Jesus: Lord of the Sabbath, Part 1

And we truly want to bless the name of the Lord because it's you who saved us. It's you who has worked in our lives. It's you who will bring about our maturity and one day Lord You'll bring us home to be with you and glorify us completely and so father we anticipate that day until then We ask that you would teach us through your word that we might grow in the likeness of Jesus Christ our Lord We pray in Jesus name Amen Turn with me in your Bible to Luke chapter 6 Luke chapter 6 is where we are we are studying the longest gospel in the scriptures It's not the longest because it's taking me forever to get through it It is the longest because it has more words than all the other Gospels Doesn't have as many chapters as Matthew has but it has more words Than Matthew has and so this gospel speaks to us about the Christ his mission and His ministry as we embark on the sixth chapter of Luke's gospel We realize that the animosity and the hatred for Christ has escalated to a fever pitch Hard to believe because when we began Luke a number of months ago I guess years ago now when we began Luke it was with the Announcement of the coming of the Messiah that was in chapter 1 then of course in chapter 2 the arrival of the Messiah and the great blessing of the one who would come and bring good news of great joy to all people and then there was that adoration of the Messiah as the Shepherds would come and bow before him and we study the Magi as they would come and bow before him and worship his majesty It was a great study and you realize that as you study the gospel The Messiah has come and and what what he has come to do is to save his people from their sin You think wow, what a what a marvelous story.

What a what a great way to to talk about the coming in Ministry of the Messiah And yet by the time we get to chapter 6 of Luke's gospel as Christ is in his ministry People hate him The religious establishment wants to wants to kill him You begin to ask yourself the question. Why is that? How does that happen? so quickly And yet the people would speak well of him We read it in Luke chapter 4 Luke chapter 5 the people would marvel at his words They would marvel at his miracles They would sit back and just be in the fear of the Lord and in the fear of God And the Pharisees the religious establishment they would come in and they would sit in on his Sermons and they would listen to his teaching and remember in chapter 5 they were there when the man was laid down through the roof the paralyzed man and he was healed and the leaders of Israel were gathered together in that room as well and they watched what Jesus did and they heard what Jesus said and yet They became Infuriated with him why it's because Jesus spoke the truth.

That's why he spoke the truth and Whenever you speak the truth When someone is living in error They become angry Unless of course they want to repent and turn from their error and follow the truth Jesus was full of grace and full of truth Jesus Came not to bring peace But a sword and it wasn't because he wanted to be unkind. It wasn't because he wanted to be Ungracious. No on the contrary. He was full of grace. He was kind. He was merciful but he spoke the truth and Because he spoke the truth those who lived in error Wanted nothing to do with him Because he would come against listen carefully their perception of themselves The religious leaders had a perception of themselves.

That was different than others. They saw themselves as as good They saw themselves as children of Abraham They saw themselves as the people of God and and because of that they they were far better than everybody else And Jesus came and began to preach and Showed them that they were not as good as they thought they were That surely they were poor They were miserable. They were blind. They were naked. They were imprisoned. They were Downcast and they didn't agree with that assessment They didn't agree with the words of Christ they saw themselves as better than they truly were Now we should know about this not because of the story but because of Simeon's prophecy way back in in Luke chapter 2 remember in Luke chapter 2 and Joseph and Mary brought Jesus to the temple and To dedicate him and it was Simeon who took Christ into his arms and this is what he says in the verse number 34 He said to Mary his mother behold this child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel and for a sign to be opposed Now this was that his dedication he was just a few days old and We've come to realize now that that what Simeon had said has come to fruition in chapter 5 and in chapter 6 of Luke's gospel He is assigned to be opposed people will be against him.

Why? Because he's the truth Christ said I am the way the truth and the life and because he spoke the truth They disdained him They wanted nothing to do with this Messiah Think about it this way If you were to speak the truth in your classroom if you were to speak the truth in your office It would go something like this Someone comes and says do you believe that Mormons are going to heaven? What would you say? Yet say oh absolutely not Well, how could you say that It's very easy Because they have a workspace system They have a polytheistic view.

They are not believers in the one true God of Israel see If someone says do you believe that the Jews will go to heaven? Well, the answer that is no they rejected their Messiah Unless they believe that Jesus is the Messiah that they won't go to heaven But see most people won't say stuff like that they'll kind of him haul around and say well, you know, maybe But the truth of the matter is unless you believe what the Bible says concerning salvation.

You will not go to heaven And so what Christ did was he spoke against their view of themselves Why because he had a religion that gave a false hope And they had a religion that didn't deliver what it promised Christ knew that and it angered him because it was the truth that they had distorted and So he came and he spoke against that He attacked the religious establishment because it gave a false. Hope That's why it's wrong Last week he gave you the illustration of Mother Teresa and talked about a little bit on Wednesday night but the fact that Mother Teresa went through her whole life as recorded in Time magazine in September's issue her whole ministry life with darkness and despair and turmoil in her soul Why is that?

Because you see when you follow a false religion based on works you can never do enough works to fill the void of your soul You can try but no matter how hard you try you always come up short And Mother Teresa felt the emptiness of her soul because no matter what she did she came up short So last week somebody asked me. Well, why didn't somebody tell her it's because she was in a system a System they didn't believe the truth She was in a system of Catholicism that just promoted a works-based system So just keep doing your works just keep doing the good things for people and that darkness that turmoil that inner Difficulty that you face every day will one day disappear, but it never did for Mother Teresa That's sad Jesus knew that the religious establishment gave a false hope to people Because Judaism was a system based upon works So Christ would come and speak against that and say you're giving people a false.

Hope So when he spoke to them the truth They hated him because of it because it wasn't in line with what they believed was true and They wanted nothing to do with Jesus Christ the Messiah See Jesus didn't come to pick a fight just because he said I didn't come to bring peace but a sword It didn't mean that he came to pick a fight with everybody He came just to speak the truth. He came to live the truth because he is the truth and Whenever you live the truth and you preach the truth listen, you will be hated You will be by those who don't want to live truth and those who don't want to live by absolutes in Jesus, of course lived by absolutes They could not deny his miracles They could not deny his healings They were blatantly obvious to everybody but a blind man sees when a lame man Walks when a dead man is raised you can't deny those things so they could not deny the obvious But there his words were something they could not Accept and then he would come and he would choose his men He didn't choose the Pharisee a scribe a Sadducee He didn't come to choose any of the religious elite He came to choose some fishermen He came to choose some of the riffraff from Galilee But in his choosing he chose none of the religious elite that had to irritate them That had to upset them that he would surround himself with these uneducated men when they were the educated ones They couldn't understand that that why would he choose these?

Galileans these men who were of low estate and not men like us The reason what fellowship hath the light with darkness None they were not believers in the Messiah Jesus didn't go to the different villages and then Have someone go before him and get a crowd of people from all the different churches in the area to gather together and somehow do Some follow-up counseling for for the Messiah who was coming Because Jesus was not ecumenical in his approach He wasn't gathering all the different religious establishments together and saying, okay I'm gonna come to your city now and I'm gonna I'm gonna preach the gospel and you guys then can do all the follow-up because You guys are the established religious people of your area Jesus didn't do that And in an age of tolerance truth is hard to accept And just like then so it is today we live in an age of tolerance where any kind of religion is accepted and If you speak against that religion, then you are intolerant You are not easy to live with you are too hard-nosed and that's exactly what Jesus was hard-nosed hard to live with Because he spoke and lived the truth And so on this day in Luke chapter 6 He addresses the core of Judaism He goes right to the heart of the matter And it all pertained to the Sabbath Because you see in Judaism what you do on the Sabbath is how you gain acceptance with God and The more you do on the Sabbath or put it this way the less you do on the Sabbath The more God is pleased with you.

The more God will accept you and Yet that was completely contrary to what the Bible said about the Sabbath and So when Jesus came he would address this issue In fact, he had complete disdain for their observance of the Sabbath He was against it And I find it very interesting that when the Pharisees were offended Jesus never said, you know, I'm I'm sorry. I offended you guys Because of what you believe Jesus never apologized for that why do we Why do we apologize to the Mormon, but you know, I know you guys mean well Or to the Jehovah's Witness or to the Catholic or to somebody who has rejected the truth of the scriptures Why do we have to apologize?

Because somehow We offended them by speaking the truth. The truth does offend It goes against error You don't have to apologize for that. Jesus never did She said, you know, I didn't really mean to say it that way Maybe I should have said it a different way Or I'm sorry. I spoke the truth. Maybe I should be a little bit more tolerant of your religious beliefs He wasn't tolerant other beliefs He spoke against what it is they believe because they were wrong You see we should be those kind of people We should speak against those who give a false hope to people and a false assurance to people We should say hey, you know what you guys are wrong.

You're leading people the wrong way You're gonna lead them to hell not to heaven. They need to know the truth. So we need to speak the truth the people Don't let the age of tolerance govern how you speak Just because your professor in college is accepting of all religions doesn't mean you have to be accepting you should be rejecting of all religions and Accepting of only one relationship that's the one with the Living God And that's what I need to live our lives If you do though You will be hated You will just be despised and you will be rejected And so if you don't like those characteristics then you won't speak the truth But if you are wanting to be true to God and please only him you will speak only the truth You think about it come Thanksgiving You think about it come Christmastime when you gather together with your loved ones and they are of a different religious persuasion Will you speak the truth?

You stand strong for Jesus Christ or will you be tolerant of their religious beliefs and Refrain from speaking the truth for fear that you might offend their false. Hope or offend their journey to hell Think about that Jesus did and Jesus knew what he would say Because he wanted people to know the truth And on this day on this day was a Sabbath day and in these first 11 verses or so Yeah, the first 11 verses of chapter 6 happened on two different Sabbaths So Christ has the great opportunity to deal with the belief of Judaism about the Sabbath Let me read to you the first five verses because that's all we're going to cover this morning It says now it came about on a certain Sabbath.

He was passing through some grain fields and His disciples were picking and eating the herds of grain rubbing them in their hands Some of the Pharisees said why do you do what is not lawful in the Sabbath and Jesus? Answering them said have you not even read what David did when he was hungry he and those who were with him How he entered the house of God and took and ate the consecrated bread Which is not lawful for any to eat except the priests alone and gave it to his companions And he was saying to them the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath Four points I want to cover with you this morning The first is the introduction about or an introduction about the Sabbath and then we're going to look at the incident during the Sabbath and then the indictment on the Sabbath and Then the instruction concerning the Sabbath Four points that reveal to us what God thinks of Religiosity what God thinks of a religion that produces a false hope Let's first begin with an introduction about the Sabbath The Sabbath of course to Judaism is extremely important now God created the Sabbath day Now Sabbath in English Sabaton in Greek Shabbat in Hebrew all mean the same thing it means to cease It means to rest That's what it means and the Bible says this in Genesis chapter 2 verse number 3 God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made Now now we understand that that it was our Lord who would rest on the Sabbath he didn't rest because he was tired God is all-powerful.

He never gets tired. He never wearies. So why is it God would rest on the Sabbath? He would spend time to pause He would spend time to reflect He would spend time to remember all his beautiful creation and So when you are resting when you are ceasing from doing the other activities you were doing throughout the week that on this day You would spend time Reflecting on what had taken place what exactly God? had done and So when you come over to the the book of Exodus the 20th chapter the ninth verse it says these words six days Shall you labor and do all your work?

But seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God in it You shall not do any work you or your son or your daughter your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth the sea and all that is in them and Rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy Now that's what the Bible says about the Sabbath day But when you come to the days of Jesus things had changed Because there were so many Aspects to the Sabbath that the Jews had added Listen carefully the seventh day Became the worst of all days It was harder to fulfill The law of the religious establishment on the Sabbath than it was to work the other six days and people were burdened that's why Christ said if For those of you who are burdened those of you who are heavy laden Come after me and I will give you rest Because the Jewish people were weighed down with with the laws of the Pharisees the laws of the scribes They couldn't handle it.

It was too much And when Jesus began his ministry the ceremonial celebration of the Sabbath was still in effect Because in Matthew 5 the Bible says that he came to fulfill the law of the prophets didn't come to abolish it He came to fulfill it and that's exactly what Jesus was doing.

He was fulfilling the laws of Moses the law of the prophets And so the Sabbath day was still in effect that non-moral Ceremonial celebration that God had designed for his people That's why that part of the commandment that 10th commandment or that aspect of the commandment is not mentioned in the New Testament Because it was attributed to the Israel people at the Nation of Israel and Attributed to what they themselves was were supposed to be doing now the principle of Sabbath rest still continues today.

That's why you're here It's the principle of Sabbath rest a day you take to reflect and to remember all that God had done and is doing in your life It's a day of celebration a day of joy, and that's how God intended it to be. The problem is that in Judaism It became a lot more than that And so it was different than what God had designed it to be. So Christ now was gonna set the record straight Help them understand exactly what was to take place on the Sabbath day Most Jews had very little idea as to the original purpose of the Sabbath and Therefore were confused and so Jesus was going to speak the truth and listen when you speak the truth you have to choose sides You have to choose truth or error So Christ was going to cause the people to make a choice Truth or error He was going to speak the truth Now listen, you must understand what it meant for a Jew in the days of Christ To live as a Jew on the Sabbath the Talmud the major Compilation of Jewish tradition has 24 chapters on the Sabbath alone Listen to one of the laws expressed One law specified that the basic limit for travel was 3,000 feet from one's house but various exceptions Were provided if you had placed some food within 3,000 feet of your house You could go there to eat it and because the food was considered an extension of the house You could then go another 3,000 feet beyond the food If a rope were placed across an adjoining street or alley the building on the other side as well as the alley between Could be considered part of your house These were the laws That were designed by the religious establishment for the people to live by you need to remember the 3,000 foot law Remember that 3,000 foot law we're gonna come back to it Certain objects could be lifted up and put down only from and to certain places Other things could be lifted up from a public place and set down in a private place and vice versa Still others could be picked up on a wide place and put down in a legally free place But rabbis could not agree about the meanings of a wide place and a free place Under Sabbath regulation a Jew could not carry a load heavier than a dried fig So you couldn't carry your wallet let alone your purse But if an object weighed half that amount he could carry it twice Eating restrictions were among the most detailed and extensive You could eat nothing larger than an olive and even if you wasted a half an olive Found it to be rotten and spit it out.

That half was considered to have been eaten as far as the allowance was concerned Now listen you had to do all this to earn your salvation You had to do all this to please God It goes on Throwing an object into the air with one hand and catching it with the other Was prohibited So you could throw it up and catch it with the same hands. You can throw it up and catch it with the other hand Figure that If the Sabbath overtook you as you reached for some food The food was to be dropped before drawing your arm back lest you be guilty of carrying a burden on the Sabbath Tailors did not carry a needle with them on the Sabbath for fear.

They might be tempted to mend a garment and thereby perform work nothing could be bought or sold and clothing could not be dyed or washed a Letter could not be dispatched even if by the hand of a Gentile No fire could be lit or extinguished including fire for a lamp Although a fire already lit could be used within certain limits for that reason some Orthodox Jews today use automatic Timers to turn on lights in their homes. Well before the Sabbath begins Baths could not be taken for fear of some of the water being spilled onto the floor and you would be considered as washing the floor Chairs could not be moved because dragging them might make a furrow in the ground and a woman was not to look in a mirror Lest she see a gray hair and be tempted to pull it out.

I won't comment on that anymore You Could carry ink enough to draw only two letters of the alphabet and false teeth Could not be worn because they exceeded the weight limit for burdens Now think about that If I'm a Jew, I Got to do all those things Why because the religious establishment had developed all these regulations all these traditions? Because these are the things that please God in their mind. I Love what Alfred Edersheim says in his book the life and times of Jesus the Messiah He says among the many other forbidden Sabbath activities were sewing plowing reaping grinding baking threshing binding sheaves winnowing sifting dying shearing spinning needing Separating or weaving two threads tying or untying a knot and sewing two stitches you couldn't do any of those things You couldn't do anything on the seven for fear it would be work and So you come to Luke chapter 6 and on this day?

This leads us to point number two the incident it came about that on a certain Sabbath He was passing through some grain fields and his disciples were picking and eating the herds of grain rubbing them in their hands Now you got to know that During these days when people traveled they would travel mixed and around and through the fields of the day There weren't roads like we have today and there weren't places you could stop to to get a bite to eat Like when you go down the freeway every exit There's a McDonald's a Del Taco a Burger King or something you could pull off and get something to eat They didn't have those things in those days.

They didn't have places of like hotels and motels Inns were very sparse in the villages there were none between the villages So there was no place to sleep. There was no place to eat so as you traveled you lived off the land That's very important to understand the disciples had forsaken all to follow Christ They had virtually no money except that which was collected and given to them The only food they would have would be what people would bake and cook for them So they didn't have all those things because they had left everything to follow the Messiah On this day on this Sabbath day They were going by one of the fields and picking the grain and eating the grain that was there because they were hungry And it was all permissible by listen the law of God Deuteronomy 23 24 and 25 says When you enter your neighbor's vineyard, then you may eat grapes until you are fully satisfied But you shall not put any in your basket when you enter your neighbor's standing grain Then you may pluck the heads with your hand But you shall not wield a sickle in your neighbor's standing grain In other words if you're walking by the field and you're hungry and your neighbor has grapes you can eat the grapes You just can't put them in a bucket and carry them off And if you're going by a field and there is grain there you can eat the grain You just can't harvest the grain.

You can't do that But if you're hungry, you can eat it. That's exactly what was happening on this Sabbath day They were fulfilling a law that God said was fine no problem but rabbinic tradition had ridiculously interpreted the law of God the Talmud said this If a person rolls wheat to remove the husks It is sifting if he rubs the heads of wheat it is threshing if he cleans off the side Adherences it is sifting if he bruises the ears it is grinding and if he throws it up in his hand it is winnowing So in the Talmud the tradition of the Jews was you couldn't do What these men were doing?

But in the law of God in the book of Deuteronomy you were free to do what these men were doing. Oh, by the way Jesus also Was doing So the question comes did Jesus and his men Violate the Sabbath answer, of course not They fulfilled the law of God and so here's the incident disciples are walking with Christ. It is a Sabbath day. They're hungry They are getting the grain from the field nearby. They are eating what's there Then comes the indictment now listen carefully Verse two, but some of the Pharisees said Why do you do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?

No, no They're walking in between villages They're in the middle of nowhere They are way beyond 3,000 feet from your house So why are these Pharisees there? How did they get there were they hiding in the fields Popping up and trying to catch Christ and in doing something that would violate their Sabbath How did they get there if there is a law that you can't be 3,000 feet from your house? But if you place food out there, you can go to your food and go another 3,000 feet beyond that Did they tie themselves together with ropes from one house to extend through that village to another village?

How did they get there? See they had to violate their own laws To be there and catch Jesus doing what he was doing, right? Sure So here comes the indictment. Why is it you violate what it is we believe? Why do you have disdain for our religious beliefs? Why do you continually disobey what we believe to be the truth? Why do you do that Jesus they were upset Now listen what they were doing was against what the tradition said, but was not against what the Bible said Now I know some of you are sitting here thinking today.

Well, okay, what does this got to do with us folks? This happens today It happens all the time thing. Let me give you an example 13 years ago This Sunday today 13 years ago.

I was asked a question Never forget it. I was at my previous church and I was about to to resign from that church And they had question and answers And I would go before the church and they could ask me any question that they wanted to ask me About the gospel and what it is I believed And we would sit there on a Sunday evening and I would get up on the pulpit and scores of people would come to the microphone And begin to ask questions Some of you were there 13 years ago And The reason they were upset is because I preached the gospel that says you must repent to be saved Well this church at this time did not believe it So they branded me a heretic And so they had all these question and answers and I can remember this question as if it was today It was 13 years ago this weekend This question was asked of me by a man who is now an associate pastor of a church in our area He asked me this question He said mr.

Sparks Why is it you continue to preach A doctrine that is not in line listen with the tradition of this church Now think about that question Why is it you continue to preach a doctrine That is not in line with the tradition of this church He is saying That what the church believes to be true is true. No matter what the bible says And this guy is an associate pastor of a church today in this area Here's my answer Again as if it was yesterday.

I can see the guy's face. I can almost tell you what the man was wearing I said, let me answer that question this way Twofold one The tradition of this church church of the open door Is founded in men louis talbot r.a.

tory jay vernon mcgee Who all preached? repentance As an necessary element for salvation And I would quote r.a. tory. I would quote jay vernon mcgee and I would quote louis talbot And then I said here's my follow-up to your question It would make no difference to me What the tradition of the church was? Because what makes a difference is what the bible actually says So if the tradition of the church was not that you have to repent to be saved I would still preach that because that's the truth. That's the gospel.

That's what the bible says So no matter what your perception of tradition is I told the man the truth stands supreme And god forbid that we should Renig on the truth Because of a traditional standard of man's beliefs Jesus said the same thing.

Jesus did the exact same thing the pharisees asked the same question The pharisees asked the same question that this young man who is now an associate pastor of a church in our area asked the same pharisaical question Why is it You go and speak against and violate our tradition and the tradition Was wrong because the element of the sabbath was rooted in god's law in the book of deuteronomy in the book of exodus you didn't read anything in exodus chapter 20 verses 9 to 11 about Gaining grain and threshing it and and blowing it and whatever it is.

You you want to make up about it That's not an excess 20 verses 9 to 11. It's all about rest for man It's all about reflection for man. It's all about him remembering what god has done. That's what it's about But you added all these extracurricular things onto it So christ wants to get them back to the roots back to what is important back to what the truth actually says See here's here's something that I I I Harp on a lot is that we are so used to living to listening to untruth That when truth is spoken, we think truth is untruth Did you get that?

I know it's early this morning and some of you are still waking up from your morning nap But the bottom line is that that we are so used to hearing untruth that when truth is spoken We think truth is now untruth And so here is jesus speaking the truth And they say Here's the indictment. Why do you have disdain for our religion? Why do you continually break the sabbath? What is wrong with you? Why do you do that? And so christ did or I did 13 years ago exactly what christ did Exactly what christ did and this is his instruction concerning the sabbath Verse number three and jesus answering them said have you not even read what david did when he was hungry?

That that's a that is so Sarcastic Jesus says you guys are the religious leaders You guys are the interpreters of the law You guys are the scholars about the law You guys are the one who interpret the law You guys are the ones who know the law better than anybody else knows the law so Have you not read?

a very Basic story in the old testament about king david Have you not read You don't even read your own bible You don't even know what your own bible says. I mean jesus is really Just cutting them up Come on, fellas. You should know this stuff. You don't know what's wrong with you guys. Have you not read? And what's he refer them to let me read to you what jesus says Have you not even read what david did when he was hungry?

He and those who were with him when he entered the house of god and took and ate the consecrated bread Which is not lawful for any to eat except the priests alone and gave to his companions It's a story in first samuel 21 about david when he fled For his life from saul And he has been entered to a village called knob knob was about a mile from jerusalem Knob was the place where the tabernacle was And they entered that village they went to the priest ahimelech.

Who was the priest? And they went to him and they were hungry But they went to the tabernacle the tabernacle is not a bakery But they went to the tabernacle asked the priest for some food and the priest only had listen the bread of the presence In the tabernacle, you have a table called the table of showbread It's called the bread of the presence 12 loaves loaves of bread representing 12 tribes of israel This is a beautiful story or 12 tribes of israel 12 loaves of bread They are baked every week at the end of the week the priest and the priest alone.

No one else Can eat that bread only the priests But during the week they are not to be touched Because they ceremonial ceremonially represent God as the provider of his people How god provided for his people in the wilderness? There are 12 loaves of bread And they each represent each of those tribes and how god was their provider and took care of them and the priest said, you know david, I don't have anything except for the bread of his presence the showbread And i'll give this to you to eat How can you do that?

How can the priest? take bread That was designed Ceremonially to represent the 12 tribes of israel bread that should only be eaten by the priest. No one else How could david give it? How could the priest give it to david and to his men? to eat Answer because they're hungry That's a pretty good answer, right They were hungry And christ is saying listen If And if you go back and read the story god never indicted the priest nor the indict david for what they did Why because the law of mercy and compassion always override the ceremonial laws of god always do And this was a ceremonial celebration in the tabernacle And christ says Remember the story way way way back david was is the warrior king david is the poet david is a musician Every jew honors david.

They love david. They love moses. They love david. They love abraham They love those guys man. They're they they are so enraptured with those men and jesus says, you know You're so enraptured with them, but you don't understand anything about what they did Did you not read about david?

Remember when his men were hungry and they fled for their lives because saul was about to kill them and they went to nab and And there it is. They they asked the priest for food and the priest said you can have the consecrated bread That's all I got So he gave it to him Here's the point If If a priest a himalic Could take the bread Designed specifically for himself and no one else And violate the ceremonial law of god to help a person in need Can not the son of god Make a decision about what his men need to violate the traditions of man Did you get that that that's just a simple Essence of the story And so christ says these words Verse 5 and he was saying to them the son of man Is the lord of the sabbath?

Now who is the son of man? Well, every jew knows who the son of man is. That's daniel 7 13 That's the great prophecy of the coming of messiah and great clouds of glory the son of man Daniel's vision they all know about that vision Jesus is equating himself because he is With daniel 7 13 telling them. I am the messiah. I am the son of man and the son of man the messiah Is the lord of the sabbath? In other words, he is god in the flesh. He is the one who designed the sabbath I find it interesting What matthews take on this whole thing is in matthew 12 Christ says in verse number six of matthew 12, but I say to you that something greater than the temple is here Whoa, wait a minute.

This was in the tabernacle back in the days of david. Now we're talking about the temple There's something greater than the temple that's here Why because everything in the tabernacle and everything in the temple would foreshadow what the coming of the messiah? He's saying look I want to let you know something that there's something greater than everything that was in the tabernacle And the temple foreshadowed something greater is here. What's that? me the fulfillment of all those shadows I'm here.

I'm the messiah That's me Verse 7 matthew 12, but if you had known what this means I Desire compassion and not a sacrifice You would not have condemned the innocence Christ says if you would have known What I require of you micah 6 verse number 8 What I what do I require you?

To love mercy to do justly and to walk humbly with your god If you knew what I desired If you knew me, you would know what I desired but you don't know me You don't know me. I am a god of compassion and I am a god of mercy And I show compassion on those Who want to follow me? And who want to serve me? I am lord of the sabbath Mark's account says don't you understand? very simply that the sabbath Was made for man Not man for the sabbath The sabbath was designed for relaxation Rest celebration joy Remembrance That's what the sabbath was designed for I designed it as a benefit for my people, but you have now made it a burden for my people And now they are so overridden with the burdens that you've placed upon them that they have absolutely No hope whatsoever of eternal life But i've come to give them rest I've come to give them peace I've come to give them relief from all those man-made traditions Because I am lord of the sabbath I am the son of man I am god in the flesh and I rule The sabbath I know what the sabbath was designed for And isn't it sad That you don't Isn't it sad that you have no idea what the heart of god is all about You see a believer understands the heart of god These men had no idea about the heart of god.

You know, why because they were so Enraptured with their own mindset and their own traditions that they could not see the truth For what it was And for what it is therefore They despised Jesus And then the very next account Is another sabbath And christ will once again take that opportunity to heal a man on The sabbath and instead of believing About what jesus said they set their hearts and minds to kill him See, that's what happens when people don't want to accept the truth Well, they don't want to accept the truth they hate you they despise you they reject you and if they could They'd kill you just to rid you of the truth that you speak because it is so convicting upon their souls And jesus was the master of conviction Because he lived embodied the truth And may we learn as the people of god To always speak and live the truth For we serve the god who is true.

Let's pray together Father, we grateful for today and thank you for your marvelous truth And I pray that we as your people would serve you humbly We'd understand that you desire compassion not sacrifice that you want us to love mercy To do justly and to walk humbly with our god May we be characterized by that lord and I pray for any person here today who does not understand jesus christ as messiah As king as savior as lord that today would be the day of their salvation in jesus name amen