Jesus heals a a crippled woman on the Sabbath (Luke 13:10-17)

Happy Sprig break. Happy Sabbath. Since this is our Spring break, let's look at what it means to rest on the Sabbath. God in His loving wisdom instructs us to work and rest equally well. Spring break is the time to rest and recuperate.

Prayer

Dear Lord, thank you for today, your day. Let us come to you and hear your voice this morning. I always fall short to your glory but help me to listen to you and pray through your words:

¹ Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.
² Do not be quick with your mouth,
do not be hasty in your heart
to utter anything before God.
God is in heaven
and you are on earth,
so let your words be few. (Ecc 5:1-2)

My meditation of the heart and my words of my mouth may be pleasing to you, my rock, my salvation (Psalm 19). I pray in your Son's name. Amen.

The Story

Jesus healed a woman who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years on a Sabbath. The synagogue ruler became indignant and said to the people, "There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath."

This story is a response to the synagogue ruler's charge to Jesus doing something illegal on the Sabbath. Let's hear from Jesus what is Sabbath and how we should do on the Sabbath.

The Sabbath

To Sabbath is to rest from one’s labor. “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.” (Genesis 2:2). The first recorded command for humans to Sabbath is in Exodus 16:23, and the Sabbath is listed as the fourth commandment in Exodus 20:8–11.

By setting aside a day, we are showing that we are a people who are set aside (holy) and who rest in Jesus. As followers of Jesus we model after what Jesus did on the Sabbath. From our text, these are the things Jesus did on the Sabbath.

• Jesus taught on the Sabbath (10). Is teaching work? NO. Jesus taught on the Sabbath. Teaching on the Sunday is not work but it is God's grace that we can gather together and hear what Jesus had to say. Sinners gather around Jesus and listen to him. By hearing we feel we are welcomed by God and receive the word of eternal life (Luke 15:2). For a while, preparing and delivering the message was a burden. Then I repented and decided to observe the Sabbath. Previously I started my message on Saturday night. As a result, when Sunday morning came, my body was not fully rested and I was tired. I asked God's wisdom and he gave me wisdom. I decided to work early and finish my draft by Tues or Wed by the latest. In this way, I could take time and meditate on the word of God and spend time with our coworkers on Saturday reading the Bible and welcome quests. It is God's wisdom to rest and do work on 6 days and have one day to rest. Delivering the message on Sunday is not a burden to me but I rather enjoy it. God helped me to meditate and have delight in His words. Jesus taught on the Sabbath. Jesus knew how to rest. Let's rest and hear the word of God.

• Jesus freed a woman on the Sabbath (12). Jesus saw her who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. Can you imagine her condition? For eighteen years she suffered this way. The ability to stand straight is so nice. But what bound her? The spirit bound her and gave her so much pain and suffering. To a woman, appearance is very important. After my wife's wisdom tooth was pulled out, her cheek was swollen and she asked me how she looked. I said, "Fine. Those swelling will disappear soon." However, she looked at the mirror several times and was very self conscious. Here in the passage, a woman's whole body was crippled. We cannot imagine how she walked but she somehow came to the house of God. There, she was had to hide from everyone. But Jesus saw her and had pity on her. Jesus knew that it would be very controversial to heal her on the Sabbath. But Jesus called her and had her stand in front of everyone and healed her. This tells us that Jesus is not pragmatic like me. I do not do certain things if I know that it will create much controversies and headaches.

Look at Jesus and how he sees her. In this passage, Jesus is contrasted with the synagogue ruler. This synagogue ruler is God's servant who was supposed to pray for his people but at the core, he did not care for this woman. This man was very upset because Jesus healed her on the Sabbath.

Let's look at verses 15-16.

¹⁵The Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? ¹⁶Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?"

For him his ox and donkey were more valuable than this woman. He had no compassion for this woman.

How you see suffering people reveals about who you are. Here Jesus is teaching that this synagogue ruler is a hypocrite. This ruler knew how to take care of his ox or donkey but he had no pity on this crippled woman. This woman according to Jesus is a daughter of Abraham. This phrase indicates that she was a daughter of God.

How do you look at girls? This is a very challenging passage for me. When I grew up, I lived with my two sisters. They were emotional and not rational. On the other hand, I was very rational and studied chemistry.

I did not understand them. Once my younger sister ran away from home, I was so upset for tearing my mother and father's heart and became angry at her. In this way, I did not see who she was. My anger blinded me to see her. I saw her only as a woman with an 18 year old problem but failed to see her as a daughter of Abraham. It is amazing how Jesus sees us. We are messed up in one way or the other, but Jesus went to Jerusalem for each one of us.

Jesus' perspective is different though. He knows that we are not that good but He wants to accept us as children of God, born by God's word and his Spirit.

This passage teaches us Jesus' ultimate love for us. Jesus did not avoid the situation but confronted our hypocrisy, specifically our value.

What God values is His love for this woman. We are more than following Sabbath laws. Sabbath is there for us to rest, hear His word, be healed, and hear Jesus' affirmation of us as sons and daughters of God by Jesus' death and resurrection. We are God's children. When we are suffering, Jesus is suffering. He does everything to heal us even at the cost of giving His life for us.

I am a man of hypocrisy and try to look good but God sees my heart. As a leader of this ministry, I must repent before God acknowledging my sins of trying to look good.

1 Samuel 12:20 gave me much needed encouragement. It says, "You have done all this evil; yet do not turn away from the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart." I know I am a sinner. I know I am a hypocrite. Can I say, "I am a sinner!" and do nothing? No. Jesus taught me to serve God from my heart. God wants to see where my heart lies. This gave me much freedom to serve God and praise God and enjoy His word.

Even though I am evil but God does not want me to do nothing but rather to serve God from my heart and do His work. It is indeed grace of Jesus. We are evil yet we are so much loved by God. Today I want to learn the gospel of Jesus.

God knows our evil and ungrateful hearts but he wants to accept us as children of God serving God and doing from our hearts.

I thank God who rescued me from a life of "looking good" outside only and enabled me to serve God from my heart. God gave me Sabbath so that I can rest in His word. May God grant each of us His rest during this Spring break and learn to rest and have delight in his word and in his saving grace.

• Jesus made this woman to praise God on the Sabbath After she was healed, she straightened up and praised God. We praise God on the Sabbath for His grace of healing and His grace of going to Jerusalem for us. We praise God for Jesus who was rejected by the teachers of the law. By His rejection, we are healed. So we gather around Jesus and praise Him. We thank God for freeing us from our chronic sicknesses and addictions. We believe Jesus can free us. This is our confidence to come to Jesus. In this way, coming to Sunday is not a burden but this is a joyful day to see Jesus who heals us and welcomes us to His kingdom.

Summary

Let's repent our hard hearts. We have no compassion for the suffering people. Jesus is challenging us to see suffering people from God's perspective. Jesus declared that this woman was a daughter of God. When we suffer from our chronic diseases and addictions, we think that we are abandoned by God. But that's not true. Jesus came to free us by being rejected by the ruler and He paid the ultimate price for our freedom. It is God's grace that frees us. Jesus' death and resurrection is our ultimate freedom.

As we pray for the Easter conference, let's pray that Jesus' death and resurrection and His saving gospel can set us free from all our sicknesses and addictions.

Let's pray.

Dear Lord. Thank you for your word regarding the true meaning of the Sabbath. When you demonstrated the true meaning, you were rejected by the ruler. But your rejection brings us hope and freedom. Please free us from living only before men and valuing material things more than your people. Help us to rest in Your words and praise God for Your saving grace. Help us to live knowing that we are Your sons and daughters, who have been freed by Your healing. Help us to serve you from our hearts. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen

Andrew Lee's Birthday

We celebrate Andrew's 14th birthday. He will be going to HS, this Fall.

It is God's pure grace that I am having such a nice son. I pray for him to grow in wisdom and in favor with God and men.

Here are some pictures of him and his friends.

Happy Birthday Andrew.

Road Trip to Toledo

(Saturday March 21 09)
Danny Kim, Gidoen Shin, Abe Song and Sam Lee took a road trip to Toledo, OH.

The Toledo UBF members welcomed us warmly and served us lunch and dinner and took us to the U of T, Lake Erie and Art Museum.

This is our Spring break week. We pray to learn to how to take rest in God and in his words.
We started early at 6 am. It was odd that we got up earlier when it is in the break.





Gideon was up early and had so much energy. I did not why he was smiling so much.



Danny Kim and Gideon were our main drivers. We were happy to drive together and enjoyed the first day of the Spring break.



We took the group picture in front of the Toledo center expansion project poster. They will start the expansion work shortly. They are having the Easter Conference next weekend (March 27 to 29, in Michigan)

Even though Dr. Paul Hong was busy with the messengers for the upcoming conference and with his message, he welcomed us and spent time with us. In addition, missionary Peter Park and missionary Joan Park served us and took us around the city.

We thank their hospitality.

The Toledo UBF is praying to raise 25 world class disciples of Jesus. Let's pray for them and ask God's grace upon this ministry.

Pastor Mark Vucekovich studied 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 with Paul Toh

( This picture taken in front of the student Union)


On Saturday March 14th, 09, pastor Mark and his wife, Kathy visited Springfield ministry and studied the Bible with Alex Foster.

After that, he came down to U of I and had a Bible session with Paul Toh in the afternoon.

We value his labor of love for driving to Springfield and then to U of I on Sat even though he had to deliver the Sunday message the next day.

He prays to raise servants of God's word at the Easter conference, which will be held from April 3rd to 5th at Hudson, IL.

The conference info is posted here.

Please pray to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus and be his witnesses to the ends of the earth.

Mother Barry's visit

(Friday March 13rh, 09)




Paul Toh organized a special Friday meeting. Paul invited Mother Barry. She accepted Paul's invitation and came down to the U of I and shared her life testimony.

We were greatly encouraged by her life of faith. After the talk, we had a QA session. We pray that we can be equipped and being sent out for the gospel of Jesus like her.





(U of I men coworkers: From Left, John Jeong, Jerry Park's Father, Nathan Walker, Danny Kim, Jerry Park, Joshua Tice, Gideon Shin, Mother Barry, Paul Toh, Mike Rora and Abe Song, Sam Lee) We pray to raise men of God who can contend for the gospel in this generation.

Alex and Deb's new blogs

Several of us are starting blogs:

1. Alex Foster's blog entitled: A sinner's blog.
2. Deb Lim's blog: Descriptions and Thoughts

Let me know if you want to share your blogs with others.

1 Samuel Study Resources

Here are some maps that can be useful for reading 1 Samuel. ( from Holman Bible Atlas)

You can click the image to enlarge it.

1. The battle at Ebenezer and the lost of the ark





2. The ministry of Samuel and anointment of Saul


3. The kingdom of Saul and his wars




4. The flight of David from Saul




Here is a good map site. Bible history site: click here.

My personal reflections and study notes. Click here: 1 Samuel chapter 12.

Please provide comments.

A Call to Repentance (Luke 13:1-9 )

Paul Toh delivered this message on 3/10/09

Luke 13:1-9

Luke 13:3 “I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish”

This passage is about repentance. Repentance is a challenging issue and i am in no way worthy to be Jesus' voice for this message, but in this text Jesus does challenge us and call us to repentance.

May God help us to think about what repentance is and what Jesus is challenging us to repent about. May God open our hearts to the true repentance that is in living in Jesus' righteousness and holding on to his grace for salvation.

I. Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate mixed with their sacrifices

(explain the tragedy)

A. Why did they bring this event up to Jesus? What kind of response were they expecting from him? The passage does not say explicitly, but looking at Jesus’ response we can see their intent.

B. Jesus answered, “Do you think these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way?”

1. We see two themes in Jesus’ question here:

a. The people were curious about how Jesus explains suffering.

b. This shows how they explained sufferings and sin.

The people’s answer to his question would be yes. The people believed that these Galileans must have done something really bad to suffer this way.

And that there suffering was because they were worse sinners

This was a common belief in the past. They believed that the amount of suffering in your life directly correlated with the amount of sin.

2. Suffering is a great issue and has always been since the fall. Suffering can be a complicated, sensitive and difficult issue to deal with. Thousands of books have been written on the issue of pain, suffering and God.

C. But what does Jesus teach us about suffering? Jesus doesn’t tell us why they suffered this way, but he does tell us why they didn’t. His response is in verse 3

1. I tell you, No!

a. Doing more bad or more good does not directly correlate with the amount of suffering you will experience in life. God does not treat us as our sins deserve

From this self-centered point of view God is just a means to an end If we view suffering like this or blessings for that matter we will never be able to know our God of unconditional love.

i. do we still think this today?

I think so but its manifested in a different way. People still carry with themselves this sense of entitlement. In America it’s a popular notion to think I earned everything I have. Popular questions like why do bad things happen to good people arise from this idea of deservedness and human goodness or how does a good God allow suffering?

ii. Where does this comes from?

It comes from a misunderstanding of sin, which leads to a misunderstanding about suffering which leads to a misunderstanding about God. In terms of sin we always think of ourselves as better then we are. We don't understand suffering because we don't understand who we are and we don't understand God's mercy.

iii. Why this isn’t true?

this isn’t true because sin is what we do it is what we are:

The gospel teaches us clearly that no matter what we do we all fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23. And Isaiah teaches us that everything we do, even if we developed such high levels of self-control that we didn’t do things considered bad, our deeds are filthy rags in God’s sight. (Isaiah 64:6). Our motives and intent are laced with selfishness, even in our generosity. Jeremiah 17:9

iv. We all fall short. There is no relativity between good and bad before God. None of us ever has or ever will measure up to God. Sin is not what we do, but who we are.

There is no “these Galileans” and “those Galileans” we are all sinners. We can make comparisons all day between ourselves and others and from these draw all kinds of conclusions about who God is and who God is not.

And in the end what would it be? It would just be ourselves justifying why we are ok and shouldn’t have to change or why we are not getting what we think we deserve and how the suffering we are going through is unfair on God’s part.

It's us trying to defend our selves and our righteousness while rejecting Jesus' righteousness

v. So how do we deal with this?

2. Jesus doesn’t leave us here. He says, “But unless you repent, you too will perish”

a. This at first glance doesn’t seem to be very hopeful, but it is Jesus’ challenge to us. Jesus tells us we need to repent.

b. We need to pray to honestly see ourselves before God. To rid ourselves of this notion that we are self-sustaining self-righteous people.

As long as we look at sin and sufferings and God from our own perspective and with our relative comparison we will never understand God's mercy

This is Jesus’ challenge of repentance. It is a challenge to stand instead before God who is holy and to see that we fall short.

Repentance is…

1 John 4:10:

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

· Repentance is God’s love for us in Jesus Christ. Repentance is asking for God’s mercy to humble our hearts and live in Jesus’ righteousness.

· Usually when we hear someone tell us repent we have a tendency to despise them, but when Jesus tells us he didn’t just tell us, he went to the cross for us.

· We see this primary element of God’s mercy working in us and us being drawn to him.

Isaiah 52:5

“He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

In this last line we see repentance manifested in our lives. We first see Jesus who suffered in our place for what we deserved and then we see the fruit of repentance of Jesus’ grace healing our wounds inside. This is the redemption of our inner being to live as children of God

· Jesus death and his resurrection is our repentance. Our claim is not to our own goodness, but to Jesus’ who first loved us and who died for our sins. We pray for the Holy Spirit to bring this conviction to our hearts.

· This is repentance.

Jesus opens repentance to us when he went to the cross. This is the gospel.

We all have issues in our lives that we have to deal with, whether they be relational problems, financial problems, school-related, work related etc. its endless. But we need to see that the real problem behind it all is my heart, which is sinful, before my Holy God.

Through God’s mercy we need to step out of our self-centeredness, from the comparisons we make and from looking at everything from where we are.

Jesus challenges us to step into the Holy presence of God. What will we say in the presence of our Holy God? Here, all our excuses and justifications fall short, here all our selfishness and rottenness are laid bare and here we are stripped naked and put to shame. It is here that the only thing we have to hold on to is the blood of Jesus shed for our sins.

Jesus challenges to stand before the holy God and see that we fall short on all accounts, but that he loves us and gave his only son for us. He went to the cross for us. Let’s pray for humble hearts to bow before the cross and to live in his grace that changes our hearts and redeems our lives for His glory.

Let’s pray for God to convict us through the Holy Spirit of all the things in our own lives that are not pleasing to him. We are all fallen people, we all need God’s mercy to grow in repentance.

D. Or those 18 who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them – do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem?’

1. Again Jesus brings in two themes slightly different: here it is guilt and death.

2. This incident in contrast to the other did not involve any ill intent by human will or decision. It was just a bad accident.

How can we explain random accidents? Life is fragile, in flash it can be gone.

3. But Jesus’ message is the same:

They were not more guilty than others living in Jerusalem

We are all guilty before God. There is no way around it

So we must repent and pray for God’s mercy to work in our hearts and lead us to claim Jesus’ salvation and righteousness.

Jesus is calling us to repentance. He is calling us to come to receive his grace and mercy in this life, while we still have it.

This call to repentance again came at the cost of him laying down his own life for us, so that we could find true life in his name

E. We will all perish

1. This is the consequence of not repenting

a. Jesus says, “Unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

Unless we receive Jesus’ grace we perish John 3:17

b. perish has a deeper meaning then just death here. Jesus challenges us to live in the eternal perspective of his coming kingdom.

Earlier in chapter 12 Jesus told his disciples, “But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has the power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you fear him.”

God is holy. We will perish one day and his words will be the last.

Let us pray for repentance. Let us pray to know Him through the Word of God, which speaks about Jesus who being in very nature God, became a man, who loves us and gave his life for us so that we could have life in him.

May God be with us to experience the mercy of his grace in the repentance that leads us to living and holding on to Jesus’ righteousness. No matter what sufferings or hardships we may go through in this life the Holy Spirit holds on to us as we hold to Jesus’ grace and promise that we will one day be with him in his kingdom.

II. Then he told this parable

A. A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any.

B. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard

i. For three years now I have been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any.

ii. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?

The owner of this vineyard was not happy. An investment that only consumes and does not give back is a waste. Any business man will tell you that an investment that remains stagnant or does not grow for three years should be terminated.

C. The man replied

1. Sir, leave it alone for one more year

i. I’ll dig around it

ii. and fertilize it

2. If it bears fruit next year, fine!

3. If not, then cut it down.

The caretaker of this vineyard has an interesting role. On the one hand we see that this tree is not bearing fruit. The caretaker seems to have a sense of responsibility. He understands that the trees growth is up to him as well. So he requests one more years time. He does his best to dig around it and fertilize, to give it the best resources in order that it might bear fruit. If it does fine, it will remain, if not it will be chopped down.

D. Jesus leaves the parable open at the end. Was this tree still fruitless after a year and cut down? Or did it bear fruit and remain in the vineyard?

What will we do? Will we continue to justify ourselves in our own eyes or will we see the fruitlessness of our ways and receive Jesus’ grace and be rooted in him who bears true and lasting fruit in our lives? This tree cannot bear fruit on its own that is pleasing to the vineyard owner, we cannot either. The tree needed the caretaker. Jesus in us bears the fruit of the spirit that glorifies God.

How will we respond to Jesus' call to repentance?
Will we justify ourselves, will we try to muster up all our human will and effort in an attempt to live in way we deem to be appropriate before God?

In life we will meet face to face with our depravity and with suffering and problems. In life we can deal with sin, with suffering, with difficult issues in many ways. We can play the blame game, make comparisons, debate about right and wrong and justify ourselves all day long. We can stomp our feet and yell at God and tell him how unfair he is, but in the end his Word and his standard, which alone is good, will stand. And his word will be the final one.

Jesus calls us to repent. He calls us to move away from this self-centered and self-justifying way of looking at life.

Let us pray for God’s mercy to receive repentance through the mercy and grace of Jesus who opened up repentance for us by going to the cross in our place.

Where is Mary Koh?

Mary Koh (U of I, 2nd year student) who is in Korea as an exchange student at Yonsei University writes: “Please keep me in your prayers. its so easy to get homesick from time to time. i didn't realize how weak i was once i was stripped of all my comforts back at home. but its in times like these when i am able to learn prayer. they are precious times when i'm able to see myself for who i am, and god for who he really is. life is short and im learning how to make the best of it.”

Here are some pictures of her in Korea.

at the top of a mountain that we climbed after our student conference. it felt GREAT to know that i've conquered something...and the new was absolutely beautiful thought its hard to see in the picture. even though missionary david kim is older than all of us, he pushed us to keep going even though we all felt like our legs were about to snap. he's a fighter. i was impressed

the picture of the kids are my two students that i tutor. sometimes its hard being patient with little kids, but they are a joy to teach. they are both gracie's age (my younger sister), and so every time i see them i think of my sister

the food is REALLY delicious here. that’s one plus here in Korea. everything is cheap but delicious. however, the portions are really small compared to the US so you might still be hungry afterwords.






when mssn caleb hong, david hong, from germany and also missionary jimmy lee were here at yunhee center. i was able to have fellowship with them--eating, talking, singing and laughing. i never knew how humorous missionaries were. and i was really touched by their lives...





This is a picture after my orientation. god blessed me to meet some new friends. it's generally difficult getting to know people for me because i'm not at the international dorm where everyone else is at. it's also a new for me to start all over and meet new people. but none-the-less i'm really thankful, especially because i know god provides.


This is my room. its really small compared to what i'm used to, but i tried my best to decorate it and make it as homey as possible. its definitely a humbling experience but its good for me :)

my dance studio. i learn various styles--hip hop, popping, and locking. in chicago, popping and locking aren't really taught...i hear it's only practiced in LA or NY where hip hop culture is big. Those who do want to learn usually learn off of youtube clips..but i'm not good with that. so i'm so extremely thankful that i'm learning what i've always wanted to learn. i'm in the studio for 9 hours a week. it can get pretty busy now that school has started, but being in the studio is doing what i love. it helps me to realize that life isn't a box, and the options in life are countless. god put us here to glorify him, that is, to highlight his greatness in every aspect of our lives...with him the opportunities and dreams are limitless. im excited to see where this takes me.

Mary Koh's favorite youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFkh5LxaQtc&feature=related

Dr. Samue H. Lee and shepherd David Kim's visit

(This picture was taken from the Illini Union room where we hold our Sunday worship gatherings)

Dr. Samuel H. Lee, Korea UBF director and shepherd David Kim, Yonhee chapter director, visited the U of I. Dr. Lee gave a talk on the Holy Spirit. They came and prayed for us and encouraged us to do God's work here.

We value their prayers and partnership in Jesus.