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The Advance of God's Kingdom · Stornoway Free Church of Scotland - Sermons

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  passage this evening. Luke chapter 13 and especially the verses from verse 10
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  on to where we finished reading.
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  Oh man!
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  He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath and there was a woman who had a disabling
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  spirit for 18 years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. When Jesus saw her
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  he called her over and said to her, woman, you are freed from your disability.
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  That was true of the Bible as a whole. It's certainly true of all these passages that we read in the
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  Bible. They're not a loose collection or strands of truth just brought together in any old way.
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  There's always some connecting points that you can trace through especially when you look at it
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  in within the confines of one book of the Bible such as Luke. And it's true also in this particular
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  passage here as well because if you look at verse 18 there he said therefore. Why is that therefore
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  there? It's a connecting word but what does it connect with? Well it connects with what has just
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  been said before. In other words Luke is saying there's a connection here between what the Lord
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  did to this woman and did for this woman and what's before that but also what comes after in the two
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  parables where Jesus compares certain things to the kingdom of God or compares the kingdom of God
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  first of all to the grain of mustard seed and then to this measure of leaven that a woman took and
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  worked into the dough that she was preparing. So there are these connections here and the Lord is really
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  connecting them if you like by Luke rather is connecting by the Lord's teaching that takes us to the whole
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  theme of the kingdom of God because we'll see that the kingdom of God was such a prominent feature
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  in Christ's teaching. Sometimes it's explicit. Sometimes it's implicit. It's not as obvious but nevertheless
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  Jesus speaks of things that belong to the kingdom of God. God's kingdom where God reigns and of course God reigns
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  everywhere but in his kingdom where his citizens if you like are made willing subjects of his kingdom
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  where willingly we receive the kingship of God over our lives and acknowledge his kingship. Well in that
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  sense of God reigning over us we've come into the possession of membership of the kingdom.
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  And in this passage there are people who would have said of themselves almost as a matter of right
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  we already belong to the kingdom of God such as the ruler of the synagogue but then so did Nicodemus.
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  In John chapter 3 we have that window into the kingdom of God that Jesus provides for us as he
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  interviewed Nicodemus a ruler of the Jews just like this man a ruler of the synagogue one of the Sanhedrin
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  one of the top religious leaders of the time. And here he was somewhat fascinated by Jesus.
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  He came to him by night Nicodemus did and of course in John's gospel that itself is significant
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  and symbolic. It wasn't just the darkness of the night literally that John was taken up with
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  but the fact that Nicodemus took an interest in Jesus when he himself was in spiritual darkness.
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  He was a ruler of the synagogue. He was a ruler there in the ruling party the ruling the ruling group
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  of leaders of Israel and your member Jesus said to him except a man be born again he cannot see the
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  kingdom of God. Except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
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  He's effectively saying to Nicodemus you think you're actually already in the kingdom actually
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  you're outside and you can't get in. There is no way in except through rebirth. Except through a radical
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  change in your whole disposition including how you see me. And of course that follows through
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  into every single one of us who have come to put our trust in Jesus through being born again by the
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  power of God's spirit brought enter entering into his kingdom. So there's the the entrance to that's
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  important in the teaching of Jesus and you'll find features of that in this passage as well. Here is
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  the ruler of the synagogue who actually comes to complain about what Jesus has done yet he himself
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  would have said that he would already be in the kingdom of God. Of course he would. And then Jesus
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  told the parable of the barren fig tree and what does that remind you of? Well it reminds you as you go
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  back into the Old Testament that very often Israel the covenant people of God were represented by a tree
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  of various kinds or a fruit tree and a fig tree such as you find here in this particular passage or vine
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  tree. He had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it and he found none.
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  And so the vine dresser said look for three years I've come seeking fruit on this tree cut it down.
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  It's useless. There's no point to it. But he said he said the vine dresser said let it alone this year until
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  I have done some more work. I dig round it and put on manure then if it should bear fruit next year well and
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  good but if not you can cut it down. In other words there is Jesus and he has come seeking fruit on the
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  people of Israel just as God did down through the years of the Old Testament and finding all too little
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  and sometimes none. Here is Jesus saying effectively by this parable I'm giving you some more time.
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  And it's the wonderful patience of God, the long suffering of God, the fact that God doesn't rush
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  into a judgment to destroy them. All of that is built into the passage and then follows the passage.
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  We're going to look at the part we're going to look at tonight from verse 10. And there are two things
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  here that you find really about the kingdom of God. First of all the kingdom of God and its advance
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  you might say that the kingdom of God advances by setting people free. That of course brings us to
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  freedom from sin and freedom from the guilt of sin very often symbolized by some physical ailment or
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  other. But we mustn't say that people who are suffering a physical ailment are doing so because
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  God has something against them. But in this instance in the days of Jesus he makes it clear when that was
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  in fact the case. That this woman represented a need that belonged to all the people in a spiritual sense
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  from which they needed to be set free. And the kingdom of God advances by setting people free.
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  Secondly, the kingdom of God advances despite first appearances. And that takes us to the two parables
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  from verse 18 through to verse 21, the parable of seed, mustard seed and the leaven. Let's just look at these
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  two points briefly. The kingdom of God advances by setting people free. Now look at this woman and how she was
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  described because it became a controversial healing. He did it because the Lord did it on the Sabbath.
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  This woman had been disabled for 18 years. She was bent over and couldn't straighten herself up.
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  And of course that would inevitably mean she was not able to do certain things that other able-bodied
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  people could. But in Jesus' answer to the ruler of the synagogue, he speaks about the woman as a daughter of
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  Abraham, reminding the ruler of the synagogue that she is one of the covenant people just as he is.
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  And that he shouldn't actually look at this woman at its disparaging way.
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  And that he is. But, you know, he also, when Jesus dealt with, in answering these,
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  should she not, whom this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan bound for 18 years.
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  One of the features of the advancing of God's kingdom is that the king himself conquers the enemy,
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  the great enemy, the spiritual enemy, Satan himself. All the way through the gospels, you find in the
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  record of the gospels that the casting out of demons by Jesus was itself an indication that the kingdom of
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  God was advancing. That the kingdom or the ruling of darkness was being diminished and overcome.
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  And Jesus casting out demons was one of the most obvious evidences of that. You'll see that in all the
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  different passages in which you find casting out of demons mentioned as Jesus performed that miracle.
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  Well, this was done, as he says here, on the Sabbath day. And the minute rules of the Pharisees,
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  such as this ruler of the synagogue, we're not told that he was in fact a Pharisee, just called a ruler of
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  the synagogue. But many of them were. The minute rules, I mentioned this last Lord's Day when I looked
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  at Sabbath day or the Lord's Day, the minute rules that they had invented and added on to the law of God
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  was so burdensome to people and kept them so burdened, even represented by the stooping woman.
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  These people were burdened under the Pharisees restrictions and the Pharisees requirements.
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  They couldn't live their lives the way they ought to. They needed to be set free from the enmeshment
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  of all of these minute rules that were really human inventions.
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  And the ruler ignored the synagogue. The ruler of the synagogue ignored the miracle.
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  He just didn't really, it's not that he ignored it fully, but he didn't take it up at all. All he was
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  concerned was that Jesus had done this on the Sabbath day and he was indignant. He was absolutely
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  as annoyed over this as you could be. And that reminds us of something too, that he was ignoring
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  the miracle because this was not in accordance with his rules, with how he saw things.
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  And he could not see the compassion that Jesus had shown to this woman, because his own mind was so fixed
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  on his own rules and on his own way of looking at things. The likes of compassion on the part of Jesus
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  just passed him by. He just didn't notice it. He didn't think about it. It didn't enter his mind for a
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  moment. That this was really tremendous compassion and love on the part of Christ.
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  Christ.
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  Christ. And that's how it is still today, of course, because in so many cases,
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  it's people's prejudice that blinds them to the reality of Christ's love.
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  Prejudice will always blind you to something and very often something important. And we all have
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  our prejudices. We all have things that come from our own thinking until God straightens that out and
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  corrects it. And every time we have whatever prejudice it is, and especially if it's to do with the workings
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  of God or the workings of the Holy Spirit, then that prevents us from seeing the miraculous,
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  from seeing the compassionate Christ at work as this ruler of the synagogue himself was.
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  And of course, he would have felt his own position threatened. And very often, that's what you come
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  across when you're dealing with people and setting out the gospel for them, talking to them about the
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  claims of Christ. You inevitably go and come across as it was for ourselves, for most of us at least.
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  Our position, our standing, our own thoughts, what we have made of ourselves is really seriously under
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  threat because here's somebody who wants to take over your life. Here's somebody who wants to change
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  your thinking. Somebody who wants to really turn things completely on the head so as to be born again.
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  And you enter the kingdom of God. And this man feels that his own position is really under serious threat
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  because Jesus is doing what he's doing and showing his power and showing his authority.
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  And he's dealing with these things in such a way that the people here rejoiced
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  Christ had all the glorious things that were done by him. And so that's so applicable to our own age as well.
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  Whatever way we try and present the gospel by our evangelism, whatever it is, whatever type of
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  outreach it might be, whatever type of personal evangelism you're involved with, this is often what
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  you come across almost inevitably. You'll find people threatened. We have to take account of that.
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  You have to try and understand where they're coming from. And you have to try and remember this is where
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  we were ourselves, where we felt threatened by the gospel coming to present the claims of Christ to us.
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  And where even the most tactful presentation can sometimes and often meet with that reaction on the
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  part of those who are called by the truth of God to repent and to give up their lives to Jesus.
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  And then there's this condemning reply on the part of Jesus for the man. This was a really controversial
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  healing because it was done on the Sabbath. It was against his way of looking at things. And you notice how
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  Jesus replied. First thing he said was, you hypocrites. I see this man had spoken not to Jesus himself in his
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  his objection to what Jesus had done. You see that he spoke to the people.
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  That's what the ruler of the synagogue indignant because Jesus said to the people. He didn't turn
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  down to Jesus and said, why are you doing this? Maybe he thought that he just couldn't argue with
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  Jesus successfully anyway. I don't know. But he spoke to the people. That's what Luke noticed.
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  And he said to the people, there are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be
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  healed and not on the Sabbath day. But Jesus, of course, knowing what was in his heart and knowing
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  the need of the people said, you hypocrites. And he illustrated that by how they themselves were
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  compassionate even to their animals. So that they would lead an animal out on the Sabbath,
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  his docks or his donkey, from the manger and lead it away to water it. And really, Jesus is saying
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  effectively and powerfully, you're actually treating your animals on the Sabbath better than you're
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  treating your fellow human beings, your fellow covenant members such as this woman. You have more
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  compassion for your animals than you have for her. That's a really condemning statement on the part
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  of the Lord. And it shows, of course, Christ's own insight and his compassion towards sinners,
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  what he calls this woman, a daughter of Abraham. Not this woman, a daughter of Abraham. That's also
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  getting to the rule of the synagogue because he had missed out completely the fact that this woman
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  was a covenant member of Israel. She belonged to the covenant people of Israel and therefore
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  she ought to have been dealt with compassionately, just like the compassionate God they believed in.
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  And the kingdom of God then advances by this woman being set free, just as it does for you and
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  for me. When we're set free from our sin, from the guilt of our sin, from God's condemnation.
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  By coming to Christ, there's an advance in the kingdom of God. The kingdom moves a little forward
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  from every sinner that's converted. That's a further step forward for the kingdom of God.
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  God. And of course, it shows too that the meaning of the Sabbath itself, or the Lord's day as we now
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  call it, doesn't actually exclude the doing of good works on the Sabbath. That's another time that Jesus
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  met with those who objected to his working on the Sabbath. It is, he said, lawful to do good on the
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  Sabbath. Lawful to actually be involved in acts of mercy, acts of kindness, especially acts that relieve
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  human beings of a desperate need, or even a less desperate need if it's a real need that they cannot
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  meet. And so here's Jesus saying, this is in reply to the objection. As he said these things, verse 17,
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  all his adversaries were put to shame. Now that's interesting too. There's a penetration there
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  of the hearts of these people who saw this and who now listen to Jesus. And that gives us tremendous,
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  tremendous encouragement, doesn't it? Sometimes you come across situations where you say,
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  well, I can't see them ever becoming converted. I can't see them actually ever coming to accept Christ.
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  I can't ever see, even though we know in our heart of hearts that everything's possible with God,
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  still we sometimes have that reaction over certain situations or people where our instant reaction
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  is or thought is, I don't think they'll ever come to the Lord. I don't think that'll ever happen.
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  But here are his adversaries. And he's made an opening, at least in their minds and thoughts,
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  because they were put to shame. They thought about themselves in the light of what Jesus had done
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  and what Jesus had now said to the ruler of the synagogue, and he felt full of shame.
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  It came back on themselves so that they really had a bad conscience about things.
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  And for many of them, that may have been the very start of their life being changed
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  and to become followers of Christ. But the people rejoiced. The people who weren't his adversaries,
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  they all rejoiced at the glorious things that were done by him.
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  There you see the contrast. The ruler of the synagogue is indignant.
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  This is a terrible thing that's happened. This man has to be called to account for this,
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  this ruler is saying about Jesus. And yet the people, the ordinary people,
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  they rejoiced at the glorious things done by him. You see, that's why, as we said earlier,
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  they were burdened under the minute laws of the Pharisees,
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  burdened under these all due the course of their lives.
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  And, you know, that's also very much part of what Jesus said in that famous statement in Matthew 11.
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  Come unto me, who? All you who are burdened and heavy laden.
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  All you people burdened and heavy laden from human rules and human commandments.
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  Come to me and I will give you rest.
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  I'll take that yoke off you if you take my yoke and wear it instead.
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  That's still essence of the gospel.
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  That's still the essence of what we keep in mind as we reach out with the gospel.
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  So the kingdom advances by setting people free.
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  You know, we heard tonight in prayer very rightly and very readily,
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  the state of our nation, the state of our society, the state of our governments as well, by and large.
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  And how no human wisdom on earth will ever get us through out of a dilemma, any dilemma,
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  let alone the ones we're facing in our present age.
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  But this will.
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  And let's pray that God will come as was prayed for this evening.
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  And open hearts and minds and set people free from human logic and human wisdom.
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  And bring them into the logic and the teaching and the freedom of the Holy Spirit.
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  By the blessing of God's word and the witness of his people.
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  The kingdom advances by setting people free.
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  The kingdom advances despite first appearances.
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  First of all, it grows from small beginnings.
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  And secondly, it grows into a transforming power.
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  It grows from very small beginnings because in verse 18, he compares it to a grain of mustard seed.
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  You've probably got mustard seeds.
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  All those of you who are doing any cooking, you might have mustard seeds in your cupboards.
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  Tiny little mustard seeds, so small.
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  And yet if you plant that seed and it grows, it grows into a great tree.
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  As Jesus says here, it grew and became a tree.
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  And the birds of the air made nests in its branches.
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  Who is this woman?
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  What's one woman in terms of advancing the kingdom of God?
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  Well, you might have said in the days of the apostles, just before the day of Pentecost.
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  Who is this small group of people sheltering in a room for fear of those who are outside, wanting to do them harm or put them into prison?
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  Who is that?
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  How is that small group going to be in any way effective to change the direction of the whole people?
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  Act chapter 2.
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  The Holy Spirit breathed out by God.
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  3,000 conversions in one day.
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  The kingdom of God sometimes advances slowly from small beginnings.
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  But even from small beginnings, sometimes come giant leaps.
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  As God blesses his word.
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  Who are we tonight to think that we can be means of changing the thinking of our society or the thinking of our own community even?
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  Well, we're not any worse off, are we, than this woman, than this small church in the days of the apostles?
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  Has the Holy Spirit changed?
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  Has he disappeared from the working of the kingdom?
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  Of course not.
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  We're thankful even for those.
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  But then who knows when the next step is going to take place?
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  And the small steps become a great advance and a great leap forward for the kingdom.
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  So don't ever lose hope.
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  Don't ever think that it's not worth praying for conversions anymore.
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  Don't ever think that such and such a person or such and such a people are never really going to embrace the gospel.
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  They're just too keyed into their own prejudices.
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  That's why we pray for those who are leading movements against the gospel.
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  And pray for their conversion.
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  Because as far as we can see, they have qualities that would serve the kingdom of God so well.
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  A sense of real commitment.
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  An intellectual ability.
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  A great interest in people.
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  A desire that people will actually have the best things.
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  Even if they're not looked for in the right areas.
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  Still that person or these people can serve the kingdom of God with the God-giving, even natural qualities they have.
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  Especially when they're changed and transformed by the Holy Spirit.
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  Pray for those.
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  Make it your business.
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  To find out who are the leaders of the local anti-gospel movements.
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  And if you never speak to them or never have the opportunity to present Christ to them.
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  Go into your closet and pray for them.
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  And pray for God to change their lives.
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  And pray for God to do what he did for Saul of Tarsus.
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  And meet them on the way of their opposition to Christ.
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  So that they will come to face this Jesus and have their lives changed.
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  And just imagine the impact.
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  Just as it says here, all his adversaries were put to shame.
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  When leaders of anti-gospel movements are themselves converted.
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  Well, that causes massive tremors through the kingdom of Satan.
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  And it causes people to think, what is going on?
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  What is there to this Christian thing that I didn't really think of before?
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  That's what we pray for.
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  That's what we hope to see happening.
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  The kingdom advancing despite first appearances that may not seem really very encouraging.
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  And then it grows too by a transforming power.
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  Because he goes on to speak about this woman that took a measure.
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  Or a leaven that woman took and hid in three measures of flour until it was all leavened.
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  Well, we know what leaven is.
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  It's yeast.
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  And yeast has its own properties.
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  When you apply it to a batch of dough, the properties of the yeast take over that batch of dough.
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  And if it's left long enough and in the right conditions, the yeast doesn't just cause the dough to swell and to rise as it does that.
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  But it actually permeates all parts of that batch of dough.
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  Doesn't leave any part of it unaffected.
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  That's what he's saying about the kingdom of God.
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  What shall I compare the kingdom of God to?
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  It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour until it was all leavened.
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  The emphasis is not on it being very small.
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  Even very small compared to the whole batch of dough into which it was worked.
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  And the emphasis is on this small measure of yeast becoming so large that it actually affected all parts of the dough and made it change.
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  It works from inside, you see.
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  It works from inside and then the effect of it is seen gradually outwardly moving out as the dough actually expands with the power of the yeast inside it.
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  Well, that's the kingdom of God.
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  That's an element or an image of the kingdom of God.
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  When God gets into a person, it doesn't just affect a small part of your being.
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  It affects every single aspect of your being.
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  When your soul is occupied by the Holy Spirit, it affects how you think.
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  It affects how you see people.
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  It affects how you look forward.
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  How you project into the future as far as you can.
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  It affects how you think of your past.
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  It affects how you think of your neighbors.
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  It affects every aspect of your being.
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  And that's why it's such an incredibly relevant image of the kingdom and the way the kingdom advances and the way things in a person change from the inside out.
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  Except a man be born again.
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  He cannot see the kingdom of God.
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  Well, the rebirth does not take place out there and then enter into him.
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  Rebirth takes place inside the depth of our soul.
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  And then it affects the whole person outwardly from that.
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  And that's what our people need.
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  That's what our society needs.
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  That's what our community needs.
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  God to get into their lives.
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  God to get into their hearts.
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  God to change them from within.
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  So that their whole being is taken over.
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  In love and in obedience to God.
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  That's what will transform our society.
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  And that's so far superior to human wisdom and to human logic and to human methods and to political measures and to economic measures.
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  All the things that were mentioned in prayer.
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  They're important.
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  We're not saying people shouldn't be thinking about that.
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  We're not saying our leaders shouldn't have their minds set on that.
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  They're all hugely important things that affect our lives from day to day.
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  But what a difference it would make as we heard for our leaders to say, look, this is really so huge.
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  It's beyond our capacity.
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  Pray to God for it.
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  That's really what we need to hear.
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  And that's what we pray.
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  Our leaders will come to actually say from their own experience of Christ.
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  So like the woman, so also the seed and also the measure of leaven.
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  The initiative is with God himself.
• 30:55
  He is the one who begins the work, who brings it on, who advances it.
• 31:01
  Who blesses to that end.
• 31:04
  Therefore, the kingdom of God is like.
• 31:10
  May the Lord bless these thoughts on his word to us.
• 31:13
  Let's pray.
• 31:16
  Lord, our God, we do.