Eighteen Long Years

April 23, 2023

Scripture referenced 8 passages

The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.

Psalm 107 mentioned as the possible source of 'let the redeemed of the Lord say so', preacher was not positive of the reference

1 Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever.
2 Let the redeemed by Yahweh say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the adversary,
3 And gathered out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.
4 They wandered in the wilderness in a desert way. They found no city to live in.
5 Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.
6 Then they cried to Yahweh in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses,
7 he led them also by a straight way, that they might go to a city to live in.
8 Let them praise Yahweh for his loving kindness, for his wonderful deeds to the children of men!
9 For he satisfies the longing soul. He fills the hungry soul with good.
10 Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron,
11 because they rebelled against the words of God, and condemned the counsel of the Most High.
12 Therefore he brought down their heart with labor. They fell down, and there was no one to help.
13 Then they cried to Yahweh in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses.
14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke away their chains.
15 Let them praise Yahweh for his loving kindness, for his wonderful deeds to the children of men!
16 For he has broken the gates of brass, and cut through bars of iron.
17 Fools are afflicted because of their disobedience, and because of their iniquities.
18 Their soul abhors all kinds of food. They draw near to the gates of death.
19 Then they cry to Yahweh in their trouble, he saves them out of their distresses.
20 He sends his word, and heals them, and delivers them from their graves.
21 Let them praise Yahweh for his loving kindness, for his wonderful deeds to the children of men!
22 Let them offer the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his deeds with singing.
23 Those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business in great waters;
24 These see Yahweh’s deeds, and his wonders in the deep.
25 For he commands, and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up its waves.
26 They mount up to the sky; they go down again to the depths. Their soul melts away because of trouble.
27 They reel back and forth, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
28 Then they cry to Yahweh in their trouble, and he brings them out of their distress.
29 He makes the storm a calm, so that its waves are still.
30 Then they are glad because it is calm, so he brings them to their desired haven.
31 Let them praise Yahweh for his loving kindness, for his wonderful deeds for the children of men!
32 Let them exalt him also in the assembly of the people, and praise him in the seat of the elders.
33 He turns rivers into a desert, water springs into a thirsty ground,
34 and a fruitful land into a salt waste, for the wickedness of those who dwell in it.
35 He turns a desert into a pool of water, and a dry land into water springs.
36 There he makes the hungry live, that they may prepare a city to live in,
37 sow fields, plant vineyards, and reap the fruits of increase.
38 He blesses them also, so that they are multiplied greatly. He doesn’t allow their livestock to decrease.
39 Again, they are diminished and bowed down through oppression, trouble, and sorrow.
40 He pours contempt on princes, and causes them to wander in a trackless waste.
41 Yet he lifts the needy out of their affliction, and increases their families like a flock.
42 The upright will see it, and be glad. All the wicked will shut their mouths.
43 Whoever is wise will pay attention to these things. They will consider the loving kindnesses of Yahweh.

World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Keep this verse

Luke 13

the main passage for the sermon, the healing of the bent-over woman on the Sabbath

1 Now there were some present at the same time who told him about the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.

2 Jesus answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered such things?

3 I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all perish in the same way.

4 Or those eighteen, on whom the tower in Siloam fell, and killed them; do you think that they were worse offenders than all the men who dwell in Jerusalem?

5 I tell you, no, but, unless you repent, you will all perish in the same way.”

6 He spoke this parable. “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it, and found none.

7 He said to the vine dresser, ‘Behold, these three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and found none. Cut it down. Why does it waste the soil?’

8 He answered, ‘Lord, leave it alone this year also, until I dig around it, and fertilize it.

9 If it bears fruit, fine; but if not, after that, you can cut it down.’”

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.”

22 He went on his way through cities and villages, teaching, and traveling on to Jerusalem.

23 One said to him, “Lord, are they few who are saved?” He said to them,

24 “Strive to enter in by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter in, and will not be able.

25 When once the master of the house has risen up, and has shut the door, and you begin to stand outside, and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ then he will answer and tell you, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’

26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’

27 He will say, ‘I tell you, I don’t know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity.’

28 There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets, in God’s Kingdom, and yourselves being thrown outside.

29 They will come from the east, west, north, and south, and will sit down in God’s Kingdom.

30 Behold, there are some who are last who will be first, and there are some who are first who will be last.”

31 On that same day, some Pharisees came, saying to him, “Get out of here, and go away, for Herod wants to kill you.”

32 He said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I complete my mission.

33 Nevertheless I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the next day, for it can’t be that a prophet would perish outside of Jerusalem.’

34 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, like a hen gathers her own brood under her wings, and you refused!

35 Behold, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”

World English Bible · Read it in another translation

Keep this verse

Luke 6

disciples walking through a grain field on the Sabbath and being accused of harvesting and threshing

1 Now on the second Sabbath after the first, he was going through the grain fields. His disciples plucked the heads of grain and ate, rubbing them in their hands.

2 But some of the Pharisees said to them, “Why do you do that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath day?”

3 Jesus, answering them, said, “Haven’t you read what David did when he was hungry, he, and those who were with him;

4 how he entered into God’s house, and took and ate the show bread, and gave also to those who were with him, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests alone?”

5 He said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

6 It also happened on another Sabbath that he entered into the synagogue and taught. There was a man there, and his right hand was withered.

7 The scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, that they might find an accusation against him.

8 But he knew their thoughts; and he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Rise up, and stand in the middle.” He arose and stood.

9 Then Jesus said to them, “I will ask you something: Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good, or to do harm? To save a life, or to kill?”

10 He looked around at them all, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did, and his hand was restored as sound as the other.

11 But they were filled with rage, and talked with one another about what they might do to Jesus.

12 In these days, he went out to the mountain to pray, and he continued all night in prayer to God.

13 When it was day, he called his disciples, and from them he chose twelve, whom he also named apostles:

14 Simon, whom he also named Peter; Andrew, his brother; James; John; Philip; Bartholomew;

15 Matthew; Thomas; James, the son of Alphaeus; Simon, who was called the Zealot;

16 Judas the son of James; and Judas Iscariot, who also became a traitor.

17 He came down with them, and stood on a level place, with a crowd of his disciples, and a great number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases;

18 as well as those who were troubled by unclean spirits, and they were being healed.

19 All the multitude sought to touch him, for power came out of him and healed them all.

20 He lifted up his eyes to his disciples, and said, “Blessed are you who are poor, God’s Kingdom is yours.

21 Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.

22 Blessed are you when men shall hate you, and when they shall exclude and mock you, and throw out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake.

23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven, for their fathers did the same thing to the prophets.

24 “But woe to you who are rich! For you have received your consolation.

25 Woe to you, you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.

26 Woe, when men speak well of you, for their fathers did the same thing to the false prophets.

27 “But I tell you who hear: love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,

28 bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you.

29 To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer also the other; and from him who takes away your cloak, don’t withhold your coat also.

30 Give to everyone who asks you, and don’t ask him who takes away your goods to give them back again.

31 “As you would like people to do to you, do exactly so to them.

32 If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.

33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.

34 If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive back as much.

35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing back; and your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind toward the unthankful and evil.

36 “Therefore be merciful, even as your Father is also merciful.

37 Don’t judge, and you won’t be judged. Don’t condemn, and you won’t be condemned. Set free, and you will be set free.

38 “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be given to you. For with the same measure you measure it will be measured back to you.”

39 He spoke a parable to them. “Can the blind guide the blind? Won’t they both fall into a pit?

40 A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.

41 Why do you see the speck of chaff that is in your brother’s eye, but don’t consider the beam that is in your own eye?

42 Or how can you tell your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck of chaff that is in your eye,’ when you yourself don’t see the beam that is in your own eye? You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck of chaff that is in your brother’s eye.

43 For there is no good tree that produces rotten fruit; nor again a rotten tree that produces good fruit.

44 For each tree is known by its own fruit. For people don’t gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush.

45 The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings out that which is good, and the evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings out that which is evil, for out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.

46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do the things which I say?

47 Everyone who comes to me, and hears my words, and does them, I will show you who he is like.

48 He is like a man building a house, who dug and went deep, and laid a foundation on the rock. When a flood arose, the stream broke against that house, and could not shake it, because it was founded on the rock.

49 But he who hears, and doesn’t do, is like a man who built a house on the earth…

World English Bible · Read it in another translation

Keep this verse

Matthew 12

disciples walking through a grain field on the Sabbath, parallel account to Luke 6

1 At that time, Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the grain fields. His disciples were hungry and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.

2 But the Pharisees, when they saw it, said to him, “Behold, your disciples do what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.”

3 But he said to them, “Haven’t you read what David did, when he was hungry, and those who were with him;

4 how he entered into God’s house, and ate the show bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for those who were with him, but only for the priests?

5 Or have you not read in the law, that on the Sabbath day, the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are guiltless?

6 But I tell you that one greater than the temple is here.

7 But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you wouldn’t have condemned the guiltless.

8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

9 He departed there, and went into their synagogue.

10 And behold there was a man with a withered hand. They asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day?” that they might accuse him.

11 He said to them, “What man is there among you, who has one sheep, and if this one falls into a pit on the Sabbath day, won’t he grab on to it, and lift it out?

12 Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath day.”

13 Then he told the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out; and it was restored whole, just like the other.

14 But the Pharisees went out, and conspired against him, how they might destroy him.

15 Jesus, perceiving that, withdrew from there. Great multitudes followed him; and he healed them all,

16 and commanded them that they should not make him known:

17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying,

18 “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen; my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my Spirit on him. He will proclaim justice to the nations.

19 He will not strive, nor shout; neither will anyone hear his voice in the streets.

20 He won’t break a bruised reed. He won’t quench a smoking flax, until he leads justice to victory.

21 In his name, the nations will hope.”

22 Then one possessed by a demon, blind and mute, was brought to him and he healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw.

23 All the multitudes were amazed, and said, “Can this be the son of David?”

24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “This man does not cast out demons, except by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons.”

25 Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.

26 If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?

27 If I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.

28 But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then God’s Kingdom has come upon you.

29 Or how can one enter into the house of the strong man, and plunder his goods, unless he first bind the strong man? Then he will plunder his house.

30 “He who is not with me is against me, and he who doesn’t gather with me, scatters.

31 Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men.

32 Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, neither in this age, nor in that which is to come.

33 “Either make the tree good, and its fruit good, or make the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by its fruit.

34 You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

35 The good man out of his good treasure brings out good things, and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings out evil things.

36 I tell you that every idle word that men speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.

37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

38 Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees answered, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.”

39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, but no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet.

40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

41 The men of Nineveh will stand up in the judgment with this generation, and will condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, someone greater than Jonah is here.

42 The queen of the south will rise up in the judgment with this generation, and will condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, someone greater than Solomon is here.

43 When an unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through waterless places, seeking rest, and doesn’t find it.

44 Then he says, ‘I will return into my house from which I came out,’ and when he has come back, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order.

45 Then he goes, and takes with himself seven other spirits more evil than he is, and they enter in and dwell there. The last state of that man becomes worse than the first. Even so will it be also to this evil generation.”

46 While he was yet speaking to the multitudes, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, seeking to speak to him.

47 One said to him, “Behold, your mother and your brothers stand outside, seeking to speak to you.”

48 But he answered him who spoke to him, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?”

49 He stretched out his hand towards his disciples, and said, “Behold, my mother and my brothers!

50 For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

World English Bible · Read it in another translation

Keep this verse

Luke 4

Jesus' first sermon in Nazareth where he proclaimed his mission to heal, give sight to the blind and have the lame walk

1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness

2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. He ate nothing in those days. Afterward, when they were completed, he was hungry.

3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”

4 Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’”

5 The devil, leading him up on a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

6 The devil said to him, “I will give you all this authority, and their glory, for it has been delivered to me; and I give it to whomever I want.

7 If you therefore will worship before me, it will all be yours.”

8 Jesus answered him, “Get behind me Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and you shall serve him only.’”

9 He led him to Jerusalem, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, cast yourself down from here,

10 for it is written, ‘He will put his angels in charge of you, to guard you;’

11 and, ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest perhaps you dash your foot against a stone.’”

12 Jesus answering, said to him, “It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’”

13 When the devil had completed every temptation, he departed from him until another time.

14 Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and news about him spread through all the surrounding area.

15 He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

16 He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. He entered, as was his custom, into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.

17 The book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. He opened the book, and found the place where it was written,

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to deliver those who are crushed,

19 and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

20 He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on him.

21 He began to tell them, “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

22 All testified about him, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth, and they said, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”

23 He said to them, “Doubtless you will tell me this parable, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done at Capernaum, do also here in your hometown.’”

24 He said, “Most certainly I tell you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.

25 But truly I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land.

26 Elijah was sent to none of them, except to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.

27 There were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed, except Naaman, the Syrian.”

28 They were all filled with wrath in the synagogue, as they heard these things.

29 They rose up, threw him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill that their city was built on, that they might throw him off the cliff.

30 But he, passing through the middle of them, went his way.

31 He came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. He was teaching them on the Sabbath day,

32 and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word was with authority.

33 In the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice,

34 saying, “Ah! what have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know you who you are: the Holy One of God!”

35 Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” When the demon had thrown him down in the middle of them, he came out of him, having done him no harm.

36 Amazement came on all, and they spoke together, one with another, saying, “What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!”

37 News about him went out into every place of the surrounding region.

38 He rose up from the synagogue, and entered into Simon’s house. Simon’s mother-in-law was afflicted with a great fever, and they begged him for her.

39 He stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her. Immediately she rose up and served them.

40 When the sun was setting, all those who had any sick with various diseases brought them to him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.

41 Demons also came out of many, crying out, and saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of God!” Rebuking them, he didn’t allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ.

42 When it was day, he departed and went into an uninhabited place, and the multitudes looked for him, and came to him, and held on to him, so that he wouldn’t go away from them.

43 But he said to them, “I must preach the good news of God’s Kingdom to the other cities also. For this reason I have been sent.”

44 He was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.

World English Bible · Read it in another translation

Keep this verse

Exodus 29

the synagogue leader quoted it to say there are six days during which work should be done

1 “This is the thing that you shall do to them to make them holy, to minister to me in the priest’s office: take one young bull and two rams without defect,

2 unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil: you shall make them of fine wheat flour.

3 You shall put them into one basket, and bring them in the basket, with the bull and the two rams.

4 You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the Tent of Meeting, and shall wash them with water.

5 You shall take the garments, and put on Aaron the coat, the robe of the ephod, the ephod, and the breastplate, and clothe him with the skillfully woven band of the ephod;

6 and you shall set the turban on his head, and put the holy crown on the turban.

7 Then you shall take the anointing oil, and pour it on his head, and anoint him.

8 You shall bring his sons, and put coats on them.

9 You shall clothe them with belts, Aaron and his sons, and bind headbands on them: and they shall have the priesthood by a perpetual statute: and you shall consecrate Aaron and his sons.

10 “You shall bring the bull before the Tent of Meeting: and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the bull.

11 You shall kill the bull before Yahweh, at the door of the Tent of Meeting.

12 You shall take of the blood of the bull, and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger; and you shall pour out all the blood at the base of the altar.

13 You shall take all the fat that covers the innards, the cover of the liver, the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, and burn them on the altar.

14 But the meat of the bull, and its skin, and its dung, you shall burn with fire outside of the camp: it is a sin offering.

15 “You shall also take the one ram; and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram.

16 You shall kill the ram, and you shall take its blood, and sprinkle it around on the altar.

17 You shall cut the ram into its pieces, and wash its innards, and its legs, and put them with its pieces, and with its head.

18 You shall burn the whole ram on the altar: it is a burnt offering to Yahweh; it is a pleasant aroma, an offering made by fire to Yahweh.

19 “You shall take the other ram; and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram.

20 Then you shall kill the ram, and take some of its blood, and put it on the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and on the tip of the right ear of his sons, and on the thumb of their right hand, and on the big toe of their right foot, and sprinkle the blood around on the altar.

21 You shall take of the blood that is on the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron, and on his garments, and on his sons, and on the garments of his sons with him: and he shall be made holy, and his garments, and his sons, and his sons’ garments with him.

22 Also you shall take some of the ram’s fat, the fat tail, the fat that covers the innards, the cover of the liver, the two kidneys, the fat that is on them, and the right thigh (for it is a ram of consecration),

23 and one loaf of bread, one cake of oiled bread, and one wafer out of the basket of unleavened bread that is before Yahweh.

24 You shall put all of this in Aaron’s hands, and in his sons’ hands, and shall wave them for a wave offering before Yahweh.

25 You shall take them from their hands, and burn them on the altar on the burnt offering, for a pleasant aroma before Yahweh: it is an offering made by fire to Yahweh.

26 “You shall take the breast of Aaron’s ram of consecration, and wave it for a wave offering before Yahweh: and it shall be your portion.

27 You shall sanctify the breast of the wave offering, and the thigh of the wave offering, which is waved, and which is heaved up, of the ram of consecration, even of that which is for Aaron, and of that which is for his sons:

28 and it shall be for Aaron and his sons as their portion forever from the children of Israel; for it is a wave offering: and it shall be a wave offering from the children of Israel of the sacrifices of their peace offerings, even their wave offering to Yahweh.

29 “The holy garments of Aaron shall be for his sons after him, to be anointed in them, and to be consecrated in them.

30 Seven days shall the son who is priest in his place put them on, when he comes into the Tent of Meeting to minister in the holy place.

31 “You shall take the ram of consecration, and boil its meat in a holy place.

32 Aaron and his sons shall eat the meat of the ram, and the bread that is in the basket, at the door of the Tent of Meeting.

33 They shall eat those things with which atonement was made, to consecrate and sanctify them: but a stranger shall not eat of it, because they are holy.

34 If anything of the meat of the consecration, or of the bread, remains to the morning, then you shall burn the remainder with fire: it shall not be eaten, because it is holy.

35 “You shall do so to Aaron, and to his sons, according to all that I have commanded you. You shall consecrate them seven days.

36 Every day you shall offer the bull of sin offering for atonement: and you shall cleanse the altar, when you make atonement for it; and you shall anoint it, to sanctify it.

37 Seven days you shall make atonement for the altar, and sanctify it: and the altar shall be most holy; whatever touches the altar shall be holy.

38 “Now this is that which you shall offer on the altar: two lambs a year old day by day continually.

39 The one lamb you shall offer in the morning; and the other lamb you shall offer at evening:

40 and with the one lamb a tenth part of an ephah of fine flour mixed with the fourth part of a hin of beaten oil, and the fourth part of a hin of wine for a drink offering.

41 The other lamb you shall offer at evening, and shall do to it according to the meal offering of the morning, and according to its drink offering, for a pleasant aroma, an offering made by fire to Yahweh.

42 It shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at…

World English Bible · Read it in another translation

Keep this verse

Hosea 6:6

Jesus cited it saying he desires mercy not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God

6 For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

World English Bible · Read it in another translation

Keep this verse

James 1

read as a benediction, every one should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry

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.

World English Bible · Read it in another translation

Keep this verse

Recap

The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.

Pastor Carl opened in Luke 13 with a brief healing account that he admitted he almost passed over, then found himself genuinely convicted by. The message traced the contrast between the woman who was freed and glorified God, and the synagogue leader who was indignant, and it pressed the congregation to examine which posture they bring to what God is doing around them.

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 to him, said she was freed from her sickness, laid his hands on her, and she stood up straight and began glorifying God. She had not asked. He simply saw her and had compassion.

To understand why the synagogue leader reacted the way he did, Pastor Carl walked through the Halakah, the body of rabbinic interpretation that had grown up around the Sabbath. He listed all thirty-nine categories of prohibited work, and pointed out that most of them are not from the Torah at all. The fifth category was the telling one: actions regarded as incompatible with the honor due to the Sabbath. That clause functioned like a legal escape hatch, leaving whoever was in charge free to declare almost anything a violation.

The synagogue leader did not confront Jesus directly. He turned to the crowd and told them there were six days for work, so they should come to be healed on one of those days. Pastor Carl noted the irony: this woman had presumably been in that same assembly for eighteen years and had not been healed. She had not even made a request.

Jesus answered by calling the leader and those who agreed with him hypocrites. He asked whether any of them would leave an ox or a donkey tied up without water on the Sabbath. Then he called the woman a daughter of Abraham, bound by Satan for eighteen long years, and asked whether she should not be released on the Sabbath day. His opponents were humiliated. The crowd rejoiced.

Pastor Carl was honest about his own indignance. He described going to a men's intensive retreat with Carl after resisting for eighteen months, arriving angry, staying angry for the full forty-two hours, and feeling self-righteous the entire time. He said this week's passage hit him hard because that synagogue leader's only recorded appearance in scripture is as a man who was angry when someone was healed. He did not want that to be what identified him, and he said the congregation is living in a moment when anger is being constantly stirred up from every direction.

Jesus followed the healing with two short comparisons: a mustard seed a man planted that grew into a tree where birds could nest, and leaven a woman worked into a large measure of flour until it permeated the whole batch. Pastor Carl connected both images to the small, quiet way the gospel actually moves. It gets inside people who are humble before it, and it grows from there in ways no one would have predicted or planned.

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 Carl mentioned that when we hit the word 'Sabbath' in these stories, we know trouble is coming. What does that pattern reveal about how religious tradition can work against the very people it was meant to protect?
The synagogue leader had watched this woman bent over double for eighteen years, possibly in his own assembly, and his response to her healing was indignation. What do you think had to be happening in his heart for that to be his first reaction?

and 3 more questions in the guide

Open the study guide

Read the full transcript 7,770 words

Find in this transcript

Speaker 1Hey. Can you hear me now? Welcome. Glad that y'all are here. Would you stand up and we will sing together?

We'll start off with redeemed. How about that? Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. That's a Psalm, I think. One zero seven, I'm not positive.

Hymn number three fifty six.

Speaker 2Redeemed how I love to proclaim it. Redeemed by the blood of the lamb. Redeemed through his infinite mercy, his child and forever I am. Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed by the blood of the lamb, Redeemed redeemed his child and forever I am. Redeemed and so happy in Jesus.

No language my rapture can tell. I know that the light of his presence with me doth continually dwell. Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed by the blood of the lamb. Redeemed, redeemed his child and forever I am. I think of my blessed redeemer.

I think of him all the day long. I sing for I cannot be silent. His love is the theme of my song. Redeem. Redeem.

Redeemed by the blood of the lamb. Redeemed redeemed his child and forever I am. I know I shall see in his beauty, the king in whose mighty light, who lovingly guarded my footsteps and giveth me songs in the night. Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed by the blood of the lamb. Redeemed, redeemed his child and forever I am.

Amen.

Speaker 1Wait a second. We sing another one. I don't don't don't don't don't listen to me. We're singing another one. Actually, this one usually comes across as an invitation hymn but you know what?

The invitation is always open. Invitation's always open and Jesus is calling softly and tenderly. Let's sing this one.

Speaker 2Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling, calling for you and for me. See on the portals he's waiting and watching, watching for you and for me. Come home. Come home. Come home.

Earnestly tenderly Jesus is calling. Calling all sinners come home. Why should we tarry when Jesus is pleading pleading for you and for me. Why should we linger and heed not his mercies? Mercies for you and for me.

Time is now fleeting. The moments are passing, passing from you and from me. Shadows are gathering, deathbeds are coming, calling all sinners come home oh for the wonderful love he has promised promise for you and for me. Though we have sinned, he has mercy and pardon. Pardon for you and for

Speaker 1Amen. Now y'all can have a seat. Love that song. It's powerful, softly and tenderly. Announcements.

Monday night is happening tomorrow night at First Bee. Carl, it is from Mark Mark ten. Ten. Mark ten. Conversation with rich ruler.

The conversation with the rich young ruler. I was I was getting confused about that this, since the first service. I had forgotten. Monday nights at first be it's happened at 06:00. Barb is making the meal.

It'll be good. Music is the the first service band, and then, the message is gonna be on Mark 10. That's gonna be a good one. Monday nights. Also, at the same time, Awana is meeting in the church.

So Awana Kids Club happens oh, actually, it's the rest of the church. Everything except for the fellowship hall is covered up by kiddos and volunteers who are pouring scripture into their minds to reach their hearts. This is just kind of a general announcement. Jackson Hole Men's Alliance meets on the first Wednesday of each month. That's not coming up this week.

I'm just letting you know so that you know. First Wednesday of the month, 06:30AM. It's a good place to be for guys. Ladies fellowship, this week will be the last one where they're studying, the current book that they're going through. So ladies fellowship, they get together, they meet together, they pray together, they eat together, and they have been studying a book together.

And this week will be the culmination, the last one of those before starting this, the Christian Life and Witness Course. This is in anticipation of a big event in September that's happening in Idaho Falls. Billy Graham, Evangelistic Association and his grandson, Will Graham, will be doing a one night show on September 24 with a September 23 Kids Fest ahead of time. But building up to that, the Christian Life and Witness Course, which doesn't have to only do with this event. It's just good.

Everything, all the materials that we've seen for it so far are really good. Met the guy who will be teaching it. He's wonderful. May fourth, eleventh, and eighteenth from seven to 9PM. If you would join in, that's not just for ladies.

It's not just for gentlemen. It's for all of us. So if you would, May fourth, eleventh, and eighteenth, that's coming up. Also, in association with this, there, there is gonna be on Tuesday in Idaho Falls something for churches, pastors, church staffs, and we are gonna go over. So the on Tuesday this week, this is kind of a rare thing.

But on Tuesday this week, we're pretty much gonna have the office closed. The whole office staff is gonna drive over early in the morning, and we are gonna be over there for all day long till 05:00 in the evening. But there are speaker after speaker after speaker. We're looking forward to it. And would you be praying for us and for the, the, I don't know, souls in the room, people we represent?

I don't know. It's just ought to be good. Ladies spring luncheon is happening today immediately following this service, ladies. Nancy t is down there setting up for it right now. So that's today in the Fellowship hall.

I don't don't understand the need for signing up at this point, but there are some sign up sheets in the foyer. If you wanna use them for scratch paper, you're welcome to. Alright. Last night, there was a potluck dinner for the Ion family. So for Florin and Violetta, it was good to hear from both of them, kind of the plans for what they're hoping and planning and dreaming about in Romania.

It's a little bittersweet for us and for the Valley, and I know that you all know that. But we had that gathering last night for them to share kinda directly with the church folk that had been supporting them, and, it was good. There was a time for questions, and there's also time just to be blessing them. And a lot of you all were there. I can see that.

I know that. But, thank you for that. We're working through sending them out. June 4 is their last Sunday here with us, so it's not right now, but it's coming pretty quick. They have a pretty clear vision for what they would have that they they believe that God would have them do there.

So I think that that's a really good thing. Here we are where the spirit of the Lord is. Would you stand with us? I'm glad you're here this morning. I'm glad to be here this morning.

The message in the music has already been, for me, worthwhile. Amen. Where the spirit of the Lord is, there's peace. Amen. Let's sing it again.

This last one is, the longer I serve him. Isn't it true? The longer you serve him, the sweeter he grows. Just two verses of this. Amen.

Y'all can have a seat. On softly and tenderly, I've sung that song probably half a million times in my life. Right? It's an invitation song. I grew up in a Southern Baptist church.

It's just what we do. It's funny because this writing in our hymnal is very different rhythmically than the one that I grew up with. And if any, y'all know there are two people in here who grab hymnals every week, and I thought if you're reading with it, I wasn't singing with you. And I said ye instead of you, and it's traditional. Right?

And then the longer I serve him, that was super traditional too. During the practice, she played it like it was written. During the during the singing of it, she sang it the way I sing it. I don't know which one of them is traditional, but it's nice to have somebody that can flex with you. Right?

Move into the place. Would you pray with me? God, I thank you for the team that is the body of Christ, the continuing body of Christ on earth. Lord God almighty. You are working through your people.

It's plan a. Lord, there's no plan b. You don't need a plan b. This is the way it's gonna happen. In Jesus' name, may we be a part of it, Lord.

May we be a part of the solution for getting the gospel to the very uttermost parts and not a part of the problem of just hoarding the blessing. In Jesus' name, we ask that everything that you, by your spirit, inspire us to do, you'd give us the power to carry out. Lord, we ask that you would be mending and repairing, that you'd be helping us, Lord, to understand the scriptures, not just to understand them. Some things are easy to understand, they're hard to do. I pray, Lord, that you would help us to understand so that we may walk in righteousness.

Actual righteousness, not just being right. Lord God Almighty, would you have your will done in your way, in your people here today. I ask that you'd bless each gift and each giver that you'd multiply the resources to do the work. The harvest is plentiful, Lord. In Jesus' name, we're asking you to send workers into the field.

Amen. Beautiful. Thank you. Thank you, Judy. So we have been in a chronological study for a long time now.

We're walking through the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke with an emphasis on, this this is the last few months before the cross. I know we just covered the cross at Easter, but last week, I covered a whole chapter and, like, nine verses. So chapter and a half. This week, I'm going to just 11 or 12 verses. It's not a long text this week, but it hit me harder this week than, than it often does.

Part of the reason is because at first glance, you know, when you're looking over I've been looking over it a couple weeks. But when you look at it at first glance, go, Yeah. Jesus doing what he does. He did a miracle. You know?

But sometimes you're tempted to just keep reading. Well, what I'm looking for is where do I start? Where do I stop? I know where I start because I know where I stopped last week. Right?

So I just start right there. That's easy. Where do I stop? What's the so that's what I was looking for this week and I thought, is that enough? Is that enough to talk about for the whole time?

And I thought, well, we'll do it anyway. We'll do it. Maybe it'll be a short sermon I kept him long last And then I got convicted, confessional preaching. Oh my goodness. It hit me, and I thought, God forgive me.

Forgive me for that presumption. Meh. What in the world? This is God's holy work. He's got a design for it.

That design is that it would be transforming the lives of his humble and obedient students, servants, doulois, slaves. Okay. Here we are. So last week was the reason I did it one chapter and nine verses is because it was one conversation. It's just because that was the section Jesus did five warnings and two alternatives.

And then this just says, now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. It doesn't say when it was. It might not be chronologically right there with it. It's the next thing in scripture. This particular passage is only in Luke, so I'm not going to cover it in Matthew and Mark.

I'll go back to an earlier miracle story that's somewhat similar in location and in emphasis, but it was in both Luke and Matthew and a little bit in Mark. This though says, now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues. A synagogue, we tend to think of it West Jewish because it's synagogue. A synagogue, it means assembly, in the assembly. And if there are 10 Jewish families in an area, officially, there is a synagogue because that's the assembly of those believers, those Hebrews.

They would have 10 families that would begin a synagogue. So they're usually pretty small. They could be big. They could be bigger in a geographic area with more people, but Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogue. It doesn't say whether it was small.

It doesn't say whether it was large, but it does say when it was. It was on the Sabbath. Oh, boy. On the Sabbath. It's a nonspecific locale, and this is the last time in Luke that Jesus is mentioned as being in a synagogue.

Oh, boy. Something happened there. Luke, the Gentile physician sees it and says, yeah. That makes sense. I'm gonna record this.

Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues. It's the last time. We're still pretty early in Luke, actually. This is Luke 13. We've still got a ways to go before we get to the cross, you know.

But he presented in one of the synagogues on this actually, he was teaching in the synagogues in on the Sabbath. And on the Sabbath, when we hit that, we know there's gonna be trouble. We know that because we've been going through this. And each time that it mentions that this happened on the Sabbath, it's like, uh-oh, here it comes. So the reason for that, if you grew up in a very traditional church, very traditional church, you might have a had a rule that you don't go play games on Sunday afternoon.

You don't play cards on Sunday. You don't wear certain things on Sunday. You might have and we think we know what the Sabbath is all about. Right? But we don't get as clear a picture of the way that they thought of it at this time.

On the Sabbath, these were the things in first century Judaism and still today in our Orthodox households. These are the things that are against the rules. These are the ones that you cannot do these things on Sunday. So there's no carrying. There's no burning.

There's no extinguishing. There's no finishing. There's no writing. There's no erasing. You can't write and you can't erase.

No cooking, no washing, no sewing, no tearing. I think I got an amen. No nodding, no untying, no shaping, no plowing, no planting, no reaping, no harvesting, no threshing. Remember in Matthew 12 and in Luke six when the disciples were walking through a grain field to get to synagogue and and they start doing this with a few heads of grain to eat them. No harvesting, no threshing, no winnowing, no reaping.

They they had broken four of them. If they let the husk fall to the ground, that's winnowing. And so you're and they rebuke Jesus and say, you don't rebuke your disciples for breaking the Sabbath? Now Jesus didn't do it. But they came to him and said, you're the leader of this band, these band of rogues that dare to feed themselves on the Sabbath.

Let's go back to it. Harvesting, threshing, winnowing, selecting. You can't even choose what you're gonna do. Sifting, grinding, kneading, combing, spinning, dying, chain stitching. If you didn't get that of everything else, no chain stitching people.

No warping, no weaving. Actually, it's funny because this this is in English. This list is backwards because in Hebrew it reads from the other end. But chain stitching, warping, weaving, unraveling, building, demolishing, trapping, shearing, slaughtering, skinning, tanning, smoothing or even marking the ones that you are going to skin, tan or smooth. That's a lot.

That's 39. This is not from the Torah. When you hear in churches today, you hear, well, they had the 10 commandments, and they had the 613 rules. This is not from those. This doesn't even this doesn't it's not from those.

There's only one of them on this list that's actually in Torah, and that's carrying. There's a certain amount that you're not supposed to carry on a Sabbath day. But that list is not really Torah. It is Halakah. Halakah.

I'm from Georgia. Forgive me if you're if you're Jewish background believer. Halakah is the writings of what Torah meant. Okay? It's the intertestamental literature.

After the Old Testament, before the New Testament, it is all the wrangling from the religious people about what is and is not permitted. So that's the halakkah. And there are chapters and chapters and pages and pages and pages of this. There's one rabbi who is said to have spent two years studying just one of these. So there's enough information that he could spend some time doing that.

Chapters and chapters and chapters, hundreds of pages about the fine detail. It's not just this no chain stitching, it's like what constitutes a chain stitch, right? And it goes further than you can imagine. And there's a majority opinion and a minority opinion. It's sort of like a Supreme Court ruling, sort of.

So that's the Sabbath. That's why there's gonna be trouble. Now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath, and there was a woman, okay, who for eighteen years think about that. I've been here eleven. Yeah.

Eighteen years. The difference at fifty one and whatever eighteen years less than that is, is so much that I don't want to do the math. Thirty three? Is that right? The difference in fifty one and thirty three, is that right?

There's a woman who for eighteen years had had a sickness that was caused by a spirit. Luke, Gentile physician, says this was a sickness. Yes. But it was a we might call it some people might be tempted to call it psychosomatic. It was something in her mind, in her heart, in her life that was causing her body to react in a sickness.

She had a sickness that was caused by a spirit, demonic oppression, spiritual, had a sickness that was caused by spirit, and she was bent over double. She's bent over like this. Have you all met people who are bent over double like this? Roseanne mentioned between services that when she was in Africa the first time around that the ladies that carried sticks on their back for their fire would often carry water on their head for the and they just get lower and lower. And by the time they're older, they walk like this.

So this woman, she's been over double. It's emphatic in the text. It says she could not straighten up at all. Some people say she could not at all straighten up. Either way, it's terrible.

She's been over double, could not straighten up at all. And when Jesus saw her, when he saw her, he saw her. He noticed her. He had compassion on her. And he called her over and said to her, woman, you're freed from your sickness.

Isn't that good? Just as simple as can be. Had he broken any of those rules that I just read out, is it illegal to talk to someone on Sunday or else on the Sabbath, excuse me, not Sunday. On the Sabbath. No.

Is it illegal to bless someone on the Sabbath? No. That was a blessing. No doubt about it. Woman, you're freed from your sickness.

And it says, and he laid his hands on her. Was there anything that was illegal about that? No. Nope. You could do that.

He laid his hands on her, and immediately she stood up straight. Oh, from being like this for eighteen years. Can you imagine? Making it the Sabbath. Presumably, this is the assembly.

This is where she was on the Sabbath. Probably, maybe, where she lived. He'd been seeing this lady for the last eighteen years, been over double. Woman, you're freed from your sickness. And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she stood up straight again.

Oh, can you imagine? And she began glorifying God. That's the proper response. That is the proper first of all, he called her over. She came over.

That's a proper response too. Woman, you're freed from your sickness. She heard him. He laid his hands on her, and immediately, she stood up straight again, and she began glorifying God. That's wonderful.

But, oh, come on. Synagogue leader. That is the leader of the assembly. Okay. Let's let's just look at this for a minute.

Is this an assembly? Okay. I'm the one up here. I feel like doubling over. I'm the synagogue leader, and this is what hit me this week.

Indignant. The synagogue leader, indignant. Now Jesus had just done something wonderful for this lady, and she had the proper response. She's glorifying God, but the synagogue leader, indignant. Oh my goodness.

This is the word indignant. That's not a whole lot. To grieve much. He was upset. He was upset because Jesus had done something, maybe jealousy, that he couldn't do.

Maybe. He was grieving. Sabbath. He was indignant. He was angry.

Now I I mentioned let me just go back to the word indignant. I mentioned a few weeks ago that Carl and I went to a pastoral retreat. We thought it was gonna be a pastoral retreat. That was the way it was built to us. That is the way that my friend whom I love had been transformed by going to this thing.

He wanted me to experience it just like he did. And so after saying no for eighteen straight months, really, I relented and said, well, Carl Carl and I, maybe we could. He's, yeah. You need it. Carl needs it.

Come on. Come on. When we got there, it was not a pastoral retreat. It wasn't like sleeping and studying the scriptures and hearing the birds tweet and just taking time to slow down. It was nothing like that.

It was a men's intensive. Yeah. Men's intensive. They literally gave us big rocks to carry around. If Carl forgot his one time.

If you forget and he was honest when they said, did anybody forget their rock yesterday? And Carl said, I did. He said, come get another one. So he got to carry two rocks. I'm not talking little rocks, eighteen, nineteen, 20 pound rocks.

Now we're carrying them in a green sack. It made me so mad. I was indignant. I would classify indignant starting less than so they told us be there at this time. We were there at that time.

They came to get us out of the car literally fifty six minutes later. And when they got us, they got us one at a time. I was so mad, so angry. And I stayed angry for forty two hours because that's how long that thing was. I thought it was ridiculous whenever we were alone.

I said this is the dumbest thing I've ever seen in my life. I am so mad. Only transformation only happens by the word. It only happens by the way we do it, basically, in my mind. Six months of counseling might cure that situation that that guy's got.

But you know what? People are getting set free. My friend had invited us because he had a dramatic leap forward in his life, in his faith, in his in his wife's life. It was crazy. And when I saw it, it just made me mad.

Here I am, synagogue leader, indignant. This guy's only mention as far as we know, this guy's only mentioned one time in the Bible. It's recorded. You know, last week we said the things that you the things that you whisper in quiet are gonna be known, proclaimed from the housetops. What's gonna be proclaimed about this guy is that he was angry.

Do you want for that to be what identifies you? This is an angry time that we live in. Right? Everybody's stoking anger all the time. I felt really good about my own stance while I was there.

I felt really good that this is wrong. Actually, they asked me one time and said, how did that make you feel? And I said angry. Angry through gritted teeth. And they said, can you drill down in that and tell me why it made you angry?

I said, yes. Because emotional manipulation is abhorrent. And that's what's going on here. And I was very self righteous about the whole thing. And I was very indignant about the whole thing.

Look at what this guy is indignant about. But the synagogue leader, indignant. Because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath. Jesus hadn't broken any rules. Any of their rules even.

But you know what it does? It acknowledges that healing was the work of Jesus. At his first sermon on Nazareth up on Nazareth Ridge in the synagogue in Nazareth in Luke four, I think it is, they sought to throw him off of the cliff because he wouldn't proclaim judgment on their enemies. They heard him say his job was to heal, to give sight to the blind, to have the lame walk, to have the deaf hear. The synagogue leader was indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath.

He had made up his mind already. That's wrong. He began this is funny too. So the leader began saying to the crowd, okay? He began saying he didn't answer Jesus and say, you broke the Sabbath.

He said, you people, all of you who are here in my assembly, all of y'all, there are six days during which work should be done. We know that. Actually, he's quoting scripture there. That's Exodus 29, I think it is, 29 a. There are six days during which work should be done, so come during them and be healed.

Y'all come at a different time to be healed. Eighteen years this woman had been presumably in this assembly and not been healed yet. And she didn't ask for the healing, and Jesus just saw her, had compassion on her, made her whole. Exodus 29 does say this, for six days you shall labor and do all your work. Scriptural backing right there.

Here's the list. Now this is the halakah, not the Torah. The halakah says all of these things. And if you've got all these things in mind and we might have added some more in our own circles. Depending on your denominational background, you had different rules.

Depending on your cultural background, Florin has told me lots of things. Ferry, Francis has told me lots of things about Romania, and there are things that we do here that if you did those things in Romania, they wouldn't even believe you're a Christian. Definitely not a pastor. In Mexico, I wore blue jeans to church, it's like, are you sure this guy's saved? Right?

If I wore a tie, they'd ask me to preach. Really? Really. So we've come up with our own traditions too. I'm not just blasting them, but these were the traditions of what was constituted work.

I want you to see how they came up with this. I wish I'd split them out. Try to just read them one at a time with me. These are the five types of interdiction. These are the rules, and they were laid down by the Jews.

First of all, those things that are specifically forbidden in the scriptures, I think almost all of us would say, amen. If scripture forgives it if if scripture is against it, I'm against it. That's a yeah. I'll skip that. It's an old joke in the family.

It's like, what was the sermon about? Sin. What was it about? Well, he's against it. Sorry.

Those specifically forbidden in the scriptures. If the scripture's against it, we're against it. Okay. Yeah. Second one.

Those things that are supposedly forget forbidden in the scriptures. Wait a second now. That's not specifically. It's supposedly. It's taking what scripture says and then adding to it a layer.

So the halakkah is not even the 613 ceremonial laws civil ceremonial laws. This is adding to it a hedge of protection around it. Those things supposedly forbidden in the scriptures. The third one gets further away than that. Things that are forbidden because they might lead to a transgression of the biblical command.

That's the slippery slope argument. Don't be doing that. That could get you in a position where you are doing something that you shouldn't do. That's the slippery slope one. So it's a hedge, and then a hedge further than that.

The fourth one says, actions that are similar to anything that's like the kinds of labor that are supposed to be forgiven in the forbidden in the Bible. Wow. And then the fifth one. Oh, the fifth one. Actions that are regarded as incompatible with the honor that is due to the Sabbath.

If you've ever studied regulations like I used to be a safety man. Y'all have heard that a thousand times. Safety people, we have to study the code of federal regulations to know what is and what is not allowable. I'm in a sawmill or a factory in Georgia, and I'm going around and saying this thing needs to be guarded according to code of federal regulations, twenty seven nineteen, buh buh. Well, in the Code of Federal Regulations, says, do this, do that, don't do this, don't do that.

And it's got all these specific rules and then there's one paragraph that says, you may be fined for any of these infractions up to $7,000 unless it's a willful violation, and then it's $70,000 And then it says, any of these violations or anything else we deem to be unsafe. What hope do you have a living by the law if they've got the escape clause, the general duty clause, they called it? Well, this is who's making that decision? The synagogue leader was making that decision. Actions that are regarded as incompatible with the honor due to the Sabbath.

Healing someone was on his list. And it was on not just his list. Actually, we go back to Luke six, this is a different occasion. On another Sabbath, the text even says so, He entered the synagogue and he taught. That's what he did.

He got together in the assembly and taught. And a man was there whose right hand was withered. Now the scribes and the pharisees were watching him closely, because that's what legalists always do, to see if he healed on the Sabbath so that they might find a reason to accuse him. If you think cancel culture is new, you are wrong. But he knew what they were thinking, and he said to the man with the withered hand, get up and come forward.

And he got up and he came forward. Obedience is important. Get up and come forward. And he got up and came forward. Actually, he says in Luke 13, it says, he called the woman to come here, and she did.

Right? So obedience is important. I'm gonna fly through this one because I already preached through it one time already. And Jesus said to them, I ask you. I know what you're thinking.

I ask you, whether it's lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do harm, to save a life or to destroy. He uses the word destroy. Is it okay to do that? Now, if you were to read the Halakah and read all of the different things, they had all kinds of rules. One of the rules like, you could put a piece of cotton in your ear as long as it was before Friday at sundown, Really, to take care of an earache.

You could try to heal yourself during the week. That's fine. You could put a piece of cotton in there, but that's carrying because you had to get the cotton from somewhere to your ear. I'm not joking. And you put it in your ear on before Friday at sundown.

And if it falls out while you sleep, or if it falls out during the daytime, or if a little kid pulls it out while you're there, you can't put it back in. Nope. You can't. That's a breaking the law. You can't do that.

You have to wait until Saturday at sundown to do that. And they would argue there's even one where if a wall falls, this is random circumstance, but just say a wall falls, stone walls fell at the time, you know. A wall falls down and somebody is under the rubble. You can't pick those stones up to get to them. Right?

Oh, you can. In this case, it is allowed, they said. You can throw the stones off the person. If they're dead, leave them there till after the Sabbath is over. If they're alive, you can get them up, but you can't heal them that day.

You just get them up that day, and then you can heal them the next day. Goodness gracious. So some people did allow for saving a life on that. But he's asking that, and he knows it's a controversial question. I ask you whether it's lawful to do good on the Sabbath, do harm, save a life, or destroy it.

And after looking around at them all, they didn't answer him apparently, he said to him he said to the man with the withered hand, stretch out your hand. And he did so. Oh, again, obedience is important. Man listened to him. And his hand was restored.

He was blessed for his having listened to Jesus. Hey. Wouldn't we be blessed if we listened to Jesus? But they themselves were filled with senseless rage. Oh, come on, people.

That's that's indignance. That's what my problem was, and my problem is. They themselves, after seeing that on the Sabbath for crying out loud, and then he has the audacity to call us out before he does it. Let me just stop right here and say, at that weekend retreat thing, there were a lot of people that had a great and transformative time. And I wasn't begrudging that until just this week when I looked at this passage.

I don't want to be known as an indignant person. I don't want to be angry about stuff. And I have a choice as to what I'm going to do. Now anger is going to happen to us. It's going to come upon us in a flash, and we're going to feel so self righteous about our own anger because it comes from how we understand things.

But we're finite beings. We have a finite understanding, and we're trying to comprehend an infinite God who is loving and caring and merciful. They themselves, after seeing a man healed, were filled with senseless rage. This is the word, anoias, anoias. Anoias is where we get our word annoying.

They were annoyed. Senseless rage, folly, madness, foolishness, properly. It is no mind. It refers to irrational behavior, mindless actions. There is 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. I didn't make that definition up. That's the definition of that. Wow. Seeing him heal someone annoyed them.

And they began discussing together what they might do to Jesus. Matthew goes a little further and tells us what they were discussing. It actually says who was the the Pharisees and the Herodians who were enemies. They don't like each other. They don't agree with each other theologically.

And Matthew says, but the Pharisees went out and they conspired against him as to how they might destroy him. Same word Jesus used. Is it better to heal or to destroy on the Sabbath? And they're plotting destruction. Destruction's against the rules, by the way, on the Sabbath.

So is marking one for it. So is planning on it. It's interesting in Mark the way that Jesus responds to them. It says, yes. They they did break your traditions.

Why is it that you break the law of God? Why is it that you break the commandments of God? There are six days which work should be done, so come during them and get healed, and don't do it on the Sabbath day. You know better. I've taught you better than that.

Don't be coming in here asking anybody. She didn't ask. Jesus was just filled with compassion. Jesus also said in that Matthew 12 and Luke six story, it says that learn what this saying means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice.

That's Hosea six six. If you go next, says, and the knowledge of God, who God is. Actually, get to know who he is. I I desire that you would know God more than I want any kind of burnt offerings. Your religiosity is pointless if it's not driven by true appreciation and understanding of who God is.

So back to the story in Luke 13. Here we are again. The Lord answered him and said, you hypocrites. This is this is the synagogue leader he's speaking to. But it's not just him.

It's plural. You hypocrites. Does each of you on the Sabbath not untie his own ox or donkey from the stall and lead it away to water it? Well, of course, we do. Of course, we do.

I mean, you gotta gotta gotta gotta water the donkey. Yeah. It's just part of life. That donkey didn't know it's the Sabbath. Just knows it's thirsty.

Yeah. Of course. And we made allowances for that in our traditions. We made allowances for that. You hypocrites, does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the stall and lead it away to water?

And this woman, still quoting Jesus right here, and this woman, this dear precious lady right here, a daughter of Abraham. That's pretty rare that you read that in scripture. You hear sons of Abraham all the time. But it sort of elevates women, I think, here. And this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is.

She's of the lineage. Now the the gospel is for every tribe, tongue, and nation, but this she's no doubt about it, a daughter of Abraham. A daughter of Abraham as she is whom Satan has bound for eighteen long years. Eighteen long years. She's been doubled over and could not stand up at all.

Should she not have been released from this restraint on the Sabbath day? Really? Really, people? And as he said this, all his opponents there's the plural. There were more it's more than just the synagogue leader.

There were a lot of people who had their arms crossed and agreed with him. All his opponents were being humiliated. That's an outside force. We can humble ourselves. That's a possibility too, but that's not what was happening.

They were, by the word of God, being humiliated. And the entire crowd was rejoicing all over all the glorious things being done by Jesus. There's more than this, but this little story that I thought, man, that little story caused great rejoicing from the woman and the rest of the crowd, The crowd that were not caught up in their religiosity. And that's the end of that little story, but he adds on two different things at the end of it. Two different examples for the same thing.

One of them is for men and one of them is for women. It's interesting. I think both are for both, but he presents it as a man and a woman. So he was saying, what's the kingdom of God like and to what shall I compare it? Well, it's like a mustard seed, which a man took and threw into his own garden.

It grew and it became a tree and the birds of the air, birds of the sky nested in its branches. We can press this analogy and we can try to figure out what every single syllable means in it. But I think that what it means, especially since he presents it boom boom like this, I think what it means is there's this little bitty thing. This little grain, mustard seed. And it's gonna be one of the biggest trees we have in these parts.

And it's gonna give shelter, and it's gonna give safe harbor for the birds of the air. There are gonna be other people who are able to rest because of this little grain. Now Jesus has his disciples with him. He's got twelve, one of them is a devil. So he's got 11, let's say, that are getting his lessons and they're taking it.

He is sharing the seed and then it's going from there. This little bitty band of disciples, he says, this is what the kingdom of heaven's like. It starts small, but it invades everything that it touches. It gets bigger and bigger. Actually, let me go to the second one.

The second one makes that point even better. To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It's like leaven. Now last week, we used leaven in a negative sense. He said, be careful disciples.

First and foremost of all, it was the very first warning he gave out of five warnings and two options, alternatives at the end, five warnings. The first one he said is, be on your guard against the leaven of the pharisees. The leaven of the pharisees is hypocrisy. So hypocrisy is something that it doesn't take very much hypocrisy to seep into the whole assembly. In this case, he's using it to represent the kingdom of heaven.

The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and she hid it in three sata of flour. Three sata, if y'all are numbers people, measurements people, is 1.125 bushels of flour. So a bushel basket of flour. And she took just a little bit of leaven and put it into that flour, into that meal, and it would permeate the whole thing. It's hard to hard to believe how little sourdough it takes to make a big old mess of sourdough pancakes, isn't it?

It's like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three saute of flour until it was all leaven. It will do its work. When Christ said, I'm gonna build my church, he meant it. He's gonna do that. And the way he's gonna do that is he's sowing the seeds into lives that are humble before him, willing willing to listen to the word that he's given them, be obedient, and go forward.

Religiosity is not the way forward. Are you with me? Anger is not the way forward. We're being tempted to anger all the time in our society. They're stirring the pot all the time, both sides.

No judgment here. It's just the way of our times. The gospel gives offers peace. To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? Something that starts small and then grows on from there.

I mentioned I mentioned this little family that he owns. We are sending them out into the world. And if I ask him what the examples are, what was like the leaven or what was the gospel message, he would tell me a different thing. But I'm saying, you can see the fruition of it that it's made a difference in their lives, both Florine's and Violetta's life, and in the lives of their girls, and in their Sunday school classes, and at the Smiths checkout stand. It grows from there to where who would have thought this is the way to do it?

Well, that's the truth though. That's the way the truth works. It gets inside of us, whoever we are. It gets inside of us. And if we're humble before it, it makes a difference and it transforms our life and our relationships.

So I don't have something to compare it to. I think that's the last slide. Would you stand with me, and we're gonna sing My Faith Looks Up to Thee. Great words in this. You may not know the tune.

We'll have two verses to figure it out. How about that? We're singing the first two verses.

Speaker 2Thou lamb of Calvary. Save your divine. Now hear me while I pray. Take all my guilt away me from this day thy rich grace impart strength to my fainting heart my zeal in spite thou hast died for me. Oh, may my love to thee pure warm and changeless be a living fire.

Speaker 1Amen. And as a benediction today, we're gonna go to James one. I think it's helpful. James is very, very practical. The gospel in work clothes.

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this. Every one of us should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. I think that that requires some grace, giving some people some grace, right? Because anger is going to happen to us. It's going come upon us when we least expect it sometimes.

But slow to become anger, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. There's no amount of human anger that's going to force someone into submitting to God. Right? It's just not going to happen. Usually, when we get angry, the other person gets angry.

And then we put some space between us. God Almighty, would you do your will and your way among us? You are a unifier. You are a peacemaker. You are a miracle worker.

God, may we never forget that, and may we turn to you. May we listen to your command and be obedient in humility. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.

Topics

Bent Woman Hypocrisy Kingdom Of God Growth Religious Anger Sabbath Healing Slow To Anger

Recap

What was said

Doing a Bible study?

Topics

Share this message

Come find us