Go home to thy friends and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee

Sermon notes from Sunday 19 January 2020 pm

Luke 13 verses 10 - 17

The little verse we have been taking for our testimony nights is summed up in this passage - Mark 5 verse 19 "go home to thy friends and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee."  The demonic man met the Lord one day.  The demons had to leave his body and went into the herd of swine who drove them over the cliff and into the sea.  The young man wanted to follow him wherever the Lord went.  Look at this lady in synagogue with the spirit of infirmity.  She couldn't look up.  As she comes into the synagogue and listens to the Lord she is delivered from that   What is she going to tell people as she leaves?  The first thing she could have said was - I listened.  This lady had the greatest opportunity.  Sitting in the synagogue when Jesus rose up to preach the word of God, he was handed the scroll and he began to preach.  No man spake like this man.  He spoke to the winds and the waves and even they adhered to his voice.  Never heard anything like it before.  This woman probably came every week, took her place.  For 18 years she was in that condition.  Maybe for the same time she came to the synagogue, heard God`s word but it never touched her heart until this particular day.  No doubt the elders welcomed her gladly but help they could not do for her.  The young man brought to the Lord by his father spoke to the disciples first but they couldn't deliver him.  He was brought to the Lord by his father and he healed him.  This woman had no help from anyone in the synagogue.  Many are depending on their church minister, their works, they will only let you down.  The church cannot save you.  The minister cannot do anything for you.  He can say all manner of good things when you are being buried but he cannot save you.  The only thing that will save you on that day is a relationship with the Lord.  Have you that relationship?  Are you saved by God`s grace?

Here was a woman who listened to everything that was being said, taking in every word.  Think of Lydia out by the river side.  A religious young woman who came out to the river side on the Sabbath day.  Paul and his evangelist were there.  She listened  and never heard anything like this before.  Paul told them of the Lord, how he came to seek and to save the lost  Lydia listened to every word.  Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.  The shepherds on the hillside on that first night the Lord was born.  The angels came to tell them a Saviour had been born.  What a wonderful message.  There is a Saviour for all sin.  He wants to come into your heart, to make you a new creature in Christ.

She also learned.  The thing keeping her bound came from the very source of Satan himself.  We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God.  We are blinded by the God of this world.  Not believing comes from the source of Satan himself.  He has bound you just like he bound this woman.  Many tonight do not discern their condition tonight, cannot see they are not saved because they do not believe they have sinned.  The parable of the sower.  The preacher went out to sow.  Some seed fell on good ground.  That ground is just like your heart.  The hard ground shows that your heart is hardened to the things of God.  The sower goes out and the seed will fall on hard ground.  The birds will come down and carry the seed away.  That shows the man taking in the word of God into his heart then the devil comes to the person and takes the seed of the word of God.  What a day it was for Nicodemus.  A religious man.  When Jesus told him he need to be born again, when the Lord looked at him and said "except a man be born again he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven."  That is what the Bible teaches us.  Are you born again?  Have you got some form of religious experience?  Are you born again of the spirit of God.  The Philippian jailer asked "what must I do to be saved?"  Paul replied "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."  He realised he didn't have what Paul and Silas had.  He was ready, prepared to do anything.  "All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way."  The source was the devil himself.

She looked.  Jesus looked to where she was, he called her out and healed her from her infirmity.  She looked into Christ`s face and responded to what Jesus said to her.  Jesus continues to speak directly to people now.  He is showing people their need of salvation, putting his finger on that which was wrong.  He told the elders this woman has been bound for 18 years, knew all about her and her condition, how long she had been like that.  Jesus knows all about you too.  This woman couldn't straighten up, chained and fettered by Satan.  Now she was an entirely different person.  Remember the leper who came to the Lord.  He came running to Christ.  He recognised who Jesus was.  He came to that place "if thou wilt you can make me clean."  In that moment he was healed, in an instance and he fell down.  That leper was bound, on his way to hell but he left saved by God, reconciled, redeemed by God.  Are you going to continue in your sin?  Continue in that backslidden condition?  Or will you come to Christ just as you are, just as this lady did. 

She could also say I am living for Christ.  She left the synagogue different from the way she came in.  She was now living for Christ.  Her testimony went before her.  The people would recognise her as she was bent in 2.  They would ask her what happened and that gave her the opportunity to tell her story.