Living Miracles: The Withered Hand
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Today we will be in Luke chapter 6, I told you all we would make it out of chapter 5. Some of you were not sure about that. This week we find Jesus back in the synagog on the Sabbath. Could you imagine anything worse than a crippled Fire department or emergency Medical department? What about a crippled hospital? These are areas where we do not expect to see inconsistencies and struggles. We expect that when a fire breaks out that the fire department responds and puts the fire out. We expect if someone in here were severly injured we would make a call to 911 and an ambulance would arrive to assist that person. The system used to protect us must be functional. Think though how it must feel for God to look down on us and into our world and see the one system He put in place after Jesus and see it struggling to function. What is that system? It is the church. In this scrpture today we will be introduced to a man who has a withered hand, there will be those who say that Jesus cannot heal this man becuause it is on the sabbath and the law overrides the ability to perform good. We will see how Jesus responds, and we will see an example of how out of context the law can cripple the church. We will see firs the Profound Proof that Jesus came to fulfil the law. Second we will have a cultivated conviction of our indifference because of the law. Lastly we will see that our declared destiny is to live in obedience that leads to miracle. Turn with me in your Bible to Luke 6 and let’s stand as we read the Word this morning.
6 On another Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered. 7 And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him. 8 But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” And he rose and stood there. 9 And Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” 10 And after looking around at them all he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored. 11 But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.
1. Profound Proof: The Law Fulfilled
1. Profound Proof: The Law Fulfilled
6 On another Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered. 7 And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him.
To the initial observer you will see here that the Scribes and Pharisees are looking to see if Jesus will break the law of the Sabbath. What we see here in this scripture is that the religious leaders while they meant well. Their desire was to ensure that people kept the law, they refused to undertand the purpose and heart of God’s laws. For them it was a black and white law. The problem with the sabbath laws though is that by time Jesus was on the scene the laws had been so manipulated and changed that they hardly represented what God designed in the first place. How did this happen? It happened as the religious leaders desired to conflate their own religiousness. They desired to appear as more religious than others and so as time went on the religious leaders changed what God had designed for rest into laws of legalism and expectations that burdened the people. When Jesus came into the synagogue He came with the intention of teaching how God truly wants us to live, not how we should be religious. To define the proof of Jesus having not broken the law we need to go back to what God instituted as the Sabbath.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
The Sabbath was never about following a set of religious rules. It was designed as a day of rest for our bodies to be restored, our minds to be restored, for us to reflect on God who has blessed us. The Sabbath day was intended to be a day of restoration. When Jesus stood before the Pharisees and the Scribes and He healed on the Sabbath day, He was not breaking the law that God provided, he broke earthly man made laws that prevented them from fulfilling the purpose and meaning of God’s law and will. Jesus knew what the will of the Father was and so He was able to challenge the man made laws that risked making the church ineffective.
6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7 And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
The law of God is truly simple.
30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
We are called to live and to be effective and to love and to serve. The sabbath was not intended to be some overly religious day, it was soley intended to be a day of rest. Those who sought their own benefit made it into something it was not. Just as they did other things that God had designed such as prayer.
5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
Jesus appeared to have broken the law, that law though was not the law that God had designed or decreed. The law He broke was the laws that men created in addition to the calling that God gave us. We are to live according to the Word, serving and loving those around us. You will hear me stand here and say out loud things that seem so contrarty to many of the things we have been taught. Here is a example.
If you have a family member or a friend who is in need and they call on you to held, if your response is I cannot help becuase I have to go to church. You are getting it wrong. If you have someone in need in your life and they ask for help and your response is I cannot help you becuase I have to pay my tithe, you are geting it wrong. It is not our presence or our tithe that sustains the church, it is God. Can I tell you that the best thing you can do for the church is to honor God in all decisions in your life. Here is my question this morning. Are we as Highlands Baptist Church fulfilling the law of God or abiding by the laws of religion? They are 2 different things and the provide 2 completely different results. Living by the laws of religion make you feel good about yourself. They make you feel like you are doing good, they elevate your need to be religious over others needs that you can serve. The way Jesus lived was to fulfill the law and the pophets.
The story was told some years ago of a pastor who found the roads blocked one Sunday morning and was forced to skate on the river to get to church, which he did. When he arrived the elders of the church were horrified that their preacher had skated on the Lord's day. After the service they held a meeting where the pastor explained that it was either skate to church or not go at all. Finally one elder asked, "Did you enjoy it?" When the preacher answered, "No," the board decided it was all right!
Today in the Word, December, 1989, p. 12.
The Bible teaches us how we are really to live.
20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
So you are saying to yourself, I have no rules! You are right. In the world of Grace we live as ones not under the law but under the grace of Christ. The thing though is that if we are truly in grace as one who loves the Lord, we will as Jesus did fulfill the law and not simply seek to make ourselves feel better about our state. Our state should be secured in Christ and should lead to us not doing things that make us feel better, but doing things that fulfill the law, like Jesus did.
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
We are called to fulfil the law, not religious law, but the law of God and that is fulfilled in the loving and serving of God and others. This should lead us this morning to a cultivated conviction of how we handle the law.
2. Cultivated Conviction: Indifference of Law
2. Cultivated Conviction: Indifference of Law
7 And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him.
Notice here that the scribes and Pharisees were already holding Jesus in contempt. They knew what Jesus was going to do and they could not wait to say, see how holy we are and how sinful He is? They were indifferent about the law. They did not see to follow he law to honor God they sought it to honor themselves. In the same way the law can blind us to the life God is calling us to live. If we are not careful to put the law in the right place the “rules” can be more important in our lives than the living like Christ. We must not become indifferent or look for others to fail. We must not spend our time as the scribes and pharisees looking for failures in others lives to elevate our lives. The focus on religion and rules can often times blind us to the needs of others. Traditions and the how we have always done it can lead us to want what we want over what other need. The church is called to be an effective body of believers continuously laying down their desires for the needs of others. Laying down their wants for the needs of others, and yes even laying down their needs for the needs of others. The conviction we should be reaching for this morning is wether or not we reflect on our failures or flaws or like the Pharisees did, use religious rules to elevate ourselves for our own benefit.
In contrast to the two commands of Christ, the Pharisees had developed a system of 613 laws, 365 negative commands and 248 positive laws...By the time Christ came it had produced a heartless, cold, and arrogant brand of righteousness. As such, it contained at least ten tragic flaws. (1) New laws continually need to be invented for new situations. (2) Accountability to God is replaced by accountability to men. (3) It reduces a person's ability to personally discern. (4) It creates a judgmental spirit. (5) The Pharisees confused personal preferences with divine law. (6) It produces inconsistencies. (7) It created a false standard of righteousness. (8) It became a burden to the Jews. (9) It was strictly external. (10) It was rejected by Christ.
Outlined from Fan The Flame, J. Stowell, Moody, 1986, p. 52.
Jesus refused to fall victim to the indifference to the law. To the contrary Jesus came to fulfil the law and to serve others, even if it made him look bad. Jesus did not care what the pharisees, the scribes, or the saducees thought of Him. He came to do only one thing and that was to do the will of the Father.
38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.
39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
30 I and the Father are one.”
Jesus did not care about what He wanted, about what would make Him look good. Jesus cared about how He could serve others and elevate the Father. Are you living this life? Are you in a life that says, I do not care what this makes me look like in the religious world, I am simply here to serve others to elevate the Father. We must be more concerned about fulfilling the law through our compassion and service to others.
4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.
1 For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.
9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—
Jesus did not get rid of the law. He took it back to its roots. The law as designed by God in the 10 commandments was to teach us to love Him and to love others.
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Are you living with a confidence in yourself because of how good you are at folloiwng the “religious” laws? Can I challenge us with conviction this mornign that our lives should not be marked by religiousness but by service and love? First we saw the profound proof that Jesus fulfilled the law. We are led to a place of conviction in how we regard the law. Lastly we will see the declared destiny that obedience to the Will of God and not the laws of men produces miracles.
3. Declared Destiny: Obedience produces Miracles
3. Declared Destiny: Obedience produces Miracles
8 But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” And he rose and stood there. 9 And Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” 10 And after looking around at them all he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored. 11 But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.
Jesus understood that He was not breaking any laws, He after all was the Son of God, present with God in the beginning of all time.
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Jesus was the one that all things were created through
16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.
It was impossible for Him to deny Himself and the laws that governed His life. It was completely within His control not to be led or persuaded by the laws of men added on top of God’s laws to help the men feel better about themselves. You see the obedience to the law God provided results in believers living to love God thorugh their laying down of themselves and the serving of others. The fulfillment of the law is to learn to deny yourself and to lift up the Father.
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
The purpose of all we do is to obey the Fathers commands that leads to a life of serving others and denying ourselves for the love of others. This mans life was chaned because Jesus cared more about him than He did himself. Jesus saw the need and He was willing to lose everything to fulfil the need. What many do not realize is that this instance combined with the Sabbath before this one, Jesus had set the religious leaders against Him. Jesus had prepared them to lead Him to the cross and set the stage for the Father to be glorified even at the loss of His own life. Jesus was wiilling to see the Father elevated and lifted high even at His own expsense. Can I tell you why I believe we do not see the miracels we should in the church? Because we are looking for the wrong type of miracles. The bringing the dead back to life, yeah that is cool, but they will die again. Giving the blind sight, yep again pretty cool but they will die and their eyes will shut. Giving the lame the ability to walk, again pretty amazing but again leads to a physical death. What if the miracle is not that God can do things for us. What if the miracle is that the spirit of God does such a work in us that we can lay ourselves down as Christ did for the lives of others?
13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
3 For still the vision awaits its appointed time;
it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
If it seems slow, wait for it;
it will surely come; it will not delay.
