Jesus Is LORD of The Sabbath Mark 2:23-28 NKJV

Transcription

1 Message for THE LORD'S DAY MORNING, April 15, 2018 Christian Hope Church of Christ, Plymouth, North Carolina by Reggie A. Braziel, Minister Message 11 in Making A Difference Series from the Gospel of Mark Jesus Is LORD of The Sabbath Mark 2:23-28 NKJV As we continue with our series of messages from the Gospel of Mark, please open your Bibles to Mark chapter two. And let's read verses MARK 2:23-28 (NKJV) 23 Now it happened that He went through the grain fields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees said to Him, Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath? 25 But He said to them, Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him: 26 how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the show-bread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him? 27 And He said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 28 Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath. ***************

2 Introduction Up to this point in our study of Mark's gospel, Mark has laid the foundation for this one fundamental truth and that is Jesus Christ is the LORD. And as the King of all kings and LORD of all lords, Jesus has been given all power and all authority over all things in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth. * When John the Baptist was preaching in the wilderness to prepare the way for Christ, he proclaimed, There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. (Mark 1:7) * When Jesus taught in the synagogue at Capernaum, the people were amazed at His teaching, because He taught as One having authority, and not as the scribes. (Mark 1:22) * When Jesus drove the demon from the demon-possessed man in that same synagogue, the people marveled saying, For with authority He commands even the unclean spirits (demons) and they obey Him. (Mark 1:27) * Later that same day when Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law of her fever, He demonstrated He has power and authority over all types of sickness. (Mark 1:29,30)

3 * When Jesus healed all those diseased people who showed up at Peter's house...when He healed that leper...when He forgave and healed the paralytic who was lowered into the house from the rooftop...jesus demonstrated He has power and authority over all disease. Jesus is LORD over all sickness. Jesus is LORD over all the demons. Jesus is LORD over all diseases. Jesus is the LORD who can forgive all sins. JESUS HAS POWER, AND AUTHORITY, AND DOMINION OVER ALL. And in today's message we are going to see that Jesus Is LORD of The Sabbath. Our scripture text can be broken down into these two simple thoughts: - In verses 23, 24 we see THE REBUKE OF THE PHARISEES. - In verses we see THE RESPONSE OF JESUS.

4 First, let's look at... I. The REBUKE of The Pharisees (vs. 23, 24) 23 Now it happened that He went through the grain fields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees said to Him, Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath? 1. Several times in this second chapter Jesus has offended the selfrighteous Pharisees. He offended them when He forgave the paralytic. He offended them when He ate with the tax collectors and sinners. He offended them because His disciples didn't fast like their disciples and the disciples of John the Baptist. 2. Jesus has NOT broken any commands or laws of GOD, but He has violated the traditions of men...he has broken several of the religious rules of the Pharisees. Sadly, this is the way it is in many Churches today. If someone violates the word of God no one seems to get too upset, which reveals an ignorance and lack of reverence for the word of God. But boy if someone breaks the sacred traditions of the Church...if someone even dares to do something new or something different than the way it has always been done before...we Christians will come out swinging to defend those sacred traditions. How sad! How Pharisaical!

5 3. Well Jesus' disciples have broken yet another one of the Pharisees' sacred traditions. Evidently the Pharisees were hiding behind some trees or lurking about, and as JESUS and His disciples were walking through a field on the Sabbath day, they saw Jesus disciples do the most awful...most unthinkable...most unholy thing they could possibly do; they plucked a few heads of grain to snack on. Like religious police officers the Pharisees interrogate Jesus! Why do Your disciples do what is not lawful on the Sabbath? 4. Now to understand why the Pharisees were so bent out of shape we need to understand the ridiculous nature of their Sabbath rules and regulations. 5. In his book The Life and Times of Jesus The Messiah, the late Alfred Edersheim gives us this detailed list of Sabbath rules the scribes and Pharisees came up with that are recorded in the ancient Jewish Talmud. Listen carefully... On the Sabbath day, no burden could be carried that weighed more than a dry fig, or half a fig carried two times. If you put an olive in your mouth and rejected it because it was bad, you could not put a whole one in the next time because the palata had tasted the flavor of the previous whole olive.

6 If you threw an object in the air and caught it with the other hand, it was a sin. If you caught it in the same hand, it wasn't. If a person was in one place and he reached out his arm for food and the Sabbath over-took him, he would have to drop the food and not return his arm, or he would be carrying a burden and that would be a sin. A tailor could not carry his needle. The scribe could not carry his pen. A pupil could not carry his books on the Sabbath. No clothing could be examined lest somehow you find lice and inadvertently kill it. Wool could not be dyed. Nothing could be sold. Nothing could be bought. Nothing could be washed. A letter could not be sent even it if was sent by a heathen. No fire could be lit. Cold water could be poured on warm, but warm could not be poured on cold. An egg could not be boiled even if all you did was place it in the hot sand. You could not bathe for fear when the water fell off of you it might wash the floor, which was considered work. If a candle was lit, you could not put it out. If it wasn't lit, you couldn't light it. Chairs could not be moved because they might make a rut. Women couldn't look into a looking glass or mirror because they might find a white hair and be tempted to pull it out, which was considered work. Women were also not permitted to wear jewelry because jewelry weighed more than a dried fig. A radish could not be left in salt because it would make a pickle, and that is work. And the rules just go on and on and on. (The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah by Alfred Edersheim, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachussetts, Copyright of Updated Edition, 1993)

7 According to the laws of the scribes and Pharisees Jesus and His disciples were guilty of four violations. They were guilty of reaping... threshing...winnowing...and food preparation. Now don't look for any of these religious rules or regulations in the Bible, because they are not there. These rules are nothing more than the traditions of men made up by the Pharisees themselves. These rules have no Biblical basis or authority. The scribes and Pharisees themselves couldn't even keep up with all of their own rules, but they expected everyone else to. Do you see now why JESUS had so much compassion upon the Jewish people who were under the heavy burden of all the religious rules and regulations the Pharisees imposed upon them. Religious rules and regulations don't strengthen religion, they smother it to death! 6. Actually the disciples had done exactly what they were permitted to do according to the Law of Moses. In Deuteronomy 23 God made a wonderful provision for travelers. Deuteronomy 23:25 (NKJV) When you come into your neighbor s standing grain, you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not use a sickle on your neighbor s standing grain. Naturally no one could take a sickle and just start cutting down or harvesting an entire field that belonged to someone else. But God's law did permit the plucking of grain with the hands in order to provide sustenance for travelers. So the Pharisees are not rebuking JESUS and His disciples for breaking God's commands,, they are rebuking them for violating their rigid religious rules and traditions.

8 Now in verses we see... II. The RESPONSE of Jesus (vs ) 25 But He said to them, Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him: 26 how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the show-bread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him? 27 And He said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 28 Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath. 1. Remember last Lord's Day I told you that JESUS had a way of turning the tables on the Pharisees. And one of the ways He did that was by answering their question with a question of His own. Here we see Jesus do it again. The Pharisees asked Jesus, Why do Your disciples do what is not lawful on the Sabbath? Then Jesus turned right around and asked the Pharisees, Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry? In essence Jesus was asking, Haven't you boys read your Bibles? Jesus said that to push their buttons...to dig under their skin. You see, the Pharisees boasted about their knowledge of the scriptures! They wanted everyone to believe they knew the scriptures like they knew the back of their own hand.

9 You see, JESUS literally has them between a rock and hard place. If they are truly expert students of the scriptures as they claim to be there is no way they can claim they have never read the account of David that Jesus is referring to. 2. Just to jog their memory Jesus proceeds to tell them about the account in I Samuel 21 where David is on the run from King Saul's army and there is no food, so he goes to the Tabernacle looking for some bread. But there was no common bread. The only thing available was the holy bread or shewbread left over from the previous Sabbath. You see, each Sabbath they put out hot, fresh-baked shewbread. The only bread that was available was the bread left over from the previous Sabbath. So Abimilech, the High Priest gave David five loaves of left-over holy bread to eat. ANALOGY: Let me put this in a context we can all understand. Suppose some destitute, hungry person wandered into our building during the week and found the tray of last week's communion bread sitting on the communion table and ate it because they couldn't find any other food in the building. Which would bother you more, the fact the man was hungry, or that he ate the bread we use to observe the Lord's Supper? You know Jeff Fox worthy became famous because of his You might be a redneck if... routine. Well you might be a Pharisee if you were offended that a hungry man ate our communion bread.

10 3. Here is the point Jesus was making: Human need trumps religious rules and traditions every time! David was hungry and ate the holy bread. Jesus' disciples were hungry and they plucked the heads of grain and ate it. Neither of them violated the law of God. 4. And in verses 27, 28 Jesus lets the Pharisees know that when it comes to the laws and commands regarding the Sabbath, He has the final word...not them. 27 And He said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 28 Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath. 5. The Sabbath did not originate with man. A bunch of men didn't have a meeting one day and decide it would be great if everybody took one day off to rest each week. GOD gave the Sabbath to man as a gift of His grace. God gave man one day out of each week where he didn't have to work for a living. God's plan was for man to cease WORK and to celebrate in WORSHIP on the Sabbath day. Remember the Fourth Commandment said: Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God, in it you shall do no work. (Exodus 20:8-10 NKJV) That was God's original plan for the Sabbath, that man take a day off from his work to rest, and that man use that day as a time of reflection and worship.

11 6. But by Jesus' time, the scribes and Pharisees had totally obscured the true meaning of the Sabbath with all their religious rules and traditions. Rather than being a day of rest and worship, the Jewish people lived in fear that they might violate one of the endless list of Sabbath rules imposed by their religious leaders. 7. When Jesus referred to Himself as The LORD of the Sabbath He meant He has all authority over the Sabbath. His authority surpasses all the religious rules and regulations of the Pharisees or any man-made traditions regarding the Sabbath. ********************************************************************************* C O N C L U S I O N What does this message have to say to us on a practical level? As Christians we do not observe the Jewish Sabbath, in other words we do not rest or worship from sundown Friday evening to sundown Saturday evening. Sunday is to be a special day to us. To the world, Sunday is just one of the two days of the weekend. But to us Sunday is the beginning of our week. Sunday is the Lord's Day. Sunday should be a day when we rest from making a living and take time for spiritual reflection and worship. That is why we gather here each Lord's Day.

12 But what if like the Pharisees we came up with a bunch of legalistic rules to govern the Lord's Day. For example, on the Lord's Day, It is not permissible to eat out in any restaurant. It is not permissible to shop at Food Lion, Walmart or any other retail facility. It is not permissible to watch NFL Football, PGA Golf, or NASCAR races on Sundays. It is not permissible to gas up your car, truck, motorcycle, 4-wheeler, lawn-mower or anything else with a gas-powered engine. It is not permissible to water your flowers...water your garden...or to wash your vehicle. It is not permissible to sit outside in lawn-chairs on Sundays where you might be seen by passersby. Do you see my point? If we turned Sunday into a day of religious ruleskeeping we would completely destroy the spirit and purpose of this special day and we would be no different than the Pharisees. This morning, let's be thankful that we are not bound and burdened by a legalistic religious system such as the Pharisees imposed upon the Jewish people. Let us be thankful that we don't have to keep hundreds of thousands of man-made religious rules in order to make it to heaven under our own self-effort. Jesus took that heavy burden off of us by taken the burden of the cross upon Himself. And it is by grace that we have been saved through faith, and not by our own works, lest any man should boast.