Lord of the Sabbath

We have your Bibles with you today.

I want you to turn with me, if you would, to the Gospel of Mark. We're going to be looking, first of all, in chapter 2, starting at verse 23, and we'll get into chapter 3 a little bit later. One Sabbath he was going through the grain fields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck 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 was hungry, he and those who were with him? How he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar, the high priest, and ate the bread of the presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priest to eat, also gave it to those who were with him.

And he 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. Bow with me as we go to our Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we come before you today with many burdens on our heart. We pray, Heavenly Father, for the church in Ukraine, and the people in Ukraine right now, Lord, that are suffering and going through an unbelievably tough time, we pray for mercy on them. We pray for our friends, the Hunsuckers, who are leading an orphanage in Kershon, and ask, Lord, that you be with them and comfort them and help them, Lord, and protect them. Heavenly Father, we just also pray for so many that are sick in our church today. I pray for Nicole Lowes.

She's going to the doctor this Tuesday. I pray, Father, to the doctor that she's going to be able to ascertain exactly what she needs and what they can do for her to break this dizziness that she's had for so many months. I pray for my brother, Dan Nicholas, today who's suffering with vertigo, and ask that you be with him. I pray for Doug Colwell, who's suffering with cancer. I pray for Nancy Lindley, who is going to be operated on to have a heart valve replaced this week. I pray for Susan Gray and Gerald Green, Lord, that had catheterizations done, and ask, Father, that you be with them and help them to heal completely.

Thank you, Lord, for Tom Huntley and the answered prayer with him as they have put two stents in the widowmaker artery, and we praise you and thank you for that. Heavenly Father, our church culture in America today has so devalued the Lord's day that we know your heart is grieved. Football and Super Bowl parties, Little League games, and whatever else has crowded out the desire to make Sunday worship a priority. Father, you commanded us to make the Sabbath a delight, not a burden or duty or an obligation. It ought to be our favorite day of the week. It ought to be the day that we set aside not only work, but everything else that hinders worship of you. Lord, be honored with our worship today, and give me the ability to preach faithfully and passionately with clarity, for it is in the precious and holy name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.

You may be seated. Through the years, many people have asked me this question, Doug, what makes Grace Church so special? And my answer is this, Grace Church loves Jesus, they love his word, and they love his day. Folks, Sunday is special for Grace Church. Now, if you don't believe that, then I want you to come over to my house on a Saturday night when there's a possibility that we're going to have to cancel a service on the next day, on Sunday.

You come over and sit with me by telephone. It is not a fun time as people are calling and telling me, Doug, don't call off worship. Doug, don't stop this. We want to be there. We want to celebrate the Lord. Now, folks, that doesn't give you the right to blast a session every time we have to cancel a service. And rest assured of this, if we cancel a service, the session hates it just as much as you do. But the frustration that we feel when a service has to be canceled is making a huge statement. And that statement is this, we love Jesus and we love his day. Make no mistake about it, folks, the Lord is honored when his people love his day. When they just want to be together corporately, lifting him up and worshiping him.

When they want to take the world and just put it to the side for 24 hours. Cindy and I have missed several services over the last several weeks because of COVID. And we had missed those services, but we got to watch the services online. And let me tell you, we were immensely blessed by that.

Eugene did a wonderful, wonderful job. But I want you to know something, it's not the same. There is nothing like corporate worship.

Now, I want to ask you a question. What's the difference between the Old Testament Sabbath and the New Testament Lord's Day? Well, there is a difference. And the Old Testament Sabbath was the time where God created the heavens and earth in six days. On the seventh day, he rested. Then he gave us the command to do that same thing. Later on Mount Sinai, God went up on Mount Sinai, met with Moses, and wrote by the finger of God on two stone tablets the Ten Commandments.

And he gave those commandments to Moses. And the fourth commandment says, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Now we, in the New Testament, worship the Lord on the first day of the week. In Acts chapter 20, verse 7, Luke tells us that Paul gathered his church together and they met together to worship on the first day of the week. The first day of the week is the Lord's day. Jesus Christ came out of the tomb.

He was resurrected. And on that day, we gathered together to worship the Lord, to hear the word of God expounded, to give tithes and offerings, and oftentimes to celebrate the Lord's Supper. It is a glorious time. My purpose this morning is not to argue the difference between the Old Testament Sabbath and the New Testament Day of the Lord. My purpose is to praise God over the similarities. Now, one of my favorite passages of Scripture that deals with the Sabbath day is the 58th chapter of Isaiah. In the 58th chapter of Isaiah, God commands His people to delight themselves in the Sabbath. Let me read you what He says in verse 13 and 14. If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and you call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy day of the Lord honorable, if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly, then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride high on the heights of the earth.

I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Make the Sabbath a delight. Not a burden, not a duty, not a dread, not an obligation, but a joyful delight.

Let me ask you something. Is Sunday your favorite day of the week? If you're a Christian, it ought to be. Is Sunday your favorite day of the week? Do you look forward to hearing the Word of God expounded? Do you look forward to giving tithes and offering?

Do you look forward just to worshiping Jesus together with your Christian friends, corporately worshiping Him from the heart? Today we're looking at a passage where we're going to see what the Sabbath was never intended to be, and I've got seven points I want to share with you. Point one is the Sabbath incident.

Look with me at verse 23. One Sabbath He was going through the grain fields, and as they made their way, His disciples began to pluck heads of grain. On this particular Sabbath, Jesus and the disciples were walking down a pathway. On the side of the pathway, there was a farmer's field, and so there were these plants there, and as they're walking, they reach over, they pull some kernels of grain from the plant, and they pop it in their mouth, and they swallow it down. There was nothing wrong with that. Grain on a pathway was open for any traveler, and they could do that. They weren't going into the field and stealing this poor farmer's barley or wheat or whatever it was that was growing. They weren't doing that. They weren't getting bushel baskets of this stuff and taking it away. They were just extinguishing a little of their hunger pains as they were going along the way. Now God, in Deuteronomy chapter 23 verse 25, said that's okay to do it.

Listen to what He said. If you go into your neighbor's standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor's standing grain. To pluck a few grains of barley along a path was actually a provision that God gave to His people. There's nothing wrong with it. Folks, as we have been going through the Gospel of Mark and as we continue to go through it, what you're going to see is criticism from the Pharisees and the religious leaders of Jesus over and over again.

I want to ask you to do something. Every time you see and hear that criticism, I want you to remember that Jesus Christ cannot sin. Absolutely cannot sin.

We need to remember that. Hebrews chapter 4 says that Jesus Christ was tempted in all points, even as we are, but yet was without sin. 2 Corinthians 5 21, the Apostle Paul said, For God made him to be sin who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Jesus knew no sin. In this situation, with the grain being plucked, Jesus was not sinning. He did not say to the disciples, Guys, this is probably not the right thing to do, but it's just not a big deal. It's not a big sin, just kind of a little tiny sin, and that's okay for us to do.

There's nothing like that going on. We must remember who Jesus is. Jesus is God. God cannot sin. If Jesus sinned one time in His whole life, that would have disqualified Him from being our Savior. So the issue is this. Did Jesus sin? And the answer is absolutely not. Alright, point two.

The sarcastic indictment. Look at verse 24. And the Pharisees were saying to Him, Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath? One of the rabbinic laws was that you cannot travel over 3,000 feet on the Sabbath day. That was called Sabbath day's journey. It's a little over a half mile. A half mile is 2,640 feet.

They say you can't go over 3,000. This is interesting to me because Jesus and the disciples are walking down this path for the Pharisees and these religious leaders to know what they were doing. They had to go and be with them. I'll guarantee you they had to walk a good way to get there. I'll guarantee you if they had to walk over a Sabbath day's journey, I guarantee you they broke this man-made ceremonial law.

What tells me is this. That they weren't concerned about what the law of God really said. They weren't even concerned about what their own tradition said.

They just wanted to get to Jesus. Folks, it was these rabbinic laws that made the Sabbath burdensome. And if the Sabbath is burdensome, it cannot be a delight. The Jews have a book, still use it today, called the Talmud. It is filled with Old Testament regulations that the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the religious leaders put together, man-made rules and regulations. In that book in the Talmud, if you pick one up and check it out, you'll find that there are 24 chapters that are written in that book on the subject of the Sabbath day. 24 chapters with all these rules, all these regulations.

Absolutely crazy. They call this the fence around the law. They said, we've got to put all these little man-made laws around the Ten Commandments. We've got to do that to be sure that if you keep the man-made laws, then you won't break God's law. Wow. Folks, John MacArthur did a masterful job in describing the foolishness of this.

Listen to what he said. Almost no area of life was spared from the fastidious Sabbath regulations of the rabbis, which were designed to gain God's favor. There were laws about wine, honey, milk, spitting, writing, getting dirt off clothes. Anything that might be contrived as work was forbidden. Thus, on the Sabbath, scribes could not carry their pens, tailors their needles, or students their books.

To do so might tempt them to work on the Sabbath. For that matter, carrying anything heavier than a dried fig was forbidden. And if the object in question had been picked up in a public place, it could only be set down in a private place. If the object were tossed into the air, it had to be caught with the same hand. To catch it with the other hand would constitute work and therefore be a violation of the Sabbath. No insects could be killed. No candle or flame could be lit or extinguished. I heard about an Orthodox Jewish rabbi.

This is a true story. He's up in New York City, and every week, right before the Sabbath day, he reminds his people to unscrew the light bulb in the refrigerator right before the Sabbath. He said, because you might go and mistakenly open up the refrigerator on the Sabbath, and if you do, that light bulb flashes on, and God might consider that starting a fire. Well, MacArthur continues, Nothing could be bought or sold, no bathing was allowed, since water might spill onto the floor and accidentally wash it. No furniture could be moved inside the house, since it might create ruts in the dirt floor and thereby constitute plowing. An egg could not be boiled even if all one did was place it in the hot desert sand. A radish could not be left in salt because it would become a pickle.

And pickling constituted work. Sick people were only allowed enough treatment to keep them alive. Any medical treatment that improved their condition was considered work and prohibited. It was not even permissible for women to look in a mirror, since they might be tempted to pull out any gray hairs that they spotted. Nor were they allowed to wear jewelry, since jewelry weighs more than a dried fig. Folks, if a person tore a garment on the Sabbath day, they were allowed one stitch, and that was it.

They had to wait until the next day to finish ditching the whole thing up. Legalism leads to absurdity. Legalism leads to absurdity. So if you're a Christian, how can you be faithful to God? How can you be a fighter of sin and yet not be legalistically absurd? How do we really seek diligently for holiness without being self-righteous, prideful, and legalistic?

Answer this, put Jesus Christ first in everything. If Jesus Christ said to us that he desires for us to fight lust with all of our heart, then it's not legalistic for you to put a filter on your computer to be sure that you don't go to pornographic websites or some other website that's going to do damage to your heart. It's not legalistic for you to get into an accountability group where you're going to stand or sit before some men or some women of God each week, and they're going to look you right in the face and ask you where your eyes have been. It's not legalistic for you to cut out the movie channels on your TV. If you are an alcoholic and you have a problem with alcohol, it's not legalistic for you to say, I'm going to be a teetotaler. I'm not going to touch it anymore because it's not right for me and it's not bringing God any glory. It's not legalistic for you as a former alcoholic to say, I'm not going to that restaurant.

I'm not going to that bar because it might be a temptation. Folks, we're not talking here about legalistic duty. We're talking about joy. We're talking about absolute joyful obedience. Jesus said, if you love me, then keep my commandments. That's joyful to follow Jesus, to obey Him, to please Him.

Delighting yourself in the Sabbath is one of the ways to obey the Lord and to bring Him glory and to bring you joy. All right, point three is the Savior's illustration. Look at verse 25 through 26. And He said to them, Have you never read what David did when he was in need and was hungry? He and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the presence, which is not lawful for any, but the priest to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him. Without any apology, Jesus responded to these religious leaders. He responded to them by challenging their authority and by exposing their scriptural ignorance.

He did that on purpose. It was like He was saying, Guys, have you ever read the Bible? Do you not know what the Bible says?

What's wrong with you? You're supposed to be the spiritual leaders here. And then Jesus went on to explain to us something that happened in the life of David. David and his men were running from Saul. They were being hunted down. And as they were running, they got hungry. They were starving. They went to the house of God. And there in the house of God, there was a table of showbread.

On that table of showbread, there were 12 stale loaves of bread. And those were usually just given to the priest. That was the tradition.

That's what they were supposed to do. But the high priest saw David and his men starving. So he waved the tradition, and he said, Here, you take this bread and you eat it so that you won't starve to death. The Pharisees knew the story, but they had no idea as to what the story really meant. So Jesus said, Have you never read? You guys are supposed to be the spiritual leaders of Israel. You don't even understand what the Bible says. Here's a high priest, a man of God, who saw the human need here. And he met that human need.

He waved the man-made tradition in order that he might keep David and his men from perishing and starving to death. Is that sin? No. Did that violate the Word of God?

Absolutely not. Now, did anyone complain about it? David's men didn't complain about it. David, the man of God, didn't complain about it.

The priest who was supposed to get the food didn't complain about it. One man complained about it, and that was Saul. Saul, by this time, had rejected God and rejected God's Word. He wasn't really concerned about the law being broken. He was just concerned that he'd get David so that he could kill him. In Matthew chapter 12, verse 5 and 6, Matthew gives us a little more detail than Mark does.

And let me read you what he said. Jesus added, these are words that Jesus said, Or have you not read in the law how on the Sabbath the priest in the temple profaned the Sabbath and are guiltless? I'll tell you something greater than the temple is here. Jesus also pointed them to an example that they could see right there in front of them, something that happened every week, and that is that the priest would have to go and start a fire on the altar of God. And then they would go out, they would kill an animal for sacrifice, and they brought it back and they did that. Every Sabbath they did that. And what did the Pharisees and the religious leaders say about all this? They exonerated them. They said, Oh, that's fine.

That's what's got to be done, so you just go ahead and do it. What did Jesus know? He knew that the complaint from the Pharisees had nothing to do with their man-made traditions or regulations. It really had to do with their hatred for Jesus. Point four, the sovereign interpreter. Look at verse 27 through 28. And he said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. God never intended ceremony, ritual, and tradition to stand in the way of mercy, kindness, and goodness to others. So Jesus made a statement. The Sabbath is made for man and not man for the Sabbath.

How so? God gave us the Sabbath so that men would understand their need to get weekly physical rest. And brothers and sisters, that's tremendously important. But not only that, it also motivates God's people to put God first. That in their worship, there might not be hindrance.

There might not be distractions. There might be just a looking to the Lord with everything else out of their heart and mind. Folks, like Isaiah said, it is God's will for us to make the Sabbath a delight. God desires for us to worship Him and to enjoy it. He desires for us to fellowship with Him and enjoy it. I can't tell you how many times I've heard preachers, especially on Saturday, make this statement. Man, I've got to preach a sermon tomorrow. And what do they mean by that? They mean that they have the responsibility of getting up in a pulpit, opening up the Word of God, and preaching to the people of God that are under their care. They've got to do that. But if they had their way about it, if they really got to do what their heart wanted to do, they'd be doing a million other things other than that.

Now, yes, preaching is a God-given responsibility. It takes work. It takes time. It takes study.

And sometimes it's hard. But if preaching ever gets to the point where a preacher can do it and not experience joy, he needs to quit. He needs to quit or repent. I remember hearing Adrian Rogers talking about two pastors that he saw as he was just walking through a hospital one day, and they were talking. He overheard them. And one preacher said, you know, he said, doggone it, said, tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday. He said, about half of our people won't even show up. And the other preacher said, well, what are you going to do about it?

And they said, we're thinking about just canceling services. And so Adrian just broke out in song. Faith of our fathers, holy faith, we will be true till thee till death, except on Super Bowl Sunday. Folks, the Lord wants the Sabbath to be a delight, not a duty or a burden. Then Jesus made a statement that blew the Pharisees away. He said, so the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. Without apology or explanation, Jesus said, He who is the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. Brothers and sisters, I believe that this is one of the greatest Christological statements in the Bible.

Jesus is saying to that group, I want you to understand that I am God. I want you to understand that I am the one who gave the Sabbath commandment. I am the creator of heaven and earth. I created the heavens and the earth in six days.

On the seventh day, I rested. I am the one who gave Moses the Ten Commandments. And the fourth commandment says, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. I am the one who spoke in Isaiah 58 and says, make the Sabbath a delight. What Jesus is saying to these religious leaders is this, do not question my understanding of the Sabbath. I am the one who gave the command. If anybody understands the Sabbath and what should be done and what should not be done, it ought to be me, for I am God.

That's what He said. John MacArthur said, as God in human flesh, He condemned their self-righteous attempts to please God. He was characterized by grace. They prided themselves on their works. He demonstrated mercy and compassion to people.

They cared only about protecting their petty customs. He exemplified the true purpose of the Sabbath. They twisted a divine blessing into a dismal day of drudgery. So we get into chapter 3.

We're going to see the righteous anger of Christ. The Pharisees and the Sadducees and all them had been preaching for a long time about the promised Messiah that was coming. They knew the scriptures. They knew the signs. They knew the prophecies. They knew all of that. They knew what was being fulfilled even by Jesus. They didn't want to talk about that.

They wanted to get away from that. But what had Jesus done to fulfill Scripture? Jesus had given sight to the blind. He'd given hearing to the deaf.

He'd given speech to the mute. He'd given mobility to the paralyzed. He had raised people from the dead. He took five loaves of bread and two fish and fed 5,000 people. He turned water into wine. Jesus did all of that.

Those were undeniable and they were indisputable miracles. Maybe you say, well, so what? Here's what.

Here's what. Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath and the Lord of the Sabbath is God. Last week, Amelia Turner sent me a sermon that was preached by Bode Baucom and it was a great sermon on the Sabbath, but he said something that just really rang my bell. He said this, The seven-day week is a revelation from God. If God had not revealed to us what a week was, then we could never have known it. He said, now that's different with a day or a month or a year. He said a day and a month or a year, you can see them and you can piece it together through nature.

You have a general revelation there that would teach you that. For example, you could put a man out on a desert island and after a while, if he stayed there a good while, he would come to realize that every 24 hours, sun goes up and the sun goes down and there's evening and morning. That's a day. He would see what a day is. And then he would also take a look at the month. He would notice that approximately every 30 days, you would see the moon go all the way through its phases.

And then for the year, if he's there long enough, he would see that every 365 days approximately, there comes a spring, summer, fall, and winter. Those things can be known through nature. But folks, a week can't be known through nature. The only way we would ever have known what a week was and how important it is, is that God revealed it to us in His Holy Word. That God said to us, I created heavens and earth in six days and on the seventh day, I rested. And this is the pattern for you.

This is what you are to do. How important is that? It lets us know that the week is holy, that the week is different. It lets us know that we are to make the Sabbath a delight. I was talking to Eugene about this. He told me something I didn't know. He said that during the French Revolution, the French decided that they were going to change the number of days in the week. And so they said, let's have a 10-day week instead of a seven-day week.

Had that work out for them. There was nothing but confusion and absolute chaos. Folks, you'd almost think that God knew what He was doing.

And He does. Well, that takes us to point five, the context. Look with me in chapter three, verses one and two. Again, He entered the synagogue and the man was there at the withered hand. And they watched Jesus to see whether He would heal him on the Sabbath so that they might accuse Him. Jesus was teaching in the synagogue. He was teaching on subjects that hit the heart. And in His teaching, He explained to people how to live out biblical principles. He was preaching on subjects like repentance and faith and humility. When Jesus preached, people walked away from there feeling convicted but challenged, comforted and hopeful.

But when the Pharisees preached, the religious leaders, people walked away condemned and hopeless. Well, as Jesus preached, He saw a man who had a withered hand. This man's hand was neurologically lifeless. How'd that happen to him?

Was he born that way? Well, there's a tradition that can't really be verified. It says this man was a stonemason and that he was in an accident, that stones fell on his hand, and that caused him to have a hand that was neurologically lifeless.

We don't know whether it's true or not. But whatever, Jesus saw the man's withered hand and He walked over to him. And, you know, He could have very easily said to this guy, I'd like to heal you today, but, you know, today's the Sabbath, and if I do this, all these people are going to be fussing at me.

It's going to be all these questions about it. So let's just wait until tomorrow, and you come on back and I'll heal you tomorrow. He did not say that. He went right to this man knowing that he should heal him right there on that day on the Sabbath. The Pharisees were like a bunch of hungry wolves ready to pounce on a lamb.

Let me tell you something. They didn't give a hoot for this man. They didn't care about him.

They weren't concerned about him. Luke chapter 6, verse 8 is this same passage. And in that verse, we are told that Jesus knew what they were thinking. They were trying to set a trap, and Jesus knew what they were thinking. He knew exactly what they were trying to do.

And you know what? He didn't avoid it. In fact, he sought it out. He said, let's get on with it. Point 6, the confrontation, verse 3 through 5. And he said to the man with the withered hand, come here. And he said to them, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or do harm, to save life or to kill? They were silent. He looked around at them with anger, grieved at the hardness of their heart, said to the man, stretch out your hand.

He stretched it out and his hand was restored. The man with the withered hand did not ask to be healed. In fact, we're never told the man actually said any word at all. But Jesus looks over at the religious leaders and he asked them a question.

He said, on the Sabbath day, is it right to do good, to do evil, to heal or to kill? Scripture says they kept silent. They knew better than to open their mouth because it would have shown their heartlessness.

They wanted everybody else to think they were really, really good people. Their hearts were wicked. The Scripture says that Jesus looked at them and he was grieved at the hardness of their heart. Where's your heart? Is your heart hard toward God?

Is it easy to give over to sin? Jesus has grieved over the hardness of hearts. So he calls the man over. The man comes over to him. Jesus says, stretch out your hand. And he reaches over and he heals him on the spot. Point seven is the conspiracy, verse six.

The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him how to destroy him. This is a great picture of the true condition of the human heart. Here's a man who Jesus has just healed giving him ability to use his hand again.

How glorious is that? He can go back to work. He can provide an income for his family. He can be productive in society.

He can enjoy life again. It would seem like everybody would have been excited and joyful and just getting pumped up about that. Not the Pharisees.

They didn't care about anything that was going on with this man except this. As a trap for Jesus, they were going to use it if they might send Jesus to the cross. Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath. That means that Jesus is God. If Jesus is God, he could have stopped those Pharisees right there on the spot. If Jesus was God, he could have said, oh no, you're not sending me to the cross. I'm not going. I will not go because I don't want to go and I'm God. He could have done that. He didn't do that.

Why not? Because he knew that it was the Father's will for him to go to the cross. Brothers and sisters, what does that say to us? I think it says this, that the Lord of the Sabbath loves us more than we could ever begin to imagine. Amen? Amen.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, in the passage that we studied today, we saw one of the greatest Christological statements in the Bible. Jesus said he was the Lord of the Sabbath. He was claiming deity. He was telling the Pharisees to forget their burdensome, man-made traditions and follow his lead. He was letting them know that he is the one who rested on the seventh day of creation. He is the one who gave to Moses the fourth commandment to keep the Sabbath holy.

Lord, let us rejoice in that truth. Jesus said he's the Lord of the Sabbath. He is the one who's called his people to make the Sabbath a delight. Let us be faithful and joyful worshippers. May the Lord's day be our favorite day. For it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.