Luke 14:1-6

This morning, I invite you to turn with me to the book of Luke as we continue our study through this book. I want you to turn with me to chapter 14 as we begin a new chapter. Luke, chapter 14, verses 1 through 6. And it came to pass as he, Jesus, went into the house of one of one of the house of one of six. the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath day that they watched him. And behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy. And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? and they held their peace. And he took him and healed him and let him go. And answered them, saying, which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit and will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath day? And they could not answer him again to these things. God bless to us is sacred and holy word. No matter how you conduct yourself in this life, you’re going to find that the ungodly are always going to find some reason to be against you. They’re never going to be pleased. Scripture tells us that John the Baptist came neither eating or drinking. He limited his… interaction with the lost in many ways. And they said of him, he had the devil. Our Lord Jesus Christ came eating and drinking. And they said, Behold, a gluttonous man and a wine bivor, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children. And both John and Jesus, certainly did what was right in God’s sight. This portion of our Savior’s history gives us an opportunity of observing how he conducted himself while in the world. And it provides, I think, a number of lessons for us in our interaction with the loss. And so we want to learn from us. from Christ’s example here. And I’ll begin by saying this. You should seek opportunities of doing good on the Sabbath day. Here in verse one, we read, and it came to pass as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath day that they watched him. We see here that you can, except the hospitality of the ungodly. Our Lord did so. Jesus eats and drinks here with one of the chief Pharisees, the major ruler of the Jews. He is opposed by the Pharisees, we know in general. Like most of the sect, this man appears to have been against Christ in the gospel, but he still accepted his hospitality. Evidently, this dinner gave Jesus Christ an opportunity to present an opportunity to present the truth. And so he took it. This man was not a disciple, nor is he a friend of the Lord. But Jesus spent part of the Sabbath at his table, speaking to him and those around him his friends. We see that intercourse with the ungodly is necessary to promote God’s truth. How our Lord conducted himself at the Pharisees’ house only requires a little more reading here to see. And you see him defending the true obedience or true observance. I should say of the Sabbath day. Scripture tells us that our speech should be seasoned with soul and always with grace. And you can follow Christ’s example as long as you are about your Father’s business. And that’s what Jesus is doing here. So you can accept the hospitality, the ungodly. You can learn how to intercourse. with the unconverted people around you. Now this is often a difficult subject when we have to interact with those who are ungodly around us and in order to witness to them. Because we don’t want to be drawn into their worldly ways. And so there has to be some caution. Christ has left you, I think, a pattern on how to do this. In fact, if you read the the Gospels, he’s a master at doing this. He’s extremely good at how he interacts with the lost around him. So we should endeavor to walk in his steps here. You don’t need to withdraw from unbelievers altogether, but you ought to go into their company carefully, prayerfully, and watchful, be alert, in other words, because there are dangers associated with being around the ungodly, and we should be alert to this. The world’s habits and thinking are evil. And so we have to be cautious. But we go into this such intercourse with a firm resolution that we’re going to carry out our master’s business. Now, every Christian has his proper gift from God. Some people are going to be better at this than others. We should look at that and recognize that. You can’t allow yourself, though, just to get caught up in the light and worldly conversation alone. You must seek opportunity to press home, the truth of God’s word. in the conversation. We turn the conversation, if we can, to godly matters. The difficulty you’re going to have is the world will try to turn it back to other things. They don’t want to stay in that godly area. But you should seek the opportunity of doing good on the Sabbath. Jesus here is doing so. Secondly, you can expect to be closely watched by the ungodly. The last phrase of verse 1, they watched him. Now, what does this tell us? It tells us that the eyes of Christ’s enemies were constantly on him, looking for a reason to condemn him to have a malicious assault against him. They’re looking for some fault to discredit him. So we see this was not just benign that he was asked in this dinner. They actually have an evil purpose. And yet Jesus goes, anyhow, because he has a good purpose. Thankfully, he’s always the one that comes out ahead, and he’s always the one that comes out of head, and he’s exchanges. So here they are on the Sabbath day laying a trap for Jesus Christ. They’re not interested in true worship. They’re interested in tricking Christ or getting him to say something by which they can condemn him. Jesus was subjected to this all the time throughout his ministry. There were always coming up with something. So our Lord behaved here blameless. He was holy, harmless, and undefiled. And we see him very carefully manipulating through all this. So we have the eyes of Christ’s enemies constantly on him. Now, if you desire to serve Christ, realize this. You’re going to be carefully watched by the world. They’re going to look at your life under the microscope. They’re going to screw up. scrutinize it very carefully. Look for some flaw, some way to discredit you. Say he’s a fake. He’s not a real serious person spiritually. So this malicious spirit didn’t die out with the paris. He’s still with us today. Now, there are many who concern themselves with evil designs under the mask of friendship. It’s common for a Christian to be so carefully watched in order to find some fault in him or her. Now, it’s your duty, not to give the ungodly a reason to condemn you. To be careful so you’re not discredited or the faith isn’t to discredit it. Everything you say and do they’re going to scrutinize very careful. You know, when the Medes and the Persians took over the Babylonian Empire, Darius ruled over the nation. And the prime mead seemed to be some type of organization. So he set up 120 princes over the realm, and then three presidents over those princes. one of which we know was Daniel. Now, the three presidents, it seems, were to check the work of the 120 princes. In other words, they were to be overseers for them to prevent any corruption or theft regarding the tax collection in the empire. Daniel served. well the king, Darias, and he noted that. And he was going to set Daniel over everybody, as the scripture tells us, including the other two presidents. Now, of course, this aroused the jealousy of the 120 princes and the two presidents, and so they sought a way to undermine him. Because no graft or theft would be possible if Daniel was overseeing everything because he wasn’t going to let it happen. He’s going to carefully review all their work. So Daniel was a man of integrity, and a lot of these princes, no doubt, had sticky fingers when he came to the money, and Daniel was going to prevent that. So the Bible tells us they watched everything that that Daniel did very closely looking for some cheating maybe, some failure, some mistake by which they could discredit him. This tells us, you see, the world is always suspicious, always looking for a way to undermine the godly. Now the wonderful thing about Banu is no matter how closely they looked at it. couldn’t find anything and so they knew they were in trouble he was faithful and no error of fault was found in him now Daniel could easily have been affected by the corrupt environment in which he was living if everybody else is taking graft it would be easy to take graft yourself but the scripture tells us that the secret source of Daniel’s strength was that he had an excellent spirit in him. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ in him. And being guided and directed by the Holy Spirit, enabled him to live a godly life. How sad it is that today, it’s rarely evident, that those who profess to know Christ have an excellent spirit in them. Professing Christians in the business world often quietly surrender just do like everybody else and don’t think about whether it’s right or wrong. They pick up the hitha heathen customs and practices. You can take whatever you can get your hands on, so to speak. You can be a Christian. in name only, but have the heart of a worldling. If the world puts your life under the microscope, what would they find? You and I were carefully watched what would people find? We can’t be an effective witness in this life for Christ unless we can live in a holy manner in the world. You can expect to be closely watched closely watched. We can’t be closely watched. by the ungodly. Thirdly, verses 2 to 6, you should assert the lawfulness of doing works of mercy on the Sabbath day. Jesus healed the man of dropsy on the Sabbath day. Now the word dropsy here, it seems like this word in the Greek is this is the only place that’s found in the Bible. We don’t have a lot of information from what I can understand is some kind of accumulation of fluid. I don’t know if your body swells up or what the case was here exactly, but this is what he healed the man. Now the expression answering is not used here in the sense of answering a question that is posed to Christ because we don’t have a question posed to Christ because we don’t have a question posed to him. But instead, Jesus was answering what was on their mind. This happens, you know, in Christ, he knows what they’re thinking. And so he often answers before they’ve actually asked. You know, God is said to answer our prayers even before we ask. Well, here’s one of those situations. Before they ask the question, he’s already answering the question. He knows it’s on their minds. It’s always useful to ask, what is it lawful to do on the Sabbath? So the. you might have a clear conscience on this matter. Now, the Pharisees and his friends refused to answer the question. The Bible says they held their peace. They didn’t want to answer that. They were afraid. I think that Jesus Christ would expose them. He often ripped or shreds their positions. And they, they, seemed to want to stay out of trouble. It repeatedly in Luke, this was the case, they continued to believe that healing was a work that shouldn’t be done on the Sabbath day, even though Jesus in Luke 13 showed that it did not violate the Sabbath day. But he’s doing it again here in this paris. It would have been gratifying if they had confessed they were wrong and renounced what they condemned. But they remained silent and trenched in their false doctrine. May you and I be much better than that when it comes to looking at the positions that we have in life? Now, you should avoid a close law. mind and refused to evaluate, and people refuse to evaluate matters candidly and with openness of conviction as they ought to. Since they gave the Lord no answer, he goes ahead, proceeds to heal this man of the dropseysly him to help. We should do what we believe is right on the Sabbath day of especially in regard to helping others and don’t be deterred. So Jesus healed the man of the dropsy on the Sabbath day. You should be able to justify your position by Scripture. Now, Christ’s argument left the others at the dinner speechless. They could not refute what he had to say. Now, the qualification Jesus uses regarding the Sabbath is an act of mercy toward an ass or an ox that has fallen into a pit. Is it right? Is it good to help the suffering animal on the Sabbath day? We covered this previously in Luke chapter 13. But the scriptures remind you to tell us this. A righteous man regarded the life. of his beast. Proverbs 12. 10. God has concerns for the well-being of an animal. It’s interesting if you read the law on the Sabbath day, and we read from Deuteronomy, that he mentions the animals getting rass. He mentions the animals specifically. specifically. And so there is a regard for the animals. In Jonah 411, we read, and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six-score,000 persons they cannot discern between the right hand and the left hand. There’s an infant’s an infant, and also much cattle. Now, you might say, well, what does the cattle? But see, God is considering the animals as well in this situation. And so Jesus is saying, which of you would refuse to help your animal stuck in the pit? Which of you? They all knew they could not condemn such a rescue. It was a good thing to do. The law permits it. Scripture and reason leads you to the same conclusion. conclusion regarding them the suffering man. The Sabbath was made for man, for his benefit, for his good. It doesn’t forbid what is good for a person who needs relief. So it encourages mercy being shown on the Sabbath day. Any regulation applied to the Sabbath day which interferes with charity and kindness is opposed to this purpose, even regarding an animal. Now, if the law allows you to do the lesser act to help an animal, then it must allow you to do the greater act and help a man. And so this is what the scripture, I think, is teaching us. Matthew Henry had an interesting observation on this passage. He said it is not so much out of compassion to the poor creatures or poor creature that they do it as a concern for their own interest. It is their own ox, their own ass, their own ass that is worth money that they will dispense with the law of the Sabbath for the saving of. Now this was an evidence of their hypocrisy that it was not out of any real regard to the Sabbath that they found fault with Christ for healing on the Sabbath. So being covetous, as we were told that they are, their concern was really the money involved in the animal, not really the mercy. And so we see that there is a real fault here in that. Well, let me conclude this morning by saying this. We learn from Christ’s example if we will take the time and think about what he does in this life. It’s wonderful that we have four Gospels, and we have so much information, so much interaction with the world so that we can learn. from it. Seek for opportunities of doing good on the Sabbath day. Whatever we can, we should try to do good and help others on the Sabbath because that’s part of showing mercy. Thirdly, learn how to converse with the young godland. I admit it. This is a difficult thing. As Charles Spurgeon once said that he would be discoursing with ungodly people and he often thought he had the answer. He had something that something’s going to stump him. And he brings it out the next time he meets them. And somehow rather they get a, they wiggle, they have come to some kind of argument that they wiggle out of it. And he found that very frustrating because he would be thinking about how can I get this guy to see this and they’re always finding a way to wiggle out of it. Expect as you go through this life be closely watched. You say you’re a disciple of Christ. They’re going to find out whether that’s true or not. Assert the lawfulness between works of mercy on the Sabbath. These are not real works. Their works of mercy. Always be able to justify your position from Scripture. Try at all times to present the scriptural arguments that you can so that you shut the mouse and silence those who would oppose you on these things. Well, let’s close the word of prayer this morning. Heavenly Father, we confess that we go through this life and it’s often a struggle. We often don’t know what to say or do. We pray for wisdom to interact with those around us. We pray, Lord, that we may learn from Christ’s example, that it may be before our eyes and that we may not be discouraged as he seems to persevere on, regardless of what opposition he faces. Give us such a persevering spirit as well. We do pray, Lord, that you would help us in our witness, that we would look for opportunities, even on a Sabbath day, interact with the lost around us. We ask these things in our witness. Jesus’ precious name with Thanksgiving. Let’s stand now for the benediction. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God, even our Father, which have loved us, and given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good word and work. Just saying, you know, we need to run in a lot of those parts of them in a way, because they’re often looking for reasons, you know, so the bad ones, you know, just, you know, just, you know, is just, you know, it’s in a student.