Sermon Tone Analysis

October 11, 2015

*Read Lu 10:10-13* – In our study thru Luke, Jesus has just finished a long evangelistic sermon that began in 12:1 with the parable of the fig tree emphasizing that the only life that will find favor with God is a life that is bearing fruit – that is, good deeds in keeping with repentance, resulting from faith.

Not works to earn God’s favor, but works that show repentance is real.

Now in vv.

11-17, Lu shows us a real life example of each type of person – one who has fruit, and one who does not.

One who believes in Christ and one who does not.

One who is repentant and one who is not.

One who is saved by grace and one who is condemned by legalism.

This is a critical comparison because every person alive is in one category or the other.

And it is our response to the message of Jesus, the gospel, that makes all the difference.

Here in CO, we know all about the continental divide -- that imaginary geographic line that determines the flow of streams to the ocean.

All rain water falling west of the line eventually ends up in the Pacific Ocean.

All water falling on the east ends up in the Atlantic or Gulf.

It seems far-fetched, but two raindrops can land within a fraction of each other in our mountains, but one will end up in the Pacific, and the other in the Atlantic.

So close to begin with – so far apart in the end.

And all determined by where they land.

And that is the message of the gospel, Beloved.

Here are two people who were at the same synagogue on the same Sabbath in 1st century Palestine.

They met the same Jesus and heard the same message.

But one has been in hell for the last 2,000 years and the other has been in heaven.

The difference?

The decision they make regarding Jesus’ call to repentance.

Decisions made in this life have eternal consequences.

We can decide where we will fall.

Will it be grace or legalism?

People often contrast grace and law.

But the real contrast is with legalism.

The law is good.

It is a tutor.

It helps us understand how far short we fall of God’s standard to drive us to grace.

And after repentance it helps us produce fruit.

But legalism is the wrong use of the law.

It is the attempt to reach God on my own.

It is the refusal to accept grace.

As we will see, legalism hates grace.

But as we see this tale of two responses, I hope we will be driven again to the cross of Christ to find mercy and grace.

Looking today at grace.

What characterized this woman that shows grace in her life?

*I.

She’s Crooked*

This is Jesus’ last visit to a synagogue in Luke.

These places of opportunity have become places of confrontation as opposition mounts.

Some here hope to catch Jesus violating their Sabbath rules.

He will shame them into silence.

Now, as Jesus is teaching, this woman enters.

She is late, perhaps due to her disability.

Nevertheless she is there!

Lu says 11b: “She was bent over (literally, bent double) and could not fully straighten herself.”

She shuffles to a seat – eyes always on the ground.

One commentator says, “She walked about as if she were searching for a grave.”

To look up would have taken an immense effort.

She is horribly deformed and has been so for 18 years.

Modern medicine has identified her condition as spondylitis deformans.

But it was not a mere happenstance.

Notice that v. 11 says it was the result of a “disabling spirit”, and in v. 16 Jesus further clarifies that she has been bound by Satan.

Satan and his demons can never do more than God allows, but we know that he was allowed to infect Job with a horrible case of boils.

And Paul had some kind of physical disability which he calls “a messenger of Satan to harass me” (II Cor 12:7).

This woman’s condition was also the result of demonic activity.

That doesn’t mean that she was demon-possessed.

Jesus does not cast out a demon here.

But her condition was demonically imposed.

She would also have been an outcast from society.

Why? Remember the Pharisees taught that such disabilities were the result of personal sin.

They were wrong about that, but that is what they taught.

Thus this woman would have been considered a disgrace.

She’s a crooked woman.

In this case, her physical crookedness represents the spiritual crookedness that infects every person who is ever born.

Many want to deny that reality, but, Beloved, grace can only begin its work when there is a recognition of the dark heart that is part and parcel of our human condition.

Why would someone accept grace if they feel they do not need it?

Until we realize that our guilt before God is real and not imagined, we will not seek a cure.

But real it is – and it’s been that way for a long time.

David says in Psa 51:5, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.”

He didn’t develop his sin problem somewhere along the line.

It was his from the moment of conception – long before Bathsheba.

He was morally crooked from the very beginning.

For grace to enter our picture, we must own the guilt.

John Stott explains: "After God gave the promise to Abraham, He gave the Law to Moses.

Why?

He had to make things worse before He could make them better.

The law exposed sin, provoked sin, condemned sin.

The purpose of the law was to lift the lid off man's respectability, to disclose what he is underneath – sinful, rebellious, guilty, under the judgment of God and helpless to save himself.”

When we soft-pedal sin, Beloved, we stifle grace.

Grace cannot do its work until we see how crooked we are.

It was easy to see in this woman, but spiritually, we all have spondylitis deformans.

Grace is the only cure – a cure we won’t accept unless we see how crooked we really are.

*II.

She’s Chronic*

That means this poor, bent woman could do nothing to help herself – nor could anyone else.

You can bet she had consulted the best help available, but after 18 years, it is clear.

Her condition is permanent.

Humanly speaking she is without hope.

In this she represents the human condition without Christ.

This is where most people stumble.

They do not consider themselves spiritually lost.

They believe they are retrievable.

They are not so bad compared to others they know – certainly not like criminals and reprobates.

But God sees us very differently.

Paul says in Eph 2:1-2, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.”

The key word there is dead.

Spiritually dead people walk around physically and are spiritually led by the values of the world.