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Take your Bible and turn again
to the sixth chapter of Luke. The depraved mind and the darkened
heart that Paul talks about in Romans 1 are very disturbing. The capacity of what they have
to conclude And then to act upon those conclusions is exceedingly
disturbing. History and literature both show
us how twisted and cruel such a mind and such a heart can be,
and the way that they can Identify evil as good and good as evil
and turn those things and twist those things. Shows up again
and again. In literature, it shows up in
Pilgrim's Progress. It shows up as Christian is looking
to go through the narrow gate and he's being urged, just jump
the fence. It's easier to go that way. It's
less painful to go that way. Surely, this is good. History, it shows up as Nazis
calling genocide purification. Communists calling mass murder
reform and progress. Darkened hearts call good evil
and evil good. They're blind to what truly beautiful
and truly good, truly right. Braved minds, darkened hearts.
They're here in the text this morning in Luke 6. And the very opposite is that
in the text this morning in Luke chapter 6. You have one side
and you have the other side presented before you. Read with me there
in Luke chapter 6 verse 6. On another Sabbath, he entered
the synagogue and was teaching. And there was a man there whose
right hand was withered. The scribes and the Pharisees
were watching him closely to see if he healed on the Sabbath
so that they might find reason to accuse him. But he knew what
they were thinking. And he said to the man with the
withered hand, get up and come forward. And he got up and came
forward. Jesus said to them, I ask you,
is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save
a life or to destroy it? After looking around at them
all, he said to him, stretch out your hand. And he did so,
and his hand was restored. But they themselves were filled
with rage and discussed together what they might do to Jesus. Luke is giving us a display of
the authority of Jesus over the Sabbath. Last week, we heard
him proclaim his authority over the Sabbath. This week, you're
seeing it. This is a display that darkened hearts and depraved
minds are unable to comprehend, determining what is evil is good
and what is good is evil. But this is a display that believers
look to and are able to behold the glory of Christ, the glory
of Christ here in His authority, an authority that's expressing
itself not in cruelty. or uncompassion, but in mercy. Mercy that has as its essence
what you find in the very nature of God. Mercy here that's taking
precedence over tradition and ceremony and ritual that refused
to relieve suffering. You find here a compassion and
mercy that is beautiful to Christ's people because they're able to
see it. A compassion and mercy that hopefully is manifested
in us as believers who are being conformed to His image. A compassion
and mercy that hopefully all of us are proclaiming to a world
of darkened hearts and depraved minds. This is a text that's
teaching us Jesus has authority over the Sabbath. And that has
a consequence to us. It ought to result in us rejoicing. It ought to result in us being
able to see what's good and true and beautiful. It ought to result
in us declaring to those darkened hearts and depraved minds. what
is good and what is right. We can see as believers what
is evil and determine that it is evil and what is good and
determine that it is good. And we find this evil here in
the first scene, verses 6 through 7. We'll call this the malice
of the merciless, the malice of the merciless. A bit of context. Going back to verses 1 through
5, we need to be thinking about what took place in verses 1 through
5 because it relates to what's taking place here in verse 6.
In verses 1 through 5, you'll remember the Pharisees have just
confronted Jesus and His disciples because they were plucking heads
of grain, they were rubbing them together in their hands, and
they were eating those heads of grain. That brought to the
forefront what the Sabbath had become. to the Jewish people
in this day. It had become a day in which
no work dominated. No work restricted everything. It led to all of these prohibitions
that had morphed this day that was meant to be a day of rest
into a day of rule-keeping, a day in which these self-appointed
guardians of the Sabbath, the Pharisees here, had placed such
a great importance on everything that people might do that they
robbed people of resting in all that God had done and God had
accomplished. In verses 3 through 5 there of
chapter 6, you'll remember Jesus responded in two ways. He first
responds by reminding them of what David did in 1 Samuel 21,
where the needs of David and his men who were starving and
hungry took precedence over the ceremonial law on the Sabbath.
That provided a corrective to the Pharisees, teaching them
from Scripture that God's design is for compassion and for mercy
to supersede His desire for ritual and for ceremony. And it demonstrated
the very thing that Jesus is going to teach here in this account,
that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.
Second, his response comes there in the last verse where he announces
to the Pharisees who it is that actually possesses authority
over the Sabbath. Is it those who have determined
that there are all these rules to be put in place and to make
the Sabbath so restrictive? Who Jesus tells us has authority
is found there in verse 5. The Son of Man is Lord of the
Sabbath. He is announcing there in that
moment to the Sabbath police that He possesses all power and
privilege, all the rights of this divine institution that's
rooted in Genesis 2 and Exodus 20, meaning that it is going
to be Jesus who determines what is appropriate for the Sabbath.
Jesus is the one who will interpret the Sabbath, and His interpretation
and understanding of the Sabbath will supersede theirs, will supersede
their restrictions. So his proclamation of authority
that he's announcing there in those first five verses must
have surely provoked what was already a strained relationship
with these religious leaders because their type of Sabbath
observance, as you'll remember, had become part of the national
identity of the people. And it proclaimed, in essence
then, that these religious leaders, these Pharisees, were the ones
who had authority over the Sabbath. And in Jesus' reply, He is dismantling
that completely, meaning then that He is showing us His glory
here on this Sabbath. Why is verse 1 through 5 important
as you approach verse 6? Well, because of how verse 6
begins. Look at it. On another Sabbath. You've gone
from Sabbath to Sabbath. You've gone from a grain field
on the Sabbath to a synagogue on the Sabbath. You've gone from
Jesus on a Sabbath proclaiming His authority as Lord of the
Sabbath to another Sabbath where He's going to demonstrate His
authority for all of us to see. Look at verse 6. On another Sabbath,
what is He doing now? He entered the synagogue and
was teaching, and there was a man whose right hand was withered. So He's taken His position here
in the synagogue, on the Sabbath, in this place of being a teacher,
this place of authority, where all the eyes are looking there
upon Him as He taught. And Luke is telling you he's
not the only one there. He presents to you another man
who's in the synagogue this day, a man who he says whose right
hand was withered, exeros. It's an adjective describing
his right hand. It means that this man's vital
right hand is essentially useless. It conveys the sense that it's
been dried up. So you can even be thinking it's
paralyzed. He can't move it. He can't do anything with it.
And because it is that way, it's been kind of pulled together.
It has no strength in it. The muscles in his hand have
deteriorated. It may have been because of disease.
It may have been because he was injured for some reason. Whatever
it is, this essential part of his body that's useful for day-to-day
life has become useless. And you think about this man
who's sitting there in the synagogue on this Sabbath. This would have
been A cause of great suffering to him, particularly because
of the world in which he lived, being the ancient world. That
there would have been suffering that he's experiencing even beyond
physical suffering that we think about. This would have impacted
his work. He couldn't go work like everyone
else. He couldn't worship. He couldn't
care for himself. You think about this man in this
condition and you wonder, could he dress himself like you dressed
yourself this morning? Could he keep himself clean?
Could he maintain his own hygiene? And then what sort of stigma
comes with this? You think about the blind guy in John 9, and
everyone amongst Jesus' disciples wondering, why is he blind? Why
did this happen to him? What sort of stigma came with
this man who couldn't use his hand? Did the people look at
him and go, I wonder how he sins? Did he then even attempt to sort
of hide his right hand so others couldn't see it? However much
suffering this condition brought into his life, we need to note
this, it didn't seem to be life-threatening. This doesn't mean that his life
is on the line this moment. And you need to have that settled
in your mind because that's what creates tension in this account. This
is critical because it reveals where the tension exists and
what's going to take place in this whole story. Why? Because the traditional rules
prohibiting what a Jewish person could do on a Sabbath said this,
whenever there is doubt whether a life is in danger, this overrides
the Sabbath. Wherever there is doubt, whether
life is in danger, this would override the Sabbath. Which means
that if it's not clear whether or not someone's life is in danger
in a situation that they're enduring, you didn't help that person because
why? Again, that might be construed
as work. Then you would be violating the Sabbath. You couldn't, as the Pharisees
had even written, straighten a deformed body or set a broken
limb on the Sabbath. Why? Because if you break your
arm, your life is not at risk. And if you're going to put forth
the effort to set the broken limb, then that would constitute
work. It can wait a day. That would be a violation of
the Sabbath. This is why then you have the
scribes and the Pharisees doing what they're doing here in verse
7. Look at verse 7. The scribes and the Pharisees
were watching him closely to see what? Is he going to heal
this guy? to see if he healed on the Sabbath
so they might find reason to accuse him." Those words there,
watching him closely, that is one word in Greek and it's at
the very front of the sentence. It means and carries the sense
of this, to watch with malicious intent, to watch with the desire
to do evil, to watch for the opportunity. Luke is describing
for you a sinister act on their part. The Pharisees, in this
sense as we can look at it, are working really hard on this Sabbath
because they want to catch Jesus. They are waiting. They are watching
for Jesus to act. To do what? To see if He healed
on the Sabbath. If He heals someone on the Sabbath
and their life doesn't depend on this act, then this is a clear
Sabbath violation according to their tradition. What's their
reason for doing this? Well, it's there in the text.
What's their motive? So that they might find reason
to accuse Him. Accuse is a legal, technical
term here. This is why then they're scrutinizing
everything that Jesus is doing on this Sabbath, because their
singular mission is to bring charges against this man who
has already claimed there in verse 5 to be Lord of the Sabbath. They have then turned the Sabbath
into a trap in which they are seeking to catch the righteous
man. Their depraved minds, their darkened hearts cannot even see
what they're doing and comprehend their actions as wicked. The
Old Testament identifies all this as wicked. Psalm 37 verse
32, the wicked spies upon the righteous and seeks to kill him. They are like those that David
is talking about in Psalm 38 verse 12, who lay snares, who
seek to injure, who threaten destruction, who devise treachery
all day long. They are on the hunt on this
Sabbath, and the person they are hunting is Jesus, and they're
looking to finally capture Him. Would you just consider all that
you see here in those first couple of verses? You who can see evil is evil
and good for good." They are in the synagogue on the Sabbath
in the presence of the Son of God who is teaching them here
from the Word of God. They are also here in the presence
of this man whose condition means that he is suffering. And their
wicked intent that's coming from their hearts can only view all
of this as an opportunity to bring charges against Jesus.
They see a suffering man here as nothing more than than bait
for a trap in which they hope to lay to catch and condemn Jesus. They have kept all of their Sabbath
rules. They have kept all of their ceremony,
all of their tradition. They would be convinced that
they have maintained their righteousness. And yet on this day, their hearts
are far from God. Why would they not usher that
suffering man in the synagogue into the presence of the Lord
of the Sabbath and beg Jesus in that moment, heal him? Please
heal him. Please alleviate all of his suffering. Please release him from this
condition that he's experiencing. Friend, the reason they don't
do that is because the intent of the thoughts of their heart
are only evil continually, and it has left them without compassion
and mercy. Friend, the godless age in which
we live may argue with you and try at length to convince you
that their ideologies and their actions are founded upon compassion. They may even be convinced themselves
that this is true, that what they are telling you is built
upon compassion, that they are the very pinnacle of compassion
and mercy. But evil is never compassionate. Wickedness is never compassionate. Evil will refuse to do what is
good, and at the same time, call what leaves people suffering
and increasing suffering good. The Pharisees thought here it
would be good to keep suffering people from getting help on the
Sabbath because the good of not working outweighed the good of
helping the needy. They thought it was good to keep
this man from finally being released of his condition because it was
good to guard the Sabbath. The Pharisees thought it would
be good to lay a trap and catch Jesus, the holy and righteous
Son of God, because He was causing all sorts of problems for them.
In doing all of this, what they were actually doing was exposing
the depravity of their own hearts, hearts that hated good and loved
evil. as we considered Wednesday night,
Micah 3 verse 2. I think all of us, if you spend
time in Scripture, look at the Pharisees and you go, ah, that's
the legalist right there. And while that is true, friend,
their legalism is actually an expression of the condition of
their heart. These are those without love, without compassion,
without mercy. This is cruel what they're doing.
And Jesus is about to expose all of this in the synagogue. It is good for us to see the
ugliness of evil and to recognize it for what it is, to expose
evil. to pause here and to consider
that the intents of the wicked heart are cruel and merciless,
that they desire evil against what is good and right, whether
they'll confess that or whether they'll realize that or not.
That however it's packaged, they're not concerned about the needs
of people, they're not concerned about truth, they're not concerned
about righteousness, but they're only concerned about their unholy
desires. This is the malice of the merciless. And this takes place in our world.
These that promote something else and are pointing you away
from the narrow gate and pointing you away from Jesus, in a sense,
they are unconcerned about your spiritual condition. They are
unconcerned that you are weighed down with sin and that you can't
seem to do anything about it. They are unconcerned about true
righteousness. They're unconcerned about eternity. They're unconcerned
about God. Don't look at them and don't
hear their arguments when they say that they are expressing
something that is wrapped in compassion as actually being
compassionate and caring and merciful for people. Evil is
evil. Evil shows no compassion. Number two, we've seen evil is
evil, now behold good. Number two, see the mercy of
the mighty in verses 8 through 10. The mercy of the mighty. Look at verse 8, but he knew
what they were thinking. None of this is a surprise to
Jesus. This is like what you encountered all the way back
there in Luke chapter 5 verse 22, where Jesus had just forgiven
the sins of the paralytic that had been brought to Him. And
we're told that the scribes and the Pharisees in verse 21 of
chapter 5 were reasoning, who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God
alone? And remember verse 22, Jesus asked why they were reasoning
that in their hearts. How can Jesus know that? How
can He know what they're reasoning in their hearts in Luke 5, and
how can He know what they're thinking in Luke 6, verse 8?
The answer is found in Scripture. 1 Chronicles 28, verse 9, for
the Lord searches all hearts and understands every intent
of the thoughts. Psalm 44, verse 21, He knows
the secrets of the heart. Psalm 139 verse 2 and verse 4,
you understand my thoughts from afar even before there is a word
on my tongue. Behold, O Lord, you know it all. You may think that you have a
pretty good idea of what's going on in the minds of other people,
maybe even your children, but there is only one who perfectly
knows the secrets of the heart, the Lord God. Scripture says
that over and over and over again. It's even there when we read
that verse a moment ago that described his knowledge as without end, an infinite knowledge. So here, the wicked, they're
not hiding anything from him. Do you see what Luke is giving
you? He's giving you a golden nugget here. Again, he's giving
you another indication of who this is in the synagogue this
day who is teaching us. Jesus is truly God. He is God
of God. And Jesus here not only knows
that the wicked, what they're reasoning, but he also knows,
would you know here, when the suffering are present, when the
suffering and the needy are there before him. None of this escapes
his notice. Verse 8, and he said to the man
with the withered hand, he sees him. He said to the man with
the withered hand, get up, come forward, and he got up and he
came to him. The Lord of the Sabbath is speaking on the Sabbath.
He sees this guy. He's commanding the suffering
man in the synagogue, come unto me. He has him here come to the
very front. Jesus is not going to try to
hide what's going to take place here from the Pharisees. He wants
them to see this. He wants everyone to see this.
They may be thinking that they're hiding the evil intents of their
heart from Jesus, Jesus is calling this guy, come here to the very
front. He has no fear of these wicked men. He commands the man
here to come. The man responds here to Jesus'
call. Would you keep in mind this man,
he doesn't have infinite knowledge. This man doesn't know what's
going on here. He doesn't know what the Pharisees are thinking.
He doesn't know what Jesus is about to do. He doesn't know
the lesson that's about to be taught. He is simply acting in
faith because the teacher has called him forward and he comes.
The religious leaders could learn a lesson from this man. Sinners
could learn a lesson from this man. This is the moment then
where this teacher will teach everyone a critical lesson that
he first frames in the form of a question here in verse 9. Jesus
said to them, I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm
on the Sabbath, to save a life or to destroy it? What's lawful
on the Sabbath? What's right on the Sabbath?
Those questions that he is asking there are a direct response to
the unspoken motives from the hearts and minds of the Pharisees.
They are a challenge to them. They are a direct assault on
their wicked intent. They are brilliantly framed here
by Jesus to expose their hearts and get to the heart of the matter.
Is it lawful? You realize that's the second
time that question has been asked in Luke 6. Is it lawful? What's the first time? Last week,
look at verse 2 regarding the Sabbath. Who's asking the question? They're the questions being asked
from the Pharisees to Jesus and his disciples. Hey, why do you
do what is not lawful on the Sabbath? Why do you go out into
that field? Why do you pick the grain? Why
do you rub it together in your hands? Why are you eating it?
Because you didn't prepare for the Sabbath accordingly. Why
are you walking in this field on what might be constituted
as a journey? Now Jesus lays hold of that question and He
directs it towards the Pharisees and everyone that's present there.
What conforms more to the Sabbath, doing good or doing harm? What
reflects more of what's right on the Sabbath, to destroy a
life or to save a life? Jesus is taking the thoughts
of His opponents here and He's characterizing them in those
terms of bringing harm, of destroying life. And He's characterizing
His authoritative teaching on the Sabbath as that which is
good, that which saves lives. You might be sitting there going,
what gives Jesus such a right to say such a thing? Verse 5,
he's the Lord of the Sabbath. He has the power, he has the
authority over the Sabbath. Here's the lesson. It is right
to do good on the Sabbath. It is lawful to save a life.
There ought to be no tradition, no ritual, no ceremony made by
man, no prohibition made by man that would prevent you from doing
what's good, what's right, what helps people, what alleviates
suffering. There ought to be nothing put into place that would
even cause you to question whether that's right to do. You go, well,
how can Jesus be so sure and clear about this? Well, go back
to the Old Testament. Old Testament Scriptures were
filled with this truth that we've returned to again and again as
it has to do with Exodus 34 6, that God is compassionate and
God is gracious and His people were to reflect that compassion
and that grace and that mercy. Proverbs 11 verse 17, the merciful
man does himself good but the cruel man does himself harm.
Proverbs 14 verse 21, he who despises his neighbor's sins
but happy is he who is gracious to the poor. Zechariah 7 verses
8 through 10, then the word of the Lord came to Zechariah saying
this, Thus has the Lord of hosts said, dispense true justice and
practice, what? Kindness and compassion, each
to his brother, and do not oppress the widow or the orphan or the
stranger or the poor, and do not devise evil in your hearts
against one another. This is all a reflection coming
from the God who reveals Himself to be compassionate and gracious
in Exodus 34 verse 6. This is how His people are to
be. The Sabbath had become a day that the religious leaders had
crafted so that mercy and compassion might take a rest and go on vacation,
but they were never meant to be absent from this day. When
Jesus asked that question, is it lawful? He is highlighting
what should have never gone missing from the Sabbath, doing good,
saving a life, demonstrations of compassion and mercy. Brother and sister, as you think
about what's going on here. I ask you, have mercy and compassion
and love gone missing from your life in your attempts to apply
truth to your life? Are they absent? Is mercy, is
compassion absent in your rules and traditions that you observe? Do they take a back seat to everything
else? As we see what's going on here,
I just ask you to consider your heart, to characterize by what you see
in Jesus here, mercy and compassion. This is whose image you're being
conformed into. Is there mercy and compassion
in the way that you talk to your wife, in the way that you talk
to your kids, in the way that you talk to your parents, in
the way that you talk to your neighbors, in the way that you
think about other people within the church? Is there mercy and
compassion that comes out of your speech when you interact
with people online? Questions Jesus asks here emphasize
the point. What's missing? And would you
just note, as you're looking at that text, they all come here
with the suffering man standing here at the front. He's called
him forward, then he asks the question. Now this guy is going
to be part of answering the question and demonstrating Jesus' authority,
an authority that we're going to see is characterized by mercy,
compassion, and love, even on the Sabbath. It is not going
to take a vacation this Sabbath. Verse 10. After looking around
at them, He said to them, "'Stretch out your hand,' and He did so,
and His hand was restored." Can you imagine that moment, Jesus
looking around the room and looking at each and every person that's
in the room as they're waiting to see what He is going to do,
and His gaze hits the Pharisees? And He knows what's in their
heart. Nobody here escaped his notice, looking around at them
all. He says the words, stretch out
your hand. Some think that the man offers
his hand to Jesus in that moment to have his hand healed. Others
think that even the act of stretching out his hand is indicative of
the healing occurring. How could he do that if his hand
was paralyzed? Either way, His hand, we are
told here, is restored. That word means in Greek, was
brought back. It was made right. It was returned
to its former condition, which meant Immediately, suffering
had ended. In an act of compassion and mercy,
immediately his suffering was over. He could work again. He
could prepare food again. He could eat again. He could
clean himself. He could dress himself. He could lift a glass
to his mouth. He could shade his eyes from
the sun. He could lift his hands in the synagogue when he went
there to worship. His suffering is over, but even
more. I mean, this means Jesus is telling
the truth. The miracle that they've witnessed
itself is a lesson. It's the witness that what Jesus
is saying is true. It's an endorsement here of the
teacher. It's proof that He is Lord of the Sabbath. It is proof
that He has authority over the Sabbath. He's demonstrating it
for you. In His authority, it is not like
the authority of the Pharisees that was cruel and merciless.
His authority is replete with mercy and compassion. Their repressive
prohibitions that outweighed mercy and compassion here provides
only a backdrop upon which the love and compassion and mercy
and glory of Jesus shine forth on this Sabbath. Brothers and
sisters, would you see what's going on here? You are not witnessing
the Son of God violating the Sabbath. You're not witnessing
him profane the Sabbath. He is not coming along here and
abolishing the Sabbath, but he is doing what he does with the
law. He is fulfilling the Sabbath as it was always intended to
be fulfilled. He does not come along here in this moment and
violate their prohibitions so that he disqualifies himself
from being an all-sufficient sacrifice. Instead, what he is
doing in this moment is He's proving Himself to be perfectly
holy, perfectly righteous. He is proving Himself to all
that can see it that He is the Lamb of God who has come to take
away the sin of the world. He is proving He is Lord even
here, not only over the day of rest, Genesis 2, but He is Lord
over the image-bearing creature. He is the one who fashioned and
who designed all 27 bones in the human hand. He is the one
who fashioned and designed all 34 muscles that reveal His glorious
design and how He created the man. He is the Lord who was there
when that hand that He designed Himself took the fruit that He
had forbidden it to take and brought it to the woman's mouth,
and He was there when she took her hand and handed it to the
man, and He brought it to his mouth, and sin was ushered into
the world. He is the Lord who was there
when Abraham stretched out his hand, taking the knife to slay
his son, to demonstrate faith in the Lord God in Genesis 22.
And it was His command that went forth to Abraham about his hand,
Genesis 22, 12, to not stretch it out against the lad because
the Lord would provide a substitute. He is the Lord who commanded
Moses to put his hand into his garment in Exodus 4 verse 6,
only to take it out and find it leprous, only to be told,
put it back in again and take it out, and to see that this
Lord is so powerful, this God is so majestic that He could
immediately make it clean. And that all of this was to also
show that He could use such a weak vessel like Moses to deliver
His people from their enemies and prove Himself to the world
that He is a gracious God. Well, we could go throughout
Scripture and you could see something as ordinary as a human hand demonstrating
that God is glorious over and over again, but you come here
to Luke 6, verse 10, and this withered hand, afflicted because
sin has entered creation and with it suffering and sorrow
and wickedness and death, this hand is restored by its creator. in a demonstration of power and
authority, proving Jesus is deity, proving He is merciful and compassionate,
proving He is Lord of the Sabbath. Evil is not compassionate. But
what you find here is that righteousness shows compassion. What you find
here is that true holiness demonstrates mercy. Genuine goodness is characterized
by compassion, mercy, and love. So it is right to do...it is
right to do good on the Sabbath. It is lawful to do good on the
Sabbath. It is right to alleviate suffering
on the Sabbath. And on this Sabbath, good has
been done. Christian, as you look at this
text, you should be able to easily recognize the distinction between
what you see in Jesus and what you see there in the Pharisees.
To one, the suffering man is mere meat to bait a trap and
to incite the wickedness of their own heart. To the other, he's
a man to be pitied who's suffering the effects of sin. To one, Jesus
is a man threatening their traditions and man-made religious system.
To the other, Jesus brings relief. He ends suffering. He restores
what's broken. Psalms, Psalm 31 7 indicates
that this is a reason that as believers we ought to rejoice.
Psalmist writes, I will rejoice and be glad in your loving kindness
because you have seen my affliction. Jesus isn't cruel. Jesus isn't
heartless. He isn't merciless. He isn't
unconcerned about suffering. He is merciful and He is mighty.
He is a merciful Savior here who has looked upon the suffering
and affliction of this man and He's mercifully and mightily
released him from it. And even more, He's a merciful
Savior who comes to release sinners from their bondage to sin. This takes us back to the world
in which we live, does it not? Others will leave you there.
Others will leave you suffering. Others will leave you to die
in your sin and affliction, and they'll be content that you're
doing so. They will be calling evil good and good evil. They
will tell you there's no heaven. They will tell you there's no
hell. They will tell you there's no forgiveness, there's no God,
there's no justice beyond what you find on this earth. They
might tell you that there is forgiveness, but it's found in
your works, it's found in your doing good, which is always going
to tinge your doing good based on you looking to save yourself.
And cruelly, what they will leave you doing is waiting, waiting
until it's too late. But not Jesus. He is merciful
and he is merciful because he is God. Psalm 86 verse 14, but
you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious. Psalm 103 verse
8, the Lord is compassionate and gracious. Isaiah 55 verse
7, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his
thoughts and let him return to the Lord and he will have compassion
on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon. His compassion
and His mercy exceed everyone else's compassion and mercy.
His is true, it's genuine. And it's demonstrated in His
mercy, and His mercy is demonstrated in our salvation. Ephesians 2
verse 4, but God being rich in mercy because of His great love
with which He loved us even when we were dead and our transgressions
made us alive together with Christ. Every baptism that comes up here
before us, every testimony that you hear of how the Lord has
transformed their life is a demonstration that He is indeed merciful. 1
Peter 1.3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to
be born again to a living hope. We live in a cruel world that
calls evil good and good evil, but there is a merciful Savior. You live in a society that tells
you, It's good to encourage the sick and the elderly to die.
It's good to put infants in the womb to death. It's good to mutilate
your body in order to sculpt it into the gender that you so
desire, that your corrupt heart desires. It's good to redefine
marriage into what it was never intended to be, where you'll
never find satisfaction, when there is no compassion or mercy
in evil and wickedness. But in Jesus, there's mercy.
In Jesus, there's grace. There's forgiveness in Jesus
for great sins, forgiveness for cruel sins, forgiveness for sins
against God Himself. Sinner, would you consider what
you see here in Luke 6? Would you turn from your sins?
Would you flee to the Savior who is rich in mercy, who according
to His great mercy can cause you to be born again? The Puritan
Jeremiah Burroughs would say that his great mercy is evident
today in that you can hear the gospel being preached to you,
that you can hear that salvation and forgiveness is found in Jesus
Christ. Burroughs said it this way, it is a great mercy that
you have the day of grace and salvation, that you are not now
in hell. It is a greater mercy that you
have the sound of the gospel yet in your ears and that you
have the use of your reason. Meaning what? Today, you can
respond to his mercy. You can implore him, please be
merciful to me, a sinner. What does it look like to reject
that mercy? Well, you have it there in verse
11. Verse 11, number 3, we'll call this the madness of the
murderous. The madness of the murderous.
What does it look like to reject His mercy? Verse 11, but they
themselves were filled with rage and discussed together what they
might do to Jesus. Filled with rage. One word, annoyus. It means this, mindless. It means without understanding.
One lexicon says, such extreme anger as to suggest an incapacity
to use one's mind. They were so mad at Him that
they couldn't even think. They had become like ravenous
animals. What they had witnessed resulted
in them losing their minds. They had witnessed the glory
of God in the synagogue. Jesus has not only proclaimed
His authority over the Sabbath, but He's demonstrated it to them.
He's not only taught them about the Sabbath, but He's proved
His teaching. And He's beautifully shown mercy to this man and his
suffering has ended. All of that's undeniable. And
what is good and beautiful and right and true has infuriated
here those with corrupt hearts and corrupt minds. What should
their response have been? They should have grieved the
ugliness that they see coming forth from their own heart here
and repented from their evil motives, leading them to scrutinize
Jesus and His words and His actions. They should have confessed in
that moment, indeed, you are the Christ. You are the Son of
God. They should have listened to
every word that was coming from His mouth. They should have been
in awe of Him. They should have come to Him and worshiped Him.
They should have said, I'm suffering. I'm a sinner. Save me. Have mercy
on me. What does a wicked heart instead
do? A wicked heart does exactly what
Psalm 2, verse 2 says. The rulers are taking counsel
together against the Lord and His anointed. What did they do? Verse 11, they discussed together
what they might do to Jesus. What did they discuss? Matthew
12, in its account of this, says, they, the Pharisees, went out
and conspired against him as to how they might destroy him. How they might destroy him. Do
you remember what he was teaching in verse 9? I ask you, is it
lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life
or to destroy it? On this Sabbath, the corrupt
hearts of these men not only wanted Jesus to not do good by
healing this man, they discussed on this Sabbath how they might
destroy Him. They were doing the very thing Jesus could see
their depraved hearts doing. Their madness here brought them
to this murderous intent that the crosshairs in this scene
had been The crosshairs have been placed squarely upon Jesus
by His enemies, and you're only in Luke chapter 6. How darkened is their mind? What you have here, the mercy
and compassion that Jesus has shown on the Sabbath, it's incomprehensible
to Him. They were never interested in
virtue. They were not interested in relieving misery and affliction
caused by sin. They are interested in keeping
rules, rules that tied to their cherished tradition and their
faulty interpretations of Scripture, rules that they cherished, and
rules that have led them all the way to this point where they
have rejected mercy, even divine mercy when it's in their presence.
I can't help but just think about them in eternity. Think about
those men in that synagogue in eternity. Think about them as
they stand in judgment before the one that they spurned in
this moment, even though they saw His grace. Will this day
in that synagogue come into their minds in judgment? The day in
which they saw the compassion of God on full display, the day
in which it infuriated them, and that day they're going to
know their failure to recognize what was truly good and truly
life-giving. They will know what a great mercy that day was unto
them and how that day, that day as they see all this, they are
not now yet in hell. How in that day they beheld the
beauty of the gospel, and the one who is reversing the effects
of sin right there before them, how on that Sabbath, they were
in the presence of the Son of God, and even how on that day,
they couldn't even see the reality of their own miserable condition,
and they couldn't see that before them was the one who could transform
their life. Friend, if you come this morning,
and you've been infuriated with Jesus your whole life, If the
exclusivity of the gospel that he preaches fills you with rage... If the truth that salvation is
by grace alone incites your indignation, if the gospel that exposes your
heart and tells you that you will stand before a righteous
judge causes you to hate Jesus all the more, if you consider
your thoughts and heart toward Jesus and all you find is confusion
and frustration and anger, and if when you have looked at Jesus
and His teaching and only determined, well, this is what's intolerant,
this is what's unmerciful, this is what is without compassion,
if that's you, Friend, repent. Turn from that. Repent and plead
that a merciful God might give you new eyes to see, might give
you ears to hear what's true and good, might do away with
your old withered heart and give you a new heart, a heart that
can embrace and worship the Lord of the Sabbath who is compassionate
and gracious. Friend, repent and flee to Jesus. Come to Him like a suffering
man who has been called to come forward and come to Him and look
to Him to heal you completely. Luke has given us all two ways. Two ways that we see laid out
before us, two ways that we see us before us in the world each
and every day. One, the merciless actions of
the wicked who view suffering and the Savior as evil, who determine
what is evil is good and what is good is evil. And the other
way is the way of righteousness, who determines what is true compassion
and mercy and demonstrates it for us, presenting us with what
is beautiful and what is God-glorifying. Three takeaways, Christian. One,
as I said before, rejoice. Psalm 31, verse 7, be glad and
rejoice in His mercy. Two, would you consider what
true compassion and mercy look like? Would you look at your
own life and your own conclusions, your own thoughts, your own rules
that you put in place for your own life and for others, maybe
in your own house, would you consider if they have compassion
and mercy in them? Would you also notice in the
world around you where compassion and mercy are missing? Three,
I would encourage you, Christian, to present what is truly beautiful
to a world that's filled with corrupt minds and depraved hearts.
That you would stand in this world and boldly proclaim what
is beautiful and righteous and holy and good and loving, even
when that world is telling you what is evil is good and what
is good is evil. Would you point them towards
the truth? Would you allow them to see what they can find nowhere
else than Lord Jesus Christ? Father, thank you for Christ
in the synagogue this day, showing us compassion and mercy that
are greater than the rules and traditions that have been put
in place to protect the Sabbath. Your compassion and your mercy
upon us as believers and as a church is beyond our comprehension.
Pray that we would recognize it, that we would see glimpses
of it, that it would remind us of your goodness, even amidst
our suffering, even when we are grieving, even when we're going
through difficult situations that would seem hopeless, Father,
remind us how good you have been to us. Let that cause in us a
response of joy that as creatures we would rejoice at how you've
saved us, how you're sanctifying us. Now we have certainty that
you're going to complete that work in us. Give us boldness
to proclaim these truths to a world that is absolutely confused because
of the depravity of their minds as to what is truly beautiful.
Let us point them to Scripture. Let us point them to Christ. Let it define compassion. Let
Christ define mercy. Father, we pray for the hearts
of the lost that are here this morning. Pray that if they have
long hated Christ, they would see the foolishness where their
sinful hearts have led them, that perhaps they would see it
first in the Pharisees, but then they would see it in themselves.
Pray that they would turn from their sins, turn from their hatred,
turn from the ugliness of wickedness, and flee to Christ. Let them
find in Him joy. Let them know that they will
find in Him compassion and mercy. Let them know that they will
find in Him grace. Father, grant unto them repentance. Give them
faith to believe and be saved, we pray. In Christ's name, amen.
Sabbath Authority Demonstrated
Series Luke
| Sermon ID | 929252137525850 |
| Duration | 52:01 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Luke 6:6-11 |
| Language | English |
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