Luke 6:6-11
6 And it came to pass also on another sabbath, that he entered into the synagogue and taught: and there was a man whose right hand was withered.
7 And the scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the sabbath day; that they might find an accusation against him.
8 But he knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. And he arose and stood forth.
9 Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it?
10 And looking round about upon them all, he said unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he did so: and his hand was restored whole as the other.
Verse 11 “And they were filled with madness; and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus.”
Don’t Be Mad!
We live in a society where everybody has a feeling about everything. Folks walk around wearing their feelings on their sleeves. The least little thing and we are offended. And sometimes we catch feelings about stuff that doesn’t even concern us. Don’t get me wrong, there are valid concerns when things are obviously out of pocket, but we get offended by the smallest things!
Stuff that by the end of the day, nobody else even remembers that it happened but you. Somebody didn’t call our name at the banquet, we mad! Somebody wearing the same dress you just brought, you mad! Somebody gets credit for my idea, I’m mad. I mean any and everything can rub us the wrong way.
I believe that at the core of our sensitivity is selfishness! We want what we want, when we want it and we want it given to us the way we want it served. And if something doesn’t go exactly the way that we think it should have gone, we get mad! Burger King has messed us up! We cannot always have it our way. Truth be told, you can’t even have it your way at Burger King. But we walk around thinking that it’s all about us and everybody else better act like they know.
It has gotten so bad that not only do we get mad with folks, we have the nerve to get mad with God! Some of us treat God like we treat people. We give him the silent treatment and have the ordacity to be mad at him. As if we can hurt God! Touch your neighbor and say don’t be mad!
Now, there is a huge difference between madness and anger. Anger is a natural emotion. Some view anger as part of the fight or flight brain response to the perceived threat of harm. It’s how you react with your anger that is key. So anger is normal but must be managed properly. As my friend says don’t let you anger bucket overflow. But madness is a whole nother story. Madness is unchecked anger. One definition for madness is insanity. When we are mad, we think that the world is against us. We are not thinking properly. So we do things that are just crazy and act irrationally!
And that’s what we have in our text, some mad church folks! Look at it. It’s church day and somebody is at church that needs to be at church, a man with a problem. See most folks think that you’ve got to have it all together before you come to church but verse 6 puts that theory to rest, it says that there was a man at church whose right hand was withered. We ought to want folks that need something to come to the church. If we have it all together what do we need Jesus for? And if we’d just be honest, we all have some withered stuff in our lives. We are either in recovery or know how to hide well!
So this man comes to church and Jesus is doing what you expect Jesus to be doing in church, teaching. I don’t care what preacher is up, if Jesus isn’t doing the teaching, you might as well stay at home. So all the right things are going on in verse 6, but then in verse 7, the scribes and the Pharisees get to tripping. Verse 7 says “And the scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the sabbath day; that they might find an accusation against him.”
See they are in the right place but for the wrong reason. They are not watching to see the man get healed so that they can rejoice, but they are watching so that they can accuse Jesus of what they thought of as work, on a day that he shouldn’t have been working.
But Jesus knows our hearts and our thoughts but thank God he also knows what we need so he goes on and heals the man, and instead of rejoicing, these folks get mad! And herein lies what I’d like for us to consider. I believe that verse eleven stands before us today to warn us of the dangers of being mad and to help us avoid falling into the madness trap.
There are three points I’d like for us to consider and we can go to lunch. I believe that this verse shows us that when we allow ourselves to become mad, we experience the wrong filling, we get involved in the wrong fellowship and then we go around picking the wrong fights.
My first point is that being mad causes us to experience the wrong filling. FILLING. Verse 11 says “And they were filled with madness.”
To be filled means occupy completely! To be totally influenced. To be engulfed by a matter. And here we see church folk filled with madness! God never intended for us to be filled with anything but him. In the New Testament we see references to being filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with compassion, filled with wisdom, filled with wonder, filled with joy! That’s what God wants for us, to be filled with things that are of him. But these folks were filled with madness. They were mad at Christ, they are mad at the people and they are even mad at themselves.
When you allow yourself to be filled with madness, it controls you. Your life is driven by the madness and nothing good can come from that. Everything you say and do is negative.
I’ve had those days. No matter how bright the sky was, I could find a cloud somewhere. No matter how much I had it going on, I could find something missing. And that’s a miserable way to live!
Beloved don’t allow yourself to be filled with madness. That’s not God’s intention for you.
Phil 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
Eph 3:19 “And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”
Matt 5:6 “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled”
See because when you are filled right, you feel right! When you are filled the fruits of the Spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control you can sleep at night. You don’t have to stay up wondering if somebody is going to kick in your door. When you are filled right you can look somebody in the eye and your yes can be yes and your no can be no. When you are filled right, even when times get ruff you can say, weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning. When you are filled right, obstacles may come your way, but you say to the mountain, be thou moved and be thou cast into the midst of the sea and it shall be done because we are more than conquerors through Christ who strengthens us.
That’s when you are filled right. So don’t be mad!
Not only does being mad cause us to experience the wrong filling. It causes us to get involved in the wrong fellowships. The text says “And they were filled with madness; and communed one with another.” The Greek word for commune is dialaleo which translates as “noise abroad”. It means to converse together, to talk with.
Misery loves company! Negative people are not satisfied being negative by themselves, seems like they are on a mission to spread their negativity. Have you ever sat beside somebody at church that no matter what anybody says, they have something negative to say about it? Ask them to give a love offering, they whisper “I don’t know what he doing with that all that money” and they aint gave none. Worship leader says lift holy hands and give praise to the Lord, they say “it don’t take all that”.
They don’t like nothing about nothing and the only reason that come to church is so that they can say they went. So they are not coming to get anything from worship, so they don’t care if anyone else does either. See it’s not enough for them to be grumpy guss by themselves, they want you to be grumpy with them. They are unhappy, so they want you to be unhappy.
I don’t know about you, but I like to be surrounded by positive people. I want to be around folks that will lift me up! I have enough issues on my own, so I don’t need you bringing your drama on me. Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying because church is the place for believers to fellowship with one another and we should be able to share our joys and our sorrows with one another. But there is a big difference between sharing a burden and starting mess.
And there’s an extreme danger because when you are mad, sometimes you will talk to anybody that will listen. Because you just want to vent! But you have to be careful because you don’t know what the person you are venting to might do with the information you are sharing. If they are a mature brother or sister in the Lord, they will pray with you and your issue is safe with them. But don’t fool around and vent to somebody who is mad already, because they are already looking for some mess. They will take your venting and start some drama and hide behind your name.
You’ve seen it before. I’ve got a problem with Brother Jones but I’m not going to tell brother Jones that for myself. But when you tell me that you have the same gripe with Brother Jones, I’ll run tell that!!! I’ll even tell it to Brother Jones like I’m on his side. Now my only intention is to start some mess because I’m mad already!
See being mad will have you mixed in the wrong fellowship! You will find yourself involved with folks that any sane person would know not to fool with… So don’t be mad!
And lastly, I believe that our text is pleading for us to heed the third and what I believe is the most dangerous hazard of being mad. Being mad will have you starting the wrong fights.
Look at it “And they were filled with madness; and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus.” Did I read that right? What they might do to Jesus!?! This is when madness shifts into insanity! Touch your neighbor and say don’t go there! We used say “your mouth is writing a check that your behind can’t cash.”
They talking about doing something to Mary’s baby? They’re plotting to run up on the King of King’s and Lord of Lord’s. They want to go to war with the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end! They must be crazy! They are talking to each other about what they can do to Jesus. These folk have allowed madness to overtake them. As a matter of fact, one of the definitions for madness is stupidity. You don’t believe me write it down and look it up when you get home. It’s the Greek word an-oy-ah which means stupidity; by implication rage. Touch your neighbor and say when you get mad you get stupid.
And something has got to be wrong with you when you think that you or anybody in heaven, earth or hell can do something to God in an attempt to coheres him into doing what you want him to do. I did say in the beginning that at the root of madness is selfishness. See these folk were mad at Jesus because he was breaking their rules. Aint that some mess, The rule maker, breaking the rules. That doesn’t even make sense. But that shows us how madness can sneak in and take over our whole physchy. And once the enemy has got to your mind, the rest will follow.
That’s why Rom 12:2 says “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” That’s why we’ve got stay in God’s word. We renew our minds by staying rooted and grounded in the word.
But these folks were more concerned about religion than they were relationship. They were so wrapped up in the rules and regulations that they had the chief cornerstone of the church in their very presence and because he wouldn’t do what they thought he should be doing, THEY GOT MAD.
Beloved we have to get to a point where we say rules and regulations are great but they don’t amount to a hill of beans if Jesus isn’t in them. We got to stop letting stuff that doesn’t matter get us mad. If ministry is getting done, that’s all that matters! We can’t have everything our way and we will disagree sometimes. Conflict is natural. But sometimes we have to agree to disagree and submit ourselves to the will and way of God and leave it all up to him. There’s no reason to be mad at anybody especially when it comes to the Lord’s work.
I’ve come to love Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
See when you love somebody you give them your heart. And when you give somebody your heart you trust them not to let you down. And I am a witness that Jesus will never let you down. Family will stand you up and friends will let you down but Jesus promises us in his word never to leave us nor forsake us. And if you really believe that, how can you be mad?
We will never agree about everything that is done but at the end of the day. 1 Cor 10:28“the earth is the Lord's , and the fulness thereof:” So no matter what folks may do, our God is in control. He created the world and everything in it. He sits high and he looks low. And he is in control.
So don’t be mad. No matter what may come your way, or who is trying to work you’re your nerves. Do like my friend Cheryl Oliver used to say. Tell daddy on them. Don’t allow yourself to become upset by people or things, they are powerless, your reaction is their only power! Just turn the person or the situation over to the one who has all power! His name is Jesus.
If you know Jesus as your savior, you already enjoy that blessed assurance that Jesus is Lord of your life, which means he is in control. If you have never had the opportunity to hear about him, allow me the honor. Jesus Christ wants to be your savior. See Jesus came to earth through Immaculate Conception, which means no man had anything to do with it, it was all God! He lived here on this earth just like you and I. But he came here to die for the sins of the world. And that’s exactly what he did. They hung him on a cross on a hill named Calvary and he died on that cross. But the bible tells us and I believe that Jesus did not stay dead, but on the third day after his crucifixion he rose from the dead with all power in his hands. He then ascended up to heaven where he makes intercession for you and for me. And if you were the only person on earth, I believe that Jesus still would have done all of that just for you because he loves you. If you have never accepted Jesus as your Savior, I invite you right now to come.
