The Silent Rejection Luke 14 Vs 1-6

Well, it's nice to be among friends and it's nice to see you this morning so we welcome you to faith

Bible Church, and we hope you have a blessed day today and I Was thinking this past week as I have

Been Reading the scripture I was reminded of a conversation I have had and I know

I'm repeating myself with some of you That Barb and I in witnessing to an individual in another town that we lived in a man asked us

What is our duty before the Lord to be right before the Lord and I had just finished going through Ephesians Philippians and all these and if you'll notice it says the

Lord has saved us That we might be that we might praise the

Lord that we might Bless the Lord. He said I've made you

Believer in Christ that you might praise me and This man said to Barb and I I don't want that He said

I have no desire in praising him. Yeah, I want I want a good world So I ask you are you here this morning to praise the

Lord? I'm here to praise the Lord and I look forward a blessing from as I praise the

Lord and you praise the Lord with me So let's go to the Lord in prayer

Heavenly Father we thank you for your blessings that you give to us We do thank you

Lord for your great salvation that you have bestowed on us That we might be called a child of God We don't fully comprehend all that that entails

Lord, but we thank you for it We pray that you would be with the service today that as we sing

That we might be a blessing to you Lord That we might be a blessing to one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs

We would pray for the pastor and uphold him before you that you would Guide and direct and give him the words to say that would speak to our hearts

We also pray for Ellie our missionary of the month. We thank you for the ministry that she has in Brazil we would pray for her both physical and spiritual strength and we thank you

Lord for individuals that have desired to go out and Send your gospel

Now we would just pray for this service to follow where we have our business meeting

May it be a time that even glorifies you and all that you have done here at faith

Bible Church And we'll thank you for that when we pray in Jesus name Amen I saw

Oh I Scripture reading for today is gonna come out of the book of Exodus chapter 20 verses 8 through 10

Again that is Exodus chapter 20 verses 8 through 10 Verse 8 remember the

Sabbath day to keep it. Holy Six days you shall labor and do all your work But the seventh day is the

Sabbath of the Lord your God in it You shall do no work nor your son nor your daughter nor your male servant nor your female servant

Nor your cattle nor your stranger who is within your gates. This is the Word of the

Lord Stand together with me if you would as we continue to praise our Lord Oh Oh Oh Oh Please turn with me to Luke chapter 14 verses 1 through 6

Luke chapter 14 verses 1 through 6 Now it happened as he went into the house of one of the rulers of the

Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath that they watched him closely and behold, there was a certain man before him who had dropsy and Jesus answering spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees saying is it lawful to heal on the

Sabbath? But they kept silent And he took him and healed him and let him go

And he answered them saying which of you having a donkey or an ox? that has fallen into a pit will not immediately pull him out on the

Sabbath day and They could not answer him regarding these things. This is the

Word of the Lord Father we're thankful that we can gather here today to worship the

Lord Worship Jesus who has full authority to heal on Sabbath who has the full authority to Define what it means to rest and to Restore and father we come before you this morning to be restored by your son

Jesus Christ We come before you knowing that he can fully restore us because he is our

Lord. He is our master And he has the compassion and mercy to heal us and restore us and We're thankful that we get to worship him today in Jesus name

Amen chapter 14 of Luke starts a new section and this follows chapter 13, which was full of a series of Warnings to Israel to respond to Jesus.

There is this urgency and immediacy to respond to Jesus because the kingdom of God has come through Jesus Christ Chapter 14 is

The test case in our minds the question is will they respond?

The First 24 verses of this chapter has a theme of banquets are both literal and figurative banquets

Through this theme there's an underlying judgment against a religious establishment that choose to reject

Jesus and As a result, they will be left out of the banquet

They don't want to go to the banquet The first banquet of chapter 14 starts on the

Sabbath the day of rest and As many of you who have been here for a while.

I Think most of you have gone through Multiple Sabbath controversies.

This is not a new Sabbath healing In fact, we had five previous

Sabbath passages with the religious establishment In the gospel according to Luke and with each passing passage the tension develops between Jesus and the religious establishment and their response of unbelief becomes all too clear

That comes into focus For example first Luke chapter 4 16 through 30

Jesus announces the fulfillment of the Isaiah Prophecy of God's restoration through him right on this day.

This has been fulfilled In the religious establishment, they respond with unbelief.

How could this be? Isn't this Joseph's son? and then following that chapter 4 31 through 37

Jesus frees a demon -possessed man, but there's no Negative response from the religious establishment here.

They just watch However, the next three Sabbath passages accompany accusations it becomes

More intense the opposition becomes more obvious Chapter 6 verses 1 through 5

Jesus disciples are picking grains on the Sabbath because they're hungry and the Pharisees accused them of breaking the

Sabbath However, Jesus reveals that he has the authority to give meaning to the

Sabbath Chapter 6 verses 6 through 11 God heals the withered men with a withered hand through Jesus Christ They attempt to trap

Jesus here the religious establishment for healing However, Jesus reveals the true purpose of the

Sabbath, which is for restoration not regulation And then just a couple weeks ago chapter 13 verses 10 through 17

Jesus frees a woman who has been enslaved physically and spiritually bought spiritually by Satan for 18 years and Jesus heals her

Jesus frees her and The accusation is loud and clear healing on the

Sabbath is forbidden in response Jesus Charges them with hypocrisy.

They care more about animals Than this woman who's a daughter of Abraham?

Now what makes this account stand out this is Not the first healing on the

Sabbath Nor is this Not the nor is this the first unresponsiveness or unfaithful response from the

Pharisees the new Thing about this passage what makes this passage different is the context

The context is different here. The Pharisees have heard Jesus warning against Israel to respond in faith

Immediately lest they be left out of the kingdom Now the

Pharisees have a chance to respond They have a chance to respond in faith

Ignorance will not be a valid option anymore They could have claimed ignorance in the first couple of Sabbath healings

But not so here Especially after Jesus multiple warnings to respond to the kingdom of God that is here through Jesus What that means is agnosticism will not be acceptable after such a clear teaching and warnings that precede

This passage This is all too

Important for us this morning Because oftentimes

We live in a culture we come across people Who don't want to respond to Jesus not because they don't know about Jesus but because they don't want to despite their knowledge of Christ Whether it's family members friends co -workers neighbors

You may have shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with them many times There's no doubt that Jesus came to die for our sin face

God's wrath on our behalf And he rose from the dead so that when you believe in him

You can be forgiven free of charge That's the gospel two sentences maybe

However, when you ask them to respond They remain silent And it's not because they don't understand it that silence is that of Unwillingness to respond and Today that's what we will see from the very religious establishment itself

The very people you would expect to respond to God's restorative action by sending

Jesus To bring his kingdom of God We will see that these

People the very people you would expect to be the first ones to respond will remain quiet This passage is divided into two sections each section has a piercing question from Jesus and it's each section ends with the deafening silence from the

Pharisees and Through this passage Luke shows that the religious establishment

In fact chose not to respond to the urgent message of Jesus Christ They'd rather remain on the wrong side than to be corrected and restored to the right one

They'd rather wallow in their sins than be forgiven by Jesus Christ The main point of today's text is that despite knowing

Jesus restorative ministry the opponents of Christ silently refused to believe Despite knowing

Jesus restorative ministry the opponents of Christ silently refused to believe Despite the dire warnings to respond in faith the opponents of Christ would rather be wrong than experience

Restoration despite the dire warnings to respond in faith. The opponents of Christ would rather be wrong than experience restoration

After Jesus prophetic warnings to the nation of Israel to respond in faith, we actually get to see the first Test case scenario

The question on our mind will be now will they respond? Will they respond to Jesus in faith

Will they urgently and immediately? respond to Jesus warnings

And verse one sets the context for this opportunity to respond in faith for the religious establishment

Now it happened as he went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees To eat bread on the

Sabbath that they watched him closely This first concisely lays out who what when and why

First who is involved Jesus is dining with the Pharisees at one of their leaders houses

The Pharisees were the religious leaders who took both the Old Testament and traditions of L the elders traditions of the ancient

Jews both of them seriously Seriously and they they were quite popular among the masses because they were not very fan they're not fans of Rome and and they

Held the whole Old Testament seriously Unlike the Sadducees who only took the first five books the

Torah the Pentateuch seriously and what they have in common is they they they highly regarded the traditions of The Jewish elders the past rabbis the past teachers and The problem became

When these traditions became the very lens to interpret scripture Rather than scripture interpreting scripture.

They were using these traditions to interpret scripture They were setting the traditions on the equal footing as scripture

Now not all of the Pharisees were against Jesus but in Luke many of them have challenged him and This invitation to respond is significant

Because it is in the context of a meal in the Middle Eastern culture a meal is

Highly regarded you only do so if you're Very close when it's intentional.

It's not just grabbing a cup of coffee with a stranger they knew

Jesus and They had a purpose for this meal and we will see the purpose of this meal

Second Jesus is eating bread on the Sabbath So the bread here presumably was baked the night before that I mean not the night before the day before because they can't work baking cooking would have been work

Considering this It would have been about a midday meal and the key word in this passage will be on the

Sabbath When did this happen the Sabbath? After all the

Sabbath the word will be mentioned three times in this short passage of six verses

Now a brief reminder of the Sabbath is necessary and I think that's because First we live in a culture where the concept of the

Sabbath is just far too gone The only notion is maybe Chick -fil -a is closed of today

And second in the Christian setting people assume the

Sabbath to be a Legalistic regulation as if it was Originally a bad thing as if God is trying to control what you do on one of the days of the week

The first time Sabbath rest is mentioned is actually in Genesis 2 this is after God creating all things in six days and he rested on the seventh and Of course on the seventh day, it's not like God stopped working because then the whole world would be falling apart

The Sabbath rest for God is a Sustaining rest.

What does God do when he enters the Sabbath rest on the seventh day? He stops creating and on the seventh day

He rests from the creative work Yet he continues to sustain all living things the next time the

Sabbath rest is mentioned is when the Lord institutes the Sabbath to Israel from Mount Sinai and this happened right after the

Israelites were freed from Egypt Remember what they were doing

They were slaves of Egypt for centuries and the

Sabbath rest comes in a form of The fourth commandment so it is quite important It is one of the ten commandments

Stop working and rest Not just humans, but animals too

Not just the free people but slaves as well Because God rested on the seventh day

You are to do as God's people What God does on the seventh day?

You are to rest In a way the Sabbath is a way for all the

Jews the Israelites the people of God To imitate

God To be like God and in another sense this stop working and rest is not so that you stop making money

It wasn't supposed to be Legalistic, but it was to be life -giving

After all consider the context of Israel when this commandment was first given They have been enslaved for over 400 years

Then you have no rest In fact Pharaoh made their lives much much much harder right before they were freed

He tried his best to tighten The shackles Rest was frankly just not in the

DNA of the Israelites Now after the Lord the new master liberates these

Israelites What does he do? He orders his people to rest as he did he invites his people to rest as he has done

The God of life invites his people to enjoy and enter into his life giving rest life sustaining rest life restoring rest

That's the Sabbath now, what's the purpose of this

Sabbath meal with Jesus then? That they watched him closely The word for watch here is an intentional lurking to trap

This whole feast is a trap Now, how will they trap him?

after sharing the context of this meal Luke points us to the main event and Behold, there was a certain man before him who had dropsy

Jesus is eating and his in attendance and in Among Those who are there remember a meal could be with a lot of people not just a private event

In attendance, there's a man with dropsy Dropsy is a condition in which the body's

Fluid is not properly draining hence His limbs and tissues all may have been swollen.

So it's an obvious condition. You can see it it's not a hidden disease and It's not really a specific disease that's caused by some sort of pathogen but but But a condition that signifies that his body as a whole just is not working

Properly, it's not functioning properly There's something wrong about the body there's something off about what

God has created to work to be healthy and Here's the trap if Jesus healed this heals this man on the

Sabbath as he's prone to He's working according to their traditional regulations

He broke the Sabbath however If Jesus does not heal this man

Now his character is in question What happened to your compassion

Jesus disturbingly

They have no regard for God's mercy on this man this man with dropsy is just a bait to trap

Jesus To catch him in the act of breaking their regulation

This meal is a political theater not a table fellowship and knowing this in their heart

Jesus initiates The conversation and Jesus answering spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees saying

Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? Of course, this is not a question.

Ah That Jesus didn't know the answer to he's putting the ball on their court

You give me the answer. Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? Ironically Jesus asked the question that the

Pharisees would have asked the moment he'll he he heals the man This would have been the question that they would have charged

Jesus with Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath Jesus? Now the burden is on the

Pharisees to answer the true purpose of the Sabbath They're trapped backfired

This was the uno reverse card if the

Pharisees say no Then Jesus could rebuke them for missing the true purpose of the

Sabbath to give life Remember the Sabbath encounter with the

Pharisees again in Luke 6 9 Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or evil to save a life or just to destroy it?

Jesus asked a similar question before and the Pharisees back then were also unable to counter argue that They couldn't answer that question back in chapter 6 now they have trapped themselves in their attempt to trap

Jesus Now if they say unlawful, then they have ultimately accused God of breaking the

Sabbath Because Jesus does heal the man in chapter 6 Which they have to attribute to the divine intervention after all who can ultimately heal

God? So all of a sudden Depending on how you answer this question

You might end up accusing God of sinning and that's serious

Now, of course if they say lawful then the trap they said for Jesus is just useless What's the point?

Now, what is their response? The first part of verse 4, but they kept silent

They kept silent Their response is no response This is not

Silence out of humility or ignorance as In they don't know the answer to this question.

It's just way too hard. They keep quiet, even though they know the answer

Because they have lost the battle They keep their mouth zipped up this despite the wrong theology

What did their response need to be? Or confessing their sin and asking

God for mercy Acknowledging that it was a trap to ask

Jesus to heal the man with dropsy that would have been the righteous response that would have been the response of faith and That response would have restored not only the man with dropsy, but the

Pharisees themselves Spiritually who have been far away from God's heart However here their silence is deafening

Their silence is not a faith Or ignorance but of the stubborn refusal to acknowledge that their sin and their other sin and their

Lack of desire to trust Jesus the Messiah this morning if you have realized that Jesus is right and You're not

Do not harden your hearts like the Pharisees This may not be about you placing your faith in Christ you may have done so already

But at any point God makes clear to you That what have you have done?

Whatever you have said, whatever you have thought is against God's will

Don't just stay silent don't continue on that path or if I just stay silent no one's gonna correct me

You may be right But if the Holy Spirit is correcting your heart you better respond or you may find out that you were never part of Jesus kingdom in the first place

Don't choose to be silent in your stubbornness stubbornness, but respond in faith to Christ and For those of you who may not have responded to Jesus in Christ The key is to trust that only his substitutionary death on the cross

Him and dying for your place for your sin facing the punishment that you deserved is

The only way that you could be forgiven Not because you're better than the person next to you not because you're not a serial killer

But because Jesus took your place and he suffered on your behalf and he rose from the dead and That actually takes the stubbornness away

In order to respond that way you can't respond in pride You have to humbly see your sorry state and look at the

Savior who's hanging on the cross Don't remain silent

Wherever you are this morning. Don't remain silent whether the

Holy Spirit is pricking you to respond to Christ or The Holy Spirit is convicting you of the sin that is unconfessed

Unrepented of Don't remain silent actively respond respond in faith

Don't put it off to a later date Now, what is

Jesus response? Despite witnessing Jesus restoration of life on the

Sabbath The opponents of Jesus refused to respond rather than wasting time and effort arguing with the

Pharisees Jesus actually Prioritizes the man who needs to be healed

There's no cross -examination here from Jesus He goes directly to the man who needs help

And he took him and healed him and let him go Jesus physically touches this man who has dropsy

He reverses this condition He reverses the condition that probably made this man unclean, but he doesn't care he touches him anyway because whenever something unclean

Shows up in front of Jesus His heart is to reverse it

When we come across something unclean, even though we don't find the follow the rituals of the

Leviticus Right. We don't find the ritualistic laws of the Leviticus We kind of draw our hands away

Maybe look for the closest hand sanitizer just in case just in case the air also, you know, it's polluted

Not so Jesus Jesus heart is to make the unclean pure again

Jesus heart is to free the one who's been trapped in uncleanness

He is completely other -centered This this phrase let him go is more than just a physical act.

It's not just like, okay, you you're I'll let you go But it has a theological background to it.

It means to release someone to release someone from debt or bondage and It is the same verb that's used on the previous

Sabbath encounter in chapter 13 verse 12 When the woman who suffered for 18 years was healed.

She was released This man is also released on the

Sabbath day This man is allowed to have life again as it was meant to Designed by the

Creator Himself and upon Jesus compassionate touch.

This man is restored to life What's astounding is that God heals on the

Sabbath again? This group of the Pharisees will not have any excuse when rejecting

Christ Ignorance will not be a valid option They cannot say that they have never witnessed the previous healings

Jesus gives the Pharisees another chance to respond Then he answered them saying which of you having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit

Will not immediately pull him out of this on the Sabbath day The question here is of course

Rhetorical. This is not a show of hands if you will actually

Take out your livestock Show of hand how many of you really care about your animals here?

That's not it the answer To this rhetorical question is of course we would

The purpose of this question is to reveal the wicked heart their wicked heart

If you would rescue your livestock on the Sabbath day by pulling it up Which would technically be considered work according to their regulation right if they're gonna trap

Jesus that way let's Not have a double standard here How much more was it necessary for Jesus to release this man with trophy the question is how much more

Valuable and worthy is this man compared to mere livestock? The question not only rebukes the

Pharisees But actually it gives them a chance to respond and it's not either or I When Jesus rebukes when

God rebukes when the Holy Spirit rebukes corrects us. It's not just for the sake of putting you down It's a chance to respond in faith it's an opportunity to turn back to Christ Sure it stings at the moment

But the freedom that you experience when you do respond to Christ is extraordinary

The burden is lifted the weight is gone. Now.

What is the response of the religious establishment? Verse 6 and they could not answer him regarding these things.

It is not that they did not know the answer to this question They did not want to say the answer

They Refused to respond now, what did their response need to be after witnessing the divine healing on the

Sabbath? not silence But allowed praise not inactivity

But worship the irony is that the

Pharisees did not keep Jesus from restoring the men with dropsy They thought the trap would work

But they actually kept themselves from being restored by Jesus themselves They were not imprisoned by any physical ailment but a spiritual prison of their hearts

The only one released that day was the one who did not refuse Jesus to restore on That Sabbath day only one was given life because the rest chose death by rejecting

Christ What this means is after hearing about Jesus Silence is not an appropriate response.

You cannot plead the fifth Before Jesus And now this is not about the people who are not fully convinced about the gospel

It's not about I'm not talking about people who don't really understand the gospel These people have heard the gospel.

They know the implications of the gospel. They know about the judgment day Yet they don't want to respond or worse they claim to be

Christians and then when they are Corrected according to the

Bible They remain silent. They claim to be followers of Christ, but Their silence is way too deafening.

There's nothing from their lives That shows that they follow

Christ Silence is not a faithful response

The Pharisees stayed silent not out of ignorance, but rather their desire to remain in control

After all if you remain silent then there's no further conversation to be had When people who claim to be

Christians, but when they're corrected them that moment they just stop talking to you It's not because they they don't know the theological answer or what the appropriate response would be of faith

It's because they don't want to continue on the conversation. They don't want to feel convicted

They don't want to be seen as wrong so they will just Shun you or shut you up That's the trend

That's what the Pharisees did. They just stopped Regarding Christianity After all some people claim there's there's no really proof for Christianity Actually Christianity is the most defensible and dependable religion in the whole world

Not no other holy books Have over 40 authors and has no contradictions

Not only that You would argue that the holy books so -called holy books

Quran Book of Mormon has one author and has massive contradictions

Within itself and with historical data in addition to that There are ten times the number of early manuscripts of the

New Testament found from the first and second century ad compared to The copies that exist of what we know of as Homer's Iliad one of the most famous Greek document in the world we have over 6 ,000 manuscripts of the

New Testament from the first and second century and With those 6 ,000 manuscripts many of them.

We're still trying to we're even finding more of There's ninety nine point five percent accuracy rate, which means you can compare them and then they agree ninety -nine point five percent of the time

That's astounding compared to that Homer's Iliad's copies which only about six hundred copies exist and Not in the same century that Homer lived but thousands of years later

The accuracy rate is 95 % Within scripture the resurrection of Jesus Christ has been witnessed by thousands of people first Corinthians 15

Paul wouldn't say that unless it were true after all Christianity was a persecuted religion

Why claim a lie that could easily be proven false? Not only that those who have witnessed

Christ Resurrected right those who have seen the resurrected

Christ willingly martyred were willingly chose martyrdom instead of recanting to live

People often claim what about the suicide bombers of radical

Islam? Well, they've never talked to Muhammad But the very people of the first century who chose death instead of recanting such as many of the

Apostles many of the early disciples They actually saw the resurrected Jesus They're not doing this out of blind faith.

They're doing this because they've seen the resurrected Christ So how much more of a testimony do they have when they chose to die

Than to live and Those two facts are just scratching the surface of the evidence for Christ after all books have been written on apologetics to defend

Christianity for millennia What this means is?

People who have heard the gospel who have Heard this sort of argument

Cannot just remain silent. They have to respond.

They have to respond because Jesus is true They have to respond because what Jesus has done is historical

Yet there are people who have heard the gospel of Jesus Christ checked out these arguments But ultimately they refuse to respond in faith

They cannot argue against the scriptural and historical evidence for Jesus yet.

They will hold on to their false belief at the cost of their souls in this rejection of Christ It is not the lack of evidence but the hardness of hearts

It's pride They don't want Jesus Not because they're they they remain unconvinced

But because they don't want to submit to him because if Jesus truly is who he says he is and has shown himself to be then

Then lack of response is utter rebellion

They don't want to follow Jesus because that means they lose control. They have to give up Their pet sins

They have to forfeit their current lifestyle Because if Jesus is true, then all of those don't belong in your life.

And if this is your life right now today Inaction is the wrong option.

It is foolishness to knowingly hold fast to the wrong answer No one appreciates that one student who keeps on claiming this answer is right, even after the teacher corrects him.

That's what foolishness is Knowing that you're wrong, but still holding on to it.

It's not it's not Stupidity, it's it's not lack of information. It's not ignorance

It's a moral perversion to hold on to the wrong belief after being shown that you're wrong

It's a heart issue Not a mind issue The only right answer for this morning is to surrender to Jesus in faith your reputation

Your pleasures your life are not worth keeping if you are gonna stand against Jesus on Judgment Day Your current inactivity your current silence will cost you your life for all eternity because Anyone who refuses to be restored by Christ will not be restored by Christ and This morning it is not too late to respond in faith

It is not too late to ask for mercy from Jesus as you have seen

Jesus. He is not Disgusted by your sin The cleanest the purest the holiest being that's who has ever walked this planet is not disgusted by what you've done

Is not disgusted by your crooked heart It's not he's not disgusted by your filthy minds

But at the core of his heart is the uttered compassion to see that you are restored

That's his priority That's his business He will receive you no matter what you've done.

It is not too late to trust in his atoning sacrifice on the cross for your sin You may have lived for yourself for decades

He will still receive you. He will still restore your soul.

That's because that's how loving he is He Will not turn back anyone who comes to him despite their past despite their wickedness

You may have chosen to not trust

Jesus until now and the continual silence

Is still the wrong choice This morning if you have not already

Respond to Jesus in faith believe in him to be the only way out

Of the mess that you've made yours made for yourself He's the only one who can fully restore

Because he is the God who rested on the seventh day Let us pray

Father we're thankful That we don't have to remain in our stubborn silence but We can always go to Christ and know that he will restore because that's who he is

That's his heart his desire is to restore those who are broken and wicked and evil

Work in our hearts to respond to Jesus appropriate and appropriately in faith in Jesus name

Stand together with me if you would is because and praising the Lord for all that he has given to us