Then last week, we went on, allegorizing the healing of the man with the withered hand. By “allegorize” I mean that I used that historical event to illustrate a spiritual truth. I “spiritualized” the miraculous healing of a deformed hand, to talk about what the Lord does in saving a lost soul. I said that the man may have been crippled from birth. With that hand, he couldn’t work or do anything to serve or please the Lord. Why, he couldn’t even reach out to receive the gift of God. That withered had represented the man’s spiritually dead condition, and his inability to please God. And then the Lord commanded the man to do the impossible – “stretch forth thine hand.” Despite his infirmity the man obeyed, doing something which he may never have done before. He believed Christ enough to obey Him, forgetting his impotence and the possible pain involved. When he put his trust in the words of Christ, the Lord did the rest by miraculously healing him. Humanly speaking, sinners are saved when they believe God and trust Christ, repenting of their sin. But the Lord of the Sabbath – the Lord of Salvation – took care of everything. He enabled the man’s faith and his willingness to believe and obey. And He miraculously cured what had been a debilitating birth defect. The man went home healed, as an illustration of the saving grace and power of God. If that crippled man had also committed his soul to Christ as well as his hand, then he is in presence of his Saviour at this very moment.
Those two messages are points one and two of a larger message. Today, I want to extend my allegory, considering point number three. But again, I worry about stretching my allegory too far, once again asking for the Lord’s blessing and your patience. You might snicker at this, but last Monday I was trying to put an elastic band around a shoe box. I had already tried several old rubber bands; they quickly broke, but I was determined and tried one more. The elastic broke and snapped back onto my wrist; it was as hard as I have ever been snapped. It broke the skin, causing an abrasion, and it created a bruise which got worse over a couple days, but is now finally going away. Stretching Biblical allegories can snap back and hurt a person much more violently than that rubber band. But I ask that you to mentally search the scriptures and notice that what I say this morning really is Biblical.
The JEWISH SABBATH in many ways reminds us of the Christian’s LORD’S DAY.
Early in my Christian life, I thought that “sabbath” meant “seventh” – it was the seventh day of week. After all, it did fall on the last day of the Jewish week – the day that we call “Saturday.” But I had to learn that I was wrong – the true meaning of the word is “rest” not “seventh.” The first reference to the sabbath is to be found in Exodus 16 and involved the giving of the manna – “And he (Moses) said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. And Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day is a sabbath unto the LORD: to day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none. See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.” The sabbath was to be a day when the Israelite ceased from his daily chores and took time to serve and worship the Lord. It was declared to be a special kind of holy day. And in the Ten Commandments it was set apart – “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
Eventually, the Lord of the Sabbath came to earth, clarifying and attacking the Jew’s customs about the sabbath. And after His crucifixion, He arose from the grave on the evening of the Jewish first day of the week. Although the early church had services and ministries throughout the week, it appears from the scripture that it was the first day of the week that she set aside for her primary worship services. The idea that it was Roman Catholicism which changed the worship of God from Saturday to Sunday is false. The principles for Sunday worship can be found in the Book of Acts, and Paul’s epistles. The Seventh Day Adventists, Seventh Day Baptists and others are wrong about their day of worship.
For centuries, some Catholics and Protestants have called Sunday “the Christian sabbath.” Although I can understand what they are doing, I’d prefer not to use that term. At least in my own mind, that term goes back to the traditions of the Jews, transplanted into a context of Christendom. I would prefer to speak of Sunday as “the Lord’s Day.” Some of the original principles of the sabbath still apply – such as rest and worship. But the extremes that have been practiced by some sects and cults I’ll happily ignore.
Beyond this, there is another point in my extended allegory which I am going to table until this evening. I apologize for that, but it would be too much for us to examine this morning. For the sake of argument, let’s say that the synagogue is an illustration of any of the modern churches. For sake of a point to which we will return later, let’s say that Christ Jesus was in an House of God.
In of the Galilean synagogues one sabbath there was a man with a withered hand.
Let’s maintain my allegory or parable from last week. That man represents every natural descendent of Adam – all humanity – crippled in the sight of God. Just as his hand was as dead as rock, so was his spirit before God. The Bible says that babies are all born “dead in trespasses and sins.” Now let’s say that he was visiting the synagogue that day in order to find a solution to his malady. He had heard that Christ Jesus had healed people before, and He would be there on this day. There had been people with fevers, with crippled limbs, quadriplegics, blindness and deafness. Christ Jesus had even raised the dead. This man had come to church in the hopes that Christ would be there to miraculously heal him.
The Lord Jesus may actually have been in that synagogue for any of a number of reasons that day. I’ll come back to that question this evening. Of course, in His omniscience, He knew that the man with the wounded wing would be there. But remember that it was the Pharisees who brought up the question of healing on the Sabbath. “He went into their synagogue: And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days?“ The purpose of the question was “that they might accuse him.” Would the Lord have healed that man if the Pharisees had not raised the issue? I can’t say for sure. It might be that if they hadn’t put the spotlight on him, the man might not have approached the Lord. It could have been that if he had not asked for help, the Lord might not have blessed him. The question is moot under the circumstances.
But here is my point – There is no better place to seek the Lord’s blessing than in the House of God when the Lord is present. The Lord is not confined to bestow His saving grace only in church services. I was in my bedroom when I came to understand the Lord had saved me. That is where I was when I repented and put my faith in Christ to deliver me from my sin. I have lead people to the Lord in hospital rooms. I know people who humbly came to Christ while they were in prison. The Lord is not confined to bestow His saving grace in a church, but that is an excellent place to look for it.
And He is not confined to the sabbath either. I was saved on either a Friday night or a Saturday night, I can’t exactly remember. I would guess that when we all get to heaven, and we are sharing our testimonies, most would say that it was on the Lord’s Day that the Lord broke through the clouds of our doubt and unbelief. I would say that the majority of God’s saints were born again on the Lord’s Day. But that was not what the Pharisees wanted. Please bear with me in my allegory.
The Pharisees wanted to keep salvation outside the church and away from the Lord’s Day.
Permit me to allegorize their question – “Is it lawful to save souls on the Lord’s Day?”
Isn’t it true that the world wants to solve its problems without Christ Jesus – without salvation? Here is a man with a withered hand. Well take him to the hospital, and let Obama Care pay for him to see a orthopedic surgeon. And make sure that it’s on Monday – not on the sabbath. There is a kleptomaniac – he can’t seem to keep from stealing things. Maybe it’s that he just likes to collect those things, like some sort of packrat. Maybe it’s because he is addicted to drugs or alcohol, and he needs money in order to feed his habit. Well in that case lock him in a cell, until he dries out and then release him – he’ll be fine. Here is someone addicted to immorality. In that case he needs to see a counselor. Perhaps he needs to be locked away while he has head shrunk by an expert.
We live in a world of social programs designed to solve all our problems and to heal all our physical deformities. There are a hundred thousand self-help books, seminars and gurus. There are a thousand governmental agencies to take care of every dilemma under the sun. And if there isn’t an agency for the latest problem, mention it to your local congressman, and get him going on establishing one. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being given to universities and drug companies investigating the causes of crippled-hand disease – all with the hopes of eliminating that deformity. Why is it that the United States has a greater percentage of its population in jail than any other country in the world? It is because modern American Pharisees keep asking the question – “Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day and in the House of God?” It’s because people think that jails have more ability to cure the sinful than does God’s house. There is more power to help a man in a counseling session on Monday than in a preaching service on Sunday. I don’t know what kind of people are more plentiful – those who say that withered hands CANNOT be cured, or withered hands MUST be cured in hospitals and no where else.
Follow the logic of that man with the withered hand. Name the Galilean physician in his day who could have restored that hand? Was there a doctor anywhere isn the world who could have cured him? What treatment options were available to the poor man? Could Luke, the Christian Physician, have been able to get him back to 100 percent? And what about the miracle on the sabbath? What was the likelihood that the man would have been able to approach the Lord during the week? I’m not going to say that it would have been impossible, but it might have been more difficult. The sabbath and the synagogue together were like a funnel, bringing a large number of people into one place at one time – and one of those people was the Saviour. Similarly, the services of this church should be an opportunity for wounded souls to be brought into proximity with the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the solution to the social and spiritual problems of the world – even today.
Verse 11 – “And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days. Then saith he to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other.” All of this took place in one of the Galilean synagogues on the sabbath. It was on the Lord’s Day in the House of God.
In Luke 13 there is a similar event – Please turn to Luke 13:10. “And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day. The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day? And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.” Why were the adversaries of the Lord ashamed when they heard the Lord’s argument? Because they had no answer. First, they would have lifted their own sheep from the pit, and they would taken their ox to water. Second, this suffering daughter of Abraham needed the Lord’s immediate salvation. And third, the Lord of Sabbath obviously had the power and authority of Jehovah.
The world thinks that it can solve all of its problems without Christ, without the Lord’s church – secularly. It says that the problems of society are not to be solved on the Lord’s Day. It doesn’t need the sabbath or Jehovah. But today’s facts are as obvious as the facts in the case of the withered hand. There is only one solution to the crippled sinner – the divine Saviour. That solution necessitated Christ’s death on the cross – accomplished according to the eternal plan of God. The Lord’s Day is a good day, a convenient day, perhaps the best-suited day to share the testimony of the Lord’s saving grace. Away with you Pharisees and your religiously secular opinions. Take the world – but give me Jesus. He is the only solution to my eternal problems – and to your sin problems as well.
Come to Christ, as did this man with the useless hand. Come humbly – with a broken spirit. Believe what Jesus says – trust Him. Repent before God and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved from your soul-damning deformity – sin.