“THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE”: Jesus came to set people free from Satanic oppression.
- Luke 13:10-13; John 8:32.
- There was more to Jesus’ mission than this, but one of the biggest things that He did was to set people free from Satanic oppression.
- This is true both in terms of exorcisms, like we see in this passage, and a more general spiritual release from Satan’s influence.
- In this case, we see a woman who has been physically struggling for nearly two decades and Jesus sets her free (vv. 11-13). This is obviously a moment of great power from God and great joy for the woman.
- This is a good moment for us to pause and consider John 8:32. “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”
- That is often used simply as an inspiration saying, but it’s much more than that. It is a principle of spiritual truth.
When you know the truth, that very truth will set you free. What does that mean? Living in falsehood and accommodating sin will create innumerable problems in our lives. Falsehood builds a life that cannot be relied on not to fall apart. Truth, on the other hand, is consistently reliable. Sin will ruin us. Getting rid of it will heal us.
- All of this flows from the reality that Jesus wants to transform our lives. He wants to grow us into practical Christlikeness. The truth sets us free from the bondage and oppression that sin holds us in. We find ourselves freed from anger. We find ourselves freed from envy. We find ourselves freed from worry. We find ourselves freed from greed. We are freed to enjoy the goodness of God in our lives.
- What Jesus says to this woman (“. . . you are set free . . .” in v. 12) is what He wants to do in each of our lives. Sin is shackles. Sin is bondage. And Jesus wants to set us free.
“THAT VIOLATES THE RULES”: Too often people let their man-made rules get in the way of people being set free.
- Luke 13:14.
- Matthew 7:24-27; Romans 3:23; 1 Timothy 2:9-10; 1 Peter 3:3-5a.
- There was joy in this freedom from the woman (v. 13) and from the crowd (v. 17) but the synagogue ruler was having nothing of it. Why? Because this could not be from God because Jesus had violated the ruler’s Sabbath rule. That's where his focus was: on the rules.
- That's because his whole approach to religion was essentially rules-based. “Here are all our rules and as we follow those, God loves us.” The Pharisees in particular were renowned for adding more and more rules to try to “help” people know exactly where the lines were and how they should act to obey God.
- Because their focus was the rules, it led to a simple calculus for them. If the person violated the rules, then that could not be from God. It didn’t matter how amazing (v. 13) what happened was, it simply couldn’t be from God. That led to the religious leaders lamely arguing that Jesus must be doing miracles by the power of Satan (Luke 11:14-28). As we discussed earlier in this sermon series, that made absolutely no sense, but it was their only choice to explain an indisputable miracle that they believed could not have been from the power of God.
- Does this mean that the Sabbath was not something that should be observed? Not at all. The Sabbath was a gift given for our benefit. But the Pharisees piled on rule after rule to try to nail down where the specific lines were for proper obedience and disobedience to that command. It became a heavy burden that no one could carry - keeping up with the myriad of man-made rules that needed to be observed to keep God happy.
- An important question for us to consider is whether we do the same thing today. Specifically, do we let the rules we’ve made up get in the way of Jesus setting people free.
- We do.
- I want to share three examples of this. Not all of these are as prominent in every congregation but these are all things that have been a part of American church life in recent decades.
a. Dress up to come to church.
- This has slackened somewhat in recent years but for many years if you came to church you were expected to dress up. We even had a term for it: “your Sunday best.”
- This created a situation where people didn’t feel they could come to church unless they had nice clothes. There were numerous occasions down through the years where someone was thinking about coming to church for the first time and asked about the “dress code.”
- Now we would just say that is something people need to deal with if we had a New Testament command that dressing up was the expected wardrobe for worship. But we don’t. In fact, it points in the other direction.
- 1 Peter 3:3-5a points in the opposite direction, discouraging “outward adornment” and “fine clothes” and instead encouraging a beautiful “inner self.”
- Same thing in 1 Timothy 2:9-10, avoiding “braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes” and instead being adorned with “good deeds.”
- Both of those are focused on women, but it’s blatantly obvious that would be true for the guys as well.
- The point is that our focus should not be what’s on our bodies but what’s in our hearts.
- As I said, this has slackened some in recent years in the church as casual dress has become far more prevalent in the workplace and in the culture generally.
- What’s the point of what I’m saying? Have there been times where we have put dressing up in the way of someone coming to church and hearing about the gospel? Have we put that in the way of setting people free?
b. Good people go to church.
- This is a common idea about church - it’s a place for the good people.
- The reality starts with Romans 3:23 - none of us are righteous. That means that church is full of people who know they are sinners, who know they need the forgiveness that Jesus offers, and who know that in their own power they are not righteous.
- Do we believe that with God in our lives we are increasing in works of righteousness? Of course. But that's not what the popular understanding is. And too often it’s not the way that church people think. We don’t think of ourselves as “forgiven and changed.” We think of ourselves as the “good people.” We aren’t. We’re only good to the extent that we’ve allowed God in our lives. As I have often said, I don’t go to church because I’m a good person - I go because I know I’m not. I need what Jesus can do for me.
- I’m reminded of the story of a friend of mine many years ago who after Christmas came to me at work and said he’d gone to Midnight Mass and was amazed the roof didn’t fall in. That's a world away from seeing the church as the place the lost should go.
- I’m also reminded of the Philip Yancey story about him trying to point a prostitute in the right direction and suggesting she go to church. She responded, “Church?! I already feel bad enough about myself.” That's a world away from seeing the church as the place where grace is offered.
-We should know that people of the world are sinners and we should not be shocked or surprised by that. We do not expect them to “clean up their act” before coming to church. They can’t without Jesus! We want them to come, no matter what their condition or situation, and hear the Good News.
- Let me give an example. Let’s say a homosexual couple walks in next Sunday morning and sits right here on the front row. What would your response be? Would it be, “What are they doing here?” and keeping your distance? Or would it be, “Thank God they’re here!” and immediately walking over to welcome them? Pastor, are you saying homosexuality isn’t wrong? No, I’m not saying that at all. I’m saying that this is the right place for them to be to hear the truth and possibly be set free. We are all sinners when we come through the door and we all come to hear the life-changing truth that sets free.
c. Cheap grace.
- A final example of getting in the way of people being set free is one that you’ve heard me talk about a lot. It’s cheap grace.
- That is the idea too often preached in conservative Christian churches that all you need to do is say you believe in Jesus and that's the end of the story. No change, no discipleship, no obedience, no transformation necessary. Sadly, this is a common thing.
- In the parable of the two houses (Matthew 7:24-27), Jesus says that the difference between building on the rock and building on the sand is hearing His words and putting them into practice. That presumes obedience and following Jesus.
- When we preach cheap grace, we leave people thinking that they are ok spiritually (“I’m saved”) when they aren’t. This is putting our man-made rule in the way of them being set free spiritually.
- Sadly, many people think they are ok spiritually when they’re not. And, also sadly, they think that the gospel of Jesus doesn’t provide any actual change to your life. It’s just fire insurance.
- We have stood in the way of them being set free by the transformative gospel of Jesus.
“YOU HYPOCRITES”: What makes all this especially bad is that we carve out exceptions when it suits us.
- Luke 13:15-16.
- One of the frustrating things to Jesus about the way the religious leaders were doing their religion was the hypocrisy of it.
- Let’s take the issue in play here: the Sabbath.
- Hypothetically, it would have been a little more consistent if the religious leaders had said, “We do absolutely no work on the Sabbath no matter what. We go to synagogue and that's it. No work, no matter what.” But that's not true.
- Jesus points out in vv. 15-16 the hypocrisy of their objection. The religious leaders are objecting to Jesus working on the Sabbath but each of them later that day will lead their animal from the stall to get water. They are ok working to help an animal but not this woman. They are ok with leading to water but not leading to healing.
At its base, it’s hypocritical.
- There were exceptions to their man-made rules that they were ok with. Animal to water? Acceptable exception. Woman healed? Unacceptable.
- We do the same things.
- Examples:
a. Working on Sundays.
- We might look at someone who has to work on Sundays or who mows their grass on Sundays and shake our head. “It’s the Lord’s Day. It’s supposed to be a day of rest!” But too often churches can so pack the calendar on Sundays that many of their people might spend five or six hours at the church, doing this and that. Is that restful? - Nope. But that's an exception in our mind.
- Now, just to clarify, I’m not saying that working on Sundays is a good idea or that mowing your grass on Sundays is great. It’s supposed to be a day of rest. My point is that when we pack our congregation's lives with tons of activities and make it a day of busyness, we’re being hypocritical.
b. Homosexuality vs. living together.
- In many congregations the people see homosexuality as the worst of sins. At the same time, we have young people within our congregations and our own families living together before marriage and we give that a resigned shrug of our shoulders. Aren’t both sexual sins?
- Shouldn’t we be consistent about what amounts to sexual sin?
A FINAL THOUGHT: Are we more focused on our rules or His rule?
- Luke 13:17.
- As we conclude, I think that v. 17 is a good place to finish.
- The people were delighted with what they were hearing. They had felt the weight of the religious hypocrisy and how it pushed them away from God. They were joyful at the sight of God’s movement.
- The rule of the Kingdom of God was coming about. Jesus was expanding His influence.
- What are we focused on? Our man-made rules? Or His rule expanding on the earth?
