Luke chapter 13 , Part I - 5-5-21

 

Father, thank you for the opportunity as a family to gather and to sit and to linger. we have no place that we would rather be..

We're just so grateful that you've given us a little place of rest with a part of the family that gathers midweek, the soldiers of the faith, the ones, Lord, who really want to invest in understanding what the Spirit of God says through the Word of God preserved.

Help us to practice in our lives daily, the messages that you proclaim to us. .

And we pray that you'd help us, not only to hear, and as we do, to apply, but then to put into practice once we finish here.

So I pray, Lord, that we, your disciples presently, as we look at the life and times of Jesus,

with his disciples in antiquity, Lord, we would be able to take those lessons that transcend time and culture and make them ours. Teach us to apply your word in our lives…

Lord, thank you for this family, for brothers and sisters.

I know that some have come through a week that's been difficult.

Some have had a week where it's been nothing but rejoicing.

But, Father, when one member suffers, we all suffer.

When one member rejoices, we all rejoice.

So use this time as we are woven together by your love, in Jesus' name we pray,

amen.

 Luke , chapter 13

I was reading a photographic magazine, on line the other day. I have a little bit of background in photography from years ago.

I've dabbled in it and loved it, in those days. Of course now everything is different.. High tech..

But as I was browsing through the magazine something caught my eye.

It was an article by a group that calls themselves “The Rescued Film Project”.

I looked it up and what they do is they look for old film that is still in cameras in somebody's home, garage, estate that has been forgotten about…And they develop it and they put it on their website, because they believe these are pieces of history that no one has seen yet and as such should be preserved and appreciated. I love that…

They were taken, or captured in a way that meant something to the photographer at the time, but they have been lost, and so before this have been unseen. But having been discovered or uncovered, they're now developed and can be seen by the world.

And this guy, just a few weeks ago, came across thirty-one rolls of film from World War II. A soldier who had been in World War II took them.

And it was medium format film, and he developed it in black and white , and revealed elements in time over seventy years ago that no one had ever seen before.

And it just struck me, what a marvellous idea. And I did little study and went through the images just to see these soldiers lining up, going to war, some coming back, some in battle---a fascinating find.

And so then I got to thinking about the process of photography. The old stuff before digital…

I’ll be brief on this, but there is in photography what is called the latent image.

And so when light exposes a piece of film---the film is essentially hardened gelatine with a thin chemical of silver bromide on it. And the light excites the silver bromide, so that it clumps together in areas that are exposed by the light, and does nothing in areas unexposed by the light, so that when you put it through a chemical process, like magic, the latent image is seen.

"Latent" only means it's there, but it's unseen.

So, essentially, all of these photographic rolls that were found by this modern photographer ,taken by a photographer out of the pages of history. They were there, but undeveloped, and therefore unseen. His mission is in the process of discovering them, developing them, and showing them.

And so what got my attention, and the reason I'm explaining this is, essentially, that's what Jesus does.

We are in a sense, stamped in creation, with the image of God. The image seems to get obscured over time, or hidden by sin, by culture, by upbringing, until we are born again.

When we are born again, that latent image , of who we are and who God wants us to be is developed and shown by Jesus Christ.

We become a showcase for God. His light will shine through us….

We become his poiéma, as Paul said in Ephesians. “Poiema”, a Greek word, means a masterpiece…..

And so Jesus was also in the business of finding people---we see it throughout the New Testament---Finding people stamped with the image of God, to develop and showcase to the world.

He sets them free, he heals them, he develops them, and then they can also be an example of righteousness in the world.. These came to be his disciples, the Apostles..First the 12..then the 70 and more…..

And every time he does it, people glorified God in a much greater way than before..

In Luke 13 People marvelled at what was a latent image, now developed and showcased before them as they witnessed a healing by Jesus---but not everybody did. The example of a person disabled, disfigured and bound by the devil….made whole again as God’s perfect creation.. His perfect correction…Was a miracle for all to witness …

Some people, you would think, would just go crazy when they saw a healing like this take place.

But there were some people who were so bound by their background, by their tradition, by

their spiritual upbringing , by their own short comings, that they just couldn't stand what Jesus was doing in the lives of people.

I've long marvelled myself, that so often, in the New Testament, Jesus comes unglued with religious people, and is much more welcoming to the harlot, to the thief, to the tax collector, to the sinners, to the people that nobody would touch. To the gentiles.. even to the Samaritans who were at the time most despised in all the known world…

He embraced them. He loved them. He developed them. He showcased them. Through Him, who is the light of the world, did their light shine also…

Chapter 13 of Luke, verse 10.

"Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath"--- Incidentally, this is the last time recorded when Jesus, in his ministry, visits a synagogue. He's marching toward Jerusalem, remember.

He often would go into the synagogues. Remember his first visit when he was 12 years old and Mary and Joseph were worried sick until they found him there discussing and presenting the way of the Lord to the Rabbis..? At 12 he went about his father’s business and it began in the synagogue. But this would be the last time he would visit a synagogue as he now makes his slow, methodical journey to the cross. A bitter sweet journey indeed…

Luke says…

"And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, who was bent over and in no way could raise herself up." This woman had some sort of degenerative spinal condition like a spinal stenosis or a scoliosis that caused her to be bent over. However, whatever the physiological reasons were for her bent condition, those were secondary, because we're told by Jesus in verse 16 that she has been bound by the Devil for those years.

So the physical manifestation was secondary to a work that Satan had done in her life .He brings that out.

But I find it fascinating that, in the synagogue, on the Sabbath day, was the woman who had suffered

for eighteen years, and she's in church, so to speak, the synagogue.

And I just wonder how many of us would suffer chronically for eighteen years and would therefore find an excuse not to be in fellowship on the Lord's Day. There is always an excuse if God is not your #1 priority… right? I don’t feel well, I am too tired, like the disciples at Gethsemane who needed to be woke by Christ, 3x.. If we want an excuse there is no end to them…. But when worship and fellowship is a priority , like this disabled woman, nothing will keep you away…

Now, keep in mind, they didn't have cars back then. They didn't have public transportation either. Life was not easy…

They had to walk places. So, evidently, here's a woman in the synagogue who has not found it in her heart to be resentful for her condition before God. She's not saying, "How could a God of love allow this to happen to me? I'm not going to go to synagogue anymore."

She's in synagogue on the Sabbath worshiping with the rest of crowd. "When Jesus saw her, he called her to him." Now it's the little things that get my attention. Why didn't Jesus, seeing her bent condition, go over to her? He saw her and called her to come to him. I think he is beginning to get her to exercise her faith, calling her to do something. He calls her. He summons her to him.and she responds to him.. she obeys..she comes to him in spite of her present condition… "And he said to her, 'Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.' And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God." You could just picture it. Isn’t there a message also here for us…When God speaks to us it is in our best interest to listen to that voice for when we do we find the benefits in our lives can be dramatic…We will be changed.. we will be born again as she was reborn both in body and in spirit…

She glorified God, and I'm sure everybody else did---but as you will see, not quite everybody.

Everybody "But the ruler of the synagogue who answered with indignation"---that means extreme anger. Right?

He was offended, the word indicates---"because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath; and he said

to the crowd" and notice this---"he said to the crowd, 'There are six days on which men

ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.'

" I really don't know where to begin in making comment on this.

But I'll start where I think is the beginning.

Number one, rather than addressing Jesus himself, he addresses the crowd didn’t he?.

Now, it's not their fault. They've come to worship. Jesus did the healing. He has a message he wants to send to Jesus, but he doesn't address Jesus directly.

He addresses the crowd who have come and watch Jesus heal. There is a personality type called passive-aggressive. This is an extremely passive-aggressive move.

"I want to give a message to you, but I won't say it to you, because then I have to make myself accountable to you also.

So, I'll say it to somebody else, hoping that you will hear it."

It's really the worst way to communicate. Have you known people like this also? Who communicate with words couched in innuendo , and deceit….Like this religious man.. this leader… If you also notice in contrast, this is not like Christ… So rather than addressing Jesus, he addresses the crowd, first of all.

The second thing to notice is this: instead of rejoicing in her healing, he's resenting….He has been upset. He has been offended.

This is a hassle for him, because he doesn't know what to do with something that happens like this. "On the Sabbath day? Just take a moment an imagine, if you will, how dramatic this moment in time really was..

This just doesn't fit into his understanding of oral tradition and the laws of Moses." He should be rejoicing in her healing." But he could not…

The third thing to notice is-

"The Lord answered him and said, 'Hypocrite!

You notice how direct He is? There is no deceit, no innuendo and no dishonesty in Him….He continues…

Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it? Jesus hated hypocrites and lairs and he confronted the Pharisees and scribes frequently as they followed him, hunted him and waited to catch him in violation of the law… But Jesus would not stop or alter his work and he continued on this this day, which was to be his last day in a synagogue, on his way to Jerusalem… Jesus pressed forward and he said “So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound--think of it---for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?'

"And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame; and all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him." Now, Jesus here points something out that is the third thing that I want you to notice about this little setting.

The rabbis had laws and strong feelings about abusing animals.That's a good thing, isn't it?

However, do you get the irony here? Here's a woman bound.

They would think nothing---on the Sabbath---of untying an animal from the stall, walking it out of the stall down to road to where there was water. That was permissible. But they're worried about a woman being healed on the Sabbath. Don’t forget ..there are 613 commandments in the Torah..603 were man made commandments associated with compliance for regulating activities on the Sabbath… So healing this woman on the Sabbath was a violation of Jewish Law, the old law which Christ did not observe… But considering what Christ said It shows me they love animals more than people.

And I find that a terribly compelling argument out of Scripture, and deals with a modern problem we have in the United States and around the world.

In my country four out of every ten pregnancies end in abortion. Those are human lives.

In New York City , and I am from NY, it's more like one to one correspondents, one to one, live birth to abortion. And I've been in New York City where there are protests against animal fur, people who

would dare wear leather and fur. And over the years I've engaged some of them in conversation only to hear that they're proabortion, pro-choice, you know, but really anti-mistreatment of animals.

And I think, "How stinking ironic that they would value animals more than humans," and

they do, and the US laws reflect that . But it’s not just the US. This is happening all over the world. And it is not only abortion but it is the inversion of a value system viewing evil as good and good as evil… We need to raise up our heads and be aware of these things…

In the US if you mess with the egg of an eagle, you can be put in jail for three

to five years and be fined $500 to $250,000, depending on what species of eagle, if you tamper with the egg, a potential eagle. But you can kill a potential human, and that's "your choice."

Now after this dramatic healing, it would be tempting for those watching this to think,

"This is it.This is the synagogue service. It has culminated in the healing. This Jesus does a lot of..

It would be tempting to think the kingdom of God is now.

It's going to happen now. He's going to set up his messianic kingdom now.

These are the signs and wonders predicted by the prophet Isaiah.

But no…It's been 2,000 years, it hasn't happened yet. It will happen, but what we have seen is a lapse of time where the King has come to rescue sinners.

He has gone into heaven and at the right time he will come back again. They’re waiting for the second coming. So the kingdom of God has developed differently than they thought it would. So often we find that God’s way is not our way…Jesus speaks to that.

"And he said, 'What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it?



It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and put in his garden; and it grew and became

a large tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches.'

And again he said, 'To what shall I liken the kingdom of God?

It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until it was all leavened.'

" Now these parables spoken together are essentially one.

They have one and the same meaning.

There is what is the typical and traditional meaning before I give you what I believe is the more accurate meaning.

First of all, mustard bushes don't grow into trees. There is a species of mustard called the Khardal mustard, which is still a shrub. It's still a bush, and it can grow pretty tall for a bush, like fifteen feet tall.

It's still pretty flimsy. So the idea of a mustard shrub or bush growing into a tree that is strong enough to support birds that would lodge in its branches is unusual, and therefore speaks of unusual growth.

Now let me give you a traditional, typical interpretation.

It goes like this: the church started very small.

There were 12 disciples, then 120 in the upper room, then 3,000 on the day of Pentecost.

Then the book of Acts shows us another 5,000, and then pretty soon twenty and 25,000.

Then it spread throughout the Roman Empire.

So it grew and has filled the earth, and it's big enough to house all of humanity to lodge in its branches.

It speaks of the success and the successful growth of the church throughout time…..



I disagree and here's why: first of all, Jesus doesn't give us the interpretation.

There are no literary rules that he inserts in here so we can understand exactly what he says.

So we are left with other instances---that Jesus using the same language---to interpret this one.

So, for example, in another parable, which Jesus, incidentally, called the key to all of the other parables, the parable of the sower and the seed---remember that one?

"A sower went out to sow some seed . . . some fell by the wayside," etcetera.

Here's what he said, "Some of the seed fell by the wayside . . . and the birds of the air came and snatched it away."

When Jesus explained the meaning of the birds of the air, he said, "Whenever the truth is

sown in people's hearts, Satan comes and snatches it away."

So in that parable he equates birds with evil, Satan.

In the book of Revelation, chapter 18, we have Babylon the great, the great harlot.

And it says, "Babylon, Babylon has fallen, the dwelling place of demons, the prison of every foul spirit, and the cage of every foul and hated bird."

You see, every time they're use in prophetic literature like this or symbolic literature,

it's always evil. When it comes to trees growing in unusually large ways, we have only to look at

Ezekiel 17, Daniel, chapter 4, where those visions were given, and the trees there represented

this enormous, worldwide, dominating power, the growth of worldly nations.

So what I believe it means, and I think it's proved by the second parable here, is that

the church will grow, certainly, the kingdom of God won't happen immediately in its glory,

that it will when he comes the second time. We're waiting for that.

In the meantime, this thing is going to grow. But it's going to be an unusual growth.

And it's going to grow, certainly, and it's going to be large, which means that even evil

people and evil forces, because of its growth, can lodge in its branches. It's like a warning.

So, yes, it will grow, but not all growth is good growth. Some growth is a perversion, an aberration of what is truth, real, solid and healthy…

And that brings us to the second parable, which without a doubt shows you that it's

evil entering the church, because it's the parable of leaven. And leaven or yeast was kept by women, whenever they would bake their bread, they would put in leaven saved from the previous loaf. They'd put it in the loaf of bread. It would permeate throughout the entire loaf and it would rise up. Because, "A little leaven leavens the whole lump."

And leaven is often---in fact, almost always---seen in a negative way. They were to purge their houses of leaven at Passover. No sacrifice was to be offered with leaven. Jesus said, "Beware of the leaven of the scribes and the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy." Pretenders and lairs….So, leaven is almost always typical of something evil.

But the typical traditional interpretation of that leaven parable is that the church will grow.

And like leaven permeating the loaf, the church of Jesus Christ will permeate the earth.

This is the favorite way of interpreting this passage by dominion theologians.

Have you ever heard of that term, dominion theology?

I won't explain it to you now.

We'll move on, because I don't want to have a theology course here.

But dominion theology that teaches basically "we're taking over the world, and we'll have

all the Christian politicians and a Christian community, and we'll bring in the kingdom ourselves."

They like to see this as them.

But, again, just because there is growth, doesn't necessitate good growth.

And I think that there really was a time in church history when the growth that the church

took on was this weird, abnormally large, powerful growth that wasn't good at all, but foul birds and leaven entered the church.

I could go back to 328 AD, a very significant year.



It's when Constantine, the almost emperor, was preparing for battle. And in that battle, supposedly before the battle, Constantine saw a vision in the sky of a cross and the words "In this sign, conquer."

And so he took that as a sign that he was going to win the battle. He did win the battle. And he took that as a sign that he should impose Christianity on the empire.

He wasn't a Christian, but his mother was, Helena. So he had a supposed---some kind of conversion.

And this is what he said, and this is what sends chills up my spine: "I will set Christianity"---and

I'm quoting him now." I will set Christianity upon the throne of the Caesars."

"I'm going to make it the official state religion. Everybody has to become a Christian."

It was imposed. It became very powerful. The Roman church became enormously powerful from that time on. And the growth was not good growth, not good at all.

And here's why: because up to that time there were pagan priests in the empire.

And the pagan priests worshiped in pagan temples and were funded by pagans.

Now paganism was banned.

Everybody had to be a Christian.

The priests were thinking, "I don't want to lose my positions.

I will convert."

And they became Christian priests of a Christian system. Not because they believed.. because they looked to gain by their conversion…

They were invested with enormous wealth and enormous power, because it became the official religion.

The church does much better when they're persecuted, not when they are endorsed by the government. Of course we know that no one, even Caesar, can legislate spirituality… By the grace of God it is a gift to us, not that we deserve it but because God loves his children and we are his children…

Be that as it may that's just the facts of history.

So, yes, the kingdom of God, it's going to grow.

This tree is going to be enormous.

But birds are going to lodge in its branches.

Leaven will come into this loaf, and that will happen, until Jesus comes back for his Church and takes us all away, and then eventually establishes the kingdom.

Onward in our chapter….Verse 22

"And he went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying"---notice---"toward Jerusalem."

We've seen this phrase before: "He set his face toward Jerusalem." "He's on his way to Jerusalem."

Here it's mentioning it again. Jesus Christ is on a timetable.

He is marching toward Jerusalem to be there at a very specific time predicted by Daniel the prophet.

The prophet said, "That from the going forth of the commandment to restore and rebuild

Jerusalem until the Messiah the Prince, shall be 173,880 days." The wildest, craziest prophecy I know of.

I think it's April 2, 32 AD.

I think that's it. And it was the day that the lambs were collected for sacrifice. And it was the day Jesus

stood on the Mount of Olives and presented himself as the king to the nation.

So he is going toward Jerusalem, and he knows he's going for a specific reason, and he's

right on time. God is always on time. His main purpose is the fulfilment of the scriptures.. Why? For us…As this is done we are gifted with forgiveness of our sins , paid for with his blood..

And I love studying this stuff, because afterwards "I can relax. God has my life and your life in his hands. God has our next breath in his hands. He's in control."



"And then one said to him, 'Lord, are there few who are saved?'

" Think of that question; it's really a good question.

It's a question that most people have the wrong answer to.

And we’ll continue with Jesus on his journey to Jerusalem next week… And consider this question “ are there few who are saved”?

Let us pray..

Our father we are thankful for your heavenly presence tonight.. to teach us and guide us to the right path. We ask tonight for your blessing upon our modest bible study and all of its members, past and present, their families and loved ones. Help us go forward with renewed faith and strength so that our light will shine in an increasingly dark and threatening world… Help us to empty our container of falsehoods, negativity which are planted by Satan that we may make room in our lives for the gifts from you… We know that only through you can we be whole, strong in this life and saved in the next… Thank you for your patience , and mercy as even the best of us are undeserving…

We give thanks and ask all in Jesus’ name…

Amen