The Bent Double Bedeviled Woman
Introduction – Read Luke 13:10-14
What we are seeing this morning?
1. It took place just a few months before our Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross!
2. As a matter of fact:
-It is one of the last miracles Jesus did before ascending to the Father in Heaven. And what a miracle it was!
-It is almost as if Jesus saves the BEST TILL LAST!
-It took place in a SYNAGOGUE where He was teaching on the Sabbath Day.
-Where was this?
a. Out in a country region called Peria. Really out in an area that we would call the boonies! Some of the greatest things that I have seen and see Jesus do today are in the BOONEYVILLE areas of life. Don’t ever look down at those that the haughty would call the BEANPATCH BUMPKINS. Some of the most marvelous miracles Jesus does are in what the conceited call CORNBALL USA. People are all the same to God. He is no respecter of persons. All are sinners in need of the Savior! Some are rich and some are poor, some are educated and some are uneducated. God loves each and every one and does not want one to go to Hell. SOME SINNERS JUST STAND HIGHER THAN OTHERS, BUT THE HIGHER THEY STAND, OFTEN THE FURTHER AND WIDER THEY STINK.
b. And while He is teaching, the synagogue becomes a “House of Divine Healing and Deliverance!” The Bible is full of DIVINE SUDDENLIES that God uses for His glory and the blessing of man. Jesus is never caught off guard! No matter what happens, God has it covered!
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I. INTERRUPTIONS – THE INTERRUPTER – THE INTERRUPTED
-It seems that suddenly there was an interruption:
1. I would surmise that because of the words and flavor of Luke 13:11,
“AND BEHOLD!”
-If you will, what is now happening IS SOMETHING OUT OF THE ORDINARY – SOMETHING TO BEHOLD!
-What is now happening you don’t see every Sabbath in your local synagogue! This was a SIGHT TO BEHOLD!
2. Perhaps she came in late:
-Suddenly, BEHOLD, a very crippled, bowed, bent over, deformed woman somehow came into the synagogue sanctuary!
-You know how it is when someone comes in late! Human nature is human nature, and as it is with men, everybody is distracted and looks at her with various kinds of facial expressions. The glares ran the gamut. The whole rhythm of things is now out of sync. We all know how that goes.
a. Jesus is teaching, and the service is well under way, and BEHOLD, “There she is!” Kaboom! It is almost as if a bomb went off. When in fact it is just one human being!
b. I understand what an interruption is like in a service, so do you pastor:
-It is really an amazing phenomenon, from the platform viewpoint!
-A person comes in late, and everyone looks, turns around! Amazing!
-Almost as if they had never seen a human being before!
-Or a baby cries, and everyone looks at that mother condemningly to see if she’s pinching the baby! Or perhaps hoping that she does!
-Interruptions can be very great distractions disproportionately to the now unnerved worshippers. This truly is a fascinating study in human nature, more fascinating than the interruption or the interrupter.
3. Not only is she perhaps late:
-But we read in Luke 13:11,
“SHE IS BOWED TOGETHER – BENT DOUBLE!”
-Really quite a sight! Means the distraction was enlarged:
a. The words BOWED TOGETHER or BENT DOUBLE mean that she was totally bent over as if in a rigor mortis state!
b. The meaning of the word there is THAT SHE IN THAT POSITION could not even come close to STRAIGHTENING HERSELF UP.
c. The meaning there is that her back was fused in that condition, and that she could not move her back an inch.
d. It was like she was in a vise, unable to move up or down, at all!
e. She caused quite an interruption and stir, as she appears, bent over in that impossible and grotesque posture!
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II. A GLORIOUS DIVINE INTERLUDE
However, Jesus Christ, the Teacher of the morning, isn’t the least bit annoyed. As a matter of fact:
“JESUS ENTIRE MINISTRY IS TURNING HUMAN INCONVENIENCES INTO
DIVINE OPPORTUNITIES.”
If you will:
“GOD SPECIALIZES IN TURNING HUMAN INTERRUPTIONS
INTO DIVINE INTERLUDES.”
1. As she comes in, Jesus according to Luke 13:12,
“Calls her to come to Him!”
2. I can imagine:
-The people and the synagogue officials have already been disturbed and are really uptight over this embarrassment!
-But now, in front of the whole crowd, to add insult to the disruption, Jesus calls her over-all doubled up, as if she is the honored guest of the morning. This is not in the order of worship for goodness sakes. Somebody get rid of her. Instead, Jesus invites her to come forward to Him.
-If they tried to get a glimpse of her before, there she is now center stage, mind you.
-I mean:
a. Jesus is here, and they have a bigger crowd than ever before; can’t you just see?
b. The synagogue official, by now, is ringing his hands in frustration! I mean, get this spectacle out of here. And instead, Jesus calls her closer for all to see. It is going from bad to worse, but for this greatly afflicted woman, it is about to go from worst to best. She will never forget this Sabbath when she met the true Lord of the Sabbath.
3. Jesus calls her unto Himself:
-And in Luke 13:12,
“JESUS TELLS HER THAT SHE WAS ALREADY LOOSED FROM
HER INFIRMITY-SICKNESS!”
-Just like that! It’s done! THE WORD SPOKE THE WORD OF HEALING. It is a done deal! Jesus was informing her of what He already knew and she didn’t. At that point, still doubled over, she is like a FREED PRISONER WHO STAYS IN HIS CELL BECAUSE HE ONLY KNOWS THE STATE OF BEING IMPRISONED. And apparently she is stunned, shocked, surprised to say the least. She doesn’t move!
-So in Luke 13:13,
“JESUS GOES OVER AND LAYS HIS HANDS UPON HER!”
Never did a gentle touch feel that good.
a. And we read in that same verse,
“THAT IMMEDIATELY SHE STANDS STRAIGHT UP!”
b. She stands for the first time in 18 years, in a totally upright position!
c. And, we read in Verse 13,
“THAT SHE BEGAN TO GLORIFY, TO PRAISE GOD!”
d. I mean, praise God is right, so much for the service. Ain’t no way you’re going to get that thing back to traditional procedure! It is now time to PRAISE GOD IN THE GREAT CONGREGATION, if there ever was a time FOR SPONTANEOUS JUBILANT CELEBRATION and GOD GLORIFICATION. HALLELUJAH, ONLY GOD COULD DO SUCH A THING. PRAISE THE NAME OF JESUS, GLORY BE TO THE NAME OF THE LORD!!! Right? Think again, for the unthinkable is about to happen.
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III. THE INDIGNANT SYNAGOGUE RULER
Note briefly the reaction:
1. The ruler of the synagogue:
-Horror of horrors, it all happened so quickly; on the Sabbath day, in his synagogue.
-God forbid, someone is practicing medicine on the Sabbath day, that’s work!!
-And, the Law stipulated that NO work could be done on the Sabbath day!!
-And the Bible says in Luke 13:14,
“THE RULER OF SYNAGOGUE WAS INDIGNANT!”
a. It really means that he was pained, like his stomach ulcers acted up or something!
b. He is so upset and uptight, that he is pained with anger on the inside!
-So he goes up and addresses the Jewish congregation in Verse 14:
a. After all, he is in charge, and this could start a whole new thing in his synagogue!
b. So he says to them in effect:
“NOW, NOW, CALM DOWN EVERYONE, YOU KNOW THAT IF A PERSON WANTS TO
GET HEALED: YOU’VE GOT SIX DAYS IN WHICH TO GET HEALED, BUT FOR
GOODNESS SAKE, DON’T DO IT ON THE SABBATH DAY!”
-Can you imagine that? Of course she has been that way for 18 years! She wasn’t new or unknown to them. This poor soul had been written off by most if not all of them, as never being able to stand erect again. Come on!
-She hasn’t been healed around there all that long 18 years of time. I mean, who are you kidding, bring her back during the week? The fact is, that the ruler and his ilk would rather have her grossly distorted than healed. To them, THEIR RULES WERE MORE IMPORTANT THAN HER RELIEF.
2. The reaction of Jesus!
-Jesus immediately calls him and anyone who agrees with him in Verse 15,
“HYPOCRITES.”
-Wow! Pretty strong language! Kazappo! Here was a man who acted and looked so righteous in his synagogue regalia, but the fact was that he was merciless and unjust on the inside. That is what a hypocrite is, namely, what he appears and acts on the outside is the complete opposite of what he is on the inside.
-If you will:
“HE WORE THE COLORS AND NAME OF GOD, BUT TOTALLY
MISSED THE HEART OF GOD.”
-Jesus then goes to say to them Luke 13:15-16,
“You hypocrites, does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox
or his donkey from the stall, and lead him away to water him?”
“And this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is, whom Satan
has bound for eighteen long years, should she not have been
released from this bond on the Sabbath day?”
-Therein is a whole teaching in itself!
APPLICATION
Jesus routinely did things on the SABBATH that got the religious authorities HOPPING MAD at him. And in every case Jesus took the opportunity to remind them that despite their pious intentions, they had rather significantly misunderstood the very purpose behind the SABBATH.
The fourth commandment lists just one SABBATH caveat: no work. But over time the devout in Israel took that one injunction and ran with it. Somewhere around 613 other rules and regulations were larded on top of the fourth commandment all in an effort carefully to define work and to help people avoid even a hint of performing work on the SABBATH. What was supposed to be a day of joy in both creation and redemption, became a frightening day in which people worried the whole day long they might screw up and perform a deed of work after all.
Things had fallen far from any kind of a SABBATH VISION such as the one Jesus possessed. It had gotten so bad that an OX or DONKEY had a better shot at being treated well than did a human being. Since no one wanted to see an expensive piece of livestock die of dehydration on a SABBATH, someone had long ago put in a proviso to the SABBATH DAY regulations that untying an animal for the purpose of getting it to a watering trough was not an act of work.
But since no one had thought to add a proviso or a caveat about helping a human being on the SABBATH, what Jesus did that day to this hapless woman did not meet with approval.
Without even realizing it, the authorities had granted a higher status to a DONKEY than to the average HUMAN BEING! This was a truth hidden in plain sight but sometimes it takes a fresh set of eyes to spy that obvious truth. Enter the eyes of Jesus.
In fact:
“THE SYNAGOGUE RULER WAS BOUND UP BY THE POWER OF THE DEVIL
WORSE THAN THE WOMAN. HIS WAS BONDAGE OF THE SPIRIT,
WHILE HERS WAS A BONDAGE OF THE BODY.
Get this:
“THERE IS NO BONDAGE MORE DEVILISH THAN THE BONDAGE OF
LEGALISTIC RELIGION.”
Listen:
“THE DEVIL CAN APPEAR AS A SYNAGOGUE RULER, A PRIEST, A PASTOR, AN EVANGELIST,
AS WELL AS CHANGE HIS VOICE, HIS DRESS; AND BY HIS DEXTEROUS MANAGEMENT
OF RELIGION TO MAKE HIS FALLACIES LOOK LIKE TRUTH, AND HIS CHAINS
APPEAR AS FREEDOM.”
Hear it:
“SOME OF THE MOST SAVAGE BEASTS ARE BRED BY SATAN IN
THE DENS OF RELIGION.”
And be sure of this:
“A MAN’S DEVOTION TO GOD CANNOT BE HELPED BUT ONLY HURT BY
THAT WHICH BRINGS ERROR INTO HIS THOUGHTS.”
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The kicker in this story is Luke’s revelation to us that what ailed this crippled woman was not your run-of-the-mill SPINAL DISORDER. This was no SLIPPED DISC or ARTHRITIC GROWTH along the spinal canal. This condition was caused by an EVIL SPIRIT – by SATAN himself.
True, even had her condition been the result of a FALL FROM A LADDER two decades earlier, it still would have been fitting for Jesus to heal her, SABBATH day or no. But that her situation was attributable to the FORCES OF EVIL, makes Jesus binding of the demon and the consequent loosing of her physical frame all the more praiseworthy and all the more fitting a deed for a SABBATH DAY.
The last line of this text says that although the authorities walked away muttering into their beards over their slam-dunk humiliation, the people “WERE DELIGHTED.” Ah, now that is what the Sabbath should really be all about creationally and redemptively: DELIGHT!
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ILLUSTRATION
The Synagogue Ruler was looking through the EYES OF LAW, but not through the eyes of LOVE, GRACE, and MERCY. Everything looked different to him than what it looked like to Jesus. They saw the world in two totally different ways.
We all know know what happens when you look through the wrong end of the BINOCULARS: everything looks so tiny, so distant, so hard to make out, so insignificant. You’re not even sure what you’re looking at since things look so far away. Of course, given that BINOCULARS are supposed to help you SEE BETTER, if things look worse to you, it’s a good bet you’ve got to turn the apparatus around!
Mr. Angry Synagogue Chief was looking through the wrong end of the BINOCUALRS. He was looking THROUGH LAW – RULES – TRADITION – SYNAGOGUE ETIQUETTE, and the woman was nothing more than an irritating blotch and smirch on the system. Jesus Christ was looking through the right end of the BINOCLUARS. He was looking through GRACE, COMMPASSION, and TENDERNESS, and the formerly BEDEVILED AND NOW HEALED woman was bigger and more important than the entire Jewish Synagogue System.
What end of the SPIRITUAL BINOCULARS ARE WE LOOKING THROUGH?
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ILLUSTRATION
Now get this picture. We read that this Synagogue Ruler was INDIGNANT (Luke 13:14), and we read that the multitude as REJOICING over the healing of this woman. (Luke 13:17) What a stark contrast! Incredible! It reminds me of the following story:
Eddie “the Eagle” Edwards was a 25-year-old plasterer with thick glasses and a goofy grin but he entered the 1988 Winter Olympic Games as England’s only (and first-ever) ski jumper. Eddie was not very skilled. He fit the description of a born loser: someone who gets a paper-cut opening a Get Well Card. Eddie looked decidedly non-athletic. In his yellow ski-jumping suit he looked more like Winnie the Pooh than the sculpted athletes we usually associate with the Olympics.
Eddie’s training had been sub-standard and his equipment was second-rate. The airline lost Eddie’s luggage when he traveled to Calgary. On the day of his competition, the Olympic security agents almost did not let Eddie in at all because, they later said, the chunky man’s coke-bottle glasses had such thick lenses they were certain he was an imposter. But he did get let in eventually. He didn’t do very well. “Outside Magazine” said that in the air, Eddie looked like an “errant slushball.” When it was all over, Eddie came in 56th place out of a field of 57 jumpers (but then, the 57th man had been disqualified).
But all the world loved Eddie. Johnny Carson had Eddie flown down to Burbank to appear as a guest on The Tonight Show. TV crews and newspapers from around the world clamored to interview Eddie. Once he got back to England, he was treated like a full-blown celebrity who parlayed his fame into a tidy sum.
To state the merely obvious, Eddie was the exception, not the rule. And even with all the attention paid to him, few people would have held Eddie up as a role model. When someone is as skilled as Michael Jordan, it doesn’t take long before you hear slogans such as “Be Like Mike!” But no one would say, “Be Like Eddie.”
Eddie the Eagle is a lousy ski jumper, but he really loves it. In fact, he had hoped to compete again in a future Olympics. But it turned out that Olympic officials did not like Eddie and felt he reflected badly on the Games. So they instituted what some call the “Eddie Rule” which requires all athletes to have finished in the top half of an international sports event as a prerequisite for getting into the Olympics. Doubtless that will keep Eddie, and many like him, out.
You see, the Olympic folks don’t mind having people lose but only because without losers there could be no winners. But if a loser gets attention, the winners seem diminished. In this world losers are supposed to fade away quietly so that winners can occupy center stage.
You see, intolerably THE SYNAGOGUE RULER IN THE EYES OF THE MULTITUDES BECAME THE LOSER. The CRUMPLED-UP AND NOW HEALED WOMAN WITH HER HEALER BECAME THE WINNER. It is one of the most astonishing turn-arounds in the Word of God. But that is our Lord, Who over and over again demotes the first to be last, and promotes the last to be first. Jesus in fact UPSETS EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE.
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V. THE WOMAN’S CONDITION IN GENERAL
-She was bent over, and we might say that she was doubled over!
-We might say that she had some sort of “Crippling Arthritis of the Spine.”
-That is most likely how she would have been viewed even today, a malformation of the spinal cord that was irreversible.
-The actual fact is:
1. Satan had bound her doubled over for 18 years! Jesus said so in Luke 13:16!
2. The actual fact is:
-We read already in Luke 13:11,
“SHE HAD A SPIRIT OF INFIRMITY – A SPIRIT OF SICKNESS.”
-It was a malady that had been caused by an evil spirit!
-In short,
“Her back had been in the grip of SATANIC SPIRIT CHAINS!”
-Really an astonishing sight of a woman deformed and tormented by a spirit of darkness.
-Now that does not mean she was demon possessed. You and I must hear this:
1. Yes, it does mean she was DEMONICALLY AFFLICTED.
2. But, in no way is this a case of DEMON POSSESSION. Listen:
“PEOPLE CAN BE DEMONICALLY OPPRESSED WITHOUT
BEING DEMONICALLY POSSESSED.”
Again:
“PEOPLE CAN BE DEMONICALLY ABUSED WITHOUT BEING
DEMONICALLY INFUSED.”
3. Why?
-First, because nowhere does Jesus lay hands on demon possessed folks, as He does here.
-Second, because He always addressed the demon in possessed people, not the person.
-Third, because here He never deals with the evil spirit itself; but brings her to loosing!
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-Also, be careful here:
1. This does not mean that all crooked torsos and infirmities are directly demonic in origin!
2. It is simply not true:
-At times Jesus healed a defective ear, and then again He directly dealt with a deaf and dumb spirit!
-He did not do one or the other all the time but did according to what He spiritually discerned!
-Listen:
a. If I can’t hear because I don’t have an eardrum; I don’t need a spirit cast out of me.
b. If I can’t hear because I have a spirit of deafness, don’t pray for a new eardrum; then Satan needs binding, and I need loosing.
-Furthermore:
1. A lot of our trouble physically, is because we don’t take care of the temple of the Holy Spirit!
2. For instance:
-If you are 100 pounds overweight and are having back trouble, it is likely not a demon of back trouble!
-If you are eating fast food and hamburgers all the time and you have stomach trouble:
a. Don’t say it is a demon spirit, and don’t even say it is THE HAMBURGER DEMON! We make dumb jokes about things like this and in so doing pass the blame onto some imaginary BURGER OR PIE DEMON. I will tell you that if it was a BURGER OR CHOCOLATE DEMON, HE WOULD BE DOING MORE THAN FATTENING YOU, HE WOULD BE FLATTENING YOU IN SOME WAY TOO. No evil spirit has a FUN SIDE, but only a FIERCE SIDE. This is nothing to joke about or get cute about. Demons are very bad boys!
b. Rather, it’s more than likely your uncrucified flesh that needs to be put to death! Frankly, in most cases like this:
“WE MUST OBEY THE COUNSEL OF THE DOCTOR AND THE NUTRITIONIST,
AND STOP BARKING AT THE PASTA SPIRIT.”
3. In short:
-We need the discernment of the Holy Spirit; we need a close walk with Jesus!
-Even as Jesus had a close walk with the Father, so then He acted obediently upon revelation.
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Another caution:
1.) I want you to note something very important here.
2.) Jesus Christ in NO WAY and not with ONE WORD JUDGES HER!
-Here Satan is directly involved with binding this woman’s back!
-Yet, there is no judgment, no condemnation pronounced whatsoever! No slur on her “weak faith” that disallowed her healing for 18 years. No suggestion that it was because of sin in her life that Satan had folded her like a piece of paper.
-We only read Jesus’ words in Verse 12,
“WOMAN, YOU ARE LOOSED FROM YOUR INFIRMITIY.”
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V. THE WOMAN’S CONDITION SPECIFICALLY
-It was bad, for we read in Verse 16,
“THAT SATAN HAD BOUND HER FOR 18 YEARS!”
-The meaning of that word BOUND is really a POWERFUL THING!
1. In the original Greek, it is a word which means:
“TO BIND WITH ROPES AND CHAINS!”
-Know who we are dealing with here! These were not MATERIAL CHAINS OR BONDS OR ROPES. These were SINISTER SPIRITUAL CHAINS that are not visible to X-rays or MRIs. That the EVIL SPIRITS can bind the PHYSICAL is obvious in the case of this woman. As a matter of fact, SATAN WILL MODEL AND FORM A HUMAN BODY IN A TWISTED WAY TO REFLECT HIS OWN TWISTED NATURE AND TEMPERAMENT.
-If you will:
“EVEN AS GOD CREATED AND FORMED MAN AFTER HIS PERFECT IMAGE, SO THE
DEVIL WILL DEFORM MAN AFTER HIS TWISTED IMAGE.”
2. It is used to describe those put in prison, where they are bound, incarcerated, locked up. This woman was in a prison of torment and pain from which there appeared to be no escape.
3. For example:
-Where we read in John 11:44,
“LAZARUS WHO WAS DEAD CAME FORTH BOUND HAND AND FOOT
WITH GRAVE CLOTHES!”
-Yards and yards of the material that they would wrap a body in like a mummy!
-One can see Lazarus, waddling out of the tomb like a duck! “LOOSE HIM, LET HIM GO!”
-So bound was Lazarus, though alive, but he could not loose himself:
a. So with this woman, so bound, though a daughter of Abraham, a covenant daughter, could not loose herself!
b. Know this:
-Satan bound this woman; her back tied up with devilish fetters! She was BEDEVILED INDEED. How it began only God knows. She was in this devilish state for what have seemed like an eternity. Satan enjoyed every minute of her agony.
-Her back is bound with evil spirit chains, holding her in this condition!
-This is spiritual bondage in physical manifestation, and it can’t be loosed with medicine or chiropractic adjustment.
-Only Jesus Christ by His word and Spirit can loose such a one!
4. Other examples of the power of the binding!
-Same word “bound” used of Jesus:
a. John 18:12,
“THE BAND, CAPTAIN, OFFICERS OF JEWS, TOOK JESUS, AND BOUND HIM.”
b. John 18:24,
“NOW ANNAS HAD SENT HIM BOUND UNTO CAIAPHAS.”
c. Literally means that Jesus was fastened, tied with ropes or chains!
-Same word “bound” used in relation to Saul:
a. Acts 9:2,
“SAUL BROUGHT PEOPLE OF THE WAY BOUND TO JERUSALEM!”
b. Acts 9:14,
“HE BOUND ALL THAT CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD!”
c. In other words, he chained them up; chained them together!
5. Like so many other stories in the Bible, such as that of this BENT DOUBLE AND BEDEVILED WOMAN, we know them all too well, and they lose their punch and relevancy to us. But believe you, Satan is never an irrelevant discussion for any of us in any time in history.
ILLUSTRATION
An acquaintance of mine once met a man who had read Mark 9:47 where Jesus talks about plucking out the eye that causes one to stumble. This man recognized his proclivity to lust after pretty women by looking at them with his eyes, and who then proceeded to take a knife and gouge out his right eye. This acquaintance of mine met this man on a mental ward where he once worked, and not surprisingly, he was just generally a victim of a raging schizophrenia as well.
Well then, what about even the religious woman or man who had hacked off a hand, a foot, or taken out an eye on account of Jesus’ words in Mark 9? Like another person who necessitated a confiscation of all the Bibles on the mental ward on account of his having taken rather literally the Bible’s call to “feast on the Word of God.” Yes, he’d eat the Bibles.
Hear it -Words like what we find Jesus saying there in Mark 9 are clearly not meant to be taken literally, and only someone in the THRALL OF THE DEVIL, or someone in the BONDAGE OF A SERVERE MENTAL DISORDER that the DEVIL WAS EXPLOITING would go out and do literally what Jesus says.
We must stop reading the Bible as ancient history that has no application to us who live in a much more enlightened time. That is exactly what the devil wants, so that he can BEDEVIL HUMAN LIVES TO GROSS EXTREMES and not be bothered by us.
6. Listen! When we are dealing with demon-devil spirits, we are not dealing with MINOR LEAGUE FORCES. These demons are both super-powerful and ruthless. There are no human forces that can stand against or defeat them on their own. None! Without the authority and power of Jesus Christ, there is no loosening or healing. Period! Without the Lord’s help, we are helpless against such dark forces in the world and in people’s lives.
ILLUSTRATION
Sebastian Junger’s best-selling book—later made into also a movie – The Perfect Storm reminds us of the power of storms at sea. Experienced sailors – like those aboard the Andrea Gail fishing boat, whose story makes up the core of The Perfect Storm – know that on the ocean, there comes a point where physics takes over and sailors are helpless to do anything about it.
If a boat heads into a wave that is higher than the boat is long, the boat will almost certainly “PITCHPOLE,” which means go end over end to its doom. Or, if a wave hits a boat from the side, and if that wave is higher than the boat is wide, the boat will capsize, flipping upside down.
As Junger narrates the true story, we learn that although the Andrea Gail was a 72-foot-long boat, it eventually encountered swells higher than 72 feet, and so as the boat headed into those swells, it pitchpoled to its doom, sinking to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. The sheer physics of the situation means you cannot keep a boat afloat in certain conditions.
This woman for 18 years was PITCHPOLING IN FORCES OF DARKNESS that literally were making her walk upside down. That is, that is how she saw the world. We do not know her name, but it might just as well have been ANDREA GAIL.
But then came the day that she met Jesus Christ. And a simple WORD AND TOUCH FROM THE MASTER’S HAND released her from the forces that had bound and bedeviled her. For Jesus Christ the Lord, there is no PERFECT STORM that he cannot calmed. Instantly! Right now!
There are more bound people that walk through the doors of our lives, and even into our churches, than we even slightly know about. Whether their bodies are bent, or their minds are bent, or their lives are all bent and crooked, they are completely helpless to straigten up and to straighten out! They live all around us, and are trapped in an immorally bound and bedeviled condition. They need to come to Jesus, and one word from His lips, and one touch of His hands will set them free in one glorious moment. Some have lived in sin so long, that they have accepted abnormality as normal. Satan does that you know! All the time to all kinds of people. I know Christian that Jesus has a word of liberation for them through you to set the captive free. Go to them, love them, and speak it to them. Their miracle is as close as you, and the Christ Who lives and loves in you and through you.
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VI. SICKNESS – THE COMMON DENOMNATORS
Common Denominator #1
-Sickness has a common denominator: (Direct or indirect)
1.) Never does the word of God present us with God making us sick!
2.) Never, God, making us “ill” for some reason or purpose in His eternal will!
3.) Rather:
-The common denominator is not God pouring sickness on men, dumping germs out of heaven!
-The common denominator is always Satan; Satan who binds men with sickness!
-The common denominator are these:
a. JESUS IS ALWAYS THE LOOSER OF MEN, AND SATAN IS ALWAYS THE BINDER OF MEN.”
b. And, here, the BINDER meets the LOOSER; so much for the BINDER! Hallelujah.
c. And, here, the WOUNDER meets the HEALER; so much for the WOUNDER! Hallelujah.
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Common Denominator #2
-Sickness is never completely hopeless.
-We would call this 18 year binding, in our terms, “A Hopeless Condition!” But listen friend:
1.) There is no bondage in man so powerful, so enduring, that Jesus cannot loose you!
2.) Day by day, again and again, the “LOOSER” is defeating the “BINDER.”
ILLUSTRATION
It happened not so many years ago in Ato, China! An older man listened to a Christian missionary preaching!! This older man, knew nothing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! When the service was over, the man said to the missionary, “I have never heard about this Jesus before, and I have no idea who He is! But did you say He could save me from all my sins!!” And the missionary said; “Yes, that is what I said!” And the man said: “But, you don’t know me, I am a liar, a gambler, a sorcerer, and adulterer, and have been an opium smoker for over 20 years!” (Great problem in China, communist China exports 600 – 700 tons of drugs to the world market; especially to the United States; at a profit at least one billion dollars annually!) The missionary emphasized that Jesus is willing and able to forgive, cleanse, and deliver any man from his sins!
The drug addict was absolutely speechless; for his spirit lay heavy in the chains of the prince of darkness!! Weeks passed by: then one morning he came into the mission house with a radiant face and announced that Jesus had saved him from all his sins, and set him free! Free from years and years of adultery, gambling, witchcraft and drug addiction!
He returned to his home village, in order to tell his fellow sinners about Jesus! They beat him, threw mud at him, and chased him from one place to another! But they could not silence him! In one village, they almost beat him to death; but he always went back and won souls for Jesus Christ.
One poor heathen, who was saved by Jesus Christ! As this woman, bound for 18 years, now praising God; fourteen years later, this man went home to be with Jesus with a song of praise of his lips!!
***
Common Denominator #3
-I feel I must say this right here, “Not all bindings of Satan are so obvious!”
-Some here today, are bound in their spirits, chained by Satan in unholy fetters!!
-But very few if any know even about it.
ILLUSTRATION
1. Briefly reminds me of the man in the 0ld Testament, a Priest, a High Priest, Joshua!
2. Remember him:
-Was the Son of Josedech, Joshua, who prophetically bore the name of Jesus – really JESHUA!
-In the eyes of the people, he was greatly respected, a leading personality in Israel!
-Carried out the work of his high office, in the appropriate High Priestly Garment.
-He wore the golden headband with the words,
“HOLINESS TO THE LORD.”
-He was indeed regarded as being a holy person!! No one thought otherwise!!
3. Yet, it wasn’t true:
-“Satan” had him in chains!! “Satan” claimed his rights to Joshua even in church.
-We read in Zechariah 3:1,
“JOSHUA STANDING BEFORE THE ANGEL OF THE LORD, AND SATAN STANDING
AT HIS RIGHT HAND TO RESIST HIM!”
a. Satan remained at his right hand, even in God’s presence!
b. Satan claimed his right to Joshua, even in the sanctuary!
4. Who knew this double life?
-Though he walked about with a golden band on his head saying,
“Holiness to the Lord.”
-Yet in his heart, ruled and bound by:
“Lust, Greed, Hatred, Anger, Lies.”
-Yet one day:
a. He came to the Lord, came completely into the Light with his sins!
b. And we read the Lord saying in Zechariah. 3:2-3,
“THE LORD REBUKE THEE, O SATAN; EVEN THE LORD THAT HATH CHOSEN
JERUSALEM, REBUKE THEE; IS NOT THIS A BRAND PLUCKED
OUT OF THE FIRE?”
-In other words, Satan, this Joshua nearly became your possession forever.
-Is he not right now, as a brand plucked out of the fire?
-Away with you Satan, you have lost all claims to him.
-And Satan immediately shrank back and Satan fled.
-And the next thing we read is in Zechariah 3:4 when God said,
“TAKE AWAY THE FILTHY GARMENTS FROM HIM; AND UNTO JOSHUA HE SAID, BEHOLD
I HAVE CAUSED THINE INIQUITY TO PASS FROM THEE, AND I WILL CLOTHE
THEE WITH A CHANGE OF RAIMENT.”
-Joshua was set free, cleansed, renewed, revived, all because he had the courage to come to the Light and be honest before God!! Good-by double life!
Good-by hidden bondage! He revealed before the Lord his unclean garments; stopped trying to cover them up!
*******
VII. THE HEALING INITIATOR
-Notice that Jesus initiated the healing, Jesus initiated the loosing.
-I find it so painful, that no one asked Jesus to heal her:
1.) No, not even the woman herself!!
2.) Oh, yes:
-She no doubt, by now, had heard about Jesus Christ.
-But she did not ask Jesus, in fact, we don’t hear one word from her!
-What we do read in Luke 13:12,
“WHEN JESUS SAW HER.”
1. And when He saw her, it was enough to trigger in Him all the compassion and desire to heal!
2. Seeing her brought forth the yearning in His spirit to heal her!
3. He saw:
-A woman bent over like a hairpin!
-A woman, bound up, doubled over!
-A woman seeing only between her legs where she had been, not where she was going!
e. And when He saw her;
-He stopped His teaching, stopped what He was doing!
-His healing heart of love leaped into action!
-In short:
This is a woman who is bound, it is a work from Satan! Jesus is pent up on the inside with God’s healing love. He can feel the healing heart of God throbbing on the inside. And so instead of speaking to God about the situation, He speaks to the situation, because He is so sure of God’s loving and willing heart.
4. So we simply hear Him say in Luke 13:12,
“WOMAN, THOU ART LOOSED FROM THINE INFIRMITY”
a. My translation:
“Lady, you can stand up anytime now!”
b. But see that, understand that more closely:
-We often pray so long, because we are not sure ourselves!
-It often takes about an hour of praying to get ourselves revved up.
5. Make no mistake about it! Doubt not!
a. By the time Jesus speaks, it has already happened!
b. He says,
“YOU ARE LOOSED FROM YOUR INFIRMITY.”
c. Means in the tense of the verb,
“YOU HAVE ALREADY BEEN LOOSED, AND NOW REMAIN IN
THAT LOOSENED STATE!”
d. You are seeing healing by the Will of God as well as by the Word of Christ!!
e. The Father already did it, sent His Son to do it, and His word simply affirms that it is done!
6. And so in our praying for the sick:
-Do not pray thinking that we must do so much ourselves!
-Do not pray, thinking that we must lay a foundation of praying and then healing will come!
-Do not think that we are healed by a whole bunch of praying!
(Oh, I am not saying don’t pray, we are commanded to!!)
-Rather, what I want you to see and believe:
a. That God’s love for His people is so great; His desire for our wholeness is so great!
b. Jesus already knows in His heart that the love of God has already reached her, and all Jesus has to do is affirm it!
7. She must have been stunned by this:
“You are loosed, you can stand up anytime you want too!”
-I can understand if she was stunned:
a. She had no preparation for this!
b. Suddenly called forward, in front of everybody!
c. Had no idea she was going to be ministered unto that way!
d. And then suddenly somebody says:
“You have been freed: and are now in freedom!”
8. But she remains bowed over:
a. Jesus according to Luke 13:13,
“LAYS HIS HANDS UPON HER!”
b. As if to straighten her; as if to unbend her, as if to help her up!
c. Oh, she had been loosed already, but laying on of hands was just the finishing touch!
d. Hands already reaching in certainty that she was no longer bound.
e. And we read:
“AND IMMEDIATELY SHE WAS MADE STRAIGHT AND GLORIFIED GOD!”
I am telling you that Jesus is here to bind the binder, and loose those that are bound. Here He takes the same chains that bound her and binds Satan with them! That’s our Lord Jesus Christ! AMEN and AMEN!!
