We're in Luke chapter 13 and we're going to read from verse 10. Luke 13 and verse 10. We're speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ here and Luke tells us in verse 10, and he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.

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. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this reading from his word.

Luke's behold here in the opening verse, or in verse 11, it says, and he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath, and behold. And that little word there, behold, I've pointed this out before, it's not insignificant. In fact, It's an exclamation and it ought to be considered as one of these little words or phrases that draws particular and peculiar attention to what is about to be said. A little bit like verily, verily, when the Lord speaks in this way. These are not just filler words in some sort of way, but important and useful to direct our attention.

And so here we have the word of exclamation, even perhaps surprise. And Luke, I think, is drawing particular attention to the lady who is present here in the synagogue. perhaps because of the seriousness of her situation. I mean, what is being said here of her, if we can conjure up a picture in our mind? is that this woman was effectively bent double.

And Luke is aware of her plight as he comes into the synagogue, or at least as the Lord and his disciples come into the synagogue. Or maybe it was wonder at her sad state or the hopelessness of her case, whatever it is that Luke has in mind here, he is drawing our attention to this lady particularly. And I think that we shouldn't pass over that without just giving it its due sense of importance.

We should notice that despite her debilitating illness, maybe some kind of scoliosis or sclerosis, some bending of her spine that was taking place, some deterioration in her bones, her frame that was afflicting her in this way, and presumably degenerative, despite that, She was still present in the synagogue. She was there, let's call it the church, because this woman was a believer. She was there, still in her place of worship, still seeking the Lord.

And what a fine example that is. Many people would take any opportunity not to be present at church. I remember an old man from many years ago saying, if you want an excuse not to go to church, just put your hand in your pocket and you'll find one. And I think the point he was making there was that people will find any reason, if they don't want to be in church, not to go there. But here was a woman with a burden to be, despite the difficulty that must have been implicit in her being there, she wanted to be with the Lord's people and she was present seeking the Lord. It's a fine example I think to us all and what a blessed day this was for her.

We should come to our Lord's Day services, we should come to our Lord's Day with a sense of anticipation. and she came out to the worship service and she was doubled over, bowed together and then having met the Lord Jesus, she went home straight, she went home true, she went home upright, and she went home praising God. I've got a picture in my mind of her walking home and leaping and praising God, like the man at the beautiful gate in the Acts of the Apostles. She met the Lord and he changed her forever.

And I think spiritually speaking, it is good for us to come to worship seeking such blessings as well. These are examples for the church, for the Lord's people to emulate and to copy.

Luke tells us she had a spirit of infirmity 18 years. It's a long time. Her complaint appears to have been of some kind of demonic origin. The Lord says that she was bound by Satan. And from this, I think we can readily draw contrasts between the bondage of a soul, of a man or a woman under sin, and the picture presented to us here of this woman bound under her physical infirmity.

and how wonderful that the Lord went preaching and teaching into this synagogue on this Sabbath day. He was always eager to be about his father's business and never missed an opportunity to declare the gospel, to do good to the poor, to benefit the sinners, and to gather his beloved church.

What else can we say about this lady? Well, this lady shows us the place to be for those who are troubled with sin, for those who are bound by Satan. This is where the Lord's people meet under the sound of the gospel. And we may say that this woman was present at church when many others would have used her distressing and possibly painful condition to stay away.

but the Lord promises to meet his people where two or three are gathered in his name. And let us always try to be one of those two or three. She truly was in the presence of the Lord that day and it changed her life. And to be in the presence of the Lord is life changing.

Let us not forget that the power is in the gospel. The power is in the gospel. It is The God or means preaching the gospel is the God-ordained means by which the Holy Spirit ministers to his people. The Holy Spirit blesses his church and the Lord God gathers his elect out of the world, freeing those captives bound in Satan's kingdom.

And I think we perhaps say this often, perhaps we don't say it as often as we should, but we all should be eager to encourage everyone we can to come and listen to the Gospel. Come to where the Gospel is preached, come to where the Lord is worshipped, come meet our Saviour, saying as we invite them, He has done good to so many Why not you?

And I like that Luke tells us that this poor woman could in no wise lift up herself. Her helplessness and inability is noted and recorded. That we all might know where the true power lay for the accomplishment of this miracle. And so it is for the sinner. He can in no way lift up himself out of his fallen state and condition, out of his natural opposition towards God. And what makes our gospel the true gospel, what makes it good news is that it comes with power to those who can in no wise, in no way lift themselves up to God. The enabling comes first from the Lord, to make a man or a woman able to hear and willing to obey. And so it was here. The Lord saw her. That's a lovely little phrase as well. Perhaps as he was teaching, perhaps as he was reading the scriptures, he caught sight of her from the corner of his eye. Perhaps it was following the lesson when people were preparing to leave. But it was no surprise to him to see her there. He was looking for her. She was one of his dearly beloved people and her time of liberation, her time of blessing had come.

I'm sure that the Lord must have been delighted, I'm going to even say excited, to go into the synagogue that morning, knowing that he would meet this dear soul. The Lord knew well that she had been in this situation for 18 years. It was a long time to live with this burden, but here today he was going to lift her out of this condition. And yet it seems also that there were plenty of religious legalists present in the congregation. And I've no doubt that their hearts were hard against all that the Lord taught that day. But there was one in attendance whom the Lord was pleased to see, to see with an eye of love, to see with an eye of grace and mercy. And he was pleased to acknowledge her and he was pleased to heal her.

Verse 12 says, 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. If you have a Bible that shows the words that have been placed in the sentence, in the passage, in order to ease understanding and shows them in italics, you will notice that the text that he called her to him is in italics. And I'm not sure why. I think that verse reads very adequately, making good sense if calling her to him is not actually inserted there. So we'll leave that point hanging. I don't know what prevented the Lord simply from reaching out and touching her. But either way, the power of healing was with Christ. He spoke with all the sovereign authority of the eternal God. He said, woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. That's conversion right there. That is transformation. That is liberation. That is freedom from the bondage of her condition and her sin.

He laid his hands on her. And I do not for a moment imagine that he laid his hands on her in any ostentatious way, in any showy or dramatic way. I imagine that he, like the proper gentleman that he is, that he simply took her hand, As all her rigid bones became flexible, as her spine straightened up, as her muscles relaxed and became eased, and she rose upright for the first time in 18 years, I think the Lord simply took her hand and gently eased her to a standing position. And now this dear lady, who had spent all her time looking at the ground, looked full into the face of her Saviour. And she knew the change that had taken place. Obviously she did. And she immediately glorified God. Her spirit rose. with her body. Her spirit rose in praise of her Lord and Saviour as her statue rose to its full height and she worshipped the Lord.

And these miracles so beautifully prefigure the salvation of a soul. The devil that bound this dear lady had been banished. It had come under the power of Jesus' voice and after 18 long years, it had been forced to release its prey. Just so, when the Gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation, comes with authority, and is applied by the Spirit into the soul of a sinner, it quickens to life, it raises the dead, it sets the converted child of God to worshipping and to praise.

But what a stark contrast is now given to us by Luke. What an awful, censorious attitude this man displayed against the Lord. or open hypocrisy from this so-called religious leader, this ruler of the synagogue, who, we're told, answered with indignation because that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day.

I suspect this needy lady was well known in the synagogue. She may have attended there all her life. The people may well have known her for all the years of her illness. but without a thought for her, this man instantly judges the Lord for healing on the Sabbath, presumably because he felt the Lord had desecrated the Sabbath day.

But I don't know that we can even grant this man any credit at all for his supposed reverence for the Sabbath, because here before him was the Lord of the Sabbath, And if this man truly revered the Sabbath day, one might have thought he'd have recognised the one whose day it is. But not a bit of it. He flew into this critical rant, first attacking the Lord, then attacking the woman, notwithstanding that she was completely passive in the whole matter, as was publicly seen.

He tries to enlist the support of the congregation, saying, there are six days in which men ought to work. In them, therefore, come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.

I like the firm response that the Lord gives. Sometimes hypocrites just need to be called out for their false dealing. And we do not wish to be rude or aggressive or confrontational with people. Nevertheless, there is a place for direct speaking when it comes to preaching a false gospel. And we have noted recently how that the Old Testament prophets like Amos, the apostles, and the Lord often spoke firmly and directly against hypocrites and those whom Amos depicts as being at ease in Zion.

This man could and would have nurtured these wrong views without challenge all his life. But the Lord would not let this slight pass unnoticed or unspoken. And he looks at the man and he declares in verse 16, 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?

You treat your animals better than you treat people. And here is a poor woman, bound by Satan eighteen years, and you protest against her being set free from Satan's bondage.

Christ's adversaries were ashamed and the people rejoiced at the miracle and the glorious things done by the Saviour.

Let me make one final point and that's me done. This woman is called a daughter of Abraham. Now of course this could mean that she was a Jewish lady, she was a native Israelite, but spiritually speaking we understand this to be much more significant. A daughter of Abraham is a woman of faith. an elect child of God. Abraham was the father of the faithful. And here is proof from the lips of the Lord that she was one of the covenant children, chosen in Christ before the world began, united with him by grace, through justification and sanctification and redemption, and a member of Christ's body, the church.

But note this, for all the privileges that grace afforded her, she was still to endure 18 years of hardship, trouble and very likely pain. God's elect are not immune from Satan's bondage and temptation's hardship. By whatever path the Lord leads us, through whatever troubles we are called to endure, let us look to Christ with faith. Let us look to him with confidence and praise. There is nothing that happens that does not ultimately work for our good and God's glory. And let us remember that in every circumstance it shall ease our burden and lighten the load when we trust the Lord for his help.

May the Lord bless these thoughts to us. Amen.