Jesus Is Our Rest and He Restores October 9, 2016 Matthew 12:1-14 Matt Rawlings

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1 1 Jesus Is Our Rest and He Restores October 9, 2016 Matthew 12:1-14 Matt Rawlings Matthew 12:1-14 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, "Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath." 3 He said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5 Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? 6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7 And if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath." 9 He went on from there and entered their synagogue. 10 And a man was there with a withered hand. And they asked him, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"- so that they might accuse him. 11 He said to them, "Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." 13 Then he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him. [Pray] Counterfeiting is a big business in the world today. According to the International Chamber of Commerce, counterfeit products make up to 7% of world trade. The concerning thing, is that this isn t just copies of the real thing, like when someone copies music or movies, but there are counterfeit food products and prescription medicines and equipment that can be unsafe and even dangerous to basic health and safety. According to a report released by the Senate Armed Services Committee, 1,800 cases of bogus parts being used in military aircraft were discovered, involving more than a million individual parts used in alone. In some cases, these inferior parts caused equipment failure, because they just don t have the tensile strength and durability that the real thing does and they can t be relied on to perform when needed. In 2008, it was discovered that some Chinese milk producers had tried to cut costs by watering it down, but then, they added Melamine to fool the test for protein content. The problem is that there were at least 6 deaths and approximately 50,000 babies hospitalized as a result of the counterfeit milk and infant formula. According to the NIH, around 660,000 people die each year from counterfeit Malaria & Tuberculosis drugs. Producing things that look like the real thing but are actually cheap and unreliable knock-offs has become common place and sometimes it can be dangerous. The Pharisees had subtly stopped hoping in God for rest and were resting in their own works. They had stopped worshipping God and instead were more concerned with keeping religious rituals than with worshipping God by showing mercy. They were looking for the Messiah to give them the kind of restoration and healing of their land that they thought they needed, instead of trusting Him to bring their true healing and restoration. 1

2 2 The Promised Land of Israel was always meant to point them to rest in God to bring them into the ultimate Promised Land. But they were looking to an earthly hope and an earthly kingdom. Let me ask you, in this presidential election season, where the very values and beliefs we hold most dear and the land we enjoy living in, are being challenged and shaken, where are we looking for hope? How in the world is this passage relevant to us today? I believe the fundamental issues it addresses are very relevant to the fundamental challenges we are facing today. It addresses the critical question of where do we worship? Or rather, who do we worship? Do we worship a physical place or land? If that the goal for us as Christians? Do we worship an earthly leader? Are we looking to a mere person to deliver us? Are we worshipping any one person or party and placing our hopes and dreams in them? If so, we may be worshipping a false god. One of the ways we can evaluate our hearts, is to ask ourselves honestly whether we are anxious over the upcoming election and its outcome more than we are concerned with how we will honor God and how He will be glorified through our witness. Let me ask you this - where do we look for hope of rest? Or who are we looking to, for our hope of rest? Are we looking for hope of rest in a president or in a party? How about this - where are we looking for the restoration and healing of our land? Or who are we looking to, to restore and heal us and our land? Are we looking to God first and foremost and trusting in Him, like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, no matter what fires may come? Or are we bowing to a false god? Well, this passage addresses all of these heart issues, even though it does so in a way we might not expect. The first way that Jesus addresses our hearts is to show us that He is greater than the temple. That is the truth that the first six verses are pointing to 1. Jesus is greater than the temple At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. Jesus is walking along on the Sabbath with His disciples, and they are doing what normal humans do when they get hungry, they are snacking. They weren t farming here although we don t know what the profession of at least half of the disciples was, they were no longer farmers. All of them had become students of the Master and itinerant teachers of sorts in their own right. They weren t out in the fields working here though. They aren t out harvesting to sell a crop and they weren t using tools to cut and sift the grain. They are simply walking along, plucking heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands to get the hulls off, blowing away the chaff and eating the little kernels of wheat or barley. They were hungry and having a snack. They also weren t stealing this practice was expected or allowed as charity, as long as you didn t collect it or take it out of the field you could eat what you were able to in the field, for yourself, if you were hungry. But the Pharisees objected to what they were doing, because the disciples were doing it on the Sabbath day. 2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, "Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath." Now, the Sabbath was the seventh day of the week and it was a day that God commanded through Moses, for His people to set aside as holy, in honor of Him. It was to serve as a regular reminder that God was their Creator and He worked in six days and on the seventh He rested. So, they were to 2

3 3 observe a day of rest as worship of God and His work and the fact that God now rested from His work of creation and their rest is found in Him. It was a beautiful picture of the reality that all of mankind s work ultimately rests in God and that we can set aside a day to not work, because we are resting in God s work or creation. It was meant to be a day of rest and recuperation, of restoring weakened, tired bodies and to enjoy God s good creation. According to Deuteronomy 5:14-15, God s people were also to rest their servants and even their animals, remembering each week, that God rescued them from slavery in Egypt and now, they could rest because God had redeemed and delivered them. It was to be a weekly reminder and refreshment as the people worshipped God in the temple, for His work and deliverance. Instead of being an act of mercy and worship and gratitude though, by the time of Christ, it had become a duty or obligation. The Pharisees acted as if Sabbath-keeping was a means of keeping salvation instead of a symbol of their resting in God s creation and resting in His salvation. So, the Pharisees had created their own, stricter interpretation of the Law and held it higher than they did the Spirit and intent of the Law. The Law was for the good of the people, but now the people served the Law slavishly as a means of keeping their place as God s people. In an odd way then, for some Pharisees, the Sabbath had become a work of its own, since they trusted in its strictest observance for holiness. And they attacked the disciples, since the disciples violated their teaching, even though they were still keeping the spirit and intent of the Sabbath command as they followed Christ. In response, Jesus corrected the Pharisees, using an argument from the greater to the lesser: 3 He said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Jesus gave them the example of David eating the bread that was used as worship to God and that God strictly commanded only the priest could eat. This was the bread that was placed as an offering before the holiest place in the tabernacle and then removed each week. But David came in and when he was famished and needed bread for he and his men, the priest gave it to them. Jesus uses David s disobedience of the law as a positive example. David ate of the priests bread and was still accepted. They are just eating grain, as is allowed under the law, even though they are eating on the Sabbath. If David was shown mercy and allowed to break the clear, ceremonial laws, then surely, His disciples deserved mercy as they went against the teachings of men and yet still kept the law. Jesus is also here probably hinting at the fact that He is the greater David, and even more than David, He can be fed from what He created on the Sabbath. But then, Jesus goes on to show the inconsistency in their accusation against the disciples, because even the priests can t keep the Sabbath: 5 Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? He effectively says in verse 5, look, even the priests can t keep the Sabbath, because the law commands them to work in the temple to carry out the duties of their regular profession every Sabbath day and yet, they are not guilty. The priests do their work on the Sabbath, yet this is not seen as Sabbath-breaking. But then, He draws a very important parallel between His disciples eating as they were serving and following Him on the Sabbath and the priests serving God in the temple. In verse 6, Jesus says, I tell 3

4 4 you, something greater than the temple is here. The temple was where the people gathered on the Sabbath, to draw near to God s presence and to worship God. The temple was meant to be at the center of Israel s life. The temple was where all the sacrifices that made them acceptable before God took place. It was where the people met God. Now, Jesus is telling them, that something greater, or one greater, as several translations put it, one greater than the temple is here. Jesus is announcing that He is greater than the temple. And the reason that He is greater than the temple is that He Himself is the very presence of God. He is greater than the temple because He is the very incarnation of the presence of God. Now, instead of drawing near to God through the temple, from a distance, now all people can come to meet God through Jesus personally. Instead of worshipping God through the means of a building, now, people worship God through Jesus. Jesus is greater than the temple because He now mediates God to humanity through Himself directly. Jesus is greater than the temple, because He is God the Son Himself. He is greater than the temple because He Himself is the place of sacrifice, and through the sacrifice of Himself, once and for all, we are made acceptable before God. So, the earthly temple and earthly sacrifices are no longer needed. Jesus indeed is greater than the temple! The question for us now, is, do we draw near to God through Christ, to find mercy and grace in our time of need, or do we look elsewhere? Since Jesus is greater than the temple, we need to ask ourselves is Jesus at the center of our lives, as we go to school, or at work, in our meetings, in our homes or in our leisure? Do we meet with God, through Jesus? Do we know Him? Do we trust in His sacrifice or do we give into self-sufficiency and self-righteousness? If we rightly understand that Jesus is greater than the temple, that He fulfills the function of the temple and replaces the temple, then we will begin to understand the second way that Jesus is seeking to address our hearts in verses 7 and 8. You see, not only is Jesus the place where we experience the Sabbath, He Himself is our true rest. 2. Jesus is our True Rest Sometimes we go on vacation with family and it is a good thing. It is enjoyable and fun and we like our family and it is an excellent way to maintain and deepen our relationships with them. It is also normally a good time of rest too, if we are careful to make sure we actually get rest. But, have you ever been wanting to rest, after feeling like it has been a long time since you ve had time off, and so, you took a family vacation, but it was so packed with other people and activities that you didn t really rest? Sometimes we can be so busy that we don t rest in our souls and it is those times, that I am reminded that while vacation is good, my soul only truly finds rest in Jesus. How about politics? I don t know about you, but I am weary of politics and looking for hope or rest in them is exhausting and draining. Sometimes, we are so easily tempted to look to subtly counterfeit ways of finding rest and fail to find true rest, rest that is good for us in Christ. The disciples of Jesus are just eating as they are serving and following him, but the Pharisees aren t being merciful in understanding even a basic need like hunger. So He says in verse 7, if the Pharisees really understood this, then they would have shown mercy to the disciples: 7 And if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless. God had shown His people mercy and His desire in the Sabbath was for His people to show mercy to others, not to earn His favor by their sacrifice on the Sabbath. Jesus is quoting a well-known verse from Hosea 6:6, that says in the NIV, For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather 4

5 5 than burnt offerings. If the Pharisees understood this, then they would have shown mercy to the disciples who were hungry and just satisfying their hunger, clearly not working. Instead of showing mercy and acknowledging God, they condemned the disciples, because they didn t understand that God desired for them to worship Him by showing mercy Then, Jesus ended His correction of the Pharisees by making an astounding declaration. He said in verse 8, For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath." As soon as he said this, the Pharisees should have recognized the language of Daniel 7:13, where Daniel saw a vision of the son of Man, who ruled over the beasts. Daniel 7:13-14 I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. Where Adam had been commanded to take dominion over the natural, created order and all the beasts of the world, he had failed, and because he had failed, he died. Adam s rule effectively ended when he was kicked out of the garden and his kingdom passed away and the garden was destroyed, because he was no longer able to keep it. But, now, Jesus has come as the true Son of Man. And He has been given glory and dominion and a kingdom, so that all peoples, nations and languages should serve Him. So, where Adam failed as the representative head of humanity, Jesus is now the representative head of a new order of humanity. He is the one who has ushered in the new creation in Him. And so, He is Lord of the Sabbath. Or said differently, He is Lord over our rest. We won t ever find true rest in any earthly system or person or leader. Jesus is the one whom is over all of our rest and in whom our rest is found and established. The Sabbath as a sign of God s rest and our restoration and rejuvenation in Him then, ultimately points to Jesus as our final rest. He is the one in whom we find ultimate rest. He is the one who replenishes us when we are weary. He is the one who in whom we are rejuvenated. Hebrews 4 tells us that we enter into the Sabbath rest through Jesus, or Yeshua, the true Joshua. Because the Joshua who first led the people after Moses, didn t bring the people into their true place of rest. But Jesus now, through His work on the cross, has brought us into His rest, by delivering us, by conquering our foes of sin, punishment and death and then bringing us into the ultimate Promised Land. Jesus ushers us into the throne room of God s grace, where we can be restored to His presence and find mercy and grace in time of need. So, now on this side of the Cross, we understand that when Jesus died and declared, It is finished, he was declaring that all of His work on our behalf was done. All of His work to redeem us from ourselves, from slavery to sin was done. All of His work to take God s wrath for us was completed on the cross. As He died and cried out and breathed His last, He declared that all the work that we should have done that Adam, and every one of us after Adam should have done, was now done in Him. All the righteous obedience that God demands from us has been satisfied completely in the work of Christ, that He has finished. So, now, we strive to rest in His work, resting permanently from our works of self-atonement, of trying to earn God s favor, of trying to be right enough to merit favor from God. 5

6 6 Truly, Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath! Ultimately, we will find our final rest in Him, and so we eagerly await the consummation of all things, trusting in Him in the meanwhile. But in our union with Him, we have already entered into the new life we have with Him. And the last truth that we see in this passage, that speaks to our hearts, is that 3. Jesus restores and heals As Vern Poythress said in his book, The Miracles of Jesus, it is eminently suitable that he should accomplish works of healing, especially on the Sabbath Vern Poythress Jesus demonstrated through the miracle of healing and restoration, that he indeed has the authority to claim to be Lord of the Sabbath. 9 He went on from there and entered their synagogue. 10 And a man was there with a withered hand. And they asked him, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"- so that they might accuse him. He went from the interaction with the Pharisees, right into their synagogue. As He did, He encountered a man there with a withered hand. Either He noticed the man on His own and approached him or the man came up to Jesus or the Pharisees pointed him out. But they were seeking to test Jesus, to see if He would keep their strict observance of the Sabbath. So, they used this man as a test of Jesus. They weren t looking out for this man, or hoping that this man might get healed. They wanted to selfishly use this man for their own ends, to trap Jesus and accuse him of the crime of violating their religious laws. 11 He said to them, "Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." So, Jesus turned things back around on them and questions them in verse 11. He is interrogating them and basically says, Which one of you is an unmerciful shepherd? Which one of you is so disgraceful and unmerciful that you won t even help a helpless sheep? Which one of you wants to tell me that he is so mean that he won t even grab his sheep out of a pit and lift it out if it is stuck there helpless, in danger of being eaten and dying? You know you would rescue your animal or at least you should. So, why won t you try to help a man, who obviously has much more value than a sheep? If it is merciful, and therefore lawful, to help a sheep, then of course it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath! Then, to show them that He had authority as Lord over the Sabbath and to show them what kind of Lord He is, He looks over at the man who they are using as a pawn. I love the way that Luke s account shows the drama of the scene. Luke 6:8-10 "Get up and stand in front of everyone." So he got up and stood there. 9 Then Jesus said to them, "I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?" 10 He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He did so, and his hand was completely restored. Mark tells us that they didn t answer Jesus. But Jesus showed them that He is the Lord of the Sabbath, because He is the one who shows mercy. He is the one who takes hold of the sheep and lifts him out of his suffering. 13 Then he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other. 6

7 7 Look down in verse 13 - with only a word, Jesus commanded the man to stretch out his hand and immediately, his hand was restored. Why this is significant, is because Jesus is showing that in Him, true healing, true restoration, true redemption and re-creation is found. In the re-creation of the man s hand, in restoring the man s hand to complete health, Jesus is showing what kind of Lord of the Sabbath He is. He is showing what He does on the Sabbath. You see, Jesus is the one who re-creates us in His Sabbath. As we rest in His finished work, we are restored. As we trust in Him, he brings us healing and rest, both now, as the first fruits of our ultimate rest, and then when we go to be with Him in death, He will give us our ultimate rest and re-creation. Sadly, verse 14 tells us that, But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him. They hated Jesus because He violated their rules, their order, their understanding of things and they were unwilling to submit to Him. How about you, are you willing to submit to Him, to His ways to give up your own rules, your own understanding of things and trust and rest in Him? They hated Jesus because if they trusted in Him, they had to give up trusting in their own works. How about you? Are you trusting in His works and giving up any trusting in your own works and merit? It feels pretty risky trusting in Jesus, because we feel like we must earn God s favor. But the truth is that we can never earn His favor and we must give up our pride and any trusting in our own worth or our own acceptance before Him based on what we can do and say. Jesus, I have no worth on my own Jesus, I see that I am altogether unable to be worthy on my own God, I can t be good enough and I am completely dependent on your work alone Are we trusting in a counterfeit religion or counterfeit God? Anything other than God is a cheap rip-off and won t satisfy. Our counterfeit gods won t last. And if we are trusting in a subtle counterfeit, it can actually be dangerous and life-threatening. They hated Jesus because He challenged their authority and claimed ultimate authority over them. How about you? Will you give up your authority and allow Jesus to have ultimate authority over you? Jesus calls to us like He called to the man with the withered hand. The only contribution that the man with the withered-hand made, was to respond to Jesus and then to look to Jesus for healing and stretch out his hand in obedience. The only work we do, is to stand up and respond to Him. To stand up in front of everyone and acknowledge His authority over us. To stand up and stretch out our hands and look to Him for healing. The only thing we must do is to respond to Him and then obediently, helplessly stretch out our hands to God. What a beautiful picture of how Jesus comes to us. What a wonderfully merciful picture of what Jesus does for us. He calls to us. He rescues us from the enemy who would only use us. He seeks to restore and heal us. He delivers us from suffering. And He calls us to enter into His rest. So, what should our ultimate response be? Let us turn away from our works, rest in His work and rejoice in how He has inaugurated a new creation in Himself. And by faith now, we eagerly await His return, when He will make all things new. Amen Redeeming Grace Church. This transcribed message has been lightly edited and formatted for the Website. No attempt has been made, however, to alter the basic extemporaneous delivery style, or to produce a grammatically accurate, publication-ready manuscript conforming to an established style template. 7