Sermon: Deliverance!
Lk 13:10 “Now He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.
13:11 And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up.
13:12 But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, ‘Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.’
13:13 And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.
13:14 But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath; and he said to the crowd, ‘There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.’
13:15 The Lord then answered him and said, ‘Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it?
13:16 So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound-think of it-for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?’
13:17 And when He said these things, all His adversaries were put to shame; and all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him.”
Introduction
“Now He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath…” (10)
Jesus was teaching. What did He teach about? Luke says He taught about the salvation of God, because it was prophesied about Him: “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God…”
(Lk 1:76-78)
We also notice that He was allowed on this occasion to teach in the synagogue, so it must have been in the earlier party of His ministry when the Pharisees and Scribes were not totally opposed to Him and His ministry.
Verse 11 tells us: “And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up.”
When I read this I thought: What is a spirit of infirmity? You do not hear people talking like this every day so what is a spirit of infirmity? Such a spirit is one that causes a physical or mental disability in the person. We all bear God’s image and Satan wants to distort or destroy it. He had managed to distort the image of God in this daughter of Abraham for 18 years - imagine it! (16)
When Jesus saw this woman He was not going to stand for it any longer. What could He do about it with everyone looking on?
Illustration
I clearly remember the day when this passage was being dealt with at Bible College by the New Testament lecturer. He said that the woman’s ailment was probably something we would be able to heal with modern medicine. In other words, that it was a natural illness, a physically caused sickness.
That it was described in the way ancient people saw things. That her problem was described according to their limited knowledge, and how today we would not describe or treat people that way blah, blah, blah.
That today we, who know so much better than them, would treat it as a purely physical problem and that there was no mystery to it. (We would send her off to physio afterwards as follow up treatment)
The more mature students in my class were very quick to point out that was not the case. They pointed out that it was a spiritual problem the woman suffered from. It had physical results to be sure. She did present with a bent back and could not straighten it at all for 18 years. (verse 11)
Reasons for believing this are:
1) Luke is the writer of this Gospel. Both He and Jesus say the woman had a spiritual problem. He was a medical doctor. He would not say she “had a spirit of infirmity” unless he was sure that is what she had. It could be argued that he was mistaken, or that he did not understand the problem the woman had. However, such reasoning creates more problems than it solves.
Why would he write something he was mistaken about under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit?
How could God, the Spirit of Truth authorise a known mistake in the inspired record?
Why would a Christian physician not understand the spiritual nature of this poor woman’s problem and ascribe it to a spiritual cause when it had happened naturally?
That would not even be truthful morally, let alone accurate Biblically, so there is no way Dr Luke would do that!
Why would he describe it the way he did if it was a purely physical ailment? He wouldn’t; because it was what it was, and Luke describes accurately that the woman was bent over by Satan as Jesus described her condition in verse 16: “ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound -think of it- for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?”
Why would Luke misrepresent Jesus who also called it a spiritual problem?
2) Secondly, in verse 12 he tells us that Jesus “loosed” her because she was bound by something.
Jesus freed her. The Greek word used means loosed or freed.
Jesus said explicitly in verse 15 that the woman was “loosed” from something spiritual because it was Satan who had bound her for these past 18 years. We can only imagine the kind of degradation she must have suffered because of this…
We Can Learn from Her Example
This woman is to be commended for at least three things:
1) This poor woman went to worship on the Sabbath. How little excuse we have for not coming to church when it does not suit us.
2) She surely had prayed many times like the Psalmist from Ps 72 in today’s reading: “In You, O LORD, I put my trust; Let me never be put to shame. Deliver me in Your righteousness, and cause me to escape; Incline Your ear to me, and save me. Be my strong refuge, To which I may resort continually; You have given the commandment to save me, For You are my rock and my fortress.” (Ps 71:1-3) Today that prayer was answered - YES!
3) When she was delivered from her bondage she gave God the glory. (13) It is always good to thank God and praise God for His mercies.
Back to the Bible
Now when this was pointed out to the lecturer at Bible College, he recanted his naturalistic interpretation of the passage and apologised to all the students for misrepresenting the teaching of Luke and of Jesus.
That’s important, because it teaches us something.
This teaches us:
1) We should always take the Bible’s authority over the authority and interpretation of men, including me and anyone who preaches from this pulpit, no matter who they are.
2) We should acknowledge that we know very little and that God knows the source and the causes of certain ailments which we do not know and which we cannot heal even with the best treatments and medicines.
3) That Jesus can heal the most difficult illnesses and diseases.
To take a legalistic approach and say that they “cannot be healed on the Sabbath” or that Jesus no longer has authority or chooses not to heal physical ailments/illnesses/diseases, is to act like the Ruler of the synagogue that day.
The Pharisees were put to shame after criticising Jesus for healing on the Sabbath on more than one occasion.
The result of Jesus’ healing of the woman was: “And when He said these things, all His adversaries were put to shame; and all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him.” (17)
If perhaps you are sleeping by now and do not think what I am saying matters…
No, ok, if you think what I am saying is only about a mistake made by an old Bible college lecturer way back in 1973…let me quote you something as recent as 4th April this year within the Presbyterian church:
We were having a discussion, using email, about authority and the Bible’s authority was brought up. This was the reply to someone who defended the Bible’s authority.
At the time I called it, Email of the week: QUOTE “As an adult, I used to go to a church where the priest clearly had his hang ups and he preached out of them. I consciously decided that if the word from the pulpit contradicted what I learnt in the secular world during the week, I would junk the word from the pulpit. It’s a very good principle to live by, Gene. Try it some day.”
Elspeth - Wednesday, April 04, 2007 (From my Yahoo email under PRESSY CHURCH)
Jesus clearly believed in Satan. Jesus preached about Satan as a deceiver, a liar and a murderer. (John 8:44)
He saw Satan fall when His disciples did what they were empowered by Him to do. (Lk 10:18)
This same Jesus who spoke about love for God and love for our neighbours knew for Himself the evil of the father of lies (Jn 8:44) as He experienced the temptation in the wilderness. This same Jesus, who we accept as the communicator of love warned His disciples as He warns us of the devil’s tricks.
Are we going to edit the words of Jesus and say His words of love are OK, but don’t tell me anything He said about the devil?
Is His belief in Satan and His warnings about Satan to be ignored as words unsuitable for a scientific age, and that since Jesus lived in a time before science, well, Jesus just did not understand?
Are we saying that Jesus didn’t get it?
Are we saying that we understand better than Jesus?
We have a natural explanation for miracles and Satan now?
Are we going to say “Jesus was a man of his time,” and ignore the truth about Satan as evil personified, evil in person?
As Jesus said in Matthew’s Gospel: “If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand? . . . But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” (Mt.12: 26 & 28; see also Acts 26:18 ["the dominion of Satan"]; Col. 1:13 ["the domain of darkness"]).
In the introduction to the wonderful book, "The Screwtape Letters," C.S. Lewis writes: "There are two equal and opposite errors into which the human race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight." (CS Lewis Screwtape Letters 3 in: http://www.enjoyinggodministries.com/article/confronting-reality-of-spiritual-warfare )
END OF QUOTE
That is why I do not preach much about the devil. In this world, he gets too much airplay as it is!
However, maybe I have not preached enough about the devil…since some people only come to respect the devil’s powers when they know his existence and power in their own experience…Or better, when they experience the deliverance of the Saviour from all the power of the enemy!
I do not want you to fear….that’s not God’s purpose for you.
Instead, thank God! “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Eph6:12)
And indeed, is it not true that vestiges of that power once given to the Apostles still adheres to us today?
Jesus said to His disciples later to become His Apostles: “Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” (Lk 10:19)
The Issue of the Sabbath
The Pharisees challenged Jesus for healing on the SABBATH.
Oh My Goodness, Jesus, You did something good on the Lord’s day!
A question arose in the Western Isles of Scotland:
“If we aren’t allowed to whistle on the Sabbath how do we call our sheepdog in for its dinner?” http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/islandblogging/blogs/005114/0000006193.shtml
(I will leave you to answer that one for yourselves!)
His Great Compassion
You may have heard of the Great Commission, well, here was the Great Compassion.
Here was a woman bound and bent over in fear and misery for 18 years and Jesus great compassion for her breaks out and looses her from her bondage and heals her!
Now the only reason that was interpreted as bad by the church leaders of the day was that they had missed the big picture.
“And when He said these things, all His adversaries were put to shame; and all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him.” (17)
They did not recognize who Jesus was, even though he preached like an angel and healed badly bound and sick people before their eyes!
They refused to recognize God the Son and “all the glorious things that were done by Him.” (17)
The only reason people today cannot see the good in someone coming to be set free by Jesus, is that they do not know Jesus as God the Son for themselves!
Lk 12:8 “ ‘For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.’
12:9 Now when He had departed from there, He went into their synagogue.
12:10 And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. And they asked Him, saying, ‘Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?’ - that they might accuse Him.
12:11 Then He said to them, ‘What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out?
12:12 ‘Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.’ ”
Bring all the feeble, sick, diseased, infirm to Jesus and only unbelief will stop them from being made whole by Him.
Not all diseases are healed. Why, we do not know.
That’s in God’s hands, but:
we do know that if you trust in Him, He will make you to know Him, and He will set you free to be known by Him in a very personal way and give you, grant you, present you with free access to Him now and into all eternity!
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN!
