The 7 Sabbaths of Luke's Gospel

And we're just going to start with a short word of prayer before we read the holy scriptures. Shall we pray? Our father we come before thee in the precious name of the lord jesus christ and we give thanks father for the willingness that thy people have to tune into something of this nature to hear the word of god. We thank thee for what the grace of god has done in our lives.

We thank thee for ever saving our precious souls, for ever sending thy lovely son to die for us at calvary's cross and raising him from the dead and we thank thee today he's now alive forevermore and we bless thee father that our sins have been forgiven in whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins and we thank thee for the gift of the holy spirit indwelling us and for the holy scriptures in our hands and we thank thee for an advocate with the father and a great high priest and the promise of his soon return and we thank thee although we're here locked in our homes we thank thee for the measure of which we can connect with thy people even in this virtual way. Our father we bless thee for all that thou art to us and we ask that as we open up thy word that father it will be used of thy holy spirit to comfort those people to challenge us and also our god we ask that we might be those listening in who might need restored perhaps there's folk listening in and they're not saved and father would ask even in a session like this that the word of god would have the power to reach and save them where they are. Father we thank you for this opportunity we crave thy presence and thy blessing and we ask for thy help now in the name of our lord jesus christ amen.

We're going to read in Luke's gospel and chapter number four Luke's gospel and chapter number four together and we're going to read a verse or two in verse number 16. Luke 4 and verse 16 and he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as his custom was he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day and stood up for to read and there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet and when he had opened the book he found the place where it was written the spirit of the lord is upon me because he's appointed me to preach the gospel to the poor he has sent me to heal the broken-hearted to preach deliverance to the captives and the recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty them that are bruised to preach the acceptable year of the lord and he closed the book and gave it to the minister and sat down and the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him now verse number 35 33 sorry verse number 33 and in the synagogue there was a man which had a spirit of an unclean devil and cried with a loud voice saying let us alone what have we to do with thee thou jesus of nazareth art thou come to destroy us i know thee the holy one of god and jesus rebuked him saying hold thy peace and come out of him and when the devil had thrown him in the midst he came out of him and hurt him not and they were all amazed and speak among themselves saying what a word is this for with authority and power he commandeth the spirits and they come out now chapter six and verse one this is the third sabbath day of look look six one and it came to pass in the second sabbath after the first that he went through the cornfields and his disciples plucked ears of corn and the deep rubbing them in their hands and certainly the pharisees said unto them why do you that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath days and jesus answering them said have you not read so much as this what david did when himself was a hunger than they that were with him how he went into the house of god and did take and eat the show bread and gave also to them that were with him which is not lawful to eat but for the and he said unto them that the son of man is lord also of the sabbath now comes the fourth sabbath verse number six they came to pass also on another sabbath that he went into the entered into the synagogue and talked and there was a man whose right hand was withered and the scribes and pharisees watched him whether he would heal on the sabbath day that they might find an accusation against him but he knew the thoughts and said to the man which had the withered hand rise up and stand forth in the midst and he rose and stood forth then said jesus unto them i will ask you one thing is it lawful on the sabbath day to do good to do or to do evil to save life or to destroy it and looking round about upon them all he said unto the man stretch forth thy hand and he did so and his hand was restored whole as the other and they were filled with madness now chapter number 13 luke's gospel chapter number 13 for the fifth sabbath luke 13 and we'll read in verse number 10 verse 10 and he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath and behold there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity 18 years and was bowed together and could in no wise left up herself and when jesus saw her he called her to him and said unto her woman they were loosed from thine infirmity and he laid his hands on her and immediately she was made straight and glorified god and the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation because that jesus had healed on the sabbath day and said unto the people there are six days in which men are to work and then therefore come and be healed and not on the sabbath day the lord then answered him and said without hypocrite doth not each one of you on the sabbath day loose his ox or his ass from the stall and lead him away to watering and not not this woman being a daughter of abraham whom satan have bound lo these 18 years be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day now chapter 14 verse 1 for the sixth sabbath and it came to pass as he went into the house of one of the chief pharisees to eat bread on sabbath day that they watched him and behold there was a certain man before him which had the drop say and jesus answering speak unto this 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 you could not answer him again to these things now the final sabbath days and looks gospel and chapter number 23 only look records this particular sabbath look 23 and verse number 54 look 23 54 says and that day was the preparation and the sabbath drew on and the woman also which came with him from galilee followed after and behold the sepulchers and how his body was laid and they returned and prepared spices anointments and rested on the sabbath day according to the commandment now upon the first day of the week very early in the morning they came onto the sepulcher bringing the spices which they had prepared and that will do with god's blessing i'd like today to speak on the seven sabbaths of looks gospel out of these seven sabbaths four of them are unique to look and they are only recorded in looks gospel and out of these seven sabbaths there's five miracles five sabbath miracles that are found in the synoptic gospels matthew mark and look and look records them all and if you add in the two that john records in john 5 and john 9 the blind man and john 9 and the man at the pool of bethesda we have seven sabbaths miracles in the whole gospels but i've been thinking about these sabbath days ever since lockdown i've been thinking about the situation we're finding ourselves in which is so unusual in our own homes unable to be with god's people and gather around the blessed emblems this morning as we would have longed for and how we pine for it don't we how we long to get back just around the lord and be with god's people again in assembly fellowship it's a great desire we have and here we all are and yet we're gathered around his word today and i was thinking about these sabbaths you see there's a little verse in leviticus 26 in verse 34 i don't know if you've thought about this before but it says that one day the lord would make them enjoy their sabbaths he says as long as it lieth desolate and you shall be in the enemy's land even then shall the land rest and enjoy your sabbaths in other words if israel forgot to remember the sabbath day god would intervene and give the world a sabbath and is god not giving the world a sabbath right now has he not shut down all the idols all the centers of idolatry they've all been shut down and is he not giving us a chance to reflect and think about divine things in a way that perhaps we've not been given opportunity to do for a very very long time i remember some years ago a man who is a very rich man here in scotland and he told me that when he was a boy he lived in an island called lewis on the west coast of scotland and they had a potato farm and his father had a sabbath every seven years they never plowed they never sowed and they never harvested every seventh year and he says we were the richest farmers in lewis and really spoke to me because i was very busy at that time very busy with all sorts of things he spoke to me that here was a situation where for a whole year every seven years they just shut down and i just think that's what god's doing to us just now just giving us a time to think about things in the madness of the rush of our life about matters that are absolutely of vital importance the lord jesus wants us to learn these sabbath lessons and there's seven of them here and we'll have to move quick but they are big lessons to learn the first lesson was luke tells us that he started his public ministry here in nazareth now he's already been in cana of galilee and performed a miracle he's been in various places but as far as luke is concerned luke tells us that he starts his ministry where he was brought up where he was known the carpenter and luke records the lord jesus coming on the sabbath day to the synagogue here in nazareth and one of the outstanding features of the sabbath day is he stands up in the synagogue to read the holy scriptures i find it quite amazing you know that it has that expression there and where we read he stood up for to read the carpenter the one they'd known for the best part of 30 years the one who'd been in the carpenter's shop stood up for to read you remember in john 7 they said of him how knoweth this man letters having never learned as far as they were concerned he was uneducated the one who was the originator of all things the image of the invisible god the one who's the firstborn of all creation as far as they were concerned he was just a carpenter and he stood up for to read the scriptures what a shock they would have got it says there in verse number 16 doesn't it that it was a place where he was brought up he was known and can i just say that all service starts at home and if you're not doing anything at home you've no right to go anywhere else it starts at home and the lord stood up in the place where he was known in order to read the word of god there must have been something about the way he stood up the dignity of it all seems to be a feature of these verses there's something about the way he stands up for to read there's no record that he asked for the prophecy of isaiah there's no record that he asked to read isaiah 61 it's just that the prophecy of isaiah was given to him and i don't know if they had set readings or not in the synagogue i know in later days he did but certainly it would look as if he was just given the prophecy of isaiah and he found the place where it was written there's something very beautiful about it all something about the timing of the lord jesus can you see him finding the place where it was written now the bible that he would have been given would not be a bible that would be in your hands just now it would have been a scroll or a rule and there must have been quite expert to unroll it to the very place there must have been something about the way he just unrolled the scriptures and every eye was fastened on him and he found the place where it was written not only is he showing to us that service starts at home he's showing to us that those who handle the word of god must know the word of god and with an accuracy and with a delicacy and with a dignity he finds the place where it was written and then he begins to read the holy scriptures there was a dignity about the way he handled it and he's showing to us a principle the principle of the learning on the sabbath day of the importance of the word of god here was a people and they'd heard he'd done a miracle in cana of garley he turned water into wine they'd heard he'd performed miracles in capernaum and they had a little proverb that only luke tells us about physician heal thyself i'm sure luke would have known that proverb because he was a physician maybe that's how it stuck in his mind and they had an idea that he should come and entertain them and perhaps he would perform some kind of miracle but no he doesn't perform a miracle in nazareth instead he reads to them with dignity the word of god the eternal word reading the living word and he's teaching them a sabbath day lesson the absolute crucial nature of the word of god dear brother dear sister has it not been the case perhaps in all of our lives that there's been a shallowness in the way we've handled the word of he's showing to us the priority and the pattern and the principle of god's word and with such dignity he opens it and so he begins to read from isaiah 61 what amazing words the spirit of the lord is upon me for he has appointed me to preach the gospel to the poor who could have read those words with the moral authority he did did he not preach the gospel to the poor was he not poor himself was he not the one who owned the cattle upon a thousand hills and the beasts of the forest were his was his was in him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge not found yes but he was also the carpenter of nazareth it says that he said show me a penny he really said to the woman by a well one day give me to drink he who hold held the waters in the hollow of his hand he really was poor it really does say in daniel chapter 9 in the 62nd week shall messiah be cut off and shall have nothing nothing he really did know that people could have their homes john ate one they all went to their own homes jesus went to the mount of hollis the foxes had their holes the birds of the air had their nests but the son of man had not where to lay his head he really was homeless really was born in an outhouse he really was cradled in a manger he really was wrapped in strips of cloth what an amazing story what an amazing truth no wonder the poor heard them because he had the moral authority to preach he sent me to heal the brokenhearted was he not sympathetic was he not the man of sorrows did he not cry was his not heart broken a nation an abandoned god was reproach not filling his heart was he not full of heaviness did he not look round for some to take pity and there was none for comforters and there was none always teaching us the importance of the moral authority to read the word of god was he not the one who preached deliverance to the captives was he not the one who was taken from prison and from judgment taken from a place of restriction did he not know what it was to men to bind them with a cord of hemp the one who bound the oceans with the golden sand and said thus far and no further was bound with a cord yes he was cut off in the midst of his days what authority to speak on this subject did he not set at liberty them that are bruised was he not bruised himself he was bruised for our inequities and he could speak to the bruised and liberate them because he too was bruised aye there's just something about the moral authority to read the verses that he did brothers and sisters has there been times when we've just treated lightly god's word is he not teaching us a lesson of the absolute vital importance the word of god they says i'm here and he says this scripture is fulfilled in your ears what authority what authority brothers sisters do we not long for the authority of god's word amongst us again this should be all worthwhile this sabbath if the power of the word of god was known amongst us again the authority of his word and did he not stop just at the right point did he not read the word of god with such accuracy to preach the acceptable year of the lord that the jubilee had come the day of grace and not read on the day of vengeance of our god because it wasn't the day of vengeance of our god was it not an accuracy and a certainty and a poignancy about the way the lord jesus read the word of god he's teaching us the sabbath day lesson man the word of god do you remember just before this you'd been tested by satan and he said make these stones make these stones bread and he told him that man shall not live by bread alone but by every spoken word of god and that particular temptation is being played out here in nazareth you see brother sisters what will sustain me in life's sabbaths what's the big thing that will sustain me in the great days before us of our lord tarry's is god's word god's word and if this day leads us to a deeper knowledge of his word it will all have been worthwhile but then we come to the second sabbath and the second sabbath is found here in luke 4 it's recorded for us as well by mark and it's the story not so much the sabbath of scripture i've called it the sabbath of satanic power and satanic attack because when he enters into the this time there's a man with an unclean demon or demons because they speak with more than more than a singular voice it's a plural and this man immediately begins to confront the lord jesus and begin to say to him words what have we to do with thee jesus of nazareth we know who they are the holy one of god are they come to destroy us and his master the devil has made him think that god is one who wants to be unkind one who wants to rob him of something he's always been saying that right from the garden of eden has a devil and you'll remember you'll remember that in the second temptation and here look for that the devil asks the lord jesus to bow down and worship him and here in the synagogue false worship is taking place the devil himself is in the synagogue and the lord confronts the man and if in the first sabbath the battles between spiritual things and natural things the people of nazareth wanting a physical miracle against the spiritual nature of the word of god here the battle is between the power of satan and the power of god the power of satan and the power of god and into the synagogue the lord jesus he says hold thy peace and come out of him and the devil throws the man on the ground the man is thrown into the midst do you remember the devil asked the lord jesus he says bow down and worship me that was the one thing he wanted was worship and the battle was not so much now on the word of god but the battle is on worship but it says that the devil the demons came out of him and hurt him not what records oh it's wonderful isn't it here's a man now sitting clothed in his right mind and what we see is the demonstration of the power of god the demonstration of a power of god that's greater than this satanic power i learn now not so much the importance of the word of god but the power of god's word in the sense of over the evil demonic forces that are read against us dear brothers and sisters we have a mighty foe against us and sometimes it's in a period like a sabbath who begin to realize what we're up against thesian six speaks about the the the spiritual wickedness in high places and it speaks about the rulers of the darkness of this world that's sitting behind all the majors commercial powers and behind all the big nations there are other demonic powers of principalities and powers far greater and that we learn that the day we were saved we were delivered from the power of darkness this is colossians 1 12 to 14 and translated into the kingdom of the son of god's love and we we learned that the day we were saved we were delivered from the power of the devil we learn the lord jesus christ has dealt with the power of the devil at the cross hebrews 2 teaches that as the children were made partakers of blood and flesh he also himself likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the devil and deliver them who through fear of death were their lifetime subject to bondage we learn in colossians chapter 2 that that handwriting of ordinances it was against us he took it out of the way and he nailed it to his cross and he stripped principalities and powers and he triumphed over the minute and we learned that the lord jesus christ prince emmanuel is greater than all the power of the devil and yet he's like a roaring lion seeing who made it who made the power he finds himself even in the house of god i know the synagogue's not the house of god i know that he was driven out of the synagogue and the lord jesus instituted a new thing in matthew 18 a local assembly where two or three are gathered together into my name there are my in the midst of them but at this point the assembly was not instituted and the synagogue was a place where the word of god could be read and heard and people could pray together and it was there that the devil placed himself and yes we have a foe that will seek to enter amongst us and seek to destroy the true worship and he's like a roaring lion says peter and he goes about seeking who he made of her and just as the lion stirs up the the option and gets them all agitated and he gets them all moving and then picks off the weak and the vulnerable he gets all the saints all agitated and he wants us all worried and he gets us all worked up and then he begins to pounce and peter says resist the devil resist him he says steadfastly in the faith don't even resisting him in your own strength that will never work but it's in the power of the faith of the son of god who loved me and gave himself for me that the body of truth the word of god is the basis of my resistance and so i learned here on this sabbath day not only the truth of the power of the word of god as he stood up for to read and the priority of his word but i learned to something of this power of the god over the devil himself not just the priority in a world that hates it but the power over the devil some folk have seen uh the the the seven days of creation and the seven sabbaths of luke it's not my subject just to give you it but just just to throw in an idea for you to look at in your own life and your own readings you know in in the first day of creation god said let there be light and there was illumination and you see a little picture of that in sabbath as the lord opened up the book and began to illuminate the page of isaiah 61 and show them something of himself in holy scripture the people that sat in darkness saw a great light and to them that sat in the shadow of death light was sprung up there in galilee and gentiles and then indeed too you might remember it's then the darkness comes in at the end of day one and possibly the fall of satan it's hard to know exactly when that exactly happened but then god separates the waters from the earth above the earth and he creates a thing called the heaven the aerial heavens and in that separation uh we we we see the heavens being created the aerial heavens and of course the devil is called the prince of the power of the air and uh we see just something of the principle of the second day here in this second sabbath in luke's gospel chapter four now let's come to luke's gospel chapter number six luke six these two sabbaths are linked together in the same way as luke four is linked together if in the two sabbaths of luke four we're seeing spiritual things being prominent on those two sabbaths we're seeing here in these two sabbaths here in luke six that are sitting side by side here we're seeing learning the importance of rest and learning the importance of strength the first one it says it happened on the second sabbath after the first and scholars have argued about what that means the second first sabbath some say it as the second sabbath after the first sabbath of the each new year and around about our march april time others see it as the second first sabbath when the the civil calendar started in the seventh month others see it as the second sabbath on the second year of the three years of tithing and so we could keep going on i've seen 10 different explanations i don't know which one it is but i do know it's a sabbath day i do know it's a sabbath day but i learned this that on this particular sabbath whether it was in the barley harvest or the wheat harvest somewhere between the feast of passover and the feast of pentecost the disciples are walking in the fields with the lord jesus a beautiful picture and as they walk in the fields with the lord jesus they're plucking the ears of corn and they're rubbing them in their hands and beginning to eat it it's a beautiful picture really of harmony and peace and rest and in the old testament economy um in israel you know that was perfectly lawful to do um they weren't allowed to to harvest the corners of the field that was for the poor they weren't to take every bit of fruit off the boughs of the tree that was for the poor and it says quite specifically in the book of deuteronomy uh that they were to uh they would be quite permissible for them to pluck years of corn from their neighbors fields and to rub them in their hands and eat them that was the spirit of liberality that sat within the law and within this place and there's a beautiful picture of communion with the lord and rest and peace on the sabbath day precisely what the sabbath was meant to indeed involve well inside this situation there was men who were watching there were men who were watching perhaps who were even watching how far the lord walked because they had a view you weren't allowed to walk more than 2 000 cubits on the sabbath day but anyway as they watched they they got the impression that plucking the ears of corn well why that was just like that was just like that was just like reaping and um as they as they ground it into their into their hands that was like threshing and they started to make new rules and they began to make what was a very lovely thing into something very ugly now that's the context and they began to accuse the lord jesus saying why do you allow your disciples to do these things which are not lawful on sabbath day and the lord jesus addresses them with holy scripture once again you see the power of the word of god first of all it's priority in nazareth then it's power um in in look for and now it's poignancy it's poignancy here and it's as he says to them why do you that which is not lawful on the sabbath day and the lord answers have you not read so much as this what david did and so he takes them on their own ground they think they know the scriptures and he reminds them of a scripture that they hadn't spent enough time thinking about a scripture in the days of david found in 1 samuel 21 when a day of crisis being hounded by saul he reaches the temple and and and there he eats the very showbread which wasn't really permissible for him to eat for the priests alone but in a day of crisis he was permitted to eat it because they were starving and it was indeed they were needing to eat and he points out to them are they going to claim that that david was a sabbath breaker and doing that and so on and the lord begins to address this here in this little section and perhaps as a little reminder to us that even though we can't gather as an assembly and i know i know the elders and glenn ewan would not regard this to be an assembly gathering we cannot gather as an assembly until we're all physically together in one place we understand that but there is an opportunity even in a time of crisis to broadcast the word of god and it's wonderful that we can take that opportunity even at this time but the thing i'd like to say about this these verses is is that it was meant to be something that involves communion with the lord walking in the fields with her like adam walking in the garden eating with him do you remember it reminds me of em of of ruth in luke and ruth chapter two and you know when boaz sits down with her and boaz he eats of the bread and he dips the morsel in the vinegar and he sits and he hands it to ruth and ruth gets to eat from the very hand of boaz and i'm sure she never forgot it this wonderful man that allowed her to eat with the rest of the reapers and actually fed her some corn and that picture of taking the corn and rubbing it in our hands would remind us of leviticus 2 taking the fine flour and allowing the fine flour to run through her hands and enjoying rest and communion with our blessed lord jesus if this time of our shutdown leads to for me to have a deeper enjoyment of my rest and of my communion with christ it will all be worthwhile do you remember marty 11 28 come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and i will give you rest that's the rest of salvation that's the rest of conversion but then it says take my yoke upon you and learn of me and you shall find rest oh that's something different that's the rest of communion and brothers sisters perhaps we've been running about so much that we've not been able to walk with the lord in the fields and eat the corn and just this principle here of just learning what it is to learn to be happy to learn to be contented to learn to be happy when i see others being happy in the lord you know there was a brother phoned me today and it just gave me such a lift he'd been listening to something that we've been preaching on in the book of ezra and he was thinking he says i was so glad that the singers came back in ezra's day in zero rose time and he says i can't build as many walls and as gates as others he says but i like to be a singer i like to be an encourager of others and he says i would just like to be the person like that someone that can be happy when i see others working hard hey brothers sisters that's a big place to be you know to be happy when we see others being happy in the things of the lord to be contented to sit and yes to be thankful for our daily bread the lord jesus taught us that to be thankful for our daily bread he tasked us to pray about that because he asked us speaks about that there's nothing better for a man that you eat and drink and they should make you so happy and perhaps in this time of lockdown we've perhaps appreciated just gathering the family around and eating our own dinner with them mind you that's a blessing but it goes further this the thought of communion and feasting with christ and enjoying his rest and never allowing the legalists to interfere with this allowing people to come in and interfere with what is a very precious thought precious thought of our enjoyment with christ but then in the same chapter and linked to it there's a miracle done on the sabbath day and the miracle is performed once again in the synagogue and it's a man with the withered hand and in this context there's a man with his right hand withered his right hand is weathered and the pharisees are watching it's almost like a test and they bring the man i always think he's sitting on the front seat of the synagogue it's almost like they've placed him there it's almost like a test and they wanted to see whether the lord jesus would perform a miracle on the sabbath day you see they had a rule that that if it was someone dying and it was going to preserve life well it was all right for you to do something then but otherwise you couldn't do anything to help anybody on the sabbath day what a ridiculous rule they'd made up it was never found in the bible but was found in there found in their own thinking and here's a man sitting in the synagogue with a withered hand and look records for us here that the lord jesus knew their thoughts he knew which was in their hearts that's a that's a theme in luke's gospel the one who can read the internal thoughts of the heart and he asks the man to stand forth in the midst it must have been an embarrassment to stand up in the midst of this synagogue and can you see the man with a withered hand and he poses a question to the audience but of course he's posing a question specifically to these religious pharisees and he says is it lawful to do good or to do evil on the sabbath day to save life or to destroy it and of course there's only one answer to that surely there's only one answer to that it's only the right to do good and then in the midst of this as you think about this question he says stretch forth thy hand and the man stretched it out and the bible says it was as whole as the other and this was an amazing miracle performed on the sabbath day and of course he's teaching us a very important lesson this is the sabbath of strength the sabbath the man's right hand right hands associated with strength and it was weather and he's showing the importance of a strengthening ministry these leaders here in the synagogue they had all sorts of technical ideas and technical knowledge but they never dirtied their hands and trying to support and to strengthen others there are people you know and they think that spiritual leadership's like the boardroom where you make decisions about the tarmac round about the gospel hall well we've got to do that too but the most important thing is strengthening the feeble and healing the broken-hearted and brothers sisters there's just something here about not only me enjoying a contentment and enjoying happiness in the first part of chapter six but there's also something about doing good doing good just um last week there i dealt with the last verse of james four and it really came to me with renewed significance therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him it is said when we've been given the opportunity to do good when we've been given the resources to do good and when we've been given the inclination to do good if we don't do it we're sinning that's what that verse is saying and the lord jesus had the resources he had the willingness and he had the opportunity what could he do but do good to this man stretch forth thy hand you know there's those that i know and they spend their life visiting the sick going to hospitals visiting people strengthening the saints doing good you know paul says we are his workmanship created in christ jesus unto good works which god hath before ordained that we should walk in them if this point of lockdown determines in my heart that i'm going to spend my life doing good works for the lord it will all be worthwhile that perhaps i've spent a fair bit of my life indulging myself and prioritizing my own things but philippians 2 says i have to do the things for others then it will all be worthwhile brothers and sisters strengthening god's people oh revelation 3 2 it was sardis was told to strengthen the things which remain look 22 peter when you're converted what have you to do strengthen thy brethren paul when you went back to galatia and you went from assembly to assembly in order in acts 18 what did you do i strengthened all the disciples we need strengtheners we don't just need singers and people who who are here to encourage we need people to strengthen and support and to bring again the people who've right hand is weathered not just physically and not just morally but spiritually too to bring them back to a state of usefulness again amongst god's people i wonder if there's a desire in your heart to see the reality of christianity amongst us not the rituals that these men were trying to impose but the reality of good works we learn that lesson here in the sabbath and for those who want to see a continuation of the seven days of creation on the third day you might remember it was the corn that they were rubbing in their hands and it was the third day that the corn was created that was when the grass was grown that was the first time it was life was on the third day and the fruit and so on all happened on the third day so you can see a little principle there and then on the fourth day the whole principle is of rest and rule you see the right hand speaks of rule and strength and and and and it is on the fourth day it says that the sun was to rule the day and the moon and stars were to rule the night and the principle of rule is established on the fourth day as it is here on this sabbath so we've had the sabbath of scripture we've had the sabbath of satanic attack we've had the sabbath of strength here in the man with the weathered hand and the sabbath sabbath of sovereignty i never measured on that but he did say that the son of man is lord of the sovereignty i was he was the son of he was the son before melchizedek in genesis 14 because it says he was melchizedek was made like unto the son of god not the son of god was made like unto melchizedek he was the son before melchizedek he was the son before the seventh day of creation the son of man is lord of the sabbath day he's the eternal son and he's the lord and he'll decide what we can do or what we can't do and so these two sabbaths are brought together to show us something of the rest and the strength that we can enjoy and what these lessons are we can learn from today now let's come to chapter 13 and chapter 14 again these two sabbaths are brought together these two sabbaths are brought together for us and we have two amazing miracles by luke in this section um and in both cases they are unique um to look you'll remember that we're now on the way up to jerusalem and look 9 verse 50 we learn that we're starting the journey to jerusalem and so all the ministry from look 950 onwards is on the last journey up to jerusalem and in the last few days of the lord's life on earth the incidents we've read about in look 13 and look 14 take place and the first incident is of the woman who's been bent 18 years and the second incident is of the man who is has the palsy which is a he has a bodily fluids building up in his body and he has probably got kidney problems and he's certainly got cardiac problems as well and these two miracles are recorded for us on sabbath days here in this section you can see the woman now she's bent 18 years and look 13 there was a sister in our assembly when i was a boy and she would literally bent over literally almost horizontal and every time i saw i would think of this woman here and look 13 and she had been like that for 18 years what were you doing 18 years ago well this woman would be bent for 18 years and the lord jesus he finds himself in a context where he's introduced to this woman it was a sabbath day it was a synagogue and this lady is there and he tells us later in the in miracle that she'd been bound by satan 18 years so we recognize that there's been devilish activity upon her and he speaks about her being loose from the sabbath day and it's almost as if again these religious people of the day don't want her to be healed they don't want her to be loosed and the lord is to remind them that which one of them have they had an ox or an ass wouldn't loose it and take it away for watering if you'll refresh your beast how can you not allow loosing of this lady for 18 years and he brings before us the principle of the sabbath of setting free the sabbath of unshackling the sabbath of emancipation the sabbath of liberation and the sabbath of being loose and you can see this woman being made straight again in this in the in the synagogue what a remarkable miracle it is you know i do believe that both these miracles that he records and look 13 and look 14 are to remind us of a very important lesson the personal nature of the word of god as he laid hands on her as he spoke to her and he was able to change her and looser from the bind of satan brother sisters one of the things that's encouraged me in this last few weeks of covid19 is the number of people have been in touch to tell me that loved ones and neighbors and friends and individuals that have been witnessing to have either got saved or are listening to gospel meetings it's unbelievable the number of times just even yesterday a sister in the assembly asked us to pray someone is searching deeply in the scriptures last week there a man saw a text in the side of a bus a brother i know puts the text in the side of the bus he got a bible listen to a gospel meeting he got saved another week passed there another man i know who got a bible from us a couple of years ago he got saved in his own home one of the things that's been really encouraging me is that god's the one that can unloose people from their bonds of their sin and it could be that before lockdown that you were praying in the prayer meeting before the gospel meeting for people to come in and just a little pang of conscience came to your soul because you never really asked the enemy to come you aren't really working with anybody and the lord jesus comes to as he says make disciples of all nations and there might be people around about you just now and the sins got a hold faster either bent in two they need to be loose could be an addiction to alcohol or drugs it could be that they've got a fixation with a particular type of sin it could be that they've got a mental block about salvation it could be that a false teacher's got hold of them and held by the false teacher i wonder who's going to work with them i wonder who's going to witness to them could it be you i wonder if we have a desire to spend time with people to share with them the gospel of the grace of god to tell them the one who said you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free to tell them proverbs 5 21 that they shall behold them with the cause of their sin but there's one who's come the lamb of god to take away the sins of the world and they can sing with us my chains are snapped the bonds of sin are broken and i am free brothers and sisters i do believe that god is teaching us the lesson of evangelism even in the time of lockdown even though we can't gather for series of gospel meetings the opportunities are presenting themselves to spend time with people and perhaps when it's all over if our lord doesn't come there'll be many people will be reached and saved because you can contact them you can phone them you can speak to them you can help them you can even share with them the gospel and when lockdown's over you can sit with them you can pray with them you can weep with them you can tell them of the lord jesus christ brothers and sisters let's not forget these men would have left that woman down there sometimes we think some cases are just too far gone but just beyond us you can't change it but the lord jesus is the one who can make them straight again and i've been deeply encouraged in recent years of seeing people who are bound by satan alcoholics and other other vices released by the bonds of other sins and come to know something of the peace of god which passes all understanding i tell you it would all be worth it if this sabbath day lesson was brought to us the idea of lucid and it's not just salvation do you remember when lazarus was raised from the dead do you remember what the savior says loosen and let him go and sometimes when people get saved they come still with the great clothes upon them and they may need to be given help and grace to work with them so they will begin to learn what sin looks like and how their life has got to change salvation is just the start of a journey and we have to be disciples that means that we have to spend time with them that might take up our evenings and that might take up our time but taking up time to tell them that the old grave clothes have to be taken off and they've got to walk in a different way and and and live a different type of life and all of this takes patience and wisdom and guidance maybe learn the lesson of helping others to be loosed but then in the same context in chapter 14 we have this man who has the palsy this man who is drowning in his own body fluids and the lord jesus uses that a very example when he speaks about the ox or the ass in the very well in the very pit drowning in water that's the context he uses this illustration of the man here who's sitting in the home of one of these pharisees deliberately place they deliberately place a man before the law and the man has the palsy and the lord jesus says to them which one wouldn't go in and get his ox his ass and lift him up out of the pit and these two sabbath days that are before us here they remind us of the setting free and the support of the of the of the loosing and the lifting up it reminds us they're brought together to remind us of how god wants us to i see it as a picture not so much of salvation but of restoration there are people today and they're drowning in their own sorrow saints today at home they're not on they're not tuned in here they've got away from the lord something happened many years ago they've not got over it they've not been really at the gatherings for a long time and you know that they're drowning in their own sorrow they're perhaps even depressed that they're allowed allowing something to define them and brothers and sisters there's a distraction about certain sins in their life and they're not the man and the woman they used to be their job is to lift them up and if this time of lockdown we learn this sabbath day lesson this sabbath day lesson of lifting up god's people out of the pits well listen sisters it's not all about theory it's about getting down and bringing them up lifting them out and supporting them and strengthening them and helping them it says in matthew 12 in the correlative section of leviticus chapter 14 how much then is a man better than a sheep the dignity of the man is brought before us by the lord in that context brothers and sisters that truth has just been really pressed upon me who are you supporting just now who are you praying for will be restored in this time lockdown someone will get back to the lord again somebody close to you perhaps somebody across the garden fence somebody down the street somebody used to used to break bad with him let's have a desire to lift him up the lord jesus healed that man and he lifted him up and he was he was no longer immobile like the woman who was disfigured this man too with all his problem would be disfigured and disabled in many ways he was liberated from it all and loosed on the sabbath day just so poignant isn't it and so you can see then the the couplets of these sabbath days and for those who want to see the principles of the first day being brought before us if you see in the fifth sabbath day the idea of loosing the woman said twice by the lord jesus that fits in well with what happened on the fifth day god made the birds and let them fly in the expanse of heaven and let them fly throughout the heavens and an idea of liberty is seen within the birds and the great sea creatures moving through the great oceans and go forth and multiply and replenish the earth the great principle of liberty is seen in the day five and day six oh yes it was in day six that he made the man and he breathed into him a man became a living soul and he was made in the image of god and it's on this day the lord said how much then is a man better than sheep it's of this very very very very lesson here of the man with the palsy that the lord taught the principle of the dignity of the man being lifted up but then we come to the last sabbath day and again lucas uniquely records it for us interestingly none of the gospels record for us this last sabbath day but this i close because i know time's gone and there it is it's the woman preparing the spices for the body of christ and i've heard them being criticized i've heard them say it was zeal without knowledge and so on i'm very careful not to criticize them i know his body could see no corruption but can you imagine how they must have waited that sabbath day you know can you see mary and martha can you see the ladies having prepared the spices just waiting that sabbath day waiting in anticipation so they could go down that early sunday morning with all the questions in their mind who shall roll away the stone and so on i don't suppose that day was anything else but thinking about the events of what had happened at the death of the lord jesus i don't suppose that day was spent in any frivolous behavior i don't suppose that day was spent in in any in any any cynicism i don't suppose that day was spent in self-indulgence that day was spent on quiet reflection and anticipation i've called it the sabbath of suspense but they weren't ready for what happened the next day he rose again my brothers sisters i think we're in the sabbath of suspense just now we're waiting for the lord's return it could be he'll come you know it could be we'll never get back together it could be this is it he's coming again but be sure of this we're in the days of suspense we're in the days of waiting and we're sitting with our spices we're sitting with our preparation we're sitting with our activity we're sitting with our devotion for christ is everything to us we've learned the sabbath lesson of the word of god we've learned the sabbath lesson of the principle of his word sabbath of script we've learned the sabbath lesson of the of the of the satanic power and the power of his word we've learned the sabbath lesson of rest and strength and the sovereignty of christ he's the sovereign lord of the sabbath We've learned the sabbath lesson of the strength of the man with the withered hand. We've learned the sabbath lesson of liberty and lifting up of the two sabbath day miracles in Leviticus 13 and Leviticus 14.

We've learned the importance of just the sabbath of suspense, waiting in anticipation for our blessed Lord Jesus to come. I know you're, I know we're from many countries here. We heard 30-odd countries have represented you.

May God preserve the testimony of God's people and give us deeper desires in this days of lockdown to serve the Lord in a greater way than we've ever done before. May we learn the sabbath lessons of Luke. Our Father, we thank thee for thy son.

We thank your God he's coming again. We ask, O God, that we might sit with our spices in preparation for him. Save us from self-indulgence.

Help us to enjoy thee, Father. Help us to rub the corn on our hand and walk within fields. Help us to love life and see good days and refrain our hearts from evil and our lips from speaking guile.

To taste and see the Lord is gracious. Help us to love thy word, Father. Help us to read it with accuracy.

Help us to read it with dignity. Help us to believe it. We thank thee for the power of our Satan.

We thank that he's defeated him. O help us, Father, to resist him steadfastly in the faith. O Father, give us help to reach others who are in the bonds of sin.

To restore saints who are found in the wells of affliction. Father, give us desires to be used of thee in this time of lockdown. Preserve thy people.

Preserve the saints. Preserve the assemblies. Maintain us for thy glory.

Keep us, we pray. We thank thee for thy Son in his own precious and holy name. Amen.