless rage. Annoyous. We get our word annoyed from this.
Folly, madness, foolishness, properly, no mind, referring to the irrational behavior and mindless actions. It's a lack of sense, which easily degenerates into a state of extreme anger that suggests an incapacity to use one's mind. Extreme fury, great rage. They were filled with senseless rage and they began discussing together what they might do to Jesus. That's what Luke says.
Matthew says it this way, but the Pharisees went out and they conspired against him as to how they might destroy him. Do we wanna be guilty of destroying the work that God is trying to do? No. Back to Luke 13. There are six days during which all work should be done.
Listen to me, all of you. We're agreeing right now. Don't make this man any more famous than he already is. But the Lord answered him and said, you hypocrites. You play actors.
Does each of you on the Sabbath night untie his ox or his donkey from the stall and lead it away to water? Well, yeah, we do. You gotta do that. And this woman, this is a rare saying in the in the Bible, a daughter of Abraham. You hear sons of Abraham all the time.
All the time. And this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is. She no doubt about it. She's part of the lineage. She is part of the family.
She's here at the synagogue. She comes in suffering as she has. And this woman, a son a daughter of Abraham, as she is, Satan has bound for eighteen long years. Should she not have been released from this restraint on the Sabbath day? Are you really serious?
That's what Jesus is saying. Really? Really, people? And as he said this, all of his opponents were being humiliated because that's shameful, and they recognized it. And the entire crowd was rejoicing.
Amen. The entire crowd was rejoicing over all the glorious things being done by him. There were there were other things, but this one just caused the entire crowd to delight and glorify God. And so Jesus was saying, what's the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to?
It's like a mustard seed, which a man took and threw into his own garden, and it grew and it became a tree. And the birds of the sky nested in its branches. We could push this and push it and push it, but I think that the point is just this little bitty seed, just this little bitty seed right here planted turns into something that gives harbor, safe space, gives a great place for the birds to come and nest. It's one of the biggest of the trees in that area. Just a little it's starting a little.
There are just a few of you all that are following, that are really following, right? The disciples are 12 of you all, one of you is a devil. There are 11 of you all that really get this or you're getting it. It's starting small. You're getting it.
It's like a mustard seed, which man took through in his own garden, grew and became a tree and birds of sky nestled in its branches. Immediately turns it around and says, to what shall I compare the kingdom of God? Second example. It says, it's like leaven which a woman took, and she hid it in three sata of flour. If you're if you're worried about it, it's 1.125 bushels.
Okay. That's a lot to me. It's like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three sata of flour until it was all leavened. We said a couple of weeks ago or maybe last week about the leaven of the Pharisees, it doesn't take much hypocrisy to ruin the whole assembly. It doesn't take a lot of he's so he he tells his disciples it was last week.
He tells his disciples, beware of the leaven of the pharisees' hypocrisy. Beware of it. Stay away from it. Be honest with yourself, with God, with others. Be honest, not hypocritical.
So don't let that leaven get in. This, though, he says the kingdom of God is also like leaven in that it doesn't take much for it to permeate. I had not planned on doing this, but I mentioned in the announcement time, I mentioned about this one family and one little family, no offense. He has said, if he added one cubit his height, he'd be my It it makes a difference. The gospel makes a difference in an individual.
And then when it has found its way, it makes a difference in the sphere of influence of that person. And Christ says that the gates of hell won't even prevail against the advance of the gospel. Christ says that it'll go to the uttermost parts. Now he's talking to a bunch of people that are walking around in sandals two thousand years ago, and he's saying this is what the kingdom of God is like. It has to start somewhere.
And I think it helps to start by being honest, by by paying attention to what God is trying to do. I think it helps if we refuse to be hypocritical. I think it helps if we watch what we get angry at. I think it watches I think it helps if we watch this for ourself. Like the man who had the withered hand, Jesus said, come on, and he came on, and he said, stretch out your hand.
He stretched out his hand. That's what Jesus was saying to him, and he did what Jesus was saying to him. He did it, and he was healed. This woman didn't even ask for it. She didn't even ask for it.
She just came in like she always does. And when Jesus saw her, he was filled with compassion, and he just said, hey, woman. Come here, she did. He said, you're freed from this. Oh, would you all pray with me?
I think this is the end. I think that's the last slide. To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It starts small. It starts small in numbers in those days to the numbers that we have today, it still starts small because it starts inside of each one of us.
How are we gonna accept the word that we've heard? Are we gonna take it humbly and be obedient to what Jesus has said, act like Jesus in that he was continually entrusting himself to the one that judges rightly instead of his team or chosen team, whatever. He was continually entrusting himself to the one who judges rightly. In humility, he was asking for the forgiveness of the ones who are nailing him to the cross. In humility, he was recognizing that his relationship with God was the important thing.
He walked it out. Yeah. He gave advice when people asked. He helped them in things that were ailing them. Would you pray with me?
God help us. God help us. We come before the text, Lord, and, sometimes we do just go, yeah. May we not just see ourselves as, when we're angry, we see ourselves as Jesus flipping over a table. When we're angry, may we question it, Lord, and stay open to what it is that you're doing, not just in us, but around us.
I pray, Lord, that you would keep on doing the work that only you can do, that we would immediately, when we recognize it, that we would glorify God for it. In Jesus' name, Lord, I pray for your your healing touch, for your forgiveness, and for your your leading onward that we'd be able to walk, being sanctified, consecrated, and being able to walk in holiness, to think less about ourselves, more about you and more about others. In Jesus' name. Amen. Would you stand?
This is from James, from James one. And, I know that the the times that we live in are angry times. I know that there's a lot of indignance on both sides. May we not be like that? One of the reasons is because of this, my dear brothers and sisters, James says, my dear brothers and sisters, take note of this, everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.
And he gives a justification for that last one right here. Says, Because human anger or the anger of mankind, human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. It's not ever going to do it. What it usually happens is when you're angry, you make somebody else angry. That's the way it goes.
Can we lay down our arms? Can we listen more than we speak? Can we take our anger seriously? Examine it. And then final culmination of last week's message immediately before this one is repent.
Right? Can we take that and just repent? Step back from it. In Jesus' name, Lord, I ask a blessing on every soul in the room. Everybody who heard this message this morning, I pray that you would start kneading it into their lives and and into my life, that you would knead this leaven in, Lord, that it would be that it would be doing what it needs to do, transforming us.
