According To Luke: From Bloated To Blessed!

According To Luke: From Bloated To Blessed! 

Opening Illustration:

Last week we saw a different view of Jesus. Growing up, we are given an image of Jesus that is not at all accurate. The world often frames Jesus as boring. Milk toast. Weak. A push over. Yet, that is not a Biblical portrayal of the Lord. Jesus was bold. He spoke truth to power and stood obediently against evil and wickedness. 

Jesus was a man of compassion. He was also a man of confrontation. Numerous times throughout Scripture Jesus has confrontations with all sorts of people. Jesus confronted religious leaders. He stood toe to toe with Pharisees. He had confrontations with Roman soldiers, Samaritan sinners, flipped tables on worshippers, had exchanges with tax collectors, and even stood against His own followers. Jesus was not alone in dealing with conflict. Paul seemed to have daily conflicts. Even Peter had run ins with the Pharisees. 

Sadly, confrontation is a part of life. It is inevitable. Its going to happen. There are times when we can mitigate conflict and there are other times when conflict can be positive, useful, and a tool for personal growth. 

Illustration:

Have any of you been confronted with a “good news, bad news” situation lately? I heard about a man who got a call from his doctor. The doctor said, “Your test results are in, and I’ve got good news and bad news for you.”

The man said, “Okay --- give me the good news first.”

The doctor said. “The good news is: your test results indicate you have 3 days to live.”

“That’s the good news?” the guy exclaimed. “For heaven’s sake, what’s the bad news?”

Well,” said the doctor, “The bad news is: I forgot to call you yesterday.”

Point:

That’s some call! That’s some confrontation! You know, every time we see Jesus being obedient to His call to go the Father’s way, there seemingly is a confrontation. He has a confrontation with Satan, religious people, and His very own followers. The same holds true today by the way. Like Paul on the road to Damascus, when we encounter Jesus we are left changed, transformed, and new. Remember today that Jesus’ call always comes with confrontation. 

Jesus’ Call Always Comes With Confrontation!

Background and Context:

For the past few chapters, Jesus has been dealing mainly with random followers and the Pharisees. Even though He has been invited to the home of a Pharisee, Jesus takes this moment to instruct His disciples. He is teaching them a lesson. What is more important, policies or people? What does God care more for, laws or love? What is at the heart of God, sacrifice or obedience? Jesus uses the ailment and illness of an unfortunate man to illustrate the point that God is more concerned with the person than the procedures. Yes, Jesus technically breaks the Sabbath law but He keeps the more important law of loving your neighbor as yourself. Surly this example left a mark on the lives on the disciples but it also irritated the Pharisees. So, let’s read from Luke 14:1-6 this morning together. 

Scripture 

Luke 14:1-6 ESV

One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. 2 And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. 3 And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” 4 But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. 5 And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” 6 And they could not reply to these things.

4 Lesson’s From Jesus’ Leadership

I. Jesus’ Invitation vs. 1

Luke 14:1 ESV

One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully.

Point:

Chances are Jesus had been invited to a local synagogue to speak, teach and preach. This would have been common in His day. The Pharisee tasked to look over the synagogue probably invited Jesus to come and have lunch or dinner at His house. It was here that the teacher of the law could observe Jesus. The way that Luke records this story, there is an inference that the sick man that we are about to be introduced too was a plant. He was a carefully picked person placed in Jesus’ path. This was a trap. They knew that Jesus had a bleeding heart for folks like this. He would often heal these sorts of people. He was even known to break the Sabbath laws to do the work of healing. If Jesus did not keep the Sabbath, He would be discredited as a Rabbi. If He kept the Sabbath law, He would lose the popularity of the people. Jesus would come off as harsh and uncaring. There was no way that Jesus could win this situation. 

Point:

The Greek word being used for “watch carefully” is paratēreō and is pronounced pä-rä-tā-re’-ō. When Scripture tells us that they were watching Jesus closely, it does not mean that they were watching Him with awe and reverence. Many of us tuned into the Super Bowl this past Sunday. There was on player that I was watching and his name is Tyreek Hill. Hill is a wide receiver for the Kansas City Chiefs. I was absolutely amazed with his speed, his ability to catch, and score. I was amazed. Imagine the opposite from the Pharisees. Instead of watching Him with amazement, they paratareo. It means that they watched with with a side eye. They watched him with a doubtful attitude and a questioning heart. This was no friendly lunch date. They were hoping to make this Jesus’ last supper. 

Point:

This Pharisee invited Jesus so that He could be watched. They invited Jesus so that He could be scrutinized. They invited Jesus to dine so that a weakness could be discovered. They invited Jesus to come home so that they could figure Him out, discover His motives, and so that they could box Him. 

Point:

There was no humility in this invitation. There was no desire to learn from Christ. There was just a desire use Jesus. Perhaps they would successfully trap Jesus and thus raise their status among their peers. If this Pharisee could fool Jesus, his contemporaries would count him as a hero. He would earn the respect of the people and the elders. Embarrassing Jesus could serve as a launching pad for a more powerful career. 

Point:

The one thing that I love about Jesus is that He will go anywhere He is invited to go. Friend or enemy, does not matter to Jesus, He’s coming. Love Him or hate him, if you invite Him, He is on His way. If you are coming to Jesus as a broken sinner or a shameless skeptic, if you invite Him, Jesus will respond. 

Trust me, Jesus can handle our questions. He has stood the test of time and faced the smartest of the smart. He has proven Himself to be wiser than the wise. I love that Jesus is confident as these humans lay such a weak trap for Him. Friends, we often remember Jesus as the lamb of God but He is also a lion not to be trifled with. 

Quote:

I love what Charles Spurgeon says about God’s Word, our Jesus…

“The Word of God is like a lion. You don’t have to defend a lion. All you have to do is let the lion loose, and the lion will defend itself.”

Remember, no matter what your attitude is towards Jesus, if you invite Him, He will come. 

Matthew 9:10-12 ESV

10 And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

II. Jesus’ Introduction vs. 2

Luke 14:2 ESV

2 And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy.

Point:

After accepting the invitation, Jesus is immediately introduced to a man suffering from dropsy. Most people don’t know this disease but it is commonly referred to today as edema or congestive heart failure. Not to be to graphic, but this man was dealing with fluid retention in his body. 

If you were to read this same passage in the New Living Translation, it would read like this, “There was a man there whose arms and legs were swollen.” This man had never received proper treatment for his illness and his body was beyond repair. His hands, feet, neck and legs would have been painfully swollen. His extremities would have been hot to the touch, and visibly red. He would not have been able to walk. He would have struggled to breath. He was dying. Chances are this man was elderly and his family was just trying to make him comfortable. 

This man was a lost cause. There was no saving him. No making him better. The Pharisees were hoping that Jesus would finally meet a case that was beyond His ability. 

Point:

Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt that you or someone that know is a lost cause. There is no saving you. You are to far gone. There is no way to make you better, to heal your heart, to bandage your brokenness. You might not say it out loud but you think that you are beyond Jesus’ love and liberation. To make matter worse, you are surrounded by people that question the cure. 

Imagine for just a moment you are this man. You know that you are dying slowly and painfully. As I read this story, this man never gives a statement of faith. He is not told to go wash himself, pray, attend church, or give to the poor. We just know that this man was hanging around, a trap hoping to be sprung by the Pharisees. An innocent pawn being used. We have no idea if he had faith in Christ, if his family desired for him to be healed, or if he even requested healing. 

Simply put, Jesus knew what this man needed and gave it to him. Jesus is able to cut through our sickness, our blindness, our infirmities, and our muteness to give us His healing presence. 

Point:

I want you think right now about what you need healing from. Perhaps you have been holding on to it for a long time. Could it be something physical? Something mental? An addiction that you want to be set free from? Bring it to Jesus. Maybe you are thinking that you have to accomplish a checklist of to-do’s and stay away from a list of to-don’t’s in order for Christ to heal you. Not true. All that is required for your healing is your presence. A willingness to show up exposed to Jesus. No hoops to jump through. Just Jesus. 

Remember friends, if you are looking for healing, there is only one true place to go. 

Matthew 15:30 NLT

A vast crowd brought to him people who were lame, blind, crippled, those who couldn’t speak, and many others. They laid them before Jesus, and he healed them all.

III. Jesus’ Interrogation vs. 3-5

Luke 14:3-5 ESV

3 And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” 4 But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. 5 And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?”

Point:

Answer for me this question, what do you value the most in life? For some you may value your faith and salvation. For others you might assign value to more worldly things. Jesus essentially asks these Pharisees what they value the most. Do they value the soul of human being more than they value their precious rules, policies and procedures. You see, these men bristled at Jesus’ willingness to work, or heal on the Sabbath. Yet, if they had a family member or a tool of work fall into a well on a Sabbath day, would they not work to save these lives. For the Pharisees, an ox was more treasured than the life of this suffering man. You see the Pharisees valued life, but some lives were more valuable than others. Jesus clearly states that all lives are valuable. All people deserve to be saved, not just your family and friends, but strangers struggling with sickness. 

Point:

Jesus is trying to help these Pharisees see deeper. He is trying to help them go further in their faith and discover God’s heart for others. They have become stuck on the law. For the record, the law was a blessing given by God to man but man turned the blessing into a curse. The law was given so that we could understand what sin is and why we need a Savior. Instead, we took the law and made it God and it became the path to salvation. In doing so, we would not have to get our hands dirty with the problems of people. Just follow this rule and you can ignore the suffering other other human beings. 

Point:

We are still guilty of this today. We still have humans who assign great life to one group over another. If you are an American you have more value than someone from Afghanistan. Our world tells us that some ethnicities are more valuable than others. Unborn life is not seen as treasured or important but something to be snuffed out when inconvenient. Those who celebrate faith and hold to Biblical values are tolerated until those values infringe on my relative truth and shifting morality. Oh friends, this is a dangerous world we live in when we value Christ above all things. This sets us on a collision course with this world. 

Point:

When Jesus demands to know what the values are of these religious leaders, He puts Himself on the path to persecution. The same holds true with us. When we stand for Christ, for Biblical truth, we put ourselves at odds with this world. 

When we fight for the unborn…

When we stand for Biblical marriage…

When we care for all groups, all immigrants, refugees…

When we demand all people be treated with dignity, and justice…

When we leave political parties behind and start filtering our politics through God’s Word…

When we place citizenship in God’s Kingdom above all other allegiances…

When we confess that we value the souls of men over the trinkets of the world…

We set ourselves up for persecution, hatred from the world, and martyrdom. 

So, what do you value?

Matthew 2:12 ESV

“Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

Mark 2:28 ESV

“So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

IV. The Pharisee’s Irritation vs. 6

Luke 14:6 ESV

6 And they could not reply to these things.

Point:

So, after Jesus heals this man and then poses His question concerning value, the Pharisees could not answer. This is not the last time they were left speechless. You might remember the woman caught in adultery. Again, another staged event to trap Jesus. Would He keep the law and have her stoned or would He stone her and lose the goodwill of the people. Jesus famously replied that those who are without sin should cast the first stone. Scripture tells us that the oldest to the youngest dropped their stones and went away without speaking. 

Point:

There is something interesting that happens when our hypocrisy is fully exposed. We we are exposed as hypocrites there is no excuse. There is nothing to say. We simply drop our rocks and go home don’t we?  These Pharisees thought that they had captured Jesus when in reality Jesus had revealed a deep truth about themselves. These men were caught in their selfishness. They were tied to their laws and their lack of compassion was on full display for all to see. They might have thought that they boxed Jesus in, but in reality Jesus was in control. He always is. 

Illustration:

Since mid October I have been doing a lot of running. A lot. I have really gotten to where I enjoy running. I am sure that I look pretty funny doing it. but I still keep going. In December I noticed that my big toe on my right foot started to feel weird. I keep running. Over time it became more and more irritated. Not enough for me to do anything about it mind you, just a minor irritation. Nothing painful. So, I kept going down the same road, the same speed, the same way. Finally, the minor irritant became a major blister. It caused me major pain and prevented me from running. It knocked me out of running altogether. I had two options. I could either keep going my own way or I could go and get me some new shoes. New shoes that did not cause me the pain and trouble that my old shoes caused. So I did. I changed course. I went a different route. I changed. I changed my mind and I changed my shoes. Now I am running pain free. I am running farther. It all started with an irritation. 

Point:

I am sure that to these Pharisees Jesus was irritating. Yet, the first step to change is irritation. Jesus came to interrupt our lives. He came to change our direction. He came so that we would not travel that path. He wants us to go a new way. 

Has Jesus irritated your life? Is He the rock in your shoe? If so, stop. Take an assessment of your life and listen to His words. Stop and pray. Stop and read His Word. He wants to rearchitect your values and place you on a path where God will say, well done my good and faithful servant.  

Matthew 12:36 NASB

"But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.

Turn Jesus’ Words Into Our Witness!