Tony Evans - Claiming Your Spiritual Rights (10/27/2023)
This sermon from Luke 13:10-16 focuses on the nameless woman bent over for 18 years. The preacher argues that many, especially women, are devalued and 'bent over' by life's circumstances and spiritual bondage. He emphasizes that through Jesus, we are identified as sons and daughters of Abraham, with a right to freedom, healing, and a new identity that demands we walk with our heads held high.
A Woman Bent Over: Our Condition
There are far too many people, and far too many women, who do not know what they’re worth. Therefore, they have allowed themselves to be devalued by the culture, by men, and by other people because circumstances have stripped them of their true value. So what I want to do is remind you of your value, to remind all of us so that you see yourself through kingdom eyes and have a kingdom vision of your identity.
In Luke chapter 13, we’re introduced to a lady without a name. Her name is not given to us, so we don’t know what to call her, but we are introduced to her. In verse 10, "And he," Jesus, "was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. There was a woman who for 18 years had had a sickness caused by a spirit, and she was bent double and could not straighten up at all."
We’re introduced to a woman. Let’s look at her condition. Jesus is teaching in the synagogue, so the woman was at church and she heard the sermon, because it says, "Jesus was teaching." So she went to church and got her spot, but when she came, she brought an 18-year problem with her. It says, "For 18 years she was bent double." There was a spine injury or disease that caused her to bend over.
You’ve seen people like that who can’t "straighten up," as it says, because she was bent over. Far too many people today live their lives bent over. In other words, they can’t get stuff straight, because it says she couldn’t straighten up. We don’t know the specific illness, but we do know it had devastating repercussions. I don’t know how long she had been going to church.
However long she was going, going to church never fixed it, because she’s still going to church bent over. I wonder how many people today in this house or in your house listen to the teaching every week bent over. How many folks say amen while you are bent over? How many folks say praise the Lord while you are bent over? How many folks sing the songs while being bent over because nothing has changed?
The problem you came in with is the problem you leave with. But we’re given some inside information because we’re told in chapter 13, verse 11, "She had a sickness caused by a spirit." Don’t miss that. She had a sickness caused by a spirit. Let me take you a little deeper. Verse 16 says, "Whom Satan has bound for 18 long years." Ooh. The devil was behind her problem.
It says the spirits had invaded her physical body, orchestrated by the devil, and the devil was running this woman’s life for 18 years while she went to church. A number of things can bring about satanic influences in our lives and circumstances. One is unaddressed sin that serves as an infection that demons can enter into. So one possibility is she had some spiritual issues she was failing to address.
This created an open wound that the demons were able to go into and create more havoc in her physical wellbeing. In other words, what you need to understand is that, like in many movies you’ve seen, demons need a host. They need a vehicle through which to express themselves. The way they find a host is to find some unaddressed evil that serves as an open wound for them to enter.
The Spiritual Root of a Physical Problem
Once they get in, they’re not in a hurry to leave. So we have an 18-year problem. Something has gone wrong in this woman’s life. Now, every sickness is not due to sin; every sickness is not due to disobedience. But there is more due to it than we recognize, because we don’t have spiritual eyes to see it. All we see is the circumstance of being bent over.
So here’s what I want you to ask: Is my inability to get straight, to straighten up, due to the fact that I have the devil all over me? Have I invited him into my world and now he won’t go anywhere? He’s made himself home; he’s built a crib in your physical house. So there’s a headache you can’t get rid of, a life ache you can’t overcome, an addiction you can’t be delivered from.
Unless you have eyes to even look in that direction—kingdom vision—you will spend all your time and money on the wrong thing. Anybody ever spend a lot of money on the doctor, hospital, or some professional, and you’re still no better off? That’s our condition, our situation, our problem. She was being held hostage while going to church.
The Encounter That Changes Everything
"When Jesus saw her," verse 12 says, "he called her over and said to her, 'Woman, you are freed from your sickness.' And he laid his hands on her, and immediately," somebody say: immediately, "she was made erect again and began glorifying God." Oh, this is sweet. Jesus is teaching. She’s bent over, and it has become a lifestyle. Jesus sees her.
She is not the only one in church, but he zeroes in on her. The verse says, "He calls her over to him." I don’t want you to miss that. You can be in church and still not come to him. She has a decision to make. Jesus calls, but will she come? That decision becomes critical to her health and healing. When he calls her over, she comes, and he says, "Woman, you are freed from your sickness."
Let’s not go too fast. Up until this time, we’re told he was teaching. So he’s preaching the Word. But when she comes, he no longer is speaking generically to the whole congregation. He says, "Woman," meaning he’s talking to her. He says, "You are freed from your infirmity." We call that a "rhema" word. A "rhema" word is a personal utterance.
You can hear the Word but never hear a "rhema" word. A "rhema" word is a word from God that has your name on it. He’s calling you by name, speaking into your personal situation. When you come to the synagogue, the church house, you don’t just want God to give you the Word; you want "your" word, a word that speaks into your life. We’re told that he laid his hands on her. She got a personal touch.
That’s what the Holy Spirit does now. Physically, Jesus did it when he was alive, but the Holy Spirit gives you a personal touch now. Immediately she was made erect again and began glorifying God. The reason she needed a touch from Jesus is that a demon and the devil needed to be dealt with, not a bad spine. A bad spine was the fruit, not the root.
Because Jesus saw the spiritual, which you’ll see again in a moment, he could touch the reality. I love the word that shows up so many times in scripture: "Immediately." It says she was made erect; she stood straight up. Wait a minute. Are you telling me you can be messed up for 18 years? Doctors can’t help you, friends can’t help you, your people can’t help you.
You can be "toe up from the flo' up" for 18 years, and just a touch from Jesus can turn that thing around overnight? You’ve been drunk for 18 years, a crackhead for 18 years, gone through divorce after divorce, endured mental anguish for an extended time. You mean just a touch from Jesus can turn that around overnight? But only if you’re willing to recognize the spiritual and not limit yourself to the circumstantial.
So she’s getting her praise on, according to verse 13, because when God comes through for you, you can’t keep it to yourself. She’s glorifying God up in the house. "But the synagogue official," like the senior pastor—not me, him—"indignant," that means ticked off, "because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, began saying to the crowd." There’s a crowd in the house, and this woman had gone crazy glorifying God.
The Religious Objection and Jesus's Response
"There are six days in which work should be done, so come during them and get healed, and not on the Sabbath day." Translation: we’re trying to have church up in here. You’ve messed with the order of service. "But the Lord answered him and said, 'You hypocrites.'" You hypocrites, you two-faced. "Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the stall and lead it away to water it?"
In other words, you’re not going to use the Sabbath to deny the responsibility of giving life and wellbeing to your ox. You’re going to take care of your ox. Why? You’ll take care of your ox because that’s making you your money. In farming, you use the ox to plow and all that. When your money gets funny, you’ll adjust the rules on the Sabbath. If the boss requires you to work on Sunday, you’ll adjust the rules.
What you just condemned, you do. You take care of needs on the Sabbath that affect you because it’s your ox, so that affects you. Everything comes down to what I’m going to say next. "And this woman," I don’t know her name, "a daughter of Abraham." See, you didn’t hear that. "And this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is, should Satan have bound her for 18 long years?"
"Should she not have been released from this bond on the Sabbath day?" Hmm. He says, "Let me tell you about this woman. She’s a daughter of Abraham." I don’t know her name, but Jesus gives her an ID. "Should not this woman who is a daughter of Abraham..." This is the only time this phrase is used in the Bible. For some reason, she didn’t get that this was the devil and a spirit causing this.
She runs smack into Jesus, who sees the spiritual issue. He says to the senior pastor, "You hypocrite, this is not merely a bent-over woman; this is a daughter of Abraham." While not denying her condition because he had to fix it, he clarifies her identity. Far too many women have been given the wrong name. You’ve not been given the name based on who you are.
Your True Identity: A Child of the Promise
It says, "She is a daughter of Abraham." This means for 18 years she’s been a daughter of Abraham, since she currently is one. But just because you have the identity doesn’t mean you are living in the identity. Only when she met Jesus was she dubbed who she really is. In Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 to 3, God made a promise to Abraham.
He told Abraham, "If you do what I tell you to do, I’m going to bless you. I’m gonna show favor to you. And when I show favor to you," here it is, "through you all the nations will be blessed." So when God made a covenant with Abraham, it was to show favor in order to use that favor to be a blessing to somebody else who needs to see divine favor.
Sometimes God has to wait until he knows you’re ready to open your mouth, until you’re ready to praise and declare the glory of God. You know what he’s saying? She’s got the "right" to be delivered. Oh yeah, she got the right. If you got the right to feed your ox, I got the right to feed my daughter. If you got the right to take care of an animal for your financial gain, I got the right to take care of somebody who’s an offspring of the promise.
That promise says, "I’m gonna show favor," so she can give favor. Don’t tell me I can’t do what you do every Sabbath. But he makes another point. He says, "All y’all talking about is the Sabbath." In the Old Testament, that was the seventh day, Saturday. Here’s the key of the Sabbath: for six days you worked, and then on Saturday you didn’t work. You worshiped and enjoyed the goodness of God.
It was a time of freedom and rest. Jesus said, "Y’all don’t understand the Sabbath. The Sabbath was designed to set you free and give you rest." Don’t misunderstand rest; rest is not sleep. On the seventh day, God rested when he created; he didn’t go to sleep. On the seventh day when he rested, he enjoyed what he had done the previous six days creating the world.
So on the seventh day, God didn’t take a nap; he looked out and said, "Mm-mmm, good. Whoo! Mm-mmm, good." He was enjoying what he had done. For most of us, that Sunday is about looking back and seeing the goodness of God over the last six days. God took care of me this last week, he provided, he fed me, he clothed me, he covered me, he sustained me, he empowered me.
I’m just gonna rest and celebrate the goodness of God in the land of the living. He says, "She got the right to be healed; she got a right to be delivered." I want to suggest to you ladies today that you are couture, not bargain-basement. Because you are a daughter of Abraham. You say, "But that was Old Testament." Not quite. When you read Galatians chapter 3, it says in verse 6, "Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness."
"Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are the sons of Abraham." Verse 9: "So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer." He says in verse 13, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.'" Verse 14: "In order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles."
This happens "so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." But I’m not finished yet. Verse 28: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendant, heirs according to the promise."
Claiming Your Kingdom Citizenship
Somebody ought to get excited up in here. He says, "If you have come to Jesus, you are Abraham’s daughter, you’re Abraham’s son, and you are a descendant of the promise." This means nobody can put you down anymore. You walk with your head up high now. I don’t care about your background, your history, or who’s misused or abused you.
You can tell them now, "I’m a child of the king, I’m a descendant of Abraham because I belong to Jesus Christ." It doesn’t matter what people say or what the public says, because you know you’ve been redeemed. Guess what? That means you have a right to be free, a right to be victorious, a right to be sustained, a right to hold your head high, a right to be strong.
Oh, don’t bend over anymore, because Jesus has straightened you up when you come to him. When you become a citizen of a country, you get the rights and privileges that go with that citizenship. When you become a child of God, there are covenantal privileges that belong to you that are your rights to claim. The tragedy is when you don’t either know those rights or don’t utilize them.
You don’t benefit from those rights even though you possess them. If you’re a kingdom citizen, a child of the king, then you’re underneath his covenantal umbrella. God wants you to know what to lay hold of, what to lay claim to, so you can benefit from all the good graces he has provided you as a member of his family.
So don’t live in this world as a citizen of heaven without benefiting from your true citizenship. When you do benefit from it, you will discover that this world doesn’t have the last say-so; the world you really belong to does.