"SET FREE!"

9.00am and 10.30am Sunday 16 March 2003

Rev Des Botting

Reading: Luke 13:10-17

Gods desire and intention for His children is wholeness. The Hebrew word for peace, shalom, and the Greek word for save, carry this meaning. When Jesus said, "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn its people. He sent him to save them!" This was His meaning. God wants wholeness in our relationships, both with Him and each other, and wholeness for our lives in body, mind and spirit. Wholeness was what Jesus gave the woman in the reading from Luke this morning.

Just as Jesus combined healing with His teaching, we are going to do the same this morning. We will look briefly at the account of the healing of this woman on the Sabbath, and then provide an opportunity for healing prayer. This is the last recorded occasion of Jesus being in a synagogue before His death.

Note the following significant points:

1. The LOCATION of this woman. "One Sabbath, Jesus was teaching in a Jewish meeting place, and a woman was there" Real estate agents say that when you want to buy a house, the first three things to look for are location, location, and location. Similarly, location is important in Gods economy, too. That is, putting ourselves where we might hear from God, meet with God, receive from God, and serve God. This woman was attending her local place of worship, her church. She had come to where she could hear Gods Word and worship Him. It may not have been easy for her to get around. The womans deformity is described by A. Rendle Short as spondylitis deformans; the bones of her spine were fused into a rigid mass. Any person I have known with her condition, move about with great difficulty. But she did not make that an excuse for not making the effort to be in the synagogue that day.
2. The ANONYMITY of this woman. We do not know anything about her, but that she was in the synagogue that day where Jesus saw her, called her forth, and healed her. Apart from the fact that it put Jesus into conflict with the authorities yet again, we do not know anything else about this woman, and we do not need to know. What we do know is that she had a divine appointment that day. God knew her need, and met it in an amazing way. She may well have been prompted by Gods Spirit to go to the synagogue that day. Sometimes God gives people a sense that something special is going to happen, and they come with a real sense of expectancy. You may not know why you have come this morning. That does not matter as God knows what your need is today. He knows everything there is to know about you. As we saw a few weeks ago, Jesus said, "Five sparrows are sold for just two cents, but God doesnt forget one of them. Even the hairs on your head are counted. So dont be afraid! You are worth much more than many sparrows." He cares about you, and as you come to Him in faith, He can touch your life as He did that womans.
3. The CONDITION of this woman. Luke tells us that "a woman was there who had been crippled by an evil spirit for 18 years." That is, her physical problem had a spiritual base. We are not told what happened 18 years before that allowed this evil spirit to afflict this woman in this way, but you can be sure that this kind of thing doesnt occur for no reason. Frank and Ida Hammond have written a book called Pigs in the Parlor, A Practical Guide to Deliverance. In it they say that Demons are evil personalitiesspirit beingsTheir objectives in human beings are to tempt, deceive, accuse, condemn, pressure, defile, resist, oppose, control, steal, afflict, kill and destroy. They go on to say that demons require open doors to gain entry into a persons life. They cannot just enter a person whenever they want to. Something must give them the opening they need to be able to do so.

The following are two of the ways this can happen. The first is

1. SIN. Demons can enter a persons life through sins of omission and commission, that is, things that we have done, and things that we know we should have done but have failed to do. An example of the sin of commission is the account of Ananias and Sapphira in the Book of Acts. Many people in the church at that time were selling their property and giving their money to the leaders to help provide for the poor. The Bible says, "Ananias and his wife Sapphira also sold a piece of property, but they agreed to cheat and keep some of the money for themselves." That is, they were covetous and kept part of the proceeds, while making out that they had given it all to the church. It was supernaturally revealed to Peter, that this was so. So when Ananias brought the money to the apostles, Peter said to him, "Why has Satan made you keep back some of the money from the sale of the property. Why have you lied to the Holy Spirit?" Because of their sin, Ananias and Sapphira opened themselves to the spirits of covetousness, lying and deceit.

One of the most obvious ways that people open themselves to evil spirits through the sin of omission is the failure to forgive. In Jesus account of the official who refused to forgive a fellow official, even although the king had forgiven him a far greater debt, the Greek wording says that the king "delivered him to the tormentors until he should repay all that was owing to him." Unforgiveness opens the door to the torment of spirits of resentment, bitterness and hatred.

A second way in which evil spirits gain entry into people lives is through

2. LIFE CIRCUMSTANCES. Evil spirits have no sense of fairness. They attack people at their weakest and most vulnerable moments, which for many can be during their childhood. This would have been the case with the father we read about earlier in Luke. When Jesus, Peter, James and John came down from the mountain they were met by a large crowd. "But just them someone in the crowd shouted, Teacher, please do something for my son! Hes my only child! A demon often attacks him and makes him scream. It shakes him until he foams at the mouth, and it wont leave him until it has completely worn the boy out." Children are completely dependent upon others for their protection. Increasingly we are hearing how adults have abused this trust. This can leave a child traumatized, afflicted, and unable to live as a normal, healthy human being, until they receive help to work through whatever it is that has happened. Sometimes it can be physical abuse, but it can also be verbal abuse. The power of the spoken word over a childs life, can be either life-giving or life-destroying. Often what has happened influences a childs attitude toward his or her parents, so that very frequently one of the first questions counselors ask when a person comes for help is, How did you relate to your parents as a child? The Hammonds relate how often they have heard the replies, such as, My Father was an alcoholic. They go on to relate the various fears associated with this condition in the home. There was insecurity and often poverty because the father was unable to provide, or spent the family income in support of his addiction. Children growing up in such a home become embarrassed and ashamed.

Although we do not know the background of this woman that Luke tells about, there would have been something that would have provided an opening for her to be afflicted by an evil spirit in this way. (Beryl Burgess story)

We are told that this woman had been like this for 18 years. That is a considerable length of time, given the life expectancy of those times. When a person has had a condition for that long, they have often given up hope of ever getting better. This may well have been how she felt.

Further we are told, "she was completely bent over and couldnt straighten up." Have you noticed how Luke describes in great detail the condition of this woman. It is characteristic of one with medical knowledge to provide this kind of information. It makes life very difficult for a person like that. They stand out from other people. In the synagogue the women and children were always separated from the men, and the boys who had had their bar mitzvah. They had to stand at the back or side of the building, or in the gallery. We are told that, "When Jesus saw the woman, he called her over." Because she would have been away from where the men were seated, she would have had to come over to where He would be standing as He taught. This may have been a further reason for the man in charge of the synagogues displeasure at this healing. She would have been encroaching on that part of the building where only the men were permitted to go.

See how Jesus called this woman to the front so that he could heal her. We are going to do the same this morning as we want to make healing prayer an integral part of this service.

Note, too,

4. The IMMEDIACY of both Jesus response and her healing. Jesus calls her over as soon as He becomes aware of her presence. He acts immediately to set her free. Luke says, "When Jesus saw the woman, he called her over and said, You are now well." There are many occasions where the word immediately is used to describe the actions of Jesus to help someone. When Peter started sinking while walking on the water toward Jesus, as soon as he cried out, "Save me, Lord!" we read, "Right away, Jesus reached out his hand. He helped Peter" This was particularly true when he healed people like this woman. When Peters mother-in-law was sick with a high fever we read, "Jesus went over to her and ordered the fever to go away. Right then she was able to get up and serve them a meal." When the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years pushed through the crowd to touch Jesus, we read, "As soon as she came up behind Jesus and barely touched his clothes, her bleeding stopped." On all these occasions, Jesus help was immediate, and brought an instant result. But not all Jesus healings were that quick. When he healed the 10 lepers, it was as they went to show themselves to the priests that they were healed. So, too, with the blind man who was told to go and wash in the pool of Siloam, it was only as he washed the mud off his eyes that he saw. The moment we ask, He goes to work on our behalf in whatever way is appropriate. For this woman, it was to set her free immediately. Jesus came to destroy all the works of the devil, to set at liberty those who were oppressed, and to show through His healings that Gods reign and rule, was in their very midst.

What, then, was

5. The OUTCOME.
1. She could STAND TALL Luke says, "He placed his hands on her, and right away she stood up straight." God enables us to do just that. He makes us stand tall when we are set free in Him. Many of us are crippled like this woman and are not all God intends us to be. It is not necessarily a physical crippling, but maybe emotional or spiritual, and we are hampered from experiencing and enjoying the full life God created us for. He wants us all to stand up straight, completely free from the trappings of our past, but especially from those things Satan would put upon us. Satans aim is to keep us crippled so that we will be ineffective and miserable, and unfruitful followers of Jesus. He does not want us to be strong in the Lord, as he knows he will be in the firing line if we are. His whole aim is to keep people in the dark as long as possible, blind to the truth revealed in Jesus. At Cell group last Thursday we watched the second of the Directions videos, and heard Trevor Yaxley share the vision of heaven God gave him when he was having trouble coming to terms with the tragic death of his son. In the vision he experienced something of the overwhelming beauty, peace and joy of heaven. What really spoke to me from his testimony were the words of the Lord when He said, This is what so many people will be missing out on. People are looking in all the wrong places to find fulfillment. They are putting their trust in things that can never satisfy, and the devil wants to keep people this way. I dont know how to put it strongly enough. God loves you with a love that will never let you go. He wants you to know Him personally and to spend eternity with Him in heaven. What He has laid up for us we cannot begin to imagine. What fools we are if we, like Esau in the Bible, despise our true inheritance in God, and settle for something that only satisfies for the moment. God will make us stand tall in Him. How many times I have seen it happen in a persons life, crippled, not physically but in so many other ways, enter into a completely new life when they come to know Jesus? They have been able to hold their head high because Jesus has set them free. They are children of the King.
2. She WORSHIPPED God "She stood up straight and praised God." Immediately she was healed, she turned her thanks and praise to God. We were created to live for Gods honour and praise, to bring glory to Him. We are to worship Him, for He is worthy of all our praises. He is the one we are to worship and serve. In answer to the third temptation of the devil, Jesus replied, "The Scriptures say, Worship the Lord your God and serve only him." Only God is worthy of our worship, not Satan, or any created thing. Just as it was Gods intention for the nation of Israel when they left Egypt to offer worship to Him, so it is the same for us. As it says in Peter, "But you are Gods chosen and special people. You are a group of royal priest and a holy nation. God has brought you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Now you must tell all the wonderful things that he has done. The Scriptures say, Once you were nobody. Now you are Gods people. At one time no one had pity on you. Now God has treated you with kindness." We are to live for Him and declare all He has done.

The final outcome was the response of those who witnessed this healing. It was either

3. COMPASSION or CRITICISM. Luke says, "Jesus words made his enemies ashamed. But everyone else in the crowd was happy about the wonderful things he was doing." Just as it was then, so it is today. Jesus draws completely opposite responses. Jesus puts His enemies to shame for their legalistic, hard-hearted attitude towards this crippled woman whom He has just set free. How different was the attitude of the crowd. They rejoiced in what God had done before their eyes. This was something to praise God about, rather than getting upset that it had been done on the Sabbath. When we look at the story of the two sons, we will see the same two responses. What the Jewish leaders failed to realise is that we are all sinners in need of the grace of God. Compassion is what God is looking for, not criticism.