Sermon(Lk 13:10-17): Blessed Sabbath

The original Korean text: https://blog.naver.com/stevision/50025252471

 

 

 

Scripture reading: Lk 13:10-17

 

 

>> Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. 11 And there was a woman who had had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years; she was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. 12 And when Jesus saw her, he called her and said to her, "Woman, you are freed from your infirmity." And he laid his hands upon her, and immediately she was made straight, and she praised God. 14 But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the sabbath, said to the people, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be healed, and not on the sabbath day." 15 Then the Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger, and lead it away to water it? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?" 17 As he said this, all his adversaries were put to shame; and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him. <<

 

(The members of the church in Korea are divided into these groups: the kid (elementary student) department, the middle & high school student department, the university student department, the unmarried adult department, and the married adult department. The university student department is united to the unmarried adult department in churches that are not big.) An >unmarried adult (youth) group< of a church invited a christian vocal band belonging to a missionary organization before. The vocal group sang the gospel songs mainly, and believers of the church listened to the songs. But after the performance, the minister said, "These days, the christian songs are so secularized, and many gospel songs are jazz-like. We must sing songs apt for the gospel in the church." He publicly gave the gospel singers such a shame while they were still on the stage! I have attended a worship service held in a presbyterian College before. By the way, when the preacher preached in somewhat imprudent words, one of the attendants of the service suddenly yelled and rebuked the preacher, saying, "Why do you preach like that?" I, a Methodist(!), was absolutely stunned at the scene then. The words the preacher used were not too imprudent, I think, but the man who belonged to a conservative denomination seemed to think that the preacher didn't keep the service holy, so he was furious and made such a fuss. ‘This is the very conservative orthodoxy that I've heard of only from rumor!’ But these two examples are the cases that destroyed the holiness to keep other holiness. The members of the praise team prepared the performance in prayer and sang the songs in gratitude for God, nevertheless, were they not praises but jazz? Is it a true conservative attitude for an attendant to cry aloud to spoil the holy worship service?

 

My brethren! If you are a Christian, please have a sound personality. A man of sound personality treasures others and their works. Accept the pastor as precious one in the church and respect what he does. The senior pastor, too, should treasure the assistant pastor or the evangelist (전도사(jundosa), the unordained pastor) or the laity and their works. If you, without reason, get angry at them, frown at them, dislike them, and turn down their achievements, only the God is blamed because of you. Because you are in the position of God's agent. Why do you ruin the feelings of both the God and the devoted ones by defiling their devotion that God already has accepted pleasantly, with your thoughtless words produced by your whim? Why do you so estrange the God from the devoted who work hard for him? And why do you require others to be so perfect when you're not perfect?

 

Look at the leader (ruler) of the synagogue in the text of today. Having finished preaching on sabbath, Jesus laid his hands on a woman who had suffered from a disease for 18 years and healed her. Jesus was glad, and the woman was glad, and God the Father was so glad. People who were there were so amazed and glad as to almost faint. But the synagogue leader was in a bad mood. Why? Because he couldn't heal the suffering woman while she had been attending the worship on every sabbath for 18 years, but Jesus healed her by performing a miracle after he had preached as a visitor. In a word, because his pride was injured! So, unjustly, he publicly criticized Jesus on the basis of the ordinances of the Sabbath in order to keep up his prestige. My brethren, please see if there is any bad motive to maintain your self-respect before you libel and rebuke others. If you don't have such a bad motive, nevertheless, do not mistake your personal thoughts as the word of God and do not criticise others based on your personal thoughts. And I want you to realize what the true authority is. He who exalts himself by despising others' good works is a base fellow. True authority is in acknowledging and appreciating and rejoicing in the good and great accomplishments of others. The authority on art recognizes the value of a good painting when he sees it, and has delight in it. Everything the believers have accomplished in prayer through the wisdom and strength of the Holy Spirit has infinite value, because all works of the Holy Spirit are beautiful and valuable. The authority of faith rates even a praise song of a stammering child high. Of course, when you acknowledge the value and devotion of others, your pride may be somewhat hurt. But your pride will not be hurt if you think all abilities come from God. And there is no reason for them to boast of their great works. A person who thinks he has some ability prides himself when he achieves something, but feels shame about himself when others achieve something great. The synagogue leader of the Bible text today is the one who destroyed the good atmosphere just when everyone was happy. Do not imitate this wrong attitude!

 

John the Baptist is a good model for us. He correctly introduced the Savior Jesus to the people. “This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” John was so humble that he said he didn't deserve to be a servant of Jesus. And he said, "He (Jesus) must increase and I must decrease. (Jn 3:30)" John was a man who was pleased to see the bridegroom Jesus have the bride, the believers (Jn 3:29). Believers doing the work of God should not wield the crude authority of the leader of the synagogue but must imitate the refined humble authority of John the Baptist. John's religious personality was such that Jesus the Son of God was baptized by him (John). If we admit God's authority and are truly humble before him, he will exalt us.

 

The Sabbath has three main meanings. First, the Sabbath is the day of God. The Sabbath has its origin in the fact that God created the world for six days and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Sabbath is the day when all the creatures of the earth remember their Creator and thank and praise him. In other words, the sabbath day is the day of worship of God. Thus, the Sabbath is the weekly anniversary of the Creator. Anniversary Day is for the lord of the day. The Sabbath is a day for God only. So, the Sabbath is not a day for each individual to pursue his own profit or to have fun. God forbids it sternly. The Sabbath is a day of remembering, worshiping, thanking, and praising God. Therefore, each individual should not destroy the atmosphere of this Sabbath. If you are having a birthday party and suddenly a party attendee is trying to play alone, the party atmosphere will be marred, which is an insult to you. The same is true of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a day when all humans, livestock, and beasts worship the Creator God. on that day, if an individual goes out to work in his farmland, this is to break the mood of the universal Sabbath, which is a great sin to God, the Lord of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is not our day. God gives six days of the week to man. In the six days God does not break the working atmosphere of humans. Rather, God himself helps human beings to work in these days. He gives us sunlight, winds and rain, so that we can eat and live. But God fixed the seventh day as the Sabbath, and strictly ordered us not to break the atmosphere of the Sabbath and not to do our work on that day. Brethren, please observe the Sabbath strictly. Especially those who live by the grace of God in their daily lives should keep the Sabbath well.

 

The Sabbath has the meaning of rest and recovery. God commanded that even all male servants, maidservants, and livestock rest from work on the Sabbath. This is the kindness and benign consideration of God who loves and cares for lives. only to have made a machine is not enough. If it breaks down, you have to fix it. It's not enough for you only to give birth to a child. You should take care of the child and nurture him. That is the attitude of a responsible person. God made the law for the slaves and the working livestock in the position of the weak to work for six days and one day to rest. He took considerate measures for them, allowing them to rest so that they may get new strength, heal the sick body and live a new life. Because of the Sabbath, servants and livestock can live without giving up hope. 'Let's rest well on this week's sabbath day' - thanks to this hope, they can do their hard work today. The Creator God heals the creatures through the Sabbath. This is what God does on the Sabbath day. Life-charging (-injecting) is done on the Sabbath. Therefore, it is a duty of the Sabbath to help the cattle water, because it is a kind of life-charging. Therefore, it does not matter at all for Jesus to cure a woman who has suffered from illness for 18 years, on the sabbath day. Rather, Jesus is telling us through today's word that the laborers and the heavily burdened will worship God on the Lord's Day (the Sabbath) and will be recharged with the life-giving power of God. on his day, God recharges your feeble life that has been exhausted for six working days. Therefore, saving life or treating illness should not be neglected on the Sabbath as well.

 

The Sabbath is the day when the blessing is given to man. God likes to bless his children. But there is a condition for that. God blesses those who offer all their time of the Sabbath to God, not doing any personal works. The reason is that God wants to teach the Christians and the secular people that the blessing of God comes upon those who love God. If God blesses those who frequently do not keep the Sabbath day, Christians and the people of the world will think that the fountain of the blessing is not God, and that man's power or other idols can bless man. So God blesses only the children of God who observe the Sabbath so that all people may know that God blesses those who fear God. By the way, in the eyes of the Christians and the secular people, the evidence that one fears the God is that he does not work on one of the seven days and worships God then. Thus God asks believers to celebrate the Sabbath so that he may bless ones who have proved children of God. If God says, "Anyone of you who want to be blessed much, raise hand," won't you raise your hand unconditionally? To keep the Sabbath is the very motion of raising hand to receive the blessing. (What is more, God commands us to receive the blessing by resting! only a fool can reject this very good commandment.) When we observe the Sabbath, we prove ourselves to be children of God, then God blesses us, the true children of God, then the people of the world find God who blesses man through us who have observed the Sabbath and been blessed, then they, too, will believe in God. Brethren, the surest way of evangelization is that you are blessed by observing the Sabbath. I have shown you the surest way of blessing and evangelization, so never forget this secret(!) method. “Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil. (Is 56:2)” “And hallow my Sabbaths that they may be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I the Lord am your God. (Ezek 20:20)”

 

Jesus rebukes those who ruined the good atmosphere for being hypocrites. The hypocrites as revealed through the text are those who do evil things but forbid others to do such things, and do not do good works but recommend others to do such good works. Or a hypocrite is he who does good works but prevents others from doing them. Hypocrites are those who care about domestic animals on the Sabbath, but forbid Jesus to care for the children of God on the same day. Of course the two aren't exactly the same, but both of them are the same in that they all are an activity on the sabbath day. Nevertheless, they say that they can move on the Sabbath but others must not. If a pastor strives to increase the number of believers of his church in order to live in abundance, but ignores as to how the pastor of the neighboring church lives in poverty, nevertheless preaches a holy sermon, saying, "Pay attention to the poor!", then he is certainly a hypocrite. If you are unwilling to yield any believers of your church to the poor pastor, please assist him with the cost of living. I ask you in the name of Jesus. Please help the poor pastors as long as you can, and do not try to live well alone. Aren't you the same pastor before Jesus? A hypocrite affronts or speaks ill of others publicly or privately in order to save his face. The hypocrite also says that he works for the glory of God, but in fact seeks only his own benefit and glory. The hypocrite attacks the righteous with the words of Scripture. Conclusively, the hypocrite lacks one - love. The Bible says that, if you have no love, you are a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. Usually, hypocrites have a big voice like a clanging cymbal! You become a hypocrite easily when you think a problem to be another's problem. Suppose that one of his (the synagogue-leader's) family had suffered from illness for 18 years and was healed by Jesus on the Sabbath. He wouldn't be a hypocrite in that situation, although he was a hypocrite at other times. The Bible teaches you to love your neighbor as yourself. He who loves his neighbor as himself can not be a hypocrite. Jesus took the sins of pitiful sinners upon himself and tried to solve the problem of sin before God the Father. “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed. (Is 53:5)” Like a sheep before a shearer, like an ox brought to the slaughter, our Savior Jesus himself silently paid the price of our sins.

 

My beloved brethren, delight yourselves in the Sabbath. on this day you will be healed and restored, and will receive a new strength to live, and will meet the God and receive blessings from him. May Jesus lay hands on you, cure you, give you an infinite blessing on every Sabbath!

 

 

Chong Tack Kim

 

                                   - Dongtoma Sunshine Church -