Good Morning my beloved,
We welcome you to worship today in the name of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for joining us today, whether it's your first time or you are a faithful member of our family in Christ, your presence is acknowledged and truly appreciated. If you have recently received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, whether through this ministry or some other, please contact us so that we can include you in our prayers. If you haven't recently received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, won't you consider crying out to Him today, while there's still time? We have seen a tremendous increase in areas previously believed to be impossible, evidence of just how critically important your prayers are in shining the Light of God's love into some of the most dangerous places in the world to be a Christian. And, still, these people are desperately craving the True Gospel. Thank you for helping to make this amazing breakthrough possible to reach those in need with the Good News and eternal life.
Apart from faith in Christ—apart from God's saving work in a sinner's life—all of mankind remains dead in his trespasses and sins. Only through God's mercy and love can those who are spiritually dead be made alive with Christ. And, only by God's grace, does He continue to redeem vile sinners, drawing them to Himself. I could find no better passage to deal with the theme of this present age, Jesus didn't just long to protect and redeem Israel, He longs all who will listen and believe His messengers should it stir their hearts. It's amazing how many there are who given the opportunity to hear the Truth about sin and it's temporal as well as eternal consequences. Many believe that God is too kind, and too gracious, and too good to cast people into an eternal hell. Others, are unconcerned in listening about judgment, because they tragically believe they are too good, they're going to make it to Heaven, so just leave them alone. There is a rising trend in Christianity, called "universalism," that thinks that we don’t need to evangelize people who have never heard the message of salvation, since everybody is going to end up in Heaven, reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, regardless of their faith, knowledge, or actions in this life. All we simply need to do is announce that since Christ died for the sins of all, they're already saved. They won't be held responsible for what they don’t know. People are basically good, and Hell is intended to purify rather than punish. Nothing could be further from the Truth. I've found nothing in all my years of studying Scripture that indicates in anyway, people are free to live as they want because eternal Hell is really only temporary or just does not exist. This is obviously not the view of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who said If your hands causes you to stumble, cut it off, its better for you to enter eternal life crippled, than, having your two hands, to go be cast hell, where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. (Mark 9:43-48) He saw humanity as this massive amount of people about to be cut and judged, and the need for laborers to enter that harvest to warn them. In fact, the Lord spoke more about Hell than anybody else in all of the Bible.
Strong leadership not only determines the local church’s trajectory, I believe it is the most intensive organization on the planet because its mission is spiritual, its work is voluntary, and direction is eternally minded. While an ill-prepared or disengaged pastor will hinder the spiritual growth, because the strength of the church flows from the strength of its under shepherd. No church will ever rise higher than its leadership. Strong leadership fosters vision, unity, discipleship, and growth, while weak and compromised leadership will most often stall even the most resourced congregation. Strong leadership not only determines the local church’s trajectory, it is the most intensive organization on the planet because its mission is spiritual, its work is voluntary, and direction is eternally minded. While an ill-prepared or disengaged pastor will hinder the spiritual growth, because the strength of the church flows from the strength of its under shepherd. I believe that strong, uncompromised leadership is the heartbeat of a strong church and is the key to an effective ministry to mobilize God's people toward God’s purpose. Therefore, the local church is not just a gathering place but a spiritual home base that equips every believer to discover their unique gift for a collective mission. Equipping the saints for every good work whether at work, school, home, or in their community—reaching people, building community, and advancing God’s kingdom, especially in times of uncertainty. Truly effective leaders lead not from power, but from servants heart of humility, grounded in prayer, with the authority of Scripture, and the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, modeling Christ-like character and creating environments where every person can thrive, ensuring that the church remains focused after it's current leaders move on or have gone home to be with the Lord.
Let's pray
Heavenly Father,
Father, we are so grateful for Your Word. If there are any who are in our midst who do not yet know Christ as their Lord and Savior, we humbly ask that You would work in their hearts as only You can so that today might be that glorious day of their redemption, that we might rejoice with all of Heaven, that one more sinner has come to repentance. Lord, we ask that You would fill our hearts with gratitude and joy over this most precious gift of salvation, in the midst of trials, that we might continue to give You the praise that You deserve. For if it were not for the work of Your Holy Spirit, we would stand with those who have rejected Christ. Father, we give You all the praise in our Savior's name because today, we stand with those who have believed throughout the ages. This we ask and pray in Christ's name for Your glory!
Amen.
Today's Message: When A Miracle Makes You Mad
Open your Bibles with me to the Gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 14. Luke chapter 14, verses one through six. Much material here will probably already be familiar to most of you but hopefully you will see it in a new way. Jesus has been moving from village to village and town to town as He heads toward Jerusalem, for the final Passover and ultimately headed toward the cross, which is only a few months away at this point, although He's not been going in a direct line, from the area of Judea. Chapter 14 begins with Jesus going into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees in an unnamed town on the Sabbath to eat bread.
Heavenly Father,
Father, we are so grateful for Your Word. If there are any who are in our midst who do not yet know Christ as their Lord and Savior, we humbly ask that You would work in their hearts as only You can so that today might be that glorious day of their redemption, that we might rejoice with all of Heaven, that one more sinner has come to repentance. Lord, we ask that You would fill our hearts with gratitude and joy over this most precious gift of salvation, in the midst of trials, that we might continue to give You the praise that You deserve. For if it were not for the work of Your Holy Spirit, we would stand with those who have rejected Christ. Father, we give You all the praise in our Savior's name because today, we stand with those who have believed throughout the ages. This we ask and pray in Christ's name for Your glory!
Amen.
Open your Bibles with me to the Gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 14. Luke chapter 14, verses one through six. Much material here will probably already be familiar to most of you but hopefully you will see it in a new way. Jesus has been moving from village to village and town to town as He heads toward Jerusalem, for the final Passover and ultimately headed toward the cross, which is only a few months away at this point, although He's not been going in a direct line, from the area of Judea. Chapter 14 begins with Jesus going into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees in an unnamed town on the Sabbath to eat bread.
"And it happened that when He went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, they were watching Him closely. And behold, in front of Him was a man suffering from dropsy. And Jesus answered and spoke to the scholars of the Law and Pharisees, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?" But they were silent. And He took hold of him, healed him, and sent him away. And He said to them, "Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?" And they could make no reply to this."
The Bible give us warning after warning about people come offering light; but they bring only darkness and death, because they're agents of Satan disguised as angels of light. The churches are literally filled with them. You have to have discernment. If what they're teaching isn't in the Bible, it ain't from God. Know your Bibles friends. I can't stress that enough. People will become like their leaders.
Of course, there also Legalism, the practice of adding human effort as a means of earning or maintaining salvation. Then, there's moralism. which reduces salvation to being a "good person" through behavior, without emphasizing the need for regeneration, repentance, and turning away from sin. And, there's Universalism which we touched on earlier, which suggests all roads lead to Heaven and everyone will be ultimately be saved regardless of faith in Christ, denying the exclusive claims of Christ in John 14:6. We could literally go on and on with the numerous perversions that align with Satan's plan to deceive as many as he can.
Let's look at verse 1, which says "And it happened that when He went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, they were watching Him closely." Luke is again pretty vague, so we don't know exactly where this took place, we don't know exactly who this Pharisee was. We do know that this took place sometime in the last few months before His final entry into Jerusalem.
The Pharisees had already been watching Jesus carefully, likely to scrutinize His actions—especially those regarding Sabbath observance, quite possibly to find grounds for accusation. This sets the stage for the subsequent following events, highlighting the tension between Jesus’ call for restoration, liberation, compassion and love through acts of mercy revealing the true purpose of the Sabbath challenging the rigid legalistic expectations of the Pharisees, who were very fastidious about God's law. The Pharisees were driven by their religious beliefs, they were respected, hailed as the most moral and righteous people in all of Jerusalem, and they were the elite, thought to be the favorite people of God, that is until conflict arose with Jesus, the Son of God on the fundamental differences in interpretation and authority, even accusing them of hypocrisy—for not "practicing what they preach," in spite of their distorted self-perception. The Pharisees loved to have dinners, they did it all the time, it was a part of the ancient culture at that time in the Middle East. Dinners were a time of hospitality and fellowship and for the Pharisees, the ultra religious elite, it was of course a time to reaffirm themselves in the eyes of the people. Apparently, Jesus was invited Him to the house of the Pharisee to "eat bread" because obviously you weren't allowed to prepare anything to eat, so the bread would have been prepared the day before. Jesus came to introduce us to God. He was not trying to start a Jesus movement, He spoke only those things which were spoken to Him by His Father. And I really believe that the church today desperately needs is to get its perspective right on God.
Verse 2, "And behold, in front of Him was a man suffering from dropsy." Dropsy itself is not a disease, but a symptom of an underlying disease such as heart failure, kidney disease, liver problems, other organ failure or nutritional issues. It is an old medical term for edema, fluid buildup in the feet, legs and lungs, which if left untreated can be fatal, especially if caused by heart failure. So Luke writes "And behold," which, if you will remember is a powerful word used to draw immediate, intentional attention to something of profound importance. In today's vernacular it would be like "Look, hurry, you don’t want to miss this." Then, Luke says "in front of Him was a man suffering from dropsy." It's clear this man was there for a purpose, this was obviously a set up. They already know that Jesus has compassion for the sick and afflicted, they already knew He was capable of healing this man, they wanted Him to break their Sabbath law by healing this man. This really reflected their hypocrisy, they were supposed to try to prevent people from breaking the law rather than encouraging them. Its clear they don't understand God. I believe that Christianity today has drifted away from really understanding God. We have what we know as Jesus movements, disguised as "revivals," which end up in emotional sensationalism by prioritizing our subjective feelings over Scriptures objective Truth. When our "feeling close to God" becomes the primary measure of spiritual reality, we risks reducing faith to personal experience rather than grounded doctrine. Scripture consistently warns that our feelings are unstable and deceitful when used as the foundation for Truth. The human heart is self-deceptive, prone to idolatry. Our Lord and Savior, warned that in the end times, deceptive figures would appear in His name presenting a false Christ—one convincing enough to deceive even the elect if possible. Discernment and testing the spirit is so important. By the way, the chosen people of God may be deceived temporarily, but cannot be permanently deceived, as God’s sovereignty ensures our preservation.
Jonathan Edwards warned against mistaking emotional displays for true conversion. In Religious Affections, he argued that genuine faith produces lamb-like humility and love, not just tears or euphoric feelings that fade along with the commitment to Christ. Genuine faith is anchored in Scripture, not "feelings" produced by music intended to induce an emotional experience to "feel closer to God," by many of the contemporary artists today, who by the way are profiting handsomely for the efforts, and congratulating one another with awards much like secular artists.
Let's move on to verse 3, "And Jesus answered and spoke to the scholars of the Law and Pharisees, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?" Did you happen to notice that Jesus wasn't verbally asked anything? Jesus, knowing their thoughts perceives the hostile scrutiny and takes control of the narrative, turning the tables on those who sought to trap Him by responding not with action as anticipated, but with a direct "yes" or "no" question: "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?" If they say yes, then, they must accept His healing. If they say no, they will reveal their hypocrisy, appearing to be cruel and unmerciful in front of the people. He already knew their answer; It is not legal, dropsy is not immediately terminal; you must wait until the Sabbath is over.
Verse 4, "But they were silent. And He took hold of him, healed him, and sent him away." Their silence is significant even though Luke doesn't tell us why they didn't answer, their refusal to answer exposes hardened hearts rather than thoughtful restraint. I suspect their silence was two-fold, they didn't want to say anything that might make them look bad in front of the people while at the same time they wanted Jesus to heal the man otherwise they would have missed their moment to trap Him. Jesus’ question wasn’t really about legality, it was to challenge their interpretation about the purpose of the Sabbath, positioning Himself as One Who interprets the Law authoritatively. "And He took hold of him, healed him, and sent him away." I'd like you to notice the phrase "And He took hold" it's the Greek word "epilambanomai" its a very strong verb meaning to aggressively seize, the primary preposition "epi" intensifies the meaning of the word "lambanó" which means to take hold of with the hand. It's the same word used in Acts 16:19-24, when they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. He healed him defiantly, instantly, completely "and sent him away." It's as if He's saying we all know why he was here, the real purpose for which he came has been fulfilled. In this section of Luke, most of Jesus' time is spent preaching and teaching, so miracles were kind of rare.
Verse 5, "And He said to them, "Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?" Then, Jesus challenges the Pharisees' strict Sabbath rules by asking a rhetorical question, knowing they would readily rescue animals or children in danger—even on the Sabbath, because animals and people fell into open wells and pits all the time, which were common in the area. Read Exodus 21:33-34.This bunch of hypocrites were already demonstrating that acts of mercy, showing that compassion and saving life take precedence over rigid religious rules, when it benefitted them. The implication is clear: if they show mercy to animals or a child on the Sabbath, how much more should they accept mercy being shown to a suffering man? So, He again unmasks their hypocrisy, underscoring His teaching in Mark 2:27, "the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath."
That brings us to verse 6, "And they could make no reply to this." They had nothing to say, there was nothing they could say, they were left speechless. This didn't go the way they planned, they were supposed to humiliate Jesus, but instead, He turned the tables on them and they just sat there speechless, with nothing to say, because their rigid legalism could not withstand the clarity of Jesus’ reasoning, that prioritizing mercy and compassion was at the very heart of God’s Law over tradition. The irony is complete: those that claimed to represent God, meant to uphold His law were left speechless before the One Who actually embodies it, God incarnate.
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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