Compassion and Kingdom Luke 13:10-21

Keywords

compassion and kingdom, Jesus's compassion, synagogue healing, Jim Elliot's sacrifice, tribal conversion, chronic pain, worship importance, demonic intervention, Sabbath controversy, kingdom growth, mustard seed, leaven metaphor, spiritual growth, planting seeds, faithfulness

13. We're going to be in Luke, chapter 13, verses 10 through 21 this morning we I'll be honest with you, as I was thinking about the the past five sermons or so we've done in Luke since we started back in January. It feels like we just been getting punched by Jesus over and over and over again, right? I mean, he's he said things like, Hey, don't be hypocrites. Oh, okay. And he says, Fear God, acknowledge Christ. And it's just like he's a boxer in there, and he just keeps hitting us. He tells us that your belongings don't mean anything. He tells us that that we don't need to be anxious that judgment is coming. And last week, he told us we need to repent of our sins or perish. And I don't know about you, but it could be overwhelming to hear those things. It's good to hear those things. It's a blessing to hear those things, because we get to hear the heart of God, right? But it's also like, oh, man, like Jesus, I feel a little beat up. Well, I want to let you know, if that's you, I want to tell you that this morning is going to be a blessing, because Jesus is going to reveal to us not only that he comes preaching those hard things, but that he is a man of compassion, that he is a God of compassion. That's what we're going to see this morning. This morning's sermon is titled compassion and kingdom, and that's what we're going to be looking at. So what I want to do first is I want to just read these verses for us in Luke chapter 13, verse 10, it says this, as he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath, a woman was there who had been disabled by a spirit for over 18 years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called out to her, Woman, you are free of your disability. Then he laid his hands on her, and instantly she was restored and began to glorify God. But the leader of the synagogue indignant, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, responded by telling the crowd, there are six days when work should be done, therefore come on one of those days and be healed not not on the Sabbath day. But the Lord answered him, hypocrites, doesn't each one of you untie your ox or his ox or donkey from the feeding trough on the Sabbath and lead it to water? Satan has bound this woman, a daughter of Abraham, for 18 years. Shouldn't she be untied from this bondage on the Sabbath day, when he had laid or when he had said these things, all his adversaries were humiliated, but the whole crowd was rejoicing over all the glorious things that he was doing. He said, Therefore, what is the kingdom of God like? And what can I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden. It it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the sky nested in its branches. Again. He said, What can I compare the kingdom of God to? It is like leaven that a woman took and mixed into 50 pounds of flour until it was leavened. So we see Jesus's compassion and his focus on the kingdom. Here, I want to tell you a story about a man who understood Jesus's compassion and he understood the kingdom mindset that Jesus is trying to get us to grab a hold of today. His name was Jim Elliot. I don't know if you've not heard of Jim Elliot. Jim Elliot was a missionary, and at 28 years old, he decided that he wanted to to minister to a group of unreached tribe that was unreached in Ecuador. They were called the I'm probably going to butcher this, but the harani people is what they were called. They had never been met by outsiders before, or a story goes, any outsiders that they have come in contact with had been killed because they did not like outsiders. So this man, Jim Elliot, decided that he wanted to reach them. He had compassion for them. He wanted to preach the gospel to this lost tribe. And so at 28 years old, he decides that he's going to to reach them. And he began reaching them by doing flyovers over where their tribe lived, and they would drop gifts from the plane, and they would take those gifts. And then he did this for a little while, and then finally, he and a group of five or four other men decided that it was their job to go into that into that area. So they landed the plane, and they met with the men, for the men of the tribe for a couple of days. And then all of a sudden, a couple of the men came out, and they knew that something was a little uneasy that morning. And when that those men came out, another group came behind them, carrying spears, and Jim Elliot and his friends died that day on that beach at the hands of those men. Now one of the things that I didn't know until this week, Jim Elliot and his friends had firearms with them to protect them. They could have protected their lives, but written in one of his diaries, he said that we're not going to shoot one of these men until they hear about Jesus. So he went in knowing that his life was in danger, and he made the decision that he would not. A bullet at this tribesmen to protect themselves if they had not heard about Jesus. That is a compassion that puts the well being of those men of the tribe over the life of Jim Elliot. You see that compassion, but also that day, Jim Elliot sowed a seed, and two years later, his wife, with their young child, went to go visit that tribe, putting their lives in danger as well. But they they survived. They loved that tribe, and some of those men who had killed Jim Elliot and his friends that day came to be lovers of Jesus, repented of their sin, apologized to his wife Elizabeth, and said, We want to follow this Jesus. In fact, the man who speared Jim in the chest was one of those tribal leaders who came to Christ that day. So Jim Elliot sowed the seed of the kingdom with his life, and it grew through the compassion that he showed them. The fact that his wife Elizabeth went to go live with that tribe, changed the hearts of those men because they knew that they truly believed in this God that they wanted to serve. And I say that to say this, that we can have compassion like that as well. I'm not asking you to lay your lives on this line, but I'm saying that if we want to reflect Jesus in this world, we need to have compassion on those who are far from God, that we need to stop at nothing to make sure that they know the heart of the Lord. So when we think about compassion, Jesus demonstrates that compassion here in this story, doesn't he? I want to read verses 10 through 13 again, just so we can hear it as he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath, a woman was there who had been disabled by a spirit for over 18 years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called out to her, Woman, you are free of your disability. Then he laid his hands on her, and instantly, she was restored and began to glorify God. We we're told that Jesus goes and he visits the synagogue. Now this is the last time in Luke's gospel that Jesus visits a synagogue. He's visited synagogues before, and this is the last time that Luke records Jesus visiting a synagogue. Soon, Jesus is going to step foot into Jerusalem and lay his life on the line. But at this last visit, he's there, and the reason why he's there is probably because they had invited him into to preach. Remember, we talked about this a while ago, talking about Jesus's ministry, and that whenever he would travel, the synagogues would invite Him in. They didn't always like what he said, but because he was a traveling rabbi, and they didn't have like a pastor over the the synagogue, or a regular speaker over the synagogue, they would bring in traveling rabbis. And so Jesus comes in to presumably read the scriptures and and and preach the Scriptures. And when he's there, he sees this woman. 18 years, this woman had been bent over. 18 years, this woman could only essentially see her feet. 18 years she was in pain. She could not sleep well. 18 years she was relying on the kindness of others. 1818 years is a long time. And Jesus saw her. I love just that phrase. Jesus saw her though she had been coming to that synagogue for 18 years. It feels like she had not been seen at all. And Jesus sees her. He has compassion on her, this chronic pain that this woman had been enduring, this helplessness she had been facing. And Jesus sees her, one of the things I want us to learn from this woman, though, is that this woman, through 18 years of chronic pain, through 18 years of suffering, didn't miss worship. She continued to go to the synagogue every Saturday to worship the Lord. Now the reason why this is instructive for us is because we need to think about what are the things that we let be obstacles to us coming to worship, because sometimes they're ridiculous. Sometimes, you know, we're ill, or somebody else is sick, or whatever. But the reality is, is many of the times that we miss worship is because of something that we could we could miss, right? But this lady didn't miss that. She knew the importance of going to worship. She knew the importance of going to hear the God's word being spoke. She knew the she knew the importance of coming to the place where God's people gathered. She knew that, and so she went, regardless of how she felt, regardless of the restless night she had before she went to worship. I think that we can take that from the from we could take something from her example,

not only that, but remember, last week, we talked about how in the Jewish mindset that bad things happen to people because they've done bad things. So could you just imagine those people who did see her at the synagogue, and they go, what did she do to deserve? That. What does she do to be bent over for 18 years? What does she do to have this chronic pain? Probably blaming her sin that they don't even know about for that Jesus doesn't even address that. In fact, Luke tells us that the reason why she was disabled was because of a demonic intervention, right? That there was a demon that had caused her to be sick, that's what it said, or be bent over that disabled her. In verse 11, she had been disabled by a spirit for over 18 years. So though those people would have said it was her sin that caused this, we know that it wasn't her sin that caused this, but Jesus saw her and he had compassion on her. I can't not help but think about what we we learn about in Luke chapter four, right? Luke chapter four, verses 18 through 19. It says the Spirit. This is Jesus preaching at a synagogue that he was kicked out of shortly after this. It says The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach the Good News to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord. And then after Jesus reads that, he closes the book, and he says, Today, this thing has been fulfilled in your presence, Jesus came to set the captives free. And right now, this woman has been captivated by this demon for the last 18 years. Her pain is because of this demon, and she has been in bondage to him. In fact, that's what he he says later, but the he sees her, and he has compassion on her, and then he talks to her something that we can presume hasn't happened before she she's been kind of just ignored because of her sin, because of her disability. The rabbis wouldn't touch her or talk to her because they didn't want to be stained with any kind of uncleanliness that this woman had been a part of. And so Jesus saw her, he had compassion on her, and he speaks to her, and he says, What does he say? He says, Woman, you are free of your disability. You have been set free. Those chains have been broken. And then he lays his hands on her. Now, this is scandalous in the time of Jesus, because rabbis would not touch women or even talk to women if their husband wasn't present. So the fact that this woman was alone, and Jesus talked to her, and then he touched her, they would have looked at Jesus like he was crazy, like, What is this man doing? And then all of a sudden, after he touches her, she has she is released. And how did she react? How did she react? She went and glorified God. She praised the Lord for being set free. She praised the Lord that there was no pain in her back. She praised the Lord because of the fact that Jesus had healed her. She was excited at the fact that she had been set free. Now I want us to understand that this woman's malady, though it was true, though it was real that she had a bent over back and that she was in pain, there is a representation that is happening here. This woman's malady represents our sinfulness, that we are broken, that we are bound by sin, that we are caught up in this, this world of our own depravity. We are chained to sin, but we can be set free by Jesus. Jesus sees us, and he came to die for us. He came to be beaten and scorned. He came to hang on that cross, to shed his blood so that we could have salvation. He sees us, and He knows us, and he and he can say to you today, you your sins have been forgiven, you have been freed. You have new life in him. I think that's a beautiful thing that we need to really just grasp and wrap our minds around, that we can be set free from the bondage of sin and death. We can be set free from this life that has so much heartache and trouble. We can glorify God because of that freedom that we have in Him. And if Jesus has saved you, we should be like this woman, rejoicing and glorifying God for His grace and His mercy and His compassion on us. Because I'll tell you this, Jesus doesn't have to have grace, he doesn't have to have mercy, he doesn't have to have compassion on us, and yet he does because He loves us, because He cares about us, and so we can rejoice, glorifying him because of his generosity towards us. This woman's life reflects our own. In our sin, we're saved by the compassion of Jesus, and we rejoice in that, but not all people rejoice in her salvation. Did we catch what happened in verses 14 through 17, says, but the leader of the synagogue indignant. This guy was super mad at Jesus for this, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, responded by telling the crowd, there are six days when work should be done, therefore come on one of those days and be healed and not on the Sabbath. But the Lord answered him and said, hypocrites, doesn't each one of you untie his ox or donkey from the feeding trough on a Sabbath and lead it to water? Satan has bound this woman, a daughter of Abraham, for 18 years. Shouldn't she be untied from this bondage on the Sabbath day, when he had said these things, all his adversaries were humiliated. But the. Was rejoicing over the glorious things that he was doing. We've talked about before, but just as a little refresher, the Sabbath day was is a holy day in the Jewish life. Every once a week, God has set that time aside for them to to worship and to focus on him. Now, what happened was there were people, religious people, who wanted to have a a bigger definition of what it looks like to to keep the Sabbath. And so they started adding rules and regulations onto Sabbath day. And so one of the things that they they say, is that you can't heal on the Sabbath. Well, they told Jesus, you can't heal because that's work. We don't want to work on the Sabbath, healing is work, therefore you can't work. And so Jesus hears this from this man, and notice that the man doesn't address Jesus. He looks at the woman, right? And he says, You should have come any other day, but the Sabbath to be healed Isn't that silly, because she'd been coming for 18 years, and nobody had healed her yet. And and so this guy knew that she had a little bit of a malady and a problem and and he didn't want anything to do with her. And she said, he says, You should come any other day than the day that we come to worship. And Jesus looks at this man, and he goes, You're a hypocrite, because you'll do work on the Sabbath. You'll, you'll lead your ox to water, to the feeding trough to to feed them. You'll, you'll do that work. But they're like, well, we only take the 200 steps that was required, like that. That's all we take, right? And so they're adding these silly little rules to it. When they're in reality, what they're doing is they're missing the point of the Sabbath day, right? What was the point of the Sabbath day on the Jewish week? It was for worship, it was for rest, it was for restoration. That's what the the Sabbath day was for. And Jesus calls on hypocrites, because this woman who had been in pain, who had been in heartache, who had been been struggling for the last 18 years, who had just now been set free, and not only she's a woman, but she's a daughter of Abraham, she is one of their people, and that Jesus set them free, they go, You can't do that Jesus, and he's going, but I can, I'm God. I can do whatever I want. And he says, but you're hypocritical, because I just touched the woman and said, You're healed, and yet you're going to feed your ox and your horse. You're you're more concerned with the creation of God than you are with those made in the image of God. Do you hear how backwards that is, that this woman's freedom, they thought was less important than feeding their own ox, than feeding their own cattle, than feeding their own sheep, they worshiped the creation more than they worshiped the Creator, and that's shown by their love for their the creation more than their love for one made in the image of God.

And that's really corrupt. It's not unlike some things that some people have encountered in churches before, that we care more about our rules, we care more about our traditions. We care more about you checking this list of boxes than we care about you as a person. I've told the story before, but about my buddy who came to church one day in PJs. Y'all remember that story, they cared more about him not dressing like they wanted him to dress than the fact that he was there to worship God. And when we let these rules and when we let these these traditions dictate how we feel about people, then we're missing the mark. We should care about those who are in front of us. We should care about those who are hurting. We should care about those who are are in a debilitating state. We should care about them and not say, you need to look like me in order to do what I I want you to do, and then I'll be gracious to you, and then I'll be loving to you, and then I'll be compassionate to you. Now we're compassionate because the Lord has been compassionate to us, not only that, but just to kind of talk about some of the cultural things that are happening for just a second, we see this in our culture, where we care more about animals than we do about human life. We care more about, you know, saving the sea turtles than we do about speaking against those who are killing the innocent in the womb. May it not be so church? May we care more about those made in the image of God than we do about the straws that are floating in the ocean hurting sea turtles. I think that we need to reflect on how much do we actually care about those made in the image of God? Because it's so easy for us to say, I love people, but do we actually love people, or do we just love people that look like us, that talk like us, that worship like us. Where do we draw the line? Do we love people, or do we love people who reflect us? Because the reality is is Jesus tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves. So do you love your neighbor as yourself, or do you just love your neighbor? Who looks like you, talks like you, acts like you, that's the heart. That's what this rabbi was saying, like we want you to follow these rules, and if you don't, then you're an outcast, and we don't want you. And Jesus, when he were when he confronts the man, did you notice what happens? All those who stood on his side were humiliated because they knew they were wrong. Did they repent? No, they just were humiliated. They just didn't care. They just like, Okay, we're humiliated. But all those who heard Jesus were rejoicing because they understood what happened. They understood that a life had been changed. They understood that this woman who had been in pain had been set free, and that's what we should be. We should be excited about what the Lord is doing. What we have to understand as well is that doing good cannot be limited to just certain days of the week. Doing good is always good. And so when we do good, we can't say, Well, I can. I can help this person on these days, but I can't help them on this day. No, we can. We can. We can help people all the time, right? Not only when it's convenient with us, sometimes helping somebody means it's going to be inconvenient for you. And so we need to let go of our own sin, let go of our own pride, and go and tell people about the good news of Jesus. Verses 18 through 21 says this. He said, Therefore, what is the kingdom of God like? And what can I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden. It grew and became a tree and the birds of the sky nestled or nested in its branches. And he said again, what can I compare the kingdom of God to? It is like the leaven that a woman took and mixed into 50 pounds of flour, and it was all leavened. This is an interesting couple of parables that Jesus says. So what is he talking about? He's talking about the what seems insignificant, growing into something bigger. He uses two examples, right? He uses a mustard seed, which at that point in time, was the smallest seed that they planted in the the in Palestine where Jesus was. It's only about a millimeter wide. Okay, it's tiny, so you can't even really see it unless you're right up on it. But this mustard seed, when you plant in the ground, can grow to be a tree that is up to 15 to 20 feet big. I mean, so what's small can become big. And then he talks about leaven, and we've talked about leaven before, and before, and most of the time in the scriptures, leaven is used as a negative example. Don't let the don't let your heart become like the leaven of the Pharisees, right? But this time it's a positive thing where, where we're leavening the whole loaf. This woman is making 50, or taking 50 pounds of flour. That's a lot of flour. She's making enough food for about 150 people. And she takes a little bit of leaven, she adds that leaven to the loaf, and the the whole thing gets leaven. So what's the the significance here? He says that the kingdom of God is like the mustard seed, and it's like leaven. It starts with something small and grows into something greater. There is Kingdom growth happening here. And so when we think about this, I want us to think about the kingdom growth on a couple of different levels. Historically, I want us to think about Kingdom growth like this. Jesus is that mustard seed. Jesus is that leaven. He begins as one man with 12 disciples doing the will of God, dying on the cross for our sins, raising again. And then from that you're sitting here today, 2000 years later, you see the fruit of that seed. We've seen it throughout all of church history. All you have to do is look at the early church, the the patristic area era. You know, we get the Reformation, we get all this stuff that the reason why you're sitting here today is because of that little seed that Jesus planted being His life, death, burial and resurrection. It's not a little thing, okay, but it's, it seems insignificant to the Jewish people at the time, but it grows into something so much bigger. In fact, the birds that come that nest in the trees in the Old Testament, the birds resemble the Gentiles. That's, that's one of the the metaphors that's used there. In fact, this is imagery that comes from Ezekiel, chapter 12 or chapter 17, verses 22 through 24 it says this. This is what the Lord God says. I will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and plant it. I will pluck a tender sprig from the top most shoots, and I will plant it on a on a high, towering mountain. I will plant it on Israel's high mountain so that they may bear branches, produce fruit and become a majestic cedar. Birds of every kind will nest under it, taking shelter in the shade of its branches. Then the trees of the field will know that I am the Lord. I bring down the tall tree and I make it a low tree because the green tree, I cause the green tree to wither and make the withered tree alive. I the Lord, have spoken, and I will do it. So the reason that we get to come to salvation is because of Jesus's death, burial and resurrection. It's because of that seed his life that was planted in the ground for us. He rose again, and we can have deliverance, we can have salvation. So that's that the 12 men who follow Jesus, those were little seed. Those 12 men changed the world by proclaiming the good news of the gospel to those who are far from him. Paul was a seed that went throughout preaching to the Gentiles about the salvation that is found in Jesus. It all began from something small. I think that we, we tend to, we can say it, and we can think about it that, oh yeah, the 12, the 12 Apostles and Paul, they did a mighty work, and we're thankful for what they've done. But if we really just think about how much opposition they faced when we were going through the book of Romans in Sunday school, I told the the Sunday school class that at the time that Paul was writing the book of Romans, or the letter of Romans, there was only about 5% of the Roman kingdom that were Christians at the time, 5% and that 5% grew from from them to eventually the whole kingdom of Rome, being mostly Christian, to its spreading to Spain and then to to America. It all began with a little bit. I think we can underestimate little bit. We can underestimate small decisions. We can underestimate the we want big, we want glamorous. We want things to go off with a boom, right? But the reality is, things start small and then get big, and that's what Jesus is talking about. So that's the historical thing. I want us to also think about the little seeds in your life, yeah, who was it that planted a seed in your life that has now grown to become you believing in Jesus. Last week, I don't know many of y'all weren't able to come, but we went to hear Brother David's testimony in first Baptist ganado, and he had a rough life. He made some poor decisions. He ended up in prison. But one of the things that stuck out to me was what was the seed that was planted in his heart that caused him to become a believe, that began the journey of him becoming a believer? And he told us that it was as he was working in the kitchen at the prison, and he would look out and he would see these people in prison with a smile on their face, and it was a smile on their face. And he goes, Why are they smell smiling? We're all locked up in here together. What are they so happy about? And it was that that caused him to to start to pursue them and find out that they were Christians who worshiped the living God, and yes, they were in prison, but they had a hope greater than that. And it was that smile on their face that planted the seed that led to the salvation of Pastor David.

We all have little stories like that where it was something, maybe it was a wife, maybe it was a brother, maybe it was a pastor, maybe it was a preacher, maybe it was just the kindness of a stranger, that that was a seed that was planted in your heart that caused you to to finally recognize who Jesus was to finally give your life to Jesus. Maybe it was, I don't know, we all have a story. We all have a testimony. Maybe it was a friend on the playground, under the slide, who told you about Jesus, and you eventually gave your life to him. Whatever it is, we all have little seeds in our lives that the Lord uses to grow us into the image of him. Now with that, I also want you to think about your spiritual growth. Growth. Your spiritual growth starts off as a seed, yeah, I believe in Jesus. But then as you grow over time, as you you study the Scriptures, as you come to church in your worship, and as you develop your relationship with other believers, those little things, those little seeds start to grow in our hearts and in our minds, and we start to get a bigger understanding of who he is. Like I want to encourage you guys who are new believers, that you will not know everything, but you can continue to grow in your knowledge of the Lord. There are some of us in here who have been Christians. I've been I've been a believer for the 25 years. I guess I was about 1516, or so, when I be late, believed, and there was other people in here who have been believers for 40 and 50 years, and their growth in Christ still continues. But don't get discouraged when you see somebody who's been a Christian for 40 years, and you compare yourself to them because their seeds already had time to grow. Yours hasn't right? So just know that it's little by little, step by step, that that seed grows within you. Then the big question is this, how can you plant a seed in somebody else's life? How can you be one who just through the kindness that you display, through the love that you give, through the prayers that you pray. How can you be that in somebody else's life? We don't have to go, you know, and and knock on their doors every day of the week, but how can we just sow that seed of trust in Jesus? Us. Can it begin with a smile? Can it begin with a prayer? Can it begin with some kindness, whatever it is, use that to show people the goodness of the Lord. It doesn't have to go off with a bang. It doesn't have to be big. It doesn't have to be grandiose. It could just be faithful obedience. It can be just love and grace towards somebody. So as we think about the life that God has given us, know that we should be focused on the kingdom of God. We should have a kingdom mindset, knowing that everything that we say, everything that we do, everything that we think, every place we go is an opportunity for us to demonstrate the goodness of God that it doesn't have. We don't have to change the world. We can simply be faithful right in front of us, with our family, with our friends, with our neighbors. We can have compassion on them, like Jesus had compassion on that woman. We can have compassion on them like Jim Elliot had compassion on a tribe he had never met. We can sow that seed so that people can know that we truly believe what we say and not we just don't say it, that we actually believe it, that we believe that Jesus can change hearts, that he can change lives. That's what I invite you to today, is to just give your life to Jesus, and just know that he will take care of the rest, pursue Him, love Him, follow Him. Be obedient to him, and he'll and he'll wrap his loving arms around you, and he'll lead you in the path of righteousness. Go and be bold telling people about the good news of Jesus. Let's pray Father God. Thank you so much for this morning. Thank you for this opportunity we have to just i.