One Life at a Time • Luke 13:10-20

1:02:08 Teaching begins

Notes

Millions of people oppose Jesus. They resist Him, they reject Him. Can they all be wrong?

Well, sure, they are wrong! He is God, and He is right. There are no good reasons to disobey and reject Jesus.

Jesus isn’t fighting back against the world right now. He’s changing those millions into followers one life at a time.

I’m reading in Luke 13 beginning in verse ten.

1. Jesus is teaching and heals in a synagogue on the Sabbath.

A. Jesus is teaching about Himself.

1. He expounds the Scriptures because they were written to point to Him, they prove He is who He is. Jesus is not founding a new religion, He’s not doing His own thing, drawing people after Himself.

2. He is the Servant of God. He has come to fulfil God’s covenant with Abraham, with David, with Moses. Jesus fulfils all the festivals, all the laws, all the prophecies, all the sacrifices.

3. As it says in Psalm 40:7-8 Then I said, “Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart.”

B. While Jesus teaches, He sees people’s needs.

1. There’s a woman bent over, can’t straighten up.

2. He knows it’s caused by a spirit who is not from God. This spirit was created by God to serve Him, but it is fallen, sinful, wicked. Now it’s oppressing this woman who is helpless against it. The spirit enjoys tormenting this woman.

3. Jesus also knows this torment has gone on for eighteen years.

C. So He heals the woman publicly, right there in the synagogue, during the worship service. He calls her over, says, “Woman, you are freed from your sickness!”

D. She is immediately freed. She straightens up for the first time in eighteen years, right there in the synagogue and praises God indeed!

1. Notice how Jesus heals so that people praise God. He glorifies God, not Himself. He doesn’t draw people away to Himself, but rather to God the Father. He is focused on God because He is humble.

2. The people are rejoicing in the glorious things being done.

2. But not everybody is happy. Jesus has opponents, adversaries who set themselves against Him.

A. The synagogue official is indignant.

1. He’s angry at what he considers unjust and unworthy. Jesus has broken the Sabbath, He shows contempt for the laws of Moses!

2. He opposes Jesus publicly in front of the congregation: “There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.”

3. He speaks with the authority of Moses. Clearly he is right and Jesus is wrong. You’re all wrong, the woman, these people.

B. And the official is not alone. Notice verse 17: all His adversaries. They’re in agreement with the ruler. We’re together in this. Jesus is breaking the law of Moses.

C. If Jesus is wrong here, He’s wrong everywhere. He’s wrong about those Scriptures that He just taught, they don’t bear witness to Him, He’s not the Messiah.

D. These men are the authority to listen to, not Jesus. Listen to us, not to Him.

3. Jesus demonstrates that He is lawful and right and that those who oppose Him are wrong.

A. He calls them hypocrites, actors, putting on a good front to cover wickedness. This person doesn’t believe what he has just said. Jesus will now prove in public that none of those adversaries believe it.

B. On the Sabbath every one of you unties his ox or his donkey—that’s work. You lead it to water—that’s work. You show compassion to your animal on the Sabbath.

C. How much more should this woman be healed on the Sabbath? That’s Jesus’ argument. He shows every good reason why she should be healed on the Sabbath.

1. She is a daughter of Abraham. God made a covenant with Abraham to bless him and his descendants and make them a blessing to the whole earth. This healing fulfils God’s covenant and therefore is right.

2. The devil has bound her for eighteen years. And Jesus emphasises the eighteen years. How long have the descendants of Abraham been waiting for the fulfilment? How long has the devil oppressed and tormented? Today these Scriptures are fulfilled in your hearing. Freedom from the hand of all who hate us, this is right.

3. Jesus fulfilled the Sabbath when He healed her. God made the heavens and the earth and all that is in them in six days. Man’s first full day was the seventh day, of rest, fullness, completeness. Nothing was lacking, everything was perfect. There was no sin on the seventh day, it is holy to the Lord. Sin put that woman in torment for eighteen years, the fallen spirit’s sin, and her own sin. But Jesus came to take away sin once and for all and to destroy the works of the devil. He restores the Sabbath rest to God’s people. This is the day of all days to be made right, whole, and cast out the devil.

4. There is every good reason to heal this woman and no good reason to oppose Me.  and the people rejoice yet more. This is right, this is good. We get to see this, we get to be part of this!

4. This humiliates all the opponents because it’s obviously true. So what were they thinking?

A. The humiliation comes after pride. Pride goes before a fall. These men are proud because they are the authority, not Moses, and not Jesus. They are!

B. The synagogue ruler used the law of Moses to back him up. Breaking the Sabbath is plausible. That means superficially fair, reasonable, or valuable but often deceptively so.

C. It’s really a flimsy excuse to disobey Jesus. There’s nothing they can say about His teaching—no man ever spoke like this Man Jesus. There’s nothing they can say about His healing—if this Man were not from God, He could do nothing. But the Sabbath! Anything He does on the Sabbath is wrong!

D. There is no word of God that opposes God. Proverbs 21:30 There is no wisdom and no understanding and no counsel against the Lord. There is no good reason to disobey Him.

E. Therefore, any opposition to Jesus comes from pride and arrogance. Proverbs 16:5 Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; assuredly, he will not be unpunished.

4. Jesus goes on to describe His absolute triumph establishing the kingdom of God on earth.

A. You say, really? He’s just teaching a couple of parables. Remember, He’s still in the synagogue, and He’s still teaching. He’s teaching about little things that grow and take over.

B. The first parable is about a guy planting very tiny mustard seeds.

1. There’s no gardening, planning, or cultivating. He throws the seeds into his garden. Just one notch above totally accidental. What can come from that slight act?

2. One seed germinates and grows beyond a bush into a tree so large and strong the branches can hold birds. It’s its own environment.

3. How did that happen? Not the power or wisdom of the gardener. God put life in that tiny seed and it grows with the power of that life.

C. The second parable is about a lady baking bread, and she takes leaven and hides it in three pecks of flour until the whole pile is leavened.

1. Leaven is micro-organisms in bread dough that you introduce to flour and water to make more bread dough. They ferment and cause the dough to rise with its waste products. It transforms the flour and water into bread dough. Then you save out a small part of the dough and use it again on your next batch.

2. This lady is using a lot of flour: 24 liters.

3. You would think that’s too much flour for little tiny micro-organisms to take on. It looks impossible because there’s so much flour and the leaven is so small.

4. But we say, nah, no problem. The micro-organisms are alive. They reproduce to make more just like themselves. They will take over the whole mass of dough and it doesn’t matter how much flour there is. Just give it enough time.

D. In both cases tiny living things grow, take over, and transform their environments.

E. Jesus establishes the kingdom of God humbly.

1. He’s not fighting against people, with war and conquest, killing, and terrorism. Conversion obtained at the end of a gun barrel is worthless. That is oppression, that is of the devil.

2. Matthew 17:20-21 The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.” It’s small, tiny, looks insignificant. Like it’s not going to do anything.

3. Jesus brings His death into a sinner’s life and absolutely terminates that sinful life.

4. He brings His new life, raised from the dead into that person by giving him His Holy Spirit to live in him permanently. That changes a person to be like Jesus. It drives out corruption, disobedience, resistance, all the hypocritical reasons to disobey Jesus. It makes a person humble and obedient to God.

5. That doesn’t look monumental, but that life spreads through a person’s sphere of influence: family, friends, acquaintances, colleagues, random strangers. They hear about Jesus’ death and resurrection and it begins new life in them. You reproduce yourself and it spreads further.

F. There are people who teach that this life of Jesus will spread through all the world, that everything in every department of life will be transformed by Jesus death and resurrection, and we’ll deliver up the whole earth to Jesus, transformed and peaceful. It sounds great but it’s not what God has determined.

G. He’s shown in the prophets and in Revelation that some people are saved, others refuse to repent and they reject Jesus. The proud and arrogant refuse to humble themselves before God. He reasons, He gives space and time to repent, but they refuse. Arrogant men rejecting Jesus more and more provokes final judgment.

H. Then the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of God’s Lord and Messiah. Jesus will return to shatter the nations and set up His kingdom which will never be destroyed.

5. So what?

A. God’s plan is to change the world one person at a time.

1. He takes something tiny and insignificant-looking and pits that against the world of sin and rebellion.

2. Your standing or value or size is not important. You don’t have to be famous or impressive. It intimidates people when you are impressive. It works against you.

3. You have to be humble and yielded to Jesus. Because it’s His death and resurrection in you that’s at work. You need Jesus to dwell richly in you. You submit to God changing you.

4. All you have to worry about is yourself, that you are right with God, that you are current with Jesus, that you are in relationship with Him. Then you won’t think, “I’m just one person! What can I do?”Amazing things happen when Jesus’ death and resurrection work in you.

B. Because Jesus lives in you it is inevitable that He will grow in you and touch others. A seed has to grow, fermentation has to grow. They are alive. You will grow in being a person. You will develop.

C. It’s exciting to be connected with Jesus and living and working with Him. That’s living. It’s more blessed to give than to receive. You embrace what Jesus has for you and you lay hold on eternal life.

D. So think and pray for your immediate locality, where you live, where you work, where you shop. Where will God open doors? Who does He want to reach? You can reach the world from London.

E. Do you have any reason for not obeying Jesus? You don’t follow Him because …?

F. If you are refusing Him your reason comes from pride. You want to have the say in your own life. You do not want to submit to Him as Lord. Jesus says, “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but do not do what I say?”

G. Any excuse against Jesus is plausible but flimsy. It’s up there with, “It’s wrong to heal on the Sabbath.” You are protecting yourself now, but you will lose yourself when Jesus comes as He surely will.

H. If you avoid Jesus’ death and resurrection you are not growing along different lines; you abide in death. If you avoid serving Jesus you are avoiding life.

I. Be that one life that submits to Jesus.

Let’s pray.