Luke 14:1-6

Today, Pastor Jack shares with us that, at the dinner, there was a certain man with a terrible disease, and Jesus, moved with compassion, healed Him, and let Him go. The man was free now to worship God, but the Pharisees were angry that He healed a man on the Sabbath. But, Jesus knew their thoughts, and gave them an answer they could not argue against.

Luke chapter 14, let me just read those verses.
You can follow along with me.
Now it happened as he, Jesus went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath that they watched him closely.
And behold, there was a certain man before him who had dropsy and Jesus answering, spoke to the lawyers in Pharisees saying, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?
But they kept silent and he took him, that is the man and healed him and let him go.
Then he answered, Jesus answered and said to them, which of you having a donkey or an ox that it has fallen into a pit will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day and they could not answer him regarding these things.
I’d love to have been there. I wish Spielberg would have been there.
So we could have captured that on a video. This is a great setting.
Number one church has the Pharisees and lawyers of the scripture been kind to Jesus thus far.
No, they invite him to a dinner. Would you go? These guys want to kill you?
Remember they’ve been plotting to kill you.
They’ve been setting or trying to set Jesus up for years to catch him in some sort of violation or contradiction.
So they invite him to dinner. I don’t think I would have gone.
I would have made sure I’m busy that night but not Jesus.
He goes and this is a gathering by invitation.
The Pharisees are there, the lawyers are there.
These are not lawyers like you and I think of lawyers.
These are, these are, um men who have studied the word of God, the Bible.
They know all the traditions of Israel. They know all the rabbis teachings.
Uh and they are in a sense used to enforce those things.
Uh They would go about looking for violators, something that they completely invented on their own.
It was not biblical. They, they would be the Jewish version of Muslim or Islam’s Taliban just snooping around looking for stuff.
And now if you’re a Taliban person, if you find somebody, you beat them up or cut their heads off, they wouldn’t go that far.
But they might make you feel like you ought to have your head cut off or be shot, you know.
And so all this dynamics going on and Jesus is invited to dinner, I don’t know how you can eat and sit in a, in a thing like that.
But here’s the great thing about Jesus. He didn’t say no.
In fact, every invitation he go, he responds to he goes to, I think that’s awesome.
Uh Because uh Jesus knew who he was, he knew who his father was.
He knew that the scripture had to say Jesus obviously was fearless because he knew what his mission was.
And when you’re fearless of people and have your awe or reverence toward God, then you can go to a dinner like this, you’re safe, right?
Because you’re living for God. I think that’s how every believer ought to be.
By the way, as confident as walk with the Lord like we looked at last time together so that you can take a stand and not be afraid, but rather than the Sabbath being the issue.
Because if you look at it on the, on the surface, it’s all about the Sabbath.
They’re gonna see if Jesus will violate the Sabbath. He comes to dinner, they invited him on the Sabbath.
Uh Strategically look in your Bible, right? Opposite Jesus.
There’s a handicapped man there, there’s a man battling the disease.
Dropsy is a disease that uh mainly affects you from the uh waste up, you retain water, you become bloated, you retain unusual amounts of water to the point where most those who suffered dropsy leaned over heavily just from sheer water weight, severe enlargement of the face and of the neck horrible.
And by the way, it led to renal failure. That is the failure of your kidneys to process your fluids.
It was a terrible death. It’s clear that the Pharisees drummed up and found a guy and put him opposite because this is a dinner of the elites now make no mistake about it.
After hours when the Pharisees would punch out of the temple work, they would go home and they lived very high on the hog.
We would say they were, their pay was extreme. They were very wealthy people.
Uh, they pillaged the, the temple uh treasury.
They had really gotten a life pretty padded for themselves.
But in the midst of all this, there’s a guy who normally would have no business being there.
He’s a handicapped guy. They, they said I just opposite Jesus, why they knew Jesus would do something about that.
I love that about Jesus. You know, people think about this, whoever Jesus was.
If he saw somebody in need, he would go take care of it, he’d go help them.
And he said, Jack, I would love to do that.
But I’m afraid if I pray for somebody, they, they won’t be healed. I understand that feeling.
I feel that same way. Um But I can’t tell you over, over the years, some people have been healed.
Most have not when I’ve prayed for them. Some have. But you know what, how about this?
How about just praying for them anyway?
Just pray for them because I think when God brings somebody in need and we even see somebody passing by that’s in trouble.
Uh That God would have us to pray for them. And, and you say, well, I’ll pray for them privately.
Well, I understand that too. But maybe I ought to just go up and say, listen, I see that you’re struggling.
Can I pray for you, man? People need to hear that again. What a great encouragement that is.
And they might even want to know about your God if you make such an offer to them.
But Jesus, they know he’s gonna be moved with compassion to touch this guy and you saw it, you read with me a moment ago where Jesus saw this man and set him free, healed him and set him free.
And it’s gonna be expensive for Jesus.
They’re all gonna get bent out of shape even though they don’t say anything, they’re seething underneath Jesus comes back with a bit of logic that they cannot fight against.
He says to them. He says, which one of you is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?
And which one of you having a donkey or an ox?
If it falls into a pit or a hole, will you not get that donkey or ox out of the hole on the Sabbath?
The answer to that is absolutely yes.
The rabbis of their day even wrote in their commentaries that the saving of life is more precious than the law of God.
Because what trumps the law of God is the saving, the rescuing of life.
Because God esteems life above all rules. And I think we all agree with that.
If you don’t, you’re really messed up that somebody would be sacrificed over a rule. You. Yeah. That’s right.
That’s crazy. Nobody would ever sacrifice somebody over a rule.
But wait a minute, this whole thing is a set up and these Pharisees go about to impose not only the law of God in a wrong way, but the traditions of men most often in the mind of a legalist, the traditions of their fathers or of their church or of their movement, Trump the very word of God.
It’s weird. Well, you know, this is what we do because we’ve always done it well.
Who made it up in the first place?
Oh, way back when and the ninth generation of so and so, but what does the Bible say about it?
Do you remember when David was hungry with his men?
And they went into the temple where the show bread was dedicated to God and David ate of it and he was strengthened and God commended David on it.
These Pharisees would have beat David up.
Well, no, nobody would have beaten David up about it, but they would have tried to, you don’t mess with David.
But what about in the, in the New Testament sense?
Jesus remember Jesus is walking with the disciples across the field on the Sabbath day and the disciples were hungry, not this.
They’re in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ himself walking with him and they sense the freedom to take wheat and to begin to break it up in their hands and to consume it.
And then all of a sudden out of nowhere, the Pharisees pop up.
Now, I can see, I can see the disciples walking along through a field of grain and then about 20 yards behind you, you see the grass falling down and you wonder what is that like a torpedo following us?
No, it’s the Pharisees. They would pop up and they would say your disciples are violating the word of God.
Jesus cites the very mention of David that I gave you a moment ago, clearly teaching that the preservation of life is greater than the keeping of the law is the law holy.
Yes. Did God give the law? Yes. Is it precious to him? Yes. Only one thing greater.
And that’s life. The God of the Bible.
Unlike the gods of pagans around the world today, the God of the Bible is a God for life.
He wants you to live for him. He’s good.
So as we look to this, we are going to extract out of this, the opportunity to teach on worship.
Why? Because you see there in the scripture, in fact, let me just kind of build this up as an introduction to where we’re going notice this in verse one, it says now it happened, that means it was staged.
This was a setup. It goes on in verse one, it says that it was on the Sabbath Day and they watched him closely, see the word closely there.
That is those that invited Jesus were watching him like a hawk.
They’re sipping tea and eating their Twinkies or whatever they’re doing there and, and as they’re doing this, that’s, that’s not their thing.
They’re watching him like a hawk waiting for him to mess up in their mind, waiting for him to have compassion on this man who’s in need.
It also says in verse two, that behold, there was a certain man before him that is the guy wasn’t sat down at the other end of the table.
Where do you think they sat him just opposite Jesus? What a set up?
And it’s a certain man, the word certain can go in the negative or positive.
Number one positive is this that God knew what Jesus was gonna do to this poor man.
Of course, God knew. But the second thing is that there was an intended reason for this man to be there.
That was abnormal. This is a special moment that is being staged.
And so as we consider these things, as we look into this being free to worship, this is what we base it upon.
It says in verse four, that while they kept silent, Jesus took him, healed him.
And what are those words there? Let him go. I love that. Will you keep this in your mind.
Here’s this man in gross need. Jesus touches him.
And I would have loved to have captured just the silent expression or eye dialogue that might have been going on across the table from Jesus to this man.
Can you imagine why all of those guys are just mucking it up and yucking it up with all of their pharisee talks?
Oh How goes this study? You’ll know rabbi.
So and so says, and all they talk and Jesus, I wonder what Jesus just looks right straight across to them and just maybe, you know, just watch this.
So Jesus out of just, hey, what do you guys think? I’m a Sabbath.
You think it’s right to heal in the Sabbath?
But you, uh, would you go rescue your donkey if it fell in the hole on the Sabbath Day?
Why did he bring that up? Because that’s what they did.
Basically, he’s saying, isn’t that human life more superior than animal life?
And you Estee animal life very highly. And you should. Yeah. So what about a human?
Wow. No wonder why they said not a word to him.
You’re listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs.
You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series. Just go to Jack Hibbs dot com.
That’s Jack Hibbs dot com. And for now let’s get back to our teaching once again, here’s pastor Jack.
And so this is what we want to look at today and next week together about being worshipers of the Lord.
And maybe after this week’s message, you’ll have no problem getting a parking space next week.
Um, because apparently first service was a little convicted.
And so maybe, uh, maybe it’s the same for all of us today. Free to worship.
Point number one, we’ll look at this. What worship is not.
Can you jot this down when we talk about worship?
Do we even know what worship is anymore in our modern age and what it’s not?
I’m afraid that we have become too accustomed to what worship is not that when we see true worship, we begin to ask and wonder what is that?
Because we’ve been accustomed by the culture of our age.
If you know the traditional answer to the questions or the thought about worship, I wonder if that’s right.
What we need to do is have a biblical understanding of what worship is.
Number one, what worship is not, is this worship is not dependent upon feelings. I said it.
Can you write it down? Worship is not dependent upon feelings? I’m not stoic.
I mean, that’s kind of obvious, I’m not a stoic. I have feelings, you have feelings.
But listen, we’re not to be led by our feelings, our feelings are not to dictate our worship.
In fact, our worship should dictate our feelings.
And this is a very, very uh disciplined way of thinking and it’s very dangerous for you.
And I to start thinking that um you know, um I didn’t like that third song.
The fourth song was good. First one I could take it or leave it.
The last song that was my song. I got news for you. None of those were your songs.
Now, one of them were for you. Did you know that worship was for him?
It’s, it’s our expression towards him. It’s our giving to him.
Biblically, we are to worship in gathering, we are to worship, in giving.
We are to be worship in singing and we are to be worshiping in the word.
That’s what we’re doing here. It’s all about Him.
But when we begin to think, uh I don’t know, what do you think?
I didn’t like that song. We’ve lost our concept of worship.
We begin to judge and critique the songs that, that’s funny. That’s funny words.
I don’t know if I like that one. We’re supposed to ask God, did you like that one?
You want me to do that? Oh And again, God, it’s not our songs. Isn’t that funny?
We have slipped into that thinking about being dependent white because oh, this song really makes me feel good.
Again, I’m not saying be detached from your feelings, but we put the cart before the horse.
And that’s a tough way to live because what happens is, is the emotional side that is called, worship begins to drive the existence of the church and if we can get the volume loud enough and the performance big enough, it might just titillate you enough to get you to.
All right. All right. And that’s not worship. There’s a step toward worship.
Israel would say, let’s go to the house of the Lord. We’ll see more of this next week.
But they would say let’s go to the house of God. It all began with, let’s go.
Somebody might say, I don’t wanna go and a good faithful mom or dad would say, get on the donkey, we’re going and you go now watch this.
How many times in life. When is it that you get up? I don’t know about you.
But do you get up now?
It’s easy on a California morning like this to get out of bed and go. Let’s go to church.
That’s awesome. It’s a great day. It’s a beautiful day.
But even if you didn’t feel like that, did you know you’re supposed to come and worship anyway.
It’s a, it’s a way of life. It’s a practice of life.
But how many times because we do step out irregardless of our feelings. I’m going to go worship the Lord.
I was glad, said the psalmist when they said, let us go up to the house of God and as you go up, there’s a change of attitude.
Ok, let’s get going. Then you’re driving, then you’re pulling in the parking lot, then you’re coming into the building, then you come on on your and then the music and there’s an escalation.
It’s a good thing. You come along. Your emotions may or may not be engaged.
That’s not the issue you’re acting upon obedience to go worship.
And all of a sudden, the whole person of who you are begins to kick in.
It’s very important to understand that I don’t want to go to church.
But then, how many times have you come? And then you say, I’m glad I came.
I’m glad that I made that commitment.
Um The older I get, the more I can say, I don’t feel like going to church.
Lisa will say, you gotta go, you’re preaching today, you gotta go.
Um But there’s times my body doesn’t want to go, but I’m glad I came.
I’m glad I get up and go.
And so we need to remember that if we allow our feelings to be uh running our determination, our thought to worship, we’re going to be very, very sideways and messed up on that.
In second chronicles, listen to this second chronicles 5 13. The Old Testament.
It says for indeed, it came to pass when the trumpeters and the singers were as one. Wow.
And they came together to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord.
And when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and the symbols and all the instruments you hear this crescendoing happening here they said God is good for his mercy endures forever.
That the house, the house of the Lord was filled with a cloud of glory when that happened. Wow.
Now, don’t tell me that was not emotional, but it all began in obedience. The emotions are subservient.
They’re slave to your determined act, to worship God. But we live in a dangerous culture.
You and I do. Everything’s about our feelings.
Don’t tell me it’s not, we get the phone calls every week, sometimes too many times in one day.
Yeah, I’m just calling the church. You wanna touch somebody because I’m leaving my wife today. That’s the wrong voice.
Actually, that’s the girl’s voice. He was, he was an interesting guy. Anyway.
Um, why, why are you leaving your wife? Uh, I’m just not happy.
You’re just not happy. What are you calling us for?
Well, just to let you know I’m leaving my wife and I’m not happy.
Well, number one, we don’t care if you’re happy or not.
It’s not about happiness, but we do care about you leaving your wife and if you leave your wife based upon being unhappy, your whole life is being run by emotions.
Can you imagine? That’s 100