Lord of the Sabbath / Rest for Your Souls (10/22/2023)

Let's once again open to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 12,

Gospel of Matthew chapter 12 and the title of this message is

Jesus Provides Rest for Your Souls. So rest for your souls or the

Lord of the Sabbath and of course in this passage Jesus does claim to be Lord of the

Sabbath. The Sabbath day was a day of not only worship but a day of rest and Jesus came to give us that ultimate rest and that we rest in him for salvation.

If you remember the last time we ended with chapter 11 here's what Jesus said in verses 28 through 30.

He said come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

What's Jesus saying there? Well the light burden that Christ speaks of it's the simple command to believe the gospel.

This isn't some burdensome religion where you have to do this and that and this and that in order to gain

God's acceptance. This isn't a burden even the Sabbath day was never meant to be a burden it was meant to be a blessing that you rest and we rest in God and God has given us rest for our souls in that salvation is as simple as turning to Christ by grace through faith.

So that's part of what we're going to be talking about today in relation to the Sabbath day because that's what

God meant be a day of rest but what did the Pharisees do? Christ's burden was light but their burden was what?

Heavy and they just wanted to pile up more and more rules and commandments and traditions and really it got to a point where nobody could follow it and when somebody misunderstands and they they realize they're not living up they feel like I have to earn

God's love and I can never really get there. So Jesus is coming to wipe away all of the the unbiblical traditions and try to get back to what was intended originally.

So starting in Matthew chapter 12 we see the light burden of Christ contrasted with the heavy burden of the

Pharisees and nothing pictured that heavy burden better than their distortion of the

Sabbath day. So let's start reading Matthew 12 beginning in verse 1. At that time

Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath and his disciples were hungry and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat and when the

Pharisees saw it they said to him look your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the

Sabbath but he said to them have you not read what David did when he was hungry and those who were with him how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who are with them but for the priests only have you not read in the law that on the

Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath that is they're working on the

Sabbath and yet they are blameless yet I say to you that in this place referring to himself

Jesus says there is one greater than the temple but if you have known what this means if you had known what this means

I desire mercy and not sacrifice you would have not condemned the guiltless for the

Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath so were the disciples guilty because the

Pharisees were pointing to them and they're saying they're breaking the law they're violating the Sabbath was that true no it's not true but they were violating the

Pharisees and their traditions and the teachings of the rabbi so there's two different things going on there's what the

Word of God says and then there's what the Pharisees were teaching so these two statements look at verse seven

Jesus talks about how I desire mercy and not sacrifice what does that mean it means

God cares more about the heart the moral law written on the heart right this is what

Paul says in Romans 2 the God's law is written on our heart he cares more about that than external adherences to the law or to these traditions and the statement about Jesus being

Lord even of the Sabbath before we go any further we need to figure out what this means understand the weightiness of this claim so Jesus refers to himself as Lord of the

Sabbath in other words this is a claim to deity also in verse 6 this is a claim to deity as well where Jesus claimed to be greater than what greater than the temple no

Jews not even a rabbi would ever claim to be greater than the temple

I mean this was a bold claim and this is Jesus's way of saying

I am God in the flesh now did they believe that no they didn't believe it they didn't want to believe it so this statement about Jesus being

Lord even of the Sabbath we have to understand this claim let's turn to Daniel chapter 7 and because the

Pharisees didn't believe him and because he is making such claims about himself and because they think he is violating the

Sabbath which he wasn't because of all of that at the end of this section it says that they're going to go and they're going to plot how to destroy him and you just think about this for a moment

Jesus is really telling them I am I am God in the flesh and their reaction was okay we we need to kill this guy we need to get rid of this guy because here's the thing if Jesus wasn't divine then he was guilty of violating

God's law that if Jesus claims to be God and he wasn't that would be blasphemy can you imagine a

Christian teacher today standing up in front of the congregation and basically saying

I am I am divine I am God I mean yeah well of course some people have done that some cult leaders have done that and some people actually locally have been doing that lately but that's another story for another day but that is such an audacious claim if anyone said that according to the law of Moses I mean this was a penalty worthy of of death so that's why they're seeking to destroy him but of course

Jesus proves who he is again and again okay we're in Daniel chapter 7 and basically this is going to explain this term son of man because when you hear

Jesus refer to himself as the son of man what does it sound like he's saying it sounds like he's talking about his humanity

I'm the son of man well actually it's a lot more than that Daniel 7 starting in verse 13 the prophet writes

I was watching in the night visions and behold one like the son of man coming with the clouds of heaven and he came to the ancient of days and they brought him near before him then to him was given dominion in glory and a kingdom that all people's nations and languages should serve him his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom the one which shall never be destroyed and who's this talking about this figure known as the son of man who comes with the clouds of heaven so Jesus is saying to them

I am this person I am the one Daniel spoke of and obviously this is a divine figure now here's the interesting thing he seems to be distinct from God and yet he's deity at the same time right because the son of man in Daniel 7 is he the ancient of days no he's not he's coming before the ancient of days and yet he seems to rule and be entrusted with all this divine power and authority so today we simply call this the

Trinity that Jesus is both God yet he is distinct from God at the same time so Jesus is

God in human flesh but he is not God the father so that's how this makes sense point being the term son of man is a messianic title it is a title for deity okay so God desires mercy and not sacrifice

God cares about the heart what he is going to care about most of all is are the people are you accepting his son are you are the

Jews going to accept Jesus as the Christ so the son of man in this context is more than just a man now did

Jesus ever claim to be the Son of God yes he did see most of the time though he used the term son of man about himself but sometimes he did refer to himself as the

Son of God ultimately they mean the same thing he is a human being but he is he's not just a man he is the

God man so when you add to that Jesus making the statement that I am

Lord even of the Sabbath to us it's clear what Jesus is saying he is making a claim to divinity okay not just a claim over their man -made

Sabbatarian regulations Jesus is claiming to have authority over the

Sabbath itself so what is the Sabbath where did the Sabbath come from yeah the first time you read about anything to do with it

God in the book of Genesis he created the heavens and the earth in six days and on the seventh day he rested so today we call the seventh day

Saturday so that's that was the Sabbath that the Jewish people observed so the

Sabbath was a day of rest the Sabbath was ordained by God himself

Genesis says that God hallowed the day he set it apart okay so the seventh day is ordained by God and then

Jesus says well I'm Lord of the Sabbath well wait a minute there's only one way that can be possible and that's if Jesus were in the beginning with God and of course that's what

John chapter 1 verses 1 & 2 it says that in the beginning was the word Jesus Christ and the word was with God and the word was

God so he is Lord over the Sabbath he is divine okay so everyone understands that he is basically saying

I am the Lord the Greek word Kyrios is translated here

Lord and it can mean other things sometimes Kyrios can refer to a master it can refer to a sovereign king sometimes the word

Lord can refer basically it's like saying sir you remember Sarah it says called

Abraham what Lord well she wasn't calling her husband you know the sovereign master or the

Lord God she was basically saying sir it was a sign of respect so sometimes the term

Lord in the New Testament doesn't mean like the Lord the Lord God but here it does so when

Jesus says I'm Lord of the Sabbath that's what it means and again if Jesus is not

God then that is blasphemy so really with Jesus you've heard was a

CS Lewis who came up with the three possibilities of who Jesus is either he is a liar and he's claiming to be divine when he wasn't or he's a lunatic where maybe he really believed it but he's out of his mind or the third possibility is what liar lunatic or or he truly is the

Lord and of course that's the Christian confession of faith that Jesus is

Lord so back to the story because we need to know that as a background back to the story

Jesus and his disciples are walking along and what day is this this would be again what we would call so they observed the

Sabbath they were walking through the grain fields and the disciples were hungry so what do they do here's some grain you know there's the edge of the cornfield or whatever it was and they they pick some for themselves just in their hand they took a little bit and they ate a bit so there's no problem here if you read you know go through Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy all of this was perfectly permissible no problem at all it was not a violation of the law but the

Pharisees over time they kind of added to the Word of God and they basically made it to where on the

Sabbath you couldn't do anything I mean you had to watch every little thing you did because we don't want to we don't want to violate the

Sabbath so and even today modern I don't know if it's reformed

Jews are probably Orthodox Jews they won't go into an elevator and press the button from what

I understand in New York City and in Israel there are elevators that run on the

Sabbath and they just stop at every floor they go up and you just kind of have to check they won't press the button because if they press the button what happens a light turns on and they think there's a command about kindling a fire so LEDs I don't think do this but you know at least back in the day you press the button and it would generate like a spark so it'd be kindling a fire they were told that's work so they wouldn't press the button they don't open the door of their refrigerator they have to get a

Gentile in from next door to open their refrigerator because the light comes on now obviously that is not what

God intended over time the Pharisees and the rabbis just piled up all these rules to where now you you can't turn the wrong way without you know breaking the the

Sabbath quote -unquote that's what the Pharisees were doing here they just picked a little grain this wasn't work they're just picking a little bit so they could have something to eat to satisfy their hunger but they were accused of violating the

Sabbath here's the thing about the Sabbath day it was not only a religious law to where if you violate it it's sin the

Sabbath was also a like a civil law so by violating the

Sabbath that was not just sinful it was also illegal so you understand the difference that some sins today are illegal and then some sins are not illegal what's one sin that's illegal murder right yeah the commandment thou shall not murder it's also a crime but then there are other sins let's say you lie to your best friend is that a crime unless you're under oath it's not a crime it's a sin but it's not a crime so we understand that some sins are are they're all sin is sin but not all sins are crimes okay breaking the

Sabbath was both okay so it was a sin and it was a crime incidentally here in the state of Massachusetts we had laws similar to this do you realize we had what you could call

Sabbath laws right here in Massachusetts you think well that must have been like the 1700s like way back no it was like during my lifetime matter of fact for all

I know these laws are still on the books they're just being ignored what are they called we talked about this in Sunday school blue laws who knows about blue laws right just about everybody when

I was young I remember it was illegal for certain stores to be open so like a liquor store definitely couldn't be open on Sunday that was in Massachusetts that was like what 25 years ago something like that maybe less so the thing is this country we even had like Sabbath laws or blue laws but that's the way it was back then if you did something wrong it was not just a sin it was illegal and this was the accusation the

Pharisees made against Jesus and his disciples so here's the thing if Jesus and his disciples were going around sinning and breaking the law

I mean that's a huge problem right this isn't a movement that's of God if they're doing that so that's the accusation what was illegal on the

Sabbath in relation to what they were doing what was illegal harvesting okay so it was technically illegal to work on the

Sabbath now were they harvesting no they're not they're not harvesting at all they're just taking a little bit for themselves so if they had gotten a crew together and they had started harvesting the corn or the grain and they were putting it in baskets and bringing it to the market and there if they were doing all of that then yes they would have been guilty of violating the

Sabbath that is not what they were doing okay so we all agree with that so far okay the

Sabbath was a day of rest the Sabbath here's the thing originally it was a gift from God to the people because everybody loves to have a day off unless you're a workaholic you know you you love to have a day off and even if you are you recognize that yeah you probably need it so this is a basic principle that has always existed and mankind realizes that he needs a rest but that's what the

Sabbath was it was a day of rest a gift from God so the people it was for their own good at a day off and if they didn't have the

Sabbath law what would employers do they would work people to the bone are you glad that your boss can't tell you there's actually laws against making you work too many hours now there's always loopholes around this stuff right or maybe if you're on salary they take advantage of you but we all recognize the necessity for time off so the

Sabbath was a good thing amen this is a good thing people need it also the

Sabbath was a day where they would worship the Lord so you didn't go into work on on Saturday you didn't harvest whatever it was that you did instead you would rest at home but you would gather at the synagogue so you would gather together for the worship of God a wonderful thing but again over time the

Pharisees the rabbis they kind of piled up all these rules and what did they turn the light burden that God gave they turned it into what a heavy burden that no one can bear so in always trying to make application really the obvious application for us today is

Sunday the Lord's Day and I preach sermons on this you could find online that the Sabbath and the

Lord's Day are not the exact same thing but I don't have time to get into all of that this morning but that's the general principle because for us for nineteen hundred years of church history

Christians they didn't go into work on Sunday instead what do they do on Sunday morning you go to church so Christians they didn't go to work

Christian farmers maybe they had to milk the cows you know there's some maybe some basic things you had to do but they didn't work on the farm on Sunday so no work was a day for assembly worshiping the

Lord spending time with family is that a good thing it's a good thing it's a healthy thing some people think they don't need it well you do need it so this is what

God ordained for the Jews the Sabbath for Christians John in Revelation 1 verse 10 he calls it the

Lord's Day so Christians basically observed something similar for 1900 years now that was whatever back in the maybe it was the seventeen eighteen hundreds when some of these blue laws were put on the books you know we all know by now that our nation has turned away from its

Christian heritage okay so we were a nation built upon Christian principles and now most of that is gone right we get it it's obvious right now so over time this view of the

Lord's Day starting in the 1960s 1970s would be a time you could really identify of major change in this country there was a new generation of pastors and theologians who started to teach contrary to what pastors preached for 1900 years so they thought this was the mindset that in order to reach the next generation the church needed to kind of loosen up a little bit because churches had all of these rules that you couldn't dance you couldn't go to work on Sunday you had to do that so in order to reach the young generation churches needed to loosen up and now now that our nation has pretty much abandoned

God altogether how do people view the Lord's Day today now were there some rules that probably needed to go because they are unbiblical yeah that's probably true but now how do most people view

Sunday I'm sort of preaching to the choir so to speak because you're actually here on Sunday morning but like just in general how do people view

Sunday it's like any other day you know the kids have birthday parties on Sunday there's games and practices and all sorts of things that wasn't the way it was even when

I was young wasn't that long ago so throughout Europe South America the

United States Canada all the stores say in the 1950s 1960s all the stores except for hospitals pharmacies stuff like that all the stores were closed there's still a lot of stores closed on Sunday now sort of Monday and Tuesday seem to be the the day that places are closing down but it always used to be

Sunday why well it's on the type of thing we're reading about here in Scripture and I just think you have to admit that while that's not maybe the direct cause things have declined in this country people are no longer doing things

God's way so church has made a change because the justification is

Christians became too legalistic and I think it's probably some truth in certain circumstances what was the problem with the

Pharisees were they acknowledging and observing the Sabbath the way God intended no they were again the term is legalistic they were making rules that God never made and they turned this wonderful day of rest and worship into a burden that yeah it was just difficult for everybody so back years ago in churches too many rules were piling up so I think now some people have overcorrected so they would point to a passage like this in Matthew 12 and saying we as Christians we don't want to do what the

Pharisees did we don't want to turn a blessing into a burden now were the

Pharisees guilty because they upheld the Sabbath was that the problem no that wasn't the problem the

Pharisees were upholding man -made tradition that was the problem and the thing about the

Pharisees that made it even worse they would look for the ways to get around their own their own rules so they were really good at holding you to a strict you know command you have to do this and that but they themselves kind of you know did whatever they wanted in other words you know this term that you've heard rules for thee but not for me so all you better do the right thing but me you know

I look for ways around it because some of them were lawyers and they could find the loophole and that's what they did okay so this is kind of what

Jesus is addressing the Sabbath was a good thing it was a good thing but the

Pharisees were were corrupting it the Pharisees said the disciples of Christ were violating the

Sabbath was that true no look at Matthew 12 to if you haven't gone back to Matthew go ahead and turn back there the

Pharisees accused the disciples of breaking the Sabbath Matthew 12 to they said look your disciples

Peter James John Matthew all the rest your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the

Sabbath well plucking a little grain is not a violation harvesting was according to Deuteronomy 23 if they were using a sickle to harvest you know if they were getting the corn or whatever by using a sickle that would be work but what they were doing was not work so the

Pharisees were just going way way overboard let me use this illustration because this is a time of year you know you think of September and October a lot of families like to go to a certain place on maybe a weekend and they like to pick certain things what do people like to do around this time of year apple picking right that's big in New England some of you

I'm sure went apple picking so here's what it would be like when you go on a

Saturday afternoon and maybe you have a little bag and you put a few apples in a bag here's what the disciples were doing it would be like taking an apple off the tree and eating it or maybe they took two apples off the tree and they ate it is that work how many of you went to an apple orchard and you picked an apple off of the tree and because you have to do that right even though you're technically not paying maybe you shouldn't do it because you're not paying for that apple that you picked off the tree but this is what people do

I think it's expected they take an apple off the tree and they anyone want to admit to doing that this okay so several transgressors of the law now there's nothing wrong with that did any one of you consider that work oh man we really had to work today out in the apple orchard you know it's so tough that's what the disciples were doing it was totally harmless you can sort of see the absurdity

I mean really the Pharisees were just looking to nail Jesus and his disciples that's what this is about they really weren't all that worried about I'm sure if one of their pharisaical buddies did it they wouldn't care it was all about pinning

Jesus and the disciples so the disciples really they weren't even doing that much of collecting apples and putting it in a small bag it now if they had worked in an apple orchard or if you had done this you're climbing the tree and you're feeling like these huge barrels and baskets loading them on a trailer bringing them to the store and you're so that's work if you're out there all afternoon doing that we all get the difference between work and leisure okay so don't go overboard like the

Pharisees but in Christian churches people probably did go a little overboard you know people got a little too nitpicky with the rules

I think we would probably acknowledge that did happen in generations past but again that's no justification for totally getting rid of the

Lord's Day and now it's treated like like Monday Tuesday or Wednesday okay so that's sort of the application for us as New Testament Christians yeah you don't you don't want to work

I don't think on on Sunday because that takes away from your time with God it takes away from your time with your family if you're working when do you get that day of rest

I don't know it it's a wise thing to do and again for 1900 years

Christians did it it really didn't change up until the past several decades so we don't want to make the same mistake that the

Pharisees made we don't want to go to the other direction either you know going against your conscience here's one thing

I would suggest read the Word of God look at the standard Christian practice for all these centuries and follow your conscience someone once said to go against conscience is neither right nor safe when we talk about the

Lord's Day as being similar to something like a Sabbath some people have convictions about it that you don't have you know there will be

Christians who will not answer an email on Sunday you might think that's ridiculous you know that's up to you to think that but you shouldn't condemn them for having that practice right that's up to them if that's how they feel they want to honor the

Lord I'm not just I'm not going to do anything that even could remotely be like business or work

I'm not going to do any of it you need to respect that here's what they don't get to do for you though they don't get to tell you that you can't answer an email again let's say somebody watches a sports game on Sunday afternoon yeah

I don't think you should judge someone for doing that I don't believe so if they want to watch that that's up to them now if you're skipping church because you want to you don't want to miss kickoff

I mean that's a whole different thing you know but we just want to be careful and we all have our own scruples about it we don't want to oppose our beliefs on others but we need to keep a day set apart unto

God the burden that Jesus offered was light here in the

New Testament Church we want to keep that burden light we don't want to weigh you down your life is hard enough you don't need to be weighed down with all these traditions and you know what this person thinks and what that person thinks but the

Sabbath and the Lord's Day was never intended to be a day where you work by the sweat of your brow it was never meant to be a day where you make money because on Sunday some people worked on I'll admit to you

I'll confess to you I have worked you say well you work every Sunday what are you talking about that's different it's different didn't you read that the the priests profane the

Sabbath and yet they're guiltless did the priest work you know technically did they work on the

Sabbath yes they did that's a separate category I'm just telling you it is but there was one time where I did go to work on Sunday and here's the thing you got like time and a half or I think it was double time and a half or something well you know the money is attractive but we want to try to keep

God first so there's so much more to get to let's just try to finish this up let's continue reading verses 9 through 14 the story continues regarding the

Sabbath it says now when he had departed from there he went into their synagogue and behold there was a man who had a withered hand and they asked him saying is it lawful to heal on the

Sabbath now why were they asking this we see their motivation that they might accuse him that's what this is all about and he said to them what man is there among you who has one sheep or if it falls into a pit on the

Sabbath you won't lay hold of it and lift it out I mean if you have an animal that falls into the ditch you'll well

I can't work can't work he's gonna have to sit there and it'll have to die there no that's not what they did they would take it out so how much more verse 12 how much more value then is a man no more than a sheep therefore

Jesus says it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath then he said to the man stretch out your hand and he stretched it out and it was restored as whole as the others so did

Jesus work on the Sabbath if you call this work be healed wow that was so hard now you could say that he worked let's say he worked okay fine he worked it's right to do good on the

Sabbath it's right to show mercy on the Sabbath let's say you're driving into church

I need to make it to church on time and you're on back road and someone's broken down you can help them it would be right to stop and help them and even if it makes you a half -hour late that would be the right thing to do because you're showing mercy so there are exceptions so Jesus healed on the

Sabbath in verse 14 then the Pharisees went out and they plotted against him how they might destroy him so it's starting to bring this to a conclusion were the

Jews to obey the Sabbath yeah was Jesus did

Jesus obey the Sabbath of course he did he kept the law of God perfectly but there were some exceptions carved out verses 3 & 4 speak to the exception of necessity this is when

David and his men were hungry they were able to eat the showbread verses 5 through 6 speak of the exception of service so priests just like pastors today work on this set -apart day and that's okay verses 7 & 8 speak to the exception of mercy it is right to do good on the

Sabbath how do we know that because Jesus is what Jesus is divine he is

Lord of the Sabbath and this is what he has told us so let me encourage you if you've never really seen the

Lord's day as a special day some of you you've been doing this for as long as you can remember is it a blessing

I just want to hear this from you is Sunday a blessing I know for me it's my favorite day of the week Sunday is a blessing but if somebody listening this morning has never really set that time apart for rest for the worship of God for spending time with family and church family if you've never done that this is a certain way to experience and walk in the light burden of Christ it's really not a burden at all if you want to be blessed consider this but this is

Jesus he came and he took those heavy burdens that all the religious leaders placed upon the people rules that they themselves couldn't even obey and Jesus has one simple rule hey follow me but can you do that anyone can do that believe in Jesus follow

Jesus learn from him because his burden is truly light let's close in prayer and Heavenly Father we thank you so much that salvation is easy it's not a burden where we have to work and work

Lord I know there's probably some people who up in a church tradition where they had to follow all these rules and even at the end of the day if they did all those things they still were not sure if you really love them

Lord that's not Christianity Lord we thank you that you have loved us through your son and that by simply placing our faith in him and learning from him we are your beloved children

Lord if there's anyone here who has never taken upon themselves that that duty really because it is a command for all men everywhere to repent and turn to Christ Lord let them lay aside all the burdens that they deal with during the week from work other expectations people have of them help them to set it all aside and take upon the yoke of Jesus Christ we pray in his name