"And it happened that He was passing through
the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples began to make their
way along while picking the heads of grain. The Pharisees were saying to Him, "Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?" And He *said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions became hungry; how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests, and he also gave it to those who were with him?" Jesus said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."
Good Morning my beloved,
We welcome you to worship in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a privilege it is to come together to study rich awesome Truths in God's Word. We are so thankful that the Lord lead you join us today.
We welcome you to worship in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a privilege it is to come together to study rich awesome Truths in God's Word. We are so thankful that the Lord lead you join us today.
There seems to always be some sort of conflict between Jesus and His archenemies, the Pharisees, this time the focal point is regarding the issue of the Sabbath. Unfortunately, this is still an area of dispute for many believers. Some claim the Sabbath is to be on Saturday, for others Sunday is the Sabbath. There are some who adhere to traditional rules, for others, it is a day like any other, with no specific obligations placed upon us. While others will allow themselves certain enjoyment as long as there is no exchange of money. Nevertheless, each have their own strong views and beliefs and tend to criticize and judge those who disagree.
In Romans 14, Paul wrote "One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God. For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living."
There was nothing that Jesus or His disciples did that was in violation of the Sabbath Day law, the sacred 25-hour observance was from sun down Friday until sundown Saturday. Though they both agreed that God had ordained the Sabbath, Jesus healed and preached and taught that the Sabbath was not intended to be burdened with the strict troublesome regulations that the Pharisees added and imposed in error, which had no basis. That's why in Matthew 11:28-29, He said "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." However, everything He said and did provoked a debate between the Jewish religious and Himself, because He frequently rebuked their error.
Judaism was the dominating religious system, and the Pharisees were the self-righteousness experts in ceremony, ritual and external law-keeping, designating what that Sabbath should be given to. Therefore, by ignoring the Sabbath, He was failing to observe a holy day of rest. According to Exodus 35:2, anyone does any work on it, intentionally desecrated the Sabbath, and shall be put to death. God ordained the Sabbath law, and Jesus is taking on their prescribed Sabbath rules, and teaching how to keep the Sabbath properly, which outraged them. The real issue wasn't the Sabbath day itself, it was their fanatical interpretation of it which led them
into conflict with Jesus.
How horrible to heal somebody on the Sabbath, they couldn't take it. They took the rules very seriously and demanded that everyone observe them all, as the years passed, they continued to add even more rules to their rabbinical rules and regulations. They added so many things that were not permissible, the Sabbath was no longer the blessing that God intended to be. For example; If a man's ox fell into the ditch, he could pull it out, but if the man fell in, he had to stay there. If a man was bitten by a flea on the Sabbath, he had to allow the flea
to keep on biting. If he tried to stop the flea from biting or killed
it, he was guilty of hunting on the Sabbath. You couldn't bathe for fear when the water fell off of you it might be tempted to clean the floor. In Matthew 23, Jesus says, "You bind heavy burdens on people and never lift a finger to help them carry them." They had replaced the Law of God with the tradition of men, Jesus rejected them all, and they hated Him for it.
I take great comfort in the fact that I have never sought to take the easy road in my ministry, but rather have continued to confront error, preaching and teaching the Truth of God to the lost, the deceived; especially to those whom I dearly love. Because I care more deeply about their souls than I do about being liked. And, as long as God continues to give me the grace to vigorously endure, I will continue to do so.
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
Father, we are thankful for Your Word, so precious is Your Truth to those of us who love and adore You. We are in awe that You would demonstrate such love and compassion toward us as unworthy sinners and grant us grace and mercy, forgiving our sin and make us sons and daughters. It is so humbling that You would send Your own Son to die in our place. How precious is the gift is this salvation! Direct our steps that they might be well pleasing to You. Lord, I recognize that even as I deliver these words, the message will be veiled to some. So, I ask that You would graciously touch every heart, even today, that many might hear and turn to Christ and experience the glorious Gospel of grace. All for Your glory and for Christ's sake. In His name we ask and pray
Father, we are thankful for Your Word, so precious is Your Truth to those of us who love and adore You. We are in awe that You would demonstrate such love and compassion toward us as unworthy sinners and grant us grace and mercy, forgiving our sin and make us sons and daughters. It is so humbling that You would send Your own Son to die in our place. How precious is the gift is this salvation! Direct our steps that they might be well pleasing to You. Lord, I recognize that even as I deliver these words, the message will be veiled to some. So, I ask that You would graciously touch every heart, even today, that many might hear and turn to Christ and experience the glorious Gospel of grace. All for Your glory and for Christ's sake. In His name we ask and pray
Amen
Today's Message: Sabbath Controversy: Rest or Ritual
If you have your Bibles, open them and turn with me to Mark chapter 2, verses 23-28. I'd like to encourage you follow along with me as I read to set the text in our minds. I pray that the Holy Spirit
would illuminate the Word and help us to understand and apply what He has to say to our lives, that our faith may increased and be strengthened. Mark 2:23-28.
"And it happened that He was passing through
the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples began to make their
way along while picking the heads of grain. The Pharisees were saying to Him, "Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?" And He *said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions became hungry; how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests, and he also gave it to those who were with him?" Jesus said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."
Deuteronomy 23:24-25, 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." God made a provision, that if you were traveling through the fields and you were hungry, you could pick enough grain to eat, but you just couldn't harvest the grain and haul it off. There were no other restrictions. But, the Pharisees were so fanatical about their self-righteous rules, by the way, there are 24 chapters of Sabbath laws in the Talmud, they decided, as they often did, that it would be best to err on the side caution in order to prevent Sabbath breaking, that plucking the grain and rubbing the heads of grain between your hands to remove the husk, might be constituted as work, so they forbid it. So, the issue wasn’t the eating, but the plucking was deemed as reaping, harvesting and rubbing away the husk was deemed as sifting, threshing it, so it was double offense. Again, it's important to note, that this wasn't God's Law, it was a violation of their man-made religious rule.
Now, let's look at verse 22, "And it happened that He was passing through
the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples began to make their
way along while picking the heads of grain." According to the Old Testament law, one was both permitted to pluck and eat grain on the Sabbath, and it doesn’t restrict it to only six days a week. The same was true of any kind of food to stave off hunger. So, Jesus and His disciples are doing exactly what the Old Testament law permitted them to do.
Verse 24, "The Pharisees were saying to Him, "Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?" They were accusing them on the basis of Jewish law of breaking the Sabbath, but the underlying question is "Why are they challenging our authority, by openly defying what we have forbidden on the Sabbath?" Jesus and the disciples weren't violating anything in the Old Testament Scriptures, just their over complicated interpretation of it. They knew the Scriptures well, they just didn't understand them correctly.
I love the way Jesus begins His response in verse 25, "And He *said to them, "Have you never read." This is a rhetorical question, He knew there was nothing in the Old Testament they hadn’t read, of course they read it, in fact, they'd read it many times. But they were so caught up in the minutiae, the small and less important details of legalism, they often missed the key truths. Then, the Lord points them to 1 Samuel 21, an incident in the life of David, when he and his band of men were fleeing the wrath of king Saul, to suggest that they no clue what the Scripture really means, which they didn't. "Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions became hungry; how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests, and he also gave it to those who were with him?"
Jesus is explaining that Ahimelech the high priest understood that while ceremony is important and has its place, no ceremony is more valuable than a human life. They were not condemned by the Lord, neither were they criticized by the Pharisees in generations to come. It's common sense, you just don’t sacrifice a life in order to save a ceremony. The principle here is simple, when it comes to human need, mercy, kindness and compassion always overrules tradition, ritual and ceremony. Anybody would understand that, but lacking any concept of grace and mercy, they couldn't understand that, nor did they care. They just kept heaping unbearable burdens upon people and never lifted a finger to relieve them. God is a benevolent God, His purpose is to bless man, not to burden him. The problem the Pharisees was their inability to grasp the purpose of the law, only the legalistic external observance of it. They had forgotten that the Sabbath was the creation of a merciful God, Who's primary purpose was to provide man with rest, to cease from their labor and focus upon the things of God, not to be a burden. In other words, Jesus is saying that if David could be allowed by Ahimelech the high priest to violate God's divine prescription to satisfy the physical needs of him and his companions, why do you take issue with Me and My disciples violating your man-made tradition? He was confronting their entire ungodly religious system at it's core.
So, in verse 27, He really drives His point home, "Jesus said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." What a scathing indictment! The Sabbath was designed to be a blessing, to demonstrate God's loving kindness, His mercy and compassion toward man, what better day to meet a man's physical need for healing and nourishment. They were the ones violating the true meaning of the Sabbath, not Him.
And, if that wasn't enough, in verse 28, He really drops a bombshell, a statement of Deity. "So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." By stating He is the Lord of the Sabbath He is identifying Himself as God, the Creator Who ordained this day and that He can do as He pleases with it. He's stating in no uncertain terms, "I sovereignly created the Sabbath, therefore, I have the Authority to say what can and cannot go beyond them, because I set the standards, I make the rules, not you! I’ll do anything I want with the Sabbath because I am God!" Talk about a devastating blow their self-righteous egos and blasphemy to their ears. That's the statement that infuriated them.
And, if you think that was bad, then come back next time, as He continues to set Himself against their false religious system, healing a man with a withered hand in a synagogue.
In Closing..
The Sabbath was a post-exodus covenant which contrasted between the
merciful laws of God and the merciless slavery of Egypt. It belonged to
the Old economy in a way that none of other Ten Commandments did, in
fact, it was never repeated when the commandments were given to the Church.
It was a sign of the Mosaic covenant, in the same way the rainbow
was a sign of Noahic covenant and circumcision was to Abrahamic
covenant. While resting in Christ certainly provides us with many earthly physical benefits, the greatest benefit given to us is spiritual rest. Some of the hardest working, busiest believers I know are at rest in the Lord, but the Sabbath rest does not belong to the Church age today, those who living under Testament grace. After Calvary, we see the abandonment of the old covenant with all its ceremonies, all its rituals, all its external trappings; the Holy of Holies is gone, the veil was ripped from top to bottom; the temple is gone as of 70. A.D., and to this present day, it hasn't come back again.
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen